Retail Therapy

I needed some therapy today but a psychiatrist is too time-consuming and too expensive.

I settled for shopping.

That's my excuse for this crappy post.

On the plus side, I've found a pair of jeans that fits me perfectly off the rack, no alterations needed. I love them and I love DKNY for making them!























I also bought a sweater and another pair of shoes ... shoes I don't need, seeing as how I have about 40, maybe 50 pairs.

I'll get to my spring cleaning once this show is over, sometime in July.

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Top Model: Elimination #9

Oh ... this terrible, terrible episode!

Right up front: Fo went home. I will miss that crazy little girl, she was sweet (if a little overly-teary) and cute. She's only 5'8" and I guess not very proportional, so with those excuses, the judges kicked her out. Sad.

Since today is the day that the show actually aired (I watched T.V. while working today), I have no photos. I don't regret it, because the photoshoot was lame. Brazil. Beach. Bikinis. Yawn.

Tyra's little clips that play before the judging starts ("Once upon a time, there was...") are completely stupid.

Teyona irritates the crap out of me. Her screeching makes me want to pull out her awful extensions.

Aminat and her inability to press her lips together- ugh.

Allison got SO CLOSE to closing her mouth ... but ended up looking a little rabbity, I think.

Celia completely psyched herself out and her photo was just meh. I think Tyra picked it intentionally so Celia would be in the bottom two. Celia needs to be in the bottom two this week so she can be kicked off next week, after all. *sigh*

I'm tired and cranky, so not a good night for me to be writing about this.

Side note-- watching "The Graham Norton Show," and Gillian Anderson is on. She's apparently on a BBC show, and she's adopted a hint of a British accent. It's so weird to hear Scully speaking in that posh little tone.

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Rosen Music Studio, Koreatown

Rosen Music Studio
3488 W. 8th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90005

Telephone: 213.387.0469



















(Photo from Yelp.)

I love that this place is called Rosen Music Studio, like it's some sort of professional place to record music. Yeah, not so much.

It's a good ol' karaoke place. Not a karaoke bar, mind you, for those are a disaster. Strangers singing? I don't need to hear that. My friends singing? I need to hear that and record video of that with which to blackmail them at a later date!

Korean (and Japanese) karaoke is for small groups. American karaoke bars are literally bars with a single karaoke machine, which is not so much fun unless you like to wait for four hours to sing one song.

In Koreatown, there are a few karaoke places that do the job well. Rosen is one of them. They have 33 rooms, I think (give or take a few), and the rooms vary in size depending on how many people have come along with the ride.

After the meat-athon on Saturday night, we decided to go sing a little. Spur of the moment decisions can be bad in Koreatown, especially on a Saturday night, because every place you could possibly want to go is booked. Restaurants, bars, karaoke...

We called and hooray! A room was available. The bad economy's good for something, after all.

We were only a party of six, so we got shown into one of the smaller rooms. Smaller doesn't mean that it's not as good; I actually prefer the smaller rooms because it seems like the sound is better. (The photo above is of one of the largest rooms- note the tambourines, a Korean karaoke necessity.)

Two bottles of lemon soju, one bottle of peach soju, one bottle of melon soju, and four hours later, we emerged happy and flushed and hoarse.

There are fancier karaoke places in Koreatown (Orchid, for example), but Rosen is a solid choice for good times and good soju. (They didn't have yogurt soju on Saturday, which made me sad. Yogurt soju sounds disgusting but is really, really good!)

Price isn't too bad. We stayed between 3 and 4 hours and had four bottles of soju and the bill came out to just under $200 for 6 people (not including tip).

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Top Model: Elimination #8

Chiquita Banana, really?!

Carmen Miranda got away with the fruit-bowl hat because ... well, she's Carmen Miranda! Mere mortals cannot get away with the crazy flamenco sleeves plus produce on the head.

First of all, I couldn't find a photo of Natalie. Not a big deal, since, let's face it, I don't like her and don't care.

The capoeira challenge was a nice concept but executed horribly.

Photoshoot was ... oh, my ... the Carmen Miranda-inspired shoot was just ... bowl of fruit on the head?? No.

Paulina's reaction to Aminat's photo was GREAT:

Paulina: "Aminat, you are beautiful. And you are boring."
Aminat: "I'm not boring!"
Paulina: "Well, not as a person. As a model!"

I concur. Blah photo:























Natalie argued with Tyra about Jay Manuel and had some attitude. As usual. Maybe that's why the CW decide that they weren't going to post a picture of her? The photo was boring, anyway.

Celia looked tired. She didn't have a bad photoshoot, it seemed good, but Tyra picked a crappy photo:























Fo did a good job of embodying Chiquita Banana, I don't know why they criticized her so much. Wasn't that the whole point of the shoot??























Teyona's picture was meh, but the judges fawned. Yawn:























Favorite photo! Allison, thank goodness. She looked cute, she seemed comfortable, it was a miracle!























The photoshoot was better than the stuff they were doing in New York, but still not very inspired. Carmen Miranda shoot in Brazil? How so not uniquely creative.

At panel, they suddenly brought up Celia's age. Is that sort of foreshadowing? Celia's going to be given the boot because she's 25?

Aminat and Natalie were in the bottom two, and I didn't care who went home. No matter which one left, wouldn't have been a great loss. I thought Natalie looked strangely neckless at the judging, like she had her shoulders raised and tensed. Aminat was smiley and happy. That all made me feel like they had messed up the first take and had to re-shoot the elimination, because Natalie got the boot.

Hopefully, Aminat or Teyona go next week. There's not many of them left, I can deal with having less drama in the show from here on out.

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Isshi Hwaro (이씨 화로), Koreatown

Isshi Hwaro (이씨 화로)
3465 W. 6th Street, Suite 130
Los Angeles, CA 90020

Telephone: 213.365.8111


Saturday was the Grilled Cheese Invitational in downtown L.A. Unfortunately, as much as I love cheese (and I do love cheese), I had to work and wasn't able to go. I was not happy about that. Is there anything better than cheese sandwiched between bread that's then fried in butter??

A few of my friends were talking about going to the Grilled Cheese-athon. Taking pity on poor, hard-working me (HA!), they asked if I wanted to get dinner in Koreatown after the Cheese-apalooza.

Of course I said yes. I hadn't been in Koreatown in a while, and Korean barbecue is always good. I think on some level, they wanted me to go to dinner because none of them are Korean. Koreans in Koreatown tend to come up to a group of people and automatically assume that someone speaks Korean. They don't really think to start in English, which makes it awkward for non-Koreans that don't know how to deal with that.

I was willing to be the token Korean to have an excuse to leave work a little early and have some yummy food. Since I was the only Korean one who was involved in planning this little dinner, I got to pick the restaurant. I picked Isshi Hwaro (also spelled Yi Sshi Hwaro), in Chapman Plaza. (Photos are yoinked from yelp.com.)
















I've been to Isshi Hwaro plenty of times, most notably (and drunkenly) for my birthday two years ago. There are non-barbecue things to eat, but if there's a vegetarian in the party, there is just no way they'll avoid the smell or sight of dead cows and pigs. Squeamish vegetarians, vegans, pescetarians should all stay far, far away.

The most popular thing, by far, is the all-you-can-eat menu. I don't look at the menu anymore, so I'm not exactly sure, but I think it's about ... $18? There are two different sets, depending on the kind of meat you order. The price may seem right until you realize that they're gouging you on the price of the beverages, alcoholic or not.

We ate tons of meat, we drank a fair bit of liquor, had a good time and intense meat facials. I tried a new brand of soju (Fresh? I think?) and had my favorite brands of Korean "wine"- 복분자 (a black raspberry wine) and 매취순 (a plum wine).


















Isshi Hwaro is always consistent and good, and I appreciate that. They don't overcrowd the place (ugh, trying to have a meal while elbows are jabbing into you from all angles? horrible!) and they take reservations, which is a big plus.

I've heard that they can be rude to non-Koreans, so having at least one person that speaks Korean is necessary. On Saturday, there were six of us, two of us were Korean and we were all Asian. So at least we had that going for us. (By the way, I think that was the first time I've ever been with only Asian people!)

Some specific complaints:

- Their kimchi jeon (김치전), or kimchi pancake, was not good. Not spicy at all, didn't taste like kimchi, and just sort of seemed like a floury disc. Meh.

- There was a 나물 dish that seemed to be comprised of parsley. Gross. (나물 (namul) is a word used to describe a variety of vegetable dishes. It's late and I'm tired and cranky, so the explanation will have to wait for another day.) Parsley is not often found in Korean food, so I didn't know what to make of that odd development. Fusion? Mistake?

- Their kimchi was not good.

Those are small obnoxious things I point out, because the overall experience was delicious, just as I expected. I just wish they would get the little things right; it would help to make the place even better!

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Nikki's, Venice

Nikki's
72 Market Street
Venice Beach, CA 90291
http://www.nikkivenice.com/

Telephone: 310.450.3010

Monday - Friday:
4:00 pm - 1:00 am
Saturday & Sunday:
10:00 am - 1:00 am
Any day with an NFL game:
10:00 am - 1:00 am

Happy Hour:
4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
2 for 1 drinks
1/2 price appetizers














Went to Nikki's on Friday night to meet some people I used to work with. I hadn't seen them in a while, what with everybody working crazy hours. Now that some of them are done with their show, we decided to meet up for a sort of congratulatory night of drinks.

Nikki's is a bit pretentious, as many of the newer bars in Venice Beach are, and totally overpriced, which was completely expected. I don't mind spending a bit on drinks to see people that I like, so I wasn't really angry about the prices. The pretentiousness pisses me off, of course, but I was mentally prepared for it.

I tried a couple drinks there that were on their cocktail menu:

Cantaloupe martini: Stoli raspberry vodka, Marie Brizzard watermelon, and orange juice.

White grape martini: Ciroc vodka and white grape juice with a champagne floater.

The cantaloupe martini was a little odd- I don't think the orange juice was right for the drink. The white grape martini was good, I had two of them. Delicious, tart, a little astringent, and slightly effervescent. Yummm.

It was mostly the company that I cared about, so it was a good night. I was distracted all night by the giant print on the wall of the topless woman holding a surfboard over her head (visible in the photo above). Seriously, why?? It's not a surf-themed place, although one of those tacky moving pictures of a waterfall hangs on the wall farthest from the front door (is that ever a good idea in any establishment?).

The bar's in what a friend called "the middle of the ghetto," that part of Venice Beach that gets a little suspect/shady after dark. You walk in the single door and the whole place is visible, narrow and long, a sure sign that the building was not meant to be a bar.

We went early (I think I got there a bit before 9:00?) and left early (I left around midnight) so the place wasn't crowded. I was pleasantly surprised by that. I realized as I was leaving that the reason the bar wasn't overly crowded was because bouncers keep a ton of people waiting. Thanks, bouncers! I hate bars that are packed to the rafters.

The valet was adorable and French, but that didn't help in making the $7 valet fee any easier to stomach. I'm not clear on how much the drinks were, but I think the martinis were about $13, maybe?

Not a place I would go again unless it was for a gathering that someone else planned. Seeing friends (and a few people I wouldn't count as friends) was great. I miss being social.

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R.I.P. Beatrice Arthur

The indomitable Bea Arthur passed away this morning from an ongoing struggle with cancer.

To me, she will always be Dorothy, one of those crazy Golden Girls.

I loved her sarcasm, her shrewishness, her sharp-witted, sharp-tongued barbs as Dorothy. As a child, whenever I watched "The Golden Girls," I was fascinated. I didn't really know any old white people, and the fact that so many of them lived together without a man in the house ... wow!

Dorothy and Sophia were my favorites, by far. They were endearing despite (or perhaps because of) their many faults.

Bea Arther, thank you for all those memories.

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Blurb

Frenetic blurbs today ... I'm rushing around trying to get things done, trying to put out fires, and it's making me a little frazzled.

마음이 급해!

It's an appropriate phrase for how I am currently feeling. It translates literally to "my mind is in a rush." When my 마음이 급해, I talk faster, I walk faster, I eat faster, I have no patience. That's me, right now. Hence this totally crap post, written in small pieces over several hours.

● I need a drink.

● I need a night of sleep, uninterrupted by dreams about work and/or death.

● I saw some work from Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland." It's going to be great. Can't wait to see it! Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter is just perfect.

● Tendinitis. It's hurting me. Every time I write or type or open a can of soda or or type brush my teeth or TYPE, it hurts. Ow ow ow ow ow.

● I had literally forgotten what it feels like to have a crush on a boy. Now I remember.

● Something reminded me of "10 Things I Hate About You," the movie that made me love Heath Ledger and hate Larisa Oleynik. I don't remember what triggered the memory (because I'm getting old and my brain is slowly dying), but I love how recognizable Shakespeare's original characters are, in a movie that had an obviously low budget.

I hate the way you talk to me,
and the way you cut your hair.
I hate the way you drive my car,
I hate it when you stare.
I hate your big dumb combat boots
and the way you read my mind.
I hate you so much it makes me sick,
it even makes me rhyme.
I hate the way you’re always right,
I hate it when you lie.
I hate it when you make me laugh,
even worse when you make me cry.
I hate it when you’re not around,
and the fact that you didn’t call.
But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you,
not even close,
not even a little bit,
not even at all.

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My "Duh" Moment

This morning, I went to the Bridge Cinema with several people from work. We went to look at some stereoscopic stuff-- very logical, as we are working on a stereoscopic movie (why can't I stop linking to that website??).

While I'm sitting in a dark theatre at 9:30 in the morning, it occurs to me. I work on movies.

I've known for years that I work on films. Really, I do. I've watched them, once completed, and seen my name in the credits. Intellectually, easy.

But while I'm actually working, it doesn't really ever occur to me that all those bits and pieces are really, truly going to get put together and printed thousands of times and shipped all over the world so that the general public can watch what I've been looking at for months and months. There's a huge disconnect between the present and the far-off future of buying movie tickets, popcorn, and Swedish Fish.

I don't even know how to explain it. Maybe it was the combination of wearing stereoscopic glasses, early-morning grogginess, and drinking a large vanilla latte that forced my brain to accept and realize this new (yet old) truth. Something just ... coalesced today. In my head.

I don't have the words to adequately describe what I felt, what I still feel. I think that's really a combination of my inability to write and my extreme fatigue.

I wanted to write this post so that years from now, when I'm sick(er) of this industry and moaning and groaning, I can look back and remember this odd feeling.

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Happy Earth Day!

I love Google's homepage today:








I love the idea of Earth Day. It's wonderful in theory- let's save the world!

In execution, of course, things start to fall apart. What really happens on Earth Day, other than a few speeches, a few rallies, and a lot of people in green T-shirts?

I don't know, honestly.

Sony celebrates Earth Week with seminars, fairs, art exhibits, and a lunch. Since this week also has "bring your child to work day," the kids get to draw with sidewalk chalk all over one of the long stretches of sidewalk that's inside the Sony lots. Good times, had by all.

I was too busy to go to anything, naturally, so this Earth Week is passing me by without much impact on my life. That's sad, really. If nothing else, we should recycle, compost (which actually grosses me out), plant a tree ... something.

I'm settling for a blog post about it.

Happy Earth Day!

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Columbine, 10 Years Later

I remember that it was my junior year of high school. It was just after spring break; everyone was restless and antsy because of the beautiful beach weather and because summer was so close it was almost tangible.

We Whitneyites are (or were, back then) a loud, giggly bunch (as I suspect most high-schoolers are) and very given to lemming mentality- we studied together, we complained together, we ate lunch together, we bemoaned our lack of a football team together (not really- we were too busy studying for a football team to have any importance). Given that my graduating class was only 165 people, I think it’s a complete given that we felt more like a big, sprawling family than a conventional high school.

Being a magnet school and having the constant pressure to keep up the grades (under threat of expulsion) also made us all bond together. The school goes from seventh through twelfth grade, so anyone that I went to elementary school with and then went to Whitney with was someone I’d known for the majority of my life, for practically the entirety of my cognizant life. We were stuck with each other and knew it.

Despite all of that plus the normal high school drama, we managed to stay pretty cheery. We were chipper, since the school was predominantly female and Asian, and we all know high school Asian girls are among the chirpiest creatures ever created.

In this insulated, well-sheltered little bubble, the sudden news: two high school students had killed several of their classmates. Killed.

I still remember hearing the news and not believing it. Colorado is on Mountain time and we’re on Pacific time, so their lunchtime was our third period. We just sat there, the teachers with TV’s in their rooms tuning to news stations that were all suddenly airing “breaking news.” Channels that normally aired soap operas at that hour were showing hastily made-up anchors, umm-ing and ah-ing through ill-prepared reports.

I just didn’t understand. How could two guys have just walked onto campus strapped with guns and bombs? How could students just sit there, eating their lunches, while these boys strode up to them and shot them? Could something like this really happen? Could it happen to me? Were they really targeting Christians? I began making hasty escape routes in my head, mapping out the shortest distances between any given classroom and my car. I thought of how stupid it was that Whitney was built in what is basically a large square, making it possible to run around and around the main building with no interruption, no hiding places. Why wasn’t this school bigger, with several stories? One main building with one measly floor just made us easy targets, didn’t it? If someone with a gun asked me if I believed in Jesus Christ, what would I say?

Once my paranoia calmed and the news agencies began digging into the matter, I could see why there wasn’t a screaming horde of students that stampeded over the gunmen: Columbine was huge. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were well-prepared. No one could have seen this coming.

The scariest part of the entire Columbine massacre, to me, was the fact that these two boys were my age. They were only a year older than me. I was a junior at the time, part of the class of 2000. Our class was in a mock-rivalry with the class of 1999, which Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold would have been a part of had they somehow lived in Cerritos and passed the entrance exams to Whitney.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, an event that triggered so much anger, so much agony, but also a lot of reform and attempts to change the way schools are secured, provide psychiatric support for students who need it, and tons of investigation into bullying, student abuse, and cliques.

Not all of these attempts have actually changed much in the high school world, of course, but awareness if always a good step. Columbine provided awareness in spades.












Even ten whole years after the fact, I can’t wrap my head around how absolutely horrible it must have been. I feel for the families of the victims, for their losses and for their justifiable anger. They were never provided with a definitive motive. They never got the chance to seek vengeance or justice. They lost a loved family member with no warning. I cried for them then, and I still get teary-eyed listening to testimonials from the surviving members of this brutal attack.

Although it might be an unpopular opinion, I feel for the families of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Not for the two boys; though judgment is not mine to make, I believe that they deserve all the torments of hell for their actions. Their families, however, could not have known what was going through the mind of their son/brother/cousin/nephew/friend. They could not have been prepared to deal with the aftermath of their family member’s actions. I pity them, I hope that they are not suffering too much guilt, because no one should blame anyone other than Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold for the events of April 20, 1999.

Had someone else from a hostile country committed the acts of these two high school seniors, it would have been the start of a war. Because they were U.S. citizens, born and raised here, we can do nothing but grieve.

Deaths in Columbine in chronological order:

1. Rachel Scott, 17
2. Daniel Rohrbough, 15
3. Dave Sanders, 47
4. Kyle Velasquez, 17
5. Steven Curnow, 14
6. Cassie Bernall, 17
7. Isaiah Shoels, 18
8. Matthew Kechter, 16
9. Lauren Townsend, 18
10. John Tomlin, 16
11. Kelly Fleming, 16
12. Daniel Mauser, 15
13. Corey DePooter, 17

Injured in Columbine in chronological order:

1. Richard Castaldo
2. Sean Graves
3. Lance Kircklin
4. Michael Johnson
5. Mark Taylor
6. Anne-Marie Hochhalter
7. Brian Anderson
8. Patti Nielson
9. Stephanie Munson
10. Evan Todd
11. Daniel Steepleton
12. Makai Hall
13. Kacey Ruegsegger
14. Liza Kreutz
15. Valeen Schnurr
16. Mark Kintgen
17. Nicole Nowlen
18. Jeanna Park
19. Jennifer Doyle
20. Austin Eubanks

Today is also Adolf Hitler’s 120th birthday. Not a good day in history.

I hope that those still in Columbine and those affected by the disaster are living with more hope, now that a decade has passed.

It’s disturbing, but a photo of the two killers after they committed suicide:










Harris, on the left, is wearing a white shirt with the words "NATURAL SELECTION" in black letters. Klebold, on the right, is wearing a black shirt with the word "WRATH" in red letters.

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L.A.'s Other Season

First of all: I KNOW. I know that Californians (well, Southern Californians) shouldn't whine about weather because WE DON'T HAVE ANY. But once you're acclimated to the climate, you complain. I grew up here, have lived in some part of California since I was three, so I'm pretty much a native with the thin, non-weather-proof skin that covers most of us out here.

I have always said that L.A. has only two seasons: spring and summer.

I used to think that we only have autumn and summer until I went to London and realized that HEY, they're calling it "spring" weather and I think it's totally frigid! Perhaps I don't know what autumn is if "spring" is this icy!

So the months from about November to about May are what I consider "spring." It gets slightly colder in December/January, to what I call "winter" but non-Californians call "a brisk fall day." People, if it's cold enough for a coat in L.A., I'm allowed to call it winter.

This April started out quite cold and chilly, abnormally so. It was gusty and drafty last week, and I kept having to bundle up with scarves and jackets. When I left work, anywhere between 9:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., the temperature usually hovered in the 50's. Cold.

Then yesterday (Sunday) hit like a crazed, rabid pit bull. It was NINETY-EIGHT DEGREES. I almost melted into a puddle.

Let's be clear. I don't enjoy summer. But I am used to it, and I know how to deal with it (I work crazy hours in a climate-controlled building and never see the sun). HOWEVER. When 100-degree weather follows 50-degree weather, I get physically sick. My body cannot deal with the sudden shift in temperature. I think I'm half-reptilian, because I can't adjust to sudden jumps or drops, anything more than 15 degrees. I can't do it.

Because L.A.'s other season has decided to pop out of a jack-in-the-box and scare the bloody daylights out of me, I am now sick. In what is supposed to be 95-degree weather today.

Ugh.

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8:45 a.m.

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It's Only April!

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Top Model: Elimination #7

Oh, "Top Model," how stupid you are. I can't help watching because now I want to know who wins, but every episode seems to be more and more of a farce than the last.

Their challenge this week was one that I would actually really like to do- they got to be creative directors for their own shoot. I could rock that. Random comments:

- Aminat, you don't know how to say "chooooose." You really do say "choo." Don't protest it, just try to fix it. Also, there is nothing as annoying as someone that does not know how to manage their time. How could she blame the hairstylists? Stop making excuses.

- Allison can actually talk! In quick sentences! She has opinions! Love it.

- I loved Celia's look for Fo. Very cute and I thought it was very appropriate. I think the only reason she didn't win was because she always wins.

- Teyona won, I didn't really think much of it. Celia was her model, and she did well because she's Celia, but other than the styling, Teyona didn't do much. The styling was kind of blah, too, since the clothes were all black and she was draped in gold jewelry.

The photoshoot was pretty funny- a photoshoot with Ciara. Poor Ciara, she got MOBBED when she walked into the house. Getting tackled by a six-foot girl with huge hair has to be scary at six in the morning (Aminat, looking at you!).

- Natalie- liked the fro, but the face looks like a lump of dough in every single picture. No cheekbones, no contours ... what is that about? She looked kind of like Heather, the girl was Aspergers, from some previous season.



















- Aminat, lazy picture. You're lying back. Really? You couldn't do ... something?



















- Celia's photo was great- she always looks great. I think girl's going to win.



















- Teyona never looks like herself in her photos, which is great because I don't like the way she looks in panel or at the house.



















- London, struggling with her weight problems. I feel bad for her, but I didn't think her photo was THAT bad. Paulina was needlessly harsh! I thought her face looked a bit like Ali Larter in the picture, actually.



















- Fo's photo was great. GREAT. Loved it! Her outfit at panel looked like she knew that they were going to Brazil.



















- Allison's photo didn't look like herself at all. I love her with a fro. She's super cute, but not very versatile. Still, I love her and her awkwardness.



















Tyra's whole skit to introduce Brazil as the foreign country that they'll be going to? Terrible. Cheesy. Was the half-naked man holding a bowl of nuts really necessary? Oh, Tyra.

London, who was suspicially continually criticized through the whole episode for her weight gain, isn't going to Brazil. She seemed to take it well and I feel like the girl's going to be alright.

Can't wait to see the shenanigans of some of those ghetto girls trying to speak Portuguese ... it's going to be a delightful trainwreck!

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Multi-Tasking Dangerously

So I'm sure all Californians know and do not appreciate the relatively new laws: no more talking on the phone or texting while driving.

I can appreciate the texting- you do actually have to look at the screen in order to type, after all, which means you're certainly not looking at the road ahead.

But the talking thing irritates me. I don't want to have to find my headset and put it on and make sure the Bluetooth is on and all that. I'd rather just hold the phone up to my ear. I know how to drive with one hand- it's sort of like writing with one hand, natural and easy. Just because other people can't drive...

I mention this because lately, I've been whipping out my phone to take pictures of cars that make me laugh during my (too long) commute to and from work every day. Spending at least an hour and a half driving yields some curious road-mates.

(Click for larger pictures).

This one puzzled me. XXVMORE? I assume it was an anniversary gift and they're anticipating 25 more years together? If I marry someone and last 25 years and he has the gall to give me a Chrsyler ... yeah, forget about 25 more, buddy.



















I literally laughed when I saw this one. PNYSPD, really? I know you're in a Mustang, but you're in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Ponies don't travel at this speed unless they're sleeping or giving birth!



















The owner of this car must be quite interesting. Or very hairy. Or maybe has pet wolves? Loves Tom Wolfe? WOLF 21 ... unclear but still funny. (Photo taken about half a block away from work- right-turn at the light, immediate left into the driveway where security will stop you and demand your driver's license.)



















Is this supposed to be like "Speed Racer" or something? SPDRAVR? I don't understand the design of this car. It looks like it's missing ... something. Attractiveness, perhaps.



















K4TANA? So this person thinks/wishes/hopes they are a samurai, I take it. What a weird thing to put out there for all to see, unless she/he really is a samurai, which would be awesome.















Another confusing one: HDT SIN. Because of the way license plate letters are formed, I thought it said "HOT SIN" and I was kind of scandalized. But then I got closer and realized I'm a prude. I still don't get it, though. What's HDT?



















Most incongruous logo and slogan combination: Puritan Bakery. Their innocent, pure logo:



















And their not-so-innocent, not-very-pure slogan:



















I tried to think of what CUBBYMN could be, and have decided that it's a man who has cubbyholes for alll his belongings. That's why he drives a teeny-tiny Saturn Sky, because it fits in a cubby. Or he's a giant Cubs fan. I like the cubbyhole idea better.



















Oh, I like these shrouded Audis, like they're so precious that mere mortals cannot even dare to gaze upon their glorious luster:



















I don't know if this person is referring to him or herself, but if they are, then it's pretty arrogant- STAR NSIGHT. Does that mean you think you're a star, since people can generally see you when they're reading your license plate? Or perhaps you think you have stellar insight?



















I saw this one today and started laughing because the signs are funny but also practical. On the left side, "PASSING SIDE." Go past the truck on its left, I get it.

On the right side, "SUICIDE." So much better than those "the driver cannot see you because trucks have large blind spots" diagrams that those corporate eighteen-wheelers have!



















This one also made me laugh, because it's so appropriate for L.A. and because I thought that someone was bound to think that "BOO GAS" could also mean "BOO FARTING," which is also true!



















This is the only picture that I took more than two weeks ago. I had randomly taken the photo and forgotten about it, but now that I see it again, I really think that the owner is going to have regrets in a few years, when he grows out of his one-track-mind phase and into a better place. He's also going to regret having "OHHH YEH" when he goes to meet his future mother-in-law for the first time, so I hope he has a new car by then.



















I think L.A. tends to have more vanity plates than other cities, and California seems to have more than other states. Perhaps it's because vanity plates are just that- a sign of vanity.

I'll keep taking photos ... unless I find out that it's illegal. I hope it's not!

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Blurb

Not so much blurbs as rants. Cranky, irritable rants:

● "Boys Before Flowers" (꽃보다 남자) annoys the holy living jeepers out of me. ANNOYING (thanks for this article, Korea Herald!). Stop shoving Gu Hye-Sun (구혜선) down my throat, I don't think she's attractive and I don't think she can act. Her strange facial expressions and complete idiocy are among the most unwatchable parts of that drama. Ew. Ew. And don't get me started on the teenage boys that try to act like suave Casanovas. Try and FAIL.

● I don't mind Jun Jin (전진) on "Infinite Challenge" (무한도전), but he is a COMPLETE GIRL on "We Got Married" (우리 결혼했어요). He is totally cowed by his "bride," who is a snivelling brat that makes me want to reach through the screen at punch her. Then I want to poke her nose and chin, because they are SO FAKE. Perhaps take a heat gun to her and see if her plastic bits melt. Lee Si-Young (이시영), you're awful. Coincidentally, she was on "Boys Before Flowers." And she's in love with anything Gundam, which makes me want to puke. I actually feel sorry for Jun Jin, even though he is a whiny sissy that can't grow a pair and yell at the woman when she's being unreasonable (98.7% of the time). Ew.

● Also on "We Got Married," Lee Yoon-Ji (이윤지), who was slightly nauseating in "Stay By My Side" (내 곁에 있어) but adorable in "Goong" (궁), has become the poor girl stuck with the oh-so-obnoxious and fame-whoring Kang-In (강인), who is apparently a member of Super Junior (I'm old, I don't care about SuJu). He ... I just ... I mean, really ... wow. He's just ... no words to describe. Ew.

● I don't get the appeal of Son Dam-Bi (손담비). She can't sing, her dancing is just meh, and she looks like an alien. Seriously. If her eyes were any farther apart, she'd be a fish. She was a terrible "wife" on "We Got Married" to poor Marco, who's adorable in "I Love You, Don't Cry" (사랑해, 울지마). I digress. Please get Dam-Bi off my TV.

● I've come around to Girls' Generation (소녀시대) because Tae-Yeon (김태연) was on "We Got Married" with Jung Hyung-Don (정형돈) and she was hilarious. Also, at 19, she was infinitely more mature than the 31-year-old Hyung-Don. Still don't like Yoo-Na (윤아) because EW.

● I'm woefully behind on "Make Me A Supermodel." The reason I watch "America's Next Top Model" generally around the time it airs is because it's a popcorn show. I can watch it while I work. I can watch it while I make lemon mousse bombes covered in a shield of white chocolate (that was an adventure on Easter weekend). I can watch it while I talk on the phone, while I text, while I Twitter. Easy, unfettered, no unduly stressing plot-points. I like to actually pay attention to "Make Me A Supermodel." Now I'm sad I'm behind on that show.

● Seriously, what happened to "Dragonball Evolution"?? Why did Fox decide not to promote it AT ALL? I thought it was a limited release on April 10, but it was a full domestic release. And it brought it less than $6 million. Sad. That movie was supposed to help the Hallyu Wave, what with ex-G.O.D. member Joon Park (박준) in it and all. He's like a jinx- he (and Rain 비) were both in the absymal "Speed Racer," which also tanked.

● I love it when I have meetings that are originally scheduled for 6:00 p.m. that get pushed back ... pushed back ... pushed back ... and now, the new and improved time? 8:00 p.m.

● I estimate that I have at least three more hours' worth of work left. It is currently 7:48 p.m.

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Korean "Holiday": Black Day

Remember back in March, when it was White Day? Well, yesterday was Black Day.

What is black day? It's certainly not a day where people wear black.

It's a day for singletons.

Women give men gifts on Valentine's day, generally chocolate, and men give women gifts on White Day a month later, generally candy.

Black Day is when the men and women that were overlooked on Valentine's and White Days band together and form a sassy, secretly sad group to eat jjajangmyeon (짜장면), noodles in black sauce. See the black there? Black like the loneliness in single peoples' souls?

They also drink hearty, as far as I can tell. Although ... any given Korean group drinks hearty.

Jjajangmyeon is delicious and one of my all-time favorites, so Black Day is a nice excuse to partake. Not yesterday, though, because I worked late, so late that all the Chinese-Korean restaurants near my house were closed.

Anyways, happy belated Black Day!















Today is a black day in the U.S., I think, because taxes are due. RIGHT NOW. This is the first year ever that I have filed for an extension. I hope they don't audit me.

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Greener Grass

It's occurred to me more than once that I am a whiny ingrate. Yes. Yes, I am.

One reason why:

I have a burning, passionate need to get away from L.A. Back in October, I was struggling to break out of Southern California (please don't call it SoCal, that's vile) and at least make the hop, skip, and jump to Northern California. You know, Southern California's bookish older sister.

Well, that sure didn't happen. Somehow, I ended up at a job just a few blocks away from my last job. ("Valkyrie" was on the Sony lots, now I'm at Sony Imageworks). I have a sort of fear in the back of my brain that I've completely missed my chance. I will be stuck in L.A. for the rest of my life. I will never leave.

And when I really think about it:

- L.A. has tolerable weather. I hate extreme cold (55 degrees and under) and I hate hot humidity. Where else would I last even two consecutive seasons??

- L.A. has great variety. Drive an hour to the snow-covered mountains. Turn around and drive back, then an additional hour to the sunny beach. Make a quarter turn and drive a couple hours to the arid desert.

- L.A. has good food. Anything you want, you can find. Pigs' and chickens' feet? Go Downtown. Good Mexican food? Go to El Taurino in Pico Union (it's so appropriate that their website be broke down). Good pho? Go to Westminster (admittedly, a bit of a trek, but not that bad). Good jjajangmyeon (짜장면)? Go to Cerritos.

- L.A. has fun stuff nearby. Disneyland. Knott's Berry Farm. Magic Mountain. Sea World. L.A. Zoo. San Diego Zoo. San Diego Wild Animal Park. Reindeer in Yucaipa. Long Beach Aquarium.

- L.A. has good shopping. Beverly Center, Century City, Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade, Rodeo Drive, South Coast (in Orange County), Fashion Island (in Newport Beach), and all the knock-offs anyone could want in Downtown.

- Did I mention the weather?

- L.A. is where my whole industry is based. Jobs are relatively easy to find here for me, and I know I could stay gainfully employed here.

- Koreatown.

- My friends.

- My family.

So in looking at it logically, I know that I love L.A. I do! Other people tolerate L.A. because they're here for school or work. I know this place well, I love it, and I appreciate it.

Still, this need to leave has not abated since my October post. If anything, it's gotten stronger. It's not necessarily that I want to LEAVE, I think it's more that I want to go somewhere new. I want to try something new.

I will always love L.A., but I think now is the time to fall in love with a new city. (New country, too, perhaps.)

How I go about doing that is the difficult thing. Jobs in foreign countries (or even different states) don't come by every day, and the worst part of finding a job in this business is the timing of it. You can't leave an employer at any time, the way you could most other jobs, because for us, if the movie isn't done, we're not done. There is a very clear endpoint of a project, and that's the point at which I become available for a new project.

The last day on any given job is always up in the air until the bitter end, which adds onto the uncertainty of when I'm available for a different project. Oh, the studio pushed the release date? Then we're working two more weeks? Okay. Oh, they want to do re-shoots? We're working another week and a half? Okay. Oh, the director's throwing a fit? He's going to Dubai for a little rest? We're working another three weeks? Okay.

I am usually contracted to be done working on a show about a month before I actually stop working on the show. This means that between a current job and the next job, I'm stuck juggling and trying to figure out dates and trying to keep everyone happy.

So with all those factors, how can I possibly think that I'll ever leave this bleeding city?

City of Angels, my left eyeball.

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Top Model: Cycle 12 Re-Cap

The ridiculous episode that Tyra likes to throw in every season to remind all the viewers about what's happened in the cycle so far pisses me off. Can't they even try to put something new in it to make it worth it??

Okay, so this episode wasn't completely pointless. It did clear some stuff up:

- I didn't understand why Celia received the key to the apartment, therefore the right to choose the first bed. They had an unseen challenge- sort of a trivia quiz / scavenger hunt in New York (how many eagles are on the Chrysler Building? How many bridges are in Manhattan?) and Celia won (of course- Allison was all "which one's the Chrysler building?").

- They showed the prize won by one of the CoverGirl challenges (take a woman off the street and sell her on CoverGirl products), a photoshoot for L.E.I.

Randomly:

- I really like Teyona in her confessionals and at panel, but she is SO GHETTO in the house.

- Sandra reiterated once again why she is a loony idiot with a completely improper grasp of English. They threw together a montage of Sandra saying "I'm here for one thing. I'm here to be America's Next Top Model" about forty times. Dumbfounding.

Sandra crying when Toccara came to visit ... "I was picked on when I was younger," and a bursting into tears? Really? You are the meanest, most inconsiderate girl in the house. Suck it up.

When she got kicked out, she said, "I'm going to miss being around the girls, even though I never talked to them." Then WHY are you going to miss them?? Illogical.

- I love that McKey bakes. Bakes cakes that look like they're frosted with about fourteen pounds of chocolate.

My current favorites:




















London. Nigel said it best- things are coming up pear-shaped. London's gaining some weight and she knows it (she won a challenge and $5,000 worth of Joe's Jeans, which she gave away because she couldn't fit in them). I hope she works it out, because she's fun and spunky.




















Fo apparently cries ALL THE TIME. Which I don't hold against her, since I'm on the tearful side. But I didn't apply to be on a quasi-reality show, so ... I still get to make fun of her about it. Oh, Fo! She even says "I promised I wouldn't cry. I promised!" WHILE she's crying.

Still love her, she's adorable, but my, the tears!




















Celia- she's 25, but it seems to be giving her an edge, because she's able to take things in stride and adapt more than the other girls.

I still think she's a bit scary-looking, but photographs really well and has a great personality.




















"I'm in love with Celia. I'm so in awe of her sometimes." Allison cracks me up.

She said in the first or second episode that she finds nosebleeds beautiful, and she like to draw pictures of women with nosebleeds. I don't really find it creepy, I think it's funny and kooky, and she's just adorable.

Ciara is guesting on next week's episode. No idea what for.

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Top Model: Elimination #6

I worked just a little bit yesterday and will be working just a little bit today, and I feel like I've finally caught up on sleep.

I also caught up on "America's Next Top Model," which I was two weeks behind on.

I always hate the CoverGirl commercial episode because the photoshoot is lame. This season was even lamer-- they didn't do a photoshoot at all!

The same usual things happened:

Tahlia whined.

Aminat bluffed.

Tahlia whined again.

Natalie made me laugh.

Natalie irritated me.

Tahlia FINALLY got sent home.





















Couldn't take the whining anymore. Girl is pretty, but I don't need to hear "role model" and "burn survivor" coming out of her mouth ever again.

The CoverGirl commercial, by the way, was so incredibly abysmal. Celia's was okay, Fo's was okay, but the rest of the crowd just ... wow.

Watched the behind-the-scenes cycle 12 just a bit ago, and it cleared up a lot of things for me. I hate filler episodes. They need to get on with it!

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Travaille

The reason one of my tags is called "travaille" is because the word is much prettier in French. It means ... work.

Qui travaille tout le temps?

MOI.

The world of film is, by its very nature, full of fluctuations. I find that in this business, particularly in post-production, work can seem quite seasonal. I've always been busy in the summer, less busy in the fall/winter. It seems like that's the cycle of visual effects.

Since it's becoming summer (rapidly here in California), it's only natural that the work is also ramping up. How busy? This busy:

Yesterday, 4/7:
7:45 left my house
8:45 got to work
1:00 lunch
1:30 back to work
6:00 left, feeling not-so-good
8:00 back to work
2:30 (a.m.) sent my last e-mail

Today:
8:30 left my house (yes, late!)
9:20 got to work
no lunch-- run, run, run
11:30 current time ... still here...

Tired. I miss having time for ... life.

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Blurb

● "Project Runway" is moving over to Lifetime. Season's done shooting, so the aesthetic should remain as it was ... but Bravo was a perfect fit. Lifetime, to me, means cheese-tastical romantic comedies and heartstring-tugging dramedies about women on their deathbed. NOT cutting edge fashion.

● "Fast & Furious" cleaned up at the box office last weekend, making more than $70 million. It holds the record for the biggest opening for any April movie. What. the. heck.

● A roundtrip plane ticket to Korea is less than $700 lately. I feel as though I should go to Korea for a haircut and a leisurely lunch.

● Actor Kal Penn, Kumar of "Harold and Kumar" and Kutner from "House," has quit his job (just when "House" was getting so good again!) and is moving to go work at THE WHITE HOUSE. Bizarre. He's set to be the associate director in the Office of Public Liaison & Intergovernmental Affairs. Words. They fail me.

● I have more than 90 hours of TV on my DVR.

● Today is Stan Winston's birthday. He is one of the big figures in special and visual effects, and his studio (Stan Winston Digital) was somewhere I wanted to work. He died last year of multiple myeloma. This is the first year his family has not been able to wish him a happy birthday. I hope that they are able to remember all the good times they had with him and maybe even laugh a little today. Mr. Winston would have been 63 today.

I have no time to blog lately, hence my stupid little posts about ... nothing.

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Wisdom & Love, In My Mouth

My third molars are growing in. To be honest, they started growing in about ten years ago. TEN. YEARS.

Although they are called wisdom teeth here, I'm far more used to hearing them referred to as 사랑니, which translates literally to "love teeth" (pronounced sa-rang-nee, the 'rang' being a cross between 'rang' and 'lang'). It's supposedly indicative of the pain and youth of first love. I remember first love being youthful, sure, but not particularly painful (at least, in retrospect!).

My dentist took x-rays of my teeth, top and bottom on both sides, when one of them started poking through my gums. He told me that if my teeth continue growing straight through, I shouldn't get them removed, unless the pain of cutting my gums is too much to bear.

Since I had braces and oral surgery in high school, I didn't want even MORE dental work (I do love my dentist, though, and enjoy seeing him- I've gone to the same dentist, same building, same chair since I was five). I tolerated the pain. Growing these teeth in has given me a greater appreciation of wailing babies- they're not obnoxious, their teeth are just growing in! Cutting through their gums! More than one at a time! It HURTS!

Now, ten years later, my dentist still tells me that the ol' wisdom teeth are fine. The upper teeth are completely out and give me no trouble at all. They're happy, wise, and full of love.

The bottom teeth are trying to kill me, but just once every couple of months. They know that I forget about the pain after that amount of time and then spring another operculum on me. An operculum, contradictory to its cute Latin etymology ("little lid"), is the most annoying and painful part of my wisdom teeth experience.

An operculum is that small part of the gum that covers the wisdom teeth. It is just indescribably irritating. When chewing or talking, I have to take care not to close my jaw too quickly or forcefully, or I will literally be biting my own gums. PAIN.

Because my teeth are generally fully out of my gums (after TEN YEARS), my operculums only happen when I'm stressed. My gums seem to swell and then contract, encasing my lower wisdom teeth and causing me grief for a couple weeks. It's like my wisdom teeth have decided to take about four steps back in their development. They refuse to just BE WISE or FULL OF LOVE and OH MAN THE OBNOXIOUSNESS.

I am currently stressed. My body likes to blare lots of distress signals at me when I'm stressed out: operculums, dark circles, ridges on my nails, inability to sleep ... all terrible.

I'm ready for at least one of those symptoms to go away, namely, the operculums. They are the most painful. And I think I'm ready to be wise now. I'm certainly ready for love. And I'm definitely ready to regain my normal habit of CHEWING.

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Blurb

I've decided to start posting entries titled "blurb," with just quick things that aren't worth an entire post by themselves. Things that percolate in my little brain and I want to just get out.

● "Fast & Furious," the fourth (FOURTH!) installment in a franchise with titles that get dumber and dumber, made an estimated $30 million on Friday alone. I can't believe this. This is why I've worked on so many sequels in my career.

● Anne Hathaway is supposedly starring as Judy Garland in a Broadway show and a movie. Miss Hathaway can sing and dance, sure, but I'm not totally sold. I'll wait to see what the buzz is all about.

● "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was leaked online. I think it was the preview screening version, which is what the public sees at the first screening of a movie. In my experience, screening versions are not at all indicative of what the final product will be. Based on the screening comments, scenes are shuffled, dialogue is changed, and re-shoots occur. Let's not be too hasty in judging it just yet.

● North Korea, why?? Why the clear breaking of idiot-proof rules?? Can you PLEASE just leave the world in peace?? If you're going to be a miserable dictatorship, do it in your own house. Stop encroaching on other peoples' territories!!

● "Terroir" (떼루아) was pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of Han Hye-Jin (한 혜진) or Yoo Sun (유선) or Ki Tae-Young (기태영), but I loved Kim Joo-Hyuk (김주혁), who made the drama for me. A short description of it would be "Coffee Prince" with wine and maturity, but it was different enough and interesting enough to hold my attention (at least for the last few episodes).

● "Temptation of Wife" (아내의 유혹) is stupid and overly melodramatic (I know, didn't think Korean dramas could get OVERLY melodramatic, but there it is).

● Sunday night Korean TV is my new favorite thing.

● I find it hilarious that Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno" received a preliminary NC-17 rating by the MPAA, because that was absolutely the best PR that the movie could have ever hoped to receive. That DVD is going to be spectacularly lewd and crude.

● "Spider-Man 4," part of the Sony franchise, has a release date: May 6, 2011. I'll have the inside scoop for the duration of my job at Sony. Not so excited about Spiderman, but I'm curious about the villian(s). I wish Kirsten Dunst's character would be in exile / killed off / lose the power of speech...

It was a long day at work today, more so because my Saturday-addled mind refused to get with the program. I'm excited for Easter weekend next week, when I get a long weekend of much-desired r&r (minus whatever time it takes me to do my stupid taxes).

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Friday Furloughs...?

I am baffled.

For the past two months or so, traffic has been less disgusting on Fridays.

The first couple of weeks that this happened, I chalked it up to the Friday furloughs instigated by the Governator. I thought, "Wow, I didn't know so many government workers have the same commute as I do."

The furloughs reported ended in the beginning of March, so I resigned myself to going back to the hour-long drive that is the norm Mondays through Thursdays.

It is now April, a month after the furloughs supposedly stopped, and traffic is still noticeably better on Fridays.

I had a meeting this morning at 9:00, which means I should be at work by 8:45. I left the house at 7:30, fully expecting an hour's worth of road rage.

At 8:10, I was off the freeway, wondering what to do with myself. (I went to the post office and then bought lunch at Subway, pretty much the only two places open that early.)

Is this just a sign of the bad economy? People slacking off on Fridays? Hush-hush furloughs that I don't know about? A sign of the apocalypse? Getting from one end of L.A. county to the other end in less than an hour is surely at least a hint of apocalyptic events about to unfold.

Whatever the case, I'll enjoy this while I can.

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Top Model: Elimination #5

How fickle I am- how much my opinions have changed in just a week!

Tahlia: unspeakably annoying. I want to shave off her eyebrows because she always ALWAYS has one of them arched up. Please go home. She gave a little speechie-speech:

Now that I’m actually here and I get to look and finally see my picture, I’m excited and now I know that I actually do belong here. I tried very hard- VERY HARD- to like every single one of you guys.

Allison totally nailed it when she said:

Tahlia makes this, like, speech from the staircase, um, and it’s a bit too, like, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul for me.

Aminat and Teyona got all up in some of the girls' faces (Celia, Natalie, Allison) because, apparently, Celia telling Tyra about Tahlia not wanting to be in the competition was some sort of conspiracy. Allison's reaction to that whole thing was perfect:

Aminat and Teyona come downstairs and they’re just verbally attacking us and reminding me of why I hated high school.

My previous affection for Aminat went POOF. I never thought Teyona was ghetto until this episode. I hate when "ask" is pronounced "axe" or when "business" is pronounced "bi'ness." Please, please learn to enunciate. It's NOT HARD.

The lesson consisted of life-size photos of Tyra with the faces cut out of them so that the girls could show Mr. J how good they are with facial expressions. LAME. It's not a carnival. Can we please cut it out with the rubbish how-to sessions??

The photoshoot wasn't much better, as the girls had to embody a color. It seems like they are just running out of ideas for shoots, which would be an indication that the series should end. I'm just saying.

I really liked Fo (still love the girl) and Teyona's pictures:




















Beautiful, no? I didn't even recognize her, she looks so angular and angry in this photo. I think I liked both Fo and Teyona's pictures because I didn't recognize them at first glance, which is amazing:




















Love the yellow, it complements her skin so well.

Random thoughts:

Celia's outfit at panel was gorgeous- little fitted black leather jacket and flouncy marigold skirt. So cute without being twee.

Ms. J looks totally ridiculous at judging. What is going on with that stupid bowl haircut?? And WHY the bowties?? Ew. Campy in the worst possible ways.

I didn't know what the big effing deal is with Celia telling the judges that Tahlia doesn't want to be in the house. That is so not the most dramatic thing that's ever happened on this show, and frankly, Celia did it with good intentions. Tahlia wasn't a strong competitor and I still don't think that she's going to make it to the final three because she'll probably have a breakdown and go crying home.

Sandra got the boot. Meh. She got boring after the drama subsided, and I didn't care. She had the color white for her photoshoot, which I thought was BY FAR the easiest, and she didn't do anything for me:




















Still love London, girl's got spunk, but I realized this week how oddly proportioned she is.

Tyra's still her usual crazy self. I can't believe how crazy woman is.

(Posts about "Top Model" here.)

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Overheard ...

Two guys, talking about preventative measures against carpal tunnel:

Guy 1: I really like this brand that had a huge Velcro piece that kept my wrist straight.
Guy 2: And you could wear it on both wrists?
Guy 1: Yeah, and even at night, so you don't bend your straw while you're sleeping.

Really? Bend your straw??

The best part was that Guy 1 had a Southern twang, so it was "bend yer strah."

I love unintentionally funny people.

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Cathy, Irving, and Jessica Rabbit

I haven't been posting much lately ... and it seems that, in reviewing recent posts, I am expressing more and more anger.

It's not that I'm unhappy, I'm just working a lot and very stressed out. This is something that any one of my family members or friends can tell you is totally typical of my life. I start working, it goes fine for a few months, and then BAM! the show kicks into high gear.

This is typical of anyone that works in visual effects, or films in general. I know the editors are working non-stop, which has happened on every single movie I've worked on. It's just the way of production.

It doesn't stop me from feeling tired and cranky, though. 짜증나. I wake up cranky, I just barely keep a cap on my crankiness at work all day, I go home cranky, I go to sleep cranky. This will be me for the next couple/few months.

Experience has taught me that, if nothing else, I will get through this eventually and my crankiness will dissipate someday. I will become my normal self once this movie comes out (July 24, people) and, like childbirth, the memory of pain will evaporate, causing me to think that I can handle the next show and wasn't that last show so much fun?

In an effort to keep my spirits buoyed, I've been trying to watch/read/listen to funny things, things that might make me laugh. I always have back episodes of "Saturday Night Live" on my DVR because DUDE those episodes are long. I decided to watch one the other day, which Dwayne Johnson hosted (I didn't know who that was when I read the description of the show on my DVR-- he's the Rock).

He was actually really funny and did a nice Broadway number to open, resplendent in sequins and some truly terrible dance moves. I appreciate a bulked-up man that can make fun of himself (although, isn't that all wrestlers?).

The funniest part of the show, for me, was Weekend Update. Andy Samberg played Cathy, the comic strip character that, frankly, I never understood. She whined, complained, ate cookies, had bad hair days, and never seemed to really DO anything. Andy is a pretty good Cathy, other than the voice (why the screeching, Samberg??), and Justin Timberlake was a great Irving. Jessica Biel ... GREAT call on casting:


For all the sexy that JT's supposedly bringing back, he plays a lot of losers on SNL and does it very well. I read a blurb somewhere that he didn't want to record another album and likes his life just fine ... which is great, I guess, but shouldn't he go back to doing what makes him famous?

Jessica Biel, I'm sure, was talked into doing the Jessica Rabbit schtick by her boyfriend, who just wanted to fulfill his cartoon fantasy. She was great, though, padded butt and all.

Trying to find laughs, wherever I can ... at least until July.

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