XM SERVICE NOT UP TO PAR

On Monday May 21, I was listening to the XM radio and one of the stations just went off the air. I didn't know what was going on and thought maybe it was just the receiver that was going bad. It turns out that XM had a software glitch in their system and lost signal from one of its four satellites, according to an article in Mercurynews.com.
The bad news for XM, losing its signal for one day, is that it could cost them some subscribers. It has to be tough being a company that competes with others and by having a little glitch in software can cost the company a lot of customers. You would have to wonder why did they not forewarn the customers about the software upload so that everyone would be aware of the problem? Customers are more patient when they know what's going on in their lives. Sometimes things just happen and there's nothing anyone can do, but companies can apologize for the problem and make sure that it does not happen again.

Prius owner gets 79 mpg

With gas prices still rising, it was surprising to see in an article in the San Jose Mercury news about a Prius owner who goes to extreme measures to get the most mileage out of his car. The article talks about how the owner of the gasoline-electric hybrid Prius puts special tires, tapes plastic and cardboard over the engine, blocks the the grill with foam rubber, drives without shoes and hacks into the his car's computer to maximize distance with minimum gasoline. Another surprise in the story is that there's another person who has gotten her car to get 116 mpg. According to the article the Prius already gets 55 mile to the gallon. Reading these kind of stories makes a person know that there's alternatives to these high prices of gasoline.

No cell phone usage for teens as they drive

There's an article in the San Jose Mercury news that's titled "California lawmakers tell teen drivers to get off their cell phone." The article talks about a new bill in the works that would ban teen drivers from using their cell phones while they are driving. Staring July 2008, all drivers are required to use hands free devices while they are driving. In Reading the fact sheet of Senate Bill 33: Teen Driver Cell Phone safety, The California Highway Patrol reports that "cell phone use is the number one source of distracted-driver related accidents in the state" which makes sense that a law needed to be created to stop such accidents. The fact sheet also points out that "teen drivers are four times more distracted than adult drivers by cell phone use," which explains why sixteen-year-olds have a crash rate at almost ten times more than drivers of ages between thirty and fifty nine (National Highway traffic Safety Administration, 2001). The fines that violators will get is twenty dollars the first time and fifty dollars every time after that and the offense would not count against the offenders driving record.
Overall this bill makes sense because it will allow the teenagers to pay attention to the road and not their cell phones. It's bad enough holding your cell phone as you drive but there's people that are actually texting as they drive, how crazy is that. The fines should be a little steeper than what they are being set at. The fines should not stay at fifty dollars after the first time but keep increasing to make the offender understand that it's going to get really expensive to keep violating the law.
It's a good thing I read this article because I was under the impression that the new law was going to start this coming July and was in the process of looking for a hands free device. Now I have a little bit more time to purchase a hands free device but for my own safety and the safety of others I should not procrastinate in the purchase of a hands free device.

Baseball Ticket Prices

The Oakland A's and the San Francisco Giants have started their 2007 Baseball season. I'm a big fan of both teams because they are bay area teams. I was looking at the teams website for ticket prices and there's a little bit of difference in prices. The A's prices range from eight dollars to thirty two dollars on a weekend and from nine dollars to forty four dollars on a weekday. On Wednesday you can get Oakland A's tickets for as low as two dollars. The San Francisco Giants ticket prices were quite a bit higher. The Giants prices range were from ten dollars to fifty four dollars on a weekday and twenty dollars to seventy dollars on a weekend. I know that the Giants ballpark is a lot nicer but for two dollars I'd rather go see the A's on a Wednesday.

Interview Question

While trying to figure out what to write for my final blog for March, I came across an article in AllBusiness.com that was titled "The Toughest Question in the Interview" by Don Straits. The author stated that the toughest question in an interview is "Tell me about yourself" and how a person should go about answering such a question. The author believes that you should first take a personality test to find out what type of style you exhibit. The author writes that by finding out what type of personality style you exhibit, it will help you in your career and your personal life as well. He also believes that by knowing what personality the person that is interviewing you will help you in knowing as to how to respond to the toughest question which is "Tell me about yourself?". I understand what the author is talking about, but I think that if you are confident about yourself and what you know that it will come across just fine in an interview. In my opinion, even if you know what type of personality you exhibit, will you really know what type of personality other people exhibit especially the very first time you meet them. I would think that it would take a little bit more than five or ten minutes to even come close to knowing the other persons personality. There are people that act a certain way around other people or crowds then when they are just hanging around their friends. I would hate to make the wrong judgment about a person that's interviewing me and not get the job because I answer the question based upon what I thought they wanted to hear. I'd rather answer the question upon my experience and hope for the best.

Gas Prices

I was reading and article on the Santa Cruz Sentinel on gas prices. According to the article it looks like gas prices will not rise drastically anymore. But I don't really know whether to believe that gas prices have hit their peak because it always seems that something happens and the price of oil goes up. It's weird that around this time there's always some sort of fire happening at an oil refinery and the price of gas goes up. The other thing that I don't understand is howcome oil companies keep having record profits. According to Msnbc.msn.com Exxon recorded 10.7 billion profit in its fourth quarter last year. Since there's not much competition in the oil business we will have to pay whatever prices they dictate to us. I'm starting to save money for a hybrid but as the price of gas goes up, my savings seems to go down.

MBA

I was reading Heathers blog, a classmate in my 100w class, about weather to pursue a Masters Degree. I agree with her in that I was hoping to just get my degree and be done with school. But I think that if you have the time and can attend school for a few more years it would probably be very beneficial to get a MBA. There's more doors that could be opened by having an MBA. I will be happy just to get my BA.

Strike

In reading the article in The Mercury News about teachers maybe going on strike at the end of March, it made me wonder what's going to happen to us the students. I understand that they the faculty are being under paid and that they must do what they can to get their point across. What worries me about this whole situation is if the strike does not get settle quickly, what will happen to us the students in the long run. Will we miss some classes or will we miss the end of the semester? Hopefully it will get settle and we will not have to suffer a major setback in our education.

Spanking

I have heard that there's a new law in the works that it will be against the law to spank your kid. I don't think that we need a law to tell us how we should should reprimand our kids. There's times when a timeout just does not cut it with some kids. There's kids that definitely don't need to be spanked because they are well behaved.

I have a brother that has a little boy that that seems to get in trouble every once in awhile. He seems to have a little smile as he does the things that he is not supposed to do. My Brother and his Wife will tell him to stop and he just looks at them and keeps doing what he was doing. My Brother pretty much has to keep and eye on his little boy all of the time. Sometimes kids don't listen to their parents especially when they are out in public because they know that they can get away with anything. The kids know that they will not be spanked in public. I'm sure at home they would never act the same way.

I also have a sister that does not believe in spanking and you can see that she has a hard time getting her kids to do what she tells them. My sisters kids are young right now and in time I will see the difference in how her kids act and how my brothers kid act. I'm not saying that spanking is for everyone, but I do feel that there's some kids that do need to be spanked. I don't think that the government should step in and tell us parents that we can not spank our kids.

new blog

I'm starting my own blog for a class assignment. I didn't think that I would ever do one, but now I have to. I'm starting my second semester at San Jose State after transferring from Cabrillo College. It's a little bit harder at San Jose because I'm taking a full load and at Cabrillo I was just going part time. My goal is to graduate from San Jose State in two years.