Joshua van Aalst’s blog

Sorry it’s been forever since I blogged last so here is an update.

I have been working ridiculously hard of late. Primarily applying for top American B*schools in particular their MBA programs. It has been an interesting time preparing the applications as they have provided an opportunity to spend time looking at what I have accomplished in my life and reflecting and focusing on my life thus far. What I have enjoyed, what I haven’t enjoyed e.t.c. e.t.c.

Anyway I am almost out of the application zone. I only have one more school to apply for and then I am done and will move into that very nervous phase of waiting to see if I get an interview/excepted.

In addition to the applications I have also been working ridiculously hard at launching the new website www.joshandfriends.com.au which I have done in conjunction with Maximillian Bartel of Indiquo. It is a fantastic new site and shifts the site from being an event managers website to being a 100% social networking dance music website. I believe the first of a kind. You can litterally do anything! Add news items to the front of the site. Add polls, competitions. Post a classified, sell tickets, list a want to buy. Host your download with us. Create photo albums and upload pics. Write a blog and of course list your events. It’s all there.

On the website note, the current site is only the 1st phase of the new site and we have a very exciting completion to the new site being implemented late January.

Other than that I have been approached by several nightclub venues and I feel it is now the right time to head back into the arena of dance music events. I will be having serious discussions with them early in 2008 and should have some news to post shortly after.

Enjoy,
Josh

The people’s choice awards are on and Stargate Atlantis is nominated. To ensure this fantastic series continues long into the future please vote for it here:

After 4 to 5 months straight of dedicating my life to studying for the GMAT and applying to NYU Stern’s MBA program I am finally done!

Application submitted.

What a relief!!!

A friend recently asked about my General Management Admissions Test (GMAT) study and I thought it might benefit all if I posted it up here.

What is the General Management Admissions Test (GMAT)?

It’s the exam that people sit who wish to gain entrance to the MBA program at unis like Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, MIT e.t.c.

The GMAT is the following 3 sections with a 10 minute break inbetween

Written - 2 essays - 1 hour
Quantitative - Multiple choice data sufficiency and standard math - 75 minutes
Verbal - Sentence correction, comprehension, critical analysis - 75 minutes

So just about 4 hours all up. It is extremely exhausting exam and is a test of ones indurance.

I primarily used the following 3 books to study

Princeton GMAT Review
GMAC GMAT Review - Official guide
Kaplan GMAT Review

I also used the downloadable GMAC GMAT prep software

Now when I say used them what I mean is I read them cover to cover and answered each question twice!!!

I would strongly advise NOT using small press books. I also own the GMAT study guide by “Exam Cram” and about 1 in 10 answers were incorrect!! so I stopped using it.

If I was to do it again I would have also purchased the GMAC GMAT Review Verbal and Quantitive guides. I really missed having them as the GMAC book was by far the most useful.

I studied day and night for 3 months and took 5 days off work to study.

I got 670 i.e. the 87th percentile. Yay!

If I was to do it again i’d definately enrol at a GMAT school like Kaplan. It was very hard studying on my own.

…. or at least lets hope so.

Of late I am increasingly noticing companies bucking the trend of reducing costs to increase profits, and instead increasing cost to increase market capitalisation via improved customer service, and consequently increasing profits.

Example 1 - AAMI Insurance

AAMI have a slogan on their advertisements along the lines of “Call us and a real person will answer”.

Seriously how fantastic is this? Totally different to the majority of large companies who’s call centres are getting worse and worsen with long waits and offshoring.

Just last week I had to call Vodafone to change a typographical error in my details. I called every evening for a week and after attempting to navigate through the maze of their voice activated software I finally received a recorded message stating “Due to our fantastic range of products and services the wait to speak to an operator is greater than 40 minutes”. Needless to say when I finally got through I canceled my contract.

If it isn’t a long wait then it’s an offshore operator where there is a language barrier. Every time I phone such a call centre I find myself repeating each detail several times which can be both difficult and frustrating. Citibank is a shining example of this and their staff have often entered my details incorrectly. I have since moved to St George bank.

Example 2 - Bank of Queensland

Another prime example of a corporation following the customer service path, Bank of Queensland’s recent advertisements state “Customers have their own personal bank manager who know your name and give you their mobile number”. All I can say to this is WOW!!!

If the above 2 companies are fighting the current trend and if successful will be a big win for customer service. Will they start a new world order?

Oh and lastly remember at the end of the day your choice matters. Talk with your feet!

I have always found it difficult in life to create truly unique ideas. Instead I tend to draw together a bundle of ideas that have been done before, improve and re-package them into a coherent professional product. Examples of this can be seen in both Joshandfriends.com.au and also the events I managed. Nothing in either are unique but rather a fine tuned conglomeration of everything cool that I see around me. This is not a negative aspect of my services at all, far from it, as they are great services. That being said I have always admired people who take a different approach and come up with unique ideas from scratch.

The other day I received an email about a new website called Tomorrow’s Date (http://www.tomorrowsdate.com). It’s a site that provides you with new date ideas customised to what you and your partner enjoy. When I read this I was amazed. It is so rare in this day an age, where almost every permutation of possible websites have been created, that an entrepreneur comes up with a truly unique product…. and to top it off it’s a great idea and a service that I personally want!

In today’s day and age so many relationships become stale over time and the introduction of home theatre’s has multiplied the problem as more and more couples choose to spend a night in rather than out. Although one doesn’t originally notice the boredom of staying in for a movie night on the couch as one continues to choose that over a night on the town it begins to set in.

So if your looking to put a bit of spice in your relationship or interested in checking out a truly unique idea then head over to http://www.tomorrowsdate.com/!

This week was the first week back for new series TV here in Australia.

Firstly it is great to see that channel 7 is now showing an additional Sci Fi drama at a mainstream timeslot. Bionic Woman on at 8:30 on a Thursday now joins the second season of Heroes.

My question though is as follows…

We all know that Stargate Atlantis is the current number 1 Sci Fi TV show (TV.com) . Why then are other Sci Fi TV shows like Bionic Woman being chosen ahead of Atlantis? What makes it even more odd is that Stargate Atlantis is not even shown in Australia at all on any free to air channel!

On my Sci Fi rant…. It’s time to bring Firefly back. If you haven’t heard of Firefly then RUN to the video store and hire it out. It is generally known as the most cut TV show of all time and it is currently one of the number 1 ranked shows of all time on RottenTomato.

Also in Sci Fi news here is to hoping that the Stargate Actor who played Carson gets awarded the role of Montgomery Scotty on the new Startrek feature film and that Stargate Atlantis Season 5 is announced.

Thats all for now folks. Live long and prosper!

NOTE: Since writing the above, GateWorld.net reported the rating for the opening of Stargate Atlantis Season 4 and they weren’t brilliant. It was outdone by Eureka. Pity

Josh

The cats out of the bag. For the last couple of months I have been preparing my application to MBA schools. This has been a huge amount of work and has resulted in less of my time to allocate towards Josh and friends. Don’t worry all you Josh and friends nuts, I will be back with a vengeance! Once I have finished applying I will have many months to focus on Josh and Friends.

On that note we have a wonderful new website arriving over the Christmas holidays. This will be a major improvement on the current site and will focus on social networking aspects and a graphical redesign.

Anyway…. this week I have been brainstorming in order to profile myself for the MBA applications and i’ve come up with a couple of really cool 1 liners that describe myself:

• I see great beauty in great achievement!
• I believe everyone is important!

Both I and Donna have been thoroughly enjoying the Stargate SG1 Tv series and have recently switched over to watching the newer Stargate Atlantis series, a spin off of SG1.

Stargate Atlantis is just getting better and better. If you like Sci Fi or really well produced Television then this series is for you!

The quality of the special effects, acting, makeup, plots and sets are all supurb. On the topic of the story lines each episode builds well on the past creating bigger and bigger cliff hangers , which often climax in massive battles (in space and on the ground).

If your feeling bored of the multitude of crime dramas on free to air tv or just looking to have a night in then hire Stargate Atlantis. You won’t be disappointed!

I am referring to the new P plate laws that have recently come in.

Their is now a $184 penalty and a loss of 2 demerit points for any P plater caught driving without:

- Clearly displaying P plates on the front and rear of the vehicle.

Case….

1) Joshua van Aalst hops in his car to drive from Vaucluse to Surry Hills.
2) The car has P plates on both the front and rear.
3) He drives over the Bondi Junction overpass at 80kph.
4) On Oxford St he is pulled over by a police officer doing random breath testing.
5) The officer requests his license which states he is a P-Plater.
6) The officer checks the rear of the car and notices that their is no P-plate.
7) Joshua van Aalst states that the P-plate must have fallen off during the journey and that he has a spare in the car.
The officer fines Joshua van Aalst $184 and 2 demerit points.

The above is a simple case where upholding the new P plate laws is clearly out of the drivers’ hands. It is pretty much pure luck that when a P plater sets out on a journey he does not arrive at his/her destination with a fine and 2 demerit points.

Who is more evil those who write unfair laws or those who uphold them?