Back to the grind. Boom boom bam. We've got 3 weeks left total, 2 weeks of normal schedules, 2.5 weeks if you want to be specific. 2.5 weeks until the semester that feels like it started just the other day is complete. Shocking and perhaps disheartening. UNREAL! On the other hand, SO much has happened this semester, so many memories of anything and everything. When I think of an event that happened in the beginning of the semester, like Trop 205's first meal together, that seems like AGES ago. Living in Stewart seems like EONS ago. But yet, it feels like I was in high school just A WEEK ago. Weird how time works, perceptions of time works, reality of time works.
Getting older, getting wiser (hopefully).
Last week was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is great for a number of reasons, but the fact that we typically spend it with family and friends, enjoying delicious food together, that may top the list. My Thanksgiving was pretty great, spending a couple days with one side of the extended family in Simi Valley, then traveling to Pismo Beach to live a couple days with the other side of the extended family. Lots of family, lots of greatness.
Then it got interesting. I'm not going to go into too much detail on this blog because it is all detailed out for you RIGHT HERE. Or if you like actual links, HERE IS THE STORY: http://nomogopro.virb.com
This experience was nutty, surprising, and off the wall. What. In. The. World. So, as you can see from the website, we'll see what happens! It sure would be great to get a second chance because, oh, it's so stinkin' unfortunate.
WOAH. It's TG. Thanksgiving. The big one. Time to eat. Is that what Thanksgiving's about? Sometimes, for some people. Is it about seeing family? Sometime, for some people. Is it about the settlers and the Indians?
In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition traces its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts. The initial thanksgiving observance at Virginia in 1619 was prompted by the colonists' leaders on the anniversary of the settlement. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. In later years, the tradition was continued by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623. While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.
I'm home for the holiday, it's pretty great, always great. Short and great. You know what else is short and great? Thanksgiving break from last year. Here's the recap. It's short and great:
And you know what else? Well, school stuff, most certainly.
See that? That's my schedule for next semester. Well, for the time being. Some aspects are still a lil up in the air, but for the most part, this is the scoop. I'm generally excited, should be interesting, very interesting. I'm going to have more time than I do now which will be interesting in itself, but knowing me, that "time" will be filled up immediately. Interesting. I'm excited though, we'll see what happens. There's no telling what kind of shenanigans will go down between now and then, what opportunities will come and pass, what friends and acquaintances will do in this same time of change. Change is scary, change is good, change is necessary. It's time. BOOM.
I've got some videos for you, some super fun ones.
The first? Well, it's one of the funniest videos I've EVER had the privilege to watch. Not only does it feature Mr. Bob Ross, the mastermind of a painter, but the video as a whole is simply hysterical. I absolutely love how he gets such a kick out of cleaning his brush, laughing as he goes. What a man.
Next, is a ridiculously great commercial. Let's just say, if I was young and immature (I'm not saying I'm not), I would have the Six Finger on my Sandy Claus list ASAP. Also, advertising sure has changed these last [fill in the blank] years. This stuff is QUALITY.
Thirdski: this video getscha. It's so happy, so joyous. This blind cat, Oskar, plays with toys for the first time, toys rigged with bells so Oskar can locate the ball and have an absolute ball in the process. Brings tears to my eyes.
Last is a spectacular stopmotion and pretty philosophically deep. The point is made and makes you feel. The emotion. Definitely worth a watch.
And that's it! The post! Happy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for you. Yes, you. You're a reader/watcher and possibly an enjoyer of this here blog and that means the world to me. I'm thankful for you and her and him and us. I'm thankful for it all, life experiences, the good, the bad, the ugly. Most of all, I'm thankful for a Savior that takes the weight off of my shoulders and knows me inside out, for no reason at all but pure love. Without Him, I'm a goner, TOAST. Phew, I'm thankful.
As I'm writing, there's an 11:40am choir flashmob outside of Common Grounds. I'm sitting here with Mr. Karl Holmlund and Mr. Corey Scott and we are talking about the nature of flashmobs and how the expected flashmob is noon in the caf, while the unexpected is precisely 11:40am Commons.
Boom.
What a week, what a blog post this will be. We've got videos this week. Lots of videos.
This last Sunday was my birthday. I finished my 21st year on this earth and am now entering into my 22nd year; in other words, I turned 21 y/o. 21. That old adult age. I'm not a big fan of birthdays. I've had an interesting history with birthdays, specifically birthday parties, so my opinion of birthdays have been skewed. SO, with that, this birthday was good! Woke up the morning of the 13th, nothing going on. Nothing kept going on. So I had the immensely late idea to go to Pink's Hot Dogs, decided to invite a bunch of people, but due to the fact the idea was immesely late, people were naturally busy. Naturally! Hittin' Pinks with 1000 or 1, it's just a birthday. The group ended up consisting of my fam bam, two or my roommates Mr. Joel Limbauan and Mr. Ben Jacuk, and Mr. Kelii Miyata, my good buddy from high school who is rocking the USC. This is him busting a rhyme.
So the 13th? Good group, good dogs, good time. It was the 21st, 363 it will be the 22nd. Age. Getting older. Aging.
Boom.
I've got some video for you now. This first one? I absolutely got a 100% kick out of this guy. I don't know if I've ever seen or talked to someone as laid back as this dude. Just livin' life, lovin' life. Obviously, there's pros, cons, opinions, politics, etc. There's somethin' really really great about this gentleman's outlook on life. Let's learn from him.
This next video is ABSOLUTELY BREATHTAKING AND UNBELIEVABLE. I don't even know how to explain other that God's creation is UNFATHOMABLE and surprises are around each and every corner. Incredibly unreal.
Ever heard of Crocs? Yeah those stupidly ugly, nasty lookin' plastic shoes. Do you like them? Would you buy them? Watch this commericial. Crocs utilizes their ugliness, makes fun of them selves, and ends up making an effective ad that more than likely sells their shoes. Brilliant.
This one. WHAT?! Just watch. Creativity at it's finest. Crazy cool.
It's November 9th and it's crazy. It's November 9th and it's wild. It's November 9th and it's warm. And it's great. Something struck me this week: I turn 21 years of age on Sunday, the 13th of November. For the last three hundred sixty some days, I knew this day was coming, it's only natural. For some reason though, it took a turn for the important this week. 21 just seems so old, so mature, so theres-no-more-milestones-left-except-for-driving-with-permit-drivers. Turning 18 is big; you can play the lottery, you can buy cigarettes, you can get arrested. Turning 21 adds one solitary thing to this mix and that is the cause of the 1920 US prohibition: alcohol. That may or may not be a big deal, depends on who you ask. I think perhaps the bigger deal is just the fact that I'm another year older, another year farther from the delightful year 1990.
Speaking of alcohol, I watched a great video this week about a guy who had an idea and acted on it. That concept in and of itself is absolutely INCREDIBLE. To develop ideas and see them through completion, phew, if you can master that, you will be unstoppable.
Speaking of alcohol, I watched a great commercial this week about anti drunk-driving. This commercial's incredible in many many ways, including but not limited to the message, the accents, the editing, the music, the popularity on the interwebs. An anti drunk-driving ad that people are actually watching, enjoying, and sharing? Way to go NZ.
I've noticed something this week and it's embedded in this conversation:
"Hello!"
"Hi!"
"How are you?"
"Good! You?"
"Good!"
"Good! See you later!"
"Bye!"
Is there anything wrong with this conversation? Nope. Did you learn anything new about each other? Nope. I feel like this conversation happens hundreds of times a day between hundreds of people and it's to the point where it means absolutely nothing. Recently, I've been trying to be more honest in these conversations, responding to "how are you" with realistic words/phrases like "alright," "hangin' in there," "been better," "livin' life," "fantastic," "never been better," "incredible," the list goes on and on. Now that I'm taking a look at this list, I guess all that is happening is I'm being somewhat creative in my adjective choices. Even answering "how are you" with a tad-bit-more-realistic words, the investment is still light. It's the follow-up questions such as "Oh, why are you just alright?" or "Wow! Fantastic, huh? How come?" that take the conversation into the next level. A relationship is budding, conversation is exploding. But what happens if you are just in passing and the original conversation is the only exchange possible? Is it worth having? I say "of course!". I guess. As I'm writing this, I'm realizing I have no real clue what I'm talking about. And I don't have an answer. I don't know whats right, wrong, proper, improper, worth it, wasteful.
I guess the moral of the story is simply this: Be intentional in conversations. Learn something new.
Here's an aside:
I was walking on campus today and a woman wearing high-heals was walking next to me. Now, I have never personally experienced the phenomenon of wearing high-heals, I simply have not chosen that type of footwear as my footwear of choice (that might have something to do with culture and gender roles). I guess I understand the point of high-heels and why girls like to wear them, choose to wear them. But as I walked next to this woman in high-heels, I noticed something: the CLACK CLACK CLACK of EVERY SINGLE step she took. The extremely loud rhythmic sound, coinciding with each and every step taken. How do high-heel wearers put up with this!? I guess this phenomenon is similar in any hard sole situation, but it really struck me. Is it annoying? Do you just tune it out? Baffling. Truly. I was amazed at how loud these high-heels were on normal concrete and I was honestly amazed at how I reacted. Probably an overreaction. Nevertheless, an object of note.
And I think that may just be it. That's the end of this week's edition of "It's Wednesday!" I hope you enjoyed it. Kinda scatter-brained, but hey, who isn't?
Take a look around you. What do you see? Anything you haven't picked up in a while? Maybe a magazine you only read half of or an pseudo-empty box of cheez-its that's been sitting around for a week. Revisit these items and enjoy them.
Be intentional this week. Live with importance and make every minute worth your 60 seconds. It's not easy. I fail miserably 90% of the time. That doesn't mean you have to.
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:
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.
