A note to my friends

  

I wanted to thank every single friend I have for being so awesome. I really really need people my life like you.

In 2013, many things in my life have changed; my mind, my heart and my body. I change these parts of myself, because I can finally say that I love myself more than I ever have.

I know that I could never have done it without the help and support of all of you.

I also know that those of you who really, really love me, would carry on with that acceptance, and love me regardless of some of my bad moments. I have them. We all do. We can learn from them, or fail to, and experiences the cyclical nature of learning.

People have asked what I want for a present for the holidays. It's been a rough year for me to figure out what I need, or want (two very different things) and I have decided that I want you to do something for yourself.

So do something to make yourself feel better about your life. Work on the sides of you that need to be nourished with attention. If you don't nurture every side of yourself you like, that side of you will eventually die. Don't do that to yourself. Don't lose your identity. Don't lose yourself.

I think that the more that you can improve yourself, the stronger you become, and the more your have to offer your friends, family, and community, the stronger all of those things become as well.

Give back to the world, even when it hurts you. You are worth it, and so is everyone else. This is why I am doing AIDS Lifecycle. This is why I improved my body. This is why I write as a journalist.

It is my goal to lift anyone and everyone up. Helping my community has become my life. I want to help as much as I can. If I can't write about it, photograph it, or brighten it up, I'm not doing my job.

So try and inspire change. That's the best present you could ever give anyone.

MBPM

Photography: Old Zoo at Griffith Park

Old Zoo in Griffith Park

The old zoo in Griffith Park was opened in 1912, to a barrage of many complaints about the cages being too small for animals. The site is merely ruins at this point, with partial cage walls falling over tall grass, and huge dark staircases and tunnels leading to several more small cages.

It is a dark and spooky place, but totally worth checking out. Tons of beautiful graffiti is hidden inside these dark cavernous cages, that housed many miserable animals before the new LA Zoo opened in the 1960s. 

Directions: Take the 5 Freeway to the Los Feliz Boulevard exit. Drive west on Los Feliz Boulevard to the first light and turn north on Crystal Springs Road. After 1.5 miles, turn left on Griffith Park Drive. Continue a quarter mile and turn left into a parking area just before the road bends to the right. There is a row of parking spaces by the turnoff and more parking as you drive into the picnic area. If all spaces are full, you may park at the larger lot by the merry-go-round and walk a little further to the picnic area.

Trailhead address: Griffith Park Drive, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Trailhead coordinates: 34.13527, -118.286357

Photography: Goemeric Photography

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Photography/Fiction: CURSED SKULL, CURSED FATE (A Spooky Short Picture Story)

CURSED SKULL, CURSED FATE 

PICTURE 1:The spirit hovered above the man as he entered the house. It couldn’t believe that this was all happening again, wishing it could be free of its eternal fate....

  

  It followed the man home from an occult shop where the man had purchased a skull that had carving etched all over it. The man thought the skull would be a neat knick-knack for his son who enjoyed trinkets that had a dark nature about them. Little did he know, the skull carried a curse that an old crone had put on the skull that summoned a spirit to kill anyone in possession of the it, just after the last stroke of midnight on the first day of owning it. Until then, the spirit followed the man, hovering just above his head, only materializing as a shadow, a half form. The man should never have purchased the skull, but people in the material world had a way of not knowing or respecting things they perceive to be false, such as spirits.

 PICTURE 2:  The man walked up the stairway towards his room, feeling the spirit in his bones and blood, but not believing it was there with his mind. The spirit reached for its skull but in shadow form, it could not touch the man. It would follow until midnight came and get its skull back following the orders of the crone from years ago. 

PICTURE 3:  As midnight approached the man lay in his sleep paralyzed by dreams that warned of his future. A shadow foreshadowing his fate unseen by the man stuck in a dream world that made nightmares seem tame. 

PICTURE 4
:

       The clock strikes midnight as the ghost materializes and grabs the skull from the bookcase. A place the man put his sons gift with pride. A false pride built on things not his. The ghost dropped the skull in front of the sleeping man, a part of the curse that allows the dead to touch the living. All the humans that had dared to touch the skull had been killed. He boiled their blood from the inside using his cursed gift of power given by the crone, always just after midnight.

PICTURE 5: The clock finished its twelfth tone and the man was no more. He was found with a look of fear on his face the blood seeping his sheet through his skin. The skull was nowhere to be found and the ghost gone.

 The spirit tied forever with the burden of the skull…. Was on to find his next victim.