Natural Food Experiment

My work with Silverpoint Investments has exposed me to the growing trend of organic or all-natural foods. Essentially, many meat products feed the animals hormones or antibiotics to make them grow better. For produce, we all know it is common to use chemical pesticides to protect the crops. The theory behind the trend to all-natural or organic food products is that these hormones and chemicals are not good for us. While there are no conclusive studies that links these practices to ill health effects, one can certainly understand the simple argument that if these hormones are not good for me to take myself, why would they be good for my food that I ingest? Further, it easy to see that as pesticide and hormone use has increased over the past 30 years, we have seen rises in cancer and obesity rates.
It is these thoughts and my work's interest in the organic movement that led me to propose a 3 week challenge to Lindsey, where we strive to eat only organic or all-natural products. The goal would be to evaluate if we noticed any immediate health effects and how it impacts the budget.
We have just completed our second week or the experiment. Our awareness of food ingredients has improved tremendously. It is obvious that we are spending more money, they key is how much more. In this experiment we have discovered that some product areas actually have comparable prices for all organic ingredients (salad dressings, bbq sauces, meat marinades). I think the big benefit of this experiment has been our raised awareness of the quality of the food we eat. At the end of this we may not move to a complete all-natural/organic diet, but we will likely shift our consumption to many of these products. After all, if you have the choice between an all-natural or a chemical-filled product, which would you consciously choose?
I will post our findings at the end of the experiment. We may extend it to 4 weeks because Lindsey has been stocking up on all-natural meats when she sees good sales.

Enjoying the Week Off

Lindsey and I decided to stay local for spring break. Why keep visiting other places, when you live 15 minutes from some of the best beaches in the world. We enjoyed an afternoon at Newport Beach. I am sure we will try to hit Huntington and Laguna before the weeks over.

5 Quarters Down - 1 to Go

Last quarter ended very quietly. Traditionally, end of quarter is a killer time for MBAs. All those weeks of procrastination, come to bear with numerous projects and exams due all during the same week. For some reason, most of my work was bunched in the middle of the quarter leaving me a light final week. This has given me time to catch up on blogging, job search, and relaxing.
It is hard to believe that I have one quarter to go. It feels like only last week that we arrived in Irvine, completely overwhelmed by its vast size, winding roads, and crazy highways. Now, I am on my final quarter and we feel like acclimatized Californians (We freeze when the temp drops to 10 Celsius).
Classes were a mixed bag this quarter. Internet marketing really missed a great opportunity to be the most interesting class in school. I tried to make the most of the class with the final project. I had to build a internet marketing plan. I used the opportunity to consider how internet marketing fits within the entire firm strategy and how best to set up a plan. So I have a template to use in the future. Macro was nothing that I didn't already learn in my undergrad, but the teacher was excellent. Strategic innovation raised some interesting ideas about how to look at traditional business in new ways - challenging the status quo to drive higher growth. It was the first year for the class, so there's room for this class to grow. Lastly, Business Dynamics taught how to strategically evaluate business challenges and, more importantly, how to execute change (or the strategy). The course was taught by a great teacher who really knows how to teach business case studies.
This quarter will have fewer classes than normal. It is time to focus on the job search. As my focus is on the technology industry, most job opportunities need someone to start yesterday. So up to now, my best opportunities got roadblocked on availability. Timing is everything and I hope the tech industry remains immune from the recession until I lock up something.
As an international, my best chances are through networking. I will be attending another Web2.0 conference in April.

Attended Graphing Social Pattern's 2008

Earlier this week, I played a little hooky from school and attended O'Reilly's Graphing Social Patterns West 2008 conference. O'Reilly is the premier brand for technology conferences and GSP is a conference dedicated to examining trends in the social networking space.
One of the big perks of living out on the west coast is the number of opportunities to interact with other Tech-Obsessed people. There was a great energy at the conference. Networking was made difficult as most people had their heads down into their laptops or cell phones during the breaks. Nonetheless, I still met a number of very interesting people.
The sessions ranged from incredibly interesting to ho hum. One of the big themes that I got from the conference is that we should be demanding social networks built around individuals, not built around a platform. For example, I should bring my data with me whereever I go on the web (it stays with me), not leave it in a platform like facebook. That means I only have to update my address once and all my internet accounts get updated (that would be awesome!). There is definitely a move to change this - from one of my favorites, MyBlogLog to the Diso-Project. Will it happen? I am not sure, but as long as people keep pushing for it, the more likely it will happen.
One of the coolest things I heard was that MyBlogLog a social networking service that tracks what blogs you visit (and more) wants to try to track your physical location using bluetooth technology. Still very early, but I like that they are pushing the edge.
In the end. Fun, thought provoking, and great people.

2008 Oscars Red Carpet

At 8am Lindsey and I arrived to be seated in the fan bleachers right next to the red carpet. That was the beginning of a long day that did not see us depart until after 5pm.
We got assigned seating in the 3rd row of the bleachers directly across from where Regis was doing interviews so we had a pretty good view for the event. The crowd was full of celebrity-focused fans. When I saw them going bananas over Mary Hart I knew this was going to be a little crazy.
The one good thing about being seated near hyper-fans is that they make alot of noise and talk to the celebs like they are best friends. Now, normally I think this would make celebs run in the other direction, however on Oscar day many celebrities reward this devotion by talking back and signing autographs. So we had George Clooney and Viggo Mortensen come right up in front of us to sign autographs. Viggo was particularly kind as he stayed to sign autographs despite being late for the start of the show.
Lindsey decided she would be too short to take pictures, so that duty fell on me. So if you saw me on TV with a camera constantly in my face that is why - I was listening to my wife. Oddly enough I am also writing the blog post. She just sat and enjoyed. Below are some of the pictures.