Well I admit I wasn't really in a partying mood this week. After I gave blood, I felt really strange that night, not so much physically as mentally. Carried into the next day. But I knew Tipper and Stanton Warriors presented a good chance to shake the sillies out, and stir things up. Ashley forgot to get us ticket and it was sold out, so she bailed and it was just me, Steve, and Nicole, but I scored a ticket and entered just as Tipper started. I knew Trina was gonna show up, so it was cool to surprise her. Super easy to find her. It was good to see her, but one we were inside, i had a really hard time finding anyone. Super hot and packed. Not smoky though at all, praise Allah. Somehow, I got right in the zone and had a really good time. Maybe since it wasn't dnb, I was able to pace myself better. It was hard finding room to dance, but the quality of beats made up for the lack of space. Tipper playe a lot of his new stuff that I'd heard, which sounded pretty lick on a big system, but also a lot of wicked shit I hadn't ehard yet. Stanton Warriors is two guys, but only one showed up. Same thing happened at Shambhala. Prety similar set, btu I really enjoyed it. I haven't been up to date on breaks that much this year, so it also sounds pretty new and fascinating to me. I really wish i knewwhat some of those tracks were. soooo good. There were a few technical errors I noticed from the Stanton Warrior though. Didn't get out till 3:30. Got to sleep in though, which isn't the norm when I stay in Van.

So I've really been trying to figure out what I want this year to look like. There's areas of interest that I want to pursue, but of course, not enough time or money for all of them. Hitchhiking, hiking/trekking (either on the island, or in the Kootenays), festivals (Bonnaroo, Coachella, Shambhala, motion Notion, Burning Man, etc), karate (camps and competitions), and international travel (India). India is my goal for the year, but I still don't know how things will play out. My mom told me today that she'll contribute about $600 towards my trip, which adds to my present saving of $1000. If I keep working at QF through the summer, India would be a piece of cake (although I don't know how many months that would buy me). I would like to do something from each category. Like go to Shambhala, hitch down the coast to California, do some backcountry trips into Strathcona on the island, and still ahve enough money to fly out. But I won't be able to take much time off this summer with this job, so I'm waiting to see if anything else turns up. Still waiting to apply to CMH and Parks Canada, and I'm also thinking of applying to the new MEC that's opening in Victoria. I have to buy a tent, jacket, and pack also. So I'm gonna have to just be on my toes and tackle each issue/opportunity as it arises. Ideally, I would fly into India in September. My main objectives so far are to live and volunteer on an organic farm, stay at a retreat (called ashrams) to practice yoga, do some trekking into the Himalaya if it works out, get some volunteer experience teaching and workin with the Tibetan refugees, see some of the sites or Northern India, and also learn about Buuddhism and practice Karate whenever I get the chance. I would like to stay indefinitely, but with the hot season and monsoon season, it's kinda complicated. I would really like to avoid the tourist crowds, for obvious reasons, and also to avoid the higher prices that the tourist season brings. There's some remote areas in the far northwest that I'm really becoming interested in. I believe the one pass to get to that area is the second highest driveable (sometimes) pass in the world. I want to learn Hindi, but I don't know how realistic that is, since English speakers aren't too rare and there's so many other languages. Anyways, i jsut thought I'd introduce the factors that are influencing my thoguhts these days. Things will figure themselves out, so I think the main thing is to just try to maintain the proper perspective in all my decisions.