My Life

Age: 20

Date of Birth: 12/8/79

Name: Josue (Josh in Spanish)

Sign : Sagittarius (The Archer)

Sexual Orientation: Gay

Race: Mexican and Guatemalan

Location: Sylmar, CA (San Fernando Valley) in Los Angeles

Ht: 5'7''

Wt: 155 - 160 lbs

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Short, Black

The Homestead

I live and grew up in Sylmar, CA -- not well-known, nothing here really, but it's home. I went to school K-12 here, and also went to LAMC for a short while after I graduated.. Again, not much here; I live in a quiet neighborhood. Not much damage done here during the Northridge Quake here in 1994.

I have also recently ended my three-year stint at a thrift store I was working at here in Sylmar. While I enjoyed a lot of the aspects of being a store manager there, such as the freedom to prioritize, hire, fire, laude, and make my underlings feel at ease when working with me, I quit. The 50+ an hour work weeks and the unbearable, hectic, ever-shifting schedule I could not tolerate any longer.

I am thankful, however, for the chance I was given at the age of 19 to run a store, deal with various situations, confront both friendly, caustic, and sometimes downright racist and despicable people. For that I thank Dave, my one-time boss, then co-worker, now friend. Thanks, Dave.

One of the few JPEGS that I have found of Sylmar on the Internet, this is from the '71 Sylmar Quake. There's a pretty good view of the mountains in the background. Oh, and in case you're wondering, those are two transformers that were knocked down by the tremor.

Exciting, huh? ;-)

This is a satellite picture of Sylmar taken by the SPIN satellite in March 1998. Don't try to save this puppy on your hard drive - it consists of 36 separate JPEGS that I had to piece together one by one.

And here is my Crown Victoria - I love her to death - big, comfortable, gas guzzling, All American and all mine :-)

In Dreams...

I love the English Language. I write poetry for the most part, though I did write an essay that got me a $500 scholarship from the Gay and Lesbian group for the Los Angeles School District. I worked on the school newspaper during my Senior year in junior high, and during my Junior year in high school; I was Editor-In-Chief for both. My high school paper got so raunchy under my direction and my friend Robert's stories that Journalism was cancelled the next year! LOL.

My dream is to be a professional writer in the likes of Stephen King (though a little less predictable) and Michael Crichton (though a little less scientific). As I said before, I love the English language.

I also hope to find a husband who cares about and understands what it is like to be a person with values in a city where values for many people, especially gay ones, is a rarity.

For now, I have been resting, and have just barely begun to pick up the pen and dabble again in my calling. As mentioned before, the job I had the last year drained me mentally and phsyically and made me be disgusted with people as a whole. While that should have served as inspiration to my writings, it sadly, did not.

Now, I am looking to go to El Camino College, which is just north of Torrance, CA. I also am looking to move down to the area with my friend, Lars. If all goes well, it should have happened by the 22nd

Fun (V1.0)

For fun, my favorite thing to do is watch movies, either at a theater or at home. I like all kinds of films, but especially horror. I am a huge fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street series (particularly parts 1, 3 and the New Nightmare. My favorite actors include Dennis Hopper, Kevin Spacey, and Nicolas Cage. My favorite directors are David Lynch (Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart) Terry Gilliam (12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), and David Cronenberg(The Fly, Crash, Naked Lunch). Oh, and I also LOVE cheesy cult flicks, especially when done by MST3K. Crow is my favorite :-D

I also enjoy hanging out with friends (usually one at a time, I don't like crowds), surfing the internet, watching so-called "snuff" pictures and deaths (Faces of Death and its rip offs), reading novels, writing poetry (once again), and playing video games,

And though I haven't recently, I also enoy going to museums, such as the LA County Museum in Miracle Mile and the Getty Museum near Bel Air Estates. I love art work and particulary admire the work of the Greeks.

Hmm..what else....? Oh, music! Radiohead, Britland's(heehee) most dismal-minded band, I love. Their songs, such as Creep, Let Down, and Karma Police are absolutely great. I also like show tunes, am a massive fan of Tom Lehrer (thanks for introducing me to his brilliance, Lars).

The Arts

I love arts, whether it be writing, film, museum pieces, or music: anything that exhibits creativity and evokes feeling and thoughts, I love. So here are some of my favorite works in a variety of categories. More bluntly put, here's my list of favorites :)

Film
1. Evita
2. 12 Monkeys
3. Blue Velvet
4. Magnolia
5. Heat
6. American Beauty
7. Leaving Las Vegas
8. Reservoir Dogs
9. Death of A Salesman
10. T2: Judgment Day

Poems
1. The Lovesong Of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot
2. Penelope, Dorothy Parker
3. Apparently with no surprise, Emily Dickenson
4. Degrees of Gray in Phillipsburg, Richard Hugo
5. Dulce et Decorum Est, Wilfred Owen
6. Storm Warnings, Adrienne Rich
7. Living in Sin, Adrienne Rich
8. The Tyger, William Blake
9. My Last Duchess, Ferrara
10. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, S.T. Coleridge

Literary Works
1. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
2. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
3. Hamlet, William Shakespeare
4. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
6. The Tortilla Curtain, T. Coraghessan Boyle
7. "I Stand Here Ironing", Tillie Olson
8. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
9. The Dark Tower Series, Stephen King
10. The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton

The above lists are by no means exhaustive; for me to list every work that has touched me is to try and look into your brain and dissect each and every thought.

The Days and Works of Hands

Below are some of my favorite Greek works with some short descriptions. I find these sculptures uterly breathaking, amazing, and striking in their complexity.

Lapiths and Centaurs, Parthenon, S Side, 438 BCE -- Athens, Greece

Cult Statue of Aphrodite (?), Marble, 400 BCE, 7' 6'' tall

This relief sculpture depics the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs. It symbolizes the Greeks' belief of civilization over barbarism; of order over chaos, where the lapiths represent the humanisitc side of man and the centaur the beastlike part of man. The elaborateness of the cloak the lapish wears would be impossible in the straining position he is in.

Gaul Killing His Wife, Marble, 220 BCE, Lifesize

This huge statue I first experienced at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. It is truly breathtaking and this picture is a poor subsitute for seeing the hulking work in front of you. The fine attenion and wet-drapery look of her clothing is particularly amazing.

This statue really struck me and evokes a feeling of sorrow and horror as a Gaul chooses to take his wife's and then his own life rather than become slaves to the Greeks. The stature requires the viwer to walk around it to see the face of the Gaul and really makes the person experience rather than just look at the sculpture. Amazing and beautiful.