The Annual Starbuxian Xmas Dinner (Vol. 9?)

You know you are in for an interesting start of the day when you spend the first few hours throwing out old magazines. It was boring. It was tedious. It was necessary. I apologize to the trees that watched their fallen brethern be turned into Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone.

Anyways, what's much more interesting about tonight is that it will be the next Annual Starbuxian Xmas Dinner. Is it the 9th? The 10th? I really don't know, which will make Victor shake his head to no end, I'm sure.

So I got my pretty clothes on and looked all spiffy. Black slacks, black dress coat, and an argyle sweater. Beard? Trimmed. Hair? Slightly less messy. Glasses? Sparkling. Smile? Even MORE sparkling.

I headed to Cerritos to catch up with Victor and Trick at It's A Grind. Trick was visiting from Japan for the holidays, and I missed the guy. So we talked as Victor did the finishing touches on a gift he was making for Nan, a cool lady and friend of ours. As the time got closer to the Xmas Dinner, I headed to Macaroni Grille at the Cerritos Town Center. Cap'n Josh was at the bar, so I chatted with him for a bit, before the rest of the crew showed up.

ROLL CALL!:

Nathan (me), Cap'n Josh, Victor, Trick, Justin, Quincy, Colin, Wes, Patrick M., Tiffany, Stephanie, Rob, Aria, Nan, Myles, Jaelle, Chirag, Justin C., Cianar, Kristian & Kristian's date, DougX, Ken, and Janey.

... am I forgetting anyone? I hope not.

The food at the Macaroni Grille was... not its best. It was pretty blah. After dinner, we gave out Secret Santa gifts (I got the movie Labrynth from Aria!), after which we headed to the Town Center for our "constitutional," which I'm sure is some old man term for shooting the breeze.

It was a great night, and helped to remind me why I love going to these annual events with friends. Especially the friends I haven't seen in a long time. UNTIL NEXT YEAR!

Topics of Conversation: Platonic boob shots, all of music, free art, fire would be nice, party poppers, the reason to like psychology, why we look nice, a wrong condom, fathers on the outs, Koreans that hate Koreans, couples straight from the 30's, new baby, my favorite is the Sophisticated Bear, etc.

-Nate

December 19th

I did some Christmas shopping, and then had lunch with Carissa. On my way home, I had car problems. DAMN IT. Other than the lunch, not a great day in 2010.

Holy Bat Saturation!

So math was there.

Afterwords, I met up with Aaron and Mike. We had lunch, and then I went with Aaron to Comics Unlimited. Lainey and Mark were at the shop, and it was cool to catch up, though I didn't talk to Mark as much, which I feel bad about.

Batman Inc. (#01) was out, as was Batman: The Return. Actually, come to think of it, the stands have been really Batman heavy as of late. From Batman & Robin, Batgirl, Batman Beyond, Batman, Red Robin, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Red Hood, Batwoman......

Damn. That's a lot of Bat. Are they trying to keep up with X-Men?

After the shop, I dropped off Aaron, and then headed to work, which was quiet, except that it was going to ramp up in the next few weeks.

Crap. I have to finish Dracula tonight. I might end up just passing out.

Topics of Conversation: Happy to see you, ugly superhero, black box baby, a lot of Avengers, Pac Rats, ocean blue, use of the bathroom, SB, perspective, Girls Generation, Darth Vader tattoo, nom nom its prey, LA molestation, etc.

-Nate

Heapin' Helpin' of Harried Homeworkin'

Seems to me that our teacher in Literature Analysis seemed to be in a foul mood and threw four very intense questions at us to answer over the next day or so. Everybody felt a little annoyed and indignant. Oh well, just one more academic headache to throw on top of this heapin' helpin' of harried homeworkin'.

I was originally going to meet up with Sarah for lunch, but her work got flipped around. I figured some cheap Taco Tuesday tacos shouldn't be enjoyed without some cool people, and Carissa ended up joining me. We even talked about a dream she had. I like to analyze dreams as a little hobby on the side. Try and see any hidden meanings or sneaky tidbits to piece together. Its fun!

After lunch, I went and got some recycling done to the profit of around 11 bucks. Not bad, considering I do a happy jig for 4 bucks.

Went over to Norwalk to shoot the City Council Meeting, which was surprisingly short. Not the usual order of business for Council Meetings, but I suppose brevity, and one simple item of discussion, won out. Score one for the good guys, people.

Ugh. I gonna go to sleep extra fast tonight.

Topics of Conversation: Recall, hilarious bathrooms, Club Sexy Vampire, Resolve Face, boob signing, adventures in dreams, taco time, shrimp tempura, recycling, overnight no-no, a guy named Vlad, miners, weekends too busy, etc.

-Nate

Read 'Em And Weep

(Feeling kinda Noir narration today, so here goes)

Woke up with a pain in my throat, though a hoot and a holler would shout down this morning blues. There wasn't enough water to wash away this bitter taste of Monday out of my mouth. The sun was glancing my way with a sleepy disinterest, and I wondered when exactly the moon abandoned me for somewhere colder.

A wash, a brush, and a throw and I'm heading out with a skip missing from my step. I could feel the weight of equations hanging off my eyelids as the prof said her words. Even the cute girl next to me wasn't enough to bring the numbers to life. And when you're talking about math, life is all by the numbers.

The past few days seemed to pass me by with barely a smile and a nod. The parade of hours spent out and about left me feeling down and out, but you can't fault me for a day well spent. And I spent these days like a broken gambler with a great hand. All in and over my head.

So I wrote down the words of a man who thinks too much of himself, and needs to man up to put more of himself in his words. But I write these blogs like I play killer hands, kids. Read 'em and weep.

I headed over to my job, and wished for a career. But the money wasn't showing up otherwise, so I put my shoulder to grindstone to carve out a living for another week. Living's hard in a stone cold world of hard-headed lifers, and it ain't any easier for this dreamer.

But I dream big enough for all of us.

Topics of Conversation: Transmetropolitan, stress sigh, some equipment, movies about mistakes, later thoughts, Chumbawamba, home buying, business stuff ain't fun, fans of people, cold and the US, etc.

-Nate

An Exercise in Avoiding Endless Distractions

Today was mostly devoted to homework, studying, breakfast and lunch with the family, and episode three of The Walking Dead.

All the school related stuff was dealt with at home where I was sufficiently locked away from the world lest I make the poor choice of trying to let myself be distracted. Its amazing how paint suddenly becomes more interesting than anything else in the world, when the only thing you should be doing is focusing on school work. Its all an exercise in avoiding endless distractions. A little piece of mental chess against my own apathy.

After I finally achieved equilibrium with the amount of input of work to the output, I headed to Carissa's place to watch The Walking Dead. Popcorn and Halo was as well. And a quick discussion on people who just remain acquaintances.

This ep of Walking Dead was really good. And the quick reveal of a tidbit of insanely important information was great. I'm avoiding getting spoiler-happy here, so let's just say that it changes my entire impression of two characters. This episode wasn't as zombie heavy, which was fine, because the zombies they did have were fantastic! I can't wait to watch the next episode. Which will push Season One into being halfway over. ONLY SIX EPISODES! Its torture, but I'm thankful that AMC went ahead with a pilot SEASON instead of just a pilot EPISODE.

Season Two will be outstanding at this rate.

Topics of Conversation: Rubicon, Robot Utopia, hunker down and power through, Option 01- Get Out of America, vegging, dream talk, space money, antsy, reasons for not getting to borrow my cell phone, etc.

-Nate

The D-Driver Shuffle

So I wrote down the wrong time for my work at Lakewood today and ended up being nearly an hour late. ARGH. I hate when this happens. There's no good excuse, and any reason sounds weak. Basically, the shoot was for a class teaching how to make gardens and yards that are good at water conservation. Basically, cutting back on full grass lawns that drink up water like crazy. If I owned a lawn or garden this whole class would actually apply to me.

Later on I caught up with Carissa to grab some lunch and Halo 3. We got pretty far, and were kicking some decent amounts of ass (well, the COMPUTER'S ass anyway).

Afterwards, I headed over to Jamal's mom's place to watch the Pacquio/Margarito fight. It was pretty good! Margarito took a hell of a beating, but made it all the way to Round 12. Though Pacquio pretty much gave him the last round out of the kindness of his heart. Pacquio fights to win, not to humiliate. Classy fighter, though I'm sure there were a lot of people that just wanted to watch him beat Margarito to death. Either way, the fight was really good, even if you knew who was going to win by the 6th round.

After the night was over, I did the D-Driver shuffle for some friends to get them home safe. That is, I was designated driver for a friend, and then needed a ride back to my car. It was a little out of the way, but nothing inconvenient.

Topics of Conversation: Talk to the fist, Black Market audio, cat attack, a hankering for some spankering, flash memory, eyes burn, business for what?, friendship gone rotten, etc.

-Nate

Season Finale Finale

I woke up a lot later than I expected to today. Just felt extra tired and the blankets felt so nice. I love sleeping in the winter.

I went over to Justin's place to work out the script for a commercial we were going to do for a friend. But before that, we grabbed some lunch at Bandido Burrito, and even ran into Katy, a friend of ours. We shot the breeze for a bit, before we had to go our seperate ways.

After lunch, we not only finished a rough draft of the script, but also hammered out the unsavory part I always hate to talk about.

PAYMENT.

We agreed on the amount we would ask for, and soon had the skeleton for a shot list and what shots we would need to put together. It felt good to be working on the professional side of this whole little dream we keep trying to work on.

We needed to talk about some notes with our friend/client. But he wouldn't be available until later. So Justin and I finished up the First Season of Dollhouse...

And I have to say... it was AMAZING. Yet again, Joss Whedon and company show me how to write amazing characters, dialogue, plots, and twists. The confrontation with Ballard and the Dollhouse, the twist on Whiskey, and the reveal of Alpha... And then the outstanding Season Finale. And then the DVD exclusive Season Finale Finale. (yeah, I know, it sounds weird, but its pretty awesome in its own right).

After Dollhouse, we were going to meet up with some friends for a birthday party, but by the time we got there, there was a $10 cover charge...

I'm not a big fan of cover charges, as a rule. But I'm also low on money AND I have work early tomorrow morning. This just struck me as paying 10 bucks for an hour of awkward loud noise and being disgruntled. So I decided to pass.

Hopefully I didn't piss anyone off.

Topics of Conversation: Ending with no ending, reviled, tights for dancing, beard as a beacon, photoshop the past, remove the ignore, fame just to hang out, a WTF Season Finale, adobo, rough start at the bar, etc.

-Nate

It Does Not Involve Compasses

School was pretty good today. In Literature Analysis class we discussed Dracula, and the symbolism of vampires. I went the whole psychological path with how they symbolize the darkness in all of us that can come out with just a little help from evil. Others talked about how they balance the social classes, since you don't have to be rich or poor to be used by a vampire.

But the number of girls that would immediately talk about how dark, hot, and sexy vampires are was staggering. I was pretty surprised, but I guess I shouldn't have been. Even with the damage inflicted by Twilight, True Blood and other vampire stuff has brought the brooding bad boy back to the forefront.

Maybe I should brood more and wear more black. Or maybe no.

I came up with a skit while learning how to use compasses in Geology lab. It involves a man working in an office who, after weeks of quiet discomfort, finally tells his friendly co-worker please stop a certain ritual of his.

IT GOES A LITTLE LIKE THIS:

NED: Morning, Alan!
**Ned is obviously peeing in the coffee machine**
ALAN: ....Ned.
NED: Why the gloomy Gus today, buddy?
ALAN: ...
NED: C'mon pal!
**Ned zips up his pants, and pours a cup of coffee/urine**
NED: Here you go.
ALAN: Yep.
**Alan takes the cup of coffee and stares at it**
NED: Rough morning?
ALAN: I just... Can you stop peeing in the coffee? Just- STOP PEEING IN MY COFFEE.
**Ned looks at the coffee and kind of just laughs out of embarrassment**
NED: Oh wow! Man, that's so embarrassing! I must have done it out of habit. I'll stop doing that, pal, no worries.
ALAN: (BEAT)
ALAN: WHY IS THAT YOUR HABIT?!

-FIN-

No, it does not involve compasses at all. I can see how that would be misleading. I have no idea why my short skits are always so strange. I guess I just have a need for the absurd.

For lunch, I met up with Katie. We ate at The Hat, which is a great pastrami place. I highly recommend it, especially the Chili Cheese Fries. WOW.
We caught up and talked about life, The Walking Dead, and different types of animal people and who we accidentally think we are similar to. Street Fighter took a prominent place in the discussion and I pictured a world solved by dramatic video game challenges against other people. She called me a panda, which was nice, even if I wish I was more like a wolf or panther. Not the case, which even I know is not the case. Anyways, the food was good, and the conversation was fun.

After that, I headed over to meet up with Aaron and Amy to watch Spaced. Such a great show! I am constantly reminded of the kind of humor I can only hope to pull off in my wildest dreams. Patrick met up with us a little later, and we bitched about his work a little.

I headed home, and now I look forward to spaghetti. A great day full of productive friendship and schooling.

Topics of Conversation: Moving to Canada, finding the Hat, youth for the young, Harry Potter symbolism, dumb bosses, the lisp only makes things worse, we got some dark thoughts y'all, dinner card vs lunch card, Nato von Dracula, 73.58% cooler, spiders!, another accident, Sloths and Tigers and Pandas Oh My!, etc.

-Nate

Hyperspace Metaphorical

I really, truly don't want to learn about complex numbers. Not when I have so many other things to worry about. I just seems unnecessary to throw math on top of this big ol' pile of hooplah.

What's complex is life. Thanks a bundle, eternity. I'm supposed to succeed and be self-sufficient. But I'm bad at math, so that cuts my options WAY the eff down to not many. Or I can work four jobs and not be able to afford both health care and rent. What happened to the jobs where I can afford life and work out my suppressed aggression on cheap gourmet food and Left 4 Dead 2?

Nowhere to be found.

And another thing! I don't want to live in LA. Near or around, I'm okay with that. But not IN LA. I would like to live in San Francisco. Or San Diego. But Los Angeles? Naw. Don't see the need. The town just gets on my nerves. Heck, I'd rather just live in Oregon near a forest. Hermit life with wi-fi, people!

So um...

Yeah! Comics Unlimited. I went there today. Met up with Carissa and Justin while chatting with Lainey. Lainey dyed her hair black and was wearing all black, so that was appropriate Lainey wear. I only bought one comic, which was the conclusion to "The Return of Bruce Wayne." Not bad. Grant Morrison got a little out there, hyperspace metaphorical on me, but that's fine. Its part of why I keep buying what he writes.

Cool thing about the convos at the shop today was that it was moving pretty good. A nice little round robin of discussion on comics and status quos being updated and destroyed. Lainey doesn't want to read Batman & Robin, but I will slowly change her mind, hopefully. I never thought I would like Damien as Robin, but he's actually a human being with Morrison's deft skills.

After the run, I went to Norwalk for work. We shot a Planning Commission meeting and they talked about iron fences and shiny roofs. That was about it. We also had to discuss the upcoming Xmas video, but we talked about crappy 80's muscle cars and trail burgers instead.

I wanted to go around and do good deeds for the world, but I decided to write this blog entry about my quiet, little life instead. If anything, I'm keep up with my new blog schedule. And that's a step up.

Topics of Conversation: Blanket cat, ourvaluedcustomers.com, blink and you're confused, over the top, vegan card calling, pizza theft, bruisin', Christmas video means the end of the line, coughing fits, hugs given, just stop and realize they're human, info on the down low, etc.

-Nate

Writing Words to Read

For school today, I had to do an in-class essay on Frankenstein in comparison to an article on cloning Dolly the sheep. This was made more difficult because I had forgotten to grab my copy of the book from my car. So the first ten minutes of the essay was spent by me walking back to my car and retrieving the book. But it was okay, I was able to throw together an essay that didn’t sound quite like I was a babbling monkey in plaid. I at least sounded like a babbling gorilla…

I went to grab some lunch and talked with Katie. We made plans for lunch on Thursday, and I then headed over to Norwalk. Today was going to be a slow day, which I’ve been needing to have so I can catch up on more of my writing.

One of the cooler tangents I went on today, and this was thanks to my co-worker/buddy Karmin, was viewing our lives as though we were all on a TV show. The show would change sometimes, but we all had story arches, new and old characters, themes, and plot points. I even started to refer to me as a "character," and pretended to speculate with a journalist what was in store for Nathan. Even disagreeing with some of the choices that the writers of the show had made. It was pretty fun!

Topics of Conversation: Genetic awesomeness, life as a TV show, power of a Token, in-class writing blah, lemon juice threat, agreement on zombies, Tasmanian dogs, channel 3, pastrami plans, great outdoors, disagreements make us think harder, feasting on broken hearts, etc.

-Nate

Spit-Ball

Back to school with Math being a bit more understandable today. Also, just got word from the teacher that I can take an extra credit test. Uh, that would be a HELL YEAH for me.

After grabbing a burrito, I mosey’d on over to Comics Unlimited to pick up the last comic that I had set aside, which was Secret Six. Lainey and Mark were at the shop today and I chatted with them till I had to leave for work.

BUT before I left, I started spit-balling ideas with Lainey about possible T-shirts she could make for Threadless and other shirt sites. As of now, I have roughly six, with more on the horizon. Two of them she really liked, so we’ll have to wait and see what comes of the shirt daydreaming…

Norwalk was quiet, which was good because I had forgot to work on an assignment for English that was due tomorrow. D’oh. But I got it done, and am now ready to drop some Frankenstein film review science on some fools!

NATE NOTE!: Oh yeah, and Conan O’Brien’s new show debuts on TBS tonight!

Topics of Conversation: Boom mike in the middle, extra test, tofu monster, what’s new, people avoided, the similarity between a hot dog and Frankenstein’s monster, earning a birthday, the new thing, etc.

-Nate

Zombie Sunday

The shoot for Norwalk was a basketball game at the Sports Complex, but judging by the lack of an unlocked door, somebody might have forgotten to tell the Sports Complex staff.

This problem was resolved quickly, but it felt like a while, since I was holding equipment. The b-ball games were pretty good, and weren’t as difficult to shoot thanks to their desire that I stick to shooting high lights, instead of entire games from start to finish.

Carissa had invited me to watch the second episode of The Walking Dead at her place, and not only did I agree to this idea, I also rented Left 4 Dead 2 to sweeten the deal a little more. We played some L4D2, got some pizza, and then watched the second episode. Which was amazing, by the way. I mean, I can’t believe how quickly this show is becoming my favorite show on the tube. We even got Carissa’s brother Christian hooked on the show!

A great night and capper to Sunday.

Topics of Conversation: Dusty Rhodes, Postcards From California, candy, highlights, City Council, AA, zombie watch, flashing lights of annoyance, blunt instruments, a game so fun, apologies mean more when they are meant, etc.

-Nate

Making Resolves

Urgh.

You know what makes you want to sleep in till the next journal entry? Staying up all night funk dancing, and not getting home till 4 am.

Urggggh…

Sleeping in did not quite happen, NOR did it not quite NOT happen. I got enough sleep to be a functional and upstanding citizen for the day, until I got a call from my boss. He wanted to see if I could pick up some work tomorrow for Norwalk shooting a basketball game. I said yes, though it must of sounded like a bad impression of vocal chords trying to make the sound of “yes.”

I woke up enough to remember a resolve that I had made. Making resolves are difficult, but necessary. For today’s resolve, I wanted to record something. Anything. As long as it didn’t consist of nothing. Which is mostly what I had. Nothing. Nothing to show for months of slaving away at being a good student, a good worker, and a good dreamer.

So I met up with Justin and we shot four different skits, mostly of the audio variety. They’re easier to come up with, and we had a few that we had been thinking of trying out. First there was an idea that made fun of how SyFy came up with their movie ideas, then there was an audio snippet version of an old journal entry from March about how Katherine Hepburn started sounding like Katherine Hepburn. We ended up the shoot with a made up fight with a possessed Santa Clause decoration. (Even Victor came by for a cameo!).

Yes, this all sounds ridiculous. And yes, I was extremely happy to make them. It had been too long since I had made silly skits and shenanigans. It was cathartic.

We grabbed some lunch at Bandido Burrito (which was delicious), and got an invite to go over to Gina and Bobby’s apartment for a get-together. We headed over, and had a few beers and talked about nothing and everything. I even had a shot of honey whiskey which burns just as much as the original stuff, but with a better aftertaste.

COOL ANNOUNCEMENT!

By the end of the night, Bobby, Justin, and I decided that we should make a podcast! We had done one in May, and kicked around the idea of a more steady endeavor ever since. Well, the whole day felt like an exercise in doing cool stuff, and this felt like no exception. So Bobby will look around for a 4-channel mixer, we’ll all kick in money for it, and the beginnings of a podcast will have been etched into internet stone. I even proposed what the first episode should be about, so after we figure out the schedule stuff, we’ll be off and running.

Another awesome night! I’m liking this weekend.

Topics of Conversation: Waffle recipes, podcasts, cheap china, keeping busy, pretty girl don’t like me, good burritos, Buffy RPG, busting a groove, SModcast, envy of costumes, SyFy, the Game, Italian sushi, etc.

-Nate

Teenage Humility & Humidity

As far as Fridays go, today was hectic. But in a very good way.

First off, I woke up early for a video shoot for Lakewood. It was at a High School that had a Assembly to retire a jersey for a former football player for the school. His name was Alterraun Verner, and he had made it to the NFL since his days at the school, playing for the Tennessee Titans. What was more interesting was that Verner not only had been a star athlete, but he had a 4.17 GPA. Great googly moogly! And he liked Math, which just made him seem from outer space to me, but good for him!

Now, I don’t watch much sports, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you much more about all that stuff, but what I can tell you about is that I used to ditch a lot of high school Assemblies when I was a lad. And being in one again just reminded me of why I chose to avoid them back in the day. And I was being PAID to attend this Assembly!

It’s the strange mix of fake enthusiasm, real apathy, showboating, rampant false senses of entitlement by the athletes, assorted boredom by the students in the bleachers, tired authority, and heat. Yes, HEAT. I had forgotten how damn hot it could get in a gym when you stuff it to the brim with insecure, oversexed, surly, and hormone drenched teenagers. This is a recipe for an juvenile furnace fueled by school “spirit.” Needless to say, I stepped out as much as I could.

Argh! And it was humid, too!

Anyways, after the shoot, I headed to Comics Unlimited yet again to pick up at least two more issues of list of comics for this week. Talked with Mark for a bit, before I met up with Justin. We had a meeting to talk to Paul, our friend Mona’s boyfriend, about shooting a commercial for his therapy practice. This was to be the first time Justin and I would put our heads together to make an actual, serious commercial. Perhaps it’s the start of a new aspect of our career goals?

The meeting went well, and Justin and I left to meet up with Jamal, Jon, Katy, Ben, and Kevin to go to a bar in Long Beach called Alex’s Bar. (NATE NOTE!: Alex’s Bar is the same bar used to shoot the Fangtasia scenes in True Blood! Wow!). The extra bonus of the night was that Alex’s Bar would be hipster central due to the funk night that it was throwing there. Whatever about the hipsters, the important fact was that funk music was going to be played, alcoholic beverages were to be drinked, and grooving was to be shook.

Also, Katy won a trophy for dancing! She friggin’ earned it, too, cuz she danced for about an hour straight.

The night was an amazing amount of fun, topped off with Denny’s food and a sense of funk infused euphoria. Damn good times.

Topics of Conversation: High School, different kinds of cars, Pabst, steady jobs, guuurlllzzz!, Apple Valley, human powered heat, little brothers, New York, trophies, Italian speed metal bands, sub-letting, the arch-villain returns, spirit, jabbering on, permits be damned, butt wash, etc.

-Nate

Double the WTF

I woke up feeling as though it would be great if I didn’t have to wake up. Too bad I had Honors English to deal with, plus a Geology lab test, and on top of that, I needed to work on Divergence magazine for Cypress College. More work than I am in the mood to deal with, but such is life.

In Honors English, we watched some of Frankenstein, starring Robert deNiro and Kennth Brannagh. The movie gets a little over the top at times, but still looks stylish as all heck. The Geo lab test was in carbon dating and earthquakes, and I didn’t do too bad, though I was having trouble remembering how to figure out epicenters of quakes.

I went to Comics Unlimited to pick up the latest issue of Invincible (#75). It was a double-sized issue packed with double-paged splash pages and double the action and “WTF?!” factor. Double all that and then double it again. THAT’S how good this issue was. If you haven’t been reading this comic series, its about time you got to getting it.

I headed back to Cypress to work on the Divergence magazine. Some stuff was getting done, but a lot of people had to cut out early, to the point that the magazine just wasn’t going to be finished in time. In stead, we had some pizza and talked about being tired all the time. Our youth and golden years were being used up with abandon. Aw, the wallowing was good and plenty tonight.

Topics of Conversation: Quaking, weed ice cream, fist bump, contests, weekends of endless weakness, pizza ad noseum, the Indiana Jones theme in strange places, Popeye’s chicken is evil, driving too damn far, bullies, standing on one foot, etc.

-Nate

The Internet Makes Everything Worse

I made a mistake and planned to meet up with friends I didn’t have time to meet up with. Shouldn’t have done it. I was very, very busy, and ended up letting them down.

Argh.

You know, sometimes I’m such a nice guy that I end up being an a-hole. I have to remember that being honest isn’t the same thing as being rude. I just need to realize that I should know my time and activities better.

This was after Math class, which was a numbing experience.

Before dropping off some equipment I checked out from the Newsroom for shooting interviews at the Long Beach Comic Con, I chatted with Mike Lacerna (here’s his blog, he makes really good funny’s). I then ran around to do more stuff.

I headed to work, and talked with Justin, who was having some issues with the internet. Not the internet itself, but the social and psychological aspects of it. That sentence makes Justin sound like a crazy person, which he isn’t. He just had a difference of opinion with someone that went south. It happens, but somehow, the casualness of facebook makes things seem more dramatic. It’s a funny thing…

Work was worktastic, and then I went to hang out with Aaron and Amy to catch up mostly.

Topics of Conversation: I think everybody is sick, PT Loser, Nerd Rage unleashed, boredom can lead to stress, writing when not busy, crappy corporations, Chevrolet as a fake name, bad day off, edits, green screen surfing, bad cover art, too late to stay late, etc.

-Nate

NOVEMBER!

A pox upon the fates! A curse to ill fortune! I have realized that I am within the clutches of November.

NOVEMBER! Carrier of disease!

NOVEMBER! Harbinger of sickness!

NOVEMBER! Dark Heart of viral infection!

NOVEMBER! Downfall of Nathan!

I should probably explain.

Ha ha! You see, every November since I can remember, I have gotten sick. Now, I’m a young, virile lad who has been blessed with a hearty immune system, and the good sense to not breath deep of other’s coughs. I rarely get sick, and when I do, I usually shake it off with a decent night’s sleep and a bottle of OJ. I laugh at colds, scoff at flus, and have little regard for most diseases, seeing them as lesser people‘s afflictions. Ha ha!

November is when I pay for this mindset.

Man, I’ve gotten sick like a dog who’s slowly turning into a zombie and has diarrhea. It’s a week of hell usually, and I disappear into my home, scorning the sun, and hating the healthy. I make it through, but it does suck.

And I don’t particularly hate November. Sometimes December likes to step up and make me feel terrible. Once on Christmas, too. I just never know when it strikes.

NOVEMBER! Russian Roulette of poor health!

So my day was interesting. Started off worried about my bed. Two of the legs are looking suspiciously like they’re going to give up and make me feel like a fat joke suddenly rolling out of bed. But I have had the bed for years, and it is made of particle wood, which just sounds like material that shouldn’t be anywhere within sitting distance of a large fan boy. So, that’s looming…

Went to my Honors English class, which was cancelled and that was nice, since I wasn’t feeling like attending an Honors English class at 9 am. This gave me some time to finish up some Geology homework, and head out to do my job as a citizen:

That’s right! VOTE.

Went to Walter Elementary near my house (NATE NOTE!: Walter was my first Elementary school! Dang cool, right?), and I voted like nobody has voted before.
Or mostly Democratic, with some Green Party thrown in for the heck of it. There might have been a few people that have voted like that in the past, or even presently. Who knows, right? And judging by the results, it didn’t seem like many people voted like I did, so technically, I’m right about my over-the-top statement.

After voting, I went home and passed out. Literally ate some food and slept. I rarely do that, but since it is NOVEMBER! (Ruin of energy levels!) I needed to grab some sleep.

I got to work at Norwalk, and we shot a City Council Meeting, of which I barely was able to get through. I felt so tired, it was palpable on my face. “Palpable” being my eyes kept closing, and my head was rolled back in a suspicious manner akin to “dozing off.” Anyways, it was a long shoot.

I got home and slept deep. Hopefully I would feel better tomorrow.

Topics of Conversation: Sexy Librarian, Prop 19, LBCC pics, sick & tired, updates too long, DoD, squeaky steering, final call back, Manhattan Beach, the vast wealth of Nathan K. Schulz, etc.

-Nate

Lost Four Months

Okay, well, I’ve been doing really bad on this blog of mine. I’m over 3 months behind (Holy Moley!) and keep letting myself lag more and more.

And there’s no real good reason for this. Just been too busy with life to write about it. I know, that seems real lame sauce of me, but well, this is the first in many sad attempts to even out the scales. Fortunately, I’ve been keeping notes on every day, and though that means I will miss out on most of the visceral connection and thoughts on each day, at least I will be able have some kind of record. And I can at least say that November and December will have a better record of my little existence.

This means I will write November and December as normal, AND retroactively write July through October. For every November entry, I will do TWO old entries. Maybe even more, if time permits. Here’s to hoping I can get my crap together. (Maybe as a cool bonus, I will skip between the Lost Four Months, and write about days out of order). Keep in mind, that the “Retro Entries” (did I coin my own phrase?) will probably quick and uninspired.

Luckily, November 1st was relatively uneventful, just another day of Math class and work. Awesome, right?

Yesterday, I watched The Walking Dead, and that was beyond awesome, which I will write about in detail soon.

….okay, even I don’t trust me. But bare with me, please.

Topics of Conversation: Math woe, the Doctor is out, turkey, notes best not made, more information, waiting to make sense, atonement for faltering in my journalistic duties, etc.

-Nate

homework no no please stop

Too much damn homework. I don't want to do anymore homework. I want it to stop. But it won't, will it? Ever. It won't ever, ever, never, ever stop and I need to not do homework right now.

....sigh.

Rant over.

Topics of Conversation: Blue agave, red is great too, zombies, Hot Topic venture, invites galore, View Askew, Pepsi burns, etc.

-Nate

Zombie Jackass

Today I hung out with Katie and her friend Ariel in the morning. We played Left 4 Dead 2 and kicked a ton of ass. Later we had lunch at Knollwood’s and talked about stories.

I later met up with Jamal, Jon, Kevin, and Ben to watch Jackass 3D. This movie was just about what you would expect from the Jackass guys: Disgusting, painful, insane, and funny. How they are still alive is beyond me.

Topics of Conversation: The Favorites, comic guys are for keeps, zombie overload, fun drunks, too domesticated, musicals, story time, etc.

-Nate

Music Shuffle Answers

Yeah, I don't have a clue what happend today, because retroactively speaking, I lost the notes for this entry. I don't even have my personal favorite section of "Topics of Conversation." It makes me sad. So instead, I put in this entry of Music Shuffle Answer thing. Enjoy:

1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, Ect. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press next button for your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THE SONG NAME NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT IS!

If someone says "Are you OK?" you say?

Dance Little Liar - Arctic Monkeys

What do you like in a girl?

Lethal Enforcer - We Are Scientists

How do you feel today?

Should I Stay or Should I Go? - Weezer (covering The Clash)

What's your life's purpose?

Night Of a Thousand Firsts - Beaujolais

What's your life's motto?

Die Another Day - Madonna/Best of Bond

What do your parents think of you?

The World We Love So Much - Rivers Cuomo

What do you think about them?

Late Afternoon - The Coral

What do you think of your best friends?

Badfish - Sublime

Whats is your life story?

We Are Sex Bob-Omb - Sex Bob-Omb

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Highwayman - Johnny Cash

What do you think when you see the person you like?

(This Is For The) Better Days - The Bees

What will you dance to at your wedding?

I'll Be There - The Jackson 5

What will they play at your funeral?

About Your Fame - The Apples In Stereo

What is your passion in life?

Now I'm A Fool - Eagles of Death Metal

What is your biggest fear?

Do The Panic - Phantom Planet

What is your biggest secret?

Standing Next To Me - The Last Shadow Puppets

What do you want right now?

Plastic Jesus - The Flaming Lips

What should the title of your movie be?

Don't Get Dead - The Like Young


These are some pretty cool selections! I love when this happens.

-Nate

August 19

Well, I had some school today, but after that your guess is as good as mine.

NATE NOTE: The journal notes for August 19 through 24 are missing.

There are at least five days in a row that I have no notes of. That will make retroactively writing about them very, very difficult.

Topics of Conversation: The Supreme Justice of the Supreme Court Extreme, 6th Edition, foolish chipmunk, etc.

-Nate

Happy Birthday, Mom!

After having a birthday breakfast with Mom, I headed to work. Simple day, but I bought my mom some flowers and a card. Not the most original, but at least I didn’t forget and look like a crappy son.

Topics of Conversation: Real Diet Coke, Vegan Bakery, punching, modern day castles, birthday baked goods, Chinese 101, sex change to please your parents, etc.

-Nate

August 3

Watched Big Fan, starring Patton Oswalt. He did a pretty good job! I later met up with Vic for lunch, and went to work at Norwalk.

Topics of Conversation: Flammable water, Loserville, early morning tech support, dogs, being silly, the Doctor strips, straws, even or odd, the Law of People Punching, cuteness attempted, The BuROCKracy!, etc.

-Nate

Stuck In a BOGG

Really, Cypress College? I need to go over this as though you’ve never seen a BOGG fee waiver before? Especially when YOU offered it to ME? Its not cool to say I haven’t paid for my classes when they’re supposed to be paid for by the fee waiver.

So I drive down to Cypress and clarify this issue. And then I find out that there is nothing I can do about the classes I’ve been waitlisted for. Too bad, so sad. Also, to get the maximum amount out of my Pell Grant, I need to be enrolled in 12 units worth of classes. So now I have to sign up for classes I never wanted to sign up for, and they’re classes that most likely won’t help towards getting my GE finished.

After that annoyance, I headed to Jamal’s to hang out and catch up. He had the day off because he returned from a trip to Las Vegas for Jon’s last hoorah one day early. We watched a little bit of a J-Drama called “Edison,” and grabbed some Chinese food for lunch.

I headed to Norwalk finished up work in what felt like no time.

After work, I mostly focused on catching up with my blog. I was now over a month behind. It was a sad state of affairs, but I never stopped taking notes on each day, so I wasn’t so far behind that I couldn’t catch up.

Topics of Conversation: Genius, #75, pronunciation, units required, J.T.!, do’s and don’ts on jobs you don’t care about, get the Grant, mixing up all the people I know, blank DVDs, the suckiness of the werewolves on True Blood, people you should know, etc.

-Nate

Cameras & Sorcerers

-Helped Justin on his camera work for studio version cameras. Then we watched some Sherlock Holmes.
-Met up with Katie to watch Sorcerer’s Apprentice and eat at Fuddrucker’s.
-Got home and watched 2 episodes of True Blood.

Topics of Conversation: Follow the action, sexy card games, Buffalo and Elk, better brother, bear hugs, where ideas come from, concert ticket weddings, Sherlock Holmes, etc.

-Nate

July 12

I had my mid-term for summer school. It went okay, I suppose.
Went over to watch two eps of Buffy (Fear Itself and Beer Bad) and one ep of Angel (I Fall to Pieces) with Aaron and Amy. Then I went to Norwalk.

Topics of Conversation: Damn parking, new pants, everyone hates Mario, the ol' sensitive act, motorcycle licenses, just hit him!, traitorous traitor, etc.

-Nate

Hello, Kitty brand Cameras

Watched Shutter Island, which wasn't very bad. I enjoyed it, even if I called most of the movie. The acting was really good, and it was shot beautifully. I recommend it for people who like to have their brains messed with.

Met up with Lainey to help her buy a camera and later watch Lost. We went to Best Buy, and I was quickly sad at all the wonderful toys I could not buy. But Lainey wanted a camera, and by gum, she got one... A "Hello, Kitty" camera.

They saw you coming a mile away, Lainster.

We watched Lost and I found myself getting just the right kind of tired to head home and sleep like a champ.

Topics of Conversation: Leonardo DiCaprio, the drama of the Tomato Family, the bird across the street, donuts, the instruction manual, cute purchases with ugly money for cute reasons, etc.

-Nate

I Doubt The Word is "Nunergized"

So before I even knew it, this was going to be one of the busiest days I’d been involved with in quite some time.

Today I had a video shoot for someone who wasn’t my usual suspects of Norwalk, Lakewood, or PCTA. Nope, it was for a fellow named Joseph, and it was to shoot what I heard was a wedding. Turned out I was wrong about it being a wedding. It was, in fact, the… huh. What’s the word for making a woman into a nun? “Nunification”? “Nunning”? “Nun First Class”? I have no idea, but it was whatever that word is.

I felt like a cool guy during the set up and the taping of the event, because the process wasn’t much different from my usual shoots. Three to four cameras, ton of random cables, and almost indecipherable directions from the director. As it turned out, Little Saigon TV was also involved in the shoot. And after we were done with the morning shoot, I was invited to work on a shoot at the La Mirada Theater for Little Saigon. Apparently, a Vietnamese concert was going on at the theater, with singers, a choir, and a whole orchestra behind them. The whole nine yards.

I said yes. And it was one of the most exhausting shoots I have ever been on. I really can’t get into it, but we had to do a lot of work hauling cables and more stuff. Ask me in person if you want to know more.

After the shot was done, I heard that my cousin Clinton and his wife and two kids were stopping by to visit. I was so tired, I was practically falling asleep into the tacos they had been so nice to buy for me. I felt like such a jerk, but if I had known that Clint was coming by, I would have just said no to the La Mirada shoot. Oh well. I slept like a baby that night.

Topics of Conversation: Panera, Vietnamese, clowning, fiasco, more busy than ever, tangles, common sense is for the bearded, 5-second heads up, running cables, the rituals of religion, etc.

-Nate

July 9

I worked on a paper for school. Then hung out with Lainey for a bit, after which I bought an iPod charger for my car. Probably one of the best purchases I’ve made in a while.

Topics of Conversation: Bella Lagosi vs. Boris Karloff, Gypsy sandwich, weird California, family vs. business, no hot sauce, the need for socks, versus questions, etc.

-Nate

Ape Jam Predators

(Summer School: Day Twelve)

Found out that for extra credit, we could go to a presentation at a Gibbon preserve on the 16th of July. Unfortunately, the preserve was way the heck out in Santa Clarita, which was a good hour and a half away. Darn it. Oh well, I could use the extra credit…

After school, I went on my comic run, which then led into a shoot for PCTA in Fountain Valley for their Summer Concerts series. It was a jam band of some sort, and wasn’t all that great. They’ve had better bands in the past, so hopefully next week’s will be even better.

After work, I watched Predators with Justin and Carissa. The movie was pretty good, and just the right amount mindless violence to cap off the day.

Topics of Conversation: Society as Evolution, Business Predators, 90 minute parking, A-hole poets, the final definition of “Brick,” etc.

-Nate

Tardy In More Than One Way

(Summer School: Day Eleven)

I haven’t been writing about what happened at school that much because I literally can’t remember much of it. Again, a reminder, I am writing all these entries from July to October in retrospect. I have notes for every day, but its hard to differentiate from day to day all the events that transpired.

I met up with Amy and Aaron to watch some more episodes of Buffy and Angel. We picked up some teriyaki from a place called Genkiyaki, which was delicious. I had so much fun with this that I was late to work! ARGH. I should have paid better attention to the time.

After work, I met up with Patrick for dinner. We mostly caught up on life and creative endeavors.

Topics of Conversation: Apes, sister’s jacket, singing monkeys, Luigi, Iceball, Ninja Tacos, grease paint, going to college, selling magazines, etc.

-Nate

July 6

(Summer School: Day Ten)

After school, I met up with Victor for lunch. I then went to work at Norwalk. That’s about it.

Topics of Conversation: Casual white boy, moving out, heart attack, forced nap, Restore Funds, steak, taxi tax, lies about celebrities, good focus, volunteer, bad Twilight ideas, etc.

-Nate

Funny Stuff of Different Types

(Summer School: Day Nine)

I met up with Jamal and Justin and we ate at a Deli, watched “Whatever Works” (starring Larry David), and ended the night with Last Comic Standing. I was at little annoyed because two of the comedians I was rooting for didn’t make it to the next episode. Grrr…

“Whatever Works” was a decent movie that Woody Allen had written a while back, but had never got around to making. Larry David does a really good job with his role, and Evan Rachel Wood is adorable as his cute, optimistic, and unlikely bride. The movie gets a little to wordy at times, but is still pretty good, if a little weird.

Topics of Conversation: Memories of back in the day, McRib, The Dark Ages, good pastrami, unlikable characters, the workings of comedy, Lord Jamal, what’s a knish?, etc.

-Nate

Indy Day

Had a cool shoot for PCTA that was insanely early. 5:00 am early. See? Insanity.

But the shoot was cool. It was in Huntington Beach, and was a marathon/parade celebration. I mostly cable wrangled and crowd controlled, but the crew was still made up entirely of awesome people, so it was an all-around good time.

After the shoot, I met up with Sarah to grab some food at Native Foods. I think I was conscious for most of the lunch. Sarah then barraged my phone with texts and pics to punish me for my acting tired. A good time was had, none the less.

Went home to shoot off some fireworks, dodge a bottle rocket, and then went to sleep.

Topics of Conversation: War paint, too many damn reminders, lettuce in bad places, Reel Big Break-up song, etc.

-Nate

Fireworks

Went on a comic run, which wasn’t really necessary. What was necessary was making sure that Lainey had someone with her to buy fireworks and talk about whatever people talk about the day before Independence Day.

Topics of Conversation: True Wood, vampirates, bake addiction, betrayal pic, Sabertooth, rough life, the Wednesday Addams stare, etc.

-Nate

Really, M. Night?

Argh. I watched “The Last Airbender” today. Argh. God help me, that was a bad idea. M. Night, man, what the hell? Really? You thought that was good enough? Well, it wasn’t. Geez.

Went on a comic run, ate at Portillo’s, and ended the night watching better stuff at Justin’s place.

Topics of Conversation: Ideas to steal, bad student in film class, racist Tehrets, numbers, Invincible, art skills that are rusty, etc.

-Nate

Retro-Writing Begins Here

(Summer School: Day Eight)

School was cool, and led to a shoot for PCTA, in which we shot a concert. Not a bad night.

Hung out with Justin later, and we watched some Doctor Who. A lot of Doctor Who, but that was okay. It was some good times.

Topics of Conversation: Hurry, fries, Airbender, 90210, the PA Gauntlet, iPod test, earned hugs, starts with “F” ends with “urry,” Frisbee optimism, etc.

Nate Note!: A lot of these entries from here on out are gonna be short and sweet. Thus, the “Half-Assed” Journal Entries will lose their purpose. Just kick back and enjoy the reading, and try not to hold a grudge. I’m only a man, and I never get paid for all this Too-Much-Info posts. Remember, I love you. And you always hurt the ones you love.

….that’s too damn dark. LET’S JUST ROCK AND ROLL!

-Nate

That Left English

(Summer School: Day Seven)

I want to transfer out of Cypress College, and graduate from a University, before the sun burns out of the sky. Before the cold earth gets cracked open by the freezing grip of the void. Before the rest of the stars fade from all memory. And before the whole solar system collapses into oblivion.

Hopefully before I turn 30, at least.

I have found that this depends a great deal on actually choosing a major. So to do this, I grabbed a whole bunch of papers on transfer majors: English, Business, Sociology, Film, Communication, and Journalism. Business was the early loser as I realized that it would add nearly an entire year to my school time to actually graduate. Film was too impacted. Communication and Journalism were nearly the same thing. And Sociology stayed in the running, even if it looked a tad unappetizing.

That left English.

English had always been my strongest subject. I understood it a lot more, and it really went together very well with the fact that I wanted to write as part of, or all of, my career. I suppose I avoided it because it was the major that got the rep of being somewhat arrogant and sad at the same time.

For all you English majors, I mean you no harm, but really, having a math or science degree would make you a hell of a lot more money in the long run. You know this. I know this. So calm the heck down.

The good news was that CSULB offered an English major with a special option of Creative Writing. An English major is looking better and better every time I look at it…

Also, after work, I watched Doctor Who at home. Great episode!

Topics of Conversation: Tumor story, gas money, Cal States, cats behaving badly, fake water, being Plutoic, honesty and being mean, kabobs, links to cool stuff, special broke, Fridays, etc.

-Nate

And On the Sixth Day There Was Quiz

(Summer School: Day Six)

Had my first Quiz in Physical Anthropology. Yeah. Look at the words in parentheses above. It says “Summer School: Day Six.” Freakin’ DAY SIX. I’m not sure how I did. I didn’t feel that good about it. Neither did I feel that terrible about it. I’m just not a big fan of quizzes and tests. I never feel like all the facts get organized in my brain. Its just a messy warehouse up here.

Headed to Norwalk, and spent the rest of day trying to make sure I got both my work done and read up on my next essay.

Topics of Conversation: The dreaming of a strange dream, blackmail for friendship, AX is ruining everything, Science Noir, fun with taxes, cat in Arizona, the meaning behind a map, Fullerton is for the cool kids, etc.

-Nate

Half-Assed Journal Entry #08

(Summer School: Day Five)

Today was completely sacrificed to school and work. Doing an overview for the upcoming Quiz, and updating the public bulletin page for work.

Topics of Conversation: Out of ink, the wrong color of T-shirt, Fullerton is better, the math of evolution, Inspector Gadget, chili addiction, James Bond = martinis and womanizing, smiling Aang, walking away, etc.

-Nate

The Improbable Essay

Wanna know how you can know you’re completely, utterly, miserably, hopelessly, terribly, awfully, desperately out of practice writing papers for school?

By taking nearly six hours writing a two-page essay for an actually interesting class. It’s a strong indicator.

This sucker just didn’t want to be written. I mean, the subject was about something as small and easy as moths changing colors due to the environment changing around them. That’s it. The essay was double-spaced, too. But for some evil reason, the paper decided to not be written. I had the facts down, the sources cited, and the angle I would approach it from, and yet still the paper dripped out of my brain at a glacial pace.

But I finished the bugger! Yes I did.

After the madness of the essay, I went over to hang out with Jamal. We talked about his work and one of the stranger and more complex issues he was having. It may be more than either of us expected it to be. Hopefully it won’t turn into anything crazy.

Topics of Conversation: Germany needs support, a tall glass of friendship, a great adventure, the worst enemy is the best friend, being Watson, the third lesson, ethics of a corporation, life for later, etc.

-Nate

The Cut of the Jib Assistant

For this morning, the parents made French Toast, and it was too good to describe in mere blog words.

So I won’t try. Just take my word that they were awesome.

I had a shoot at Lakewood for their annual Block Party. This is the event that the City of Lakewood shuts down an entire block of the street of Clark Avenue, and gets a band to play live music. Its pretty fun.

Or so I’ve heard. I’m too busy working it to know. Whine, whine, bitch, bitch.

After we were done setting up, I found out what I would be doing during the shoot. My job turned out to be pretty simple. I would be jib assistant for Shawn, the jib operator. This mostly consisted of making the sure the jib didn’t clip anyone in the head. That, and to make sure that no one got in the way of the jib.

This, I have to admit, was quite easy.

The band was pretty good, though I totally forgot their name. Huh. Maybe they weren’t that
good if I can’t even remember their name. Sorry, nameless band, but you just play covers, so really, the only band I have to try and remember the name are the bands you’re covering.

Topics of Conversation: Easy driving, the Greatest Dominatrix, USA defeated, panning motors, Nathan the Musical Fairy, stills, shiny silver, parasite twins, crows, Caution Man, jib staring, strut, etc.

-Nate

Yoda Soda

I promised I would meet with Carissa for breakfast so we could catch up on stuff that had been going on in her life. She wasn’t particularly crazy about the month of June, having had some rough Junes in the past. June Gloom squared. And so I listened to whatever she needed to talk about, as we ate cheap food at Denny’s. It was a nice morning, all said and done.

Afterwards, I headed to Gerdes Park in Norwalk to shoot a party being thrown for a Summer Preschool program for young children. It was pretty fun, and the kids got a lot of attention and activities. And you can’t beat free food.

Today was my friend Bobby’s birthday, and he had an excellent plan for the festivities: Star Wars and alcohol. I’m pretty sure that’s way up there in the good ideas department. I had a great night hanging out at their apartment, and even found out that I missed out on other nights of madness and great stories.

Bobby and his girlfriend Gina concocted a mix drink called “Yoda Soda,” which was sparkling wine and some other mad spirits. It was actually delicious, even though it looked like swamp water from Dagobah. And you’ll get that reference if you’ve ever seen The Empire Strikes Back, which we did that night.

I need to have a Back To The Future and alcohol night myself.

Topics of Conversation: Drunk and belligerent elementary kids, MORE PANCAKES!, how the International trailer has changed minds, chicken nuggets, nights full of regrets, cheesiness, Star Wars food, etc.

-Nate

They Couldn't Hit The High Notes

(Summer School: Day Four)

I got out of school a little earlier than I thought I would. I studied a little, but I mostly found myself trying to figure out what my Major was going to be. Its been on my mind as of late. I was considering a Business Major, but it doesn’t seem to feel right. And from what I’ve heard, it would nearly double my time in school.

So perhaps a Creative Writing major? Or something film related that isn’t as insanely impacted as the entire Film department.

I headed to a shoot I picked up from Lakewood. It was going to be a concert in the park, which is the cool thing to do this summer season. The good news, for me at least, was that it was a Beatle’s cover band. They called themselves Hard Day’s Night, and as it turned out, they weren’t half bad. Since it was the Beatles, I found myself singing along the entire show.

Unfortunately, nobody on the band could quite hit the high notes. They tried, bless their un-English souls. But it was just not to be. But other than that, they were really good.

Topics of Conversation: Where the hell are the scholarships?, Rolling Stone, free concert, missing keys, bubble weather, twoevils.com, kettle corn, sun bathing, late night gym, avatars, etc.

-Nate

Less Mess

(Summer School: Day Three)


For the sake of brevity, and the very good chance that it will get old to pretend that anything of real note happened, I will mostly mention that I went to school this morning. We were talking about genetics and Natural Selection, and it was enchanting.


After school, I had time before work, so I headed to Comics Unlimited. Mark was working, and seemed to be running the store solo. Victor and Justin met up with me later. We grabbed some food at a Thai restaurant, which was pretty damn good actually. I had a half chicken meal, and it was awesome, but the skewers that Justin got looked just as delicious, with less mess.


When it comes to food like rotisserie chicken and ribs, I am usually an unrepentant slob. But this comes with the side effect that my hands are enveloped in sauce. And the crappy napkins that seem to follow me everywhere are always ready at hand to fail me.





Doesn’t it cost the same, if not more, for restaurants to supply these napkins? I have to use five of them to feel like I have the kind of cleaning firepower that is equal to one good dinner napkin. These suckers practically shrivel up at the SIGHT of liquid. And they shred to pieces as though I’m grinding razor blades into them, when in fact all I’m doing is dabbing some errant Thousand Island dressing with them.


Freakin’ crappy napkins need to stop being so damn crappy.

After the Thai restaurant, I headed to work for a Planning Commission Meeting that just would not quit. It was only two items, but everyone and their mom, and their mom’s former college roommate, felt like flapping their gums over these two items. And it was stupid stuff. Like how a cell phone tower should look and something that I pretty much don’t even care enough to remember.

I was there late, and then headed home. I wanted to catch the recent two episodes of Doctor Who that I missed… but OnDemand didn’t have Episode #08, and I needed it to watch Episode #09, because they were a two-parter. But they did have Episode #09. Argh. I went to sleep instead of being bothered by it.


Topics of Conversation: Remastered, I’m Top Dog, cute hipster girls, true evil via text, more respect, dreaming about being awake, Canadian trivia, Old Worlde, a mutual annoyance, walking stick bugs, 3 years of waiting for the Red Hulk, etc.

-Nate

The Sweet Embrace of Knowledge

(Summer School: Day Two)

It was the second day of school and already I wanted to sleep in. These are the moments I know that I’m truly a student again. Ah, the sweet embrace of knowledge!

I find myself starting to slide right back into the swing of Jr. College. The feeling of High School continued. The halls filled with people that just woke up. The professors desperately grabbing for tenure. The scantrons. The cute girls I have nothing in common with and the bitter guys who didn’t get into the universities they wanted. The solitary squeak of a shoe on brand-new, tax-paid-for floor tiles. The endless note-taking. The constant fighting to keep daydreams from taking root.

The only difference is that this time, I’m not killing time or wandering around aimlessly. This time, I plan to put my GenEd in the ground and progress. That’s what seems to be making the entire summer school session more palatable. I fully intend to make some progress with this whole education thing this time around.

I also forgot to mention in the last entry, that I bought a $100 text book. I nearly wept I’m so broke. Curse these text book gods!

After school, I met up with Sarah for some lunch at Del Taco. Her life has been a bit rocky as of late, but she seemed to be taking it all in stride. But I can’t really tell either way with her. She’s hard to read, which just adds to her feminine wiles I suppose. She’s so honest all the time, that its tricky to tell when she’s kidding. But she wanted to eat lunch with me and talk about the random stuff I like to talk about, so hey, no complaints.

After lunch, I headed to work and contemplated a strange cast of characters for a strange idea, while simultaneously organizing all the on-air video content in my office/nook. I got home and considered lasagna for dinner. Lasagna won, and sleep soon followed. School was going to be early yet again, as it would the next day.

The student life was taking hold.

Topics of Conversation: College dude, tortoises, bad violin, brimming with sleep, jobs, foofy, what VISA means in Italian, how not to hide big feet, Roller Derby names, Happy Feet, tongue piercing, suspenders, etc.

-Nate
　

A Scholarly Interview With Myself

Day One of Summer School

I’ve hinted at it in passing. I’ve let slip a secret or two. But here I shall be clear and straight-forward on the subject. This Q&A shall clear up any questions:

Q: Nathan, are you attending summer school?
A: Yes, I am attending Summer School! In fact today is the first day!
Q: What made you decide to finally attend academia again?
A: Wanting to better my life and gain more knowledge!
Q: Is it true you’ve been going to college off and on, for, like a zillion friggin’ years?
A: Uh, well, I wouldn’t put it like that…
Q: But its been way long, right? Like, STUPID long?
A: Okay, seriously, I don’t like this line of questioning…
Q: Why? Because you’re a whiny little bitch?
A: ….
Q: Oh no, did I make baby cry?
A: …No, shut up!
Q: C’mon, how long, man? Just be honest and I’ll leave you alone!
A: Okay! Since 2002.
Q: …Wow. That’s so sad.
A: Its not that sad…
Q: Naw, its pretty sad. I’m the question thingy and I can’t come up with a question to ask to pinpoint the sadness that is you.
A: How did this all go so wrong?
Q: Oh! Good one!
A: I didn’t mean about my life, dammit!
Q: Wait, I got one!
A: Can we just stop this now?
Q: Did you know that if you had a baby in 2002, that it would be nearly 9-years-old now?
A: I hate you.

Huh. That… that interview went very badly for me…

Anyways, yes, I am attending Summer School. I’m taking Biological Anthropology and have yet to take a Science class in about 2 to 3 years. And I haven’t written an essay since Spring of last year. After all that, I was still able to wake up bright and early and get to the class, eager to soak up some knowledge. The class itself is taught by a woman who does teaching as a side gig, while she’s busy being an actual Anthropologist. That’s pretty cool.

After the class, I hung out with Aaron and Amy for a bit to chill out before I had to head to work. They downloaded “The Passing” for Left 4 Dead 2, and I was in zombie nirvana for a good solid hour. I don’t know if I’ll ever get tired of this game. I definitely will never get tired of the company.

Work was work.

Topics of Conversation: An unremarkable passing, learning how to be a human being, celebrations gone wrong, too many Tanks, flat water, monkeys and primates, etc.

-Nate

My Dad and America

Today was Father’s Day, and I deliberately had nothing else going on except to hang with my ol’ man.

It was a later start, but it was okay because we were playing it by ear. I decided on seeing a movie that he had been interested in called Winter’s Bone. The quick synopsis of this flick is that it’s a noir about a young girl desperately searching for her father, dead or alive, so that she can keep her family from losing their home.






We went to the Irvine campus theater, and soon discovered that a lot of other people wanted to watch this movie at the same time we wanted to. There was an impressive line almost going up the sidewalk. I’m not sure if all of them were getting tickets for Winter’s Bone, but the theater was packed. Luckily, we still found some decent spots and were soon watching the movie with rapt attention.

Winter’s Bone is mentioned as a film noir. And this is quickly apparent by the first scenes. The story is set in Missouri, in poor, poor America. The people that live here don’t have very much money, and even fewer options or opportunities. To live here, you have to be hard, cold, and a little desperate. Many people make a living making and selling drugs. And they barely make a living, at that.

The main character, Ree, is 17-years-old and raising her brother and sister. Not only is she doing that, but at the same time, she’s taking care of their nearly catatonic mother. Her dad is a dubious character that has been in and out of prison for selling drugs. Bad news starts when the Sheriff informs Ree that not only is her father missing, but that he has put up the family house and property to post bail. If he doesn’t show up for his court date, the family loses everything.

The suspects are limitless, the enemies legion, the secrets are dark, and even the best of outcomes are cold comforts. And the story and acting is superb. Watch this movie for Jennifer Lawrence, the actress that plays Ree, and John Hawkes who plays her uncle “Teardrop.” These two know how to boil and rage and agonize without saying a word or moving a muscle. Watch this movie if you like film noir or stories of moral complexity in bleak landscapes.

After this excellent movie, my dad and I headed to The Counter, a burger place in Irvine. This place makes great burgers with a huge selection of sauces and additions, from pesto sauce to garlic aoli and mushrooms to red bell pepper. And a pleasant surprise! Dads get free burgers on Father’s Day! That was pretty cool, especially considering I was buying him lunch.

We got home and watched an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher and talked about politics for a few hours. They’re aren’t many people I can talk about the big scary “P” word with, but my dad is one of the best to talk about that stuff with. Israel, Oliver Stone, embargos, religion, Canada, mixing economic systems, and all this and more. That’s me and my pop.

Happy Father’s Day, dad!

Topics of Conversation: Jeff Beck, cover songs, Israel, America in general, Summer’s Bone, the definition of “Film Noir,” no response to urgency, being bearded for others, etc.

-Nate

Our Coveted Fire Pit

Its strange when you have too much to do. Case in point, I had been invited to literally FOUR different parties. Pretty much every one of them were going on at the same time. In four different cities. Los Angeles, Huntington Beach, Fullerton, and Los Alamitos. I decided on going to the Huntington Beach party, because it was the Ninth(?) Annual Starbuxian Summer Solstice Beach Party. I promised to go to it nearly 6 months earlier.

That doesn’t necessarily mean I got to it at the time that I had meant to.

I woke up with a hankering for the new Black Keys album “Brothers.” But the stores were still a ways off from being open, so I spent some time watching old episodes of Angel. It was a lazy Saturday so I was pretty relaxed when suddenly I woke up. I had fallen asleep! I looked at my cell phone for what time it was. Nearly five hours had gone by. Geez, that changed the entire pace of the day for me.

I headed to Best Buy and bought the album and proceeded to listen to the album nearly twice before I got to the beach. I kept listening to track 3, “Tighten Up,” on repeat. I couldn’t seem to get enough of that song. I found myself humming the song for the rest of the day.

I got to the beach roughly around 3:00 and found Victor, Justin, Quincy, Shinar, Ken, and Janey were kicking back and enjoying the day. The wind was relentless, and we had to hold off on starting a fire in the pit till sunset. Problems were added by the wind, since it blew out nearly every match we struck. Thankfully, a group next to us had lighter fluid to help us with. They
actually needed matches, too. So were able to help each other out. Its funny how life can be.

The beach party itself was very relaxing. We had some BBQ, and talked about the usual random assortment of topics on your minds. I walked on the beach for a while, looking for treasure. Not in any serious way, but I did keep my eyes open. Ken and Janey took off around 7:00 or so, and the beach closed at 9:00. Shinar took off around the time the it closed, and Victor, Quincy, Justin, and myself headed to Justin’s place.

We talked at Justin’s for a bit, before he had to turn in. He had work early in the morning. Quincy, Victor, and myself headed to Norm’s for dinner and keep the socializing going for a little longer. But after I was done eating, I could tell my stamina for the day was done. We all left for our respective homes, and I took a shower to get the ocean off of me.

The ocean doesn’t smell that great.

Topics of Conversation: Smores, Awesome-O, Tower 23, Tesla, those that we actually expect, Sweet Magazine, cooking oil, green flame, seaweed whip, sandy burgers, manipulative tactics to get our fire pit, etc.

-Nate

Quick Water Slayage

I got a call the day before to cover a special meeting of the Central Basin water board. I was available, and would have no problem covering it. But this would be a little extra busy because I would be showing a co-worker, Joe, around the shoot. This was because since I would be starting school, I would not be available to shoot Central Basin meeting coming up on the 28th.

I met up with Joe at the Central Basin building and showed him all the stuff he would have to do to get in the building, sign up on the guest sheet, which rooms were used for meetings, and how to set up the new microphone on the camera. This wasn’t difficult since Joe is a pro, and would be able to figure out all in no time.

Though a funny reveal about the shoot came up while we were setting up. One of the secretaries came up to us and mentioned that there was only one item on the agenda for today. One item usually means maybe 15 minutes of talking about it. Max. All this work, and I would be done practically before I started. Joe took off back to Lakewood. I stayed and shot the Special Central Basin Meeting. I was wrong about the 15 minutes.

It took 10 minutes.

And like that I was done. The item had been about a grant, and wasn’t even close to being a controversial issue. Heh. Well, them’s the breaks. I put the equipment away, got in the work van, took off for Lakewood, and put all the equipment away. I was done with the shoot in just a few hours. I talked with Joe a little more before I took off. He had been feeling antsy (similar to myself) about not having a project to shoot that he could call his own.

We started talking about an idea I had for a TV show. We started cracking each other up as we came up with more and more ideas for it. I can’t say too much about it, but I think the idea has wings and could take off. I just got to be sure about the story structure I want it in.

I took off and picked up Amy to meet up with Patrick at Taco Surf for lunch. Patrick seems to be in a better place creatively, doing some work at an FX shop in Orange County, of all places. But the movie is still wallowing in Purgatory, but hopefully for not much longer. After lunch, Patrick went back to work, while Amy and I went and picked up Aaron from his work. We went to Amy’s place to watch some more Buffy.

And not just any Buffy, but the final three episodes of Season 3: The Prom and Graduation Day (Parts 1 & 2). After finally completing Season 3, we watched my bootlegs of the Angel pilot/pitch and both the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot episode AND Buffy the Animated Series pilot. It was quite funny to watch them, knowing where it was all going know AND surprising Amy with the existence of an cartoon pilot.

We broke for lunch at a pho restaurant, and then came back to watch my grand finale for the evening: the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie from 1992, starring Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry! I had completely forgotten how campy this movie was. But watching it, I could still hear Joss Whedon’s voice in the script. I wonder if he wanted to direct it back then, or if he still felt like too new a writer to even dare to dream that.

I really do love Buffy. I have a bit of an obsessive collection. I’m aware of that.

Topics of Conversation: Alan Moore, Homeless Mafia, Sarcasmo, facial expressions, movies that make no sense as to why we like them so much, taco greed, tour buses, lying as usual, etc.

-Nate

Second-Person

Getting a paycheck is awesome, isn’t it?

Its just… its money that’s yours. You earned it. It ain’t addressed to you for no reason. You should be able to have each dollar to spend as you see fit. To invest and throw away to your heart’s content.

Too bad it just isn’t like that.

You got the bills. They get first crack at all your money, and they always want more of it. You always want to give them less of it. Really, if all your debt had a face, you’d kick it’s ass. Friggin’ bills, man…

I’m not sure why I went all second-person on you. For all I know, you hate when people assume what you’ll do. But I’m thinking you’re a creature of empathy, and that we’re on the same page, right? OF COURSE I’M RIGHT.

So anyways, I got a paycheck, which I would spend a majority of on bills, and then went out to catch up with Carissa. She was getting her car smogged, and I figured I could help her out in dealing with this big ol’ scary world. After doing that, I would run out to a bank and deposit my paycheck.

And that’s pretty much how the day went. She got her car smogged, saw how easy it was, we got my check to the bank, which actually took longer than it was supposed to. It was much more harder to find the bank branch in question than I had originally thought. But found it we did, and then food was acquired with said money.

After that, Carissa headed home, and I headed to Lainey’s place to watch yet more Lost. I’m officially getting WAY into it. The 2nd Season isn’t quite as good as the first, but its still better written than a lot of the crap on TV right now. I think the other thing I like about it is the sheer ambition. This is a very unconventional show. And its creating its own mythology with each episode.

Lainey fell asleep. I guess she’s not into the show as much.

(I’m kidding, Lainey! She actually already watched almost the entire season).

Topics of Conversation: Dinosaur people, visual learning, hummus for the day, mangoes, diary shovers, banks, sometimes I think too damn hard about stuff, drinking to anything, 3-second memory, cold show, dreams of repeat importance, getting some good anger going, etc.

-Nate

1 Gig of Memory

I went to the comic shop today and hung out with Mark and Lainey, talking about random things. Nancy joined up a bit later, as did Victor and Josh. It was nice to be able to go to the shop, especially with how much harder it might be next week. School will definitely take a bite out of my time at the shop.

I tried the Bagel Thin sandwich at Noah’s Bakery. Its worth the $1 I paid, thanks to the coupon I received from Mark, but I would never pay the $4.75 they had it marked down as for “normal” price. Its small, and the bacon I had on it was tortilla chips at best. Don’t waste your money on it. Go for the regular sandwiches.

After the shop, I headed to Norwalk. It was uneventful, but I learned about an app from Bill for my parents’ Droid cell phone. Its called “Vignette,” and it can add different, cool effects to the pictures that the camera on the phone takes. I can’t wait to try it out, though I’m not sure if my parents will want it for very long.

Lately, my laptop has been lagging in memory. Heh. “Lately.” Lately by the past three years or so. I looked at it and realized that I only had one gig of memory left. What? How is that possible? I don’t download movies, and I only write on it. Were my stories and notes really taking up so much room? I had deleted a few programs that I wasn’t using anymore…

So I started checking.

As it turns out, I hadn’t deleted a single picture I had taken and uploaded to my computer since
2006. 2006. That is madness. At the same time, I thought it didn’t take up that much room. So I started to transfer all my pictures to CDs. I didn’t think it would take that long.

FIVE CD’s later and I’m only a quarter of the way done. Holy cow. This is insane I never thought I had that many pictures, or that it took up that much memory. Looks like I win the Dumb Award this year. I’ve already cleared up 3 gigs of memory just doing this first run at cleaning up the memory. I wonder what number of CD’s I’ll stop at?

Topics of Conversation: Fundraisers, all the crazy people in our lives, concert prostitute, Turok scene explanations, bagel thins and smoothies, Hannah Montana, 1000 hot dogs a day, In Edgar Wright We Trust, security cameras, green Solomon Grundy, stress headaches, etc.

-Nate

Another Day

This morning, I worked for PCTA on a City Works video. This time they were talking about Emergency Preparedness. Its been odd how this has been coming up so consistently in my life. I think I should take it as a sign that I better get ready for some unfortunate turn of events. Well, at least I know how to crib debris off someone.

I headed to Norwalk, with yet another shoot awaiting me. It was another City Council Meeting. It was an uneventful one, at that. These past days have been same old, same old. Sorry that they’re not more action packed. Hopefully the next days start getting more intriguing.

Topics of Conversation: Terrorist hunters, small town robbery, reporter gigs, working the Jib, flues to avoid, when you’re actually looking for a Starbucks, the same story about dismemberment, old timey, etc.

-Nate

Devising

I took a walk today, and I got an idea in my head. I wanted to convert an old idea that I had been working on nearly four years ago into a new idea. I went digging through some old notes, slowly compiling the scattered pieces of the big story arches that I had been devising way back then. I eventually came up with what might be a really fun idea, and some really strong characters. And the overall story can really pay off, especially the big moments I’m planning.

I went to Norwalk as well, and since it was a slow day, I worked on the idea some more. I basically have seven characters that are pretty different, though two might be a little too similar. And the first three story arches build upon each other nicely. And the end result is a world that has supernatural elements, but melds humor enough that having evil, demonic girl scouts fighting the heroes isn’t a stretch.

I know. That’s what I think about when I go on walks?

Topics of Conversation: Russian workout, the environment, busted elevator, hidden lists, art, The Hitchhiker, refrigerators, Neanderthals, bad luck, googling goggles, pasta love, etc.

-Nate

Half-Assed Journal Entry #07

I was sunburnt and tired from yesterday, so I stayed home and contemplated the movies I could watch.


I also cleaned my car a little more.


And I changed my Summer school class from Environmental Science to Biological Anthropology. Mostly because it would give me even more chance to work on my homework.


Mostly I recovered.


Topics of Conversation: Pandora, the damn Celtics, True Blood’s amazing ability to be both ridiculous and interesting, lasagna, etc.


-Nate

A Quick History of a Different "Love Buggy"

And so we come to Saturday the 12th of June. This day was going to be a long one. It was also going to be a fun day, luckily. But it started at 7:00 am and had a big ol’ question mark at its end point. I had a shoot for PCTA in the morning till somewhere in the afternoon, followed up by a Birthday party for Patrick in the evening. Great times, just a little too much of it.

The shoot for PCTA was at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. It was a Summer Festival/Car Show. It was a two camera set-up with me as one of the cameramen, one other cameraman, a Producer, and a host. We started off the day with some B-roll of all the cars and early morning festivities, which were made up mostly of a Pancake Breakfast and, oddly enough, some Hooters girls promoting their restaurant. At 8:00 in the morning. That seemed wrong, some how. It was as though, at this hour and with this much sunlight, judgment seemed more easy to come up with. Like Hooters girls should only be allowed out in the late afternoon and in the evenings.

The cars were a pretty cool assortment. You had your usual newer models and older muscle cars, but there were some really awesome custom cars, and even an Amphibious Sports Car. That was actually really impressive. There was even a DeLorean, and I am a complete sucker for DeLoreans.

But the cars that usually make my “favorites” list are the ones with stories. And no story beat that of the “Love Buggy” van. It was a beautifully restored green van that had a sex doll in the passenger seat that the owner affectionately named “Tonya.” The interior had nothing but shag carpeting, a TV, and all wood paneling. The owner was a guy that, if you listened long enough, you could tell had been around. Seen a story or two, and survived double that many. He had even lost ownership of the van more than once, but always found a way to get it back, if just to live in it when he was down and out.

He apparently used the van in his youth for one thing: “To pick up girls,” he said happily. And when I mean “pick up,” I mean literally pick up hitchhikers (predominantly women), and they would be his company for the day… “and the night, sometimes.” Wow. You heard that right. Women just can’t seem to pass up an opportunity to get a ride in a strange van with almost no windows, by a guy of questionable moral fiber.

But he seemed like a nice guy, even if he had only one thing on his mind. At least he was honest about it.

The Festival finally kicked into full gear, and we shot some of the different rides. We tried to get the host onto a kiddy roller coaster, but that was a no go. But we did get on a Ferris Wheel, a Haunted House, a Bumble Bee ride. We all each of us failed to ring the bell on what I feel was a rigged hammer game. I figured it was rigged because I lost. I think my logic is sound.

We tried some of the food from the vendors. And I have to say that the food was outstanding. There was a fried Halibut with French fries that was phenomenal, and a strawberry short cake that had to have had cocaine in it. And some teriyaki beef that was both tangy and sweet. I have never hated working and not having money at the same time as I did at this point.

The entire shoot started at 8:30 am and didn’t end till 4:30 pm. I was sunburnt, tired, sweaty, and ready to sleep for the rest of the day. Oh yeah, and my glasses decided to break some more. Just like that, the lens fell out of the right side. Argh. That’s when I got a text asking if I was on my way to Patrick’s party. Heh. Yeah, I was going. But I was going to take my time.

I got to Patrick’s party, which was a BBQ/Wolfman movie watching affair, sat down with a plate of food and some gaffer’s tape and got to work on my glasses. After they were fixed enough, I started eating and zoning out to the movie. For at least an hour, I was in a complete fog. If the movie hadn’t been playing, I would have just been staring at a wall, drooling. I literally couldn’t conceive of doing anything. I finally shook out of it after Aaron and Amy arrived.

Patrick wanted to play croquet, to which none of us had ever played. So we half read the rules, and half made them up as we went along. Not bad times, even if I felt like I was shaking off a drunken stupor induced by too much sunlight. We eventually started playing a game called (and I think spelled) “Ping Pon Pan.” Basically, it’s a dare/punishment game. An okay game, but in the state I was in, nothing could surpass “okay,” because I was so out of it.

We finished up the game, and started watching Borat, and that’s when I really started hitting the wall. I bided Patrick a good night and a Happy Birthday, said good bye to all and headed home to recover and try to feel human again. This mostly consisted of a cool shower and spacing out till I fell asleep completely.

I made no plans for tomorrow, and I think that’s exactly what I will need.

Topics of Conversation: DeLoreans, sunshine so deadly, the Love Buggy, spines, a Beach Boys cover band, audio shenanigans, a Japanese Crime Dog that cries by saying “wan,” Schlongers the male restaurant equivalent of Hooters, that damn hammer, itchy grass, annoying the neighbors, Korean burritos, art pieces I‘m glad I was present for, too many songs, arrogance that is unlikely, a Pope joke that will never be aired, etc.

-Nate

My Friend Has a Manga and You Should Buy It

Two good things for me today. First, I had lunch with Sam(antha) at a ramen place in the Marukai Marketplace. And second, I had a solo shoot for Norwalk that was to cover a pep rally for the Special Olympics. Both were good, uplifting activities to participate in. Though I the food was WAY better at the Sam lunch.


To start off, for the lunch with Sam, I punched in the destination into my GPS, Sheila… and was led down a direction that got me to the place, but took way longer than was necessary. Sheila has rarely led me astray, so it was troubling to have such an obvious betrayal of my trust. We will have to talk about it at some point…


I met up with Sam at Book-Off, a used bookstore next to the Marukai Marketplace, and we headed out to get some ramen. Once we got our food, I was presented with Sam’s self-published manga, The Piper’s Promise. She had worked for two months, from writing to drawing to printing, and had just received the copies a few days previously. And she gave me a copy! I gave her all the money I had at the time (three sad, measly little dollars), but figured I would blackmail her into having lunch with me again by promising to give her the other $3 when we meet up again.


Quick Plug for Sam’s Manga!:
Have you ever read the Pied Piper? Have you ever wondered as to the background of this mysterious figure? Who was he? Was he the bad guy? Was he the good guy? Was he human at all? In The Piper’s Promise, the prologue to the much anticipated follow up, all these questions will begun to be answered. But like any fairy tale, Once Upon a Time is only the beginning…

Sam (Sammi G. for print), is only asking for $6 for these little one-of-a-kind babies! The art is completely original, and all the money goes to paying off her publishers (i.e. PARENTS). And it does not get any more Independent then this gal. Hand-made manga, what else do you want? She’s also going to be at Anime Expo, so hit up her table!

So yeah, my friend has a manga and you should buy it.

The ramen at the place was pretty good, but I confess that I still like Santouka more. No place has beaten it for me, yet. But who knows, the future is big and wide and unknown. That’s why it’s the future. After the ramen, we hung out and talked, catching up on all the different people and events in our lives. I eventually had to head to work, and we said our farewells.

Norwalk was a little intimidating, because I would have to shoot everything by myself. No backup. Nobody to ask for advice on a shot. Yes, this is good for me, and it helps me grow and learn. But it still kind of sucks. Especially when the damn white balance changes so damn much!

(“White Balance” pertains to the balance of light and color in a shot, and is a film/video term, NOT a racial one).

The Special Olympics Pep Rally was pretty cool, after all was said and done and video taped. The athletes were happy, as were the parents, and the staff involved seemed to be having a ball. There was a slideshow of all the pictures from past events, and the training that the athletes had undergone. And then there was a big dance party after the Pep Rally was over. I didn’t dance, but everybody danced for the video camera.

After I stressed out if I shot the entire event wrong, or hadn’t recorded enough (I actually recorded too much, but it didn’t hurt to have too much footage), I dropped off the equipment and headed home and caught the Doctor Who episode, Amy’s Choice. Britain was now three episodes ahead of us. But at least I was this far along. The episode was really good, with a great threat and even better character moments. I can’t wait till the next episode. Maybe I’ll charm Vic or Justin into letting me catch the next two episodes before I have to die from old age waiting for America to catch up.

Topics of Conversation: Self publishing, Diet Milk Tea, first autograph, Greased Lightning, AX, music videos you can’t say no to, mango flavored, Free Radar, new Aunts, happy noise, sandals for stilettos, those that we can’t forget, turning green, camera hogs, gentlemen, etc.

-Nate

Burning Playgrounds of Armageddon

I was invited to Maureen’s Graduation in Moreno Valley. I figured it has been a while since I had seen her and Kristin and the gang, and it seemed like a good reason to visit. Though it does seem that I only get down there for big events. I should just visit for visiting sake. I’ll make a note of that, when I’m not so very broke.

I met up with Kristin ahead of time, and we grabbed some lunch. We hadn’t talked face to face since March(?), and it was just like old times. She’s got a lot of stuff coming up, so it would be interesting to see how all that turns out for her.

We picked up Maureen and headed to her school. After she got processed, Kristin and I found seats for everyone. “Everyone” included pretty much all of Maureen’s family, which is quite the gathering. I’m an only child, so its always like an Anthropology experiment to see how so many different people can be assembled into a living unit. And some of the siblings could not be more different, while some are mirrors of each other. They always love each other, but they don’t always like each other. That’s how family is, folks. I guess we just have to deal with that.

The Graduation was out in the open. Now, I’m not sure if you’ve been to Moreno Valley, but its in Riverside. Riverside is where you go when you want to cook eggs on your belt buckle. The place can get hot. I do not like heat. This is problematic, since I live in California. I really should move to Oregon. Not because it never gets hot there, but because its not miles and miles of raging desert.

The speakers were your usual assortment of Professors that have to speak, former students, and FBI guys that are decently funny. Okay, maybe the FBI part is a little different, but the decently funny part shows up at least once in every Graduation. You have people that don’t like to speak in public, and people who tell speeches that they photocopied from a dictionary.

And then there’s the occasional person that tell a speech that doesn’t make a lick of sense. (I like these the most).

In this case, it was a dude who used to teach at the school. His speech was… baffling, really. He started with a audio sound bite from a movie that, for the life of me, I couldn’t place where it came from. And the audio clip itself was distorted just enough for the words to not make any sense. He then started talking about trains, and how many accidents occurred. As to why, it was never clear.

And then the main theme from Terminator 2 started playing.

It was subtle at first. But it steadily grew to where it was unmistakable. It was in fact the driving drum beat and bass of Terminator 2. You know the song? It played at the opening credits. With the burning playgrounds. THAT’S the friggin’ image that came to my mind as he talked about his inspirational speech. Burning playgrounds of Armageddon.

And then from the subject of trains, he jumped right to “sexting.” Yes. The use of cell phone texts to send words and images of strong sexual content. He even went out of his way to describe what “sexting” was to the audience. He said it was “the use of cell phone texts to send words and images of strong sexual content.” Oh, wait, I said that already, didn’t I? Well, he made sure a crowd full of parents, grandparents, and children now know what sexting is. All this in a Graduation speech. Did this guy just google random things and make a Mad Lib speech?

Anyways, awesome Graduation!

After Maureen was diploma’d and took all the pictures with her family, we headed to a Thai restaurant for dinner. The food was pretty good, and I liked the Pad Thai that I bought. Maureen got a Sweet and Sour Soup that wasn’t half bad, though it had more herbs than vegetables. Kristin got a chicken dish that was really good. So good, that I didn’t like my Pad Thai as much. Oh well, such is life.

We headed back to Maureen’s parent’s place and played Red Dead Redemption. I was soon betrayed by my teammates (Alex and Maureen), but only long enough to laugh at my dead horse. Red Dead Redemption is a crazy game. Think Grand Theft Auto meets The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. You’re a badass cowboy that can do whatever you feel like you can get away with. You keep all the guns you earn. And the map is amazing and completely open to explore. It was really fun.

After a while, everyone was starting to hit the wall (at least, I was and two others were a little tired). I took my leave and listened to SModcast all the way home. Again, I must make a note to hang out when I’m not so darn broke.

Topics of Conversation: Jellyfish song, dancing birds, keeping the genetics strong, grad dust, running to Mexico, pad Thai, Red Dead Graduation, glasses, oleanders, Utah, stealing women, full-time jobs that make you want to commit full-time suicide, CSU Fullerton, uncomfortable choir songs, wacky animes, Misc. Women, soft hugs, where is the beacon?, using the stairs as a zombie chokepoint, writing critique, summoning a donkey, etc.

-Nate