ich bin ein auslander

Taking a short break from the tedium of work to … well, sit at my computer and type something for the internet. hmm. sounds like work.

Anyway, I randomly was thinking about consumerism and my sincere love for it (got my credit card bill today)… so here’s the 5 Best Consumer Items I’ve Ever Purchased… in no particular order.

1) iPod
Let’s face it, it rules. Still not big enough to house my entire music collection, and invariably the one thing I think of that I want to listen to isn’t on it, but a fuckload of stuff is. It’s made the gym bearable, as well as long flights… and it’s snazzy. There’s just something incredibly amazing about being able to soundtrack your entire life and playing the right song to fit your mood.

2) Vespa
Another snazzy little luxury item that’s pretty damn cool looking, although real bikers laugh at us. But, quite frankly, there’s no better way to get around venice in the summer. Hop on, get where you want to go in much less time that it would have taken to drive, and no parking hassles. Well, less, anyway.

3) Nespresso Expresso Machine
No more walking to Coffee Bean and paying $3.10 and waiting in line, listening to obnoxious people that actually choose to hang out there all day. Yummy lattes in no time flat. And you can order the capsules off their groovy website with ease.

4) Polar Heart Rate Monitor
I can actually monitor how hard I’m working out. I did manage to lose quite a bit of weight prior to purchasing one of these bad boys, but I feel scientific and it keeps me motivated. Plus, no more wasted work outs because I’m tired or hung over and don’t push myself hard enough. Now I know.

5) XM Satellite Radio
This is the newest one of them all… still getting used to it, but no commercials, good stations with interesting programming, and I’ve even found a few new bands, which I was convinced would never happen again. I’ve really gotta go get the car adapter for it… I can’t stand listening to normal radio anymore.

My contract with AT&T is up this week… yay! Switching to verizon and getting a new phone, so cleaning up the old phone… some pics from the last month or so… not thumbnailed just to piss off defillippo.

Heather’s visit to Venice…

Wendy’s space at the Chameleon West Festival in Buffalo….

If someone would have told me there would be interpretive dance to songs i’d written, i would have drank more.

And I thought I had issues with FedEx… Dehais’s door…

Dehais wuz here

Back in Buffalo for the Goo show… the best thing about buffalo

The van the day after the show

Heading into NYC after being bumped from our connecting flight in New Jersey…

Wendy’s happy to be back in Venice…




One of those aforementioned drinking nights in the studio… blinking lights are soooo coool

body shots

this track needs a little jizz….

where’s the runner? we need guitar strings. and another bottle of vodka. and limes. and some ice.

Boring few weeks, really. I’ve learned more Flash in the past two weeks than i’ve ever bothered to learn in my life. Flash MX 2004 can be frustrating, but it really is almost a real programming language now (as 2.0, obviously, not Flash MX itself). A lot of stuff made easier these days yet so many annoying little bugs to be tracked. I spent more time delving into the inconsistencies and finding workarounds for documented stuff that just doesn’t work than anything else.

Haven’t really done much else besides work.. a few late late late night runs out to the studio in hollywood for some drunken hangouts to blow off steam, but that’s about it. Wendy’s been kicking arse doing video editing, and she’s done with that now as well… now she’s onto dvd menus and packaging design and I’m moving on to a members site template. fun fun fun. At least we’ve crossed a few things off the list now…

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
- George W. Bush (AT THE SIGNING OF H.R. 4613, THE DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005)

you really just can’t beat that now, can you?

work just wont end. it’s all good, if depressing. finishing up the green day site which is both technically and design-wise one of the best things we’ve ever done. pain in the ass but i’m proud of it. goo dvd is going along swimmingly, a whole new area for us so i’m stoked to be doing that kind of work… and two other big projects are looming and will be launching shortly after we get those two out in the world. those are probably the most exciting for me but i haven’t really been able to concentrate on them yet.

in other news, skeely, ej and marie were in town for two nights before heading back out on the road, so we got to do a little hang time with them, which was a blast.. this week looks as crazy as ever, although nothing will compare with last week…

enough for now. oh yeah, in the last 7 days, i’ve had protein bars for dinner 5 of them. feeling good yet starving.