Archive for the year 2008
Commencement Videos
Posted on May 20, 2008 by Ching under School.
The commencement videos from Wichita State University’s 2008 spring commencement are now available online. Check them out:
- Liberal Arts and Sciences
- College of Health Professions
- College of Education
- College of Engineering
- College of Fine Arts
And finally..
- W. Frank Barton School of Business
I’m about an hour into the video (in case you guys want to fast forward).
Commencement was probably boring for all the spectators but I had a blast. It felt good to be finished with school finally. I look forward to going back in a few years but, right now, I’m just glad it is all over.
Here are some stills from graduation. Enjoy!
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Ching with Ann Konecny
Posted on May 19, 2008 by Ching under Flickr, Life, School.
I had a chance encounter with Ann Konecny at Stooges on Saturday night. Konecny was this year’s keynote speaker during the spring commencement ceremony of the W. Frank Barton School of Business at Wichita State University.
Ann Konecny is president and chairman of Foley Equipment Company, president of Foley Rental, and president of Foley Rebuild Center. She serves on the board of the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas and the board of the Cooperative Association of Tractor Dealers, as well as other industry groups. She is a member of the the Wichita State University Foundation’s Advisory Council, the WSU Barton School of Business Advisory Board, and Wichita Downtown Rotary. Amazing, right?
Being the nerd that I am, I took advantage of the photo op. Movie stars don’t really do anything for me. Successful business people are the ones who really impress me.
Had Brian and I left with everyone else — Mike was getting bored so Darcy, Mike, Joni, Travis, Lori, and Wade all left Stooges to continue the party elsewhere — we would have missed the chance encounter. Brian and I were going to go home after everyone left, but we decided to stick around for another set so we could dance.
When Konecny walked in to meet her friends, Brian and I instantly recognized her. Brian urged me to say hello and introduce myself, so I did. She was nice enough to agree to getting a photo with me. I thought that was really neat. I mean… How many people can honestly say they got a photo with their graduation ceremony’s keynote speaker at a bar on the same day as commencement? Not many, right?
Anyway, Stooges was doing a fundraiser for a veterans’ association that night and so they were raffling off free hotel stay in Vegas. Brian and I regretted having forgotten to ask for the others’ tickets before they left. That would have been six extra chances. Then, we thought that we’re not lucky enough to win anyway so six extra tickets probably wouldn’t have made the difference.
Ann Konecny arrived just in time for the drawing. Sure enough they drew her ticket. What are the odds? She is super nice, though. Not only did she give Brian one of the cigars she brought with her, she gave us the free three-day and two-night hotel package.
Stooges was the perfect end to the perfect day. Receiving the prize from Konecny was way better than winning the raffle outright… And I got a photo with her to boot! I am so glad that I introduced myself!
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Mission Accomplished
Posted on May 15, 2008 by Ching under Life.
I finally got Brian to do pump class with me at the gym. After all the begging and pleading and pouting and whining, he finally agreed to go. It’s funny because after we restarted our gym membership, I was going consistently for a while. I vowed that I would start going regularly again. Then finals came around and our group project was due, so I dropped out again. Last Saturday was the first time I’d been back in about two weeks.
Ken goes, “Hello, stranger. You back with us?” I had to explain to Brian that he’s one of the regulars who’s at the gym practically everyday. I had told him that I would be going to the gym more frequently so he had to pick on me.
After class ended I told the instructor that I had accomplished my mission. He jokingly replied that I needed to set my goals a bit higher. He’s probably right.
After our workout, we stuffed our faces at The Good Egg per usual. We must stay away from that place, seriously. We really need to start cutting back on eating out and start saving more. =P
We ran some errands and ended the day with Speed Racer, which was better than I expected. We went to the final show so that there wouldn’t be as many kids. There were still some kids, but the theater was not at all packed. Anyway, I was thoroughly entertained. There are so many good movies coming out lately. This weekend Prince Caspian comes out. I doubt we will have time to watch it. We’ll see.
We got home from the movie and took a long time to wind down. It must have been three o’clock in the morning before we went to bed. The next day was spent at the Brubakers to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Brian says that we’re going to start really buckling down and working on the house on the weekends, instead of doing stuff like going to the movies and such. He’s right. We’ll do as much as we can during the week also. However, that won’t be until after Memorial weekend because we’ve got big plans.
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Time Flies When You’re Having Fun
Posted on May 7, 2008 by Ching under Life, School.
I can’t believe graduation is less than ten days away. Grad school has gone by pretty quickly. As Etaf mentioned in a recent note, it seemed like we were at MBA orientation only yesterday. Everyone has been like, “You won’t know what to do with your time” or “What’s next?”
I don’t know, really. It was such a relief to get my bachelor’s degree. After dropping out of college the first time, I felt really satisfied to have graduation. I thought, this college thing really isn’t too bad. I should go to grad school. LOL.
I sometimes joke that my primary reason for going to grad school is to postpone paying for my student loans. To some degree that is true. But I also set a goal for myself to get my MBA before I reach the age of 30. If you want to be technical about it, I really didn’t achieve that goal. Although, I am still 30. So if I revise the goal to say that I want to get my MBA by age 30, then I made it.
So what’s next? Well, I realized that I really enjoy going to school. So I’m thinking that I will eventually go back for my doctorate. Dr. Ching has a nice ring to it. Let’s set this goal for by 40. I’ll have to think about this one, though, because it will require a two-year sabbatical from work — probably more. I don’t think I can afford to not work, with all of our bills and my student loans and all. Anyway, I’ve got at least five years to think about it so I’ll let you guys know what we decide on that.
For now, Brian and I need to finish up our home remodel so we can finally get out of here. Maybe we can make a lot of progress in June — if we don’t get bogged down with other stuff, which always seems to happen. It seems like there’s something going on every weekend.
Last weekend we had Iron Man. Couldn’t miss that. Brian said he’d been waiting for it to come out for the last two years! This weekend we’ve got Mother’s Day plans. Next weekend is, of course, commencement. The weekend after that we’ve got a couples massage and then we are heading up to Harrah’s in North Kansas City for a post-graduation celebration. Hey, it’s Memorial weekend!
Then Brian’s parents are leaving to go on a 13-day European cruise. They leave the day after Memorial Day. That’s basically their anniversary celebration this year. Their wedding anniversary is on June 2nd. They return the day before Brian’s birthday, which is on June 13th. Then we’ve got an exhibition on the 14th where I’m supposed to dress like a Viet Cong soldier… And on and on and on… You get the picture. Things just always seem to come up.
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to being done with school and seeing what “free” time is like. Although, as you can see — there’s really not much “free” time even with school out of the picture.
Hope to see you all at commencement! If you can’t make it, then you can watch the ceremony on the web at shockervision.tv — my undergrad commencement from May 2006 is still on there actually. =P
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Brian Should Buy a Lottery Ticket
Posted on April 26, 2008 by Ching under Life, Poker.
To say that Brian is having a fantastic weekend, thus far, is an understatement. Last night at the BCPT, I got knocked out of the tourney within the first hour. Believe it or not Annette actually went out before me. We were both victims of Lotto. Ugh.
Annette had 10-10 against Lotto’s J-J. At least, he had a real hand. I had A-K and raised to $3K on top of the big blind pre-flop. He called me with J-7. What do you know? Flop comes J-J-5. I was toast.
As horrible my luck was, Brian’s mojo was full throttle. He made it to the final table and took first place! It’s his first BCPT first place finish ever! My track record pales in comparison, as I have no BCPT first place finish to speak of — not yet, anyway.
You can find pictures of Brian’s memorable evening here.
Needless to say, we got home really late and didn’t end up going to bed until well after one o’clock in the morning. However, Brian had promised me that he would do the pump class with me this week at gym. So I got him up at seven thirty, rearing to go.
When we get there, there’s a sign on the door that stated there would be no group fitness classes this weekend because of some kind of training that all instructors are attending. Ugh. The one weekend that I finally get him to agree, and fitness classes are canceled! Just my luck!
Brian’s reaction? “There is a God!” Followed by, “I’m going back to bed.”
“You should really buy a lottery ticket,” I tell him.
We decided to hit The Good Egg instead of going straight home. I know, right? Instead of working out and burning calories, we go to breakfast and stuff our faces. I blame it all on YMCA.
I’m kidding!
By the way, we are doing a pretty good job spending Brian’s poker winnings. It took care of breakfast this morning and my waxing. Speaking of which, Beau Monde East renovated. The biggest change that you notice right when you walk in the concierge area is now directly in front of you, instead of being to the left and right. No more wondering which way to go. Hurrah!
It was a really pleasant surprise. Other changes include a separate waiting area for nail appointments and a door from the relaxation room that leads to the womens locker room that comes out the hall where the restrooms are and from there you can get to the other side of the boutique. I’m never on that side because I’ve never had my nails done there (because I don’t usually get my nails done), but the rates are not bad so I’m probably going to give that a try one day. Maybe someone will get a gift certificate to Beau Monde for graduation. Hint, hint. Wink, wink.
Side note: They should really consider buying beaumonde.com or beaumonde.biz or something because their current web domain is too long. Just a suggestion. =P
I also noticed that some of the prices on the web site are lower than their current rates. Hmm… I should email Michelle to let her know the prices needs to be updated. I’m sure they’re on top of it but I’m telling her, anyway, just in case it has slipped through the cracks.
Since Brian has been spending his winning for stuff, I told him we could schedule another couples massage appointment. I really didn’t want to this soon because we just had one last month and I feel that we are slowly regressing back to our old unbridled, excessive spending ways. It’s hard to say no, though, because he did take first place and I am graduating with my MBA. We have many reasons to celebrate.
Besides, the last one was at Serenity (because they couldn’t get us in at Beau Monde on the day that we wanted) and we really didn’t like it that much. We both deserve a really good massage. None of that weird Biofreeze stuff.
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