The Rebirth of Blog (Cool Like Dat)

I wish I had a good excuse as to why I haven't been blogging. Here's what I've been doing instead of blogging-

-Writing. I'd love to tell you that I've been so busy working on my latest big brag-worthy project... but I'd be lying. My days have been spent writing stuff, but all stuff on spec - nothing that I'm getting paid for. Some animated series pitches, a couple sitcom pilots, a pair of graphic novels. Chances are that none of these things will lead to anything, but I have to put in the work.

Besides, who knows for how long I'm going to have this free time? I'm confident that before I know it I'll be working and up against another deadline, and then I'll be wishing I'd gotten more work done on my spec stuff. And now that I said that aloud, I'm sure I just jinxed myself to six more weeks of unemployment.

-Eating with other writers. I'd apologize for gratuitously name dropping my friends. Then again, if they didn't want to be name dropped, they should've done a better job avoiding me.

Went to the Grand Lux Cafe with John Rogers and Scott Murphy, where we discussed such weighty topics as television and comic books (John's Blue Beetle #1 is out now).

Also went to an amazing sushi place in Little Tokyo with Rob Hoegee. If you're a sushi fan, I highly recommend big-eye tuna - it's the flavor equivalent of some sort of genetically advanced SUPER TUNA. And the less English your chef can speak, the better the sushi.

Went to Barney Greengrass with Gregory Storm. Gregory had heard on NPR that this place was somehow the "hot" spot for Hollywood types. Sure enough, it's in a building right across the street from UTA. Spotted a couple celebrities, chatted with a manager and a writer/actress at the table next to us, and with a former Gersh agent-turned-producer and an entertainment lawyer on the other side. I'd recommend the place, except you should know that they charge you full price for drink refills. There was something wrong about paying the bill and seeing that our lemonade and diet coke cost more than the sandwiches.

-Breaking my electronics. My iPod broke - the hard drive started giving me wacky errors. So I took out the "non-scratch" tools and got the case open - and only gave myself three bleeding scratches and lacerations in the process. Turns out that the brand new battery I put into it a few months ago? It's defective - it's swollen up like a giant balloon, which put pressure on the hard drive, and broke my iPod. So I'm sending back the defective battery - and I'm looking around Ebay for iPod parts.

Then my cell phone gave me fits with dropping calls. Finally, it started dropping ALL calls. Did some research and troubleshooting and discovered that the battery is dead. I ordered a new one, which was supposed to arrive last week, but the good people at batteries.com FORGOT to ship it. It sat in their warehouse all week until I asked what happened. Hopefully they ship it this time. In the meantime, my cell phone only works if it's plugged in. So much for MOBILE phone, huh?

-Crying. The Los Angeles Kings are going to miss the playoffs for the third straight year. Another spectacular flame out again this year - two months ago they were chasing the Detroit Red Wings for first overall in the conference, now they're crashing and burning into eleventh place. Thankfully the misery ends this Saturday night.

I don't think I'm going to renew my season tickets for next year. I love going to games, but it was hard for me to scrape the money together for tickets this year. Even if I had a sudden influx of money, I don't think there's any way I'll put myself through this again.

Can't wait to see playoff hockey, but it sure would be nice if my favorite team was in it every now and then. Don't know who I'm rooting for. Maybe the Ottawa Senators, Philadelphia Flyers, and whoever's playing against the Mighty Ducks. Then again, I might just be a Colorado fan for the next few months and hope Ian Lapperiere gets to hoist the Stanley Cup.

-Pondering the Fragile Balance Between Man, Nature, and the Nature of Man. Just kidding. It's me we're talking about. The deepest thing I've ever pondered is my innie belly-button.

-Watching TV. Right now, there're only three shows that are can't-miss tv for me - Scrubs, the Simpsons, and the Office. Lots of shows that I like and try to catch as much as possible, but those are the only three that I force the Tivo to save until I've watched it. Scrubs is still chugging along at a frenetic yet-touching pace. The Simpsons has refound its magic this season - if you gave up on it the last few years, you should dig in. The most recent "Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore" episode about outsourcing to India was inspired. And the second season of the Office has been brilliant. Just thinking about Dwight Schrute's salesman speech gives me the giggles.

Okay - I have a fish tank that needs cleaning. Cleaning the fish tank and blogging have been the two things I've been putting off for the past few weeks. Once I'm done, I can go back to pondering...