Rabbi Missions

Blog No. RABBI: Rabbi Missions

There is no question that 365MMIX failed as a daily blog project.

I got to thinking, well what would be easier to do EVERYDAY of a year? which led to a lot of cool and neat ideas.

Then I got to thinking, I want to do ALL of this, but I will not have the luxury time, to say the least which is true.

What I come up with can be fun if I get YOU, the readers of 365MMIX, (mainly the official members of Rabbi), to help me.

So, I declare the start of the Rabbi Missions for a new 365MMX project.

Basics:

1. No, I'm not asking you to blog, (unless you really want to).
2. The purpose of the project will be a sure fire way to frequently keep in touch.
3. A custom project will be assigned to a specific person. This will most likely involve taking photos of some part of the day that you would ordinarily be doing anyway. All photos would be sent to me.
4. For those with busy schedules, like me, "stockpiling" or waiting until the end of the week to send a weeks worth of photos, is allowed. A desired amount of items would end up being 365.
5. If there are official Rabbi participants wanting to do this, just let me know! If there are unofficial Rabbi participants, then an emergency Rabbi test will have to take place.
6. At the end of the year, I will either post them up online or make an album or whatever it may be, depending on the mission.
7. The mission you are assigned, either/both the mission itself and/or each daily result, would ideally be kept secret from other participants until the year is finished to add that much more excitement.
8. The general success of your projects will reflect in the amount of Rabbi points.
9. Also, try to cap it at one photo per day kind of idea. I say this in a case where someone different gets nosy and wants to be apart of the photo in some way, which might end up in a chain of photos resulting from retakes of this nature in a short time period.

I would also like to enact the Lomo Mission, which is basically a picture a day of where Lomo is, wherever he may be, in whoever's care he may be in. I would like this to happen because I realize that I may just get Lomo for a month in January and maybe a few weeks during the summer. With this, I'd also like to encourage more of a group custody agreement, where Piper, KT, and I agree to let someone else take care of Lomo for more interesting places and pictures.

So how about it?

Cupcakes and Chocobos

Blog No. SHIRT: Cupcakes and Chocobos

Hallelujah for sleep! Definitely needed to sleep in! XD

Unfortunately, I did not go to my Piano final that day. Taylor had apparently heard of this and texted a big, "QUIT FAILING." I replied to him the situation and he instantly forgave me... After a change in subject.

I emailed Heidi while I was texting Taylor. I had caught her before she went to class because she immediately replied back. Heidi's emails were very nice and reassuring, in that I was still on her good side. I had apologized, not just because I wasn't going to be there, but because I wasn't there to say goodbye in person. I hope to see her again soon...

Anyway, after a few hours, Taka, King, Abril, and Alyssa arrive at my house. The baby was sleeping, so we mainly talked in hushed tones. We set up all the shirts, all the foam stencils, and all the paint, along with my paint brushes, all downstairs.

Upstairs, King was in the loft, working on his Wii game... Or rather my Wii game. He decided to try out Chocobo's Dungeon for kicks. So he pretty much stayed in the loft upstairs the entire night.

Taka showed us the work she finished on the high five shirts. Mine was a black T-shirt with a green outline of Taka's hand, along with a face and the words "High Five" in big bold font. It's pretty awesome! I really hope she does pursue this as either a hobby or a side business. XD

Taka had asked for some hot chocolate, so I boiled some water on the stove. While I was mixing in the hot chocolate, Abril and I randomly sang some Family Guy referenced Xmas carols.

The main reason they were over at my place at all was because I needed to do the Coppertone Rabbiman shirt. It is technically Taka's Xmas gift to me, but I wanted to be part of the process to make it. So Taka made the foam paper stencil, and I painted the outline of the drawing. I added a few touches, like a Star of David tattoo on the shoulder and some minor lines here and there.

After awhile of painting, Abril, Alyssa, and I ended up playing catch, using Lomo as the ball. I was up on the second floor balcony while Abril and Alyssa were downstairs, failing to throw Lomo up to me.

After that night, we got all three shirts done, finishing touches and all. XD

+10 Awesome if Equipped with "Awesome Scarf"

Blog No. AWKWARD: On The Second Day of Finals, My True Love Gave to Me...

My solution to the lack of any Italian homework being done was to come to school the next day pretty early with my sister's laptop. I know I had to do a few pages of the workbook, a few pages of work from the book, and my tema. Not to mention that I had to study for both my Italian and my Statistics final. Figuring all that in, I decided to come in extra early on the bus, and by extra early I mean 7 AM.

*

When I walked into the cafeteria, I walked in and saw Dustin, sporting his scarf and Santa Hat. He wondered what I was doing here so early, and I the same. It turns out he also had this idea of studying before his finals... Only his finals didn't start at 3 PM, like mine did.

*

I whipped out my Xmas chocolate, a 2 lbs box of See's candy I had kindly distributed the day prior before I went to the mall. About 6 people took a few from the top layer. Dustin, single handedly, finished about 12 of those chocolate pieces to himself. XD

*

So there we were, casually chatting with each other, him being on his Black Friday laptop, me doing some homework, waiting for the day to end. After about an hour, Dustin went to his first final. During this time, I realized that I didn't have much to do at all. All of the bookwork and workbook was less than anticipated, resulting in me being finished with most of my work at 9 AM, when Dustin arrived from his easier than expected Nutrition final. He had thought that this final was going to be hard, but it ended up being easy, apparently, even though it had 100 questions on it.

*

So there we were, again, casually doing work and what not. At some point, I grabbed my Rabbiman sandwich, my last one for a while... Kevin came by, mentioning something about a Saturday play, where he has to shave his head and act in underwear and pink high heels, and he invited us along. Dustin and I replied with a polite but firm NO. Then he left, after he had some of my Xmas chocolate.

*

Then Justin Vaughn and Phillippe arrived for a few minutes. They both gave us hugs and teased Dustin about being Santa Claus. I was staring at Dustin, feeling sorry for him because of how awkward that felt to him. After they left, we both pretty much agreed of how awkward it was. Dustin told me he felt very uncomfortable around both of them because of that. I told him about the few instances where I just felt like a teddy bear/mascot to them, and how Vaughn would sometimes bite me for some reason. I think, and I'm speaking for the both of us, that we can only take the gayness in doses.

*

Kevin returned, only with something different about him. He now had a bald head. I thought this was the opportune time to take a picture and send it to a few people. Only Kaitlyn replied with an "OMG OMG OMG!" Whether that was a good or bad OMG is a matter of opinion.

*

In the midst of studying for my Stats final, Dustin gave me a hug and left for his final final. So there I was, alone in the cafeteria, a rarity I thought would never happen seeing as a lot of people were usually in there. A claim only confirmed when Lyle came by a few minutes later, looking for Carolina. He was supposed to meet up with her at some point, only he had overslept. After some intense Stats studying, Lyle and I ended up talking about dreams for some reason. That kinda led to me showing him some dreams I had on my blog. That kinda led to him showing me some dreams he had on his blog. After reading some of his dreams, I felt like I got a little closer to him, in a less awkward sense. C:
*

Then, Lyle told me it was time for my Stats final, which I really didn't want to go to. Going to that class seemed very redundant and pointless to me. All of the material that was covered can basically be done on a calculator or I could already solve using some simple Algebra. I'm just glad I didn't have to show my work, that it was multiple choice, because I really couldn't put forth the effort of doing much else other than pushing a few buttons and darkening a few squares.

*

After the Statistics final, I found King, Taka, and Lyle with my Xmas chocolate. I had asked Lyle to wait until I got back, which I guess he made good on, seeing as he was there without Carolina. I kinda felt guilty that I did that because that basically meant that I made him wait by himself... When Lyle decided to leave, I gave him a pretty big hug, which was being distracted by Piper's phone call and Kaylah's texting, to try and make up for it. So, in a half hug, I held onto what I realized later as Lyle's behind while I was listening to Piper. About 10 minutes later, after the phone call finished, I realized where my hand had been and apologized. He said not for me to worry about it, so for that I just gave him a gargantuan hug from that awkward position, face against crotch potential and all. XD

*

Taka, King, and I then decided to go to Michael's because of our shirt making plans the next day and the big time gap between my two finals. We ended up at JoAnn's, basically Michael with a sex change and a sudden obsession with cloth. I told Taka that I would pay for the supplies, seeing as I was getting a shirt out of all of this. She was very hesitant though, stalling at which paints to buy and whether or not she needed to get some shirts or not. I pretty much just told her get more than you need in case you decide to do more projects, which she will what with having a number of ideas crawling around in her head about a side business. She had already come up with a logo and everything! I figure all of this was a worth while investment. C:

*

We also ended up at the SuperWalmart down the street from Taka's place to get some contact paper and an Xacto knife. We circled the aisles until we got dizzy and exausted, literally. So we grabbed two people. We ended up with the contact paper, some foam sheets for some repeated stenciling, and a pink Xacto knife. It was a very serendipitous moment indeed.

*

Before the Italian final, I met up with Professoressa Martinelli to see if she had my letter of reccomendation. She had me read it and I must say I'm happy that I've gotten to know her. It was filled with compliments that are too good for me. After a big hug, she asked about what she should do to the class to make it harder. It's true that the class was a little easy, but her perspective makes sense because she gossiped with me about a few people in the class, mentioned some names of people that shouldn't be in that class. I hadn't realized how much this annoyed her until then. Then we talked more about the previous week, asked about what I did. I pretty much told her what had gone on during the concert and what happened over the weekend while I walked her to class. I'm very glad I have the chance to talk to her in this casual fashion. I hope I can still keep in touch with her! C:

*

The Italian final wasn't so hard at all. It was pretty much like a test, only this time there wasn't the dictation portion, like there usually is. Instead, we read a little passage and answered questions from it. It was different, but needed because I felt the dictation was only needed for when we needed to know how to spell the words, not when we are just past that stage. Everything else was a breeze. When I turned in the test, we both said our Ci vediamos and bid each other farewell!

*

Mom picked me up from school, grabbed me a Taco Bell, and I fell right to sleep. XD

The Red Rings

Blog No. MALL: A Day of "Celebration"

And so begins the first day of finals.

*

I arrived early to study for the Chemistry final with King and Susan Surrandon. I wasn't so worried about the tests once I looked at the answer keys to the previous four tests this semester. Susan Surrandon was a little worried, however, because of the current grade she was currently sitting on. I'm currently at a low "C" in that class, which basically means if I pretty much get anything above a "D" on the final, I'm set. With that knowledge, I had put my mind at ease. I basically spent my first hour of studying by doing my final lab work and the second hour looking at the answer keys.

*

The final itself wasn't so hard. Of course we usually say this and end up having a lower grade than expected to show for it because of those darn stupid mistakes. In retrospect, the class is not so hard, but much rather it was because we came into this class with this loathing impression of the course from previous Chemistry classes. The Weissbart was a cool guy to talk to, especially now that we got him to call us Rabbiman and Susan Surrandon. So with this I say "So long!" to the Weissbart.

*

After the Chemistry final, Taylor decided that we should have a "celebration" for today. I originally planned to catch up on my Italian homework at home, but I suppose not having anymore Chemistry again for the rest of my life is reason enough to put that on hold and celebrate! And so ensues the impromptu celebratory Denny's lunch.

*

Taylor, Zack, and I met up with King, Susan Surrandon, and Phillip at the Denny's near Scandia. I ordered a french toast slam with hot chocolate. The hot chocolates are always good here, seeing as they usually make them extra chocolaty with extra whipped cream, not to mention unlimited refills and a few cents less than a soft drink. The only times I've ever came here was for after concert times, and whenever I had hot chocolate JT would usually engulf the whipped cream with his monstrous bear trap of a mouth and down all of my chocolate down his throat... So I was glad I actually enjoyed my hot chocolate. XD

*

After Denny's, Taylor, Phillip, Susan Surrandon and I took a trip to the Roseville Galleria. This was my official second time I've ever been to the Roseville Galleria. Compared with the other malls I've been to, this one is a lot more impressive... It's sad thinking about it really. I now have more of a firm knowledge of a few different malls now. It's weird how I look back and think I avoided the malls when now I seem to go every other day...

*

We pretty much walked in a circle around the mall, looking randomly at different things. We went to FYE, Gamestop, Hot Topic, Aeropostale (of course), and a few other clothing stores. I looked at a lot of shirts with Taylor, and a lot of posters at FYE, which mainly consisted of boobs, Edward Cullen, and the Jonas Brothers. He needed to look around for some Xmas gifts, so I kinda helped. Although, I couldn't help but try and look for myself in Hot Topic, seeing as everytime I go in there I always look for the checkerboarded stuff. XD

*

When we stopped by the bathroom, we noticed that there were a bunch of uniquely painted tiles leading up to it. The tiles were made by school kids from around the year 2000. We saw a bunch of cats and stripes and scribbly lines everywhere. Then Taylor spotted a crudely drawn Pikachu, which then sparked the Pokemon hide and seek game. I believe we found 2 pokeballs, 3 Pikachus, and an Oddish. The Oddish seemed a little out of place, but I guess it works. Taylor was so happy that we found it, too.XD

*

Taylor also needed to find some lip rings. Apparently, while he was being force fed some food, he had accidentally swallowed one of the balls off of one of the lip rings. He assured us that the piece of metal has passed through his system already... Anyway, we looked through a very limited supply of body jewelry at this little station in the middle of the mall. I suggested a pair of ruby red lip rings, seeing as he always seemed to wear red. I had also suggested the blue and silver striped ones, but Susan Surrandon said they were too gay, which I don't see why she said that seeing as the rings were meant for the gay guy... There were weird tye dye ones, ones with balls on the stars, and some that bent in different shapes that you kinda have to think about and wonder where they actually go... Taylor ended up with a plain pair of silver ones and the red ones I suggested for him.

*

After Taylor had put on one of his lip rings, we ended up going by the JC Penny to look for bed sheet. This reminded me that I still needed to get bed sheets for my bed at Santa Cruz, so I sent a quick text to Kaylah to ask what size bed would I get. She replied, "Twin XL." A Twin XL? So I'm going from a Twin bed to a Twin XL? What a luxury! XD

*

After everything was said and done, we decided to depart. Taylor took me all the way home after singing to a couple of tunes on the radio. The day trip was fun! Now if only I had time to do the Italian homework... XD

Santa Cruz Part VII: The Santa Cruz Quickie

Blog No. BLONDE: Winter Orientation

It's about time I returned to Santa Cruz. This time I'm here on official business. Winter Orientation is basically a time where the bigwigs of the University welcome the new transfer students and the one new freshman, as well as encourage the community atmosphere, answer any pending questions before the new quarter, and to enroll in classes.

*

After the train and bus trip, Kaylah and Beth picked me up for a quick trip to the Capitola Mall. There, we pretty much walked around shopping for Xmas presents. Now I would explain in detail where we actually went, but I think that will give away some of the surprise.

*

After the mall, we swung by a KFC/A&W to get root beer floats for our Toys R' Us journey. We went to Toys R' Us to try and get some possible gifts for our younger siblings. Kaylah got a soccer goal for her little brother. However, walking through the aisles, we found some of our old toy things. Kaylah found all the plastic food and plastic kitchenware. I found some musical instruments, like a small xylophone and small guitar. Look at us. The three of us are full grown adults... playing in Toys R' Us at midnight. XD

*

When we got to their home, we pretty much spent most of the time pulling up SNL videos. Kaylah, Beth, and Terry are pretty obsessed with a few of those, like "Mother Lover" and "Like a Boss" which took me off guard the first time they showed me those videos. The reason they pulled them up was because our friend, Paul, had not seen them yet.

*

The next morning, Kaylah drove me along the path of helium filled balloons, past the wonderful scenery, to Cowell college, where I signed in and grabbed some food. I had been to this dining hall before, back when Kaylah was a freshman on campus. Since then, they have remodeled the dining hall to the point where it looks like a shiny bistro. The atmosphere was very cool, and the food was simply delicious. The food is definitely a step up from the ARC cafeteria food. XD

*

I was kind of nervous of the orientation because it usually meant that I had to meet new people. I'm not really the kind of person to meet new people. It was funny though, because I sat near some cute asian girls. I was given an assignment by Dustin to find some asian girls for him when he came down. The girls I sat with were very shy, too, and I pretty much just smiled the entire time. They talked amongst themselves more though, in their own language, which made if feel so much more awkward because they would look back at me a few times... So, let the stalking of cute asian girls begin! XD

*

I sat through a few informative and funny speeches. Then afterward, all the transfer students seperate into the different fields of study, and then again for specific majors. Basically I walked up with the Social Sciences group, then branched off into the smaller Econ major oriented group. There, we went to a classroom where a few of the main teachers gave us a broad overview of the 3 main majors, Economics, Business Management Economics, and Global Economics, as well as discussed what opportunities are available to us and what we still need to do to start our core classes.

*

After I asked more about the Global Economics program, I walked into a Humanities lecture hall, which was rather huge and very comfortable. There, two advisers gave us the skinny of what other resources are available on campus and what not. I jotted down some notes and wrote down a few numbers for future reference.

*

At this point, we had a few options as to which seminar we could go to. What I did was I basically walked back to the dining hall, had lunch, then walked around to the various booths representing the different offices and clubs on campus and took a few papers and free stuff along the way. After, I started walking to the Stevenson computer lab to look and see if I could consult with people while I registered for some classes. Unfortunately, the line was atrociously long. So, I walked back to the dining hall, where it was pretty much empty now. I sat down at one of the tables and whipped out my sister's laptop, where I logged on to the UCSC portal and searched for classes. By the stroke of 2 pm, or our collective enrollment appointments, I had signed up for all three of my classes.

*

Being all proud of myself, I took a leisurely walk around campus and ended up at the bookstore. There, I walked in to try to find something for my mom for Xmas. I ended up getting her and I a shirt. After I walked out of the store, I walked next door to take a picture for my ID card, which I will get the day I move in on campus... They are putting a LOT of things on one day...

*

After, I was reminded that I should look at the Apple computers on sale on the second floor. Kaylah let me know about this sale, a regular Mac laptop and an All-in-One printer for $800, and I thought it would be a good time to look into it. When I got there, there was no one behind the counter, so I just played with the display computer for a few minutes. It basically reminded me of Kaylah's computer now. It was simple to use. However, I wanted my mom in on this decision so I decided to wait. So, after I bought some more stuff, (socks for Taka, boxers for Dustin), I walked across to the little restaurant.

*

I called up Piper, telling her about the offer. I remembered she hated Macs, so I wanted to get her POV on this deal. I also texted Abril, seeing as she was a Mac lover, to get her POV as well. After calling Terry and asking when they were returning home, I went back into the bookstore, having remembered that I should get a onesie for Lennox and a pullover for Piper. The register lady was laughing at me, asking if I was a new transfer student. She was pretty cool. XD

*

Bookstore---(Bus)---> Home

*

Dan welcomed me in. I hadn't seen him the last couple of times I visited, even though he, too, lived at that apartment with them. Last time he saw me was back when they were first paying for the apartment, when Piper came to visit. He was still as proper and artistic as ever. He called my new haircut "almost Tim Burton like, but in a good way." I looked at a few of his cartoons, which were pretty good. Corey had arrived, too, from out of town, and she was still as random as ever. XD

*

Just a few minutes after I got home, Terry and Beth arrived, too. We also decided to meet Kaylah at her work and go to dinner from there. By "meeting her at work" I mean walking from their house to just outside of downtown Santa Cruz at night. At least it worked up an apetite.

*

Did I mention Red Robin? We drove to Red Robin from Gigi's Restaurant. There isn't a Red Robin in Santa Cruz. The closest one was in San Jose. So... we basically drove for an hour for burgers... Kaylah ordered a tower of onion rings, and for Beth a basket of mozerella sticks for our appetizers. The appetizers alone were very delicious. I ordered a "banzai burger" which was basically a teriyaki slathered meat with pineapple, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. It was AWESOME. The trip was definitely worth it!

*

Now, Beth had "excused" herself to go to the bathroom. Little did we know, she actually told the Red Robin staff that it was "Kaylah's Birthday" which it was kind of true seeing as it was the first day of her new cake line at Gigi's. So, basically the waiters and waitresses gathered around our table and sang happy birthday to Kaylah, giving her a free sundae. Hooray for free ice cream! XD

*

After Red Robin, we decided to go and see some Xmas light displays. There was a park that gets closed down during this time of year for this kind of thing, where cars are able to drive through the various displays at night. That's where we basically were for about an hour. All of the lights were really neat and inventive. There was a pirate ship that had a Xmas light cannon shooting off every few seconds. There was a section dedicated to festive dinosaurs as well, for some reason.

*

After the drive home, we immediately fell asleep, after a six minute black out of course... Then Kaylah drove me to the bus stop at 6 AM, where I took an early bus back to Sacramento.

*

Yes, though this trip was a quickie, it was a fun trip nonetheless. XD

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Surprise Blog: F12 Holiday Concert

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The Santa Cruz Quickie transitioned really well with the F12 concert, seeing as I came back early just for that.

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F12 is the band that Taka, King, and Yowty plays in for their church. Last time, Parkarr and I went to their concert and sat in for a sermon, where they talked about one of my favorite passages in the bible.

*

This time around, F12 had their Xmas rally at the same place, where Parkarr, again, gave me a ride to.

I had left Lomo with Taka before I left, just so that I wouldn't worry about him while I went to Orientation.

*

Lomo happened to be with a row of Mienh people in front. A couple of them turned around to get my attention and handed Lomo off to me. Some how they knew who I was. I only recognized one of the girls from a video Taka showed me of her French Mienh friends... At least I think that was her... XD;

*

Parkarr and I pretty much stood the entire time they were up there. I had Lomo on my shoulders and helped him move around to the beat. After their set, there was another sermon. The lady pretty much compared Xmas gifts to the gift of worship, where she had her husband give her an empty Xmas box to prove the point that if you just left the gift unopened on a shelf, the gift given might as well not be there at all. Summarizing, she's basically telling us to utilize God's gift to us.

*

Following that, F12 played a few more, holiday themed songs. They all had Xmas hats on, which reminded me that I need to find my old Xmas hat somewhere...

*

After, Parkarr and I helped them break down the stage and set it back up for the following day. I finally met Chiam, or "Fake David" as I choose to call him. For some reason, everyone calls him David. He was pretty cool. The thing I most remembered about him was that he told me that, whenever I saw Taka, I need to pinch her cheeks, which was where he demonstrated how hard I should do so. XD

*

Most of us had hit the McDonald's up the road, like last time. I paid for Parkarr's food, seeing as he was broke and had not eaten for 2 days. I just got my usual chicken nugget meal with a hot fudge sundae as dipping sauce. Lomo got stuck with nothing, again. And yeah... Taka, Parkarr, and I just pretty much got caught up in our conversation. It was good that I arrive back in Sacramento earlier than usual, for these small moments with newer friends that are about to run out...

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A good note to end on. C: