Goal of the Day.
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Goal of the day:
Become the best God damned PHP programmer ever.
First C, then C++, then Java, now JavaScript and PHP. I'm getting a little
overwhelmed, a...
12 years ago
31 December 2008
Christmas this year seemed laid back and exhausting at the same time. Maybe it was because I was still recovering from finals, or maybe it was due to the rainy weather. Regardless, there was just so much going on and flew by in a flash.
The entire family gathered at our house this year, with a new twist aimed at relieving the overwhelming nature of Christmas morning. Instead of all getting together and opening a mountain of presents under one tree, the many small, immediate families opened together at their own houses and then met at our house for dinner. Also, the adults only bought presents for the kids this year, nothing for each other. I was still considered a kid : ) I had a lot of fun seeing the family and hanging out with all the cousins every night.
Other than that, I pretty much just took it easy. Did some shopping, saw some movies, played some games. That's about it. I'm really looking forward to the New Year.
22 December 2008
Wow, it's been a long time since I updated my blog. So much has happened since the last real post and there's a lot to say, but I'll try and keep it as short as possible.
Last I checked in, I was on the trolley, on my way to take the last final and the biggest one of the semester. School is the reason why I haven't blogged in so long, so I'll start with that. The two weeks leading up to finals were spent preparing for all six of them; making and reviewing flashcards, cheat sheets, and study guides. Lots of late nights and very little sleep. So much so that my body finally caved in and a got a little under the weather. Of course, I was able to bounce back in about 2 days thanks to apple cider vinegar and a lot of tea. Also, the burden on all the intense studying was a little lighter thanks to all the fun study sessions we had with so many different people and places. We all met at Starbucks, other coffee shops, and people's houses to get shit done and have fun at the same time. In the end, I did really well on all my finals and made sure I got through all my classes. I'm so close to graduating and I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. It's really exciting.
Now for the fun stuff. Thursday night after my FIN 323 final, I headed to Parkway Bowl to celebrate with the guys. Had some beer and played pool for a while. Chasing the feeling of victory and relief with Coors Light and Cope was one of the best feelings, followed by a burrito at Sombrero's. Not our first choice, but for some reason Santana's was closed : (. Watched some of The Office with Martin and Justyn, went for a run and finally got some sleep. Great way to start winter break '08.
On Friday, I banged out a productive day at work with nothing to distract me. I don't really like talking abut anything work-related, but it's actually kind of exciting. The boss and I are embarking on a new business venture in which I have to script, write, produce, and edit all of our marketing e-mails, websites, and movies. Oh and it's all done on Mac! Welcome to Final Cut. Anyway, i came home excited for the weekend and got in a good weight sesh before heading out to Fashion Valley with Chris, Martin and Eli. I bought some clothes for the next night and searched for someone to stick a hole in my lip. It was a no-go that night, but I lucked out and found a guy who would do it the next day for $21 because it was his birthday. Guess what age? So it was nice to eat one last NK at Del Taco without having metal scrape my teeth.
Saturday started with carpet cleaning at the Kowalski house. The plan was to be picked up by Chris and the guys to head over to Parkway to finish shopping. My family needed help however, so I had to drive all the way to El Cajon for a vacuum cleaner part, pick up Del Taco, drop it all off at home and then go back to the mall to meet everyone. I finally got there and changed my attire plans for the night, which I ended up liking more. After the mall, we stopped at Santana's to eat, although I didn't : (. Walked across the parking lot, climbed in the chair and got a metal rod stuck through my bottom left lip where the old one used to be. It didn't really hurt, although it's much thicker than the first one and the stud is a little more annoying than the ring. It's kind of growing on me, but once it heals, I'll find something better. After that, we got Justyn outfitted in his cowboy gear for the night, hit up Target and BevMo for the beverage of choice that night and returned to Santee for a rest.
The party wasn't starting until 9:00, so we all met in our formal gear and watched some Office at Justyn's to kill some time. Once we arrived, everything started a little slow until picking up and becoming a really fun night. We all did our shots of 151, some more than others, and basically just enjoyed the Christmas atmosphere with friends. We also found a moment to sing happy birthday to Justyn and watch him have his first drink of alcohol. Way to go big boy. Oh and Martin, Justyn, Ruben, Scotty, and I all did flaming Dr. Peppers. That was cool. Once everything settled down, we cleaned up some and started to crash on the couch. I think. Actually, Justyn and I walked home. Except he didn't want to sleep so he went back to 7-11 to chill with some fine company and eat a 14 hour old hot dog. Happy birthday man.
Sunday was a very nice day as well. I woke up in time to watch the second half of the Chargers beating the Buccaneers in Tampa over at Kate's with Martin and Mike. Hurdle one done: beat Tampa Bay. Now, all we needed was a loss from Denver to Buffalo. So we went, picked up Justyn and ate at Oggi's while watching some of the game. good times, but it looked like Buffalo was going to fuck up once again. Once we left though, Buffalo somehow slowly pulled it off and ended up winning by a touchdown. Hurdle two down: Denver loss to Tampa Bay. Next week is going to be the most exciting football game of the year. Cannot wait. After that, I went home to help unload our Christmas tree. Very nice. After, I went over to Parkway for a private shopping sesh to get almost all of my gifts purchased and wrapped. I only need a few more things, but this is going to be a great Christmas and I'm excited to spend it with you all.
18 December 2008
Finally, the final final. And it's Finance, 323 to be specific. Since last night, I've been focused solely on this exam and nothing else in my life.
I need this to be my best one, and I'm riding the trolley to SDSU for the last time this year confident that it will be. I've noticed that the tests you actually look forward to taking are the ones you are most prepared for. And I cannot WAIT to take this thing.
My head is just laughing at my heart and saying "I told you so"...
09 December 2008
I just finished the Chapter 8 cheat sheet for FIN 323. Still have to do Chapter 10. Flashcards for IDS 483 and IDS 306 are done. I should get started in IDS 302 and maybe MGT 350.
Just finished my last IDS 483 assignment, due today, and MKTG 370 which is done but I don't have to submit for a few days.
Even though I'm incredibly busy, it's been fun.
08 December 2008
I think I'll keep this one short since we took it pretty easy this weekend. Everyone is busy preparing for finals, Christmas shopping, or just in anticipation of all the fun we're going to have during winter break.
Friday night we just lounged around finishing up Season 03 of The Office at Martin's. Kind of a good thing because we had to get shit done the next morning, although I did manage to stay up until 4 am talking on AIM and hanging out with the bros. Sounded like Justyn even eventually went to sleep around 6 because he was doing some hw. Damn bro, that's dedication.
Saturday Chris, Jusyn and I left around 11 to do some errands: return the projector to Office Depot, return the kegs to BevMo (I got them to waive all the cleaning and rental fees because the O ring on the winter lager tap broke : ), lunch at Arby's, then Guitar Center to cash in our free $10 we all got in the mail. After all that, meet up with Martin at the lab for a Saturday session. We ran through everything we know so far and then learned a new one. I think we have a good variety of genres in the music we're playing: some emo-sap pop rock, alternative, dance punk. I even plan on throwing in some classic but tasteful country-sounding stuff. This latest one is kind of gritty, with a drive that comes purely from how hard you strum the augmented, somewhat painful dischords on a clean guitar turned up really loud. No effects, just blood to muscle to impact to sound. After breaking for showers/dinner, we all headed up to attempt Christmas celebrating at Balboa, with a stop along the way at Macy's for Justyn's sweet new jacket. All of downtown was packed and we couldn't find a single space to park (or we just didn't want to drive around for very long looking). We decided to meet Flo at Grossmont to see 4 Christmases, which turned out to be less about Christmas and more about dysfunctionality. Not what we were looking for! Came home, played some game boards, grabbed some Yellow Shack and called it a night. Everyone went home to their cozy, warm beds ; )
Sunday was very unproductive. No Charger game, I woke up around 11 and didn't do much except play guitar until going back to sleep. I decided I should probably get some work done and I wanted to get out of the house so I went to Starbucks to study. Chris and Flo met me there and then we disbanded to our designated dinner assignments: Flo to 99 for family dinner time, Chris and I to Domo for Sushi Sunday with the crew. We all regrouped at Del Taco to help Justyn close up and then relocated to my dining room table for some cyber cafe studying. Fun, productive night.
This is the last week before finals. I have to finish all my preparations and start cramming the information in my head. On top of that, I have to finish my Christmas shopping and get something to wear to Kate's party. All work but very exciting.
04 December 2008
I think I'll layout my situation and strategy for December 4th thru December 18th. Here it is:
The week of finals is the 15th of December, six finals in 4 days (Monday-Thursday).
The test in each class requires a different method of study: flashcards (heavy memorization), cheat sheet (can be used on test), or study guide (lost of equations). Could also be a combination of two. Also, certain tests take priority over others based on amount of material to cover, current grade in the class, date of Final, or level of relevance to my career (i.e. do I give a shit about the material). Here are all six, top priority first:
FIN 323 - Cheat Sheet - Great class, but horrible Midterm 1 grade requires an A on both Midterm 2 and Final.
IDS 483 - Flashcards - Favorite class, tons of memorization, current grade must be sustained/improved
IDS 306 - Flashcards - Interesting, excellent project grade but weak Midterm 1 grade. Decent Final will clinch class.
IDS 302 - Flashcards, Study Guide - Awesome class, good current grade, just do well on Final.
MGT 350 - Cheat Sheet - Bullshit class, but I kind of need a good grade on the Final.
MKTG 370 - Flashcards - Another BSer and I have a solid grade so it gets lowest priority.
So I have the rest of this week and next week to prepare and study. Throw in a little extra time during finals week for late night cram sessions. As of now, I have all flashcards complete for IDS 483 and I should be finishing IDS 306 tonight. This weekend I hope to start on MGT 350 cheat sheet and maybe IDS 302 flashcards/study guide.
02 December 2008
I'm just sitting here listening to Wilco and, you know, I hope in another few years I'm not the same person I am today. I want to be completely different, more calm, less wide-eyed. I don't really think I can stop that from happening anyway, but it will be really beneficial. Strangely, I feel very at peace today.
For the next two weeks though, I need to really focus on school and avoid, or at least put-off for a while, any emotional baggage I'm carrying. There will be time for that, but I HAVE to get stuff done. And so do YOU ;)
01 December 2008
As many people know, it's been a wild last few days during the Thanksgiving holiday. Here's what went down:
It was a short week for my normal routine so my adventure started on Wednesday afternoon. I went to work and then routinely left for school only to find that quiet, deserted campus that comes around during holiday breaks. It was overcast and somewhat erie, but also ominous of the events that were to come. After turning in a networking assignment, the class was promptly dismissed and left me with an extra hour or so to kill. I ate some dinner and did a little studying, just to keep up during the break. School was even more quiet when I went to my 7:00 class, but we only lectured for about an hour and then the weekend finally began. My family was already on their way to the airport so I was stoked to come home to an empty house that would be my playground all weekend. I ended up playing Sims all night with Flo and left the initial preparations for Thanksgiving Day.
Thursday, Thanksgiving, I woke up and did a little work on the house, mostly tidying up, hiding the breakables, vacuuming, and ''boarding'' up the doors with blankets. Dinner at my aunt's house was at 3, so I went with Flo to get some groceries and such for Friday and then took a shower before heading over. The food was great and the atmosphere was low-key and laid back. Very enjoyable. When I returned home, the REAL adventure began. Martin and Justyn came over with the bar and we set it up in the kitchen, along with a well-lit beer pong stadium in the back yard. Chris came over after his Thanksgiving with all the mixers and bar accessories. It was beginning to look legit, especially with all the rope light we found (thanks Mom :) ). We settled down to watch a little Office Season 03, but Chris had to work so we stopped a little early. Justyn also had to get some C++ done, so he went home for a while leaving me and Martin. We were all planning on hitting up the doorbusters in the early morning with Flo, but we weren't sure when that would happen exactly. I don't think either of us felt like sleeping anyway so we just stayed up, chilling in the bar we created. I even went on a run to kill some time. After we both scoped out some of the lines forming around east county (both Santee and Parkway Best Buys and Office Depots), we met up with Justyn again, laptop in possession, to head to Best Buy at 5 am. At this point, I don't think any of us except Flo had been to sleep yet. Best Buy FAILED to offer me a projector, so we left for Office Depot and picked one up. Then we went to Parkway, shopped (bought some shoes), and stopped at McDonald's on the way home for McMuffins. After a quick disbandment, Justyn took us to get the kegs and liquor from BevMo. We brought them home, and rest of the day was full of final preparations, errands, sound and light checks, etc. The final calm before the storm was upon us and the ultimate explosion looming...
You'll notice no paragraph break between Thursday and most of Friday in the story above. This happens when fun replaces sleep. Friday night deserves its own section anyway.
If I do say so myself, we had a great setup at the party. Originally, I had wanted a large quantity of people, just to say the party got that big, but with everyone pitching in, quality prevailed in the end. It was really nice to see more friendly, familiar faces around than a bunch of random people. Elements I think turned out the best and made the party: the bar (with Chris at the helm), the beer pong stadium (glass table, awesome lighting, MGD keg), and the playlist w/ itunes visualizer (not repetitive, good variety, energetic yet sophisticated). There was such a warm feeling in that kitchen with everyone around, having drinks, baking pumpkin bread, etc. I loved it. Of course with alcohol comes the invitation for hot heads and swinging fists. Some moron with a fucked up head or too much to drink thought my house was his, but thanks to some great guys he wasn't able to kick in my door. I remember at one point really wanting all of the riff raff to leave and call it a night. But once it was just the Santee boys, I got a second wind and cranked the MGMT up. The goal then became to drink anything that Chris made and like it. I probably would have drank myself dead if Flo hadn't rescued me. A bunch of people helped clean up the kitchen and then took off to Denny's, but I must have passed out on the couch in exhaustion. Great night.
Chris and Martin cam to wake me up around 1 pm on Saturday. I fell asleep fully clothed, woke up, and just continued on as-was. We grabbed some Santana's, cleaned up a bit, jammed a little, then the crew came over to play pictionary and drain the keg. WAY fun.
Sunday, my mind was swimming with all that had taken place the last couple of days, but I felt pretty good and went to go meet with my 306 group to prepare our final presentation for Tuesday. Things went smoothly and the time seemed to fly by. Sometimes I don't realize how burnt out I get with all the work and school, and a long break really helps. When I finished, I drove around town returning unneeded party supplies before meeting everyone for a small sushi sunday. Weekend over, time to pick up the fam. from the airport. I think they all knew about the party, except my dad, and were really impressed at how clean the house was. My dad had a talk with me about how I should just be honest with him; he wouldn't really have minded me having a party if I just told him. I'll remember that.
So we all had our fun, now let's get our head back in the game and, as Bell would say, get shit done. School, work, music...I just have to say that life rocks right now, and on Valentines day we are going to have an album to tell you all about it. Only three weeks left in this fantastic semester. So get it done and we'll do it all again on December 20th, the official first day of Winter Break '08! Cannot wait.
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