Information Overload 2

Last Semester and Demise of the Red Car

2010-01-24T19:34:00.000-08:00

It's been over a year since I last wrote anything for this blog, and it's now time to sweep away the cobwebs and start blogging again.

I am now in my last semester at CSUDH. One of the three classes I am taking this semester is the IDS (Interdisciplinary Studies)Senior Seminar, in which we have been tasked with writing a minimum 25 page thesis on any subject that may peak our interest and would consider enjoyable researching and writing about. The only stipulation is that we seek the professor's final blessing before beginning.

After pondering various subjects that I have an interest in, I had finally decided to write the paper on the Demise of the LA Red Car Line and it's effect on Los Angeles. My decision for this was based on a short, quasi-documentary iFilm I had made on this same subject for a Social Documentation class I had taken in 2008.

At the time I had wanted to dig much deeper into the history surrounding the Red Car Line, but time was short, and formulating my first short film using a program that I had never used before turned out to be quite a challenge, but none-the-less a great learning experience.

The film is about as amateur as it gets, but I hope to be able to take the material that I have researched for this paper and eventually develop a short documentary on a more professional level. If you would like to see it, I have uploaded it on Youtube here.

As I continue researching this subject, I am starting to come across many interesting historical facts in relation to environmental and social changes that have occurred in Los Angeles which may be directly or indirectly related to the loss of the Red and Yellow Car lines. Hopefully if time permits I will be able to post some of my new discoveries.

New Years' Day Photos

2009-01-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

While on break at work New Years' Day, I decided to go to the roof of our building and take some photos of the environmental equipment. I liked the contrast between the metal and the rust.

I also took some pictures from the space inside our building next to our parking structure looking up at the buildings and few trees located inside this pseudo-courtyard.

This is a photo of a building I go by on the way home which is located at the corner of Federal and Wilshire Boulevards. I am not sure what this "mural" is referring to, but I found it interesting. It may be some type of advertisement, since there seems to be a proliferation of building-size ads popping up all over LA.

Funny and unusual things heard this week

2008-12-26T03:36:00.000-08:00

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!

IGooogle Quote of the Day

2008-11-06T05:46:00.000-08:00

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...

Daily Chatter

2008-10-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

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!

The Salt of the Earth

2008-10-06T23:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Riding the Red Cars

2008-10-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

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:

Getting to know others

2008-10-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

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

School Assignment

2008-10-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

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.

Father's Day

2008-06-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

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...

Big hearts in big cities

2008-06-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

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.

A funny thing happened...

2008-01-20T03:33:00.000-08:00

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.

The "Informal" economy

2007-11-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

"Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you...but don't ever take sides against the family again."- The Godfather Part 1

This evening Joy is watching The Godfather series for the Tenth time. Every so often I peak over and watch it too.

I am supposed to be working on one of my finals, but one needs to take a Godfather break now and then.

Yes,it's addicting.

Speaking of finals, one of the lectures given addressed the "Informal" part of the economy. One aspect discussed was organized crime. So, in all relativity it applies to my class.

Yea...right.

Another "informal" aspect we discussed in detail was the Domestic Workers here in the United States, and the dynamics driving them. Not exactly in the same sub-category as organized crime, but is still a sizable contender in the US economy.

Driving throughout West LA and Brentwood in the early morning hours, one may often see clusters of Latino women of varying ages waiting at the many bus stops along the way. One of my co-workers who rides the bus says many, if not most of them are domestic workers on their way to clean the homes of the affluent.

I never really though much about these domestic workers until I read the book "Domesticas" by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo. It gives a clear and concise picture of this unseen but complex aspect of our economy. To even get a better understanding of their migration dynamics,(why they come to the US) one needs to understand the history of US foreign policy (NAFTA, CAFTA, government influence, etc...)and its affect on their countries of origin.

While a extremely small number of them may come for the free social services, it is not the predominant driving factor for the majority.

Once Reed is old enough, I will try to explain all of this to him, so he has an understanding that there are two side to every coin.

Hopefully I can do it without boring him to death.

Then I just may let him watch The Godfather...

A New Halloween

2007-11-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

Forgive me father, it's been almost two months since my last blog...

Yes, I know, if you really want to do something bad enough, you will make the time.

Bla, bla, bla...

I am normally not really big on Halloween, but this year things have changed. After witnessing my son on his first journey around the block, I now have a new soft spot for the little ghouls, goblins, animals, fairies, vampires and hookers roaming our neighborhoods on this very special night.

Joy and I had dressed Reed up in a pretty fancy lion costume she had picked up at one of our regularly frequented second-hand childrens clothing shops. It had a full head, big, bushy mane and long tail complete with the little tuft of hair on the end.

While standing at each of the doors he and his cousins dared to brave, he seemed both confused and amazed as he watched each respective owner place the wrapped globs of sugar in each of the bags.

He also seemed to wonder why we kept going to different houses and would never go in. But in his determined little way, he tried to enter a few anyway.

That paled in comparison to what happed at one of the first few doors we knocked on. As we were leaving the second house of the night, Reed suddenly turned around to the owner, gave a half-wave, and said "Bye, Bye."

Needless to say all the adults stood there in amazement. That was the first time we had ever heard him say it.

And to make things even more special, it was his aunt Leung's first time experiencing Halloween also.

Opossums and ashes

2007-08-24T21:09:00.000-07:00

I knew what had happened before I even looked out the door. Joy went out to feed Bridget and Raquel, then let out a shriek as she went around the corner.

Bridget took out another opossum. That damn dog...

She kills them every time unless I am home to run intercept. In the past I have managed to save two of these flea ridden, rat-like marsupials from that damn dog's demise, but not this time.

Great. Now fric and frac have the fleas. I just gave them their monthly dose of Frontline the other day, so hopefully it does it's job.

Normally I just bag up the dead opossum for the trash, but this particular one turned out to be a little more complicated. As I approached the carcass, I noticed a little set of legs trying to get back into the mother's pouch. She was definitely dead, but two of the approximately 8-9 babies were still alive.

I proceeded to remove the two live ones, placed them into a plastic box with a few blankets, then put them under an incandescent lamp to keep them warm.

Now what...

There are several websites that tell you how to care for the little ones, but as young as these were (their eyes weren't open yet) they recommended sending them to a rescue group for the proper care. Apparently at this age they stay attached to the nipple 24/7 until they open their eyes, then eventually venture out of the pouch.

All of the sites said to try pedialite to keep them hydrated until you could get them to someone. We just happen to have some pedialite hanging around.

At first, they weren't receptive to it, but started to take it a few hours later.

Trying to get through to a rescue group on Friday at 5:00 p.m. is next to impossible.
I guess animals do not need to be rescued after 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

After making a half dozen phone calls, one lady from Orange County did call me back, and referred me to a couple of local groups that deal with opossums.

Nothing but answering machines.

Even though we did not want to do it, we eventually called animal control. I knew if they took the babies, they wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell...but we ran out of options.

Approximately three hours later, Animal control was knocking at the door.

Via Con Dios little ones..I tried.

Today we received Sheba's ashes in a small, white plastic box with her info on it and date of death. It was done right here in Gardena by Pet Haven Cemetery and Crematory. I just happen to be looking at their website when the knock came at the door.

Once again I feel like crap.

It's good to have you home again Sheba.

Scary Contractor

2007-08-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

One of my co-workers showed me a copy of an estimate she received from a contractor for a remodel of both her bathrooms. I have left the names out for legal reasons, but I will tell you he is operating out in the valley. (Click on the picture to see it better)

"Bat Tub?"

My co-worker did not mention anything about wanting a Batman theme in her bathroom...

Or, maybe she wanted a "Twoalet-zone" theme...

Oh, I forgot to mention his license has been expired for the past 4 years.

The sad thing is there are hundreds of these clowns here in the general LA area running around bilking people out of their hard-earned money every day.

The only way to beat them is to do your homework before hiring someone.

Although this bonehead's spelling is a dead giveaway.

"Good grief Charlie Brown!"

Time marches on...

2007-08-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Reed's first birthday is just around the corner! It seems like was yesterday I was sitting in the O.R. with Joy when they pulled out our slimy little bundle of love. Now all of the sudden he's 22 pounds and just about ready to walk.
Man, where does the time go?
The most incredible part of this journey so far has been watching him change as the days go by. He is standing on his own now and will take a few steps, but not quite full-on walking yet.

His personality is also rapidly developing...tantrums and all!

Maybe his teeth will come in at the same time he starts walking. But if they don't that's o.k. too. They will be here sooner or later. All in good time.

I wish Joel could have been here to see all of this.

As far as Sheba goes,I have reached the acceptance part of the grieving. There will always be a part of me that misses that nasty, old cat, but it gets easier to deal with as the days go by.

Boy, was she a bitch when she was younger! If anyone other than Joy or myself tried to get near her, they would risk loosing a finger, or a limb. Sometimes she would just go after someone for no reason whatsoever.

I remember a time when one of Joy's friends was sitting on the couch, and Sheba crept up behind her, growled, then smacked her multiple times in the back of her head...Thank God she was de-clawed.

I got a good laugh out of that one!

Tomorrow Joy goes to pick up her ashes. We have also ordered a cat funeral urn from Venice Clay to put the ashes in.

And yes, it does come with a lid.

One is never prepared for death

2007-08-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

August 14th 2007 is going on the books as one of the saddest days of my life.

I was off work on Monday the 13th and had noticed that Sheba, our 17.5 year-old cat, was losing huge amounts of hair off her back. She was also steadily losing weight and getting more lethargic by the day. She did appear to be eating, but not as much as usual.
It was obvious that something wasn't right, so I called my wife and she made an appointment with the vet.
To make a long story short, The vet ran some lab tests and observed her overnight. The labs came back and indicated severe liver damage.
I asked the vet if he could be more specific about the cause of the damage, but said he really couldn't tell at this point. He did say that she was responding to the IV fluids that they were giving her.

That all changed after she vomited up all the food they gave her in the afternoon.

After multiple phone calls and consulting the vet, we had decided the ethical thing to do would be to put her down.

There have been many days I thought about the inevitable with her, but felt that I would be ready when the day arrived.
No chance.
When I received a phone call from my sobbing wife asking if I wanted her ashes, I broke down crying like I had never done before. It was at that point reality smaked me in the face. This creature we have brought into our home and have shared 17+ years of good times with, will be gone forever.

Today she is gone. And it hurts like hell.

They say time heals all things, but sometimes I have to wonder.

Yes, at times she was a little pain in the ass, but we loved her none the less.

Some people say that it's rediculous to mourn over an animal. But what I think they fail to realize is that we mourn over the relationship that has been lost, along with the spot in our heart.

It going to be a hot one...

2007-07-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

It's 9:15 a.m. I am sitting here by an open window on the west side of my house with the windows open.

There is no breeze. Not even a wisp.

From my past experience this indicates it will be a hot day. Mind you we only live 15 minutes from the beach, and most times are provided with a pretty consistant onshore flow.

But not today.

No problemo! I'll just go out for a dip in the pool! Oh wait, that's right, we don't have a pool... but we do have sprinklers on the front lawn... Now I just need to remember where I put my speedos...(please avoid that mental picture at all costs!)

In between cups of coffee and entertaining the world's most handsome son, (bias? I don't need no stinkin' bias! It's a fact!) I came across an article in the LA Times entitled: "U.S. plans arms deals for Mideast allies"

Normally I tend to breeze over these articles, but the numbers in this one caught my eye.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-arms28jul28,1,1222527.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=2&cset=true

"WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will announce next week a series of arms deals worth at least $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Persian Gulf states, as well as new 10-year military aid packages to Israel and Egypt, a move to shore up allies in the Middle East and counter Iran's rising influence, U.S. officials said Friday. The military assistance agreements would provide $30 billion in new U.S. aid to Israel and $13 billion to Egypt over 10 years, the officials said. Both figures represent significant increases in military support..."

I believe if my math is correct that total military aid package adds up to $43 billion dollars.

If my recollection of history does not fail me, didn't we do the same thing in Afganistan via Pakistan in the early to mid 80's?(Covertly mind you, Cold War, etc...)

Who was it that said "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it..."

Just imagine what $43 Billion dollars could do for many of the primary public school systems around the U.S...Hmmm...

The first lessons my wife and I are trying to teach my son is sharing and fairness.

When he is old enough to comprehend the lessons, I will use articles such as this to show him how money is sometimes foolishly spent, in addition to the importance and the potential long range effects of choices we make in life.

I'm sure he may be bored with most of it, but if I can squeeze in one important lesson that he will remember for the future, then all the better.