for lack of a better name

funny for so many reasons

2005-11-06T19:09:00.000-08:00

last hired

2005-10-31T19:58:00.000-08:00

Inertia is a bitch. I'm alright with a stick shift, but suck getting out of first. I can't remember to do stuff (watering the plants, jogging/exercising) that isn't in my usual routine. Plus the whole "Newton's 1st Law of Motion" thing, which is completely overrated in my book.

Changing jobs is no easy thing to do, either.

Today was my first day at a new company. It's like the first day of school for grownups, that strange mixture of excitement, dread, and self loathing for being excited over something so "lame". But the people seem great, the company seems awesome. Pets roam the place freely, and they ordered from Lulu's for lunch, one of my favorite restaurants in LA.

But the hardest thing to deal with is the feeling of being the odd one out. Everyone already knows each other. Pretty much the only thing keeping me at my old job was the fact that it felt so comfortable there; I knew everyone, and no longer felt like I had to prove myself to anyone. Now, especially since I am only freelance, if I slip up too much or don't live up to expectations, I get fired.

No good.

I feel the need to walk on eggshells, which only adds to the ackwardness.

Still, there's a certain amount of exhiliration at throwing yourself into an uncomfortable situation, or at the very least, a new situation. On top of being at a new company, I have to deal with the learning curve of a new editing system (Final Cut Pro) AND working on my first real studio trailer. To top it off, my new office lacks windows and I got a parking ticket.

I would usually end it with something like a "blaah" or something, but I have to admit that I haven't been this awake and/or excited to get to work on a Monday in a long time.

mile high club?

2005-10-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's monday and I don't really feel like thinking too hard, but I just don't know what to make of these headlines:

Dashbored.

2005-10-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

So my work computer crashed last week, and I got it back on Monday with Apple's latest OS, Tiger. It's been slow here, so part of the way I've been killing time is playing with the widgets. Most of them are kind of pointless (another stickies? an itunes controller? lame.), but the translator widget is pretty fun.

I remember back in the day trying to use babelfish to try to cheat my french homework, without a lot of success. I'm sure the answers I handed in to Madame Chan made even engrish pale in comparison.

I figured that in the past 8 years or so translation technology made some impressive strides. So I tried it out for a bit. Half the time I just wanted to see what jibberish sentences looked like in, say, Dutch. But I also wanted to see whether the translation actually kept the original meaning... Exhibit A:

Not bad, considering I don't know German. But it looks pretty authentic, right? So I tried to put it through the other way, and it ended up like this:

Nice try Apple... nice try.

Also, seeing that I'm all geeky today, I noticed that the newest G5 Powermacs can come with 16 Gig of ram and 1 TB (terabyte, or 1000 gigs) of storage. This is exactly 1000 times more than what came with my first computer, an original Pentium 90mhz, with a whopping 16 megs Ram and an amazing 1 gig HD. Mark this as the first time I'm officially amazed at the pace of technological progress. 1000 times more in about 11 years... not too shabby.

eyes, ears, and other sensory organs.

2005-10-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

taste
I fasted this past week. I fasted on yom kippur like a good jew, but that wasn't the reason why i did. mostly it was shea challenging me to it. i think of my office as a kind of microcosm, where food and drinks are readily available whenever you want, whether or not you're actually hungry. Often I wander into the kitchen to grab a (usually junkfood based) snack not because I'm hungry, but rather out of boredom. The point is that to me there was no religious basis in the fast. It was more of a "take something you take for granted out of your life for a day" experiment. And anyways, if these little guys can go without food for months, I can cut out the snacks for a few hours. Besides, it really makes that first bite of food taste that much better.

sight
If you're bored in LA and would rather not starve yourself, check out this exhibit. Some of the stuff is your run of the mill "I'm on drugs" artwork, but there are a few truly unbelievable installations in there.

This is the key to making me laugh.

Lightning out your window when your curled up under the covers next to a girl you love is an unbelievable.

sound
Ditto for the thunder, and the accompanying rain. Bonus points if said rain hits against your window.

Track 2 of the new Sigur Ros album. The new(ish) Supergrass album. Broken Social Scene, even if I'm the only one besides pitchfork to like them.

Cars driving down a wet road.

The new ipod that Clauson owes me.

touch
What belongs here is none of your business.

smell
Seriously, what is that smell in my apt?

postweekend haze

2005-10-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

I got back from MV late sunday night, after a completely mediocre concert and a late night of partying. The acoustics were bad enough to be unenjoyable, and Modest Mouse seemed completely uninterested and were just going through the motions. Beyond that, this was by far the most commercialized concert I had ever been to, which I guess should have been expected.

On top of the stages being named after the sponsors, AOL set up a system where you could IM with bandmembers before they went on stage, and the IM conversations were displayed on the main screens in the ampitheater. Of course, the fans only asked the deepest, most intelligent questions possible, such as: (to British Sea Power) "Are you from England?", or "Will you play at my wedding? Daddy will pay!" There was over 30 minutes between sets, where they would actually play commercials and promos and crap. I never felt so bombarded with advertising in my life.

Surprisingly, I only took a handful of pictures, the only good one being this:

This guy is a friend of a friend, who took an extra ticket from me. He hit Shea's dog. He was hitting on my recently married friend, whose husband was standing right there. He pretty much brought it upon himself, but still, I feel really bad because a: he got sharpee on his face, b: the only thing that's gonna get that off is time or sandpaper, and c: he just moved to san francisco about a week earlier.

So it goes, I guess, and all is all is fair in love and war.

Oh lord, why must everything in thy universe be branded? Or when I grow up I want to be a chessboxer.

2005-10-07T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hot damn I love this guy.

This weekend, I'm gonna be here. I just can't wait to check out the AMP'D MOBILE STAGE, and any other corporate sponsored stages/events...

This is either the greatest idea or the worst. I can't tell. Wouldn't it be better to see the real chess champions (kasparov, etc.) spar a few rounds in the ring, or heavyweight boxers play chess? Or not. I appreciate the whole triathalon aspect to it, but seriously. You punch a guy in the face and then sit across a table from him and play a cerebral board game?

Last night was the first time in over a week that I slept through the night. More than 4 hours of continuous sleep is a wonderful thing, and I will never take it for granted again.

in the bigtime?

2005-10-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

Human Trafficking. That :30 is one of many that I cut for this show, right there on the main page. I don't know whether to be proud or embarassed.

edit:
-make sure you click on the "play button", not on the Human Trafficking logo.
-yes, I do check out the Lifetime TV website on a regular basis.
-no, I am not ashamed.

all things are impermanent

2005-10-04T22:49:00.000-07:00

The past 72 hours or so has seen the following:

me scratch the side of my car in a parking debacle (parallel parking is usually one of my superpowers, too.)
me shatter the face of my favorite watch which shea gave me on my 21st bday (pic here)
clauson, in a wildly unnecessary fit of rage, push one of our armchairs on its side, not knowing that my ipod was in the bag draped over its side, where the armrest proceeded to land directly in the center of the screen.

Turning out to be a great week, no? It could be worse, at least the ipod still plays. If they still sold the 40gig and they weren't $300+, maybe I would think about getting a new one. Or maybe I could convince AppleCare that this was a manufacturer error...

Re: Oozing

2005-10-04T10:04:00.000-07:00

To: Sinuses
From: Me (your landlord)

Dear sinuses,

I know that this isn't your favorite time of year. As far back as I can remember, come September or October you guys would throw a shitstorm inside my face. At first you would close up my nose completely, then you would loosen up and let me breathe, but only if I dealt with a constant flow of snot. As pleasant as either of those options are, I can think of an even better one: just chill the fuck out for a while. You would think that by now, after 24 years, you would have gotten used to this whole "pollen" thing. And I get it. You don't like the weed and tree pollen. I understand.

I'm sorry, but I cannot control the seasons, nor can I control the pollen count. I wish I could control the Santa Ana winds or the ridiculous wildfires in my neighborhood, but those are out of my hands as well. However, that does not give you free reign of my life. You cannot just wake me up every night at 4am because you're cranky and stuffed up. You cannot dictate when I can and cannot breathe out of my nose.

What I can control, however, is you. To some extent. I have some great decongestants, but unfortunately those leave me feeling drugged and drowsy for the day, so I only use those as a last resort. Which leaves us back at square one. I don't like you that much right now, and I'm guessing you feel the same about me. But we are stuck with each other.

So let's compromise: You stop with your stuffing and your oozing and your other crap, and I'll stop thinking about surgically removing you.

deal?

"wookie of the year"

2005-09-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

doesn't say much about God...

2005-09-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

Many people have made the pretty obvious conclusion that God hates the people who love him, but geez:

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies."

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

and:

The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional. Mr Paul said that rates of gonorrhoea in adolescents in the US were up to 300 times higher than in less devout democratic countries. The US also suffered from “ uniquely high” adolescent and adult syphilis infection rates, and adolescent abortion rates, the study suggested.
...
He said that the disparity was even greater when the US was compared with other countries, including France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries. These nations had been the most successful in reducing murder rates, early mortality, sexually transmitted diseases and abortion, he added.

God just got served.

a childlike mystery solved.

2005-09-26T10:40:00.000-07:00

From IMDB, which I guess has had this info up there forever, but I never looked until this morning:

The Childlike Empress: Bastian? Why don't you do what you dream Bastian?
Bastian: But I can't, I have to keep my feet on the ground.
The Childlike Empress: Call my name... please... save us!
Bastian: All right! I'll save you! I will do what I dream!
[crawls to the window and yells out into the night]
Bastian: MOONCHILD!

What kind of mom is named "moonchild" anyway.

changing of the guard, a hollywood suicide, or death of a salesman

2005-09-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

Some things my (ex)boss could have said after he was let go from our company, but didn't:

Sorry for making about half the employees leave
Sorry for not bringing in enough work to pull my weight
Now what?
How do I delete all this porn from my computer?

Some things my (ex)boss didn't have to say after he was let go from our company, but did:

This place sucks
[The president of the company] is full of shit
I didn't get fired, I quit
[his old company, which he had to close due to lack of business] is back in business.
I've got 4 jobs waiting for me (when he hasn't brought in any work here in months).

That all sounded pretty harsh. I don't mean to be nasty, or to kick a man when he's down. But the sad thing is that this really happened, and now the guy who gave me my first "real" job is out of work. And I can see that he is fabricating stories to make it seem like it was our fault he left, not his own. It is unclear to me whether he actually believes those fabrications or not. For his sake, I hope he sees through his own bullshit, because if not, then he's in for a lot more hardship than he realizes. I'd like to think that my ability to look at the situation objectively isn't clouded by the fact that I wouldn't be where I am right now without him. But I really do owe a lot to him, and I really feel sorry for the guy.

I was a little surprised, although to be honest pretty relieved, when he didn't ask me to go along with him. I figured he would, because when he closed his company the first time he made it clear he wanted me to go with him.

Everyone knows that Hollywood is full of inflated egos and people with inflated senses of self-importance. My ex boss was no execption. But hindsight is 20/20, and it is always easier to see the faults in others than in yourself, but it's pretty clear to all of us that he threw his weight around a little too much, failed to recognize that the industry had changed dramatically since his heydays in the 70s, and let his ego get in the way of others helping the company (and him, by proxy).

The sad thing is that I don't think that he is an anomaly; people refuse to accept fundamental changes to the world everyday. Everyone had their dogmas that they don't want to let go, me included. After seeing what happened to him, I just want to make sure I don't end up like him.

Not like you need me to tell you...

2005-09-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

help.

this post should be assassinated.

2005-08-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

My work situation has gotten increasingly weird over the past few weeks. Not weird, "there are zombies trying to get me" weird, but still weird. Unfortately I can't really talk about it now, but eventually...

And anyways, shea has been gone on a climb this weekend, and off to Napa today with visiting friends, so I haven't really had the chance to talk to her lately. All of which adds up to a weird few days.

Office politics are always weird to me, but then again, I've only beet at this for a little bit. I don't mean to sound high and mighty or anything. I know I act childish from time to time. Everyone does to some extent or another. But I remember thinking as a kid how adults seemed so much more mature than us. I was too naive to see it then, but adults can be just as immature as middle schoolers. Especially when it comes to ego. Maybe it's more a function of this industry I'm in, but some people seem so prone to being self destructing its scary. Basically I look around and am amazed at some of the stuff that goes on.

meh.

This weekend the parents will be in town. In a week and a half I'll be here. The weekend, after that, over here.

Somewhere between then and now, I'll probably buy a new lens, to upgrade the one that came with the camera. There isn't anything technically wrong with it, but it isn't all that outstanding. I won't bore with the details, because no one that reads this is dorky enough to care about the differences between, say, a lens like this, and this. Suffice to say that the sheer amount of choices is staggering.

But part of the difficulty lies in that there is no perfect lens. Every lens has some tradeoffs, whether it has a single focal length but outstanding optics, or a huge focal range but poor glass, you can't get something for nothing. After an hour or few digging through reviews, it's safe to say that camera geeks can't agree on anything. Some hate a lens, others love it. Some complain about distortion, others praise a lens' lack of it. On and on it goes, meanwhile, since it requires a certain level of snobbery to dedicate enough time to not only review a lens but to debate it's merits in online forums, the only lenses that most seem to agree are good are the extremely expensive ones. Which leads a relative beginner with the impression that you need the professional lenses to get good pictures, which obviously isn't true. It's really easy, at least for me, to get caried away and want something I obviously cannot afford.

Too late to type, we'll see what happens when it's time.

I love people sometimes...

2005-08-28T12:58:00.000-07:00

Because, you know, this is appropriate:

SMYRNA, Tenn. (AP) - Members of a church say God is punishing American soldiers for defending a country that harbors gays, and they brought their anti-gay message to the funerals Saturday of two Tennessee soldiers killed in Iraq.

...snip...

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as "God hates fags" and "God hates you."

Now I'll be honest, the second time sign doesn't bother me as much as the first, if for no other reason than it's vague enough to be right at least some of the time. But God? Hating "fags"?

Lets review, from my vague recollection of biblical history from sunday school 12 years ago:

When God is pissed at you, he:

Sends down 10 plagues upon you, ending with every first born son being killed by the Angel of Death
Rains fire from the sky and turns people into pillars of salt
Floods the earth for 40 days, and 40 nights, resulting in the death of every living thing except 2 of each species
Sends you and all his "chosen" people on a 40 year trek through the desert for something so little as Moses hitting a rock. With a stick. Hitting a rock. With a friggin stick.
After that 40 year trek, God refuses to allow Moses to enter the Promised Land, cause he was still pissed about the whole "rock and stick" incident. From 40 years ago.

Now let's just review what he's done to the people he despises so much:

Not killed them all off
Not rained fire from the sky
Not turned them into pillars of salt
Not smitten them with a pandemic plague (or 10)
LA has lots of em, and we had a lot of rain this year, but no flood of biblical proportions. Ditto for NYC and SF. (Check what's happening to the Bible Belt with all those hurricanes, though...)
Made the people who supposedly speak his true will to look like complete nutjobs
Killed thousands of other people, all presumably straight (or at least in the closet), just to show the "fags" that he's upset
Given them a fabulous fashion sense.
And killer abs.

Clearly, we're talking about different Gods. When the God I know is pissed at you, you know he's pissed. Then you die. Or if you're lucky, you get to march around in a desert for a few decades. The God I know doesn't play games with his vengeance.

And finally, screw these clowns for taking this ridiculous bullshit to a funeral. It's one thing to stage these demonstrations at public events, but to taint two families losses with this bigotry and intolerance is beyond disrespectful, let alone unchristian.

There is, at the very least, some shred of goodness coming out of this:

Hundreds of Smyrna and Ashland City residents and families of other soldiers turned out at both sites to counter the message the Westboro Baptist members brought.

So many counterdemonstrators were gathered in Ashland City that police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers were brought in to control traffic and protect the protesters.

rip pink card...

2005-08-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

Photo41, originally uploaded by j_london.

The day after I cashed in two full pink cards, they announce that they're discontinuing the program. What a gyp. Besides the slightly less icky feeling of getting coffee there rather than a starbucks or whatnot, the pink card (buy 12 drinks, get one free) definitely clinched the deal. And now I'll just have to pay for all my caffeine, like a chump.

one more thing...

2005-08-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

Stan left us all for nyc, but go here anyways.

Do it.

writing at work...

2005-08-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

...can be fun, especially when you finish your work at 5. And have an hour to kill before you leave. And when you have a fairly easy tuesday, considering that last night was one of those nights when you just sit up at night, knowing full well that you should go to bed, that you need to go to bed, yet you still stay up photoshopping pictures, then eating milk and cookies, then watching aqua teen on tivo. then toss and turn for an hour or so before finally falling asleep waaay too late.

My inability to get to sleep at a decent hour seems to be the one consistent theme through this scattershot attempt at a website. It isn't so much I'm crazy (promise) so much as it is an attempt for me to have free time. Getting home from work at 7 means that by the time I cook/clean up dinner, it's 8:30/9ish. If the adult in me wants to be in bed by 11, that doesn't leave a whole lot of time to do the random things I like doing...

Shea always says that people tend to associate with each other through complaining, and I think there's a lot of truth in that. Take me. And work. I have a great job doing cool stuff in my own office (with a leather couch) with free lunches and stuff, yet if you ask how work is going, I'll probably say something along the lines of "they have me working on this crappy XXXX project," or "I'm so sick of watching XXXX." There is some legitimate boredom/frustration that comes from staring at the same :30 sequence over and over and over again for 8 hours a day (do the math), but I think a lot of it is just a reflex. Is it weird to really like your job, like how it was really weird to like your classes or teachers? I know I eventually grew out of that, so maybe this is just some weird adjustment to the whole day job thing that I'll grow out of as well. But I'd be lying if I were to say that I was completely happy here. Beneath all of my superficial complaints about work lies a deeper frustration not with what I'm doing, but with where I am. The people in the office are great for the most part but I just can't picture being here much longer. I've said that for a while, but I feel like the time has seriously come for me to grow some balls and get out, while I still can.

To sum it all up, it's hard to go to bed so early after such long days, knowing that when I wake up the whole cycle begins again. Me staying up late is, at least in a way, me trying to take back a few hours. But look where it gets me...

I've been doing some thinking about what my real purpose for me keeping this blog (or website, or whatever) this is. I don't really think of myself as a good writer, and since I work all day I don't have much time to take all the pictures I want. And even if I could write well, what do I say and who would care? Or what should I photograph? Where does that leave me? Compiling links? There are thousands of other more popular (and better) places to ge that. So where does that leave this? I simply don't know yet, but eventually, when I figure that out, you 2 readers or so will find a better, more focused... Crap. I'll have to actually name this at some point.

To quote my favorite movie of the week,

Motherfucking cocksucker motherfucking shit fucker what am I doing?

poopdeck

2005-08-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

poopdeck, originally uploaded by j_london.

teeheehee.

only 2 beers on tap: bud, bud lite. go figure.

Quite possibly

2005-08-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

...the most painfully vicious movie review I've ever read:

If my penis had ink it could craft a picture flipbook better than this [movie].

yowza.

bird

2005-08-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

bird, originally uploaded by j_london.

yeah. this little guy was right outside my apartment, on my neighbor's a/c. i've almost never had a bird let me get that close before...

i don't know why...

2005-08-07T22:56:00.000-07:00

_MG_0258, originally uploaded by j_london.

..but I think this is one of my favorite photos I've ever taken. If only it weren't so lopsided (ocean in bottom left but in the right), but maybe that little imperfection adds something. I'm usually not one to critique my stuff like this or toot my own horn, but I really like it. That little speck above jason's head is a seagull, and I didn't even realize it was there, perfectly above him, until I looked at it after the fact.

This has been a pretty insane weekend for me for any number of reasons, and if you don't know me then you probably don't care about my problems. It's weird now that my roommate is gone for a week leaving here all by my lonesome. I'm not used to it, so it is pretty lonely here. And quiet. As much as I like to fantasize about living by myself from time to time, I really take the company for granted. It's one of the many things where to me the grass is always greener on the other side...

It started all right, got to head down Mulholland till Mulholland stopped (somewhere above Encino it just turns to gravel then STOPS at some abandoned Nike missile site), then headed through Malibu Canyon to El Matador SB, where we chilled and hopped from boulder to boulder like bouldering baboons and I took a buttload of pictures (above) and smoked a little in this little cove. Then we slinked down the pch to venice, where I had hoped to see a friend who has been gone on some ridiculous commercial shoot for a few weeks, but he was still gone so we wandered the boardwalk like fools for a little. There was some Hari-Krishna fair thing at Windward, where there were selling delicacies such as:

Probably the most unappetizing sounding thing ever, but you know... whatever floats peoples' vegan/organic/socially responsible boats.

If everything in life were so simple.

So yeah. Odd times. Odd life.

look ma! no pics!

2005-08-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

So ever since i restarted writing here i've gone a little trigger happy w/ the pictures. part of it is me just wanting to motivate myself back into photography, but most of it is just me having new toys.

I like new toys.

Last night i made it out to the big foot and jason and i, in a quasi drunken but pretty sincere way started arguing about political stuff. long story short we got pretty heated about the christian coalition, which he views as our al-qaeda but i see as just another political group seeking to influence our culture/policy/worldview/whatever. is there a tangible difference between the family research council and peta? what about moveon? the point isn't which of those you agree with, but rather that they all paint a rather incomplete picture of the way things work. each of those groups brings certain truths to the table, but unfortunately politics has become so "us or them" as of late, and a lot of those truths become lost on lots of people because they come from "them", not "us".

So when hear that "XXXX are like al-qaeda" or "XXX is hurting america", it just makes my eyes glaze over because if you think that then there really isn't any debate possible. it means that to you those people are so far gone that any compromise or discussion with them is ridiculous. all of this leads to things like psycho judges in alabama refusing to remove statues of ten commandments or presidents going over the heads of congress to put a UN ambassador in office or people standing by an administration that has dropped the ball on so many occasions.

Demonizing the other side leaves no room for compromise, and in the end, i think that's what does the most damage.

at work

2005-08-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

mixboard 2, originally uploaded by j_london.

sometimes at work i have a little too much free time. sometimes at work i have a little too many knobs.

new camera!

2005-08-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

food face, originally uploaded by j_london.

So I get into work a little early this morning, and am greeted by a pleasant surprise: air conditioning! After 2+ weeks of hot and sweaty post production work, I'm back in the 21st centurt first world. Wheee.

But more exciting (to me, but probably no one else) is that I threw down some serious coin and bought that camera I wanted, the Rebel XT SLR. Above is one of the first pictures I took with it. Notice how crisp the detail in Clauson's hair is. Notice the exquisite detail in the semi-chewed food in his mouth. Makes you hungry, doesn't it? But in all honesty it's a pretty serious camera, one that I barely know all the options/functions/buttons.

After the camera purchase, I heard Miles was having a pool party/bbq at his [parent's] house, so I swung over there. I don't know if I was technically "invited", but here's how he looked when I showed up:

You be the judge.

But yeah. It was lots of fun. There were lots of beer, people, swimming, and meat. Observe plateful of meat:

So all in all, it was a pretty solid weekend. And now at least I have a/c!

we stood at the top of the world

2005-07-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

or so it felt. or so it should have been. keys view in joshua tree is both a testament to the incredible beauty of the natural world and the impact humans have upon it. while the placards said that we should be able to see 90 odd miles into mexico (!!!), the haze/smog cut visibility down to a dozen miles or so. when we first got there we could see the smog blow over the crest of the mountain into the basin behind us. i always wondered where all of la's smog goes. now i know. i don't mean to preach or anything, but it was just a stark reminder how we can dramatically alter not only our own environment but ecosystems hundreds of miles away. but after all that, we got back into our 3 automobiles and drove home, so go figure.

to me there's always been this weird hypocrisy involved with camping or hiking or skiing or mountain biking or any outdoor activity where people tend to marvel and appreciate while at the same time degrade and deplete. in order for us to behold the park, we had to contribute to that very smog cloud that is damaging it. a good friend of mine gave up on snowboarding because of the impact humans have on the mountain. whether that's a better path to take or not is something i am way too tired to get into...

i don't get out of la very much, but each time i do it's a deep and sincere breath of fresh air (no pun intended, considering the last paragraph). it's still not routine to go hiking or camping or whatever, which leads to hesitation/procrasination/consumption of drug instead of actually going. last time i went out was for that day hike in the santa monica mountains, and i specifically remember thinking how awesome it was and how i needed to do it again. and now look at me...

but anyways, its after 9 and jason is hounding me to head out. gotta make some dinner first.

Flickr versus Jeremy London

2005-07-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

Flickr serves Jeremy London
Originally uploaded by j_london.

J-Lo gets served!

mutant fruit strike back!

2005-07-27T15:10:00.000-07:00

Half Grape Half Apples
Originally uploaded by j_london.

The slogan is "looks like an apple, tastes like a grape!"

Found this in the office kitchen this morning. Don't get my wrong, I love my genetically modified fruits like seedless grapes, clemintines/mineolas, pluots, and seedless watermelon. So I gave these suckers a try. Puke! They weren't even a real hybrid, just apples sprayed with "artificial grape flavors". It's a sad state of affairs where potentially life saving stem cell research can't be conducted because it "violates the sanctity of life", yet monstrosities like "grapples" are sold to our children.

Goddamn I have a sweet rack.

2005-07-26T23:15:00.000-07:00

And by "I have a sweet rack" I clearly mean "my roommate". My face + my roommate's (slightly crooked) rack = the ultimate crimefighting duo. Or something.

2005-07-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

This is God telling us we've triumphed over nothing. Somewhere in that shitstorm Jason's car (below) got it's undercarriage halfway pulled off. Youch.

Some more camping pics...

2005-07-26T22:37:00.000-07:00

This is us thinking we have triumphed over nature, not knowing what lay in store for us (look above).

Joshua Tree pics

2005-07-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

The story of this weekend is a saga. An epic tale of humans versus nature. Nature versus god. Rain versus ground beef. Heat waves versus reality. But as much as I want to document everything that happened, the story is simply too long. And buzznet will only let me syndicate 20 pictures max. Something would surely be lost in the retelling. So instead, here are 30 20 of my favorite pictures of the trip. I think they tell a fairly adequate story of the first 24 hours there, although my battery died after that so I have no pictures of the drive home.

Check out the rest of the pictures here.

resurrection?

2005-07-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the past few months, this site has definitely fallen into disarray. I could list the excuses for that, but frankly I don't care that much, and no one really reads this anymore, so what's the point?

Well, out of equal parts boredom and frustration, I'm gonna try to actually put up some content on a quasi-regular basis. Notice the loopholes I deliberatly left for myself...

But seriously.

For whatever reason, last week I started thinking about buying myself a digital SLR. My current digital camera is fine and all, but I miss the bulk of a real SLR. Small point and shoot cameras, while great for "going out and getting trashed" pictures, feel like toys. SLRs feel substantial. They feel like tools. I don't mean to have this boil down to a "I need big tools to make me feel big and manly" thing. It's more an issue of me wanting to take the pictures I want to take, not what the camera thinks best. Beyond that, I miss taking pictures. Back in Boston I took hundreds. Now, I rarely do. The new buzznet banner to the right is my attempt at motivating myself... let's see where this goes.

Still, it's a lot of money. They aren't cheap, and neither is the lens. Pricey toys. Err. I mean, pricey tools.

Blaaaaaah. I'm back.

Best. Food. Ever?

2005-07-18T13:56:00.000-07:00

Shea and I were talking about it this weekend, and I couldn't think of the best food I have ever had in my life. Was it the garlic fries at Pac Bell Park? The dinner at The Kitchen? A sandwich from Lulu's? Baingan Bharta from Amber Indian? Unagi from Saito's? It all tends to blur together into one orgy of culinary delight.

Can anyone point to the best food they've ever had? It's tougher than you think... Bonus points if you made the best food you've ever had, cause that's just awesome. And double bonus points if you then make it for me.

been a while.

2005-07-05T23:59:00.000-07:00

i guess i've been running out of things to say, or at the very least, the motivation to sit down and actually say them.

there seems to be this rut i get myself into on a fairly regular basis where i know there are things i should be doing (compiling an editors reel, reading, working out, going to bed at a quasi-decent hour), yet i just can't get myself to do them. especially the sleep thing. avoiding going to sleep every night.

so instead of writing and procrastinating anymore, this is me going to bed.

me getting served.

2005-05-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

My parents are way more hardcore than I am. And it isn't just my parents. It's their friends, their friend's friends, and this entire middle aged wine drinking society. They are hard core. They wake up at 7am and start drinking by 10. They drink through lunch. They drink through the afternoon.

At least they don't to cask stands. Or shiraz funnels. Or duct tape bottles to their hands and play "pinot palms". They sip politely. They shmooze. They have gourmet chefs cater the parties with pan seared ahi, chardonnay infused peanut brittle, and pinot chocolate dipping sauce.

Over the weekend I was home, and my parents bought me a ticket to a tasting party at a really nice winery up in Los Gatos. It started at 11, but when we showed up at 11:15, there were already a few dozen people there. I just can't believe people wake up early to drink. I mentioned this to my parents, and their reply was something along the lines of, "you should see us when we get up to go to Napa! We're there by 9:30."

Consider me served. And not just in the good "would you like to try some futures of this pinot" kind of served.

A brief overview:

2005-05-18T00:09:00.000-07:00

Been a while, but here are some things that have happened to me since last we spoke:

Number of:
-number of miles flown: ~6000
-number of colds: 1
-number of weeks suffering from said cold: ~2
-number of meals eaten out: > the number of meals cooked
-number of new CDs bought: 3
-number that were good: 2
-number of CDs bought under the assumption that it was an album of the Flaming Lips covering other bands: 1
-number of CDs that were actually a mix CD put together by the Flaming Lips: 1
-number of 2 day music festivals in the desert missed: 1
-number of kilobytes free on my ipod: 8
-number of days I have had to spend watching Home Alone 4, Strawberry Shortcake and the Sandlot 2: 17
-number of those days that were on the weekend: 1
-number of hours overtime spent watching said shitty movies: ~18
-number of planes missed: 1
-number of planes Shea missed: 1
-number of planes nearly missed but somehow made: 1
-number of DVDs worth of West Wing watched: 4
-number of times the end credit music of the West Wing seemed to be completely inappropriate in relation to the way the episode ended: every 15 episodes
-number of cities yelled "waddup XXXX" to while naked: 2

This Morning:

2005-04-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

So far this week:

number of days where I've overslept: 3
number of days where I've missed paying rent: 3
number of days where I haven't finished doing taxes: 3
number of open camping spots (with a firepit) open for us to camp in at Death Valley: 0
number of giant bugs that met their end on our car, during said trip to Death Valley: like a gazillion.
number of days until I go to NYC: 10
number of spam emails I've gotten in Portugeuse: more than 5
number of times my boss has come into my office and asked if I was done with my current project, and upon hearing that I wasn't, told me to hurry up because of all the work that was coming in: 4
number of new projects brought in this week: 0

The story of my weekend,

2005-04-05T11:17:00.000-07:00

as told by sumo wrestlers:

Happy hump day?

2005-03-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

This made me really sad. But not as sad as this.

Well timed Onion Headline: "History sighs, repeats itself."

The jungle

2005-03-28T15:11:00.000-08:00

Found this on my journey through the jungle this weekend:

During the past year of me spending 8+ hours a day in an office staring at monitors, I totally forgot how amazingly wonderful it is to leave it all. Even for just 12 hours.

On Saturday we hiked through Point Dume. Jason and I arrived just as the sun was rising, about 5:45, and we didn't leave till about 6pm. In between we hiked up and down canyons and waterfalls (see above), waded through mountain streams, and even hopped from boulder to boulder. I didn't quite have the courage to rapel down the largest of the waterfalls (50+ ft!!!), but it still was a breathtaking day.

Consider me motivated to get out more, starting NOW.

Good stuff.

2005-03-16T10:45:00.000-08:00

No matter how gloomy you might be, it's hard not to smile, at least for a moment, after listening to this.

my lesson for the day.

2005-03-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday on the way home, after one of the worst days I've had in a long time, I was greeted with these words of wisdom from the Amber Alert signs:

Life is important. Drive Safely.

and

Watch the road.

Thanks for validating my existence...

Nirvana!

2005-03-03T18:10:00.000-08:00

No, not the band. This.

Still waiting for an explanation for the noodle incident, but until then, I found a few of my favorites:

good dog names.

2005-02-24T15:02:00.000-08:00

been thinking more and more about how much I want a pet. that plus a slow day at work translates into this; me thinking about names for my future dog:

mu shu
tonka
brutus
gus
zeke
lando
baluga (loogie for short)
rufus (rufie for short)
olie
turkey (just for shits)
dogma
karma

obviously some are better than others, but these are the ones rolling 'round my head. soon...

the jerz

2005-02-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

From where I lived in NJ:

The three mayors and eight other public officials from Monmouth County, a shore community that includes Asbury Park, were caught on tape and by F.B.I. witnesses as they accepted payments to help the contractor get work in their cities and towns, according to Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney for Newark. The undercover operation dates back at least four years, officials said.

No officials from my hometown were charged, but still. Go NJ!

slow day ramble.

2005-02-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

Slow (delayed) start to the week so far, so in an effort to kil time, here's this. I'm not finished with it yet, but I really like reading his work, especially in this age of floods in LA, legitimate proof of global warming, and avian flu.

Instead of asking what the last Easter Islander did when they cut down their last tree, think what we'll say when we pump the last barrel of oil.

nerd post.

2005-02-21T23:01:00.000-08:00

this just boggles my mind. Not just the scale/magnitude speech you here when you see this kind of stuff. what gets me more than anything is just how amazingly beautiful how the laws of nature appear to us. Nature does this, we do mini-malls and freeways. The fact that things like this appear by themselves. They want to look like that. While some things humans do can be beautful, sometimes the most amazing things that happen do so without involving humans at all.

One of the best speeches I have ever read.

2005-02-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

Prime Minister of Canada: Address by Prime Minister Paul Martin on Bill C-38 (The Civil Marriage Act).

Why can't our guy be this eloquent?

traffic whore.

2005-02-16T22:49:00.000-08:00

My friend got punked Paris Hilton style, so, just for kicks, I just want to see what this will do to my traffic:

that is all.

No, I didn't have sex with a Playboy bunny, but I appreciate you pointing that out.

2005-02-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

As I've said earlier, having my phone number listed under my name has led to some weird phone calls here in LA. But I think this past sunday takes the cake for Jeremy London phone calls...

I was up fairly late on Saturday night, so I slept in. But somewhere early in the morning, like 8 or 8:30, I remember half waking up to the sound of the phone ringing, and the answering machine picking up. I distinctly hearing the phone ring a few times, which is kind of weird.

But fast forward a few hours.

At about 12, I stumbled out of bed. I checked my email, and was dicking around on my computer when Clauson came in and told me I had a message on the answering machine. "Its kind of weird, but I know it isn't for me." he said.

I went over to it and hit the play button. A girls voice said, "Hi Jeremy, it's kim, kristi's sister. When you get this, have her call me." Weird. Not only did I not hang out with a kim or a kristi last night, I don't even know any.

But at 12:30, the phone rings again. I pick it up. The conversation went something like this:

"hello?"

"jeremy?"

"yeah."

"it's kim. where's kristi?"

"who?"

"kristi. the girl you went home with."

"um... who?"

"weren't you at the mansion last night?"

"what mansion?"

"the playboy mansion."

"uhh... I wish I partied at the playboy mansion last night."(In reality I was over Sperling's house watching Cosmos, a science documentary, but I didn't want to admit that to her.)

"are you messing with me?"

"are you messing with me?"

"where's my sister?"

"I don't know where your sister is. I just woke up. Wait. Who do you think I am."

"Jeremy"

"Jeremy what?"

"Jeremy London."

"The actor?"

"Yeah. My friend here said she saw you leave with my sister last night."

"Listen. That's not me. I just have the same name as that actor. You've got the wrong guy."

"Don't mess with me, I just want to talk to my sister."

"Have you ever seen The Big Lebowski?"

"huh?"

"The movie. Big Lebowski."

"yeah, i've seen it."

"you know how the whole movie is centered around punks mistaking one Jeffrey Lebowski for another, richer Jeffrey Lebowski?"

"yeah..."

"That's kinda how I'm feeling right now."

(a few seconds pause)

"where's my sister?"

"ok. listen. I don't have your sister. I've never met your sister. I'm sitting in my bed right now, and as unfortunate as it is, there is no playboy model here with me. You called me expecting the actor guy, but that isn't me. We just have the same name."

"But my friend said she saw her go home with you."

"Fine. Tell me what I look like."

"Um. About 5 10, medium/thick build, brown hair, has a twin brother Jason..."

"OK. Stop. You are describing the actor Jeremy London. That. Isn't. Me."

"You aren't acting with me right now, are you?"

At this point, I just couldnt keep from laughing. I felt bad, and told her I wasn't laughing at her predicament, only the situation. Eventually, I convinced her I wasn't who she was looking for, and she hung up. But man. I kind of wished the actor JL like murdered or raped her or something, so then I could be called in as a witness to the Jeremy London murder trial, or something. Then I could be on Court TV. My dream of dreams.

So. To Jeremy London. You're such a has been. What have you done lately that justifies you nailing playboy bunnies in 2005? 7th Heaven? How is it you get to have ridiculous parties at the playboy mansion while I have to foot the bill the next morning?

I am seriously beginning to wonder whether this town is big enough for the two of us.

You asshole.

Puts it all in perspective

2005-02-12T11:12:00.000-08:00

The Solar System... to scale.

Long week. High jump. Low ceiling.

2005-02-11T00:11:00.000-08:00

This week could not have been longer. Since Monday I've been working like a dog on Ring2 International TVs. If I had simply to deal with long hours, I could probably deal. They treat me well, time and a half plus free meals definitely ease the pain of not having much of a life.

But as I alluded to in an earlier post, all three of my bosses are involved in this petty bickering amongst themselves, which (I believe) almost cost us the campaign. Not that it really matters, but my boss (who I've been working for since moving out) and the president of the company (A), in a very sneaky way, took the international campaign away from my other producer(B). No idea why. Ego, boredom and general feeling of insecurity are the likely suspects.

Having multiple bosses isn't so bad so long as they communicate with each other. Mine don't, which leads to me doing work multiple times, or changes being made that aren't necessarily supposed to be.

So in the course of the past three days (A) had me make a total of 8 spots (:30, :20, :15 and :10 cutdowns of 2 existing spots) and rush them out as quickly as possible. Today rolls by, and (B) comes in to tell me that she has the project back, and all the work needs to be done again because they aren't right.

Rewind.

So in the past 4 nights I have about 8 hours of overtime, most of which was unnecessary. But like I said before. Long hours aren't bad as long as you know they aren't in vain. Deeling with a silly power stuggle office mini-drama (from which you can't escape) makes it really shitty.

So here's to me looking forward to not working on the weekend. I told Paula about next weekend too, so I shouldn't have to work then either.

CUT

Tonight is the first time in as long as I can remember where I watched TV for more than 30 minutes even when there was nothing on. Channel surfing sucks, but I find myself doing it all the time. Why aren't I reading?

An open letter to the asshole driving a late 90s Corolla on Fountain heading east at 8:30pm on Monday 7 Feb.

2005-02-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Asshole:

Yes, I see you and your asshole buddy looking over at me, while we are stopped at the Crescent Heights light. Is it because you were wondering how my day went? How thoughtful of you! If you must know, it wasn't too bad. Kind of long, but not too bad. I had to work a few hours later than usual, but I feel better already knowing you are looking out for me. Or maybe you were admiring my car, which I must admit, is pretty damn fly. I know it's only a Civic, but it's one of the nice Civics with a moonroof and stock alloys, so you know its tight. It gets 30mpg. And anyway, it's way better than your beat up Corolla. I mean, I know the ladies love fuel efficient entry level cars like mine, but who can honestly resist an 8 year old compact sedan with wheel covers?

What's that? You're revving your engine? But the light hasn't changed yet. Where are you planning on going? Oh. I get it. You want to race me. But when you wanna drag race someone, you usually want to do it when no one is in front of you. If it weren't for the minivan in front of me and the Escort in front of you, I'd totally burn your ass. But for now, you'll just have to take an IOU. I know we're gonna hang later, so you know I'm good for it.

Oh. Now I really get your schtick. Your lane ends in 50 yards, where cars are parked for the night. Sucks to be you, but its time to chill out and merge. Now, I understand SoCal natives are generally taught to drive by moronic ex-soap opera extras who spend half the time talking to their crappy agents, but where I'm from, people merge with relative intelligence. You don't try to merge ahead of cars right next to you. So when, you know, I keep going and you're still right next to me, I got a little nervous. Where are you going to go? You gotta move over to my lane sometime.

See, looking back, I see that is my problem. I referred to it as my lane, when it so clearly belongs to you. How else can you explain your ridiculous "merge" involving a near crash into the parked car, and me having to slam on my brakes to avoid slamming into your piece of shit. Excuse me.

So I really appreciate you hanging out of your car window while I honked at you. I'm glad you stopped your car in the middle of the road, and got out to shout at me. Never mind the line of cars building up behind us. Forget the fact that you're completely blocking eastbound traffic on a fairly major road in LA. How little I knew that you are, in effect, the king of Fountain Ave. All this time, there I was, like a sucker, imagining it "public property." Oops.

It was all a misunderstanding. When I heard you call "piece of shit asshole", you really said, "Please respect my balls when I'm driving on my road, bitch." When you asked me if "I wanted to get my ass kicked," you were really asking if "I would like to pay homage to your majesty, the fuckface of Fountain."

So please, in all honesty, accept my humblest apologies. I'm sorry for not recognizing you for the giant douche bag that you are. I'm sorry for not realizing that the traffic laws do not apply to you. And I'm sorry for not having some sort of blunt object lying around in my car with which I could have pummeled you and your piece of shit ride.

Assorted Trajectories

2005-02-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

--Script for a TV Spot I cut for The Shield:

The Shield
:30 TV "Female Sell" #6 rev.1

THIS SEASON ON THE SHIELD

IF YOU THINK YOU KNOW

WHAT'S COMING NEXT

YOU'RE NOT

EVEN

CLOSE
(Reveal Glenn Close)

Things that are wrong with this:
1)Using a pun to sell a product has never ended well.
2)How does using puns make this a "female sell".
3)How does Glenn Close translate to getting women to watch this show?
4)Everything.

--Working late isn't so bad if you get good food for dinner.

--Office power struggles are so much fun to watch if you aren't involved, and both sides confide in you. As a kid, I always assumed that grown ups would... well... act like grown ups, and not children.

How wrong, how very very wrong of me.

--We got an intern today.

--Jason Sperling makes the greatest wings.

--Superbowls, for all the hype, are just an excuse for adults to get piss drunk at 3 in the afternoon (at least for us in Pacific Time). Take it from my roommate, he had 10 beers by the time the game was over.

--I wanna go home now.

Legit, part 2

2005-02-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

First spotting of one of the Ring2 spots we worked on: Just after the Superbowl, in between the Simpsons and American Dad.

Not a bad time slot, eh?

Process Your World

2005-02-06T21:57:00.000-08:00

Ingo Gunther’s statistical globe art

I'm legit.

2005-02-04T01:51:00.000-08:00

It's official: I got my first two (2!!!) spots finished this week, both for Ring2. As soon as they come back from the finishing session/mix, I'll try to sneak some quicktimes of them up to show. Not that they're anything more than your standard tv ads for movies, but still.

Wheee!

Interesting note: Of the four total finished tv spots we have for the Ring2, I'm at least partially responsible for 2. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

never blog drunk

2005-02-02T01:58:00.000-08:00

edit: tuesday + jager = bad.

Death don't drink.

2005-01-28T20:20:00.000-08:00

Ananova - Man peed way out of avalanche

Bad Day

2005-01-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

Exhibit A:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. helicopter crashed in a desert sandstorm in the early morning darkness Wednesday, killing the 30 Marines and one Navy sailor aboard. Six other troops died in insurgent ambushes in the deadliest day for Americans since the Iraq war began nearly two years ago.
Exhibit B:

GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) - A suicidal man parked his SUV on the railroad tracks and set off a crash of two commuter trains Wednesday that hurled passengers down the aisles and turned rail cars into smoking, twisted heaps of steel, authorities said. At least 11 people were killed and more than 180 injured.

The SUV driver got out at the last moment and survived.
Exhibit C:

I poured OJ instead of milk into my cereal this morning. Like a chump
Exhibit D:
General office bullshit, including having to pull a 12 hour day.

Not that C or D can ever compare to A and B, but all four of these contributed to an overall shitty day.

kinda scary.

2005-01-24T00:19:00.000-08:00

I really intended to stop putting political crap up here, but this really caught my attention. Secret Unit Expands Rumsfeld's Domain.

The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA's historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad, according to interviews with participants and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld's written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence. Designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary's direct control, the Strategic Support Branch deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces.

...

Pentagon officials emphasized their intention to remain accountable to Congress, but they also asserted that defense intelligence missions are subject to fewer legal constraints than Rumsfeld's predecessors believed. That assertion involves new interpretations of Title 10 of the U.S. Code, which governs the armed services, and Title 50, which governs, among other things, foreign intelligence.

Under Title 10, for example, the Defense Department must report to Congress all "deployment orders," or formal instructions from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to position U.S. forces for combat. But guidelines issued this month by Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone state that special operations forces may "conduct clandestine HUMINT operations . . . before publication" of a deployment order, rendering notification unnecessary. Pentagon lawyers also define the "war on terror" as ongoing, indefinite and global in scope. That analysis effectively discards the limitation of the defense secretary's war powers to times and places of imminent combat.

Under Title 50, all departments of the executive branch are obliged to keep Congress "fully and currently informed of all intelligence activities." The law exempts "traditional . . . military activities" and their "routine support." Advisers said Rumsfeld, after requesting a fresh legal review by the Pentagon's general counsel, interprets "traditional" and "routine" more expansively than his predecessors.

We have people in Iran right now. The invasion of Iran has probably already started, and Rumsfeld is heading it. The article goes on, quoting people who confirm that we have covert ops under the DoD in a number of countries, many of them were unnamed.

This scares the bejesus our of me.

Say what you will of him, or Bush, or the whole neocon wing, but no one person should have that much power over our armed forces, especially without congressional oversight.

I can lose better than you.

2005-01-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

I know it's really late to be talking about the election, but this past weekend brought up some pretty nasty memories and emotions. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but watching Brien's two missed FGs... man.

Let me back up.

I went into Nov. 2nd hopeful, yet equally skeptical. I kept track of the electoral vote trackers for the preceeding months, and saw only a few times that Kerry ever had a lead. None of those leads were convincing, yet Bush's gains after the RNC and elsewhere seemed to doom Kerry. But yet he stayed in the game. The bookies in Vegas had Bush as the favorite, yet Kerry kept neck and neck throughout the fall. And yet, during all that time, he seemed unwilling or able to really hammer home the incompetency that plagued Bush's first term. The message was wishy washy. He was constantly playing defence to the Bush camp's wild allegations, and never really bringing the fight to Bush. The catastrophe in Iraq, the lack of WMDs, the surging defecit, the fact that we didn't really elect him in the first place, the backlash of global public opinion, the fact that he's the most despised American president since, well, whenever, and the apparent lack of intelligence all were bypassed for his "I served in Vietnam" argument. Please.

And then, in the final hour, in the final state to announce a winner, it became clear; Kerry lost. What is most heartbreaking is that despite the odds, despite all the errors, Kerry still had a decent chance of winning. He won the debates. He had a better plan, but couldn't stage a campaign worth its weight in BS. He lost it for himself.

Fast forward, then, to Jan. 16th. AFC divisional game. Jets v. Steelers, at Heinz Staduim. The Jets were coming off an incredible upset win over the Chargers last week, were here to face the most dominant team in the league, who was undefeated in its past 15 games. They broke the Patriot's ridiculous unbeaten streak. They were, I think, 10 point favorites. It shouldn't even have been close. A weak Jets offence against the #1 defence in the league. No contest. I remember checking an ESPN poll, and only 5% of the people thought the Jets were going to win.

Within the first 5 minutes, it was 10-0 Steelers. Game over, I thought. Pennington had his first pass attempt intercepted, which resulted in an easy touchdown. The Jets looked inept. They looked careless. They missed an early field goal attempt.

But then they woke up. They had an amazing punt returned for a touchdown. By halftime, it was tied 10-10. Amazing. They were still in the game. After halftime, the unthinkable happened. The Jets took the lead. It was 17-10. Tongue returned an interception for a touchdown. The crowd was stunned. I was speechless. The game was theirs to lose.

Eventually, though, things got settled down. The Steelers tied it up. It was late in the fourth quarter, and the Jets were marching downfield to kick a game winning field goal. Doug Brien came onto the field. He kicked it straight. It looked like it was going to go in. But it didn't. It hit the cross bar exactly, which is kind of like flipping a coin and have it land on its side. Now, I thought, its really over. The Jets missed their chance. The Steelers had excellent position, and enough time to move 30 or so yards to kick their field goal.

But what the fuck! The Jets intercepted again! They could still win! Even though their offence contributed 0 points, they could still pull of a huge upset. Brien came on field again, and I was sure he'd redeem himself. It was a 43 yard attempt instead of the previous 47 yarder. A little closer. And he must know how the wind is blowing, and how to compensate.

If his first attempt was like a coin toss landing on its side, his second one would be like, um.., someone chucking the coin at your face while punching you in the nuts. It went so wide left it missed the net behind goal designed to catch kicked balls. It was awful. I had to sit back down. I had to realize that in no way, shape or form could the Jets get a third chance to upset the best team in football.

And they didn't, even though they won the coin toss in overtime, and technically could have done something.

I know its silly to compare football to national politics, but after the game, I couldn't help but realize I recognize the feeling I felt. That unsatisfying, gnawing, slightly nauseating feeling of disappointment. I felt this not too long ago, I realized. But when? When was the last time I was rooting for a team with no offence, no coherent plan to win, and for a team that by all logic shouldn't even be close?

Hmmm....

So here's to botched field goals, incompetent campaign planning, vanilla offensive play calling, heartbreaking defeats that we should all have seen coming, and to purple hearts that didn't do squat. Most of all, here's to me still rooting for the team I know can't win.

Maybe I was right afterall.

2005-01-13T10:25:00.000-08:00

Red meat is strongly linked to cancer - Diet experts urge move to poultry, fish and beans after results of long-term study.

The group that ate the most processed meat had twice the risk of developing colon cancer compared with those who ate the least, the team found; and those who ate most red meat had a 40% higher risk of getting rectal cancer.

By contrast, those who ate the highest quantity of poultry or fish had a 20-30% lower risk of developing the diseases, the team reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association. This applied even when the researchers took into account other risk factors, such as being overweight, not taking exercise and not eating fruit and vegetables.

Don't get me wrong, I loved steak. I loved burgers. I loved steakburgers. But once I read about Mad Cow, prions, and other really creepy aspects of the cattle industry, I couldn't force myself to eat it anymore. I even gave up all meat for a few months, but gave that up to eat only poultry and fish instead. Ideally, I think we as a society would be eating far less meat for a number of reasons. Meat production is incredibly resource intensive, polluting, and expensive. Not to mention red meat has been linked to a number of health issues.

But it tastes so good.

Here's my theory: if people saw what it took to get you that double bacon cheeseburger, I think people would eat way less meat than they normally do. If they saw the fields of cattle (Harris Ranch on I5, for example), if they saw the slaughterhouses, and if they saw how much water, land, and feed it took to make just one pound of meat, I would like to think people would consider meat a luxury, not a staple.

road rage

2005-01-12T22:36:00.000-08:00

should the kind of car matter whether i get angry at someone for cutting me off? am i falling into the la "you are what you drive" mindset, and judging people by what they drive?

last night some guy totally cut me off, driving one of those bentley coupes. gorgeous car, but it pissed me off loads. more so, then say, had some mercury sable done so. a car like a bentley denotes a shitload of money, and they obviously like flaunting it. maybe its the idea of conspicuous wealth that is bothering me, and it manifests itself in cars. maybe i'm assuming the guy driving feel he can cut me off because he's driving a bentley. maybe i'm thinking about this too much.

either way, hell hath no fury like rush hour drivers on fountain ave after 2 weeks of steady, hard rain.

by the way, the coupe goes for about $170,000, which could buy you an entire house in some parts of the country. and it is considered the world's fastest 4 door. for those who give a damn.

holy shit...

2005-01-11T00:36:00.000-08:00

not that this compares in anyway to the tsunami incident, but:

A boulder some 25 feet high blocks both lanes of the Topanga Caynon Road, Monday, Jan. 10, 2005, as electrical contractors fix broken power and communication lines in Malibu, Calif. No injures where reported, but the road remains closed. The storm system was blamed for at least nine deaths during the weekend in Southern California, including a man killed when his vehicle plunged into the surf off Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, and a homeless man killed when the hillside where his tent was pitched gave way. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

and i thought marketing wasn't sinister...

2005-01-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

So our theatrical trailer for The Ring Two is up. It isn't nearly as good as the teaser, which in all honesty is one of the best teasers I've seen. It really gives the film more credit than its worth.

So anyway. The trailer is up. But what creeps me out is that the people here and at Dreamworks all read the message boards to see what people had to say. I guess teen movies like this get lots of internet chatter, which in turn means a lot to a marketing campaign. People seem to like the trailer, which is good, and it is kind of funny to see people obsess over your work (one guy typed a complete shot list of the trailer...), but both Rick and Paula seemed to get really condescending when we talked about the fans. Rick called some of them idiots, but it wasn't that. It was more a sense of general superiority over these ring zealots.

Now obviously internet messageboards have their fair share of idiots. No arguement here. But to call the people who, in the end, pay your salary, idiots just seems really disrespectful. Feels like we are con artists more than entertainers.

recollections, reiterations, recent events.

2005-01-08T02:28:00.000-08:00

2:29am. Music: "run" by Air. its a film noir night. cold. the streets are wet. rain is coming down consistently, but not forcefully.

smoked a clove tonight. it was the first one in quite a while. when was the last pack i bought? definitely back in boston, and definitely when i still lived in the dorm. weird. tonight was miles's birthday. at 1:11am 24 years ago he entered this world kicking and screaming.

i almost didn't go out. today was rainy and cloudy, which i normally love, except for today it seemed to freeze time. 11am looked the same as 3:50pm. i try to keep a window open in my room, but it just felt i was stuck in the early afternoon all day. the work didn't help much either. i got notes back from the dreamworks guy on my ring2 spot, and the were barely lukewarm. maybe i'm overly sensitive to it, but he is treating my spot like a wild card. if his bosses don't like the others, then he will pull mine out of a hat. otherwise, it probably won't get shown. who knows. i want to say who cares, but i know deep down, i do. i want to do well. i want my work to be shown. i want finished spots. it isn't so much for the clients as much as it is for me. right now, editing like i am, i feel like a phoney. every other editor has so much more experience. what the hell am i?

anyway.

so i got the notes just before lunch, and spent the rest of the day trying to get it up to snuff. but just like when you keep straining to write the perfect paper, eventually you reach a point of complete brain saturation. i got there at about 4, but had to keep churning my work until about 6. sigh. rick was in there helping me out, which i completely appreciate, but when i get frustrated i tend to get cranky. blah. who cares. its a fucking :30 second tv spot that 95% of the people try to ignore. this isn't art. this isn't vision. this is a marketing department. sigh.

so i get my spot finished at about 6, and paula, my producer, wants to go out for some drinks to celebrate the weekend. theres this bar across the streets. the "tiger lily", i think. i forget now. she totally jaywalks across wilshire during rush hour, which is utterly ridiculous. it was dark so i couldn't see, but i get the feeling that the drivers in cars which stopped for us were cursing us. and our ancestors.

the bar is pretty small, but cozy in an midtown manhattan kind of way.

i've never really been to midtown, but this is kind of how i picture it. there are only 2 other people in there when the 5 of us (me, paula, rick, joe, and lee) come in. we sit at the bar. the place is dimly lit by a few chandeliers. behind the bar is a large mirror, and there are some phrases painted onto it. "sangria: $6/glass. $30/pitcher" in big red letters. the bar tender asks me first what i want, so i order a drink (makers mark and ginger ale... thanks shea!). joe orders next, with a soco on the rocks. holy crap. i didnt think anyone over 21 drank that, but as he proudly proclaims, "its sweet and gets you fucked up quick". indeed. paula gets some wine, lee gets a rum and coke but orders it by its spanish name, but rick is having problems. he clearly hasn't been out to a bar in a while, because he cant remember what a screwdriver is. is it grapefruit or orange juice? anyway, i don't want to sound condescending, it was just amusing to see the contrast between, say, mr. soco and mr. i haven't had a drink in years.

they serve tapas. we order some. most were ham or meat based, but one, the sweet potato fries, is so good. man. so. good.

so there we are, the 5 of us. drinking, reminicing, enjoying the beginning of the weekend. but as we were sitting there, and the older 4 talked amongst themselves, i just thought how weird it was to think that someday, this would be a nice end of a night, rather than a beginning. someday work will be a major social outlet. right now any friends i make there are added bonuses, but aren't required. someday, outings like this will be a big source of entertainment, rather than a detour on the way to my real night.

so we leave, and i go home. get to my apartment at about 8. collapse on the couch, and huddle under a blanket because the heating is still out. i watch some history channel documentary about stealth fighers, and fall asleep until clauson walks in, and tells me we're going to Fran's place for some food and drink. ok. i was too tired to get up instantly, but too awake and bored to say no.

fran's was fun. good food and beer. saw nina and fran, both of whom i haven't seen in days. she has this crazy cat who has a little mattress made of catnip. we figured out this is the equivalent to me going to sleep each night on a crack pillow. wheeeee.

from there we go to the nobar, our old stomping ground. we all buy miles shots, and he gets plastered. it was fun. put money in the jukebox, but never heard my songs. at one point jay drags me outside, where i smoke that clove.

too tired to continue. maybe ill finish later, or just the rest unsaid.

my sentiments exactly.

2005-01-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

H2s blow.

this is eerie.

2005-01-04T08:17:00.000-08:00

About 50 miles north of LA. This is actually outside Gorman, which is on the stretch of I5 known as the "grapevine". Usually you have to turn off your A/C so your car doesn't overheat. Now there's 2 feet of snow. I drove by there not 6 hours before the snow started falling. Yikes.

budding insomniac

2005-01-04T01:34:00.000-08:00

12:33 am. i know i have to wake up in 6 hours. i've been sitting here for an hour waiting to get tired enough to go to bed. sigh.

got a hair cut today. too short. or maybe she did it right, but i was expecting something else. eitherway, its shorter than what i really wanted, but its hair, and the one thing it does is grow back.

cold. our heater is broken. pilot light wont stay lit. clauson and i spent about 45 minutes trying to get it to work, and i half expected one of us to blow his face up in the process. at least the heater in my bedroom still works.

new years resolutions:

drink 8 glasses of water a day
do morning situps/pullups*
be more thoughtful of other people

remember when you were in high school and it was a weekend night, and your parents were going out for the night, and one of your friends parents were going out too, and there would be a little glimpse of freedom for a few hours, where you could grab some food, smoke or be silly and stuff? i had completely forgotten the feeling until this past weekend where i was driving down a road robin and i used to bike to subway or an arcrade or whatever. maybe it was deja vu, maybe it was a long lost memory, but i had this moment where i remembered how good it felt to be a teenager with nothing to do. i know, by contrast, i have a whole lot to worry about now, but also in cpmparison to other (mostly older) people, i don't have a lot to worry about. it still feels good to be a 23 year old with nothing to do, even if that doesn't happen that often.

*i fully admit this resolution has about a 0% chance of making it to till february.

Asia Tsunami shitstorm

2004-12-27T16:52:00.000-08:00

23k dead.

Help them here.

And/or here.

Funniest. Thing. Ever.

2004-12-24T10:55:00.000-08:00

The Editing Room - National Treasure: The Abridged Script

PRODUCER JERRY BRUCKHEIMER
(headbanging)
NATIONAL HISTORY IS THE MOTHERFUCKING SHIT! YEAH!

The pattern of discontent in US ranks

2004-12-16T10:27:00.000-08:00

Good read.

I'm just amazed that not only has Rumsfeld been invited back for another four years, but Franks, Tenet and Bremer were recently awarded the highest civilian honor possible. While Franks did his job, and did it fairly well, I just can't think of three other people who have made mistakes as colossal as they did (Bill Buckner excluded) and didn't end up either dead or in prison.

But yeah. Go America.

Found what I want:

2004-12-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

Dension USA

finally found a solution to my ipod in car w/o a tape player dilemma. all i need is a couple of hundred bucks.

Hi-oh!

2004-12-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

Onion in Brief:

PHOENIX—The arrest of former Arizona State running back Darius Cantrell in connection with a homicide provided the perfect segue from local news to the sports report on KPHO CBS 5's News At Ten Monday. "Cantrell, who is charged with stabbing his ex-girlfriend 38 times, is being held without bail," anchor Diana Sullivan said. "Speaking of sports, can the Cardinals' coach bail the team out of a third-place finish in the NFC West? Our own Gary Cruz will have the verdict after the break." It was the station's most convenient transition to sports since May 1996, when an anchor moved from a piece on sex toys with the phrase, "and speaking of long double headers..."

Gainfully employed!

2004-12-14T09:44:00.000-08:00

Been working for a few days, after my.. um.. sabbatical? Even though I am now at one of the oldest trailer companies in Hollywood, they don't have a website for me to look at. Kinda shady, I know, but I assure you this is legit. They even have g4 powerbooks for the editors to use! Sweet! That, and all the coffee my addicted ass can drink. But seriously, I'm addicted.

I'll miss you, Bruds

2004-12-11T21:34:00.000-08:00

I know I am terribly belated in this, but we lost a great man this week.

I'll miss you, Bruds.

I might not have agreed with him 100%, but he always held my opinions in the highest esteem and opened his doors whenever I wanted to poke my head in. He treated me as well as his most famous and respected guests. He replied to my emails as if they were of the upmost importance. He treated all us brothers as family. I never got to know him as well as I should, I never finished his autobiography, and I didn't visit him as much as I wanted, but that's life. I'm glad for what I did get.

If only more political commentators were as honorable and intelligent as he was.

Goodbye, David.

who's being mature?

2004-12-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos - AP

Cat Barnard sits in her driveway in Enterprise, Fla. Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2004, near the tent where and she and her husband, Harlan slept. The Barnards moved out of the house and set up the tent in the driveway to go on strike because their children, Benjamin, 17, and Kit, 12, refused to do household chores. The parents won't cook, clean or drive their children until they shape up.(AP Photo/Peter Cosgrove)

Hanukkah

2004-12-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

The History of Hanukkah

Tonight is the first night Hanukkah, when we celebrate the Jewish victory over the Syrians. Tonight is the night when we celebrate a guerilla victory of a group of religious radicals. Tonight is the night when we celebrate a guerilla victory of a group of religious radicals over an invading imperialistic army. Tonight is the night when we celebrate a victory of a small, dedicated group of warriors who hid in the mountains over a much larger, much better equipped army (which happened to be the most powerful at the time).

Am I reading too much into this, or has not much changed in the past couple of thousand of years?

A match made in heaven.

2004-12-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

Fox to Provide News to Clear Channel

Vengence tastes so, so sweet

2004-12-06T01:39:00.000-08:00

I got dragged into seeing National Treasure today, and felt a need to retaliate at the movie industry, not just because I'm having a little trouble finding some work, but because despite my lack of a job, they seem to be having no problems crapping out horrifyingly bad movies on a weekly basis. National Treasure? Bridget Jones 2: The Edge of Reason (worst name for a chick flick ever)? Seed of Chucky? My god. And that's not even looking at the low budget knockoffs of those.

Something needed to be done. Something drastic. So I learned how to copy DVDs.

It's really easy, once you have the necessary programs. You need a program to de-encrypt the data and copy it to your hard drive, one to compress the original, double layered dvd into enough space that will fit on a single layered dvd which we can burn, and another program to actually burn the data onto a blank dvd-r. 3 steps. Blank DVD-Rs cost about 50 cents each. Jewel cases cost about 20. Combined with a $17.99 Netflix rental program, the possibilities are truly frightening. Assuming I can go through 18 DVDs a month, that means each DVD costs me $1.70. Is that not the shit?

Looking back at that 1st paragraph, I sound like that comic store guy on the simpsons who feels entitled to recieve top notch entertainment for free. As someone who worked in Hollywood, I completely understand that I am, in one way or another, completely stealing from my self. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that VCRs didn't ruin the film industry, like they feared. And the more I think about it, the more I see that these studios are rich. Really rich. A few computer geeks burning DVDs amount to a few drops in their bathtub. If I'm renting the movie, I'm not going to buy it anyway, so they really aren't losing any money.

So on a scale of 1 to really guilty, I feel about a 2 for doing this. I just think its fucking awesome.

Turn Your Back

2004-12-04T13:50:00.000-08:00

Turn Your Back On Bush, for anyone who will be in the DC area come January.

Most inappropriate gift ever.

2004-12-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

Brookstone.com : Panasonic Lighted Nose/Ear Trimmer

Where my what at?

2004-12-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

Last night. Saul Williams show. One of the first two songs played was, "African Student Movement." The chorus goes something like, "now tell me where my niggas at?!" Not that in and of itself is nothing much to me, but when some white kids just in front of me start singing along with Saul, it really got under my skin. But it wasn't even singing along, they would shout out the line a measure or so before Saul shouted it. Do they realize what they are saying? Do they understand what the words mean? Can they see beyond their own desire to show people they know the lyrics?

I mean, one of the things he kept saying last night was the inherent power of the word. Words, whether you want them to or not, carry a lot of weight. I'm sure they meant nothing by it, I'm sure they just wanted to show their affection to him, but using a co-opted racial slur isn't the way into many people's hearts, or so I think.

The way I see it, the words are everyone's to listen. The man is incredibly talented. Please, by all means, listen to what he has to say. But to believe that hundreds of years of oppression and violence and hatred will disappear instantly when people say nigger in a non-racist way is ignorant (maybe not ignorant, but definitely naive). I don't know, maybe this is just me being uncomfortable.

Short Circuit part 3 (Number 5 goes to Iraq)

2004-12-02T09:58:00.000-08:00

Wired News: More Robot Grunts Ready for Duty

For years, the Pentagon and defense contractors have been toying with the idea of sending armed, unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, into battle. Actually putting together the robots was a remarkably straightforward job, said Tordillos, who works in the Army's Armaments Engineering and Technology Center.

Ordinarily, the Talon bomb-disposal UGV comes equipped with a mechanical arm, to pick up and inspect suspicious objects. More than a hundred of the robots are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan, with an equal amount on order from the UGV's maker, Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm Foster-Miller.

For this new, lethal Talon model, Foster-Miller swapped the metal limb for a remote-controlled, camera-equipped, shock-resistant tripod, which the Marines use to fire their guns from hundreds of feet away. The only difference: The Marines' version relies on cables to connect weapons and controllers, while the Talon gets its orders to fire from radio signals instead.

After reading all this, I just can't help but think of ol' Number 5.

I think the Pentagon has been watching a few too many movies. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing per se, but I just don't want Steve Guttenberg movies to be the source of weapons research.

holy shit its the six figured man!

2004-12-01T10:34:00.000-08:00

Yahoo! News - World Photos - AP

Masters of War

2004-11-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

Song here:

Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Article here. I don't really care whether or not they changed the lyrics or not. The fact that anti-war lyrics from a generation ago seem just as prescient and relelvant today is what impresses me. This is our Vietnam, and those that cannot see have their heads in the sand.

American hypocrisy:

2004-11-12T15:01:00.000-08:00

We can show clips 24/7 (real player required) of our soldiers fighting real fights in the streets of Fallujah without worry, yet people have problems when ABC does a primetime broadcast of what many consider a truly great dedication to the sacrifices our soldiers have made for our country.

And who, might you ask, was one of the broadcasters who didn't air Saving Private Ryan? None other than Sinclair Broadcasting, who said:

"we do not personally believe that this movie is indecent in any manner".

It added in a statement: "We believe the FCC guidelines and ABC's refusal to delay the broadcast require us to pre-empt the movie."

This comes from the same company who forced it's stations to air an anti-Kerry "documentary" just before the elections. So are we to believe that "Stolen Honor" was more important than Private Ryan? Are you saying that it is morally acceptable to slander a Presidential Candidate whose agenda doesn't match yours, yet immoral to pay homage to the sacrifices made by soldiers, because it is "too gorey"? Who are you kidding?

So we can have our war on Terror. We can have our preemptive military strikes. We can have our street to street fighting in one of the largest cities in Iraq. We can not keep track of civilians we killed. Just so long as the blood and gore are edited out. Just so long it doesn't look too violent on TV. Just so long as the MPAA would give it, at most, a PG-13 rating. Because otherwise that might make some people squeamish.

From the immortal Apocalypse Now:

KURTZ (dictates to tape)
"They train young men to drop fire on people. But their commanders won't allow them to write fuck on their airplanes because it's obscene! "

Don't you worry...

2004-11-08T20:04:00.000-08:00

It will all be over soon.

Thoughts on the past few days.

2004-11-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

God bless the divided states of America.

I'm really depressed. I'm really amazed. To paraphrase the President, I'm in shock and awe at the results of Tuesday. I truly believed enough people in this country saw the past four years for what they were; a miserable failure filled with broken promises and deception and fear. I guess I'm just amazed at how wrong my perception of this country was.

Shea and I were talking last night, and she believes that a lot of people vote for Bush for no real reason. By that, she means that in rural areas aren't exposed to as much information, and just follow what their parents/neighbors/pastors/priests/rabbis tell them. I guess there is some validity to that, but in the end, the same could be said for Kerry votes. A lot of people, I'm willing to bet, especially politically unsavvy urban youth, just see celebrities wearing "vote kerry" shirts and doing their shtick for Kerry. So it's a zero sum game.

Underneath it all, I think this election was really about one thing. Not the economy, not Iraq, not terrorism, certainly not the environment. It was about "morality." More specifically, it was about Christian morals. Traditional values. Just talking about it sounds like a Bush campaign ad, so you can see where I'm going with this. The rural vote is a Christian vote, and Bush had the Christian vote on lockdown. People can argue about the morality of trashing the environment, invading a country for false reasons, lying to the people, and operating out of an environment of fear, but that doesn't matter. The morality in question was the "conservative" type.

I guess it's just so sad to see that people were more concerned with that the country stands for than what the country has done.

This is not the time to point fingers, or resort to "E-Voting machine conspiracy theories." This is not the time to fall in line with W, either. The Democratic party pretty much got thrashed on Tuesday. Time to regroup, reorganize. Obviously what we were doing was not working. I think we need to steal a page from the Republicans, and start more of a grass roots program recruiting voters.

As grim as it might sound, though, I think there is a silver lining in this. Bush and his cronies have to deal with the mess they made. They can't pass the blame over to Kerry when Iraq implodes. They can't blame Kerry, or even the democratic congress, about the lack of economic growth. For the next four years, the only people to blame for the state of the country are republicans. Don't let them forget it. If things are looking good in 2008, you know, great. In the end, the state of the union transcends party lines. I would rather have a tight ship under a republican than a loose one under a liberal. But come 2008, when their promises remain unfulfilled, don't let them forget it.

There. I'm done with election stuff. I don't want to hear anymore. I haven't been watching the news lately because of it.

go fuck yourself with your atom bomb.

2004-11-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

so angry right now. do you assholes have any idea what you've done?

listening to this right now.

this is as dark a day in america as i've ever seen. congradulation, fuckers.

Why has this taken so long to reach the press

2004-10-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

Seriously. Check this out.

I'm in NYC now, and far too lazy to blockquote. But still a good read. How this administration has gone for so long w/o repercussions is beyond me. And now that 50+ more Iraqi troops are dead, the ramifications of these blunders are still being felt. What the fuck.

NYC is awesome. Its such a vibrant place thats been marinating in people for so long. Such a contrast to LA. I'm still use to my car/bubble, but I really like it here.

But for real. Check out the LA Times article.

Fuck the Yankees

2004-10-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

For all you Yankee fans who think that was a blown call, that A-Rod was safe, and that the umpires suck, I just have one thing for you to consider:

Game 1, ALCS, 1999

Who of the two baserunners pictured here is more out? Thank you. Shut up.

Sinclair Sucks

2004-10-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Voice your dissent.

Republicans must really be feeling desperate. The GOP-coddling Sinclair Broadcasting Group -- whose sixty-four stations reach 25 percent of the national television audience -- is forcing its local stations to run an anti-Kerry propaganda film a week before the November 2 election, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. The documentary Stolen Honor, produced by former Tom Ridge stooge Carlton Sherwood, and airing between October 21 and 24, accuses Kerry of actually prolonging the war in Vietnam as a result of his antiwar activism.

Sinclair's stations include Fox, ABC, CBS, WB and UPN, fourteen of which air in crucial swing states. Federal election law prohibits public corporations and labor unions from airing "electioneering communication" sixty days before an election. But Sinclair dubs the anti-Kerry attackumentary "news content."

It appears to me that the best course of action is to attack the advertisers, not Sinclar itself. If the advertisers jump ship, then this content will surely follow. That being said, I urge you all to write emails, call those numbers, and do everything possible to let them know that you aren't going to support their products if they advertise on sinclair stations.

If you're lazy, then just use my letter:

To whom it may concern:

It has come to my attention that you invest advertising revenue in Sinclair Broadcasting Group. As we all know, Sinclair is forcing its stations to broadcast an unfair, undemocratic, and inflammatory "documentary" about Presidential Candidate John Kerry. This reeks of cronyism, and is blatantly undemocratic. Forcing a negative and one sided documentary about someone running for office and this close to election day is simply inappropriate.

Unfortunately, since you contribute money to Sinclair, I will boycott your products. I will tell all my friends and family members to do the same, until you change your advertising spending. I am shocked that a company as wholesome as yours would support such nasty tricks.

Sincerely,
--Jeremy London

Today...

2004-10-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

To Do:

Job Interview at Ignition Creative. I would link to their website, but its pretty crappy. The website, not the company. They've been doing some award winning campaigns, which is more than I can say for my present company. Notice the most recent work posted is my reel. So sad. Gotta get out of here.

Hoping for the best.

Good to know...

2004-10-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Truth Stranger Than Strangelove.

But film's weird accuracy is evident in its very first scene, in which a deranged base commander, preposterously named Gen. Jack D. Ripper (played by Sterling Hayden), orders his wing of B-52 bombers - which are on routine airborne alert, circling a "fail-safe point" just outside the Soviet border - to attack their targets inside the U.S.S.R. with multimegaton bombs. Once the pilots receive the order, they can't be diverted unless they receive a coded recall message. And 0nly General Ripper has the code.

The remarkable thing is, the fail-safe system that General Ripper exploits was the real, top-secret fail-safe system at the time. According to declassified Strategic Air Command histories, 12 B-52's - fully loaded with nuclear bombs - were kept on constant airborne alert. If they received a Go code, they went to war. This alert system, known as Chrome Dome, began in 1961. It ended in 1968, after a B-52 crashed in Greenland, spreading small amounts of radioactive fallout.

But until then, could some loony general have sent bombers to attack Russia without a presidential order? Yes.

This is good to know in our ongoing war on terror, no?

Not that anyone cares about the environment...

2004-10-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

I guess we're too busy stopping Cat Stevens and vibrators from entering the county to take notice on some important issues, but the BBC is starting a pretty good series about the streeses humans put on the Earth.

Food: An estimated 1 in 6 people suffer from hunger and malnutrition while attempts to grow food are damaging swathes of productive land.

Water: By 2025, two thirds of the world's people are likely to be living in areas of acute water stress.

Energy: Oil production could peak and supplies start to decline by 2010

Climate change: The world's greatest environmental challenge, according to the UK prime minister Tony Blair, with increased storms, floods, drought and species losses predicted.

Biodiversity: Many scientists think the Earth is now entering its sixth great extinction phase.

Pollution: Hazardous chemicals are now found in the bodies of all new-born babies, and an estimated one in four people worldwide are exposed to unhealthy concentrations of air pollutants.

Sooner or later, we're going to come to terms with all this. And the sad thing is, the people who would deal with this are not the ones who caused it. Those who would be responsible are dead. The jerks. Environmental policy has never been a cornerstone to any administration here in the US (I'm sure the same could be said elsewhere...) I can't find the exact polls, but the environment as a top political issue hasn't topped 10% in surveys. It shouldn't be a top priority considering our current war and domestic issues, but I think it deserves more attention. The shame of it is, no one is gonna get elected preaching conservation and telling people they can't get the new SUV, but that's really what should happen.

And because I'm so bored, here's todays Boondocks. I like.