High school flashbacks galore...ten years can do that to you.

Ten years ago, long before I became the Two-Wheeled Tourist, I was a high school student at the California Academy of Mathematics and Science in Carson, CA. It's a school that has found its place somewhere in the US News rankings year after year, and is probably one of the "nerdiest" public high schools in the United States. I am proud to say that I am an alumna of this institution, and even though I didn't end up in medicine, engineering, or computer science like the vast majority of my classmates, I definitely benefited from the well-rounded and rigorous education I received from there.

This November, my graduating high school class will be celebrating its 10-year reunion in Culver City, CA. Thanks to the timing of the event which has made flights back to Los Angeles way much more than I can afford (Thanksgiving weekend, are you kidding me?), I won't be able to attend. However, I have the fun privilege of embarrassing everyone from 2500 miles away with a DVD chock full of archived photos, videos, and original films from my old collection. This has prompted me to post quite a few of these videos on my personal YouTube channel online. But here on Two-Wheeled Tourist I'll showcase a few of my personal favorite videos and bloopers that'll probably end up being replayed while everyone else is catching up over several drinks. I just hope I don't cause anyone to choke on any olives in the process...


Here's the first clip. It's a trailer from what was, by far, the most extensive video made for a Spanish AP class that I know of. At well over 50 minutes, "Destinos 53: Futuros" was a ridiculous project that ran multiple inside jokes, jabbed at quite a few teachers, involved a number of students in several classes and my toy poodle, and tested the absolute range of my amateur video editing resources at the time. For those who haven't heard of "Destinos," it's an educational series made by the Annenberg/CPB Project in the "telenovela" or soap opera style that's very popular in Spanish television. Our assignment was to create a 53rd episode that continued after the conclusion of the original series. I managed to write the script in three days, shoot the movie over two weeks, edit the whole thing in four days, and got an 'A' for the film, all at the cost of my voice and my sanity. This trailer was made several months after the original film, and this year will be the first time it will be shown to the public. I have to admit that I probably went severely overboard on this project, but it was so worth it.



For this second movie, it came about after one random conversation and a project assignment. The idea for the stock footage clips used for this video came from my old college counselor, Mrs. White. We had been talking about college applications for the University of California and California State University systems, and those who would procrastinate on filling them out for whatever reason. At the time, there was a loophole in that if an application was physically postmarked on November 30 of that year, it would not be considered late by admissions reviewers. Out of sheer curiosity, I along with another friend went out to post office near LAX (9029 Airport Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90009) to see how many people took advantage of that loophole, standing in line at the only post office branch that, at the time, was open 24 hours. The results were shocking.

A couple months later in Economics class, we were given an assignment to create a video, song, or poster about common economics terms and how they are implemented in real-life. I went through my archives and came across that post office footage. After forming my video group, this now-infamous short was developed and filmed. My bragging rights to this video was that it was the very first video presented in Economics class and pretty much set the standard for all other video presentations to be judged upon. In other words, everyone else got screwed over by our awesomeness. Enjoy.



Last, but not least, is the best blooper to come out of "Destinos 53." One of our male actors is dressed like a woman, overdone makeup and all, and is about to head down to the film set in the garage of my parents' house. Let's just say he took the express route. It sounded pretty brutal on tape, but he (and the cameraman) both survived with minimal injuries and both grew up to be doctors...so they can treat sick people like me who put this stuff online. That's actually a fact, by the way.