I was 14 years old when the verdict came down that the four cops who had beaten Rodney King on live television had been pronounced not guilty. I wasn’t a news nerd just yet, but that didn’t keep me from being glued to the news footage of rioting in L.A. that night.
Let’s take a break from Michael news and take some time down memory lane. Fresh off an internship in Arizona, jobless in L.A., I broke down after a couple of months of compulsively sending out resumes for every available journalism-related job available within 50 miles of Santa Monica and got a job as a barista at Coffee Bean. It was my first retail job, and was surprisingly fun and fast-paced. However, the job had its drawbacks — being so close to the beach, our tip jar got swiped at least once by a homeless dude. Plus, being in an affluent area, there were at least a few self-important jerks who came through.
I was thinking earlier about how I got started blogging and realized — dude, 10 years ago, I had no computer. And I started laughing maniacally. I mean, how do you learn how to build a website, much less develop a method for blogging, without a computer? Oh, you. I’ll tell you all about it.
Photo ripped off from Eater LA
McDonalds, when you’re a kid, is the spot to go to when you’ve been exceptionally good. When you’re a teenager, its the spot to find freedom from adults. As an adult, its the spot to avoid, since nearly everything served at McDonalds is going to net you one pound. So where Feng Shui fits in there, I’m not sure.
Anyway, yeah, this is my hometown McDonalds. For the longest time, it was the only one in town. A couple years before we had to move away, they built a second one within walking distance of my old house. Bastards.
I’m not entirely sure that remodeling a McDonalds in a largely Hispanic neighborhood to be feng shui was the best strategy, but hey. What do I know?