I went back in town last weekend. I didn’t do anything apart from dining with family. It’s strange how easy it is to get used to the out-of-town way of never going out (there’s seriously nothing to do here in Waterloo). I go back to Toronto thinking “Great! I can go Downtown! I can go to a big mall! Woo! Restaurants!” and I ended up not going anywhere.
My business professor, Laura Allan, wouldn’t strike you as an overwhelming intellectual (she’s not stupid of course, but the material she teaches is never particularly demanding), but she has been pleasantly surprising me by coming up with some very insightful quotes (they are quotes because I am quoting her original, on-the-spot content). Here are two that I randomly noticed and immediately jotted down:
The numbers are necessary; they’re just not enough. – Laura Allan, on Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis, Jan. 21, 2009
Nobody knows anything for certain, but you trust the person who’s done the thinking. – Laura Allan, on Sale Forecasting, Jan. 28, 2009
She doesn’t strike me as an overly friendly professor–she’s kind and nice, but I don’t see her being particularly warm or approachable. In any case, her lectures are easier to sit through than Jim’s last semester (he would literally put people to sleep, then wake them back up angrily). I don’t think this is because her lectures are intrinsically more involving; I just go to her later lectures at 1:00 or 2:30 pm. Anyway, enjoy and ponder those quotes if you will.