Live from Los Angeles

So, I signed up for this blog like two weeks ago, inspired in part by this entry from Jessica Mae Stover, the most awesome ninja in town. I guess it's about damn time I start posting in it, eh? What can I say, I'm a classic procrastinator.

Here's a little bit about me:

I picked the title because I live in the greater Los Angeles area (duh - what can I say, I'm boring). It's a pretty new experience for me, being originally from Texas, directly from Austin. Sometimes I miss Austin quite a lot, but more often than not, I don't. There's just so much shit to do in LA that it's impossible to yearn too long for something else. This very large city is definitely not the greatest place in the world and has a lot of crap contained within it, but it's become my home over the past year and a half. So it'll do just fine. I will share my perspective on it from time to time.

I picked the color because I graduated from the University of Texas (BA in Archaeological Studies, class of 2000) and in so doing, became very fond of that lovely burnt orange color. Hook 'em.

I hardly know any HTML - and can't afford a webmaster - so there's nothing fancy about this layout. We'll see if I ever get inspired enough to want to change it.

I found out about Flickr about 5 months ago and finally decided to start using it. I took the big plunge and went Pro - here's my Flickr photo album (also linked to the left). Not much in there yet - we'll see how that goes. Like I mentioned, I'm a horrible procrastinator - I always have great ideas for stuff (well, great in MY head anyway), but I seem to let them fizzle more often than not. Maybe this whole blogging thing will keep me going.

I work for Sideshow Collectibles. This automatically signifies that I am a geek. It's cool, I've learned to accept that part of myself. It also means that I will geek out occasionally - okay, more like frequently. For instance, this week is the San Diego International Comic Con. I will be working the Sideshow booth from Wednesday night through Sunday. And I'll hopefully do some live blogging and updating my Flickr photos. It'll be fun, I promise. Why don't you believe me? Gooooosh

I spend most of my so-called free time babysitting for this kid:



That's Alex. Alexandra Jade West to be exact. She's 2 and is quite possibly the greatest kid on the planet. She's the daughter of Adriana West, my older sister's best friend from high school. Last year when my sister was visiting, we happened to discover that we live 10 minutes from each other, which is a pretty big deal when living in a city the size of LA. I also discovered that she and her husband, Jason, hadn't been on a date in 15 MONTHS (ie: since Alex had been born) because Adriana doesn't trust any of the LA natives with her kid. Thus, I became the nanny. And I love it. There's nothing like taking care of a child to make you realize the important things in life. Things like learning to hold your breath long enough to change the diaper, making sure the knives are out of reach, and practicing the fine art of tuning out the "Heeya go. Heeya go! HEEYA GO! HEEYA GO!! HEEYA GO!!!!" repeated over and over and over and over from the back seat until you take the damn cup already!!!!!11!!!!1!!!!1

Which reminds me, Adriana sure could use a good dose of Heather B. Armstrong in her life. I'll have to send her the link. I'm sure she will be able to commiserate with Heather on the finer points of poop crises.

Speaking of Dooce, that's one of the other blogs, other than Teh Awesome blog of J. Sto, that has inspired me to join the "blogosphere" (I swear I won't use that word again). Here are a few more (also linked on the side):

Magazine Man's Somewhere on the Masthead. Quite possibly my favorite blog out there. He really sucked me in with his tale of introducing The Brownie to the Foxhole, and I continuously find myself in awe of his writing. I only wish I knew who he was so that I could buy his books. Oh well, a bit of a mystery is sometimes good...

Shane Nickerson's Nickerblog. I like his unique take on LA and the life of a Hollywood "insider" - whatever that is. Plus he's a great writer and takes interesting photos. And he was the one who introduced me to Magazine Man - I wonder how Shane found Mr. Man in the first place? Oh, and he vlogs, which is just really very brave of him. I admire that...

Wil Wheaton's WilWheaton.Net (aka WWdN). I couldn't call myself a blogger if I didn't mention Wil. He's the man...

Tony Pierce's busblog. Again, wouldn't be a blogger if I didn't mention Tony. Although his lack of caps gets on my nerves sometimes. Depends on the kind of day I'm having...

Metroblogging's blogging.la. It keeps me in tune with this city I now call home. Oh shit! I totally missed the LA bloggers get-together thingy tonight, which I 100% meant to go to, now that I'm finally making my first post. Oh well, life gets in the way... guess I'm not so in tune after all, eh?

I'm sure there are more. I'll have to mention them as I think of them. And add them to my links. I'm too lazy to check my newsreader at the moment.

I'll post about my, shall we say unique, Independence Day experience on the top of the bluffs in Pacific Palisades tomorrow. And then Wednesday will start my Comic Con coverage... joy!