ReadingLipps the day to day life of an urban adventurer.

A blog is essentially whatever you want it to be, as long as it can fit on a webpage.  Most people blog about politics and atheism, which nobody wants to read.  Some people have super cool blogs, like this ONE:  Some blogs totally suck, like this ONE.  Really, nobody will read your blog except your mother, spammers and Nigerian phishermen. 

I created this historical map of the Yana people as a follow-through on my interest in California history. I'm a third-generation Californian, born and raised all over the state, I consider it as much a part of my identity as my thumbprint.  My interest in California includes learning it's history.  Part of that is the tragic treatment and eradication of its native population. 

Christmas in Baja is always a strange sight.  There are few places as harsh as the Baja Peninsula. Desert and cactus stretch off into the horizon with only the hazey-maroon volcanic mountains in the distance to suggest an end of the dust.  Yet in towns across Baja, from Cabo to Tijuana, enormous plastic Santas are mounted proudly in plastic sleighs on top of cinderblock houses.  Strings of blue, green and red lights flicker in many windows and the occassional Christmas tree can be seen strapped to the well gravelled roof of a 1992 Sentra. 

We all know you can't ALWAYS get your order right at the local fast food joint, it's just one of the great injustices that all fast food eaters will one day be forced to realize. They will pull away from the window only to realize later they've been horribly wronged. With any luck it's not a short order, the worst offense of all. Often the source of this consternation is known as the "modified order," when a customer changes the item to their liking. Asking for a change to the menu item is like inviting a vampire inside your home, it's likely gonna go horribly wrong and suck.  But if you need to modify the menu item, pick your requests carefully.  Is it something you can do yourself? That may be the better route. Here are some other rules:

Have you ever been zipping through a set of commercials on your favorite episode of the World's Bitchiest Humans from Orange County and you get a glimpse of your favorite upstanding bickerous blonde bimbo and hit the play button, only to discover it was just a mid-commercial teaser?  That's one way the networks trick you into hitting play while speeding past the people who pay the bills.  They play a little teaser so you think your show is beginning.  The only thing I hate more than commercials is traffic, so I find it annoying to be duped, but they are fighting back against the DVR.

In the 80s white people were in charge of music, and it eventually sucked so hard we rebelled by giving music back to black people.  African Americans grabbed the reigns and quickly gave the world Hip-Hop.  And we danced.  We danced with rhythm, soul and a spirit that Devo and Flock of Seaguls never even knew about.  Big hip-hop stars pulled me from high school into college where 40-ounce Mickey's bottles on Friday nights were mandated by Notorious B.I.G., SnoopDogg and Too-Short.

As a student studying abroad in 1998 I had serendipitously stumbled into the heart of Europe during the World Cup, held in France.  I knew of the World Cup but I didn’t KNOW about it.  The hype was building around me but I was just a normal American, raised on baseball, football and all things American.  The first real moment I knew the World Cup was something different was when I was in a small coastal town in Italy.  I had stepped off a train into the center of a tiny village.  I thought the train and town had seemed rather empty.  Italy was playing a World Cup match.  No decent Italian would be anywhere other than in front of his TV at that moment and here I was wondering around lost.  Just as I reached for my map a man ran out from a nearby café and fell to his knees. 

Coffee Creek, CA is a small town in the mountains of Trinity County. The nearest city is Weaverville and the nearest actual city is Redding. This April I visited some good friends of mine, who run some cabins in Trinity. Trinity is beautiful with towering snow-capped mountains and flowing rivers that still yield gold for those willing to pan for it. We were invited to the local volunteer fire department chili feed and benefit auction. The Coffee Creek Volunteer Fire District operates entirely without state funding and depends on the generosity of the community and grants, when they can get them.  I’ve heard they are a responsive bunch. Every available volunteer arrives at every available incident, the benefits of an automated phone system.

I am proud to announce that I have been hired as the Social Media Coordinator for ResponseLogix. This company has taken the bold step of moving into the Social Media space and have selected me to partner with their Marketing Director, Catherine Edwards to advance into the cyber-marketing world of Social Media. ResponseLogix has created software that bridges the gap between internet car buyers and the physical car sales lots. This is a great product for Dealerships that want to make sure to cover all internet inquiries and for those who want to pro-actively reach out to internet shoppers.

Jarrett Robinson is a guy to keep an eye on. His burgeoning acting and modeling career is getting hot. You may have seen him in ads for McDonald's Snack Wraps, or in a Sprite ad with LeBron James or even acting as Beyonce's own personal man-servant in her concerts. I've shared a few late night booze sessions with Jarrett and he was kind enough to take a few moments out of his busy-ass schedule to answer 5 Questions: