July 28, 2005

Lost in Translation

I was thinking, after seeing this film, that it very much sums up my time living the states recently. Being there alone in a different culture, trying to find meaning / figure out my life, and what I want to do with it.

 Both are searching for the meaning of their lives, looking at the situation from different points of view. A person's lifetime is filled with self examination. Why am I here? What am I doing? Is this as good as it gets? The plot of this movie is the plot of life. You have a beginning. You're in the middle, and your story hasn't ended yet...

I think I've found a little more meaning, a little more understanding, perhaps. My view of the world and my life has changed so significantly in the last few months, who I was before seems now like a distant memory, a faded photograph in a long forgotten photo album. I'm now happier, more confused and more assured of myself at the same time. It's like you've been travelling on a straight road for some time, years in fact, you come to the bend that's always been on the horizon and finally see what is around the corner. It's not at all what you expected, yet it's not bad either.

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July 22, 2005

Reason #474 Why Amazon.com Rocks

They mark Audio CD's that have copy protection with "[COPY PROTECTED CD]" in title, so you don't waste your money on a CD's you can't put on your iPod.

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July 14, 2005

You Know It's Hot When, Part 2

Actually it turns out, after the checking the weather on the Internet for July 13th... it was 40°C (104°F) with 54% humidity here yesterday!! I'm sure it was well over 50+°C in the apartment!! No wonder I thought I was gonna die, lol, they're having one of the hottest summer's on record over here and August is usually the worst month, thank goodness I'm not staying around for that! ;)

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July 13, 2005

US Cell Number Disconnected

Just a quick note to let everyone know my US Phone number has been disconnected. Over here when your prepay balance hits less than $0.50 they disconnect your phone number, so you can't send or receive txt's and calls; the only thing that work's is 911 (I think).

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July 12, 2005

You Know It's Hot When

You turn on the cold tap full bore, let it run for a couple of minutes, then put your hands under the water and promptly have to remove them, cos' the water's so freakin' hot it's burning your fingers!! Living in an oven would be cooler—honest to god, this is insane!!


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Ah, A Very Good Curry

 The compound that makes curry yellow could help fight skin cancer. Researchers in the United States say curcumin, found in turmeric, interferes with melanoma cells. Tests show that curcumin made melanoma skin cancer cells more likely to self-destruct in a process known as apoptosis.

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July 10, 2005

Postcard #2

Click for Cityscape Viewer

Really busy here at the moment, bit of a mission to fit in all the things I still want to see in LA around work, but I'm managing. In this post I've got the previously mentioned Long Beach Aquarium update, pictures from South Central, and stuff on today's trip to the Getty Center. But first, check out the L.A. Cityscape Panoramic Montage I made from photos taken at the Getty Center, by clicking the image to the right—it's bitchin'. I've marked in all the relevant locations mentioned in previous posts; btw, the actual Getty Center gardens are off to the right of the picture :)

So on Tuesday I was meant to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific, however due to me being extremely hungover that got deferred to Wednesday. It's a bit of a hike down to Long Beach, as you can see in the panorama above, it's freakin' miles away. This time I took a few pictures of the trip including the Los Angeles Industrial Area (south of Pico/Grand), South Central, Compton and Anaheim. Anaheim is where Disneyland is, however arriving at Disneyland via the freeway you don't actually see the real Anaheim—I have to wonder how many people that actually live in Anaheim can afford to go to Disneyland?

The Aquarium itself is pretty cool, not quite as big as I expected but still pretty sizeable. They had a number of interesting exhibits, including a 2 foot wide spider crap, which I'm sure my little sister would love (normal size craps freak her out ;), a Giant Octopus (the kind that eats sharks) and cool glow in the dark fish, like the ones off Finding Nemo. In addition, there was the area where you can play (pat/stoke as they swim past) with the sharks and stingrays. Personally I think the tank the sharks were in was way too small and kinda cruel, however I guess it was to stop them moving around lots and biting off some child's hand. The sharks felt like sandpaper and the stingrays were a bit strange kinda slimy almost. The stingrays were really cool though, they'd swim up to the surface and let you touch them and flap their wings.

Yesterday I decided to head back down to Westwood to that clothing store I'd checked out the day before. There were a couple of items I wanted to try on, however at the time I was all sandy and sweaty from the beach. After that I was going to visit the Getty Center on the way home. However, they didn't have the jacket I wanted in my size, so she asked if I'd like her to call their Hollywood store to put one on hold. The store was just up from the Hollywood & Highland Subway Station, opposite the Chinese Theatre (where all the movie premieres are), so I said "sweet, all good". I'd just take the bus up to road to Wilshire & Western, catch the train to Hollywood & Highland and back—an hour round trip tops and still heaps of time to see the Getty, all good ;)

Well it didn't exactly work out like that now, did it?! I got the 720 bus to Wilshire & Western no problem, got on the train, the automatic doors closed, and.... nothing, the train didn't go anywhere, then the air-con shuts down & the lights dim, and then more nothing... and I'm going "ok, this is starting to freak me out a bit"... Thirty minutes later... a guy comes on the PA and says there's been an suspicious package found at Vermont & Sunset and an unidentified person found in the tunnels, all the Vermont stations have been shut-down and if you're heading north to catch the Metro Bus to Hollywood & Western and catch the Subway from there. At this I thought, ok take the bus, take the train, still get back in time, no problem. Twenty minutes later the bus turns up, and upon seeing the number of people at Hollywood & Western waiting to catch it the other way, I completely ditch the idea of heading back. So I get on the train at Hollywood & Western, the doors close and... nothing, again?! Arrgghh... trapped in a subway train again, this can't be happening?!. Fortunately, a couple minutes later the driver comes on a says sorry for the delay, the power was out and we head off north (albeit very slowly), and finally get to Hollywood & Highland some 2.5 hours after I started out!! The ironic thing was the distance from where I started to where I finished was only 12km—it would of been just as fast if I had walked!!

Today I visited the Getty Center, straight there, straight back, no side trips, lol! ;) It's been a couple of years since I last visited the Getty, and this time I had the pleasure of being there in summer when all the gardens were in bloom—it was a little bit like stepping into the 1800's with all the ladies walking around the gardens with Parasols! There where a number of new exhibits, or possibility ones a missed last time around, in addition to the Permanent Collection of paintings, sculpture and photography. The two highlights of the visit where: Shrine and Shroud, and The Making of Furniture.

Shrine and Shroud is a collection of detailed Medieval (and earlier Illuminated Manuscripts (in a room so dark, I'm impressed my flash-less photographs came out). The highlight of the exhibit was in addition to these, they also had a page from a 1000 B.C. Egyptian Book and a 400 B.C. edition of the Koran—it's not often you get to stuff that rare or that old for that matter!

The Making of Furniture, which was considerably more interesting that it's name would suggest, showed the reconstruction of the creation a 18th-century French writing table. The exhibit shows the actual 18th century table and three copies made in Paris by contemporary craftsmen, using tools and techniques similar to those employed in the workshop of Jean-FranÇois Oeben, where the original table was made. The constructions show the work of cabinetmaker, bronze founder and the finisher as the table progress through the construction, shaping and decoration stages.

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July 8, 2005

Psychopathic Bus Driver

Fun things to do? Hop on the bus with a psychopathic bus driver! however there isn't a sign that says the particular bus is carrying one, you only find out after you get on!!

So I was in Westwood, which if you don't know is the student village/township of UCLA (a bit like Parnell—lots of café's, the UCLA art museum and cool clothing stores), heading back from the beach. I get on the bus to valley, and it's packed, standing room only. Now the trip to the valley can vary between 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on traffic, which to way too long to be standing. The next bus was only 25 minutes away and there was a clothing store I'd seen in Westwood that looked kinda cool, so I thought I'd check that out and then it'll be time for the next bus, all good.

However, after 15 minutes in the store I exit onto Westwood Blvd to see a red 761 whizz past, to which my prompt reply was "shit!", and starting running like a maniac up the road so fast you'd expect to hear Harrison Ford say "Prepare to make the jump to Hyperspace!". Fortunately there where a couple of people waiting at the stop that held up the bus just long enough for me to get there. Little did I know, but this was in fact a Psycho Bus.

It became quickly apparent when he starting beeping his horn and yelling at almost every other driver. I had my noise isolating headphones on, so no problem. At one point he got so close to the car in front, I thought he was going to push him outa the way with the bus! However, then he turns off the route, completely missing two stops and we go off in a totally different direction. I thought this was kinda odd, but my iPod was on Shuffle and had dialled up some pretty mellow tunes, so whatever, all good again. After we went though the tunnel in hills and he starting driving rather quick around windy roads I started to worry a little, like "where the fuck are we?!" I hope this guy hasn't gone crazy and is going to drive us over a cliff or something—hey this is America, that kinda shit happens here!

However, eventually we ended up on Sepulveda, and then my stop on Van Nuys, thanks goodness. Funny thing was, as I was walking home from the bus stop, I saw the other 761 that left 30min earlier go past. So crazy or not, the guy certainly got me home faster, lol.

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My Baby Is Two!

My company offically turns
two years old today!!

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July 7, 2005

Look Both Ways

Been flat out with work today, however the guy in the apartment down stairs smokes and the smoke often comes in the window here. This afternoon it was starting to make me feel sick, so I went out for a walk. On the way back, I was waiting to cross street to the apartment and was thinking "damn the traffic here is nuts, I'm so going to get my sorry arse run-over". Half way across the street I look down and what do I see?


Got another trip update post coming, however I haven't got time to write it and Photoshop photos now. So that'll be online over the weekend, after I've got my work stuff done.

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July 5, 2005

Left [ear] Behind

Shure e3c Earphones

Well my day started off total shit today. I was rather hungover from the 4th of July last night, which was good, btw—was at Mike's girlfriend's brother's place; drinking, darts, talkin' cars and lots of illegal fireworks! :) So I was a total write-off to do any work today, so thought stuff-it I'll go lie to the beach and feel sick, rather than feel sick at the apartment.

So I got down on the sand, went to take out my ear canal phones and the left one came out sans-the freakin' rubber sleeve, which was still inside the far end of my ear canal! ug. So I try to get it out with my finger and manage to push it even further into my ear and hard up against my ear-drum, which promptly started to ache. Plus I was completely deaf in this ear at this point, surprising how much of a difference loosing one ear makes, my hearing was severely fucked up.

I've met a number of deaf people in my travels here, and am going to add learning sign language to my to-do list after this, so next time they try and ask me a question I can give them a useful answer—being deaf would be totally arse. So back to the story, I had to go half way back to Westwood to find a pharmacy to buy long needle nose tweezers to extract this rubber plug thing from my ear! So I was 2.5hr late getting to the beach proper, and still hungover when I got there!

I should of stayed at home, really.

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July 2, 2005

Hey, Margarita

Margarita Island

It's a long weekend here, and what long weekend would be complete without drinking. I found this all natural lime Margarita pre-mix at the supermarket today. Now before you say "Whoa Nelly, isn't lime like your Kryptonite?!", yes it's true I'm very allergic to lime, however the bottle clearly states "Contains 0% Fruit Juice"—gotta love those all natural ingredients, lol.

Though, it appears I'm also allergic to whatever chemical shit they put in there to make it taste like lime. Nevertheless, I have found the solution, the obvious solution some might say. Simply dilute your mixer with more alcohol, lol! The drink is now 10 times better, or is that 10 times stronger?! I dunno, but it's all good anyhow, lol :)

If you've been following this blog for a while, you my recall an earlier post about looking out at the apartments across the courtyard while sitting at the dining room table. In the ground floor apartment there was this girl, not unattractive I might add, that was always on her computer...

Well I'm about 90% sure she was looking at porn tonight, either that or she likes to sit naked in front of her computer with one hand between her legs while working on her thesis? or maybe it's really hot in their apartment, which is highly possible since it's like 4 million degrees here, lol. Needless to say, I quickly finished my dinner and let her do her thing in privacy.

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July 1, 2005

Postcard

Union Station

Well it's been a while since I've updated this, and I've been up to all kinds of stuff in the interim. There's a whole stack of photos for this post, so be sure to check out the photos link at the bottom of this entry.

Last week I headed downtown and checked out L.A.'s historic buildings and some of the other sights. At the end of the Red Subway Line is Union Station, built in 1939 it is an art-deco style complex considered by many to be the last vestige of rail's golden-era in the United States. It really is just like walking through a time-portal back to the 1930's and you semi-expect to see steam trains to come chugging into the station, just like the ones in the Harry Potter movies.

Also in the same area I checked out the Los Angeles City Hall, which is said to have starred in more movies and television series than most Hollywood actors, including Superman and Hill Street Blues. Just down the road is the Los Angeles Times building, the Los Angeles Supreme Court and Walt Disney Concert Hall. I was intending to visit MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) however it was closed till after 4th of July weekend, so that'll be coming in another instalment. I also visited Chinatown; one stop south of Union Station on the Yellow line. It was quite disappointing really, nothing like the one in San Francisco, the best part of was the entrance.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

Later in the week I did the obligatory walk of the Hollywood walk of fame—there was a lot of names on there I didn't recognise, lol! And also checked out Capital Records, which is just off Hollywood Boulevard. As they say, "Being there is everything", thanks Air New Zealand, lol, except I didn't fly ya cos' you were too expensive, ha!

I've met some of the most interesting and diverse people on the trains here in L.A. On the way back from downtown the other day I was on packed subway train, all the seats were taken and there were lots of people standing holding the roof rails... all the seats except one. In seat beside the available one was sitting a rather menacing looking African-American man wearing sunglasses and a bandanna, who appeared to be sleeping or dosing at the very least. No-one else on the train it appeared was willing to risk sitting there, myself included, until I thought "Screw this, I've got 40 minutes on this train!". So I pointed at the seat, looked straight at the guy and said "Cool?". He looked up, and was all "oh, yeah yeah sweat bro" and he turned out to be really nice guy called Anthony that works at Universal Studios and was on the way home to see Game 7 of the NBA finals. Fortunately, while I don't follow the NBA, I'd seen enough PTI thanks to my flatmate that was able to recall enough team and player names to hold an intelligent conversation!! :)

Long Beach, CA

This week apart from fitting in work and some client meetings, I headed down to Long Beach for a look around and a bit of a skate. The skating there is excellent, as you can see from the photos—smooth, long and lots of chicks in bikini's, lol. The Aquarium of the Pacific, which hosts the Shark Petting Zoo, is there also. I'm heading back down to Long Beach on Tuesday to see how many fingers I can lose, lol. I wanted to play with the sharks last year, but ran out of time.

During the train trip back, the LA Sheriffs arrived on the train. Unlike the buses where you have to either pay or show your pass to get on, the trains have no such checks and you're free to get on and off as you please. However, you're meant to have valid ticket for passage, and this what they were here to check—no ticket is a $250 instant fine and one guy actually got arrested.

Sitting just in front off me was a well-dressed doting Africa-American couple, they're looked like very nice people and very happy together. However, when the Sheriffs got to us, half the people around me didn't have the usual credit-card sized Metro pass, but full sized sheets of paper—which I thought was odd? It turns out these were their prison release papers, which gives you get one day's free passage on the Metro!

Just before the Sheriffs got to me I'd taken off my headphones, so I could now hear the conversations going on around me... of particular interest was the one of the doting couple. He too had been just released from prison, and was telling his girlfriend of how they were kicking and stabbing this guy and they didn't realise the nearby ATM was videoing the whole thing! OMG I thought, was my initial impression wrong, then later on she was telling him how she was pregnant and the baby was his—Crazy shit I tell ya!

Los Angeles Metro

I should point out that this train does go though Compton and the heart of South-Central. I've even had McDonald's in Compton—think the movie Training Day with Denzel Washington, and you'd been on the right track. Ok, to be honest, it's not that bad there and I've met some really nice people from that area, but shit does go down there. Mind you shit goes down everywhere in this city, there was a shooting (in the middle of day) just down the road from where I'm staying in the Valley and this is reasonably nice area. My bus when past shortly after it happened. Hey, they don't call L.A. "the home of the body-bag" for no reason!

On a side note, I'd like to say the Santa Monica Pier officially has the "Worst toilet in Scotland". The thick yellow scum around the urinals and the smell makes me want to vomit everytime I go in there. However, it's the only toilet in the area you don't have to pay to use, so I tuck my shoe laces into my shoes and grin and bear it, yuk!

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