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.

Driving that Holiday Road Again

Yes, I saw Christina Aguilera last week in Hollywood getting her star in the Walk of Fame and yes, I randomly got pulled into a VIP section at the Saddle Ranch at Universal Citywalk to party and take photos of a dude who's celebrating his graduation from a Barber College.

Those two were probably the most interesting things that happened to me last week. I was gonna write about all that in detail this past Saturday using the Double space outline, but it didn't look great. So I erased everything that I spent 70 minutes typing and manually separating the lines, along with the photos I was gonna add. But honestly, I don't really like to post photos that much on here, except for only just out-of-the-blue one liners that I made up dealing with that particular day's current events.

Anyway, I finally checked out the Los Angeles Auto Show this past week. There were some positives and some negatives. The positive parts were the females showcasing the new cars being displayed. They looked attractive, as well as some of the whips. One of my favorite cars that were on the showroom was the Nissan Ellure concept sports car and seeing the Lexus LF-A in person for the first time. The also had this custom made fine tuned two door Toyota Camry that was inspired by NASCAR. Another car that they had on display that I liked is the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, which is the FASTEST domestic American sports cars in the world. The engine, which you can see through the small glass on the hood only on the ZR1, is the LS9 Supercharged V8 that goes to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds. That's FUCKIN' QUICK FOR AN AMERICAN CAR!

This is where in the negative comes in. You can sit inside majority of the cars the had at the event, but not cars like the ZR1, along with the Audi R8 and the Nissan GTR. I wanted to sit inside the ZO6 Corvettes instead, but there were too many fuckin' people wanting to take turns. That was the same for the 3.8 Liter Hyundai Genesis Coupe V6 and the 2011 Nissan Maxima, two of my other favorite imports. I mostly sat inside some Infiniti models, the new Acura ZDX crossover SUV, and pretended like I was driving manual on a Honda Civic two-door coupe. They also let people test drive some cars from Fords model line. They had all of the cars they produced, including a 2011 Mustang that was customized with aftermarket rims and other parts.

The test drive part should've fallen on the positive category, but again, too many damn people wanted to drive the Mustang as opposed to the other cars, including the new Ford Taurus SHO, which stands for Super High Output. I only drove two cars, the F-150 and the Taurus SHO. The F-150 felt like driving my mom's Ford Explorer, except that this truck is a bit larger, and it had a lot of options that should've been a comeback of the discontinued Lincoln Mark LT pickup, which was also made by Ford. The Taurus SHO was a very awesome car. The black girl who was instructing the test drive with me inside the sedan made it more awesome, and made the ride more comfortable by driving over 300 horses on the Streets of LA around the Staples Center and the Convention Center. That car is very underestimated, even though Ford discontinued it back in 2006 and brought it back last year as part of the Detroit company's rebuilding process.

When we got back to the Convention Center, the line for the Ford Taurus SHO was LONGER than the line for the Ford Mustang, and I can see why from the test drive I just did.

I didn't stay too long for the entire convention cause I wanted to get back to the Valley before the traffic got ridiculous on the freeways and all the roads. Unfortunately, I spoke WAY too soon. The freeways were getting packed and all the streets and roads were on a gridlock. No surprise here, cause that means the unofficial start of this holiday season which will last until January 2nd, since New Years Day counts as it. Theses photos I took below was when I was on Foothill Blvd coming from my place in Sylmar heading to my pop's house in Granada Hills for Thanksgiving. Later on that night, I went to Nicole's place for a little pre-Thanksgiving housewarming party.

By the way, Thanksgiving went well yesterday. Mostly family business obviously. Spent majority of the time watching movies on Netflix with my cousins. The thing I didn't like that the movies weren't available in High Definition, but the quality is still decent. It was fun though. Plus, I just found out that my pops got Toy Story 3 on DVD the day before. I wanted him to get the OG version on VHS back in 1996, but he only rented it. I remember playing it like 10 times on the weekend that he rented the home video cause I was VERY addicted to that film that time. I had all the toys from Burger King and this one kid at my school had a 1996 Toy Story calendar that had me in amazement. Unfortunately, my parents wouldn't buy it cause that shit was $14.95 plus tax, which is expensive for a calendar. I haven't seen the third one yet, but I'll give it a chance when I get the time since I saw the first two both in theaters on its original release dates in 1995 and 1999. Many people, including some dudes, told me they cried at the end, but to me, that's sounds bullshit.

By the way, fuck Black Friday. That shit is one of the core reasons why that many people don't know the true meaning of the holidays. Hell, there were fools camping outside Wal-Marts for 24 Hours celebrating Thanksgiving out in the damn cold before the store opens. And why the fuck is it opening at midnight? I remember going with my moms to Wal-Mart back in the day around my Junior High School years for black friday. We got there when they opened at 6 AM and escaped the store with EVERY ITEM that was on sale. The crowd wasn't that crazy when we got there. Now when you go there, its like camping out for a pair of limited Air Jordans in 2005 or a meet and greet to see the main cast of The Twilight Saga or some shit like that. Every year, there's at least 10 stores in Southern California that has a news story about some pregnant mother getting into a fight with another pregnant mother or a some old dude getting ran over by crowds and fight breaking out. Yet, the recession is still going on and I think they should have these type of prices everyday instead of the day after Thanksgiving. But again, those greedy white-collar corporate suit bastards want more money, which is what the holidays are now mostly about in certain people's minds. I really don't like talking about this every year, but its very obvious as you look around. If I lived in small town that I've never heard of before, then this whole holiday shopping (I don't like to say Christmas Shopping cause not everyone is Christian) frenzy would be completely foreign to me. Now I have to endure this holiday marketing crap until the first week of January.

One more thing before I forget. This may sound very juvenile, but MILEY IS NO LONGER UNDERAGED!!!! Is that why their parents were splitting up? Now all the single thirsty dudes of all ages will get to sleep very well. Hey, its a fact. I'll let these photos I didn't take make you decide.

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.