When this semester began back in January, I Had mixed feelings about the outcome coming back to college. The first time around I had enrolled into the HVAC program here at Western Tech. HVAC is an acronym for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. I went into this program fresh out of the Holmen High school graduate class of 2006. I had no idea what to pick for a program, so I just picked one that sounded easy. Little did I know, HVAC was not easy. Not only that, but it was boring as hell!. I dropped out of classes half way trough the first semester, with nothing more than the knowledge of basic refrigeration. I dropped out, because the classes were tough and lets just say I still had senioritis. On top of the classes being hard, I really only went to college so I could stay on my parent's health insurance. I was in a course that I was completely uninterested in and was thinking to myself, "Do I really want to do this forever?" So that was that and I dropped out.
Needless to say, I was worried if I was going to have the same issues I had the first time I attended college, and lose my motivation in the middle. However, this semester I have greatly improved my performance in school, having the grades to prove it in all three of my classes. I have been attending class, trying in class, and most important of all I want to learn and do well. I am highly motivated to succeed this time around and will be starting the Surgical Tech. program in January 2011. It is now up to me to make my future bright, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Hopefully I'm not a lifer.
My job as pizza ninja at Pizza Corral is decent, it pays the bills, and it is better than working at McDonalds, in my opinion. On the other hand though, it is boring, repetitive, and pays bills yes, but there is no cash left over for enjoying life. I don't want to continue to slave away for the rest of my life and retire from Pizza Corral. The only way I can accept this is if I win the Powerball at 23, and retire from work altogether. Due to the unlikelihood of this happening, I have decided to continue my education at Western Technical College.
To become enrolled in an actual program here at WTC, you can't just whip out your wallet or swipe a credit card. There are certain requirements that each program has. The majority of programs require a criminal background check to be done. This is to help minimise the possibility of a person completing a program, only to later find out that they might be barred from employment in that field, due to something that happened in your past. Also, many occupations that involve a great deal of human interaction, or direct patient care, require that an immunization form be filled out. This routine check helps to minimize the spread of pathogenic disease. After the background check and immunization forms are completed, there is an online orientation that is need to be viewed. Then, fill out an essential functions form and you are ready to enroll, unless a CPR certification is also required. The majority of jobs in the health care industry, would require a continuous CPR certification throughout schooling and career. These enrollment steps are put in place to weed out the people just signing up for any old program, from the ones that are serious about that career.
I am currently in the process of completing my immunization form. Once I do this I will take the orientation, and do the essential functions form. I am glad to finally be almost eligible to enroll in the Physical Assistant Program. The steps to get into a program at WTC can be maticulos, but if success is what people want, then education is what people need. That is why I am entering my program at school, so that I will not have to make pizzas for the next 43 years.
To become enrolled in an actual program here at WTC, you can't just whip out your wallet or swipe a credit card. There are certain requirements that each program has. The majority of programs require a criminal background check to be done. This is to help minimise the possibility of a person completing a program, only to later find out that they might be barred from employment in that field, due to something that happened in your past. Also, many occupations that involve a great deal of human interaction, or direct patient care, require that an immunization form be filled out. This routine check helps to minimize the spread of pathogenic disease. After the background check and immunization forms are completed, there is an online orientation that is need to be viewed. Then, fill out an essential functions form and you are ready to enroll, unless a CPR certification is also required. The majority of jobs in the health care industry, would require a continuous CPR certification throughout schooling and career. These enrollment steps are put in place to weed out the people just signing up for any old program, from the ones that are serious about that career.
I am currently in the process of completing my immunization form. Once I do this I will take the orientation, and do the essential functions form. I am glad to finally be almost eligible to enroll in the Physical Assistant Program. The steps to get into a program at WTC can be maticulos, but if success is what people want, then education is what people need. That is why I am entering my program at school, so that I will not have to make pizzas for the next 43 years.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
What is pizza?
Many people claim pizza to be their favorite food, but with all the various foods that claim to be pizza, what is pizza exactly? According to Wikipedia, pizza "is an oven-baked, flat, disc shaped bread usually topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella and then a selection of meats, salamis, seafood, cheeses, vegetables and herbs depending on taste and culture." Modern pizza originated in Italy as the Neapolitan pie with tomato sauce. Cheese was soon added. When making a pizza, no matter what part of the world you are in, it seems that a person would always start with some form of oven-baked bread. Tomato sauce also is an extremely popular ingredient to making the unique and delicious taste of a pizza. Depending on what part of the world you are in, you while find a diverse selection of popular pizza toppings. There are thousands of toppings that people have introduced over the years as a pizza topping, but regardless the topping, another famous ingredients found on a pizza is the cheese, usually mozzarella. The cheese is typically spread on top of the ingredients but some go for the cheese under the toppings. Regardless, cheese, along with the oven-baked bread and the tomato sauce, are the three crucial ingredients needed to make a pizza.
No matter where a person goes in the world, there will most likely be pizza on the menu. It is a delicious pie that over time has evolved into an item having many forms and flavors. Though the various types of pizza that exist keep pizza never boring, it will still usually always consist of these three crucial ingredients: cheese, bread, and tomato sauce. Pizza is a type of food that usually consists of a round, flat piece of bread and will have tomato sauce and cheese on it, before being oven-baked to eat. That is what pizza is.
No matter where a person goes in the world, there will most likely be pizza on the menu. It is a delicious pie that over time has evolved into an item having many forms and flavors. Though the various types of pizza that exist keep pizza never boring, it will still usually always consist of these three crucial ingredients: cheese, bread, and tomato sauce. Pizza is a type of food that usually consists of a round, flat piece of bread and will have tomato sauce and cheese on it, before being oven-baked to eat. That is what pizza is.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Why I like to golf.
Get up, go to work, eat, go back to work, drive home, and go to bed. For most people, this is pretty close to accurate as far as the average daily schedule. We all have to be bored in exchange for getting that pay check at the end of the week. We all work hard to support our families and or ourselves and because of this, I believe we should all have something that we love to do so we can reward ourselves when we have time off. We should all have a hobby so that we don't go insane from the repetitious boredom of daily economic survival. For me, I love to go golfing. Golfing is a very fun, challenging, and relaxing sport, that people of all ages can learn. Golfing is something that i enjoy because of how fun it is. It is fun because you get to go out with friends and talk and laugh and just plain have a good time. When you are calm, settle yourself down, set up your shot, and actually hit the ball where your aiming and with the perfect distance, it is the greatest feeling in the world. It is easy to get mad if your hitting bad shots all day, but if you stop and think about why your really out there, it turns into fun and relaxation. Golfing is a quiet, calm, and relaxing sport. Being outdoors on a bright sunny day, with the birds singing melodies, and the cool breeze blowing, the pureness of nature comes to light, and it is the most relaxing thing in the world. When your out on the links, like i said earlier, it is fun, but it is extremely easy to get frustrated at yourself and your clubs. Golfing is a challenging sport, that many people play, but few master the game. Many people, like myself, expect to be as good as Tiger Woods every time they go out there. The truth is though, this sport is hard! A lot of times people find themselves getting furious at there clubs after a bad shot, but as soon as they hit one good shot it is a time for celebration and mood is instantly changed. That one good shot is enough to keep people coming back to take on the challenge of hitting TWO good shots next Sunday. Many people love to golf, because the challenge the game brings is fun for people, and it is also a good way to socialize with new and old friends. Golfing is a fun, challenging, and relaxing sport that is at the top of my list of things to do on a beautiful day.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Sick of pizza? Well we are more than just pizza
I'm not really sure if getting sick of our pizza is truly possible, but just incase, we have a huge variety of other fantastic, drool forcing items on our menu. We have a large variety of food that is appealing to all people. On the nights that you want something other than pizza, you should try one of our amazing broasted chicken dinners. You can get a bucket of chicken, like a twenty piece tub, and order some sides with it such as potatoes, Cole slaw, French fries, or garlic toast. Also available is our chicken dinners that would include choices of a few of these sides. Pizza Corral's menu also consists of several side order, or fryer, foods. We have cheese curds, batter fried mushrooms, chicken strips, drummies, jalapeno cheese curds, onion rings, fish, and the sampler basket. The sampler basket would be a good choice to order if you are not sure what exactly you would like to have, because the sampler is a little bit of each of our fryer foods that we have to offer.
If something from the fryer is not what you are in the mood for to have as an appetizer while waiting for your pizza, we also have a few delicious bread products. We offer breadsticks, garlic toast, cheese toast, and garlic cheese bread. These bread items are not only great tasting, but they also can be prepared and on your table in three minutes. Something I have mentioned so far has hopefully made you hungry, but if not, Pizza Corral also has hard and soft shell tacos, sandwiches that are big and some that are small, soda, malts, milk shakes, caramel sundaes, and eight different kinds of flavored ice cream. Do I even need to say more? Ice cream is a reason in itself to come eat some Pizza Corral so afterwards you can have some ice cream for dessert. Pizza Corral’s menu is full of delicious items that you should explore, because I guarantee you will find yourself a new favorite thing to order. Please come enjoy our menu daily. We are open 10am till 10 pm and are looking forward to your company!
If something from the fryer is not what you are in the mood for to have as an appetizer while waiting for your pizza, we also have a few delicious bread products. We offer breadsticks, garlic toast, cheese toast, and garlic cheese bread. These bread items are not only great tasting, but they also can be prepared and on your table in three minutes. Something I have mentioned so far has hopefully made you hungry, but if not, Pizza Corral also has hard and soft shell tacos, sandwiches that are big and some that are small, soda, malts, milk shakes, caramel sundaes, and eight different kinds of flavored ice cream. Do I even need to say more? Ice cream is a reason in itself to come eat some Pizza Corral so afterwards you can have some ice cream for dessert. Pizza Corral’s menu is full of delicious items that you should explore, because I guarantee you will find yourself a new favorite thing to order. Please come enjoy our menu daily. We are open 10am till 10 pm and are looking forward to your company!
Hardships of a Pizza Chef
Everybody in this country has their own way of life. Each person has their own way of surviving and getting money to support themselves and their family. Whether it’s closing multi-million dollar deals as a CEO of a hot dog company, or working part time as a hot dog vendor, the fact is, different people have different jobs. I would have to categorize my job at Pizza Corral as one of the jobs that is more closely related to the hot dog vendor’s, because my salary is closer to that of a hot dog vendor's. Though the hot dog vendor and I don’t make as much money as the CEO, this doesn’t mean that people in our working class don’t work hard.
Some people might think that being a cook at a pizza shop is an easy job. The truth is though that it’s a lot more work than it seems. First, to make the crust, you will need to make some dough. Gathering 20 pounds of flour and various other ingredients is the first step to making dough. Once these ingredients are at hand, they are mixed in a giant bowl for about 10 minutes, until it is set up perfectly. When the dough is done being mixed, it is cut into two sections and placed into oiled buckets and is now ready to make delicious pizzas such as our pepperoni, the sausage pepperoni, the Deluxe, the Hawaiian, etc,. From here, the dough is placed through our rolling machine which takes some experience to get to know how to use. This machine is hard to use because the dough is usually sticky and it does not always cooperate properly with our machine, sticking to the giant rollers and everything else inside. After a few attempts at rolling the crust, the finished product is hopefully a perfect circle of crust of whatever size pizza was ordered. From here, the sauce is now put on the pizza. This sauce isn’t just any old pizza sauce either, for it is very unique. It is unique because it has been the same recipe for all 27 years that Pizza Corral has been in business. Many people have commented on how good our sauce is and some ask how it is made. They ask, but they will never know how to make this unique sauce, because it is a secret. Don’t feel left out in the cold though my fellow readers, for I, the Pizza Ninja, a loyal employee of seven years, does not know the secret recipe for the sauce. Pizza Corral is a family owed business, always has been, and only members of the owner’s family know this unique recipe. The rest of the ingredients are now put on the pizza. This task in my opinion is the easiest part of making a pizza but there is a catch. Once the ingredients are added on, the pizza is ready to go into the extremely hot oven, 475 degrees to be exact. One the pizza is in the oven you then return to the pizza table to make more pizza. The hard part about this though is making sure you don’t forget about the pizza that’s already in the oven. It is easy to not realize how long something takes you, and it is easy to get distracted from tending the oven. Maybe it is really busy and you have to keep making more pizza, maybe the phone rings with an angry customer and you can’t get off the phone and back to the oven causing a pizza to burn, or simply the distractions of other co-workers. When this happens, the boss gets mad, understandable though because you are costing them money.
Being a pizza chef, or working in any restaurant, isn’t really the slacker job that some people might think. There are many tasks that are stressful, such as answering a hundred phone orders in a row from a constantly ringing phone, or simply trying not to cost the boss money by burning things because you didn’t pay attention to them. Everyone has there own lifestyles and means of survival. Some are more fortunate and make more money than others, like the CEO of the hot dog company, and some just work hard and that’s all that matters to them.
Some people might think that being a cook at a pizza shop is an easy job. The truth is though that it’s a lot more work than it seems. First, to make the crust, you will need to make some dough. Gathering 20 pounds of flour and various other ingredients is the first step to making dough. Once these ingredients are at hand, they are mixed in a giant bowl for about 10 minutes, until it is set up perfectly. When the dough is done being mixed, it is cut into two sections and placed into oiled buckets and is now ready to make delicious pizzas such as our pepperoni, the sausage pepperoni, the Deluxe, the Hawaiian, etc,. From here, the dough is placed through our rolling machine which takes some experience to get to know how to use. This machine is hard to use because the dough is usually sticky and it does not always cooperate properly with our machine, sticking to the giant rollers and everything else inside. After a few attempts at rolling the crust, the finished product is hopefully a perfect circle of crust of whatever size pizza was ordered. From here, the sauce is now put on the pizza. This sauce isn’t just any old pizza sauce either, for it is very unique. It is unique because it has been the same recipe for all 27 years that Pizza Corral has been in business. Many people have commented on how good our sauce is and some ask how it is made. They ask, but they will never know how to make this unique sauce, because it is a secret. Don’t feel left out in the cold though my fellow readers, for I, the Pizza Ninja, a loyal employee of seven years, does not know the secret recipe for the sauce. Pizza Corral is a family owed business, always has been, and only members of the owner’s family know this unique recipe. The rest of the ingredients are now put on the pizza. This task in my opinion is the easiest part of making a pizza but there is a catch. Once the ingredients are added on, the pizza is ready to go into the extremely hot oven, 475 degrees to be exact. One the pizza is in the oven you then return to the pizza table to make more pizza. The hard part about this though is making sure you don’t forget about the pizza that’s already in the oven. It is easy to not realize how long something takes you, and it is easy to get distracted from tending the oven. Maybe it is really busy and you have to keep making more pizza, maybe the phone rings with an angry customer and you can’t get off the phone and back to the oven causing a pizza to burn, or simply the distractions of other co-workers. When this happens, the boss gets mad, understandable though because you are costing them money.
Being a pizza chef, or working in any restaurant, isn’t really the slacker job that some people might think. There are many tasks that are stressful, such as answering a hundred phone orders in a row from a constantly ringing phone, or simply trying not to cost the boss money by burning things because you didn’t pay attention to them. Everyone has there own lifestyles and means of survival. Some are more fortunate and make more money than others, like the CEO of the hot dog company, and some just work hard and that’s all that matters to them.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
A non pizza related blog by The Pizza Ninja
Interested in personal beliefs? If you are, there is a website on the Internet that is a database for thousands of essays about personal belief, that are submitted daily. This web page is simply called "This I believe."
While browsing through this website, I noticed the variety of people that had submitted essays was very diverse. People of all ages, race, and religious background had submitted essays about things that they personally believe. Something that I really liked about this website, was that I noticed some of the people who had submitted essays, were famous. Penn Gillete, one of the members of the comedy and magic show duo, Penn and Teller, was one of them. There were also a few other people such as musicians, former athletes, and other famous people that wrote beliefs that you might find interesting.
In class, we were asked to do a writing assignment about an experience in our lives in which the outcome from that experience generated out our own personal belief. It is an interesting assignment that I am still currently working on. At first, when I read the directions to the assignment I thought to myself, "Ugh.. I don't think I have any personal beliefs, or even an interesting experience to write about." I was stumped for a bit until I brainstormed for a while and it helped me remember a few things that had happened when I was younger. I came up with my topic soon after and began drafting my essay.
The ideas and the inspiration I got from the "This I believe" website really helped me with my essay. This would be why I encourage people to check out that website. I have posted a link below to the THIS I BELIEVE database. Even if it's not for an assignment purpose, it is a very interesting website that you should check out. http://thisibelieve.org/
While browsing through this website, I noticed the variety of people that had submitted essays was very diverse. People of all ages, race, and religious background had submitted essays about things that they personally believe. Something that I really liked about this website, was that I noticed some of the people who had submitted essays, were famous. Penn Gillete, one of the members of the comedy and magic show duo, Penn and Teller, was one of them. There were also a few other people such as musicians, former athletes, and other famous people that wrote beliefs that you might find interesting.
In class, we were asked to do a writing assignment about an experience in our lives in which the outcome from that experience generated out our own personal belief. It is an interesting assignment that I am still currently working on. At first, when I read the directions to the assignment I thought to myself, "Ugh.. I don't think I have any personal beliefs, or even an interesting experience to write about." I was stumped for a bit until I brainstormed for a while and it helped me remember a few things that had happened when I was younger. I came up with my topic soon after and began drafting my essay.
The ideas and the inspiration I got from the "This I believe" website really helped me with my essay. This would be why I encourage people to check out that website. I have posted a link below to the THIS I BELIEVE database. Even if it's not for an assignment purpose, it is a very interesting website that you should check out. http://thisibelieve.org/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
