Joseph Natividad

Classes Resume after “Fire Week”

I feel as if I?ve already gotten used to and waking up in the afternoon, walking through a near empty campus and breathing in flakes of ash.

I woke up today and found a lot more people walking around to and from classrooms and cafeterias. I was a little groggy, not being used to waking up before 10AM and copying entire lectures into my notebook. Basically, I have turned into a lazy bum in the course of a week.

The air quality has been getting much better lately. It?s a bit overcast today but at least I can breathe effortlessly now.

I still have Calculus to get over with at 4PM and I think I?ll get some reviewing done for my rescheduled midterms taking place a couple days from now. It didn?t take that long for me to switch back into this sort of mode or attitude about getting my work done and being fully prepared for whatever test I have coming up.

Halloween is this Wednesday. I went out over the weekend to Toys R Us and got an Optimus Prime mask from the film ?Transformers.? It changes my voice when I wear it and has a few other sound effects that came along with it. I guess I?ll be a robot for Halloween, but it?s sad that I may miss out on whatever?s going on that night because my Calc. midterm is scheduled to take place from 7-9PM.

Tags: calculus, fire, halloween, Midterm, optimus-prime, transformers, ucsd

No Classes on Tuesday Either

People were beginning to talk about it happening. I checked the school website a few minutes ago and guess what?

“Due to the continuing concern of the fires, the UCSD campus will be canceling classes Tuesday, October 23. The air quality continues to threaten the health of all in this general area. The fires are still uncontained and other nearby entities, such as SD Unified School District, are closing for tomorrow.” - Chancellor Marye Anne Fox

I’m basically going on a four day weekend, with the latter half being spent mostly in the confines of my residence hall. Everyone’s been jumping around and making loud noises for quite awhile now but at the back of my mind I still think of the fact that I have midterms for Calculus and Music & Film along with a two-page essay for my writing class. All of this will be taking place on Wednesday and Thursday. I’m missing out on possible reviewing sessions in class or during the professors’ office hours…but oh well.

Tags: calculus, cancelled-classes, fire, Midterm, music-and-film, san-diego, uc-irvine, UC-Santa-Barbara, wildfire

Classes Cancelled due to Wildfires

I woke up to loud yelling and laughing outside my dorm. I got out of bed to see what the fuss was all about and my suitemate approached me with a giant bear hug. It turns out that classes are cancelled today due to the spreading fires across Southern California. San Diego State, UC Santa Barbara and UC Irvine still seem to be open though.

The people in my building don?t seem to mind. I?m supposed to be in my Music and Film discussion right now. Instead I suddenly have all this time to catch up on my reading and studying for this week?s batch of midterms.

Homes in places like Rancho Bernardo are burning down and residents from all around the area have been advised to move out if they spot a fire in the distance. Qualcomm Stadium and a number of high schools in the area have been converted into makeshift evacuation zones. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in San Diego, Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Irvine, Ventura and san Bernardino last night.

I noticed the smoke in the air late yesterday afternoon. I began to choke and saw flakes of ash floating around me not too long after. When I got back to my dorm and looked in the mirror, I could see black flakes all over my face and my clothes smelled like smoke.

The video footage above was sent to me by a friend at UC Irvine. It was taken with his cellphone at about 6PM last night. You could see the blanket of smoke beginning to take over the sky — a sight I never experienced when I was living in the Bay Area.

Tags: fire, qualcomm-stadium, rancho-bernardo, san-diego, san-diego-state, uc-irvine

Economists Win Nobel Prize for Work in Mechanism-Design

This news may almost be a week old but I can?t just let it go unmentioned on my blog. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel (or the Nobel Prize for Economics for short) was awarded last Monday to the economists Eric Maskin, Roger Myerson and Leonid Hurwicz for their groundbreaking work in mechanism-design theory.

What does this robotic-sounding name mean and why is it important to us? It turns out that mechanism-design deals with how economies would be able to receive something they all want even when everyone acts in a self-interested manner. It is often seen as a branch of economics that observes the way institutions work in markets that are dysfunctional.

The three economists will split the prize of $1.5 million or 10 million Swedish krona among themselves.

Just a side-note (since we?re on the subject of Economics): I did pretty well on my midterm last Thursday. woohoo!

Tags: Eric-Maskin, Leonid-Hurwicz, mechanism-design, Midterm, nobel-prize, Roger-Myerson

Thursdays are a Nightmare

My schedule is pretty spread out during the week, but I just get screwed over on Thursdays: four lectures, two lasting an hour and a half each, one lasting 50 minutes and one lasting three hours from 6-9PM. That long Music and Film class to finish out my day ends too late that I end up eating alone at the cafeteria nearby, with a copy of the New York Times and USA Today keeping me company during my meal.

Out of all the long and nightmarish Thursdays I?ve had since school started, yesterday has been the worst so far.

My first midterm for Econ1 kept me busy reviewing all my notes and homework during the entire night before. It just so happens that I had to type up a two-page commentary for my college?s writing class by the following morning too. Already lacking sleep, how inconvenient was it for the school to arrange for a fire drill at 7 in the morning?

I think I did well enough on my midterm. I seem to be doing just fine in all my classes so far, including Calculus, which is a bit surprising. I did better than I expected on last week?s quiz and I am absolutely certain I aced the one I just had this afternoon.

It?s Friday and I?m glad this week is over. I don?t have any Economics homework until Tuesday but I still have a ton of reading to catch up on for my writing class.

It never stops coming does it?

Tags: Antonovics, calculus, CAT1, econ1, Midterm, music-and-film, sixth-college, ucsd

I’m Back!!!

It?s been quite a while since I?ve regularly updated this thing. I apologize and want to let you know that I am determined not to alienate you or leave you reading that entry about doing my own laundry over and over again.

What have I been doing these past few weeks instead of blogging my brains out? Adjusting to college life, of course. I?ve got a bunch of midterms coming up next week so I would consider this the calm before the storm. I had a few quizzes and essays to get over with last week and I?ve been exploring campus, meeting new people and relying on cafeteria food to keep me from starving. When I?m not doing homework, you might find me out of my dorm eating a turkey burger or a BBQ chicken pizza.

College is definitely a new experience to me and I?m loving every moment of it so far. Not a day goes by when I don?t randomly meet someone new. Whenever someone asks me where I?m from, I just tell them I?m from Berkeley because I doubt they?ll know too many other cities in the East Bay.

I?m enjoying most of the classes I?m taking this quarter, with Calculus being the only one I constantly struggle with. My Economics class is pretty straightforward so I?m not having too much trouble grasping concepts about marginal costs and benefits, the production possibility frontier, and stuff of that nature.

If I don?t keep up with the goal I set for myself to say whatever was ?on my mind?, then shame on me.

What?s on my mind right now? Catching up on lost sleep and eating a slice of that BBQ chicken pizza for lunch tomorrow.

Tags: bbq-chicken-pizza, calculus, econ1, foodworx, la-jolla, music-and-film, OVT, sixth-college, ucsd

Doing the Laundry on My Own

Home-cooked meals and freshly done laundry are no longer things I take for granted. For the past two and a half weeks here in La Jolla, I have been relying on cafeteria food and a playing a guessing game between the laundry detergent and myself.

What exactly is a ? cup? The no-name laundry detergent my parents had bought me before they left for the Bay Area had no measuring cup so I had to pour it into the machine based on instinct.

I washed all whites earlier this week and it didn?t turn out too badly. I plan on doing all the colors later today and hope for a similar outcome.

When I was at home I never had to do my own laundry. My dad was in charge of that household chore. I was responsible for watering my mom?s plants in the front and backyard, washing the dishes, vacuuming the entire house, and occasionally taking out the garbage.

As for my room, I cleaned it whenever I felt it was too messy to sleep in.

When the time to leave home neared, I began to panic because I had never done the laundry on my own before. The not-so-pleasant image of my white shirts turning a pale orange because I had neglected to notice a red sock in my wash load had crossed my mindwhile I waited for my clothes to finish soaking.

The first time I washed my clothes here, the washing and drying machines near my dorm were glitching so a few of them would allow me to do my laundry without putting some quarters in. Today I’m hoping that the school’s maintenance crew hasn’t figured it out so I don’t have to scour my room for a bunch of quarters that I doubt to exist.

Tags: cafeteria_food, chores, drying_machines, home_cooked_meals, laundry_detergent, la_jolla, ucsd

Grocery Shopping on a Limited Budget

My roommates and I finally pitched in for a communal refrigerator in our dorm. Aside from water bottles and random fruits we?ve been stashing from all the free meals on campus during UCSD’s Welcome Week, it was pretty much empty for the first few days.

I decided to change all that by doing a little grocery shopping at Ralph?s, the closest store of its kind off campus. There is no Albertson?s or Safeway around here for some odd reason, but there is a Whole Foods and Trader Joe?s. Whole Foods is way too pricey for a college student on a limited budget and I find Trader Joe?s to be too specialized for my everyday needs.

I was on a mission to get some milk, cereal and more fruits. As I walked into the store, it was as if a switch was turned on in my head to pay attention to any discounts I could get with my Ralph?s card and from the coupon machines along the aisles.

I?m beginning to learn that the “next best thing” isn’t that bad at all. I know it sounds corny or trite but I really do feel that way. Instead of settling on two boxes of Special K with Red Berries, I got two boxes of Oatmeal Crisp (which actually turned out to be almost as good). Instead of a gallon of whole milk, I got two half gallons of the same thing and at a cheaper price.

Looking at my receipt when I got back to my room later on, I had saved a total of $6.98. Believe it or not, you may be a witness to a smart shopper in the making.

Tags: albertsons, coupon_machines, grocery_shopping, safeway, smart_shopper, special_k, trader_joes, ucsd, water_bottles, whole_foods