....

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return"

Unconditionally, though.

Wheeee

Anticipation and hope are building, on more than one level.

I am a fortune cookie.

Jack's Lament

Happy Halloween.



But who here would ever understand
That the Pumpkin King with the skeleton grin
Would tire of his crown, if they only understood
He'd give it all up if he only could

Oh, there's an empty place in my bones
That calls out for something unknown
The fame and praise come year after year
Does nothing for these empty tears

Yum. Roasted Duck.

I have never....

...NEVER.....

....seen Memorial Stadium like the way it was on Saturday night!

If you caught the game on TV, maybe you have an idea. The sold out crowd of 72,516 fans rocked that old stadium from a half hour *before* kick-off until the clock wound down to 0:00.

Of course, the team did their part to keep us all happy and pumped. But the crowd really stepped up. For those of you at the USC game where we went into triple over-time and won...well, it was kind of like that...but for the whole damn game.

The student section, when Oregon had the ball, just never stopped. The blue zone, the gold zone, and even the old farts on the shady side got up off their feet and yelled their hearts out on every third down.

It was amazing.

And then, to have Cal's newest nobel prize win, Professor Smoot, recieve standing ovations when he walked on the field, and lead the entire stadium in some cheers...well it just made me feel really proud to be a graduate of a university that really has it all. :-D

Go Bears!!!

--------------------Favorite Quotes from the Newpapers--------------------------

Cal Roasts Ducks
Associated Press

"Tedford has turned Cal into a football power - but it's still Cal. Cosmologist George F. Smoot, who won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday, was introduced before the game to the cheering student section, which chanted "Nobel Prize! Nobel Prize!"

Golden Touch
San Jose Mercury News

"This was all about nerve-tingling, trumpet-blaring bigness. Serious bigness. Undeniable bigness.

Everything about Cal's raucous 45-24 victory over Oregon was painted in fluorescent colors and shouted at jet-engine decibels. Every play arrived with the force of nearby thunder.

Nothing was small at a sold out Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Everything that happened was goliath, oversized, mega-meaningful.

``Well, it was huge,'' Coach Jeff Tedford said with a beautiful smile after the trouncing was complete. ``It was big.''

Cal's resounding win helped by a loud crowd
San Jose Mercury News

"The ground has yet to be broken for the planned renovation, yet this was the new Memorial Stadium on Saturday night.

Cal Coach Jeff Tedford had challenged the fans to make the house a hostile environment. A sold-out crowd of 72,516 answered the call.

``It was like a rock concert out there,'' Tedford said after the Bears' 45-24 victory over Oregon. ``I love it. It was kind of like payback out there, because everywhere we go, we run into that.''

Thirty minutes before the scheduled 5 p.m. kickoff, the crowd was rocking the stadium. The program had enlisted some to carry signs that cried out for ``NOISE.'' The replay in the stadium urged the fans to rock out, and Cal's defensive players waved their arms for a crescendo."

Oregon isn't ready for the big time yet
Oregon Register-Guard

Saturday evening, Tedford got what he wanted from just the fourth Cal sellout for an opponent other than Stanford in the past 50 years - an unrelenting noise. "When you get a crowd excited, it can be a tremendous help," Bellotti said. "Sometimes there hasn't been a crowd here. There have been more Duck fans than other people."

As an experience, this game was reminiscent of those Oregon-Washington games in the mid-1990s, when Oregon, up-and-coming, finally had some success against the Huskies, the program it so dearly wanted to match and surpass. Saturday, California, a football program modeled in so many ways on Oregon's, had the louder uniforms, the fuller stadium, the faster and more explosive offense, the hungrier team, and the better team."

This Time, it's Cal that makes the Fashion Statement
The Oregonian

"The Ducks obviously didn't keep the crowd out of the game, either. A record 72,516 fans loudly answered coach Jeff Tedford's pleas to make Memorial Stadium a noisy place. They did that and briefly broke into an "overrated" chorus in the fourth quarter."

Bears too smart, too tough
The Oregonian

"A t halftime, the California student section used colored cards to put together a little vignette that began with a duck in flight, changed to a shotgun blasting the duck out of the air and concluded with the duck being served on a platter.

Smart kids, those Cal students. In three minutes, they described the game.

Cal brought a 12-gauge, Oregon a popgun."

......

Cal could be nation's No. 2 team
The Sporting News

"There goes that damn cannon again.

BOOM!

It's up there, perched on a hill outside Cal's Memorial Stadium. But fans don't mind. Heck, no. The loud echo through Strawberry Canyon makes this zany and brainy crowd giddy because it signals a Golden Bear score.

BOOM!

See, there it goes again. And so it went on this night during a -- What else? -- thunderous 45-24 Cal victory over Oregon. It was a showdown that would determine who is the second-best team in the Pac-10. But, who am I kidding? Given another unimpressive USC win (this time over Washington), this was a showdown to determine who was the best team in the Pac-10.

And it wasn't even close. It's Cal.

Go ahead, pull the string on that cannon again.

BOOM!

---------------------------------------

Boom! :-)


Bear Territory Cheer: Featuring Dan, Morgan, and Yours Truly:

Ahem...

Hello.

Is this thing on?

Good.

::clears throat::

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

::cough::

Thank you.

Oh You Tube...

I'm addicted to You Tube. I keep looking up music videos or clips from musicals that I haven't seen in a long time.

::::major Nick is a dork alert warning::::

So.... if you don't have any pre-teens in your life you probably have not seen High School Musical. I'm pretty sure I would have loved it if I was still in its target audience. But this little clip here is pretty damn good for a made-for-tv-musical:

Stick to the Status Quo:



I wish *I* had the guts to get involved in my high school's musicals. Doh. ;-)

Busy, Bored, & Easily Distracted

Random blurbs in lieu of a well-thought out post:

-The Book. Sitting in front of the Jehning Family Lock Museum, meeting people, and signing some books, reminded me yet again that Mountain View is ever-so-pleasant town filled with friendly, unpretentious people. No wonder I often get so frustrated with the atmosphere in the city of Berkeley.

-Cal football. Hrmmm. Don't know what to think. Still burning from that Tennessee game. The past two home games have been alright (can't complain about two W's) but I'm nervously awaiting the start of Pac-10 conference play. Then we'll see this team's true colors. One positive, it sounds like the crowd is getting loud much more effectively and more often. When we start playing rivals in close games, it could get really fun! Oh, and I don't care what other people say. I *liked* the team's new gold pants.

-Stanford Football. Hah. HAHAHAHA. Haha. Ha. Actually, I feel bad for them and want them to be good enough to make the rivalry fun. It's so sad that their team couldn't draw a sell-out crowd to the grand opening over their tiny new stadium.

-College friends. Eric E. randomly flew up to Berkeley to come to the game this weekend. Kay met up with me, Eric, and Dan after for dinner. That was nice. It's been a while. I wouldn't be surprised if the next time a bunch of the college gang is together is at Erik and Lesley's wedding. All the more reason to celebrate, but here's hoping I see more of you more often and sooner than that. Or else Lauren will get even more bitter. ;-)

-My roommates. The house is in order. Alex and Chris are good people. Dan's still Dan. We're having fun. It'll be a good year, and I'll be sad to leave once it ends.

-City Planning. Yeah. I've been on this career track since I was in 7th grade. What if I get bored with telling people to widen sidewalks and add street trees? As graduation approaches, I've spent a lot of time pondering what type of job will really make me happy. City Planning is such a broad field, where do I fit in? Time will tell, I guess. I'm slightly less motivated than I used to be, but honestly, I still think that's a good thing.

-Social life. I try to have fun, and often succeed, but at the end of the night its tough and tiring to be single. Nuff' said.

-Spinach. Just when I started to like it....

-Project Runway. Kinda boring this season, but still a great way to waste time on Wednesday night if I'm not stuck in some late Downtown Berkeley meeting.

-Swimming. I went from being in the fastest lane to the slowest lane by moving up to the highest level of Swimming PE. But hey, it's keeping me in good shape. Nevertheless, the RSF and I need to get back in touch sometime soon.

-Facebook. That mini-feed was creepy. Privacy controls are good. But there are some people who didn't change their settings so now when I sign in I'm greeted with a detailed account of every move they've made in the past few days. Annoying. I don't want to know, but can't help reading it.

-House Party. When to have one?

-Halloween. What to do, what to do?

-Shopping. I need some new threads.

-Bed. When to go? How about right....now.

Goodnight.

In the Wake of the Week

Hello again, Monday.

The first week of classes and the long weekend have flown by. Classes were fine, but the combination of getting back into the habit of school while also working 19+ hours for the City of Bezerkeley was too much to handle. I'm glad I'm going down to 12 hours tops. And if the week was tough, the weekend didn't bring much relief.

I made my way to the Bear's Lair with dozens of other Cal fans pumped to finally see our #9 ranked Golden Bears in action. Everyone expected a close fought, exciting game. Instead what we saw was our ass handed to us on a big bright Tennessee-orange platter. Morgan, Dan, and the City Planners with season tickets watched in disbelief as Tennessee dismantled California. My parents, who drove up to Berkeley to watch the game, made the wise choice of leaving after Tennessee's first couple of touchdowns.

It was a nasty and brutal beating on the biggest stage that Cal has ever played on in most people's lifetimes. It made our fans look foolish for even daring to hope to see the team rise to national prominence and it made the Pac10 look weak. Now, even if we blow through the Pac10 conference and win every game, the pundits will just say it was because it's an easy conference. Ugh, they might be right. And that's what sucks the most.

BUT, my ring tone is still set to play Big C, I'll still cheer for the Bears when they play Minnesota at home next week, and hope springs eternal for that magical Rose Bowl bid. Ah, the life of a Cal fan is so trying.

After picking up the pieces of my shattered blue and gold heart, I tried to make the best of the rest of the weekend. I took full advantage of 24-hour BART on Friday (friend's art gallery showing), Saturday (clubbing), and Sunday (Ian's birthday party in the Mission) . Each night had it's memorable moments, but nothing fantastic. The 24-Hour BART was not as fun as it was last time. The whole weekend has pretty much left me just as exhausted as the week did.

On the bright side, I have a feeling this week and weekend will go a lot better. My classes seem to be a good mix and I'm actually looking forward to delving in to some of my assignments. And even if school wears me out, before I know it, Thursday will roll in, happy hours will be happening, parties on Friday, and Cal football will return to Memorial Stadium. Even if the game's a stinker, it'll be fun to take a new crop of people to their first game. And boy, am I'm eager to see some action on the field. In more ways than one. ;-)

I'm Saving the World

Profound message from Lauren:

l p r o f e i t: you know what i realized today? that every time you and i start a new phase of school, a national disaster occurs. we started undergrad, and we had 9/11. we started grad school, and we had hurricane katrina. i'm thinking you and i should stop here. it's in the best interests of the country.

Auto response from Nap98: wooowheee:
9:30 - 11: CP113
11-3: Work
3-4: Swimming
4-6: Rest
6-9: Seminar
```````````````````````````````
...the world can rest easy, unless we ever get our PHDs

OskiWOWOW!

l p r o f e i t: yay!! SIX days!!

Auto response from Nap98: 6 days, and counting. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.

l p r o f e i t: but instead of santa, it's tedford that we want to give us presents

....so exciting.

Done Jumping Around, Back in Town

With the exception of 2.5 days back in Berkeley to put in some work hours last week, I've pretty much been out of town and traveling non-stop since the end of July. Finally back at home, tired but happy. Lot's to write here, a few cool photos and plenty of great memories to share, but they'll have to wait a bit.

I'll just briefly say that visiting Lauren Rath and co. in Minnesota was awesome.

Uneventful

Not much has happened since I last wrote in this blog.

I went to the beach a couple times...

I went to San Francisco more than a couple times....

Kat and BJ got engaged...

Erik and Lesley got engaged. ...

I was asked to be Erik's best man..

My book was published, and I walked into Books Inc. in Downtown Mountain View and there it is in a special stand right next to the register....

Yeah, life's pretty uneventful right now ;-)

All Day Music

Summer.

It feels refreshing, and new.

I don't feel lazy. I don't feel lethargic. I also don't feel over-worked. Somehow, I think I struck a balance. Be warned, this post is going to be disgustingly positive....but perhaps a welcome change from some previous posts I suppose.

I keep having these little moments where everything seems right in the world. I love it.

-Relaxing in a hammock back in Mountain View, with the sun filtering through our fruitless mulberry trees, bright blue skies above, Snickers running around the yard, a slight breeze swinging me back and forth, and the sound of Mexican music drifting from my grandparents' house next door.

-Drinking a glass of wine on Jacob's balcony, chatting with friends. Listening and watching the street life on Euclid Avenue pass by from behind his blinds.

-Reading. For fun! Just plopping down on the grass next to a Redwood tree in Willard Park, reading the Kiterunner while Chris Atwood reads and enjoys an It's-It Ice-Cream I had been saving for him (his first one ever).

-Driving down to LA with Dan, meeting up with everyone I wanted to meet, seeing everything I wanted to see. Swimming in the ocean down in Carlsbad and just feeling so happy and smiling and laughing so much because it'd been so long since I'd actually swam in ocean water, it took me back to childhood days of body surfing and boogie boarding.

-Getting an excited call from my Mom, saying that she's decided that my Mountain View book party will have a "fiesta" theme. Loving my Mom for getting all excited about the book, and the party, and being as cheesy as I am sometimes.

-Spending time with Matt, Kim, and Melissa last week. Matt and Kim especially, because every time I see them or receive comments, notes, or emails from them and my other high school folks, I'm reminded how lucky I am to have made and kept such a great group of friends for so long.

-Seeing Lauren Rath for the first time in nearly a year, and spending the day with her and her boyfriend in San Francisco on Monday. A year had passed since we last saw each other, and her return confirmed what I always thought to be true...Lauren is the special type of friend that you can just fall back into a pattern of friendship with, no matter how long it's been since you've seen or talked to each other. You just see each other and are so excited to be in each others company. I'm so happy to have that.

And now, I also have a few things to keep my fingers crossed about, and things to look forward to. The Summer is just beginning.

Random Thoughts

I'm sitting here on my bed with a slight allergy-induced headache and a copy of Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. I was supposed to read the book two days ago for my planning dept's book club. When the book gets boring, I stare at this screen, checking if someone worth chatting with has signed on to AIM. Or, I glance over at my cell to see if anyone called our texted.

Nope.

Alice 97.3 is playing the background. Currently a Dave Matthews song. Commercials keep reminding me that the station is hosting a big free concert in Golden Gate Park on Saturday that I'm going to miss because I'll be in a car somewhere in Southern California with Dan. Lauren and Jen (and I'm guessing Matt and Kim) are all going. I'm sad I'm missing out even though I'm looking forward to seeing the Socal undergrad gang. The prospect of being in the car for half the weekend is a downer. I wish we could leave earlier, I don't have any plans for tomorrow, but Dan won't get off work until 5pm.

Right now though, I need to figure out what to do with my evening. Haven't had dinner. Don't have anyone to eat dinner with. Don't want to "cook." What else is new?

I could go to happy hour at The Graduate with some of the first year planners, but beer and talk about politics and suburbia doesn't sound that appleaing at the moment. Dan's over in the living room, watching the NBA finals. I was shocked to find out that they're still playing basketball. In my silly world, basketball season ended with March madness.

Anyone I'd actually feel compelled to call to spend time with, is not around at the moment.

So I'm left to ponder my life. Ponder ponder ponder. And all that makes me want to do is

*sigh*

Mass Transit

I just want to say that 24 hour BART from the City to the East Bay is a beautiful, life-affirming, community-building activity. And it's a damn shame that it only happens when the Bay Bridge is closed for construction. Yep!

When the Going Gets Tough...

I'm all about silly traditions, and one tradition in this blog is that whenever there's a blip in my life a lyric from Jimmy usually gets posted on here.

They've yet to write a song to fit well with the mood I'm in right now.

The Evolution of Dance

I want to learn his routine ;-)

Comings & Goings

I am perhaps too tired, and the work load of this semester is not quite over enough for me to write this post. But the moment will soon pass, and then I won't want to write it, so I'll give it a go.

It's quite boggling to think it's been a year since I was, literally, a few doors away from this very house I'm living in now, walking around Southside with Lauren, Ryan, Shanna, and Steph partying at my friend Liz and Paul's house and then hitting up every bar on Southside to celebrate our last day of classes at Cal (as undergrads, in my special case).

It was the night Lauren and I both remember for being scared we might get arrested. The cops were checking in on Liz and Paul's party so we walked around the corner and waited it out. One of them found us because Shanna had fallen onto the sidewalk and was just laying there. Nothing was wrong, she just wanted a rest. The cop came out of the car to ask us if we knew where we were going. He was just checking up on us, but me, Lauren, and Shanna all thought we were about to get arrested for being drunk in public (haha). Shanna quickly got up, we told him we were going to Northside and Lauren I think repeated our address 2 or 3 times *just* so he'd know for sure we knew where we were going.

We didn't go home. We went back to the party. Then we went to Henry's and partied with the other seniors until last call, drinking cheap Long Islands.

Special times.

And boom. It's already a year later. I was in studio till 1:00am tonight, and on my walk home I saw groups of students, much like us a year ago, wandering around being stupid on Southside. The sound of parties drifted out from numerous apartments and houses the entire walk home, and in the windows you could see groups of friends hanging out and talking.

People are constantly coming and going from this town. It's always in flux. Entire communities and networks of friends are constantly forming and breaking up every year. It's pretty amazing and more than a little bittersweet. It's like life, but condensed.

Todos Somos Una Voz

I feel bad that I did not, in any way support the events which occurred yesterday across the country. I even bought lunch and dinner after meaning to support the boycott. I'm a bad, bad, half-Latino.

I would have very much liked to have been here with some of my family, packing the Civic Center Plaza in Downtown Mountain View:

Credit: Steve Parkinson

I love this photo. I can, from now on, use it as a tool to describe how Mountain View is different than say, Palo Alto, or Sunnyvale, or Los Altos. Something like this just wouldn't happen in those other cities, and it's quite a remarkable assemblage of people for a city of only 70,000.

I often joke about how un-Latino I am, especially after failing miserably when it comes to dancing at club's Latin nights. Deep down, I feel a certain degree of disconnection on a lot of levels: I'm mixed, I don't speak Spanish, I'm a third-generation native, and my socio-economic background is different from the vast majority of the people out there protesting yesterday.

But at the same time, I do feel connected. Half of my family can trace its roots here to my great-grandparents crossing the Rio Grande during the Mexican Revolution. I know my family's history well, and I know that we're not very far removed from the people that will be impacted by new immigration legislation.

I'm truly amazed by what is happening and very hopeful about the long-term outcome of such a widespread and peaceful movement. I've spent the afternoon watching videos and photos from the various protests, especially San Jose's...where between 50,000 and 100,000 people marched down Alum Rock/Santa Clara Street into Downtown San Jose. There's a lot of joy there, a lot of hope. A bunch of e-mails went out to my family's list about the rallies happening in San Jose and Mountain View and who was attending which. I'm proud that some of my family members were able to represent us at both rallies.

Es hora de reconocer que

Todos somos una voz

Abraza el concepto

Venimos de las misma voz.

It is the hour of recognizing

That we are all one voice

Embrance the concept

We come from the same voice.

[migra - santana]

Long Day, Funny Article

I got up at 8:00. I was in class by 9:00am. I was either at work, working, or in class until 12:45am.

Gah!

Anyhow, for those of you who are/were a fan of the OC, this is a funny article:

Latest 'O.C.' drama revolves around UC

Excerpt:

"LAST WEEK'S episode of television's uber-trendy "The O.C." was greeted by derisive laughter as tens of thousands of California teenagers and UC Berkeley grads watched Marissa Cooper stroll the Cal campus as a newly admitted freshman-to-be.

OK, it wasn't actually Cal, but how, they asked themselves, could Cal admit the gorgeous young drama queen, even fictitiously? Like, did she even go to class?

"As a Berkeley rejectee myself," one irate viewer said in a posting on the TelevisionWithoutPity.com discussion boards, "it just sucks seeing that Marissa got into Berkeley and I didn't."

-Contra Costa Times