that was a pretty cool weekend.
i wish it were still the weekend.
migblog
10.25.2004
10.22.2004
in the history of absurd thursdays, this has to top many, many thursdays.
morning with jon at starbucks is always fun -- despite the construction on center street, it's one of the most relaxing places to sit and one of the more interesting places to people-watch.
i headed to yet another superb lecture by professor roy, this time on squatting politics and homelessness in the debate over housing and claims to the city. (i swear, if i had taken cp 115 earlier in my college career, i would be trying my darndest to get in the college of environmental design to declare my urban studies major.)
and after that, after saying "fuck you" to my comparative historics section, kat, brian and i went to the berkeley art museum to view the byron kim exhibit (check it out if you can, but if you're not, here's the link) and to view a little bit of the new installations in the rotating turning corners galleries.
then there was rehearsal, and then there was free t-shirts at rehearsal. yay marketing.
then there was pizza, and then kat and i decided to ditch the movie because the asuc superb girls were being major nazi bitches with the ticketing, so we hung out outside of wheeler trying to figure out who was doing something on thursday night.
jdlp was having gay night, david was out with his dorm friends, alison and ling were in the movie. and then zack bruno happened upon us as he walked out of the berkeley college republicans meeting, and then the three of us were magically whisked away to westminster house.
upon arrival at the gates of college and bancroft, we were met with the workings of one dj michael levinson carving a pumpkin with the shocker on it.
eventually 9.20 rolled around and zack brought up the possibility of broomball.
flashback to that afternoon, when brian, on a whim, invited me and kat to a broomball game between hkn, the eecs (electrical engineering and computer science) honor society, and upe, the computer science honor society. i totally thought brian was just kidding, but when zack brought it up, my eyes went wide.
"you don't mean the one with the eecs geeks and the cs kids, do you?"
"mining circle. let's go."
and so kat, bruno, rohan, tor and i headed to the mining circle and departed for the oakland ice arena and played some hella broomball. and might i say, tor OWNED. (imagine this: forty-some asian kids. a handful (literally, sadly enough) of girls. knowing in the back of your head that their gpa's are so freaking high and that they probably don't watch tv. red and blue "broomsticks." two broomballs, duct-taped. lots of karate screaming. random music. ice. and best of all, no one knowing that you're not a cs major.)
it was pretty cool, too, seeing noaa there. at first she thought it wasn't me ("you're not eecs, are you?"), and then she tactfully asked for my name and then it was "oh my god yeah we totally had fun at chappy's party! i drove you home!"
after the broomballness brian's car headed over to nation's on san pablo and we proceeded to be fatties with out chili cheese fries and shakes. (they were out of tarts, but man, that cheesecake looked so good.)
as soon as i got home (mind you, this is around two in the morning) i worked on a problem set that was due this morning at ten, and as soon as i finished i crashed so soundly on my bed.
random thursdays are awesome.
morning with jon at starbucks is always fun -- despite the construction on center street, it's one of the most relaxing places to sit and one of the more interesting places to people-watch.
i headed to yet another superb lecture by professor roy, this time on squatting politics and homelessness in the debate over housing and claims to the city. (i swear, if i had taken cp 115 earlier in my college career, i would be trying my darndest to get in the college of environmental design to declare my urban studies major.)
and after that, after saying "fuck you" to my comparative historics section, kat, brian and i went to the berkeley art museum to view the byron kim exhibit (check it out if you can, but if you're not, here's the link) and to view a little bit of the new installations in the rotating turning corners galleries.
then there was rehearsal, and then there was free t-shirts at rehearsal. yay marketing.
then there was pizza, and then kat and i decided to ditch the movie because the asuc superb girls were being major nazi bitches with the ticketing, so we hung out outside of wheeler trying to figure out who was doing something on thursday night.
jdlp was having gay night, david was out with his dorm friends, alison and ling were in the movie. and then zack bruno happened upon us as he walked out of the berkeley college republicans meeting, and then the three of us were magically whisked away to westminster house.
upon arrival at the gates of college and bancroft, we were met with the workings of one dj michael levinson carving a pumpkin with the shocker on it.
eventually 9.20 rolled around and zack brought up the possibility of broomball.
flashback to that afternoon, when brian, on a whim, invited me and kat to a broomball game between hkn, the eecs (electrical engineering and computer science) honor society, and upe, the computer science honor society. i totally thought brian was just kidding, but when zack brought it up, my eyes went wide.
"you don't mean the one with the eecs geeks and the cs kids, do you?"
"mining circle. let's go."
and so kat, bruno, rohan, tor and i headed to the mining circle and departed for the oakland ice arena and played some hella broomball. and might i say, tor OWNED. (imagine this: forty-some asian kids. a handful (literally, sadly enough) of girls. knowing in the back of your head that their gpa's are so freaking high and that they probably don't watch tv. red and blue "broomsticks." two broomballs, duct-taped. lots of karate screaming. random music. ice. and best of all, no one knowing that you're not a cs major.)
it was pretty cool, too, seeing noaa there. at first she thought it wasn't me ("you're not eecs, are you?"), and then she tactfully asked for my name and then it was "oh my god yeah we totally had fun at chappy's party! i drove you home!"
after the broomballness brian's car headed over to nation's on san pablo and we proceeded to be fatties with out chili cheese fries and shakes. (they were out of tarts, but man, that cheesecake looked so good.)
as soon as i got home (mind you, this is around two in the morning) i worked on a problem set that was due this morning at ten, and as soon as i finished i crashed so soundly on my bed.
random thursdays are awesome.
10.19.2004
on the in-class movie, on borrowed land about the squatters in manila (city and regional planning 115):
the movie in-class today struck a particular chord in me because of just how seemingly unchanged the operations in the philippines have been in the very recent past. i myself was born and lived in the philippines for twelve years -- a good three-fifths of my life, and was forced almost daily to deal with these incidences, these confrontations of class distinctions as a member of the lower middle class.
the part in the movie that struck me the most was the dialogue about the gsis building and the philippine film center -- growing up in manila, it was almost taboo to talk about those structures without offending anybody because there was an almost sacred reverence for the place after the accidents occured. as far as I know, those buildings are still abandoned, the only one in use being the philippine cultural center a few blocks away.
i grew up in the northern part of the national capital region in a district called kalookan, one principality over from tondo (one of the larger squatting districts outside of the city center). it was an eye-opener, especially as a child and then again as a visitor, to see the squatting population grow yet somehow remain so stagnant in the social ladder. in the pecking order of things, even we, the people who owned homes outside of the nearby gated communities, could afford to have a maid or a laundress and therefore could afford to snub the poor, the people who would urinate on the streets and sell their tabloids to us while the middle class sat idly in our cars, pretending not to notice.
tt hit home when they showed shots of smokey mountain -- I would have to pass it everyday on my way to school, a private jesuit school in the middle of quezon city near the newly-established condominium housing minutes away from the rich gated communities -- and to hear about it recently in the news, about how the monsoon season would send flash floods and destroy more "homes" and kill more innocent lives.
this still goes on. the last time I visited the philippines, it became even more glaring the disparity between the rich and the poor, the privileged and the underprivileged. in the context of people power -- the most recent one being the ousting of joseph estrada from the presidency a little over three years ago -- there are even more raised hopes, higher expectations, and with those, larger disappointments and more failed promises as the government tries to gain parity in economic and social responsibility.
i vividly remember seeing these events in the news during a time when manila was poised to be the new "tiger" of the asian economy. it all led to a disappointing economic dip -- i remember when the dollar traded twenty-three pesos, and now, it trades fifty-four -- and an even more devastating blow to the hopes of the urban poor.
i haven't been back to the philippines in nearly five years, but despite the seeming datedness of the movie it all is still so relevant, a little too fresh in my mind.
i would have to say I'm one of the lucky ones.
the movie in-class today struck a particular chord in me because of just how seemingly unchanged the operations in the philippines have been in the very recent past. i myself was born and lived in the philippines for twelve years -- a good three-fifths of my life, and was forced almost daily to deal with these incidences, these confrontations of class distinctions as a member of the lower middle class.
the part in the movie that struck me the most was the dialogue about the gsis building and the philippine film center -- growing up in manila, it was almost taboo to talk about those structures without offending anybody because there was an almost sacred reverence for the place after the accidents occured. as far as I know, those buildings are still abandoned, the only one in use being the philippine cultural center a few blocks away.
i grew up in the northern part of the national capital region in a district called kalookan, one principality over from tondo (one of the larger squatting districts outside of the city center). it was an eye-opener, especially as a child and then again as a visitor, to see the squatting population grow yet somehow remain so stagnant in the social ladder. in the pecking order of things, even we, the people who owned homes outside of the nearby gated communities, could afford to have a maid or a laundress and therefore could afford to snub the poor, the people who would urinate on the streets and sell their tabloids to us while the middle class sat idly in our cars, pretending not to notice.
tt hit home when they showed shots of smokey mountain -- I would have to pass it everyday on my way to school, a private jesuit school in the middle of quezon city near the newly-established condominium housing minutes away from the rich gated communities -- and to hear about it recently in the news, about how the monsoon season would send flash floods and destroy more "homes" and kill more innocent lives.
this still goes on. the last time I visited the philippines, it became even more glaring the disparity between the rich and the poor, the privileged and the underprivileged. in the context of people power -- the most recent one being the ousting of joseph estrada from the presidency a little over three years ago -- there are even more raised hopes, higher expectations, and with those, larger disappointments and more failed promises as the government tries to gain parity in economic and social responsibility.
i vividly remember seeing these events in the news during a time when manila was poised to be the new "tiger" of the asian economy. it all led to a disappointing economic dip -- i remember when the dollar traded twenty-three pesos, and now, it trades fifty-four -- and an even more devastating blow to the hopes of the urban poor.
i haven't been back to the philippines in nearly five years, but despite the seeming datedness of the movie it all is still so relevant, a little too fresh in my mind.
i would have to say I'm one of the lucky ones.
10.16.2004
according to sports illustrated, we "manhandled" ucla. i think we did a pretty good job "handling men" when we beat them 45-28 today.
the weather was perfect -- not much sun, and the game was late, too. rehearsals went by fine, and there was an air of "we better get this done and done well because goddammit, we can't let a silly southern extension branch win against us again."
ucla sure ate our shorts. in the first three minutes of the game, we scored a touchdown, and the momentum from there gave us a victory.
in the span of things, the ucla band looked and sounded awesome, and so ad-comm gave them lots and lots of food and we gave the saxophones lots and lots of goodies. (hope you kids enjoyed your goodies!) they were great, congenial. problem was though, i could barely talk to my friends because apparently gordon said that berkeley kids were rowdy and vicious.
we're not, i promise. i mean, we gave you goodies!
on our way back after giving said goodies, the football team made an amazing touchdown (imagine my viewpoint when rodgers throws mcarthur that football and lands perfectly in that blue endzone. it was awesome!). all of a sudden a drunk ucla frat boy decides to yell at us, calling all of us passing by "a bunch of little asian faggots" -- something especially hilarious in the context that there were two white people and dayo on our side -- so i decided to retort with "best safety school ever!"
their cheerleaders were so offended. "you're just jealous you're not in los angeles!"
"i'm FROM los angeles!"
miguel: one, safety school: zero.
i heart home games. the slump i was feeling was probably just that -- forgetting about everything for a day and just cheering on a nationally-ranked, respected football team.
speaking of which, there was a pretty funny crazy black guy who decided to preach to the cal band at the end of march-down. we all responded with well-timed "hallelujahs" and "amen brothers" that it turned out to be something necessarily funny.
it is time to celebrate.
we like to party. we like, we like to party.
the weather was perfect -- not much sun, and the game was late, too. rehearsals went by fine, and there was an air of "we better get this done and done well because goddammit, we can't let a silly southern extension branch win against us again."
ucla sure ate our shorts. in the first three minutes of the game, we scored a touchdown, and the momentum from there gave us a victory.
in the span of things, the ucla band looked and sounded awesome, and so ad-comm gave them lots and lots of food and we gave the saxophones lots and lots of goodies. (hope you kids enjoyed your goodies!) they were great, congenial. problem was though, i could barely talk to my friends because apparently gordon said that berkeley kids were rowdy and vicious.
we're not, i promise. i mean, we gave you goodies!
on our way back after giving said goodies, the football team made an amazing touchdown (imagine my viewpoint when rodgers throws mcarthur that football and lands perfectly in that blue endzone. it was awesome!). all of a sudden a drunk ucla frat boy decides to yell at us, calling all of us passing by "a bunch of little asian faggots" -- something especially hilarious in the context that there were two white people and dayo on our side -- so i decided to retort with "best safety school ever!"
their cheerleaders were so offended. "you're just jealous you're not in los angeles!"
"i'm FROM los angeles!"
miguel: one, safety school: zero.
i heart home games. the slump i was feeling was probably just that -- forgetting about everything for a day and just cheering on a nationally-ranked, respected football team.
speaking of which, there was a pretty funny crazy black guy who decided to preach to the cal band at the end of march-down. we all responded with well-timed "hallelujahs" and "amen brothers" that it turned out to be something necessarily funny.
it is time to celebrate.
we like to party. we like, we like to party.
10.14.2004
easiest midterm i ever took. took all of thirty minutes. and i'm sure i got everything right.
go bears. beat the midterms.
go bears. beat the midterms.
10.12.2004
long weekend, and boy, was it a long weekend.
my midterm on friday wasn't as bad as i expected it to be, but the best part was running from giannini hall back to my apartment to pack and eat lunch and still be on time to catch the late bus down to socal.
i finished my boone's before fulton. (mind you, we've just gone one block on bancroft.)
the whole weekend was long -- went on a terribly long bus ride to hollywood, got to the hollywood metropolitan hotel at one, got up four hours later, rehearsed for two hours at ucla, went to the coliseum, played for a long time, got beat by u$c (sucks!), got out of my uniform, and went on a terribly long bus ride back to berkeley. i got home at around 2.45 in the morning.
sunday went like blah.
monday went even more blah because i had class, then i went to palo alto for the whole day for a research project. it was nice to hang around office space with my brother, but then again, being in a speech lab for that long wasn't really that exciting, either. it's making me second-guess what it is i'm doing, or better yet, telling me what to avoid come seek-a-job time.
i am so sore. and i feel like i'm starting to get sick. (don't you just hate that feeling?)
no and then!
my midterm on friday wasn't as bad as i expected it to be, but the best part was running from giannini hall back to my apartment to pack and eat lunch and still be on time to catch the late bus down to socal.
i finished my boone's before fulton. (mind you, we've just gone one block on bancroft.)
the whole weekend was long -- went on a terribly long bus ride to hollywood, got to the hollywood metropolitan hotel at one, got up four hours later, rehearsed for two hours at ucla, went to the coliseum, played for a long time, got beat by u$c (sucks!), got out of my uniform, and went on a terribly long bus ride back to berkeley. i got home at around 2.45 in the morning.
sunday went like blah.
monday went even more blah because i had class, then i went to palo alto for the whole day for a research project. it was nice to hang around office space with my brother, but then again, being in a speech lab for that long wasn't really that exciting, either. it's making me second-guess what it is i'm doing, or better yet, telling me what to avoid come seek-a-job time.
i am so sore. and i feel like i'm starting to get sick. (don't you just hate that feeling?)
no and then!
10.05.2004
i finished my midterm in the span of forty-five minutes despite the allotted hour and a half; in fact, i was done after a half hour but felt rather uncomfortable standing up looking like either a) the pretentious asshole who would ruin the curve or b) the goofball who didn't know a page of city and regional planning.
it felt good to accomplish something i thought would be so daunting, after a weekend that was intensely polemic and discursive.
after my brief flop with AiR, there was a surprise visit from my brother who kinda rubbed it in that i didn't make it. i'm not at all bitter over the whole experience -- i'm just a little frustrated that they couldn't have just told me to come back sooner. i got my hopes way up and i invested too much in something that was, as it turns out for this semester, a pipe dream.
in any case, my brother visited on friday and it was nice to actually see him without any other family there. something about my cousins or my parents being around makes him act so different.
i watched the game against osu at the bear's lair with jon, and then saw (at the other end of the pub!) michelle, holly, janice, and angela as the fourth quarter wound down. at the end of it all angela and i had dinner at beckett's, hung out for a bit, and caught up after not seeing each other in months.
sunday, i hung out with jon in the city -- had some dim sum, watched a dirty shame (the new john waters movie), and then headed back to oakland, intent on wasting another sunday doing something somewhat ridiculous. we had some margaritas, watched some of the office, and then eventually got ourselves back to berkeley to watch the yes men on shattuck.
throughout the whole weekend i cried and i expressed fears and i told people things i thought i never would tell, something that still irks me a little bit.
on a very random aside, has anyone been on friendster lately? i just went on and it felt like i hadn't been there in years.
i don't want to be in band anymore, and it's scaring me a little bit because i'm not regretting that statement.
there's so many things i can list off that are pissing me off, but all that's gonna do is add another list of grievances that will irk more people. and i think i've already done that.
here i go disdaining again.
it felt good to accomplish something i thought would be so daunting, after a weekend that was intensely polemic and discursive.
after my brief flop with AiR, there was a surprise visit from my brother who kinda rubbed it in that i didn't make it. i'm not at all bitter over the whole experience -- i'm just a little frustrated that they couldn't have just told me to come back sooner. i got my hopes way up and i invested too much in something that was, as it turns out for this semester, a pipe dream.
in any case, my brother visited on friday and it was nice to actually see him without any other family there. something about my cousins or my parents being around makes him act so different.
i watched the game against osu at the bear's lair with jon, and then saw (at the other end of the pub!) michelle, holly, janice, and angela as the fourth quarter wound down. at the end of it all angela and i had dinner at beckett's, hung out for a bit, and caught up after not seeing each other in months.
sunday, i hung out with jon in the city -- had some dim sum, watched a dirty shame (the new john waters movie), and then headed back to oakland, intent on wasting another sunday doing something somewhat ridiculous. we had some margaritas, watched some of the office, and then eventually got ourselves back to berkeley to watch the yes men on shattuck.
throughout the whole weekend i cried and i expressed fears and i told people things i thought i never would tell, something that still irks me a little bit.
on a very random aside, has anyone been on friendster lately? i just went on and it felt like i hadn't been there in years.
i don't want to be in band anymore, and it's scaring me a little bit because i'm not regretting that statement.
there's so many things i can list off that are pissing me off, but all that's gonna do is add another list of grievances that will irk more people. and i think i've already done that.
here i go disdaining again.
10.01.2004
you feel so small sometimes
miguel
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