Well I've had "BLOG!!" on my to-do list for weeks now, I finally realized it's been over 3 weeks since my last entry. Good job Neil. Given the last one was in the early portion of my spring break I'll just recap the break really quick.
I played some local pick-up ultimate, that was nice addition to the break. Went to the Exploratorium with my friend Phil who worked there last summer. Such a flashback for me, I haddn't been there in easily 8 years if not more. I pocked up a plush microbe, sooo cute! Never went clubbing, ah well. Met up with my friend John from high school (see previous entry) and we had lunch. It was good to catch up and chat, something we never did in high school. And lastly had fun in Concord at Stacy's birthday partay.

Alrighto, that's the recap, there done. Those recaps tend to be overly long and booooring. Anyway so this quarter so far, great. I've got one class, which honestly I'm not doing too well in. I'm not reading for it, not taking notes, and kinda sleeping in it as usual. Good job. Pop quiz today, got one question right on it. As for other stuff, doing show stuff as usual. Keeping some stuff on the calendar, and hopefully not packing it too busy. Language of Angels is the firs show coming up which I'm master electrician-ing for.
I've also stepped up the dance stuff this quarter. My friend Rachelle kinda twisted my arm into auditioning for the jazz repertory dance thingie going on. Casual show, student choreographed. It was a real deal audition stuff, I really felt like the oddball out. First off, maybe 3 guys there (including me) and I'm being out-danced by the other two. Granted they're all doing this classic jazzy stuff. Whatever I feel I've got a way better edge on hip-hop than a deal of these folks do. After all, it's all I've really done. Rehearsals are really getting going this week, so we'll see. I'm also putting forth more effort with stuff downtown at Motion Pacific, I actually stuck to my dance class rather than work a small paying show jobie offer. Yeah! As I see it, I'm probably not going to be doing anywhere nearly as much dance especially performance opportunities outside of college, versus that was "just another show" and there will be plenty of those. Anyway more dance, lots fun, yay!
However the biggest thing for me this quarter, and maybe even this year has been Ultimate. This past weekend was sectionals, which was the major tournament for our section. From this it determines who goes on to the regional tournament and so on. I started playing ultimate seriously at the beginning of the school year, as something to do and get in shape. And like other sports I've done getting thru that initial "this kinda sucks" period is the hardest. For a large deal of time I would think about not going to practice, but I always pushed myself to go. Even when I was still in bed at 2:15pm I'd get my ass out of bed and go. And damn the payoff was worth it. This past weekend really brought the whole thing full-circle. This is where everything we had done and worked for in this past school year came down to. The past month and a half or so was leading up to this tournament, everything "balls to the walls," giving it your all, all the time. And for a change we felt more like a team than we ever had, that we were a team and that we had a chance at something remarkable.
Only the top 5 teams from the tournament go on to regionals, and we had as small as it was a chance at it. Now granted we didn't make regionals we still did really well. We were seeded 9th in this tournament, and at the end we came out 8th in that tournament. Santa Cruz is a school recognized for it's ultimate team, yet in the bast its B team has been nothing really worth of a threat (assuming they even had one for that season.) That given, we are the best B team UC Santa Cruz has ever had. Nat, our coach, has been coaching here 3 years and also an Alumni of UCSC, his perspective on it is pretty good. Hearing that was really amazing. Coming into this tournament knowing that other teams knew of us, that we are a team to be reckoned with, was kinda cool, especially as the B squad.

Anyway, so gotta give some details about this tournament. It was a gloomy morning when we set out to drive over to Livermore, and well like it did around the bay area, it rained. Fortunately the rain started at the end of round one and continued thru round two, which we didn't have a game to play. However it was still quite wed and cold, ugggh. Saturday ended not too bad. We didn't do as well as we'd have hoped, but still every game we came out of it having played hard, and feeling good. Granted some games we lost by a deal, but in all cases we made the other team work for their points.
Sunday was a marvelous day: The sun was out the weather was nice, couldn't have asked for better. Now here was the interesting part of that day, we actually had a shot, if we won every game, to make it to 5th in the tournament and thus make it to regionals. Huge, absolutely huge. You already know we ranked 8th, so clearly that didn't happen. We won the first game against Cal-B and went on to play Los Positas which we lost to. We had played them in past tournaments and also the day before, we knew we had to work hard to beat them.

That game was epic for me. One of my biggest, hell, THE goal for this season was to catch a layout goal for a point in a tournament. And dammitall, the first point scored in that game, was me catching a layout goal. Absolutely epic. We went nuts, it was awesome, the whole team rushing towards the endzone, surrounding me... the high-fives, the energy, everything. I can only wishfully think that someone had a photo of that... I doubt it, but hey could have happened.
Oh if don't know what "laying out" is see this pic on wikipedia.

Our last game was playing for 7th/8th place against Santa Clara. That was a good fun game. Granted we could've actually played harder and actually won it (7th would've been nice), it was a great way to end the tournament. The loss at the second round (against LPC) marked our end towards heading up to sectionals. We had a little post game team huddle, inspirational chat and whatnot. Nat (coach) gave a little speech which was awesome and motivating. We all went around and said a little bit, about the season etc. And for me as I said, sticking to the team and everything about it really made my senior year here at UC Santa Cruz really, well, awesome. (I don't remember exactly what I said, jeeze. Heh.)
Post game Shawn's mom hosted a party at their place in Santa Cruz. Awesome stuff, so much good food. Filet mignon and such... yum. It was a really great cap to the weekend, hanging out with the team and chatting over good food and great company. *sigh* :)

And looking back on it all, I'm actually disappointed I'm not going to be here for another year to play ultimate on the B team again. If you'd asked me in the middle of this year "would you play ultimate next year" (assuming I'd be around), I'd probably have answered "maybe" at best or "not really." But coming out of this tournament, how much closer we have all come as a team and everything has made me really love the sport. I will miss playing here, but it makes me so fucking proud to be able to say that I played Ultimate for UC Santa Cruz.

Anyway I don't know what else to blabber on about. That post was half ultimate, which it should be. Epic, fucking epic. Ah well, that's that. I'm going to see about getting some photos of the tournament, I'll have them up here and such once that happens. Lastly I will state my goal to blog more often, we'll see.

Well spring break has been well needed. I got some time up in Tahoe this past weekend on saturday. I took a Ski Bus up to Northstar for the day. Ah wow it was WARM. I've never seen the snow be this warm. I mean there were actually puddles in the snow on the lower areas of the mountain. The upper areas and backside was pretty good most the day. I also took a bunch of photos just for kicks. Until I get a gallery system up I've got them on Facebook. Here, check the photos out.

So break, Tahoe, took care of traffic school for my ticket. Now last night was cool. Friend who I've known since middle school, actually played piano with him for awhile, John Chen. Anyway he had his senior recital at SF State last night, so I went to see it. Daym, amazing stuff. It was good to see him and say hi and such.
Anyway other developments for the break.... uhh... Not sure yet. I have barely thought about clubbing, and I really should. I need to go and dance and shit. I really just LOVE it if I found a place that has good house tunes. I swear I could dance the entire night straight if they did that. Anyway if you're up for that and are (or can be) around the bay area, hit me up. Might go Exploratorium some time this week. Haven't been there in years, and a friend of mine has worked there. Snowed a bit in Tahoe yesterday, might take another ski bus on thursday, we shall see.

Now, the big stuff. I checked grades for classes. Fuck yeah, A's in most of them. The grade isn't in for intro acting, but everything else is an A. I can't believe it. Senior seminar is an A-, Anthro 4 (contemporary issues) is an A- as well. In both classes I didn't do as much reading or participation as I could have, but both of the paper I wrote for those classes were also A papers. I guess that had a lot to do with my final grade being so good. Anyway I'm stoked about that, I was soo stressing over senior sem as it's critical to completion of the major, and really I guess the struggle and working my ass off paid off. I'm actually really happy with those papers. The one I wrote on lighting for senior sem I really felt could have been so much better. The paper on Facebook I wrote (with my own research) I really liked. I'm going to be posting both of them soon as I feel that they are really some of the best papers I've written. aside from that I like them both a lot.

Some other things for the break include actually cleaning and organizing and upgrading my websites. That might be today, but I'm not sure about that. I really hope to at least start on it before break's over. It'll definitely get done in the near future given my reduced class load. Well enough with all of that. Time to get to doing things.

Yeah, I didn't think I'd actually live up to actually blogging more as I said. Well anyway, this quarter is sooo close to being done. I've just got to work on this scene to perform for intro acting and then I'm REALLY done. This quarter was probably one of the worst, well it felt like it at least. 15 units worth of class plus a show (totaling 20 units.) Of the classes one was senior seminar (mandatory for the major, and LOTS of reading), the other was an anthropology class (also lots of reading.) Now, what's interesting is of both of the big papers (around 10 pages) for both of those classes I got A's on them. Amazing. I don't know how I pulled that off, but I'm impressed and proud of myself for being able to produce two really good papers.

So as for other things, Ultimate has really been cranking it up. The tournament in Stanford I mentioned in the last entry we didn't go to. They moved the location and it was expensive and we were probably out-skilled. But we did go the one in San Luis Obispo, that was a nice tournament. Nice campus too. We didn't do so well on the first day, but played great on the second day. Practices since then have really been elevated, the pressure has been turned on and we're also playing really well. Realistically if we keep it up, we'll be a team to be dealt with.
Let's see in other departments... Dance, been keeping up as usual. I really miss having more than one day a week of it. Given that I killed myself this quarter next quarter will be much simpler. Part of my plan is to take as much dance stuff as I can cram in. Should be awesome. My friend Rachelle is really insisting that I audition for the Jazz Repertory class. She's a choreographer for it and wants me in her piece. I had mixed feelings about it initially, but I'm really planning on going for it.

So, I got a bit distracted there... where was I? I dunno. Anyway, this quarter was killer and I'm REALLY looking forward to spring break. I need a break. I didn't realize how stressed and high strung I had been. Few days ago I totally snapped at my friend, and I feel kinda bad about it. I mean it really surprised me and made me realize "Shit, I need to relax a bit more." I have no idea how I didn't burnout for good this time given how wound up I was. On the other front, DJ'ing, I've been making little progress. Given school I as usual haven't had the time to market myself. But this coming quarter really HAS TO be the one.
Gowash, this is interesting how I haven't done the usual long-ass recap of what I've been up to. Whatever. So spring break, much needed. I really, REALLY need to go to Tahoe. I haven't seen the mountains or snow this entire season. It's depressing. But dammitall, I WILL go up to the mountains this spring break! Clubbing, definitely some of that too. Friends b-day party also. Perhaps also going thru my websites and other sorts of stuff and organizing things. Planning "what next," yeah. Spring break as short as it is will definitely be packed and relaxing and fun too. Yeah... Alrighteyo I'm done. Like I said last time, I plan to blog more frequently. But this time I think I can keep my promise given the coming quarter will be NOT insane with class. DJ stuff should be picking up for reals this time. Check back soon for everything. Toodles.

Ok, I think this has been a record span between two entries. It's been almost 6 weeks since the last one. Wow. Well needless to say it's been crazy the whole time. I'll give a brief recap of things. I'm kinda relying on my calendar as well as that update banner I posed to help me remember what to go over.
So the weeks just got crazier and crazier. The biggest thing at the beginning of the quarter was working on Random with a Purpose 15. I was WAY behind in my lighting design. I really hadn't thought of the design, let alone the colors for it. And I'd been really hoping to get a few moving lights for the show. Well long story short, I went in and whined some and I got two technobeams for the show. I ended up running the whole thing on the Echelon (aka Hog 1000) and it was awesome. I really put my time into the design once things got going, and well it really paid off. Given this was my third year working on the show, people had gotten to know me and my association to the show. In the past I'd get complements on lighting from fellow designer. This was the first year that lots of people were complementing me on the lighting. Like I'd be wearing the sweatshirt for the show and when people (who had seen it) found out I was the lighting designer they'd immediately say "oh the lighting was amazing/fantastic/beautiful/etc." It was really rewarding to do something that was to the point where anyone who saw the show reacted and thought about my lighting.

As for class, yeah kinda screwed there. I really have been a horrible student. Reading virtually NOTHING for my classes and of course being sooo tired and sleeping thru most of them. I bought another case of Red Bull, and I went thru a surprising amount of it during tech week. Being a manger for Crown/Merrill tech has also started to add it's fair share of workload. Right about now I'm having to deal with taking inventory of all of our adapters and cables and such and it's going to be quite a task. Me and Phil have some great ideas and stuff we want to do that will really set this crew ahead of the rest, but it's been kinda tasking this quarter to actually get things really going. Tho it's looking up, the quarter is tapering off for me so the plan is to ramp up other stuff.

Speaking of other things ramping up, Ultimate. I mentioned in the last entry that things were getting going. The mainly started gaining speed when I was in tech, which hasn't helped me. But it's been fun. The level of play is being stepped up and it's nice cuz things flow well now. And it's easy to spot your mistakes. Also practice now becomes more valuable as you can pose a more "technical" question and have it answered in a way that you can actually act on in the next play.
Anyway, so it's getting up there. These next two weekends I'm out of town for two tournaments. This weekend just up in the bay at Palo Alto/Stanford. Next weekend down to San Luis Obispo for another one. Lotta Ultimate. It kinda sucks in some ways, as because we're the B team we're not really funded. So it's all really out of pocket. Like the tournament fee we typically have to pay for. It adds up. It's definitely cheaper than all other sports I've done (ice hockey and snowboarding.)

So yeah, that's that. I know there was other stuff I could go on about. Like some of my older blog entries were brought to my attention by Pablo, and going back and reading them was really surprising. I really amazed myself how I'd changed in many ways. It's interesting. Which brings me to one of my upcoming projects. It's got many stages to it but basically it's to upgrade this site to the latest version of the CMS and maybe to install some better modules. The second part is to do a total organization/categorization of ALL content. Yep, it's going to be a task to go thru the 300+ nodes that are in this system. The biggest part will be reading ALL of my entries and then tagging them as appropriate. Probably when I get to that stage is when I'll start embarking on my other project, and that is to do a retrospective "study/analysis" of my blog. It'll probably evolve into either an autobio sort of thing crossed with something memoir-ish. Either way it'll prove to be interesting as I'll really get to see how I have progressed. Blogging is a rather powerful tool, and depending on the nature of your blogs they can be really helpful to yourself when looking back on them.

So it's late, I was hoping to sleep early. I've gotta write up a big paper tomorrow for my anthropology class. It'll be a cool paper, it's just gotta be 10 pages. I don't think it will be too hard to write that much. I've got a nice bit to say about campus media and social networks etc.... Also always kept up by chatting as well. Pablo, you know you're guilty of this! Chatting WAY too much. Definitely some great insight from chatting, and also lots of time used up as well.
Also gotta throw in some DJ stuff, granted show stuff have been big so not much development. I'll hopefully get on it now. I've gotta really just go out there and sell myself. I'm really going against the grain. I've got that advantage that I'm different, but my different style (UK/US house music) also can work against me. It's just not seen as being as marketable in the US. It is, and I know people will dig the stuff, you just gotta get it to them. I'm thinking about how to set up events, doing my own promotion basically. Which I think I'll have to do if I really want to get a start.
Ok, sleepies times. I was hoping to sleep three and a half hours ago when I was napping on my floor. Stay tuned for updates, they'll come more often now. I promise.

So yeah, the quarter started. And boy it's a fuck-ton of shit. I'm actually taking 3 actual classes. Yep, haven't done that in quite some time. So it's a bit of a task for me to get into actually being a "student" again. I've got all three classes mon/wed/fri. Wowie. And there is a deal of dead time between them. I'm spending lots of time on campus. It's kinda refreshing, cuz then I'm getting a lot of time away from my place, and then it's refreshing when I get home. Also, yay PowerBook. Didn't really carry it around a lot last quarter, this quarter it's how everyone typically uses it.

So what's on the menu this quarter? Well doing 20 units, 15 of actual class and one show. I'm (re)taking Intro Acting this time with Mike Ryan who's awesome, so the class is looking up to be actually good and fun. Also senior seminar for the theater major. Not sure quite what to think of it yet, but it seems not too bad actually. And lastly Anthro 4: Contemporary Issues for a gen ed. It's actually kinda cool, as it looks at how media and information is distributed thru a society, like "how do we get our news?" It's going to be a deal of work, but at least it's interesting and I can interpolate it with theater and various medias.
So that's class for ya. I'm so fucking socked in with classwork this quarter it's not even remotely funny. Fortunately I'm only working on one show which is Random with a Purpose. I don't foresee this show coming out to be anything major, I'm totally behind in the lighting design for it and haven't been thinking about it. I feel so rushed into doing this design and I'm so tired.

As for other things Ultimate is picking up; we've ramped practice up to 3 times a week up from the 2 it was last quarter, and by the schedule we also do three days a week (in between) of throwing practice and working/conditioning. Of course I have class during all of those times and I have yet to do it. Either way, intense this quarter. It's only been not even one full week of practice I think and I can already feel the intensity of the upcoming season. And we're only the B team! Ok, granted we are (as a whole) a Tier 1 team(s), and within our division we (the B team) as of my last knowing are 4th, so not too bad.

In other news I've kept up with hip-hop dance down at Motion Pacific. I really miss having dance 3 days a week. With dance it's really been one of those things that I've been struggling with. I tell everyone "do what you love" and it's a conflict here. I really do love doing it, but it's also something I'm still developing in and thus I'm paying for classes and it's not cheap. So it's a money thing to do it. But also as Tandy said to me last quarter "I'd really encourage you more, but I know how difficult it is." And I mean I may be a tech, but I know damn well how it goes as well. And it's a bitch, it's really the same thing with acting; how good are you, show your talent. Yeah... it's one of those things. As Jennifer Lopez says perfectly as one of the taglines for her latest show Dancelife, "It's a hard life, but if you love it, it's a beautiful life."

Anyway moving on to other things. Yeah, it's late right now so my brain's kinda toast so I'm likely to thinking all over the map.
Ok so DJ'ing... First week of Jan it's Quentin's birthday, so that Saturday he was throwing a party at his place. It was a bring the food to BBQ party. Well there was plans for his friend to DJ, but that fell thru. So early Saturday afternoon he calls me "Hey Neil, want to DJ?" So of course I took up the offer given I'd been wanting to DJ for a party. Anyway, I brought all of my gear over and shit and it was a great party. The turnout was good and moreover my DJ'ing went over really well. People were excited about what I did and really liked my "fresh" sound. Namely cuz I was DJ'ing not hip-hop and house that didn't suck.
So I'm really wanting to get a demo CD made and get it out there. Now that I've actually DJ'ed for people and gotten a wider feedback I have a lot more confidence that I'll be able to hold my own.

So that's all of that so far. Let's see, anything else... Ultimate, there is a tournament this weekend in Santa Barbara, I didn't end up going as at the point when I had to make the decision, I was horribly exhausted, and my knee was tweaked, and I had so much work I was stressing like nuts. So I sadly opted to not go. It would've been a sweet tournament, we would've been like only 12 guys and there were 5 games on Saturday, which is a fuckton of Ultimate playing. Ah well, I'm recuperating instead.
It's been bad this first week. I mean I was getting so little sleep and stressing so much by tuesday I could already feel burnout coming in. Yeah I realized immediately "I need to get my shit in order and fast." Fortunately this weekend has proved to be not too bad. I could've gotten more work done, but at least I'm not stressing and "getting better." Now only if I'll stop sleeping at 4am (which it is now) I'll be in better shape.

Speaking of this weekend, another interesting thing. It was Niko's birthday and she was having a party at her brother's place on Friday night. Well I get there and I see this guy Camillo, who is a waiter at Saturn Cafe. Well... I find out, he's Niko's brother! Ah the connections... 'Twas a fun party, I bartended a deal there which was fun. There was also another guy there, Dan, who had actually bartended. So that was kinda cool as there was definitely mixologists there.

Anyway, mucho late. Must sleep.... aahh homework and reading and shit and laundry in the morning.

So yeah... As I've noticed breaks tend to get depressing towards the end of them. Often I'm dying to go home when a quarter is over or whatnot, and then soon after being home I'm always reminded of why I don't like going home. I mean it's stacked stuff that makes it so. Much of which I shan't bother to figure out or go into otherwise I'll just end right back up in a shitty mood. No thank you, I like not being depressed.
Anyway, so today was really getting to that breaking point. I was really getting to my "omg I'm loosing my mind" point. I mean I was running, well skipping technically, whatever. Down the hallway and going "eeee!" Yeah, I officially lost my mind at that point. This evening got to be much of a debate. My friend Matt was organizing folks together to go hang out in SF tonight and running into tomorrow. (I believe they're getting a hotel room or something.) Anyway, so my conundrdum was to go up and kick it in the city, or go to the ice rink for some skate and shoot. (That's skating around and shooting pucks around. Just a bit of warmup/practice.) Well due to me being indecisive, I ended up being at home and going for the hockey alternative. As it was I was already planning to go up to SF Saturday for most of the day.
Also last night I meet up with my friend Rishi from high school and Stephen came along as well. We just kicked it in a sports bar for awhile and got some drinks, well I got one gin martini, but anyway. And I got to catch a bit of a sharks game, which really got me sparked back into hockey. Which I think is what is driving me to want to go for the skate and shoot time. I'm not going for the pick up hockey timeslot tonight as I'm really physically exhauseted. (I have no idea why, but I am.) So playing a game, not such a good idea. Plus I haven't played in well over a year, I should start back into it with shooting to make sure my shot is still something decent.

Anyway, so that's my plan for most of the weekend. Now new years I'm still conflicted, I really want to go this event at the Mezzanine but I also would like to not part with $60. Tho I will for sure be going to that place in the future, they've got an AMAZING sound system. I was reading about it, wowowowowow. They've got two, each one is over 20,000 watts.
Anyway so that's that. I think I'm going to push for a bar-hopping idea for new years. Whatever, we'll see. I'm taking the "I just need me time." right now, and really that IS what I need. And I'm not talking about being alone, but doing something by myself and something I like. I mean hell, this could be a run around the block for all I care. Most importantly I need to not be in THIS house (my parents.) So some hockey stuff tonight will help, and SF tomorrow will as well. Really what I ultimately need is to get back to my equipment so I can at least DJ for myself, and also Tahoe. I need to go snowboarding. The lack of money is of all things depressing me the most.
It kinda sucks that most of the stuff I enjoy doing are also some of the most expensive things as well. Also tangent, I haven't read thru my previous entry. I don't feel like dealing w/ my darker side of logic or whatever. Oh yeah! DJ'ing! So I'm sooooo fucking stoked as bunch of new records I ordered arrived today. Included in them in the currently "available only on limited release promo" is Stonebridge's latest track "SOS" which is amazing. And I'VE GOT A COPY BITCH! Anyway, so yeah need to mix some, and mostly I need to actually get some gigs. This quarter, I swear I will.

Also earlier today I had to install this vent cover, and we had to readjust it and shit. Just felt gratifying, given I had to saw the wood cover down some and shit. And well it involved power tools. I'm not saying this is a big deal for me. I know my way around a shop and know a hacksaw from a hammer. It's just that I don't do it that often anymore and I think it's the little reminders of that I know this this that's gratifying in some way. Given I've come to discover that most people, well can't do this shit.

Sooooo how's it I went from batshit insane/depressed to much perkier? Simple, Muse. Yep the band. I got an impulse to listen to them, and I threw on the latest album, I think "Supermassive Black Hole" and just went from there. "Map Of The Problematique" is really the rockin' one that got things going. Gowad I love that band, sooo fucking much. Between them and Green Day, I dunno what I'd do. Oh what the fuck am I saying, ABBA, can't forget them! Ok, correction between those three.. I've got my get me outta whatever set. Now to make a playlist with all three... That'd be interesting.
So yeah I'm just rambling like nuts... wow. Anyway, I think I'll go to MOMA tomorrow, cuz I think it's the kinda artsy calm internal thing I need. Yeah and snow, and eErope. Fucking a I wanna go over there sooooo badly. Anyway. That's all on to rock to "Hysteria." Wow this entry was random, and long.