Hurricane Earl

Hurricane Earl is expected to his the coast of New York late this afternoon. Not that many flights have been cancelled but enough to make me worried about my flight to Chicago, which is scheduled early Friday morning.

Compared to previous hurricanes that have swiped the East Coast, Hurricane Earl is not very significant. The city of New York is never hit severely although many people living at the coasts of Long Island and New Jersey may be affected.

I found some fun facts about hurricanes. In even years, they are given male names and in odd years they are given female names. It is the National Hurricane Center that comes up with the names, which apparently are established based on which region the hurricane emerges from.

I have planned my trip to Chicago now. However, unlike my packed trip to Vegas, I have many gaps in the schedule. Chicago does not seem to have many attractions compared to other cities. We will be busy though and I am really looking forward travelling there.

I only have two more weeks left in school. I have a couple of finals and assignments to prepare for but I am going to enjoy my Chicago trip without worrying about that. Fortunately, I will still have enough time to prepare for everything.

I finish work at 2 PM today. It is a quite common scenario to leave early on Friday when the holiday takes place on a Monday. The main purpose of this is probably just to extend the weekend a bit, which improves employee satisfaction. It works great for me because I need to pack my bag to prepare for an early flight tomorrow morning.

Achievements

Classes will soon come to an end, for good. Being my last quarter, I only have two weeks left until I graduate. I do not have any specific feelings towards graduating so far, but I am positive that I will when I start realizing that my education at Berkeley College is over.

I am going to visit the gift shop before graduating. I want to purchase some flags and shirts to keep my memories from college alive. People who contact me always ask if I am satisfied with Berkeley. The answer has always been yes.

Looking back, I really believe that I could not have performed better than I have. My GPA is 4.0, I have stayed active as a Blogger for over two years, I have participated in school activities through my position as the Treasurer for the international club, and I have interned for a company within my area of interest for over a year.

I take credit for engaging in these activities, but it should be noted that Berkeley College made them possible. Reflecting back on where I was three years ago, I can see the progress that I have made and I am proud of my achievements.

Chinese Tea

I am trying to lose weight, again. I actually did lose weight the last time I wrote about it. However, that was more than three months ago and nothing happened since three weeks ago. For the last three weeks I have been on a Chinese tea diet and it works pretty well. I also stopped eating late at night after school.

I usually skipped breakfast and had my first lunch at noon. Five hours later I had another meal before classes started. I came home around 9 or 10 PM and had my last meal at that time. That was not healthy, especially since I usually was starving and had large portions of food just an hour or so before bedtime.

Nowadays, I use my exercise bike at least twice a week. I also eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, I have my dinner, not later than 6 PM. As a result, I feel better physically. I also started to walk the stairs instead of using escalators. I believe that has helped my weight loss to some extent.

I drink the Chinese tea as much as possible during my work hours. I simply substituted it with water. The tea helps digestion and promotes weight loss. For days when I do not drink tea, I drink some vinegar right after my meals. That may sound extreme but it helps to take care of the fat from the dish.

In addition, I have also made my portions smaller but I still eat what I used to eat. I do not eat as much snacks as before either. Although I still eat snacks occasionally but snacks that do not contain too much fat and sugar.

My current weight loss is a little slow but I expect it to take off soon. The body first needs to get used to the new routines and diet. Also, since I am exercising, my body is increasing in muscle strength so the weight loss will not be seen instantly, as muscles weigh more than fat. I did get skinnier, which can be seen on my waist and face and that feels great.

Labor Day

Next Monday is Labor Day. My class on that day is therefore cancelled. That will bring the total of revoked classes to three because the professor had to take one day off last week and the first day of class was cancelled because of Memorial Day.

My professor has been able to cover all the course material and he has organized the class very well. I have learned a lot and the things that I have learned have been of the practical kind, meaning that I can use the information professionally at work and other places.

My mother ones told me that the potato came from America. I always questioned that theory. However, in my next class in world civilization, he professor will cover the history of the potato, which indeed came from America. I guess I have to admit that my mother was right.

I just received my grades for my term paper, attendance, and participation for my operations management class. My total score right now is 68 over 70. Therefore, in order for me to get an A for the class, I have to score no less than 22 out of 30 on the final exam. That will not be difficult.

This is a good example of why it is important and beneficial to study hard in the beginning of the course. Since all finals take place the last week of the quarter, it is important that students prepare as well as possible for it.

For example, I do not have to study as hard for my final in operations management, as I have to for my political science class. It is simply easier to organize the last week by prioritizing according to which tests that are more important.

Bugs

The number one advantage of having a cat as a pet is that it catches bugs. I found a dead roach when I woke up yesterday morning. It was probably a German roach because it was relatively big in size. It was the first time I saw a roach in my apartment and I found it quite disturbing.

I really hope that it came in through the window or similar because usually when you find one roach, it means that there are more. In any event, I am glad that my cat killed it. I am going to buy something called Combat Roach Gel, which is said to be very effective. What happens is that the roach eats the gel and later returns to the nest and dies. Other roaches in the nest are then exposed to the poison, which exterminates the nest.

I do not think there is a nest anywhere in my apartment since I keep everything very clean. I also only saw one roach. However, I want to get the gel as a precaution. One thing that I definitely do not want to happen is for the roaches to propagate.

Roaches are very common in New York. I have seen several on the streets. It is definitely a problem and many people are hiring exterminators in attempt to reduce the number of roaches. However, many old apartment complexes have exterminators show up at least ones a month since it many times is impossible to totally get rid of them.

Bed bugs have also become a big problem in New York. A large movie theater at Times Square recently had to close for a few days in order to exterminate bed bugs. A news anchor joked about it by saying “The expression ‘Do not let the bed bugs bite’ is not so sweet anymore.”

I do not know anyone who has been invaded by bed bugs, but it is all over the news. The problem is that they spread through people’s cloths and other fabrics so it is hard to protect against infestation. That is especially true for people riding the subway.

Chicago

I booked a trip to Chicago with my girlfriend. Chicago is a city that I have always wanted to visit. My idea of it is that the city is less crazy than New York, but still more energetic than Seattle, which I visited about two years ago. I therefore think it is the perfect city for me.

Chicago also seems more modern in terms of architecture since all its buildings are relatively new compared to those in New York. We are taking a direct flight there for the Labor Day weekend and will stay for four days.

I am looking forward to try real deep-dish pizza. I have been to the restaurant “Uno Chicago Grill” in Boston and New York but I did not find their pizzas to be that deep. From the pictures that I have seen, there is definitely a bunch of really good placed in Chicago that I cannot wait to visit. I also want to eat steak, which apparently, Chicago is famous for.

I have not fully planned the trip yet, but I am also looking into taking a boat tour on the lake and river. I am not sure whether to take it at night or in the morning. I want to get good views of the city though and a sunset tour would be fantastic.

Other places I want to see include Millennium and Grant Parks, John Hancock Observatory, and the Navy Pier. I will probably take loads of pictures so I will try to post a few on the blog. If anyone has any tips on what to do in Chicago, let me know.

New York is an amazing city, but I feel that I need to get away from the city ones a year or so. New York really never sleeps and it feels like everyone and everything moves very fast. The temperature dropped for a few days to the 60s and I really enjoyed that. Now they are back up in the 90s again. I cannot wait for the fall and winter to be honest.

OM Test

I had a test in operations management this week. I was nervous about it because it was the first test for the class and I did not know the professor very well. In addition, the test contained mathematical problems that I found hard to predict.

The test was not easy but I was able to score 28 out of 30, which translates to about 93%. I am definitely happy with that. I do think that the professor may have made one mistake however. For one question, I got 64.33%. The multiple choices available only listed 64.4%, two other numbers, and another option for “none of the above.”

I picked “none of the above.” I think the professor accidentally rounded the answer wrong or at least I hope he did. If so, I can score 29 out of 30 instead. In any event, I am happy with my score. I now have to practice for my presentation next week.

I also had a take-home midterm in my political science class. I am against take-homes most of the time because it can make the tests too easy. However, it was the perfect testing method for this class and I actually learned a lot.

The political science class itself can be confusing at times because the professor jumps around a lot and students are interrupting each other often. The test forced me to read some chapters and I felt that it helped me to understand the American government much better.

We will also have a term paper, in which students will have to come up with a fifth president to be portrayed at Mount Rushmore. I have not yet decided who to chose but I would prefer to research a president that I want to learn more about and that has made significant accomplishments.

Students

I am happy with my world civilization class. The professor is trying vigorously to cover as much as possible about the history of man. We have been discussing the Roman and Greek Empire the last three weeks and are now learning about Vikings and events such as the Battle of Hastings.

A student recently complained that we had to do too much, while at the same time claiming that she wanted to learn as much as possible. After delaying the class for about twenty minutes, I spoke up and told her that this is college and to do well you have to work hard.

We have a quiz every week. Studying for them is not easy and it is important to take down as many notes as possible during class. However, by doing so, students learn a lot. The problem with this class is that it seems like most students hate history.

Another thing that bothered me about last week’s class was that students tried to delay the class by complaining about the workload. We ended up having no time to do the quiz so the professor assigned it as a take-home exam instead. In other words, I studied my brains out for the week and now everyone would score a hundred.

This really frustrated me. The professor also agreed to narrow down the material since some students thought it was too much. I will therefore not learn as much as before. I am going to bring this up next class. I have gotten As on all exams so far so the tests are obviously not too difficult. Students who cannot get As do not deserve them.

Some students have no respect for the professor. I am not only referring to the recent complaints. Two weeks ago, a student yelled out, “Professor, you are blocking us!” because he was covering the projector when answering a student’s question. The professor’s response was excellent. He said, “I believe you meant to say, Excuse me.”

Presentations

I have not written any blogs for a while. I have simply been too busy to write. Being my last quarter, I had hoped for courses that contained less assignments and more discussion. However, I misinterpreted that.

I have a bunch of term papers to finish before the end of the quarter and a couple of assignment due in a few weeks. I also need to make a presentation next week on designing supply chains.

Seven students held presentations last week. In my opinion, one of them was well executed. Most other students were clueless about their topics and were overly tense or nervous.

One student definitely knew his topic. However, the presentation was not to exceed five minutes, this guy kept going for at least fifteen. I really hope that the professor will keep the standards high and not lower the bar just because many students did badly.

Another thing that I am not too happy about is the fact that many students in my political science class are way too free-spoken. The professor many times stands passively observing or interrupts himself because he believes that students think the topic is uninteresting.

I think it is important that professors believe in their methods of teaching and do not become intimidated by some students’ inability to learn or stick to policies. For example, if a presentation is to be five minutes, students who do less than four or more than six should lose points.

The reason that I feel this way is because the reputation of the school will be shaped, not only based on students’ performance, but also by the quality of the education. It does not matter if 90% of students get Cs as long as the school is rated top class by agencies.

Weekend

I scored top in class on last week’s test in my world civilization class. I got 92 out of 100 after getting two of my answers wrong. One of those two wrong answers confused me because I thought that I had answered that question differently. Ultimately, it does not matter since I was the only one getting an A on the test.

Since we have tests every week, I had another test yesterday. This time, it covered subjects regarding the Greek empire and the Fertile Crescent. Some of this material is pretty heavy to get through but I find Greek and Roman history pretty interesting. I am currently looking for a good book about Greek mythology so if you know an entertaining, yet factual book, let me know.

My professor suggested books by Edith Hamilton and Robert Graves but they have not come out with a new edition in more than ten years, which scares me off a bit. The positive effect is that they are fairly cheap. They go for about $15 each online so I might buy a copy just because of that.

I might go out for dinner with my friends this weekend. I only have two days so I try to utilize my time effectively. I will go to get a haircut after work and take out my girlfriend for dinner later tonight at a Sichuan restaurant. Luckily, I do not have any classes on Friday’s so I have plenty of time after work before bedtime.

The weather seems to be getting cooler. I have not used the air conditioner for a week now and every morning is chillier than before, which is wonderful. One thing that really bothers me is that all weather people seem to assume that the hotter it is the better it is. The truth is that most people in New York hate the humidity and the excruciatingly hot subways. At least I know that I do.

This will be my last quarter of blogging. I graduate in September and will be pursuing my career within the transportation industry after that. I have not decided whether to entirely give up blogging or not. However, it is time consuming so I will have to see whether the time allows for it or not.

Political Arguments

My class in political science yesterday reminded me of how liberal people in New York are. In other words, a wide majority of people would vote for democrats in elections. My professor openly announced that he was registered as a republican and this lead to an uproar of questions by students. I think this is unfortunate because it shows how bigoted people can be.

If a person does not like someone’s opinion, he or she should not become aggressive and suddenly turn against that person. Instead, they should listen and learn from that person. Many people in New York grow devil horns when they hear the word republican. It is really that bad. This leads to some sort of discrimination where people start to automatically assume that everything republicans do is bad.

One problem for the republicans is that they do not have a strong spokesperson in New York at the moment. Also, schools especially are dominated by democratic professors and textbooks written by liberal journalists.

I am not trying to advocate for the republicans. Instead, I want to raise awareness that both political parties should listen to each other. Having a balanced House of Representatives and Senate can lead to exceedingly innovative solutions and this also pertains to classroom discussions. Most importantly, neither party should look upon the other with despise. That only proves that there is a lack of knowledge and understanding.

There are of course republicans in the classroom. The problem with having 90% of the class yelling out anti-republican statements is that the other 10% rather sit quiet than challenge their statements. It takes a courageous person to step up because he or she will most likely be looked down upon for the rest of the quarter if most other students are narrow-minded extremists.

However, if another left-wing stream of arguments occurs again, I am going to speak up. It will be interesting to observe whether students can actually start accepting others’ opinions or if they will go berserk. The professor is fairly neutral although he did announce his political standpoint. I do believe that he would appreciate some balance in the classroom though and I do not mind being the target of criticism in that class.

Nyquil

I actually really enjoy my operations management class. I thought the math part would make me lose interest, but the math makes sense and I can see several uses of it in a professional environment. We talked about supply chains yesterday and I find that stuff really interesting. We also learned how to calculate the indifference point and more, which is useful in situations where companies plan to outsource.

Eight students will present next week about their topics, which have been selected from the table of contents in the textbook. I do not really enjoy classes like that because they take time and include so many subjects that it is impossible to stay focused on all of the presentations.

I was really lucky last weekend. I was watching television and a few of electronics suddenly stopped working including my television. I checked the power cord and one of my adapters had melted. I bought the adapter from Sweden so that I could charge my Swedish cell phone a while ago. However, I recently used it as an extension cord.

I am really thankful that it did not start a fire and I now only use two wires in my bedroom. Apparently, it is not good to use too many adapters and extension wires. I plan to turn off all my extension cords in the future before I leave home. That could actually also save me some money.

I got a fever last Friday and I still have a cold. I drank some Nyquil last night, hoping I would feel better today. However, I do not think Nyquil has ever worked for me. It was really hard for me to get up this morning because it makes you quite drowsy. I will probably stick to Excedrin and other aspirins in the future.  

Swedish Meatballs

I cooked Swedish meatballs this weekend. I got the recipe from my father because I wanted it to taste like home. I was afraid that it would not be the same, as the meat and all other ingredients come from a different place. However, it turned out really well. It was probably the best meatballs that I have ever made myself.

IKEA’s meatballs are okay. Some people say they do not taste good but I disagree with them. Making your own meatballs can take a while especially since you will have to roll them manually. I think it took me about hour to cook but it was worth the time I put in.

My weekend was pretty quiet. I do not have much homework to do so far. I only have one class online and online classes are usually quite demanding in terms of assignments. Right now I am studying value chains and supply chains in my operations management class. I find that very interesting especially since I am working with that at my internship.

I will probably start to prepare for a couple of future assignments that are due the last week of this quarter. I need to conduct a competitive analysis for the current company that I work for and I also have to make a presentation about designing supply chains. Both assignments are very interesting so I am looking forward to doing it.

Berkeley College rewards two students at the end of every quarter with the Robert Maher Outstanding Student Award. This is the greatest award a student can earn. I am highly interested in being awarded this so I am currently looking into how I can be considered for it.

There is a board that votes for which student that should receive it. The student must show a strong commitment towards his or her education and have achieved personal, as well as professional goals. I believe that I match this criteria and I strongly hope that I will be considered.

Phoenicians

All my classes except my internship class are electives meaning I chose to take them voluntarily. Most students would prefer taking less difficult classes their last quarter. I picked classes that I wanted to take and thought would be interesting with one exception, world civilization.

My professor has now made up his mind in regards to testing. He has decided to test us every week through multiple-choice tests containing 24 questions. Our weekly lectures are very significant and contain a lot of information. I used my laptop yesterday because I knew that I would have to take a lot of notes.

During class, I could hear students sighing because of tired hands. That was how much we had to write down. Of course for me it was not a problem thanks to my laptop. In any event, the professor could have made all this much easier by uploading the PowerPoint slides to blackboard, but he is not a very technical person unfortunately.

The test yesterday was not easy. It pretty much contained everything we talked about the last two weeks. That might not seem like very much but it really was since the material covered everything from Phoenicians to domestication.

I hope that I did well. The good thing with having tests every week is that it is easier to get a good final grade. In practice, you can miss one test and still get an A if you get a 100% on the rest of the tests. Of course, this is unlikely to happen, but the professor will be able to judge with more accuracy if he assigns several tests.

Today is Friday and I am looking forward to the weekend. I am going to a Chinese Sichuan restaurant today that is within walking distance from my home. Sichuan food is definitely my favorite kind and it will be interesting to see if this new restaurant is good or not. Let us hope so.

Freedom Tower

The One World Trade Center is taking shape. Actually, I prefer to call the tower by its original name, Freedom Tower. Looking at the artificial pictures and what the tower will look like is always a pleasure. I never got the chance to see the original World Trade Center so I am thrilled to be here in New York for the inauguration of the Freedom Tower.

I took the picture this morning on my way to work. There is another building under construction where the second World Trade Center stood. This building will not be as tall as the Freedom Tower however. There are always a lot of people in this area during rush hour and space is limited. It will be a pleasure walking there when everything is complete.

I honestly do not understand why it is taking so long for them to complete the tower. It is scheduled to be done by 2013, seven years after construction was started. The Empire State Building only took 16 months to build and that was in the 1930s.

I had political science yesterday. It is an enjoyable class, but it can be frustrating at times. For example, some students start spontaneous debates with one another. Being quite loud and with the professor taking a passive stance, not much progress is made in terms of learning. These students let their opinion direct the conversation instead of discussing topics backed by facts.

However, this class will hopefully teach them about the American government, its laws, and policies that will help them to understand why certain procedures exist and how the political system works. The professor is very lenient. Instead midterms, we will have take-home exams. I actually believe this is a good way of testing for the purpose of this class. A well thought-out term paper probably means more than a multiple-choice test.

Math

I am starting to like my operations management class. First of all, I was lucky in the selection of presentation dates and topic. I will go the week after the midterm with the topic of my choice. I choose supply chain design, which is something that I am involved with at work and find exceedingly interesting.

We also went over some mathematical problems and they were not very difficult. The professor focuses more on understanding the results of the calculations than doing the math, which I feel is very useful. That way, we can improve our abilities to analyze outcomes.

I believe that many math geniuses are great with calculations but lack the ability to study the results and to compare it with real time situations. I guess since I cannot compete with “Einsteins”, I prefer competing on the level of analysis.

I have a test in world civilization on Thursday. It has not been easy to prepare for it. I have typed down my notes but that is pretty much all. I study these notes on the train to and from work and hopefully that will be enough.

I also found it difficult to find good facts about the constitution of Sweden. Since the professor only wants to discuss the topic and does not require an actual paper, I will bring a printout from Wikipedia. This is something that students should avoid and always do since Wikipedia is full of inaccuracies. However, for Tuesday’s class, it was my best alternative.

East Village

I went to East Village this weekend with my girlfriend. It has actually been a while since I was there last time. I remembered it to be much dirtier but it seems like they cleaned up the place a bit or maybe I am just getting used to New York.

We went to a great Chinese place that I do not know the name off. They have a couple of locations, all very small so take-out is probably more convenient than staying. However, we stayed because we luckily found two seats.

The food served is traditional Chinese. They do not serve rice, but instead noodles and soup. They also have a Chinese hamburger with lamb or beef that tastes great. I had Chinese noodles with pork, and I fell in love with it after my first bite.

They give you just enough to get full but I bought a hamburger to go just because of my curiosity and perhaps my big appetite. We also went to McDonald’s to try the new smoothie. It actually tastes great and is healthier than most other drinks served at McDonald’s. I hope they keep serving them after the summer.

I have been able to sell all my books from last quarter. Half.com is a great website to use for selling textbooks. I have probably mentioned that before. However, unless you have excellent reputation from old purchases and sales, it is difficult to sell something in the same category that is higher priced than the competition. I had to continuously reduce my price so that I kept showing up as the cheapest alternative. I still got a good price for the book though.

IKEA

After work this Friday, I went to IKEA in Brooklyn to enjoy some inexpensive food. I was first planning to eat meatballs or fish and chips but the line was extremely slow in the restaurant so my girlfriend and I decided to go downstairs to ea hot dogs instead.

The hot dogs are only 50 cents each, which is a bargain, especially in New York. We also enjoyed some frozen yogurt for $1. I also bought some cookies and caviar to bring home. I enjoyed a Swedish egg sandwich with caviar later that day, which I have not done in a year probably. It tasted absolutely fantastic.

I bought a microwave lid because I am tired of having to clean my microwave all the time. Accidentally, I brought the display product to the cashier, which was not allowed for purchase. I therefore had to go all the way back to get another one. Being IKEA, it probably took me ten minutes to walk there and back to the cashier.

I still have not gotten my iPhone battery replaced. The computer store called me and explained that they had “screwed up” my order. This was quite frustrating. I now have to wait for at least another week before I can have it replaced. I can still use my iPhone but it dies after about twenty minutes of use, which blows because I cannot check my email, GPS, or listen to music.

Another thing that blows (joking aside) is the subway. Trains are running more irregularly nowadays since after the MTA made the budget cuts last month. Also, it is stinking warm in the subway all day and night because of the hot and humid weather in New York. I am not kidding when saying it is over 100 degrees in the subway. Luckily, trains are air conditioned but they usually show up too late to save people from getting soaked in sweat.

Constitution of Sweden

For my next class in political science, I have to do some research on the Swedish legal system. This is not anything that I look forward to but at least it is not a very large assignment. I am to find out what the Swedish law is based on and how it was established. In all honesty, I have no idea but I would assume that it roots from laws made up by kings.

In any event, I had my second class in world civilization today. This is a pretty heavy class. By heavy, I mean that it includes a lot of material, facts, time periods, and names. The professor is making it as interesting as it could be and it definitely helps.

We will have our first class next week. The PowerPoint slides will not be posted so it will be exceedingly difficult to prepare for the test. Note taking has been based on slides and lectures but it is hard to write everything down.

We will have a review on the day of the test, which I find quite inconvenient. I would have hoped to have a review on the week before the test. Going over the test right before the test may just confuse students and it is definitely not easy to remember or learn things in a couple of minutes. With that said I hope to get a good score on the test but it is definitely something that I am worried about.

This quarter seems to involve very late classes. Last quarter most of my classes finished around 8 PM. The last few weeks have been worse and I am not home until around 10 PM most days. This is definitely tiring, especially since I am working full-time from 9 to 5.

Men and Women

I have political science on Wednesday’s. It is a pretty fun class. I had hoped it involved more discussions and fewer lectures though. The class feels a little unorganized. The professor has no real syllabus to follow it seems and he has not decided how to test us yet.

This creates issues because it makes it difficult, as a student, to prepare for future assignments. For example, I do not know if I should take notes constantly or focus more on communicating with the professor.

We watched a part of the movie, Lord of the Flies last class. This movie is usually watched by high school students, but we watched it to take note of how people may interact with one another in cases where a leader needs to step up.

We also had group exercises with the class split up into three teams. One with women only, one with men only, and one mixed. I ended up in the mixed group. We were to decide how decisions should be made if we were to set up a new government after crashing onto a deserted island with one hundred other survivors.

The group with men only had a much more authoritarian view of handling things. The women leaned more towards a democratic system where a few people would be in charge. My group decided to have a fully democratic system with the mass making decisions together. It was pretty interesting to learn about these results and how men and women may look at things from very different perspectives.

Operations

My first operations management class was interesting. My first impression of the professor was mixed. He seemed like a quite strict professor and he will use lecture material from a book that Berkeley College previously used.

The reason for that was that he thought the old book was better and although the new book is okay, it does not contain much of the calculations from the old one. With that said, this class seems to be focused highly on mathematical formulas.

This was something that worried me. I really did not want to take a math class in my last quarter. Luckily, the class also focuses on operations and techniques that do not involve math. Also, the formulas do not seem to be significantly difficult although they will require me to sit down and repeat the questions over and over again.

The class ended after two hours. Some professors like to spend the full three hours lecturing but this professor seemed to be happy cutting it down to two hours, which is pleasing, as the class requires full concentration at all times.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the classes turn out. There will be three classes of presentations and the professor will pick who goes when next class. This will be nerve-wracking since the first person chosen will pick his or her subject. Therefore, if I am picked last, I may not be able to pick the topic of my choice. Let us pray for the best.

iPhone

I work five days a week nowadays so last weekend was one of the shortest I have had in a long time. I used to have only one full day off in Sweden a week because I worked the night shift starting Sunday evening with the week ending on Friday morning so a two day weekend is not too bad.

I spent it going to Queens Mall to enjoy some shopping. I had not been there for about a year so it was a nice getaway for the day. Other than that, I had to clean my apartment, which took pretty much the whole day.

I will have my first class in operations management on Monday. I am hoping that it will not involve too much statistics and math and more management and human resources and that kind of stuff. I did not receive my book yet so I have not been able to get an insight in what we will learn so far.

In general, I feel pretty happy with my classes so far. I do realize that a few of them will involve a lot of work, specifically my world civilization and internship class. I hope to be able to continue maintaining my grade point average this last quarter and I will do everything I can to make it happen.

My iPhone’s battery is getting pretty bad. As soon as I open a somewhat large application, my phone dies after just a few minutes. I thought it would cost a fortune to replace the battery but a local electronics store in my neighborhood offered to replace the battery for me for no more than $37. I hope to have it done before next weekend because the repairer said it would take a couple of days to have it fixed.

The one thing that I find interesting is that the battery turned bad just in time for the release of the new iPhone 4. It does not seem as if I am alone either, as most batteries only last for about 16 months. I will wait to buy it though, as I do not want to commit myself to AT&T for another two years. There also seem to be some reception issues with the new phone that have caused a bunch of uproar in the media.

LinkedIn

I was recently informed about LinkedIn.com by one of my coworkers. I had heard about the website before but I never really looked into it, as I already have a Facebook account activated. However, the purpose of LinkedIn is different than that of Facebook and more formal and is something I would suggest anyone to consider signing up for.

The website works similarly to Facebook but focuses more on building resumes and networking professionally. I uploaded my resume for example and the website was able to automatically generate a list containing my background, experiences, and similar.

I now have an almost complete profile page that professional’s can access. This is not only for people looking for a job, but also for people like me who wants to stay in touch with employees and to get back in touch with old friends.

I also think this type of social media will play a crucial part in future job hunting, communication, and internal networking. It is exceedingly effective and will help people and companies to save time by not having to go over paper copies and such.

I do not mean to advertise for LinkedIn. I am sure there are other websites like this but I found this one to be the most widely used site. The reason to its popularity is most likely the site’s effective tools and simple design. So check out the site if you have some time over.

50,000 Years of History

Teaching 50,000 years of history in eleven weeks is probably one of the most difficult tasks for professors. Nevertheless, this is something that my world civilization professor will have to accomplish. Yesterday’s class being his first at Berkeley College does not help him either.

It is always nerve racking to have a brand new professor because unlike established and experienced professors, they tend to be more focused on satisfying the board than doing their best on teaching students.

Night classes are scheduled ones a week from 6 PM to 9 PM. However, most professors only teach for about two hours because students start to be inattentive after focusing for so long. Yesterday’s class lasted until 9.05 PM. I was home around 10.30 PM, which was tough. In other words, I had to sit through three hours of listening to the origin of man and how Homo sapiens survived the ice age.

I actually liked it. The professor was able to make it entertaining by throwing in some jokes here and there and he definitely knows a lot about history. He started by drawing a timeline on the whiteboard that stretched fifty thousand years. This really helped students to get a perspective on what we are dealing with.

Other things that I found interesting were the discovery or invention of agriculture, when fire most likely was discovered, and how humans evolved throughout history. I have not really studied this before except for a short period in high school. Relearning it in college definitely helps to refresh my mind.

I also found it interesting for the fact that this class focuses more on America than I am used to. For example, we talked about how Indians survived before the domestication of horses. I am looking forward to learn more in this class.

Political Science

I had my first class in Political Science yesterday. I feel very good about the professor, who seems to be exceedingly knowledgeable and most importantly, charismatic and entertaining. The first class lasted for about two and a half hours, which is pretty long for being the first class. However, the time went fast thanks to interesting topics.

We covered a lot of history of the American government yesterday. We learned, among other things, about the 3/5 rule and how the voting system was established. Learning about these things really helps students to get a perspective on the politics of America.

It is easy to form opinions while reading newspapers. Unfortunately, these opinions are far too often based subjective and untrue statements. To know the reasons and facts about events, will definitely help me to get an advantage in arguments and debates.

The 3/5 rule was quite fascinating. Naturally, states wanted as many of their habitants to count as possible so that they had more votes in congress. Those states that allowed slaves wanted to be able to count these people towards the size of the state. However, those states that did not allow slaves thought this was unfair.

The 3/5 rule was established based on this issue. Basically, one slave would be worth 3/5 of a person. Or, out of five slaves, only three would be counted towards the population. Learning about things like this is particularly interesting, especially as an international student.