2014 Sep 07 | WestLA VB, videogame party, Chinese New Year Gala US Talent Hunt



Sunset over the highway.



Using a stroller to move a table. Good use of existing equipment.



Somebody really likes Hall & Oates.



Mountaintop between palm trees.



Fun old car and he's dressed to match.



Every time I see this street I think of the Far Side cartoon with the guy pushing on the door with a sign that says, "Pull" and "Midvale School for the Gifted."



I didn't cross the intersection becase there wasn't enough space to fit behind the cars already there without blocking the crosswalk. This person behind me kept blowing her horn at me. Then the cars moved up a bit so I could fit, so I drove across. She came behind me and ended up having to move over beside me and she still blocked the crosswalk. Idiot.



People exercising by running up these steps in the morning.



A ton of cars waiting to turn into this parking lot at the beach. There's no stop sign or light and the traffic is almost constant from the other direction, so I wonder how long the average wait is here.



A giant rubber duck was down in the Port of LA.



There was a little baby duck beside it.



Us with the duck.



Volleyball on Saturday morning.



Eye on the ball.



This guy could jump really high.



Block.



Jump hit.



Diving.



The ball getting squished.



Great dig.



Looking where he's putting the ball.



A video game party that night. Everyone got really excited during Mario Party.



Dance Dance Revolution.



Concentration.



Bomberman.



Super Smash Brothers.



This game on Mario Party was dumb; we could never find the targets.



More Smash.



Having fun.



Flop: I have three eights vs his pair, I'm good. Turn: Now I have a full house to his two pair, still good. River: Aw man, he made a bigger full house. That's how it goes sometimes.



Almost put hand soap on my toothbrush. That would have been bad.



There's only an ATM inside this little building.



You have to use your ATM card to get inside. I don't think that's an indication of a good neighborhood. Also, it's super-hot inside and there's no air conditioning, so I was sweating in the few minutes it took me to make a deposit.



The employee came out with these carts and said, "Merry Christmas!" I was a bit confused, but then six people literally ran over to them to grab the new items before other people. It was like Black Friday.



I've been looking for an digital picture frame, but the ones I wanted were at least $60 on Amazon. This one was only $20 at the thrift store. This silver remote was with it, though, and it didn't match the white one on the box, which was also included. A little Googling and I found that the silver remote is for a portable DVD player, so I put that back in the display cabinet.



It was was brand new with all the original packaging.



Hummingbirds are starting to come to our feeder on the balcony. There were even two at the same time.



I like this light-up clock that projects stars on the wall, but it destroys batteries if you leave it on all the time, which is what I want to do. I tried buying some rechargeable batteries and thought we could just switch them out, but those died in only 2-3 days, and that's a little too much work to keep switching. I thought about somehow wiring it to be a plug-in, but that's too much work for this and there's no outlet in the bathroom anyway, so I think I'll just leave the light off.



Ooh, I've been looking for folding chairs.



And these are only $6 a piece; on Craigslist they're usually at least $15.



However, they're so ugly and ripped up I decided to not buy them.



Weird stuff at the Out of the Closet in West Hollywood.



A shirt, a turtle lamp, and some fetish ties. Yep, definitely West Hollywood.



This guy was testing out this radio, turned it on, and "Don't Stop Believing" started playing. Great song, don't change the station!



A good collection of cheap books. Although honestly, used books on Amazon are often only $4-$5, even with shipping.



Francine from Houston messaged me and mentioned she was in town for the Chinese New Year Gala US Talent Hunt, so we grabbed tickets to that.



Her group was in the white, the Eastern Echo Music Collective.



Dancers.



A little girl singing a Chinese song. I don't really like the child ones; it's really their parents doing pretty much everything and making them do it.



I really liked these dancers. They all had different outfits and dancing styles.



A Michael Jackson impersonator. His background music had people clapping and cheering, which I thought wat kind of cheating.



Fran's group.



A dance where the hats always covered their faces. This must be pretty traditional? Because people were clapping as soon as they came on.



One of the judges was Jerry Bell. He said Fran's group was one of his favorites.



Kimberly Kates was another judge.



A band playing a mix of traditional and modern instruments.



One of my favorites; a swan dance.



A singer.



This guy painted Chinese characters on a giant banner.



And then hung it up.



Another judge, although I don't know who he was.



There were two intermissions with this skit. I wonder if it's a sitcom for Chinese TV?



A big group of male singers.



Contortionists.



And dancers.



One of the hosts singing.



Jerry was really nice; he came into the audience and was shaking everyone's hand.



Donut Man was nearby, and I had heard they're really good, so we stopped there.



Their tiger tails and strawberry-stuffed donuts are the most popular.



I received an email from Vision Expo in Las Vegas, which we're going to next weekend.



I won two tickets to the iHeartMusic Festival there! Even better, the tickets are for Friday, which has all the acts I'd want to see. I still don't have any idea what time the festival starts, though, so hopefully it says that on the tickets or somewhere.



Those are some pretty big hole cards for everyone.



Normally I wouldn't fold AJ, but there was too much raising and re-raising here. Good choice by me.



Even 27 gets lucky sometimes.



I only had bottom pair, but his straight draw didn't come in, so I won.



I was really hoping he had the 9 of hearts for the straight flush; losing to that would be pretty cool.



He raised, I re-reraised, he re-re-raised, and I went all-in. He really thought about it for a long time, but eventually called. I don't think I'd fold KK here, either; there are still a few other hands it's beating that someone would play the same way I played AA, like AK, KK, or QQ. Just bad luck for him.



PokerSnowie is a program that you can put all of your played hands in and it tells you if you're making the correct moves. Here it said I was wrong calling a large raise and a call with AJ, and it appears to be correct; I have almost no chance here.



Our new water bill comes from AUM. They charge $7.50 to pay online, which is insane for a $45 bill. I can't believe they'd really rather have to open envelopes and read checks than just have it all automated.