Somebody Please Poke Holes in the Top of My Jar!!

Looking Back on 2008...

2008-12-14T07:42:24Z

All I can say is that it's been an unpredictable year for sure. Having the opportunity to go home for six months was exciting, though I couldn't have predicted what would have happened when I came home. Working at Lucas was...interesting. But when I got a chance to leave behind my typical 60 hour work weeks and either explore the city or just catch my breathe it was gratifying.

Came back to Hell-A with the doors wide open to endless and uncertainty, but eventuallly I have succeeded career wise with getting my production assistant position at Nickelodeon and finally getting a project I'm working on into the public spot light. It looks like, as far as job asspects go things should be smooth sailing. Socially, though, things have started to slide into the shitter, but it's things like that that can turn in the opposite direction so quickly, so I try and look to the future.

So looking toward the last year of this first decade of the new century, I wonder if it will be like the last eights years. Those past eight have seemed like a wild ride with it's ups and downs and unpredictibility and occasional excitement. So when I find myself in a pessimistic frame of mind, I'm reminded of the words of Bill Hicks:

"It's just a ride..."

Amusing

2008-05-24T06:36:21Z

Thanks to Omiphiliac!

Killed by the Cute

2008-05-11T04:24:41Z

Thought I'd share this with you all, this is great if you've been having a bad day:

Coming down the hill from the bus stop to my friend's parent's place I'm house sitting, I am looking directly at the widow where my friend's bedroom is and where her cats go in and out. It's about 8pm, and the kitties need to be fed. I look up at the window and I literally see two kitty faces with their front paws sticking out the window, watching me come down the hill. The neighbors must have thought I was crazy because I couldn't stop laughing at the adorable yet hilarious sight of them. I wish I still had my old phone, I would have taken a photo of them.

Alexys, your cats are adorable!

laflavah @ 2008-05-02T22:03:00

2008-05-03T05:04:19Z

My Personality


Neuroticism	50
Extraversion	31
Openness to Experience	43
Agreeableness	23
Conscientiousness	31

You rarely get angry and it takes a lot to make you angry, however high levels of stress can lead to you feeling panic or confusion, but usually you cope with day to day pressures. You are not prone to spells of energetic high spirits. You prefer facts over fantasy and are more interested in what is happening in the real word. You do not enjoy confrontation, but you will stand up for yourself or push your point if you feel it is important, however you believe that a certain amount of deception in social relationships is necessary. You are guarded in new relationships and less willing to openly reveal the whole truth about yourself. You are not an overly cautious person. You will think about alternatives and consequences but make up your mind fairly quickly.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report.

The best Myspace Layouts

laflavah @ 2008-04-14T22:56:00

2008-04-15T06:31:06Z

I'm now in the San Francisco Bay Area and will be here until about August 1st. I moved here in the beginning of February and started working at Lucas Arts as a game tester with the hope of saving some money. I've pretty much been working non stop, literally for the first 27 or so days (except for President's Day). I'm mostly working six days a week, tough my schedule is up in the air. But if you're in town, please feel free to drop me a line. I also have yo apologize to Viv and Lauren for not seeing them yet, and to Jill for not letting her know. Sarah, I hope you're still alive 'cause I haven't heard from you! I'll also be house sitting in the city for a month starting on the 27th. In the mean time I'm living at my mom's and have my apartment in Los Angeles sub-letted by a good friend of mine and her wife until I go back. They'll be moving up here around that time to go to the Art Institute of San Francisco, along with my friend's sister.

I only knew about a week before I came that I had gotten the Lucas job for sure, and randomly my good freind Maria had re-surfaced. She had moved back to Kentucky a couple years back to save up money for her future plans and for a change of scenery. She had actually arrived in January and was living with her gradmother (not the best arrangment, but it's not my business) and was looking for a place for herself and her wife to stay while her wife adjusted to California and before they set out for A.I. in the fall. Meanwhile, I had been stressing about suddenly having to give notice and store my stuff for six months when Dhino told me that Maria had stopped by his place and explained her situtaion. Though my rent would be on the high end of what she and her wife could afford ($1030.00/monthly), I got a hold of Maria and let her know what was going on with me. I got the sub-lett secured 36 hours before I left! She, Dhino, and Michael C would have been the only people I would have trusted with this anyway. It's too bad that things weren't a little different though, that I had been able to stay so that I could hang out with her and meet her wife, but hopefully they'll be able to make it up here before the fall term begins.

Other than that I haven't been doing much. I was able to hang out with Alexys when she was in town last month, and fell in love with a tastey salad drewssing her parents had. I'm going crazy now trying to remember the name of the dressing manufactorer and looking for it on stores. I think I've found it but I want to make sure I have the name of the brand right. That's pretty much the highlight of my life right now, I know it's sad. The only other notible thing I've done is watch a short doc on men who get Real Dolls (NSFW!!). Real Dolls are pretty much a high end blow-up doll, costing about eight grand a piece but highly custumisable. The manufactorer sees his product as fulfilling a sexual need, but it's interesting to see that most of the men also start to use them for companionship as well. Makes one wonder if there is something similar for women, or if there is a market for such a thing (we're not as shy as our mothers and grandmothers). It was also interesting to see how each of these men custumized their dolls, and how many they each had.

Well, that's it. Hopefully I'll see you all soon.

laflavah @ 2007-12-14T15:35:00

2007-12-15T00:11:34Z

I'll start off first with some bad news, to get it out of the way. I lost my job about a months and a half ago, it was a real blow to me. It wasn't like GoTV, I really wanted this job and felt that it would advance me in my career. What happened was that the studio we were working for (we were going to be making a 3D animated TV movie for them) had realized, after our second screening to them, that they needed to re-write the script they had given us because they realized the second act was too long. This will take at least six months, if not more. Though the WGA strike shouldn't affect this, you never know. They also realized they didn't like the voices they has cast for the characters, which for some characters I agree with but it was still a shame. My boss was really good and warned me what was going to happen, and then when the axe did fall the company gave me two weeks notice. I didn't mention any of this to my other co-wrkers though, because I didn't want them to worry and possibly even start looking for jobs if it was unnecessary for them to do so. It turns out I probably should have told them though, because a day after I was given my two weeks notice they had to let most of them go do to lack of work. It was really sad, both to see these people who had been working be let go with such short of notice, and also because we had become pretty close. I'v e since been loking for jobs, but because of the holiday season it's been slim pickings. But on a good note, my old company recently sent me a Christmas card with all their signatures, which was really sweet of them. They probably do that for all cards they send out (the signatures) but it was nice that they sent one out to me.

I was able to go home for Thanksgiving though, and had a great break from job and finace worries while there from getting to see friends at Sarah's (

misery_9) birthday party. Also got to meet some of her friends from San Francisco State, pretty cool people. Found out that her friend, who shared her birth date with Sarah, is going to be going to Bikram Yoga teacher training in a couple of months. It's mostly cool becuase you usually never meet other people who do Bikram yoga out of the blue. We had Italian food and then headed off to Kareoke afterwards, with much fun to be had. The only part that sucked was that the kareoke place, that's usually empty, was jammed packed, and the management decided it would be a good idea to let the regualrs get in more songs than the people who were new. We even saw a group pass money off to the DJ to let them get up on stage more. This same group also decided to pervert Britney Spear's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by having a cute girl our age and some nasty dude in his fifties writhing all over each other while singin the song. Never mind I never liked that song, or songs like that, anyway. Now when I think about it or Spears the image of those two pops into my head. Ugh, scarred for life!

Also had my eyes examined for the first time in about three years or so. My company was nice enough to extent my insurance coverage ot the end of November, so I was covered. My eyes have only gotten slightly worse, but my right eye has become dominant over my left. My eye doctor would like me to now wear my glasses whenever I'm on a computer, driving (especially at night she said), as well as when I'm reading. So pretty much I'll be having to wear them all the time, but that's ok, I got to get a nice new pair of frames. When I come back for Christmas you can see them. I just have to get the left side adjusted, it pinches a little. Any good places I could go to that'll adjust them for me anyone knows about? The only concern was that for my eye scan (I think that's what it's called, it takes a picture of the inside of your eye) the right eye had about four little dots. Since it was my first scan picture thingy, we don't know if they have just appeared due to possible blod pressure fluctuations or if they are naturally accuring. My doctor wants to monitor it and this makes me want to have a physical as soon as I get insurance to check everything out. It'll probably be ok though.

laflavah @ 2007-10-12T12:34:00

2007-10-12T20:05:39Z

I finally got everything fixed on my car that needed to be done, so it should be ok to turn in next week for the end of the lease. The last thing to get done was the leather replacement, which I just got the car from today. This whole week I haven't slept well because of tall the last minute stuff I had to do. Hopefully little Dameon next door will have had his Rittlin so I can sleep in tomorrow. Last weekend he was so hyper that it sounded like he was just running into the wall, bouncing off, and running back into the wall.

I am also heading back to the Bay Area this coming Friday (the 19th) to get my new car. I had been hoping for a dark blue color but since the '08s just came out there aren't that many around. Complicating everything is that I'm trying to get it with a Navigation system, since it would help me run errands both for work (since I'm a Production Assistant) and on my off time. Right now I have one on reserve that's the same color as the dark grey car I have right now, but me and the sales consultant at Marin Honda (who we;ve worked with since '99) are hoping that the dark blue will pop up at the last minute.

On a side note, one of my cousins found me on MySpace. Funny thing is I've looked for her a couple times, I think the last time was six months ago. Anyway it looks like she's doing well, I used to see her once a year since she was a toddler but when I stopped going on my yearly summer trips to see family in Michigan several years back I lost contact with her. She came out earlier this year with her mom to San Francisco, and it was kind of a dissaster. Hopefully she can make it back out again, without her mom. Speaking of my cousin, I got bored and filled out a semi-questionarre she had on her blog on MySpace.

RADIO ROCK
[ ] Nickelback
[ ] Disturbed
[ ] Shinedown
[ ]Seether
[ ] Sevendust
[x] System of a Down
[ ] Flyleaf
[ ] Staind
[ ] Drowning Pool
[ ] Taproot
[ ] Mudvayne
[x] Audioslave
[ ] Trapt
[ ] KoRn
[ ] Three Days Grace
[ ] Evans Blue
[ ] Godsmack
TOTAL = 2

COUNTRY
[ ] Rascal Flatts
[ ] Carrie Underwood
[ ] Leanne Rhymes
[ ] Garth Brooks
[ ] Dixie Chicks
[ ] Kenny Cheney
[ ] Tim McGraw
[ ] Faith Hill
[ ] Hank Williams Jr.
[ ] Shania Twain
[x] Johnny Cash
[ ] Willie Nelson
[ ] The Charlie Daniels Band
[ ] Merle Haggard
[ ] Keith Urban
[ ] Hank Williams
TOTAL = 1

PSYCHOBILLY
[ ] Nekromantix
[ ] Tiger Army
[ ] HorrorPops
[ ] The Cramps
[ ] Mad Sin
[ ] The Meteors
[ ] Reverend Horton Heat
[ ] Demented Are Go!
[ ] Batmobile
[ ] Guana Batz
[ ] The Gun Club
[ ] Klingonz
[ ] Hellbillys
[ ] The Phenomenauts
TOTAL = 0

POP
[ ] Teddy Geiger
[ ] Ashlee Simpson
[ ] Kelly Clarkson
[x] Madonna
[ ] Avril Lavigne
[ ] Pink
[ ] The Veronicas
[ ] Daniel Powter
[ ] James Blunt
[ ] Natasha Bedingfield
[ ] Ryan Cabrera
TOTAL = 1

EMO
[ ] Hawthorne heights
[ ] Halifax
[ ] Fightstar
[ ] Taking Back Sunday
[ ] Forgive Durden
[ ] From First To Last
[ ] Senses Fail
[ ] Something Corporate
[ ] Hit The Lights
[ ] Dashboard Confessional
[ ] Dear Whoever
[ ] Funeral For A Friend
[ ] Silverstein
[ ] The Used
[ ] The Spill Canvas
TOTAL = 0

INDIE
[ ] The Hush sound
[ ] Death Cab For Cutie
[ ] The Killers
[ ] Elliot Smith
[x] Yeah Yeah Yeahs
[ ] Belle and Sebastian
[x] The Postal Service
[ ] Bright Eyes
[ ] Franz Ferdinand
[x] Modest Mouse
[ ] Cursive
[x] The Arcade Fire
[ ] The Shins
[ ] The Decemberists
[ ] Sufjan Stevens
[x] Neutral Milk Hotel
[ ] Iron & Wine
[ ] Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
[x] Bloc Party
[ ] Minus the Bear
TOTAL = 6

METAL
[ ] Amon Amarth
[ ] Dimmu Borgir
[ ] Carcass
[ ] Children of Bodom
[ ] Emperor
[ ] Carpathian Forest
[ ] Arcturus
[ ] Opeth
[ ] Ayreon
[ ] Cannibal Corpse
[ ] At The Gates
[ ] Burzum
[ ] Therion
[ ] Mayhem
[ ] Necrophagist
[ ] Darkthrone
[ ] Celtic Frost
[ ] Gorgoroth
[ ] Satyricon
[ ] Finntroll
[ ] Anaal Nathrakh
[ ] Testament
[ ] Atheist
[ ] Bathory
[ ] Deicide
[ ] Slayer
[x] Metallica
Total = 1 (What kind of a metal list is this? No Tool???)

METALCORE
[ ] As I Lay Dying
[ ] Atreyu
[ ] Lamb of God
[ ] Killswitch Engage
[ ] Unearth
[ ] Throwdown (aren't they hardcore)
[ ] Becoming the Archetype
[ ] Between the Buried and Me
[ ] Norma Jean
[ ] Zao
[ ] Converge
[ ] Botch
[ ] Bullet for my Valentine
[ ] Still Remains
[ ] Bleeding Through
[ ]Trivium
TOTAL = 0

HARDCORE
[ ] Bane
[ ] Looking Forward
[ ] Sick of it All
[ ] Madball
[ ] Agnostic Front
[ ] Gorilla Biscuits
[ ] Good Clean Fun
[ ] Donnybrook!
[ ] Champion
[ ] Casey Jones
[ ] Black My Heart
[ ] Hoods
[ ] Minor Threat
[ ] Death Before Dishonor
[ ] The Warriors
[ ] Bishopx
[ ] Too Pure To Die
[ ] Sinking Ships
TOTAL = 0

POST HARDCORE
[ ] Thursday
[x] At The Drive-In
[ ] The Blood Brothers
[ ] Alexisonfire
[ ] The Fall of Troy
[ ] Glassjaw
[ ] Chiodos
[ ] mewithoutYou
[ ] Drive Like Jehu
[ ] Sparta
[ ] Botch
[ ] Bear Vs. Shark
[ ] These Arms Are Snakes
[ ] Coheed and Cambria
[ ] The Recieving End of Sirens
[ ] He Is Legend
[ ] Scary Kids Scaring Kids
TOTAL = 1

POWERPOP
[ ] Hellogoodbye
[ ] The All-American Rejects
[ ] Fountains of Wayne
[ ] Head Automatica
[x] Weezer (Old Skool only!)
[ ] Panic! At the Disco
[ ] Jellyfish
[ ] Teenage Fanclub
[ ] The Lashes
[ ] The Lost Patrol Band
[ ] The Click Five
[ ] Cute is What We Aim For
[ ] Wilco
[ ] The Exploding Hearts
Total = 1

PUNK
[ ] Rancid
[ ] NOFX
[ ] Bad Religion
[ ] Misfits
[ ] Anti-Flag
[x] Sex Pistols
[ ] Alkaline Trio
[x] Dropkick Murphys
[ ] Pennywise
[ ] Millencolin
[ ] Operation Ivy
[ ] Descendents
[x] Dead Kennedys
[ ] AFI
TOTAL = 3

POP PUNK
[ ] blink-182
[x] Green Day
[ ] New Found Glory
[ ] Good Charlotte
[ ] Relient K
[ ] Sum 41
[ ] The Starting Line
[ ] Simple Plan
[x] The Offspring
[ ] Lagwagon
[ ] Box Car Racer
[ ] Motion City Soundtrack
[ ] The Queers
[ ] Screeching Weasel
[ ] The Mr T Experience
[ ] The Riverdales
TOTAL = 2

STREET PUNK
[ ] The Unseen
[x] The Casualties
[ ] GBH
[ ] The Varukers
[ ] Cock Sparrer
[ ] The Virus
[ ] The Exploited
[ ] Sham 69
[ ] Lower Class Brats
[ ] Clit 45
[ ] U.S. Bombs
[ ] Leftover Crack
[ ] Subhumans
[ ] Anti-Nowhere League
TOTAL =1

RAP (only listen sometimes)
[x] Ying Yang Twins
[ ] Bubba Sparxxx
[ ] Haystak
[ ] Paul Wall
[ ] Jay-Z
[ ] Nas
[ ] DMX
[ ] Ice Cube
[ ] Tupac Shakur
[ ] Jamie Foxx
[ ] Cypress Hill
[ ] Ludacris
[x] Lil Jon
[ ] Eminem
[ ] 50 Cent
[x] Kanye west
[ ] Bow Wow
[x] Wu Tang Clan
TOTAL = 4

HIP-HOP (only listen sometimes)
[ ] Dilated Peoples
[x] Mos Def
[ ] Atmosphere
[ ] Sage Francis
[ ] Talib Kweli
[ ] Aesop Rock
[ ] Blackalicious
[ ] Souls of Mischief
[x] MF DOOM
[ ] Jurassic 5
[ ] Jedi Mind Tricks
[ ] Common
[ ] Gangstarr
[ ] A Tribe Called Quest
[x] Ghostface Killa
[ ] Pete Rock
[ ] De La Soul
[ ] Necro
[ ] Immortal Technique
[ ] Ill Bill
TOTAL = 3

SKA
[ ] Streetlight Manifesto
[ ] The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
[ ] Big D and The Kids Table
[ ] The Toasters
[ ] Goldfinger
[ ] The Aquabats
[ ] Reel Big Fish
[ ] Fortunado
[ ] Skankin' Pickle
[ ] Madness
[ ] The Skatalites
[ ] Voodoo Glow Skulls
[ ] Five Iron Frenzy
[ ] Tip The Van
[ ] Stealing From Peter
[ ] The Specials
[ ] Catch 22
TOTAL = 0

CLASSIC ROCK
[x] The Doors
[x] The Beatles
[x] The Rolling Stones
[x] The Clash
[x] The Who
[x] Aerosmith
[x] Black Sabbath
[ ] The Kinks
[ ] Kiss
[x] The Ramones
[x] Pink Floyd
[x] Led Zeppelin
[x] Heart
[ ] Guns N Roses
[x] Jimi Hendrix
[x] AC/DC
TOTAL = 13

90's ALTERNATIVE
[x] Sublime
[ ] Cake
[ ] Spin Doctors
[x] Smashing Pumpkins
[ ] Gin Blossoms
[x] Alice In Chains
[x] Soundgarden
[ ] Toad the Wet Sprocket
[x] 311
[x] Live
[x] Bush
[ ]Third Eye Blind
[ ] Goo Goo dolls
[ ] Barenaked Ladies
[ ] Counting Crows
[ ] No Doubt (when they were more punk then pop)
[x] Nirvana
[ ] matchbox20
[ ] eve 6
TOTAL= 8

INDUSTRIAL
[ ] KMFDM
[ ] Ministry
[x] Nine Inch Nails
[ ] Laibach
[ ] Einstürzende Neubauten
[ ] Skinny Puppy
[ ] Front Line Assembly
[x] VNV Nation
[ ] Crossbreed
[ ] :wumpscut:
[ ] Throbbing Gristle
[ ] Hocico
[ ] Combichrist
[ ] Assemblage 23
[ ] Front 242
[ ] Funker Vogt
[ ]Psyclon Nine
[ ] Suicide Commando
[ ]Grendel
[ ] Nitzer Ebb
[ ] Haujobb
[ ] The Birthday Massacre
[ ] Mortiis
TOTAL = 2

ELECTROCLASH
[x] Ladytron
[x] Fischerspooner
[ ] Peaches
[ ] ADULT
[ ] Freezepop
[x] Daft Punk (Is NOT ElectroClash!!)
[x] Goldfrapp
[x] Shiny Toy Guns
[ ] Clear Static
[ ]The Faint
[ ] The Knife
[ ] She Wants Revenge
[ ] Chicks on Speed
[x] LCD Soundsystem
[ ] Dirty Sanchez
[ ] Le Tigre
TOTAL = 6

ELECTRONICA
[x] The Chemical Brothers
[x]Prodigy
[ ] Moby
[x]The Crystal Method
[x] Aphex Twin
[x] Basement Jaxx
[ ] Juno Reactor
[ ] Amon Tobin
[x]Orbital
[x] Paul Oakenfold
[ ] Unkle
[x] Tricky
[x] Benny Benassi
[ ] Photek
[x] Roni Size
[ ] LTJ Bukem
[ ] Boom Bip
[ ]Captain Jack
TOTAL = 10

Part 2

2007-10-01T00:32:04Z

Well, it looks like I shoulod have posted sooner because even after my last post I forgot to add stuff! This is back to my personal stuff. The day before my birthday (the 21st) a big storm hit Los Angeles, and when I say big I mean a typical storm in Marin. Bikram has been helping out a lot as far as my emotions go, I guess getting into a regular routine of exercise will do that. If it wasn't for the yoga I'd be a warbelling bag of slop. Usually it also helps me sleep if I'm stresssed out, but for the past few weeks I've been waking up in the middel of the night, though usually I can eventually get back to sleep. I think part of the problem may be with my new neighbors. I'll ellaborate later. Anyway, I don't remember why but work had been sort of stressfull and my car was still at the mechanics, so I was loking forward to making it to yoga that night. Well, because of the rain, I missed class by ten minutes (also happened last Friday, sans rain). I was also worried that my birthday would be a big bummer, and with the rain I thought people would flake on me, though at this point I have a small but close and dependible group of friends. I stoopped to get dinner and went home to relax. I'm not sure if it was the sound of the rain, which is sort of conforting to me, but I think I was able to sleep through that night. I've heard that rain on birthday is supposed to be bad luck, but I've also heard the opposite, thought that night I felt that the first would be true for me. Not only did I sleep through the night (I think) but slept for a long time, which I needed. I finally got my ass up to take a shower, thinking that I'd spend the day alone like a few of years ago. Turned out that Dhino had called while I was in the shower and was driving to my place, silly me. I got out of the shower and Michael called to wish me a happy birthday and to make plans to celebrate it, which turned out to br a dinner we'll have to do another time because at the last minute his company flew him to San Diego. In the middle of the call Dhino rang the intercom and Michael let me go. Thiugh Dhino recently got a car, the tires on it were bad, so I took out the rental car to one of my favorite places, Vegan Plate. It's a Thai restaurant that doesn't serve meat (and most Asian dishes don't serve dairy anyway, so it's just the meat that's faked) and even my mom liked. Though it's only a couple of miles from my place, by the time we got there it had gone from a slight sprinkle to pouring rain. The rain had also given me good luck that day. I tried a dish there that I'd never tried before that was delicious. We decided to go to Pasadena and got into the car. I was backing out, super slow as usual, but didn't happen to see a bright red Civic in front of me! Worst was that I left my insurance card in my Honda. The girl got out and instead of wanting to exchange info just said, "You know, my uncle just hit my car, it's a 2001, so I'm not going to trip if it's coool with you." Thank fucking gawd. We got to Pasadena, and I only had enough change for 35 minutes. Needless to say we took way longer than that, but there was no parking ticket! Usually I get one of those even if I'm 30 seconds late to refill the meter. Again, the only bummer was not being able to have dinner with Michael to celebrate my birthday.

Also, around the last week of August, my Russian neighbor quickly and randomly moved out, and within a couple of days a mixed Latino family moved in (Grandma and dad are Latino, mom's white, and their demon spawn is of course mixed). They seem to be pretty cool and quiet, except for their kid. The kid looks to be between 6-8 years old and is loud an obnoxious enough that whenever I hear him throwing a fit (which is almost everyday) my ovaries try to tie themselves into a knot. The worst part is that his bedroom is next to mine, and the walls are paper thin. Usually I can hear him being woken up for school, and though he's gotten better, I would hear him fly into a massive tantrum of yelling, screaming, crying, and demanding that he wanted to watch TV. I still fantasize about shooting him down with Ritalin darts. You can hear that his parents are fed up with it, but of course it's the spoiling grandma that always lets him carry on for a while before trying to calm him. I do kind of feel sorry for her though, it looks like she may have suffered a stroke because at least the right side of her face is paralyzed. I've talked to the mom a couple of times, and though she's really sweet I can see where her kid got the hyper activity from. I hope for their sake he's easier to manage when he grows older, though I doubt it.

laflavah @ 2007-09-30T12:42:00

2007-09-30T23:07:10Z

This past month has been very interesting, both (and mostly) at work and privately. I guess I'll start with work first. We've hired some new people to start animating, and one of them is a bit of an odd ball (let's call him Ted). Doesn't help that he reminds me of a boyfriend from high school. Though Ted's across the room and can easily close his door, he keeps it open so that Yuko (the production coordinator) and I can here everything that he does, including randomly break into song for about thirty seconds and hear his discussions with his family. He also has another person (another animator and new hire) sitting next to him, yet Ted still seems to keep up his antics. I think my favorite is when his mom calls him, or he calls her. He usually checks in once a day, and the greeting is almost an announcer-like, "hello mother." Ted never calls his mom Mom, always mother, which makes listening into the conversations all that more entertaining. Usually he check in on her health, and the conversations usually are short and end abruptly. He is alo apologising constantly, and that partly also has to do with him seemingly not being able to take critisism well (from what I hear from Yuko). An example with be if I go into the kitchen (which is very small, maybe room for three people at the most) he will apologize profussly for, "being in my way." He does this with everyone else too. Also, according to Yuko, when the animation supervisor come to check his work and sees something that could be improved or fixed, he will usually become very apologetic. The last week, though, he seemed to become adjetated when he was given criticism. I think maybe the more depressing of the conversations I've heard from Ted was Friday morning when he was talking to the other animator (let's call him Jon). Ted was talking to Jon about seeing movies, which let to a comment from Ted that Jon should invite him to Jon's house to watch movies with him. I almost laughed, the comment was almost something out of a comedy where the older sleazy guy is trying to seduce to young naive girl. There was a short pause, follwed by Ted saying something along the lines of, "aww c'mon we should hang out, I have no freinds!" That last staement just made the preceeding conversation depressing. But on the flip side, his animation work is very good. There are times when I believe that these things happen as a way of balancing things out.
Also, I got to go to a line reading session last week with my boss as well, my first time ever. It was interesting to see how the person in the sound booth would direct the person to say the lines they way tey wanted. I was only allowed to be an observer, since my boss had toold me that Disney were the ones now in charge of how they thought the lines should be read. It was kind of hard at first, I wanted to correct them on a couple of things about the premiss of the story, but I did very well about keeping my mouth shut. That and my boss has a cool Jepp, the driver's side is on the right hand side from her days working for the postal service. Another funny thing that happened with my boss was that on the way back, my boss had a question for me, and said that she asked me specifically because I'm from San Francisco. She and her fiance (who she still calls her girlfriend, oops!) are getting married soon, and my boss wants to invite her best friend of 27 years (who happens to live in San Franciso) and her girlfrind to the wedding. Where this gets complicated is that her friend and her partner opened up their what is now their 27 year relationship with another lesbian couple. My bosses question was if she could just invite her firend and her girlfriend or if she'd have to invite all four of them. I gave my opinion, which was that she should just invite her friend and the girlfriend, and then for some reason I recommended that she should ask Dan Savage of Savage Love. Turns out my boss is a fan of Dan, but didn't have the information for his pod-cast, which I recommended she call into for a quicker response. I got her the info, so I'm wondering if she actually called in!
Personally, things have been a little up and down. I don't mean to be a whinny bitch but it seems a lot of shit hits the fan around my birthday. Labor Day weekend was when it started, and I was feeling really down. From the last time things got pear-shaped, I realized that it's a good idea to hang out with good friends even when I'd like to be like Osama and find a good hiding spot from the world. I called Dhino and we hung out. The funniest thing that night was that we were driving through a not so good part of town, and my car ended up stopping next to a white middle aged woman (who looked a little Tammy Fay Baker-ish) in an Oldmobile blasting what sounded like Beyonce. My car windows were rolled down a little and Dhino and I were in a conversation. Again, just like a scene in a movie, Dhino gave a quick glance to his right, turned to me with a slightly disgusted look on his face, and quietly rolled up his window. Probably due to how crappy I was feeling, I bust out laughing and had to put my hand over my mouth to quiet myself and to stop myself from laughing. About a week after that, my car's engine light popped on for some reason. Because I had had some unforseen expenses at the time and with work so far away (and majorly screwwing up at work, which I thought would lead to my firing, so me trying to look good), I avoided taking it to my mechanic for about a week. Friday night, on the 14th, when I got off the freeway exit to go to Bikram my engine stalled. Because Honda's are so quiet and I had my Zen blasting I didn't realise that the engine had stalled until I tried to turn. I started the car again and got to practice. When I tried to go home (which is a little less then two miles away from the studio) the car stalled twice. I was supposed to take it to a body shop the following Monday to re-paint a badly patched area so I could turn in the car a little earlier than the lease end date (October 23rd) but with the engine acting up I didn't trust the car. The worst was that I nereded to do errands that couldn't wait, so I resolved to call the local Hertz rental car office (since a Chevy Cobalt that I got stuck renting for four days from Enterprise cost about $0.99 a day, and that was for economy) becuase they offer better cars at cheaper prices. The only trouble with this was that it was a Saturday, so even thoughg they offer pick-up services there was only one guy in the office. I also forgot to mention that the 15th was also the eighth anniversary of a good friend's death, and with everything else getting piled on I was a wreck. I had called my good freind Michael the nioght before to see if he had my mechanic's direct number since the shop is usually closed on weekends (Michael is friend's with our mechanic's ex-girlfriend, and they are still friends) and vcalled him again to see if he could also give me a ride to Hertz so I could pick up a car. Thanks goodness for good friends, he picked my sorry-ass up (I was so defeated I started crying on the phone when asking him to pick me up, embarrassing). On the way there he called the ex-girlfrind and left a message. While at the rental place he tried to cheer me up with a story of a friend of his whose car got totalled by a drunk in a Hummer who hit the curb next to the driveway, flipped over, and smashed the friend's Pontiac before coming to rest in the front lawn. I was relieved to have transportation but still was stressed over how to get my car to my mechanic. Later in the day I walked over to the Coffee Bean that had opened up about a block and a half away from me to give myself a little pick me up. On the way there who should call but my mechanic, who saved me the third degree by hearing about how shitty my month was so far and the fact that it was both the anniversay of my friend's death and my birthday a week from then. He arranged to have my car towed, since I didn't trust it making the ten mile trip to his shop. One crisis averted, but I was still feeling shitty. Dhino came over later in the day and we ended up again at Coffee Bean, with him helping me to cheer me up a little. Turned out that the engine's air temperature intake sensor and fuel sensing unit had pooped out, and becuase my car is less than 3 years old and under 36,000 miles, I didn't have to pay the $401.91 in repairs because or warrenty (thank god!!!). The trouble was that because of how far away work and the repair places were (and the lack of available rides) I just got the car back yesterday instead of maybe a week ago. Now the only thing to fix is the paint patch, which hopefully can be done before the 23rd, or I'm screwed. I'm also trying to have a local dealership down here take the car so I don't have to ship it to Marin Honda. As you can tell, still a little stressed about the car, but it'll all be over soon.
Then there's getting a new car. Since my family and I have owned Hondas/Acuras since '88 and this is really the first time I've had a major problem like that, I'm of course giving them another shot. This was also the first Honda I owned or even drove that was built in the US, and though my mechanic says it shouldn't matter, I'll most likely try and buy one that was made in Japan with all the stuff I want. Now, this will probably should like my spoiled Marinite self coming out, but I'm a big fan of toys and (especailly with the Hertz reantl with XM radio and my mom's h all te extras excuding stereo) have decided that I would like to get the new '08 Civic with the navigation system. I know that's silly, but when driving in my mom's car the navigation system saved my butt a couple of times, and with the driving down here and nearly getting into a few accidents bacasue of bad directions from direction sites and friends I found the system to be far easier to work with. Also(especially since the rental car I have right now has XM) it comes with XM equiptment standard as well as a three month free trail, and has card readers to play music and such. I have checked my credit, and though I don't have much of a history (my choosing, which looks like a good choice so far) my score is pretty good, so I'm hoping that I can get what I want without having to pay a lot. Again, don't mind my Marin-ness, but I'm thinking of getting a four door (mostly for errands I have to run for work and occassionally for myself) and I'm trying to decide between a regular EX (they are coming out with an EX-L, which is a regualr EX with standard leather, heaated seats and windows, which makes sense for some parts of the country but here would just be silly) or the hybrid since my drive to work is about 22 miles one way. The problem I'm having with the choice is that I believe I'm killing the engine in the car I have now (and possibly the last Honda I had) by driving a little harder than it can manage, and the regual Civics now have 140 horse power instead of mine's 129 (the hybrid has 110). On the other hand, the hybrid has climate control, and hear me out. It doesn't seem like a big deal but it seems to save energy because the computer is programmed to recognise the actual temperature you set it to instead of just making the car hotter or colder. For example, my mom always has the car set to 72 degrees, and instead of just having it be slightly warmer than normal, you can feel the car trying to cool itself down to 72 degrees if you've left it out on the sun or warm itself up if you're driving on a cool night. Yeah, I know, it's silly toys that really shouldn't affect my decision, but....TOYS!!1!!1!!1!! Oh well, it'll all come down to money...I hate money.

BOONDOCKS SEASON 2 PROMO

2007-09-16T18:56:19Z

Y'all have been warned!!

One Example of Why I Love My Co-Workers

2007-07-27T06:13:22Z

This is a great, but long, story from my boss (though the beginning/explanation to the joke is pretty sad). She has both a love for animals and a girlfriend with abandonment issues (I didn't ask, so I don't know why). Several years back, she found a kitty and brought her home. She then took the cat to the vet, where she found out the kitty was pregnant and decided to keep the cat and all the kittens. Unfortunatly, the kittens were born prematurly, and three out of the five died. Two survived the birth, but the bathroom door didn't close properly and usually mother cats will either abandon or kill sick or premie kittens, and hers did the latter. So my boss put the kittens in little match boxes and buried them. Her girlfriend came home (remember she has abandonment issues) and when my boss told her what happened, her girlfriend got really sad and kept asking why my boss hadn't let her say goodbye to them before burying them.

Now here comes the funny part.

Fast forward a couple of years. The cat has gone (maybe dies? Dunno) and a bird gets trapped in their house and smashes into a window. My boss, feeling sorry for it, builds it a cage out of twigs (that's what she claims anyway) and soon she and her girlfrind get attatched to the bird they named Tweety. After several years Tweety also passes away. Remembering what happened the last time a pet died, my boss decides to kepp it in the house until her girlfriend comes home to pay her last respects. It also happens Tweety had rigermortise setting in, so my boss propped the little bird on it's feet on the kitchen counter so that her girlfreind will see it. Needless to say, when the girlfreind came how the reaction was much worse than when the kittens died.

But the best part (since she told several of us at once)?

When the executive assistant heard the story, he suggested that she should have taped a bubble on the side of the bird's face wirh, "goodbye" written inside the bubble. Also later, he recommended an extra touch of a fake tear going down one of it's eyes. Classic.

laflavah @ 2007-07-14T07:47:00

2007-07-14T14:55:53Z

So far work has been going well. Though I've made a few mistakes things seem to otherwise be going swimmingly. The sad part is that a couple of people have left the studio since I've arrived, with one more going back to Germany next week. The story board artists have also gone home, doing their work from home. It makes the room that the Production Coordinator (whose under my top 8 as Moto) the story boarders and I shared really empty feeling.I've also learned a couple of words of Japanese, and I hope to learn more as time goes on.

Alexys was here last weekend, that was fun. I would post pics but her email keeps shitting itself trying to sent the pics to me.

Would have more to say but I woke up early this mrning to head back out to Santa Monica to see some of my old co-workers from Neversoft play flag-football against game testers from Activision's Call of Duty. Maybe I'll update later...

When It Rains It Pours (In a Good Way)

2007-06-03T06:54:29Z

Well, my search for a job has ended, and by the time it did I had not gotten one but two job offers. One job I had submitted for was a production assistant position at a animation company called Sprite. About a couple days after I applied, in mid-May, I got an email thankng me for my interest in the position, but that it had been filled, and my resume would be on file. I had also applied for a video game testing position at a company called Neversoft, owned by Activision. The same day that I had gotten the email from Sprite, Activision called me saying that I had been accepted for the job and asked me to make an appointment to come down to their office to sign the neccessary paperwork, including a disclosure form (sorry guys). So I go on Thursday, May 17th, to fill out the papers and would be staring the game testing job the next day. Later that evening I was talking with my mom when I heard another call come in. I didn't think much of it but was able to get off the phone about five minutes after the first beep to see who it was. I didn't recognize the number when I checked but listened to the message they had left. Turns out it was the Sprite Animation Studio calling me back, more specifically it was a woman who was partly in charge of the project they were working on (and is now my boss) saying that she had my resume on her desk and to call her back ASAP. I called her back, ready to tell her that I had already gotten a job but that I would definatly be interested in any future positions they had while mentally kicking myself for my bad luck. When I was on the phone with Kate, the woman who called me back, I started to tell her that I had just signed papers for another job when she cut in and asked, "how much are they paying you?" I was a little stunned, and told her how much I was agetting paid an hour. She quickly got out her calculator and calculated how much it would be a week before deductions, and then raised that anount to about $150 more a week if I went to go work with her. At this point I couldn't resist, I want to go into production in animation anyway (more specifically video games, but animation works just fine). We agreed to meet the next day, the same day I'd be starting my game testing position. I started the gaming position wothout telling them, partly because I wanted to make sure that I would be hired by Sprite (I forgot to mention, they had wanted me to start the following Monday, the 21st. I had started the gaming job on the 18th). It was a good thing that I didn't tell Neversoft becuase as it turned out my hire date was pushed back att the way to yesterday because of a signature needed to greenlight the animation project. In the mean time, I got to meet the guys (literally, when I left Thursday I was one of three girls out of the 30 hired game testers).

For the most part the guys were cool. It was funny to see that in the first five minutes I was there half of the rules presented to me had been broken, but nothing that would have made anyone truely unconfortable. It was mostly the guys teasing and making fun of each other, usually in a very politically incorrect way. I quickly joined in of course, it's nice to see people who can have a good time and are not easily insulted, but know their bonderies at the same time. But there are drawbacks, and one fo them was that they seemed a little homophbic, always calling things, "gay." It was funny to catch them being girly themselves, though I usually never said anything. One example was that I was out to luch with a bunch of them last Friday, and some of them were talking about their favorite foods. Pork came up, and of course the conversation went, "mmmm, pork, good." and so on, until one of them pointed out that pork wasn't good for your skin and caused breakouts, to which they all agreed. It was fun to see those femme moments happen, without the guys realizing what they had done. In my short stay there I had moved to two rooms (rooms are divided up by games being tested and whether they are being tested online or not), and in the second room I was with a smaller group. I soon got the nickname Cat Face from the project lead, as well as another nickname (Lefrefer or something) from the lead on the game I was testing (confusing huh? After the games are released I can disclose more). I was able to scare a few of the guys by showing them Mystery Date for Bears, specifically to Jewbacca (aka Daniel, or "The Jew"). He didn't like it when I said that he kind of resembled them. He ran into the next room where I heard him squeal, "Omg! Cat thinks I look like a Big Gay Bear!" Let's just say that didn't help him out much. The Internet lead called them, "Big Gay Lumberjacks." Supposedly I've ruined the Lumberjack song for all of them. Plus, I missed the slight gayness I've become accustomed to at my past work places. I was thinking of perposing, "Gay Time," and hour out of the week where the guys could express their feminine side. I was thinking a dance-off to SexyBack would be great (I have my list of who I'd like to see doing that, haha), but even with all the man power there I don't think they could bring sexy back.

So I started my new job yesterday (June 1st) and that was interesting. It's a calmer atmosphere, to say the least. The company is mainly made up of Japanese animation professionals, so it's interesting to hear both Japanese and English spoken at the work place. Supposedly my boss has told me that everyone can speak English, but most of the Japanese employees aren't confortiable speaking it (I hope that changes). The studio has had several small projects and is known for Monster Samuri that aired on Cartoon Network. It was a little overwhelming being in a brand new place and trying to learn new proceedures, especially with a different cultural tweek in the mix, but I'm sure I'll be fine. Again, I'm under a disclosure agreement (a little more strict than the game testing job) so I can't say much about the project I'm working on, only that it seems to be a great story line. Right now I'm guarenteed a year of employment, but that could always change. If and when I can give updates I will, including when the show will air.

Three Weeks of Hell

2007-04-27T00:13:35Z

So my first gig in live action? Horrible. The sad thing is that it wasn't the overall experience that has turned me off to it, but the director/ring leader of the gig, the rest of the crew were wonderful. The project was supposed to end on April 22nd, but it's behind, though I'm no longer there. I was offered to stay on board but I decided to both end on the 22nd to re-focus my attention on animation and to save my sanity. The movie was a ultra-low budget "film noir" where the director did nothing but constantly yell and scream at the crew, going through almost one full crew by the end of the first week of shooting and at last half of the second crew (which I was apart of) by the end of my time there. It didn't help with the low pay (I got $50 a day, the luckier people got $100 a day) and 12-hour six day work weeks either, where we would go over time and time again without the second meal being provided to us as required by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) guidelines. The worst part was that the boss was super cheap, and for a low budget that's acceptible, but the guy's day job is as a lit professor at Loyola-Maramount. Not exactly an occupation where they pay you in government cheese. I guess what makes me so angry is that I've never seen someone so ungrateful to the people who are trying to create his vision. That's right, the guy also wrote the script.

I should have known things were going to get at least a little weird when my "interview" ended up being me running errands for the director the whole day, then because I had an IQ above room temperature I was "hired" for completing them. In the afternoon the next day was my first day on set, where I was put in charge of food services for the crew. At the end of the day I noticed that we were low on water (we were drinking Aquafina) and I was sent to pick some more up at Smart and Final. I had only been given $500 and had been asked to pick up 6 cases, but when I got there the water that we were drinking was about $30 a case. I picked up two cases anyway, paying the amount owed after the $50 I was given didn't pay for all of it. T explained the situation the next day, or tried to, but only got a few words in before being screamed at and having the director cussing while walking away. I was a little stunned, it was water after all and if it was really that big of a deal he should have just asked me to return it, which I had to do anyway. The project manager, Bill helped me find a place near where we were shooting (I forgot to mention, it's in Topanga, at least a ten minute drive from the nearest store or freeway, and the shoot location is on a huge horse ranch) to pick up the cheapest we could find water for everyone, and found that the Smart and Final I picked them up at had a buy one get one free sale on bottles water, which we were told was 1/2 a liter. So I picked them up, exchanged the expensive water and returned to the set. Turns out the bottles were a liter, and though I wasn't screamed at again I was repeatedly told that I had picked up the wrong bottles and to never do that again, blah blah blah. Turns out the old goat has a bad memory, as well as poor hearing. The next day I was mainly put on tasks where (to my relief) I would be away from the director. Bill and an AP named Jeff were pretty much my bosses, though the director also gave out orders. I was a little paranoid about what the director might think I was doing, so I kept asking to be where they were shooting so as to not have him think I was goofing off. Well, I spent most of the day away from him, and of course when I finally did get to where they were shooting on the ranch, the director marched right up to me and started giving me this stern lecture about how he hadn't hired me to not work. Fortunatly Bill and Jeff cut him off, reassuring him that they had given me plenty of work (enough at least) to keep me busy and that I was working. I think (no, I'm quite sure) he forgot and about an hour and a half later went to tell me the same thing again when Bill again stopped him and reassured him that I was working. This all happened within a span of three days, and I wasn't too thrilled that we'd only be getting Sunday off. The next day he didn't yell at me again, thank goodness, but he was on the prawl. At one point when the AD says, "quiet on the set," the director suddenly turned to face down hill and started screaming, "QUIET!!!!" to the little people who he only seemed to be able to see. The AD, though he had been through the director's yelling spells while I wasn't around (thank god) was a little taken aback and asked him who he was yelling at. Jeff (the AD) then told the director descreatly not to worry about calling quiet, that he'd do that for him. Supposedly I had also missed out on some of his yelling fits, thanks goodness.

The next week was a little better for me, since I was able for the most part to avoid the director. Unfortuantly the art director had lost his whole art department thanks to the director continually screaming at them about something or another, and there wasn't much of a camera crew to speak of. The only department that still had their people was the gaffer department, with had the head guy and five gaffers/electricians. It was noticeable though that about half the crew that I met the Wednesday before was gone. The main problem was food. I wasn't really getting any money for food, and I would have to be at the set by 6am and by the time I'd get to any store that had the cheapest produce it was either too late to go to the store or wasn't safe. Bill was helping me with water and cream cheese, since both him and Jeff had told me not to spent money out of my own pocket (they warned me that it might not be re-embirst) and Bill could easily pick up the supplies and have the director re-emberse him. The food that was coming in was usually free mostly through product placement, including day old bagels that we would either get from Noah's or Western Bagel. Most people understood, but by mid-week the make-up artist (who had not been getting along with the director, and was making that fact more and more dramatically obvious) finally blew up at me about not having fruit on set, telling me that I was not doing my job, that when she wanted something I had to get it for her, and so on. I wasn't taking it, and she finally backed off with an insincere, "I'm just kidding." The worst part was that she had brought her friend and fellow make up artist to assist her and when the fight happened, I saw the friend trying to blend in more and more into the background. Bill had happened to take the day off, and later called me to see how everything was going (he had become somewhat of a middle man between the director and most of the crew) and I told him about what had happened between me and the make-up artist. He kind of sighed and let me know that he would free up both time and money for me to get stuff I needed, since another problem was that I couldn't just leave the set saying I had to get stuff for so-and-so (as much as I would have liked to). It also got easier to get stuff the third week as shoots had moved from day to night. The problem was that because everyone was so stressed out we were running out of food and drinks a lot faster than if the set were a calmer, more appreciative place. The director didn't like this, and it soon became easier for me to have Bill go to him and get money than me. The director really showed his cheap side on the second week when (I wasn't there to see this) another PA that had become boom operator had thrown out a bag of day-old bags that had been sitting in the garage a whole 12 hour day (making them two-day-old bagels) and threw them into the trash can. The director saw this hand shouted, "What are you doing? these bagels are still good!" and proceeded to take them out of the trash can. Noticing that the majority of the crew was watching him do this, he said, "I'm going to take these home with me." I found out from a person that had worked with him on a previous project that the director was notorious for taking home these bagels and freezing them, keep in mind that there is at least a few years between projects for this guy. It was also obvious in that he would bring food from previous projects, including soda that had expired in 2004 for us to drink. What really got me was last Friday when I met the director and Bill at the director's house to pick up some papers to bring over to SAG. I saw at his house some food items I thought the crew would like, and thought about taking them on my way out. I thought about that again and decided to ask just in case he had a negative reaction. Well, my instinct was right, as the director got in a tizzy and said, "I'm not going to give you these boxes, we're not giving away food. Here, I'll give you one of these, two of those, and four...no, five of these. Is that enough now?" If I didn't want to quit before that would have been the last straw. I had to keep reminding myself that it was only a couple days more until the days I said I would be available were over. It was upsetting because, again, his day job paid him more than enough to keep him out of the poor house, and the left over items would just sit in his house rotting away.

Well, my last day was Saturday night into Sunday morning, and by the time Bill excused me and I got home it was 7am. I would have stayed longer but Bill had excused me, and the director had yet again gone over the 12 hour mark and failed to provide food in a timely manner (Bill had asked him about an hour before the 12 mark if the director wanted to get food, and the director said no, then about five minutes before the 12 hour mark relented and gave us $60 for food. Never mind that it takes 10-15 minutes one way to get to anything that could provide food to 20-something people right away, and that it was not quite 6am), so I wasn't too sad to go. I miss everyone there and hope that they're doing well, but the negativity of the director keeps following me as he still hasn't honored my second invoice. The delivery of the check has been pushed back to Monday, and this is after Bill gave him the invoice Saturday. I have written to the unemployment office that I am going to be paid the money I'm still owed, and I'm thinking that if Monday comes and goes with no check, I will get them involved.

One good note? I finally got to see Hot Fuzz yesterday, and it was worth every penny.

laflavah @ 2007-04-03T21:15:00

2007-04-04T05:00:45Z

I'll start with the good news first. I now have a temporary job that'll last about three weeks as a production assistant mostly on set for an indie film noir movie. I started today and the job will last until the 22nd of this month. Funny thing is I got the job about thirty seconds to a minute after I had arranged an interview with another company for a similar job. I'm still going to go to that interview tomorrow since the job I have now is temporary, even though I'm sure they're looking to hire someone right away. The job I have now will pay about $50 a day plus gas, and it will be six day weeks excluding this coming weekend.

I've been mulling over the revalations about a late friend's father, Alexys/ boka_cheka has wriiten what happened here (after the first two paragraphs, though be warned that the story is long) if you were not able to read the link from MySpace. Pretty much she went to said friend's house several years after her passing and had that late friend's father hit on her! We are now wondering if his actions towards Alexys may have been a sign that he molested the late friend during childhood (I know it sounds like a bizzare conclusion here, but if you read the entry from her journal it'll make more sense), since she suddenly went from hanging out with the popular kids at school to the rejects, started experimenting with drungs at a young age and progressed with that path quickly until she overdosed on heroin at 17. These thoughts and the slow realization that yes, this couls have happened to my late friend Stephanie has left me with the feeling of my childhood being raped. I know, those are strong words, but I used to look up to Stephanie's dad almost like a second father, and the possibility that he could have molested her is sickening and shatters my perception of him. Funny thing is that my mom had always suspected that he might have been molesting her.

The funny thing is though when we discussed what happened, we talked about another friend that we hadn't talked to in ages and speculated on what may have happened to her. This friend's name was Lindsay. Well, about 48 hours later who should send me a friend's request on MySpace but Lindsay! I couldn't believe it so I had to call Alexys, which I did and from there I sent her Lindsay's page. They started chatting right away, and Alexys told Lindsay what happened and they thought there could have been the possibility of molestation. I on the other hand procrasstinated on responding to her. Though she looked liek she was leading a great life (a wonderful husband and two little girls) I had stopped talking to her becuase she had gone through a manic episode so severe that she became dissosiative and it freaked me out, and it seemed like it would never end. At the time I thought she had decided that her diagnosis of bipolar dissorder was false and the fault of her mother (yet another long story which I'm not sure she's want me to get into) and had decided that she was perfectly fine when it was plainly obvious that she wasn't. There was a part of me that wanted to scream, "Stop! You're freaking me out! You need to get help and go back on meds if the theripist says you need to and just realize that you're bipolar and not be ashamed," but instead I kept those feelings inside of me and instaed tried to ignore the situation by ignoring it. I finally took a deep breathe and finally responded to her, telling her after about 7 or 8 years why I had stopped talking to her, and found out that in fact the stopping of her medication was not completely her idea. And becuase she was a minor at the time, she couldn't get a second opinion or whatnot, and had to go through with what her father and step-mother thought was right at the time. It was also at this time that she was starting to go through a manic episode, partly with help of Saint Johns Wart, which helps some of those with clinical depression eliviate symptoms but in bipolar people can trigger a manic episode. Then the names of Stephaine's death pretty much sent her over the edge and it was down hill for a while after that, with me suddenly cutting off communication with no warning or reason in the middle of that. The worst part was that I thought I was prepared for manic episodes, but this showed me that I wasn't (though I only knew the basics of bipolar disorder at the time, and learned more about it as I went through school and met other people with more acute symptoms) and looking back on it over the years I wished that I had said something and faced any reprocussions, if any. Fortunatly during this time she met a wonderful man that helped her through a nervous break down about eight months after they met and she has both come to accept and live with her bipolar dissorder seemingly without shame and (when she was without health insurence and pregnant with her girls) was able to notice when she would have an episode. I'm just glad that she accepted that she had bipolar, because I couldn't stand by while I watched her dissorder destroy her relationships, her chances of a future, and ultimately her. Again though, I look back on all this now and realize I shuod have said something, because that might have been the best thing for her at the time. I explained this (a little, I didn't go into this much depth) to her, and she apologized for her manic episode freaking me out. There really isn't anything for her to apologize for though, she can't control these episodes so it's not her fault. I also mentioned to her (and I hope I didn't offend her) that in Mike Godsey's advanced psych class (where we scratched the surface of neuro-biological psych) I descirbed the said manic episode that made us drift apart, and that he in return pretty much responded, "wow, she's a textbook case of bipolar." But, like I said, she has since recognised and accepted her bipolar dissorder (short-cycler for all you pysch heads) and has since gone on to have a great life.

So even from something as terrible as the realization that your best-freind's father may have sexually molested her, there was the goodness of re-connecting with an old friend and explaining what made you two grow (or tear) apart for what seemed like no reason. I hope this is the start of a beautiful friendship for Alexys, Lindsay, and I.

Happy April Fools everyone!

2007-04-02T00:18:00Z

Still don't have a job, though I keep sending my resume to anyone who will except it and had an interview last Friday (didn't get the job, though they were interested in me for another position). I'm still trying to keep positive about the whole situation, though there are days when I just feel like staying in bed and not leaving even my room. But everyone is still rooting for me, and there will be something, so I just have to keep trying and hope.

A couple of days ago there was a fire a few miles from my place, called the Barham fire. It was supposely on CNN and several other channels; on both 24-hour channel news networks and other local news stations across the country. The thing that had it land on those networks was that 1. it was on the same hill as the Hollywood sign and came close to it at one point and 2. it was the first fire here this year (and, of course, I think it was a slow news day). I was lucky because both the winds were low (at 7 mph) and the temperature was fine (though the humidity was only 9%), where as if it had started later in the summer with the Sant Ana Winds (high speed winds that come from inland) it probably would have caught the Oakwood apartments (where the fire started) on fire then hopped over to NBC/Universal, or so some therorized. In either case it would have been bad. There was still some hot spots flaring up yesterday, though even if the fire fighters couldn't get to them because of the remoteness, the water-dropping helicopters could. I haven't heard any of the helicpoters (or, since the LA fire department uses Balck Hawk helicopters, they're called Black Drops or something like that).

Also had an interesting thing happen to my friend boka_cheka (and thank god not me) that has me looking as an old friend's father in a completely different light. This was a friend of mine that had passed away during my senoir year of high school. It was shocking and sad to hear, since when I was younger I had kind of looked up to the family whe my own parents (well, my mom at least) were busy trying to save their own shattered marriage. And no, this isn't an April fools joke, I wish it was.

Also I went to the Los Angleles Animal Shelter annual animal showcase at a park near where I live. Turns out that they have this every first and thirs Sunday of every month. Of course I can't afford to have a pet right now, but I would like to have a companion soon and I am a firm beliver in adopting from shelters. Actaully, I went there twice. I went around 1pm just to look around, but an older cat[Unknown LJ tag]</lj> started mewoing and he reminded me of my late cat Shadow. Even though Shadow passed away several years ago, the meowing triigered something, and I had to leave before I got too emaotional. I got my car washed and decided to come back to get more information. By that time the older cat that had made me cry a little had been adopted, though he still looked sad and was as talkative as ever. Also fell in love with a cute kitten [Unknown LJ tag]</lj> that seemed to like to sleepo in his food bowl. He move his big back foot before I could get a pic of him, but he still looks adorable. Hopefully I'll get a job soon so that I'll be able to have a companion here.

laflavah @ 2007-03-08T14:07:00

2007-03-08T23:27:02Z

I want to apologize in advance to boka_cheka , since I was in the Bay Area this past weekend and didn't call to see her. I had planned to get my tooth filled and some other things so I didn't have time to drop by, though next time we should have a day together to make up for it. Thank you for the card by the way, I got it when I came back home. I'm going to be sending out some birthday presents for you (please don't mind the low-cost of them, I'd make it more spiffy if I could, let me know where to send it) I also got to see some friends that I haven't seen in a while including Viviana and her brand new baby. I also got my hair cut, nails done (though I think my mom would not be happy if she knew I just let the nail polish chip off by itself), and a massage, things I either can't afford or wouldn't do if I could afford them.

When I was home I got to see misery_9 and epistemophilia3 the first night. On Sunday Jill, Sarah, Vivi and I were supposed to meet up for lunch, though Jill got stuck in the city so she wasn't able to come. Still we had fun catching up and stuff. One of the first things Vivi asked me was to NOT take any pictures of her chest (lol) and I assured her that I brought the camera to take pictures of us and baby Marcus (whose under the LJ-cut, though his cute steel-grey eyes didn't). Baby Marcus ended up being the only person getting to have his picture taken, since we pretty much did nothing but talk for almost three hours. The amazing thing was that the baby really didn't wake up or fuss; supposedly he's a really good baby in that he usually sleeps, rarely cries and never fusses.

Really the most came out of Vivi, since she had had a year that for most people would have spanned several with getting married and having her first child. It turned out that her labor and delivery went really well for a first-time mom, only five hours (though through the conversation I realized that if you wanted baby horror stories, you should talk to my mom). She's also adamant about only breast feeding Marcus, which is great. But what really makes Marcus special is that he stopped Vivi from, as she saw it, otherwise leading a livestyle that would have had a quick burn out, and that her number-one priority is her son (yay, go Marcus!!).

Sarah's got some cool stuff coming up soon after she graduates in December from San Francisco State. Since she's getting her BS in physiology (I hope I'm right about that). With the BS she can work in a lab or she can go further in her education; she's thinking about forensics (though in some cities you have to be a cop for two years first, something she's NOT interested in) or to become a doctor/midwife in alternate medicine. So...she's got a lot going for her. Though Jill didn't make it to lunch she told me when I saw her and Sarah Friday night that she's saving up money to pro sue her masters in library science, and she should have enough to consider schools by summer.

As for me, I had an interview ion Monday and won't hear back until next Friday, which is also St. Patrick's Day (and I know what you're thinking, but I probably won't drink either way since I don't really drink at all). It's a little scary right now since, unlike that past couple of weeks, I don't have any interviews lined up right now. I'm hoping that the phone interview on Monday goes my way since I would be a production assistant in a video gaming company, which would be my ideal job. Wish me luck everyone!

laflavah @ 2007-02-03T20:45:00

2007-02-04T05:42:45Z

Getting over a nasty virus a week after I got it. Weird thing is that early Sunday morning (early being 2am) someone with the number (415) 225-4586 called my cell three times in a row and didn't leave a message. I was 24 hours into the bug, so I was not in a mood to pick up the phone. If it was one of you guys please leave a message next time (sounded pretty urgent, since the person called three times in a row) and I'll definatly get to it when I'm semi-conscience. And if you needed to talk, sorry I didn't pick up the phone, I might have if I was feeling better and please feel free to call me whenever.

On a good note, though this is more for the ladies, I have found a few bra companies that are great for people who either have sizes not easily found in stores or who want a nice bra that might last a little longer. The first, of which I have two of their bras, is Young Attitude by Warner's from the UK. The site advertises that they specialize in cup sizes D-G, though they have bras available in B and C cups too (though the band sizes only go from 32-38). The two I have fit me better than any bra I've ever had, and they're really cute too. Another brand is Fantasie, formerly Fantasy of England. They have cute bras too and have more sizing options, with cup sizes from B-JJ and band sizes from 28-44. I have their t-shirt bra and that fits really well too. They also own Freya, something more like Young Attitude where the styles are aimed more at young women with the same sizing options as Fantasie. Fanatise also owns Rigby and Pellar, as well Goddess (their link is on the Eveden website) for those that don't like underwire (though they do also have underwire styles) and have their bands between 34-56.

The only bad thing is that these bras are are expensive, and shipping and hadnling becomes a problem since the companies are shipping from overseas. Young Attitude is the only website from the brands mentioned that has an online store, the Fantasie brands only have their cataloges online. A good online store I found that has these brands, as well as others, is Curves and Lace. They have good prices as well as good sale prices, though they only carry cups D-J and band sizes 30-40, and their S&H can get expensive too. The best prices I got was from eBay, where I got the two Young Attitude bras (with decent S&H charges) for the regular price of one. Most of the regular sellers that have set up shops have ratings of 98% and up, with most around 99.7% and up. It's worth noting that they're really big on communication, so if you have and questions it's best to email them. The thing now is that (I guess) since the first of the month is gone, a lot of the listings are hidden in the shops of the eBay sellers instead of being listed when you search for them. This could change though, so don't be discouraged if you search for a brand on eBay and don't get that may hits (ex. I searched for Young Attitude today and only got 11 listings, where as two weeks ago there were ten pages worth, and the same deal with Freya where a couple weeks ago there were up to 58 pages worth of listings, today there were only 58 listings total). Hope that helps all my big boobed gals!

laflavah @ 2007-01-12T16:48:00

2007-01-13T00:50:31Z

I was laid off from my job yesterday, along with twenty other people. The entire News and Entertainment section are gone, and half of Comedy has been slashed.

But I can't help thinking that this is a blessing in disguise.

Near Carnage On My Trip to the Bay Area!!!

2007-01-05T06:47:56Z

Not much has changed. Still at the same job, and so on.

I got to come back to the Bay Area around the week of Christmas. It was nice to be home, so nice that my mom and I never even fought during my stay! I was really hoping to see people, but unfortuinatly that didn't pan out (I'm coming back at the beginning of March guys, I'd love to see you all), though I didn't really give good notice either. Because of my budget constraint, my mom had to help me out a little financially coming out for a week, but I was really surprised with how pampered I got, more on that later.

I think the most memorable point on the trip was one that could have easily been the worst. It was my second day there, and my mom let me drive around her new car. I drove around the Marin Headlands, then decided to go back home by going through the 5-minute tunnel. For those of you that don't know, there's a tunnel by the Marin Headlands/Golden Gate National Park area that goes through a hill that's one way, but has a stop light on either end so that cars from either side can go through. Each side has about five minutes to go through before the light turns red and it's the other sides turn to go. I had reached my side and the light was still red. About a minute before the light turned green, a couple that had been waiting at the light started to go through the tunnel. About thirty seconds before the light turned green, I noticed a car had stopped behind me (before that I was the only person waying on my side), though I really didn't pay that much attention to it. The light turned green, and I started driving through the tunnel. About a third of the way through, I see headlights coming towards me, and then realize a black PT Cruiser, followed by a white Volvo, were heading towards me. After a second of confusion (what just happened? Did I go too soon? Ect...) I braked to at least slow down and not hit the cars coming towards me. About a second after I did so, I hear tires screaching. At first I thought it was the cars in front of me but I realized that it was in fact the car behind me (turned out it was a Ford Focus hatchback); somehow it's reflection in the rear-view mirror got my attention as I saw to brake so hard that smoke came from it's tires AND the force of the braking made it swerve to the right. And remember the couple bike riding? The man had gained about 500 feet from the woman, and if the Focus had been about 100 closer to the other side, would have hit the woman. The man, on the other hand, kept bike riding despite the commotion! As sson as that died down, I was going slow enough (and, thankfully, my mom got another Civic hybrid so it was small enough to do this) to be able to pass the Cruiser and the Volvo. The first thing that I did after that was make sure I got to the other end as quickly, yet safely, as I could. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the PT Cruiser had the same idea I did, making it to it's side quickly, but that the Volvo and Focus had pulled up next to each other, possibly to exchage some words.

The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful. Finally went to the dentist after a year and a half, found that I would definatly need one tooth filled (and possibly two more on top of that), which is the reason for the March trip. Mom had also scheduled a deep-tissue massage, which was wonderful. Also, Mom had originally schdeuled a medi-pedi for me, but I asked her to cancel it since she was spending so much money on me, plus I never get those things anyway. After some thoguht though, she re-scheduled the medi-pedi (my first pedicure ever) which was wonderful. I still have the dark purple color on my toes, and it's barely chipped off. I also got my hair cut, which I needed. On that day Mom took me to Lotus (a yummy Indian place) for lunch. That place always make me want to bring it down to LA because it's so good! Also found out on my trip that Whole Foods has much yummier prepared food in the Bay Area as opposed to LA (the Cream of Mushroom soup up there was delcious, something I wish they'd bring down here. And they also have some type of Thai soup that's supposed to be very good. I'm guessing the Valley isn't into flavor, that's the reason it's not down here and the best we get is Squash soup). Speakiing of food, my mom and I have a new favorite Chinese place (Toomy's Wok) after an old favorite of ours isn't nearly as good as it used to be.

Got to have lunch with Alexys boka_chekaat our favorite dim sum place Ton Kiang. The food was good, as usual, but our side (and story) of the building seemed to get jipped of most of the food.

Also or family friend Karin (who loves below my mom) decided to have he carpets replaced. We helped her clean some of the apartment just so she could move stuff to a non-carpeted area when the guys came. While I was with Alexys, my Mom and Karin were cleaning out her office closet (mostly filled with framed pictures and paintings) when the found an item wedged in the back covered with mold. After the inital disgust (though Karin has a house cleaner that lately hasn't been doing a very good job, she admitted she didn't have the cleaning lady touch the closet for obvious reasons), they threw out the moldy object. Later that night, my Mom started to come down with a sinus infection, which has now also let to her doctor getting her to do an allergy screening. While my mom was geeting all stuffy and sick, Karin invited me down to have some tea, as well as look at some of her framed art work. A lot of the art work she had in the closet was expensive and by well known artists. I ended up taking (or, will be taking, we still need to figure out how to send them) five pieces, four of which are a highly valued set. The thing we didn't realize is that some of the art work also had some mold on it, and I had no idea that I would have a reaction to it. The next day, flying out of SFO to Burbank, I also started coming down with a sinus infection. Fortunatly, I didn't have to go to the doctor (not having insurence sucks) and I'm almost over it. Turns out that when the carpet guys ripped up the old carpet for Karin the next day (the same day I left), the whole office floor turned out to be covered in mold! Supposely before she moved in, a burley and dirty mechanic guy used to live there, which is probably where the mold came from. But at least the mold is taken care of now.

So I'm back home. I spent the New Year at home with the sinus infection, which was ok with me. Hopefully '07 will be a little more eventfull than '06.

laflavah @ 2006-11-23T22:16:00

2006-11-24T06:16:17Z

Yoga has been paying off. Though I had to miss today (had to work), yesterday my practice paid off by the instructor (and the director of the studio) hold and show the rest of the class my forward bend pose. I had held it for a minute (we do two sets), and I was able to show mine after the first set with what they call the, "crown shakra," or pretty much my forehead to the floor and a flat spine. I felt really proud of myself that I had a good enough pose to show the class. The teacher congradulated me, since I've only been able to touch my head to the ground for the past few weeks.

I worked a full day today, but one of the heads brought in all the things (except pie) that you would have at a regular turkey-day dinner. The weird thing though was that she brought in a turkey completely embellished with fruits, and the best part, the husk of a pineapple partly stuffed up it's butt. Yes, there were endless jokes about that.

After so much quiet time...

2006-11-12T08:09:03Z

After my companies latest, "Free Food Friday," I have to say Columbian food is defunaly in my top favorite food choices, just under Indian and Thai. Our accountant brought in (I'm going to get the names wrong, it's late and I'm a little sleepy) meat, checken (with egg), spinach, and cheese empamadas, yummy cooked bananas that weren't sweet but were still darn good, papa...potato balls with meat inside (yum!), green salsa to go with all of it (I meant to bring a big container of it home, but I missed my chance!), as well as rice to go with everything. He was also supposed to bring in salad (he had the ingrediants, but didn't make it :( ) and the corn cakes were no where to be found, but now I'm definatly going to check out the restaurant on I think it was Oxnard (or Kester?) and Woodman, just several blocks up from my work. So glad he brought it in, it was a great change from the repeated Subway sandwiches, pizza, Chinese, and fake Italian food we were getting.

I am also goignt o be in the Bay Area from December 21st to the 28th. My mom had been begging me for months to come up, and she is even going as far as to pay me back for the work I will miss, which was one of the major reasons I haven't been up sooner. Please, if you'd like to hang out and catch up while I'm there, don't be afriad to comment here, message me on MySpace, or go ahead and give me a call. One of the great things I'm going to have done when I go back is get my teeth cleaned foe $65. It's been hard since I lost my insurance since June, but I'm hoping that will be resolved soon.

Lastly, I'm not sure how many of you have heard of H&M, but down here people are crazy about it. A store opened two or three days ago in LA, so Mike, his siter, and I went. They went because they're trend whores, I went to see what everyone was so excited about. Pretty much it's a store that sells mostly designer threads at discount prices. I went, and though I thought it was a nice store, and I'd go back, I definatly wouldn't do anything near sleep outside for it's grand opening like some did for the Pasadena opening. It's a clothing store for crying out loud, not the cure to what ailes me. This one didn't have a plus size section (I'm worried they got rid of that in all their stores!) so I didn't think I'd buy anything. Especially with my budget more and more strained, I didn't want to pick up anything anyway. Well, after about an hour, I ended up leaving the store with a shirt that cost a total of $10.72. I was peeved that I spent money before my paycheck. But it looks nice, or so I've been told.

It's been a while, but I gotta ask...

2006-10-01T06:38:22Z

Found out a funny thing today while talking to my mom today, night explain why I only got a happy Birthday phone call last Friday (the 22nd) from her and my Aunt Maureen. My aunts have come to the conclusion that they will no longer be accepting birthday or Christmas lists from me, or my cousin, or any family member that turns 18 or is older than that (besides themselves, I'm guessing). Now when I say list, I mean the kind if thing you give friends and family members as hints to what you want as gifts. I was supposed to have this explained to me in an email from my Aunt Jojo, but she failed to mention this when I sent her my birthday list, unaware of what they had decided beforehand.

Now, I mean, am I right for being angry? Upset? This close to syaing to them, "OK, I'll go ahead and do unto you as you would do unto me?" I'm not sure if I should fell justified for me feelings right now, and if anyone feels I'm overreacting, please say so. But this just caught me out of the blue. Supposedly their justification, according to my mom, is that they feel family does not have to support a person after the age of 18 except for buying clothes. WHAT THE FUCK???!!!!! So, a person who is going to school, or just out of school and in the job world making next to nothing, is shit out of luck because they are considered old enough to vote by the eyes of the law? No matter how hard they work and acheive in school or how hard they work at their new job that pays them shit? Again, I just found out several hours ago, and am still quite furious. I mean, I don't spend money constently, especially on thing s like shopping sprees, drugs, or anything like swindle my way into money that I could either easily earn or don't need. I keep from my mom that my refidgerator, cubburds, and freezer are almost completely bare, my closet looks about the same, that I haven't gone to the gyno for check ups about the abnormal pre-cancerous cells they found back in March, that I won't have enough money to fill my next prescription after this one runs out, and so on. Hell, I kept from my whole family the fact that in my old aprtment complex, you could hear the high school kids fighting and doing drugs in the alleyway that was behind my apartment in the day time (the high school kids came from a block away where their school was located) and at night you could hear people fighting and doing drung in the same alleyway. I even have one of my early posts describing a police stand off that happened pretty much next to my old apartment. The reason why I kept this from them? So they didn't have to worry and send me more money than I thought was neccessary. Well, turns out that that little secret wouldn't have mattered anyway. They could have given a fuck less. What would have happened if something bad had happened to me? Fucking chirst, would they have even cared???

Supposedly their whoile justification isn, "well, when I was your age, I was able to make it just fine. I don't know why your complaining, and it's your fault you're broke, so shut up." Like one of my friends said, it's like comparing apples to oranges. They were in their twenties between the late 60's and mid 70's, and even with high inflation they still had the benefit of a much lower cost of living, the fact they lived in Michigan at the time (not LA!), and that funding for public transportation at the time hadn't been gutted to almost nothing (just to name a few factors that helped them out). And besides, I thought we were a family, and that families were supposed to supposrt each other (unless the person was hurting themselves or other people) and help each other in times of need. Am I completely wrong about this? This is probably one of the lowest points in my life as far as financial stability, but I know things will get better i I keep working hard. Does that mean that in the mean time I just have to sit and starve, hoping that my paycheck goes through so that I don't end up homeless and on the streets becuase some selfish relatives don't want to help out a person in need? Christ, do they get their kicks punching out homeless people and kicking small puppies? I mean really, I'd like to take a peak in their small, dark minds. That and it's been a bad week, I guess this was a nice capper on it. But again, if you out there fell I'm overracting, please let me know, because my mom's just as pissed.

laflavah @ 2006-09-03T23:08:00

2006-09-04T06:13:40Z

The Croc Hunter's dead, HOLY CRAP!!!!

In other news, nothing much happeneing.

Found that eating a full-sized meal after yoga isn't such a good idea eariler last week. I had ordered out from my new favorite Thai/vegan place (a part of a Thai family that nono-jointly owns a bunch of vegan places around the Valley, Hollywood, the city and other surrounding places) and got a large-portioned noodle salad. It was great on the way down, but around 4 in the morning it wanted to come back up. I was able to keep it down (barley) and finally fell asleep an hour and a half later. Note to self: stick with the liquids and occasional hand full of nuts after my workout.

laflavah @ 2006-08-11T22:44:00

2006-08-12T05:52:59Z

An odd thing happened at work today. I walked in and noticed a bag on my desk next to my keyboard, the kind of bag you'd usually put pasteries in. I figured my friend Mike may have brought me a pastry from his sister's restarant (though he usually tells me so as soon as he sees me). I sit down, look in the bag, and there's a doughnut in there, a specialty doughnut that has chocolate on top with crushed peanuts. I ask Mike if he brought it in, since if he did this kind of pastery isn't like him. He said no, that it had been there since he got in and advised me not to eat it. As the day wore on no one came up and asked about it, so at the end of the day we ended up throwing it out.

Oh and I found a list of words from Verizon (including Wireless, the cell service) that one cannot say, spell, or anything of the like. The company recently got a Power Point memo from Cingular similar to this (several lists of words with varying degrees of naughtiness plus hypothetical situations) that maybe someday I'll post if I can figure out how to get the slides to become jpegs. But for now, this will have to do. Enjoy!