Los Angeles is going well so far. Noot has unpacked more in two days than I would have in a week. The subway has been pretty excellent. Tomorrow I’ll see if the 720 bus is all that it’s cracked up to be. Getting back to the apartment — totally got lucky here. It’s much bigger and better than the model I saw a few months ago. There’s actually a bit too much space and I need to figure out what to do with it. That’s not a bad problem to have. Yeah, I still have a lot of stuff that I’m worrying about, but I the sense of adventure is totally kicking in. I am, after all, an dumb 15-year old at heart.

Anyway, here are some pictures of how the apartment has progressed in a few days.

So this is my last night as a San Francisco resident. My original plan was to move this week, but a few wrenches were thrown in the works and I thought I’d have to delay until next week. I was mentally prepared to move next week, but a few things fell into place and I’m moving as originally planned.

In a lot of ways, this is better. I have less time to brood about stupid work things (accounts payable, health insurance) and I have no time to get sad. Today was a bit of a mad dash — turning on utilities, getting a cashier’s check, changing address, buying plane tickets, etc. It’s good that I was so busy. Otherwise I’d start thinking about all the people, places, and things I’ll miss about San Francisco.

I really suck at saying goodbye. There are lots of people I wanted to see before I left, but it would have made leaving a more…difficult experience. Certainly I would have loved to have seen Rannie. I wish she was there for my farewell dinner with Kit and Kenny. I’ll miss both of those  guys a ton. I’ve been living with Kit for over five years. There’s a lot I’ve learned from him, some of which I’ve integrated (or tried) into my personality. I admire the way he shows his emotions — he’s rarely difficult to read. Too often in the past I’ve tried to hide things or make people think I was feeling another way, simply to satisfy them. With Kit, I’ve learned that it’s perfectly fine to feel the way you feel without feeling exposed or embarrassed or overly concerned with how others will react. Kenny and I have had some great adventures in Thailand and America. He’s truly one of the sweetest and most generous people I’ve ever met. He’s been incredible to Noot and made her transition to Western life exponentially easier.

It’s going to be tough for Noot in Los Angeles. Without people like Kit andKenny around, I worry about her being lonely or having difficulty with simple things. I won’t be working from home anymore and I’ll have a short commute every day. The first month (maybe two?) I’ll be worrying way too much about her. I know she’ll adapt quickly, but I worry about her making friends. She has some really good friends in San Francisco and it’s a shame that she’s leaving them behind for a city where she doesn’t really know anyone, aside from a few of my friends that she’s met once or twice. I hope she makes her own friends quickly. I really worry about being away on business; in SF, Kit and Kenny were around if anything happened. I worry about Noot being alone in LA.

Los Angeles should be good in most ways. Even though I’m getting screwed with health insurance (admittedly through a stupid mistake of my own), it’s good to have steady work, benefits, and all that. The warmer weather will be great too and it’ll be fun learning a new city with Noot.

[Break: Just spent a few hours drinking a bottle of champagne with Kit.]

Okay, the champagne and enjoyable conversation made me forget about the rest of my thoughts. Also, I need to do a bit of work before heading to the airport. Bye bye!

…really sucked.

1) Can’t get a hold of the movers. They’re supposed to come tomorrow. When? I have no idea. I really hope things didn’t get messed up with that.

2) My deposit check us MIA. I sent it via UPS on Wednesday. It was supposed to arrive on Friday. UPS is trying to locate it.

3) My health insurance situation is way expensive. Apparently the rates went up after I received my initial literature and I didn’t notice this when I was signing up online. Now I’m stuck paying over $250 a week for health insurance. Yes, it’s better to have it than not, but had I know the rates would be so ridiculously high, I would have opted for a private plan. F you Spherion and Aetna.

As expected, my THQ-sponsored WrestleMania trip was awesome. I had a brilliant time hanging out with the boys, attending the hall of fame ceremony, interviewing WWE Superstars / Divas / Legends, and watching WrestleMania. Here are some thoughts and highlights in no particular order.

- I got to interview \”Rowdy\” Roddy Piper, Sergeant Slaughter, JTG, Tommy Dreamer, Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin, and Eve during the Superstar Challenge. Meeting legends like Piper and Slaughter was just completely frickin\’ awesome, but the highlight of the night was catching up with Shelton. I was shocked that he remembered me from previous interviews. The footage probably wasn\’t the best from the night, but it ended up being a fun spot that looked like two buddies catching up.

- Prior to the hall of fame ceremony, I interviewed Ted DiBiase, Mickie James, Beth Phoenix, and Mr. Kennedy (Kennedy). My interview with Ken was a little weak and I was disappointed I couldn\’t do more with the time. The boys said he was drunk, so maybe that explains it. DiBiase is a legend, but he was sweating during the interview and I kept worrying about the shot. My spot with Mickie was totally fun. She gave me a big hug towards the end of the interview and it totally caught me off guard. Clearly she has a crush on me.

- The hall of fame ceremony itself was pretty cool. I was huge on Steamboat and Kerry Von Erich. I loathed Terry Funk as a kid (a testament to how great a heel he was) but came to love his work in ECW. Austin was phenomenal and a huge part of why WWE overtook WCW. That said, it wasn\’t as enjoyable as last year\’s ceremony. The emotion behind Flair\’s induction was tremendous and The Rock did a masterful job at warming up the crowd. This year, it felt overproduced and too constrained by TV time. I wish Austin had more time to talk about his career, particularly the early days, training with Chris Adams, winning minor titles in WCW, and finding his voice in ECW. It\’s just a shame that a portion of the event is live. I\’d love to hear these great stories from these legendary wrestlers.

- It was great fun working with Joel again. I miss hanging and working with him from my Yahoo! Reset days. It was cool to be working with a shooter that I have a vibe with. My best stuff has always been with shooters that I know and like. I don\’t have to worry about the shot or anything. I just try to entertain myself and the shooter — the results are usually pretty good. Plus, I know Joel is an awesome editor and will come up with great stuff. It was cool taking him to his first WrestleMania event. Hopefully our project turns some heads at work.

- Naturally, hanging out with the boys made the trip an absolute blase. I didn\’t get to hang with Justin much, since he kept riding in the jobber bus while I was with the other headliners. Wasting time with Jose, Geoff, and Joey was a total trip. It was cool seeing Willy and Scully — guys I only see at WrestleMania. Jaime was an excellent babysitter and put up with our excessive impersonations of \”Stone Cold\”, Chris Jericho, Geoff Keighley, and more. It was the most fun I\’ve had on the road in a long, long time, but at the end of the day I still missed being home with Noot. Funny how that goes.

- The ending didn’t really work for me. It was logical and all, but…meh. Even though more people died in the udpated ending, I don’t think it had as much as an impact as the original.

- The costumes were totally cool. I really loved the modernized Nite Owl costume. A lot of people complained about Veidt’s outfit, but I liked it. Laurie’s was sexy too. It doesn’t count as a costume, but I guess it’s a nice thing that Manhattan’s dong got bigger. I’m sure he feels better about it.

- Christian pointed out that the movie did a poor job at conveying how huge Veidt’s company was. It had its hands in everything…almost like a Daewoo. I remember going to a late ’90s CES and being shocked at the variety of Daewoo products at its booth: cars, electronics, guns, sporting goods, etc. Veidt Industries was just like that.

Christian, Noot, and I saw Watchmen. It was enjoyable, but there was a lot missing. I’m still not sure who this movie is for. Fans of the book will notice the numerous omissions required to get the movie at 2:41. A lot of the movies subtleties were also killed…I guess that’s what bugged me the most — a lot of things were dealt with in a ham-fisted way. Hopefully it inspires some people to pick up the graphic novel so they can see what an awesome work it is.

Now for some spoilerificness!

Some of the scenes were changed from subtle to in-your-face. Did people really need Dr. Manhattan to tell them that Blake was Laurie’s father? In Rorschach’s big transformation scene, did it need to be said that the murderer killed the little girl? I’m not sure what’s sadder — the fact that Snyder felt that people needed to be told outright or that some people need to be told out right. Ugh.

“So impotent.” and “I did it!” Five words that were not in the movie, taken from two powerful panels in the book.

Ozymandias was all wrong. I always felt that the actor was too young, but he also had this crap accent. If that’s the way Snyder wanted to go then he should have went full on and gotten Christopher Lambert (not really). I also agree with my friend Dan in thinking that Ozy’s portrayal was way off. You never got the sense that he cared about the world so much that he was willing to kill millions in order to save. Christian pointed out that he came off as petty, which is absolutely true.

Dr. Manhattan worked way better than I thought he would. He’s a very difficult character to make interesting in a movie. Snyder totally pulled this off.

Rorschach was awesome, but some of my favorite scenes and subtleties were absent. Kelly Leak really was the best choice for this role. It’s one of those performances where I can’t think of anyone that could’ve done a better job. Very cool. Younger moviegoers will love him. Hopefully they read the book for his full awesomeness.

Patrick Wilson did a fine job at portraying Nite Owl as a broken and lost man. Aside from the lack of weight, he was a perfect Dan. The costume really transformed him and made him heroic.

Laurie wasn’t as bad as I’ve read. Out of all the main characters, she had the most material cut and it showed. Still, she didn’t bother me. She was just kind of there.

The Comedian was pretty perfect, even more than Rorschach. I guess those two performances were the truest.

I was surprised at how entertaining the action was. I wasn’t expecting much, but the fight scenes were brutal and fun.

In the end, I’m happy that I saw the movie and I’m happy that it exists. I’m curious to see the blu-ray release with the added scenes and the Black Freighter stuff. I still don’t know who this movie is for though. It’ll confuse the crap out of newcomers, while those familiar with the source material have plenty to complain about.

So I did some video interviews at DICE 2009. I haven’t done on-camera work in almost a year, and even that was my only shoot in like two years. Some of the stuff was good, some of it was rough…it definitely took a little time getting a vibe with a new shooter. He was great, but it’s not like I’m professional talent.

Anyway, here’s a rundown of my videos:

Good Stuff

Chris Taylor

Todd Hollenshead

Pete Wanat

Okay Stuff

Used Games Package

Bruce Shelley

Joseph Olin

Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka

David Perry

Economic Challenges Package

Developers Most Wanted in 2009 Package

Stuff I Bombed

Todd Howard

Brian Raffel

Here’s my best interview from DICE 2009. I haven’t done video in like a year and a half, so I’m pretty rusty, but Chris really helps me out here. It’s definitely long, but the last 20 seconds or so made my day. Chris Taylor FTW!!!

Here are a bunch of pics I snapped during Christmas in Vegas 2008. I’ll put a few of my favorite here.

I had a wonderful family vacation in Las Vegas. It was great spending time with my parents and Reggie. Noot really enjoyed her first Vegas vacation too. It was just excellent being with my family, not worrying about work, not worrying about money, being unplugged from my computer, and all that good stuff. This was probably the least stressful family vacation we’ve had in a while. It looks like the key to a stress free vacation is gambling. Ha!

Mom and Dad lost a bunch of money on slots. Reggie lost a little. Noot caught the gambling bug a bit. She won $70 on her first night on penny slots. For her, that’s a lot of money. She went up and down the rest of the trip. At the end, she was probably even. I only played video poker (9/6 Jacks or Better) at The Palms. I was surprised that my game was a sharp as it was. I made a few mistakes, but my play was 99% spot on. I played about five hours and won $60. I also got a little over $20 in comps.

My parents racked up a ton of comps. They had over $80 in comps and $60 cash back at The Tropicana. They also won Noot and me a free dinner at Treasure Island. Getting back to the Trop — it’s not that bad. The rooms are old, but they had a nice variety of machines and a 24-hour indoor pool/hot tub. The coffee shop was surprisingly good and the prices were very reasonable. It’s not the nicest place on the strip, but it’s very comfortable.

I really want to take my parents on a nice Vegas vacation. I was able to take my mom on a nice holiday a few years ago. Hopefully this job pans out and stabilizes my finances. It would mean a lot to me to be able to give them a nice holiday. I’d love to put them up in a nice hotel and pay for several fancy dinners. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that soon. Not to be morbid, but I realize that we don’t have a ton of time left together and I’d like to be able to do this for them while everyone is still healthy.

Oh yeah, my Dad has become quite the gambler. It used to be that he’d play a little bit and let my Mom go crazy on slots. I think he spent more than her this time around.

At the end of the trip we got to catch up with P Andy and Mod. Andy brought some excellent wines that we shared in his room at The Wynn. We weren’t able to do too much, since Mod is still 19. We also got to see Rob and Laurene for a bit. It was great seeing them both. Playing video poker with Rob reminded me of old times — we went to Vegas a lot when we lived together.

Since my parents and brother got me a lot of points on my MGM-Mirage card and we all got points on my Club Palms card, I’ll probably be getting some pretty sweet offers in the near future. If (probably when) I get a free room offer, I definitely want to take Noot to a show and the spa.

I still miss that Luxor spa being 24 hours. I also miss the Ellis Island steak special being $5.95. At $7.95, it’s still a pretty good deal.

So it’s back to reality now. First order of business: finding out where the hell all my freelance checks are!