The Hills are on fire!

Hollywood Hills Fire close to the Hollywood sign

as seen from our rooftop.

Click here for news details of the blaze.

Hollywood Reject

Living in L.A, where celebrities are a common fixture almost wherever you go, I still get star-struck whenever I bump into one...
unlike some of my friends from both sides of the Pacific, who are used to this kind of thing, since they work up close and personal with celebrities (both local and international).

We get to watch a lot of advanced movie screenings and quite often get invitations to movie premieres...

Last night, my girlfriend, Shang, invited me and Bill to attend the movie premiere of the silly but good-natured movie, "Blades of Glory" at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Shang was running a bit late, so while waiting for her, we somehow ended up in the VIP line. We just acted as if we belonged. The Event Security seemed intimidated by Bill, that they did not bother moving us out of our place where we chose to wait, unlike what they did with the other people. Once Shang arrived, we realized we had to go around the block to meet her where most people were waiting. Since we were already in the inside, we explained our situation to Security. I guess since they thought we were VIPs, they asked us to simply walk the red carpet back to where we came from (supposedly). So we just did that. Bill walked briskly, while I wanted to take my sweet time working the red (actually blue) carpet. There I was caught in between Brooke Shields and one of the main stars, Will Ferrell. The microphones were waving and the cameras flashing...then just when my turn came up to be in front of the paparazzi, (as if with a snap of a finger), they suddenly stopped taking pictures, as if blatantly asking, "Who the f+_)(*&^%$#@!k is this guy?" Hey!...I may not be as beautiful as Brooke or as funny as Will, but you do not have to throw it in my face! Hmmpph...the nerve! After 12 years of living in LAla land, I finally experienced rejection in Hollywood without even trying...LOL

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an Airbus A380!!!

The village where I was raised (and no, I am not referring to a burned-down village in the middle of a rice field in a warn-torn South East Asian country...LOL) is situated very close to the airport in Manila. Our house is directly beneath one of the main flight paths, thus I grew up equating a picture of a plane (specifically a BAC 1-11) with that of an alarm clock that rang during ungodly hours. It's because of this fact, that I am now hard of hearing.
I have always been fascinated by planes. My childhood friends and I would bike to the side of the runways (of an airport not of a fashion show) to watch the various planes take-off and land.

I find it so ironic that now that I live in the U.S., I continue to live close to an airport. In fact, if you take off from LAX and are seated on a window seat on the right side of the plane, you are bound to see me on top of our roof waiving "bon voyage" at you.

Finally, the Airbus A380,
the world's largest passenger airliner to date,
has reached the U.S.A. via New York's JFK and Los Angeles' LAX!
Here are two videos of the arrival at and departure from LAX:

First Arrival of Airbus A380 at LAX

First Departure of Airbus A380 from LAX