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Post by Sanjo on Jan 15, 2009 16:42:33 GMT -5
....0.o *avoids crossfire*....
Anyways, expect me to be more active and have a bunch of music-type stuff coming out! "Senioritis" has officially kicked in now that my college apps are done, semester comes to a close tomorrow, and all I have to worry about are acceptance/rejection letters and performances (Finally something I can handle :P)
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Post by Yoshi on Jan 16, 2009 13:29:16 GMT -5
So my western European politics professor announced that Europeans are the most pampered people on earth, the European Union sucks, and that they're not real Democracies. Especially not Britain.
I'm in for a great time.
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Post by teh yoshi on Jan 16, 2009 15:54:11 GMT -5
Welps, I submitted my application to UNLV. Not much to it, I suppose, but it's better than nothing. I seriously need to get back into school. I'm kind of getting sick not being in school right now. Hopefully something will become of this.
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Post by Sanjo on Jan 17, 2009 9:20:08 GMT -5
I got accepted into a college!!! Now the senioritis can really kick in =P. I got my acceptance letter into UMass Dartmouth yesterday. It is only my safety school, but at least I have something to fall back on if all else fails!
P.S. Best of luck, Teh! I'm sure you'll be accepted!
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Post by Yoshi on Jan 22, 2009 14:08:46 GMT -5
Obama just ordered the shutdown of Guantanamo bay and all other secret CIA prisons. Today.
This is amazing.
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Post by teh yoshi on Jan 22, 2009 21:29:18 GMT -5
I'm going to do something I normally don't do. Simply because I can barely take it any longer, and this is a journal after all. But like me, I'll try and keep it as concise as possible. I'm shaking as I type this, by the way, and perhaps may end up regretting posting this soon.
Anyway, these past couple of months alone has been extremely trying and now can only become more devastating. It all started when I started getting sick around Thanksgiving. It started with sneezing, some headaches, and maybe a day or two of vertigo, but that was it. I thought nothing of it, although it lasted for several weeks. Around several days before Christmas, my sickness started escalating to something different. I didn't sneeze anymore, and I never had much headaches, but they all got replaced by coughing and wheezing.
Come December 19th, I was summoned upstairs to the HR's office at work in the animal hospital. It turned out that due to the poor economy, I got laid off. I absolutely loved that job as a packs and lab technician, and nothing in a bunch of years can ever replace that. It's an opportunity and a luxury I'll never have again.
Going chronologically in order, I was with my sister a few days before Christmas, and I went with her to the clinic to get updates on her unborn child, as she was 8 months pregnant. It turned out that the baby isn't responding, and the doctor told her to get to the hospital immediately that very day. It turned out that her baby needed to have a premature C-section, so my sister was in the hospital for a couple days.
We didn't plan for this to happen, as little Jacob's birth was to be around late January or early February. But instead he was born on Christmas Eve. He became my first nephew ever. But because of this, our plans to celebrate Christmas in San Diego with the rest of my relatives have been canceled. We were supposed to go down to San Diego and have a major gift exchange, but now that couldn't happen because Jacob has to be in the hospital for the remainder of his supposed pregnancy time, which is for at least another month. And because he was born on Christmas Eve, my sister still had to remain in the hospital, and Christmas couldn't be celebrated until Saturday. This was supposed to be the first time we'd celebrate Christmas away from home, not our first time to postpone it...
Several days after Christmas, my sickness began to get worse. I could barely breathe. My lungs were very much inflamed and breathing began to be a chore. My wheezing got extremely loud, and my coughs could be heard from around the house. One Sunday night, it came to be so bad that I couldn't wait for a doctor's appointment the following morning, as most clinics aren't open on Sundays. I nearly crawled down the stairs due to the lack of oxygen my body was getting. Breathing became extremely difficult, and my coughing only worsened. I had to be rushed to Urgent Care, which fortunately was open 24 hours. It turned out that I suffered from a reactive upper respiratory and a form of bronchitis. The episodes I experienced of extreme labored breathing weren't asthma attacks after all, but are very similar. I ended up getting hooked onto some breathing machine and sat there for an hour or so. After, the doctor prescribed me some medicine and antibiotics. That's a nice way to spend what's left of your medical insurance after you get laid off.
Fast forward to today, my bronchitis seems to be slowly creeping back with its subtle symptoms, but I'm probably out of medical insurance by now. I'm also still am on the job hunt. The economy's health really shows when there's virtually no openings at any animal hospital in all of Las Vegas. I applied for unemployment benefits, but for some reason, still haven't been receiving any.
But now, as of about 20 minutes ago, my sister's husband walked into my room to tell me that their baby Jacob won't make it. Monday, the hospital is going to take them off life support. He couldn't go on without having an extremely difficult life if it meant to be hospitalized all the time. His lungs have been failing him. I couldn't be in any more shock when I heard the news, my one and only nephew, my first time being an uncle, isn't going to last for long, just a little over a month...
I can only apologize for my poor writing, as it seems it's shooting out into all directions, but I just don't know what to do anymore. My college application to UNLV really is the only thing I can live for at the moment while just about all other aspects of my life has gone downhill. I'm flat out broke, and am deathly afraid I cannot continue to pay off my student debt from culinary college. I just need to survive somehow to be able to get into college again so that I can hopefully go into automatic deferment with my loan consolidator.
I was really hoping to see Jacob grow up and flourish, someone to play games and share my wisdom with. But now that's never going to happen. I'm too down to do anything, and this will really affect my job hunting performance. All I've got with me right now is my violin, my piano, and a little video game Fifth and I have been working on for the past few days. But right now, I must be strong for me and especially for my sister and my brother-in-law.
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In a nutshell: I got laid off from my favorite job a week before Christmas, rushed my sister to the hospital to give premature birth on Christmas Eve, resulting in our Christmas plans in San Diego with relatives to be canceled, suffered from a form of bronchitis with episodes of lung inflammation and labored breathing, struggling with finding a job, and now just got news that my sister's baby is to be taken off life support this Monday.
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Post by Enrique on Jan 22, 2009 22:13:55 GMT -5
...
No existent amount of words can tell how much that really really stinks, John.
All I can say is that I - as well as everyone here - hope and wish that things turn around for you.
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Post by Lord of the Dance on Jan 22, 2009 22:40:17 GMT -5
Holy God.
I can't even put into words how sorry I am to hear that, John. I really hope you at least make it to UNLV. Nobody deserves that...
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Post by teh yoshi on Jan 25, 2009 2:13:14 GMT -5
Oh, and another thing I just learned: My mom is giving away my dogs.
My chihuahua and my jack russel terrior who loves everybody.
Yeah...
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Post by Sanjo on Jan 26, 2009 16:55:38 GMT -5
...I am speechless. I have had close friends get destroyed and move away to start over, but man, this is just horrible. I really hope you are at the very least feeling mentally better than you seem to have been when you were writing those messages.
I pray that you will get in to UNLV. I know you probably will, but you will remain in my thoughts and prayers until I hear from you that you are doing better. These awful things shouldn't have happened to a person as kind and great as you.
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Post by teh yoshi on Jan 27, 2009 2:58:47 GMT -5
This morning I went to the hospital to visit Jacob for the last time. It was the first and only time I got to hold him in my arms, and he was extremely small. However, by the time the doctors removed all of the tubing, he had already passed away, but at least his death was as quick as possible. So it wasn't possible for any of us to hold him when he was still alive. I never thought anything like this could happen to anyone in my family.
At least I know now that Jacob is somewhere up there kickin' ass and takin' names in heaven while looking down on us. He'll probably give us a tour of the place when it'll be our time to pass on.
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Post by Shoe on Feb 4, 2009 12:36:32 GMT -5
You know, there was a dream that I've had since I was a lad. It's now long since faded, but just recently, something caused it to return.
This childhood dream was to own a farm. Nothing big, just a typical farm in the country; with a nice, two-story house, a big red barn, maybe a small pond, grow my own food like fruits, vegetables, grains, maybe sunflowers, and there'd be a big tree in the middle of the field where, when I could, climb its branches and look out at the horses running through the fields, just enjoying life as it passes.
Well, it's not exactly like that, but I may just be getting into a deal that will bring me to the next best thing. My brother-in-law, Tim, just inhereted his grandfather's Black Angus Ranch, and I heard he needs a farm hand. As long as he doesn't have me chopping cow-heads, I'm quite likely the answer. It has the two-story house and barn (I think there's a pond there, too), so it's promising. Man, as soon as I heard about it, childhood memories came rushing back.
I'd be walking away from a lot of things here like friends and family, as it's way up in Missouri, but it would be better not only for me, but for my mother, too (oh, and there's snow, there). She wouldn't have to work anymore, thus, she wouldn't have much to complain about. It really would be a blessing. But, it's still not definite. If he does agree to it, you can be sure that I'll take him up on the offer before a moment's passing. All the while, I'll be writing with little pressure or distractions weighing me down, if any at all other than the workload. By the time I finished, his son will have grown old enough to take on my work (he's not even two, yet, so I have plenty of time). I'm definitely looking forward to it, and I'm more than optimistic about it, too.
Only time will tell, though.
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Post by teh yoshi on Feb 26, 2009 20:46:07 GMT -5
Yeah, okay, I'm nervous as hell right now. This may be the only time where I've been more nervous AFTER the job interview than before. Here's why:
So today, after my Chinese teacher inquired my Chinese school about me being a potential piano teacher there, she told me to call the school for an interview. That already raised some level of freakiness because I guess they were fairly desperate for such a teacher. At any rate, I ended up going to the school so they can show me around the rooms where I can teach piano and such.
A bit of background information, this Chinese school is made so that children can learn both English and Chinese, the way the parents wanted them to grow up, I'm assuming. At any rate, these kids range from 5 to 17 years of age. I was only able to attend the school through private tutoring, as that's the only thing they can offer to adults who are interested in Chinese.
Back to me, I basically never lied so much in my life during an interview. I have NO experience whatsoever in teaching piano, let alone teaching anybody anything in a professional setting! Luckily, I brought my childhood piano books with me, the same ones I'm hoping to use for teaching. I basically made everything up from my methods of teaching children down to my past "experience" at teaching at my old church back in California. I told them that I would teach the child whatever s/he desires, but they must learn what they need in order to play what they want. If they want to learn video game music on the piano, I'll be more than happy to offer, but they must learn the basics of piano theory, performance, and so forth (as what I had to do if I wanted to teach myself game music properly). At least offering other things besides the boring "classical" and "pop" piano pieces could grant the children more than enough motivation to learn the instrument (again, like myself). Anyway, they bought into all of that, which I guess impressed myself for lying so well on the spot. They asked me questions like, "How old was your youngest student?" or "Who was the oldest?" Great, considering I've never HAD students before! I pretty much said, "Ugggh aaaagihghhh... 6 years old?" :S
After all was said and done, despite not giving them references or anything, they tried discussing marketing and advertisement as well as business and the whole financial side of it, which basically left me speechless, as again, I have no bloody idea what they could be talking about. Mostly nodding and smiling, and man did that ever work. Now the hardest part is to bust ass and actually live up to my word, for I will be needing to meet parents of these kids and having to introduce myself to a number of people all at once. What freaks me out the most is that the school owner will be publishing ads in the Chinese yellow book and putting up fliers THIS SATURDAY! Next Saturday, March 7th, I'll be having to bring my own Yamaha keyboard to set out in the middle of the courtyard and performing some piano pieces in front of all the children and their parents. Holy crap, what have I gotten myself into?! I'm not THAT good, let alone I've no experience in even performing piano pieces.
But man, I need this job...
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Post by Sanjo on Apr 14, 2009 17:19:46 GMT -5
Wow, it's been a while since I've last posted. I guess senioritis has effected me more than I thought...
Well, I'm into college, which is amazing and I am completely psyched for it! I'm also working on some more music, and I'm even going to be coming out with a couple of vids as well, so even though I haven't been keeping up to date, I'm still working hard on stuff that I will be sure to share with you guys! Maybe I'll pick up my drawing book again and try not to fail so much like the last time I tried... who knows?
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Post by Yoshi on May 23, 2009 20:40:19 GMT -5
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Post by Ultraloco on Jun 17, 2009 17:20:45 GMT -5
Well, for me, everything in Loco Land seems to be boring, nothing much to do, need to come here more often or so.......
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Post by Yoshi on Jun 21, 2009 4:49:16 GMT -5
ComEd is pretty good at mismanaging their infrastructure.
36 hours without power isn't something I'd like to go through again.
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Post by Shoe on Jun 21, 2009 6:31:44 GMT -5
All right, I got a car!
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Post by Yoshi on Jun 22, 2009 4:47:12 GMT -5
Hey. Just a heads up to whoever might talk to me sometime in the near future.
I will lecture you on urban planning so you ought to be prepared for that.
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Post by teh yoshi on Jun 22, 2009 15:23:38 GMT -5
My dad got me an antique violin for my birthday for $255. I took it to the violin shop, gave it some new Pirastro Tonica strings and a newly fitted bridge, and now it's worth $1,000.
Makes for a happy Yoshi.
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