Tick Tock

It's November 2nd. It's November 2nd? Yeah, it's November 2nd. Time is ticking away, tick, tick, ticking away. It's rather incredible: it's November which means it's almost December, so it's basically 2012. Before long, it's summer break, school will start up, and hey, it's November again. Time's flying fast and is only getting faster. Blink and you'll miss it.

This week has been rather exciting. Lots happened and I'll explain. It was great week, lots of out-of-the-ordinary, living life on the edge, taking risks, getting uncomfortable.

First, I wrote this intending for it to wind up on the blog. I can't exactly remember when it was written, but hey, it still applies. Pretty random, interesting, weird? Yeah, pretty weird subject material.

"I've realized something: I am not an initiator.  In most situations, I simply do not initiate.  I show up to a gathering of people, I am not one to go up to someone and start a conversation.  It's difficult for me to initiate beginning projects; the beginning, getting started, is consistently, by far, the hardest part of any assignment, project, film, etc.  I typically do not initiate objectives of greetings, such as a handshake, a hug, a high-five.  I normally do not introduce myself to people I have not met before.  In all of these situations, I generally wait for the other to initiate, which may or may not be a bad thing (as always, there are exceptions to the rule). As I'm thinking about it, I think this is why: when you initiate, you initiate by doing the thing you are most comfortable with. For instance, in a greeting, you may go in for the hug or extend your hand for a handshake based on what you like, are used to, were raised doing. I don't know what you're most comfortable with and, honestly, I'm comfortable with most anything. So when I wait for YOU to initiate, I assume you are going to initiate with the "greeting" you are most comfortable with.  You want a high-five? I'll give you a big ol' high five.  The one that every once in a while gets uncomfortable and somewhat awkward is my failure to introduce myself. I think the main reason for this is I'm pessimistic in the fact that: why meet someone if you're never going to see them again? If I notice I'm around somebody somewhat often, then yes, I will meet them and yes, I will remember their name. But if it's a random meeting, there's no way in the world I'm going to remember their name (I can just assume they won't remember mine), so why bother? Yes, I know, this is a terrible view to hold. I honestly am working on it and trying to be intentional with people, especially new people.

So with that, initiate with me. Test me me out."

Initiation. Take the first step, take the bow. With arms wide open.


This last Friday was Punk 'N' Pie, a HUGE annual Biola-wide talent show.  Somehow, I was privileged to participate in two groups out of the 10-odd acts that had made the auditional cut.

The first act was the Punk'd Up Kids, a musical group made up of good friends Ms. Sarah Hau, Ms. Sarah McAlpine, Ms. Moe Tucker, Mr. Amir Girgis, and Mr. Kyle Norman. The first time I played cajon with these folks, I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the beautiful sheer talent that, for lack of better words, OOZED from their pores. I was truly honored to be part of this band! The performance went extremely well and the crowd's participation and enthusiasm honestly surprised me, let alone the GREAT response afterward.  Let me present to you the Punk'd Up Kids playing renditions of "Poison & Wine" by the Civil Wars, "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain, and "You Raise Me Up" originally written by Brendan Graham.




After a redonkulous performance by Pidgeoto, who killed it with a hardcore punk rendition of "My Girl," it was time for round 2. Last year, I tried out with a group of friends, Ms. Ashley Emerson, Ms. Darlene Favenir, Ms. Joanna Xu, Mr. Ben Jacuk, Mr. Isaiah Pekary, and Mr. Michael Warnecke, for a on-campus worship band. Long story short, we didn't make it. Long story short, we wanted to play Punk N Pie. Now, for YEARS, Mr. Michael Warnecke, Mr. Ben Jacuk, Mr. Joel Limbauan, and myself enjoyed mimicking and laughing with the band we all know as Creed. Mr. Scott Stapp has a voice unlike any other, incomparable. Mr. Michael Warnecke's impression of Mr. Stapp is SPOT ON, so when we started discussing Punk N Pie ideas and a Creed cover came up, it HAD TO HAPPEN. At first, Michael was a tad unsure about it; after all, who would want to mimic one of the most laughable bands of our generation in front of a thousand college students? After a ton of laughing and consideration, Michael agreed to do it and he was PERFECT.  We ended up putting together a 90's medley, using and restructuring the songs of our generation:

"With Arms Wide Open" - Creed
"It's Gonna Be Me" - *NSYNC
"...Baby One More Time" - Britney Spears
"I Want It That Way" - Backstreet Boys

Enjoy:



This was an absolute ball. The crowd was SO into it, I could hear the crowd singing along from behind my prison of a drum shield! If you don't believe me, refer to the last two songs of the video. Here's some fun facts: at 2:20, I snap a drumstick and then 10 seconds later, my first top falls over. You can see me trying to grab it, freaking out because, well, it's relatively important. Luckily, the beat never dropped and turns out, the majority of people didn't even notice. That pumps me up. Another fun fact: at 4:34, when I step out from behind my prison of a drum shield (during practice and rehearsal and dress rehearsal and without a drum shield, I came all the way out to the front to sing along with my boy band friends), I step on a 3 foot by 1 foot poster and it attaches to my foot. Naturally, I had to pull it off which ended up taking the majority of my 15 seconds of freedom from the prison of a drum shield. Oh well.

All in all, Punk N Pie was an absolute blast. Playing drums, in both cajon form and set form, in an enthusiastic manner was incredibly fun, makes me miss drumming all the more. Although we didn't place (congrats to The Beatles, Xopoc, and Rob Frampton), playing in Punk N Pie was oh so worth it, going down in history. And I must say, I NEVER thought we would actually play a Creed song seriously, let alone in front of a thousand people. WHAT. IN. THE. WORLD.


The party's not over.


The next night, Saturday night, turned into quite the night. So, as a film major at Biola, you have to participate in what is called the Biola film at least one time during your studies. Every semester, a Biola film is written, funded, shot, edited, and premiered and from what I've seen and heard, it's quite the experience from beginning to end. This years Biola film is called "Kids on the Run" and I am not officially a part of it. Here's the promo:


Kids on the Run - Promo from Stephen Diaz on Vimeo.



So Saturday night, the Kids on the Run folks needed a bunch of extras to do a wild party scene in the middle of the desert. Catch was it was from 1am to 9 am. That's all night long. That's a long time, especially when sleep sounds oh, so good. But hey, who remembers sleeping? I talked to a few people, found a ride and at 11pm headed out the door toward Lucerne Valley with driver Mr. Kris Yee and passengers Ms. Sierra Falco, Ms. Veronica Luckey, and Ms. Brittany Watts. After a solid two hour drive, a stop at a convenience store, and directions involving words like "once you get to the middle of nowhere, start looking for...," we arrived at our location. We joined probably 15 to 20 other extras, 15 to 20 crew members and a massive bonfire, it was a guaranteed good time. Now, the problem with the following 8 hours is that I am likely not supposed to tell you what happened for a number of reasons. I guess you'll just have to watch the finished film to find out. Basically we went BERSERK, we went APE, we went straight NUTTY, running around a fire, dancing around a fire, shooting fireworks around a fire...and other stuff... for 8 solid hours. And then we laid in the dirt for a while while the 40 degree frigid air surrounded us. While. Once we were frozen and the sun rose, we began to defrost as we headed home. We arrived back at Biola at approximately 10 am, covered in dirt, eyelids heavy.

Here's the best part about this entire event: In the time the majority of the world (hypothetically) is sleeping, 1,000,000 and a half things happened and they're all in the memory bank for good. It's absolutely incredible how much you can do in the time you're normally sleeping. But watch out, it's also absolutely incredible how much your body takes a toll after a night of extreme chaos and no sleep. Sleep, no matter how great it is NOT to get it, is decently important. Just a lil.





What's funny is the fun isn't over! Monday was Halloween. What's funny is the least exciting part of this week was Halloween. I'm going to go into too much detail, but I went to party, ate some Halloween snacks, flailed my arms a lil, left, then went to the Blue Door and watched Sleepy Hollow, which was surprisingly bizarre. Came back to campus to pick up Mr. Preston Richardson who had nicely asked to crash at my apartment for the night, to which Trop 205 opened it's doors right up. It was good time, legit chattin the photo/video circuit. All in all, good night, decently eventful.



And THAT, my friends, was the last week. Take a deep breath because it's been quite the ride.






Now it's your turn. Make this next week memorable. Live life, go nuts, stay safe, be smart.

And then tell someone about it.