TV is Good

New mood... I'm sick of being made to feel shallow for loving tv. TV, especially cable, has alot of great stuff... the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, the History Network, the Travel Channel, the Weather Channel, the Food Network, Cartoon Network - some great learning material there. I believe that, because of tv, I am a much more educated person, a more tolerant person, I've seen places I'd never have even known about much less visited, I'm a funnier person, I have more conversation topics, and I'm filled with useless information that would probably help me do well in Jeopardy... OK, so it's not all redeeming... YES, I love watching South Park and Real World and The Family Guy... but studies have shown that humor is a very important part of mental and physical health... so I'm a healthier because of tv too.

SO THERE, I'm not horrible or shallow because I watch TV. AAAHHH

I'm feeling very shallow, unmotivated, and immoral. I was reading the Appalachian Trail story, 5 Millions Steps, on our website. It documents the daily thoughts and experiences of Sneetch, a former coworker of mine, who took a leave of absence from work to take 6 months to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail (ie, hike from Georgia to Maine). At first I though, "this is alot like my blog". Except she hikes about 20 miles a day… I take the elevator to the 3rd floor. She hardly watches any tv and what she does see, she thinks is ridiculous as she is used to "the honesty of the woods"… I am hardly ever in the woods, watch way too much tv and love every second of it, especially the not-so-honest stuff. She is Vegan (eats nothing containing any animal byproducts) and eats vegan chocolate bars, vegan mac and cheese and cheeseless pizza… I am a full-fledged carnivore and eat pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, cheeseburgers, steak, milk with my cereal, cheese sticks, Jamba Juice made with frozen yogurt, and, apparently, very milky chocolate bars.

So though I feel shallow, unmotivated and immoral, I wouldn't change places with her for anything. I like my mostly-sedentary-tv-addicted-meat-eating lifestyle and I don't mind being a bit "meaty" myself. Maybe tomorrow I will take the stairs instead of the elevator. It's a step in the right direction (get it? step... lol) .

99.3% Sure

After telling my story to Aaron about spotting who I suspected to be Seann William Scott in LA, I am now 99.3% sure it was him. Aaron said that he had seen SWS on The Tonight Show last week (ie, he was in LA), WITH a beard (ie, the look matches up with what I saw), and that SWS said that he still had a little apartment in LA (ie, he probably lives right near there and had walked over for a bite of a great steak).

I believe Abby now feels the painful sting of regret nibbling at her rear, as do I. I should've have been more emphatic, like "ABBY, TURN THE CAR AROUND IMMEDIATELY!" Live and learn, live and learn...

I'm BAAACK

Well, after spending the rest of the week away from internet access and getting trapped in travel HELL Sunday/Monday, I'm back in action. I LOVE that I have gotten posts in my guestbook from complete strangers! Somehow I'm still suspect that they are my friends (read: Yelli or Jenny) trying to boost my ego, but I'll do some research.

Since I last left you on Thursday in LA, I struck celebrity gold... well, old gold anyway. Ironically enough, they had a reception for Red Buttons at my hotel, so while waiting in the lobby with Jo and Steve, we watched as the celebs got wheeled in, hobbled in and even, in some cases, walked in of their own accord. Here's who I saw:

RED BUTTONS

Dick Clark (New Year's Rockin Eve, American Bandstand)
Suzanne Sommers (Chrissy on Three's Company, thighmaster...)
Ryan Oneal (Love Story, Irreconcilable Differences, many more)
Pat Sajak (Wheel of Fortune)
Robert Loggia (lots of stuff, see him here)
Milton Berle (vaudville?)
Carl Reiner (comedian)
Dick Van Patten (dad on Eight is Enough)
Merv Griffin (Merv Griffin show)

I'm also about 97% positive that we drove by Seann William Scott (from American Pie, Dude Where's My Car, Evolution) on Saturday night but Abby didn't drive around the block to let me confirm - ugh!



He had a beard, but I had seen him on TV that week with the beard, so I'm still 98% sure it was him. If only Abby had driven around the block...

Make Sex Interesting More

Yikes, someone found my blog by doing a search on "make sex interesting more". Well, I'm sure they were sadly dissapointed as my blog probably does not contribute any valuable information in that realm... UNTIL NOW! Based on my years of reading Cosmopolitan, Jane, Glamour, Self, and other cheesy women's magazines, I do have some recommendations. I in no way claim to have tested these ideas, but here's a few based on what I've read:

- role play, a pirate and a wench, a doctor and a nurse, Ben Affleck and some cute girl visiting from NY he met at Starbucks... (you get the idea - use your imagination)

- toys, toys, toys (enough said)

- talk dirty (try not to crack up)

And last, but not least, my favorite (in theory)
- FOOD... chocolate, whipped cream, and so on... I saw a special on HBO all about "sploshing", which is basically slathering food all over. Go on, give it a try, so you gain a few pounds, it'll be worth it. And just a thought, you might not want to try this as dessert to a dinner of Nick Tahou's, Dinosaur BBQ, festival food, any type of mexican food...

If these work for anyone, or you'd like to contribute more, let me know via my guestbook.

Proximity Encounter

FINALLY, I had my first proximity encounter today (my terminology for spotting a celebrity). Walked right by Larry King. Yep, Larry King. Woo hoo, start the parade [read: dripping sarcasm]. But still, it's better than Danny Bonaducci (the only proximity encounter I had last time I was in LA - and twice in one day no less!!).

Other Stuff

Other than that, some other stuff to babble about... So far, at the Bev Hilton, I've seen a lady who I think was hiding out to recuperate from her lip injections - they were gigantic! She must've paid good $$ to look that ridiculous and unnatural. She could've paid me much less to punch her in the mouth a few times... heck, it'd probably even be cheaper to fly me out every week for a punch to keep them nice and plump. The Rhinestone Cowboy Convention was interesting... not sure what it was all about, just know that many people were dressed in sparkly western wear. Them there were fancy folk. There was also the Wedding of Bad Fashion. Many women, all dressed up in 1980's bridesmaid dresses and Tammy Faye Baker makeup to enjoy the occasion.

Oh, and after being inspired by many many cool animations (like "Say Cheese" by Derek Flood), I want to become a 3D animator and use Maya and Pulse3D and work for Pixar or ILM or EA and make 3D movies with animated monkeys and elephants and cute, furry things... Either that, or open a Jamba Juice franchise.

SIGN MY GUESTBOOK

I finally have a guestbook! The site didn't seem to like my woodstock.com email and wouldn't send me a password. Hotmail worked like a charm, so please SAY something to me.

Put me in the Movies

While walking by the Pixar booth at SIGGRAPH, I couldn't help but notice that they are hiring for a User Interface Engineer. My heart raced - how cool would it be to work for Pixar!!?? Then I look at the qualifications - they want a damn programmer. I was DUPED. They are totally CLUELESS about UI. Just because a computer geek can code an interface (and they ALL can), doesn't make them a User Interface expert. So apparently, they want someone to make an interface for their software, but it doesn't have to be easy to use or meet the user's needs or provide a good experience. Poor, poor animators. No wonder they're all a bit strange in a mad scientist kind of way - they have to struggle through software interfaces designed by a Linux programmer. Rant over. Thank You. Sorry if I offended any computer geeks, animators, or mad scientists.

Breakfast

Well today was the 2nd time Jo, Steve and I ate at The Pantry - a greasy spoon restaurant with big, cheap breakfasts. We chowed down, eating enough to sustain us through to dinner. I am still VERY full and it's been 5 hours since I ate (I'm usually starving within 2-3 hours of a meal). I had French toast, fried eggs, toast, and hash browns. Jo ate pancakes and eggs and hash browns. Steve ate less than both of us! I took a before and after picture, but haven't found a spot to download yet. I think Jo has a wooden leg. I myself just have a cavernous gut.

Cute Asian Girl

Oh, and did anyone else notice that someone found Jenny's blog by doing a search for "cute asian girl"? Does this mean that Jenny specifically called herself a "cute asian girl" or does that mean she wrote "cute bunny poster" and "asian ceramic bowls" and "the girl had blue hair" and they found her that way?

I guess I should follow Aaron and Jenny's lead and find creative ways to boost my traffic.

Free sex pictures. There, that should do it.

More Babblings

This place is so wired, it's the Mac Daddy. Get it, Mac Daddy - Mac computer - wired... ha ha. Ok, not funny. I'm on a quick break, have more to say...

I just drank an ENTIRE Diet Coke - and I actually liked it. This is monumental!! I've always DESPISED diet pop, but I gave it a shot since I've been otherwise eating decent and walking and climbing stairs alot. I think I may be able to make the switch. I will save thousands of calories a year! I will weigh 5 pounds less in 3 years from the calorie savings alone! I have been saved!

Oh, but then there's the Bacardi 151 I added to my Diet Coke, some calories there... I have been drinking heavily since I got here. I'm drunk now. I think I have a problem. By tomorrow I think I will have to check into rehab. Jenny, do you know the name of the place Ben Affleck checked into... that should be here in LA and should be as good as any. ;-)

SIGGRAPH

SIGGRAPH is in full swing and I'm here dabbling in stuff mostly irrelevant to work I've done up until now... in an effort to make it relevant. (For those who don't know, SIGGRAPH is a conference on Computer Graphics, 3D, Animation, etc... I am a User Interface Designer, concerned mostly with making apps easy to use) Then again, even the conferences I've been to in my field have mostly irrelevant stuff.

Ugly Donkey:

Yesterday was a cool session with the creators of Shrek. One problem, it was more the computer programmers who wrote the tools for the animation rather than the artists, but still interesting. I didn't like Shrek because the Donkey was ugly. Yep, that's my whole basis for not liking it. They really should've gone with a much cuter Donkey, which would have resulted in millions more $$ in both ticket and merchandise sales. Didn't they do any focus groups? Anyway, they did show the flub up where a new engineer screwed up some code that messed with the hair length on the donkey and he looked like a complete fuzzball until they fixed it. Thing is, he was much cuter as a fuzzball with no features. Oh well.

Today is "Intro to Computer Graphics". Thought I'd get a complete overview of the basics to ground myself. One problem, it's all about 3D graphics, cart before the horse so to speak, but still interesting.

This conference definitely has alot more interesting looking people, as opposed to UIST (last year's conference) where there were mostly people who had "I'm a computer geek" tattood on their foreheads.

Well, time to go pay $95 for a pizza and a coke for lunch. Mmmm...

I Love LA... NOT

Well, I'm here in LA... Did I grab a cup of cappucino and strike up a conversation with Benjamin Bratt? Nope. Did I eat fried eggs at Mel's Drive-In and hear Cameron Diaz talking with her agent the next booth over? Didn't happen. Did I spot Vince Vaugh buying gifts for his girl at Trashy Lingerie? No such luck. Did I find myself riding the elevator in the Beverly Hilton with so much as Gary Coleman? Not a chance in hell. I have not seen one single person even remotely resembling someone famous. I think I have a force field around me that drives them away. The stupid part is, I don't want to get their autograph, take a picture with them, or even necessarily talk to them (though this would be ok if it was a normal, natural conversation... not "OH my GOD, you are so great..." it would have to be more like, "yeah, I know, can you believe we don't have them in where I live [read: Jamba Juice]"), I just want to SEE them.

I did get to visit some very cool shops on Melrose, and enjoyed a Jamba Juice - a definite highlight. Cindy and John came up from San Diego and we had a good time, it was great to see them again. Had they not come up, I would have had a lonely Saturday night in LA since my brother bailed on me (though he has been calling every one of his LA friends bugging them to entertain his little sister).

As for LA, surprisingly it does not seemed to be filled with size 0 girls, there are all shapes and sizes here... thank GOD.

OK, conference time... more later.

HELL

Holy crap, it's 101 degrees here today. ONE HUNDRED AND ONE - in ROCHESTER! I'll be glad to get to LA where it will be a cool 80 degrees!

La La Land

I leave for LA in a couple days and pre-travel insomnia and procrastination are in full swing... You would think that if I'm not tired, I'd do the things I need to get done. Nope, I'm an 11th hour kind of girl. So I'll probably be up until 3am thursday night doing laundry, paying bills, cleaning and packing.

I wasn't sure what the "style" is in LA, so I had my brother make some calls. I know I shouldn't care what those pretentious-carb-hating-stick-thin-rich-beautiful-shallow people think, but I don't want to stand out like a little match girl either. So my bro asked some of his chick friends in LA and they said - it's not what you wear, it's how you wear it - just have the right attitude. Does that mean act like you're God's gift even if you're wearing Kathy Ireland jeans from Kmart because you can't afford Frankie B. jeans? I somehow doubt it.

Apparently, from the looks of this ad, Frankie B. jeans are worth the money! (~$120/pair)


Then he added, "but chunky shoes are out". Dammit, I love chunky shoes. I read on the web that platforms are out, but are platforms the same as chunky?

OUT:

More importantly, chunky shoes are a helluva lot more comfortable than heels. And I'm all about comfort... there's no way I'm hobbling around on heels all day. I'd rather wear sneakers... yeah, the sortof cute ones with no heel...

IN??:

Batty

Jenny posted pictures of ugly bats. Not the whole story, there are many cute bats out there. Such as Stella, a Flying Fox (fruit bat):



And this adorable little guy who looks like a chihuahua with a little leather jacket on:



See, they're even cuter in print:

Bad Me

Bad me for not blogging in so long, but it's been a busy week. Grizzy is doing well after the emergency room visit. Tuesday was the bats at Bellydancing. Jenny leaves out that she screamed like a banshee, "shut the dooooooor" as she trampled my hand. It was rather hilarious.

Thursday we went to see Planet of the Apes. Marky Mark should've gotten half naked because his acting merits just don't cut it. It's all about the biceps, baby.

Friday was Abby's birthday and we made a night of it. Jenny actually had the equivalent of 1 margarita. This is big, because Jenny doesn't normally drink as she is actually somewhat allergic. Well, no problems on Friday night with the margarita and we were all treated to a livelier version of normal Jenny.

Snuck in the Park Ave Fest, Andy's party, and dinner with Sis and her fiance over the weekend.

I had a frozen chocolate covered banana from Abbots, they are obscene to eat, but they taste too good to be vain about it. I just keep the wrapper on as long as I can. I dropped a piece of chocolate and managed to sit on it, so I had this big brown smear on the back of my shorts... oh lovely.