14 I should be studying..

Instead, I'm spending my time watching the Food Network and relaxing. I should really be studying. I haven't studied all day and my final is at 7 AM tomorrow. Wow, this dessert that they're making looks really good! How come chefs are all fit and attractive? How do they do it? I should learn how to cook.

There's no real point to this post. I just wanted to spend some time to reflect. So much has changed this quarter. It's interesting. I remember being so excited for a new quarter, a new year. I think that I didn't embrace the changes that happened in my life. I feel like I've been fighting it all along instead of taking it for what it is. I think that I've had such a set idea of how I wanted this quarter to go that I didn't leave room for mistakes/other factors of life.

I look at certain people in my life and wonder how they're so happy all the time. They're so carefree and even if they're frustrated or worried about something, they don't let other people know. How do they do that? My goal for the next year is to be more like them. I need to learn how to control my feelings and not dwell on issues that I have no control over. I'm going to try and not let my negative energies flow. I just need a game plan.

13 Finals Week

Ah, I think I'm down to one post per month. =/ I wish I blogged more often, but alas, time does not allow for such things.

Well, it is finally finals week for me. I can't believe how quickly this quarter passed by. It was so hectic and busy, both mentally and emotionally stressful. There were some things that I wish I could've dealt with better but oh well. I'm learning.

Honestly, my thoughts are on love right now. Long story short, I liked my best guy friend but he doesn't like me back. It's been such a long time now, and I should truly be over it by now. It just makes me sad thinking about it and what's happened since then. He and I are fine but I'm pretty sure it's hurt our relationship. I feel like I've lost a good friend and it makes me wonder when I'll find someone like that again, as in someone who will open up to me and someone who I can open up to, someone that I can rely on to be awake when I want to talk to someone at 4 AM. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of friends that I hang out with. But still... it's still possible to feel alone even when you're surrounded by people. Wow, that was harder to write than I thought it would be..

12 Long overdue

Ah, I'm home! Thanksgiving!! Break is so nice. I was so sick of school before I came home. I had a really tiring week beforehand, having stayed up all week for three midterms and a busy weekend with PCE. I'm just glad it's over, but I know that in two days, the whirlwind will start again until Winter Break.

I had a wonderful evening hanging out with best friends! Ah, I've missed them so much! We're all so busy when we're at school that we rarely talk to each other, but our conversations always seem like we never stopped talking. I love that!! I love coming home and meeting up with them is always exciting. We all come back with such different experiences and I love exchanging ideas, new gossip, new things in our lives. I'm always reminded of all the things that I want to know more about, the things that I want to do more in my life, such as ballroom dancing, reading more books, and catching up on TV shows/movies. I'm watching the Season 4 finale of Grey's Anatomy as I type this. I've missed so much!!! I plan to catch up on everything over Winter Break. It should be good. =]

A small update on school...
School is alright.. I feel like I need to meet more people now though. I love my friends and getting to know everyone that I met last year better, but I feel like I need to grow more. In all my classes this quarter, I know at least two or three people. It's fun having classes with friends and all, but I'm always with them. It's nice, it makes coming into class more comfortable and it's easier to get help with classes. I really think that it's hindering me from learning more though. I find myself less focused in class, more scared to ask questions, less independent... I need and want to put myself out of my comfort zone. I think that's part of the reason why I did well in my classes last year. I asked questions and went into office hours. I also joined study groups, met people there and just understood more. This quarter, I'm still keeping up with my classes, but I know that I'm not fully grasping everything that I should already know by now. Hopefully next quarter, I'll be able to do everything that I'm setting out to do. I don't want to stick with what's familiar and comfortable. I want new experiences and get more out of my college experience!

11 Weekend Update

Ah, I wish I had a picture to show you, but I don't. I haven't been taking pictures lately, but hopefully, I soon will. Warning: This is a huge post! So break it up over a couple of days if you have to! =]

So I've been really busy. Seriously. Some people just don't understand when I say that, but I know that it's been true. College is so hectic. I came back to SLO from summer and was immediately overwhelmed by how much work I had. Having a summer internship totally doesn't compare to college life. There is just way more to do in college, I think.

Being independent:

• Having my own room again is quite awesome. I like it. Our apartment is so big! Come visit me!! There is soooo much space.
• Roommates are awesome! We get along fine and I'm glad that we set ground rules from the very start. Everyone has their own different schedules though. It's so depressing to be home by yourself! Our common area is so cold and dull too. Truly need to put things in it and make it cozier! Or I should just never be home.
• Not having a car sucks now. It was bearable last year, but this year, since we have to go buy our own groceries, it sucks. It's hard not being able to just go out when you want to. Rides have to be arranged and time has to be set aside to do grocery shopping, most definitely.
• I'm definitely more concerned with how I spend my money. Definitely thinking more about what things are essential and what things I can live without. So hard when it comes to food, but I really shouldn't think about that. I should really eat.

School: Starting classes again was a little bit difficult. One of my classes is a continuation of a class I took back in Spring. The concepts were all familiar but it took me a while to get back into it. Classes, in general, were bleh in the beginning, but they're okay now. There isn't really a class that I dislike. I guess I could say that I don't like labs. They take up so much time and they're just busy work. But it's okay. I've been studying a lot, but sometimes it still doesn't feel enough. I had a midterm last week and a quiz in business that I studied hardcore for. My midterm was kind of bleh. There were four questions and I only really knew how to do two. On top of that, our teacher had us choose three and we could only do those three. Gah. Two more next week! My hardest ones too. Physics and a major class.

PCE: This year is going pretty well. Way better than last year. Being on staff this year gave me a whole new perspective on the club. I never realized how much work it takes to run PCE. Everyone on staff is so dedicated and work hard also. I'm really appreciative and glad to have everyone on board. This year feels very different also. There are so many new faces! Older people have graduated. Though it's sad sometimes, it's exciting to meet new people and to get to know them. I hope I get a cool Ading (little sibling) this year! FRIENDSHIP GAMES is this weekend! I'm so excitedddddddd!!!!

Goals: I've made it a goal for myself to lose weight and be fit this year. I've always put this off for various reasons, but I just got tired of it. No more excuses! So here's my progress so far.

• I've been biking to class and back to the apartment, which is pretty far from campus. It would be about a 15 minute walk. Biking to class doesn't really do me any good though because it's all downhill, aside from the random hills around campus. I'm still a little bit iffy about biking but I'm getting more confident! I can't ride as fast as others though, but it's okay.
• Last week, I worked out every day for an hour after class, except for Thursday (I went to a Career Fair instead). Working out was so blah at first, but on Wednesday, I had a really good work out! I stayed awake throughout the whole day and had so much energy (or I was going crazy from lack of sleep). I decided from then on that I'm not taking naps throughout the day anymore. That's going to suck, but I get so much more work done! My naps take forever! I can't ever really nap for only 20 minutes. =/
• Being in Modern (PCE hip-hop dance) has been fun and I consider it a work out too! At first, I thought I would substitute it for gym days, but I decided to keep it separate now. Modern doesn't make you work that hard really.. but it's been really cool! I get to learn dances and just jump around so much. That's twice a week for two hours. It's at night though, so I'm bound to skip some days to study, especially since it's midterms week!
• 8 minute abs!! Hahaha. I never figured to look it up on YouTube, but some girls from my apartment and I started doing them earlier on in the quarter. They've stopped and I've sort of stopped now and then but I'm starting it back up again. I don't care if they're doing it with me or not anymore. I'm going to do it and get awesome abs!
• This isn't really a good thing, but it fits in here. I haven't really been eating a lot. Don't get me wrong! I'm not becoming anorexic or anything! Part of the reason why is just that it's hard to find the time to cook food. It takes an hour to prepare food (that's not a TV dinner) and I'd rather use that hour to work on PCE things or study. Eating lunch is hard too. I'm usually on campus during lunch and I haven't packed lunch at all yet. Campus food is unhealthy and expensive, though I get a salad once in a while. Plus I've been studying for quizzes in between classes. Just too busy to eat sometimes and there are times when I don't realize it. I think that's what I need to work on next, eating a healthy diet.
  

Future plans:

• I've been thinking about studying abroad a lot more, especially since I have a friend that keeps pushing me to do it. Right now, I realize that I seriously have this opportunity to go. Things are still not set yet though. I'm still not sure where I want to go, where I can go, how much things are going to cost, how long I should go for.. It's kind of hard for me to decide. There are so many future events and inside jokes that I don't want to miss, but I know that I shouldn't let that hold me back. I've been meaning to do more research on it but still haven't gotten around to it. Need to put that on my reminders list!
• There was a Career Fair last Thursday and it just made me think more about working for different companies and my major. Though I enjoy being a CPE, there are so much more people looking for Software Engineers or Computer Scientists. Again, it's hard to decide! I like what I'm doing and I want to continue to learn, but I also want to learn more about software at the same time. Ahh! The Career Fair also made me conscious about presenting myself to others. How do I make myself memorable to others and give a good first impression? What are the types of questions I should be asking? How do I make sure that I'm prepared for their questions?

This is a really big post, but I just needed to get all my thoughts out. Especially since I probably won't be writing for a while again. Miss you!!!

10 More to come...

Sorry, I haven't updated in a little bit more than a month! It has been really crazy since school started and I truly couldn't find the time to give a little update. Just know that I'm doing well (for the most part) and I'm coming home this weekend! It should be a nice break from school but will still be busy since I'll be running errands all weekend long, I believe. *sigh* More to come soon!

9 Ends and Beginnings

My summer is just about to end, while others of you might've already ended yours or never really had one. I'm glad I had some time this week to reflect. There's been so much going on lately that it's hard to find the time to do so.

Last Friday, we had a Mini-golf Tournament for charity at work. It was so fun. The interns worked together to create one of the holes and here is what we got.

We had a Mario theme and it turned out pretty cool. We had a little Yoshi windmill. We made its tail swag over the tunnel. The trap flower in front also opens and closes. Oh the things you can make with cardboard and Lego. We were a bit smug and thought that we were already going all out with our 2-foot moving Yoshi, but our hole didn't compare with the holes that other employees made! They all pulled it off in such a short amount of time and they went all out with their decorations! I was amazed! Everyone had so much fun playing too. They were all so excited! Here is one of the holes that I thought was cool. It has a Racing theme.
This Monday, I finally bought a bike! I was so excited but sad at the same time because I couldn't ride it yet. I didn't know how! Yesterday (Wednesday), my friend Ashley came over and helped me learn. It was so fun! I went pretty far. I'm still not really good, but I just have to practice. At least I know that I can kind of start by myself and just keep going haha. :D It was so great though. I reached my summer goal! Totally cutting it close, but I still made it! Here's a picture of me with my pink bike and matching helmet. I won't post up a video of me falling. :P

So my internship at AT&T is about to end. My last day is next Monday. I can't believe that it's over! A bunch of people are leaving tomorrow and I really won't know if and when I'll see these people again. I had a lot of fun this summer. Just having those people at work made it much more enjoyable. Tomorrow is going to be fun though. I don't have any real work to do anymore. My partner and I did what we could with our project and they just need to integrate it. Our department is putting on a talent show that we've been making decorations for all week long. Again, it's for charity. It should be really fun. :]

I'm also off to go to a staff retreat this weekend. I'm so excited! I get to see everyone again! It'll be so much fun. I'm so excited for the new year. New people to meet, new experiences along with familiar places and faces. Check out our club website that I've been working so much on! It's only supposed to be a temporary layout, but it looks pretty nice. I might just keep it the way it is and just keep adding new and old content to it.

Off to sleep! Big things ahead of me. :]

8 Blush on a Tuesday night

I usually try and have a picture to go along with every post, but I don't have one today, at least not from my personal collection.

Tonight, I invited my friends Dereck and Ritchie to come along for band practice. I used to be a member of the local community band here and thought that it'd be fun for all of us to play a little music together. Only Dereck got to come down though, but I'm glad that he still ended up coming through. It's rare that I get to spend one-on-one time with my college friends. So he came down and we played a little bit. Ah, sight-reading music... It was fun. Very short time to play and we didn't really get to play our main percussion instruments but still enjoyable.

Afterwards, I wanted to go and get some frozen yogurt. I got Dereck to look up some places on Yelp and we found Blush in Dublin. The place was great! Nicely decorated and very friendly staff! I initially thought that it was pricey but they served a good amount of yogurt. Neither one of us really wanted a lot so we ended up getting a Blush Parfait for around $5. "Blush" is their featured flavored yogurt made of Pomegranate and Dragonfruit. The parfait was perfect for the two of us and had tasty granolas on top of it all. We got mochi balls and Fruity Pebbles for our toppings to make quite a colorful combination. So delicious!!

Just wanted to share my lovely Tuesday night and a reminder to myself to try out new places every time that I go out. Also, if you haven't been using it, Yelp is an awesome resource when trying to find places for eating or shopping, etc. Hope you all had a lovely Tuesday also! :]

7 In between celebrations

On Saturday, my good friend Ryan came up all the way from Moorpark (from a little bit north of LA) to visit me. I knew that he was going to be staying over at my place for quite a while beforehand. What I didn't know was that my other friend Edward from Sacramento was going to come down and stay also. He called me up at around 2 PM saying that he had a chance to go down to the Bay for the weekend. I thought that it'd be nice to take them to San Francisco and walk around but it would be pretty late by the time we get there. So we decided to go to the evening mass and save our trip to SF for the next day. We just ended up hanging around. Ryan had come prepared and we were about to build a rocket! Instead, we spent the last hours of the day eating In & Out and watching a few episodes of The Office.

The next day was jam-packed! We headed on over to San Francisco around noon. It was Ryan's first time being on BART, haha. How exciting. We just ended up hanging around Powell and Market, not even really going into that many stores. I was shopping around for presents and took a long time doing so. But we met up with another one of our friends, Jeffrey, who is a San Francisco native. I was so tempted to spend, spend, spend! but I've been trying to keep track of what I'm buying and how much money I've been spending lately.

We went back at around 5:30 PM and got ready for dinner. I had to hastily wrap my presents and I didn't even get a chance to write a card. We were celebrating my friend Nora's and Ritchie's birthdays. (Nora's was on Saturday, the 30th and Ritchie's was on Monday, the 1st.) It was great, perfect weekend to celebrate. We went to Alameda and ate at Sushi House. The food was so good! I hadn't expected the sushi rolls to be so big. Ah, it was so great being with all of them again. Everything just felt right. I'm excited to spend another year with everyone!

Around the table...

After dinner and after about half an hour debating on what to do, we ended up hanging out at Ritchie's house. I unfortunately don't have any pictures from after dinner, but it was fun! We just relaxed. The guys played Madden and Geometry Wars. I played around on the piano and played with Ritchie's dog, Fortune. He is the most mellow dog ever. He is so lovable! I want a dog like him. :] The other most prominent thing I remember from that night was the wonderful smell from their front garden of Lady of the Night flowers. They smelled a lot like Sampagitas, these white flowers that people would sell after church in the Philippines. Ahh, so good. I think I would have to have these flowers in my garden when I get my own house.


Second years!

6 Heartbeat Radio

Last night, I went to a long-awaited concert with my cool friend Janina! I met her last quarter at Cal Poly. Unfortunately, she also graduated that quarter, so I'm glad to have spent some more time with her.

So I got picked up at around 5:30 PM and we headed out to the great city of San Francisco! We hit some traffic but still got to the city at a good time. We had Thai food for dinner at Thai House Express (wow, their website is cool...). I was about to order the usual Pad Thai until my friend told me to be adventurous and that I should try something new every time I go somewhere. So I ended up ordering "#41 Rad Na Yen Ta Fo." (I had to look that up.) It was pretty good! Good mix of seafood.

After dinner, we headed on over to the Great American Music Hall to watch Sondre Lerche. Wow. The venue was amazing. I really liked it. It's one of the smaller venues that I've been to for a show. It just means it's very intimate haha. I hope you get to go there! The show started at around 8:00 PM and we first saw Sylvie Lewis. I hadn't been able to listen to her before the show, but I was pleasantly surprised. She reminded me of Julie Delpy, when she sang in Before Sunset (another recommended movie, btw). Sylvie is very mellow and has really cute lyrics. Give her a listen also!

Sondre Lerche was then up next. His set was so awesome. It was just him and a guitar, just very pure. He debuted a couple of new songs, which hopefully he'll record in a full-length or a better quality EP. They sold a very rare and limited edition of an EP. appropriately named "Polaroid Pool Party EP" at the show. It came with a polaroid that they took during the day of the concert. The poster behind him is for a movie called Mister Lonely. Midway through his set, Sylvie Lewis came out and played a trio of duets, very lovely. =) I don't know what else to say. He is very charming. I wish I had gotten to meet him after the show! Really. I won't know when he'll come back to the States again, you know.. haha. But alas, my friend Janina had to drive all the way back to San Jose, and I was already out of the way for her. So I decided not to push it. But if I had, I would have a story behind this polaroid picture and a signature to go along with it!! haha.
To end the night, Janina took me to Bob's Donuts on Polk Street. She lived in San Francisco during her internship and this was one of the places they went to for late night donut runs. So good!! It's open 24 hours haha and it was really fun watching Bob make the donuts. They had quite an assortment! I should've taken pictures of it. I had a twisty chocolate-covered donut. It was SO light. It was amazing. haha. I wish I could just walk down there whenever. It'd be nice.

Here we are at Bob's Donuts, taking a picture because we hadn't taken one of us throughout the night. -_-

All in all, I had a very pleasant Tuesday evening experiencing the city in another different way. The concert was also something unlike any of the other shows that I've been to, from the crowd to the set to the venue. It's always fun to hang out with Janina! She always takes me to cool places to do different things. Who knew you could have fun during the middle of the week in between school/workdays?

5 Greetings from: South Lake Tahoe

Hi, everyone! It's been a while since I wrote, so I decided that I should update. I've been meaning to over the past week, but I've had much trouble trying to get out what I wanted to say without it being too personal. Let's just say I had quite a rollercoaster weekend. Everything is fine though.

A much needed vacation...
So my family and I are here in South Lake Tahoe at Heavenly. Wow, our room is sooo nice! It's a two-room condo-suite with a kitchen, a dining area, and a living room. I'll make sure to post up pictures later! It's so nice. I think my parents are thinking of coming back here for our Christmas vacation.

Well, we haven't done much yet. We only arrived yesterday night. I don't know how, but it took us forever to find the place. My parents insisted on following the faulty GPS system rather than simple directions, but that's alright. Today, we're planning on going to the Markleeville Hot Springs. I'm quite excited! I'm sure it'll be nice. I'm not sure what else is going on today.. Maybe bike riding? Maybe I'll learn how to ride a bike today! More to come later!

4 Donating blood

Today, I donated blood to the American Red Cross at work. This is the second time that I've donated and I don't know why I keep doing it. The first time was last year when they had a blood drive at my high school. This time around, my experience was better, but still about the same.

Going into the blood drive, I felt confident. I had eaten breakfast beforehand, but unfortunately failed to drink tons of water. Went downstairs with my coworker who asked me to donate with her. She was so nervous! but of course, I knew she was going to be fine. Everything was standard procedure... You're given some reading materials, asked a bunch of questions and then wait to get your blood drawn.

Getting my blood drawn was faster than I thought it was. Mine took 10 minutes and 11 seconds. I'm not sure how long it took me last time but this time felt faster. They had me squeezing a stress ball, which started to take a little bit more energy for me to do towards the end. My left hand was starting to feel cold haha. I got so anxious towards the end. One of the Red Cross guys, his name's Jim!, kept telling me I was almost done. I just wanted to get it over with. It was bad though, because I started focusing on the needle and it started to hurt. I didn't see the needle or my blood this time around, though, which is good. Afterwards, I got all dizzy again and needed to have cold towels on me. They felt so good! But it kind of took me a while to recover.

The nurses and staff were all so nice though! They were all kind of rotating around, so I got to meet a bunch of them... or at least know all of their names. It was so cool. I'm so proud of myself! I took myself a little bit out of my shell and started talking to Jim while I was sitting up. It was kind of awkward to just be sitting there all quiet while he was just standing, waiting for me to feel better. Haha. Of course, that was the only time I could really talk. I felt sick to my stomach the other times. I just started asking questions and got to know a little bit about him. I'm just excited! I never really talk to people, especially if I know I probably won't see them again, but it was a nice blip in time.

My battle wounds...

3 Once Again

He kind of reminds me of Hugh Laurie, minus the piercings. A few parts are not safe for children!! but very few.

2 Procrastination

The miracle isn't that I finished. . .
The miracle is that I had the courage to start.
-source unknown

Procrastination is most definitely something that I should work on this week... I admit I've been coming into work late for a few weeks now. Good thing I'm just an intern and no one really looks for me in the mornings.. I truly meant to wake up early (like I do everyday) and come into work early/on time. I knew I had a lot of work for me but it just didn't happen. *sigh* I wonder if I'll ever get back to waking up at 6:30 AM and be fine with it..

My crazy weekend...
I didn't get a chance to recap my weekend last night, but here we go.
Friday:

• had someone come out to me over the phone. Wow, it was crazy, but honestly, not surprising.. He explained to me this morning that he thinks he's actually bi, after spending the weekend with his girl crush/best friend. What's weird is he tries to get me to do something "romantic" with him again (he asked me to go to the movies earlier in the summer). Wow, he is really needy.. especially to ask me of all people.
• Hot Pot City with friends from Cal Poly! Ahh, I miss them. I was so happy to see them all again. =]
  

Saturday:

• Kuya Nick's birthday party! I came two hours late, but only after taking the car from my dad. Got there, got my food, and had to leave again to come home. Had to take my parents to pick up the other car. Went home, got picked up, and it was 8 PM by the time I got back to the party. Woo! It was fun though, just chilling. So many cute decorations and so much food! I definitely ate too much this weekend.
• Work party afterwards. Wow, I feel so bad for bringing my friends along... Everyone was pretty much gone and puking. My friend was nice enough to help out carrying this one guy out to his car though. Ugh. Don't want to do that again.. but I was glad to be out late at night. I wish I could do that more...

That's it for now.. Here's a funny comic that I found online, in celebration of the Olympics!

1 Hello, World!

Well, here's to the start of a new blog!

A brief introduction...
My name is Karina. Nice to meet you! Let's not waste time on small talk. You'll probably get to know me in time.
So I've started a new blog after seeing that my best friends <3 (Tiffo & Teresa) have started up one for themselves. I had a few blogs prior to this one but all have been discontinued for various reasons. Hopefully, I'll be able to update this one periodically. It'll be a nice way for others to see how I'm doing and also something that I'm doing for myself. As I've mentioned, I had a few blogs before and after taking a year-long break from writing anything, I realize that I really missed it and was going insane keeping everything inside my mind. I've also let a year of college go by, so I thought it was time to keep track so I could have something to look back on.
As you might've gathered, this blog will mostly be a personal one, recounting experiences and releasing thoughts. Of course, you'll occasionally have some fun reads about books, movies, etc. :)

About the name...
"No Kid Can Roar" is an anagram of my name. I'm horrible at making up names/titles/screen names. I didn't want to use my usual screen name. I also didn't want to use my real name. I thought it would be best to save that for professional purposes rather than personal ones. In case future employers or random stalkers decide to look me up on Google, they won't find anything that I wouldn't want them know about me. So I decided to look up anagrams of my name and this one sounded the coolest and at least makes some sense compared to the others.

That's it for now.. Check back later! I've had a pretty crazy weekend that I'm excited to recount.