WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2002

Today I signed up for a motorcycle training course. I'm going to be doing this weekend starting Friday night. It's eight hours of classroom time and ten hours of riding. I was really lucky to get a spot in this weekend's class. I didn't think I was going to be able to do it until September. I think it should be fun. After completing the course successfully, they give you a certificate which you can take to the DMV to get your motorcycle driver's license.

In the news today, it was found that secondhand smoke causes kitty cancer, so don't smoke at home if you have cats. And the Red Sox beat the Angels again!

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TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2002

There's a lot going on in Santa Monica tonight. First of all, Hugh Hefner and the current playmate of the month were hanging out at The King's Head tonight because she's from Britain. Also, there's something going on across the street from my apartment. The police have the street blocked off and have surrounded a Big Blue Bus. I dunno what's up. I checked out the Santa Monica Police press site, which is really cool, but couldn't figure it out. Speaking of Big Blue Busses, the bus in the movie Speed must have been a Big Blue Bus because they're having free fares today to celebrate the release of the Speed DVD. Go to ETOnline to win one of your own! Oh, and I've got one word for all the Angels fans out there (if there are any): PEDRO!

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MONDAY, JULY 29, 2002

Back to work today. There wasn't much excitment today. I did hear that the big asteroid will miss the Earth in 2019, so that's a good thing. I was getting worried. Now, if they could just get rid of those dang snakehead fish. I just noticed that my store isn't working. Amazon must have changed their XML... that's so lame. Anways, I just noticed the Red Sox are in town playing the Angels. I'm gonna go watch the game on TV now.

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SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2002

I spent almost the entire day inside watching the NASCAR race. It was a long race because there was bad crash on the first lap that took over an hour to clean up, then there was a two hour rain delay.

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SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2002

I went CD shopping today. I only ended up spending around $60 though. I got the new albums from Blackalicious, The Breeders, Jesus & Mary Chain, Looper, and People Under The Stairs. Later, I watched The Fast And The Furious and went to The King's Head and played some darts.

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FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2002

Another busy day at work today, but that's a good thing since things have been slow for so long. After work, I went to the ArcLight and saw Austin Powers in Goldmember. It was a really cool theater but it costs $14 to see a movie! The movie was really funny as usual. A few of the scenes were filmed where I work on the Paramount Lot. I remember one day when there were all kinds of little people dressed up in funny clothes running around the lot. It was very strange.

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THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2002

I haven't written in a few days because there hasn't been much to write about. Work has been pretty slow and I haven't really done anything exciting. Today started to pick up a little bit. I actually got to do some Flash and some JSP.

After work, I went to see Smokey & Miho at the Skirball Cultural Center. It was a free show that I went to with my friend Mark and I ran into my friend Felix there who I hadn't seen in awhile. It was a good show. Who are Smokey & Miho you ask? Smokey Hormel is a guitarist who has played with Beck, Johnny Cash, and lots of other people. Miho Hatori is the singer for Cibo Matto. When they play together they play 60s Brazilian music with their band. It's really interesting stuff.

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SUNDAY, JULY 21, 2002

I went to another BBQ today. I ended up staying there all day and didn't really do anthing else. I did see part of the New Hampshire NASCAR race. I could have gone to it because my parents had tickets, but I hate flying that far for just one weekend. It's not worth it. Back to work tomorrow...

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SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2002

This morning I went to the DMV and got a motorcycle permit. Now I just have to take the motorcycle safety class and I can get a license. I really want to get a Vespa Scooter. I also got a car driver's permit, but I have no interest in cars. I think they're expensive and inefficient and I think LA would be a much nicer city without them. This afternoon I went to a BBQ at my boss's house in Pacific Palisades. It was a lot of fun and I got to see Harley.

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FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2002

I had jury duty at the LA Superior Court today. I didn't end up getting called all day. I just sat in a big room with a bunch of people and said "Here" whenever they called my name. It was pretty boring, but at least they gave us a bunch of breaks and let us leave early. I don't think the court was in a very good neighborhood because I saw a guy walking around with a gun in the park a half a block away from the courthouse. It didn't appear to be loaded because he was pointing it at things and pulling the trigger. I decided to walk in the other direction to get lunch. I ended up at the Wilshire Center Farmers Market and got some yummy tamales. I saw Eight Legged Freaks tonight. It was really funny, but not scary.

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THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2002

I got settled into my new cubicle today. I like it so far. I've got a lot more drawers, shelves, and desk space to put stuff. So much space that it looks empty. It's much more noisy than my old office. I can hear everyone in the office talking all day. I have to turn up my music to drown them all out. All day today felt like Friday, and it was sorta Friday for me because I got called to go to jury duty tomorrow morning. I have to be downtown at 8:00am tomorrow morning. That means I have to get up real early. I just to back from a concert on the pier. I went to see Laura Love and Rosie Flores. It was a good show but it was a little chilly outside tonight. Rosie Flores was really cool. She played a mix of honkytonk and rockabilly music. One of her albums was produced by Pete Anderson (Dwight Yoakam's producer and guitarist).

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 17, 2002

I moved out of my office today. I'm in Niki's old cube if you can't find me. After work I went to a screening of 24 Hour Party People. On the way, I saw Jay Leno. He was hanging out near my bus stop. The movie was really cool. It documents the rise and fall of Factory Records and the Manchester music scene from the 70s to the 90s. The bands featured include Joy Division, New Order, and the Happy Mondays. The title of the movie is actually the title of a Happy Mondays song.

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TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2002

Still no jury duty. I guess that's a good thing, but it could be interesting. I started cleaning out my office today because I'm supposed to be moving into a cubicle later this week. I have a really cool office, but it'll be nice to have a change. I've been in the same place for almost two years, and I'm getting tired of it. After work I went to a movie screening of K-19 The Widowmaker in the new theater at 3rd & Fairfax. The movie was good, but the theater was more impressive. It had stadium seating and there's tons of new stores around that whole area near the Farmer's Market. I'm going to have to go back and check it all out some weekend.

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MONDAY, JULY 15, 2002

I'm supposed to have Jury Duty this week at the LA Superior Court, but so far they haven't called me in. I have to call again tomorrow night. Today at work we had a group picture taken for Paramount's 90th Anniversary. It wasn't very exciting, but we're supposed to have a party sometime soon. I hope we get to see the picture. I read a couple more Flash books today, but they weren't so good. Most of them are written for designers, not programmers. I think I'm going to pick up the O'Reilly ActionScript book next because their books are generally for programmers.

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SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2002

Tonight I went to midnight screening of Elvira's Haunted Hills. It was really good. They don't make movies like this anymore. I think the movie officially opens for Halloween, so make sure you go see it then. Elvira wasn't at the screening... I guess she was there last weekend. Her evil twin (brother I think) Helvira and the director of the film were there instead. Before the movie they had a scream contest with prizes. The movie starred Elvira and Richard O'Brien (the guy who wrote The Rocky Horror Picture Show and played the character Riff-Raff). Speaking of Rocky Horror, I heard last week that there's a Rocky Horror TV movie in the works for the 30th Anniversary next year. I hope they don't ruin it. And why is it on TV? Shouldn't it be in a theater?

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FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2002

Wow... this week went by really fast. The office is really empty now that everyone has moved out. Today I spent the whole day making a Flash XML Poll application. It seems to work pretty well. It was my first attempt at writing some serious ActionScript. After work we had a party for the ETOnline people that moved out of the office and I had a few Amstel Lights. I wish they had regular Amstel in the USA like they do in Holland. It's much better. After work, Erika gave me a ride in her new car back to Santa Monica. Then we stopped at the King's Head to have some good beer and play some darts.

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THURSDAY, JULY 11, 2002

There's not much going on today. We had a little welcome party at the Entertainment Tonight offices for the ET Online people today. It was a little weird. After work, I went to see About A Boy. It was a good movie and really funny. Go see it if it's still playing.

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2002

My new Armani glasses came in yesterday, so I got to try them out today. The Transitions lenses are really cool. They get darker when exposed to ultraviolet light, so it's like having sunglasses, but they're clear when you go inside.

I went CD shopping today. There's a lot of new music out this week. I ended up getting Bis, Oasis, and Dolly Parton. Dolly just started her summer tour this week. I'm going to see her in August at the House of Blues. Check out this interview she did with CNN and read quotes like "I don't know if I'm supporting them or if they're supporting me."

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TUESDAY, JULY 09, 2002

Another strange day at work. This morning I went for a tour of the Entertainment Tonight offices where a bunch of people I work with will soon be moving to. At the end of the tour they told me I would be "having a presence" in one of the rooms. Hmmm... so I went back to my office after and was told that I would not "have a presence" at ET. I'm confused. Then, I checked my voice mail, and an investigator from Paramount Security left me a message saying he needed to talk to me about some incident that happened at work yesterday. Well, it's a really long story, and I got interrogated, but I didn't do anything wrong and neither did my friend Erika, so everything should be good.

Things got a little better in the afternoon. Erin, Piggles, and Niki got me a banana split ice cream birthday cake. It was very yummy. I hope there's some left tomorrow so I can have some more. Also work related, there's a new Paramount.com website. It's much, much better than the old site.

As for my Flash studies, I got to apply some of my newly learned skills today to help our Flash expert Piggles solve some problems she was having. Also, I got a new book today called Flash MX Video. It's interesting, but I'm disappointed that Flash MX is very limited on what it can do with externally linked video files. Hopefully the next version of Flash will be better.

Tonight, I went to see my friend's band play at The Joint. They're called Hypnotic and they rock. You can listen to them here. They played with Judith Owen who was also very cool (and British which is always good). Another band was going to play, but it was getting late for me. I can't stay out late on weeknights now that I'm getting old.

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MONDAY, JULY 08, 2002

Today was my birthday, but I already celebrated it on Friday, so it didn't really seem like my b-day. Today wasn't a happy day. There were some layoffs at work, and those are never fun. I was not one of them, but my officemate was. I'm so sleepy today. I got home from Maine late last night and then I couldn't fall asleep. I think it's time for me to go to bed. Goodnight.

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SATURDAY, JULY 06, 2002

Jamie Morris : null : Speed Racer
Speed Racer

Another nice day today in Maine. I went kayaking this morning at Androscoggin Lake. It was my first time, and I had a lot of fun. Later I went to Oxford Plains Speedway and watched the stock car races. My dad is on the pit crew for the #17 Step Guys car. I'm going to help them design a new website because theirs is a little old. They didn't win tonight because they were involved in a crash... maybe next week.

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FRIDAY, JULY 05, 2002

Today it was much cooler and less humid. You folks from California probably don't know what humid is. Today I went to New Harbor, Maine for some lobsters and clams. Mmmm... Then I went to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse and an old British Fort. Then I went home and had some Chocolate Bavarian Cream birthday cake and opened presents. I got all kinds of goodies including this atlas, a soccer ball, a blanket made by my grandmother, and some shorts.

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THURSDAY, JULY 04, 2002

I finally made it to Maine, but I got no sleep last night on the plane. I spent four hours in the Cincinnati airport. Everyone there was wearing an American flag shirt. It was pretty pathetic. Later, I went to the Liberty Festival and saw some fireworks. It's soooo hot and humid here, but it's supposed to start cooling off tomorrow.

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 03, 2002

A funny thing happened on the way to work today... This strange man walked out into the middle of Santa Monica Boulevard while traffic was coming and lied down in the middle of the lane to block traffic. It was quite strange.

It's finally July 3rd. The week is over. We got out of work at 1:00 today for the long weekend. I'm going home to Maine to eat some lobster and open some birthday presents! It's going to be a long night. I'm leaving LAX at 11pm and not geting to Portland until tomorrow afternoon. No sleep for me...

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TUESDAY, JULY 02, 2002

I finally finished my Flash book. Now I can make silly little animations and video games. I'm waiting for my next two books that I ordered from Amazon. One is for ActionScript and one is for Video.

I just went to see a really dumb movie after work called Unfaithful. It was really lame... it's basically Fatal Attraction 2. Not only was it completely stupid, but the theater was about 120 degrees. Oh well, at least it was free.

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