Early Winter Quarter Updates (Part 2)

Hanging out near a hilariously round dealer at the craps table at the Anderson Casino Night.

A continuation of the last post, these were the fun activities from last Thursday and Friday.  I believe we are now at the exact midpoint of the Winter Quarter, which means we're at the unofficial halfway point of our 2nd Year, which means graduation is approaching a lot quicker than I'd like.  Scary.

Magic Castle - The venue for our Catalina Reunion Night

Magic Castle: The group of ten of us who went on the Pre-Orientation kayaking trip to Catalina Island back in August 2010 set up a reunion event last Thursday night.  This time with less insects and potential for sharks attacks.  The evening took us to the famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, which is a private venue created by the Academy of Magical Arts.  Ordinary citizens such as myself can only get invited to the club with a direct invitation from a registered magician.  Luckily one of our kayak companions knows a thing or two about pulling rabbits out of hats (shahmagic.com!) so he made reservations for us.  The first show we went to was in the Close-up Gallery, a small room of maybe 15-20 guests and featuring close-up magician specialist, Brian Gillis.  I think it was honestly the best magic show I've ever seen.  I couldn't even begin to guess how he pulled off most of these tricks.  We also went to two other shows, one was in a large room and featured a magician named Ice but a little bit too much dancing from his middle age assistant who didn't perform much magic and thought she was still in her 20s.  Finally we went to the late-night show which was funny and very entertaining with a bunch of really good tricks as well.  We finished up the evening by going back to the apartment where two of the guys from the trip lived and hung out and caught up some more.  Hadn't hung out with these guys as a group in a year and a half, and had never been to the Magic Castle before, so overall a very fun night.

AIA Investing Conference: I think I've mentioned in earlier posts how a group of us had formed the Anderson Investment Association (AIA), an investment management focused campus organization to help improve Anderson's reputation in this industry.  One of the methods to do this was to organize a series of prominent events, which we hoped would become annual and well known throughout the country.  The most ambitious of this was the UCLA Anderson Inaugural Investing Conference.  I wasn't too involved in the planning of this, but I know a lot of work went into it over the past six months or so, and I have to say I'm impressed with how it all came together when it was held this past Friday.  A number of prominent guest speakers were brought in, with Howard Marks, the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Oaktree Capital as the keynote speaker.  There was also a kickoff talk and two group panel discussions about trends and issues in the investing community, a networking breakfast and lunch, and opportunities for two book signings.  Nearly 400 guests (including students, alumni, and local industry professionals) signed up to attend the event.  Everything went smoothly, it was interesting and educational, and it was a good networking opportunity.  Definitely a success and a step in the right direction for the new AIA.

Sporting cocktail attire at Casino Night

Casino Night/Date Auction:  One of Anderson's biggest charity and social events was held this past Friday night.  It was held at El Rey Theater and featured several casino tables, a two-hour open bar, dance floor, date auction, and a large list of other prizes that could be auctioned off with proceeds going to charity.  I didn't go to last year's event but heard it was a really good time, so I decided to go this year.  It was a nice opportunity to class it up for an evening and I hadn't been to a large Anderson social event in awhile, and it was a really fun evening.  I wish these events weren't so expensive, but if me drinking vodka tonics from an open bar all night helps children with disabilities, I'm all for it.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing homework and preparing for next week's midterm.  Need to take care of a lot of work now, because I'm only four days away from my next trip... on Thursday I'll be heading to Omaha, Nebraska with the rest of the Student Investment Fund to meet Warren Buffett.