Obligatory End-of-semester/college post

Today is the last day of the semester and of my undergraduate career and I guess I can't just let it pass quietly without writing anything about it. First, a re-cap of this past semester, and then some reflections on the eight semesters before this one.

I'm not sure, but I think that this past semester was probably my hardest semester yet. Sure, I could have taken 12 credit hours and had a great slack-off last semester, but the masochist in me won that argument and so I ended up taking 7 extra completely un-needed hours (Portuguese and Russian). I also tried (and failed) to have a part-time job during this semester, but I had to quit a few weeks ago because I just wasn't hackin' it. I'm glad I did because these last two weeks or so I have been going full-bore just to keep up with school. I didn't keep track, but I don't think there was a single weekend this semester when I didn't have to come to school during the weekend to work on something.

In the end it was a pretty good semester though. It is still too early to officially call it a success because I have yet to receive any final grades, but I am anticpating mostly A's, and I am hoping that I have done just well enough to edge my final GPA up over the crucial 3.5 mark to graduate with distinction. I won't be able to give the official report on that for a few weeks though. Anyhow, my classes were interesting, I learned a lot, and despite the hectic schedule I think I actually enjoyed this semester. How could I NOT enjoy a semester full of linguistics and foreign language classes though?! If only I didn't have that one international affairs class then this would have been a pretty fantastic semester.

It was a pretty good way to end my time here at CU. People keep asking me if I am really excited to be graduating and if it feels weird, but really it just feels like the end of another semester to me. It probably won't start to resonate until about a month from now when the next semester starts up and instead of heading back to school I'll be busy putting my shiny new degree to good use driving a bus.

As for being excited, sure, I'm excited, but at the same time I'm not. I'm excited about making some money and not being so poor all the time. I'm excited about having a job with no homework and where I can come in, work my 10 hours, and not have to think about it again until the next shift. I'm excited about the prospect of maybe having some stability in my living situation (well, eventually...) and not having to live in my grandma's basement. I'm excited about being a ski bum for awhile and doing who knows what after that; the world is my oyster! I'm excited about closing this chapter in my life and starting a new one.

At the same time, however, I have been a student for pretty much as long as I can remember, and I feel like I'm starting to get pretty good at it. I'm not excited about the potential monotony of having a job. I'm not excited about not constantly learning interesting new things. I'm not excited about leaving the college-student social demographic and quickly becoming too old to do fun college-kid things that I never did as a college kid. I'm not excited about no longer being around lots of other attractive young (single?) people all the time.

So graduation is kind of a mixed-bag for me, but I bet it is for lots of graduates, and I bet I'll get over it. College also had plenty of highs and lows. Some classes were great, others were not. Some professors were interesting, some were dull. In some classes I learned a lot, and in others I learned very little. Average it all together and the experience as a whole was good. Here are some of the highs and lows:

Highs

• First-Year Chinese - Everything was new and exciting and interesting and Chinese was fun and the teachers were good and my classmates were cool. It was a great start to college.
• Freshmen Dorms - Some of my best friends from college are people I met in the dorms. Sure, they weren't perfect, but I'm glad we had to live in them.
• Having an apartment and roommate - Dorms were fun, but so was having an apartment.
  
• Physics for Non-Science Majors - My teacher was a Nobel Prize winner and who knew that physics could be so interesting! What a great class.
• Global Change - Another great science class that I would not have taken if it weren't for core requirements. The teacher looked like the Unabomber (who happens to be jailed here in Colorado), but he was a great teacher and we learned all about global warming and climate change. By the way, GO SEE AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH!
• Study Abroad - I am so glad that I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a year studying in China. It was really an amazing experience that I am sure will continue to affect me for many years to come. Also, the research program I did in China before finally coming back to the USA was great too.
  
• Political Geography - I've never worked so hard and still been so afraid of failing a class before. This class was challenging, but so interesting. Dare I say this is the best class in the whole International Affairs major?
• People - I have met lots of great, fun, interesting, smart people in college. They have all helped to influence who I have become over the past 4+ years, and I thank them for that.
• Linguistics - This was definitely my favorite major and I pretty much loved every single linguistics class that I took. I almost didn't even take any linguistics classes, but then I decided to major in it and I am so glad that I did.
• Languages - Learning Chinese is probably the most important thing that I am taking away from college, but I also got to take a little bit more Spanish, I started Russian, and I have a pretty good start on Portuguese now too.

Lows

• Second and Fourth-Year Chinese - It is unfortunate that so much of my Chinese major was so miserable. The teachers for these classes were miserable and they made the class miserable. We had special not-so-nice Chinese names for them. Sometimes we joked about how their evil gazes could melt our souls (and not in the cute, romantic way). Their passive-aggressive silent treatments made our hearts freeze. They were awful.
• International Affairs Seminar - This class was taught by a lady from the Economics department who didn't seem to know or care about international affairs where we have learned to look at the whole picture. She told us on several occasions to ignore the politics and social aspects and instead just focus on the economics. She wasn't very nice either.
• Hmm, there are a few other lows, but they weren't actually all that bad, so let's not dwell on them.

It sure has gone by quickly. I think of the person I was when I came to freshman orientation way back in 2002 and I'm pretty sure I am a better, smarter, more social, more interesting person now on the other side of the tunnel. In the end I think college has definitely been worth the time and money. I don't regret not getting into the other school I applied for and I have enjoyed living in Boulder. I just hope that the end of college does not bring boredom and monotony, but instead brings bigger, badder, cooler, and more varied adventures and stories... starting with bus-driving (starting dark and early tomorrow morning at 5:30am!)

Well, I guess I should study a little bit for my last test, Portuguese, and then I'll be heading up to Vail to rest up for tomorrow's early start to the next chapter. I'll be back in Boulder next weekend to move out of Grandma's basement. I love Grandma, but I'm glad I'm moving out of there.

On that note, while in the USA rappers and hip-hop artists rap about bling-bling, women, and fast cars, Taiwanese hip-hop star Jay Chou raps about his Grandma in this song called "Grandma" (wai po). This is a sweet video about his grandma's birthday and how he planned this big party for her at an old restaurant and stuff but how all she really wants is her good memories of the past. So cute.

Sudden Realization

The strangest thing happened to me the other night as I was falling asleep in bed. For some reason, like a bolt of lightning from out of the clear blue sky, I was suddenly overcome with this profound feeling that capital punishment is wrong. I have always been pretty neutral/apathetic about capital punishment. I mean, I never thought it was a good thing, but I thought, "well, they have done horrible things, so it's probably not too bad to do away with them." But then all of the sudden it just seemed like a horrible thing to me. I mean, sure, most of them have done horrible things, but does that make it right to kill them? Maybe this article about the botched 34-minute execution in Florida this past week that I had read earlier that day had something to do with this change of heart.

I don't remember how I came across this video by Psapp a few weeks ago, but it seems appropriate here. *WARNING* this video contains some cartoon violence.

Rockin' the Português!

I gave a presentation in português today, and basically I rocked its socks. I talked about the different dialects of Portuguese. I had to limit it to just 5 minutes though, which was hard because there is a lot to say about that subject. I would have preferred to have this presentation be 25 minutes and have my International Affairs presentation only be five minutes. I'm not sure yet, but I think that Portuguese might be just as much fun to give presentations in as Spanish or Chinese... (dare I say more fun?). With a little bit more practice I might even be able to trick people into thinking that I actually speak it!

Anyhow, with that presentation behind me my to-do list continues to shrink. I still have plenty of work to finish over the next 5 days, but compared to what I had on my plate a few days ago everything is looking pretty good.

I was going to put up a song in Portuguese, but I couldn't find that I liked (here's what I found, but it didn't meet even my low standards). So instead I'm going to post this song that I've been addicted to for the past week or so called, "Falling by the Wayside" by People in Planes. The last song that I was addicted to was "Move Along" by All-American Rejects. Like that video, this video also features a long-haired lead singer. I think I am just jealous that I can't have hair like that. Contrary to what the song says, I am not losing control, nor am I falling by the wayside, I just like the song.

Random

This post is titled "Random" because I am going to talk about a few random things.

• Music Taste
  Kristi O called me the other day to tell me that they played a clip of "Gasolina" on NPR and that she thought of me (because I put that video on my blog a few months ago). You should listen to the story on NPR (it's about 5 minutes long), but basically it's about this 64-year-old guy talking about how after recently being fired from his job, he began listening to the CD Crunk Hits: Volume 2 . He said that while he would never recommend an entire CD by any of the artists featured on this compilation, as a compilation he can't get enough of it. I think that he makes a good point that just because music isn't necessarily "good" in the sense that a music critic might use it, it can still be "entertaining."
  
• Finals Masochism
  Everyone (including myself) likes to moan and groan and whine and complain about how busy they are at the end of the semester. Everyone has umpteen final projects to do, long papers to write, tests to study for, and homeworks to turn in. As much as we complain, I personally actually enjoy this part of the semester. This is the point where you have to have your shit together. This is where all the things you've been learning about over the course of the semester start to come together and make sense. This is where you get to put all of that expensive shiny new knowledge to use. Also, how great is that feeling you get when you turn in the very last thing and you are free?! It's a great feeling, but you can only achieve this feeling after a few weeks of stress.
  
• Girls, Girls, Girls
  The end of the semester also brings some bad news though. The end of the semester is also when you realize that you have, once again, missed out on all of those great dating opportunities. It seems like I had a particularly high-quality crop of women in my classes this semester. Out of all of my classes, I can probably think of at least 6 girls who I should've/could've/would've liked/tried to date. All six of them had various combinations of being pretty, smart, in-shape, fun, funny, interesting, bi-lingual. Sure, a few of them were more appealing than the others, but really any one of them would have made for some real first-class dating material. If only I had the cojones to ask one of them out for even just a cup of coffee or something... But then I got to thinking that even if I had the cojones, I still would have had to overcome at least three other significant barriers to dating:
• Time - dating takes time, and time is one commodity that I did not have this semester.
• Money - dating also costs more money than not dating. Even when I did have a little bit of money this past semester, I was having to work for it, which took time, and that takes us back to the first barrier.
• Bachelor Pad - think about how many women want to date a guy who lives with his mom. I think the answer is zero. Now try to imagine how many women want to date a guy who lives in his grandmother's basement. Yeah... not many. And that brings me to my next topic.
  
• Moving Out
  Sure, I love my grandma, and free rent is nice, but there are a few reasons why I am really looking forward to moving out of my grandma's basement:
• Sexyback - Living in my grandmother's basement is not helping my sex-appeal, and I need all the help I can get.
• Furnace - Maybe I was spoiled growing up in houses that had virtually-silent hot-water baseboard heat as opposed to noisy forced-air heat. As if just the sound of the air coming through the duct isn't enough, my room is also right next to the furnace, so I also get the added auditory pleasure of listening to the furnace itself humming away as it blasts warm air into the house. As I am laying in bed trying to sleep, some nights it seems like the furnace spends more time on than off. I lay there as the anger and annoyance inside of me boil faster than the temperature in the room, waiting for the thing to finally shut off. When it finally does, I feel like I need to hurry up and fall asleep so that maybe I won't hear it the next time it comes on (which will be all too soon). The duct into my room can be opened or closed, and I have tried both ways but it is equally loud in both positions. I would rather the house be freezing cold than have to listen to that furnace click on and off all night long.
• Spaciousness - The room I live in is not large. I am quite accustomed to having my clothes and stuff strewn about all over my floor, but at least I like to have a place to put them when I finally do clean my room. In this room though, about the only place I have to hang clothes is on the ski pole that is sitting with one end on the bookshelf and the other end on the back of a chair that's sitting in the middle of my room.

And I think that's about it for today's randomness. On that note I will leave you with a song called "Random" by the beloved Lady Sovereign. It may not be a "good" song, but I think it's pretty "entertaining."

*WARNING: This song does have some bad words, so if you are offended by that kind of thing then don't listen to or watch this video. ALSO, if you didn't like the last Lady Sovereign song that I put up, "Hoodie", then proceed with caution and at your own risk and don't say I didn't warn you. But I personally think that this song is less annoying than that last one was.

Insomnia: Part IV

You guys are probably sick of reading about my sporadic insomnia, but I'm not sick of writing about it yet, so here comes the latest episode.

I don't know if tonight's insomnia is due more to the mocha coffee that I had this evening, or to the bar of delicious organic dark chocolate that I had after that, but whatever it is my mind is racing and I can't shut it off. Granted, I do have a lot on my mind these days...

I've already planned out, put a lot of thought into, and even jotted down two pages of notes for my next 6 blog entries or so (not including this one, number 7 I guess), and I still can't sleep. I've also already put a lot of thought into the 5 or 6 projects/tests/homeworks that I have due over the next couple days, but still my mind won't rest. I haven't had any MINI-mania tonight though... nor have I spent much time thinking about fixed gear bikes. I've probably rolled over in bed from one side to the other at least 30 times so far, but still no sleeping.

Anyway, I have lots to do tomorrow, so I should really try hard to get some sleep. We'll see how many of those planned blog entries I actually end up writing too, since last time I did this I didn't end up writing about any of them...

After I posted my last entry about insomnia, the next day I remembered a good song called "Insomnia" by a guy/band that I really like named Faithless and I was kind of mad that I hadn't posted this song instead. But then I thought that there will almost surely be another chance to post a song about insomnia, so tonight I'm posting that video. There are a few other songs by this group that I also really like and maybe I'll post them too in the future.

The Wall...

...is fast approaching. I hope I don't hit it. I feel like I might, and the really hard stuff hasn't even started yet...

What was I thinking?

I have oatmeal for breakfast pretty much every day. Not the microwave kind, but the kind you have to cook on the stove. I love it and I don't know if I could ever get sick of it. A lot of times I also have yogurt. For the past few weeks though I've been thinking, "what would happen if I were to mix a cup of yogurt into the oatmeal?" I mean, I like oatmeal, and I like yogurt, so it's possible that mixed together "yogurmeal" might be tasty too. Afterall, oatmeal tastes good with milk in it, and it tastes good with fruit in it, and it tastes good with soymilk in it, so yogurt seems like a good candidate too.

Well, I was wrong. It tastes bad. Don't ever mix yogurt into your oatmeal.

Christmas Wishlist

Wow, how is it already December again? Do you ever get to an age where you are no longer surprised by how fast time flies?

With Christmas fast approaching, I was looking at my Christmas Wishlist from last year and I started making a revised edition for this year, but it wasn't really coming together very well. I really just have this one addendum:

First, go see An Inconvenient Truth (really, go see it! I command you to!) and then go offset my or your CO2 emissions by buying carbon credits from any of the places listed here, or any other similar place you might find. Essentially what this is is that you can calculate how many tons of CO2 you emit into the atmosphere every year through driving, using electricity, heating your home, etc. (The average American emits 7.5 tons), and then you can "buy carbon credits" where your money goes towards the production of atmosphere-friendly energy production, essentially canceling out your CO2 emissions.

The main thing is that nobody should spend any money on gifts for me, and if they must spend money, then it should be on something good and philanthropic since I myself don't really have enough money for philanthropy. Sure, there are some things that I would like for myself too, but I think I'm old enough now that I don't need to ask for things for Christmas anymore. Also, I don't really need anything, mostly just want.

In other news, my hermanita came back the other day from a month in Australia. I hate her because she can go to Australia for a month and get a boyfriend, but I can't get myself a girlfriend no matter how long I am in a place. Anyway, she brought a couple of CD's back with her from Australia and I thought that one of them sounded exactly like the girl who sings in this song, Southern Sun by Paul Oakenfold. It turns out that I was wrong. The girls who sings in this song is from New Zealand, not Australia. Anyway, it's a good song.