Beelz in the Hills

Dear Diary, today was a good day.

Actually the good day was last Friday when Timotei and I saw Stephen Lynch perform. And it wasn't some 80's inspired musical; he was performing his own freakin' comedy material! And Jebus, he was hilarious! Who knew that changing one line in his songs makes things so funny and fresh again! It was great! Tony the Tiger great!

And this blog was supposed to be a whole thing about that concert/comedy show, but there isn't much to say. So I'm just going to fill up the rest of this entry with a Ratatouille trailer countdown:




Enjoy!

Ricky

Storming the Stage

Wicked was grrrrreat! Tony the Tiger great! Speaking of which, I saw, just the other day, a motorcycle that looked like Tony the Tiger. Anyway, this was probably my first or second favorite cast and performance. All I can think about is that I want to go back again. Our seats were kickass!

That was fun and all, but the really cool part came after the curtain fell. My uncle Prisoner Tribbiani knew one of the actors in the show and asked him to give us a backstage tour. My uncle limited us to inviting only seven people. I wanted to invite so many more, but such a large group would not be allowed. In exchange for his kindness, we brought him gifts. Chocolates and booze and tea, oh my! He took us through the costume area, dressing rooms, wig room; showed us the smoke machine and trapdoors; and finally he took us on stage. It was amazing how compactly stored all the sets are off stage.

Prisoner Tribbiani's friend was incredibly nice and personable. I was nervous about meeting him since none of us knew him, but he was talking to us like we were good friends. It was a great experience and I hope we can do it again sometime. I say "hope" because we kinda got him into a little trouble...

But anyway, here's to Avenue Q coming this Fall!


Insert sign-off here,

Ricky

Lousy Smarch Weather

As I type, I'm currently on the train homebound from Los Angeles. My Nintendo DS battery has passed away and I've left my iPod earphones at home for the third day straight. So with no other options to pass the time, I'm forced to write this blog entry. It's not as if I don't enjoy writing these out... I do! It's just that lately it's been more of a chore that I put off (much like the gym).

Well here's the 818 on my 724. I'm busy as Hello Beaver (new Sanrio character) at work. Seriously. Like really ultimately stupendously stupular preoccupado. Seriosimo. I'm not lying. My boss has me on that project that I'm heading (which is turning out to be more work than anyone anticipated). I've been playing backup for two of my co-workers who are out of office. I'm trying to maintain my normal day-to-day testing duties. And I'm getting more side projects from my boss to do. I'm dealing with all this fine though. Just taking it one step at a time.

February was an odd month at work. For starters, one of our contracted programmers passed away suddenly. Then on that same day, one of my co-workers found out that her 25 year old single son knocked up his girlfriend. This week, we're having two catered parties. I'm down for the free food, but could this month have anymore highs and lows (not that having a baby is a "low.")

But so long bizarre month of February and hello gleeful March badness! It starts off with a whiz-bang backflip. This Saturday, after SEVEN months of planning and payments, we're finally seeing Wicked! Yes, I do realize that it will be my fifth viewing of the show, but I don't care. I'm excited for it.

Now that I think back at all the headaches this Wicked planning thing has been (though I did find 40 homes for the tickets relatively fast), I'm getting stressed out just reminiscing. It's a stressful time right now. So busy. When can I slow it down again?


Bizzy,

Ricky

On My Nerves

I'm so freakin' annoyed right now. When I went to my cousin's house yesterday, I noticed that his iTunes library looked very familiar. In fact, it was exactly MY fuckin' library. Then I saw that my other cousin had my tunes. It turns out that my brother, who duplicated my library for his on his PC, gave away all my music like a fuckin' hooker on a dirty street corner.

Yeah, we're family and perhaps we should help each other out. But goddammit, to see my exact library with songs that I KNOW they won't even like or listen to fuckin' bugs the shit out of me. My library is my personality, so why is it on loan to every goddamn other person in my fuckin' family.

I'm also really tired of people freeloading off me. Why is it that I'm the only one paying for this stuff. It isn't fair to me that everyone's too damn cheap to get their own life. That's why from here on out, if someone wants to leech off of something from me, they'd better help me pay for it. Half the cost should do. It's only fair. I'll do the same.


Getting things off my chest,

Ricky

Happy Birthday to Three

This weekend is particularly busy. Not only are we cleaning the house for Amazing Grace's one day visit (she's coming down here for an interview), but I've got three birthday party's to go to on this long weekend.

First up in about two hours, I will be journeying down to Brea for a co-worker's 60th birthday! It's a surprise party that's "semi-formal." Crapsticks! I was hoping I could just show up in jeans.

Second up tomorrow is Erico Suave's birthday! Now he lives down in Newport Beach now, so we don't often get a chance to hang out. This will be my first foray into his new place. I had ordered multiple parts of his birthday present from online outlets, but only one has shown up. So I'm going to have to improvise and/or just give him a late gift.

Thirdly on Monday is Grandpa K's birthday banquet. This one should be standard fun! I wonder if we have to dress all nicelike.

So those are my plans. One birthday party for each group of people in my life; co-workers, friends, and family. You think I'd be giddy about all these parties (or as the cool people call them: partays), but I've got other stuff on my mind. Namely, this disturbing video that Ellvin Kelvin introduced me to that talks about unanswered questions regarding 9/11. Watch them for yourselves and tell me what you think:

Full run through:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6708190071483512003

This one cuts right to the main points:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4939022370662369150

It's like the producers of 24 aren't too far off with our current government.

Lastly, I promised some videos and such of the Florida trip and as always, I've fallen behind. But here's number one of an unspecified series. Speed 2 cruising in front of the Magic Kingdom! Enjoy!




Having trouble sleeping and feeling helpless,

Ricky

Pause

It's time to take a little breather and give an update on stuff. For starters, I can't believe I never bragged about beating Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess here. It only took me 56 hours and I enjoyed every second of that game (well, maybe not the Ice Temple). But it has thus started my fascination with Zelda. Since then, I've played through LOZ: The Minish Cap which was also pretty awesome. I'm currently playing LOZ: A Link to the Past, but man if that game isn't freakin' hard. I also bought the original Legend of Zelda for NES which is just about impossible to play.

But I haven't been spending all my time as Link. Last week, I assumed the role of Kyle Hyde; a former NYPD officer turned undercover private investigator posing as a door-to-door salesman. He was assigned to Hotel Dusk to locate some missing items and some missing persons. I just finished the game this morning and it was awesome. It was very texty, but so long as the story is interesting, I can take it (unlike Trace Memory). In fact, I liked the Kyle Hyde character so much that I was thinking of being him for Halloween. Of course, Halloween is over 8 months away, but that's how all my costume ideas start. I think of a costume idea, comment to myself that I have way too much time to start this project, then faster than I know it, it's October 15 and it's too late to proceed as planned. So maybe I'll start this one early. The main component of the costume is a black jacket with a white strip down the sleeves that says "Red Crown" on the back. Just watch, I'll make it happen.

And speaking of projects... my boss asked me late last week to assume the role of Project Manager for a small program my company (and specifically my area) is implementing. Crazy schtuff eh? I'm actually really nervous about this. I've always been one to shy away from more responsibility. When I worked at Disneyland, I didn't want to try for Lead or Trainer positions because I wanted it easy. And way back when I was on a gymnastics team, I was excelling too quickly and quit under the assumption that I wasn't going to do well (I never tried). This is the perfect opportunity for me to change things. I'll attack this project and see it through. Albeit, this is a small project that will probably mean very little to the company, but it may just be the thing that pushes me further than I thought I could go.

I've got a meeting on Monday and I'm scared as hell. Wish me luck.


Getting things clear in my head,

Ricky

Hey There Blimpie Boy

Holy hell in a hand basket!

Today was my first trip to the gym since my vacation (or since December probably) and after my very half-assed workout, I weighed myself. It looks as if I gained 6 pounds on vacation. And I thought I ate moderately well. Sure, I had the occasional bag o' fries and ice cream and churros, but every morning I had a healthy omelet and stuff for lunch and dinner. Okay, I guess chicken strips and burritos and such aren't exactly salads, but whatever. Man, I feel so heavy.

A month ago, I had set a Nike+iPod running goal of 10 miles in 4 weeks. Well, the deadline was yesterday and I didn't succeed. I only achieved 6 of the intended 10 miles. But I've set a new goal giving myself double the time! If I can't make this one, then that's pretty sad.

So sad that I'm going to eat myself happy.


Loosening my belt,

Ricky

A Whole New Disney World


I've returned. But not without the effects of visiting theme parks for a week straight. FIrstly, I'm still on Florida time. For the past three nights I've been falling asleep at 9pm. Also, after the fourth vacation day, my ankle was in pain and it still hurts.

But let us rewind for a second.

Our flight, though it was delayed by 90 minutes to replace a tire, was enjoyable. I've discovered the joys of Cran-Apple juice. The flight wasn't crowded at all. Then when we landed, we were surprised with a limo ride to our hotel. I'm serious!


Disney has a promotional campaign where they make "dreams" come true. Apparently my dream was to bypass a standard shuttle and ride like a billionaire pimp to a budget value resort.

Around this time, it's not busy at all. However, it just so happened that two new attractions opened on the weekend we were there (Finding Nemo The Musical and The Seas with Nemo), so it did get busy for those two days. But we had no trouble conquering each park multiple times.

Therein lies the problem. Each morning, we were determined to beat the crowds, so we were up pretty early. And then on most nights we were at Downtown Disney for some late night shopping. It was nonstop and never truly relaxing. In fact, somewhere near the end, we were burned out. We needed a break from the parks and so we turned to recreational activities to fill our time. Horseback riding and boating!

While we were there, Angel Wing Jasmine celebrated her 26th birthday. For her gift, I treated her to kick ass seats to the resident Cirque du Soleil show, La Nouba. This marked the 4th viewing for me and everything was going smoothly... until during the flying man act, we heard a CLINK! (the sound of a metal clip breaking or unfastening), a yelp, saw the sight of shadowy flailing arms, and then the sound of a sickening thud on the stage. The personality known as the Green Bird had fallen and was not moving. The flying man had stopped his act and just stared. It was a long silent moment before a stagehand came out to check on her. One performer stepped out and blocked the view with her costume. The flying man finished his act prematurely and they stopped the show. The house lights went on and several others came to the Green Bird's side. They carried her off stage on a stretcher and took her to the hopital (Angel Wing Jasmine kept a play by play since she's a paramedic). The show resumed, but it never recovered. The clown act directly after was painful to watch and the trapeze act suffered from jitters as 2 of the 3 big flip tricks didn't land. We checked in on the Green Bird days later and the giftshop lady said she had broken a bone and would be back in the show after she recovered.


So other than that, it was a pretty normal fun Walt Disney World trip with tons of new stuff to do. It was great to see Angel Wing Jasmine make the visit and get along so well with Erico Suave and MacArthur. And it looks like we got out of Florida just in time to miss some tornados. Tha's crazy! I've got some videos that I'll be posting during the week, so stay tuned!


Back to working; frowny face,

Ricky

Scrubs Love


Ever since Scrubs premiered, I have been obsessed with it. It's amazing how each episode can make you laugh your ass off and then at the end make you feel good, sad, or make you think.

So when Scrubs announced late last year that they had teamed up with the composers of Avenue Q to write songs for a musical episode, I nearly shat my pants.

They had some very typically-Avenue Q'ish songs like "Guy Love" and "Everything Comes Down to Poo" which I really enjoyed. But when it comes to musical music, I'm more attuned to strong power ballads that I can hum in my head all day and still get chills. The clip below is just that. Recorded on VHS and transferred to iMac with the help of my new camcorder! I still need a name for the little guy.



And now, I must pack for Florida!


Planning for tomorrow,

Ricky

Forward Motion


A new year and a new toy.

After months of wanting and research for a digital video camcorder, I tossed out everything I learned and bought one of them sons of guns. For the longest time I had been looking at a Panasonic camcorder. The main features I was looking for were widescreen recording, firewire output, and analog to digital output. The Panasonic ones always stood out to me, but only the higher end one had the analog/digital pass through.

With the upcoming trip to Florida, I decided to just buy one already. So at Best Buy today, I saw one that looked good, had a good build, and wasn't too expensive. So after months of researching the Panasonic cam, I suddenly felt that it wasn't such a nice camera. This one from Canon, the Elura 100, just popped out at me. Plus, it had widescreen recording and firewire. I went home to do some quick research and found that it also had the analog thingy. It was meant to be. With a Best Buy coupon, I got the price down to $350 and now it is in my possession! I hope I don't get too much buyer's remorse. After all, it is last year's model.

But anyway, this means that I'll have some nifty videos to spice up this here blog (thanks to YouTube)! It's the natural progression of things... Text > Pictures > Video > Killer Robots



Broke,

Ricky