October 30th, 2007

Tags: family, photos, rv, school Subject: Where does the time go...? Oh, yeah, to school Time: 08:19 pm Current Mood: chipper

Well, I'm reading my past Twitters as I write this to remember what's been going on in the past 15 days! Get ready for a long post! First, school update (in the order that the classes occur each week): Speech: I got 50/50 points in my informative speech about plastination (random topic). Then yesterday, we took the midterm, 25 questions worth 40 points. I don't know how he's going to do that math! I should have the results tomorrow. (Total: 77/80) Health: Took the second exam of four yesterday in this class as well. Results tomorrow. (Total: Still 88/100) Piano: I went to a string quartet concert at school. It doesn't count toward my three concerts I have to go to for my Piano class (they have to feature a piano), but I became aware of this free concert series through my class. It was very nice, it made me want to obtain music from Shostakovich, as well as tango music and Irish music. Yup, good concert. =) I got an A- on the C,.D, and G major scales. All one grade, expected that to be three separate ones. The minus is because I stopped and started over when I pressed a key and no sound came out. I know I should have kept going, but it really threw me off! Remember, strike the keys, don't press them!  I got an A on the four pieces. I did better there, I missed something I don't quite recall now (didn't play all the notes in a chord or something) but I kept going like nothing was amiss. He's trying to turn us into performers, so he respects that. This next quiz is harder, fingers moving throughout pieces to new keys... I'll get it though, with enough practice. I start out each time I practice by warming up with all the quizzes we've done so far. Not only warms up my fingers with familiar movements, but it's a psychological trick too. I remember when those things were difficult, and that makes me confident about making these new difficult things easier! (Total: 11 A's and 3 A-'s.) Chicano Studies: The group presentation went well. There were a few technical errors, small things really, like a photo that was attributed to a certain culture by the internet, but was not really representative of them. There was no grade given to it, or if there was we were not told what the grade was. Overall, the professor seemed to be very happy with it. (Total: Nothing's been graded, but I think I'll get an A) Transfer Center: During lunch today, I talked to the CSUN representatives who came to my school to talk transfer. The host, the Transfer Center (what a suitable name!) also had a table advertising upcoming presentations. So I went to the Transfer Center after classes to get more general information, and I talked to one of their counselors. We've decided that my first choice transfer school shall be USC and second choice UCR. I should probably apply to three schools for good measure, third choice will probably be CSUN or CSULA. I have an appointment to talk to a UCR person, and I'm on the waiting list for the USC guy (he doesn't come very often). I'm going to a presentation by said USC guy next week. I was a little concerned that my grades from 10 years ago in the Early Entrance Program at CSULA might bring down my GPA too much (I was a C student back then), but the counselor said that they do take the time into consideration. Now my new concern, having come home and read the paperwork I was given, is that they'll consider it "courses taken before high school graduation." Technically, they were that, but I wasn't concurrently in high school too, as their definition implies. I was a full time college student. Hopefully, they don't apply this "before high school graduation" rule, or I may have to re-take a few classes just because I'll have too many "before high school graduation" credits to transfer in. Oh, and I need to take a lot more math to get into USC than I have to take for my A.A. degree, so I need to get cracking on that! Then, personal stuff... Family: I picked up the pictures from our top secret last minute trip. We went to Yosemite for our anniversary. Not a ton of pictures, but some. Check them out at my new picture home, Flickr. Friends: My "brother" Albert's girlfriend Kat is in her school's colorguard. I went to their first field show competition of the year with Albert, Julio (another "brother"), and Momma Lebsch (Albert and Billy's mom). It was a lot of fun, and they got 3rd place out of 5 for their color guard. Band and percussion didn't get any awards though, but that's probably because the show isn't ready yet. I can relate. Downside of the night, aside from getting very cold, was that my prescription sunglasses got lost! They fell, and we tried to follow where gravity would have taken them under the bleachers, but no luck finding them! That means they either ran away, or they were "found." Who would want to "find" prescription sunglasses and not turn them in though? I emailed the band director, and he's going to let me know if they appear, but they hadn't as of the Monday following the competition. In the next few paychecks I shall consider getting new sunglasses. Until then, I have normal glasses and non-prescription sunglasses. My "brother" Billy's birthday is tomorrow, so I went to see him on Sunday. I took him, Albert, and Kat to the mall (by I took them, I mean I'm the only one with a car). Our other friends had work. Boring, aren't they? We had lunch, did some shopping, then we dropped by Pavilions to see a friend who works there and get a birthday cake. I told them we needed milk to eat cake with, and they introduced me to lactose-free non-alcoholic eggnog! I like it! Things I've done: I dropped my laptop accidentally, breaking my external wifi dongle... It made me sad, even more sad than when my internal wifi stopped working. Add those two together, and it means no wifi for me! Charles is going to buy me a new dongle, he says he wants to pick it out so we're sure it's compatible. Until then, blogging from the media server. I haven't made another attempt at blogging from my phone yet, but I will eventually. I downloaded Google Maps for my BlackBerry. I like it, and I appreciate the effort they put into making it say "Do not use while driving" when you start it up. =) I went to the California RV Show. I basically wandered around and stepped into everything that I could! We're ready to buy what we like, but since there were so many RVs in one place from different manufacturers, I figured it would be a great chance to make sure we aren't missing something even better! Turns out we're really not. Of course, there are different things for different people. But for our purposes, the Outlook is still the best. Other things that impressed me, but not for us: Airstream trailers are nice, and I saw a fifth wheel with three bedrooms! Three! Oh, and one class C (that I might have otherwise liked better) tried to eat me! It somehow snagged my shirt when I was stepping in! I went to the cemetery to visit with Lexie, Grandpa Salvador, and "Grandma" Soledad. (My grandmother died when my dad was very young. Grandpa's second wife Soledad raised him and his siblings.) I've put together a list on Twitter of things to take next time to tend to their grave markers. In case anyone's ever unclear about what I want, I want to be buried at Rose Hills, someplace where you can hear the water from the Sycamore Valley. When we have some disposable income, I may talk to Charles about putting a down payment on a suitable place. I strongly feel that this is something that should be done before death. (I have very strong opinions on death and dying, for reasons discussed in an earlier post.) Things to do: We're going to become all official as a business. Charles and I ordered business cards today, and I've been figuring out where I have to go (and what I have to pay) to get our fictitious business name filed. After that, run the name in the paper for four consecutive weeks, then open a bank account. Still to do: act on all of the above, and research business license requirements. Meanwhile, Charles makes the product. Teamwork! I think that covers everything... be back tomorrow with exam results, I hope. =) (P.S. I think that LiveJournal's spell checking dictionary should know the word "blogging." It doesn't, go figure...)

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September 29th, 2007

Tags: rv Subject: Some thoughts to help us narrow down our RV choices... Time: 06:12 pm Current Mood: productive

Charles and I have been talking further about our RV that we want to purchase. We love the '08 Destination, and still think it's gorgeous and fits all our needs. However, we're going to look at smaller things too! Ultimately, the decreased gas mileage and increased driving and parking difficulty isn't necessarily worth it for what we'd get versus a smaller rig. So, we've been talking about our criteria in advance of the RV Show being held at the Fairplex in Pomona next month. Some thoughts: Queen sized bed is a high priority. I have a pet peeve about showers that you step out of into the main hallway. Shower needs to open into bathroom, bedroom, or wardrobe area for when we have company. Bedroom needs to be separated from the main cabin, preferably by a sliding door, but accordion door is acceptable. Bedroom access should preferably not be cut off if someone's in the bathroom, especially if the bathroom contains the shower. We must have a backup cam. (But we won't discount the possibility of getting it after-market.) We want to be able to sleep four or five for trips. We don't need another full time bed (like a cab-over in a class C), just the ability to convert couches/dinettes to beds. We need a place for our servers, possibly converting a bunk bed space. We need to look into how to properly mount computers for the vibrations of the road. We need enough tank space in water and holding tanks to go several days between stops with hookups. (Parking in someone's driveway or on the street rather than an RV park are not entirely out of the picture at this time.) Will add to this later if we think of anything else!

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September 3rd, 2007

Tags: rv Subject: RV Shopping Time: 03:04 pm Current Mood: excited

Charles and I have decided that the next upgrade to our lifestyle is going to be full-timing in a motor home. We've been seeing a lot of motor homes on the road lately, which got this conversation started. For less than $200,000 (plus taxes, registration, etc) we can have a gorgeous, brand new, fully-furnished, decorated home. All appliances included, including two televisions. Do you know what you can buy in Los Angeles county for $200,000? Maaaybe 2/3 of a house in the middle of the desert, or 2/5 of a house in a middle class neighborhood. (We could get a livable RV for less, but some perks that come in handy for full time use do cost money.) I went to a dealership on Saturday and checked out pretty much every model they had on hand. This is the model that we are currently planning on pursuing: http://www.winnebagoind.com/products/winnebago/destination/index.php Some of the things we like about it: It's gorgeous and classy, inside and out. Very good first impression when you come in the door. The chairs are plush and comfy. All appliances included, such as fridge, stove, microwave, and two televisions (30 inch in the living room, 20 inch in the bedroom). The bathroom is self-contained, as opposed to shower on one side and toilet/sink on the other side of the aisle. With the back slide-out, umm, slid out, there's even a hallway to walk to the bedroom without going through the bathroom. Only one of two RVs I saw with this feature. Plenty of head room and elbow room in the shower. In fact, more usable elbow room than in our current apartment! No major downside to having the slide-outs in (such as you would when driving or when parked on the street). Some other models made the bed or kitchen sink un-available when the slide-outs were in. So there won't be any dancing in the aisle, but it's otherwise the same as with everything extended. The bedroom has sliding doors for privacy and a queen size bed (which can be upgraded to king). Plenty of room for company on trips: Queen size bed in the back, queen size fold-out couch, the dinette makes a twin size bed, and three can sleep in the reclining chairs if they had to. (5 horizontal, three in recliners, total of up to 8 people!) Optional combo washer/dryer in the bedroom. It's right next to the closet, can't be more convenient than that! Comments welcome of course, but we're pretty sure of ourselves here! =)

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