tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55423192009-02-21T11:42:06.442-05:00Thistle and Maple Leaf chronicles my University of Toronto MBA experience. Along the way I will be including some interesting current events, referencing pop culture, and describing events which may or may not have happened to me. Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1113512274484158842005-04-14T15:40:00.000-05:002005-04-14T23:05:55.593-05:00

The day finally arrived for me and my Applied Portfolio Management classmates this week. We were off to Nebraska to meet with the Oracle of Omaha himself, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the world's greatest investor, Warren E. Buffett. This is truly is one of the most interesting personalities of our time. Here's a man worth in excess of $40 Billion dollars who's still at work well into his

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1113506913217486022005-04-14T13:55:00.000-05:002005-04-14T16:05:39.170-05:00

I'm happy to report today that my job search has come to a successful conclusion. I've accepted a position as an Associate Financial Engineer with Algorithics Incorporated. Check out the link for info on the company if you are so inclined. I'm very excited about this opportunity, as it is incredibly well suited to my skillset. It will be largely finance-related, but will also require some math

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1113504893663583982005-04-14T13:31:00.000-05:002005-04-14T16:51:27.506-05:00

Detroit Tigers opening day festivities went off as planned last week. Nobody in our group got seriously injured or arrested while we were downtown, and isn't that really all you can hope for when yours truly joins up with a group of Detroit's finest low-lifes for a pub crawl around the new Comerica Park to celebrate the arrival of baseball and spring weather? Now, baseball and beer are a natural

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1111443944135093622005-03-25T22:03:00.000-05:002005-03-25T22:12:23.030-05:00

That's the least appropriate thing I've seen since that redneck country band played "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" at the NBA All-Star Game halftime show.It's shaping up to be a very busy April for me. Apart from my job search being in full swing and final exams approaching like the blinding headlight of a train in a tunnel, I have a couple of trips in the works.Next weekend I'll be in Detroit for

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1109735459740854292005-03-01T20:42:00.000-05:002005-03-02T01:01:58.133-05:00

One of the things I hoped to accomplish with this blog was to have it be a resource for people who are thinking about doing an MBA and considering attending Rotman. I've tried to give a non-censored insider's perspective and post some B school-related commentary and links along the way. As you may also be aware, the official Rotman site also hosts student journals. The journalists do a good job,

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1106782016137221122005-01-26T23:26:00.000-05:002005-01-31T16:33:50.213-05:00

The winter blahs are in full effect here in Toronto. Today when I was walking past Flight Centre I found myself transfixed by that big board with the names of all the cities on it. All the places you suddenly realized you would much rather be right now. You can never get the flight for anything near the price that’s listed, but that didn’t matter. I was staring at that list the way an Atkins

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1104442007987451022004-12-30T15:27:00.000-05:002005-01-05T13:57:48.046-05:00

Greetings from Vancouver where I'm spending the holidays visiting friends and family. Christmas reading this year consisted of some light fare entitled "Quantum Investing: Quantum Physics, Nanotechnology, and the Future of the Stock Market" by Stephen R. Waite. WILL: You f*ckin' people baffle me. Spend all your money on these f*ckin' fancy books. You surround yourselves with 'em and they're the

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1103403765336430952004-12-18T13:19:00.000-05:002004-12-21T00:38:37.930-05:00

It's Saturday and first half exams finished up this morning. I just banged off 10k upstairs on the treadmill in a semi-respectable 47 minutes, replacing the restless, spastic feeling in my legs I've had all week with that good, tired feeling. Now it is time to watch some football. I'm joined here today by a fridge full of Carlsberg, a bag of microwave popcorn and the sofa. The Steelers are giving

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1103166999629027682004-12-15T21:59:00.000-05:002004-12-16T00:04:26.566-05:00

Gents: I am flabbergasted by the lack of constructive reporting that is supposed to be coming out of Toronto. It seems that our fearless journalist is either holed up in the local watering hole, drowning in his sorrows, madly in love with some new squeeze or has just stopped caring about TAML all together. You know what I say? "NONSENSE"! In his absence, I will pick up the pen and donate my

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1100721493455545392004-11-17T13:04:00.000-05:002004-11-19T20:00:26.306-05:00

Last week the Globe and Mail ran an article about how people are using their blogs to find work. This phenomenon seems to be mostly limited to IT job-seekers at present, but you never know. It seems like a trend that is bound to spread to other functional areas, including finance. It's a great way for an employer to quickly get to know an applicant, what with "organizational fit" (being liked)

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1100065144695566012004-11-10T01:33:00.000-05:002004-11-10T00:39:04.696-05:00

comes to us from Michigan, U.S.A. This is Jay & Kaori's baby girl Thea. Damn right she's cuter than yours.

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1099931673669071342004-11-08T11:04:00.000-05:002004-11-08T19:27:53.693-05:00

As David Letterman is fond of saying, I don't think there's a man, woman, or child alive today who doesn't enjoy a lovely beverage. Sometimes though, it is possible that a person could enjoy too many lovely beverages. He could also spend too much money, waste time, get behind in his classes, not exercise and not write anything in his blog for two weeks. When you try to live your life a certain

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1098671578449886272004-10-24T18:44:00.000-05:002004-10-24T22:28:41.843-05:00

Yesterday the Rotman Rugby team made the 2 hour drive to London to play in the U of Western Ontario's MBA Rugby tournament. Teams were there from the Ivey School of Business (UWO), Ivey Alumni, Fanshaw and from Cornell University, who made the trip up from New York State. We were a little undermaned, but we managed to win one game out of three and generally make a pretty respectable showing. Yes,

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1097960018541555802004-10-16T15:23:00.000-05:002004-10-16T18:36:47.530-05:00

Short post this week. Keeping busy with schoolwork and interviews and living life Toronto style - whatever that means. I went to see Interpol, one of my favorite bands of the 21st century at The Docks this week. Great show and a cool, fun crowd. Yes, there are still bands worth going to see these days that wont charge you $75 for a ticket, but it seems like they are getting harder and harder to

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1097036209648952582004-10-05T21:29:00.000-05:002004-10-06T00:05:03.183-05:00

Rugby season kicked off this week, and I took part in my first game since high school. The Rotman team played against fellow MBAers from our archrival Ivey School of Business (University of Western Ontario). For those of you hip to Rugby, I'm playing Lock. This seems to consist essentially of getting down in the scrum, getting trampled on when mauls go bad, rarely touching the ball, and hitting

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1096144361743755852004-09-25T14:05:00.000-05:002004-09-25T15:43:38.596-05:00

Today is the annual crosstown football matchup between the York Lions and the UofT Varsity Blues. Little hope remains to the faithful in light of our recent performances though. So far this season, the Varsity Blues are 0-3, losing by a combined score of 216 to 22. Last season the Varsity Blues went 0-8, giving up 438 points while scoring just 42. That's a combined 0-11 since I arrived on campus.

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1095306344924173652004-09-15T21:13:00.000-05:002004-09-15T22:51:32.916-05:00

Welcome to year two of TAML, it's back to school time once again for yours truly. The first week of my second (and final) year of graduate education is at hand, and already recruiting season is in full swing. I've been to three recruiting functions in the last three nights. Monday was TD Securities, yesterday was RBC Financial and tonight was Scotia Capital. I've had so much practice with

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1095290886417396402004-09-15T18:13:00.000-05:002004-09-15T18:28:06.416-05:00

Well, hockey season is over. A little earlier than usual this year. Around here folks celebrated the big win by assulting cops and injuring seniors. Got. to. love. this. town. It wasn't all violence and rioting though, big laughs abounded last night as confused Hollywoodians in town for the film festival had their limosines and taxicabs surrounded by drunken, flag-waving, face-painted, woo-hooing

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1091811613179629452004-08-06T11:05:00.000-05:002004-08-06T12:27:43.646-05:00

It's kind of quiet in here these days. We're now into the dog days of summer, or as Lileks puts it: the apogee of summer, the point when it seems so ordinary it must be eternal. The point when you feel as if there are hundred such days behind you and another hundred ahead.I've mostly taken the summer off from blogging - and the traffic to my site has dropped off to almost nothing as a result. I

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1088832394974956662004-07-02T22:47:00.000-05:002004-08-06T14:39:10.786-05:00

Michael Moore's new film Fahrenheit 911 is certainly getting all kinds of attention these days. Some people are hip to it, but others have brutally fact-checked his fat ass. Even so, it got me to thinking. If Bush was able to fix the election, knew in advance about 9-11 and staged a war just so that his buddies in the oil business would see some extra cash, then maybe he could also be responsible

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1086583339190167402004-06-06T22:48:00.000-05:002005-03-01T23:32:42.356-05:00

Blogging will be light this summer. I'll likely be limiting my posts to times when I'm actually doing something interesting, or when something goes on in the world that bears noting. In this case its mostly the latter.By way of mandatory update, I made it back from Vegas with moderate damage to both my liver and bankbook. Smarty Jones can take credit for keeping me out of total bankrupcy. I can't

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1082242098704870192004-04-17T17:48:00.000-05:002004-10-20T14:59:57.673-05:00

As the final grains of sand are about to pass through that skinny part of my First Year MBA hourglass, I'm putting the finishing touches on the last piece of the puzzle - an essay on business ethics of all things. Once I put this to bed I'm off to watch the Canucks and the Flames in game six tonight. The Canucks will win tonight of course, everyone knows that when the Flames play the Canucks get

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1081018786198940172004-04-03T13:59:00.000-05:002004-06-19T20:56:59.750-05:00

It didn't take people long to start trying to cash in on the Todd Bertuzzi incident here and here. Pick a side and have your credit card ready. (hat tip: Trev) The first year of my Rotman MBA is drawing to a close. It is still too early to have perspective on the experience and I'm still too busy with my studies to take time to reflect much on it, or to think about the difference between where

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1080280774231647972004-03-26T00:59:00.000-05:002004-03-26T01:27:30.860-05:00

You may be tempted to laugh at this photo, but you'd better think twice. Richard Simmons is taking on Ultimate Fighters now. Further to my insane Right Wing ramblings in a recent post, here is an excellent commentary by James Lileks on those who protested the one year anniversary of the liberation of Iraq this week. Definitely worth a read.

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5542319.post-1079504560527784612004-03-17T01:22:00.000-05:002004-03-17T01:28:36.280-05:00

For those of you who are hip to the New York City rock scene (Hives, Strokes, White Stripes (yes Jay, I know they are from Detroit, but its the same damn thing)) you should also check out Interpol (lyrics to "NYC" posted below) and The Walkmen on your favorite file sharing site. I had seven faces, Thought I new which one to wear, But I'm sick of spending these lonely nights Training myself

Donhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14336704844960826309noreply@blogger.com0