On a programming note, I think we are all set (finally) with the site update. The archive format has changed to an index page - I liked having the entire archive available on every page, but the oppressive weight of history has started to make that impossible. It turns out that blogging across six years and archiving what's been said is not something that has been given a lot of thought.

Not much to report on today, but we were at Target on our way to Jenelle's when we found Archer Farm's Tomato Cream Penne dinner kits, $3.49. We were exposed to Archer Farms in a major way at the tailgate to end all tailgates back on football day in October. AF is Target's private label, with reasonably low prices and high quality. So, in the interest of marketing science, we decided to see what $3.49 of packaged dinner gets you. And now we may never cook again. The taste was not stupendous and it was more work than a microwave dinner, but for $3.49 we didn't have to think about food planning, it was tasty, and there are enough leftovers for both of us to eat lunch tomorrow. It wasn't even awful for us, which was a pleasant surprise. Jenelle and I were talking and we agree that Target may take over the western world.

Today was bizarre because Jenelle had an early doctor's appointment, but we were still tired and wanting a lazy weekend when she returned, so we took a long late-morning nap. In the afternoon (evening according to the clock) we went to Ann Arbor for some final gift shopping and holiday out-and-abouting before retiring to 409b for APHC and snacks for dinner and Christmas-card writing.

Yesterday during my studying I distracted myself with the funniest of Michigan's student publications: The Every Three Weekly. In the editorial section, where they usually slam people for writing and asking "why do you make fun of uGg boots?" there was, instead, a rather serious piece about the b-school's pesky habit of throwing away the E3W stack as soon as it arrived, apparently because it was offensive to some students. This makes me sad; for all the drama we've had about diversity, for all the school's emphasis on variance of opinion, for all the talking about embracing everyone's views, to reverse field and throw away a satirical newspaper is pathetic. Everything that has ever been printed is, by definition, offensive and discriminatory to someone. Maybe if it is offensive to you there is an alternate point of view to consider? My SES was lampooned on those pages, what can you do? Yes you get angry, but in fact perhaps there is some truth to the stereotypes that are published there - get over it. Even more troubling is a request, in the anonymously forwarded email chain, to keep campus "family friendly" and that includes E3W and football programs because they featured an ad for Deja Vu (you may be able to guess what type of business is conducted at Deja Vu... I'll give you a hint: I'm not going to link to their website). In all fairness, if we are going to cleanse the campus to the point that 3"x3" ads featuring women in bikinis are too offensive, then we all might as well have chosen Ivys and put on our sweater vests. (And lock ourselves in well-lit rooms with no windows or media, safely away from those cretins from LS&A who want to destroy our little community with their filth.)

Michigan is number two. Should have been number one with the chances they had in Columbus, but penalties and underutilization of #20 cost us. Comparing schedules, margin of victory, whatever, gets you nowhere in this sport because there are few common demominators. The only thing that matters is that Michigan played to within 3 points of OSU at OSU, locking in the #2 spot. Thus, my beef with the BCS is that it was manipulated to get a new matchup in the title game. Where does human manipulation stop? This year it's one vs three; next it's Heisman hopeful vs Heisman hopeful, then who knows what the BCS will 'crown.' However, this mess sets up Michigan being number two perfectly if we win and the Gators get roundly trounced, which I expect they will.

The consolation prize is the Rose Bowl. Ol' Keith Jackson called it 'The Granddaddy of them all' and so it is. In the football tradition I grew up around, Michigan is meant to go to the Rose Bowl and face a Pac-10 powerhouse, and that's what we've got. So, while I'd love to play for the national title and still think we deserved a shot, I'm happy to head to Pasadena, put on some maize and blue and watch USC and Michigan duke it out. "We are SC!" vs "Go Blue!" "Fight On" vs "The Victors." This is old-school football, an old-school bowl game, and I'll take my lumps and get fired up to take in the spectacle and a heck of a football game. Since Keith Jackson won't be there to say it I will: Whooaaaaaaa Nelly!

My group's supply chain management paper about revenue (yield) management in the sports industry came together rather smoothly through a volley of emails this morning, along with plans to gather for dinner tomorrow. I studied for World Econ some, too, along with random internet surfing and a talk about strategic sourcing at Target. I wavered significantly about attending the Target talk, but ultimately I figured that 15 months from now I'd be pretty stoked to have the chance to hear such a thing so I'd better recognize.

The balance of the day has been kind of a push. I got the revenue management model that I built yesterday into presentable shape and wrote about what I'd found, but didn't get around to the homeworks that I'm supposed to do for my own benefit for ST503. Instead I elected to head home, sit on the couch and read a case and do the last(!) one pager for Supply Chain. It's simply stunning how fast the months of October and November came and went, but here we are in early December with the semester winding down.

I spent a good chunk of today behaving like a normal MBA student - making a financial model, doing sensitivity analysis on it, writing up conclusions, sharing with the group. It feels natural now to do this stuff, which I think is testament to the rigor of the course. I think it could also be that business is easier, in technical terms, than engineering. Here the analysis is easy and the conclusions/recommendations are hard, with engineering the analysis is the tough part but often leads to easy conclusions. Tomorrow I'll be behaving like an MBA student working towards finals. It is nice to be back at school, around that electric buzz that Ross has, rather than toiling away in the wood shop. I think I missed it.

Saturday didn't feel like one when we rolled out of Huron Towers at 6:30, but streaking north on a sunny cold day did feel like a day off. Our destination was Potter's Bakery in Traverse City- the last leg on our tour of vendors. We met with the owner, who is (and behaved like) a real business person, and solidified plans for the cake. With our final vendor selected (!) (hurray) (!) we visited Sutton's Bay, had a celebratory lunch at hip downtown sandwich spot Mustard's, and then saddled up and headed home. In the evening we tuned in for football (yeah USC, boo Arkansas) and then downed a ton more artichoke dip and were finished.

Today has been lazy: plenty of bowl-trajectory tracking, trip planning, and school work. Some future day there will be an ornry post about the college football postseason, but there are 3,803,275 other posts about that today so I won't go there. Instead, I'll play 'catch the milk ring' with Ollie.

Results from the trade show rolled in this afternoon and confirmed my fear: people were a little too into the product class to consider which products stigmatize users, which they'd like on their counter, and which represents the best value to an actual person. So, high five's hedge against this didn't go too well. I guess this is something about an artificial trade show that is hard to judge, making it hard to predict demand. All-in-all we did OK because of high margins and low sales expectations.

On a totally unrelated note: the fourth floor (fifth, really) isn't high by architectural standards, but for a residence it is pretty lofty. I really like living at this level because the tops of trees bend just below line of sight and the weather is a bit more perceptible. Birds glide by on the wind, which rips around the corner of the building and creates a great howling on a cold December day like this one.