Monthly Archives: February 2013

Talking pictures of my colleagues working is also a part of my job.
(photo by: Chuyun Huang)

How would you describe somebody who wakes up at eight, gets to the office promptly at ten, works eight straight hours and earns -4.50 dollars for the day? Yes! Negative 4.50 dollars! But that doesn’t even make sense! Well, it does, for an unpaid intern, like myself.  Starting last November I got an internship at a Chinese television company, SinoVision, that’s now on air on channel 73 and 63. I always wanted to learn more about the media industry so I could be more confident about my major, journalism.

The green room.
(photo by: Chuyun Huang)

The day I first visited the office, I immediately made up my mind and decided to take the job without doubts after seeing all the fancy equipment, and especially when I found out that they have their own green room.  I didn’t care if I was going to get paid or not, I just wanted to be working in that office that seemed very professional.At first, as an inexperienced intern, I was asked to do very minor office tasks, such as, research and collect information, translate English articles, file documents, and manage stationary supplies. I felt fine doing these basic office work tasks because according to friends who have done multiple internships, they all said that is how every intern starts a job. But as months passed by, I no longer felt the same way about my job and many questions started to pop up in my head: Do I still feel passionate about my job? Am I learning anything new? Is my time and effort worth it?

A corner of the office.
(photo by: Chuyun Huang)

More importantly, a job without a check started to bother me. I know that I said I didn’t care about money in the beginning, but often times I feel like I work sixteen hours per week and get nothing in return. Focus on the experiences that you could learn from the job then, you might say. I told myself the same thing over and over again, but the question is: how do you measure an experience when there is no tangible value? Experience is definitely important, but don’t you think it’s still too weak to be a motivation compared to money?  By Chuyun Huang

981.

981
Screenshot taken from iTunes

This is the number of times I’ve played my top five Beyoncé songs in my iTunes. Nearly two years after adding these songs to my music library, “Best Thing I Never Had,” “1 + 1,” “Love on Top,” “I Was Here,” and “Start Over,” remain my most played songs. When my family and friends tell me I’m obsessed with Beyoncé I respond, “No I’m not. I’m just a die hard fan.”

Beyoncé is my favorite artist for two reasons: her music and stage presence. Her ability to relate to listeners proves why she is one of the best at her craft. She empowers women in her songs “If I Were a Boy” and “Who Run the World.” She lets us know that our imperfections are what mold us in “Flaws and All,” and most importantly she inspires us to enjoy the greatest moments of life in “Party” and “Schoolin’ life.”

17 and Counting
Photo Courtesy: http://www.beyoncediva.com.br/beyonce/

Many artists can say they’ve sold out concerts. Very few artists can say they’ve won 17 Grammy Awards, sold out world tours as both a solo and group artist, and been nominated for an Oscar. When my sister and I attended her “I Am…Sasha Fierce” concert we were amazed! Not only did one person bring together 20,000 people, she connected with the entire audience. Whether it was pointing out fans in the crowd, allowing the audience to sing with her, or flipping above the crowd as she was hoisted hundreds of feet in the air, she did it all!

“Leave my mark so everyone will know I was here.”
Photo Courtesy: Myself

One of the first things you see when walking into my dorm is an 11 by 17 poster of Beyoncé. Besides the fact that the poster is extremely large, it inspires me everyday to do exactly what Beyoncé says in “I was Here,” which is to “leave my mark so everyone will know I was here.”

Books and reading in our digital age.
Photo credit: onlinelearningtips.com

The need for libraries in our digital age

“I don’t wanna read for that stupid class. Books are gross I mean, I practically like forgot how to read anyway,” a gum-snapping teenybopper whined on my subway ride home. I rolled my eyes and silently chewed her out before realizing that I was no better.

When was the last time I read a book not for some assignment, but because I wanted to? I’m pretty sure Clinton was still in office the last time I perused the shelves of the Bayside Public Library. So I bit the bullet and paid a visit to my long neglected friend.

These books were portals back into childhood.
Photo credit: Elizabeth Kim

Stepping inside, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia. There was the front desk counter where I proudly signed my first library card, pencil firmly gripped. I sadly realized the columns of books didn’t stretch or tower infinitely. I couldn’t help but pick out my favorite Judy Blume and sit in an empty chair. My phone threatened to break the serenity, but I promptly put it on “silent” and tossed it. Minutes turned to hours and my pile of literature steadily grew.

The times they are a-changing. No more hand written cards!
Photo credit: Elizabeth Kim

My visit reminded me how important libraries are to our communities. Not only do they offer a multitude of books (most of which are nonexistent online), they also provide a service for free in an era where free entertainment is rare. Libraries are a space where you can shut off distractions and use that precious time to work or simply escape into the worlds printed in the covers of its countless books.

“Makers:” A documentary on feminism

By: LaToya Bowlah

“Because I have a brain, a uterus, and I use both,” said social-justice activist, Letty Pogrebin on an episode of MSNBC’s weekday television program, Morning Joe. She revealed a snippet of what former Congresswoman, Patricia Schroeder said in the upcoming PBS documentary, “Makers,” scheduled to premier on February 26^th, 2013 at 8 PM.

The Atlas statue at Rockefeller Plaza, NY, which was installed in 1937, coincides with the dominant masculine culture, feminists sought to push-back during the 1st and 2nd waves of feminism.
Photo by: LaToya Bowlah

Schroder had said this in response to, “an old man on The Hill,” who inquired about how it was possible for a woman to be both a Congresswoman and a mother; but Pogrebin’s reiteration emblemized the inescapable challenge of the modern American women. That is, to simultaneous juggle multiple roles at once.

A family of four with the father as the care-taker figure walking around Rockefeller Plaza, is increasingly common with women now taking on the role of the breadwinner in households.
Photo by: LaToya Bowlah

Now that past advocates have achieved feats and bounds, women like Abby Pogrebin, reporter and daughter of Letty Pogrebin, face a new challenge. In, “Makers,” according to the Pogrebins’ interview on Morning Joe, Abby Pogrebin reveals intimate details about working as a producer for 60 Minutes, after recently having her first child.

Abby Pogrebin explained that she had to make the difficult, but plausible choice of adjusting her career life to cater to her home life.“Makers,” details this journey from exclusion to fairness and equality to the challenges facing women today. According to the “Makers” blog, the documentary dives into stories of those who opposed feminism, like Phyllis Schlafly and Beverly LaHaye, as well as famous faces like Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric and Hillary Clinton, and the many often unrecognized women who grappled with what equality meant in their own lives.

A Gap clothing advertisement at 5th Avenue’s subway station with a woman walking in line amongst men.
Photo by: LaToya Bowlah

It also includes the often unheard but instrumental stories of the women who confronted the bull of inequality in the coal mines of West Virginia and the boardrooms of Madison Avenue.

Pogrebin said it best: “Makers” is, “the history of the women’s movement that the movement couldn’t afford to give itself.”

College students lead busy lives, some work two jobs while still attending college as a full time student. Others are involved in sports or club activities. Sometimes all of these activities together can get to be a little overwhelming. Time and the way it’s managed have always and will always be an important aspect of the college life.

Heart Shaped Pizza.
courtesy of girlonthecontrary.com

Sometimes while trying to juggle grades, social life and a job our eating habits will most likely change in order to accommodate to this new crazy schedule.  Most students settle for eating out in a restaurant close to their college, order a pizza slice and eat it quickly on the way to their class. In fact I was guilty of doing this for almost everyday during my first semester as a college student. While the thought of eating pizza or any other type of junk food everyday makes me tremendously happy.  I had to admit that my eating choices were affecting my health and my overall productivity.  This had to change.

Green Yogurt is a great healthy choice for a snack
Photo Credit to: Giselle Lojano

In my first semester I felt tired all the time and I wasn’t as productive as I used to be. I craved junk food whenever I felt disappointed; it was a never-ending cycle. That’s when I made the decision to change my eating habits for good. The first step to changing your eating options to healthier choices is by managing your time better.

Green apples are a great source of nutrition.
Photo Credit: Giselle Lojano

When you are in a hurry to get to a class you are more likely to choose a non-healthy food to eat, perhaps make your own food at home and eat it in your school cafeteria. Not only does it save you money, but you are eating healthier as well. Another choice is instead of choosing a non-healthy food go for something that you know will be healthier. In the end it will benefit you in the long run.

An open textbook with, classically, nothing written on a student’s notepad. Photo by: Harry MacKenzie

After World War II, Congress passed the G.I. Bill which placed millions of veterans in academic institutions. Since then, college students—today, notorious for blasting music from their headphones, tossing dusty Ping-Pong balls into cups of beer, and sleeping until noon—have been mastering an art that educators don’t seem to be keen on fostering in the classroom: procrastination. Why can’t students add this special talent to the “skills” section of our résumés? Wouldn’t employers cherish the high levels of productivity recent college grads could offer? They could handle twice the workload today’s average employee can handle, accomplish small tasks with ease, and save the biggest tasks until the morning they’re due.

A research paper assigned via a professor’s syllabus. Photo by: Connor Levens

This level of cleverness continues to be pioneered by Generation Z today, and we never fail to draw our attention to it. The only caveat? Research papers. Unlike those assigned by English and history professors and the like, any quality research paper deserving of a high grade requires extensive legwork that obligates students to spend several days and grisly nights scavenging for relevant facts and information about the topic in question. To make matters worse, each source requires proper citation in MLA or APA format properly summarized in a bibliography or “Works Cited.”

If this wasn’t taxing enough on each student’s duty to let loose on Thursday nights, the professors who assign these papers add insult to inquiry by requiring them to use multiple databases sponsored by some sort of library or collection. Yet, this doesn’t help if they fail to explain how to efficiently use these resources, which are anything but user-friendly.

Student struggle to find relevant information via their college’s overly-vast resources. Photo by: Connor Levens

To be clear, there are a handful of instructors who demonstrate to their students where to find these databases, how to access them, and how to run a general search. But “general” searches, returning millions of search results, transform students into hunters and gatherers—a moniker which expired 300,000 years ago.

Why can’t professors teach students how to narrow down millions of reports by using “AND / OR” operators, helping demolish irrelevant information? What about teaching them how to exclude key words and variables from their searches? And when to use quotations marks?

Imagine the amount of time that could be save while more could be spent writing the actual paper.

Without knowing how to accurately explore these enormous databases, aren’t students destined to spend much too great of their time rummaging through redundant pieces of information? Colleges that are willing to take the steps to fund valuable, quality, high-volume resources are obligated to give lessons on making specific search queries, and just because it will wind up promoting further procrastination shouldn’t make a bad thing.

The interior of Press. Photo by Darren Castro

As co-owner and manager of the Press Restaurant situated on 34 East 23rd Street between numerous businesses, both big and small, Jimmy Shabtay feels his most important job is overseeing the daily hustle and bustle of the New York customer. He feels the first goal of Press is customer service, making sure their patrons get the exact experience they want from their visit. Customer Michelle Salinas says she enjoys stopping by for lunch because “they know people may be busy and in a rush, but they still do a great job regardless.”

Dough for the trademark pressing machine. Photo by Gretchen R.

One of the most striking things customers waiting in line will notice is the dough pressing machine which is a trademark of the franchise. Seeing such a unique display of preparation adds an interesting visual flair that helps hook-in new customers and keeps them coming back. Shabtay says, “the most important thing is the food being consistent. We make everything in-house.” Updates to the offered selection are important, and over time Press has added new items, such as turkey, tuna and chicken teriyaki. “We have to always refresh the menu…especially those customers that keep coming back four or five times a week, you want to give them more options and more reasons to keep coming back.”

At Press, it’s always customer’s choice. Photo by Darren Castro

Whether it’s the food or the service, when customers come back three or four times a week, Shabtay feels it is indicative of a job well done. He acknowledges that there are a ton of options in the area, and the fact that customers choose his little corner of the block to eat is “a great drive to keep going with what we’re doing.”

By Rumi

As my first blog post was about the multicultural restaurants and shops at Jackson Heights, this time I will introduce you to a popular Bengali restaurant called Merit Kabab Palace. It is a small restaurant on 74^th Street and Roosevelt Avenue.

Merit Kabab Palace.
Photo: Rumi

Merit Kabab Palace became a popular place for all types of customers, including Bengali, Indian, Pakistani, Nepali, Arabic and American folks. When the restaurant opened in 2006, it started with few dishes and couple of tables. Gradually, the restaurant started offering more authentic Bengali dishes to customers, and people started to like its foods, not only because of the desi-fragrances (adding various masalas: chili, cumin, garam-masala), but also make them delicious.

The food menu
Photo: Rumi

Chicken biriany is the most popular dish at Merit Kabab Palace. Light gravy chicken with snowy basmati rice makes the dish delicious. Everyday they sell at least 50 chicken biriany ($8.00). Besides the chicken biriany, samosa, tea, kababs with naan are other popular dishes in the restaurant.

Inside at the restaurant.
Photo: Rumi

If you prefer to sit down and eat at the restaurant, lunch hour is the best time to go. You might find the place a little congested and no empty table to sit, however, one of the Bengali hosts will approach to you with smile and arrange a place for you.

You can also order to deliver the food. Enjoy and share the experience, if you go there soon.

Homemade Shepherd’s Pie
Photo by Gelayne Blyden

Food is everywhere! It’s in the news, on T.V., in blogs, radio, newspaper and magazines. If you live in NYC eating out can be pretty expensive, especially if you’re a student and always on the go! So what’s a girl or guy to do? One answer: cook!

Yes, cook. Sound old fashioned? Or maybe you’re thinking “I don’t know how.” I have some news for you: me neither, but I’m in the process of learning. Recently some of my sisters and I decided we need to step our game up in the kitchen. Our first mission: Shepherd’s Pie. Shepherd’s Pie is a baked dished made with ground meat, mashed potatoes, and cheese. Vegetables are optional but make a good addition in my opinion. The Shepherd’s Pie was a hit and didn’t last very long after we made it. If you want to know how to make Shepherd’s Pie, here is a link to one on the Kraft website: http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/easy-shepherds-pie-108691.aspx.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Photo by Gelayne Blyden

We live in the age of technology if you don’t know how to do something, Google it! The possibilities are endless. It’s going to take some time and like everything else, practice.

You can live but so long on pizza, burgers, and fast food (trust me I know), your body requires more. Even if you think you can survive on fast food and have thus survived so far, let’s see how much eating out can really cost you. Let’s say you spend an average of about $8.00 per day on lunch five times a week. That’s $40 a week and $160 a month on lunch alone! If you buy an $8.00 lunch five times of week for a year it will cost you $1,920! One thousand nine hundred and twenty dollars! Think about it what else could you do with that?

Grocery Bag Photo taken from http://poetluckerate.wordpress.com

With that kind of money, you can definitely start an emergency fund (see my other blog Don’t Let Life’s Financial Emergencies Take You Off Track). So even if not for your own personal survival, give cooking a go for your pocket’s survival.

Courtesy of postalservicemusic.net

On June 14^th, I will see something I have only been able to fantasize about for 10 years, give or take. On June 14^th, I will realize many a fourteen-year-old Jasel’s wet dream. On June 14^th, I will see the “Postal Service” live at the Barclays Center.

Although I know that a large section of this post’s audience might strain to relate to my elation, an equally large core of passionate “Postal Service” devotees are presently squirming with as much, if not more, delight. This is the same audience that might entertain and even reciprocate my musings about “A Tattered Line of String,” the band’s latest single released on Feb. 11.

The new track is going to be included in the band’s Give Up reissue on April 9, and it seems to indicate a somewhat chipper departure from the melodramatic bleeps and bloops that amassed the devotion we succumbed to when the album originally debuted in February of 2003. Perhaps it’s a case of rose-colored glasses, or evidence for the direct relationship between the time spent with a piece of music and the intensity of the glorification that it garners (it has been about a decade, after all). Still, I urge my fellow “Postal Service” fans to give the song a couple of listen-throughs and see if they aren’t somewhat unnerved by its peculiar lack of melancholy.

The Postal Service (L to R): Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello. Courtesy of Sup Pop.

Ironically, the single seems to adopt the particularly danceable brand of electro-pop that has flourished in recent years, developed by acts that Give Up undoubtedly inspired. The new direction the band’s sound is embarking on (if the new single is indeed an indication of one) is almost evidence of some cultural self-fulfilling prophecy, where trailblazers inevitably follow the very trails they blaze.

However, if the band’s newfound optimism is any measurement of their moods in their personal lives, then I hope that my fellow “Postal Service” groupies will ultimately support the group’s pursuit of happiness, personal and musical. If anything, we can just chalk it up to another case of Gibbard Syndrome—Ben Gibbard, the lead singer and main songwriter of both the “Postal Service” and Death Cab for Cutie, has a gift (or curse) for writing exceptionally excellent sad songs. They’re so good, many fans secretly cherish any misfortune that may come his way (e.g., Zooey Deschanel, whom he recently divorced).

Courtesy of Willie Davis of The New York Times.

Does this mean that I won’t purchase a new “Postal Service” record if one’s released? Of course not. Will my fourteen-year-old-fantasy-come-true concert experience this summer be tarnished? No, not even slightly.

Bring it on Barclays.