last day of 2007..

which meant cooking all day and time for polka dots!

every year my whole family says it's good luck to wear polka dots into the new year... so today, RIGHT NOW i'm wearing the only polka dotted shirt i have, and it happens to be my (new) favorite!

part of my new year's resolution is to consume less and conserve more... 'cause dang it our world could do without a band-aid on it (thank you anchor blue for producing this shirt on organic cotton, even though i'm not really sure how cotton can't be organic). so i really am going to try to turn off the lights when i don't need them, use less running water, wear sweaters more when it's cold rather than use the heater, and other good stuff i should already be doing.

the other part of my new year's resolution is all personal. let's just say i will be looking at positivityblog.com more.

so long 2007, it's been fun. i'm a little anxious for 2008 'cause i know fo sho it's gonna go by fast... and i have to graduate (date is May 22, 2008 people!) then do something with my life. let's just hope it's something good. like all good things done in faith i'm just gonna try my hardest and leave the rest up to Him.

hope 2008 is gonna be great!

concentrate

i think i concentrate better when i don't eat. or maybe i do better when i'm not eating. there's a difference to that.

what i'm eating right now is distracting me a little from this 12 page paper i have to write.. thank goodness for kind people who help and motivate! you all deserve really nice christmas gifts.

want a form of taco soup? here's really easy recipe!

ingredients:
2 cans of chicken broth
1 jar of salsa (Safeway's Mild Southwest Salsa has the BEST flavor!)
1 can of black beans
1 can (11 oz) corn or frozen corn
some shredded cheese
tortilla chips

steps:
heat chicken broth, salsa, beans and corn together (simmer about 5 minutes to blend the falvors). put small amounts cheese and tortilla chips in bowls, and ladle soup over.
voila!

cheap and fast... the ingredients were on sale at Safeway so i bought LOTS!

woohoo! and yay for being semi-productive during my eating break... back to the paper now...

grown up

when did it happen? i mean, did i ever feel young? i guess when i used to pretend i was camping in my living room, making tents out of bed sheets and sleeping "under the stars" that were really glow in the dark stickers i put EVERYWHERE i felt young.

but i don't think i ever recognized when that changed. i still want to make tents and everything, don't get me wrong, but sometimes i just feel so serious.

i shouldn't be... maybe it was MTV that made me grow up and wanna dress older. maybe it was TV, ads, and those things in general that made me grow up. maybe that's why i like Disneyland so much... makes you feel young. (although spending that much money on things makes me feel the need to be old and responsible!)

well i've learned my lesson, do what you want to do because YOU want to do it. yeah, i was very impressionable before, but am trying not to be now.

but you gotta be serious sometimes too..

there's a word for this kind of double-y thing.

lagger

I've lagged on all my stuff and now I'm paying the price.

Crap. Got a final next week and hella stuff to study for it! I don't think I'm gonna finish...

School should mean more to me, but a lot of the time I don't feel I'm good at it. And that's the truth. I got lazy after the last Anatomy midterm... the drive just wasn't in me. And when I tried to read and study for it, I just kept falling asleep. BOO!

Time to cram...

God does not give us patience, He gives us moments to be patient- according to Fr.Bernie...

moments

we do not remember days, we remember moments..

all i can remember today was good food, tv, cramps, and playing with the baby. in Vegas you'd think we'd be going out but i guess when your family has a house here you could go out any other time...

think we're going shopping tomorrow.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! it's almost over... =(

i'd like to see

more people of color talking in classes...

there needs to be more of it. and for me that means i should study more so that i can talk in class... which is one of the reasons i'm studying right now.

we all have something to say...

things i hate

• walking in wet shoes
  
• gum underneath desks and tables
  
• graffiti on desktops (unless it's empowering)
  
• feeling like i have no control over my laziness
• people who look you up and down in a mean way
  
• selfishness
• fighting with my parents
• inequality
• sex tourism, and equating it to relationships
  

week 12

its the end of week 12, and that means it's almost Thanksgiving, there's a couple weeks 'til finals, and lots of cramming to do.

i've tried real hard to keep up with my classes... but i still feel like i'm behind.

so what i'm gonna do is study for Anatomy all Thanksgiving break (stupid muscles), and make big posters of terms and concepts and stuff from my Soc classes and just post them in my room.

what i've learned so far:

Anatomy: the body is a crazy thing. we've gone over the bones, muscles, organs, systems- circulatory, respiratory, central nervous, peripheral nervous, autonomic, and urinary... and there's more ahead. i think i wanna be a doctor FOR REALS.

Theory: capitalism sucks, socialism is the solution. modernity is being aware of why you do the things you do (why you think the things you think).

Orgs and Institutions: gotta be aware of the food you eat. we're reading fast food nation right now, and ch.5 tells you about the artificial flavors that go into food. our professor highlighted the content of fries- go to www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c225u.html to see the nutrition facts.

Lifestyles and Consumption: i've been studying the PilOrgs as a nonprofit service and have tied in choice, taste, preference, what is a lifestyle, politics of consumption, and design.

that's been pretty much all i've been studying these past 12 weeks, and there's more in between that just somehow managed to fall through the cracks... but i'm hoping i'll feel more content with what i've learned in a few weeks...

one of the funnest weekends

GO BEARS!
my family came for the game this weekend, and i miss them already! it's so fun when we're together! and now i don't wanna do any work.. BOO! well here we are showing Cal pride at Golden Gate Bridge. (me and my sister do not look alike..)


then we went to this ridiculously good dim sum place in San Francisco.. and just like everything else, its hidden in one of those buildings. this is a picture of a reverse wonton soup plate- instead of the wonton being in the soup, the soup's in the wonton. yummmmo....

we went to the game after lunch, and sat through 3 and a half quarters of constant rain. i dunno how we did it... i think i just stopped feeling anything 'cause we were in the rain so long. surprisingly my family had tons of fun.

i also learned something new- when football games are stopped there's some guy on the field from the broadcasting station that tells the refs when they can start playing again. that kinda sucks.

so Sunday we ate at another chinese place with our Vallejo relatives... you can see the infamous soup bowl here with the sprite that you just gotta order with your food. i'm trying to drink less soda and more tea...

i love babies... especially this one...

can't wait for Thanksgiving.. i think i ate almost 20 pounds of food this weekend, but i'm still looking forward to my mom's food.

and one more thing- can people at least wait 'til November 23rd to start advertising Christmas stuff?

support small business owners

'cause they are the cool, uncapitalist entrepreneurs who don't think solely about making money... they want to give people quality food! (right now i'm thinking of good pizza, delicious ice cream, some special sauce on the tri-tip sandwich, and an unknown formula for that BOMB mango smoothie...)

ok, well, i think part of their goal is to make some money, but at least they're not going out and buying McDonald's franchises to do so.

which is why i like Berkeley, why i'm thankful i go to Cal. there aren't a lot of big businesses here. and i used to hate that. i used to want to get my fries in the red cardboard container with the yellow M on it! but i think that's largely because i was comfortable with the familiar, well-known companies. who isn't? i'm trying to break out of that mindset...

but one thing i hate- good, healthy food is NOT CHEAP. uh uh... you gotta pay for that quality...

side note: i hate vicious cycles!

moving

i read this journal article for my lifestyles and consumption class about an ethnography that was done in Europe and it really made me want to move there... and not just for the good food and classy people, but because the lifestyles that those people were living seemed so balanced.

some sociologists who were living with people in their homes in 5 different European countries. according to their study (and i'm pretty sure the houses they stayed at were in the nice parts of Europe) the people in Europe were:
1) environmentally conscious and willing to change their lifestyles if it would help the environment
2) centered around togetherness and felt that the family was a very important part of their lives. i think for one german family the most important meal was lunch- the dad would come home early for it, the mom would come home from work, and the kids were able to eat with them too.. and the parents didn't work crazy amounts of hours. they made sure they were home when their kids were home..
3) not stuck to their televisions. in other words, they were always out doing things and had hobbies like painting, drawing, playing some musical instrument, etc..
4) media experiences- if they did watch tv there were educational shows available for kids to watch. this one mom watched this show with her kids that portrayed daily life in other countries...
5) shopping at smaller stores, which meant more personal relationships with people they interacted with in the markets, and buying better quality of produce, which also contributed to good, healthy meals.

i think i'm gonna keep this in mind for the future because i feel that this lacks in a lot of the families today (i always get so mad when i see those sweet 16 kids on TV)..

i'm also pretty sure i wouldn't be content living in some nice country in Europe. Berkeley has made me aware of the outside world and the fact that there are so many countries that need help..

melatonin levels

studying for my anatomy midterm, i just learned that the rise in melatonin levels is what causes people to sleep, and during different stages in life the timing of the release of melatonin changes, which is why teenagers sleep later (the melatonin levels rise later in the night).

well, i'm no longer a teenager and i can't stay up late anymore either... dang melatonin...

i need to stay awake to study!

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2007, please mark your calendar!!!!! Please spread thisto at least five other people and make sure you inform them to send the info to five more people, to spread the word. National Black Out Dayis on November 2. Do not make any purchases on the actual day and please do notmake any major $ amount purchases, the day before or the day after because then the Black Out will be of no effect. This is from 102.5radio station (Atlanta); they are asking their listeners to spread theword for those who may not listen to the station. This is the secondphase for the Jena 6 and many other cities and people of color arefacing similar situation like the Jena 6.Remember: NO PURCHASES. NO PURCHASES. NO PURCHASES. NO PURCHASES NOPURCHASES - NOV. 1, NOV. 2 OR NOV. 3

pinky and the BRAIN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li5nMsXg1Lk

culture

the last thing a fish recognizes is the water it is swimming in.

weather forecast

rain EVERYDAY until Saturday!... (what SF gate said)

i'll have to try specially hard to do hw now... on rainy days i just wanna stay home and watch tv or read or something...

good advice from teachers

the greatest rewards come from the greatest commitments.
-prof. dimond (anatomy)

she said this to our class today as she told us that she wants us to really learn about the subject of anatomy, not just come to class the day before the midterm to get all the answers.

i have to admit, it is really hard to go to class if you can just get the answers and the questions a few days before from the professor herself! but i really am trying to go to each class, despite that relentless voice in my head telling me i don't want to go.

picture of red blood cells and a neutrophil

(neutrophil: one of 5 leukocytes, or white blood cells, in your body)

something else she said was that we students should take advantage of the educational opportunities we're receiving. there's a guy she knows who's 45 and really unhappy, all because he didn't really learn in his classes, never really soaked in the knowledge around him. sounds kind of funny... but i could see how that could be true.

i think this could be applied to every commitment/experience in our lives. it definitely pays more to put your all into whatever you do.. rather than passively sitting and going through the motions of things. in all the instances i can think of i've felt more satisfied when i talked more in class, read for section and contributed to discussions, participated in dialogs happening during core meetings. it definitely makes me feel like i'm not wasting my time and that i'm contributing to what's going on around me.

definitely going to try to do those things more...

suggestion

i heard if you set aside 5 minutes of your day to do whatever it is that makes you blissfully happy you will feel generally happier.

still have to find out what that thing is for me... and soon. so far my week has been: class work advising work meeting running late to class work class meeting.. in that order. running on like that. i think that's why i've felt so tired lately. and why i haven't succeeded in doing all the hw i need to.

also, it rained. and i just wanna stay home when it rains. =(

there's something in the air

well right now, rain is. but for the last week i've been feeling like it's really the Fall season.. like almost Christmas time. just the smells of the trees or the way the wind's blowing.. i dunno.. but i like it!

and i like this picture! haha... happy october!

things that make me forget about school

go kart racing.. (the car is going so fast you can't see it..)

delicious food! (chocolate with sea salt and olive oil.. yum!)

going to san francisco... (SF food festival)

meeting famous people.. (i met Marcel from Top Chef! ahh!)

more delicious food.... (it may be small, but this creme brulee was BOMB!)

If we are unhappy it is because we are repressed; the solution is to remove our repressions.
-Carl Elliott

sign the petition

>>>>>>>FORWARDED MESSAGE:
Dear Kababayan and Allies:

I heard through the grapevine about a remark made on an episode of
"Desperate Housewives" last night. The scene entailed Teri Hatcher's
character (Susan) at a hospital, being told by her gynecologist that
she might be hitting menopause. Susan replied, "Can I just check those
diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some
med school in the Philippines." If you go to abc.com, you watch the
full episode and witness the scene at about 18:50 minutes into the
episode.

This type of derogatory remark is not only unnecessary and hurtful,
but is also unfounded, considering the presence of Filipinos and
Filipino Americans in the health care industry. Filipinos are the
second largest immigrant population in the United States, with many
entering the U.S. and passing their U.S. licensing boards as doctors,
nurses, and medical technicians. In fact, the Philippines produces
more U.S. nurses than any other country in the world. So, to belittle
the education, experience, or value of Filipino Americans in health
care is disrespectful and plain and simply ignorant.

As Filipino Americans, we need to band together to ensure that this
type of hateful message is not allowed to continue on our television
and radio airwaves. Given the recent amounts of media attention that
has been given to Michael Richards (against African Americans), Isaiah
Washington (against gays), and Rosie O'Donnell (against Asian/ Chinese
Americans), it is ridiculous that this type of hateful speech made it
through various screenwriters, the show's producers, the show's
actors, and ABC itself. Yet, this isn't the first time that negative
remarks have been made about the Philippines or Filipinos in the past.
In recent years, we've heard one too many "dogeater" comments by
"comedian" Joan Rivers on the red carpet or in her standup act, and I
believe that it is about time that we stand up for ourselves, so that
this type of hateful speech never happens again.

Please join me in expressing your concern, disappointment, and/or
disgust to the producers of ABC.com. You can sign the petition at
http://www.petitiononline.com/FilABC/ or you can reach them directly
abc7@abc.com.

And please feel free to forward this widely to other Filipinos/
Filipino Americans/ Asian Americans/ and other allies.

and i was just thinking

about Pixar. i think because they use objects (Cars) or animals (Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc.) in most of their stories they don't really have to be all critical about their characters. like, they're not stereotyping certain people... maybe they are... but at least it's not super obvious.

they could totally annihilate Disney.

this made my day...

i know this might have been online for a while, but because of jean, i had a good laugh at it...
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74

Oct 1

there's been a lot on my mind... and even though i've been thinking about a lot i still feel like i'm at the same place i was when i began thinking about these things.

but hey, it's the first of the month... maybe that's some sort of good luck.

and here's something i learned in class...
flip-flop socks exist! i guess people like wearing their sandals in snow and stuff... haha... so someone invented these. if i wanna wear socks with my sandals i just wear regular socks, yo...

microscopes

looking through a microscope at cells gives me a weird vibe... actually, that's not too weird, 'cause i don't really know what i'm looking at... the pictures are worse... (i'd put one here but then i'd never look at my blog...) with the magnification of all the cilia and tons of squamous cells with nuclei that look like eyeballs... ick!

and i hate when people don't signal when they turn... it doesn't relate to microscopes, but it's still really annoying. i could've turned if they had just signaled! but now i have to wait for like 5 minutes for all the other cars to pass.. sheesh...
time is valuable, people!

"i got the blues...

kraft macaroni and cheese... the blue box blues..."

had that for lunch. but i figured it tied to how i really am feeling right now. i mean, it could be the weather today, but there are so many times when the best way to describe how i'm feeling is *blah..* and today is definitely one of those days. too bad i have a midterm and i can't just sit and watch tv or read some fun book.. noooo... i'm memorizing the muscles of the anterior and lateral parts of the neck. whoopie.

too many choices!

like what to eat, what to wear, where to shop, what to buy, where to live, what to do with your life, what to do with your day. granted there are some limitations to what we can afford... but still, there are so many choices in the world, in life. in class on friday we were studying choice, taste, and preference in my seminar (which i have grown quite fond of..), and were were looking at a journal written by of those brilliant sociologists. it was a piece called why more is less. his argument was that as Americans, even though we have many choices, we still feel unsatisfied with life. SOOOO TRUE!

my parents always told me that i'm never satisfied, and i think i believe that more now then ever. i am totally grateful for everything i have, really i am... but i keep feeling like there's something that's missing. sounds kinda spoiled, but i'm not just talking about material things. i'm talking more about what i wanna do with my life. i really just thought about going into the medical field when i first came to Berkeley... but once i started going to other classes, i realized that heck, there's more out there. so now i'm majoring in sociology. and i'm still taking pre-med courses.. all for what? i still don't know.

all i know is that what i'm learning in soc makes me feel like i should be doing something more. not like, join the peace corp or that kind of stuff... but something different.. something revolutionary. i wish i was more creative so i could just figure it out already...

and maybe then i could save some time.. going through these courses is really changing my life.. and i'm not so sure it's in a good way...

random

someone stopped me on campus today and asked me a couple questions about Cal... one being what i think about the school spirit on the Berkeley campus. the first thing that came to my mind was football. so that's what i said... something about our spirit ranging from supporting different issues like the football team to fighting for social issues.. haha! it was more about the football team. i think that's pretty much the only thing that unites our campus. seeing as how there's a ridiculous amount of people being pumped through our institution, its probably impossible to unite under/for a common thing... except sports. 'cause we're good at it. so far..

i guess if i wanted a small community type of feeling i could've gone to a private school... Cal is definitely the opposite.

and i'm currently thinking of a new type of society... something like communism... but not..

jump for joy!

today i heard that you can see a person's personality in the way they jump. haha.. that's cool.

we are not free.

i think i understand anarchists more now. according to Marx, religion is a form of alienation (we ourselves create this idea of a higher being, therefore putting our freedom, our fate, into God's hands). so if we believe in God, we are not completely free. yes, we have free will, our choices are ours... but we really choose to do what we do based on what we've learned is right. and God will determine what will happen to our souls after death.

i'm a little uneasy about feeling that i am not really free. i still have faith in what i've learned, but i think i'm going to question things a lot more now. i want to understand. i want to feel like the thoughts i have are coming from my own thought processes, not from the world around me.

i think that's why i need to think more about the decisions i make and what influences them. "if you don't recognize institutions that influence you, you cannot really be free." damn institutions. you have made me complacent. you have taught me to follow rules. you have set standards that not everyone can meet. you have made me feel like i need to get a good job right after college so that i can be "successful." and despite all these things, you persist. and that's because you are a way of life.

can you be challenged? can you be changed?

tuesday was a big day for me...

i had my first surgery ever! wisdom teeth are gone, cheeks are swollen, harry potter's almost finished! (i'm really sad about that last one, actually..)

so i've just been staying home, lounging around on the couch/bed taking tons of pills while watching FRIENDS and eating mushy food. wonderful. 4 weeks of a "soft diet" is something i'm looking forward to.

what i like about living in the new building..

-offers a new college experience for me...
-although some may think it's a bad thing, i think being able to hear everything that goes on in the apartment building is a good thing. if something bad were planned by some evil person (like on the law and order: svu show) there would be people around to prevent it from happening
-know lots of people who live here too!
-may never have to walk by yourself anywhere ever again!

what i'm trying to figure out right now..

"your concept of self will ultimately originate in your own soul."

the deathly hollows!

i don't care what anyone says, harry potter books are good books. i can't put this one down! even when i have a midterm next week... i'm so sad it has to end!

and too bad for those missing pages in people's books, huh..
with 12 million copies of harry potter printed there's got to some errors...

feelin' ehh...

it could be because of the weather, or because of the weird hours i've been sleeping, or my daily reminders that i have to deal with lots of grown up stuff, but i feel very *blah* today...

so i guess i came up with some goals:
-do homework daily... (i'm really bad at this one)
-do something new every week
-build a nice resume
-be efficient! in everything.. spending time, money, etc..
-keep searching for what i want to do in life.

and i wanted to post this on the 17th, but i forgot to.
just pretend i did..



if only that little boy had shorter darker hair...

to be or not to be...

my professor told me that Shakespeare never published his plays. the actors who were in the plays decided to bring in their scripts to the printing press, and that it how we have Shakespeare today. i don't know if my professor is right, but if he is then thank goodness those actors did what they did.

reading Shakespeare for my English class is pretty fun... that darn Shakespeare was such a genius. although it takes forever for him to get to his point, there's always lots of meaning in the lines he wrote. like Hamlet's "to be or not to be" speech... his line

"but that the dread of something after death,
the undiscovered country from whose borders
no traveller returns, puzzles the will,
and makes us rather bear those ills we have
than fly to others that we know not of"

speaks about human nature and our tendency to live our lives based on the fear of what is after death. heck yeah i'm scared about what happens after we die, but i feel like if we live our lives right, then we have nothing to worry about. and who says what is right and wrong? i think with every decision we make, we must feel at peace with it, and that's how we know when we're doing the right thing.

just because Pirates 3 came out recently...

I went on this website at work and took this quiz just for fun... It asks you 20 questions and at the end gives you your pirate name. ^_^
This was what I got at the end of it..

"Your pirate name is:
Calico Anne Kidd

Often indecisive, you can't even choose a favorite color. You're apt to follow wherever the wind blows you, just like Calico Jack Rackham, your namesake. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!"

And as a side note I was a little let down at the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Is it really that easy to get Jack back from the "other side?"

first day of class

english at berkeley city college. i was probably the last one to sign up for this class... and when i saw the 40 people that were waiting in that room for class to start, in my head i was thinking, "i'm not gonna get in." probably 15 people were waiting to add the course, and guess how the professor decides to add people... lottery. each person had to write on a piece of paper their name and a number between 1 and 100. what are the odds of getting the right number? if you would've asked me this after stats i would know.. but that was too long ago. anyways... he unfolds each of the papers and says that two people got the right number. what the??? two people??? blah blah blah someone and april u. that's me!!! yay me!!! so kamille in front of me praying and me thinking in my head "this will happen if it's meant to be" worked. guess it was meant to be.

disappointed

i hate when my parents use that word instead of mad. "i was disappointed." well, i'm sorry mom and dad. really. but you have to understand, that's just the way i am. i do try to have patience, try not to talk back, try to avoid saying things that will make you mad, try to help out... but on occassion i may not always do those things. so please forgive. it's hard enough to be in this world where you feel like no one understands you. when the only people who are supposed to support you no matter what act like they're not there anymore, it sucks even more. i know i'm supposed to be strong, but there is a limit. at least for me there is.

guess this is a lesson. i hate it when parents are right.

precious moments figurines

you know those precious moments figurines? i love them... they're so cute with their big eyes and pastel colors. i wanted to start collecting them, but they're so freakin' expensive. and there aren't enough of them with brown hair. well i see more now than before, but i just don't think that the distribution is equal. guess that's business for you. in an article written in 2004, Eleanor Yates highlights a sociological study on black dolls in society:

"Thomas is now interviewing Black women about the dolls of their childhood. 'People say Black dolls didn't exist back then but in fact accessibility was the issue,' she said. Companies and stores didn't think there was a profitable market for Black dolls, she explains."

and she states that this lack of minority dolls, even though there was a want for them, mirrored society and the business of race. it was true in the 60's (when Barbie's friend, Christie appeared in stores), the 90's (when i was able to play with barbies), and is true today. when we're younger we don't think that these things are important. blond barbies are what lots of girls played with on my block, but none of us had blond hair. yet we bought them. and it's sad, but my little cousin is the same way, playing with American Girl dolls. i don't see an asian one that she plays with...

and on more thing- people, it's okay to have flat noses. if i see one more little girl squeezing her nose trying to make it become more pointy, i'm gonna go crazy. we should be empowering people to feel proud of who they are, not make them feel like they have to change to be what society says is popular. screw popularity. be real.

Asian supermodel

http://www.annabayle.com/modelblog.html

that link should be legit (i think). today was the first time i heard about Anna Bayle.. and her last recorded blog was written on my birthday, so i took that as a sign that today she should be in this blog. i wonder how tall she is. and what makes people supermodels. more importantly, i wonder what these supermodels do with their money. it would be cool to be a supermodel, but i would hope that if i had a lot of money i'd give it to charities or organizations and use my influence to bring awareness to certain issues.

congrats are due!

to the class of 2007! yesterday was wonderful... it was the first time i ever went to pilgrad, and just hearing all the thank you shoutouts i got so sad. it's not going to be the same without you all here!!! thank you for the wisdom, the laughs, and the insights.

wally: we better keep in touch. i don't think i've ever met anyone as smart, funny, insightful, and caring as you... my days were so much brighter because of your friendship.
frances: thanks for always making me laugh and for the yummy candy!
bev: you are such a talented, funny, brilliant womyn... i'm so glad i got to know you through core.
camille: your leadership really does inspire me. have fun in england!
mark: congrats on landing a job here! yay! i better see you LOTS! and let's all go out soon!
kevin: i don't think i ever got to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to be in charge of Trad with joanna. you may not know it, but you have helped me grow in so many ways, and i'm glad i got to know you a little more this year. great GREAT job with PCN. i know you're going to do even greater things in the future. honestly kev, i hope we're friends for a very long time. =)
jade: i will miss hearing your voice. good luck in Arizona!!!
kuya chris: thanks for adopting me. i know we didn't go to a lot of KAA things together, but i hope you know how much i appreciate everything you've done for me. from the beginning it felt natural to call you kuya, just because of your loving personality. i will miss you!!
ate rita: you amaze me. i will always remember you as someone i look up to. i hope to see you around!!!
phil: i'm so glad i got to know you this year. you made Trad so fun.. and i hope we can hang out more!
speaking of hanging out more... nicky! i know you might not read this, but in case you do, i want you to know that i've really enjoyed the few times that we've hung out, and i wish that there were more times like those. thanks for taking me with you and everyone else to Disneyland last summer, and for letting me study at your apartment. if we can, let's hang out more!
kat abanilla: you're a great mama hen. =D i'm sad that i didn't get to know you better, because during the brief times that i did get a chance to be around you i saw what a fun person you were. thanks for putting up with the crazy Trad stuff and for always saying hi...
joshua: it was about this time last year that we started hanging out, so i thought i might write a little something here to honor that, even though i know you don't like mushy stuff. thank you again for being the amazing person that you are. this year was so much fun, and i owe a large part of that to you. your craziness, wisdom, and dedication in everything you do has made all of my days fun as well as meaningful. thank you for inspiring me.

and to the class of 2008, congrats go to y'all too for finishing the year! it's our turn soon, so let's make the most of the times ahead...

i hear the sprinklers

the sky's changing from black to brighter blue, and i hear the sprinklers going off... which means that it is really early in the morning.

this kind of stuff makes me really want to just be done with school (in general) and be able to enjoy the life that awaits everyone who finishes college- work then going home to no homework! but i bet once that happens, i'll wish for the "old days" of staying up late with rockstars (the drink! which i just started driniking recently... i can't stay up late studying anymore without them) and random conversations with those who are up studying too. for now though, i can't wait 'til a year from the end of this week.

and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dad, who turns some crazy age today... even though you don't read these posts of mine, i really hope you enjoy today!

food!

spending too much money on food....

which reminds me! if you're ever in vegas and looking for something to eat besides buffet food, go to hash house (not sre exactly where it is), but it's delicious stuff! the picture above was taken there... and i think that's the best breakfast i've EVER had! oh, and get the kiwi watermelon lemonade. =)

Happy Mother's Day!

i really do think i have the most amazing mom in the world. she's so amazing that i started a journal to try to remember the things she does for me and my sister and brother so that i could do those same things for my kids.

it kinda hurts not to be able to spend today with her. she's so far, and i have stuff to do here in Berkeley... and that just signifies the type of commitment that being on PAA core is. i mean, last night we just had a two and a half hour meeting, and PCN requires a lot of weekends here, so i guess i'll have to miss out on more stuff like this...

all brand new

if you're ever walking down Shattuck near Cheeseboard and Saul's, stop by Masse's bakery. they have pretty and delicious cakes- like this one!

yumm.. raspberry chocolate...

so i decided to move to this blogspot. sorry xanga, but you just can't match google's creativity. thanks to josh for introducing me to this new, pretty place (blogger and Masse's)!

actually.. thank you for making everything i experience new.

i really like this picture, and not just because it's a nice picture, but because it makes me happy just thinking about the time when it was taken.