After yet another city planning lecture discussing the evils of Disney, I'd like to reiterate something.

The Lion King, was awesome. Especially the new songs by Lebo M, the South African songwriter who is responsible for those famous opening lyrics..."Nants ingonyama bagithi baba." (yep those are the actual words, thanks google). The broadway version adds a whole new level of depth and emotion to the stories and characters of the movie, especially through the new songs. Maybe because it's the first time I've ever seen a major play, but hearing the songs performed live was amazing. It was hard to believe that the people on the stage were making that music. The whole thing really moved me, and I think that has a lot to do with the themes conveyed by the story and the song lyrics; Life and death, the cyclical nature of time, coming of age, finding your place, seeking guidance from the past....they all really resonate with my own views right now.

Wait, there's no mountain too great
Hear the words and have faith
Have faith

He lives in you
He lives in me
He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In your reflection
He lives in you

I really like these lyrics and the meaning they try to convey; that those who have gone before us are watching over us, that by remembering them, they live on within us. That's some deep stuff to take from a Disney movie, and now, a play. But it's all too easy to be flippant about anything that comes from Disney. Regardless of the corporations aims, I have much respect for the group of people that brought this one piece of art together. So my profs can go on and on about Disney as a symbol of rampant capitalism, I don't care. The Lion King rocks.

These past few days have been excellent. On Wednesday night, for my mom's birthday I hopped on BART and met up with the family to go see the Lion King Broadway musical. It was everything I had hoped it would be, a must see if you enjoyed the movie at all. I just can't get over the music. It was awesome, and the whole family really had a great time.

I stayed the night in Downtown SF with my family, then we woke up early Thursday morning to come home to Mountain View (yes, I skipped all my classes....you only live once). Thursday was spent running errands with my mom in preparation for my auntie Lydia/godmother/nina's joint extended family birthday party with my mom. Various members of my extended familia had a nice dinner at Chevy's and celebrated with cake and ice-cream at my house after.

Of course, lately, whenever my extended family gets together there's bound to be some drama, and I was up till around 2am having a heated discussion with certain members of the family. Eh. Family isn't perfect, it's not a well run machine. There's no natural order of communication with a large family such as my own. Sometimes it's better to have a third party relay information, especially when a direct discussion would feel awkward or uncomfortable. Sometimes you have to put the concerns of others before your own. But that's no excuse to portray yourself as a martyr. You can't sacrafice your own identity for family. But at the same time, too heavy a focus on the self, the individual, what's best for you and only you, THAT is what can break a family, and a person, apart.

Anyhow....that most likely flew way over most of your heards. So, moving on,

I just got back from dinner at Kapp's with my dad. Downtown is hopping tonight! The weather is so nice that everyone is out and about. I ran into two people I know while walking along Castro Street, which was encouraging since I have a paper about how Downtown Mountain View is an anchor in community life. Hehe. The annual Downtown Parade is tomorrow, Chris is in it for MVYAG. It's always a fun event. Unfortunately I'll miss it this year, but for a good reason. Kim's bday should be really fun tomorrow, I hope she enjoys the surprise Matt has planned for her.

Alllllll right. Back to writing that paper.

Up in Berkeley for the whole weekend. It's been a while.

Ummm....I feel like I got a lot of nothing done even though I know I did quite a bit.

Thursday night I went to the SF MOMA with BUSSA. I'd never been to MOMA before, it was really cool. They had an interesting exhibit about a town up north that got destroyed to make way for a reservoir in the 1950s. Reminded me of Santa Rita, NM. We went to the Mission for some very spicy burritos after. It was a really fun trip.

Friday I was very productive, albeit non-academically. I decided it was finally time to restart the fish tank. Completely emptied it (which is a no-no, but it was beyond hope), gave it a good scrubbing, and plopped my three hardy lil Zebra Danios back into their home. I want to get some new fish to add some excitement to the tank. I also moved it into the dining room, where it's more visible. This means two things, one, I get to enjoy it more, and two, I'll have to clean it more. Taking the tank out of the living room allowed me to rearrange the furniture. The new-and-improved living room has been a huge success with the housemates so far. The entire house (sans Eric E.) went to Barney's with Jess for dinner. At night, I went to Phylis' 21st bday party at Flavia & Rory's place. Got Lauren P. and Erik to walk up there with me. They felt the party was too "architectury" for them....so we left after about 45 minutes. But I'm glad I went.

Saturday....I got some reading done for CP118. Took a walk up to the Rose Garden to admire the view of the bay and the City. Got Lauren and Leo to come pick me up for dinner. We ordered pizza and hung out at Lauren's house till around 1:30am. I ate too much pizza, which I think might be what is throwing me off today.

And today....well..today, I've been playing with some photo editing software for my studio project. But after a day of editing one picture, I'm not pleased with the results. So I feel like the day's been wasted. That and, these April showers have confined me into the house. I spent most of the evening pulling together some research for one of the two papers I have due soon. Sitting in front of this laptop for most of the day is depressing. It just reminds me how much more work I have to do.

How NICE it would be to have a car so I could go take some new pictures of my studio project area, buy some new fish, and get a bite to eat and go to the grocery store. Being up here in the hills without a car on a rainy day results in mild cabin fever.

Anyways..this weeks gonna be busy. Got lots of work to do and quite a bit of fun activities lined up as well. So, I better get to bed.

Hello from Wurster Hall. My studio to be specific.

I am very excited. I just found out that the City Planning Department has created a new class, CP140: Urban Design: City-Building and Place Making, taught by the graduate Urban Design prof. This is great. Suddenly my major seems A LOT more well-rounded. Next fall. I'm there. (even though its on fridays...booo!)

But I still think I should get a background in Landscape Design. The more I think about it and talk to people about it, the more it makes sense. My dad reminded me that he thought I should have done Landscape Architecture all along. I've always like Landscape Design. I can imagine myself really enjoying a job in that field. Being a run-of-the-mill city planner just doesn't seem to fit anymore. Maybe that's what the planners in Mountain View meant when they said Berkeley would set me up for "something better than this." All this uncertainty and fretting over majors is a part of the process. I ran into my LArch prof in the hall WHILE I was reading the new course bulletin for CP140 posted on the wall. She'd be more than happy to talk to me about trying to get that minor down. I'm scheduled to see her next tuesday. I think I'll try for this Landscape Design minor, even if it means sticking around another semester. After all, I like Fall Semester better than Spring, and wouldn't mind being here for another season of Cal Football. Hehe. But I guess I'd walk in Spring with the rest of the gang. So it'd all work out just swell. I think.

But ya....an Urban Studies Major with a minor in Landscape Design. How cool does that sound? I like it. For now. But it sounds a lot more like the type of career I want to have now. And just the idea of that makes me happy.

So much is suddenly up in the air right now and it's got me a little overwhelmed.

Lauren and Leo want to go on an architecture/city planning sight-seeing adventure to Europe around the beginning of June. Flight tickets are relatively cheap for that time period if we buy them right now...

Problem is, I have to wait to hear back from the city of Palo Alto regarding my internship. I kinda need the money to pay for the trip. But if I get the paid internship, I doubt I'd be able to schedule a trip to Europe. But then what would the point of making money this summer be if I can't use it on traveling abroad? That was the whole point. Catch-22.

And I don't have a passport. It takes 6 weeks to get one. May 30th is about 6-weeks away, that's cutting it a little close to buy plane tickets and hope my passport is here by then. I could pay for the two week express service, but that sorta defeats the purpose of buying our cheap plane tickets right now!

And in other news, I'm trying to figure out what I want to minor in before my telebears appointment comes up. I've suddenly come to the realization that I have a pretty keen interest in Landscape Design and that maybe after all this City Planning mumbo-jumbo, I might end up in a career in that profession instead. What I know for sure is, I want to be involved in a design profession.

The thought of being a City Planner just depresses me more and more. I blame Berkeley for this. It's given me a taste of what it's like to be on the other side of the counter, the designer not the reviewer. I do not want to be a beaurocrat in a planning office who's main job is to write zoning codes. I've done really well in all my past design studios and I want to have a chance to push it some more and see if I really have what it takes to be either an Urban Designer of Landscape Designer, or better yet, both via a dual degree. And the Landscape Design minor will not only give me a good background to go to grad school for Landscape Architecture, but also for Urban Design.

I never really wanted to be an Architect, I have a touch time visualizing buildings in my head. But I can spend hours visualizing landscapes. I was designing zoos and parks and my backyard's garden when I was 10. Suddenly me, Mister "I've known what I want to since 8th grade" is not so sure what he wants to do anymore.

The other minor which would be MUCH easier to finish is "History of the Built Environment." It is more in-line with my historic preservation ideals. But increasingly, I find myself losing interest in that overall field and finding that my passion for it is mainly rested in my passion for Mountain View's history. It doesn't seem wise to go to grad school and pursue a career in such a limited field.

So I was up late last night trying to figure out a schedule for either minor. Running into schedule conflict after schedule conflict and wishing that I had figured this all out years ago. I probably would have if I wasn't so busy trying to switch from Architecture to Urban Studies. Argh.

Nap98: you should come over for my family's confetti egg fight
Avengelyne01: ooh that sounds exciting
Nap98: haha
Avengelyne01: is this for easter?
Nap98: yeah
Nap98: its the only way to celebrate easter
Nap98: as far as i know
Avengelyne01: hehe
Nap98: otherwise its a boring holiday
Nap98: blahblah jesus died on the cross blablah
Nap98: give me some confetti egg smashing action!
Avengelyne01: lol
Avengelyne01: and candy
Avengelyne01: lots of candy
Nap98: right
Nap98: candy
Nap98: cant forget the candy

14 years of Catholic School sure gets your priorities straight.

Things are going rather smoothly right now. Calm before the storm perhaps.

All my classes are in a lull. No more midterms, papers due in a couple weeks (in my mind...that's far...far.....far away) and in city planning studio we have a fresh start with a brand new project and reorganized project teams.

An internship position landed in my lap via a conversation with an old friend from grade school who looked for any planning positions on the SCU website and found one with Palo Alto (paid!). How lucky.

I had my interview for the position today. It went really well. But I have a gut feeling that they'll stick me with a voluntary position and give the paid one to some more qualified graduate student. Damn grad students, always ruining my life. Not really...But anyhoo...

Only big snag right now is Chris not getting into Cal. Yes, yes, I know....some of you are just itching to blow this joint...it's hard to remember that there are thousands of eager lil high school seniors pounding on Sather Gate trying to get in. Now I have to help him through the whole rejection appeal process. With a 1 in 10 chance of getting in on appeal, and nothing to loose really, we figure it's worth a shot. At least we'll make someone feel really bad for rejecting him. He got into his two second choices, Davis and SCU, so the world will not end with a rejection from Cal. But Chris deserves to be here.

Update from the last entry...I did stop my lobbying and battling for preservation on Wednesday, as I promised myself. Unfortunately, the rest of break was spent battling allergies. I did manage to spend a couple days with my high school friends. We saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (good movie) and a fairly large group of us (Matt, Kim, Martin, Jen, Jamie and Rachel too!) spent a day hanging out in Santa Cruz. We had a great time.

I'm going to Boston in May for sure now! Really excited about that. Finally I get to go to an east coast city and explore. Woohoo!

Right then. All caught up.