School basically tore me apart this semester. I had devoted my all to my senior design project and working on the rocket. All in all we had a lot of failures with it and nothing got out of the computer simulations and into real life design/testing. I was so driven to make it suceed and the project took a toll on me mentally and physically and caused strains between me and all the people around me. I almost made the decision to shut the project down at the end of this semster, however taking a break and talking to a lot of people we decided to take a different approach to it which will take less effort, though it will spread it out over the next 2 years. A few other things finally fell into place regarding the additional funding and outside help we had been in need of all semester right at the end here, which has brought up everyone's spirits and encouraged us to keep going...

My pursuit of a job for after graduation has yielded a few promising things. I was offered a job at NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, AL a couple weeks ago. It's a federal intern program for a 2 year contract working on the propulsion and space environmental testing for the ARES rocket, which will take our astronauts back to the moon in the next decade. It sounds like an interesting job, but I have yet to make a decision given that I'd like to actually see where I'd be working, meet some of the people, and get a taste for what the job is like first. I guess NASA is going to fly me out there at some point next semester so we'll see then. Northop-Grumman also informed me they'd like to fly me out to their California facility in January for a 2nd interview and a company tour. So far things are looking promising and I'm sure I'll know more very soon.

I leave to go visit the family in MN next Friday. Lindsay is coming along as well. We're renting a car and driving there since it is cheaper to rent a car for a week and a half these days than get a single airline ticket. LMAO! Before that, we're going to spend a day at her parents house here to do the christmas thing with her family. It'll be interesting having 2 christmas's now, but I'm sure it'll be a good time

Be sure to check it out and I would appreciate any feedback you might have.

You can listen to it at http://www.myvibe.ca

Thank you all and I hope you tune in!!!

Wow it's been a long time since I have posted a blog. I guess that's a testament to how busy I am and how much I'd rather spend what little free time I have elsewhere. I do miss the amount of writing I did to my blogs in the past. Writing my thoughts has always been a good way to collect them and see just how I feel. I do hope to write more often in the coming times.

College started back up again this fall about a month ago. I am now a part time student and will be graduating next May. Though in three classes, I can only say that I actually give a shit about one - my senior design class. I am leading a project that I have been putting together for the past three years under wraps and finally getting to see it realized, which is much more than I actually ever believed would happen. The goal of our team is to be the first student led team in the country to design, build and fly a sub-orbital rocket that will break the internationally recognized boundary of space - 100 kilometers (62.5 miles). There have been several other teams that have this as their goal however none have yet suceeded. So far things are looking good. I have spent a good portion of this semester running computer simulations to characterize our launch vehicle's performance given our design constraints and things are now moving from simulation to testing and prototyping. We have received sponsorship from several corporations, including NASA and Boeing, for this project, although we are not yet close to the total amount of funding we will need for the successful completion of the project. Nothing we're doing here is totally new and all relying on technology that has been proven to work by many others people over the history of spaceflight. I am excited to see how this will all unfold!

I have begun the long dreaded process of interviewing for jobs after college, especially this week with the career fair hitting the NMSU campus. Plan right now is for me to graduate and then move to Albuquerque and work for a little while Lindsay finishes up her Elem. Ed degree at UNM. Who knows though...so far I've interviewed for jobs with NASA Marshall spaceflight center working on the new lunar lander, NAVAIR, John Hopkins Advanced Physics Lab, MIT's Lincoln Labs, Hewlett-Packard, and Northrop-Grumman. The first four of that list I am really interested in, though none of them are in the NM area. NASA has already shown a strong interest in me in regards to that position and so that is really exciting. I have always hated interviewing and some of these recent ones made me hate the process even more. It's totally unknown what to expect and they have all left me drained. Some just feel like giving me a psychological profile test, some will slam me with engineering problems, some just care about my work, some just care about my school, and the variation goes on and on...I feel now how I did getting close to graduating high school - scared, lost and confused. I hope something materializes quickly...

The last three years in Sigma Chi has culminated this semester in us finally pulling in the number of guys we need to get initiated. Semester after semester we struggled and would pull in a bunch of new guys only to have our numbers diminish to what they were before at the end of the semester. We managed to double our numbers this semester and it puts us at 32, just short of the 35 needed, but our province chairman is going to press our nationals to initiate  us with that number. So the date will likely be somewhere in January or February! We finally look like a real chapter now. Now the 4th biggest fraternity at NMSU - It's incredible!

Well, It's late and as much as I want to write more I must sign off. I am going to hold myself to writing more often and hopefully that will help much with the amount of stress that all these things have put on me (though not in a bad way always of course). I have enjoyed this semester very much so and am looking forward to the rest of it!

Music Stuff

Be sure to check it out and I would appreciate any feedback you might have.

You can listen to it at http://www.myvibe.ca

Thank you all and I hope you tune in!!!

Well, this past weekend was finally the big Santa Fe Muzik Fest. After all the hype it lived up to it in some ways and in other ways I wish I had never been there. Good things happened, good music was played, but so did many bad things and I'll elaborate on everything later...

I left with Lindsay early Friday morning to head to the SFe downs. We got there about a half hour before they were supposed to open it up to people and there were a few cars already at the entrance being held there by the gate guy until 10AM. We told him I was a DJ and he said to go check in, which we did and we were given artist wrist bands and let in free. I had previously bought 4 tickets since I was told artists could only get in free the day they play + 1 guest and since I wanted to spend the whole weekend there bought the tix for me and Lindsay. That in my opinion was totally not cool on the promoters' end, is absolutely unheard of, and is honestly very stingy of them to do.Upon getting in free and finding out I'd be able to be there the whole weekend free I got a little upset for spending 120 bucks on tix I'd never use. However I managed to find someone to buy them and sold them for 80 bucks. We set up our tent across the field in the artist/vendor campground and met a bunch of the people there before everything started.

Friday was about the best day of music the whole weekend. Got to see Hieroglyphics (dope underground hip-hop), Wu Tang (not the greatest band, but hey, they're old skool famous), Bassnectar (never seen him but he was awesome doing a live PA set!), Louis Osbourne (famous House DJ/Producer), Micro (classic Trance guy), Rabbit in the Moon (OMG so amazing! See review below!) and of course our locals on my stage, the Electro Tent. Unfortunately I missed Public Enemy cause I didn't want to leave RITM and it would have been awesome seeing Flava Flav and Chuck D going off on their Anti-Bush Tirades that I was hearing about for the rest of the night. LOL!

Wu Tang

I do have to say I am saddened at the loss of my digital camera on Friday. I don't know if I set it down and didn't pick it up moving from place to place or if it had gotten stolen from my tent or something, but it disappeared sometime early evening. I managed to find some other people's pics though and put them here to see and I will update as I find more pics.

Our stage had the sickest sound setup of the 3 that were grouped right next to each other. It was kinda a shame that they were so close and I know other bands said they had trouble with sound from other stages interfering and so I think the promoters should separate them more if they do this again. We also had a great lighting system, but we lacked any amount of decorations in there. No projection screens even! Unlike the other tents...

The drama started a little before Wu Tang went on in the afternoon. The promoters came and pulled our tables and needles off our stage right in the middle of Adrack's set, claiming Wu Tang needed them because none were over there. They soon after pulled the mixer off as well. We were able to get a new mixer and some shitty decks, but had no needles and as I was the only one who had brought needles, I had to donate the use of them or nothing would have gone on the rest of the day. I was rather upset at the promoters for this as it was quite unprofessional and illprepared of them for not having equipment on a MAIN STAGE. Nor do I think it was fair that our gear should be pulled because either Wu Tang or the promoters were fuckups that day! Hell in my opinion I and the other locals on my stage play FAR BETTER music than Wu Tang, but I guess my opinion is worthless to the promoters in the face of a bands notoriety compared to me just being a local nobody. Compensation for the use of my needles was a fighting point between me and the guy in charge, however I was eventually able to secure 2 all-access VIP passes. Better than nothing I guess...

Rabbit in the Moon came on at 9PM and that was by far the best show I saw at the fest and takes the cake for the best live show I have ever seen! They did a live PA, composing music as they went along and had two performers who did the most amazing performances I have ever seen!. It absolutely blew my mind. I definitely have to go see them again!

"Bunny" - The dancer from Rabbit In The Moon

Rabbit In The Moon's Fire Dancer

Bunny's LED Suit - Coolest thing I've ever seen at a concert!

Saturday came and in was once again hotter than hell as soon as the sun came up. I spent most of the day between the Electro tent and VIP tent trying to keep cool. I got to talk with the people that were actually putting this on, a husband a wife couple who owned the SFe Volvo dealership. They were nice, good-intentioned people and I was able to voice my concerns about the fest and gained a little more respect for it after talking to them. They knew that Kaos productions had dropped the ball on a lot of stuff and that it was disorganized and promised it would be much better next year and it was good to see that the mistakes were being caught quickly.

Bowra came on two before me and played some great house and techno. Really did some great stuff with his samples! Then came Illkid with the Dubstep, DnB and Breaks. Can't say I did the Dubstep much, but he's still a very good DJ and put together a great set. I followed Illkid and broke out with the Progressive and Uplifting Trance. People came and went and at times there wasn't anyone there while at others there were at least a couple dozen. It was like that for every DJs sets though. The concert goers had to float around since there were so many bands playing at once if they wanted to see everyone so it's understandable. Man oh man were the turntables fucked up though. Couldn't hold their pitch worth shit half the time and I had to use the internal mode in Serato to keep stuff matched a lot. Should have used the CDs I guess. But it turned out decent from what people told me. My time flew by quick and I handed it off to The Rev, who played his never-to-disappoint style of House. He handed it off later to Brandon J, who dropped some bombs and got the people going all night. Most definitely the best set I have heard lately from him! For the curious here was my set:

1.  The Doppler Effect - Beauty Hides In The Deep (Envotion Remix)
2.  Michael Cassette - Zeppelin (Original Mix)
3.  Lolo -  Take My Hand  (Original Mix)
4.  Enmass - CQ Seek You  (Original Mix)
5.  Elevation - Blinding Truth  (Original Mix)
6.  Joop - The Future  (Extended Mix)
7.  Albert vorne - Formentera What (Gareth Emery Remix)
8.  Jay Lumen - In The Shadow  (Original Mix)
9.  Armin Van Buuren - Who Is Watching (Perry O'Neil Remix)
10. Karen Overton - You Loving Arms (Club mix)
11. Simon & Shaker - Zero  (Original Mix)
12. Mike Shiver - Morning Drive (Probspot Remix)
13. Rafael Frost - Out Of Time  (Original Mix)
14. Delerium - Silence (Above & Beyond Remix)
15. Audioholics - External key (Perry O'Neil Remix)
16. Liquid Soul - I Get A Rush (Motion Remix)
17. Kyau &  Albert - Megashira (61RUS Remix)

In between watching people play on the Electro stage, I was able to catch Shiny Toy Guns, who has slowly become one of my favorite new rock bands. Saw, and then got to meet, DJ Hurricane of the Beastie Boys. Great turntablist and cool dude too. I also caught the last 15 of George Clinton, who put on an absolutely stunning show with all his dancers and performers. Definitely different that I have seen before, but still very cool.

George Clinton

After two days in the hot sun I was exhausted. I had gone through 15 bottles of water and numerous other drinks those two days and hadn't eaten (don't get hungry when I'm so hot) since Friday morning so that wrecked me. I almost wanted to just leave after getting up on Sunday, but still wanted to see the bands playing that day. After worrying about getting caught most of the weekend, by Sunday morning I didn't give a shit anymore, since I'd be packing everything up soon, and so busted out my grill and made pancakes. It was camping style so they didn't turn out perfect, but they were still tasting good! There weren't a whole lot of bands I wanted to see Sunday, so I spent most of the day in the VIP tent getting drunk with my fiance since it was her Bday that day too. We proceeded to the Beer and Nut festival and continued to taste test from the 30+ microbreweries from around NM. Had to leave after getting through about half cause neither of us could see straight (those little samples sure add up quick LOL!) and made it over to the stage right as Blues Traveler came on. Those guys are awesome musicians and unfortunately quit after only a couple songs because it started raining and because there was apparently a "tornado warning". We went backstage though and got to meet most of them and get stuff signed. Really cool guys and I do hope they come back sometime.

Though I had wanted to stay, my fiance needed to get back to Las Cruces that night so we took off before the show resumed and missed Blue October and Everclear. I would really have liked to have seen them but oh well. Before I left though I went around and sold off my VIP tickets to some lady for 20 bucks. No one had any idea if anything was going to resume, but hey it was good for the free drinks right? LOL!

So I guess after what I spent and bought there and what I made up for in selling my tix and what I got paid to DJ all I pretty much broke even on the Fest which is good. I was lucky to have gotten paid though, as many DJs and performers on other stages did not, even ones that had come from out of states and had paid their own ways. That was really fucked up in my opinion. I mean, if someone is going to come play for you and entertain the people that are buying tickets and making you money they need to be paid. And in the least they should be given something that will cover the cost of them coming all the way to perform.

It was good, and it was bad, so I guess it evened out to be OK. As a performer, you get to see a lot of what goes on behind the scenes and that drama can really ruin it for you. As a concert goer though you could see that it was still relatively successful in spite and many good times were had. I really hope lessons were learned and it will be much more organized next year. The production company just needs to get their shit together and stuff would flow a lot smoother and us locals wouldn't get screwed over. I can't say for sure if I'd ever like to play there again. I guess we'll see in a year if it's dead obvious mistakes have been fixed and if some of us get asked to play again. For now, there are better things planned for the near future that I want to put my efforts toward and there are indeed great things to come!