Winter Quarter Nearly Over

After a seemingly endless string of bad hair days with thermal underwear required, soggy Winter ’06 is on its final days here at UCSC. I can look back on:
Tater tot binges along with kiwi fruits, Captain Crunch, and mayonnaise (not all at once) on tap at the dining hall. The purchase of half a cow’s worth of leather in the hopes that I can convert at least part of it into a dream bag. A trip to the Monterey Bay aquarium which featured about 15 awe-filled minutes of staring at barrel-width tuna barreling through their simulated open sea environment. Wrestling with the end of low tide in a sea cave near Davenport. A fabulous barf-tempting sailplane soar session somewhere near the Pear Blossom Highway after ingesting a wonderful Hungarian sausage sandwich that I didn’t want to taste twice despite its initial deliciousness. An impromptu slug hunt that netted three healthy Banana Slugs and featured appearances by two adorable rough skinned newts. A desperate, profane, and nearly fruitless midnight hitch-hiking session in the abject darkness of a charming 45 minute Santa Cruz downpour. The careful and steady construction of an intense hatred for the soul-crushing fundamentals of statistics. Legally observing very young children through one-way glass for hours. Enough bitching to train my future self: a bitter old man who lives only to tell kids to stay away from his yard. My new refrigerator: festoons of aluminum cans on lengths of wire hanging out of my window, conveniently cooled by exposure to the frigid night air. An exciting evening of rain, driving snow, having a bolt of lightning strike 5 feet away from me, and exhilirating bodyboard sledding on two inches of hail with a view of the Pacific Ocean. Several bottles of sake. Enough Tecate to warrant a sponsorship contract. The consumption of 2kg of yerba mate. Age-accelerating Rockstar-fueled all-nighters. My venerable, battle-scarred Canon Powershot S400, Photoshop, and Flickr. My delightful hallmates and most of all, the company, aural and physical, of my Bojanese dream girl.

Audio friendship:
Of Montreal’s inspirational “Sunlandic Twins” on repeat. Wonderful Al Bowlly. Psy-trance being given a fifth or sixth chance. David’s valuable recommendation of releases from Boogizm records. Euromotion, Prince, Bitstream, Tipper, Tigrics. And my rather large collection of Tango CDs.