Just realized something...

I have five followers on blogspot? Wow. Wonder if any of them read any of this...

Alright, so as of recent I have declared myself a Facebook ban. Tristan, the Caucasian, has changed my password and will not tell me until the end of finals. Granted, yes, there will be other things to distract me online, but I feel Facebook will take a load off my short attention span.

With this week being Week 9 of Winter Quarter, I feel I've really gotta buckle down and study. I'm so behind that I think I'm going to need to deprive myself of sleep - and I feel I'm ready for that. The 24 Hour Film Dash has really thrown off my sleeping schedule and in a way conditioned me to be able to withstand staying up with minimal sleep. Terrible for my health? Probably. But hey, it's college - and at least I'm not resorting to Adderall or Ritalin - or any drug for that matter - to aid me in my studying. Though, I have read that neurologists do encourage brain enhancing drugs...

... I'll look into that later. For now, I need to bloooooooooooooooooooooooog. Cause I miss you guys. And I miss writing. And I miss looking for an excuse to ignore Italian homework.

It's odd. Since the 24 Hour Film Dash, it has indeed awaken something inside of me. And lately, I've been in a real Jazz binge - been getting a hold of some Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, and the list goes on... I'm ingesting all of this music and all this knowledge of jazz, hungrily.

I can't help it. I miss it. I need to pick up an instrument. Thing is, I don't have the time for that so I've resorted to just... listening. And learning. I need to find somebody on campus I can talk jazz with. Sure, my knowledge merely scratches the surface, but jazz is like a drug to me - it's intoxicating and I'm on it constantly. You know what I've fallen asleep to for the past couple nights (aside from Radiohead and Kings of Convenience)? Stan Getz and Bill Evans. Dave Brubeck Quartet.

All this jazz... I admit, it makes me feel pretentious listening to it. (But as I've always said people who use the word pretentious are a bit pretentious themselves...) But hey, I also feel like it makes me... classy. If there's anything I can say that I've taken away from Philip Ruiz, the band/orchestra director/conductor of Diamond Ranch High School - it's class. Either in one form or the other, I feel like I need more class in my life. Come to think of it, I've always felt an amount of class playing Jazz during 0 Period. And considering the people life has forced me to interact with - I've come to the realization that class died a long time ago. When? I don't know. Nevertheless, I think I'm going to try to keep it alive. Through jazz. Ah, listening to it again...

And trust me, listening to jazz is one thing. But to play and make jazz? It's a high that I miss. A high that I need.

Maybe next quarter... Or this summer...

Maybe...

Oh, and this is most likely going to feed into my Facebook notes... so those of you reading this, no I have not been on Facebook. It's just that my blog feeds into my notes.

Alright, enough about ze jazz. More about my Italian.

Later!

You wanna hear Bruce Campbell moan?

Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance
Uploaded by IgnitionVM

I wish I had this kind of artistic creativity...

Putting that aside, I just recently got myself a Sixth Generation iPod Classic. 120 Gigabytes of pure, black beauty. I call it - "Bruce Campbell Moan." I know, weird name. But for a good reason. For instance, take the title of this post. And imagine the fun I can have with the name!

"What're you doing?"
"I'm just listening to Bruce Campbell Moan."

"What're you watching?"
"Bruce Campbell Moan."

(in the event I can't find him)
"Have you guys seen Bruce Campbell Moan?"

"I listen to Bruce Campbell Moan while I sleep."

As Bruce Campbell himself would say,

Groovy.

I have a new found respect for my boss

Well, at least my supervisor, Carla. She's one of the peoplethat control my salary - or more like, controls the hours I can work. Anywho, we had an interesting conversation going on about comic books and science fictionl; she's read all the comic books I have read, and then some. Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Sandman, 30 Days of Night, Watchmen, Star Wars, Star Trek...

And then, I found out I'm working next weekend. Not jumping for joy over that, but at least I'm getting hours. Not to mention, there's a Super Bowl party that Sunday at work. Think I'll go to that - I'm feeling a bit more comfortable around my co-workers, so I think I'll let myself loosen up over there. Must find something to make to contribute to the potluck... (Note to self: Make sure there's still money for work study...)

Also, I NEED THESE:


THEY ARE TEH SECKS! (Link totally sfw, just linked to the blog I found these off of)

I am also submitting to an impulse buy of Ninja Tacks. They're thumbtacks, in Ninja Star form.
Okay, enough ignoring homework. I've really got to stop putting off homework pass midnight...

This made my night.

I was talking to a good friend of mine that I keep on liking more and more with each and every encounter - Tony La. The both of us were just standing on the stairs in front of the Humanities Hall of UCI, wasting time and talking. Somewhere within our conversation I absentmindedly pulled out Monica, my harmonica, out and blew a couple notes in it.

The both of us heard a man approach, saying something that was not quite audible to our ears because we thought he was directing his speech towards someone else. I thought he was talking on his cellphone with a blue-tooth headset - but at a glance I saw he was not. There was nobody else around him, so I immediately tuned in to what he was saying after I came to the realization that he was talking to us.

He pulls a harmonica out - and old Hohner pocket harmonica in the key of C. I asks if I can play a couple notes in it and my gosh what a tone. After I gave it back to him, without a beat, he just starts playing riffs. Compelled, I played along - playing long notes underneath the rapid fire bullets he bursts into the holes of that mouth harp. I didn't want to try anything fancy, I just wanted to hear him. My accompaniment - least from what I can hear - blended well with his fanciful notes of eighths and sixteenths - I wanted to just listen, but at the same time I wanted to be a part of the music so I just kept on playing. The small audience watching us from the bridge up above were highly entertained, but not as much as I was, oh no.

I almost forgot how great it feels to make beautiful music...

It only lasted for a moment, this ad hoc jam session, but my God it was awesome. Finally, I was able to improve with somebody something that actually sounded like good music. And I was actually (kinda) able to keep up!

We exchanged names: he introduced himself as Richard Nester, the writing instructor over at UCI's LARC (Learning and Academic Resource Center) program. I introduced myself as Henry, a first year at UCI that he's bound to see around more often. I was compelled to give him my card, but decided against it - I found it wiser not to.

After that brief - but amazing - encounter, Tony and I were absolutely flabbergasted. It was badass - to say the least. Next time I see him - and hopefully I recognize his face - I hope we can have a repeat of our experience.

My God, I expected today to be pretty shitty with my busy schedule, but that moment absolutely made my night.