Taking a lot of Breaks

The weekend is already here and I forgot to finish telling y'all about the last weekend. Yes, I'm slow as hell.

Anyway, I was at my uncle's place last Friday editing some photos and shit. Then the next day, I told him I had to leave very early to return my mom's SUV that I borrowed. She called me the night before and told me that I took her SUV without permission, even though I tried to tell her that I was gonna ask her to borrow it to drive up to the Antelope Valley, with the reason being that I can not use my car because of its fucked up brakes and that I had to be up there on Friday so that we can catch up on our work without being left behind. Either way, she still got upset so I decided to leave early in the morning instead of staying up there until Saturday Afternoon like I planned to.

My uncle hooked me up with some fuel money to get back down to the Valley. I then drove down to my mom's place and returned the SUV, to my surprise that my sisters and one of my mom's family members from her side were at home when I got there, without my mom in presence. One of my sisters told me that I have to take them to their church in Glendale, so I did that with my car. My car can handle going around the Valley and commute back and forth to Glendale, not 50 miles back and forth like I did with my mom's SUV.

After I dropped them off, I then drove back home to shower and rest before I have to be at a birthday party to take photos at later. A friend of mine from Junior High has twins who were celebrating their second birthday today, and I volunteered to take some snapshots of the party. I then go on my computer to check my messages and someone posted on Twitter that professional Skateboarder Paul Rodriguez Jr. was gonna be at his store Primitive in Encino for his signature sneaker release as well as a party for the store's two year Anniversary. It already started by the time I read that, so I grabbed the two Nikons I had with me, my friend's D60 and my non-working 35mm N70 which I only use to hold its 28-80mm lens to change onto the D60, and zipped on my way to Primitive.

I thought that there was gonna be a big ass line outside the store, but when I got there on Ventura Blvd, I didn't see no line, thank goodness. I parked my car in a neighborhood right next to the store and walked into Primitive. I've heard alot about this place. Its a sneaker boutique that carries skateboarding apparel, the store's brand label clothing and a lot of Nike SB merchandise. My friend Suzette works right next to that place. She goes there alot, and always tells me about it. I never got the chance to check it out since its in the Valley, but when I went inside, to myself I was all like "Where the fuck have I been for the past two years?" There was a lot of people there: Skateboarders, sneakerheads, photographers, and attractive girlfriends of those guys I mentioned. It was really awesome to see Paul Rodriguez Jr. himself. I remember when he got signed to Nike SB 5 years ago when I started collecting shoes more, and I would see his name all the time in the sneaker forums. Anyway, I didn't talk to Paul that much cause I had to be at my friend's kids birthday party later, so all I did was posed for a photo with him, got his autograph (I forgot to tell him to put my name in it) and took about two good portrait shots of him. The dude acted really nice and chill. No bodyguards or security around him despite that he's VERY famous in the skateboarding industry. Pretty much like a regular person.

When I was ready to leave, there was a line forming at a table next to the cash register and it had posters of mixed Puerto Rican/Filipino model Justene Jaro with some Infrared Air Max 90's on it. I was told that she was gonna be doing a signing and I was surprised. I was even more surprised when she came out cause she's TOO FUCKING FINE TO THE MAX! (no pun intended) Holy shit, she was perfect all the way. She got curves, tits and everything a guy would obviously think in a woman's body. Hell, she even got the Air Maxes on. I calm down inside and I took some decent shots of her. I mean, it was really hard to get a full body shot of her and her Nikes cause the place got more full after she came out. She was nice when I got her autographed poster and posed with her. They had free Korean BBQ and some custom Nike t-shirts that you can make, but I didn't stay for that cause I had to be at my friends party in Granada Hills. That shit was worth the trip.

I then got to my friend's birthday party for her kids later. It was mostly her family and a few of her friends that where there. It was Alice in Wonderland theme, in which her daughter dressed up as Alice and her son dressed up as the Mad Hatter. I think she got the inspiration from either the OG cartoon version or the Johnny Depp trippy version of the film that came out that year. Either way, they're both made by Disney. I was going paparazzi mode on her kids, I mean, they can pose perfectly whenever I take their pictures. The expressions are really fun to look at while I've reviewed the shot, along with the help of my uncle's Nikon Speedlight SB-600 he let me borrow for the week, which was cool as fuck. A huge shoutout to NICOLE STETTER and her family for letting me take photos of the party and the great barbecue, which I didn't eat that much cause I was too concentrated on wanting to take more photos. I think I took took like 200 to 300 shots there and two-thirds of the shot were her kids. Gonna take me a while to put them together. Thanks again Nicole. I wish your kids the best and a healthy future for both of them.

Sunday and all the days after that are just typical lifeless shit. It mostly involved myself resting, getting into constant arguments with my parents and this job interview in Van Nuys that my little brother and I went to. It was for Loss prevention undercover security at shopping malls. My brother wasn't qualified cause he doesn't have a California Identification card, which is still a regular ID without the driving privileges, but I can still qualify. The thing that changed my mind was that the supervisor and her secretary were being racists towards us and also, there was gonna be a six hour course on Loss Prevention security with an exam you have to pass that cost $300. In other words, you have to pay to start get paid. So we just left and didn't return to that place. Also, I wanna give a big thanks to my uncle for letting me use his iMac for a few days, even though I didn't ask for it.

Oh yeah, I WANT SEPTEMBER 1ST TO START ALREADY! Dodgers VS. Phillies plus the new Santa Monica Place and the rest of the day. With her. Can't wait.

Friday Is For Driving You Stressed

Holy shit, was today terrible. But I'll get to that later.

The weekend, however wasn't that terrible, even though I managed through it.

On Friday, I went to the Chatsworth Superior Courthouse which is right between the Winettka Theater and the Northridge Fashion Center inside a little plaza-like area filled with a shit load of Washington Mutual...I mean Chase bank buildings. I had to do a meetup last year at one of the buildings cause I was selling my $15 iTunes giftcard to some dude there who wants to buy it for 7 or 8 dollars, which I didn't care cause I needed to get rid of it.

But anyway, I was originally supposed to meet with the judge the day before about the traffic violation I got back in March 2009 for 2 things: expired tags and no headlights on, because they pulled me over at night. In defense, I was coming back from Pierce College after my Sociology class (which was the only thing I liked that semester) ended late, and my car which is a base '95 Nissan Sentra, had to manually turn on the headlights unlike most cars that automatically turn on at night. I forgot I was driving without the lights cause I was on Victory Boulevard coming east from Winnetka and that's when I got busted as soon as I approached Reseda Boulevard. Also, that night was the third time I got pulled over for expired tags (yes, I'm that lazy back then, but I was unemployed). I was lucky that this was the LAPD that got me (the other two were the Sheriff's Department and the CHP) otherwise my car would've been impounded, which it did a week later when I went to my friend's house in Simi Valley. I wasn't working that time and I wasn't making that much money, or any money for that matter, and also, my registration was due back in August 2008, which made it much worse. The judge decided to dismiss the whole ordeal since it was ancient history to him and he lowered my fine of $1,047 (which increased from the original fine of $150 the past 16 months cause again, I wasn't working and I was lazy to go to court) to $75 plus court fees which came up to $105. The $30 difference didn't bother me that much, but what did was the way this courthouse has been operated by its employees on that day.

Now usually, the bailiff gives you a form that states the amount of the fine, inside the courtroom, after you stated your case to the Judge. However, we had to go to a small-ass room next to the courtroom to get that same sheet from one of the two clerks with a LOT of people. Think of like going to the DMV and waiting at an In-N-out on a Saturday in the Antelope Valley. The line was THAT long, in the same order the Judge called us to the podium. Its not like that in the Van Nuys or the San Fernando courthouses, but seriously, the Chatsworth courthouse can do better. I had to wait 4 hours to get my form. I was being cool about it, not being in a rush unlike everybody else in the room, waiting so impatiently to the point that they wanna explode. Seriously, there was actually a dude that was about to go psycho towards a pregnant lady there who was also waiting for her fine statement. I made time go by fast by talking to some people there who were unhappy with the way the courthouse is processing the statements and not realizing that everyone has other responsibilities and jobs they have to do later that day.

As soon as I got that shit taken care of, my Moms somehow left a note in my car to give her a call. I don't even know or want to know on how she knew I was in the Chatsworth courthouse. Weird coincidence. She wanted me to get her Mailbox keys she left at a post office and take it to her house. I did that and when I drove to North Hollywood to give it to her, my brakes on my car started to sound fucked up. I had to be at my uncle's house in Lancaster later that day and I can't drive my car all the way up there with that annoying-ass sound. So I told my sister to tell my mom if I can borrow her Ford Explorer to drive up to the A.V. just for that day, and that I'll bring it back the following Saturday. She told me that I should try to catch up to my Moms at the North Hollywood Red Line station since my sister just dropped her off there. I drove fast with my car to the Red Line Station, which is one minute away from my mom's crib, to try to catch up with her to get her permission to use her SUV. Unfortunately, she already took the last Subway after I get there. That scenario looks like a scene from some Ben Affleck/Matt Damon/Will Smith style action/adventure movie. I drove back to my moms place, told my sister that wasn't able to reach her and that I needed the car keys for the Explorer since my brakes were no good, which she reluctantly did. I threw in $10 for gasoline at Arco, which I shouldn't recommend for fuel cause the gas is cheap, performance wise, and it gave my 3.1 gallons which I though was enough to get me there.

I was actually semi-right. The fuel in the SUV lasted from North Hollywood all the way to motherfucking Palmdale instead of Lancaster, which is 8 miles more, thanks to the excessive traffic on the freeways and the streets heading towards the 5/14 freeway border, which is always shit on the Friday rush hour. Keep in mind that this was at 2:00 in the afternoon before work was out and shit. All that waiting on the road for the vehicles to move has managed to consume down the fuel economy courtesy of the 4.0 liter V6 engine in the '03 Explorer. I used to drive that car many times before and during my parents' split three years ago. I really love driving it but the thing that bothered me was the inaccessibility of the front air vents not permitting the AC to the driver and the passenger. Only the rear vents can blow out air. The blockage of the air caused by the people who installed the aftermarket car stereo that my moms ordered back in '07, cause the original factory stereo ate up three CD's that wouldn't come out from the changer. So what I usually do I open the windows or put the AC in full blast to let the air circulate the entire SUV from the rear vents.

I was stuck in Palmdale for about an hour, since I didn't wanna risk driving a few miles north to Lancaster on Rancho Vista road with the tank near empty. Let me tell you, driving with the CHECK GAGE light on the dashboard already illuminated, will start to freak the shit out of you, especially when you're low on cash or driving on the highway. I drove from my church in Sylmar to Northridge in that situation back in December 2007 and after I drove past Plummer while on Balboa Boulevard, the SUV COMPLETELY STALLED ON ME. That shit wouldn't accelerate, startup or anything. Thank goodness that I put the car neutral and let it rolled slowly into the Chevron station on Balboa and Nordhoff. I was supposed to pick up my sister at the Target across the intersection, but again, thank goodness, she came and threw in some fuel in there. This was a few months before gasoline prices broke $4 a gallon later the following year. Anyway, I managed to find some change in the Explorer, and lots of change did I find, which was enough to take me to Lancaster.

I wanted to write about Saturday and Sunday, but I'll write that in a separate post since this one was like writing about the length of the whole entire weekend. As I said earlier, today really sucks major ass. I wanted to spend the day at home to take a breather break from my photography work but unfortunately, I had to go through the excessive usual shit talking from my parents all day. Don't think that I'm gonna live with them for a while, despite the economy problems towards certain unfortunate people my age. I'm doing my best to get out of the Valley and that shit takes a lot of time. Rushing people to do what they need to do puts more stress on them. Later that night, I cleaned my room, did laundry and listened to my old-ass cassettes that I recorded from the old STAR 98.7 FM music broadcasts to get rid of the stress that I endured today. The only thing I'm looking forward to is meeting this wonderful female who's about the same age as me that I've talked ever since I first got into Facebook back in 2007, before 80% of the world didn't have one when it was only for college students. I just can't wait to see her next week. That's all.

Hangin' Tough and Takin' Pictures

If no one is doing anything nowadays to keep themselves busy, then that person ain't gonna get that far later in their lives and their confidence level will decrease before they know it.

I, the other hand, try to do the opposite by increasing it up.

That pretty much the sole reason on why I haven't been here for the first half of this month. Probably ever since I started working for my uncle last month, my schedule has been constantly booked up for weeks by going to a different event taking photos every now and then. Some of those events were planned on my own outside of my uncle's business.

Last week, I drove to Monterey Park to see my buddies' ex-co worker who he introduced me to a few months ago at the Kardashian sister's Virgins, Saint's and Angles jewelry release at Kitson. We became friends after staying in touch with her afterwards and I wanted to do a photoshoot of her. So I did that and then she took me to The Shops at Montebello, which I've never been to. Its a decent mall, kinda like the South Bay Galleria without the third story. Plus, this is the only mall that I've seen so far that has an FYE and a Raider Image store in the same building. The food court looked nice, but the sbarro there didn't even have Cheese Pizza when I wanted to get a slice over there. What the hell? So I just got large French Fries from the Carl's Jr instead just to keep it low. After that, she wanted to get something to feast on also, so we went to iHOP, which is know as the International House of Pancakes, near her house. I haven't ate at that place ever since the day my pops got his '05 E320 Mercedes Benz two years ago. She hooked me up with some pancakes and she got herself some late breakfast. Finally, we went to a park near her place to take some photos of her. I ended the day by driving to my cousin's house in Mid-City to watch a wedding rehearsal there cause one of my family members was getting married the following weekend, not at a church or a courthouse, but at the house where they were practicing the ceremony at. In other words, the entire wedding and reception was gonna be there, but I'll get to that later. Before I went to do the photoshoot and the wedding practice, I had to give my friend Suzette a lift to her job, and I had to deliver some photos to a friend of mine who I also met at the Kardashian's in-store appearance at Kitson.

That's pretty much how every day or every other day has been like, just driving around alot and taking care of stuff. I remember spending the first half of 2009 not being able to do anything like that aside from going to classes at Pierce College every night. I didn't have my own computer during that period cause I sold my black Macbook for financial reasons, and my cell phone camera was my only source of photography cause this was when it was starting, or has already started to get a stable job, and I couldn't be able to obtain one within those months. I remember having this one German lady in her 40's that my moms hooked me up with back in around October or November 2008 who came to my house one day and told me that she was gonna hook me up with a position at one of the Target stores near my house. Things were getting great until I was informed that they were gonna transfer me to someone else, which happened to be a younger woman who looks very similar to Tina Fey, because they had to lay off the previous lady, which sucks. That put me out of contention from my application process at Target all the way back to base one, where I have to re-write all my information and resumes for her so that she can distribute them to different places that are hiring.

I gotta give her some major props for her hustle though, even though things didn't work out between us. Out of all the places she went to distribute my resumes at, half of them called us for an interview and none of them didn't hire me. We even had a meeting about this with her and her boss, who I thing is a conservative jerk who should teach special education instead of treating his employees like they're in special education (hey, its the truth). The meeting was very uninteresting. Hell, it was so uninteresting, that I walked out in the middle of it and went home, cause all he asked me was why wasn't hired at those jobs? Now, I don't even know why he had to ask me that. He could've gone through my previous job records and called the places where I had the interviews to find out and tell me why I wasn't hired at those places. That what his job is supposed to do, to get those people who are un-employed HIRED AND WORKING STABLE JOBS, not just bullshit ass interviews. To me, employers can care MUCH LESS on how well the job-seeker dresses in his Italian suit, or how many big words the job-seeker uses in his answers. They really look at background checks and credit scores to see if that person has either killed someone in the past or from their judgment if they think that person won't be the right for the position, regardless on how well he does in the interview, even if its a perfect 10. That to me is probably the only reason why there aren't that many people unemployed or not working right now. The economic recession has impacted many people emotionally and physically, and they're doing what ever they can to stay active as they're no longer working. Some people even max out their credit cards by paying off their bank loans with money they don't fucking have, which is what cause the whole economy to go in a tailspin, and jobs won't hire anyone they can't trust.

I admit, there's shit I still have to cover and pay off. I could've driven a better automobile or live at my own, or bought a different smartphone every month that came out if I had, or maintain for a lack of a better word, a stable job, and plus, I'd be talking to my parents much more. Honestly, I didn't think that the job market was gonna get worse when I left the Sherman Oaks Apple store back in May 2008. I thought I was gonna work at a different place within a month after I left, but I didn't happen as the unemployment rate started to expand. The job market was so serious during that time, that I've seen former CEOs of small companies applying at fast food restaurants last year, which is sad to look at. Nowadays, you have to know somebody who knows someone that can get you a spot at some retail store at a mall or anywhere which is listed in the Fortune 500.

But aside from job searching during that time, I did whatever I can to stay active around that period. I had a gig by doing some post production at a photographer's house since he never used Final Cut Pro before. I was very fortunate to work with him since he payed me to get by during those days. I had my car towed in Simi Valley, which is the last place to get your car towed at, for having expired tags back in March 2009 since they expired in August 2008, which is my fault cause I didn't pay it on time, and I got stopped by the police many times which is for no fucking reason. I wasn't easy then, along with my pop's new wife who just came here that time living with him in the states and myself and the rest of the world getting used to a guy in his 40's running the country for the first time since John F. Kennedy did back in the 1960s. At the end, all I can say that all that stress has lead me to where I'm at right now, at a perfect position in my life right now with greater confidence and desire to excel more.

Finally, shoutout to Augustine and her new husband Shay Armstrong, who I met only once last year, on getting hitched last Sunday. I missed the wedding ceremony cause I was taking photos at an Omarion performance (dude's a celebrity, and I take pictures of famous people) inside Westfield Culver City mall, which is still Fox Hills mall to me. I managed to make it to the reception that was also at my uncle's house, where did the wedding at. I wish them the best in their marital life together. Another shoutout to Pearl Rios for letting me do the photoshoot of and for the free pancakes last week.

By the way, my little sister started the 11th grade yesterday. Yes, her FALL semester in the middle of August, which is the SAME EXACT FUCKING WEEK summer school is usually supposed to end. I gave up on the LAUSD ever since my brother started his senior year back in September 2009, or since I graduated high school for that matter. But hey, nothing is easy nowadays. People gotta make drastic moves and challenge themselves in order to get by in life, especially at this time.

Eight, One, Eighty One

Twenty nine years ago

It galvanized and changed not only the music industry,

but the way videos are perceived

as an expressive form of art

As the years went on

its roots has started to grow,

And its network changed itself

as an expressive form of real life

Your peers will say "They stopped playing music videos anymore"

even some of the artists themselves admit it.

But despite the different premium channels and forms of mass media on the internet

At the end of the day, they'll still say that they don't play music videos anymore

It should've been called Total Request Life

cause nowadays, everyone is into viewing others personal lives.

It should've also been called True Live

cause everyone wants to see various lifestyles they can't imagine being in

The name started out as "Music Television"

since it says that on the bottom of the logo

Now its...whatever you wanna call it

now that the name is shaved off the bottom of the logo

Why call it whatever you want?

I'd say the same thing while looking at an abstract portrait.

Everyone that's featured on that network is different

even those who view them have different perspectives

As I get older

the videos and music will be newer.

The channel might be out of existence in the future

but not its core foundation it revolutionized

Yes, I typed this and made it up myself. Its been a very long ass time since I wrote a poem that didn't rhyme. If you can't understand it, that's fine. Some poems aren't easy to read. By the way, I noticed a lot of famous people got married this past weekend. Great for the entertainment press, but whats great is how long they can obtain their own personal lives together.

July Month in Review

I know there's one more day left in the month, but I won't be able to have access to the internet tomorrow cause I'm gonna be up in the Antelope Valley for the weekend.

Speaking of that, fate, destiny or whatever you want to call it, picked the wrong time to start wild fires up in the mountains next to Palmdale and Acton yesterday. I really hope this doesn't affect my route going up to Lancaster cause I really, REALLY don't like driving up there via the 14 freeway. Honestly, I'm scared (not that Chuckie Finster scared) of driving on that highway, so thank God there's the Sierra highway as an alternative. They had to evacuate a lot of people living in the West side of Palmdale and moved them to evacuation centers, to get away from the smoke in the mountains next to their homes. Shoutout to the Los Angeles Fire Department for putting out this fire as soon as possible cause temperature will double since the Antelope Valley is in the desert and trust me, it gets VERY hot up there at this time. I say this cause I spent last summer up there working as a security guard for an unfinished Walgreens, which is already done right now when I was up there last week for the first time in a year. That place looks different, with no fences, no dirt and still the same old-ass Kmart next to it.

But other than that, last week was good. Almost great but good.

So last Thursday, I was invited to a taping in Malibu for the Madden NFL Pigskin Pro-Am event, which is a celebrity Flag Football event that will air on the NFL Network and possibly Sunday Night Football on NBC during the season. We had to meet at the Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills to check in since this was a television taping. There were a lot of people dressed in NFL jerseys which made me think that it was 2004 all over again. I was surprised that there were more females and their kids than males that attended for this. We all had stand in line for 5 hours and it kept growing and growing every 20 minutes. Later the people from EA Sports, who were running and sponsoring the event came, check us in, and gave all of us T-shirts to wear while we're going to be on camera. They gave the first 400 (including myself) blue shirts and they gave the last 400 red shirts. The colors are going to be coordinated for each team during the that we have to "root and cheer" for.

Finally an hour later the buses came. I thought it was gonna be a shuttle since EA Sports and the NFL were sponsoring this, but unfortunately, it was a school bus. Now, I haven't been inside a school bus since April of 2006, when I went on a field trip to the Van Nuys Airport in 12th grade.

I didn't like to be with the people in the bus, since they spent the whole ride debating about which team is gonna have a better season and shit-talking about other people's favorite team.

We finally got there to the location, which is right across the Pacific Coast Highway from Pepperdine University. As we settled, one of the event coordinators gave us free bags of Doritos and said that we have to open them up as soon as one of the cameras pans towards us. That's some thing that Jay Leno should do again instead of hosting The Tonight Show right now, and I haven't even seen one episode of his second tenure.

Back to the event, the coordinator also told us that which ever team won, the fans representing that team gets a free copy of Madden 2011, which is not out yet until the second week of August. I was told before this that the first 800 people that showed up gets the free copy of the game, but we were never told before hand that we were gonna represent the teams and get the free game if whichever one wins. Almost every event lately this year has been doing this type of shit, telling everyone the information at the last fucking minute. Why am I upset about this? Cause our team gave up a lead by a last second touchdown at the end, in which we lost. That shit was staged of course, even though its gonna be on TV.

The best part of the whole thing was getting to see some hall of famers. Alot of Superbowl winning retirees were there, including Jerry Rice, Rod Woodsoon (who I already met two years ago and got an autograph from him), Joe Montana, Kurt Warner, Terrell Owens (who I also met four years ago in Oxnard back when the Cowboys used to have their training camp there), motherfuckin' DEION SANDERS (which I'm still surprised to see him in person) and some other athletes that I can't think for now. Now a Celebrity Flag football event isn't a Celebrity Flag Football event without....celebrities of course. Its mostly people that I've met many times that participated such as Stacey Keibler and Maria Menounos (who spent the whole damn game rushing on Kurt Warner when she's on Defense). Also there were some surprising stars that participated such as Quinton Aaron from The Blind Side, Shannon Elizabeth from the original American Pie, Craig Robinson, who will always be remembered as "the black dude from the Seth Rogen/Judd Apathow movies", James Van Der Beek who I haven't heard from since 2001, and also it was great to see Rich Eisen of the NFL Network as well. I could ask him to see if they can bring the NFL Network accessible to the San Fernando Valley already. Even though we didn't walk away with a video that I would've made a serious fortune out of, I kinda enjoyed the event. I meant, we got free Pizza from Papa Johns, free T-shirts that we can keep and we got to demo the game as well.

On Saturday, I went back to church for the first time in about a month and a half. Didn't stay too long for potluck cause there was an event called REBEL8 that was happening at Melrose. I found about this on Facebook and I decided to check it out since I had to be at the Hollywood Park in Inglewood later that night. It was at this place called De La Barracuda, which is a skate shop that's like Active and Val Surf. At the event, there's was a live graffiti show, free food and a huge trailer with the DJ playing some music. It was mostly a kickback party to me, but it was really a pre-party for an event later inside the store. Plus the members of the band Angels and Airwaves were there. I didn't stay to long cause I met some lady there who about in her early thirties who needed a lift to her place, so I offered her a ride, and the other reason was that there wasn't that much action there. It was just a kick back.

After I gave that lady a ride, I drove to one of my friend's house who lives right next to Inglewood. I haven't seen him in two years, and it felt like I just saw him last week. I stayed for about an hour cause I have to be at the Hollywood Park by 5PM. There was gonna be some Nigerian event there that I was assigned to take photos and video of. This was my first time going inside Hollywood park and that place looks old inside. I only took exterior pictures and not that much interior pictures cause I didn't want security to go on my ass and also, they have a casino inside.

It took three hours for the event to start, and it went on for a long time. It even continued when I left at 2AM. I was glad I got out of Inglewood safely on a Sunday morning. Then following that day, my sisters and I wanted to drive to Camarillo Premium Outlets. We were gonna take the 101 straight to there, but the traffic there was a mess on that freeway when we approached the 101/405 interchange, so I told my sister to continue down the 405 and get off Sunset Blvd. We then went through Brentwood, then Pacific Palisades and finally we got to the Pacific Coast Highway. I told her that we can get to Camarillo from the PCH as an alternative. Now as we got to Malibu on the PCH, there was a BUMPER TO BUMPER TRAFFIC ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN THE PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY. Very uncommon since that is something you'd see during rush hour. It lasted 45 minutes and then it cleared once we drove past the same area I was at that previous Thursday, right across from Pepperdine University. I've never driven past that point before and I didn't know what to expect on the upcoming road. During the long journey ,we drove by Zuma Beach, which I've never been to before and we also drove by Point Mugu, which looks dope as hell cause they have a little mountain made out of sand on the side of the road, like you're going snow sledding.

After getting lost for like 5 minutes, we finally made it to the outlets thanks to my common sense knowledge of living in Ventura County for the summer 4 years ago. They didn't have anything at the Nike Factory Store and plus the store got more brighter and more people started to come inside than before. I only got two T-shirts from the Nautica store for 25 dollars, probably the only decent store I'll shop at the next time I visit the outlets. Finally, we stopped at In-N-Out cause my little sister wants to get some food there and then we went home, making me miss living in Ventura County more, and I watched one the best Top Gear episodes I've ever, ever seen. It was brilliant.

Then the rest of the week got slow, didn't do that much except washing my American Apparel t-shirts three times by accident. Don't know why, but they're clean. By the way, major shoutout to my friend Stephen for hooking me up with the Thank Me Later Drake album. I had that shit on repeat six times. Enjoy turning 21 man.

You think you're cooler than me? Not this summer

The following two photos I'm about to show you took place this past weekend.

Demi Lovato during a free concert at the Glendale Galleria mall (which I didn't take)

The Lexus LF-A supercar preview showcase party at Lexus of Riverside

Unfortunately, I didn't go to neither of those events.

I could've took my sisters to see Demi Lovato perform since they both never saw a celebrity before and I also could've gotten at least $50 from taking photos, like the one above, of that performance. I'm still bitter about it. I can't wait till that Disney Channel expose' turns 18 next month (PLEASE don't get the wrong idea, I was making a humorous exaggeration).

I also would've gone to that event for the Lexus LF-A viewing party. Its Lexus first supercar that is competing against Ferrari and a bunch of other exotic cars that you'll only see in Beverly Hills. The LF-A is rumored to be worth around 300 grand to 400 grand, which is a lot for a Lexus. Those ads that they recently aired on TV when they tested the exhaust note noise next to a champagne glass really got me more interested in the car a lot more. I found out about that along with that show in Glendale on that Saturday, not the day before or the week before. It was all last minute shit.

The reason I didn't go was because I did something similar or even way better than those two I mentioned.

Last month my pops told me that one of my uncles is starting a little photography/videography service on the side from his nursing career and that he needed someone to help him whenever he has a event booked on that day. So he picked me up on Saturday cause he has a birthday party to cover. I thought that it was gonna be at Lancaster, but he said that its not up there, Lancaster is where he lives. He then told me that the party was gonna be all the way at Riverside. To myself, I was like "holy shit, that's far". Apparently the ride felt like it took a hour, even though its a two and a half hour drive over there from the Valley. During the trip, my uncle let me play around with his Nikon D5000 through out the ride. He said that he just got the camera and he was also surprised, VERY SURPRISED, when I told him that the camera takes High Definition video. He thought that the D5000 was just a regular camera, but it also take really stellar photos. My uncle also brought along his two kids who are around 5 years old. He brought them along cause he told me that the person who's throwing the party was for himself and his two year old son, that there's gonna be alot of kids there.

We finally made it to the place and the house is a MOTHERFUCKING MANSION! It was inside a residential neighborhood like the Knollwood Country Club where I live, but only 10 times better minus the golf courses. The house was on the cul-de-sac with a shitload of expensive cars piling up the street, which belonged to the invitees of the party. So we first loaded the equipment and gear off his Nissan Xterra, and then afterwards he then went to go look for parking.

I'm not playing around when I meant the place was like a mansion. There are a lot of these type of houses around my area that are extravagant and I've been to a few of them. This one however, is not even close. The backyard where the party took place was like a fuckin' mini-golf course, it just too large. The also has a balcony where you can access by going up the stairs from the side of the house, which is something I've never seen before at a home. And yes, there were a LOT of people there. I thought it was just Nigerians, but there were some whites and different races were there as well. I ask my uncle what he does the homeowner do for a living and he told me that he and his wife are Doctors. No wonder they got this nice place. I mean, this is a house would see on MTV Cribs for sure.

From 5pm to 2AM I was taking mad photos with the D5000 and shooting video using my uncle's Canon XL-1 professional camera. Yes, the party was really, really long, especially for a party with a lot of kids. Talking about the XL-1, that video camera was the shit back in 2001, about every filmmaker that time was using that camera and I alway wanted to play with it then. Now its way behind its time since there are video cameras that now shoot in full HD and store its content in Hard Drive disks, whereas the XL-1 is captured onto a mini DV tape. The D5000 was fun to use until the Nikon SB-600 flashgun that we attached to the camera was no longer functioning. I really dislike it when the power on flashguns go off when you take photos, which is why you should always bring a grip of batteries just in case, rechargeable batteries to save money.

I took some breaks in between during certain hours. I didn't like the food the served that much and plus they had free beer and a bartender there mixing margaritas and other drinks, so I just drank some sodas they had. I went inside the house to watch some TV that the other kids were watching. I can't even tell you how incredible the interior is inside, and of course there was a big screen HDTV system there, probably 5 to 10 inches greater than mine. At first I didn't give a shit on whatever they were watching cause I just wanted to sit on a couch that's very comfortable. I was ready to go back to my work until one of the teenagers that was there switched the channels to the NFL Network and in the NFL Network, they were showing something that definately caught my attention.

THEY WERE SHOWING THE ACTUAL, AUTHENTIC BROADCAST OF SUPERBOWL XXIII FROM 1989!

I'm not talking about some 30-minute highlight reel with narration from NFL Films. This is the real fucking deal here, with the old school NFL on NBC graphics and commentary from Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen. This was between the Forty-Niners back when they owned the league that time and the Cincinnati Bengals back when Chad Johnson was in sixth grade. I'd never thought they would show this on television again since the licensing to re-play the actual broadcast of NFL games is crazy expensive, but then again, its the NFL Network, a channel that 80% of the San Fernando Valley can't get, as well as a large percentage of Los Angeles unless you had Direct TV, which they had at the mansion. Fucking ass Time Warner not carrying the NFL Network. The dude had a replica of the World Cup trophy in the room as well, which is tight as fuck. I couldn't stay to watch the 4th quarter drive comeback cause I had to go finish doing work.

The party was still going on at 2AM when we left. I got $100 for covering it, which I really didn't mind since its money either way. It took us a while to get back to the Valley due to the traffic and a shit load of construction in like every freeway. I got home at around 4AM and I still felt awake from drinking all that soda. I didn't take photos of my own with my camera cause my brother has been using it for a while.

On Sunday, I wanted to go out with my brother to Hollywood to pick up some CD's, but he said that he wasn't able to do it today. So I called up one of my old friends from Pierce to see if she's down to chill. I haven't seen her since January of this year and she's been very busy for a while so I wanted to see how she's been. I drove to her place in the Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village area to pick her up, and then we went to the Topanga mall to see what was there to do. Prior to that, we stopped at the Westfield Promenade I bought a Lakers Draft day cap a Dicks Sporting goods there, but I returned it the next day cause the fitted was supported with elastic and it made my head feel compacted and it bothered me when I wore it the whole day. We we got to Topanga, the parking garage was so full, I had to park at the top level. I've been to this mall many, many times and I've never parked on the top level of the garage. I'm sure many people wanted to park inside the garage due to the temperature in the mid to high 90's that day, and Woodland Hills/Canoga is one of the HOTTEST places in the Valley. I bought my friend and myself some Frozen Yogurt from Pinkberry, which is freakin' delicious, and I bought myself some Panda Express, which I spent 10 dollars on, but it was a tad worth it.

After that, we walked around the mall just like we used to back when I was at Pierce in 2008, checking out the Apple Store, Sony Style and Urban Outfitters, which I didn't notice despite the fact that I went to Westfield Topanga three times in a four week span. The store had some decent clothes, something that you would see aspiring student filmmakers and graphic designers wear. The last time I went to Urban Outfitters was in the one at Burbank last year. Then when we finished, we got on the 101 Freeway and I drove her back to her place.

Since I was in Ventura County, I decided to see if my other friend was at his place in Simi Valley so that I can pick up my Barcelona Olympic Air Force 180s that I let him borrow last month. It took me less than 10 minutes to get to his place from the Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village area. We then chilled for a bit at his place, watched some freestlyle rap performances as well as the first episode of the new, current Top Gear from 2002, discovered a private country club in Northern Simi Valley, and walked to this park near his place to shoot some hoops. The park is really nice, but the disturbing part was when 4 high school kids came onto the court shirtless like their pretending to be either the cast of the Twilight Saga, Abercrombie and Fitch models, or the males of the Jersey Shore. Very embarrassing. After that, I left to my house only to find that on my way, the 118 was hella jammed before my exit off Balboa Boulevard due to some irregular activity being handled by the CHP. It was a good thing I was close to the Reseda Boulevard exit so I got off there instead.

I completed my night by watching the new episode of Top Gear that was just aired in Britain earlier via Streetfire.net. That episode was so damn funny and great at all levels. Jeremy Clarkson test driving convertible versions of the Porsche 911 and a Audi R8 with a fuckin' fine ass blonde chick who looks like he stole from one of The Sun's Page 3 models. I think he made her wet from doing all those turns with both cars. The best part was when Andy Garcia was the celebrity guest that night, which his way cooler. I saw the dude twice at the Staples Center during the NBA Finals, and I was surprised that he likes to watch Top Gear as well as being a Lakers fan. Bottom line, that was the funniest episode I've seen so far.

That was one of those rare great weekends unlike those other weekends I had recently. Major shoutout and thanks to my friends Tiffany and Jeremy for taking their time off to be with, and shoutout to Westfield Topanga and Ventura County for making my Sunday great. Its been a while since I wrote on stuff that I actually did as opposed to just headlines. To me, that is what the summer is about, having a lot of fun. I sure as hell had fun this past weekend, even though I picked a mansion party over seeing a superstar and a supercar.

Let me take you back to 1997.....

Back when SUVs started to take over the roads more, Blockbuster Music was in existence, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs was in his 20's along with his homeboy Mase still rapping and 85% of the publishers on Tumblr right now were still teething and sucking nipples for milk. Back when Mike Piazza was still with the Dodgers, the Macintosh was hard to find and get(cause they sucked and only schools had them), and Tommy Hillfiger and Nautica ruled the cold world. Finally, back when it cost extra to add the Disney Channel to your premium cable package, unless you had a Blackbox.

Speaking of childhood nostalgia, this is what I'm getting at.

Remember this shit? I'm sure as hell you do.

I moved to Granada Hills from North Hollywood in the fall of that year. My first time living in an upscale home with stairs, a wet bar and a Jacuzzi (which doesn't fuckin' work anymore). My sister, brother and I didn't go to the same elementary schools for some reason when school started. Every where I go, I'd see kids in their schools with these damn glasses. I had to get one in order to fit in with the youth of that portion of the San Fernando Valley.

So like every nine-year-old kid, I did what ever I can to make my mom get me those specks. I could've easily gone down to the former Blockbuster Video store that used to be near my house since they participated with the tie-in that Nickelodeon sponsored, but keep in mind that this was the mid to late 90's and I was the one of the only few black kids living in the Knollwood Country Club homes that time. Plus I never walked alone at that age. I made my mom finally got a box of cereal that came with the glasses. Keep in mind I don't eat cereal but this was very crucial and I told her that it can be for my younger sister since she ate almost everything that time. Those glasses looked fucking perfect and sexy when I looked at them up close. Damn, this was when Home Improvement was still one of the hottest TV shows that time and Titanic wasn't gonna come out and blow up the box office in a few weeks.

Now these glasses were supposed to be used to watch 3-D episodes of a weeks worth of Nickelodeon programs. A week before that, my siblings and I had to stay at this married couple's house in Sylmar (my first of many times to visit that town) to watch us for the weekend cause my parents were going out of town (why can't they do that more often nowadays). I took these glasses everywhere I went, including those people's house. Unfortunately, me still being a young kid, I accidentally lost them over there so I wasn't able to view those Nickelodeon shows in 3-D when they were broadcasted. I managed to get another pair and when those episodes were on repeats, they still weren't on 3-D. Cause the network made those re-runs into standard regular 2-D versions as opposed to the 3-D versions that they telecasted before that. Then I misplaced those glasses again later.

This was the the 3-D craze that I knew, way before the overrated shit that's been happening now. About every film that's out now is in 3-D thanks to James Cameron's Avatar flick, which I saw only the first 5 minutes on some photographer's iPad back in May, minus the 3-D. Now Sony is already releasing flat screen Bravia televisions that are 3-D ready and the glasses for those TVs' are worth over, I shit you not, $150. I tried them out at the Sony Style in Topanga mall a few weeks ago and it only works a little bit. Waste of money for both the TV and the glasses. Plus, its overrated. I mean, there are many people out there who are either blind or those that can see but have very poor vision or can only see with one eye. You get the idea.

So finally, it looks like Three Dimension is gonna be a new standard format from now on. From the Princess Leia-style hologram trick that CNN did during the 2008 election broadcast to the World Cup itself being broadcasted in 3-D. To me, its only cool for only 5 minutes and then you get tired of it. When you're a kid, its cool to them for a long time until they realize how far they've gone in their lives.