Sunday, January 28, 2007

The New Year

So...I haven't posted in a while. My life has been insane and I've been lazy, what a bad combination.

Anyway, this shall be a summary of the last month.

21st birthday: I woke up and worked on homework (final projects and papers), went to dinner at Olive Garden with the fam around 6 pm, came home and opened presents and had a FAB tart, went and did homework till 4 am. That was my 21st birthday!

Christmas: I promptly got sick on Dec 23rd (the day after I finished school...go figure), and went through work feeling semi-okay. I worked for 3 (or was it 4?) hours on Christmas Eve, went to the Aquarium for a half-shift, went to Christmas eve service (feeling worse than the day before), and went to bed. Woke up for Christmas just dead...We spent about 2.5 hours opening presents amongst the entire family (all 3 brothers and their wives, the niece and nephews, parents, Kristi, and I), went back to bed, got up for Christmas dinner, and went back to bed.

The rest of that week: I called out of work on the 26th (the first time I've EVER called out from work in 2.5 years of working at Borders). I went in for a half-shift on the 27th because I had to work on Bargains and whatnot. I had the rest of the week off and the Friday before New Years my parents and I drove down south to my oldest brother's. About midway down (Santa Maria), my nose started to bleed. Making a long story short...2.5 hours later it's still bleeding and I'm in the Santa Barbara ER. To make an even longer story shorter...I got my nose packed with, what the medical community terms as, a nasal tampon. It expands when water is placed on it. It was packed after they tried to catarize the blood vessel about 4-5 times with silver nitrate. When they packed my nose...the pack went WAY up into the nasal cavity (actually into my head...it wasn't in anywhere I could "point" to). It BURNED! My left eye kept watering and I was done for. I found out that Vicodin is NOT my drug of choice. It makes me ill -- no happy drug there! I also impressed the doctor that was seeing me. It always makes you feel slightly better when an ER doctor is impressed about things. He told a student doctor that the vessel that was bleeding was like a little artery that just kept pumping blood. The nose pack also put me out of commission the rest of the weekend. I slept through New Year's, suffered through a small fever, migraine, blah, blah, blah. I also lost about 5 pounds that weekend from not eating. You never realize how important it is for your nose to be able to move until you can't move it...On top of that...I also learned how to sneeze out of my mouth. Since I was still sick from before (sick with a terrible cold), I was sneezing and coughing. Of course with the nose pack, I couldn't do either well and DEFINITELY not out of my nose! I'm still sneezing out of my mouth out of habit...It's much messier than from the nose...

After we came home So. Cal...I went to my primary doctor to get the pack removed. They spent aeons trying to get it out and when they did...my nose started to bleed from the same spot again! I was sent to an E.N.T (ears, nose, and throat doctor). He checked me out, almost made me scream when he stuck that dumb thing up your nose to contract the vessels and "open your nose up." He actually looked at me concerned...I still don't like messing with my nose. It scares me. After having 3 doctors mess with the inside of my nose, having it packed, attempted at catarized, and finally catarized...I'm NEVER having someone mess with my nose again! Anyway...the E.N.T catarized the blood vessel and told me I couldn't lift anything heavy or do any exercising or anything like that for at least 3 days. Of course, I was supposed to work the next 3 days. I told him where I worked and he told I couldn't work and gave me a note to get out of work.

Once I was well...I went back to work. Was a bit slow, but moving. It felt NICE! I worked the 2 weeks left of my vacation (some vacation it was) and went back to school last Monday (Jan 22nd).

I'm taking 3 classes = 13 units.
Bio 340 aka Ecology
ESSP 384s aka environmental justice service learning (lots of self-reflections, critical thinkings, and it's a service learning class -- 30 hours of community service at a designated place)
ESSP 350 aka Quantitative Field Methods (QFM -- basically doing a monitoring project and using statistics and such to determine the outcomes or answer your question)

I'm also working once a week and still volunteering every other Sunday. I reached my 1,000 hour mark back in December at the aquarium. My shift and the aquarium made a big deal about it. I got my 1,000 hour pin and a really nice pen by Leed's that says "Monterey Bay Aquarium" with the logo on one side and "Volunteer" on the other. My shift made cupcakes with "1,000" written on them and they wrote a "filk" about me to the tune of "Down by the bay." I also got my certificate and a letter (few days later) from Julie Packard "on behalf of the board of trustees."

With that...I am off to go do some homework reading and some other stuff!

Laters

ETA: I almost forgot to post semester grades.

CST 201 (digital design): A+
Bio 241 (bio II): B+
Bio 241L (bio II lab): A
ESSP 332 (GIS/GPS): A
ESSP 332L (GIS/GPS lab): A
ESSP 300 (critical thinking/writing/career): A

I made the Dean's List and that GPA is a 3.86. My cum is the same (down a hundreth of a point from last semester...*sigh*)

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Attention World:

THE 7th and LAST Harry Potter TITLE HAS BEEN RELEASED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because most people who are going to read this don't care about HOW to get the title...Here's the title.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Friday, December 15, 2006

School's almost over!

I have ONE class to attend on finals week (Monday the 18th). I have my Bio II final at 8:30am, but she's going to be there at 8am (I'm going in early). The rest of the week will be dedicated to completing my CST and GIS/GPS project by Friday (they're both due at 5pm, but I'm probably working at 1pm).

CST: I have to redo my introduction (she said it wasn't professional enough). I have to redo some of my sublinks (I knew I even needed to do that since it's a bit confusing right now). I have to resize my movies and pictures (I knew that, but haven't done it because I didn't want to waste the time in resizing and not end up using them at the end (which is happening!).
GIS/GPS: I have to still make some of the maps in GIS and retouch things up and then I have to write up our report on...something. No clue. I have to turn in my files too.

I also have a biology lab paper to write, but I'm thinking I can get that done today. It's not as hard as our last ones, either that, or I'm just getting better at them. Who knows. It's not due till Friday at sometime, I forget when.

I also have to turn in my case study [due Wednesday by 5pm], but I just finished my major revisions on that. I have to reread it for grammatical/spelling errors and stuff and then I'm DONE! It'll be one thing off my plate. It's a HUGE paper too.

Here's the current stats on it WITHOUT my title page and citations:
- Times New Roman size 12 font with a 1" top/bottom border and 1.25" left/right border (the standard Word document size): 26 1/5 pages long! There's about a 1/5 of text on page 27.
- With 1" borders all around and Times, 12 it's 24 1/3 pages long.
- Arial, 11 with 1" borders all around it's almost a full 22 pages long.

I'm going to print it out at Arial, 11 with 1" borders because with the smaller size and more page room...I'm still going to have to print out 27 pages (entire paper, citations, and title page)!

I need to study my brains out for my bio final too. I have another 1.5 chapters to review for the new material and then I have to go back relearn or refresh on everything else from the semester. I'm just glad I started studying earlier this week...I haven't done any bio studying today and a little yesterday and none Wednesday (I worked).

I see the light at the end of the tunnel if I just keep focused (unlike Friday)! I'm getting that jittery feeling of just wanting everything done, but at the same time I'm also starting to get stressed with everything that's happening this coming week!

For now, that's all! I've got to sleep or go back to working on homework.

Oh! 5 more days till I turn 21!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Watermelon and bananas

This is what I learned from studying for my biology test:

Buy seeded watermelon because seedless watermelon have a wrong set of chromosomes so they're less fit and can't produce offspring (aka seeds). Meaning, they're defective! A seeded watermelon has a right set of chromosomes so it should be a "fully functional" watermelon and has a higher fitness level.

In other words, a seeded watermelon should taste better and a seedless watermelon shouldn't. :)

Did you know we buy seedless bananas too? I always wondered why bananas didn't seem to have seeds. Those little black dots are the aborted seeds. Interesting, eh?

Monday, November 13, 2006

Your Monthly Post :P

So...Life has been REALLY busy. I have this week and then next week is our "fall" break (week of Thanksgiving). We get the entire week off. Then...it's 3 academic weeks, 1 week of finals, and...WINTER BREAK! This semester is flying by! I'm ready for it to be over with, though. :P

Biology is kicking my butt. I'm pulling a B- right now, only, our class is doing a classic bell-curve so our class average is a C- any ways (10% below me). So I'm hoping for an A- like last semester. I have a test this Wednesday and it's a doozy: cell cycle, meiosis, mitosis, Genetics, and DNA replication. It's definitely my most difficult class this semester. It's just a lot of memorizing, which is my problem.

My CST class is going well. I have an A+ in it. I'm really enjoying learning Flash and want to go back and relearn some different things in Dreamweaver. Flash is lots of fun to play around with, but my final project is quickly approaching and the scripting is giving me some slight fits, but oh well. Hopefully I can work out some kinks over Thanksgiving. Least there's no final for the class. I just have to complete my portfolio and final project, make sure it all works electronically (i.e. links all work on the webpage) and burn a CD.

My 300 class is going okay too. I've got a solid A in the class. It's a LOT of writing, but oh well. My writing is getting better at least! My case study is going to be HUGE. My body/discussion is already 11 full pages and with my revisions it should be around 14. My introduction was about 4 pages. I still have to do my conclusion, which won't be too long (1-2 pages). There's also no final for this class, but there's so much due! Good thing my case study will mostly be completed by the time it's due at the end of the semester.

GIS/GPS is...okay...I passed the GIS practicum only because our prof will help "guide" us. ArcGIS refused to work for me when I did my joins and relates! It wouldn't highlight the dumb boxes that I selected and it was DRIVING me crazy! I finally got it to work and another thing. To say the least, it took me about 20 minutes to do part 1 and took me almost 1.5 hours to do the 2nd part. :P We have our GPS practicum this Thursday. Hopefully I do okay on that too! It's pass/fail only. Our final in the class is also pass/fail. Only, you can't really study for the class. Good thing it's open everything, except getting help from your neighbor or I'd be in real trouble. There's so many little details in ArcGIS and GeoPathFinder doesn't always like me either. :)

Lastly, my out-of-school-life is insane. I'm working about 14 hours a week, volunteering at the aquarium, and volunteering at our church. I'm also petsitting still and running my podcast (that seems to have taken a hiatus for the last month, almost 2 months). Sleep has seriously become a luxury I can't afford. I can't go to sleep before I'm about to pass out on my desk. I get anxious because I have so much to do or that I could be doing, but I'm not doing. It's insane. That's how "serious" my sleep deprivation has become. LoL

On a good note, I figured out I have about 41 more units left till I graduate! I have 3 semesters left. So...my unit break down: Spring 07 - 13 units, Fall 07 - 14 units, Spring 08 - 14 units. I go from thinking of taking an extra semester to graduating in 4 years, a rarity in ESSP. The AP tests, taking 19 units one semester, and taking summer school helped. :) Plus, I'l be graduating with 4 semester of a language instead of 3, the new requirement. I'm looking forward to taking 13 units, though. I'm only taking 16 this semester, but I'm getting to the point where I'm tired of it all. I'm on the constant go and I'm getting worn out.

So...this summer I'm looking for an internship, somewhere, and going to visit a friend, Jamie, in Florida! I'm excited to go visit her and for a REAL break. Internship would be nice, but we'll see. I'm also saving to go travelling somewhere in the world in the summer of '08. I'm thinking if the 7th HP book is released in summer of '08, I'll go to England/Scotland for its release. If it's not, I'll go there or somewhere else.

Lastly, my 21st birthday is quickly approaching! It's on Dec 21st, a Thursday and a day I have a final. Aren't I lucky? Celebrating is going to be very minimal, but oh well. Such is life. I am thinking of going to go see Eragon for my birthday or something. We'll see. :) I do expect lovely birthday wishes, cards, and/or gifts. :D

With that, I need to go back to studying for my bio test.

Laters

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Life...

Wow, that last post was a while ago!

I've been so busy...I can't even think straight. As some of you know, I run a forum for about 10 other friends so we can keep in contact with each other and I can't keep up with that! Let alone everything else...

It's 3:30am and I'm waiting for my terrible, I mean terrible, annotated bibliography to be printed out. I did summaries for the summary (ironic) and for the relevance. Good thing this thing won't be due for me till Thursday by noon. I just hope she doesn't do a preliminary "check" on our "rough" drafts tomorrow before class. I have everything else completed except the summary and relevance.

I'm also behind in my CST class. I somehow didn't get to start developing my webpage on dreamweaver. So that means I have to design a webpage (according to my professors instructions) and design my class portfolio webpage too. This is all with a program I haven't dealt with a whole lot or done the reading on. GO ME! Good thing I'm a fast learner or I'd be in big, big trouble. I've got to get the pre-designed webpage completed by Wednesday. To work on my own and to get the discussion assignment completed.

I have all this work, these huge projects, and I just feel perpetually tired and behind in everything. I'm trying to stay on top of things, but when Thursday rolls around, I just feel so deflated. I work so hard late Sat night to Thursday afternoon. Thursday evening and Saturday are like my days off! I just need to really kick it into gear. I'm not doing bad grade wise, I just need to keep up on everything. I also need to study biology a bit more. I pulled another almost-all-nighter to study for my biology test (last Wednesday) and I'm kind of worried what I got on the test...*shrugs* I'm fairly sure I got at least a C, but who knows.

Well, this post will have to end here. I'm about to drop dead from exhaustion (I have class at 8:30 am and it's 3:35 am now; I have to get up around 8 am) and my printing is complete.

Laters

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Save me...

I'm officially stressed out.

It's after 1:30am and I'm trying to complete my CST lab so all I have to do is my assignment on Sunday when I get home (let's hope I can get that done in 5 hours -- like that'll happen). I'm stressed because I'm going to be without electricity and the Internet Friday evening-Sunday morning. I need my computer to finish this CST assignment! It's really only the animation and the initial composite that's the problem. The other 2 parts are pretty easy. 1 is to just change my composite using different techniques in two different styles/moods. Another is to make my composite photos (the 3 of them) into a Web Photo Gallery through PhotoShop. The composite will take a while because I have to make it to show a "facet of my personality." I have NO clue what to portray. Making the animation itself isn't hard. It's getting 15 thumbnails and altering most of my photos is the problem. I'm just glad I got my Lab3 done and the Discussion Assignment done. I don't have to worry about those. I just have to turn in my Lab3 when I get home.

I'm also stressed out because I just finished my 3rd week of classes and I feel like I'm hardly learning anything. LoL. I have a bio exam on Wednesday! I don't feel confident in that test at ALL. I also need to catch up on GIS and read all the material. I've been doing the exercises because it's one of those "click the red toolbox. Do you see all the trays in there? Click the one that says "project." " So...I kind of "space" while doing them. I will say...they can wake me up every once in a while!

I'm also writing a paper a WEEK for my 300 class! How insane is that? This week I actually had 2 papers due (3 pages each) and I ended up writing 2 pages for my CST discussion assignment. I haven't written this much in a LONG time (about 2 years).

On top of school, also, this is the first week I have NOT worked more than 20 hours at work. I only worked 4. :P I'm only supposed to work 14 a week. I'm still helping that lady too. I really enjoy helping her. She's really nice, but sometimes it just gets crazy. I'm also volunteering at our church in MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers). I'm essentially watching preschoolers for about 1.5 hours every other week. It's fun, but it still adds onto my days. I'm also still volunteering at the aquarium. I'm actually mentoring now.

On top of all that, I still have my podcast I'm running and co-editing. Our show won't come out this week because of me. :P I just couldn't find time to edit my parts. Luckily the forum doesn't need any work. I can't even do any of HP fan stuff I'm so busy. Something had to give and my reading group is suffering for it, but oh well. There will be others. I am about to drop something, though. I'm just about to go crazy...Tuesday I spent 6 hours on campus...only 3 was required for class. I spent 5 hours on GIS alone. Today...I was on campus for 4 hours (left class early). I'm just tired...that's all... :)

With that...I'm back to homework and sleep...Hopefully I'll make it to bed by 2:15am. I have to get up at a 7:45am.