Pumpkins are all over the place. I have not noticed anybody eating them.

Safety first. Drugs and weapons, violence and loitering (hanging around without reason) welcome, but before this sign.

Republican Convention Schedule, Revised

6:00pm - Opening prayer
6:15pm - Supplementary opening prayer
6:30pm - Prayer in thanks of first two prayers
6:45pm - New energy policy presented by Exxon
7:00pm - Canonization of Reagan
7:15pm - Additional prayers
7:30pm - Opening remarks by Halliburton
8:00pm - Prayer for the safety and well-being of Ken "Kenny-boy" Lay
8:15pm - Additional remarks by Halliburton
8:30pm - Stoning of the first homosexual
8:45pm - New healthcare polices presented by HMO leader, Kaiser Permanente
9:00pm - Invasion of Iran or North Korea (TBA)
9:15pm - Halliburton contributes 1.4 billion to Republican party
9:30pm - Reagan elevated to savior, Holy Trinity now referred to as "the quads"
9:45pm - Bush undergoes plastic surgery to look more like Reagan
10:00pm - Chaney runs into Ron Reagan, Jr. Tells him to go f--k himself
10:15pm - Recall of troops from accidental invasion of South Korea (Bush: "Damn, the SOUTH is our ally. My bad.")
10:30pm - Burning at the stake of 16 year-old Jenny Williams, who had an illegal abortion after being raped by her cousin
10:45pm - Dancing around the golden calf
11:00pm - Stoning of the partner of the first homosexual
11:15pm - New forestry policy presented by Weyerhaeuser
11:45pm - Thanking God for his wisdom in choosing Bush as president
12:00pm - Closing prayers (lasting until 2:00am)

Goizueta is #20

Yes. We made it. Our business school is regarded as top 20 in the most important business school ranking in USA. Two years ago Business Week ranked our school at #22. And 6 years ago our school was not even considered worth to be ranked. It is important that we are on way up and some schools like Yale is on its way down. How's that important? Well, if Goizueta Business School gets higher rankings and our PhD program is seriously expanded in new building, then there is more chance that my MBA education will be more recognized in Europe and also Northern parts of USA.

Also happy for Tadas, as IMD made it to #2 among international schools. INSEAD lost its comfortable first place to Canadian Queens and is now on position 3. And of course, Kellogg took US #1 and Chicago is strong second.

And here are few pictures of the event. We all gathered in big auditorium to see the rankings being announced in a chat-like web-site. This is how important the rankings actually are for school that is on its way up.

Waiting. Our director of two-year MBA program and dean of business school.

Yes. Yale is 22 and Emory is 20.

Happy!

Campaign

Vice president debate done today. It is quite amazing actually to be in these elections and see how this system works here in States. I see people who send money to campaign. New TV ads are created every day to oppose new topic raised by other side. Pretty amazing. Every ad ends with text "I am ... and I approve this message", because most of this advertising is paid for not by the party, but by volunteer groups that support specific candidate. But well, I don't see too much of it, because most of this action takes place in the swing states. And Georgia is safe Republican State, so nobody cares.

But America needs a president, who does not change mind, whatever happens. Here is a comment about today's detabe: Vice President Dick Cheney won tonight because he countered rhetoric with the facts – calling into question not just the deficiencies of Kerry's record, but calling into question Kerry and Edwards’ credibility as candidates and as U.S. Senators. Even though Edwards had many more facts and main argument of Cheney was about undecisiveness of Kerry - nothing new.

Am I getting too political? I guess so.

Potluck is over. Pictures from last thursday's international party at Goizueta.

The guy in taekwondo outfit is a real black belt in this. He wanted to show me some examples, but I decided to stay safe and keep distance.

Presidental debate

Just watched the Thursday's debate on NY Times website (yepp, was not able to watch it life, as we had great party at school at the same time). It was fairly nice debate and I was amazed to see how strong Kerry is. Bush definitely avoided answering some serious questions and was like usual, a terrible speaker, when he does not have ready written 4-word sentence answers.

But how about this number of voters signed up in Afganistan? Bush mentioned that it is over 10m, but another source claimed that there are not as many eligible people in Afganistan. Really fraud?