Sad fucking Monday.
Today is Tuesday. But it was a sad fucking Monday. What a great weekend… and woke up on Monday to sadness.
I lost my camera. Or it was stolen…
I didn’t have a tour this weekend. I didn’t have much this weekend. And two last minute things happened. I went to San Diego on Friday to the inauguration of Swagyu Burgers next to Petco Park. I got to hang out with my friend Joey the Housewrecker. I got to eat free burgers and make a video about it. Here’s the video:
It didn’t do as well. I had more videos… but… my camera. Fucking sad.
I took my other camera as well. I didn’t lose that camera. I can still take pictures. So I had to mix the pictures on the video. Maybe that’s why it didn’t do so well. I might try to do another video in English… but I lost some videos. The videos I had planned for the video in English.
Fuck.
Second last minute thing.
Another friend, “el Colsa,” invited me to the Ensenada Beer Fest. He got a hotel suite cabin thing by the beach called Papagayos. He invited another dude (Xavi). And we had a jolly good time at Ensenada. Helluva of an adventure.
Wish I could show you the video of it all… but I lost my camera.
Lost?
Or stolen?
I think stolen… A bit of both.
After the Ensenada Adventure, Colsa dropped me back home at around 10 pm. I am sure I left the camera on the pocket of the door of the passenger seat. That’s where I was keeping it while rolling around. It was either there, in my bag, in my hand, or on the dashboard. And it was in that pocket last.
He dropped me off and I forgot it. I also forgot my girlfriend’s Yeti travel mug. That didn’t get lost.
After Colsa dropped me off, he was pulled over by the police for a broken headlight and tinted windows. They used this excuse to also claim he was drunk driving. He wasn’t. After more than an hour of arguing with the cops, they let him go for a hefty fee. Some cash. And my camera. That’s my suspicion.
They swept through the car and found Dramamine and accused him of drugs. It was fucking Dramamine. While arguing, other cops swept the car looking for other things to accuse Colsa… it was a perfect opportunity to pocket my camera.
There goes my DJI Osmo Action 5 Pro.
My mistake leaving it in the car… It was going to take me a while to get it back. But… the cops just taking it. Fuck.
It hurts.
It was my Xmas present. It was the camera that was doing almost all my work. It was nice to have. I was doing a lot of creative shit with it… but… now…
I’m back to using iPhone X. Shit. I need a newer iPhone or a new camera asap.
At least I still have the old trusty Sony A7II.
I need a new two new cameras and a phone ASAP.
My shit is still getting more popular. Quality needs to remain good and just get better. Walking on the street people shout my name. It’s weird. But it happens a few times. Tj famous huh.
There are people way more famous than me. But I’ll ride the wave for money.
I need to make money to get new cameras so I can keep doing this shit. I know I can.
I posted that I lost the camera and people are really nice. Two people offered similar cameras than the DJI Osmo Action 5, older GoPro versions. That’s nice. That will help. Someone donated $25 to the cause. Thanks Jonathan!
And oh shit! I just checked my email and got another $10 through Venmo. Gracias Janessa!
If you want to be like Jonathan or Janessa, you can donate to my Venmo or Zelle, just look up Matingas (or Matingas@gmail.com) and you should be able to find me. Or you can donate here:
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DonateDonate monthlyDonate yearlyIf you donate through here, please contact me as well… no one ever has and I want to make sure I get the money…
I will miss the shit out of that tiny camera. And more importantly… All my footage of Ensenada is gone. It was a lot. Way too much. I had enough to make a few videos for Ensenada Adventure. A couple of videos for Matingas. A couple of videos for Tijuana Adventure…
And now…
Now I’m barely going to rescue one video from it all. I saved some videos on my phone but I recorded nothing there. Colsa and Xavi recorded on their phones and they sent their best material. Maybe I can scrap a video out of it all.
It’s a lot of work.
But Ensenada Beer Fest was a fantastic time. The festival was WAY better than the previous year when it was compacted to just the parking lot. This time, the whole cultural center was taken advantage. I didn’t know any of the bands but it was an eclectic mix of cover bands of all sorts, DJs, and other shit. A lot of beer. A shit ton of beer. Too much beer that I lost memory of a lot of the night… and the camera was the only evidence.
I filmed over 200 videos of the festival. I had another videos for Tacos Poblano in Tijuana, Ensenada places, the road to Ensenada, Colsa’s car (the Blue Ox), and some Swagyu Burgers footage…
That’s lost forever.
Getting another camera, I will get one soon. The videos… well fuck.
Now…!!!
I have more work. I have a photoshoot today with a stranger. I’m doing cheaper photoshoots on the weekdays. More casual photoshoots. Natural light. Paparazzi-style city headshots and photoshoots. A lot of people still use my pictures as their profile pic and it always feels nice.
I confused today’s client with a friend that plays the accordion. I did bad jokes about pictures with his accordion. He has nothing to do with an accordion. Just someone that follows me and likes my pictures.
So yeah. Easy photoshoot. I hope he likes the pictures.
Tomorrow…!!!
Tomorrow, Wednesday, I have a tour. It’s a father and son tour. The son is a teenager so there can’t be a lot of drinking. It’s starting in their hotel and from there I know where to take them. It should be a fun tour. Though I won’t have my camera and that fucking blows.
After that… March is almost over.
This post needs a picture. I need to shower and get ready.
I’ve been taking a lot of pictures. I need to clean the camera’s sensor.
It feels like a lot happened between Tuesday and today (Friday).
The photoshoot went well. He loves the pictures. Now I need to find a use for it… how to get more photoshoots.
The tour went great. Father and son duo were fun. Both very big foodies and the dad loved beer. There would have been so much more beer except the son was 15 years of age. He knew his food well. He wants to be a chef. He was a good critic. We ate a lot of tacos and drank a few beers (not the 15-year-old, only tacos for him and hibiscus water and mango water).
Here’s the tour filmed by iPhone X…
Tour went great. I got paid. I got a standard nice tip. And I had fun.
The night I played DotA with my friends. We lost a bunch like always. And then… my computer slowed down to a crawl. Turn off and forgot about it.
Next morning… iMac wasn’t running well, but I had work. Edits, emails, more. Tried a few tricks. Nothing.
This morning… Tried other tricks. Hard resets. Re-installing the old OS. Time Machine… nothing was working.
I was about to do more research for harder resets or tricks… One last restart…
And…
It’s back to how it was before. Not great. But at least it can run Safari and I can write and I can play DotA later (and lose).
No camera. Almost no computer. I still have my girlfriend and she’s great.
Oh.
And I got interviewed for an Australian radio/podcast show called All in the Mind. It has a decent following and number of listeners. It was about my mental health and celebrity’s mental health when I was a paparazzo. I talked a lot about my book. I talked a lot about my adventures. I talked a lot about my mental health then and now and how social media has changed the game.
It was a nice interview. I was a bit high before it. And I didn’t do it in my computer like I wanted to, but on the iPad.
We’ll see if they run it. We will see if it translates to sales about book. You can buy my books on Amazon. Here’s a link to the paparazzi one.
I’ve sold two books this month. Both were the Tijuana Adventure one. I made $10.26!
Yay!
I am fully booked for late April and all of them paid deposit. Finishing those tours will pay for May. I have a lot of April open for tours and photoshoots or more. I have a lot of May already booked up. I have a lot of messages from people interested in tours. Some people don’t reply after I tell them the price… I think I’m a decent price. $200 a day for a private tour guide for a small group. Around $40 an hour.
Same for a photoshoot. Those are tougher to get. Too many photographers in town. There are a lot of tour guides in town as well. And AI is taking our jobs. I discovered a Tijuana guide book written by AI selling on Amazon that has Wikipedia and other sources mixed with my book. You can tell because it mentions Tijuana Adventure a bunch…
This post needs a picture. I’ve been taking a lot of pictures. I was taking a lot of videos… but DJI Osmo Action 5, you will be thoroughly missed. It was my Xmas present. It was my daily blogger. If anyone in DJI is reading this… send me one for free please!!!
I wish…
Chimba looking majestic in my living room in front of a box filled with old cameras. That’s the pic for this blog. My girlfriend was taking pictures of her on top of the fridge yesterday.
I might actually move after all… the one bedroom apartment is available. But who knows. Seems to be 50/50 for now. Tijuana life continues to be crazy.
Buy my shit!
Buy my books!
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Follow me in all the social medias. You know the drill.
Buy my books on Amazon. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.
Subscribe to my YouTube. The more subscribers, the more money, the more time I have to upload cool shit.
Follow me on Instagram and book me for a photoshoot!
Follow me on TikTok just because it’s the thing we do in the future.
Book a Tijuana tour with Tijuana Adventure! Still doing exclusive tours in 2024. Let’s see how much longer I last.
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Thanks for reading.
Matingas 
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