Posts

Showing posts from 2009

yes this is old but I love it

Did I mentioned that I post sometimes days, weeks, months after the fact? That post accuracy / truthfulness hovers between 5-150%? Yeah I forget that sometimes too. Boing Boing has unicorn chasers - This is my favorite unicorn. Tomorrow night I'll be in Disney World!
Image
We said eff it on Monday and opened our Christmas present early, some gifts freshly wrapped and some just purchased an hour before. This is my favorite gift from B. She found it off some random website and the actual item shipped directly from China or Korea. I love my robot clock with hand clips for important notes - though my co worker referred to them as roach clips. Part of the reason for unwrapping so early is that we'll be at LAX on Christmas morning flying to this place (my first time). The interesting thing is though B has been to DisneyWorld a bunch of times  [being from Michigan and all - did you know that there are airlines with 70% of their flights go only to either Florida or Hawaii from the Midwest during winter?], I'm a little more up to date on recent, small and random changes to the park from all the Disney blogs I read.  Yes I'm a bit of a Disney parks nerd (compared to the Disney movie or character specific nerd) and I love the business side of the reso

tropical island cupcakes for winter

Image
B gives out cupcakes as thank you notes to her co-workers and assistants. Always four cupcakes to make up a single scene: this year a tropical island made of brown sugar, kit kats and a goldfish cracker added for realism. I should have wiped the table down before taking the above picture. As you can see it was a decent size production for our small table to handle.

ferraby lionheart

With my old laptop sitting on the piano bench across from me, the screen cracked rendering it to a unusable state, I am refreshingly liberated from my music collection. Eventually I will import most of it over but just without many songs/bands that once made up soundtracks to my past life - I'm all about moving forward these days. Yet revisiting the past can be a good thing sometimes. Recently I noticed Ferraby Lionheart played a couple nights in LA after a long absence from performing in this city. In Nashville finishing a new album with a early 2010 release, his return triggered a rediscover of his 2007 album Catch the Brass Ring that was buried deep in my music collection. I downloaded the tracks again last week as I came out of a fog, just in time for my life to un-spiral again. Though this song off his first album might be from the past technically, for me this a new soundtrack. I'm not sure how far under the radar Ferraby is, especially outside of Los Angeles, tha

October: Best Month Ever - Reason # 1

Image
Reason # 1 - She said Yes. It is not the most conventional ring. It is not the biggest diamond. It is everything I have for the person that is everything to me. This is two months after the fact but whatevs; my blog, my timeline. For the when (it was Oct 17th) and the where ( The Getty Villa )you can look at some photos here on my flickr page .

October: Best Month Ever - Reason # 2

Image
Reason# 2 - Sonia. I wrote about my friend Sonia earlier and how she wrote about a lump she found .  This is an update if you haven't been following her kick ass blog which you should as it is all sorts of kick ass. So why is this reason number 2? Well during this mess of appointments and tests and worry, her boyfriend David proposed to her beneath the Bay Bridge. I imagine I'll meet him one of these days and I will tell him that it was apparent to me that he was The One based on her blog and pictures. Also her smiles her dead giveaways. Then October gets better to hear that after her mastectomy Sonia hears that the cancer hasn't spread and that she now officially a cancer survivor.  Now today as I caught up on my blog reading I see that Sonia has been featured in i live here:SF with her San Francisco origin story plus a great collection of photos by the creator of the i live here: SF series. Please check it out! (Drawing by Sonia's fiancee.) (I wasn&

I'm bad at finishing things

The days have drifted down the stream of life so quickly it's easy for me to forget the moments that have defined me lately. A couple months ago I managed a quick rundown as to why October was the best month ever. Reason # 10 - the internet always win Reason # 9 Jury Duty - or a much needed day off work . Reason # 8: Fall in Los Angeles . Reasons # 7, 6 and 5 - I found the greatest object ever made by mankind Reason # 4 Halloween of course! Reason # 3 October Birthdays I think, well a number of things have made it alright to finish this finally and so I think I will.

Monday photos from Griffith Observatory

Image
Monday was spent at the plant in Santa Fe Springs dealing with our ERP system for work. On the phone was the head programmer in India controlling the mouse and windows projected onto the wall from oceans away. The rain was pouring here as much as anywhere else in the greater Los Angeles region and it would've been the same at my office south of Beverly Hills. The rain the internet, " the cloud " is all the same these days even for the vitamin company I work for; there was no reason that I couldn't be at my desk watching this and not 25 miles away. Not that I was complaining since I got home early enough to see the rain blink long enough for the sun to set. My go to place for these moments is the Griffith Observatory , mostly because I live a mile down the hill. It was wonderfully empty and wet. The view left to right: Downtown Los Angeles, Mid City, Hollywood, Century City, with the pacific Ocean in the background (Not the best stitching or photos) I

thanksgiving

Image
I meant to visit him this time, my decision firm even before the plane took off from Long Beach. Confirmed driving away from SFO north on 101, east on 24, the fog to my back and stopped at the Berkeley hills. My dad is dead, has been dead for almost twenty years and my visits stopped at the two, maybe three count. It's not that I don't think of him often. There's no ill feelings, no unsettled business. Always love and respect and fond memories in fact. Why not then, you might ask. For the same reason I cringe when old friends, at web length Facebook friends, state they listen to 80s music still; I've moved on. Regardless, I'll be where he is eventually - we'll have all the time in the world to catch up then. Now is for the living.

I'm back

Image
I'm back with a new LapCat laptop. Please ignore my farmer's tan and the bad florescent lighting. Damn I shouldn't have pointed out my whiteness. oh well.

not looking good

Image
So I've been dealing with crack screen for a few weeks, watching it slowly spread from the bottom right corner to what you see now. Without my hand pinching the screen all one would see is white snow. It's not really all that fun to use a computer like this so I just haven't as my lack of blog posts this month shows. Oh well I hope there will be some great Black Friday sales this weekend. You'll probably find me around 5 AM at the Frys Electronics in Concord (yup I'll be up in the Bay Area for 2.5 days) fighting the crowds. For now I'm going to continue this experiment of living IRL a bit longer. maybe I'll win the lottery too.

Guess where this guy was conceived

Image
Today my Co-worker mentioned in conversation that she used to watch this kid that drove her up the wall back when she was pregnant many years ago. There was nothing wrong with the kid of course but pretty much everything annoyed her during her pregnancy. Everyday she would watch the kid for her friend as a kind gesture. Everyday she resented this kid's existence. She feels bad about it now but when he asked to watch the Power Rangers she often denied him in favor of watching her favorites. Pregnancy was ugly on her. "Oh do you know the best part?" she asked and answered, "His parents named him Sheraton." "Like the hotel?" "Yeah the Sheraton Waikki. They went to Hawaii on their honeymoon." "Noooo. I call BS on this name!" "No really! I'm friends with him on Facebook. And there he was. Waikiki is spelled differently, but still wow.

swords and tigers and cheese

i'll leave it at that, afraid to lose myself to words again. over-thinking will be the end of me. (ha. this would make an amusing line on my gravestone) I'm sick and have strange dreams, plus too much on my mind to work through. right now. swords and tigers and cheese, indeed.

October: Best Month Ever - Reason # 4

Reason # 4 Halloween of course! I didn't do anything outstanding this year so I'll leave you with a clip from the Today Show filmed on Friday. If you're in hurry you can jump ahead and watch the last two minutes for the best stuff but it's all good. By the best stuff I mean drunk, groping Ewoks. Oh there's moonwalking too. vid link

October: The Best Month Ever - Reasons # 7, 6, and 5

Image
Ok I totally screwed myself over with this countdown of why this October has been the best month ever. Seriously, I should know better than to start a countdown at ten considering how inconsistently I blog these days. Oh well, for the combined reasons # 7, 6 and 5 and well worth it I might add: I found the greatest object ever made by mankind A ceramic bird sitting on a frog sitting on a bunny sitting on a turtle!! Which compliments my collection: The ceramic 3 Green Monkeys Holding A Basket on Their Heads, my stolen Lawn Gnome "Gnomey", and my Curious George Flashlight. Otherwise known to B as my collection of mostly monkey related crap that I try to pass off as table centerpieces.

October: The Best Month Ever - Reason # 8

Image
Reason # 8: Fall in Los Angeles. Make all the fun you want about LA's lack of seasons. That's ok, most of the residents seem to be happy enough about how it works out here.  The changes are mild, the days are nearly the same beautiful day after day.  No reason to stress about the weather, dude. For me I do miss the fog and rainy winters of the Bay Area sometimes but I feel like I traded up with our gusty winds and low 80 degree temperatures (give or take) until December. And yes we had some crazy winds this week. Right along the streets of my neighborhood are the pile remains of fallen palm tree fronds after our recent "wind storm". It's hard to tell that six piles lay beyond what you see here in this picture; around the corner on the street lined with those classic 50 foot tall Los Angeles palms their discarded, mangled fronds are piled 7 feet high. Just a lovely Autumn reminder that I'll be able to wear my thin scarf soon! I'll take thes

October: Best Month Ever - Reason # 9

Reason # 9 Jury Duty - or a much needed day off work. lorange I crave nothing more than have a day off from work. Weekends are helpful but I'm talking about a day where I can sit and write, listen to whatever tracks download onto the computer in hopes of grabbing that next inspirational wave. I need this time more than I would like to admit, fearful that this might come off as being a loner, antisocial, devaluing the relationships of my life. I see how that might come off. Have ever blown away the globular head off a dandelion, seeds drifting into a cool valley wind? If I'm not exposed to music or if the words stop coming it feels like I'm chasing down the seeds, seperating along with them. Along with love, friendship, and family*, these are seeds to my completeness. Sometimes a blank moment of time like jury duty does the trick perfectly. *which I'm blessed in spades **( robo.to badge might not be visible on rss (vid and text is not static and might

October: Best Month Ever - Reason # 3

Image
Reason # 3  October Birthdays Not only did I have a birthday making October my best month ever but my dear Becky is having hers today and so far October has been very good to her too  (this is called foreshadowing). There is a lot of things about her that makes me smile and the biggest is her ablity to make me laugh. Not an easy thing to do, let me tell you. It could be as simple as buying her new favorite giant hat. And /or wearing this giant thing all summer and then pulling out the perfect pose. Or pulling the less than perfect pose just to be as goofy. If I didn't know better I would say she was being just goofy when the dance moves pop out in the grocery store, walking down the street, or well anywhere, anytime.  That's just normal for her. She'll even climb through the cat tree to make me laugh. Yup,she is a keeper in my book. She is going to kill me for posting that last photo. Happy Birthday my love! [Yes this is countdown as to why October

October: Best Month Ever - Reason # 10

Reason # 10 - the internet always win I heard rumblings about this a while ago but this morning I noticed that Mashable posted about this crowd sourced project that was much further along than I realized. I love you internet. The Star Wars Uncut official trailer Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo . [Yes this is countdown as to why October is the best month ever for me. Your mileage might vary.]

me me me me

You might be a few months older or you might be 10 years younger than me like B is. I am now 37 today and I get to look back once again to where I've been, where I've gone. (not on this exact date obviously) 17 years ago I drove to Canada, spent one night, saw a hockey game and drove back 31 years ago I went to Guatemala for the Summer 30 years ago i went on a cross country trip to New York 14 years ago I was once married 7 years when my marriage ended for good 5 years ago my divorce was final (paperwork) too many years with too many crushes, some that inspired me, some I do regret 2 years ago I met B!! 12 years ago my first child was born 7 years my second child was born 35 years I went to Disneyland for the 1st time and I remember most of it 23 years ago I lost my virginity 20 years ago my father died of cancer 18 years ago I went bungee jumping 12 years ago I moved to LA County from the Bay Area 4 years ago I moved to the City of LA 23 years ago I had Chinese food for the f

it's just going take some time, that's all

I hit my limit last week. I work hard against the pull of the work drain and deal with the email suckage each morning at my place of employment. Each night is another night of little sleep. damn you thoughts. damn you unrealistic expectations. damn. like glucose film on your teeth no amount of tongue swabbing wipes them clean. like a mosquito's lingering welt, an unstainable itch that remains even in my dreams each night. Expectations have been tackling me. I'm dealing with them one by one - it's just going take some time, that's all. I understand why that kid would want to take off in a balloon

The Anters - Two

Image
Band: The Antlers Song:   Two -(I also recommend checking out the song Bear for your ipod) Why: I've lost time with this album. First disappearance: evening with a laptop, headphones and this album in the background. Second disappearance: my morning drive to work, this CD in the player. Tonight again, lost in thoughts of you asleep. this album does that for me. THE ANTLERS - Evolving from Peter Silberman's bedroom recordings to a fully realized band, for Brooklyn-based the Antlers, what started out as a solo lo-fi folk project, progressed quickly into a colossal-sounding chamber pop group. After self-recording a handful of albums in a kamikaze fashion, Silberman set forth to record his opus, Hospice, in July of 2007. Recorded over the course of almost two years, Hospice started out as another solo project before Silberman started incorporating other musicians, including drummer Michael Lerner and multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci, who eventually ended up as permanent members

little notes # 56

Image
The other day I saw a car that drove off the curb. 2 men were helping the older lady so I ate my sandwich and listened to NPR. Another day I thought maybe my friend had started pimping TOGO'S in his free time. today was a rough day at work today was a great day to eat a hamburger (comfort food for stressed filled days)

Sara Lov - Fountain

 I'm just getting into Sara Lov these days. This video makes it so easy. fountain fountain we are the same you with the water me with the pain turning it over again and again don’t you wish you could throw their pennies back at them?

where did summer go?

Image
A few months after I landed my current job I decided my first splurge was to be on season passes to Disneyland. Each year I toke my December born kids out to the parks as a combined birthday/Xmas present as I'm a firm believer in life experiences over material gifts.  Memories last forever, not so much whatever toy or gadget that is popular in the elementary/junior high set. Conveniently for me Disneyland now offers a monthly payment plan at 0% interest to SoCal residents so I had to jump on that.  Now we visit on random Sundays a few hour here, a few hours there never feeling the need to cram every ride in one day. While it is safe to say that I'm financially stable now, this wasn't true for most of this decade.  Those yearly trips were my way of evening out the playing field from the crazy and expensive gifts my Ex and her friends spoiled the kids with back then. I just couldn't complete with inflatable jumpers, computers, chinchillas and Nintendo DS ga

The New Fidelity has a free CD for you

Image
From the band's tweet from today: @thenewfidelity : Download our new CD All Here Now for Free for a limited time only! http://www.newfidelity.com I made it out again last week for another night of fun at Rob Z's little semi-monthly shindig at El Cid. Maybe you should have gone too because it was a great line up of bands. And if you know Rob Z (and you probably know him way better than I do in fact), then you know how he cherry picks great talent for these events. The New Fidelity made the night their CD Release show, packing the place with locals and bringing along quite a few Long Beach folks with them. They offer such a great, consistent sets of 60s/70s Brit-Pop inspired songs that get people up and dancing each time I catch them. I like what they bring to shows that I even tried to book them for big corporate party in Vegas a few years ago before my West Coast office was sadly closed down (and I was laid off). I highly recommend The New Fidelity if you're look

she's a rockstar blogger in my book

Image
It's not like I've been all depressed and shit for two weeks straight, moping about eyeglasses and dental insurance. I'm generally happy everyday but come to think of it... work has been incredibly stressful lately, like I don't want to be there anymore stressful, and my car's transmission looked liked it was totally screwed, and the TV I've carted around, since 1996 died in the middle of Ghosthunters , and the money I've been saving for some wonderful things in the future are now tagged for the car+TV, and then I ate too many almonds one day. ugh my stomach, and then it seemed I ran out of words again. Okay, so yeah I had a lot of things bringing me down, crimping my style, setting the dial on to funk the last couple weeks.  The over-sharing has been helpful here as a way to release some thoughts without burdening B who's nothing but patient with my moodiness. There's also been a few nights of fun mixed in, namely I finally met Ms Sizzle
Oh look, it's Jessica Dobson (aka Deep Sea Diver) playing with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs last night on Conan O'Brien. video clip no longer on hulu Wish I could go to the sold out show at the Greek tonight, especially since I live only a few blocks away. oh well.

all I wanted was a hamburger and a hug

Image
It's probably not normal to leave the dentist crying at this point in my life. Before I get into why I found myself sitting in my car all teary eyed, you have to understand a couple things: 1) While I'm known for giving good advice, I'm not very good at following any advice. 2) I have regrets for not adapting to changes in my life - that I do not do curve balls well. 3) I have this frustrated/sad look about me at times. I'll deny it but it is the look of utter disappointment / frustration in the current situation/myself and usually related to money issues. 4) Also this post is very long. When The Ex moved out and filed for separation she also took me off her insurance coverage which coincided with the company I worked for being sold and moved.  It was really a crappy time in my life with a commute increasing from 5 minutes to 50 minutes, my worth needed to proved to new owners, and oh yeah while that whole divorce process was happening. Years went by and I

Los Campesinos! @ The El Rey

Image
Damn I forgot to post this earlier. Last Friday a couple of weeks ago I won tickets to one of may favorite bands Los Campesinos through the generosity of LA metblogs. I had entered the ticket giveaway which asked for a link to my favorite picture of Wales where the band hailed from and the location of the image. A quick google image search led to many boring, non-specific to any part of Wales pictures so I went with the one subject I knew of in Wales in my comment: The only thing I can think of Wales related is Carol Smillie, the original host of Changing Rooms on BBC America (aka Trading Spaces in the US). She was way cute. I assume that this is not going to win me any Los Campesinos! tickets. Later that day the one and only Lucinda sent over a silly email informing me that I merely won because there were only two entries (including mine) and two prizes so that's an automatic win for me!   So I took Corey of course and spent the whole time outside during the opening

At least she was honest and I like honesty

I now own my first new pair of glasses in 7 years.  Nothing fancy, just some thick frames branded by Converse (a bargain at $60 @ costco btw) that are just a bit trendy in a year 2003 sort of way. The old pair were whispery metal frames, sleek like thread that spoke to my imagined greater intelligence if not a little snobbishness, these new ones are obnoxious in comparison . Despite the 7 year lapse between examinations my prescription is still so minor these glasses are merely helpful but not necessary for driving an automobile or listening to poetry or making flan for dessert or even writing a blog post. No, because my eyes wear down quickly in this visual affair with all things web I wear them all day and more importantly they make my pumpkin head look, well better. Yes, on some level I do care about how people view me. So I started the past work week with the new glasses on, walking straight into the department I share with five other people as if nothing was different. T

The xx

So Corey asked what is the current buzzband and based on other blogs and reviews The xx is definitely on the short list this week. I've been listening to new album by The xx on my commute for a few days now and while sparse, the songs do make up a solid good first album. This would be a CD for long drawn out trips or relationships; I found myself day dreaming to this as a soundtrack, wanting to grow from this album into a stronger second disc that would better complete me. 3.75 out of 5 loranges. 4 on a good day.** The xx - Crystalised The xx - Basic Space ** I don't do proper reviews - this lorange numbering system is somewhat meaningless. Though if I like you/your band I will blog about you all the time.

Documenting the documentaries of the other LA music scene

People were chatting last week on the local music blogs about a cool documentary on the bands, clubs and people of the Silver Lake / Echo Park area called East of Sunset . Before moving to Southern California in the late 90s, I like many only knew of the glory days of the Sunset Strip; East of Sunset hopes to change that perception that still exists even within our own city limits. Here's the trailer: Very cool stuff and great for the bands included in this movie but this area has been a hotbed of activity for a long time so I wanted to highlight a couple documentaries of the lesser known slices of the same music scene: Live at the Smell Documentary ( LA Weekly article ) For over 10 year this downtown club has been serving the underground and the up and coming of LA music. "Live At The Smell" Trailer from Adam Cornelius on Vimeo And of course something close to my heart, the Kiss or Kill club of great people and bands that ran from 2002-2007 at Mr T

the weekend was smoky (duh)

Image
As we all know by now the air quality blows and as the Station Fires burn nearby my weekend was all about watching movies with the air conditioning on 24/7. This was early Saturday taken from the Glendale Galleria parking garage @ 5 miles from my place. It looked quite ominous on this morning and the cloud of smoke only grew bigger from this point on.  Thankfully without the winds the fire went straight up which made the air quality only moderately bad vs. scary bad.   Besides movies we also wasted time indoors making our own pizza dough. This one isn't mine as I actually like pizza that doesn't give me a complex before eating it. We had imagined desserts on Planet Sprinkle. Come Sunday afternoon we had left the apartment only once for Target - cabin fever was starting to spread so we went to the only place that can cure all ills: It was only for a few hours but yeah, it did help a lot with our sanity.