While planning a trip to New York City, I felt intimidated. I enjoy planning trips and am an experienced planner, but I knew that New York City is a different animal. I have been to most of the major cities in the United States, including an extremely brief trip to Queens on the way back from Cape Cod years ago, and the stop turned out very bad as the driver could not navigate and we ended up going over the same bridge several times, surrendering many dollars in tolls and eventually giving up on seeing much of anything other than a neighborhood in Queens. The only thing about New York City that I remembered about that trip were tolls and the fact that New Yorkers ignored red lights if no other cars were coming, essentially treating the lights as a two-way stop. I thought that was awesome.

On Friday, August 1, 2008 we met in Walton Hills at my father’s house to go on our trip. We were deciding which car to take, knowing that there were problems with many of the options. I decided to give my newly acquired Infiniti G20 the drive to New York, despite knowing that a needing a new clutch was imminent.

We went on our drive. We did make one big planned stop along the way to Centralia, Pennsylvania. In case you do not know, Centralia has been on fire since 1962. It was a coal mining town in the eastern central part of the state. The coal industry began to die, and residents began incinerating garbage in the old coal mines. The coal caught on fire, and in a nutshell, despite millions of dollars spent by the EPA and other
government organizations in an attempt to stop the fire that has ensued of burning coal in the mines, it’s still doing strong since ’62. In fact, it is getting worse.

Centralia is almost completely abandoned know, the government paid most of the residents to relocate, but a few opted to stick around.

BELOW: Some of the steaming holes and a pipe system
installed by the EPA to help put out the fire (this did not work)

Centralia is a ghost town with streets filled with empty plots of land. A walk on a trail through the forest revealed a lot of trash, presumably from parties. Perhaps people from adjacent areas use Centralia as a party stomping ground where anything goes, because I do not think anyone cares. We arrived, searching for steam rising out of the ground and roads buckled from the heat. We searched around and arrived at an area where we saw a few cars parked. We talked to a man who did not divulge much information but he seemed to be a Centralia native who relocated, and he was returning to survey the damage. He said to be careful as we explored and directed us to the holes in the ground with hot steam bellowing. The government does not exactly want you to visit Centralia. It’s dangerous. The ground could fall out. We looked at the holes and felt the heat. Our feet were hot from the ground as well. It was not quite the vista I had hoped for, but the place was still intriguing, and I wish we would have had more time to explore. We hiked some trails, and brought some coal as souvenirs. Since we were pressed for time because we were on our way to New York, we were not able to find the buckled roads that I have seen pictures of on the internet. We all seemed to find the place intriguing and would have definitely liked to spend more time exploring.  Some of the surrounding areas were also boasted some beautiful, quaint mountain towns.

BELOW: Ashland, Pennsylvania

We traveled along nearby I-78 to avoid the turnpike tolls while compromising only a few minutes of time. We entered New Jersey and finally New York, spending hours waiting for traffic in the Holland Tunnel. Maybe we should have listened to Craig’s GPS that offered a route into the city with less traffic, but we let Brian Tomko decide against it. The Holland Tunnel was neat though, and seemed to be part of the experience. I do not always mind traffic jams too much, as sometimes it makes you feel like a
part of something big.

As we entered the city, we were in Chinatown. This was probably the filthiest place I have ever seen. The streets were lined with trash. There were quite a few people walking around, however. We eventually made it to our hotel near LaGuardia Airport in northern Queens. We deciding to find a restaurant I wanted to go to on Park Ave. in Manhattan. We had a few drinks at the hotel and tried to figure out the public transportation system, mainly the extensive
subway system. We ventured out and learned about the subway system the hard way: experiencing failure. We never ended up finding the restaurant, and by the time we did figure out its location, it was too late to go because it was closed. We ended up getting to Times Square around midnight. Even at that hour,
the place was packed with people. We got some New York City pizza, which wasn’t that good. Chicago pizza is much better, but Cleveland has the most pizza places per capita in the world.

BELOW: Chinatown and the Times Square NYPD, Craig on the
subway, and a Jewish law firm advertising marketing to Mexicans with phone
number 1-800-MARGARITA

We did not get much sleep after returning to the hotel.  We rose early to get in line for the ferry ride to Liberty Island and Ellis Island, but we still had to wait an hour to get on a boat.  Seeing the Statue of Liberty close and in person was much more amazing than I expected. It really is a majestic icon of America.  Ironically, it was a gift from the only first-world country we have never gone to war with, so maybe it does represent something.  It was neat to be on Ellis Island, but despite being a lover of history, a lot of museums bore me.  Some of the artifacts were interesting to see, especially the documents listing the origins and occupations of immigrants, as well as many advertisements they had on display.  Maybe if the museum was in small town I would want to spend more time there, but when I’m in the city that never sleeps, I wanted to get out and see more.

We ate lunch at Brasserie Les Halles, a French restaurant owned by Anthony Bourdain, who has a good show on the Travel Channel called No Reservations.  We tried some French foods like the esgargot which everyone loved, and we convinced Nick to order steak tartare (see the photo above), which is raw ground beef mixed with onions, various sauces and spices, and raw egg. The dish tasted good and actually had a refreshing taste, although I don’t think I would order it.  The place is also known for having amazing french fries, and they were good.

The restaurant was pretty close to the New York Stock Exchange, where we shot the photograph below in my “Andy for president” series.  We walked Wall Street and also saw where George Washington was inaugurated as President of the United States of America.

We continued our journey and visited Ground Zero and witnessed the new World Trade Center being built.  We then continued to Central Park.  We only made it through a small part of the park, but what we saw was great.  There were many activities inside of the park like paddle boating and watching plays in a theater.  We also saw Strawberry Fields, with a man playing “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” on guitar.  I imagine there is someone there with a guitar at all times with Beatles and Lennon tunes perpetually being sung.  The park makes up a very large portion of Manhattan.  We then made it over to Tom’s Restaurant, which you should recognize from Seinfeld.  That’s the thing about visiting New York, you understand the world a little better after going.  For example, we took subway ride to Coney Island and thought it was taking quite a long time to get there.  We later were reminded that there is a Seinfeld episode about the time it takes to get to Coney Island via subway.  We eventually made it to the Land of Kobayashi and the first thing I saw was several people getting arrested by the NYPD.  I don’t think Coney Island has maintained its glory of yesteryear.  The famous Cyclone roller coaster was an astounding $8 for one ride, and the place looked run down.  Nick did eat a Chili Cheese Dog to honor the Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest and pay tribute to Kobayashi for changing the game of competitive eating.  They actually do not call the Chili Cheese Dog a “coney” on Coney Island; maybe that is implied.

BELOW: Nathan’s Famous, the countdown to the Hot Dog
contest with Kobayashi center right, Tom’s Restaurant, a man playing classical
music with a wife beater on, Central Park, Strawberry Fields

We ate our dinner a little earlier at a stop in Little Italy, which was a bustling town that was spotless right next to filthy Chinatown.  I think the Italians just know how to keep things under control using the mob.  That is why Little Italy is currently one of the nicest
areas in the city of Cleveland.  We enjoyed some pizza at an Italian restaurant.  One thing about New York that is amazing is that there are just tons of people everywhere at one time.  Little Italy is extremely packed with Chinatown and Greenwich Village filled with people at the same time.

We finally made it to the hotel after a crash course of New York City.  The next day was our planned trip to Yankee Stadium, which really sparked the trip as it was the last year of the stadium.  The only problem was that we did not have tickets yet.  We made it over to The Bronx and saw the stadium.  We searched for tickets, and the going rate seemed to
be $150 per ticket. This is when we were embarrassed.  This is when I was scammed for the first time in my life, despite many warning signs, and despite my reputation as an expert scammer.  This is when I became what I always try to avoid being: a typical, vulnerable tourist.  If there’s any place that can happen, it is New York City.  We walked to a Burger King near the stadium for lunch and a man realized we needed tickets and looked like we were from out of town.  He asked how much we were willing to spend for tickets, and offered us four tickets at $90 each.  We made the transaction inside of Burger King, and he kept warning to keep away from any authorities because they would take the tickets.  Well, your damn right they would take them, because they were counterfeit!  The print job looked bad, but we had
never seen Yankees tickets before.  The bar codes were the same.  We observed that but still bought the tickets.  I don’t even wish to divulge that much detail.  The bottom line is that we were out $360 as a group.  If you buy scalper tickets in New York, look at a real ticket first to make sure you know what they look like.  I’m sure you can get some legitimate tickets.  We were just the perfect victim.  I consoled myself and said, if I had really went to the game, I would have been out that money anyway, so it wasn’t really a loss of money.  We just didn’t see theinside of the Stadium.

We went home shortly after this, and rode the subway with a somber attitude as a result of the humbling experience.  We decided to take another side trip on the way back.  We went to Philadelphia, mainly to try some legitimate cheesesteaks.  We went to two of the most respected cheesesteak restaurants in Philadelphia, Geno’s and Pat’s.  Geno’s had hot sauce that was so hot it was stupid.  I do not recommend that.  I found the sandwiches fairly underwhelming.  I expected a greasy sandwich.  We got dry sandwiches that did not have a whole lot of flavor.  They were good, and I like cheesesteaks, but they were not amazing.  We also looked at some of historic Philadelphia and visited the Liberty Bell, and took another photo in the “Andy for President” series.

At this point, you might think the story is winding down.  But this is where another story begins.  We went home on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  This is when the clutch on the car completely gave out.  I smelled it burning in Centralia, and I smelled it at other points on the trips.  The hills of Pennsylvania were just too much.  I could not drive my car anymore.  I had to pull over and stop.  My stomach turned thinking about what kind of financial hit this would be.  We also needed to be home on Monday.  My roommates consoled me and we started brainstorming.  We came up with a plan that seemed plausible, but if it all actually worked, would be amazing.  We were about 240 miles from home.  We decided we would enlist our friends that were AAA Gold Members.  I would like to issue a special thanks to Mitch Laing and Dan Haney for their role in saving us.  With AAA Gold, you got 100 free miles of towing from roadside assistance.  We called AAA, and they said they could not help us because we were on the turnpike.  We were very discouraged after that, but thought it seemed fishy and called again.  We had a tow truck come out.  The plan was this: get dropped off at a repair shop about 100 miles away near Pittsburgh.  We would then call again and get towed the rest of the way home. After the first driver dropped us off, we tried to call AAA again several times and could not get through. Eventually we did, and there were complications because we had 4 people, and some tow trucks would not be able to hold all of us.  We eventually got a truck to come after waiting what was probably about 2-3 hours, but we had a blast while waiting! We listened to tunes, had good conversations, and had a few drinks together (well, at least Craig and I, anyway). We patiently waited and finally our truck came. He towed us all the way from a town east of Pittsburgh to Walton Hills. We finally made it. I think it was around 6am Monday morning, with everyone having to report to work that day. I think we slept for about an hour. It was pretty amazing that everything worked out!

So, is New York City a different animal? Yes. My worst fears were realized. Does it take special planning? Yes. But is is worth it, and I want to go back to see more. I think I could handle it better with some experience under my belt.

I’m relationally inept in many ways.  I just don’t really have much of a clue of what I’m doing when it comes to building close relationships.  I’ve been trying to figure out how I could possibly learn how to relate better.  Then "MMM" stepped in and gave some wonderfully simple advice: watch other people.  Mark was giving some sound Biblical advice as Paul does say in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ."  Paul is urging the Corinthians to imitate his actions to learn how to minister.  The sad thing for me is that I do not like imitating people.  I’ve been called an iconoclast.  I like to be different.  I like to analyze the nuances of many things, including how people relate and minister.  When doing that, I also tend to focus on the negative, often failing to see the wonderful gifts that God has bestowed upon many people in the Body of Christ that are used for ministry.  As I’ve been reflecting, it is a bit arrogant for me to think I can come up with my own plan for ministry without taking from others.  If something I see is good, I need to learn how to imitate it rather than try to form it into something different!  Essentially, this comes down to letting down my pride and realizing that someone can be better than the Domanator, and in fact, I need to learn a lot from others on how to relate and do ministry.  If I want to do good, I can just try to simply imitate.  That will get me somewhere.

Mark’s advice was extremely simple yet so profound and Biblical, and he used many passages I was already familiar with.  I like to think I’m so enigmatic, and no one can ever really figure out what’s going on with me because I’m so complicated.  I’m just like everyone else, however.  I have deep sin issues.  The devil tries to cloud things up and make things enigmatic, but as Hebrews 4:12-13 says, "the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

I’m a person that often enjoys discovery.  My idea of a good vacation is usually going somewhere different and doing something out of the ordinary.  For example, although I think Fernandina Beach is really a great place that I would recommend to others, I can’t get much more out of it.  Many people like to relax on their vacation, but I like vacation as an opportunity to see something new and different that I’m not doing all of the time (Don’t take this as a complaint about spring break plans.  At this point, I have no alternative to suggest.  This example simply illustrates my feelings).  I am always trying to discover the best of what the world has to offer (cars, food, alcohol, camping chairs, etc.), but I spend little time discovering the nuances of God!  I hope to cultivate the same kind of attitude with God.

Philippians 3:8

"More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,"

The word there for rubbish is skubalon.  Skubalon is described "any refuse, as the excrement of animals, offscourings, rubbish, dregs and of things worthless and detestable," so it could be translated in other ways.  The value of the world must be detested.  It is worth poop from Fort Clinch raccoons.

1 Corinthians 1:18-30

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
   "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
      the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

Focusing on worldly wisdom is dangerous.  I have a lot of it to pass on.  Sometimes it helps people, but a lot of times it does not coincide with spiritual wisdom and often is in conflict because the wisdom of God is backward!  I am realizing that I need to spend much less time discovering the wisdom and nuances of the world, and discover more about the grandeur of God’s grace - which is what has allowed me to have more success in the world anyway.

Hate

New York City

It’s cold and it’s damp

And all the people dress like monkeys

Let’s leave

Chicago to the Eskimos

That town’s a little but too rugged

For you and me, babe

Rollin’ down the Imperial Highway

With a big nasty redhead at my side

Santa Anawinds blowin’ hot from the north

And we was born to ride

Roll down the window, pull down the top

Crank up the Beach Boys, baby

Don’t let the music stop
We’re gonna ride it ‘til we just can not ride it no more

From the SouthBay
to the Valley

From the West Side to the East Side

Everybody’s very happy

‘Cause the sun is shining all the time

Looks like another perfect day

I love L.A.

Look at that mountain

Look at those trees

Look at that bum over there, man

He’s down on his knees

Look at these women

There ain’t nothin’ like ‘em nowhere

Century Boulevard

Victory Boulevard

Santa Monica Boulevard

Sixth Street

We love L.A.

Those are the lyrics to Randy Newman’s song "I Love. L.A.," the 80s hit that I noticed is played over the loudspeakers when the Los Angeles Dodgers win a game.  Newman’s song does a fine job at capturing L.A., and like his song about Cleveland, "Burn On," it shows love for the city despite also making fun of it at the same time, such as in the lines "Look at that mountain, look at those trees, look at that bum over there, man, he’s down on his knees."  Each street he mentions also offers beautiful sections in
nice neighborhoods and areas in run-down neighborhoods.  L.A. does boast an amazing combination of natural beauty and city life.  Actually, however, I didn’t see too many bums other than on Skid Row which is where many of them live and very few change cups being waived at me compared to other cities I’ve seen like Atlanta and Indianapolis.

I arrived at Los Angeles International Airport at 11:50 AM Pacific time on March 20.  The trip from LAX to Burbank was long because of heavy traffic, it took a couple of hours to get home, using some ways to avoid the jams, since I-405 was not moving much.  I actually saw many areas of the city on the drive.  I settled in that night and enjoyed one of the many fine meals prepared by my Aunt Kathy.

I spent most of the first day finishing up the teaching applications I started during my airplane ride.  I wanted and needed to get these done, and I thought it would be fun to mail them from the Beverly Hills post office so they would be postmarked with the most famous zip code, 90210.  I visited my cousin Silvie at 8-ball, which is a clothing and gift store she works at that focuses on the Rockabilly crowd.  I browsed the store, which did have a few neat gifts, although the clothing didn’t match my style.

Beverly Hills is a great place for people-watching. You can see some of the higher class crowd in Los Angeles here. It seems as though everyone drives a BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus. The streets are lined with palm trees and driving in on Sunset Boulevard is quite pleasant. I did visit a Pinkberry location, which is a new chain only in California and New York that carries a yogurt-like tasting frozen dessert. The green tea flavor is the best of their three. 

Below: Pinkberry in Beverly Hills on Santa Monica Boulevard and me on Rodeo Dr. as well as a series of 2 shots of Silvie enjoying a cigarette at the Baja Fresh in the 90210, followed by a Beverly Hills neighborhood street.

I worked a promotions job the next day, promoting Buzz! trivia and SingStar 90s karaoke game on Playstation 2 at a Toys ‘R’ Us in Lancaster.  The promotion was average and I did visit the famed and always crowded In-N-Out Burger for lunch.  Most people did not want to sing karaoke on a Saturday afternoon in a store.  Some people did play the trivia game, however, and games of both kinds were purchased.

Easter Sunday was the hottest of the days, and on this day I started to tour many of the spots mentioned in "Surfin’ U.S.A."  Even on Easter Sunday, many of the freeways such as I-405 and US-101 were experiencing heavy traffic jams.  It seemed
as though many were heading to the beach because it was a hot, beautiful, sunny day.  Our first mission was to visit Hawthorne, the childhood home of the Beach Boys.  There is now a monument on the site of their childhood home, where we visited and took some pictures.  We went to Manhattan Beach, which is an amazing sight to see.  It has a fun shopping and restaurant district with many surf shops to visit and amazing views of mountains.  The beach has mountains on further down on both sides and the houses of Manhattan Beach are on a mountain that scales up from the beach.  Driving up those roads offer some spectacular views, especially in nearby Palos Verdes, an extremely affluent area.  We also visited Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach, another spot mentioned in the song.  Each beach offers different experiences, Hermosa being a smaller town with less commercial property, and Redondo not having as much of a trendy look and vibe.  For dinner, we first were going to eat at a restaurant called Cozymel.  Although we appreciated the pun on the Mexican Caribbean island
Cozumel, we felt the place had too much of chain vibe.  When one is in Southern California, there are quite a few authentic Mexican options around, so Mexican food should be had at a good place.  We ended up going to another nearby chain called The Daily Grill.  I had a nice prix fixe meal there, and it was nice to check out a Southern California chain.  Many of you know how I like to do that.

Below: Site of the Beach Boys home in Hawthorne

Above: Manhattan Beach

Below: Redondo Beach, Palos
Verdes

I also visited the Griffith Park Observatory, which offers views of some of the different Los Angeles County skylines as well as the Hollywood sign.  Later that day, my first experiences in downtown L.A. occured.  I visited Chinatown, which I was not that impressed with, and then the Fashion District, which was quite fun.  Many designers sell clothing and other items in the fashion district and a I discovered an area known as the Santee Alley.  The Santee Alley was a marketplace of Latino venders, mostly selling clothing, shoes, and accessories, although there were some other stores selling toys and electronics.  The Alley is unlike many other places one might find similar as it was extremely low-pressure buying.  It seems as though most vendors do not solicit buying or try to sell you more.  The going-rate for designer sunglass copies is $5, or $20 for the "higher quality" fakes.  The fakes are very similar and include appropriate logos, with some of the popular faked brands being Gucci, Prada, Versace, Armani, Ray-Ban, and Lacoste.  One could also
buy a suit for $40-50 and also fake designer shoes, such as a pair of Air Jordan shoes for $30.  Shopping in the fashion district was extremely enjoyable.

Venice Beach is one of the most famous districts of Los Angeles because of "muscle beach" moniker and the interesting people that try to make money there.  They have basketball and paddleball courts as well as city-provided weight lifting equipment.  Venice is a place to find musicians, such as one who plays guitar and rollerblades at the same time, a person with headphones asking you to listen to his music and buy his CD, or a man with walking around with boa constrictors.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy at the beach on this day, which does happen sometimes despite it being sunny inland as if often is.  I ate at a good BBQ restaurant I saw on the Food Network.  I also visited Santa Monica, which has a carnival feel to it with a couple of rides and stands offering carnival-type food and attractions.  It was also home to what might be the world’s most expensive Taco Bell.  

Below: Crunchwrap Supreme in
Kent: $1.99  Crunchwrap Supreme on Santa Monica Pier: $4.75

Before I went to L.A., I got tickets for The Price Is Right.  I attended a taping of the show with Silvie.  We arrived at CBS studios in Hollywood at 8:00 AM.  We then entered a queue to receive priority numbers.  They distribute tickets in excess of the studio capacity, so you have to show up early to get a number written on your ticket.  We then were told to come back at 12:30 PM for the 4:00 PM taping of the show.  Waiting in the queue feels like a cross between being at Cedar Point and a concentration camp.  You are assigned a number and you wait in line to be interviewed by a producer in groups of 12.  Before you get into the studio, any portable electronic devices are taken away such as cameras, phones, and MP3 players.  The producer asks you where you are from and "what you do."  Every member of the studio audience is eligible to become a contestant.  The contestants, chosen by what seemed to be two girls aged around 18 and 12, chose 9 out of the 325 people that would be chosen.  I was not chosen, but the girl next to Silvie and I was chosen, so there should be a good shot of us on television.  The episode airs April 24.  Drew Carey was hilarious between the commercial breaks.  He essentially did a stand-up comedy routine between every commercial break.  It was quite fun and entertaining to attend the show, although waiting in the lines was somewhat grueling.

Below: The famous yellow tag, and my number. The use of nicknames on the tags is prohibited.

I walked around Burbank and Toluca Lake and eventually ended up in Universal City, which I suppose is a long walk that I walked quickly.  I hiked up the hill to Universal Studios and walked along their Citywalk, which is a promenade of shops and restaurants.  Later, we went to a good Mexican restaurant for dinner called Sol y Luna.  It’s a Mexican hot spot in L.A. and was quite good.

Below: Gas prices at a Hollywood
gas station.  It was more expensive than other places.  Sometimes
places don’t care if people get gas there and focus on car repair, but it’s
still interesting.

On Friday, drove down the Pacific Coastal Highway to San Diego, which mostly consists of CA-1 and it is necessary to be on I-5 at one point.  I visited many other spots mentioned in Surfin’ U.S.A. that are in San Diego County and Orange County.  Huntington Beach in Orange County did not impress me as a great beach.  Laguna Beach is beautiful and the city has an upscale look to it.  Driving up the mountains where people in Laguna Beach live offers some great views.  San Clemente was different; it was more laid back, with a few restaurants with great ocean views and a beautiful planting of palm trees.  I visited two more Surfin’ U.S.A. stops, Del Mar and La Jolla. La Jolla is a region of San Diego that is large, undefined, and a bit confusing to navigate.  I ended up finding a
beach in La Jolla and actually took a swim in the cold 60 degree waters.  It just felt like a refreshing thing to do. At night,  I went to an exhibition game at Petco Park with the San Diego Padres hosting the Los Angeles
Angels of Anaheim.  When initially entering the gate of the stadium and walking around, the park had an interesting feel of not being in a ballpark.  I had wondered if perhaps I had wandered out.  No fence was
in sight and it just seems as though one is amongst the buildings and streets of the city.

On Saturday, I strolled around Hollywood with Silvie, visiting some famous stores and gift shops.  We went to Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles and I enjoyed an amazing dish of chicken ‘n waffles.  I was not sure what to expect at Roscoe’s.  We went to the Hollywood location and had to wait 20 minutes for a table at lunchtime, despite the place being large.  Even after we finished our meal, there was still a crowd of people waiting outside.  The clientele at Roscoe’s was diverse.  The rent-a-cop was acting as the host by taking names for tables!  My plate consisted of a fried chicken breast with a waffle on the side.  I compiled most of my bites by adding butter and syrup to the waffle, placing a piece of chicken on top of the waffle, and then adding hot sauce to it.  It was a delicious combination.  

Later that night, Aunt Kathy and I saw the legendary Ray Davies in concert at The Wiltern.  He played a great show with playing some newer songs and many of his older hits.  He was the songwriter and lead singer for The Kinks.  He played "Lola, All Day and All of the Night, Where Have All the Good Times Gone, Come Dancing,
Low Budget, Tired of Waiting, Set Me Free, Sunny Afternoon and many others.  His performance was great and he got the crowd involved often.  I am very glad I got a chance to see Davies.

I visited the Los Angeles Dodgers game at Dodger Stadium at Chávez Ravine.  Dodger Stadium is a basic stadium.  The pastel colors give it a light, fun feel.  It is basically symmetrical, making the stadium fairly uninteresting, but the views from the stadium are very nice as it is fairly elevated.  One interesting thing was that my top deck ticket did not allow me to visit any other parts of the stadium.  I was unable to gain access to any other part of the stadium to see, which was rather disappointing.  I enjoyed the stadium as it was cool to be in a park with a classic feel instead of the new batch of parks that many teams have that are all designed by the same company.

Below: Dodger Stadium, and
downtown L.A. from Dodger Stadium

My last day was fun because Aunt Kathy and I checked out some more neighborhoods of L.A. that are closer to downtown.  We visited Echo Park and Los Feliz.  We went to a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf shop to an amazing "Original Ice Blended," which is a precursor to the Frappucino at Starbucks.  They are excellent, and while at the Los Feliz location we saw a local celebrity named Angelyne, who is known for driving a pink Corvette.

Like Randy Newman denotes in his song, L.A. is not perfect, but it sure is quite fun.  There is quite a bit to do there, especially since almost everything there is a tourist attraction because everything is famous.  A lot of famous restaurants, landmarks, streets, and things like the L.A. River. I just watched the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie and saw a bunch of things that I saw like a record store that I went into. Many things you see you’ve never seen before, although you feel like you have.   I lucked out and it was sunny every day, as it not always is in the spring.   It’s a lot of fun in LaLa land, and it probably helps having a nice place to say and two knowledgeable guides.

Motivation is something I have been thinking about recently because I am finding out that being motivated by pleasing others does not work in the long run.  I have found myself doing it often during my spiritual walk.  I often have tried to "look good" by consistently attending meetings and events and performing acts of service.  This type of motivation may work in the short run and in certain situations.  Sometimes the job gets done regardless of the motivational reasons.  When there is too much of this, it stops working. I am trying to make a transition to being motivated by God more often than not.  Being motivated by others worked for a while, but it’s not working anymore.  I have acceptance in the Body of Christ.  I have been outside of the mentality of the kosmos that wants people to please each other for acceptance.  I guess this is no longer motivation for me.  I need to work for God only.  As long as he knows about my deeds and something serves him, that is all I need.  I don’t need to fool anyone in the Body of Christ.  I guess when working with God, the gratification sometimes can be delayed or difficult to see.

This may be unrelated but makes me think of a paradox in the kosmos.  There is a "I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine" mentality, but how does that ever happen if it requires someone to make the first step?  I the motivating for making the first step in "serving" in the kosmos is a reasonable guarantee of something in return, or at least a gamble that seems worth it.

I think Paul tells us that we should not judge motives. So, what is more important? The motivation or the results?

1 Corinthians 4:2-5

 2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

 3 But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.

 4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

 5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.

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They do look cool. The click wheel is nice. I received the 8GB iPod Nano as a gift as it is extremely small in light of its capabilities. The video screen looks great. Aside from this, there are some problems.

You can only put songs on the iPod from one computer. If you are at someone’s house and wanted to put one of their songs on your iPod to complete a playlist or even a song from another one of your own computers, you must erase the contents of the iPod.

You can not dump music from your iPod onto another computer.

The necessary file conversion software and media player, iTunes, is not as great as people claim. People used to tell me to download it even before I had an iPod. I never did, and I am glad. The media player is extremely weak when compared to other players like MediaMonkey, Winamp, or even Windows Media Player. Music can also be purchased through iTunes, which seems to be Apple’s main concern with the design of the iPod and necessity of iTunes.

If you want to charge your iPod through a home or car outlet, you will need to purchase extra cables.

One big claim by Apple and its supporters is its compatibility prowess. This seems somewhat paradoxical to me because I hear the same Apple users say they do not trust third-party accessories because they might “mess up” the iPod. Instead, they opt for Apple’s extremely expensive accessories (for example, a power adapter is $29).

And of course, iPods are more expensive than MP3 players.

Nevertheless, I got mine for free, and I am going to use it. I have purchased third-party accessories, however.

We know God is the supreme creator and that he knows what is best for us. Rationality would tell us that the creator knows the creation better than anyone. Yet, we constantly turn our back on God’s way.

If a computer programmer creates a program and we are having a problem using the program, we consult the creator of the program for help. That is the rational response, rather than changing the code ourselves. The creator may know a simple way to correct the problem.

Why do we not have the same type of rational response for spiritual things? I think it is because of the spiritual battle that is perpetually being fought. The darkness wants us to discard that rationality when it comes to serving God. It mixes in lies and somehow our notion of rationality is clouded.

Is America facing self-destruction? Is the moral relativism of post-modernism something that can not be overcome? Americans continue to justify wrong. Selfishness and independence are largely now considered to be virtuous. The fall of the American family has destroyed American culture. Many schools can barely function as places of learning because children simply have no respect for others nor authority. Most schools do not need more money to perform better, they are the victim of areas with poor cultures. A breed of people with no respect may ultimately lead to the fall of the American Empire. Every empire does have to fall at some point.