Hello again. As always, I hope that everybody is doing well. The weather has been humid and ugly all day today. Here’s a quick photo that I wanted to share. It’s an origami figure that Eunice created for me. The figure is based off of a dramatic thriller-type video game called Heavy Rain. For the past two nights, Anthony, Matt, Raymond, Thomas, and I have been playing this game nonstop until we beat it. The game is really incredible and kept all of us on the edge of our seats through the entire game. It’s a really fun and suspenseful game that gets everybody indirectly involved. The storyline is truly an incredible experience and will keep you thinking for days to come. If you have the chance to play this game, then you really should, especially with friends!!

So anyways, I finally finished my application for Texas A&M University. It took weeks for me to finish it and I’m glad that I nailed it before the deadline.  I also applied to University of Texas San Antonio, kind of as a fall back plan just incase things don’t work thing. It’s crazy that it took weeks for me to apply to A&M, but only minutes to apply for UTSA. I did not apply to University of Texas at Austin because I missed the deadline (or laziness) or Texas State University because it did not offer what I needed. Well nonetheless, I’m glad that I finally have all of my college applications all squared away and I don’t have to worry about them any longer. The only thing left for me to do cross my fingers and pray that I make it, here’s to hoping! :)

Please stay happy and healthy everybody! I’m going crazy. I’ll see you soon..

How is everybody? I hope that you all are doing very well and kicking things off right this new year! ^O^

Yesterday was such a lazy day. I had so much to do and ended up doing nothing at all. My laundry is still dirty and I still need to visit the school to inquire some info about financial aid. Though I was pretty dead during the daytime, things started to become lively during the night. Matt and I decided to treat our friend Devo, who turned 21 yesterday, to a small birthday surprise. Nothing too big, just cake, snacks, and a great time together with the rest of our friends. Happy 21st Devo! :)

 

I’ve been feeling really stressed lately and I don’t know why. There’s just too much on my mind, and for no good reason either. I’m worried about some people while missing others like crazy. Thoughts keep coming out of nowhere and I can’t even begin to try to sort through it all. Summarizing all the people I miss into a simple, organized paragraph would be just as difficult as trying to see them all again. On top of that, what about finals? Finals. Finals. Finals. I must have talked about that a million times already. Maybe seeing everyone finish their finals this past week makes me jealous and stresses me out for the exams I have to take on Tuesday.

Anthony invited me to go to the Final Winter Dance Tournament in Austin but I was not able to go because of work, which is a real bummer. The Japanese style arcade scene is amazing and I never get the chance to experience events and gatherings as such. Anthony, I hope you, Matt, and Raymond had a good time. Hopefully kicked a lot of ass! Tell me how it went!! And speaking of work, I don’t know. I just don’t feel like working that much these days but I know I need to. Christmas cash just doesn’t happen to grow on trees you know. Psh. Just keep your head up Ruiz. Think positive thoughts and don’t give up! *shakes fist* 하이팅!! (fighting!!)

Darn. Now that song is stuck in my head and it’s been looping for the past hour. Everyone please continue to stay warm, safe, and healthy.

 
Click on both of the images to enlarge.The bottom image is the original, untouched photo.

LOL, no we’re not singers or anything. :) This picture was taken a while back. It was a rainy night and we were just taking photos on the community college campus. You can kind of tell it was raining because of the raindrops splashing in the fountain, but the bright campus lights made us appear dry. So the people in this photo, from left to right, are Matt, Thomas, Jasmin, and myself. A few pictures were blended together to create this. Matt was blurry in the original photo so I replaced him with another shot that didn’t have him so blurry. I like that shot of him more because he seems to be the only one paying attention to the rain and also because  it adds a little meaning and message to the photo. After correcting colors, I added a bit of orange glow to match my shirt. The background was blurred a bit more to add slight depth of field and finally, I added stars as an effort to make it seem like it’s not as rainy as it seems. But yeah, that’s it! A somewhat gloomy picture brightened up to a happier mood. In the future, I wish to enjoy an evening that looks as great as this one. :)

So as of today, my Thanksgiving break is officially over. School starts again for me today. I was supposed to have Hamlet read by today, but I didn’t bother to read it. I know the concept of it. I think. Doesn’t matter, Sparknotes has a modern English translation of the entire play that I can probably read in an hour. I hope you all have had a great Thanksgiving break. Please continue to stay well and healthy. It’s getting really cold outside!!

OH! And I forgot to mention! It’s nothing big, but I updated the ‘About me’ page yesterday. You can click on it at the top. I was supposed to redo it months ago, but never had the time. So yeah, it’s just a brief bio about me. Read it if you have the time, thanks!