FINAL BLOG

            My experience with blogging was a good one. I thought it was similar to some of the social networks there are out today but with some differences. I enjoyed reading all the different stories, writing about the different topics, and sharing with everybody. I don’t think I will keep this blog though, only because I already have so many other things going on. I would like to thank everyone who took time to read and comment on my blogs.

six flags woop woop

            A really fun time that happened in my life was earlier this year when I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with my family. I have come to really cherish moments that we all get to spend together. We all have really busy schedules and we really don’t get to see a lot of each other. So when there are times that we all get the day off from work and we get to all hang out, it is fun. When we got there early in the morning, it was like around 10 am, my brothers and I were super pumped up. We love thrills and adrenaline type of things so we could not wait to hop on the roller coasters, my little sister was not so enthusiastic about them though. As we entered the gates, I could smell the funnel cake from the store and, as usual, they took our picture right by the front gates. We rushed to our first ride, viper. I think my brothers and I get our thrill seeking from my mom because she likes the roller coasters, but my dad stayed behind with my little sister because he’s not too fond of them. As the ride started, I felt a little nervous but excited at the same time, and I could tell my brothers felt the same way. When we dropped the first time we all let a big scream almost at the top of our lungs and looked left and right at each other. Throughout the day we went on many other rides and enjoyed many laughs.

BWW!

Buffalo Wild Wings has got to be the most dysfunctional eating establishment in the city of Oxnard. I have only been there a couple times and their service has been bad every time. First off, there are never any free tables when you go and most times there is a line out the door of people waiting for a table. The wait on a busy weekend night is probably one hour to an hour and a half, so you are welcome to wait if you would like, but personally I think that crazy. If you do happen to make it in, in a short wait, you have to wait another long while for a server to come and take your order. Once they take your order, you sit there in a place where it is really, really loud. You can’t really even have a conversation with the person next to you because it is that loud. It takes about another forty five minutes to an hour to get your food, and if hopefully they got your order right because most of the times I have been there they haven’t. The bathrooms are really dirty and it seems like no one really cleans them. I can see how that is understandable though because of the influx of people that come in. There doesn't seem to be a lot of organization in there. I have also seen job posts for managers, so it seems they change managers a lot. I think they need to work a lot on their customer service and maybe take more time to train their employees better. I think, we the people, can also help with their problem by maybe not going there as much and visiting and contributing to our local sports bars and restaurants. 

THOUGHTS ON FFN

            I thought Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser was a really well put together book. I liked that it went really in depth into the fast food industry and it almost seemed like a really good research paper. It has affected me in a positive way because I feel like my eyes have been opened to the bad things behind the scenes of the fast food restaurants. I will try to make changes in my life because of the stuff I learned from this book. Now even the thought of eating McDonald's sickens me. It has made me think of the bad issues we have as a society here in America and even throughout the world. Not only are we physically killing ourselves with these diets but I feel we are mentally weak and our whole perception of food is messed up. I blame us all though because we all contribute to these companies and I think these companies would not even be here if it wasn't for us. We give them the power because we purchase their food, but I feel like there has to be a line drawn and we have to put a limit to it at some point. These companies will only grow and expand if we allow them to. I fell like individually were not as strong but if we all make better healthier choices we can make a difference in our country, our world, and our society as a whole.

LIFE AND SCHOOL

            I am feeling a little bit stressed at this point in the semester. There are many different things going on in my life right now, so most days I feel like I have a lot on my plate. I just started a new job which required me to go to Los Angeles for the past three weeks and today was my first day back. It felt a little overwhelming today at school, because I felt I had a lot of stuff thrown at me all at once. I have been feeling overwhelmed with my job as well because there are so many things to learn. Trying to keep up with my school work while I was away did not go very well because I had to have most of my focus on my job. The one thing I do like is that I only go to school Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, so on those days that is all I have to worry about. Towards the end of my days I usually have to pick up my little brother from football practice, so I really do not have any time at the beginning of the day or at the end. I have realized that at the end of my days I'm not only physically exhausted, but mentally exhausted as well. The last job I had didn't require me to work as much, so I guess I am not really used to working full days. It’s a pretty hectic time in my life right now but I have always been up for a challenge, and I'm definitely willing to get back on track with my school work. The thing that keeps me motivated is having a career and job that I truly love and enjoy. My job right now is good, but it’s not great. To be successful is what I want, so one day I won’t have to balance work, school, and all the other activities.

True Lies

1)      I have traveled to 3 different continents.

2)      I have a 1 year old daughter.

3)      I have never eaten Toppers Pizza.

4)      I have gotten 5 traffic tickets.

5)      I have broken my arm twice.

6)      I have 3 dogs.

My Family

Even though I have a small family we all have big personalities and are very close. My family is composed of six people who are: my mom and dad, myself, my brother Miguel, my brother Daniel, and last but not least, my sister Kaylee. I am the oldest of the group so I am pretty much the designated person to set an example for the rest of my siblings. I guess you can say that the oldest sibling in every family is almost like a third parent. I often feel like it is one of my responsibilities to somewhat help raise my siblings into being good people and making good choices.

My mom and dad are both decedents from different countries. My mom is from Mexico, while my dad is from El Salvador. They came here separately in their early twenties, like many other people at the time, in search for a better future for themselves, their families back home, and their family in the future. They have worked hard throughout their lives, while they were kids and even up to this point, to accomplish many of their goals. They are my inspiration and I admire their quality of working hard for what they have. In turn, I try to imitate that quality and work hard in my everyday life as well. My brother Miguel is about to turn 18 and is a senior at Pacifica High School. He is very fun to be around and I feel like we are very close since we are only three years apart in age. Having wrestled for about six years now, he is very physical and energetic, so we like to roughhouse a lot of the time. Daniel, my second to youngest brother, is 10 years young. He is also very energetic and loves to joke around. He plays football for a little league team and he loves it. Finally, my sister Kaylee just turned 5. She loves to read and color like I imagine many little girls like to do. Being the only girl and the youngest, you can almost already expect that she gets spoiled very much. My siblings and I all have very similar characteristic traits and we usually get along and share laughs most of the time.

Although we are all very busy throughout the week, we usually leave Sunday unscheduled, for all of us to get together and just hang out. Normally, we will go to church, go out to eat, watch a movie, and even go grocery shopping, as a family. We may argue sometimes but at the end we all love each other very much. 

Impatient

Impatient

It was just a normal weekday in my teenage life. I had just picked up my youngest brother Daniel, who was 7 at the time, from football practice accompanied by my other brother Mike, who was just 14 years old. It had not been long that I had been driving, maybe about a month. At the time I did not realize how much responsibility driving was and I appreciated my parent’s decision to let me drive because it showed that they had confidence in me as well as believed in me. Being a young teenager though, I did not fully understand that because my mind was clouded with the thought of me having my own car. This meant I wouldn’t have to ask my parents for rides anymore and I would be more independent. Still, like I said, I took the new responsibility they had bestowed upon me lightly and most of the time I would drive recklessly. So the incident that was soon to happen should not have come as a surprise.

            It was senior year in high school and I had just recently gotten my first job at Vons. The problem was that it was in Camarillo, the city next to Oxnard. My parents were obviously very busy with their own work schedules probably would not have been able to drive me over to Camarillo every time I had to work, so they decided to get me a car. I had wanted a car for a while, so when I got the 95 Nissan Sentra I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. It wasn’t a looker, but it drove and that’s all that really mattered to me at the time. Since I had been working, I decided I wanted to get a cool new phone, specifically an “IPhone”. The problem was that some of the stores in town were out of stock at the time. I tried Wal-Mart, but they were also out. They told me to try the Simi Valley Wal-Mart so they gave them a call to confirm they had it. Being so impatient and having all the tools in my reach, I decided my brothers and I were all going to go to Simi Valley to get my “IPhone”.

 It was about five in the afternoon and there was a lot of traffic on Rose Avenue, one of the busier streets in Oxnard. As we waited in traffic, I grew more and more impatient since I was so anxious to get on the freeway and start heading over there. Additionally, it had to be quick also because I wanted to go home before my parents realized we were out long. Since I had not been driving long and I was with my brothers, I knew they would definitely not approve of me going all the way to Simi Valley. I didn’t care though; I was going to do it behind their back, and be back before they even noticed. We came closer to the freeway and there was only one light left before the freeway entrance. There were a couple cars in front of us when the light turned green. When the car in front of me started going, I started going but as we picked up speed, I suddenly saw the light turn yellow. When the car in front of me maintained their speed, I was sure it was going to go on the yellow light. I quickly had the brilliant idea of trying to sneak behind it, past the yellow light. When suddenly I saw the red glaring lights from behind the car stare me down. I felt time slowing down as I transferred my foot from the gas pedal over to the break. As I felt the pedal touch the car floor, my hands gripped the steering wheel, my teeth clenched, and my eyes closed as if I was preparing for a punch to the face. Slowly opening them, I saw that it was a little too late. My car had crashed straight into the back of the SUV in front of me. Time stopped as I looked up and at that very moment I was not mad at anybody but myself so I let out a big “f” word out of frustration. I look to my right and on my brother Mike’s face was a look of shock. I notice he had some blood trickling down from his forehead. I quickly handed him a napkin and dialed 911.

“Are you okay?” I asked in a shaky voice. “I'm good” he replied. Then I looked back to my younger brother, Daniel. He had the same look on his face but seemed to be okay.

Walking outside I could smell smoke coming from what was once considered the hood. The damage didn’t seem to be that bad, but it was still substantial. The lady from the car in front of me got out and we asked each other if we were okay. The firemen, police, and ambulance came within minutes. They seemed to be very calm, which was surprising to me at the time because I was far from it. Later, I realized that it is obvious because they experience accidents a lot and it was nothing new to them. Not sure if my car was drivable, I took the chance to start it because the firemen told me to move out of traffic and park at a nearby gas station. I was afraid my car would explode like you see in the action movies.

As I drove it to the gas station, the thought of telling my parents soon overpowered any other. I had not thought about it but I knew I was dead. I had to tell them; there was no way I couldn’t, so as soon as I got to the gas station I called. They sounded worried, but not mad at all. I was surprised for I was sure I was going to get an earful. As they treated my brothers, I spoke to the police and they asked if I wanted to file a police report. Thankfully the lady was nice enough not to file a police report against me. We exchanged information and she was on her way since her car did not have any major damage. Being a bigger, more elevated, SUV all it got was scratch on the bumper and of course, my car got the worst of it. When my dad got to the scene, he determined my car was good enough to drive home so we wouldn’t need a tow truck. As soon as Mike got the ok from the firemen, we left home. When I arrived I expected to really hear it from my parents, but again to my surprise they weren’t mad at all. They just told me to be more careful and aware of what I was doing. I think they might have expected me to mess up somewhere along the line so they weren’t too surprised. My dad and I eventually fixed my car and I drove again a couple of months, this time with a new perspective and outlook. I learned many things through this experience that I will not forget. I learned to be more patient, careful, responsible, and that driving is not an easy thing because you can severely hurt people, especially the ones you love the most.

Karen

              Karen recently graduated from Hueneme High School in 2011. She is a full time employee at the Hispanic super market, Tresierras, as well as a full time student at Oxnard College. On her down time, she likes to hang out with her friends and attend social gatherings. Her family, especially her mother, motivate her to attend OC. Attending three classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, leaves her the remaining days of the week to go to work. Her job and school really keep her busy throughout the week so she hardly has time to see her family, but she does when she can. Her mother is her role model in her life, and she considers herself a mentor to her little sister. Three words that would describe her are happy, helpful, and caring. In 5 years, Karen sees herself graduated from college and living in her dream city, Los Angeles. She lives by one motto and that is “no sacrifice, no victory.” She likes that OC is close to her home, but she would like the bathrooms not to be so hidden. Since she feels Mexican’s are considered a minority here in the US, she is motivated by her Mexican culture to attend college and live up to her potential. Her biggest surprise about her college experience is that she has been able to wake up at 8 am for class. 

Texting Frenzy

              Texting has become one of todays most used ways of communication. Even though it’s not very popular with older people, younger generations and teenagers have really adopted it. It has really become a more efficient way to communicate. A simple text message can be much easier to send than email, and much less time consuming than a phone call. I can see how many people can find texting useful. Doctors can use them to get informed of an emergency, replacing the popular “pagers” from the nineties. It is mainly more popular with teenagers though because of them being more social. Even though texting has been around for a long time, it just barely became popular in the last couple of years. Cell phone companies have made this movement easier by introducing cell phones made specifically for texting. Cell phones with full keyboards have really paved the way for this movement. Cellular service companies have also contributed by providing unlimited texting plans to go along with the newest phones. Even though it is really efficient, it also has a downfall. Like many good things in life it can also be a bad thing. Many fatal accidents have occurred in recent years due to texting while driving. This has led to many deaths and in turn, many new laws against texting while driving being established in many states. 

Reality Tv

I do watch reality shows every once in a while. Mainly when I am bored and there is nothing to watch on television and I find myself skimming through the channels. I usually tune to MTV, which stands for Music Television. They have some pretty funny reality shows like, The Jersey Shore. It is hard to watch a reality show sometimes though, because it might be half way through the season and you have no idea what it is about or what is even going on. I have seen some reality shows in the past from beginning to end. The reason for that though, is because I feel like if I start something I have to finish it, even if it’s a reality show. Mainly though, it’s a casual thing and I only watch reality shows at the end of the day when I get to unwind. Life can get so busy and hectic sometimes that I don’t even have time for television.

              I think the producers and the Hollywood big shots really work hard and strive to make their reality shows really exciting and sometimes even suspenseful. I can say that some shows have grabbed my attention like that before. I'm sure they edit many scenes to make things seem crazier than it actually is. Some of that stuff is probably even staged and the people on the shows are probably acting. You can never tell for sure because some actors are really good actors. Regardless, people still watch and the television networks ultimately get their ratings.

               I think this type of show has the potential to harm our society but television ratings and other factor make it very controllable. Some might argue that certain shows might harm our youth. I think they have made great strides over the years to prevent younger people to watch these. For one, most shows that are not suitable for younger people come out late at night, probably past any appropriate bed time for and young person. Another thing is a lot of televisions now have parental controls which allow the parents to control what their children watch and what they don’t. Now, TV shows even have warnings and ratings at the beginning of the show to warn people viewing, that show might not be suitable for young ones. Yes people may think that reality shows might be harmful to our society, but I think that is why the electronic companies made an on and off button on the remote control. There is also a wide variety of channels. Just in case there is a reality show going on in one channel that you might not like, you can change the channel. I think people exaggerate when they say these types of shows are bad because everyone has a choice. Parents have ways to prevent their children from watching shows they don’t want them to watch. As for me, I might watch an episode or two of a certain reality series and maybe one day I’ll come across a reality show that interests me enough to follow it completely, but for now it’s just casual viewing.   

fast food craziness

              I have been eating fast food for as long as I have been alive. When I was a kid I remember my parents buying my siblings and I McDonald’s almost every weekend. Since our local Wal-Mart has a McDonald’s inside, they found it easy to buy us something every time they would go grocery shopping over the weekend. I remember looking forward to the weekend because my brothers and I would be expecting McDonald’s. We would always get Happy Meals, which are pretty much McDonald's kid’s meals. I would get a cheeseburger almost all the time because I felt like the four piece chicken nuggets would not fill me up. That thought was quickly over powered by the toy though. I'm pretty sure that was the main reason we always got happy meals. They would have a different theme of toys every month I believe. Sometimes it would be a movie that would be coming out at the time. Other times it would be a popular cartoon or a cheaper version of a popular toy. I also think we enjoyed it because it was a change up from the regular routine. It was nice not having a home cooked meal and I'm sure my mother thought it was nice not having to cook a meal for that day. As I got older the Happy Meals were no longer what I wanted and at that time I recall them coming out with the “Mighty Kid’s Meal” which I think was supposed to be the teenage version of the Happy Meal. Although it had bigger portions, I soon outgrew it and started having regular adult meals. Over the years, as I grew older, I started exploring different fast food places. We tried many different varieties of fast food like: sandwiches, tacos, and burgers.  

              My fast food habits now can get out of hand sometimes. Having so many different places so close by can be a heavy burden for my wallet. Even so, I find myself buying fast food multiple times out of the week. I definitely like some places better than others. My current favorite fast food place is The Habit because of the quality in their food. I am aware that most of the time you pay for what you get. I believe laziness also plays a role in the constant purchasing of fast food. Maybe if I wasn’t so lazy to make food at home I wouldn’t spend do much money and I could possibly save a few bucks. I probably won’t change that habit though because I like the simplicity of fast food too much. Even though it’s a little more expensive than McDonald's or other places I don’t mind paying the few extra bucks. I have pretty much left McDonald's as a last resort and only eat it if I'm starving and I only have a few bucks on me. I think since I have eaten McDonald's most of my life I'm pretty much sick of it by now. I have a list of preferable fast food places. The first is The Habit and the last is McDonald's. 

Past. Present. Future.

Hello, my name is Manuel. I was born on December fifth, 1991 in the beautiful beach city of Ventura, CA. As a child I had a relatively good childhood even though we didn’t have a lot of money, my parents always reminded me to be grateful of what we had. Both my parents were immigrants from different countries. My mother is from Mexico, while my father is from El Salvador. Like most other people, they came to the United States in search of a better future, since they realized they would not have a very good future in their countries of origin. They came here separately, in their early 20’s and worked as field workers. They met each other while at work and then started dating. Soon they got married, and then had me a couple years later. I was the first of 4 children. We always had enough to get us by and my parents always instilled in my siblings and I to always be content with what we had. They seemed to live that way and we all shared in that. Early in grade school and through junior high I feel like I was a very good student. In high school though, I slipped up and started becoming lazy. My grades slipped for a couple years because I made other things the priority so I barely got by. I managed to graduate and now I'm going to college. I have made plenty mistakes throughout my teenage years and growing up, as I would imagine any teenager to do, but I don’t have many regrets because I feel like my mistakes have made a better person.

Currently I am a full time student at Oxnard College. I have had quite a bit of jobs in the past couple of years because mainly they were all temporary or did not fit my school or social schedule. I’m not exactly sure what my career path will be yet so for right now I'm taking general education courses. Lately I’ve been leaning to three career choices: business, computer technology, or something in the social work area. I live at home with my parents and four siblings. We fight at times, just like I would imagine any family to do, but I love them very much and there is nothing I would not do for them. I’ve worked some good paying jobs the last couple years which have allowed me to purchase a few things including my car. In my time off I like to work out at the boxing gym and do other physical activities, since I am a big fan off mixed martial arts. I also enjoy football among other sports. On the weekends, I like to go out to social gatherings with friends and spend time with my family. So that is what my life pretty much consists of now a day.

I’d like to finish community college in the next couple of years and from there make the decision if I want to continue on with my education. I have been told that routine builds character and you have to be very dedicated to anything if you want to succeed but I'm afraid I lack ambition at times. I’d also like to travel to some places in the world, I feel like I'm very social and friendly and I would definitely like to meet people from different parts of the world with different perspectives and see the beautiful sites around this globe. That might have to wait though because money is always an issue. I definitely want to settle down one day and start a family and be a father, but right now that is the farthest thing on my mind. I believe it takes hard work to get to the point where you want to be in life and I'm going to keep working at it until I am where I want to be.