Saturday, January 27, 2007

On updating

So, it'd be at this precise moment in which I'd apologize for my lack of updating. Well, I don't really feel like it. Looking back at the date I last wrote an entry here, I realize it has been a few weeks though.

Strangely though, it's only been this week that I've actually been really busy. As in, non-stop busy. That's because I moved back to the dorms of Sagrado Sunday, and have been busy with class and other random things in between all week. I'm here writing this now, because I'm waiting for my laundry to be done. Seriously, can't laundry do itself? It's annoying to have to do it. I also did some food shopping. I'll do more tomorrow when my dad visits, so I don't have to drag soda all by my lonesome (it'd be heavy). I also wish my dorm allowed alcohol. If they did, I would have so much beer in my closet. Speaking of beer, out of the many random things I did this week, this was possibly the most random: I was at a bar with a French dude, a Colombian girl and an American girl, with two American dudes from Harvard, at a bar, playing pool and drinking beer, at 2am, in the middle of Old San Juan, on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. I suck at pool though, I just stuck around 'cause the French dude was buying me my beer.

So, I changed majors this semester, and I'll stick to it now, to Producción y Mercadeo para la Radio. It falls in the Communications department, which is great, since Sagrado is the best place on the whole island to study communications anyway. And, I take the following classes:

Principios de Mercadeo GME 201: The teacher was cool I guess. He basically just gave us a quick overview of the class, told us to buy the book used or borrow it off someone because it's $140 new, and stuff like that. But he seems pretty laid-back, so maybe a marketing class won't be so bad.

Estadísticas Aplicadas 1 MAT 210: I like the teacher. I do. But I wish she would've shut the fuck up about her life story, explained the syllabus and let us fucking leave early. That said, it's math statistics stuff, so nothing too hard for me.

Introducción a las Comunicaciones CMU 101: I'm not sure if it was because I was irritated when I got there (and halfway through I could feel my blood sugar take a dip), but I found the whole thing irritating. I just wanted to leave early and eat something. But the teacher seems real nice, so I should go with a more open mind next time.

El amor y su trayectoria por la historia HUM 130: I fucking love the professor who gives this class. And the title is so misleading, it's going to be a very kickass class. Albeit, I will also probably be working like a crackwhore.

Dinámicas de las organizaciones ADM 102: See, this class could be SO MUCH MORE BORING, but the professor makes it a lot more liveable. A LOT MORE LIVEABLE. He's pretty funny, and he was really straightforward. In fact, now that I notice, all the male professors I have this semester are straightforward. The female ones ramble too much.

So, it'll be interesting. I actually enjoy all my classes except for MAT210. It's a boring class by default though, and I may as well get it over with this semester.

Anyway, random thought of the moment: it'd be hilarious if I actually met some of you people who live in San Juan while I'm out and around. Well, I think my laundry's done, so I'm just going to go get that and try cooking (hah).

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

On goals for 2007

Feliz Navidad, Feliz Año Nuevo, y Feliz Día de Reyes. Ah, y felicidades to whatever you celebrated these past few weeks, por si se me quedó algo. I mean, since we have to be all politically correct to avoid offending the POOR JEWISH PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN BELIEVE IN JESUS. Don't get me wrong. I don't hate Jewish people. Or any type of person of x religion or y ethnicity or z sexuality. But last I checked, Christmas was supposed to be celebrated for the birth of Jesus Christ. Don't get mad at me if I somehow couldn't tell that you're Jewish or Muslim or whatever and just so happen not to celebrate Christmas. Just appreciate the fact that I had the kindness to even SAY Merry Christmas to you. IT'S THE THOUGHT THAT COUNTS. And not many people appreciate that, so it seems.

So anyhow, Christmas was cool, New Years was cool. Three Kings will undoubtedly be uneventful, but that's fine, since I only ever started celebrating it when I moved here when I was ten. As for the rest of you, I hope you all are having a good holidays. I'd check in your individual blogs (for those that read and are on my blogroll or whatever), but laziness takes ahold of me. That, and I feel like writing in one of my novels when I'm done here. Or maybe just go play my DS Lite. That's right, I finally got one, and it's awesome. People of all ages and creeds should own a DS Lite. End of story. But I do apologize for lack of updates recently. I chalk it up to a combination of enjoying the holidays, being lazy, and concentrating on my other blogs. I need to stop being such a blog whore. But I love it.

Anyway, I'm not the type to make resolutions or anything like that. But this year, what I want to try and do is make up a list of goals I want to achieve, and at the end of each month, look back at what I've done during said month, and see if I've accomplished anything related to my list. If I've accomplished nothing on the list, but I have accomplished something, that will count too, since this is not the make- or break-all of everything. On to the list!

Goals for 2007

1. Get through one year of college (as in, be in college two semesters in a row). Also, maintain my current GPA of 3.83 and perhaps get it higher. This shouldn't be too hard, provided I have the money. I do want to work partially to help pay for my studies. If my parents move, then I'll have to decide if I want to continue studying here (since it's far cheaper here than in the US), or if I'm going to transfer. But unless I accomplish another goal that'll be on this list (more on that in a bit), I am going to get a year's worth of studying done.

2. Get to know more people, go out on more casual dates than I'd normally subject myself to, and generally have fun and play hard. It's not as though I'm anti-social, or that I lack socializing skills, or that I don't have any friends already. I just want to work on getting to know more people. These people won't even be close friends who know me inside out (and I don't want them to be as such). They're just going to be interesting people that I genuinely want to talk to and hang out with when time provides. The casual dating is less for physical gratification and more to observe different types of guys and, well, live it up.

3. Work hard, and get a part-time job. Alongside my part-time, I want to do work-study. Main reasoning behind this is not so much the money, but the desire to become a much more responsible and mature person than I already am. I made an attempt to do this last year, and a reason I failed miserably was because I lacked the maturity to continue on with it. Having the strength to do something will get me nowhere if I don't have the maturity to support that strength. This aside, the part-time job will be so I can have more money to use for things like living expenses and anything fun on the side, like maybe clothes or video games or to go bar-hopping, as well as using a portion to pay off my studies. The work-study will go directly to paying for my studies on top of this.

4. Get in shape. I've already started on this sort of. This is less about being thin or about cursing myself and my "fat disgusting body", and much more of improving my overall health (and with that comes lower weight...hopefully not anorexic). Truth be told, my health hasn't been the best as of late (I've been getting sick in the stomach every other day at random points, and that can't be good), and I realize that, with my Type I diabetes, I need to get it together more. My godmother is a cautionary tale of this, as she was put on dialysis for her kidneys in September. I need to get my cholesterol and HbA1c much lower, and do exercise as often as possible, and eat a lot better. As I said, I already started on this. I work out usually 4 out of 7 days in a week, I'm refusing most junk food and relying on salads and stuff like that. In college, I plan on going to the gym most nights.

5. Finish one of my current novels. Alright, I finished a novel last year, go me. Now I need to finish at least one of the now-four novels that I have going. Basically, this is about me not being a lazy jackass, sitting down at least once a week with some music and some soda, and writing, even if it's only a page or two. All my ideas won't be worth anything if I can't get them down on paper.

6. Get my novel published. This is a goal I had last year, but to no avail. Actually, I did make a little progress. I now know more about the process of publishing and what I should do to even get a chance at publishing. This year should then be about putting that knowledge into action somehow.

7. Buy an electric guitar. Self-explanatory.

8. Learn to sing, get better at guitar-playing and start writing songs. I've said it for so long, but this is the year that I finally sit down and learn to sing. I could teach myself, or I could find the money and get lessons with a teacher who won't laugh. The how doesn't matter, and I shouldn't fret over it. It's the doing that will matter. I don't expect to get the vocal range of Aretha Franklin or Christina Aguilera. But I want to sound good. As for guitar playing, I'm not too bad to begin with (since I've had classical training and I can read music). But I need to improve more, and learn more chords and scales (no, I don't know scales). This is the only way I'll be able to start writing my own music. As for lyrics...well, I can try not to suck.

9. Find a guy who's worth my time. No more of the shit I've been going through the past few months. I will find someone with whom I'll share mutual trust and respect, with whom I know I will have a good time with, and, ultimately, someone who's just as interested as me in a meaningful relationship. I'm not talking about marriage or commitment or anything that I'm leaving for my late twenties. I'm talking about a relationship in which the both of us can learn from each other and where we can both have a good time, laugh a lot and, in the end, love each other. Even if it doesn't happen, then I'll just switch this around to making the friendships I have with people, both IRL and online (if I have time to be online), stronger than they are.

10. Become a rock star. This goal of mine is crazy. It's insane. And I don't know why I made it. All I know is that I want nothing more than to take the stage and entertain crowds of people. This can be done through acting, but I want to do this with music now, with a group of people who share my interest of making kickass music, who don't mind that I'm frontwoman, and who want to have a great time and entertain people. I want the fame, the fortune, the fun, the women, the sex, the drugs, the talent and everything that all this comes with. But, mostly, if I can entertain people with my music and play guitar and sing my heart out, than I will be happy. This is also why I say goal #1's completion depends. If I get signed, then I probably won't have time to continue college properly this year, not until I at least finish the first tour and get a break.

Finally...

Bonus: Learn to love myself. I have the self-confidence. I have the strength. I have some of the maturity. I have people who believe in me and my potential. I have everything I need to make this year the year I want it to be: the best year of my life. All I need to do now is to love myself.

I will believe in myself. I will be kickass. I will tell myself, every day, that I am plenty fine the way I am. I'm going to live my life however the fuck I want to. I will give out kindness to those who earn it. And most of all, I will be myself the whole way.

I said it the other day to myself, I say it again today. This will be my year. Now, it's up to the world to be a part of it.