English flagItalian flagKorean flagChinese (Simplified) flagPortuguese flagGerman flagFrench flagSpanish flagJapanese flagArabic flagRussian flagGreek flagDutch flagBulgarian flagCzech flagCroat flagDanish flag
Finnish flagHindi flagPolish flagRumanian flagSwedish flagNorwegian flagCatalan flagFilipino flagHebrew flagIndonesian flagLatvian flagLithuanian flagSerbian flagSlovak flagSlovenian flagUkrainian flagVietnamese flag
By N2H

 

Forget the Ivy League: Most valley CEOs went public

Nov 28, 2007 in Working

(If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS/Atom feed. Thanks for visiting! - Michael)

Serial entrepreneur Jorge Fernandes jokes with colleagues that Silicon Valley start-ups tend to follow a common blueprint for success. A Stanford University grad comes up with an idea, a Harvard MBA runs the show and a Santa Clara University grad keeps the books.

The take-away? You need a pedigree from an elite private university to lead a Silicon Valley company.

Not so fast.

Two-thirds of the CEOs of the valley’s 150 largest public companies who earned their undergraduate degrees in the United States attended taxpayer-funded public universities, state colleges and regional schools, according to a Mercury News survey. About one out of six studied overseas. And two college dropouts - Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs - reinvented the Horatio Alger story for the computer age.

“Silicon Valley is really about as close to a pure talent meritocracy as you can find anywhere in the world,” said Thomas J. Friel, who retired this year as chairman of Heidrick & Struggles, a leading executive search firm with offices in Menlo Park. “It’s a brutal meritocracy.” … Whether you credit the quality of schools or factors like the great weather or lower tuition for residents, California schools accounted for one out of four Advertisement of the undergraduate and graduate degrees that valley CEOs earned. Bay Area schools held a particular draw, with CEOs earning one-fifth of their degrees locally. Stanford ranked No. 1 with 23 undergraduate and graduate degrees among 17 CEOs, followed by Cal with 16 degrees among 13 CEOs. All told, the Farm is responsible for 9 percent of the diplomas hanging on CEOs’ walls.

Link: San Jose Mercury News - Forget the Ivy League: Most valley CEOs went public

—-

Yes! I am on my way! Go public schools! Go Bears!

Tags: ,

Related posts

Is that a Penis in Your Mouth, or are You….

Nov 10, 2007 in Food, Vietnam, Working

(just happy to see me?)

11/09/2007, 7:50 PM [Me by SMS to several friends around Vietnam]: “I have cow penis in my mouth, yeah that sounds gay.”

Samples of friends’ replies:

  • “Not your first time”
  • “TMI” (too much information)
  • “..At least you don’t have ***** ****** penis in your mouth.”
  • “Thanks for the info”…

There is really nothing that gay about having penis in your mouth, well assuming you are eating penis as food, not swirling it in your mouth for pleasure.

Still, there is a certain manhood that must be represented, especially if you’re American- you can’t be any where near penises.

One of the teams in the company proposed we all go out to have dinner together. November is a huge month for birthdays for the company, including my own (the 26th), the CEO (the 6th), and bunch of other people. I don’t know why the idea became focused on cow penis as a fun meal, and I was a bit worried we were going there not because it was good, but because it was special.

Like with snake. Snake is fine, but I wouldn’t be going for it because it’s a great meal, you go because it’s snake.

I wasn’t a big fan of eating penis because it’s penis. Here’s a good quote that I don’t want used against me, “Wow, this penis is good, the flavor in my mouth- it just tingles!”

That, would be called gay. I feel like to have to add “no homo” now, not because I real know what it means (it’s a recent American thing I have not been around for) but because it was kind of taught to me by my boy Rod Benson. And when I say he’s my boy, I mean only thing I have in common with him is that we went to Cal around the same time. It’s kind of like his family connection to Jason Kidd. But here’s hoping he somehow finds this blog and gives me a shoutout.

Back on topic. Cow penis, in all serious, tastes pretty good. I don’t think I will be hungering for penis any time soon (quotable), but if you can remove the mental aspect of it, it’s no big deal, tastes like beef. Now, I didn’t have to eat it whole, so for me the mental image wasn’t really there. Surprisingly, what my guess were the balls, tasted like chicken. The meat itself looked like chicken. Not sure why, I don’t really want to think about my own balls.

Here’s a pic of the meal:

Penis Envy

Tags: , , , ,

Related posts

Now Cal gets to play the spoiler

Oct 27, 2007 in Sports (Other)

San Jose Mercury News - Now Cal gets to play the spoiler

—-

I will go out on a limb (probably not that long of a limb) and say that #21 Cal beats #4 Arizona State in Tempe later today. One alarming stat I’ve seen:

In Close Games (7 points or less. Since 2001)

RECORD

CAL
6 - 10

ASU
11 - 3

Whoa! I did not know that. In some ways it’s kind of sad that I now have this air of entitlement regarding Cal football. Before Coach Tedford, there were a few good season in the early 90’s with Russell White and Mike Pawlowski, there were the years with Pat Barnes that weren’t so bad, there was the teaser year with Steve Mariucci, and then there was the Tom Holmoe travesty, ending in a 1-10 season, if I remember right, before Jeff Tedford came on.

It’s been great ever since, but I just hate the inconsistency. When they lost to USC in 2004, it was a heartbreaker, but it was USC! It’s acceptable. That BS loss was the Texas Tech bowl loss. Every year, there’s something they should have won. This year, they’ve already had 2 silly losses. Even last year, sure the Tennessee loss sucked, but at least they were ranked and Cal faced them on the road.

I think they can beat Arizona St., whom are somehow ranked #4 without beating a ranked opponent. But, like my sister said, it’s a bad year for college football.

Go Bears!

Edit: Ok, so that didn’t work out like I wanted. Cal loses 31-20, and is now for sure out of the top 25. USC lost too. Goodness.

Tags:

Related posts

ESPN - Oregon St. escapes with slim win over No. 2 Cal

Oct 14, 2007 in Sports (Other)

ESPN - Oregon St. escapes with slim win over No. 2 Cal - NCAA College Football Recap

[04:14, October 08] (me): it seems ridiculous Cal could be #2
[04:14, October 08] (sister): it is ridiculous that usc is #10!
[04:14, October 08] (sister): this is the worst season of college football of all team
[04:14, October 08] (sister): time**
[04:14, October 08] (sister): all teams terrible
[04:14, October 08] (me): or maybe it is the best
[04:15, October 08] (me): or maybe all teams good
[04:15, October 08] (sister): the only way cal could make it to #2
[04:15, October 08] (sister): in the worst season of football ever played
[04:15, October 08] (sister): no offense
[04:15, October 08] (me): well they are not that bad
[04:15, October 08] (sister): usc should not even be ranked
[04:15, October 08] (me): they are actuall pretty good
[04:15, October 08] (sister): they should drop out of top 100
[04:15, October 08] (me): well i don’t know if as good as 04 team
[04:15, October 08] (me): i loved that team
[04:16, October 08] (sister): im not saying they are bad but if they are the second best team in the nation it is clear the nation sucks
[04:16, October 08] (sister): esp if the tenth best team in the nation can lsoe to stanford at home

Well, it happened. Cal loses a game they should have won, and it was at home too. And my sister (above) is right. Everyone looks weak. That doesn’t mean Cal still can’t get to the Rose Bowl though! I hope they don’t drop out of the top 10 from this. No team seems particularly dominant, though I am rooting for Andre Woodson and Kentucky. Not sure why, but I read an article about him pre-season and I just thought he was cool.

Tags: , , ,

Related posts

Cal is Back like It’s 2004!

Sep 30, 2007 in Sports (Other)

Ezeff’s hit gives boosts Bears national title hopes

Whoomp, there it is!

Not sure why I decided to open with that, but I wish I had been able to see Cal’s 31-24 win over #11 Oregon yesterday. Away game too. Cal tends to lose 1 game they should have won every year (Texas Tech 2004, I forget who in 2005, Arizona 2006), so while this was a tough game, I’m always a little worried about them. That one loss is the difference between them being a top 15 team and a top 5 team each year. Maybe this year will be the year they get back (50 years ago back) to the Rose Bowl, which means I would have to find some tickets somehow and make my way back to the US around Christmas time. I don’t think Nate Longshore is as good as Aaron Rodgers, but I haven’t seen him play since he got injured in the 2005 opener. Cal looks good, though, and they should have a #3 ranking going into next week, with all the upsets that happened. Even in 2004, they only went as high as #4. Sheesh, 2004 was such a great year until New Year’s Eve (Texas Tech).

They just gotta hold on until USC in November.

Cal football is probably the only thing (ok, Mexican food) I really miss about being in the US. I wish I could go with my dad to go see them play.

Go Bears!

Tags: , ,

Related posts

About

Jun 30, 2007 in Random

So what’s life like for the man who is baller, emcee, thug, poet, and warlord all wrapped into one?

It’s great! I’m just living in Hanoi, Vietnam, working for an IT company learning about my Vietnamese heritage, women, and maybe most importantly, how to live as myself.

Thanks for coming to the site, so I’ll talk quickly about myself and the site. My name is Michael, I’m Vietnamese-American and originally from the Bay Area. Born in 1980, lived in San Jose for most of my pre-Vietnam life (more on that later), graduated from Cal (go Bears!), still pursuing the dot-com dream 10 years later. I moved from the US in September 2006, first to Malaysia to work a contract gig for 5 months, then back to Hanoi, and that’s where I’m at now, doing some work, hanging out with some great people, and seeing how it will all come out. This blog site’s just supposed to be somewhere where I can reflect and voice opinions about anything I think- so yeah, it’s like any other blog.

Me:

The phrase(?) “baller, emcee….” comes from Kyle. What’s great about this is that Kyle gave me this line and cannot remember doing so himself.

The name of the site, I Spit Hot Fire, comes from Dave Chapelle, and more specifically from the MTV Making the Band skit on his show from Season 1.

I do like the title because I like to think it reflects me (ego!), or at least on this site, I hope to reflect it.

Ok. Enjoy!

Oh, and if you need to contact me:

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Related posts