Baby Talkin' to Strangers

Yeah, still driving around the Valley picking up all kinds of humans to get from point A to point B. Been doing it everyday, but I managed to get some time off this weekend to cover my good friend Katie Galvez's baby shower party on Saturday, as well as her brother Elvis' band Aftergloam performing in the West Valley later that night.

Like I typed on my recent status on Facebook, I was trying to upload some teaser photos from the baby shower because I was planning to spend about about half a month editing these along with the photoshoot I did of my cousin and his BMW last December, which I still haven't worked on. But for some weird, wild, reason, Facebook won't even proceed with uploading at least one of my pictures on my timeline. Honestly, I really hate that site and its founder, yet, I'm only on there just to show off my photographs for business purposes, otherwise, I'd be going to different bars every weekend trying just hitting on women twice my age. Also, another reason is that the whole world and their grandmothers have a Facebook account nowadays.

So until I can try to get the photos working on there, here are some of the preview pictures from Katie's baby shower. Feel free to copy and paste these to your instagram or whatever.

Also, I read that T-Mobile is getting rid of the contracts plans and that they'll be switching to prepaid plans for any of their new customers. They said that they might be finally announcing the iPhone for their company as well. Should be interesting. 

Anyway, thanks for your time reading this. 

TWO YEARS ON TWITTER

Exactly, two years ago, I opened a Twitter account.

I created it because earlier that day, my original Facebook account was suspended and that was my main outlet aside from the dilapidating Myspace to express my thoughts. Plus my iWeb page was already expired that time. So I had no choice but to join Twitter. See back then, Twitter wasnt as hyped and crazy as it is now. No businesses had it, only a limited amount of celebrities had one, and it was hardly ever mentioned on the news until that day.

Then Elect-President Barack Obama got sworn in as President of the United States and CNN mentioned on how you can follow his updates on Twitter during the telecast of his swearing in, which I thought it was either him or someone from the Secret Service writing his Twitter profile. I started to like it and went wild on Twitter for a few months despite that no one I knew joined the site or even signed up for it. I met some people over through that site, including this one kid who literally worships Kim Kardashian. I managed to meet him in person and I took him to see his favorite celebrity. After that, the site turned into a you heard it first source where breaking news and deaths, both real and fake, are being mention and raved about on that site.

I had thoughts of deleting the account a few months after I re-joined Facebook, but I decided to keep it to say some observations or some shit thats on my mind in under 140 characters. Its pretty useful if you have a Blackberry or a iPhone or any smartphone device so that you can keep viewers informed wherever you are.

By the way, there hasnt been any decent news or current events today other than those mental cases who went postal at different High Schools blowing off other students and law enforcement civilians. The only news from today thats worth useful to a fifth grader for his or her Current Event assignment is Jesse James being engaged to Hollywood Tattoo artist Kat Von D. Yeah, I didnt want to bring that up, but why would people be interested to being informed about a guy who cheated on the ever talented Sandra Bullock over a Tattoo artist? Whatever, Hollywood is know for its weirdness, and I live 15 miles from there in the San Fernando Valley.

THE BEST OF BOTH WORDS

As I'm in the hunt for a new mobile device and trying to get back into the cellular smartphone game, which is unofficially required to make contacts and acquaintances nowadays, this decision has just plagued me for a while. I can't beleive I'm actually saying this... but should I get the Blackberry Torch or the iPhone 3GS for 50 dollars? No Andrioids please, way out of my price range.

Pick Your Poison

I'm not surprised the just-released Windows Phone isn't on there, cause it obvious on how they're viewed.

The result of Tom Anderson's Absence

The fuck happened with MySpace? I just went on for the hell of it since I haven't been on it for a long time (except Myspace Music which used to be Imeem for listening to streaming music), and then I see their new layout which looks completely foreign to me. I know that Twitter is gonna do the same shit in the coming months, but DAMN, it looks like the new Myspace layout is now geared towards anyone under 12 years of age.

I remember the very first time I heard about MySpace was back in August 2005. My friend Stephen called me and told me to check it out. At first, I though it was some urban youth site or a knockoff of Classmates.com (I had an account back in 2003 for Frost Middle School. I was the only one there) but then a week later he showed it to me and I was like "Everyone is putting out their dirty laundry in public". I also remember when certain profiles would always crashed any computer that I would be at, cause those profiles would be flooded with high memory photos, excessive HTML codes and those streaming Music Video codes which was pre-Youtube.

That site didn't get crazy until the middle of my senior year of High School between February and June, or after it got bought out by News Corp., which heavily promoted the site. I though the site was very weak and a waste of time, but I gave in on January 2008 when this one girl I met at Pierce College made me get one cause that was the only means of communication she had (no cell phone cause she doesn't like to use her minutes). Prior to that, I was only using Facebook, my original profile before it got removed from Facebook's headquarters for hitting on girls (I'm a guy). Now I don't even talk to that girl anymore since she started spitting out her conservative thoughts which I didn't tend to like, and she got me into that shit.

Fast forward to the present now. Those who were one of the original pioneers of having a Myspace Profile five years ago have either retired from social networking, or their raising a family during a challenging recession and working just about everyday at the same time to make end meets. Everyone else jumped ship to Facebook after that rich bastard Mark Zuckerburg made the site accessible to Kids, their parents, and anybody else without a university e-mail address that's also not labeled a full time college student. Social networking has completely changed the way people communicate. Its used to be completely underground but alot of companies and rich investors have thrown so much money into it that those site are now well known and recognized. Hell, almost every site you go to regardless of the nature whether its shopping or news journalism or the Adult sites (again, I'm a guy), they'll sometimes have you log in using your Facebook account or whatever account or it'll let you "like" any article that's on that page.

That shows how serious it has gotten. I always see something about Facebook every other day on CNN or the Huffington Post, whereas back in 2007 when I first got the account, the media didn't give a shit about it unless there was some underage girl who used an alias as being a 22 year old Ivy League student and gets murdered for meeting some mental freak on there. But the bottom line is that no one uses Myspace anymore. Everyone thinks that the site should be shut down by now, but that won't be the case as long as Rupert Murdoch and the white collars at News Corp still own the rights to that site, which is one of the main reasons why Myspace founder Tom Anderson left.

Speaking of communication, there's this new trend that I just noticed yesterday about this new "thing" called KIK. Alot of people have been talking about it this past week. They say that is a like a free version of RIM's BlackBerry Messenger, which I've never used and seen before in my life and I'm proud to say that. Plus I don't own a Blackberry smartphone (too expensive and I can't get work here in this broke-ass state), and if I did, then I'd talk more about this KIK application. I hope that shit doesn't send the "Telephone Call" out of existence just like Kodak did with Kodachrome and the way Sony did by retiring the production of the Walkman, which both got me very upset. I'd rather hear a female's nice sexy voice instead of reading her one word response from answering a question that I took up texting for 5 minutes to send to her.

A Mid-Summer's Nightmare Dream

I just had the most weirdest, unbelievable dream Tuesday night. It became a nightmare after I woke up realizing it wasn't real.

I was at some high rise building overlooking either Malibu or Laguna Beach (I know there's no skyscrapers in those cities but like I said, its my dream), for a job interview for some private corporation. I forgot what the company was but I think it had to do with marketing research mixed with sales or some thing like that, but it was very big though. I was told to go straight to the Chairman's office which look really large and nice like it was a master bedroom and it has a large glass window behind his desk overlooking the coast of the beach. He looks like some rich business tycoon in his late 40's with a hair transplant that makes him look young, and that he's a white guy who is about the same height as me. In other words, picture him as the late Chuck Daly, only two inches shorter. He then asked me some questions and I only remember giving him long ass answers that lasted 5 minutes at the least. Then out of nowhere, the board of directors came in his office, which, in some weird situation, it involved Paris Hilton and Snoop Dogg as one of the members. I would say that this is T-Mobile Headquarters, but unfortunately, I was in Southern California and T-Mobile is in Germany.

We then move to this board room next to his office where they had to discuss an urgent situation within the company. I could've waited in the lobby, but the Chairman wanted me to get a hands-on first glimpse of the company, even though I wasn't hired yet. It lasted 10 minutes and I again I forgot what the problem was that they have to resolve. All I remember was that I gave in some input during the meeting and they were kinda pleased and has some arguments on my thoughts. After the board meeting, the Chairman and I went to his office and he then leaned on my ear and told me I was hired, ON THE SPOT. I was surprised and had so much emotion all of the sudden and the Chairman wouldn't stop shaking my hand for three minutes. Being that its a corporation he gave me an agenda list of all the procedures that the new employees go though once they been hired. The first thing it said that I have to go to a celebration hiring dinner with the Board of Directors, including Snoop and Paris, that's at some five star restaurant, all the way at Bakersfield in a Limo. Yeah, I know, very unique and unusual. Then the rest of the list says that I'll get a custom tailored suits and a two day paid orientation and some other neat perks once I get started.

Then later before I start to get ready for the dinner, I went to the beach to go swimming. I swam all the way to the deep end and for some reason the Pacific Ocean started to light up, which I though that was really tight. All of the sudden I was in a different setting, where I was driving at a university, probably UC Santa Barbara, and that they were two college kids, a boy and a girl in their early 20s driving a Police Interceptor Ford Crown Victoria who were driving behind me. I noticed that they were a 21 Jump Street-Style undercover law enforcement officers. The guy was Thai and the girl was either Iranian or Native American and they were wearing casual street clothes. I then start to lose them in traffic and after I lost them, I parked my car at a safe location and I walked around the campus. I was going to go to the student union until I saw this one girl that I knew from high school. She looked way nicer and finer than the last time I saw her, which was two years ago. She was wearing a dark blue sweater and some red tight jeans. She was with three other Asian girls and she had a 8 X 10 frame that she couldn't unwrap. I then helped her open it and she thanked me for it. She then asked me that she saw my photos on Facebook and I was about to tell her about my photography business and the new job that I got hired at... until those two undercover kids came up to me and the girl said "Can we speak to you for a moment David? This is very important" I was like "Shit, I knew it". I'm surprised that they found me, so I had to end my conversation with the chick I went to high school with. The guy told me that I was driving over the speed limit around the university campus and that they are going to impound my car despite the fact that I parked it at a safe place where no parking permit is required. After that then I woke up and I was upset that the whole scenario wasn't real (I meant the part when I got hired, not the part where my car got taken away at UCSB)

Other than that, I've been catchin up on taking photos for the past few days, which obviously explains on why I haven't been on here in a long time. The last few days have been, without a single doubt, very very awesome. Many events and occurrences took place on those days, especially in Los Angeles. Today is no exception. You got a laundry list of things that are happening in this city, and it will benefit you if you are a tourist on Summer Vacation with your family.

Today some of these include:

Michael Jackson burial grave site visit in Forest Lawn Memorial in Glendale.

Of course today is the one year anniversary of his sudden passing. Exactly one year ago, this news came out of nowhere starting with him getting into a cardiac arrest at his rented house in Beverly Hills, which broke news everywhere. At first I thought that he was just going to be rushed into the hospital at the UCLA Medical Center, get admitted for a few days and then he'd be released afterwards under intensive caring supervision since his condition has been discussed a few months prior to that. But then the story got even more serious since they started reporting that he has trouble breathing among other things and then later TMZ reported that he died afterwards, before it was publicly confirmed by other media outlets. That's when everything started to freeze up and then go completely ape-shit at that moment. First, everyone was saying that TMZ was making this up and that they needed more sources to confirm that he's dead, which the Jackson family announced afterwards to the public that he passed away. So basically, TMZ should be credited for breaking the announcement first while everyone else (which includes the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, CNN, MTV and other major journalism companies) waited an hour or two hours later after they got other credible sources and confirmations.

Secondly, this whole debacle caused the internet to crash, literally. Twitter was a huge victim to this action. Their were so many, and I mean SO MANY of it users responding to this news (I honestly don't like to use the word "tweet", it just sounds redundant) that its servers couldn't handle all the incoming traffic, which caused the site to break down for a few hours. The same thing happened with Facebook and other social networking site and forums off all genre, be it music, sports, technology forums or any kinds. That just shows how extreme and gynormus MJ was around the globe, and how he was a huge inspiration to all kinds of people, regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, musical interests, and other reasons. They even had a public memorial at the Staples Center, which I STILL think it should've been held at the Coliseum or the Rose Bowl since it holds more people. The only benefit that I agree from that was that they made it free, despite that the Jackson family has some financial issues of their own. I'm sure his grave, as well as his childhood home, his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Neverland Ranch out in Santa Barbara County, will be flooded with flowers, MJ impersonators and tears which makes today look like the mid point of 2009 again.

New York Yankees vs Los Angeles Dodgers at Chavez Ravine

There's a reason why this game is too hard to get into. Aside for ordering the extra games package to get the tickets to this game, or the series for that matter, there's a lot of storylines between these two teams.

1) Joe Torre used to be the Manager for the Yankees prior to coming to LA back in 2008.

2) Both New York and Los Angeles are the top two large market cities in the United States with the most population.

3) Both of those teams WOULD'VE faced each other in the World Series last year since they were both in each other's League Championship Series, with the Yankees prevailing and the Dodgers losing to the Phillies, who also happened to lose to the Yankees in the big dance. Had LA and New York faced each other, the ratings would match the recent NBA Finals ratings between the Lakers and the Celtics.

4) Just like #3, they are the World Champs, and they have the most in Major League Baseball with 27 trophies.

iPhone 4 release at the Apple Store and AT&T store

I won't say anything about this device until I mess around with it first. (That doesn't sound right, but whatever) That piece of shit came out yesterday and I knew that there were gonna be long ass lines for it. But here's what makes it different from the previous iPhone releases. This time, they make customers pre-order the device first which means that on release day, you can just go into wherever you choose to purchase it after you put money down once your pre-ordered it prior to picking it up. It's more of a faster process instead of everyone just picking up the iPhone the day it comes out. But either way, that shit is still cause a line, cause its an Apple product.

I was at the Topanga Mall yesterday since I had to take my brother there cause he wanted to check out the H&M over there since he never shopped at that location before. He usually goes to the ones in Northridge and Hollywood, but never the Topanga location. Unfortunately, he didn't get anything there which I though he would get some clothes from that store after receiving a lot of graduation money from his church. Instead, he got Panda Express, which kinda threw me off cause there's three different Panda Expresses in Granada Hills that he could've gone to instead of driving all the way to the West Valley just for that.

While I was waiting for him, I checked out the Apple Store there, and to no surprise, there was a line. Not just one line but TWO lines. One for if you already pre-order the iPhone and the other line was for if you wanna buy something there, not browse but to actually purchase a computer of an MP3 player or any other Apple product. They had like three private security guards, two thirds of the Westfield mall security and the LAPD there at the store to make sure that no one sneaks inside the store or cut the line, which didn't move for two hours. When I saw the phone at the Keynote presentation, I thought it was a very decent product they made so far. The mobile version of iMovie and the zoom camera features got my attention. Plus its mad affordable starting at $200 as opposed to its $600 price tag three years ago.

Twilight: Eclipse premiere

It felt like two months ago that Twilight: New Moon came out in theaters, but it came out on DVD and Blu-Ray two months ago. I don't read the book, and I never watched the first two movies. They released this in the summer instead of the usual fall is because a lot of kids are out of school during that time and plus movies that are released during the summer make alot more money than any other release date season. When that movie premiered yesterday at the Regal Cinema theaters in Downtown LA, there was a shitload of people that camped out at LA Live just to be the first one to see this film. And when I say camp out at LA Live, I'm not talking 24 hours before it premiered, I mean they camped out WITH TENTS AND SLEEPING BAGS FOR DAYS SINCE AFTER THE LAKER PARADE ON MONDAY. Hell, there were parents who gave up work for a week to camp out with their kids, not just for safety reasons but to see the film as well. Its it really that serious to take up your time just to do that? Oh wait, its summer, school's out. I gonna try to do my best to avoid the whole "Team Jacob" V. "Team Edward" promotional bullshit for the next few weeks until the movie stops playing. I wouldn't be surprised if Twilight: Breaking Dawn (don't ask me how I know the names of the sequels) comes out at the end of the year

That's pretty much all the stuff that happening or been happening this week. Oh and finally, that Game 7 of the NBA Finals last week was epic. Super epic. I been saying in weeks past that the playoffs is fixed and everything, which I still think it is, but that night made me think that it was real, especially the performance LA pulled off at the end. I was at Busby's in Santa Monica watching this game. I was originally supposed to meet up with some of my old friends from my church there, but they called me during halftime and told me that they couldn't make it at the last minute. So I decided to stay and watch the second half of the game and at the end, the place went fucking electric. I was taking photos of and with random broads and Laker fans at the place. Its made last years victory against Orlando look like a regular season game. BIG MAJOR SHOUTOUT TO CANDACE AND ADAM FOR LETTING ME CRASH AT THEIR PLACE THAT NIGHT. You guys are terrific, seriously.