why i envy people who have perfect teeth.

today i went to an orthodontist who did a full x-ray on my mouth and i found out (after had been told i have none in the past) that i have a wisdom tooth. :( i went to an orthodontist because i've been putting off getting a tooth implant for many years (because i was scared shitless of having something drilled into my gums) and now my teeth have shifted which has created more problems.

here are the procedures i need done:
*gum grafting (because i have a thin gumline) (hopefully never)
*braces again for 2 years (approx $4,000)
*new retainers made (approx ($350)
*surgery for tooth implant ($2,000)
*tooth implant ($2,500)
*wisdom tooth removed (who knows)
*i also want to replace two or three mercury fillings (approx $350 or $400)

i have neither health insurance nor dental insurance and the cost of all of these procedures is going to be over $10,000. so starting today (which is good because i went shopping yesterday), i am not spending money on anything that isn't a necessity. the worst part is... i've already had braces on my teeth for over 4 years... that's why i had huge cavities on all my back molars. but i don't mind the fact that i'll have braces, it's the gum grafting i am NOT looking forward to.

i could go another route and not have any orthodonic work done and just get a bridge (to cover the gap), but that will ruin two healthy teeth and my bite will still be off which will cause jaw and possibly more tooth problems in the years to come.

so i am hoping i will be hearing from the IRS soon because (hopefully) i will be receiving some sort of compensation in lieu of my biological father falsely claiming me on his tax returns for many years... which, this year, prevented me from receiving a stimuulus check.

what i had for lunch...

medium sized original with three toppings: strawberries, raspberries and pineapple.

on my "lunch break" from working with my favorite boss dave, i stopped at pinkberry in beverly hills. driving in beverly hills SUCKS. especially during tourist season. i watched a car attempt to pull out of a parking spot onto beverly blvd. he, of course, was blocking the road but mr. angry man had to pull up right behind him and laaaay on his horn. the guy backing up acknowledged him, then proceeded to back up even further (in attempt to get out of the way) but in doing so, wound up backing right into angry man's car. thus, making him even angrier.

back to me and my lunch... pinkberry and i have an odd relationship. it's sort of become my guilty pleasure. the first time i've ever tried it was back in march when my friend lindsay was visiting me. before then, i never had any desire to try pinkberry... it seemed too trendy and i couldn't understand why it was such a popular place when it only served three flavors... none of which are pink. so i got an original (because the green tea sample tasted nothing like green tea) and it tasted like sour milk... not so much as spoiled milk, but sour -- as if it was trying to taste like lemon but couldn't overcome the pungent taste of plain yogurt. i couldn't even finish the small and rick took one spoonful before tossing it in the garbage. lindsay, on the other hand, got the coffee flavor with raspberries and LOVED it.

so flash forward to me working a promo on a hot day, somewhere within walking distance from a pinkberry. i went there on my break, i tried it again... and it wasn't so bad!! so i'm guessing it's an acquired taste. it's not a habit i go out of my way for (yet) and i'm hoping it will never become one because a medium original with three toppings is almost $6... and that seems pricey for almost-sour-tasting frozen yogurt so i usually opt for no toppings. rick still thinks it tastes awful. and lindsay thinks i'm blatantly addicted. i still think pinkberry is waaaay overrated but i'm not going to lie, i sorta look forward to eating it now. O:)

over 47 million Americans (over 16% of the population) are without health insurance... and i'm one of them. :(

my myriad of drugs:

perk #321 of being a freelancer: unlimited sick days.
i couldn't imagine sitting in a cubicle surrounded by green phlegm-infested tissues for 8, 9, 10 hours. no way.
disadvantage of being a freelancer: no health insurance unless you buy it yourself.

so i've self-diagnosed myself with bronchitis and i've been coughing my brains out for the past two weeks. this started out as a cold i caught from my boss james and has progressed to whatever-it-is-now. and i don't know if it's because i have a deviated septum or what, but i have not been able to taste or smell for a week now. i am refusing to go to a doctor because i don't have health insurance and i don't feel like paying $100+ for antibiotics, so i am taking amoxicillin that rick's parents brought back from mexico. (they sell 58 or so tablets of amoxicillin in mexico for $30... too bad the united states is a greedy bastard and makes us pay an arm and a leg for the same products other countries sell at afforadable prices).

here's what bronchitis looks like:

i am also attributing this bout with bronchitis to the poor air quality in los angeles... thanks LA!!

if you're a smoker, expect to develop chronic bronchitis... one of the many guaranteed side effects you are paying for with each cigarette. (which is why i will never understand why the facts alone are not enough for people to quit smoking, my mother included). but i regress... as i watch shopgirl for the umpteenth time.

P.S. it also should be noted that while i was sick i threw too many tissues into the toilet (because i felt bad throwing them all away) needless to say the toilet got clogged and impatient me had to try to flush it one more time and the water rose over the seat and spilled onto the floor, covering our little bathroom floor area with 1/2 inch of water. luckily it wasn't enough to reach the carpeting but it was enough to make the downstair's neighbors' ceiling leak. so the toilet fixed itself and my mom ran out to buy a mop because we didn't have one and i managed to break the mop within 5 minutes of using it. don't ask me how. i just snapped the part that connects the mop to the stick. rick felt bad and told me he'd deal with the mess and picked up a mop on his way home. my boyfriend loves me. moral of the story: ever notice how much dust a tissue makes??? that can't be healthy to inhale in between nose blows.

well that sucks.

Twins unwittingly got married in Britain
By Thomas Wagner, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 11, 9:31 PM ET

LONDON - Twins who were separated at birth got married without realizing they were brother and sister, a lawmaker said, urging more information be provided on birth certificates for adopted children. A court annulled the British couple's union after they discovered their true relationship, Lord David Alton said.

that sucks. but at least they found each other. y'know what else sucks...

i've been trying allll weekend to win "breakfast with the foo fighters," a private concert with KROQ's kevin and bean and all the other contest winners at 6 am on monday (dave grohl's bday). there's a chance to win EVERY HOUR all weekend long. and i've been trying A LOT. you have to be caller 20 and so far i've been caller 2, caller 10, caller 13, caller 15 (twice), caller 18 and caller 19 DAMNIT. (and these are all at different times, not consecutively). how beat is that?!! so wish me luck.

but here are some things that don't suck...

song you should download: Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
movie you should watch: Goodbye Lenin!
youtube video every one is talking about: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=wonderingmind42

fear and loathing... (another one bites the dust).

old news... but news to me. :(

Vegas bids New Frontier farewell
November 14, 2007

LAS VEGAS -- The New Frontier casino-hotel was imploded early Tuesday in a violent end to the second property to open on the Strip and the scene of Elvis Presley's Las Vegas debut.

Over 1,000 pounds of explosives felled the 16-story hotel tower as reporters and bystanders watched. An $8-billion resort bearing the Plaza brand will rise in its place and is set to open in 2011.

Elad Group owner and Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, a partner in the new resort project, offered handshakes and hugs after the tower came down.

An easterly breeze helped to quickly dissipate the dust.

With a cowboy motif, the New Frontier was the Strip's first themed casino. The low-key gambling hall opened as the Last Frontier in 1942 and later took on a Space Age look before returning to its Wild West roots.

Over its 65 years it played host to such entertainers as Ronald Reagan, Wayne Newton, and Siegfried and Roy. Presley performed for the first time in Las Vegas at the resort in 1956. It had become known for bikini bull riding, cheap rooms and $5 craps before it closed its doors for good in July.

IDB Group and Elad Group, the owners of the Plaza hotel in New York, said the new property would include a luxury hotel with about 3,500 rooms, private residences, retail space and a casino bearing the Plaza brand to reach the highest end of the market.

The destruction of the New Frontier was the latest step in a dramatic, and expensive, face-lift for the northern Strip. The Stardust hotel-casino was imploded in March.

"It's another budget option on the Strip that's gone," said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. "The future is really high-end."

The first of Donald Trump's gold-glass, billion-dollar-plus condominium towers is to open behind the New Frontier site early next year.

Steve Wynn plans to open the $2.2-billion Encore in early 2009, and the $2.8-billion Fontainebleau is scheduled to open farther north later that year. MGM Mirage is planning its own multibillion-dollar resort with Kerzner International and Dubai World at the north end of the Strip for 2012.

"It just became an epicenter of Vegas," said Phil Ruffin, who sold the 34.5-acre site to Elad for $1.24 billion in May. ~LA Times

:(

las vegas has become too expensive for my taste. all of the good, themed hotels containing what little history vegas has have all been imploded and tall buildings which all resemble each other will be built in their place. here's one big sarcastic "yay."

so many of life's lessons can be extracted from las vegas's teachings: nothing is permanent; never get to attached to places or things; money rules the world; donald trump has bad hair; explosives are cool; and change is good (especially if someone can make a shitload of money off of it).

before the stardust hotel was destroyed March 2006, the Boardwalk Casino also vanished from the strip. what i don't understand is why builders only limit themselves to the strip. they have a whole freakin desert!! the first hotel in las vegas was built on fremont street. the strip is only 4 miles long... so why not expand instead of destroying every hotel that was once kitschy and kewl?! make an uppity section of high-end casinos for all the yuppies and leave the old school hotels alone.

on the bright side... i am seeing 311 in vegas this feb. my plan is to stay in one of the oldest hotels on the strip. circus circus may be an option since it is next on the list of deceased casinos.

"The hotel may be demolished and rebuilt. According to an MGM Mirage report, the Circus Circus site "does not make economic use of the 44 acres that it sits on, therefore, we feel that demolishing the current property and rebuilding it in a different fashion (while still keeping the Circus Circus name) will be in our best interest." ~wikipedia.com

better get to the remaining "oldies" fast... the imperial palace will be gone soon too:

"During a conference call with investors on November 20, 2005, the Chairman for Harrah's, Gary Loveman, did not surprise industry analysts when he said that both the Imperial Palace and neighboring O'Sheas "are going to require very substantial modifications or complete tear-downs and rebuilds" in order to make room for a Harrah's and/or Flamingo expansion on the Strip." ~wikipedia.com

the tropicana will be receiving a facelift, but no demolition is planned to execute the renovations:

"On November 2, 2006, Columbia Sussex publicly announced a $2 billion renovation of the Tropicana. Unlike previous Las Vegas projects however, there will be no demolition of the entire resort. The existing Paradise and Island towers will receive both interior and exterior renovations and 4 new towers will be built on the property (the last will be branded as a separate hotel).

Also unusual, is that the resort will remain open during the renovations, which will increase the size of the hotel to over 8,000 rooms. There are also plans to add a 600,000 square foot convention center to the resort, which will be the 5th largest convention center in Las Vegas..." ~wikipedia.com

the luxor will also be remodeled:

"In July 2007, owner MGM Mirage announced plans to thoroughly renovate the Luxor, spending $300 million to remodel 80 percent of Luxor's public areas, removing much of the ancient Egyptian theme and replacing it with more adult-oriented and modern lounges, restaurants and clubs.[1] Among the distinctive changes to the exterior occurred in mid-2007, when management covered one of the pyramid's massive black faces with a 15-story sign that advertises Absolut vodka." ~wikipedia.com

oh great, just what las vegas needed... more over-priced yuppy lounges!!

apartment hunting SUCKS.

friday: tough day working for dave... not. it's always more fun than "work". :) went to "ski dazzle" at the LA Convention Center with rick and aldo. free lift tickets with the entry purchase... not that i'll be using mine. rick and aldo got a good deal on snowboarding bags and i entered every contest i could. i'm still waiting to hear that i am a winner for a weekend getaway in utah... but i won't hold my breath, hehe.

saturday: worked. looked for apartments. ugggh. still haven't found anything DECENT. we have totally ruled out 90% of Van Nuys. yuck.

sunday: honestly don't remember... i think rick and i played scrabble and he won. (what's happening?! hahaha). then rick stayed over his parents' house because he had a dentist appointment in the area early in the morning.

monday:awful. spent alllll afternoon looking for apartments. the eh-ones had no vacancies and the yuck-ones were too yuck to even consider ANNND (this is the best part...) i got a $50 parking ticket for being parked on the street during the last 15 min. of posted street cleaning time. not a street sweeper in sight... nor a cop and the irony is i was only parked there for a matter of minutes while i hopelessly walked up and down the small stretch of street looking for a vacancy among a group of shitty apartments. i dunno how i didn't see anyone near my car and i wasn't the only car parked there. (i was parked behind two other people). needless to say, i was about ready to give up after that not-so-pleasant incident. screw those apartments!!

today: i started a new job. it's a full-time position until i go home for the holidays then when i get back (after new years) it will just be part-time so i can continue to pursue photography. (figures i finally get offered a flexible part-time job riiight before we move out of the area). it's a pain-in-the-ass job making phone calls for a production company that distributes substance abuse materials (i made over 200 calls on my first day!!) but it's easy and the guy who works there is really nice and chill (reminds me of my cousin anthony!!) and i don't have to dress up... which is definitely a plus. i HATE fancy schmancy work clothes!!

when good songs sell their souls to the devil... or in this case Apple.

dear CSS,

whyyyyy???? :(

~jena~

dear jena,

because we like money.

~css~

Music Is My Boyfriend?
Apple's iPod Touch Ad is a Hit
By Erik Gunther
Fri, November 09, 2007, 9:48 pm PST

The crafty folks who work on Apple's commercial campaigns have done it again. After creating a smashing success with Feist and the iPod Nano ads, buzz on the new iPod Touch commercial is busting out all over.

The spot features a quick-cut tour of the gadget's features backed by a rhythmic beat and an enchanting female voice. The tune starts with the words "music is my boyfriend" and searchers got busy looking up that phrase. However, those words aren't the song's title.

Truly intrepid diggers turned up the real title—the naughty sounding "Music is My Hot Hot Sex." Searches on the catchy tune have jumped from zero into the thousands just over the past week and related queries on "music is my hot hot sex lyrics" and "music is my boyfriend lyrics" are surging.

So, who's behind this catchy tune? None other than indie fave Cansei de Ser Sexy (also known as CSS). Searches on the Brazilian band are up a whopping 300% this week. Not bad for a band whose name means "tired of being sexy" in Portuguese.

As for Apple, it's another buzzworthy win. Their agency took the commercial's brilliant concept from a British college student and reaped the rewards. Searches on "ipod touch commercial song," "ipod touch," and "ipod touch review" have all jumped over 50% this week. Hot hot, indeed.

o geeze. i love it when a song from 2004 becomes a "new" hit in 2007. i was telling people to download that song in April. but now prepare to hear it be overplayed by every annoyingly loud clothing store with overpriced stuff in small sizes. guess i will have to find a new ringtone... :(

i also love how the author of the article credits APPLE for the success of the song because of course the musicians had nothing to do with anything.

this whole situation has me disturbed not because i care THAT much about the song but because i realize i am one of those people who hates something she liked after it becomes mainstream and trendy. uh oh.

call me slow but... NO MORE JANE MAGAZINE?!!! :(

so i was on a freelancing spree yesterday because i have some short stories and poems that i would love to see published (i've had some work published in my college's literary journals, but to me that doesn't count) so i'm online looking for publications and i think... "Oooo, what about JANE magazine, they publish short stories in the back of their issues!!" so i go to janemag.com and i get redirected to Glamour magazine. what gives?? and then i see this... dun dun dun.

Dear Jane Reader:

With regret, Jane and janemag.com is no longer being published.
In its place, we invite you to explore Glamour magazine and Glamour.com.
We think you’ll love Glamour.com. Like Jane, it’s packed with everything smart, sexy women want to know—about your body, your beauty, your relationships … and more!

Sincerely,
Jane Magazine

WHAT?!!! Glamour is no substitution for JANE... that's why i never renewed my subscription to Glamour when it ended years ago!! (but this does explain why they keep sending it to me).

so i google this situation and discover this isn't news... this is OLD news!!

August 24, 2007 -- FORMER Jane magazine staffers are livid that Conde Nast is sending their one-time readers copies of Glamour now that Jane has bitten the dust. "I want all the Jane readers to just cancel, rather than get Glamour," one ex-staffer griped. "I hope they call and say, 'I don't want this. Give me GQ, anything but this.' " Jane subscribers were informed by Conde Nast, "We think you'll love Glamour. Like Jane, it's packed with everything smart, sexy women want to know." But those who worked for Jane editrix Brandon Holley say, "Glamour is not at all like Jane . . . It's the exact opposite. They preach fake empowerment of 'loving your flaws.' Jane doesn't point out flaws. Glamour is still preaching that women aren't good enough." A Jane staffer who was once courted for a job at Glamour told us she "was asked for a list of 'Jane-type' story ideas, then told, 'we will then need to dumb them down for our readers.' " A rep for Glamour declined to comment on the subscription pitch, but told us, "We don't comment on why specific people don't get hired, but it's safe to say that with two National Magazine Awards in the past three years, we don't dumb down our content." ~nypost.com

JANE was my FAVORITE magazine!! the ONLY one i'm subscribed to!! COSMO is for whores. Glamour is for housewives. and JANE was for hip, "irreverent" artsy chicks. even the paper it was printed on was different and kewl!! not that uber-glossy always-stick-together crap. and JANE wasn't loaded with perfume ads and the photography was creative and the covers used to be awesome (those extreme close up shots) and there were always GOOD articles... not "10 sex tricks to convince your boyfriend he'd rather spend time with you than his friends." NOOOOO!! in JANE, the message was "screw him if he's rather spend time with his friends... here's 10 great roadtrips for you and your girl friends."

but truth be told, we should have seen this coming. ever since Jane Pratt left and Brandon Holley took over JANE, it was all downhill. no matter how many ads tried to lead us to believe that Brandon was "So Jane!" it wasn't the same. Brandon started squeezing out all the kewl features and replacing them with pages of indie music recommendations. (oh goody!!) don't get me wrong, Brandon was blunt and honest and covered some great features, but... I BLAME HER FOR ALL OF THIS. ;)

luckily i have a pile of back issues i haven't read yet (since they still get delivered to my mother's house). i hear BUST magazine is a fair, even sassier, substitution. R.I.P JANE magazine.

promo from hell/i need to get a "real" job.

i signed up for a five-day promotional gig for an office supply store. the hourly pay was decent and there was a $40 gas reimbursement, so i didn't mind the hour-long morning traffic commute. i was a little suspicious when i saw there were three other promoters working the gig because the store wasn't that big. then we were given a map...

our job was to travel in our own vehicles, distributing 75 coupon booklets (that we were supposed to call "free gifts" instead of "coupon booklets") to businesses within a 20 mile radius of the store. the goal of the promo: to distribute 1,500 coupon booklets to 1,500 DIFFERENT businesses. maybe i over-reacted a bit, but i was pretty pissed when i found out i had to use my own car because the promotional company failed to state that in the gig description. had i known that, i would have not signed up for the promotion. (i NEVER had to use my own vehicle DURING any other promotion). and that $40 gas reimbursement was not a daily reimbursement... it was $40 FOR THE WEEK.

most businesses wanted nothing to do with the booklets and made me feel like an unwanted solicitor. although we were told we weren't solicitors and to enter businesses that had "no soliciting" signs posted, i did not enter these establishments. despite the heat and the fact i was wearing all black, i walked to most places. then i drove within my designated area and became highly frustrated when i was told at two separate strip malls that one of my fellow promoters had already been there. so i passed out a whopping 25 coupon booklets and took advantage of the promotion by shopping at the dollar store, eating at el pollo loco and sitting in my car for an hour and a half. i wasn't about to drive around all day.

i called the woman who booked me for the promo and left a voicemail saying how disappointed i was in the promotion and how, had i known i would have to use my car, i would have not signed up. she gave me attitude when she called me back and i canceled the rest of the days i was supposed to work. since i didn't give 24-hours notice of my cancellation for the next day, i am being fined/deducted $25.00.

and so... i need to find a "real" job. this would be an easy task for a normal human being but to me, this is a death sentence. i try to keep my schedule flexible so i can assist photographers whenever the opportunity arises. i also visit my family a lot (who are on the east coast) and get a lot of visitors, so receiving only two weeks vacation would be a problem. i understand everyone would love more vacation time and i should chalk it up to "that's life" and deal with it. i also understand that whatever two-bit job i find wouldn't be permanent, but one of the reasons rick and i live in california (and pay outrageous rent) is because there are ZERO photography/graphic design jobs in my home state. if i wind up as a receptionist in an office building, i might as well be living at home where at least i would be with my family.

and so i applied for three RANDOM jobs online (a tutoring job, a human resources job, and a marking job). all which i feel i can handle with what little or no experience i have in these fields. despite all of this, there is a sliver of a silver lining... or false hope, whichever. tonight i received an email from a photographer who replied to an email i sent her on APRIL 24th (6 months ago)!!

"I've received you e-mail a while back and at the time had no openings but I liked you message and saved it. Could you send me your phone number, I'd love to give you a call and talk to you about office work/second shooter opportunities."

unfortunately her studio is located too far to be worth it for a daily office job(one of the many reasons why i should move closer to LA despite the fact i never want to live in a majorly congested city), but hopefully some of the second shooter opportunities will be within a reasonable distance from my apartment. to justify my decision to sabotage a job opportunity because i do not want to commute that far, it should be noted that gas money and wear and tear on your vehicle (while you sacrifice at LEAST 3-4 hours of your day in traffic) is not worth the pay rate.

and so the internal struggle continues... but at least this random email has inspired me to email another extensive batch of photographers/potential employers before i sell my soul because i really can't imagine myself not working in the photography or art industry. i simply do NOT have the capacity, desire or blind dedication to ever work for a large corporation. i know our country wouldn't be successful without big business, but i'm one of those people who believes big businesses are distracting us from our own lives, polluting our environment, sucking away our money by convincing us we need their products and creating monopolies we don't even know exist. (not to mention making it IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to start an ethical small business). end of rant.

frustrated.

this morning i got up early because i spoke to one of my employers yesterday and he told me he would have work for me today and to be at his home office "the earlier, the better." so i get to his gated community this morning and they say i'm not on the list to enter. i call him to ask him to clear up the situation and this is the conversation we have:

him: what?! i don't have work for you today.
me: um, you told me to come over the earlier, the better.
him: i know i said that. but then i said 'i'll talk to you later about it' and you never called me back.
me: i thought you just had to get off the phone...
him: yeah, i did. but then you never called me back.
*after discussing how he doesn't have any work prepared for me*
me: so, should i just go back home then???
him: yeah...

arrrrrrrrrrrrg. :( i don't understand and i don't feel at fault. i think what happened was he forgot (or didn't have time) to set up work for me because when we were talking on the phone his 'i'll talk to you later' really just seemed like an 'i'll talk to you later.' not an 'i'll give you a time for tomorrow but if you don't talk to me later about it, i'll have no work for you.' :(

monday to monday.

this week i worked every day except monday.

tuesday: i worked a promo at a gym from 12-7pm. the promo required me to pick up 40 lbs of ice on my way... so i stopped at a grocery store whose shtick is to have the bag boys and girls to ask if you need help carrying your bags to your car. so i asked one of the bag boys where the ice was. i was expecting to get four 10 lbs bags of ice (which is manageable to carry without a cart) but instead, there were only 20 lb bags. i was in a rush, so i didn't bother to get a cart. when i got the ice to the register my arms were freezing cold and red. soooo instead of asking me if i needed help hauling this 40 lb ice berg to my car, the stupid bag boy says, "so... did you find where the ice was?" uhhh, DDDUUUUH. what a lazy ass.

tuesday night: rick and i went to the library and checked out some movies. we watched Love Actually during dinner. ***random fact/memory: the first time i saw that movie was with andrea and tyler when andrea and i flew out to visit tyler in 2004. we made the mistake of visiting during california's infamous "june gloom" and our approval rating for california significantly dropped (temporarily). however, we did have a great time in san diego and at the 311 concert in santa barbara. (where rick was!!) AND we were on TV two nights in a row in brief clips from the pepsi smash concert series... we went to see 311, naturally.***

wednesday: i worked the same promo from 6am-2pm. this time i got a cart when i picked up the ice. rick and i watched Uncle Buck because neither us had ever seen it in its entirety. the plot is predictable but john candy is funny and mccauley culkin is ADORABLE and this was pre-home alone. little culkin definitely used to outshine any actor he shared a scene with. Richie Rich is a classic good time, despite imdb's rating.

thursday: worked for michael making wedding albums. there was no AC in the studio and it was pretty toasty... and of course i was wearing capris, socks and shoes and a tank top under a tee shirt because usually i am cold in there. i finished what i had to do, then i stuck around to help brandon finish up some portfolio albums. rick and i met up with rick's friend mike and jessica (mike's wife) at the cheesecake factory (Mmm!!!) and they treated us to dinner. we also hung around the mac store while mike was deciding which desktop he's going to buy. and naturally we took loads of silly mac photobooth photos. i got some plans when i get my hands on that program. :)

friday: worked for michael making wedding albums. dave and michael (the owners) weren't there, so i closed myself in their office with a fan and blasted some fiona apple. funny moment of the day: at one point brandon came into the office and asked...

brandon: want to do me a favor??
me: ooook... what is it??
brandon: wait, what time is it??
me: (without missing a beat) why, do you want me to wake you up???
brandon: *dumbfounded* yeah!! how did you know?!!

hahaha. so he took a nap in the little comfy conference room where couples review their wedding photos/albums.

saturday: worked a promo 10am-5pm. went to rick's parents' house during my lunch break. then (after sitting in much traffic), rick and i met up with tyler in santa monica!! (i hadn't seen tyler since... august 2005?!! damn). it was good to finally see him again. we hung around the promenade and had dinner. while we were waiting for our name to be seated, tyler and i ran to the mac store and took some silly photos together. we had LOTS of catching up to do. it took us 6 months of me living in cali to finally get together (he lives about 2.5 hours away) but now that we've finally met up, hopefully we will hang out more often.

sunday: assisted michael/was 2nd shooter at a jewish wedding in beverly hills. i met michael's brother (who is a videographer) and his assistant. there was TONS of food at the wedding. i ate sushi and strawberries (from the reception) and they fed us the good stuff (choice of steak or halibut). on our way home, i had an insightful conversation with michael. ***fact: michael bought his first house at age 18, his second at 21 and a plane before he even knew how to fly it*** we didn't get home until 12-12:30 am.

monday: met up with dave to return his portfolio books. he bought me lunch and we chatted about kids, life, work and mtv's "my super sweet sixteen." hopefully he'll have some good gigs lined up when i return to california. he's definitely my favorite person to work for and his help and confidence in me has been invaluable.

THURSDAY

thursday: what a hectic day. i had that interview for the position of personal assistant to the host of a reality show. it's a court show hosted by Bruce Cutler, the lawyer who defended John Gotti and who is currently defending Phil Spector. every week there will be three guest celebrity jurrors. i feel like the interview went really well and when i mentioned my career goals in photography, the producer said he would be willing to hire me to shoot stills on the days when the D-list celebrities would be on the show. directly after the interview, i changed my clothes in my car and drove to Santa Monica to attend an "entertainment" focus group which was mostly focused on adult content and porn on digital cable. i should have known the topic was going to be something shady when the screener who was recruiting me asked "on a scale from 1 to 5, how comfortable are you talking about adult content in public???" when i answered "uhhh... 2." she replied, "how about a 3???"

directly after the focus group, i met up with my friend Hal and we ate dinner at Swingers, a hip little diner with a very alternative-looking wait staff. we discussed an exciting plan we're eager to hatch then we went to Hal's apartment. i found out that Hal went to high school with Mark "the cobrasnake" Hunter. for those of you who don't know, Hunter is a photographer who just goes to clubs in LA, takes photos of party people (mostly girls) and uploads them on his website. believe it or not, he's become "famous" just by doing that. he even discovered young Cory Kennedy, who i kind of can't stand. I just don't understand why a sloppily dressed 15-or-16-year-old girl is considered a fashion icon. we'd all look like that if we didn't wash our hair and we wore clothes two sizes too big. but maybe i'm just jealous because i'm not the one who is famous for doing absolutely nothing. ANWAY, Hunter is two years younger than me and Hal and his sophmore yearbook photo is quite hilarious. he's the only person with headphones around his neck.

I stayed at Hal's until 10, sticking post-it notes all over everything and listening to Cake's unreleased "B-Sides and Rarities" album. "War Pigs" is definitely my favorite track. meanwhile, Hal and his friend mapped out their week-long cross-country trek to NY. and since Hal won't be able to shoot a job he usually books, he passed the gig onto me. :) so on monday i will be taking photos at a celebrity golf tournament. how awesome is that?!! at first i was a little nervous because i can't identify more than four professional golfers, but luckily i will be given an assistant who will tell me who's who and who i should be snapping photos of. i'm really excited. :D

robbed by pirates :(

(contains spoilers... but trust me, that won't matter).

rick and i saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 friday afternoon... and we hated it. after seeing how bad the second one was, we couldn't believe we fell for seeing the third. it's safe to say that johnny depp single-handily made the 'pirate' series a success. if not for depp telling interviewers keith richards inspired his captain jack-isms, keith richards would certainly not have appeared in the 3rd movie. in between the excessive amount of canon balls/sword fights scenes, i couldn't wait to get home and tear this movie to shreds.

it's such an easy formula: three parts jack sparrow, eleven parts talking about jack sparrow, two parts love stories, six parts pirate ships emerging from water, five parts capturing, five parts rescuing and ten parts action/violence/sword fights. mix haphazardly against elaborate sets and computer graphics. let set for three hours until the audience rises.

the movie could be broken down into FOUR major flaws:

POOR WRITING.
it seemed the writers were very aware that audiences were only going to see 'pirates' for jack sparrow, so they thought... "hmmm, if people love jack so much... they'll love THREE jacks, or FOUR jacks, or even MORE jacks!!" so they made scenes reminiscent of alice in wonderland where jack hallucinates and sees many of himself. the mood and overall appearance of these scenes drastically contrast with the mood and overall appearance of the film. for a minute i thought i was watching an oompa loompa scene from charlie and the chocolate factory.

TOO MANY CHARACTERS: accompanying poor writing was the addition of too many characters. in a nutshell: jack's crew (which was two crews combined), the british crew, the squid's crew, and a new asian crew all have different agendas that (of course) require the other crews to be killed. elizabeth (knightly) becomes captain of the asian crew, stupid orlando bloom becomes captain of the squid crew and jack bounces between every crew as he is traded and captured for deal-making. orlando bloom's character wants to free his father, jack wants to be immortal, kiera knightly's character wants to be with orlando bloom again, the squid wants the sea goddess, elizabeth wants to kill the british captain for killing her father, the british crew wants jack dead and the asian crew wants to be a part of whichever crew is getting the treasure. but is there even treasure?!! the object they're all after is a beating heart. and yes, it's as confusing as it sounds.

OLD JOKES. just like the second, all of the "comedic" moments in the third movie relied on recycled material from the first movie. the humor in 'pirates' can be attributed to six subjects:
1) the wooden eye: kudos to whoever thought to give that guy a wooden eye because you added 30 pages of plot to each film!!
2) jack, the monkey: the only character whose acting improved by the third film. he's also in a lot more of the scenes in the third movie. rick thought he was the best part. and he was right.
3) rum jokes: the first movie relied heavily on rum jokes. since the third movie didn't know what the hell it was doing, it hit up the booze too.
4) the sexual tension between jack and elizabeth. the cliché "trust me, it would have never worked between us..." lines return again.
5) jack getting slapped: yes, women love to slap jack sparrow. we got that one already, thanks.
6) sheer stupidity/slapstick humor: the other nanoseconds of anticipated (but unreceived) humor relied on the dumb antics of the fat guy and the skinny guy with the wooden eye.

CONFUSING PLOT. it felt as though the writers made this movie up as they were filming it and when they were running low on plot someone said, "i know, let's make one of the crew members turn out to be a sea goddess!!" and since there are only two female main characters (one being kiera knightly), the jamaican-sounding chick landed the role of sea goddess. this made the plot entertaining for about 20 seconds when the jamaican chick turned into the 50 ft. woman and started talking like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and then exploded into millions of crabs and i leaned over to rick at which point i leaned over to rick and said, "haha, she had crabs!!"

needless to say, i don't plan on seeing the 4th or 5th or 6th Pirates movie. but i will be curious to see if depp stays aboard.

bottom line: if you were planning on seeing pirates, go see waitress instead.

my advice on blogging... don't follow advice.

so there's this columnist on yahoo who i always unintentionally run into by clicking little headlines like "Five Steps to Being More Productive," "Breaking the Perfection Habit" or "Four Ways to Make a Bad Job Good." the author is successful, "her syndicated column has run in more than 200 publications... she was a software executive... founded two companies... has been through an IPO, an acquisition and a bankruptcy... before that she played professional beach volleyball..." blah blah blah, says the bio on her website. the problem... her articles resemble something i wrote when i was freshman in college. they're weak!! she lists common sense in a numerical order and then throws in some quotes from books or the internet. i'm not the most affluent writer, but i am a critical editor. i love finding grammatical errors as much as i love making them. anyway, let's get to my point...

i find an article she wrote for The Boston Globe titled "Blogs 'essential' to a good career," in which she and a professor from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena makes the following recommendation...

"But pick your topics carefully and have a purpose. ''The most interesting blogs are focused and have a certain attitude," says van Allen. ''You need to have a guiding philosophy that you stick to. You cannot one minute pontificate on large issues of the world and the next minute be like, 'My dog died.' ""

that's great advice for... business executives. (but, personally i love those blogs fueled by the contempt of a 9-to-5 cubical job written by someone who wants to "stick it to the man"). when i see a blog that only caters to new gadgets or celebrity gossip or personal philosophies, i stop reading. i get bored. i need variety. i want to connect with someone or something, find the familiar in the unfamiliar. the truth is, people are nosy. that's why reality shows are still popular. they love the one-sided bond between self-identity and the personal life of a stranger.

on paper, employers are more interested in your career. online, employers want to investigate your personal life. that's why it's beneficial to combine the two. show you are a dedicated worker, but also show you have a life outside of work. how wouldn't it be beneficial for an employer to discover than you both share an obsession for receiving positive feedback on ebay??? those quirks allow people to relate to you. if you're a creative professional giving your blog address to clients, it's true that you should slightly monitor your content, but don't void it of personality. show future employers you are a loyal friend, a pet lover, a multi-tasker or an avid mini golfer. you never know where it will take you.

so in the world of blogging, remember why buffets are so appealing... because there's a variety!! just make sure to keep your content hot.

richard branson and other evils.

we waste too much money and too much of natural resources for space exploration. people like richard branson need to find better money grubbing gimmicks. by 2009, branson hopes to launch civilians into sub-orbital space on Virgin Galactic. tickets will be $200,000. and the sickening part is that people will pay that. "RICHARD BRANSON is in negotiations with British television networks to launch a talent show for aspiring astronauts." branson built a huge spaceport in upham, new mexico... an area coined as "uninhabited," yet 30 miles away lies a resort spa town with natural hot springs. years from now, the surrounding towns will be scratching their heads, wondering why cancer rates have skyrocketed (pun intended).

"According to the Virgin Galactic website, Branson has plans for orbital space tourism and proposes putting a hotel in space. It is expected that some of the future spacecraft will be able to dock with a space hotel." ~wikipedia

why can't rich people invest in cleaning up the environment instead of producing more waste and garbage on earth and now in space??? i shouldn't tear branson into too many shreds, he did offer a $25 million prize to first person or company who removes billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases from the earth's atmosphere. what a humanitarian!! and he did "pledge" $3 to "fight global warming." a greedy billionaire who owns an airline company and rocket company couldn't possibly want to gain public approval by seeming concerned about the environment, could he??? and he certainly couldn't be wanting to promote fuel alternatives to allevate the high costs of gas/diesel so that his companies would be paying less at the pump...

"Branson's $3 billion wasn't philanthropy by any definition: The Virgin conglomerate chieftain promised to invest profits from his transport operations for the next decade in different types of nonpetroleum fuel — especially ethanol, most often made from corn — in the process scooping up hundreds of millions in federal corn-ethanol subsidies, profits, and political advantage. The supposed anti-global warming benefit of Branson's commitment, meanwhile, is false: Distilling ethanol from corn consumes more fossil energy than what's contained in the final bio-fuel product.

Tad Patzek, a professor in UC Berkeley's geoengineering program, has published studies showing that when one accounts for the petroleum used to produce fertilizers, corn seed, transportation, waste-water disposal, and other farming, refining, and delivery tasks, it takes six times as much energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than that gallon creates when it burns in your pistons. And all that excess energy consumption exacerbates, rather than reduces, global warming and U.S. energy dependence." ~matt smith editorial seen here.

i'm all for alternative fuels and cleaner emissions, but what i am concerned with is our water supply. fertilizers and waste-water from the crops alone will significantly contaminate our water supply. i hope scientists are working as hard to develop plans for waste-water reduction as they are for sending tourists in space. demand for clean water already exceeds supply in many countries. at this rate, i bet we will run out of fresh water in our lifetime. some alliance needs to formed between countries to better conserve and protect our water resources. think of this: only 3% of the earth's water is drinkable. our bodies are made of 70% water and there are 6,706,529,744+ people in the world. that's a huge demand. (if you want a better idea of how drastic our overpopulation problem is, go here).

here is a fact that is easier to digest: If all the world's water were fit into a gallon jug, the fresh water available for us to use would equal only about one tablespoon.

water issues aside, biofuel research and production would be great if every one wasn't so damn greedy. right now...

"In Malaysia, the production of palm oil for biodiesel is a major industry. The development of oil-palm plantations was responsible for an estimated 87% of deforestation. In Sumatra and Borneo, 4 million hectares of forest have been converted to palm farms. Now a further 6 million hectares are scheduled for clearance in Malaysia, and 16.5 million in Indonesia. Thousands of indigenous people have been evicted from their lands, and some 500 Indonesians have been tortured when they tried to resist. The forest fires which every so often smother the region in smog are mostly started by the palm growers. Hundreds of thousands of small-scale peasant farmers are being displaced by soybeans expansion. Many more stand to lose their land under the biofuels stampede. The expanding cropland planted to yellow corn for ethanol has reduced the supply of white corn for tortillas in Mexico, sending prices up 400%. In the development of biofuels... they do not pay attention to long-term effects. The economy is broken up into competing units of capitalist control and ownership over the means of production. And each unit is fundamentally concerned with itself and its expansion and its profit. The economy, the constructed and natural environment, and society cannot be dealt with as a social whole under capitalism." you can read the entire article here.

the weekend.

saturday: (st. patrick's day) rick and i went to his parent's house and did some laundry. rick washed my car :) and i rode on tim's kick-ass longboard skateboard (i soooo want one!!) rick's dad made us delicious BBQ chicken and tritip and ribs. tim and aldo and jen stopped by and we all bought chocolate bars from rick's neice isabel for a school fundraiser. it was funny because we originally bought the chocolates from rick's mom (who had previously bought a whole bunch) so when isabel showed up, rick's mom gave us our money back so we could "re-buy" them from isabel, hehehe.

adorable photo my mom took of roxie:


sunday: aldo came over and i finished his haircut. rick evened up the sides and back with some clippers and we all went to the mall. i redeemed a coupon for a free pair o' underwear at victoria's secret (i never pronounce the 's in victoria's...) and i got some hemp hand cream at the body shop. i also bought a really cute wallet at pacsun for $3!! (it was 70% off). it's gwen stefani's harajuku brand. and although i'm not "just an orange county girl," the orange is highly adorable.



we watched Little Miss Sunshine, which is semi-predictable and way overrated. i can't believe it was nominated for "best picture." i hate when pseudo-indie B movies get over hyped solely because the movie SEEMS unique to the average viewer. perhaps i am too harsh because i expected a lot more from the movie, but instead it turns out to be a tragic national lampoons road trip.

how to identify a pseudo-indie B movie:
*characters are extremely stereotypical (or purposefully anti-stereotypical) and their characteristics are extreme. example: moody teenager who won't speak, father who is more preoccupied with work and business than his own family, grandfather who curses and snorts heroin.
*what could go wrong, goes wrong before the characters' goal is attained. example: car trouble, emotional setbacks, business setbacks, death of most amusing character, they just miss the deadline.
*characters appear to be stuck in a time warp although the rest of society is in the present time. example: clothing styles, dance moves, lingo, vehicle.
*at least one main character is played by someone well-known who is in role that appears drastically different from his/her previous roles.
*at least one main character is played by an actor/actress who is an unknown and after the movie is release he/she is over hyped.
*there is no happy ending. there is not even an unhappy ending. the ending leaves you in the same mental state you were in when the movie started which makes you feel as though you just spent two hours walking in a circle...

proof that just because it's labeled "not mainstream," doesn't mean it's GOOD. beware, the following movies are NOT "indie" movies, they are merely B-rated movies (at best) in disguise:
"Little Miss Sunshine," "Napoleon Dynamite," "Party Monster," "Punch-Drunk Love," "Swimming Pool," "The Last Kiss," "The Virgin Suicides," "11:14," "13 Moons." (there's plenty more... but those are what currently come to mind).

busy. busy.

yesterday i worked for dave. he rented out a studio in hollywood and held a casting call. i wound up an hour early because i didn't expect traffic to be so light. there was a good turnout: one hundred twenty-five actors/models showed up... almost at once. we were there from 9 to 5 but the majority showed up around 3. and of course there were about a dozen girls who showed up and said they had to be at work/another audition in twenty minutes and expected to be able to jump in line. i only allowed two or three to cut ahead because it really wasn't fair for all of the other people who had been waiting.

overall, it was an easy day. i love working for dave because he's so down-to-earth. at one point a model was asking dave which comp card or headshot he wanted and dave said something along the lines of "it doesn't matter, i know they're all retouched and like four years old anyway." hahaha, i couldn't believe he said that but i was so glad he did because it's true!! and although dave's blunt, he's a lot of fun and likes to talk, so the models instantly warm up to him. a lot of models were relieved once they saw dave shooting the people ahead of them. he had something positive and nice to say to everyone, even the people he knew he'd never hire.

i got lunch on melrose and the warm city of los angeles welcomed me by issuing me a parking voilation. that's right, my first parking ticket. :( i was too damn worried about the hours on the NO PARKING signs and almost getting sideswiped by a truck to notice that there were meters. (PLUS i'm from jersey... we don't pay to park!!) but i should have figured there's no such thing as free parking in LA. luckily for me, dave is such a nice guy he let me keep the $30 that was left over from lunch to pay for the ticket.

of the one hundred twenty-five people dave shot, he's going to choose fifteen to shoot for his stock images. up until the shoot, i'll be helping with office work and once it's time for the shoot, i'll be his second assistant. AND Spike TV wants dave to do eight photoshoots a year now, so he's going to let me do all the preliminary work like contacting agencies and models and booking locations for those shoots!! so i'm really excited to be getting involved with the entire process.

rick and aldrin were waiting for me at the apartment. when i got there, we ran to costco, got some grub and then i cut aldrin's hair!! it's short!! and it came out pretty good. i just have to even out the sides with a pair of clippers. here are some photos of the drastic transformation:

BEFORE


AFTER


soooo then i checked my email and noticed i had an email from john hildebrand's representative asking if i would be interested in helping out with a shoot tomorrow. and so i did. i think i got john confused with another photographer because i expected him to be older, light-haired, married with children. to my surprise, he was like the bam margera of the photo world: he's young, has a rocker-ish style, a pseudo mohawk and LONG doe-like eyelashes. his friends are either starting their own clothing line or production/party company and most of his shots include girls in bikinis.

anyways, the shoot is part of an ongoing project for a swimsuit calendar to raise money for Surfrider, a nonprofit organization that protects our coasts, and might possibly raise money for Heal the Bay. in other words, nobody got paid-- the shoot was strictly volunteer. there was also another assistant, a Brook's student who graduates in September with a degree in "oh-shit-i-shouldn't-have-went-to-Brooks." john went to Brooks as well, he graduated in 2001. the impression that i get from Brooks is that you don't need to go to Brooks and here is why i hold such contempt for Brooks...

"I would like more information about the class action lawsuit against Brooks. My husband graduated from there over a year ago and has yet to work! We are facing over $100,000 in student loans and all he has to show for it so far is a $2,500 large format camera (that he obviously does not use!) We were told upon his entry that they had a 97% placement rate with a starting salary around $75,000. BIG LIE!!! He even attends their "job fairs" which promote placement into jobs such as...starbucks - no joke! $100,000 in student loans and they want him to work at starbucks!"

and there's more complaints where that came from!! the red-flag for me occured while i was attending college. i called Brooks to request more information and they called me within an hour. what school is THAT desperate for recruits?! perhaps i shouldn't talk too much trash about Brooks but look at where Brooks is sending its students... to work for Brooks graduates FOR FREE without giving the students any sort of course credit. hmmm. seems to me that Brooks is just fueling the unethical practice of established photographers getting away with "hiring" assistants as "interns" to work for free or next to nothing.

but anyway, the shoot was extremely laid-back. it consisted of two models, a make-up artist, john, his two friends, me and the other assistant. the location was AWESOME. it was on some guy's beachfront property in malibu. the layout was insane though... we had to carry equipment down (and back up) 107 steps... and through narrow pathways. (and of course the other assistant grabbed the lightest items). there was a sand pit, a sauna, a little shack to get changed in, a small blue-tiled bathroom and a surfboard bar... all right near the beach. definitely an ideal party location. i found it funny that, although we were together for four hours, none of the crew made it a point to learn each other's names. all of the guys just refered to me as "sweetie" or "sweetheart" because they had no idea.

hot and bothered.

today reached 99 degrees!! (and some say global warming is a hoax...) the mystery of the closed-library has been solved. rick and i drove to the library only to discover it was closed. this is the third time this has happened to us. once was on president's day tho... apparently, as we discovered today, the library is closed on mondays. DOH!!

i am loving daylight savings time... the extra hour of sunlight has already proven to be useful today when rick and i played tennis. we got there late, when the sun was just shy of setting and stayed until about 7:00. i haven't played tennis is over a year and rick hasn't played since sixth grade... so needless to say we were a bit rusty. regardless, we managed to have fun. i wouldn't let us leave until we successfully hit the ball back and forth ten times. we got twelve!! we plan on playing again tomorrow if we aren't too sore. if i want to play again, i will also have to pop this lovely blister i got from hanging on the monkey bars yesterday when rick and i walked through the park. ye-ouch.

we finally finished watching Sybil. it seemed like a long movie (i can't believe it was originally a made-for-tv movie!!) but it was REALLY GOOD. sally field is one of my favorites. for those of you who aren't familiar with the movie, Sybil is based on a true story of a woman suffering from multiple-personality disorder. while we were watching the movie, rick noticed a scene was shot in the Ambassador Hotel which happens to be where 311 shot their album cover for "Evolver." the sad part is The Ambassador Hotel, a historic 500-room hollywood resort in its heyday, was torn in february 2006. los angeles seems to be infamous for reinventing itself and renovating, but unfortunately the city has no respect for the preservation of historical sites. despite protests, the city opted to demolish the hotel in order to build more schools although there is ample space in the surrounding areas. while destroying the site, the builders discovered methane gas, so the schools can't even open. this will only add to the $270 million budget. and so this discovery inspired me to create...

FIVE REASONS WHY I DISLIKE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:
(beside the fact that it is far from my family).
1. smog/pollution.
2. TRAFFIC.
3. constant contruction and building/lack of respect to historical sites. A LOT of kewl places simply don't exisit anymore :(
4. THE HEAT. the sun is nice and all but not when it's burning your skin off while you are sitting in traffic.
5. overall wastefulness. (ie. sprinklers that face the pavement/street that are actually only wetting the cars that pass by).

FIVE REASONS WHY I LIKE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA:
1. the weather. as rick says, "california has two seasons: summer and not-so-summer."
2. LOTS to see and do.
3. career opportunities, especially in the creative industry.
4. palm trees. no lie... i am obsessed with those gangly trees!!
5. my strong, indescribable affinity to the area... perhaps a magnetic force at work?