World-Class Education

Back from Vegas, and officially exhausted. Vegas is interesting, though kind of overstimulating in the lights and sound department. Yesterday, I rented a car so I could drive out to the middle of the desert and get some silence (what I ended up getting was desert, plus an extra-special return drive through an impressively diabolical-looking desert storm).

...but I digress.

Here's a great shout-out to two of the major local universities, a top-50 ranking among the world's best educational institutions. TBJ links you there, but you can see the expanded list here.

News from the front lines

Ok, so it's been a while.

Look, I'm sorry.

I know sorry's not all that special, but really, it's not you, I promise.

I mean, if it makes it any better, here's what I've been up to:

: studying for midterms (I have two today, and they're high-stress)
: getting reamed in logistics and project management (the two midterms)
: working on my supply chain practicum
: taking second place in a national case competition (in Louisville, KY)
: performing my duties for my graduate assistantship (exam proctoring, research, basically taking an extra course in order to give feedback from the student perspective)
: trying to arrange site visits and guest speakers for Net Impact Jenkins
: getting glowing feedback on the case competition I authored over the summer (thank goodness it wasn't a failure or bad quality)
: trying to find a new housemate to replace the last other founding member of Maplewood
: taking care of my dog, Chandramukhi (Mukhi, for short)
: preparing for travel to Las Vegas and Ann Arbor for conferences, to DC for pleasure, and NYC for business (sort-of)
: preparing to officiate two weddings (one this month, one next year)

...and I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out.

Still, I have lots of goodies for you that I need to catch up on.

Here's one at random, a collection of photos of what $1 worth of food actually looks like.

An open letter to hotels

(hotel name removed to protect the guilty)

Dear Every Hotel I've Ever Stayed In:

Can we talk? I know you claim that you want to help the environment and save resources by reusing towels. That's technically fair, since not washing things means you're not expending the water, electricity, and chemicals to wash and dry those things. Still, I'm going to call bullshit.

Yep. I said it. Your "environmental" claims are a sham, and not the ornamental pillow covering kind, either. I've seen this placard pop up in any number of hotels in the US and internationally. It's fine, and I usually reuse my towels anyway. Still, if you *really* cared about the environment, I'd have seen ONE hotel EVER with recycle bins in the rooms. ONE. EVER. I have not yet encountered this elusive hotel (even in eco-friendly areas), though I hear claims that they exist. Maybe there's one in Shangri-La, and it's staffed by unicorns and happy-faced gnomes.

I mean, it's not like it's much more labor intensive (if at all), and the tipping fees for recyclables are generally cheaper than tipping fees for landfill dumpsters. It's kind of a common sense thing, really.

More than that, you'd also make some effort to have more energy-efficient lighting, and every hotel room I walked into wouldn't be approximately 62 degrees in the summer or 86 degrees in the winter. Seriously. It's downright frigid.

You wouldn't keep your rooms supplied with individually-wrapped disposable nightmares, and you'd have water-efficient shower heads and low-flow toilets, and sink aerators (which I think you might occasionally have, so bravo). And why are none of the appliances in my room Energy-Star? Don't you know you can get tax breaks for Energy-Star compliance?

Anyway, there's a laundry list of other opportunities for you to improve, but for Pete's sake, these are seriously the ones that should be universal.

Anyway, I hope we can work things out.

Sincerely,

Stacie