I have applied to 3 universities in Michigan to start an MBA in January 2010.
1. Wayne State University
2. Central Michigan University
3. Oakland University
In the end, UM-AA and MSU were too expensive and I would never see an ROI. UM-Dearborn was also too expensive and they would not consider any foundational waivers for my BBA degree (AACSB accredited) because of a 7 year limit. I don't need to repeat my BBA degree in addition to an MBA and it was very easy to rule out these options as a result. Among the three I have applied, it's going to be a tough decision for me as each program is uniquely different in the approach.
Wayne State University offers the most flexibility with courses online, downtown, or at the Farmington Hills campus. WSU also has a strong reputation in the metro Detroit area, where I plan to stay since we have family ties. CMU is a cohort program which is accellerated and completed in under 2 years. All courses seem predetermined and must be followed in order. This is nice on one hand, but also might introduce problems if the program did not go exactly according to plan. OU is also a strong reputation in metro Detroit, but does not have as much flexibility as WSU. There is not an online option, and courses are taught in Rochester Hills with some courses at the Birmingham campus. This means I would need to drive from Novi to Detroit to Rochester Hills to Novi every day of class, which might simply be just too much time in the car.
I expect the decision to come down to WSU or CMU and I will make the decision within the next month.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Goodbye Mt. Pleasant
My parents sold their old house in Mt. Pleasant a couple weeks ago. I went up there one last time to stay and say my goodbyes which just happened to be near the same time of my high school reunion.
I still do plan to get up there one more time to play Buck's Run, which somehow has avoided me all these years.
I still do plan to get up there one more time to play Buck's Run, which somehow has avoided me all these years.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Wonderful riverfront property for sale in Mt. Pleasant
My parents are selling their Mt. Pleasant home. It's a great house and location right on the river with privacy and updates, but just a minute from town.
Check it out here:
915 Meadowbrook Drive, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858
Check it out here:
915 Meadowbrook Drive, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Golf Fever 2009
The golf fever is starting to hit again....
New courses on my list for this year:
- Arcadia Bluffs
- Eldorado
- Shepherd's Hollow
... and whatever else comes up!
New courses on my list for this year:
- Arcadia Bluffs
- Eldorado
- Shepherd's Hollow
... and whatever else comes up!
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Bought a new Chevy Malibu
I recently puchased a new 2009 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ. I love this car, my first GM car ever and I'm very impressed. This one they got right and in my opinion is best in class.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Work Update
It's been a few months since I left my previous gig of 6.5 years and posted an update. I'll have more details on our initiatives later, but I'm turning over several new leafs by creating teams that develop web apps based on software as a service, software + services, and reuseable platforms. Most of these are being built on the Microsoft stack but we are exploring open source technologies on LAMP such as Joomla. We're establishing a fantastic team that I'm confident will make major waves in 2009.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Wii Fit Review
I've done a few workouts on the Wii Fit. It is a fantastic and fascinating workout instrument. However, there are some significant limitations you should be aware of.
1. The BMI ratings and Wii Age are completely off for children. It told Andrew that he was actually 13 years old and overweight (he's a perfectly healthy little boy). Do not put any stock whatsoever into what it tells your children.
2. You can not easily workout with any partner. The game starts with you choosing your Mii and everything you do is recorded under that Mii. This also means that player 1 must completely finish their workout before player 2 can begin. You cannot do multiplayer except for one 2 player running aerobics exercise (and the second players stats are not recorded).
3. For each 1 to 3 minute exercise you do, you need to keep the Wiimote handy because you have to hit A several times for each exercise. After each exercise, you have to go back to the main screen and select a new exercise. It is extremely annoying to not be able to program your workout so that they go from one to the next automatically (or at least with hitting the "A" button once).
4. Number 3 above also leads to spending an excessive amount of time just navigating the console in Wii Fit. You will not be able to complete a 30 minute exercise in 30 minutes, it will be more like twice that time due to all of the starting and stopping in between each exercise.
It's a fascinating first attempt at interactive workouts on gaming consoles, but it definitely has plenty of room for growth.
1. The BMI ratings and Wii Age are completely off for children. It told Andrew that he was actually 13 years old and overweight (he's a perfectly healthy little boy). Do not put any stock whatsoever into what it tells your children.
2. You can not easily workout with any partner. The game starts with you choosing your Mii and everything you do is recorded under that Mii. This also means that player 1 must completely finish their workout before player 2 can begin. You cannot do multiplayer except for one 2 player running aerobics exercise (and the second players stats are not recorded).
3. For each 1 to 3 minute exercise you do, you need to keep the Wiimote handy because you have to hit A several times for each exercise. After each exercise, you have to go back to the main screen and select a new exercise. It is extremely annoying to not be able to program your workout so that they go from one to the next automatically (or at least with hitting the "A" button once).
4. Number 3 above also leads to spending an excessive amount of time just navigating the console in Wii Fit. You will not be able to complete a 30 minute exercise in 30 minutes, it will be more like twice that time due to all of the starting and stopping in between each exercise.
It's a fascinating first attempt at interactive workouts on gaming consoles, but it definitely has plenty of room for growth.
Monday, December 29, 2008
WiiFest with Guitar Hero
Santa brought a Nintendo Wii with Guitar Hero World Tour complete band kit this year. I have to say that this console and specifically this game (which I'm aware is available on all consoles) is probably the most addictive game I've ever seen. They have figured out a way to make playing your favorite songs fun, easy and exciting. My 3 year old Andrew can play drums on Eye of the Tiger... who knew?
The outcome of this game is you develop fantastic motor skills and dexterity to play rock songs. Being a former bass player in a band, I would say the next step is for someone to figure out how to teach real guitar/bass lessons on the Wii. The drums are pretty accurate, if you can play them on GHWT you can probably play in real life. The bass is also very similar to real life although you'd have to learn the strings and notes on a real bass, but the concept of single notes / single buttons is the same. The guitar would be the most challenging to convert to real life.
My neighbor said that after he bought Rockband he decided to start to learn how to play guitar for real, and that's exactly what he's doing. I wonder how many others are doing the same.
The outcome of this game is you develop fantastic motor skills and dexterity to play rock songs. Being a former bass player in a band, I would say the next step is for someone to figure out how to teach real guitar/bass lessons on the Wii. The drums are pretty accurate, if you can play them on GHWT you can probably play in real life. The bass is also very similar to real life although you'd have to learn the strings and notes on a real bass, but the concept of single notes / single buttons is the same. The guitar would be the most challenging to convert to real life.
My neighbor said that after he bought Rockband he decided to start to learn how to play guitar for real, and that's exactly what he's doing. I wonder how many others are doing the same.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Alexander Update
A number of friends have asked what's happening lately with Alex, so I thought I would post an update.
We had another baby boy on November 9 at 7:43am. He was 9 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches and we named him Alexander Peter Abler (we call him Alex). He seemed like a perfectly healthly baby boy and we went home a day early from the hospital. After a week of being at home, we took him to the doctor for an eye infection, and the pediatrician noticed him breathing fast (we did too) and he had trouble finding a pulse in his legs. We immediately went to a pediatric cardiologist who at first couldn't find the problem. After doing an echocardiogram, they found some serious heart problems. His left ventricle was not performing optimally, he had a bicuspid aortic valve, an small ASD or PFO, and he had a coarctation of the aorta which basically means the aorta severely narrowed where it exited the heart to supply blood to the body. He needed surgery within 24-48 hours or could have had severe problems with organ failure and cardiac arrest.
Apparently it is normal for this condition to not show itself until a few days after birth, because there is this extra artery that connects from the heart to the aorta that naturally closes a few days after birth (it's only used in utero). In Alex's case, it likely stayed open a few days longer because it was using it as a "bypass" until it naturally closed. This is when problems started occuring on that morning Jen just happened to take him to the doctor. It's just a miracle of the timing of this happening while we were at the doctor, and also we had a sharp pediatrician who picked up on the problem right away.
Surgery for a week old infant's heart is only done at two hositals in the state. We asked our cardologist who he would have operate on his own children, and he recommended Dr. Henry Walters III, who is the chief of cardiovascular surgery at Children's Hospital of the Detroit Medical Center. He has performed more than 50 heart transplants on babies and children which really made Alex's operation seem "routine". The operation entailed entering from the side underneath his arm, collapsing a lung, clamping the atora to stop the blood and cutting out the narrowed portion and sewing it back together. Surgery went extremely well, he was off the breathing matching the next day, and we were discharged from the NICU just 5 days after surgery. He gave his first smile we've seen a few days after surgery. We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House which is a fantastic charity that takes care of the parents whose children are in critical care at hostpitals.
Alex has been at home and doing well ever since. Since the surgery, his left ventrical function is back to normal, the aorta is now normal, and we just need to keep an eye on his bicuspid valve which is a very common condition and has no effect on lifespan. He'll require an annual cardiologist checkup, but he should be able to live a normal life. We'll have to wait and see if he can play professional football, but professional baseball or golf are still in play! :-)
Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers throughout the way. I believe it helped. Again, I'm on facebook almost every day so sign up so we can keep in better touch.
We had another baby boy on November 9 at 7:43am. He was 9 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches and we named him Alexander Peter Abler (we call him Alex). He seemed like a perfectly healthly baby boy and we went home a day early from the hospital. After a week of being at home, we took him to the doctor for an eye infection, and the pediatrician noticed him breathing fast (we did too) and he had trouble finding a pulse in his legs. We immediately went to a pediatric cardiologist who at first couldn't find the problem. After doing an echocardiogram, they found some serious heart problems. His left ventricle was not performing optimally, he had a bicuspid aortic valve, an small ASD or PFO, and he had a coarctation of the aorta which basically means the aorta severely narrowed where it exited the heart to supply blood to the body. He needed surgery within 24-48 hours or could have had severe problems with organ failure and cardiac arrest.
Apparently it is normal for this condition to not show itself until a few days after birth, because there is this extra artery that connects from the heart to the aorta that naturally closes a few days after birth (it's only used in utero). In Alex's case, it likely stayed open a few days longer because it was using it as a "bypass" until it naturally closed. This is when problems started occuring on that morning Jen just happened to take him to the doctor. It's just a miracle of the timing of this happening while we were at the doctor, and also we had a sharp pediatrician who picked up on the problem right away.
Surgery for a week old infant's heart is only done at two hositals in the state. We asked our cardologist who he would have operate on his own children, and he recommended Dr. Henry Walters III, who is the chief of cardiovascular surgery at Children's Hospital of the Detroit Medical Center. He has performed more than 50 heart transplants on babies and children which really made Alex's operation seem "routine". The operation entailed entering from the side underneath his arm, collapsing a lung, clamping the atora to stop the blood and cutting out the narrowed portion and sewing it back together. Surgery went extremely well, he was off the breathing matching the next day, and we were discharged from the NICU just 5 days after surgery. He gave his first smile we've seen a few days after surgery. We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House which is a fantastic charity that takes care of the parents whose children are in critical care at hostpitals.
Alex has been at home and doing well ever since. Since the surgery, his left ventrical function is back to normal, the aorta is now normal, and we just need to keep an eye on his bicuspid valve which is a very common condition and has no effect on lifespan. He'll require an annual cardiologist checkup, but he should be able to live a normal life. We'll have to wait and see if he can play professional football, but professional baseball or golf are still in play! :-)
Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers throughout the way. I believe it helped. Again, I'm on facebook almost every day so sign up so we can keep in better touch.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Alexander is home
Alex showed significant progress and recovery so they discharged us early. We are very closely monitoring him over the next several days, but the doctors saw no reason for us to stay in the NICU any longer at this time.
Now we need to be careful with germs, so we're getting the hand sanitizers ready.
Now we need to be careful with germs, so we're getting the hand sanitizers ready.
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