You can't Judge the Present by the Design of its Wrapping Paper: A Christmas Weekend recap

If you read the last post, which I'm sure many of you have, then you've noticed that I was saying a some short harsh things about the overhype marketing on Christmas Day and how the holiday shopping season overshadows the true meaning of December 25. Understand that this was what I thought of it. Half of it is facts while its mostly opinion in its entirety.

But after surviving the Christmas weekend, I had second thoughts about what I wrote on that day. To me, what I wrote on the last post was just an outside view of that day. I'm gonna write the inside view of it, which was as better as I thought is was. Shit, it was way better, despite all the bullshit situations that I dealt with throughout last week. From the transmission on my compact sedan giving up to my T-Mobile contract expiring, which means I'm without a cell phone for the time being, and somehow last Saturday made me set those (no pun intended) uncalled for problems aside, or pretty much away from my distance.

First, I just wanna let out that I didn't get any presents, gifts or anything under the tree with my name on it. I could care MUCH LESS about getting "free stuff" from people on that day. As a matter a fact, I looked back this past year, and I've noticed I've BEEN getting free stuff every month at the least, and I'm very thankful and privileged for that. I'd be more delighted to get a card with some girl's handwriting on it over a nice wristwatch or a Xbox 360 (by the way, shoutout to the lucky fuckers (pun intended) who's girls spoiled them with that Microsoft console and then some. SHIT!) Bottom line, its all about being with family and close ones, which I've said many times because that shit is true.

Now onto the recap.

I was given orders by my moms to take her and my sister to LAX on Christmas morning at around 4AM. They came at 5AM instead so when I asked them what time their flight is, they told me that its at 6AM. I told them that they should've left their house at 3AM instead but my sister told me that they over slept. We managed to get to the Los Angeles International Airport on time. I helped them unload their luggage at the terminal and then my moms told me to take good care of her Ford Explorer for a week since they're traveling to the midwest of the United States until New Years Day. I think they picked the wrong time to go over there, and I told my sisters to wear a shitload of jackets. After that, I bounced out of LAX in my mom's SUV and headed back to my pop's house by driving on the Pacific Coast Highway and through the mountains on the Topanga Canyon Boulevard pass.

After I got home, my pops talked to my little brother and I about what this day is all about from his point of view in the living room. I'm not gonna front but that got me really touched up for a moment. I sat in my room for about an hour just sitting there, not doing anything. I was thinking and pondering about how we went from my entire family, before the parents split, singing some songs from the Church hymnal and opening our multitude of presents that we got to just my brother taking his new cellular phone and a drum machine from under the tree and going about his business in his room, like it just a regular day. It was a frequent thing that happens every year and I thought that shit wasn't gonna end, but apparently it didn't happen.

After I collected my thoughts, I went to make a surprise visit to my friend Nicole Stetter's place, which is about 5 minutes from my pop's house. Her entire family was there, which is what I liked to see. I gave her a children's book I got back in September that Tori Spelling published, and inside of it was her autograph with Nicole and her kids names written in her handwriting. I held it for three months so that I can give it to her at the right time. I spent some time there eating peppermint brownies that Nicole made, which were very delicious, and started talking about how I didn't like and approve Nick Cannon dating Mariah Carey with Nicole's family since they were watching the Disneyland Christmas Parade on TV hosted by him. Later on, I then drove to my church in Sylmar (I'm an Adventist by the way, not Jewish) to see the annual Christmas program, which to my dismay, they did a regular church service instead. I was only there for a portion of the service, and then I left to go to Downtown Los Angeles to catch the vibe and action of the self-called "Lakers/Heat Christmas Day ratings game". Yeah, I admit, I wasn't supposed to do that on Christmas Day, but sometime, you have to take the necessary risks, and plus, I'm already a legal adult.

I wanted to drive down to park at LA Live but I too the Metro Subway there instead. I wasn't going to the actual game inside Staples Center, but I hung around the VIP entrance to take photos of the celebrities go inside the arena. Hey, if you don't approve what I did, then deal with it, cause that's what I'm really great at in terms of photography. Speaking of which, I ran into some paparazzi that I used to see alot on Robertson Blvd and Beverly Hills everyday back in late 2008, and I knew that they wouldn't rest on Christmas Day cause from having experience in this business, it never shuts down. The reason why I say that cause they're always a "money shot" opportunity waiting to happen within the 24 hours of the day, regardless if there's a serious tropical storm or God forbid, a national tragedy or anything that gets in the way to civilians.

This will probably be the last time I might be taking photos of famous people in general. I'm not too sure yet cause I might be there when the Boston Celtics come to town again on January 30th since that is the other big marquee game on the Lakers 2010-11 season schedule, which draws the majority of A-list stars and plus the game will be nationally televised. You know what, fuck it, I'm done doing that shit. I'll probably go over there, but I'll take someone with me who has a greater interest of taking photos of someone famous, probably someone who's out of state for that matter. If I was 15 years old doing this, I'd be the top of the student body in my class in terms of publicity and recognition throughout the whole school. Hell, even the hot girls would show much interest. But I will never get that experience again, cause as an adult, some people around my age have better things to do instead of hearing what actor you saw the other day.

There weren't that many female stars that showed up to the Staples Center than the males stars to my surprise. Despite the cops and the weak security making sure that shit doesn't go off, it was great seeing Sinbad and Kevin Hart (dude was short as fuck) in person and to see Dr. Dre actually ripped up. I wanted to ask him about the Detox album, I didn't for two reasons.

1. I wanted to respect him since he was a legend in the hip hop industry and one of the founders of Gangsta Rap

2. I was at a far distance and there was a shit load of people surrounding him, yet I can scope him out from a good view.

A few minutes after the game started, I went inside the Nike Vault next to the Staples Center and the AEG offices. They had the whole placed decorated and dedicated to Kobe Bryant's new signature basketball show, the Zoom Kobe VI. To me honestly, that sneaker is ugly and weird looking. It very similar to the Zoom Kobe IVs that came out two years ago, which I regret not buying. They had the live feed of the game showing inside the Nike Vault, but I went to the ESPN Zone to watch some portions of it. It was full inside there, and unfortunately, the Lakers were way behind Miami. by the end of the first half, I left and took the subway back to Universal City, where I parked my moms Ford Explorer at.

I drove down to my cousin's house, who lives not too far from the Staples Center, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to park at LA Live. There wasn't a lot of people there, just mostly family there talking and eating some Christmas dinner. I watched the rest of the game in my cousin's room, where it turned out that the Lakers lost for the second Christmas Day game in a row. Phil Jackson said before the game that he doesn't approve the idea of the NBA playing basketball on Christmas Day and that the players should spend time with their families instead. I won't be surprised if he gets fined for that statement, but yet, I totally support the coach's statement. I think its Kobe's new sneakers since the whole team was wearing them during the game throughout. After that, I went and played some UNO with my cousins to forget about the loss which sucked. I haven't played UNO in at least 7 years and that is the ONLY card game I'll ever fuck with. Forget Poker, Blackjack, 21 (which I used to play against my sister back in the day), Texas Hold 'em and any other card game that I don't know the rules to. They are not as entertaining as UNO is and I had a fun time playing that card game with the family.

I then bounced out early because I had to go deliever another gift to one of my friends' buddies, which is a DVD containing a photoshoot I did for her back in September. As I was driving on the 10 freeway west merging onto the 405 north, it started to pour rain like fucking crazy! I was being very cautious while I was driving in that unpredictable weather condition.

So when I got to to her house, the lights were out. I figured nobody is home so I went to go ring the doorbell to double check. I was about to go to my car until I saw my buddy Arlene and her family opening the door. I thought that Arlene's friend lived there cause I would always see her friend everytime I drove to that house, but then Arlene told me that she also stayed there. I went inside and ate some Carne Asada that Arlene's mother made, which I really liked and enjoyed, and then chilled with them by watching some television and having some discussions about photoshoots. Then I took off home since it started getting late.

I didn't really do much on Sunday, which happened to be my mom's 46th birthday and my little sister's 16th birthday on that day. Yep, they're 30 years apart. They were probably celebrating it in the mid-west over there. I spent the day just working on photos, my website, driving to the Wal-Mart in Porter Ranch to print out an 8 X 10 enlargement for a friend of mine and watched a double feature at my friend Natasha's house. The movies were the original Wall Street and Defending Your Life through her Netflix. I thought that they had the second Wall Street uploaded on there cause I saw the Blu-Ray on sale at Wal-Mart, which had a lot of people there returning gifts that they got under the tree, but the site didn't have it so we watched the first one instead.

Like I said, the weekend turned out as well as a thought it would be, with the exception of 80's singer Teena Marie passing away on Sunday. I'm not gonna front, but I first found out about the news from Birdman's Twitter account before CNN and all the other news media outlets confirmed it a few hours later. Looks like Twitter is going to replace The Huffington Post as the main source for internet journalism sometime in the future. I wanted to mention about my upcoming website and the important information about it, which also involves this Blogspot page, but I'll bring it up tomorrow since I threw in too much on the Christmas weekend recap. Major thanks to the Stetter family and the Arias family for letting me spend time inside their homes. I take back what I said on how everything is off limits on Christmas day. What I meant to say that everything that is not close to you and that's a distraction to your everyday lives should be off limits on Christmas Day.

One last thing, y'all should watch the Top Gear Holiday Special, the UK version. That shit is a MUST SEE, whether you like automobiles or not. It more like a movie as you watch it, so make sure you got you computer connected to a screen that is at least 46 inches, which some of you must've got with your Holiday bonus.

Just Another Day

I'm not gonna spend the whole time, or any time at all on here, building constructive criticism on why Christmas Day is overrated and how the media and corporations overshadow the true meaning of the holiday, because hate it or love it (word to Curtis Jackson and the Game), its gonna keep going like this for the rest of our born natural lives. Even though I'm not that much into holidays since I like to always keep myself busy, its all about spending time with family and nobody is gonna have time to hang out with their friends. In other words, everything is gonna be off limits today. That's all I'm gonna say say.

By the way, speaking of the Holidays, here's a photo I took with some of Santa's hoes (no offense ladies) at the Toys for Tots drive (no pun intended) hosted at Platinum Motorsport on Melrose near Fairfax High school. I'll leave it at that.

One last thing. Here's a sneak peak of my new website in the works. I'll bring more information about it on the next post. Have fun this weekend.

http://www.wix.com/justforsneaks07/randomshots4

Free Mason

In the next 17 years, Mason Dash Disick will have to deal with his "Baby Gap" pinstripe suit swagger and unique creative photoshoot concepts with his extended family like this one for Holiday Year 2010 until he becomes a legal adult. They need to hire me in the future.

By the way, Khloe Kardashian-Odom looks hot in that portrait, yet her husband had to be photoshopped in this cause he had practice at the same time. This shows that Digital Imaging is legit.

Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll in Wonderland

The Disney Channel is a hell of a trip. By the way, who the fuck is that gay looking fool in the background of the Demi picture? Lucky bastard.

The Best Photographers Don't Rest on Winter Break

Yes, this is gonna be one of the most fuckin' slowest two weeks in the year. While everyone is traveling and taking a load off to be with their families this week, I'll still be working on a lot of editing instead, including planning for my new website. Enjoy your holidays, or vacation for those who aren't British.

Midnight Love

I'm sure the President and the First lady must've watched the late night Slow Jams-genre music video block on BET back when they were going steady (or dating) in the 1990's.

By the way, Christmas Day is next Saturday, one week from now. Shit, I remember when it would take forever for that day to come. Plus, December 25, from what I know, is gonna be the only time the Lakers will play a home game on a Saturday, against the overhyped Miami Heat, which is usually reserved for the Clippers.

(Photo credited to Pete Souza, Official White House Photographer)

Hogan's Family Heroes

Even though the entire family fell off, you can't disrespect Brooke Hogan's shoe game. I randomly came across this photo of her, with her brother Nick, rockin the Nike SB "Unkle" dunk, which came out in late 2004, that's now hard to find at a reselling price average of $500. Lets hope her pops doesn't conceive another child with his newly just recently married wife, Jennifer McDaniel, who looks JUST LIKE his daughter. Take a look at the photo below that proves my point.

Brooke is the one on the left to avoid confusion.

I'll believe it when I see it

Fuck, that shit looks so tight.

These are proposed rendered drawings and architecture for a new stadium built in the L.A. Live complex district next to Staples Center, Los Angeles Convention Center, and the J.W. Marriott/Ritz Carlton Hybrid Hotel. This shit is gonna cost 1 Billion dollars to construct in under a year. I think they should have the big wig corporate fat cats fund for this, just like they're doing with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Another thing. If and when we're going to get an NFL team here, why can't they just play at the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl instead? Saves alot of time and money. Wait, its because Tim Leiweke, the Chief Executive Officer of AEG and the mastermind of LA Live, is doing whatever he can to turn Downtown LA into an offspring of Manhattan and the Las Vegas Strip in Southern California, in which we taxpayers have to chip in due to the city's troubling budget problems. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but it was fine back when the Raiders played in the Coliseum, minus Al Davis' numerous dates with the Los Angeles courtroom judges.

Damn, no wonder Ervin "Magic" Johnson sold his stake of the Lakers to help AEG bring and possibly own an NFL team in Los Angeles. I remember when he owned 30% of Los Angeles. Dude has his own movie theaters, a franchised 24 Hour Fitness, and a franchised Starbucks coffee shops among other things. The first of many times I met him was at his own theater next to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza back in 1999. My siblings and I just finished seeing Toy Story 2 there and Magic was there to meet the kids who were attendance. It was something my mom's job sponsored then during the holidays that year, and the did this thing where employees with kids can take them to his theater to watch Toy Story 2 for free, meet Magic Johnson and get a bunch of free Christmas gifts. I didn't want to meet him because I wasn't into the NBA that much then, but my moms got very pissed off and forced me to. So I went and shook his hand and that's all I can remember. Went by very fast.

By the way, the city is doing fine without an NFL team, but it be nice to have one just so that all the critics and the media jerks can shut the fuck up. Lets hope this next NFL franchise learns it mistakes from the Los Angeles Xtreme, who were owned by Vince McMahon's XFL league, and the Los Angeles Avengers, in which the Arena Football league got affected by the recession, and also, I'd like to see a very catchy name and some dope ass colorways for this NFL team, if and when we get one here.

Pulling Some Roots Over The Weekend

I had a rags to riches type weekend. It started out stale on Friday. I was supposed to go to my friend Joanna's graduation in Hawthorne that night, but my uncle and my pops wanted me to cover a wakekeeping event... in Hawthorne. Weird coincidence. So I rode with my family to the event and its been a long ass time since I rode in the backseat with my little brother. I remember when this was a frequent thing everyday back when we were kids, with me and all three of my siblings being squished up in the backseat in every car my parents owned, regardless if its a compact of a full size sedan.

When we got there, my uncle said that I was going to work with these two other Nigerian photographers cause he has to be at another wakekeeping in Torrance (yeah, too many people died recently). I worked with them twice before, but this time, one of the guys wants me to videotape it and he had the other guy take some still shots of it. It should've been the other way around. Throughout the whole time, my back was starting to ache cause I was holding the camera, which is the same exact Canon XL-1 that my uncle has, for almost 4 hours. I had to take quick breaks by sitting down on a chair. At the end of the night, I was compensated $10 for all that work. I'm not complaining. Money is money. I could've let that Ten Dollar bill grow or something, but I needed it for fuel unfortunately. I wouldn't say the event was great, since it was for one of my parents friends who passed away, but the people there, including my pops, were dancing non-stop for almost three and a half hours like an unorganized high school homecoming dance.

Saturday was just nothing. I missed out on my friend D'Ana Spencer's birthday party in Studio City cause some other last minute shit came up. That got me very upset. These things went from driving all the way up to Westfield Valencia Town Center to test drive some cars that Toyota had in their lineup, which was a 2011 Sienna, the new Highlander Hybrid and this Toyota Prius Prototype in which they claim that its a Plug-In electric that has added two Lithium-Ion batteries to give the car more range after one power charge. Its still a regular Prius to me. I've been to many, MANY test drives throughout the year, but this one wasn't like any of them. The test drive for each car lasted for less than 45 seconds, with the total experience turning out to be 1 minute and 35 seconds for all three Toyotas. I could've done that time in ONE car. And what's more worse was that they gave me a free movie theater voucher for the theater right next to the mall. I wish those fuckers knew that I don't like to go to movie theaters so they could give me a gift card to the mall at least. That shit was a waste.

I also gave this one girl a ride to her place in Sylmar when I was there pumping gasoline in my car. It was her and her husband that needed a lift, but all of a sudden, her husband started going postal and say all kinds of mad shit to her. Hell, he even broke up with her RIGHT ON THE SPOT. The girl told me that she's moving to Washington D.C, the nation's capital. I thought she was attractive, well, not too attractive. Just trying to be nice. I wish I was at D'Ana's party instead of doing all that other stuff on that day.

On Sunday, I drove all the way up to the Antelope Valley to help my uncle cover an event at a Nigerian church in Palmdale. One of the members there was getting ordained as one of the Pastors of the church. It was decent, minus all the little kids making a lot of noise. I spent the night at my uncle's place to help him edit some videos and photos.

When I woke up the next morning, my car was all iced up, since I was at the High Desert, which gets really cold during the winter. As I got back to Valley, I decided to go take my car to get it serviced at the Pep Boys in San Fernando since it was the closet on in Sylmar. While I was waiting for it to be worked on, I decided to stroll around the San Fernando Mall. The stores were open, but the strip itself was dead. There were no cars parked and there wasn't that many people walking around. Plus, literally every store was the same thing, selling prom/Quinceanera dresses and tuxedo rentals. That's REALLY competitive. Also, the economy isn't that well, so I can understand why there aren't a lot of people there. I guess it gets jumping during the spring, since most weddings and school dances are around that time. After that I rode to Northridge to go do some Christmas shopping for myself. Just got some shirts and a new electric trimmer.

Later on that night, I rode with my pops to go visit his brother who just came back from Nigeria over the weekend. During the ride, we spent the whole time just looking back and reminiscing when everything was perfect before he split with my mom. I used to ride to church with him back when I was in ninth grade, and we would always have these discussions every week, but that night was the first time we had that in, shit forever. It acted like nothing ever happened, even though I had my differences and constant disputes with my parents for the past few years, but that shit typically happens in families. Its hard to control but you learn from it. Probably the only true meaning of the holidays, not the whole "buying gifts and having that person returning it the day after Christmas" bullshit.

Yeah, I know, a late weekend review. I'm not lazy, but I have to find the right time to type the recap. Speaking of blogs, there's a sure chance that I might be re-starting my website again, only using a different service. That means I'll be typing my posts there and showcasing my photos on the site just like I did when I had my website with iWeb and MobileMe two years ago. I might even have to retire this site also. It'll still be up, but I won't be writing on here. This is still in the works and we'll see how it turns up. My projection date to launch it is in New Years Day 2011, so I'll have plenty of time to map this out.

Oh yeah, before I forget, FUCK YOU TIME MAGAZINE FOR MAKING MARK ZUCKERBURG PERSON OF THE YEAR! And fuck that rich billionaire bastard Mark Zuckerburg. I'd rather see one of the Kardashians or some annoying Youtube breakout sensation win that instead of him. Shit, I might quit Facebook to focus on the site I'm working on more than that social networking piece of shit. That's something Taylor Swift could've pulled off last year. Man, I totally ran out and can't think of more cuss words for this.

There's a lot of Birthdays in December

Yeah, so many of them, including my moms, my little sister and Jesus Christ. No problem with that, but its the same thing with November and March. But today I just wanna recognize two females, Candace Cootz And D'Ana Joi Spencer, as they celebrate another year of life today. To me, they're such very awesome women to get to know.

Candace's birthday last year at Manna Korean Barbeque in Los Angeles holding the presents I gave her.

One of the first of many photos I took of D'Ana when I met her back in September. I'm glad she's still here.

Well, back to work for me on editing photos as usual and to get ready for some gigs this weekend.

C.H.i.K.S.

Barack stays ballin' on his second half of his term. 48 more states to go (excluding Alaska since they have no highways)

Music makes you use control

Tom Scott's saxophone piece from his 1988 album Flashpoint is the fucking shit, and Rick Ross is an entertainer spitting lyrics that makes you pray for a remake of Scarface, which I doubt will ever happen. If it wasn't for playing both of their albums on repeat today, I would've been lagging more on editing photos, re-considering getting a TV for my room in Sylmar and started getting used to enjoying bullshit 30 second ads on video streaming sites.

By the way, not having a decent job, aside from photography gigs, ISN'T pleasing at all obviously. I mentioned about this on here several times, so its best if you read the previous posts I typed earlier this year that covers the topic more in depth. I'm not incredibly lazy, but if someone tells me to go apply for one, I'll just laugh my ass off. If they, or yourself, ask why, I'll tell them, and yourself, to go talk to my ex job agent, Jackie Bernstein, about all the places around the San Fernando Valley she took me to last year for six months. She'll tell you.

From getting what you came for, just because

Fuck, its already December, the last month of 2010.

This past few days have been absolutely crazy in terms of being busy. I haven't gotten a chance to stop and relax for a bit. I even tried to be internet sober for 12 hours last Friday, but instead, I winded up doing some work at my Pops house in Granada Hills by cleaning the yard and some interior housework. Later on, I spent the rest of the time to kill by finishing up the Toy Story 3 DVD that Pops got the week before to play for the kids at his Thanksgiving party.

After watching the film, I gotta admit, that shit was VERY funny. Yes, the ending was kinda somber for those who've seen and understand the first two films in theaters like myself, but I DIDN'T SHED A DAMN TEAR LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE DID. The film was pure comedy. Hell, I was laughing throughout some, if not, most parts of the film. Now I totally regret not watching it in theaters this past summer, especially in 3D. But at least I didn't have to deal with the fucking kids screaming and the high school dipshits talking/texting inside the theater during the screening, another reason why I don't go out to cinemas that much.

Speaking about nostalgia, Facebook is now having this weird cause where you have to post a cartoon character to raise awareness for children who are victims of child abuse. Here's the exact quote of this whole shit.

"Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, there should be no human faces on facebook, but a stash of memories. This is for eliminating violence against children"

To me, that's just an excuse to let everyone in the whole world know what guilty pleasure animated show you used to watch back in the day without being totally embarrassed. Plus the whole cause makes no sense at all. Whoever started it needs to get their ass kicked, or has gotten their ass kicked in the past which him or her create this awareness cause. I mean why cartoon characters? Why not just post up baby pictures of ourselves instead, but that won't happen because at least half of Facebook's demographic are too lazy to scan pictures. I don't like to be biased, but I've seen it happen. This thing is supposed to go on until the end of tonight, but I won't be surprised if people kept their favorite cartoon characters up after the end of this month. As much as I love to bring up the past many times, you can't always live in it in the present. Once it gone, its fucking gone.

So y'all wanna talk about animated nostalgia, all right then. Here's my throwback profile picture for this ridiculous cause that I put up for a few hours.

Original 1991 Jetsons: The Movie VHS. You can't find this videotape anywhere nowadays, except a used copy on eBay. Way long out of print. That, along with The Flintstones were one of THE BEST cartoons in the history of the world, and its a fact. They were what The Simpsons are today back when those two shows debuted, by airing on Primetime television after dinner. Hanna-Barbera owned the entire Saturday Morning industry by shitting on Disney and Warner Bros. (who were also decent) back in 60's, 70's and 80's. I did it for the hell of it just cause everyones profile pictures kept grewing on me, and to use as an excuse to not feel embarrassed. But in terms of child abuse, sadly, nobody in this world is perfect and everyone was raised differently, otherwise I'd use this unorthodox photo of Dr. Phil McGraw as my profile picture instead.

Alright, enough about my childhood before I get too caught up being stuck in the 1990's again (which I don't really mind that much). I just wanted to get that out of my mind. Twitter is doing the same shit with celebrities abandoning their updates on their profiles until the cause that they're supporting raises One Million Dollars to fight and prevent AIDS being spread in Africa and India. Now, at first, I'm all for that and shit, but did they REALLY have to go as far as having popular A-list celebrities "dying"? Haven't we learned something from 2009?

Everywhere I go in conversations, people say that so many celebrities that year has passed away than any other year. You're not supposed to fuck with death, or pretend with it. I was surprised that movie Death at a Funeral was premiered at the beginning of this year. I'm sure the movie must've been green-lighted prior to 2009, but they should've at least re-wrote the script or changed the title. Then again, its a recession since movie studios can't afford to do production all over again and controversy creates cash. Why can't each of the stars just used their millions of their own money? Or hell, even most of the bankrupt-proof corporate big wigs and that rich asshole Mark Zuckerburg just donate to that cause in which the total amount will QUADRUPLE, TRIPLE, DOUBLE the amount totaled that buyalife.org, the site running this cause, will reach. Here's one of the advertisements for this.

Looking at this really gives me the chills. Speaking of Kim Kardashian, I met her again for the ninth time last Thursday.

First and foremost, MAJOR thank you shoutout to my homeboy Ryan Castro for hooking me up with this again. I was gonna skip this, but apparently he managed to tag me along with him. It was a book signing event for their book Kardashian Konfidental at the Borders at Westfield Century City mall. I saw Kim there twice earlier this year, but I think they should've held this at a larger Borders like the one in Westwood just a few minutes northwest of Century City, or even the one at Northridge, or shit, even at the Barnes and Noble at the Grove, where alot of famous people go to do their book signings which take place like almost every week. The line for this event was, without reason, the LONGEST craziest motherfuckin' line I've ever seen, for a book signing. The line was so wild, that they had to make four different lines just to get their book signed. There were people who stayed since Borders closed the night prior to this so that they can be the first ones to meet her and her sisters.

When we got there, there were a lot of people in line that I recognized and remembered from previous Kim Kardashian meet and greets, lots of people. Shit felt like a class reunion. Plus I met some new people and left the mall with a lot of contacts from some hot females as usual, including Cindy Martinez from Channel 22, a Spanish television station here in Los Angeles. Damn, she is FINE as fuck, and I hate to say it but she outdid the Kardashians in looks and attention that night. There were like three media photographers at least hitting on Cindy Martinez while Kim, Kourtney and Khloe were posing for the camera as they came out. Again, another terrific night. Here are some photos.

Cindy Martinez could easily be the fourth lost Kardashian sister. I really wanna do her.

Despite what their book states, this is what made Kim and her family famous. Nothing absolutely wrong with it.

Money shot of the night.

what 1,400 people skipped class and work to stand in line for that day.

Anyway, I gotta get back to work editing more photos. I really don't wanna stop blogging and writing more posts. By the way, shoutout to the USC Trojans football team (who, according to the book that Kim's father went to school at and their family friend OJ Simpson played at, but I knew that the whole time) for creating an upset at Pasadena against UCLA last night and also by going through another unusual season. One more to go by in 2011 and after that, its back to the BCS again.

Cyber Sunday > Cyber Monday

I've never ordered a Pay-Per-View (non-accidentally) before in my life. The Divas before 2007 were fine as fuck. I had a chance to meet Candace Michelle two years ago, but I had to cover some Disney event in Hollywood at the same time and to pick up my little brother from summer camp at UCLA. Shit happens.

Driving that Holiday Road Again

Yes, I saw Christina Aguilera last week in Hollywood getting her star in the Walk of Fame and yes, I randomly got pulled into a VIP section at the Saddle Ranch at Universal Citywalk to party and take photos of a dude who's celebrating his graduation from a Barber College.

Those two were probably the most interesting things that happened to me last week. I was gonna write about all that in detail this past Saturday using the Double space outline, but it didn't look great. So I erased everything that I spent 70 minutes typing and manually separating the lines, along with the photos I was gonna add. But honestly, I don't really like to post photos that much on here, except for only just out-of-the-blue one liners that I made up dealing with that particular day's current events.

Anyway, I finally checked out the Los Angeles Auto Show this past week. There were some positives and some negatives. The positive parts were the females showcasing the new cars being displayed. They looked attractive, as well as some of the whips. One of my favorite cars that were on the showroom was the Nissan Ellure concept sports car and seeing the Lexus LF-A in person for the first time. The also had this custom made fine tuned two door Toyota Camry that was inspired by NASCAR. Another car that they had on display that I liked is the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, which is the FASTEST domestic American sports cars in the world. The engine, which you can see through the small glass on the hood only on the ZR1, is the LS9 Supercharged V8 that goes to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. That's FUCKIN' QUICK FOR AN AMERICAN CAR!

This is where in the negative comes in. You can sit inside majority of the cars the had at the event, but not cars like the ZR1, along with the Audi R8 and the Nissan GTR. I wanted to sit inside the ZO6 Corvettes instead, but there were too many fuckin' people wanting to take turns. That was the same for the 3.8 Liter Hyundai Genesis Coupe V6 and the 2011 Nissan Maxima, two of my other favorite imports. I mostly sat inside some Infiniti models, the new Acura ZDX crossover SUV, and pretended like I was driving manual on a Honda Civic two-door coupe. They also let people test drive some cars from Fords model line. They had all of the cars they produced, including a 2011 Mustang that was customized with aftermarket rims and other parts.

The test drive part should've fallen on the positive category, but again, too many damn people wanted to drive the Mustang as opposed to the other cars, including the new Ford Taurus SHO, which stands for Super High Output. I only drove two cars, the F-150 and the Taurus SHO. The F-150 felt like driving my mom's Ford Explorer, except that this truck is a bit larger, and it had a lot of options that should've been a comeback of the discontinued Lincoln Mark LT pickup, which was also made by Ford. The Taurus SHO was a very awesome car. The black girl who was instructing the test drive with me inside the sedan made it more awesome, and made the ride more comfortable by driving over 300 horses on the Streets of LA around the Staples Center and the Convention Center. That car is very underestimated, even though Ford discontinued it back in 2006 and brought it back last year as part of the Detroit company's rebuilding process.

When we got back to the Convention Center, the line for the Ford Taurus SHO was LONGER than the line for the Ford Mustang, and I can see why from the test drive I just did.

I didn't stay too long for the entire convention cause I wanted to get back to the Valley before the traffic got ridiculous on the freeways and all the roads. Unfortunately, I spoke WAY too soon. The freeways were getting packed and all the streets and roads were on a gridlock. No surprise here, cause that means the unofficial start of this holiday season which will last until January 2nd, since New Years Day counts as it. Theses photos I took below was when I was on Foothill Blvd coming from my place in Sylmar heading to my pop's house in Granada Hills for Thanksgiving. Later on that night, I went to Nicole's place for a little pre-Thanksgiving housewarming party.

By the way, Thanksgiving went well yesterday. Mostly family business obviously. Spent majority of the time watching movies on Netflix with my cousins. The thing I didn't like that the movies weren't available in High Definition, but the quality is still decent. It was fun though. Plus, I just found out that my pops got Toy Story 3 on DVD the day before. I wanted him to get the OG version on VHS back in 1996, but he only rented it. I remember playing it like 10 times on the weekend that he rented the home video cause I was VERY addicted to that film that time. I had all the toys from Burger King and this one kid at my school had a 1996 Toy Story calendar that had me in amazement. Unfortunately, my parents wouldn't buy it cause that shit was $14.95 plus tax, which is expensive for a calendar. I haven't seen the third one yet, but I'll give it a chance when I get the time since I saw the first two both in theaters on its original release dates in 1995 and 1999. Many people, including some dudes, told me they cried at the end, but to me, that's sounds bullshit.

By the way, fuck Black Friday. That shit is one of the core reasons why that many people don't know the true meaning of the holidays. Hell, there were fools camping outside Wal-Marts for 24 Hours celebrating Thanksgiving out in the damn cold before the store opens. And why the fuck is it opening at midnight? I remember going with my moms to Wal-Mart back in the day around my Junior High School years for black friday. We got there when they opened at 6 AM and escaped the store with EVERY ITEM that was on sale. The crowd wasn't that crazy when we got there. Now when you go there, its like camping out for a pair of limited Air Jordans in 2005 or a meet and greet to see the main cast of The Twilight Saga or some shit like that. Every year, there's at least 10 stores in Southern California that has a news story about some pregnant mother getting into a fight with another pregnant mother or a some old dude getting ran over by crowds and fight breaking out. Yet, the recession is still going on and I think they should have these type of prices everyday instead of the day after Thanksgiving. But again, those greedy white-collar corporate suit bastards want more money, which is what the holidays are now mostly about in certain people's minds. I really don't like talking about this every year, but its very obvious as you look around. If I lived in small town that I've never heard of before, then this whole holiday shopping (I don't like to say Christmas Shopping cause not everyone is Christian) frenzy would be completely foreign to me. Now I have to endure this holiday marketing crap until the first week of January.

One more thing before I forget. This may sound very juvenile, but MILEY IS NO LONGER UNDERAGED!!!! Is that why their parents were splitting up? Now all the single thirsty dudes of all ages will get to sleep very well. Hey, its a fact. I'll let these photos I didn't take make you decide.

The reason why Ice-T is NEVER bored in life

I got these from her Twitpic account. Too bad they're not real, but still.....

Thanksgiving Came a Weekend Early

The title LITERALLY speaks for itself this past weekend.

I spent majority of the past 3 days with my family, my friends and their families. It was great attending my pops' and my brother's church for the first time since.... I-really-do-not-know-when. It felt like a year, but I remember visiting the place sometime around this year, or was it because I keep seeing the Pastor and the members at my uncle's house for my cousin's wedding this past summer?

Anyway, my other cousin and the youth of his church were taking over the service for the day. I really wanted to stay and hear my cousin deliver his sermonette that he conducted, but I had to leave to drive to the A.V. to go return the Nikon Speedlight SB-600 flash unit to my uncle in Lancaster, cause he had a gig to go take photos at around that time. So after I dreaded the 14 freeway North and chilled at his place for a bit, I then took the beautiful-ass flawless Sierra Highway back to my pop's house in Granada Hills. When I got home, I read that one of the Aftergloam members was throwing a last minute potluck kickback at her place, and I just bought 2 Double Cheeseburgers and a Side Salad from McDonald's before I got home, which I haven't eaten yet. So then I took my untouched $3.61 plus tax lunch to Tianna Edmonson's place, who happens to be the excellent, talented drummer for the band Aftergloam.

Usually whenever I go to her place, which is not too far from where I'm staying at, there would always be a grip of twenty somethings that would fill up her pad, but when I got there around 4pm, there was about like 6 or 7 people that attended. I think I shut down the entire potluck with the McDonald's in my hand but I just gave one of my sandwiches to one of the dudes there that was starving. During that time I mingled, took photos, watched some decent amount of television at their living room such as a portion of the USC-Arizona Wildcats game, the movie Biker Boyz which I haven't seen since my trip from Nigeria on the airplane as an in-flight movie back in 2003, and I got a chance to check out Inside the NFL on Showtime, which I thought was a damn good show unlike NFL Live and alot of other pro football related highlight programs. Man, Phil Simms even cussed during the discussion about the situation with the Dallas Cowboys after the first five minutes at the start of the program. No wonder this shit used to be aired on HBO. Big shoutout to the De La Torre family for for getting to know y'all more, making me feel at home, and for the excellent, delicious Pupusas you guys served me.

The next day I was supposed to cover a wedding on that Sunday, which I happened to found out at the last second when I turned my phone on after I woke up. I tried calling my uncle back, but he didn't pick up. I could've made at least $200 that day. Instead, I did some laundry, helped my pops around the house by doing yard maintenance, and just kept it low key for a while. For some reason, I didn't feel like watching some NFL games that day, but I followed up some of the games online during the score updates.

Later on that day, I drove to Chatsworth to go pick up my friend Natasha to go hiking at Stoney Point next to Topanga Canyon Boulevard and the Santa Susana Pass intersection. I always drive by that place over the years and I never got a chance to check it out. It was a very great spot, especially for doing photoshoots. Took a good amount of photos there, mostly landscape pictures of Porter Ranch, and we just talked and had good discussions as we were hiking. Natasha and I went to the same high school and I started talking to her back in 2005, but only for a short while. I ran into her again this past summer when I started going to Nicole's house, since they're both young mothers and good close friends. Small ass world, isn't it. She's a very cool person to be around with. Hell, she even introduced me to the film American Psycho on Friday, which I heard of but never saw. For some reason, I always think of Kourtney Kardashian's son's father Scott Disick instead of the Patrick Bateman character the film. They look and dress TOTALLY alike.

After I dropped Natasha off at her place, I then drove to one of my friend's crib Burbank to watch the Los Angeles Lakers go against the Phoenix Suns, which was a disappointing loss thanks to Hedo Turkoglu crazy ass 3 pointers, which was almost a record that night, more like a Ray-Allen-in-the-2010-NBA-Finals type performance. Thanks to the Galvez family for inviting me over and thanks to Ginger for the slice of Pumpkin Pie, which was my first time trying it.

I'll just end this post here. Seriously, I really can't ask for more. I'm pretty much already full and stuffed with all the blessings I counted this weekend, as well as this past year so far. To me, there's really no need for Turkeys (not Hedo Turkoglu's country by the way). I rather give them to those unfortunate people who really need it more than I do. That's the type of person I am, especially during the upcoming holidays.

30 Truths for Mature Humans

I didn't write or made up all this. I jacked this from a sneaker website and I find this interesting.

1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than the moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is a great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just ignore what comes after Blu-ray? I don’t have time restart my collection all over again.
13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my 10-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. “Do not machine-wash or tumble dry” means I will never wash this – ever.
15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring, but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What did you do after I didn’t answer – drop the phone and run away?
16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone else of any importance the entire day. What a waste.
17. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer if they call.
18. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
19. Every now and then, I’ll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize that I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.
20. I would rather try to carry 10 overloaded plastic bags of groceries in each hand rather than make more than one trip to and from my car.
21. How many times is it appropriate to say “what?” before you just nod your head and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?
22. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in the front.
23. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Socks get dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty and you can wear them forever.
24. Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber and dumber every year?
25. There’s no worse feeling than that millisecond you’re sure you’re going to die after leaning too far back in your chair.
26. As a driver, I hate pedestrians. As a pedestrian, I hate drivers. But no matter the mode of transportation, I always hate bicyclists.
27. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
28. Why is it that no one is able to use the proper form of the homonym “their,” “they’re” and “there??”
29. “’Nother” has never, and will never, be a word.
30. Even under ideal conditions, people have trouble locating car keys, finding their cell phone, remembering to zip up but I’d bet my life savings that anyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, barely cohesive - first time, every time.

Jerry Jones' Remission

This is what the owner of the Dallas Cowboys does to remedify himself from his team's 1-7 record and the firing of Wade Phillips.

Looks like he's finally celebrating his Super Bowl XXX victory at Lavo in Sin City... 14 years later. Hell, he's wearing the ring to prove it. Whatever happens in Vegas, winds up on the internet.

Jelena Jensen will be your instant guilty pleasure

Too fucking gorgeous without the clothes. Her > the entire Victoria's Secret catalog.

Or both.

Pick Your Poison

I'm not surprised the just-released Windows Phone isn't on there, cause it obvious on how they're viewed.

Three great things saved my Sunday Night

The Lakers playing like true Champions by winning their 7th straight game since the start of the NBA season, the unexpected rain tonight and listening to this 80's group streaming from the internet

Bow Wow Wow is so damn flawless. One of the best music groups of all time ever. For those born after 1991, this was the group that sang the one hit wonder "I Want Candy". By the way, Annabella Lynn, the naked girl in that photo, is the lead singer of the group and she was a minor when this photo was taken. Not even they would allow a Disney Channel star to go that route nowadays.

Only in the Valley...

This was in regards to last weeks massive fire at a building in Chatsworth. Click on the picture to read it better.

By the way, major shout out to Darger De Milo and Aftergloam for putting on a excellent show at the Tribal Cafe last Friday. They did very well as always. Oh and shoutout to my friends Lucy Hakverdian and Pretty Bhamidi for letting me help them sell their product line of bowties at Granada Hills Charter High School's 50th anniversary event yesterday.