It is kind of a relief.

Even though it was only about a month ago, that I was still taking finals…it feels like it was so long ago.

And just last week I had one of those dreams where you suddenly discover you’ve been missing a class for a week that you didn’t know you had for some reason? And that you’ve missed out on 2 quizzes. And you’re freaking out? Yeah, I had one of those last week. In the dream I thought “wait…what? I thought I thought I was done with all this?…”

It’s kind of surreal not to have that weight on my shoulders anymore.

Still a student of life though. Every day.

I saw this on the yahoo mainpage and it caught my eye. Particularly because I’ve done research on this very subject. I found out recently that in order to graduate from a university, the title “university” means that you know how to do research. That’s why at UCI, we have to take an upper division writing course that makes you do a research paper. The class I took was People in Society, which is practically any social issue you can think of.

The thing that parents are fearing more for their kids, is the violence in the video games they play. No doubt being heightened by the sensationalize media takes on school shootings. In the bigs ones, like Columbine, and Virginia Tech, the shooters had a history of gaming, and being male, gaming has to do with killing something. They’re not rushing home to play Barbie fashion dress up, or Cooking Mama, or Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

The demographic research on this is, however, that video gaming and violent titles are played nation-wide, but school shootings are not. They are still more prevalent where gun culture is high and places were kids are pressured to blend in with everyone else.

Here is the link to download my paper if you want to read through it. It’s 15 pages in APA format. It’s not all just about school shootings, actually. The paper is about the effects of violent video games on adolescents…how submersed kids can be, how influenced they become…even good effects. Since it’s in APA format, and a research paper, there aren’t any opinions in it. APA format was pretty hard -__-”.

As for kids still being able to buy violent games, it’s like getting into an R rated movie. I forgot if I posted about this in my blog, but I was as EB games one day, and I overheard a grandma and her grandson at the counter.

Grandma: We want uh….a Grand Theft Auto 4? <looks at grandson to make sure she said it right.

Salesman: Oh yeah, lemme get that……okay, just to make sure, the ESRB rating states warnings for blood, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of alcohol, use of drugs. Is this okay?

Grandma: <looking back down on her grandson> Is this it?

Grandson: <nods up and down with bright eyes>

Grandma: <shrugs> okay, yes.

Yeah, that was pretty easy. Here I was, standing there, almost smirking at the kid’s situation because he surely was going to get a little lecture for wanting to play a game that boasted partial NUDITY and had the word “sex” in there somewhere. But the grandma didn’t even seem fazed by all of that. This was right after I had finished my second draft of my paper too, and I was a bit shocked.

Maybe the only way to solve this is to make sure people show proof that they are mentally stable to be able to play violent video games. In fact, we should all show proof we’re mentally stable all the time. Make it a patch and stick it on our heads.

There’s nothing to fear! I’m mentally stable!

• Decided that lecture<discussion since I can barely understand the professor and he’s just teaching out of the book
• Reading the Twilight saga and I am officially only interested in mysteriously broody, charming, mind-reading vampires. Teeeeeeeam Edward!! Drooooolz
• Went to an Angels vs. Yankees game this Friday. Only highlight was listening to the females swoon over A-rod as he took off his helmet and walked towards the crowd to greet fans with a huge smile. I also got to see him hit a home run during the game with my own eyes! @_@ <–these eyes.

Embarrassingly enough, the picture I took that I thought was A-rod was of someone else. Hey, it’s hard to target someone at 5x zoom. At least he was at the edge of my picture -__-”.

Elementary school: Who is in my class this year?!

Middle school: I get to see my friends again!

High school: Where are we meeting up for lunch so we can reserve it the whole year?

In college, sure I’d dread the thought of going back and try not to look at my schedule until the last minute, but I generally like the first day.

This first day was not so good for me.

The classroom that I thought I knew where exactly it was located was harder to find than I thought. I had assumed it was this classroom that I had taken during the night, but I parked in a different lot and thought I would just find my way over there. That room is also in the half part of the campus that I rarely ever go to. The scary applied sciences part. Eeesh.

My class is in the afternoon, so it’s still bright out. As I walk in the unfamiliar humid heat of the day, I think “geez…this part of the campus really looks different during the day!” To make things more surreal, our campus is forever changing because it’s always under construction. I’m looking around thinking “Was this building always here? When did they add this? Did they change the color??” It was almost like the twilight zone and I was half expecting people to suddenly freeze in place.

I keep walking and I still have not reached the building that used to be familiar to me in the night. Okay…I admit defeat and I’m going to go back to that campus map I saw in the middle of the road. I walk back a quarter of the way I came from, check the map, and it’s even farther than I had originally thought. In fact, it’s the farthest point from where I parked.

As I finally get to my class, only five minutes late, walking on a slight uphill…

“Man…I’m getting too old for this”

It’s in quotes because I’m not really “done”. I still have summer…and I’m going on to higher education. I’m not sure what to call the teaching credential program. It’s not really graduate studies…and people don’t really get what the program is. It’s almost like a rigorous internship+school. And I still haven’t heard from them yet too, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it this year.

The instructions for graduation stated we had to be there an hour early, 4pm. But I didn’t really need to because you just end up standing out there in the sun, waiting to be ushered in at 5pm, when it starts. It was hot, we were all wearing black (unzipped though) and the girls were wearing high heels! Heels on concrete for an hour…great.

Our speaker was a student, and she was really accomplished in a way that made me feel really small. It didn’t help that she was amazingly pretty too. Her parents must be proud.

So here are my pictures…I am lucky enough to have a photog family: my dad and my brother. They busted out their best and did all they could. Too bad my ceremony was indoors with weird dark lighting though.

I like this picture…it’s a little dark…I’m sure I can do something with it though.

I decorated it. It didn’t show as much as I thought it would though…had to be at a certain angle to catch the light.

I actually did this using just a big feathered circle…i wanted it to fade to color….but you can’t really tell. I suppose I should have just lassoed it because it doesn’t look intentional anyway.

My daddy couldn’t find his daughter. Where was our ESP that day hmm?!?

I don’t like that you can see my legs -__-”.

Tossing the hats. What is it called….mosterboard or something…

And then I just have two more classes in summer to complete.

And maybe another year for my teaching credential…which I don’t know if I got into yet.

……

…..

but for some reason, I’m still excited!! ^_^

I just went through the most hellish week of my life. I’ve neveer done so much studying and writing and citing in one week ever.

Mike Davis….hm…..omg! My professor for another History class I have is also a Mike Davis! I know he writes for newspapers…and his class is so super easy…and he just tells us stories about California in lecture…that don’t have much to do with the final, but are interesting….could this be him?

So I googled him, and found that he has his own wiki page. Yeah…his own page. Right there up top. Suddenly I feel like my professor is a celebrity or someone famous…I’ve been listening to this guy talk and maybe I should have paid a little more attention! The prose in the book is a lot different from when he is talking to us in class though. In class…he’s very mild mannered…funny at times. He feels like a grandpa telling you a story about the history of California. The San Fransisco earthquake, the gold rush, the orange fields, the laborers… In this book, it’s a little hard to keep up sometimes. I feel like I’m reading an article for the SATs and I need to write notes in the margins.

I’m too shy to go up to him and be like “hey! This book. The author is you right??” Though he would probably enjoy it. No wonder when I sent him emails, I get weird corporate-like auto responses saying that he doesn’t do interviews and stuff.

I think seven out of ten times, someone will hold the door open for me when I walk near a door.

Most of the time, they are walking in front of me, notice that I am walking behind them, and just hold the door open long enough for me to hurriedly walk through, smile, say “thank you!” and duck my way through.  I quicken my pace so they know I recognize their kind gesture and I accommodate by making the process faster.

Sometimes, it’s a simple act of just looking behind you right after you’ve walked through the door, to see if anyone is behind you, and just hold the door a while longer so they can get through.

And I’m not one of those girls who cry and moan about about how chivalry is dead. This isn’t about chivalry, or guys holding doors open for girls. It goes both ways. I don’t expect it to happen, but it’s nice that my classmates at UCI have sort of all passed this courtesy along. I find myself more cautious of people walking near me when I get to a door, and I always try to hold it open now. And I think other people have started feeling this way too. It’s such a nice feeling that a simple gesture few people started with have grown to porportions of about 70% of all door openings.

Makes me proud to be an anteater. How many universities can say the same thing about their school?