Throwback to Last Weekend

Sometimes life speeds by and you are too busy refilling your mug of tea at 2 a.m to remember about blog posts. I apologize. However, lots of things have happened since I last posted and I now have tons of content! (Yay!)

This was a really busy weekend for me, it reminded me of the type of weekends I would have during high school when I was on my robotics team. On saturday, I was a volunteered for the ICPC competition? What does ICPC stand for? I don’t really know, but I think it’s International Collegiate Programming Competition seeing as that was what the competition was. The Washington State teams gathered at our school to get their coding on (that was cheesy, I am sorry). There were alot of teams from UW and UW-T present with very interesting names. One was named House of Lannister, another The Rebuggers, and The Birthday Club.

I had a great time volunteering. It wasn’t just the free food or the free t-shirt, but also because of the other people I met who were also volunteers. There’s this weird camaraderie that forms when you volunteer for an event with people. It doesn’t really come from similar interests or mutual friends. But, inside jokes or ‘games’ you set up to amuse yourselves while things were slow. Or even the stress of carrying 100+ subway box lunches and setting them up. Or sodas falling out of their case while carrying them to Thompson from the parking lot.

Thne on Saturday I nearly lost my beloved fingers and ears while I was helping a classmate of mine film a movie. He was adapting a part of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing for a project for one of his classes. How did I get involved in this? Well, he was in my computer science class and we were all hanging out on the 4th floor of Thompson (as computer science students often do) having a huge, somewhat successful study session when the the topic of film came up. I love film. I love the sets, the costumes, the cinematography, the score, the screenplays, everything. The point of me telling you this story is to illustrate why I was so anxious coming on set, since I didn’t even know him(the director/classmate) very well. And, I have found that nothing really brings people together like making a film together. In fact, I knew no one else on set either. I mean, I saw them around campus (UPS is small), but I had never talked to them or made jokes with them. (do I get a badge for going outside of my comfort zone?)

The location was a gorgeous house in the North End of Tacoma that looked like a manor. The house was built around the early 1900s and was owned by the same family who originally occupied the Rust Mansion in Tacoma(also a gorgeous place). I wish I had pictures of it during the daytime to show how beautiful it was with all the light pouring in. But, I think you get the idea. I mean, there’s a ballroom and a private theater. And chandeliers!

I had never collaborated or embarked on a project with a group where I wasn’t already comfortable with at least one person. So, this was new. And scary. But filming went really smoothly. It was amazing to see a dolly in action or a crane. And working with an actual script. I ended up leaving tired, but satisfied and with new acquaintances. I am glad I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and didn’t back out or anything. The best things in life happen outside of that zone after all. (The house was also down this huge hill so I couldn’t really escape seeing as I am not about that running uphill life.)