Taylor’s Blog

So I am going to Curitiba, Brazil with the Business School in October.. I had to go to a meeting about
the trip the day after the first summer session ended.. The importance of this date is that I am not enrolled in the second summer session and I therefore
I didn’t pay the student health fee for the second summer session.. My school mandated health insurance also lapsed on July 1st, at least I think that’s
when it ran out, it was really poorly administered but that’s not really the point..

For some inane reason the school wants to have our blood
type on file when we travel abroad.. I am 99.9% sure if you are in an accident and you need blood in any country that has access to a blood supply they
will give you O blood (universal) or type your blood if they can wait the few minutes for a test.. Either way it seems stupid for the school to care..

So I called my parents.. They couldn’t find my type anywhere.. I called Rex cause I went there a few years ago.. They didn’t seem to have it on
file.. It seemed the only options I had left were to get a blood test.. My childhood doctor said that if I wanted to find out I could always give blood..
Sure enough I called the Red Cross and they said 3-4 days after I give I could call up sign a HIPAA release form and get my type and a whole bunch of
other test results.. I figured that was my best free option.. The school wanted $80 to type my blood.. $50 cause I was not enrolled in the second summer
session, and the $32 for the lab work.. If I was enrolled It would have been 1/2 price lab work and no appointment fee ($16)..

Sheila and I
headed to the Red Cross.. First was the crazy screening process.. I don’t know how many questions I had to answer about being with hookers, needle drugs,
being with a man, etc but eventually they decided my blood was OK to give.. Seems the red cross hates Africa, gay men, and lots of other groups.. The
Greensboro Red Cross had run out of testing viles so we had to wait about an hour to get drained while more were driven in from High Point.. Finally the
moment came.. I was a tad nervous, but I think I was fine.. So the nurse started with Sheila first.. Sheila’s blood was draining into the sac just fine..
The nurse kept talking about how she couldn’t wait to get home cause her favorite show was on tonight.. Tila Tequila.. She washed the area with iodine and
did all the routine stuff.. When it came time to actually stick me I looked away as I usually do.. There was a pinch and then there was this pain that I
didn’t remember needles giving.. I looked over and there was a blue bubble around the injection site about 2 inches around.. My nurse called over the head
nurse and she said “Oooo.. Your gonna have quite a nice bruise there” took the needle out and told me how to ice the area.. They told me I was done, and
that I couldn’t come back for 56 days (8 weeks)..

Turns out they poked into my vein and then through the back side.. So much like drinking
through a straw with 2 holes it didn’t work.. In the end I ended up paying $80 dollars to find out my blood type at UNCG.. The lab tech at the UNCG place
told me that he has had to type many students blood for going overseas and he said it “must be some orwellian insurance requirement from 1902″ amongst
other things.. We laughed.. I paid my $80 and went on my way..

So now my left arm looks like this.. If you see me around for the next 2 weeks
I really didn’t give needle drugs a whirl.. I swear..

In the end I still had to pay $80.. Thanks
UNCG for letting me know as soon as possible about your stupid requirement..

Turns out I am A positive.. The second most common in the USA..

Well it appears that the House has passed a 15 Billion USD blll for funding Amtrak again.. Most people
will likely think it’s a waste of more money.. I am so tired of the general consensus on Amtrak being a waste of money.. They are under-funded and have to
lease the right of way from freight lines.. Because of this Amtrak has been doomed to fail with every bill. This one is proposing privatization for parts
of the DC to NY stretch, which sounds like a Disaster since the NE corridor is the only part of Amtrak worth a shit..

I am a big proponent of the
train, I take it a few times a year to see my parents in Charlotte; I must add that the train service in NC is heavily funded by NC itself not the federal
government.. In light of rising cost of oil when will America realize that the cost of moving ANYTHING be it freight or people on the rails is FAR cheaper
than any other mode.. I can’t find the exact statistics I am looking for now, but the energy per passenger mile shows the train being the closely tied
with the motorcycle at around 2100BTU/mile. Next is the bus, car and plane all closely tied for the other places at around 3500-4000 BTU/Mile. You can
see the stats yourself here or look for your own, I feel like the freight costs are even lower and more greatly separated. Beauru of Transportation Statistics.

Public transport rarely is a profitable business, yet most opponents of Amtrak say that it is not profitable
and is therefore a waste.. When did the DOT say that the “roads were making money?”, we have massive road taxes and road budgets because the roads are not
self sufficient. With the talk of toll roads in NC does that not weaken the argument that the train has to be self sufficient?

I think in
America there is a desire for rail service that is usable. Amtrak is seen as a lame duck to most Americans.. Why?

• It’s always late
  - If Amtrak were to own their own tracks, or were given higher priority on the rails this issue could be resolved
• It doesn’t go where I
  want – Amtrak has been forced to close many routes because they were not able to maintain the tracks to passenger safety standards. See there are
  different standards for Class I railroads, one for passengers and a lower standard for freight. If Amtrak has to lease rails from other companies that
  are only interested in moving freight you can see where the issue lies.. That is why there are major cities across America with no Amtrak service
  anymore.. Louisville and Phoenix come to mind off the top of my head.
• The schedule sucks – I always have said this. No one will take
  a train from the Carolinas to New Orleans if you have to leave at midnight. The scheduling issue is really one of money. The only trains in NC are in
  the morning or the evening, nothing mid-day. I am sure it is a less profitable time, but it still should be available. The only place outside the North
  East Corridor that I have seen good schedules is Oregon/Washington State. Might I add that these routes are heavily funded by the two
  states.

That being said there are some initiatives in NC to make service better. They are looking at High Speed Rail from DC to
Atlanta (which was the original plan for Acela, but we wanted to spend our money on wars instead), service to Asheville through Charlotte Greensboro, and
also studies into service to Wilmington from Raleigh or possibly via Fayetteville. I can dream that this country will decide to sink some money into rail
transport.

With the amount of money our country spends on presidential campaigns, killing people in foreign countries for oil, and who knows what
else can’t we please let this 15 billion dollar bill go all the way? It may not be perfect but 15 billion could go a long way.. Please? Pretty Please?

So I am sort of an apple nerd.. Sure it’s one of the many things that white people like.. Blah Blah..
My professor for marketing said i was an “Applehead”.. Whatever.. There were technical reasons why I purchased my first mac.. It really wasn’t their sleek
design that won me over.. I also felt like there would be good customer service and that helped justify to me the added cost of buying an Apple over say a
Dell, IBM, etc.. I never had any reason to contact customer service on any of my apple products until today.. I bought a MacBook about a year and a half
ago cause I needed a new laptop that would run stupid windows shit for school.. About 2-3 weeks ago I noticed this really odd crack in the case.. If you
search the internet for “macbook crack” you will find there are tons of users with the same complaint.. So I drove to Durham today for my 11:00
appointment with the guy at the “genius bar”.. It’s a bit arrogant of a name, but whatever..

The guy takes one look and says “yeah we’ll fix that
for free.. I know it’s out of warranty but it’s not supposed to do that..” They didn’t even try to scold me for not buying the rip off apple care
package.. So they took my laptop that is over 6 months out warranty in, will have it fixed in a week or less and fedex it to my house for free.. How
about that for customer service? Sure it was a design flaw, but but apple is repairing this issue for free like a good company does.. I feel like the
extra 150-200 bucks I spent for my laptop over others of similar specs was worth it.. Most other laptops I’ve had before have been built far worse than my
Apples.. I know that sounds like an advertisement and maybe it is.. It’s just nice to write about something positive for a change not just vent about
irritating things..

So it’s happened twice now since I have been in the MBA program here at UNCG.. I’m talking about
cheating at school.. So the first time we were taking a closed book closed notes test and there was a girl behind me making a bunch of noise so I turned
around to see what she was doing and she had a piece of paper in her lap she was frantically looking over.. I was pissed but said nothing.. No one likes a
rat.. I don’t even remember what class it was in, but I was sorta shocked and pissed..

So today I have an open note but closed book exam in my
International something or other class.. I already don’t like this class; it’s really boring and it’s during the day and the daytime program kids are
really young and naive.. They have never had a professional job most likely, are fresh from undergrad and are very idealistic.. I think they all expect
that an MBA will get them a 100k/year+ cushy job at a hedge fund complete with access to the corporate jet as well as a company limo and driver.. OK so
maybe they aren’t that naive but it’s obvious they aren’t jaded by even looking for a “career” yet..

So back this exam.. I didn’t do a bang up job
preparing I mostly printed out my notes and all the powerpoint (blech) and that’s about it.. I should have printed out more information about the country
I was assigned, but I have clearly gotten off track here.. So I sit on the back row from these kids who already have alienated me because I am not part of
their facebook clique and am 8 or so years older than them.. Before the test one of the girls asks the professor “Can we share notes?” and he replies “No
they are your notes not everyone else’s notes”.. So I am taking the test and sorta pissed at the material that is on there.. So in front of me I see
everyone on the third row exchanging papers back and forth and sharing notes.. One of the kids even wrote notes on someone else’s notes…

WHAT
THE FUCK!

What the hell are you supposed to do? Let it slide? Be the moral person and rat them out.. There is no cheater reporting protection
program.. I could be also a bit pissed that I missed some questions cause my notes weren’t on the right stuff, but if I had cheated I would clearly been
able to get the answer..

Maybe that’s what business school is about.. I think the GMAT is setup to show business acumen based on the fact it
costs almost 2x the GRE.. Maybe if you make it though an MBA program and cheat to do it it prepares you for all the rat bastard snakes in corporate
America?

I am ready for a fucking beer or ten..

I have tried to watch the latest 3 episodes of the Sarah Silverman Program.. I have made it through 1
complete episode, and the last two I just stopped watching.. Who the hell thinks she is funny.. I do love satire, and making fun of social issues can be
fun.. Chris Rock and Dave Chapelle can take some racist shit and make you laugh your ass off.. Now Sarah on the other hand thinks that playing some sort
of dumb bimbo character being oblivious to the issue she is targeting is going to be funny.. The first episode I watched she takes on abortion, and then
makes it seem like its a complete joke by having some joking relationship with her abortion doctor.. How can anyone act like having an abortion is a
laughing fun kinda thing.. She could have made fun of the right wing crazy church folks and it might have had a chance of being funny.. The next episode
she gets in trouble for licking her dogs ass? Come on.. The latest one she says she is being discriminated against because she is jewish and gets into a
“its’ harder to be a jew than a black man” argument with a black waiter..

I could also be tainted by the fact she was supposed to be the announcer
at the Sasquatch! festival out west and she showed up once about 3-4 hours late, made a joke about doing lines of coke in the bathroom which turned into a
lame joke about how women don’t shit.. Then she never showed up again for the next 2 days.. I sorta wonder if she was out back doing coke the whole time..
Anyway her show is garbage in my opinion and I’d like that 45 minutes of my life back..

Seriously does anyone find her funny? Do I not appreciate
her bimbo angle on satire?

So I have had this 15-25 page research paper hanging over my head for the last 5 weeks.. It is due
Wednesday at 630pm.. I have been working on it since Saturday (well earlier but I really started on Saturday).. I haven’t taken a shower today and have
been in the lab working since 1030am.. My back aches like hell from the crappy chairs here in the lab, I feel all hot and gross cause my back is sticking
to the back of this rotten chair.. Good news is I am not stressed about my paper.. It should be done by the time I have to go to class at 630 (2 hours-ish
from now), so tomorrow I can just proof it and print it out..

The concept of going back to work sounds so awesome now.. I forgot how fucking
tiring school can be sometimes.. Good thing is it’s dollar beer night at College Hill so I have something to look forward too.. It’s like my carrot on a
stick ; in my case it’s the Miller Lite on a stick..

I can be quite an arrogant asshole.. Sometimes I just can’t let shit go.. Sometimes I need to be
better at biting my tongue, smiling and saying thank you and hiding my true feelings and just be nice.. Letting someone who I don’t give a shit about know
I think they are an idiot does very little good..

I am being very counter productive in advancing my attempt at getting an MBA.. I have to pass
this marketing class with an A- or I am done for.. I suppose I might be able to pull some strings if I get a B or something, but I don’t want to do that,
and in all honesty given what I have seen at UNCG I don’t know if I will be able to pull any strings anyway..

Somehow I need to be able to just
answer the questions how she wants.. Not with what is right or my opinion.. I need to be a kiss-ass and well I don’t know how.. Normally being blunt and
rude doesn’t get my in trouble.. At work I never thought I was rude or a complete dick except for when it was warranted.. I always checked with others who
were around and asked “was that justified?”.. Most of the time the answer was a resounding “yes”, and I really don’t think my ass was getting kissed..

In this case it doesn’t matter I just have to kiss this professors ass.. I can’t stand her.. I can’t stand anything about her.. She is the polar
opposite of me.. She thinks marketing is the best shit in the world.. She stays up late on the weekend nights watching infomercials she is so into
marketing (She really said she does in class).. BUT I need to make her think that I worship the ground that she walks on, and that
marketing is the best shit ever.. At least until I get my grade..

So now more than ever I need to be a kiss ass.. I got a 90 on the first test,
which as awesome as that sounds seems to be a low grade for the class on the test (I saw a bunch of 100s being handed back).. A 90 is an A- so I am not
totally lost.. That also means that 25% of my grade is in, 25% of it is up to her (class participation), and well I have no room to screw up at all..

Come on Taylor.. Learn to kiss someones ass for just 2 weeks.. 2 weeks.. You can do it..

Apparently services can now be tangible.. At least in this bizzaro world that exists in my marketing
class.. I was pretty sure a service was something that was intangible, and a good was something that is tangible.. Go figure.. I guess Wikipedia and the
rest of the world are wrong..

I have this terrible habit of starting projects, and if I am not really really interested in them
never finishing them, or at least dragging ass for way too long to get them done.. I can hear my moms condescending rude voice now “You’re just like your
damn father”.. I tend to get a bunch of things going, loose interest, and then choose any excuse (anywhere from quite valid to completely pathetic) to not
finish them.. After enough of these projects get piled up I start to feel really shitty.. Like I can’t accomplish anything.. I am sure it’s true you are
your own worst critic.. Well I am back to feeling really shitty about a bunch of unfinished projects.. This summer I don’t know how many projects I
started.. The list is quite huge..

I am hoping if I make a list (apparently it’s a Scorpio thing or my ISTJ Myers Briggs type or some shit) I might
actually do something..

In an effort to accomplish things I am going to focus on a few things at a time, not 20.. I remember
at work they used to say that you can do 2-3 things really well, or if you do anymore you may never achieve anything and if you do then you will probably
do a shitty job at it..

My new goal is to set realistic goals and work on shit one day at a time.. Today for example I am going to do 4-5 hours of
reading for school and then spend 2 hours shoring up the rest of the loose plaster in the dining room.. Then I am going to make dinner, watch the netflix
movie I have waiting, and go to bed..

Monday.. Well i’ll set my goals for Monday tonight when I see how much more school work I have to
do..

Does anyone have any ideas of how to stay motivated/focused? It is really weighing on me and I don’t like being in a foul mood, especially
when it’s one that I have put myself in..

So today in my marketing class I learned:

• Bon Jovi was/is the lead singer of
  AC/DC..
• I purchased my truck as part of a physiological need (based on maslow’s hierarchy of needs).. A truck apparently is food or shelter..

I will be sure to share more new information as it becomes available.. I know you can’t wait..