Dizzy or whatever
for the last few weeks i have been, for lack of a better word, seasick. its odd to feel a sensation of movement even when you are not moving. i“m not experiencing the ”sick“ part of seasick but i definitely feel as if i am on a boat. it comes and goes but it started, coincidentally, after i got off an extended stay on a boat.
a few weeks ago we went on a cruise with my parents for their 50th anniversary. i have been on boats many, many times before and had no ill effects. this trip, an eight day-er to mexico, was the first time. everything was fine for the first several days. in fact, almost to the end. however, that wasn’t to be the case eventually.
monday night, two days before we got back, i experienced some ”whatever“ which felt like seasickness so i had to get up, walk around and basically kill a few hours before i could go back to the cabin and finally get some sleep. good times.
now, for the last few weeks i still feel like i am on a boat. moving around, etc. i can’t explain it. its not terrible. more annoying than anything. its especially annoying at night when i try to go to sleep. although, eventually i can.
the really odd part is that claritin (an allergy drug) actually makes the symptoms all but disappear. and, for the last week or so i felt basically fine and was getting back to normal. that is until last night. last night is was back and it took a long time to get to sleep while i rocked with the boat that isn’t really there.
anyway, i’m going to see an ear doctor tomorrow to hopefully figure out what the heck is going on. its a problem for me as i like being able to move around and i like being able to sleep at night. so, this needs to be addressed. and soon.
perhaps there are other people out there that have had similar things happen to them. if so, please feel free to speak up and let me know as i like more information. anything constructive or informative is a good thing.
sorry to dwell on my problems but sometimes you just want to get things out there and talk about them if possible. no reason to keep stuff a secret, especially if someone has a good bit of information.
i’ll be back to the usual ramblings any day now . . . oh, and no more cruises. . . . ever.
Moving, Moving, Moving
got some boxes today. that was fun. from a place called box city in van nuys. even got a tape gun too. its neat. apologies (yes, again) for the lack of posting but i have been a little under the weather for awhile after my work of late. stress is a funny thing that does bad things to you. its just bad, bad, bad. that’s why i try to avoid it as much as possible and one of the reasons i pretty much gave up on showbiz. too much stress.
oh well, i guess i messed that one up, didn’t i? in other news, put my order in for a shiny new black macbook today. its a cool new laptop (sorry, not a laptop) a cool new macbook which will allow me to get rid of two pieces of hardware and go down to one. with a macbook running mac osx and windows xp via bootcamp i won’t need a windows laptop anymore either. cool, right?
apple says the computer should ship in 5 to 7 business days but i hope its faster than that. usually is. let’s hope so. although, what with the moving and all i doubt i would have much time to play around with it anyway so its probably good that it doesn’t get here until after the move anyway. less of a temptation to just sit around and play with it instead of packing.
anyway, i’ll give a full report on it when it comes and let you know if the glossy screen and the new keyboard are annoying or cool. my dell laptop has a glossy screen so i’m not too worried. i don’t think it will bother me. we’ll see. ok, gotta go now and walk over to rite aid to pick up some stuff.
There be Monsters
on my recent trip to miami i read and finished the print version of david wellington’s novel “Monster Island” and it’s fantastic. i really liked it and recommend it highly to any of you who are zombie fans or who just like a great read (or both). now, i will hand the book over to someone else who can appreciate it as much as i did. i want to share the wealth.
really, it would make a great movie. i think i will try to get in touch with david and see what’s what on that score. he has several other novels serialized on line at his site. “Monster Nation” is the next one, followed by “Monster Planet”. plus, he has an even newer one called “Thirteen Bullets” which looks interesting as well. hopefully, the others will be in print soon enough. although, there are ipod version so i might have to check those out in the meantime.
you may ask me why all the praise for these books and this author. well, i really liked “Monster Island” and for me that doesn’t happen as often as it used to. plus, i love the fact that he is self-publishing these books online first in serial format for all to read. more important than that, though, is i want to to support people who embrace new media and non-traditional methods and then become successful at it. its a trend that should continue and needs our support.
so, read “Monster Island” and download the crap out of his other work so that some other author out there with a dream sees david’s success and decides to put their own work out there for people to experience. who knows, we might find the next “great american novel” that way. plus, did i mention its a really great book? go get it.
Moving on up! (or at least out)
well, its official, i am moving to new digs. after some trial and error and back and forth its definitely on for the end of the month fo sure. i am both nervous and excited at the prospect. having lived in the same place for almost ten years its a little odd to think that in a few weeks i will be in a new place. there are many problems with my current digs so moving is good.
of course, the cynic in me is telling me that there could be even more problems with a new place and all that. “the devil you know” scenario. well, i say to hell with that. i know what i have and a new place will definitely be better. so there.
besides, it will only be for a short while as i am looking to buy a house in the very near future. i wonder if the prices will become more manageable soon? i can hold my breath for only a few minutes so i don’t think that will be enough. unfortunately, everyone seems to want to live in los angeles so the home prices keep going up and up. oh well. maybe it will change?
anyway, the new place is bigger and more modern and has lots of things going for it. especially the part about being new and stuff. who doesn’t like new, right? i know i do.
there are many other things going on with me and with the world in general and i don’t have time to go into them at the moment. besides, i am easing back into the blogging anyway so this might be all i can do at the moment. i will try to increase it but it will probably be a slow process. so, hang in there if you can. until next time.
a picture is worth some words
if you remember this movie and its tag line you will understand what i mean. if you are drawing a blank, i’ll give you a little help. the tag line is “don’t bury me, i’m not dead”. that pretty much describes my situation at the moment. as in not dead, just away. far away. although i am closer to getting back and will be in los angeles proper later next week.
its been a long couple of months. long but fun. rewarding even. travel is good. i’ve seen new places, met new people and done new things. it will all go into my big book of fun stuff. although, i don’t really have one of those so . . . well, anyway.
now i’m off to mexico but will eventually spend more than a few days in los angels. maybe next week. really.
Vacation. Well, not really.
hello all. i am taking a small vacation from my real work to do my other real work and will be out of town for a little while. consequently, this site will suffer even more for lack of content. my sincere apologies but it can’t be helped. pulling the kind of hours that i am simply leave me too burned out to write anything even half interesting. so, a blank page it is.
when things stabilize, i will return. until then, i wish you all the best and may you get all the things you didn’t know you wanted.
Darren McGavin, dead at 83.sometimes you get what you didn’t know you wanted
you know, when i started these latest projects i really didn’t know what to expect. will the people i am working with be complete jerks or cool and easy going? do they really have the money and are they really doing these projects or are they just jerking everyone around? all of it very pro / con like that with more on the con side.
when you have been around a little and done a few things, especially in an industry such as entertainment, you start to develop a pretty good bullshit detector. i have heard most every speech about how this or that things is going to happen and you just need to hang in there a little longer and it will all work out and blah, blah, blah.
the truth is, it sometimes does work out. most of the time, however, its complete bullshit. yes, i said it. most people in hollywood who work in the entertainment industry are full of it. that’s not to say that there are not great people who act and are professional and a pleasure to deal with. there are many of those. just not that many.
over the years i have met many great people and have had, and still have, great relationships with them. i have also met many people who i would love to club over the head. of course, as that is illegal, i would never do it. plus, its rather rude so doing it would pretty much drop me down to the level of the people i wanted to club. so that’s out.
what i do instead is just avoid those types of people and situations. during my initial meeting with a potential employer i can almost always tell in a few minutes if i want to work with them or not. many time, its in the not category. sometimes, i get a good feeling and i accept the job.
i am lucky in that i don’t have to accept any job that is offered to me. that alone gives me a great deal of power in the room when talking with a potential employer. i don’t care that much if i get the job or not. another one will be along soon enough. that also helps me when i get the inevitable question of “what’s your rate for this?†as in, how much are you going to charge us to do this job.
for my current projects, i didn’t have the best feeling and thought in many ways that the project would have a great deal of difficulty getting going and being completed within the stated guidelines. plus, i asked several questions that i normally ask and the answers were rather vague and in many cases, non existent. so, not a great start.
when the question came up as to my fee for these projects, i felt in a pretty good position to give a really high number. either they would accept and i would get a good salary for the next few months or they would decline and i could go about my business knowing that i probably didn’t loose out on anything except big pain in the ass. obviously, they decided to go for the money and i have been working since then.
i am happy to report that i seem to have stumbled on a patch of good people who are professional yet easy-going and fun to work with. perhaps its because the are english and like a good pint? could be. no matter the reason, i am having a great time and for the first time in several years, contemplating a return to a more active role in the industry.
plus, it looks like we got a movie lined up after this in july so that’s a good thing too. of course, that could also be complete bullshit. i’ll keep you posted.
sometimes you get what you didn't know you wanted
you know, when i started these latest projects i really didn’t know what to expect. will the people i am working with be complete jerks or cool and easy going? do they really have the money and are they really doing these projects or are they just jerking everyone around? all of it very pro / con like that with more on the con side.
when you have been around a little and done a few things, especially in an industry such as entertainment, you start to develop a pretty good bullshit detector. i have heard most every speech about how this or that things is going to happen and you just need to hang in there a little longer and it will all work out and blah, blah, blah.
the truth is, it sometimes does work out. most of the time, however, its complete bullshit. yes, i said it. most people in hollywood who work in the entertainment industry are full of it. that’s not to say that there are not great people who act and are professional and a pleasure to deal with. there are many of those. just not that many.
over the years i have met many great people and have had, and still have, great relationships with them. i have also met many people who i would love to club over the head. of course, as that is illegal, i would never do it. plus, its rather rude so doing it would pretty much drop me down to the level of the people i wanted to club. so that’s out.
what i do instead is just avoid those types of people and situations. during my initial meeting with a potential employer i can almost always tell in a few minutes if i want to work with them or not. many time, its in the not category. sometimes, i get a good feeling and i accept the job.
i am lucky in that i don’t have to accept any job that is offered to me. that alone gives me a great deal of power in the room when talking with a potential employer. i don’t care that much if i get the job or not. another one will be along soon enough. that also helps me when i get the inevitable question of “what’s your rate for this?” as in, how much are you going to charge us to do this job.
for my current projects, i didn’t have the best feeling and thought in many ways that the project would have a great deal of difficulty getting going and being completed within the stated guidelines. plus, i asked several questions that i normally ask and the answers were rather vague and in many cases, non existent. so, not a great start.
when the question came up as to my fee for these projects, i felt in a pretty good position to give a really high number. either they would accept and i would get a good salary for the next few months or they would decline and i could go about my business knowing that i probably didn’t loose out on anything except big pain in the ass. obviously, they decided to go for the money and i have been working since then.
i am happy to report that i seem to have stumbled on a patch of good people who are professional yet easy-going and fun to work with. perhaps its because the are english and like a good pint? could be. no matter the reason, i am having a great time and for the first time in several years, contemplating a return to a more active role in the industry.
plus, it looks like we got a movie lined up after this in july so that’s a good thing too. of course, that could also be complete bullshit. i’ll keep you posted.
me, myself and i
yes, its all about me, me and again, me. i am now working on a couple of super secret projects that only a few key people know about. two are for one major electronics giant and the other is for an even bigger multi-media giant. anyway, the first two involve some actual filming (in HD really so no film) and also some fire, cops and a lot of action. good fun. the third one might involve filming as well but that’s still up for discussion.
plus, one of them also involves a rather well-known sports figure who is really quite cute as well. so, that should be fun. anyway, i would love to share more but can’t at this moment. that’s right, i can give you no clue as to who the sports figure is. sorry.
i can say that its actually much more fun to be back producing stuff than i thought it was going to be. at first, i was kinda not really that interested. producing things like this requires a lot of time and effort and often a little bit of stress, which i always try to avoid (the stress i mean. work is ok).
now that it has been a week or two, its actually pretty fun to be back into it. i’m sort of surprised really but also relieved as well. i’m glad it hasn’t been a total nightmare working with bad people who yell for no reason and can’t make decisions. who needs that, right? the people that i am doing this with seem much nicer and easy going and a pleasure to work with. so, i got that going for me. which is nice. plus, i get to work with friends and hire people that i like so that’s a good feeling too. and the money’s not bad either, which is also another plus.
on another front, i am looking forward to getting my hands on the new T-Mobile MDA next week. i will be picking one up and trying to determine if this i finally the device that will solve my problem of wanting one tool that is a phone/organizer and also gets email, etc. it has a lot of features and seems, at least on paper, to have what it takes. i should have it tuesday so i will let you know how it goes. although these jobs are taking more and more time (hence the infrequent posting) so i don’t know when i will really get some sort of review up.
i know some people (friends of mine) seem not to like t-mobile but they have been fine for me so far. their network seems to be pretty good here in los angeles. i even get signal in my home office which never happened with cingular/att. although, that was a few years ago. maybe they are better now. anyway, cingular is also going to have the MDA but they are calling it something else. i’m glad t-mobile is getting the mda as i don’t want to have to keep up with our cingular account to get one. now i can drop cingular completely now that i have moved all of our numbers over to t-mobile.
hope its a good device and as good as the specs indicate. it would be nice to find something. the blackberry is good just not great. same with the treo 650. i liked them both i just don’t love them. will i have to wait for an apple smartphone or will the MDA do the trick? come on t-mobile, rise to the challenge.
lacking something
there will be a lack of posts here for the next few weeks as i get deeper into a new super secret project. this project should prove interesting but will take a lot of my time and energy. some of which i spend writing here. so, i hope people are not too disappointed by this turn of events but i can’t do much about it if you are as i won’t be here.
i will release details of this project when i can and perhaps provide a few choice bits and pieces for your amusement. in the meantime, i am confidant that you will be able to find other ways to amuse yourself. i hear there are a few other blogs out there in the internet somewhere. one or two might even be worth reading. probably more.
if you get time, check out some of the links on the left. these people are good writers and provide me hours of entertainment and intelligent insight. be sure to check them out.
see you soon.
The Future is Now (so is the past)
i like these photos:
can you spot the apple products and the sony psp?
this would make getting around easier.
even great grandma liked her starbucks.
see more here.
Good Day for Dissent, Bad Day for Alberto Gonzales
look at the picture and then check out the story here. isn’t it hard to sell something when nobody is buying? you bet your ass it is.
Happy Birthday Macintosh
1984 won’t be like 1984. on this date in 1984 apple introduced the macintosh and things were never the same. oddly enough, steve jobs hate the macintosh and tried to kill it. of course, he later changed his mind, took over the project and the rest is, as it is often said, history.
now with steve jobs poised to take a seat on the disney board and apple scoring record profits from sales of ipods and even a few macs, the little company has come a long way. pretty soon, steve may be able to realize his dream of making apple a bigger and better version of sony.
its been 22 years now and the mac and apple show no signs of slowing down. all of the doom and gloom predictions of the past have given way to glowing reviews and almost universal praise. apple has become a media darling. i guess when it works it really works. of course, it could have just as easily gone the other way. as smart as steve jobs is, luck has played a factor. luck always plays a factor. so, here’s to luck.
who knows what the next 22 years will bring. hope i’m still around to find out.
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday
yes, the title says it all. its sunday here and i have spent many hours this weekend watching tv. not just tv really, i watched a couple of movies too. i’m not sure why but it seemed like the thing to do. i watched battlestar galactica, the jacket (with adrien brody and the very cute keira knightley) , both NFL conference championship games (go seahawks) and new episodes of the west wing and grey’s anatomy (yes, i watch grey’s anatomy, so what?).
i also managed to squeeze in a birthday party for a one year old (my friends gil and holly’s son, julian) and also a trip to the santa monica civic to see the photo la exhibit. plus lunch and dinner and some time at whole foods market for a crap load of soy milk and other stuff. a full weekend indeed.
after taking a look around the photo la event, i am even more convinced that i am a mildly skilled photographer at best (one of my photos is in this post). those photos at photo la are really, really good. not just good, really interesting and inspiring. just what great art is supposed to do. inspire. it did for me.
i am more determined than ever to try to improve my photography skills. i have a long way to go. i am prepared to suffer for my art though so i got that going for me, which is nice.
my friend j-rod could tell you many more fascinating details about the various photographers whose work were on exhibit at photo la. i, however, can’t do much of that. i will say that i particularly liked the photos of Eikoh Hosoe and David Hilliard. check them out if you get a chance. unfortunately, photo la ends today i think so maybe you can make it next year. try, its worth it.
perhaps i will have improved by then. fingers crossed.
17″ iMac Review and a quick bit of other stuff
i know, i know. again with the light blogging. “what the hell is wrong with you?” you may ask. well, nothing really. just, you guessed it, busy again.
for some reason as yet unknown to me, except perhaps a dose of stupidity and a little boredom, i have decided to do some work back in the world of showbiz. well, not showbiz exactly, more the corporate world. on the plus side this corporate stuff is all very dramatic and will be fun to do so i am looking forward to it. we get to burn stuff and maybe even blow some shit up. good times.
anyway, back to the task at hand. over at ars technica they have a review of the new intel based imac. pretty good article. i enjoyed it. i might have to pick up one of those imacs soon (to install windows on it, of course, just to “see if i can”).
and, in other more serious news, william shatner of well, if you don’t know who he is i don’t know what to say about that, recently sold a kidney stone of his and gave the money to charity. really, it actually happened. i don’t know what more disturbing. the fact he sold a kidney stone or that someone actually bought it. really people, i like star trek but it was just a tv show. jeeez.
and, is the new video ipod responsible for the boots in ratings for NBC’s version of “the office”. if you read this, they seem to think so. could be, i guess, but the show being really funny might have something to do with it also. now if they would just start selling videos of “arrested development” on the itunes store. it might help that show too.
while we’re on the subject, isn’t it about time to change the name of the iTunes Music store to something more in line with what they are selling? how about calling it the Apple Media Store? that’s got a nice ring to it.
or maybe the Apple iStore? anyway, its time to consider a change. i’m sure they will come up with something and i hope its better than “mac book”. that doesn’t really work for me as well as “powerbook”. now that’s a cool name.
Mac World Stuff
well, the stevenote at mac world expo is over. sadly, no “media center” mac mini or anything like that. however, we now have some pretty cool new things to play around with. and here they are:
the new MacBook Pro (say so long to the Powerbook name) which runs on Intel Dual Core processors and looks basically the same as the 15" Powerbook. i’m sure a redesign of the casing is in the works. just not for today.
also, a new Intel based iMac with the same look as its G5 based brothers. also with Intel Dual Core processors. that’s cool. unless you just got an iMac last week.
and, osx 10.4.4 is out today. its for “old” macs as well as new Intel macs. runs on both. i’ve been using it for a few weeks now and it seems to work just fine. still, i might wait a few days for the initial early adopters to install it and have problems before i would rush out and get it. also, updated the iLife suite to iLife ‘06 (catchy name, eh?) including the new iWeb app which lets you create web pages and share your photos, podcasts or blogs with the world at the touch of a button (or a mouse, as the case may be).
there is also an update to the rest of the iLife apps which take advantage of the new .mac features announced today. all in all a pretty cool package to get your stuff up and seen.
the mac book is a step in the right direction but still not enough to make me really want one. yet. i’m waiting for a 12" version with all flash based hard drive that weighs 2.5 pounds. that would really be something.
as for the iMac i might pick one of those up to check out. but maybe after the first revision. i’m a little tired of being an apple beta tester after my experiences with my first dual 2ghz g5 tower. these macs are just the first step this year anyway so its not over by any means. by the end of the year, it will be all Intel all the time. i can wait. plus, my G5 tower is working just fine at the moment so what’s the rush?
it would have been nice to get a mac-mini based hd dvr that runs mac osx and allows you to stream audio and video and record it to dvd like tivo-to-go does for windows (maybe even for the mac soon). not yet though. i would bet money that its just around the corner. i guess i can put my amex away. for now.
for the rest of what’s hot (or not) from the stevenote, go to apple.