Old LA Zoo – Griffith Park

This past weekend, Constantine and I set out to go exploring a few different abandoned areas of Los Angeles, we started out with the one we thought would be the easiest to find and sure enough it was.

The Old LA Zoo first opened in Griffith Park in 1913, the zoo didn’t do very good and had many animal escapes and was poorly funded, during world war I many of the animals died due to food rationing. In 1965, the zoo was moved to it’s present location just south of where this one is located. This past year during the Griffith park fires, the old zoo was nearly destroyed, thankfully it survived the fires and is still amazingly well kept.

We headed up the I-5 early Saturday morning and got off at the first Griffith park exit and parked in the Merry-Go-Round parking lot. Head back across the street and up the road (away from the merry-go-round). Here you will find a trail that heads to the right along the ridge and through some trees. Go up the trail just a little ways and you will find the first group of buildings. It’s really very easy to get too. This is the back side of what appeared to be the Lion cages. There were plenty of holes in the fence that you can get through to climb around. In fact the day we were there there was some group filming a movie, which included a large fake tiger!

We continued to hike around for a while and found a few different ways to get there. In fact if you don’t want to go through the hiking part, you can actually get to the front of the zoo by going around the Merry-Go-Round to the right of the parking lot and then just follow the larger parking lot to the left.

You can download or tracks for Google Earth here, and see just how easy it is to see. You could easily spend 30 minutes or a few hours exploring this old compound and the areas around it.

Our pictures of the Old LA Zoo are here. Or you can view the GoogleEarth GeoTagged photos here. Lastly you can view the other hard data from the weekend here.

Here’s some more references:
Marilyn Carolyn
Boing Boing
Zoo Zoo Zoo

On the way home we saw this cute little PokeMan bug… Crazy LA people:

(Notice the mini one on the dashboard!)

Old LA Zoo and Nazi Camps!

What a weekend! Been very very busy!

Friday afternoon was just a gorgeous day here in LA! I got out of work and it was 77 degrees so I came home and did a quick 10 mile bike ride. It’s been SOO long since I’ve been on my bike! It felt great to get back out there. I sure hope this summer brings a lot more biking! The new chain was working great, on Tuesday I am hoping to try and get it out so I can do some hill climbing to see how the chain holds there.

Friday night we went out with a bunch of Constantine’s co-workers to the Grove in Orange. The thing said to be there by 7:30 because we were eating at 8. Well we got there at 8 and we weren’t going to get into the restaurant till 9:30! Thankfully the birthday girl pulled some strings and got us a table earlier which we had drinks and stuff at. Then when our real table opened up we went there. It was at Koji’s Shabu-Shabu. I didn’t really like the place, but I really enjoyed meeting his co-workers and stuff. Sadly we were both very tired so after dinner we came home and missed the bowling fun.

Saturday morning we got up and went to the Old LA Zoo, which I’ll write about in a separate post. But it was lots of fun. After that we we spent HOURs looking for the right birthday gift for Jason and still did not find what we wanted. We know exactly what we want, just can’t find one that we like. Stopped at the pet store for a minute to play with the puppies and ended up buying my cats a new comb. Soooo after the shopping we came home and had a good clean fun of brushing the cats! What a MESS! Oh my god!

Saturday night we headed up to the valley and hung out with Constantine’s friend Tal. He’s a really cool guy and we watched The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.. Which is a really messed up movie but I thought it was funny! If only I was a person who got high. Then it’d be really funny! Anyways, Tal and I discussed biking and hopefully this summer he and I can go biking some!

Sunday morning we got up early and headed up to the Nazi camp in Rustic Canyon (again, I’ll write about this later). We hurried home from there and then showered and headed to a recital thing which was put on by one of Constantine’s friends. Really good, one guy, Andrew, wrote one of his own songs and it was really good. I just wish he had told us all the lyrics!

We got home from that about 5 and then const left. It was really nice to FINALLY meet some of the people in his life! Now if only I could see the inside of his HOUSE! 🙂

Next weekend we are going to NAPA! So PLEASE tell me where good places to go are that are not crazy expensive!!!!

Down on YOU in a Theater!

Wow, what a weekend!

So, Friday afternoon Constantine came over and we watched Boy Culture. It was a pretty good gay movie really. Not as horrible as most. After that we went out to Boys Room in Long Beach with Jason and Mok. It was one crazy night there. Lots of insane boys in LB but it was a lot of fun. Did some dancing and what not as well.

Got home from that about 2:30am and it was raining out. Saturday Constantine and I got up and headed out to Montrose to eat breakfast at Black Cow Cafe. Really good food. If you are ever in that area, I highly suggest checking it out! After that we headed over to the LA Zoo.

The Zoo was lots of fun and it’s pretty big. I really want to get to the San Diego zoo and Wild Animal park here soon though because I’ve head they are much better!

I also dropped off my car that morning to get the brakes done… They called me while we were at the Zoo and said that they needed to do tonnnns of other stuff. Said it was going to cost nearly $900 total! I told them NO and to just do the brakes. Which ended up costing just over $560 anyways. Fucking cars! The place was going to charge me $100 for a new battery! Some of it I do actually need to do, but I can do it myself for much cheaper!

From the Zoo we headed up Mulholland to this really neat overlook of LA. After that we headed back to my place. Where we all decided to have a very impromptu dinner party at Jason’s house. Went and got ELBj and drinks from Albertson’s and Trader Joes. Ended up playing cards till like 10 and then went home and crashed in bed.

Sunday got up and Constantine and I headed up to the valley area to meet up with his sister and some of his friends. Went to Soup Plantation for lunch and then saw the movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It was a very good movie! I really loved the dresses and the sets and everything! You should go see it. His friends were all very nice.

Came home from that and we went for a walk on the beach. We’re going to start walking a couple miles a day so that we can be ready for Europe’s walking adventures!

Constantine left after that and I laid down on the couch to watch the Simpsons and what not. But I didn’t even make it through that before I was sound asleep. So I just went to bed.

This morning I got up and on my way into work I was listening to 104.3 My FM and they played “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette. They got to the part where she says. “Down on you in a theater”… They silenced it out! UGH! What is wrong with this country! Idiots.

In other news, I’m still very annoyed with the landlord for raising my rent. I’m really considering moving in with Jason now. My place is just NOT WORTH $1,400 a month! Asshole. The people on the end unit moved out too, but I haven’t seen a sign go up in the front yard yet. So I’m not sure what’s up with that I wonder why he hasn’t advertised it. I’ve also really been contemplating just buying that place on 204th street that I looked at a while back, although it’s in the GHETTO now, I’m sure it’ll just get better. Fucking HATE renting! I have to buy a place ASAP! Or get the hell out of here!

Also, today marks 7 years of blogging! Yay!

And today marks 2 months with Constantine!

Photos from the weekend are here!

Ok. I’m out. Laters all!!!

Line-Item Veto

Ok, why are Republicans so stupid!…

“The Senate’s high-profile ethics and lobbying reform bill was sidetracked yesterday after conservatives voted against further consideration of the bill because it didn’t include an amendment giving President Bush line-item veto power, the ability to single out individual spending items in legislation for elimination.

Umm, last I checked Line-Item Veto was ruled unconstitutional back in 1998. So why are we pushing for it again?

Ten foods you should never eat. Why do they all look so tasty!

OMG. I was laughing sooo hard at that video!

Amazing shot of Toyko at night. I think I wanna go there this year. Maybe if I’m still talking to Mayko in November he can come with! haha

I want this waterfall in my house.

Check out these COOL Soviet Era bus stops! The real question is why are the all out in the middle of NO WHERE?

Apparently you can still cancel your Verizon contract even if you have a txting plan. However, it seems that Cingular doesn’t want your business until the iPhone actually does come out.

Detox your diet. I’m gonna have to start having more green tea or something.

The Aids/Lifecycle Campsites have been announced.. check them out. So who’s coming to which nights to hang out with me? haha.

And now for some real news. I posted a while back that my building was for sale, etc. Well, on Monday the boss called me and I had a total Office Space moment. The boss asked that I send him a list of what I do, and how much time it takes up. I could honestly only account for about 50% of my time. Since before Christmas, no new projects have been sent to me and I don’t have any LONG TERM projects that really keep me busy. Well today, he calls me again and basically said that they want me to start working out of that office 3 days a week so that they can integrate me on some other projects down there. Because PHS hasn’t fully utilized my time like they kept talking about when I moved up here! UGH.

WHAT TO DO!? :'(

But either way, starting Monday I will be in Newport Beach M,W,F and Santa Monica T,R.

HowManyOfMe.com
Logo There are:
981
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

I’ve invited 23 people to go out tonight for my B-Day. So far 1 person has said for sure, and 3 have said “maybe”. We’ll see how this goes.

Adios!

Bank Account

Usually I’m really anal about my bank account, checking it every day, putting in descriptions of what the purchase was for, etc. But this week I have been way to pre-occupied with other stuff. So I go and check it today.. There’s seriously almost $2,000 more dollars in there then there should be! I’m a bit worried by this. I want to spend it, but it must be there for some reason.. Right? I know last month I only withdrew 50% of my normal savings, but that only accounts for $700 of the 2k… And that $700 is allocated towards a credit card bill. I’m just waiting for it to post so that I get my points! haha. So yeah. I’m going to be trying to figure that shit out!

Out of all the people I invited to GGB, nearly 10, only 2 of them showed up. VERY annoying. Some excuses I got were, “It’s to cold”.. WTF! I went out on CHRISTMAS DAY, it was like 20 degrees out. We still had an amazing time. You’re in a fucking BAR who cares what it’s like outside. God I fucking hate people! I can understand if you’re going someplace like the Abbey or what not that’s open to the outside, but for gods sake people! That has to be the most ridiculous reason I’ve ever heard for not going to a bar. I was going to invite the neighboor lady, but her parents are here. 🙁 The group that ended up going consisted of 4 people, including myself. We had a good time, but just weren’t social enough with the crowd so we left at like 12:30 or so. I did however have two random people come up and talk to me.. One was a writer for the Gilmore Girls (so that was UBER exciting for me) and the other was one of the organizers. He was uber cute. 🙂 haha.

I ran a 10 min mile Friday, my fastest ever… But it was a bad idea, because now I can barely move my knees.

After GGB, Nic came back over and we watched Zoolander and cuddled on the couch and made out. He was here till nearly 4am and then I crashed in bed all alone…

It was SOO cold here! Like, soooo cold. They are having these “winter weather” watches and stuff, and it’s just barely freezing! They even opened the state’s Emergency Response Center because of the cold! You know the big ass things they build incase of terrorist attacks!?!? However, it is SO cold in my apartment. I’ve turned up the heat to 80 and it just won’t come on! I checked the pilot light and everything. 🙁 You try living in a 60 degree house! It’s not fun!

Saturday I signed up for my class, I did Japanese. I really think that’ll be the most exciting and interesting. Good news too is that my Prof seems to have EXCELLENT reviews.

Saturday afternoon I went out flying with Jason. That was really cool. We only had an hour in the plane, but I was excited! We started out in Hawthorne and flew south west over Long Beach and then back up the coast by San Pedro, PV, etc. Verrrrry cool. After that we went out and chatted about boys and life, etc. I just dunno what to do about my boy problems! Ugh! You can see the photos, as always on the photodump. From there I came home and had all the fun of cleaning out my old mail and stuff from 2006. God I have a lot of unopened mail! But the files are now all cleaned up and ready for taxes. I’m going to owe so much. 🙁

That night I was planning on just staying in and cuddling up with the cats and watching a movie then hitting bed to go biking in the morning.. But when I went to take my bike out to my car at like 6:30pm, it was SOOO fucking cold! No way was I going to go bike in this weather. So I just laid on the couch. Mayko called at like 10 and said he was still at work but invited me to go out to Abbey. I said sure, since I wasn’t doing anything else. Got dressed and headed up there. He got there shortly after that and the bar tender gave us free drinks since I had to stand there for like 20 minutes. He was so nice. I tipped him $5 anyways. So Mayko and I just hung out and talked and stuff. It was annoying though, becuse like when he first got there he gave me this HUGE hug, and then by the end of the night he was being very boyfriendy again!! Like holding my hand when we walked around, and getting very close and stuff. Not that I didn’t love every minute of it though, and enjoy hanging out with him again…. But still if he doesn’t wanna be bf’s, then I wish he wouldn’t be so hand holdy and stuff, cause it just makes me confused. About 1ish we headed over to Here and danced for a while. Yes, I actually danced! I’m sure not very well, but I did!

I got gropped hard core there too, and I don’t mean like just accidental ass touches and what not. I mean full on people GRABBING my ass and my chest and grabbing my arm and trying to get me to talk to them. UGH! Left there just after last call and headed to the typical Pizza place, on the way there he interlinked arms and walked like that!?! Boys are so confusing! Hung out at the pizza place and saw a huge fight, the cops were called.

Now just imagine though,it’s this TINY pizza place, PACKED TO THE GILLS with DRUNK ASS HOMOS. There’s this BIG ass guy in there talking shit to everyone that walks by. Not really sure what happened but all of a sudden he was completely shirtless, and had his pants half undone and people are screaming at him. Then punches are thrown! It was crazyness. Then as the cops were walking in he starts throwing punchs again. Boy they sure took him down FAST! lol.

So anyways, Pizza place was cool, we chatted and as always random ass people came and sat with us and talked to us. I LOVE that about going out with him. I dunno what it is, but people just sit and talk to us completely randomly! So strange. About 3ish we were going to go Hooka with some of his friends at UCLA, but as we were walking back to his car (linked arms again), they called and said that they were leaving. So I drove him to his car and he gave me a big hug and he said maybe we can do Beige (Falcon) on Tuesday night. So we’ll see what comes of it. Again, Boys are SOOO confusing!

On the drive home, the 405South was closed, of course! So I had to take the long way home. Very annoying. So that’s two nights in a row of being up till 4am! And yet here I am awake at 10:30.

Verizon is increasing TXT message rates from $0.10 to $0.15 per message. Seriously you can’t tell me that’s at all justified! But in the good news apparently that constitutes a “material change” to their contracts, which means I can cancell without paying the ETF, hello iPhone! Now the only problem would be arranging with Cingular so that I can get a contract in March and then still be able to buy the iPhone in June when it comes out!

Also, for christmas I made the Astro-Weenie Christmas Tree… Well the pic was posted on the blog recently. Check it out here. Thanks to the Aunt for pointing out that it was up!

Ok. Today, Sunday, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I really want to go out hiking with Jason or Nic, because I bought this “82 Great Hikes in LA” book. But it’s just so damn cold. I also need to go replenish the cleaning ladys money because I took $20 of it to go out last night. And I need to do work as well! It’s just so damn cold I just want to lay on the couch under my blankets and cuddle up with the kitties, or someone cute. 🙂

But anyways, this blog is REALLY long. I’m sorry they’ve all been coming every day pretty much for the last two weeks. But I have so many saved up that I’m trying to get those posted and then also tell you about my life! I mean, this blog is “The life of Me!” haha.

Adios!