While sitting in lunchroom at work the other day, I had overheard four female co-workers discussing body types of the perfect man. Mind you, I was the only other person in the room with these four women, and they were not exactly whispering. I would have to admit some of the comments were pretty funny.
The conversation began with all four of them expressing their extreme disgust at steroid-taking body builders. One of the more vocal women stated "Those over-muscular guys are eeeewww gross..." Another chimed in with " I don't like a swimmers' build either. They have a weird v-shape with broad shoulders, no butt and very short legs."
All of these women also came to the conclusion that they do not like real tall guys, and prefer the average medium-build, slightly toned man, maybe just a little taller than them, or possibly the same height. Not too fat and not too skinny. All four also made it very clear of their distaste towards "bony guys."
The pinnacle of the whole conversation was at the end when one of the ladies stated that she liked men in the shape of a rectangle; The same at the top and bottom."
I'm sure their Geometry professors would have been proud.
The funniest thing I heard this week was the story of my 10-year-old cousin and the new hand-held video recorder he received for Christmas. His parents just recently had new bamboo flooring installed in the kitchen and formal dining area, separated by new marble tile in the entry way. In admiration of this new flooring, my cousin wanted to include it in his first video.
While videotaping the recorded "introduction" to his home, he had referred to the beautiful new "baboon flooring" and "marbles" tile in the entry way.
I hope Peta doesn't get a hold of this video!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
IGooogle Quote of the Day
This is one of today's IGoogle quotes which I find resonates the truth:
I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
- Jack Handey
While riding home one evening, I had been experimenting with my Digital SLR and took some shots while moving. The results are below. I guess they are kind of cool...
I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it.
- Jack Handey
While riding home one evening, I had been experimenting with my Digital SLR and took some shots while moving. The results are below. I guess they are kind of cool...
Friday, October 17, 2008
Daily Chatter
Funny thing heard at work today-
During the last debate between Obama and McCain, one of my co-workers had been on the phone with her daughter while McCain was making his statement about Gov. Palin being a "breath of fresh air." Her daughter had suddenly asked her why McCain would say something like that. Puzzled by the question, my co-worker asked her daughter what she was talking about. Her daughter replied "it sounded like he said "breast of fresh air!"
Something I learned today-
It is going to be a while before I am ready to take the Friday(aka diabolical) LA Times edition of Sudoku!
During the last debate between Obama and McCain, one of my co-workers had been on the phone with her daughter while McCain was making his statement about Gov. Palin being a "breath of fresh air." Her daughter had suddenly asked her why McCain would say something like that. Puzzled by the question, my co-worker asked her daughter what she was talking about. Her daughter replied "it sounded like he said "breast of fresh air!"
Something I learned today-
It is going to be a while before I am ready to take the Friday(aka diabolical) LA Times edition of Sudoku!
Monday, October 6, 2008
The Salt of the Earth
This evening in my Labor and Film class we watched the movie "Salt of the Earth" which is a film about a mining labor union's fight against the unsafe working conditions in the mines.
What makes this movie interesting involves the history surrounding it.
The film was produced in 1954 by blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers which included director Herbert Biberman, producer Paul Jerrico, screenwriter Michael Wilson, and actor Will Geer.
Because of the McCarthy's "anticommunist hysteria," it was next to impossible for the producers to get mainstream actors or guilds men to work on its production, and getting funding was next to impossible. Most if not all filming had to be covertly completed due to the constant harassment from McCarthy's goon squads. Many, if not most of the shots were done in one take.
Some of the shots had to be completed in Mexico because Rosauria Revueltas,the lead Mexican female actress, had been deported due to mostly bogus claims that her passport did not have the correct information.
Overall, the film is a masterpiece considering what they had to go through to complete it.
Even when it was completed the film was, for the most part, kept underground until the 1960s.
What makes this movie interesting involves the history surrounding it.
The film was produced in 1954 by blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers which included director Herbert Biberman, producer Paul Jerrico, screenwriter Michael Wilson, and actor Will Geer.
Because of the McCarthy's "anticommunist hysteria," it was next to impossible for the producers to get mainstream actors or guilds men to work on its production, and getting funding was next to impossible. Most if not all filming had to be covertly completed due to the constant harassment from McCarthy's goon squads. Many, if not most of the shots were done in one take.
Some of the shots had to be completed in Mexico because Rosauria Revueltas,the lead Mexican female actress, had been deported due to mostly bogus claims that her passport did not have the correct information.
Overall, the film is a masterpiece considering what they had to go through to complete it.
Even when it was completed the film was, for the most part, kept underground until the 1960s.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Riding the Red Cars
Today my wife, my son, my mother-in-law and I all went down to Ride the Red Cars at San Pedro. I had heard many great things about them, but have never taken the time to go down and check them out. Since I have this school project coming up, it made for a cool family outing.
We had arrived at the Red Car Depot across from the Los Angeles Maritime museum at 10:00 when the first Red Car was supposed to be picking up passengers. After looking at a few of their posted signs we discovered that the hours had been very recently changed to noon. I guess they need to update their website.
So to kill the two hours we wandered around the Ports O' Call area. It was still pretty quiet there, but we knew it would be rapidly coming to life as the time moved closer to noon. While we were walking around I had suddenly developed this urge to take pictures of Signs. Why, I still don't know. I think it was because of the huge diversity. Anyway, here is a few of them:
After a while we had decided we should eat before getting on the Red Cars. After turning down multiple high-priced brunch areas down there, we finally settled on eating at Acapulcos Mexican Restaurant. While we were there, I had decided to try my hand at a little social documentation. There was a group of animated Mariachi band members playing at different tables, whom I figured would make decent subject matter and took a few shots of them. I have converted them to black and white for a little more contrast:
After eating we still had 10-15 minutes to kill, so we hung around the outside of the Maritime Museum until the first car arrived.
When the first car arrived, we had boarded rapidly chasing my son who was extremely excited about riding the train. But it was getting close to his normal nap time and the excitement slowly morphed into his normal tired crankiness.
While we were riding, I had started to ask one of the conductors questions about the car, its history, etc. He had said he only knew a little about these cars, but if I was interested in knowing more, I could take the next car that came along(which happened to be their restored original car) who had a conductor named Bob who was very knowledgeable on the subject.
After boarding the second car I had met Bob, and he proceeded to give me a wealth of information via a lecture. Some of the information I was already familiar with, but was none-the-less interesting to hear from another perspective.
The part of his lecture that I found the most intriguing was about a study that USC had completed in reference to the 1965 Watts Riots. They had known that one of the primary catalysts for the uprising was a high unemployment rate within the community, but what they had discovered was that the unemployment rate sky-rocketed after the Red Cars were removed from service and replaced with buses.
Below are a few pictures from the ride:
We had arrived at the Red Car Depot across from the Los Angeles Maritime museum at 10:00 when the first Red Car was supposed to be picking up passengers. After looking at a few of their posted signs we discovered that the hours had been very recently changed to noon. I guess they need to update their website.
So to kill the two hours we wandered around the Ports O' Call area. It was still pretty quiet there, but we knew it would be rapidly coming to life as the time moved closer to noon. While we were walking around I had suddenly developed this urge to take pictures of Signs. Why, I still don't know. I think it was because of the huge diversity. Anyway, here is a few of them:
After a while we had decided we should eat before getting on the Red Cars. After turning down multiple high-priced brunch areas down there, we finally settled on eating at Acapulcos Mexican Restaurant. While we were there, I had decided to try my hand at a little social documentation. There was a group of animated Mariachi band members playing at different tables, whom I figured would make decent subject matter and took a few shots of them. I have converted them to black and white for a little more contrast:
After eating we still had 10-15 minutes to kill, so we hung around the outside of the Maritime Museum until the first car arrived.
When the first car arrived, we had boarded rapidly chasing my son who was extremely excited about riding the train. But it was getting close to his normal nap time and the excitement slowly morphed into his normal tired crankiness.
While we were riding, I had started to ask one of the conductors questions about the car, its history, etc. He had said he only knew a little about these cars, but if I was interested in knowing more, I could take the next car that came along(which happened to be their restored original car) who had a conductor named Bob who was very knowledgeable on the subject.
After boarding the second car I had met Bob, and he proceeded to give me a wealth of information via a lecture. Some of the information I was already familiar with, but was none-the-less interesting to hear from another perspective.
The part of his lecture that I found the most intriguing was about a study that USC had completed in reference to the 1965 Watts Riots. They had known that one of the primary catalysts for the uprising was a high unemployment rate within the community, but what they had discovered was that the unemployment rate sky-rocketed after the Red Cars were removed from service and replaced with buses.
Below are a few pictures from the ride:
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Getting to know others
After having my third 9 hour class today at Dominguez Hills, I now have a much better understanding of the amazing diversity in relation to the other students in the class.
It all began after our professor asked us to form one large group on the couches in the building's main lobby so we could discuss our ifilm documentary ideas.
Well, going by the documentary story ideas that each of the students shared, anyone that happen to be passing by may have assumed we were friends of Bill W.
Many, if not most of the stories would bring tears to the eyes of the hardest heart in town. Some had witnessed whole villages wiped out in their countries of origin, or fellow migrant countrymen treated literally like cattle, while others had families that make mine look like the Brady Bunch.
My ifilm script is one of the few that are not about family destruction or ethnic cleansing. I am doing mine on the demise of the Los Angeles Red Car and the rise of the freeway system. It does have some sad parts to it, but overall I will be trying to show what we had lost. It is supposed to be approximately 5-7 minutes long with a personal narration and 30- 40 pictures. An example of these short documentaries can be seen here.
Tomorrow I will be heading off with my wife, son and mother-in-law to go ride one of the few remaining restored Los Angeles Red Cars which is adjacent to the Ports O' Call in San Pedro. I will try and post the shots sometime in the near future.
The class also doubles as a mini photography class, which is an important aspect of social documentation.
We are actually getting some real great lessons and advice from our professor who is also a documentary film maker.
Here are some of the websites that were recommended:
Composition tips
Ten top photography tips
Digital Photo tips
Here you can view some great social documentary photography:
social documentary website
social documentary website2
It all began after our professor asked us to form one large group on the couches in the building's main lobby so we could discuss our ifilm documentary ideas.
Well, going by the documentary story ideas that each of the students shared, anyone that happen to be passing by may have assumed we were friends of Bill W.
Many, if not most of the stories would bring tears to the eyes of the hardest heart in town. Some had witnessed whole villages wiped out in their countries of origin, or fellow migrant countrymen treated literally like cattle, while others had families that make mine look like the Brady Bunch.
My ifilm script is one of the few that are not about family destruction or ethnic cleansing. I am doing mine on the demise of the Los Angeles Red Car and the rise of the freeway system. It does have some sad parts to it, but overall I will be trying to show what we had lost. It is supposed to be approximately 5-7 minutes long with a personal narration and 30- 40 pictures. An example of these short documentaries can be seen here.
Tomorrow I will be heading off with my wife, son and mother-in-law to go ride one of the few remaining restored Los Angeles Red Cars which is adjacent to the Ports O' Call in San Pedro. I will try and post the shots sometime in the near future.
The class also doubles as a mini photography class, which is an important aspect of social documentation.
We are actually getting some real great lessons and advice from our professor who is also a documentary film maker.
Here are some of the websites that were recommended:
Composition tips
Ten top photography tips
Digital Photo tips
Here you can view some great social documentary photography:
social documentary website
social documentary website2
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
School Assignment
For my Social Documentation class at Cal State University Dominguez Hills the final exam will consist of making a short documentary using Apple's ifilm.
The subject matter was supposed to be on something that we are concerned or passionate about.
Other than my family, I am not passionate about to many other things, except for the preservation of history.
After mulling over several ideas, I decided to do the final on the Red Cars that used to be a mainstay of Los Angeles public transportation before their demise secondary to the onslaught of freeways which now permeate the greater LA Area.
There are countless stories and opinions as to why this demise occurred, but in my humble opinion the bigger issue is what we lost as the red cars disappeared.
Hopefully I can project that idea with my short documentary.
The subject matter was supposed to be on something that we are concerned or passionate about.
Other than my family, I am not passionate about to many other things, except for the preservation of history.
After mulling over several ideas, I decided to do the final on the Red Cars that used to be a mainstay of Los Angeles public transportation before their demise secondary to the onslaught of freeways which now permeate the greater LA Area.
There are countless stories and opinions as to why this demise occurred, but in my humble opinion the bigger issue is what we lost as the red cars disappeared.
Hopefully I can project that idea with my short documentary.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Father's Day
Today has turned out to be more emotional that I thought it would be.
During the very moving tribute to Tim Russert on Meet The Press this morning, one of the guests had pointed out that Tim could see the human flaws in people, and point them out in the humblest of ways.
Well, he has certainly pointed out mine.
I can only hope that I can be the type of husband, father and son he was to his family, and the world.
This morning I also saw the CBS Sunday Morning show interview with Journey and their new lead singer Arnel Pineda on Youtube. Another incredible and touching story.
I also called to wish my father a happy Father's Day.
What made it hard was knowing that he has lost most of his vision in what was his good eye this past week.
To add fuel to the fire, he is frustrated because the physicians cannot give him an answer as to why this is occurring.
He now has only about twenty-five percent of his vision left.
All this within a two-hour span...
Friday, June 13, 2008
Big hearts in big cities
Something I observed today reminded me that there are still a lot good people in the world despite the seemingly endless volume of jerks we encounter each day.
While I was at work today I had glanced out the window and noticed a very skinny, older man, in a dirty tee shirt and dirty jeans, leaning up against a short wall that separates a parking lot from the sidewalk on the northeast side of our building.
At first I thought he may have been one of the city employees who were currently working on a project in the street by where this man was, but it quickly became apparent he was not part of the crew when he whipped out a bottle of wine from beneath his shirt, took a big long swig, re-corked it, then stuffed it back down the front of his pants.
I came to the quick conclusion the he was most likely one of the many homeless men living on the outskirts of of the LA-VA property.
Seconds later, one of the actual city workers pulled up in a backhoe, waved at this older man, then parked and got out of his vehicle with a white plastic bag.
He then went over to the older man and proceeded to take food out of this bag and give it to him.
It was obvious this man was pretty hungry by the look of amazement on his face at the first sight of the food. It was the same look you see in a child's face when they first discover their presents on Christmas day.
The city worker then said a few words to him, waved, then drove off in his backhoe.
I'm sure it was obvious to the city worker that the older man was most likely homeless, and smelled of alcohol. But in a selfless act of kindness he was able to look past all that and simply saw another human being in need.
I hope they both had a very pleasant Friday.
They both just made mine a little better.
While I was at work today I had glanced out the window and noticed a very skinny, older man, in a dirty tee shirt and dirty jeans, leaning up against a short wall that separates a parking lot from the sidewalk on the northeast side of our building.
At first I thought he may have been one of the city employees who were currently working on a project in the street by where this man was, but it quickly became apparent he was not part of the crew when he whipped out a bottle of wine from beneath his shirt, took a big long swig, re-corked it, then stuffed it back down the front of his pants.
I came to the quick conclusion the he was most likely one of the many homeless men living on the outskirts of of the LA-VA property.
Seconds later, one of the actual city workers pulled up in a backhoe, waved at this older man, then parked and got out of his vehicle with a white plastic bag.
He then went over to the older man and proceeded to take food out of this bag and give it to him.
It was obvious this man was pretty hungry by the look of amazement on his face at the first sight of the food. It was the same look you see in a child's face when they first discover their presents on Christmas day.
The city worker then said a few words to him, waved, then drove off in his backhoe.
I'm sure it was obvious to the city worker that the older man was most likely homeless, and smelled of alcohol. But in a selfless act of kindness he was able to look past all that and simply saw another human being in need.
I hope they both had a very pleasant Friday.
They both just made mine a little better.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
A funny thing happened...
A funny thing happened yesterday on my way to Target...
It all really began a week ago with the purchase of our new 08' Scion xD. Due to the rising gas prices and lack of use, my wife and I decided to trade in our gas guzzling 04' Toyota Tundra double-cab for the Scion xD, which I was immediately sold on after the test drive at Torrance Toyota.
I was initally going to settle for an 08' Toyota Corolla SE, but thanks to the game-playing, sneaky little schmuck salesman at South-Bay Toyota I decided to "put my bats in the bag" and take my business elsewhere.
Thank-you Mr. Schmuck for pissing me off! You led me in the right direction, and I now own a car I really love.
It definitely does not have the room the truck had, but it makes up for the room in its monthly payment and fuel economy, not to mention the kick-ass Pioneer stereo system. Many of the car reviews bagged on its looks and "road noise," but for the price you get a lot of features only found on much pricier vehicles.
It's not a Land Rover or Mercedes, but I am extremely happy with it and that is all that counts.
On to my story...
With this new car came a new type of instrument cluster. Instead of having the standard needle and four quadrant gas gauge, it has a linear set of little boxes that disappear as the gas is depleted.
It is also located to the LEFT of the steering wheel. Most gauges in other vehicles are generally located to the right of the wheel.
You see where this is going, right?
After a trip to Traveltown with my son, his cousin, my wife and Mother-in-law, We decided to make a stop at Target after dropping off my cousin.
Well, as we were sitting at a light getting ready to make a left turn in front of the Target store, the engine suddenly spuddered and quit.
I immediately started having flashbacks to a similar situation many years ago when my parents had purchased a new Chevy Vega hatchback that did that exact same thing. After several hours on the phone my father ened up making the dealership come and pick up the car out of the driveway, exclaiming to the tow truck driver to tell the dealership to "take this piece of shit lemon and stuff it up their ass!"
But thankfully my issue was not due to a lemon, but rather my lack of observation.
After my ptsd flashback my second instinct was to look down at the digital gas gauge.
Yep, I was out of gas.
Thankfully I had my wife and mother-in-law with me who, without asking, immediately got out and helped push it into the parking lot amidst the angry honking and happy screams of my son who was enjoying every minute of it.
Once we were able to "park" the car, the embarassment set in as my wife and mother in law stood there histerically laughing.
I eventually laughed too.
This is one time I am thankful we live in a big city with a Target store that carries gas cans, and a gas station within walking distance.
After some leasurely shopping and a 30 minute walk, all was well again.
So the moral of the story is- if you buy a new car, always pay attention to the gas gauge.
I will have pics to follow.
It all really began a week ago with the purchase of our new 08' Scion xD. Due to the rising gas prices and lack of use, my wife and I decided to trade in our gas guzzling 04' Toyota Tundra double-cab for the Scion xD, which I was immediately sold on after the test drive at Torrance Toyota.
I was initally going to settle for an 08' Toyota Corolla SE, but thanks to the game-playing, sneaky little schmuck salesman at South-Bay Toyota I decided to "put my bats in the bag" and take my business elsewhere.
Thank-you Mr. Schmuck for pissing me off! You led me in the right direction, and I now own a car I really love.
It definitely does not have the room the truck had, but it makes up for the room in its monthly payment and fuel economy, not to mention the kick-ass Pioneer stereo system. Many of the car reviews bagged on its looks and "road noise," but for the price you get a lot of features only found on much pricier vehicles.
It's not a Land Rover or Mercedes, but I am extremely happy with it and that is all that counts.
On to my story...
With this new car came a new type of instrument cluster. Instead of having the standard needle and four quadrant gas gauge, it has a linear set of little boxes that disappear as the gas is depleted.
It is also located to the LEFT of the steering wheel. Most gauges in other vehicles are generally located to the right of the wheel.
You see where this is going, right?
After a trip to Traveltown with my son, his cousin, my wife and Mother-in-law, We decided to make a stop at Target after dropping off my cousin.
Well, as we were sitting at a light getting ready to make a left turn in front of the Target store, the engine suddenly spuddered and quit.
I immediately started having flashbacks to a similar situation many years ago when my parents had purchased a new Chevy Vega hatchback that did that exact same thing. After several hours on the phone my father ened up making the dealership come and pick up the car out of the driveway, exclaiming to the tow truck driver to tell the dealership to "take this piece of shit lemon and stuff it up their ass!"
But thankfully my issue was not due to a lemon, but rather my lack of observation.
After my ptsd flashback my second instinct was to look down at the digital gas gauge.
Yep, I was out of gas.
Thankfully I had my wife and mother-in-law with me who, without asking, immediately got out and helped push it into the parking lot amidst the angry honking and happy screams of my son who was enjoying every minute of it.
Once we were able to "park" the car, the embarassment set in as my wife and mother in law stood there histerically laughing.
I eventually laughed too.
This is one time I am thankful we live in a big city with a Target store that carries gas cans, and a gas station within walking distance.
After some leasurely shopping and a 30 minute walk, all was well again.
So the moral of the story is- if you buy a new car, always pay attention to the gas gauge.
I will have pics to follow.
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