SFMOMA

Much like wine, one's appreciation for art seems to improve with age. Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (more commonly known as SFMOMA). After queing for about 20 minutes, and paying the moderately steep entry fee of US$9, I wandered in amazement around this fairly large collection of modern art. There were the token single colour paintings with titles like 'Expression of Red" or "Yes, it's just blue paint on canvas!", but there were also plenty of interesting photographs, collages, paintings, and strangely shaped objects. I was able to see originals by Mondrian, Picasso, and Dali. Fantastic!! (and New York is still to come).

Metreon - the shrine to Sony

Awesome. Metreon is located in downtown San Francisco. It's essentially a shrine to everything Sony. There's an IMAX theatre as well as a regular cinema. There's a 'Sony Style' shop with all the latest Sony gadgets and big-screen TVs. There's also a huge shop purely dedicated to Playstation (although they were out of Playstation 2 consoles). Restuarants, cafes, and a few other non-Sony shops as well. This place rocks.

San Francisco

Woo hoo! Just arrived in San Fran. The hostel I'm staying in is a bit of a dive, but it'll suffice. First impressions of San Fran (I've only been here 6 hours) - I like this place. The people are friendly, the city has trams, there's heaps of historical culture, and the coffee in good. In some ways the city reminds me of Sydney. I'll be here for a week - more detailed updates over the new few days.


I had an extra day in Palm Springs at the end of the conference, and used the opportunity to take a ride on the Aerial Tramway. It's essentially a big carriage that gets carried up from the desert floor to the mountain range on a cable. The view is absolutely fantastic, and it's made even better by the fact that the floor of the tram rotates as the journey progresses. Stark contrast - at the bottom of the ride you're in the desert, and it's about 25 degrees. At the top of the ride you're in the mountains and it's almost zero and snowing. Cool.

Get your MBA online!

Jones International University is "the first fully online accredited university". Their MBA program looks to be fairly well structured, and I'm sure they'll do reasonably well, but personally, I really value the face-to-face and group discussion component of tertiary education. Online learning has it's place, but I'd rather spend $700 on a collection of good textbooks than pay for the right to put a couple of assignments together based on some assigned reading. For management and business education, I really feel that their is no alternative to the classroom - that's where the value is, that's why people pay upwards of US$50,000 to get their MBA education at a top-flight b-school.

Border Grill - Santa Monica

Went to an awesome Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica last night called Border Grill - tequilas a plenty. Also checked out the J. Paul Getty Museum - most impressive (and it's free!). Change of scene now - I'm in Palm Springs for a FileNET conference. Back on the road later this week.

Too much smog in LA - don't think I'd want to live here for two years

MBA Forum @ Westin Bonaventure hotel

Attended the MBA Forum this evening hoping to narrow down my b-school long-list by talking to some of the admissions staff and graduates. Instead I now have an additional b-school on my list that I want to research further and possibly visit - Babson College in Massachusetts. It's a reasonably small school (about 150 full-time students per year) with a program that's very strong in entrepreneurship. I was also amazed at the number of universities that are out there competing for those MBA student dollars. There were over 120 b-schools represented at the forum in Los Angeles this evening.

Kinkos to the rescue

Woo hoo! My craving for internet connectivity has been resolved. Kinkos in Santa Monica have proper PCs with internet connectivity and 17" Sony monitors for 20c/min.

I'm creating this post from a free internet machine on campus at UCLA. Spent the entire day here, walking around, checking out the buildings, getting a general feel for the place. I also attended a class on Strategy in the Digital Economy at the b-school (Anderson). Getting access to the internet has been fairly eratic, so don't expect me to be posting every day.
Anderson seems to be a fairly decent school. The course content is very fresh, and the students are very knowledgable and experienced. I'm still only rating it as a maybe though, as I'm not a big fan of the city of LA (too much smog ;-)

1 day to go

This time tomorrow, I'll be at the airport about to depart for my 14-hour flight to Los Angeles. This trip has been over a year in the making, and the day has finally arrived. I'm all packed and ready to go. And surprise, surprise - the Aussie dollar has just bottomed out at an all time low of around US 52.5c.

I've set myself up with web access to all the key services I need - email, finances, blogger, bookmarks (go blink!), instant messaging, and file management. I'm not taking a laptop with me, so I'll be relying completely on internet cafes and web terminals for my connection to the rest of the world.
First destination - Santa Monica!

Business Week B-Schools

Business Week Online have a vast array of content regarding US b-schools and the application process. Definitely recommended reading. I especially like the MBA Journals section - some interesting advice there for the long application process I'll be going through next year.

Discover the "Daniels Difference"

Ever since I signed up for the MBA Forum in Los Angeles next week, I've been receiving emails from universities all over the world, trying desparately to promote themselves as alternatives to the big name b-schools. Here's the latest one, from the University of Denver!

The University of Denver Daniels College of Business is the premier business school in the Rocky Mountain Region, offering an integrated curriculum, values-based leadership, and a technologically advanced business school. Furthermore, as one of the nation's strongest urban economies, Denver is the headquarters for several Fortune 500 companies and internationally-based companies. We offer an array of full-time and part-time programs to fit your professional goals.

The value of seeing televised sport live

Idiots! Channel 9 normally televise the Formula 1 Grand Prix events live. With the time difference between Australia and Europe, this means that the race usually starts around 11:00pm on a Sunday night. This afternoon, however, the Grand Prix is in Japan. Woo hoo! I thought - the race will be on at a reasonable hour (4:30pm), and I'll hopefully be able to see Schumacher take home the championship before dinner. But no, for some stupid reason - Channel 9 are showing 'The Neverending Story II' and some documentary about Loch Ness. The race isn't being shown until 11:35pm. Personally, I get much more value out of watching a sporting event as it happens. The whole delayed telecast thing just doesn't appeal to me. My solution - I'm 'watching' it on the internet. formula1.com have a popup window with blow-by-blow text descriptions of the race. Not quite the same, but at least there's no cigarette advertising ;-)

Long List

I've mentioned a few of them already, but here's the list of b-schools that I'm planning to visit in the US this year. Hopefully, after visiting the schools, I'll be able to narrow down this list to about 6 - 8 that suit my requirements, and I'll be able to start the application process later next year.

• Andersen (UCLA)
  
• Haas (UC, Berkeley)
  
• Stanford
  
• Chicago
  
• Kellogg (Northwestern University)
  
• Michigan
  
• Harvard
  
• Sloan (MIT)
  
• Stern (NYU)
  
• Columbia
  
• Wharton (UPenn)
  
• Texas
  

Millers Storage Group

Quick plug for Millers. I've been using their boxes to packup all the things in my apartment. Their storage centre in Pyrmont (Ultimo) stands out like a sore thumb, thanks to its size and the overuse of bright orange in their colour scheme.

8 days to go

My trip to the US is creeping up on me very quickly, but I'm fairly certain I'm going to be ready for it. Even though I may have only started this weblog two weeks before my departure, this trip has actually been in the planning stages for at least 12 months. At the same time though, I've been involved in a couple of projects at work which have involved heaps of interstate travel. So, it's been difficult to get excited about an upcoming 'road trip' when you're on the road 50% of the time already. In 1999 I clocked up 56 flights, a personal record. So far in 2000, I've 'only' made 36 flights. I have at least 15 flights booked for my US trip, so again, it looks like I'll exceed 50 flights in a year.

Fortunately, I'm spending my final two weeks at home in Sydney. This has given me time to get my life in order, pack up most of the things in my house, and catch up with my friends one last time while I can still call myself a Sydneysider. When I get back from the US, I'm planning to move to Melbourne (same company, same job, just based in a different location). The last time I moved interstate was eight years ago, when I 'left home' in Darwin, and moved to Sydney for university. I had about two boxes of clothes and books that time, and the move was relatively painless (logistically). Eight years of personal growth and junk accumulation, and I now have about 15 - 20 boxes of 'things' plus half a household of furniture.

Change of plans - I'm no longer going to San Diego. Unfortunately the friend I was going to stay with will be out of town, so I get to spend a few extra days in Los Angeles instead. Turns out one of my best mates from Sydney will be in LA at the same time, so I'm looking forward to a big weekend. One of my colleagues at work has suggested I add Seattle to my itinerary. I originally had Seattle on my itinerary, but I had to remove it to make way for Chicago. The thought of a bottomless cup of coffee at the home of Starbucks is tempting though...

San Francisco Jazz Festival - Turns out I'm going to be in San Fran during their annual Jazz Festival. Cool. Better hurry up and book my accommodation ;-)

Contact details while I'm away
I'll be regularly checking both my Com Tech email address and my hotmail address, so please continue to use what you're used to. I'll also be logging on fairly regularly to AOL IM - my screenname is "adrianhind". At this stage, I'm unlikely to have a telephone number or access to SMS. Damn American mobile networks aren't all that compatible with the rest of the world.

For a b-school that is supposed to be heavily focussed on Marketing curriculum, Kellogg's web site could probably afford a bit of a makeover.

Chicago GSB is also on my list of potential b-schools, but in all honesty, I've had difficultly judging this one. I've never actually visited Chicago, and I've chosen a fairly cold time of the year (November) for my b-school visit, so I'm hoping my impression of the weather won't get in the way of my analysis of this supposedly well-respected b-school.

New MBA Class Comes from 266 Firms and 32 Countries
"Bearing passports from 32 different countries and job experience with 266 different organizations, the Stanford MBA Class of 2002 settles down to the books Sept. 27"
Stanford is one of the top b-schools in the world, located in the beautiful city of San Francisco. It is also one of the most difficult schools to get into, with roughly 5% of applications being successful.

Anderson @ UCLA - planning to visit on October 17th. This one isn't high on my list at the moment. I'm not sure if I'd really want to live in Los Angeles for two years, but it's worth checking out nonetheless.

Sloan cuts the connection
One of my favourite b-schools, MIT Sloan, has implemented a wireless network for all student laptops on campus. Very impressive.

Itinerary
Planning two months in another country is never an easy task, especially when you've got heaps of different places you want to visit and events on particular days in certain cities that you want to attend. My itinerary for USA 2000 has been through at least nine major overhauls. With 15 days until I leave, it's reasonably fixed now, but since I have not yet had my plane tickets printed, it's highly likely that it could still change slightly.

My basic itinerary is as follows:
Sydney -> Los Angeles -> Palm Springs -> San Diego -> San Francisco -> Chicago -> Ann Arbor -> Boston -> New York -> Philadelphia -> Washington DC -> Orlando -> Miami -> Austin -> Denver -> San Francisco -> Sydney.

Let the journey begin. In just over two weeks time, I'll be leaving my overly excited Olympic home town of Sydney for the thrills and chills of the USA. For roughly two months I'll be travelling around the USA by plane, train, and automobile seeking out potential business schools for study in a few years time. I'm also planning to take in a shuttle launch, attending a conference in Palm Springs, do plenty of sightseeing, and visit friends in Boston, San Diego, and possibly San Francisco.