Pit Stop to Wonderland: Books

Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Thursday, January 2, 2014

BOOKS I READ IN 2013

I read 50 books last year! That's the largest amount of books I've read in a single year, and I never stopped; I mean, I started reading from January and kept reading until December. I even read entire series in half a week depending on the amount of books.

My Good Reads Awards

Best Series: Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan

Best Romance: Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

Best Fiction: Matched by Allie Condie

Worst Ending: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Most Addictive: Avoiding Series by K.A. Linde

Best Trilogy: Summer Trilogy by Jenny Han

Most Unexpected Twist: Ten Tiny Breaths by K.A. Tucker

Most Commonly Read: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Characters I Grew Fond of: Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan

Best Plot: Ruby Red Series by Kerstin Gier

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Week #23 (09/30/2013 - 10/06/2013)

On Monday I went to Chemistry and this guy with british accent asks if he can sit next to me, he starts talking to me and I BARELY understand, he name is Sam. We ended up doing the group assignment together with Armando and another guy named Adam. After Calculus me and Courtney had planned going to the "Engineers Without Borders" meeting, since we have to go to two meetings for our Foundations of Engineering Lab class. We had some dinner before going to the meeting and we had a great time, when we got to the building where the meeting was going to take place nobody was there.. we waited like 10 minutes and nobody was there. We gave up and went back home, I said that we stayed for nothing and Courtney said that it wasn't nothing, because she got to have dinner with a friend, how cute? So when I got back I skyped with Rod and the funniest thing happened, his Dad walked into Momo's room in nothing but his underpants XD I just covered my eyes and laughed haha.

I like Tuesdays because I have two really easy classes, and I did absolutely nothing in them. In Foundations of Engineering though I did got a little nervous, because I've been kind of avoiding Ahmad, I know it's the wrong thing to do since he has done nothing wrong but I feel awkward with him. So I was really nervous because we have that class together, I think he came late though because he didn't sit next to me. I did heard his voice a couple of rows behind me and from then I didn't turn me head anymore. I also texted me and I was kind of cold with him, and at the end I stayed a little bit longer so I didn't bumped into him. After that class I went to the CSL Orientation (Certified Student Leadership Program). So for this program I need a coach to kind of mentor me, and I'm very introvert when it comes to new people so I asked Justin Fitzgerald, hi is the coordinator of the Civic Engagement program and he said he was honored :) After that I met with David to start the poster for our Chemistry Lab presentation, Victoria and Ricardo were not there. Ricardo it makes sense because he has to work but why didn't Victoria show up? Well, I worked with David. Strangely he was kind of pleasant today, it may be because he forgot to take his ADHD pill and was all hyper and stuff. I ended up doing most of the work but that's okay, I kind of wanted to be in charge. He also told me the clases for Spring 2014 were just scheduled so at 10:30 I began doing my new schedule, it ended up pretty well, I have no classes on Thursdays and just one class on Tuesdays. I'm just taking four classes next semester (Calculus II, Physics I, Physics Lab I and Economics for Engineers), which is good because next on the summer I'll be taking a couple more in Florence (maybe).

I now love french toast, I don't know if I have never had french toast but I just love having them for breakfast. Every morning if there are no bananas or apples I eat a french toast. Anyway, today was a boring day, the only exciting part was that I donated blood! I saw the bus and went straight into it, they pinched my finger and measured I don't know what. It hurt a little and I felt kind of clumsy and tired afterwards but I was wearing my bandage with pride. They gave me two t-shirts and a $10 gift card from IKEA. I really want to do it again but not in the near future because it really drained me. At night I met with David and Victoria to do the poster, it didn't come out as I wanted but what kind I do? They are not Alex or Ambar or Zhanzhy... I also had to go to a American Studies screening about a very boring movie. These movies of the 50s, today I saw "The Manchrian Candidate". The thing about these movies are that they are related to their background history because at that time the study of the mind was very popular.

On Thursday I delivered my Chemistry lab speech, I was really REALLY nervous and that gave me stomach ache, and it really hurt because I had eggs and milk for breakfast. The milk really had that factor that made me sick, still, I said my speech all right and I didn't forget a thing. After lab I went to the bookstore because they had a flash sale today on all hoodies and sweatpants so I bought myself a sweatshirt and I bought Jose David a hoodie because he had asked for one. I lunched some pasta with meatballs and that worsen my stomach ache to the extend it still hurt when I was sitting down. Despite the pain I had to get on the bus and go to the Metropolitan Ministry to do my first volunteering session. The first half of the ride I felt really really bad, the second half was a little bit better though. When I got there and got assigned my tasks the pain went away. I met really nice people, Juan and Daniel, both from Venezuela. I chop onions and peppers, fixed over a hundred sandwiches, and cleaned the fridge. Yeah, those storage freezers that you an get trap into if you close the door haha. Juan offered me some dinner from the buffet and I enjoyed some nuggets and fries, I also had a juice with a very particular (in the good way) flavor, it was strawberry-kiwi-banana :) The ride back was really tiring, I felt asleep a couple of times. Back here I watched x-factor and chilled for a while, after that I hung out with Peyton, Chelsi and Kaitlyn.

On Friday I had some breakfast, and they have not had french toasts for two days now :( they had bacon though, but it was kind of thick and greasy and yucky! Armando wants me to go to this dancing thing at the MSC tonight haha, if only he knew I'm so not a dancer. On Chemistry I forgot my clicker and I loose a couple of points :( I've been waiting for this weekend for a long time, a weekend where I don't have to wake up early or do anything other than a couple of school related work. After American Studies I went to Armando's because I was having trouble with my chemistry homework and we finished it, I had a good time :) I ended the night watching Grey's Anatomy, X Factor, and finishing up "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling and I give it 4.7 stars.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Downside on Book Series

I just finished reading "The Mark of Athena", book #3 of the "Heroes of Olympus" series which is a sequel to the series of "Percy Jackson and the Olympian Gods" by Rick Riordan. Over the past 8 months I've been reading like a maniac, and lots of the books I've read are not done yet. I hate to start reading a series and have to wait half a year or more to the sequel.

Among the books I'm waiting for are:

"The Fall of Five" of the "I am Number Four" series by Pittacus Lore - August 27th, 2013
The third book of the "Michael Vey" trilogy by Richard Paul Evans - September 17th, 2013
"Emerald Green", the third book of the "Ruby Red" trilogy by Kerstin Gier - October 8th, 2013
"House of Hades", the last book (I think, hope not) of the "Heroes of Olympus" series by Rick Riordan - October 8th, 2013
"Allegiant", the third book of the "Divergent" series by Veronica Roth - October 22nd, 2013
"The Edge of Always", the sequel of "The Edge of Never" by J.A. Redmerski - November 5th, 2013
"Be With Me", the sequel of "Wait for You" by J. Lynn - February 4th, 2014
The third book of the "Avoiding" series by K.A. Linde - unknown release date

These are all the books I'm impatiently waiting for. The Downside about having to wait until these books are released is that one can forget details, passion, and even the trance you are when you are reading a series. What I hate the most is to lose my passion and affection for the characters. I just hope that by the time these books get published I'll still have the need to know what the hell happened.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Week #15 (08/05/2013 - 08/11/2013)

Monday was a torture day! I had to go to the dentist which I hate, and it was my first check up in a long long time. I had a couple of cavities and they were concerned about my wisdom teeth. It's the first time I've had a cavity D: Since I'm on vacations we decided to do the filling that same day after lunch, it was a little bit painful but they hook me up to anesthesia the whole time. The dentist told me to stop drinking so much soda, which is definitely a motivation to stop doing it because I've been wanting to quit for a long time now. Rod came by to hang out and we mostly cuddled and watched TV. We also ate ice cream :3

Tuesday was a lazy day, I woke up around 9 in the morning and did nothing until 1 PM (nothing = Youtube and Hay Day). I had to go to the dentist again for "maintenance" I don't know what the hell they did in my mouth haha. Anyway, the dentist told me that either I could get my wisdom teeth taken out, all four of them this week or I could wait until December. The thing is that right now I don't have any roots so if by December I have them it would be a little more painful and complicated so I'm going by this week. I really wanted it to be in December because I'm leaving in less than two weeks and I definitely feel a stress. I don't know if I mentioned it before but I finished "The Lost Hero" by Rick Riordan over then weekend (I give it 4 stars, it needed more Percy), and right now I'm reading book #2: "The Son of Neptune" which is basically Percy's side of the story. I also watched the season finale of The Bachelorette, and it's the first Bachelor/Bachelorette I've watch. Desire chose Chris and I was so happy! I was on Chris's team since almost the beginning.

Wednesday started off with good news! Summer Term's grade have finally been uploaded to blackboard!

That gives me a total GPA of 3.72, counting my Spring and Summer Term. My goal is to never go below 3.50 :) For lunch mom bough McDonald's.. which I don't understand because we have food in our fridge! And lately every time I eat McNuggets I get stomachache which is a good thing because that prevents me from eating so much junk food. I finished reading "The Son of Neptune", the second book of the "Heroes of Olympus" series, and now I'm reading book #3: "The Mark of Athena". I also started packing! I couldn't delay more what was evidently coming. I packed things I know I won't be needing for the next 10 days, and I've filled half of a carry on bag, and half of a normal size bag.

Look at those clouds omg, the sky was like this around
5 PM. However, it never rained.

On Thursday I did Rod a favor and went to one of his final assignments, a conference, to take pictures. It wasn't boring at all, three adults gave a speech about their outcomes from being from USMA and working in the real world with an Industrial Engineering title. I took some great shots (you can see the photos here), but it was a little awkward because Rod introduced me to a couple of his friends and not to everybody. I dressed very professional with a white shirt, black pants and well.. converse haha. After the conference Rod and I went for dinner to Burger King, we would have gone to a nicer place but neither of us had money on that time.

Friday was definitely the worst dentist visit ever! I got my wisdom teeth taken out, it didn't hurt at all at the dentist but at home I got the most severe pain I've had in my mouth. I kept bleeding when I got home and was worried it was an hemorrhage but the bleeding stopped after a nap. Okay.. I retract what I said, I'm still bleeding but not a big deal. It's 6 PM and my cheeks hurt like never before. I ended the night having some chicken soup for dinner, and also I got better handling my pain.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Book Review: Percy Jackson and The Olympians Series

Last week I started reading the first book: "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief". Before reading these series all I knew about them was a blurry memory of the movie. The book is totally different from the movie and I made a comment about that in this POST. I finished the whole series (five books) in two weeks, and I consider that fast because I usually take half a week to a whole week to read one book, specially these ones because they are over 300 pages. All five books had the perfect amount of action and mystery, maybe the one thing that lacked over the first four books was romance, however it's acceptable because at the beginning Percy was only 12. The last book had a lot of action and the battle took about 80% of the book! Every quest was well written and planned, the characters were hilarious (specially Tyson), and the ending was perfect.

When I was reading the first book I thought Hades was the bad guy (SPOILER) however, Hades turned out to be one of the good guys. The problem that led all of this to happen began with the god's ignorance towards the importance of their children. Dyonisious turned out to be a really good guy too. The ending was very surprising, I would never have thought that Luke could become good. He was just driven by his hate until he must have realized he was wrong.

These series would've become a lot more popular if the movie had stuck to the book's plot, and if they had filmed the sequel right away rather than 3 years later.

This series have been really good, and I would totally recommend it. Next stop: The Heroes of Olympus Series. I thought these series had other characters, but I read the description of "House of Hades" (book 4) and it mentioned Percy. So now I'm really excited to read them, just because of Percy and Annabeth. I really fell in love with those too.

I can't get over the fact that I laughed A LOT with these book, primarily thanks to Tyson and his childish personality. Pony! he called Chiron, Chicken Pony! he called Blackjack and Fish Pony! he called Rainbow. That's what cracked me up the most.

Books:
"Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief"
"Percy Jackson and The Sea Monsters"
"Percy Jackson and The Titan's Curse"
"Percy Jackson and The Battle of the Labyrinth"
"Percy Jackson and The Last Olympian"

Friday, July 19, 2013

Week #12 (07/15/2013 - 07/21/2013)

How many times have I set an alarm early in the morning to get up and finish my homework early? TONS. And how many times have I actually woken up and did them? NONE. Yeah, those are usually my Mondays and Wednesdays since I have them free. This morning though I had to go to the bank for some errands with both of my parents, then we stopped by McDonald's and I had fried chicken. When we got home I watched my daily YouTube vlogs and also Tyler Oakley and JacksGap's new videos. Tyler's was from his trip to England. I want so badly to go to England. I finished my English essay before 2 PM and it was one of the hardest essays I've had to do. It was about Buchanan's assumptions in immigration - boring stuff. I also finished over the weekend the book "One Tiny Lie" by K. A. Tucker and now I'm reading "Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan. I gave 4 stars to "One Tiny Lie", it was not as great as the first book "Ten Tiny Breaths", but I liked it overall. The Percy Jackson book has been really interesting. Usually the beginning of the book is what takes me the most because it usually starts slow; however, I read more than 30% of the book in one sitting. I was getting bored of romantic books, so now I'm back to fiction :) Oh my God, how crazy is it that I got a comment replied by Missy (from "Bumps Along the Way" and "Daily Bumps")? She was commenting about the pain she had in her ribs due to the weird shape of her uterus and I commented:

It's the first time something like this happens, besides the RTs from Diego de Obaldia of QuienTV. I'm really procrastinating, like big time. I have not studied for any of my tests I have on Tuesday and I hope I won't be this lazy on USF. I found this song that somebody posted on my Facebook TL and its an original song: Going. It is very relaxing, there's something odd with the percussion but I like it :)

On Tuesday I ran into Mafe Wong at FSU, and I feel so sad and disapointed with myself. How can I be so stupid, dumb, and stupid times 100? I feel so below the social and intellectual status people around me usually are. Besides that, I HATE MY PARENTS, not hate them, but actually their actions and decisions. They won't let me go to Coronado because they feel a bad vibe.. I mean, I'm 18 years old and have proven to be very responsible and smart. Can't I just have fun one of my last weekends with my friends at the beach? It's not like we are going alone, or that I'm going to drink alcohol, I'm not even going to get into the ocean because I'm afraid of it. It's late and I confronted my parents as to why I wasn't allowed to go, I confronted them individually. Obviously being more tendered on my dad because one: I'm afraid of him, and two: because I'm daddy's little girl. So the thing is, my dad's okay with me going, the issue is my mom. Dad says she's being overprotective, and I hate it! Changing subjects, I can't believe I read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief in less than two days! It's the first time I read a book so fast in a couple of months. And it wasn't a short book or anything, I usually take up to two days on books a little over 200 pages and about a week on books over 300, and this book was over 350 pages. I'm now off to book #2: Percy Jackson and the Sea Monsters by Rick Riordan.

It's Wednesday and I finally have my new roommate assigned, her name is Kaitlyn and I just friended her on Facebook. I hope she likes me because I'm so apprehensive about making friends in college. Funny thing happened, like I mentioned on Monday I commented on a Bumps Along the Way video about Missy's pregnancy compared to Bella's, and in today's vlog she was watching Twilight: Breaking Dawn part 2, the part where Bella was pregnant. Did I make that happen? Lol. I can't believe is barely Wednesday, I feel like it's Friday already. The week is passing way too slow. I got to finish my math homework in no time and also did my draft #2 of my research paper which is due to Friday, I almost did my English homework due for next week... Almost. Rod's going to cancel the beach trip to Coronado since I won't go, and Ambar's kind of uncomfortable with Alfonso going; so I don't feel so bad about all this trouble since it's not going to happen. I'm craving of doing a photo shoot so bad, maybe I'll ask Patty or anyone to do it.

Thursday was fine except that people told me there was a trigonometry homework for today and I had only one hour to finish it on the computers upstairs. Because there's something wrong with my username I asked Edward Mackay (Cristy's brother in law, I think) for help. I started doing my homework and was a little over half way through when a pop up said I had no time left, I finished at 66% and my homework average drop to 92%. I'm so mad at that guy because he uploaded the homework merely hours before it was due. Today I also discovered Edgar (my trig buddy) lives near me, and how funny is it that today I literally followed him on the way home. Not following him on purpose but we take the same route back home. I also drew some sketches including this one of my grandma when we were in Seattle.

I drew her head kind of fat, not on purpose tho.

Friday morning I woke up at 9 AM because I had to turn in an English paper, I drove all the way to FSU to find out that I had to turn in the draft too.. there goes my gas money, the professor let me turn it in on Monday so I wouldn't have to come back again. So Alex just told me that she's going to Penn State next January which is super exciting! I admit it, I was a little jealous but I'm glad I chose USF because I'd be saving tons of money for tuition since I got the scholarship. Also, I would likely get Cs or Ds at Penn State.. Why pay so much if I'm going to be qualified as a mediocre. Anyway, I'm so happy for Alex because I know she will survive and experience what she's dreamed of. I'll stick to my goal of being a magma-whatever-it's-name-is and go to a good college for my masters. I finally bought my student annual pass for Busch Gardens! It was only $50 compared to the $200+ of a normal annual pass. I'm not sure which privileges I get with this pass though. And I scored another friend, booyah! Her name is Grace and she added me on Facebook a couple of days ago and she's chatting with me right now. How cool is that she's also majoring in Engineering!? At night I looked again at my classes and arranged my classes for this Fall, hope all the classes I want at the time I want are available. I would literally die if things don't work out as planned.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Movie vs. Book: Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief

I saw the movie years ago, and just finished the book today. I started watching the movie again to remember how was it to compare it with the book, and it definitely changed the MINUTE it started, no kidding. The movie started off Zeus accusing Poseidon's son of being a thief. In the book we don't don't whose Percy's father until chapters ahead (off course you should know by the book cover or the description). There's no Clarisse, the capture the flag teams are totally different, the whole plot is different. The search of the pearls that appear on the movie is going to another level on difference, in the book they are just trying to get to California and the pearls are a gift from Percy's father. I didn't finish watching the movie because I thought it wasn't worth it, besides the fact that I've already seen it. There are a few exceptions on movies being better than book, this wasn't one tho.

Book wins!

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Week #11 (07/08/2013 - 07/14/2013)

So on Monday I made my daily smoothie, but used organic blueberries instead of the other ones. It tastes so much different and it's definitively more tasty. I'll keep buying organic blueberries and maybe perhaps buy organic strawberries too. I spent the WHOLE day doing homework, and let me tell you it feels AMAZING to have finished before 10 PM. Obviously I didn't do homework the entire time, I watched some Youtube and played Hay Day in between. I heard the new song by Willow Smith: "Summer Fling" and it's really good compared to her previous work, it's very: Cali.

Tuesday! Was so boring... I was in 9gag the whole PreCalc class haha. English was fun though, because I made the Essay #4's Draft (which was optional) and the professor was very excited. I mean, I was the only one who turned in the draft and he was comparing me to everybody, lol. I like being exhibited and putting my shy face, it makes me feel responsible. The professor said this at class and I quote "All of you are slackers! While Miss Kam was the only responsible one" it was so hilarious. I don't mean it in a rude way because the essay was optional and the "slackers" didn't get point taken for not doing it, but I do hope the professor gives me some credit for turning it early. I spent 4 days making the essay, it better be good. Today was the cookout at FSU, and I didn't go as expected. However, I ran into Diana who told me she was going to be there for something to do with AEISEC (?) and I picked her up and went to lunch with her at The Plaza. I catch up with her while eating four slices of pizza. After lunch I went to Trig class and well.. did the usual: NOTHING. When I came back home I read a little (progress: 56% of One Tiny Lie by K. A. Tucker), watched some Youtube (becoming SUPER ADDICTED) and tried to do my Trig homework for Thursday. At night I decided to make a video. What's trending right now is doing videos of you talking by drawing something, and I did that with one of my poems: I Will Stand. Here's the video: Draw My Poem: I Will Stand. I'm really happy with the product, I can't wait to have my MacBook Pro and start making more videos.

It's Wednesday and I'm still pretty happy with my video :) I went to the movies and saw DESPICABLE ME 2! and it was the most awesome movie I've ever seen in my entire life! I laughed the whole movie and I'll definitely buy the DVD. I went with Alex, Zhanzhy and Christian and we all had a great time together. I bought a Happy Meal at McDonald's because of the Minion's toys and so did Zhanzhy. After the movie we were at the food court entertaining ourselves with the toys, it was so funny, Zhanzhy's Minion kept falling from the skateboard while mine didn't. I miss Rod :( I haven't seen him in a while, he's coming Thursday to my house though. We also ran into Brandon and his girlfriend in the mall, and it was so awkward haha, not for me but for Alex. I was laughing to hard in the inside. 8 PM and I still haven't taken a look at my PreCalc notebook. I did my Trig homework in the morning tho. I love my Minion toy! I'll even take it to Tampa if it fits in my baggage. So my mom just booked the hotel she's gonna be staying in for my first couple of weeks at Tampa, it's a La Quinta. We've always chosen that brand when we travel because it's a good balance between price and quality. Besides, she's going to be staying in a hotel for two whole weeks. If it were for like a weekend I bet she would've chosen Embassy Suites.

I did my third Pre Calculus Exam on Thursday and am absolutely certain I got an A, the funny thing though is that I didn't study a bit! I just took my notebook and wrote down the formulas, read them one time before the test and aced it. The day was really REALLY cold, when I woke up the sky was really gray and about to rain. At FSU when I finished my Exam I took a look at the window and it was black! I was like wow, when did it turn so dark all of a sudden. I must have not noticed because I was really focused on the exam. It was really cold at FSU and luckily for me I decided no to bring my jacket that day. Oh yeah, funny thing happened Wednesday night. I reached to Hannah (USF roommate) because it had been a long time since we don't talk and I don't wanna lose that bond we have. And we were bonding talking about Nintendo and Despicable Me and then she says "Oh yeah, I've been accepted to the Global Citizen LLC Community. I wish we could've still been roommates though, we need to hang out and stuff. You are really cool!". I got shocked by the fact she told me I was cool, but was saddened that she would be leaving :( The good side of this is that I checked on the internet and it says that I've got no roommate, does that mean that I'll have my own room? :D There's a USF Class of 2017 at Facebook and I just joined in. I typed "Any Latinos here? :)" The first comments were very rude and racist, like "None at all" or "Spaniard don't know how to colonize" or that "Latinos are worse than Native Americans" That's just plain rude! Anyway, several people responded and I got to see a couple of people from Venezuela and Mexico, one Colombian and Brazilian so far, no Panamanians besides me though. I am happy I'd be able to have Latino friends because that means we come from a similar background. Rod came to my house and we had a good time, except with the late night phone call because I was busy meeting Latinos in Facebook and I told him I was busy and he left kind of angry. I should apologize /: I did, feel much better.

Friday was a not a very interesting day, I spend the whole day literally eating and trying to get some homework done. Thankfully I finished my trigonometry homework, and I don't mean it as I was too lazy but that I didn't understand at all what I was doing. I used the voodoo mathematics method. I feel like a pig for eating so much, I didn't drink soda though. It's the second day in a row I don't drink soda, however I did drink grape juice and a smoothie today. I found a very fun Smoothie Challenge by Joey Graceffa and Sam Pepper and I think I'll do that with Rod :) At the end of the day I talked on the phone with Rod and we had a very interesting and fun talk. We talked about his and my future business, his a burger shop and mine a recording studio.

On Saturday we did kind of a surprise birthday party for Keny because he'll be leaving for Canada next month, and this would be his last birthday with us. We bought bites of BBQ from Lenos y Carbon, and we bought a little bit more than needed. Andrew, Vivianne and I went shopping for the food, the cake, the drinks and the ice on the morning and the people came around at two to my house. We had a great time playing Heads Up on my iPad and talking and stuff. For next week we have planned a beach trip to Rod's house in Coronado, and I asked my mom if I could go and she was very skeptical which is worrying me because the whole point of this trip was for me to go because I'll be leaving next month too. She said she had to ask my dad, and I'm pretty sure he won't be happy with that. I don't know why my mom thinks I would have sex, or drink, or do any irresponsible thing. If she only knew I don't like doing any of those things, sigh. It's just like if she doesn't trust me, and that hurts. Also John got awarded with Taiwan's scholarship and my mom won't shut up about it, it's so SO annoying. It's like she's more excited for him than me, and also she now wants to go to Taiwan since John's gonna be there. FML.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Week #10 (07/01/13 - 07/07/13)

It's finally July!! Way past half the year! What about that? Oh my God this year has gone so fast, I can't believe next month I'll be moving out of my country! I can't believe this is my last month at FSU. July's not gonna be a very active month, rather a very busy one due to college and stuff.

On Monday I finished "Beautiful Disaster" by Jamie McGuire and I literally gave it 5 stars! I said when I was halfway through the book that how can it get more interesting if the happy ending already happen on the middle of the book. Wrong was I, the story got more complicated and I liked it a lot. Now I'm gonna star reading "One Tiny Lie" by K. A. Tucker which is the sequel to "Ten Tiny Breaths", now this one is the sequel to the little sister's life when she's off to Princeton. This should be exciting. Now that I'm going off to college I like to read novels related to college, I feel related to them. The rest of the day I played Hay Day and did a paper due Tuesday, as always at last minute. Also a very big bird landed on my window! It's called Gallinazo here in Panama. It was HUGE, it's the second time I've seen one of these at home. The first time it was in front of my car and I realized when I got in and totally froze. This bird was bigger than my printer! And when he landed it had its wings all open. Traumatic. Also the total calories I consumed is humongous, I feel so bad. I didn't even realized I ate so much. I guess this is the purpose of counting your calories and I discovered that eating Mac and Cheese is not good. I consumed 2443 calories in total D: I also finished my paper in record time, I finished before 8:30 and I started today at around 5 or 4!

On Tuesday we went on a field trip to the library so they could teach us how to use the university's data base for our Final Paper (the research paper). After trigonometry, which was endless, I went for a froyo with Alex and bumped with my mom and that since they were picking me up because dad was using my car. I don't get why I couldn't use my car if my dad and mom went together to pick me up. At home I napped, read, and did nothing else at all; later at night I was curious if there was any photography course at USF because I have some spaces in blank - 3 spaces - and it turns out there is! Photography for beginners, Intermediate Photography, Advanced Photography and Special Topics Photography. It's so awesome that I can get to fill my blanks with subjects I like, there's also Keyboard Skills I so I can learn how to play the piano. How awesome is that? I think I'm going to take Photography I my second semester and then leave the other ones for my blank spaces in my last year, so that I can have some relaxation classes. Nothing is definite yet, but I do hope it works the way I'm planning. Countdown until Tampa from now: 46 days :)

On Wednesday I woke up at 8 AM and fell asleep again, that compared to the days when I woke up at 3 PM is such an improvement. It means that I'm getting used to waking up at 7 AM for classes. Alex came by because she had a lunch with some of her other friends nearby and it was easier for her to come here instead of her home. She came at noon and we hung out in the afternoon until 4 PM. Christian also came along, and I had forgotten how funny Christian was. I had a great time teasing Alex and laughing with them. I miss Rod :( it's been a while since I don't see him, I miss him so much. Lately our phone calls have been very short because we are both tired from college and doing homework. For dinner I had sushi from Sushi Express, a breaded roll. I'm always craving sushi but when I get it and am halfway through it I get sick of it, it's so weird. I think that's because there's took much of it. 9 PM and I still haven't studied for Thursday's English quiz :)

Thursday was a rough morning for me, I can't wait to go to Tampa and don't have to drive myself to school. I have tons of homework for next week, I'm gonna literally die from stress. At lunch I bumped with Alex at the library and we went together to the classroom, and she told me some gossip I'm really not content about... That saddened me the rest of the day. After class I stopped by Blockbuster to rent a movie and Rod was there to meet me, we spent like an hour searching for the right movie and ended up picking A Thousand Words starring Eddie Murphy. We stopped by McDonald's to buy some lunch and we used his discount from being from USMA. When we got to his house and decided to watch the movie we realized we left it in the car! And my car as at my place, so we would have to walk all the way there to get it so we decided to watch something online. We clicked on Spring Breakers starring Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudson, but the beginning was so sexual we paused it and started watching YouTube videos. Ricci, Rod's little brother, was bugging us all day. I was fine with it but it was getting into Rod's nerves. How cute that he now can greet you and say good bye, and count to 15 and also sing! It was so cute. Anyway, Rod was pretty pissed and that actually ruined our hang out. At the end of the day when he dropped me off, he was feeling ashamed and I was mad at him for ruining the day but I said something funny and we both laughed and that kind of lifted the tension and we were laughing. I love that even when we are mad, we can laugh at ourselves and be happy again. More than a couple of friends of mine applied for a Taiwan Scholarship, which usually awards people from my school because we are linked with Taiwan. But this year they only granted two and it was because Alhan and Sandra were the three highest positions at school, and those scholarships were set in stone. I thought my friends were going to get it, I'm really sad :( This year the scholarships organizations have been granting less and less scholarships than past years. I know how they feel, I mean, I lost a scholarship too with SENACYT; and let me tell you those people are VERY DISORGANIZED. They only thought that helps me through is that bigger things are waiting for me and I'll show them wrong.

Friday was errands day, I woke up at noon and head out to pick up my passport. I finally have my Visa for college! No more paper work until orientation, YES! After that we stopped by the bank to get a new credit card for me for college; however, we didn't get anything done because my dad is the account's administrator and he's at the mine until the week after next. So funny what happened at the bank, here you can check it out: Spreading Joy? I also started with my Research Paper about the History of Lego, and so far so good. I hate research papers because you have to search and search and cite, and too much stuff compared to personal essays in which you just write. It's 10 PM and I've got 4 and a half pages from my 10 pages Research Paper. What am I going to do? I have only one more bullet to address and the conclusion, and that's not going to occupy more than 5 pages. I need to come up with more bullets or expand what I already have. I'm in trouble :( Close to midnight I was curious about the Lego collection I had, and went to the room it was to check it out. I was all dusty but other than that in perfect conditions. I moved them to my room and started playing for like an hour. I forgot how cool was playing with Legos, it's such a shame that I didn't had enough to keep building stuff.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Week #4 - Summer Term Begins.. (05/13/2013 - 05/19/2013)

Monday I had my first class of summer term: Public Speaking, at 10:30 A.M. That's the only class I have on Mondays and Wednesdays thank God, because it felt soooo loooongggg D: I could have died and resurrected on that frame of time twice. I volunteered third to say my speech. It was a speech about me. And I began: "Who am I? You don't know me and I may not even know myself. But what I do know is that.. I'm Gay! - no ha ha just kidding - What I really do know, besides that I'm straight, is that I like everything blue, I'm into photography, and I'm very adventurous" Then comes some nonsense about questions and opinions and then I had to tell an anecdote: "As I told you, I'm very adventurous, and one time I was in my beach house with my cousins and we decided to go explore in the woods (BTW. It as Holy Week). Usually we went with our bikes, but this time we went walking. Suddenly three pairs of red eyes stood out of the dark, and we hear barking and growling. So we ran towards our house, we could hear them behind us, but when we arrive home and turned around they were gone! It was the scariest night of my life". And then more nonsense and that was it.

Tuesday was a very exhausting day! Panama's been saving electric energy because our lakes are getting empty; therefore, malls, universities and schools, super markets, everywhere.. is air-conditioner-shortaged. So I arrived to Florida State University at 8:30 A.M. for my Pre Calculus class; oh God, I know it's bad to mock people or judge them or anything, but my precalc professor speaks so so so weird! He pronounces words with a very unusual accent. Maybe Hindu? The case is everybody was struggling just with understanding what he was saying, let alone how to do the math problem. At 10 A.M. I went to ENC 1102, I liked this professor. He's funny and easy to follow. Easy-to-follow professors are very hard to find these days. And finally after a long day I came to my last class, surpriseee! Everybody signed up because it was taught by a very cool professor... Turns he changed place with another guy, and this one's totally the opposite. What to do when you finally have something you want and it's taken away from you just like that?

On Wednesday I had again a Public Speaking class... not to be premature but I'm starting to dislike it. I know I'll need it in my professional life, but somehow when I get a professor I do not like I tend to dislike the subject because I relate everything that has to do with the subject with him or her. Besides college, I also read "The Rise of the Elgen" (Michael Vey #2) by Richard Paul Evans. I still have about 40 pages to go or so, and so far it's been amazing! Oh my God, Evans has such a creativity in what has to do with torture systems, or maybe not creativity but also knowledge of the mind power. I rate this book so far 5 stars, seriously. Finally at the end of the day I went to MMA. My previous professor had to leave due to his other work schedule problems, and he left HIS sensei in charge of us. I don't like this new professor's technique so much.. I miss my old sensei. The new one doesn't pay as much attention to details as the previous one, and always leaves me behind because I'm the only girl.

Thursday started of by a sleepy Pre Calculus class, off to a boring English class and ending off in a dull Trigonometry class. I decided to drop Public Speaking, because I feel like I got too much load on my back. And I also finished reading "The Rise of the Elgen" (Michael Vey #2) by Richard Paul Evans, the ending was so cliff hanger. Some recommendations: if you don't like cliff hangers don't read these books until the series are complete, "Red Ruby" by Kerstin Gier (worst cliff hanger of all time), "Avoiding Resposibility" by K. A. Linde was not much of a cliff hanger but it left me curios, and "The Rise of the Elgen" by Richard Paul Evans. At night I finished my English homework, which took me 4 hours! Not of effort I mean ha ha, it's very hard for me to concentrate.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Good Reads #2

For most of you is summer time! How exciting? Well not for me, I enrolled in summer term. Nevertheless, I still read quite a lot. And here are some readings I would like to share with you:

This name will sound totally bizarre and it's not one of those, let's call them cliche book, those who become famous and have a movie and so on. This book was written in 2009 and it's called "Tales of the Madman Underground" by John Barnes. It took me more than my average time to finish this book, besides that is over 500 pages, I had a really rough week that week. So back to the book, is about a group of teenagers who call themselves the Madmen Underground, this group was created in school to help children that had problems or act abnormal in class. The truth is, they do have problems at home, but the group never changed a thing because the instructors where, well... incompetent. This book narrates the story of Karl Shoemaker and peeks into everybody in the group's troubles. I learned a lot of humble from this book. It reminded me a little bit of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", they don't have as much similarities but still.

Book #2 I recommend is called "The Edge of Never" by J. A. Redmerski (btw. just dicovered that it has a second part, I'll be giving you feedback of this one later when it's published). This book is not the normal romantic novels in which the boy meets the girl in school and they both have superpowers or whatever and they fall in love and more BS. I liked this book because the place they met was unusual, the activities they did were too. I mean they were on the road. I think a story is more exciting if it's on the road rather than a specific place. This book was one of the first ones I read after my three year long reading break, and I totally fell in love with it. The end was super shocking (in an amazing way) and I'm super excited to read the sequel. In conclusion, this book is very different from those you've read, and it'd worth a shot.

And finally, book #3, for the fans of superpowers and heroes, is the Lorien Legacies. The Lorien Legacies consist of four books so far: "I Am Number Four", "The Power of Six, " The Rise of Nine" and soon to come out "The Fall of Five" by Pittacus Lore. I actually watched the movie several years ago, but as every reader tells you: the books are so much better than the actual movie. In this case the movie changed a lot of things. One thing I don't like about movies based on books is that most of the time they skip the very beginning of the book; usually the beginning of the book is the principal telling you his story, how he or she got there or just a peek of their personal thoughts.
I actually discovered the book after I saw a movie, and I was in no intention to read the series. But one day at Target, I was searching for the Divergent series in hardcover so I could have it in my bookshelf additionally to the kindle version I have. And as I was walking through the aisle an old lady saw me taking a book: "Free Four", which was a little extension of Divergent; and asked me if that was part of the Lorien Legacies. I politely said no, and recommended the Divergent series, because the old lady was looking for something to read. As I recommended her my favorite book at the time she did the same, and I ended up purchasing "I Am Number Four".This book is about a group of alien kids than come from a just-destructed-planet, and their mission is to stay alive and develop their powers. They are distributed all over the world (initially only 9 kids), and their enemies are on the hunt for them. The thing is: they can only kill them in order, that is 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on. This book was very very good, and for fiction fans this would be like the next Harry Potter (but not as great OBVIOUSLY).

Friday, May 10, 2013

Good Reads

Here are some books I recommend for this month of May:

"Wait For You" by J. Lynn is about a freshman who decided to leave her hometown in Texas and go to an out of state college. She decided to leave due to reasons of her past (boy problems), and she had no intend to have a relationship in her new life. However, she met Cam. Cam is so so so so sweet! I fell in love with him. Their love story is amazing. I give this book 4.8 stars.

"Avoiding Commitment" by K. A. Linde is somehow like "Wait For You", somehow in the sense that their present lives are affected by their past actions. However, I liked better "Avoiding Commitment". This story was so much original, and captivating. "Avoiding Commitment" as a sequel: "Avoiding Resposibility", which if you read the first book I'm sure you won't resist reading the sequel. I give this book 5.5 stars out of 5! I won't tell you who I fell in love with, because that would spoil you so bad.

And if you are tired of silly romances and want some goddamn action on your readings, here is: "Divergent" by Veronica Roth. I read "Divergent" on December 2012, and every time someone asks me for a recommendation I recommend this book. Personally I didn't like "The Hunger Games" that much, and I would definitely choose "Divergent" over "The Hunger Games". Divergent is about a society divided into different sections depending on your personality. Amity (friendly), Erudite (knowledge), Dauntless (brave), Candor (honesty) and Abnegation (selfless). A war develops because the bad guys are trying to eradicate those who can qualify in more than one section (divergent). I'm into romances a bit more than action novels, but this was definitely a 5 star.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Week #1 (04/22/2013 - 04/28/2013)

So, this week began with the culmination of my video. I made a music video for my English Final Project. You can see the lyrics here: http://pitstoptowonderland.blogspot.com/2013/04/im-freshman-and-my-enc-1101-final.html

The week started off good, I got a 95 in my Psychology quiz and an 80 in my Math quiz. In between my free time I saw the Kardashian Special with Ryan Seacrest and Married to Jonas (I'm a fan of reality shows). I also like series like Glee, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl.. and more. But I hate when they just decide to skip the week.. I also started reading another book since I finished "Jesus is _____." by Judah Smith. I'm reading "The Prisoner of Cell 25" by Richard Paul Evans. So long, very very VERY interesting. It's similar to the series of "I Am Number Four", the Lorien Legacies.

On Monday I went to my second class of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). This time wasn't as awful as the first time. My first time I almost fainted, and my muscles hurt all week long; however, this week we weren't put through the same as last week. We did more technical stuff than physical. Now I know two Jiu Jitsu locks and a little bit of Muay Thai and Kickboxing. I LOVE IT! And beware, because I'm all about getting better.

On Tuesday I went for a run on my rooftop. I love running around 5 or 6 o'clock when the sun is setting and the wind blowing. When there's still light but it's also a little dark. Today was the first day I ran after 17 days of procrastination, and as I suspected I was going to be in awful conditions. Today I ran 3.4 km, when I normally run 4.25 km.

Wednesday was my last day of Psychology 2012 and ENC 1101 this Spring Term. I feel so not ready for the exams next week, any tip to ace them without stress? I also wento to class #3 of MMA! Gosh! Today we did a lot of locks. Let me tell you: it's so disgusting to do this when your partner is all sweaty. Yuck! And when the day was coming to an end, I finished the book I was reading: "The Prisoner of Cell 25" I liked the drama and the characters; however, the final battle seemed a little too boring for me. Next book: "It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini. I love to read at midnight just before falling asleep. (Add me on goodreads! Stacy Kam)

Finally Saturday! Bought 8 tickets for Iron Man 3, for me and my friends. Sat on the back row, my seat was on the corner. The lights came off and Tony Stark's voice came through the speakers. It was AWESOME. I'm an Iron Man fan since day one. The battle was so surreal, and Robert Downey Jr's performance was off the hook. I love his awesomeness on screen, his cockiness; but I could also feel his love for Pepper Potts. I give this movie 5 STARS. Now I'm waiting for Thor 2 and The Avengers 2.

This looks so funny. Wish I had a Mark, sigh.

And this, was my week. Week #1 on my blog. I love making these posts, because not only I write what I've done this week; I also relive it.

Get yourselves ready because next week are the Final Exams. Woohoo..

Pit Stop to Wonderland

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