Sunday December 1st 2002 04:26 PM PST
So, first off, thanksgiving was fun. We all drank and ate too much
We all went over to Jen's parents house to have thanksgiving. Jen's dad outdid himself as always a cooked for the masses. I don't know what's
wrong with him, but he actually loves to do this. And not just for the holidaze, he seems to love having parties and cooking for 20+ people. Well,
maybe it's the brand new kitchen. Anyway the evening turned into a screening of Ferris Bueller's day off so it didnt turn out bad at all. I can't even
remember what i did Friday now that i think about it. But then Saturday i went out to Newport Beach for my Dad's birthday. My brother got us all to
rent a little "duffy" and sail around on the newport bay for a few hours.
It was a lot more fun than i thought it was going to be. Then we fought traffic back to pasadena and went to dinner at cafe bizu. Food there was
great as always, and we were the loudest people in the place (as always). We headed back to the parental units house for dessert and more drinks.
I slept really really really late today.
Tuesday December 3rd 2002 02:50 PM PST
So what do you do with a day when you're sitting around home sick? Well, most people just sleep or watch TV. Me? Well i install PHP and MySql on
my mac. Fuck it's about time i got around to it. But I've finally done it.
Anyway, yesterday i went out to a little skate park with my brother and Johnathan to take some pictures. So.... here some of em are.
Click for a little video clip.
I need a faster camera.
Tuesday December 3rd 2002 03:10 PM PST
Almost forgot the best shot.
Wednesday December 4th 2002 02:45 PM PST
The end of the year is coming. We can't make judgement on the worst movies of this year just yet. There could be a couple real shitty movies
creeping in just before the finish. But i think we can already set our sights on the worst movies of NEXT year. I just watched the trailer for "
Bulletproof Monk". GAWD DAMN! Who the fuck ok'ed this one? and is anyone else
wondering what the fuck is up with "
Kangaroo Jack"? I can't decide which of these
movies is gonna SUCK more. So i guess it is now up to you. What does everybody else out there thing the worst 10 movies of next year are going
to be?
Wednesday December 4th 2002 02:56 PM PST
Actually i am looking forward to 2 movies.
25th Hour actually looks like a
interesting movie. Spike Lee always seems to stand out as a director even though many people just don't like his style. And then
Spider, well i guess this one is already out in some places, but i've not yet seen it. Some people
can't stomach a good
David Cronenberg film, but i figure... Dead
Zone, Scanners, the Fly, Crash and eXistenZ. He makes fucked up films, and i gotta see this one.
Wednesday December 4th 2002 11:25 PM PST
I just made a mess in my shorts. yes, i know i am going to get all sorts of comments on that but who cares.
I was looking for OS X icons and i found the best shit EVER!
wip30ut icons
Thursday December 5th 2002 11:04 AM PST
Ah the phone calls begin again. It seems i submitted an invoice to a particular client, and suddenly they stopped calling me. I actually had not
heard a peep from them in almost a month. It seemed like we understood each other fine. I don't work for free, so if you don't have the money to
pay me, don't ask me to do work for you. :) So.... I guess what needs to be said is this. I talked to one partner in the company and asked him
how i should most politically submit this request for money. The first thing that he asked was that i lower my hourly rate. Ok, i made that
accomadation. Then he asked for me to account for all my hours. Ok, that is more than fair. I did that as well. Finally he told me to fax the
invoice to the office for the other parter to approve and cut the check. Ok, done. Before the fax these guys were calling me 2 to 3 times a day
asking me this and that. We were workin on a whole lot of shit. After the fax. SILENCE. Well, long story short. One parter is not talking to the
other. DUH. Anybody could have guessed. So as one partner makes promises of a retainer and loads of work, the other partner screams "WE HAVE
NO MONEY". LOL. So where does that leave me? Well, they're finally thinking about their position. I have all their source code. I have all their CD
masters. AND they need a new master cut. So now it seems that they are calling on me again to volunteer my time. And not just one of them. ALL
of them. Both partners and the office manager. I hope they read this. There is one way to get in touch with me. SEND ME A CHECK.
Thursday December 5th 2002 12:40 PM PST
Ok, so we all went to go get LORT tickets last night at the Archlight Dome. For those of you out there like me, it will always be the Cinerama Dome.
Ok, so we got tickets at the Cinerama Dome. We bought an entire fuckin ROW. and the scary thing is, we should have bought the row in front of us
too. Well, anyway, we met at Tower Records, and then went to Barney's for a little food.
Then we went over to the Cinerama Dome and got tickets. Now i just want to say this. I saw spiderman at the WORST theater in los angeles. The
Pacific Hastings Ranch Theater. THIS PLACE SUCKS. The Cinerama Dome is a fuckin dream come true. Their lobby has a gift shop, and a little
cafe. The ticket counter looks more like a posh beverly hills bank. AND DAMN. most theaters you go to, when you ask somebody a question, they
always have to take their minimum-wage ass and go ask somebody else. We walk up to the guy last night at the ticket counter and literally pull out
all the shit. We've got 5 coupons, we're buying tickets for a shitload of people and we are asking 50 questions a second. You'd think this would fuck
up your average ticket window bitch. This guy had us all happy as shit in about 2 minutes. He bend the little screen forward and shows us all the
rows of seating avaliable. Nice little touch screen interface lets him say 10 tickets here or there or, just point and click. DAMN NICE. So anyway, we
buy the whole 4th row, which by the way is WAY TO FUCKIN CLOSE for most people, but me.... its just damn fine. We actually saw the steamy pile
called Godzilla at the Cinerama Dome before it closed for remodeling and sat in the FRONT row. I think that was the best part of the movie.
(while i've been writing, another call from the said client came in. And people wonder why i don't answer my phone)
Monday December 9th 2002 10:42 AM PST
Ok, no sleep and WAY TOO MUCH WORK. I said i was gonna get a job and i well.... I jumped in on Friday and haven't slept more than about 6
hours over the entire weekend. Thats right kiddies. I might not be in front of the home cam much longer. Well, i'll still be in front of the camera,
but the camera might be somewheres else. So i did sign an NDA, so i really should not say much about the project i'm working on, and those of you
who know just keep your mouth shut on the comments. :) BUT i can say this much. I have had so much fun getting back into the shit. I seem to
start jobs this way. ALWAYS when there is a deadline. This case there was a emergency piece of code that needed work and i had to come in to help
out and bring to finsh. anyway, enough talk, back to work.
Jason is right. This is cool. It makes me want to get an
ipod so i can take pictures of it in Los Angeles.
Monday December 9th 2002 10:44 AM PST
Pat pulled his blog apart. Good to see another blog cam.
Tuesday December 10th 2002 08:07 AM PST
so a headline today says "Man Saved by Condiments". I won't even bother linking to the article, cause it sucks, and its just like everything in the
news. This guy crashes his car into a little ravine and gets burried in the snow. Then he sits there a week and eats little packets of fast food sauce.
The resucers say that's how he survived. I just am worried that the fast food industry is going to turn this into another Subway ad campaign. EAT
NOTHING BUT OUR CONDIMENTS AND LOSE WEIGHT FAST! Fuck i bet in most cases the condiments have more nurtritional value than the shit you're
putting them on. Fuck i know it. We're gonna see a commercial in a month or so with this guy cleaned up on TV saying, "I Lost 5 pounds in a
week". <--insert bad fast food jingle and logo here-->
Wednesday December 11th 2002 12:01 PM PST
Testing is a bitch with one of your hands cut off. I've been working in my clients office for the last few days testing and building a little project that
needs serios testing. I walked in here with my os9 g4 and have been workin on it the entire time, but it's not enough. Will always asks me why the
fuck i have so many computers. Well, with all the multiplayer games that i have built, you need them. I am working now like i have one hand cut
off. I have to walk half way across the office and recruit help from people that have more important shit to do than play fuckin games. So... its
taken me so long to get this shit working. Thank god it's almost over. I think the thing is going to be approved and then go live. Its REALLY LATE.
Well, it was late when i was brought in to do damage control. I just hope after me putting in 5 back to back 20 hour days that it doesn't get dumped
at the last minute. Just gotta get it past legal approval. keep your fingers crossed.
Wednesday December 11th 2002 12:07 PM PST
Shit i forgot to say one thing. I've not been paid yet by one client, and its been a month since i sent the invoice. So they were calling me all day
long before i got pulled onto the project that i am workin on now. So... while i've been working at another location, they are calling my house all the
time. So they broke down and called my MOM. LOL. The great thing is that she set em straight. She said that i was fed up with them and had just
given up and gone looking for other work that would actually pay me. They soon called my house again and left a machine saying, "Oh.... we found
your invoice, can you call us so that we can cut you the check." Well, i'll believe that when i see it. The last time i was in the office, one of the
partners was very very clear on saying, "WE HAVE NO MONEY!". We'll see what happends.
Thursday December 12th 2002 01:28 PM PST
Last night i made the trip from Culver City to Pasadena, just to get back in the car to go to Staples Center to see Peter Gabriel. jen's dad got us the
company suite, and the VIP parking pass, so we parked about 40 feet away from the door into the arena. We got there A LONG TIME before the
show started. The place was really really really EMPTY. So we got a few drinks and food and sat down in the suite. We were in A level which is the
1st of three levels of suites at Staples. So we were high above the crowd but not in nose bleed seats. As we were eating, Peter Gabrield comes out
to introduce the two opening acts. I thought it was a nice touch. The first thing out of his mouth is, "Ok, thers is going to be some discussion here
as to the propper ettiquite of when to arrive at a show." Everybody laughs, and i think at that point, there were only about 1/10th the seats occupied.
So he introduces the Blind Alabama Boys,who, just like it says, are a bunch of guys from Alabama that are blind. DUH. These guys put on a
incredible vocal performance topped by the lead singer being led into the crowd while still singing and shaking peoples' hands. It had a very very
deep south male choir sound to it. Very impressive. You might have heard them sampled by MOBY. Following them, there was a short act of two
men, and i won't try to spell their names or try to remember how they are spelled. I'll look em up later and post the name. They played native
insturments from (i don't know) and it sounded fuckin great. So then Peter Gabriel's set was a good mix of old and new. Blue Sky and Growing Up
off the new album and then a large selection of songs from just about every album. Red Rain, Salsbury Hill, In Your Eyes, Shock the Monkey jst to
name a few. The show was a "center stage" rig. They had all the musicians and hired muscle all in the center of staples with a "20 ton" lighting rig
above their heads. Fron the lighting rig emerged a large selection of toys for Peter to play around on. There's a huge flower like thing that "gives
birth to the moon". Then a circular catwalk that he and his daughter walk upside down on for "Downside Up" equiped with harnasses and cables.
Then on top of the catwalk he has a video camera on a tripod that he dances around with pointing at the crowd as the video is projected on screens
high above. Then the Moon actually turns into.... and I AM NOT BULLSHITTING YOU.... a HUGE PETER GABRIEL HAMPSTER BALL. Yup that's right,
he gets inside it WHILE STILL SINGING... and runs and HOPS around stage in it. I have to say there was not enough energy in the crowd. I felt bad,
cause i was having a great time, but most people just stayed in their seats. I've been to a lot of shows and i think the ones that the performers
really have a good time at are where the crowd REALLY gets into it. Anyway,
Will went and sat in closer
seats AND got his camera in. He's got some unfuckinbelieveable shots on his site
Will's Pictures of Peter Gabriel
Then i also started to look at PeterGabriel.com to find the names of the opening acts. I
couldn't find em right off, but i did find the tour video diary, that has some really cool footage of the set and the performace.
Peter Gabriel Moonclub Tour Diary
Sunday December 15th 2002 07:34 PM PST
I get this message on my machine. My great old client (the one that has not paid me) has a few questions about the hours on my invoice. The
same invoice that is now 30 days past due. You think they could come up with better stall tactics, but i guess the game never changes. They're
gonna try to change the amount of the invoice now and try to get another 30 days. Why am i not suprised? I guess i just expected to get fucked
over all along. I just didn't expect to get fucked over for the holidays. :-) Well happy holidays. I think i am gonna send this client a little XMAS
present. It's a LARGE box that has about 300 CD's in it. On each one of them there are backups of every version of the software that i developed
for them. Some of them are very well labeled and some of them are not. I think i'm gonna take the 5 gigs of stuff off my drives, burn discs from
that, then add those final discs to the box. The box will then contain ALL THEIR SOURCE CODE. All the stuff that they need to continue on without
ME. I'll send them that box and hope that they can find the right dics. Its literally a needle in a haystack. Fuck it. I'm getting my money from
them and handing over their shit.
Thursday December 19th 2002 04:01 PM PST
I found my old spinning cross i did the height of my Goth phase. It still resides on many many many geocities pages. I found it in a collection of
goth gifs.
Das Cross. The great thing is that it still retains the
copyright information. 1997 Fidget Productions. LOL All you have to do is crack the thing open with a paint program and turn first color on the
palette to white.
quick addition, the link above won't work cause geocities won't allow referals to gifs. fuck it, it sucks anyway...
Sunday December 22nd 2002 05:45 PM PST
I got this shot from a few old San Marino locals. No explanation is necessary.
