| I'm Moving Out! |
[Aug. 27th, 2009|08:00 pm] |
I've spent a good amount of the last three years complaining about needing to move out and have my own space again. Deep down, I realize I'm lucky to have the living situation that I do now. The main benefit is my close proximity to family and friends. Lots of great times, absolutely. And by living at home and paying a low amount for rent, I've been able to save up money for the past few years instead of plunging into debt. I'm incredibly grateful to have had love, support, and a roof over my head. But I'm 25. Saving money is fine, but at some point, everyone needs to get out and get their life started. I tried doing this right away after moving back home, but the lack of money prevented that. In 2007, once I had a full-time, decent-paying job, I tried looking into the idea of getting a big place in Santa Clarita with friends. But time passed, circumstances changed, and we all kinda did our own things. Then more recently, once I got into a slightly more financially stable situation, my good friend Todd and I started looking into the prospect of finding a place again.
The four of us, including the girlfriends, starting looking for stuff in the Sherman Oaks/Encino area about a month ago by just driving around and looking for Open House signs. It's a tiring process, because there are tons of apartments in that whole area, most of which do have For Rent signs out front. The trick is actually finding a nice, well-maintained two-bedroom place at an affordable price. We saw one or two decent places, but nothing that made us want to sign a lease on the spot or anything. It did give us an idea about what areas we wanted to check out more and what features would be necessary. (After checking out a few places with wall A/C units, central air jumped from "preference" to "necessity.") For the next month or so, I kept an eye out for good-looking places on craigslist, but our schedules didn't allow us to check places out until just a couple of Saturdays ago.
This time, instead of aimlessly wandering around Moorpark St., we researched places beforehand and scheduled appointments at four or five of the most interesting-looking ones. The first place was a nice-looking apartment on Moorpark. Central air, two assigned parking spots, stove, oven, dishwasher, good sized rooms, well-maintained complex. The only possible downside was the fact that, because we're both only 25, they wanted a co-signer. After that, we checked out a couple of places further north on Magnolia. Both good, but not quite what we were looking for. Then we saw a place south of Ventura Blvd. closer to the west edge of Sherman Oaks. It was a little older and not quite as nice-looking as the other places, but the location was great: a block south of one of the busiest areas of the city, tons of stuff within walking distance. And the place as a whole was smaller than the other places we had checked out, but not so small that it would be uncomfortable to live there.
So it was narrowed down between that place on Dickens St. and the first place on Moorpark that we had seen. I had to drive down to San Diego immediately afterwards, but Todd went back the next day with his family to see those two places again. As I went back in forth in my mind about the pros and cons of each place all weekend, Todd called and let me know that the place on Moorpark was pretty much the unanimous consensus. So we decided on that. The Dickens place definitely had location on its side, but the Moorpark place was better in almost every other way, particularly size and guest parking availability. After coming back to the apartment on Monday to pick up the applications, I concluded that this was in fact the best place we had seen. It had all the qualities and amenities we were looking for (except a fridge), and it was only $1350 a month (which Todd was later able to talk down to $1325).
So we got all of the applications filled out (including the co-signers, my dad and Todd's dad) and raced down to Sherman Oaks on Tuesday night to turn everything in. On Wednesday, the landlord called me with the results of the credit checks, throwing a wrench into the application process. Long story short, I needed to find another co-signer. My mom and step-dad refused to co-sign on the grounds that it was ridiculous for two financially stable people with good credit to need a co-signer, let alone two of them. So I just had to wait for the landlord to negotiate with the property owners or whoever and see what options I had. Anticipating the worst, I was mentally preparing myself for intense negotiations. If the people in charge held firm on their strict rental qualifications, then I'd have to somehow try to convince them to check my credit instead of relying on a co-signer. Either that or I'd have to go find someone outside of my immediate family to co-sign, and I wouldn't really feel comforable asking someone to take on that financial and legal responsibility. Or if they're that strict, then would we be better off starting from square one and looking for another place? All these questions and scenarios kept running through my head throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning.
So I drove to work on Thursday morning, waiting for that call, gearing up for the impending battle. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long, as the landlord called me fairly early and I was able to step out and talk to her about 20 minutes into the start of my shift. The news she had to give me: she had spoken with the people in charge and they agreed that we only needed one co-signer for the apartment instead of two. Todd's dad's credit was fine and our applications were approved. Success at last! After that, we just had to go back in on Saturday morning, pay the security deposit/first month's rent, and sign all the paperwork. It's a done deal, and I'm happy to report that we now have an awesome two bedroom place on Moorpark St.
The lease officially starts on Sept. 1st, but we already have keys, so we can start moving stuff in whenever. Most of the moving process will probably happen on Labor Day weekend. It's gonna be one hell of an ongoing process, getting everything set up, moving things in, figuring out what other stuff we need to get. Combine that with the fact that we both work Monday thru Friday, and I'm taking a four day trip to Northern California on Sept. 12th, plus the Nine Inch Nails concert on the 2nd. The next few weeks are gonna be hella busy. But I can't wait to get everything going. I'm looking forward to getting out of suburbia and into a more interesting environment. It's in a cool area: fairly quiet (since it's in the back of the apartment complex), yet close enough to walk to stores and restaurants (or ride my bike once I get it fixed up). And if there's a concert or an arthouse movie or a baseball game that I'm interested in seeing, it won't take 45 minutes on the freeway to get there! (Or maybe, depending on traffic.)
Lots to do, and lots to get used to after that. Right now, I'm just taking the week to unwind and relax. I called to have the gas and electricity set up, and Todd's taking care of cable & internet, so hopefully everything should be working by the time we move in. I still have a good week to get all of the packing done. And then I'll have at least a year to explore the area and get settled. The only trick will be figuring out how to afford it all, but I'm up for a challenge. Hey, it's finally happening. Can't friggin' wait. |
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| The Much-Delayed Labor Day Weekend Vacation Entry |
[Sep. 19th, 2008|10:08 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  optimistic | ] |
I'm a little late in getting this entry posted, since my vacation ended over two weeks ago. And my pictures from the trip have been up on Facebook for over a week now. But I haven't really had the time to write a lengthy journal entry, since nowadays I do pretty much all of my writing at work during slow times (movie reviews, mostly). But for the past two weeks, actually for several months now, it's been too busy to have any significant amount of free time because our department is pretty much overworked and understaffed. But anyway...
I really need to travel more often. A lack of time and money make it difficult to see new parts of the world (or at least the country) that often. But every now and then, it's important to find ways to step out of your bubble and go someplace new and do something different. Of course all of that "going out and seeing the world" stuff was just a side benefit this time around because the main reason for traveling was to see two of my best friends from San Diego get married!
( Click here for the rest of an interesting and detailed entry about traveling across the country ) |
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| George Carlin (1937-2008) |
[Jun. 28th, 2008|11:33 pm] |
About a week late with this, but still worth acknowledging.
A smart, funny, sharp, incendiary, BRILLIANT comedian. It seems like the talented ones are never with us long enough. Luckily, his comedy will always be just as funny and socially relevant as ever. Anyone who worships at the altar of Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia should do themselves a favor and check out Carlin's material to see what REAL comedic talent is. Thank you for everything, George. |
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| Tim Russert (1950-2008) |
[Jun. 18th, 2008|09:28 pm] |
I can't believe I forgot to include this in my entry yesterday.
Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert suddenly and unexpectedly died of a heart attack about a week ago. In addition to being a loving father and son, he was unquestionably one of the greatest journalists of our time, and a total class act. He will be missed. |
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| ¡Sí, Se Puede! |
[Jun. 17th, 2008|11:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | content | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "The Bagman's Gambit" by The Decemberists | ] |
Some stuff I've been up to for the past few months:
Hating my job and hating Santa Clarita
Well I guess I shouldn't say that I hate my job, because most of the time I can tolerate it. But the fact of the matter is this: I've been there for nearly a year and a half now, I'm still a temp, I still don't get any benefits, and I still haven't gotten any raises or promotions. I'm done. It's a lost cause. There is absolutely no future for me there, and I need to get out as soon as possible. I need to be making more and I need to be doing something that I'm actually interested in. With every new vending machine and flatscreen TV that the company buys for itself, they send a message to me and everyone else working there and struggling to make ends meet that they simply don't give a damn about us. I'm done. I need to stop being so fucking lazy and I need find a better job. NOW.
And I guess I shouldn't say that I hate Santa Clarita, because most of my family and friends are here, and I love being close to them. But I've been living at home for way too long now and I desperately need to get my own place. Santa Clarita is a fine place for rich people to raise a family, not for young people to start their lives. I'm sick of this boring suburban chain-store landscape, sick of the upper-middle class racist fucks who only care about money and themselves. I'm suffocating here and I need to get out. Step one is finding a new job though.
Following the primaries
At long last, Hillary Clinton dropped out of the race and Barack Obama is now officially the Democratic presidential candidate. What was so bizarre about that long battle for the candidacy is that Obama and Clinton are pretty much the same on almost all of the issues. But they painted themselves as two completely different styles of candidates during their campaigns. Clinton ran a business-as-usual campaign (red state/blue state rhetoric, scripted responses, etc.). Obama, on the other hand, sought to break down barriers and change the face of Washington politics. This optimism and shift away from divisive politics drew millions of people to him and got people interested in this race at an almost unheard of level. As all this was going on, Hillary was busy arguing that she was winning the popular vote (as long as you don't count the votes of anyone who voted in a state that had a caucus instead of a primary) and running TV ads that basically said, "If you don't vote for me, terrorists will kill you." By the end, the only people that stuck with her in consistent numbers were old white people, and that wasn't enough to outrun Obama's wave of momentum. Despite her questionable tactics, her campaign is still something to be proud of, as she may have opened a lot of doors, showing that it's possible for a woman to become president in the near future.
So now we're left with Obama, the most electrifying candidate put forward by the Democratic party since Bobby Kennedy. In the other corner, we have John McCain. He's a war hero and a hell of a nice guy. But so far this year, he's admitted that he doesn't know much about the economy (which is kind of important since our country's in a recession), said that he's fine with the idea of staying in Iraq for 100 more years, and has demonstrated that he doesn't know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites (which is kind of important to know since those are the two factions that have been at war with each other in Iraq). Oh, and just recently he accepted $300,000 from a Texas oilman who once said that rape is like bad weather: "As long as it's inevitable, you might as well lie back and enjoy it." Yeah... Should be an interesting race. Hopefully, common sense will prevail.
Driving like an old lady
A year and a half ago, a gallon of gas was up near $2.50, and even that was absurdly high back then. Since then, gas prices have nearly doubled. Unfortunately, with my commute from Valencia to Chatsworth, I don't really have the option of taking the bus or the train to work. So for the past week or two, I've been trying to make a concerted effort to change my driving habits. Some of the recommendations that I've been trying to follow: Instead of going 80 on the freeway, try to go the speed limit instead. (Hell, if you're not in a hurry to get anywhere, go 60.) Watch your RPMs and try not to accelerate too quickly. Make sure your tires are properly inflated. Fill your gas tank when it gets down to 1/4 full instead of waiting til the empty tank light comes on. The last two times I filled my tank, I got 39 & 37 mpg, instead of the usual 34-35 mpg. We're in a recession, and the cost of oil keeps going up with no end in sight, so we just gotta adjust and do whatever we can. Every little bit helps.
Planning a trip to Maryland
My good friends from UCSD, Ben & Amanda, are getting married at the end of August. So Erica & I are gonna fly out to Maryland for the wedding (although our hotel's in Virginia), and then hang out in Washington DC for a day. I booked a good flight/hotel package on Expedia, but still, after this I'm not gonna have any money this summer. But who cares. It'll be good to see Ben and Amanda again. I'm really looking forward to it, especially since we haven't been to that part of the country before.
Following my sports teams
The Giants, with their mix of washed-up old guys and inexperienced young guys, were projected to be one of the worst teams in baseball this year, an easy lock for last place in the NL West. But surprisingly, they haven't been that bad. At a few games under .500, they're not particularly good. But the Padres and Rockies have been lousy too, and the Giants have had a steady hold on 3rd place for a considerable amount of the season. A youth movement is finally emerging and a lot of good, young hitters are getting playing time. Plus, the free agent signing of Aaron Rowand in the offseason has paid off well and he's really delivering for the team. Compare his 5 year/$60 million contract to Andruw Jones's 2 year/$36 million deal. Certainly a better acquisition than Barry Zito was. Ugh.
In football news, the Raiders have had a busy offseason. For the first time in ages, they're really making a strong attempt to improve the team. They've mostly been doing so by throwing tons of money at decent players. Hopefully it'll all pay off. And hopefully Darren McFadden will live up to the hype. Should be a very interesting season.
The Warriors had a shaky end to the season. They held the 8 seed in the west for a while, but lost ground to the Nuggets in the last week or two and blew their last few crucial games. Now the focus is on re-signing Ellis and Biedrins and keeping Davis on the team. So with the Warriors out of the picture for the time being, I've been rooting for the Lakers throughout the playoffs. Unfortunately, their run came to an end with tonight's massacre. Paul Pierce's triumphant return from an knee injury in Game 1 ended up setting the tone for the series. We all hoped that the Lakers could find a way to win it in 7, but there's no denying the inevitable sense of hopelessness that came with the Celtics' record-breaking comeback in Game 4. Oh well.
Attempting to get in shape
I've been trying to eat healthier for the past few months. I normally bring turkey wraps and chips from home instead of buying fast food everyday (more of a money-saving decision than a health-related one). And then in addition to occasionally trying to watch what I eat, I've been trying to go for walks around the neighborhood whenever I have enough time to do so in the morning. My weird lunch schedule 3 days a week (starting work at 12:30, lunch at 4 or 5), has probably also resulted in me eating a little less food a few days each week. Through the combination of all that, I've lost about 15 pounds since the start of the year. So I've gotten to a weight that I'm more comfortable with, but I'm still pretty out of shape. So now I really need to focus on actually working out (push-ups, sit-ups, weights) instead of just losing weight.
Re-discovering a lost relic of my childhood
I'm sure you all remember Rice Krispies Treats cereal and how great it was back in the day. Well, at Todd's graduation party, he and his friends told me that they went on the Kellogg's website and discovered that it still exists! However, the only nearby cities where you can buy it are Canyon Country, Palmdale, Lancaster, and a few cities south of LA like Pico Rivera and Downey. So I went to the unnecessarily huge Wal-Mart in Canyon Country, and sure enough, there it was on the shelf. It's still just as delicious as ever. In a sad epilogue to this thrilling tale, Steve and I went back to this Wal-Mart last weekend to buy some more, and they were completely out. Maybe other people have caught on to this amazing discovery. Hopefully it hasn't been discontinued or anything. we'll see.
Watching TV
Post-strike TV wrap-up:
The Office - It was good this year, but they didn't have time to adequately flesh out some of the storylines in the last few episodes, and then the season finale was just kinda depressing. Hopefully they can rebound next year.
Scrubs - Still watchable, but it was essentially a lost year, due to the strike and NBC's stupidity. In an interesting turn of events, the show is now moving to ABC for one last season.
South Park - Basically more of the same. Funny, but nothing too special.
The Mighty Boosh - An interesting turn for the show, in a more vulgar direction with more cussing and drug content. Not an amazing show, but still pretty funny and worth watching.
The Boondocks - A tremendous disappointment this season. All of the great social commentary that ran through the first season is gone and we're left with The Wacky Adventures of Riley and Grandpa. Unless the show makes a complete 180 and returns to form, I'm not gonna even bother with it next season (if there is a next season).
Other stuff I've been up to
Re-learning Spanish, starting and completing a collection of Giants and Raiders McFarlane Sports Picks action figures, taking my usual trips to San Diego, seeing an amazing Queen tribute band in the pouring rain on St. Patrick's Day, going to the Earth Day Festival at Balboa Park, returning to Balboa Park two weeks later for a Tibetan human rights rally, drinking good beer at the new Liars' Club (which is now in Alpine instead of Mission Beach), going to a midnight screening of Evil Dead 2 at the Ken, slowly cleaning stuff out of my storage locker, playing Madden 08, watching movies and writing reviews on Flixster, hanging out with friends, working, being lazy and unmotivated, the usual stuff. |
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| I've Been Tagged |
[Mar. 20th, 2008|12:38 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | relaxed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Killer Queen" by Queen | ] |
Here's the deal: People who have been tagged post their answers and replace any question they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves. Tag 8 people. Those who are tagged cannot refuse. These 8 people must state who they were tagged by. You cannot tag the person who tagged you.
I was tagged by: geekgirl84
I tag: drummerboy41185, jedisteve9, lipservice_me, mistyrain43, papayastar, thebigjjg, tonybecrazy, and xreverentthugx.
I also re-wrote question 8.
1. You have 50 dollars in your pocket - what do you do with it?
Nowadays, if I have a significant amount of money in my wallet, it usually gets spent on gas
2. What is your most guilty pleasure?
Collecting DVDs, along with a few action figures here and there
3. Have you ever seen someone die?
No
4. Are you confused as to what lies ahead of you?
Pretty much. I have some ideas about where I want to be in life, but no real certainties about what I want to do and how I want to do it.
5. What was the last movie you saw for pleasure, and would you recommend it?
Diary of the Dead, and I wouldn't recommend it. Given that it was made by the godfather of zombie movies, I was hoping for more, but it just wasn't very good.
6. What was the last book you read, for pleasure, and would you recommend it?
Make Your Own Damn Movie by Lloyd Kaufman, and I would totally recommend it for anyone interested in independent filmmaking or just movies in general
7. What geographical area do you see yourself living in in 5 years?
Hopefully in one of the three areas: Sherman Oaks/Studio City, Pasadena/Glendale, Berkeley/Albany
8. What is your dream job?
Editing, along with directing and having complete creative control
9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy recently?
Just standard frustration with my job
10. If you could have chosen at birth whether to be a boy or a girl, which would you be?
Boy. Being a girl seems like it would be too much work.
11. Which of the 7 Deadly Sins do you think you relate to the most & why?
Sloth. If it were up to me, I'd probably just sleep all day.
12. Thunderstorms - cool or scary?
Cool
13. Clinton or Obama?
OBAMA
14. Would you rather be a really good person or a really interesting person?
Good
15. Do you believe in some form of life after death?
Yep
16. If you were about to be put to death, what would be your last meal?
A nice mix of Italian foods: angel hair pasta, cheese pizza, a pepperoni calzone, and some lasagna, topped off with a bottle of Deschutes The Abyss and/or Stone Arrogant Bastard
17. What's the most exciting thing you're up to this weekend?
Aside from watching lots of college basketball, going to Todd's and playing video games
18. Do you have a motto? If yes which one?
Not really. If I did, it would probably have something to do with being open-minded and tolerant and being able to think for yourself. Or actually, the whole "do unto others" thing is a pretty good motto to live by.
19. What new "trend" are you most ready to jump on the bandwagon with?
I don't own an HDTV, a Blu Ray player, a DVR, or any next gen gaming systems. I should probably start working on some of that in the near future.
20. What place most speaks to you?
In terms of living somewhere...I'd love to be in a safe urban area where I feel comfortable and have plenty to do. For places in general...the Anza-Borrego desert is a beautiful, fascinating place. Most beaches and forest areas are really nice too. |
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| Super Bowl! Super Tuesday! Super Blog! |
[Feb. 4th, 2008|11:59 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | hopeful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Hit the City" by The Mark Lanegan Band (feat. PJ Harvey) | ] |
I just turned 24 this past weekend, and I'd say that this year of my life has been going pretty well so far. This weekend was a lot of fun; on Friday night I went to Wolf Creek for dinner with a small group of friends, and then we all hung out at Todd's afterwards. On Saturday, Erica, Laura, Tony, Chris and I got lunch at Chipotle and then came back to my place to watch Groundhog Day (my first time seeing it, actually). Then my family and I had dinner at The Stinking Rose in Beverly Hills. GREAT food. I definitely wanna go back there again sometime. And then after that, Erica and I saw There Will Be Blood at the Arclight in Hollywood. An amazing, incredibly well-made film (although the ending was so jarring that Erica probably isn't gonna let me pick movies when we go out anymore). Easily one of the best movies of the year, although I think I still liked No Country for Old Men slightly more. The Arclight is always a great place to watch movies, too; sitting in one of the back rows of a totally packed house and watching a gorgeously shot movie is a pretty awesome experience.
And then of course the Super Bowl was on Sunday. I can't remember any other Super Bowls that I've been this apathetic about in the weeks leading up to it. A Chargers/Packers game would've been a lot of fun, but instead we wound up with two of my least favorite teams: the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. I don't hate all of the Giants, just Eli Manning. Back in 2004, the Chargers picked Eli as the #1 draft pick. Rather than accepting his role, he publicly stated that he refused to play for San Diego, and he whined and complained until they traded him to New York. The trade ended up being pretty good for the Chargers, but it doesn't change the fact that Eli Manning is a douchebag. There are plenty of reasons to hate the Patriots though, aside from the fact that they were undefeated all season and everyone wanted to see them finally get their asses kicked. Of course, they illegally videotaped the Jets in the first game of the season. And then they ran up the score every chance they got this season. But the real kicker, as a Raiders fan, is that they have Randy Moss on their team. The Raiders traded away a 1st round draft pick in 2005 to get Randy Moss from the Vikings. During his two years in Oakland, he barely lifted a finger. Knowing that they wouldn't get a decent performance out of him, they traded Moss to the Patriots last year. Now that he was on a good team, he decided to start trying again and was suddenly the best wide receiver in football again. So as much as I dislike Eli Manning, nothing would make me happier than to see Randy Moss lose when it really counts. The first three quarters of the Super Bowl were pretty uneventful. The Giants finally pulled ahead in the 4th quarter, but the Patriots scored a touchdown with 2 1/2 minutes left in the game. Then over the course of two incredibly tense minutes, under nearly impossible odds, the Giants made a few incredible plays and pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NFL history. One of the most incredible finishes to a game I've ever seen, and one that will probably be remembered for some time to come.
Right off the heels of the Super Bowl comes Super Tuesday, the 2nd biggest political day of the year. It's been an interesting race for both parties. I'm not affiliated with any party, so I can't vote in the Republican primary. Even so, there aren't any Republican candidates that I would want to vote for. John McCain is the Republican candidate I definitely have the most respect for. But he hasn't really been too impressive in recent debates and public appearances, having trouble with basic questions and repeating the same lines over and over again. More troubling was his attacking of Mitt Romney for merely mentioning the notion of eventually leaving Iraq. So that means McCain doesn't even want to think about withdrawing troops anytime soon? That's not gonna cut it. Then there's Romney, who just comes across as a guy trying to buy his way into the White House. Just what this country needs: another economic conservative, because that's worked out so well for the past seven years. Pass. Mike Huckabee is a guy who doesn't have a chance at winning, so he's painting himself as the Christian candidate in the hopes of gaining enough support from the Christian base to actually make a dent in the primaries. This just means more of the same old anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage type stuff. No thanks. And then there's Ron Paul a.k.a. Uncle Ruckus. He positively stands out from the rest of the crowd by being an anti-war Libertarian. However, in the 80's and 90's he had a political newsletter, in which he made some pretty stupid racist comments along the lines of "most black people are criminals". He claims that the articles in question go against everything he believes in and that they were written by someone else under his name. This means one of two things: either he's a racist and he has no business being president or he's oblivious enough to allow white supremacist rhetoric to be published under his name without noticing it and he has no business being president.
As an independent, I'm allowed to vote in the Democratic primary. On the Democratic side, we're down to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. They share a lot of similarities on most of the issues. But while Clinton comes across a standard politician for the most part, Obama is one of the first candidates to come along in a while that feels like something different. Instead of just towing the party line, he seems like someone who actually has a chance at changing the trajectory of this country for the better. Of course so did Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards, but the mainstream media never gave them enough airtime, so they fell behind and had no choice but to drop out. It's a shame that this is the way our media and system of politics works, whereas everyone should get an equal shot regardless of wealth and mainstream appeal. But nevertheless, I think it would be really cool to see Obama pull off an upset tomorrow. It's just a question of whether or not his momentum will be enough to overcome Clinton's lead. The race still probably has a way to go, so it should be interesting.
Let's see...what else has happened in the past few months... The Giants (the baseball ones) got a new center fielder but haven't done anything else in the offseason. Looks like they're just hoping that their young talent will develop into superstars over the next year or two. It's not gonna be pretty, but at least they're finally starting a rebuilding process... The Oscar nominations aren't worth getting terribly excited about. A lot of the categories seem pretty predictable, but it's nice to see that a few great movies are getting recognition. Still plenty of movies I need to see, most of which aren't major Oscar contenders... I got a new phone, the LG Chocolate (the good one). I'm really liking it. The key pad's a little small, and I accidentally hit the touch sensitive Clear button every now and then, but it's still really cool and pretty easy to use.
The writers' strike might be over soon, which is good for the writers and for the public. Hopefully they'll get the residuals they deserve. The studios can't brag about how profitable new media entertainment is gonna be for the studios and then not include the key people responsible for the programming in any of the profits. So now that the entertainment industry has unraveled a little bit for the past few months, hopefully the studios can get over themselves and come to a decent arrangement so that all the hard-working writers and crew members can have jobs again.
2008 hasn't been terribly eventful. A bunch of us went to Big Bear, where we went sledding, played games, and drank copious amounts of alcohol. It was a lot of fun. Other than that, and this past weekend, I've mostly just been working, although work has been interesting in the past month. I'm not sure what's public knowledge and what's supposed to stay within the company, so I won't go into any details. It's been turbulent, but things are starting to pick up again. And I'm still employed, although I'm still a temp and I'm not making enough to move out or do anything with my life. C'est la vie...for now anyway. I really want to make an effort to improve myself - health-wise, situation-wise, etc. I've established a small workout system that involves doing situps and walking two miles every morning, but I haven't been disciplined enough to actually do it every day. I need to work on that, along with eating slightly healthier. And I realize that I'm still young and there's no urgent pressure to get things figured out. But I do want to get out of the suburbs and start living. Again, it's all a matter of discipline and time management. We'll see what happens. I sound like a broken record. Time to stop talking and start doing. |
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| Ah, Politics |
[Jan. 19th, 2008|01:09 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Alcohol" by Cansei de Ser Sexy | ] |
Barack Obama in an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal:I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what's different are the times...I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.
A great post on the issue from the good people at Daily Kos:
Obama:
I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10-15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom.
Bill Clinton:Her principal opponent said that since 1992, the Republicans have had all the good ideas.
Huh. I didn't see the part where Obama said the GOP's ideas were "all the good" ones.
In fact, Obama isn't saying anything that couldn't come straight out of Crashing the Gate -- that the GOP build a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that used its think tanks to create ideas, a media machine to sell those ideas, and a modernized campaign operation to win elections on those ideas. Yes, the GOP was the party of ideas. They were crappy ideas. But they were "ideas".
That's not controversial, so I'm not sure why the Clinton campaign is making such a big deal out of it.
Especially "welfare reform" Bill Clinton.
Update: Edwards joins Bill Clinton: Ronald Reagan, the man who busted unions, the man who did everything in his power to destroy the organized labor movement, the man who created a tax structure that favored the richest Americans against middle class and working families, ... we know that Ronald Reagan is not an example of change for a presidential candidate running in the Democratic Party.
A nicely crafted straw man argument, if I've ever seen one. Bravo, John, for being an ass and dishonestly distorting what Obama said!
Damn straight.
It's always frustrating to see so much made out of so little. That's what you get for stating an idea. Not even an opinion, mind you, just an idea. Republicans attack Obama, probably without even hearing the interview excerpt or taking the few precious seconds to consider the context. All it takes is to hear a Democrat mention the name Reagan in a non-hostile way: "What?! How dare he invoke the name of The Great Ronald Reagan! Obama will never half the man that Reagan ever was! Boy, he must be pretty desperate, trying to compare himself to Reagan! How pathetic!" To this, I simply respond: You're all idiots. Shut up.
And then of course Clinton and Edwards are quick to jump on the remark, saying, "What?! Reagan was an asshole! How dare Obama say that Reagan was a great hero! I, on the other hand, support unions and the middle class!" It's a complete misinterpretation of the comment. Saying that a person or group acted as a force of social change during an era in which people felt the need for social change does not constitute as supporting said person, or group, or force of social change. I commend Clinton and Edwards for their belief that Reagan was and forever shall be a complete asshole, but they're completely misguided in attacking someone simply stating an idea that does not resemble praise, or even opinion for that matter. Of course, the whole debate pushes me more to the Obama camp because it reminds me that out of the main Democratic contenders, we largely have two politicans and one candidate who actually resembles a human being a good amount of the time. |
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| Shirley Buck (1922-2007) and Willy (1997-2007) |
[Nov. 25th, 2007|12:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "O'Malley, Former Underdog" by Deerhoof | ] |
My grandmother Shirley Buck passed away this past Wednesday. She had a stroke on the 8th, and she spent the past week resting at her home in Canyon Country. It's really tough to see her go, but she wanted to go in peace rather than being on constant medical care in hospitals and nursing homes. She was a very wonderful and caring person and she lived a good, full life. I'll always remember visiting her with my family in Santa Rosa when I was a kid and having lots of Christmases with her. Now she's in heaven with my grandpa, who died when I was 5. I'll miss her, but I'm very glad to have had her in my life.
On top of that, my cat Willy passed away early Monday morning this past week. He had been living with heart problems and was on medication for years, so the fact that he lived this long has been a blessing. He was always an incredibly nice and friendly cat, always willing to approach people without ever really being mean or skittish. You could always count on him to brighten up your day, so I'll miss him. But again, I'm glad that we had so many great years with him.
So yeah, it's been a tough couple of weeks. But if there's any upside to it all, it's that the toughest parts are over and now we can heal and relax to some degree. This past weekend was really nice. Got to spend lots of quality time with family and friends. Now it's back to the normal routine - going to work and looking for a better job and such. |
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| Act Two: Wherein Colin Returns From His Awesome Vacation and Contemplates the Next Stage of His Life |
[Oct. 3rd, 2007|11:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Break in Case of Anything" by !!! | ] |
So I'm back from my vacation to San Diego and the Bay Area. Or rather, I've been back for a week. It was a really nice break from everything.
Of course it started with the Pumpkins concert in San Diego. The concert was awesome. The Pumpkins reunion has brought forth all sorts of discussion about how only two of the four members are back in the band and whether or not the whole thing was just done for money and fame. But seeing Billy Corgan on stage performing all the incredible songs I listened to a million times throughout a significant portion of my youth made all the conflictions and skepticism fade away for two and a half glorious hours. There were a lot of the hits (Today, 1979, Bullet with Butterfly Wings), some awesome less obvious songs (Starla, Drown, To Shiela, Muzzle), and lots of extended jam sessions. And then afterwards, free Mentos! Plus we all got to go to Woodstock's after the show and hang out with Chanine. Good times.
The NorCal trip started on Saturday morning with a drive up the 101. The heavy rain that showed up a few times during the drive wasn't terribly encouraging for a couple looking to spend a picturesque afternoon in Monterey, but luckily the rain cleared up as we got further north. Actually first, we stopped in Paso Robles for lunch along the way. It's a nice little town, and we managed to find a cool place called the Downtown Brewing Company with good beer and decent burgers. Monterey was really nice. We basically just found a meter, parked, and walked around town for two hours. We took pictures, drank some wine, and almost bought $25 worth of salt water taffy before I came to my senses and put about half of it back. Then we drove up to Santa Cruz and...basically drove around and got lost about fifty times. The stuff on the boardwalk was closed by the time we got there, but we still got to walk around on it and hang out on the beach for a little while. The drive from Santa Cruz to San Jose is pretty great. Lots of trees everywhere, reminds me of Calistoga. We stayed at the lovely Fairfield Inn & Suites in San Jose, which just happened to be located right next to a Chipotle. I didn't even plan that out that way, it was just an incredible coincidence, I swear.
We spent most of Sunday hanging out in San Francisco, and it was one of the coolest, most enjoyable days in recent memory. After parking by Pier 39 for $30 and wandering around with no idea where to go, we eventually found a tram that took us to Haight St. ($1.50 for all-day public transportation, woo hoo!) and then a bus that took us to Haight-Ashbury. That whole area is a lot of fun. Lots of great shops and restaurants, and then Golden Gate Park is really nice too. Further down Haight St., we had a few pints at the Toronado, which is apparently of one the best bars in the country, and I'm inclined to agree. After laying around in front of City Hall and having dinner back at Pier 39, we went to Andrea's place in Berkeley and met up with her and Dave for the first time since college. Definitely good to see them again.
Monday was the now infamous Day of Endless Walking. We got up in the morning and walked up and down Shattuck Rd. with Dave until we finally found a place to get bagels. Then we got a quick tour of UC Berkeley and went to the original Amoeba Music on Telegraph Ave. After seeing 3:10 to Yuma at a cool little theater back on Shattuck, we met up with Dave and Andrea again and took BART to San Francisco, where we saw the Giants beat the Padres. It was a lot of fun, since AT&T Park is an awesome stadium (and because, living in LA, I rarely get a chance to go a baseball game and actually root for the home team).
The whole trip was really eye-opening for me and Erica, as we both love the Bay Area and each want to put it into consideration for places to look for work and eventually move to, although LA is still an option of course, and possibly San Diego. I personally thought San Francisco was a really awesome city, or at least the few parts of it that we got to see. And the Berkeley area is the type of place that I can see myself living in, a laid-back college town/urban center where there's actually stuff to do and you can actually WALK to places. It was great to see what life has to offer beyond the confines of the Santa Clarita Valley. It's kind of an inspiration to start really trying to work on finding a new job and moving out. We'll see if I actually do anything though. Wish me luck...
Back home, work is going okay. Aside from today, it's been pretty slow the past week. When I'm busy and I'm hanging out with everyone, it's fine. When there's nothing to do and I have to work on the other side of the warehouse cuz all the other computers are being used, I get really bored and think about how I need to get my life going and find a job that actually has some degree of security to it. But I kinda just got into all that stuff in the last paragraph, so let's say that work's fine and then let's move on... I got to see !!! in Hollywood last week and it was a blast. The only downside was that they only played for an hour, but I understand how it could be hard to keep up all the dancing and crazy energetic music for any long period of time. It was a hell of a lot of fun though.
And then I got to see the Giants AGAIN when they came to Dodger Stadium last Friday. After experiencing a Giants game and a Dodgers game in the same week, I gotta say that the difference between the two places is like night and day. AT&T Park was great, although I'm sure that being in accordance with the majority of the crowd instead of being in opposition to it had some part in it. But overall, with the Dodger game, I spent most of the game itching to get the hell out of there. It's really hard to enjoy a baseball game when everyone around you is horribly obnoxious. And don't get me started on the fucking beach balls. By looking around, I'd guess that half the people actually think that the average baseball game starts in the 3rd inning, ends in the 7th inning, and consists solely of throwing beach balls around and chanting "(insert name of random player on other team) SUCKS!" Oh, and paying $10 for shitty beer. Baseball is supposed to be the Great American Pastime that the whole family can enjoy, but the stadium has become such a haven for drunken morons shouting obscenities that I would never want to bring my eventual kids there, and that's a damn shame if you ask me. What a fucking depressing ballpark. Oh well. At least I got to see David Wells's last game. (But no Shea Hillenbrand this time.)
So the baseball season is over and the playoffs are just getting under way. The Giants basically had a lost season built more around the spectacle of Bonds breaking the home run record than concentrating on actually winning. And of course, they finished in dead last. While I wish they hadn't completely cut ties with Bonds (it'd be nice to see him next year as a pinch hitter at a smaller salary), it is good that they're finally going to make an effort to work on building up a solid base with young talent and rebuild the team. Of course that's what they were supposed to do last year too and we just wound up with Rich Aurilia and Ray Durham again. I'm optimistic though. Should be interesting... In other news, the Rockies won 14 out of their last 15 games and won the NL Wild Card in a sudden death game against the Padres. Out of all the teams in the playoffs, that's one team you can say truly earned it. Bravo. Also, the Mets pissed away a 7 game lead with two weeks left and lost their playoff spot to the Phillies. Ha ha.
Fantasy football will be the death of me. Seriously, that fucking thing has grabbed me by the throat and won't let go. It's a lot of fun though. I have some good players on my team, but my QB situation is a mess and I'm trying to improve on my 1-3 record. Also, the Raiders are tied for first place! Woo hoo! Thank you, weak AFC West and horribly underperforming San Diego Chargers!
Well, it was a noble goal, but me and Steve fell just short of watching the entire UK series of The Office and all three seasons of the US version. The 4th season premiere was last week, and we still have 3 more episodes to finish. It's been a really entertaining show though. I'm kind of turned off by the shows trendiness (it's more fun to be into a show with small cult following and than something that everyone knows and loves), but it's funny and clever on so many levels that it consistently manages to be entertaining and even pretty damn poignant at times. Heroes is back and off to a nice start so far. South Park still has its moments, but it's getting to that point where they've already done so much with it that they need to either end it soon or watch it drift into Simpsons territory where it goes on forever and becomes an unfunny shell of its former self. Sarah Silverman's back with a vengeance though. The first season was great and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what they can do this time around.
Wow that was a lot of writing. Anyone still here after all that? Anyway, I'm tired now... |
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