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.