80 posts tagged “la”
The only news and politics I'll give you today is what I posted on Twitter:
Public option =
Health stocks went down yesterday. Lieberman says he'll block it =
health stocks go up today. Liberman = owned by insurance.
Now then... My day. I woke up with a headache, which I still have. Lister was not yet gone when I woke up -- yes I woke up at 8 something. Gave him some kisses and snuggles. After Brian left with Lister I was gonna finally finish that wallet that I had started last week, but quickly realized my headache wasn't gonna let me be productive. Dutchie was acting odder than normal. She'd run around crying. I'd get her calm. No cat naps. I think she missed Lister.
So now that I have a FF add on which auto connects to chat programs + social network sites, Brian found me online without having to e-mail me (this is good and bad, I forgot why I didn't auto start all of these things - everyone finds you and thinks you're hiding, if you didn't message them first, etc). Anyway, seems they were worried about Lister -- he coughed. So they'd have to do a chest x-ray before surgery. And they found masses in his ears. They'd have to biopsy. They're basically checking him for cancer :/ We assume the chest x-ray is fine as they DID do his ear surgery. Get to wait for the biopsy results. My question though? They were checking his ear out before. They already drained it the other day. Surgery wasn't the FIRST option. It's only because he had it fill up again. Didn't they notice these masses on his LAST visit. Did they magically appear in a few days time? Seriously. Grrr. At least he'll be home in a few hours but with a cone on his head. Poor kitty, Dutchie's gonna hiss at him for smelling like the vet's office instead of himself AND now she'll make fun of him, even though she missed him.
So. Now the winds...
Marina del Rey
Wind: From N at 20 mph
gusting to 32 mph
Los Angeles
Wind: From N at 16 mph
gusting to 31 mph
It sounds like a horror movie outside. My doors are rattling. Oooooh. Wooooooooooo. Bells on boats are dinging. Etc.
But hey before all of that, I finally caught a bad picture of one of the hyper squirrels through the window just as it was running off. They always run off before I get proof of their existence. Usually they run in pairs. This is one of the few loners. And yes, even though it's not a great pic, I'm sure you can spot the squirrely twitchy tail. They always look angry.
Oh there's more to my day, pasted mostly word for word from IM to Brian -- Ouuuuch! Dutchie is apparently afraid of storms she started crying, came flying across the room, up on couch, skidded into my lap claws out -- now she's hugging my chest. I told her "you know you're a black cat, it's Halloween time. you're supposed to scare people not get scared"
It's only 7 pm. I've got my headache still. Don't think I'll post again here today unless something happens with Lister. For now it seems he's all good, just gotta wait for his test results.
Doesn't Lister look peaceful while trying to figure out where those birds are? The birds and bugs all torment him. He can't climb or even jump a little to save his life. The other creatures of the world seem to know this so when I take him in the yard the birds seem to chirp more than usual. Moths will fly in front of him, wait a few seconds, fly right back past him. I swear they torment him on purpose. Don't let the big bird feather near him fool you. We end up with bird feathers in our yard a lot. That either happens naturally -- them losing them, or they must fight or squirrels or something. Lister has nothing to do with that. I should have gotten a wider shot of our yard. It's very small but it's like a jungle. A few random bird feathers, all of those leaves, the tree... and then tons of... well see the next picture.
As I said on Twitter, I'm such a good consumer. Sunday is a good night in the Marina for hitting this one shopping center. For a Sunday some of the stores are open late'ish. Namely B&N, Coffee Bean, and Quiznos. Because you know, even in the LA area plenty of things do have those dreaded Sunday hours. So to find several things open past 5 or 6 on a Sunday in one place, we love that. At 9 pm the lot was still fairly full, B&N still had a fair amount of people browsing books, magazines, and comics. Coffee Bean still had people busy on their computers or sipping coffee outside. Quiznos too still had a decent number of people. Further down in the shopping center is a Fat Burger, a movie theater, etc. so yeah this shopping center, it rocks. It's not too big actually, but it's laid out just right and has just about all we need (grocery store and my pharmacy on the other end too).
I didn't know for sure what book I wanted but before we got there I'd decided this -- if I saw The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
Doesn't Dick Cheney have a bad heart? It's no wonder. He's full of nothing but fear. His heart probably can't take how full of panic he is. His daughter is no better. She's like a female mini-me of him. It's terrifying. Their attempts to scare me worked but not in the ways they wanted to... Doomsday people who are so full of hate and anger and evil scare the bejeezus out of me.
I might rant about it more later, I have lots to say about their craziness but I'm too tired. I just want it know they're friggin scary scary scary and I wish they'd take a week or hell a day off. I'm tired of their BE AFRAID, BE AFRAID, BE AFRAID. So damn negative. They should go to Disneyland and smile or something. Geeeezus. I live in Los Angeles a town where this week's top news stories were: TWO earthquakes, a man shot and killed in a busy mall in broad daylight where the killer then got through airport security with a gun, several plane crashes, a family killed in their home with their kids home -- the mom was pregnant, etc etc etc. I'm surrounded by people of all cultures, races, religions, classes, etc etc etc. I'm not afraid of the world that I live in. I'm quite content with it. I know it can be scary but I don't sit around worrying about it as it'd eat me alive. I have fun analyzing it and sometimes ranting about it here, generally with a smile on my face and then I move on. But they scare the hell out of me.
How they got to be so paranoid, scared, scary, evil, etc. I dunno. But they seriously need to go to Disneyland, it's hard to be scary and grumpy and stuff at Disneyland. Well the lines kind of suck, but they won't have to wait in them I'm sure.
So I was on call for Jury Duty all week. When I had Jury Duty in OR it went like this -- you went in for a week, you sat around, if you got chosen to be on a jury you sat for through that trial and were done when that trial was done, if not you waited until the end of the week to see if they needed jurors for other cases and then were done. I got picked for Grand Jury -- which meant a month. My boss then was ok with that even tough I was new there then so I did a month of Grand Jury and was done.
In LA it works like this -- You're on call for one week, you have to call in Sunday - Thursday night. Your summons has a juror number and a pin number both. You enter both into the automated phone system and the nice lady will tell you yes you have to report the next morning or no you don't. The videos / info online state that it's basically random whether your number gets pulled and they don't call for you unless there is a need. Sunday - Wednesday I get nope, you don't have to come in the next day, please call back tomorrow. So I just know Thursday I'm going to get the yes. No one gets out of jury duty.
My doctors tried to get me out of it. My health probs are too unpredictable. They told me it'd fail, which it did. They said that just saying I have this disease and that one isn't enough so when I get called in tell the judge which symptoms will make it a problem and let the judge decide, that combined with their attempt is usually best. Okay. If it's a short trial (they tell you ahead of time we expect it to go this many days is that a problem) I won't complain since I'd be picked on Friday -- have weekend to sleep -- then a few days to suffer without sleep, etc. I actually find law interesting, my degree is in paralegal, etc so short trial I won't mind. Just longer is my concern.
But... I call tonight and get something along the lines of (not a direct quote since clearly my memory is too crap to remember it word for word) -- You have completed your jury service and do not need to report for service. You will not be selected again for another year. Thank you.
WHAT? Is there no crime in LA, they sent out way way too many jury summons? So many people are reporting because they're all unemployed and need that $15 a day? Too many trials already underway that they can't start new ones and don't yet need jurors? It's not so random and my doctors attempt put me at the bottom of the list? Whatever it is, I got out anyway.
In case you have not heard a young rapper (I'd not heard of him before yesterday) who went by the name of Dolla was killed at the Beverly Center yesterday. Initial reports had just been basically that there had been some fight in the valet parking area of the mall, he was shot, the suspect was on the loose, etc. It almost sounded like it was a random fight gone bad. I figured that wasn't the whole story, I know LA has a bad rep but people here don't tend to just get into random fights in parking lots of malls and shoot each other. In fact, I can't say that I've seen people even get really pissy with random people here, so yeah.
Then more and more stories come out that make it sound more and more personal -- duh.
Well they captured a suspect quickly. Good. But here's where I get a little, umm, WTF?
Story #1 in LA Times Here. "The suspect was detained without incident [and] discovered to be armed," said Los Angeles World Airports spokeswoman Nancy Castles.
Story #2 in LA Times Here. Berry was arrested on suspicion of murder Monday afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport as he attempted to board a plane, said officials with the Los Angeles Police Department
Story #3 on KNBC HERE. Police said the man detained at the airport is believed to have dropped off a rental car before he was found at the airport with a handgun, said airport police spokesman Sgt. Jim Holcomb.
Assuming all of those statements are correct and best I can tell none have been retracted, WTF? How did anyone get through LAX security to the point that he was about to board a plane with a GUN? A suspect in a high profile murder... At least he was spotted and arrested before he could get on the plane. Still, if you have so much as driven by LAX you know security starts at the entrance, but... he got inside, bought a ticket, and was on his way out with a gun after allegedly shooting a man in the head in a busy mall. Um... I thought airports, especially LAX, were now security hell to the point you get harassed if you have nail clippers and knitting needles and bottled water on you?
So though I've never heard of him, RIP Dolla, 20 or 21 (I've heard both) is too young to die, don't care how much you hate someone a gun isn't an answer to anything. And thank goodness the cops found this man before he freaked out and did something stupid hurting anyone else.
And yes, I did call my mom, I know the Portland news will see that big red square and make it sound as though we're all dead or in the ocean.
Initial reporting - 5.0, those tend to change slightly but there you go. Seems about right.
This would be our top local story. If you haven't seen it, I'd say the cops have some explaining to do. The jackass running gets his in court not on the ground being kicked in the head by a cop after he's surrendered.
Clearly the suspect is a bad guy. Known gang member, running from the cops. But the cops are also doing a high speed chase over a traffic infraction. I hate that crap, risking lives over a traffic infraction. People do get scared and run over that for some reason. Unless you know someone is I don't know, a murderer, rapist, etc why the hell risk all our lives over a busted tail light or a speeding ticket or something? And when he's on the ground with his hands visible why kick him in the head even if you KNOW he's a gang member? With cameras rolling? You'd have to be a complete idiot to be oblivious to the fact that copters follow these chases and we're all watching live.
Brian and the birds:
I watched Brian tell off a bird. Really. See everyone thinks
California, especially the LA area is all city. Not so. We live near
the water. Our neighborhood is like umm... We're in apartments, in a city kind of neighborhood, yet
it's like mother natureville. Trees, crickets, tons of kinds of birds,
squirrels bigger than Dutchie, ducks that hang out in our pool / walk
around in our yards, etc. Well some of the birds sound lovely. Some
sound horrific. One was out in the tree sounding like a sick duck
talking up a storm to no one. Brian would yell outside for it to shut
up, heh. It did not listen. So we go to leave to run errands. It
yells at Brian. Brian's all where the hell is that damn bird. It stops.
We walk under the tree... horrific sick duck sound from bird again. Brian
looks up in tree, can't find bird. Keeps walking. It starts again.
He finally spots it. Bird is clearly watching us. So Brian is yelling at it
to shut the hell up, it just gets more vocal. Apparently birds don't
like being told off. Later that night, Brian sees another bird down at
the boats, equally loud and annoying. It starts telling Brian off.
Guess they've heard about him now. Nice change for him I guess. Once
when he was walking down by the boats a crab jumped up out of the water
onto the sidewalk in front of him. Me? I kind of like watching some of the birds and find some of them peaceful. But some of them flat out annoy me and creep me out. I swear they do watch people. I keep waiting for them to attack us.
Books:
Read Grave
Sight (Harper Connelly Mysteries, Book 1)
Celebrity Apprentice business rant:
Watched the Celebrity Apprentice finale. Won't spoil who won, but will
spoil part of the show, so stop reading now if you didn't watch but
plan to. They had Cirque / Kodak in the show. I LOVE Cirque, made me
wanna see another show. Soooo they were doing a charity auction party
thing and had to turn a bland room into something really Kodak / Cirque
/ their charity themed. They were both given event planners from the
same company. I must say I hope this show ruined that friggin
company. I know, I know, editing, etc. But you can only blame
editing for so much, everything they show happened, no?
Two rooms, same size, same time period to fix them up, same company. For Annie's team? This company is going to get them ice sculptures, clouds hanging down from the ceiling, etc etc full on decorate the room into something amazing and magical to go with Cirque theme. For Joan's room? We can cover the walls with red fabric, we don't have time to do anything else and red fabric is all we can get in NEW YORK on such short notice for a Kodak theme. Erm. What? So Joan says well I have a guy who can help if you'll just talk to me about what you're willing to do, because red walls and that's that isn't enough. So they tell her well they quit then. Alrighty then. Because she wants more from an event planner than a red wall and offers them people to help if they can't do it on short notice?
That's not why I want their business to be ruined though. Doing a horrific job on one job then quitting mid job? Eh, ok. But then Annie's team is waiting, calling their planner, not getting called back, etc. They get concerned and show up at that business and get told to leave. Leave? We have a party tomorrow where's our planner, where's our calls back, etc? So they talk to her off camera to tell her they'd quit her too. Okay. Well maybe you should have told her instead of ignoring calls, etc. She didn't know you quit. She was calling you, she even showed up at your office and you still weren't going to tell her she had no planner until she begged for someone to talk to her. That's the most unprofessional treatment I can imagine. And I don't like Annie -- her I'm so good I'm better than everyone at everything attitude makes me ill. I liked seeing her squirm. I laughed even. But still, no one should be treated like that by a business. I don't even care if you weren't being paid, if you did it for publicity on a national tv show, whatever. Bad bad bad business, may you never get another job again.
