32 posts tagged “la”

Once again we had to go to the Fry's store out by LAX.  Ok, so Fry's stores in general tend to be busy, etc.  But this one seriously makes me want to have major panic attacks.  I get so claustrophobic there.   Fellow customers also apparently  stressed by the so very un-customer friendly store, or perhaps just rude begin to ignore other customers like me.  They walk in straight lines.  If you're in their way they shove you, even if all of the area around you was open to walk around you.  It makes me want to go Michael Douglas circa Falling Down on them or alternatively just crawl into a cave and never see another person again as long as I live.  At least 4 people shoved me with no reason to.  Plenty of room to walk around me, me standing out of the way, not in the center of aisles, etc. I HATE PEOPLE BEING RUDE.  I mean if I see you wanting to look at stuff I'm also looking at, I move out of the way.  If I see you walking by, I make sure I'm not in your way.  If you smack into me say sorry or at least look at me with an oops look on your face.  Assholes. 

And Fry's.  Oh Fry's.  Your set up is so unfriendly.  If we want something from the shelf, no prob.  If we want something that is well controlled like RAM, big mess.  Last time Brian got charged for a more expensive MB that he wanted but was given a cheaper and slower one that happened to come in a very similar box etc.  Didn't realize til he got it home. By then you were closed and it was a holiday weekend so you wouldn't be open again until he was back at work.  Meant he'd have to take time off of work to return it during the week and couldn't as he had no working desktop machine and a freelance project he had to start.  So you screwed him and he took it and lost about $20 as that was the difference in what he paid for and got. 

This time he said he needed two sticks of this RAM.  You said ok.  You sent him to the front with paperwork for 1.  They can't edit it at the register.  Back to the back for edited paperwork.  They don't have to EDIT THE PAPERWORK.  They just have to ask them to send another stick up front.  WTF?  And if you buy something like RAM that requires paperwork you can't go buy anything else in the store because once you have a piece of paper thats an order for the check out people to use and they can't add to it, even if it's the stuff from by the register.  But if you buy just normal stuff from the shelves that doesn't require that inventory control type of paperwork, no worries you can keep shopping  but no one tells you this (we happen to know  it from previous experience).

I've ranted about this before.  Just argh.  Why must you be so convenient in SOME ways and yet such a pathetic panic inducing store in others?

Brian finally slept lots.

I slept but not well, nerve pain woke me up.  Sucked.  So I kept going back to sleep and ending "sleeping" on and off from around 11 am until 6something pm.

Brian got up at 8:something and asked if I wanted to go to Apple store with him.  Hmm... out of soy milk and coffee.  yeah!  So went and got coffee first.  Went to Santa Monica.  The parking garage we went to claimed to have 98 available spaces on the digital board outside, no it had about 2 :P  Which we found once we got to the 9th floor.  It's undergoing construction though maybe they don't update it to show the blocked off spaces.  Brian got his laptop case (Apple stores have the coolest checkout system, or at least the one in the Santa Monica Promenade does, never shopped at another) and we went to leave and weren't sure what to do.  Wish I'd taken a picture.  Even my broken brain couldn't MAKE THIS UP... get to the end of the parking row.  The sign in front of us says no right turns exit left.  The sight above says no left turns exit right.  *blinks*  I mean I GUESS we could have gone straight through the brick wall of the 9th floor and seen what happened.  Brian looked at the signs and me, I looked at them and him.  WTF?  I'm sure it's a goof from the major construction going on and one old sign got left while they redirect traffic a new way.  But umm we basically waited for cars to come out to see what direction other exiting traffic went in so you know we wouldn't hit someone head on.

So we finally get out of there and the next parking garage says 200some space free.  Ok now I know those signs are cruel jokes.  Have you ever been to downtown Santa Monica near the Promenade / Pier on a Saturday night?  200 some free spaces, uhh funny.  There are not 200 free spaces in all of Santa Monica let alone one garage.  Liars.  Brian "What happens if you get a ticket to park, drive through, no spots?  You pay $3 for the ride?".

Uhh I'm rambling and pain alien here.  Away I go.

Grrrrr! 
The land around the Hollywood sign is for sale.  I sincerely hope that someone buys it to preserve it.  I know it's a lot of money, but there is a lot of money in California.  Surely someone would want to buy it and keep it free of homes.  Some places shouldn't be built on.  Parks.  Forests.  As a Californian, I believe that the Hollywood sign is one of those places you just don't violate with houses.

Art failure but not:

Streetview

How in the world did Google get a picture of my street for street view with no traffic AND no cars parked on the road?  It's friggin magic!  I mean, I don't live on the busiest street in LA or anything but I do live on a busy  enough street.  I've seen not so busy traffic times and I've seen days where there might be one or two parking spots available, but I've never see it look so abandoned.  The entire right side of the pic should always be lined with parked cars.   In fact there's a corner with a light just out of sight of this pic, we always have to wait for the light to go as there's so many cars around usually you can't see if traffic is coming of not to turn safely.   I asked Brian what'd he say to Google maps street view showing no traffic and no one parked out front, he had one word for me "editing".  And yet... This picture IS my street.  Hrmph.  Very odd.  Taken in a parallel universe perhaps.

Politics:
Rumours floating around that Obama would offer Edwards the Attorney General position if he's elected.  If it's true I hope Obama wins.  Edwards could probably just go into the private/non-profit sector and do more but frankly I'm such a strong supporter of his I think it'd be a shame to see him leave Government, he's one of the few good big party guys  we have left who would work FOR us.

TV:
Smallville was new and is getting a bit darker though it had some cheesy moments.  This is to be the last season with Lex and we're running out of episodes... hmmm.  I keep hoping it means we'll move onto the Batman/Superman friendship of the comic books, but I read there are legal issues so we'll likely never see Batman on the series.   Also comic book related, they announced Chloe would become a regular and have since retracted that comment, bummer, I like her.

Paparazzi = Stalkers:
Locally they're finally deciding enough is enough with the paparazzi.  http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=212782
  About time someone considers them the stalkers they are.  Brian and I find it hilarious the papazzari in that video are asking them to get the camera out of their faces.  Also stalking isn't a 1st amendment right, thanks. 

I did it!  Just kidding:
On Sunday Dutch TV will be airing some sort of confession by Joran van der Sloot relating to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.  He of course now says he lied on the hidden camera confession.  Yeah, I always go around confessing to something I didn't do too. 

For the Kitty Owners:
OMG! Looks so much better than a litter box.  Sadly our apartment bathroom doesn't have a layout where that would work but I want that anyway.  The Littermaid self cleaning litterbox changed it's design from the original one we used to have and now doesn't work very well.

So apparently going on a Friday to a 1st day of Trek geekdom = Trekkies can't get the day off of work because it was fairly quiet.  Had my first experience with the stereotypical "I'm a screenwriter / actor" living in LA person.  But he was nice and didn't mention working as a waiter ;)  But yeah the Trek stuff.  We got to do stuff like sit in the captain's chair of the original series with no one else on the "set".  They only let one person, well one group of people who are together in to those set exhibits at a time.  So going when not many people were there was good.  We got more time than they'll get as they get the bigger crowds because when other people came it meant your turn was up.  Some of those tv props looks so bad up close.  Plastic craft rhinestone things glued on things, glass beads.  Magnifying glasses decorated to be "scanners".  Yet on tv they somehow work. Kind of like how facades at Universal suddenly look like real houses when you take a picture of them.

So after all of the Trek stuff (pics of it and the ship hotel room when we bother pulling them off the camera) we went and had dinner on the ship.  Then we decided to wander around the ship.  Usually we just explored the decks.  This time we wandered around mostly the inner part of the ship, the hotel part.  On top of trekkies there was also a t-shirt convention on one hotel floor with lots of people drinking.  We found the pool room  which is supposed to be the most haunted part of the ship, but it was locked and had a if you want to see the pool here's now sign next to it -- one of the ways was to join a midnight ghost tour on the 1st and 3rd Friday of the month.  Being it was the 3rd one Brian got interested.  I didn't think I could handle it as my body was already giving out so I told him he should go.  We continued exploring and ended up in places that no one was.  It was so cool.  One floor we'd never been on before gave me a really bad feeling deep in my gut which I cannot explain, Brian said that floor did feel more curved that the others and was messing with him.  Right after I said that we passed a "Ghost sighting" plaque on the wall.    No I didn't feel like there was a ghost around but it was weird and I really was glad we were staying on that floor as I never really shook that ugh full of dread feeling whatever it was.  I didn't get that anywhere else on the ship.

Then Brian got pranked by the staff.  Through the inner parts of the ship are big rooms that were once things like the ticket bureau.  On that one it was mostly old looking frosted glass you couldn't see into other than the writing was clear glass so if you peeked in through the writing you could see the room was still as it used to be.  Well another  such room was just frosted glass, but Brian tried to peek in anyway.  Realizing he couldn't see we went to turn down the nearby hall and heard a buzz.  Look around and there's a buzzer and a phone next to that room but no one around.  Keep walking towards the corner to turn.  Buzz.  Look back again.  Nothing.  Turn again, halfway around the corner and the phone rings.  Ignore it and walk all the way down the ship, around to the opposite side, all of the way down that side, around back to the side we started on, and past the room with the buzzer again to the elevators.  I walk past it. Nothing.  Brian does.  Buzz.  Keep in mind this is a good 1/2 hour later now.  So he stands away from the room, as do I while laughing my ass off.  Others comes and go.  Nothing.  I tell Brian now walk by the room again after we've proven tons of people can walk by and nothing happens.  He walks towards me, past the room.   Buzz. We notice a camera over the phone.  He walks back under that and starts making faced into it.  Buzz and the phone rings.  He answers.  They tell him sorry it's just no fun if they don't mess with people. 

Then it was getting to be oh close to 9-10 pm.  So we went and found out about the paranormal tour thing.  $75 and tickets still available.  Brian signed up and we went to watch tv until then.  Brian left for it at 11:30.  By then I was a zombie and passed out cold by midnight.  Woke up at 4 when Brian was showering as he went in very dusty parts of the ship he'd never see if not for a special tour like that one.  Talked to him for a bit.  Went back to bed.  Woke up at 9.  Trek exhibit had a HUGE line (it was in the old Spruce Goose Dome, not ON the ship).  Now I am exhausted. 

Brian wants to go on a cruise someday now, maybe when his work on this movie is over.  One from here to Mexico wasn't as expensive as he expected. 

Anyway this was a long ass entry.  zzzzzzz  pics and maybe more about what Brian told me about that tour some other time (even though I believe in spirits or something I could explain one or two things he mentioned myself rationally) but *yawn*  sooo sore and tired now. 

Yeah, I haven't done bad phone cam tour of LA in ages, so today... LA's version of art cars!

Now my mommy loves art cars.  And while I appreciate her love for all things art, I must admit most art cars just look like an excuse to waste paint or to glue old doll parts to cars, but this one made me go "WOW".  No, we didn't stalk the guy, he was next to us on the road and going to the same shopping center as us so we snapped a few pics. Brian probably has better ones, but here you go...