" Welcome to my Homepage " malianrob's Profile

"May the wind always be at your back and the sun upon your face, and the winds of destiny carry you aloft to dance with the stars."

Well the year is coming to an end and it looks like just one more trip for me. I will be heading to Austin Texas at the end of the year to visit family. But 2012 will start off with a bang as I will be heading out to Costa Rico and then to Nicaragua with a few friends. I am very excited about that. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year.

What a perfect place to live....
I love LA...
What do I love the most? Well I grew up in a small city (Gardena) right outside Los Angeles. My family came to the United States. My neighbors to the right were Dutch Indonesian, to the left Filipino, in front Mexican, next to them Cuban. There were many Japanese families in the neighborhood as well as Anglo, Samoan, and Hawaiian. It seemed as though all the kids on my block were first generation "Americans". Everyones parents spoke a different language. Everyone got along, our neighborhood was clean, and safe. It was a great place to grow up. I think that is what sparked an interest in me to explore, understand, or appreciate other cultures. Every summer someone was going somewhere, to an interesting part of the world. Then they would come back with stories and pictures of somewhere new and exciting.
Most of us kids that grew up in this neighborhood still keep in touch and it is no wonder that we all love to travel and see the world. From a young age we were exposed to different parts of the world right in our own front yards.

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And to know the place for the first time."
-T.S. Eliot

Patty and I

My 2012 Trips
Costa Rica
Nicaragua
Seattle Washington

My 2011 trips
Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Uruguay
Austin Texas

My Trips for 2010
Ecuador......again
Tahiti
New York
Chicago
New Jersey
London
Belgium
Amsterdam

My Trips for 2009
March - Jamaica
April - Ecuador, the Amazon
July - Oahu, Hawaii
July - Maui
July - Lana'i
November - Paris
December - Seattle

My Trips for 2008
February - New Orleans, LA for Mardi Gras; Alabama, Mississippi
March - Quayaquil and Montanita Ecuador
July - Palm Springs
August - Fiji, then back to Vegas
September - Mexico City DF, and then to San Francisco
October - Quito, Ecuador
November - Amsterdam for Cannabis Cup and then Belgium
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My trips I did in 2007
Ecuador - twice
Panama
Florida - Walt Disney World
Peru - Cusco, Machu Picchu
El Salvador
Costa Rica
Canada- Vancouver
Kauai
Mexico
Las Vegas

SOME DAY..... WISH LIST....
(going to happen, just not sure when list...)
-Samoa
-Prague
-Cuba
-Easter Island
-Alaska
-New Zealand
-Italy
-Thailand

Pam and I

These are a few pictures of my very best freinds.

Some thoughts....
I have read a few peoples pages about how much they hate LA. I think they just havent seen the real LA.
Traveling in Los Angeles is much different than traveling anywhere else. First off there is SO much to see. You cant do it in one weekend. You will have to rent a carand drive around. We dont have everything in one spot for you to see. People talk about fake people and plastic people. Well there are those kinds of people everywhere and the more you travel the more you will see that. Also you may encounter people like that in certain areas of LA but we are not all like that.
Someone on VT said something like LA is like a hidden jewel. I think that is so true.
I think that there is so much to do here and so much to see. There is so much beauty. We have some the best customer service when you go to restaurants, stores or just about anywhere. We have some of the best weather in the world. You also dont have to go far to sample food from just about any place in the world.
I dont understand how its ok to talk crap about LA but if people are rude......lets say in Paris for lack of another example, people say oh, you just dont understand the culture or thats just the way they are and that should just be respected.
I think its just cool to hate LA and most people would rather be influenced by other people than to see the uniqueness and beauty and the diversity that we have to offer here. There are tourist parts of Los Angeles. Then there is the Los Angeles that the locals live everyday.

My Garden

I recently picked up a new hobby. Gardening!! I love it. So far I have transformed my front yard. I added benches to enjoy my garden and pretty soon I will add a fountain. I found that it is souch a stress relief to garden. I find that I am also learning alot.
My garden is tropical I have plumerias, Banana Trees, Tons of different types of palm trees. I also have Hawaiian Tee plants, Blood Banana trees and lots of roses. I will have to dedicate an album to my garden soon.

Anel and I

Here is a little joke for those of you who are married or have been married. I thought it was funny......

Jack wakes up at home with a huge hangover he can't believe. He forces
himself to open his eyes, and the first thing he sees is a couple of
aspirins next to a glass of water on the side table. And, next to them,
a single red rose!
Jack sits down and sees his clothing in front of him, all Clean and
pressed. Jack looks around the room and sees that it is in perfect
order, spotlessly clean. So is the rest of the house. He takes the
aspirins, cringes when he sees a huge black eye staring back at him in
the bathroom mirror, and notices a note on the table: "Honey, breakfast
is on the stove, I left early to go shopping--Love you!"
He stumbles to the kitchen and sure enough, there is hot breakfast and
the morning newspaper. His son is also at the table, eating. Jack asks,
"Son...what happened last night?"
"Well, you came home after 3 A.M., drunk and out of your mind. You broke some furniture, puked in the hallway, and got that black eye when you ran into the door."
"So, why is everything in such perfect order, so clean, I have a rose,
and breakfast is on the table waiting for me?"
His son replies, "Oh, THAT ... Mom dragged you to the bedroom, and when she tried to take your pants off, you screamed, "Leave me alone, lady, I'm married!"
Broken furniture - $85.26
Hot Breakfast - $4.20
Red Rose bud - $3.00
Two Aspirins - $.38
Saying the right thing, at the right time ..... Priceless.

My sisters and the kids!

EVER WONDER...
Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
Why you never see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
Why "abbreviated" is such a long word?
Why doctors call what they do "practice"?
Why lemon juice is made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
Why the man who invests all your money is called a broker?
Why the time of day with the slowest traffic is called rush hour?
Why there isn't mouse-flavored cat food?
Why Noah didn't swat those two mosquitoes?
Why they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!
Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Something we all need.