Happy New Year Everyone!!

Wow, it's 2005. 2 days ago it was 2004. WTF? Anyways...once again I haven't been blogging...what is wrong with me? I keep saying I will, but I don't. Ok one of my new years resolutions...TO BLOG! Well 2004 was a pretty interesting year. Lots of ups and downs but I'm still striving to go forward. So here are my new year's resolutions for 05....

1. To drink a lot of water....haha...anyone see that aquafina commercial?? I saw that like how many times and I don't know what it is about it...but it just made me want to drink water! I mean I really should cuz I've downing too much soda, but that's my #1 for this year...

2. Go to the gym and freaking work out. To many of you out there I may look like a tiny guy, but dude, don't let that fool you. I freaking weigh 150 lbs! How? I don't know, probably all that holiday weight from eating turkey, lechon, turkey, lechon, I was feasting man! I have a Bally Total Fitness account with my roommate, and we're like paying for it every month without even using it...what a waste....I'm about to be muscular....yeah right...

3. Use my studio more. I have this small recording setup/studio in my house. I could produce songs, write songs, make professional sounding CD's etc. etc. but I don't do anything with it! I just wake up every morning and look at it, and tell myself that I'll do something tomorrow....but you know what...forget about tomorrow I'll do something today! SHoooot I'll try to do something everyday! THere you go that's a goal...a song a day....hmmm....

4. Be more organized and make sure things that are due by a certain date are ready at least 2 days before. I think I've been pretty organized with my schedule so far, but I always find myself stressing and getting things done the day before something is due, like for projects such as these little booklets i have to make for church. It's not that I don't get it done...it's just that I'm getting it done and cutting it too close...none of that this year....this includes hw....

5. LASTLY...ME NEEDS TO SAVE MORE MONEY....geez...I now have two jobs, as a music director for two churches, earning double what I was before, and I spend up the ass just like that! You know where most of my money goes? To my stomache, cuz I eat all these expensive plates of food. I need to start cooking more at home, and get them chef skills in me up. But yeah...i really need to start saving more money....

Well that's all for now. Good night all, gonna blog more soon....


Allen

A Sexy nurse and some bullshit.... 

LaS ChiCaS: Erin B., Vanessa, My Erin, and Abby 

Cecilia, Me and Angel 

Costume Party

So last night, I went to a costume party with Erin, Erin B., Vanessa, Genesa and Christine. My friend Cecilia throws a costume party every year and for this year she rented out a club for the night up in Frisco. I hella wanted to get this roman statue costume, just because it looked and it hella looked like you could be a statue and just chill there, but being the late looker that I am, it was all sold out, or I just couldn't find it, so I ended up being a piece of shit with bull horns and a bull's tail, so therefore, a bull shit! I thought it was an ok costume till people kept coming up to me and asking me, what are you!?! I'm like dude, I'm brown all over with horns and and a tail. Maybe I should've carried a roll of toilet paper around with me, that would've probably helped them more.
So when we get there, we find out that it's a 21 and up club, which was bad news for the girls except for my Erin cuz she has a fake ID. My friend Cecilia tried to get the bouncers to start checking ID's at 11:00 but they ended up starting earlier which kinda spoiled our plans. So she first bring Erin B. and Vanessa in, and it worked. She pretended that they were with her earlier and they just walked in. The she tried to bring Genesa and Christine in, and that didn't work. The bouncer was like, I don't remember letting you in!?!? Hmmm....; So probably after an hour of standing outside trying to wait for Genesa and Christine to get in, they finally decided to leave cuz they weren't trying to spoil anyone's night, so they left and Erin and I go in, and buy the first round of drinks. Man I got pretty drunk last night. Well not too drunk, but drunk enough not to be the driver for the night. Basically all we did, was dance, drink, take pictures and laugh our asses off. Fun times.

Wow it's really been long!!

Wow, it's really been very long since I last wrote in here. I seriously will start updating this more often, just because I also like looking back on my days and see how I spent them.

This past weekend I went to LA with my friend Jason. That was hella fun. On our first night there we went to the Lakers Game up in Staple Center, man is that a beautiful clean place. Had some beer and this dry-ass turkey sandwich. I hella wanted to get some chicken nuggets afterwards, but eh. I took a couple pictures of Kobe Bryant, but I can't seem to find them on my camera. The only pics I see are of the Laker Girls..hehe...yeah...they did a lot of routines...so yeah..had to get some memories of those ya know..afterwards, we had to drive all the way to Anaheim, which was where we made our hotel reservations for the Crowne Plaza, not realizing that it was the farthest place we chose to make it more inconvenient for us.
The next day we visited my friend Matt Jennings, dude that I always write songs with. Man he got some cool new jams, and some time within these next couple weeks he's gonna kick it with Boyz II Men, wtf? It took us like 2 freakin hours to get to his place cuz LA is so crackin that it has traffic 24 hrs. a day! Craaaazzzy s*** man! My ass was falling asleep from sitting down in the car too long and driving like 5 mph. So we finally get to Matt's place, and eat at Panda Garden, which was crackin too....then we go back to his place, to find out that his keyboard is messed up. So we couldn't really write yet, I tried fixin it, but no luck. So Jason and I just left and went to Northridge Mall, which was also crackin. I paid a lady 20 bucks to cut my hair and even gave her wrong directions cuz I realized afterwards that my hair was shorter than it normally was. Oh well. After that we headed back for the hotel.


Well there's more that happened but gotta go for the mean time...
Pictures and other pictures later....

It's been hella days....

Wow it's been like hella days since I last posted in here.... so much has happened between then and now... aww thanks to those of you that left me a comment :)...

Well I guess I'll just mention the major things that has passed....two weeks ago... my adult choir had thrown me a surprise party which I kinda knew about so it wasn't really a surprise.... it was so touching and man I was about to cry when people went up and said some words about me... the speech that really surprised me was Fr. Vincent's (our pastor at St. Clement's). He seemed angry at the fact that I was leaving, and he said he was gonna make his speech short....but it ended up being hella long! So yeah...

Then...that Friday, I was planning to go and watch Bourne Supremacy with my roommate when my baby Erin calls me up and tells me she wants to be with me even though I had already made plans with my roommate..so I'm like okkkk......and then she takes me to Justin LaCap's house where my dearest youth choir threw me a surprise party....how sweet guys!!! Thanks alot!! They all wrote me very sentimental letters that were reminiscent of the past two years that I've had the pleasure of working with them...

So that weekend was my last weekend at St. Clement's. After 2 1/2 years, I must admit that I will definitely miss that parish, especially the people whom I've had the opportunity to work with. I wouldn't be the person I am today if it weren't for them and the experiences that I've undergone. I've learned alot from them and hopefully they've learned alot from me too, but I will forever cherish the memories that I have of St. Clement's.

That being said, I could say a new chapter in my life began. St. Edward's. While it was hard to leave St. Clement's, St. Edward's just made it so welcoming for me. My first weekend there was yesterday, I played at 7 masses...but it didn't even feel that long. After each mass, people came up to me and were just congratulating me right and left, that I couldn't leave the church for some of my 30 min. breaks. They are such a welcoming and accepting community, and I notice they adapt to change very well. I mean yesterday, was practically the first day, when the new pastor, Fr. Jeff Keyes began, along with me, so I was expecting the people to react a little bit different, but they took it rather well.

I know that I am going to enjoy working at St. Edward's. For one, the opportunities for me there, are humongous. I mean I can't even say how much they've got in store for me, but I believe it will take me somewhere, through the graces of God that is. I mean the whole reason I am where I am at is because God has blessed me tremendously, and I very thankful for that. Remember whenever anything good comes, it always must be a gift from God.

Anyway, as I was saying, aside from the opportunities being offered at St. Edward's, my boss, or pastor Fr. Jeff Keyes, is one awesome priest. I mean I've just met him recently, which was through the process of interviews, and our first weekend at the job, but this guy has so much to offer. First, I would like to thank him for giving me this opportunity to hire me as the Music Director, because if you guys knew what I was up against, it didn't look good. And what I mean by that is, being St. Edward's, and having such a wonderful community that attends, EVERYone and I mean ALL the professionals went for this job. I'm talking about people with their PHD's, Master's, Bachelor's degrees, and people with perhaps my 21 years of being alive experience or possibly even more. But with the help of Fr. Jeff Finley, and Fr. Jeff Keyes decision, he chose me! He had heard what I had done at St. Clement's and thought there was more room for me to positive damage at St. Edward's that he hired me. So, Fr. Jeff, (both Keyes, and Finley) Thank you!!!

No sleep....

Wow, it's like 6:15 in the morning, and I haven't gone to bed yet. AND I have to be at church at 7:30AM for the 8:00 mass...amazing huh? I swear lately, I've been really messing up my sleep schedule...it's like every night my bed time is like 5:00 in the morning....man...I really gotta change this habit....

Haven't blogged in a while so here's what's been going on lately....

So I got back from LA last week, with about 4 - 5 songs in the making...When I'm done with em, I'll be sure to let you all hear it...my studio in my room is now up and running, despite all the problems I've been having with it, due to the fact that my sound modules were like screwing up...I hella wanna get back to songwriting here alone in my room away from the whole world to see what I can come up with...

I've been drinking alot this week...it was my roomie's bday on Thursday, so we drank up Wed night...it was my first time to ever try "Newcastle" beer --- that stuff is pretty good!!! It does not taste like beer at all! It's sweet and it goes down hella easily, and with just a couple bottles you start getting tipsy! In my case since I'm a lightweight, I think I was on the verge of tipsy and drunk...haha...Thursday, on my roomie's actual bday, we went to Dave and Busters, and I really drank up there. Bought dinner and had like 2 drinks and bought 2 shots of Courvoisieur....that stuff burns!!! Hella nasty but gets to ya after a while....


I had hella laundry to do, and finally did it today, or should I say last night, (since it's Sunday morning now). Man I always tell myself to not let my laundry pile up so I don't run out of clothes, and so I won't have such hard time taking these huge loads of clothes to the laundrymat, since we don't have a washing machine here, but NOOOO I have this bad habit of procrastination. I really gotta get over that!!Damn!! But yeah...pretty much got it done, and am almost done folding them...had to stop cuz my friend Jason came over and we've been writing a song for his grandma for the past couple of hours so yeah....

That's pretty much all that's been happening lately...more later...gotta get ready for church now....


Good morning peeps!!!

LA is so freakin far......

So I'm finally here in LA...it took me like 5 1/2 freakin hours to get here but it's all good, cuz I think it's worth it. I got here last night at about 2 in the morning....so I was pretty exhausted after a long drive, and just crashed as soon as I got to my friend, Matt's place. It's hella weird, cuz Matt's roommate, is Matt LeBlanc's cousin. (Joey from friends!) Sheesh Matt and his family just know all these celebrities!!

This morning I woke up at like 12:30...haha...I shouldn't even say morning, but afternoon...ate some Wendy's, and started songwriting. We started like a couple songs, and so far its sounding pretty tight. We're trying to work on stuff to turn in, perhaps to the Underdogs, (they've written for Justin Timberlake, Brian McKnight, Tyrese, and all these other stars...) and we're also writing stuff for me to put on a personal album of mine. So we were, writing for like a good 3-4 hours, and we finally realized it was time for us to get ready to go to the Dodgers v.s. Giant's game at Dodger Stadium. Woohoo, my first live baseball game to ever go to!

We got there at about 5:30. I swear there be hella traffic around LA. It'll take you like 40 minutes just to get to a place that should only take you 10! So we took the backroads to get to Dodger Stadium, and when we got there, we were driving by hella ticket scalpers. Matt got 5 tickets right behind left field, which was family seating, so there was no beer....BOOOO....so we were trying to trade all 5 for at least some better seats where we could at least drink some beer. Turns out that all these ticket scalpers are so shady and just want money up the ass that we couldn't get better tickets, so we just sold 3, and got a free parking pass, and kept 2 for ourselves. We got in at about 6:00 and just watched the Giants practice. Barry Bonds knocked one out of the field during practice!! Finally, the game started, and MAN did we get hated on!! Matt is a die-hard Giant's fan so he wore his Giant's apparel, and we were just hella getting dogged! There were these 5 people, probably our age, that were sitting in front of us, and every giant fan that would walk by, they'd hella boo, make hella messed up remarks, and say they were ugly. I was all thinking to myself, man look at yourselves, ya'lls are hella ugly....and they were too!! One of those people, was this guy, who looked like an ugly ass girl with A-cup titties, I swear I felt like throwing my Coke bottle at him! His jacket fell under the bleachers, so I poured hella peanut shells that Matt and I ate on it....haha...So the Giant's kicked the Dodger's ass 7-1. We were happy. That was a pretty cool experience for me being my first baseball game. I think I'm gonna get into baseball now....


And here I am now, writing what seems forever, in my blog......well that's it so far....tell you more later...


Good night guys...


oh yeah...Happy Birthday Min-MIn!!!

hella excited

Man, I really should be going to sleep right now, but lately I've been sleeping hella late. Tomorrow I'm going to have a nice solitary drive to LA, so that I can songwrite with a good friend of mine who is a lyrical genius! His name is Matt Jennings. My friend Drey and I always talk about how his last name is so "white"--Jennings-- when in fact he's hispanic. We just thought it was weird. No offense Matt!!

I met Matt through another friend of mine that I use to go to school with at DeVry. It was hella weird how all these things happened and how it lead up to where we all are right now....but...one day, a very long time ago, at DeVry, in room 213, during Math class, I happen to glance at my friend's binder and noticed that he had a piece of sheet music on the front of his cover. He had one of those binders that had a clear plastic insert cover that you could slip in papers or what not to have your own cover. Well anyway, that piece of music had no title, so being the curious dork I was, I was like forever staring at his binder trying to analyze the notes trying to figure out what song it was. Turns out it was the song from Casper, "Remember Me This Way". And just to make sure, I asked him if it was it, and he said yeah. Then he asked me if I played piano, and I told him, yeah a lil bit. So he invites me over to his house one day, and he asked me to play for him, and he was shocked! I don't know why, but afterwards he was like, you have to meet this one friend of mine who also songwrites like you....and that guy was Matt.

So I meet up with Matt and we clicked just like that! It was one of the most amazing experiences a person with the same musical wants could ever go through. I mean this guy has written so many songs that could probably add up to 3-4 albums. So Matt and I start songwriting a lot. And during then, he introduces me to Drey, whom most of you would know as that one dude from Kai. Well, when I first met Drey, he was in the middle of establishing a new group called 6th Day, whose album is coming out soon hopefully.

So anyway, Matt and I had alot of songwriting ventures, I guess you could say. I swear he is a lyrical genius. Most of the time I just write a chord progression and he'll come up with the words. The first song we ever wrote was for this one 25 year old girl that I had a huge crush on! The lyrics were just perfect for the situation. Here I am a 19 year old and there she is a 25 year old, yet all that mattered to me was if we were happy with each other...haha...that's if we ever got together...which didn't exactly happen..I listen to that and laugh at myself for feeling that way....

Well, all that happened when Matt lived here in Fremont....sadly he moved away down south onto a better job for his career, closer to the entertainment industry, which is why I will be driving for 5 1/2 hours to write and chill with him....

I couldn't end this blog of course, without thanking God, for blessing me with all these perfect opportunities. The Almighty One just seems to have a path for me to follow, and I doubt I'm on the wrong track, cuz so far all these people I've met, definitely have God-given qualities....talent, and most of all friendship.....Thanks, God!!


Till then...