Happy Halloween! I can't believe Halloween has already come...and almost gone. The haunted house was great this year, first time we had lines of people waiting outside the door. I'm glad Kay, Candice, and Erik made it down....specially since my two oldest friends forgot they had told me they'd come.....like they had for the past 5 (or 7) years and went to Cal Poly instead....oh well.

Kay, Candice, Erik, Joella, and I tried our best to run it when my dad, Chris, and his friends were gone....we did our best! First group of people we got, a bunch of 9 year old girls....everything didn't work. They came out of there yelling it wasn't scary at all. Second group we scared em good! Ha! All together I think we gave away over 65 treat bags of candy, and dozens of individual pieces after that. I wouldn't be surprised if about 100 people came this year!

Mountain View is a great place to be at Halloween now. There are at least four haunted houses in the city, one that is at Haunted Mansion-level when it comes to technology and special effects. It was great to see all the streets lined with the shadows of trick-or-treaters and families, to see pumpkins glowing on so many front porches, and to hear laughter.....and the occasional scream.

Whew. Where did that weekend go? Even with the extra hour it was way too short. My home is all decked out for Halloween, the haunted house is half way set up, La Llorona is ready to scare the neighborhood kids. Went to a birthday party for my little cousin Angelica. She turned 6. Erik got to meet most of my mom's side....and even baptised my Aunt Lydia with diet coke by letting a basketball slip past his hands and on to a table full of drinks that my Aunt was sitting at.

Got to see Lesley play field hockey against Stanfurd. What can I say except...wow, boo to Stanfurd. This lady sitting next to Erik and I, all decked out in a fancy Stanfurd vest was an living breathing steriotype of a Stanfurd fan.

Excerpts from her conversation with a friend sitting next to her:

"(so and so) FINE-AL-LEEEE bought a new house. Her house in Cupertino was sooo tiny....it only had THREE Bedrooms and TWO Baths you know. Can you imagine, it didn't even have a den."

"It is soo great to have her with us (referring to her maid). We took her with us to Mexico City. It was great because she speaks the languague of course, and was able to help us find our way around. I mean noooo one speaks a WORD of English down there!"

(Blissfully ignorant of the fact that there are groups of UCSB fans sitting around her as the score approaches 11-0 Stanford): "This is a wonderful game! It is just great that all the freshman get to play against this club team. (yells) GO FRESHMAN!"

....and so on. We had better win the Big Game.

The homecoming game was awesome! Just awesome. Cal beat UCLA! We rushed the field at the end of the game and celebrated. It was so much fun. I saw one of the football players and realized I went to school with him in kindergarten, and he was one year ahead of me for the rest of school. So I shook his hand and said hi. I hope we can rush the field again come November 23. We Want the Axe!

Good news on the studio front. My project was extended till Wednesday! Bad news why, a girl in another section cut herself pretty bad in the shop....but didn't loose any fingers or anything luckily. However, it caused the shop to close down for a day,....which made it impossible for a lot of the class to finish their projects. I was going to go home tonight, but decided it'd be better to just stay here for the weekend and catch up.

Good news on the City Planning class front too, I got a 23/25 when the curve made a 17 an A. Let's hope I did something similar in stats...by some miracle.

Good times.

So, midterms have come and gone. All two of them. Lucky me. I have no idea how I did on either of them. Not fun. I have a bad feeling about my Stats midterm, and a slightly optomistic feeling about my City Planning midterm.

But...I really don't have too much time to think about them. After classes today it was off to studio for me. Where I remained, with a nice break to celebrate Ryan's birthday, until midnight. It was nice to have the whole group together. Hope we do it a lot more often. Erik and Ryan came to visit me at Wurster and walk home with me after they went to the RSF. Thanks guys.

My goal: finish my model tomorrow and finish my presentation board by 4:00pm on Saturday! Will I do it? Check back on Sunday to find out....

Things that really irk as I cram for my stats midterm:

-An EECS major who is too busy reading his EECS reader to pay any attention during my Stat Section's midterm review. Dude, if you're not going to pay attention why don't you just go to the library
and read about EECS? Huh? Why you have to sit there next to me and make me feel less intelligent than you because you are just so freakin smart that you don't need to pay attention to the review problems that have my brain spinning. Be gone evil one.

-The growing number of jugglers and unicyclists that are congregating in La Loma and outside Evans Hall. How can you possibly have so much free time in college to practice juggling on a weekday!? How dare you stand their juggling your bowling pins as I hurry off to go lock myself in Doe Library to study till who knows when? Even if I didn't have this midterm, I'd still be doing work in studio. Seriously, even if you had that much free time, why would you spend it juggling, or unicycling. Why not do something worthwhile? Like sit in your room and watch TV, or save a historic house. Jeez.

The wonderful thing about having a large, close-knit family is that you have so many people you love and never want to loose.

The hard thing about having a large, close-knit family, is that you have so many people you love and never want to loose.

The saga continues:

On Tuesday at McDonald's in SF, my friend from studio Flavia, was the first person at Cal to actually guess I was half Portuguese. I guess it helps that she's from Brazil. But oh ya....she guessed Indian before she guessed Portuguese. Ah well.

Have you heard? A certain girl we all know and love told us at the concert last night that she's gonna be a pirate hooker for Halloween. Argh matey! Since she is going to yell at me as soon as she reads this, I might as go all the way and mention erotic bagels. Harhar!

"Are you gonna live your life wonderin' standing in the back lookin' around?
Are you gonna waste your time thinkin' how you've grown up or how you missed out?
Things are never gonna be the way you want.
Where's it gonna get you acting serious?
Things are never gonna be quite what you want.
Or even at 25, you gotta start sometime.
I'm on my feet, I'm on the floor, I'm good to go.
Now all I need is just to hear a song I know.
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine.
I wanna fall in love tonight."

Ahhhhhhh. The Jimmy Eat World concert was so good. I had the greatest time, and it seemed like everyone else that went did too. Anyone who thinks that they sound bad live......well if they ever did, they sound great now.

This is the first group thing I have planned in Berkeley. I used my awesome City Planning skills to make sure we didn't get lost in the Tenderloin on our way to the Warfield (which is an awesome building). That would have been not so fun. But the concert was just great. I wish I could turn back time and go to it all over again.

So....I decided to take a chance, be a good dorm resident, and brave out the DC tonight. It's been over a week since I went there for a dinner. But....when I saw what was being served (the normal slop) and the long lines to get the slop.....I just decided to leave.

Not worth it. Nope. They didn't even have any ice cream for me to take home. Waste my swipes. Humph.

I spent most of tonight wasting time. I couldn't help it that I stumbled across the on-line archives of the Los Altos Historical Association! (Yes...I know...I'm a dork.....bare with me here)

I just couldn't stop reading the scans of newspaper articles and flyers from the 50s when Los Altos and Mtn. View were in annexation "wars." Some of those Los Altans really hated Mountain View. They portrayed Mountain View in political cartoons as a vicious drooling dark wolf ready to attack Los Altos (portrayed as a fluffy white lamb).

Their whole thing was that Mountain View was going to take over the supposed "countryside" of Los Altos, and ruin their semi-rural country/suburban way of life. But....if you read between the lines of any of those old articles....you can see some pretty strong ulterior motives that stand behind the mantra of "keeping our semi-rural way of life."

MV was allowing residential lots to be subdivided to less than 1/4 of an acre.... making them affordable for people that were...well undesirable in certain communities in the 1950s because of their income and ethnicity.

So even though Los Altos pretty much got all the land it thought MV would take, they went ahead and developed all those orchards into neighborhoods that are now filled with homes selling for way over one million dollars. So much for preserving that countryside.

There was one swath of land however, that Los Altos couldn’t get….the area adjacent to my own neighborhood between El Camino and the train tracks. Los Altos wanted to cram all of its industry into that area, right up against Mountain View's oldest neighborhoods. That way, it wouldn’t have to put anything ugly in the orchards near its own existing residential neighborhoods. No big deal that it would replace the small orchards and farms that were next to Mountain View’s neighborhoods.

Regardless, Mountain View got the land instead….and developed it into a higher density neighborhood that is one of the most diverse areas of any place in the entire county. Los Altos was confined to the area south of El Camino Real. Things have come a long way since those years.... but the patterns of development set in the 1950s, and the resulting divisions in demographics that are rooted in those patterns still define the character of these two cities and the way they address certain issues.

So....it's no coincidence that Mountain View's population ended up being made up of about 45% minorities, and Los Altos', 15%. Mountain View has a median income of $40,000, Los Altos $80,000. These figures are from 1990.....the differences are problably more apparent now.

So now, in the same zip code you have the wealthiest of the wealthy on one side of El Camino Real, living in the semi-rural splendor of their nice homes lining streets without sidewalks on their quarter acre lots, and on the other side you have rows of apartment blocks where some of the poorest residents of entire county scratch out a living as the blue collar workers of the valley.

And along El Camino Real, the very street that splits this zip code in half, stand dozens of Hispanic immigrants, day workers, literally searching the street for jobs every day. Most letters to the editor regarding this issue in one city’s paper cry for the removal of these “illegals.” Letters in the other city’s paper speak of how to help them and immediately come to their defense when needed. Maybe we haven’t come quite as far from the 1950s as we’d like to think……..

Erik:

"Fuck!.....

( a few seconds later)
Bitch!

(a few seconds later)
Crap.....

(a few seconds later)
Arrrrggghhh. Shit!

(a few seconds later)
Ahhhh."
[Turns from computer in utter disgust and starts reading a text book]

Just another morning with Erik and his Nintendo game emulator.

"Have a willingness to advocate. Have values, and do not be afraid to let people know them. The worse losses, are the ones you never fought for."

-Alan Jacobs (a well known city planner and author on the subject) who was the guest lecturer in my CP110 class today. This was his closing statement on how to be a successfull city planner. Good stuff to hear. Really good.

“Why is the world so retarded?!” Erik Bellowed. Why did Erik bellow this you ask….well…….

We were flipping channels and ended up on CSPAN. A republican representative from Colorado was giving a speech about borders…..and it caught our attention. Started out sorta normal…we need borders to protect this country…blah blah blah.

Basically the guy tried to relate Mexican immigration to over crowded national parks, traffic, and houses being built on the “open fields” of this country. After talking about increased border enforcement for 15 minutes, and only referring to Mexico, we were surprised when we heard him begin to talk about the Northern border…..that is until he said “and in the Northern Border we have problems as well. MUSLIMS are transporting drugs to America.”

Yes sirreee….gotta stop all those Mexicans illegally crossing the borders, rushing into our national parks, and then buying new homes. Ugh. The twisted logic goes beyond words.
Life in these United States.

Jeesh....my third entry today. I'm in high gear procrastination mode. But I guess as Eric said:

EricE823: well, as long as u're entertaining others; it's productive procrastination

Hey high school friend. Yes you….high school friend who is reading my blog but not IMing me……

Why don’t you just IM me to find out about my life rather then read this thing? Or…maybe even call me. Or…. even visit me! Yes, yes, I know this blog is deep, insightful, it makes you laugh, it makes you cry…but come on now…. I’d like to think that I’m better in real-time.

It’s been at least a month since I’ve seen most of you, weeks since most of us have talked. Ya, ya, it’s my fault too…..but hey now…I’m not the one reading this blog to see what’s up in my friend’s life. Ya. That’s right… I don’t read blogs (none of you have one) So I have to read often cryptic away messages such as “I'm sorry I missed you, I do hope you will forgive me” to see what you are up to without actually talking to you. Hehe.

But seriously, talk to me. If I’m away, leave a message saying hello. Let me know how you are doing. The time period when we were all in the “greater Mountain View” region during summer was short, and even during that period, the time we spent with each other was even shorter. Let’s not loose touch during this school year.

A discussion on the person sitting in front of me in the margin of Lauren's stat lecture notes last week:

Nick: Gross. He picked his nose. Nice Socks too. [ he had his sandles off and was exposing his holey socks by resting his feet on the seat in front of him.]
Lauren: He's hot.
Nick: I think he smells funny too.....does the premature graying hair make you horney?
Lauren: Of Course.

[guy proceeds to scrath off guck from his ear and the ponder the view of it in his fingers for a few minutes.]

*sigh*......life seems so strange sometimes....why things are, the way they are. Yes, I know....deep stuff for this funny lil blog....but I have mortality on my mind right now. I just found out one of my grandparent's best friend's, one I know pretty well, has been given two weeks to live. Cancer.

So....it's weird to think about that situation.....cause it's not that rare at all. And sure you hear about the miracle stories where people ended up recovering (my uncle Mike for instance)....but a lot of times they just don't.

So here we are in our late teens and early 20s...livin it up. We all hope to live a long healthy life......but when I see my grandparents, it's hard to think that someday, god willing, like them....we'll live to slowly see our friends and family pass on. A very sobering thought.

That's the rollercoaster of life I guess. Just gotta take it for what it is, and try to enjoy the ride. Hopefully near the end, you won't be so much sad that it's over.....but happy that you were even able to take the journey in the first place. I think that's my greatest wish for my life, to be happy with it when all I can do is look back.

Now.....back to my stats homework.

My brother Chris is cool. Just got this on my away message:

Shortstd9: There is nothing better than reading "and Nick bellows"!
Shortstd9: it feels like your right at home! :-D
Shortstd9: its really good stuff

He should be my PR person. Go A's! Go Bears! Ah, and for those of you who don't read my friend Kat's Blog, here's an entry I wanted to share with you:

Last night at the A's game:

Kat: Woohoo! Yeah!
Nick: Your "Yeah" adds so much emphasis.
(next good play)
Kat: Woohoo! Yeah!
Nick: Yeah!
Kat: Nono, YEAH!
Nick: Yeeah!
Kat: Nono...
Nick: Si!
Kat: YEAH!
Nick: Si!
Kat: Yeah!
Nick: Si!
Kat: Si!
Nick: Yeah!
Kat: Haha...

Played Cranium tonight. Candice even came up! As her away message says: "change of plans: at La Loma... can't resist those Mountain View men" What can I say? The charm of my hometown flows through my Mexican-Portuguese blood.

So anyways....Cranium. My team won! Nothing can defeat the power of an Architecture Major who draws like mad, an English Major who knows what a gaffer is and some very enthusiastic freshmen, one who does an excellent impression of the Eiffel Tower. But as Stephanie so eloquently said at lunch today: "Fuck those Humdingers!"

At the barbershop a few weeks ago:

[the scene] Me sitting in the chair of a Vietnamese barber with a very heavy accent and a tendency to not give the greatest hair cuts. My dad pleaded with me to go first so he could get another barber....I'm such a great son. Then this dialogue occurs:

Other Barber: [to Vietnamese Barber] Hey, when were you born?
Vietnamese Barber: Oh yes...ah....1955.
Other Barber: Huh..so when you were living over in Vietnam I was over there killing your people.
Vietnamese Barber: Hahaha. Yes that is right. I was there during war.

Vietnamese Barber: [to me] war very bad. yes. you know?
Me: A huh...ya war is bad.
Vietnamese Barber: Yes, war kill people. you know? The B-52s, they bomb us. I sawww. I did. Yes.
Me: Wow..that's.....
Vietnamese Barber: Yes, my brother.....he DIE in the war. Many relatives die. Is awful! Hahaha! [begins laughing]
Me: [getting uncomfortable] wow...that's awful. you must have been through a...
Vietnamese Barber: [still laughing] You know, intestines fall out...arms flying off. I saw that. Yes. Hahaha! It's bad. war is not good you know? Hahaha!
Me: Ya...war is bad.

Ling: Haircut is an art. You know?
Me: Ya....
Ling: [pulls out mirror] Here look....you like this yes?
Me: Ummmm. Ya [ feeling too guilty to say anything.....but notices that the hair on the back of my head is longer than any other part.]

My dad ended up coming over when he saw the hair cut I had...and asked the barber to cut my hair shorter. It took some convincing but he did. Problem is that he cut it too short.....it's taken two weeks before the hair on the back has become long enough to comb down.

Well...today (err....yesterday) just plain sucked. Not only was I quoted in a very biased piece of journalistic slop published by the San Jose Mercury News on the historic house I am trying so hard to save back in Mtn. View, but it was so damn hot today......argh. At least this room is well ventilated.

Oh and get this......at midnight an e-mail was sent to everyone from my City Planning 110 prof regarding the paper due tomorrow at 2pm. He wanted to offer those of us doing last minute work some advice........I finished the paper last week, and his recommendations go against the layout of my entire paper. Jeesh.....I'm not going to change it unless he e-mails me back between now and 2pm tomorrow.

......What a nice way to end a perfect day. I hope Friday is better.

How would you feel after working on a project for days and endless hours..... and then ....during a FOUR HOUR REVIEW not getting any comments at all....positive or negative. In fact, having your project (one that you were actually proud of) completely ignored until the end of the class when you approach the professor and have to milk him for comments. Ok...so the comments I did get were encouraging....but minimal. Nothing like being ignored to make your hard work and effort feel pointless.

This all reminds me of a.....

Dissapointing memory from Grade School!

Disappointing Memory #2
The scene: Miss Semen's (harhar) 1st Grade Class

Miss Semen: All right class....leave your drawings on your desk and I'll hang them up by tomorrow!
1st Grade Nick [Proudly leaves his waaay better then the average 1st grader drawing of a dinosaur or a forest or something great like that on his desk]

-the next morning-
1st Grade Nick: [walks into classroom and desperately scans the walls for his drawing. Not up there, instead remains in a pile of drawings not put up on Miss Semen's desk]
Miss Semen: [to class] There wasn't enough room to put all your drawings up this time, but for everyone who's drawing isn't up...I promise I'll put it up next time...

Ouch.

A's game tonight with the whole gang. Compared to the rest of this week, Thursday and Friday are a going to be a breeze. So in that case, let the weekend begin! Woohoo!