Saturday, November 3, 2007

Halloweeeeeeeen

So I leave tomorrow night, getting back to Melbourne at 9:30 in the morning, sorry for my mistake. The flight is NZ123.

So before I leave, I figure I should post about Halloween. The photos are a lot more work than I first expected, and so with packing and such, I haven't had much time... Luckily, they don't take too much brain power, so once I get home I should be able to get cracking on them.

So yes... Halloween. First thing I did for the day was begin decorating, Kristy and Richard wouldn't be home until later at night, and so I would have to be the one prepared for any trick-or-treaters. I put out some cobwebs everywhere, including on the door and one of the windows. I also got a Halloween playlist going, and set the computer speakers up near the windows.

As it got later, I got into my costume, and set out the pumpkins. When it got dark, I lit the candles, turned up the music and got ready for the trick-or-treaters.

I was a little disappointed actually. It wasn't until after 7:30 before I got one largish group of about 4 kids and two tweens, and then just before Kristy and Richard got home I got a group of three tweens who had what some may call a lack of clothing. I felt my costume (OK, so I have a photo of this already...) went to waste!

Luckily, it didn't totally. Kristy got home and disguised herself in a costume (including wig) that would ensure no one would recognise her as being an adult going out with a young adult trick-or-treating. I think most people thought I was 14 and no one really had an issue with it (plus by the time we got out, the night was starting to die down and so people wanted to get rid of their candy). Three houses up the street got REALLY into it, apparently they go overboard at Christmas (and at Easter too for one of the houses!) as well. One guy had dug a hole in his front yard to be a grave, another had people standing and sitting still in clown and scarecrow costumes, they moved when you had your back turned. Another had a huge graveyard, lighting effects, a guy who grabbed your foot as you tried to walk past, horror movies playing, and a person who would chase you with a chainsaw... Being the most elaborate, I can guess that this is the house that actually decorates for Easter.

I got a decent amount of candy, most of the area around here is apartments, and so they don't usually do the trick-or-treating thing... Probably why we didn't get many people. Now the only problem is I don't have time to eat it!

So today I was packing, I also went into Hollywood to go to the "Build-a-Bear Workshop" and bought twin bears... One for Kristy and I each as a sort of thank you and a bit of an inside joke between us (one is meant to be a ninja despite the fact the closest I could get was a karate costume, and the other is a pirate!). So that was fun...

...Tomorrow I leave! I kind of want to stay!!! Oh well.

See you all soon!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The day before Halloweeeeen

So I'm updating this on the morning of Halloween itself, but I think everyone will get over that.

So yesterday was Halloween, and after a bit of shopping, Kristy and I went to have some fun.

In the form of pumpkin carving!

Seriously, it isn't as easy as I thought, and it's actually really physically demanding! My arms got a good work out, that's for sure... We made two jack o' lanterns each. To see how easy it 'sounds', here are the steps:

1. Cut a hole at the top of the pumpkin, make sure you cut it at an angle so the lid can go back on. As I discovered from my first pumpkin, you should also make it big enough to easily get your hand in and out of, otherwise the next step and lighting the candle are going to be difficult.

2. Get a spoon and scrape all the edges. This step is really messy, because sometimes you can't get the spoon to grab enough and often it's just easier to stick your hand in and grab the stuff out yourself. Now is not a good time to decide you don't like the smell of pumpkin, because your hands up to your elbows are going to be covered in it.

3. Clean up the bits that didn't quite make it to the bin and wash off.

4. Get a sharpie or some other marker that you can draw on pumpkins with, and draw a face on it. Smoother pumpkins make this a lot easier, and while you can skip this step it makes your pumpkin look a lot better.

6. Get a knife and start cutting. Make sure it's real sharp, because as it is it's gonna get stuck in there and a sharp knife is easier to pull out of pumpkin rind. It's also hard to cut in any thing but a straight line, but it is possible. Be careful carving pointed teeth, they don't tend to stay on very well when you're pushing the cut up rind off the pumpkin.

7. Either drip wax down the bottom of the pumpkin for a perfect fit, or just shove a candle in there if you can manage to make them stand up straight.

8. Put the lids back on them and put them outside. Now your pumpkins are done!

So there you go. After making pumpkins, Kristy made jack o' lantern gingerbread cookies, which looked and tasted really good. Especially while watching The Mothman Prophesies with Richard Gere (a movie which is made all the more scary by the fact that it is based on a real story).

After that movie was over we settled down to watch a lovely movie known as Ringu. While I thought the American version of The Ring was actually scarier... It was pretty damn scary! For those of you who don't know, Ringu is the original Japanese movie that inspired the American movie. The plot is pretty much the same, but it has changed a fair bit. Either way, I'm surprised I was able to sleep so easy last night!

I have photos of the pumpkins coming too, so far I haven't made much progress on the photo album, but I'm getting there! I'm adjusting levels and resizing them before I put them up, and it's taking a little while longer than expected. Password is oranges in case it has been forgotten.

Halloween is tonight! I'll be dressing up and trick or treating! More details later!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Warner Bros. Studios

If you're reading this and say, "Finally, she's updated!"... Then, well... Yes I have, but scroll down the page, and look in the left column which shows you every post I made today. Start at the bottom post and work your way up, and you'll go from September 7 (The link marked "GO LA") to today.

Also you might notice a lack of photos... I can assure you, I have some, but there are A LOT. What I'm going to do is upload them into different folders of a Photobucket account. I'll probably be doing this tomorrow, as I have some other stuff I'm wanting to do, and adjusting the photos and uploading them is going to take a while. So check up on this link tommorow, the guest password for it "oranges". There will be folders for each day/thing, and newer photos will be to the bottom right on the last page of each folder (if there is more than one page)

I also have lots of video, but that's going to wait until I get home just because video editing is really time consuming, and I can't upload very long videos to Youtube.

But I'm now going to say what I did today besides update this blog (finally).

Today I went to Warner Bros Studios for their VIP tour. It was cool and we umm... Saw lots of stuff? Actually, asides from the stuff I got photos of it wasn't incredibly exciting!!! Wait until tomorrow to see all the neat stuff I got photos of!

ALSO: Just to tell/remind people that I'll be touching back down in Australia on November 5 at around 10:20am (providing it remains on schedule). So if you guys are interested... Yeah. Air NZ flight... Something. In International Arrivals. :)

The Week that was

The week of October 22-28, we're finally getting more recent!

So the day after Disneyland required some rest, but on Tuesday I was up and off again, this time to Paramount Studios! They were filming a few TV shows on the day, and apparently Eddie Murphy was on the lot on the day. We saw neither, but I did get to see the set of an upcoming TV show called Dirt with Courtney Cox, and here's hoping I don't get a lawsuit thrown on me... Found out some news that Trekkies may be excited about. I will say nothing more because the tour guide slipped up when she told us and apparently no one's meant to know.

It was pretty neat to see all the stuff though, and of course we got the obligatory talk about the Hollywood sign which could be seen from outside the sound stage of Dirty Sexy Money (and she got some of her facts wrong too, and I thought it was sad that I knew she was wrong).

What was interesting was on the buses here... They have TVs which show roughly where the bus is, play ads and such, and put up headlines. One of the news stories looked like: "Sydney (Reuters) Keeping fit is important! Just ask Australia's power walking PM, John Howard, who is soon to be facing a tough election" ... Yeah that was the highlight of my bus trip. Boy am I looking forward to all the Australian politics when I get home!!! Man, at least I don't understand enough about the stuff over here to have it really effect me... Though Stephen Colbert running for President in South Carolina is all I'm really paying attention to. He should move to Australia and become PM. Really.

Friday was my chosen day to once again return to Disneyland. I had to get up at 6:30 in the morning this time, using public transport meant that I wouldn't get to Disneyland until around 10:20. If I wanted to get there at its open, I would have to catch a bus at 5:30, and waking up at 4:30 in the morning did not sound fun.

So I went to California Adventure first, and made a beeline for the Tower of Terror. WHICH WAS COOL!!! On my way to another ride... I managed to really be in the right place at the right time, because apparently at the place I was walking through at that time allowed me to win a "Dream Fast Pass" for both parks... Basically tickets that allowed me to jump lines on certain popular rides. Nemo, again was not included but I didn't mind. So I went on all those rides! Including Splash Mountain which worked this time (though it didn't get me as wet as the Grizzly River Run at Cali Adventure... I was soaked for most of the day from that).

I got to see the main street parade this time, which was good (though I know some of the floats were missing...). What was REALLY awesome though was the Fantasmic show (which was a cross between the parade, a water show, some movie clips, and a fireworks show, all with Mickey and a big dragon and... It was just really cool), and the fireworks (which by the end had my crying because apparently Disney knows how to make you so incredibly happy that you can't help it!!!)

So yes... Friday was good.

On Saturday I went shopping for some items for my Halloween costume (A Surprise!), and on Sunday Richard had a few things to do, and so when he went to Frys I went with him and bought myself a copy of the Sims 2 Pets, which has finally gone down in price (it was cheaper than it was in Oz before, so even more so now).

With Disney photos, I didn't get as many as I would have liked. However, I sort-of-know a person who works there/has worked there, and she has a lot of photos and videos that most people wouldn't be able to get. So if you want to see some cool Disney stuff, check out her art page. If you click on the link just under the box on the right which says "Previous Journal Entries", she often has some photo posts and links to her photo albums in there, as well as links to some videos she has taken and put up on Youtube. There's some pretty awesome stuff.

Back to LA and A WORLD OF PAIN!!!

So on Monday, I bid farewell to Arizona and took a flight back to LA. My arrival was a bit hectic and confusing but it worked out eventually, and I unpacked and rested!

...And then packed again.

On Tuesday, Kristy and I were straight on the ball and used her two days off to take us both to Santa Barbara again. While we spent day one just lazing around (Kristy was using it as a getaway from work and I... Well I dunno, I was just there), on Wednesday we took a trip out to Solvang; A European styled town that was originally a Danish settlement, but was now impressing tourists by just being European. It was very pretty and cool. We got Danishes, which were also cool.

I came home to a letter and then drama from ACU... Which continued on into the next day... But more importantly I came back with A REALLY SORE MOUTH. So on Thursday I booked a dentist appointment...

...Turns out I need a root canal when I get back home. Yay. So I got prescriptions for antibiotics and a lot of strong painkillers (I'm done with the antibiotics now, but I still have some painkillers which I still need of an occasion)

I got them just in time too... Because... On Sunday...

We went to Disneyland. And it was awesome.

I bought a two day park hopper, but for Sunday it was Kristy, Richard and I. I was gonna use the second day with the addition of California adventure on another day. So. We went on a lot of rides, including Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Star Tours, the Tea Cups, Whinnie the Pooh... We attempted to go on Splash Mountain, but just as we were about to reach the big drop, it broke down, and we had to be evacuated! They gave us a fastpass to any ride (except for the new Finding Nemo subs, where the line was almost two hours long, I did not go on this ride on either day for obvious reasons!). So we went on the Matterhorn, which was also fun!

It was pretty windy though, which was annoying and caused the fireworks to be cancelled! It didn't matter too much though, because I had A LOT of fun. And I was going back.

The Extra Suprise week!

So we came home from the Grand Canyon on Monday, and I was supposed to head back on the Wednesday, but in a stunning change of plans, I would spend October 8-14 in Arizona and fly back to LA on the 15th.

So during the week we did some fun stuff, Tiffiny showed me around ASU, which is like its own miniature city (and it has multiple campuses!). It even has a bus specifically to drive around the area, which has shops that are a part of it (including I think every fast food chain that exists here)

I went to the Arizona Mills mall, which was also big and greeted you as you walked in the door with an electronic voice. I had a New York style hot dog (sausages in bread are better), and learnt that the Rainforest Cafe looks cool despite its cheesiness, but is way too expensive to eat at.

I went with Amanda to one of her jewellery making classes at her university, and walked around the area too... Which was also pretty fun.

On Friday we even went with Lauren to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which was a great movie despite the fact I haven't seen the first one.

But the main reason I was sticking around in Arizona for another week was what we did on Saturday: We went to Rawhide.

It was like a smaller, Cowboy version of Sovereign Hill without as many people in costume. During the day it was aimed more at younger kids, but after dark, they put up their Halloween theme and became "Doom Town"... It was pretty awesome.

The first show we saw was this thing on the Lone Ranger, where the guy basically retold the story of the Lone Ranger and Tonto, showed off some gun spinning tricks and fired a very loud gun to do things like pop balloons inside. He was a little annoying... But... yeah...
After that we walked around and looked at all the expensive shops, then waited an age in line to get ice cream, because some stupid volunteer Girl Scout person decided to make more orders while she was paying.
The next show was announced by a gun fight in the streets, and was the story of how Billy the Kid came to a town, shot some bad guys and... Left. Billy the Kid, we agreed though, was rather cute.
We had some greasy burgers for dinner... And then DOOMTOWN!

There was a haunted train which was fun because it was really for kiddies and their parents. But that was OK. There was another show on the same set as the Billy the Kid one, it was a little tongue in cheek, but still pretty funny and cool with its pyrotechnics. While we were waiting for it to start, we mucked around with the entertainers... Two of whom chased Tiffiny when she ran away from a guy dressed as an undertaker.

After that came the stuff that wasn't for kids under 10. There was a show where they disected 'dead' people and blood and guts fell out before the corpses started talking (though us three seemed to be the only ones in the audience who found the sense of humour that went with it funny, especially with the Monty Python jokes he threw in...), and of course, the main event... A Haunted House. It would have been scary if it weren't for the fact that we were put with three women who SCREAMED HYSTERICALLY the whole way through, and so instead of screaming, the three of us cracked up laughing the whole time.

Sunday was spent packing, and a bit of shopping. But I had a good time :)

The aftermath and the Grand Canyon!

Surprisingly, on Monday everyone wanted to sleep. But we had to be out of the hotel by around midday, and have meetings with the staff there, so it wasn't really an option. We eventually got out of there though, and Lauren (one of my Arizonian friends and the main director) went to her place to crash, and Kristy and I went back with Tiffiny and Amanda's place (the uh... Other two directors and friends from Arizona)

So... The rest of the week from October 1-7...

On Tuesday, Amanda and Tiffiny took Kristy and I to a few cool places, the main places being a Halloween superstore (pretty damn cool) and The Bass Pro Shop. It was an outdoors shop and I think they must have killed... I don't know how many animals to decorate the place. I was a little mortified, and the girls laughed... Hunting and guns really are a part of life over here. We had some fun around the shop though, it was HUGE to the point where they could fit a river with live fish, a (fake) shooting range, an bow and arrow shooting range, a large fishtank, a restaurant, a rock climbing wall and a fudge shop inside.

...If you had to ask whether or not we bought fudge, you do not know me well enough. I got cookies and cream (with real Oreos!) and Cheesecake. We watched a really bad anime with what we think is the worst dubbing job in history, and fun was to be had.

Wednesday, Kristy was leaving, with me staying for a while longer with the girls in Arizona. We did go canoeing on the lake that is IN THE McGUIRE'S BACKYARD!!! It was pretty cool. I also got to experience Red Robin, which is actually a franchise restaurant and not a fast food place like I thought it was.

The main event of the week was yet to come though- My trip with Amanda, Lauren and Tiffiny to the Grand Canyon!

On Saturday, we piled into a car and drove all the way up to Sedona which... Was pretty stunning. Red rock all around. The scenery was nothing short of amazing. We went to the motel after lunch and a walk around, where we played some fun games including a drinking game with sake (and even with a fruity flavoured sake, we discovered that sake tastes pretty horrible). By the way, I don't endorse drinking!!! Just so you parents know...

And then came Sunday, the day where we actually went to the Canyon. I apologise for not having photos of this, I have yet to nab them off people. I do have a lot of video, but really... I couldn't capture it at all. The place was amazing.

For those of you who are curious, no I wasn't there when the four year old fell into the Canyon, that happened the day after we got back.

But yeah... The place was really, really awesome, and I don't know how to begin to describe it. Except for it was apparently tiring for the girls to walk (I've been doing a lot of walking in my time over here so I guess that's why I didn't have a problem? One of the few advantages of not being able to rely on a car...) We only saw part of the Southern edge and ... Wooooow. We also saw a graveyard, with people from all different time periods randomly placed. It was also pretty cool.

Scouts, Outs, and Arizona

After a week of stress, a stunning success in finishing the yearbook only a day late, and failures in both riding roller coasters and winning the lottery, The week of September 24-30 turned out to be even busier (and in terms of the weekend, even more stressful!!!)

I took a two day getaway, however! On Monday I packed my bags and met a Cub leader called April, who whisked me away to her area of California. Her four year old daughter, also named Kristy, was a little shy at first, but soon warmed up to me when her mother took us to a mini farm where we fed some goats before we had to pick up her sons. After that, I was taken bowling, and to dinner, and to play some arcade games... And I wasn't allowed to pay a cent. It was exciting.

But of course, the main event of the day was that I was to speak at their Cub Pack meeting. While I'm sure that my Cubs are anxious to learn the details of what went down... I'm going to keep most of it secret! You'll have to wait until I get back to talk to you all! It was very fun though, and I was so awesome that when I was talking the kids were all well behaved and quiet (in contrast to the throwing of popcorn and talking during the rest of the night). It took a while for one of the kids to catch on that I was from Australia ("How come you're talking about different badges and stuff?"), but otherwise a lot of the questions the kids were asking were really interesting, and some got my brain working. I also got questions from parents and other leaders after the meeting was over... Do you believe that most of the adults didn't know we have a Queen? OK, so maybe you do with them being American, but it was still really odd. Most people over here don't even know our Prime Minister's name (though they know who Tony Blair is)... Though I was surprised to see a little something on the bus the other day (more on that later!!!).

After the meeting, I was taken to the home of the main leader, and got to watch the first episode of Heroes... Before anyone in Australia! Haha! But yeah it was pretty cool. The leader's son is a HUGE Elvis fan, to the point that he's an Elvis impersonator in his own band with a costume and everything. It was pretty cool.

I was treated even more the next morning, taken to the Pechanga Indian casino (where I was asked if in Australia do we have Casinos on Indian Reservations? "Er... Well, it would help to have Native American Indians for a start...") to have breakfast. Though while there, it was suggested that the four of us go see a great big giant sacred Oak Tree. Normally public doesn't actually get to see it on a regular basis. But we did! In fact, we were given a mini tour by the Fire Chief of the area. The Oak Tree was indeed, HUGE. From the outside it looked like a lot of little trees, but once you got behind all the leaves, you could see that this was caused because the branches were so big, they were drooping to the ground.
We also got to see an educational area that was made for young Native American Children, which NO PUBLIC were meant to see. But we did!
We also got to look at the on site fire station, which was pretty cool. The fire truck had a ladder that went up to six storeys high.

So that was that. I had to get back to Toluca Lake and pack (again), because the next day I was off to Arizona!

The drive up on Wednesday took 6 hours, and so Kristy and I had some fun on our road trip. We had our lottery ticket tucked away safely. On the way there, there was some truly beautiful scenery. A field of wind-powered fans that went on for a few km's, some desert scenery with lots of cacti, and rocky mountain ranges.

Eventually we did arrive though, to the house of the McGuire's. After settling in a bit, eating some food and such... It was off to work for us! We had to pick up some T-shirts for the conference and pack up bags and... A lot of work.

Thursday was a little more laid back. We still had a lot of preparations to do, but most of it was quick and easy to do. Most worrying was the stress of seeming impending doom! One of these things of impending doom being a lovely vendor who decided to arrive a day earlier than expected due to a break down of communication. This vendor would prove to be a large annoyance later in the weekend.

And then Friday came- Move in day! We attacked the hotel by ordering rooms, took a tour of the Convention centre and filled it with all sorts of junk (including signs made by Kristy and put up by her and yours truly!). Test runs were made, drama was abound.... And there was a VIP dinner which was pretty cool, including the invitation to guests Michael and Melodee who were totally cool actors.

So Saturday came. There was more drama, but being only a minor staff member who was basically an assistant when I was needed... I had free reign to go to some classes run by Cyndi Greening, a woman whom Disney has stolen script ideas from, has been in the Crew for the first Zambian film ever and is currently in a legal debate with an Arizona University because of it. Her classes were nothing short of stellar, and I learnt A LOT.

Drama drama drama, and talking of drama, cue Sunday when the stuff hit the fan with the vendor... Seriously, if you want more details I'll tell all, but I've heard the story told so many times now!!!

By the end of the day we were all exhausted, and all the staff went to the International House of Pancakes (better known as IHOP) for dinner. Which was cool. I was also asked by Melodee if I could bring the conference to Australia, despite the disaster of not having enough people at ours... Which I will have to think about. I don't think my life is ready to handle setting up an event like this in Melbourne.

But yeah. It was stressful. It was fun. It was "Intimate". The photos in my collection are probably a little adult, so they won't be available in my album thinger, but feel free to ask for them... I still have to go out and find others from the weekend!

OU Workathon

September 17-23... As my trip to Arizona draws close, one of the main things that was a motivation to get over here became apparent.

A conference called Otaku University, meant to be an educational weekend for people looking to get into animation, film making, acting/voice acting... Lots of stuff. It was orientated around Anime and Manga (Japanese animation and comics), so it had a lot of educational stuff on that too, as well as some great night time events.... However, this was still a week away, in the meantime we were waiting to hear when the deadline for the program/guidebook for the even was.

On Monday, we were told the deadline was Wednesday!

So this week was a week of intense work and a lot of learning on my part of how to do such things. We ended up having to do an all nighter on the Tuesday, and overall it was a week of exaustion with a promise of going to Magic Mountain on Friday.

...As we found out on Friday however, that was not to be. Pouring, torrential rain made going to a theme park seem a little wasted. So instead we spent the day shopping for a gift basket to give to the three girls we would be staying with in Arizona, who were working harder than us as the Directors of OU. They were also going bankrupt.

So on Saturday, Kristy and I went for a nice walk around NoHo... And bought a lottery ticket:

"Today was a most auspicious one for our plan. We had many good omens and I am now more certain than ever that we cannot fail.

I took my car in to be serviced early this morning because it's a long drive to Arizona and I don't want any unwelcome surprises. Midas called me an hour later and said there was nothing at all wrong with it and they would just do a few basic maintenance things and call it good. I still had no car all day because Midas is too far to walk and Richard was at work. I'm going to pick it up in the morning.

Well, as I said, I had no car today so (Laura) and I decided to go on a walk to the grocery store and around the Arts District. It was raining a little, so we put on some long coats and headed out. On the whole, it was a very refreshing walk. The cool air and rain felt so good. We stopped at a little Chinese place down the street for dinner and the people there were really nice. They even gave us free soup with our meal! The best part of all was the fortune cookies! Here is what mine said:
YOU WILL INHERIT A LARGE SUM OF MONEY
(Laura)'s was also good:
AN UNEXPECTED EVENT WILL SOON BRING YOU FORTUNE

So it seems our plan is shaping up nicely! As we walked on we saw a number of crickets (lucky bugs, you know). Finally, we stopped at 711 and bought the key to our future fortune! Expect good news tomorrow night, my friends! We even did a tarot card reading that eerily seemed to point to our success!"

So yeah, we figured we were set. As it turned out on Sunday, we weren't. However, I demanded that we try again for Wednesday. "The Wednesday Plan!" We said. The term spread to our friends in Arizona, and now it remains as a phrase describing a stupidly ridiculous and desperate plan (for instance, going to a rich area and throwing yourself out in front of an expensive car, making sure to make a thump on the way, in order to get money out of the person).

We give permission to everyone who wishes to use this term from now on.

The week were uh... Nothing happened.

So... The week of September 10-16.

Nothing happened. Seriously.

Aside from watching a fest of doom and gloom on American TV on September 11, discovering that Magic Mountain was not open during the week (the first of two disappointments from the park) and maybe a movie night or two... It was a very relaxed week.

:)

GO LA!

OK, so because I'm slack and have not updated for a while, rather than condensing stuff into one post, I'm going to split it up into a few.

So this is the first! During the week of September 3-9

OK, so on my last blog post I talked about getting a GO LA card. This allowed me to visit a lot of different places for a flat rate of 100 something dollars and that's it, I got a 3 day pass, so here's the stuff I did:

Day One: Today was the day of Universal Studios! The first thing I did was head for the tours, which was very tongue in cheek, but still enjoyable enough. The Studios have a huge mall attached to it, but the tours are inside a bit of a theme park. A lot of the rides were very fun, from the Jurrasic Park ride where I would have been soaked if it weren't for a poncho, the fast (but seriously, too short!) Rollercoaster themed to "The Mummy Returns", The Terminator 3D... It was pretty expensive food wise but overall it was fun. The Waterworld show which was going to be closed due to the heatwave that had been plaguing LA, was opened because it was only around 27 degrees C. Lucky choice for a day! With it being a weekday, there also weren't many lines. I even managed to be one of the volunteers in their special effects demonstrations- I got to battle a giant cat paw, have dinner with the Klumps (From the Nutty Professor) and lug 'heavy' polystyrene bricks (The Mummy). So it was a lot of fun.

Day Two: Today was my "Downtown LA Day". I got up relatively early in the morning to catch the Subway out to Downtown LA... There were some problems with the trains, but luckily I made it in time for my Historical Tour of the area. It was a little different to what I was expecting from the booklet (which talked about movies that had filmed in the area...), and the guide talked mostly about the architecture and artwork on buildings that we walked around to see, but it was still pretty interesting.

After that, I headed up the road to the Walt Disney Music Centre. The place looks like metal sails and in the sunlight can be quite blinding! They're apparently trying to dull the metal because it is causing problems for drivers. The 'self guided' tour had a little remote which played narration for your tour, as done by John Lithgow (who is apparently rumoured to be cast in an upcoming film version of "The Smurfs"). It's relatively new, but REALLY pretty. Especially the rooftop garden.

I went to MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) afterwards which was... Well I expected it to be a little bigger. Apparently in the off season they have closed much of the place up, and so there wasn't much to look at. What was there was... OK. I hadn't heard of any of the artists featured.

I still had some time left, and so decided to go to the Gene Autry Western Museum and look at some Cowboy stuff. This is where another of my 'adventures' began. The GO LA guidebook said to catch a number 96 bus... It didn't say which way, and of course, not being familiar with the area, I had no idea. I asked a woman on one side of the road if I was on the right side to go to the place (I had a map in my guidebook, which I showed her). She pointed me to the bus stop on the other side of the road. So I waited there for a bus, and asked the bus driver if this was indeed, the right bus. I used my map again. He said "Yes, sure"... Though when he started driving, he was driving in a direction that went suspiciously away from the streets listed on my maps, and more into Downtown LA than into the San Fernando Valley. I asked him again if this was right, and he waved me off and said he'd get me there.

Then we arrived at the bus depot, and, apparently... The bus I needed to catch was on the other side of the road. I had to wait 10 minutes in the empty bus at the depot while he took a break and all the other bus drivers were milling around their buses. It was the most odd experience ever.

But finally the bus was on its way again, this time in the direction I wanted to go, and I soon arrived at the Gene Autry Western Museum. Which was awesome, and while it was all well and good to have Native American representation... I thought they had a little too much considering there was a Gene Autry Native American Museum nearby. It was still cool though, lots of costumes and... Stuff.

Then I went home and slept.

Day Three: The last day of my GO LA card, this was "Hollywood Day". If I had thought I'd heard enough about the Hollywood sign and how people get stars on the stree before, I was in for a treat... I went on three tours and every single one of them managed to talk about the Hollywood sign and the stars in the Walk of Fame. I don't think there's anything I don't know about them any more. I even know that Robert Redford, Mel Gibson, Jane Fonda and Clint Eastwood all don't have stars, even though Ricky Martin got his on the 16th of October and The Munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz" will be getting one on November 20th.

So I had three tours, one walking, one on a bus (to see Stars' homes) and one on a rather scary trolley ride that for some reason went out on the freeway despite the fact that none of us in the outside area had seatbelts (a general Hollywood tour). Seeing as I was all toured out, I went back to Universal Studios, went on the Mummy Roller coaster and then on the Jurrasic Park ride... Forgetting a poncho. So a little damp, I walked home and yet again collapsed for need of rest!

Overall, I'm glad that I got that card. There was a lot more I could have done if I had the means of travel and such, so if anyone comes over here... I recommend getting one.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The next catch up

EDIT: It appears that even though it's still processing, the vblog might not work because compression did something weird to it. The one from August 23rd won't be able to be uploaded due to length and file size restrictions, but I will see what I can do about the main one soon if it doesn't end up working.

EDIT NUMBER 2: It should be working now (or soon)! If you would like to see the other video... I CAN burn it onto a CD, but it would be better to wait until I get back! It's seriously nothing special anyway though.

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Well it has certainly been a while... But, well worth the wait! As you can see there is a vblog today! Hopefully it will be processed by Youtube soon, but it might take some extra waiting... But it's there! The video from August 23 ISN'T uploaded yet, as the end of this one lies, but if I can get the size down... It might be. If not than I'll see if I can upload it somewhere else, otherwise it will just be emailed to those who want it. It's just people on Hollywood Blvd doing a Hiphop skit anyway, it's not incredibly exciting. As for this vblog... I apologise in advance for the crappy camera work (even when Kristy was holding the camera, I apologise on her behalf, hahaha *gets hit*). I'm not so used to just using cameras with hand held movement, and I guess it's especially obvious when I zoom in on something, I do not have the most steady of hands. It's something I'll have to work on and I'll try to pay more attention when I'm next filming.

I haven't actually been out on many of the day's I've not posted, it has been so hot! Yesterday it got up to 41 degrees Celsius, and when the temperature finally went down later in the day, the humidity shot way up! So it's been a bit like Hell's kitchen, and everytime I've been stepping outside, I've been regretting it. You've only had to just stand there doing nothing for the most fit of people to start sweating. If I haven't made myself clear... IT'S HOT!!!

I'm also (obviously... Because I have a vblog now...) set up on a computer to myself, so I've been catching up on a few things that I wasn't able to do such as some artwork for a competition I had started on and the deadline was approaching, some of my personal writing which I had been itching to get saved onto a file, chatting over Skype and MSN... Lots of stuff like that in between usual stuff like laundry.

But with that said, I HAVE been doing some interesting stuff!

Friday 24:
The day after visiting Ripley's, I managed to drag myself out of bed (eventually) and head off into Hollywood once more. Today's mission was to find a the Hollywood Entertainment museum or something like that, but what I didn't realise was that the reason I didn't find it at the address I went to was because I had to take a lift to find it... It's apparently very well hidden! So instead I ended up going to ANOTHER museum, this one found in the original Max Factor building. It was pretty interesting, lots of stuff especially on Marilyn Munroe (including some nude calendar pictures back from when she was Norma Jean... She had blonde hair by then though) and Lucille Ball. They also had a basement with a huge section on Hollywood movies with an Egyptian theme, and a remake (or at least I don't think it was the real thing) of the set from "Silence of the Lambs"... The row of cells ending in Hannibal Lector's. It was one of the freakiest things ever, especially with the music playing, and I didn't stay very long!!!

I'd also picked up an advert for a thing called "Psychiatry: A Museum of Death" which was run by some group called the CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights) ... I didn't know who they were at the time, but research when I got back would tell me. I thought it deserved a look anyway, because I'm interested in the whole stigma that often surrounds psychiatry. This place took the EXTREME negative, and while some of the things they said I agreed with (they showed a lot of horrible stuff about shock therapy, lobotomy and some drugs which more or less are lobotomies in pill form), a lot of the stuff was weird and without basis (such as claiming that Suicide Bombers are made by Psychiatrists, and that Psychiatry and Psychology are generally to blame for all that is wrong with the world). Of course, if you look at the link you will quickly find out why the view was so extreme!!!

I had to leave early because I hadn't told Kristy I was going out, and she was worried about me being alone in Hollywood after dark, but I got a DVD of the documentary they were showing throughout it, which is interesting to say in the least!

Tuesday 27th:

After a weekend of mucking around with computers, discovering how crap Vista is, Kristy going up to her grandparent's anniversary and me having a computer but no monitor, Kristy had a day off and her parents had a monitor... So we went up to Santa Barbara to pay them a visit!

Not only was Santa Barbara cooler weather wise (Mediterranean weather... If Italy is like that I must visit it some day), it's also very cool itself, and very pretty!

Kristy's family was pretty cool, we went to the Santa Barbara marina for lunch (it was a big lunch as usual which I again, didn't manage to finish!) where it was pointed out that I hold my cutlery in a "European way"... Americans generally use a fork in their right hand, and only pick up a knife if they need it... And when they do, they hold it weird and swap their fork to their left hand, use the knife in their right... and then swap the fork back to their right hand. It's very odd.

Afterwards Kristy's 'Mom' took us around for a short drive around the area. They have this awesome fountain, and we also went to the Mission... A place the Spanish had set up to convert the Native Americans to Christianity, well known for being an excuse to kill a lot of them. It was beautiful all the same, and they still had some chalk drawings from an event called "I Madonnari", which is just an arts festival, but pretty cool all the same. There was an awesome rose garden with some Spanish style houses across the road too.

On the way back, I saw my first squirrel... As it got run over... We drove around though until we found another one that was moving a lot more! It was pretty cool. Since then I've also added possum to my list of American animals I've never seen in real life. American possums are dumb and ugly unlike Australian ones. Both like to get into roofs though, so I suppose that's where the similarity comes from (leave your metaphors for American people aside!!!). After that we went back to Kristy's family's place again for a few hours, had Mexican for dinner (including home made nachos with fresh
Guacamole... The Avocados were picked off the tree in the backyard!) and then set off back to the oven in the valley.

Saturday 1:
Saturday brought around something that I'd been looking forward to for some time... the tour called "Dearly Departed". I've tried to describe it a few times, but I never seem to quite catch how awesome the thing is. Basically it's a tour of many, many, many of the infamous places around Hollywood. The tour guide Scott, was pretty cool and while the van which only seated 13 people besides him (well, 15, but he always leaves two seats at the back empty so there is space for the people in the back) was nice and small for it to be personal enough, I was lucky enough to ride shotgun. Check out their website though for maximum awesomeness: http://www.findadeath.com/DDT/tours.htm

So yeah it was pretty cool, and while I thought it would be rude to bring the video camera, I did get some photos despite failing batteries and the camera just not wanting to work properly:

The house where Elizabeth Short, posthumously aka the Black Deliah was supposedly murdered before her body being moved (Don't look up images of her body unless you have a very strong stomach... We had the option of looking at them in the book we were given and they weren't pretty)
"Storybook architecture"... The tour guide had recently been on an architecture tour and so also told us a bit about that. He even told us who designed the house in the previous picture... Though I forget his name.
John Marshal High School... As seen in Mr. Novak, Bachelor Party, Boy Meets World, The Wonder Years, Smart Guy, Sister, Sister, Grosse Pointe Blank, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Can't Hardly Wait, Rebel Without a Cause, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Boston Public, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Cory in the House, Pretty in Pink, Like Father Like Son, Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Lucas Tanner, Slaughterhouse Rock and...
Grease! (The last scene with the carnival)
I think this had something to do with the Manson Murders... It may be the LaBianca house, I can't remember!
RKO studios!
An orphanage, where a little girl named Norma Jean used to look out the window...
...And dream of stardom
Ravenswood Hotel, where Mae West once lived on the top floor
The Cunningham's House from Happy Days!
The
Osbournes' house until recently, you can still see where the Gargoyles used to be.
The Key Club, known to many famous people as an awesome joint
Whisky a Go-Go, another famous club...
The Viper room, previously owned by Johnny Depp and the place where River Phoenix died of... A lot of drugs including Cough medicine. Oh, and cocaine.

There was a lot more and it's a pity I don't remember why a few of the photos were so special! Sorry about that!

I have recently obtained a 3 day "Go LA" card which will allow me to do some pretty awesome things this week, so stay tuned!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Hola Amigos

Change of video in the vblog space just because.

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Today's blog is also available in Babel Fish Spanish (below)

So it's been a while since I've blogged because... There's not been much to write about! I have a fair amount of video though, and a computer and some headphones, now the only problem standing in my way of getting a v blog done is the fact that we can't seem to get our hands on a monitor... We're going to keep trying though!!!

It appears that I can't reply directly to comments as I thought I could, so I'll reply here where it's easy:
Gran and Pa: Thanks for the b'day wishes, and I'm enjoying myself tons!
"Connolly's in Numurkah": Thank you to you too for b'day wishes. I'll be in LA for most of the time, but I'll be going to Arizona at the end of September and getting back early October. We might be going to Las Vegas at some stage and we'll at least be visiting Santa Barbara which is still in California, but anyway.

So... I haven't been doing a whole lot lately. For my birthday we slept in, chatted while we watched some movie and Kristy gave me a new headphone/microphone thing (she's been making fun of my microphone at home which I use on Skype for about a year) and a block of Hershey's chocolate. At some stage we must have gotten to chatting about Tarot cards as well, and so we set out to buy some for each other (we heard somewhere that you're not meant to buy them for yourself). It was fun (and funny). The set I got for Kristy came with a bag so she made me a bag for mine and it was cool.

Later we went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner. The menu in the picture is now beside my bed, I don't know if it's legal to take paper menus like that, but it fitted in my handbag so I took it. (Click Me).

Afterwards we finished making a cake we had started the day before (Click me) and while we ate it, we drank Pina Caladas (slightly illegal for me being underage and all over here, shhh) and watched "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" which was awesome. The fact that I kept forgetting that my birthday was coming leading up to the date also apparently means that I keep forgetting that I'm 19... But it all works out.

The bar of chocolate still lives... For now...

So today I thought I'd get off my butt and do something, so headed off up Lankershim Blvd to catch a metro train. The tickets are confusing and give change in dollar coins (these are apparently hated in most retail stores), but eventually I figured out what to do, and caught a train right onto Hollywood Blvd. The trains are FAST and don't have many stops. In fact, there was only one stop in between getting on and getting off, and that covers a fair distance. It was a lot less confusing than the bus system though, and train passengers are a lot more helpful than bus drivers.

So after arriving I walked up to the Chinese theatre and had a look around. It's pretty cool, there were lots of famous names etched into the ground that I recognised, along with their feet and hands. Of course, I had to take a picture of Johnny Depp's, and lo and behold who should appear but the same Jack Sparrow impersonator from the other day. This time, I managed to get a photo with him. This made me very happy. He might not be Johnny Depp, but it's close enough.

I'd also planned to go into "Ripley's Believe it or Not Odditorium", and it was a good thing I had decided to go to the Chinese Theatre first, because when I came back to it later after lunch, it was roped off in preparations for the world premiere of "Halloween" at 7:30 tonight (it starts officially on August 31 here... Still a bit early I think, but oh well)... So that's a movie to be looking out for soon in Australia! I'm still debating whether or not to go back out for it, but at the moment I'm thinking no.

So yeah, I went to Ripley's Believe it or Not thing, which was pretty cool. There was a ton of interesting stuff to see, and not all gross stuff like you see a lot of on the TV show. There were a few creepy things though, like the real skeleton of a two headed baby... I thought it was a bit odd and unsavory to have something like that on display rather than buried with some proper respect, but whatever floats some people's boats. People display shrunken heads, so I guess it's erm... A bit normal. They had a real shrunken head too. There was also a display that you had to stand on a platform to see... When you stood on it, it made sounds which I noticed when I saw two kids giggling about it saying it was scary. I asked them if it moved too as I stood on it, and then it started to make DIFFERENT sound effects and it DID start to move. The display was of a tribal type person suspended above a ravine, and after I stepped on the platform which was also hanging over the ravine, it made cracking sounds and then falling sounds and the platform began to shake. It was all very sudden and the kids screamed and I screamed and... Swore... as we all jumped off. I realised I had sworn and told them they didn't hear me... Their dad was over in the corner, I think he might have had a hernia or something because he was laughing so hard.

...But yeah it was pretty cool. Most of the stuff on display was actual facts or objects that the very original George Ripley himself collected, and there were interesting write ups on each one, it was very much worth the $12.95.

Afterwards, I went and had some lunch at a diner called "Johnny Rocket's" in the Egyptian mall thing. It was greasy and made me a little ill, so I began thinking it was hometime... On my way back to the train station, there was a hip hop/breakdancing street performance, which was both cool and funny. I filmed most of it (except for the part where I turned my camera off so I could be generous and give them some money... They didn't actually get much...). They said one of the guys had cherographed some music videos. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but he could do some pretty awesome stuff.

So yeah. I came back home and wrote this blog while I'm waiting for the washing machine to become free so I have some clothes to wear tomorrow... I may be going out again then, I don't know yet.

Bye for now guys! (+ Bonus photo of the outside of the computer store Frys)

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El blog de hoy está también disponible en inglés (arriba)

Se es tan un rato puesto que tengo blogged porque... ¡No se hay mucho a escribir alrededor! Tengo una cantidad justa de vídeo sin embargo, y una computadora y algunos auriculares, ahora el único problema que está parado de mi manera de conseguir un blog de v hecho es el hecho de que no podemos parecernos conseguir nuestras manos en un monitor... ¡Vamos a guardar el intentar sin embargo!!!

Aparece que no puedo contestar directamente a los comentarios como pensé que podría, así que contestaré aquí donde está fácil:
Gran y PA: ¡Las gracias por los deseos b'day, y yo nos estamos gozando las toneladas!
"Connolly en Numurkah": Gracias a usted también por deseos b'day. Estaré en el LA durante la mayoría del tiempo, pero iré al Arizona a finales de septiembre y conseguiré octubre principios de trasero. Puede ser que vayamos a Las Vegas en una determinada etapa y visitaremos por lo menos Santa Barbara que todavía esté en California, pero de todos modos.

Tan... No he estado haciendo una porción entera últimamente. Para mi cumpleaños dormimos adentro, charlado mientras que miramos una cierta película y Kristy me dio una nueva cosa de headphone/microphone (ella se está riendo de mi micrófono en el país que utilizo en Skype por alrededor de un año) y un bloque del chocolate de Hershey. En una determinada etapa debemos haber conseguido a la charla sobre las tarjetas de Tarot también, y así que precisamos para comprar alguno para uno a (oímos en alguna parte que le no significan para comprarlo para se). Era diversión (y divertido). El sistema que conseguí para Kristy vino con un bolso así que ella me hizo un bolso para el míos y estaba fresco.

Fuimos más adelante al interior Steakhouse para la cena. El menú en el cuadro ahora está al lado de mi cama, yo no sabe si es legal tomar los menús de papel como eso, pero cupo en mi bolso así que lo tomé. (Chasqúeme).

Acabamos luego el hacer de una torta que habíamos comenzado el día antes (chasqúeme) y mientras que la comimos, bebimos Pina Caladas (levemente ilegal para mí que es underage y todo aquí, shhh) y miramos "Hedwig y la pulgada enojada" que era impresionante. El hecho de que guardé el olvidarme de que mi cumpleaños era el conducir que venía a los medios de la fecha también al parecer que guardo el olvidarme de que soy 19... Pero toda se resuelve.

La barra del chocolate todavía vive... Para ahora...

Pensé tan hoy que conseguiría de mi extremo y que haría algo, dirigido tan de Lankershim ascendente Blvd para coger un tren del metro. Los boletos son confusos y dan el cambio en monedas del dólar (éstos se odian al parecer en la mayoría de las tiendas al por menor), pero calculé eventual fuera qué hacer, y cogido una derecha del tren sobre Hollywood Blvd. Los trenes son RÁPIDOS y no tienen muchas paradas. En hecho, había solamente una parada entre conseguir encendido y bajar, y ese las cubiertas una distancia justa. Era mucho menos confusa que el sistema del autobús sin embargo, y los pasajeros del tren son mucho más provechosos que conductores del autobús.

Tan después llegando de mí caminé hasta el teatro chino y tenía una mirada alrededor. Está bastante fresca, había porciones de nombres famosos grabados al agua fuerte en la tierra que reconocí, junto con sus pies y manos. Por supuesto, tuve que tomar un cuadro de Johnny Depp, y bajo y behold quién debe aparecer solamente el mismo impersonator del gorrión de Gato a partir del otro día. Esta vez, manejé conseguir una foto con él. Esto me hizo muy feliz. Él puede ser que no sea Johnny Depp, pero está bastante cercano.

También planeado entrar "Ripley creo lo o no Odditorium", y era una buena cosa que había decidido ir al teatro chino primero, porque cuando me volví a él más adelante después de almuerzo, era roped apagado en las preparaciones para la premier de mundo de "Halloween" en 7:30 esta noche (comienza oficialmente de agosto el 31 aquí... Todavía un pedacito que pienso temprano, solamente pozo del oh)... ¡De modo que una película a mirar hacia fuera para pronto adentro Australia! Todavía estoy discutiendo si o no ir retírese para ella, pero en el momento que estoy pensando no.

Tan sí, fui a Ripley creo lo o no la cosa, que estaban bastante frescos. Había una tonelada de materia interesante a ver, y no toda la materia gruesa como usted ve muchos en de la demostración de la TV. Había algunas cosas espeluznantes sin embargo, como el esqueleto verdadero de un bebé dirigido dos... Pensé que era un pedacito impar y unsavory tener algo como eso en la exhibición más bien que enterró con un cierto respecto apropiado, pero lo que flota los barcos alguna gente. Pueble las cabezas contraídas exhibición, así que conjeturo que es erm... Un pedacito normal. Tenían una cabeza contraída verdadera también. Había también una exhibición que usted tuvo que estar parado en una plataforma para ver... Cuando usted estaba parado en ella, hizo los sonidos que noté cuando vi que dos cabritos que reían nerviosamente sobre ella que la decía eran asustadizos. Les pregunté que si se movió también mientras que estaba parado en ella, y entonces comenzó a hacer DIVERSOS efectos sonoros y comenzó a moverse. La exhibición estaba de un tipo tribal persona suspendida sobre un barranco, y después de que caminara en la plataforma que también colgaba sobre el barranco, él hiciera sonidos que se agrietaban y los sonidos entonces que caían y la plataforma comenzaron a sacudarir. Era todo el muy repentina y los cabritos gritaron y grité y... Juró... mientras que saltamos todo apagado. Realicé que había jurado y dicho les los no me oyó... Su papá encima en la esquina, pienso que él puede ser que haya tenido una hernia o algo porque él reía tan difícilmente.

... Pero estaba sí bastante fresca. La mayoría de la materia en la exhibición era hechos reales o se opone que el George muy original Ripley mismo recogió, y había interesante escribe sube en cada, él era mucho digno de los $12.95.

Luego, fui almorzar cierto en un diner llamado "cohete de Johnny" en la cosa egipcia de la alameda. Era grasienta y hecha me un poco enfermo, así que comencé a pensar que era hometime... En mi manera de nuevo a la estación de tren, había un funcionamiento de la calle de la cadera hop/breakdancing, que era fresco y divertido. Filmé la mayor parte (a excepción de la pieza donde di vuelta a mi cámara fotográfica apagado así que de mí podría ser abundante y darle un poco de dinero... No consiguieron realmente mucho...). Dijeron que uno de los individuos tenía cherographed algunos videos de la música. No soy seguro si eso es verdad o no, pero él podría hacer un poco de materia impresionante bonita.

Tan sí. Me volví a casa y escribí este blog mientras que estoy esperando la lavadora para hacer libre así que tengo algunas ropas a usar mañana... Puedo entonces salir otra vez, yo no sé todavía.

¡Adiós para ahora los individuos! (+ foto de la prima del exterior del almacenaje informático Frys)

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Wednesday out at the tarpits

Today was pretty cool. In the sense that cool can be when it's 34 degrees Celsius (94 degrees... Trying to learn the English system...), and hotter if you're cut off from the ocean by hills on all sides.

A little out of the hills I went out to Hollywood again, catching a bus using the Metro system... The first bus driver was not very nice. You have to put the exact change into the thing because it doesn't give you change... She yelled at me and just grunted at me to go sit down when I tried to get coins out of the coin return (isn't that meant to be for change usually?).

I got to Hollywood Boulevard where I was planning to catch a second bus... Only I hadn't marked on my map which side of the road it was meant to be on, and just as I realised... I missed it. No matter, it gave me some time to lunch and get excited because some people promoting Disney were out on the street: (Click me) (Click me) I was a little upset that I didn't have anyone with me today actually, I couldn't get a photo with Jack Sparrow! I'll have to wait until October when we go to the theme park itself I guess...

Eventually I did catch my bus, and off I went to the Miracle Mile, also known as Wilshire Avenue. Excitement abounds.

So the mission of today was of course to go to the La Brea tar pits which I had heard about from Annie S.S. I think it would be much better to go in and see as a school group (in fact there were several groups of kids on Summer camps there) or a family, but it was interesting all the same to see a lot of the fossils, and the bubbling tar pools outside. There was also some people excavating a tar pit outside, which only happens once every year when it is warm so I was lucky. I couldn't see much, but I think one of the guys was chipping out a bone. On a day like today I'm just glad that it wasn't me... They only dig up the stuff that is a bit hard, so think about trying to dig up a sealed road on a day when it's so hot that the road has begun to melt and get stuck all over the bottom of your shoes... Yeah, I'd rather not be them with my face so close to that.

It was interesting, though almost just as interesting was my discovery of vending machines selling 600 ml bottles of soft drink for only $1!!!! This is apparently standard too!!! So I sat in the shade and had my very cheap bottle of Coke before walking back to the bus stop... On my way back, about five random people started launching into conversations with me, which struck me as very odd, because that kind of thing usually happens to me only at Scout camps. People here are obviously very sociable... None of them made comments on my accent (which is still very Australian, if not a bit British sounding to most people here), which was also interesting. The conversations were all about how hot it was though, as if I didn't need reminding!!!

Then, I caught the bus back here.

The end.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The catch up

I should be more consistent with these updates, sorry for making you all wait!

I've done a few things since my last post, though no v. blog YET. I have the footage but have not edited it. I've got a lot of photos though so perhaps that'll make up for it! To stop long loading times a bit, the photos can all be found by clicking on relevant links.

First of all, here are photos from Wednesday night dinner:

A Jicama. Looks like a potato, tastes a little like apple. Goes well in salads!
Kristy cooking up a storm
Rice - A - Roni ... Just because...

Thursday 9 (after the last post): Kristy got home and we went grocery shopping for dinner... And dessert- s'mores.

There is one way to make s'mores, and one way only because if they are made another way, then they're not s'mores.

First, you heat a marshmallow over a fire (like a stove fire!!!) using a stick (like a fondue stick). It has to be melted on the inside, so catching a part of it on fire does not do it much good. The best way is to turn it and sort of brown the outside.

Once your marshmallow looks all goeey, put it onto a Graham cracker (these crackers are square, thin, and have a sweet honey taste to them.). Then put a part of a Hershey chocolate bar on top of the marshmallow (Hershey is best, but in any case it needs to be thin chocolate for it to melt properly with the marshmallow) . Then you put ANOTHER Graham cracker on top of that and you eat it.

S'mores taste very good and are very appropriate for watching the end of Ghostbusters when the big marshmallow monster comes.

Friday: After going for a good walk up the road expecting to find NoHo, this time I went the other way up the same road, which lo and behold was the right way to go if I wanted to get to NoHo. NoHo is the Arts District apparently, though it took me a lot of walking to figure out why! At one stage it branches off into two streets, and I chose the wrong one. Eventually I found NoHo and it's pretty groovy. The zebra crossings are multicoloured, people do acrobatics with big signs to advertise some apartments that have opened up for rent, and there are studios, drama schools, comedy clubs, theatres, cinemas, and agencies EVERYWHERE. It was pretty cool.

Saturday: Kristy was working at 3 on Saturday, and so taking the opportunity of a lot of time to be ready in time to go with her, I was off to the Burbank Empire Shopping Centre (where the airplane decorations are everywhere). The place has shops spread out all around and in a huge carpark, to walk from one end of the area ("The Great Indoors/Starbucks") to the other (A big office building) it takes about 15-20 minutes. OK maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is still a long way. Talking of Starbucks, not only is there one INSIDE a furniture store, but there is a second one in the food court area... But first things first.

I walked around and looked into all the shops... Targets here apparently all have mini restaurants and kiosks in them. This one also had a photo developing place and a pharmacy, with the mini restaurant being a Pizza Hut. One thing that I noticed in a lot of them was that they're already all getting their Halloween stock ready. This picture is from inside an art supply store... The white girl thing moves, her eyes light up and she makes that sort of ghost moaning sound: (Click Me)

Then, in the food court... There is... This

I had heard about Outback Steakhouse before coming, but I didn't quite believe it... Take a look at their menu (link opens a .pdf file), it's the funniest thing ever next to their door.

I've started drinking coffee too, it's not my favourite thing in the world, but it's not bad and they drink it A LOT here. Starbucks might be everywhere, but they're still a pretty good place to sit and relax!

Sunday: Richard had the day off and so we went to this place called Trader Joe's to do some grocery shopping. The place makes almost all their own stuff, and most of it is organic... It's pretty cool with its hippie atmosphere, but not over the top with it's health freak stuff... It's pretty normal as a store and the stuff we bought there I'd expect to buy at any grocery place.

When Kristy finished work, we all went to a place called Corral Cafe for dinner, which was pretty cool... Richard had seem some video where a ghost was following a waiter there, but there were no ghosts. Instead, the crepe I ate was pretty good as was the Oreo cheesecake!

Monday: There is A LOT of video taken on this day, and so you'll see some of the stuff I'm talking about on there.

Today was a bit of a sightseeing trip for Hollywood, kicking off by driving past the set for the TV show Scrubs before heading through Studio city and onwards to Hollywood Boulevard. After driving up and down the street and deciding we couldn't get a decent shot of the Hollywood sign or any of the stars on the footpath from the car, we parked and got out an walked in the heat.

For a while anyway. Most of the shops around there aren't that interesting... Sure there are a few clubs and such, but most were wig shops, tattoo & piercing shops, or shops for costumes or skimpy and slutty 'Hollywood style clothes' (as the shop fronts say) or Scientology buildings. After walking around for a while, we were feeling pretty hungry and so headed for the mall to place called The Pizza Kitchen. There were lots of cool types of pizza and it was good. (Click me) (Click me)
Outside was a balcony where I finally got the picture I was looking for.

The mall had a lot of other stuff too, but most notably this: (Click Me)... Apparently it's the latest craze.

And here is a photo of me in front of El Capitan, an apparently famous place. (Click Me)

There was also a movie premiere for the newest movie by the people who made The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up called Superbad being set up at the Chinese theatre... We didn't end up going to it, or seeing any celebrities around it.

While we were walking again, we were stopped by a woman with a video camera asking us if we'd like to be interviewed for a segment on the TV show Dr. Phil... With Dr. Phil not really being cool, we declined and instead went to look at Kermit the Frog's star.

And then, we saw all these celebrities! They were everywhere! Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp, Anthony Hopkins, Jim Carey, Angelina Jolie, Chuck Norris... Even Jesus!

...OK, so they were made of wax. I took lots of photos all the same. Some of them were looking sad or old, or just plain bad, but it was still pretty cool.

Part One
Scarecrow, Dorothy, The Cowardly Lion, Tinman and The Wicked Witch of the West
Tom Hanks with Wilson
Me with Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow
Charlie Chaplin
The Beatles (Yoko Ono missing from photo!)

Part Two: Scary stuff
Freddy and Jason
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector
Betelgeuse
Elvira
Regan MacNeil from the Exorcist (Father Lankester Merrin missing from photo)

Part Three
Kristy sez: These stars are OK!
Even more easily recognisable celebs (can you name them all?)
The GovernTerminator
Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka
Katherine Hepburn and Humphery Bogart from The African Queen
Classic Stars
Jim Carey as Ace Ventura
Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy (looking not quite as he should...)
Leonardo Di Caprio in Titanic
Kristy and Chuck Norris
John Wayne
Clint Eastwood
We want it noooow
Kristy tries to lift the mood at a certain supper
Spoilers for "The Passion"
Spiderman
Raphael
Leonardo and Kristy
Donatello and Michelangelo
A scene from Hook
The Men in Black
The Matrix



...Also these ones taken especially for Sean:
Star Wars I
The cast of M*A*S*H (NQR, but there you go)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Luke, Yoda and Leia
Darth Vader
Darth Maul
James Bond

We went walking some more afterwards and saw in the distance Capitol Records, and this place that I can't remember the name of... But it's near the Pantages Theatre, where the musical Wicked is currently playing... We took a photo of the roof because it's pretty cool...

Today has been pretty quiet. It's hot and so I stayed inside and cleaned up and did laundry... Tommorow, I'm planning on visiting the La Brea tar pits, woo hoo!

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Day 3 and others

Well seeing that now I'm a bit more awake and have some time to myself in the house, I figured I'd do another blog. There was to be a v blog because I took my camera for a walk with me today, but there wasn't anything incredibly interesting to show. I'm kind of regretting not taking it with me in the car yesterday with the speedy drive-by tour.

But ok. The plane trip over here was nothing short of tiring. The short trip to Auckland I could handle. I watched "Black Sheep" on the way up and it was pretty cool though a little gross at... Well most of it was pretty gross. Think the whole zombie thing where if someone gets bitten they turn into a zombie too. Well when a sheep gets bitten by one of these zombie sheep they turn into a zombie sheep. When a person gets bitten by a zombie sheep... Well... You'll have to see for yourselves. But seriously, think Resident Evil, only with sheep and a big paddock and a lot of New Zealanders saying the word 'six' (well, it was either in the movie or around the plane and airports, but I heard a lot of New Zealand accents saying six). The trip to LA started off OK. I watched "Blades of Glory" and had some dinner and then had the full intention of going to sleep.

But you will not believe how frigging uncomfortable it is on those seats, especially when you have a big butt that prevents your feet from sitting on the seat with you. Next time if I do something like this I think I'll try extra hard to get into a class with better seats. They don't even really lean back far enough to give you the impression that you're leaning back. So after about an hour's sleep on the plane, I was pretty well jetlagged. Don't even get me started on how painful the customs sheets and going through customs was. By the time I got to getting my luggage, I was so tired and such that when a baggage handler I had asked for help because my last bag seemed to be nowhere in sight was hitting on me, where I would normally be flattered I was about ready to flip him one of my fingers. But eventually I got out and found Kristy, everything was happy again. We went to a 50's style diner called "Bob's Diner" (which was OK though a little greasy!). We also went into this Pirate store which Kristy has been talking about for ages but never actually gone in herself. The Pirate store was also awesome. We got home, I made that blog entry and passed out. I did get up again for dinner, and to say hi to Kristy's boyfriend Richard, but it wasn't very long before I was asleep again. I think we watched "Dogma" because we were talking about Alan Rickman at some point too. It was a good movie but I can't remember when we watched it.

Yesterday was pretty laid back but a lot more fun than the plane trip on Tuesday. Kristy as I've learnt over the year, has insanely weird sleeping patterns and so we didn't really get moving outside of bedrooms until midday. We had a very simple but awesome breakfast (did I mention that Kristy is an AMAZING cook?) and watched some American TV (which isn't so different to Australian TV except for the ads) and a movie... And then we thought we better get moving.

Wednesday's mission was to get me a 'cell' phone, as well as look at some computers for Kristy as she's wanting to upgrade. So we drove out to this place called "Fry's Electronics" first... Apparently it's a chain like Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, etc. Except this place is GIANT. It's about the size of Myers in Melbourne. Each store has a theme too, like one has an Alice in Wonderland theme, stuff like that. This one had a 1950's sci fi movie theme, and out of the front of the building there was a huge UFO crashing out of the front of it. Throughout the place inside were green aliens in space suits, giant ants, jeeps cut in half, another huge UFO... They even had a 1950's style diner where you could sit on tables shaped like cars, and every Saturday night they put movies on a big screen above the diner counter, so it's just like a drive in. It was pretty nuts to say in the least. I also learnt that saying "50's style diner" is kind of redundant because they all seem to be 50's style.

After that we went to the shopping area where Kristy works to go to Best Buy. The area was built on top of some Aeroplane thing, and I think everything around here has a theme because everywhere outside, there were huge pictures of aeroplanes. So we got me a Motorolla (C134 or something like that for those who are interested) cell phone with an AT&T prepaid plan on it for around $22 for the phone and an extra $25 for credit that would last me 3 months. We suddenly discovered the downside of the Cash Passport, which is that you can't actually use it just anywhere, you actually have to go to a proper ATM and withdraw the money. So Kristy ended up paying for it and so I had to go get some American money and fork it over.

We went past a few more places on the way back, places like the Warner Brothers studio (with the tower that the Animaniacs supposedly live in) and the Warner Brothers Ranch, and a lot of other studios (which is amazing there are so many around here when I haven't yet been to Hollywood proper, we're on the other side of Hollywood Hills so I haven't even seen the big sign yet!). We got back and put the phone on the charger, so it could get its batteries all full and get ready to cause a lot of havoc. We made some dinner, watched some TV and stuff and generally had some fun for the evening (including having some stuff called Mochi which is a sort of rice paper thing around ice cream. The stuff we had was chocolate flavour and it was AWESOME). I took some photos including some of this weird thing that's a cross between a potato and an apple and starts with the letter 'j' which is pronounced 'h', but I can't remember the name of it so we'll leave it until I do.

After dinner we decided to put the recharge card on my phone so it would have some money on it. This proved a lot more difficult, starting with the fact that somehow I managed to set the setup system off in Spanish (everything here is done in English, Spanish and often French as well). Eventually, we got the money on it. So that was the first problem solved.

The second one being that although I could make calls, it didn't seem like I could receive them. We went through the system again, went around in circles for a while only to find out we couldn't really get anywhere because we needed to speak to customer service and the place was closed up for the night. About now it was reaching midnight, and soon there would be an earthquake that none of us noticed. I went back and flipped through the instruction manual to see if there were any settings I had to change. I suddenly read that I had to go through an activation process which needed two sets of numbers which were on some part of the packaging... Which I had since thrown on the bin. Which we had thrown into the dumpster/skip.

Not wanting to wait until tomorrow when there would be more rubbish on top of it, Kristy decided that we should go out, in the middle of the night, to retrieve all the packaging. Unfortunately the thing wasn't exactly full, and we were both short and the torch wasn't so great. We had a broom to help us. It seemed like a simple task, but when the bag that was holding it didn't have handles, it suddenly became harder. We managed to get the plastic casing and one of the cardboard pieces out. But there was still another cardboard piece and it had BARCODES on it. We though that this might be what we were looking for and put the plastic on the ground without looking at it. The cardboard proved to be a lot harder than the plastic casing, and it turned out that the only way we could get it would be with me holding the flashlight and Kristy using the broom (she has a height advantage over me and I was struggling to get the broom to REACH the cardboard on my tip toes). I'm better at aiming a flashlight than I thought because I was able to manage to point it in the right place when I was down the side where I couldn't see anything and just could reach up and point the thing down and hope for the best... Kristy wrote a thing on it last night for her online journal which I thought summed up the whole 'adventure' pretty well:

"...We set out for the dumpster behind my building. We quickly decided a flashlight was going to be necessary. We searched for a flashlight in the apartment and found none. I knew I had a broken one in my car, so we gave that a shot. It was in three pieces and missing the lens, but somehow it actually worked. Knowing the dumpster was nearly empty and we were going to need something to dig with, we grabbed a broom and headed back out back. After a little shuffling around, we located the package and made an attempt to hook it and pull it out. We got the first two pieces easily enough, but the third, a small, round piece of cardboard which looked suspiciously important, was much harder. I tried to sweep it up the side of the dumpster, but it kept slipping back down into corner. I tried catching it in the bristles of the broom and lifting it that way, but it would not be caught. And then (Laura) was struck with a truly inspired idea! We'd take a page out of Macgyver's book and use some chewing gum to snag the bastard!

Chewing gum is surprisingly un-sticky in real life. The first piece fell of the boom handle immediately. The second piece I wrapped part way around the eye on the tip of the handle in hopes that it would hold better. And it did. For a little while. I managed to get it stuck to the piece of cardboard right before it, again, dislodged itself from the broom handle. A few minutes late, I managed to knock it off the cardboard as well. So so much for MacGyver.

In the end, after about 30 minutes, I somehow got it onto the top of the broom and lifted it to safety."

In between there we also managed to get it into ANOTHER person's rubbish bag, and tried to use its handles to lift it out with the bag. This was working well until the bag tipped over and everything in it fell out.

...After all that, I found out this morning that the numbers I was looking for were on the bottom of the plastic casing... So we didn't even really need the cardboard. Damn you Murphy's Law.

Today I set out on a quest to be able to fix this. After spending some time on their website, I discovered I still couldn't get it to work, so I rang up customer service. After about half an hour of her confirming what I already knew, I was transferred to their technical services. I spent about an hour or so on the phone to them and got about... Nowhere. They said they'd ring back after they'd done something, but I couldn't be bothered waiting and so went out for a walk. At least I'd used the numbers on the plastic casing by that stage.

On my walk I came across a shop where Cinglular/AT&T actually sell their services. Thinking I'd have better luck in person, I went in and wasted another hour of my life. Well, not quite. We managed to get it receiving calls from OTHER cell phones, but not landlines. In the end I was told that I would have to wait 24 hours from its activation to have it fully operational...

So the moral of this story is: Buying cell phones in the USA really sucks.

I kept walking afterwards... The lights here are also weird. There are a few exceptions on one way streets where there is a little yellow button on the poles, but at most intersections with traffic lights, to cross the road you don't press a button and they don't make noise. You just stand there until the lights turn to red and the red hand becomes a little white running man. And you really do have to run, they don't stay like that for very long.

Eventually I made it to some place called the 99c store where everything really is literally 99c (they have one cents here). Sometimes you can get a few things for 99c, and anything that's marked higher than 99c is still 99c. So I bought some sunscreen (because it's incredibly HOT outside and I don't think I've seen a single cloud today), two bottles of water that were 99c together (the tap water here is not actually drinkable without a ton of filters) and... A Hershey bar. The chocolate was very good. I headed off back towards the apartment, but decided to stop for lunch at a little pizzaria where they sold pizza by the slice. I'm very happy that I only ordered one slice because the slice was about half a pizza. It was good, and that led me to my next dilemma which had been solved by Kristy the last time I went out for lunch at Bob's Diner on Tuesday... The tip. Unlike in Australia where you might tip if you're feeling especially generous, you tip EVERYWHERE you eat here. It's considered extremely rude if you don't leave a little extra money on your table when you leave at most places, and there's usually a sort of maths as to how much you leave. Unfortunately, I didn't know if this pizza place was one of these places. They had a jar up the front, so I assumed you paid tips there instead of leaving them on your table. In the end I just gave them my spare coins and a dollar bill and hoped that was OK!!!!

So that has been my adventure in the US up to now. Hopefully when I update next I'll have some video for you all!

Later!

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

I'm here!

Well hopefully some people have managed to remember the URL and find their way here...

Anyway, I'm in the USA now and I'm jetlagged and I maybe would have had some video soon but I forgot to charge the camera's battery before I left!

I'll post more when I am a bit more awake, for now I'm having (another) sleep :)

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Welcome!

So, this is the blog and this is my first serious entry to it...

4 sleeps and counting. It's pretty damn exciting. With the party coming tonight I'm pretty sure nobody is reading this when it's relevant, but I don't give much of a damn and it will be interesting to see how many people I've given web addresses to will actually visit!

As you can see I have a space for v-blogs up there. It takes up a lot of space which can be annoying when you're trying to have just one entry on a page, but I can't figure out how to just have it on the main page and no others... The advantage of them being hosted on Youtube means that you don't have to wait for the whole thing to download to see the rest of the page though, so that's OK.

You might have also noticed that it's not much of a video blog... Considering there's not much of a Reni in the USA at the moment, you'll have to wait until I get there to see my beautiful speaking face on the internet. I'm sure you'll be sitting on the edges of your seats waiting for that to come up. Meanwhile enjoy this awesome video that I found.

In the meantime, I have an entry on reloading my cash passport for you all, in case you want to order souvenirs (which can be done by commenting on the entry! You can comment by clicking links underneath entries which say "0 comments") ... Or of course you might be the generous type and might like to leave a tiny donation for me or maybe for the even more generous Kristy who is putting me up for 3 months!

Last of all is a shoutout to all you people using Internet Explorer instead of Firefox... Seriously, get Firefox. The blog looks much prettier when the colours are right.

Re-loading the Cash Passport (ordering souveneirs!)

For you family and friends who would like souveniers bought for you while I'm in the USA, I'm pretty happy to just go out and get whatever you want. However, I am on a rather tight budget, and while it's not required, I would appreciate it if you paid for all or some of it!

My money is being kept on a small card called a Cash Passport, which works a lot like a debit card- I can't spend anymore money than the money I have on there. While I'm not entirely sure at the moment how re loading works, from my understanding you can do it one of two ways:

1. Go into your nearest Australia post, give them my card number, the money you wish to put on the card and tell them you would like it to be in USD.

2. Use Bpay (Biller codeL50179, CRN is my 16 digit card number). I have no idea what Bpay is or how it works, so I'd only advise this one if you do.

I have been supplied with 2 cards, with one as a backup. If you are going to load my card, please make sure you have the right number! When you ask for a souvenir I will email you back with my card number, and you can load some money on if you choose to.

The money you load on will convert to USD at the rate they are at during that particular time. They will stay at this rate. To see the current exchange rate, use this website which updates regularly: http://www.xe.com/ ...As well as the table, it has a converter for any amount you input underneath.

I will be able to use the money you load on the card within 2 banking hours.