My Hobbies:


Music/Drumming

My music interests change a lot, so here is a link to my current listening rotation.

My Short Story

My love for music and drumming began in fifth grade, when -- like most kids -- I joined band. At first, I was a trombone player, but I didn't really enjoy it. I wanted to change to either saxophone or percussion. Luckily enough, a spot opened up in the percussion section! I was incredibly lucky to have a great band director and a mother who were incredibly supportive. I started taking drum lessons and really fell in love with drumming. With the help of my mom, I got a used drumset that I spent lots of my free time playing in the basement (I'm sure that was NOT quiet, sorry mom!). Mostly, I played along to rock songs from my favorite bands at the time like the Foo Fighters. As time went on, I ended up joining jazz and marching band. Playing the tenor drums in marching was my absolute favorite. I loved the faster pace and more technical aspect of it. I recall rearranging the toms on my personal drumset in the pattern of a tenor drum to practice at home. Eventually, I graduated high school and went on to the next step. Once in college, I joined my school's pep band. This ended up being too unstructured and chaotic for me, so I quit after a year and a half to just play on my own time in the basement of my dorm hall. To this day, I still spend plenty of time playing on my own kit. I play to a wide range of songs, everything from jazz, to metal, to jazz-metal. I will include a link to all of the transcriptions that I play to when I have the time.

Some of My Favorites to Play To

I only have two public recordings of me playing along to songs. First, I have a song that my band director at the time recommended: Sprit of Radio by Rush. The other one, O.D. by Polyphia, is a little bit rougher. I would like to re-record this one day, but until then, you get the temporary version!

I play along to a lot of YouTube transcriptions since they're free and easy to get to. I've got a whole bookmark folder with a giant list of many different genres, but here are some of my favorites:


Biking

BMX Racing

Growing up in California, BMX racing was a very big thing. It just so happened that my neighbor whose kid was about to outgrow his BMX race bike happened to watch me learn how to ride my bike and noticed that I had an interest. He was beyond kind and gifted us his son's race bike on the condition that we do the same for another kid later on down the road. So, my parents took me to the nearest race track and I fell in love with it. I raced for nearly a decade after that. I had tons of fun, made tons of friends, and raced tons of races. I think it was incredibly influential on my development as a person, and I think that it had many great effects beyond just the athletic prospects.


Mountain Biking

BMX racing wasn't quite as big of a deal in Texas, so -- after I moved there -- I stopped racing. This was a silver lining, as it led me into other hobbies (like drumming), but I did still miss it. Once I moved to college in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I picked up mountain biking. I started with a rinky-dink hard-tail mountain bike that quickly rattled to pieces, so -- before long -- I picked up a dual suspension mountain bike that I assembled in my dorm's kitchenette. I love this bike and have slowly been making upgrades to it as I break things. This bike has been through many crashes with me: one crash on A-Line in Whistler even bent my steerer tube!


Snowboarding

While I had previously been snowboarding a handful of times before coming to Michigan Tech, I learned pretty much everything up here since we have access to a free ski hill. That is something I am incredibly grateful for and have taken full advantage of. The hill is pretty short, but it means you can get a whole lot of practice laps in! Aside from the school hill, Mont Ripley, we have also have a handful of more challenging hills such as the Porcupine Mountains Ski Area, Marquette Mountain, and last and most importantly -- Mount Bohemia! This first picture is of me my first year at Boho, just about to enter the Extreme Backcountry. If you are ever in the area and can make it down black diamonds, I would highly recommend going!


Lifting

In high school, I absolutely hated the idea of lifting. I was no good at it and I never thought that I would get into it. However, in my second year of college, I felt a push to be healthier and stronger for both my hobbies and myself. The final push over the edge to get me to start lifting came from one of my coworkers at Culver's, funnily enough. I dove into the deep end and learned a whole lot from Renaissance Periodization. I went with a friend for the first few weeks before going by myself for some time. Since then, I have lifted with many of my other friends and helped them get into it as well (if they wanted to). It has been such a positive change in my life and I am very glad that I did it. I think that even dedicating at least a day or two per week is entirely worth the extra effort. While I don't have any pictures of me lifting, I do have this picture of me flexing with one of my favorite drummers, ZackGrooves!


Photography