Back In the Day.

Caution.
This is a bit of a history lesson. If history causes you to rip the skin off your own face, don't attempt to read this post. You've been warned.

To be honest, I haven't had anything to write about lately. Not that my social life hasn't been on fire (which it has) but I haven't found the need to blog about parties & minor social gatherings. Plus they all end up the same way; me, drunk, talking to anyone who isn't too sober to listen, & my friends dancing to any audible beat they hear nearby. All of those party updates are usually on my Facebook wall, anyway, so there's no real need to blog about that. Am I right or am I right?

My blog's been collecting dust, and I've been anxious to find a good topic. So, sadly enough, I've decided to go from the super-interesting subject of Lamar Jay to the history of Long Beach and Lakewood (my neighboring hometowns).

*watches people hurry up and click out of the blog*

Lol, I'm actually the last person interested in history. But when it comes to a place that I've grown up at and still walk the streets of today, I'm very intrigued by it. One thing I've always imagined is that if a time machine were ever invented, I'd go back to the first day my city got started, just to see how much has changed. Thanks to the internet, I was able to do that in a sense. My life is fulfilled; I can die now.

But for anyone who's grown up in Long Beach or Lakewood, I think the discovery of what used to cover these streets eons ago would be a shock to them too, right? RIGHT?! I mean, can you imagine Native Americans walking the streets of Signal Hill? And who thought that Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was actually the first person to discover Long Beach*? The only thing really remembered in his name is that high school that looks like a state penitentiary. He wasn't feeling Long Beach, though, because he wasn't able to grow his crops due to the inconsistency of the climate (look at my attempt to sound smart).**

*side note: It may say on some sites that the Spanish discovered Signal Hill, but it was occupied by the native american Indians before Juan Cabrillo and his crew crashed his little boat onto the coast. Don't believe the hype.

**another historic fact: You know Shell gas station? The name comes from Shell Oil Company, founded when oil was discovered in Signal Hill. Not to mention, that oil field was one of the most productive in the world.

Okay, enough nerdy talk.

"May Co" is now Macy's. The vents on the corners are still there.
Courtesy of Malls of America (blog)

The next time you take a stroll through the Lakewood Mall, try to imagine all of that area being used for a lima bean farm. And miles continued down south of nothing but... lima beans. I mean, not even corn, or something necessary like wheat or cotton. But lima beans.


Before the schools, busy streets, and executive buildings that now crowd Bixby Knolls, it used to be occupied by sheep galore. Sheep?! Wow. I guess you can already imagine that black people weren't seen for miles in the Bixby Knolls area. (That's actually fact)

The only school that would accept black students for a while was Polytechnic High School. Surprise, surprise. According to a family friend, Poly's been around for over 200 years, it's first teacher only being 16 years old. It was the first high school that even existed in this area.

Is that a lima bean in the corner?
Courtesy of Mall of America (blog)

I can't even try to think back to how this wasn't even a city at one point. Whenever do you see closed-off construction that says, "Do Not Enter, We're Building A City"? Never. Does Pan American sound familiar? It's the park that's between Mark Twain Elementary and Bancroft Middle school. Back in the day, there used to be the annual Pan American Fiesta, held in the parking lot of the Lakewood Shopping Center. I can't say which came first; the park or the fiesta. But either way, that explains the goofy name.

Another thing that I found interesting is that Denny's first found it's home in Lakewood. Denny's is a favorite of mine and my friends, & you can almost always find us there in the ho-stroll hours on the weekends. It's original name was Danny's Donuts. Go figure.

But yeah, that's just what I wanted to share since I couldn't find a decent topic to save my life. Hope I didn't bore anyone to tears!

Recommended Listen; Lamar Jay.

Lamar Jay & all his awesomeness.

Lately, all I've been seeing on Facebook is the craze about a new up-and-coming solo artist by the name of Lamar Jay. This guy easily has made his way onto my "25 Most Played" list on iTunes. Don't try to call him an amateur artist; Lamar Jay's single "Mysterious Love" has already been featured in the beginning of the hot summer flick "Lottery Ticket", starring Bow Wow and Ice Cube. The genre of his music is a mixture between pop and r&b, and his voice is so easy to listen to, it's hard to not find yourself hitting the "repeat" button.

However, the song that I've been going crazy about is his newest, "Nicki". It's an up-beat dance track with an addictive beat, about the infamous Nicki Minaj (obviously), where he sings out the verses while Nicki is heard on the hook. It kinda makes me wish my name was Nicki. "All the Nicki's around the woooorld, you're my number one." What about the "Lycie's", huh?!

Lamar Jay works very hard and loves what he does, and it shows. Not to mention he's unbelievably humble for someone rising so quickly. It might be cliche to say, but he really does love his fans and he aims to please them in his music. I can't tell you how many times I've come across arrogant rising artists. Making more enemies than a fan base? No bueno. Lamar Jay's personality is easy to like before you even hear his music, which makes his music that much better. So he's definitely a recommended listen. Shoutout to my new favorite artist, Lamar Jay. Keep it up (:

Click here to check out Lamar Jay on Facebook and look below for his latest single that's my favorite so far:

50 Tyson is My Hero.

Everybody knows who 50 Tyson is by now. If not, I'll elaborate: 50 tyson aka Fatty Fitty aka 50 IQ is notoriously known for his horrible rapping skills performed in his YouTube videos. He's best known for such singles as "Can I Hold You Down" and "I Ain't Gon' Lie", where he loses train of thought mid-flow, and can't remember what number comes after 16. 50 Tyson has become so popular, in fact, that Kevin Hart did an impersonation of him on his own YouTube account.

Some say 50 Tyson is slow, I say someone that slow wouldn't be able to operate a camera. Since when did a severe lack of talent transform into a mental disability? If that's the case, then Miley Cyrus has been running around without her helmet for far too long.

With the sudden e-fame that 50 Tyson is receiving, he's been used to promote other YouTube channels such as TheOfficialTrade. I'm guessing it's without 50's consent, seeing as how they've taken all his videos and put them on their account with a link covering the whole picture of the video saying he's been "hacked". Another factor is that they've used the account name "hd50tyson1" where 50 Tyson's account name is "hd50tyson". Hmm; peculiar. Sadly enough, the publicity isn't working in their favor, and they're more known for "stealing from an autisitic 17-year-old". Womp, womp. The only thing worse than having no talent, is stealing from someone who has no talent. #wheredeydodatat ?

50 Tyson is my hero simply because he's genuine. And with all genuine people come the clones of personality-deficient nobodies. Luckily nobody wants to be like me (:

Here's to you, 50 Tyson!

Run & Tell That!

Normally, I don't jump on bandwagons. I wasn't a major fan of "Pants on the Ground", I'm immune to Beiber Fever, I never owned a Snuggie... But on this particular bandwagon, I have a first class ticket.

By now, everyone's heard the story of Antoine Dodson's sister waking up to a man in her bed while sleeping in her fabulous home in the projects of Lincoln Park. The newscast became ridiculously infamous, and has been remixed into an autotune song now available on iTunes. If you just so happen to live under the biggest rock ever known to mankind and still haven't seen the iconic video, here it is:



Easily, Antoine became the star of the story rather than the true victim, his sister. In all honesty, the story wouldn't nearly have gained so much popularity if it wasn't for Antoine's lovable reaction to the incident. If it went any other way, the story might have been twisted to say that the girl got so drunk that she didn't recognize who she got into bed with the night before. Gotta love the press and the ignorant thoughts of society, right?

Controversy of the claim being the truth or not isn't even the case, though. No, no one's paying attention to that. It's Antoine's flamboyant boy charm that made the video what it is. "We gon' find you, so you can run and TELL THAT!" (I'm thinking about making "run and tell that" my new catch phrase.)

In natural YouTube humor, there's already been a series of music videos made in honor of Antoine's performance. And I'm pleased to announce that my talented little sister, Nellie, is one of the YouTubers associated. P.S, be on the look out for this girl; she's really going places. She finally got signed to an agency and I couldn't be more proud! (:

Here's Nellie's edition of "Run & Tell That":



Though she may have a little too much time on her hands, she's definitely good at what she does; making people laugh. Love you, Nellie!

The Public Transportation Blues.

"The Metro doesn't care about poor people."

As I previously posted before, but ended up removing because I felt that I posted it out of anger and it was wrong, I moved out. Currently I'm living with my mother a good 5 mile distance away, and 5 miles further from my school. I still have to take the bus to school, and the amount of time it takes to get there is about the same. But this past week has shown me just how much money is spent for public transportation; thus giving me a brand new thing to complain about.

I take the Metro bus, which runs from Lakewood to the dirty ghettos of Los Angeles. Bus fare recently went up to $1.50 from the long-lasted fare of $1.25. I take the bus four times a day; two buses going to school, two buses coming home. So, hmm, let me calculate that:

$1.50 x 4 = $6 a day?!


So wait, I take the bus five times a week. Therefore my grand total for fare per
week would be $30. Run that over a course of five weeks for the month and that's… $150. What the HELL? That's a grocery bill, an entire outfit, a day at the salon, or, I don't know, a CAR NOTE? Sure, it'd be a cheap car, but I seriously could pay some kind of car note for that amount of money.

You get a serious discount if you get a bus pass. Monthly bus passes cost $70, $20 if you opt for weekly. $20 a week is gas, if you're driving a basic car locally. $70 a month could fill a gas tank and an entire cupboard of Cup O' Noodles for a starving college student.

Even though it really is a discount, that's not the issue. And I know the obvious question is, "Uhh, what about student bus passes?" Now that's my issue. A student monthly bus pass costs an easy $30. That's way beyond affordable to be taking four buses a day, 20 buses a week, 100 buses a month. The hard part is actually getting the student discount.

First and foremost, you need the application. Luckily, my school has the transportation applications at the front desk of the office. But if they didn't, I would have to contact Metro Corporation and ask them to send me one via U.S. Mail. I mean, really? Do we not live in 2010 where Internet connection can be found at a homeless shelter? Why use U.S. Mail for that crap?

After you finally get the application, you fill out all the information, school included. They want the basics, like your full name and address, the name and address of your school, your phone number, everyday things like that. But they also want: 

• a photo copy of your state I.D
• a copy of your school I.D
• a print-out from the school verifying full-time enrollment
• a letter from the dean
• five reasons why you feel you are eligible
• a copy of monthly expenses
• a copy of your light bill
• and a midget and three balloons.

This isn't a luxury charter bus to the Vegas Strip. It's a city bus filled with bums, freaks, and crying babies. Not to mention, it's a $1 fee just to send the application! And, it has to be made out in a money order. Do you have any idea how hard the people at the check cashing place laughed when I asked for a money order for a dollar?

When you finally have all required items just to send the damn thing out, there is still a 20-day waiting period for verification. Then they make your student card, and then you still have to wait for it to come in the mail. Wouldn't it make much more sense to just show your student I.D. at the place you get bus passes, and have them give you a student pass? Probably! But no, Metro wants you to jump through five hoops of fire to get a discount of $40. I wonder what crackhead screwed up the application process for all the other students.

The process is so irritating that it makes you wanna go ahead and pay $70 a month. But what are they really doing with all the money they get from fare and bus passes? They're not putting it towards any cities that they drive through, which is evident by the way it looks. They're certainly not putting it towards maintenance of the buses, because one of my buses broke down twice last week. If anybody had money to afford bus fare like that, then they would have a car. After taking the same buses for almost two months, I've come to the conclusion that all the people who ride the bus are BROKE.

Getting a job sounds like the obvious solution, doesn't it? I go to school Monday through Friday, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. I'd have to get a job working from 6 a.m., and get off at 12:00 p.m. just to have to turn around and go to school. It would take probably a solid two weeks for me to die from exhaustion. Then the money would be wasted for the extra two weeks I have before my bus pass expires, because I'm dead. I can't even get a car until I have a job to pay for my insurance.

Charging that amount of money to take a bus that's always late is robbery in my opinion. Next time the driver slams on the breaks at a stop light, I'm gonna allow myself to fly to the front of the bus and get hurt. Maybe then I'll be able to afford a monthly pass.

"Blah," to My Bad Day.

The driving test is a set-up for failure

So today I took my behind-the-wheel driving test… I failed.

First of all, my appointment was at 1:00 p.m., but I had to pull my car into this drive-thru and wait for an hour and a half – crap. When it was finally my turn for the test, this old black dude comes and tells me to pull off to the side before I start my test. He asked me for my hand signals. This is how that went: 

Fat, old, crappy instructor: "Do you know your hand signals?"

Me: "Yes."

Fat, old, crappy instructor: "Show me the hand signals."

Me: [puts arm out the window]

Fat, old, crappy instructor: "No, your hand signals."

Me: "Uhh, you want me to use my hands, right? Not the car signals?"

Fat, old, crappy instructor: [impatient sigh] "Did you read the driver's handbook?"

Me: "Yes, but that was a while ago." (Lies)

Fat, old, crappy instructor: "Tell ya' what. I'll just mark it off."

Me: [sad, pathetic face]

I knew my hand signals. Not because I read the book, but because I remember seeing it on an old episode of Franklin on Nick Jr. But before I could get my arm all the way out the window, he was saying, "No, your HAND signals." I thought to myself, "Uh… Yeah! That's what I'm trying to do!" It's not like I stuck my frickin' foot out the window. So before the car was even put in drive, I was already deducted points.

As the test continued on the road, a big rig was pulling out on the street, backing up in front of me. There was still fairly enough space in my lane so, without thinking, I tried to go around. Luckily, I wasn't hit. But that took a big chunk out the ass of my points. All other points deducted were little petty things like wide turns, not scanning enough in residential areas, and… not checking my right side completely when making a right turn?! Who does that? There wasn't enough space for a biker to be on the right side, let alone a car. What a BS call. Needless to say, I wanted to shoot my instructor with a paintball gun. I was only allowed to lose 13 points; I missed 15. After failing, I sat for a minute, cried like a little bitch, and then finally went to school.

That kinda ruined my mood, and painted a "sad puppy" expression on my face for the rest of the day. But I'll be going back on August 16^th, and I REFUSE to fail. Failing the same course twice? Someone say "stupid," so I don't have to.