A pic of the whiteboard across the way from Whit's hospital bed. Notice how they remind you of your name.


So, it's been a week since Whit's surgery, and I must admit, it's been a crazy, crazy week. I am super happy January is almost over, because this has been a ridiculous month. CES, MacWorld, surgery, work...I mean, I guess that's how life goes, but jeez, 2008 needs to chill a bit.



Whit's doing great, walking around and gaining strength. It's truly awesome how fast her recovery has been. She actually ended up leaving one day sooner than we had originally thought! She's still in some pain in the mornings (nerves growing back), but even that is beginning to subside a bit. I am really proud of her--I know it's still going to be a while before she's at 100%, but this is a good start.

Unfortunately, the construction on the apartment across the way is still in full swing. It's really loud during the day, with all kinds of drills and hammers and jackhammers and yammer(ings). Whit's actually going to leave for a bit in February to hang out with her family, which is going to be good for her.



the view across the way. pardon the screendoor effect caused by an actual screendoor

I am working from home part of the time, but work is back in full effect, after a bit of a break during CES and MacWorld...MacWorld was surprisingly good this year. I am not sure why, but it just "felt" better than the MacWorlds of the past few years. Apple is obviously growing like crazy, and this is getting a lot of people to get more interested in developing for the platform (and making cases for the iDevices). I actually ended up get a nice backpack from STM...my last bag lasted me something like 7 years, so we'll see how this goes. It's a terrific bag, I gotta say.

What else? On the nerd side, I finally received my "do it yourself birthday present" -- Absolute Sandman Vol. 2 and the Ultimate Blade-Runner HD-DVD set. I know, why bother buying anything on HD-DVD when Warner announced for Blu-Ray? Well, I can always get the actual 5 disk movie on Blu-Ray at some future date, but for some reason, the collector nerd in me wanted the whole "super sized" set. And you know what? It's not really worth it, I gotta admit. The movie is worth getting--it's awesome--but the set is kind of "eh". I mean, it's cool and everything and I am glad I got it, but I wouldn't recommend it. The movie itself, the 5 disc version, is fantastic - I will talk about it once I watch more of the full movie package...but I popped it in two nights ago and watched it for awhile...it looked and sounded insane. So clear, so clean, so amazing---really, the whole idea of being able to watch an HD signal that is not compressed by the cable company, it's mind boggling; it totally makes a difference. I am sad that it looks like HD-DVD is on the outs, but it's still a great upconverting DVD player and I am not about to get a Blu-Ray player any time soon. So, I can rent stuff in HD-DVD until it all shakes out, but I must say, I have been very impressed with the format so far. True, it's not the insane leap of quality that we saw going from VHS to DVD, but it is still pretty intense. I got Zodiac as well, which is similarly amazing.


can I just say that the SF skyline seems to change every time I visit?

What else? Acting is going well, a few auditions this week but not really that busy. We're all waiting for the strike to end.

Okay, I know I am forgetting a few things, but I will post now and try to update this weekend...

10:40AM...

I'm posting two entries this time around because I got wildly distracted from my last one--it was getting a little too unwieldy and then by the time I got back to it, life got a lot more interesting.

I am currently waiting in the waiting room while Whit recovers in the recovery room. She had her surgery this morning and it all went great, they removed the fibroid, which, for something that is entirely natural, looked really, really unnatural. We got a picture of it but I guess I won't be able to get it bronzed...

Anyway, so the hard part is basically over, now we just let her sleep. I guess she's going to be staying here for a day or two, which is kind of annoying, but it's for the best. I am pleased that the procedure went by so quickly--the surgery was over in basically 2 hours.

Briefly:

1 - MacWorld was actually kind of cool this year, there was a good amount of enthusiasm. the new products, while not groundbreaking, are solid iterations. It's interesting that apple is charging $20 for iPod touch users but giving the AppleTV update for free. both are significant improvements, not sure how they decided on the $20 fee. And I still hate the 24 hour rental window (you have the rented movie for 30 days, but only 24 hours from the moment you press "play"--it is cool that you can move it from device to device, but wow, itunes...it's becoming it's own operating system now)

2- had a terrific audition for a pilot which I guess is not going anywhere. they changed the character around, so when I went in, I was asked to do something completely different. It was a great experience, and I was happy to show the casting director that I could flip the script on the fly, but I am a bit sad that I couldn't go further with it. I really love the show and really loved the character (or, at least, the one I was working on)...who knows. But at least the casting director saw me in the first place. Just need to be brought back.

3 - This week's theme so far is "my friends are totally awesome". I had a great night in San Francisco with the boys and then even saw some of the girls later. It was a really fun night and while I am always sad to leave my SF crew behind, to come back to such a wonderfully supportive army of LA friends has been a very humbling experience. I have been sending out little email updates regarding Whit's morning and everyone has been really keen to help out, etc. And, of course, the NY crew has been more than into it as well (Ravi, you are more than keeping it real from the International angle). Again, my friends are totally awesome.

4 - Last year at time, I was in Japan. Now I'm in a waiting room in a hospital in Beverly Hills. As I live, the future becomes less and less of a mystery and more of a surprise.

more soon.

Tags: Health, general

lots of TVs, all of them with the same stuff on...

I just listened/watched to a few TED talk (I really dug the JJ Abrams one), which is a really nice thing to do while eating a turkey sandwich. It's interesting; I often scoff when I hear people talk about the Internet changing, forever, the whole television thing, but I do find myself using the web to find good stories once in awhile. However, I am at work in a cube, not in my living room and I am not, in anyway, in a relaxed state of mind. I needed to back up and re-watch the Abrams presentation quite a few times, especially when he was referencing something visual). Different screens for different times, I guess. (Related, check out David Lynch ranting on people watching movies on the iPhone.)

Watching the videos from TED made me remember the tech lunches we would have at Razorfish, where we would get so-called movers and shakers to come over and discuss their ideas on technology and the directions it was going. We do that here, but I really miss the broad range of people we would get. Sure, we would get some Linux zealot to tell us the wonders of open source, but I was far more interested in the classical pianist who found inspiration in Flash. Inspiration comes from all over, from all people, from all times of day, I suppose. I was thinking about the whole idea of a technically savvy person growing older: will I continue to care enough about all this or will I need some 12 year old around to help me program some household media device so I can watch the construction of the moonbase from a camera on some astronaut construction worker's visor? Who knows.

Things I am thinking about:

1 - figuring out a way to actively help kids in school; how can I do this?
2 - what am I "missing" in my thought processes that is frustrating my ability to figure out what's "next" for technology? entertainment?
3 - why am I not using my camera?


Actually, I think i am going to start keeping the video camera around, like, in my car, so I can use it on the fly.

Oh, here's what I was thinking about while I was driving:

It seems like everything that has been pretty stable for the past 30 years is facing a pretty dramatic shakeup. Let's see:

- You have the whole national car industry, which was pretty much the Big Deal for the past few decades, totally getting their asses handed to them by Toyota and other companies because of a stunning inability to innovate and make products that people actually want. So everyone's freaking out there.

- You have the whole damn oil situation really freaking out big time because all of a sudden oil is so expensive that it's making everything expensive and really forcing people to think beyond oil, which is great, but it's probably going to be pretty painful because we are living right at the beginning of this massive-scale transition. Exciting times for people who see a future in change, scary times for people who have been through enough change, thank you very much and just want to retire and get some sleep

- There's the whole entertainment industry thing, which is having this wonderful midnight affair with the Writer's Guild Strike, which is really freaking out people in LA, because the already hemorrhaging TV market is bailing now that their Tivo boxes are empty. So, you see the networks makings shows that you just know no one is going to want to watch or they recycle previously made stuff....

Everything is changing, right now. And everyone who cares is trying to figure out how to adapt to these changes. What's crazy is that these are fundamental changes, both industry-wide and worldwide, in many respects. The trick is finding ways to help people manage and enjoy these changes and transitions.

ugh, I wrote this a week ago and totally lost my train of thought. I am going to start a new one now.

Tags: tech, general

Big ass TV! run for your lives!

(Deeeeeep breath.) I randomly went to CES on Tuesday, which was pretty cool, if only because I have always wanted to go to the show just to check it out. I have some pictures here, but they are not all that good, you can see lots of stuff if you dig around the web a bit. But it was cool, I mean, it's always fun to do something you have always wanted to do, right? But still--if you can afford a TV that is 7' tall, you are probably going to have a separate room with a projector, right? But I guess perhaps this could be used in public spaces...


It's gonna be a crazy month, more crazy than usual. I have an actual pilot audition for an actual series regular on Monday, which is notable because: a) I haven't had one in awhile and b) there are not all that many pilots getting shot because of the Writer's Strike. So, if your brain needs some thoughts at 2:40pm on Monday, just say to your brainverse, "Hey Mike, break a leg, that would be fun if you had a good audition because if you get it you can take me out to dinner and we can make jokes." I am really excited because I am actively leveraging some of the stuff I gleaned from a repeat viewing of Special Thanks to Roy London which lives on my ipod and offers some great items to think about before an audition. I really, really love the character and the script, so I need to just enjoy the process and be grateful to have a chance without projecting too much into the future.

(Very much enjoying the just-purchased Juno soundtrack, by the way.)

What I am trying to with the audition, by the way, is to use the moment of actually being in the office auditioning for the part as the emotional foundation/intent of the actual scene. Like, when I talk about loving my job, I am just going to be basically talking about how I love to audition, how I love the chance to act. It's the same intention, right, and I am not doing any substitution or anything like that. If I am nervous, I will just be nervous, and that's that. why fight it? Acting is reacting, sure, and acting is exposing, yes and above all, acting is about letting go and just living. I am fighting the normal impulse to imagine the moment and to provide an idea of how I want things to go--why add that kind of pressure? Why worry about it, really? The moment will come, it will happen, and then it will pass. That's all I want to have as far as expectations go...it's hard but I gotta try, otherwise, I'm just gonna fall into the same traps that I used to fall in. No more!

On a somewhat related note, Whit's surgery is a week from now, which is also quite a big deal and something that I am trying to prepare myself for without getting too crazy about it. She's probably going to be in the hospital for 2 nights and I assume it will all be quite intense. Rocco asked if I was ready and I was like, "I guess, I have no idea"--I really don't know what is going to happen, so it's actually irrelevant if I am ready or not--it's gonna happen and I will do everything I can to make it easy as possible for her. Doesn't matter, right? Accept the moment and deal.

But in-between those two events, I will be in San Francisco for MacWorld to check out the new announcements, see what my competitors are doing, say hey to friends, talk to a few press folks...should be a good time. It's being cut short due to Whit's surgery, but that's okay. I'm usually done with MacWorld after a day on the floor anyway.

Tech rants/hopes/predictions:

1 - Warner's Blu-Ray announcement sucks; I bought my HD-DVD player (it's a better system, IMHO for a variety of very consumer-friendly reasons) and now I'm stuck waiting for the Blu-Ray folks to come out with a reasonably priced, fully-functional player that's not the PS3 (I have a tendency to get burned by Sony products). None of this matters, of course, given the Internet distribution model that is rapidly becoming a fine alternative to buying discs...

2 - I have no idea what's happening at MacWorld, but I would guess that the an updated AppleTV will come out. If it can play Blu-Ray discs, that would be awesome, I admit. I bet they will introduce that sub-compact flash ram MacBookPro, and I can see them releasing the 16GB iPhone. I assume we'll have to sit through the Office 2008 stuff during the keynote, too.

Okay, let's post this thing.

a pic of a postcard that I made for one of our shows way back when in New York.
We actually did a whole photoshoot down in the in the subway, late at night.
I was on my hands and knees with a dog collar on...

Tags: CES, mac, macworld

gray, grey, san francisco day.

First off, Happy New Year. 2∞8. Hope you and yours had a good break, hope you had a fun new year's and I hope this year is packed with health, joy, growth, peace and all the stuff you need and want.

Ollie's boy Phineas encountering Tiberius, the greatest cat ever.

San Francisco was good, but oddly stressful at times for a variety of reasons. I was super happy to see everyone but the weather was such that I really just wanted to be home, in my apartment. It was weird, really; I loved being with my family and friends but I think stress of the last few months just made me want to hang out and be at home for a week and just stop. But the holidays are not designed to be relaxing, so I guess I'm just complaining. I had a lot fun, though, and I am looking forward to returning for MacWorld in a few weeks.

New Year's was really, really mellow, like, the most mellow a New Year I've had since I was a kid, really. Whit and I got dinner with the always fantabulous Jen Slimko and then hung out at home. It was really fun--we hadn't really hung out with each other the entire week, so it was nice, really nice. We missed hanging out with our friends in various places in LA, but it sounded like everyone had a pretty mellow time, I think, again, because of the weather.

The day before New Year's was crazy, though...I mean, I had to take my car to the shop for almost $300 worth of work (30k checkup time) and when we went to get a box spring, I went up a bit of a curb and popped Whit's car's tire! Like, the edge on the curb was just sharp, and the end dug right into the side of the tire somehow. I seriously have no idea what happened, but we went up the curb and the tire just started hissing...and was out in about 2 minutes. Then, much to my surprise, I found out (after unpacking the spare and all the tools from the fairly full trunk) that there were wheel locks on the wheels! I guess they put them on when we got the car--I actually had no idea what they were--they were originally in the glovebox--but I realized exactly what they were once I took a good look at the wheel. Basically, each wheel has an extra tricky bolt on it that you can only remove by adding a special adaptor onto the wrench. Of course, I had long since taken this out and left it at home...so we had to repack everything and walk home, look for the thing, then I went (I actually got into some workout clothes and ran) back and did the whole thing over again. Then I got home. Then I took the bus to Santa Monica to get my car. Then it was NYE.

So, yeah--2007 went out kicking and screaming. All is fine now, Whit's got a new tire (thanks to the tire store that was open on January 1) and the car is running fine. Still...a bit much.

Already things are starting to kick in; I've had a voiceover and a commercial audition and work work is making its way back into my head. It was good to get a break, if only for me to realize that yes, I do like my job a lot, and I am excited about what this year will bring. Of course, it's easy to say that when I am already in the office--I still just want to lie in bed and sleep...

okay, let's post this. more to come, more to come. I wish the iPhone would do video, I think I would post more vids up...

Tags: san francisco, christmas