pretty ties

I really like looking at pretty ties. I'll always pick one out, show it to W or my brother or whoever, and usually they'll be like, "oh yeah that's nice..." and then keep looking ahaha.

Here is one I LOVED and W actually did too. When he will wear it I don't know but I did have a good time having a photo session with it. :)

the last one could totally be a useful graphic. pretty!

Lions in Munich

Munich (Germany). I love this city. Although to be truthful I did visit in July, so I've never experienced winter there. Anyway, they have all these decorated lion statues scattered all over the place. It's cute... here are a few:





That last one is a little bit sacreligious (what with the Portugal get up and the patriotic lion), but it was the Portugal-Italy world cup game so at least he wasn't rooting AGAINST Germany.

The picture is also deceiving because actually we were depressed cuz Portugal lost. As had Germany when we cheered for them. And as France did in the finals when I cheered for them.

the LA subway is REAL

When I was in high school, upper classmen liked to tell the freshmen that there was a pool on the roof of the gym (which was pretty hilarious in itself considering the decrepit state of our gym, esp the collapsing roof). Now that I think about it, I'm not sure what satisfaction we got out of that. Telling lies feels good? I guess I do enjoy BSing with friends even to this day.

When you tell some people that LA has a subway (even people that live in LA), people usually think that they are getting duped like some high school freshman.... but its REAL! I rode it for the first time last week! And it's actually not deserted. It doesn't feel like I'm in LA when I ride it to work, so it's still fun for me.

Everyone should experience the LA subway sometime. Some of the stations are actually pretty cool-looking. This picture is of the Hollywood-Highlands stop. Check out mta.net for more pictures. I'm serious.

crazy tacos, crazy gas station, crazy concert hall

My title sounds like an annoying radio commercial.

Crazy tacos: Although I have been passing by El Ranchero (Garfield & Mission) for as long as I can remember, I've never actually been inside. Well I went for the first time today for their Monday Madness. It is pretty Mad. Soft tacos (corn tortilla) that are usually $1.50 are $0.50!!! Mad!!! Honestly, they're good (although I don't know about for $1.50...). The only thing that surprised me was that I liked carnitas the least (out of carne asada, pollo, and carnitas). The carne asada and chicken are great. Eaten along with an XL Orange Bang by your side, it's Mad!! OK i'll stop.

Crazy gas station: We were heading down Olympic towards Santa Monica when we passed by this CRAZY gas station! I think it's BP. Wish we had a better picture.

gas station from another planet! i'm easily amused.

Crazy concert hall: Went to the crazy Disney concert hall to watch this show called Shen Wei and company, "Connect/Transfer." It was a unique show fusing dance, music, and art. Some parts were a little too interpretive-abstract dancing for me, but overall it was great. The dancers were incredibly talented and the pianist was truly amazing (spoken in my best critic's voice oui oui). A part of the show was them painting the canvas floor with their bodies as they danced.

Before:
After:

Modern art tends to have a way of looking like children's art, but I like it. This show was actually better viewed up high from nosebleed ;) Go poor grad students!


One more from the outside, just for good measure :) :

There are PINK dolphins!!!

Whoa! I'm not kidding. I looked it up after reading a briefing on Hong Kong by the Economist (they are going to build some sort of gas plant that enviros fear will kill off the "rare pink dolphins" in the region), so it's legit! haha.

You can be a level 70 Night Elf Druid... and still get a degree!!!

This was an ad I saw on Facebook today. SooOoOooo funny (and kind of sad).

Ironically named "Today's Education"...

el cucuy and mandril

El Cucuy and Mandril.

These posters are EVERYWHERE. I think this is the first picture I have taken of a busstop ad-- that's how prevalent they are. They half amuse me, half frighten me. Especially that little monkey man, Mandril. I mean, WHAT is he doing??

I was thinking that maybe, if I understood Spanish, I would listen to them in the morning because they sure look like they are on something that I should be on. Look at that smile on El Cucuy. "EEE!" That's the noise I would make if I were smiling like that.

But really, I wouldn't. I hate waking up to loud music/noise. Scares the poo out of me and puts me in a bad mood. What works best is actually NPR. That mellow newscaster voice with the pleasant melodies in between talks. Discussing something interesting but not dense... something like mandrills. or not.