11/10/06(13h10)- to be quite honest, i cant believe that its almost been a month since the last time ive updated. its hard to imagine that my first midterms are already here next week, but alas, this is so.

the past month has been rather interesting and ive been getting rather acclimated to the new environment. three weeks ago was rosh hashanah, so i took the train home. my grandfather was also east from tuscon for the two weeks, so he picked me up from the train station in new haven. on the way back we stopped at glenwood drive-in so that he could get the lobster roll he so famously loves. continuing along, we stopped into the bank so i could see everyone again. unfortunately it was also a friday afternoon and so everyone was rather busy. the next day we went to services in the morning and then in the late afternoon we went down to fran and daves for dinner. following that, my parents took me down to monroe to stay over at judis. sunday morning i went to services with judi and her parents. on monday morning, her parents took me to the train station and i got on the same train as my grandfather. we met up at grand central and then he stayed over for the evening. it was rather eventful as i took him everywhere from flushing all the way out to campus. i had a class in the evening so he stayed at barnes and noble and then we went home. tuesday we went to get some breakfast at spiros coffee shop and then lunch at ben’s deli in manhattan. went to bryant park and played a game of checkers (before realizing that you had to pay because the sign wasnt up yet) and dropped him back off at the train station before class.

two weeks ago, i went to the nokia theatre with judi to see sound tribe sector 9. was a pretty good show, similar to most of the other jam shows ive been to, but i hadnt been to a concert in quite a while, so it was a nice theatre to go to.

the next day was kol nidre and judi had to go back to monroe so i went into midtown near astor place and went to pommes frites for a poutine and also i had a pizza and started before the fast. i decided to go to nyu for kol nidre services, but going by myself was rather boring, so i left about 20 minutes early. for yom kippur services on monday, seth picked me up and we went into flushing to go to services at his and david’s synagogue. we left sometime in the middle of musaf and were bad atoners, detouring along the path home to go see school for scoundrels.

this past weekend ended up being a lot of fun. unfortunately judi’s stay in the city was rather abbreviated, but on saturday i met her after class and we went to see michel gondry’s “science of sleep” at the theatre by lincoln centre. its been a while since ive seen any flicks of arthouse filmography, but the movie ended up being really complex and frustratingly difficult to discern reality from dream state. it was well done though and the cinematography at times reminded me of peter gabriel’s “sledgehammer” video. gael gabriel bernard definitely shows talent in whatever language he ends up speaking. from there we met seth, david, zoya, and kristin, jess, and lesley (from 123 prince arthur) and yin were in town, and went to a korean barbecue on 32nd and 6th. went to a swiss bar with david afterward (gdaast) but were then pooped and left to go home.

on sunday, seth and andrea hosted a canadian thanksgiving at my place and we ended up with about 15 people coming over for turkey and the fixings. took most of the day with cooking the 22lb turkey, but went successfully. judi ended up having to leave early, but people were over til around 11ish and then went home. im working on putting up some of the pictures that david took.

now that ive effectively gotten myself all caught up with that, my classes have been going well and ive been really enjoying them, particularly organizational behaviour, marketing, and stats. ive noticed though a conservative leaning in some of the text material, particularly in the economics book which is written by president bush’s former chairman of the president’s council of economic advisors. fortunately ive been trying to distance myself from some of the subjective ideology in the texts by taking a more liberal stance in the work that i do. for instance, it is easy to look at the trade imbalance between china and the us from a conservative stance, however i think that fiscal policy in both countries has directly created this imbalance. business is ruled too much by conservatives who rule on the basis of wealth and profits, rather than satisfying the social obligation of redirecting that wealth. too often capitalists look at adam smith’s wealth of nations in stating the idea of a free market under the direction of the “invisible hand.” the concept is taken out of context with the next part that outlines social responsibility.

i recently stumbled on a site that is looking for young people who are looking to be business leaders but are doing so with a focus of CSR in mind. in that same breath, im also reading in the financial times on how many business schools are starting to formally incorporate CSR-based majors or concentrations or institutes of CSR studies. as such, ive decided to write my own masters thesis on CSR, sustainable business, and its effects on multinational advertising. if i truly am to become the change from within, to not compromise my own ideals, i need to show some proof that ive done some advance studies in that field and incorporate the aspects of business that i learn with the aspects that i research on my own. it is not merely enough that i get a formal business education, but that i also take stock in the ideals that are important to me.

that said, ive also found another company i might like to work with in international brand development. illy caffé is based in trieste, italy. its north american headquarters are in rye brook, ny. their brand positioning is completely different than starbucks, they even use the arabica coffee bean as opposed to starbucks, who uses the robusta bean (the difference largely being in the crema on top of the espresso, but im really getting into my coffee here). illy focuses more on drink, while starbucks focuses more on the coffee bean. however, like starbucks, illy also has an express interest in corporate social responsibility and sustainable business. so i started to ask seth why i was so interested in getting into the coffee business. and i think we figured it out- i truly see the coffee house as the place between work and home (or school and home). for me, that is my third place and i do spend a lot of time there, even if im only nursing one drink for 2 hours. the result makes sense that i would want to be involved with it (not that im still ruling out the possiblity of working for a place like google or goldman sachs or some independent music label like sub pop or domino/xl or matador records). however, illy caffe even has its own university of coffee, which i think is really neat, really interesting, and ties into corporate universities that have been discussed in organizational behaviour.

with that in mind, it gives me another place to consider working for. and with that, my laundry is almost done and its time to start folding so i can go home…