Some of My Pix

I think you have to click them to see the full size.

Luckily with iPhoto I got to get the colors back to how I wanted them so they weren't tired looking.  I really like the wheelchair picture.  I hope you guys like them all too.

This Past Weekend...

Christmas has come and gone.  It was a success, but health wise it was the worst Christmas I've ever experienced.  I felt like shit Christmas Eve before I went to bed so I took a NyQuil.  In the morning my throat was so sore that I had no voice.  The things that I got for Christmas were:

• Tiffany's Open Torque Ring from Kevin
• Spoon necklace from Kevin
• Build a Bear from Kevin
• RayBans
• Miralux Desire Mattress
• Office Chair
• Personal Trainer Cooking Game for Nintendo DS
• Nintendo DS (soon to come from Dad.)
• WMF ice cream spoons from Mom
• Leather jacket
• Assortments of clothes

It was a very good and surprising Christmas.  Can't complain there.  Later Christmas day I started to get the worst headache.  I was supposed to see a movie but instead passed out at 7:00pm, something I haven't done since I was 5.  I woke up the next morning at 10:45, dragged myself out of bed, got ready for work.  When I got to work I was in tears because I felt so shitty.  My body ached, I didn't want to be there, my throat was swelling, and I had a runny nose.  Would you want me to serve your food?  NO.  I went up to my manager and told him that I was aware that there were only 4 servers on the floor but that I would like to be first to leave.  He said, "but you're scheduled to work until 3."  Julie, a very nice woman who is the wife of the owner of the store said she would stay for me.  I was 10 minuets early for work so I stood in the back and drank some water.  The host came back and told me that she sat one of my tables.  Great.  I wasn't clocked in, felt like shit and already had to work.  As I was about to head out with sideplates in my hand my manager came up to me and told me that the bartender would take over my section and that I could just go home.  It's pathetic but I actually cried right after that because I was so stressed out.  I left work, went home and passed out.  

That night I called my work again to get my shift covered for the next day.  I told them I was going to go see the doctor and that there was no way for me to work.  I got my shift covered easily by the "nice" manager and she told me to call the next day to see if I could work on Sunday. On top of me being sick, so was my mom.  My mom can barely walk because she had surgery on her foot.  My dad is in Washington so Daniel had to take care of the both of us.  What a good brother.  

On Saturday I woke up at 9:30 am because I couldn't breathe.  I took a hot shower, and that took so much energy out of me that right when I got out I passed out again until 2pm.   I didn't really go to the doctor but I knew that I had the flu.  I called in the afternoon to get my shift covered for Sunday and they gave me shit.  I did not plan to get sick.  I like money.  Why would I not want to come into work and make money?  That's what I want to know.  Anyway, I had to call two different people and of course they didn't respond to me.  I called my work back around 9 to say that I couldn't get ahold of anyone but apparently one of the girls there said she could work for me.  Ya, thanks for the call.  It's not like I wasn't stressed about whether I would have to go into work or not.  

Sunday was the first day I left my house since Christmas Eve except for that round about trip to work and back on Friday.  I went to the Cheesecake Factory with Kevin.  Then we saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  It was a good movie but 2 hours and 45 minuets long.  It was a huge mistake to stay out for that long.  

Monday I went back to work and I was feeling a little better.  Not 100% but I could stand up for more than 20 min without getting dizzy so that was a good sign.  The host kept double seating me, which pissed me off... but finally they cut me.  When I came home I had a ridiculous headache, so bad even that I couldn't eat the food that I had brought home.  

Now this part of the past few days brings me to let you know how much I hate the Walgreens on Newport and Irvine Blvd.  It's funny because I am a huge fan of Walgreens (NOW ONLY the one next to Colleen's).  You know the camera I got?  Well I went to drop off 3 rolls of film.  I came back and hour later to talk to the dumbest person I have ever met.  The guy, "Michael", told me that I had done some "swirly motion" with my camera and all my pictures came out circular.  I told him I had a fisheye lens.  He tells me to flip through one of the sets of pictures to look at the colors.  He said the came out that way.  I told him I bought special film to make the colors pop.  This is where I roll my eyes.  I bring the pictures and discs with pictures on them to Kevin's house and I find out that the pictures weren't centered.  They were like cut off.  I have a picture of some friends of mine.  Jessica and David were perfectly centered and when it printed, David wasn't even in the picture.  I put one of the discs in Kevins computer and it says the disc was blank.  ALL 3 DISCS WERE BLANK.

With this information I call the Walgreens.  I ask them why they didn't check the discs and he says a computer automatically puts them on it.  I repeated my question.  He tells me I can come tomorrow and they'll take a look at it.  This Walgreen's is 24 hours so I went in right away.  I pulled out all the pictures that weren't centered and made the guy look like a real dumbass.  I told him I wanted them all reprinted because on the negatives they were perfectly centered.  They tell me that they have to manually go in and do this.  They were trying to make me feel bad.  I told them I didn't think I should pay for any of the pictures.  Originally it was $36.00.  OK maybe this is what I get for using a film camera.  But I think the camera is really cool and I learned my lesson to never go back to Walgreen's to get my pictures developed.

This morning I get a phone call at 11am.  The woman on the phone is from Walgreen's and she tells me that the guy who was supposed to leave directions for her on how to fix my pictures just wrote on the note "Does not like."  I told her what to do and that I would be in later to pick them up.

I went to pick up the pictures around 8:00.  I started to flip through them and I noticed that they looked very light.  I asked the lady if the colors were played with and she said yes.  I told her that I specifically told them that I bought special film and for them to not play around with my pictures.  She said that next time I should write a note.  I told her that there wasn't going to be a next time.  She had to bring a manager out to give me my money back for the blank CDs.  Since the loser didn't give me a receipt the first time, they had to issue me a Walgreen's Gift Card for $9.67.  I asked if I could use it at other locations.  They said yes.

My bank situation I thought was taken care of.  But I guess not.  I got 3 letters in the mail from last week notifying me of the problem that had been fixed.  I called a WellsFargo bank near me and they told me to give them my account number.  I didn't have it on me and asked if I could get it online.  She said that I couldn't and to call this 1-800 number.  I told her that I did and that's how I got her number.  She said try again and keep pressing 0 for the operator.  I did this and then the man on the phone, Willy, asked for my account number.  I said that I had called him for it and he said they can't give that out over the phone but that I could get it online.  Ugh.  So I go online, get it, and then I just wanted to make sure that it was all taken care of and that I wasn't getting charged for anything.  Well apparently for the last 3 months I  have been charged $16 from a Reservation Rewards and $9 from Entertainment Rewards.  I don't know what these businesses are and how they got my information.  I tried to log into one of the websites from these companies to see if maybe I had and forgotten.  I put my e-mail in and pressed "forgot password".  They e-mailed me back saying my password was "bee98canyon1".  Why would I pick that e-mail?  Right.. I wouldn't.  So now I have to call these companies which have been closed for "The Holidays" and see if they can fix it, and if they can't my bank will give me back the money and then I have to get a new debit card.

I hate the bank.  I hate Walgreens.  I hate being sick.  The only thing I don't hate is how cool some of my pictures came out.

Another One Bites The Dust

Active came through!  My account is back to normal and it is looking good :).  I just finished wrapping the last of the presents and at 5 pm today I get my first taste of Christmas this year.  Technically I'll be having 5 celebrations of Christmas.  Christmas Eve with the fam, Christmas day with immediate fam, Kevin, Colleen, and Michelle.  Nice.

I picked up this Japanese camera today.  Mine is gold and more retro.  

It's a fisheye 2 by lomography.  I am in love with it.  I've never actually had to put a real roll of film in a camera myself (pathetic), so I think I exposed my first roll of film.  I'm in the middle of my 2nd and I think I've figured it out.  The camera was $75.00.  The film I got makes the colors more enhanced.  The other film that Urban had available was black and white, sepia, and redish tones.  I can't wait to get my pictures developed and scan them to show the world my art! :)  I went picture crazy tonight.  

We went to see Yes Man again tonight.  I think I was influence by the Allison character (my girl Zooey.). She teaches a jogging/photography class outside of Griffith Park.

Here are some pictures I found online taken by type of camera.

Something Weird

Just happened with my last post's formatting.  It can't be fixed.  And for some reason copy/paste isn't working either.  Bare with it.

So This Past Week..

It's been a busy week. A lot of last minuet touches for Christmas and just dealing with this bank situation 

which seems to be never ending...

So Monday I worked a longer shift than I expected from 11:30-4:30. I think this was the night that Kevin 

and I went to drive to BFE to see MILK. Tuesday was my first day to sleep in since Thanksgiving weekend.  

On Wednesday I worked again and then Colleen took me to the Spectrum and we spent $$ and I got this cool 

zebra scarf and some shirt. Colleen got a black leather jacket which is pretty nice. Later that night we went 

to Cameron's friends house in Newport who I went to elementary school with. Thursday morning Colleen, 

Cameron, and I ordered a lot of Del which in the end was really gross to eat. My mom got surgery on her 

left foot so she was funny all drugged off vicodin. I stayed home that night, Kevin came over later to watch

Fast Times at Ridgemont High. On Friday, Adam covered my shift for me, I guess he needed it, so I had 

another day to sleep in :) That night Kevin and I saw Yes Man which was really funny. On Saturday I worked 

10:45-5, then went to go see CATS! Then yesterday I worked 10:45-5 again, and of course dealed with that

bank situation. Active e-mailed me at 7:22am Monday morning to say that all charges were going to be taken

care of by the end of the day. They weren't. So I sent another kind/hate/bitch e-mail. We'll see what happens.

Today, I worked another non-expectant long shift for a Monday from 11:30-4. I usually don't stay that late

on Mondays which is why I'm saying they're "long shifts". In the 15 min between 11:45 and 12:00 the 

restaurant sold over $500 in food. GREAT for a Monday. It was raining AND busy so it was very surprising

I made $$. Today I made the mistake of going to the mall and pick up some last minute gifts for Michelle, 

Colleen, and Meredith at Sephora. Parking was a nightmare but Kevin and I found a spot. We ate at that

amazing Quatro Cafe and I ordered the chicken raviolli. Our server looked really familiar and I do this 

thing where if I think I know someone I ask them even if I have second thoughts. Turned out we met a 

few years ago. I knew it. Then we parked I think the farthest parking spot at Triangle Square to go see Seven Pounds. It was freezing outside and I will never go back to that theatre because during the movie a rat ran across the screen.

But onto these past 3 movies... I sincerely recommend every single one of them.

MILK: I didn't know the story before I saw this movie. True stories always tug at my heart and this mans determination to make a difference really was amazing to watch. James Franco is hot, and so is Emile Hirsch and then in tight 70's clothes... well I wasn't complaining. The part that touched me the most was at the very end when they showed actual footage of Harvey Milk laughing. I think Kevin was embarrassed as I cried walking out of the threatre.

Yes Man: Going into this movie, I was expecting a Liar Liar type thing. I was very surprised to find that it wasn't. Also I have a girl crush on that Zooey Deschnal girl or whatever her last name was. I laughed during the entire movie. It was nice to escape reality for awhile. Also, I've always been a fan of Jim Carrey. From The Mask, Ace Ventura, The Number 23, until now.

Seven Pounds: From the very first scene with the blind man on the movie I was in tears. Literally shaking I was crying that hard. I don't know what it was. Maybe because I went into the movie very tired that I let it get to me the way I did, but it was good. The story line was kind of weird, like the ending... but all the situations were soooooo moving. It was a good one. It really was.

Alright thats my week. Like I said I e-mailed those bastards so hopefully all of these charges will the dropped. Like I'm some kind of criminal right?

Anxiety Attacks Again

Remember how when I said that I was really glad that I had everything in control and money wasn't a problem?  I'm 100% sure I jinxed myself.

Now don't freak out.  I'm okay & I will survive.  Just... I noticed that my bank account was saying my credit line was drawn and I couldn't figure out what the problem was.  I don't use my credit card (much).  I was making money everyday at work so I wasn't even using my debit.  I literally scratched my face trying to figure out what the fuck was going on so hard that there is now a scab.  I made a $100 deposit and it still said I owed money.  So the next day I made another $100 deposit.  Now that last day was on Friday, after the bank closed so I couldn't physically go into the bank to handle this in person.  Anyway, it turns out that Active, the company that I ordered my brother's Christmas present didn't charge me once for it.  They didn't charge me twice.  But THREE times they charged me.  $300 gone.

It's okay sometimes to make a mistake- once. NOT three times.  I called the 1-800 number and I was on hold forever so I hung up and e-mailed them.  I used the word "outraged" in my e-mail.  I got an automatic e-mail saying they would get back to me within one business day.  In the meantime my bank is saying that my credit is over drawn which is just a nightmare.  The bank was closed today, because it's Sunday.  So now I have to go deal with them and figure this whole thing out.  

On the bright side, I had over $2,100 in sales this weekend so that was good.  Colleen and Meredith are in Missouri and Michelle is in NYC.

I'll let you know how this banking situation goes.  And how well I "compose" myself during it.

Christmas Time Is Here...

Believe it or not but Christmas is right around the corner.  This is the first year where I actually don't have to stress about money or what to get who and all that bullshit.  I went with ordering everything online this year.  No lines.  No worries.  Everything has already been delivered in the mail except for 2 items, and I have to pick something up on the 23rd, but other than that I just finished wrapping everything, with little name tags and all.  I feel good and relieved to get this all done with a week to spare.

Christmas time in my family has the same routine every year.

Christmas Eve- 4pm whole family meets at Grandma's house.  We aren't allowed in the living where the tree is until every one has arrived and until a little bell rings.  Then we run outside to see if we can help the little cousins find Santa in the sky.  We're a German family so we do the family deal on Xmas Eve.  We try to get everyone of the kids to open their presents one at a time but after two kids go, its a free for all.  Apparently Ann and Tom do Jagerbombs every year.  I don't know where I have been for all of that for the past 19 years, but this year I'm definitely getting in on that.  

On Christmas day, Daniel and I wait for Mom and Dad to wake up until we all go downstairs.  Mom and Dad get the video camera out and Dan and I get filmed opening up our presents.  The battery always seems to die right in the middle of it all, but I guess a tradition is a tradition.  Mom always gets jipped in the Christmas present department so this year I made sure that wasn't going to happen.  I think I did a good job :).  My mom is actually getting surgery on her left foot tomorrow, and in 3 weeks she gets surgery on her right foot.  She has a prescription for vicodin, so... I plan on being extra nice. (Just kidding Mom...)

So after we are done opening presents, Mom takes out her breakfast dinnerware that we use once a year and she makes a huge breakfast.  We eat this while putting in batteries and charging out shit.  Around 2pm we all go to Ann's and have a Christmas lunch.  Hopefully this year Kevin can come join us.  He said he was afraid of family gatherings so  I called him a pussy (love you Kevin).  He said they do Christmas dinner late, so this should all go according to plan.

THEN my Colleen flies home from Missouri and she will be joining me for my now 4 year tradition of going to a movie on Christmas Day.  Have you ever been to the movies on Christmas?  There is an insane amount of people.  It's ridiculous but I love going anyway.  We plan on seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

All in all I am very very very excited for this Christmas holiday.  After Christmas, there are 5 short days until the New Year.  Kevin and I need to still buy our tickets for Together As One for our New Years Eve celebration.  We're staying up in LA at Brett's apartment.  Colleen and Cameron are taking a party bus up.  Meredith and Shaun are going on their own (I think and hope).  Michelle lives right next to the venue so her and Alen are walking over.  With over 65,000 people, hopefully we can all be together for the countdown!

This is a complete 180 from last year.  Life is funny like that.

Contracted Grades... Friend or Foe

A contracted grade is a piece of paper with information on it and your signature indicating which grade you would like to get in the class.

In my speech 170 class non-verbal communications I signed my name to a "B" grade contract.

The guidelines for an "A" contract was more hands on outside of the classroom. And I knew that I wouldn't have enough time to do that. Nor did I really want to do activities for a class outside of class time. You can see where I'm coming from.

For the "B" contract, I had to complete the "B" Project. The project was to watch a selected movie on mute, take notes on the non-verbal cues, and then watch the movie again with the sound on and see if my notes matched the story with sound. Not that hard. There were 3 tests in the class, and with every test we had to write a personal evaluation of ourselves and with what grade we think we deserve. For every evaluation I said I thought I deserved a B. On the last evaluation, my teacher wrote verbatim: "Yes! I am so proud of you".

If every class in 1.5 hours and it is held 2 times a week for 16 weeks that would be 48 hours of class. We did not meet on Veterans Day or Thanksgiving day. She didn't show up to class for 2 meeting days. Apparently I missed .5 hours more than the allowed time missed for a "B" grade.

I thought that because of my participation and enthusiasm in the class it would be OK.

That's the problem with contracted grades. The truth is, I should have NOT missed that last 30 min of class.

My bad. You'd think if a person has it written out in front of them it should be easy to follow directions. Does that make me an idiot? I dunno. I actually learned a lot in the class and apply topics I've learned in everyday life.

This was a learning experience. Is this the age for every thing to be a learning experience or what? At least I know now...

If You Don't Mind Subtitles...

I absolutely recommend you to stop what you are doing and go watch City of God NOW.

To sum up this amazing, graphic, moving movie, City of God is the slums outside of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The main character Rocket lives a life that none of us can relate to.  He tells the story of City of God and all its faults.  Two rival gangs start a war over something that people forget what it was even about after a year of fighting with stolen guns and guns bought by dirty cops.  Drugs, sex, and violence.  Isn't that what everyone is interested in? Why not add some corrupt government and some children driven to insanity?

It's based on a true story.

At a Blockbuster near you.

I Just Don't Know Anymore

We all do it.  We all complain.

I'm actually a really big fan of it.  But see the difference between me and a lot of people is that don't just complain about things, I attempt to fix the problems that I have.

Colleen, another fan of the complaining handles situations pretty much exactly as I do.  For example, the Costa Mesa Police Department sent her a fine because they didn't receive her check in the mail for her ticket.  Instead of talking about it forever, she waited to call them and then she fixed the problem.  They misplaced it or some bullshit.

Some people who complain a lot just do it, I think, to hear the own sound of their voice.  You have homework? Shut up and do it.  You want to stop being lazy and work out?  Get off your ass and go do it.  It's cold?  Put on a fucking jacket.  You think the TV show is stupid?  Turn the channel asshole.

People who go out to restaurants and complain about their food are probably the worst complainers to come by.  When the server comes by to check on your food they want to know if everything is prepared okay and tastes great.  When the complainer says, "everything is fine" and then COMPLAINS  after they have eaten half their meal but stopped because it was too rare or something and refuse to have it re-cooked or order something else... this is what really pisses me off?

You might be reading this and thinking that I'm just complaining about complainers.  Well, like I said I am not really one to complain and not do something about the situation... so this is my plan:

I will definitely, absolutely 100% let you know that I think you are a fucking idiot if you do not attempt to fix your problem and still complain about it.

That is all.

13.0.0.0.0

Note:  This blog was written just to ramble.  Like most blogs... Just felt like I had to put that out there.

13.0.0.0.0.

December 21, 2012.

For all the "hype" about this... you'd think google would come up with better pictures.

Tonight for my geography class I attended a seminar on the "End of the World".  The speaker was some National Geographics guy who has been an archeologist for years and has specialized in the Mayan for several years.  

Basically... what I got from the story that thousands of years ago a story was passed down generation after generation and one day it was finally written in Mayan hieroglyphics the people today are the 4th creation from some sort of group of Gods. The first creation was animals, and the gods got bored with them. They decided to keep the animals and after 13 Bak'tuns they made a 2nd creation.  This time it was people made out of mud.  They couldn't reproduce so they got rid of them.  The 3rd creation was people made out of wood.  They were cruel to the animals and they were mean people.  Then something happened with 3 sets of twins... except there were first 2 sets.  And of the the sets of twins like to play a game with a ball and somehow ended up in the Under World.  They lost a ball game there so one of their heads got cut off and it was planted in the ground and up grew a tree with fruit with the head of the Twin.  His name was something like Un-Tool and his brother was Seven-Tool.  I don't know the names so I'm just winging it.  Anyway the fruit a girl impregnated a girl so then the girl found the mother of the twin and she had twins hersef... and then those twins played a ball game and got brought to the Under World but they won.  So those twins got to get the other twins out of the Under World and that is the reason why humans today are imperfect.

So if you followed along to that... pictures of the twin sons "saving" the other sets of twins were drawn multiple times before the story was actually written down.  This leads people to believe that the story was passed down as well.  

As for December 21, 2012 being named the "End of the World"... well there is no had evidence that this is true.  By decoding the ancient math called "long count" with dots as numbers, lines representing 5 dots, and symbols representing 0's we learned that they believed the 4th creation was made August 11, 3114 BC.

There is only one piece of evidence found in Mexico that actually talks about the specific date 12/21/2012.  The last piece from the template is missing as has been grounded down in a cement factory that was built over where the thing was found.

There are also many different dates that people think the 5th creation will be made.  Also, the Aztecs already think that we are the 5th creation.  The Aztec calender has 4 characters around the main middle one (us) and their numbers add up to something that makes sense and ties a lot of this together...

Basically what I'm getting at after rambling on with this is that... we lived through Y2K right.  

Other things that people are saying about 2012 is that there will be a huge solar flare.  That apparently happens every 11 years.  Talk that the Earth's poles will flip is another issue.  Kind of like Water World without the water... The north pole is already 600 miles off "track" anyway.  It's been some 7000 years since the last flip and geologists say nothing bad happened.

Also another issue is us freezing over by the galaxy.  Even though.... we've been passing through the galaxy's equator for the past 25 years.

I really don't know.  But the thing that I liked most of all is learning that the Mayan have their own calender called Tzolk'in and they have a spirit for every day of their year (260 days which is 9 months). AND one of the symbols for one of the numbers is called Kimi!

And here it is: