I have been watching this Chinese car company grow for about a year and a half now, and they are steadily working their way to expansion in the U.S.

Living with the Mek Tribe is a show on Travel Channel about to British explorers that live with tribes in West Papua Guinea. It is an amazing show and I’m watching some of the show’s marathon today. The tribe they live with has never seen Westerners and have really kept their ways of living for possibly 9,000 years. It is almost unbelievable that that is possible in this day in age, and it is great to see how people lived so long ago.

Firefighters are so honored and admired in this country, yet they don’t get what they’re owed? I’m not sure exactly why I have been seeing firefighters all over Austin this weekend begging on the streets beside homeless people, but it must be that they are not funded like they should be. I don’t admire firefighters as much as most people do in Texas, but I do respect them. They work hard for little pay to make sure we are safe, but there’s no way that this kind of job-including begging on the streets in the hot day and rain-can be attractive to younger people that see it.

 

I’m at my little sister’s bday party at  ITZ. Imagine an indoor carnival filled with little kids running around and being surrounded by a sea of noise, that’s ITZ. This place is pretty nice; it’s built in a Home Depot store, very spacious and high ceilings. However, the service is really horrible and inconsistent. Our party host didn’t have a great attitude and wasn’t friendly. She even asked the children(all around 13) if they wanted to listen to Lil Wayne for the party music. For those of you who don’t know Lil Wayne, he is the best rapper alive but his lyrics are full of adult content and innuendos, definitely not suitable for kids.

The atmosphere around this place is lively, but a little much. There are plenty of screaming kids that are constantly running around; i’m actually scared someone will knock my laptop over.

The people that come here have very diverse backgrounds. From individuals that dress suitable for rap concerts, tattoos on their arms and dragging shorts, to the indie crowd,  people that wear very tight jeans and handmedown tshirts. I’m not saying this diverity of people is bad, but i’m just not used to it. Maybe I have to be reminded that this is America; I should embrace it. However, there are a few people here that seem really shady, and I definitely wouldn’t leave my kids alone knowing they’re around. At least they have a police over patrolling the building.

Overall, if ITZ changed their service, by recruiting more professional people, they would leave a better impression. The location is perfect and the building is huge: They have over 100 arcade systems, two indoor roller coasters, and a bowling alley. The Price is very competitive, at $170 dollars for a party of 10, including 50 tokens and dinner.  ITZ is in the business to throw children’s birthday parties and children are the easiest to convince. When you convince the children, they will convince their parents, basically doing ITZ work. Also, imagine how many birthday parties happen everyday. Yeah, a butt load. Sure they’re banking, but I wouldn’t come back: The service wasn’t acceptable and in the end, that’s the most important thing in business.

I’m about to die from all the screaming and yelling. The employees around here are probably irritated too; thus, they provide bad service.

Yeah. 

 

If ya’ll have a savings account at a local bank, such as Chase or Bank of America, get rid of it! I’m almost positive that your interest rate is lower than any online savings. When I was with Bank of America, their savings rate was like 1% or .05%; I don’t remember exactly, but I know it was ridiculously low. The only reason there is a savings account is because the banks need to borrow money: They take your money at a low rate and give it to somebody at a higher one. I’m not sure what the savings rates are now, but I can guarantee it’s even lower than before. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates that the banks can borrow at, and now they don’t need to use your money anymore; therefore, you will get a rate closer to 0% than 1%.

But there are still a few banks out there that have a competitive rate. All those online banks don’t have a high enough market share to charge low rates, so they offer great savings. Yesterday, I ditched Emigrant Direct, which had a savings of 2.95%, for CountryWide: They have the highest rate online-4%. It seems their rates don’t flucate as often as the other online banks; I called and asked them what percentage their rate changed within the last month. They told me .25%, which is amazing compared to Emigrant Direct’s 1.25% drop. So if you’re too scared to invest your money in the Stock Market or FOREX, then a good online savings account is just what you need.

Check out the rates for CountryWide here.

Yeah. 

I ordered a pizza today from Hungry Howie’s at 6 PM. I wanted to have some thing to eat during the UT-Stanford game (we won!) and at about 7 I was really getting hungry. I thought they might be getting busy during the game and called to check. The guy informed me that the idiot who took my order didn’t put it in the computer. Obviously I was mad and very hungry, so I got it for free. He told me that if I came to the store it would take 10-15 minutes rather than 45 minutes for delivery. The place was not far so I decided to go.

I got there 20 minutes after I called and my food still wasn’t ready. The guy told me my pizza was ready, but my bread sticks weren’t. There were already about 6 other people there waiting (all ordered at least an hour earlier) but I decided to wait what he said would be 10 more minutes. He then tried to charge me before my pizza was ready and I reminded him of my free pizza. Now things got really bad. Apparently the guy realized he wasn’t making any money off me, so he put my order behind all the others. By the way, there were 6 other people working there and they were all moving so slow. I waited 15 minutes, checking the game on my phone and talking some of the guys there about it.

Finally the guy came out with a pizza and bread sticks. But wait! He decided to place them on a rack and answer the 5 or 6 phone calls he had put on hold. Of course people were complaining so this took almost 10 more minutes. I was about to jump over the counter to get my food when the guy tells me that’s not my pizza, but those are my bread sticks. I got really mad and started telling him how long I’ve been waiting and how all of a sudden the pizza isn’t ready, but the bread sticks are, when earlier it was the opposite! I argued with him and he finally said it would be 10 more minutes. I knew he was wrong and decided to leave with my bread sticks. I went to taco bell for a beefy cheesy melt (mmmm) and saw some other people from the pizza place there too; apparently they did the same as me.

I ordered pizza at 6 while watching the UT game and ended up with taco bell and bread sticks after the game was over. WHAT’S SO HARD ABOUT MAKING A PIZZA?! No wonder grown people are stuck working at Hungry Howie’s…they deserve it.