Around this time one year ago, I would write an average of about 9 to 15 posts at least per month. But since the last time I was here, which was a month and a half ago, there were way too many things that were stuck on my mind and things to do list which prevented me from typing on here. Also, I was on Tumblr more than usual, and I know it looks gay and shit, but if you're a photographer and presenting your work as a showcase to future potential clients, then its necessary to have a Tumblr account aside from re-blogging photos.
Finally among other things, the NFL season survived the "would've been cancelled season lockout" over the off-season which could've cost the league and networks MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS from ticket sales, stadium revenue, sponsorships (Bud Light, Southwest Airlines and E-Trade for example), and attendance at bars among other things. Plus DirecTV would've sucked this year. Andrew Siciliano and NFL Network RED ZONE Channel's Scott Hanson will have nothing to say and nothing to do except attempting to be like Bob Miller by calling NHL games. But I'm fucking glad the NFL is back, and its getting interesting so far this season. Hell, the Detroit Lions are playing with so much impressive confidence, as well as Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers performing as Super Bowl Champions since both of those teams from the NFC North, or as ESPN Chris Berman would say the "Norris Division", are undefeated right now.
On the topic of sports, I watched the overhyped Pay Per View boxing bout last month between Floyd "Cocky-ass" Mayweather and the 805's Victor Ortiz (805 is the area code for Ventura County, where I used to spend the summer at right after high school in 2006) with my good friend Blanca Aragon and her family and friends at their place, with a projector screen and a lot of food. The preliminary fights were MUCH better than the main event, cause Victor Ortiz fucked up by headbutting Mayweather in the fourth round and that's when shit started to fall off. Mayweather ended up retaining his title at the end after turning the daylights out of Ortiz by knocking him out cold. Like I said earlier, the fight only lasted four rounds instead of more. I felt bad for those who payed 70 bucks or more on this Pay Per View from the end result of the main event, unless if you're a serious avid boxing enthusiast who's more entertained from the preliminary fights other than the main event. Thanks again to Blanca for inviting me to the viewing.
So its been already a week since former Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs passed away. I was watching the Apple Keynote presentation video on the new iPhone 4s and then, coincidentally, found out about his death right after I finished watching the video. That shit totally got me by surprise. I mean, I knew he was seriously ill with his heath problems of pancreatic cancer, but I didn't think he would pass on already. I used to look up to him since I was in 5th grade, right after I watched Pirates Of Silicon Valley that aired on TNT that year. Prior to that, I've used Macintosh computers since I was in Kindergarten back in 1993, and around the same week, my pops brought home this Packard Bell home PC set running on Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS, so I was pretty much introduced to two different operating systems at the same time. I lost touch with Macintosh computers a year afterwards and I didn't get back into until I started the sixth grade 5 years later at Frost Middle School in Granada Hills. This was two years after Steve Jobs returned to the company and a year after he breathed life into Apple Computer again by launching the original iMac, with all the different colors on the exterior case. That was the very first personal computers that I saw that didn't have a floppy disc drive, but just only a CD-ROM tray. Damn as I type this, I can totally fond remembering messing around on one of the machines running on the old System 9 back in those days by surfing on Netscape every day at Lunch and Nutrition.
Then two years later in 2001, a shit load of changes happened with Apple Computer. First they introduced iTunes, then the Mac OS X platform which blew me and everyone else away when I first saw it. I remember upgrading every iMac at Frost (except the ones at the Library and the Magnet program) from System 9 to Mac OS X and showing most of the teachers how to use it. Later they, launched the Apple Retail Store by opening two at Glendale and Northridge that year. I was at the Northridge opening and I still have the t-shirt from that day, and I actually thought that the retail store was gonna be there for three months but 10 years later, its still there. That store was absolutely something else. I remember the old theater that used to be there where they would just showcase the different Apple products to those new to the Macs, and I remember seeing the first iPod MP3 player there that launched the same week that the store opened.
Then in 2003, my little brother got an iBook when me and my sisters wanted him to get a Windows notebook, but I'm glad he went with his instincts. We used to be all over that machine. I remember burning SO many CDs of 80's playlists that I made on his iTunes like its nothing during High School. After I graduated I made both of my parents get me the Black Macbook since I wanted to use it for filmmaking, and reluctantly, they did. It wasn't easy trying to get that model, but after we walked out the Northridge Fashion Center with it, I FELT LIKE I WAS FUCKING HIGH AS FUCK!!! This was the first year when they did the "buy a Mac, get a free iPod Nano" deal. My shit came with the Black MacBook, the AppleCare Protection Plan, the HP Photosmart C3100 all in one printer, and the black iPod Nano which I gave to the little brother. Before I sold it cause I needed money from the fuck-ass recession in February 2009, I was shitting on a lot of people with that notebook when I was taking classes at Valley and Pierce Colleges. Hell, that notebook got me the job at the Apple Retail Store in Sherman Oaks Fashion Square in 2007. Here's how that went.
During the summer of 2007, after I got ousted from getting into an argument with a rookie store manager at the McDonalds on De Soto and Vanowen (pre-McCafe), I spent the last week of June applying like crazy to different places, and this was a year before the job market sucked. I remember filling out applications at Apple Stores in Northridge, Sherman Oaks, Topanga, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and I think the one at Glendale. I went to Fashion Square one day to see a friend a mine who worked at one of the food courts, then walked around the mall and saw that the Bath and Body Works was hiring.
So I went there and filled out an application just for the fuck of it. Then a week later, I went to the Apple Store at the Glendale Galleria to 1.) Follow up on my resume there and 2.) Play around with the original iPhone that just launched. They said that they haven't looked at any so far and what blew my mind was that you can make ACTUAL calls on the iPhones on display. I called my voicemail on one of them and I got a message from the manager at Bath and Body Works for an interview. So I went to the interview a few days later, got the job there over a spoiled twenty-something female college graduate that got me by surprise since she had the advantage. Spent the entire summer there doing stock and around October was when shit started to change.
I got an email from the Apple Store in Sherman Oaks, out of all Apple Stores around the proximity where I live, only THIS Apple Store was right across from where I was currently working at inside the Fashion Square mall. Every other day I had a different interview, then the store told me that I had to be at the Mac OS X 10.6 Leopard event on October 26, which was my official start date. The problem was that I was scheduled to close at Bath and Body Works that night, and the manager at Bath and Body Works didn't know that I got hired at the Apple Store. So I told them that I needed to leave early cause of some emergency or something. Wasn't easy but I managed to get that request approved. As soon as I finished my very final shift there, I ran to the back of the Apple Store, was given a black T-shirt representing Mac OS X Leopard from one of the managers, and the rest was fucking history.
I can't speak too much of behind the scenes from working there, but all I can say was that it was interesting, including the orientation which took place at a hotel in Warner Center. I can't say which one just out of respect, but I met a lot nice people there. But working at the Apple Store was not only an amazing experience, but it made me get to be more interested with the company more, by having Ron Johnson, the former Retail Operations President of Apple Inc, always reminds us of the company's core values and purpose to serving their consumers for their products during the store meetings. For those who follow me on Twitter, you already know that I also met a lot of famous people there, and producers and writers of television shows and blockbuster films that year. I remember working the Black Friday and Christmas Eve shifts there.
I got thrown out of there in May 2008 for a number of reasons that I can't say on here. Thinking that I was gonna return that summer, it didn't happen cause the job market began to collapse and a lot of places were in a hiring freeze since most employers didn't generate much income for their business, and they had to let some its workers go because they couldn't meet payroll demands to compensate its workers. That shit really sucked after it kept getting mentioned in the news. So I was back in the same position that I was one year prior to this, applying like crazy and shit, only this time no one was accepting. A lot of my friends at the time that I used to kick it with at Pierce weren't able to meet up like we used to since the recession caused them to "not have time and too busy to hang out". I spent the rest of the year trying to maintain myself by selling pictures I took from driving to The Grove and around West Hollywood and Beverly Hills chasing rich famous people like Heidi Klum and Kim Kardashian with a Nikon D90. After that ended from a dispute with a paparazzi I worked with, I still found myself not generating any income, and I really needed cash. Plus I hired a job agent to find work for me and she couldn't get me a position at any job since the unemployment got much worse. So I had to sell my Macbook for a very low street price and it took care of me for a while and used some it to start focusing on my photography business that year.
I guess you can that I'm one of the biggest Apple/Mac enthusiasts that you'll ever meet. I know everything about the company and majority of the models that came out, including the Macintosh clones that were released when Apple Computer sucked in the 1990's. New Apple CEO Tim Cook did the recent keynote for the iPhone 4S, and I know he's a rookie and I respect him as a new leader for Apple in all this, but honestly, that shit was boring. I'm used to watching Steve Jobs presenting the latest updated iPhone every year after year, so now we're gonna have to get used to old soft-ass Tim Cook making Apple act like its the 90's again. But I don't blame nobody at Apple cause Steve's condition was not good and he HAD to step down as CEO back in June. Its been SUCH a fortunate privilege to work under his company umbrella, one of the best jobs (no pun intended) in the world.
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