Mix things up

So because I refuse to update daily, I have a few random moments that I must catch up on.

Why does ramyun taste better at night? Enjoyed this at somewhere around 11 pm. Yum.


And here's a tangerine that Justin owed Tree in Bio. See? It even has her name on it! Talk about marking your territory...


So anyways...last night was the El Segundo ASB Mixer. While driving to the place, we somehow managed to get on the other side of the airport. Perhaps we went a little too far..? The official reason is because I wanted to see the pretty airport lights at night (which are quite pretty, btw)

Mixer food was quite tasty. Yay for CPK! Pizza on top of bbq chicken salad and fettuccine alfredo.


I present to you a portion of the men of ASB. How studly. Not.


Another decent chunk of the cool kids on ASB. woooo...


And yes, we're all supposed to look like tennis players...

Here's Faith's painting, as usual. I lost count of the days and I'm too lazy to go back to my past posts and look it up. So Day...6? 7? Either way, it's really shaping up.


I developed my first rolls of film in some time, and while waiting for the damned things to rinse, I took pictures. Enjoy.


And let's see...while sitting around in Bio, we all decided to go on a Wienerschnitzel adventure after school. Yum. But DK was too damn tall to fit in my car.


And Tree had shiny pants on her head, courtesy of Sabrina. What strange kids.


Well we took advantage of Ashley's advice and checked out the four for $4 deal. Here's the result, minus the soda that was in my hand.


And the cool kids stuffing their faces...


And to top the day off, meet Milo! Why would an elephant be named Milo? Why not Milo? I don't know answer to either of those questions. Milo has taken residence on Ashley's hand, and seems to enjoy it.

It's not the camera.

Someone at school once said "It's not the person. It's the camera." I hope they were suffering a case of instantaneous dyslexia, or I would have to slap them upside the head.

It's not the camera. It's the person behind it.

As dslrs decrease in cost and enable more people to buy them, there's a growing trend towards adopting the moniker of "photographer." Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.

Carrying a dslr around doesn't make you a better picture taking person. But it does look cool. For what it's worth, I took some of my best pictures with an old 35mm Kodak from the sixties and a crappy Canon point-and-shoot.

I have lots more to say on this subject, like enough to fill a few pages. But I feel that I should put that off until I myself improve my picture taking abilities. Otherwise, I have no right to say this kind of stuff.

Cupcakes!

So today ended up being an extension of my weekend. Scott's off to Boston until Spring Break, so we decided to go out to eat after I was done with school.

But that's for later. This eraser that Ashley had in second grade amused me (and her, apparently). It's a funny little saying written in gel pen. Ah, gel pens. Remember when everyone had those in elementary school? Fun times...


Anyways, my days seem to be filled with cupcakes. I end up eating them with surprising regularity. Weird, no? It was Janelle's birthday in ASB, so, as usual, K-squared made some bomb cupcakes. Devil's foodcake with cream cheese frosting :D


And the progression of Faith's painting...Day 5.


So school got out, I finally have my car back, and I drove up to Scott's to say bye. We ended up going out to eat, as usual. Pinkie's BBQ is over on PCH and 5th Avenue. It was tasty, but I wasn't all that impressed. They do have some really good but ridiculously sweet pink lemonade, though.


Here's my tri-tip sandwich drowned in bbq sauce. The sauce was kinda lame. Pretty unremarkable. Meat was good, though. Nice pink fringe from the smoking. Oh, and the mac and cheese was great. Corn bread was eh. Why is it that barbecue places tend to have kickass mac and cheese..?


Little Raymond and Esther joined us, got fat, then we parted ways. Scott was craving cupcakes so we trekked out to Beverly Hills to gorge on some ridiculously overpriced ($3.25 each) cupcakes. It's more for fun that anything else.

See? Rich people even package their cupcakes in neat little boxes! :P


They're known for their red velvet, but I'm partial to the chocolate marshmallow. I was so excited to eat it that I didn't even take a decent picture of it.


So yeah, that was my Monday. But it felt like a Saturday, which is just going to make this week feel like shit. Oh well...El Segundo ASB mixer tomorrow! :D

twas a good day.

My neck is pulsing right now. I'm not sure why, and it sort of scares me seeing as I have a history of pulling my neck. But I digress.

I headed out to museum hop with Sarah and Jen today...hit up some food places, got fat, and generally enjoyed a lovely day. We started it off with lunch at The Apple Pan, which was quite tasty. Had a Hickoryburger, fries, orange soda, and we all split some delicious apple pie. I'll prove it.

The Hickoryburger has a mix of ketchup and barbecue sauce that's alright, I guess.


The sodas come in the coolest cone/cone carriers ever. I'm trying to cut down, but this made it impossible not to get.


And a slice of pie, which was split three ways...


The Apple Pan definitely has a worn-in feel to it. It just reeks of vintage-old-awesomeness. I feel very...comfortable there. Oh, and the server guy was awesome. If you took a particularly large bite, he would just put a napkin in front of you XD Pretty funny guy.

Feeling content, we drove over The Getty Center and acted all artistic and stuff. Oh, and taking pictures is contagious.


There was a temporary exhibition on Carleton Watkins, one of the premier photographers of California in the mid-1800s. He used this massive large format camera which I would expect to be a pain in the ass to take into the field.


His photographs were quite amazing, considering the technology that was available to him. Seriously...check it out if you like photography and have some free time.

The gift shop of the exhibit had one of those poseable wooden figures with some film on him. Cool.


We ventured through the rest of the museum, and this particular ridiculously awesome frame caught my eye.


Got lost, got found, saw some interesting things. Oh! and we acted like art experts, like in Lit AP. I actually got some lady to consider my idea that a statue of a goddess was actually a metaphor for baby-killing. I got a thoughtful "hmm" out of her. Success.

Went into the gardens, snapped some shots of the scenery. Quite pretty, really.





We sat there on the grass, talking about things that make you think some more, drawing you into a trap of thoughtfulness that leaves equally thoughtful silences.

Then, we left.

After Sarah's car almost overheated and we got trapped in the middle of an intersection, we ended up at LACMA to see the Vanity Fair Portraits for my second time.


Photography's technically not allowed in there, but I snapped a few shots to give you guys a feel for it. For the love of...just go. Please. You won't regret it.




The pictures in there are sublime. Really, they are something else.

After leaving the gallery (reluctantly) we headed over to BCAM and the Ahmanson Building. Here are some pictures that I got in trouble for taking multiple times.

I love Andy Warhol, but seriously? Art?


This was kinda cool...a giant twisting sculpture that you can walk through.


Outside LACMA...

I have a thing for symmetry.

We left LACMA, sufficiently artified, then went to get dinner. By this point, I could eat a cow. I was hungry. Headed down to Little Ethiopia and went to Rosalind's, which is supposedly the best place to eat in the area. I might have to agree.

It called to me.


We ate and ate until we could eat no more. Damn, I love Ethiopian food.

I have no idea what this stuff is called...but it's a #1 and a #8.




So how this dish works is that it's served with these spongy pancake-like things that you use to scoop up bits of meat and sauce. No forks required. It's really fun, and surprisingly efficient.

And with that, we drove over to some ice cream place that Sarah was raving about over by the ESPN Zone on Figueroa. Check out the Hokey Pokey. It's butterscotch and honey ice cream with nuts, and is ridiculously awesome.


And with that, we drove home, with paintings and sculptures dancing through our heads. Oh, what a fun day it was.

Oh, and my neck stopped pulsing :D

The Villa

So I split up my post into two parts, in case you didn't notice. The last post was for Friday, this is for Saturday. Make sense?

So yeah...made a spontaneous trip to the Getty Villa with mi madre because I had nothing else to do until going out to the movies in the evening. After seeing the beauty of the Villa, I want to go to Italy. Say, at this exact moment. That would be nice. From here on out, I will keep my comments to a minimum. I'll let the pictures do the talking. I might put up a part 2 to the Villa pictures if I get a chance to sort through my pictures a bit more thoroughly. Maybe.

The long pond thingy, from both ends.





I guess the Greeks and Romans had a thing for patterns...there were definitely a lot of interesting ones. In this place, the best pictures aren't in front of you. You gotta look down...




An ancient Roman vessel depicting Godzilla terrorizing the temple of Jupiter...


I'll have to go to the Villa around sunset sometime soon. I feel that it would be breathtaking...but it would be awesome to be so well known as a photographer, that I just ask to be let in after hours, and they agree. One day, someday.

oh, and did I mention that for lunch I went to Farmer's Market and got a bacon-wrapped hot dog? That was pretty good, too. Alas, the couple that had the brisket-topped hot dog with barbecue sauce wasn't there. I hope they return soon. I truly miss their gastronomical creation.


Well I'm off to visit for museums and eat stuff in a few hours. Til then...

Cheers.

Late, as usual.

So it's a bit late, but here's a few moments from last Friday.

It was unusually foggy in the morning. As we turned to walk down the K wing, Sabrina noticed that the hallway looked particularly pretty. I dunno...there's just something about it.


I think Faith's pretty much finished with her painting. Here's Day 4.


Some other random stuff happened, then Sabrina, Ray, and I went out for pho. Yum. It's funny...whenever Ray and I go out to get something to eat, our conversations end up being about more food. So yeah. The three of us talked about food and movies. Life was good.


We went to Sayo's, and I finished my photo project there. If I have anything good to show for it later, I'll post something. Then I went to Kendo, got bruised, and celebrated the first official practice of the year with some oshiruko! Nom nom nom.


And that, my friends, was my Friday.