Exam Day

Today is test day. I have an exam in new product development and for the first time in a long time, I feel uncertain about it. I have had to study seven chapters containing plenty of information. There is no way that I can learn everything in the chapters in one week.

Of course, I am not the only one having issues with this. I have talked to other students in my class and they are also very uncertain about the test. All we can do is to read as much as possible and hope for the best. Personally, I feel that this is a very old fashioned way of testing the knowledge of students.

The reason I feel that way is that we did not have a good review of the test. The professor pretty much said that we need to know what is in the chapters but also that our class discussions will play a large role in the test.

I am working today so I will not have much time to catch up before the test. I am looking forward to get it out of the way though. I will hopefully do well on the test so that I can enjoy the weekend. Another thing that is agonizing about today is that we have lecture before the test. I am sure not many students will pay attention to this however.

I had a meeting with my team for my organizational behavior class yesterday. We had to go over a presentation that will be taking place in two weeks. I feel that we cooperate well together and we have only had one group member dropping out.

The presentation is about Six Flags and how we plan to rescue it from filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy. It is actually an interesting story. The company has more than two billion USD in dept and is struggling to afford paying off creditors. Six Flags recently filed for chapter 11 and this may help them to get rid of some of its dept.

My group’s proposal includes financial incentives, marketing strategies, and other customer retaining tactics. We only have 15 minutes to present everything and this is only about three minutes per person. I will talk about Six Flags history and some financial incentives and I feel confident about doing so.

It was snowing in New York today. I thought that temperatures would increase but every year, there seems to be a hick-up in the weather cycle. I personally do not mind snow actually as long as it does not lead to slush. Let us hope that this does not happen anymore this year.

Busy

I studied a lot today. I have been behind schedule because of a few unfortunate events. I have a test on Thursday that is pretty major and I have a couple of assignments to finish for other classes. However, my biggest problem has involved my online class.

I was not able to see one of the tests online and I got suspicious a few days after when I saw the professor’s comment in regards to the new week. I understood that I had missed the test date, which really bothered me.

I was able to call my professor who could make the test available for me again. I also had to post a bunch of comments on the discussion board and engage in a few group activities. As of today, I have pretty much done everything that I needed to do.

I still have a few minor things to prepare for next week but I will try to do it after work or when I come home. Working daytime and studying night time is definitely not easy. It requires motivation and determination. It is easy to forget things so it is very important to mark the calendar appropriately.

The test I have been studying for is for my new products development class. It involves seven chapters and class discussions and the professor has not been very specific in terms of what will show up on the test.

It, therefore, suspect that it will a very difficult test. Today, I typed down notes from my class and key terms from the book. I hope to create a study sheet that can help me memorize the most important parts of the book.

I put together a schedule for next quarter because registration starts tomorrow. I need to take an internship preparation class but I cannot find it being offered, which probably is a mistake made by the advisement office.

I really need this class though because next quarter will be my second to the last one. On my last quarter, I will earn credits for my internship and also attend an internship class worth five credits, which is very significant. Other courses have a value of a maximum of four credits. The coming week will be a busy one but I hope to post a couple of blogs to keep you in the loop.

USPS

My charger for my Apple Macbook laptop broke last weekend. A new one at Apple cost more than $80, which is ridiculous. I bought a new charger online because that only cost me $15. However, I received it today and when I started to use it, it made loud noises when I charged my laptop.

I later also realized that it got extremely hot. I could barely touch it that is how hot it became. The seller has great rating on his eBay profile and he has sold hundreds of those chargers so I hope that I was just unlucky. I contacted the seller today and I hope that he can send me a new charger as soon as possible.

I have had a problem with USPS lately. I shipped a book to someone about a month ago with a confirmation number, which basically makes it possible to track the package. However, the tracking status was not updated after the first delivery attempt so I never knew if the book was delivered or not.

I called USPS and they set up a case for me and promised to track it. After several days, they called me back just to ask me for some more information about the address etcetera. A week past and I called back to see what had happened. At that time, they were still trying to figure out where the package was.

It has now been four weeks and they still do not know where my package is. I have called them and they have never gotten back to me. Instead, they told me to call my local post office because I was told that they were in charge of my package.

I called my local post office but they had no idea about my issue. They could not even see my issue because they were unable to even process case numbers. All I could do, according to them, was to personally go to the office and fill out a tracing form or similar. They would thereafter try to track it. If they cannot find it, all I can do is to get my postage money back, which probably is around $3.

This is extremely frustrating. The law says that they are not required to refund me for the value of the content unless I had insured the package, which I did not do. Personally, I feel that there has been a contract between us. I paid them to deliver my package and for the service to be able to track the package.

They simply did not provide me with this service and broke the contract. I therefore feel that they should give me my money back. There is no wonder of why they were making a huge net loss of 2009. The way they treat customers is terrible and their service is extremely slow. Incompetent people are working at the postal office and they need to be taught how to treat customers with respect.

Dress Codes

I noticed that dress codes in school and at work are hot topics. All schools are different and the same goes for businesses. Berkeley College has no requirements in regards to dress codes. People show up in all kinds of outfits. In the evening there are noticeably more people in suit than during the day. The obvious reason for this is that people who work usually take evening classes and they have to dress up for work.

Many of my friends do not have to dress up for their internship. They work in offices where they are not in much contact with customers and key people. I have to dress up for my internship and I prefer doing so. I like wearing a suit in school and at work. People in general also respect well dressed people more than persons who dress very casual.

I would actually argue that showing up well dressed in school can help students maintain a good GPA because professors take them more seriously. I noticed the difference when I listened to presentations where students were well dress. Although some of the students had terrible material, they still seemed more professional than other students who dressed casual.

Many businesses also have “business casual days.” These days usually occur on days before Christmas or similar. It is a way for companies to reward or make employees feel more comfortable in their business environments. I experienced this last Christmas at my internship. Business casual still means that people have to dress up but that they, for example, can skip the tie, wear a sweater, or wear a polo shirt instead of a dress shirt. I am not getting into dress codes for women because I do not know much about it. I do not mean to discriminate anyone.

Most students I have talked to prefer wearing comfortable clothes. Some even show up in sweatpants or similar. I would never wear that in school but if I do not work before classes, I usually wear jeans and a shirt or something like that.

Next week will be the fourth week this quarter at Berkeley College. Registration for the next quarter will therefore start on Monday that week. I will try to register as soon as possible, and I am actually thinking about registering by email this time. I have never tried that before but since I do not spend much time on campus, it would be the most convenient method for me.

I have not decided what classes to take yet. I do know that I will take a lot of electives though because I have almost taken all of my required courses. I will probably take evening classes again because I want to work in the day time. A lot also depends on the schedule that is set up by Berkeley College. I will simply have to examine what classes that will fit my schedule.

Assignments

I turned in my assignment for my business strategy class yesterday. I felt good about the outcome and I do believe that my professor will enjoy reading it. However, I might have been too specific on some points and may have missed to talk about a few things.

My professor will not grade these assignments. Instead, he will give students suggestions and provide modifications to the assignment. In the end, student will have to put all assignments together so that it forms one big paper. This final project will then be graded. I feel that it is a great way of teaching students.

Our next assignment is due next week. It will be a lot to do because we will have to execute Porter’s Five Forces Model. This involves major research and intense industry analysis. Berkeley College provides its students with several databases that are extremely useful. These databases include Hoover’s, Lexus Nexus, and ProQuest.

Databases like these contain articles, journals, and other data that is useful when writing a paper. Freshmen usually do not use these kinds of sources but they should. Now, at the end of my bachelor’s degree, I can really see how valuable they are because they are a big part of my bibliography.

I had to pick up my girlfriend at the airport yesterday. She had a lot of bags so I really did not want to take the train home. The ground transportation service gave me a few coupons for private cab companies so I used one of those. It is cheaper to go to Manhattan than going to my place in Brooklyn, which is a bit silly.

I ended up paying $50 including tip so it was not that bad. However, I just checked my bank statement and it looks like they charged me $75. I need to look this up later today. It seems like companies like these always try to scam you in some way and I hate that.

I will have a lot to do this weekend. I have to finish two take-home tests and prepare for a third one for next Thursday. I also have to complete my Porter’s Five Forces analysis, which is a major part of the final project. In addition, I have to dig up some facts about Six Flags for a future group presentation that I have.

I hope to be able to finish all this in one day. This could happen if I really study intensely for the whole day but it will be challenging. The reason I want to wrap it up so quickly is because I want to enjoy the other two days of the weekend. For example, I want to go out to eat in Manhattan somewhere without having to think about school.

Martin Luther King Day

This weekend will be extended thanks to the Martin Luther King Day on Monday. It feels good with some extra time off and it gives me the opportunity to catch up with a few assignments. I will also try to prepare for a presentation this weekend.

I went to a friend’s house yesterday. We had decided to throw a party with a couple of other friends and we had a great time. We had dinner, joked around, and played some Wii. Wii is extremely funny to play together with friends actually.

One of the classes that I am taking this quarter is a hybrid class with most of it being online and a few classes being on campus. I only have three more classes on campus and those three will be used for presentations. I therefore have to coordinate with my group so that we are all prepared to present our work. I do not think it will be very hard to do because my team members seem to take the class seriously.

The Golden Globes Awards is on tonight on NBC. The host is Ricky Gervais and I think he is exceedingly funny. He has already made a few great jokes including one directed at Angelina Jolie and her adoption history. I hope that Avatar will receive a couple of awards. I really enjoyed that movie and I feel that there was a bunch of great directing behind it.

I went to Century 21 yesterday. I went to Burlington Coat Factory first because they advertised that they had an 80% clearance sale. However, I did not find anything there that I wanted so I went to Century 21 instead. I found a tie and a sweater that I really like. It is not often that I find nice clothing at Century 21 but from time to time they have really nice items for very low prices.

There is a lot of critic against Jay Leno these days. Apparently, many people are blaming him for forcing Conan O Brien to go back to his old schedule. I think this critic is seriously misdirected. This is a decision coming from NBC. The reason for NBC’s restructuring is that neither Jay Leno nor Conan O Brien have been able to generate a big enough TV audience.

I have almost finished my company profile for my business strategy and policy class. I believe It turned out pretty well but I will make a few more adjustments before turning it in on Tuesday. The company I chose was FedEx because I am really interested in the logistics industry since I work with it on my internship.

Customer Service

There are a couple of holidays approaching. The first one is Martin Luther King Day which is on Monday next week. I will be off from work and school that day, which gives me a four day weekend. I will have to catch up with a couple of assignments so this holiday comes very suitably.

I will have to write a company profile for the business that I chose to work with in my business strategy and policy class. The final draft of this project will, hopefully, be helpful in terms of understanding how to analyze a company.

I am having difficulties in filing a complaint at half.com. They do not have phone support and even though the company is owned by eBay, eBay’s customer support center cannot assist me. The only support provided is that of email support. There is not any kind of live support and this is making the situation extremely agonizing.

I have now sent three emails to the support center and every time I do so, I hope that they will be able to resolve my issue. The problem is very clear because the user who sold the item to me is no longer a member and has not shipped my book yet. It should, therefore, not be hard for them to expedite my refund.

I cannot file a claim at this time either because neither of the categories listed on the “file a claim” page match my problem. If their next responds is not accurate, I will pick any category, which hopefully will be acceptable.

Running a business and not provide sufficient customer support is extremely risky. EBay did set up phone support but attaining the phone number is extremely difficult. Their attempt to try to rely substantially on the Internet will not work unless they have live chat support that supports all their subsidiaries.

I am also have difficulties with a shipment that I made with USPS. The delivery status has not been updated for weeks now and they have called me twice in attempt to get more information from me. Things are taking way too long and they definitely need to work on their customer support. However, it is better than half.com’s service.

Luck

I have bought all the books I need for this quarter. A friend of mine offered me to borrow his book for my marketing logistics class, which I kindly accepted. However, a few days later I somehow came to the conclusion that it was the new product development book that he had and not the one for logistics.

I therefore purchased the marketing logistics book online, which I quickly learned was a mistake. I have been trying to reach the seller on half.com because he never marked my book as shipped but he never responds to my emails.

Yesterday, I learned that he was no longer a user at half.com so the transaction has been voided. I do not think I have ever been this lucky. I will now be able to get my money back and borrow my friend’s book instead. I therefore saved $85.

I did some homework this weekend but not as much as I should have. I will have to read a chapter for my new product development class and I also have to read an article for my business strategy and policy class.

I also have to prepare a company profile for that class and I think I have decided what company to analyze now. I checked a few databases and the company’s annual report and there is plenty of material available, which is a good thing because it makes it easier for me to complete the paper.

I only worked out ones this weekend, which was today. I should have worked out three times but I simply did not have the motivation to do so. I do feel better now that I worked out though, and I have lost eight pounds in two weeks so far primarily by eating healthier.

I eat oatmeal in the morning except on weekdays when I have to work. I usually skip breakfast these days and have a large coffee instead, which actually makes me feel full. I thereafter go out to buy a foot long Subway sandwich with chicken, turkey breast, or ham with no dressing and no cheese.

I eat half of it for lunch and the other half in school. The total sandwich is only around 400 calories. I eat soup with rice or similar and a fruit when I come home. This is definitely enough for me and it is much easier now than it was the first few days I was on the diet.

On the weekend, I usually eat chicken with rice or potatoes with a lot of vegetables for lunch. I try not to eat too much later in the evening. I usually just eat two sandwiches with ham and tomatoes and a fruit. If I am hungry in between my meals, I eat an apple, a banana, or a Sharon fruit.

Eating like this is definitely making me feel better. I would not say that I feel more energetic as most people on a diet say, but I do feel both mentally and physically healthier in a way that is hard to describe.

Homework

My first week of classes and work is over. It has been a different experience to leave home at 7.30 AM and to come back as late as 10.30 PM. I feel okay about it though. Work is very different from school obviously but the two complement each other perfectly.

I will be working together with another student in my new products development class, which I feel okay about. I am a person who rather finishes assignments alone but since this project includes a lot of work, I believe it will be beneficial to have a team member.

I know my team member from before and she is a great student. I think we will be able to work together without any negative conflicts. We will have to come up with a product to launch but we have not discussed the details of the project in class yet.

I will go to Century 21 in Brooklyn today with a friend. I need to buy a new bag that can fit my laptop and work material and also things I need for school. I hope they have Samsonite bags or something of good quality.

I have a couple of assignments over the weekend. One is rather brief in which I have to summarize an article that talks about diversification. I personally feel that this assignment is very close to another assignment that I had to do for my group dynamics class last quarter.

I picked an article from The Economist that is about the growing number of women in the labor force. I think it is a great article and one that gives me plenty of room to elaborate. This is an individual assignment but much of what we will be doing for the rest of the quarter involves group activities.

My second assignment is not due until the week after next. It is for my business strategy and policy class, which I find to be an exceedingly interesting class. I have to pick a public company to analyze. I have to create a company profile for this particular assignment but future assignments will also be connected to the company I picked for the first assignment. It is therefore important that I pick a company that interests me.

I will not be doing any homework today. This is my first day of weekend and I want to spend it by just relaxing. I do have to go out to buy some fruit later but I like doing that because I usually go to Chinatown where they have great fruit for low prices, and it is a very interesting neighborhood.

First Week

The last two days have been very intense. I have, fortunately, been busy at work but school is off to a relatively slow start. Work has been busy thanks to the end of the 2009 fiscal year. Reports have to be updated and I personally feel that it is exceedingly interesting to see the year end results.

My marketing logistics class is great. We went over the topics that we will discuss in the next eleven weeks and much of it concerns what I am working with at my internship. I, therefore, put great value to this class. Topics include third-party logistics, RFQs, import, export, and much more.

The class that I probably look most forward to start working with is business strategy and policy. In this class, we will be preparing a 60 page report through realistic work activities. We will actually be working with what real business strategists do, which include in-depth analysis of companies and preparation of reports.

It will be an extremely busy class with weekly assignments to turn in. My professor is one of the best professors I have ever had. He is very serious about his work but presents material in a relaxed and business casual way. In other words, he makes me laugh many times while still maintaining quality and excellence of material.

I will have to come up with a company to analysis for this class. I have a few clues and I will try to be smart in my choice since I will have to stick with this company until the end of the quarter. The final report will also be a great tool to give to employers and other key people who may be interested in working with you.

I might actually try to connect my report to what I do at work so that I possibly can provide my boss with valuable information. The professor expects reports that live up to MBA standards, which I believe is a great thing.

I had a class in organizational behavior yesterday. My professor did not show up but he sent a substitute teacher to provide us with the syllabus and assignments. I did not complain because I felt that after three days of work and evening classes, coming home two hours earlier felt pretty good.

I do hope that my professor takes this class seriously though, and I definitely do not want to see him skip any more classes. I am paying for this education, and I will only have twelve classes this quarter for each class since they only take place ones a week.

I will have to work in a group for this class, which I feel concerned about. I would rather work with something individually this quarter since I have a busy schedule. In addition, synchronizing with the group and making sure everyone is contributing with his or her part takes time and effort. I hope that my group members are taking the class seriously and that we will be able to cooperate without any major setbacks.

First Day

Today was my first work day since December 19th. It actually felt great to be back at work and to get involved with work activities again. I am currently waiting for my 6 PM class to start. I already know the professor and he is okay.

It can get quiet slow sometimes though because he is lecturing the whole time with minimum student involvement. This quarter will be extra agonizing since classes last for three hours. The reason for this is that I only have one class a week for each course. It is more usual to split the course into two classes.

I just remembered the other day that I will bring my laptop to school for each class because I need to bring it to work every day. I hope that all of my professors accept my laptop because it would be very useful in terms of taking notes.

It is not common for teachers to deny students using laptops. It usually happens in math classes or other classes that includes interpersonal communication between students and the professor. My classes will most likely not involve much of that.

I went to Chase today to reopen my account, which had been closed due to a bank error. I deposited money as they requested and everything should be fine now. However, I can still not see my account when I log on to Chase online. This is worrying me but I assume that it will take some time before this happens.

I was worried about what to eat now that I am busy working and going to school. I have successfully been able to eat extremely healthy on my break but it will get more difficult from now on. I bought a foot long sandwich at Subway today actually.

I figured that the healthiest sandwich would be a vegetarian one but I feel that I need some protein. I therefore chose a sandwich with turkey breast on wheat bread with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, and pickles. I did not add any dressing more than salt and pepper. I calculated the amount of calories and it only came up to 215 calories for six inches. I ate half of the sandwich on my lunch, and I will eat the other half at school five hours later.

It feels like I will visit Subway a lot this quarter. I think it is an okay alternative to other restaurants. I might go and have a salad sometimes though but I do not like that very much since it does not make me full.

Another alternative is to bring my own food to work. I do like to go out to eat though because I feel that I need some fresh air at least ones in eight hours. Staying inside the office for the whole time is not fun even though this is a great office to work at.

Heat

I have been having problems in my apartment with heat lately. I have felt really cold but I was not sure whether it was because I did not move much or if it was because the landlord did not supply enough heat. Landlords being cheap with heat are a major problem in New York.

I bought a thermometer today so that I could get an understanding over the problem. It turned out to be 60 degrees Fahrenheit in my apartment, which responds to approximately 16 degrees Celsius. The legal limit in New York during winter time is 68 degrees.

I went down to complain to my landlord but he was not home. Instead, I talked to his son who came up here and said it felt more like 65 degrees. Easy for him to say who came from his apartment that holds approximately 75 degrees.

I showed him the thermometer and there was not much more that he could say. He did blame it on the windows though. I personally do not care what the problem is as long as they deal with it. I do not care if they turn up the heat or fix my windows; they still need to provide 68 degrees of heat.

The landlord came up later tonight and also he blamed it on the windows. He said he set the heat at 72 degrees so I can understand if he does not want to turn it up further. Instead, he should go ahead and fix my windows. I cannot stand being in an apartment this cold.

Like I said before, this is a major problem in New York. Providing heat is simply expensive for landlords and many buildings are not well isolated to preserve the heat, which leads to major inefficiencies. I hope that my landlord understands this. I was even wearing a hat inside earlier today because of the coldness.

Tomorrow will be my first workday for this year. It will be fun to get involved with work again but I do feel a little agonized about having to get up 7 AM in the morning again. I also have to go to school after work since I am taking night classes. I will probably be home around 10.30 PM at night so I will not have much spare time this quarter.

I was able to borrow two books from my friends but I still have to buy two more books. I hope that they are not expensive because I am not in the mood to spend a great deal of money on books right now. I went out to buy a new notebook and a weekly planner today though. That will hopefully be everything I need for this quarter.

Chase

J.P. Morgan Chase really upset me today. I noticed that one of my accounts was missing in the list of statements when I accessed Chase online. Chase had deleted my account more than a week ago without notifying me and without my authorization.

I used the account in question as a direct deposit account. My salary was, for example, deposited into this account. I usually transfer the incoming amount to my savings account immediately since I want to earn a greater interest rate.

Since this account had a zero balance, Chase’s database ran a warning on my account and a telephone banker deleted it without checking if there was any activity on the account and without asking me. My salary is now delayed because of this.

I spoke to the manager at my branch. She had a bad attitude and did not apologize for the inconvenience, which really upset me. She told me that she reactivated the account and that I had to deposit some money into it before midnight so that it was not closed again.

I left the bank after that and thought that I could deposit the money later today. However, the account was still not showing when I tried to make a deposit. I called Chase again and this guy now told me that I had to make an over-the-counter deposit for it to work.

I do not know why the manager neglected this information but I now have to wait for late next week to speak to them again because of school and work. This is the first time that I have had any problems with Chase but it still is unacceptable. I will tell them that I will switch bank if they keep giving me their same negative attitude and lack of communication.

I received my power adapter for my exercise bike today. I can finally start to work out. It feels like it is a little late though since school starts again soon. I will try to work out every day though because I want to get in shape before my girlfriend comes back.

It is getting cold in New York again. It was snowing a little bit today and it will keep snowing for two more days. The temperature will remain rather cold so I hope that it snows a lot. My apartment feels pretty cold too, unfortunately, but I hope that my landlord will increase the temperature soon.

Happy New Year!

The new year is here and like most people that I have meet, I feel great about 2010. I like even numbers for some reason and I celebrated the eve with two of my friends. We watched Avatar in the afternoon and later had Korean food while watching a scary movie. We followed the count down from Times Square online on Times Square official website and I did not regret that I did not go there this time.

It started to rain later in the evening and Times Square has a tendency to get really chilly on New Year’s Eve, which it did. People looked happy though and I personally thought that the news coverage was great. They honored men and women in service and other people in New York City and they captured the countdown brilliantly.

I went to Century 21 today to return a shirt that I bought a few days ago. They did not have any other shirts that I liked unfortunately. I did buy a shower caddy though because my old one started to rust for some weird reason.

I only have two more days before school and work starts. I have really enjoyed the last few days of vacation so it will be agonizing to go back to school again. I am sure my attitude will change after the first week in school though because it always does. In addition, my courses this quarter are very interesting so it should not be too hard to adjust to school again.

I received my speakers yesterday that I bought from Amazon. I am very happy with the purchase. They look really great and the sound quality is excellent. It feels good to be able to listen to some music in my apartment without having to use the built-in laptop speakers.

Avatar was a great movie by the way. I watched it in 3D in an IMAX theatre and I was blown away by the amazing 3D experience. The movie lasted for approximately two and a half hours but it did not feel that long. I personally felt that the story was a little predictable but the 3D effects really make up for it.

I am doing really well on my diet. I did not follow my normal schedule yesterday though because of New Year’s Eve. I did have a oatmeal for breakfast though and the food we had was not too unhealthy. I have bought a lot of fruit and vegetables and I usually try to avoid eating unnecessary carbohydrates and fat.

I always start my morning with half a cup of oatmeal mixed with muesli. I hate the taste to be honest but I feel much better physically when eating that compared to having egg and bacon or toast. I also bought some Swedish knackebrod at IKEA, which is a kind of hard bread that is very healthy. I will eat that tonight with tomatoes and ham or turkey. I try to eat more in the morning and less in the evening.