natechappell.com

Latest Entries

Important Notice

20 July '09 by nate, under Random.

From: LSAC
Subject: IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING YOUR LSAC ACCOUNT

Starting in 2010, the US Department of Education will be requiring significant changes in the way educational institutions collect and report race/ethnicity data. Accordingly, on July 19, 2009, LSAC changed the race/ethnicity designation in your LSAC account.

Your previously reported ethnicity, Caucasian/White, has been changed to the subcategory Other Caucasian/White under the category Caucasian/White. Please log in to your LSAC account to view/update your race/ethnicity designation. Additional categories have been added, and you may select multiple categories.

If you have questions, please contact our Candidate Service Representatives at 215.968.1001 or LSACINFO@LSAC.org.

I am very thankful I was notified of this drastic change.

Pain Killers? No, Just Swear!

15 July '09 by nate, under Random.

Here’s an interesting article:
According to FOX News, Swearing Makes You Feel Less Pain.

It’s hard to believe that I have been here for ten weeks. It actually seems like I’ve been here longer because my mind is merging this summer with last time when I studied in London. I am however, enjoying it. I have six weeks left before I return to the US and that means in the past year, I will have lived in the United Kingdom for eight months, or two-thirds of the year.

THE WORK:
Work is going well, one of my assignments this week was to make a list of all my previous assignments – which can be quite a pain to remember what you’ve done ten weeks ago.

Here’s what I’ve been doing recently:

1. Compiled a list of currency hedges of Harsco loaning entity HIL and HIF in Excel and converted to USD to determine the loss or gain of hedge and determined movement from previous period.
2. Analyzed and calculated ratios from the balance sheets, income statements, and statement of cash flows of a SGB entities and emailing contacts for explanations behind variances. All statements are then compiled to form month end statements for SGB as a whole.
3. Reviewed SOX auditing reports of SGB North Europe and SGB France entities and asked questions to the contact for clarification if not enough detail was present.
4. Completed Quarterly Inward Foreign Direct Investment Survey for the Office for National Statistics for the company HIL, Harsco Investment Ltd.
5. Attended VAT Seminar given by KPMG to educate SGB Finance and Treasury employees on key points and issues in regards to the Value Added Tax in business.

THE EXCITEMENT:
Since my previous post was somewhat lacking in regards to culture, I made sure that this post would have some cultural activities. Over the weekend, I walked to an old area of Leatherhead that I have never been to. I visited a very old stone church that I later found to be built originally around 700-800 A.D. I also walked around the graveyard that accompanied the church and was looking at the names of the deceased and the dates imprinted on them. I was shocked to see tomb stones dating back to the 16th and 17th century. I saw one stone that said they were born in 1752, meaning they were 24 years old at the time the United States declared their independence. I tried to think of what they thought of the US at this time and how the world was in Leatherhead in 1752.

After I left the graveyard, I went to the Leatherhead Museum. The museum is quite small, but located in an original old house from the early 1800s. In the museum, I saw artifacts and replicas from Saxon graves that were found in or around Leatherhead. I then learned about how Leatherhead was originally inhabited by the Saxons after Roman influence left Britain.

TRAVEL:
I finally managed to book my flight to Nice, France. I never had so many issues planning a trip. Since last time I lived in London, I had much better access to airports and anytime of the day, I could take a bus for about £2-6. However in Leatherhead, I can take a taxi for £40 ($65) one-way, or the train to Gatwick airport for about £10, only when the trains are running. The trains run between 6:30 am till around 11 pm.

So why is that an issue? Because the cheapest flights always leave around 6 am and return at 11 pm and there’s no way I could get to the airport without paying a overpriced taxi fare. Thus, my round trip flight cost rose from a mere £50 or $82 to £100 or $164. Granted, it is still inexpensive compared to most flights, but double the price. So I am flying out Thursday the 23rd and I return on Tuesday the 28th. I booked a hostel that is right in the heart of Nice and reportedly a ten minute walk from the sea.

Quick thought here: I made the mistake of saying ocean once over here and was quickly corrected. All bodies of water for the most part are seas, but Americans in general, or at least I am used to saying ‘ocean’.

CONCLUSION:
Everything is going well and thank you to those of you who have responded to me via e-mail. I sometimes don’t hear anything and I tend to think no one is reading, so feel free to post a comment or e-mail me.

Cheers.

3 Comments

Independence Day

04 July '09 by nate, under General.

Today is America’s Independence Day, the birthday of a nation that arose from colonies into a world super power.

I was asked last night while I was in London if I liked being American. My initial response was, “Well, I have no choice in the matter.” But then, I began to think about it and came to this conclusion:

The one thing that I wish America has and what the UK and Europe has is a defined culture. The English have the Queen, castles, a heritage dating back near 80 A.D., the French have their language, cuisine, the Greeks have their ancient philosophers and ruins, and the Italians, have Rome, one of the most ancient renown cities in the world, the Vatican, Italian food, and Italian wine.

So I thought, what does America have – or what are we known for?
We have Hollywood, McDonalds, big cars, and a culture that is a mix of every immigrant.

However, everything stated there, I don’t believe is ours. Hollywood is everywhere, every cinema in the world. McDonalds is everywhere, and I’m not sure that fast food is something to be proud of, and our big cars, well GM isn’t doing too well right now. As for our culture, it’s a blend from a bit of everywhere.

What I did realize this morning is that what the US does have, is Independence day. Most countries have never had an Independence day, the closest I can think of is the French Revolution against the Monarchy, and the same with the Russian Revolution against the Czar rule. However, both of those examples are of civil wars, while still a revolution, I can not think of one country who was founded by the worlds’ most powerful nation at the time (England) and defeated the best Navy and Army in the world as simple Thirteen Colonies. Now, that is something to be proud of. That’s something that no other country can take away from us. We did not fight for land, for religion, we fought for Freedom.

Just a thought for the day.

Happy Fourth of July.
God Bless America.

No Comments

« Older Entries