The Majalo Experience

Wow

2005-09-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been nearly two weeks since I posted. Amazing how time flies.

The one thing about business school for which I thought I was really prepared was the amount of time it requires. Every b-school student I talked to warned me about it. The books I read discussed it. But it wasn't real to me until I got here. I spend 16 hours per day at a minimum working on Kellogg stuff. It isn't always classes, but clubs, conferences, and classes combined take up SO much time.

My wife is taking it well, thankfully. Two years isn't very long and then I'll have free time...unless I do investment banking or consulting. :)

CIM Week Results

2005-09-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid that our section didn't fare so well in our CIM Week competition. In fact, we might be pretty close to last in the final rankings. Today we had our CIM Week Olympics and - while we managed to do quite well in the relay races - we had a lot of trouble winning.

My pre-term class about Leadership in Organizations is amazing. The amount of work required actually surprised me. I expected a lot, but not this much. I can only imagine how much work we will have once classes really start this Thursday.

The classes that I will be taking this quarter are as follows.
Marketing Management
Finance I/II (a turbo course combining the first two finance courses)
Business Strategy
Decision Science

I'm looking forward to all of them. I was able to waive out of the first couple of Accounting classes since I have a business background. I also waved out of one Decision Science class and Finance I. However, I decided to back out of my Finance I waiver since I haven't used it recently.

My thoughts about Kellogg so far: more amazing than I thought it would be. What a great place and experience.

A Much Needed Break

2005-09-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today have been a bit of a break from the rigors of pre-term. Yes, we did have class yesterday, but the day was otherwise was unobstructed. We had class today, too, but everything else was optional. Unfortunately, we are now in the midst of a leadership class and I spent much of Sunday and all morning today working on homework for said class.

So far, the comparison between graduate school and my undergraduate business degree has been striking. I am one of the very few Kellogg students (that I have met at least) to have attended a non-exclusive public school as an undergraduate. Interestingly, I haven't found the work to be that much harder, but I have found the instructors to be infinitely more competent. Our section was lucky enough to get one of the highest rated professors at Kellogg for the aforementioned leadership class and she is amazing. Very passionate, very competent, and very well connected. I'm very impressed.

We don't have many section activities this week as our focus is now on class and homework. Section activities will pick up in this weekend, however, and continue into next week.

Something that struck me yesterday: I know over 100 Kellogg students now. It certainly is not all or even most of the incoming class, but I'm amazed at how easily Kellogg has facilitated friendship building.

Famous Classmates

2005-09-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

One thing that I have found fascinating (and intimidating) is the number of classmates that I had heard about before meeting them at Kellogg. Some of them are pretty famous for various things they did before business school. I won't mention any names since I don't know how public that information is, but it is certainly pretty cool from my perspective.

CIM Week

2005-09-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

CIM (Concepts In Management) Week, which is actually closer to two and a half weeks in length, has started. After our one day Labor Day holiday, we got started at 7 am on Tuesday. After opening remarks from several people - including Dean Jain - we split off into smaller groups. At Kellogg, these groups are called Sections, and each Section has a name. Instead of a cooler group name such as the Big Dogs or Highlanders, I was placed in the Section called the Jive Turkeys. Each Section has about 70 people in it.

After we split off into our Jive Turkey group, we started the long process of learning names. Part of CIM Week is a competition between Sections, and one of the competitions is the Name Game. On Friday, one person will be randomly chosen from each section and she/he will have to name every person in their Section. I'm probably 1/2 way there, but I'm banking on the odds that I won't be chosen. :)

After lunch, we were given our first b-school project...something that I didn't quite expect. We had to create a Section Cheer. We actually managed quite nicely - even with my minimal input - and put on a pretty good show. We barely went over the 3 minute time limit, though, and were bumped to fourth place instead of first.

After a very brief reprieve to rest and see our families, we reconvened for the requisite CIM Week bar hopping. I made it to about midnight before I had to call it a day. Others - amazingly - lasted until 4 or 5 am.

Today (Wednesday) we started at 8 am. We had our keynote speaker and then broke off into our Sections to begin preparation for the next major CIM Week competition: the talent show. We've got some ideas, but nothing solid yet. The talent show isn't until Saturday, so we've got a little bit of time still. This afternoon, we had a group case dealing with diversity and how individuals act and react depending upon whether they are in the majority or minority. It was a really good exercise since Kellogg is so team based and so diverse. All of us will be spending a lot of time working on teams that have people from varied backgrounds.

Right now I'm on another brief break. Soon, Mrs. Majalo and I are heading back to campus for another night out, this time in Chicago. After that I'll get a couple of hours of sleep before we start all over again tomorrow at 8 am. I'm already exhausted and we're only on day two.

KAOS - Quick & Dirty

2005-09-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Wow. What a trip. My first trip to Europe was amazing.

The group was made up of 24 people. Five of those 24 were leaders (4 second year Kellogg students and one wife of one of the second years). Of the rest of us, 17 of us were first year students and two were the significant others of first year students. Some were strictly MBA students, some were JD-MBA, some MMM, etc. The group was also very diverse, which made for some amazing insights and discussions that would otherwise have been lost. I think it was about 1/2 male, 1/2 female and about 50/50 international students and US students, too. Perhaps amazingly, everyone was really nice, really cool, and we all got along.

Sunday, August 28

We spent the morning cleaning and working on a park in northern Chicago. After that, we met up and took a big-yellow school bus to O'Hare. (I've heard that you get to fall back in love with school buses while a Kellogg student.) The flight to Zurich was nonstop - thank goodness - and left around 5:30 pm. I was lucky enough to get stuck with a middle seat. When you're as tall as I am, this does not make for a comfortable flight.

Monday, August 29

The plane arrived in Switzerland at about 8:30 am. We took a combination of trains and buses to get from Zurich to Muren. Once in Muren, we hiked a short distance to our first hut. We had two rooms and there were about 15-20 mattresses in each room (on two levels) from which to choose. This hut had running water, a nice restaurant, friendly staff, and modern bathrooms. Also...SHOWERS! A great place to stay. We spent the night just hanging out and recuperating from the west-east plane flight.

Tuesday, August 30

Our first day on the trail. There were several first time backpackers in the group. (I considered myself a sort-of first timer. I've done a lot of hiking in the past, but never on this scale and never with so much weight on my back.) I don't know the total distance or rate of incline, but we spent most of the day moving higher. We had lunch at a hut along the way while all of the stragglers made it up the trail. The afternoon saw our first major obstacle, as we encountered a sheer hillside that took a toll on all of us. Once we made it over that pass, we still had several hours to make it to the hut for the evening. The hut itself was set on the side of a hill and had a great view of several glaciers. We arrived very late in the day (around 8 pm if I recall correctly). The hut had good food, outhouses, and no showers. Our sleeping arrangements were similar to the previous day. Very tiring day.

Wednesday, August 31

We hiked down from the hut and over the bottom part of a glacier. I had never touched a glacier before. This was pretty cool. The morning was not so difficult as we did a lot of down and then some up. However, I didn't eat anything for lunch. The lack of lunch, fatigue, and the unbelievably steep ascent in the afternoon really put the hurt on me. I stumbled and straggled to the top...but I made it. We were at our highest point at this hut (around 9000 feet). The view from the top was the best of the entire trip...or maybe I was just so tired that it seemed good. :) The people at this hut weren't so nice. At 10 pm, a lady came through with flashlights to see if we were all sleeping in the proper direction (we weren't). They did have modern bathrooms, but no showers.

Thursday, September 1

My favorite day in terms of effort as we went all downhill. One thing I learned on the trip: I'm really fast downhill, but really slow uphill. This hike was a bit shorter than the previous two days and we got to our destination (Kandersteg) relatively early in the afternoon. In Kandersteg, we stayed at a house with...SHOWERS! It also had modern bathrooms. The only bad news is that we had to cook for ourselves (the huts we had stayed at previously had fixed our meals for us).

Friday, September 2

I helped with breakfast. It only took about 3 hours to prepare. What can I say...I'm in b-school not culinary school. :) Most of us then took a chairlift up to a lake we had hiked around the previous day. We rented boats and paddled about a bit, but mainly just recuperated from the previous days of hiking. The perfect weather of the week was broken up by 10 minutes of sprinkles. I suppose I can't complain TOO much.

Saturday, September 3

We took a morning train from Kandersteg to Zurich. This was a direct train; much better than the train, train, bus, train, bus combo that we took on Monday. We spent the afternoon wandering around Zurich. The city has fabulous architecture, great cathedrals, and some great shopping (or so I was told). I'm always amazed when I walk into a building that is older than the United States. In fact, one of the cathedrals was built in the 1100s, so it was old before the US was even an idea. In the evening, we had our final dinner as a group and then went out on the town. We stayed at a decent hotel (showers, modern bathrooms, AND Internet access!).

Sunday, September 4

Back to Evanston. I lucked out and got to sit in an aisle seat. However, I spent almost all of the flight watching movies and talking to help get myself re-acclimated to the central time zone.

Overall, it was a GREAT trip. One of the hardest things I have ever done, but the people made it worthwhile. I'm in awe of the caliber of people with whom I will be attending Kellogg and I sometimes wonder how I made the cut. I think this is going to be a great two years.

I'd like to say that I would write more about KAOS later, but since the next couple of weeks are going to be extraordinarily busy, I doubt I will get to it.

And It FINALLY Begins

2005-08-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well more than a year after I started working diligently to get my MBA, I finally did something b-school related with my classmates last night. It was only a happy hour at a local pub, but it was good to meet up with some of the folks that I had previously met at DAK in February. In fact, I've already run across a lot of people that I met at the first admit weekend. So far, it looks like the rate of return from DAK is pretty high.

In truth, I wasn't even invited to last night's event...Mrs. Majalo was and she asked me to tag along with her. She is involved with a group that is made up of the significant others of Kellogg students called Joint Ventures (JV). I think she's already made a group of friends through JV and she seems to be getting along well with her new teaching job (although the kids don't show up until Monday), so I think she will like Evanston.

The second official event of my career as a Kellogg student starts tomorrow night. We have a meeting to discuss the particulars of our KAOS trip to Switzerland...and then Sunday night we board the plane. It is going to involve a LOT of hiking, but I'm still really excited. Just to keep me on edge, though, my parents keep calling and reminding me about all the rain that Switzerland is currently getting.

Once we get back from Switzerland, the fun really begins. And by fun I mean no fun at all. We have two weeks of orientation, get-togethers, and classes called CIM Week. The schedule looks pretty daunting. We're busy from 8 in the morning until past midnight on most days for two full weeks. Including KAOS, there are three weeks in a row that we have "stuff" scheduled in such a way as to force me to miss church. This doesn't sit too well with me, especially since we haven't found a church home in Evanston yet.

I'm off to (hopefully) finish my packing for Switzerland. The bad part of the Swiss trip is that I had to purchase almost $500 worth of equipment to take with me. While a beach trip would have been less fun for me, it certainly would have been cheaper. I guess that in the long run, though, an extra $500 is a drop in the bucket compared to tuition.

I Have Internet Access!

2005-08-22T20:37:00.000-07:00

We are finally in Evanston and we FINALLY have access to the Internet (more on that later). The trip up here was relatively benign, albeit much more boring than was the trip when we moved our stuff up here. The Majalo family dog - while a very personable and intelligent being in her own right - just can't keep up with the conversation as well as Mrs. Majalo. I really like driving - especially road trips - but driving twelve hours without anyone to talk to gets old.

We actually arrived last Monday (August 15). The past week has been spent getting the house in order and buying necessities. Our biggest purchase was a futon. I hate futons. I've always hated futons and I will continue to hate futons. However, our new place has very narrow doorways (28") and a hallway with a 90 degree turn. A couch simply wouldn't fit. So we now are the proud owners of a futon...I'm so thrilled. :)

The biggest hurdle of the week was getting our Internet connection activated. Other than DirecTV, who has to have the friendliest and most competent customer service department of any company with whom I've dealt, I've never been a huge fan of TV/Internet/telecom providers. The incompetence and unfailing rudeness of nearly every Comcast employee with whom I have dealt is astounding. We were supposed to get service on Wednesday, but the gentleman who was supposed to complete the installation went to the wrong house. On a whim, I went out and asked him if he was supposed to work on our house, too. He "checked" and said, "No, someone else will be out this afternoon." So I waited. Later, after approximately 5 phone calls to Comcast, I discovered that the technician from the morning had gone to the wrong house and had flat out lied to me about it. The said they would send out another technician. He or she never made it to our house, either. Somehow in this process, our installation was marked as complete, so I had to explain that caveat on all future calls. To make a long story short, after several days and dozens of calls to Comast, we are finally connected.

The summer sure flew by fast. I can't believe that KAOS is around the corner and that I'm only days away from classes starting.

The Move

2005-07-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

The move to Evanston went fairly well. We had professional movers unload our UHaul and they only managed to break one item (our TV stand). It could have been much worse, and after having moved 8 times in the last 8 years, I was thrilled to have someone else do the manual labor.

Mrs. Majalo’s parents made the trip with us and helped us get the house in some semblance of order. We still have some boxes to unpack, but we have made a lot of progress. We only stayed in Evanston for two days before starting the trip back to Kansas. We’re certainly in the home stretch of our summer off. I’m still enjoying spending time with our friends and family, but I’m also anxious to get back to Illinois and for classes to start.

Losing My Job

2005-07-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

My leave of absence ran into a bit of a hitch a couple of weeks ago. My vacation ran out in late June, and someone in HR put my paperwork in the wrong pile. Instead of going on a leave of absence I went on a permanent leave (e.g. pink slip time). I didn't notice until I tried to connect to the company network...and was summarily denied. Things were fixed pretty quickly, but the fake termination ended up cancelling our insurance for a couple of days and it was a bit of a pain getting the insurance company and my company on the same page to get us reinsured.

I had a feeling something like this might happen, but it sure was a surprise when it did.

Evanston

2005-07-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

We're finally going to make our way up to Evanston next week. The plan is to leave Kansas on Tuesday morning, get to Evanston on Tuesday evening, and to unload everything on Wednesday. We won't stay in Illinois too long, though. We've got to get back to Kansas for a wedding and a couple of anniversaries. Mrs. Majalo starts her new job on August 17, though, so I guess that we should probably get back up there beforehand.

I'm spending the weekend teaching a GMAT class for the first time in a couple of months. After spending the last six weeks primarily in towns of 1,000 and 50,000, I had forgotten how nice it was to be able to go to a store after 6 p.m.

Being An Applicant

2005-07-16T21:45:00.000-07:00

While playing basketball with some friends of a friend a couple of days ago, I met a gentleman who intends on applying to Kellogg (and some other top schools) this fall. I spent a great deal of time talking to him about it, and it really brought me back to where I was last year at this time: in his position. I knew where I was going to apply - generally - but I had no idea where I would end up. All in all, while I'm glad that I know where I'm going to live in the fall, I enjoyed the process of being an applicant and I kind of envy those who are going to be starting their own applications in the next couple of months.

We're back!

2005-07-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

We are back in Kansas after our Colorado vacation. At some point, I'm going to post about what we did, but I'm not there yet. For now, Mrs. Majalo and I are just trying to get caught back up after being away from the electronic world (phones included) for about two weeks.

Our Big Drive

2005-06-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Just as wheat harvest in my area of Kansas is finishing and I was expecting to have more time to blog and otherwise peruse the internet...we decided to go on our vacation. Our past plan of going to Big Bend, Carlsbad, and some other southwestern US destinations has been scrapped (or at least postponed). We're tired of the heat. Instead, we are heading to the mountains of Colorado for a (hopefully) relaxing ten days. It isn't quite the backpacking across Europe excursion that many soon to be b-schoolers are taking, but it'll do for us.

As such, I plan to be out of commission, at least electronically, for the next couple of weeks. I promise that as soon as we get back - and as soon as I get a faster-than-21.6 Kbps internet connection - I'll write all about the trip and talk more about Kellogg, KAOS, and all other sorts of fun MBA stuff that is happening.

KAOS

2005-06-22T06:50:00.000-07:00

I received my KAOS trip notification yesterday...I'm going to Switzerland! We (not just me, since I'll be travelling with 20+ of my new best friends) are going to spend about a week there and we'll be pretty active. There is a lot of hiking involved, although it doesn't look like we'll be camping at night. The hikes conveniently end near lodges where we can sleep. I'm actually happy about that since that means we don't have to lug backpacks, tents, etc.

Ah, what a way to start an MBA program: a week long Swiss vacation.

A Job Near Evanston

2005-06-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

The weight of worry is off our back, Mrs. Majalo officially has a job near Evanston! In fact, she'll be closer to the school where she will be teaching than I will be to Kellogg.

Update

2005-06-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well it has certainly been a busy couple of weeks. I’m officially a member of the unemployed employed. I don’t know that the group is a big one (in fact I’ve never met another member) but I’m happy to be part of it. I now make $0 per year, but still have benefits and am eligible for bonuses. I can’t complain.

I must say that whatever remorse that I had thought might materialize over my last couple days of work never manifested. I will miss a lot of the people that I became friends with over the past three years, but as I got closer and closer to the end of having a 9-5 (for two years at least) I got more and more excited. I walked out Tuesday, June 7, happier than I have been in a long time. I’m excited about having the summer off and I’m even more excited about Kellogg in the fall. We’ve already had the chance to see both of our families, lots of our friends, and I even spent last weekend in New York.

The bad news about the summer is that I’ll be connecting to the internet via a connection that is frequently only 14.4 Kbps and only 26.4 Kbps at maximum. This means that my internet surfing is going to be severely limited. Since I will have plenty of time, though, I’ll be updating my blog more frequently, I just won’t be able so upload pictures, etc. I’ll also drop from checking my email every hour to two or three times per week. Ah, the pleasures of living on a farm.

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

2005-06-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

My lifelong dream* of being on a game show was realized last Thursday. After an uneventful week as an alternate contestant, I was called to play an on-air game for this week's edition of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Hopefully I didn't make too much of a fool of myself. I played the second version of Who's Carl** This Time (direct link to the audio of the segment can be found here) and got all three questions correct.

I haven't listened to it, yet, so I don't know how it comes off, but I did run into a little bit of trouble with one of the panelists. When I went on the air, I didn't yet know who the panelists were (they rotate), and turned out that Kyrie O'Connor was one of them. She works for the Houston Chronicle and took good natured offense at my less than stellar review of my three years living here. Luckily the show was live from Chicago and I had the audience on my side. :) Who knows, none of this may have made the air. I had a great time doing it, though, and I must thank Emily from NPR who helped facilitate my being a contestant and who is just such a wonderful person.

*Okay so it hasn't really been a lifelong dream, but this was fun.

**The Carl in question is Carl Kasell (the newscaster who reads the top of the hour news every day for NPR's Morning Edition. My prize for winning is Carl's voice on our home answering machine. Hey, I knew going in that this wasn't Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Good News for MBA Grads

2005-05-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hopefully this trend will continue. Although I find it really interesting that when only 50% of graduates have offers by mid-March it is considered a good year. Why am I getting my MBA again?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052700276.html

Job Update

2005-05-25T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well, my wife still hasn't heard back as to whether she has a job in Illinois. We're still hopeful, but it is certainly taking longer than expected. She has found a bit of a loophole around the "must live in Chicago to teach in Chicago" rule: if the job is in a traditionally underrepresented field, then you can get a one year exemption. Special education is definitely an area where there are too few teachers, so we're going to pursue said exception. This opens up a much larger area of opportunity for her and it also gives her more options in impoverished areas (her passion and expertise).

After today, I have six more days at work before I'm officially on a leave of absence. I really had thought that I would be sad by now since I have spent three years here. So far, I wouldn't consider myself melancholy at all. Giddy would be a much better description.

And for all the NPR fans out there, I may be one of the contestants on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! this weekend. I'm one of the alternate contestants should someone else not answer their phone. However, if I'm not on this week, I've been promised participation on a future episode. I can't wait to completely flub whatever game they ask me to play.

Benefits of Being a Kellogg Admit

2005-05-20T08:21:00.000-07:00

One of the unforeseen side benefits of now being widely known as a Kellogg admit, is that my coworkers now think I’m a business expert. Whereas I used to just be the kid (I’m 20+ years younger than all of my coworkers), by virtue of having an MBA in the future, I have suddenly become a hot commodity for strategic advice. Previously, when I made a suggestion the response was:

"Oh, you’re just a kid and you haven’t been here very long. We’ve never done it that way, and we see no need to change."

Now it is:

"Hmm. The Kellogg Kid suggests we make a change. He’s going to have an MBA soon, I think we should do what he says."

It isn’t just the people I work with that are doing it either. People from other business units have stopped by my office to ask my thoughts. I feel like the mountaintop guru from the B.C. comic strip. I’m just as competent now as I was six months ago, and most of the things I’ve been asked about are completely out of my area of expertise. It is really quite ridiculous. But still kind of cool.

Job Interview

2005-05-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

My wife is off to Chicago today for a job interview tomorrow. She is a teacher and there are about a dozen open positions for which she is qualified in the district where she is interviewing. We are cautiously optimistic about her getting an offer since it would make life less stressful for us this summer. I have no doubt that she will get a job in Chicago, but we would like to have an offer in hand as soon as possible.

Good luck to my beautiful and talented wife!

KAOS

2005-05-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

I can’t remember if I have broached the topic of KAOS here, so if I have I apologize for being repetitive. KAOS stands for Kellogg Adventures, Outdoor & Service and it is a usually international vacation (coupled with some volunteer work) that the majority of Kellogg students take the week before first year students start orientation. About 20 people go on each KAOS trip, and partners are invited to attend as well. (Unfortunately, my wife will not be able to go.) There were 30+ trips from which to choose and we are asked to rank our top 7 to 10 trips.

My top 7 choices were:

1) Hiking in Switzerland
2) Hiking to Machu Picchu
3) The Mystery Trip*
4) Some beach trip
5) Some beach trip
6) Some beach trip
7) Some beach trip

If my apathy about going to the beach isn’t already obvious, let me make it clear: I am not a beach person. I don’t have anything against the beach per se, except that I find spending time at the beach very boring. I like to be doing things, preferbably outside and preferably interesting and active things. I know I’m in the minority of people who think this way (my wife think I’m nuts for this and for many other reasons), but I was somewhat disappointed in the choice of destinations. To be fair, there were a handful of additional non-beach trips, but the vast many were to somewhere in the US or to somewhere I have already been (Costa Rica & Brazil). I was also somewhat dismayed that the trips are almost all to North or South America. I know that we only have one week, but I have it on good faith that students at similar schools that are taking similar trips had fewer but much more interesting choices.

Even with my complaints, I’m extremely excited about KAOS. It is going to be a great way to meet classmates and to hopefully make some really good friends. I do hope that I get to go on one of my top three trips, but I also realize that the most important experience of KAOS is going to be building relationships with a new group of friends. It is more about the people than the place.

*Apparently, participants in the mystery trip don’t know where they are going to go until they get to the airport. Past trips have been to some really amazing places.

Proof

2005-05-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

Corpus Christi

2005-05-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend in Corpus Christi. It had been on our list of "must see places near Houston" since we moved south, but we had never made the trip. It is only a 2 1/2 hour drive (unless traffic in Houston is horrible...which it was on Friday when we left) so it made for a nice weekend getaway. (On a side note, this weekend was our anniversary weekend.)

We did the usual in Corpus: visited the Texas State Aquarium, drove down to Padre Island National Seashore, and toured the USS Lexington. However, the best part of the weekend - other than spending time with my lovely wife - was the dolphin tour. The tour is located in Ingleside On The Bay (about 20 minutes from Corpus Christi) and has been featured on a number of specials on the Disovery Channel and Animal Planet. We took a small boat out on Corpus Christi Bay and cavorted with wild Atlantic bottlenose dolphins for the better part of an hour. It was amazing. We have seen plenty of dolphins in captivity, but none of those experiences can hold a candle to seeing them as they are meant to be. The weather wasn't the best and the dolphins seemed a bit skittish, but we were still inches away from dozens of the majestic mammals. The tour - the Dolphin Connection - is recommended to everyone.