zrath

Awright, we're gonna do it like this...

Sibling update: he got his last dose of chemo last week. He complains of being unfocused and weak,
but his "unfocused and weak" is other people's "alert and caffeinated". So, still ass-kicking.
The next step is surgery, then radiation therapy, if I understood his mumbling correctly.
Surgery is slated for early November. Doctors say the chemo really shrank the tumor.
So hopefully they won't have to pull a "Merchant Of Venice" on him and remove a whole pound of flesh.
Fingers crossed, knocking on wood, it's worked so far but we're not out of this yet.

We're migrating our ZedProd site to a new webhost, one that's space-aged and tweak-friendly.
My uberWebmeister Spino is delighted by this new gadget-filled webhost. Also, this one answers e-mails.
We can host multiple sites, so we're probably gonna move our other sites here.

Last Saturday was a lot of fun, so it started off in a rather low-key and no big deal sort of way.
I wanted to get out of the house, but everyone was busy. So I decided to bus into the San Fernando Valley,
to go to the LASFS Clubhouse and attend their monthly "Cinemanime" meeting.

gizmo was going to be there, so I had contacted him and made sure he could pick me up in Sherman Oaks
and take me the rest of the way to North Hollywood, home of LASFS.
So I hopped on the first bus, and got off in Westwood Village to a) have some lunch and b) grab my other bus.
Catty-corner from the bus stop was an Ono Hawaiian BBQ joint, and when I saw it, I knew I had found my
place of lunch. One night, a visiting producer from SCEA Redwood City had bought everyone in Naughty Dog
QA dinner from Ono's and we had all liked it. And the firemen currently eating at Ono's looked pleased.
Except for that one guy who was sulking in the big-ladder truck...
So, lunch at Ono's. I had the chicken katsu plate special. It came with lots of rice and macaroni salad.
I never thought macaroni salad could taste so good and so fresh, but there you are.
I hopped on the second bus and proceeded Valleyward.
Normally, this bus gets on the 405 to go through the Sepulveda pass, but the route was changed, and it now
takes Sepulveda Blvd. all the way through. I got a little woozy on the downhill side (it's twisty!).
I reached my destination in a timely fashion and payphoned El Gizmo.
He showed up promptly and took me back to LASFS.
I said hi to Fred Patten, whom I hadn't seen since he had his stroke. He seemed relatively okay.
Aside from him and Gizmo, there wasn't really anyone I knew. I was hoping my friend Tadao would have been
there, but he wasn't. So I parked my butt in a chair and watched some anime.
I saw the first two (I think) episodes of "Bleach", two trailers for the weirdest most bizarre adaptation
of an Alexandre Dumas work I have ever seen ("Count Of Monte Christo" with retro-70s fashion and computer
fill patterns on people's clothing, not to mention spaceships and bishonen galore!), the first two
episodes of the mind-destroying "Azumanga Daioh" (could their eyes be any BIGGER!?!!??), and part of an
episode from the Slayers sequel series. Then Tadao showed up! Yea!!
We retired to another section of the LASFS Clubhouse and chatted while he played some casual computer games.
His cellphone rang at one point, and during the conversation, I heard him say "Gizmo is here. Zrath is here too."
This piqued my interest. After he hung up, I asked him if that was anyone I knew.
He looked at me, deadpan, and said, "Spino".
I chuckled at that and replied, "Nah, that wasn't Spino. You're putting me on."
He grinned faintly and said, "Nah, that wasn't Spino."
And we started chatting again. Actually, I mostly watched him play that Montezuma whatever game where you
shoot the colored balls to make them go away.
About 5 minutes later, Sweetie (aka Spino's girl) walked in.
Spino showed up shortly after that.
That Tadao, what a kidder!
This was way-cool though! I totally didn't expect them to show up!
And I hadn't seen them in months! Talked on the phone and e-mailed, yeah, but physically seen? No way!
I was even happier when they told me that Mario was on his way over.
Mario is a professional animator who worked for Nickelodeon and various other places.
He was on the "The Angry Beavers" cartoon, and he's got the stuffed beavers to prove it! (Grin)
He's also a terribly funny guy and a blast to hang out with. I had heard he had moved to Dallas to work
on some new animated project, and he was apparently back in L.A. to grab the last of his stuff.
As soon as he showed up, we hoped in his spacious rental Avalon and went to dinner together:
Mario, Spino, Sweetie, Tadao and me. We went to Universal Citywalk first, to handle a Mario errand,
and decided against dinner there. Too crowded, too long a wait.
We drove along Cahuenga/Ventura and eventually wound up at The Sportmen's Lodge, the kind of place
Frankie or Dean might have frequented back in the day. We wanted some of that old-school ambience.
We had some great food and a few cocktails. Chocolate Cake Martini = YUM!!!
Mario had the house specialty: buffalo steak. It's like a buffalo filet mignon. He insisted on giving
everyone a piece. It was really really really good! I had something a bit more pedestrian: stuffed chicken
breasts with goat cheese and shallots in a peppercorn sauce (similar to one used for "steak au poivre").
Goat cheese, by the way, is delicious. It's like super-yummy feta, and not nearly as dry.
Go to Trader Joe's and get yourself a goat cheese log and some nice crusty bread. Hmmm-mmmm!!!
So after this sumptuous meal, we went back to LASFS to return Tadao and Spino/Sweetie to their vehicles.
Mario drove me home, and we caught up on the drive there.
I got home at 2am. I had a great time.
And the day had started pretty boringly too!

Netflixing:

Crash
Racial tension in L.A., people pulling the race card left and right, folks just need to CHILL!!
Racism works in every direction. Civilization is just pretense and facade. So much anger.
Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. I know about "you people".
I hope someday we get this shit right. Because it's tiring...

Bend It Like Beckham
Runaway British hit from 2002 about an Indian girl who REALLY likes Football and David Beckham.
Unforturnately, her Punjabi parents see football as some kid's game, nothing that their daughter
should get mixed up in. The daughter nevertheless joins a women's team and plus a lot of football.
It's a happy, bubbly little film with a great soundtrack (half punjabi, half techno/rock/punk).
Keira Knightley is in it too (she's currently in theaters, playing Domino Harvey in "Domino").
(And that, that is another kettle of fish entirely...)

Kung Fu Hustle
Buster Keaton meets Tex Avery meets Jackie Chan, with an R rating.
Yes, from the same mind who brought you "Shaolin Soccer" (oh my...) comes a seriously whacked tale of
undercover martial artists, hatchet-wielding gangsters, loud landladies, and lollipops.
Worth seeing at least once, just for the sheer lunacy of it. And for its Chineseness.

The Longest Yard
This is the remake with Adam Fucking Sandler, whom I cannot stand. I didn't watch this.
It was a request from my brother. He says he enjoyed it. It's probably mildly entertaining.
But I will probably never find out. My Sandler-free policy is not likely to ever change.

And finally, I saved the best for last. If you've made it this far, congratulations.
I start a new job on Monday.
I will be a QA tester at Jamdat, a rather large publisher of cellphone games.
Yes, it's back to staring at tiny little screens for me!
And unlike Naughty Dog, this is not seasonal work. This is a potentially lasting position. None of this
typical "hire you for crunch-time and fire you when the game goes gold" console game mentality.
So huzzah and champagne all around, 'ey wot?

I hope the rest of y'all's weekend goes well!