What I did last Christmas 2007

I like to think about what I've done during my winter breaks and reminisce about years gone past. I remembered that last Winter Break I was in Hawaii visiting my parents. And this year their coming here to visit me! I put together this slide show of our 2007 Kalikimaka pa'ina (Christmas party) Hawaiian style

I have It !!!!!

Lately I've being having a really hard time doing my school work. I know I have to do it, I know when it needs to get done but yet something inside me just can’t shake this feeling, a feeling that I've never felt before. Yah some people will say "oh it’s just a case of procrastination."

But it’s not procrastination, it can’t be!! I think it's something bigger than the p word it’s something huge and unexplainable except by Wikipedia and one simple word: I think I have Senioritis.

According to Wikipedia:
Senioritis, from the word senior plus the suffix -itis (which refers to inflammation but in colloquial speech is assumed to mean an illness), is a colloquial term used in the United States and Canada to describe the decreased motivation toward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their high school or college careers.^[1]

After further investigation on my part I found that Senioritis is a common illness and is highly contagious. Senioritis can be aggravated by certain classes like drafting and economics. Once aggravated Senioritis can become overwhelming and virtually impossible to cure.

A person displaying symptoms of Senioritis should be avoided at all cost due to potentially erratic behavior such as a hour long pointless conversations, mindless internet surfing, watching the same YouTube video 20 times in the same sitting over and over again, irresistible urges to sleep in the middle of the day and or class, an obsessive need to talk to one-self with no regard to the people around them, the urge to chase people, animals and cars. Senioritis can also lead to an individual’s need to start conversations with complete strangers just because it’s better than doing schoolwork, it can lead to compulsive behavior such as cleaning the grout in the kitchen everyday to avoid writing papers or studying, Or writing a blog instead of a 10 page paper on carbon credits and their role in the economy.

I feel that it may be an early onset due to the fact that I did not get today off even though it’s a holiday but, if this keeps up I may need to seek professional help!!! Or my crank shafts are never going to be drawn, Carbohydrates won’t be learned and Carbon sequestering will remain an economical market mystery.

So what does Ann have left as far as classes before she is done? I'm glad you asked, well here you go my last few classes:

For my Major:
ASCI 329 (taking it in the Spring) Principles of Range Management (3)
Characteristics, history and multiple uses of rangeland. Principles of range plant physiology and ecology in relation to range condition, trend, utilization and improvement practices. Principles of proper grazing practices and nutrition of livestock. 3 lectures. Prerequisite: One course each in soil science, animal science and botany or crop science.

ENVE 330 (spring) Environmental Quality Control (4)

Application of scientific and engineering principles to control the development and use of air, water and land resources. Control of pollution of the environment. Disposal of wastes. Administrative and legal aspects. For non-Engineering majors. 4 lectures. Prerequisite: Completion of GE Area B and junior standing.

FNR 461 (right now and winter) Senior Project I (3)

Selection and completion of a project under faculty supervision. Projects typical of problems which graduates must solve in their fields of employment. Project results are presented in a formal report. Minimum 180 hours total time.

FNR 465 (spring) Ecosystem Management (4)

Applied integration of biophysical, economic and socio-political sciences. Principles, concepts and techniques designed to utilize resources while sustaining ecosystem health within acceptable limits of change. Ecosystem assessment, planning, management and monitoring project. 3 lectures, 1 laboratory. Prerequisite: FNR 326, FNR 416 and consent of instructor.

For My GIS Minor:
Nothing I'm done as soon as this quarter is over.

For my Land Rehabilitation Minor:
SS 433 (winter) Land Use Planning (3)
Development of plans and practices for management of agricultural, recreational and urban land use by evaluating the soil capabilities through the use of Soil Survey Reports. 2 lectures, 1 laboratory. Prerequisite: SS 121.

FNR 440 (Spring) Special Problem (3)
If creating my own class for my minor. For this minor you have to work on a project take an advanced class or some other stuff. So I chose to create a irrigation and planting plan for the old dump site up poly canyon. It’s currently poorly managed and looks like crap so I want to implement some of my ideas and see how effective they are in a degraded site. This class is half for my own entertainment and half because I have to.

ASCI 329 (Spring) same as above I need it for both

SS 508 (winter) Environmental Assessment for Erosion Control (3)
Assessment techniques for the development of soil erosion control and the dispersal of surface runoff water on urban, agriculture, riparian, and rangelands. Development of a water quality management plan for a specific land use. 3 lectures. Prerequisite: Introductory soils course and graduate standing, or consent of instructor.

For my GE:
Area C2:? I don't even know if I have satisfied this area yet but I'll assume yes

Area C4: ES 360 (winter) Ethnicity and the Land (4) GE C4 USCP
Comparative study of how race and culture shape landscapes, and how social hierarchies allocate the use of natural resources and the burdens of environmental pollution. 4 lectures. Prerequisite: Completion of GE Area A and one course from Area C1, C2, or C3. Junior standing. Recommended: one lower division Ethnic Studies course and an introductory natural resources course.

School, School and more School

Though this has been a fairly easy week, the quarters almost over with and come next Monday I pretty much don't get a brake until the end of the quarter and semester. Here are just a few things that I've done and that I need to due before the end of next week:






This is my most recent AutoCad Assignment. We learned how to make view ports and format our drawings

Its Thursday

Thursdays are probably my least favorite day in the school week because I have a class at Cuesta in the morning and class at Poly in the afternoon.
So this is how my normal Thursday plays out:
So normally I wake-up at 6:00 and get ready for school (feed the animals, give them clean water, open the back door for them, give them all their morning hugs and kisses because they wont leave me along until I give them all attention, I then take a shower, get dresses, brush my teeth, and get my school stuff ready and by this time Aaron's angry and physically anxious and nagging me to hurry up because I'm making him late)(Aaron wakes up at 6:50 to get ready and be at the bus at 7:03.)
We then drive to City Hall, park the car in the parking lot and take the Express Bus to SLO, we both get off at the Casa street bus stop and walk to his sister Shawna's house which is by Jamba Juice. Aaron leaves his bike at his sister's house because it's easier then guessing if their will be room that day on the bike racks on the bus. Aaron then bikes across town to Judson Terrace to go to work. I on the other hand get a ride with Aaron's nephew Matt, who also goes to Cuesta.
We normally leave SLO at 8:20 and get to Cuesta at 8:30. I then either go eat a horrible breakfast in the cafeteria or study or waste time until 10:00 when I have O-chem.

IUPAC name: 3-phenyl-2-propenoate
Common name Ethyl Cinnamate
aka the ester that makes cinnamon smell like cinnamon

I get out of O-chem at 11:20 and then sit around doing absolutely nothing or go read some random book in the library until 12:30 when I have tutoring (for some unknown reason they gave me a tutor at 12:30 instead of 11:30 so I lose an hour and ten minutes of my life every Thursday, and I hate wasted time!!!!!!!!).

After I sit and shoot the breeze with my tutor for an hour I walk over the bus stop and wait for 40-50 min for the Bus (it's suppose to come at :50 after but is always 10-30 min late.
I then take a 8 min Bus ride to the Poly campus where, upon arrive I head over to the BRAE departments computer lab and work on my AutoCAD homework with Jeremy.
We then both head to Auto CAD at 3:00 and spend 3 hours swearing and pissed off trying to get our cylinders to union with our cubes without loosing the inside components or some other stupid thing that would be easy if we just paid attention to the teachers demonstration.

I then leave class at 6:00 walk across campus to the bus stop and wait for the bus which comes at 6:43 (unfortunately this bus is not an express so it completes the fully route and I don't arrive in Atascadero Until 7:20-7:30 depending on the driver.
I then drive home and give Aaron a big hug and sit my @$$ on the couch and fall asleep or watch TV all night.

After I finish my last show I then will either go running or go to bed depending on how tiered I am form the rest of the week.

And though not a hard day by any college students standards, by Thursday I'm pretty beet and I hate waiting for the bus since all my homework involves computers or drafting tables I cant do anything to make the time wasted more efficient and Because of this I don't like Thursdays.

This was my last assignment for AutoCAD a "Splitting Wedge"

Election day

Happy election day

I think that it is really cool that so many people, who have never voted before, are voting.
One great example is my boyfriend, he has never voted before in his life, but on Saturday he filled out his absentee ballet. He always held the view that politicians are the worst kind of scum on the plant, they lie, cheat, steal and take money form people that don't give a dame about the interest of the American people, he always preached that his vote will never count towards anything; but then someone came into his life that inspired him.

Yah you all think Obama but sorry thats totally not who it was in fact on His list Obama is the same political scum as the rest of them.

It was almost a month ago when I had invited my boyfriend to go and see Ralph Nader talk at Cal Poly, and that night we stood in line that went an inter block, packed into the smallest theater on campus and saw one of the greatest men in this century speak. My boyfriend was definitely moved, he saw a man that he could relate to, a man who spoke the truth and address actual issues.

So after this experience I ask my boyfriend "If I get all the paperwork and fill it out for you and all you have to do is sign it will you register to vote?" his answer was yes, then no, then yes, then no and finally I said to him "just because your registered doesn't mean you have to vote, but it allows you the opportunity to do so if you later decide to vote." He then said yes and two days later he was a registered voter. (he even wore a Nader Gonzalez button on his back pack).

For me I felt pride that night (when I say Nader talk), It was the first time that I saw/heard a presidential candidate talk about things that I worry about every day, instead of all that %*&% %&*%*(*^ that the other party candidates talk about. In fact Nader sounded like my mother, though she will never vote for him because it will be like "throwing her vote away" I think she may find that she has more in common with Nader then any other presidential candidate .

I do have to say that no matter your political party I strongly recommend seeing Matt Gonzalez (Nader's vice-presidential running mate) speak!!! It seems that its getting harder and harder to find a politician who elegantly constructs logical arguments and analyzes all aspects of the oppositions argument. One great example was that really stuck with me was Gonzalez's point about throwing votes away. He said that in United States history we have faced two district times that dealt with changing our nation concept of morals and rights, Slavery and a womans right to vote. Gonzalez pointed out that during the time of slavery less then 1% of the population voted for the candidate that was morally opposed to slavery (less than 1%). During the womens suffrage movement less then 1% voted for the candidates that felt that women deserved the right to vote, in fact Roosevelt the elected candidate's said that a womans right to vote is the worst thing that can happen, a womans place is at home. And after explaining these statistics and historical voting trends, Gonzalez explained that those 1% threw their votes away for a more moral and just nation, and that he challenges us to throw our votes away to do the same, because only history will tell us who was truly shameful and who voted to change our nation for the good.
(I DON'T EXACTLY REMEMBER HIS WORDS BUT UNDERSTOOD HIS CONCEPTS AND THOUGH HE IS MUCH MORE ELEGANT I DID MY BEST)

I hate when people talk politics but what ever I think its cool that so many people are getting involved and one things for sure, tomorrow no matter how this thing turns out whether the president, senate, governors , or even the propositions election results, there is going to be a whole lot of really, really pissed off people.

My Wonderful Cat and Boyfriend

On Friday I decided to start a puzzle that was in the game closet for a while, I started this puzzle on Friday at 10 o'clock at night (big mistake) I lost track of time and ended up going to bed at 1:30. On Saturday I had to work and then attended Cathy's Birthday Party (Aaron's sister-in-law) so needless to say not a lot of the puzzle got done on Saturday. Then on Sunday we all went to breakfast and then back to Morro Bay to pick up the car (I'll explain in a minute) so that burned up most of my day, then I finally got an opportunity to work on it and my sweet little cat thought it would be a really cute to lay right in the middle of the puzzle so that I could not work on it, such a cat thing to do. I finally convinced her to lay in the puzzle box instead, which I thought was quite cute and took this picture with my phone (Sorry the resolution is really low).I almost finished it all but the middle of the puzzle is a black cat so my progress slowed and I eventually deiced to return with fresh eyes the next day.

Monday I had school until 6:00 and took the bus home so it was 8:00 before I could actually return to my almost finished puzzle, Aaron and me then decided to make dinner. Aaron made the soup and I made the garlic bread, but while I was working on my half of dinner Aaron thought that he might take a go at the puzzle with only 7 pieces left (what a great helper! were was he during the last 993 pieces). I know that the picture quality sucks but I don't have a camera so 600 pixels is the best I've got. The Finished puzzle is this adorable black cat sitting on the book shelf thinking "what can I break next?"

I was going to talk about my weekend but I have AutoCAD Homework and Drafting Homework to do which are both very time consuming.

But one last thing, in Organic Chemistry today we made the smell of rum, banana, raspberry, nail polish remover, and I forgot the last one. But I also learned about a Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) which can be found in drinks like mountain dew. THIS STUFF IS REALLY, REALLY BAD!!!!
I cant believe the FDA allows people to still use it. It rots your fat inside your body and will never leave your body (it also causes other really bad things to happen). If you want to see what other things are listed as toxic or bad for you check out this website http://www.healthyeatingadvisor.com/food-labels.html
its not the most credible sight but our professor said that the chemicals and additives listed were factual but the health effects where a little bit off.
if you link to this address it may show an error, just go the the homepage and click on Food labels on the left side of the screen and scroll down to Worst food Additives.
Have Fun!!!!

My first rant

I'm almost done with school and I'm facing the job market during a war (come on people it's still a war), over publication of global extremist, social and governmental failure, childish politics, corruption of environmental policies and laws as a result of corporations and bureaucracy, the over harvesting of our oceans resources and for that matter all resources, the rapid depletion of our sole source of energy, the changing global climate (who cares who did it it's happening), the dollar being at its lowest value since I've been in college, and the return of retired adults to the same job marked I’m trying to enter, but I have a felling that my situation is no different then any other national melt down that generations before me have faced; to me the only difference is that those older generations are looking to mine to solve these problems, which will be problematic since my generation has now been given the title generation “I” instead of its old title generation “Y” because we are self involved with our ipods and myspace, I have this feeling that generation “I” will be a big let down when it comes to actually doing something and solving problems.

Really I have no need to worry about getting a job even after factoring in all of the above because with a major in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Protection, there will be no shortage of work for me.


Some fun facts about generation “Y” provided by Wikipedia:

“Generation Y has a nearly intimate connection to technology. In their 2007 book, Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students, Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa[17] found that in a survey of 7,705 college students in the US:”

* 97% own a computer
* 97% have downloaded music and other media using peer-to-peer file sharing
* 94% own a cell phone
* 76% use instant messaging and social networking sites
* 66.6% of college students have a Facebook profile.[18]
* 60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod
* 49% regularly download music and other media using peer-to-peer file sharing
* 34% use websites as their primary source of news
* 28% author a blog and 44% read blogs (this now includes me)
* 15% of IM users are logged on 24 hours a day/7 days a week

Wikipedia®