Friday, May 9, 2008

If you haven't studied...

... but you want to give an exam a go anyway, as a grader I suggest this type of effort.

Your teacher will appreciate your sense of humor, your honesty about the minimal effort you put into preparation, and the fact that you showed up anyway, just in case you miraculously got lucky. We love optimism, but if you're going to fake it (and we're going to read it) you might as well do it with flair.

(Best answer on this exam: "fork + shoe = spleen.")

Thanks, everyone!

Hello to all three classes,

I just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed teaching all y'all this semester. I appreciate the hard work that you've done, the input you've given both in and out of class, and how much you've shown and told me!

Good luck with all your endeavors. I'm looking forward to seeing some, if not all, of you next fall.

Enjoy your summer,
Graham

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Study break fun

If you find this album cover delightfully disturbing, or disturbingly delightful, you might also enjoy flipping through the other 49 that have been compiled for your viewing pleasure...
Hi CB,

If the links to the two academic journal articles don't work (Zavestoski and Belk), here's the complete citation info you can use to look them up. I recommend using Google Scholar. It's pretty great.

"The social-psychological bases of anticonsumption attitudes" by Stephen Zavestoski
Psychology and Marketing
January 2002, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 149-165

"Possessions and the Extended Self" by Russell W. Belk
Journal of Consumer Research
September 1988, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 139-168

Friday, May 2, 2008

A plea for help...

Dear students,

I need to do one last piece of data collection in order to finish my dissertation, and wonder if any of you, and/or any of your friends/family/acquaintances/roommates/coworkers/etc. would be interested in helping me.

I need to run several focus groups to examine how consumers use brands as non-verbal communication. These f.g.s will run about 2 hours, participants will get paid $10 (+ snacks!), and you'll get to talk about all the things you love and hate about certain brands, companies, marketing methods, and more. Those people who are especially talkative or offer unique points of view will be invited to do a separate, one-on-one interview at a later time (with another $10 in it for the trouble).

I'm willing to work around people's schedules in order to facilitate this process -- date, time, & place are flexible (though I hope to do all of them the week of May 11-17).

I'm attaching my officially approved recruiting poster, and hope that even if you're not able to help, you'll pass the word along to potentially interested parties. The only restriction is that all participants are over the age of 18.

Thanks in advance,
Graham

PS I'm going to post this on Facebook as well, if that's easier for people to access.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Do as I blog, not as I say

Dear 341,

Please disregard everything I said about the time value of money yesterday.

I think I must've either been falling asleep or smoking crack when I thought that I was learning about this very important financial concept.

I'm embarrassed to have made such an egregious error in class, and hope that you'll all forgive me and not go blabbing in public about this as I did.