The Adventures of Algorithm Girl

Hehehe. I have this photo of my nephew on my Desktop and every time I look at it, I giggle to myself. ^_^

Boredom Pays

A valid question..

For Lent, I’ve decided to give up social networking. So for the next 40(46) days, I won’t be checking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+. I think those are the ones that I check the most and I know that it takes up a lot of my time. I check it constantly and needlessly spend hours on end just looking at things or checking for notifications. I think it’ll be tough at first. It’s become a habit, you know, to automatically go onto these sites every time I sit in front of a computer. It’s a habit that I want to break. I hope that I end up filling my time with useful activities too.

Thanks for everyone’s support on the last post! It really helps to know there are others cheering me on! :] I’ll continue on running and hopefully improve by the time Easter comes.

Ta-ta for now, Tumblr!

Source: nevver

Ok don’t laugh..

And I feel really silly for even writing about this.. but I finally ran a full mile without walking! I don’t think I’ve ever done this in my life! You have to understand, I’m a terribly slow runner and have always stopped running at some point within the mile. Okay, granted, I was on a treadmill going at a moderate pace.. but seriously, a month ago, I could barely run half a mile all the way through, even on the treadmill. Hoorah! Now I’m feeling a little bit more optimistic about trying to run a 5K in a couple of months. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it within a decent time. Also I’m glad to see that exercising regularly these past few weeks is actually doing something! Sometimes it’s hard to see if your efforts are useful or not.

02-04/05-12
So Cal for a Bit

Went down to cities around LA this weekend with my dad and my sis! My dad had a business seminar to go to, so my sister and I went out while he was there. We ended up visiting the Santa Ana Zoo, since it was close by and we wanted to do something different other than shopping. My sister also had to do a photography assignment.

The Santa Ana Zoo is a cute, little zoo, mainly for families and kids. They had a lot of smaller animals there, like monkeys, lemurs, and birds. It was fun going around. I ended up taking a liking to Golden Lion Tamarins. They’re so cute with their bright orange fur! Emperor Tamarins are cute too; they look like wise monkeys with long mustaches. We also passed by these Silvery Langurs that we noticed were caring for a newborn!, the little orange furball that they’re holding. We also went into a netted area that you could enter with birds and other small animals roaming around. That’s where we saw these lovebirds. :] It was a fun experience. It’s not everyday that we get to see a variety of animals around and I learned a bunch of small tidbits.

We then had dinner at Ichi Teriyaki Roll, a place I looked up on Yelp. I was trying to look for a Ramen House, but oh well, next time. It was a “hole-in-the-wall,” fast-food style Japanese restaurant. Affordable, gave you a good amount of food.. The sushi easily fell apart though, when dipped in sauce. Overall good!

Sunday was pretty much spent travelling back. We did get to stop by at Roscoe’s for lunch though. We went to the one, smack dab in the middle of LA. Definitely a change of scenery. o_o I got a classic order of chicken and waffles. I hope I don’t offend anyone, but I thought it was okay, nothing too special though. I think maybe the place got a little too hyped up for me.. But I did get what I came for, I guess.

02-03-12
Art After Dark: SLO

After hearing of my friend’s First Fridays events at San Jose, where they go around town checking out art galleries, I got a little jealous. But at the beginning of this school year, I found out that there’s a similar event that happens here in SLO as well! It’s called Art After Dark and it happens on the first Friday of every month from 6-9 PM. I’m so glad that I was finally able to go!

I ended up going with some good friends that I hadn’t hung out with for a while. It was nice being around their energy again haha. :] I wish I took more pictures. Maybe next time, when we have it a little more planned out. The ones above are from an exhibit called “Phantom Project” and it was one of the ones that we just stumbled into. They had a variety of interesting art pieces there.

We then ended our tour with dinner at Goshi’s. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s a great Japanese Restaurant located at The Creamery. It gets a little pricey, but they give a good amount of food. This was my second time eating here and I still feel like the deals are worth it for all the different things that come with the combo dinners. We shared a Lychee-flavored sake with the table (only $15!) and I shared the Goshi Dinner Special with my friend (pictured above, Salmon Teriyaki w/ Scallop Roll).

Good impromptu night out! :]

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January 2012 Recap!

Chill first week of Winter Quarter.
BABY NEPHEW IS BORN!!!
Family gift exchange! (Thank you for my infinity scarf, Christian! <3)
Got freelance work (and some extra cash) for a website!
CES and VEGAS with good friends - up ~$35-40, beginner’s luck!
Spending some time back home, Chinese food, Boiling Crab, and Viet sandwiches before we left the Bay!
Startup Weekend and Studygasm
Getting things rolling with Senior Project
New Cal Poly gym! Starting to work out more!
Surprise trip to the Bay - Single Barrel with besties, surprising my mom for a couple of hours.
Google Tour with SWE - got an Android plushie! and bought myself a water bottle (hydrate myself before working out!)

Been an exciting and eventful month. Let’s go February! :]

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01-30-12

Insanity Day 2! I don’t think I’ll get over being a little scared to start Insanity workouts.. haha. But it’s so true, that saying, the hardest part is getting yourself there (to the gym or wherever..). I always come out feeling better that I did it though. It’s tough going through it too, but I guess it’s supposed to be. What will you have gained otherwise? I feel like my progress is going slowly, but at least I’m going somewhere?

I start thinking about how this applies to other things in life too, like school. I might just put off doing school work, but then I’ll just stay in the same place and get left behind. There’s a lot of things that I want to learn, to do, and qualities that I want to have to be a better person. I just have to start somewhere. That might be the toughest part. Everything after will hopefully just fall in place. :)

(via happythings)

Source: shetakesflight

01-25-12

I realize that I had stopped posting “one good thing”s on my blog and have been finding myself getting frustrated and/or a little less than happy about certain things. To turn this around, I think I’ll start posting more consistently again and find the good in every day. I missed about two and half weeks of doing this, so I will just do a big recap at the end of the month. :]

So today’s good thing: having a workout buddy and starting Insanity. I finally started working out last Friday and will try to do it more consistently. Having the new gym built helps a little. It’s super nice inside! Gotta use it before I graduate. Today, we did Insanity at home since it fit our schedule better. Fit test was definitely tough but I did what I could.. I know I’ll definitely have to push myself harder soon. We decided we won’t be following the schedule for Insanity, but we’ll be working out every week day (unless our schedules don’t allow it) with either going to the gym or taking an exercise class. They’re also free now!

I’m really glad to be finally getting in shape! Hopefully I’ll be able to adopt this lifestyle and not let myself get lazy again.

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Studygasm won an honorable mention for branding at Startup Weekend SLO! So glad I decided to sign up for it. It’s definitely been really awesome.

Some of the valuable things that I’m taking away from this weekend:

It CAN be done! It’s great to have ideas but you won’t go anywhere if you don’t take the initiative.
Group dynamics definitely play a big part in your success. I was lucky enough to be in a great group, nicely divided and played on our strengths.
Keeping a positive attitude goes a long way too. I went into this weekend not knowing what to expect and started to get scared when I felt like I couldn’t contribute to the group. But I just kept thinking that I’ll just do this for fun, why not? We ended up with a pretty good product by the end of the weekend!

Keep checking! We’re planning on continuing to work on it part time. :D

My weekend workspace!

Startup Weekend is almost over and I’m almost sad to see it go by. It’ll have been a crazy 54 hours but a really worthwhile experience. It’s been a blast! :]

Source: circadian-rhythm

01-06-12

Signed up for couple more hours at work on Fridays. No more super free Fridays, but a little extra money will help! I can still take sort of three-day weekends since I end early afternoon. :]
Gift Exchange with the family! <3 I got an infinity scarf from Christian and I’ve been wanting one for a while! Yay good gift this time! :D
Went out for DMug’s 21st Birthday. Happy birthday DMug! I owe you a drink. ;]

01-07-12

Finally did some chores!
Cooked a somewhat proper meal: rice, lumpia, and turon! I know this is lame, but I’m still trying to figure out how to properly cook lumpia… I feel like I used too much oil and it kind of freaks me out that that’s what I’m eating..
Went to a girl’s night at my friend’s at PCV without knowing anyone else there. Got out of my comfort zone a little bit. It was a nice change and learned all about my friend’s love life, haha.
Grocery shopping after and got more fruits and vegetables than usual! Hooray for healthier foods!

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01-05-12

Daahhh. So cute!!!

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01-04-12
Baby Nephew!!!

Adama Jesus Zawala Cordon, welcome to the world! What a punctual baby! My brother said he’s a little monkey, lol. Can’t wait to go back home to visit and meet him! AHH *squeal*

01-03-12

Plans. I’m definitely trying to be more money-conscious this year. Now that I have more of a concrete idea of what I want to save up for and it will be a while until I start making salary, I definitely have to keep my goals in mind until then.

New car. Looking into a Prius, fairly new. My car was vandalized over break (on Christmas Eve, of all days..) and someone threw acid on the roof of my car, so the paint chipped off.

I’ve started using this car ever since high school, and even then it was a used car. My current car is a 1995 Acura Legend. I’ve made many, many trips with it between the Bay and SLO, and even a couple of trips to LA. I’m kind of amazed at how long it’s lasted. There are a few other minor things that need to be fixed, but otherwise it’s working fine. My mom keeps telling me to buy a new car, but until now (and sort of still..) I thought it would be unnecessary, at least until I start making money. I’m not set to start working until September, so I’m not sure how long I can wait. To me, my car is fine, but I can see how it looks to other people now. A car is a status symbol.
Trip to Europe. One of my best friends and I are both graduating this year and we both want to take a trip to Europe before really settling down. We keep saying we’re planning for it to be in August, but the earlier the better. Since it’s summer season, I think flights will be a little bit more pricey too. It’s money that’s kind of holding us both down. London-Paris-Darmstadt-Rome-Barcelona.

So good thing of the day:

Finally bought this InCase Nylon Sling Sleeve for my MacBook Air online with 40% off + free shipping. Four months after lugging my new MacBook Air around in a dingy three-year-old sleeve meant for a 15” laptop, haha. I say it was about time.

This will be a year of upgrades.

So far..

01-01-12

Had a nice, quiet New Year’s Eve at home. :]
Chinese food all day. Dinner at my brother’s place in SF for a short bit.

01-02-12

Yummy breakfast: tocino and eggs.
Went grocery shopping so I have food in SLO. Thanks Mom!
Snacked at Quickly’s with my best friends before my long drive back down.
Found out I (barely) got on Dean’s List last quarter! YAY

So now I’m back.. Sad to be going back to school so soon already, but I’m kind of looking forward to getting back in the swing of things. New year, new quarter, new classes.. things to do. :]