Annoyed With Stupid People

If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen a conversation between @stephengillett and myself. Because I know that I would be wasting my breathe continuing any further conversation with this guy I decided to post my last tweet to this guy here. For the record I don't have a problem with this guy, but I do with the company he works for: Starbucks. I know that there are a lot of people that are coffee drinkers out there and probably half of you go to Starbucks for your fix. I do ask you to at least look into what they really do. I'm not trying to get you to move on to different shop because I am in support of them, but there are way better coffee shops out there that are actually trying to do good in the world. They understand that there is more to a business than just being out there for profit.

Now... "The unsent tweet." (Not just because it exceeded the 140 characters; thank developers for twit longer)

stephengillett (@ left out on purpose) I only can speak for myself, but there are more deserving companies out there for this award [Starbucks as 2010 Mobile Marketer of the Year]. Hell, the year isn't even over yet. Your company mission statement says it all: "to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time." One neighborhood really translates to one street corner. In America, we already have an addicting market on every street corner; it’s called a liquor store. Instead of trying to solve one of the nation's most addiction problem, you choice to profit from it. How about advertising for a cause your company supports rather than plastering your logo anywhere and anywhere. But then again, I haven't seen one of these "mobile advertising" or maybe my moral inner child has turned a blind eye to them. Either way, I think that you should look long and hard into the mirror ask yourself if you are truly okay with what you being paid to do.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Things on my Christmas List

If you could have seen the grin on my face while putting my list together, you would have seen Peter Pan emerge. I love Christmas so much. Not just because the gifts but it seems to be the one thing that always no matter what was going on in my family that everyone could come together despite their differences. The good in the world also seems to shine just a little bit brighter this time of the year. Which, I feel justifies my list being all about me. (It's okay to laugh, I did.) Seriously, if anyone out wants to purchase any of the items on my list for me, please email me for my address, and I will surely reply back to you ASAP.

So to Santa and your elves; you know that I have been good all year long. Hit me with your best gift.

Top Ten Things on my Christmas List

10) New flat screen television
Everyone one knows that deep down inside that size does matter to guys. I have a large tube now (no euphemism here). It's a 32" Sharp tube television. But I've had to lug this heavy thing around for the last four years from apartment to apartment. I want something light and easy to move. I'm not greedy, it doesn't had to be larger than what I have now, just a flat screen.

09) Windows 7 software or new computer
I am happy with my current HP. However, my main software I need for work doesn't work on Vista. It would be great if I could work on my designs at home and not have to drive 20 minutes to the university to use it there. I graduated from college for a reason and would love to be free of them.

08) New queen size bed
I am too tall to be sleeping on my twin. This really should be my stocking stuffer just out of pity.

07) New pocket camera
I know that the deal last year was if I got an iPhone4, I would not need a camera. But Apple failed at making the camera on the phone amazing enough to live without a pocket camera. Again, nothing top of the line, but I would need to be better the iPhone4.

06) A juicer
Think about all of the money I would be saving?! Think of it was more of an investment.

05) New external hard-drive
You know that my 1 terabyte is full. “I'm not saying I'm just saying.” Ha-ha (inside joke) But really, it would be nice that be able to back up my whole laptop and have room for all of the new pictures and videos I've made this year.

04) Special event to be extended
I can't go into details about this right now, but I can soon. What I can say is that I will be designing lighting for a premiere. The event is only booked as a one week job but could be extended for up to an additional 2 weeks. This would be classified as "the gift that keeps on giving."

03) See my oldest niece
I have no children of my own. But I do love my nieces and nephew like they were my own. One of my nieces lives with her mother and she has kept her away from my family for the last six years. I might have been about to convince her to let my niece come visit me for a week. It would be great to see her again. It has been way to long.

02) Las Vegas for New Years
Las Vegas is my home away from home. I've been looking forward to this trip for two years. I hope that everything pans out. I can't wait to see the firework show in person.

01) Trip to Europe for spring break
This has been a dream of mine since high school. I helped host exchange students and have been fascinated with traveling abroad ever since. Every year something has come up to stop me from going. This year we are still at 50/50 but at this point the scale it leaning a little in my favor. I would love for you Santa to drop a gold bar my way so I could make this dream come true.

Top Ten Tuesday on Wednesday

As small as it may seem, I was really looking forward to contributing to #TopTenTuesday this week. About two weeks ago the realization that I basic gave up on social media over the summer and turned back to online gaming. The biggest problem with this is I was spending money that I should have been saving. But now, I am trying to make a come back. With my return back to Twitter, one of the first tweets I saw was Katie's #TopTenTuesday [twitter.com/ksluiter]. I enjoyed her post, and so what the heck?! Here I go...


'Top Ten Things' I seem not to be able to survive without


10. Job
Though we might not be on the best terms right now, more because I don't agree with "vision" I still need you so that I can complete most of the items on this list this week. So I'll deal with the love/hate relationship this week, but "You better shape up, you better understand,
to my heart I must be true" and will leave you in a heart beat if things don't change.

09. Internet
Let's just get it out there. I hate you AT&T. And because of this I have found other means of getting my fix. I'm not saying because I don't want to incriminate myself. But all I can say or "not say" is somehow this blog is being written & posted and you are not seeing a dime of my money.

08. Money
Money. Do I really need to say anymore?? Okay, if I must. I go out into the world as an innocent lamb and these clothing and electronic stores do their devilish mating dance around them. But you are there to protect me by throwing yourself at them to ease the pain as quick as possible. I thank for this, but I am starting to run out of room in my closet and on my desk/television stand. We might want to go apartment shopping soon so that we can have more room to clutter.

07. Car
Thank you for getting me from point-A to point-B. You see that I defend you when my "friends" pick on you. I do it cause I care about you. Just remember that when we go in for the smog check in two weeks.

06. Nature
This week you have proven to my friends not in California why I'm so lucky. I love the 90 degree weather in November. So Santa might have to wear shorts next month. Its called change and we all should learn how to deal.

05. Disneyland Pass
For those who did not know, yes I'm spoiled. I live in the OC, what else would you expect?! So I thank Disney for having an interest free payment plan so we locals [I] can go spend "free" time with your southern California parks when I'm down, bored, hyper, under the weather, and/or for any other excuse to not be in school or work my readers may come up with.

04. Ducks season tickets
Yes, I like to pull money from my money tree in my backyard. lol I love sports and I don't have a football team near me. So Thank you for letting me get my live aggression fix through another sport. Go Anaheim Ducks.

03. iPhone
So some may say that my fingers are attached to my iPhone. I say you are jealous that I have the iPhone4.

02. Family & Friends
Sometimes I can be closed off, but you guys and gals keep me sane [most of the time]. And now that I got you all to join up on Facebook, Twitter, etc., I don't even have to physically talk to you on the phone. Wait, I might have to rethink the order of my #2 and #3.

01. God
Yes, yes, I know. This is what we "should" have as number one. But to me it really isn't about what should be in this slot or not. I may not have the "text book relationship" that is preached to us. He doesn't judge me because of this and he is always in my corner. He knows I love him and I know he loves me. And without him the previous nine answers would not be.

Test

Man of Many Names: Except for the One that Really Counts

I’ve been known as the boy next door, best friend forever when you need a shoulder to cry on, reassurance man when you wanted to hear “yes, we guys are dumb”, the comfort guy at the dance club when you didn’t want to dance with strangers, the hair holder guy at the end of the night (I hate holding hair btw), the human shield blocking you so you can pee in public and the supporter holding you up so your drunken queen can pee in a tub because the toilet was broken. Can’t you come over just to cuddle guy because boyfriend / girlfriend broke up with you, had a fight with family members or just because you were lonely. The latest title I’ve encountered is FBF (fake boyfriend); you love having the male attention, enjoyed me taking you out and paying for everything however do not want to be in a relationship or is it just a relationship with me?

I could continue with the list of ‘a.k.a’s and alias but the reality of it is this: “I just do not want to be known as just these.” I’m not writing this stating I want to get married right now; I’m saying I want to be given a chance. I want the same chance you gave the ‘bad boy’ you wanted to “change,” Mr. Wrong that treated you crap and ‘Mr. Not Right Now’ who only wanted to a relationship with you between the hours or midnight and 4am.

Stop trying to convince me “it’s you, not me.” Deep down inside, I know it’s me. It’s my fault for having a sweet mother for raising me to be a man and not a boy. It’s my fault for never wanting to treat a woman the same way I saw my mother treated while I was growing up. Maybe my flaw is not “moving in for the kill” quick enough. But as one of my friends put it in her blog today “I enjoy stages.” I wonder if it “enjoying stages” has backfired in my face though.

Though I enjoy knowing that I could pick up the phone and find someone to hangout with me pretty much whenever, it would be nice to only have to call one number and know the women on the other end calls me boyfriend.

Project 365: Update

So I know that I do not have a photo up for everyday on here, but I keep up with it on another site. If there is an interest, I think that I'm going to just post an update once a month for those who would like to see me grow. So that means, you will have to leave me some love and let me know.

I will admit, I slacked off A LOT the last couple of months, but I want to finish these next 4 months off strong. One problem that I had in the last couple of months is work was very demanding. So most of that time, my days consisted of me waking up, going to 1st job, lunch, then 2nd job, dinner and home to sleep; rinse, repeat, rinse and dry.

Like I said earlier though, I want to finish the year out strong. So no more excuses

Photo of the Day: Future Leader

I feel like I should start off by saying, this is not my baby. Though he looks very close to how I looked when I entered the world. However, I would like to introduce you to my BFF's new son Sawyer Lane. He was born @ 1:17 am today weighing in at 7lbs 12 oz, 20 inches long. Mommy, daddy and uncle EJ love you very much!

I wanted to just take a moment away from the world's antics to show why we work so hard to change the negativity in our society today.

Social Networking Experience

I know that the day is not over. But so far, it has been a great day. While I was catching up on some tivo'ed shows from the week, I decided to play on my Twitter account and see if I could bump myself up to 50 followers. It may not seem like a big deal, but to me it is or should I say 'it was." Why do we need a world to define what is the meaning of a friend to us?

I don't believe that every follow is going to be a friend, but it is nice to have people that are willing to listen to your random rants, view the funny photos, and add their opinions on the world events (just a few things that I share on Twitter). When I started on Twitter, I was conducting an experiment on how social networking was becoming more embedded into our everyday lives. In the beginning, I didn't get it. I wondered why people would spend their time updating their friends and random people on what was going on in their daily life. But then, isn't that what we do on Facebook and when we blog. With twitter, we are limited to 140 characters. So I guest the people at Twitter are helping us not ramble. (Blogger, do not get any ideas).

Only a few of my friends were let in to knowing that I had an account. Months went by and I was happy to see what was going on in two of my friend's lives because it seemed it was the only way I could keep up with what was going on in their lives. As we get older, move to different cities and states, it becomes harder to pick up the phone and make a call. I remember in high school, the few times I was grounded, my punishment was no phone privileges. Now, I see my roll over minutes building up month to month to a point I think that I could actually be on the phone outside of my free nights and weekends and not have to pay an overage charge for a week. (For those trying to the math on that, I have about 3500 minutes saved up).

During my research, I realized that there is/was so much more involved in Twitter than letting people know "what's on your mind." I'm not going to spoil anymore of what Twitter can do for those who don't have Twitter. You really need to experience it for yourself. But what I will tell you is that I have met some very interesting people through it and hopefully some new friends.

Personal Twitter goal #1: getting 50 people to follow me... complete. Now, can I get another 50 people to follow me by next Friday?! I guess only time will tell.

iPhone 4 Release Day

Yes, so I decided to spoil myself and get the new iPhone. But in my journey of getting the phone I was lucky enough to not have to deal with the crazies that decided to suck up all of the parking at the Brea mall. There were 1000s of people that stood in line all day to try and get the phone. What I do not understand is why not just order it online and have it delivered to your house like I did. I got my phone when they said I would and as you can see from my pictures, I walked right by people who were so desperate to get the phone they every waiting outside in the sun for over 6hrs to get the phone.

Stampin' my thug card... officially!

For the doubters and the haters, you didn't believe I would ever do it. Well here you go. I actually like them very much. It took about 2hrs and my head is not sore. Yes, my head feels cooler. If you have any other questions, just ask.

A bit of a history lesson for you about 'cornrows.'

Cornrow braids are not only widespread in Africa, they are also quite ancient. Dating back to at least 500 BC.

Cornrow hairstyles in Africa also cover a wide social terrain: religion, kinship, status, age, ethnicity, and other attributes of identity can all be expressed in hairstyle. Just as important is the act of braiding, which transmits cultural values between generations, expresses bonds between friends, and establishes the role of professional practitioner.

Like many other “Africanisms” in the new world, knowledge of African hairstyles survived the 'Middle Passage. Heads were often shaved upon capture, ostensibly for sanitary reasons, but with the psychological impact of being stripped of one’s culture. Re-establishing traditional hair styles in the new world was thus an act of resistance; one that could be carried out covertly:

"The slaves that worked inside the plantation houses were required to present a neat and tidy appearance… so men and women often wore tight braids, plaits, and cornrows (made by sectioning the hair and braiding it flat to the scalp). The braid patterns were commonly based on African tradition and styles. Other styles Blacks wore proved to be an amalgam of traditional African styles, European trends, and even Native American practices (Byrd and Tharps 2001 pp.13-14)."

For the full and complete article, including pictures, please visit this site. I would like to thank Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for the story.


http://csdt.rpi.edu/african/CORNROW_CURVES/culture/african.origins.htm

Acapulco fundraiser

So I went to Acapulco for dinner Monday night. A friend that was having a fundraiser for a club she is apart of. 25% of the sales yesterday would go to the club. This is a great deal that they were able to work out. It happened to be Margarita Monday as well so there were some craziness there at the end of the night but overall I had a great time. After dinner, we went to a bar to shoot some pool. The plan was to go bowling, which at first I was excited for. But after seeing how expensive it was going to be, I made the executive my money would be best to save for another rainy day. Some still went bowling but I stayed behind. Good thing too, because I met someone and we had great conversations. Not trying to be cryptic right now, but guys "yes you can actually talk to gals and not want to sleep with them." And no, it doesn't mean they are a relative or an ex. I know, I know... it doesn't make any sense to some of you, but Google it. It is possible.

Silver Dollar Dream

I had a dream about a silver dollar last night. It was wrapped in a plastic cover printed with the design of a quarter on the front and the back. The plastic coming up a bit which is how I discovered that it was a fake. There was a couple that was trying to get it back from me, but I don't know why.

The big about the dream is that I usually do not remember my dreams. I wonder what it means. Does it mean that I am going to receive or find a fortune? Or does it mean someone is going to try and rip me off? And if they are, how? Are they going to get me to give them money? Or am I going to be turning a profit and they are going to get me to give it to them? So many questions and so many different outcomes... oh dear.

Hundred Dollar Bill

Earlier this week, I had a guest come into the shop at 5:30a wanting to purchase a cup of coffee for her and her husband and a pastry. The total for all of this was under $5.00. She placed a hundred dollar bill down on the counter and preceded with her conversation with her husband. After a couple of "polite" throat clearing sounds, she looked back at me and I informed her that I didn't have enough change to break her bill, and ask if she had something smaller or a different payment option. Now before I continue, I will say I was actually being polite, we as polite as I could be for it being 5:30 in the morning.

So she gave me this look ( you all know the look) and said, "what do you mean you
cannot break this, you didn't even open your register." Now, the E.J. you all know and sometimes love... had to come out. "Well Miss, I did open the store this morning and I know how much is in the register. And since we just opened 30 minutes ago and there were four guest before you, I might have just a little idea on how much is in the register." She gave me one of those 'Orange County housewife' grunts of discust and pulled out her credit card, paid and left.

We are living in a world where there is not a need to carry that much cash on you. Just use your bank card or carry small bills, then you know that you will not have troubles with places not being able to take your hundred dollar bill.

Big Bear Mtn Commercial

Okay okay... there has been a lot of snow this season. And maybe this was the most snow since "El Nino." But your advertisers need to rethink your latest commercial. You cannot write a jingle calling this storm "el Nino." Go back to the drawing board and come up with your own material. Oh wait, they couldn't come up with their own stuff so they had to recycle. Did you think that it was so old that we would not remember it?

57 north ramp closure

57 north ramp from the 91 East freeway

Cal-trans: you fail us again. Why would you close a major interchange on a Monday for street cleaning the day after it rain? I do believe that Mother Nature did a mighty good job herself cleaning the freeway up. Are you trying to insult her work?

People's Choice Award Show 2010

I would like to thank my buddy 'girl Alex' for allowing me to escort her this year's award show. It was a great experience. Being a seat filler is fun, but it can also be pain. Everyone that signs up wants to me in the front or in line sight to be on television. We were lucky to be asked to move down, without having to 'whore ourselves' out. I know there are females out there that think that guys have one track minds, but there are still men, not boys out there that think differently. It is great that you dress up, but no need to look like a hoe.

We got to sit two rows back from the house right island stage, which was about 12 rows back from the main stage. If you watched the show and read any of stories, I saw all of the stars. The new kids on the block, I had no idea who they were before tonight, had all of the young kids in the audience screaming like little girls. Then I would just ask the young lady next to me, "and who is that?" Haha I believe that she was probably happy when the show was over.

So as I re-watch the show, I did see myself twice. The first time, you cannot actually see my face, but you can see where I was seated. The second time is when Jessica Alba is presenting, as the camera is moving towards her, you can see me on the right side clapping.

Overall, I had a great night and I got to hang out with my 'girl Alex.'

Chelsea Lately Show

So I got to go see a live taping of the show. I really enjoy watching the show. What I was disappointed in, is how it seemed the staff did not care about there jobs. We were told to show up by 230pm, and then I had a friend tell me that ppl show up early to stand in line (so they can get a better seat). So my friends and I show up at 12p. Luck for us we did because they started to check ppl at 130p. After we got through security, around 230, we sat for about 25 minutes. They shot the show in just over 35 minutes (if you are not familiar with the show, it runs 24 mins long). I was back to my car by 3:47pm and home by 430p. It was great to not have to sit in Los Angeles traffic. But everything outside of the actual show seemed so unorganized. With all of the dead time, they really could have shot at least 2 episodes.

Lastly, Chelsea did sign copies of her book if you brought a copy, but she didn't talk or even say hi or thanks for coming to the show. I understand we all may have a lot on our plates at times, but even a hi or thank you is not too hard to say.

2010

Well another year has gone by. I see that my goal in keeping this thing current has failed again. I guess it is not a good selling point state that fact. But with the new improvements in the tech world, maybe this year I will have a turn around.

I was able to get a new fancy phone this past month (thank you bro) and with the features from Google, I able to use my phone more as it was intended... As a pocket PC. Since I am rarely at home to actually play on my laptop, maybe this will give me a chance to keep you, my family and friends updated on what is going on in EJ's world. I guess only time will tell.

Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way

Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way

http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/project-365-take-a-photo-a-day/

People will often say that their whole lives flashed before their eyes after they experienced a traumatic event. Perhaps it’s a bit morbid, but we think that sounds pretty incredible.

Taking a photo a day is a big undertaking with big payoffs. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider doing it:

Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)

Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.

Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day.