Conspiracy Theory

I have 3 weeks until my sister's wedding. Monday I had to put on my bridesmaid dress for the seamstress to get it taken up. It's a strapless number, in black. Cute, if you're tiny. I've been tiny before but at the moment, I'm a little further from tiny than I'd like for this dress - got some bulges and bumps showing through and the flabby arms are in full view.

So, with only 3 weeks to go, I decide I'll just buckle down, lay off the junk food, eat well and drop a few pounds - then begin pigging out again at the wedding. But I think my family and friends are conspiring against me. Last night, Grandma brought Pumpkin Pie to Mom's for dinner. PUMPKIN PIE!! It's like she sat around and thought, "what is the one food that is really fattening but Tina won't be able to resist? Hmmm, I've got it - Pumpkin Pie!" I had one bite. Then, I get in to work today and Jo has brought in donut holes. DONUT HOLES!!! Is she trying to knock me off the wagon? I had one. Later in the afternoon as I came back from a meeting, I find an open bag of Oreos out for sharing. OREOS!!!!!!! Enough to prove the world is conspiring against me! I didn't have any oreos, basically because there weren't any left, but I did sniff the bag.

Sad

This morning was a rough day for me, tears welled up with every American Flag I looked at. I think I'm hormonal.

Hey, is that Greg Kinnear

I've found that it's very easy to press Jenny's buttons. Just point at some random guy and say, "hey, isn't that Greg Kinnear?" Heh, heh.

That said, I do, 100% and totally, concede that Judd Nelson easily could have been mistaken for Greg Kinnear. It was a very valid statement. They DO look alike in a not-so-dark room. However, I do not want to lose sight of the fact that it was Judd Nelson after all (ie, I was right). What this all really says is that I am a competitive person who likes to be right and apparently likes to point out when I am right. Character flaw. Ugh. I'll work on that. But it's so fun being right,

Being away from the news has made today a slightly better day, yet I know once I get home, I will be jumping between CNN and MSNBC and won't be able to peel myself away. I don't know what I expect to hear, but I can't stop listening.

As for now, I'll take my mind off things and talk more about Toronto. On Thursday night, we hung around the theater where Serendipity was premiering... we didn't see John Cusack or Jeremy Piven, but Eagle Eye Chuck spotted the actor that plays "Ted" on one of my favorite shows, Queer as Folk. Ted's the cute sensitive one who has trouble getting dates.


He almost qualifies as a Bizzarro Chuck (ie, looks like Chuck).

We had heard Harvey Keitel was going to be arriving at the next movie, word was he went in the back.

On Friday morning, we saw Serendipity ourselves, it was quite a wonderful romantic (HIGHLY UNREALISTIC) movie, but I imagine they will delay it's release because it had lots of scenes of NY, the Twin Towers, and a couple cross country flights. Yep, it will be interesting to see how much they change it.

After Serendipity, we headed to see the very unique and hilarious movie American Astronaut. Who sits right behind us, but Gale Harold, the star of QAF who plays "Brian". Brian is the really hot promiscuis guy who has some form of sex with practically every guy he comes in contact with. Gale was with a woman though, so I think he's just a REALLY good actor.



I wanted to say something like, "Hi Gale, I really enjoy your work", but I didn't want to be a stalkerish dork. Thank God for Matt, he came in and sat directly behind me, which allowed me to turn around and talk... and sneak in peeks at Gale without looking like a stalkerish dork. I am kicking myself for not saying a little something, I'm sure he wouldn't have minded the praise. ** kick, kick, kick **

At the hotel lobby, while waiting for Matt, I spotted David Paymer... but I am apparently the only person on the planet who knows who he is. Everyone else gave me a blank stare. He was in City Slickers, I swear!



That night we had another proximity encounter. I saw a guy and a blond trotting across the room and joked that it looked like Judd Nelson. Jenny thought he looked like Greg Kinnear. It was dark but not that dark. As I make my way back out of the ladies room, this guy and his blonde are still blocking my way and as the guy turns to get out of my way and says, "Oh, sorry", I realize it IS Judd Nelson. I ran to tell Jenny and she proceeded to circled the restaurant to get a good peek. Then we watched as he sat with two blondes and tried to figure out which one he had something going with. I think he was trying to kick it with both of them. You go boy.

We almost didn't go to Toronto this weekend for round two of the Toronto International Film Festival. Our thoughts... Is it safe? Is it inappropriate? Is it frivoulous? But we decided Canada is a safe place to be and we needed to try to take our minds off the horrific events of the past week, if only for a little while. Jenny and Aaron are two of the most fun people I have ever had the pleasure of being around and I am so glad we did go. It was a small bit of emotional relief that I really needed.

Today, back at home and watching the news again, I am heartbroken and emotionally drained. I cannot fathom the pain of those wondering the fate of their loved ones. I am also pained by the thought of lost pets and rescue animals. The port authority policeman who was rescued told of his partner, a yellow lab, that did not get rescued along with him. I cried as he told reporters about telling his dog, "I'll be back for you."

The Americans

A rather timely speech by Canadian Gordon Sinclair spoken in 1973 and ringing all too true this week.

Emotional Hell

Yesterday was so devastating. My heart is broken for everyone who had to go through the airplane hijackings, the crashes, the building collapses, and now, the rescue effort. My heart is broken for everyone who will never feel the same way again and who will never forget this. I thank God all my loved ones are safe... for now.

Proximity Heaven

Well, Jenny put the pressure on me to blog about the celebs we saw at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend. Seeing as though I am somewhat obsessed with trying to have proximity encounters* with celebrities, I suppose it's only fitting.

*A "proximity encounter" is my terminology for seeing, walking by, or being near a celebrity. As I've mentioned before, I'm not really interested in getting their autograph, taking their picture, or really even talking to them... I just really want to see them... up close. Of course if the opportunity arises to have normal dialogue, I'm all up for that. (Just to clarify, here's an example of what would be a good opportunity for normal dialogue: --- I'm line for ice cream. I order two scoops of Death by Chocolate. As I take a lick, I hear a voice behind me, "wow, does that taste as good as it looks?. I was going to get the Rocky Road, but now I'm not sure." I turn around, it's John Cusack, I am not phased. I say, "words cannot describe how decadent and delicious it is, you have to try it." I offer my cone, John licks my ice cream. John says, "mmmmm, it IS good. So do you taste as good as YOU look?"... --- Ok, I got a little unrealistic, but you get the idea.) Normal, non-forced interaction is a bonus.

First, on Friday night, we saw Ed Burns, talking to the audience at the premier of his movie "Sidewalks of New York" (which I thoroughly enjoyed). He was too far away to count as a proximity encounter, but we did see him.

Then, at the next movie, "Thirteen Conversations about One Thing" (which was good but way too long), we saw Matthew McConaughy. He was wearing a skirt, a tshirt, and flip flops. I think he's a bit of a freak. He supposedly saved the woman who had an epileptic seizure, though I don't remember seeing him over by her. I think she faked it. I am practicing my "choking on a piece of popcorn" routine for next week so I can get Jeremy Piven to give me the Heimlich Maneuver.

Alan Arkin also sat near us at T.C.A.O.T., he seemed very pissed that someone was interrupting the movie. His lips didn't move, but his expression said, "damn those epileptics".

On Saturday afternoon, while shopping, we had a true proximity encounter with Julia Stiles. She walked by us, crossing the street the opposite way from us. I tried to give hints to Jenny, Aaron and Chuck without yelling out, "THERE'S JULIA STILES", but I kind of choked. Luckily, she glanced to the side and they got to see her after she passed.

Saturday night, after going to the Short Films feature (which were all pretty excellent except the one about golfing and worm collecting), we headed over to see "Prozac Nation". In a last minute strategic move, Jenny and I decided to move to the front in an effort to get a good look at some celebs, despite the fact that we'd be very close to the screen. It paid off, we were a mere 10 feet from Christina Ricci, Jason Biggs, and Michelle Williams (not pictured, but she was in the movie "Dick" also) as they stood in the spotlight while the director talked. Christina is too skinny. Jason is cute. There's more to tell about the apple pie, but that'll come later.

Sunday morning, we went and saw "Novacaine" with Steve Martin. Steve didn't show up but the movie was very good. On to eating and shopping. Chuck and Aaron saw Steve Martin and Michelle Williams. This called for desperate measures... time to head to the Four Season's lobby... where we struck gold. Chuck spotted Kristin Scott Thomas (but called her "the chick from Four Weddings and a Funeral"), then we saw Kevin Kline, eagle-eyes Aaron spotted Jennifer Love Hewitt (and swears she was checking him out... then branded her Faux J Lo). Leelee Sobieski showed up next, she was very pretty and flashed us all a wide smile (maybe she was smiling at Aaron). We also saw a very cute, familiar looking face and later figured out it was Hayden Christensen who will be playing Anakin Skywalker in the next Star Wars movie.

So that was it. The Four Seasons lobby was the place to be. We will be going there next weekend for tea and crumpets.

achoo

itching and sneezing and kleenex, oh my!

Allergy season is in full swing. My eyes itch. My face itches. My nose itches. My throat itches. My ears itch. How the heck do you scratch the inside of your ears? Or better yet, how do you scratch the inside of your nose without looking like your trying to "pick a winner"?

The Weasel

My brother Eddie called me last night but I was in the shower... I was going to call him back right after Road Rules, but he called me back first to say, "Why didn't you call me right back? I had Pauly Shore waiting to say hello to you." At first I was upset, kicking myself in the a**, but then I realized, I have no desire to talk to Pauly Shore on the phone... what would I say, "how's the weasel?"

It was still a significant moment though because it shows that my brother is very thoughtful and went out of his way to try to do something he thought I would really enjoy. I mean how many people would have the testicular fortitude to ask anyone, much less a semi-celebrity, to say hi to their little sister on the phone? My brother's quite the unique person. Every one of his friends I talked to in LA gushed about him... I mean literally GUSHED about how great he is. You don't hear guys gushing about other guys too often.

So anyway, I told him he should have said something so that I knew to call RIGHT back, so we came up with a code... if he calls me and doesn't get me, he'll say, "call me right back, I have a QUICK question", then I'll know he's got some celeb willing to say hi to me on the phone. Next thing I know, he'll be handing my business card to Patrick Swayze and asking him to drop me a quick email.

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.