hello iMac.
my new iMac is all set up. well...mostly. i'm in the process of installing all my software and it's nearly done. i still have to put my fonts on there. set up the speakers. change the desktop. then figure out this whole new operating system. all in due time. i have to admit that the glossy screen is fucking gorgeous. there is no glare issue really and it's just extremely beautiful and vibrant. i have to keep remembering that the color on that screen isn't true color when it comes to print work. that's what my other monitor is for. though next to this iMac screen, it looks ugly and dull. but it's a really good monitor and it's how the color really is. the iMac is just fake, glossy, candy-coated color. i must remember this over and over.
on a really sad note. i lost all my saved emails. i am terrible at backing up email and blogs and i thought i did it right but i didn't. so they are all gone. for the most part this is probably a good thing. re-reading old emails from andrew and dan and such are never a good thing. though it is interesting to read them, i rarely ever look in those folders. just too much emotion wrapped up in there. but what i did lose was shit like all my fun AA emails, this one email chain i started with alex since when i first met him, and random emails with passwords and shit. that was all for remembering sake but hell, if i forget one day i'm screwed. ugh. i should have consulted like 5 sources to ensure i did it right. cuz i didn't and now all my emails are gone.... :(
tomorrow i have to pack for NY which should be easy enough. i hate packing though. i also need to get a couple more random things to make this new setup complete. one thing i need is something to raise the height of my extra monitor. it's a bit too low compared with the iMac. it's OK but i'd prefer to have it raised i think. i won't worry til i return from NYC but it's on the list. anyway, i'm so excited over this new thing. it's just so damned beautiful. and it's super fast. i love it. i even installed the extra RAM myself! go me!
that was how i left my computer tonight. (pardon the dark photo, my room isn't that bright) i backed everything up, emptied it out, increased the size of the icons, set it to a plain background, and said goodbye to it. it looked so sad. so bare and empty. it has served me well over the past 4.5 years. it never really had many problems. i did get the question mark mac a couple times at start up and that was alarming but somehow it powered through it. i only had to change one part and that was the fan which i did last year. but other than that it has been faithful to me for all these years. it was my very first apple computer and i won't forget it. but it's time to move on to a newer, better, faster machine. i will be setting up my new system tomorrow night and then figuring out the best way to get this old one up to my dad. either by driving it up there one of these days or shipping it. we shall see. i'm super excited for my new computer. i looked at it briefly from the box and it's beautiful. my speakers came and they look really awesome. the keyboard is so cool looking. ahhh i can't wait! i'll have to take a picture of my new setup once it's all done.
so many things to talk about!! where to begin??
i guess i'll start off by saying that DANCE PARTY IS BACK!!! we had a revival on friday at the guys' birthday party and it was soooo much fun. so so good. ted's friend owns a bar/club in santa monica and that's where the party was held. it wasn't closed off to us but a lot of the bar was friends and friends of friends. so it was awesome like that. i got sufficiently intoxicated and danced my ass off as ted was the DJ for a good part of the night. he was playing some really great tracks. i was quite impressed. but one thing i have come to realize.....
so i have been trying out this origins deodorant for the past week. NOT anti-perspirant. just deodorant. i've decided to try this because of all the aluminum in anti-p's. well, for the past week it was working well for me. i didn't notice anything different except when i went to the gym i sweated a lot more. and thusly smelled a lot more. but whatever. on the day to day, everything seemed fine. well, on friday night i was out dancing and dancing and OH MAN i was stanky. eesh. it was all the sweating from all the dancing. and it was not pretty. so i've come up with a new plan. it's similar to my face lotion plan. monday - friday i'll use straight deodorant (and likewise, plain lightweight face lotion). saturday and sunday i will use anti-p since i go out and walk around a lot and thusly sweat a lot (and likewise i'll use my face lotion with SPF 30 because i don't want to get skin damage from the sun). this will be my plan.
so anyway, the point is, the party was damn fun and i had a great time.
the next day alex and i had to wake up sort of early to get brunch in santa monica with his family friends. they were in town. i love them so it was fun. and the food was fantastic. after that i ran some errands and then after dinner alex and i headed over to james' to hang out before going to the echoplex to see yeasayer and MGMT. we met up with laurel, her sister, and joe. yes, JOE LIA. he's like back from the dead or something. haha we waited through some crappy ass opening band. then watched yeasayer's lead singer totally alienate the crowd. at first i thought he was hilarious. then he just came off as an assholish new yorker. then MGMT came on and i had a blast. i am probably on the far end of the spectrum because i know their album forwards and backwards and enjoyed singing to every song. but i did think they did a decent job if nothing else. i look forward to seeing how they develop their live act by the time coachella comes around. the night ended with james, alex and me running through the rain and getting jack in the box drive-through. good times. minus the rain factor.
yesterday was lazy lazy. i woke up late. browsed the net trying to figure out what to get alex for vday. figured out a cool idea. rode the exercise bike. executed most of the cool idea. ate dinner. watched seinfeld. slept.
all in all the weekend was superb. my beautiful, glorious iMac arrived today at work. my monitor is already waiting at my house. i have all my software. my speakers and extra RAM are set to arrive today. then i can put it all together. most likely i'll do that tomorrow. i have to arrange for my old computer to be ready to be wiped clean and retired for me to give to my parents. but i'm SOOO excited!!! and then there's NYC this weekend. also really really exciting. ahhh i can't wait! but first i have to do my laundry. this i am NOT excited about....
friday! i thought it was thursday this morning but now i realize it's friday. WOO!!! it's raining cats and dogs. has been for a few days now. it's a nice change of pace though i do hate how rain inconveniences me. mostly just when having to walk to/from my house/car. the rest of the time rain is fine. just toting all my shit to/from the car i hate. it's annoying. anyway...
i'm working on this ad at work for american gangster. it's a collage type deal and i think it's turning out quite well. i love that movie so i'm really into this project. i'm also listening to "heart of the city (ain't no love)" by jay-z on repeat. i fucking love that song. and yes i know it's sampling an old song but i really love the funkiness of this version. the original is good and soulful but this one is like a modern update of an old classic. that sort of thing. like the new mini cooper. both are cute in their own way.
tonight is the 5-way birthday party. should be fun times. looking forward to a good night out. it's been a few weeks. as we get older it seems the crazy nights are few and far btwn. GAHHHHH. i don't want to be old!!!!! yet somehow i'm slipping into that. i need more sleep. sometimes my left knee hurts for no good reason. wtf? alex and i have taken to cooking meals together now. sort of. i'm a bad cook but he's decent. we've been making things like fish dishes, pizzas, and last night we made paella. it was quite tasty. the rice was a bit undercooked but i think we know how to remedy that. so overall a good dish indeed. more cooking adventures to follow! though i must say. the OCD in me prevents me from ever really getting into anything in the kitchen because when shit starts to get all messy i just wants to start cleaning and organizing but meanwhile my food is burning or whatever. it just really bothers me when things are all over the place though. so it's a real struggle at times. oh well. i guess i wasn't meant to be a chef! hahaha
ok before discussing the long weekend's events, i must tend to more pressing news. the coachella line-up. behold....
sad huh? i think so. i counted it up and there are few bands i really want to see. but if i were to go 3 days i'd want to see the following:
friday: 11 bands
- raconteurs (eh i mean i could take it or leave it)
- battles
- stars (maybe. but i don't care that much)
- midnight juggernauts
- spank rock (they have always overlapped and i've still never seen them live)
- diplo (yea sure why not?)
- jens lekman
- dan deacon (if only to see why everyone else seems to be shitting over him)
- busy p (gotta round out my ed bangers intake)
- cut copy (please dont disappoint me as james seems to think they will)
- datarock (maybe)
saturday: 13 bands
- portishead (yea i guess i have to see the hoopla)
- deathcab (i'm not really into them anymore but i have to kill the time somehow)
- hot chip
- devotchka
- mark ronson
- calvin harris (i guess he could be fun, i dunno)
- boyz noise
- erol alkan
- MGMT
- para one
- sebastiAn
- kavinksy
- new young pony club (maybe)
sunday: 7 bands
- my morning jacket
- spiritualized
- justice
- chromeo
- simian mobile disco
- the field
- shout out louds (they dropped in position it seems from the first time they played. that's just sad)
on the surface it seems like a lot but really i've seen a lot of them and some i just listed as filler. basically the line up blows and it's sad really. i'm hoping to catch either sasquatch or ACL or the new one that goldenvoice is doing in jersey in summer. we'll see. i'm stewing over whether or not to go to coachella. i'm sure i'll rally for saturday just because most people seem to be into that. but other than that, i'm going to save my money. it's quite sad really.
anyhoo, the long weekend was quite relaxing overall. friday night was totally bumming around night. saturday i hung out with dave for most of the day. i like catching up with him. he's cool. it's a shame i can't integrate him into my group but he's like 5 yrs older than me and has his solid group of friends. consequently we are just sort of acquaintances. and then i guess there's that whole issue of him liking me and me having a bf. but yea. after hanging out with dave jen, ladan, alex, me and sami rallied to try and find a bar to hit up. devin's bday party was that night but it was like 3 blocks from my workplace and i wasn't going to go back out to work area on a weekend. also doug and betsy's party was also that night but i felt a sort of guilt about 2 parties in one night and me choosing one over the other. so i just went to neither. i know, sort of silly but whatever. so we rallied for a bar. and i say rallied because we tried like 4 bars before finally settling on the coach and horse because it had no line. why were all the bars so jammed??
sunday started off with brunch for michael's bday. the griddle was packed as usual so we went to the new doughboys which was crowded but not as. tasty tasty as always. i need to try more of their breakfast foods from now on. i always get soups, salads, and sandwiches but their breakfast dishes are quite tasty. after that alex and i headed to san diego. our plan was to get down there, chill, watch the football game in the hotel room, grab some dinner, maybe go out and then go to the zoo the next day. well it basically went down just like that.we didn't "go out" but we did see cloverfield. i didn't really know what to expect from it since i had seen the teaser trailer so long ago that i didn't even put two and two together that the teaser was the same movie as all the huge posters all around town. anyway the movie was quick and fast and to the point. it was definitely scary at some points and it did a good job of throwing you into the chaos with the shakey hand cam first person POV gimmick. i would recommend it but only if you are in the mood for something that is a no brainer. it's godzilla meets blair witch.
the SD zoo was awesome as usual. there was a bit of rain in the morning which made me worried that they wouldn't show the pandas but the pandas were on display and oh so cute! we went through the line twice to see them. the drive back was eh. not as bad as i expected. only parts were slow. and now i'm back at work typing this while i eat my yogurt. a lot of my packages have been delivered to my house it seems which means my new computer is nearly there. i basically just have to order the computer which i think i'll do tonight since the extra monitor arrived and that was the big hang up. woo!! i can't wait to unleash the power of leopard. hahaha yes i just said that.
this is my favorite page out of the book we have been working on at work. it's a promotional book to hand out to potential clients. this is our page for "media buying/planning." we shot it the other day and then andrew (the creepy guy peering in through the window -- really he's not creepy at all and doesn't look ugly like that either) composited the whole thing. slapped our logo all over the place. the photo set up the shoot which was just hilarious. me in a robe in the back of the office pretending to eat cereal and look amazed. good times. we glossed it up to make it look slightly surreal and plastic-y. i think it looks great. i love it. so that's why i'm posting it for everyone one to see. the rest of the book is not too shabby either. it's based off of the whole portfolio as a magazine concept. much like what i did for my own portfolio. we banged it out in less than 2 wks. the team was mainly just me, andrew, and our producer. we had some help from others. i've been working late hours to get it done and now it's off to the printer today. i can't wait to see the finished product!
ok. wtf? there was a big fire across the street from my office last week and today there was a big fire down the street from my house. AND my dad told me that back home a man was shot outside the school across the street from my house. WHAT...THE...FUCK? why is all this bad shit happening around me?!?!?!?
the weekend has come and gone and it's been fun! kyla flew in for the weekend and we had a great time. short, but great. i'll be seeing her in a few weeks when i fly out to NYC! it will be COLD. brrrrr....
friday night a bunch of us went out cha cha lounge. man i love that place. i mean as far as LA bars go. it's one of my faves. i do wish the photobooth was B&W but whatever. lots of people came out to see kyla and just hang out for the first time in 2008. and kyla called mario and he came!! mario was our old sbux coworker. mario looks so grown up! it was good to see him again. it's been years. after the bar, kyla, lawrence, rick and i went to cosmic pizza for a late night snack. we didn't get to bed til nearly 4am!
saturday i went to get my eyebrows waxed and then kyla and i had lunch at bread bar. then we picked up rick and headed down to USC to get some gear. then we went to the westside pavillion cuz kyla needed some particular makeup. then we came back home and she got ready to have dinner with deanu while i took a quick nap. then a few of us headed out to little bar for trivia night. our team came in 3rd sadly. but it was still fun. we drank beers and ordered pizza and more people came as the night went on. then we headed to alex's for some good old-fashioned game night. we played taboo, in your face, and wii cranium. joe showed up! he was at cha cha lounge as well. TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW of joe lia! i think hell is freezing over as i type this. seriously, that boy has been MIA for like at least a year. we called it another late night and i think went to bed around 3am.
yesterday we woke up late. kyla and i had brunch at the grove and that was pretty much all we did. we came back home and just hung out with rick. i took her to the airport at 5:30pm and that was the end of the lovely weekend.
now i'm back at it at work. we've been working on this promotional book for the last weekend and it's been a rollercoaster of stress. the first couple of days it was fun and cool. then it became a huge eyesore and headache. now it's back to being fun. i just hope we can finish on time. today i was the center of a photoshoot for this one page in the book. we're doing a composite thing and i hope it turns out well. this guy at work, andrew, is also in the shot and he's probably working on the composite as i type this. i can't wait to see the finished product. i'll post it up here when i get it. for some reason my work likes to use me as the model in things. maybe because we don't have many girls in the office and girls are always more fun to shoot than guys. plus i don't put up a fight since it's fun. i'm no model by any means but i'll ham it up for the camera when need be.
i just read brian's blog where he listed his annual new year's resolutions and got slightly inspired. i never make resolutions because i'm always like, "come on. am i really going to stick to this?" but this year i've decided to make just 2. and they are really attainable and really simple.
1. go to the gym more often. notice i didn't say how many times a week. i just said more often. there are weeks where i go a lot and weeks where i don't go at all. it's all to do with my schedule. but i notice as the years go by. the pounds come on easier than they used to. and by no means do i need to lose weight because hell, i don't really weigh that much. but i want to ensure i stay healthy and fit and hell, maybe even get a bit toned. so i want to keep going to the gym regularly so that when i am old i don't fall into bad habits and find myself NEEDING to go to the gym to lose like 20lbs.
2. make strides toward my future life goal. that sounds so broad but the thing, i'm not entirely sure what that life goal is yet. it changes so much with my experiences that i'm simply just trying to nail it down more. i used to want to open my own design firm. now i'm not so certain. i work at a design firm and it's cool but i see the difficulties that come with it. and i'm not certain i want that. it's hard to get the optimal clients. it's hard to get out of debt since you have loans up the ass. etc etc. in the past few months i came up with a new tentative life goal of starting up my own magazine. i wanted to come up with something fresh and innovative that would stand out from the rest of the stuff on the newstands. and that's really hard considering there are insane amounts of magazines out there. the magazine industry is hard because unless you sell yourself to the big companies with the big money who want to place the big ads, your magazine will lose money. this is why elle, vogue, vanity fair, and people all do so well. they have a slew of ads. i need to find a niche. i have some ideas but i have to really flesh them out. i also need to learn the logistics of publishing a magazine and how i can change the business model around using the internet and such. again, i have some ideas but i need to read more on it. so i got myself a thick ass book and i haven't read it yet. so for sure i need to do that by mid-year. and then i'll assess if this is a good life goal. one that i want to pursue. and go from there.
other than those two things, i think the rest of my life is pretty good. i have a lot of good friends and don't need to make anymore. surely if more come along that's awesome. but no need to extend myself unnecessarily. i have an excellent bf who loves me dearly and i couldn't ask for more in that dept. i always find time to travel overseas somewhere at least once a year and i don't really see that stopping anytime soon unless something financially unfortunate happens. in which case it's out of my hands. i do creative things in and out of work so no need to worry there. i could afford to go home and visit my family more but that is also more of a mess than meets the eye. so basically things are going well. i'm turning 27 this year and thusly heading right into the "late" 20s. sad but true. but 27 is a fantastic number -- 3^3. and 3 is my favorite number. so i'm expecting 2008 and year 27 of my life to be stellar.
ah. the full week of work ahead of me. it will feel quite long coming off of a short week and that following a 11 day vacation.... sigh....
what a monday morning it was. one of the buildings across the street from my office was burning down this morning. 100s of firefighters were out there to put down the blaze. the entire 2nd story burnt to a crisp. who knows what happened. i just know that it smelled like shit this morning when i came in and the entire street was blocked off and full of fire trucks.
this weekend was eventful-ish. but it started out with my car battery randomly dying friday night. while i was parked IN THE RAIN. i mean i'm all for this rain. but hell. my car battery has NEVER died on me til now. wtf....at least i have AAA. easy as pie. but still...
saturday i did tons of errands. i woke up late too. ugh. i hate waking up late. makes the day seem so short. especially in the winter with the lack of daylight hours. at night i met up with the crew at little bar. they were engaged in a trivia battle with the bar and i just watched. they tied for first and lost the tie-breaker question. i think the other team cheated. oh well. then some of us went back to brian and jessica's for some rock band and taboo fun. i still hate taboo but i'm warming to it. at least i didn't totally panic like last time.
yesterday was really long and drawn out. i spent a good part of the day purging shit from my room. just crap i never use. i wanted to rid of my stereo system that sucks but i didn't. that'll be for another time. but i got rid of a bunch of crap in hopes of freeing up space for my new suitcase that will be arriving. if it doesn't fit under the bed, at least now i think i have space for it in the closet. and if it does fit under the bed then that space in the closet is free for whatever other crap i might acquire. i have to ask the guys if they want to live in the same place still cuz if so, then i'll be stuck with my room yet another year. if not, then i'll have a chance to purge and start anew with organizational systems. yes, i love the container store. haha i am waiting for my extra monitor to arrive before purchasing a new computer. i worry that my monitor is fully discontinued so i am not buying the computer til i know the monitor is on it's way. i might even wait til i see it in hand. but once i do that, then i have to figure out how to get my old computer up to my parents' house. and in the meantime it will be sitting around my room taking up space. it rained like a mutherfucker last night so i didn't go to the gym as planned but i shall go today. get back on track with that.
at work we are putting together this publication to showcase our work. we are using a magazine format similar to the one i used for my portfolio. i'm working on a couple of the spreads today. fun stuff.
i'm back! sad indeed. i miss the trip already and i've only been back 12 hrs...
i'm quite tired because i didn't get great sleep on the plane like i did on the flight out. not to mention we had to fly from wellington to auckland and then auckland to LA. so the total travel time was was like almost a whole day. gah! and the flight wasn't terribly smooth either. oh well. new years was fun though! it seems so long ago yet technically today is jan 1st. funny how that whole traveling across a dateline thing can be.
so alex and i got ready in our room and ordered room service. probably our most expensive meal on the trip. well maybe not. we did order wine a couple times. regardless, we felt it would be the easiest solution so we wouldn't have to search for a place that was open without a reservation and so we could pre-drink in our room while getting ready and not be bothered by going into town to eat and then back to the hotel to change clothes and then back into town. alex didn't really dress up all that much but i wore this cute yellow dress. we had 2 pre-mixed gin and tonics and then headed into the main downtown area. we hit up matterhorn bar first after walking by the san francisco bath house (a music venue) that was doing a special night of hipster proportions. the cover was $10 but we were aiming to not pay a cover all night. easy to do though maybe 1/4 of places were charging a cover ranging from $10-15 it seemed. why pay a cover and then be confined to one spot all night? .... exactly.... so we headed to matterhorn which was nearby and got a couple drinks there. i quite liked that bar (we had gone there a couple nights prior) but it takes forever to get a drink due to the long length of the bar and because they make each drink with such care. i mean don't get me wrong, the drinks there are some of the best i've ever had due to that simple fact, but i want to get wasted for new years! haha so we had 2 drinks and were out by like 11pm.
then we went to alice which was the one i just adored. next to alice is this dance club (they share the same bathrooms) and that place was charging a cover but alice wasn't. so i was down to go to alice and get some that tasty tasty alcoholic tea. plus they had good champagne cocktails and you gotta ring in the new year with some bubbly. so we got the tea first and sat down and sipped that over some cheese, crackers, and olives. and then we ordered the champagne cocktails and by the time all that took place, it was just turning midnight. i wanted to have our cocktails ready for when the countdown took place so we could ring in the new year inside the bar, down our drinks and then go outside to see if there were any fireworks. well there weren't any. not that i saw at least. i thought that was bizarre. but whatever. i got over it quickly considering i actually find fireworks to be highly overrated. it was just that last year in iceland they were SOOOOO into it that i got really into it. anyhoo, so we left alice and continued on to malthouse. can see you the trend here? we stick to places we liked. fuck trying a new place. we tried a new place the night prior and it just turned out to suck balls. we got to malthouse and ordered two strong beers and sipped them while sitting on the cozy couches. this is where i started to feel really drunk. i realized that all this downing of alcohol so quickly was not good for me. and then drinking this strong beer. plus i mixed several types of alcohol. gin, vodka, champagne and beer. not too good. but i was totally drunk which was awesome. but after we left malthouse i was ready to go home. and yes it was only like a bit after 1am. and yes there were will TONS of people out and about. some hadn't even gone into the club they were queuing up for. so yes, i was being a bit lame but i racked it up to drinking too quickly and wanting to not be totally wrecked for the plane. i know this is rationalizing some lameness but at least i didn't puke! i was just totally wasted and ready to bag it. so we took a taxi back to the hotel (i was in no mood to walk the mile back) and tried to order room service for some dessert. but there was no room service that night so then i somehow managed to just literally pass the fuck out right after that and i think alex might have watched some tv before passing out. i'm not really sure. i just know i woke up in the morning hung over and looking at the mess of our room. haha i packed up our shit and we took showers, got some light lunch, and were on our way to the airport. and with that, the trip was over. many tears are being shed now as we look over our photos and compile them for viewing pleasure. another lovely trip under our belt. now back to the daily grind... :(
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