new surfboard

A quick little update because I'm extremely tired.

I got a C+ on my first math test for math 71. A lot better than I expected, I haven't been studying as much as I should be for it. Stoked on that. C's earn degrees.

I turned in a chapter from my novel to my creative writing class, it's also why I'm so tired. I procrastinated finishing it until last night. I had to print thirty copies for the class and our printer is broken. So I went to the Kinko's in La Puente at 12:30 in the morning to find out they closed at 12. I was under the impression Kinko's was open twenty four hours. They opened at 6am this morning and I had to be back at school at 8am. So I didn't sleep much fearing I wouldn't wake up in time. So I was at Kinko's all morning putting together tons of these little chapters. Not to mention I surfed yesterday afternoon and tonight, but that's beside the point. After the teacher read the chapter to the class, nobody said anything. Usually everyone claps after someone's story is read aloud. I think it kind of bummed them out. But I don't know. Maybe they were just bored. But it was really quiet afterwards and kind of embarassing. The professor liked my descriptions of the characters and imagery so much that she used the chapter to talk about her lesson plan for the day. After the class she said she has read a lot of student's work and that it's rare to find a piece of work written so well in her class. I'm really excited about this class. I had been pretty unmotivated to work on my novel for the last three months but this class has definitely given me inspiration and ideas I'm putting to good use. Like I've said before though, writing a novel is probably one of the hardest things I've ever attempted doing, even more so than math. The best way I can describe it is this. You know very little about computers and someone asks you to build one. Not build one like "Okay, here's the monitor, plug the mouse into the hard drive or whatever, speakers go here.." No. I mean like soldering together every transistor and circuit and all the wiring without ever having tried it before. You know what a transistor does, and you know what a power source does too, but you have no idea how many you need or where they go or if they should be at the beginning or the end of the circuit. The most ominous thing about writing a novel, to me, is that you wont even know if it's good until it's finished. Blah. That's my rant on writing this book. I'm beyond stoked to have these ideas in hard copy, if it turns out anything like I'm expecting it to, it should be a very memorable read.

I bought a new surfboard. It's about a foot longer than my old board. It's shaped a little differently too. A little more suited to a higher experience level. It's amazing how the smallest differences in the angle and shape of the foam can mean the difference between catching a wave or not. Check it out.

Plus Brad and I finished the damage repairs to the blue and white Isle board pictured in the background. That means I have an extra board for someone to use should they wish try it out.




















Reviews

Pennywise
Reason to Believe
C
Pennywise has joined the "free download" bandwagon. I downloaded the entire album for free this morning from the band's myspace. I think this free album trend is a great idea, I would have never bought the album. But since I got it for free, I've been listening to it all day and it brings me back to the days when I was thirteen, skating around Walnut with Geoff and Keith. Good nostalgia factor with this band. I gave it a C because it's pretty much the same album the band always comes out with. Fast drums, shredding guitars, semi-posi lyrics, lots of "WHOA's" and some gang chants here and there. It gets me pumped, makes me want to go skating, and mosh really hard. Big points there.


P.S. Apparently the owner of Barros didn't murder his wife. It was another restaurant? I don't know. The girl I went on a date with last week still works at Barros and she said that everyone has been asking about it and that it's not true. Speaking of her, I don't want to go out with her anymore, she's lame. Oh well.

Ok. I'm going to bed. Have a great week you guys.

Hi, My Name is Chad

I uploaded a podcast I made a couple months ago. I'm thinking about doing them on a consistent basis. What do you guys think? I'm having trouble finding a legit website for mp3 hosting. Podcast files are super large, the one I made was around 40 MB and most free domains don't allow files that big. Right now it's available to download here, but hopefully I can find a place that allows you to stream directly from the website. Anyways, if you're bored or have some free time while you're working on the computer, go check it out and listen to me talk about stuff and play rock songs. If the link doesn't work, let me know.

hmm.

I want to apologize to you guys for not calling while Dad was in the hospital. It was pretty irresponsible of me. I'm glad he's alright. When I got home from the hospital the night I took him to the emergency room, Woofie was sleeping by the door and Lila was sitting on top of the bar meowing. It's strange how animals know when somethings up. I think that night might have been the saddest night of my life. Probably the loneliest I've ever felt in my life. It sounds cliche to say "we take a lot of things for granted" and I don't really think that's what I'm trying to convey. But I guess after living with Dad for so long, trying to prepare yourself for the worst is nothing like when the worst actually happens. Standing in the living room and having the two of them looking at me, not sure what the three of us were going to do.

Spring semester started last week. I'm taking Math 71, a creative writing class, a narcotics class and a class on "ethnic relations within correctional facilities." Most of the classes I'm taking now are just filler units while I finish math. Math 71 is harder than 51, like I expected it to be. I hope I do well. My creative writing class has given me incentive to write again, a drive I kind of lost since I stopped drinking. I would really like to finish my book. Narcotics and the corrections class are pretty much the same as every other Admin of Justice class I've taken, info on different departments and agencies, depending on who the instructor is and which he/she works for.

Work is the same as always. I was promoted again last week to To-Go. It's less hectic than Expo but my tips fluctuate since I no longer receive a tipshare from all of the servers who work my shift. My tips come directly from the amount of orders I get. So that's a bummer. But it's my last step towards becoming a server. Which would be pretty rad, I think they make a decent amount of money.

I'm going surfing for the first time tomorrow afternoon with the Millers since my accident. We patched up the large hole in the nose of my board. When we filled the hole with styrene resin, it started pushing blood out from the bottom of the ding that soaked into the foam and disappeared. It kind of looked like the board was bleeding. However, junior spotted a large hole behind the left fin box that we hadn't noticed, a hole thats irreparable for Brad's skill at patching dings. So with that, my old blue and white longboard saw it's final wave that morning. It was a good board. Brad bought a nice new Becker 9 foot longboard last week on ebay that should be more tailored to my skill. My old blue Isle board was mainly for beginners. I'm excited to try it out tomorrow.

I don't really have any reviews for this week. There are a couple old albums I've rediscovered and I'll write about them in another entry probably. Until then, if you have a $1.98 to spare, I recommend searching these two songs on Itunes.

Unlucky Stuntman by Bad Astronaut
Motionless by Osker