How cold is your heart?

From Reddit:

Just about every time I see someone I stop. I kind of got out of the habit in the last couple of years, moved to a big city and all that, my girlfriend wasn't too stoked on the practice. Then some shit happened to me that changed me and I am back to offering rides habitually. If you would indulge me, it is long story and has almost nothing to do with hitch hiking other than happening on a road.

This past year I have had 3 instances of car trouble. A blow out on a freeway, a bunch of blown fuses and an out of gas situation. All of them were while driving other people's cars which, for some reason, makes it worse on an emotional level. It makes it worse on a practical level as well, what with the fact that I carry things like a jack and extra fuses in my car, and know enough not to park, facing downhill, on a steep incline with less than a gallon of fuel.

Anyway, each of these times this shit happened I was DISGUSTED with how people would not bother to help me. I spent hours on the side of the freeway waiting, watching roadside assistance vehicles blow past me, for AAA to show. The 4 gas stations I asked for a gas can at told me that they couldn't loan them out "for my safety" but I could buy a really shitty 1-gallon one with no cap for $15. It was enough, each time, to make you say shit like "this country is going to hell in a handbasket."

But you know who came to my rescue all three times? Immigrants. Mexican immigrants. None of them spoke a lick of the language. But one of those dudes had a profound affect on me.
He was the guy that stopped to help me with a blow out with his whole family of 6 in tow. I was on the side of the road for close to 4 hours. Big jeep, blown rear tire, had a spare but no jack. I had signs in the windows of the car, big signs that said NEED A JACK and offered money. No dice. Right as I am about to give up and just hitch out there a van pulls over and dude bounds out. He sizes the situation up and calls for his youngest daughter who speaks english. He conveys through her that he has a jack but it is too small for the Jeep so we will need to brace it. He produces a saw from the van and cuts a log out of a downed tree on the side of the road. We rolled it over, put his jack on top, and bam, in business. I start taking the wheel off and, if you can believe it, I broke his tire iron. It was one of those collapsible ones and I wasn't careful and I snapped the head I needed clean off. Fuck.

No worries, he runs to the van, gives it to his wife and she is gone in a flash, down the road to buy a tire iron. She is back in 15 minutes, we finish the job with a little sweat and cussing (stupid log was starting to give), and I am a very happy man. We are both filthy and sweaty. The wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands in. I tried to put a 20 in the man's hand but he wouldn't take it so I instead gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I thanked them up one side and down the other. I asked the little girl where they lived, thinking maybe I could send them a gift for being so awesome. She says they live in Mexico. They are here so mommy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks. After that they are going to pick cherries then go back home. She asks if I have had lunch and when I told her no she gave me a tamale from their cooler, the best fucking tamale I have ever had.

So, to clarify, a family that is undoubtedly poorer than you, me, and just about everyone else on that stretch of road, working on a seasonal basis where time is money, took an hour or two out of their day to help some strange dude on the side of the road when people in tow trucks were just passing me by. Wow...

But we aren't done yet. I thank them again and walk back to my car and open the foil on the tamale cause I am starving at this point and what do I find inside? My fucking $20 bill! I whirl around and run up to the van and the guy rolls his window down. He sees the $20 in my hand and just shaking his head no like he won't take it. All I can think to say is "Por Favor, Por Favor, Por Favor" with my hands out. Dude just smiles, shakes his head and, with what looked like great concentration, tried his hardest to speak to me in English:
"Today you.... tomorrow me."

Rolled up his window, drove away, his daughter waving to me in the rear view. I sat in my car eating the best fucking tamale of all time and I just cried. Like a little girl. It has been a rough year and nothing has broke my way. This was so out of left field I just couldn't deal.
In the 5 months since I have changed a couple of tires, given a few rides to gas stations and, once, went 50 miles out of my way to get a girl to an airport. I won't accept money. Every time I tell them the same thing when we are through:
"Today you.... tomorrow me."

I'm busy with crap so here you go.

Google's 2010 Year in Review

Mental note for when I trip

LOLz

Sometimes I wonder...

I question my thought process sometimes. Maybe LA isn't such a bad place after all.

And where I will be starting January 3rd for my winter exchange.

I really need to shove this into my face whenever I think "hey City X sounds pretty good"

Guess I'm not attractive enough

So the assessment center I attended for Bank X told us that we'd hear back from them by Wednesday the 24th. 5 out of the 7 ESADE students got "thanks but no thanks" emails Wednesday night. Myself and one other classmate had to wait another two agonizing days to find out that we didn't make it through either. 

Kinda irked by being put in this 2nd wave of rejections. Maybe it was my fault but I had a bit of hope in getting an offer after surviving the first wave. This was because they told us that the latest they'd get back to us was Wednesday. If they were gonna reject me, why not do it on Wednesday with the rest of my classmates? I already know the answer to this because the 2nd wave classmate and I were probably right on the cusp and they had to deliberate some more before we got definitive "no's". Whatever. Their loss. 

On the bright side, I love my friends from ESADE and from back home who have been so supportive. I'm truly blessed by being surrounded by so many awesome people. 

For some cheering up videos. 

Talk amongst yourselves....

Are Attractive People More Employable?

By CATHERINE RAMPELL

Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount Pictures

Are good-looking people more likely to get jobs? That depends whether you’re talking about men or women, according to a new working paper. From the abstract:

Job applicants in Europe and in Israel increasingly imbed a headshot of themselves in the top corner of their CVs. We sent 5,312 CVs in pairs to 2,656 advertised job openings. In each pair, one CV was without a picture while the second, otherwise almost identical CV contained a picture of either an attractive male/female or a plain-looking male/female.Employer callbacks to attractive men are significantly higher than to men with no picture and to plain-looking men, nearly doubling the latter group. Strikingly, attractive women do not enjoy the same beauty premium. In fact, women with no picture have a significantly higher rate of callbacks than attractive or plain-looking women. We explore a number of explanations and provide evidence that female jealousy of attractive women in the workplace is a primary reason for the punishment of attractive women.

Previous research, however, has found that good-looking female workers receive higher raises than their plain or ugly counterparts.

I see London I see France I can see your

So somehow I got chosen to attend an assessment center for a major European bank's rotational program. Don't ask me how, but I managed to sweet talk my way through 1st round interviews and thus ended up heading to London for a full day of interviews, presentations and networking.

The super awesome thing about interviewing on-site is that they pay for all your accommodations and travel. I got to stay at the Hilton Docklands across the Thames from Canary Wharf. The above picture was taken from my hotel room, which has a view of Canary Wharf. This will probably be the very last time I stay at a hotel with any sort of decent view. I am poor and cheap so this automatically rules out ever staying at nice hotels. My justification is that the hotel room is just for sleeping anyways so why spend money on it. This is also similar to how I justified parking at a parking lot one block away from a restaurant to save 25 cents. Ask the SO about that. She loves telling that story.  

My morning started at 730. Got on a ferry to cross the Thames to said bank. The assessment day was freaking tough. The good thing was that 6 of my classmates were attending the AC as well. My schedule was as follows:

9:00-10:00 Technical Interview - 60 minutes with a business representative

"Interview designed to test your understanding and interest in financial services and more specifically Bank X."

10:00-11:00 Commercial Interview - 60 minutes with a business representative
"This interview is designed to test your commercial understanding and business acumen."

11:00-11:30 HR Interview - 25 minutes (15 minute presentation and 10 minute Q&A) with HR panel

"For this interview, you will be required to produce a 15 minute presentation."

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:30 Case study and Group Assessment - 90 minutes assessed by two business representatives
"This is a group activity where you will have one hour to review a case and prepare a presentation followed by 20 minutes to deliver recommendations."

3:00-4:00 Bank X presentation from senior business leader

4:00-5:00 Question and Answer session with past MBA Programme participants

5:00-7:30 Networking Session

So after a full day of this we were tired and decided to grab dinner and let loose for a bit. If there's one thing B-School students do well is eat and drink.

The next day was my flight back so it was off to Heathrow.

Breakfast at Heathrow. Finally back to "normal" portions.

The fine print says "All our bagels are freshly made here today". I don't get the correlation though. So all that I expect from healthy food is that it's made fresh daily? Following that logic, if I eat a 12 doughnuts and those doughnuts are made fresh, I'm actually eating healthy. Crazy Brits. 

On the flight back I was reading the British Airways: Business Magazine and found this comic in there. Thought it was quite relevant especially for the ESADE 1st years. 

Fast forward to today. My parents are visiting and I'm acting as the tour guide. Because I've decided that my parents are more important than schoolwork and I'm inherently adverse to schoolwork, I'm joining them to Madrid and will be there till Saturday. Adios Barcelona. Yo voy a disfrutar mi viaje a Madrid.   

The Club Can't Handle Me!!!

My roommate thinks he just made this song even more awesome.

I think he's forever ruined this song for me. All I know is that the club can't handle him right now.

I love Pooh.

We're #4. We're #4!!!!

Our program management is going nutso about the 2010 BusinessWeek B-school rankings. Our school was ranked 4th amongst all international MBA program (excludes US schools). 

Take it for what it is. 

http://www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/bs_2010_INTL_FTMBA_TAB_1111.html

I still consider the Financial Times B-school rankings to be more accurate. Don't get me wrong, I love ESADE and will always think that this school has given me everything I ever wanted and more, but I just don't see us beating LBS in any ranking. 

It's kinda like how I view USC and UCLA. UCLA is definitely the superior school because we all know what USC students and UCLA students have in common. We all got into USC. 

This is why I never gain weight in Spain

So for 1.95 Euros or about 2.80 USD I get a whopping 3 chicken wings or 2 crispy strips. They'll even throw in one sauce too.

At Costco for $1.50 I can get a 1/4 pound hot dog and a drink with unlimited refills. I could also go to Burger King and get a Whopper for $1.99.

America wins again...until everyone dies from complications related to obesity (42% of Americans will be obese by 2050). 

Observations of Spain

Random things bother me. Why do smoking sections exist? What's the point of allowing possession of weed when it's illegal to buy. Why do you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

Random.

The other day I was riding the subway and noticed this oddity about the Barcelona subway trains. Tell me if you notice the same thing I did.

You notice something missing? Still don't quite see it? Let us compare the above photo to photos of other countries' trains.

Germany

Japan

New York

Give up. The Barcelona subway train is missing a horizontal bar that people can hold on to. The horizontal bar  distributes people so that people can stand in front of the seats and still have something to hold on to. 

That red line represents what should be there. So what happens when that bar is not there?

People crowd around the areas where there's a vertical pole. These poles are found right next to the doors. By transitive property this means that all the people crowd around the doors. WHY? Every other country has figured out that maybe it would be best to distribute the people throughout the train so that the area by the door is not crowded. 

The Spanish have decided that no, this is actually a horrible idea and that the best way to have people ride the train is to concentrate them in the areas by the doors because that is the only area where they can hold onto something. Oh and by the way if you think it wasn't the Spanish that decided this. It was. The manufacturer of the Barcelona metro trains is CAF of Spain. Yes, very smart Spaniards. Very smart. 

Fun with Pun

Seen on a classmate's Gchat away message.

"A good pun is its own reword"

The difficulties of the English language

Saw this on another blog and thought it was interesting.

I never said she stole my money" has 7 different meanings depending on the stressed word.

I didn't say she stole my money - someone else said it.

I didn't say she stole my money - I didn't say it.

I didn't say she stole my money - I only implied it.

I didn't say she stole my money - I said someone did, not necessarily her.

I didn't say she stole my money - I considered it borrowed, even though she didn't ask.

I didn't say she stole my money - only that she stole money.

I didn't say she stole my money - she stole stuff which cost me money to replace.

This is why I still have trouble speaking my own native language. Damn you Engrish.

Pragueberfest Part 5 of 5. The Conclusion.

The end is near. 

By the time we reached our last day in Prague we've pretty much seen everything in the city so we decided to explore areas outside. On a 5 hour tour. A 5 hour touuuuuuurrr.

Deloitte Prague. They're everywhere. Like cockroaches but not as cute.

Our first stop. Kostnice Ossuary Beinhaus. What is it? It's the Kostnice Ossuary Beinhaus. Duh.

So why did we spend an hour in a bus to end up at this unassuming church?

Well it's because we were visiting the Sedlec Ossuary or Bone Church in Kutna Hora. The bone church became the burial site du jour because of some holy miracle happening on the church site in the 1200s. It was such a hot burial site that people were just dying to be there. Yep, still got it. 

The Black Death helped things along by killing everyone in its path. Pretty soon the cemetery and vaults were overflowing with bones so the church enlisted someone they thought would be great for the job of tidying up the place, a half-blind monk.

Supposedly this chandelier has every bone in the human body as part of its structure. Impressive in its morbidity and creativity.

Who knew the half blind monk was an FC Barcelona fan.

Would Jesus approve of this? WWJT?

Okay I get it. There are a ton of bones. 

This mini exhibit was showcasing the wonderful dentistry of the time. I believe dentistry of the Middle Ages involved getting drunk and clubbing each other. 

Close up of the chandelier. Who knew the pelvic bone would be such a great decorative element.  

Enough bones. It's time for some non bone related tourist sites. A statue of a man. Okay still better than bones, I guess.

Some flowers and trees. No bones here.

The inside courtyard of this mansion. Do I remember what this mansion was for? No. Could I look it up? Yes. Am I going to? No. Should I stop asking myself questions that I know the answer to?

It's a courtyard. Bah what do you want from me? Fine. The city of Kutna Hora is a UNESCO World Heritage site. This courtyard is part of the Italian Court, formerly a royal residence and mint. Kutna Hora was known for its silver mines. THERE. What I do for you lazy readers.

Another Gothic church. These things are like the McDonalds of European cities. Always in the best locations and serving up unhealthy stuff to the masses. 

Walking through the cities.

A pink building of some sorts.

Lunch was provided at the Dacicky Pivnice.

Fun and family friendly pictures. I hope there's more like that. 

Being led into the back room.

Oh how cute. It's actually holding the candles like they were some cool spears of fire.

.

Oh looks like more family friendly pictures. Let's take a closer look here. 

What in the world is going on here? Why is that man blue? Why are boobs okay to draw but the penis isnt? Do I sense some penis envy by the artist? And does he harbor some resentment towards Smurfs?

I have no idea what is going on in this one, which was next to the Raping Smurf. What kind of dragon is that? An elephant dragon? 

After being subjected to such disturbing imagery we tried to erase the images out of our brain by drinking beer. Didn't work. All I can think about are raging Smurfs and the Dragophant. 

I believe the description of this was fried cheese. Thought we were in the US again. 

The tour guide hauled us off our fried cheese and beer addled butts and made us head towards the main attraction.

The entrance to a mine. Didn't know Czech miners were also hobbits.  

Tourists heading to the main attraction. Want to guess what the main attraction is?

Yes, a church! I bet you would have never guessed that. Do you care what the church is called?  Neither do I. I can't even hide my apathetic attitude. 

You'll notice the photography gets better from here on out. The SO took over camera duties. 

God giving the stiff arm. He might've been a good wide receiver.  

This is the saint protecting miners. I found it funny when I said it out loud. A Catholic saint protecting miners. 

Ornately carved benches. This is the devil. He looks a bit like Hagrid from Harry Potter. 

Uhhh..I don't know what this was for. It just looks sinister. 

Almost postcard quality.

The SO and I had done no souvenir shopping so we  used the remainder of our last day walking around and checking out Prague.

We stumbled into this soap shop. It was overrun with Chinese tourists. With the intensity these people were shopping for stuff you would have expected that the soaps were full of bios of beautiful, subservient, smart enough women so that the moms could marry off their sons . 

Nope looks like its just soap. 

Absinthe and subtlety. Not a good combo. 

The streets are always so clean. 

Walking makes us hungry. Time for a snack. 

The Trdelik is a traditional pastry from Slovak. 1 please!

Kinda like if you took a croissant, hollowed it out and then slathered Nutella in it. 

Public hangings still occur in Prague. This man was caught stealing confidential information. Just kidding it's just a weird statue of a man hanging. 

This is pretty self explanatory. It's not even worth me typing out a joke. 

The last dinner we had was at this really nice Italian place called Aldente. No offense to the Czech people but we were getting sick of eating meat.

An interesting salad with hardened cheese, eggplants, bell peppers, zucchini and some other veggies. 

The tin foil was actually shaped like a duck. It reminded me of the towels I got when I went on a cruise.

The aftermath of my seafood pasta dish. 

With that.....we are finally done. Pragueberfest comprised 5 posts, close to 100 pictures, a couple of penis jokes and zero intelligent writing. This is why I dedicate hours on my blog.  In the immortal words of Roberto Duran "No Mas". 

Next trip will be a tour of Tibidabo organized by the ESADE Asians. Ah memories of Freixenet.