ich bin ein auslander

Spent the past few evenings down at LAX with Wendy, working on some new photography stuff she’s getting together, big old planes, full moon and my baby’s face all in a single shot, pretty damn sweet… and of course, it morphed from “helping” to “being part of.” I expect my image shall soon be encased in wax and sold for hundreds of dollars. You should all be glad that I’m not naked for these.

Anyway, it’s been pretty funky and we’re learning quite a bit about how the whole beach / LAX area works. Last night we didn’t go down there until almost midnight… not too many flights arrive or depart that late, and the entire beach is actually closed at 10pm. Good to know our tax money is being well spent, because that whole stretch down there is SERIOUSLY patrolled. Not more than 1 minute after we tried to park along the road, the police were there telling us to move along. At that point we opted to try to get the planes as they landed so we headed over to the In & Out on Sepulveda, but there were too many weird people hanging out and not enough planes coming in that late…

So we went back tonight, still a little later than we should have gone. Got down there around 9:45 so we at least got about 30 minutes in before getting kicked off the beach. Wendy got a handful of good shots, but we missed the really big fuck off planes because we were still setting up and only got a few piddly little ones before we had to leave. Guess we’ll have to try again… it’s really pretty damn cool to be down there, see the bonfires and the ocean, and then just a really loud roar and this gigantic plane flies overhead, no more than 200-300 feet overhead.

I’ve been so burned out on the web for the past few months I’ve pretty much avoided learning anything new (not that there really is anything new, just new versions of software which require you to learn new ways to do the same old shit) and do anything interesting. Today I’m going to force myself back into the web world… I think I’ll start with Flash MX. After taking a brief look at it when it first came out, I pretty much abandoned it and continued working with Flash 5, as all of our current sites were originally authored with it. I guess I’ll press forward now…

Well, the car is coming - but not until tomorrow. And my music system is finally going to be up and running - but not until tomorrow. And of course, both things ended up costing just a little bit more than the original quote.

Oh well, I’m so fed up with both situations I don’t care anymore. At least they’re done. Cross them off the list.

Thanks to a neighbor, Wendy and I discovered the existence of a most wonderful thing - “the car broker”. You tell them what you want, as specifically as possible, and how much you’re willing to pay for it. They call all the dealers around and find your car, then they do the haggling with the dealer. All you need to do is sign the paperwork. Then - get this - they pick it up and drive it to your door.

Apparently, our new vehicle will arrive tomorrow. If only we knew about this two weeks ago.

Yes, it’s been a few days. Not much has occured - the car search continues and has been a major time suck. On the plus side I do appear to have found a decent computer repair place, and they are diligently installing my new “super quiet” motherboard, processor and case fans. If they actually return the system to me by tomorrow, I’ll recommend them. We shall see. Now it’s off to the hermit lunch…