New Years Revelation

You know what? Not only did we make Contact, but I'm fed up with this shit.

Why make a huge hype over a "New Years Day"? Is it because Bono and his bandmates from Dublin made a song about it in the 1980s? Is it because those in the east coast would be "squares" if they didn't countdown the "times" that they endured the past 365 days of their life?

It's just basically a Hallmark holiday, or in this case, a "Rockin' Dick Clark" holiday.

To me, it's just another regular day, just like any other Thank-You-God-For-this- day. We wake up alive and go on with our normal day and do it again the next 23 hours, 6 days, 29, days, 364 days. A year is a unit of measurement. Hell if people are so amped up for this, why don't they drop the ball every morning in New York. It'll scare off the criminals and the drug dealers with the confetti and explosions on a day-to-day basis, reducing crime in the big apple. Oh wait, there's already something like that...the gavel and the opening bell at Wall Street.

I would've say this for any other year this past decade, but because how this year turned out with disastrous proportions, I'll play along for a bit.

First off in all seriousness, I would like to thank my LORD (there's a reason why its capitalized, read the King James Version) for keeping me alive up to my feet and putting me where I'm at right now. I was born a Christian and raised with Christian values, otherwise if I wasn't, then I wouldn't be writing this portion of the paragraph. Some people take what they were though and then double check as soon as they become a legal adult once they have they right to make their own decisions. Usually heavy work and school and peer pressure get in the way which makes the person drift away from their Spiritual Guidance, or just completely stopped attending church. I missed more days of church this second half of the decade than I ever had from the first half. I'll do my best to keep attending just for a relief of all the stuff from that particular week. I was gonna say it not gonna be easy, but it actually is. Just attend and that's it. No excuses.

I'm also gonna continue to not drink alcohol and not smoke cigarettes or cigars or use any substance and types of drugs. This past year, I've been viewed and labled by many authorities, including the California Highway Patrol and the security at Khloe Kardashian's and Lamar Odom's wedding, as a person who would partake in that sort of shit, even though I NEVER have done those things before in my life. I had to go to 4 different courthouses in Los Angeles county at least twice this year, something that I didn't see coming. This is gonna sound really childish but does anyone remember being in the D.A.R.E program back in grade school? Aside from the free T-shirts ( I had 5 of them) being in that program is like talking to that father from the post Baby Boom era who tell you what to do and he'll beat your ass with his belt or a broomstick if you disobeyed him by doing stuff that can and will harm your body. Let me put it in adult terms, Dazed and Confused, Half-Baked and Pineapple Express are JUST MOVIES. Its not real life.

I would like to thank my family for....just about everything. I'm very fortunate to still reside with both my parents at their houses while I turned 21 this year, cause most parents will throw their kids out once they become legal or the kids will throw themselves out. Plus I also thank God for surviving me through a year of having another woman living with my pops and I. She cost me my friendship with a friend of mine who's a model that I met when I was at Pierce. When my pops got remarried after Barack won the election, my frustration offended my friend, and that was the last time I saw her, and this was a year ago. You love to continue living your life, but you have to endure the pain that gets in the way at your own home, therefore, Pain is Love.

Finally I didn't plan on doing this, but I wanna give a large shoutout for those who made this treacherous year for myself as bright as the girl from Little Miss Sunshine (don't know why I just said that)

-Joseph Harris

-Frank

-Jeremy

-Joanna

-Tiffany

-Matt Sun

-Stephen

-the white family in West Hills that gave me 70 dollars and free pizza back in January to help move their stuff

-Laker fans

-Ceed Security Services (for the PayChex's)

-Erotica LA (yes I said it)

and the rest I can't think of right now.

In closing, I leave with a thought I made up for the 2010 that many people surely take for granted in the past.

"Don't let the New Year become great for 52 weeks. Make it great and look back at it 52 weeks later."

Thank you for your time. May God bless you throughout the rest of your lives, and have a great excellent unforgetful Twenty Ten.

My country 'tis of those

I haven't been there since 2003, and it looks like I wont be going there for a while. Plus my Passport expried

Add her to the list

November 10, 1977- December 20, 2009. 32 years old. Can't believe she's gone. Ashton had her before Demi

365 days difference

Sylmar Christmas social 2008

Sylmar Christmas social 2009

Same hairstyle, less breakouts, only difference is that one of me has a job. Damn, what a year. Thank you LORD

Next year its official

GQ is the new Maxim

Pricless plugs

We got United States citizens putting their lives on the line in the Middle East right now (shout out to all those with guts out there), we're still in a recession that's slowly....again, SLOWLY coming to an end, and we have thousands of people who are getting sick from the virus that's been occurring this past year. I already heard about him suspending his account (I'm not even gonna say what account he deleted), but this didn't really need to make the front page on CNN's website. This is something you'd find on E! News or 106 and Park (not trying to be stereotypical but I'm also dark skinned). Shit, this must be a bodacious hangover from finally splitting with America Online last week for Time Warner. Bottom line, I think he should be behind bars instead of going to every major network"Exclusive" (no pun intended) interview and apologizing in different ways. I mean, come on, THE GUY FUCKING SUCKER PUNCHED RIHANNA IN THE FACE, and I met both of them last year.

Staying on the topic of entertainment before I finish, the fourth season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians premiered this past Sunday night. I thought that shit was gonna premiere in March 2010 like before, but this episode lasted an hour, whereas the wedding special (that I almost got into) last month was a freaking 2 hour movie. I might appear in like 2 episode this season cause the many times that I met Kim Kardashian recently, there's always a camera crew around her and her family. By the way her sister Kourtney gave birth to a young boy today. All I can say to her is this is what you get for turning 30. Kiss the clubbing goodbye and welcome to the rest of your life, and a second potential spinoff in the future

Seoul food

So last Wednesday, I went to Manna Korean Barbeque in Olympic Blvd in Los Angeles for my old friend Candace's birthday. I've known her and her family for my church since 2003. That place is just less than a mile from my cousin's house, and I stopped over at his place to put on my suit and tie to look casual for the party. When I got there, you're supposed to have the valet park your car for you. It like that with almost every restaurant in L.A., but the best part was that it cost only $1.50 for the whole night, not hourly.

An hour later she came with her boyfriend, who I also knew, and some of their co-workers. We got to our table and it had a grill in the center to cook the beef on it. This place is an "All-you-can-eat" restauraunt. I originally wanted to be there to take pictures, see Candace and her friends and drink a soda because I've never tried Korean food before, but I then decided to give it a shot and after that, I WAS HOOKED! They had all kinds of beef there, and they're so damn good. This will probably be the only spot that I'll go to if I want Korean food.

Afterwards, they started playing some Asian dance song, and out of nowhere, one of the dudes that works there came to this our table with two bottles of Andre Champagne, pops the bottles and HE SPRAYS IT ALL OVER CANDACE! They did it because it was of course, her birthday. They also did it to some other girl who also had her birthday. Other than that, I had a great time, everything went well. Major THANKS to Candace and Adam for inviting me. Plus a shout out to Manna Korean Barbeque and their valet dude who I tipped 3 extra dollars to.

DEY CAN'T BE BEET!

Here's a monolouge of some observations from this past week.


The New England Patriots got over exposed at the Superdome. I thought that the 4th and 2 situation at Indianapolis was were it got them, but New Orleans took over the whole damn game. Bill Belichick is now suspect in his coaching decisions, especially removing Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker with 5:38 left in the game. Next thing coach Belichick will do is revamp his entire special teams and call audibles during Field Goals and Point After Touchdowns.


So Tiger Woods crashes his Cadillac Escalade into his neighbors tree in the middle of the night and his wife had to use his golf clubs to break the glass of the windows to rescue her husband. Then Tiger get fined $700 for running over a fire hydrant and reckless driving by the Florida Highway Patrol. $700 is pocket change to Tiger Woods. That's obvoiusly nothing to the the richest sports athlete in the world. Just pay the fucking fine and by a new Cadillac and act as if this shit never happened, right. Well, the voicemail heard around the world made his life make a huge 180 a few days later. Again this is Tiger Woods. He can see any woman he wants, even if he's married, he'll probably find a way to leave Kobe Bryant a voicemail asking for advice.




Still on the topic of sports, Allen Iverson returned to the Philadephia Sixers after "retiring" a few weeks ago. There's a reason why I put quotation marks on the word "retiring". To question the "Answer", why? Ask Brett Favre, or Floyd Mayweather, or Ric Flair. A couple of months ago, Jerry Seinfeld said that back in the 90's, when you retire from television, sports or whatever profession you've persued for a long time, you're done FOR GOOD. I can agree to that, but the other side of this is that these people have so much unconditional passion for what they persued in and they dontwant to let it go from their lives. I don't blacme Iverson that much for his decision to return to Philidelphia. They feel like they want to continued doing what they love doing until the can't mentally do it, not because you finish once you turn 65 and live off on Social Security. But if he never left the team, then he could've gotten the Sixers at least two NBA finals victories.







Speaking of Seinfeld, Comcast is planning on buying NBC for $37 Billion. I hope they play vintage Tonight Show with Jay Leno episodes from the 1990's on the E! instead of movies and usless episodes of the E! True Hollywood Stories about rappers wives and rockers wives, except Shannon Tweed and Valarie Bertinelli. Plus Access Hollywood and E! News will form a HUGE "celebrity kiss-ass" conglomerte that will probably dominate Entertainment Tonight and TMZ on TV

Now, we're already in the month of December, the last month of the year, the last year of the decade. Back when I was in grade school, I always looked forward to this month cause that the only time when I could get anything I want "for free". Now the joy of this holiday frenzy had grew out on me. Every time I think of this month, the big corporations and the Target suits up in Minneapolis will be sitting back in their hammocks watching money grow and grow from the Friday after Thanksgiving, to Cyber Monday to Christmas Eve. But come December 26, karma is gonna be yuletide bitch when 60 percent of women will return stuff that "people that the knew" gave to them, which is why in Canada its called Boxing day. By the way, my mom and my little sister have their birthdays on that day.

I think after New Years day, I might be done shopping at Best Buy. During Black Friday, me, my father and his wife had to drive to 3 different Best Buys to look for a particular Home theater system we wanted, unfortunatley those bastards don't have it in stock of out every name brand home theater stereos in the world. But we ended up getting the last few at the SonyStyle in Topanga.

In closing, I'd have to say that I'm gonna have trouble watching TMZ on TV, which is a really funny ass newsmagazine show that shits on celebrity, and I managed to appear candidly on about two or three episodes from my paparazzi days. Reason why I say that is because one of the people there on the show, this Armenian chick with the thick rimmed glasses who appears briefly, is just TOO attractive for some reason. Anna Kachikyan is her name. She's too fine as hell, especially the clothes she wears during this winter season. Maxim better get at her before they fall off like FHM and Stuff magazine did.

Can't believe I went through this post without mentioning Taylor Swift and the Microsoft Store. Weird.

Taylor Swift and Peyton Manning CAN'T lose

If Rodney Dangerfield has ever had a heckler run up on stage during his stand-up performance, then he would get more respect from the media. That's been happening to country singer Taylor Swift for the past month.

Ever since the incident at the Video Music Awards, Taylor Swift has had the media showing countless love and boosting her exposure. In fact her exposure was so great that she she even got to do a double whammy on Saturday Night Live as host and Musical Guest that night. She reached the peak last night at the Dick Clark owned American Music Awards when she won 5 awards, including artist of the year. For country music listeners and fans, its a big ordeal; but for non-country music listeners, its obviously surreal.

I forgot that the American Music Awards was on last night, even though I had to work at white-ass Simi Valley last night doing security there. But I'm glad that I didn't see that shit. Everyone knew and predicted that it was gonna be another Swift/Michael Jackson fest. The ironic part was that both of them weren't present at the show in Los Angeles (LA Live was PACKED that night, along with the Laker game in Staples Center). Swift was in London and Michael Jackson is, of course, dead. From what I read, he even won 4 awards that night, and his brother took them upon his behalf. The Black Eyed Peas went "L.A. Live Hopping" going from peforming on the show, to watching Kobe Bryant and the Lakeshow courtside across the street. Also, Whitney Houston and Jennifer Lopez came out of retirement again giving performances during the telecast, a little something for the OGs. I'm pretty sure the Nielsen ratings are gonna be hella low for this, cause the Grammy Awards are gonna do the same shit in Feburary.

As far as Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, they're just doing what every Quarterback and football team should do: win games. They had two close games against the New England Patriots last week and the Baltimore Ravens yesterday. I'm sure they'll go all the way to the "big dance", and continuing sending positive messages towards it fans unlike other sports francises.

By the way, this is the week I dislike the most. You got Thanksgiving on Thursday and then after that the "Holiday/Christmas frenzy" begins with Black-Friday sales. My parents are split so I don't see it making sense to have dinner with one of them, which is why I don't like Thanksgiving as a holiday. But I am thankful that they're still around. Now I'm gonna endure them for a week, at home.

ONE MORE YEAR........

... 51 weeks and 364 days for pedophiles to "legally holler" at her in 2010.

A taste of Fun

Damn, already a week since I met her for the fifth time.

So last Saturday, the Westfield Fox Hills mall, I mean, the Westfield CULVER CITY mall was hosting a fashion event with Kim Kardashian as a celebrity guest over there. Now I've seen her so many times before, but this one was way different. I got there at about 15 minutes to 7 in the morning. The 405 San Diego freeway was clear on the roads and fog was everwhere, which I didn't mind. When I got to the mall, it was pratically empty. I parked in the garage and there were no cars there at all. When I got inside, there was nobody inside the mall except the overnight workers putting the finishing touches on cleaning the floors. I got to the center of the mall across the Macys,where the event was taking place, so it looked like I was the first one there. 5 minutes later, these two guys and this girl came. I told them that I was the first one here, but they said that they were at the mall since 3AM, and the came from Orange County. I wanted to be the first one in line, but I let those people go ahead. Then later on more people started coming and by 8:00, there was already 40 people in line. The reason why was because the first 100 people in line will get a picture with Kim and also her autograph.

That's the reason why I came for this event, otherwise I could've easy skipped it if I wanted to. The thing is that I happen to have Kim's first ever cover shot of her in front of complex magazine that I got back in Feburary 2007, before she was as famous as she is right now. The event didn't start until 12PM and until then, I met so many people in line who REALLY like her. This one guy I met gave up his 11:00 shift at the JCPenny in the mall just to meet her, which I understand cause to a guy's point of view... it's Kim Kardashian. I did kind of the same thing when Britney Spears came to the Fashion Square mall in Sherman Oaks back in her "conceided" years in early 2008. I forced a 15 minute break from working at the Apple Store just to get some shots of her on my cell phone, and it was worth it. But yeah, everybody was cool, even though it was mostly females who are between 16-20 and some of their families.

I really wanted to bring some of my friends to this event, but unfortunatley since November has more birthdays than any other month (think St. Valentines Day) they had other plans on that day. The most obvious is a weekend in Vegas where they can LEGALLY raid the casinos, douse themselves piss-drunk in every liquor you can think of and find yourself broke at the Sapphire adult club the next morning. The reason why I want to bring them is because not only do they keep asking me about Kim, but they also never got a chance to be up close with at famous person. They won't be able to get that chance since times are getting harder. I'm not really doing this for myself, but since they decied to go wild after turning 21, so be it.

Later on Kim Kardashian came out, said some stuff to the people, answered some questions. Then she came to the meet and greet session. Some VIP people and 2 handicapped people selected by KIIS-FM got to go first. Then when she turned to us, the crowd in line went crazy. I didn't think she was gonna sign my Complex magazine, but she did cause I was the only one there with it. Everybody else had her recent cover issue on Cosmopolitan magazine. She also took my Sharpie even though there are 5 other Sharpies on the table next to her stack of head shots. I told her she can keep my pen.

After I finally took a picture with her and got her autograph, I walked this one girl that I met in line to her car. She looks a lot like her, and she's really nice. She gave me her number and after that, I saw two Cadillacs in front of the mall. I went over ther to see what was happeneing. I thought they were promoting their new 2010 model line-up vehicles and shit, but instead they said that they were letting people test drive their vehicles and to get a free Starbucks gift card. In my mind, I was like "Are you fucking serious?! Were in a recession and you're letting people test drive $40,000+ vehicles and giving away free gift cards?" I felt like I was residing at one of Donald Trump's timeshares or something like that. They told me there was no catch, no credit checks and they weren't persuading people to purchase the car. So I gave in and decided to test drive the 2010 CTS 4 door sedan. Man was that thing fast! Especially in the 5-speed shift mode on Automatic Transmission, I was flying all over Fox Hills. But it was a very nice car though. At the end they let me choose a Jamba Juice gift card or a Starbucks gift card and I went for Starbucks.

I then went to my cousin's house to pick up my brother over there. He just the new 2010 Ford Mustang and this was my first time seeing it. I didn't feel like test driving it since I drove the Cadillac, but he handed me the keys and I was like "What the hell". His Mustang was nice, hard to compare to the CTS I drove earlier. After that, I chilled there for a bit and ate this mexican food that my aunt got from a mexican restraunt. Then me and my brother left and he wanted to go to the American Apperal store in Studio City, but since were in Culver City, I told him that we should check out the one in Santa Monica at the Third Street Promenade.

When we got to the Third Street Promenade, it was already dark. I haven't been there in a year and a half. Last time I was here, they knocked down the Santa Monica Place mall right next to it. We check out the Apple Store there, by the way, this is the only Apple Store in Southern California with a theater cause every Apple store used to have theaters for presentations and other stuff. We saw that there were packing up what was already a session that happened at the theater there and then we saw Jason Schwartzman there who just talked about a film he's in called Fantastic Mr. Fox. I heard of him and I didn't even know he was gonna be there, so me and my brother got his autograph and posed for a photo with him. After that then we went to the American Apparel there and checked out some other stores there and went home afterwards.

Now it's Saturday night one week later as I write this, and it felt like it just happened today, except that it didn't. What happened today was that I went go see my younger sister sing at my pop's church today and USC got their asses handed to them by Stanford 55-21 at the Coliseum, which was a very rare loss at home. The only difference between today and last Saturday was not because it's a week apart. Its that last week had more to it, kept you upbeat and it had a lot of suprises. They say that when you have fun, time go by very fast. And when you taste it, the flavor goes by very fast.

One year ago today.....

this Senator from Illinois "Baracked" the whole world.

By the way, congrats to the New York Yankees baseball club for buying..... I mean, winning their 27th World Series championship tonight. Sean "Diddy" Combs got one hell of a birthday gift today.

Speaking of birthdays, I wanna give a birthday shoutout to my twin friends Arlene and Darlene Arias. I known them since the 10th grade. Enjoy the best of the "legal" world and many more to come.

100+ miles and bitching.....

I haven't been on here in two and a half weeks. That's a long ass time.

It's already November. Glad that trick-or-treat shit is done with. I only respect 10% of it because I have friends from high school who already have grown children at 21 or 22. (Yeah, Hormones all right) Also, they want to let their kid experience dressing up as..... whatever shit is hot right now and go door to door for candy for the first time, and its also the time that women can dress up like whores on Sunset Blvd. Speaking of that, on Halloween's Eve, I drove my mom and my sister to Vallejo SDA church in Glendale that night. My sister had bell choir practice and my mom and I stayed for vespers. The associate pastor there was discussing something about King David. I was trying to pay attention but there was this girl who came in dressed like a secretary from a racy Italian gangster movie. That bitch had a tight skirt and pearls and she was very attractive. Either she was coming from a costume party or she was going to one later. I sat in the back and she sat in the front. Now here's the kicker: she's by herself! After we had the closing prayer, I went and sat next to her without hesitation. The conversation lasted about 90 seconds. She did say she was here with her little brother, who was like 11. I should've talked to her more but the vespers ended and I wasn't in the mood to score some numbers that night. Again, I could've but I was in the chapel, and my mom was there also.

But yeah, October was a weird-ass month. It was filled with nothing but vampire craze, a ordinary family that TRIES to be famous in Colorado, the Southern California baseball clubs getting denied to the World Series at the last minute, the Kardashians being around Los Angeles more than Antonio Villarigosa in his first term as mayor, and the Lakers' 15th banner. Plus my mom bought a new car recently. It's a 1999 Nissan Altima GXE with 75,000 miles on it. The finance dealer didn't wanna sell the car to us on the day we were gonna pick it up and he was about to sell the car outside the business to somebody else, which is illegal cause we signed the papers and everything the day before. So what happened was that one of the dealers who wanted to give us the car sat in the Altima the whole day until we came to make sure no one else buys it. I'm basically the only one who drives it the most, especially yesterday. Here's how it went

In the morning at 8:00AM
Drove from my mom's house in North Hollywood to my pop's house in Granada Hills
Drove from my pops house in Granada Hills to Sylmar SDA Church
Drove from Sylmar SDA church on way to Valley Crossroads SDA church. I stopped at some guy's house to test drive his Nissan 240SX S13 that he's selling
Test drove Nissan 240SX around Sylmar for 10 minutes.
Drove from his house in my car to Valley Crossroads SDA Church in Pacoima

In the Afternoon at 2:00PM
Drove from Valley Crossroads SDA church to Sylmar SDA church
Drove from Sylmar SDA church to my pop's house
Drove from my pop's house to my mom's house
Drove from my mom's house to a gas station in Toluca Lake
Drove from Toluca Lake to Buena Park via 134 east freeway, 5 freeway south, 605 freeway south, and 91 freeway east

In the evening 7:30PM
Drove from Buena Park to Culver City via 91 freeway west, 605 freeway north, 105 freeway west, and 405 freeway north
Drove from Culver City to Northridge
Drove from Northridge to North Hollywood
Drove from North Hollywood back to Northridge

Midnight
Drove from Northridge back to North Hollywood

Places
Mom's house in North Hollywood
my father's place in Granada Hills
my church in Sylmar
my mom's church in Pacoima
Arco gas station at Toluca Lake
Medieval Times in Buena Park
Westfield Culver City mall in Culver City
Brunswick Matador bowling alley in Northridge

all in 130 miles and a extra hour. Fuckin' daylight savings time. Oh and Matt Barkley lost his first game as a starter, which sucks. First time for everything I guess.

"SAVE THE RATINGS....."

NBC is trying so hard. I haven't watched a single full episode of Heroes since it premiered three years ago, and I was 18 that time. Since then, people started hyping up Hayden Panettiere (one of the only reasons why people watch this show) in the tabloids until the disaturous I Love Beth Cooper film that came out over the summer. I used to like this girl a lot, but again, over exposure killed my interest for her. Might have to catch up by getting Season 1 on Blu-Ray IF and WHEN I get a Blu-Ray player of some sort. Right now, Notre Dame football and Sunday nights is their backbone to the Nielsen ratings, cause after December, they're screwed....as always.

Week-ending zone Celebration

It's been a while since I had a perfect weekend. This last one defines it. Including Sunday.

So on Saturday I went to my church in Sylmar during the potluck. I got there late cause they were showing a marathon of Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami on E!. After that I was near close to singing with the other youth but I got out of it since I arrived in my USC T-shirt, my Nike basketball short and my sneakers. I then went to my friend house with another person from church to witness them play NBA 2K9, which was entertaining. During that time, I kept getting text messages and phone calls from a friend of mine from Pierce College. She spent the week up here in the Valley and that Saturday was her last day because she had to go back to Downey the next day, and she wanted to do something with me before she leaves. I did an EXCELLENT photoshoot of her that week. Probably one of the best photoshoots I ever did. Afterward the video games, we then watch USC embarrasing the Cal Golden Bears at their home field in Berkley. Matt Barkley is now 4-0 in starts.

Later that night, I picked up my friend from Pierce and we chilled at my place for a bit. She told me that there are two parties happening tonight, one at her producers house (she's a singer) and the other one at her friends house in Northridge. Our original plan was to go to her producer's party first, mingle a bit, then head out to the party in Northridge. But unforutnatley, that plan has been suspended because my friend said that she got a text message saying that the party in Northridge has been raided by the cops, therefore, we're stuck at the producer's party.

As we got there, there were two adults that opened the door for us. Right there, I thought that this party was gonna be PG-13 rated. Instead it turned out to be a kickback with a bunch of twentysomethings who look like they came from the Sunset Strip. I talked to some of the people there, including this girl whose learning photography from her ex. I showed her some of my skills with her camera and it got her attention within a snap of the shutter. I also talked to this guy who's a single dad with two kids, late 30's and an occasional drinker. He offered me a drink and I told him that I live a straight-edge life which means that I don't drink. The dude start praising me saying that he would look up to me and shit like that, but he was cool
though. The music that they played at the party was mostly some random hip-hop and R&B and of course some Michael Jackson. My friend make me break loose of the dance floor. Even though I never dance, I kinda got the hang of it. At first you start of weak, then the energy kicked in. I wish they played some 80's latin Freestyle like they do at the parties in Sylmar. We left at around 2AM and I dropped her off at one her friends place. THANKS FOR SPENDING A WEEK HERE JOANA!!!

Sunday was suprising beyond excellent. Spent the day with my friend from church to do some thing I've never done before....WITNESS NFL SUNDAY TICKET! We hopped back and forth through every game that was on that day, including the New York Jets at New Orleans Saints. Too bad nobody in Los Angeles got to watch that game in teresstrial over the air broadcasting, unless they got NFL Sunday ticket. That game was one of the best games on that day. Mark Shanchez getting embarrased by the Saints in front of a rejuvenated New Orleans crowd, in which the Saints won 24-10. If you watched that game, you can see the joy at the Superdome through out the game, with cheers going left and right. The atmosphere felt like a Conference Championship game, even though it was regular season game. I also ate Sam Club's pizza and orange soda which is a great combonation on a Sunday afternoon (Thanks Frank).

I hope every weekend would be like this where you wake up on Monday morning from all the fun you had from the past 48 hours. To a point where you say to yourself "This calls for a Celebration". You can celebrate on your own endzone, which is in the beginning of the week and the end of the week

Heidi Samuel?

No. Hell fuckin' no. Abosuluetly no.

with another kid on the way, along with Adriana Lima's cherry all ready popped, the Victoria's Secret fashion shows in the future will never be the same

And don't get me started on Seal's roots (full name is Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adelo Samuel). We're both from the same country. The guy ended my job as a paparazzi last year.

48 Hours hath September...

It's amazing and surreal on how things in life can go from better to worse to better again within 48 hours. I just happen to be part of that.

So on Saturday I went to my church in Sylmar for the first time in a month and a half. Surprisingly, they were having a communion service, and unsurprisingly, there was no Pastor to coronate the service. We have a temporary part-time Pastor who comes every other Saturday, but other times when he's not there, we would have a guest preacher or just anybody in our congregation to do the sermon. Yeah, that's unbelievable but its true. Instead, one of the elders took the Pastor's spot on that day. Then I stayed after and talked with some of the members who I've known for a over a year. I actually was entertained with the discussions that we had, mostly guy shit like sports, automobiles, technology, current events and Megan Fox, who happened to host the season premiere on Saturday Night Live that night to plug her new movie and to become a future VH1 reality show star. Then I got a text from a friend of mine who wanted me to pick her up at 4 instead of 5 as scheduled. Then I told my friends later cause I gotta go and then walked out the church door. I think that scenario was something Ice Cube did 17 years ago.

I drove down to the West Valley to pick my friend up. Now I haven't seen her since the start of the NBA Finals back in the first week of June, but she looked gorgeous than the last time I saw her. We drove to Veterans Park, then to the San Fernando Mission, which happened to be closed because of some wedding, then to this church in Chatsworth which was at the top of the mountains so that we can look at the view of the West Valley. In other words, we just drove and parked around the San Fernando Valley, and during that time we were exchanging ideas for this photoshoot I was gonna do of her the following week. Also USC was playing at home that night so I kept calling my brother for the score updates. I didn't wanna turn to AM 1540 to hear the Play-by-Play for some reason. Later that night we stopped at a 7-Eleven in Valley Village and then I gave her a lift back to her place. Then I got home, found out that USC won the game against Washington 27-6 by the joyous mood of Pete Carroll's face at the post-game conference, which makes Matt Barkley 3-0 in his starts. That's good. Really good.

Back to the Ice Cube reference again. If you remember the end of his "Today was a good day" music video when the LAPD came in full force, raided his house and arrested him, and it continues on his other music video "Check yourself" where he stays in Jail. That how Sunday was kinda like for me. I was ready to watch some NFL games untill I landed in an argument with my pops and my brother. I wanted to leave my house to let off some steam, and I was thinking of checking out the venue where Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian were gonna have their wedding ceremony on that day. So I put on a suit with a black tie and drove to music producer Irving Azoff 's house in Westwood, where the wedding was gonna occur.

As I got there I was mistaken as one of the security guards there, even though I am a security guard but I wasn't hired to be stationed at this wedding. The main security guard came up to me and I told him that I was a guest. He then asked who invited me, and I told him that no one invited me, that it was all over the internet and shit. Suddenly he then yelled at me and had two of his other guards to escort me to my car. That's how beefed up security was at that wedding. Plus I got there early and the whole thing didn't start until 4PM. If the wedding took place at a church, I could've gone in easily. As a matter a fact, they should made this shit public just like Michael Jackson's memorial at Staples Center. Hell they SHOULD'VE have the wedding at Staples Center cause THAT'S WHERE LAMAR WORKS FOR HIS CHECKS FROM NOVEMBER TO APRIL, including the playoffs. But they held it there cause Khole's father, the late Robert Kardashian, spent his final years of his life running his own music production company, and he was good friends with Irving Azoff.

Afterwards I drove to this bar in Winnetka, which is 2 blocks from Pierce College. Heard about it so I decided to check it. Watched the Dolphins at Chargers game for a bit, then left cause the place kept tipping people. I didn't want to buy any drinks. I then drove to this library in Burbank. That place was so full even the handicapped parking spots were booked up. Stayed there for a bit and then left. It was very hot that day, so I can assume why that place was full. Then I finally drove to North Hollywood to stay at my mom's place for a few days Then watched Kurt Warner and his team getting embarrassed by the Colts at his home turf in the University of Phoenix stadium. After that everything went back to normal.

I did do the photoshoot of my friend the next day. That was one of the best shoots I ever did. I can't think of any other time that was relatively close to Monday night's adventure. One of the pictures in on my Flickr page. And to this day, I'm still awed by that shoot and the result it produced. All I can ever say is...wow. I think I'm gonna end this here.

I just had to quote this...

I kinda find this amusing. If you watched professional wrestling in the past, you might understand this quote:

"Sarah Palin will give Barack Obama a lap dance on the steps of the capital before I get behind Vince Russo" - Jim Cornette, executive producer for Ring Of Honor

Just some one liners

If Matt Barkley played on Saturday, then the Trojans could've posted more then 16 points on the board and win the game, but he's still 2-0 in his starts

For some jaded reason, I like going to superior courthouses, especially standing in the long lines. San Fernando courthouse> Chasworth courthouse> Van Nuys courthouse

Why do high school students want to request switching or changing their classes that is listed in their schedule? Is it because of the teacher? They should stick with whatever class they have and deal with that shit when they get to college, unless you're an honors student

I went to the Camarillo Premium outlets last week. Bought 2 t-shirts from the Nike Factory Store and 2 t-shirts from the Nautica store. Why do shopping malls like Northridge, Glendale and the Beverly Center get more hype and attendence then this place?

The Game's LAX album is the shit! You have to listen to the whole thing non-stop without scanning or skipping tracks. They need to make mp3 players without those buttons

The tackle Ray Lewis did on Sunday was epic. That showed that he still has a lot of life left in the league.

You know you're an adult when your close high school friends already have at least 2 kids

Remember when shorties were shitting on dudes with their sneaker game earlier in this decade?

Bootleggers are gonna have a field day when Michael Jackson's This is It movie premieres in theaters. They have to get their slick game on

Why is everbody going to Las Vegas more often? I haven't been there in 5 years. There's really nothing there to do except lose your money on slot machines, casinos, strippers, escorts, and vodka bottles. Sin city my ass

Remember when the Playstation 3 was the cheapest Blu-Ray player in this country, while other players go for $1000

They should raise the driving age limit to 21. I can't rent a 5 series or a Ford GT until I'm 25

Why do older adults and parents have a Facebook profile, other than to promote their business?

Why do black dudes have mohawk hairstyle? I'll be suprised if they go through a job interview.

that's all I can think for now.

Black folks can NEVER have no fun

So this past week had been such a tailspin for me. I broke my phone on Ventura Blvd on Friday evening. I cussed out my half cousin on Sunday, I got into numerous arguments with my parents, which resulted in me getting barred from my house on Sunday, I missed the USC-Buckeyes game on Saturday cause this "Special" elderly person came straight from Nigeria over to our house to spend the night and he and my pops stayed up till 1 AM watching evangelism seminars. I think the guy is a pastor or something. Plus I owe a lot of money which is common for most young adults at this current economic times. I'm gonna see if I can TRY to get a new vehicle this month. I planned on getting a new vehicle around November or December but I had to drive on Empty from South bay to the 10 freeway west to the 405 North to the Santa Monica Blvd off ramp to Santa Monica Blvd east to Sepulveda Blvd North past the Getty and Skirball all the way to Balboa and Victory Orange line parking lot. While I got there, I saw that the Los Angeles Police Department arrested two or three youth males across the intersection near Birmingham High School. 

My sister and I almost went there for summer school six years ago but the summer session there was full so we went to Cleveland High School in Reseda instead, and looking back I'm glad I did go to Cleveland that summer. But if I did go to Birmingham, I could've seen a lot a famous people there, including Gwen Stefani, before she was pregnant, cause they shot her "Hollaback" music video there and other film and television shoots. Now if I was still in high school I wouldn't want to go there based on the people that I knew that went there. Place is full of kids who parents that don't know how to raise a teenager properly. Every time when I drive or walk past that school, the kids there would be wearing stuff that you can't wear to a job interview or your nieces christening and there would always be some ruckus happening there, which is why the LAPD would shut down the intersection of Balboa and Victory until things were all clear. I feel bad for those kids who live in that are who are forced to go to that school instead of Reseda high, Van Nuys high or Taft high. Hell I feel bad for those teenagers period.  

On Sunday night I slept over at my moms house in North Hollywood. Then I woke up the following morning I went online to read the days headlines. One of them discussed an incident that took place at the Video Music Awards that took place the previous night in New York city. From what I read and watched the video clips online, young Country music singer Taylor Swift won the award for best Female Video over Beyonce Knowles- Carter's ( yes she married Jay-Z) "Single Ladies" music video. As she went up to say her acceptance speech, rapper Kanye West came out of nowhere and interrupted her by saying that Beyonce had the best video of all time, which is damn true, and when gave the microphone back to Taylor Swift as he walked off the stage. Since then Kayne West has been under the magnifying glass the next few days as the media, Taylor Swift fans, Kanye West fans, countless celebrities and even President Barack Obama disapproved Kanye's action on Sunday night, despite the apologies he gave on his website several hours after the incident took place. He even got sonned by talk show host Jay Leno on the inaugural "The Jay Leno Show" premiere. This happened to be totally coincidental because Kanye West was scheduled to preform on the premiere with Jay-Z and Rhianna and that gave Leno an opportunity to talk to Kanye West, in which he mentioned the late Dondria West which made the rapper emotional. 

To me, I think this whole thing is totally preposterous and absurd. Not just what Kanye West did which I find kinda humorous but the way everyone is shitting on this. I mean, to me, I think this this whole thing is fixed, planned, worked and or staged. In paraphrasing the ESPN Classic program, here are some reasons you can't blame Kanye West for Interrupting Tayor Swift at the 2009 Video Music Awards.

1. This isn't Kanye West's first incident at the VMAs

If you done your homework and research or if you religiously wacth MTV, then you know that this past Sunday wasn't the only stunt that Kanye did. In 2007 when the Video Music Awards took place, the rapper went apeshit after losing 5 nominations and he claimed that he would never appear on MTV again. Not everybody keeps promises nowadays. 

2. He was Intoxicated before the show started

As he and his girl Amber Rose appeared at Radio City Music Hall, Kanye had a bottle of Hennesy and Amber took turns chugging it. He even had the audacity to go up to Joe Jackson, who was here because his daughter Janet was gonna do a tribute performance to her brother, and give him "daps". Michael just died, but that was totally awkward encounter between Kanye West and Joe Jackson.

3. Beyonce Knowles' "Single Ladies" was the best video

I'm saying that cause I'm a guy. But as a former filmmaker, this video was shot in one take continuously and it was choreographed very well. I mean not A-plus well but three attractive females moving around in tights can have a group of Frat boys dazed  for minutes or they might do their own version of "Single Ladies". As for Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me" music video, the background for producing this video takes a great deal of trust and time. I mean your shooting a scene that takes place in a football field and a school dance with thousand of kids who could consist of some high school in the mid-west or just about every exact Taylor Swift fan on this planet, and it's not easy. But the storyline was obvious. I mean, if you saw at least 50% of the chick flicks that came out the past decade including the Notebook, you pretty much know how this know how the video plays out. And that goes for never listening to the song which ties-in the video storyline. The bottom line is that Taylor Swift could've been reserved for the Kids Choice Awards, or the Teen Choice Awards, or the Billboard Music Awards if it was still in existence.

4. Its the VMA's

When MTV launched the Video Music Awards back in 1984, it was basically the youth version of the Grammys with some formality. Sure not everybody was wearing black ties and the performances were something you would see at a world tour such as Madonna's "Like a Virgin" performance or Rod Stewart's "Infatuation" performance, but everything else was moderate and things went according to plan. That was when it was the "Video Music Awards". When it became referred to as the "VMA's" things started to stir up a bit and all kinds of hell and mayhem ensued. Take Howard Stern's "Fartman" debut in the 1992 and having "Beverly Hills 90210's" Luke Perry grab Stern's visible rear end. Or how bout the entire 2007 Video Music Awards where there were countless after parties and concerts in every hotel on the Las Vegas Strip as well as Britney Spears' "supposed comeback" performance which was a major failure and letdown and the brawl between Pamela Anderson's exes Tommy Lee and Kid Rock. Let's not forget the threesome between Madonna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera in 2003. And last years show made "Solid Gold" conceiving a child with "American Bandstand" due to it being shot at a packed warehouse in Hollywood. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that the show is entertainment. It a chance for the celebs to let loose and do stuff that they can't do at any other award shows.

Here's the "Best of the Rest" the Stuff that didn't make it on the list:

5. MTV doesn't play (that much) videos anymore                  

6. Nobody in MTV's current demographic likes country music 

7. Kanye wants to try to promote Jay-Z's "The Blueprint 3" album which came out around that weekend in favor of Beyonce

8. Kanye never won a VMA award  and wants his own acceptance speech

9, Taylor Swift is just 19 and should stay in school to risk being the next Paris Hilton, came out with an album back in 2006, or Lindsey Lohan, who also came out with an album back in 2004

10. It's all about the ratings........ and Twitter.

I really don't know about that last one but that's the best I can come up with. Maybe Kanye has gotten his wish. He might get some sort of lifetime ban from any future VMAs just like Andrew "Dice" Clay did in the late 80's with threw off the the MTV exces based on his explicit stand up performance. Looks like he'll take a while for him to recover from this tailspin he's in right now. 

 

       

Destination 9/9/09

4 deaths in one week is just too fucking insane.

That's one of the reasons on why I haven't been on here for two weeks. Well, that and some financial matters I had to deal with. But yeah, this "Final Destination" type shit has really made me gather my thoughts for a while because I don't wanna turn this page into some obituarty. Speaking of Final Destination, they released the 4th part of the movie without the Part 4 at the end of the title. The movie is called "The Final Destination" You know just like how they did it with Fast and Furious without "the" in the beginning of the title. I know, hollywood is is running out of ideas. I really don't wanna say it like that as a former filmmaker during high school, but with all the films that came out this past year, the opion just became a fact.

Yes, like I said, 4 people that I known and who I think are inportant have passed away in a one week span. 2 of them are famous and the other two were from my church. I don't wanna talk about the people from my church, so that I can respect their families privacy. But the two other people that passed away were Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy and Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein, a club DJ whos known for his infamous,ungodly collection of sneakers, was engaged to Nicole Ritchie for a brief time, and he survived a serious plane crash.

Now that I got that out the way, we are already in the month of September, the ninth month of the calendar year, the ninth day of the month, and the ninth year of the decade as well as the century. Today was the official start of the school year for the Los Angeles public schools. My brother is in his senoir year and one of my sisters just started the 10th grade. To me, it feels like they were both just in middle school last year but now they already have high school experience. Just yesterday, the President of the United States did a video message directed to students at all the schools in this country telling them to stay focused and that giving up is not an excuse for failure. Prior to that, all the critics and pundits acted as if they know what he already was going to say, and that Barack would be treating the students as if he was speaking at all the schools during the regime of the Soviet Union in the 20th century. But he left out anything that had to do with politics out of his speech. Hell, they're were some kids who were motivated from his speech, saying that this was something that they never saw the past Presidents of the United States do every September. I wish my siblings, as well as those who just started their Freshman year and those who are in their last year in school a very sucessful year. Either way its a challenging destination that will last up to June 2010 or June 2013 for current ninth graders or June 2021 for those starting Kindergarten.

Oh yeah as for my labor day, it was bullshit. I got cited at the Universal City Red Line parking lot for having expired tags. Now I just took care of my registration before the month ended. I talked to the Sherrifs that were nearby patroling the area about it and they said that I still need the sticker, because I though they mail the sticker. So I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles the next day and waited two hours for them to call my number and had got the sticker which took 8 seconds. That's living in California for you.

Brett Favre is conceited, Michael Vick is conceived

In 2004, these two Quarterbacks were my favorite NFL players back when I was in High school. Everybody had their jerseys and ESPN would never shut up about them. Brett was in Green Bay with his consecutive starts and Michael was in Atlanta with a 1,000 yards in less passing and more rushing combined.

That was then, This is now

In 2009, these two Quarterbacks will be in brand new teams, coming off from years of media scrunity and off-field attention. In the next 20 weeks, ESPN will never shut up about them. I'm gonna get their jerseys as soon as my debit card comes in the mail. Brett with Minnesota and Michael with Philidelphia.

A new generation of the NFL. That means more Rachel Nichols to make me weak every Sunday.

A Reason Under the Sun

to me, there's nothing to look forward to right now......until I get my check.

If I get it this Friday or next week with Monday being the earliest, then my lifestyle will instantly change. I'll be back to the way that I used to be before this recession took place.

See, before the economy started to go downhill like around late March or April of 2008, I was basically living a wealthy-ish lifestyle. I always had cash, I was working at a fantastic retail store, I was seeing this gorgeous Chinese girl, my pops was single, my mom had two whips, I was always buying shoes and other stuff from Amazon or eBay, Britney Spears would be doing something crazy everyday and I was transitioning from 35mm film photography to digital photography. That was the way I used to live.

But then things sarted to slowly drift off financially and I had to cut back on stuff. Now after over a year of misery and long-suffering, I think I finally lost what I found. I managed to get by by doing things on the side. Stuff like helping one of my friends watch Nickelodeon and DVDs with her son and getting $5 to $20 for a day. Or just roaming the internet for labor jobs like helping move stuff, which I only did once and got $70 for it. Then I had to sell my first-gen Macbook for $500 which was the most I ever gotten during these rough times this past year. Unfortunately that cash was gone within a week. The only good thing I did with a portion of that $500 was that I was greeted by a poor Hispanic couple when I was filling up my car at the gas station in Granada Hills. I offered them to buy them lunch at a McDonalds near my house. So I gave them a ride and I didn't just give them 5 bucks and drop them off, I went inside the restaraunt with them and I bought them 2 large grilled Chicken sandwich meals which was like $10. I even impressed some girl in line while I was ordering. If I was under 18, I'd score with her.

Once I HOPEFULLY get paid this month, and I will, I'm going to pick up where I left off. Got bills to pay, got fines to take care of, and I there are sneakers I need to buy. I emphasize "need" because these shoes aer avaliable for a limited time. Also, I got to take some people out to dinners and to the original In-N-Out in Baldwin Park, so that I can check out the In-N-Out store and get some stuff there. In other words, I'm gonna be out of the house more and I'm gonna enjoy myself. Walter Lee Younger should've set a budget list with his family and mother before they got their Insurance check instead of investing in some bar. I miss reading that story in the 10th grade just like I miss my old lifestyle.

Oh yeah, my brother turns 17 tomorrow. He's already growing and being more mature then ever. May God bless him for another year.

Another weekend

Freakin' Sundays. I dispite them.

To me there are good things and not so good things about that day. The negative aspects about that day is that if you haven't moved out yet, then you'll deal with your parents wearing their University alma matter t-shirts or their non-work clothes all day in the house fixing something or cleaning up the place. Another thing is that it's hard to contact people, especially in the morning. When you call them, you'll get their voicemail cause they're either at their godparents church for the morning service or their very hungover from some party the previous Saturday night. Plus the television ain't gonna do any help. They'll be showing countless infomercials, political roundtables, lame ass marathons of a reality show, and movies you already pirated over the internet. The NFL is an exception. The only sad part is that you only see action for 20 Sundays of the year, which includes 17 weekly games, three weeks of the Playoffs, and the Super Bowl. You can add the Pro Bowl in there if you wish. If you're a slow reader and have a $1.50 and wanna kill some time by improving your reading habits, there's always the Sunday newspaper. Maybe that's just a sign for me to move out.

Last week was something else. A lot of stuff happen which was the reason why I haven't been on here for a while. I'm still working up there in Lancaster unfortunately, doing graveyard shifts. Also, Judge Sonia Sotomayor is finally sworn in as the first hispanic Supreme Court justice. I did some reasearch on her background and she did pull a lot of weight to get to where she's at right now. She was raised in the bronx , went to Princeton where there no Spanish instructors at that time,  got her J.D. at Yale, worked at numerous attorneys, and the lady is single as of now. I'm sure every young female, including latinas and single women, should look up to her so that they can pull of  to the same extent as to what she accomplished. I hope Judge Sotomayor makes wise decisons and does well in the Supreme court. 

Oh yeah, I took my brother to the bank to open up his bank account last Friday. He handled the process very well by himself. I didn't say a word while he's talking to the bank tellers. He even corrected one of them several times, not because our last name is very long, but other things because one of the tellers were new to the bank. He's gonna turn 17 on Thursday so when he does, I'm gonna get him something as soon as I get paid.        

         

Straight Edge my black-ass

Aw shit....

For the past 4 and a half days I was up in the Antelope Valley without access to the internet, although I admit, I did swing by the Best Buy in Palmdale to check my Myspace but that doesn't count and I was on borrowed time. When I got home yesterday morning, first thing I did was I went to the upstairs computer in my house, checked CNN.com as always and I saw this....

immediately I was like "WHAT THE HELL?!?! WE'RE GONNA DEAL WITH HIM DOING THIS TYPE OF SHIT FOR 3 MORE YEARS?" I mean the guy has a young looking wife in Michelle Obama and two girls in Sasha and Malia for crying out loud. Plus he's a MAJOR influence to young African-American  males out there who have never had a father or a male figure in their lives. Next thing is that he'll be investigated for having a collection of belts up at Camp David (black people know what I meant). If he were to do this "White House Beer Summit" he really didn't need the damn press to do this. He shoud've done it on Air Force One so that he can have his own "Mile High Summit". If this was an exclusive shot, then that paparazzo or photographer would've made a sick fortune if he sold that print to People or a Scandanavian tabloid publishing group.

I mean really, this is very unncessary. First he fucked up at the inaguration with the pastor having to swore him in again inside the White House the following week. Next, he goes out on dates with Michelle to public theaters in New York. I mean, looked what happened with Abraham Lincoln at the Ford Theatre back in 1865, and they have a Theater inside the White House. Then he swatted a fly on live TV which pissed off the People for the Ethical Treatmeant of Animals or PeTA for short. But they didn't put too much heat on Barack cause he's the President. To make things more ludacris and dangerous, Vice-President  Joe Biden was involved in this summit. According to the constitution, the rules states that the President and Vice President cannot be in the same area at the same time unless if it were the State of the Union, at a funeral for a death of a former President, or if they're indoors at some secret undisclosed location inside the White House, cause anything can happen. I don't like to freak y'all out, but there are sneaky people in this place and they are very patient.

One last thing I have to say is that I hope every black church, or just EVERY church for that matter, better pray to have God stay by his side so that he can make positive and adequate decisions in the next three years. The White House is a fish bowl and every country, including Russia and his native country of Kenya, is watching every next motive he does. Yes it's his first year as the leader of the free word and yes he's made some rookie mistakes since January, but just like he "changed" America, he needs to change his old motives by eliminating the Alcohol, otherwise strip clubs and theme parks would be selling Bud Lights and Dos Equis, and he should pull in a lot of weight to get this country back on track without any distractions. I mean come on, "beer summits"? It's August right now. It's summer. Save that for a trip to Boston's Cheers bar in October or St. Patricks Day.     

My dearest Rachel Nichols...

PLEASE don't end up like your collegue Erin Andrews

on second though, you can look like her, but only better. You know what I mean. Look forward to seeing you this upcoming season on Sundays.
Sincerely, David Nwachuku
P.S. You still owe me an autograph headshot of yourself from two years ago

I'm getting grilled up there and Who's Johnny?

well figurtively and literaly speaking however you want to put it.

I spent all of last week up in lame ass Lancaster working straightout everyday. No day offs. This job is not easy. Especially in the middle of the night. I tried my best to stay awake but I always find myself with my eyes closed. I'm talking 8-12 hour shifts. These are shifts the at Pre-med registered Nurses and pro Athletes strive though day after day non-stop. As I'm typing this, I just got through a 12 hour shift last night from 7pm to 7am. And I'm gonna do it again later tonight. A lot has happened last night:

-Some underage white kid wouldn't stop taling to me in his car. His parents were inside the Kmart, yep they have a Kmart up there.

-Some homeless dude who looked like Taylor Swift's father was eating fresh produce and had a shopping cart with him. He was behind the Home Depot next to the Kmart as I was making my rounds. I thought stealing carts was a Van Nuys/North Hollywood thing.

-This one fine hispanic-american lady, who unfortunatley has a daughter with her and the name "Johnny" tatooed on the back of her neck, she and her mother had an argument with the manager of Kmart. That fool looked EXACTLY like Steve Nash's long lost brother. I had to go in and help settle the dispute. Dude was a absolute racist. The hispanic lady's mother, or Johnny's mother-in law, needed help to transfer money and Kmart had a Western Union. The manager didn't know there was a Western Union inside Kmart. When I showed him the sign outside, he then blatenly freestyled (freestyle as in impromptu, not rapping) that he Western Union was not working. Then the lady started cursing in Spanish and then I told the family to go to some drug store for money transfer.

-Around 5am, some female Kmart employees who are opening the store thought I was drunk when I parked my car in front of the store. I told them what I do and they didn't believe me. They were also discriminting.

I'm gonna be up there for another week. I'm staying at one of my uncle's house up there. He has a widescreen TV that 50 to 60 inches I think. Plus the HD channels are no fucking joke. I'd find myself in the ER if I ever see Jackie Johnson in 1080p again. He also has NBA TV. They played the 2001 NBA All star game. That was one of the GREATEST  all star game or any professional sports games I've ever seen. Basically that was the only good thing that I ever did when I was up there last week. It had everything. A.I. at his prime, Chris Webber with the Kings (or Queens), McGrady when he was good with Orlando, Kobe with the afro and his adidas kicks, man I can go on for days. I wanna see this entirety on DVD or hell, the iTunes store.   

and as for Johnny, I'll leave that to El Debarge to find out

       

the Big Kmart next to my post. Typical Antelope Valley. 

My uncle's HD flat. Kobe was 22 there and he just won a NBA title.

Two of the then top leading scorers who would meet in the Finals in a couple of months later.

My uncle's neighborhood

It's about freakin' time!

After 14 cheapless hustling months of being actually unemployed (the photoshoots and the paparazzi stuff are a side thing) and bullshit interviews, I finally have a job. Thank the Messiah.

I just started work for this place called Ceed Secuirty Systems or something like that. The ususally assign people to different locations on security business. So these people assigned me this past weekend to look after an unfinished Walgreens in at all of places in Southern California, Lancaster. I was actually at their offices in Gardena to pick up my uniform. 

Yes the Antelope Valley. The city of Lancaster, just right above Palmdale. And I thought I disliked the San Fernando Valley the most until I had to do 12 hour shifts on Saturday and Sunday. That basically the equivelent of a Nurse's part time shift at a clinic or hospital. Hell, I'd rather drive to Orange County or Riverside than to go all the way up there. Thank Jesus it's not the winter in Lancaster otherwise I'd have trouble putting chains on my tires while going on the 14 freeway. That freeway has the most CHP squads I've ever seen in the west coast. 

So I just started last Saturday. Basically all I have to do is just...stay there and watch the unfinished building. That's it. but the thing is that I have to be there for a VERY long time. I try my best to make the use of those 12 hours. I called almost everyone I can think of. Freaking bastards won't even answer. Shit, mobile phones are not what they used to be before it got too mainstream, like around 10 years ago. I remember public school teachers and business people that work in Brentwood and the Civic Center in Downtown LA that were the only people to use cell phones. And this was in the 90's. Now it's 2009 and you see 5th graders with Blackberry Pearls and 9th graders with iPhones or anything that you can touch that has a mini keyboard. You have no idea how many friendships that I had were destroyed just because of mobile devices. It's that simple, pick up the phone. 

HOPEFULLY, they put me someplace that's kinda closer. The reason I say that is because I don't like driving to Lancaster. I mean it takes me 40 minutes to get from Granada Hills to Lancaster and Vice Versa. Plus the 14 freeway is a bitch to drive through and its more hotter there than the San Fernando Valley because Lancaster is in the desert area. I have to be there for the next week so it looks like I won't be on a computer for a while. Oh, and the Walgreens I have to watch over is shared at the same property as Kmart. The have a Kmart up there. Weird. Also, Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe live up in Lancaster too. If I see her at that Kmart, I probably take her picture with my phone and if she ask me why, then I'll tell her it's for security purposes.

 

Once you're Black.....

....you MUST look back!

Everytime I see this woman on TV at night....

My heart fuckin' sinks. Thanks for the headshot Jackie.

She was sad.....real sad, Paris Jackson

That title was to paraphrase Kanye West's verse from Keri Hilson's "Knock you Down" single, which to me, might be this summer's anthem.

On Monday night I missed two of the rarest telecasts in the history of television. A replay of Game 6 of the 2000 NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Los Angeles Lakers and Wall Street on the Fox Movie channel. Starting with the Game 6 repeat. ESPN Classic used to be a venue where you can watch classic NBA games and vintage NFL Films programs like NFL Films Presents, The NFL Game of the Week, and highlights of some team's season in a particular. This was like back when I was in high school some 5 years ago. Now with the advent of NBA TV and the NFL Network (which is a travesty to get in the San Fernando Valley unless you have satellite) ESPN Classic became a display of Poker World Series, RECENT, not classic, recent NCAA games, AWA Wrestling, and countless, countless, countless hours of professional Boxing which they hold endless marathons every weekend. Nowadays they rarely show the REAL good vintage sports that they used to show, and I do mean rarely. In fact, that NBA Finals game came in a heartbeat. It was the actual NBA on NBC telecast with the John Tesh "Roundball Rock" theme music, Bob Costas and Ahmad Rashad getting airtime with the peacock logo on their blazers, Chick Hearn still calling the shots, the then newly built Staples Center when the 300s section and the rest of the damn arena was lit up and a just barely legal 21-year-old Kobe Bryant rocking the Afro with his signature Adidas sneakers. This was the last finals game where they won at home court. The next 3 they won at Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Orlando. Confetti was flying and riots were all abroad outside at Figueroa St. and downtown Los Angeles (I don't know whether to compare that years riots to this past years riots). You won't find that game ever played again on a network, unless if you have a friend who's been a devoted Laker's fan since Elgin Baylor and Jerry West played in the Sports Arena before going to the Forum that taped that game. The only other alternative to watch that game is the internet, which is fine but I can't dig the slow frame rate there.

Wall Street is another film that I've been wanting to see for the past two months. Michael Douglas plays the antagonist in the film along with Charlie and Martin Sheen as the Co-stars. You can't find it on the internet. I couln't find it at Target or the Best Buys in my area. But I'll just keep looking and I'll get it once I'll see it. Again they rarely show that movie on TV.

So today I was supposed to be at a meeting with a couple of job developers to find out why I haven't been working for the past year around 10:00AM. I ditched it because I wanted to see the Michael Jackson memorial, which SHOULD'VE took place at at larger venue like the Rose Bowl where he preformed at halftime during Super Bowl XXVII in 1993 or the Coliseum where 90,000 plus people filled the place for the Lakers championship rally after the parade last month.

And it was worth missing the meeting.

They had two memorials that day: a private one in Forest Lawn cemetery at Griffith Park and a public one at Staples Center. In order to get to the public one, you had to register for the tickets at the Staples Center website, and out of 1.6 million people that entered, they randomly selected 18,000 people to witness the event. I registered the second they announced the web address at last weeks press conference at LA Live. Knowing that there was gonna be a shitload of web traffic, I had to use two computers and my brothers Playstation Portable to get through. Unfortunately I didn't get selected, but those who did had this emotion as if their child was the first one in the family to graduate from college with honors or if Sir Richard Branson (the billionaire who owns Virgin) gave everyone in England a Jaguar or a C300. Hell that ticket is so powerful, that the bids for these on ebay went for more than a 2 room house in Arleta, and people bidded on them regardless of the price.

Every channel you can think of televised this special. This event was to honor and show support for a worldwide entertainer that shut down the internet for half an hour and had his albums literary sellout everywhere after his death was announced. Despite being held at a 20,000 seat venue, the memorial went very great. It was like going to church as I was watching. A lot of famous people came and gave their share of their experience with Michael.

-Magic Johnson's speech was the most amusing, along with Kobe Bryant who's speech was the only one I missed because I was upstairs. He left out Joe Jackson's name while he was thanking the family and plugged Kentucky Fried Chicken that shot up its stock in the New York Stock Exchange like crazy a few seconds later.

-Jennifer Hudson looked really fantastic, even though she's pregnant thanks to David "Punk" Acuna from VH1's I Love New York, and I haven't seen her performed since this years' Super Bowl.

-Brooke Shields should've brought Emmanuel Lewis on stage with her.

-Al Sharpton still did his thing.

-I'm surprised that Berry Gordy is still alive. He should buy Motown back from Universal Music Group and sign that kid from Britians got Talent.

-They threw every religious symbol on the same screen during the "We are the World" performance which I thought it was awkward.

The ending was where it really went down. Michael's daughter, 11 year old Paris Katherine Jackson, spoke publically for the first time ever. If I was there I would've brought out the waterworks after she thanked her father. Honestly that was very powerful, possibly the highlight of the whole show that pundits and critics are talk about for a long time. Again, the man is a very special entertainer. The last time I can recall an event this great was Princess Diana's memorial back in 1997. He's gonna be greatly missed.

We lost another one...

So far for the past two weeks, if not the past several months, there's been a stretch of major deaths occouring. One of theses are the Air France flight that nose dived into the Atlantic Ocean last month and Yemenia Flight 626 that crashed into the Indian Ocean with lives being taken away except for one 14 year old survivor. Not to mention a number of celebrity deaths thats been taking place in these recent events. Stars such as Bea Arthur, David Carradine, Millvina Dean who is the last living survivor of the Titanic, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, Billy Mays from the infomercials and of course Michael Jackon himself. 

Just a few hours ago, I learned that former Tennesee Titans quarterback Steve McNair had his life taken away along with another woman from a gunshot. This guy was a very excellent athleate. Was one of the last Houston Oilers in the Tennesee Titans before playing with Baltimore in 2006. He lead the Titans to Super Bowl XXXIV only to lose to the St. Louis Rams one yard short. I remenber watching his games when I was in high school. He was one of the quaterbacks I looked forward to seeing on Monday Night Football and he was one of the star players along with McNabb, Brett Favre (when he was in Green Bay) and Michael Vick that got me interested in the NFL more often. It's weird because last summer I met his teammate Eddie George and his Superbowl rival Marshall Faulk in at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for the Maddenpalooza event. With McNair no longer alive, it gonna be unusual for me to watch another game this upcomng season. This guy is gonna be missed for sure. 

 

Year in review...so far

Coming off a lame ass Wednesday night, even though its still going on as I type, I can't think of anything else to do right now. So I decided that I should reflect on this year so far now that we reached the midpoint of 2009. Let's see what happened so far starting with January....

Barack Obama being inagurated as President of the United States

I thought this day will never happen. Hell I had doubts for this guy when people were mentioning that he was gonna run for President, before he declared his canidacy. But through out 2008, the man emphasized change across the country with numerous visits and telling his life story on how he was brought up by his bi-racial parents and how he pulled an Alex Haley (the guy who wrote Roots) by traveling to Kenya and learning more about his ancestory. Many people started admiring him, and its not just because he's a Democrat. Its because Barack relates to the modern American culture more closely than any other past President I can think of. For example, the guy can shoot hoops, he's addicted to his Blackberry more than Robert Palmer being Addicted to love, he even took his wife Michelle to see Do The Right Thing when they first met, and he was barely 30 when that movie came out.

When the guy meant that he was gonna bring "Change" to the United States, he wasn't fuckin' kidding. He didn't just bring change, he permanetly enabled it . I think that the recession that happened last year was part of it regardless if he won or not. Its like changing the oil filter in you car by draining and cleaning the remaining excess and refilling it with the brand new product. The night when he won the election and the next day as well, people of all races were letting out their emotions of all types, viewing society more differently than they have in their past lives. Blacks were acting more seriously challenged than before, thinking that if Barack can do it big, why can't they strive and live up to match where he is. Its also an good advantage for single mothers out their, especially black mothers who have sons that don't have a father that lives with them. Barack can and might be thier role model, some who the single mother's kid can look up to as an example. The inaguration really paid off for those who have been supporting him for the past 2 years. Being an African-American myself, I may not have fully support him during the campaign, but I respect him for landing this far through out the journey.

Nadya Suleman and the Gosslins plus thier numerous children

I'm sorry, but I don't know what else there is to say about this woman. She a single mother in her early 30's, a student in college going for her masters, with no job, no husband , no income with the exception of her student loans and already has eight kids from her previous marriage. For the icing on the cake, she wanted to have those eight more kids, and she did it thorugh in-vitro fertalization. After she gave birth, I thought the media was gonna be at her for about a week. But I was wrong.

With a mix of controversy, Nadya Suleman became the center of attention in the media circus. People made fun of her and critized on televison, tabloid magazines were publishing fake-ass stories about her to get more sales, Donald Trump said that she is the reason that the recession is getting worse and a lot of single moms looked up to her because of all the weight she has to hold. I'm suprised that she would do this at a time when the financial system is a mess. Then she had to hand the torch over to Jon and Kate Gosslin.

Rhianna gets served by Chris Brown

They were refered to as the prince and princess of the hip hop industry. But one February night, something went beyond belief that nobody would ever imagine. I'm pretty sure that you know the whole story, but they were at a pre Grammy dinner event before the whole thing happened. When I first heard of it, I thought he had some sort of alcohol during the event even though he was 19. But I don't think that was the case cause he was driving a $175,000 Lamborgini that night and he knows better than to drink and drive. If Chris never let Rhianna snatch the keys from the Lamborgini's ignition and threw them out the window because she was upset of some girl that Chris was texting to, then he would've never got physical on her and sort it out like adults. The boy should have known better than to strike at a lady like Rhianna. Now I've seen both of them in person last year. Rhianna is VERY fine and Chris looks like a safety off a High School football team. I lost respect for both of them after that. They are the biggest musicans in the world and they have a lot of fans in both of them that admire their music. This is the part that really tripped me out like I was high on life or something. About a month and a half after all that took place and the inital court hearing, Rhianna forgave him and they started seeing each other for a while.

Now when you beat the shit out of a gorgeous supermodel-looking girl straight from Barbados, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, or just anywhere in South America, not only is that bitch is gone forever but you just got yourself a death certificate. Look forward to encountering her brothers, cousins, her pops and even her grandparents filing mad lawsuts and pouring shame and guilt all over your life. Jay-Z was so upset at Chris Brown, that he may force him in retirement from singing. Again, I don't even know what he was thinking when he left those brusies on her that night. Now Chris Brown has five years probation and six months community service. That's the core thing about life: Shit happens, regardless if your famous or not.

Los Angeles Lakers 2009 NBA champions

Some people don't believe in wishes, so they interpret it in this saying: Becareful what you pray and hope for, cause God might actually answer it. Los Angelenos weren't so careful with its financial situation, but they did get their hopes and prayers answered.

The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team have this tradition that they do after every game whether they win or lose. They get together, put their hands in the center with their eyes closed and recite the Lords Prayer. They focused their goals by keeping their own faith and not let anything get in the way no matter how changelling the outcomes are. I've been to the ESPN Zone in Downtown Los Angeles throughout the playoffs to watch the majority of the games. To me, I think the team had a lot of "breaks" in the playoffs like Kevin Garnett, who is one of the major core factors of the high rolling defending champions Boston Celtics, being injured in the go-around and was being forced to sit out thorughout the playoffs, causing Boston to be knocked off by the Orlando Magic. Another "break" they had was the injury of Houston Rockets center Yao Ming when the Lakers went against Houston in the second round of the playoffs. Honestly it really sucks to see that happening if you think about it. The guy has been in the league ever since I started high school back in 2002 and there are already talks that he might hang it up. I really like to see him play next season.

The NBA finals is where it could've been one way or another. The Orlando Magic could've lead 3 games to 1 in the series and finish it off at home so that the team could have their first ever world title. They were a good team through out the playoffs, hell they got rid of Boston and Cleveland Cavaliers who had the most wins in the regular season, but I could never at that time picture them with the world title. It was a great feeling when they won, despite the rowdy drunk Laker fans rioting in the streets of Los Angeles surrounding the Staples Center. That alsmost could've been me at that scene but thank God that the ESPN Zone was at full capacity, which caused a long ass line that streched parallel next to Figueroa Street. I didn't go to the victory parade for several reasons. First I wanted to let those who have never been to a Lakers game before to get a chance to see the players and the staff. I've seen the players before in person and I've been inside Staples once and sat two rows behind courtside which is equivalent to going to the Coliseum for the rally. Second was the ruckus that took place after the game was over. The scene was the same as the time where they won back in 2000 which almost cost them the chance to host the Democratic National Convention at the then newly built Staples Center. Lots of places were destroyed, including a sneaker store that was fully vandalized leaving the store completley empty. I got a chance to check out the store on the day before it was destroyed and that place had a lot of nice sneakers. All I can say was that team earned to have another banner hanging at Staples Center.

There were a lot of other things that happened this past year, but those things I mentioned are topics that people are gonna remember for a long time. Let's see what the last six months of this year and this decade brings.