That Happened

I'm hanging out in my apartment tonight, minding my own business, when I suddenly I hear a huge argument erupt outside my window. It goes something like this;

"Get your hands up in the air! Turn around! I said get your hands up in the air! I'm not f***in' around! I'm not f***in' around, get your hands up in the air! I will use this weapon!"

I live in an area that used to have a pretty active gang presence. It's less so now, but occasionally you'll notice a new gang tag on a wall nearby, or pass a sketchy lookin' dude on the street. A couple weeks ago I woke up and walked out to my car to drive to work and some kid was getting handcuffed by the cops across the street.

Still, the first thing that came to my mind tonight was this: "Hm, somebody must be filming something."

And then I heard it: "Cut!"

Yep. Two years in and I'm officially jaded by Los Angeles.

2011

You know what bums me out about google owning everything... and having two gmail accounts? You literally cannot be signed into two gmail accounts within the same browser - AND you can't be signed into other sites like blogger, youtube, etc unless those sites are operated by the same email address you have open in your browser. Having to sign in and out of gmail just because I'm signing into like YouTube on a different address is UPSETTING.

Life. I discovered Adobe Illustrator today. I don't think I've ever really known what to do with it but today I took it for a test drive. I AM IN LOVE. I am. in. love. Hellooo childrens books, you're about to get authored and illustrated.

I already made my first little dude. I kind of love him:
Been playing around with web design for fun. I think I could get into this stuff. It's kiiind of awesome. Made this site for Jeff's band in Chitown: www.blackarrowmusic.com. Chegg 'em out, they're fun.

Tons of projects lined up for 2011. TONS. I'm super pumped. I'll be super busy, but one of my goals is to keep this bad boy updated better. And to build myself a website. That's next. And to keep making little dudes like the one above.

I'm going to be shocked if this year doesn't turn out to be one of the best yet. It's already got potential and it's not even February. Make it or break it, baby. This is the make it or break it year. Let's get it started.

Waiting for Godo-A Video To Load

It's kind of late on a Monday but I'm at the mercy of technology, waiting for a video to load so I can finish doing my work for the evening and move along to my favorite part of the day - the part where I get to fall onto my bed and sleep.

I figured I'd make the most of this waiting period by posting a recent victory: my latest photoshop project, which turned out to be a wedding gift for a very best friend, Stacey. She's in love with the work of a screen-printing artist named Hiroshi Ariyama.

I figured I'd try to replicate the use of his colors, particularly the blues and oranges, which is what I figured she loves most about his work (this I derived from years of friendship). I wanted to make a piece that was a bit more personal for Stacey and her husband by manipulating a picture of the two of them. (Is it weird that the word 'husband' makes me feel like I need to shower? We're too young for this, right? No? God. Save me.)

Anyway, I ended up printing the image onto an 18x20" canvas. When Stacey texted me to tell me she received it, she expressed her love for the colors. Annnnd that, my friends, is friendship.

The Snowy Beach Embrace

Whack Attack

It's pretty pathetic how long it's been. I tried the photo-a-day and it lasted through, what, May? Pretty proud of that, I guess, but 5/12 months of the year doesn't even break 50%. Fail.

To be honest I tried to venture onto other things... tried to create other blogs... tried to work on other projects. But here I am, crawling back to the same blog that I thought I'd outgrown months ago.

I wonder if that's just a part of life. It's cyclical, right? You find something, you love it and nurture it, and then you leave it. Only to find it again. -that sounded kind of heavy. WELCOME TO MY BRAIN.

I moved. I don't live in my old room anymore. I live in my new room. I love my new room. I think I've finally gotten it just right. The feng shui feels good. It's small but not too small. I live a bit closer to the beach now in a funky part of town. I like it. I just wish our front door faced west. I don't know why, but it really kills the mojo here. I think at my next place I'm going to aim for a place where the front door faces west.

My landlord is struggling financially and might get foreclosed on. That's gonna be interesting. We'll see what happens but I'm protected through the end of my lease. Just not sure where to go after that. And my new roommate, who I love, might have plans to go back to school, which is awesome. But I might be scrambling for a new roomie. It's a worry for another day, for sure. Just something I thought about the other day.

My roommate has a dog who I love. He's currently sleeping on my rug. I think he likes my rug, which is cool with me because I like having him there. So long as I vaccuum regularly it suits us both just fine. I had been taking Booker (pup) on runs.. until recently, when it started to get dark as I came home from work. I'm going to have to switch over to early morning runs... the light will be a bit better and my neighborhood will feel a little less sketch. In any case, I'm going to have to start motivating myself to get up early enough. It'd be good for me but even better for him. He gets long walks but he's a big dog and can use the exercise when it's handed to him. Last week I took him out during the LA heatwave. We both regretted it, but he gave up first. At one point as we got close to home he just stopped and laid down in the middle of the sidewalk. It was laughable. I let him sit there for a while, laughing, and then I called him lazy and he got up and followed me home. He was ok, though. He's looking at me right now. I think he knows I'm typing about him. God, I love boxers.

About a week ago he had a patch of hair fall out between his shoulder blades. It was worrisome, but we decided to watch it before we flipped out too much. It's grown back now, but it's white as white gets - so he's got this lightning bolt of white fur gleaming just below his neck. It's awesome, he's like a superhero's dog.

If I were a superhero. I don't think I'd want to be invisible. I think I'd just want to be fast. I also think I'd want to glow. And when I'd glow I'd want to get real hot so no one could touch me. I don't know why, it just seems like it would be a cool tell. That way if a bad dude was after me and my glow gave me away, he wouldn't be able to touch me. I'm sure he'd find a way around it but this is my surreality, ok?

For some reason I feel like I've caught you up on the last 7 or so months already. There's not much to report. There wasn't much of a summer out here. I went to a couple of weddings and thought a lot about life. Growing up isn't really something I care to face, and watching my friends dive head first into adulthood was strange. But that's my problem, not theirs. They know what they're doing. I'm just content with the fact that I don't. If you asked me where I'll be in 10 years I couldn't tell you. I could be a million different places and then some. I just hope I like where I'm living. I hope the feng shui feels right and I'm able to do a lot of writing.

Jeez, at 35 I'm not even sure if I'll have kids. That's not really a big deal; tons of people are having kids post-35. But it's a weird thought. It's weird to think of being 35 with kids and it's weird to think of being 35 without kids.

The future is weird.

Signing off. It's good to be back. Good night.

The End Of March

I have so much catching up to do. It was a busy month:

we had a lot of interviews lined up at work...

but i was still happy that daylight savings kept it light when i got home.

and Suz came to town and I was so happy to see her...

and Jeff came BACK to town and i was so excited to see him.
AND so excited that his girlfriend baked such an awesome feast.

AND i went to a super groovy Soul Funk night in Santa Monica with friends. ...beep-bop-babiddyboo-scat!

and more interviews at the office.

i had a beautiful weekend of grillin' and chillin'...

...and chasing down an ice cream truck.


the next week was crazy (as you can tell by the state of my desk).

...But then came April. (stay tuned)

Saint Patrick's Day Week (First Half).

Thanks to Daylight Savings, it's light out after work.

saw the White Stripes doc, "Under The Great White Northern Lights" here. it was awesome.

<--- The start (yes. start) to my Saint Patrick's Day.


(much went undocumented. this saddens me)

The Weekend

it was a good one.

Matty and his friends were in town. So we went out in Venice.

and we celebrated so many birthdays.
(Jesse, Matt, Steph and Amanda's.)

Jesse had a Pinata. And it was awesome.

it was a lazy Sunday on the esplanade with Lauren.

correction: it was a beautiful Sunday on the esplanade.

in one hour, this is the progress these guys made. impressive.