• Mr. Quinanola
    So you want to know about Mr. Quinanola do you?  Then you've come to the right place!  Read on to know more about Mr. Quinanola.
    So where did you go to school Mr. Q?
    Well, I've gone to many schools in my lifetime.  Here they are:
    • Kindergarten: a nice school in San Diego.  I don't remember the name of the place, but I do remember that I had a really nice teacher that waited with me afterschool while I was waiting for my mom to pick me up.  (She wiped my tears away when my mom was a few minutes late)
    • 1st Grade-3rd Grade:  Harbor City Elementary School.  I had Ms. Russelle for 1st and 2nd grade.  She helped learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide  numbers bigger than 9.  She sparked my interest in math.  She also drove a red VW Bug.  I had Ms. Watkins in the 3rd grade.  I remember watching a replay of the Dodgers winning the World Series in her class.  I was immediately a Kirk Gibson fan after that.
    • 4th Grade-6th Grade:  Dolores Elementary School.  My family moved to Carson that summer and I atteneded a new elementary school.  My 4th grade teacher was Ms. Romano.  I remember her always making sure we had good posture because if we didn't then later on in life we would have bad backs.  I think my back is starting to give out.  In 5th grade I had Mr. Kitioka.  He had me tutor kids in math.  In 6th grade I had Ms. Smith.  We learned all about crustaceans in her class.  My parents rewarded me with a Sizzler lunch after the promotion ceremony.
    • 7th Grade - 9th Grade:  Carnegie Junior High School.  7th Grade was an odd time in my life.  My high self-esteem that was steadily being built all throughout elementary school took a deep plunge.  Instead of 1 teacher that would give me a hug when I got sad about getting a B on a math test, I had 7 teachers that barely knew my name.  They were just concerned with their students not tagging on their desks.  I had no sense of fashion and it seemed like everyone that was cool listened to this really vulgar music called "gangster rap".  I eventually started listening to "gangster rap".  Man, that was a weird period.  8th grade continued to be odd.  In order to be a little more fashionable and fit in with my peers I started wearing these clothes called "Cross Colours".  If you don't know what those are, look them up.  On a sad note, a classmate that I wasn't too close to, but who I talked to every once in a while died because of wearing the wrong colors in front of a movie theater.  A bunch of us went to his funeral and it was surreal observing the emotions of all of the attendants.  I didn't fully comprehend the situation back then, but now I understand how a little misguidance and lack of attention can lead young lives astray.  The 9th grade had brighter skies.  I started to look a little cooler, so I thought.  I replaced my gigantic plastic framed glasses that only engineers wore with some smaller glasses that actually fit my face.  I actually danced with a girl at a noon dance.  For those 10 seconds I was actually not one of the 100 guys leaning against the wall while being jealous of the two guys that actually had the guts to dance with a girl.  I didn't know what I was doing, but it was an awesome experience. 
    • 10th grade:  Carson High School, C-House!  It was my first year in high school and it was just as weird as my first year in junior high (back then high school was 10th-12th grade).  I came in thinking I was already super cool.  I wore baggy pants and I slicked my hair back.  Yah, I had hair.  I was in this "party crew" with a bunch of friends from junior high.  The odd thing is that I didn't go to a single party.  I wasn't even invited to any of them.  I still didn't know how to dance.  I really didn't understand the crew life so I quickly disbanded from the crew and became a regular dude with no affiliations.  I quickly became friends with the members of the Carson Marching Blue Thunder (marching band), as I played the trumpet.  That year we went to Las Vegas to perform.  I'm not sure why we went to Las Vegas of all places.  We were never that good.  We were all under age.  We couldn't do any "adult" things, but we still managed to have a bunch of fun.  We stayed at this dirty motel and there were about 6 kids to a room, around 70 of us total.  We were in the pool all day and ate at cheap buffets for every meal.  I dared my friend Chris to eat an entire plate of bacon at the Circus Circus buffet and he did!  Not just a plate with bacon on top of it, but with a MOUNTAIN of bacon about 6 inches high!  I think he was stuck in the bathroom for the rest of the weekend. 
    • 11th grade:  Carson High School, C-House!  It was another odd year.  Being in marching band was not only an opportunity to fraternize with fellow musicians who liked to play their instrument while walking, but with those who used their bodies as instruments.  No, not those who made flatulation sounds with their arm pits, but the females in the drill team.  I had no skills talking to any of them.  There was this peculiar girl that had just about the same skills talking to the opposite sex as I had, but with a more forceful approach.  So I was walking home one day from band practice of course.  For some reason, I thought someone was following me.  I was pretty sure it wasn't any gangsters because I was good about picking routes home that were void of gangsters.  I kept looking back and I would see this figure jump behind a car or a trashcan to prevent me from recognizing who it was.  I eventually began running for my life, but this unknown figure caught up to me, grabbed my backpack in order to keep me from further running, pulled out a camera, and took my picture with her in it!  I was traumatized to say the least.  I added that route home to the routes that I would never take again.
    • 12th grade:  Carson High School, C-House!  Oh yes, senior year.  It was full of going to the beach, playing hacky sack, and creating the best feasts ever that a bunch of high school kids could make with what ever food that they could find in their parent's pantries that consisted of Spam, Vienna Sausages, eggs, rice, and Top Ramen.  KROQ disc jockeys were playing ska music 24/7 and it just put me in a good mood.  I would save up my money just so I could go to the Warehouse or Tower Records to buy the new Aquabats and Save Ferris compact disc.  I really didn't have an allowance so I just saved my lunch money.  I had quite the figure.  I was 5 foot 6, 125 pounds, skinny arms, and a nice round belly.  I used the rest of my money to go to the local thrift shop to buy the newest vintage Hawaiian shirt or mechanic's shirt that had a patch that said "Delta Airline's Supervisor" or "Raul".  When prom season along, it hit me hard that I had zero game for the ladies.  My friends and I would go to the mall to try to get girls' numbers, but we would only go home with those teriyaki chicken samples that came on a tooth pick or lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick.  I was in quite a predicament.  I wasn't going to miss prom, but I also wasn't going to go stag.  Then came the girl from Physiology class that said that she would go to prom with me, but on the condition that I meet her dad...who had a shotgun.  She said that I could bring my friends with me so I did.  Her dad was super friendly and made me feel welcomed in his home.  We had a nice conversation and as I thought we were done, my not so intelligent friend decided to ask her dad about his shotgun.  Things got pretty tense from my side, but I left there in one piece.  Prom night came along and I ended up becoming my high school's Prom King.  Yup, I went there as a normal acne faced 17 year old and I went home as a royal acne faced 17 year old.  That's right.  Bow down when I come to your town! 
    • 13th grade (Freshman Year of College):  University of California, Irvine, Zot Zot!  I was an Information and Computer Science (ICS) major.  What was I thinking?  The classes were challenging...super challenging!  So challenging, that after my first quarter, I finished with a 1.67 GPA.  The Christmas break was the longest Christmas break ever.  I pondered about what I was going to do with my life.  I signed up to be an ICS major so that I could make video games like Super Mario and Streetfighter II.  Instead, I wasn't sure that I was going to still be at UCI for the next quarter.  I thought with that GPA I would have to join the military.  I can't join the military.  I deeply dislike running.  I have flat feet.  I'm always going to be yelled at because I'm always going to be last trying to finish the obstacle course.  My dad completed college at the top of his class.  Did I inherit his intelligence?  Man, high school was so much easier.  Then winter quarter came.  I was still at UCI.  I was still an ICS major.  Instead of enrolling in the recommended 16 units for my 2nd quarter, I got permission to enroll in 21 units even though I didn't survive 13 units the quarter before. I figured, if I'm going to get kicked out of UCI, then I might as well go out with a bang.  I studied like I've never studied before.  I frequented the library and the computer lab.  When I went to sleep, all that I saw was a computer screen with my code, like in the matrix.  All of that hard work paid off and I finished the quarter with a 4.0 GPA.  
       
       
       
       
       
       
Last Modified on August 4, 2019