Now How That Mother-Fuckin' Best Was Won

Just another average weekend, with some occurrences that made it decent.

On Friday Night, I went over to my friend Nicole Stetter's boyfriend's sister's birthday party in Van Nuys to do some photography there, but I didn't have time to swing by Samy's Camera to pick up some Black and White 400 speed T-Max Film and my uncle has his D5000 that I always loaned, yet he was at his job all the way in Fresno. I almost bought an overpriced roll of 400 speed Color Negative consumer film at the CVS in Sherman Way and Sepulveda (Sidenote: that store was one of the VERY first places I applied for a job back when I was 16, which I didn't get) I also made a 5x7 print there for the birthday girl, and what's weird was that the clueless staff there charged me .32 for a 5X7 instead of $1.99 which is the original price, BUT WHATEVER, THAT'S COOL WITH ME.

When I got to the house where the birthday party was gonna be at, which was the birthday girl's boyfriend's crib, I was the first one there. She greeted me and I told her that I was going to take that much photos, but I had 3 exposures left on my Nikon N70 that I used for some serious portraits of the party. Later on, more people started to turn up, as well as her brother and Nicole, and it totaled the crowd to about 20 people on average. I enjoyed it. The mood was super chill, also there was a lot of food and the birthday cake was excellent. Thanks again to Illian Herrera for inviting me to your party.

Then on Saturday, I woke my ass up and headed straight to Primitive in Encino. For those who don't know, its a skateshop on Ventura Boulevard that's owned by professional skateboarder Paul Rodriguez Jr., providing skate decks, accessories and apparel of the Primitive brand and other skate brands like Diamond Supply Co., The Hundreds, Nike SB, Vans and others. Imagine that its an Active Ride Shop on the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Melrose Avenue, next to Fairfax High. But that place is one of the kind, and it helps represents the San Fernando Valley culture which is what I like about Primitive cause I grew up in the 818 my entire life. Like myself, you don't even have to skate to shop there. All the staff there are totally chill and the customer service they deliver makes you want to stay there longer. I felt like that was first time visiting the store from reading and typing this paragraph, but I've been going there a few times and blogged about it for the past two years, and I've met Paul and most of the models there on a third of my trips to Primitive. Anyway, I went there to check out the new Spring apparel, said what's up to some of the staff there and I left with a T-shirt that I really liked. I recommend anyone who grew up in the Valley to check out Primitive.

When I got home, I popped on this movie called Heaven which is a VHS (yes I still play VHS tapes) from 1998 that I bought at some garage sale on my way back home. I never heard heard of it but from reading the description on the back of the video cassette, I thought the storyline was interesting. Well, the actual film itself wasn't interesting. I mean why the fuck have a transvestite play as a stripper in the film instead of Elizabeth Berkley (Gen X-ers should know what I meant) or some random Z-list porn star? And everything thing else was just shit. I even researched the film and it gave out little information which showed how terrible it did back then. When it got to the middle of the film, I just couldn't take it anymore. The main character played by Martin Donovan was pissing me off like a teenage virgin dude who can't defeat the boss on a Xbox 360 video game after 400 tries. So I pressed stop, ejected the videotape and just literally threw it in the trash. Not just a trash bin, but the black trash that you pull out to the curb. That how I felt about the movie. I would do the same to Tyler Perry's films if he were to give it to me for free cause I can't stand that asshole (I got into a fight with a recession-ass couple during a screening of The Family that Preys back in late 2008). Later on I had to go to a Nigerian friend of my pops wife's crib to take photos there. I was surprised that they live here at a affluent residential area in the Sylmar/San Fernando/Mission Hills border, but whatever, I didn't give a shit. Only stayed for 2 hours cause I felt very sleepy there and gave me a lift home and 40 dollars as compensation.

Didn't do a whole lot on Sunday except dipping over to one of my homeboy's crib not too far from my pops house and just chilled there for the rest of the day. Picked up some Baja Fresh and watched the 2012 NBA All Star Game instead of the overdone Academy Awards. That was honestly the best NBA All Star Game that I ever watched. Seriously, that shit was a slam dunk contest, and I didn't see the actual Slam Dunk contest on Saturday Night since I had a job that night, but I heard it wasn't entertaining. Nothing can shit on last years Slam Dunk contest in the Staples Center by Blake Griffin which looked like a fuckin' AND 1 streetball act. And I hope Dwayne Wade gets fined or suspended for that punk ass move he did on Kobe Bryant during the game which caused his nose to bleed that lead to a concussion, but I assume some penalty will be enforced on him after this Sunday's game with the Miami Heat at the Staples Center against the Lakers cause that shit will be nationally televised. NOW IF IT WEREN'T FOR TOMORROW'S LEAP YEAR DAY, THEN THAT FUCKING GAME WOULD'VE BEEN AIRED ON MY 24TH BIRTHDAY, AND I COULD'VE ATTENDED THERE FOR FREE SOMEHOW! Still can't believe that shit was one day off.

By the way before I finish, I normally don't give that much acknowledgments to notable figures aside from Kim Kardashian and I made sound like an N'Sync fan or whatever, but major props and salutations to celebrity Jeweler Ben Baller for breaking the ice and tying the knot to wed Nicollete Lacson, a gorgeous Filipina model with a degree in Fashion, over the weekend. I don't personally know Ben, but I first heard about him on NikeTalk back in 2006, then discovered his blog two years later and have been religiously reading it every week ever since. I only saw him for a little bit once at the Platinum Motorsport toy drive in late 2010 and the other great thing is that he's a straight up LA resident who's been around for a long time. Most of the format from my blog posts was inspired from his blogs and his"Weekend Wrap-Ups"pushed me to be a better writer and blogger which is why I have a shitload of paragraphs every week. Check out his blogpage and his thoughts from his recent wedding to Nicolette over the weekend http://ifandco.com/2012/02/28/till-death-do-us-apart/

Anyways, thanks for your time reading and don't forget (which most of you will) I'll be turning 24 in six days. Just saying.

February Month in Review

These past two weeks had alot of great moments. That's the main reason why I haven't been updating this blog in a long time.

Right now, I'm typing this entry from my new cell phone. Yes, I finally got a cell phone courtesy of my ridiculous tax refund, which was the LARGEST I ever got in the past 7 years that I've been working. Last year I did a brief gig as a graduation photographer at USC and Cal State Northridge. I enjoyed it, and I also ran into some old friends, and a teacher I had from middle school, wearing caps and gowns as I placed them behind the school banner on stage for the photographer to get their portrait. That literally could've been me up there if I took the ACT or the SAT in High School, despite that I maintained a perfect 3.6 GPA at Kennedy High.

The cell phone I got is the T-Mobile G2. AND I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS, THIS MOBILE DEVICE IS THE SHIT!

Now on one of my earlier entrires, I stated that I didn't want to get any smartphone that has Android running on it. Well, I lied... but not really. I originally wanted to get the Blackberry Torch after spending the first three weeks of the year deciding on either that or the iPhone 3GS which was being sold for $49, but the AT&T store that I went to in Encino said that I needed to put down a $500 deposit in order to start the service plan. After he said that, I just bounced out of there. I then checked out Verizon to see what they had, but all the good phones were hella pricey. Then later this past week after I cashed in my tax refund check at Bank of America in Warner Center (I'm surprised my savings account is still open since I haven't been doing transactions with them in a year), I dropped by the Westfield Promenade which is a walking distance from the bank and dropped $100 even on two books, two photography magazines, and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

I then walked to the Topanga mall which is a block north, while wearing flip flops. I don't even know what the hell I was thinking when I decided to wear those, and they hurted my feet. I was about to head to the Verizon store to double check on their products, but first I had to buy this cool shirt I saw on Hollister's website. I know Hollister fell off since the beginning of the recession in mid 2008 and that not everyone buys thier products there like they used to 5 to 7 years ago. As I went inside the store, this girl that was working there greeted me like in every other Hollister store. I said hi and then decided to have a second look cause I thought that I saw her face somewhere before. So I went back to her and asked her if she went to the same high school that I went to and that girl turned out to be one of my old classmates. I won't mention her name on here just to respect her privacy, but it was great running into her. In fact, she was the one who got me into Hollister in the first place back when The O.C. was still on TV, since the characters on that show wear those type of clothes.

After I bought the shirt, I saw the T-Mobile store that is close by on the same floor next to the Macy's wing (for those of you who have been to Westfield Topanga before the expansion in 2006, that's where Robinson's May used to be at until Macy's bought them), so I decided to see what they have before I head to Verizon. I asked them about the T-Mobile G2 and they decided to give me a good deal on it. Five minutes later, I walked out of there with a brand new cell phone and a brand new number, which is on the CONTACT column on this website.

I spent the rest of the week playing with this phone like its a Christmas present I got back in the 90's. This device has EVERYTHING. From GPS to continous flash while taking video, which I never saw in any other phone, this thing is totally loaded. It reminds me of the time I got the Motorola V360 a week after my 18th birthday, which was one of top of the line phones for T-Mobile had back in 2006. In the past couple of months, I've said some intolerable shit about all the smartphones. And after abusing the G2 this week, I can see why. The reviews for this device were fairly and generally positive, about 9 out of 10. Yet, the only downfall is the battery life, which goes out very quickly, but hey, the specs are intense.

Other than that, everything else was fun. I met up with one of my old friends from elementary school in Burbank three weeks ago. We ate at California Pizza Kithchen and browsed around the Burbank mall and around Downtown Burbank while I was explaining to her why I didn't want to watch Chris Brown perform on Saturday Night Live that night with Russsell Brand hosting, which I did want to see. That day was great.

A week later, I went to the NBA All Star Jam fest with one of my friend's family at the Los Angeles Convention Center. It was like Fiesta Lakers that I went to in 2009, but only more larger than life. Dwayne Wade was the only "famous person" that I witnessed there, and I managed to get a terrific shot of him coming out to the crowd. They had a lot of basketball related activites there for the kids, which was generous from the NBA. one of the main reasons I went is that stuff like this only comes once in a lifetime, and I wanted to take great advantage of it.

One last major thing before I take off. Great Big shoutout to NBA/Lakers Photographer Andrew Berstein for getting to meet you and autographing my Journey To The Ring: 2009-10 Los Angeles Lakers book today at Barnes and Noble in the Westside Pavillion mall. I've been to many book signings, but not like the one today where Andrew Berstein, along with former Lakers coach Bill Sherman and his wife, took their time to explain about the book and why he chose to publish it. THAT'S HOW EVERY BOOK SIGNING EVENT SHOULD BE LIKE! And finally, major shoutout to my best friend Tina for escorting with me to the event. I had a really fantastic time.