You just wanna be a Boobie like Muffin and me!

Yeah - I'm dead jealous...

Isn't this Pointy's first "real" day on the job? How did it go?

I got as far as my first name 'Sloopy' and was disappointed so didn't carry on

Work is going fine, I was a litte overwhelmed this morning when I got my to do list, but I've got a few things dealt with (and I know that one of the jobs had been lingering with my bosses for a while, so that was good. I basically always get this way when I start a job. Scared they'll find out that I don't know what I'm doing, then I get a little more confident, and by 6 months I'm bored and want a new job!! Good thing most of my jobs only last about 9 months anyway!


I just finished the name thing; Sloopy Battyface. Hmmmm

Way to go, Pointy!

Okay UK VJ LA peeps, we need to schedule our Holiday Blow-Out soon. I'm thinking we need to do something fabulous, something girly... How about one of those places where they do your nails while you get totally rat-arsed on martinis? Just thinkin...

By the way, my name is apparently Snickle Waffle-Brains. Oddly enough, it has the same number of syllables as my real name.

Thanks thanks, I got a nice easy start, cos my office isn't ready yet, so I'm working from home. It's nice, but hard to stay focused.

I'm happy to do anything at all. I have no idea what my schedule looks like, but I don't think I'll be working past 7 most days, and not on weekends. But, yes, soon is good. And Maven, I'm so sorry, I forgot about lunch the other day, I was busy catching up on sleep. Commuting to Santa Monica for a few days, and watching the dumbest videos of all time all day, really took it out of me!

Awww - well save New Year's Eve for a party at mine! Maybe we can get more than six people this time PLUS I got my dad's party game compendium so that should be pretty fun - promise they won't go on too late though - he doesn't know when to stop sometimes! But we have a treasure hunt, the airport game, lap game, chocolate eating game, magazine hunt... there are so many I don't know where to begin with it all!!!

Can't do New Year's as my mother-in-law will be in town so we'll be entertaining her. I might even take her to the Rose Bowl Parade on the 1st!

Sorry, have to whinge here: Why the BLEEPITY BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP is it mid-November and touching 90? I don't mind it so much, but someone else around here has reverted to sounding off about the weather. AGAIN. Thank god we are off to CT on Tuesday, then I can hear him complaining about how freaking cold it is in New Haven. Good times, friends, good times.

Well now that I have an income, I just looked at flights to Miami for christmas. $600 for both of us. AArrrgghh. I wish I'd just had the balls to go ahead and book it months ago. I've known for many years now that booking Christmas flights after September is a fools game.

Well it's pushing 90 here as well and I must say it is getting a little old - thank goodness we're off to CO tomorrow! It's snowing in Denver today

Nice & cool over here. Altho I could smell the smoke today.

Yes, let's schedule it.

it's pretty nice over here, you should tell mr. grumpy to spend some time with Jeraly in PS, and he'd soon appreciate the burbank weather, or back in England for that matter. Right now I estimate he'd be getting approx 30 mins of sunlight per day!!

Haha - well I know one of my friends at least has been scraping the car windscreen this week It was over 90 today though which is crazy... can't say I'm not looking forward to Colorado!! Yippee!

Also Maven I got the registration stickers today along with business card - so now your info is in my phone book by the puter and will put the card in my purse as well so I have it on me... I swear it is the only reason I need a cellphone! But I want a pink one

Actually - while on the subject, are there any decent sites I can check out a range of phones on a variety of networks? In the UK you could always check out carphone warehouse because it had a variety but I can't seem to figure it out here...

So what do all of you guys do for the weekend? Am I the only geek that didn't particularly like summer holidays, and often find myself at a loss for something to do on a weekend. Add to that being new in town. I'm bored.

Ginger, have you had the meet up yet? how'd it go?

Pointy - just wait till you're working a few weeks before you start dissing the weekend!

I am absolutely gutted to see Placerita Canyon on fire - it's one of my favorite hiking spots. Plus - I regularly see condors there. I can't help but worry their habitat is being destroyed.

Also, this weekend my mother put down my beloved cat Phoebe. I found her abandoned in an alley as 4-week old kitten in the middle of winter in 1993. I knew she was weak but I'd hoped to at least see her again at Christmas. Although I don't think I'm as upset as my 12 year old niece, who has apparently been inconsolable.

no, not dissing the weekends, I've just never been good at really using them to their full potential. I lay around, then I feel like doing something, but it's already to late to organise, and I go back to laying around, watching TV and feeling like a slob.

It was smoky in the air around here yesterday, hope it's better today.

See, that sounds like the perfect weekend to me!

Air quality seems better today, I think.

Just got to my new office (which I have allllll to myself, for the moment, I will be sharing). No natural light, but really fun to be working at a studio!!!

Are you on the lot? Forgive me if you told me the other night!

I still think it's fun walking around the studio lot.

Yup, I'm at Universal, and I think I'm allowed to go in to the theme park, but only for lunch, not for going on rides!

Speaking of, I heard your Xmas party is pared down/non-existant this year?

pared down.

It's no big deal - we still get free booze. I could care less about the entertainment or the raffle prizes I enver win.

I don't know what we get (if anything) - no spouses allowed but it was fun last year on the lot!

this one will still be on the lot but there will be no big tent or djs or casino or anything

wow. What will there be? That's all we had last year!

booze and nibbles in one of the sound stages!


I imagine someone will "dj" on an ipod

This will be my first year without an office or grad school Xmas party since 1996. Should I be sad or relieved?

That being said, we can make our own office party when we have the UK VJ LA ladies get together next month... I'll bring my printer as it also functions as a photocopier. There should also be karaoke involved, crap drinks, cocktail sausages, soppy speeches, etc etc. I will also smoke at least one cig.

There, now I feel better.

I was watching a Bob Saget comedy special on HBO and he said that people would send in porn quite often to AFHV. He also said they got some really bizarre ones. Apparently someone sent in a video of a guy wearing SCUBA gear climbing a ladder by his pool (assuming he was going to jump off the ladder into the pool). The guy was waving and yelling "Hey Bob!" when the guy fell off the ladder. Apparently the next 20 minutes of the video was just of the guy laying there...either conked out or dead, Bob Saget really wasn't sure.




I think that is one of the awesomest dilemma's I've ever heard of. Congradulations!



The meet up went well...everyone that showed up was super nice and we had lots of pizza to go around!

I've been completely boring lately except for a celebrity spotting this weekend. I was running along the lakeshore in Evanston (which is the suburb immediately to the north of Chicago...home of Northwestern University) with a friend of mine. Since it was pretty cold and windy there weren't very many people out and about. So we're going along and we come upon a guy, a woman, and a youngish woman pushing a baby stroller. As we're passing by them I look over at the guy and I think to myself...jeez he looks familiar. And then I'm like...jeez he looks just like Jerry Springer. My friend looks over at me and is like "Holy Crap, it's Jerry Springer."

I had my camera phone with me and I wish I would have taken a pic but he was obviously spending time with his family and I would have felt bad bothering him. I found out later that night that his daughter lives in Evanston so he was probably up there visiting her.

Glad to hear it worked out, it would have really sucked to have to pay for people that didn't show up.

TBH i didn't really see anything too crazy on my few days at AFV as they like to call it. One video though I did fell pretty queasy about, it was a little girl, totally naked, she was maybe 4 or 5, and she had scribbled all over herself with a marker. Weird. What kind of parents just tape that, and then think to themselves - I know!! I'll send this to ABC so it can be put on National TV!! I don't know if they were going to blur out the little girls bits or just cut around them (she kept bending down to write on herself some more) but I thought it was really odd.

It may seem cute, but as a parent...seriously did they not think of the pervs out there?

I suppose you had plenty of videos of men getting hit in the balls with various objects, right?

not so much guys getting hit in the nuts, but I thing probably 50% of all the accident clips were snow related. And about 75% were kids and animals. It seems that if your a parent you should beware:
Kid+Snow+Videocamera=injury

I have to say, AFV is hardly ever funny. I can't imagine having to watch all of the submissions to try and find a few worth a small chuckle.

And as for parent's submitting naked children, well that's really in poor taste. But, some people will do anything for a buck.

thankfully i didn't have the job of choosing, just putting the one's they knew they wanted in to the editing bays. A large portion were very old and terrible quality video. And yes, most not funny at all.

So I'm thinking of roasting a chicken and not a turkey for Thanksgiving. (it's either a chicken or Turkey deli slices - the whole turkey was never an option) or maybe go out. What are you guys all up to for the holiday? Having no family around, not being used the the holiday anyway, and suddenly not having much time off, I don't know what to do for it. C would be just as happy to ignore it altogether.

Roast a chicken! It will be yummy! And though you are not accustomed to the Thanksgiving tradition, its a great excuse to make a huge meal and just enjoy the day. The great think about Thanksgiving is that there really isn't a specific formula that you have to follow. Most people I know have certain dishes they must have, some are traditional and some are not. Just make what works for you! And given all you two have accomplished this year, I'd say you have a lot to be thankful for.

Chicken sounds good! Or go out.

We are renting a cabin with friends in Yosemite!! Eating turkey at a lodge there. Taking lots of hikes. Hopefully seeing no bears.

We saw a bear in Yosemite! Naturally I was so excited I was shaking and the thing turned out blurry - you kind of can see him though

You missed your calling as a photographer, Robin!

I placed a rather large order on www.britsuperstore.com on Saturday. They shipped it Monday & I received it today in California.

Very impressive!!

Now I have 20 packets of Mr. Porky , plus some Frazzles, Bisto & Nik Naks.

And my Mom has 20 packets of cheese crispies, M&S Shortbread, orange & whisky marmalade and strawberry & champagne conserves.

wow, that's just 2 nights!

about the only things that I really miss are biscuits and bread.

I haven't made my own bread for a while, and even when I did, it wasn't the same as a brown sliced pan.

Biscuits - there's just nothing to replace hobnobs, choc digestives... I can get them at world market, but they are over $5!!!! And is it just me or are all biscuits here pretty expensive?

Though I never made gravy really, cos I don't really do roasts, maybe i should think about getting bisto for next thursday!!!

we saw a couple of bears just outside of Yellowstone, and a (real) cowboy on a horse lassoing one of his cattle. The bears were a cub and it's mother. They were way off in at the edge of the forest, and we were on the road in the clearing. Too far to take pictures that would be worth taking, but cool just the same. A bit further along in the 'National Preserve' area or something, we saw the cowboy. We were the only ones on the road, and we were ages away so it wasn't for show, I suppose he just had to get one of them cows for some reason.

Also I don't know how Wyoming gets the same electoral college votes as DC. That place is eeeeemmmptttyyy. They must count the buffalo in the census to make up numbers or something. Otherwise they'd be left with .5 of an electoral college vote.

I read that the bears don't really hibernate in Yosemite (too warm?) they just get sleepy. Yikes!

I've seen black bears before & a grizzly. No need to repeat that....

i wonder what's new around here.

Now for those knocking my photography skills there was a bear only 100 yards away. Although I had encountered bears hiking before and they don't really scare me, but I was a bit overexcited. The wildlife encounter I truly fear is a mountain lion - I'm not sure if any of the Angelenos heard there was one stalking round the grounds of the Getty Center last month.

Population of Wyoming and DC proper is actually about the same (half a million) - you just kind of assume DC is bigger than that because of the surrounding metro area.

Aw, Robin, you know its just some good-natured ribbing!

On a more serious note, if you are encountering bears on such a regular basis, I must insist that we do sit down and work out the details of your life insurance policy!

Aww I'm sorry to hear about your cat Daisy has been grumpy since I got back and Riley has started "making friends" with the neighboring kitties - he plays with the tabby - they kinda play fight and chase each other a bit but it all seems good natured. The tortoiseshell one just miaows at him though so I am not holding out much hope there!! Ok - tabby has just had a poo in our garden (as the gardeners have decided against the gravel and are attempting to grow grass again ) and Riley was watching it... nice(!) No wonder our garden smells...


Hmmm ok I'm not one to talk as I don't work (although got EAD so that will hopefully change soon - am nervous tho'!) but when Jeremy gets his days off we tend to spend the first day just doing things we need to, visiting family, taking recycling to wherever it needs to go etc... then we spend the next day just chilling out, watching TV, playing videogames or surfing the net - all very chilled


Cool! I am yet to see a bear although we did see a few mahoosive blood smears on the roads during our trip - one of them was shortly followed by a huge horse/deer/cow (couldn't make it out) on the shoulder... nice(!) There was also what looked like a dead bobcat and a skunk... nothing alive though

What's everyone doing for Xmas?

Nada. I get 1, count them, 1!!! days off.