Xatal

I realize I haven’t been updating much lately. For the most part, I’ve just been rather busy with school work and other things.

Mainly, I have a nasty habit of procrastinating, so when it’s the night before I plan to make a post and I have to choose between writing out a post or doing the homework that I put off, I end up choosing the homework and don’t have enough time to write out a decent post. Of course, my lack of time management is my fault and I do apologize for the infrequent updates. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to have a regular schedule.

That and I’ve been playing Fallout 3. A lot, actually. Fun game!

So luckily, my TA for a discussion section on Tuesday night decided to cancel it due to the election, so I was able to watch the results fully as they unfolded.

As I mentioned earlier, I am an Obama supporter, and at first I was a bit anxious watching the votes come in — while Obama was doing well, he wasn’t winning anything Kerry hadn’t in 2004. But as the night went on, he began to do better and better, and of course he ended up winning it.

Although I disagreed with him on many issues, I do have a good deal of respect for John McCain and I think he was a reasonable candidate. Had McCain been our president for the last 8 years instead of Bush, I think our country would be in a different position than it is now. But, in the end, I feel that Obama’s stances are more along the lines of where we need to go.

The rest of the Western world was pretty in favor of us electing Obama, and I think we’ve begun to redeem ourselves for a lot of what’s gone wrong over the last 8 years.

How Obama will do remains to be seen, but I’m optimistic.

So, we finally have come to Election Day in the United States.

This is undoubtedly a big election, one in which a lot more people have been taking interest. Without interjecting too many of my political beliefs, I would guess the surge in interest comes from many believing that the United States is headed in the wrong direction, and so many want to have a voice in what direction the country takes. This election could sport one of the best voter turnouts ever.

There has been a lot of attention throughout this election. The primaries, normally a rather fast process, were drawn out quite a bit (see: Democrats), and the choice of Sarah Palin as McCain’s vice presidential nominee definitely spiced things up a bit as well. A lot is hanging on this election, from decisions about Iraq and the economy to decisions about healthcare and education. There is no doubt that our choice of president will greatly influence what path the country takes for the next four years.

Although it’s much too late for me to encourage people to register to vote, it isn’t too late for me to encourage registered voters to go to the polls. So much is hanging on this election: to simply turn a blind eye is to show a complete lack of care for the potential effects on the lives of many Americans.

I voted already via mail-in ballot, and I personally voted for Obama. I have my reasons, just as voters for McCain have their reasons. I have been following FiveThirtyEight lately, and am a bit curious how accurate their predictions are.

Regardless of who wins, I’m hoping that this election is not plagued by cheating (from either side), though undoubtedly something will come up. I just want an honest election, where the candidate who becomes president is truly what America wanted.

So without further ado, the big daddy:

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Seeing as today is Halloween, I was wondering about trick-or-treating.

Ever since I was a kid, trick-or-treating was the big highlight of Halloween. Each year, I would plan to hit even more houses than the year before. Once I was old enough to trick-or-treat with friends, we would try to find the areas with the most homes, where hopefully we could get the most candy. In reality, each year our plans ended up failing due to one reason or another: once we went to a neighborhood where nobody was giving out candy, another we spent looking for a friend’s girlfriend, and one year we were just simply too lazy. in the end, I never actually fulfilled my dream of “The Jackpot”.

Halloween is the ultimate holiday as a kid

As my friends and I grew older, we started hearing the inevitable line from adults handing out candy, “Aren’t you a little old to be trick-or-treating?” I first heard it in 6th grade, and I heard it more every year after that. The last time I went trick-or-treating was during my sophomore year of high school (when I was 16), and I was hearing it quite a bit that year.

During my junior and senior year, I didn’t have any interest in trick-or-treating because other opportunities came up — one year I went out with a girl, the other year I went to see a movie and spent some time with friends. However, if the group decision had been to go trick-or-treating, I would still have been willing to go out. Now, though, I finally feel too old to go out, perhaps a result of being away at college, or maybe because I finally realized I can buy candy any time I want. I would still love to hit The Jackpot, but beyond that I really don’t have much interest in walking around. I’d rather spend Halloween at a party, with friends, or even just watching scary movies and handing out candy to kids.

What do you think?

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Beyond that, I’d like to wish everybody a happy Halloween. Since it’s on a Friday this year, there are many more opportunities than normal. What interesting things are you up to this year?

On the list of college dorm necessities, I mentioned that you might want to bring a pair of flip-flops to college for the showers. There’s a pretty good reason for this, and if you don’t have a pair of flip-flops for showering, you should really get one.

Showers are a breeding ground for bacteria and fungi.

College dorm showers are an ideal place for bacteria and fungi to grow. Showers are moist environments, and all it takes is one person with athlete’s foot or some other foot condition to make life worse for everyone on the dorm floor.

You aren’t at home, and there’s no way to know what other people do in the shower. Chances are you don’t want to know: some people have really disgusting shower habits. Believe me — I’m male, we talk about these things from time to time. With as many as 10-20 people using the same shower daily, things can get gross fast. Even if the common bathroom showers are cleaned daily, you do not want to shower barefoot. In fact, you should never even enter the dorm bathroom barefoot. Always go in with socks, flip flops, shoes, or some sort of protection for your feet.

The best way to solve this problem is to go to Wal-Mart or some other store that sells very cheap shoes. You can buy a cheap pair of flip-flops for only a couple of bucks. Don’t worry about style or if they aren’t the most comfortable things ever — you’re not going to wear them around while walking nor in public. Plastic ones are especially nice (as opposed to very foamy ones) because they’ll dry much faster. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re aspiring to go to a UC or a CSU, it’s important to keep a close eye to make sure you’re going to meet all of the A-G Requirements.

When I was in high school, the counselors drilled all of them into us, so that by the time we were in our sophomore year, we knew them by heart. However, I know that not all schools do this, and some may not even have heard of them at all. The A-G Requirements are basically an addition to your high school’s graduation requirements. They require you to take so many years of each subject and to pass.

Chances are you’re already doing a lot of work to prepare yourself for college and to look great for your applications, but it can be very easy to miss one or two essential requirements, disqualifying you from eligibility from both sets of schools.

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Last year when I submitted my college applications, I remember wondering often if I was sure enough of where I wanted to go to school. Now, my girlfriend is beginning to apply to schools, and she’s feeling anxious because she’s really not sure where she wants to go still.

You do not need to know which school you want to attend when you submit your application

Obviously, before turning in college applications, you have a nice variety of colleges to choose from. But once application due dates start hitting, your options will become much narrower. This can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing, depending on how you want to look at it.

But whichever way, it’s important to feel at least some level of certainty with the schools you chose to apply to. You want each school you send an application to be a potential choice for you, not just some school you choose for the sake of choosing. Unless you have enough money to apply to schools simply for bragging rights, applying to schools on a whim is going to cost a lot of money (and time).

Here are some ways of helping to feel good about your choices:

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Before leaving for college, I remember telling my mom, “I won’t get sick at school — I have a great immune system!” I honestly believed it too — I rarely ever get sick, and when I do, it’s usually nothing more serious than a cold.

But sure enough, within only two weeks of moving in I started to feel my first illness coming on. With so many people around, it becomes incredibly easy for diseases to spread. My disease, however, didn’t come from contact with anybody at school — I actually contracted it while at home, and it was hitting me for the first time. And, unfortunately, this was no common cold: this was mono.

Being sick at college can be pretty miserable

As I’m writing this, I’m finally getting over my illness, and it’s not a moment too soon. I’d like to share a few things that I’ve learned firsthand about being sick at college that might help you if you ever find yourself in a similar position as I was in (let’s hope not!).

Being sick when you’re away at college is completely different than being sick back home while you’re in high school. Back home, Mom could take care of you and you could more easily afford to miss several days of school in order to regain your health.

But when you’re sick at college, you’re on your own, and you have to manage on your own. When you first discover that you’re sick, this is definitely a bit daunting — it’s really tough being sick when you’re alone and away from home. But there are ways of managing! This post contains some pointers about how to manage both your health and your schoolwork while sick, as well as some other general tips to keep in mind while sick.

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So after being sick for about two weeks, I’m finally back to normal for the most part. And it feels great!

When I first got sick, my throat became awful. My tonsils were swollen and pretty disgusting. Since another guy on my floor had tonsillitis at the time, I assumed I had somehow contracted it from the same source as him, and that tonsillitis was what I had.

But soon he was feeling better, and I was feeling worse. As the days passed, my tonsils got worse and worse, to the point where not only was it painful to swallow, but my voice sounded incredibly funky. I could barely eat, and drinking water was tough too.

The Health Center here scared me half to death when they told me I might have mono. The thought of being sick for months is pretty scary, especially at college. However, they told me that 95% of students will have mono by the time they leave college. In fact, most people don’t even receive the worst of mono — it might just stop at a slight sore throat and that’s it. I was unlucky, but at least I know I won’t get mono again.

I started gargling salt water, and my throat began to heal a lot. After a day or so, I was able to talk more and swallow a little. After 5 days, I can swallow normal and my voice no longer sounds like the cookie monster.

One complication of mono is that it makes the spleen swell and irritates the liver, so I still have to take it easy for a bit longer. Little things also tire me out more now, such as going up stairs (and let me tell you, this campus has a lot of stairs).

But I’m doing a lot better! Be ready for more posts again.

So I wrote about how I was feeling sick, but now things have gotten much worse — I’ve somehow come down with mono. Not sure how, but I did.

All in all it’s not a pleasant illness, and it’s really kicking my butt at the moment. Between trying to sleep, struggling to swallow even water, and stay alive in college, this has been a really hard past week — and I might have another one to go.

It’s going to be a while before I’m up for writing again. I need to recover fully before I’ll have the time (or brainpower) to write. I apologize to any readers, but know that when I’m better, I hope to return to three-times-a-week posting.

In the meantime, everybody take care!