2013 Year in Review: Final Thoughts

So it comes down to this again. Another New Years Eve today and another year in review recap..

I really don't know if I'll ever see myself blogging again like I used to when I started dong this seven years ago (four years on this site). I honestly do not have the time anymore. Everyday, I'm always either driving around The Valley and the city of Los Angeles for 12 hours a day, doing a photosession and editing the images for several hours, and/or setting time aside to just helping out with my family when they need it. I'm also finding myself getting 4 to 5 hours a sleep every other night and its getting really tough to wake up in the morning. I was told the adult life gets more harder and challenging as you get older, and I started to realized that a lot more this past year from my everyday agendas I just mentioned. I bring this up alot because is damn true.

However, I still like to type stuff like this on here. There were many good bloggers in the past that I used to read their thoughts until they stopped cause they have moved on forward to other important matters in their lives. Another thing I noticed this past year is that time GOES BY SO MOTHERFUCKING QUICK. I'm serious. It felt like a few minutes ago until you realize that its just happened seven hours ago. Maybe its how the mind processes or something. This past year was obviously a lot different than any other years I've experienced. I guess were supposed to work and grind alot in our twenties just to make a decent living for future years. In 2012 I was working, but not as much as this year. Probably three times the work ethic than last year. Moving from Sylmar after living there for two years back to my pops house fits in as one of the occurrences of 2013.

December has always been a busy ass month, including this December that's ending today. There were a lot of fantastic events I would be very excited to type about, such as my Christmas day, The Hundreds & V/SUAL by Van Styles Street Meet photowalk I went to a few weeks ago, and a Quinceanera that I covered two weeks ago with my ex-photography boss up in Lancaster, but again, I didn't have the time to write about it. If this happened in 2009, then I would've typed it the following day after the events. But that was back when I was always at home. Now I'm always doing something. As I'm typing this, I'm doing laundry at my pops house and I'm waiting for the moms to come pick me up cause she wants me to accompany her and the little sister to San Diego for New Years Eve later today. Then again, its always better to do something and stay active, just don't over do it.

As far as the year 2013, it was quite a unique, interesting year full of unpredictability and more-than-average moments. Just like i did in the 2011 recap, I'll just bring up some one-liners recapping this past year, in no particular order.

- that Christopher Dorner manhunt

- Five-panel hats

- Samsung Galaxy S4 and two new iPhone that always looked the same

- Playstation 4 over the Xbox One

- Tesla Model S for rich people

- North West

- Bubblehead billboards

- Kevin Hart is the undisputed, unstoppable stand-up comedian

- Snapchat explodes

- Vine= Six seconds of weird, entertaining talent

- Ariana Grande tho....

- the black out during Super Bowl XLVII

- Lebron James gets a second NBA championship

- Kanye West and the People's Republic of China made Jimmy Kimmel apologize in public

- contract-less mobile phone plans

- This bloke George Zimmerman....

- pictures of Grand Theft Auto V video game covers flooding on everybody's instagram feed

- Miley twerkin'-ass Cyrus (she became legal to drink tho...)

- Breaking Bad and Dexter series finales was more important than everything you were taught from your Sunday School teacher

- Gravity = two A-list actors throughout the whole entire film (probably the best cinema I've ever watched in my life) No extras, no bullshit.

- Magna Carta Holy Grail 

- Electric car driving, Silver Lake residing Eric Garcetti as the new mayor of Los Angeles

- Vaping pens, Vape lounges, and everything "Vape life"

- everybody creating a t-shirt line with a fine ass (literally and figuratively) model and Adobe Illustrator

- Dr. Jerry Buss and Nelson Mandela's passing

- The Weeknd's debut album Kissland

- Shutdown of the Government

- 15 seconds of video selfies on instagram

- iOS 7

- George Lucas sells his Star Wars franchise to The Walt Disney Company

- Original programming on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon

That's all I can think of for now. Again, it was a unique, blessed year in 2013. Even though New Years Day celebrations looks overhyped to me with all the crazy drunk shit, it also shows as a reminder that you can toss away the stuff from last year and renew yourself in the new year differently. Thanks again for your time reading this. Blessings.

Sam Martin Photography

One week ago, my two inspirational photographers/bloggers, Van Styles and Bobby Hundreds of The Hundreds, put together this photo walk event in Santa Monica called The Hundreds and V/SUAL by Van Styles Street Meet. I'll discuss that more in the next blog update, but for this one, I just want to show support to one of the photographers I met there.

The photographer's name is Sam Martin, and his work is excellent. His photos that he took at last weeks Street Meet caught my attention and interest. Hell, he even took two candid shots of myself that were brilliant. Again, I'll post my images from the Street Meet in the next update, yet for now, here are some samples of his work and show some courtesy and feedback by checking out his websites in the links below.

Website: http://expandingmindsproject.wordpress.com/

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/111584216@N05/

Annamarie Rhyne's Graduation Party images, October 19, 2013

I'm very late on uploading this, so blame my crazy schedule runs.

I had the privilege to attend my friend Annamarie's graduation party back in October. She completed a Nursing program that she's been taking and I went to congratulate and show support for her culmination. While being there, I was talking to her friends and her family members and having great conversations with them, and they also served Tamales that were delicious. Here are some of the few images I took with my Nikon 35mm film SLR. Must respect and thanks to Annamarie.

Growing and Going So Fast

Obviously, I don't like deaths. I don't like to hear about celebrities in the news that much more. I don't even like hearing about celebrity deaths.

But Paul Walker's death last Saturday was tragic. His life abruptly ended from a car accident at Santa Clarita that he was riding. The worst part was that he was riding shotgun instead of behind the wheel. I do not know him personally and I've never met or seen him in person, yet, that dude was in several well known films, as well as the Fast and Furious franchise for the past 12 years.

I vividly remember the first ever Fast and Furious movie that dropped when I was in 7th grade (going on to 8th grade) back in 2001. I didn't watch it until two years later during my sophomore year in high school. My homeboy Cory was planning to bring a brick of DVDs to class on this one Friday in homeroom when we weren't scheduled to read books on that day. However, there was no DVD player in the classroom, so I volunteered to provide my brother's Playstation 2 to be used as the DVD Player. The following week, just as I disconnected the Playstation 2 to take to school, both of my parents got very heated and started going off about viewing movies in school, especially at the part when I told them that my homeroom teacher wanted me to bring a DVD player since there was none in the classroom. So my parents made me take the DVD player from the big screen TV instead so that my brother's console wouldn't get jacked or something. That shit was heavy.

So I brought the unit to class and Cory selected the first Fast and Furious video to watch in the class. Again, that was my first time watching this film and already, it got me entertained. We only saw the first 20 minutes of it cause that's how long homeroom lasted. After school, I went back to my homeroom to pick up my family's heavy-ass DVD player to take back home. I had to walk home by carrying that shit. I placed the unit and connected it back to the big screen TV as I got home later. Then afterwards that evening, my pops called me and found Cory's Fast and Furious DVD that was left in there. I thought that he was gonna flip when he saw that, but he just gave it to me without saying a thing. I had to wait till Monday to give it back to Cory, so I figured I watch the rest of the movie during the weekend until them. I thought that was a cool ass movie, with alot of street racing action coming from Paul Walker and Vin Diesel's characters in the film.

I didn't think that this film would keep having countless sequels later throughout the forthcoming years. I watched the Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift which was just fucking shit. To me, I kept thinking that the producers should quit making these Fast and Furious films since its showing that Hollywood is out of creative ideas and just turning hit movies into brands and franchises as financial gain. Again, it was very sad to hear about what happened to Paul Walker. They were still in the middle of production and Principal photography for the seventh Fast and Furious film which is scheduled to be released sometime next year. My guess is that they will have to continue production by alternating the script which "writes off" Paul Walker's character from the movie or just re-shoot the entire seventh movie again. From a filmmaker's perspective, that shit is alot of money and time to re-shoot a film. Very emotional to many just from hearing this. Hope the best for Paul Walker's family and the Fast and Furious cast and production crew.

That, along with hearing about motherfuckers getting jumped and ran over for a $75 big screen TV set at various stores during Black Friday, was the only downfall of that Thanksgiving weekend. The rest of that weekend was mostly positive.

During Thanksgiving, I mostly spent it with the family, just the pops and the siblings. I picked up the little brother from LAX, with my step-mom's Benz instead of the Taxicab, since he was visiting for the weekend from his University in the east coast. Haven't seen him since he left back in August. It was great catching up with him again. I was planning on going to my homegirl Amber's house for Thanksgiving again this year, but my pop's wife is out of the country for now, so I stayed home to keep my pops company for Thanksgiving. We had the usual blessing and Thanksgiving dinner in the dining table. Its been forever since we've done that. The next day on Friday, I worked at the airport and it was fucking slow. Spent hours in the taxicab holding lot waiting to be sent to a terminal. I picked up a few trips from LAX that entire Friday which was alright.

On Saturday, I went to the bank, the car wash for the Prius since it rained the previous day, and then to Primitive Shoes and Apparel to pick up some t-shirts. I was there the Saturday before for the release of their collaboration pack that the did with DJ Clark Kent and Nike SB. I originally was gonna pick up some of Primitive's Holiday '13 gear that Saturday, but I figured I'd give it a shot to try out for obtaining those Nike SB's. After standing in line for an hour, I went in only to find out that all the large sizes (I'm a size 12) were sold. The only had a 11.5 left which was the biggest. I tried it on, in which it fits. The disadvantage was that the show was too damn tight and a bit light for my feet. Instead, I just copped a t-shirt and a Primitive X New Era that goes with those shoes. Not to be confused, I got the hat and t-shirt two Saturdays ago, and I was at Primitive the recent Saturday just to some more shirts. I'm always there.

The line from the DJ Clark Kent X Nike SB X Primitive 112 collab release. I showed up late which is why I wasn't able to get my size.

Like I said, instead of those shoes, I picked up a Primitive X New Era fitted with a 3M reflective bill and one of Primitive Apparel's new t-shirts from the Holiday '13 line, featuring the "Paint Splatter" design.

Another Primitive Apparel t-shirt that I purchased two days ago. This is the "Lazy Sunday" t-shirt. I decided to get this in the Sea Foam color since I have several black t-shirts featuring Primitive's sexy models. 

After that I stopped by Mulberry Street Pizzeria to get a quick slice of Pizza and then I drove off to Pacoima to my highschool classmate Marissa's place for her oldest daughter's birthday party. Before I landed there, I stopped at Target to get some coloring books and crayons for her kid, as well as some balloons for the other kids that were gonna attend. This was my second time being there. I was there two months earlier for her other twin daughter's birthday party. But this one for her oldest daughter was great. Had some conversations with Marissa's family members and ate alot of the food they provided. I didn't take too many photos there, but here's one of them:

Marissa getting a pretend glitter tattoo by her daughter during the birthday party. 

Later that night, I went to my friend Natasha's crib, another old high school classmate of mine, at the other side of the Valley. I brought my copy of the Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Blu-Ray video to watch with her since she's never watched it. I also hooked her up with the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides movie poster that I got from the private World Premiere viewing at the El Capitan Theater a week before it officially came out two years ago and I lent her the DVD version of the film since the video is a Blu-Ray/DVD combination pack. Also in attendance was her boyfriend and her daughter. Its was great catching up with them again. Thank's again Natasha for inviting me.

I'll end this post here. I'll got another tight week ahead of me in this last month of the year. I'll update this blogsite whenever I have some fresh extra time. Thanks for your time reading this.