Find some time to relax

One things to remember while studying for finals is it find times to take a break and get your mind of material. For me going to the beach with a couple dogs is a solid way to clear my mind so I can focus up. The typical routine I go by is 45 minutes on 15 minutes off. Study for 45 minutes straight then take a little 15 minute break. It's helpful for staying sharp and not getting overworked. Overall, don't allow yourself to become to stressed because then you'll just start forgetting things you know. Best of luck this week folks. 

Finals grind

Obviously everyone is a little stressed out with finals coming up. One thing I've found that helps me is studying in a group as opposed to by yourself a focused group is often more helpful than watching 100 khan academy videos on your own. Usually it's a group of 2-3 that i work with to get things done. The benefit is that if one person doesn't know the answer to a question pertaining to specific material, another person will. This advice is coming a little late but find study buddies right at the beginning of the semester. It makes schoolwork infinitely more bearable and often easier. Best of luck compadres. Hopefully you don't need to memorize tables like this 

Thanksgiving

For all the folks who are far from home on thanksgiving, I suggest doing roommate thanksgiving. I've been doing it for the last few years and it's always excellent. One of the best parts is that is affordable to do everything. With 10 people everyone can pitch in a few bucks and a thanksgiving meal for everyone becomes easy to make and easy to buy. Last night at my place we did a Black Friday thanksgiving dinner since we all had to work thanksgiving day. Excellent food with a bunch of our friends and leftovers. Tons of leftovers. 

Booyah

End of the semester

It's usually right around this time of fall semester that students start caring less when they should care more. With thanksgiving festivities going on, the of of the semester near, and the warm weather that sb has, it's difficult to stay focused on finals and the home stretch of academics for the semester. What I've found is the best way to handle things is staying present in what exactly it is you're doing. When thanksgiving rolls around, take a break. Relax and chill out for the whole day and don't bother worrying about studying or homework or exams. When thanksgiving ends, focus up, get that brain in gear, and grit out the last two weeks so that you can crush your finals. So far this technique has been working pretty well during my time at CC. typically I do fairly well on my exams and then when winter break finally comes I can relax stress free because I'm not worrying how I did on finals. Overall, stay focused and be prepared. The more you sweat in practice the less you bleed in battle

How can you not get distracted sometimes

End of the semester

It's usually right around this time of fall semester that students start caring less when they should care more. With thanksgiving festivities going on, the of of the semester near, and the warm weather that sb has, it's difficult to stay focused on finals and the home stretch of academics for the semester. What I've found is the best way to handle things is staying present in what exactly it is you're doing. When thanksgiving rolls around, take a break. Relax and chill out for the whole day and don't bother worrying about studying or homework or exams. When thanksgiving ends, focus up, get that brain in gear, and grit out the last two weeks so that you can crush your finals. So far this technique has been working pretty well during my time at CC. typically I do fairly well on my exams and then when winter break finally comes I can relax stress free because I'm not worrying how I did on finals. Overall, stay focused and be prepared. The more you sweat in practice the less you bleed in battle

How can you not get distracted sometimes

Ventura county

I've been in Santa Barbara for a while now but I really haven't spent to much time in Ventura. This past weekend my roommate and I went to to go try and find some surf. I haven't surfed too much before but It's always a good time. I borrowed my buddy's board and we found ourselves on some random wind swept beach in Ventura. Apparently there are a ton of different surf spots all over the area but the one we went to was cool. There was a solid little spot for tapas right next to the beach. I don't suggest tapas then surfing. Go reverse order. Surfing then tapas. Overall take some time to drive all over Santa Barbara and Ventura counties to check out surf spots. 

This was the view on the drive home. Really nice. 

 

Van Nuys

For all the people with heavy feet in the driver seat be sure to keep an eye out on the highway. California highway patrol is pretty strict and will write you a ticket super fast. That's the reason I had to head down to van nuys today. It turned out to be pretty cool. The area and buildings are really nice and have a bunch of places to sit down and hang out for a bit. During the downtime I got to chill out and read the book warrior of light. Good quick read by a Brazilian writer who touches on subjects of perserverance, courage, and strength. I suggest taking a drive down to van nuys and find a good spot to kick it. 

This is one of the buildings in the area. Nice place

Pretty excellent

After being in Santa Barbara for a while you can lose sight of how awesome the city actually is. It's mid November and it's  65 degrees and sunny. Probably the best part of going to city college (apart from academics) is the location of the school itself. It's literally perched on a hill directly next to the beach. Look all over the country and guaranteed you'll have a hard time find a place to match it. The only other school I know of like it with its building on a hill next to the beach is endicott college back in my hometown on the east coast. The difference is that right now endicott is 35 with high wind chill and no sun and it'll be like that until April. Overall, SBCC is pretty excellent and has a lot going for it. Affordable class, good extracuriculars, and a location that's unbeatable. 

This is a view from outside the bio tutor room. One of the many views on campus

Camping

All over Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, there are excellent camping areas. This past weekend my friends and I went down in Ojai. The campsite was affordable and super awesome. The campsite was big enough for all the people with had with us, which was about 15, to have there own area for their car and rent. Best part of the weeken was how prepared everything was. We all had space for our tents and because everyone was assigned a meal to cook prior to going, food was completely taken care of. Only downside was that it gets pretty chilly at night so if you're planning on going camping during the winter months, bring plenty of layers and a good solid sleeping bag. Definitely suggest going camping with a big crew at some point. 

Maddie and I found a nice spot to hike

For bio majors....

Now don't get me wrong. I love my major and it's been rewarding in many ways but when you're a bio major, you better bring your game face. Certainly, every major in college has its challenges but undoubtedly you'll see more than your fair share as a biology major. I registered for classes for my final semester at city college and I'm taking organic chemistry with a lab, physics with a lab, and cell biology with a lab. Now this is all with the intention of going to either ucla, uc Berkeley, uc Davis, or uc San Diego. Keep in mind that transfer requirements are varied from school to school, but in general they will typically be the same for biology major transfers. The difficult part of these classes isn't necessarily the material but more so the sheer workload. So if you think you're tough enough to work through a poor exam, handle a heavy workload, and pursue an education that can lead you towards the career you want, the rock and roll future bio student. Maybe one day you can tell me what all this means. 

This is an infrared spectroscopy chart for the compound eugenol. The peaks of the chart represent specific fictional groups that are present in the compound. If you can tell me what are the peaks mean then you're probably pretty good at chemistry

If you're looking for a new car

Take to craigslist and don't really bother with dealerships unless you have the money. While dealerships around here tend to give you some sort of benefit from buying cars from them, they also cost several thousand more. When my car was totaled about a year ago when I got t-boned going through an intersection finding a car became an immediate priority. I searched around Craigslist for a pretty short amount of time and ended up finding my current car. A 2001 VW Cabrio. It's basically a little manual go-kart but it gets crazy good MPG and it's super fun to drive. I spent around 4000 and was able to haggle with the previous owner. At a dealership this car would have cost at least 7000 and I wouldn't have been able to negotiate the price. I highly recommend taking to Craigslist for your next vehicle purchase. 

This is my car. It's named Toad. For those of you who play Mario Kart you'll understand the name. 

Boathouse

One off favorite restaurants around the sb area is definitely boathouse. The place is excellent and has a great happy hour. Today I went by just to grab a bite with some friends. It's right next to the beach and isn't too expensive. The seafood they have is on point and well worth the trip. It's just down the road from city college and a great place to go with with all the homies. I highly suggest the popcorn shrimp. Super tasty. 

Not a great pic but it's a cool spot nevertheless

Found a cool spot

I was hanging out with my brother a little while ago and we found a cool spot for checking out a sunset. It's basically a straight shot from city college and really easy to get to. From city college head towards the Mesa. Keep going straight on through the lights and follow the road towards Hendrys beach. Continue past Hendrys around the bend past the parking lot. About 2 minutes from there is ther clearing we found. It's perched on a little hill and is just the spot to kick it for a minute and relax. 

This is my brother and I chillin there

Doggy day care

Recently I got a new job but previously I worked at a dog day care named Dioji. Place was awesome. It's cage free so all the pups get to run around together and play. For those of you with dogs I definitely recommend bringing them to day care for a day to check it out. The dogs have to go through a evaluation so that staff can be sure all the dogs will get along but on the day of your dogs evaluation they get the whole day free. There are two locations. One in downtown sb and the other off of hollister in Goleta.

This is a pic of one of my favorite dogs, maddie. She'll take another dogs leash in her mouth and walk the dog. Super cool

Knotts Berry Farm

Yesterday I got to head down to LA to check out a theme park that a bunch of friends have told me about. Knotted berry farm is a place where during Halloween days they have scary mazes, haunted houses, and of course roller coasters. It's funny walking through the haunted houses and trying not to be startled by the masked people. I tried to walk through and be very observant so that I wasn't surprised by any of the features. That failed. In every maze there is at least one thing that gets you. It's a good time and I highly recommend going down to check it out this week. 

This is one the rides I went on. Super fun. Super fast. Super tall. 

SB and IPhones ain't too bad

Santa Barbara is obviously a place with a bunch of spectacular views. One spot in particular that I'm a fan of is east beach. Usually after work I'll spend about a half hour walking my dog down the length of the beach. It's a solid little walk and I do it to spend some time outside and so that my dog isn't hyper at night. But the thing I learned today was a snipet about photography with an iPhone. It's actually pretty incredible to think about how intricate an iPhone is considering I was playing Pokemon on a gameboy 10 years ago and that was super high tech then. Today I took a picture of the same exact view but focusing the iPhone camera in a different direction every time. The results were interesting. 

 

East coast

So with the sox in the World Series and me getting nostalgic about being back home I thought I'd write about where I'm from a little bit. I live right outside of Boston on the north shore. For anyone who knows what the Salem witch trials are, I live in the city next to it called Beverly. Now I may be weird but one of the things I miss most about home is the weather. I think most people would prefer the Santa Barbara weather of sunny and 75 every day but not me. I want it to snow two feet so I can take a snow day and drink hot chocolate with a fat stack of pancakes. Unfortunately I don't get to go back too often because I'm too busy with school, I have to work, or I flat out don't have the dollars for a plane ticket. But when I get the chance to go there is one place I like to spend my time most. It's called the silo. Probably my favorite place on the planet. When I go home next that's for damn sure where I'm headed. 

Here it is in all it's summery glory

Texas mini pig

For those of you looking for an out of the ordinary pet that doesn't take too much maintenance, look no further than the Texas mini pig. These little guys are super awesome. They don't get much bigger than a cat and don't eat too much so take up too much space or money. The only catch is that they cost pretty penny. It's around $1200 for one but thankfully they are fully healthy and have all their medications. Interestingly enough they are actually really smart. They can be trained just like a dog to be house broken, sit and stay, and do other things on command. In guessing a landlord might think its a little weird but wouldn't have a problem with it. Go check it out online. Super cool little things mini pigs are

This is me with my sisters pig Olive. 

Get hiking

In case you were able to check out my post from a little while ago in hiking, I thought I'd give people a reminder. Santa Barbara is packed with trails all over the place. There are dozens of trail heads located with in a small 5 mile radius. It's a great way to exercise, get outside, and see Santa Barbara. There are times I like going by myself to have some thoughts to myself or going with a buddy makes for solid conversation. If you're feeling real adventurous, the early morning hike or late evening hike when the sun is coming up or going down makes the hike that much better. It's Santa Barbara so when you have some time away from studying be sure to get outside. 

This is one of my favorite peaks in montecito. I'll let you climb and search for it yourself. 

Solstice

Every year Santa Barbara has festivals that everybody goes to. Fiesta and solstice are the biggest ones. Solstice is probably my favorite just because fiesta is a little more expensive. At solstice there are tons of things to do. There is live music all day. There is a bunch of good vendors. There is a parade. And there is my personal favorite part of solstice. The beer garden. For a few bucks you can buy a wristband and drink tickets to go into the beer garden. Inside is a great place to kick it with your buddies and make a bunch of new ones. I highly suggest makin a day of solstice when it comes up next year. 

Just a quick snap of the parade

Bay Area

I've been in Santa Barbara for the last two years and this one is my third and final. As I am transferring at the end of the school year my hope is that I have the resume to be able to get in to uc berekley. I absolutely love the Bay Area. San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland are all excellent. I don't even know out half of the things that are available to do there but I'd like to learn about as much as I can. A couple of friends of mine live in a sick spot in San Fran and I got to spend some time up there after I finished summer class this past semester. We spent some time in the city checking out a Peruvian restaurant and a chill dive bar. I definitely recommend making a weekend out of a trip up to the bay. 

This is the view from my friends balcony. Pretty spectacular. 

California 1

California has an incredibly long coastline. In all their majestic wisdom, the folks who designed the highways made the brilliant decision of making a coastline  route that travels adjacent to the water for miles. It's called the California 1 and it's amazing. Driving from Santa Barbara is about a 6 hour drive depending on traffic but there are dozens of stops along the way worth checking out. My favorite so far has been Big Sur. Located right on the water with towering bluffs and large white wave water, Big Sur is a pretty spectacular sight. There is tons of hiking and camping areas but without a doubt my favorite part was chillin on the bluffs just looking out at the ocean. 

This is the coast of big sur. 

Venice

Just a short 2 hour drive down the coast sits the little beach town of Venice. Often times when non-locals get into town and drive to LA they want to go check out Hollywood or some other fancy famous business like that. Personally my favorite tourist spot is Venice. The Venice boardwalk is a super excellent place to have a good time. There are shops with everything imaginable and tons of friendly folks. The beach sits adjacent to the boardwalk and provides a tight spot to kick it after you mow down on some food from a vendor along the way. The best part about Venice in my opinion is the skatepark though. I can't skate to save my life, but there are some people who are nasty who skate there regularly. Walking over and watching is wicked entertaining. Other spots to check out are the freak show, the outdoor gym, the adult playground with ropes and monkey bars, and the street performers that are scattered up and down the boardwalk. Overall Venice is a solid spot to check out on a weekend.

Pic is a quick snap my friend took while we were kickin it at the skatepark

Hockey Season is Back

If you don't watch hockey thats something you need to change immediately. In my hierarchy of sports hockey sits comfortable at number 2 behind football and ahead of soccer. It is by far the greatest sport to watch live especially if you have tickets close to center ice. Being that I am from Boston, I tend to have nightmares about that Bruins losing game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals this past season. Quite possibly the most brutal 17 seconds of life i've ever endured. Anyways, now that hockey season is back in swing there are a couple of places around SB that typically have coverage of hockey games. My favorite place is for sure The Neighborhood. Its a cool sports bar down the street from City College and besides having TV's for games they have pool, ping-pong, foosball, and some other bar games. Aside from the Neighborhood some other places to watch games are O'malley's, Sharkees, and Mel's. Truthfully all those places have better NFL coverage than NHL but they still are down to put on a hockey game when asked. Any way you slice it, hockey season is back and i'm ready to watch the B's smash on some Habs.


This is quite possibly my favorite Bruins picture ever. For those of you who don't know hockey, hopefully you'll one day learn

Winter is Coming...

When people think southern California they automatically think sunshine and hot weather. Obviously that is the case the majority of the time but one of my favorite places in Southern California brings snow into the picture. A 3-1/2 hour drive from Santa Barbara in Inland Empire is Bear Mountain which was my first California home. The peaks are elevated at about 7000 ft. and has one of the cooler topography characteristics in California. The interesting part comes in the fact that at the top of the hill there can be snow but just a short 30 minute drive down the mountain the temperature can get up to 90 degrees even in January. To people coming to SBCC, I highly suggest making a trip over to Bear Mountain and spending the weekend in a cabin right on the lake with the mountain just down the road. Hot coco, snowboarding, and some pretty killer landscape.


Pic is of me at the mountain back in 2011.

Other Beaches

City College students generally spend their beach days at East Beach, West Beach, and Leadbetter, but there are a number of other excellent beaches in the area. Typically the one that I go to is Summerland. Way less crowded, dogs are allowed, and the beach itself is pretty clean. I'm not a big fan of the kelp that is all over the place but Summerland usually has kelp-free sand. The other spot that is super excellent is Hendry's beach off of Las Positas. Also a dog beach, they have the restaurant Boathouse on the beach front. Great place to take a date or go for a cocktail. All in all, take some time to check out some other beaches in the area. East, West and Leadbetter are all great, but there is a whole lot more to see.

Pic is of Maddie and I down in Summerland doing our best Air Bud impressions

If time and money allow...

Get a dog. Immediately. Besides the fact that they are man's best friend, they are super helpful for destressing and having a loving companion to look out for you. My dog Maddie has been with me since she was 3 months old and she is now 4 and a half. As a German Shepherd she's incredibly loyal, incredibly smart, and most importantly intuitive. Possibly the most interesting trait that dogs have is their ability to read facial expressions an emotion. Similar to humans, dogs follow a left to right clockwise pattern of reading faces. With that adaptation they are able to understand body language, emotion, and general vibe better than most other animals. Maddie has this ability in spades. Hard day at work. She knows. Long day at school she knows. Angry about a bad grade. Everything. Its been one of the central joys of my life to see the way her and I have grown together over the last 4 years from living in Boston to moving to the So Cal mountains and now in Santa Barbara. Granted she is a total spaz at times but anything the isn't a robot is a spaz from time to time. For adopting a dog, there are several shelters locally that have pups that are looking for good homes. I highly suggest at least visiting and seeing if a dog might be able to fit into your lifestyle. Don't wait. Go to a shelter and see if your new best friend is waiting for you to pick her up.

This is Maddie and I Fall semester of last year. She was the runt of her litter and is a tiny thing for a Shepherd but she's pretty spectacular regardless.

She isn't the biggest fan of getting baths but when we go to the beach and she gets sandy there is no alternative

California and Music

Probably one of my favorite things California has to offer is an incredible music scene. Artists from all over the world come to venues in California to play massive shows and the vast majority that i've been to have been incredible. This past year I attended my first festival at Coachella. By far the most insane 3 days of my life. Its held on these gigantic polo fields in Indio, CA. Indio is super hot during the spring but the way Coachella is organized the do a really good job of making water and bathing accessible. 

I've been listening to Red Hot Chili Peppers since I was a little kid so seeing them on the final night as the headliner was amazing. I'd seen them once before down in San Diego but at Coachella I was 30 ft from stage with a crowd of at least 10,000 behind me. Apart from the Chili Peppers, the best part of Coachella was undoubtedly the Do-Lab. Being that Indio is around 95 during the day time, you need to find a way to cool down and the Do-Lab is where its at. Bumping electro music all day, the stage has high pressured water hoses that spray the crowd all day long. The picture is of when I got a little rambunctious and jumped on stage, grabbed the hose, and started hosin' and dancin'. All in all, California and Coachella have epic musical opportunities and if you're looking for something a little more local, check out the Santa Barbara Bowl. Just the other week I saw Robert Plant (the lead singer of Led Zeppelin) and that fool melted my heart with Going to California.

Here's my favorite pic from Coachella weekend...

 

When in search of housing...

Obviously one of the more difficult things to do in Santa Barbara is find affordable living, especially when you want to live in a house with your homies and not pay an arm and a leg for a tiny little 2 bedroom. I was incredibly lucky in finding housing when I first moved to SB back in 2011 but beside that fact, here's a little tip for folks looking for a solid crash pad. Garages. Put an ad on craigslist, talk to some of your friends, and see if anyone is willing to rent out their garage. Tons of space and sometimes cheaper rent. Granted, you have to deal with an extra spider or two as opposed to the people living snug in the domicile, but as long as you don't have the constitution of a pansy you'll be just fine. Besides, from a biological stand point, spiders are super excellent because all they do is kick it in the corner and munch on any annoying mosquitos floating around. Anyways... I highly suggest finding a house anywhere in SB that'll let you crash in the garage. These are my digs. Been here for the last 2 years only 2 miles from campus. Met some great people in a great neighborhood and I always have a home base to retreat to

Go Hiking

One of the best parts about Santa Barbara is the landscape. People often spend so much time thinking about the beach they forget about the mountains behind them. Recently i've been getting into hiking around local trails in SB. There are a few dozen located within a 5 mile span. For those not familiar with the area the easiest way to find the trail heads is to download an app named All Trails. The app gives GPS directions to several trail heads and shows the ones that are closest to where you are. The picture is one of my dog Maddie on our hike in Romero Canyon. Romero has definitely been one of my favorite trails so far as the peak has a full 360 view of Montecito, SB, and the Razorback mountains. Get up. Get a friend. Go Hike.

Welcome to City College

Truthfully, I just got hired and there wasn't exactly a training process. My bosses basically just said "go for it". Right on.

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