First Weekend of Summer

Instead of the weekend, I'll just recap the past full week.

I stopped by at Los Angeles Pierce College last Wednesday just for the fuck of it since I had too much time on my hands that day. that's where I took a few classes between 2007-2009 and I haven't stepped inside that school in about a year and a half or two. As I got in, the place looked almost foreign and unrecognizable to me. There were so many changes and construction around the campus and it wasn't like since the last time I was there. The school was empty since the Spring Session just finished. As I walked around, I started recalling so many mad memories during my times here. Few of them were good, yet many of them were not good that I should've improved on. For example, I once got into a heated argument with the school's only photography instructor there. I wanted to transfer some photos I took at the Fiesta Lakers event in 2009 from my SD card to my flash drive on the Mac Pro's there cause I sold my black Macbook a few months prior for cash (it was a rising peak of the recession then) and I didn't have a legit computer at my house that time. He gave me such little time to transfer them and being that those photos were large file sizes to move, the bloke got impatient and then that's when the fireworks went off. Never stepped inside that room after that moment. Other than that, Pierce College looks brand new. The refurbished up to date buildings make me feel old for some weird reason since I'm used to the old style of the campus. Here are some photos I took off the T-Mobile G2.

The old cafeteria used to be there, which is being replaced with this building. I once had a lunch date there with this Russian chick that I kept seeing while riding the Orange Line since I didn't like parking my car at Pierce. The food was alright, but she was on her SideKick III 50% of the time.

My first time seeing this fountain there, AND THERE WAS STEAM COMING OUT FROM THAT SHIT! Major upgrade.

A statue of Pierce College's mascot, the Brahma Bull. Again, this is something new that I've never seen there before.

These stairs are no joke, and it leads up to this...

My favorite spot of the whole entire campus. A scenic view area to see 3/4 of the San Fernando Valley, next to the performing arts building where I took an Acting course there once just for extra units. Unfortunately, they closed it off due to ANOTHER CONSTRUCTION PROJECT. WOW. I used to invite females up here several times in between classes or whenever a class was cancelled.

After seeing all the changes there, I walked over to the Westfield Promenade to try on a couple of Levis 501s at the Macy's there, then chilled at the Barnes and Noble there and read this one book which has OG photographs of some youth and young adults skateboarding in Southern California back in the mid to late 1970s. Very similar to Lords of Dogtown and most of the kids featured on the skatebords had long natural (yes, natural) blonde hair and rockin' a pair of old school Vans which also fits the vintage California lifestyle. Then I walked to the Westfield Topanga Mall up on Owensmouth Avenue and just walked around the mall like usual. Nothing special happening there that day, other than seeing the Sony Style there being closed down. One of only stores that I like checking out at the Topanga Mall has always been the Sony Style, and most of the items there are not being displayed. I saw employees inside just cleaning up the store inside. Damn, now I have to go all the way to the Sony Style at the Beverly Center or the one at the Americana at Brand in Glendale.

On Thursday, I witnessed (pun intended, I guess) the Miami Heat winning their second World Championship by defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of the NBA, and Lebron James getting his first title that shuts the whole world up. Everyone was upset that he won a ring, saying that it the playoffs was an inside job for him or shit like that. The best part in my case is that I no longer have to hear those "Lebron will never have a championship ring" jokes anymore. They were amusing for five minutes but then got quickly dried out after that. What I didn't like was that Mike Miller of the Miami Heat didn't get the Finals MVP, which Lebron James received, since he hustled his ass on the floor by dropping Ray Allen-type 3 point field goals. I said the same thing about Ron Artest when he made that one desperation 3 pointer towards the end of Game 7 two years ago to give the Lakers the advantage to win the series, yet they gave it to Kobe Bryant instead. Thy have to let the non-big names receive the MVP for once in my opinion. Other than that, regardless if the NBA is worked or scripted from assumption which I doubt, congrats to Miami and especially to the Thunder for displaying their talent and performance despite them not winning. By the way, I kinda dislike Commissioner David Stern. Hell, one of the first two acts he did as becoming commissioner was announcing Michael Jordan's name in the 1984 draft and fining him 5'Gs for rocking his original Black/Red Air Jordan 1s as it violated the dress code then cause of the shoes colors.


Speaking of Air Jordans, I finally copped the White Cement IV's the next day. I 've already told the story about these shoes several times on my previous posts back in February. Drove all the way to Flight Club LA straight from work via 405 Freeway southbound Mulholland Drive, Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard and Fairfax Ave just to get these since I got paid very nice that day. Reason why is that they were doing construction on the Wilshire Blvd off ramps which I usually take to go to West Hollywood from the 405 freeway. Surprisingly they had parking available on Fairfax Avenue that day since its always hard to find. Was about to get the Size 13 but that shit was $400. Fortunately, they had a size 12 which was a $50 difference less that turned out to become $350, and plus they fit more comfortably than the Size 13. After I got the sneakers, I then walked over to Diamond Supply Co. down Fairfax to purchase one of the t-shirts there. Last time I bought a shirt there at Diamond Supply a year ago, the workers there acted bored and uninterested as if they didn't drink coffee or something. This time they were showing kind courtesy and displaying excellent customer service as I asked for the size of the shirt I wanted. I was about to stop by the Beverly Center, but I decided to rush back home to the Valley. Took Coldwater Canyon instead of Sepulveda Blvd to avoid the wekend traffic there, as well as the effect from the demolition of the Wilshire Blvd offramps. Stopped at Best Buy to purchase two blu-rays, which I kept one of them now cause the other wasn't working on my pops Blu-Ray player due to firmware issues.

By far the shoe of the year for 2012. Celebrities, models and rappers were rocking these all over the place since February, more than the Air Yeezy IIs and the South Beach Lebron IX's. Fuck, even Neil Patrick Harris from How I Met Your Mother was sporting the OG's back in 1989 from his Doogie Howser M.D. days.

Here's a video I took talking about the IVs and everything else. 

Fucking glad I finally got them. 

Next day on Saturday, I went down to Hollywood to meet up with Gianna Michaels (yes, the adult star) at some novelty store on Hollywood Blvd. There were two other stars there that I've never heard of before, but I wasn't concerned about them. Before that, I stopped by Amoeba Records on the other side to see if I can sell the Moneyball Blu-Ray that I bout the day before, which was the Blu-Ray that I had issues with. I picked Amoeba over Best Buy, not only because I was close to where I need to go, but Its also because I misplaced the receipt. I REALLY didn't want to sell this movie, but the screen on the TV was black for 10 minutes after I pressed play. So I gave it to him and got $3 in return. Yeah, I know, that was totally bullshit but I didn't want to give it away for free. Then later I met up with Gianna, and took only three photos of her... with her clothes on obviously. That meeting went by really short and fast but then again, the San Fernando Valley where I grew up my whole life is know for people like her.

I then later jetted on over to The Grove to test drive the new Cadillac XTS sedan they had there. All I can say is that the car is really nice. Just another luxury car to me, only with some interesting tech. First of all, the gauges are digitized like the Lexus LF-A gauges. Second, they have what its called the Cadillac CUE where the touch navigation screen has a menu display featuring icons similar to an iPad. I kinda think General Motors over did it with that feature on the XTS. There are even other automobile manufacturers that have their navigation  systems in which you can check your Facebook updates on it. WHAT?!?! Major plus for the insurance companies I guess, unless if there's weekend traffic and nobody on the freeway is moving that causes the driver for nothing to do other than to... check his or her Facebook status. Man, do I really hate that site, but I bitched about it on my previous posts several times admist the recent events that the company went through (instagram acquisition, Facebook's initial public offering, Mark Zuckerburg's marriage to Priscilla Chan) since I last posted here back in March. And I'm about to approach my  five year anniversary this Sunday of joining that site back on July 1, 2007. Time fucking flies. By the way, here's a video I took of the startup for the XTS, where it shows the digital gauges. 

So afterwards, I finished driving around Fairfax in the new XTS, which feels like driving a CTS mixed with the Ford Taurus SHO that I drove at the LA Auto Show two years ago, and then the staff at The Grove gave me a $10 AMEX gift card just for driving it. I remember when I got a $25 AMEX gift card for driving a 2010 Kia Serento when it came out back in March 2010. Stayed at the Barnes and Noble there and read another photography book there, only this time it featured epic portraits of A-list celebrities for a photographer named Michael Thompson (not the Showtime Laker from the late 80's, only which it was spelled Mychal Thompson). His work is actually great. Got some motivation from reading the entire book. Went back to the Valley to eat at The Habit in Encino, but I stopped by Primitive first to talk with their awesome staff there. Shoutout to the homegirls Ashley and Irene over there. Feasted at The Habit by using the AMEX card and then headed straight to my pops house to rest. 

FInally on Sunday, I did some typical sprucing up around the house and then for the rest of the day played most of my vinyl collection of out of print, hard to find 80's albums (not bragging because its true). I then later walked to O'Melveny park in Granada Hills to meet up with my Aftergloam family there since their member Elvis gave out an open invitation for anyone to come and hang out. Its been months since I was last with them, but we made use of a good time by playing soccer and ultimate Frisbee simultaneousley. Then I listened to some amusing stories that they were telling and then we all went home two hours later. 

What a great way to start of summer. Couldn't ask for anything more better that weekend. Oh and don't forget to find me on instagram.I didn't mention it on her since it on Android came out while I was on hiatus from updating this blogsite. My username is: justforsneaks07. I'll leave a few comments on your photos once you start following me on there. Thanks for your time reading. 

In the White Heat (jersey) of that Night

Lebron James was just minding his own business by making business signing with Pat Riley's Miami Heat ball club on Friday.

I'm not gonna say very much about all this, which I might by accident. Hell, it took me two days to come up with a title for this since I had 25 different references that go with the words Miami and Heat. I would've titled this "The Miami Rebound Machine", but Gloria Estefan is a season ticket holder for the team. I also would've titled this "Khloe and Kourtney Take Lebron and Bosh to Miami" but Khloe Kardashian-Odom is married and Kourtney Kardashian is a mother so they wouldn't have time to do that, or I could've used "Three C-Heat", but I might still have to have Pat Riley's permission to use that as a title, even though its his team.

I'm gonna wait until I see some performance in the American Airlines Arena that these three will produce on the hardwood court during the regular season. After that, then I'll say what I feel about the team. Plus, that hour long special with a 75 MINUTE COMMERCIAL FREE SPORTSCENTER FOLLOWING THAT wasn't really necessary, but then again, this is about a 25 year old celebrity athlete who signed a $93 million dollar Nike contract (which is more than Michael Jordan's rookie Nike contract) during his start in the pros, which he also gets thrown into major exposure and heated (no pun intended) debates in sports bars and videos on the internet that featured Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan.

Not many people liked his "decision", especially those who followed and looked up to him since day one back in 2003. The first time I heard of Lebron James was right after I came back from spending the first two weeks of June in Nigeria with my family that year. I went to Cleveland High School the month after, which was around the time Kobe got accused in that "incident" in Eagle, Colorado. Everywhere I went around the campus, I'd always see some dude or girl wearing a jersey that says Cleveland on the front and JAMES 23 in the back. I thought it was some student athlete that died during the regular school year, but it was an NBA jersey instead of the school jersey. Keep in mind, I wasn't into the NBA that much back then. I only focused on the Lakers since they were the most talked about team that time, despite being eliminated from the playoffs courtesy of the San Antonio Spurs.

As the months went on later that year during my Sophomore year at Kennedy High, I keep hearing about Lebron everywhere in the newspapers, Sports Illustrated magazines, Nike Commercials, the Laker games (when they had Malone and Payton) I'd be watching whenever Stu Lantz and Paul Sunderland (before he left and got replaced by Joel Meyers cause Paul subbed for the late Chick Hearn after he passed on in 2002) would always bring him up which made me get more interested in the NBA more. The jersey craze was poppin' that year, and people would be wearing different $300 throwback Lebron Cavaliers jerseys along with some Air Force Ones or some Air Zoom Generations, which is his first Nike shoe.

Now that's no longer a reality as people disowned those Lebron Cavaliers' jerseys with lighters and pyromania as well as sneakers being too unaffordable during this recession. Hell, even the owner of the Cavs went off on his ex-player by writing an emotional letter displaying his true colors towards Lebron's decision. Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cavs, wasn't supposed to do that cause Lebron is legally a free agent and not under contract, but that's how Cleveland sports fans have been displaying their emotions through out the years aside from pro Basketball. If they want to break this "losing curse streak", the town's sports franchises just need to make very smart decisions, which is what the offseason is for. I hope the addition of Bryon Scott as a head coach and his experience in the playoffs of both a head coach and a former player will head adapt to the team, as well as the front office moving on with trying to avoid the loss of attendance revenue for the 2010-11 season. Same goes with the Indians and the Browns front office staff and players. They just need to keep staying focused more than they have been and do what ever they can to erase the doubts and earned the respect they must've had sometime in the past.

Sure, Lebron left his hometown to jump ship all the way down to South Beach and yes, that he upset his fans that grew with him for the past 8 years. To him, its about what he feels its best to just win some games so that he'll probably end those hot topic debates and those "playground bully jokes" on how he doesn't have any rings and that type of shit. Call him whatever you want, but just remember that he was very fortunate enough to get in the pros and got all the perks with that as a underage kid which is no longer valid nowadays in the NBA.

One last thing before I retire for the night on this slow ass weekend. Dwayne Wade should tell Lebron the difference between the white powder he uses for his pre-game ritual at the arenas to the crowd and the "other white powder" South Beach citizens use for their "post-game rituals" at the clubs on Ocean Drive. Shit, I could go on all day with the Miami jokes.