the air

2006 has been a very fortunate year for me. It started out on a very low note, but it was symbolic of an upward trend in my journey to success. In January 2006, the Dean of Engineering at Northern Illinois University (NIU), gave me a second chance and allowed me to demonstrate my true abilities. As finals came to a close in May, I was able to successfully prove to everyone that I had what it took to be a successful Industrial Engineer. I was able to garner a 3.75 GPA and make Dean’s List for the second time in my academic career.

In May 2006, I also departed for India. It had been almost seven years since my last visit and it was a great time to reconnect with my cousins and get to know my cousin’s husband. I also went on a tour of the south, visiting places like Kanyakumari, Madras, Tirupathi, Trivandrum, Kovalum, Hyderabad, and many more. Although it was mostly a religious pilgrimage, I had the wonderful opportunity to learn more about my culture and witness the amazing architecture of the ancient times. My only wish was that time did not progress quickly because I did not want to leave. I really miss my relatives and relaxing in the wonderful weather.

August 2006 marked another beginning of my quest to continue to prove that I can be a successful student. I also earned the opportunity to be a teaching assistant (TA) for one of my professors. TA’ing gave me the opportunity to learn more about the administrative side of courses and allowed me to “teach” the students the material in a manner that helped me to learn. It also helped me to balance my time and work on two things that I had been putting off for a while. I finally got the time to work on my resume and start a whole new blog. Both tasks had been demanding my attention for quite some time, but I am proud to say that I finally got around and accomplished both. The best part about this year has been my GPA. I earned a 3.80 GPA for this fall semester and made Dean’s List again. A very encouraging year that will end on a very high note. It has been almost 6 years since the last time I have had great success and happiness.

Finally, December 2006 has been a remarkable month. I finally got myself a new computer. Although it won’t be up and running for a couple more days, I am looking forward to replacing my aging desktop. 2006 also marked my first full month blogging again after taking a prolonged hiatus. It is also the time when I started to get a steady stream of readers, knock on wood. I also changed web hosting providers because my old one did not have enough bandwidth. I think the highlight of this month has been my review of John Chow’s blog. Thanks to him, he linked my website to his blog and my traffic increased. My goal has always been to increase traffic to my blog, but I have no intention, as of right now, to garner revenue. Rather, I am more interested in increasing traffic to my blog for the sake of people just reading. Thanks to all those who have come across my blog and regularly read my blog.

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A little over a week ago, I wrote about the possibility of Toyota overtaking GM as the world’s largest automaker. However, the one question that I did not really explore was “what is wrong with GM?” Furthermore, it is important to understand what differentiates GM from Toyota. Surprisingly, the root of the problem is not quality or workmanship. Rather, the root of the problem seems to lie with the fact of who runs the company. This article talks about a first hand negative experience with GM vehicles. In addition, the writer goes on to talk about the failure of GM to properly recognize mass market demand.

To keep it simple, GM is mostly run by accountants and marketing. They have a great ability to paint flowery images of their lackluster products while doing their best to push volumes out the door to try to earn some meager profit. Antithetically, Toyota is run mostly by engineers, people who are able to recognize the needs of their target consumers and develop products that cater to their exact needs. GM has also banked on producing niche vehicles such as the Hummer and Escalade. Both of which are classified as gas guzzlers and notorious for putting a large dent in their drivers’ wallets. In addition, GM seems to focus on vehicles that seem to be too specialized and not enough that most consumers want.

Look at GM’s introduction of the Pontiac G6. This vehicle was designed to replace the aging and somewhat successful Grand Am.

Thanks to slushy steering, the car meanders all over the road.

Among several other design lapses: a clunky shift-lever whose settings are unlit in the dark, pull-up door locks located in hard-to-reach places, the absence of exterior key locks on doors other than the driver’s. This last omission would be less annoying if the master lock on the driver’s door unlocked the other doors (as it does on comparable imports). But GM does not include that feature.

And let’s not forget the G6’s most prolific event:

This was the car launched with a stunt hailed as one of the greatest product-placement coups ever. In September 2004, GM paid Oprah Winfrey an estimated $8 million to give all 276 souls in her studio audience a new G6. For several raving minutes, Oprah endorsed the product.

The question remains whether or not GM can turn around their failing image and lackluster lineup of vehicles. I think that GM can easily recognize better numbers and better image if they allow those who understand consumers to run the company. The company should not simply be focused on numbers but rather look at what the consumer wants and cater to those wants exactly. GM should spend some more careful time studying the competition and understanding what the competition does highly successfully. I strongly think that if GM’s corporate culture was towards helping the consumer and not about painting nice pictures, GM can see more success. Regardless of what I may think or say, GM definitely is in trouble and should rethink its corporate planning strategies.

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I am sure that many of you will agree with me when I claim that many college textbooks are boring, too wordy, and overly expensive. However, in many college courses, we are forced to read the textbook since many professors expect us to be responsible for the content. So what exactly is the best way to read these wordy and boring texts? If you can answer that question, please feel free to lead a campaign. In the meantime, I want to share with you how I cope with these so-called authoritatively boring textbooks.

College textbooks should not and, in many cases, cannot be read like a novel. Rather, you really have to interact with the book. So what exactly does interaction entail? Interaction with your textbook requires three simple steps:

1. Understand objectives of the chapter
2. Read paragraph headings prior to reading in detail
3. Work through the examples yourself

Understand the Objectives

Many textbooks have a page listing the following chapter’s objectives. I cannot tell you how many students simply skip this page without bothering to give it some credit. This page is extremely crucial since it literally outlines the content of the chapter for you. In addition, it also acts as a goal list since your goal is to learn everything in the chapter and those objectives pertain to most of the material. Once you are done reading the chapter, you should be able to explain, in detail and in your own words, what exactly each objective is talking about. To sum it all up, the objectives page serves as a checklist to ensure that you know the material contained within the chapter comfortably. From my own experience, it helps me prepare for exams quickly and lets me hone in on the material that I am struggling with, not material that I already know. Thus, it trims that amount of material I need to actually re-read and strengthen. On a side note, most textbooks have a chapter summary at the end of each chapter. Be sure to use this section in junction with the objective page to reinforce the knowledge.

The question that lingers is, “what if my book doesn’t have an objectives page before the start of each chapter?” That should be no problem for you. Look at this as an opportunity to grow even more. If your textbook does not have an objectives page or a chapter summary at the end, do not worry. What you should do is divide the chapter into equal parts. Generally, I like to divide a chapter into 3 - 5 parts. As I read each part, I summarize the information and take my own notes. Once my notes are complete, I go back and design a general outline of my notes. From this, I am able to create a rudimentary objective list which I can use to quiz myself. The process is time consuming, but it is a sure way of guaranteeing myself a very good grade.

Skim the Chapter First

Skimming the chapter will give you a preview of the content that lays ahead. Think of this step as a tool that will help you develop a game-plan. In many sports, coaches will obtain videos of games their opponents have played and analyze them carefully. Skimming the chapter is a similar concept. You are simply previewing the game and you will formulate an effective plan to help accomplish your goal. The purpose behind skimming is to help you determine what is the best method to tackle the material. In addition, skimming will help you understand what concepts will be tricky and what concepts will be easy, in addition to what content lays ahead. When I skim a chapter, I generally read the text in bold such as section headings and paragraph headings. Another good approach is to pose these headings as questions. Once you are done reading each section carefully, you should be able to go back and answer those heading questions that you just developed.

Work With The Examples

Finally, the third step concentrates on the examples presented within the chapter. It is to your advantage to carefully work on the example problems along with the text and understand how the answer is derived. Many students fail to carefully study the examples and when it comes time for homework, they are left clueless. In addition, if you work on the examples along with the book, you will become accustomed to the methodology and the terminology. Working on the example does not mean you “read” it. It means that you take out a sheet of paper and re-write the problem and then solve it. You should also make some side notes on how you solved the problem and what theories were required to solve it. This is a very crucial step and should not be neglected.

Conclusion

Reading a textbook should not be a hassle. In addition, it is not a process that can be simply done in a few minutes. It is time-consuming and requires careful attention. What I have written today is just some steps that you should consider taking when attempting to read your textbook. It is imperative that you take your own notes while reading. This concept is known as active reading. Active reading allows you to retain the knowledge for longer periods and strengthens your familiarity as well. Reading a boring textbook is a daunting task. Unfortunately, many of us have no choice but to read to succeed. Therefore, rather than pretending to read the textbook, let’s actually read it and maybe try to understand the material. At least if you read the textbook and you still fail to understand the material (which is quite popular amongst all students), you can at least approach the professor and have grounds to encourage him or her to help you with the material. Most professors and many teaching assistants do not even bother to assist those who do not spend the time to read the material. As a TA, I strongly encourage all my students to read prior to coming to my office hours. Those who don’t, I tend to frown upon them and help them once I am done helping those who have completed the reading. So fear not, and read to succeed.

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I was surfing the web aimlessly when I came across this post on TechCrunch. Basically, Michael Arrington took a quiz to see what superhero he was and what super villain he is. You can take the superhero quiz here and the super villain quiz here.

My Superhero Results

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 70% The Flash 70% Iron Man 65% Spider-Man 60% Supergirl 50% Superman 50% Catwoman 45% Wonder Woman 40% Batman 40% Robin 35% Hulk 20%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

I’m not sure if I agree with the results since I tend to admire Batman the most and I consider some aspects of his dark persona to be similar to mine at times. I find the super villain quiz much more to my liking since I would like to think of myself as a villain

My Super Villain Results

Your results:
You are Apocalypse

Apocalypse 77% Dr. Doom 74% Magneto 69% Venom 68% Juggernaut 62% Lex Luthor 59% Dark Phoenix 57% Mr. Freeze 57% Two-Face 54% The Joker 52% Kingpin 44% Green Goblin 42% Catwoman 42% Mystique 38% Poison Ivy 36% Riddler 30%

You believe in survival of the fittest and you believe that you are the fittest.

So what super-hero and/or super villain are you?

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It’s that time of year again when everyone will be having a great time partying like its 1999. Many of us will be engaging our creative minds at parties and quenching our thirsts with over-priced and water-downed drinks. And there will be many of us drinking like there is no end. I do not think that there is anything wrong with that. However, before you go out this weekend, do make sure you read this article that talks about drinking wisely.

To summarize it all for you, some suggestions include:

• do not drink on an empty stomach
• eat some salty, fatty, or high carbohydrate foods
• alternate alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic drinks
• know your own limits
• learn to say no
• drink plenty of non-alcoholic fluids throughout the night and before you go to bed

From my own experience, drinking Gatorade prior to going to bed helps alleviate some of the more strenuous symptoms of a hangover. In addition, if I am having a hangover, I mostly drink Gatorade and fruit juices to replenish the lost nutrients. Remember, alcohol is a poison which can allegedly help you live longer when taken in moderation. However, too much of it and it could kill you. When you feel like puking, remember, it is your body’s way of saying that you have had too much of this poison and it is now trying to get rid of it. So don’t hold the vomit back, just let it all out.

Most of all, enjoy the night and drink responsibly. Happy New Year’s friends

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