Term starts on 7th January 2008 and the various items on the to do list are being ticked off. For example, accommodation is almost finalised and today I sent a whole a suitcase of stuff with a friend. This whole thing is starting to feel more real.
Some of my classmates are preparing for the business foundations course. This is for those students that do not have a "finance" background, to bring them up to speed in a four/five day course.
Part of the precourse preparation for all of us is to undertake the precourse reading. This involves reading chapters of two of the the three texts advised and the whole of the third accounting text.
The first challenge is obtaining the texts and at a reasonable price. The texts can be purchased from INSEAD for between €45 and €55, which is not unreasonable. As a matter of interest I checked the prices in London bookshops, when I was there last week. So if a book is €50, one would assume that given the present exchange rate that the book would be approximately GBP£34. Wrong - the actual price is GBP£47?! How does this work then? It just seems that the publishers feel that there is an opportunity to obtain a super profit and so go ahead and charge the maximum they can. Fortunately, Amazon.com charges a price that is much closer to the one would expect to pay and so I am awaiting free (thanks to Amazon's super saver service) delivery of my books.
For completeness pre-reading is :
ESSENTIALS OF ACCOUNTING - R. Anthony - L. Breitner
9th edition -Prentice Hall
MODERN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT – S. A.Ross - R. W. Westerfield -
J. Jaffe & B.D Jordan 8th Edition - McGraw Hill
PRINCIPLES OF MICROECONOMICS – N. G. Mankiw
4th Edition – South-Western
Hopefully, I will do some work on this in the near future, particularly as some of my classmates volunteered that they had begun reading over a month ago. I guess this demonstrates how motivated some of my classmates are and how the forced curve class performance indicator could make life interesting.
Sunday, 18 November 2007
Saturday, 10 November 2007
Top 5 Films
Over a meal last week some friends and I were discussing what we thought were the best films we had ever seen.
Clearly given our age profile a lot of "classic" films were missing. For example, Citizen Kane (directed by and starring Orson Welles) is often rated as the best film ever made, but none of us had seen this and so it was ignored. With the exception of one film, all the films were from the 70s onwards and we tried to judge the films on our enjoyment as well as the acting/direction etc...
I am happy to confirm that no methodology or framework was applied - this was nothing more than a few friends spouting bilge over a long meal. Furthermore, none of us would claim to be film aficionados and so you could argue (quite correctly) that we were talking uninformed rubbish. And, as is always the way, we couldn't agree on any order, although we did agree that there were two films we all though should be in the top 5.
So without further ado my top 5 films:
1) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
This film starred Gregory Peck and is the adaptation of the book on racism in the Southern USA by the American author Harper Lee. The film is quite simply brilliant, one of the few book adaptions to do justice to the original book.
http://www.filmsite.org/toki.html
2) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
This film stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and is also an adaption of a book. Its about a man's wrongful conviction for murder and how he survives prison. Most of you have probably heard of this film, as, although it was not successful on its cinema release, its reputation has grown over the years. A film I have seen many times and each time it gets better.
http://www.filmsite.org/shaw.html
3) The Godfather (1972)
Francis Ford Coppola directing, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino starring and a great book by Mario Puzo. The other two parts are also superb and I cannot think of anything that I can write that has not been written before, so enough said.
4) Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back (1977-1983)
Perhaps a surprise but I remember watching this as a child (in fact all three of the original films) and just being amazed and transfixed by the film. You could argue about the dialogue and the complexity of the plot but the scene when the the link between Vader and Luke is revealed is pretty amazing. Also the special effects stand up almost 30 year later demonstrates how amazing these films were.
5) Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
Having been a fan of the books I never thought that a film could do the books justice - how wrong I was. The vastness of Tolkien's world is communicated beautifully, and the acting and directing, together with the special effects, make this a brilliant set of films. Again films you can always watch again.
The key to the above film selection is that they all left a lasting impression on me (and my friends) and we would happily watch them again. Obviously, there are lots of other films that were considered e.g. Terminator 2, Pulp Fiction.
Also there are personal favourites, purely because you can enjoy a couple of hours of watching them and be entertained e.g. Back to the Future (the entire trilogy is a lot of fun), Indiana Jones (the trilogy), Ocean's Eleven (the recent one). Perhaps not the most critically lauded films but still a lot of fun.
So what about your top 5?
Clearly given our age profile a lot of "classic" films were missing. For example, Citizen Kane (directed by and starring Orson Welles) is often rated as the best film ever made, but none of us had seen this and so it was ignored. With the exception of one film, all the films were from the 70s onwards and we tried to judge the films on our enjoyment as well as the acting/direction etc...
I am happy to confirm that no methodology or framework was applied - this was nothing more than a few friends spouting bilge over a long meal. Furthermore, none of us would claim to be film aficionados and so you could argue (quite correctly) that we were talking uninformed rubbish. And, as is always the way, we couldn't agree on any order, although we did agree that there were two films we all though should be in the top 5.
So without further ado my top 5 films:
1) To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
This film starred Gregory Peck and is the adaptation of the book on racism in the Southern USA by the American author Harper Lee. The film is quite simply brilliant, one of the few book adaptions to do justice to the original book.
http://www.filmsite.org/toki.html
2) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
This film stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman and is also an adaption of a book. Its about a man's wrongful conviction for murder and how he survives prison. Most of you have probably heard of this film, as, although it was not successful on its cinema release, its reputation has grown over the years. A film I have seen many times and each time it gets better.
http://www.filmsite.org/shaw.html
3) The Godfather (1972)
Francis Ford Coppola directing, Marlon Brando and Al Pacino starring and a great book by Mario Puzo. The other two parts are also superb and I cannot think of anything that I can write that has not been written before, so enough said.
4) Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back (1977-1983)
Perhaps a surprise but I remember watching this as a child (in fact all three of the original films) and just being amazed and transfixed by the film. You could argue about the dialogue and the complexity of the plot but the scene when the the link between Vader and Luke is revealed is pretty amazing. Also the special effects stand up almost 30 year later demonstrates how amazing these films were.
5) Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
Having been a fan of the books I never thought that a film could do the books justice - how wrong I was. The vastness of Tolkien's world is communicated beautifully, and the acting and directing, together with the special effects, make this a brilliant set of films. Again films you can always watch again.
The key to the above film selection is that they all left a lasting impression on me (and my friends) and we would happily watch them again. Obviously, there are lots of other films that were considered e.g. Terminator 2, Pulp Fiction.
Also there are personal favourites, purely because you can enjoy a couple of hours of watching them and be entertained e.g. Back to the Future (the entire trilogy is a lot of fun), Indiana Jones (the trilogy), Ocean's Eleven (the recent one). Perhaps not the most critically lauded films but still a lot of fun.
So what about your top 5?
Winds of Change
As some of you will know my fellow blogger Nomad (aka Youseff) has just given up his place at INSEAD because of an opportunity at a start-up in California.
This change demonstrates how quickly your life can change direction. One minute preparations for a move to France,with the attendant hassle of raising finance and then suddenly you are off to misty San Fransisco, to join a new enterprise. Given the effort required to get in to INSEAD, the business must be really amazing and I hope it goes really well for Youseff.
However, this means that some lucky person may be coming off the waitlist and joining the rest of us - although they now have a manic 2 months to sort out a whole welter of tasks. Good luck if you are the chosen one, as the rest of us have found it difficult to get the tasks done even with an additional 2 months.
Oh and welcome to the club.
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change
Scorpions (1989)
This change demonstrates how quickly your life can change direction. One minute preparations for a move to France,with the attendant hassle of raising finance and then suddenly you are off to misty San Fransisco, to join a new enterprise. Given the effort required to get in to INSEAD, the business must be really amazing and I hope it goes really well for Youseff.
However, this means that some lucky person may be coming off the waitlist and joining the rest of us - although they now have a manic 2 months to sort out a whole welter of tasks. Good luck if you are the chosen one, as the rest of us have found it difficult to get the tasks done even with an additional 2 months.
Oh and welcome to the club.
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change
Scorpions (1989)
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Evelasting Regrets - addendum
This post by Wim (link http://wimdebruyne.blogspot.com/2007/10/very-sad-news.html ) confirms the sad news I mentioned below.
My deepest condolences to their family and friends.
My deepest condolences to their family and friends.
Everlasting Regrets
Unfortunately (that word seems so inadequate) its seems that there has been a death at INSEAD. I hope I'm wrong but both Necromonger and Strawberry Tints have intimated this in their recent posts.
Even though its no-one I know, I found myself strangely effected by the posts. Why? Well, I guess it was partly picking up on the emotion conveyed in the blog entries. But partly it was a feeling of regret that a dream has finished and that a person's potential was never fully explored. And perhaps, selfishly, its a case of "there, but for the grace of God, go I".
I assume that most of those reading this are applying to, have applied to or are attending INSEAD. There are plenty of blog entries on the work/dedication required to get in and our motivations for applying/joining. With so many aspirations, you could argue that its optimism gone mad and unrealistic expectations; but I would argue this is what makes applying and getting in so good - to look forward with a smile at an infinite set of possibilities; to know that you can do anything; to meet people and explore your own boundaries and hopefully break through the self imposed inhibitions/fears that you never realised were there.
I'm lucky, I'm in P0, I am getting a chance to "live the dream"(hopefully). And that is where the sadness seeps in. One person also had this dream and grasped the opportunity, and yet, before they could fulfill their dreams, they were gone.
When someone "departs" who has had a long and fulfilling life, the regrets are tinged with the recognition that they may have fulfilled their dreams, they lived a long and full life. The tragedy of "early" deaths is that so many aspirations go unfulfilled, so many lives remain untouched and so much potential for good is lost.
Tragedy is possibly one of the most abused words in the English language. Too often events relating to entertainment, sport etc... are classified as tragedies. However, a true tragedy is the death of someone, whether child or adult, "before" their time.
As Necromonger so eloquently puts it:
October 29, 2007
In memoriam
Of a dearest friend. A wonderful human being.A fellow participant in dreams, hopes and fears.Will always be missed. Forever.
Accipiter
Even though its no-one I know, I found myself strangely effected by the posts. Why? Well, I guess it was partly picking up on the emotion conveyed in the blog entries. But partly it was a feeling of regret that a dream has finished and that a person's potential was never fully explored. And perhaps, selfishly, its a case of "there, but for the grace of God, go I".
I assume that most of those reading this are applying to, have applied to or are attending INSEAD. There are plenty of blog entries on the work/dedication required to get in and our motivations for applying/joining. With so many aspirations, you could argue that its optimism gone mad and unrealistic expectations; but I would argue this is what makes applying and getting in so good - to look forward with a smile at an infinite set of possibilities; to know that you can do anything; to meet people and explore your own boundaries and hopefully break through the self imposed inhibitions/fears that you never realised were there.
I'm lucky, I'm in P0, I am getting a chance to "live the dream"(hopefully). And that is where the sadness seeps in. One person also had this dream and grasped the opportunity, and yet, before they could fulfill their dreams, they were gone.
When someone "departs" who has had a long and fulfilling life, the regrets are tinged with the recognition that they may have fulfilled their dreams, they lived a long and full life. The tragedy of "early" deaths is that so many aspirations go unfulfilled, so many lives remain untouched and so much potential for good is lost.
Tragedy is possibly one of the most abused words in the English language. Too often events relating to entertainment, sport etc... are classified as tragedies. However, a true tragedy is the death of someone, whether child or adult, "before" their time.
As Necromonger so eloquently puts it:
October 29, 2007
In memoriam
Of a dearest friend. A wonderful human being.A fellow participant in dreams, hopes and fears.Will always be missed. Forever.
Accipiter
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