Oct 19 - 21 NSMH Regionals

The NSMH Western Regionals was held at Alexis Park, Las Vegas this year. I got to see a lot of familar faces and meet many new ones too (go SDSU!). The meeting was so-so and the food sucked (except for the last closing reception). I drove to Harrah’s and walked the strip with some SDSUers on Saturday night. We went north to the Wynn and then across the street and south to the Bellagio. Two of the girls had too much to drink and passed out on the Bellagio tables..haha. We then went across the street and back to the car, and had a midnight snack at Bazic.

Oct 25 Francesca’s Birthday

Francesca had a her birthday at Bally’s Executive Suite. The doors are as wide as my kitchen’s largest side and the suite is larger then my 2BR townhouse >.< There are three sets of sofa, a bar, two televisions, coffee table, and restroom in the guest area. The master bedroom had a king size bed, a HUGE jacuzzi tub, its own television, a huge steam shower, and the regular bathroom amenities. The view was awesome and overlooked the Paris Tower and the Fountains of Bellagio. And that HUGE jacuzzi tub? We filled that with ice and used it to cool beers (it took like 15 trips.. haha)

Oct 31 Halloween

I went to work in a Jack Sparrow costume I left work early, met up with Jay and then went for a walk on the strip. We walked from Bellagio to Treasure Island and road a car back to Bellagio. We then went karaoking at XO.

Nov 1 Haircut

I got my hair cut at Tonic by Gina ~ the prices are reasonable, people are very cool, but I think the cut is OK.

Here’s the classes I want for Spring 2008

Monday/Wednesday

HMD 456 1000AM-1115AM 70822 Employee Development | Eade
HMD 402 1130AM-1245AM 61995 Hospitality Employment Law | Eade

Tuesday/Thursday
HMD 401 0830AM-0945AM 61997 Hospitality Law | Werner
HMD 407 1000AM-1115AM 72869 Organization Behavior | Potts
TCA 420 0100AM-0215AM 61887 Hospitality Finance | Dalbor

And work hours

Sunday, Monday, Wednesday: 2PM-1030PM

Tuesday, Thursday 3PM-1130PM

No school/work Friday/Saturday

Monday Oct 8~

I had lunch with the GM of Marriott Grand Chateau at Lombardi’s Romagna Mia in Planet Hollywood. I had angel hair pasta for the main course. For dessert, they brought out a tray displaying samples for the day to let us choose from and then made the desserts fresh. It was good

Tuesday Oct 9~

I went to Pho Kim Long for lunch with a coworker.

Wednesday & Thursday Oct 10 & 11~

I represented the Club de Soleil Resort for Soleil Management/Consolidated Resorts at UNLV’s Hospitality Marketplace. We were a sponsor so we got a special booth in the very front next to Harrah’s and across from MGMMirage. It was fun and it felt really cool to be out there as a second year student and already recruiting the juniors and seniors that I go to school with

Friday Oct 12~

Nothing particular happened.. except that I went to gas up at the AM/PM on Tropicana and Fort Apache.. and noticed a sticker on the station saying that I’ll be charged 45 cents JUST to swipe my card =[

Saturday Oct 13~

I picked up Sara after work and went to Lake Las Vegas to help run a fund raiser for the New Vista Ranch. The New Vista Ranch is a non-profit group that provides housing and support services to developmentally disabled adults. We didn’t know what we’d be doing until we got there ~ and it turned out to be a wine tasting fund raiser. There were about 500 “tasters” and twenty different wines. I was pouring a Hogue Chardonnay from Columbia Valley and went through 2 cases (like 30 bottles) in less than 3 hours. We raised about $15,000 that night

Sunday Oct 14~

My General Manager talked the General Manager of Tahiti Resort into an interview for the Lead position. It would be a property transfer and a job promotion [and more money$$]. A lot has changed at Club de Soleil since I’ve started there. I’m the kind of person that dares to tell the General Manager that I don’t like something and that I would like to change it. The General Manager understood that my contributions would make her and her resort look better, and let me see those projects through almost every single time.

She pulled me into her office, told me about the promotion, and then told me, “You’re so good at what you do; I would feel that my job was threatened if I weren’t the General Manager.” Haha.. good to hear.

And so I went in at 12:30 for my interview and it lasted just over an hour. The “interview” part was really only the first 15 minutes and the remainder of the time was telling me about the things that I would do. I think that’s a good sign ~ it felt as if they were training me already. They’ll let me know if I get it in about a week.

Thursday

10AM Managerial Accounting.

We got our first exam back and I scored a 95% awesome. There were two questions that I didn’t know and the rest were just overlooked numbers in the written section. I went to Dr. Curtis Love’s office to find out more about the department chair candidate we’re interviewing.. and I was emailed his TWENTY-ONE PAGE RESUME. omg? I’m not meeting the candidate until next week and I’ll probably need all that time to review his resume. Next up was a 11:45 teleconference with the Group Vice President of Reed Expositions ~ I found a table on the SU second floor and set my laptop up there. It was her, some lady named Donna, and I ~ they want about 15 interns for me and will be using the Global Gaming Expo as our partnership experiment. If all goes well, I’ll be able to provide lots of internship positions for the Meetings & Events majors =]

Work was pretty normal. The front office supervisor and I ordered Quizno’s and wrote it off as “We needed fuel to maintain our excellence in customer service.” hahaa.. I can’t wait until the assistant general manager sees that =p My job for the day was to create Comp Vouchers and On-Loan Equipment Forms and then write procedures on them >.< But I got to spend most of my day in the GM’s office [away from all the people], so it wasn’t too bad.

Saturday

I have an odd shift schedule ~ I work friday 3PM until 11:30PM and then im there again saturday morning at 7am. It trips out a lot of people ~ cause they think that I’ve been there the entire time from friday after-noon to saturday after-noon. haha I only do that so I can have my saturday nights off though A front desk person got me waffles and sausages for breakfast.. it didn’t look too pretty but it was good for my empty stomach (followed by a sneakers bar).

OK, so we have a set of identical looking keys at the front office that open safes that store master keys; these safe opener keys are stored on a key chain that is mounted on a combination lock to the wall. They’re usually kept in order and facing the same direction, so we don’t have to try every key to figure out what opens what.. but there’s someone at the desk who likes to fuck with them and put them in the wrong order and alternating directions. The bellman and I decided that we had enough, so we decided to put an end to the keys switching. 1. We put the keys in the correct order. 2. We took a pocket blow torch and heated the key chain until it was bright red. 3. We took pliers and clamped the bright red metal together as hard as we could. 4. We took coffee straws and cut them into smaller sections, and then down the middle to split them open. 5. Wrap the straws around the metal. 6. Used the blow torch to melt the plastic. 7. Mold the melted plastic with pliers until it was harden. 8. Repeat steps 5-7 until we couldn’t do it anymore cause we’re cracking up. 9. Wrap tape around the melted plastic. 10. I had to take a picture

I spent this saturday night at the Whale Island (again) with Julie and a couple other peeps. There was this one korean girl that was drunk when she joined us.. and started eating my soup.. haha ~ that was fun.

Sunday

I passed out when I got home from Whale Island ~ I didn’t even bother closing my door. I stayed home most of the day. I found mint.com through an email announcement and signed up. It’s a very cool financial analyzer that takes all your accounts (checking, saving, credit cards..) and generates reports on your spending habits. It’ll start from large categories such as entertainment and food, and will go into detail like movies, restaurants, and supermarkets. It also told me that I’ve spent like 23G’s in the past three months.. haha I need to cut back >.<

I met up with the VP of PCMA at starbucks at 7:30 and brainstormed events that we should run. ~ i dun like meetings >.< I went home right after that and watched Evan Almighty, I’d give it a 7/10. Also, I found out that Lollicup will be opening a store in Vegas *YAYYYYYYY* It’ll be on the South Strip near the 215. Lastly, I’ll be volunteering at MonteLargo Village on saturday for a group called the New Vista Community. They’re a charity that helps adults and children with intellectual disabilities.

Good night,

Andy

I woke up around 10 and was really hungry. I washed my hair with a sample shampoo that we’re giving out at the resort, it’s a 3-part thing that’s supposed to make your hair poofy. My hair DID come out poofy and I almost made up my mind to buy the creme.. until I started smelling like girl shampoo >.< I was stuck with that smell ALL DAY.

I then drove around my area and found this very nondescript sushi place that literally said “SUSHI” in regular type black font above the door.. that was the ONLY logo that it had. It was a bit weird, but I thought I’d give it a shot. The interior was modernly decorated and I sat at the sushi bar. I ordered a 007, Monkey Roll (pictured below) and Oyster Shot. The 007 was the regular imitation crab filled roll with tiny pieces of shrimp and avocado on top. The Monkey Roll was a bit weird, it was fried hot banana’s with salmon and imitation crab. The Oyster Shot was one oyster and sake served in a champaign glass ~ but it felt like I was drinking soy sauce. The check came out to be $35 after tip per person and I would NOT go back again. They were very cheap on the portion size and it was a fake (Korean ran) Japanese restaurant.. and I was the ONLY Asian in there.

I went to school and hung out in the BEH computer lab before Human Resources class. Nothing special went on in class, we filled out this survey on food sanitation and got out early. I go to work straight from school on Wednesdays. The General Manager left early again today, so the resort was mine again. The GM wanted me to buy the office dinner ~ so I ordered Pizza Hut and wrote it off ALSOO Corporate usually sends the monthly newsletters to the departments heads, but they were sent to ME this month (because I write/design them).. awesomeeee.

Lastly, I got an email from the Director of the Masters Program (for Hotel Administration) asking me to have lunch with Dr. Haemoon Oh, a candidate for the Tourism and Convention Department Chair. I also got an email from Marriott’s Grand Chateau’s General Manager asking for lunch sometime. Wayy cool.

P.S. I have a conference call with the Group VP of Reed Expo tmr [later today acutally].. WISH ME LUCK.

I woke up late today so I parked at the starbucks plaza and went to class directly. Managerial Accounting was ehh.. nothing exciting ~ but I don’t like the stuff the professor’s teaching. She talked about calculating contribution margins and classifying items in quadrants of profitability and popularity. From the least profitable and least popular clockwise: dog, horse, star, question. She said that the goal was to get every item in the star category [which means everything ranks high in BOTH popularity and profitability]. BUT THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! Item classifications are compared relative to each other, so there will never be a day that there are items that not in all four categories. Secondly, she said that all items in the dog category (both unpopular and unprofitable) should be eliminated from the inventory. HOWEVER, items from the “kids menu” of Olive Garden are unprofitable AND unpopular but they are essential to luring in the adults to the establishment (thanks Professor Bai!!). I didn’t want to point this out to her in class, but I’ll send an email or something =p

I went to Seattle’s Best after class to meet with the VP of the Hotel Association and secured my position on the IHM&RS trip I then studied in the library a bit until Eileen called ~ we met at the MSU and had a cool chat upstairs. I found out why she always wears a hat.. heh It was almost time for work, so I went back to the Starbucks plaza to pick up my car. When I got close to my car, I saw a huge yellow sticker on my back window.. the parking violation kind >.< I know that I wasn’t supposed to park there, but I was late for class! Anywho, they were nice and the thing came off really easily. I had Chipotle for lunch and went to work.

Work was a very chill day, the General Manager & Assistant General Manager left at 4 today to work on budgets, so the GM told me that the resort was all mine and that I was in charge ;). My first call of the day (the minute after) was by a front desk agent asking if I could buy everyone pizza and write it off… haha. That didn’t happen. Nothing notable went on ~ with the exception of Ms. Volk (I acutally remembered her from her previous reservation.. she’s one of those people that look (and is) pissed off on vacation. She’s traveling in a party of three.. with her 90 year old mother and some 80 year old guy.. reminds me of Three’s a Company) came to the desk asking for additional keys. I usually ask for some sort of ID, but I knew who she was ~ I hope she doesn’t throw a fit and write to corporate ’cause she thought that I’d give keys out to anyone who asks for them [btw, her stay right now is comped].

I sent an email to the Group Vice President of Reed Expositions at work about the Global Gaming Expo ~ and we somehow started talking about UNLV’s IAEE Chapter ~ I told her that we have people and she said she’s looking for people.. so we’re going to work on setting up internship programs for my members

I got home around 11:30PM ~ changed into comfy clothes and watched last night’s Heroes online.

good night.

OHH and one last thing ~ I’m having lunch with the CEO and President of The White Chocolate Grill Restaurant Group next monday

I’m over here

On a regular week (once in a while)
Mon - On campus Noon-9PM
Tues - On campus 10am-2pm, Work 3-Midnight
Weds - On campus Noon-3:45, I go to work right after till Midnight
Thurs - On campus 10am-2pm, Work 3-Midnight
Fri- Work 3-Midnight
Sat - Work 7AM-4PM
Sun - Off

I also have a couple events coming up:

Mon October 8, 2007
Lunch with Bobby Fitzgerald, President & C.E.O. of The White Chocolate Grill Restaurant Group

Weds-Thurs October 10 & 11, 2007
I’ll be running a booth for Soleil Management & Consolidated Resorts at the UNLV Hospitality Marketplace. I’ll be introducing the company and selecting applicants to interview (and later interview them). I remember going to this career fair last year.. and never in my wildest imaginations did I think that I would be interviewing my peers only two years into college this will be fun.

Fri-Sun October 19-21. 2007
NSMH Regional Conference. I can’t wait to catch up with people I met last year ~ go Washington State!

Fri-Mon November 9-12, 2007
I’ll be in NYC for the International Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show by the AH&LA. I went last year and it was awesome ~ I got to meet lots of people and see the latest stuff in the hospitality industry.

Tues-Thur November 10-15, 2007
I’ll be at the Global Gaming Expo@ the LV Convention Center.

Mon-Weds December 10-12, 2007
Expo! Expo! by the International Association of Exhibition and Events. OMG, they had some awesome parties last year =p I went to their conference in San Diego last year and I got to meet some great people ~ there was this one C.E.O. that loved me and took me around partying..hehee. We went on this BATTLE CRUISER (yea the big ones that have airplanes on them) for the GES party, a private yacht club, a couple hugeee suites and DICK’S LAST RESORT <3. ALSO, I WILL END MY TERM AS VICE-CHAIRMAN AND BECOME CHAIRMAN OF THE UNLV CHAPTER at this event. YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Sun - Thurs Jan 13-16, 2008
Professional Convention Management Association National Conference in Seattle, WA

Thurs - Sun Feb 21-24, 2008
National Soceity of Minorities in Hospitality National Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

I woke up today around 10:30 with the urge to shop. I facebooked ( <- as important as brushing my teeth), showered, and got ready to go out. I met a guy at the Whale Salad a couple nights ago that turned out to be the owner's son. He moved to Vegas only two weeks ago and didn't seem to know many people. Seeing that he's of age, I told him that I'd hook him up with some VIP club passes. So, I stopped by the Whale Salad at around noon but they weren't open yet. I then went to the Boulevard Mall the soothe my shopping spree. I bought two dress shirts, three ties, and a light sweatshirt.

We had a guest speaker in HR Management, he was the Human Resort Director for Hillstone Restaurant Group. They have a really nice pay & internal promotion system I then stopped by the BEH computer lab for a quick check of emails before my timeshare class. The professor sent out an email in the morning about an tour and meeting the General Manager of Marriott's Grand Chauteau instead of regular class. I was dressed in a T, jeans, and flipflops so I went back to my car and put on the new dress shirt I bought and a pair of black Adidas I had on the car.

I learned that the GM got to his position of managing a 2000 suite timeshare in less than 20 years - starting as a busser. That's pretty damn amazing. During and after the Q&A, he and the Director of Sales kept on hinting that I should consider working for Marriott. I took the GM's card, and sent him a email telling him that I like where I work right now :D.

I met up with Kimberly, Kylie, and Cate at Volcano Tea. Me and Kylie wanted this other store that used real fruit.. I was craving avocado's so we went to get that instead. I felt like pho, so we walked across the street to Pho Kim Long. We saw this new frozen yogurt place on the way there ~ they were promoting 12oz yogurts for $1 But we were stuffed after dinner >.< I headed for Whale Salad again to drop off the VIP passes, but he wasn’t there ~ so I left it with one of the staff members.

Good night.
-Andy Kao