The brightest light hides the darkest shadows within...

Yes, just as I said, it is mine.

I had a good birthday, I didnt want a big thing made of it so the day itself wasnt much, just time spent with family and close friends, since I mean it isnt like 20 is a particularly monumental age or anything, but the end pushed everything from good to the level of great. Everything went just as I had thought it would when I laid eyes on the box the contained my new Canon S3 IS.

So to recap, my digital camera, probably the most important material item in my life, broke down on me a week before my birthday...with the exact same problem it had this time last year! Well last year I had a warranty, I send it into Fuji and they sent a brand new one because somehow the problem is just not repairable, this year, with no warranty, what was I to do? Well at first it was out of the question with my parents, who kept trying to push the idea of getting a camera back on me "you can always use that money you have from your last job (of which there is little left) and go down to Best Buy and get one" but the last thing I was going to do was buy MY OWN gift during my birthday! So anyway I came up with a plan to get it and to skip the boring details, the result is I got it...



I carefully researched the Canon S3 IS along with several other cameras before I finally chose it, my first choice was actually a Digital SLR, the Olympus E-500, but it was far too expensive in the end to consider...the only reason I wanted that anyway was that it was the only SLR brand that could be operated entirely by a wireless remote control! Obviously that is something extremely important for me, it would shave off TONS of time as oppose to the self-timer as I had been previously using with my last camera, having to set it each and every time and go back and fourth and loose my concentration. With a remote control, or something similar, I could take more time with posing and the shot as a whole.

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In the end, the E-500 was nothing but a memory, and the S3 IS was the new big guy on campus lol And how much did this one cost? prices ranged from $270 to $320 at the most, at the lowest less than half of what the SLR E-500 cost! So yet another plus and one that my parents were more inclined to look at.

I took it to the park and took some very photos the day after, which I'll post later on, they turned out great! It also allows for Panoramoic (long scene) shots too but I havent tried that yet. And of course the main thing is portraits, just tried the Remote shooting on my laptop yesterday evening with some test photos and I couldnt be more pleased! I do need to test a bit more before I get back to my regular photographs but that shouldnt be long. Eeee I cant wait!!

So it is now after 12 am, May 28th, its my birthday! hurray! =D

So a few nights ago we heard something in the backyard, just some rustling from the plants and things at first, then some noises followed. So I went out to see what it was...and at first I didnt see anything around the grass but as I went over to the garden area (which is fenced off) I saw it in there! just waiting, and still as a statue, so I went and got my camera and when I came back it was still there unmoving. Naturally...I took the opprotunity to take pictures of it...



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And so concludes your look at the unexpected wildlife in southern California.

So for nearly the last week I've been sick, it started at the tail end of April, around the 29th or so and its been awful and only since Saturday have I finally felt better, presently I just have a lot of phantom coughing (where it feels like air is just pushing out whatever is left in the system). It started off with a really bad sore throat, which at first I just figured would go away after a few days but then it progressed to a scatchy sore throat and coughing. At its worst it added a fever, achy body, and cold chills (even though it was like 80 degrees outside) to its list of oh so great symptoms. Needless to say I really wasnt in the mood to do much, including going online, and I hated it! I found it hard to sleep also during the worst of it, so I was pretty much going through the days sick and tired -_-

But thats ended, and I've been getting really restless lately, so now I am ready to get back into everything again! (and there will be more on that later)

So last Wednesday I drove down to North Hollywood to meet a friend ON MY OWN. ...and I made it. I lied to my parents though, I said he was coming up this way to Valencia, I told them I wanted to use the Navigation System to "test" it around the area here. First my dad and I went to go get gas for the car, the day before he went to Palmdale and back and it was almost on empty. I had my hair all done nice but the damn wind ruined it while I was at the gas station, anyway I dropped my dad off and went down the street and entered the address in and went from there...I wasnt nervous, it was odd...I was more excited, I wanted to do it.

I went onto the freeway and took it down...I passed Sylmar, like I had done to go to the Advance Bionics orientation before, and then went onto the 170 Freeway. It was ok, although that was where a few things got choppy and I did almost have an accident; I was going down and the car ahead of me was going kind of slow so I was merging into another lane when this son of a bitch in a black Nissan Altima going 100 miles an hour came out of no where and was going into the same lane, they honked but of course DIDNT SLOW and I was in the middle of both lanes and the car ahead of me in my former lane was going slower than hell and so I just missed the bastard in the Altima and then swerved to miss the person in my former lane but got into the lane I wanted (the idiot in the Altima just kept going into another lane) but I was kind of swerving in the lane a bit though I didnt loose control thank god, my heart was racing after that and I didnt know if I was more upset or shocked and nervous but it didnt deter me. I just kept the mindset of "its going to be a great day" and really just thought to myself...look at how far I've come already, I cant let it stop me. So I kept going...there wasnt another problem in that regards after. I caught on that once I get down a certain point I cant drive the same way I do up here in Santa Clarita, its better to be slow and steady than fast, and if someone is moving slow ahead of me its best to just stay slow with them than try to go into the next lane and pass them...

So anyway I was arriving on the Vine exit I got off but, stupidly I guess, I went to the left. But I didnt even need to take the left, I needed to make a right! well anyway the Nav System redirected me to get back on the freeway going North but I made another wrong turn, instead of making an immadiate right back to the freeway I went straight (I was getting nervous so I guess I wasnt thinking as well) but so it redirected me again and went along the surface street by Universal Studios until I was able to get back on the freeway, and then...ok, I went down and got off the Vine exit and AGAIN made a left -_-' so yeah, I cant even remember why I did that to begin with when the Nav was saying turn right, but anyway it redirected me again and I did the whole route all over again, and as they say, 3rd times the charm and I went right and then all went pretty well.

I met my friend at his apartment and had an amazing time, enjoyed every minute of it. And afterwards the drive back up to Santa Clarita was pretty good, easier than going down! I left around 3:40/4 pm, even at that time it was waaay heavier traffic wise, but the attitude of people was more...nicer it seems, even though it was crammed to the max people seemed...curtious, if I needed to get into another lane I was let in and I let people in who needed to get in as well, everyone was slow of course but no one was really being an ass and it was pretty easy just taking the freeway back up. So, yeah, in the end it was good, and my parents were none the wiser. I felt nervous the rest of the day but at the same time...proud, and I am proud, I'm glad I did it and did it on my own. I feel like I've taken that first step towards getting out of my nervousness about going further out, as long as I have the navigation system it seems like I can do fine (because I am still direction blind without it.)

Then on Satuday, I went down again! This time with my parents knowledge and permission and right in the heart of Hollywood! But I'll make another post on that later on today.

I dont think I've ever really mentioned on here that I have a Myspace page, maybe when I first created it ages ago, but I guess it hasnt been given much attention because I mainly use livejournal for posting and everything. But anyway I do have a Myspace, it has a very cool background and tests and pictures and everything lol And the big thing is I've been starting to use it a bit more lately so if you havent already, go ahead and add me please! =D

http://profile.myspace.com/index.c…

Its set to "private' later in the evening and night only because I had been getting a lot of myspace spam and requests from set-up pages when I got on around that time until I switched it.

Anybody under the age of 13 should not read this, and if you do, you should not repost this.

Just because you were born in '97 doesn't mean you're a 90's kid.

It's not like you could remember the original Simpsons. I am sorry but three conscious years of the 90's just wont cut it.

You're a 90's kid if:

You can finish this [ice ice _ _ _ _ ]

You remember watching Doug, Ren & Stimpy, Pinky and the Brain, Bobby's World, Felix the cat, The Tick...

If you remember Jelly Shoes and had multiple pairs.

AAAAAAAH Real Monsters!

You've ever ended a sentence with the word "PSYCHE!"

You just cant resist finishing this . . . "Iiiiiiin west Philadelphia born and raised . . ."

You remember TGIF, Step by Step, Family Matters, Dinosaurs, and Boy Meets World.

You remember when it was actually worth getting up early
on a Saturday to watch cartoons.

You got super excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.

You remember reading "Goosebumps"

You took plastic cartoon lunch boxes to school.

You still get the urge to say "NOT" after (almost) every sentence . . . not

If you remember seeing hot tub bubbles make bubbly sounds before every music video on VH1.

when everything was settled by rock paper scissors..or bubble gum bubble gum in a dish...eeny meeny miney mo...and even better daddy had a donkey inky binky bonky.


You used to listen to the radio all day long just to record your FAVORITE song of ALL time.

"Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?" was both a game and a TV game show.

Captain Planet. He's a Hero.

You knew that Kimberly, the pink ranger, and Tommy, the green ranger, were meant to be together.

You remember when Super Nintendos and Sega Genisis became popular.

You always wanted to send in a tape to America's Funniest Home Videos . . . but never taped anything funny.

You remember watching Home Alone 1, 2 , and 3 . . . and tried to pull the pranks on "intruders"

You remember watching The Magic School Bus, Wishbone, and Reading Rainbow on PBS.

You remember when Yo-Yos were cool.

You remember those Where's Waldo books.

You remember eating Warheads.

You remember watching the 1st Batman, Aladdin, Ninja Turtles, and 3 Ninjas movies.

You remember Ring Pops.

You remember drinking Surge, and Tang.


If you remember when every thing was "da BOMB!"

When they made the new lunchables so that you could make pizza AND tacos.


You remember boom boxes vs. cd players.

Making those little paper fortune cookie things, and then predicting your life with them.

You played and/or collected "Pogs"

You had at least one Tamagotchi, GigaPet, or Nano and brought it everywhere.

. . . Furbies.

Saved By The Bell was the coolest show ever!

You haven't always had a computer, and it was cool to have the internet.

And Windows 95 was the best.

You watched the original cartoons of Rugrats, Power Rangers, and Ninja Turtles.

Michael Jordan was a king.


YIKES pencils and erasers were the stuff!

All your school supplies were "Lisa Frank" brand.

You remember when the new Beanie Babies and Talking Elmo were always sold out.

You collected those Beanie Babies.

Mortal Kombat was awesome--the game and the movie

Carebears

Gak was the coolest stuff invented.

Lambchop's song never ended.

The old dollar bills.

Silver dollars, which were cool to have.

You remember a time before the WB.

You collected all the Troll dolls

You had to read Weekly Reader's in class.

If you even know what an original walkman is.

You remember wanting to sit on the orange Nickelodeon couch.

You've gotten creeped out by "Are You Afraid of the Dark?"

You know the Macarena by heart.

"Talk to the hand" . . . enough said

You always said, "Then why don't you marry it!"

You remember trying to collect all 150 original pokemon cards but never could and if you did you thought you were all that!

You remember Highlight's magazine.

You know the significance of the number 23.

You remember playing on merry go rounds at the playground.

Before the MySpace frenzy . . .

Before the Internet & text messaging . . .

Before Sidekicks & iPods . . .

Before MIKE JONES . . .

Before PlayStation2 or X-BOX . . .

Before Spongebob . . .

Back when you put off the 5 hours of homework you had every night.

When light up sneakers were cool.


When you rented VHS tapes, not DVDs.

When gas was $0.95 a gallon & Caller ID was a new thing.

When we recorded stuff on VCRs.

When we called the radio station to request songs to hear off of our walkmans.

When gameboy was a brick.

You did MASH to figure out your future

When you weren't cool unless you had a Starter jacket.

Way back.

Before we realized all this would eventually disappear.

Who would have thought you'd miss the 90's so much!!!!!

Post this in your bulletin if you remember these days . . . .

or if you smiled at one of these things. . .

Post with the year you were born in.

I dont know about many others but the news of Anna Nicole Smith's death is truly sad for me...I got polaroids and personal photos from Anna Nicole's former hairstylist and girlfriend just a while ago. I have a lot of stories about Anna that most people hardy know or even know at all...more beyond the tabloid junk that popped out all the time.

I am actually a fan of Anna, in part from getting to hear the things her stylist said, and I'm one of the few people I know who actually took the time to LEARN about her rather than just take the face value of what is said in the tabloids. I was going to do a post about some modern celebrities who photograph like classic stars months ago and she was of course going to be an intrical part of the post, this was before her son passed away, and before this...I never got around to it.

But she was a very interesting person, someone unique, not the run of the mill like many of todays famous people and no she was NOT "famous for being famous" I cant stand that, the only person who that can really describe is Paris Hilton, who was known to the public almost from birth because of her already famous family lineage. Anna Nicole was a total nobody and an unkown to the public, in fact she wasnt even Anna Nicole Smith at that time(!) she had to BECOME famous to begin with, and she did...her life story was truly facinating to me, from being dirt poor and raised between her mother (who she fought with constantly) and her aunt, she lost herself in old movies and wanted to become famous just like Marilyn Monroe...and she was one of the few who actually did, what she always wanted...but thats also what brought her life down so many times.

She went through a lot of things that no one else ever has, or would probably want too, I mean really, how many people have you known to have a daughter and lose a son within 48 hours? Hopefully things go well for her daughter now, since she's all thats left it seems, she will never be able to remember Anna aside from the photos and videos of them together. Anna Nicole never had a lot of good things in her life, before she was famous and after she was famous, which is pretty sad considering everything now.

But I think after a few years go by she will be remembered differently, the public looks back at famous people in a new way after they are gone, they forget about the bad things and tend to remember them in their best days, and if anything can be said about her, it was that in her best days she had a face that was...amazing...in every way, and could photograph better than anyone else in the public eye...way better than people like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton ever have in their "prime". And unlike them, Anna always had a quality about her that very few people have...whereas the public just hates the latter two for the way they live right now, throughout Anna's time in the public eye, despite all her problems people couldnt help but feel sorry for her, there was always a sense of the small town girl who had big dreams and showed so much promise in the early years when she finally made it big that her pit falls were more tragic to the public at large rather than resenting. I think that is what will continue to last about her.

Since she rarely had it in life, hopefully she now finally has peace.

Ok so this morning, it was SNOWING in Valencia. Now you see, snow in Southern CA is rare as it is, but in Valencia it never snows. In fact this is the first time in my life that I went outside and saw white on the grass, rooftops, mountains, ect. It wasnt a huge amount of course but it had enough coverage that it was pretty much everywhere, and again this sight is just so unheard of, I was very surprised.

Also, I wonder if this weather is going too ruin our orange tree in the backyard...its still medium height and growing, it actually had two oranges on it (green though, they came in way too late, like sometime in October, to be ripe anyway) but in the news pretty much all you hear about right now is how much our orange groves are being hurt because of this weather...so yeah we'll just have to wait and see if the tree has problems or not.

As for the practical side of this...I have to say I like the cold weather, I mean if I had to choose a favorite I would pick Spring or Fall before Winter or Summer, but out of the latter two I would choose winter over summer. When its too hot there is just nothing than can be done, I mean people sweat and its gets all sticky and the air gets humid and...yeah...I dont get into that lol Winter on the other hand...yes some people's skin may get dry easily and the air is cold to breath in but there are a lot more things you can do to offset cold than you can do to offset heat. In fact they did a study on this recently, and basically the conclusion it came to was that it is easier for humans to keep warm than it is for them to keep cool.

Which is very true when you look at it, in the cold weather you can dress up in a lot of clothes to keep warm (another reason I prefer winter, its WAY more fashionable than summer, esp. with the coats and the Chicago/New Yorkish style of clothes I like to wear), you can light a fire to keep warm, eat warm food, and cook warm food (people never like to use their oven in the summer), and even down to electric heaters, which generate more heat to stay warm than electric fans generate cold to stay cool. Technologically we can stay warm easier than we can stay cool. And you ever try getting into a car thats been sitting in the sun at 120 degrees? Awful! It takes a damn near 20 minutes for the car to get cool even with the windows rolled down and the air conditioner on full blast, whereas if you go out in the cold, yeah it may take a few moments but pretty soon the heater is on and the car warms up in minutes, and if your one of those lucky people who can spring for the heated leather seat package then your in even better shape! (and see, most of the time in CA that add-on is considered a waste because we can only use them a few months out of the year, if it was cooler like this longer the package would actually be worth wild to add.)

Speaking of driving in this weather, today when I got into my car I waited a while to let the engine warm up, then as I backed out of the driveway to head out I hear this "GGSSHHH" sound and about a gallon of this watery-psuedo ice that was on the top and sides of my car just slid off on to the road as I started moving. It was amusing and shocking at the same time since thats never happend to me before lol

Anyway, I think we can safely say that the weather across the country is majorly screwed, and here in CA its really notcable, I mean we have one of the hottest summers we've had in ages and NOW we have the coldest winter in 5 decades or so. Thanks a lot industrial gas and carbon dioxide emissions, your a true friend to the masses. We need to find a way to blow this cold up to the Artic where it belongs, help refreeze that area up there.

Wow! another whole year has gone by...3 hours ago it was already 2007 in the East Coast but its still not 2007 in Hawaii yet! This year went by fast...

Anyway, yeah I've had the whole week off, and I have tomorrow off, but I've only been online twice this whole week! I can hardly believe it, but its been ok, a break was probably in order.

So backing up a bit before we move forward to the new year...Christmas, it was pretty nice actually, this year has been a lukewarm year financially for my family, with things taking a downward turn in November. So I didnt ask for a lot and didnt expect anything extravagant that would put a bigger financial dent in my parents bank account. But I still pulled in some nice things! I got;

Books;
Max Factor's Hollywood Glamour, Movies, Make-Up - this book details Max Factor's life from the start to finish, and goes through all of the stars he worked with during his time in Hollywood. Its really something and I've wanted it for quite a while!

Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memories - I borrowed this book from the library last year and adored it, I had already scanned most of its photos in the computer but its nice to just have now anytime.

A $40 Amazon.com gift certificate (yes, this isnt exactly a book but I'll most likely use it to get one)

Computer-related;

$50 e-bay gift certificate - yay! e-bay = my good friend! I am trying to be astute though on what I spend it on...this is the tuff part because if I use it quickly for something, I might find something else more expensive that I could have put this towards

A new video graphics card! - this is of course for my desktop, I can now see photos and graphics on this computer even clearer and more vibrant than before!

A new sound card - the one on my desktop here was acting up, every other time I would turn it on or so the sound would be staticy and bad, then other times it worked fine, but it just got to be a hassle turning the computer on and off and hope each time would be the good one.

Clothes;

A Stan Herman deco design robe - my complaining during that it was cold must have got to my mother lol

A black long sleeve shirt - which is perfect because, I only wear long sleeves normally, and I usually prefer black colors for shirts.

Then, last but most certainly not least;

A GPS Navigation System!!! Yay! probably the most needed item out of the gifts I recieved. Now I can actually drive out and about far and not have to worry about directions or getting lost on surface streets and all of that! We've already tested it going up to Santa Paula Friday and then down to Aunt Catherine and Uncle Peter's estate down in Encino Saturday. The voice says when to turn, how many miles to continue going, will help redirect you some place if you go the wrong way, its great! It displays the time it will take to go someplace also, and counts down as you are going.

So this Christmas, though it was a small one, has been very satisfying and I couldnt have asked for anything more.

As for other gifts, I gave my dad a Macy's gift card for $60 and gave my mother some music CD's that I know she wanted, including the new "DreamGirls" soundtrack, and she wasnt expect anything either, I had got the stuff during work and then hid them the day I came home and waited until she was distracted to put them with all the other stuff. Then I bought Joseph a Star Wars computer game, Empire at War, and I have to admit...I've been playing it just as much as him lol It becomes addicting, its a real-time strategy game, but it also plays out like a board game...its interesting because its like you have the entire map of planets from the "star wars universe"; both ones from the movies and also from the books and things, and its like you can built your space and ground armies and go and invade and conqure other planets and then built buildings on them and stuff. I like all those types of games, Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, Hearts of Iron, strategic battle games like that just pull me right in. I guess its just something about creating massive armies and the power of destroying everyone else...this must be how George W. feels lol

Anyway after that we went later in the day to visit one of my dad's cousins with my grandparents and my Uncle Peter and everyone, she's having some heart problems lately so we just went to see how she was doing and then went back to my grandparents for a while. My grandmother gave me $100 in cash!

Then Saturday was the big party at Uncle Peter and Aunt Catherine's again, which went really well I think. Everyone had a great time, I will be posting photos of both that and some from Christmas at my grandparents later on tomorrow. Anyway I am glad everyone that I read so far has had a great Holiday! and hopefully we'll all have a wonderful New Year!