I am currently taking TWO sociology courses both which deal with social psychology which are so far pretty interesting. However my first day of reading for Social Psychology 1 had an interesting quote that I think more then just myself would want to ponder.
“Could we even know ourselves if we didn’t know what others saw in us?”
I want to start by clarifying that my life is not anything I can complain about, in fact I quite possibly am the luckiest guy in the world. I have the most amazing girlfriend in the world, I have great family and friends, I have a job in which allows me to review video games, and a good “real” life job that allows me to live as comfortably as a college student can live. However with my recent transition to UC Irvine which I knew was going to be challenging in its own merits, has come some unfortunate events that have happened in literally a five day span.
Case #1: It all began on Thursday April 12th when I was ready to go leave for work (Bank of America) when I found my Hyundai Tiburon wasn’t starting. It has 30,000 miles on it and sure enough the battery died. So no big deal, my parents let me borrow there car and I was off to work making it in time. My parents were also nice enough to buy a new battery for me and install it. So that was not a big price tag and thus not a bad deal.
Case #2: The same day of Thursday April 12th I brought my brand new less then two month old Mac Book with me to work, so I could do homework at my break. Like I mentioned I had to change cars and I think I was in a rush and through my backpack into the back of my parents Honda Pilot. No harm no foul right? Well I got on break and was on the phone with Jenn when I opened my Mac Book and saw a major crack at the bottom of the screen. Now I have 3/4 of my Mac Screen un-viewable. Now I call up Apple and they say it to the Genius Bar to get it serviced. I thought it might not be under warranty but the sticker shock of how much they were going to charge me to replace the screen could basically buy a new Mac Book. Luckily I was with Jenn who asked a question of what else we could do and the guy asked if I bought it with an American Express. Luckily Jenn recommended me to get a Gold Card which I did and bam I find out they cover accidental damage to products for the first 90 days. So now I am in an ongoing effort to get American Express to cover my repair of my Mac Book. More information on this will come, I am just praying that American Express covers it.
Case #3: So you would think my unfortunate events would stop there right? After one of the best days of my life when Jenn came to surprise me on Friday the 13th of April, we decided to drive my Malibu which sits at the train station back into Riverside as we had missed the Train. The drive home was great and the evening was topped off with a great meal. I left my Malibu at the train station in Riverside to drive back to Irvine Monday morning. Well of course my luck hasn’t been going to strong and the car began overheating right when I got on the freeway. I managed to get off the freeway without stalling and got towed back down to Riverside to the dealer. Let’s just say the news wasn’t good from the mechanic and it looks like I busted my block (not sure if that’s right). I was happy to hear that it doesn’t seem to be cracked which would have basically meant I would have wanted to dump the car. In short the Malibu is going up for sale and I am going to be looking for a new car all together. I am thinking of a Toyota Prius Hybrid. We will see.
Case #4: After what seemingly was all of the bad that could have happened, the unthinkable happens, something else stops working. So I was just ready to go to bed last night and I had my cell phone in my shirt pocket. I bent over by the sink and bam there goes my cell phone into a nice pool of water. I rushed to get it out of there, probably was in there for a split second tried drying it off. The cell phone seemed fine, and I gave a sigh of relief. Walk into our den and bam it turns off. So I fiddle around with the battery and it seems like it might turn back on and now it’s completley dead. That’s right my cell phone has now been damaged and is dead. It is an old phone, one I didn’t spend a lot of money on, however the fact that my plan has 6 months left means I need to get a cheap phone for time being. Just another expense!
I am not asking for anyone to feel bad for any of this .As I mentioned before I am truly blessed, in fact the more I think about it I am so blessed to even have these problems to begin with. When you see the terror in this world like what happened at Virginia Tech or anywhere around the world where people are being massacred, I have nothing to complain about. I am writing this mainly so one day I can look back and remember this time in my life and laugh. Also I figured it would give you all a little insight to the outlook of my life right now.
So as you all know I have a wonderful girlfriend named Jenn who I have been with for almost four years now. Well when I decided to transfer out of Cal State San Bernardino during the Fall I knew I would see a lot less of Jenn as we used to carpool down to CSUSB together. Well that did happen and due to my work/school schedule we did end up seeing each other a lot less, and even less now in the Spring. So this has been tough on both of us and I can honestly say it has been stressful. We have managed just fine its just the constant running around trying to get thirty minutes with each other which is difficult.
Well to make a long story short I was coming back from seeing Reign Over Me during one of my long gaps at UC Irvine. I was driving back to school while talking to Jenn on the cell phone. She was supposed to be busy doing birthday shopping for her dad, and she kept asking about where I was, and where I usually parked. Well anyways I park at my normal area and I was tired and wanted to lay down in the back seat where I can stretch out. I see a girl walking up to the car, not paying attention to who it was I shut my door to let her pass. Well then the girl opens the door and wouldn’t you know it, it was Jenn. I don’t think I have ever been that happy, it was one of the most amazing surprises I have ever had. And to top it all off she took me out to eat at one of our favorite little spots in the OC, Spaghetti Bender. It was such a memorable surprise and one that I just couldn’t resist posting.
Today is the first day of my spring quarter here at UC Irvine and this being my second quarter here I have to say I am feeling more comfortable. After what I feel as a rather dissapointing start here at UCI, I am ready to hit this quarter in stride and see if I can’t be just a bit more successful. I have to admit although I am here at a lot more then I was last quarter in terms of time my schedule this quarter really sets up a lot nicer then before. I just spent the last four plus hours in the library which I spent going over Calculus and reading a book for one of my classes. I got so much accomplished in so much less time then I would at home plus it was just nice and relaxing. Now I am here in my Global Economy class way to early but amazed that I am finally in a class that reminds me of what a “UC Class” is supposed to look like. It’s an extremely large stadium style auditorium that looks like it potentially could be a great movie theatre with 300+ students.
Spring quarter has begun and for the first time I actually feel ready. Here goes nothing!
As many of you may or may not know, I transfered from Cal State San Bernardino a school I attended to for three years to take up the opportunity to transfer to UC Irvine. Now although my Coyotes are in the Division II NCAA Basketball Final Four, I digress, with my terrible Division 1 school that’s top sport is Men’s Volleyball. We are Number 1 in the country in Men’s Volleyball, now if that isn’t something to be proud of then what is.
Although UC Irvine is not a sports school, although who knows one day it may be, it is a great academic school and one one that took a lot of time to understand and to start to realize what to do and what not to do at this school. So here are some of the things I learned in my first quarter at UCI.
1) Watch out for anyone on a bike, they have the right away, and if your in the way they will have no problem in running you off the road, or worse running you over.
2) The TA’s don’t teach the subjects that well, but they can help you on assignments and that sure can make life a lot easier.
3) Don’t take the train on finals or midterm week. I almost missed a midterm and a final because of train problems that delayed me severely.
4) Don’t skip class, the day you do something important will happen and you will be out of luck.
5) I am the best at being lazy, and that is something that I just don’t think is possible if you want to be sucessful at UCI.
6) Know the Professors won’t show you the exact steps to complete a problem, they will just give you the formula and let you figure it out yourself.
There is probably more but for now I am on my first day off of school for a week and I am going to enjoy it. Now watch out for the people on the bike, they are crazy!