Tid-bits and bid-tits

Just some random musings tonight seeing how things are just coasting along at nice rate this week...Took Matt and Gigi to see the Halloween show on Lamer Street tonight. Again, if you're in the L.A. area, you must go see this. Tomorrow and Friday are the last nights of the show. Click here for more info.

Kinda miffed that VH1 pulled the plug on the new Liza and David reality show. However, the reports make it seem like David Gest was a pain to work with. What to do, what to do....

Today, in addition to doing work, I was helping Drew come up with possible domain names for his website. Yes, it looks like Drew is wanting to get into the whole web thang. In the midst of the name game, we realized how many different plays on words we could do with the name Drew.

It's been a while since I've done this but it looks like "justin guarini shirtless" is still one of the most popular sets of keyword searches that lead people to my site. Not too far behind though is "aaron the bachelor shirtless." While unfortunately you won't find shirtless pictures of Aaron Buerge (more hottub dates on "The Bachelor," Drew!), you will find references to Aaron from "The Amazing Race" as well as "The Bachelor" and finally the word "shirtless" (from my weblog entry on "Mamma Mia!").

Treat and treat

Been a bit silent here over the past couple days because I've been quite the busy boy. Friday, Gary, Drew, Tom and I went to the Paul McCartney concert at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim. In keeping with the title of Paul's new CD we did a bit of driving in the rain. Actually, it was more like stopping and going a lot in the rain. We left the West L.A. area a little before 6 and encountered traffic jam after traffic jam after traffic jam. Grrr....To keep us preoccupied during traffic, Drew brought along his "Password" home game for us to play. Tom (being the non-game show junkie he is) had never played Password before, but by the end of what became a three-hour drive he was getting the hang of it. And yes, that's right it was a THREE-HOUR drive to Anaheim. I was NOT happy at all. The ticket said that the start time for the concert was 9:00. Needless to say, I was screaming and freaking out as it got closer to 8 and even more so as it got closer to 9 PM. Even worse, when we got there, parking was mayhem. The first parking lot was passed was full. Then, we found another parking lot. Just as we got into the entrance for that lot, it filled up...soooo, we had to pull back out into the street and head to a parking lot even further away from the Pond. We get there a little before 9 and I was seething...I just wanted to get into our seats and not miss any more of the show.

So we arrive there and I hear cheering...The show had already started. The tune of "All My Loving" reverbrated throughout the halls as we tried to find our way through the huge Arrowhead Pond. We finally find our seats as Paul started up "Getting Better." All that went through my mind was, "How much of the show did we miss???" A couple of songs later...I think around "Coming Up"...my blood pressure began to settle. The show was FREAKING awesome. I knew it was going to be good...I didn't know it was going to be THAT good. Maybe I was amazed at how well he could still sing at the age of 60...Maybe I was amazed at the great set list...or Maybe I was amazed at how much fun it looked like he was having. And there were so many great moments. There was a solo set where it was just Paul playing on the guitar or piano while singing. There was the performance of "She's Leaving Home" which gave me chills. He even sang "Here Today," his tribue to John Lennon from my favorite solo album of his, "Tug of War." It was just great. And the rest of the guys loved it as well. Without a doubt, it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. It was definitely worth the aggravation of the drive heading down there. I don't think we missed too much because he played for about 2 1/2 hours after we got in our seats. 2 1/2 HOURS straight!!! I wish I have that much energy when I'm 60! Oh, and just to show you how crazy the drive down was...It only took me an hour to get back to West L.A.

Now, that would seemingly be enough to get me through the weekend. That was just the beginning. Saturday, I had the piano tuned. Then, Drew and I went to a Halloween party thrown by one of his co-worker's. It was fun. Very small and laid-back. It also didn't hurt that his co-workers are very cool. I dressed up as Chuck Woolery complete with Chuck-Buck in pockets and Drew dressed up as a Lego man. Drew's costume was ingenous. He wore a Lego shirt and Ted painted the bottom of a bleach bottle yellow and stuck it on his head. He then painted Drew's face and arms yellow. It looked awesome.

Oh...and I almost forgot the biggest surprise of the night. Before we went to the party, Drew and I joined Ted, Larry, and Caleb in seeing this house on Lamer street in Burbank. It's located behind the Disney Studios. Basically, this group of people set up this huge haunted house facade in front of a house in this Burbank subruban area. The facade looked phenomenal, but what followed was even more spectacular. The people who put this haunted house up do a show in front of it. And it's a show with theater lighting, a soundtrack, and moving set pieces. Describing here in words would NOT do it justice. If you live in the L.A. area, you MUST see it. It's free, but the ask for donations after the show. You can find out more info by going to thefrightgallery.com.

That brings us to Sunday. Sunday, I was awoken by Tom's arrival at my place after his graveyard shift at work. After getting a bit of sleep, he and I went out to lunch in Glendale and then over to Griffith Park where we visited Travel Town, the train park they have there. It was cute. Lots of old steam and electric train engines. There was one engine where the wheels were taller than me. We also took a ride in the mini-train that looped around the park. It was nice, relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Later in the evening, we joined up with Ted and Larry to head over to Chris's place where he was throwing a birthday party for Kenny. And we all capped off the evening by enduring "Michael Jackson's Ghosts," which I had TiVOed out of curiosity the night before. For those of you who aren't familiar, "Ghosts" is a mini-movie by Michael Jackson that is basically a poor man's version of "Thriller" minus the good soundtrack and minus even the remote semblance of a plot.

Ahh...a great, great, weekend. Probably one of the most fun ones I've had in a while. And to think, next weekend might prove to even be more fun!

Mandel on the run

Gonna see Paul McCartney at the Arrowhead Pond tonight....YAYYYYY!!!! This will be the first time I've ever seen any Beatle in concert. Gary, Drew, and Tom will be coming along for the fun...

Just a heads up to watch the Game Show Network halloween marathon tomorrow night. One of the shows is none other than "Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck." It's the Halloween-themed episode that we taped at the end of the first season. This is the elusive Episode #65 that has not yet aired. There are few neat features that we threw in for the Halloween episode including a twist on the "Gem"/"Car" squares.

Everything's all right....bah-bah-bah-baaaaah

Tuesday night, I joined up with Drew and his friends Riki and Dan at The Largo to see Jude perform. 'Twas another great show. One of my favorite numbers that Jude does at the Largo is his piano version of "King of Yesterday." It blows away the version on the album of the same name. The opening act for Jude was Patton Oswalt, a stand-up comedian who has a regular role on "King of Queens." While he had some funny bits, it was clear that he was testing out new material on us. He made the unfortunate choice of doing some material on the Maryland sniper. Now, far be it for me to be the harbinger of good taste, but c'mon...At least wait for the cops to catch the crazy bastard before doing comedy about him in front of an audience! Geez...

Had a few people over to watch "The Amazing Race." It was another rockin' episode. If you don't watch this show regularly, start watching it, dammit!! The Harvard law school divas got eliminated after getting a penalty. To this I say, good bye and good riddance! They were a pox on the Harvard name. Blarg...

Picked up "Mario Party 4" for the Gamecube. It's pretty sweeeeeet...I've loved the "Mario Party" series of games ever since the first one came out for the N64 several years ago. It makes it worth having a few extra controllers around. I remember when I got the first "Mario Party" when I was in college. There was one month where a night would not go by without a bunch of us playing the game. It got to the point where friends would buzz my room on the intercom simply saying "Mariooooooooo!" Ah...fun times...

Up

Boy, things are really picking up...First of all, there's work. After a couple of slow weeks, things are starting to move along again. There's some good news around the corner...It probably won't surprise a lot of my fellow "game show geeks" out there, but it's something that I've been waiting to hear from a definitive source for quite some time. And I'll just leave it at that. ;-)

Had a pleasant surprise today...Tom was back in my neck of the woods and we went out for dinner and then hung out at my place for a bit before he had to make the drive back home. Very low-key, but very nice. Plus, I'm discovering that he has quite the fun sense of humor. :-)

Ahh...Two smileys in one blog...I dunno, I'm pretty damn happy right now. It's been a while since I've felt this relaxed. :-D

One last thing...A big thanks to my friend Caleb for the very sweet weblog entry he put up the other day. I was very touched by what he had to say. Me as a role model, eh? Hee-hee...wow, I'm quite honored to be one. And I'll echo what Caleb said in that a year ago, I would have never have guessed that he and I would be saying what we do in our respective blogs. He is one of two people to keep an eye on in the game show world. The other is Drew, one of my best friends who has been mentioned many a time here. Drew recently got his first break in the game show biz helping a friend of mine with a game show presentation.

Those two are THE ones to watch for in the next generation of game show whizzes. A lot of things they've experienced (Caleb especially) have reminded me of some of the things I went through when I started out just a few years ago. I mean, I thought I was on the fast track with my game show career. Caleb's is on mega-overdrive! And you know what? I can't think of a better person for all of this to happen to. He is one of a handful of people who has the talent and passion to make a great game show. With people like him rising up the ladder, I'll say that the game show world has quite a bright future up ahead for itself.

Magic at Magic Mountain?

Wow...what a difference a night can make...

So last night a bunch of us went to Magic Mountain for Fright Fest. That bunch of us consisted of Ted, Larry, Matt, Jered (whom I hadn't seen since the wrap party of "Whammy"), Nathan, Caleb, Tom, and me. Tom was the friend from gay.com whom I met in person for the first time over dinner Monday night. Originally, Tom and I were going to catch a movie, but we decided to tag along with the rest of the bunch to Six Flags. We first all headed to dinner at Bob's Big Boy before making the trek to over to Valencia.

The reason we went to Magic Mountain so late was to check out "Fright Fest," their annual Halloween-themed night. We got there at 8 PM only to realize that the park was closing at 10 PM. We got a bit miffed at this because the last time we went to Fright Fest, the park closed at midnight. But we went in anyway. We were able to check out one haunted maze and do the bumper cars thing. The bumper cars were much better than the ones offered up at Flik's Fun Fair at California Adventure.

It was quite the fun night. Tom totally clicked with the rest of the gang. Plus, I got a chance to get to know Tom more. I'd go as far to say that I think there's a spark there...dare I say, a mutual spark. It's something I haven't felt in some time, but boy, it feels good. And it doesn't hurt that he's a down-to-earth, sweet guy who also happens to be quite good-looking. :-) Still, I'm going to try to keep a level head about this. I'm going to take this one step at a time...

My friend Brad was kind enough to tell me that I had made it on to tonight's episode of the "Anna Nicole Show" on E! Ya know...the show I was raving about so much when it premiered only to stop watching it about a month later? Anyhoo, here are some screen grabs (courtesy of Brad):


That's me in the black leather jacket next to the faux-hawked, green-shirted Drewby. My roomie Ted is somewhat visible in the first grab.

I tell you, seeing that taping of "Hollywood Squares" has given me quite a bit of air time!

Pyramid power

As promised, I've posted pics of me on the "Pyramid" set from Tuesday. A big thanks to Carl and Jen for taking the pics and scanning them and a big thanks to Aaron for letting us take the pics on the set. Click on the thumbnail to see a larger version of the pic.


Here I am at Donny's podium next to the main game pyramid.


Aaron tries to deduce the clues I give him at the front game table.


Carl, Jen, and I pose in front of the big pyramid.


I get strapped up as I give the clues to Carl in the Winner's Circle.


And last but definitely not least, here's Carl, Aaron, Jen, and me posing with the master of the Pyramid himself...DICK CLARK!

Fun, fun stuff...It was definitely a taping I'll never forget. :-)

Golden rule

Saw "Rules of Attraction" tonight. It was ok. It seemed like an R-rated version of your typical WB college soap but with characters that were more mentally unstable. The big highlights were a couple of left-field cameos, a really good soundtrack, and Ian Somerhalder. Gawd, that man is gorgeous. He so beautiful it hurts.

There were a number of really good moments in the film, but I had this empty-feeling after watching it. Maybe it was the fact that there really weren't any characters you could sympathize with. Or maybe it was the fact that James Van Der Beek's giant forehead is even more off-putting on the big screen. Ted nicknamed his thespianic method: "brow acting." Oooh...he's going to furrow his brow to make him turn into REALLY evil Dawson...oooooh!

Did a little browsing through Amoeba Records after the movie. Tried to find the soundtrack, but it wasn't there. I'm always fascinated by the lunch box collection they have about the cashier's counter. I mean, they've got lunch boxes to Welcome Back Kotter, the Popples, and MR. MERLIN!!! Me want, me want, me want...Actually, if you can't get me the lunch boxes, Ian Somerhalder will suffice. :-)

Ticket to ride

Lots of planning ahead for stuff on the horizon...Got tix to the Ben Folds concert at The Palace on the 13th. I believe it will be just Ben and the piano like the last concert I saw of him about six months ago. The new Ben Folds live album was from the tour. This will be especially fun since Drew's coming along with me and despite being as big of a Ben Folds fan as me, he has never seen him or Ben Folds Five live.

Trying to sort out my winter holiday plans. I'm about 99% sure I'm heading to South Florida for Christmas week. The last time I was home was Christmas of 2000!

Last night, I met Ted's friend Christopher. We all got together to watch the best reality show on this season...The Amazing Race. While Dennis and Andrew bit the dust (wahh...), my faves Aaron and Arianne are still in the race and are near the front of the pack. My friend Keith has a different perspective on the contesti, but I can somewhat understand the vendetta the other teams have against the Zoolander twins. There's just this air of cockiness about them. And they've made some boneheaded moves before in the race. Anyhoo, in spite of its weak numbers, I still think the show kicks "Survivor's" ass. :-)

Are all you game show fans voting in Game Show Network's Feast of Favorites poll? So much to choose from! Being the game show geek I am, I've been placing votes for some of the more obscure titles that rarely air on the network. C'mon Trebek "Double Dare!"

Here is your first taping...GO!

Spent the day doing a little "research" by going to a taping of "Pyramid" today over at the Sony studios in Culver City. However, this was not just any "Pyramid" taping. These tapings featured DICK CLARK playing as a celebrity guest. Three episodes were taped featuring Dick and each had a different celebrity guest playing against him. I'm going to put some obligatory spoiler space for those that don't want to find out any more details...

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The three celebs that Dick played against in the three episodes were Coolio, Karri Turner from 'JAG,' and BETTY WHITE!!! The three shows were dubbed "The Dick Clark Challenge" episodes. They were special in that each time a celeb (including Dick) won the front game, $5,000 was donated to a charity selected by that celeb. I'm not going to go into too many details about what happened into the game. However, I will say this...Dick and Betty gave some excellent clues. All three were good episodes, but the Dick Clark-Betty White showdown was easily the best of the bunch and I'd go as far to say that it was the best episode of the new "Pyramid" that I've seen so far! One thing I noticed is that it gets tense watching the Winner's Circle in the audience. When things got close, I found it very hard to keep quiet. There were a lot of people biting their lips to keep from shouting out during some of the more exciting Winner's Circle moments.

There's no exact airdate yet for the Dick Clark episodes, but from what I gathered, they'll be airing some time during the November sweeps. Great, great stuff...A big thanks to my friend Aaron for getting me seats to the taping and to my a.t.g-s friends Carl and Jen for snapping some pics of me on the set. When I get those pics, I'll scan them and put them up here.

Russian light dressing

Nothing too much to report today...Had dinner with my friend Tom tonight in Santa Clarita. For those of you that aren't familiar with the L.A. area, Santa Clarita is a bit northeast of Hollywood and the Valley area. It's home to Magic Mountain. The thing that I always notice about Santa Clarita is how newly developed it is. There always seems to be some new shopping area or housing community that pops up every time I visit there.

Been watching a bit of the "Russian Roulette" marathon tonight. I'll echo the my friends' Caleb and Drew's thoughts in that the new lighting cues add so much to the show. Everything seems much sharper and more big-budget. One other thing I noticed is that the Russian version of "Russian Roulette" is damn creepy. (My roommate Ted asked..."Do they just call it 'Roulette' over there?")

Bloody hell

A mixed bag of a weekend of sorts...Friday morning, my boss comes up to me and asks if I want to go to Venice Beach in the afternoon to watch the wraparounds taped for the upcoming NBC game show moments special. Needless to say, I didn't have to think twice about it. So that afternoon, we drove down to Venice Beach and sure enough, there was Bob Eubanks and Monty Hall out by the beach taping different segments for the special. I was only able to hang out there for an hour so. Even still, I was introduced to Bob. In the short time that he spoke with us, he told us why he loved hosting "Card Sharks" and gave us his thoughts on the new "Feud" and "Millionaire." Score another one in the "I can't I believe I'm here doing this" column.

Went to the doctor's on Friday for the usual checkup. Got some meds for the minor cold I've been having and had the regular round of blood tests then. I don't know whether it was because I wasn't paying as much attention the last time I had them done, but I was a bit alarmed that they took four test tubes of blood out of me. * shudder * It doesn't help that I hate needles.

Later that night, I went to the Abbey with Matt, Gigi, Matt's straight roommate Jesse. He'd never been to The Abbey so it was quite the experience for him. There we met up with Gary, Drew, and a couple of Drew's friends. Had a random bumping into my friend Brad there. It was pretty crowded, but fun nevertheless, it was somewhat fun. Nothing like being around a sea of guys whom you'll never really have a chance with. Whoop-dee-doo (*twirls finger*) Oooh...is that me being cynical?!? I think it is... >:o)

Last night, I went across the backyard to Caleb's housewarming shindig. There were a good number of people there including TV's Randy West! It's just cool and surreal how intertwined my life is in the game show biz. Our friend Aaron made a funny comment about how the property that Caleb and I live on is like a "game show compound."

Today's been pretty much do-nothing. Just me being lazy watching the tube and putting off cleaning my room. Probably going to head to a friend's birthday shindig later tonight. This upcoming week should be fun though. Just keep an eye out for Tuesday night's post. :-)

Live

Tony Danza and Regis Philbin just got done doing a duet of "Pennies in Heaven" on my TV screen...Good thing I'm going to the doctor today...

No more bets

Guess who came over for dinner? Drew. We finally got around to meeting up for dinner tonight in spite of his hacking and wheezing. There seems to be a bug going around. A number of friends and co-workers haven't been feeling well lately. The past few days, I've also been a bit out of it and groggy. Call it good timing, but I've got a checkup at the doctor tomorrow afternoon that I've had scheduled for the past couple of weeks.

Hung out quite a bit with Drew tonight. When he came over, he wasn't really hungry and neither was I so we just hopped around Burbank to do a little night shopping before our appetites returned. Had a nice late dinner at the Outback before he took me back home. It was nice to spend some quality time with him especially with his busy schedule as of late...

Apparently, a pot luck lunch is happening at work tomorrow...Problem is, I don't have a dish that I can cook here at home. To quote ol' Pooh-bear..."Think...think...think..."

A dying race?

I've said it before and I'll say it again..."The Amazing Race" is the best reality show on television right now. In fact, it's probably the one prime-time I really, really look forward to seeing each week. Unfortunately, after looking at the ratings last night, it doesn't seem like many others share that opinion. I'm going to get on my little internet soapbox here and make a plea to all of you to watch this show and give it a show. In terms of an excitement and rooting factor, it outdoes "Survivor." And while there's been collusion and manipulation like other shows, in the end, it's the teams' skills that play the biggest factor in them winning. The show's format has virtually remained unchanged and it still holds up. It's just a great show to watch. It's a shame that not a lot of people are watching it...

Had dinner with my friend from college, Mike, last night. He worked on a number of Harvard TV projects and was a producer with me on the sketch comedy show that we did there. He's moved out here to join the legions of others who are trying to make it in show bizness. We did a bit of catching up and HRTV reminiscing.

Just a little note...From now on, at the end of each blog you'll see a link called "Speak up, America." Don't worry...it won't take you to a Marjoe Gortner tribute page. Instead, it'll link to my guestbook and give you an opportunity to put a post on my guestbook if you want to reply to anything you see up here. Remember though, anything you put up there is up on the web for everybody to see. :-)

Enter and sign in, please

Look ma, I've added a guestbook to the Mandelweb! Now, you can comment, ask about, and/or make fun of my webpage publicly! Just following the guestbook links on the sidebar and give it a try!

Sloooooowwwww

It looks like another low-key week this week...Was supposed to have dinner with Drew tonight, but those plans seemed to fall by the wayside since he had to stay at work late tonight. I think I'm going to start a new game here on Mandelweb:

"Which will happen first: The Matterhorn reopening or me having dinner with Drew?"

At it looks like we have 99-to-1 odds on Carol Wayne again...Place your bets. Actually, dinner being bumped tonight is partly my doing. He was thinking of taking a brief dinner break tonight to meet up for dinner, but I figured it'd be best to wait until a night when we're not rushed or have work looming over either our heads. The next target date for dinner...Thursday.

Off to The Derby tonight to watch a concert feature some artists on the Franklin Castle label. I'm especially psyched to see Linus of Hollywood and the Mello Cads again. The last time I saw them was when they played at the International Pop Overthrow.

Speaking of music, I picked up the new "Ben Folds Live" CD. It's all tracks taken from the recent tour Ben did with just him performing solo at the piano. By far, one of the best concerts I've seen. While the CD can't capture the full energy of being at a Ben Folds concert, it's probably the next best thing to being at one. The DVD stuff is neat. A must for any Ben fans...

The happiest place...

The weekend point-by-point again...

Friday

• 4:30 appointment at the eye doctor in Burbank...I leave work at 3:30...I end up getting there at 4:45. When I get there, they look at my insurance and can't figure out if I'm covered or not. So, they call up the insurance company, but nobody's answering. They're gone for day. I have to reschedule. Grrr...


• I call up Drew to see what time he wants to meet up for dinner. He says he'll call me when he's done with work


• Drew calls around 9-ish letting me know that he just got out of work. He asks if we can reschedule. Blarg...


• Matt, Nathan, John, and Chris drop by for gay day eve. Matt brings over "Psycho Beach Party." Cute movie...a 'twee bit too camp, but a fun movie nevertheless


• Nathan and Chris spend the night at our place for the big gay day ahead

Saturday

• Get up around 9-ish in the morning to begin Disneyland excursion


• Gigi, Adam, and Joel meet up with us at the house and as well as John and Matt. We split up in different cars and head to Anaheim


• Unlike last year, most of us wear something red. I think Matt, Adam, and Joel were the only holdouts. Gigi even brought a red purse to get into the spirit of things


• I ride with Matt and Gigi. We stop by at McDonald's to fuel up our stomachs before we hit the highway.


• We get to Disney around 11-ish. Simply put, it turns out to be a fun day...more fun than the drama of last year. The crowds are a bit bigger...which probably is a byproduct of a number of rides being closed like the Matterhorn


• We bump into several people we know at the park and over at Downtown Disney including Tony B. and David and David.


• In the evening, we check out a couple of things over at California Adventure before making one last jaunt over to Disneyland. Bad idea...We get to Disneyland right when the night parade was starting. So walking through Main Street is a disaster. There do an encore ride of the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion but there was a mob of people along the way getting ready to see Fantasmic. And when we get there, there's a 90 minute line and no Fastpasses available. Ted picks up the Haunted Masnion Clue at a kiosk before we head over to Tomorrowland to see if we can get on Space Mountain. Another 90 minute line. Arrrrgh. Ted, Larry, Nathan, Matt, and I decide to call it a night and head on home.


• Ahhhh...a new Saturday Night Live and a good night's sleep

Sunday

• Get some errands done like washing my car...I find out that a simple car wash won't get out the water spots on my window and doors. I needs to get it detailed


• I meet up with Drew and his friends at the El Cap to watch "Spirited Away." A GREAT animated film. Probably one of the most original animated films I've seen in quite some time.


• I still have to catch up on "Alias" (my fall season TV watching resolution), but I do manage to watch "Boomtown." I usually don't watch many crime dramas (or dramas in general for that matter), but the hype by the critics about this one is well-deserved.

Nippy

Well, fall is definitely here. "Mandel-rrito" weather has returned and my feet are cold. I actually like this time of the year. It's not hot, but it's not too cold. It's jussssst right.

Not too many of the bunch came over last night watch the travesty that was last night's episode of "Survivor." My college friend, Eddie, came by. He's one of the few people I know from college who live out here in L.A. Actually, another friend of mine from the HRTV days, Mike, gave me a ring a few days ago letting me know that he's moved into town.

I must admit that I've actually grown a bit detached from my college past. It could be that I don't that many people from my Harvard days out here. It could be the distance between me and my close friends from school. Another thing could be that I never really fully came out until I moved out here to L.A. and since then, I've kinda adopted this new circle of friends. Funny what a world Planeout and gay.com can open up...But it's been cool. Since I moved to L.A., I've reached a nice little comfort zone. It really, really has become home for me. I just wonder how things will be when I visit the family back in Florida in December. While I did drop by Orlando this summer, I really haven't been back to the town where I grew up (which is about a 3-hour drive south from Orlando) since 2000. Hell, I don't even know which of my friends still live out there.

The weekend's already filling up...Having dinner with Drew tonight and going to Disneyland for gay day tomorrow...Gay day at Disneyland should be fun. We went last year and it wasn't the most successful trip. In additon to a few other friends, it was Ted, Larry, the guy I'd been dating at the time, and me. The trip was the straw the broke the camel's back in the relationship I was in at the time. That was our last time going out as a couple. Hell, that was the last time I seriously dated somebody. So this really marks my first full year of not really dating. Woo-freaking-ha...Yep, gay day is going to fun tomorrow. >:^)

Sook-jai my ass

That's it, I'm done with "Survivor." Sook-Jai are a bunch of nimrods...I'm through. It's Must-See TV for me until the next one rolls around. Dumb, dumb, dumb....

This, that, and some other things...

Things have been rather slow (been watching a LOT of TV) the past few days, so I'm just going to ramble about some random things...

"Amazing Race 3" is my favorite reality show of the fall season. There was more excitement and action in the first segment of "Race" than there's been in the two episodes of "Survivor" that have aired so far. Andrew, the cute gay cheerleader, reminds me of Brandon from "Survivor: Africa." A big boo to the Harvard Law school princesses...so much drama about the sky diving! Yeesh...But then again, it'd take a lot for me to go skydiving...But then again, that's why I'd never apply for "Amazing Race." The Zoolander twins are a hoot, but my pick after the first episode...Aaron and Arianne.

This fall, I'm going to start a new tradition...It's sort of a "Fall Season Resolution." This is how it works...I'm going to start watching three returning shows that I didn't watch regularly last season. The candidates for this fall: "Alias," "24," and "The Bernie Mac Show."

Here's one from the "I guess it's par for the course" files...Yesterday, I met the host of the Mexican version of "The Price is Right" and "Family Feud." Haven't seen clips of him on "Feud," but the clips I've seen of him hosting "Price" are very funny. He was visiting the office yesterday...

Picked up the Rolling Stones' "Forty Licks"...A great collection of songs. (What? No tracks from "Dirty Work"?? Hee-hee...) The new songs aren't bad either. Missed out on getting tickets to their concert later this month though. Damn, Ticketmaster. :-/ At least, I was able to get tickets for Beck's November show at the Universal Ampitheater. And The Flaming Lips are the opening act. Woo-hoo!

Drizzle drivel

What is it about rain here in Southern California that makes everybody start driving like me? Discuss...

Oh, and...Happy 20th birthday, EPCOT Center!