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Valentine’s Day Shenanigans

It all started about 3 weeks ago when my roommate saw this flyer on Instagram:

My roommate told me there was an event where I could get Hydro Flask for free. To me this was a surprise because a regular Hydro Flask costs around $30-60 so to me this was a great deal, so I asked what this event was and he said a matchmaker event, where they would pair you with someone based on how you answered the questions on their survey. After hearing that my decision changed to NO. Feeling as though he could convince me, my roommate decided to open up the survey, fill it out, and leave it for me to submit when I came back from class later that same day. I however, was not amused and closed out of that tab. The following day, my roommate asked me if I submitted the survey to which I said no. Looking back, he was probably getting annoyed with me because he then took to our friends back in Eastvale saying “Ay yall gotta convince josh to do this”. Luckily there were still some friends that would take my side in this issue because a number of them were arguing that the free stuff needs to be like “a PS4/Korean BBQ/Monster Hunter World all in one to bait josh” while others took my roommate’s side. It was at this point where I learned that my roommate was planning to redo the survey and rather than wait for me to hit submit, hit submit for me. Then, he noted that I would HAVE to go since I was going to be paired with someone apparently and it would be rude to leave them standing. Upon learning of this plan, I promptly changed the password to my computer (before this event, he knew my computer’s password to gain access to my sound system).

The next day he asked me that if one of our mutual friends thought it was a good idea for me to go would I? I agreed having complete faith that our mutual friend, Brendon, would take my side in this argument and I would not have to sign up just to help my roommate get a Hydro Flask. This was my critical mistake because when he called up Brendon, I swear that he must’ve bribed him beforehand or something because Brendon betrayed my trust in him and told us that he also thought that I should sign up for the matchmaker event. Jokingly I told him that he was the one that was supposed to destroy the dark side not join it. Brendon responded by saying “Hey, you never know you could meet the one.” To which I told him to get out of my room. Now backed into a corner, I played my final card to attempt and get a positive outcome from this argument. I told the two of them “I’ll do it later” with no actual intent to do it.  I almost got away with it but Brendon and my roommate knew me for too long and knew that I wouldn’t do it so they just sat there, staring at me, and said, “We’re not leaving until you sign up for this.” Defeated I gave them my word that I would sign up for it before the sign-up window closed and went back to whatever I was doing before my roommate brought Brendon up to my room.

That weekend, I went home and signed up for the matchmaker event since I gave my word to both of them. So at this point the survey consisted of basic questions like:
What are some hobbies/interests of yours?
Music Genres?
Major?
Additional Comments?

After filling it out I just submitted it and waited.

On the day of the event, I had to ask my Resident Adviser where the Conejo Suite was since I never been there. Upon learning of its location I made my way over and found that rather than the matchmaker event as I was expecting, the poster in the window said Mesa Court Social. Confused, I waited until a little later to go in (since I was still early). When I did walk in, there was only one other person in the entire room and somehow her color under her name tag (which was just a piece of tape with your name and a color) matched mine so I walked over and tried to strike up a conversation while waiting for my roommate to arrive. As the social event went on it was getting obvious that there was no sort of matchmaking being made so I just strolled over to my roommate and dorm members and just sat with them for most of the night. While there was hot chocolate and doughnut holes, there was no stirring straws to mix the hot chocolate so I just kinda had to wait it out. That night, I ended up meeting the Vice President of the Mesa Court Council who seemed like the kind of person who would have that position in my opinion. He was super sociable and upbeat about anything and everything, these attributes mixed with the fact that I ended up sitting next to him made it so that I was constantly in a conversation. While talking to the VP I noted that many of the people are only here for the Hydro Flask, much like my roommate. He agreed and realized that he should distribute the two Hydro Flasks that they bought at the middle and end of the event to ensure that people will stay. I told him that was a great idea to make people stay but I was hoping he wouldn’t execute on that plan because that would mean I had to stay the whole event to try and get the Hydro Flask that my roommate wanted. It was soon approaching time to give out the first Hydro Flask and the conditions to be entered to win were that you must have signed up on the survey. So this was the time to try and pray to whatever lucky symbol I had so that I could win the Hydro Flask, but much like my plans on the weekends, nothing happened. So I stuck around until the end of the event in hopes of winning the second one and when that time came the conditions were that you had to have walked into the event. Personally I thought this was a ridiculous idea since the whole event was supposed to be based on the Google Forms surveys so I was slightly annoyed but to those of you who won the Hydro Flasks, congratulations.

So, did the event meet my expectations? No in fact it should have been called what it was a social, not a matchmaking event. Did I find it fun and useful? It was definitely fun but I don’t enjoy being told one thing and ending up attending something completely different. Regardless, it looks like its going to be another Valentines full of ice cream for me.

Zot On!
-Josh

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The Importance of Self-Care

Winter quarter for me so far has been not what I expected to say the least. Originally, I wanted to take 12 units so that I would have time to fully focus on ICS 31, but that ended up not being the case, as I ended up getting somewhat lax with my study habits. The first midterm was definitely a reminder that the quarter system does not allow you to fully relax until its over. That being said, taking care of yourself is as important as studying because if you’re relaxed and calm while studying, I can say with moderate certainty that you will have a harder time recalling the information.

For me, self-care starts with my roommate since I usually like to go to the Anteater Recreational Center (ARC) with a friend so its more entertaining. The most recent trend that my roommate and I have been getting into is badminton. It’s also beneficial to the two of us that the ARC has drop-in badminton everyday at whatever time the ARC’s website says. Badminton, for the readers who don’t know, is a racket sport where the objective is to make the birdie (or shuttlecock) hit the opponent’s side of the court. Now, there are nuances to hitting the birdie in that each side may only hit the birdie once and how much power you put into returning the birdie to the other side of the court. For example, if your opponent is returning a shot from the left side of court, you can hit the birdie to the right side of the court so that they have to try and cover the whole court in order to return the birdie yet again. Another tactic is when your opponent hits the ball high and close to the net, here you could just jump up and spike the birdie onto your opponent’s side at a steep angle. Although I haven’t played badminton in years, its still fun to play with a friend and on top of that builds cardio due to all the running. As a little side note, badminton is actually the world’s fastest recorded object in sports as a professional player from Malaysia set a new world record by smashing (another type of shot) the birdie to around 493 km/h or 306 mph.

Beyond just running around a court chasing a birdie, I tend to take really long showers while in the dorm. It may seem strange but when I’m in a hot shower for a long period of time, I tend to naturally feel at ease and that helps me reset myself for whatever task I had before hopping into the shower. The downside to that would be that UCI and my floor-mates have to accommodate my long shower times. I tend to joke with my friends that I’m the reason why California is consistently in a drought. That being said, being in a shower allows me some time to unwind and just do and think about nothing. For me, having that time of just emptiness helps me refocus after I get back to work and that’s how I’ve been caring for myself while in the constant rush that comes with the quarter system.

Zot On!

Josh

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Working through Winter Week 3

We have arrived at the one third mark of the Winter quarter and I have to admit, this quarter is definitely more relaxing than last quarter for me. The reason being, I am currently only taking 12 units since I am currently enrolled in ICS 31, a prerequisite for becoming an ICS major. With my current 12 unit course load, I have the time I need to slowly work through the material so that I understand it rather than just for getting the grade I want. Regardless of course load, Week 3 is the first checkpoint in your classes since many classes have midterms on Week 3 or Week 4.

Speaking of midterms, I learned a few things from my first quarter that didn’t seem to work for me when it comes to studying or doing work. First and foremost, I cannot work efficiently when I am in my dorm room. The reason being, that my roommate is usually playing games while I’m working on homework he already completed. My eyes just tend to naturally drift from my tedious calculus homework to his monitor and just stay there. Regretfully, I managed to stare at my roommates monitor for over 30 minutes this one time last quarter. As a result, I started to look for places to work that provide an environment that I can be productive in. Last quarter I found that the balcony that the Computer Science building has fits my needs. This quarter I started to look for a new place to work and remembered that one of my high school friends told me that he was part of a PP&D (Planning, Policy, and Design) elective course that was held from 7pm to 10pm. Being the night owl I am, I decided to follow him to see if I could be productive. The three hour lecture as it turned out was held in the same building that my math final was in the previous quarter. Not being actually enrolled in a class and just using the space to work seemed to help my productivity as the classroom setting kept me focused on the task at hand. As a result, I think I may just start following my friends to their lectures just so I can work.

Looking back at the Fall quarter, there was not much that I regret not doing since I dedicated myself to working on my academics and not my professional development. So all these job and involvement fairs were not really piquing my interest. That being said, going to the ARC every so often and playing a good few hours of badminton is something that I should be doing more often as even though I feel sore afterwards, my mind seems to enjoy the stress relief. While we’re on the topic of stress relief, my sleeping schedule has consistently been improving since my last quarter as I can wake up at about 9am to 11am depending on the day. It’s definitely a plus that my classes are not in the early hours of the day and hopefully this trend continues. Furthermore, classes this quarter seem to be going better than the classes last quarter for the sole reason of experience. After going through a quarter you will start to realize your strengths and weaknesses as a student and hopefully begin to play to your strengths and try to avoid your weaknesses to the best of your ability. For me, social life is just kinda like a side mission since there is little doubt in my mind that somebody can go through four years here at UCI and not make any new friends.

Zot On!

Josh

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Finals Finale

Its been a tough week, full of studying, late nights, and not much fun if I’m being honest. But the most important thing is that ITS OVER. We all managed to survive our first finals here at UCI and I wanted to share some of my more memorable moments with you, the readers. Overall I had only two finals that I had to study for, one being the Environmental Engineering 60 class and the other being Math 2A. So I guess I was lucky since I could leave UCI and go home by Wednesday.

Studying for the Environmental Engineering final was essentially deciphering the PowerPoint presentations of our professor as well as reading over our notes. The PowerPoint presentations seemed to be more geared towards helping the professor remember what topics she needed to cover in class rather than for the students to use as study material. At this point I should also mention that there was no study guide but the final was not cumulative, meaning that it would cover material that was from the second final onward. When I heard that the final was not cumulative I felt so relieved because the amount of information I thought I would have to cover just became halved if not less than half. Either way, I was pretty confident going into the final but when the test came out, some of the questions made me question my understanding of English. Some questions were worded so badly that if someone didn’t read it over at least 5 times they would be confused as to what the question would be asking. That actually happened to my friend because he never heard the term “canary in the coal mine” before. The question was essentially asking what species of animal was the “canary in the coal mine for DDT. For those who don’t know when someone calls something a canary in the coal mine they mean “Something or someone who, due to sensitivity to his, her, or its surroundings, acts as an indicator and early warning of possible adverse conditions or danger.” So the species that indicated that DDT was bad for the environment was actually the Bald Eagle and I chose that but my friend was unfortunate enough to never hear the idiom “canary in the coal mine” in his entire life so he told me he probably got that one wrong. Regardless, the test was not the most fun thing to do because of the wording of the questions, so I guess be prepared for that?

Math 2A was a whole different story as the math department actually gave out sample finals for the students to prepare. That being said, when it came time to take the final, the entire thing seemed to be on special cases like log and e^x. So the practice finals actually helped for around 20% of the final. I finished my test with about 5 minutes left on the clock and when I went to turn in my test, I looked around and couldn’t spot the other people I came in with so I assumed that I took too long. As I was going back to my seat to grab my stuff the proctor said that he needed everyone to sit down for the last 5 minutes of the test, even if you were finished. So there I was, exhausted beyond what’s humanly capable and really forward to sleeping my stress away, but forced to wait for the last five minutes in the room. I couldn’t access my phone or talk so I just sat there staring at the second count down for 5 minutes. I gotta say it was similar to those movies where you see the kid just staring at the clock waiting for the bell to ring, just multiply that by a millennium and a half. Regardless, I eventually made my way out and managed to catch up with my friends to go grab some well-deserved ramen at the University Town Center mall.

I gotta say, finals in college is definitely not like the ones in high school. The ones in high school you could pass by just cramming the night before, but in college if you try and do that I can tell you right now, you are gonna have a bad time because there so much material to cover that it would take at least a couple days to fully remember the information. After finals though, you feel like you worked hard enough to deserve the break. That’s where I’m at right now, at home, relaxing, reminiscing about finals preparing for that day that every kid loves, Christmas.

Merry Christmas Readers!

-Josh

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Thanksgiving Break

First and foremost I would like to apologize to the readers for being late to write this post, but on an entirely different note my Thanksgiving break was pretty traditional. My mom made food for my whole family, we went over to my uncle’s house in Chino Hills, since it was the only house large enough to accommodate everyone, and we stuffed ourselves full of turkey, ham, and other foods we would feel guilty about later. This year my mom brought mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, turkey with stuffing and ham, while one of my uncles brought either stingray or skate and seafood pasta. The stingray or skate was seasoned with what tasted like Cajun seasoning but I was not 100% sure and the pasta had shrimps and surprisingly large scallops mixed throughout. With all this great food I was expecting to be eating lots but that was not the case this year, but my time at UCI, eating at the Anteatery, caused my body to not be able to take as much food as it did before. Granted, this is probably a good thing since I am also not as active as I once was so it helps to keep me in shape.

Besides the food, my oldest cousin actually brought her boyfriend to this year’s Thanksgiving which was a nice change from the usual crowd. Also, I personally found some enjoyment when he tried to challenge a different uncle to a drinking contest. It was later that I would learn that the uncle the boyfriend challenged had the highest alcohol tolerance in my family. From there, the table started to shrink as people would move to the couches or beds upstairs to fall into their various stages of food coma while many of the younger people stayed at the table making small talk. As it usually does every year, the question of “do you have a girlfriend?” got asked to both me and a cousin of mine. My cousin, being the more personable of the two of us talked for a while about his preferences and how he hasn’t found the right girl and stuff. Then when it came to my turn I tried my hardest to avoid the question and ended up stammering out an answer that seemed sufficient enough to just get me past that question.

The conversation then changed to sports, both e-sports (which I had the most knowledge about) and traditional sports (which I knew nothing about). This was where the uncle that owned the house we were having Thanksgiving at, chimed in that Lonzo Ball is having his house constructed somewhere nearby. Since there was some basketball fans at the table we hopped into a car and drove over. When Ball’s house came into view the first thing that struck me was the color, I’m not sure if they just chose the first color that was on the options sheet or decided to get cheaper paint since the house was so big, but either way it looked about the same shade of orange that our president is comically depicted to be. Even though the house itself covers 3 acres of land I personally wouldn’t live there.

After we returned from the house, it was time for dessert followed by packing up the leftovers. Dessert was nothing special just a tiramisu cake my mom also brought but it was good regardless. I wasn’t part of the leftover division committee so I just chilled on the sofa and thought about what I was going to do once I got back to UCI. I know that finals are quickly approaching but it was definitely a well deserved break to recharge and prepare for the end of fall quarter. That being said, I have a problem with breaks because I go a bit too crazy when I have no obligations to do especially when I have a computer that can run a game or two (which the one I am currently typing on can). What it boils down to is that I managed to mess up my sleeping schedule to the point where I can’t fall asleep until around 3am. And since I wake up on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 8am for class, its probably not the best idea to be running on 5 hours of sleep. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my Thanksgiving break; a time for turkey and troubles with circadian rhythm.

 

Zot On!