Category: Life and Stuff

Not mine. Someone else’s.

My best friend on Guam, Victor, has left for boot camp. That actually affects my life directly. It hasn’t been so bad though, because after he had his baby about a year ago, I haven’t seem too much of him anyway.  Every time someone leaves the island though, like last time it was Rommel, it makes me wonder what I’m still doing here.

Guam really isn’t a bad place to live. I have great connections here and am making a good amount being self employed. I don’t know though… What brings people back to Guam are their friends and family, and all I have left here pretty much is Rhea and Rich. Jhonjhon is actually my last best friend on the island, but between WoW and work, I barely see him at all (once, twice a year maybe?).

Anyway, Victor leaving feels like a new chapter in my life too, but he’s been gone, and life goes on for me. Good luck Vic! I wish you all the best, because that’s what you deserve. Just wish you didn’t have to go so far to get it :/

I haven’t blogged much, but here’s a quick recap of the past month:

• Solved 4x4x4 cube
• Hackintosh’d my M1530
• Finished lots of website work
• Finished Freedom Fries original recording “Get Out”. They submitted it to Power 98. Listen!

Uh, that’s all for now, I guess. thanks!

So I was talking to Doc and Stevie B about the future of the UOG Music Department and it really got  me thinking. I mean, I’ve always been thinking about the future, but it’s mostly been a blur for me… Like, I really can’t see exactly where I’m going to be 5 years from now. Doc says that he has about 6+ years to retire, so he jokingly (or not?) mentioned to me that I should get my DMA so I can come back in time to teach!

Little backstory… I haven’t really had an entire day off since I graduated in Spring ’08. I teach lessons every day. Sunday/Saturday are my busiest teaching days. I do weddings in the daytime M-F. Even if I don’t have weddings, I teach. If I have a full day of weddings, chances are, I have a full day of teaching after that, and to top it off, a rehearsal. The money is good and the music is fun, but seriously, I want to have at least ONE day off out of the week 5 years from now.

Fast forward to this summer. When I went to the states for Jimmy’s grad, I visited the sax professor Dr. Radnofsky at New England Conservatory about the possibility of going there for Grad school. I didn’t bring my sax which disappointed him a bit, but he was VERY understanding and let me play one of his saxes. He was also impressed that I came from Guam, which was a plus for him because he travels often to smaller places trying to popularize classical saxophone playing. Anyway, I played for him and he was fairly impressed by my flexibility and my background. He told me that if I learned two pieces on a list of ten that he gave me, I would be in.

Yet another tangent (don’t worry, I am going somewhere with this). This year, I became a part of two new web companies: DRT Web Solutions with my friends and Gecko Labs, LLC with my brother and his best friend. I have been programming websites since high school, and I haven’t stopped learning new techniques and technologies ever since. I am well versed in XHTML, PHP, MySQL, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, etc…

So here are all my career possibilities at the moment (in no particular order):

• Running my recording studio (for those who don’t know me, I started it in 2005)
• Running my music store/distribution/repair (same, 2005)
• Wedding Pianist
• Music Teacher (private lessons)
• Grad School
• Web Companies
• Band Teacher (I haven’t totally pushed it aside)
• Gigging musician

I have several scheduling categories for myself: My day-job schedule, my night/weekend schedule, and my late-night schedule. Right now:

• Day Job: Wedding Pianist Full-time (40 weddings/mo)
• Nights/weekends: Teaching lessons
• Late-night: none

This is where I would like to be 5 years from now

• Day Job: Web programmer Full-time
• Day Job: Emergency Wedding Pianist (~5 to ~20 weddings/mo depending on season)
• Saturday: Teaching Lessons (a total of 8)
• Late-night: Gig one or two nights a week
• Sunday: DAY OFF

My web career is picking up quickly, so this doesn’t seem too far off to achieve 5 years from now. If I’m nowhere near this goal in 3 years, though, I am really going to consider going to Grad school to get my DMA in Music (sax) and being a full time Sax teacher/university professor while being a part-time web programmer.

This month I’m back up to my number in weddings (about 40). I also have just about all my students back, and a few new ones too.

I always get a little stressed out when I get new students because it’s always something new and different.  Every time I’ve had a new student, there’s always been a new challenge… tonguing problems, tone problems, air control problems… Sometimes I don’t have all the answers to all the problems, but I try my best to make them try different things.  This has worked most of the time, but I guess in the end, if the student is a natural (and I have maybe one or two), they’ll be able to feel it themselves.

Anyway, I guess I got what I asked for. I acquired a bit of debt over my summer vacation, especially from going off-island twice. I’ve been asking to get busy again so I can roll in the dough to pay off my debt from the vacation, and on top of that, I still have to work on paying my student loans and car. When will it ever end! (nevarrr)

I think I finally got around to sleeping at 3am last night, and I woke up today actually refreshed, even though I’m still sick.

I worked out a couple things today. I finished the B.J.F. Cruz website design and followed up with that. I also worked out a schedule with the flute student I was talking about in the last blog entry, so hopefully things will work out. I picked a couple pieces I hope he’ll like: Romance (Brun) and Fantaisie (Faure). They’re both pieces that I’ve worked with another flute student and the latter is a very popular piece for the Flute.

I have Symphony rehearsal tonight but I’m really not feeling up for it. I think I’m going to just go though because it’ll get me some fresh air instead of sitting behind my fortress of monitors all day like I usually do. Ciao!

Okay, I just received a bill in the mail saying that my power meter has been malfunctioning, causing whoever was reading my meter to be wrong… so they send me a bill with the adjustment of… $950!! WTF ?? Is it my fault that whoever has been reading my meter didn’t check this in time?

Apparently, Guam Law allows them to back-bill their customers 4-months behind if anything like this happens. Anyone got any tips on what to do about this? This really pissed me off… Not only do I not have the money to pay them, but it feels like I just got robbed @#%#$%

I have a really weak spot for the Mushroom Swiss Burgers (note the capitalization). Ever since I tried my very first one at Wendy’s back in middle school or high school, it has always been on the top of my to-order list. Unfortunately, the Wendy’s one is only offered on limited-time basises (basees?). The one at Burger King sucks too, because the meat is so small and everything looks so compressed and dry. The flavor isn’t there either.

Now, recently, McDonalds just came out with their Angus line of Burgers. I didn’t really care at first because I’ve been dieting and eating right, but lo and behold, there is a MUSHROOM SWISS VERSION of it!!! I still try to hold back because I really don’t want to off my “stay away from fast food” regimen, but I eventually cave in after asking Rich how it is.

I just ordered one and gawd, it’s like the best thing ever. The mushroom flavor is very husky and the beef taste isn’t as Angusy as some people say it to be. My only complaint is the same as Rich’s: not enough cheese. Otherwise, A+++++++ WILL BUY AGAIN!

So I went around the island with Rhea, Andrew, Rodrigo, and Austin. It was pretty fun and I didn’t go around in a really long time. We stopped about 3 places for sight seeing.

It’s a shame to see so little upkeep of Guam’s sites. Even Saipan’s sites are more beautiful to see than our insect-ridden, graffitied, piss-smelling sites. Anyway, that’s what little Island Pride I have in me coming out, but seriously, wtf.

Anyway it was fun mostly cuz I didn’t have to drive :D Andrew drove the whole time. Scared the crap out of us for the most part because he tends to swerve off his lane once in a while. But I came back in one piece. Yayz.

Okay nothing new to report. Bai.