I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a great start to the New Year so far! I'm back!
The break was good and restful, but it is time to get back to work! My first quarter did not go as I wanted, but it's a part of my story now. For the first time in my life, I failed a course and did not get an A in a quarter/semester. I finished with a 1.43 GPA and was granted academic probation, which is absolutely abysmal, and there is just no excuse, besides Geno Smith.
The work did not get done, and I could not beat myself. My first final was for Circuits and once I knew failed that, I just crashed and burned my other finals. That feeling of defeat after getting out of those exams and that long 8-hour drive of wallowing in self-pity questioning if I even deserved to come home took a huge toll on me. That hurt.
Fortunately, as I was doom scrolling in bed my feed blessed me with this reel:
Linus is a real one for that. His words are simple, but powerful. We all weathered the storm and survived our longest days, but we rarely give ourselves credit for that kind of strength. When it all falls down (Chi-town stand up!), we have the ability to start over and rebuild for the better. The world is still here and so are you and me, the show goes on!
I love this Batman Begins quote:
Ray Lewis with a legendary quote here:
Such a shame the Ravens did not advance to playoffs. I am happy for Rodgers, but I want to see Lamar succeed too.This was probably the longest and most tiring winter break I had, and I did not do much, but get the bread up though. I was taking shifts at Canes and at the rink aside from coaching, I estimate I made about one grand, but I blew it all on 49ers vs. Bears tickets. That game was special! Purdy and Williams had legacy games. In a few years, I will make one of those late-night finds reels. Every time I have gone to Levi's for a 49er game, it has always been a shootout; 2023 Bengals vs. 49ers, 2024 Lions vs. 49ers, and 2025 Bears vs. 49ers. Very fortunate to see prime Joe Shiesty, CMC tie the touchdown streak record, hear "Jared Goff", prime St. Brown, Ricky Pearsall legacy 146-yard game, and on the come up Caleb. God, I love football!
I am so thankful, I applied for the study abroad at Kyoto University before my first quarter, otherwise they would not let me go. Kyoto University accepted me and did not ask for my most recent transcript, so I am officially entering the transfer portal. I head out right after finals week in March just in time for Sakura season. Hopefully, I can get into the dorms there because I do not want to go through the process of getting a lease in a foreign country. The dorms there operate on a lottery system not on a first come first, serve basis, but I always like to play my cards. I am excited about going, new opportunity, and a new adventure.
Hard to give a fair evaluation about my courses after syllabus week (Week 1), but so far all my professors seem to be pretty decent. I am taking 4 courses; retaking the course I failed, one I dropped last quarter, economics to fulfill my general education requirement, and a data science class (thinking about doing a minor there). If it all becomes too much I will drop my data science class and go back to 3 courses. Retaking circuits feels so daunting because it took a lot out of me and I have to go back into the storm. Things did not go my way, but that's ok. I was way too over ambitious in how I wanted my undergraduate plan to go. We or at least I, need to understand that everybody wants, but God does what He wants, and we need to accept that regardless of whether we like it or not.
This leads me to this clip:
Moving on from the philosophical, I had a solid week with a few bummers; my code for a free large bucket of balls at Torrey Pines does not work anymore. The receipt said it expires on 11/16/2026, but someone probably found out I punched that code like 40+ times. It's alright though because I registered for golf lessons at Sorrento Canyon. Sorento not like Torrey, but better than no golf. $85 a quarter and $13 per bucket ain't too bad.
Hockey was absolutely abysmal this week, I had a midnight practice before back-to-back midnight games! The first game back was brutal for me, I was getting hit high on almost every other shift, and I ended up getting a "mild" concussion. Happy the team pulled away with a win 6-4, but the next game was utterly embarrassing. I did not play due to concussion protocol, and it was an 11 - 2 loss, the game ended at 2:17 AM. Not playing sucks, but is worse when you are watching your team get the belt at midnight when you could have been sleeping. I do not understand what happened, I started thinking to myself, if I really make that much of a difference on the team. The most frustrating hockey season I have had is continuing into the new year I guess, earning straight donuts (zeroes) in the only game I played this weekend. I am sidelined for the upcoming games against UDub this weekend due to my "mild" concussion. I do not think I have a concussion, but appreciate my teammates looking out for me. Maybe a break from the game is what I need.
Aside from hockey, I managed to get into another club; Triton Trading Group. I wanted to get into the quant division, but ended up in wealth/investment management division. I think I pissed off one of the board members when I tried to go portfolio for portfolio with them, which is why I did not get quant. That club was a sweat to get into, I had to dress up for a general body meeting, which was pretty tacky. The club looks promising and fun, so grateful to say I am involved in six clubs. I need to figure out how I am going manage my time and involvement in my clubs, I will probably have to drop some.
One thing I did learn this week or weekend besides reading syllabus was soldering. In my solar car club (trying to build a solar car), we had to connect the batteries to the wires in order to test our battery management system was working properly, so we needed to solder the connections to the wires. That sentence is probably a word-salad, but if I am being honest, I don't even know what exactly or why we needed to solder. My lead just taught me some fundamentals and told me to do it, and I did.
That's pretty much all the update I have for this week and break. I improved the layout and design of the website, let me know how you all like it. Also, feel free to play some blackjack.
Things are looking hopeful, and I am very excited about this year. Hoping I can stay discipline and not break promises to myself this time. I figured new year, new me is too ambitious. I am doing that new day, new me. "One step at a time, one punch at a time, one round at a time." I am probably going to re-watch Creed today, stuff gets me going.
Happy New Year, everyone! Hoping you all stay safe and healthy. Bang Bang Niner Gang! Godspeed!