Schrödinger's cat is gonna be solved this weekend

Just to get this out of the way - there's a new thing a day posted in the thing a day blog. Go read it!

It's officially the most wonderful time of the year: Halloween. No matter what, Halloween always lifts my spirits. No pun intended.

I'm making a road trip to Pittsburgh this weekend to re-connect with alot of people I've missed out on seeing the past few months. I'm beyond excited just to be back in my old stomping grounds. I am bringing my new TAD notebook just to make sure I don't miss anything. I'm not expecting a fanfare when I return, I just want to make sure I catch up with some friends. I took for granted having them around nonstop last year.

There's almost too much going on right now. Amidst the ongoing LAN'ded campaign, I recently completed a script that I'm shopping around for feedback right now. I basically wrote an entire script around Jonathan Coulton's music and ran with it. I'm happy with the end result but it's a first draft so anything is likely to change. We also launched the Imaginary Trends fanpage this week and we've already gotten 96 fans following us! Crazy! ALSO! We talked to PR guys for advice. ALSO! We laid groundwork for some possible future projects.

There's much more but thinking about it exhausts me. I was so tired last night I didn't go see District 9 for a second time. This is serious.

My biggest reprieve this week has been shaving. I know exactly why I waited until today to shave, but to reveal my intentions would boost my dork levels to 11 and I'm not about to do that. I got new razors and everything and I am squeaky clean. I can't say that often so there you go.

Last week I was lucky to walk away with any scrap of sanity due to the cerebral experience that Nathan Drake of Uncharted 2 gave me. I don't usually make grandiose statements, but Uncharted 2 is one of the best games I've ever played. It's in my top 5. This is serious.

That's all I got right now. I'm exhausted. Time to go to work and then drive to Pittsburgh. Beam me up.

stars in your eyes
free from the life that you knew

bicoastal

I wouldn't say I'm an a cappella aficionado but the Ben Folds A Cappella album refuses to be taken off my current playlist. I'm driving back from a weekend excursion now and I've found that these alternate versions of "Fair" and "Selfless, Cold and Composed" hang in my head like a musical hangover from late night sessions listening the night before.

I took this weekend excursion to catch up with some people who are very special to me. I figured that in the downtime I would have plenty of time to jot down some extra lyrics or plan out a comedy skit I wanted to shoot this week for Imaginary Trends but sadly I have been jumping back on a normal sleep schedule (read: not going to bed at 3 AM) so I had to settle for writing some dummy lyrics on my phone. Also, I forgot my writing journal, that'll do it I suppose. I think I've come away with a few decent T.A.D.s to pursue later though, so I guess a good bedtime works somewhat.

I got to take in a variety of sights over the weekend, even though the rainy weather attempted to thwart happiness at every turn. The Children's Museum at Baltimore's Port Discovery only made me think of ways to incorporate children's theatre and other tools into I.T.'s overall business model. Meanwhile I got to be inspired by going to Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian museums. There just wasn't enough time to take everything in though. And being without my notebook I was feverishly typing in notes to my Treo's notepad hoping that the scribbles would make sense later.

Kyle and I are set to have a catch-up meeting later this week so I'll have oodles of time to sort through my ramblings and bring them more sense by then. That or I'll sound like a drunken idiot, either way, work will get done. Maybe...

I've been brainstorming ways for Imaginary Trends to give back to people all while maintaining the geeky atmosphere which is the nougat-ie center of the troupe. I ran some of the ideas by Kyle and I think we reached some common ground of how best to implement them, but it wasn't until I asked some of my friends what they thought of it that I knew we'd have something great on our hands. It's always nice to hear positive reinforcement, especially for I.T. With our underground status we really haven't had the adequate means to advertise and really promote our work but hopefully that will change soon.

The best holiday of the year is approaching and I'm appalled that I haven't even started buying the materials for my costume. After much deliberation, I decided that Dr. Horrible is the way to go. It's sure to be a popular idea but it's a fitting tribute to the show that has propelled LAN'ded to the position it is at currently. I'm shooting to be in Pittsburgh for Halloween weekend and there's nowhere else I'd rather be than with my old friends and comrades. Would it be weird for twenty-somethings to go trick-or-treating in full regalia? I hope not cause it's going to happen.

Side note: just drove past a middle aged woman rocking out to what can only be guessed to be heavy metal. Gotta love Pennsylvania highways.

So, I've been keeping track of the weight I've lost since summer and I had topped out at a total of 30 pounds. I'm proud of that, I can't lie, and I probably mention it more than I should. I am eating better, exercising, and cutting out my vices, but the scales at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum cut me down to size. Apparently their idea of fun is making a guest jump onto a giant sheet of metal which displays your mass on a giant screen above. Needless to say, I gained five pounds back. Damn you Air & Space Museum. In front of Buzz Aldrin and everything.

I should get back to driving, typing a blog entry whilst careening down I-795 probably isn't the brightest idea.

you see them drop like flies from the bright sunny skies
they come knocking at your door with this look in their eyes

the fact that i just wrote an e-mail to Jeff Gerstmann baffles me.

There are only a few TV shows that I watch regularly that really truly affect me. The chief among these is Battlestar Galactica. BSG has single handedly reduced my entire work ethic to nil countless times. I could write an entire diatribe on how that show makes me believe in a higher televised power, but this week a former champ tried its best to retire the space war series. I finally was able to watch the entire fifth season of The Office over the past 3 days and it literally has torn me to pieces.

My belief has always been that watching regularly scheduled television is needy. Why should I promise NBC that I'll be there every Thursday at 8 PM if it isn't going to respond to my needs? It's become infinitely more practical to watch TV-on-DVD or through the Netflix Instant Queue. This convenience even overtook [adult swim] and its bullet-proof programming. Because of this, I have fallen into the one trap I promised myself I'd never fall into. Season 6 of The Office is currently being broadcast and well...I can't watch it in succession as I'd like. The great thing about the whole TV-on-DVD is that you never have to wait for the next moment, and well...Jim and Pam's wedding is something I'd love to see, but I'll have to wait until the DVDs hit way too late next year.

I'm afraid that I won't be cured soon seeing as how the second season of The Big Bang Theory is currently out on DVD as well. Another reason I couldn't stop watching was this.

I had forgotten how much I loved going to zoos and aquariums. Over the weekend I was able to take a trip to Cleveland (or "The Cleve" as some call it) to see the Cleveland Rainforest. I loved it. For some reason I just felt like a kid again. It's one of the only places you can really overcome your fear of spiders too. When there's inch-thick glass separating you from what looks like a genetic mutation of a daddy long legs, you can pretty much stand tall and be fearless.

Also, having the company of your 5-year-old nephew in tow can't help but make you marvel at all of nature's nightmares.

A week or so ago Kyle and I sat down (via video chat) and discussed the direction we're taking LAN'ded and possible ventures that may appear because of this. It felt good to get back to the core of Imaginary Trends once again. The virals I've committed myself to have been very fulfilling in a number of ways, but LAN'ded is the reason why we're both in this. Writing it feels so good now. I feel like we've found the flow of the ocean and we're putting up the sails.

I began to write some formal letters and e-mails today to some geek titans in the industry. Some of them asked them for support and some of them were written as a "We're onto something here"-esque format. What alot of them turned into though, was a formal thank you. I was basically writing thank yous to people are inspiring the project, and asking them if it'd be OK to mention or name-drop them in our sketches/scripts. I haven't heard back yet and I really don't expect to, but just knowing that I sent letters to people of that acclaim made me realize how big our projects could be if driven correctly.

For now though, the mission is to keep my head up, continue to fill my savings up with money for both the move to Chicago and the studio, and to endeavor to shape LAN'ded and other projects in the best possible way. I'd rather be saving up money to do the work I'm passionate about rather than waste my time on projects I'm apathetic towards.

I guess it all comes back to The Office, this time the BBC Version. Martin Freeman's character "Tim" said it best: "I'd rather be at the bottom of a ladder I want to climb, than at the top of one I'm uninterested in." That's not verbatim, but even in a shortened form Tim had some wisdom. Now if I can only stop myself from falling in love with the office secretary. I'm glad I don't work in an office.