Summer Semester 2005 Mod B - Strategy

Just like at BYU, one of my last required classes I had to take was Strategy. At BYU, my teacher was Darral Clarke (link to his picture ... he has no profile on the Net). I think he's retired. I can't find any info on him other than the picture at BYU.

A good friend of mine and I took his class together. I really didn't care too much for the class. Clarke just got up there and lectured. Harry Potter was coming out at that time and Clarke was reading those books. He would talk about how cool Harry Potter was. I wasn't in to Harry Potter ... to me it was a fad and I didn't think too much of it. I actually enjoy Harry Potter now. I'm just waiting for all the books to come out so I can read it from start to finish. Then I'll watch the movies from start to finish.

As for the class ... don't remember much. I just wanted to graduate and all I had to do was pass the class.

Strategic Management

Here at Cox, David Lei taught the Summer 2005 strategy class. He was a very nice person, but I think he was on medication ... a lot of medication. He was very quircky and would say the most obnoxious and outrageous things during class. I remember during one lecture, he said something about Las Vegas, sex and bondage. Sometimes teachers will say outrageous things and it's funny. But when he said some wheels-off comment, everyone was left with their jaw on the ground.

All we did in that class was read cases, think up some comments and discuss them in class. He had some pretty good lectures about the morphasis of companies and how firms adjust to a changing world and environment.

Strategy is one of those topics that is so cool to discuss, but very difficult to manage. Strategy requires a big-picture view as well as the ability to bring in multiple areas of expertise. It would be fun to be a CEO and make up the company's strategy, but every decision you'd make would either be the life or death of the company.

Anyway ... good class. I got a B in it.

I didn't take a 2nd class for Mod B in the summer. I didn't like any of the classes that were offered. I had registered for a corporate governance class, but then dropped it. It was a nice break.

Spring 2006 Update

Nothing to report really. I need to read and prepare for negotiations. I may be meeting with my team member and Snir at lunch today.

Chess Update

The 2/17/06 chessgames.com puzzle ... Friday's are always difficult. The move is question is 83. ? white to play. Off the top of my head, I think white needs to distract the black king away from the f pawn so it can promote. The method for doing that would be to use the h pawn. So, 83. h7 Kxh7 84. Ke7 Kg7 85. Rg5+ Kh6 86. Rg2 and then the f pawn can promote. The king would be "sealed" off in the h file and the white king defends the f pawn. OK ... that wasn't bad. Let's see what really happened.

The answer is ... 83. Rg5+ Kxg5 84. h7 Re1+ 85. Kd7 Rd1+ 86. Ke8 Re1+ 87. Kf8 Rh1 88. Kg7 and white will promote both pawns and exchange the h pawn for the rook.

OK ... I see the error of my analysis. After 83. h7 Rf6+ 84. Ke7 (or d5) and black captures both pawns which leads to a draw rather than a win.

Wow ... when you truly understand all the positions and what really works and what doesn't, it makes the correct line seem so much more beautiful. It's so awesome.

Some people are emotionally moved by analyzing paintings or scultures or architecture. Some are emotionally moved by a fine movement of music. And then some people, like me, love the artistry of chess movements.

I played one blitz game and one crazyhouse game last night after I figured out how to capture video from my new Panasonic camcorder. I also uploaded some home video to my family blog. Technology is so cool! Anyway ... I won both games. The tactic from the previous post is from the blitz game I played. For the crazyhouse game, my opponent had never played crazyhouse before. So I explained to him how it worked and directed him to the help page.

After that, I read some more Don Quixote and then fell asleep peacefully.