My Passion

Soccer is by far my favorite sport. I currently play in an amateur men’s league in Scottsdale, and I thoroughly enjoy it. When I first joined the league, I felt like my skills were a little more refined, but throughout the seasons, my lack of actively playing has affected my skills. I am not as in shape or as good as I was, but now being in a more relaxed setting, I am enjoying the game more. I just go out and enjoy myself now. I do not take it as personal anymore if we lose or win. I just want to play with a good group of guys. Today we had a game, and we won 8-1. Surprisingly, I even scored too.

Anyway, this summer the World Cup will begin. I am so excited for it. I hope I do not stay up too late every night trying to watch it, but to throw out my vote of who I think will win, I choose Argentina. Messi is too good of a player, and he will shine this year.

On a side note, go Blues (they are in first place)! I know they can beat Man U and win the title. I am sorry if this post might seem a little unstructured, I just wanted to ramble a little bit about soccer because I am super excited for the World Cup coming up.

Leaving Work Early

Last week, I was able to leave early from work. Though I went in earlier, it was a change getting off so early on a Thursday afternoon. I took a half day because I was being inducted into Pi Alpha Alpha. The half day was supposed to be a whole day, but I got my dates mixed up. About three weeks ago, my boss came up to me and told me that she was taking off a future Thursday to volunteer for her daughter’s field trip, and she told me that I had the option of whether or not I would want to come in. I thought about it, and I told that this worked out perfectly because I was just going to ask her if I could take a half day on that Thursday anyway for the SPA lunch. Little did I know that my dates were mixed up. I found this information out about a week later, and I felt awkward that now I would have to tell her about my mistake. I asked her if this date (the correct one) would be fine to do a half day. She was fine with the arrangement.

The SPA lunch was great. With the event being in the middle of the day, I did not think that a lot of people would attend, but there was an awesome turnout. The food was decent, the décor was charming, and it was pleasant seeing Sam Feldman on the slide show. The event was great. I was able to meet with previous classmates and professors. I would like to congratulate everyone who was recognized at the event especially Dr. Heather Campbell -- I hope you have fun in San Diego!

Single File

At my job, I have begun to take on more tasks. I feel bad because I do not have the time to assist in accounts payable anymore which concerns me because I help out two of my co-workers when I do this and I do not want to leave them with mounds of work. But since the RTP (Regional Transportation Plan) files have become my responsibility, my boss feels the need for some reorganization. What is happening is the files contain all of the forms, budget requests, accounting information, previous MAG billing statements, invoices, and so on. Though some projects may last only three years, we are beginning to see a problem with some projects which may last up to ten years. One of the project which deals with Greenfield and Baseline is my biggest worry because the previous MAG billing statement alone was at least 150 pages, and for this go around, the MAG billing statement was well over 250 pages. As many of you know, file folders can only hold so much. With auditors always coming and the need to pull previous information, we are brain storming to figure out a way to properly store the information so it will be easy to locate. I was thinking banker boxes would be key, but I do not know if this would be more efficient than just adding more file folders in the file cabinet. So for instance, we would have two file folders for Greenfield and Baseline. Oh, what to do? What to do? I just want to make sure that for the next intern which comes in, they will not have a hard time navigating through the folders.

All That and a Bag of Chips: Volunteer Appreciation Week

This past week, the City of Mesa held Volunteer Appreciation Week. Though I am considered an intern, I am not paid so that makes me a volunteer also. The week started with a get together on Monday where the Mayor would come and recognize you with your supervisor, but with the end of the school semester approaching, I was unable to attend due to my heavy course load. After skipping this event, I kind of forgot about Volunteer Appreciation Week, but to my surprise on Thursday, my co-workers (Remy and Stella) came bearing gifts. I was excited and grateful to have such great co-workers. Even though the job does not pay, the work environment at the City of Mesa has been one of the best I have experienced. They gave me some candy, a box of chips, and a cake. They decided to give me food because they never see me snacking, and they felt bad. I was touched by their thoughtfulness and realized that when I leave in May I would truly miss working here. Since I had to leave early that day, we ended up having cake at 10 in the morning which is nothing new for me, but it was great to talk with them. The gesture made me feel truly appreciated during Volunteer Appreciation Week.

How to Write a CV

I will be graduating in May, but I have not been able to find a job yet. Recently after reading the Economist, I came across an opening in London for a statistician/social researcher position. I became excited about the thought of being able to move to London. So I emailed the company to make sure that it would not be a problem that I was an American citizen. About a week later they got back to me saying that they encourage applications from anywhere in the world. They just wanted to know if I would be able to meet the requirements to receive a visa. I passed that test so I moved onto completing the application. For me the application was a whole new experience since our English can have different meanings for things. For example I did not know what a surname was. After completing this, I realized that the company did not accept resumes. They wanted CVs, and the only CVs I have seen before were the ones professors completed, but I had never done one myself.

So I decided to do a walk-in appointment at the ASU Career Services Center. Luckily there were not too many people in front of me, and I only had to wait for about 15 minutes. Soon I was called back, and I began to explain my situation with the advisor who I believe was the assistant director. I asked her if there was a basic format to a CV, if she had any suggestions, and if she wanted to look at my resume. She informed me that she was not that familiar with the format of a CV, but she told me the CV is basically a more descriptive resume. She asked me a few questions about my jobs, coursework, and so on and told me examples of what I should emphasize. Even though she was not as helpful as I wanted for the CV, I am to blame for that because think about it, how often does a student come in asking about a CV. If I would have made an appointment, I could have requested someone whose emphasis was with CVs, but she was very informative with helping me with my resume. She gave me great formatting tips that I think enhanced the quality of my resume. Overall, I was impressed with my experience at the Career Services Center.

Movie Time

This past weekend, my girlfriend and I went to the movies. We saw How to Train Your Dragon which was a great stress reliever. School and everything else in life has become very stressful. I am sure everyone has had their moments this semester, but this movie came at a perfect time for me. The movie was predictable and childish, but that is what made it great. There was not much thinking involved so there was more enjoying.The movie centered around Vikings who live rugged lives and kill dragons; what more could you ask for? So if you have time to blow some steam, grab your Harkins loyalty cup and go catch the next showing of How to Train Your Dragon.

Perfection?

I have seemed to master the art of gathering reimbursement money. During the process, my supervisor was supportive but she let me go and figure out the system myself. When I started this project of gathering information, my supervisor would give me an assignment, but she would only point me in the right direction. I would have to figure out how to complete the assignment myself. Though she said she was there if I needed anything and I know she was, but I would strive not to ask her questions. This may have been stubborn, but it was a very helpful process for me. It seemed I messed up many times but isn’t that what an internship is for. Though I messed up, my supervisor would discuss with me what I did wrong such as deleting a formula on excel. These mistakes have helped me to become very knowledge about excel. So now that I have in relative terms perfected this process, I am curious how fast I can get through the next MAG billing period. Will I be able to blow through it in a week or two or will it be an elongated process like before.

Instructions

I will be leaving my internship May, and I fear the next intern will be as clueless as I was. So I am in the process of writing out instructions (in very fine details let me add) of how to complete this on-going project. This is one of my first experiences in writing a training manual, and I feel I am being a little too specific. I mean, I wrote 3 full pages on just how to pay off accounts on Quick Books. I want to make sure I put in all the little things that come up as questions such as some accounts will have a discounted amount which means the payment is pending but the account is closed. Though this is rare, I want to make sure the next person will know what to do. The only thing I am afraid of is that the instructions I am making will be too overwhelming. I just hope I can make it easier for the next person and make it less demanding on my supervisor so she will not have to waste time on explaining these procedures.

The Cubs

There has been a lot of talk around the Mesa and the Chicago Cubs. Earlier in the year, the Arizona legislation passed a bill which would implement a surcharge on rental cars and ticket prices to help pay for a new spring training stadium for the Chicago Cubs. The new stadium would keep the team here for another 25 years. This is big for the City of Mesa and their tourism, but was this the best way to go about getting the funding? Bud Selig, the MLB commissioner sure does not think so. He will not support a surcharge against other fans’ ticket prices, and the plan singles out and favors one team. If I were doing an analysis on the situation, I would sure give this idea a very low score on equity. The Chicago Cubs is a very important team to have financially for spring training, but shouldn’t the legislation have asked for money from the industries in Mesa who receive finances from the incoming tourist to help pay for the costs? Why not, the legislation is fine about fighting about a 1 penny sales tax increase, but they are quick to throw money (8% percent ticket increase) from non-Cub fans to pay for a stadium. Why would it not be a bad idea to have the industry support the stadium expenditure?

Also there have been many reports on how sports stadium decrease money in a city anyway. Would Mesa be that much worse off if the cubs were not in town? Who knows? I can tell you that I am not a Cubs fan and I really do not feel like I need to pay for the stadium. If the Cubs have the most ticket sales out of any of the Cactus league teams, shouldn’t there fan base be able to pay for it. I think it is a simple supply and demand case.

Where Did You Go? My LTAF Funds. Where Did You Go?

During spring break, there was a little ruling on the Arizona budget. The legislation took away cities’ LTAF funds. Even though it seems public transportation has been becoming a big thing in Arizona along with becoming more environmentally friendly, the cutback is felt not only in the City of Mesa, but all across the state. On my floor, there are two people who directly deal with transit. They are currently in a bind right now. On March 23, 2010, the City of Mesa proposed new plans such as cutting Saturday services and shortening routes. This is a very troubling situation because many of the citizens rely on public transit to get to work, and I am sure some of these people work retail and a cut to Saturday services could be devastating for their job performance. I know the budget problem is extremely troubling, but I am waiting for the legislation to make a good and well thought out budget cut. Not ones which deteriorate our community’s foundations. With all of these problems, I wonder if the state will send out IOU’s for the work I have been doing. Arizona is sitting in a horrible position, and I am not liking the outcomes of the legislation’s decisions so far.