NO-rlando

Well, I won't be going to Orlando this weekend as I thought. But I'll still be doing some traveling. I'm now going to be going to San Diego to visit my friend Michael. Ted and Larry are also heading down there as well to visit Michael and to attend the ComiCon International. Not sure if Michael and I are gonna do the ComiCon thing. We might just spend the weekend being game show geeks and rummaging through some game show tapes that I'll bring down with me. And I'm kinda glad I'm not going to Orlando. It's going to be nice to have a change of scenery and it's going to be great seeing Michael. We haven't seen him since he came up to visit for the "Match Game/North Hollywood Squares" party.

An interesting Internet find this week: Another game show themes page. Probably the neatest finds on the page are the "Make Me Laugh" theme cues. Disco inferno! And such insightful lyrics too. I remember really loving this theme as a kid...And to think, it took me years before I came to terms with being gay. Oh, the clues...the clues!

Speaking of gay-ety, the new ABBA video collection DVD came out today. THIRTY (count 'em, THIRTY) ABBA videos PLUS four bonus songs. "Take a Chance on Me" and "Bang a Boomerang" crack me up. And oooh the tension in the post-divorce videos!! ABBA was one of those bands which I loved to make fun of growing up, but ended up being one of those "things you make fun of so much, you end up loving it." It's only a little over a month away until we see "Mamma Mia!" Woo-hoo!!!

KROQ played a clip of the Anna Nicole Smith interview on "Regis and Kelly" this morning that really cracked me up. I'm going to my best to quote it here...but here's roughly how the exchange went:

REGIS: "So I understand you recently got a tattoo...Where did you get it?"
ANNA: "In Las Vegas"
(Audience laughter)
ANNA: "Did I mess up??"

Oooooh...I'm SO looking forward to Sunday night for the debut of her show!

Clean Slate-errr

So, Larry, Drew, and I headed over to CBS Television City this afternoon to catch "American Idol" live. It was quite the experience. Not since the Evan and Jaron concert, have I felt so "old." Throngs of teenybopper girls with "I Love You Justin" signs were waiting outside the studio along with a myriad of other youthful, good-looking LA types. After going through security and checking in we waited off to the side with other people on the guest list. Amidst the chatting and waiting, we see a familiar figure dressed in a pink shirt walk up the ramp to the entrance of Stage 36. As the figure passed by the crowd, a wave of squeals emanate from the young girls. It was Mario Lopez! I don't know who he knows on the show, but he was there with what appeared to be his younger brother. We wait a bit more and Drew spots somebody whom he said looks like Sara Gilbert.

I bump into some co-workers there as well as my old supervisor from my CBS page days. Around a quarter to five, we're escorted into the studio and taken to our seats. The set is pretty impressive up close and personal. We got some good seats. Around 5:30, Nigel Lythgoe (one of the exec producers) of the show walks out and preps the audience a bit. We're then treated to a stand-up set by one of the hosts Brian Dunkleman. Apparently, he was testing material for his upcoming appearance on the Tonight Show. Afterwards, Ryan Seacrest was introduced and finally all the judges. There was even a "We Love Simon" fanbase in the audience.

As 6:00 got closer (9:00 eastern time), the A.D. counted down the minutes and later seconds over the P.A. It was pretty cool seeing how this was all going out live. And because it's live, there were no stopdowns and all the breaks are in real-time. So, what we saw is pretty much what you saw during the broadcast. A little interesting tidbit...During the break after RJ's performance, RJ's mom handed Simon a bumper sticker that said "BITE ME." Yeeesh...And Ryan Seacrest has got quite the tan nowadays. And the signs...So many signs! Where's M. Night Shamalayan when you need him? We kinda got a bit startled when we saw this one camera come charging up towards us only to realized that he was getting a shot of the girls with the "We Love Kelly" sign a few rows behind us. Fun, fun stuff...Kinda cool to be in the middle of the whole "phenomenon"

After the taping, we headed back to the house and picked up Ted and then went over to Olive Garden for dinner. Had a minor freakout when I stepped out of the car and Ted kept driving as I exited the car. What a poo-head. Worse yet...it was in front of EVERYBODY waiting out in the front of Olive Garden. It provided the greeter at the door with much amusement. Blarg...We then introduced Drew to the wonders of UNO Blitzo after dinner. As Larry and I were last night when we first played it, Drew seemed a bit shell-shocked during the whole thing. :-)

Blitzed!!!

Ahhh...a new electronic game addiction swept the house tonight. Larry picked up "UNO Blitz," the electronic version of UNO. It's more of a quick-reflex game than anything, but it's quite fun. It took a few tries to get used to the controls and such, but by the end of the evening and 12th time playing the game, we got the hang of the twitch-inducing color and number matching-fest.

Quite psyched for tomorrow night. Larry, Drew, and I are going to head over to CBS Television City to watch "American Idol" live. This should be quite cool. For one thing, it's been a while since I've been to seen a television production live that hasn't been a game show. And this is the first "live" broadcast I've seen in the studio. I've been advised by co-workers who've stopped by for previous shows that I should have my "dancing shoes" ready. Oy... :-)

Hot pursuit

Been a good weekend so far...Keith came over for a little gaming with Drew, Ted, and me. We attempted to play the Simpsons trivia game only to realize that it was hella-hard and hella-complicated. It was sort of a Trivial Pursuit-meets-charades-meets-Win Lose or Draw with a little "Highlights" identify the picture in the mass of other figures game thrown in for good measure. Actually, come to think of it, it was like Cranium with a Simpsons theme. After realizing that as much as I love the Simpsons, I know diddly squat about it, we whipped out Trivial Pursuit. It was the new 20th Anniversary Edition which for some reason has an Asian fetish when it comes to geography questions. Miraculously, Ted stayed up beyond his usual bedtime to ride out the rest of the two-hour game with us only to see Drew take it home. All in all, a fun time. Plus, it was good to see Keith along with his usual sharp, biting wit.

Picked up a couple o' DVDs at Virgin today. The ABBA Story and the Robbie Williams concert at Albert Hall. What else...what else...We got a coffee table today from our friend Erin, but that was not without drama. There was massive miscommunication about when it was going to be dropped off and who was going to be home when it was dropped off. In the end, we got it and it fits amazingly well with the rest of the furniture in our living room and gives it an even classier look.

Here's a story I found on the 'net which I have to rant a little about...A man in New York City is suing fast food restaurants blaming them for his bad health and weight gain. I'm sorry, but this has GOT to be the most ridiculous lawsuit I've ever seen in some time. I love how this guy, a 56-year-old man, JUST realized that fast food is bad for you. This is a bunch of b.s. I mean, c'mon! Does this mean I can sue gay bars because they give me inferiority complexes? I can sue Best Buy for all the wasted time and money I've spent watching DVDs and CDs I've bought there? This is ridiculous! What's even worse is that this jack-off is getting press time when there are more important issues that need to be dealt with...DUMB...ASS...

Going Dutch

Just got back from seeing "Goldmember" at the Arclight Theater. Funny, funny, funny stuff...Lots of cameos and lots of great gags...This is probably the funniest movie I've seen this year...

Thanks to Caleb, I took an online "What Muppet are you?" test. I don't have the link here, but I'll post it once I get to my work computer tomorrow. According to the results, I'm Fozzie. Wakka, wakka, wakka! But c'mon, my jokes aren't THAT bad. All right, maybe they are...but...Soon after, I found out that most everybody I know is Fozzie. Drew is a Fozzie as well as Ted and David...

Been hitting up the TV themes on the iPod during the fun commutes to and from work. "Believe it or Not" from "The Greatest American Hero" stands as one of my all-time favorite TV themes. I really, really hope that when the movie version is made, they don't butcher the theme song. The thought of a P.Diddy remix of the song makes shudder...

Look out! Look out!

Whoever invented the roller skate needs to be beaten...on the head...with a roller skate. I mean, wheels on shoes?!? Blisters on your feet? People rolling in a circular path over and over and over again?!? There is absolutely nothing redeeming about roller skating...Actually, if there wasn't roller skating, "Xanadu" wouldn't have been the train wreck that is was...Oh wait, there really isn't anything redeeming to society about roller skating!

Why all this carping? Last night, Ted rounded up a bunch of us to head over to one of the last remnants of this 70s pastime at the Moonlight Rink in Glendale. It really looks like it's stuck in a time warp. You half-expect Judge Reinhold to pop up behind the snack counter to serve up some heated-up, badly-precooked hot dogs. I walked up to the counter and asked for a 10-size skate. Because of my freakish-large feet, that was too tight of a fit. So, I exchanged it for a size-11 skate. This should have been the first sign that skating and me don't mix. I have a hard time navigating my huge-ass feet walking let alone moving them along on wheels!

I eventually hit the rink and try a test run along one side of the rink's perimeter. I could barely move at all. Ted puts it best when he says I look like Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons" when I try to skate. Person upon person whizzes by me as I continue to skate along the 12-foot expanse. The disco ball twirls in the sky while the bad music blares on the speakers. Drew astutely points out that the music never passes 1988 during the course of the evening. Well, there was one expection..."Can't Get it Out of My Head" by Kylie Minogue...but then we realize...it's Kylie Minogue! By the end of the night, I manage to actually make a few full laps around the rink. I really got the hang of it by the time "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (the classic Bonnie Tyler version and not that bastardized dance cover by Nikki French) hit the P.A. system. I think the power of Jim Steinman's chords and lyrics got me going. And yes, I can now say...I skated to Jim Steinman music. Despite my making an ass of myself, it was a lotta fun. We a really big, good group come along with us this go 'round. In my usual dunderheadedness though, I missed a prime opportunity when I passed up a chance to have Drew guide me along in my skating ways...

Yet another busy weekend...Nathan and I attended the first night of the International Pop Overthrow. The big highlights were Linus of Hollywood and The Mello Cads. I had heard of Linus and have both of his fantastic CDs, but I had only heard of The Mello Cads through their website. It was awesome. The Mello Cads are a band that's very much in the whole Burt Bacharach/60s lounge world of music. Hell, they even had go-go dancers up there with them. Fun, fun, show...PLUS, I got my hands on a lot of free sample CDs including a 3CD sampler set of the various artists performing over the next few weeks as part of the IPO. Lots of stuff up my alley...

Saturday, I went with Ted to the Mattel outlet store in El Segundo as part of his quest to find all the new He-Man figures. While Ted was shopping around there, I found a cute little "Come Here Blue" doll for Drew. It's an electronic doll of "Blue" from "Blue's Clues" that hops over to you when you call her. It's sooooo cute and and it's soooooo fun to have it play with Nomi! >:^) Later that evening, I hung out with Drew and his friend from out of town at the Saddle Ranch and then headed back to his place to watch "Fight Club," which I had never seen before.

The week is looking like it's going to be hell-a busy. Lots of things popping up here and there to work on. Fortunately, I won't be going to Orlando this weekend, so that's one less thing looming in the near future. My guess is that I'll probably going to the Sunshine State the following weekend...

Decompressed

I dunno...I've kinda been out of it this week. I'm not sure whether it's been the remnants of Friday's head cold still lingering in my cranium or all this bouncing from coast to coast. Not that anything bad has happened. In fact, it's been an eventful but not crazily busy week...

Monday, I got to check out "Islands of Adventure" in the morning before I headed to the airport. I'd never been to IOA before. The last time I went to any of the Universal theme parks before these Orlando trips was just before they opened it up. It was quite neat...especially since I got to get in for free. Checked out the Marvel Super Hero Island's attractions. "Spider-Man" definitely lived up to all the hype about it and "Hulk" is probably one of the smoothest steel coasters I've been on. I got soaked on the "Dudley Do-Right" ride and went to the "Cat in the Hat" attraction which was VERY cute. The plane flight was all right and I got home just in time for a good ol' dose of L.A. rush hour traffic. HOORAY!

Things have been at nice decent level of busy-ness at work this week. Did a couple things for the Kato project and some other presentations we've got coming up. From what I hear, I'll probably be back in Orlando the weekend after this weekend and if not then, the weekend after that one.

Nightlife has been relatively calm as well...Got together with Gary, Drew, Nathan, Christie, and Erin on Tuesday night and saw a bunch of the game show folk on Wednesday. And I've just been loafing about today.

Nothing else too exciting to talk about this week...but 'tis probably best. It just gives me a bit more time to wind down from the craziness of all this traveling over the past couple of weeks.

Tickety-tock

The first weekend out here on my own in Orlando turned out quite well. We've did twelve shows...and I'd say that all of them turned out decently. There was some really good gameplay on today's stunts. The PAX execs seemed happy too with what they saw, so that's always a good sign. Other than that, nothing much really to report...There hasn't been really that much time to do anything else. I was able to shake most of this head cold off, but there is some lingering stuffiness.

Tried to make a Chik-Fil-A stop on Saturday for dinner, but alas, I was thwarted by its 10 PM closing time. And Sunday, well...there are never any Chik-Fil-As open on Sunday. :-( Oh well, I guess the Chik-Fil-A run will have to wait for the next trip out here...which sounds like it's could be as soon as a couple of weeks from now!

My own little island of adventure...

So 'twas quite the busy day at work yesterday. Lots of loose ends to tie up before I headed out to Florida. Got home and got all packed quicker than I expected. Called up Drew and dragged him along with me to Amoeba Records where I picked up some of the new Peter Gabriel reissues as well as a CD from OAR, a band I had never heard of but Drewby said I might like. As we exited Amoeba, I got a call from Matt. Matt had just gotten done with work for the day over at "30 Seconds of Fame" and asked if we could join up with him for some drinks. Sooo, we headed over to The Abbey where we met up. And it actually was quite bearable again, even more so than the last time I went. It wasn't even supercrowded. We then had a late dinner over at Bossa Nova where Matt and Drew each treated the waiter with a joke. We then all headed home and I crawled into bed for the early flight the next day.

Got up early for the flight today with quite the stuffed head. Not the best thing in the world...Security was a bit tighter this go 'round with the recent incident that happened at LAX. Nevertheless, I go to the boarding gate with a hell of a lot of time to spare. There I dozed off intermittently until it was time to board the plane. Slept for most of the flight. I mean, I was out like a light. I never, ever fall asleep that hard on plane flights. Touched down about 5:15-ish Florida time and was driven over to the "Beat the Clock" offices. Got caught up on what's on the sked for this weekend's tapings and got a chance to view the first edited episode from last week's tapings. Did some location scouting for some exterior stunts we're thinking of doing on future shows and headed to the hotel where I sit now typing this to all of you. Had some dinner, watched a bit of the "Price" special, and the Marc Anthony special. Now, really...what is the deal with Marc Anthony? He just seems like a poor man's Jon Secada. I dunno...Well, I'm gonna head off to bed and shake off the rest of this stuffiness...

Sunshine state looming over my shoulders...

It's official...I just got the travel schedule for my return to Orlando this weekend. I'll be in from Friday to Monday. And as an added wrinkle, I'll be the sole person from the Fremantle contingent there at the tapings this weekend. The exec who was supposed to go to the taping ended up not being able to go this weekend, so I'm going in her place.

Because of the quick return to Florida, it was quite hectic in the office. I felt like Stretch Armstrong at one point as person upon person had something they needed me to do before I left for town again on Friday. Crikeys...To add to the madness, Kato Kaelin was in the office today to start work on the show the company is producing with him. At one point, he gave me a high-five. How surreal has my life gotten?

Not so fast...

Looks like my return to L.A. is shorter than I expected...I get a call from my boss's assistant morning asking me, "Have you unpacked yet?" I told him, "No." And then hs says, "Don't unpack because you're going back to Florida this weekend." Oy...Fortunately, this go 'round won't be as long. I'll be going back there on Friday and getting back to L.A. on Monday afternoon. We're doing another 12 shows of "Beat the Clock" with six on Saturday and six on Sunday. While I don't mind going back there, I was hoping to spend some catch-up time with everybody, especially with you-know-who. I guess that will have to wait until next week.

Fortunately, I had some time to decompress today. I did some laundry and a little shopping. And I got to have lunch with Drewby (aka "you-know-who" for those of you playing at home). :-) Other than that, I just vegged and took care of a few "Beat the Clock"-related things from home.

Back in L.A.!

Well, I'm back in L.A. The rest of the "Beat the Clock" tapings went quite dandily. By the end of the weekend, we had twelve episodes on tape. It was a great experience. The staff and crew in Orlando really busted their butts to make this work.

And despite that fact that I was in Florida, I had some guests come to see the show. On Saturday, David Hammett and Brian Dominy dropped in to see the show and on Sunday, my mom, my grandmother, and my DAD came up to see the tapings. So, needless to say, I backed out of fulfilling my resolution about "you know what." They all seemed to like the show. Plus, it was nice to show my dad and grandmother what I get to do for a living. :-) We went out to dinner after the taping and went shopping down International Drive this morning. I visited probably the biggest FAO Schwarz that I've ever been to.

I must say that that's the one thing I've noticed about Orlando...Everything is BIG here. The Virgin Megastore is three floors high. The Lego Store is puts the Anaheim one to shame. There are HUGE McDonald's everywhere. Oh, and they've got Chik-fil-A's everywhere.

But ya know, as fun as it was out in Orlando, by the weekend, I was soooo ready to go home. I got home at 5:15-ish. Larry picked me up and our drive home was amazingly fast. There was not a lot of traffic at all on the 405. I had come home to a bizarro LA. :-)

So I got home...and there was Nomi greeting me with her usual evil coldness. She wouldn't even let me pet her. That bitch...I saw the new living room decor which is quite stylish and nice. Lots of grays, blues, and greens. We've even got a bean bag! After I got home, Ted, Larry, and I went to Ryan's place for his going-away party. :-( It's a shame he's leaving town. He's a really good guy. Still, he said he could come back if things don't pan out in Utah where he's going. And after that I got home to see Matt and Thomas. Did a little catching up with them while Larry, Matt, and Thomas snooped on my computer and Ted went to the airport to pick up Caleb.

Ahhh...sooo good to be back home, but from what I hear I could be going back to Orlando this weekend. Oy... :-)

Fireworks, Fireworks, Fireworks!

Had quite the Fourth July. Dropped into the "Beat the Clock" offices to check up on a few things. Then, in the afternoon, Davy's friend Kyle picked me up from my hotel to go to Johnny's for the big Fourth of July cookout they were having. Just one hitch...It was RAINING big time. We trek through some sheets of rain and arrive at Johnny's place. There were a bunch of people there. Eddie Izzard "Dressed to Kill" played on the TV. After a bit of mingling, this guy comes up to me and asks me what my last name. Now, it just seemed a bit odd to me that somebody would ask my last name first upon meeting me. Then he tells me his name is Darren and I realize that I'm not meeting somebody for the first time. Darren was somebody I knew briefly while growing up in South Florida. We took music lessons from the same school. The other thing was he was the first person that I knew other than myself who really liked game shows. In fact, he was a contestant on "Wheel of Fortune" during a Teen Week in the 1987. The odd thing is that we had not spoken in over a decade and in the coincidences of all coincidences we bump into each other at this party! Needless to say, it was very cool. He has been living in the Central Florida area for a few years and is still quite the big game show fan. So, we exchanged contact info effectively increasing the circle of people I know in the Central Florida area by another pesron. :-)

Darren was kind enough to take me Citywalk where I met up with a few of the "Beat the Clock" folk to celebrate the Fourth of July. We were able to get into a special reception hosted by Universal for its production staff near the lagoon at Citywalk. There quite the catered feast was being served up. And it was all free! Free food and a free open bar. Mmmmmmm....Strawberry Daquiris.... :-)

While we waited for the fireworks, Paul, one of the people who works for Universal took us on a speed tour through the different clubs at Citywalk. Without a doubt, it does rings around the Citywalk in Los Angeles. We then head back to lagoonside for the fireworks. All I can say, is WOW...This was the best fireworks show I've ever seen in my life. The fireworks emanated from about five locations spread out through both Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure. Our spot at the lagoonside was PERFECT. It gave us a central view of the whole shebang. It was like fireworks in widescreen. I've never seen a crowd "oooh" a fireworks show so much. After show, was the "big-ass-tourists-leaving-Citywalk-stampede" show. It was basically the human equivalent of the 405....either that or the worst massive conga line...ever. Miraculously it took us only a half hour to get back to the hotel to get some much-needed rest for the first day's worth of taping.

And that brings us to today...the first day of taping of "Beat the Clock." We had some camera blocking and rehearsal in the morning. I got to some stand-in work by playing as a contestant during the dress rehearsal game. I tried out some stunts including one which I suggested. The sad thing is...I sucked at the stunt. I also got a chance to try out the bonus round...I won't divulge what it's all about quite yet, but it's quite fun and much harder than it looks on TV.

In the afternoon, we started taping for real. And things went MUCH, MUCH more smoothly than any of us could imagine. The audience was enthusiastic and probably because they were pretty much all guests of the park who had never seen a TV taping before. By the end of the day, we had two really really good episodes done. I think we've got another good revival on our hands with this one. It's got all the fun of the classic "Beat the Clock," but we've really put together a format that provides more of a game structure than any of the other versions did. Hopefully, the fun translates to the screen when the show premieres on September on PAX.

All in all, it's been a good trip out here so far. Still, though, I miss the bunch back in L.A. But thanks to technology and the internet, they're just a mouse-click and a phone call away. Drew and I are still able to call each other every now and then and I got to talk with Ted, Larry, and the bunch last Thursday while they had their big Fourth of July bash.

Southern nights...

Big rehearsal day today. The stunts look great. There were the usual instances of birthing pains involved, but I think we'll be up and ready for Friday's inaugural taping of "Beat the Clock."

Tonight, I met up with Davy, a friend of Ted's who lives here in town. He picked me up from the hotel along with his friends Johnny, Thomas, and Jeremy. In the midst of the drive, we pass by "Bible World." There is actually a Baptist bible theme park in Orlando. To which we all pondered..."Do they have a gay day?" We drove to Johnny's place before we headed out for a little clubbing...yes that's right...CLUBBING...in the evening.

Johnny, Davy, and I headed over to a place called "Southern Nights," a gay club in the Orlando area and I think the only gay club I know that shares a name with a Glen Campbell song. Well..come to think of it I could be wrong...There could conceivably be a gay club called "The Rhinestone Cowboy"...hmmm...

Anyhoo, we get to the club and it's pretty crowded. For those of you familiar with WeHo, think of everything in WeHo concentrated in this one club in the middle of the Central Florida suburbs. The crowd was a bit...eclectic. There were young guys and old guys, twinks and bears, jocks and skanks, and lesbians, lesbians, lesbians! I swear it was practically "It's a Gay World After All." All that was missing was the boat and some cute guy in an Venetian gondola rower's uniform saying "how many?" I'm not really a club person, but it was nice to get out of the hotel room for the night and meet some new people. There were many rooms in this club. It reminded me of the different "lands" at the Magic Kingdom. There was the main bar, the dance floor, a blacklight room with a stage where a bunch of drag queens performed, and a Tiki patio bar outside. There was some eye candy to savor milling about and there were people at various stages of being clothed with a few going a bit too far into the unclothed realm. We hung out there for a couple of hours or so before Davy and Johnny took me back to my hotel room. It was really cool...Plus, they were just the sweetest to me. They've even invited me to a BBQ at Johnny's tomorrow afternoon which I probably will go to...

Airing things out...

Here it is...the first weblog entry from Florida at "Beat the Clock" central. I arrived a few hours ago. The flight was quite nice. I flew with my boss Jeff, our host Gary Kroeger, and our exec producer Mark Maxwell-Smith. Before I boarded the plane, I got paged over the intercom. I needed to re-check in. I got a bit worried…Did I do the E-Ticket thing wrong? Were my bags misplaced? What did I do?!? So I go up to the counter and I handed in my boarding pass. It was just like any other E-ticket boarding pass…a coach pass in the 24th row. They take it and exchange it with another one. I look at my boarding pass and discover that it’s a seat in first class. Sweeeeet…

The flight was quite smooth and the food was ok. For entertainment, there was some movie with Ray Liotta and Vanessa Redgrave followed by episode upon episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” And the service was decent. It’s funny…the head flight attendant looked strikingly like a mix of two people from my dating past. And I would have sworn he played for the team…but I noticed what looked like a ring finger on his hand…Hmmmm….

We landed around 5-ish Eastern time. As we approached the ground for landing…I was reminded about the skewed nature of cities in Florida. I could pick out a the nuclear power plant in a sea of marsh followed by a new community development with mini-strip malls flanking it, while just blocks away was a trailer park community…Ahhhh….Florida…

It was clear that it had just rained when we landed. The tarmac was wet and there were walls of clouds all around us. And they call this the Sunshine State. Bah!

Ethan, one of the PAs, picked us up and took us to the studio. It was quite surreal to be back at the place where I would often vacation with my family while growing up. It was even more surreal to see roller coaster sprouting up just feet away from the soundstage and production offices.

So we arrive at the offices which happen to be in the same building as the offices for Nickelodeon in Orlando. This was a very cool treat…The halls were adorned with memorabilia from the various Nickelodeon shows that taped there. I was introduced to the staff and soon after that I got a tour of the set. After a production, we headed back to the hotel.

Quite a full day to say the very least…

Pack-man

Well, I'm pretty much packed and ready to go...Tomorrow, I head to Florida. And sure enough, about three years ago around this time, I had just moved to L.A. Needless to say, time flies. And much has changed since that crazy first few weeks here when I slept on an air mattress in my gray apartment in North Hollywood while I quickly learned that the long-distance relationship (and my first one ever) that I had maintained while I was in college worked best as a long-distance relationship.

This trip to Orlando will mark the first time I've traveled since I've had this weblog up. I'll be bringing my laptop with me, so I'll try to keep semi-regular updates of my travails in Orlando while I'm there. In addition to meeting up with the family and keeping tabs of things over at "Beat the Clock"-land, I might be meeting up with Davy, a friend of Ted's from the "Gay He-Man" Internet mailing list. Yes, as hard as it might be to believe, there IS a group of "Gay He-Man" fans and they have an organized group on the 'net. Go figure...Actually, I shouldn't be one to talk. :-)