The Spot

Costa Rica Day 4: A New Year's Tour Through the Jungle

2012-01-22T16:39:00.000-08:00

Perhaps since it was also a Sunday (travel day), but New Year's Day was as crowded as we ever saw it at the Arenal Kioro, both at breakfast and at lunch. As I had mentioned before, Costa Rica Vacations took great care of us, and all of our breakfasts at each of the hotels were included in our package. Partially because we weren't sure to expect on our first trip to Costa Rica, we left a day or

Costa Rica Day 3: Zip Lining on NYE

2012-01-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

New Year's eve stated early with a trip to the Arenal Park Ecoglide zip-lining playground, complete with Tarzan swing, and complimentary Imperial (or beverage of choice) when you're done. Other than almost taking one of the Ticos off the Tarzan Swing ledge, it went without incident and was completely exhilarating. It did rain on us through a few of the cables, but that's how it goes when you're

Costa Rica Day 2: Traveling to Arenal Kioro in La Fortuna

2012-01-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of our trip began with our included breakfast at the Real Intercontinental, a quick walk around the grounds to take in the views, and then we were off to La Fortuna. As I mentioned previously, Costa Rica Vacations and our rep there, Marco Madrigal, took excellent care of us. Our driver, Hjalmar, arrived a good 10 minutes early and was helping to transfer our bags as we came out of

Long Overdue: Visiting Costa Rica

2012-01-21T15:12:00.000-08:00

My apologies; these next entries are a bit overdue, but we took the time to just enjoy our trip, and now have finally caught back up with everything and now I finally have the time to post. Beginning from our entry at SJO airport: We had booked our trip through Costa Rica Vacations, so we had the advantage of having someone meet us to take us to our bags, through customs, and onto our first

In-Flight Post: Costa Rica Bound!

2011-12-29T19:13:00.001-08:00

Granted, by the time this post hits the internets we'll be on the ground, but the content was created in-flight! Today's travel schedule took us from LAX, through Phoenix, and onto San Jose by way of US Airways. Oddly enough, the aircraft we're on for this second leg originated at Ontario, CA, but LAX is just...and I have to put this in quotes, "More convenient." Though the airport was

NYE in Long Beach: Don't Say I Didn't Let You Know

2011-12-28T16:21:00.000-08:00

Sure sure, I'll be in Costa Rica (Arenal to be more specific) for New Year's, but I couldn't help but share when I came across this little flyer for Saturday Night's activities in the heart of downtown LBC. I've walked by this place dozens of times and am always intrigued by the look from Ocean Blvd. Haven't actually been to Sip just yet, but based on the layout, ammenities, location, the

Costa Rica: It's About to go Down!

2011-12-28T15:13:00.000-08:00

Less than 24 hours to our Honeymoon trip to Costa Rica, and I can barely sit still. Yes, I know, we waited several months to go on our Honeymoon but hey, that's just how the logistics worked out. We're set for a 9 day, 8 night trip that will take us into San Jose, then to Alajuela province to stay at the northern base of Arenal, and finally to Puntarenas province to stay at Manuel Antonio-- and

Take Your Eye off the Throne: This is Laker-Town!

2011-12-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

Last night, the highly re-tooled Lakers got a pre-season smack-down from the immensely upgraded Clippers. I've heard the reactions, the lamentations on the Lakers and the growing expectations of a young Clipper team. I've heard the assertions that the Clippers are now the best team in town, and that the Lakers have fallen off dramatically. Please. Did anyone not see the raw awesomeness that

Even Tim "Tebow's" for the Same Reason You Do!

2011-12-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

....for the attention! Am I the only one that sees what is horribly wrong with the below headline? Packers, Tebow lose, but Colts win Yeah, I'd hope 1 person taking on a team would lose. Badly. The whole Tebow-Mania thing is an absolute disaster, and evident of many things that are wrong with our society. Sure, blame the media for the above headline and the egomania it

Shopping Local: LA's Santee Alley

2011-12-19T11:43:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of supporting the 99% this Christmas season, and with the mantra of shopping locally, I decided (as I do every year) to head on down to Santee Alley in LA's Fashion District (12th, between Los Angeles St. and Maple will put you in the heart of it all) to do some of my Christmas shopping. This place is fantastic. It doesn't matter what you're looking for, and it's actually

Obligatory Windpocolypse Post

2011-12-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Since Southern California is again receiving High Wind Warnings and advisories, and thunderstorms have been brewing this afternoon (check that-- IT'S HAILING IN LONG BEACH), I thought I'd give a quick nod to the "Wind-pocolypse" of two weeks ago. On December 1st, stories ran throughout the country covering the massive wind damage and power-outages across the LA area, and in particular the San

Costa Rica Count-Down Clock Ticks Under Two Weeks!

2011-12-15T16:46:00.000-08:00

My wife and I are going on our long-overdue Honeymoon exactly 2 weeks from today. Flying in to beautiful San Jose, Costa Rica, then off to Arenal for 4 days, and later to Manuel Antonio for another 4 days. The excitement is mounting; I've never been out of the country for New Year's! We're definitely going canopy-gliding, and I'm sure some snorkeling is in order, perhaps even a hike on the

Coming Unglued: This isn't the 1987 Lakers

2011-12-15T10:39:00.000-08:00

I've tried my best over the past week to keep quiet, projectile retweets notwithstanding. I've tried to withold judgement on the status of the Lakers' shortened free-agent season, but as much as Magic Johnson has been urging us all to keep patient and have faith in the Lakers' front office, I think I've run out of mine at this point. It's enough that the rumors of a blockbuster Chris Paul-to-LA

Playing With Matches: My Thoughts on Bullying

2011-12-13T16:30:00.000-08:00

Last week I took to Facebook after seemingly being inundated with news stories, commercials, and television episodes all touching on the topic of bullying. Yes, bullying is both ethically and morally wrong, and is most definitely an unpleasant test of character to whomever is the target of a bully's outburst. But I found it curious that all of the advertising and 'awareness' forces seemed to

So Cal Sports Check

2011-11-25T10:49:00.001-08:00

Last week, Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers deservedly took home the Cy Young award. This week, Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers was undeservedly snubbed of the NL MVP Award. However, showing enormous character, Matty just smiled, shook his head, signed his PHAT contract extension, and gave the classic 'wait 'till next year' statement. We can't Matty. We can't. We're

Another Occupy Protest?

2011-11-23T19:24:00.001-08:00

Yes!...and in the new Promenade Walk district in Downtown Long Beach! Except it was just CSI Miami filming and episode that will feature the popular OWS movement. Not sure yet when it airs, but keep an eye out!

Quit Yer Bitching

2011-11-23T15:18:00.001-08:00

Contrary to the potential implication in the title of this post, I am generally a proponent of the protest known as Occupy Wall Street. In our country today, corporate greed is rampant, and our country has become little more than a corporate autocracy that is in cahoots with the aristocracy. It is not about conservative vs. liberal, or any other conjured vitriol two "opposing" views may lob at

October BC Post FAIL

2011-11-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

I held off on posting about Breast Cancer Awareness month because I wanted to follow the common advice of not writing anything when incensed. However, as the month wore on, I realized that this is a subject over which I will never be less than adamant over its sketchy and less-than-benevolent nature for a cause. I continued my research on the matter, but I never got to delving into the

Occupy Wall Street Protest Photos

2011-10-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Here's some photos that I've taken from the Occupy protests in downtown LA and Long Beach...

Occupy Wall Street: A For Effort

2011-10-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

F for execution. The Occupy Wall Street movement was born from a great message and a necessary protest; the top 1% of wealthy Americans have prospered at the expense of the remaining 99% during the course of the current economic slump that began in late 2007 as Countrywide sputtered out of control (few experts actually acknowledge that to be the true beginning of the financial crisis and instead

REITS, Landlords, Real Estate "Sell-Side" Still out of Touch

2011-10-07T16:54:00.000-07:00

The real estate market has been in a tailspin since the end of 2007. You would think that 4 years of turmoil would bring back some sort of normalcy to market forces, and certainly would indicate favor for the real estate "buy-side" transaction, be it either a potential buyer or tenant. But oh, how out-of touch and in denial those folks are! Either from using the house like an ATM, buying

Reaching Sustained Readership

2011-10-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

Badass! The Spot has been enjoying a sustained mass of readership, even though I've been pretty bad about updating voer the past month. Our base readership is 7 views per day, which isn't huge, but I'm doing this for S's and G's, not the CREAM. That said, this is October-- breast cancer awareness month. Get ready for my scathing post on this "should be, but isn't" benevolvent cause.

Expo II Breaks Ground

2011-09-12T18:09:00.000-07:00

This morning I watched the story on KTLA like a little kid. Finally, they were breaking ground on the second phase of the Expo line, which will extend from Culver City to Santa Monica. Obviously, there is still some opposition by the NIMBY crowd in Cheviot Hills, arguing there will be heavier traffic in the neighborhood, and this could delay the scheduled 2015 opening, but you've got to be

Glendale Discourages Tennis

2011-09-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

My wife and I registered for (and of course, got) tennis rackets, something we thought would be fun to do together. On our mini-moon to Vacation Island, we enjoyed our time on the court, despite the swarm of bees that came cruising through. And it was clear we would need to play more, because I owed her for the swift ass-kicking she gave me. Growing up in Moorpark, I was used to shooting

Walking LA: Los Feliz

2011-08-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago for my birthday, my wife (then my girlfriend) got me a great book called Walking LA, by Erin Mahoney Harris. It's a fantastic book of various walks through neighborhoods and points of interest in LA, and we've taken up the task of trying to complete all 38; we're about halfway there. This past weekend we went on the Los Feliz walk, which takes you up into the hills and