Look at me update!

I'm a fuckin' updatin' fiend.

An updatin' fiend rockin' out to Daft Punk and Yes (Close to the Edge of course. Those hippies can fuckin' rock.)

I actually don't really feel like typing much. I'm in the weird state of dehyrdated lack of sleep, due to a long night of bars with the fellas, drinking, smoking, watching UFC with Andy, and talking on the phone with a girl in Beverly Hills that is from Buffalo, and then Alex "The Employed."

Yes. She has a new title now. No longer Alex "The Asleep and/or Drunk."

I'm pretty sure I didn't go to sleep until 7:30am...but I got woken up at 11 by Crystal. Damn phone.
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Lets skip back to earlier this week.

Since the BBQ on Sunday had a lot of left over meat, Jay and I were on a strict MEAT diet all week. It consisted of getting home from work every night, firing up the grill when it got dark out, turning on the xmas lights, lighting up a clove, and popping open one of the numerous bottles of beer that was also a post-party leftover.
The meat was then eaten while either watching Band of Brothers or Firefly. Both of which are AMAZING shows. I recommend watching them if you haven't.

Jay also got the whole "Windsor Castle: A Royal Year" set from Netflix. Now we can finish the PBS documentary on the most rockin' royal castle this side of the Western Hemisphere.
The way Queen Elizabeth cuts loose it might as well be called, "Royal Grandmas Gone Wild!"

Some other weekly highlights would be:

Wed.
-
Frankie comming over to play Katamari, and passing out. I tried to wake her up in the morning but she just made an in-human noise and thrashed around. Consequently I ran away in fear, and she ended up being late for work. :( wups.


Thurs.
-
Meeting Ray Harryhausen at a gothic Bookstore called Dark Delicacies.

Ray Harryhausen is the man that did the claymation effects for such great classics as "Clash of the Titans," "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad," and "Jason and the Argonauts."
I have to admit that when I was a kid I was obsessed with having a robotic owl like Bubo from "Clash of the Titans."


-
Meeting with Brit and wandering the consumer horde that is called Universal City Walk. Followed by a brief game of Halo. She fucking does QA testing for THQ.
That makes her automatically cooler than you.

Sucka.


Fri.
-
Chillin' with Frankie while I taping together pages of an enormous map of L.A. I've been printing at work.

-
Goin' to the Red Lion with the boyZ. Oh, funny short story. I'm at the bar and this girl is introducing herself to a group of guys (apparently showing up with someone who knew them) and mistook me as part of the group. So I shake her hand and we're talking, and after about a minute one of the guys goes, "Oh, he's not with us."
Then she turned away from me and started talking to them.
I couldn't help but laugh and walk away with a grin. I LOVE how stupid people can be :)
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and I guess that brings us back up to what I was mentioning in the opening eh?

So today when I finally got up, I pasted together the rest of the map (although it's not complete yet), while watching the rest of season one of "24"- which I just finished about an hour ago. (Thanks to Don I'm now addicted to a million tv shows)

Brit stopped by to play some Xbox360, and then went to lay down some vocal tracks at the studio.
Fuck right my lingo is THE hip.

Now I'm updating this and waiting to see if she's comming back to hang out, or if I'm going to Residuals with some dudes to throw some darts, eat some popcorn, and talk about something Rochester related with the waitress who works there that's from Roch-cha-chesta'.

It amazes me how often I run into New Yorkians.

That's about it...work is going well. Pretty fucking busy. And Moviola keeps fucking up their relationship with "24" so, we'll see what happens with that. (We rent out Avid systems to them, remember? And now that I've actually watched the show I'm actually interested in them.)
Monique is still as cool as everyone was hoping. God bless that tiny, tiny little girl.

Ok, I'm gonna go drink water, and sift through a pile of papers on my desk. Oh, and wander to a Washington Mutual ATM.
I'll have pics of the new apartment once I finish my wall map, as well as some other little decorations :)

3 months later...

Holy shit.

It's been over 3 months since a real update to this thing, and I spent a little time thinking about an opening statement. The "Holy shit." doesn't exactly refer to the fact that I haven't updated in a long time, but that so much unbelievable shit has happened within those 3 months. So much in fact that the mere thought of typing it all out makes me never want to post again. So instead, while riding the train to work a few weeks ago I compiled a list on a sheet of paper.

Actually, I compiled this list on and off within the last 3 months, so it has some stuff that I hardly even remember myself.

Here we go.

-I planned on taking a long weekend to hang out with Brenna by calling in sick. Then I actually got sick.


-Went to Coachella with Brenna and saw about 50 bands or some shit. It was a 2-day event in the middle of the desert and awesome. Featuring such favorites as: Franz Ferdinand, The Go! Team, Massive Attack, Mogwai, and Tool.


-Brenna took me to the "Fashion District" of L.A. (basically a enormous mexican flea market that goes for blocks and blocks and blocks, and everyone has stands selling bacon wrapped hot dogs!!!). I purchased an LED Belt that displays quirky messages you can type in, such as "Stop looking at my penis you slut." and "Hug me if you're literate."

It looks like this


Except mine's green. And my boobs aren't as big.

I also purchased a $70 hoodie that is freakin' amazing (no pics to post of it), that consists of bleach stains and skulls and knifes and snakes with fake gem eyes.


-Read a lot of books with my commute time on the train. I have to say "Catcher In The Rye" was one of my favorites.


-Brenna and I purchased a dog, whom we named Sigma.


-E3 took place at the LA Convention Center, which I pass to and from work every day. Lots of cool people were on the train that week.


-I purchased an Xbox360, and soon after an HDTV. (need I say more?)


-Brenna and I broke up. (Whoa. Hey. That was the big one eh? I feel slightly compelled to write a little blurb on it, but most everyone knows the story by now, and I don't right figure I want to conjure up those buried feelings.)

Soon after everyone else in our apartment complex seemed to break up with their significant others: the lesbians next to us, jay and his lady a building over, and re-bound terry- the guy that lived below me (a.k.a. the one whom brenna started dating promptly soon after).

(sorrrrry. i know. but seriously, how do you not stay a little bitter about that one?)

A girl I work with also broke up with her 3-year boyfriend, as well as Kate and Sean from Buffalo.

Yeah. Apparently it was the chinese year of the "Shit or stop sitting." Or was it monkey? Meh, you get the point.


-Steve (1/3 of the Moviola Camera Dept. staff, who worked along-side Aaron and I) announced his retirement from the company to pursue a career/life in St. Louis with his wife.


-Went to a horse race with a guy I work with. We had a sweet spot up in the bleachers, where we happily smoked and drank. (At that time a favored horse to win the Kentucky derby was "Brother Derek.")


-Met some cool peeps on MySpace.

Christ. Did I actually just say that? 'shudder'

Shout out to Alex ;)


-Dan (roomate from UB) put me in touch with his buddy Jay in an attempt to arrange us as roomates.

Soon after Jay flew out to LA and slept on my couch for just over a month while we patiently waited for the apartment we wanted.


-Brenna moved out and Sigma found a home with a guy who was extrodinarly talented at home decorating. (I.E. gay).

The bachelorism of my life increased ten-fold as I was then re-located to an air mattress, developed a diet consisting of noodles and ketchup, and obsessively watched shows like "Winsor Castle: A Royal Year" and "History Detectives" on PBS HD with Jay.


-My co-worker Aaron went on a 3-week vacation with his family, leaving me to run Moviola's camera dept. single-handedly.

That, combined with the personal life issues of a breakup and trying to MOVE THE FUCK OUT OF THE HELLHOLE I WAS LIVING IN, was slowly driving me to madness.
Luckily it had been confirmed the day before Aaron's leave that our new partner-in-crime at Moviola would be Monique. An adorable asian girl who wears hardcore-esqu t-shirts and a shit load of pink hoodies.


-Somewhere along the line I got hooked on TV show dvd's such as: "Band Of Brothers," "Firefly," and "24."

I also saw "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Doom." Guess which one was fucking amazing...EXACTLY! both of them ;)


-I purchased a bed from Frankie's roomate. Frankie is a girl who I met through Sha, and coincidentally lives in the same exact complex that I live now.
She entertains me when I can't sleep at 2 a.m. by attempting to make fruit dip in her kitchen.
Next time I bring the poncho.


-Many IKEA trips. MANY.


-Discovered the Red Lion (bar), as well as an excellent alley in which to pee in on the way home.


-Moved to my new apartment, and spent just under 72 hours straight moving/unpacking/and assembling IKEA furniture.


-Impressed people with my mad BBQ skillZ (their word, not mine) the other day (a.k.a. my BDay...god 24 seems awfully old). UGH! And Kamilla left it to see "The Flaming Lips" and "Thievery Corp." playing at the Hollywood Bowl!!!!! SOOOO JEALOUS!!!! I tried to get tickets for that thing a month and a half ago!!!!

At least I got to see Kevin Smith the other night (he did a Q&A after a showing of "Clerks 2." Yeah, Hollywood is THE SHIT like that).


I guess that leads us up to now. I mean, yeah, I definately gave the short story of it all, but you get the gist. The last three months have been some crazy ups and downs, thankfully the ups seem to be outweighing the downs.

I love the new apartment, it's super CLASSY. (I'll put up picks ASAP.)

Chester digs the air conditioning. (you're damn straight he's still with me! we're ThuGs 4 lYfe.

Now the majority of my L.A. friends live within a 10 block radius, work is 20 minutes away, and life is somewhat similar (yet still oftly different) to how I remember it 5 years ago.

BUT NOW WITH MORE BBQ!
Ha, just kiddin', that's not possible. I've been BBQin' since ma' mama was a baby.

and

POKER NIGHT: L.A. Style
Don't worry, I doubt it will top Buffalo.

At the end of August I'm making a trip to NY that will feature a 48-Hour BBQ in the food capital of the U.S.....'drum roll'....TOUGHALO!!! (that's scenester slang for Buffalo. God. get in the now.)

Alright, I'm going to close this update with a new project I worked on the other night. Remember Mr. Tungsten? (clicking on pictures enlarges them)







Well after months of hordeing broken camera pieces from work, I finally had the chance to create Mr. Tungsten's new pet- "HMI."



As you can see, he doubles up as a card holder!!! (He stands on a platform made from broken matte box filters, with a spring hot glued it that serves as the card/pen holder.)




I'll try and make the next update within 3 months ;)

Good night everyone. And good luck.