Earthquake!

Felt my first earthquake last night. I was woken up from an apparent 4.5 earthquake that originated in the porn capital of Chatsworth. The event was rather unremarkable – it felt akin being on a bumpy road in a car for a few seconds. After emerging from my bed, I dawned on me that absolutely no preparations have been made for a greater magnitude earthquake. So if you are in California, you should probably make an earthquake kit:

• Water and food to last at least three days


• Water purification tablets


• Heavy-duty gloves


• A first-aid kit


• A minimum of $100 in cash


• Family photos and descriptions to aid in finding missing people


• A flashlight and portable radio


• Extra batteries


• A personal commode with sanitary bags

Venice Beach

Venice is named after the Italian city. According to history, some rich tobacco dude decided to drain the marshes, build and dig canals on this beach front property. Shops and town buildings closely followed Venetian architecture – with gondolas and all. After being incorporated into Los Angeles in 1925, Venice had descended into the “Slum by the Sea” for the next 50 years.

Today, most of the canals have been filled in and its image has been vastly improved. Venice’s slum history gives this area its bohemian/eclectic charm. Perhaps the most famous point of interest is Muscle Beach – where the governator trained before reaching celebrity status. The boardwalk is quite interesting because it doesn’t feel as commercialised as the other beaches. Artists, independent shops and weirdos who believe in doomsday are found along this walkway. Incidentally, I find it difficult to fathom anybody would think doomsday is coming when the sun is shining and the ocean breeze is blowing. Cheap $5 sunglasses and sombrero hats are the kind of things you will find while shopping on the boardwalk -- I heard this is a great place to find smoking materials too. If you are looking for something fancier, but still unchained from commercialised USA, then you should check out Abbot Kinney Street. Higher end Art stores, furniture stores and independent clothing stores are speckle the strip.

If you do decide to come to Venice, I would recommend park off the beach and ditch the ride – Venice is a walking neighbourhood. I would even recommend walking all the way to Santa Monica. It is beautiful and you don’t need to deal with parking there. Only people from LA whine when walking more than two blocks. The beaches are nice, but can get crowded at times during the summer weekends and traffic can also get rough as the major freeways are a few kilometres away.

Beach: Not usually crowded with a mixed 20-30 something crowd.
Parking: $0-15 and scarce during summer weekends.
Shopping: Few chain stores, independent artwork. Boardwalk, Abbot Kinney are great
Restaurants: Ranges from boardwalk stalls to high end spots on Abbot Kinney
Recommendations: Beachwood(bar), The other room(bar), Baja Cantina(bar), The Brig(bar), James Beach(bar), Chaya Venice(Restaurant), Primitivo(Tapas Bar), Ben & Jerry's (Ice Cream)

LA amore

It has been about 2 years since coming to Los Angeles. Everybody told me it takes a year to get used to it. There were right. California is probably the most amazing place in North America. Zen is achieved once you accept the crappy parts of LA. Traffic sucks – so does taxes and death. Cost of living is high, but you are paying to be in California. Sure the Hollywood crowd sucks, but there are over 16 million people in Los Angeles County. If you cannot find people you like – it’s you, not the city.

In celebration of my new found Zen. I am going to write a series of articles of each beach along Los Angeles and Orange County. Hopefully, you may find it helpful if you ever decide to come to California. My next instalment will start with the closest - Venice Beach.

Living the American dream and out of control.

Ok. So in the past 6mths, I have took vacations to Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Vancouver, Toronto, San Diego, Napa Valley, San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. While these have been incredibly fun, they have destroyed my savings goals. These do not include the business trips of course which are mostly company comped. I just realised no money have been saved and seriously problematic spending habits are forming which needs to be kept under control.

After realising that I have saved nothing for the past 7.5 months, a warranted review of my financial picture ensued. Horror and almost disgust overwhelmed me while recounting the vacations, restaurants and drinking expenditures. My resolution during the New Year was to not be so tight with money, but didn’t really define what that meant. I was good a saving and apparently very good at spending. I need to find a balance between saving and spending – a skill which has eluded me for a while now.

What is happening??? Help!

In the Red

Today, I have officially lost all my gains for the year and then some. The past month, I have been secretly wanting to sell my stocks, but greed got the best of me.

As robust as it is, the American economy seems unsustainable. Record deficits year over year, negative savings, unaffordable housing, as well as a slew of economic indicators pointing to a recession, all seem to tell me to get out of the market. Last year was an excellent year and perhaps I should bail while the bailing is good.

Where is the Snow?

It's weird how perspectives change. My friend was telling me how he spent two hours shoveling his back car into his driveway. As he unfolded his tale of woe, I couldn’t help but miss the snow. Somebody had earlier described to me that LA feels like a time warp where the lack of seasons offer no clue to the passage of time. I remember seeing coniferous evergreens strapped on cars and wondering why so many people drove around with trees, only to realize it was almost Christmas. It would be nice to see the first snowfall again.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss shoveling.

Land of Giants

A comment from Chris G had brought back fond memories of reality. They don’t call this the land of excess for no reason. From the country that brought you the Hummer, the restaurants reflect the big ass American dream.

Back in Canada, I gained a lot of weight after forcing myself to finish my food portions in restaurants. The portions were just a bit too big, but doable almost every time. This behaviour can be attributed to my Mom who always described colourful pictures of hungry starving Africans at every unfinished meal. My American stint resulted in losing 30lbs. Not because the portions are smaller but they are designed for giants. I quickly became accustomed to throwing out food, which resulted in eating less by not even attempting to finish. Believe me, getting me to throw out food is not easy, yet somehow it’s now a regular thing.

Words will do no justice to the unbelievable sizes. Instead I have opted for pictures for this blog. And yes, these are all places in California.