7.26.2005

Osamma Your Mamma

I don't have too much time to update. So basically, Brenna and I went in for her biopsy this morning and they told her she didn't have a lump on her thyroid to sample. Apparently the place that did the previous ultrasound fucked up and found something that didn't exsist. So we drove to said place and had them re-scan Brenna, lo-and-behold there was no lump. Thanks for the FALSE FUCKING CANCER ALARM!!! assholes.

The rest of the day I spent on set at "Poultrygeists" first shoot. It was a closed set, so there weren't too many of us, but I was one of the few. It was cool. I think I'm going to spend the majority of my time asking Pat questions. He's the film/camera dude.

I gotta go change Chester's cage and watch "American Psycho" with Brenna. (we've also been watching "6 Feet Under" it's a pretty good show)

Oh yeah, last night we went to Steve G. in Fredonia. Cause over the weekend (on my Birthday) Brenna, Carrie, Ron and I drove there (after seeing Tim Burton's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which I thought rocked hardcore) to find Steve, but he wasn't there. So instead we went out to bars and Ron bought me drinks. We even played beer pong at Valentines and saw a tree with bricks for a trunk (in it actually) and a water fountain that doesn't make a splash when you throw coins in it. It was hot. Then we went to see if Steve was home when we were done, and he wasn't. So we took his pillows, re-arranged shit in their apartment, and stacked chairs and a vacuum in their front doorway.

Turns out Steve doesn't live in that room any more, we took Carl's pillows. Wups. So last night Brenna and I went back there to return his He-Man pillow and hang out with Steve, Chris, Alex, Elliott and the dude who's name I always forget.

Alright, time to go change Chester's cage. Later.

7.17.2005

!!!DON'T CALL MY CELL PHONE ANYMORE!!!

I'm leaving BAV, therefore I'm leaving my cell phone (NO! I'm not going to miss it!).

Even though I'll have it on my the next few days, lets all start to get into the habit of calling my house instead. Ok?

If you need my home number e-mail me at derekxiii@gmail.com

and remember kids: Cell phones cause ear cancer and they kill kittens...so they're only half bad.

DON'T CALL DEREK'S CELL PHONE, IT'S NOT HIS ANYMORE

but

FEEL FREE TO PRANK WHOEVER HAS IT AFTER DEREK

7.12.2005

CAPS LOCK IS LIKE CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRENNA!!! I RUV U!!!
--~O <--it's a birthday balloon!

Alright, due to OP's request I'm putting up a quick on-the-road update.

So far I've been sick sense Saturday (when I was in Orlando), the whole time I was home for 3 days in Buffalo, and now I'm still sick in Seattle.

Is it kinda funny that I've carried a disease from Florida to New York to Washington?

The crappy part is that i'm not "feeling" sick any more (no fevers or chills or sweats) but I'm blowing about 10 gallons of mucus out of every oraphus daily.

And it's yellow.

Yeah, so I definately have a sinus infection...and every day I have a "syptom of the day." For example, yesterday I had tons of mosquito-bite-like bumps all over my back and leg. Today they're gone, but now my eye's are bloodshot like I'm stoned. Yup, every day brings a new grab-bag symptom.

Aside from being sick, I am enjoying my trip. I've eaten at Nara's (the best habachi grill I've ever been too) twice, The Cheesecake Factory once (you'll never guess what kind of amazing food they have), Cold Stone Ice Cream one (another one you'll never guess what they specialize in!), and I've been to GameWorks almost every night with Chris to watch the crazy asians rock the Dance Dance Revolution Extreme machine (it's a dancing game pad you jump around on, while arrows on a screen tell you what to do, while playing techno j-pop music and shining lights everywhere...another non-surprise that the game is from Nippon....er, Japan).

Tomorrow I'm supposed to wander the city with Kate (from poker night) after work, and on Tuesday I'm supposed to get dinner with Brenna's parents.

Before I left for this trip, Brenna and I got a new lease to sign from our new landlords (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it in the last post, but the house we live in was bought by a new renting company). They want us to pay the same price but WITHOUT the utilities that were included. Yeah...right... But hey, at least now we can weasel out of the lease and move to L.A. without having to worry about breaking a lease! (crazy how some things work out eh? hell, we might even move this time!) (right now we're 0/2 on moving)

I'm looking forward to getting home. It's tough being on a last trip, for a job I'm leaving (so basically I don't give a shit about what I'm doing here, I'm just going through the motions), being sick, and wanting to be working over at Troma and being at home with Brenna and friends.

Ron and Carrie got a cat.

I'm also looking forward to getting home to watch "Turkish Star Wars" with peeps. You know you want to see it.

Alright I'm out, maybe I'll update later or something. There's your update OP, now you know I love you.

But not like the Greeks loved little boys. That was just gross.

Amateurs built the Arc. Experts built the Titanic.

unfortunetly only one of them can be backed with significant proof of it's exsistence.

So I put my 2 week notice in at work today. Yeah, I could go through the whole story of what lead up to it, and how it all went down, but I doubt you'd really want to read about that. Generally I've had some eye opening events take place recently that have convinced me that my job has taught me all it can (considering their hesitation to let me do what I'm capable of doing). That combined with the upcomming shooting of Poultrygeist (in which I've been asked to do all the camera work for the behind the scenes footage) I've decided it's time to break away from the comfort of dead end (although once significant) job to hopefully gain experience in a field that I'd like to be heading towards.

Fortunetly when I broke the news to my boss(s) they took it well and asked if I'd still do freelance work for them (which basically means they'll pay me upwards of $150 per day to do what I already do since they won't have to worry about my insurances, etc.) which I wasn't opposed to taking them up on.

I'll never forget the looks on their faces when I told them I was quitting though, they REALLY didn't see that one comming ;)

After the meeting I took the liberty of calling everyone I work(ed) with and telling them that I was resigning and that I wanted to tell them personally instead of having them find out via a stuffy/formal e-mail from the companies president.
All of them were EXTREMELY supportive of the decision, and it was the first time in the 1+ year I've been there that I've ever had input on my work ethics (which seem to be good). It was sad to hear everyone tell me that I'm one of their favorite co-workers, because I know it's true. I'm definately going to miss my relationships with Greg, Tony, Mike, Chris, Frank, Ron and Andrea (I'm really give or take on the rest of the staff). Being 20+ years younger than all of them (except Frank) I never really expected to get so close to them.

On another note, Kate sent Brenna and I an amazing house warming present (I can't wait to move again so we get another one!). It's a bunch of magnets cut out into the shapes of stick people in chairs, stools, motorcycles, etc. with the face of everyone that usually attends poker night stuck on their heads. Then there's a big poker table magnet for them to all sit around. It's fuckin' rad, thanks Kate!
I guess she's going to be in Seattle the same time I am this upcomming week, so hopefully we'll have a chance to hang out.

Alright, I've been really sick the past 2 days and I need to go lay down. Stupid Florida and their Florida germs. Oh shit, before I forget to mention it, when I was in Florida (for an Alpha Delta Kappa conference, which is not a hot sorority, but one made up of school teachers 40 years old and up) I was forced to buy a $40 tie. Yeah. Even worse yet was that it was the cheapest tie, the other ones were $80. Don't worry though, I returned it after I used it (I was a camera man in the middle of a formal dinner). Suckaz.
Yeah. Those old ladies were crazy. I've never seen so much pastel and sequins in my life. And big hats. Holy shit did they have big hats.

If first you don't succeed. Don't try sky diving.

p.s. A London subway and bus got bombed during this last week, and Madrid has some bombs today...I guess that should be mentioned in here somewhere. Um...guess that shows how much our war on terror is helping out...

Remember when Weezer songs had deep lyrics. The following is not one of them...
-------------------------------------

When you're out with your friends
In your new Mercedes Benz and you're
On drugs
And you show up late for school cuz
You think your really cool when you're
On drugs
And you put on your headphones
And you step into the zone when you're
On drugs
But the world don't care
If your not there cuz you're
On drugs

Give it to me
We are all on drugs yeah
Never getting enough (Never get enough)
We are all on drugs yeah
Give me some of that stuff (Wooooh)

And you twitch in your seat cuz
You wanna hit the street when you're
On drugs
And you cause such a fuss cuz
There's no one you can trust when you're
On drugs
And the best of your days
Will all vanish into haze when you're
On drugs
And you wish you could quit cuz
You're really sick of it but you're
On drugs

Give it to me
We are all on drugs yeah
Never getting enough (Never get enough)
We are all on drugs yeah
Give me some of that stuff (Wooooh)

I want to confiscate your drugs
I don't think I can get enough (Uh)

Give it to me
We are all on drugs yeah
Never getting enough
We are all on drugs yeah
Give me some of that stuff (Wooooh)

We are all on drugs (We are all on drugs)
We are all on drugs (We are all on drugs)
We are all on drugs (We are all on drugs)
We are all on drugs (We are all on drugs)
(Wooooh)

-Weezer

7.03.2005

when Steven Hawkings shoots it's always a drive-by

Alllllllllrighty...lets see. I've been working at the Troma house a lot the past few days so there's not much exciting news to share. One particulary cool job took place on Friday. Andy (the guy that's kind of heading this whole project until the higher ups come in later this month) put me and another Derek in charge of fixing the water problem down at the McDonald's we're using to film at. Apparently the city came to turn the water on there, and the weren't able to get to the water turned on without charging $1800+ for plumbling problems.

You see, to turn water on in a facility there is a lever out near the street that allows water to flow from the city's main water line into your building. Typically to turn that lever "On" there is a pipe that goes down below the city's frost line (Buffalo's being 36 inches) to a box (with the lever in it). There is a tool, basically a long screwdriver, that you lower down that pipe, and turn the lever on with.

When the city came to turn on the water, the box with the lever in it was disjointed from the pipe the tool goes down into.

So Derek and I ended up renting a jack-hammer for 4 hours, which was fucking manly, and digging through 2 feet of concrete, steel wiring, then 3 feet of rocks (absolutely no dirt whatsoever), and a small layer of clay. The whole process took 7 hours. When we finally got down to the box, it took another 2 hours to weld 2 pipes together and fashion the tool we needed out of them.

After we FINALLY got the lever to turn (it was completely rusted in place) the water still wouldn't turn on in the McDonalds. Which was extremely un-rewarding. I guess yesterday someone actually got the water to flow through the pipes though (my guess is that it took a while for the water to fill the pipes after we released the lever).

The funny thing about the whole incident was that Derek and I agreed, if our jobs had asked us to dig a fucking 5 foot deep hole through concrete, wire, and rocks we'd probably tell them to screw off. Yet for some reason when it was just the two of us doing it for free, with absolutely no monetary reward, we were all for it.

Aside from that I've been playing an interesting PC game lately, called "Uplink". It's a little outdated but I've been trying to get ahold of it for a long time. Basically you're a hacker who gets jobs, such as getting files from companies, FOR companies, or changing people's social security information, and you get paid for the jobs. With that money you have to purchase better hacking software, computer upgrades, etc. The whole game takes place as more of a simulation, because you're basically just "hacking" with your computer. I showed it to Brenna and the first words out of her mouth were "That's the geekiest thing I've ever seen." So...you can probably picture what it's like. Your screen is just covered with maps, software, emails, IP addresses, and all sorts of crazy shit. Definately check it out if you're ever been interested in how hacking works.

Speaking of hacking, there's finally been some major breakthroughs with the PSP. Not only is it extremely easy to run homebrews on it now (Nintendo emulators, etc.) but there are finally loaders so you can play official PSP games straight off the memory stick. The programs, or "launchers," you need to do it are still pretty crude, but within the span of the last day they've already jumped from needing an official PSP game in the PSP and to load the games (but the loaded games have no audio), to not needing any official games in the PSP at all and with full audio support. I expect by the end of this week it will be a much easier process that will make Sony angrier than they already are, I can't wait.

Until then my PSP is loaded up with Family Guy, American Dad, and a bunch of emulators to keep me busy this week. I'm traveling out to Orlando tonight, and I'll be there until Sunday. Ugh. I hate traveling (for work). Especially when I have to miss out on 4th of July with Brenna (although, I since I'm going to be at Disney Land the fireworks will probably be neat, so Brenna should just come with me!).

Because it's such a lengthy trip I'm going to try and get internet access the whole time I'm there. So hopefully people will still see me around...I guess you could call it "Hangin' with cyber Derek."

When I get back I want to get more people to play Munchkins with Brenna and I. That game is so freggin' rad. Never before has being a werewolf with a trench coat (with a woman's slip under it) with a cape, wielding a cosmic sword and axel rod been so fun.

If you're bored you should check out these links:

Some chick that just keeps falling:
http://www.izpitera.ru/lj/tetka.swf

Wacko Jacko takes over video games:
http://www.hcn.zaq.ne.jp/cabic508/rsf/mq.swf

-----------------------------------
[2x]london calling
speak the slang now
boys say wha
come on girls say what, say wha

slam, galang galang galang...
shotgun, get down
get down, get down, get down
too late, you down
d-d-d-down
ta na ta na ta na

blaze a blaze (galang a lang a lang lang)
purple haze (galang a lang a lang lang)
blaze a blaze (galang a lang a lang lang)
purple haze (galang a lang a lang lang)

[2x]who the hell is hounding you in the bmw
how the hell he find you, 147'd you
the feds gon get you
pull the strings on the hood
1 paranoid youth blazin' thru the hood

blaze a blaze (galang a lang a lang lang)
purple haze (galang a lang a lang lang)
blaze a blaze (galang a lang a lang lang)
purple haze (galang a lang a lang lang)

[2x]london calling
speak the slang now
boys say wha
come on girls say what, say wha

[2x]they say
rivers gonna run though
work is gonna save you
pray and you will pull through
suck a dick'll help you
don't let em get to you
if he's got 1 you get 2
backstab your crew
sell it i could sell you

[4x]blaze a blaze (galang a lang a lang lang)
purple haze (galang a lang a lang lang)

"Galang" -M.I.A.