Saddam Sitcom Plans Cancelled

It has come to my attention that due to prior commitments, Saddam Hussein will not be able to star in my planned sitcom pilot "Saddam". I was hoping to fill the void that was left when Seinfeld went off the air with a similar format starring the deposed dictator.

I was expecting Saddam to get a mere slap on the wrist and be sent to rehab for his genociding, much like other troublemaking celebs (Nicole Richie, anyone?). Instead they sentenced him to death! A little harsh for someone who had such memorable roles in Hot Shots Part Deux and South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut.

So rather than following up on our sitcom plans, Saddam is forced into a career dead-end. He's starring in the season premiere of the new Running Man television show. Unfortunately his role will not carry much further than the pilot, and it sounds as though it might be a direct-to-video release.


The timing is also questionable, pitting Saddam against the likes of Ryan Seacrest and Carson Daily in the new year's eve ratings race. Luckily for his ego, it looks like the show has been bumped up to air tonight in a surprise move by the major players.

It seems that the people behind the event are sure it'll be a hit and want to get it out the door and onto YouTube as quickly as possible. Bold move! I thought of getting in touch with Ceauşescu's people for my backup idea, but he was taken off the air ages ago. I should just stick to computers.

So This is Christmas

Last night I celebrated Christmas Eve with lemon pepper chicken and a Rashomon dvd. Not quite the festive party with sweaters and friendship and Frank Sinatra that I envision, but oh well. I also went to Trader Joe's (friendliest staff ever), and the cashier asked me to tell her a story to entertain her. I didn't have any stories so I just started in on the Brady Bunch theme song. She picked up the ball and ran with it, belting out the entire song, only to be interrupted by me, adding in "they didn't know about birth control". We also talked about the weather and how it hasn't snowed in Toronto yet. She said it's on account of Al Gore Global Warming. He may be trying to warn us about it, but the constant association makes me feel like it's his fault.

This morning I woke up to find out James Brown, the godfather of soul, is dead. Just the other night I was watching his great cameo in Undercover Brother with Natalie. Did you know the movie was filmed in Toronto? Yuhuh, it sure was. I spotted them at Graydon Hall and then proceeded to watch the rest of the movie frame by frame, pointing out evidence of the movie's Toronto-ness. But I digress. James Brown was an inspiration to me as a black man. He made me want to get up in here and do my thang all of the time. He made me want to dance like a madman while hardly moving my upper body. I don't know what I'll do from here on out, but whatever it is, I got to make it funky.

ThanksVegasGiving

I need to catch up on current events.

Iraq is still screwed. We're still all being slowly cooked like lobsters in a big pot of global warming, I think. The new Nintendo is making people enjoy playing like kids again and taking the focus off of technology. This is smart.

Speaking of kids, due to a severe lack of family, Nat and I went to Vegas for American Thanksgiving and didn't eat any turkey. We stayed at the Mirage and I pre-bought "best in house" tickets to the Love show. In case you haven't heard of it, it's the Cirque De Soleil show inspired by the Beatles and their music.

But before the show we had a day or so to gamble away all our money. I know they say that blackjack is the closest you can get to 50/50 odds, with the house slightly in favour, but this time it seemed more like 10/90.

To recoup some of our losses, we participated in one of those timeshare "presentations" where they drill you for 2 hours on how good vacations are for your health etc and that you should really really buy into their garbaggio. And if you get through the 2 hours without being suckered in, you get $100 bucks for coming and are sent on your merry way. As some of you may know, I exhibit extreme cynicism in a sales situation. This is because I've learned some of the tricks of the trade and have to bristle when I see them used on me. Natalie is less experienced in these matters especially when it comes to dealing with high-pressure salesmen. Anyway, to make a long story short, the salesman got annoyed with me and called me a cynic, asking "How do you get up in the morning?". I wondered the same thing about him.

We gambled and ate away most of the 100 we earned by sitting through that ordeal, but hell, it was worth it. Afterwards, we dressed up and went to the show.

I had never seen a Cirque show live before and I don't know if they're all this good, but this one was absolutely amazing. It killed me that they didn't permit any picture taking whatsoever because every element was just spectacular. I can't use enough adjectives to describe how much it floored me. Here was something real and beautiful, and it bypassed all of my cynicism and activated the core of my wonderment. Truth be told, the guy's comment about me being a cynic struck a nerve and it was on my mind until I sat in the show awestruck. It was then I realized that I have an unlimited wellspring of optimism just waiting to be activated by the beauty the the universe conspires to create.

Slept like a baby.

Meat and Pocrazos

I wasted a lot of time trying in vain to buy one of those newfangled Playstations. Thankfully it was only time wasted online and not time wasted in line. I was watching Lost while being a loser in the comfort of my apartment.

Called my local GameStop retailer:

Me: Hi, I am interested in the Playstation home entertainment system. You know, the one with the sixty gigabytes and the six axises of fun?

Helpful (but audibly pimply) Guy: Sorry sir, but those are sold out.

Me: That's too bad, I was hoping to play it on my imaginary 1080p television.

Helpful (but audibly pimply) Guy: You should get a Whee, dude. It's way more fun because you can wave your hands around and stuff happens.

Me: Sounds good, I'll take one.

Helpful (but audibly pimply) Guy: Uhh, we're out of those too.

Me: So when I wave my hands around--

Helpful (but audibly pimply) Guy: Nothing.

So I was left feeling a little Blu-Ray. To cheer myself up I bought a nice piece of brisket and marinated the crap out of it. Papa gave me some helpful hints on what spices to use. Coincidentally they were all the ones that I didn't own. I'm not sure if I invented this technique, but I placed the meat on 4 pedestals of onion core in order to keep it suspended above the pool of juices. My theory was that it would cook more evenly all around. Anyway, it turned out pretty good, but I overcooked it. Next time, Flankey, you will be medium!

This week is zooming by. For Thanksgiving Nat and I are taking a trip to Vegas. That's right! Los Angeles may be surrounded by giant state parks and the unbearable beauty of nature, but we have found a way to steer clear of His majesty by spending this special day in the city of sin. Gil hates turkey (or does he?).

Meanwhile, in Toronto: "Police believe the trouble may have started at a Popeye's fast food outlet, but haven't confirmed anything yet."

The Flow State

The work day went by in a breeze. I wasn't working on anything particularly challenging but I was producing non-stop, other than a few msn distractions. After a month without work, I started to feel down. I need to produce. I'm not doing stuff that's mathematically challenging but I've found a niche that balances my nerdy and artsy tendencies and I am pretty grateful because I ended up here by a divine combination of luck and desire.

Once again I'm mentioning work. Hmmm! It's not like there is nothing else going on... Nat and I are going to Vegas for thanksgiving weekend. It's not wholesome but it'll be oh so much fun. We're going to see the Cirque De Soleil Beatles show titled Love. The next weekend is the work holiday party, which is coincidentally steps away from where I live and also has a casino theme. There I am, back at work.

That's it for tonight, Nat is walking in the door and I have to turn around now. chacha!

I've missed you, Bloggy

Wow, so it's been months since I last posted here. And it's for a lack of delicious food pictures. I've just been busy okay? So what if I haven't blogged about my adventures to Toronto, New York, and the little things like moving to a new place and starting a new job? What's important is that I'm here and I have nothing important to say.

I've finally finished reading 100 Years of Solitude. I'm left with catchy quotes like:

“Taciturn, silent, insensible to the new breath of vitality that was shaking the house, Colonel Aureliano Buendia could understand only that the secret of a good old age is simply an honorable pact with solitude.”

I'm moving on to Franny & Zooey, which should take a lot less time to get through because it's seemingly a lighter read and will screw with my mind less.

Work is a new ballgame, and yet it's the same old story. They want good design but they want it 6 months ago. So today they just want something that works, and there are very good reasons for it. One day I'll do things my way and though that by itself won't make me rich, it sure as hell will make me happy.

I'm listening to: Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale

This Salad Will Make You Some Friends

I'm catching up on food picture uploads to my Flickr stream. This salad was created by the skillful culinary masterwork of Natalie a few weeks ago.

I need a better camera in order to get better depth-of-field in my food pictures. This is becoming an obsession. Is there a self-help book or a twelve step program to help me?

On a totally unrelated note but a blogably worthwhile tangent, I saw a big column of smoke rising out of the Warner Bros. studio lot on my commute home today. There were at least six helicopters flying low and buzzing around the scene. I was sure they'd crash into each other but, no dice. Two of the heli's were actually firefighting copters and I saw them dumping water on the site of the fire, which was actually on the hillside behind the studio and not on the lot itself. I have no idea what could have caused it, but I didn't see any wreckage and the fire was out by the time I drove by. Update: It was a brush fire

My hunch as to the real cause? Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise must have gotten very drunk, and hatched a plan to burn down the Paramount studio. Unfortunately in their stumbly rage, they burned down the wrong studio's empty mountainside. They're both really sorry and will soon issue a statement on the matter.

The Scientology building can see me.

Spago

Last night I took a couple of exhausted newlyweds to Wolfgang Puck's flagship eatery, Spago Beverly Hills. It was such a good experience that I can't help but write about it here despite my serious neglect of this blog for the past few weeks.

We started with martinis. Dan and I each had a dry vodka martini and Elina had a cosmopolitan. The pre-first course breads were awesome for me, although my two seasons companions were disappointed at the lack of funky whipped butters. A server came around with a big tray loaded with every possible variety of bread and you could make your selections. They had really tasty crunchy flatbread seasoned and topped with Parmesan.

For the first course, I had a risotto with chanterelle mushrooms. It was pretty tasty, I was trying hard to savor the mushrooms to understand why they are so expensive. They were tasty but not as flavorful as I had imagined. D & E each had funky first course dishes that I wasn't really into trying. He had some five-layer beet cakes, and she had a dish with Adriatic figs and mozzarella.

Elina was really exhausted so she wasn't really into drinking, so Dan and I each got a glass of a nice red wine called Barolo.

Before the main course, Wolfgang Puck himself came around and introduced himself. We didn't really talk to him, he just said hello and went on. Nice of him to do that with all of his guests. He has like 10 restaurants bearing his name but this is the only one he is actually at. I wish he had come by after the main course so I could gush about how good it was...

Because it was amazing! I ordered the Kobe beef flatiron steak with sweet roasted garlic and wasabi mashed potato (which wasn't in a pile or anything, it was like a teeny tiny streak of mashed potato on the plate that looked more like a little bit of sauce than a side). Seriously, this Kobe beef was the best thing I had ever eaten in my life. When it touched my tongue for the first time, I could feel it in my spine. I am not exaggerating. I took every bite with my eyes closed and didn't care about looking like a fool because it was just so good. Dan and Elina both had the duck breast, and it was damn tasty as well. But they both reacted to tasting the Kobe beef the same way, each exclaiming "wow!" in turn.

For dessert I had a chocolate dish with soft little donuts, creme fraiche, and chocolate sauce. It was delicious but Dan had a dish with some special strawberries in it. They were so sweet and savory, we couldn't figure out where they came from or what was done to them. We had dessert wine pairings with our sweets and left the restaurant exhausted but oh so satisfied.

Vegas

As the cliche goes: Whatever happens in Vegas, don't stay in Vegas. I'm trying ot catch up on recent events but it's hard to find time to write...

So the Vegan trip was fun, the drive up there wasn't too bad. The desert seems like a really great place to fight someone to the death barehanded. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity. The hotel we stayed at (Imperial Palace) was total shit and we even heard that it's slated for demolition. Good riddance. Our rooms were on the first floor and we had to go up to the second and back down in order to reach them. So dumb.

The blackjack at the Imperial Palace was actually fun and friendly, none of that serious gambler vibe you would get at Bellagio or something. The dealer helped us get used to playing and etiquette. In the course of the weekend I won about 160 bones, which isn't bad when you go expecting to lose everything you play.

We ate a dinner at the Mirage buffet on someone's reccomendation. It sucked. I don't know if there actually is a good buffet in Vegas like everyone thinks, but I certainly haven't seen it yet. However, when it comes to food, I am a trooper. I ate and stuffed myself good even at this place. The others seemed to not eat just because it was bad. Sissies! You wouldn't last 5 minutes at Steeles & Dufferin!

We scored free passes to a club called Jet, which we went to on the Saturday night. It was pretty cool. Like any club called Jet, Fuel, Heat, Storm, Ice, Level, or Ultra, it was on the pretentious side. My suggestions for club names: Blue Panda (lifted from: Siperco, Ian, 2002, "night of drunken rambling"), Filo, Neckn, Snood, Slefphone.

Booker T. McGillucuddy's House of Laser Jams

That's all I have to say about Vegas. I enjoyed the blackjack. Especially the winning money part.

I'm putting together a new computer and Tal is coming to visit at the end of the month. It's all happening!

Doncha Wish Your Schnitzel Was...

Schnitzel Dinner 1
Originally uploaded by Gillios.

Today I went shopping for Natalie's birthday. I can't tell you what I got her. It's a secret! I got a haircut at yet another random west hollywood salon. This one ended up more of a trim but I was so eager to get out of there that I didn't care.

Yes, I made that schnitzel from scratch all by myself. And yes, it was perfectly cooked on the inside. The secret is pounding it mercilessly with the bottom of my only pot.

Tomorrow I work and eagerly await my cutie's return.

Rizzo Off The Hizzo

Stir Fry on Rizzo
Originally uploaded by Gillios.

So origiNatalie is away in Costco Rico... I'm replacing her with housekeeping and overeating. I made chicken stir fry on rice, and reclaimed my chef's hat when the rice came out perfecto.

After finishing laundry, I ate Doritos and watched season 1 of Entourage until I felt sick to my stomach and then I switched over to just the Doritos.

Anecdote from the weekend: We were at a bar with a bunch of Nat's friends, and noticed a young guy sitting by himself near us. He looked to me like he could have been me, so I invited him to join us. Turns out he moved out here 2 weeks ago and didn't know anyone. So I scored some karma points, and he seems like a good guy. BUT, he's seen Mission Impossible 3 twice and said he would see it a third time at the free ETC screening.

There's an ice cream chain here called Coldstones, where you pick a flavour of ice cream and a couple of toppings and they pound the toppings into the ice cream until it's all one uniformly delicious mass. Best enjoyed with two spoons.

Just In Time

Sorry about the lack of updates, but as usual my absense from blogging is a good sign. I've been busy lately! I met a girl. Her name is Natalie and she digs my crazies as I dig her's. We've seen each other every day since we met, and I've gotten very little sleep but it's so worth it. Those of you who know what a romantic I am can guess the overwhelming thoughts and feelings running through me now. I can't put it into words.

So enough about me, what life-changing events have happened to *you* lately?

Just Curry It!

That's right! Food porn is back! This is Thai red curry chicken. The reason why it's not plated is because, well, the rice it went on ended up like hummus and it wasn't very pleasant to look at. But the chicken looks good, doesn't it? :)

Anyway, so I haven't posted all during Tal's visit, and it would be impossible to sum up the last ~2 weeks in a single blog post. We had a blast, we squabbled like an old married couple. We also had crazy adventures that I won't write about even in the most brief form due to the internet's long memory and my desire to be president one day. It was great to have a guest and whoever's coming next will have a lot of fun'in to live up to.

Work is work. I'm doing great, they are thrilled with what I'm producing. I might have to do some overtime before the end of the month as we struggle to meet a crucial deadline. But there are plenty of laughs to be had around the office and only the occassional group discussions about which programming language is best. Yawn.

I just looked over to see if my dishes have washed themselve yet. Damn.

On Monday I went grocery shopping at Trader Joe's for the first time. It was effin' scary! Everyone there is so much cooler than me, I was rushing through all the isles to avoid being in anyone's way as I sheepishly tried to decide between 10 different varieties of trail mix. I went with: coconut, cashews, chocolate, and almonds. It's a tasty mix and doesn't have anything queer like raisins. I'm looking at you, Marchese! I think you had trail mix with raisins once, but were barely redeemed by the presence of m&m's. This store seems more catered to the snobby types who can't cook but want good food. It's all about the prepared stuff here. I'm probably going to stick to Ralph's for the most part, at least there I can get some fresh fru&veg. Maybe the TJ's I went to was an especially small one or something.

Speaking of The Boss, the bar nearby is playing Thunder Road. Who says L.A. has no soul? Thanks to Talido, I now know of at least two cool bars that aren't too pretentious and bring back that old dance cave vibe.

A Shitty Ride Home

"Gil, this is one of those shits where I have to take my pants totally off"

That's the latest line from Tal, who has been suffering from a hilarious bout of the shits. I've been laughing my ass off for the last hour. We got a little lost driving home from dinner at the Olive Garden and he was having a really hard time keeping his shit together. I even had to pull over at a shitty run-down plaza about 4 blocks from my place because he just couldn't hold it any longer. Then he got turned away and had to look around for a bathroom. I was hysterical. He sent me an sms message mid-poop saying "This ain't pretty". Later on when I strung together the ideas that he's been eating nothing but hot pockets and now had the runs, I burst into an uncontrollable Gil laughing fit, which, if you've ever seen one, is a pretty powerful and scary event. This is by far the highlight of Tal's visit here.

Oh, and he secretly loves DDR by the way.

LALALA- That crackhead has a sweet ass- Featuring the blogtastic stylings of Los Angelian visitor, Tal

There's nothing like travelling with an odd looking parcel that might speak volumes about your personality. But I swear, it's not mine. Gil had asked me to play FedEx and cradle in my bosom his precious dance intensive video game, "Dance Dance Revolution: Extreme". The El-al interrogation had me sweating bullets, asking me all sorts of random questions, having me speak some choppy jew and generally judging my terroristic integrity on an ad hoc basis. "Did someone pack your bag for you", she asked, explaining that she is only asking this question because history has proven that sometimes bags packed by others (particularly a fellow named Bin Laden) are known to carry explosive devices. Lord knows I am no mule for Bin Laden. America, Fuck Ya!
Moving forward, the plane ride was nice and smooth and teeming with Israeli ex-pats. After a 5+ hour flight, people are antsy and very eager to get off the clammy, dry confines of an airplane fuselage, so it is entirely acceptable that the anxious passenger will prematurely remove their seatbelts and collect their overhead belongings beforethe plane is ready for disembarkment, and yet there is always some douchebaguette who feels he is the most righteous and most patient to extoll his virtues with a "geez, sitcher asses down". I definitely felt his hostility was rooted in anti-Semitism. ELAL- Flying Jews around the world just inches beneath Heaven at Jewtastic prices!

Now Gil is doing his best to entertain me as he sits to my opposition watching an episode of "Lost" on his laptop- with headphones. He's not quite used to companionship as he had kicked it cold turkey for the past two months. Let's see if i can reacquaint him to pure, unadulterated coolness.

Question of the week: Do people who reak of "pure, unadulterated coolness" spend evenings in Los Angeles writing in theirs friends' blog?

New Threads!

Got a Camera

I finally bought myself a digicam so I can show you my dinners in vivid colour and be able to provide the poster-sized prints you have been quietly wishing for. Don't worry, Gil knows your dreams.

Main Area
Originally uploaded by Gillios.

Socialy Secure

I got my social security number. I am also deeply in love with Netflix. Ben is in town so I'm probably going to hang out with him soon. He's an old pro at this "being L.A" thing, so it should be fun. Did I mention I really like Netflix? Don't even have to move my lazy ass to get a dvd, it just comes to me. They even have a girls gone wild-esque series available. Live the dream Gil, live the dream.

Tonight I had a long phone convo with my bros. The brothers Hogie are unstoppable. We will always be on time for everything, 'cause we're crazy like that! Don't mess.

I also had an intense discussion with Jenn about chicken fingers. She makes the bold claim that President's Choice brand spicy chicken fingers are the greatest ever. Since I'm a Janes man, I can't speak to the quality of the PC product. Can anyone in the teedot corroborate this? Below is a picture of my dinner, with the usual horrible quality you've come to expect and tolerate! Now that I've been paid, I'm going to start shopping for a digicam.



Besides a talent for Puck-ish culinary masterwork, I have discovered a somewhat alarming ability, nay a superpower. I'm not ready to discuss it yet because you may react badly to the shocking news. I don't want to be labeled a freak, at least not until the next X-Men movie comes out. At that point I will reveal my powers and accept whatever judgement you pass.

Mental Health Day

This morning I woke up and went for a walk around the farmer's market. I thought about buying strawberries because they always look so good but I have too much food. I went to Borders and bought myself a yoga mat and a couple of books (Franny and Zooey, Kafka on the Shore).

On Shoshi's advice, I went for a drive to the beach. I took the 101 to Malibu canyon, and then took that road to the ocean. It really is a nice drive, through mountains and stuff. And, as Shoshi promised, at the end of the canyon road, I was shat out onto the pacific highway. I took it to santa monica, parked, and walked around the beach and pier. It was a little ronery being in that area around so many couples holding hands doing what appears to be the #1 most popular date activity in L.A. But I had an ice cream and it was nice and peaceful. There are many street/pier performers in that area. Most of them are based solely on the idea of balancing a spinning ball on stuff. Pretty lame when compared to the crazy sword juggling contortionist dude we saw in NYC. And he was slick about asking for money; these people just guilt the crowd and don't do the grand finale until they pass around their bucket.

So yah, that's about all. It was a pretty calm and relaxing day overall. Now I'm back in my place and ready to attack some Thai leftovers.

Like a Foxx!

So long time no update? How've you been? Who cares, I'm the coolest! I'll skip over the boring daily stuff and just mention that Jamie Foxx is filming a music video in the alley right next to my building.


From my roof I have the perfect vantage point. Too bad I don't have a decent camera! I had to make due with my cell phone cammy. He was literally within spitting range. Not that I would spit on the guy; he rules.

It's still going on but I got bored. In my head I entertained fantasies of offering Mr. Foxx a cold beer, running down and giving him one, and then he'd say "Thanks man, you're cool. Wanna come to an awesome party tonight?" And I would say, "Gosh Mr. Foxx, I sure would!" And then I would go to the party and well... you can take the fantasy from there.

Actually I might end up going to a fun party tonight. The Israeli dude who sold me the car called and we might go to some live Israeli music thing or just for some drinks.

I got a haircut this morning from a gay german named Ernest. These Americans love to bitch about immigration reform. Even the foreigners have no sympathy for illegal workers and assume that these people are taking advantage of the system and getting all this free money. It's nutty, and people always seem to want to bring it up in convo, whereas I just want to know where a guy can go to get whipped by a dominatrix around here. Make love or at least pleasurable pain, not war or umm... reform.

Hung

Last night I checked out that comedy show. Some of the sketches were really funny, but others were a disappointment. Neither Andy Dick nor Ask a Ninja performed live, but ninja was there as his alter-ego: Fat Nerd. Before the show started the music playing was a lounge singer doing various songs that were kind of funny sung in that style, like Welcome To The Jungle.

Noteworthy Sketches:

Matthew McConaughey as a monster in a little girl's closet. The guy doing the impression was just spot on and had some memorable lines like "I prefer to see the rose in the vase and not the dust on the counter, hombre."

Two English professors from Harvard and Yale discussing the genius of Mark Twain, intercut with Mark Twain giving the real truth: "I wanted to find a word that rhymed with Fuckleberry", "I changed my name so women know I will get 'twain their legs".

Two people from MadTV did a sketch about urban clowns. This one had me laughing the hardest. It was about a new urban dance called crumpin'. They dance around like fools and then the guy clocks the girl. He informs us that while crumpin' may look like domestic violence, it's really a dance. They repeat the dance and beating. Hard to do it justice, but they had the 3 keys to my heart: clowns, sexual violence, and dancing.

I got pretty drunk during all this. Prices were nutty. A gin & tonic was $8 plus tip, and a Heineken was $6. That's on account of "half price beers".

Today I went to home depot and got the tools I needed to properly hang my bathroom shelf and kitchen rail. The shelf proved difficult because one of the holes was blocked by cement or metal or something, so I had to improvise. I have a second shelf like the one I hung in the bathroom but now I don't know what to do with it. Anyway, it's up and my stuff is on it but I have a feeling that it's not so secure. The rail, on the other hand, is great. I think there's supposed to be a way to hang the dish rack from the rail, but I couldn't figure it out so I'm just going to use that thing for hanging pots and pans. My kitchen feels nice and organized. Have a look-see!

Catsup With Me

Sunday Morning

Last night with Dave was fun. We had dinner at an Italian place called Max's, and then went bar hopping. He seems to either know the city well by now, or was just leading me down random streets and picking random bars. There are enough bars in New York. The last place we wandered into was Coyote Ugly. Kind of a fun juvenile feel to the place... Lots of cute girls. The whole dancing on the bar thing surprisingly didn't do it for me. Maybe because they were all terrible dancers and didn't use fire like the mamacitas in the movie.

These are the places we went to, in order: The Stoned Crow, Bar Peculier, Botanica, The Magician, and Coyote Ugly. If I was a more enterprising nerd, I would plot these on a Google map as I had originally intended. But I have no time.

Today I've been promised a really tasty bagel at a place nearby. I'll probably go to catch a train to Princeton at around 4 or so. I have a slight hangover, but I woke up at 11 and couldn't really sleep more. Sharing a bed with David sucks. He hogs the blanket *and* sodomizes. Right, Shoshi? Okay so I didn't sleep in David's bed. I improvised a bed out of the two little couches and some homeless guy carcasses stacked up. What, too soon?

Sunday Afternoon

So the bagel place will remain a mystery to me. But we ended up having an awesome brunch with Willa at a Brazilian place. We sat outside and acquaintances of Willa & Dave's kept walking by and talking obsessively about where to go for brunch. It was very New York, I loved it. After breakfast we walked around for a while and stumbled on the 20th annual Squatters Mayday in Union Square Park. It was basically a DJ with a huge sound system blasting techno while a couple of hot girls danced with hula hoops. We were mesmerized for what seemed like an eternity. We also had some Belgian ice cream.

Thursday Night

I have been too busy to really keep this thing updated. That's a good thing. I want to be too busy to document my every movement :) The meeting days were boring, but the dinners were good and you can't argue with free. You capitalist pig.

Tomorrow night I am going to see a comedy show. It'll be my first official night out in L.A. and I'm going hand solo. Ask A Ninja dude will be there, as will Andy Dick, and some other comedians. Should be a blast. Maybe Andy Dick will make fun of me for being so handsome!

Saturday Morning

While I was waiting at the airport gate there was a girl across the corridor who seemed to be staring at me. She kept turning her head and looking towards me for long periods at a time. She was kind of cute and by herself so I started thinking about going over there and keeping her company. Luckily I was still debating this in my head when her boyfriend came back. She was probably just waiting for him anxiously. He had a buzz cut and looked like he might have been in the marines or something even though he was in civvie dress. Then I started psychologizing and thinking about her having an insecure attachment to him because of his time in the military and that's why she kept staring at the area where he would be coming from. I'm nuts, it's all in my imagination, but that's how I think when I watch people. When time came for her to go away and leave him by himself, he sat with head in hands, and didn't really look towards the corridor like she did.

I'm writing this on my Delta Song flight to NYC. The plane is freakin' awesome. So much leg room and each seat has its own entertainment system with screens build in. These newfangled systems are nice, you can order one of a bunch of movies, or watch 24 channels of free tv, or play games, or (as I'm doing) listen to one of over 1600 mp3's. They have tons of full albums, and I guess it's not *so* great because I have with me the laptop and my mp3 player, but it's still nice to plug into new music while I'm here. Muchos nice and comfortable, I think the plane is brand new.

I spoke to my older brother a few days ago and asked him how the kids are doing. He told me he watched the Narnia with my older niece the other day and she sat through the whole thing and didn't take her eyes off the screen. She can really get into stuff when she's interested. Afterwards she was totally drained. He told me she understood the story and seemed upset when Aslan died. He had to reassure her that he's coming back. I suggested he constantly explain to her that movies are not real and that the people in them are just pretending. When they showed the trailer for Narnia on the in-flight entertainment system I got a little misty eyed. It's stupid stuff like that which makes me miss my family. It's only been like 2 weeks.

I'm looking forward to seeing David when I get to New York. I was going to bring him some sesame snaps. I took a bunch of them when I left home and I know he likes 'em. But he'll have to make due with the gallons of booze I feed him later tonight. We've been pals for like 10 years or longer, so I know this fellow likes his sesame snaps. I love New York. I haven't even arrived and I'm already looking forward to the next time I return.

(I am posting this now 'cause I didn't have 'net access, look forward to more on the rest of my trip soon...)

Pesto Fro'pi

So today at work I got my part of the GUI working at a reasonable state. The guy who is in charge of the interface was totally wowed by it. Words like "wonderful" and "amazing" were thrown around. I think I'm being too productive, though. What if I get everything done and there's no more work for me? They'll pat me on the back and send me packing early!

Now for the mandatory talk of food that nobody really cares about: For lunch I had a chicken Caesar wrap. It was nothing special, but at least it's midway between salad and food.

For dinner I made a quickie salad and a frozen pizza that has to be the tastiest one I've ever eaten. It's a cheese pesto pizza with my own extra toppings and a very tasty whole wheat crust. I think I picked this up from Whole Foods because it said organic all over the box. The dough tastes kind of like a herby soft focaccia.

I finally got my VOIP equipment from Vonage. It's really sweet, good line quality, cheap as hell. I have a number in L.A. and a virtual number in Toronto that allows people there to call me without long distance charges. To all my friends in Saskatchewan: Sorry but you're shit outta luck. Never try to contact me. I mean it!

I'm flying out to NYC early tomorrow morning. No blog updates until I'm nursing a hangover in my hotel room on Sunday night. Wooohoo?

Hari "Can You Hear Me Now?" Krishna

Today for lunch I had salad. I make sure to eat a salad at least every other day at work. It's so tasty, but I think my body is not accustomed to the input because by 3pm my stomach was hurting.

So I'm planning a caper.

Here's the story, my boss's wife has a client/friend who is the widow of a famous director (Stanley Kramer), this lady has a particular task that she has requested of my boss while he's in New York next week with the rest of us. She needs him to take a painting of her's to Sothenby's to be appraised/authenticated. If it's real, it could be worth anywhere between $5 million and $10 million. The world expert on the particular painter will be in NYC this weekend so it presents a perfect opportunity. However, the boss is understandably nervous about walking around with a piece of paper worth 5 mil. So if anyone wants "in", let me know. I need the following: a wheel man, someone who can get things, a master of disguise, a hot sassy dame (not for the caper, for me), and a contortionist (optionally for me).

Sometimes you get crazy stories out here. Apparently there is a very well known guy in the "industry" named Wook. He actually legally changed his name to Wook. He has a big crazy beard and is a bit of an eccentric. He goes into meetings in sandals and overalls, swears like a sailor, and has been known to throw $12,000 computer equipment at a wall in frustration.

There's someone who owns a Z8 at the building where I work. I don't know who he is, but I hate him. There are also about a million Z4's here. Seriously. I went to Fry's Electronics and saw four of them leaving the parking lot as I was entering. I want I want I want.

Oh, as for the title, I saw three Hari Krishna's (or buddhist monks I can't tell) shopping for a cell phone at Fry's. It made me smile.

The Sociology of Urinals

So today was a typical day, you can tell by the lack of updates that my life is both too boring to write about and too busy to have the time.

Work is still fun. I am always amazed at how fast my extra-long day flies by because I am genuinely interested in what I'm doing and doing it well. Compare that to Avenza where I was usually falling asleep by 2pm. I think the difference is in focus. At Avenza I spent a lot of time surfing barely-legal goat porn (5+ years old), exchanging funny links, chatting, etc. Surprisingly, this sort of distraction is actually more boring and tiring than being engrossed in interesting work. I went to the DMV during lunch to finish my car registration and after work I went to a State Farm place to sign up for car insurance.

It was pretty amusing to deal with the insurance people, these guys stay at work until very late and are all good friends. They also have a pretty kickass conference room with a big screen TV and so on. Anyway, as soon as this agent guy found out I make software he said they need someone to do freelance making modifications to their existing software. I told him I might be up for it, but that I'm expensive. We'll see, I might follow up with him about it next week. Do I really want more work? This might be sweet to do on the side.

At Thomson I've noticed something peculiar that I feel is important to bring to everyone's attention. Our washroom has exactly two urinals and three stalls. While this fact is not earthshattering, what is strange is that one urinal is your typical man-height urinal, but the other one is at the right height for a child or midget. Now, since we know that Thomson doesn't employ children (at least not in their North American offices; the Beijing lab, however...), we are left with only one conclusion: Thomson has a midget-to-norm ratio of 1:1. This is stupendous. I haven't really *seen* any midgets around the office campus, but based on this evidence I'm sure there are many of them around. Maybe they get a different lunch hour so that they avoid getting crushed by the rest of us. What I don't get is how come there is only the one life-size chess set outside the building. How do the midgets play chess when the pieces are so big relative to them? Do they get forklifts or something? Is there a version of the Segway for these little people?

Don't be giving me guff about calling them midgets. At least I'm not calling them "talking footballs" or "another one of my fetishes".

Tomorrow I will write about the co-worker nuances that drive me crazy whenever I start a new job.

Sunday Driver

So this morning I met up with my Israeli compadre to get his car inspected. We were told it'd take about an hour and a half so we went for coffee and chatted for a long while. When we came back we were told it'd be another hour, so we went for lunch at McDonalds. I hate McDick's but there wasn't anything else around. I had their "new" spicy chicken. It's tiny but pretty decent. Yosi gave me a tip that Carl's Jr. has an amazing santa fe chicken sammich. He also confirmed shoebox's allegations that In & Out burger is the best burger in L.A.. He's a good guy, easy to get along with. Anyway when the inspection was finally done we got a list of all the shit that needs to be done and basically subtracted that from the price and I paid him in cashola. The car is being worked on and will be ready for me to pick up tomorrow. After I paid him and got home, I looked up the Carfax report for the vehicle. By this point I already had the pink slip in hand etc. Anyway, long story short, stuff came up on the report that raised alarm bells for me and I started freaking out that he ripped me off. There was a good hour of total panic until I finally spoke to him and he reassured me it's fine. No point in going into the details here but suffices to say if you get a car title and on it the word "suspend" appears, you freak out. All good now.

I would have been in total shock if this nice guy I hung out with all day was out to screw me. We even made tenative plans to get together for a drink during the week.

Let's see, other things of note...

I did laundry for the first time ever. I used some "organic" detergent I picked up at Whole Foods just because it was on the way home. My clothes came out intact so I ain't complaining.

For dinner I made my first attempt at pad thai. It came as a box of noodles and some sauce. I didn't have key pad thai components such as bean sprouts, peanuts, or scallions, but I made due with spanish onion and green pepper. I also very quickly realized that my puny frying pan is not enough for all the things I was loading into it. Lesson learned. It came out reasonably tasty and if it causes any problems on the way out, I'll be sure to let you, my faithful readers, know about it.

Here's a picture I took with my crappy webcam. I love taking pictures of food I make. You will likely see many more instances of Gil Dinner Pics in the future.

Gil Kan Kook

Okay so my culinary skills are generally limited to bringing frozen or dehydrated foods up to their edible states, but it still counts as cooking!

Today I went to see a couple of car possibilities. Right now I'm torn between a '97 Accord that needs some work but is cheaper and a '00 Civic that needs nothing but costs more. There are many variables.

Oxymoron of the day: City National Bank on Sunset near the strip.

For dinner I'm making some rice, frozen stir fry veggies, and these chicken tender things. My cookin' music is Feist; she's not just for makeouts anymore! Tomorrow I'll make a nice pad thai, I would have tonight but the chicken wasn't thawed. I'm writing this before I taste my cooking because, well, I don't want to know if it comes out bad :) The rice especially I had to eyeball the water, 'cause I got not measuring cup. I also have no spices other than salt and oregano. I have no cooking oil but only butter. Fun facts about the Gil bachelor life!

Next weekend I'm flying down to Jersey for a couple days of meetings, along with the rest of the team from Burbank. The great news is that they're gonna fly me into NYC early so I can hang out with Dave for a day or two before joining up with the rest of the cats in good 'ole Princeton, NJ. Business travel rules when you have someone to see!

Big in Japan

So today was a very fun day at work. I spent most of my time writing new code and learning something completely new, and I was so totally into it that when the time came to have a meeting I was suffering from sitting around and listening to someone bitch and moan and wanted to get back to coding. I usually hate coding but when it's a clean slate and you have a clear idea of what you want to do... Well, I don't know about actual fun but I was in the flow state and the day blew by.

Since I got there late on account of banking, I had to stay a bit later and finally got to experience the sort of L.A. traffic that makes a guy start shouting "I have to make a phone call" while pummeling a stranger's brains into a pulp. I've realized that during my commute home there is always one random song I hear that stands above all the other crap I hear. Yesterday it was Whitesnake - Here I Go Again. Today it was Alphaville - Big in Japan. A few days ago it was Murray Head - One Night in Bangkok. These are nuggets of pure gold, anyone who is as smart and sophisticated as me would think they're amazing! Bump, Set, ...

When I re-rented a car today, I (as always) asked the guy at the counter if he'd waive the under-25 driving charge. He said he couldn't, but if I was in the military it wouldn't apply. One of the "ethnic" fellows behind me said "ya! if you're old enough to die..." and let the rest of it trail off. I told him I was old enough to die. He said I should join up. While it's a good way to get a rental car discount, I just don't have the time. Maybe next war.

Hmph

I'm not in much of a mood to write today. The car fell through.

Gil moment of the day: I went to check my snail mail and smelled reefer in the hall. I think it's my cool across-the-hall neighbour. I think he even had people over. When I got back to my apartment I heard people in the hall so I scoped out the peephole for like a solid 5 minutes waiting to catch a glimpse of my neighbours. No dice. They are probably really really tiny and impossible to see with the naked eye.

I like that old song that is used in some new hip hop track, I keep missing its name but the lyrics are like "girrll, I'll be in trouble if you let me know \ I don't know where to look for love, I just don't know howww" Don't any of you tell me who this song is by! Don't you dare!

I'm also kinda bummed because for whatever random excuse I made up in my head, I typed out an email to someone I have no business emailing. I stared at it, realized what a dope I am, and closed it without sending. It sucks that we live in a world with emails unsent and true things unknownen.

Great News

I got screws! Now I have everything I need for my weekend of putting on overalls and going all Holmes on Homes. In other much less important news, I found a car that I'm settling for and probably buying on saturday morning. It's a '98 civic with some modifications that I really don't want but some asian kid must have thought were the coolest things in the world. I am becoming what I've always despised: a performance-oriented asian. Not that there's anything wrong with performance, or Asians for that matter.

Work was work, still getting set up etc. During my lunch break I had to go return a rental car and rent another car, so I didn't have time to eat. And I went to see the Civic after work, so I didn't get any food in me until 8ish. I made frozen pizza and decided to pre-eat so that I don't stuff myself with dough. I had some campbell's soup-at-hand (same old shitty campbell's soup, but now with a plastic sipping lid!), and some greens with newman's own honey mustard dressing. I had hoped these relatively unfattening things would fill me up and I'd eat less pizza. But I ended up eating about what I would have eaten anyway. So now I'm bloated.

Speaking of bloated, I discovered a slimfast shake hidden in the fridge behind the giant gallon of milk. It's pretty obvious that it was hidden on purpose because the fridge was pretty much empty when I got it except for the milk and wonderbread. But among the canned goods she left, there is also a little container of dehydrated beef granules. Now that can't be healthy, damn it!

Speaking of beef granules, when driving to see the car, I passed by a tall brownstone building with a big sign on the top saying "Gaylord". Now, this wasn't a billboard, this is the kind of sign that buildings put on top to announce the name of the building like it's a landmark.

On the way back I was driving north on Vine and finally saw the Hollywood sign. I hadn't seen it before until now. I realize that the evil scientology building is blocking my view of The Mighty Sign. Forgive us our scientology, oh Sign!

My Favourite Grownup Activity

Well, maybe it's a tie. But I'll get to it.

Today was another work day, I'm going to start spreading out the updates because really not much happens when you're at work. Although I will say this, I am deriving a lot of amusement out of work because the design of the thing I'm working on is so bad. I don't feel like writing a whole lot about that, and most of you people who aren't Jenn are probably not interested in hearing what I have to say about user interface design, but suffices to say that this one is very very bad. So that was work. For lunch I had a salad from the 50km long salad bar they have at the office cafeteria. It's pretty freakin' good. I never got the fascination with salad bars until now. They have every topping you could ever want to put on a salad. It reminded me of my dad, who is world renowned for his nutty "everything" which really make use of every available thing that could possibly go on top of a salad including nuts and seeds. I just had one with chicken and mushrooms and some feta. It was good and a much needed shot of vitamins. I can see myself transitioning to just this kind of food because I felt so much better after eating it than the guy who ate a greasy burger and curly fries.

After work I went grocery shopping. Yes, I really enjoy the process of shopping for my own food. It's so impulsive, and yet I spent at least 5 minutes trying to pick out which butter to get. Afterwards I had to go to the drug store to buy hand moisturizer (still haven't recovered from the damage your fucking Canadian winter did to my sensitive sabra hands). One of the aisles contained condoms and feminine hygiene products on one side, and children's toys on the other. This is the kind of stuff that I chuckle at when I'm alone.

Still no car. The rentals are bleeding me dry, I'm going to start taking cabs.

The Excitement Never Ends!

I probably had a bunch of stuff to write about, but in my colossal stupidity, I stepped out for a walk and forgot my key. The drug store was closed, and I grabbed a pizza slice on the way back. At $3.24 for a cheese slice it was a big ripoff. Then came the suckiness of realizing I didn't have my key. Had to wait about an hour for the maintenance guy to come and let me in. I feel like such a clito. Did we trade places? Is this like an extended director's cut of Freaky Friday? Adam, are you getting places on time? God save us.

Let's see if I can remember anything else...

First day of work, nothing exciting. My hours will be 9-6 including a one hour lunch. It felt good to leave the office and know how much moolah I made for just sitting there with thumb in ass. Although, my work machine runs linux and access to the outside world is tightly controlled, so I don't think I'll be able to chat on msn or anything. It seems that I'll have to do actual real work for the entire 8 hours of "work". Sucky. The office building campus is kinda cool though. There is a tennis court, vollyball court, basketball court, and life-size chess in the various open areas between buildings. It's really beautifully landscaped. I look forward to playing chess with myself and having my coworkers think I'm some demented genius. When in fact I'm a dumbass who get locked out within 3 days of moving into an apartment. Good times!

I went to see a potential used Camry to buy, it was perfect but for the fact that the guy selling it only wanted to get rid of it at the end of the month. I can't keep a rental for that long so I'm kinda screwed there. He was a nice gent though. Indian fellow who works at WB doing some software. He is moving back to India to be with his family or something. I think he just misses the curry because the car had no smell to it and that means he probably isn't getting any.

My across the hall neighbour is probably a cool guy. While I was standing in the hall waiting to be rescued, he was blasting Jay-Z. He's probably at least as cool as me if he likes Jay-Z, right??

One of the co-workers is named Auke. He is dutch and it took me a long time to remember that you pronounce his name like "awww-kah".

Tune in tomorrow, I'll probably lose a jacket.

Never Underestimate My Love For Ikea

So today I don't have much to talk about. I got up and drove out to burbank to the Ikea store to pick up some space-wise organizing solutions for my domestic vida loca. Ikea is so fucking good. I can't properly express the feeling I have when I'm there and all of the products I want to buy are even in the right order as I walk down the unidirectional arrow path through the various departments. They have freakin' frying pans for $2.99! WTF! I also bought some wall-mounted shelving for the bathroom and a thing for the kitchen where I can put dishes and hang pans. Damn those Swedes!

Anyway, once I got back I decided to have a walk through the farmer's market that they have here right outside my building every Sunday. It's real good with live music and all sorts of fresh prepared food and produce for sale. I heard good things about the tamales, but I got a chicken souvlaki lunch instead and ate it in my apartment. Once that was done I had to drive the rental car back to the airport so I could rent another car for a few more days with the intention of returning it to burbank near my work. On the way out of my parking spot I dinged the corner of a parked Audi TT. Luckily it was super slow and I'm reasonably sure I didn't do damage to either car. Just scuffs. But it left me with an uneasy stressed out feeling for the rest of the day.

That's about it, I had lined up an Acura Integra to see but the girl called me and told me she sold it. Shitty. If I don't find a car by wednesday, I'll have to start taking cabs to and from work. It actually works out to be cheaper than renting a car and I can probably get by on foot the rest of the time until I get wheels.

Random Notes:

I saw my first prostitute this afternoon. She was walking along Hollywood just east of Vine. I was considering tapping that, but it turned out she wasn't into Battlestar Galactica. So I figured I'd wait for someone better to come along.

I passed by the "famous" Laugh Factory comedy club, and noted to myself that Jon Lovitz performs there every Wednesday. I'll have to check that out sometime.

Relax, I Found Alec's Star

Not Baldwin, Guinness. Today I woke up nice and early and checked out of the hotel. I pricelined a 4 night stay and only ended up using two nights, and it turns out that priceline doesn't let you get any money back, so as it turns out I could have spent those two nights at a 4 star hotel for the same money. Boo, but oh well.

I hauled ass to the new place and moved all my crap in, which is really not much crap except for the 500 pound suitcase which I already strained my shoulder carrying earlier. At least now it's all here and I am unpacked. Afterwards I went to a Toyota dealer to waste some time haggling over shitty cars. They overcharge so much that it's a joke. I'm definitely going the private sale route.

I went to Bed Bath & Beyond to pick up some stuff for the loft. This was actually kinda fun because it's the first time I've had the ability to control every aspect of my living space. I bought some blue sheets for my bed along with a thin beige blanket. I also bought a bunch of kitchen necessities like plates, glasses, cutlery, etc. You never have a clue how much this shit adds up in terms of cost until you have to buy it all from scratch. I then made my way to my local Ralph's grocery store to stock up on some essentials like Tropicana and sliced turkey sandwich meat. I also picked up a small frozen 'za which I made and ate happily. Oh, and I also got some "real San Francisco sourdough" bread. To me it just looks like subway bread, but hey what do I know? I'll let you know how it tastes, I know you are dying to find out.

So that's it for my saturday, not much excitement to speak of, really. I guess the more settled down I get the more free time I have to kill. Today after everything was done it was only 5 o'clock and I took a nap, out like a light!

By the way, although the view from my window points out to cosmo street, which is little more than a glorified alley, I can still see a few tall buildings that are around. These include: The Capitol Records building, and the Church of Scientology building. It must be their headquarters or something because it's a big oppressive brown building. I hope their psycho-waves don't reach me, but just in case, I have my tinfoil hat on.

Alec Guinness's star on the walk of fame is right outside of Bed Bath & Beyond, on Vine. He really got the shaft on that one, nyuk nyuk.

I'm Not A Racist But...

Day 2: I woke up early and drove out to Santa Monica. I wanted to see what it's like before commiting to the loft in Hollywood. It's a very nice area that's probably lots of fun if you don't work for a living. I would have been glad to live around there but for the commute. I timed my visit there so that I could do a test run of my commute to burbank from there.

I ended up "leaving" at 8:45 and got to burbank by 9:15ish. Traffic was really light so I was a bit suspicious of my results. I think easter had something to do with it. The rain might also be a factor since it seems people here are not used to driving in any kind of weather so they freak out at the sight of rain and avoid the roads.

After I got to burbank and drove past my workplace, I got a call back from a lady I had called yesterday about seeing her place in santa monica. Once I told her where I am working she basically said I am welcome to see the place if I want, but the commute would kill me. Probably the 5th person discouraging me from doing that to myself. So I decided that it makes more sense to live close to work since I'll be going there way more than the beach (unfortunately).

Eventually I made my way around the big hill and ended up in Hollywood. I went to the famous Mel's Diner for breakfast. It was pretty tasty and what you'd expect from diner food. The only expensive bit was a shot glass full of freshly squeezed OJ. $2.50 for that sucker but I need the vit-C in the morning. After that I went to the bank to open an account. The girl who was helping me was pretty cool in spite of her braces with elastics on. We got to talking quite a bit about what there is to do in the city and how crazy I am for paying through the nose for a loft in Hollywood when she is paying peanuts for a nice place in Glendale, which, from everything I've heard is where people go to die. Her only complaint was that everyone in Glendale is Armenian and nosy. After that we got to talking about the immigration conflict that's going on here. Although it's a national issue I guess since we're so near the mexican border people here are very affected by it. She said "I'm not a racist but..." which if you don't know is what people say just before they say something racist. She said the workers have no right to be here because they just came illegally when they could have done it the right way. She also mentioned something about building a big anti-mexican wall. Anyway, I tried to explain the immigrant's point of view, especially since they're so close to the border, it's like working on one side of the street for shit-all and if you cross it you get paid well, of course you'd cross the damned street. And who cares, anyway? Aren't they doing the work that no American wants to do? I like the variety of taco restaurants here, damn it.

After that I came back to the hotel for a bit and got a call from the loft to come over to finalize things, so I jetted back there and spent a couple of hours doing the various boring things that in the end resulted in the not-so-boring getting of the keys to my place! I'm very happy with the choice and even though it's expensive, I don't care, it'll be worth it if my commute is short and my drunken stumble home from bars is too. I will, however, be living in what has been described to me by Shoebox as the hooker capital of Los Angeles (and maybe the world). I will do my best to resist the temptation. Actually it'll be easy.

Tomorrow I will move my stuff into the place and go shopping for necessities like cookware and groceries. Also need to start hitting the car dealerships in search of el camino.

Random notes:

I passed by a restaurant called Ghenghis Cohen. I thought it was funny.

After picking up my dinner sub, I turned into a turn lane and had to cut into the next lane in order to go straight. I happened to be cautiously cutting off a black man. I was looking in the side mirror to make sure he was letting me in and I saw him stick his whole head out the window and yell "MOVE MOTHERFUCKER!!". It was amazing. Part of me was hoping he'd pull a gun at the next light so that this would be a Real L.A. Story, but alas he didn't even look at me.

I Didn't Bring The Gray Hoodie

On Purpose. So I've arrived! It was a pretty exhausting journey. After I boarded the plane from philly to L.A., the pilot decided he wanted to grab a (very) early lunch, parked the plane for an hour, and ran down to that place where the cook has a gun. Anyway, after landing I ran around lugging my 5,000 lb luggage, got a rental car, and checked myself into the fanciest marriot in bev hills. I got in touch with a girl about a loft in Hollywood and went down to see it. I like this place muchly so I think I'm gonna take it.

It's located on a street called Cosmo near Hollywood Blvd. You can see the location on google maps here

I wanted a place in Santa Monica, but it's too ridiculous a drive to work every day, and frankly, since I'll be going to work 100x more than the beach it makes no sense to live by the beach. Although, I am going to do a test run. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to the 'monica for a bit of fresh air, and then I'll simulate a commute to work at burbank from there at rush hour. The loft is nice, it's a former furniture warehouse, newly converted into loft space. They were filming an episode of Monk there earlier in the day, and when I showed up to see it there were 2 fake cop cars parked on the street. I thought it meant the loft is in a sketchy 'hood until I saw they were "SF PD" cars.

I hate my new digital one-rate cell phone plan. The reception is horrible. I had chicken pot pie from one of the L.A. equivalents of Soby's. I also have a tube of cheezums flavour pringles but I can't get myself to open it because my stomach hurts from all the crap I've eaten in the last few days. Pesach officially broken. I'm sorry God, but you know how it is when you move to a new city. Of course you do. You know how it is when everything.

First Post!

The job is quit, the passport renewed, and the visa acquired. The countdown begins! T-minus 5 days until I jump head first into what will hopefully be a great experience. I am planning to use this space to keep you guys updated on my daily goings on. I won't have a digi-cam initially, but I'll try to get one as soon as possible once I settle down. This is a very surreal time for me, but I've never felt more free.

My going away song choice: Feeling Good by Nina Simone