Snowboarding, Film Editing, and Fun

My friend John is back in town this week from Spokane, and the ONE thing we wanted to do was go snowboarding, and make an effort to get some good footage for a video. Well, the day we went up, Stevens Pass had been dumped on 3 days prior to us going up, totalling an amazing 6 FEET OF SNOW! It was total powder from the day we started [8:45am] to about 4pm which is when we left. During out time there though was REDICULOUS. I thought I would never say it but there was actually TOO MUCH snow that morning. Oh wait, let me back up real quick [cue rewind sound]..

On our way up to the mountain, the roads were covered with snow, slush, rain and debris, and it was still snowing as we were driving. From the back seat, I was watching us pass up trees and cars going about an average of 60mph I'd say. I was thinking in my head "Joe, slow down, we're gonna slide off the road, and I'm not in the mood to get stuck out here on the mountain when there's inches of snow waiting for us to touch.." As I'm testing out my camera to see how it'll look on the mountain I hear "OH SHIT" and look up and notice the Rodeo sliding over the other side of the road, and at the same time look at Joe trying to turn the wheel to regain control of the SUV but it was too late; we were perpendicular with the road heading for a ditch in the road. John in the front passenger seat either screamed or yeld, but I think I tuned it out cause I was too busy thinking "Fuck fuck fuck fuck.." The SUV finally came to a stop after 4 seconds of sliding into a ditch. We all looked at eachother, took one sigh of relief, then grabbed our jackets and began digging the car out. Eventually we got it out and made our way up the mountain. Moral: Drive Slow Homie (c) T.I.





Finally made it up to Stevens Pass, bought a Season Pass for $79 [what a steal! now I really gotta go], strapped in, and headed to the lifts. One thing that sucked: My board wasn't waxed recently so with the amount of powder on the ground, me and my board weren't getting anywhere very fast. Long story short, I fixed my stance which helped me pick up some speed and stay above the powder. Unfortunately I did get stuck in snow that went up to my chest and spent a good 15 minutes digging my board and myself out of that shit. SERIOUSLY a workout.

By the end of the day the snow stopped falling, and we were able to get some decent footage. The park was closed though so we had to make use of what the mountain and mother nature laid in front of us. After my first try at video editing, I came up with this..



It was fun taping and editing this thing so I'm definitely gonna get hooked on this video editing thing. I only have 3 songs on my computer at the moment and Kid Cudi was the only good choice I had, and I think they worked well together. The transitions in the video with the music.. I actually edited the video first, plugged the music in, did a little moving of the music and sounds, and bam; my first vid. More sessions to come, hopefully some better footage.

2 for 1 when you bring an empty bottle!

Snowboarding is an expensive sport, but then again, just about all outdoor sports are just about out of my wallets price limit, and this is probably the most comfortable outdoor sport I can think of that I'm close to being considered an "amateur." I've invested a considerable amount already so there's really no turning back, not that I want to [haha! me?! turn away from snowboarding?! silly.] ANYWAYS, with that being said, I'm sure many of you have heard or seen this already through newspapers, radio, and fliers but I just wanted to help out as well, 'cause I would love to see my friends on the mountain as well as encourage recycling :)

Vitamin Water and 107.7 The End have joined together to bring us a deal for Steven's Pass. All the somewhat technical crap is found HERE or HERE, but to sum it all up..

WHEN: THIS Friday Feb 20, 2009
WHAT: Recycle a 20oz. Vitamin Water bottle, receive a 2-for-1 lift ticket
WHERE: Stevens Pass Ski Resort
HOW: Friday from 9a-5p, purchase a full price lift ticket [thats where they getcha! tricky tricky], drink down that Vitamin Water, give 'em the empty bottle, THEN get a 2-for-1 lift ticket for your next visit!

I'm not sure how that works out for those that already have an Advantage Card or an RFID card already, but I'm sure all the questions can be answered when you get there.

My sister just bought a box of Vitamin Water 'cause I've been hooked on that stuff for awhile now, so if you don't drink it, or just need to save a few bucks, I've got some empty bottles here! My sister had the idea of even bringing up all our empty bottles to pass out to people who dont have one already, but that's too nice and too much work for me :)

CHECK IT OUT! oh and by the way, JUST NOW I have decided to go snowboarding. I wasn't going to go at first but I just couldn't turn it down. GAAH! It's an addiction I tell yah..

Calculus break > Calculus

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I think it was earlier last night when I was shuffling through my things looking for what notes I needed to do homework, and I found the transfer catalog for UW: Architecture, and the sheet that came along with it. Looking over it I notice that Calculus II is not needed to enter the Architecture program..... .. .. .*!#@GAAH&%$!!!11. So I'm putting myself through hell, sort of for nothing. I told myself (1)there wasn't any other good choices of classes to take for now, (2)you need to freshen up on your math skills anyways, (3)you need to be in school right now.

After going through 3 sections straight, I needed a break. So what else do I do?
Find more of these!


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Looking FORWARD to..
+ 1/30-2/1: Snowboarding @ Silver Mtn., Idaho
+ 2/14: Steven's Pass snowboarding
+ 2/15-16: Surprise trip???
+ Spring Break!
+ No more calculus please..

pwn3d by the weather.. FAIL?

In the past 2 weeks, mother nature has taken the NW into her hands, squeezed the fun and sunshine out of it, then put it in her pocket and reintroduced us to rain+snow+wind+greyskies+floods+avalanches+sadface+butthurt. The weather wo/men say itll be a light wind chill with a chance of rain.. it snows that day. Then they say "grey skies".. and rain pours down. "chance of snow"... 4 inches [pause]. WTF! I think anyone can be a weather person now, cause all you have to do is PREDICT ANY WEATHER situation within the weather pattern of the year before, and BAM, your Steve Pool, or whoever you wanna be [Id be steve pool, cause he's black, so i have a chance at another job, like rapping, or any sport that doesnt include swimming.]

Lately I've been given the opportunity to go snowboarding, and so far I had to cancel TWICE because of crappy weather [avalanche, floods, blah blah..]. So I'm pretty upset. It doesn't help that winter quarter has started and Im finishing up Calculus after a 2 quarter break, which is a VERY BAD idea, let me tell you. I have so much catching up to do. I mean seriously, how do they expect me to keep up with snowboarding, LOST, and, underwater basketweaving if I have to over-study calculus all over again. ZOMG. So I'm sorta stuck indoors and can only resort to YouTube videos of snowboarding, or crying about it here.

Oh yeah! After class one day, I was walking home and decided to total up the amount I spent on all my snowboarding gear, not including the spare things I have. After estimating everything I wear on the mountain, not including the clothes under, I found that I snowboard with $750 on! good gawwwd, AND almost everything I bought was on sale. SO, if you decide on making snowboarding a habit, that's the smallest amount you MIGHT be able to pull off.

Before I go any further into my blabbling.. let's do a quick recap of what I forgot to mention..
+ Merry Christmas!..family+relatives+friends dinner. Bacas' House. presents! insert xbox 360 here. back to seattle at midnight.
+ Happy New Year!..can't afford to go out. 3 person party = drunk fun. clean up crew next morning. NY resolution: play guitar/ukulele more.
+ School starts.. ZOMG too many variables and symbols. must resort to snowboarding.. FAIL.

On the up side though, I did manage to upload all my pictures from my camera to my hard drive. Now a few more months and they should be on my Facebook or Myspace. I've also been working on my cooking. Im pretty good so far, meaning I haven't killed myself or anyone, and I'm expanding my horizon on different cooking techniques. So on my off time from going out [see: BROKE], my plan is to get back into a routine.
8am: workout
10am: homework
1pm: class
3: work/study/homework
1030:LOST/sleep

I've been on the bad habit of sleeping late and have been paying for it. Slowly but surely though I should be getting my internal clock back in working order. I feel the beginning of this year, everyone's plan is to get back into "shape", but not always literally. Some will cut down on the drinking, and pick up a weight instead. or turn off the TV and turn up the healthy foods. Stop going out, and begin a book. So I don't feel so bad as to missing out on many things, but like everyone else, I gotta do whats important first, and thats to focus on what I need to do to succeed.

*random thought bubble* Once I get my fisheye lens for my camera, im gonna start making my own snowboarding videos/clips. So everyone can see how AWESOME I am! Rawr! Deng, I need money. Deng, the weather sucks. *random thought bubble* /end

Recent video I found while pondering of snowboarding..

Travis Parker is rad. Plus, he's part of the DC crew. woot woot.

Also, i think ill add a song shall be added to my playlist on the mountain. video on THIS LINK. good workout song maybe? for the ladies, yes :) teehehehehe..

Today was the last day of class for this week. I'm about to go out and relax with PJ and her sister who decided that I should go with them to "R Place"... .. . .If you don't know where that is, then the rest of this entry should give you an idea. I figured 'what the heck. im never gonna be going in here, i might as well see what im missing out on. another story to write in my book.' As I left my place for PJ's apartment, my sister texted me "Amateur strip show at RPlace tonight :)" so that should be interesting...? I don't plan on drinking very much cause I can't afford it. Im really hoping the the hotdog stand is out on thursday nights and the weather holds up so I can get myself a creamcheese hotdog. YUMMY YUM YUM.

Fine Art

Interpretive dancing, at its finest.


Joshua dancing to "Apologize" from Joe Tran on Vimeo.

Random plug for the snowboarding year..
Warren Miller's Children of Winter show will be playing at the McCaw Hall this Friday @ 6:30p & 9:30p. Also showing Saturday @ 6:00p & 9:00p. I'm off Friday so I think I just might watch it. $21 for tickets, BUT you get a poop load of coupons for different passes as well as SWAG, a bag of goodies!

[marc]