Hello everyone and welcome back. I apologize for not writing last Friday before surgery but they moved me to the prep area with in 15 minutes of arrival and i had to lock up all my belongings. The surgery was a success and i am feeling a lot better but i will go through all that in another post. As promised i am going to review the restaurants me and my wife went to during our three day mini staycation.
Saju Bistro
Saju Bistro is a French Bistro located on West 44th street. It has an affordable and tasty 3 course Pre Theater dinner menu. I had the mussel soup, salmon and Chocolate Mousse. All of it was good and the bill was not so bad considering the quality of the food. The atmosphere was very quaint, with dim lighting and is the perfect place to spend a nice dinner with that special someone. I rate Saju Bistro an 8 out of 10.
Aspen Social Club
Aspen Social Club is located on West 47th street. It has a very modern vibe and feel to the location and the lighting really set the mood. They also had a 3 course menu but the wife and I did not find anything we were willing to try on that menu so it was a little downer. On the other hand their main menu had many choices as well as reasonable prices and my wife and I chose the sliders for dinner. Despite the name they were very filling and tasted great and also were a little healthier than your average slider since they use Bison meat. Overall the experience was enjoyable and the service was great and i would have to rate Aspen Social Club a 7 out of 10.
Dervish Mediterranean Restaurant
Dervish Mediterranean Restaurant is located also on West 47th street in Manhattan. Dervish serves many Mediterranean and Turkish dishes and was something different for my wife and I to try. They had a Valentines Day special menu which was a 4 course meal that included an Appetizer, Salad, Entree and dessert. The food was excellent and both the wife and i were stuffed when we left there. The bill was a little heavy but given that we had four courses each, i personally think we under paid. So if you are looking for a great Mediterranean Restaurant give Dervish a try as i rate it an 8 out of 10.
Well that is all for this post. I am hoping to write either later today or tomorrow depending on how my knee is feeling as sitting at a computer causes me pain sometimes. Anyway see everyone later.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Weekend Review Part 1
Hello everyone and welcome to back to the blog. As promised i am going to devote this blog and the next one on the attractions that me and my wife did over the Valentines day weekend. It was a great weekend but before we get to that, registration for the spring is still ongoing and there are still plenty of classes still open. Register now before it is to late, you want to give yourself enough time to clear with financial aid. For those who are graduating, graduation is April 30th at 9 am at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ. More information can be found on Blackboard by looking under the Student Life and Development link under the Community tab. I just found out that i actually only need 8 credits to complete my degree and that qualifies me to walk in this year's graduation. Any way on to the review, me and my wife saw three Broadway plays this weekend, Chicago, Avenue Q and Rock of Ages.
Chicago
As its namesake states the play takes place in Chicago during the forties and fifties and revolves around two women who are in jail for murder. The musical goes through their relationship and how the fight to be the top story in the papers is more difficult than it seams. It is a riveting musical with hits like "All that Jazz," "Razzle Dazzle," and many more. Combine the music with witty dialogue between the two main stars and your in for a fun filled evening. I personally enjoyed it and my wife who was seeing for the second time said this show was better than the first one she saw. I would give Chicago a 7 out of 10.
Avenue Q
Avenue Q takes place in one of the outer boroughs of New York, my guess is Brooklyn since there is an Avenue Q i believe there. This off-broadway comedy provides humor seamlessly every time a character speaks. Using a mixture of puppets and human actors and actresses, Avenue Q tackles topics that are normally taboo in society such as racism, porn and stereotypes. The songs are just as humorous with songs like "The Internet is for Porn," "It Sucks to be me," and "Purpose" to keep the audience laughing. My wife got an extra bonus when one of the puppets decided to lay on my lap and sing to me which had my wife rolling. It is a definite must see and it is not for children despite having puppets. I give Avenue Q a 9 out of 10.
Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages follows the story of Drew and Sherrie during the 1980s. The two meet at a bar in Los Angeles that ultimately is being closed due to gentrification. Using popular songs from the 1980s such as "Wanted Dead or Alive," "I Wanna Rock" and "Sister Christian" the story becomes something bigger than Drew or Sherrie. Along with great rock music is witty commentary and some audience participation in the play as characters tend to interact with the crowd through out the play. My wife and I both agree we will be back to see it and in better seats since we were slightly obstructed from some of the action. I give Rock of Ages an 8 out of 10.
So there you have it my review for the plays we saw. I also finally got to go to MOMA and my wife and i have to go back to see the Tim Burton Exhibition that is going there until April. Tomorrow is my surgery and i do have time to kill before the surgery so i will be blogging tomorrow part two of this review and reviewing the restaurants we went to as well as my feelings just before the surgery. Stay tuned and i will catch everyone tomorrow.
Chicago
As its namesake states the play takes place in Chicago during the forties and fifties and revolves around two women who are in jail for murder. The musical goes through their relationship and how the fight to be the top story in the papers is more difficult than it seams. It is a riveting musical with hits like "All that Jazz," "Razzle Dazzle," and many more. Combine the music with witty dialogue between the two main stars and your in for a fun filled evening. I personally enjoyed it and my wife who was seeing for the second time said this show was better than the first one she saw. I would give Chicago a 7 out of 10.
Avenue Q
Avenue Q takes place in one of the outer boroughs of New York, my guess is Brooklyn since there is an Avenue Q i believe there. This off-broadway comedy provides humor seamlessly every time a character speaks. Using a mixture of puppets and human actors and actresses, Avenue Q tackles topics that are normally taboo in society such as racism, porn and stereotypes. The songs are just as humorous with songs like "The Internet is for Porn," "It Sucks to be me," and "Purpose" to keep the audience laughing. My wife got an extra bonus when one of the puppets decided to lay on my lap and sing to me which had my wife rolling. It is a definite must see and it is not for children despite having puppets. I give Avenue Q a 9 out of 10.
Rock of Ages
Rock of Ages follows the story of Drew and Sherrie during the 1980s. The two meet at a bar in Los Angeles that ultimately is being closed due to gentrification. Using popular songs from the 1980s such as "Wanted Dead or Alive," "I Wanna Rock" and "Sister Christian" the story becomes something bigger than Drew or Sherrie. Along with great rock music is witty commentary and some audience participation in the play as characters tend to interact with the crowd through out the play. My wife and I both agree we will be back to see it and in better seats since we were slightly obstructed from some of the action. I give Rock of Ages an 8 out of 10.
So there you have it my review for the plays we saw. I also finally got to go to MOMA and my wife and i have to go back to see the Tim Burton Exhibition that is going there until April. Tomorrow is my surgery and i do have time to kill before the surgery so i will be blogging tomorrow part two of this review and reviewing the restaurants we went to as well as my feelings just before the surgery. Stay tuned and i will catch everyone tomorrow.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Let it snow!
Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog. I hope everyone enjoyed their snow day yesterday, i am enjoying mine today. I actually made the trek into work yesterday but i was not risking the bad roads and mounds of snow with my bad knee. I will be definitely going back to work tomorrow since things should be a lot better. Just a reminder registration for the spring is still ongoing so if you haven't registered time is running out. I had my midterm on tuesday and it wasn't so bad. Hopefully i did well as well as my fellow classmates. The presentation was supposed to be yesterday but thanks to the snow it was postponed to next week. This week as stated in the last post is valentines day. I have now not only bought the show tickets but i have reserved all our restaurants for the weekend. We are going to Saju Bistro, Aspen Social Club and Dervish Mediterranean Restaurant. I will have reviews of all of them in a blog post on monday or tuesday of next week. I think it is important to know the different things the city has to offer. Living in New York all my life i tend to not be a tourist for a day and enjoy New York. That is what me and my wife are becoming for the weekend. Berkeley has a lot of international students and i feel as being a New Yorker i can review these things so when they come to school or their family comes to visit they have things to do besides the typical attractions.
It is interesting to know that despite living their for 24 years i have never been to the Statue of Liberty, MOMA, the Central Park Zoo and some of the other attractions New York has to offer. I do have plans to visit most of these locations but i don't know when that will be. Me and my wife actually have some time to kill saturday afternoon and trying to figure out what we are going to do. If any of you got any suggestions i would be open to it. It is difficult since i cannot stand and walk around for long periods of time do to my knee. Speaking of my knee i am now 8 days away from the surgery. I cannot wait and i will let everyone know how it goes and if i get any pictures of it i may post it. I also will post pictures of this valentines day weekend. School so far is going well. I made the Honor society which is such a positive thing since it is nice to feel that your work is appreciated especially being a night student. It is difficult to measure your success by GPAs because that may not always fully reflect the amount of work that is put in.
Anyway i just found out that my class today was cancelled so i have my midterm postponed to next week. So as it stands i have my presentation and my midterm next week just before my surgery on friday. On top of that i have a sexual harassment class at my job that is mandatory for all employees. So a quiet week has now become a very eventful one. Anyway i will see all of you guys later.
It is interesting to know that despite living their for 24 years i have never been to the Statue of Liberty, MOMA, the Central Park Zoo and some of the other attractions New York has to offer. I do have plans to visit most of these locations but i don't know when that will be. Me and my wife actually have some time to kill saturday afternoon and trying to figure out what we are going to do. If any of you got any suggestions i would be open to it. It is difficult since i cannot stand and walk around for long periods of time do to my knee. Speaking of my knee i am now 8 days away from the surgery. I cannot wait and i will let everyone know how it goes and if i get any pictures of it i may post it. I also will post pictures of this valentines day weekend. School so far is going well. I made the Honor society which is such a positive thing since it is nice to feel that your work is appreciated especially being a night student. It is difficult to measure your success by GPAs because that may not always fully reflect the amount of work that is put in.
Anyway i just found out that my class today was cancelled so i have my midterm postponed to next week. So as it stands i have my presentation and my midterm next week just before my surgery on friday. On top of that i have a sexual harassment class at my job that is mandatory for all employees. So a quiet week has now become a very eventful one. Anyway i will see all of you guys later.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Who 'dat
Hello everyone and Congratulations to the city of New Orleans and the New Orleans Saints on their first super bowl victory. It feels good to see Drew Breese finally solidify himself as a top tier quarterback. The team represents a lot of Americans in the fact that in the face of overwhelming adversity they pulled through. It takes a lot of heart and grit to pull of the impossible and the New Orleans Saints did that. A reminder registration for the spring is still on going so if you haven't registered do so soon. This week is midterm week for most of the Berkeley college population. I would like to send a big good luck to all as they take their respective exams. I have a 100 question open book midterm tomorrow, a presentation on Wednesday and a vocabulary exam on Thursdays. This is going to be one hectic week but at least at the end of it all is a three day weekend with Valentines day squeezed in between.
Valentines day is a holiday that i particularly do not like to celebrate nor do i think it should be a holiday. It lost its original meaning and now has become a day where your supposed to show your love for your significant other. I am from the small group of people that believe that your love should be shown through out the entire year and little gifts to show you were thinking of them should be spread out through out the year. Unfortunately for me my wife loves Valentines day and loves to celebrate it so i lovingly give in and celebrate it. This year we are making up for lost time since we have not gone out on a date in over a year. On Friday my wife is dropping the kids with my mother-in-law and we are spending the weekend in a hotel in the city. We are catching three Broadway shows this weekend, Chicago, Avenue Q and Rock of Ages. I will have a review of all of them next Monday. This will also be the last time i will be able to go out for awhile since next Friday the 19Th is the day for my surgery.
I am eagerly waiting for that day to arrive. After five agonizing months i have the chance to feel relief and be pain free. I am also looking forward to the two weeks off from school and work. I will be blogging a lot more since i will have a lot of free time on my hand. It will also give me a chance to finish up all the papers i have due when i return from my time off. So i have vowed to enjoy this weekend to the fullest and make sure i give my wife the break and enjoyment she deserves. Anyway that is all for now i will catch you guys on Wednesday as i recap my first 2 midterms of the week.
Valentines day is a holiday that i particularly do not like to celebrate nor do i think it should be a holiday. It lost its original meaning and now has become a day where your supposed to show your love for your significant other. I am from the small group of people that believe that your love should be shown through out the entire year and little gifts to show you were thinking of them should be spread out through out the year. Unfortunately for me my wife loves Valentines day and loves to celebrate it so i lovingly give in and celebrate it. This year we are making up for lost time since we have not gone out on a date in over a year. On Friday my wife is dropping the kids with my mother-in-law and we are spending the weekend in a hotel in the city. We are catching three Broadway shows this weekend, Chicago, Avenue Q and Rock of Ages. I will have a review of all of them next Monday. This will also be the last time i will be able to go out for awhile since next Friday the 19Th is the day for my surgery.
I am eagerly waiting for that day to arrive. After five agonizing months i have the chance to feel relief and be pain free. I am also looking forward to the two weeks off from school and work. I will be blogging a lot more since i will have a lot of free time on my hand. It will also give me a chance to finish up all the papers i have due when i return from my time off. So i have vowed to enjoy this weekend to the fullest and make sure i give my wife the break and enjoyment she deserves. Anyway that is all for now i will catch you guys on Wednesday as i recap my first 2 midterms of the week.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Ethics
Hello everyone and welcome to the Blog. Today's discussion is on ethics but before we get into it some administrative notices. Registration for the Spring semester is now open so if you have not registered, be quick before classes get filled up. I still have to enroll for the Spring but i am at the point where i don't know what free elective classes to take. I would love to take one in computers but they are a little short in the computer sciences area for the spring. It looks as i may have to take an elective in management. There are two that i am eyeing but i am not sure if i am going to do one or both. My situation is a little weird because i may or may not be graduating next semester depending on what goes on with my course re-evaluation. If there is anyone in registrar or admissions that can tell me how long usually that process takes that would be cool. The downside is that i may not be able to walk until next year anyway and that is a bummer for me and my family as i am unsure if i would walk. We shall see what the next few weeks have in store and i will keep everyone abreast of what the situation is and what the policy is.
As stated earlier the topic for this blog is ethics. The reason why i bring it up is because we discussed ethics this week in my organizational behavior. Now many of you may wonder what does ethics have to do with organizational behavior? Well it has to do with the fact that ethics plays a huge part in how an organization behaves and flows. If the organization has a culture ans history of shady ethics then that attitude and behavior seeps all the way down the corporate ladder ans can affect how employees behave. Our professor posed to us some questions based on ethics and some of them can be easily determined to be unethical. Others border on the edge of ethical and unethical. Now how can a situation be borderline ethical and unethical. Well let me pose this question to all my readers, "Can a gift be considered a bribe or just a gift?" That is one of those situations in which more information is needed in order to deduce how ethical the gift is. In my opinion if the gift is being given because you did outstanding work and went above and beyond and are getting recognized for it then it is a gift. If the gift is given with the intent of getting a favor in return then that is a bribe. The real issue occurs when dealing with people from different countries. Sometimes a bribe is mandatory before any business negotiations can begin. In this instance the bribe is ethical because it is a necessary component for business transactions. There are many other situations that without enough information can border that line between ethical and unethical. Can any of you come up with situations in which that may be the case? Was any of you put in a situation where your personal code of ethics conflicted with what the organization wanted you to do? Let me know.
I have a more in depth review of Star Trek Online. The bugs are all but gone. There are still some minor issues but i believe they will be rectified shortly. The gameplay is much improved compared to the beta and i think Cryptic is doing a good job handling all the issues. If you are a Star Trek fan i would definitely recommend this game to anyone. I also began playing Eve online again in attempt to get back to computer gaming. This will allow my wife to use the TV and i can still relax and play some games. I am currently on the train home now and looking forward to getting home in order to play Star Trek and hopefully i can upgrade my ship by the time the night is out but i don't think so. Anyway thanks for visiting and i hope to have an update on things regarding Berkeley and things going on personally. Good night everyone.
As stated earlier the topic for this blog is ethics. The reason why i bring it up is because we discussed ethics this week in my organizational behavior. Now many of you may wonder what does ethics have to do with organizational behavior? Well it has to do with the fact that ethics plays a huge part in how an organization behaves and flows. If the organization has a culture ans history of shady ethics then that attitude and behavior seeps all the way down the corporate ladder ans can affect how employees behave. Our professor posed to us some questions based on ethics and some of them can be easily determined to be unethical. Others border on the edge of ethical and unethical. Now how can a situation be borderline ethical and unethical. Well let me pose this question to all my readers, "Can a gift be considered a bribe or just a gift?" That is one of those situations in which more information is needed in order to deduce how ethical the gift is. In my opinion if the gift is being given because you did outstanding work and went above and beyond and are getting recognized for it then it is a gift. If the gift is given with the intent of getting a favor in return then that is a bribe. The real issue occurs when dealing with people from different countries. Sometimes a bribe is mandatory before any business negotiations can begin. In this instance the bribe is ethical because it is a necessary component for business transactions. There are many other situations that without enough information can border that line between ethical and unethical. Can any of you come up with situations in which that may be the case? Was any of you put in a situation where your personal code of ethics conflicted with what the organization wanted you to do? Let me know.
I have a more in depth review of Star Trek Online. The bugs are all but gone. There are still some minor issues but i believe they will be rectified shortly. The gameplay is much improved compared to the beta and i think Cryptic is doing a good job handling all the issues. If you are a Star Trek fan i would definitely recommend this game to anyone. I also began playing Eve online again in attempt to get back to computer gaming. This will allow my wife to use the TV and i can still relax and play some games. I am currently on the train home now and looking forward to getting home in order to play Star Trek and hopefully i can upgrade my ship by the time the night is out but i don't think so. Anyway thanks for visiting and i hope to have an update on things regarding Berkeley and things going on personally. Good night everyone.
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