Joseph Natividad

Ready for the Quarter to End

I’m more than ready for a respite from studying and working here at school. This quarter has turned out to be a lot better than my first one, as I continue to survive my classes and probably won’t end up failing a single one of them. I’ve found interest in attending my writing and intermediate Spanish classes. Too bad I can’t say the same about CSE3 (Computer Science). That’s the only trace of math I’ve experienced for the past 3 months and I can surely say that I still don’t enjoy it.

These past few days, I have begun to yearn for something I’m not too sure about. I don’t want to say that I’ve become drained by my college experience. Classes are hard, but they are bearable. Work isn’t too tiring; it’s tedious at its worst. Maybe a change of scenery for just a bit will do me good. I get back home next Friday to the Bay Area. I can already smell the food on my plate that doesn’t present an aroma reaking of the UCSD dining halls. Seeing old friends for a week and driving a car again — coming back home brings back people I never see or things I never do here at school.

I have a feeling that next quarter is going to be even much better than this current one. My schedule will be even better because I don’t have to wake up too early for my 11AM classes. I’m looking forward to becoming more involved and meeting even more people on campus than I already have. I have a lot of ideas in my head that I don’t want to give away just yet. I just know that everything will work out in the end. In some crazy way, it will. And before I know it, summer has arrived and my first year at the university has come to a close.

Tags: bay-area, CAT, classes, dining hall, ltsp, quarter, ucsd

I thought I lost my iPod

It was a near death experience for me (or the closest one to it). I just got back from work and emptied out my pockets. Out came my cellphone, my keys and my wallet. Where the #$%& was my iPod?!?! Panicked and sweating like crazy, I checked my pockets again and scrounged through all the clothes on my bed and the random stuff on my desk. It was nowhere to be found.

I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. I’d rather lose my cellphone than my iPod, one of my most treasured possessions. At least if i lost my cellphone, it was more likely that whoever found it would call one of my contacts and I’d get it back sooner or later. So I ran back to the dining hall where i work and searched the hamper with all the dirty aprons and towels. I looked at all the pockets of every apron I could find. I still didn’t know where it was. It was at this moment that I actually began to consider the possibility that Lynn Carey had stolen it from me.

I jogged back to my dorm (I was getting tired from all the unexpected running) and searched once again through most of the possible places it could have ended up. If it wasn’t in my jeans pockets then it couldn’t be anywhere else in my room. I took my dormmate’s bike and sped back to the dining hall. I left the bike in front of one of my friend’s apartments and jogged the rest of the way. I searched through the hamper full of aprons one more time. This time I dug deeper into the pile past the towels…and there it was — grimy but unmistakeably my iPod.

Hallelujah.

Tags: dining hall, foodworx, ipod, lost and found, lynn carey, nano, sixth-college, ucsd

My Oscar Predictions

The 80th Annual Academy Awards begin in less than a couple hours. Here are my predictions for winners in each respective category:

Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

Actor in a Supporting Role: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)

Actress in a Leading Role: Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose)

Actress in a Supporting Role: Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)

Animated Feature Film: Ratatouille

Art Direction: Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Cinematography: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Costume Design: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Directing: No Country for Old Men

Documentary Feature: War/Dance

Documentary Short: Salim Baba

Film Editing: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Foreign Language Film: Katyn (should be The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which probably wasn’t nominated because it was directed by American Julian Schnabel. Oh well.)

Makeup: La Vie en Rose

Music (Score): Atonement

Music (Song): August Rush

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men

Short Film (Animated): Even Pigeons Go to Heaven

Short Film (Live Action): The Mozart of Pickpockets

Sound Editing: Transformers

Sound Mixing: Transformers

Visual Effects: Transformers (They HAVE to win)

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Writing (Original Screenplay): Juno

Who knows how wrong I’ll be with all my predictions once the Oscars are over tonight. I won’t know for awhile since I’ve got work at the dining halls through all of it. However, I hope that The Diving Bell and the Butterfly garners a few awards. I saw it last night with a friend and wasn’t disappointed.

You can check out all the nominees to tonight’s event here.

Tags: academy awards, dining hall, diving bell and the butterfly, foodworx, oscars, predictions, transformers