short blog about blogging

English class has always been something I enjoyed.
Blogging has also become quite a past time as well, this is why in the beginning of the year when my english teacher announced our project I was pretty stoked to hear that it would be out weekly “requirement” to write a blog(…i know right? so bomb)
I thought it would be chill. Easy A right?
Being REQUIRED to do anything is quite a difficult task, even when it’s as simple as something you already do.
Our project was to write 1 blog each week, with which we were to write on ANY subject of our choice.
Student A chose music as his blog-a-week
Student B chose philosophy (he’s the smartest)
Student C (me) chose Kalifornia
Kalifornia, easy right? I live in Long Beach, the hot spot for the upcoming “hippies who arn’t so hip” generation.
I live 10 minutes from the beach, 1.5 hours from the mountains, 1 hour from the desert and a whopping 30 mins from LA anddd
I don’t know what to write about!
I’ve covered topics from haunted-hot spots to Proposition 8
<3 blogging

Prop H8te??

This past week has been an eventful week for state and our country. Novemeber 4th the polls opended and by the end of the day, with an electoral map covered in red and blue (mostly blue) we were announced our presidential elect for 2008. Barack Obama was elected into office with a 6.5 lead over his running opponent John McCain, becoming our FIRST black president, a day that will go down in our nations history.
Our president elect had made history, but it wasn't the only pressing matter that people were voting with baited breath for (or against) California residents had their fair share of life changing propositions on the ballot this election season.
For instance, Proposition 8 is a State ballot proposition that would amen the state Constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to it's original definition as "between a man and a women"
There are very strong arguments for both sides of this, equality for all being the major theme on the side of same sex marriage. TV airs commercials speaking of how our nation has come so far from where we started, when speaking of open mindedness and tolerance. They show clips of news paper articles that forbid interracial couples the right to get married, but then they even go so far as to compare voting yes on prop 8 to putting Japanese in confinement camps during the second World War.
That is ridiculous.
My parents are extremely conservative republicans but even they agree with me that same-sex couples should be allowed equal rights, taxes and tax benefits, as a couple. The argument against those who want to keep marriage between one man and one women is completely unfair, exactly what those who voted yes on pro 8 were accused themselves of being.
Same-sex marriage offends me. Not because a man and man, or a women and a women offend me, and not because I think sexual orientation is a choice, and that they chose wrong, but because for me, and millions of americans like me, religion plays a huge part of my fixed opinions.
I believe that marriage is a bond between a man, and women and God, with the purpose of procreation and the benefit of the way in which we ARE to go about procreating. I don't think sex is centered around procreation but I do believe that marriage was established as a bond between man women and God in order to create the healthiest universe possible.
On Novemeber 4th we voted Yes on pro 8, putting marriage back into its original terms, between one man and one women.
Marriage rarely will be what it was meant to be. A union between a man, a women and God. But the least we can do, I feel, is keep it in its original design.
In Arkansas they decided that Gay and Lesbian couples shouldn't be allowed to adopt children either, THATS AWFUL.
A loving family is better then the system any day, and anyone who can't see that is incredibly close minded. Thankfully here in California we allow same-sex couples to adopt children.
This all leads up to a question that I will leave for you to decide.
Should we be lead now by politics or religion.



ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, but have we forgotten what governed us in the beginning?

we will whether the weather

California is renown for its year-round gorgeous weather. Many people don't understand that it's mainly Southern California that is stuck in this mid 70's limbo. Northern California, and even more inland areas such as Riverside can drop to frosty lows during the winter, albeit it's not snowing, it's gonna leave you in need of a thick winter coat. The beach cities do experience a low variation of weather changes, usually hitting highs of 100 and lows of mid 50's.
This brings me to a significant point, being, people from southern california aren't conditioned to handle life.
Every year for Thanks Giving my family goes up to the mountains for the holiday week. This is my favorite holiday and I'm fairly sure it has to do with watching my family deal with actual winter conditions.
One year, we got up to the cabin, which was located atop a set of (about) 50 stairs, around the time of our arrival it began to hail. Hail is rain that, while falling from the sky, freezes. It's hailed twice in Long Beach, but for the most part, over 50% of my family doesn't know what hail is, given over 50% of my family is under the age of 10...
Anyways, at this point in my life, (around 13) I had never seen snow or hail. I'd seen rain, but that was about it. As we start out climb up the stairs to the cabin door, the hail starts falling from the sky.
"OH MY GAWWWDDDDD ITS SNOWWING!!!!!!"
"no. it's not snowing"
"YES IT IS, ITS SNOWINGGGGGG"
"nope. its hail"
"....its what?"
Proof that there is a variation of weather in California. For the record, the largest recorded hail stone was 7 inchs in diameter and 19 inchs in circumference, I can't help but wonder what it hit..
Another nice thing about living in Southern California is that the slightest change in weather is wonderfully exciting. It rained yesterday for the first time in a while and the thumping of rain drops was accompanied by well over half the neighborhood kids running into my house screaming for hot chocolate and umbrellas.
The downfall of it all is that we can't handle much more then a drizzle. After half an hour of being quarantined from the muddy front yard my home was a mad house of children running like caged animals, which they were for the most part.
Once upon a time there was a really stupid man from Southern California (this is a true story)
Now, whether he was stupid by chance, or growing up in So. Cal had dramatically effected his ability to handle life, we'll never know...Now, I'm at work and it's pouring, like i've never seen it pour before. All the people who were out side are inside, it's raining so hard that people are avoiding reasons to leave for fear of driving. Stupid man says...
"Hey, since I can't sit outside can I smoke in here?"
"Uhhh, probably not, I'm sorry but inside is a non-smoking zone"
"Well, what if I smoke in the bathroom?"
"Uhhh, probably not, like I said, it'll set off smoke alarms and stuff"
"Well, what am I supposed to do then?"
"Uhhh, well you could step outside..."
"Are you f()cking kidding me?!?!"
"uhhh...no, that's your only option really"
the end.

you MUST be kidding me...

Oak Glen.

It's this place about an hour past riverside, it's one of those places where they have like, a bunch of dirt feilds everywhere and then some guy got this tight idea to put grass over one of the dirt fields, gifting the community with a soccer field/football field/place to walk your HORSE in small circles, which is no big deal cause in Oak Glen everyone who is anyone owns a horse...I mean really, there are a lot of horses over there..

Oak Glen has an apple orchard, its a little reserved plot of land where they do things like civil war reenactments and uh..apple growing...

Well around october [which i assume to be like, prime apple picking season or something] Oak Glen opens its orchards to the public, charging around 6 dollars a bag. In short you pay to go and pick your own produce.

Now what mostly perplexes me is, while it is cheaper to pick your own apples, why do it? I mean, the apples that you can actually reach are about half the size of my fist, keep in mind i have remarkably small hands, and the apples you can't reach, which are the only ones worth actually picking, are WAYYYY at the tiptop of the trees, and even if you can manage to get one down chances are a bird or worm, or both, have gotten to it long before you.

There is one trick to apple picking though. I don't know the exact name of it, but its a little basket-thing with claws at the top of it, this basket-thing is attatched to a long pole, and it makes the whole "go for the apples at the tiptop" thing alot eaiser..alot easier

Now just because you have this apple-picking tool, does not mean your actually going to benefit from it. Like i said, most apples at the top, while bigger and riper, have been attacked by said birds and worms and just arn't generally something you'd want to consume.

The highlight of my day at Oak Glen was as following...

[I had the pole-claw-apple picker-thing]

"Mom, i'm gonna go give this to someone since were leaving"

"noooo, go out into the middle of the field and drop it!"

this was a brilliant idea. People actually ran towards its, like, they flocked to it.

If it weren't for the cute little asian girl who got to it first, i'm pretty confident there would have been some bloodied lips and black eyes involved.

survival of the fittest..i think not

survival of the best equipped....maybe...but only if you're willing to look past the worms...

haunted california (part 2)

I know i've already talked about spooks, but california has many notorious haunted-hot spots and with a recent encounter of yet another spook i can't help but fill you in.

In the early 1900's Riverside California was home to thee California State Asylum for the Insane. Pretty intense. The Asylum existed for around 50 years, it was shut down in the mid 1950's and turned into what is now know as California Baptist University. 

When the Asylum was in use the staff would lock all windows and doors at night and leave the Asylum through underground catacombs, series of underground tunnels and passageways. It is rumored that when patients "misbehaved" they would be taken down into the catacombs and punished. The punishments given to the mentally insane in the 1900's are the equivalent of modern day torture, bad enough to send shivers down even Mr. McCains back.

Anyways.

The rare and few California Baptist University students who have risked suspension and explored the supposedly haunted catacombs beneath their campus have bone chilling stories to tell, and so of course I had to do a little exploring of my own. [how  John Cusack* of me...]

Adventure beings with a tour of CBU campus. My friend Daniel points out an eerie stairway leading down to an old wooden door on the side of one of the old asylum buildings.

"There's one of the entrances to the catacombs" he says

"oooohhh lets see if its unlock" I insist, well knowing that with a little research this would be my blog topic for the week

Hesitantly he agrees and in a train me, Daniel, Janelle and Devron take the narrow steps down to the ultra-spooky door. 

"Do you think it'll be unlocked?" I ask as we all stare at the door

Without a reply coming from any lips I decide to brave-heart it and turn the handle, I mean honestly, the worst that could happen is like, a huge rat being on the other side of the door...or like, a ghost...but we didn't really consider the latter.

"ohhh mannnn its totally unlocked, lets go in!" I have no idea where this bravery/complete disregard for common sense-is coming from, but its there none the less, and I convince the rest of my group to follow me into the PITCH BLACK FRIKKIN CATACOMB.

Once the door was shut, we became a pretty uniformed group, it's not my belief that fear brings out the organization in everyone.

Janelle has two cellphones stretched out infront of her, leading or train with the little light that they give off, Devron is holding tight on to Janelles shoulders, Daniel has one hand on cellphone and one hand pulling me through the narrow passageways. At the point of actual "Hey lets walk really far away from our only exist and explore this incredibly scary place" I lost all nerve. 

We walk through an honest to God MAZE of underground passageways light by not more then four cellphones and come to a door. At this point I notice Daniel being a little more on edge. 

JOAIW@%$#^FWIFBL

we heard a weird sound, that was the best impression of it I can give...

It sounded like a cross between a bump and scuffle and it scared me half out of my skin and we turned and ran.

Once were out of the death-trap-catacomb-of-doom Daniel proceeds to actually fill us in on the history behind the catacombs, which up to this point neither me nor Janelle knew of. He ends his tale with "and every time you reach that door you hear the knocking of the tortured" It sounds like a typical ghost story, but after just experiencing it, it's enough to scare your socks right off you...(haha...)

Okay so of course, being completely illogical teenagers seeking some entertainment and thrill in life, we decided that it'd be a brilliant idea to go back down and test the theory of the "knock of the tortured" because we had an argument in the group of wether it sounded like a knock or a rat or something else that goes bump in the night.

Organized in the same line up with start our walk back through the catacombs, what I now assumed to be like, my last few moments of life.

Before the door thats allegedly haunted, theres a turn. You don't see the door untill you turn the corner, and at this point, I don't want to see the door. Daniel is litterly dragging me down the hallways, and at this last turn I put my foot down and refuse to turn the corner. 

Unfortunately, Daniel's bigger then me and so it pretty much came down to "see the door" or "have my arm ripped out of it's socket" 

As a turn the corner were all completely silent. Hands are grabbing who ever they an reach, and were just about ready to move closer to the door.

knock knock.

O MY GOD. I've never ran so fast in heels in my ENTIRE LIFE.

I don't know if I believe in ghosts but I believe in that knock.

*1408 reference...its a stephen king novel...and movie!

p.s. This is the first blog to actually meet the 800 word request.

yay.

Let us grow old.

Coffee shops. It matters where your drinking, and what your drinking. California subculture is brutal. With starbucks on every corner, and hundreds of independently owned coffee shops you have to know what you want in life. This may sound slightly ridiculous but coffee/tea drinkers are not to be taken lightly. 

I myself REQUIRE coffee every day, or i cease to function. As of lately i've also joined with up on the tea band wagon, consuming over 70 ounces of iced tea a day, preferably Jasmine Dragon Pheonix Pearl. Yeah. It's not a joke.

Starbucks, corporate.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, less corporate, still a chain. (best tea by far)

It's a Grind, long beach based coffee shop, frequented by mid 30's to upper 40's

Portfolio, ultra-hip points for ever cup of black coffee you drink here

Hot Java, one step below the ultra-hip scene of Portfolio, best mochas around.

Where you drink, says alot about a person.

I spent a year as a barista at a local based chain coffee shop, what a person drink says a lot about them. By the end of my time working as a barista i was able to guess a persons drink before they ordered. Effective 85% of the time.

Black Coffee, addicted to either coffee, or wanting to be cool (you can tell by wether or not their nose scrunches up when they take a sip)

Coffee w/ tons of sugar and cream, either addicted to sugar and added fats or just can't handle it black, usually a more honest coffee drinker.

Tea, laid back and cheap

cappuccino, the elitist-snob of all coffee drinkers, make sure to make it dry if they ask for dry, and wet if they ask for wet, because they WILL know. They always know.

blended mocha, baby steps. The gate-way drink. you know...

I mean, i could analyze every drink on the menu, but like, i wont. Cause that would just get tedious. But honestly, what you drink says alot about you, how much your willing to pay, how much you want, how strong or weak, flavored or black, all speaks to character. Most the time at least.

(sorry this is so short, i don't know what else there is to say about coffee, leave a comment and ill make it longer or something...)

Haunted California

For those visiting the west cost, especially southern California area there are always those, must see spots, attracting tourists and locals alike. For me, one of those places has always been the Queen Mary. 

I have early memories touring the Queen Mary as a girl scout, and i have older memories climbing flights of stairs in heels looking for the part of the ship i was supposed to be experience winter formal at. 

I've spent time stalking the ship with friends in a last ditch effort to find a bathroom, and I've even spent a night watching scary movies in the back of my toyota tacoma in the Queen Marys parking lot.

The Queen Mary has over 60 years under her belt, most of which she spent sailing cross the Atlantic Ocean as a passenger ship. But it wasn't always that the Queen Mary sailed freely, for the entirety of World War II the Queen Mary was used as a floating hospital and supply ship, over that course of time the Queen Mary became the death site of nearly 50 people.

After her retirement of 1967, the Queen Mary was moved to Long Beach, CA, and turned into a hotel and museum, many tours are offered but the the most popular is based around the myths and facts that lead to the popular opinion of the Queen Mary being Haunted.

 The following is a very true story:

Me, and a few friends were frantically searching the hallways of the Queen Mary for  a bathroom. It was really close, like, me, along with two other girls almost like, pissed out pants. 

Well, we walk down a longggggg hall, and end up in a room resembling a chamber of doom. In the center of the room there is a huge staircase, going up forever and ever, and going down even further. The walls are all different doors, one of which being a bathroom. Hurray.

Okay so, this brings us to, the "the Queen Mary is totally haunted" part of the story.

While Girl A and Girl B are still in the bathroom, i exit and start talking to Boy A. Boy A and i decided to kinda explore the really weird room were in.

Well we begin reading door plaques and we come across the creepiest name a door could ever have. "The Immortal Chaplains Ward" well were just like, dang, the Queen Mary is hanuted, and were like, staring the office door of like, the head ghost or something. Well it goes like this,

"Open it, come on, i dare you!"

"No way, touch it, i double dog dare you!"

"Noooo way, you touch it"

well, we get closer and closer to the door, weary of our lives being at stake, and as we nearrrrr the door, adrenalin rushing, THE DOOR HANDEL  SHAKES!

we ran.

Anyways, i'm not the only one who believes the Queen M. is haunted. 

Charlyn Keating Chisholm, a women who studies the paranormal, has written many articles and done loads of research proving her theories of ghost encounters that have taken place on the ship.

Is the Queen Mary hantued? If you plan on trying to figure it out i suggest you avoid the tour, which costs around 30$ and is full of gaudy effects, and go straight for you own adventure, just pretend your staying at the hotel and if it all comes down to it, say you got lost looking for the bathroom. And then run.

Crossing all Bridges.

I've lived in California all my life, specifically long beach. I grew up downtown, and moved further up town as my family out grew our tiny one room back-house. Since acquiring my license in september of last year, i've been spending alot of time exploring the city I've always called home. Recently some events have befallen me, which generated the desire to, well, to get out of the house. Now something i've noticed is that "going green" is becoming more and more popular, especially in hip places like down town long beach. 

You can see people going green in various ways, some more extreme then others. For instance, were begining to see more bicycles on the roads.  Now I'm basing these statistics on my own personal life, but 8 out of 10 people i know use bicycles as their main mode of transportation. I on the other hand perfer to drive. I have a 97 toyota tacoma, and it's probably the best car in the world, but mostly only because i get alot of funny remarks regarding my height, and the fact that i drive a pick-up. My favorite remark to date was when i pulled up to a friends house and a girl i had never met before said "We'll thats a pretty big truck for such a tiny little girl"

tangent... sorry...

Anyways, i went for a drive. 

My advice to you,  always cross the bridge, and, if once you've crossed that bridge, and ahead of you is another, bigger bridge you should just drive right over that one as well. 

Cause that's what life's all about, crossing bridges.

Roll your windows down, wear something with a hood, and play Bjork really loud. Try not to get overly distracted by the reflections on the water surrounding you. Listen to your friends when they tell you to slow down, but don't forget your in control and if you want to go 80 across the bridge, weaving through the semi-trucks, then you go 80 across that bridge....but possibly, in that specific case, you should probably just listen to your friends and slow down a little.

I got my two good friends george bucio and dylan wood at accompany me. This was nice because they have polar opposite personalities. I won't give examples, for fear of accidently offending, but driving for an hour with black and white is a really good experience.

Take this as you will, but always remember, that at the end of the bridge, there's gonna be one of two things,

Another bridge, or something worth it all.

[the results of the september 24th drive was something worth it]

starting where we start.

As this is my first blog, i figured it appropriate to start with what makes California, California. On September 9th, 1850, California officially entered the union making it the 31st state. With thanks due to gold strikes California slowly began to grow in population. Skipping forward 158 years, California is the most highly populated state with an every growing total of over 36,000,000 people (est. 2007)
The golden state is known mainly for its warm beaches and the likely hood of a "star encounter" 

Recently i took a trip to seattle where i stayed in a hostel. My conversations went something like this,

"So where are you from"

"California, LA area"

"Really! Do you like, know famous people?"

I had to break the news to handfull of people that, no, living in California does not mean your friends with that one guy from that one movie...

Honestly, living in California doesn't mean much. I've lived here all my life, I'm not tan and I'm not famous, the only thing i've really gained from living in California is a extreme intolerance to the weather anytime it drops below 70.

Let me fill you in on California.

California is home to one of the worlds greatest entertainment capitals, Hollywood.

Hollywood, originally Hollywoodland, was initially built as a project meant to last no more then a year and half. 83 years later, it is considered the film capital of the world, producing more then 500 films a year. Hollywood is also credible to turning out many house hold names such as Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. Hollywood has Given tabloids things to write about, bloggers things to blog about, and people things to talk about, we may not know them personally but for many the lives of Hollywood celebs are more interesting then the movies that made them famous in the first place.

But California is more then a glitzy top layer. California has deserts, mountains, beaches, lakes and more, and each one considerably close to the other. You won't hae to travel far to get from one extreme to the other. Not much more then an hour and you can travel from point A to point B, rolling beaches to waterless deserts, peaks of mountains to depths of the valleys.

thats the point of this blog. California is a huge and wonderful state, as diverse as it is big, and it's definatly going to take me more then one blog to cover it all. 

Till next time, enjoy your state, and i'll keep enjoying mine.

kandyce-lynn

The W's of Kalifornia

Who: Kandyce....
What: A blog strictly about the People and Places of the Golden State
Where: California
When: Starting now, ending later
Why: English Class Assignment

Every week there will be a feature place and person. I'll try my best to write about interesting people and beautiful places, maybe include a picture, defiantly include some links..

Enjoy.