Living Seoul

It’s Selena Day in Texas! She would have turned 39 today if she were still alive. ¡Viva Selena!

Her best song…

Como La Flor

Yo sé que tienes un nuevo amor
Sin embargo te deseo lo mejor
Si en mí no encontraste felicidad
Tal vez alguien más te la dará

Como la flor
Con tanto amor
Me diste tú
Se marchitó
Me marcho hoy
Yo sé perder
Pero ay…
Cómo me duele
Ay…
Cómo me duele

Si vieras como duele perder tu amor
Con tu adiós te llevas mi corazón
No sé si peuda volver a amar
Porque te di todo el amor que pude dar

Legendary performance in February 1995 at Houston Astrodome. Broke attendance records. She was killed just a month later. RIP

Every time I try to lie, sneak around or do anything I’m not supposed to be doing I get caught. I can’t get away with anything. It’s an unfortunate fact of my life, but I like to think it makes me a better person…a more upstanding citizen maybe. Today I got a ticket for my inspection sticker! I knew it was going to happen. I’ve been worrying about it for a couple months but kept telling myself the chances of getting caught were so slim. But I knew all along, for me, the chances were high. And I’d just called my mom yesterday to tell her I’m coming home AGAIN this weekend to get it taken care of. Then the next day I get a ticket. If getting a ticket didn’t suck enough, my BOSS was in the car with me. It was actually okay because she made me feel better about it. It was comforting to have someone else there. And the cop was actually super nice about it. He didn’t try to give me a ticket for any other violations. Oh well. Stanks, but could be worse. Hopefully I can get out of it.

***

The other badness that’s been on my mind is the case about a little boy who went missing and was found dead in a neighborhood a couple miles from his apartment a few hours later. This forum covers most of the nuts and bolts of the incident. It includes stories and follow-ups from most of the major news outlets in Austin.

I keep checking the news to see if they’ve released any new information. It upsets me badly, probably because it’s an innocent kid. More than anything I want to know WHY. He was left with his dad’s girlfriend and hadn’t seen his dad in a week. Hadn’t seen his mom who was separated from his dad for a month. I want remain open-minded, but it seems like the kid had rotten parents. If you live in the same city as your child why do you go a whole month without seeing them? I don’t have any idea what it’s like to be a parent or even have parental type feelings…but I know most parents are CRAZY about their kids.

And he disappeared in the middle of the night. The girlfriend noticed him missing at 5:30AM and the door was unlocked. How would he just get out and walk a mile away? And then get killed. His autopsy said he had internal injuries but I think one of the parents said his body was “all bruised up.” I get a really bad feeling about it. Makes me angry. How could anyone kill a child? How, how, how?

I started putting together theories in my mind based on info I read and other people’s comments. It’s unlikely, but he could have somehow left the apartment on his own and gotten hit by a car. The girlfriend could have shaken him to death (or beat him if the bruises were true) and then dumped his body. Maybe she was taking anger out on the kid if the dad hadn’t been there in a week…? There could have been an intruder who entered, snatched him, killed him and left him. Though the intruder would have had to know family or the girlfriend somehow. I have the strongest feeling that the girlfriend is either to blame or knows the person to blame. She his been absent from the situation since it happened. Reports are saying she’s cooperating with police. But she didn’t call anyone about the missing child till 90 minutes after she noticed he was gone. She said she was looking for him on her own…but there were two other children at the house…who was caring for them at that time? It’s weird and bothers me.

There been at least five homicides in Austin since the beginning of this month. : (

***

And now for more dreams…

I was invited to the home of a cryptic character in my real life. However, I was invited at night and had to let myself in. The person I sought was in a private office with frosted glass windows in the back of the house. I tried to get a glimpse of the mysterious person through the cracks separating the window panels. I could see a man with short brown hair, almost shaved, with a very slight receding hair line. He was thin, dressed in business clothes and paced around his office on a cell phone. I sat down to work on business in the living room but it was awkward, dark and I didn’t want to turn on the lights. The man comes out and sits down to eat at table behind me. He doesn’t turn on any lights and doesn’t say anything. I am trying not to look but I am plagued by curiosity. Finally we end up discussing business and the mystery man reveals that he is a cop. I am shocked because I spent so much speculating about his possible professions and had never considered this. I woke up from the dream very suddenly and startled. It was 1:30AM and I fell back asleep quickly.

Later in early morning I dreamt I was at a morphing house. It started out as the house of the grandmother of someone I used to be very close with in my real life. I was house-sitting while she was away on a vacation. Before she left she’d shown me through the house and was upset because parts of it were run down or falling apart. She told me she was too elderly to fix the problems herself and did her best. Other parts of the house were immaculate. The house itself was maze-like and hard to maneuver though. There was a pet that I was responsible for…a dog. I was there one afternoon and someone knocked on the door. My paranoid dream-self freaked out. I convinced myself I was hearing things but went to the front door anyway to check. I peered through the blinds and saw a man’s torso. He was tall, wearing a salmon colored shirt. I didn’t even look at his face and BOLTED toward the back of the house. It was difficult because of the maziness of the home. I ended up outside in an old garage or shack type building. I could see into the kitchen from where I stood. The man had entered. It was someone I work with who inexplicably creeps me in my real life. I wasn’t pleased to see him in the house, but knew he wouldn’t kill me so I went inside and talked to him. He had permission to be there and I hadn’t been told. He was bent over feeding the dog. I wanted to GTFO.

Then the house morphs from the grandmotherly house into a house filled with people. My dad’s wife is having her huge Filipino family stay while her and my dad are renewing their vows or having some kind of belated wedding party. Everyone is friendly, busy and milling around. I don’t really know anyone and am trying to stay out of the way. It was exactly like the tone of the house in “Home Alone” right before they leave for France. Dad can’t find Lovenieh (his wife) anywhere. I notice her on a couch crying in another room and tell my dad. She comes out of the room in fancy clothes wiping her eyes. I go to a bathroom upstairs to apply lipstick for the event. As I’m carefully applying the salmon colored lipstick (not normal for me) my dad walks in. He starts talking to me like we’re best friends. Then I drop my lipstick and have to crawl around behind the toilet to get it. Then it’s time to leave and I wake up.

Today Nickie told me about the new America the Beautiful Quarters that are coming out this year. I thought we were ending with the state quarters. There are going to be 56 quarters coming out through 2021. They commemorate national parks and other national sites in the states and U.S territories. I thought Texas’ coin would surely be Big Bend…we only have a couple of national parks: Big Bend and Guadalupe Mountains. Instead they chose the San Antonio Missions “Historical Park”…I guess they’ll use a picture of the Alamo or something. I vote for Big Bend with a picture of a gigantic cactus, but it’s too late. Timothy Geithner got to pick the sites.

From US Mint: “The five quarters to be released in 2010 will honor Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Yosemite National Park in California, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon.”

Yosemite Coin, 2010

I started looking at the list of National Parks.  There are 58. I’ve only been to four: Arches, Canyonlands, Great Smokey Mountains and Joshua Tree. I **WANT** to visit Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton and Redwood.

Visiting Arches National Park in 2007

I worked on a story that was published on the Houston real estate blog Swamplot this morning. The news was all over Twitter shortly after appearing on the site. I lost count of the blog post comments…at least 50. And the Houston Chronicle wrote up a story sourcing Swamplot. A million thanks to Gus, Swamplot’s founder, for being helpful, supportive, patient and awesome.

I am pleased.

STORY: Weingarten Plans an Alabama Theater Demolition. Is Staples Moving In?

I got to give credit to my fellow blogger and co-worker Jessica Camarillo on this one. I had no idea LA Gang Tours existed till I saw her post.

The Basics

Who: LA Gang Tours and people who want to pay $65 to participate

What: An “unforgettable historical experience” in gang infested neighborhoods and law enforcement buildings in Los Angeles from the comfort of a tour bus.

Where: Los Angeles
Stops include:

1. The Los Angeles County Jail
2. The Los Angeles River Bed
3. The Metropolitan Detention Center
4. The Symbionese Liberation Army Shoot Out
5. Florencia 13
6. Birthplace of Black Panther Party
7. Florence District
8. Florence Avenue
9. Firestone Sheriff Station
10. Hall of Justice Jail
11. Pico Union Graff Lab (Graffiti Lab)
12. Birthplace to Crips Gang
13. Watts Arts Gallery

When: Public tours started in January 2010, now they’re offered every Saturday at 10AM, they last for 2 hours

Why: Disagreement on this one…the tour company says it’s to, “…create jobs for the residents of South Central, Los Angeles; to give profits from the tours back to these areas for economic growth and development, provide job/entrepreneur training, micro-financing opportunities and to specialize in educating people from around the world about the Los Angeles inner city lifestyle, gang involvement and solutions.”

Obviously this creates a lot of controversy. Many media outlets have already picked up on it. I thought Scott Gold at the LA Times wrote a particularly excellent article about it that really explores the specific hoots, hollers and criticisms surrounding the tour. The tour could be considered exploitative and voyeuristic especially when the organizer wants to “stage dance-offs between locals.” Sounds more like a human zoo.

Jessica questions the idea, “Other than being a continuation of the stereotyped gang lives actors portray in Hollywood, I also am not sure where the revenue is really going. If it goes back into the community and a large percentage of that community is made up of gang members wouldn’t the money end up in the hands of gang members anyway?”

This week I got really upset when I found out Valerie Hunter was suing Sheryl Mann Stack. Stack’s husband, Andrew Joseph Stack III, flew a plane into an office building last week and killed Valerie Hunter’s husband, Vernon. Joe Stack seemed pretty much crazy. It became obvious fairly quickly after the incident…because he also burned down his own home and left a very clear letter about his troubles on the internet. I felt terrible for the family of Vernon Hunter. Who wouldn’t? There was absolutely no reason he should have died. Wrong place, wrong time. But what business does his wife have suing the wife of Joe Stack? How can any amount of money help their grief? My biggest problem with it all was that it somehow made the wife of Joe Stack seem responsible for his actions. It’s horrifying to think that when you marry a person you could be held responsible for their insanity. Fortunately last night I saw a report that Valerie Hunter’s lawyer is amending the lawsuit so they’re suing Joe Stack’s estate instead of his wife. This is what I’m wondering…does anyone know the answer…?

-If you burn down your own house does the insurance company give you money?

-If you commit suicide (by flying a plane into a building) does your family get any life insurance money?

-This one’s more hypothetical…did Joe Stack even have much money to his name if he had all these tax problems?

I don’t understand what the Hunter family is suing for. Wouldn’t Stack’s money go to his wife and stepdaughter? So should Hunter’s family get to take it away from them? Both families lost a husband/father/provider. Both women have to figure out what to do next. I don’t think Sheryl Stack should be punished for being married to someone crazy. It sounds like she had enough problems if she was staying in a hotel the night before he went ballistic. She may have known he was unstable, but how much could she have realistically done for him? What could she have actually prevented?

The whole thing makes the Hunter family look kind of ugly. Even if they’re just suing the estate…is it really that much about money? Am I being totally naive? Valerie Hunter also had a job. They have a grown son. I felt such sympathy for the families of both men that died. The lawsuit leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.