Xatal

So as of today, I’m back in Santa Cruz for another action-packed quarter. Winter break was pretty fun, but it went by far too fast. It feels weird being back.

Classes start tomorrow, but my schedule for this quarter is pretty easy on Tuesdays, so it’s going to be a gradual start for me. Here goes nothing!

Oh God.

You've got mail!

So I have several e-mail accounts for xatal.com, most of which forward e-mails right to my Gmail account, where I handle all of my e-mail.

Recently, I noticed that for some reason my disk space usage for e-mail was incredibly high when compared to everything else. I couldn’t figure out why until I took a look.

I realized that all of the e-mail that’s sent to a nonexistent account is still kept around. I also realized that I had a cron job (basically, a scheduled task) that was designed to run every ten minutes still set to on, and it’s been going for the last couple of years. Whoops.

Cleaning it out took quite a while.

It’s amazing how fast it passes by. It seems like just five days ago I was coming home with three weeks off. Now I’m down to my last five days.

It’s been a great vacation though. I’ve managed to see almost all of my friends back home, and have spent plenty of time with everybody. I’ve been out and about enough, going to the Emerald Bowl, Sonoma State, and a Guitar Center in a nearby store. I have plans to go to a large mall a couple of hours away, and I may go to the snow over the weekend.

I’m still working on the redesign for the site. I’ve got two “beta” designs ready, and I’m working on a third. I’m going to post them in a day or two to get some feedback from everybody, and then go with whichever one is most popular. I’m not a designer, but I’m still trying to make something that I can be a bit proud of. I wish I knew how to use Adobe Illustrator better (read: at all)…

Anyway, I hope everybody has a wonderful New Years Eve! Don’t forget to add a leap second!

Last Sunday, I took my girlfriend to see Sonoma State University. She’s unsure of where she wants to go to school next year, so I figured I’d take her to a few schools so she can have a quality tour to remember them by.

Right now, Sonoma is her top choice for a CSU, and since I’m always curious about schools I’ve never been to nor heard much about, I decided to take her to see it.

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When I was coming back from Santa Cruz, my family pulled a fast one on me and told me that they’d bought four tickets to this year’s Emerald Bowl in San Francisco.

I’m not a big fan of college football, since UCSC doesn’t have its own team, but since Cal (UC Berkeley) was in it, I took some interest. My brother goes to Berkeley, which is the main reason why my family decided to go.

The game was against the Miami Hurricanes. At first I was a bit unsure of whether or not to root for Cal, considering that I don’t go there and they turned down my application, but in the end I decided to support them a little bit.

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This year is flying by already, and it’s really been catching me off-guard. Senior year in high school flew by as well, but I’m even more surprised that this year is going by faster.

This is my last week of actual classes, and after that comes a week of finals. I’m unlucky enough to have a final on the very last block, so by then many will have already gone home for the holidays.

In a sense I think it would be pretty cool to have Christmas here — sort of a Harry Potter-esque thing — to wake up with friends and unwrap gifts, hang out under a Christmas tree, and so forth. But of course that’s not going to happen. My roommate and I put up some Christmas lights which actually look pretty cool, we might actually keep them all year around.

Again, I’m sorry for the big lack of updates. I’m pretty upset with myself, since I’d been meaning to write a good amount of posts last month, what with applications being due and all, but I didn’t. November was a really disappointing month for myself, and I’m sorry to my readers for that.

So after being sick for about two weeks, I’m finally back to normal for the most part. And it feels great!

When I first got sick, my throat became awful. My tonsils were swollen and pretty disgusting. Since another guy on my floor had tonsillitis at the time, I assumed I had somehow contracted it from the same source as him, and that tonsillitis was what I had.

But soon he was feeling better, and I was feeling worse. As the days passed, my tonsils got worse and worse, to the point where not only was it painful to swallow, but my voice sounded incredibly funky. I could barely eat, and drinking water was tough too.

The Health Center here scared me half to death when they told me I might have mono. The thought of being sick for months is pretty scary, especially at college. However, they told me that 95% of students will have mono by the time they leave college. In fact, most people don’t even receive the worst of mono — it might just stop at a slight sore throat and that’s it. I was unlucky, but at least I know I won’t get mono again.

I started gargling salt water, and my throat began to heal a lot. After a day or so, I was able to talk more and swallow a little. After 5 days, I can swallow normal and my voice no longer sounds like the cookie monster.

One complication of mono is that it makes the spleen swell and irritates the liver, so I still have to take it easy for a bit longer. Little things also tire me out more now, such as going up stairs (and let me tell you, this campus has a lot of stairs).

But I’m doing a lot better! Be ready for more posts again.

So I wrote about how I was feeling sick, but now things have gotten much worse — I’ve somehow come down with mono. Not sure how, but I did.

All in all it’s not a pleasant illness, and it’s really kicking my butt at the moment. Between trying to sleep, struggling to swallow even water, and stay alive in college, this has been a really hard past week — and I might have another one to go.

It’s going to be a while before I’m up for writing again. I need to recover fully before I’ll have the time (or brainpower) to write. I apologize to any readers, but know that when I’m better, I hope to return to three-times-a-week posting.

In the meantime, everybody take care!

So somehow over this last weekend, I’ve contracted tonsillitis. It’s not particularly fun — I miss being able to swallow my food painlessly. Since it doesn’t seem to be bacterial in nature, there’s not much I can do but wait it out, which could take as long as another week. Going to classes is unpleasant at best, and I’m doing my best not to spread it.

On a completely unrelated note (yeah right), Ibuprofen is my new best friend.

In theory, I couldn’t see Ralph Nader talk at Santa Cruz because I had an astronomy discussion.

Tonight, I walked up the hill to my first discussion, and I enter the classroom. I was more than a bit surprised to notice that the class was already full, and I got odd looks from everybody, despite me being 10 minutes early.

The TA begins talking, and he’s giving very basic information about graphs: how to find slope, how to calculate area, what the x and y axis are, and how that ties together. Nothing I didn’t know. I was wondering what all of this had to do with astronomy — it seemed an odd thing to start a discussion with.

Towards the end of the class, he asks everyone to turn to the Chapter 1 Appendix in their book. As everyone pulls out their book, I realize that I don’t have it. I was in the wrong discussion. I played it cool for the rest of the class — the TA was actually pretty funny — and waited it out. Since I had come in late (by then I had realized that), the class was over pretty quickly.

I came back to my dorm room, completely puzzled and I checked my online schedule to see what the blunder was.

Room 130, okay yeah that’s what I have down…

7:30 PM, yeah I have that too…

I couldn’t figure it out. I kept looking at my schedule, trying to figure out what went wrong. I knew I had been in the right classroom, maybe there was some sort of change? I checked my e-mail and the website for the astronomy class, but to no avail.

And then I saw it.

Tu 7:30PM - 8:40PM
PhysSciences 130

Son of a.

The discussion is on Tuesdays, not Mondays. Somewhere, somehow, I’d gotten it in my head that I had the astronomy discussion Monday nights. Turns out I was wrong, they’re on Tuesdays.

So not only did I miss Ralph Nader, but now that means that my Tuesday schedule is much more packed: 3 classes now. If the discussion was on a Monday, things would be more balanced. Whoops.

As I was walking around campus today, a man handed me a flier saying that Ralph Nader was coming to Santa Cruz this upcoming Monday.

I’m not a big fan or follower of the guy, but I do think it would be neat to see a famous political figure talk, regardless of if I agree.

Buuut as it turns out, I have my first discussion that night. Drat.

So over the past few days I’ve been settling in to my new home. I’ve been doing my best to feel a bit established and take care of various odds and ends: finding classes, buying books, meeting people, keeping touch with those back home, and so forth.

Part of my dorm room

Moving in went pretty smooth, we only had to buy a couple of things at a store… it could have been much much worse. My room is pretty nice, all things considered. There have been some minor quirks, but that’s to be expected. I’m lucky to have a cool roommate as well.

UCSC has been keeping me pretty busy, so I haven’t had much time to write a decent post (and I don’t really right now either). My first lecture is today, and classes start tomorrow. Once I get fully into the flow of things, I’ll make blog posting come back into my routine.

Don’t worry, I’m not abandoning you guys, I’m just adjusting to my new life right now. When things calm down, I’ll be back in business. In the meantime, if there’s anything you’re interested in reading a post about, let me know!

Today is also my 19th birthday, and my first one ever away from home. Doesn’t really feel like it, though.

I’ve been out of school since the end of May, and now it’s finally time to get ready to go back to school. This summer has been unusually long for me, and for the first time in years, I don’t feel like it’s too early to go back to school. Because I had over 3 and a half months off, I had enough time to do a large variety of things, including traveling, visiting friends, camping, working, and simply relaxing. It’s been a great summer, definitely the best I’ve had in recent years.

All of my luggage is packed

Many of my friends already started school, but those on the quarter system are now getting ready to head out, taking care of their final odds and ends.

Of course, that includes me.

Today is my last day at home. I’m leaving bright and early Saturday morning (too early: 5 AM) for Santa Cruz to move in.

Over the past week I’ve been spending time with my friends one last time, and I’m spending today with my girlfriend. Most of my stuff is all together, so now it’s just a matter of spending my last day here.

Move In

Since this is my first time leaving for college, I’m not too sure what to expect, but you can bet I’ll make some posts about things I notice and learn when I’m there.

My first week there is going to be a busy one, full of all kinds of orientations, get-togethers, and informational meetings. I know I normally try to update on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but I might have to hold off on making some posts until I adjust to my new home. Please bear with me, and if you have anything you’d like to see a post about, let me know!

In the meantime, everybody take care!

Reading about the recent shooting and lockdown in Toronto brought back my memories of a school lockdown, and I thought a few people might be interested in hearing what it’s like.

Shortly after the Virginia Tech shootings a year and a half ago, a man in our town went to church one night and confessed to the pastor that he had desires to shoot up a school.

Testing

During that time of the year, we were in the middle of our state testing. The next morning, as we were finishing up our first testing session of the day, we noticed that the proctor was closing all of the curtains, locking the door, and covering the door window. We had to wait until the end of the test to talk to her, but several students who finished early checked their cell phones.

Several had received messages from the school’s seniors (seniors were able to stay home and sleep in while the lower grades tested) who said the school had told them not to come, that there was a shooting threat.

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This is a bit off the usual track of my normal “How To” and “Here are some tips!” posts, but sometimes it’s good to take a break from the ordinary.

I’m currently in the longest summer vacation I’ve ever had. My high school graduated at the end of May (which is earlier than usual for us) and I leave for college in mid-September.

So, I have the luxury of a nice 3 1/2 month summer. It’s been fun — albeit too fast, but what summer isn’t?

Both the high school and the local college started up this last Monday, so now all of my friends who are either going to the local college or are still in high school are now busy. This leaves good ol’ Paul (me) with tons of free time in the early day.

It’s nice not having to worry about school just yet, but it does feel weird. For the first time in my life, I’m not ’supposed’ to be in school. You know when you ditch school or you’re home sick and you know in the back of your head that you should be in school? It feels like that, only this time I’m not supposed to be in school. It’s definitely different.

I’ve been enjoying the free time. I started working out again (I’m lazy, it’s hard for me to keep the habit), I began practicing guitar more regularly, and I’ve been preparing to leave for college. All in all it’s been a great summer, and in fact my post about enjoying summer contains a lot of things I’ve done this summer or tried to do.

Is there anyone else there who is enjoying a longer summer this year?