The further adventures of an earthbound alien

Lately I have been doing something that people rarely do in this town.
I walk.
Since J and the girls hit town our one car doesn’t seem to be available as much. Naturally when work time rolls around and I have to get going, I don’t want to wait around for three girls to get ready to drop me off. You all know how long it takes one girl to get ready, right? Now multiply by three. It’s just easier to walk.
Here’s something I would never have seen from the car:

The other interesting new situation is the four of us living in a two-bedroom apartment. I thought I might freak out, maybe discover that I’m claustrophobic or something, but so far, so good. I guess we didn’t need all those extra rooms full of stuff. I am envious of people with yards. Even that little yard of ours in Michigan looks good now. Oh well, I guess if we ever get house fever out here we could always just take a million dollars up into the hills. …Like you do.

I suppose this is the time of year to reflect. How was the year? How did we do financially? How many apartments did I move into this year? How many countries did I visit, how many states did I pass through? How many months have I been deprived of my families company? God I feel like I’ve been on tour with Willie Nelson. (And not just because the couch is covered with long grey hair and smells like smoke.)
Well, I suppose I could give a really high number to all those questions but I won’t. Because, as I have said before, who really cares?

OK, so maybe just one answer; almost six months. I’ve spent almost half the year without my family. Anyway, the lingering separation has come to a close for the year and it won’t be like this next year. The show that I’m on should be good for another year and who knows what could happen in that time.
I DO! That’s who. This is going to be the year of big things. I’m not talking about moving around more. And I’m not talking about a big thing, like a really big car. I’m talking about big career things for both Jen and I.

Yes, we are going to start a trapeze act! It’s great exercise and you hardly ever die. After all, how many dead trapeze guys do you know? None! That’s who. And Karl Wallenda doesn’t count. He was part of a high wire act. Big difference. You’d have to be crazy to do that.

The nice thing about a blog is that I know what I did. I can look up what I was thinking and how I felt in mind numbing detail. I wonder how long that will all be up. Does anyone one know how I can save it? Maybe print it so I can look at it when I’m old and really board because the trapeze act didn’t work out. Since we all have a couple days off maybe someone could just tell me how to do it, like the advice I got about the whole Quicktime key thing. Or all the good advice I got about how to avoid chaffing. I love you guys, man.

And so, happy Christmas! (…to all of you who do that sort of thing) A special shout out goes to my Jewish friends. Have a good time with all the candle lighting and door opening. To all my friends of other religions, thanks for keeping the beer store open on Christmas day! And next time you tell me what religion you are I promises I’ll try to listen this time. And a prosperous New Year to everyone especially to my South East Asian and Chinese friends who have managed to roll that whole new year thing into an entire week off. Well done, there lads! Enjoy the endless succession of lion and dragon dances. To my agnostic friends, enjoy the holidays, I think. To all of my android friends, may you continue to function within normal parameters. And to bugs everywhere, just stay away from me and I think we’ll both do OK this year.

As my time becomes more occupied with thing like moving, living and making money I find that there’s less time to sit down and be clever. One thing I know about me is that I will loose interest. I do that. Sorry fan! That’s one reason I never got a tattoo. How silly would it be to have a hastily scrawled “Kiss Army” tat peeking out from under my increasingly shrinking t-shirt. I feel the blog trend slipping away. But, on the other hand, I’ll always need a forum for smart-assedness. So until some other vehicle for expression pops up, stay close.
I suppose if I really went anywhere or did anything other than work, I’d have something to write about. As it is I’m 10 – 11 hours working for you-know-who doing something I can’t really say, and that type of situation makes for pretty dull reading.
Dear Blog,
Today I ******* ***** ***************** the ****** with a huge **********. And we all had a good laugh.
I suppose I could just show some pictures. That would be OK.

Here, “D” and “S” use valuable time trying to decide who’s got the bigger phone.

And here, “W” checks EFX notes on a show while “D”, cheats on his own child with “baby R”.

The season provided a few Christmas parties, one at you-know-what Land with you-know-who mouse, one in Hollywood, and one was here in Burbank. The Burbank party was the Animation Union party. Pretty flat footed as far as zing but I knew a lot of people there. All in all, pretty union. I noticed a pretty strong resentful undercurrent in the room. Mostly about how unfair the animation business had become and about how shows are being produced cheaper and about how the new younger kids are coming in and underbidding all of the older guys and about how it’s not like the old days when everything was… Sigh! Ironically, I went to the union Christmas party about 10 years ago, when the animation biz was at the top of it’s game; the lion king had driven everyone’s price up, Deramworks was gutting the Disney staff for their own evil intentions and, as director on Beavers, I was sending to places like, Canada and Wisconsin to find people to work on my show. At that party the mood was… Mostly about how unfair the animation business had become and about how shows were being produced cheaper and about how the new younger kids were coming in and underbidding all of the older guys and about how it’s wasn’t like the old days when everything was… Sigh!
The other party was the ABC party at the Cabana club in Hollywood. Now, that was a schnazzy party. Everyone was dresses up and ready for a night on the town. But, like all parties (I suppose) everyone clicked up and didn’t talk to outsiders. Both Disney and ABC (who are now joined at the hip) have a million divisions each; legal, on-line, programming, army of the living dead fabrication division, and so on. So, I made it a point to wander into a group of strangers and mingle. I met some pretty nice people. At first they looked at me like I was after something. Some of them instinctively protected their plate of food, like a convict. But after a while, I got to know more about regular people’s jobs. One guy was the on-line guy. And of all the on-line guys that I have met over the past year he was by far the least annoying.
The party at the park was loads of fun. Several happy holiday influenced (among other things) friends, all hooting up a storm on some newly revised rides and a few old favorites. By the way, “Star Tours” as far as I’m concerned, the joke’s over, man! As it turns out, the video/film adventure rides don’t hold up anymore. There’s nothing like the good old fashioned, hold on to your ass rollercoaster.
I also was invited to go to the Lion King stage show. If you want to see the most over hyped piece of theater and you happen to be really high, I say go for it. I won’t get into details because I don’t want to insult the people who took me. It was a really nice gesture on their part, and I’m glad I went. But, wow. You know how everyone says, “the costumes were really great”? I should have known. It’s like the guy who’s trying to set you up with his cousin saying, “She has a nice personality.” Or more specifically, “She has some really clever outfits.”