And away we go

Hello everyone,

My name is Sam Phinney and I was born in Madison, Wisconsin. I moved out to Santa Barbara, California when I was only a few weeks old so I consider myself a California native. I went to school, K through 12, in Santa Barbara and even attended some city college courses there. During summers a worked as a tree trimmer and in my senior year of high school I began waiting tables. At the age of twenty two I got offered a job managing the same restaurant and quit the tree work. At twenty six I was burned out and my wife and I quit our jobs and traveled around the world. Now we are back and she is working and I am attending CSUSM.

Technology has never been a friend to me. Even as a manager we did the accounting by hand using pen and paper. I even joke that computers don’t like me since they seem to malfunction when I am present. Sorry class, hopefully this semester will change all that. I do have a PC and am becoming more and more comfortable using it, thanks mostly to video games. I have accepted that technology is important but still have a tendency to shy away from all the cool things it can do.

The mission statement seems to cover all the bases. There is a tone of competence and acceptance. It is different then most business mission statements and if it proves to be practiced by professors and students alike it will create a great learning environment.

Here is a picture of my wife Alison and I outside of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.