Nurture

Porter Robinson is one of my favorite artists of all time and he's hosting his music festival, Second Sky, again this October! I went last year and it was amazing. His music helped me all through high school and now through college with his recent album titled "Nurture". His music has a lot of different elements, but I think its easily described as Dance/Electronic. My favorite songs from that album are probably "Musician" and "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do"! But lately I've been listening to a lot of Pentakill, Avenged Sevenfold, JID, Denzel Curry, and Tyler, the Creator. Its a nice change and I do appreciate and love all kinds of different genres of music :D Yall should drop some music recs if you think we might have similar tastes!

Mirror

My favorite topic I've learnt from chapter 6 in Lab sim might be the use of  Slide zoom. I love this kind of presentation as I used to use Prezi a lot in high school, because I thought it had a fun flair that old PowerPoint did not (although I might've just not known about this function back then). I haven't used PowerPoint much this semester, but if I ever find myself needing to present anything I might just utilize this tool next time if its appropriate!

I attended the UNLV BFA Thesis Exhibit which is an event where the graduating students of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program show case their art that they've worked on all semester in a gallery on campus. It was really amazing to see the diverse and compelling displays of 2D and 3D art pieces of various mediums and styles from students soon to become professional artists. One of my close friends, Jana, was apart of this exhibit and the main reason why I attended and she had creates two pieces of carpentry titled "Mirror" another I can't quite remember the name of. They were both amazing and will be on display at the Donna Beam Gallery inside the Alta Ham Fine Arts Building until late June, Monday - Friday, 9am - 5pm if you're curious to check it out!

Pandan

TrancyAnn talked about Jamaican food in one of her blog posts and her A5 presentation and it inspired me to talk a little bit about my culture/cuisine! I'm Chinese-Filipino, but I'm not really intact with my Chinese side (or my Chamorro side). Having grown up heavily with Filipino influences, I didn't get to explore many other cuisines, but as I became more independent I got to try all kinds of things. I still want to try more and more of new and different flavors and cultures, but Filipino food will always have a special place in my heart. One of my favorite Filipino foods is a dessert and its called Buko Pandan. Buko is young coconut and Pandan is a grassy-vanilla tasting tropical plant with coconut milk and sago pearls. Its creamy and sweet and highly recommended!

Board

Lately my friends and I have been trying to lessen how much time we spend at our computers playing video games by dedicating 1 day/night a week to going out and playing board games. We like to visit Wii Play Games, and The Gaming Goat which are both super super cool shops. The Gaming Goat is more card games, board games, with a TTRPG section in the back. Its inside of the Town Square Plaza. And Wii Play Game is a bigger shop full of all kinds of stuff from CCGs, TTRPGs, board games, video games, consoles, handhelds, souvenirs, and other kinds of merch. Its found on Sahara and Rainbow behind Hash House a Go Go and McDonalds. Board games can be quite expensive but the good ones have incredible replay value so you can play again and again with different experiences even if its the same group of people!

Skate

I've been skating a ton lately! My friends and I love going out at night and bringing our roller skates, long boards, skateboards, penny boards and just go from park to park or even parking lots too. I'm still new, having only used my in-lines for a few months now, but my other friend has been roller skating for 14 years now and they've been helping me along. Its really hard, but I think its a ton of fun! Somehow I think its harder than ice skating and skateboarding, at least in my experience, but I'm hoping to keep practicing so I can feel comfortable to skate freely on the streets one day!

Webtoons

I love reading manga, light novels, comic books, and web-comics! It fits my attention span much easier than animated episodes or entire shows. It's also really convenient, because they're short and available on mobile without ads, usually anyways. My main focus lately has been an app called "Webtoons", and I keep up with about 26 different webtoons every week! I follow all kinds of genres from romance, to slice-of-life, to action-adventure, to comedy, and even murder-mystery! Some of my favorites are The Strongest Florist, Weak Hero, unOrdinary, Mage & Demon Queen, Purple Hyacinth, Let's Play, Tower of God, Lookism, and #muted!

Repeat

I learnt about VLOOKUP in 5.10.4! It's really unique and advanced for something I never knew existed. I've used it in my ECON 261 class during notes and homework aid. Otherwise I haven't really used it.

I turn 22 this week! Its kind of a weird time, because I haven't had a birthday party from my family since I was probably about 14 years old. And suddenly they want to celebrate out of nowhere. I don't really want to attend and just to sneak out and be with friends, but I'd probably get a solid scolding afterwards from my parents. It's actually stressing me out because I don't like big social gatherings with people I'm not too familiar with, such as my extended family. And also as an introvert, I feel uncomfortable having to idle while they sing happy birthday or whatever. Just gotta get through the week I guess!

Vroom

I want to buy a new car! I don't really have the funds or garage space to support that choice, but its still fun to window shop and fantasize. I currently drive a 2005 Acura RSX, but I want to stick with coupes. Since I'm broke as hell I'd probably opt for some older cars like the early 2000s Scion FR-S, Nissan 350z, Suburu BRZ, or even Mitsubishi FTO. I love driving and while I'm still learning all about the ins and out of cars I still consider them to be a small hobby of mine.

Some day I want to learn how to ride a motorcycle as well. Everyone I've ever talked to about this is in extreme opposition due to how dangerous they can be, which I understand but over the past couple of years I've been adopting a weird sense of brazen fearlessness when it comes to making choices for myself. I mean by all means, I think about motorcycles vs cars as "go faster for cheaper" and I think that is a funny (and albeit ignorant) take on that argument. I've been interested in the Yamaha Bolt and Indian Scout models, but I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself.

Curse

(*Mild spoilers) I recently binge-watched all of Jujutsu Kaisen season 1 just in time for the Jujutsu Kaisen 0 movie to come out. Jujutsu Kaisen is an anime/manga revolving around Yuji Itadori and an organization of "Jujutsu sorcerers" whose purpose is to exorcise "Curses", which are manifestations of Cursed Energy hell-bent on destroying humanity, from the world. Jujutsu sorcerers are able to manipulate their own cursed energies into Curse techniques that are unique to each of them, and allows them to fight against the Curses. The story gets interesting when the main character swallows a cursed artifact that contains part of a curse known as Sukana, or the King of Curses, and it begins to inhabit within Yuji's soul or conscience. I really like this series and might make an effort to read and collect the manga. 9/10 enjoyment!

Jujutsi Kaisen 0 is a prequel to the series, however is on an entirely separate plotline to the series, and showcases Yuta Okkotsu as the main character. The movie focuses on Yuta's induction into the Tokyo Jujutsu high school where he must learn to become a sorcerer in order to combat a Curse that's been haunting him as a child. Things get complicated when antagonists seek to hunt down Yuta in order to abduct his Curse for their own devious plans and use it to destroy all Jujutsu high schools and eventually exterminate all non-sorcerers on the planet. This movie was also really enjoyable for me and I loved seeing some the cast members from the series in their earlier years! 8/10. After watching both of season 1 and the movie, my favorite characters are Hanami and Maki Ze'nin!

Vengeance

I learned about comparing and combining revisions and saving those changes to a cloud. I haven't had the chance to apply it but I've heard of students using and sharing a single document for class notes.

I recently saw the latest The Batman starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz. It was pretty good. I'd give it a 7/10. I think all the actors/actresses did great but the writing got a little scattered towards the ending in my opinion. I think the Christian Bale trilogy is still my favorite, but this urban/noir themes portrayed in this film was a fun distinction from the others. I really enjoyed Paul Dano's performance of the Riddler too! Reminds me a lot of the Jigsaw Horror films which I really enjoyed.

Reflection

I self-analyze myself quite a bit to be frank. I'm constantly looking inward and trying to improve myself. I'm always looking for any cracks in the mold of who I am and trying to fix it.  Sometimes the cracks are big and those become regrets. Often they're small and I'm able to cover it and move on. Depending on how I fix those cracks, affects how I am. If I'm able to do something properly I become a stronger and better version of myself.

Lately I've been balancing myself decently. I'm trying to maintain a schedule of calisthenics 3-4 times a week, but I've also been having consecutive nightmares the past couple of nights. I've been upholding my fast regiment, but I'm falling behind on school assignments. I've enjoyed playing new games, but then I get less than 5 hours of sleep per night. A friend described the past 2 weeks for myself like fighting Ludwig, the Accursed from BloodBorne. A battle between overcoming the obstacle but in constantly danger.

Crippling

Life has all kinds of rises and falls. I felt great earlier in the month; I was doing all my school work on time or early, I was working out regularly, I was dieting properly. Then suddenly my brain decides that that won't be the case anymore. I no longer get to choose when I get to focus or how to focus. I'll have gotten a perfect night's rest, showered, eaten a healthy meal, and sit down ready to tackle my tasks but I cannot salvage enough attention span to wholeheartedly attempt any assignments. I'll convince myself that maybe I need to do something else fun before I devote myself to a session of work, but it won't work. It'll continue until I have fallen behind days, weeks sometimes, and I'll have no where to turn to but to face the huge pile of mistakes I've conjured up. Desperation often breeds the most volatile and ruinous backlash, but I think there comes a particular power from being able to come from those times when you think that there's nothing you can do. I hope this is about the time where I stop wallowing in my weakness and to start picking things back up.

Growth

Computer software is incredibly advanced, thus requiring various means of accomplishing their tasks. As such, I've learnt that there are several language categories: Machine, Assembly, Compiled, Interpreted, and then miscellaneous mark up languages. I don't currently apply this knowledge of menagerie of computer science, but I hope to learn all there is to coding in the near future!

I've restarted my fast schedule! I maintain a 16:8 schedule where 16 hours of the every day I do not eat, and then I eat within the confines of the 8 remaining hours I'll eat. I've previously kept this lifestyle for about 2 1/2 years before 2021. I personally don't find this fast method too difficult, as I just drink water and tea throughout the day and distract myself until it is time for me to eat. I want to clarify that when my fast ends, I don't take this an an opportunity to pig out and stuff my face with all the food I would've eaten during my fast. That takes away the opportunity of the fast and ruins the potential of the goal. It's important for me to maintain my metabolism and health by counting my calories and macro and micronutrients. But I'm excited to get back on schedule to being the healthiest and strongest version of myself.

Compression

Due to my background and personal hobbies I am more or less familiar with computer technology. I am comfortable enough to use computers on a daily process, therefore I thought these first few handfuls of sections in "TestOut LabSim" were pretty rudimentary in complexity. However, I have found a few sections to be underlying scopes of computer proficiency knowledge. This time around what I found really intriguing was the varying types of file compressions. These include GIFs, PDFs, JPGs, MP3s, and a few others. I was already aware and somewhat familiar with these but the level of depth in which the program explained these concepts was really fascinating to me, and I never held a curiosity great enough to justify me learning these on my own.

Momentum

I had a bit of difficult week. I think my worse breakdowns are when many small issues or problems begin to pile up, and soon enough an incredibly daunting mountain of tasks and obstacles loom over me and it seems impossible to do even the simplest of things. Between family issues, internal conflicts, and school I felt terrible. I thought it might've been a mistake trying to return to school full force with a full schedule of 15 credits. I wasted two whole days wallowing in my distraught of the threat that I would waste more opportunities and fall further behind, but there's nothing more frustrating to me than feeling like I can't do anything.

I don't know how anyone else attributes their success or motivation, but I personally point towards the content I was exposed to as a child and until even now. I might've mentioned before that I am not close with my family, so my "heroes" were never my parents or siblings. I honestly attribute a lot of my personality to cartoons/anime, video games, comics, and the such. I recognize how unrealistic it can might present or how uncanny it'll to reveal that some of my biggest inspirations are fictional, but I can't lie that seeing the hero/underdog rise to the occasion and defeat their rival/nemesis inspires me. Often I'll imagine my short-comings or flaws as inner demons or frightening opponents and I'll create a feeling where I want to surge forward and realize my own success through focus, commitment, and sheer willpower. It was through this that I manage to rise above my wallowing and tear through what was bringing me down. I completed all my school assignments, I ignored my self-esteem issues, and avoided my toxic family. I feel on top of the world and I am ready to keep going until I fall, but I'm not worried because I know I'll always get back up.

First Step

My first time enrolling in a weekend class and one under IS as a subject, and I'm really excited to advance my technology proficiency in many more ways than I thought possible. It has honestly been such a breath of fresh air to have a professor be extremely proactive in making a course student-driven and wholeheartedly independent. Its not often that professors reveal an actual passion for what they do, and I can really find an appreciate in Professor Wu's engagement and drive to introduce an actual meaningful experience in the form of this course.

I mean it was a definite blindside hit to immediately get a professor reaching out on email and text messages the before the semester technically even start. More than that, he encouragingly asked for students to join a video call to meet and get a head start on the semester. I thought that was really great and actually gave me a decent push to start on my other courses more eagerly. It was these precautionary steps that made me excited to come to class on a weekend! I think I'll actually enjoy this course and I'm looking forward to the rest of it.