Tipping

Ever wonder why you tip a person that delivers your food or service? To be honest I don't normally tip because the person is getting paid anyway. I have always thought of it like that so I never really saw a point in paying a person for something that is mandatory for their job. These waiters and delivery people get paid for it already, I don't think I have ever understood the unwritten rule of tipping people.

Some places forces the tip on you, however. If a restaurant forces you to pay tip, where does that all go? I don't know whether it would go to the cash register or the waiter's pocket. I don't really approve of this as well because the food is expensive enough as it is, seeing as I would go to a place in Manhattan. I've been one of these places that do that once, and the service was really bad. It will be the last time I would go to a place like that. If service were adequate, maybe I would consider giving a tip. But the places i've been to haven't done well so far.

Another blog

I forgot to post again yesterday... I hope it doesn't really affect my grade. Its a lot better than not posting for a week like I did the last time. Sometimes I don't really think there is anything to blog about for 10 minutes, while it is a short amount of time. I don't think i'm really supposed to stop typing for those ten minutes, but it can be a hard thing to do. If I didn't stop, my blogs would have "writers block" written all over them. At least I remembered to do it this early. Whenever I get home around 11 PM, I always forget to make another post, and it would never be frequent. I do wonder what ten minutes worth of writing does look like because I know I don't do it. As long as I keep making posts, the better. I'll end this for now and say this is a short one because I just took a phone call.

blogging

I never thought that blogging was hard at all until you forget to do it for a couple of days. I do have have blog worthy material, although there wouldn't be a point mentioning it if I keep forgetting to post. Sadly These last couple of sentences took five minutes to type as I am Typing through my iPhone. If I were to remember to post, I'd most likely have some interesting things to say. Maybe this blog is I terrsting itself, it depends. All I have to do is keep typing which takes long on my phone, it is still ten minutes to me. I wonder whether writing for the other day around midnight would count for that day, it would defeat the purpose though.

Informal speeches

The informational speeches I heard today were really... informative! Can't really say much else about it, but everyone, including myself had a great presentation. It was really interesting to see what people know and how we could learn from it. I basically taught the class HTML, ate pie, and was used for demonstrations which were funny. Teaching someone how to do a choke hold is awesome, except when you're the one receiving it. Seeing a phone work underwater when it is double wrapped in two condoms were a hilarious thing to watch.

I didn't really prepare for the toast speech as I intended to bash the person I was making the toast to, though. I didn't know how to say it in a positive way either. The class did take the full 4 hours but it was worth the time. Every week we learn how to speak publicly, and we get better each time. Everyone did a great job.

Age

Ever thought how weird the legal age to drink is? Apparently you can vote, join the army, smoke, and other things before the age of 21, yet you can have a legal drink here. Teens are legally able to drink in other countries without a problem yet that isn't what really bothers me. It's more the places that serve drinks and ban anyone under the drinking age. I don't really get it. It's not like the average person doesn't know the consequences of what they make... I hope. If you can make adult decisions, why can't you drink, as other adults do? If that's the case, they should make voting and smoking age 21 as well. Age is simply nothing but a number to me.

But then again, it's not like I'm missing out on anything. I can wait 2 years...

Hacking / Modding

The hacking/modding scene of any hardware is really interesting to get into. I've been out of it for a good while but it is cool to see what is new in these scenes. I used to heavily mod my PSP for hours on end, customizing it the way I want so I get more out of it. Unfortunately there are always consequences when you do something wrong. Apparently I can't update my firmware to any newer versions, so now I can't get anything new out of the community. That's mostly the reason I stopped using mine. The video games themselves were great as well, but most of the reason I bought one was for the ability to mod it.

I got into the iPhone hacking community for a short while, it was good when I was interested. As the new firmware releases debuted with the iPhone 3G, development slowed down for the customized firmware I was running on. The developer is still currently working on an upgrade for the newest firmware, but for now I'll have to stick with the older version. Although I don't have everything up to date, I realized I don't really need the newer perks that the latest version have since the current version does everything I want. It is a great piece of hardware to own (even when it isn't hacked), and I prefer it over all of the other phones out there. I haven't seen or read much about the T-mobile G1, but I heard it will have a lot of developer support real soon.

As soon as a new piece of hardware comes around, and it has a big modding community, I'll most likely look into it.

As I manage to slip through the cracks..

Being in debt sucks. At times I thought it was worth having things I want now and pay later, yet I realize I end up paying more later on. I don't think I'll ever apply for another credit card again. I have no problem making monthly payments but it is getting ridiculous to the point where I defeated the purpose of owning one. I barely use my credit card anymore, yet I owe more money for service charges. It's a real low blow when I have to do that every month.

Its short, but that's all I really have to say for this entry.

Thursday

I think Thursdays are now my favorite day of the week for now (at least until session B). I get to sleep as late as I want, come to school literally any time (at least before class lol.), and just hang out. I did the usual thing again, stopped by the pizzeria for a slice and 7-11 for the hot dogs and coke slurpees, which are worth every penny. If only those places were much closer to the school it would be much more convenient than it already is. Sounds lazy but I don't like having to walk down three blocks all the time.

Class today was great, obviously whoever is reading this was there. Listening to what people have to say about themselves is always something interesting. I find that everyone in this class is very similar, in the way that most of us do have the same interests. It's great to know that there are people you can relate to in this school and just converse.

I look forward to tomorrow, as I expect some good things to happen. As long as I get my homework done early, I can look forward to a great weekend as well. Good to see my week so far is regular.

Another Day

Just making a quick entry before the end of the night. Unfortunately I always leave this until the end of the day. No harm in that, I still count it as completed homework.

Today I did the usual thing. Went to school, talked to people, played a couple of games, left. Class was boring, as always. My professor had us do a group work assignment, when everyone was so out of it no one barely spoke.

I went to the library and attended a presentation that was about the changes that will happen in school and why we should embrace it. I was really curious to know what was really going on, so I took a seat. Apparently the school is losing the third floor, and even without that, it is still "spacious". Whatever works, I guess.

Random things again.

Today felt like another day. I woke up, checked my email and did the usual things in the morning. I got the chance to play fallout 3 to kill some time. I didn't really get to eat a lot as soon I could, so I was hungry during class. Class was pretty boring since I know most of the material and then listened to the lecture.

As I went home, I decided to vote today since it was convenient. I live across the street from the elementary school I used to go to, so I thought why not. I attempted to make my vote, yet I forgot I had to pull the red lever under the ballot. I didn't realize that until a minute later, it was my first time voting. Later I also decided to check the status on the electoral vote. I didn't really expect Obama to win NY by a landslide, but there were other states where I thought he wasn't going to lose as well. I didn't really much care about anything else after I heard he won, as long as my vote counted.

Random things

Today I went to school in an attempt to apply for work study. As soon as I got into school I had a clumsy moment. I took off my jacket because I felt so hot, but I knocked over a filer on the wall and broke on accident. I didn't see my fist was going towards it, yet I didn't even notice how hard I hit the wall. I tried to glue the pieces back, but it was a failure.

So as I go to the financial aid office, I hope to think that everything would go well. Unfortunately things always go wrong. When I went to financial aid, they asked me about my GPA. It's nothing special to me, knowing I did pass all my classes either way. They see there are two classes that are incomplete, so they fend me off telling me to wait for those grades. It would be nice to have money now than later, but the only thing stopping me is two classes from last semester. Keeping in mind that I have a bill to pay, it annoys me.

Halloween

Today was a weird day. I didn't really plan on going anywhere seeing that I rarely ever celebrate Halloween as the time comes. It was fun to see everyone in the wacky get ups though. Manhattan is a hell of a place to go to for this celebration. Simply walking down the street and standing there for hours watching people walk by is a show by itself. I can say though, in that crowd of thousands, you are bound to see some crazy things more than once.

One of the craziest things I've seen so far was the line for the bathroom in Starbucks. How everyone waiting there had to buy something, the line for the bathroom was even longer. Everyone behind me was complaining about how long it takes to use a bathroom, I couldn't help but laugh at that because some people were in there for long periods of time.

I've seen things like the reformed protagonist from clockwork orange to a walking toilet. Unfortunately, there were things I wish I didn't see. Even though walking around Manhattan wasn't really much anything or mind blowing, it was the people you see that made it worth the effort.

Financial Aid

There is a lot to say about financial aid. Many people hate it, and others will bitch all day about not having loans. Everyone has their own bad experiences in that small 3rd floor room they call an office. I remember my first time coming into devry and having to go back to financial aid at least 15 times to properly register. I didn't mind having to do that, but it is the wait that ruins everything.

Recently, I went to get an educard, and I thought it could have went better. First of all, you have a person always on the phone putting priority over the current task, while they don't allow me to pass through to get to the cashier. Who in their right mind would put a cashier behind an office you can't enter without asking? Those are supposed to be two different entities where people can get what they want, and in less then 5 minutes. A simple task such as an educard takes no more than 30 seconds, and this person means to tell me that I have to wait? Blatantly, there is a huge sign at the counter that says to ask if you want an educard and you will get one right away. I understand the purpose of a queue, but this is outrageous if I have to wait just as long as a person who will get aided, when I am simply going to pick up a sticker.

Evidently, someone confronted me about the poor service and said I should report this. I did the right thing and gave out the usual complaint in hopes that something gets done. Although I am one voice, it does feel great to let something out about something you don't like.