as you can see, things are different-looking here now. i know, i don’t love it either. but good old blogger, the service, decided they don’t need people like me anymore. people who use the blogger web interface and drain cyber-resources, then send all their files to their own server that google doesn’t control.

so i had to install my own software (wordpress, which is nicer anyway) on my own server, and if this page is ugly right now that’s because it will take some adjusting and tweaking to get right again since i’m no coding expert. also, since i haven’t been spending much time on this blog lately, it’s not a high priority at the moment. also, by the time i figured out what the hell i was doing getting all the posts over (at least i’ve got all the text safe and sound!), it got to be late and i got to be sleepy. maybe tomorrow it’ll all be better.

life is very full these days, even when it isn’t. i’ve been working harder and more often lately, which has been stimulating, which i like. i say bring it on. i’ll only get better if i am challenged, after all.

but in non-work terms, it’s been about the overload of goodies in the wake of christmas and a birthday. my pile of books waiting to be read is the tallest it’s been in ages, which is exciting, but comes with a feeling of pressure. not only do i love reading books, i love buying books, and i can’t do that again until i polish off this stack. another challenge i take pretty seriously.

luckily my reading time has increased as i finally caved to the digital age and decided to digitize our full music collection. for years i’d been romanticizing the act of actually putting a cd into a music player, not wanting to let that go. but naturally any new purchases were digitizing for iphone-loading purposes, which led to only ever clicking on itunes instead of grabbing a cd, because hey, that’s so much easier, which meant never listening to the other 80% of what we own. finally, i conceded, which meant hours of popping in discs and hitting import, and lots and lots of reading, five minutes at a time while the disc drive spun. finally, a few days ago, it’s done, and now i can put our entire 30 days or so worth of music on shuffle, and just soak it all in. amazing how many fun songs i hadn’t heard in years out of pure laziness.

then there was this just-finished three day weekend, which was surprisingly not full at all in terms of professional or social obligations. it being valentine’s and all, we made plans for a few date-type activities (bazaar for dinner friday, mortified sunday night). on top of that, we tried to hit up the LA street food fest saturday, but took a pass on seeing the epic line, opting to stroll down to cole’s instead. the rest of the time, there was movie-watching, olympic-watching, eating, lounging, drinking, laughing. essentially, three and a half days straight of nothing but each other.

and to me, that’s how you know you have a good valentine. anyone can plan a nice date for a few hours. woo them with fancy drinks and gourmet plates and dressing up and all that. that’s rookie stuff. we spent a whole weekend, an extended one even, together from dress-up to dress-down, tapas to french dips, stage show to IMAX (we also saw avatar), metro bus to couch, and had a great time the whole way through. in fact, it seems this happens at least once a month, where monday morning comes and we realize ‘hey, we hung out, just the two of us, all weekend’, without giving it a second thought. because we have a great time that way. of course we love our friends, but if nothing else, we have each other, and that’s wonderful. now that’s a valentine.

so, i sure had a birthday alright.

i’m 29 now and feel basically the same, except for the fact that i know i must be getting older because i have the resources and ability to coordinate epic weekends like the one we just had. that photo captures the best part of it for me: hours of lounging in the sun in the pool or hot tub, beer in hand (make that an endless stream of beers, really), surrounded by friends. it was glorious.

i’m pretty lucky to be able to do things like this and have a slew of great people show up to enjoy a day like this with me, some even flying in from out of town. if i were as successful in all other aspects of my life as i’ve been in making and maintaining a long list of good friends, i’d be rich and famous enough to buy a place like this for myself and not just rent it for the weekend.

a special note, because my brother requested it and other generous souls may be curious, my stuff to read list is freshly updated on the week before my birthday.

just in case, you know, you happen to be in a comic book store or clicking around amazon this weekend and feeling generous. i mean, i GUESS you could donate to the disaster in haiti, but will any of those people ever give you a hug or high five in return? i’m guessing no.

back to work, slacker!

yes, i’ve been on vacation for 18 days prior to this (jealous?), and now i am not. the good news is that i was off for so long i started to feel kinda restless and lazy and am actually kind of glad to be back at work. isn’t that weird? but honestly i think that’s exactly what i needed. as per usual, around the end of the year i was feeling a little burnt out and unenthusiastic, and now i’m happy to be putting my brain to work at something other than winning at xbox games.

more importantly we are planning a fun birthday weekend which is also coming up very very soon. i’ll be 29, which is almost 30, so we are doing something a little more grown up this year as opposed to having a dance party at a bar. yes, we’re organizing a chill little palm springs pool-lounging weekend. i’m feeling relaxed and rejuvenated already, or rather i would be if i hadn’t spent the last week trying to find and secure a suitable rental house, and wrangle the friends who are coming along. as of today though all the pieces are falling into place, and it looks like it’ll be a lovely time in a lovely little spot.

otherwise you’ll be happy to know that my extra week of extended vacation was spent not doing much, as is suitable to a stay-cation type situation. i did get brunch with jessica one day (they had RED VELVET pancakes! actually, not as great as you’d think), we did go out to the movies and trivia and whatnot, but mostly stayed home watching tv, reading books, and internet-browsing related to the above trip. i did spend a formidable amount of time writing for our under culture best-of list, and that should be up soon too. generally the routine of running errands, writing, reading and lounging was hugely enjoyable and i only wish i had a job that stuck closer to that formula. perhaps i should become someone’s editor. or a professional correspondent. do those exist?

new year’s!

but of course christmas before that. quick trip home this year since jessica couldn’t join me and i didn’t want to leave her behind for too long (aww, we’re so attached to each other aren’t we?). but even though it was short it was packed with goodness. christmas with the family including lots of nice gifts — my pile of books and dvds has grown and now i’ve got a few games i can’t wait to play, and that’s not all! — plenty of good food, and all the relatives. that part’s always fun because it’s so nice to spend a day with all the folks i don’t get to see enough.

then the rest of the weekend was spent mostly at home on the couch. i plowed through some reading, watched the last USC game of the season (woo, take that emerald nut bowl!), and checked off my three must-have meals for every trip back to chicagoland: deep dish stuffed pizza, white castle burgers, and an italian beef sandwhich. mmm, indulgent.

also, i saw avatar with my dad. lots of talk around this movie and i haven’t decided if i’m going to write a full review on under culture or not, but i will say this: i was expecting not to like it that much and just be wowed by the visuals, and i enjoyed it much more than just on that level. despite how silly the ads may make it look with all the cavorting blue people and walking robots and such, it’s definitely worth the trip. i may even go back in a few weeks to see it on full IMAX instead of just regular-size digital 3D like i did the first time.

now we’re about to head off to a night of drinking and dancing with friends for new years eve at club bootie. i suppose some resolution-type things are in order as per custom on the blog here, but that can wait until after the night of partying.

so i’ve noticed the past couple years that during the weeks between thanksgiving and christmas a sort of apathy sets in toward work. i fight it as best as i can — i’m not one to shirk responsibility or do things half-assed — but there’s a general dragging feeling. i compare it to the last semester of college when senioritis sets in. you can see the finish line and motivating yourself to get things done is just that much more difficult. yesterday on twitter i dubbed this phenomenon ‘holiday-monia’.

the funny thing is, there’s not an equal freedom on the other side once you’re in your professional life. once we all take off on our holiday breaks, only a couple weeks of vacation, all the same problems and projects are going to be here waiting not that many days later. if anything we should be more motivated to get shit done and start the year fresh without having to worry about things. but ever day that passes and brings us closer, it’s harder and harder to get anyone to do something. the prevailing attitude is, ‘it can wait until after break’.

if only there were a grown-up version of santa with mad business-world skills, who instead of bringing us adults a pile of presents, could drop into our offices and finish all our strategic positioning, or production schedules, or proofreading, or research presentations, and leave them on our desks tied up in a nice bow, ready to go when we come back after new years. that’s something i’d like to believe in.

we live in a weird time now, where whenever we see or hear something incredible, even in a singular experience like a live event, there is an expectation that someone was there to capture that and put it on the internet. even if we weren’t personally equipped or fast enough to capture it ourselves, the assumption is that someone was, and if we do enough google searches, we’ll be able to track down proof of that amazing moment and relive it as often we want, or show the evidence to everyone that missed it of how enviable our experience was.

i can think of several times where this held true, and i was able to share moments of incredible live music shows. for example, the encore of daft punk’s alive tour where they lit up like tron figures. i was able to find a totally decent recording of the whole show shortly after the decemberists played at the hollywood bowl accompanied by the LA philharmonic (which is still floating around if you try hard). the mountain goats tour where john got sick and had the whole audience sing ‘no children’ for him instead was one of those magical moments you want to revisit every once in a while to remember that people are inherently good (even if by proxy, as this was recorded in san fran and not LA). the internet is amazing for this reason.

but then every once in a while, you turn to the internet to prove those cool moments really happened, and it lets you down. it took me weeks to find a clip of a colin meloy solo b-side i’d heard at a live show, and i started to wonder if my memory was even right about loving this song so much (though i did find it eventually). there are cover songs or funny moments or removing of clothes (ah, kaki king) that are only around in memory form, which isn’t bad, but a lot harder to effectively convey to someone else who missed it.

which is why i’m so excited that even though their album isn’t coming out until next year, and the one particular new song i loved from their recent live show was nowhere to be found for a fairly long time, frightened rabbit stopped by the bbc to record a couple of their new songs. the one i particularly enjoyed was called ‘nothing like you‘, and prefixmag.com provided the mp3, and now i can happily throw it on repeat and wait anxiously for the album to arrive. [contented sigh]… thanks, internet.

it’s the moooost wonderful tiiiiime, of the yeeeeeaar.

and not just because i finally got to shave off my moustache. a moustache that earned, at final tally, around $850 dollars to fund prostate cancer research, i might add, making it one very charitable month of facial hair growth. no, it’s a wonderful time of year because there is is much fun to be had.

not only are there a smattering of birthdays, common to any month, but on top of that, an added layer of holiday parties. my calendar is already full through the end of the year on essentially ever friday and saturday night. some thursdays and sundays to boot. i’d better get back to going to the gym, is all i’m saying, because i forecast a large uptick in eating, drinking, merrymaking, etcetera to commence in the next few days and not stop until somewhere around martin luther king jr day. though why stop there, the man is a legend worth celebrating! and then the next week is my birthday… whew, i’m exhausted just thinking about it. february might have to be a time for hibernation.

returning to the topic though, with all the parties and what have you. it couldn’t come at a better time, because it has suddenly become crazy-ass cold as far as los angeles goes. our heater is blaring. i’m using blankets i haven’t touched for most of the year. it makes you want to… find shelter with friends and drink yourself warm! which is exactly what we’ll be doing. it’s a wonderful time indeed. the perfect transition from warm late-summer afternoons of football and beer pong and barbeques (it was a good try trojans, no hard feelings), to early nights and staying indoors with a pint and some buddies.

(plus, to be honest, cooler weather is an excuse to stay indoors even on non-party occasions, which is great for me considering this is prime video game season and there is just so much to play at home, why even bother leaving the house? the most hanging out with people i’ve done in the last several weeks with anyone who wasn’t my girlfriend/roommate/wife-to-be was via headset while shooting other nerds in modern warfare 2. now that’s a fun way to spend an overcast LA autumn afternoon.)

anything else? well there are a couple new articles at under culture if that interests you. we should be doing another podcast and beginning to work on our year-end list in the next couple weeks, so look forward to that. be our fan on facebook if you’re not already and you are indeed some type of fan. or become one in name only for now, and let us win you over with our future updates. either way, really.

movember continues at bristling speed, and so far it’s been a pretty big success. my mo’ is in good shape, as you can see below. and more importantly, i’ve raised over $500 to fight prostate cancer!

out of everyone at my company i’m second place in fundraising, lagging behind only the very top dog at our office, who is sort of cheating since he’s had a moustache and beard for like 30 years and probably knows a bunch of rich people. i’d like to think my mo’ has much more moxie, because it was raised on the streets with only its wits and a gang of great friends to watch its back.

thanks so much to everyone who’s donated so far, and remember, it’s not too late to donate if you haven’t yet!

if by some miracle i get to $1000, i get a sweet moustache mug and a certificate that i’m in the movember platinum club. i’m pretty sure once that happens, it’s just a matter of time until my moustache gets rich and famous and throws fancy parties for all its friends. all it would take is 50 people to give $10, or 25 people to give $20. i know that together we can do this.

life with a moustache, i must say, is totally sweet. for one thing, i haven’t been carded for anything all month, i guess because i look wiser. beer, cigarettes, even all the guns i bought yesterday. i didn’t have to show an ID or anything, they just gave ’em right to me. they probably just assumed i would use them to fight injustice, and of course they’re right.

the best part about having a moustache though is all the adventures you can go on with it. i know it’s been a few weeks since i updated everyone on my ‘stache status, but only because i’ve been enjoying all the opportunities a rad ‘stache affords a man. luckily, i do have some pictures to share:

first was the obvious stop, joining a biker gang. me and my mo’ (and of course a few other badass dudes) just having a sweet time cruising around being manly. and thanks to nature’s wind-guard, not a single bug in my teeth. nothing makes you feel more free than the breeze streaming through your lip-hair. turns out there’s also a leather requirement for permanent membership though, and me and my mo’ are trying to raise money, not spend it on dead cow hides, so that didn’t last long.

instead, i got a gig as a mall security guard on a segway scooter, using the intimidating effects of my ‘stache to keep the peace. but after all that scooting i put on a few pounds from donuts and not enough walking, so i had to quit for health reasons (and also because i was scaring little kids with my fierce snarl).

next i tried my hand at firefighting. that was a uniform i looked manly in. all the ladies loved me, and of course i turned them all down because there’s only one woman that can handle this ‘stache, and i’m already planning to marry her. however, my one weakness is that i’m allergic to cats, and so getting them out of trees all day was causing a buildup of grossness in my snotcatcher. so, again, time to move on.

my latest adventure was becoming an olde timey wrestler. if i won the big match, i was going to donate all the money to prostate cancer research and be a hero to all but unfortunately my opponent, the Soulless Patch, pulled an illegal Goatee of Doom in the final round and stole the title from me. humiliated, i was forced into early retirement.

now i’m thinking of shaving and leaving my wild moustache days behind me, but not until i raise more money to fight cancer. come on friends, there are only five days left, help me get over $1000! forward this link to your friends and family, and together we can change the face of mens’ health, before i change my face back to its old hairless self.