Joseph Natividad

First Time Voter

The excitement in the air was apparent from the amount of time it took just to get through to the polls near where where I live at UCSD. It took over half an hour in line to be able to bubble in my say for my first presidential election. I have to say that I think it was worth it. It was a good experience and I did my part as a US citizen.

I’ve been really busy with midterms these past two weeks but the buildup to the election was everywhere. There were Obama signs on almost everyone’s windows, hundreds of givewaway stickers and a cardboard cutout of Obama himself (which was quite creepy to walk by every morning) outside the apartment below me.

I didn’t want to miss my chance to be able to participate in this historic event but I should be honest in saying that I had no clue what most of the propositions were until I got my ballot and I said “No” to pretty much all of them except #2, which (I think) touched on animal cruelty.

Waiting in line for over half an hour caused me to be late for work but it turned out to be the best excuse anyone could ever give their boss. I had my “I voted ” sticker to prove for it too.

Tags: arena, barack obama, college, foodworx, i-house, rimac, ucsd, vote

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

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