Things I never thought would happen

Grandparents are the best. They listen, love to give presents, and best of all ... when they get excited it puts everyone in a great mood. that's what happened this past christmas. My grandparents are stepping into the 21st century and going digital. They've just bought a Dell Laptop and are getting internet access. Amazing. .. I remember years ago, at the Centellas house, talking with my brothers about webpages, digiatl cameras, laptops, while my grandparents sat by. Just nodding, trying to follow the conversation with smiles. But this is just funny .... let me give you the run down of the items my grandparents got for christmas.

1) HP Photo quality printer - USB compatible... I'm sure that ment a lot to them. ;)
2) A pack of floppies (High density and assorted colors). ... (This is great because my granparents do not know the difference between DVDs, CDs and Floppies, or they called them, "The Floppy")
3) 1 Digital Picture CD - from me, as a challenge ...
4) One extra Mouse ... The package said 2 button mouse.... that raised the question as to what is the difference between the buttons.
5) E-mail accounts

My grandparents are going to love all thier new gifts... but maybe we should have moved them one step at a time. The only reassurring thing, is that they have a club of computer people in Florida who are going to help them get set up. This is really great, maybe I'll catch them on IM.

Well, I missed my chance to post on Christmas but you didn't miss much. Just me stuffing my face in between deep 12 hr sleeps. I also occassionaly woke to drink, and go to the bathroom. This break I got a chance to hang with the Rents a lot more. It was really nice. :)

Tomorrow I am driving to NYC for New Year's Should be great. But for now, here are some pics of the last week.



Grandpa and Grandma opening presents




Parents house with all the Christmas Lights




My role model over break




Me opeing a present. This set replaced the ones, Miguel's Cats ruined. ;)

Everyone is traveling but ME!

Ok, I'm happy for Sam, Miguel and Saloumeh ... it's just that they've given me the itch. The traveler's itch. I wanna be in the sun, getting tan, eating Kivon. Walking the Plaza, looking into the trees hoping to spot a sloth. I wanna be suba diving and scaring Nemo, go on under water adventuers, meet turtles that talk like surfers. I know I've had my share of travels over the last couple of years, but the world is big. The more you travel, the bigger it gets. It gets bigger becuase you learn of some many more places. Places to spend days, and weeks before you can really say. .. "Yea, I've been there" ..

That brings me back to Santa Cruz. That's how I feel about our little Home town (over 1 million poeple). You have to spend days in Santa Cruz to apprecaite the laid back culture and scenary. Sit in "Irish Pub" and look down at the plaza, especially after 3pm. You'll see an endless number of students in white uniforms running around. Boys trying to talk to the Little Crucenas, everyone with thier books held under thier arms. Street vendors hustling icecreams under .50 cents. Money traders on corner, talking about the days events. Extra Micros running to take every back to their homes. Sam and Miguel enjoy!

Saloumeh... stuck on the little island of St. John. Scuba diving everyday ... ... Everything feels so close on a island, you swear you can always hear the waves crashing to shore. If you wake up early, you can catch flocks of storks hunting for fish. The sky is always Blue and the water, ... is so clear and warm. YOU ARE SO LUCKY!

Anywho, the weekend before everyone left (Except Miguel whose has been in Bolivia since August) we took some pictures.

Here's Saloumeh and I at club excel. I actually worked security that night and got to kick a drunk patron out. :)






Well, once again, I'm a bit jealous. But I did want to say to be safe and have fun. See you all soon.

Explain your answer!

I am not a PhD nor graduate student, unfurtunatly that makes me beneath the authorities in Statistics at MSU. The way our TA's talked to us students during the final review was out of unbelievable. Ok, I'm no expert in Stats, I never claimed to be, but I am pulling a 4.0 in the class and I have had math higher than then Calc III. This Stat class is designed for us to understand methods of testing, not how to construct Stat-Tests. Here's a little taste of the words of encouragement and guidance we recieved...

TA (Doctoral Canidate - mentioned this 4x) - "Anybody have any questions, ...... or better .... what do you want to get out of this review"

Student 1 - " I .... well .. I was hoping to go over t-test and z-tests ..."

TA - "Nope.. won't waste your time, .. not releavent for exam "

Student 1 - "But the exam covers all material "

TA - "Who do you think wrote the exam " ... "Ok ... anyone ....."

Student 2 - " ... can we maybe go over some regression"

TA - "Ok, like what"

Student 2 - " .... Multicollinearity .... I'm still a bit confused"

TA- "Ok, like what"

Student 2 - "like when it applies during regresion."

TA - "Ok, like what"

.... this went on for a bit... most students left.... then an hour into the review... the TA said , "ok , well I have exams and I was only supposed to be here for 1 hr (He showed up late). He quickily Leaves the room."

... next TA , ..

TA 2 - " walks into the room, .... very hastily, and in a loud voice says: "Ok, I am not here to lecture, give out hints to what is on the exam or work problems. Only to answer specific questions on specific problems. Please do not ask about material which answers are in the notes. These are the Rules." "Ok, first question"

.... not that bad.... but consider this is a lecture class of 500 students, this is the only review, and there is only 1 TA. ....

I know that Grad. students work hard, and I know that they are becoming experts in thier fields... but everytime I answered a question, it wasn't good enough.... it's like they didn't want anyone to succeed. On one question he just called on me.

TA - "You, your name, .... did you do this problem..."

Me - "um... yes"

TA - holding out the chalk - "Impress me"

Me - "Um ... ok"

What's the deal with that. I was just being quite. Oh well.. .. ok back to the books.

Walking before Graduation

I don't understand why Michigan State University has our graduation ceremony the weekend before finals. I'm sorry, but it just does not make any sense. I wanted to go to so many graduation parties this weekend, but since finals are on monday I couldn't. Sorry to all who I missed. James, Nance, Brett, Tyler etc... what is MSU thinking. To add to the mahiem on campus, they decide to hold a state wide Craft show at our Student Union. Our Student Union that has our better computer labs, Multicultural Center and study lounges. So ridiculous. They actually closed down the Circle.... so if you were on route to the Library or Union you couldn't get to it. ... and forget about parking. ... now don't get me wrong, I like quilts and glitter covered table decorations just as much as any college student... but couldn't we wait til after finals.

I do need to say thanks to Sam for comming. It was great to see you and talk at lunch. Brett, sorry I missed you. Now, I need to get back to the books. I have 3 finals tomorrow! Yea!

Back to Old Habbits

Ok, I'm doing it again. Old habbits, the one where I turn my cellphone off and never blog. But I'm back and better than ever. Good things are happening, despite my recent run in with a few bad happenings.

1) Turkey day was the best, my difficult routine consisted of:
1. Eat Turkey
2. Drink Pop
3. Sleep in front of T.V. on green couch.

Sometimes I mixed things up and sat in Dad's lazy boy which always has a jar of salted Nuts on the left side. But the order would be the same... when you've developed such a good routine, you need to stick to it.

Turkey day set me into chill mode ... I'm trying to get out of it right now. I need to prep for finals. Speaking of that, I need to run to class.. Peace