Aloha From the Road 01

SugahDaddy Road Trip.

Got into SF airport on Sunday morning. Flight over sucked pretty bad, not looking forward to the return flight. We did a show on Sunday night in San Gregorio. It went really well. We did out "acoustic show" and it was well received. We had Monday off to recover from a busy Sunday. We checked out the town of Half Moon Bay, really nice place. Went back to san Gregorio and watched Kill Bill #1 &#2 . It was frickin' cold at night. No phone service or internet where we're staying. I'm zapping form Santa Cruz right now. We did a radio show today at KUSP FM. Did a few tunes. They said they'll post the podcast on their site. I think i played a little junk, took me a little while to get used to the sound in the room. Hopefully it doesn't suck too much.

We're playing Don Quixote's in Felton tonight. There' some buzz about it, hopefully it'll be good.

Til the next post.

Aloha from Borders, Santa Cruz

Outside Looking In

I injured my shoulder during Kendo practice the other day. It was so tight that I couldn't lift it and just stopped working. Luckily its been feeling better and nothing major has been broken. I went to practice on friday and sunday just to watch and observe practice. I really wanted to join in, but the rational side of me just kept telling me "if you rest now you can do a lot of Kendo later" I was surprised that I felt frustrated, but I did learn from watching. Imagine how pissed I would be if i practiced and got hurt again!

Work has been good and things are almost back to normal now. At least I don't need to take antacid tablets for breakfast. Also, the band is getting ready for our stint in the Mainland at the end of the month. It'll be a welcomed change. Need to recharge my batteries a little. The band is getting some write-ups in a few local magazines coming out soon, hopefuly it'll get us the right connections here. Its odd, we do well everywhere else except where we live. It'll be nice to do a few more gigs at home.

Hope the week starts out good for you all.

One Year....

Our cake top that was in the freezer. It actually tasted good.

Yesterday my wife and I celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary.

It was an adventure leading up to it. Its was planned very quickly and just invited family and a few friends. The weather was beautiful.

We had the ceremony and reception on a strip of beach my cousin and I used to walk through when we were young. Since we got married on 05.07.05, we had all our guests write haikus use them as a part of our album. We also tried to be thrifty about it. I got a traditional Filipino Barong Tagalog shirt made of pineapple fiber (since I'm also Chinese, my father insisted on a mandarin collar) and C***n's mother and sister made her dress. My sister made an awesome cake (tasted so good).

I can't believe its already been a whole year. I've enjoyed married life so far.... not too different from before, since I've been with my wife for a while. It was nice to tie the knot. Anyways, here's some pics to remember the day. Pics are by Brad Goda. He's pretty much a bad-ass. I'm trying to put a little website together of the wedding to share later. Hopefully I can have it up soon.


Our invite


Standing on a patch of (?)


Should've taken my slipper off.


My sis made the cake.

Rally 'round the Flag....

I've been put to the test these past few weeks.

Busy is good (I keep telling myself). I haven't experienced this kind of stress level since I had my operation. My body and my mind have been so disjointed. I think my soul has carried the burden for a little while now. Last week at keiko I came in late and I had the hardest time concentrating by the time we got into jigeiko, my feet were in major pain, my shoulders stop working and my stomach was burning. I tried to suck it up and go forward (mentally). Sitting in seiza trying to catch my breath , I tried to get up and get some jigeiko action. SY- came by and told me my face looked purple and said i should take off my men. For her to tell me that was a good indication that i didn't look well. She gave me some pain reliever and rested a little. I felt collected enough to get one more jigeko in w/ T-sensei. It was good to overcome.

Yesterday was a barrage of design missiles. There was a project that was supposed to go to print two days ago and only got images for the layouts Monday afternoon. One person held everything up and had three weeks to get this together. Alas by the time i got them, my back was against the wall. I finally finished it and delivered the CD to the publisher. What a load off my shoulders, then the massive headache came. I still have a small headache. But it was good to overcome.

After keiko last night, Y-sensei, F-sensei and U-sensei and myself were left at the end and were talking about practicing with your heart. It was a really interesting discussion. We all practice for different reasons. F-sensei had a medical condition i which they didn't know if he was going to ever do kendo again. I really understand how he felt. I guess that's why i really listen intently on what he tells me. I also understand and admire SY's tenacious, "never say die" attitude. She's also been in some major medical stuff. If for some reason, I couldn't practice Kendo forever, I'd miss it, but I would be very happy with the knowledge I've been given because its been given freely and with the best intent.

You need courage to live your life. Some days I don't feel like doing work because I'm scared or fear failure. Courage helps you weather the storm and when it passes your confidence rises. Its not easy, but its important.

- - - - - - -

I've been trying to find some songs on my iPod that could lift me up and found this.

Steel Pulse's "Worth his Weight in Gold". Its about Marcus Garvey, encouraged people of African descent to return back to Africa and build their respective nations. He had a steamship line called the "Blackstar Line" to bring them back to their home.

"Rally 'round the flag, rally 'round the flag
Rally 'round the red, gold, black and green.....

Marcus say, so Marcus say:
Red for the blood, that flow like a river,
Green for the land, Africa....
Yellow for the Gold that they stole.....
Black for the people they looted from...."

"In our hearts is Mount Zion
Now you know seek the Lion"

Its good to overcome. Time to rally 'round the flag.
upward and onward.