The Reason I Started Tumblr:

I used to write in my Xanga (there’s a link on my tumblr if you want to check it out) consistently, ever since I made it on October 29, 2003 in my freshman year of high school. Whoah, that sounds really crazy now that I think about it. Almost ten years ago. Anyway, Once I got to college, I didn’t have as much time to update since I got hella active. I did short recaps of things that I did so that I could remember, but one post would end up spanning about one or two weeks. At the end of my second year, I found out about tumblr and a lot of my friends in Samahang had one, so I was like, why not. I liked the structure of it and I liked how easy it was to post pictures and music and what not. I said goodbye to Xanga in June and this is where I have been since. Part of me wants to go back to my Xanga since I don’t write the same way here as I did there, but then I realize that time is still the issue.

The Reason for my Tumblr Name:

So I might change my tumblr name soon since it is getting old. First of all, I hate the shortening “Al” so I prefer “Alv” or “Alvy” if you are going to shorten it (or AC like my family and relatives calls me). It just so happened that the word in was in my name too, so therefore, playing on that, the alv is in instead of out. I also thought about how Ryan Seacrest has his “Seacrest Out!” thing but I never found the right time to say “AlvOUT!” Maybe because there is no right time to do that.

[Last Year: December 22, 2010]

Most Irrational Phobias:

1. Spiders - Well, most bugs really. I just can’t stand that they are so small and have so many legs. I can’t kill bugs either, so I tend to freak out as I try to catch them in between a disposable cup and a piece of paper so that I can set them free outside.

2. Elevators - Okay, fine. This list is starting to look the same as last year, but how often do phobias change? Anyway, this one got bigger because of that story about the lady who got freakin’ pinned by an elevator that moved while she was still getting in. I mean, what the heck? I just feel so uncomfortable during the twenty second ride because I just imagine a cable falling apart and the elevator car plummeting to the ground.

Greatest Phobia:

Forgetting and Being Forgotten. Okay, the more I think about this, the cheesy the explanation, so just read last year’s paragraphs about this if you are interested.

[Last Year: December 21, 2010]

I don’t remember either and last year, I made up an excuse that basically said nothing, so this year, I’ll talk about the last wedding and funeral I went to.

Last Wedding: It was actually last month. It was nice and I kind of liveblogged the events on twitter. Wedding started off kind of weird since there was this gap where all the sponsors had walked down the aisle already but there was no sight of the bride, the bridemaids, or the groomsmen. Then the priest kind of started freaking out. But all in all it was nice.

Last Funeral: This was for a family friend’s mom. Or dad? I don’t remember, but this happened a couple months ago. I ended up running into one of my friends from middle school/ high school because he was there for another funeral service, so we talked for a bit and that’s what spurred us to start hanging out again. Oh, so this wasn’t an actual funeral, but the viewing, but essentially there’s someone who’s dead and people that are dressed in black.

[Last Year: December 19, 2010]

This whole working thing makes me too exhausted to keep up with this thing, but I have a day off tomorrow to recuperate. Well, not really, but let’s do a bit of catch up.

Anywayyy, last year, I talked about Photoshop and MS Paint from the good ol’ days when I had Photoshop and MS Paint. This year, here’s another hobby of mine that not many people may know about. I love playing games online. Not those MMORPGs, but like games that people make and upload online for people to play.

Sure, you might be like “Alvin, everyone plays those”. Well, yeah, sure, but I have a Kongregate account (thanks to my pseuds) and now I have played long enough and gotten enough badges to be Level 31. I mostly like playing puzzle and action games, but I venture into strategy and tower defense once in a while.

So there you have it. Random nerdy hobby.

Last Year: December 17, 2010

Oh gosh, I feel like I should just copy and paste from last year. This is such a touchy topic for me and I don’t really like going into it. I don’t even know a better way to avoid talking more so I’ll just end here, haha.

[Last Year: December 16, 2010]

1. I have scars on my face, arm, waist, and leg from when I got bit by a dog when I was a baby in the Philippines.
2. I still have a stuffed animal lamb (which I named Lambchop) that I got when I was five. There’s a story about how I freaked out when I lost him in Las Vegas, but luckily, we found him on top of a slot machine.
3. I can actually say that I hiked the Great Wall of China.
4. I used to be really obsessed with LOST in high school to the point that I could tell you all the titles of the episodes that had aired.
5. I collect lapel pins from places I visit. I used to keep them on a black tie, but I got a lot more so I made my own display canvas.
6. I didn’t have a real, paid job until after college since my parents wanted me to focus more on school and work later.
7. I am pretty naive about a lot of things.
8. I once spent a Halloween dressed up like Mr. Potato Head. The face parts were velcro, so you could stick them wherever on the potato outfit.
9. I used to want to be a paleontologist when I was in elementary school. It evolved into becoming a photo journalist and then travel journalist over time. Now I want to go to graduate school in Anthropology.
10. I got a 2020 on my SATs and it is still one of my proudest high school moments.
11. I was also the only male valedictorian (basically anybody with a 4.0 or higher was a valedictorian) at my high school.
12. I didn’t start reading Harry Potter until the end of my fourth year at UCLA.
13. I really love the scent of blackcurrant.
14. I think giraffes are disgusting after seeing them drink each other’s urine on two separate occasions at the Los Angeles Zoo.
15. I know not everyone has a Facebook, but sometimes I worry that something has happened to the middle school and high school friends that I can’t find.

[Last Year: December 15, 2010]

Today, I woke up to my alarm at 7:15 AM and ended up snoozing until 8:30. After waking up, I did my daily rounds online by checking GMail, Facebook, and tumblr. Since there wasn’t too much new on any of those websites, I finally got out of bed to brush my teeth and shower using the sweetie pie shower gel that I bought from Rona at Lush. The reason I was waking up early was to prepare for my rotations for work, even though I would not have to be there until 1:45. I needed to print certain pictures and since my printer takes forever to print now for some reason, I wanted to give enough time for that to happen. 

Somehow, I ended up more distracted by going on tumblr again and checking out links from posts by The Daily What. I decided to just print out the pictures I needed from Staples since it would be faster and I would have more time to do other things with the rest of my morning. One of those things included watching episodes of Friends that I had on my DVR. It was the episodes where Monica and Chandler had the home visit and where they talked to the mother who they wanted to adopt a baby from. I also tried to figure out how to play basic chords for the song Kookaburra on my ukulele since I was going to be teaching the kids about Australia in class today. After microwaving some food to eat and finishing it up, I got dressed in my STAR shirt and left for Staples.

At Staples, I got seven different pictures printed out including five different Australian animals, a map of Australia, and Australia’s flag. I also got my EPG for the day’s lesson printed out as well. Since I needed construction paper, I made a quick stop to buy some at Target. I parked on the second floor, because I was in a hurry, but it was oddly full, even though there is no direct entrance to Target on that floor. 

Once I was able to buy construction paper, I finally got onto the 405 and then the 101 to reach the elementary school that I work at. I found street parking early, so I decided to just wait there and play Plants vs Zombies on my iPhone for a while. Eventually, I got out of the car and headed for the STAR classroom, where my co-workers and I meet to start working.

When the kids finally got out of class, I went to talk to the first graders, who is the group with the kids I know the most. They were really talkative and I ended up reading a book about squids because one of them asked me to read it to him and his friends. I went back to the classroom to set up for my rotation while all the kids in all the grade levels went to the bathrooms.

The first group I got was some of the first graders and the second graders. Already, I knew this would be tough because the kids thought they were going to sports first and then found out that they were scheduled for sports at the end of the day. Thus, many of them were bitter and did not want to be in my class. It was horrible. Some of the boys were complaining and I was just trying to get through everything in my EPG. I wanted to make passports that we would use each lesson, but they were restless, so I continued to the Australia lesson where things got a little better. I had some students act out the five different Australian animals and they were all eager to volunteer.

Since they were still restless, I thought it would be a good idea to go outside and play a game using these Australian animals. It wasn’t. It was just more chaotic. I ended the rotation feeling like I wanted to just crawl into a hole and bury myself. But I still had three more rotations to go.

First graders. SO MUCH BETTER. There were still a few who were restless, but I really loved working with them. Maybe it’s just because I talk to them the most and some of them already kinda like me. I decided to scrap the passport idea and just start off directly with Australia, so that helped. Since we had more time, I brought out the ukulele and taught them how to sing Kookaburra. It was so awesome.

Kindergarteners. This one was really good too, but there were less of them since parents had picked up a few of the kids already. We did the same thing as the first graders and they seemed to like it a lot too. After them were the 3rd to 5th graders who also seemed to have fun. I was just so happy that things started to work out. I guess I should have expected my first rotation to go bad since it was my first time teaching for STAR ever. After learning what worked and what didn’t, the class got so much better and the kids had more fun.

So a two things I just want to point out. One, when the kids sang Kookaburra and when they did their animal impressions, it was incredibly cute! Two, a lot of them think states and cities are countries, which was amusing as well. I asked what countries people have been to and got answers like Idaho and Studio City. I need to remember what age group I’m working with.

After the rotations were over, my co-workers and I had a meeting about next week since we were going to start Winter Camp for the students. We just went over basic rules since we were going to be at another school, but it was over by 7 and I made the drive through traffic back home.

It was an exhausting day so I checked the kitchen for food. My little brother made red velvet cream puffs, so I had one. I went back to my bed and turned on the TV while I did my online rounds again. I was thinking about watching The X Factor but realized that I didn’t really care about any of the contestants anymore, so I just put on some SpongeBob. I tried to figure out what else to do, but I was tired, so I decided, to screw everything and just take a nap.

I woke up at around 9 or 10 and went back online. Nothing much was happening, but I did end up writing another article for BakitWhy about the new dean at Lewis & Clark College. Yay for Pilipinos in higher ed management. After finishing the article, I decided to finally get to writing this post.

So yeah, it’s really not coherent because my mind is still hella drained after today, but I really did not want to put too much thought into this. Sure, I did end up writing a lot, but, to be fair, I had a lot of experience with posts like this on xanga.

Anyway, I guess that’s it!

[Last Year: December 14, 2010]

Just copying and pasting from last year.

Los Angeles, CA - Starting out a little after I was born in Santa Monica.
Santa Clarita, CA  - From a little after my first brother was born until the end of second grade.
Van Nuys, CA - From the beginning of third grade until now!

And if you also want to include…

Westwood, CA - Dorming my first two years at UCLA and living in the apartments my third year.
Shanghai, China - Studying abroad for six weeks.

[Last Year: December 13, 2010]

Favorite Word:

Ridiculous. I use this word a lot, so I assume that I like it enough. I mean, it was the word that I chose last year and I still feel this way. There is probably something else that I like as well, but I can’t really think of it at the moment.

Question about the World: 

Life has changed drastically over the years. How everything is now is incredibly different than how it was fifty years ago and that is incredibly different from fifty years before that. Will there ever be a time when our [meaningful] inventions and discoveries start to decline so that a span of fifty years won’t look too different at all? Or, how different will life be fifty years from now?

Most Interesting Fact I’ve Learned this Week:

Star Wars had a 1978 holiday special that received a large amount of criticism for being so bad. And okay, I know this because of Community.

[Last Year: December 12, 2010]

No real theme for the pictures that I chose except that I took all of these at some point in 2011. All of them were taken in Southern California too, if that can be the theme, considering that last year, all my pictures were from my trip to China.

1. Getty Villa

2. Downtown LA

3. Solvang

4. California Science Center

5. Union Station

6. Downtown LA Art Walk

7. LA Korean Festival

8. (Sub)Urban Home

9. Chinatown

10. Union Station

[Last Year: December 9, 2010]