Sleeping in, fancy dinners, and one minor explosion.

So after my forty-hour day, I realize that my body is more exhausted than I anticipated, because before I know it, I'd slept 14 hours, and it is 1 PM in the afternoon. Missed my office hours, missed my discussion, oh well.

So I get to school at 2 PM, and I have to finish my lab for Electrical Engineering 115AL. So I do my best to configure the circuit that is in my lab manual, I plug in the power supply and I turn on the oscilloscope (the machine that displays the electrical wave) and it's kinda spazzy, so I kinda wonder what's going on. After doing some tinkering with the oscilloscope, I have no idea what's going on, and I sit there pondering, when the most unexpected thing happens... my circuit blows up.

OK, maybe I'm being a little too dramatic; my capacitor blows up. Apparently, I had forgotten to ground my circuit and, as a result, my capacitor continued to charge when it just plain shouldn't have. So the thing blows up, there's dielectric crap all over my shirt and pants, and the entire class is staring at me. And the professor comes by, looks at my experiment, unplugs the power supply, takes my now-exploded capacitor, and says "Yup, that's a keeper."

And that my friends, was my "mad-scientist" or my "he-doesn't-know-what-the-hell-he's-doing,-does-he?" moment of the year (until I do something even more crazy or idiotic, which is due in about a week or so).

So fast forward to Saturday evening and the Pilipino Alumni Association's fundraising benefit. So it's become an annual tradition to come to this dinner, and every year there's some sort celebration connecting my undergrad experience to this place: Two years ago was Samahang's 30th anniversary, last year was Pilipinos In Engineering 10th anniversary, and this year I was getting one of their PAA scholarships. It's interesting that every year I feel like I know more and more people at these things; guess it's because I'm close to being one of them. I remember being a 2nd year in Samahang leadership and listening to how frustrated some of the older Samahang leaders were in trying to negotiate a relationship with PAA. It was like PAA was the group of "apolitical, bourgeoisie, non-progressives" while Samahang was more "in-touch with the community".

Of course now I realize that it was a really big generalization, but I could see how students could interpret the alumni association back then. It's difficult for older folks to humble themselves to talk to youngins as equals, and while not all alumni are like that and take the effort to really ask for the student perspective, there are enough of old school folks who like to hear the sound of their voice, and they exist in all organizations, including PAA and Samahang. Hell, I even spoke with the PAA Board once this academic year, and there were a few folks more interested in telling us what we SHOULD be doing, instead of OFFERING what WE REQUESTED of them. And likewise, I think Samahang could not understand the constituency and needs of the alumni community, which for the most part, are middle-class Pilipinos with steady jobs, 2.3 kids, and relatively well-off band of professionals. So Samahang should not have expected PAA to take the political stances that Samahang champions; that's not PAA's job. I think as I've become more exposed to PAA, I've come to better understand what PAA is and what it isn't, and just because it is not completely philosophically in line with Samahang's work, by no means does it make PAA an enemy. And fortunately, the PAA today has some old SPEAR counselors on their Board, which by their nature gives them a better sense of diplomacy in these matters. And now with the Pilipino Studies Campaign giving us more focus in our roles, I really see the relationship between Samahang and PAA becoming much more real and concrete.

Anyways, the dinner went well. I got to see a lot of old Samahangers, some I went to school with, most I didn't, but nevertheless, they all felt like family. They asked me what I planned to do next year, and I told them about my crazy idea; I was thinking of running for Samahang president. And maybe the drinks were flowing well that night, because I got crazier responses: they thought it was a good idea.

So if you haven't heard, yeah, I'm seriously thinking about running for President for Samahang next year. If you asked me last year if I would even consider running for President, I would have shot you down so fast... I would have shied away from the responsibility and the high profile that a president gets. But this year as Retention Coordinator has really changed me. I think my understanding of Samahang, coalition building, campaign organizing, and the community's need has grown exponentially over the past year. Intimidating tasks like talking with UCLA administrators, hiring project staff, and tackling university policy feel much more grounded and real, and I realize they are not as difficult as I had made them out to be. The projects still exist, the campus hasn't reduced into chaos, and to some extent, I've learned a great deal about what we should be doing to best serve the people and have improved what we had last year.

And within just one short year, I suddenly have this sharp, and more importantly, concrete vision of where I would like to see Samahang next year. I want to see us revise our constitution, and de-mystifying the constitutional review process to allow general membership to learn about the community and even help articulate the direction of the organization for the next several years. I want to see the committee system be further defined, with that committee culture really be cultivated during the summer. I especially want to see the Committee for Pilipino Studies become deeply grounded within Samahang, seeing how specifically the job responsibilities of four Samahang Board positions overlap through the Committee, and whose work can augment, and be augmented, through the Committee. My ideas go on and on, but the most important thing is that I understand that these ideas don't mean anything unless the Board, Samahang leadership, and the general members take ownership of these ideas and make it theirs. And so ends my candidate speech. =D

So after I accepted my scholarship and chased down a bunch of Samahang alumni's contact info, I drove home w/my roomies and we watched Kill Bill, Vol. 1. All I can say is is that the truly great movies are the ones that you enjoy more the more times you watch it. This is one of those movies.

One of these days, I'll shock all of you and just write one sentence in my entry and fifty people will respond asking me what the hell is wrong with me. But now is not one of those times.