Good night birdie!

Last week I was scouting a location for my short film in cinematography. Every time I am on I-94 going to Chicago or Ann Arbor, I always see a park with what looks like islands and bridges.

The lake near the freeway is called Ford Lake. I did not know how to get to the park; left home around noon and arrived at 3 p.m. at the park. I still don't know if the park is in Ypsilanti or Belleville.

As I was driving for hours around the lake, I see a leaf like object in the distance. When I got closer to the object, I realized the leaf like object was a baby dove. I tried to miss hitting the bird, but I eventually ran over the baby dove. All I heard was a tweet!

I told my little sister who was in the back seat and she just started hitting me. I just could not stop laughing.

MacBook Wheel

I was on YouTube checking out the new Microsoft Office 2010 when I came across a video from The Onion Network. I had never heard of The Onion Network. As I was watching, the reporters began to cuss. The style of reporting caught my attention. The cussing in my opinion reinforced the question of why people do some of the dumbest things.

The video I was looking at was about the MacBook Wheel. The story and interview seemed legitimate, but I did not know why would Apple come out with a product not user friendly. The laptop is keyboard free. A large wheel like the one on an ipod takes the place of a keyboard.

For now, the MacBook Wheel is one of the dumbest products I have seen, but sometimes some of the dumbest products have a purpose.

School

A couple of days ago I was talking to my cousin in California. He was telling me about this fifth grader who had Fruity Pebbles laced with marijuana. At first, I was thinking how was a fifth grader able to make such a concoction. My cousin did not know the entire story because he did not pay attention, but I had to investigate.

At school, student shared the treat with several students. According to the report, the students who ingested the snack was minute. The snack came from the fifth graders older sister. The older sister said she got the treat from a medical marijuana dispensary. Last time I checked, the older sister was under investigation whether she got the pot legally.

Whether the kid got in trouble or not, he probably made some money.

Job

At work, I was scheduled to work this whole week. On Sunday, I received a phone call from Ashley, the scheduler. Ashley said I was canceled for Monday because there was a shortage in cars. Today, she called me again because I got cancelled for Tuesday.

I was cancelled for two days in a row now. I wonder if there is a real shortage in cars since the number of cars that need to be tested has increased. I knew it was to good to be true. Before I was only working Sunday and Wednesday, when all of a sudden I get scheduled to work 40 hours a week.

A blog about nothing

I have about 21 blogs with this one. Since I don't know what else to write about. I am writing about not having an idea for a blog. Maybe something will come up as I write.

I had fallen behind on my blogs. I have been so busy I sometimes loses track of what day of the week I'm in. I can't wait for this semester to be over. I'm starting to hate school.

For some reason, I would always hear Juniors and Seniors complain about everything. Maybe I'm going through the same point in my college career as those other Junior and Seniors.

Fight

While siting in my living-room doing homework, I heard a girl yelling at someone. I think she was fighting with her parents or boyfriend. I looked outside my window, but I could not see no one. I could only hear her yelling so I went back to my business. I could hear her say something like she was going to do what ever she wanted.

Some of my neighbors where problematic people until about a year ago. There would always be fights, cops, and loud music. Last year, they where evicted so now there's nothing, but a quite neighborhood. My only problem now is the traffic on my street.

My street is a small street, but very busy. Almost every single minute there is a car passing by. I hate it because traffic is always waking me up too early.

Work

I was just called to work tomorrow and I don’t feel like going. Last week I was one of the last to walk into the office, therefore became ride-along. Ride-along just do paperwork. I’m going to try and be one of the last people so that I don’t have to drive and do the paperwork all at once.

If I get my own car, which means it will take my entire shift to do the paperwork. Thought, I would rather be alone when doing my work. It is uncomfortable working with someone else because some of the paperwork has to be done using the steering wheel. Asking the driver to press buttons for six pages of paperwork gets tiring.

Wolfman

I was watching Wolfman last night and I did not like the movie. I only watched it because I recently found out my surname means wolf. My name comes from the Basque country. Basque takes a small portion of Spain and France. Of the research I have done, about 25% of the Ochoas’ still live in Europe. So far, no one knows where the Basque people came from. Available evidence suggests that the Basques are descendents of prehistoric man dating from the Lower Paleolithic. The Basques developed as a distinct group sometime between 40,000 BC and 7,000 BC.

I don’t remember where I read that the Basque people sailed to the Americas long before Columbus. I also found out that the University of Nevada, Reno has a Center for Basque Studies. Maybe one day I will attend the university, not to mention I would be close to my hometown in California.

Blogs

Last semester I had the Social Media class. Part of our assignments was to write two blogs a week plus a comment. For the first time, I was writing and reading blogs and I was not too happy since I don’t like anything that has to do with blogs. I’m not the type of person who cares for what the world is doing on a daily basis. Let alone putting my life out into the open.

Some stuff I do find interesting, but for the most part I like to be out in the opened and not confined to my computer. I like traveling, talking to people in person. Not looking at a monitor and imagining I am at the beach or chatting with a friend across the globe all the time. Speaking of the devil, my sister is making fun of me; I banged the computer because it froze.

My little sister gets a book and says, “juan look at me. Who am I? she then opens a book as if it where a laptop, bangs on it and says shit.” Even though it was funny, technological failures are the worst.

LTU

This morning around 7 a.m., the phone rang. The call was from my little sisters school, saying classes where going to be cancelled for today. I was glad she didn’t have classes since I did not feel like getting up to take her to school.

I went back to sleep with a feeling LTU would still be open and I was going to have to attend my evening class. When I got up around 9, I checked the status at the LTU website and nothing said classes where going to be cancelled.

Around 2 pm, I began to get ready for school. I was going to meet with my 3for5 group. The group was to meet at around 3:15, but when I called one of my partners, I told her I wasn’t going to make it to the meeting since I was stuck Downtown Detroit. Once I told her I was going to be late, she told me classes where cancelled for the rest of the day. I was glad, but disappointed at the same time because I was already on the road. I could have been in bed.

On the Job

During my orientation for my current job, I was told to punch my time card between 5:45 a.m. and 5:59. If any employee were to arrive before 5:45, you would get some type of warning for arriving too early. After certain amount of warnings, you get fired. For some reason, Ford or ROUSH Managers, Supervisors, etc., don’t want anyone in the office before the boss arrives. I guess they are worried employees might be taking pictures of the vehicles.

Some vehicles are high profile vehicles and if you get to test-drive one of them, you have to be very observant. If people around want to take pictures or begin to ask about the car or try to look inside, not only do you have to make people leave, but if they take pictures, we have to document everything that happened.

If someone is taking pictures while driving for example, we have to explain where the incident occurred, describe the person in detail, what type of car where they in, make, model, license plate, etc. What I wonder is if people get tracked down. If you ever see one of these vehicles, considered yourself to be warned.

Cinematography

Last weekend, I went to Belle Isle to film my assignment for Cinematography. I went to Belle Isle because they are the only ones that I know with a flouring garden during the winter. My assignment was to film botanical gardens, cornfields, and evergreen hedges. All of my shots had to be condensed to one minute, including day and night shots.

When I arrived around 5pm to the green house. I asked the caretaker if I could record inside the greenhouse for a school assignment. He asked me for what school my assignment was, for what and if I would be done with in 30 minutes. I said yes because I though if I said no, he would not allow me to stay at all.

After recording a couple of plants, he comes around and says I got 10 minutes left. I said to myself, “wow, you are serious.” I try to finish my last shot as soon as I can. Once I was done, I went around to see what else I could shoot while looking out for the old man. I was able to record the palm tree and quickly ran into the room where all the orchids where at.

I sat down on a bench as I tried to get away from the guy. I began to put everything away, but than I saw this perfect shot. Right when I was about to record, the guy finds me and tells me my time is up. At that time, my camera was beside me turned off so I tell him that I am not recording anymore. I figured if he saw I was not recording, he would leave me alone and let me finish looking around. I was wrong.

After I told him I was not recording, he tells me I have to leave. I say okay and get my stuff. As I am walking, I’m thinking of what a jerk he was for not letting me finish. He walked me out and I politely thanked. Wright when I walked through the gate, I was about to cuss him out in my head, but then I saw him close the gates. I realized the place was closing and that he was not kicking me out. I felt stupid afterwards. Good think I never opened my mouth. That is why I never say anything negative about someone because you never know when it can come back and haunt you.

Fitness

A couple of years ago, I decided to loose weight. I was able to loose 76 lbs. in about a year. Setting my mind to exercise every night for two hours was difficult. About two years after loosing weight, I stopped exercising. Since then, I have been on and off on my exercise routine.

I also began to eat the foods I had given up in order to loose weight, chips, pizza, cheesecake, tiramisu cake (my favorite), Olive Garden, Red Robin, and T.G.I Fridays. Mmmmmmm!

Since I have not been working out regularly, I have gained around 13 lbs. Now, I am trying to go back to exercise, only this time I am burning 1,000 calories on a daily basis. Before I was only doing 600 calories without any of the junk food mentioned above. Starting today I will go back to my old diet of eating mostly grain foods and vanilla flavored soy protein shake to replace a meal, disgusting by the way. After I finished exercising tonight, I went to the kitchen to get some grapes because I was feeling hungry, I think.

I walked into the kitchen around 12 am and I saw some cakes and churros (Spanish style doughnuts). If you never had a churro, you got to try one. They are really good, just don’t buy the once sold in the Mexican bakeries in Detroit, those are nasty. My mom buys some that really taste like the once in Mexico, but I don’t know where she gets them and I don’t want to know. Always buy the fresh ones, you can tell by giving a gentle squeeze, if they are stale, than they are old and will not taste good. If you shop or ever go to any Costco in the U.S., you should find them at the concession. I have never had a nasty churro there. Churros at Costco are a $1. Buy a churro with a berry smoothie or mocha and you won’t regret it. Typing about it is making my mouth watery. Or how I sometimes say it because I want it so bad, “making my watery mouth.”

Recollections

While trying to workout on the floor, crunches, I noticed my safe under the bed. I opened it to see what I had in there. I had a bunch of credit cards I dare not carry, bunch of checkbooks I never used, some pictures I took when my cousin was born (I was so close in cutting the umbilical cord, but I didn’t because I was nervous. Plus, I didn’t want to be so close to my aunts “birth canal.”), some never used rechargeable batteries, and some silver coins.

I took out the silver coins and I remembered how I used to find and get a lot of silver and gold when I was in California. Usually I would find jewelry on the floor while walking, but the silver came from change I would get at the store. Most of what I found or got back then is lost or someone in my family has it. Anyways, I took out two Mexican silver coins and three American silver dimes. The Mexican silver coins are from the early 60’s as well as two dimes and one dime from 1941.

While looking at the Mexican coins, I couldn’t believe how I got one from my paternal grandfather and the other one from my maternal great grandfather. Later on, I began to remember when I last saw both of my great grandfathers and great grandmother from my mom side. I never got to meet any of my paternal great grandparents. Both of my great grandparents died when I was around 10 to 14 years old while my great grandma died about two years ago, RIP. Now, I am bummed because I never asked any of my grandparents about their life stories. I might not appreciate history, but I do like stories.

Problems

About three days ago, there was a student government meeting. In that meeting, the president of my organization attended and put in a request for money. Money we want in order to pay our choreographer for Hip Hop and Jazz. I am not sure what happened or what was said in the meeting, but my partner calls me later that night. She expressed her discontent after she heard someone say in the meeting, according to her, “how is she putting a request when she doesn’t even now how she is going to pay the choreographer?”

Days before the meeting, I had told everyone in the Hip Hop class that Jazz and Hip Hop where going to be suspended until further notice. One of the students then asks me why the sudden change? I say, “we need to pay the choreographer and in order to do so, we need to put in a money request,” that was all I said.

While on the phone, she was mad because she thinks I was telling everyone about our business and how I am a careless thinker. I then tell her, “I don’t see what’s the problem in letting people know what is going on.” She just starts going off and so do I. She starts telling me not to give her an attitude, but she was the one who began, it was her problem that she did not know how to defend herself from a stupid comment. The way I would have responded to the comment was by saying, “that is why I am here putting a money request, otherwise I wouldn’t be here and do I know you? Do you have any relationship with my organization? How dare you speak on my behalf?”

After she told me that this was the first time I gave her an attitude, I apologized. I realized I should not have snapped at her even after she tried to blame everything on me. She might be the president according to the paperwork, but I have been doing everything without her input. We are working on this together and I just want to keep normalcy between us.

From what I heard, organizations at LTU battle for money due to the lack of funds. If I would have been there, I would have talked so much he/she would have wished never to have opened the hole on there face.

Telling a Story: Blog Assignment

John walks into a coffee shop after he partied all night with his friends in Las Vegas. While waiting for his coffee, a young female walks in. Soon after, her boyfriend shows up and begins to ask her why she left the hotel without telling him where she was going. Frightened, she tells him she only left the hotel for a coffee and that she would be right back. She said, “I didn’t think there was going to be a problem.” “Oh, yea, then you won’t have a problem with this,” said her boyfriend. He begins to punch her. For a second, John was just standing there.

John was drunk; he thought the fight was a product of his imagination. Meanwhile, the casher was scrambling trying to call the cops as the young girl yelled for help and screamed in pain. John’s friends walk in and stop the guy from beating the girl. John and his friends leave the coffee shop with the girl forgetting about the coffee. The “woman beater” stayed on the ground after he got sucker punched.

While driving away, they ask the girl if she is ok, if she needs to go to the hospital. Her face was bleeding, but everyone else was worried about internal injuries. Headed towards the hospital, she asks where are they taking her. The driver responds by saying, “I am taking you to the hospital.” No! I have to go home. If I am not there before my boyfriend, he will start beating me again. No matter what John’s friends would say about her health and safety, she retaliates. “I have to go home, why don’t you listen,” said the girl.

Once at the hospital, she gets out of the car and begins to run away as she limped in pain. She doesn’t go far. As the guys go after her, she collapses before even getting to her. Once inside the ER, the doctors found three broken ribs and a severely damaged kidney. Fortunately, the girl came out of the OR with no complications. Days later, John comes to visit her at the hospital and a friendly relationship begins. Months later, John marries Katie, the young girl who was beaten by her ex-boyfriend. Now, John only talks about how blind he was. How blind he was at multiple levels.

Orange-A-Peal

Like many might know, science is one of my favorite topics. Years ago, when I first heard about a surface cleaner made from oranges and possible alternative fuels coming from corn. I asked myself as I pealed an orange if the orange skin could be used to make fuel. I asked myself if any other type of food could be used to produce something different.

As I ate my orange, I kept on looking at the peal and moving it around my fingers, feeling the surface. Thinking of what I could do, I remembered how I used to ask my siblings if they wanted to see France. If they would respond yes, I would quickly pinch the orange peal on my sibling’s eye. Pinching the orange peal makes the acids squirt, giving a burning sensation. If you ever had lime or lemon juice land on your eye while quizzing it, you’ll know what I mean.

Walking through the dining room to trash the peal, a candle on the dining room table caught my attention and I said to myself, “what would happen if I would pinch the peal on the flame?” I sat down and I pinched the peal. To my amazement, I huge flame was created. I had no burns, but I could smell burnt hair. If you want to try this experiment, don’t get to close to the flame.

New-Used Home

My sister graduated from U of M last year and recently got a job at the DMC a few months ago. Now, she is looking to buy a new home, well new to her, but used. Sylvia has been going to the realtor, looking at homes not priced higher than $15,000. Most of the homes she has looked at are in Lincoln Park. A lot of them need much work, but every time I go with her, I am just imagining what I could add and remove.

I’ll say to myself, “I can make this room into my office, I can nock down this wall to make the room bigger, put new insulation, drywall, windows with a lattice design, tile, etc.

Whenever I begin to look for a home, I would rather get a used home to make changes the way I want. I can probably build a house from scratch, but a new construction might be more expensive than just remodeling an existing home. I would like to purchase a colonial home in Detroit. New homes to me seem bland with no taste. If you have ever seen the interior and exterior of homes like in the Boston Edison District, you’ll know what I am talking about.

You don't shower!

What is up with some of these people who always seem to spray too much cologne or perfume. I was sitting in the third floor of the Science building. The few times I have been sitting on that floor, the place seems deserted. Today, I was sitting in the hallway for about an hour. Only one girl and three guys passed by at different times.

When the girl passed, there was no scent in the air, but when a professor and two other students went by, they stunk the entire place. I had a stomachache after the encounter. My little sister is also one of those people who like to wear the bottle of perfume. I always tell her no to wear much, but she never listens.

When I first began to use cologne, the most I would spray myself was three times. After a couple of people told me that the scent was too strong, I began to gauge myself. I guess that happens with every rookie. Some days I would wear three, two or one spray. Depending on who was around me. Through trial and error, I came to the conclusion that once spray was strong enough. Even though I could not detect the scent, I did notice the smell when laundry day came around. I could smell the cologne as I separated the clothes.

Some say cologne is French for “too lazy to bathe.” Maybe that’s why some people wear too much, even after they are told they stink.

I know cologne is not French for “too lazy to bathe,” but the saying fits perfectly.

True Story

From the book Telling True Stories, Gay Talese talks about writing nonfiction. How Talese was always curious and interested in people who where not necessarily newsworthy. For example John Bobbit or the Chinese woman mentioned in the book.

From what I read, his style of writing is what I would like to do. Telling true stories comes to me the easiest.

Therefor, when I was in seventh grade. My teacher for Social Studies was Mia Hamm's best friend in college. I don't remember my teachers name, but I can find out since she is in my yearbook. My former teacher told the class she had to quit the team. She had injured her knee or ankle and was unable to play soccer ever again. Since her soccer career was over, she decided to become a teacher. If I were still living in California, I could have probably come across her for an interview. Too bad I'm in Michigan.

ROUSH

This past Sunday was my first day on the job at ROUSH. My position is as a test driver. For my first day, I was a ride along. All new test drivers are paired with experienced drivers in order to get the trainees aquatinted with the paperwork and routines.

As a test driver, I am to drive vehicles before they come out on the market. During the test drive which might range from 300 to 500 miles a day, I need to look out for imperfections. The paperwork is very tedious especially if the vehicle is equipped with navigation and some other features like auto park. From what I experienced, all the paperwork has to be done while driving since the 30 minute lunch and two 15 minute breaks do not last.

I am pretty excited since I am going to test drive cars that are not or may not be on the market. One of my favorite perks is that after 90 days I can get a discount on a new vehicle.

New Washer and Dryer

A couple of weeks ago, my mom purchased, well I purchased the latest washer and a dryer from Kenmore Elite. I bought the pair, but with her money. She did not have a dryer because the house does not have a 240 volt plug. Now that she, I, made the purchase, she has to get someone to install a receptacle and a 30 Amp breaker.

I was researching on how to do the wiring and its pretty simple. We went to Home Depot, not to purchase the equipment, but some paint my mom wanted. Meanwhile, I was getting all the stuff needed for the instillation. My mother made a comment, got on my nerves, so I put everything back on the shelves.

As if that wasn't enough, after just installing the washer, I told her that she was not going to be able to put regular detergent in the washer. The washer is a high energy efficient washer. The manual said regular detergent can damage the unit and no matter how much I would reiterate no regular detergent, she would ignore me. I think she was only faking she did not care what I was saying, just to see me mad.

Later on I told her that if she was to break the washer, I was not going to help her get the washer fixed. I am not that worried that she will break the washer or dryer because the pair have a variety of features. I think all she can do for now is to push the big button reading power and looking at the the blue LED lights.

Enough

January 25 is the third week of school at LTU and I am ready to drop everything. Last semester I was taking 21 credits and I still feel worn out. This semester I am only taking 12 credits, but I have recently acquired a job plus my organizations is about to begin.

As the semester continues, I hope I regain enough energy to keep up with everything including the class I have no clue on what the professor is talking about. Not only does he speak fast, but for some reason he thinks our elementary school teachers taught us everything about the Middle East. Last time I remember my teachers were too busy trying to teach me and my classmates American History.

It might be that I am depressed, thats why I have no energy. Maybe the salads I have been eating lately are the cause. I say that because I once heard on the news that people who eat salads regularly are more prone to have depression than those who don't eat them at all. Who knows.

Assembling a Group

Drama, I like watching drama, but I don't like to get involved unless the discussion is about a constructive matter. There is a project I have recently involved myself in and what I said was misconstrued by others, trying to make me look like a trader. I hate lies because nothing good ever comes from lying.

Person A at LTU told person B that I did not want to work with B on a project after I had gone up to person B about working together.

I made the mistake of trying to get involved with another group. All I wanted was to get a better grasp of what is expected in the real world. My goal is to work for MTV.

Where do some LTU students think they are at? Grade School?

January 25, 2010

On January 25, 2010, my organization, DEMI, will open the doors for those who would like to dance Hip Hop, Jazz, Ballroom and Ballet at LTU. The workshops will be held at the Field House on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. All students are welcomed to attend and free of charge.

On the 14 of January, a meeting was to be held with the organizations adviser, Tanisha, who is also the coordinator for South Housing at LTU, but was interrupted. Our meeting was going to consist of finalizing the flyer, putting down exact days and hours for each type of dance.

On the 14th, I heard Tanisha lives on campus for free according to sources. Sources say her job might have something to do with her staying on campus. What I wonder is the type of life a grown adult can have living on campus with other college students? Could she be able to have a spouse and children? Have alcohol on campus?

On January 25, 2010, DEMI is expected to begin the dance workshops, but for now, I have no clue when the workshops will begin. Hopefully all goes well for January 25, 2010.