Spareribs

I went to Bronx Zoo today. The weather was a little cold but it led to perfect conditions since not many people showed up. Last time I was there, it was almost a hundred degrees and the place was packed. It was much more enjoyable and relaxing to visit the park this time.

I spent about three hours there and I think I have seen everything there except the gorillas now. By the way, on Wednesday’s, the Bronx Zoo has “Donation Day,” which means that people can pay whatever they think is appropriate.

I am eating a lot at Subway Restaurants because of work. I find it very convenient since it is affordable, yet quality food. There is one thing that I do not understand though. They do not have a rewards card to offer its customers.

I think Subway could really earn some customer loyalty if they had introduced such a card. For example, customers could be offered a free regular foot-long after spending a certain amount or after buying a certain amount of sandwiches.

I think I mentioned it before. However, I went to a place called Dinosaur Barbeque in Harlem before. They serve excellent barbeque dishes at an affordable price. Anyway, I was really in the mood for it a few days ago but my girlfriend did not think it was worth the ride because it takes about an hour for us to get there.

When we went out to buy groceries that same day, we found ten pounds of frozen ribs for only $19. We bought it together with some Jack Daniels barbeque sauce. The first time I cooked it, the meat was a little bit chewy because I only baked it for a little more than an hour.

I cooked it again yesterday, but this time, after having read some recipes online, I baked it for more than three hours in the oven wrapped in aluminum foil. The ribs turned out perfectly and it was, quite honestly, comparable with the ribs from the Dinosaur Barbeque restaurant.

I will definitely purchase another ten-pound box of frozen spareribs again. However, I still have five pounds of ribs left in the freezer and I am sure that it will last for quite a while. Basically, I spent $19 for ribs that will last for at least eight meals for two. This sure made me happy since I love barbeque dishes.

4.0

The weather has finally improved, and I am going to the Bronx Zoo today. I was there about two years ago and I do not expect much to have changed. However, it is a fun place to visit, and I am going to try to explore some areas that I missed the last time I was there.

I plan to travel down to 34^th Street in Manhattan later today. I am going to eat Korean with my girlfriend and we are also going to check out a sale at Macy’s. Tomorrow, we will probably go to Philadelphia if the weather stays warm.

My last quarter went very well. I was able to get As for all my classes, which means that I am still maintaining my GPA of 4.0. This is something that I will try very hard to keep since I only have two more quarters left before graduating.

The syllabuses for my next quarter’s classes have already been posted. This is great because it allows students to get an overview of what is ahead of them. The syllabuses also list the required textbook.

For people who purchase textbooks online, this is of great advantage since it normally takes about a week to receive a book ordered from “Amazon” or “Half.”

I am taking six classes next quarter, a placement seminar class, which is a preparation course for the internship taking place on the last quarter, forensic science, human resource management, entrepreneurship, multimedia and business presentations, and bioethics.

It will, most likely, be a very busy quarter for me. The reason that I am taking six courses instead of the standard of four, is that I want to graduate by September. All my books cost approximately $200, which is okay actually since I can resell all of them after the quarter. Also, if I had bought brand new books it would have cost me more than $400.

I am going to try to enjoy the rest of my break before school and work starts again. Like I said, I am planning to go to Philly, the Bronx Zoo, and a few other places. I might try to take long walks in Brooklyn. For example, I want to go to Coney Island if the weather is warm and I figured that it would take about an hour to walk there from my home. We will see what happens. I will keep you posted.

By the way, the pictures are of much worse quality than before because I am using my iPhone to take them. The effects are added by an application that I use. It makes the pictures a little more interesting. Let me know if you do not like them. It is just easier for me to upload pictures this way than to transfer pictures from my Canon 5D.

Trouble

I had hoped that the weather would turn out better during my break. It seems to be constantly raining and I cannot find a chance to go outside. I have been doing a few things so far though, but it unfortunately, involves more negativity than positivity.

As I wrote before, my girlfriend and I are trying to have her ring resized. It was first delayed, which was very annoying. We went back a few days ago to pick it up however. This time, they had shaped it very poorly.

To make a long story short, we decided to have it sent in again. We now have to wait an additional two weeks to have it adjusted. However, I convinced them to send the ring to a Manhattan store this time because I am tired of having to go to their Brooklyn location all the time since it takes me an hour with bus.

The second negative event that happened to me occurred this morning. My Internet did not work. I received a letter from Verizon two weeks ago saying that I had not paid the bill for two months. I had set up automated payments and changed my credit card.

In any event, I gave them my new credit card details and also renewed my one-year contract since it had expired. I was told that they would automatically charge me for the two previous months.

I called back a few days later because they still had not charged me. The explanation was that they had changed the billing cycle now that I had a new contract. The letter I had received a few days earlier said that I would have to pay them within a week of receiving that letter, or my service would be suspended.

I explained this to them but they assured me that my service would be running as normal and that they would charge me later this month. So, today my Internet stopped working because I had not made the payment.

I called back Verizon and explained this. They had a different attitude now and explained to me that I had to pay. This really upset me. After spending hours on the phone, I made the payment over the phone. They wanted to charge me a $4 fee for paying over the phone but they later waived that for me.

I could not speak to a supervisor, but they will call me back later today. Apparently, the waiting time was four hours and I was told that my service would not resume until four hours after making the payment. Anyway, I made the payment, spoke to the right person, and my service now works.

I am still waiting for the supervisor to call me back. I am extremely dissatisfied with Verizon and I will not renew this contract with them. It is the worst service I have ever experienced. Its customer service is inconsistent, inefficient, and time consuming. I now hope that they will not double charge me for this month. One thing is for sure; this will not be the last time that I will have to deal with them.

Final Week

I have finished two out of four classes. I turned in my final project in my business strategy and policy class and I completed the final exam for my marketing logistics class. I feel confident in getting an A in both those classes.

The weather is beautiful in New York now. We have had up to 74 degrees the last two days and I have really enjoyed it. I have tried to stay outside as much as possible because I really do not want to miss out on this perfect weather. In one or two months, it will probably be too hot to be outside.

I went to Kings Plaza, a shopping center, today to pick up a ring that I needed resized. When I got there, the salesperson said, “Oh, you are on my list.” I had no idea what she talked about, but apparently, she was supposed to call a bunch of people to tell them there had been a delay.

I have already waited for three weeks to have it resized so I got pretty upset. I paid more than $10 to get to the mall and they never called me. When I got home, I called the headquarters to complain and they were pretty cooperative. They offered me a $28 gift card, which I accepted although the money was of little concern to me. It was the principle that really bothered me and the fact that it took me two hours to travel to and from the store.

The only things that I have left to do in school now are two presentations. One is rather minor and is about Andrea Jung, the CEO for Avon. The other one is for my new products development class and much more important because it accounts for 30% of the final grade.

I got back the final test for the same class. I got an A but it seemed like a lot of people had troubles with it. The professor was not happy about the overall performance of students. The test was made up of two questions, which were related to a case from the book. Students had to come up with a launch strategy and appropriate marketing strategies.

The questions were very broad but I personally liked them because as a last test, it really tested students whether they knew how to think like marketers or not. The professor has put a lot of weight on teaching students how to think like marketers instead of knowing specific concepts or formulas. Although students would have to know some concepts in order to think like a marketer, this really worked for me.

My back is still hurting. I am trying to find a doctor right now and am waiting for a certain office to call me back. I have requested one of the best since my insurance covers it. I do not like waiting for an appointment. However, I can go to the emergency too if I want to but I really do not want to wait there since I, most likely, would be classified as a low priority.

Spring

Classes are coming to an end and I am trying to finish my last assignments. I completed a major report for about FedEx today for my business strategy and policy class. I will go to Staples to have it bound before turning it in as it is a requirement to do so.

I am definitely happy with the report and I learned a lot from this class. Tonight’s class will probably be my last one since I am turning in my term paper today. I am trying to do similar for my other so that my last week will be relaxing. However, I still have to make two presentations for my Wednesday and Thursday classes.

I do not worry too much about these presentations because I have performed very well so far in both classes. A screw-up would therefore not mean the end to me even though it is very unlikely to happen.

The weather is getting warmer in New York. Today is around 60 degrees and I had lunch at the water front in New Jersey. The view is beautiful from there so I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures with my iPhone. I downloaded a new application that lets me take old fashioned pictures that look awesome.

I also got another application, which lets people record video. I thought this was impossible with my iPhone but thanks to this application, I can now record with sound. The video quality is definitely okay and it is even possible to zoom.

I have done a lot since the last time I wrote a blog. Last weekend, I went out with my girlfriend and some friends to have Indian food. The place was located somewhere at 26th and 3rd in Manhattan. The food was wonderful, and I especially liked the Naan bread.

I have been having trouble with Internet on my laptop lately. The network cannot be identified and I have noticed that a lot of people are experiencing similar problems. I cannot seem to resolve the problem however. It might be my wireless network card that has been damaged so I bought a new one on eBay. I really hope it will solve the problem as I use my laptop for work a lot.

Uncomfortable Bus Ride

I went for a trip last weekend. My girlfriend and I found a great deal in a Chinese newspaper. It was a bus tour to a casino in upstate New York. People would get $80 to gamble for and a free buffet dinner.

I joked with my professor the day before, saying that I had solved the homeless problem. People could simply take the bus, win their ticket money back, and get a free meal. Unfortunately, I was right.

Passengers seemed very poor and most of them were probably on the bus just for the purpose of getting a free meal. It was extremely loud during the whole trip, and people were yelling almost like kindergarten kids.

I thought the buffet was great but I did not win anything. I prefer going to Atlantic City and the biggest reason is that people on the buses to Atlantic City are travelling because of the fun experience and not in attempt to stay alive.

I have a test on Thursday in my new products development class. The professor cut it down to two chapters. Originally, we were supposed to be tested on seven chapters just like in our first exam.

It came as great relief when the professor announced this. I have a much better idea about the test this time than I had before my first exam. Our test will be structured based on a case and we will have to answer certain questions in regards to the product launch stage.

I thought I would study for this test on the bus on my way to the casino. I spent a total of eight hours on the bus but it was way too loud and distracting for me to be able to study. I have read the chapters ones so far and today I finished a few assignments. I do not think I will have any issues scoring an A on it but it remains to be seen.