As I mentioned, we had a blast. Everyone ruled. One person I failed to mention was Will’s friend Shelby who was also totally cool. I could easily see him as a friend.
I didn’t see one single famous person while I was there. I feel gypped! Next visit I’ll have to actually do the shameless tourist act.
Our plane landed early which was nice because we wanted to make it home in time to get our packages from the office and beat rush hour. Since we had arrived twenty minutes early though, the gate was not yet free so we had to wait around for about 15 minutes until the plane could pull up to the gate. By the time we got our bags and caught the shuttle to where our truck was parked it was now about 5:00. It would most likely take 45 minutes to get home and the office closes at 5:30.
As we drove along, I found it a bit hot and turned on the A/C. After a few minutes I noticed that it really wasn’t cooling at all. We also started hearing a very weird noise and smelling something that did not seem at all right. We saw a little smoke from under the hood, too. I immediately pulled over and turned the car off. I popped the hood and thought that maybe a belt had broken or something. That would explain the noise, and possibly the smell if it was rubbing somewhere, and could also explain the A/C not working if it was the belt to the compressor or something like that. Under the hood everything looked fine. I turned the car back on to see if I could hear the noise or see anything going wonky, but all seemed alright for the moment. I wondered if maybe the A/C compressor had burned out or something.
We got back on the road, kept the A/C off and after just a few minutes we detected something amiss again. This time I noticed that the temperature gage was pegged on the “hot” side. Doh! We pulled over again and seeing a gas station just down the road, Jess set off to procure a bottle of coolant for the radiator. By the time she got back the engine had cooled sufficiently to investigate and sure enough, my radiator was bone dry. We have no idea how or why this happened, but giving it a big drink of coolant seems to have saved the day. Since then I keep checking for leaks and such but all looks good.
There can be only one explanation: The Chupaveh�culo. While my vehicle sat helpless for 6 days the Chupaveh�culo skulked the airport parking lot under cover of night, drinking the fluids from the various vehicles there. It’s really the only logical explanation.

We are back form our big L.A.adventure and I’m not sure where to start. Let’s start with the most important thing: the people.
While we had many gracious offers for places to stay, we ended up with Will and Annika. There is not enough that can be said about these two wonderful people. I spent the most time with them, so I will probably ramble the most about them. Also since I’m damn tired, I may not get to everyone so apologies ahead of time.

First time meetings
Will is one of the most intelligent, charismatic, multi-talented and all around likable people you could ever meet. I had always sensed that he felt like a kindred spirit and that was definitely the case. He was like a long lost brother to me. With his looks and personality, he could easily be a successful actor in my opinion and has an amazing voice which can morph into myriad impressions and characters. He’s one of those people who would just disgust you if you could just get past liking him so much. He graciously put up with my many inquiries into his cool and enviable job without showing any annoyance. As I told him, he isn’t cool because he has a cool job, he deserves a cool job because he is so cool. I love seeing people get their “karmic payoff” and such. I hat seeing jerks, and others who just don’t seem to deserve anything fall into great jobs, pretty girlfriends, or whatever. With Will, I find great satisfaction that the universe has seen fit to throw some pretty cool stuff his way. Just like the satisfaction I felt when my friend Andy finally got a great job after many years of toiling and struggling. I could easily go on for days about Will and everyone else I met, so I’ll move along for now.
Annika is the perfect foil for Will. It is so easy to see why these two are married. All the qualities I mentioned for Will, easily apply to Annika as well. She sound like Joan Cusack, and looks a bit like her, too. Intelligence and wit abound. Both her and Will seem like the kind of people who are too cool to be your friends. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t act that way, but that’s what you’ll be feeling. They’re out of your league, man. They, however, make you feel like you’re their best friend in the world. These two are as good as people get. Not seeing these two on such a regular basis is going to really be difficult.
SoupyKatherine was everything I knew she would be. Her blog does her justice. In person she is every bit as fun, intelligent, cool, and funny as you would expect. Meeting her was a long time coming and I couldn’t be more glad that it finally came.
Rian/tinkcat was so incredibly funny and cool. Always smiling and making everyone else smile, she is a total hoot to hang out with.
Jen/coiledsoul was also so cool. I never really knew much of her online since I’m not on the board much any more, but I’m really glad I met her.
Mark and Megan get mine and Jess’ vote for Most Disgustingly Hot couple. They’re both good looking an in good shape and all that. They were also super cool and had the big gatherings at their place. It was really great to actually get to know them better.
Mike, a.k.a. Monte Cristo was a totally cool guy, and not just a tasty sandwich. We had a great time talking about the virtues of Greg The Bunny and other movies and shows. I hope to get to spend more time getting to know him in the future.
Allison, a.k.a. Costello Girl was so much fun and so easy to talk to. She made you feel comfortable as if she’d known you for ages. Her husband Grant seemed like a really nice guy too. He kept me company in the living room while everyone else got drunk playing drinking games in the other room.
Rich, a.k.a. Big Evil seemed very friendly and fun to talk to and I wish I’d had more time to talk to him too.
Jamie Marie! Finally I meet the person responsible for the website where I met my wife. She was absolutely fabulous. Had a blast getting to know her better and seeing her a couple of nights.
Xia could be a quiet guy, but also a pleasure to get to know and talk to. He reminded me a whole lot of another friend of mine.
Probably many more. If I left you out or didn’t ramble at length, it’s not because you didn’t make an impression. I’m just tired and can’t always think of extended paragraphs.
Re-meetings
Caz, was as pretty and sweet as ever and it’s always a pleasure to spend time with her. She is so much fun and nd so warm and cuddly. Her presence ups the happiness level in a room exponentially. If you were in a video game and needed to cheer your minions up you would place a Caz in the room.
Sharon is always an absolute blast to be with. I was glad she made it over with the UK contingent so we got to see her again!
It was also good to meet Andy a second time. Great guy, and good taste in gifts. 😉
Cassy Lee is always a pleasure to spend time with. I’ll always find it amusing that I first met her at a party in Scotland.
Min was as cute as ever, and I love her voice. It was nice to get to know her even more on our second meeting. She is so much fun and quite funny.
I’m really regretting naming names now as I will inevitably forget someone and then exclaim “DOH!” very loudly. Everyone was so great to meet, and leaving L.A. was really hard because of them all. I already miss all my new friends and hope it’s not several more years before I see them again. If I somehow blanked and didn’t mention you by name, let me assure you that it has no bearing on my opinion of you. Everyone was so much fun and I throughly enjoyed meeting/seeing you all. I only wish I’d had more time to spend with each one of you. I also apologize for not getting to say goodbye to some of you since we were all just way to wiped out to go anywhere on our last night.
My strange dichotomy with L.A has only grown more complex. I want to live in L.A. for so many reasons, and yet I don’t want to live in L.A. for so many others. Who knows? Someday the right opportunity may come along and you’ll all have to deal with us on a much more frequent basis! Mwua ha ha ha ha! I’m off to bed. I’m becoming increasingly sore from our horseback riding adventure.

We arrived in L.A safe and sound and have been enjoying the hell out of Annika and Will’s company. They are without doubt two of the coolest human beings (or otherwise) in the universe. I feel like coming to L.A. is sort of like my own “pilgramage to Mecca”. I can feel a certain energy and buzz here, and there is undoubtedly a part of me that will not want to leave. However as I fully expected, there is the other part of me that loves Austin and also acknowledges the not so keen aspects of L.A. I’m not ready to up to move out to old Cali yet (if ever) but there is a sort of cosmic pull that tempts me, mostly since this is where the vast majority of my career choices lie.
Gotta go! Katherine and Min are here now. On a cool side not, you can go out on the balcony here and see the “Hollywood” sign. Although that’s probably true for much of L.A. since it’s on a big friggin’ hill overlooking the city.

So yeah, I suck at updating lately. It’s been a whirlwind life, I tells ya!
My new job is everything I knew it would be. Absolutely love going in every day. We have been trying to play EQII (we still plan on playing CoH too), keep up with TiVo and Netflix, wash clothes, eat, sleep, work, shop, socialize, etc. It just seems like I never have any time at all any more.
We got almost all of our X-mas shopping done in one night of online shopping, so that rocks.
I’m still working on completing our CD (not going to happen by the end of the year as I’d hoped), and we’re kicking into busy band month. I need to learn two new songs by this weekend. Doh!
I think I’ve taken the plunge and ditched Outlook in favor of Thunderbird. It can sync with my Palm if I use an extension, and it’s much improved in its 1.0 state from when I tried it back at 0.3. I’ll miss the calender in Outlook but I can just use the palm desktop calender (with the extra effort of opening up a nother program).
I’m jonesing to build a new computer and drooling heavily over the Treo 650. Must have it.
And of course we are determined to get a Toyota Prius. That’s it for now! Off to get Jess and run around some more!

First let’s just get this out of the way:
My new job rocks AND rolls.
It feels so right. Mu cubicle rules, the department rules, the people rule, the atmosphere rules, the job rules. Even my bitchin’ fancy phone which emails your voice mails to you in an message with the caller ID info and the audio of the message in a .wav file rules.
For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m working for a video game company as a Quality Assurance Tester. This means I try and break things. Due to the whole confidentiality thing, I’m being purposefully overly vague just be safe here, but I spent yesterday getting settled, getting my computer feeling all home-y and getting to know the game.
This means I pretty much spent the day playing the game (what there is of it so far) and getting to know the part which I will be responsible for testing.
It still pretty much puts a damper on any acting/film crew work I’d like to do, but I think the good far outweighs the bad. If these are “chains” they are soft velvety chains which are kind of nice to wear.
Now that Jess and I are both gainfully employed at “real” jobs with decent pay and benefits, we’re planning to go order us a Toyota Prius. I’s going to be quite the financial leap, but as much gas as we use, it should be worth it.
I tend to walk around in a dreamy daze with a giddy smile on my face these days, a bit stunned at the whole predicament. It all happened so fast, there were three or four other people interviewing for this position, too. I had felt that the interview had went really well though, and I’m glad I was right. Over the weekend, I actually found myself waiting for Monday with excitement and anticipation.
Today I am “moving in”. I’m bringing all my geeky cubicle accoutrements. I think I’ll even get into the whole 401K retirement fund thing that I’ve never bothered with before. This is the first company that’s actually provided me with enough information and literature that I feel comfortable knowing how it all works.
So in conclusion, WOOHOO!

My world domination plans are progressing nicely.
I GOT THE JOB! I start on Monday!
Can’t type much more right now, too busy jumping around celebrating.

Just a quickie update since I’ve been way too busy to update properly (Hi Athena!) This crazy busy-ness is also the reason that the daily haiku has become the “whenever I get a chance” haiku.
I’m unemployed, and yet have no time to relax. I’m participating in NaNoWriMo, so I’m writing about 2000 words a day, everyday in November. This is actually quite a chore for me, but I think I’m getting some shining moments among the crap. I’m writing a Douglas Adams Style time travel adventure.
I’m trying desperately to work on songs for the CD as we want to finish out CD by the end of the year, optimistically.
I’m addicted to Evil Genius, still want to play City Of Heroes but hven’t had time, and despite trying to resist, have given in to my desire and my friends desires that Jess and I try Everquest II. We are waiting until December though so we can make the most of our free trial time.
I have an interview on Wednesday for a job I actually really want, and not just to pay the bills.
Life is generally damn fine.

Today, my friends, a momentous goal has been reached. 5 months ago I set out to change my junk food ways and drop all the extra me that had accumulated over the years. I started out at 214 lbs. and set my goal at 175 lbs.
Today the scale read 174.
To anyone looking for a healthier lifestyle, I can’t say enough about the South Beach Diet. It’s not a fad, it’s not a gimmick. It’s just plain simple science applied to your blood chemistry and the way your body absorbs foods. I’ll try not to go on too long since Jess and I have each spouted voluminously about this diet, but there are a few things I want to say.
1. I too am sick of hearing about all the fad diets and low carb this low carb that. Yes I follow the South Beach Diet, and am very glad for the influx of low carb foods making diets like this so much easier now (although, don’t be fooled, South beach is NOT just about “low carb”). This is not a diet in the sense of “something you temporarily do to lose weight”. It is a diet in the sense of “this is my usual food and drink for the rest of my life” such as “A lemur’s diet consists of fruit and insects”. As I’ve said before, it’s the only diet that actually made sense to me after reading the book (something I can’t say about Atkins).
2. I’m not here to try and convince or coerce anyone into eating like I do. I think everyone should make their own choices, and I’m certainly no diet dictator or anything. I won’t be throwing scolding glances at anyone who chooses to have a box of Krispy Kreme’s. I’m all about “to each their own”. However, if you decide to do this or any other diet, eating plan, lifestyle change, etc., don’t do it half-assed. It won’t work, and it will just make everything harder. For example, if you try South Beach, but only half-ass it, your cravings will not go away, your blood chemistry will remain goofy, and on the occasions that you do try and follow it you will find it much more difficult. For me, I honestly felt like a drug addict. If I stayed away from sugar and starches, I stopped craving them, and didn’t really crave them at all. There was an occasional psychological pang, but it was never a physical “I must have this now!” feeling.
I’ve heard so many people who slag off various diets only to find out that they either didn’t actually know anything about what they were talking about or they actually didn’t really follow the diet. Then they get discouraged and cynical because it didn’t work. That Diet Coke will do you no good when it’s washing down a bag of M & M’s, and South Beach (or probably any other diet) won’t work when you only do it half of the time. [Yoda]Do or do not. There is no try.[/Yoda]
I’ll stop being that annoying diet guy now. As I said, I’m not here to convince anyone else, but I’m extremely happy help anyone who’s interested with our experiences and tips that we’ve learned along the way.
Next step: to actually start exercising.