Sporting Entertainments

Just recently on Facebook, I wrote on my last status update that Thursday Nights are the new Friday Nights. I'm not saying just because everyone is out of school for the summer, and some college classes aren't even in session on Fridays, which means extra time for Twenty-somethings to sleep in some more. As a matter a fact, this has been happen this year prior to the start of summer. It used to be that all the clubs, house parties and movie premieres would take place on a Friday evening, and it still is. But now part of those are starting to happen on Thursday nights now. Let me give you an example from last week.

So last Thursday, my homegirl Christina Campa invited me and anybody else to go on an 8 and a half mile bike ride from Granada Hills High School to Cangoa Park where an outdoor art festival was taking place. When I got to the meetup spot, its turns out that it was gonna be me, her, and my other homegirl Cecilia Navarette who would pedal all the way to the West Valley. Keep in mind this was when the sun was setting when we departured, and that was good for us cause it cools down during the summer nights in the San Fernando Valley. The 8.83 mile, 49:25 bike route went like this:

-From Granada Hills High School to West of Devonshire to Reseda Blvd

-South on Reseda Blvd all the way to Saticoy Street

-West on Saticoy Street to Canoga Ave

-South on Canoga Ave to Sherman Way

-West of Sherman way to Owensmouth Ave, which is the end of our destination

I never knew that they held an Artwalk here in the Valley, especially the WEST side of the San Fernando Valley that not everybody frequents. I know that they hold one in Downtown Los Angeles every month, but this one here in Canoga Park wasn't as extravagant as the one in LA, yet there were a lot of people. After we locked our bikes, we bumped into my other homies Bryan Kim and Vanessa Salazar there. So we all just looked around and observed the different art pieces that the artists were vending on display. Many of them were terrific, especially this one chick who made a awesome caricature drawing of Vanessa's face.

After that we went to this bar across Topanga Canyon Boulevard that I've never been to called Casey's Tavern just to chill and rest for a bit. Unlike all the other bars that I've been to, this one was VERY low key. In other words, many of the people there consisted of Baby Boomers of those who were born when Hawaii joined the union and when John F. Kennedy got assassinated in 1963. The five of us were like the youngest in that bar, and the best part about the bar, they have a live band consisting of very talented Senior Citizens. I'm not gonna lie, they were fucking entertaining and kept the mood of the bar very smooth with their tunes. They should've performed at the Artwalk just down the street and escaped with some serious tips. Later on Christina, Cecilia and I rode back to Granada Hills, only this time we took a different, longer route, which went like this:

-From Topanga and Sherman Way east to Canoga Avenue

-North on Canoga Avenue to Roscoe Boulevard, riding just parallel to the soon to be expanded Orange Line train tracks

-East on Roscoe Boulevard to De Soto Avenue

-North of De Soto Avenue to Lassen Street

-East on Lassen Street to Lindley Avenue

We then walked up Lindley to chill out at the Del Taco next to Granada Hills High School, and it was past midnight when we got there. A few minutes after we ate some of their food, we then took off to our homes. For me I had to ride an extra two and a half miles to my place.

On Friday, I was pretty much editing photos and working on my uncle's Flickr for the majority of the day. Then my little sister called me and told me that her job, which is 24 hour Fitness, is having a pre-opening party at their new facility in Burbank cause their grand opening is the next day. I was supposed to be at this highly anticipated, hyped up house party that Nicole Stetter was hosting at her place later that night, but I told my sister that we can stay at the gym until they finish the party. We got the 24 Hour Fitness by parking on the roof of the building, right next to a basketball court. Yes, a rooftop basketball court surrounded by parked cars. That's gangster.

We got inside and the place isn't as condensed as I thought it would be. The treadmills and stairmasters are on the same floor as the weights and Cardio workout sets. Other than that the place looks pretty nice. There were a lot of people there and many of my sister's co-workers were around my age. The last time I worked out at an actual gym was two years ago on Memorial Day 2009, when my moms, sisters and I spent the day at the Port Hueneme Naval Base in Oxnard on that weekend. They had a small gym there and I spent the entire night there working my ass off. I also used to be obsessed with body dynamics back in high school. I was in the weight lifting program there and reading Muscle and Fitness magazine in between classes everyday.

While everyone else there was winning prizes and participating in activities provided by the 24 hour Fitness staff, I was hitting up the treadmills losing some mad calories. Now this treadmill that I was using is no way like the other treadmills that I've used in the past. This one lets you manually raise the incline of the machine as if you were running up a steep hill and it has a television monitor which has cable TV provided among other easy to use features. I forgot how many miles I ran, but I did lose close to 300 calories in a 30 minute run. When I finish, my shirt was filled with a lot of sweat obviously. Then I rested for a bit and decided to try out some of the weights there for a bit until they had to close the facility for the grand opening the next morning, in which I didn't have time to use the showers there.

My sister then dropped me off at my pops house, and I then rushed to the showers to get ready for Nicole's house party not too far away. I walked over there which was bonus for me in terms of losing some calories. When I got to her street, I saw a grip of cars parked along the sidewalk like as if I was going to Rose Parade in Pasadena or a high school graduation. I check my Facebook to read that my homeboy Ramone Magana was there and said that there was a shitload of people and girls in bikinis there, so I took his word for it. When I got to her place, there was a gang of dudes lounging in front of her place and some other people were going back to their cars and I thought shit, maybe Ramone wasn't kidding at all. Normally I would ring her doorbell, but judging from the loudness of the noise while walking close to her place, I decided to go to the back only to see A MAJOR SHITLOAD OF TWENTY-SOMETHING HIPSTERS, PUNKS, GROUPIES, ATTRACTIVE FEMALES IN BIKINIS, PISS-HAMMERED DRUNKS AND A FUCKING GRIP OF PEOPLE THAT I'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE ALL CRAMPED IN NICOLE STETTER'S BACKYARD! DAMN!

Now understand this. I've been to Nicole's place many times for the past eleven months that I've known her, and it'll be exactly a full year next month going back to her twins second birthday party that I covered last summer. She threw several parties and kickbacks and performances , but ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE LIKE WHAT I WAS SEEING THAT NIGHT! Shit, I couldn't even fucking move around her backyard with all these people. About five minutes after I got in. I found the bottom of my jeans and my Andre Agassi Nikes all drenched with water after some fool jumped into Nicole's swimming pool causing a tidal wave-like splash all over the place. The night got better when I was hitting on this girl from the OC and ran into some OGs that I haven't seen in years. We spent the rest of night just catching up on each other's lives and talking about all the crazy shit that we used to do back in Junior High School and filmmaking class at Kennedy High. I think the reason why the capacity was intense cause the band Santoros was doing a rare performance here in the Valley, hence Nicole's backyard, and their fanbase is insane. This was bigger than their shows in the Five Star bar and The Airliner in Los Angeles that I've seen them perform at, but major props to them for driving out here and giving another entertaining performance as always. And also very special shout to all the other bands and people that made it out here to the Valley to show support for the 818.

I somehow managed to wake up early on Saturday to go all the way down to Westchester (Happy Early Birthday Stephen) to meet up with my uncle cause we had a wedding to cover. On the way over there, I found that Amy Winehouse had passed away in the UK at 27. That kinda got me stunned for a bit after I read that. Its crazy cause four years ago, she was doing well with her Back to Black record which took home EVERY Grammy award a year later, and she wasn't present at the ceremony to present them that night. Then after that, a bunch of drugs and other media bullshit overshadowed her singing career. I'm not really into her, though I've heard her songs a little bit at stores and a piece of it at this years MTV Movie Awards during the breaks. Crazy shit.

Anyway, my uncle told me to meet him at the Holiday Inn next to LAX Airport. I went to the one on La Cienega and Century, but didn't see him. I called him and then he told me that I was supposed to be at the one on Airport and Manchester. Damn, such a mistake. So I bought a Turkey Sandwich and some Orange Juice from the AM/PM close by and consumed them inside the lobby of the Holiday Inn as I waited for my uncle to give me a lift. I was gonna go to that two story McDonalds right behind the AM/PM, but the drive thru line was fucking longer than the In-N-Out drive thru on a Friday Night, or Thursday Night for the purposes of this blog. 10 minutes later, my uncle showed up and we headed to the other Holiday Inn, where we were gonna take photos of the bride that was getting wedded.

After getting some shots of the bride and the bridal party, we then shook off to the Church where the ceremony was gonna be held at. The Church is the one on La Tijera Blvd next to the 405 freeway off and on ramp, and its Catholic. The wedding ceremony too about an hour to cover. Not a lot of people showed up to the church to witness the wedding. When it was over, we took a few portraits in front of the church and at this nice-ass park all the way in San Pedro, where you can view the Long Beach Harbor from there. After the photo session there of the bride and the groom, we then drove to this hall near Gardena where the reception took place. It went on forever since the newlyweds are Nigerian like myself and later on, ALOT more people showed up, many of those who didn't attend the actual wedding. I must've took 2,000 photos there, with 1,500 just of the bride and her family friends. Seven hours later, we left the reception and my uncle took me back to my place at around 3AM.

Then on Sunday morning, I woke up and spent most of the morning talking to my pops who just got back from his trip to Nigeria last Friday. After he told me about his trip, I went back to my place in Sylmar and just chilled and rested there for the entire day. Didn't do shit or any editing. Pretty much took a day off. Then on Monday and Tuesday I went out and bought T-shirts from Diamond Supply Co. in Fairfax and Primitive in Ventura Boulevard, tried out the Habit in Encino for the first time which was very fucking delicious. Speaking of great stuff to consume, I had some bomb-ass Quesadillas at Grand Lux Cafe next to the Beverly Center while running into a old paparazzi buddy in there that I used to work with three years ago.

We talked about Nikon cameras and all the wild times that we used to do chasing famous people and shit everyday. He told me that the value of getting a photo of Kim Kardashian has dropped and its no way worth the way it was a year before I started doing this business, right after the sex tape leaked. And he even brought up the fact that his sisters and the rest of the family, aside from Bruce Jenner who was washed up from his Olympic yeas in the 70's. were complete absolute nobodies in 2006-2007, and now one of the sisters is married to a NBA Champion and the other has a kid. I remember when they used to be working at the DASH store in Calabasas everyday, and now they're hardly there.

When he was telling me all this, it just made me realize how far I gotten to over the years. It felt like last month when we were doing this, but this was three years ago. I was still living at my pop's house with all my posters in my room, I was barely 21 yet, and I owned a Macbook, a black one. Now none of that is existent now. On top of that, alot of females and hot girls that I knew and met years ago from my high school years are now becoming wives, spouses, moms and future moms. Hell, there are some dudes that I knew and used to fuck around and cause trouble with that are also fathers as well. A compete 180 degree turn. To me, I don't even see a problem with it at all. I can' t do anything else but to give them my absolute support and respect, and to wish them successful, healthy endeavors in the future.

Well, that was lengthy as always. Now I'm gonna stop here and get ready for another booked up weekend. Going to a sold out performance to watch a very popular singer that I've met earlier this year, which I didn't have to pay for again. Then San Diego, a birthday party to cover in the Antelope Valley and some other photoshoots with sexy women and hundreds of dollars to blow. Later.

Tour De San Fernando Valley

I'm gonna keep this post to a minimal extent.

Reason being is that I have a lot of work to be done this week in terms of editing photos. I'm almost near halfway finished from working on the pictures and videos that my uncle and I took at that birthday party in Dana Point two weeks ago. Also, I've been using his iMac that he loaned me to work on the editing, which is why my weekend hasn't been that spectacular. Not only that, there's a rare big ass summer house party/performance in the Valley that I have to be at on Friday, a wedding that I have to cover on Saturday somewhere in LA, and I have to go with my sisters and my moms all the way to Huntington Beach for some youth outing event that their church is hosting.

I really didn't do much. Other than editing, I went to some of my friend's houses for a short bit and delivered some photos to other people. Plus, I was riding my brother's bike around half of the Valley the whole weekend. I REALLY wanted and planned to go all the way to the site of where the Mullholland Drive bridge was gonna collapse and take some photos of the 405 freeway all deserted and empty, but I spent the night at my homegirl Natasha Valiente's crib from a little get together she threw. I watched Superbad there again and it weird cause Jonah Hill lost a SHIT load of weight right now. Looks totally different than himself from 2007. Not only that, I rode 10 miles to her place from my pops house in Granada Hills, and she lives in Chatsworth next to the Santa Susansa pass. Oh and I ate at Denny's a lot this weekend and the roads in the Valley were purely empty, so I rode the bike on the middle lanes when there's no cars at sight.

I end this post here. Again, I'd write alot more but I'm still in the middle of assignments and tasks that I have to take care of from my uncle's video/photography business. And I have to help him look for some lenses for the wedding were shooting this Saturday. I'll probably won't update this site and my Wordpress for about another 2 weeks cause the rest of July is book solid with events and post-production. Finally, I want my pops to come back already from his trip to Nigeria so that I can go to my place in Sylmar more often.

One final thing. Shout-out to all those viewers and readers who took their time to read all of the stuff I wrote on here. Please, send me a feedback on Facebook, Twitter, email, or a text message on my cell phone or hell, even the comments section on the bottom about this stuff I post. I know and understand not too many people tend to do that, but the whole purpose is so that I can make this site more efficient from hearing the responses and to make this site more convenient to your interest. And I'm still working on the new site which will launch on August 19, so keep a lookout for that. Thanks for reading.

Miss Southern California

So I just started the second season of working for my uncle's video/photography business this past weekend. Last year, we started off by covering an expensive birthday party out on a two hour drive to a mansion in Riverside. This year, coincidentally, we covered another expensive birthday party which was also a two hour drive. This time, it was all the way at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point, which is in Laguna Niguel, the far south end of Orange County.

Out of all the places in the O.C., Dana Point has to be the most upscale, elite destination for savvy-ass rich people who happen to make at least a quarter of a million dollars as their annual income. That place is so fucking nice, that I can't even emphasize more on the word "fucking nice". Right by the beach, it shits on Malibu and Playa Del Rey as a place to reside on the shore, yet its as similar as Santa Barbara which is also the same driving distance. The last time I went to the south part of the O.C. was back in 2006, when my pops and I went to the John Wayne Airport for his business trip to Philadelphia, and this was back when The O.C. was still on TV. I've been to the northern part of Orange County several times. Hell, my uncle and I were there the day before to pick up his new toy: the Sony HVR-HD1000U professional DV camera. We bought it off from some guy in Garden Grove FOR A MOTHERFUCKING STEAL OF A LIFETIME!

Initially, the camera retails at $1,800 and you can get it for street value at around $1,400 to $1,500, but shit, we copped it for $900 FLAT. There were absolutely no catch, no bullshit, and no problems with the camera, looks totally brand new. Apparently, you don't see to many filmmakers and small video productions using that model that much. To me, its a great, underrated camera that shoots in full HD at 60 fps and has dozens of manual controls that you'd see in the other higher end Sony professional video cameras. After that then we drove to Samy's Camera in Santa Ana, and trust me, their service was shit. The one on Fairfax is the one I only go to majority of the time and this Samy's Camera isn't a three story building like the Fairfax one. The other reason we went is that its closer to where we just bought the video camera at Garden Grove so that my uncle can get some tapes and other accessories. The place is really compact and all there weren't that many employees and staff for assistance. It felt like we were waiting for a table at the Cheesecake Factory or something. So after my uncle got what we needed, we then drove to Battery City next to the Beverly Center to get some extra batteries, knowing that the camera was gonna take up alot of juice while shooting in High Definition. Ironically, the Samy's Camera that I typically go to is just a mile east of Battery City on Third Street, but whatever, we already went to the one at Santa Ana. Then later, we drove to Glendale to 1) Avoid the rush hour traffic 2) to buy some CD's so that my uncle can use them for a slideshow and 3) to show him the Glendale Galleria since he said he's never been there before. We killed time there by eating Panda Express, in which that location was the first ever Panda Express to open in greater Los Angeles, and for him to watch me scope on some fine Armenian women shopping there. Remember, he lives in Lancaster and the Antelope Valley Mall is the closest to him.

But back to the birthday party at the Ritz Carlton. I thought its lasted fairly long since many Nigerian events go on till about 3AM just like the many shows and parties that I've been going to every week this year. Just took a good amount of photos and shot some video with the Sony HVR-HD1000 as well. My uncle told me that we were gonna have to sleep over at a hotel in Orange County before we got there. At first, I thought that we were gonna stay at the Ritz, but because the rooms were all book and being that its pricey as fuck for one night, we decided to go to another hotel close by. We then LITERALLY drove around the OC in the middle of the night looking for a decent hotel but every single place was booked, including the ones on the Pacific Coast Highway. Hell, we even killed some time during our hotel search by driving around Newport Beach looking for Kobe Bryant's house (I'm not kidding, we actually did that but got bored out of it after 5 minutes) The streets were very quiet, meaning there were absolutely no cars at all on the PCH and on the freeways. About two hours later, we found a hotel room at a Holiday Inn Express in Garden Grove, out of all fucking places since we were there two days before, and my uncle managed to get the last room there. Reason being is that there were a group of tourists who were here on vacation to go to Disneyland which is like 20 minutes from the hotel and they booked the entire hotel months in advance, as well as some of the other hotels that we went to.

So we checked in at 4AM, got to our rooms and rested. The next day I had some free breakfast that the hotel provided, answered some text messages and watched some SportsCenter and Superbad. Right when I changed to Superbad, they were showing the Liquor store scene where Seth Rogen and SNL's Bill Hader as cops confronting Fogel and questioning him about his McLovin ID. For those that don't know, that Liquor Store is the same liquor store on Victory and Western Avenue in the Burbank/Glendale border. Majority of the films that you've seen have been shot in the Valley, and I've seen some of those movies being made in the 23 years that I've lived there. At around 11AM, we checked out and then stopped at Frys Electronics in Fountain Valley to see if we can get some more accessories, but we walked out with no accessories. Later, we went to this Nigerian woman's apartment, who we saw at the party the previous night, to take some engagement photos since she's getting married next week and we're covering that wedding. Her fiance isn't photogenic, so I just took photos of her and her two kids. After that then my uncle took me back to my pops crib and then took off to his place in the A.V.

For the past week, there have been news stories saying that one of the Riverside council persons legislated to split the state of California into two different states: one being the original California and South California, with Orange County, Riverside County, Kern Country and other counties being annexed from California to be part of the new state. Los Angeles County won't be part of the secession to the new state since its close by to the other counties. In other words, when they make a children's jigsaw puzzle of the projected 51st states of the USA, then the pieces for both Californias will look odd as hell instead of its usual banana shaped piece. It sounds like a ideal plan, but unfortunately, I don't see that happening at all, regardless on how much serious debt, education and other financial problems California has currently. If that does happen, then those in the OC and San Diego will have to go back to form scores of line at the South California Department of Motor Vehicles to get new license plates and state Identifications for the new states. Plus, I assume that we have to pay state toll fares in order to go to Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival or Disneyland Resort, which the counties that they are in are at South California. What much worse is that the United States flag will have to be realigned to 51 stars. The president and the government might have to find Betsy Ross' ancestors to make the supposed new flag. At the end of the day, that shit won't pass anytime soon.

Alright, well I would write more, but I have a busy ass weekend in video editing and playing with my uncle's iMac again to look forward to, which won't involve driving outside the Valley to the Westside and Los Angeles. The roads will be pure hell as they would say, but I'm gonna try to get some photos of the 405 freeway being empty to see if its all just hype that the media keeps saying. Maybe the citizens of the Valley and Los Angeles should take notes on how Orange County keeps their roads empty, before they have to pay the state toll fares to cross the state boarder whenever the secession DOES happen.

Independent Indifference

Yesterday, I was sitting on a couch in the Pacoima Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library with my brother. We were there cause he was waiting for the mechanics up the street on Van Nuys Boulevard to do a check up on his Ford Taurus. As I was collecting myself with sweat after walking from the auto shop to the library, which was the coolest (in terms of temperature) place close by the area within walking distance. I don't frequent at public libraries that much anymore, but I've noticed that the environment surrounding that place has slightly changed over the years since I first started going to the public library back in 1994. They're now noisier at a place that's supposed to be defended with a wave of "Sush!" from those patrons who are there with studying purposes.

Everywhere I hear, there's two teenage girls gossiping about shit that I'm too old for. Then there's some person who's old enough to be my step-parent that's speaking on their mobile device, and then there is a single mom who has two young kids causing trouble and shouting while their parent just gave up on their tolerances instead of just taking them outside to make noise. I'm not saying this only happens in the Pacoima library, but just about every public library that I've been to, including the big ass Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles. With a copy of this months National Geographic magazine sitting on my lap as I rested my eyes, it got me thinking. Why are certain rules not meant to be followed?

Rules are made to be enforced otherwise society will collapse. Its that simple: Follow the rules, do good things and don't do bad stuff otherwise you'll get in trouble. But unfortunately, not everybody follows them, which is one of the reasons why the line is always longer than the Space Mountain ride at Disneyland at the Superior Courthouses. Everyone is different. They all have different comfortable perspectives on certain things and not every family raised their kids the same like other families. Did I miss another Revolutionary War between the civil public and the authorities?

That is what makes certain people full of themselves, thinking that they can do things their way without any regard. Its an unfair advantage to the higher class with more authority than those below with limited authority. The importance of rules is also where the role of the parents have to come in and makes sure that their kids follow the basic guidelines not only inside the house, but in outside society as well. If every young kid is like that, then distractions such as teen pregnancy rates and the high school dropout rates will keep decreasing year after year.

The high school years is where it gets really challenging. Its around that point in a young person's life where they start to feel like they want to establish independence from their parents in a rush, thinking that their decisions are more agreeable than their parent's watered-out decisions. Hell, I've been through it from my own experience. Despite being good in school and respected by many adults, there were a number of times when I didn't want to do the tasks that my parents told me to do. Yet it not just a part of life, but an coming of age process that matures the mental mind and transition from adolescences to a young adult making better and wiser decisions. Another thing about high school is that those 4 years there are the only time when you can create a scene by acting foolish, with some feedback from your peers. Because as soon as you start college, which is much more diverse than high school, and cause a scene there, no one there is gonna give a shit. They'll just move on to the mandatory study group that they have to be at.

I don't want to get into too much more detail about following orders and all that. Its VERY self-explanatory and its common sense. As far as my Independence Day weekend, it was just nothing but numerous parties and invites for the past 4 days. I was at my homegirl Jade Luber's 23rd birthday party at a building in Downtown LA. Every year she likes to make her birthday party very unique and interesting. In the 4 years that I've know her since she used to come into the Apple Store that I used to work at in 2008, I've never gotten a chance to go to her past 3 birthday parties that she invited me to over the years. This time I managed to go since I was in the area picking up my prints at Samy's Camera and to meet up with a filmmaker who was selling his Panasonic P2 HVX-200 camera that my uncle wants me to check out. The camera was decent and great, but the HD video can only record to the P2 cards instead of the DV tape source also in the camera. Not only that, the highest size of the P2 cards is 64 GB and they go for SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. So I passed on that and went to Jade's party.

It was a really good party. The theme of it was literally an entire day of just watching several movies, as if you were living in a theater. Well, my friend Jade is a filmmaker like I used to be and she know alot about films and has several ties with the film industry. She met several of notable filmmakers like Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarintino in the past. I also met alot of friends there, and half of them are photographers who brought their own cameras that I was playing with majority of the time. I just only brought the prints that I got developed at Samy's Camera, and I thought that I was stunting on everyone with the professional photos I took of Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio and the other Victoria's Secret models when they were at The Grove a few months ago... until this one dude whipped out his two vintage OG Rangefinder cameras (one of them was a Leica) . Next, he showed me the shots that he took with one of them on his trip to Japan and I was like WHAT THE FUCK?!

His photos from that trip taken with the Rangefinder were TOTALLY brilliant and flawless. The tricky thing about those types of cameras is that unlike a Single Lens Reflex (SLR) camera, where you can see through the lens, on the Rangefinder cameras, you can only see through the viewfinder, not the lens. The focus has to be estimated on how far away the subject is from the camera, which is very complex to figure out unless if you're a skilled experienced photographer.

Again, the party was great. Only saw a little bit of the two films that were played. One was called Once Upon a Time in the West and I forgot what the other one was called. Great people, great setup and a great experience.

The next day on Saturday I woke up late and scanned some photos in the afternoon until I had to leave later that night for a mansion party in Encino. When I got there, which is WAY on the top above Crespi High School, I thought it was gonna be people a tad bit older than me, but instead the place was filled with 18 year olds. I wasn't kidding about the place being filled, CAUSE THAT SHIT WAS PACKED WITH LITERALLY A THOUSAND COLLEGE FRESHMEN. I couldn't even move around the backyard, where the party took place. I ran into this person that I used to go to church with years ago and we caught up with each other's lives throughout most of the time at the party which sucked ass. What made it much worse was that the LAPD came to my surprise and they shut down the entire party, and this was at 11PM where things barely got started. I would never think that the cops would raid a mansion party that early. So my friend gave me a lift back to my pops house and that's where I crashed for the night.

Then on Sunday, I had to go to that newly built High School on Sunset and Wilton, which is where the old Metromedia Fox Television Center and channel 11 station used to be at before they tore it down and moved to 1999 South Bundy Drive in the Westside. On the way to the party the day before, I met this girl who told me about this event on Sunday where there's gonna be some guy giving a motivational speaking, open mic type event. That event turned out to be a Christian service to my surprise. I stayed for a while and met some nice people there. After that, I took the subway back to my house in Sylmar and rested.

On Fourth of July Monday, I woke up by watching the new episode of Top Gear that I missed watching online last night. I don't know if I was supposed to watch a British Television program on that day which is an American holiday, but I just did anyways. Later on, I did laundry for a bit and bounced over to my other homegirl Borrah Jackson's crib for her Fourth of July Swimming Party. Man, SO MUCH shit and foolishness was crackin' through out that party. Everybody was diving off the roof and tossing people with full clothes on into the pool, which some people spilled a little bit of Mexican beer into. I didn't plan of going for a swim, but to make the crowd more pleased and to put some spark into the party, I decided at the last second to go in the pool to everyone's delight, while wearing the Lakers/Wingstop t-shirt that I got from a Lakers viewing party a few months ago and some very expensive hard to find Nike shorts with Lakers colors on them. I ran out of fucks to give at that moment since it was a national holiday. When everyone left, I stayed for a while and helped Borrah pick up all the beer can and glass bottles around poolside. After that, my homeboy Bryan Kim and I bounced to my friend Natasha Valiente's place and kicked it there for a while. Spent the rest of the night eating ribs, drinking Coca-Cola (I'm originally a Pepsi person) and watched The Big Lebowski on her Netflix. EVERYONE SHOULD FUCKING SEE THIS FILM! Even though it came out 13 years ago, this movie SHITS on The Hangover parts one and two. There should be a mandated law that you have to be required to watch The Big Lebowski before you pass on with your life. Funniest piece of cinematic art EVER. Thanks again Natasha as always, and Happy early 23rd Birthday.

Well, that was Independence Day weekend. Now for the rest of the week, I won't have any free time. I was gonna go meet Adam Carrola and check out his new automotive show on Thursday, but I'm gonna skip that and go help out my pops pack for his two week trip to Nigeria. He hasn't been there since Barack Obama got elected as President of the United States on November 4, 2008. Then later on that night, I have to go a party at Howl at the Moon at Universal Citywalk. It'll be my third time going there in less than a year. The next day, I have to go with my uncle to Garden Grove to pick up another professional Video Camera from somebody there who is selling it and then I have to either the Darger De Milo show at the Five Star Bar or Natasha's birthday party at her place. I haven't been to the Five Star Bar in three months and haven't seen Darger De Milo perform in two months, so we'll see what happens. Finally on Saturday, my uncle and I are going to cover a Nigerian wedding in Laguna Nigel, which is past Newport Beach in the OC. Very tight schedule this week.

Like I said in the beginning, just do good things and don't do anything bad. Sounds boring and childish, but it'll pay off later in a positive way. And if you're gonna get away with things in life, make sure it doesn't involve taking your own kin's life.