Addendum #2 to previous gripes:
Ok so today wasn't that bad. My teeth are clean now. My hair doesn't look bad once I comb it.
I went to a meeting of the Mtn. View Youth Advisory Group with my brother. I was one of the founding members of the group back in high school. So weird that the people who were freshman when I was involved are now Juniors! Things have changed a lot for MVYAG, and not for the good it seems. When I was involved we were working on bringing our own ideas to life. I got the local night club to have teen dance nights. Another member turned the city's break room into a teen study center. We all worked to hold the teens first youth festival, complete with a stage for local bands. We did a lot of stuff in two short years, and I had hoped the momentum would push the next set of YAGers forward.
But now it's turned into a group that mainly performs as a work horse for the city's Recreation department. None of the older members seem to happy about that. But it was great seeing some them again, and seeing Chris in action. He's motiviated to bring MVYAG back to its "glory days." Go Chris! We're gonna meet with some of the older members to talk about YAGs future over dinner sometime this week.
My friend Jamie called today, and let me know I'm not the only one bored at home this break. We decided to get together tonight at the Dana Street Roasting Company in Downtown Mountain View. They have Ghiradelli Hot Chocolate there! Yum. Jamie and I caught up with each other, talked about life and stuff. Good times. Good places.
So today ended up being pretty good. Break might end up being fun afterall.
Monday, March 24, 2003
addendum to the previous entry:
I needed a haircut, so I went to the barbershop today. Guess which barber I ended up with? Yes, my friends, revenge of the Vietnamese Barber. (see my blog entry from 9-20-02). And me, with my only hat, up in berkeley.
It's not that bad...really. Just somewhat uneven....but hey, hair grows back.
(Unevenly this time around.)
I needed a haircut, so I went to the barbershop today. Guess which barber I ended up with? Yes, my friends, revenge of the Vietnamese Barber. (see my blog entry from 9-20-02). And me, with my only hat, up in berkeley.
It's not that bad...really. Just somewhat uneven....but hey, hair grows back.
(Unevenly this time around.)
Oh spring break. How wonderful you are.
Not really. Gripe time.
My nose wont stop running. My dull headache wont go away. My dog wont stop howling outside at nothing. My mom called this morning, woke me from my sleep to tell me "surprise! I scheduled a dentist appointment for you today!" I'll spend my early afternoons driving my brother around since he continues to not have a license. Tomorrow I have to go to a city council meeting and speak, which is not a fun thing to do even for me. All my friends are somewhere else or still in school, so even if I had none of these other fun things to deal with....I would probably be sitting at home anyway.
Whoop-dee-do
Not really. Gripe time.
My nose wont stop running. My dull headache wont go away. My dog wont stop howling outside at nothing. My mom called this morning, woke me from my sleep to tell me "surprise! I scheduled a dentist appointment for you today!" I'll spend my early afternoons driving my brother around since he continues to not have a license. Tomorrow I have to go to a city council meeting and speak, which is not a fun thing to do even for me. All my friends are somewhere else or still in school, so even if I had none of these other fun things to deal with....I would probably be sitting at home anyway.
Whoop-dee-do
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Right around 6:00 today it started raining.
Come on fate....are we living in a freakin movie? Our bombs start falling in Baghdad and the rain starts coming down in Berkeley.
Walking across the campus with the carillion bells of the Campanile ringing some solemn song and the rain falling on my umbrella...it was one of those times when the weather outside reflects how I feel inside.
Come on fate....are we living in a freakin movie? Our bombs start falling in Baghdad and the rain starts coming down in Berkeley.
Walking across the campus with the carillion bells of the Campanile ringing some solemn song and the rain falling on my umbrella...it was one of those times when the weather outside reflects how I feel inside.
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Now...just imagine. Imagine a Berkeley campus without the truly ugliest building on campus. No. NOT Wurster.
Evans.
Yes. Evans. The giant pale green monster, the portal to hell, with moaning ventilation chasms of doom, golfland fountains and courtyards. The campus' suicide machine. Window-less lecture halls. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.
Evans, the building that's stuck smack dab in the middle of the campus' Central Axis. What's the Central Axis you may ask? Well, take a look at a map of the campus, and notice the link between all the major public spaces in the historic core. Memorial Glade, the Mining Circle, the areas in front of VLSB. That's not a coincidence. Before Moffett Library and Evans, this was one continuus space, as planned by John Galen Howard in the early 1900s.
Evans screwed it up. In a major way. You used to have a beautiful, straight on view of the Golden Gate from the Mining Circle.
And now, I've seen..the future:
Yes. No Evans. Two smaller buildings linked underground, with a courtyard that reopens the view corrider to the Golden Gate. Beautiful. And this is only part of the plan. I'm giddy over this. Giddy! The campus DOES have a plan for the future, and it's everything I ever hoped for.
You see....I just don't walk to class. I walk to class constantly thinking about planning spaces, architecture, view corriders, paving materials, landscaping. It's built in me, I can't help it. And the Berkeley campus, for someone like me....is frustrating. It has great moments, like the view from Memorial Glade towards Doe and the Campanile. But they're isolated and constantly screwed up by ugly ass paving, ugly ass buildings, and half-assed landscaping.
It's great to know the campus has a plan, a vision...that things like the New Stanley Hall and Music Library are being built according to it. You can go see the web page yourself if you're interested....
New Century Plan
But to save you the trouble...here are some of the best drawings:
Look, this is the view looking east while walking across Strawberry Creek at Sather Gate! They're calling for the creation of a little pond and glade here, as well as some new paving material. Sweet.
Remember those dinky trailors where my studio was last spring? You know, those pieces of crap that are still standing there in what could be one of the nicest courtyards in campus...well they're gone! And a nice new building could complete the courtyard.
Well...that's all I'll show for now. Yes I know......So exciting!
No? Well...you suck.
Evans.
Yes. Evans. The giant pale green monster, the portal to hell, with moaning ventilation chasms of doom, golfland fountains and courtyards. The campus' suicide machine. Window-less lecture halls. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly.
Evans, the building that's stuck smack dab in the middle of the campus' Central Axis. What's the Central Axis you may ask? Well, take a look at a map of the campus, and notice the link between all the major public spaces in the historic core. Memorial Glade, the Mining Circle, the areas in front of VLSB. That's not a coincidence. Before Moffett Library and Evans, this was one continuus space, as planned by John Galen Howard in the early 1900s.
Evans screwed it up. In a major way. You used to have a beautiful, straight on view of the Golden Gate from the Mining Circle.
And now, I've seen..the future:
Yes. No Evans. Two smaller buildings linked underground, with a courtyard that reopens the view corrider to the Golden Gate. Beautiful. And this is only part of the plan. I'm giddy over this. Giddy! The campus DOES have a plan for the future, and it's everything I ever hoped for.
You see....I just don't walk to class. I walk to class constantly thinking about planning spaces, architecture, view corriders, paving materials, landscaping. It's built in me, I can't help it. And the Berkeley campus, for someone like me....is frustrating. It has great moments, like the view from Memorial Glade towards Doe and the Campanile. But they're isolated and constantly screwed up by ugly ass paving, ugly ass buildings, and half-assed landscaping.
It's great to know the campus has a plan, a vision...that things like the New Stanley Hall and Music Library are being built according to it. You can go see the web page yourself if you're interested....
New Century Plan
But to save you the trouble...here are some of the best drawings:
Look, this is the view looking east while walking across Strawberry Creek at Sather Gate! They're calling for the creation of a little pond and glade here, as well as some new paving material. Sweet.
Remember those dinky trailors where my studio was last spring? You know, those pieces of crap that are still standing there in what could be one of the nicest courtyards in campus...well they're gone! And a nice new building could complete the courtyard.
Well...that's all I'll show for now. Yes I know......So exciting!
No? Well...you suck.
Monday, March 10, 2003
Over 70,000 people live in Mountain View, but somehow, the place still feels like a small town. The way neighborhoods are built now, it's so easy to live in a world where you just don't know the people who live around you. For so many friends I've met and neighborhoods I've visited, there's no community, no sense of place.
"Who are you're neighbors?" I might ask, and a shrug and confused glance is what I get back. Nothing to ground you to where you live. Your neighborhood is just a place your house happens to be in. Your house is just an investment for 5 or so years, than its time to upgrade and move on. Nothing is constant, place only equals property value.
For me, this weekend was a perfect example of what I value in a community, how it can add an entire other element to life that a lot of American society seems to have lost since the 1950s.
This was my Saturday, this is why home, and my slice of Mountain View, is so great:
For lunch my brother Chris and I grabbed some burgers and took them to Shoreline Park to eat. Got a nice bench right next to the sailing lake looking towards the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was an awesome day weather-wise and it was nice to be outside.
When I got home a neighbor (who lives on the street behind our property) ran up to the car to grab his kid's tennis ball which had rolled our way. Even though we've only met once or twice at my family's Halloween haunted house, he immediately waved and cheerfully said 'hello and how ya doin.' I returned the greeting.
As I got out of the car our next-door neighbor to the north, Tom, walks over. Tom is in the National Guard Air Rescue Squad and was in Turkey from October till January. I say "hey Tom!" Tom says hi to me and "trigger" or some other funny name he calls my brother. (Maybe he's just making up for my dad calling him "Pat" for so long. Pat....Tom...who knows. My dad's has called me "Chris" and "Snickers" in the same breath.) We talk for a little while outside the yard, he asks how school is going, tells me to thank my Mom for taking care of his plants while he was gone. My mom had a big phobia about killing them, and is thrilled they're back at his house.
After that I decided to walk Downtown, take some pictures and do some research in the library. As I walk out the door my life-long "across the street neighbors", the Garcias shout from across the street their normal "howdy neighbor!" and ask how things are goin. The Garcias have always been close to my family. They come to almost every party we have at our place or at my grandparents. Joella Garcia and her sister Jamie and I grew up together, and spent a lot of our summer days as kids hanging out. We stayed friends through high school, and at least once every summer a quick hello turns into a conversation that goes past midnight in my grandparent's backyard. So anyways, I say hello to them and start my walk.
One block down the street another neighbor who just purchased a home in north Mountain View drives by and waves. Her son is my brother's best friend since they were little kids. Get this, we're all Portuguese-Mexican mixes, so for the longest time we could jokingly call our street stub the Porto-Mex ghetto of MV. The house they rented is empty now, but we're happy they were able to afford a home in Mountain View. Another branch of their family is building a new home one house down from my grandparents, so we'll still be seeing a lot of them.
A few steps after that I come across my neighbor Mark with his kid, who was sitting on the lawn of my other neighbors, Peter and Nancy, talking to Peter. All three of them are part of the historic preservation group I co-founded. I stop and talk for a while, ask Peter how things are goin, he recently had heart surgery, and I bug Mark about not typing up our meeting minutes yet, joking that's the reason I came home. They tell me to make sure I don't stay in the library too long...especially on a day like this. I totally agree with them, say "see ya later" and head on my way.
I pass my great-grandma's old house where my second cousin and his family live, but didn't see em' outside so I didn't stop by. A couple blocks later I'm in the middle of Downtown, which is bustling with the lunchtime crowd. It's always cool to see the place so alive, considering that when I was a kid the place was almost a ghost town. One of the best things about living in my neighborhood, the old part of MV, is being able to quickly walk down to the main street. I live five short blocks from one of the best Mexican restaurants in town.
I get to the buildings I wanted to take a pic of, and bring out my big ol' digital camera. Some people driving by in a new convertible see me taking the picture and yell "hey! how many mega pics is that?!....thinking its a NEW digital VIDEO camera. I am reminded that yes, this is still the Silicon Valley. I yell back, it's an old digital camera, and that's why its so big. They say "oh! all right! thanks!" and continue driving down the street.
But anyway, the picture ended up cool. I did a then and now pic of an old photo my great grandma took in the early 1950s. Cool to see how things have changed, and not changed. For those curious, here ya go:
1950
2003
The c. 1920s building with the ugly tinted glass facade is going to be restored to something that looks more like the 50s pic.
After walking home, I got Chris to go on a "half an hour" drive to take a few pics at the city's last orchard. On the way home, Chris got disoriented and asked if we were in Mountain View when we were in the freakin' middle of the city. (THIS is why he still has not passed his driving test, he has no sense of direction. hehe) I pull off on a side road to show him exactly where we are, and we end up going towards the neighborhood a branch of my extended family lives in. On one street alone, I have two sets of aunts & uncles, two cousins, one cousin by marriage, two second cousins, and their extended family to whom I'm not related by blood. Chris decides we should go visit some of them. As we turn on to their street, we see my grandparents turning out of it after visiting them.
My aunt was so happy to see us, she was jumping around the room. My aunt, uncle, Chris and I ended up talking for hours about family history, Mexican-American racial issues, Bush's war, school, Chris' college plans, and then eating dinner from the previously mentioned Mexican restaurant. My uncle even baked cookies. We didn't end up leaving until after midnight. Hehe...so much for "half an hour." It was great though.
Sunday was similar. I got KFC with Chris and my cousin Marisa, and took it to eat at Shoreline. I visited my aunt again to get some advice on a topic for polysci term paper. After that my parents got home from their anniversary trip in Monterey, and we went out for dinner, which was really nice. When I got home I spent a few hours next door with my grandparents showing them the wonders of the internet, looking up whatever they wanted and showing how their club web page used a picture of them in the title graphic. Every time I show them the internet they're amazed. I also showed them a web page I'm trying to get together for our family about our history, they really enjoyed that, making jokes and telling stories about our history. After that I came back to Berkeley.
So that's my neighborhood. That's what I go home to. My small town in the giant faceless suburban blob that much of the Bay Area has turned in to. That's why I'm so passionate about Mountain View. That's what I want to fight to save and work to recreate through an education in Urban Studies. The physical things, the parks, the buildings, the landmarks, are just icing on the cake...they're the symbols that represent what truly matters....the people, the diversity, the community, the history, and my own family.
"Who are you're neighbors?" I might ask, and a shrug and confused glance is what I get back. Nothing to ground you to where you live. Your neighborhood is just a place your house happens to be in. Your house is just an investment for 5 or so years, than its time to upgrade and move on. Nothing is constant, place only equals property value.
For me, this weekend was a perfect example of what I value in a community, how it can add an entire other element to life that a lot of American society seems to have lost since the 1950s.
This was my Saturday, this is why home, and my slice of Mountain View, is so great:
For lunch my brother Chris and I grabbed some burgers and took them to Shoreline Park to eat. Got a nice bench right next to the sailing lake looking towards the Santa Cruz Mountains. It was an awesome day weather-wise and it was nice to be outside.
When I got home a neighbor (who lives on the street behind our property) ran up to the car to grab his kid's tennis ball which had rolled our way. Even though we've only met once or twice at my family's Halloween haunted house, he immediately waved and cheerfully said 'hello and how ya doin.' I returned the greeting.
As I got out of the car our next-door neighbor to the north, Tom, walks over. Tom is in the National Guard Air Rescue Squad and was in Turkey from October till January. I say "hey Tom!" Tom says hi to me and "trigger" or some other funny name he calls my brother. (Maybe he's just making up for my dad calling him "Pat" for so long. Pat....Tom...who knows. My dad's has called me "Chris" and "Snickers" in the same breath.) We talk for a little while outside the yard, he asks how school is going, tells me to thank my Mom for taking care of his plants while he was gone. My mom had a big phobia about killing them, and is thrilled they're back at his house.
After that I decided to walk Downtown, take some pictures and do some research in the library. As I walk out the door my life-long "across the street neighbors", the Garcias shout from across the street their normal "howdy neighbor!" and ask how things are goin. The Garcias have always been close to my family. They come to almost every party we have at our place or at my grandparents. Joella Garcia and her sister Jamie and I grew up together, and spent a lot of our summer days as kids hanging out. We stayed friends through high school, and at least once every summer a quick hello turns into a conversation that goes past midnight in my grandparent's backyard. So anyways, I say hello to them and start my walk.
One block down the street another neighbor who just purchased a home in north Mountain View drives by and waves. Her son is my brother's best friend since they were little kids. Get this, we're all Portuguese-Mexican mixes, so for the longest time we could jokingly call our street stub the Porto-Mex ghetto of MV. The house they rented is empty now, but we're happy they were able to afford a home in Mountain View. Another branch of their family is building a new home one house down from my grandparents, so we'll still be seeing a lot of them.
A few steps after that I come across my neighbor Mark with his kid, who was sitting on the lawn of my other neighbors, Peter and Nancy, talking to Peter. All three of them are part of the historic preservation group I co-founded. I stop and talk for a while, ask Peter how things are goin, he recently had heart surgery, and I bug Mark about not typing up our meeting minutes yet, joking that's the reason I came home. They tell me to make sure I don't stay in the library too long...especially on a day like this. I totally agree with them, say "see ya later" and head on my way.
I pass my great-grandma's old house where my second cousin and his family live, but didn't see em' outside so I didn't stop by. A couple blocks later I'm in the middle of Downtown, which is bustling with the lunchtime crowd. It's always cool to see the place so alive, considering that when I was a kid the place was almost a ghost town. One of the best things about living in my neighborhood, the old part of MV, is being able to quickly walk down to the main street. I live five short blocks from one of the best Mexican restaurants in town.
I get to the buildings I wanted to take a pic of, and bring out my big ol' digital camera. Some people driving by in a new convertible see me taking the picture and yell "hey! how many mega pics is that?!....thinking its a NEW digital VIDEO camera. I am reminded that yes, this is still the Silicon Valley. I yell back, it's an old digital camera, and that's why its so big. They say "oh! all right! thanks!" and continue driving down the street.
But anyway, the picture ended up cool. I did a then and now pic of an old photo my great grandma took in the early 1950s. Cool to see how things have changed, and not changed. For those curious, here ya go:
1950
2003
The c. 1920s building with the ugly tinted glass facade is going to be restored to something that looks more like the 50s pic.
After walking home, I got Chris to go on a "half an hour" drive to take a few pics at the city's last orchard. On the way home, Chris got disoriented and asked if we were in Mountain View when we were in the freakin' middle of the city. (THIS is why he still has not passed his driving test, he has no sense of direction. hehe) I pull off on a side road to show him exactly where we are, and we end up going towards the neighborhood a branch of my extended family lives in. On one street alone, I have two sets of aunts & uncles, two cousins, one cousin by marriage, two second cousins, and their extended family to whom I'm not related by blood. Chris decides we should go visit some of them. As we turn on to their street, we see my grandparents turning out of it after visiting them.
My aunt was so happy to see us, she was jumping around the room. My aunt, uncle, Chris and I ended up talking for hours about family history, Mexican-American racial issues, Bush's war, school, Chris' college plans, and then eating dinner from the previously mentioned Mexican restaurant. My uncle even baked cookies. We didn't end up leaving until after midnight. Hehe...so much for "half an hour." It was great though.
Sunday was similar. I got KFC with Chris and my cousin Marisa, and took it to eat at Shoreline. I visited my aunt again to get some advice on a topic for polysci term paper. After that my parents got home from their anniversary trip in Monterey, and we went out for dinner, which was really nice. When I got home I spent a few hours next door with my grandparents showing them the wonders of the internet, looking up whatever they wanted and showing how their club web page used a picture of them in the title graphic. Every time I show them the internet they're amazed. I also showed them a web page I'm trying to get together for our family about our history, they really enjoyed that, making jokes and telling stories about our history. After that I came back to Berkeley.
So that's my neighborhood. That's what I go home to. My small town in the giant faceless suburban blob that much of the Bay Area has turned in to. That's why I'm so passionate about Mountain View. That's what I want to fight to save and work to recreate through an education in Urban Studies. The physical things, the parks, the buildings, the landmarks, are just icing on the cake...they're the symbols that represent what truly matters....the people, the diversity, the community, the history, and my own family.
Friday, March 07, 2003
Today was a day of Chicano poetry, Ryan chucking up blood, Dan passing Kidney Stones, an enlightening political discussion with Erik, and a very....crazy convo with Lesley.
I think I need some sleep.
Nap98: yo estoy el pollo loco.
lbthekiller: youre a crazy chicken?
Nap98: no. you are
lbthekiller: no
lbthekiller: you said it
Nap98: don't call me that!
Nap98: you're so mean to me.
lbthekiller: SAID IT!!!!
Nap98: i know you did
Nap98: lbthekiller: youre a crazy chicken?
Nap98: see?
lbthekiller: no,
Nap98: yes.
lbthekiller: you are a crazy chicken
Nap98: cheeseburger
I think I need some sleep.
Nap98: yo estoy el pollo loco.
lbthekiller: youre a crazy chicken?
Nap98: no. you are
lbthekiller: no
lbthekiller: you said it
Nap98: don't call me that!
Nap98: you're so mean to me.
lbthekiller: SAID IT!!!!
Nap98: i know you did
Nap98: lbthekiller: youre a crazy chicken?
Nap98: see?
lbthekiller: no,
Nap98: yes.
lbthekiller: you are a crazy chicken
Nap98: cheeseburger