I just received an unusual email… unusual not in content, but in timing.  An incoming Darden student emailed me in March asking me to restart the blog, but I only received the message today.  It got me thinking… should I give it another shot?  I’ll have to ponder this one for a bit…

It is with a heavy heart that I’ve decided to suspend the blog. I haven’t had the time or inclination to keep up with posts, and I haven’t seen sufficient traffic to merit serious attention. If there’s a public outcry in response, I’ll consider resuming operations. But I can only hope there are very few web surfers in cyberspace hanging on my every word.

I apologize for getting behind lately, and I promise that new updates are on their way. Just keep checking back, and there should be lots of new entries within a few weeks!

I joined a softball team at Darden, and tonight we had our first Playoff game. Notice that I said “first.” As in first of many. That’s right, we won. We went three innings into overtime, but took the game on a home run by our captain Neal. What a game! The next one is on Sunday, and if we win that we may just find ourselves with a double header on Tuesday night.

Ordinarily this wouldn’t be a problem. Tonight was a great break after taking the LO exam today, which I tentatively think went well. I’m always cautious to be optimistic about exams, especially ambiguous ones like LO, because they’re so difficult to be sure about. Anyway, the point of the story is that we have a Marketing exam tomorrow, and we all should have been home studying. But what’s worse is that we have a DA exam on Wednesday. That means if we make it to the championship, we’ll have back to back games at 8pm and 10pm the night before the most feared exam in the lineup.

But it will be worth it to wipe the smiles off those smug law student faces! Wish me luck tomorrow.

I just came back from campus, where I picked up my LO exam. It’s due in about 6 hours, and we’re allowed to work 5 of those contiguously. Unfortunately, I just found out that my printer is out of ink, so I’m headed to Staples to buy some before I start the clock. Funny, I just checked the levels a couple nights ago and they were fine. I think the printer companies rig these things to register empty when they’re only halfway done, but at the moment I’ll pay whatever’s necessary to have a working printer!

There are just a few days now before exams begin. LO and Marketing are both over, and we have three case days Monday and Tuesday next week. Three cases aren’t bad, but when they’re Accounting, DA, and Ops, you’d rather have them on a day when you don’t need to study for an exam. To make matters worse, our resumes are due to the official “Resume Book” by Monday evening. That means that most of us will be stressing more about our pasts than our futures. Such is life at Darden.

Thursday night, the DSA showed the classic movie The Goonies in the courtyard. It was a beautiful evening, but we found a way to turn it into TNDC at ZaydCo. anyway. Yesterday I came to campus early to meet with one of my case competition teams, and the place was milling with the more studious Dardenites preparing for next week. I can’t wait for the 17th, when this will all be over. Then it’s on to Q2.

As quarter one draws to an end, I’ve been reflecting on the work I’ve done over the past two months. LO has been one of my favorite classes; it has provided unique opportunities to look at challenging leadership situations and consider how I might address them. I find myself surprised, however, with the amount of material we’ve covered in this short time. Moreover, I’m looking forward to the fourth quarter next spring, when we’ll have part two of this excellent course.

In the meantime, we will draw Marketing to a close tomorrow, and the remaining three, DA, Ops, and Accounting, next week. Exams start next Thursday and run through the following Wednesday (that’s the 11th through the 17th for those keeping track). I feel well prepared, but only time will tell.

The last few days have been a whirlwind. Darden sponsored a weekend for our parents, and it was chock full of fun and interesting events. What’s more, our folks were able to sit in on a class and see us take on cold calls. To be honest, the cases on Friday felt like softballs; I got the distinct impression that the faculty didn’t want us to fail in front of our parents. I made a few remarks, but kept it to a minimum for obvious reasons.

I invited Mom and Dad to TNDC on Thursday night at the South Street brewery, but they didn’t quite feel up to it. That’s too bad, since it’s a part of our culture, but I doubt they’d have appreciated it fully. A few parents were there, but ultimately I think most felt that they’d be out of place.

It was great to see Mom and Dad, if only for a few days. I think they got an appreciation for what I’m doing here, and perhaps more importantly, why. We tried to put on a good show, and Section D represented itself well with a tasteful prank on Friday morning. A new statue of Thomas Jefferson was installed in the courtyard last weekend, and our parents arrived to see him dressed in an official Class of 2009 Section D t-shirt.

This morning was the Darden Cares 5K road race to benefit Type 1 Diabetes research. One of the unique aspects to this race is that many students run it in full business attire. I ran, but only in running shorts. Great work to everyone involved!