It is a sad day for television, journalism, politics, and frankly, the whole country. Tim Russert died this afternoon of a heart attack at NBC’s Washington Bureau. He was 58.
We became aware of the rumors about his death internally at ABC News around 3pm. It was almost 45 minutes later before Tom Brokaw interrupted NBC and MSNBC to report the death. By then several news outlets, including the New York Times and the New York Post were reporting it. There is a gentleman’s agreement between the television networks to defer to the shop affected before reporting news about the competition. When NBC finally went on the air, so did we, updating our site, etc. The same deference was given when our own Peter Jennings passed.
On the web, it was interesting to watch Twitter and Wikipedia through this ordeal. When we first heard rumors of the news, Twitter had only a few recent tweets about Tim Russert. Within 20 minutes there were a few dozen, and by the time I got back to my desk, after NBC had confirmed the news, it was in the thousands. Wikipedia had already been updated with his date of death before the rumors had even reached ABC’s newsroom.
Thoughts and prayers to the Russert family and Tim’s colleagues at NBC.
I just got my grade for the class and it’s an A. PHEW. So that’s one more pre-matriculation hurdle down. Still have the finance final to go and then I’m officially done with the course-work requirements.
This morning I received an email from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern thanking me for my patience while on their waitlist and informing me that they would not be able to offer me a spot in the entering class.
This, after I wrote them in March to tell them I did not want a place on their waitlist because I had been admitted elsewhere. I hope my undesired presence on their waitlist didn’t prevent someone else from getting onto the list who would have wanted to be on it…
Sometimes this process was so maddening…
Several years ago, I had a blog. I didn’t write much, and I didn’t have much to write about. Things have changed. Back in November I started rebuilding my presence online. I didn’t really have time to blog regularly (nor was I ready to begin publishing my thoughts yet). As I went through the application process for school, I felt like I was taking on a second full-time job. And I decided that when I did return to writing, I wanted to do it meaningfully. So, here I am, slowly taking the covers off what will be the place where I document the next chapter of my life, and begin to move the raging debate that happens inside my head on a daily basis into a more public setting…
In the coming weeks, I will leave my job. As I do that, I will begin to write more. Through the summer I will talk more about the application process for school – hoping to shed some light on it for others, and also hoping that 20 years from now I can re-read and remember how insane it was.
At any rate, I’m happy to be back here. Hello.
I just took my accounting final. Everyone wonders why I am taking exams/classes even though I haven’t started school yet (let alone moved out of new york yet)…
In addition to the accounting, finance, and quantitative analysis online-tutorials that all incoming HBS students have to take, I was required to take actual CLASSES in accounting and finance before matriculating. (I am also required to attend “analytics” on campus in August, before classes start, but we’ll save that for another post.) This was a requirement for me because I am a non-traditional MBA student (read: non-finance, non-consulting). I’ve had some people react negatively when I’ve said to people that HBS labels me “non-traditional” but I don’t mind it, and because of the nature of the MBA program, it’s a statistical fact – I am non-traditional.
So, I set out to find classes to take. Realizing that NYU’s class schedules would not mesh with my moving out of NY schedule, I asked HBS to recommend online classes – and they recommended BYU.
I took the accounting class. It was interesting. I learned things I wish I’d better understood before: like the financial implications of renting/buying/leasing houses and cars, the financial implications of tax-withholding, etc. The structure of the class was compelling. A 3 hour computer based lecture for every lesson (16 lessons) followed by an online quiz. Plus 3 exams (non-comprehensive… the best kind). So I just completed my “final” (non-comprehensive) exam. It went well – the last question on the exam was to the effect of “What is the best way to succeed at life? A)challenge yourself B)learn new things C)be a good person D)all of the above.” I liked that they asked something like this at the end. Not only because it’s obviously an slam-dunk question (if you miss this, you should fail the class), but also because it put everything into perspective, forced me to stop saying “must get an A, must get an A” and just appreciate the fact I’d learned something new.