YES! It's up! And it was better and different than I thought it would turn out -- I had the wrong impression as to the storyline of it, because it actually uses the proper layout of the house and everything. ` In the video here we can see Moses come out of his room, which is next to a band and zombies, etc. and Lucas is in the gorilla suit with the nunchuks. ` Then, he goes downstairs with the crazy singing and dancing and scuba diving and emergency services, and through the DJ room, and that's me in the orangutan suit, and I hug the banana. Then, Lucas is in the kitchen as the red-haired gladiator. ` Moses returns to his room, goes through the belly dancers and the madness, and guess who that is out on the balcony -- in the final shot? Yes, it's me! YEAH!
YEAH AGAIN!
I have some more things to write in this blog post, both really, really good and really really bad. Maybe if you come back to show your friends this video, I will have written them. But, I've got to go get Lucas' truck right now.
After getting Lucas' truck:
It's not fixed -- this is so messed-up: We took Lucas' truck to Mike's shop four days ago, after we got his ass out of bed in the afternoon! Then, he went to Portland! Today, Lucas got his ass out of bed at 2:30 in the afternoon and... two hours later Mike called to say that Lucas' truck was fixed! Two hours was all he needed, and he could have done this before going to Portland? ` So, we drive all the way up to near Mike's shop, but Mike doesn't know the name of the street his shop is on, so Lucas is driving around for twenty minutes on the icy, light-bedecked residential streets looking for it! ` Long story short, Mike drives up to where we are and then we take him back to his shop in my Jetta, then go back and get Lucas' truck, and... nothing had changed! The front wheels are still pointed in slightly different directions, and so smoke was coming from the tires and Lucas was veering all over the road. He can never drive to work like that!
And yes, Lucas is still working -- he explained to his supervisor Derrick that he's paid $1,000 to work at UPS so he can get health insurance eventually, and Derrick said he could come in on Wednesday. ` And he'll be holding the Union Scheduler in his pocket when he says "hi" to the bitch who hired him on as a permanent and had him carpool with another guy because of this, and who later wouldn't give him the scheduler because it's "only for permanents". HA!! ` Tomorrow, or rather, at two in the morning, he is going to drive his co-worker to UPS, but then come back home. Perhaps he'll have more news then.
As for Mike the Questionable Mechanic, Lucas is going to make him pay full rent next month, and not Mechanic's Rent here, because of his dubiousness and Questionableness, and hire another mechanic when my timing belt needs to be replaced.
Which reminds me of a most bizarre tale -- brace yourself! Now, Mike is not so fast at picking up his dogs' poop out of the yard, and much of it has been ground into the grass. One morning, in late December, Lucas watched the dogs poop in the yard and told Mike to go pick it up. He said he'd do it later, so Lucas went out and got most of it himself! Only after Mike had taken a shower did he get the rest. Why is he so reluctant? Keep reading: ` Later on, Mike kept saying he'd get his stuff out of Lucas' carport, including his bed, by a certain point. He didn't, so Lucas went out to embarrass him by moving his stuff into his bedroom. And you know what he found? That Mike also isn't so fast at picking up his dogs' poop -- in his bedroom!!!!!!!
Later on, there was a pile of dog poop in his bedroom that had accumulated! WTF?!?!?!
And Mike's response to Lucas' work? "Oh, thanks!"
Hopefully, we'll be able to kick Mike, and also Joel, who is playing ghetto tricks on Lucas, out of this house soon -- our mothers are going to buy it! That might mean lower rent for us, I'm not sure. But if it does, then it's bye-bye Mike and Joel!
As usual, I have a whole feast for my faithful readers, from over the past coupla weeks! All kinds of things have happened -- including the utter destruction of one of my neighbor's houses -- to the discovery that one of my current roommates can be just as crazy as some of my past crazy roommates! ` But first, Lucas getting one-upped by bickering Senior Citizens: You all should know about the movie starring Lucas called Sex A-peel from my past posts. It has little to do with sex appeal, but more has to do with humorous gratuitous violence due to one very special and magical orange.
Well, at the 48-Hour Film Awards, there were other films we hadn't even seen before -- apparently, the showing I went to was just one of four. And so, it is no surprise that there was another film even better than his... though I will argue that it has less sex a-peel. ` It's called Behind the Scenes of Twisted Love. Of course, it isn't behind the scenes of anything, it's just a comedy mockumentary where senior citizen actors play the parts of filmmakers griping at one another, and they're quite good! I thought it was hilarious!
More about the films, and much more... in my journal entries! Here they are, since last time:
O, hai Violet! I luv mah kitteh!
During my post last weekend (May 22-23), Lucas was off camping with a couple of friends and some of his friends' friends. He jammed out on his guitar and they played Beersbee, a game invented by his friend Dan. ` There was an orgy, but he didn't participate in it, instead going to sleep in his tent, though there was this girl who could not stop talking, ever, who kept asking him for some of his orange juice. "Oh, are you really that tired? Were you really asleep? I'm so sorry! I just wanted to fill my cup again...."
I didn't go on this camping trip, mainly because I was so busy with homework, plus I had the check for the landlady, and I was waiting for the landlord to bring the new dryer... except he never knocked on the door, so I had no idea that he'd just left it in the carport until after Lucas had gotten home Sunday morning. ` By then, Troy had already hung out some towels on a line in the front yard, though with Lucas' help, Troy and I actually managed to pick up the new dryer and set it down in its spot! We couldn't plug the plug in, though Rick solved that by taking the old cord off the old dryer and putting it on the new one! ` Wow -- he really knew something Lucas and I didn't!
May 24, 2010:
After finishing up my volunteer hours with English-learning students, I was driving home when I saw a billowing cloud of smoke on the hillside where my house is, circled by news choppers!
A police officer parked on a corner made me stop and park my car a few blocks from my house because of the fire trucks that would be coming in any minute and blocking the street.
I called Lucas and asked him what was going on: He said one of the houses on our street was on fire! ` Well, at least it wasn't our house -- otherwise I wouldn't be typing this!
I walked on up to find Lucas among a slowly-growing crowd of onlookers. We talked to Ruthie and Chuck Lee, the couple who had been eating lunch at about 1:30 when their smoke alarm went off because of the fire that had somehow started in their garage.
The firefighters got there as soon as possible, when the garage structure itself was still intact -- yet, now it was nearly three in the afternoon and the fire was still blazing!
You know I took lots of photos, as did the photographers and a guy with a news camera.
As time went on, more and more firefighters showed up to contain the fire, but it raged on until about 4:00 when I left. At this time, there was still a small amount of fire being stamped out among the remains of the Lee couple's cars in the rubble of the garage.
I watched for a long time, along with every other rubbernecker in the neighborhood, amid the smoke and the beeping noises which largely came from the firefighters standing still with their hoses trained so long that their Lack of Motion alarms would go off and then they would have to do the 'firefighter boogie' to make it stop. ` As for the house attached to the garage, a corner of it had collapsed, and probably all of their belongings have been ruined.
To think that that might have happened to us all at the Su Chaing house because of the faulty wiring! ` Actually, as you may recall, the neighbor's house that she owned actually did have a small electrical fire, but it was quickly taken care of and nothing was really damaged -- in fact I recall that these neighbors' TV was apparently on the entire time. ` This house for some reason kept burning, and there were many explosions that came from the garage -- perhaps exploding paint cans? Whatever was exploding in there was apparently providing more accelerant, and the firefighters couldn't even go in.
Upon arriving home with pictures, I showed Troy, who had been woken up both by this activity and Rick breaking down his own bedroom door, apparently having accidentally locked it like Drunk-O Steve used to. By the time I made it home, however, Rick was heavily snoring. ` Troy advised me to try to sell the photos to The Herald on my way back to college for my evening class. I didn't think that made much sense, considering that I figured they were on it, but I did send them an email in case they did not catch wind of this, as well as a link to my photos.
I also recall that Lucas told Andrew that the street was clogged with like 15 fire engines, but Andrew apparently didn't believe him and drove off for one minute, then was back. No wonder!
However, the trucks did clear out of the way soon, and by 4:15, when I had to drive back to college, not many were left, though I still had to walk all the way to my car.
May 25, 2010:
Well, it turns out that The Herald was on top of the fire story, as I had speculated since I noticed that several news outlets were on top of it. ` Apparently one of my pictures (above) was actually of their own photographer, so I must have seemed like a huge dumbhead if anyone there happened to see that, which I doubt.
Also in the Herald this morning is a brief report of an earthquake in towns south and east of Everett, that registered a 3.4 on the Richter scale, which I wouldn't have mentioned if it weren't for the fact that Rick thought it was such a big deal. ` Lucas and I explained to him that the effects of a 3.4 are similar to a train passing by -- according to the article, it mainly rattled mirrors on peoples' walls and scared their dogs and cats. Rick, however, insisted that it was a 'major earthquake' and advised me to call Everett C.C. and ask if classes had been canceled. ` I checked their website for any such cancellations, just to satisfy him.
Seriously!
Rick also added that later on there was another earthquake nearer to Seattle that must have been connected to the first one, and was confused as to why we didn't feel it up here, then said, "that isn't right" as if something suspicious was going on.
This is an example of what I had meant previously when I mentioned that Rick has the I.Q. of a small soap dish. It's like he's off in his own world and hasn't a clue as to what's going on, much like our former stinky roommate, 'Robusk' Johnny. ` Fortunately, Rick is a nice guy and is very amiable, whereas Robusk Johnny was a horse's ass and labeled normal people as 'snobs' for not accepting his lying, cheating and 'robuskness' (lack of hygiene and manners), and for pronouncing the word 'robusk' as 'robust', because to him, everyone else and their dictionaries were wrong on certain words.
Indeed, Rick would furrow his brow and look confused rather than try to start a fight. So, though we may roll our eyes at him sometimes, it's not a real problem, though I wonder what he must think of us!
June 03 2010:
Yay for June being here!
I've been so busy with school, but I'm done with my English essay so I can breathe a little. On Memorial Weekend, Troy threw a party on Sunday, and three of his friends (and one of his friends' children) were over. (Cute li'l 2-year-old Kira, who Lucas got to do a forward roll, almost!)
What's really odd is that Lucas and the Mother of Cute Li'l Kira got into a debate over how to pronounce Ghirardelli, and Lucas insisted that it starts with a 'J' sound because that's how the people at Ghirardelli Square pronounced it when he went there last year as well as when he was a kid. ` She insisted it was pronounced with a hard-G sound, which I confirmed when I looked it up on my computer and found this on their website (including the 'Gear-ar-delli' parrot poster). I also called Ghirardelli and the phone system also pronounced that way, but I left a message anyway, and the next day someone actually called Lucas back to explain to us dumbasses that the parrot's right!
Then, on Tuesday, BIG NEWS! We went to the awards ceremony for the 48 Hour Film awards, and saw movies from the other groups that had won awards, none of which I'd ever seen, such as a crime scene investigation one (the victim stabs herself while cutting an orange), and this one were little girl spies kill each other (which is hilarious because they're little girls), and even one where magical characters found jobs (although not the Fremont Troll, alas!). ` There were also two other movies from the group that Lucas' movie was in. One of these was Strange Fruit, which won Most Gratuitous Use of Prop Award, and when we were standing in line to buy tickets, the guy who played 'Orange' was behind us, and he recognized Lucas as the guy from Sex A-peel! ` I decided to post that film as well, considering that it is pretty funny and weird, and more typical of most 48-Hour films. I recommend watching it -- just wait 'til you see who Orange 'really' is! (Although you might remember from my last post that mentioned this movie.) Mua ha ha ha!
There was, however, one film that was clearly better than Sex A-peel, and that is Behind the Scenes of Twisted Love (or, Bickering Old People Make A Movie), which I trust you've already viewed at the top of this post. That film did have the best acting, and all in all, it won five awards, including Best Film. ` The filmmakers (who were fairly young) were quite surprised because of their lack of production expenses, but the actors they hooked up with really were something else!
Not to be outdone, though, Sex A-peel won six awards, including Second-Best Film. The guys at Pinprick Studios got a ton of Adobe software, too!
And, now that I've told you the great news, here's the not-so-great news: Rick has gone beyond stupid, and has officially become an asshole.
It was actually last week that I was rolling my eyes over Rick loading the dishwasher so that the sprayer won't go around and not thinking that mattered, and then he put away the dishes that hadn't really been cleaned properly in the dishwasher right as Lucas was about to wash them, and then put more dishes in the dishwasher, once again blocking the sprayer arm.
This is the kind of thing I roll my eyes about a lot.
In the midst of this was when Rick offered to fix my clutch, and really seemed to know what he was talking about -- at least for a while. Since Lucas' clutch doesn't work at all because his slave cylinder needs to be replaced, Lucas proposed that Rick first fix his first so that I could drive his truck if need be, because that would be cheaper first off. ` However, Rick asking whether or not the slave cylinder is hydraulic and other clues have led Lucas to be more suspicious of Rick's competence. ` Also, Rick was talking on the phone to his girlfriend and offered to drive all the way back to Colorado to visit and fix her car for cheaper than she could get it fixed, but she insisted, "no!"
However, I don't think that Lucas will give Rick the chance because Rick is starting to act like a horse's ass. Really. ` Today, instead of giving Lucas the rent to give to Landlord Steve, Rick told Lucas that he had already looked up who our landlord is and given him his rent check, without even telling Lucas! ` Later on, after Lucas had given Landlord Steve's wife, landlady Roberta, everyone else's rent check, Steve called and informed Lucas that Rick had knocked on his door, and introduced himself, claiming that he's an executive of a company, and though Rick actually didn't give him the check, he proposed doing so and advised Steve to keep it a secret from Lucas. ` If Lucas is the one who pays Steve all our rents, how the hell does he expect to not give Lucas his share of the rent and keep it a secret from him? Is there any logic here? ` Besides, who does he think he is? He only just met Steve! Meanwhile, back in December, Lucas was already able to trust Steve enough to pretend to evict everyone in this house in order to help us get rid of three of our roommates. Lucas is practically friends with Steve, and yet Rick, practically a stranger, expects Steve to keep a secret from Lucas for him?
So, not only is Rick being such an incredibly stupid jackass that I can't believe it, but he also lied about giving the landlord his rent check. And if he does give rent to Steve today, Steve said that he will tell him to give the check to Lucas next month. ` Why would he do such a thing? I'm afraid it's partly my fault, and partly my stupidity.
You see, I let him know that we were trying to make $1,800 to make up for the debt caused by the asshole roommates we used to have, who cost us about even more money than that by refusing to pay rent, bills, and running up the utilities by constantly doing laundry and vacuuming every day, etc. ` I now see why Rick thought it was so important for me to tell him this; he doesn't trust Lucas -- though strangely, he does seem to trust FOX News. Hmmm....
I could also note that our relationship with Steve and Roberta is the reason that we still are living here, despite our having been behind on rent since the asshole roommate fiascos, which was long before Rick moved in. ` Despite the fact that we, amazingly, managed to take out a loan just after our money crisis and make up rent, Rick apparently didn't believe this, which must have been why he had told me the day after that he was moving out soon. And then didn't.
Like, WTF? Why would he not believe that? I don't know! But that explains why, when I told him that Lucas was paying the landlords regular rent, Rick said, "I thought he already did that two days ago." ` I said, "Well, no, two days ago, he paid the amount he was behind, and this time, he's paying normal rent." And Rick's response? "That isn't right." Like something suspicious was going on! What's so suspicious about that?
Really. But, at the time I shrugged that off because he said, "That isn't right" about so many things that most reasonable people would not have a problem with, so I wasn't sure if he meant that with all seriousness or not.
Apparently I've been giving him too much credit.
And then, he insisted that our reason for being behind on rent was not due to any asshole roommates, who Lucas and I actually told him about when Rick moved in, but Rick doesn't seem to recall that. ` Well, if you need evidence, just check out the crazy events I recorded in December, January and February on this blog -- they're quite surreal, but they actually did happen, and there are also many reader comments on those posts timestamped back at those times! ` I know all my bloggy friends have heard the tales back when they happened as well!
Later today, Rick called Lucas and chewed him out over the phone, accusing him of not only still being behind on rent, but that the reason why being that Lucas has spent Rick's rent checks on beer. ` Beer! ` Why? Because Lucas drinks beer, but Rick can't because he used to be an alcoholic. But, just because Lucas does drink beer doesn't meant that he's an alcoholic. ` Basically, the phone conversation was really one-way, amounting to Rick making these baseless accusations and Lucas starting to assure him that we're not behind on rent, and then having to say over and over, 'will you just let me talk? Can I finish, please?' because Rick would just go off on another insane tangent before Lucas could even complete a sentence.
I seriously cannot believe this. This guy is seriously off in his own world!
Perhaps Rick's bad judgment and general stupidity partly has to do with his former alcoholism? I don't know. But in general, he just seems to say whatever he feels like, reasonable or not, and thinks that everyone else does the same, so he's on equal grounds for argumentation. ` Just like Stinky Johnny. But now he's being belligerent!
June 04 2010:
Troy is awesome -- he drove me to school, as I'm not driving my car due to clutch difficulties, and Lucas picked me up. Lucas was late, though, because he kept forgetting one more item, and another, and another, on his way out the door, and I didn't have my cell phone. ` By the time I got frustrated and called him on someone's cell phone in the Japanese building, Lucas answered only to tell me that he was waiting right outside the door! D'oh!
I brought him a bacon Rice Crispie treat that Kimba made, which he said is pretty good, though not very bacony.
At least Rick paid Landlord Steve today -- Lucas knows this because he saw Rick come back from Steve's house, pouting and stomping his feet like a little child and go into his room. ` Seriously. I guess Steve must have told him what he said he would, which was; "I'll take the check this time, but from now on, you pay Lucas, not me."
And now Rick's all mopey!
Luckily, I'm not intimidated by Rick. He may be a dipshit, but I'm not afraid of him. In fact, most of the Crazy Roommates that I've ever had were not really hostile towards me, except for Char, because she was hostile in general, sometimes Brad, and at the end there, Stinky Johnny, who called me a liar for observing him doing something to mess with Lucas when he didn't realize I was in the next room. ` Even Nat and Steve Drunk-O thought I was relatively sweet and innocent and were apologetic towards me when they were leaving (and Nat gave me some of his Atlases), though not towards Lucas.
As far as Rick goes, I could care less about him. That's the benefit of having roommates that don't hang out with us like we're best buds, which is why we have this arrangement. I think that Rick has good intentions, but he's just an idiot. A paranoid idiot, maybe even.
Well, we'll see what develops. I'm onna do some Spanish homework now.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010:
The last of my finals ended yesterday at 6:45 p.m. and I am free at last! All I want is to have a day off, full of rest and relaxation. Perhaps I'll limp my car over to the library and see what's going on? ` Perhaps I'll see Brokeback Jake, as he's finally up and at 'em, albeit encased in an enormous back brace. I just tried calling him, actually, but my phone isn't getting reception at the moment.
And of course, no entry is complete without mention of Rick's stupidity. He's not doing anything else annoying, thank goodness, but he did complain that there's some smell from Andrew's room that's getting into his own room and even into his clothing. ` Of course, this is probably because Rick cannot tell how much his own room stinks, and in fact, Troy and Andrew both have commented on how disgusting it smells. It's not as bad as what Stinky Johnny's room used to smell like, but it is definitely worse than Andrew's when he leaves dirty dishes in his room. ` Yes indeed, not only is Rick unaware of his stupidity, but he is also unaware of his own stinkiness. Kind of like Johnny, actually, just not apparently a total low-life like Johnny.
It's a semi-sunny day today. I got a couple photos of Lucas, who has shaved his face again a couple days ago, with Violet in the garden that used to be the Overgrown Secret Cat Hangout.
I hear all manner of birds chirping, and occasionally, dogs barking and cats meowing. Also, I hear plenty of airplanes -- this weekend Lucas and I heard and saw many WWII aircraft, and I thought how cool it was that they're still around! I wanna ride in one! ` Only thing is, they are amazingly loud! Well, if there's one consolation about the threat of being bombed in WWII, there was no way you could NOT know they were coming, unless maybe they were really high up.... ` I also hear Andrew snoring in the room below me. I can tell it's him by the occasional werewolf-like grumbling sounds.
Wow! There's just nothing to do but for me to construct my own schedule -- and listen to the birds and the dogs and the Andrew! Oh wait, he's talking to someone on the phone now. His voice is almost as deep as Barry White's, so it carries readily through the floor.
Anyway, I'm off to copy notes and organize things. Wheeee!
Also, I just uploaded my June photos, as of today.
June 11, 2010:
Still screwing off! Enjoying my freedom rather than blogging as I had been planning.
And Lucas? Well, they're re-shooting some of the first episode of Hump City because a) they're replacing the character 'Bob' (the normal guy) and b) they're going to start filming at our house!
That's right, Hump City will now be at our house!
Why? Because, the people at the house they had been shooting at were becoming intolerable, like playing their guitar in the middle of a take and stuff. So now Hump City is at my very own house! Whooo! ` Also, Lucas went down to read lines with potential new Bobs, and the Hump City people were amazed at how unfat and unslovenly he looks, especially without a beard! ` One of the Bobs really was rather good, but he didn't look the part. I hope they find a Bob soon! Then they can get their asses up here!
But, as for screwing off, yesterday Lucas and I walked to the second Diamond Knot place, the pizza one, on Lincoln, and we had a thin crust. They are ridiculously good and inexpensive! Who could ask for anything more?
But, now I have some more work to do.
Though first, I'm in the middle of cooking spaghetti. Gots to go!
Presenting, Sex A-peel, a shoo-win in the 48-Hour Film Festival, starring my very own Lucas Ernst (a.k.a. Lou Ryan to his music fans) as the star of this short film about time travel, oranges... and just how damn sexy Lucas is as Van Saskin (though it's supposed to be 'Van Saskia' -- oh well)!
WATCH IT NOW! You know you want to.
Those Van Saskins sure are hot, aren't they?
There's more about the film, its production, and the other films in the 48-Hour Film Project in my journal entries, which also cover the real-life drama we've had over the past several days -- but first, a peregrine falcon that flew over the house one day!
May 13, 2010:
Terror strikes once more upon our humble abode! Our landlady called up and told us that someone will be coming over to look at the house tomorrow -- because they might want to buy it!
WHAT?
Apparently, because we're still behind on rent ever since we were screwed out of thousands of dollars collectively by the Crazy Couple Brad and Char, Drunk-O Steve and Robusk 'Stinky' Johnny, which I've written so much about starting last December! ` I may have mentioned before that we've been allowed to stay here because there's no way in hell they could get anyone else to rent here, they're seeing if they can sell this house -- for far more than it's worth!
I'll keep you posted.
May 14, 2010:
False alarm -- Landlady Roberta called to tell us that the person canceled. Then, Landlord Steve called, wondering if we had some more money for them.
Suuuure!
Apparently it was a ploy all along, which makes sense because if they were really selling the house, we would stop paying them, period. Our original schedule was to have it all caught up by the time July's rent is due, but apparently they need the money NOW!
Also, Lucas has auditioned for a couple more movies lately; a 48 hour movie about a guy who time travels by eating an orange (which he will play the star of tomorrow); and another movie about atheist Christian bookstore owners competing for business, which he hasn't heard back about yet.
Here's another random picture -- a honeybee on the chive plant on our porch:
May 15, 2010:
Lucas has left for Seattle at four this morning, leaving me in charge of the house. He's off to run around and shove oranges in his face. ` What a hoot! ` He called me around 9:30 to tell me that he's been running down the street this morning, with lots of people asking him if he was alright and if he was being chased by someone. A couple of people weren't so convinced by the camera, saying; "Are you sure you're alright?" ` Well, I guess he's just a really good actor! ` Also, their crew got kicked out of this one area because some people with big, fancy FILM cameras were shooting a feature film. Well, I never!
Speaking of films, I got a message from Clint Berquist -- one of whose films in which I was the naked dead chick, I think. It's an invite to attend the screening of his upcoming Seattle Komedy DokumentaЯy. You can watch the trailer here -- it's hilarious!
Later on....
Lucas has been using the exercise bike to keep him limber on such a cold day on the streets of Seattle because of all the stunts he's had to do: ` In one scene, he sees an old lady pushing a shopping cart that has oranges in it, knocks over her and the cart (a man played her double for that shot!), and then starts shoving oranges into his mouth. ` In a different scene, he materializes out of thin air in front of a guy who has just decided not to shoot himself in the head, startles him, and he pulls the trigger anyway! Whoops. ` In yet another scene, Lucas pulls this guy out of a brand new Lamborghini (that just happens to be orange) and throws him several feet away, then gets in the car... and who should drive off in the car? A 'stunt double' -- because there's no way Lucas would be allowed to drive the car himself! ` The coolest part of it is... Lucas has been so professional that other people think he's been acting all the time for many years -- no, not really, but now his career is taking off, I think!
And now for a cuteness break -- Violet and Vada at their most absurdly cute as they clean yogurt off their faces.
Later yet....
You're not going to believe this.
Since my mp3 player headphones stopped working unless the cord is bent at a certain angle, I thought to myself, 'what luck that Skullcandy founder Rick Alden sent us these Full Metal Jacket headphones!' (Well, at least the movie funding proposal got us one thing useful!)
Otherwise, I was going to have to spent $20 for a new pair. Oooh, expensive, right?
However, since there are three thingamajiggies on the jack -- one for a microphone as well as each ear -- they don't fit on the player as snugly as my last headphones, and at my first day bringing them into the gym, I was stepping into the elevator while trying to find a way to coil the new, longer headphones cord around my body and....
...My mp3 player fell exactly down the elevator shaft!
The headphones began to follow, but then stopped -- but the mp3 player had already 'let go' of the cord, falling several stories into the sub-basement.
There wasn't anything anyone could do.
After I'd had enough trying to exercise with four TVs, music and a movie playing in the background, I went nuts and sped down to Fred Meyer to buy myself another. But... my credit card was with Lucas! ` Luckily, he was driving back from Seattle and was only 20 minutes away, so he stopped by to give it to me.
So, in all, those new headphones indirectly cost me $50!
May 16, 2010:
Why didn't I test the new mp3 player out sooner? The headphone plug-in was wack -- it didn't work that well with the Skullcandy headphones, so I tried the headphones that came with it and those didn't work at all, so I know it was not my headphones!
Farewell, new mp3 player. I barely knew ye.
Unfortunately I couldn't exchange one for another because they didn't have any more blue ones and I needed an additional thing if I were to exchange it for a black one. So, I had to go back home and come back to finally exchange it!
I was smart this time by determining that the headphone jack -- though not perfect -- works more or less, before I left the store. This time, since the headphones that came with it (which I would never use in a million years) do work, I suppose that doesn't count as 'wack', so I'm sticking with this black mp3 player.
May 17, 2010:
Necisito cuatro mil dolores -- ¡pronto!
Seriously. So, not only are we almost $2,000 behind on rent, but my Jetta is soon to need a new clutch and that will be another couple thousand!
Later...
We just pulled the remainder of rent out of our asses (no, not literally), so I think that as long as we have no further setbacks, we'll be fine.
You can come out now, Violet!
May 18, 2010:
Further setback: our roommate Rick announced he'll be leaving soon because he lives way too far from his workplace at Skullcandy and is paying way too much for gas.
I swear I don't make this crap up.
Not that it's a huge loss. I think I've finally figured out why, despite Rick's adamant promotion of Lucas and Andrew Hu and The Boob film, nobody at SkullCandy told anybody about it, why roommate Rick couldn't even persuade Rick Alden to talk to Lucas, and why Alden only sent us stickers and a pair of headphones in an envelope for our trouble. ` It has to do with Rick's I.Q. being roughly equal to that of a small soap dish. I am seriously starting to think he is mentally retarded, and I can see why anyone who knows him -- like Rick Alden -- would be reluctant to take him seriously.
Ah, well, I did get a grant in the mail today for college. 'College' expenses include rent, don't they?
Oh, and by the way, I aced another Spanish test today! That's six for six!
You know, I was recently thinking to myself something ironic -- Lucas and I have lived here for about a year now and our newest roommate Rick is apparently the only one of us residents who's seen whales out the window! (Unless I shouldn't take him seriously about that, either.) ` Really -- just this past April Rick said he saw some gray whales a few times, as well as some orcas, early in the mornings before there are many boats out. ` And where was I? Asleep. Of course!
May 19, 2010:
Went to the 48-Hour Film Festival with Lucas -- and of course I just had to slip and fall in some mud on the way in! ` This year, the required line is 'I can't believe you just said that', the required prop is an orange, and the required character is a carpenter named Van/Vanessa Saskia, which explains Team Awesome's movie -- Sex A-Peel. ` Basically, Lucas is the star, Van Saskia -- except they misspelled it to 'Saskin' -- who eats an orange he shouldn't have eaten... and then he winds up traveling through time and unintentionally causing death and destruction in his wake on his quest to find more oranges. (The guy who played Kip Castille from Crypticon Idol, on which Lucas was Pinhead, was among the injured orange-bearers.) ` In the end, Van amazingly manages to double his sex appeal!
Speaking of which, this is the closest our neighbors get to Lucas' real sex appeal, since he's always hard at work in the yard when he's not acting or busy in his office....
He's been recovering an overgrown garden lately!
Anyway, at the film festival there were many other movies, but Sex A-Peel was put last for a good reason -- you can't really follow it up with anything! It's the best movie there, and I'm not just saying that. I know we're going to win! ` Not money, but Adobe software -- that's still awesome!
The very second film in the screening was pretty funny, though -- it was called Capital Energy, with the tech support guy on the phone with people, saying he's sorry for the inconvenience for the lithium gas leak and it'll only be fifteen more days until people can leave their homes, bla bla bla... this one girl was like, "I've been in my house for four days and I'm kinda running low on provisions." ` The tech asks if she has received their Capital Energy provisions package, and she says, yes, but it's outside on her porch, and he's like 'So what seems to be the problem?' and she's like, 'I can't open my door or I'll die!' and so he puts her on hold... eats an orange... then picks up and offers to sell her a containment suit, to be delivered to her porch.... ` And Van Saskia? Oh, this one dies horribly. ` The end was pretty funny -- the bigwigs of Capital Energy are having a meeting about what to do after this mass-death catastrophe. "I know, let's change our name!" They start talking about names having to do with safety and puppies, and... "I know, LithCo!" "I can't believe you just said that."
You'd have to see it.
There were some other good ones... In one of them, Van Saskia is a former soldier from Afghanistan who is having some serious trouble on the construction site because of his PTSD, but he has a chance to overcome it, and oranges are used to symbolize friendship. Believe it!
In another, Adam just can't get it up for Eve, but apparently an apple will get him going! Problem is, barely anyone knows anything about fruit anymore, and they get scammed by a 'fruit dealer'! (It was funny when Adam assaults the 'fruit dealer', who drops a melon and the girl who was buying it screams, "My grape!") You can guess who the luminous carpenter would be....
In yet another, film a couple of douchebags decide to have some fun with the dorkiest private eye in the world by sending him on a wild goose chase... but little do they know, this guy's far from being a hapless dork -- or a private eye!
Oh, and I can't forget the one about the people actually filming their 48-Hour film, except after this really creepy Van Saskia asks them to squeeze him some orange juice, all the stars wind up shoving oranges in their mouths and dying dramatically because they were rendered poisonous by some kind of citrusy hell demon. ` That one was hilarious because it made no sense.
Speaking of oranges and death, this other film involved this guy who accidentally kills his roommate with an orange -- and now he and his other roommate can't make rent! ` So... they put a blanket over the dead body and show invite another potential roommate in... Van Saskia, who is then killed by another orange.... But, there isn't enough money in Saskia's wallet to pay for the rent that month. Well, NOW what are they going to do?
And if that wasn't enough hilarity, we blasted out of there as fast as we could to make it to the next screening -- Hump City, at the house of one of the filmmakers! ` We were in such a hurry that Lucas had to contend for bathroom space with me. It was amusing, but I don't think you want to know. Then, we were off to Dick's Drive-In... but they don't take debit cards! ` Lucas was going insane from low blood sugar by this time, so we stopped at a more evil establishment and went on to Hump City screening -- which was bedecked with food!
AND THE PILOT WAS HILARIOUS! Unfortunately, it was only a rough cut so the audio was hard for me to hear -- but there were many visual aids and flashbacks. I like how J.R. has a list of things he can't steal from Bob. Not one of them is 'car'... but one of them IS 'automobile!' ` But, Bob pointed this out too late, as J.R. and the other loser roommate attempted to use Bob's car to travel to the future in order to see if Svedka Vodka really is the best Vodka of 2033 so that they could file a law suit for false advertising. ` (In case you were wondering, this really is their actual slogan -- but you must be of drinking age to view the website!)
And even more good news... Rick is not moving out this month. Nor has he been killed by an orange, so we should have no more rent problems for a while.
May 21, 2010:
Today, I practiced Spanish with an ESL student from Mexico! And later on, I posted this and brought my Flickr account up-to-date... I took this photo of Violet just earlier:
Check it out!!!! The video with my fiance Lucas as the Dancing Janitor has gone viral -- here it is once again:
How viral is it? Well, it's mentioned in the title of a local website TechFlash article, about the Microsoft contest, and a few other places....
I may as well continue with my journal entries, as well, considering something really weird happened the day after my last post:
May 10, 2010:
At six in the morning, Lucas woke me up, asking me if I'd ever heard of Geni-Value. A short time later, he came back up, saying that our bank account had been drained, plus an overdraft charge, in the wee hours of the morning, from this Geni-Value, which turns out to facilitate monetary exchange with pornography websites, and that the entire history on his MacPro had been deleted.
Evidently, someone was up late last night and used Lucas' computer to buy porn with our bank account!
When I came home from school, Lucas had gone to the bank and determined that someone had taken the new debit card he had been sent in the mail. And, since it couldn't have in a million years been Troy, and it also couldn't have been Rick, especially since I could hear him loudly snoring as usual in the wee hours of the morning, then that leaves Trouble Boy, Andrew.
Later...
Lucas called Andrew's dad over and they talked about this whole thing... apparently, he really, really didn't do it. This has been a bad day for him, considering that he realizes now just how much Lacy the meth chick was using him now that she's been kicked out of the house.
Later yet...
Lucas' new debit card came in the mail after all! So, where did the new card number come from? According to the lady at the bank, someone used Lucas' identity and ordered another debit card and activated it -- just to buy porn?
As far as the computer history goes, that was Rick's doing, because he himself was banking online last night and didn't want his information to be saved on Lucas' computer.
So, the thing with the computer is just a coincidence -- this is why I don't like jumping to conclusions!
May 11, 2010:
The Debit Card Drama continues, as I study for yet another Spanish test. Apparently, the lady at the bank made a mistake -- there was no new debit card number being used after all. What really happened was that someone has stolen Lucas' debit card number.
Who? Nobody at the bank can tell. We did have the police involved, but they can't do anything either.
In other news, Lucas has been growing his beard out again for the next episode of Hump City.
In yet more news... there's been a few more sub-plots going on that I never mentioned. For example, just as we were having difficulty with Lacy the homeless meth chick that was playing Andrew like a fiddle (and made him pawn off all his stuff), Troy brought by a much nicer homeless non-meth chick for a few days.
That would be Jen -- but the night she made us dinner was also the night she was moving into her new house, so she's not homeless anymore. ` By itself, this is not remarkable, but it was also at this time that a female relative of Rick's was just getting out of jail (she had gotten into jail because she fled the police) and she didn't have a place to stay.
So, we could have had three homeless chicks living at our house at the same time! But we didn't.
Boo-yah! Lucas' commercial was a finalist in the Microsoft Office commercial contest -- he plays Robert the Janitor! He is so good with that mop... isn't he fantastic? Not only does he mop the carpets, but he does all the other work at ThinkSpace!
And that beard of his, of course, is for that show, 'Hump City' -- or whatever else it might be called -- so that he can look as slovenly as possible. Here's the Official Trailer for that:
Isn't he a cutie McWootlebee, all drugged-looking and stuff? So, I promised April's journal entries in my last post -- with some of my photos -- as well as what's been going on since then.
Well, after several hours of typing and editing photos and whatnot, here it is!
April 1, 2010:
Instead of a stupid prank, Troy got us all a box of chocolate frosted donuts!
At the store today, Lucas ran into this guy from William Scotsman, the construction company he worked with two years ago. He said that there had only been three small jobs since Lucas had been laid off, so this is why they hadn't called him back. ` In the next aisle, Lucas found this guy from his karate days, so they're going to go to this karate event together!
While dialing my number at the gas station a little while later, Lucas was sitting in his truck with a view of a guy's butt, of which whose pants were around the bottom of, revealing boxer-briefs! So Lucas started singing,
"Pants on the ground, pants on the ground,
lookin' like a fool with your pants on the ground, underwear in my face, underwear in my face..."
The guy turned around, saw Lucas' massive hulk, and turned back around. That's when I picked up the phone and Lucas said, "Hi sweetie!" like nothing had happened!
Another sad-but-funny story: Troy's boss got fired because he sold beer to a minor, after looking at said minor's ID, in front of everyone who was there for the company meeting!
In other news, Troy is getting his costume together for SakuraCon tomorrow!
April 2, 2010:
He also showed Lucas and I an episode of this anime where setting a field of marijuana on fire saves the day! ` To Troy's surprise, it was not accurate in terms of portraying being high, probably because Japanese people would not be expected to know better, although did look cool nonetheless.
Ananda called -- apparently, Jake's broken his back. He didn't mean to, of course, and now he's on drugs for the pain. We're hoping to see him tomorrow.
Also, Rick has moved in. He's the friend of the founder of SkullCandy, Rick Alden (who talks about how he founded the company in this video), and this may be of benefit to Lucas' acting/music career!
You know what's funny? I overheard Andrew asking Lucas how old I was -- 28 -- after apparently not really believing me because I look older to him. ` Honestly, I think what he's mistaking for me looking older is the fact that I'm much more mature than him, and Lacy, who later came back into our house apologizing for leading the cops here after her hit-and-run with Andrew's car. (Well, at least she was being a designated driver!)
April 3, 2010:
Ananda went to the store and got some birthday/half-birthday frozen yogurt, and proceeded to come over here, but then got lost in the confusing maze of rich neighborhood, partly because she thought that the street leading to my neighborhood was a dead end because of the No Outlet sign.
On top of that, she somehow locked her key in her car, so we had a rockin' time going back to her house for the other key, and continued having a rockin' time at my house until 2 in the morning, which was right before Troy got home from SakuraCon. (She only left because she had to meet Andre after his shift was over....)
April 4, 2010:
Today I was fatigued and hadn't gotten enough sleep so, after taking an early-morning shower, I slept in until noon, went to the gym, then went shopping for headphones (though not Skullcandy). ` Right now I'm listening to Troy's SakuraCon stories and Lucas discussing how he wants to smoke pot on TV and get in trouble for it to draw attention to him and the TV and movie people he's affiliated with. ` Anything for art, right?
April 7, 2010:
Better news for Lucas -- he's got the lead role in Dry Hump City, so now he plays J.R.! Apparently, J.R. is even more beardy and slovenly than David, so he's going to have to keep the damn beard. ` In fact, he's just thoroughly dirtied some shirts for the part, but they came too clean in the wash. Why is it that shirts you want to keep clean don't stay clean, but shirts you drag through the mud and everything else don't stay dirty?
Also, yesterday, the TV station guy, Michael Tuckman, called Lucas, and explained why he never got back to him with the Norm Squareby and the Angry Chef shows: ` Turns out that in December, right when Brad (the Angry Chef Himself) rented the U-Haul with nowhere to go (and then called the cops, blaming us for it), the owner of the TV station was doing the same crap!
Apparently, one day the Sheriff just showed up to evict them all after the owner hadn't paid rent for five months -- and also hadn't told this to anyone who worked in the building! ` Then, the owner got three enormous moving vans and packed up all his crap -- most of it was outdated equipment and junk -- and had nowhere to take it! Finally, the guy did find a building, but it was out of range of the digital broadcast antenna, so he is now illegally spliced into the Comcast cable! ` Even more annoying, he towed Tuckman's car, which had a lot of stuff in it, such as his documentations that his valuable items are what they are. ` The guy is nuts, literally, though maybe I ought to cut him some slack since he's dying of cancer. Presumably when he does die, Michael will be able to get that stuff back.
You know what else is funny? Michael Tuckman didn't realize we're actually poor and that all the 'gourmet' food that Lucas and Brad the Angry Chef catered that one day was either from the food bank or from our garden! ` We still don't have much money, but we do have years' worth of wood!
Vada looks stunned.
April 12, 2010:
SO BUSY! Lucas has been playing J.R. all weekend. He used a little of Troy's gourmet root beer for the front of his shirt... it was devastating. At least for Troy....
Voila! Lucas as J.R. -- Vada doesn't know what to think!
Ha ha! You peed your pants!
As Lucas was through Safeway before the shoot, with his coat open and his filthy shirt exposed, he got a lot of looks from customers. ` The cashier looked horrified until Lucas informed him that he's a not really an alcoholic, he only plays one on TV, and the beers were for the show!
On Sunday night, he came back looking really beat up....
But he was only pretending! I took a picture, thinking that perhaps he really did have a nosebleed from some stunt, but that was makeup, too! He has just driven all the way home with the fake-bloody tissue in his nose!
Also, what's funny is, Dry Hump City is made by Mormons, and there was this Mormon guy there who said he was against the show on religious grounds! Also he's a 35 year old virgin.
This guy I speak of was supposed to be promoting Lucas and Andrew Hu, creator of The Boob and Dry Hump City, to Rick Alden, who we were hoping might fund the making of The Boob -- but it turns out he's too uptight. ` By the way, you can read the first ten pages of The Boob, as well as watch a 'trailer' of people reading said ten pages and laughing their asses off here on his Facebook page.
Interestingly, the 'against my religion' guy said that Rick Alden would not approve of such a thing, and to prove this, he got online to show him. Right there on SkullCandy.com was the results of a survey that said 50% of pollsters approved of using BOOBS to improve the Skullcandy website! ` He dismissed that, only to find pictures of Rick Alden with his arms around scantily-clad young women with huge cleavages in all manner of situations. He dismissed that also, saying that Rick wasn't really like that.
And so, no, he wasn't going to promote Lucas to Rick Alden.
ARRRRRGH!
It's too bad because Rick was supposed to come over to our house tomorrow, but his trip was canceled.
Double-ARRRRRGH!
Oh well, at least Troy and I got around to cleaning the house -- Troy tackled the entire main bathroom while I got up some of the non-meth head urine carpet stains, as well as windows and windowsills, dishes, and other things here and there.
Right now, it's bedtime, especially since I'd gotten up at 6 this morning and rode the exercise bike outside so as not to disturb the roomies. I am going to sleep on the couch, however, because Rick is snoring and Andrew has turned up his TV to drown it out.
April 13, 2010:
Aced my first Spanish Exam, did all three English readings, meanwhile Lucas was at the Fox's house, doing some more wood-chopping. ` Poor Nate is dealing with Rebecca's insanity. She's spending all this money on speech therapy for their 22-month-old, Charlie. Yes, he's not even 1 1/2 years old, but he's great at communicating -- signing and trying to talk -- yet she's blowing her money because she thinks he might never learn!
Neurotic!
The speech therapist couldn't get him to blow air, because she was ASKING HIM TO, and Rebecca was so afraid that this meant something bad! So, to encourage Charlie to blow air, Lucas started doing this beat-box thing into Charlie's toy microphone, and Charlie imitated him! ` It worked... and it was free of charge!
Rebecca, being jarred out of her world of panic, viewed this with suspicion.
Lucas explained to her that he has had years of experience working in childhood development with hundreds of little kids Charlie's age and older, and had seen them learning to talk. ` He has a degree in psychology and knows all the stages and the ranges of age, and has trained other people on the job as well. Clearly, he knows what he's talking about, but Rebecca just kind of smiled and nodded.
She also gives Charlie sugar pills for teething pain, which also pisses Nate off to no end. Why does Charlie like them? Because they're sugary, not because they're painkillers!
April 17, 2010:
Andrew was storming around this morning, all pissed off, throwing things around his room and swearing. Rick, apparently not being attuned to Andrew, innocently asked; "Are you okay in there?" Andrew growled, "I'm just fine, Rick!" ` After Rick, Troy and I were crowded around, wondering what the hell was going on, Lucas went up to Andrew's room and asked what was wrong. Andrew replied that it burns when he pees. Apparently he had some sex he should not have. ` A few hours later, the cops came over and hauled Andrew off for missing court. So, he's got the clap, but he's in jail and can't do anything about it!
Sigh... this is why I don't get involved with meth-heads anymore.
Meanwhile I'm all carrying on and having fun with the kittehs as usual!
My Violet!
My Vada!
My landlady's lawn-humping dog!
My J.R!
...He's turned back into Lucas now, through the magic of SHOWERING!
Oh yeah, can't forget... MY SELF!
April 25, 2010:
Much has been going on, hence all the photos. For one thing, Rick has been snoring so much that we moved into Stinky Johnny's Former Stinky Bedroom... Violet is bummed because there's no more windowsill water to drink, nor can she jump out the window.
Well, it's nice and quiet for studying, anwyay.
Also, Lucas has further improved our view by pruning the neighbor's apple tree....
Well, the other day, who should walk back in the door unexpectedly but Andrew, who explained that he was freaking out from claustrophobia so badly that the cops just let him out of jail. ` Wow! So now you know, if you ever really, really want out of jail for missing a court date, alls you have to do is freak out!
Also, I wanted to mention that whenever I'm walking from my car to my first class and it's five-til 8, meaning I'm almost late for being early to class, a military trumpet sounds in the distance, so I yell "Charge!" and start running!
It's one of those little weird things I thought I'd mention.
Oh yeah, and we're having a Pampered Chef Party... and here's the star of the show right now, Lucas' friend Nate Fox (whose trees they've been chopping), the Pampered Chef himself!
Troy's mom was the only invite who showed up... but we had a rockin' time and some excellent food!
May 3, 2010:
Man! I've been so busy lately attacking my homework and stuff that I haven't really gotten to writing down any nutty things that have been happening lately.
Lucas, by the way, did not get the endorsement of Rick Aldin, but he did get some Skullcandy stickers and microphone-earbuds for an iPhone, which doesn't work with our cell phones.
Too bad -- Lucas coulda been the star of The Boob if only Andrew Hu had gotten the money to make The Boob! ` And now, apparently, Andrew Hu has signed away the script to Paramount or someone who probably won't make the movie, and if they do there's no way in hell they're going to let Lucas play the boob!
I've passed all my Spanish quizzes and tests with A's despite the fact that Lacy has been living here for the past few days, which freaks me out. She even asked me if I might give her a ride! Sorry -- meth-head squatters don't get rides from me!
Especially when they leave their underwear on the stairs!
Even more oddly, that was the second time I've been asked for a ride on the same day. Just earlier, I had been at a gas station and this guy with spiral earrings - presumably a meth-head or something - asked me which was I was going. I said I was going toward Evergreen and pointed down the street, which terminated at Evergreen. ` He said, "No, Evergreen is that way," and pointed in another direction (further down on Evergreen), then he raised his eyebrows at me as if I was supposed to realize that he caught me lying to him, which I wasn't.
He asked if I'd give him a ride to Bothell for $2.50, and instead of saying, 'You can catch a bus with that money!' I truthfully told him that I was volunteering at my college. (I was, for teaching ESL students.) ` He asked if I was going to my college and I said, "No, I'm going home first." He said, "Oh, to Evergreen?" I said, "No, I live in Mukilteo," which is on the other side of Evergreen. ` Eyebrows high, he said, "I thought you were going to Evergreen! Aha! Aha!" as in 'Aha, you are lying to me!' and walked off.
Well, at least I got rid of him.
And then, having gased up my car, I drove off, crossed Evergreen, and continued on to the Boeing Freeway, which leads into Mukilteo. See? I was telling the truth all along!
This happened, by the way, while I was on my way home from the computer shop. I paid 'only' $75 because it had a pain-in-the-ass virus I couldn't get rid of that was telling me to buy anti-virus software. ` I tried to get it to close and then go on the internet, but that didn't work, so I tried to trick it into connecting into the internet under the pretense of buying the anti-virus software... and THAT didn't work, either, so I was stuck with this popup window that claimed to be virus software. ` Pretty counter-productive for a computer virus, huh? Most computer viruses don't stop your computer from working, but rather hide in your browser and tell Amazon.com to give some guy money every time you make a purchase, or use your computer to distribute spam or something.
You can easily get twelve viruses in a day, but software like ClamWin, SpyBot Search and Destroy, and MalwareBytes, none of which I had updated in a while, can get rid of almost all viruses. I just wasn't using mine much, that's why they didn't work! ` Yeah, if you have anti-virus programs, it is important to utilize them!
These programs are free to download on the internet, by the way: Those ones that people buy are different mostly in that you have to pay for them, and because they tell you there's added benefits to using them over the free software, which are really advertising gimmicks, as any software expert knows -- that's why THEY use the free stuff, too!
This Has Been A Public Service Announcement!
Arrr! I may not slay computer viruses so easily, but I eat octopuses for breakfast!
Troy saw this and was rather shocked.
And I haven't even gotten around to what happened today! Lucas has gotten to Andrew (the roommate, not the filmmaker) about Lacy living here and all: She's back, and she took our wash out of the washer and put it on the floor, then proceeded to do two loads of laundry! ` As a consequence, our laundry is still in the dryer at almost midnight... except one of Lacy's dryer sheets must be in there because it stinks so bad! I'm going to have to wash my clothes again! Anyway, I'm staying up to make sure they get dry, and then after that I'll put Lacy's second load in the dryer. ` Apparently it's kind of an excuse so she can stay over again... she did apparently want to leave, but commandeering our wash was not the best way. Oh, here she is now!
Close call.
By the way, Troy's memory cards have gone missing, as have one of my octopuses -- octopedes? I'm locking my office door.
Indeed, meth-heads should try not to mix... it's like trying to mix salt-water and rain-water... it doesn't turn out well!
...At least in the case of water, it's preeeety!
May 8, 2010:
The days have been flying by! The good news -- Lacy has been banned from the house!
Also, Jen, the girl who stormed out of the restaurant in an incident I wrote about on The Corrigendopedia, is apparently really cool when she's not arguing about arachnids. ` She cooked dinner last night and a couple of Troy's friends came over. Fettucini alfredo of doom, Cesar salad of doom, and stuffed poultry of doom! AWESOME!
May 9, 2010:
It's Mother's Day! I called my mommy. She's taking up painting lessons again! Called my Gramma, too -- she really liked the card I sent her!
And wait... there's MORE! That's right, more photos and more story on my Flickr sets...
He's been at it for quite a while, and now Lucas (a.k.a. Lou Ryan in the music scene) has already filmed the first episode of a new series tentatively called 'Hump City'.
LOOK WHAT THEY'VE DONE TO HIM!!
Yes, that's actually Lucas, and no, they didn't turn him into an alcoholic, it's just pretend! That's what he looks like as his character, J.R., the lead role in Hump City!
So, what does this have to do with me not posting in forever? BECAUSE... I was going to link this post to the trailer for this show weeks ago... except it's not OFFICIALLY up yet... it is, however, STILL ONLINE FOR ALL TO SEE! ` So... here's the trailer I'm not supposed to show you guys! IT'S TOTALLY UNOFFICIAL because it's not on Pinprick films' Vimeo site. (It's on Lucas' Vimeo site.) ` And... to MAKE IT SOMEWHAT OFFICIAL, here's the Pinprick Films Vimeo Site that this trailer is meant to be on! There! It's like the best of both worlds!
But before I move on, I'd like to mention that not only have I managed to get into both English and Spanish this quarter, but I'm doing pretty well in both classes! WHOO! ` That's another reason I haven't posted in a while, EVEN THOUGH I STARTED THIS POST EXACTLY A MONTH AND A DAY AGO... I've been working my ass off to do well in my classes, and it's paying off! ` To be honest, I didn't take much time to decide to do another post here not (though I have posted on my other blogs ), and it's only now that I've made my decision to do so.
And one more thing... MY CATS ARE STILL ABSURDLY CUTE!
Also, might I mention, Vada has won the Best Brain-damaged Cat Award of 2010!
In addition, Violet may have a chance of winning the Best Brain-Damaged Cat Award of 2011 if she keeps drinking the crud from the windowsill!
So, what's been going on all this time I've been away from blogworld? A lot of things! I actually left off, back on March 19, right when Lucas had gotten his first role in Hump City (then called Dry Hump City). ` That's right, it was his first role... David. He only later was promoted to J.R. after the original J.R. had to leave.
So, from the top -- this is me finishing up from March 19:
I knew I'd forgotten to mention something last post -- Lucas got the part of David in Dry Hump City!
Also, this talent agency seemed really interested in him, actually giving him critique, which shows their interest, and said they would call him in three days even if they didn't want him, but they didn't call him at all.
March 23 2010:
What's happened lately? Well, we've had another few potential roommates over besides that one eccentric middle aged guy, Rick, and that Indian guy. Another potential roommate, Jen, came up just today while I was going through some notes.
Just before she came over, Troy had just gotten up (since he works night shift) and was sitting on the loveseat in his robe and lion slippers with Vada (those slippers used to scare her so much!), reading Into the Wild, while Lucas was steam-cleaning. ` It's like, we're all in the living room like one big happy family! So different than the situation with my former roomates....
Speaking of Vada, I was on the couch with Lucas eating crackers and Tabasco sauce, and I let Vada sniff the Tabasco bottle. ` Big mistake! ` She cringed and snorted, then when she realized how much it was burning, she did a backflip through the air and took off running in a disoriented way down the stairs while sneezing.
I was laughing so hard I could do nothing for this poor cat, so Lucas had to chase her down, corner her, then carry her back upstairs where I poured her some cream. She lapped it up like there was no tomorrow. Poor Vada!
Later on, while Lucas and I were at the gym, Troy found an old friend at the mall who said he needed to crash for the night, having been outed from his normal place of residence, although Troy was actually on his way to work and would be gone all night...
So, he brought this guy to the gym where Lucas and I were working out, and Lucas said he wished he could help the guy, but really didn't think it was the best idea. ` Meanwhile, this was actually the first time I had agreed to be ready to leave the gym at a specific time, which was 7:25, and I was! I was so proud of myself for actually keeping track of the time and everything... ` ...And Lucas was not ready to go because he was practically telling this guy that he looked suspicious to his face! It was the most awkward thing I have ever seen.
So, I took off my coat and outer shirt and started doing sit-ups on the incline bench. Because that's what I do in awkward situations. ` By the way, Troy has this new bumper sticker: 'Drive defensively -- pilot a mech!' Yeah, cars are so passe!
March 24, 2010:
At 1:25 today, I spotted a skinny dude meditating in our lawn chair!
Lucas said, "That must be Tige come early to look at the house." It was. He's a guy who's acstetic -- or however you spell that -- who has barely any possessions, which is great because there's not a huge amount of room here. ` He really does seem cool, so we're hoping he moves in.
Now it's 2:43 and our neighbor Sarah is telling Lucas (through the fence lattice) that yesterday she saw Brad and Char drive up to the house! ` She said they were out of view, so she couldn't see what happened, but then they drove away really fast.
Damn! Now they know we haven't been evicted for real! I wonder if they'll come back for revenge?
It's 7:00 pm! Oh no, Violet! I'm late for the library! (Violet says: "What is this ly-brerry you speak of?")
At the library:
Jake, who told me about this really cool book about signing and the deaf called Seeing Voices, is eating a cinnamon roll across from me. And me without money! He is now talking about how he loves Erin the roller derby girl. ` To his left, Laura is contributing to my feeling of hunger by eating a chicken salad sandwich. ` Michael's on my right with his laptop open to Facebook, while his wife Alex is knitting a slipper on my left.
Hey, it's Ananda and Wendizzle! She said she sacrificed most of her soul for college finals. I gave her a piece of my soul to compensate. ` Here's Wendy's Eastern European Look!
Wendy's telling us about Howard Zinn and understanding history in the U.S., and how cool he was, and thus how upset she was when he died five days before he was supposed to appear at her school!
She also kind of upset me, though, because she made her mind up about her something she didn't know about and then refused to hear any different. ` What had she made her mind up about? Just a movie she hadn't seen -- Avatar. She said, "I've never seen it, but I hate it because it's Pocahontas, and Pocahontas is a lie, so I don't want to see it."
WTF?
Really, a better description of it is Dances With Wolves In Space, with giant blue humanoid aliens that resemble leopards instead of the Sioux. Observe:
In Dances With Wolves, this man is sent out to an outpost on the Western Frontier and is captured by the Sioux. ` However, there is a white woman among these natives who can translate what he says. He is drawn to their ways and gradually becomes one of them, and eventually, a hunter and a hero among the Sioux. ` Unfortunately, the white people think of him as a traitor and beat him up for this, but he escapes and goes back to the Sioux and his woman. (Though they become fugitives.)
In Avatar, a paraplegic man, in control of an able avatar (alien body) is sent to infiltrate the aliens to help the humans exploit their land, and his avatar winds up being captured by the aliens, called Na'vi. ` This one Na'vi woman who knows English prevents the other aliens from killing his avatar, and he is drawn to their ways. Over a course of months he becomes a hunter, falls in love with her, and is accepted into their tribe.
If you don't want any more spoilers, skip the next double-paragraph:
This is when he tells the Na'vi that the humans are after the minerals under their village, and it is also when the humans realize he's trying to prevent them from destroying the Na'vi's home. ` The humans capture him, leaving his avatar prone to the angry natives, the village is destroyed, people are killed, but of course he escapes, becomes the greatest Na'vi war hero, etc. and goes off to live with his wife as a Na'vi for reals!
While the movie Pocahontas is similar in that there's gold-hungry Europeans after their land, in the end, John Smith and Pocahontas part ways. However, in real life Pocahontas was tricked into going with him and wound up dying of a European disease. ` In neither case does John Smith become a Native American and live with them.
But, since Wendy was so pissed off when she discovered Pocahontas' real fate back in fifth grade, she decided that Avatar was stupid and she hated it. ` I tried to tell her what was wrong with her logic, but she just shook her head and said, "Pocahontas! Pocahontas!"
Whatever.
Vada says: "Just chill, mon!"
March 25, 2010:
It's amazing how today keeps getting more troublesome....
I got up, brushed my teeth, tackled the unkillable mildew that was in our tile shower stall and once again failed to kill it with bleach. ` Then, I brewed some peach iced tea while washing dishes, put ice in it while I was cleaning the counters, sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor, and when I was done, my tea was ready to drink. ` The whole cleaning routine is actually part of how I make iced tea. Yes, I have some quite complex routines since the crazies have gone, and I can do them day after day without fear of being interrupted!
Lucas had just come home from morning errands and was sitting on the couch, tired because I had woken him up trying to scrub the shower last night. I offered him some tea, but he didn't want any, so I set it on the coffee table where his feet were resting. ` Since I no longer have roommates who prevent me from doing what I need to do for most of the 24 hour day, such as chores, homework, relaxation and sleep, I have not only learned to enjoy life, but now have the chance to practice delayed gratification. ` So, before having some tea, I decided to open my mail, which was on the coffee table behind the tea -- but just then, Lucas shoved the coffee table back with his foot and the tea went spilling all over my mail! ` Well, that's another carpet stain, but at least it's not crazy roommate urine. (Edit: More about Piss Bottle John ahead!)
Just as I was done lamenting my stupidity, I found out that Su Chiang, the crazy lady who rented the condemned house to us, is after us again, according to our present landlord, Steve. ` Even worse, he seems to believe the crazy stuff she said about us, that we cheated her and threatened to kill her and were selling drugs and stuff! ` She just told him that because Steve is her insurance agent and she wants money -- it's the same story she tells about all her tenants who were sick of her B.S.!
We're also out of money, Lucas is out of contacts, his glasses are falling apart, and if we can't find some more money soon, he'll be blind! (Except to any objects one centimeter in front of his eyeballs.) ` Then, we got a call from Guitar Center to discover that, although we purchased the music program ProTools for $700, and have paid well over that amount towards that purchase, we still owe more than $700!
Do the math... 700 minus 700 ought to be zero, not 700... but this is Guitar Center Credit Land where none of that matters! ` Yes, that's right... when the period of 'no interest' was over, all the interest that we should have accumulated all that time was tacked onto our total, as if there had never been a period of 'no interest'! ` And what was the interest rate, you ask? Twenty-five percent!
Oh yeah.
In better news, we took a walk to the beach and I found the shell of a mollusk that had been killed by a sea star.
Also, there was this kayaker dude who launched right next to where we were sitting on the beach....
He was completely gone from sight in only a few minutes!
8:27 pm.:
The same woman cop who's been over here a million times was here again looking for some guy. So, how many times have the cops come over does that make this? Eight? I'm not sure, and I'm too lazy to check.
March 26, 2010:
Lucas' old friend Michelle came over -- she was actually the woman in Joe McPherson's construction company commercial! I didn't even know that!
She was amazed with Lucas' ability to sing since ten years ago, and when she listened to his live recording she thought there were two guitars! Nope -- just ol' Lou Ryan! ` I must add that Violet had an amusing time with Michelle's puppy in the backyard, which I photographed of course.
Anyway, I made her a new headshot (using the above-above photo) and Lucas helped her make a new résumé before they went off to the audition!
Also, during this time Rick called back and said he still wants to move in, he only hadn't called back before because he'd had the flu and have to drop life for a while.
When Lucas came back from the audition, he was so stoked! He described how he came into the audition for Zack, star of The Boob, and showed how he could change his physique so dramatically, thanks to his huge abdominal muscles. ` He also demonstrated his creepy, bulging eyes, which are perfect for staring at boobs -- they said that for sure they would call him back, so I'm hoping this happens.
And, of course, there's all this gossip. There was this New Age couple there who were being SO WEIRD it was funny. ` The guy's name was like 'Raj-mahaj' or something, and I guess he was bragging about himself in general, but his mannerisms made it so much funnier! His girlfriend was talking about his proficiency in musical instruments, 'he's so talented, he plays everything!' ` Then they were talking about how it's hard for them to live with each other because 'we're both psychic'... man, I remember when I thought I was psychic! ` It's like... shut up and stop making yourself look like arrogant freaks in front of the director!
So, Lucas and Michelle were kinda chuckling about them, but it turns out there's something far juicier than that: ` Michelle used to be roomies with PISS BOTTLE JOHN! That's right -- the guy who used to be our roommate who turned out to be smoking meth and pissing in bottles, and who dumped them all over the house before the landlord came over one day.
YES. And she began putting the dots together when Lucas told her about MethLogic. For example, he always locked his door, even when he was only taking a shower, and was very nice to her, except that he occasionally ate leftovers she had brought home from a restaurant. ` In other words, he was making sure she never found out about the meth, and only behaving out of line a little bit when he was coming off of meth and was ravenously hungry.
Also, he accumulated all this junk, including the Honda Prelude -- BEFORE it was covered in mold! I always thought he had found it that way! ` And for years, he never did anything with it, so when we were being forced out of the Su Chiang house for living in a condemned house, thanks to Su Chiang, we were amused to see someone else just drive off in it when Piss Bottle John could have had a working car the entire time instead of taking the bus!
Indeed, it is such a meth-head thing to do, collect all kinds of junk, and yet, when he left her residence, his room was clean. Why? To hide the evidence of being a meth-head!
Michelle was also surprised to hear that John actually had sex with Tracheotomy Woman, and even more surprised that she said (or mouthed, anyway) that he was an ass-rapist!
But enough about Old Roommate (for both of us) Gossip -- Lucas noticed that there was this really cool show on at the gym, which I should have been as well, though I kept the TV in front of me off as usual. ` It was this Jamie Oliver guy from Britain and he was trying to convince the staff of this elementary school to feed the students food that isn't junk, and to give them utensils to eat it with. ` The principle laughed and said, "What would you use a knife and fork for?" ` Jamie looked heartbroken, and he said, "I think I'm going to cry!" ` Like the people at that school actually thought that only upper class people used utensils! And the principal said, "Surely the kids in Britain don't use a knife and fork!"
No sooner do I start my morning routine, cleaning the kitchen, making peach iced tea, etc, but Lucas comes upstairs, yelling, "Oh my god! Obama got his exact same health care plan from the Republicans, who have been proposing it for 25 years and used it to oppose Bill Clinton's health plan! They've been against their own idea! What a bunch of hypocrites!"
Now he's on the phone with my mom, trying to get through to her Extremist Conservative boyfriend, Tom.
Update: He sent him an email, but Tom never read it. He just doesn't want to see anything that he doesn't agree with!
March 28, 2010:
Lucas is telling me all about the nutty people at rehearsal for Dry Hump City (including the crazy New Age girl) and how well they all fit the parts! He even arrived in character with 7 days' beard growth!
Oh yeah, also, with his beard, he's been quite the Lumberjack at his friend Nate's house! No, seriously... and this is just SOME of the firewood he's brought back!
Whoa! I'm going to stop with the photos now before I break someone's computer! I have a lot more to go, but I'll end this post here, then continue with April's craziness pretty soon... and perhaps the Hump City trailer will be up OFFICIALLY by then!
The essential world of science, critical thinking, and expanding the mind. I like to take on sensitive topics, even scrutinize things I've written myself. Also, it's sometimes a place to hang my artwork.
Posts
