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So I've spent the first week of my vacation doing nothing. Well, not entirely true. I did reorganize my closet and that's looking immaculate. My room however needs some lovin'. I also met up with some high school peeps to eat and to tell them that, "Imma be workin foe mah greenz now."

Next week I will be heading down to NYC to visit a friend of mine and to pretty much celebrate my last days as a "student". It'll be legendary.

That's it. Oh, and I think I'm going to start a new blog...I don't know, new adventures?

Labels: life, vacation

School has finally come to an end...a bittersweet end. I know that I've complained a lot about school and how I wanted it to be over so bad. Now that school's actually dunzo, I'm really scared and sad.

I'm mostly scared about the new venture that I have to partake in, and I'm sad about the life and the routine that I have to let go in order to accommodate this new venture. I have to once again start from scratch: new routine, new environment, new friends, new life.

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to tackle all these challenges, but I'm really going to miss student life. As hard as it was for me, this "student life" really provided me with the best memories ever. I suppose it's fair enough to say that I'm not going to miss the schooling, but I am going to miss seeing my friends everyday, talking to my professors and walking with careless abandon around Toronto. I thought I wasn't going to get all sentimental, but I realized that, "it's really over."

Those four years felt like four minutes. Just like that, a new chapter begins.

I start work in a couple of weeks! I'm heading to NYC next week to make the best of my summer vacation (all two weeks of it). I'm excited to go to work and to actually work. I think I'll be fine. Time to move on and make new memories.

Wow.

Labels: job, just a thought, life, school

It has been a pretty rough week for me. I was offered two jobs and I had no idea which one to choose (I know, this situation is quite the rarity considering the economic mess we're in). I felt like my life depended on the decision I was going to make. Well, yeah, it kind of did. I even got my friends involved in order to help me decide. Also, it was really difficult comparing the two considering that both offers were coming from two different industries: printing and advertising. Apples and oranges. It was either: take this route or the other.



In the end, I chose the lower paying job, with a pretty disappointing benefits plan - advertising. It really came down to who I wanted to work with and for. Personal values took paramount over money and perks. I made the right decision, for sure. Had I taken the other job, I would have been miserable, and would have probably been out looking for another job in the next three months (if I even survive that long).

When I was rejecting the other offer, the head honcho there pretty much said that I didn't think this through and that I was probably making the poorest decision of my life (Didn't think things through? This situation burdened me for a week!). He also said that I could have been ballin'. Yeah, cause I look like I'm all about money! Pfft. Puh-lease.

After that insult, it just further confirmed that I made the right decision. That was very unprofessional and disrespectful. My goodness. What happened to, "I wish you all the best and keep in touch"? Dang!

So yeah, I made the right decision. Mediocre life, here I come.

Labels: job, just a thought, life, school

Do you go for the dream job, or the job you know you'll do well at?

I seriously don't know and I don't have a lot of time to decide.

Labels: job, just a thought, life

I finally came home from New Orleans last Friday at around 7:30 pm. And oh-my-gosh, to be able to see my room, lie down on the couch like a hobo and get full control of my TV's fate is like the most liberating thing ever. E-v-e-r.

My trip to New Orleans, in a nutshell, was just a big blur. I know I make it sound like I was at Bourbon Street every single day, getting hammered and partying it up like normal tourists do. But, I mainly just took naps and occasionally cried about being internet-deprived.

It was a fun/depressing trip - that's sort of oxymoronic, but I don't know how else to describe it. It was fun in a sense that, "wow, I'm in New Orleans and yeah this is fun," and obviously depressing because you can so tell that the New Orleanians were still affected by the whole Katrina ordeal. I saw so many abandoned buildings and buildings that were just falling apart. The city is still recovering and still rebuilding. The only people that were having a good time there were the tourists. That's because they were either getting drunk on Bourbon Street, or getting drunk elsewhere. Seriously, that's the extent of their happiness. Pretty depressing and shallow if you ask me.

I also felt no personal attachment to the city when I left, or even when I was there. I don't miss it at all. I woke up this morning and I felt like I never left home. My stay there was like a really long, exhausting dream. Don't get me wrong, I liked New Orleans, I just didn't love it. I seriously spent most of my time in my hotel room or in a conference hall. And when I did find the time to go out, it was either too dark, too wet or too dangerous to do stuff...So I just stayed inside my hotel room and watched some Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reruns (just a girl getting her money's worth).

On the contrary, my first night and my last two days at N'awlins were pretty good. The weather was wonderful and I got to do some sightseeing. I went everywhere with a couple of friends: Uptown, Downtown, Art District, Central Business District, Garden District and the French Quarter. A whole lot of walking! I couldn't feel my legs after that whole venture. I also loved the food - not over-hyped at all! The Jambalaya was beyond awesomeness, the beignets were just yummy and the red beans and rice with smoked sausage was too cool for school! I'd go back to N'awlins for the food. Yeah, that's about it.

The other four days were really brutal - like borderline inhumane brutal. Heh, what can ya do? It was a semi-business trip after all, and not a real vacation. I had to sit and listen (well, pretending to anyway) to the speakers at the conference. I had no idea what they were talking about, and I honestly didn't care. I know, I've got the apathy glow. The whole conference dealio was just bland, boring and bogus. The conference had more student attendees than the actual members, so that says a lot about the support (or lack thereof) this conference is getting from the industry. I understand that everyone's going through this economic madness but if you have more students than actual members...the problem goes beyond the economic condition. I don't know, I could be wrong. I'm real bitter right now.

Oh yeah, we lost by the way. I'm not bitter about that. I predicted it, I called it and people just refused to believe my prophetic claim. I was so prepared for losing that I became the happiest loser there.

Considering that my prediction about us losing came true, I feel like a winner. Oh, and I also met Kaba Modern!!! Winner.

Labels: life, school, trip

I am taking a class that bashes the existence of God and everything I stand for. I love God and I won't pretend that I don't believe in Him in order to get a decent mark in that class. I'd rather get a D than to deny my faith, thank you very much.

However, I must admit that I'm living the remaining days of my university career feeling conflicted and burdened. I can't write my paper - I can't even start it! I'm thinking, "there's gotta be an easier way!" But there seems to be no other way! I just simply hate this course. My only motivation is to pass it. I can't even promise myself that.

This has got to be the most difficult class I have ever taken. More painful than ACC 406 unfortunately. It takes pain to a whole new level.

Moral dilemma.

I just can't write this paper...

Labels: faith, just a thought, life, school

So, new layout.

After two and a half years, this is all I have to offer you guys. I feel so embarrassed about the design. I subconsciously created a CMYK layout, and I am absolutely against a CMYK theme...It's so tacky. Well, looky here. Who's tacky now? GCM, what have you done to me? I don't know what I was on when I thought this was actually good.

I'll change it when I find the time to. I didn't realized that it was a CMYK themed site till after it was all coded and uploaded.

Darn.

On a darker note, my program's job fair was held a couple of days ago. Sigh...that was not fun at all. I was a mess. Where can I buy a recession proof vest? Ay needz it.

MSG to MO: No, I have never heard of the event before, seems really interesting. I don't know if I have the time though...it's pretty crazy now. Oh, if only time was a little kinder to me.

Labels: life, site

That's the time I woke up today. I rarely sleep in. I don't like it. If I wake up after 9:00 am, I automatically feel gross. Yes, I feel gross right now. Waking up late means I just wasted half of the day sleeping, and when that happens, you know it's downhill from there. Well, at least I know.

I have quite the list today. My priority is to get my website/portfolio site and my resumé done by the end of this weekend. I don't exactly know why I bought a site. I'm also not really committed to finishing this site either. Oh, it's also not necessary for me to have a site...so...yes, I'm a glutton for punishment. Shucks.

I just want the school year to be over.

Hm, I think that's going to be my mantra from now until the school year actually ends.

"I just want the school year to be over x10"

Labels: life, school, site

Whenever I have more than 10 things to do on my list, I get so overwhelemed that I end up doing nothing. I am currently suffering this case right now. Where do I begin?

I'll just pass the ball to fate and hopefully, it will handle everything for me.

Things will work out, eventually. I think...I hope.

Maybe?

Anyway, I got my moo cards today from the UK.

Bloody awful!

Labels: just a thought, life

My last reading week has come to an end. How did I spend that? Reading of course, and working...on everything: TAGA, schoolwork, designing websites, updating my resume, "networking" - everything.

So now...

I'm tired.
I'm stressed.
I need a real break.
I want to cry.
I want to scream.
I want to do everything in between.

A breakdown will be nice, indeed.

I will have a new layout soon (finally, after almost two years). Possibly by mid-late March. It's 89.69780% completed. I just need to find the time to upload it.

Oh, I watched the Oscars last night. That was pretty good. Way better than last year's joke of a show. Still predictable though. That's all I have to say about that.


Message to MO: Thanks man! Oh, and I've always wondered...what's your website? You never told me.

Labels: just a thought, life, school

Oh yes, FACEBOOK.

What a drag, what a drug.

Labels: just a thought, life, school

• Woke up at 8:55 am, only to realize that going to school today was not an option (simply because I did not want to).
• Realized how lazy and jaded I have become. I am so over school, you have no idea. I can't walk the streets of Toronto and fake that I appreciate the "schooling" I get there, because I don't. After four years of schooling, all I have waiting for me at the end of the rainbow is recession, and lots of it.
• Was planning to start (and possibly finish) my first expository paper for PHL 605: Exitensialism (I know, what in jumping jelly beans is that? I have no idea. I don't even know if I spelt it right...and I am not even going to honor that course by verying with dictionary.com if I spelt the course name right. Whatevs).
• Have not started that at all.
• Planned on cleaning my room.
• Have not done that at all.
• Planned on contacting people for TAGA.
• Do not want to do that at all.
• Did not get the charger I ordered online for Charlie (my Macbook, and yes I name my gadgets).
• Got an iPod nano Gen 4 instead (big-ups to mom and pops for donating the airmile points that they have been collecting since 1999 to this sad case called, "Denise").
• Still have three hours to do something significant that would make me feel accomplished.
• Probably won't do anything.

Labels: just a thought, life, school

I left sunny and warm San Jose last Saturday at 8:40 am PT. Approximately 10 and a half hours later, I arrived in Canada...welcomed by a snow storm and the stupidest weather ever that instantly depressed me. After I picked up my baggages at the airport, I exited that area hoping that my parents would be outside, eager to greet me and welcome me back. I saw and experienced no such thing. Instead, I had to hunt them down outside the terminal, battling the storm jacketless and wishing I had another year of vacation.

Everything, up to the point of my arrival, has been amazing. My aunt has been absolutely generous and her generosity made me feel so important and weird at the same time. My mother never, ever, shopped for me like my aunt had. Nor has my mother cooked all the things I liked for two consecutive weeks and treat me like the main queen in town. I'm not implying anything negative about my mother (I've been self-sufficient ever since I turned 14 so she really didn't need to do or buy me anything, I wouldn't have let her anyway), but what my aunt did deserves a lot of credit. I felt weird because I'm not really into shopping and when I do shop, it'll only consists of a shirt, or a book. I don't buy the whole store. She pretty much did, and that made me feel weird.

California, in a nutshell, was just a blast. I was problemless for two weeks. I didn't even think about Canada. Truth be told, I totally forgot about this lovely winter wonderland. There was no evidence in California that would have reminded me of Oh Canada! Thank God, and I thank God f'real. I needed a vacation. I actually still do, so take me back.

On New Year's Day, we headed down San Francisco. We got lost and was unable to see the Golden Gate when the sun was still up, but it's ok, I had seen it before I was just happy to be there and be able to spend New Year's with my family. The day after, we went to L.A. and spent a weekend down there to visit the Universal Studios, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Kodak Theatre and all of Burbank. And wow, I thought I was in Mexico. I actually wanted a tour of WB and NBC, but we had no time and I had no mulah.

I'll post the pictures soontimes. I haven't uploaded them. That's because I took about 800 pictures, so it'll take awhile. Eventually, you'll find them on flickr.

Anyway, 2008 has been semi-craptastic. The first half of the year was filled with rainbows and cookies and teddy bears, the other half, well...recession.

2009, you better be good to me.

Labels: life, trip, vacation

I will be flyin to the seemingly sunny west coast (apparently, it's been raining there almost everyday). Gon' be visitin' mah grannma, mah cuzzins and mah unt. It's been eight years since I last saw them (by them, I'm referring to my grandma, my aunt and one of my cousins, the other cousin I have yet to see), so this visit should be interesting. I hope that my family in California realizes that I am no longer 12, because that would suck. However, if they think I'm still 12, I wouldn't blame them...because I look 12.

When I brush my hair and blow-dry it nicely, I look 13.

Looking young was tolerable up to the age of 16. But looking this young at 21 is quite terrifying, to be honest with you. That's when crazy Filipino parents start hooking you up with their 12 year-old sons (jailbait!). And that's when I excuse myself, go to the nearest washroom, find a towel, bury my face in it and scream my lungs off. That is also the time when I wish I had done drugs earlier in my teenage life so that I would look more haggard and, and, and old. Oh, sobriety you are a mystery.

Anyway, I'm kind of not excited to go to California yet. I don't know, maybe tomorrow it'll be different.

We'll see.

Labels: just a thought, life, trip

The cold truth about time being perishable hasn't really hit me yet. You'd think, for a girl who'd seen Back to the Future I, II and III at least six times each, would have mastered the concept of time...

Yeah. Right.

How sad. I can sense Marty McFly crying in his DeLorean right now and cursing my name. I've failed him miserably.

I make the same mistake every year. Instead of using my study time to actually study, I use it to watch shows, to knit, to do anything but study.

A breakdown of how I wasted four potential studying days is shown below in order to demonstrate my poor time-management skills

Friday: I went somewhere and I ate something.
Saturday: Ummm...Clearly, I don't remember.
Sunday: Church --- o.k. valid excuse for the first half of the day. The other
half...well...
Monday: Watched the second season of Friends. How impressively productive. I'm so proud of how lazy and unmotivated I've become.

I need help. There's got to be some sort of rehabilitation facility for this kind of thing.

Labels: just a thought, life, school

I saw this collision while I was on the bus. It was a white Honda Civic Coupe 2008 bumping heads with some stupid looking Subaru. And I thought to myself, "This is the saddest day of my life."

Now, if you happen to be the driver of that Civic, this is a message for you:

Hide your face from me! You wasted one good looking car! I hope you never get a nice car again!

Yes, I am angry indeedy.

Labels: just a thought, life

Semester número uno por el año is coming to a bittersweet end. It really flew by so fast. I felt like I time traveled, but my hair begs to differ. I look at it in the mirror and it tells me, "no Denise, you didn't hop on a DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor and missed three months of your life!"

I need a haircut.

I know I laugh a lot but it's been awhile since I felt genuinely happy about life. No, I'm not an emo and I don't want to kill myself. This world needs my randomness. I'm just merely bored and I need something new and exciting in my life.

California, will you do it for me? I'll see on the 29th of December. Aight?

Labels: just a thought, life, school

My goal right now, above all things, is to reconnect my faith with God.

I get so clumsy.

Labels: faith, flickr, life

I've been so busy, that I've forgotten to post about one of the most eventful things that ever happened in my life: meeting Mr. Coupland.

This was back in October 1st though. I know, it's almost November but school...uggg...school has been very, very annoying!

My sister and I bought tickets to watch him read excerpts from his latest book, The Gum Thief. Dude's a really down to earth, funny guy and I was able to get my Hey Nostradamus! book signed =]

(I also took multiple paparazzi shots!)

Sigh, I was so genius-struck...

Oh! I SHOOK HIS HAND...TWICE!

Labels: life, Mr. Coupland, shows, trip

By what? By everything...laziness, school, neopets...

Yes, I'm a loser.

I've been hooked on neopets again. Seriously, out of all the useless things I could possibly be addicted to, neopets took the trophy.

This says so much about my charater. Actually, it doesn't, but it says enough.

Labels: life, web

Last year, on May 28th, 2006 to be exact, I wrote a short letter to myself via FutureMe.org. I do this once year since 2003. I find it very interesting to see how much, or how little I've change over a span of one year.

Anyway, I got this email a couple of days ago from "Denise '06". I must admit, very little has changed.

Dear FutureMe,

Today, I read a letter that I wrote to myself a couple of years ago. It's so strange because I felt like I was reading about a completely different person, but at the same time, I very well knew it was me. Who else would complain about faith and not do a single thing about it? Me.

I am an emotional wreck. Most of the time, I'm clueless and I have an I.Q. of a cow's fart. Interestingly enough, I passed my G1 and got perfect on it(just took it yesterday), but still, I delayed taking that test so that doesn't change the fact that I'm stupid. Come to think of it...everyone passes their G1, and possibly with a perfect mark too! Well, so much for my "interesting" sidenote.

Man, why do I put myself down a lot? It's either I have nothing good to say about myself, or this is the subtle, yet pathetic way of being modest...

I don't know. I don't know myself. I don't know.

If I get this mail next year, "if" I get it, I won't be surprised. At least I don't think so.

Have fun reading.

Love,
Denise '06

Denise '06, you're right, Denise '07 ain't surprised at all. I just sorta find it interesting that I compared my very low I.Q. to a cow's fart. Geez...talk about self-respect =P.

Ahaha. Oh, everybody should do this futureme thing. It's funny.

Labels: life, web

Please wake up.

You know , my midterms are coming up. So you better be alive by the time I need to do some hardcore studying.

Gosh.

It's a sad day.

Love,

Master

Labels: charlie, life