Goals for 2010

2010 is just two days away. I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. I'm not really sure whether I enjoyed 2009 as much as 2008, but either way, it has been a pretty decent year. I don't know why, but I am really looking forward to 2010. I think it might be because I can't wait to start school again...? I'm not sure. It's really weird that I am actually looking forward to school. I guess it's because I'm looking forward to living on my own again instead of being under my parents' roof. I've come to realize that even though I do miss my family and friends when I am away in school, I really like the feeling of being independent/responsible and not having to rely on my parents for food, laundry, cleaning up around the house, etc. I don't know, I'm just ranting now.

Anyway, I've set a list of goals for the new year. I hope that I can actually accomplish them... or at least find a way to motivate myself to accomplish them. :P

1) Raise my GPA
- Right now, my overall GPA is pretty embarrassing, and I admit that it's my fault. Although it is not super low, it definitely can be better... at least to a point where I can actually tell people what my GPA is. -___- In my own defense, it has gotten better than when I first started college.

2) Study more
- Okay, I can honestly admit that my study skills are pretty much null. I hardly ever study on school nights and I save most of my studying for the day before a test. I am amazed that I have actually passed all of my classes without studying/doing any of the reading. Despite that, i know for a fact that I can get better grades if I actually start studying. I think this may be one of my hardest goals to achieve considering my notorious reputation of being a huge procrastinator.

3) Go to sleep earlier/wake up earlier
- I go to bed really late. And I mean REALLY late. During Fall quarter, I had a class at 9AM that I hardly ever went to because I often went to sleep at 4:00 in the morning. This is one of my worst habits and I need to break it. Winter break hasn't been much help. In fact, this bad habit worsened due to the lack of responsibility I have when I'm at home in L.A. I am also one of the hardest people to wake up in the morning because I go to sleep super late. Hopefully, when the new quarter starts, I will be able to sleep at a semi-decent time (maybe around 12AM-1AM) and wake up 1 1/2 hours before my first class (10AM M-Th).

4) Go to the gym at least 4 times a week
- Ah, yes. The cliché resolution that pretty much everyone has on their list. Over the summer, when I was taking classes at UCSB for a month, I managed to go to the gym everyday for the last two weeks of session A. When I got home, I stopped working out altogether for the rest of the summer. When Fall quarter started, I promised myself that I would start going to the gym again, but that only lasted for two weeks. Hopefully this time I can actually go through with it, especially now that I am sort of motivated to not only lose weight, but also become healthier. My family has a history of hypertension (which is a fancy medical way [not really] of saying high blood pressure) and I do not want to put up with that when I am older. I also do not want to put up with being super overweight when I am older. I'm actually sort of proud of myself because instead of gaining the infamous "Freshman 15" when I started college, I've actually lost weight... around 25 pounds to be exact (not that much, but it's still progress) and I am making it a goal for me to lose more during the new year.

5) Eat healthier
- It's really hard to eat healthy when you're a college student due to A) lack of money to buy healthier food, B) the constant yearning for homecooked Filipino food, and C) pure laziness/lack of time. While point A is probably the hardest reason to overcome (due to not being able to obtain a part-time job in this economy), points B and C are the easiest to fix. I can try to allocate my money to buying healthier food, but it can get pricey sometimes. I spend most of my money on food anyway and during the Fall quarter I started buying healthier food, but I know that I can do better. I hardly bought that much junk food, anyway. :) Although I do miss homecooked Filipino food a lot when I am in SB, which prompted me to start cooking it (authentically laden in all of its oily, fatty, and caloric goodness), I can try to cook healthier. Point C I can try to fix by actually waking up earlier to actually eat breakfast instead of waiting to eat until lunchtime. I can also try to eat five small meals a day instead of eating two large meals and a snack (which I had been doing during Fall quarter).

6) Be more positive
- I think that I am a pretty positive person, but I know that there are times when I am super pessimistic, especially when midterms and finals come along. I have gotten better at being thankful for having what in life, but I also think a lot about material goods that I want and don't really need. I really need to change that way of thinking. >_<

7) Participate more in church
- I am proud that I have started to get more involved in my church in SB and that I have made so many new friends there. I am also proud that I have been going to church every Sunday (I only missed one Sunday because I was sick), I've been getting closer to God, and I have strengthened my faith. Despite this, I know that I can participate more and help out with the activities they have. Participating more will help me feel better about myself... and the fact that a cute boy who is really into human rights and activism goes to my church helps, too. ;)

Well, there is my New Year's resolution list. Hopefully I didn't bore you to death with my long ass rationales for each goal. I really hope that I can stick to these resolutions. It shouldn't be that hard with only seven goals, right? ;) Just kidding. I mean, how many people do you know have actually stuck with and accomplished their new year's resolutions? I don't know anyone who has done that. Oops, that was a negative thing to say and not a very good start at being more positive. >_< Okay, I'll shut up now. :)

What are your New Year's resolutions?

I luhh my Snuggie

Especially in this cold SB weather

All I Want for Christmas

Dear Santa,

I have been a very good girl this year. I have been getting good grades, I've been getting more involved in church, and I even did a face-to-face confession with our priest (and you know how difficult that is to do). I know that I've missed a few classes here and there, but I'm a college student; there are times when we just can't wake up in time for class. I have also been very nice to everyone I meet and I have been trying my best to constantly thank God for this wonderful life I have.

All I ask for Christmas this year is to please send me money to help me pay for a volunteer trip to Peru next summer so I can help teach impoverished children. I promise that is where the money will go to. If you are not able to send me money, please send me a list of people that would be willing to help sponsor me for this trip. Santa, please help this amazing opportunity come true for me. It will help me gain volunteer and teaching experience and it will also prepare me for joining the Peace Corps after college. I will forever be grateful. Thank you.

Love Always,
Vernice

So I deactivated my Facebook

in order to help me study for finals. It became a distraction and was one of the reasons why I was procrastinating. Interestingly, I found myself clicking on Facebook in my bookmarks after I deactivated my account. It's both funny/sad that I'm so used to doing that. Haha. Anyway, I deleted it from my bookmarks and looked forward to a couple more days of intense studying until my last final on Thursday. But, being the professional procrastinator that I am, I found new ways to procrastinate. Thank you, blogs. :P

Je me présente en français

Bonjour! Je m’appelle Vernice. J’ai dix-neuf ans. Mon anniversaire es le dix-neuf octobre. J’ai un frère et deux sœurs. Mon frère s’appelle Vince et mes sœurs s’appelles Vanessa et Veronica. Ma mère s’appelle Teresita et mon père s’appelle Rolando. J’ai une chatte et elle s’appelle Ikea. J’aime ma famille. Mon frère est très dynamique. Il joue de la guitare et il joue dans une groupe de musique. Mes sœurs sont moins dynamiques que mon frère. Mes sœurs sont très têtues, paresseuses, et indisciplinées, surtout Veronica. Ma mere est très sympathique, calme, et raisonable. Mon père est sérieux, réservé, et très artistique. Ma chatte est très mignonne, intelligente, et gentille.

Je suis du Los Angeles mais actuellement j’habite à Santa Barbara pour école. Je vais à l’UCSB pour l’université. Je prepare un B.A. en anthropologie et une mineure en education. Je veux être un professeur parce que j’adore les enfants. Ce trimestre, je suis un cours de français, un cours d’anthropologie, et un cours d’archéologie. Le trimestre prochain, je suis un cours de français, un cours de musique, et deux cours d’anthropologie. J’ai de bonnes notes. J’adore ma l’université. Elle est très belle et les professeurs sont très bon.

Dans Santa Barbara, j’habite à Isla Vista. Mon appartement est près de le campus. Mon appartement est vieux, petit, et mignon. J'adore mon appartement parce que je peux faire la cuisine et je peux avoir ma chatte habite avec moi. Je fait du vélo à mes cours. Il y a beaucoup des vélos dans l’UCSB. Nous faisons des vélos ici. Ce sont très populaires. Mon cours de français et mon cours d’archéologie sont sur le campus. Mon cours d’anthropologie est dans Isla Vista. Mon cours de français est loin de mon appartement.

Le lundi, je me réveille à 8h15 du matin et je me lève à 8h30. Je me brosse les dents et je me habille. Je pars mon appartement à 8h55 pour mon cours d’archéologie. Après mon cours d’archèologie, je pars pour mon cours de français à 9h50. Après mon cours de français, je rentre à mon appartement pour manger déjeuner à 11h. Après je mange déjeuner, je vais à la bibliothèque Davidson dans le campus pour étudier et faire mes devoirs. Après j’étudie, je rentre à mon appartement pour préparer le dîner. Je dîne avec mes colocotaires Maddy et Alyssa. Je me douche à 12h du matin et je me couche à 2h du matin.

Le vendredi soir, je regarde un film avec mes amis ou je joue de la guitare. Le samedi après-midi, je joue au tennis avec mes amis ou je fait du shopping. Pour le tennis, je mets un tee-shirt, un short, et des baskets. Le samedi soir, je fait la cuisine et je regarde un film avec mes colocotaires. Le dimanche après-midi, j’étudie et fait mes devoirs. Le dimanche soir, je vais à l’église avec mon colocotaires Maddy et Alyssa. Je me dors et je me réveille tard le weekend. Habituellement, je me couche à 4h du matin et je me réveille à 1h après-midi.

Je suis très bizarre!

Au revoir!

I've got a secret

and I am not going to tell you about it. :)

La vie comme je le sais

niney123.tumblr.com

I discovered three things today...

1. Our apartment in Isla Vista is not meant to hold 20 people in the living room, dining room, and kitchen.

2. We have one of the cleanest apartments in Isla Vista (according to a lot of the people who came over today).

3. I love the St. Mark's University Parish community.

Why am I such a dork whenever I talk to boys? >_<

Happy Halloween!

My Mufasa pumpkin! :)

"Dumbest Generation"

It is absurd to think of how we have become so dependent on technology. I'm currently taking an Anthropology class called "Technology and Culture", and it has really made me think about how technology positively and negatively affects our lives. We are constantly developing new technology, but have we become too reliant on it? Yes, it has made our lives so much easier, but is our reliance on technology worth it in the long run?

Mark Bauerlein, an English professor at Emory University, recently published a book called The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30). In his book, he criticizes our generation for shaping our lives around computers. He argues that writing online and texting have caused us to develop bad habits that inhibit our capacity to write formally/academically. He also believes that social networking sites give us a contorted understanding of the world by making us feel as if we are the center of the universe. This causes people to distance themselves from physical contact with others and diminishes proper social skills. Bauerlein's suggested solution is to have parents encourage their children to pursue non-technological activities.

Bauerlein has points that I agree and disagree with. I do feel that some aspects of technology are getting a little out of hand, but that does not entirely mean that it is making our generation stupid. I agree that computers have affected our ability to write properly. We are so used to typing in shorthand and having our words spell-checked that we start to care less about our writing. Bauerlein also does have a point about social networking sites. Sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter do make us feel as if we are the center of the universe and they do distance us from physical contact with others. With features such as status updates and live feeds, it's no wonder that we feel as if we deserve attention. I know that I am one of the many people who (occasionally) feel as if I am entitled to let everyone know how I am feeling, what I am doing, or what I am thinking and that everyone has to pay attention to everything I post. This revelation is saddening, but true. It is so ironic how these sites cause us to feel the need to express ourselves to all of our friends, yet they wane our in-person social skills. No one ever asks for anyone's phone numbers (and when they do, people often text instead of call), they ask for Facebook pages or Twitter accounts. These sites encourage us to connect with others, yet we have to interact through virtual reality.

To me, Bauerlain's solution sounds a bit fanciful. Parents may try to talk to their children about less computer time and more outdoor play time, but let's face it-- what preteen/teenager in our current generation is going to choose running around outside over chatting with their friends online? This may sound pretty close-minded, but preteens and teenagers are always trying to keep up with the newest trends and are preoccupied with doing what everyone else is doing. In the 21st century, the Internet is the hottest commodity for our generation. As sad as it is to say, I do not know of any children who like to play dodgeball or tag outside. They all stay inside and IM their friends or fix their MySpace page. It would be nearly impossible to force a kid in our generation to stay away from computers.

Although Bauerlain does have a point about how technology is negatively affecting our generation, I do not agree with his argument that we are the "dumbest generation". Sure, our spelling is not as up to par as it should be, but that does not mean that we are stupid. Gary Small, director of the Center of Aging at UCLA and co-author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind believes that we are just as intelligent as other generations-- we are just smarter in different ways. I bet that most of us know more about computers than our parents/other adults do. What is even more fascinating is that most of us taught ourselves what we know about computers. Just because technology hinders us from certain things such as face-to-face social interaction does not mean that we are dumb. I am sure that generations before us felt that the generation after theirs was dumber than their own. It is all just a matter of how our society is constantly creating change and progress.

Here is an article from USA Today on Bauerlain's book: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-06-03-dumbest-generation_N.htm

P.S. Sorry for my contradictions/incoherence. It's 3AM and I was taking a break from studying for my French midterm. :)

Punkin

I carved a pumpkin for the first time! :)

Happy Birthday To Me

Looking at this made me feel old...

Rain rain go away...

This fire is outta control, we're gonna burn this city, burn this city...

California: the state known for its beaches, wine, Sequoias,

Hollywood, state deficit, the Governator, and wildfires.
Home sweet home.

Caprese pasta with sun-dried tomatoes

A couple of nights ago, my roommate's sister made this dish using bow-tie pasta. It was so yummy and I am now in love with sun-dried tomatoes! I decided to recreate it tonight, but I did not have any bow-tie pasta. Instead, I used spaghetti and it turned out fine. This recipe is super easy and budget-friendly, especially if you are a college student. :P

I usually cook by taste, so I never really measure out my ingredients. The measurements in this recipe are approximations, so feel free to tweak it to your liking. Fortunately, this dish is so easy to make that it is nearly impossible to mess it up. This recipe serves only one person, so make adjustments if you are making a larger batch.

You will need:

A handful of spaghetti (you can use whatever kind of pasta you like, but I used spaghetti)
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped into strands
1/4 cup canned sun-dried tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup mozzarella, cubed
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
A dash of garlic powder (optional)
Salt, to taste

Clockwise: sun dried tomatoes, basil, garlic, mozzarella

Cook your pasta according to the directions on the package. While it cooks, mince your garlic, chop your basil, cube your mozzarella, and cut each slice of sun-dried tomato in half (they should be bite sized chunks). You want to make sure that all of your ingredients are prepared before the pasta finishes cooking because it is best to mix all of the ingredients while the pasta is still hot.

Once you drain your pasta, put it in a large bowl and mix in your garlic. Then mix in the extra virgin olive oil, garlic powder, and salt. Add the mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, and lastly, the basil. Mix everything together until the cheese starts to slightly melt.

Serve while still warm and enjoy!

P.S. This dish goes well with chicken parmesan. :)

Fried bananas!

Super easy fried bananas topped with vanilla ice cream:

You need:
1 banana (= 1 serving)
A pat of butter
Vanilla ice cream

Peel the banana and cut it horizontally in the middle. Then cut each half vertically (I hope this is all making sense). Melt your pat of butter in a frying pan over medium heat and then fry each banana slice on each side until it is golden brown. Put each banana slice on a plate and wait a couple of minutes for it to cool down a bit. Then plop a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream on top while the bananas are still a little warm.

It is sooo good when you take a bite of the warm banana with the cold ice cream!

It's a Thug Story

R.I.P.

Remember that baby seal from my previous post?

My friend texted me a few hours ago saying that she found its corpse lying on the beach.

I FEEL SO GUILTY FOR NOT HELPING IT.

Serendipity

Yesterday afternoon, I was taking a walk outside in order to clear my thoughts. I had just finished a two hour final for my Japanese pop culture class. I wasn't in the best of moods and I was hoping that this walk would help brighten me up. I ended up at the beach near my dorm and sat on a log while I listened to music. Staring off into the ocean, I noticed a little head pop out from the shore. At first, I thought it was a dog since many people walk their dogs around that area, but after a few seconds, I realized what it was. I sat there, not knowing if I should go up to it or not.

About five minutes later, a group of three people arrived at the beach and immediately saw it. They walked towards it and took pictures of it. One would think that it would get scared and run away, but it didn't. It just sat there. A couple who was walking on the beach joined the group and everyone just stared at it.

After a while, everyone left it alone and I couldn't see its head anymore. I thought that it had left, but suddenly its head popped out again. I decided to finally walk over to it so that I could take a picture. As I approached, it stared at me. It didn't move or anything. It just stared. I pulled out my phone and took a few pictures of it. It was kind of funny because as I took pictures, it pointed its nose towards the sky and closed its eyes as if it were posing. After a few minutes, I decided to leave it alone and let it sunbathe in privacy.


This really brightened up my day.

Lightening up the mood during Finals Week

After dinner, Daniela came over to study for our Physical Anthro final tomorrow. Emi was in the bathroom and I was showing Daniela that I can hide under my bed. That's when the idea popped into my head: I was to hide under the bed and scare Emi when she gets back from the bathroom. So I turned off the lights, hid under the bed, and waited for Emi to come in. I didn't think about recording it until it was too late to grab my camera, so I just stayed under the bed. When Emi came in, I waited a few seconds and then popped out and yelled, "BOO!" Emi jumped back and screamed a little. It was the first time that I actually scared her and she looked genuinely scared. We laughed so hard afterwards and Emi gave me kudos for actually scaring her. We then decided that we were going to scare Nick when he comes in to study with us and that we would record it.

About ten minutes later, Daniela left to go to the bathroom and Emi and I decided that we would scare her. I grabbed my camera and hid under my bed while Emi put her camera on her chair so that we'd have two different views of the scare. I wasn't sure if it was going to work since I had just scared Emi a few minutes before. I waited... and waited... and waited until we heard the toilet flush. Finally Daniela opened the door... and then "BOO!" She screamed so loud it sounded like she was being murdered. It was sooo funny!

Unfortunately, we weren't able to scare Nick because he knocked on the door while we were talking about scaring him. Oh well. Next time. I can't wait to scare other people.

I was looking through my Photobucket and found these...

I believe that this picture is over 4 years old:

I got an envelope

I have a lot of envelopes and stamps that I never use.

I think I'm going to try this out: http://www.igotanenvelope.com/

Now I need to think of where to leave envelopes...

De-lofted

Trang and April helped me de-loft my bed today... and it was not an easy process. I didn't realize that I have SO MANY things. I started packing earlier this week and I've already put a lot of my stuff in boxes, but when I was cleaning my desk area, we ran out of space in the room to put all of the things that were in/around my desk and had to start putting things in the hallway. Thankfully, we managed to de-loft my bed.

After Trang and April left, I decided to record myself cleaning and putting stuff away because I thought that it would be interesting... so here's the edited video (just a little over 2 1/2 minutes long) along with a before and after picture of my side of the room. I apologize for the crappy quality... the full quality version was over 100MB and the limit for video uploads on Blogger is 100MB. :(

Song: Bitter Heart by Zee Avi
(aka KokoKaina on YouTube)

Vegan Cupcakes

Trang and I baked 68 vegan cupcakes in 3 hours for our house
meeting on Tuesday night. It was very tiring.

Procrastination

I have a paper due in less than 24 hours...
I did this instead of working on it.

Collegiate Diet

Was there ever a time when you got sick and tired of a certain kind of food? I'm sure you have. I used to always get tired of eating Filipino food, but when I went off to college, I realized that I missed it. A lot. Sometimes I even crave certain types of Filipino food that I would normally hate to eat. I guess you just don't realize how much you love something until it's gone. :P

Anyway, when I moved here, all I had to eat was food from the dining commons. At first, it seemed pretty cool since there were a lot of foods to choose from: pizza, burgers, pasta, soups, salads, make-your-own sandwiches, American food, "Mexican" cuisine, "Asian" food... the list goes on. After, say, the first two months or so, I started getting tired of dining commons food. I just got tired of it. Don't get me wrong-- the food is pretty good (when Noho and Jorelle visited, Jorelle ate A LOT at brunch), but after a while, you just get tired of the same old food everyday.

Looking for an alternative to dining commons food, Emi and I decided to utilize the dorm kitchen. At first, I found it kind of weird to cook food in a kitchen that is meant to be used by 60+ people. It was also awkward whenever I was cooking (ramen!) by myself and someone I didn't know walked in. I used to always force Emi to keep me company by bribing her with food (she could never say no since I cooked and she didn't).

We started out only making simple kinds of food: ramen from packets (which literally every college student is a pro at making), cup of noodles, microwavable chow mein-- all the stuff that you can easily make in 5 minutes or less. After a while, we started to get tired of eating ramen all the time, so I decided to venture out and try to make food that consisted of something other than dry noodles and hot water. By then, I started making more friends and went to the grocery store to shop for ingredients.

Since everyone was always busy during the week, we would plan out Friday nights where we would cook food and watch a movie. This system worked out well and was a nice way to end a hectic week and start a relaxing weekend. We did have a minor problem: we all had different kinds of diets. One of my friends, Trang, is vegan and we had to find a way to accomodate her diet with ours. Emi doesn't really eat meat or seafood, but she does occasionally eat poultry, so the one of the only meats that we'd eat together was chicken nuggets. I, on the otherhand, was open to anything and everything, but I would occasionally buy salmon and make my own food separate from Trang's and Emi's.

One of the first meals we made was tofu stir-fry and salmon parmesan (for me). It was pretty simple and we had a lot of fun cooking. We were in the kitchen for a long time and had to actually make two batches because the pan that we used was not big enough. Overall, it was a pretty yummy meal and we had tons of leftovers. There were six of us eating and watching Slumdog Millionaire, so you could just imagine how much food we made that night.

One of the batches of our tofu stir-fry

My salmon baking in the oven

There were also times when I wanted to cook food that I did not really know how to cook. One Friday, during Lent, Emi and I decided not to eat dinner at the dining commons. We went to the I.V. grocery store and looked for something to make for dinner. Being on a college student budget, we bought a pack of three-cheese tortellini and a jar of Prego italian sauce. I had some leftover parmesan cheese from my salmon parmesan, so I decided that I wanted to make baked parmesan-crusted tortellini. The process of making the dish is very simple: boil the tortellini, mix in with the sauce, and then bake. Despite the lack of complexity in a dish this simple, I ended up overbaking the tortellini. It was still pretty good, but the crust was just a little too hard. The sauce was a little too sour (maybe it's because I'm just so used to Filipino spaghetti), but it was easy to ignore since we were watching Milk that night and were distracted by Emile Hirsch and James Franco's handsomeness. :P

Despite overbaking, the inside was still pretty good

Emi and I are part of my dorm's programming committee, so we help with coming up with/setting up programs for our house. There have been times when we have a program that involves food and, for some reason, I always end up being in charge of cooking/baking. I don't mind cooking or baking, but I just find it weird that I am known as the "cook" and the "baker" of the house and in high school, I was also known as the same things. Go figure. :P I would put up pictures of food from past programs, but I'm sure that you've probably gotten tired of reading this (if you've made it this far!) and I didn't get to take that many pictures of the different foods.

So, what was the point of this blog? I don't really know, but I initially wanted to blog about the food we made tonight. I didn't mean for it to get this long, but oh well, it's already written. Anyway, the food we made tonight was something I found on TasteSpotting. I'm too lazy to look for the actual recipe right now, but it was baked tofu fingers and fried rice. After showing Trang the recipe, she started craving it and we decided to make it tonight. It's a fairly easy dish to make: we just marinated sliced extra-firm tofu in soy sauce and garlic for about half an hour, rolled them in Kraft Shake 'n Bake (it was the only vegan bread crumb-type thing that we could find) and baked them until they were golden brown. We had a Flight of the Conchords marathon while we ate.

They kind of resemble mozarella sticks

This is how one of our typical dinner & a movie nights
looks like

Totally irrelevant: I finally got to watch Star Trek today, and it was AMAZING... and not just because there were so many ridiculously good-looking actors! ;) The action scenes and story line were AWESOME. It seriously surpassed all of my expectations and is now one of my favorite movies. I REALLY WANT TO WATCH IT AGAIN!

It's gotten worse...

Taken less than 2 hours ago when walking to dinner.

City on fire...

Taken yesterday at the Goleta Amtrak Station

Attack of the clones

Kinda messed up on this one.

The art of procrastination

TGIF

I usually don't have anything to do on Fridays since I only have 2 classes and I am done by 12noon. After my classes are over, I usually get lunch with Emi and then hang around in the dorms like a hermit. >__<

These past Fridays have been pretty busy. Last Friday, I painted and went to see Cascada with my friends. Today (well, yesterday technically speaking), since Emi was pretty much working all day, I hung out with Trang. We went to watch the Queer Wedding that is held on the last day of Pride Week and watched a lot of people "marry" each other. It was pretty fun.

Afterwards, Trang and I went to Precious Slut, which is a tattoo shop in I.V., so Trang could get her nose ring. I asked the guy at the counter about white ink tattoos, but he told me that I had to talk to one of the tattoo artists. I didn't get a chance to talk to any of the artists since Trang had to go to class at 2pm. :( Her nose ring is pretty cool, though. It makes me want to get my nose pierced. :P

I hung out in my room for a bit and attempted to do some homework. I ended up procrastinating, as usual. Trang called me later on and we went to Trader Joe's with Skyler and his friend, Sam. I ended up buying a lot of mochi and snacks since I really need to use up my meals at the dining commons. >__<

When we got back, we hurriedly put our groceries away and drove over to the annual drag queen show. None of us were expecting a lot of people to attend, but Campbell Hall (which is the biggest lecture hall on campus and seats approximately 800 people) was filled. Emi told me that they had to turn a lot of people away because there weren't enough seats.

Anyway, the show was sooo fun. It was the first time that I'd been at a drag queen show, so I didn't know what to expect. The drag queens were from the 801 Cabaret in Key West and they perform in UCSB every year at the end of Pride Week. There were four drag queens and they were all fabulous. I'm too lazy to upload pictures right now, so expect to see them sometime this weekend.

My favorite drag queen was "Ms. Sushi." She was tall, thin, and absolutely fabulous. She was the one who looked the most feminine, but you could still tell that she was a man. :P The show consisted of a lot of dancing, "singing", dollar bills being tucked into the queens' lingerie, male audience members being undressed on stage, and even full-on nudity. One of the drag queens (whose name I've forgotten) took off all of her clothes and danced around on stage with her pee-pee exposed for all to see. It was interesting. There were also two performances by UCSB students, one of which was based on Britney Spears. The show ended with one of the drag queens singing a song about what a man is as she took off her makeup, put on men's clothing, and showed her true, biological self.

I really enjoyed the show despite the fact that the guy sitting next to me fell asleep and was practically laying his head on my arm. We tried to wake him up, but he wouldn't budge. Don't worry-- he wasn't dead. He was snoring. :P I wish that I'd gone to last Sunday's student-produced drag show, but I had to study for a midterm. They had a Lady Gaga performance. :(

Anyway, this weekend is going to be pretty busy. We're going to Manzanita Village/San Raf's annual Farside Festival which is like a little carnival. There is going to be food, games (a dunk tank!), inflatables (like a moon bounce, a sumo wrestling thing, and an inflated obstacle course), and a bunch of other things. After that, we are going to go Pilipino Culture Night, which should be really fun! I'm not sure if I want to go to the PCN After Party, though.

Okay, I think I should go to sleep. Busy day ahead of me. See you latahhh!

Fangirl

So I'm pretty much in love with Ra Ra Riot right now. They were AMAZING. Better live than their album! I'll write more about the show tomorrow night or something... but right now, I'm just sooo happy that I went to the show instead of studying for my Filipino Americans midterm which is in 8 hours!

Anyway, we got to meet 4 out of 6 members of Ra Ra Riot and Trang and I are pretty much in love with Wesley (vocals) and Mathieu (bass). They were suuuuper nice and not to mention suuuuper cute in a nerdy kind of way! They signed Trang's Comm notes and my arm! :) We even got to hug them, which pretty much made my night! It was funny/sad/cute when April asked Wesley if they get hugs all the time because they're on tour, and he said, "no, not really." Haha! It was also cute when Trang asked them if their tour bus was in the back and Wesley said, "it's more of a tour van. We're roughing it." LOL. They totally deserve a tour bus! When we left, Mathieu told Trang, "good luck on your midterm!" How nice! When Trang and I got back to my room, we listened to Ra Ra Riot and fangirled over Wesley and Mathieu. Hehe. :)

Pictures taken from my phone since none of us had our cameras with us!

Trang and I totally matched them! And Mathieu
kind of looks like Jemaine from FOTC! :P

P.S. Death Cab was freakin' awesome!

Done!

I finished a painting for Emi last night. :) I started painting after I showered and didn't finish until 4:30 in the morning. I felt sooo gross with other people's sweat all over me. The Cascada concert was sooo fun and crazy! Worst crowd I've been in (it is UCSB, afterall) because of all the pushing, jumping, and dancing. Can't wait for Death Cab next week! We're planning to wait in line at 3:00am on Monday so we can get our wristbands!

Anyway, here's the painting... sorry for the crappy lighting.


I don't know why, but I love how my desk looks whenever I paint!


And here's something special... Noho playing Hotel 626!

My first attempt at making roses

Everything was homemade, except for the cake and the dulce de leche. We made the marshmallow fondant and the icing ourselves. :)

The roses weren't that hard to make, but the icing came out really soft after piping a few petals. I guess we overmixed the icing when we mixed in icing coloring and not to mention that it was super hot over the weekend. Oh well. Better luck next time.

(The pictures were taken on my phone, so the quality isn't that great.)

Mountains will crumble and temples will fall, and no man can survive its endless call...

I wish I had time to paint.

Thanks a lot, midterms.

Yesssss~!!

Death Cab is finally going to perform at UCSB! After a looong wait, they've finally announced it! April 28th at the Thunderdome! Emi and I are totally going to ditch Anthro on the 27th to get our wristbands for the show!

Rainy days and Mondays always get me down...

So last Monday, I was in a somewhat embarrassing and painful situation. I was biking back towards my dorm after my Filipino-Americans class to meet Emi for lunch when my left bike pedal decided to give out on me. I stood up as I biked up the hill heading to Manzanita Village and within an instant, I was on the floor with my bike on top of me. The whole thing happened within a second, but to me, it seemed like it was happening in slow motion. I remember feeling my left bike pedal fall off and I remember falling off my bike and onto the ground. I also remember trying to avoid hitting my head and falling on my arm... but it all happened so fast.

It took a few seconds for me to comprehend what had just happened. The guy (who luckily was the only person there at the time) who was walking down the hill ran up to me and asked if I was alright. I tried to get up, but my legs were tangled around my bike--which was lying on top of me-- and I just couldn't move. The guy helped me get up and asked if I was alright. I picked up my bike and laughed off the pain that I felt on both of my legs. He picked up my missing bike pedal (which had landed about 8 feet away from my bike) and tried to put it back on. I felt bad for him because his hands got dirty from the mixture of grease and dirt on my bike, but I also felt relieved that someone was there to help me.

After a few minutes of trying to fix my bike pedal, the guy discovered that the ridges on the metal part of the pedal was bent. I told him that it was okay and I would just get it fixed at the bike shop. I thanked him for his help and walked my bike towards my dorm. I called Emi and told her that my bike pedal came off and I couldn't meet her for lunch. I kind of felt aggravated that she sounded so nonchalant (and kind of insensitive) about what had happened to me, but I ignored it because I started to feel pain in my legs and I wanted to get back to my dorm as soon as possible. I parked my bike, left my broken pedal in my basket, and took the elevator up to my room on the 4th floor.

As soon as I walked into my room, I lifted up my left pant leg and saw a diagonal scratch about 4 inches long on my calf. I opened my closet and turned my back towards the mirror on my closet door. Shockingly, I learned that my jeans had ripped on the back of my thighs and blood was visible through the tear. There were two parallel cuts behind my right thigh that were about 3 inches long. I immediately took off my pants (haha), cleaned the cuts on both legs, bandaged them, and put on a fresh pair of jeans. I called Emi and told her that I wouldn't be able to make it to class because my "injuries were worse than what I had expected" and that I had to go to the bike shop to get my pedals replaced. She sounded the same as she had earlier and said that she'd let me borrow her notes later.

After that, I called Daniela, told her what happened, and asked her if she could accompany me to the bike shop. A few minutes later, I met her at the dining commons, had lunch, and then walked over to the bike shop near I.V. Theater. We left my bike there and walked all the way to the other end of campus to get to our Physical Anthro discussion section. After class, we walked across campus again and back to the bike shop to pick up my bike. Afterwards, we went to Starbucks and I treated Daniela because she went through the trouble of helping me get my bike fixed. :) I was happy that my pedals were replaced, but now I am pretty much traumatized and scared of standing up on my bike. When I got back to my room, I showed Emi my cuts and she was shocked. She said that she didn't know that my injuries were that bad. I guess that explains her nonchalance on the phone.

I guess what I got out of this is that I need to stop putting things off until something bad happens. I noticed that bike pedals were starting to deteriorate last quarter and I made a mental note to replace them, but I just never got around to it. So the moral of the story is: STOP PROCRASTINATING! I should probably take my own advice and finish reading one of my Women's Studies books... I have to write a paper on it and it's due next week. Adios.

The cut on my left calf the day after the accident.

The cuts behind my right thigh the day
after the accident.

The cut on my left calf four days after the accident.
The flash on my camera made the bruising look
lighter than it really was.

The cuts behind my right thigh four days after the accident.
It started to form scabs.