Lazarus

Hey everyone, if there's anyone there. I don't know if anyone remembers this page exists, but I'll keep writing anyways.

It's been a while since I last wrote. School and then summer. Toll taken. You know. Let me tell you about what I've been up to.

Love's Labour's Lost was a personal success for me. While it may not have been the best production of the show to grace this Earth, it was my first official USC production, as well as my first minor role in a play since Arsenic and Old Lace, and my first time playing the violin in character. Kate Burton approached me after the preview night and praised me heavily for it, and it made me very, very happy.

Once that journey was over, the school year was a mess of rehearsing and reading and writing and then I came home

So a Man Sat With Me

I had the most surreal experience today. I was sitting at a table by myself outside of the campus center when a man came up to me and asked if he could join me, or if I was waiting on anyone else. He was a young-looking guy with messy facial hair and a Nike t-shirt. I let him sit down with me.

His name was Shaun. He graduated from Arizona State six years ago and was visiting SoCal for the week. He asked me about my major, and what I was doing over spring break.

I found myself growing really wary. He was super calm and friendly, but why did he decide to sit with me? What was the catch?

I found myself slipping my leg through the straps of my backpack under the table, and pulling it closer to me. I grew increasingly paranoid and uncomfortable; what was he doing? It was incredibly strange, and I felt so vulnerable.

Moving Ahead

Hello friends!

It's been a wild few weeks. I start rehearsals for Love's Labors Lost in a few days and I am quite excited. I haven't worked on a show since 178 Blank Pages, and I haven't even been in a show since Spring Awakening (and boy do I miss it).

As for things going on in my life, I feel like I'm finally getting things together! I've got my living situation for next year figured out, I've cleared myself of all papers due before spring break, I'm reading more and more and starting to abandon my phone, I get to act again starting next week, I'm making more and more music...everything is looking up! :)

There have been a lot more high school seniors walking around campus lately. Earlier in the month I stopped by the SDA auditions and remembered how a little over a year ago, I was in the same position. Getting the chance to talk to some of the kids brought back a lot of memories.

I've gotta say, I kind of miss high school. All my Little Memory anniversaries are popping up on my phone and every day I can see what I was doing exactly a year or two years ago. It's fucking crazy how different things are today. The entire world might as well have exploded and pieced everything together in different places three times over. A year ago I changed my life forever, but two years ago what if I did the same?

How many times do you think that's happened?

I'll be back with more posts soon :)

Things I'm Stealing from today:
2017 was a wild ride

Coming Back

It's certainly been a while since my last update at all. Over a month, actually (sorry, January).

To give my few readers an update on how things are going: they're better. I got my keyboard replaced, with a working H key and extra protection of a cover. I've been writing a lot of music. As winter break finished, I wrote my first original song to go on to SoundCloud. I started school again. My classes are as well as they can be, but I'm happy with what I'm doing. I got cast in Love's Labours Lost after fearing that I had botched my audition for Great Expectations (guess I didn't). I'm taking a class on MIDI Sequencing and have started working in Logic Pro X, and after five years I finally have a decent grip on electronic music that I can begin making things on my own. Also, I told Gabe about an old stageplay idea I had, and we both agreed it would make a better screenplay. That's gonna take shape soon.

Yeah, not much else to update on. I am happy and I am making things like crazy. Hopefully the next update will have some more stories to share, but for now here's what's been going on.

Things I'm stealing from the break;
I can make something of my own
Turn to others when you don't know where to go
Sometimes it takes years for an idea to fully transform into something beautiful
Always come back to what you've started

Angry College Student Vents About First World Problems

It's certainly been a while since my last true update on my life. It's Christmas Eve, I'm back home in Redwood City after finishing my first semester in college, and frankly, I'm quite bored.

Finals week was probably the most fun I've had all semester. No real classes to worry about, long breaks in between exams, only one actual exam aside from a few papers and performances. I got to do whatever I wanted, really, there was significantly less stress than I experienced in high school (three exams in one day? Who thought that was a good idea?)

Writing this article is a bit aggravating because I have one of the 2017 MacBook Pros, and since Apple is dead set on making everything as slim as possible, it features one of those newfangled butterfly switch keyboards. For those of you who don't know, a butterfly switch is a new device underneath each key on a keyboard designed to significantly reduce the amount of space in between the key and its corresponding sensor (a millimeter, about). This design allows for the keyboard to be even slimmer than before, and I suppose was meant to reduce the chance of dust getting under the keys. What Apple failed to consider is that if dust DID manage to get under the keys, it would be impossible to get out, and they would be rendered practically useless. Every time I used the letter h in this paragraph? A minimum of 3 tries to type it, each. There is no practical solution for this except blasting your laptop with compressed air (which failed). Another fun fact about these fun new keyboards: you can't remove the keys easily without breaking the switch. I'm getting it checked out later this week, but I'm expecting they'll have to replace the entire lower half of the laptop. $700 minimum if I'm out of warranty.

Tourette's and My Life Without Regrets

Here's a little fun fact about me:

When I was just a newborn baby, my dad would swaddle me in a blanket so tightly that the only thing I could move was my head. We thought this was what led to the head shaking that would persist in my life until the fifth grade. Looking back on it now, we believe that this may have been my first tic. 

A tic, for those of you who don’t know, is a sudden movement or habit exhibited when under stress. Most people are familiar with nervous tics, which many people demonstrate on occasion (clicking a pen back and forth, tapping your foot, etc.) For those of us with Tourette Syndrome, that occasion can last years.

The Brotherhood of the 4° Lunch Club

This is a little story I like to tell people about one of my fondest high school memories...

The Brotherhood of the 4° Lunch Club began October 7th, 2015, by a handful of sophomores and juniors who shared a free fourth period, who were really tired of spending it in the library under the strict rules in place. Rules such as: no phones, no loud talking, no eating, no headphones, no large groups at one table, etc.

The Brotherhood was formed when those of us sitting at the same table kept getting caught breaking these rules—and we were getting caught a lot—and decided to turn it into a game. How many of these rules could we break without getting caught? And how much could we bend and push them before getting in trouble?