Return of My Friends, Greg and Jen

So years ago, I used to live at this house in Magnolia (map here) with my friends Tim, Greg and Jen. Greg and Jen got married and ran off to L.A. so Greg could work in the "pictures". And sure enough he did... heck he is even on IMDB.com! His latest foray was working as a "Post-Production Coordinator" for the 3-D movie, Barnyard: The Original Party Animals. Well Greg and Jen headed back home this last weekend and invited about 50 of their closest friends and family out for a little soiree at The Chapel Bar and then a viewing of the film. Cute movie... good message for the kiddies, but the boy cows have utters and that's just wrong. Even more confusing... there's a bull in the group of animals at the end. Who knows why...

In other news...

I'm finally selling my poor old Subaru. Got her all cleaned up and running!

I'm heading home to Eugene all next week to visit with my sister and her baby boy while they are in town... oh yeah and see my parents too.

So just a little update. The job search continues, but I hope to have cooler stories coming soon!

I am SO sick of seeing that California post!

Ok, ok... I've been lazy. It's been hard to think of things to blog about, but stories are in the midst of developing. Look for a possible entry on my trip to Florida (with some pics), stories about the upcoming World Cup and how my roomie Phil has come through with technology du jour it seems. Summer's coming folks... although you in the Seattle area might not see it through the rain. Thanks for letting me take a break, and I hope some of you have at least bothered to check on my lack of progress from time to time. Until the next post... drop a comment!

Southern California Adventures, Part 2: Universal Studios

Writing again... I guess the road makes good blog fodder!

Today being Sunday, I decided to stop using the "road" as an excuse to miss church. So I fired up the old laptop here and found a church to my liking, St Paul's Lutheran of North Hollywood. Now, in my mind, there are no two groups so diametrically opposed as Lutherans and Hollywood "types". I'm always in the mood to have my world rocked by contradictions to my perceptions, so I gave it a try. Well, now I know where all the Lutheran women are hiding! In all seriousness though, the church was stunning and the message was great. They aren't really into singing (or anyone who can sing is way up front in the choir) so I was kinda left winging it myself. Really nice folks though...

After church I happened to notice Universal Studios was on the way back to my hotel. Seeing as I had nothing to do all day, I decided to swing on by. Now Universal Studios has a sweet place in my heart because I remember being a kid and visiting So Cal for the first time. Universal was one of our stops. I liked it WAY more than Disneyland, Knotts or the boring drive to San Diego just to see some Koalas (which for some bizzare reason I liked as a kid... little did I know they they are essentially ugly Australian Tree Badgers). Anyway, back in the 80's Universal had everything I loved as a kid. They had Kit from Knight Rider, where you could sit in his seat and talk to him... like Santa only Kit is real! (or at least I thought so when I did it) On the tram tour, you got to see the A-team guys (animatronic I came to find out later) blowing stuff up and shooting guns (of course no one got hit by anything... just like the show). But the COOLEST was driving into the hanger of Battlestar Galatica when Apollo and Starbuck (back when he was a GUY) took out a whole bunch of robotronic Silons! How awesome!

Alas, those days are long gone... but Universal is still for the 8 year old kid inside of me... I know that if that version of me could visit today, he'd have just as much fun and believe every cheesy bit of it. Today they now have a lot of 3D theater shows ala "Captian E0" (video commerical here... a blog entry all of its own) The two best I saw were Terminator 2: 3D and Shrek 4D... fun stuff but a bit on the campy side, especially T2:3D. I remember visiting back in college when it was just on the edge of being outdated... now it's more funny than cool. I went on the Back to the Future ride too. I'm convinced this ride is sponsored by the American Chiropractors Union or something because it's essentially a whiplash machine. I will say that the Mummy ride was quite a treat. Its nothing compared to the big rides at Six Flags, but I was surprised to say the least. The "plot" of the ride was about as flimsy as a wet tissue, but it was very dark and very twisty. Its strange when I'm faced with being hurled in the dark, out of control... I relax... it's the best feeling in the world to me. Everyone is screaming and I'm as sober as a preacher on Sunday. Anyway... I wrapped up my day by going on the campy tram tour. Now you have to understand I know it's going to be bad, but something draws me to it everytime... the cheesy "flash flood" to the animatronic "Jaws" shark. Two things that have been changed however were no more bridge fall apart under the tram and no more "parting of the pond" ala "The Ten Commandments". For those of you who like "Serenity" and the TV show "Firefly" (so basically not Dan and Ada) there was the "mule" vehicle from the show on the tram tour too... the highlight for me. I was still hoping the tour would drive through a Galatica hangar again... maybe another time.

Southern California Adventures

Well after a week in Bakersfield, lugging boxes of furniture, monitors and computers, I'm down in LA (more precisely Hollywood). Here is what has happened so far:

My first night in So Cal I stayed at a Motel 6. Now, I'm the most normal guy in the world and things like "room decorations" and "bed accessories" don't usually pop up on my radar... but this did. I think it caused a few cones in both my eyes to explode.

I saw orange trees for the first time... too bad I'm not fond of pulp.

Another first for me... getting beat up by a 3 year old. I was working on this little demon's classroom computer, when he walks up and speaks something I guess were "words". Now, kids do this all the time... come up and try to "talk shop" with me. It's cute, they are usually funny, and we all have a good time. So when this kid just reaches out and tries to grab the mouse from me, I tell him no. What does he do? Screams and starts hitting me. Whoop-de-do... he's three, so I can easily troubleshoot the computer. Since I don't really react to his "onslaught" he digs his little nails into my arm and scratches me... and then proceeds to throttle my head. You know what his teacher did then? Did she yell at him? Did she scold him? Did she remove him from the area? Nah, she thought it was funny. I just finished up and left... So in about 20 years I'll be looking out for a mass murder to spread mayhem in Southern California.

Last night (Friday, March 4th) I went to see Gabrel Ingelasis in Fresno with my co-worker and her family. I had seen him on Comedy Central and thought he was pretty good. I wasn't expecting though to be one of handful of white boys in the crowd! I was towering above 90% of everyone... I had to hunker way down in my seat so all the rows behind me could see. It was really cool and entertaining, but never in my life would I have guessed I would attend a Latino comedy show in Fresno, CA... never.

So I packed up my stuff and drove down to Los Angeles and found an affordable place in Hollywood. Now I've heard it's not the nicest place to stay, but my per diem stinks, so beggers can't be choosers. I did have just enough time to check out the area around my hotel and take some pictures of Paramount Studios. However my favorite picture was this. Ok... so when do you admit you have a drinking problem if you get your liquor delivered?!

More pictures (and hopefully stories) to come.... stay tuned!