Chibi Nate Goes To School

Today was the first day of something I wanted to avoid. To hide from. To try and dodge at all costs. It was the beginning of what would be more work, headaches, and blood and tears for me. There isn’t enough anti-psychotic medication or booze to make it go away.

My 2011 spring semester started today.

One long sigh of disenchantment later, and I’m up at 7:30 am and then out the door for school. My first class was English Literature, which wasn’t too bad. I foresee a lot of reading. Which is fine, except that I’m not sure when I can afford the books. Crap.

Next up was Intermediate Algebra. It’s the only class I’m petitioning for, and this time, just to add a little more adventure, I’m not even on the Wait List. I don’t have much choice though, so I’m going to have to hold out till I get in the class. Here’s to hoping I can bust on through.

After school, I headed to Comics Unlimited for my much-needed comic run. I just wanted to chat with Lainey and Mark, and pick up Buffy the Vampire Slayer (#40) while I was at it. We caught up, heard some great news, heard some bad news, and I got to do something that literally made me more happy than it should have.

I got to write up my recommended reads for the week on the dry-erase board.

This is sad on a lot of levels, but what the hey, I needed a little boost after the past few days. It was fun to just write down some titles and feel like a cool guy for a little bit. Plus, Lainey drew a Chibi Version of me on the board, so I had a nice high to go to work with.

Norwalk was a little slow, but the cable cast went off without much problems except for a DVD player that was starting to act up. I also had to shoot a little basketball class for kids at a nearby park. Unfortunately, it was very dark, so I don’t know how the footage came out. I then headed home and realized that I had more school to do tomorrow. I didn’t get to sleep till 1:00 am. Too bad I can’t fall asleep on command.

Topics of Conversation: “Slow Justice Is No Justice,” talks that need to happen, out waiting the wait list, order of operations, cat-bear, changing minds, mashed potatoes, squat boxing, politeys, Joshua Tree, dark, my silly banter, etc.

-Nate

A Nerd Like Yours Truly

I went over to Kristin’s place to play Last Night on Earth, a zombie board game. And no, contrary to what would be the normal belief, I was not the one that purchased said game. It was actually to of the other players that were joining us, her brother Matthew and her cousin Jacob. Our intrepid little gaming party was rounded out by another cousin named Tamar (Jacob‘s sister). After getting to know Jacob and Tamar more, I have come to the conclusion that their family breeds and trains amazing people in a secret mountain compound. Possibly to save the world at some future date.

And so with this team, we set out to survive the zombie invasion.

The game is a mix of Settlers of Catan, Lunch Money, and even Dungeons & Dragons (that is, if you’re a nerd like Yours Truly). Except for the player controlling the zombies, each player gets two random characters to control and each has certain skills and bonuses. As you go throughout the game, you can choose to move, search a room (which gives you Event or Item cards), or fight zombies. Most of the time, you just want to search for cards, cuz nothing else keeps you alive as well.

For my characters, I got “troubled” High School girl “Sally” and “Father Joseph,” the town priest. Sally… well, Sally wasn’t doing much. But Father Joseph really liked to almost get himself killed often. It was annoying. But the game was fun AND we beat the zombies, controlled by Jacob. He needed to be stopped. For the good of the world.

After the game, we sat around and chatted for a bit before Matthew had to go to work and I had to leave to meet up with Aaron and Amy. Jacob, Kristin, and Tamar ran off to do errands of a mysterious nature (possibly more world saving training at the hidden mountain compound).

I got to Amy’s place and we preceded to completely wipe out Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The highlights of the night were the episode “Superstar” and the Cheese Man from the last episode “Restless.” Then Aaron, Amy, and I talked about Harry Dresden for a bit, which is always awesome cuz I don’t have nearly enough people to talk about Dresden with.

(I’m looking at you Sarah. Freaking finish the books already).

The next thing we need to accomplish is to finish Angel Season 1. Hopefully soon!

Topics of Conversation: Thor pajamas, puddy knuckles, Dostoevsky, Adam’s redemption, Death Taco, the ultimate fan fantasy, a spaceship made of guns, think baby, unfair to zombies, what’s with the cheese?, male ego, weapons and weapons, etc.

And a new addition to the blog for 2011! Random Nate Notes about people!:

Kristin: Once worked at a restaurant called “The Spicy Lady.” At least, she TOLD me it was a restaurant…
Matthew: Could play Poker and kick my ass. Note to self, NEVER play Poker with Matthew.
Jacob: Actually owns one of those extendo-baton weapons. And, unlike me, he probably knows what its actually called.
Tamar: So smart that I had to try to impress her with my smarts. But alas, she’s too smart to be impressed with comic book trivia.
Amy: She’s drawing a comic book I wrote! And because she’s drawing it, the comic book literally got 97% better.
Aaron: He used to be nicknamed “Gluttonon.” Those days are gone… or ARE THEY???

-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

Work and Buffy

April 22, 2010:

I picked up a shift at Norwalk, which was mostly cable casting the different programs: Two religious, one educational, and one insane. The usual Thursday lineup.

After work I headed to Amy’s place to watch the last three episodes of Buffy Season Two with her and Aaron. We started off with the admittedly filler episode Go Fish. Its not bad in anyway, its just not what the next episodes achieve. Which is epic melodrama.

Becoming (Parts 1 & 2) is the two-parter that truly and officially launched Buffy into my favorite shows of all time. Its got action, twists, suspense, romance, comedy, and great moment after great moment. It ends in one of the most amazing ways possible, and glues you to your seat with ruthless efficiency.

Just work and Buffy, really. That’s all that happened today.

Topics of Conversation @ Amy’s place: Pizza, water color vampire Nate, Harry Dresden, Level 42 Pokemon, funny characters are the best character, the shifting of maturity, etc.

-Nate