day 04- a song that makes you sad

112-Cupid

I haven't heard this song in a while but when it came on the other day on the radio and it was a instant change of mood..

Runner Up: Rihanna-Unfaithful

On another note, White water rafting was fun :D. I want to do it again and again.

day 03 – a song that makes you happy

The Tiki Tiki Room song.

HEHEHE.

There's something about this song that makes me grin really widely and bounce around in this seat as I type this. Flo and I would ALWAYS get so hyper over this song in middle school that it was ridiculous. It was like how Jasmina and I acted in the car ride back to Berkeley from Baby Long Beach. HAHAH

day 02 – your least favorite song

UGH. Such an annoying song. In high school, Dawn told me the meaning of the song and I was even more grossed out. UGH

Runner Up: Bobby Brackins & Ray J: 143

day 01 – your favorite song

Train- Drops of Jupiter.

It was a tough choice but I had to go back to the past and the one song that was my favorite and continues to make me smile would have to be this one. The first time I heard this song was in 5th/6th grade when I started to watch MTV. Back then, I was still getting used to SF after moving from Ohio. To me, this song represented change, growth, and finally embracing it. Although it's almost ten years old, I still love this song.

Why not?

If you haven't realized how often I sing in the car with a song blasting in the background, you probably don't know me well enough. =P Seems like a lot of people have been doing this on their blogs, might as well join in. =P.

Perhaps by the end of this, I'd discover a little bit more about myself as a whole.

-Symphonic Pondering-
day 01 – your favorite song
day 02 – your least favorite song
day 03 – a song that makes you happy
day 04 – a song that makes you sad
day 05 – a song that reminds you of someone
day 06 – a song that reminds of you of somewhere
day 07 – a song that reminds you of a certain event
day 08 – a song that you know all the words to
day 09 – a song that you can dance to
day 10 – a song that makes you fall asleep
day 11 – a song from your favorite band
day 12 – a song from a band you hate
day 13 – a song that is a guilty pleasure
day 14 – a song that no one would expect you to love
day 15 – a song that describes you
day 16 – a song that you used to love but now hate
day 17 – a song that you hear often on the radio
day 18 – a song that you wish you heard on the radio
day 19 – a song from your favorite album
day 20 – a song that you listen to when you’re angry
day 21 – a song that you listen to when you’re happy
day 22 – a song that you listen to when you’re sad
day 23 – a song that you want to play at your wedding
day 24 – a song that you want to play at your funeral
day 25 – a song that makes you laugh
day 26 – a song that you can play on an instrument
day 27 – a song that you wish you could play
day 28 – a song that makes you feel guilty
day 29 – a song from your childhood
day 30 – your favorite song at this time last year

—

Moving and packing is a bitch.

That is all.

While Phil and I were driving to Connie's apt with his stuff, there was a kitten (about 6 months old) sitting in the middle of the street as if nothing was going around. As our van approached, it laid completely flat on the floor practically welcoming us, thinking the van was going to 'pet' it. After immediately getting out of the car, I tried to pick up the kitten but not realizing the eminent danger he/she was in, though i was just playing with him/her. Then I decided to lure her out of the street with my keys and it worked. I also noticed that the kitten was limping, possibly indicating that his/her leg was broken. =(. Poor innocent kitty. I really hope he/she's okay.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100527/od_nm/us_kitten;_ylt=AvR78.KCbKNtvKKoDTrydUOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFmcnVnbzhzBHBvcwMyMDEEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9vZGRfbmV3cwRzbGsDa2l0dGVuc3Vydml2

Boiling Crab is AMAZING.

Cal Dragonboat through the past three years

Time always flies by so quickly before you know it. Our team still does not have a website up yet (*sigh*) but I felt the need to post this up.

2007-2008 School Year

Treasure Island

*Missing! Can't seem to find a picture* =/ I don't even know if we even took a picture….

Lake Merced College Race

Boat 1: C Division 2^nd place (?)

Boat 2: C Division 4^th place (?)

*Note: I'm not completely sure about where we placed at that race because the race results weren't even posted on the CDBA website and I'm quite sure we didn't really want to remember that race ever again..*

Paragon Point Redwood City Race

Cal Paddling Bears

Division B 4^th place

Paddle For Life

*Note: We won something. I just don't remember what. Will know soon though. Also, BABY WILLIAM LOOKS SO YOUNG O_O*

ViewSonic Long Beach Dragonboat Competition

Cal Paddling Bears

College Division B 2^nd Place

Mixed Division IV: 5^th Place

2008-2009 School Year

Treasure Island

Bear Force 1

Recreation A Division: 2^nd Place (by 0.04 seconds)

College Race: 3^rd

*Note: For most of the team, this was the first time they had ever received a medal. After that, we were determined to earn hardware at every race*

College Race

Bear Force 1/Cal Dragonboat

Boat 1: Division B 2^nd Place

Boat 2: Division C: 4^th place

Baby Long Beach

500 m

Boat 1: Disqualified..in the semi..=(

Boat 2: ?

200 m

Boat 1: 3^rd place in Finals

*Note: A VERY emotional day*

Paragon Point Redwood City Race

Bear Force 1:

Division B: 2^nd Place

College cup: 3rd

Fremont Sprints

Place: 4^th?

*Note: Meh. *

View Sonic Long Beach Festival

Cal Dragonboat

College Division B: 1st place

2009-2010 School Year

Treasure Island

Cal Dragonboat

Competitive B: 2^nd place

College: 1^st Place

College Race

Boat 1: Division B: 1^st place

Boat 2: Division C: 3^rd place

Baby Long Beach

500 M:Cal 1: 3^rd Place

200 M: Cal 1: 3^rd place

Paragon Point Redwood City

Division A: First Place

College: ?

*To be Continued..*

It's crazy seeing how much our team has changed with just a few pictures, especially this year. This past race has been unbelievable. We've got our first taste of being best of the best. Our greatest challenge now is to make sure to keep it going but never forgetting where we came from.

Ipman is badass. o_o

If I had all the time..

and were a better dancer, I would totally do something with this.

Until then, I can only dance by myself in front of the mirror. :)

His voice is so seckkkksy.

Hok is in this video @1:00! HEEEHEEEE

It's almost three am and I should be going to sleep but I feel the need to put this down before I forget to do so.

First off, time flies by so fucking fast. It's almost the end of Junior year and yet it feels like it was only yesterday when I was sitting in my parent's car with Eric Pon after my first college race thinking the following things:

1) Something NEEDS to be done about this team.
2) What have I gotten myself into..?
3) Maybe I should have gone to UCLA, UCSD or joined SFL instead.... (sorry!)

A couple of weeks ago, the captains/officers back then sent out an email with regards to elections.

The email is included here:

"As you may know, two of our leaders are going to be graduating this May. We will need to fill these positions for Fall 2008, and once we have a vote for these new officers we will begin training in the Spring semester.

Team leaders should have the following qualities:

• Good leadership skills
• Dedication on and off the water
• Actively gets to know the team
• Good sportsmanship

Here's a brief description of the officer's responsibilities:

Coach
The coach is responsible for organizing practice, teaching paddling techniques, and improving performance on the water. The coach must work with the managers and captains to create lineups and set unified goals for the team.

Manager
The manager is responsible for the logistical aspects of the team such as managing paperwork and team roster.

Captain
The captain motivates the team by emphasizing teamwork. He or she shows team spirit, promotes team interaction, and balances competitiveness and fun. The captain serves as a liaison between our team and the CDBA as well as other teams."

Back then, I wasn't sure I really wanted to run. I was only a freshman (technically a spring admit), so I didn't think I would have as much "cal" experience as the other potential candidates and because I was pledged APO during that semester, I didn't really go to a lot of practices (though back then, going to the Sunday practices was good enough, as it was more 'experienced') What I did know was that 'Cal Paddling Bears' HAD to change one way or another. I thought, if I did decide to run, I definitely would not go for coach. In high school, I had experience with being captain for a relatively new youth team but I also preferred to work behind the scenes as well, with regards to logistics. So finally, for the hell of it, I emailed Julia/Jackie/Nancy/Colin back about being interested in running for captain and team manager.

Time passed by until the day of elections and I noticed that the only position that was up for running was captain (for this election, two people were selected to be co-captains) and the candidates were the following:

-Eric Pon & Eliot

-Me

-Jon Su

-Harrison

-Luke

Clearly, all the following candidates were experienced and possibly spent more time with the team back then more than I did. Also, I was the only girl running against a bunch of big guys. and Eric Pon.

All the candidates were given a chance to give a short speech saying why they wanted to run. It was pretty lax in comparison to this past captains election. Candidates chose to stand up whether they wanted to and said a sentence or two about why they wanted to run. Finally, people voted and Eric Pon & Eliot were chosen to be captains while there was a run off between Luke and I.

At this point, shit went down. lol. I thought, "Dude. I've seen this tall white guy with curly hair during my freshman year with Galileo Celestial Dragons (YES. BEFORE IT WAS NICKNAMED 'GCD') and heard that he's really good. How in the world would I be able to win over him"

Whether that the officers didn't like Luke or it was the luck of the votes, I was elected. I was in utter disbelief until Mike Rauser turned around (who was sitting in front) and congratulated me. While I'm glad things turned the way they were (Luke ended up being coach while Eric Pon and I were captains), I wondered why I was chosen to become captain that day when to be honest, I hardly knew anyone on the team. It isn't until now that I realized exactly why (or at least i'd like to think so.):

Family.

Thinking back, one of the things I wanted in our team was to create a family; a group of friends who could rely on each other through laughter, joy and pain. During the speech, I tried to emphasize the importance of family and how important I wanted to maintain that sense of community among us. While I definitely cannot vouch for the upperclassmen on the team at that time, I could most definitely say that the new people had no concept of what it meant to be apart of a dragonboat family.

Back then, we would just go to practice, paddle and went back home. Occasionally, we would go out to eat but asides from that, we would go back to our own lives with our other friends and forget about dragonboat until the next weekend.

Within the next semesters of my captain-ship (harhar) Cal Paddling Bears changed to Cal Dragonboat/ Bear Force 1/ Team Stupid through the help of Luke and Eric. We started to have more practices, more random socials (started to be come more of a 'wet' organization), All of us back then did not want a repeat of college race 07' and we were determined to redeem our names back to one of the strongest collegiate Dragonboat teams in California. In the process, more people saw our cause/determination and joined while others had to leave and go on with their lives. Our team as a whole also became a lot dumber and through that, practically became more of a unit together. We were always training and trying to work hard for the next race to prove to other teams that we are competitive and someone they want to try and beat. we were determined to bring Cal out of its shithole and hoped College Race 09 would be its redemption.

It didn't work so much as we had thought. While we earned 1st in our division, we choked and knew we could have done better (which is the worst of it all). I cried because all the work we put into the past year and a half was amounted to moving up only by one place in comparison to last year. I was also scared because Eric Pon and Luke were planning to retire, pretty much leaving me in the search of a co-captain/coach to work with.

When elections came, we posted an EXTREMELY long criteria list for officer positions in comparison to the one made 3 years ago. I could sense the officer group of Eric, Luke, Me, Jas, Jon and ED were afraid of new officer roles and a drastic new change in leadership. The team eventually voted for their leaders and I'm glad it worked out the way it is now.

To be honest, this semester in DB has been kind of rocky at times. Although some of the main officers were still around, there was still a slight change of leadership and there were those who weren't sure whether it would work out. While our officer group was determined to go to Alcan, it started to all apart as more issues started to pile up and we ultimately decided to put it off until next year. I felt doubt and uncertainty about the upcoming baby long beach as our 'cal 1' had only a semester to learn a modified stroke technique as well as a completely new race strategy and yochan wasn't going to be there to give feedback on it due to a crew competition.

This past weekend proved me wrong. We did exactly what we wanted to do, raced our race-and it felt amazing. There are so many people who came along the trip that I would like to thank for helping the whole along the way and without you, I don't think Cal 1 and 2 would not have done as well as they would have.

To be continued..