Futurama

So graduation is getting closer and I still can't believe it! Four years really just flew by, man. I remember the first time I got lost at UCI's Bio Sci parking lot lol . . . and how I didn't know the campus was just one big circle that you can cut across. Well its here. My last quarter at Irvine!

When I first applied as a Bio Major at UCI, I never had the intent of being a doctor or dentist or anything that requires touching people lol. I hate blood and seeing people in physical pain so I can't ever do anything like that. I was really considering pharmacy. It's a stable job and great pay. I was never really a fan of what they do but the money was appealing! But boy does four years of biology change you. I hated chemistry! to the max! I can't imagine spending more years in pharmacy school learning more chemicals. eff that sht man. But man, is it good money! I guess i'll jus be leeching off Caroline until she gets married lol.

I didn't get to meet many people at UCI, but I did get to meet Michelle and Valerie. They've been amazing friends to me since sophomore year and I'm very thankful that I've had the privilege of knowing them through the years. Dear Michelle and Val, you guys have truly been a great part of my college career and I'll miss you dearly. I'm sure that you both will move on to such great heights after this and I can't wait until you get there because I bet the view from the top will truly be amazing! Valerie and Michelle reminds me of Leo and me in highschool. Goodtimes. Sepaking of Leo, that fool recently got his once a year haircut at my mom's place. That fool looked like a caveman lol.

So the question arises . . . Brandon, so what are you going to do after graduation. Clearly you must have some sort of plan. This is the part that really scares me. Well first thing's first. I need a job to support my daily spendings so I'm gonna look for one. I was hoping to use my Cal Teach program to get my Cbest test paid for so I can go be a substitute teacher! I haven't really looked for a job but I really need the money now.

I applied to the Speech Pathology program at Cal State Long Beach awhile back. Since I didn't major in Speech Pathology in my undergrad, I need to take the deficiencies in order to apply for the masters program and become a licensed Speech Pathologist. A couple of weeks ago I received a letter saying I was waitlisted. I was actually waiting for this letter for awhile. They said it would come 4-6 weeks after the March 1st deadline. I was getting paranoid because my aunt and uncle changed mine and my mom's address when they moved out along with theirs so my mail was getting forwarded there. Anyways I got it all sorted out and the letter came on May 3rd or 4th right after I got home from San Fran. I was a little disappointed. Last Friday, I got a letter saying that I got in the waitlist but the program isn't state funded and is through their extensions program. The cost of tuition is going to turn out to be around 3000 a semester and I'm taking three semesters so that's 9000. That isn't that bad, considering the cost of the state funded program is about the same price. I'm jus not use to not getting financial aid! I guess the state abandons you after you get your bachelors lol. Anyways I'm gonna be at CSULB this Fall and I really need to find a job ASAP to pay for this shit. After my stay at CSULB I'm still gonna have to apply to a master's program and Speech Language Pathology (SLP) is really competitive, apparently. Anyways, I'm really thankful and I consider this my second, no, third chance. I'm gonna give it my all!

This past week has been bittersweet. Good because I got in the graduate program. Bad because I got my lab back and didn't do as well as I hoped for. I'm over it though. I also did crappy on my neuro midterm so I have to rock the final, which I plan to.

Friday
Beer Pong at the Tran's. This night was particularly epic. I knocked out around 3 am on the couch and woke up around 6 am and they were STILL drinking. OMFG. wtf. anyways here are some pics. Like usual, we took like a thousand pictures but I'm trying to limit the amount of pictures I post.

Saturday: It was a really low key day. I was recovering and today was David's brother's wedding so everyone was busy. I spent my day sleeping. Woke up, and rode to the district and spectrum with steve, sonny, and tony. We met up with daniel and ended up chilling sonny's shop waiting for steve to dyno his bike. Freaking steve got a full on exhaust system for his bike now. wat a baller man. Sonny's shop is like the perfect party place. It's in the middle of a business place so there's not neighbors around. I wish i had that kind of money haha. His Datsun 510 is also a beast. Take a look! Anyways, we still need a good picture with the entire crew. Look for it in a future favorite.

Sunday: Today was suppose to be my ultra low key day. I ended the day at the gym until Briant texted me and guess what I ended up doing, drunken bowling lol. Sal went crazy that night. I never saw that fool like that before. Shit. Bao had to pick us up because none of us could drive. We ended up eating tofu house and watching Sal puke to the max. I drove home around 4 and was still buzzed :(.

So that's it for now. I just finished my lab stuff and decided to blog. Till next time, stay fly.

Weekly Circular (5/4/2009)

Okay so I'm back sooner than expected.

This past week was pretty busy, but not so much. I had a midterm Weds that I only started studying for the night before. Its partly my fault and partly due to scheduling. Ok, so I DID go to Frisco but it wasn't like I was gonna study while I was at home anyways . . . I was really really burnt out from that lab report. Anyways, I got a B on that thing and I'm not complaining.

On Thursday, I met my mentor teacher and the class I was going to help teach. Karen Stepanski teaches a 4th grade GATE class at John Muir elementary. I tried, but never got into the GATE program as a child. I was nervous but the good kind of nervous, the excited kind. She is a very nice lady and made me felt really comfortable my first day. I was really surprised at how well behaved and respectful the kids were. I mean, I've heard about the good stories from her class but even then, I was amazed. Every single thing I did, I heard a "Thank you Mr. Nguyen." It was addorable. I forgot how fun elementary school actually was. That Thursday I pretty much observed, helped hung stuff up, and was introduced to the group activities I was in charge of.

I had lunch with Natty that afternoon and almost got in a car accident (b/c of my reckless accident). It seems that whenever I see her, we're always at Chick Fil A. We briefly updated each other on our lives. I'm glad that she's well because thats all I would ever wish for her. If you're reading this dear, I'm really glad we still keep in touch and remain close friends.

On Friday, I came back to Mrs. Stepanski's class. This time I helped the kids with math workshops and made a ballot for their voting thing. I worked with group 4. I'm trying really really hard to remember everyones' names. I seem to remember best the super duper smart kids and the kids who are behind. I really enjoy seeing her class. It was work, but it was fun. I cannot stress how well behaved these kids were, every single one of them. I just know each of them will grow up to be among greatness. I was really impressed by how each recess, Stepanski had a group of 2-3 pick up trash. This really sets the kids up for being good citizens and doing community service as they get older. The stuff I do there may seem trivial, but what I get to observe is priceless. I didn't go out that night. David went to the club but I seriously can't hang. Instead, me and steve went to the gym. Man, freaking Steve is a monster nomatter how you look at it. He'll work you till you get omgwtf-pleasenomoreletmego-pwnt.

Today, I woke up at 7 and rode to Steve's and met up with Tim and Tony for an Alpinestars tent sale in Torrance. I have to admit, when it comes to gear, I'd rock alpine stars all the effing way, man. There were hella good deals and I shouldn't have spent so much but holy moly I couldn't let the deal pass me by. I bought a few shirts, a pair of shorts, a couple hats, a wallet, a couple of belts, and a couple of backpacks that ended up to be 64 bucks. I wanted to buy gear too but I already had gear so yea. Anyways the line was like 2 hours lol but it was worth it. We ended the day by riding to "Tap-X" where Tim's gf worked and then his brother's motorcycle shop. Seems like our bike crew is getting bigger!!! I'm glad I got a good ride today, it really has been a long time. I'm hoping this summer we can arrange a group ride to somewhere super duper far. Oh I saw an 09 zx6r today for the first time on the streets. It was the blue one. Its not as "beautiful" as the 04-06 models but that thing is a beast. Do not attempt to race that shit, at all costs.

That's pretty much it. I have a midterm weds again and formal lab (again) upcoming. I'm not looking forward to it but I guess I rather be busy than be idle.

San Francisco Times

I have a very long 2 weeks ahead of me so i'll try to keep this post short. I went to SF with john, phuong, flora and chris this past weekend :]. Chau and Kyle were suppose to come too but Chau had work and Kyle had 4 midterms :[. We took SOOO many pictures but tried to pick the ones that best characterized the trip. Most importantly, the ones i thought i looked it good in lol jk. ok no i'm not.

Friday night/Sat: arrived around 1230 am and met up with Phuong's friends Ricky and Mikael at a party. It was one of those parties that looked like the movies. There were kids lined up on the wall and they were all white haha. It was interesting. Sorry no pics there.

Saturday: We ate dim sum, walked around Chinatown then went to Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz. Here are some pics.

Chinatown and the streets of SF:

Alcatraz (prison on an island in SF) we had to take a boat there:

Saturnight: Got drunk in the hotel room and went to karaoke. Ricky and Mikael are freaking intense kids, man. They go all out in karaoke, no joke.

Sunday: Castrol District, Lunch, and then the long drive home!!! Chris and Flora flew. Their flight left at 620 pm and arrived at 720 pm. We were on the road by 1 pm and by the time they arrived, we had time to pick them up from the airport . . . LOL.

It was a really fun weekend but now it's back to studying :[. Sorry I couldn't put much effort into this post. I really enjoyed the trip and there are many more details to it! Maybe I can update it sometime. I probably won't be blogging for a couple of weeks because of school but I'll try. Until next time . . . stay fly.

The Academic Weekly

This past week has been busy and I was in San Francisco till today so here's the update on my academic week.

Monday was my meet and greet dinner for Cal Teach. I was suppose to meet my mentor teacher but she couldn't make it. I was really disappointed because I looked forward to meeting her. It was funny because I went up to a Karen introducing myself but it turned out to be the wrong Karen (my mentor teacher's name is Karen). It turned out that the wrong Karen taught at Jefferson and that's my brother's school. She said she knew my brother's teacher and she'll be looking out for him now haha. Anyways I missed both my neurobio lecture and dev cell lecture for that dinner. It wasn't a complete loss though; free food and I did get to meet other teachers. We played that one game where you had to guess the word on your back. In this case, they were educational words. I didn't take any pictures but here's a picture of my nametag thing and the words I had.

T-1 Day till the lab's due: Marsh Tour

I had to go on a mandatory Marsh Tour for my liminology class. I didn't even know we had an arboretum but we apparently did. This was Thursday and my lab was due the next day. I was pretty tired and stressed but this was the last tour the prof was giving so i had to go. I brought my camera to make the best of it. The marsh was pretty "boring" for the normal person. Just a bunch of endangered plants and animals but the professor is very enthusiastic about it. He dedicated his time to do something like 5 or 6 tours per quarter he teaches this class so I thought that was cool. I'm glad I went. Sometimes, you don't have to like what you're doing to appreciate someone else's passion for it.

I saw one of my lab partners at the marsh tour and noticed his division 4east tshirt. I talked to him about my key club days and it really brought me back. I really miss those days.

Oh and the professor really reminds me of Mr. B from Rancho in looks and personality. He's really eccentric but down to earth. If any rancho kids are reading. you'll see the resemblance!

Here are some pics I took from the marsh:

This whole week has been pretty much dedicated to my formal lab for dev cell. It was really stressful and I couldn't even go to the gym. Usually I am able to study at the gym but you can't bring a lab to the gym. My lab partner really procrastinated and I had to help him out a great deal. The dude is taking 23.7 units so its pretty intense for him. He got accepted to dental school so I'm excited for him. It makes me wish I studied more and did more planning. My options would be much wider if I had. Anyways I ended up finishing it on time. I think I wrote a pretty damn good lab, but we'll see.

As soon as I turned in my lab on friday, I packed and headed for san fran. It was an awesome trip! like I said, I just got back and i'm pretty tired from driving. I have a midterm weds but i'll let tomorrow brandon worry about that. I'll post some pics sf as soon i get them.