Ryan Kanno: The diary of an Enginerd in Hawaii

Welcome, to the rest of my life.

Today, I officially received my Masters in Business Administration from the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaii. Though it took me four long years as a part time student, I’d like to thank everyone who made it possible. Thanks for all the late nighters, the fun times running student body, but most of all, thanks for the memories. Not to mention, thanks to everyone who came to see me graduate! Whee! Since I hadn’t participated in a graduation ceremony in a few years, it was quite exciting.

At least I can say I graduated with Colt!

Go Bows!

(I’ll post videos once I can figure out how to convert them from my camera!)

And as a parting thought, the proof is in the pudding!

(Click on the diploma cover to see my flickr set!)

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As some of you have noticed, I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like to… it’s been quite a busy semester so I figured I’d fill people in with what’s been going on (and what will be going on) in my somewhat hectic life.

1. My second to last semester in the University of Hawai`i MBA program came to an end two weeks ago. One down, one more to go! This semester was quite interesting as Scott, Brad and myself helped investigate acquisition strategies for a local tech startup. All in all, I felt it was a very interesting experience. Thanks to everyone who helped fill out the survey!
2. I actually ended up winning an award during Business Night as the Outstanding MBA Student in Finance. I had a chance to eat dinner with the CEO of Bank of Hawaii, one of the largest banks here in Hawaii that donated my award. It was a very engaging experience. Considering I’m an engineer by schooling, the award was a pleasant surprise. CFA, here I come!
3. This summer, I’m currently enrolled in the Capstone Field Study which involves consulting for a local Hawaii business. Hopefully, our team ends up producing something realistic and viable for our client to implement.
4. I decided to run (again) to be on the Board of the Home Owner’s Association of the apartment complex I live in. Luckily, I was elected for a few more years!
5. As for exercise, I’m playing a basketball league out in Halawa on Sundays, Alumni league next month, and a YBA league in July. I’m also waking up earrrly on Sundays to attend the marathon clinic at Kapiolani park. It’s been a rough few weeks to say the least, but this year I’m going to train a little for the marathon (instead of just waking up and doing it).
6. In a few weeks, I’ll be in “HOTlanta” to watch a friend graduate from OCS school. Congratulations Sako! It’s been a while since I’ve been out East, but I can’t wait for some Waffle House!
7. From July 24-28, I’ll be in Portland, Oregon for the infamous O’Reilly Open Source Convention aka OSCON. I’ll be attending the Django session, two Ruby on Rails sessions, and of course, the Googs session. I’m hoping there’s a discussion about the distributed VCS’s ala Bzr and Hg. I’m also hoping I get to hang out and meet a few cool people in the open-source world.
8. Finally, I’m working hard, or is that hardly working on http://www.wegoeat.com. I know, I know. It’s ghetto. But, with the help of Mr. Harper, it’ll be pimpr.com And… if you’re one of the lucky few to get invited for the beta release…

Whew.

That’s about it. Once everything clears, I’ll add another tutorial or two about what I’ve been playing with in Django. Until next time!

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As some of you might know, I’m close to getting my MBA from the University of Hawai`i (I know, I know… I’ve been saying it for years), and in one of my final classes, we’re studying the digital photo habits of people like… well, you!

Thus, I’m humbly asking (aka begging) if you could take a few minutes (probably 2-5) at the most, and fill out the following questionnaire and help me graduate, I would really, really appreciate it.

Click here » http://www.ekahisoftware.com/survey/

And in the process, you could even win an iPod Shuffle! Also, if you could send this questionnaire out to all your friends, that would really help me out a lot!

Thanks!

Update: I get this email from my mom this morning.

Hi Ryan,

It’s mom. Just to let you know that I completed the email and sent it to
some of my email friends. Howevr, the only thing wrong about the survey
was it’s mandatory that you needed to complete the box on the email
address for the ipod prize. People like me who just hate to give out email
address to just anybody may not send the survey back to you. Getting
an ipod prize for the survey sounds fishy to me. Do you really need that
mandatory block for the email address?

Mom

Ps Actually there is no need for a prize to complete a legit survey…
esp. for school

Ahahahahaha. I nearly died laughing. You just gotta love old people. =) And for those of you still questioning, not to worry – we wrote the survey ourselves and we won’t be selling any of your email addresses (even though we are business students).

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Last Saturday, Shaks (aka ‘Iron Chef Gangjee’) invited a few friends over to his place in downtown Honolulu to eat some of his (in)famous Indian curry. A night of good friends, good food, and good fun – I think we need to do it again. Here’s a pic of the attendees.

As always, take a look at my flickr set to check out all the pik-chas!

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A few more of the Spring 2003 University of Hawai`i MBA entering class graduated this past winter. Though I’m happy that we’re all finally graduating, it’s sad to realize that we’ll all soon be moving on with our lives.

A big ups to Melissa, Susan, Michelle, Chad, Roger, Hongchay, Bob, Pamela, Denis, and Mana – may you enjoy great successes in all your future endeavors! (and don’t forget about me, damnit.)

Take a look at my flickr set to check out all the pics!

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