Check this Out

All, I have just completed building a new website that will hopefully keep everyone up to speed with how I plan to end my college career!  It outlines my course load, the different organizations around campus in which I am involved, etc.  I also hope to get in touch with my creative side and add podcasts in the near future.  Anyway, I hope you can visit it.  The address is: http://barney.gonzaga.edu/~csemke. Later! 

My First Weekend – DMB Concert

It’s all about starting things off with a big bang, and that is exactly what I did this weekend with 30,000 other DMB fans.  The concert was at the George Amphitheater which is set in a beautiful location overlooking the Columbia River.  It surely was a sight worth seeing.  We camped on the grounds and that was probably the best decision to make because there was no shortage of good company. 

 

The opening band was Robert Randolph and the Family Band who played a great set.  Later Dave invited them back on stage for another play-along; It was really cool.  He played a pretty good set list including several selections from the new album as well as some DMB classics.  True to Dave’s style, he shared some of his gibberish-filled insights between songs making for a comical interlude.  All-in-all, it was a great way to start the year.  

chris

Starting the School Year

Everyone,

Last week I ended my work for the summer at Kryptiq, packed up, and headed back to Gonzaga for the school year.  Initially I was bitter-sweet about summer ending and the school year beginning, but now that I am back at Gonzaga, my feelings have definitely evolved to simply sweet for a number of reasons.

• A brand-new apartment which turned out to be cooler than expected (pictures to follow)
• Enhancements to the campus
• An awesome schedule
• Really cool professors
• Seeing my friends again

My friend Markus and I joked the other day about how coming back to school is just merely a glorified vacation from our summer employment.  We both had a fairly busy summer with our jobs, his at Microsoft and mine at Kryptiq and we expect that although it will be a slammed school year, it will still not compare to the work we had to do over the summer. 

Anyway, I am excited to be back and I will make sure to post some cool pictures of my new pad.

Peace,

chris

Off to DC

In T-minus 30 hours I will embark on my trip to Washington DC for the biennial convention hosted by Alpha Kappa Psi.  Alpha Kappa Psi is a professional business fraternity, but not a fraternity in the traditional sense.  It is an international collection of male and female college students interested in the pursuit and practice of all the facets of business.  Having been a part of the Alpha Kappa Psi network for 2.5 years I have been fortunate enough to experience a sequential rise in rankings starting from pledge and eventually president of my chapter at Gonzaga University.  It has truly been a great experience for me.  Alpha Kappa Psi is a great organization, but is meant for people interested in applying or learning several key attributes.  Some of the characteristics I have been able to refine because of my experiences with Alpha Kappa Psi have been courage, prosperity, openness, integrity, ethics, leadership, responsibility, compromise, teamwork, cooperation, sustainability, dealing with adversity, and so many other favorable traits. 

It will be my first trip to Washington DC so naturally I am very excited.  I will be updating my blog with pictures of my adventure.  I am hoping to see the whole gamut of government buildings, monuments, and memorials.  It will certainly be a fantastic voyage and will mark the conclusion of a fantastic summer indeed!

chris

Microsoft SharedView (Beta)

Tonight was my first live experience sharing my desktop with another user.  My friend Markus and I engaged in a conference call and decided to exploit yet another program offered by Live, SharedView.  This is a great way to facilitate richer conversations.   Not only is it cool to control someone else’s desktop, but also to view and edit documents in real time rather than playing the wait-game while revisions are made over email or phone.  It is a great tool for group collaboration and I plan on using it plenty in the future. 

My only qualm is the delayed feedback I get with sharing desktops over a wireless connection.  At any rate, this is a slick program and I highly recommend trying it.  Another plus is it is backwards compatible to you can share on both XP and Vista OS. 

chris

Windows Live Writer

To my amazement and probably your’s too, this is my second blog posting in 12 hours.  Can you believe it!?  What has made blogging fun and exciting for me is this new program from Microsoft called Windows Live Write.  You can download a beta version from the Live Web site.  Basically, it makes blogging simple and easy to manage.  I no longer need to directly interface with my blog.  Now I can simply open the Live Write application and edit my postings, text, pictures and all.  I highly recommend you give it a shot.  My friend Markus also posted comments on Live Write on his blog.  He is probably much more informed about it seeing that he works for Microsoft.  At any rate, here is a screen shot of what the interface look like. 

Well, it’s time to get back to work now…see you later!

-Chris

I’m Still Alive

It has been quite a while, but I am alive and kicking.  My life has basically consisted of going to work, staying there for 9 or 10 hours, then coming home and working some more.  I am happy to say I have squeezed a round of golf in here and there.  Golf, in some cases, is a good stress reliever after a tough day at work; I can also understand why not!  My superiors at Kryptiq have challenged me with a wide array of projects to complete in my duration there.  For example, I have produced a continuous report of traffic on the corporate web site.  Needless to say, some interesting information was uncovered.  Furthermore, I was challenged to research the competition on a corporate level.  This means I need to identify and report on the competition against each product Kryptiq has to offer.  At any rate, it has been a grueling project, but it will be worth all the trouble and work when I get to present my findings at the company meeting at the end of the summer. 

Portland International Raceway hosted the Historic Races in July showcasing several historic race cars and collector cars ranging from Porsche Speedsters to BMW M6s.  It was great!  Below is a picture of one of my favorite cars, the Porsche Speedster.  I do not know what it is about that car, but I absolutely love it.

Besides that, my summer has gone by way too fast.  I look forward to going back to school to see all my friends and to live in my brand-new apartment, Kennedy, which I was supposed to live in last year but could not because of a fire incident. 

I will be heading off to Washington DC at the beginning of August for an Alpha Kappa Psi Convention.  When I am not stuck in meetings, rest assured I will be doing all the things tourists do there.  I will keep you posted.  See you in DC!!

-Chris

Summer so far…

I must say I have had a pretty fun summer so far. Although I have only been out of school for only about three weeks now, I feel like I have done so much in that time. I have already started my summer work with Kryptiq and it feels great to be back in the routine of going to work everyday (I know that sounds weird, but I’m not kidding!).

But other than work, I have managed to catch up with many of my friends that I cannot see during the school year. It has been great! A few of my buddies from Gonzaga came down to Portland to visit me over Memorial Day weekend which ended up being an absolute blast. The weekend was filled with many holes of golf, quite a few beverages consumed and about two cows for dinner.

Last weekend I was finally able to go to the John Mayer/Ben Folds concert. It was amazing! They both played all my favorite songs and it was a great Friday night.

Also, if anyone is wondering about the movie “Knocked Up” you should definitely go see it. It is worth every penny and I was hysterical for the entire movie.

Well, that does it for me. Have a great week!

Chris Semke

Been a Long Time…

Readers,

It has been far too long since my latest posting. I guess I have a lot of catching up to do. Last time I posted was during spring break and much has happened since then. I am now on summer break and have successfully finished another year of school. It funny to think that I have just one more year left of college. What on earth am I going to do with all that free time? Maybe I will get a job somewhere!

The last month of school was by far my busiest filled with projects, papers, events to attend, and grades to save. To make things worse, the weather finally started getting better making my motivation for school work in dire straights.

With about a week to go in the semester, the housing department finally allowed future residents of Kennedy Apartments an opportunity to view the building. Needless to say, it was quite amazing and I am anxiously awaiting living there next year. I will include pictures soon.

Thankfully I ended the semester on the right foot accomplishing good grades and securing a job at Kryptiq over the summer. I am determined to make this a very memorable summer considering it is my last official summer break of my life! I will keep you posted.

Chris Semke

What Would the World be Like Without Steve Jobs?

In a recent business blog I read a study that concluded that if Steve Jobs were to suddenly leave Apple Inc, the stock price would drop 20 points or about $16 billion in market capitalization.  This study is based off of research of “top-notch” CEO’s who have strong reputations in the financial community and would be missed by investors if they were to suddenly leave the company.  Steve Jobs ranks very high in a list called “Top CEO’s Who Matter” which was released this weekend.  Here is a list of other top CEO’s in alphabetical order:

 • Buffett, Warren – Berkshire Hathaway
• Chenault, Kenneth – American Express
• David, George – United Technologies
• Ergen, Charlie – Echostar
• Fink, Larry – Blackrock
• Frankfort, Lew – Coach
• Fuld, Richard – Lehman Brothers
• Goodwind, Fred – Royal Bank of Scotland
• Immelt, Jeffrey – General Electric
• Iwata, Satory – Nintendo               
• Jobs, Steven – Apple
• Kagermann, Henning – SAP
• Kovacevich, Richard – Wells Fargo
• Lafley, A.G. – Procter & Gamble
• Leahy, Terry – Tesco
• Mackey, John – Whole Foods
• Mittal, Lakshmi – Arcelor Mittal
• Moss, Allan – Macquarie
• Mozilo, Angelo – Countrywide Financial
• Murdoch, Rupert – News Corp.
• O’Leary, Michael – Ryanair Holdings
• Riboud, Franck – Groupe Danone
• Rose, Peter – Expeditors International
• Roth, Steven – Vornando Realty
• Schiro, James – Zurich Financial
• Simpson, Bob – XTO Energy
• Sinegal, James – Costco Wholesale
• Smith, Fred – FedEx
• Tata, Ratan – Tata Sons
• Yun, Jong-Yong – Samsung Electronics

This information is referenced from a news story I found on CNN’s website (it’s actually another blog).  I think I will hold off on buying stock in Apple for a while.  HaHa!