January 31, 2013

• Report # 967

  Well it looks like I’ve shifted into a bad pattern again this week of staying bed too late. I was out of bed today at 11:00 am exactly, but yesterday not until 11:40 am, and the other two days not until around noon. I am certain to break my pattern tomorrow though as I definitely will be out of bed before 10:00 am. I went for a run on Monday afternoon and then headed home and had a shower and went to Cinépolis in Galerias to see Hitchcock.

  It was an interesting movie for me as I really didn’t know much about Alfred Hitchcock the man, only being familiar with his name. Next up I suppose I will have to see some of his movies one day. After the movie I had some dinner in the food court, I giant chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, bread, and some spaghetti. I picked up two cupcakes which were loaded with icing to take home and of course after them and the large popcorn and coke before I was absolutely stuff. At least I finally had some vegetables, now just have to get some fruit !

  Monday and Tuesday were both very hot days, and Tuesday even got up to 32 C. (90 F) I went for a run on Tuesday afternoon and by the time I finished I was definitely sweating more than usual. I came home and had a shower and in the afternoon I headed out to the Marco (Museo de Arte Comptemporáneo de Monterrey) to check it out. There was a display on soccer as an art form and how it is connected around the world as the most popular sport, and it was very cool.

  Upstairs there was some very beautiful paintings and interesting pieces of art. If I had waited a day I wouldn’t have had to pay the 70 pesos (6 dollars and some) entrance fee as Wednesdays are free, but that’s ok. The only real downside to the trip was that I wasn’t allowed to take any photos, which I can understand as museums probably don’t want everyone who comes taking photos of everything and posting them all for everyone else to see, discouraging future visitors.

  I picked up a Frappuichino from El Globo and stopped at Subway and then headed home and had a relaxing evening. I ran again on Wednesday morning and it was much nicer as the day was about 10 degrees cooler, and at the hour I was running, it was probably even a little cooler than that. After my run I came home and had a shower and decided to order some food from a restaurant called Toks. I had seen a couple of them around town though I had never actually gone, but seeing as they had given all of the houses flyers, I thought I would call them and make an order from delivery.

  I made my order and after waiting for an hour my food had not arrived so I called back and the lady told me the address I gave was not correct. I spelled out the name of the street for her and told her the numbers very carefully and she told me the food would come soon. I waited almost another hour and still there was nothing. So by the time of waiting for nearly two hours I just got fed up, and I wasn’t going to bother to call and explain things again. I just ended up ordering a burger and fries and picking it up from Las Alitas.

  It was just a weird situation, and never had I had anything like that happen before. They never once asked for my cellphone number, which if there was a problem they easily could have called me and try and sort it out. So basically I just felt ignored for two hours. I suppose it’s good they  never did arrive else I would have had to pay for food that probably wouldn’t even have been warm. I definitely won’t be going to that place ever or requesting anything from them….. at least not that location.

  There is a planetarium here that I would love to go to one day though it’s a little out of the way for me and I would have to take two buses to get there. I have a friend that wanted to go with me but said that on the day she is off of work, Monday, it is always closed. I just checked the website though and found out on February 4 it will be open for the long weekend here, so I will talk to her tonight and maybe we will be able to go on Monday. If not I’ll figure out how to get there and go myself one day.

  It’s been kind of sad but I haven’t spent time with anyone in 10 days ! I really need to make more plans with people as this has just been too much time alone. I talked to someone yesterday and we kind of talked of having dinner but she might be busy with school, but we will probably go one day. I did read that RIM (Research in Motion, the company that makes Blackberry) has changed their company named to Blackberry and are launching their new phone Blackberry 10.

  I can remember four years ago when I got my first and only Blackberry, the Pearl, and initially I thought it was the coolest thing ever. However after seeing how often it would freeze, having troubles with the speakers, tracking ball, and an extremely high cell phone bill every month, the magic wore off pretty quickly. And it seems in those four years I wasn’t the only one turned off by Blackberries, and a lot of people turned their attention to iPHONEs or other smartphones such as the Android or Galaxy.

  However as much as Blackberry is struggling, it’s always good that people have options in the market place, and seeing the company try to re-brand itself and come out strong with a new product launch is cool. There will always be some Blackberry diehards and maybe they will be able to win some people back if the Blackberry 10 is truly an exceptional product.

  I’ve said before though that I believed that the company that manufactures Blackberry seems to be on a sinking ship, though with smart management, innovation, and people’s willingness to try what is new, they might just have a chance to plug the leak and set sail for a while longer. While I don’t see Blackberry being able to overcome Apple over some of the other phones, they really don’t have to. If they can get to a point where they are making a profit and delivering to their shareholders that’s really all that would matter.

  Of course they’d want to be # 1 in market share and I’m sure they will try and get there, but first things first they have to get back on track and right their sinking ship. So while I think they are off to a good start with that, they have a lot of work to do to get back to where they were five years ago or so. It’s one of the interesting things about the world as time moves on many things change.

  Like my example with the restaurant yesterday there, if your product doesn’t deliver (mine more literally than most) people will be turned off and the company will ultimately be doomed. So while I don’t expect Blackberry to get back to full strength taking on Apple and the other companies, it will be interesting to see if in the next year they can right their sinking ship, or if they’ll continue sinking into the abyss of the history books. For the next question:

  Have you had a Blackberry phone before ? How was your experience ? Do you or have you had an iPHONE or other smart phone ? How is that experience ? Are your phone bills expensive ?

  Today I’ll leave you all with some pictures from Barrio Antiguo in Monterrey. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Sunday, bye for now.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  • 1:03 pm
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