Finished

I have successfully completed my degree and graduated from fisher college on May seventh, 2015. Currently job hunting and excited to see what the degree will bring me. I did not use this blog as much as I would have liked to but that is life I suppose so I will no longer be posting any content on here, how ever I would like to wish all the new college students out there to enjoy the oncoming terms and know that any issues you may encounter are not new to everyone and to look at those that have done it before for advise. Also do not trust anyone with your life secrets and your integrity until at least the second semester you have known them, those that are fast to jump are also the fast to fall. Please be safe.

Merger

Went to look at my blogs that I have neglected and decided that I should merge college life for me and college life for me:Part food.

The Most Sought After Break

It is finally here! Spring Break and as many who go to college know it isn't as MTV portrays it. Though I want to go on a cruise to Antigua, Curaçau, Aruba or the infamous Bermuda triangle this year there will be 3 or 4 days of being in North Conway NH for some skiing and hot tubbing this year. Which the latter is all I am really craving right now as my back has been bothering me for a little over 3 weeks. It will be a great family vacation and next year we will probably go somewhere less under 21 friendly. It was difficult to find somewhere inside the US for something that we dont do a lot of that we all really enjoy. Yes for those wondering I am still under 21 and am waiting for the time where I can go out and have a beer and a burger with my friends. It sucks having a late birthday but it has its advantages. 
This spring break like all longer breaks I have I intend to have a productive day or two to get some traction and steam built up for the second half of the last semester this year. And to prepare for the oncuming summer camp season. There is still a lot for me to prepare for. I hope to update this and any other of my blogs soon but who knows.

Have a great night sleep. Its going to be a great week.

Go time

While classes did start last week I do not count the first day as the first class day as the only thing that one has to do is just show up. Not even as it is still the add / drop period and technically attendence doesnt even start counting. Tomorrow is the first lecture day wich means that yes notes will be taken. A class that requires no notes on the material taught is not a class worth taking. Some times it is not my notes on the material that I find the most valuable but the side coments about how the material is applied else where. I am excited to have notes and work to do as I almost went crazy this weekend from too much free time. I can only look at a screen for so long and it was to cold to just go out for an enjoyable walk.

That is all I have time for this night as the first class starts in less than 10 hours and I could use the sleep.
Crowemaster

Last minute packing

I am excited to be heding back to school for orientation traininf tomorrow, but there is also a piece of me that doesnt want the bliss of a care free vacation at home to end. I neglected to write a post about what the school suggests / requires students to do before they leave but that will come later. Currently i have procrastinated packing and i leave in T-11 hours. Ahhhhhhhhhhah.

Microwaves the Problem

There is a issue with community microwaves and that is that there are People who are careless. I personally hate these people because last night the Fire alarm went off at 1:30am, the reason was that someone Violated the first Commandment of Microwaves. Thou Shalt Monitor the food constantly. Seriously the thing got so damaged they had to remove it and next thing that I would probably expect is that there will be no community microwave in the dormitory. All ready the fire marshal as dammed that due to the age of the buildings that microwaves are not allowed in the rooms ( What a load of BS). Grrrr. Now if I want popcorn I will have to go to the cafe. The ironic part is that every time the microwave has caught fire careless popcorn cookers while I haven't had any issues using the microwave and none of my room mates or friends have either.

Textbooks the Most Expensive Book You Are Ever Going to Buy

     There is nothing that can be so expensive in college other than the textbook. Every class requires them and typically they are over $80.00 a piece. I know that many college students who are reading this are thinking "Damn I wish that mine costed that much"
 
    There are many ways to get textbooks and a few ways to knock down the price, I got mine down to about $50:

One: Go up to your Financial Aid/ Bursars Office and see if any of the loans or aid given is to cover your books. If this is the case they might hand you a certificate to go to the schools bookstore. The advantage is that you aren't paying that much out of pocket but you will have to pay off that debt when you graduate.

Two: Go on to a site like Amazon and buy it offline they usually have a good price on them.

Three: Go to a Site like Amazon and Rent the book, the drawback is that like borrowing from the library there can't be any damage or marks in the book when you have to return it.




Four: Go ebook this is the newest medium where for a fee you can have the book on your laptop, smartphone or tablet via an app. The nice thing is that you can either buy the book or rent it. Unlike renting a physical book you can highlight and make printable notes right in the book. I use CourseSmart for this as it has a really nice app for Android, my sister uses my account for one book and she uses the iPad app for it.

There is a difference in cost if you are on the fence of renting or buying the ebook. The price difference for my books was $266.83 for online prices only, if I went with the hard copy there would be a $475ish difference. Now after my subscription is up I will not have access to the book but I will still have my notes that I have taken which is all I really need because I take a ton of notes.




Fifth: Go to your school's library the professors usually have the book on reserve so as long as you are in the library you can use the book or at my school you may borrow the book for one hour only. This is FREE!

Sixth: Schools also tend to have forums or a bulletin board where students can directly sell the book to other students so typically this will be half priced books

Seventh: friends will typically let you share the book if you are in the same class or if they don't have the class anymore they might just give it to you. Just be sure that for option six and seven that the book is the edition that you need.

It Doesn't really matter how you get the book as long as you get it so you don't fail your class or kill your GPA.

Images are taken from stock photo and google image searches, I do not claim ownership of these. If the owners wish to see them removed please message me.

When you think that you trusted your project partner

I dedicate this post to my partner that I was assigned for the Final Project of Front Office Operations


     It is a pain when one must do group projects. It is a known fact that this type of project is the least favorite of students and also the most risky to assign. I have been screwed over before by being the one who does too much of it, Letting some one take charge then not let me work on it/ say I didn't do work on it and take credit for what I have done. This latest atrocity that I have had is the last time I do a group project ever and will fight tooth and nail if this type is assigned again.
     The last project was to do the fallowing: Go to a hotel in Boston, Interview someone who is a Front Deck Manager or someone who works in Human Resources, write a paper on your findings. Easy and takes only twenty minutes for the interviewing and then three or four hours to compile and write. Not a difficult thing to accomplish. My partner and I went and did our hotel visit and conducted our interview with the Front Office Manager. Later we did our paper and the computer died with the paper still on it. Next thing was that Our Professor said on the due date that we needed to give him something before he left to go home and finish his grading. So we went to the Library and I started a Google doc to ensure that if the machine died again that we could go and retrieve it out of the cloud. Turns out that while we were writing my partner had his book out and was plagiarizing from it. It did not occur to me what he was doing because we just came back from class so of course he had his book and I thought that he was relating some of the interview to class discussions, Like a good student would to gain favor points for handing in a late Final Project. That night I received an email explaining why we both got a zero for our work.
     I almost cried. This was more stress than I needed on finals week and I immediately went through and highlighted what it was that I wrote exactly in the paper and sent it off, also requesting a meeting. The reply was swift and was much better than I thought it would be. It said that I should not worry too much as there was a frantic voice in my reply and to meet him in his office so he could give me his solution. My worst fear was that I was to be expelled because my name was on the paper and there fore guilty by association. This was not the case instead I had two weeks to redo the paper using a hotel in my area as I was going home that day. Thank god I am on such good terms with my professor and the dean of academic affairs. I would never steal somebody's work.
     Any how I HATE my partner for this insult and I never want to work with him again. He shouldn't have been that desperate and stupid to plagiarize from a book that the professor would know cover to cover as this is the book that he has used for years, keeping up with the updated version of course but they never change much.

That class where everyone falls asleep

   *THIS IS MY OWN STRATEGY THAT WORKS FOR ME, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR AND FAILING GRADES OF ANYONE OTHER THAN MYSELF.
 
     So everyone has had a few professors or High School teachers where they have that voice that has the flow and tone of a lullaby. Every book, guidance counselor and especially parents will tell a student " Even if it is the most dry class in the world you still have to pay attention to what they say" I agree that there is some truth to that but from having to be in a class with the white noise professor I find it is difficult to pay attention. The class is not what is boring as I enjoy learning psychology and find it all interesting but if I pay attention to his voice I will doze off in the front row. (Yes I am one of those students who always sits in or as close to the front as I can). So here is what has been working for me to help me pass the class.
    
     What you will need: Slide show, presenter notes if available, text book, some skill in selective deafness, and something to write with ( I have a android tablet that is synced with my phone.

     First off if the professor is going to put you to sleep and you can't switch professors or get out of the class then you can't listen to them constantly cause that would be close to death. Small doses are best, when ever he starts to write on the board or point out something specific on a slide then you tune in. Like skimming but little bit more difficult. Next is to open the textbook to the chapter of discussion and fallow along with what is going on. This will be picked up on and the professor should leave you alone and if a question is directed to you the book is in front of you and you can look it up.  The trick is to not bury your self in the book but rather make it look like your reading and then have the look if intense listening for about thirty seconds to a minute and then go back to reading.
     If you don't need to take notes jot random stuff down: things that you want to do, need to do, movies, reasons why you don't like the class ext. Doodling is OK but don't make it obvious. Faking attention is a difficult skill that I have worked hard on but my grades do not reflect that I haven't been paying attention to the professor. They are slightly above a B average.
     Best of luck and I hope that this post has been a help to you and also has given you some motivation to keep up in that class that is less entertaining than watching paint dry.

Wow

It's been weeks since I have been back and I haven't done a post on food. I need to find something to post about

I'm back!

OK so I'm almost back I still have about a week left of vacation then I'm down to work at orientation at school and finally I'm back to my normal blogging self. I am looking to do some posts on how to effectively critique wait staff, order that substitution whit out sounding like a stuck up jerk and also how to correctly go about complementing food and staff. Currently I am enjoying my oven and actual stove top to the fullest. See you all back on campus :-)

Alone time and the lack of it.

Recently I have found that I can't get the room to myself to do some revision of my notes for finals this coming week. The problem is that I like to study with a mug of some sort of caffeinated warm liquid (espresso if you will). Now I don't like to bring this into a library because it is a general courtesy to the librarians that I like to keep up. I like to let them worry about important information things rather then putting their focus on the safety of the paper collection. Now I can study in a noisy room (thank you to the inventor of the headphone and the one who fallowed suit with the noise canceling version) but, I can't study in a dark room. Now I could flip the switch but then my pot zombie and hungover roommates would scream and start an argument that I don't feel like dealing with. As it is Friday I am willing to limit myself to a small chunk of revision but tomorrow and Sunday its lights on so they better deal. I thought that I would get the room tonight as one of them is leaving before finals as he is dropping out and this is his last weekend to live it up in Boston. One did go out and the the other two and one girlfriend decided to stay in and watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This bothers me as all the one that is leaving has been talking only of his desire to go out and get so drunk that he would make out with women (yes he is gay). The others said that they would go out as usual they didn't invite me but that is because I don't like to get drunk in a bar with people that I don't trust. As usual they are all broke from ordering excessive amounts of Dominos Pizza and things that one buys in a discreet manner. So I am stuck with a room that only the blind would know how to navigate.
Till my next rant
Rob C

The After Math of Turkey Day

There is something magical about sitting with family and being with friends but as this is a food blog all of that sentimetal stuff means nothing here as it all boils down to the main event of November the 22nd of November and what that means to the college student.
If you have a fridge in your room or a trusted friend's room then I hope that you were smart enough to bring the goods back to the hovel.

Pondering

Thinking about opening a B&B next to a restaurant.

Chocolate can make the World a Better Place

     One of my sources say that there is something scenting the air like chocolate and for once Starbucks and Dunk'n Donuts are not attempting to sway people to their side of the street. Boston Restaurant Talk has posted something special that I think that all of you should look at.
Link here Boston Restaurant Talk

I am going out for this sometime soon.

See my other blog

     So I have been working on my other blog lately called the College Life for Me: Part Food and it has taken priority as to which will be updated more often. This of course I am slightly more passionate about currently due to the lack or interest in improving the dorm from my room mates. mostly that they don't think that they should put some money into it to make it more livable, but that is a different can of worms.

Check it out here

The College Life for Me: Part Food

http://thecollegelifeformepartfood.blogspot.com/

Holiday Deals

     There is no reason as to why a restaurant shouldn't do a promotional piece on a holiday. Thank goodness that most do indeed use the day as to get people in the mood to give the establishment revenue. For this coming Halloween which is four days away I have found these deals by doing a quick search.


From 4:00 pm till Closing all chipotle's will be giving away $2.00 burritos to those that are in costume the link has more details as to the other parts of the deal.
http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/boorito/boorito.aspx

Costume contests
Some places won't set up their offer like Chipotle did some will just host a costume contest and have the prize be a free dinner at the restaurant.
http://calendar.boston.com/boston_ma/events/show/287464565-celebrate-halloween-at-the-salty-pig

It's ok to look like a fool if you and everyone else is having fun and who knows you might score some free food.

The violation of the sacred online space.

      It is a federal offense to go into sometimes email or other means of postage. This I believe also should include social media. While posts are to be read by an audience they are not to be created by that audience.
      As much as I am uneasy about the obsessiveness over an account. It is still the choice of if I set up and upkeep a profile that that is my profile and that the only thing that can stop me from my posting my own words is the contract between me and the website of my choosing. There is no reason as to why someone should be on my profile if of course I take all of the precautions to limit it to only me on my profile. There is a responsibility that is on me to log off change my password and other things of that nature but I would like to bring up a bit of integrity on the subject.
       Integrity is defined as
adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty.
Wow that's a lot. It's a double edge sword but make the ethical decision and close it and it can keep your friendship safe.

OCD (Off Campus Dining)

      This is more for the inner city student. Sorry to those like UCONN or UNH or anyone who is in a state like Maine or Oklahoma; For you this can be used when you are on a weekend getaway or on vacation in a larger city.
   
     There are a lot of options when you feel like doing some OCD stuff after the last time feeling like there was a lot that shouldn't be eaten off of the hot food buffet that the school supplies. It is possible to go out on a budget and still have up to a five star quality meal in one of the fanciest places in town. As this is the technological savvy generation Most of what I am going to cover is going to be on the internet or your smartphone.
     First the old methods for college students. College night. Most places have a college night of some sort which can range from once a week to once a year. Often times the student activities or housing should have a list of what is around and when special deals are happening and the stipulations that go with them. For example: I am apart of a few loyalty programs with some chain restaurants (These are worth it so take advantage most are free) one of which is FiRE+iCE on mondays it is $10 for students with their school's ID. The loyalty program gives me a discount for every time I go there and a free meal on my birthday. On college night I have to choose which deal I want to use as I can't do both. This is the only thing that I dislike.
     Next there is making reservations which is good to do if there is a popular restaurant that you want to get into or ahead of the long line. My general rule is that if it is over thirty minutes long then I go to another place. There is always the option of just calling the restaurant but there is a way to make those reservations work for you to help save money, what student or person wouldn't want to do that. There are websites and apps that one can earn points on like Opentable. This is the only site that I have found that I like. The web page is set up nicely and has a great app that uses your location automatically to find places to eat at in your area. The more you use it the more points that you earn towards dining cheques that are actually usable. If you don't want to set up an account with them thats ok as you can use your facebook account to log in. Often times you can kill two birds with one stone and make the reservation that will give you points and use a coupon, discount or whatever the loyalty program uses. On my birthday I received a offer from FiRE+iCE for a free dinner which I took advantage of and received ten points from Opentable when I made my reservation. WOOOOOOOOT.
Lastly just a google search is fine but there are TV channels dedicated to this lost art so take a look at your local listing and see what they have to say. There is Phantom Gourmet and it will show you the best places to go to on a budget and often these are better than the five star places. There are no words to describe how amazing it is and it is a global thing.
     It's ok to have an OCD moment at least once a week.

B.Y.O.S! (Bring your own spice!)

According to one of Murphy's law Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse. the same can be true for the food that is sold in the cafeteria and in the microwave meals isle of the grocery store. Currently I am attempting to enjoy what could be called a chicken soup from the schools cafeteria and it is missing one important part to it. TASTE! This soup that mocks me on my desk is only in existence because the chef has a sense of humor and enjoys the pleasure knowing of the suffering that my tastebuds are enduring. Complaints will be made on the facebook page that they set up.

The best way to create a enjoyable taste in instances like these is an insult to the foods creator but when one is forced to live off of it exceptions in etiquette must be made. ADD YOUR OWN SPICE. There are more options then salt and pepper and lets face it sometimes that is not going to cover it. I am slightly annoyed with myself as I have forgotten my spice wheels at home after refilling the supply. The basic spices are in there except salt and pepper as the school does have these handy to students. My wheel includes; paprika, cayenne, garlic powder (which would do my soup wonders), onion powder, basil, cilantro, cinnamon, crushed red pepper seed, and parm. for you ladies this fits conveniently in a purse. For men suck it up and use a murse.

WARNING: Do not use in a decent restaurant chefs are armed with an arsenal of knives