Hi there! Currently my blog is under construction since the move to a new host. Please excuse the mess as I continue to make tweaks!

Back when I made the post Top Chef: Just Desserts – A New Favorite, I had mentioned that I was rooting for specific people. Well… One of them one. Yigit won, and I had a gut feeling he would win. Also, now that the series is over, I do have to say I liked this season of the show. I have a feeling there may be tweaks here and there, of which I have no idea what they would be, however, I have high hopes that it will be renewed for a second season. I just wanted to pass this update along, as I did make a promise that I would.

I haven’t written in a while, but I haven’t had any steam or anything to get off my chest, so it’s been a little quiet. I’m sorry. Now? I do have something to mention…

April 23, 2009 was the day I started my latest job. It all started when I was called three days before then. I picked up my phone, and a nice lady had called and said “This is The Home Depot, I would like for you to come in for an interview today at 1pm.” I was happy. Why? I hadn’t had a job since CompUSA closed its doors and locked them on March 4, 2008. Yeah. It had been over a year. Of course I said I would come in for an interview. The original interviewer was running late that day, so my interview wound up being Gretchen, the receiving supervisor. She was originally interviewing me for a possible cashiering position. OK. That’s alright. I love running a register. It’s a lot of fun. Based on the questionnaire she was reading off to me, it was deemed that cashiering was not the best position for me to be landing. She felt that I was better off in the receiving department, as it was something I already knew how to do, since that was pretty much my job back at CompUSA. That’s when a brick wall landed. There were no open positions. I was about to leave the interview without a job, when she recommended I take an overnight seasonal recovery position with the opportunity to moving to the overnight freight team at the end of the season. Desperate for a job at this point, I accepted the offer. I would be working part time for $9.30 an hour, knowing there was the possibility I could be let go any time between then and July 2009.

Seasonal Recovery is a very dirty job to do. You have to recover the entire outside seasonal department. This includes filling and flat stacking and facing soils, mulches, stones, paver stones, and fertilizers. It was a messy job that I could barely do as that stuff got heavy after a while, and my tiny frame couldn’t handle it for long. The months went by and it came to the end of the season. Management had decided that they would keep me and move me inside to the overnight freight team. It was ok. It wasn’t the worst job in the world, and I got my first Homer Award, recognized for my work ethic. The months went by and I was beginning to get bored with the job somewhere around April and May of 2010. I just got lazier and lazier, mainly because barely any of my coworkers actually did any hard work. Don’t get me wrong, they are all nice people, it’s just some of them were just lazy.. Stood around chatting around not doing much of anything, leaving the rest of us to pick up the slack. It was at this point I was fed up and just didn’t really want to be around the company much longer. I am leaving many specific grueling details out as me mentioning them approaches the border of breach of contract, thus I would lose my job, but trust me. It got bad. And it would only get worse from this point.

August and September rolled around and it was post-season. Many of the new temps were let go at the end of their 90 day probation period, and the store began its downward spiral. Hours were being cut in order to “save money.” On the freight team there were only 6 full timers and 8 part timers at this point. The people being cut were always the part timers first, thus they were left with a crew of 6 people to get all of the freight done. The time period was approaching holiday season, thus the freight load would begin to triple very soon. I laughed. Honestly. I did. Why? Management was making a baaaad decision reducing their workforce when the freight load was tripling, thus it would put massive strain on the few people that were actually there, and I can honestly tell you… They were not happy about management’s bad decisions here. This approached a point where the hours for the week part time freight associates were working would continue to fall from 32 hours a week to 24 to 16 to 8 to barely 8 hours a week. This was not okay for me. I am at this company busting my ass for these people, trying to get my department done perfectly (I worked the Hardware department) and they want to just cut my hours like no tomorrow. I got fed up. Management took wind of this very quickly.

October 4, 2010… I was approached by Stan the Man about a possible position change in the company. He saw that I was busting my ass and my hours getting cut was not okay in my eyes. He offered to move me to Department 90, which is the cashiering department, for a guaranteed 16+ hours a week position. I was ecstatic. I was finally being treated better than the management in my old position, so I, of course, took the offer that day. The moment I said yes, I was no longer a member of the freight team. A lot of my old coworkers were “sad” that I was leaving the team, but when I have to cover many of their slack and get my hours cut in the process, I did not care. I said my good byes to the few that I actually liked and the ones that actually busted their asses also, and left that Monday night and didn’t look back.

I began my training on October 9th, finished October 10th, for a position that was relatively easy to deal with. It was mostly stuff I had already learned how to do at CompUSA, and it went by smoothly like a breeze, and I passed, with flying colors I might add. I ran my first register at Home Depot on Tuesday the 12th. I’ll be honest… I was nervous, but it went by smoothly. So far, I have not run in to any problems, and to be perfectly honest? Right now? I don’t miss working for the freight team one bit. I’m sorry. I don’t. Until management picks up the slack and actually does their job the right way on there, I will not be returning any time soon.

All in all, in the end, I am enjoying my new position at the Depot, and hopefully it continues to run smoothly. I am vastly aware the holiday season is approaching once again, and I will get the opportunity to try and excel once again. For the first time in a long time, at the Mount Laurel Home Depot, I am once again, happy with my job.



On the news today: 4 suicides have occurred this same week, that we know of. They were all teenagers and they were bullied, picked on, and/or tortured. It’s not fair for these people to be treated this way, and they had no one to turn to in their lives, why? Nobody would stand up to the bullies and they felt that this was their only way out.

The other night, I came across a video on Facebook that was being spread around by some of my Facebook buddies. It was a message from Ellen DeGeneres. In Ellen’s Important Message, she states that it is hard enough trying to figure out who you are in this world and self discovery without being bullied in the process. There are many teens out there suffering in silence. How many teens out there have we lost and how many more are we going to lose? They feel that they have nobody else to turn because, as I mentioned, nobody has the courage to stand up to these bullies and these teens feel that their only way out is suicide.

Let me tell you, that I have been there before. Suicide is NOT the answer. It is important that you talk to someone. Talk to your parents. Talk to a brother or sister. Talk to a teacher, a school counselor. If you feel that you can’t talk to any of the above, then I encourage you to visit The Trevor Project. They are a non-profit organization that provides around the clock crisis and suicide prevention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, and they have trained counselors ready to talk. They are here to listen to you. Call them – (866) 488-7386. Don’t give up. There is hope. It gets better. I promise you.

Two weeks ago, on September 15th, a new spinoff of one of my favorite shows, Top Chef: Just Desserts, premiered. It was pretty much the same as regular Top Chef, except it was for pastries and desserts, basically, pastry chefs. I was excited to see this show for many reasons, which I will discuss in a moment. Basically, we are now two episodes in to a ten episode series (hopefully many more seasons to come) and I have my opinions on the new show.

A new spinoff meant a different judge, like Bravo had done for Top Chef Masters. I did some research shortly after the announcement that the show was in production, and I found that Gail Simmons was going to be the host. I was ecstatic. She is one of the rotating judges on the original, and I love her critiques, and was excited to see how well she would do hosting a spinoff of Top Chef. I fully understand that this is a new experience for her, and that this was a new series, in a sense, so I understand that her hosting is a little “stiff” in presentation right now, and I will cut her some slack, as I still love her on Top Chef. I will wait until the end of the series before I have a final opinion on how well she did, and there’s always room for improvement!!

Andy Cohen, the guy who pretty much runs the Bravo network, had mentioned on his blog, which you can read here, mentioned that this show is “one of the gayest we’ve ever done,” and after watching the first two episodes of the show, I would have to agree.

In the first season of this spinoff, there are twelve contestants competing – six men, six women. Out of the six men who are competing, at least three of them are gay (the number is four if my gut saying Eric is gay also, is true). It clearly plays on the common stereotype of gay men that they would prefer to bake instead of play sports or do other “activities” that other straight men would commonly participate in, like sports for instance. This didn’t actually bother me. I was excited that we actually had a very diverse contestant pool this go around, as many of the contestants come from different backgrounds.

I will admit, I do have my two favorites and who I am rooting for. These two contestants are Zac Young and Yigit Pura. It’s not just because they’re gay, at all. It’s simply because I enjoy both of their personalities so far, and I’m honestly rooting for both of them to make it to the finals. I don’t have just one person I’m gunning for. It will be interesting to see if it happens.

The judges… The head judge is Johnny Iuzzini, the rotating judges are Dannielle Kyrillos and Hubert Keller. Johnny and Dannielle I haven’t the slightest idea who those two are, but Hubert Keller I have seen on Top Chef and Top Chef Masters before. My opinion? It’ll be an interesting watch. That’s all I really have to say on the judges sadly.

Drama, drama, drama. With every other reality television series, there is bound to be drama. Yes, two episodes in to the season, and we have drama already! Seth versus the rest of the cast so far due to his stuck up personality. Go figure. I’m more interested in the actual cooking and competing myself, but a little drama helps along the way to keep the show “interesting,” lol.

Overall, I have high hopes for the series. It’s a neat concept, and it will be interesting to watch, in the least. I will review the show again once the season is done, when I have a full understanding on how the show works and everything else.

Would I recommend the show to anyone else? Yes. Is it exciting? If you’re in to culinary arts and pastry arts and cooking in general, then yes, it is exciting, and I would recommend the show to you.

Bravo TV’s show page: http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-just-desserts/
Wikipedia Entry page (*SPOILER: with contestant progress*): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Chef:_Just_Desserts

The reunion of Top Chef: DC (season 7) aired this past Wednesday night, with the finale last Wednesday night… I have a few thoughts on this subject, and my views and opinions on what should have happened based on what I watched throughout the season.

The finale for season 7 took place in Singapore this season, the first time in Top Chef history the finale took place internationally. I feel like this was an awesome change for the season. What I did not like, however ,is how they chose the final 4 contestants to fight it out in Singapore. The final five contestants this season were Angelo, Tiffany, Kelly, Ed, and Kevin. As I was watching the judges deliberate about their food, I noticed that they really went nitpicky over everyone’s food, and they did say that despite her mussels freezing in the fridge, that Tiffany’s food was good, and they others were not exactly the best. I’m sitting here thinking “Awesome, Tiffany’s going to Singapore, there’s nothing to worry about.” Wrong. When it came to revealing the final four, they eliminated Tiffany! Despite the other 4′s food not being up to par! I don’t know what went on in these judges’ heads, but I don’t think they acted alone. I feel that, somehow, the producers got involved, but alas, I cannot prove it so I’ll let it slide. Fine. Tiffany’s gone. My next two people I’m rooting for are Ed and Angelo.

Fast forward to the finale, and we are left with Ed, Angelo, and Kevin. Kelly was cut. Awesome. Ed and Angelo are still there, so there’s going to be a great fight in this finale. We come to find in the beginning of the episode that each finalist is going to draw knives to find out which Top Chef from seasons past are going to help them to cook their food. Awesome. Being that I haven’t seen Top Chef seasons 1-4, I can’t really give my opinions too much on this subject, but the contestants finally draw knives. Ed drew Ilan Hall, Angelo drew Hung Huynh, and Kevin drew Michael Voltaggio. Immediately I drew a conclusion on how this was going to end before they even started cooking. I knew that Kevin had an advantage, as, in my personal opinion, Michael Voltaggio was the best out of the other two Top Chefs. However, I was going to hold off on judging this until I see how this pans out.

Immediately following the knife drawing, Angelo gets sick with some kind of weird flu that leaves him barely able to move and function. My first thought was that Angelo was going to have to drop out, leaving Ed and Kevin to battle out. It would have sucked if it panned out that way, but alas, Angelo did come back in the final cooking hours and put in a fair fight.

Judge deliberate and we get to the reveal. “Kevin, you are top chef” comes out of Padma’s mouth. Kevin is extremely shocked that he actually won. So was I. I honestly felt that Kevin shouldn’t have made it to the final three to begin with. As I mentioned earlier that I felt Tiffany should have made it through as her cooking was, in my opinion, superior to Kevin’s. I felt that the final three should have been Tiffany, Ed, and Angelo. If that were to happen, then I would not have been able to “guess” who was going to win in the finale before they even started cooking.

In the end, production influence of the judges had a major impact on the deliberation practice, and I felt that it was the “producers” who chose the top chef this season, and not the judges themselves. I get how reality television works, but it was blatantly obvious they have an influence. The season was ok. The location choice of Washington, DC was ok. The chefs were ok. I was rooting for Ed, Angelo, and Tiffany all season long, until the end. Would I have changed anything this season? Other than less production influence of judge’s decisions, no. It was an ok season, and I’m looking forward to Top Chef season 8, which was revealed to be an All-Star season at the reunion special. My thoughts on that are to come, but for now, I leave you with this.

Well, here it is… The first post of my blog. I would like to welcome you to my diary of sorts, titled The Vicious Cycles of My Brain. I created this, basically, as an outlet for myself. For instance, some people have art, some people have poetry, some people have dance, etc… For me? I’ve tried site design, graphic design, script coding (PHP scripts), etc… While I do enjoy those things as a hobby, I didn’t see them as an outlet to express myself. I thought about it for a while, and decided to see if a diary of my thoughts and what not would be a good outlet, so I am going to give it a try.

Basically what I do is write whatever is on my mind at the time, whether I am happy, sad, angry, upset, pissed off, frustrated, etc. It’ll pretty much be a learning experience for me as I reread these entries once in a while so I can look back and better myself and grow as a person.

Some of you will probably wonder: “Is this guy on a mission?” Well, the answer is no. I am not on a mission. I am fully not expecting much of anyone, if at all, to read this blog. You may think I’m nuts, you may think I’m crazy. And that is okay. It is, as I’ve stated, a diary. If you so choose to read, or are reading my entries, you are more than welcome to chime in with your thoughts, suggestions, views, and what not. Any amount of criticism you have, feel free to express it. We’re all entitled to our own opinions on things, you and I included. I will personally guarantee that I will read whatever you have to say, if you choose to say anything.

The name The Vicious Cycles of My Brain does have an origin. There was a period of time in my life where I was not in the best place. My old best friend, three years ago, recommended I either write a diary or write a book some day. Out of the blue, one day, somehow, the words “vicious cycles” came out of my mouth, and that’s when it hit both of us. He had recommended that title be the name of my diary or self titled book some day. Well, today is the day. I don’t talk to him often much anymore, but I do thank him for giving me the inspiration to actually use this as an outlet.

As I’ve stated before, right now, it’s a trial for me… I’m going to see how this works, in hopes that it helps me to relieve some of my unneeded stress that I’m internalizing, and hopefully, help me grow as a person. We shall see, now won’t we?