right on bro!

After five days off in a row (including last weekend), I worked Monday and Tuesday of this week, and now I have another five days off. After the last two days, I’m really glad I’m off.

Not that anything went particularly wrong, but I just been feeling kinda like “blah” in general lately.

Spent all weekend screwing around with my audio rig, trying to re-track and re-mix this band’s demo. It’s not coming out so well - there are some serious issues with the source files, and I don’t feel like causing a disturbance by re-tracking and re-writing everything.

I think I might just cut my losses and move on to some other projects.

Went to the Key Club on the Sunset Strip last night to see a friend of a friend’s band. The first two bands up were complete new metal clones. We’re talking solid power chords with psuedo-funky beats and the white-boy head-bob that was stolen from hip-hop ten years ago. The second band actually had a DJ a la Linkin Park. I thought that shit had died out, but there were quite a few people at the joint.

The friend of a friend’s band was pretty good - they had excellent showmanship, tight performance, and they mixed up their music across all of the mainstream rock genres, so you could actually distinguish the songs from each other. Not my steez at all, but they were probably the most professional hard rock band I’ve ever seen in Los Angeles, and had an enjoyable show. Out of the three bands we saw that night, they’re the one that is most likely to go places.

Tip on going to the Key Club: Do all of your drinking beforehand. Their drinks are expensive and they’re really, really, watered down.

The Strip didn’t really seem that busy - I thought it’d be super crowded, but it wasn’t. We passed by where the Coconut Teaszer should have been, and I was surprised to see that it’s gone. I guess the heyday of L.A. rock music is over.

It rained on Christmas, and the sky is pretty clear here. I can see the snow-capped tips of the San Gabriel Mountains from my apartment. It’s pretty cool.

Christmas was pretty cool. Spent it in the OC with my friend, his mom, and his girl. It was really quiet and surburban out there.

I fixed my vacuum cleaner and toilet today. I feel like Bob Vila.

I helped set up a Christmas lawn display today. Specifically, I set up this lighted reindeer made out of wires, that rotated its head back and forth, as well as a lighted sleigh, also made out of wires. It’s much more fun to do this stuff when it’s not yours.

Merry Christmas, fools.

Okay, I’m not really bent up any more about the earthquake - I have been distracted by an even more fascinating display of nature that occured last night. Went to Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler, Texas, BBQ to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and another friend ate an entire plate of barbecue. I lost $20 when I bet him that he couldn’t do it. I guess I misunderestimated the size of his stomach.

I am finally feeling remotely in the holiday spirit. Over the past week, fools have been a lot nicer to each other. This has NEVER happened at this company, ever. I’ve also received more holiday stuff than my past four years at the company, combined, including a nice lunch yesterday at the Wood Ranch at the Grove yesterday. It’s very, very strange.

I pretty much wrote this holiday off awhile ago, although I’m kind of having second thoughts. I was planning to make my time off into a few days to chill and catch up on shit that I haven’t managed to finish over the past two months. I’m not going home, and declined a couple of offers to travel over the holidays. Maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do.

That was my first sustained earthquake. That shit was scary as fuck. I’m pretty jeetered right now.

I saw the new Lord of the Rings movie today, courtesy of the company I work for. It was pretty decent. Cringed a little bit every time the storyline changed from the book (for example, the beacons were wack), but the battlescenes and shots of Minas Tirith were absolutely amazing. I still think the movie portrayal of Frodo made him out to be more of a pussy than he actually is, but whatever.

Otherwise, had a few beers at the Cat and Fiddle beforehand, and after the movie I broke the strike and went to Vons. I should’ve done this earlier. The store was virtually empty and there were no lines. Maybe I’ll go to socialist hell for breaking the picket lines, but at least I’ll go out with a full refrigerator.

I was driving home today, and stopped at the intersection of Normandie and Beverly for a red light. This homeless dude dressed in a camouflage jacket and baseball cap walks right in front of my car, stares me right in the eye, and then starts dancing a jig. Then he stops, bows, rubs his belly, and points to the shopping center nearby.

I didn’t give him any money. I am a ruthless bastard.

Today at my team’s celebration meeting at work, I got a belt buckle in the shape of a sombrero from the Senior VP at my work, because he said it always looks like I’m half-asleep while doing my job. I’m not sure if there’s an underhanded jibe here, but it’s a dope belt buckle nonetheless.

It was relatively hot today. The problem was, I woke up at 6 A.M. and it was freezing, so I dug out my wool sweater and wore it to work. Weak.

CSI is on tonight, and it’s a new episode. Sweet.

I’m stuck at work, sitting here at my desk, waiting for the technical team to launch the new site. There isn’t much to be done, and I don’t feel like working on some other stuff I need to do for product revisions. Fortunately, we bought some beer, so I’m sitting here drinking beer and updating my blog for you.

Last night I finally got around to watching Monday’s episode of Last Vegas. It suffered from episode decline. Those fools were on a roll - the episodes had just kept getting better and better, and then it peaked with the hot Asian sisters, and Monday’s episode wasn’t so good. The swizzle stick thing was sooooooo lame, and the ending of the episode was way too abrupt.

Umm, what else….eh, nothing else right now.