Another Blogging Blogger

Dream Journal

2009-09-21T02:29:00.000-07:00

I only remember disjointed pieces of my dreams so I will do my best on this.
I remember Vee and I were in her mom's kitchen waiting for her. It felt like a sound stage for a TV show, because the kitchen was lit but everything outside the kitchen, like the living room and dining room were in such dark shadow it was as if they weren't actually there. Vee and I were eating left overs and were waiting for her mom to get home from a party. The colors were vivid. Vee's mom walked in wearing a blue out fit with a blue bandana. She looked as though she was our age. She came in laughing and teased us for eating her food.

The dream somehow transitioned to me being at some sort of hardware store with Vee and her step-dad, Steve. I was having serious anxiety and my chest hurt really bad. It actually felt pretty real. This part of the dream was in black and white, but nothing was truely black, just grey. The building didn't seem real and it was like the checkout lines were in the middle of some vast, grey space. I could see the road we needed to take when we left. It was floating in the grey space as if it was hanging low in the sky, but there was no ground. I tripped over some tires during my anxiety attack, but nobody cared, they just walked around me. I think I was heading to the bathroom to splash water in my face. I don't recall much after that.

The last part of my dream took place in some makeshift comedy club. It really felt like we just built a fort and called it a comedy club. There were some people I thought I knew in my dream that were made up by my brain. we made a camp fire in the middle of the floor and we were getting all philosophical even though it was the middle of the day. The guy tending the fire was named Jason. I explained to him that I thought it was interesting the we know many people with the same names, but when the name is applied to a particular person, it takes on a different characteristic in my mind. The word Jason felt different to me when I thought of this friend, instead of my cousin of the same name. I told him that although I had a cousin named Jason, I thought of him first whenever I heard the name. My comedian friend had been standing in the door way listening and he said that whenever he heard the name Ryan he thought of me first, even though his own name was Ryan. In my dream I felt flattered. Suddenly there was a congregation of people in the club for a meeting. The host of the club was a big Hawaiian guy with a short cut beard. He told us that he was disappointed in the reality show he was working on, because it was supposed to be about comedians, but it had some "so called" comedians like Tracy Ullman. I thought she seemed cool, but I went along with his attitude in antagonizing her and said, "Yeah, it's like they just threw her in as a foil." He didn't hear me say "foil" and thought I didn't finish my sentence out of disgust, so he laughed and agreed.

That is when I woke suddenly at 2:30 AM. Interestingly, Vee had just woken up too. I don't know when woke us up, but neither of us could get back to sleep, so I came in here to write this blog.

One of these old things.

2008-06-29T22:12:00.001-07:00

Just incase you wanted to know some random shit about me.

1. What is your occupation? Animator
2. What color are your socks right now? Not wearing any.
3. What are you listening to right now? Coast to Coast with George Noory
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Cafe Rio Salad
5. Can you drive a stick shift? I sure can. My first car was one.
6. What color crayon would you be: Blue!
7. Last person you spoke to on the phone? Vee
9. How old are you today? 24
10. Favorite drink? Rutherford Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon
11. What is your favorite sport to watch? Arena Football
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yeah
13. pets? My boys, Jake and Walter.
14. Favorite food? Thai
15. Last movie you watched? Idiocracy
16. What do you do to vent anger? I swear. . . I guess more than I normally would. . . if that is possible.
17. Favorite Day of the year? July 7th
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? A brief case. I'm not fuckin kidding.
19. What is your favorite, fall or spring? Spring
20. Hugs or kisses? Hmmmmm I dunno actually.
21. Cherry or Blueberry? Blueberry
25. Current living arrangements? I own my abode.
26. When was the last time you cried? When my dog died last november. Holy shit, that was a long time ago.
27. What is on the floor of your closet? laundry and shoes.
30. Favorite smell? The bouqet of a fat red wine.
31. What inspires you? 3:45 am
32. What are you afraid of? Airplanes
33. Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers? Cheese
34. Favorite car? Scion XB
35. Favorite cat breed? caleco
36. Number of keys on your key ring? 4, both vehicles and front and back doors.
37. How many years at your current job? One and a half years
38. Favorite day of the week? thursday, friday eve
39. How many states have you lived in? Four
40. Today's date and time? Tuesday June 18 2008 12:54 AM.

Holy crazy ass dream, Batman!

2008-05-05T04:03:00.000-07:00

There was a day last week where I was planning to stay up late doing freelance work so I decided to get a nap in before doing so. Vee wanted to take the dogs on a walk while I slept, so I was left alone at home to sleep in peace and quiet.

In my dream I was driving with a work buddy to get some lunch when I thought I was falling asleep at the wheel. I told my buddy that and he was freaking out and yelling that we should pull over so we don't crash. Well I grab ahold of the wheel and tried to turn left at an intersection, but the drowsiness kicked in and we were t-boned. The scene went white and my body felt numb.

I then "woke up" in my bed to the sounds of my dogs. I thought Vee had just gotten home so I called out to her. I heard her giggle and sort of laugh at me for calling her name. I thought that was weird, so I called out to the dogs who usually run to me when I say their names. I was geting no response, which made me a little concerned, so I thought it was a good time to get out of bed and investigate.

I sat up and by the night light in the kitchen I could see that there was a wind blowing through the house. I was really confused so I hurried over toward the door, but I tripped just short of it. I reached up and flipped the bedroom light switch, but instead the kitchen light came on. This freaked me out! It all seemed to incredibly real, but I had read online that one sign that you are in a dream is that the wrong lights will turn on when you flip a switch. In a sort of panic because of this discovery I rushed into the living room where I found that our couches were gone and all that was in their places were flattened cardboard boxes. Walter and jake were standing on the flat boxes and they were cowering away from me as if I looked really scary. The curtains had also been replaced by blankets I wasn't familiar with.

I was yelling for Vee and stumbling around the living room, still not able to believe I was dreaming, because of how real it felt. I turned around to enter the kitchen and I tripped again, this time waking up for real. I was still in bed and I was still alone. It was one of the eeriest feelings ever. And because it felt so real to stand in the living room, when I woke it literally felt like I teleported their or something.

Crazy shit!

Impromptu four day weekend.

2008-04-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

I woke up Thursday morning not really wanting to go in to work. I know that is how most people feel on any given morning before going in, but on Thursday it was a stronger feeling than usual. I really just needed and extended weekend, but I wasn't going to do anything about it, because I would rather save up my vacation days for this Summer.

I pulled in to the office parking lot at about 9:30 am to the scene of everyone standing outside the building and watching as fire fighters went in and came out of the building. I initially thought there was a minor issue like a small fire or something like that.

I parked my car and found a few of my friends in the crowd and asked what was going on. It turned out that a water main had broken underneath the building and to make it worse, the water had cracked the walls and had done enough damage for the fire marshall to declare the building unsafe until further notice.

We were informed of this and sent home to wait to hear when we can get back in the building. I got the phone call from a co-worker letting me know that we couldn't get back in until 10:30 am Monday morning. I really do feel bad for my boss, because I am sure this was a major stress and I also am dreading the fact that they may have us make up the time lost, but I will say that having Thursday and Friday off on such a short notice was a great surprize and I definitely made the best of the time.

It still amazes me how fast a weekend can blow by even when it's an extra long one. Oh well, I just hope it doesn't smell like moldy, wet furnature when I get in to work in the morning.

Lookin' for inspiration.

2008-04-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of weeks I have been tormented with a lack of creativity when it comes to my personal non-paying artwork. I"m pretty sure it stems from working all day and then coming home and doing freelance. I definitely have been burning myself out lately. I'm not complaining, because I enjoy the extra cashola, I just need to figure out some way to free my mind from this creative block, so I can do more comics and animations for my personal projects.

A nice relaxer this weekend will be seeing Bill Cosby live in Wendover, NV with the wifey and a couple of our good friends. I am taking Friday and Monday off of work, so this week I will be celebrating Thursday eve instead of Friday eve. Two four day weeks and a four day weekend sounds like a great way to unwind to me.

Oh yeah, also I found out that our Shitzu, Walter is ticklish and he hates it! All I have to do is tickle him just under his back legs and he freaks out at me and tries to bite. I tried it on Jake too, but he just looked at me like he didn't know what I was doing and was wondering why. I promised not to tickle Walter anymore, but damn it was funny.

Too chipper in the mornin'!

2008-03-26T01:25:00.001-07:00

So, I wouldn't consider myself a negative person. I enjoy life for the most part and absolutely love to enjoy a great day. However, I have a hard time being around people who are what I would consider "too happy" in the morning. Sometimes I get to work and I am still trying to wake up and at that time of the morning I would like to just be left alone until my mind kicks in to gear. But, I know people who insist on getting in my personal bubble (which has a wider radius in the morning) and putting their smiley face too close to my still groggy one. I seriously don't want to sound like a grouch here. I just can't stand hearing about how great the day is going to be when I still have 8 fucking hours to go in my work day. It might be something psycological, but when someone tries to initiate an overly pleasant conversation with me too early in the morning, it makes me want to be more grouchy. I do have to say that this only applies to work, because I love seeing Veronica when I wake up and I hope that just by seeing her that moment of the day is pleasant. One of these days I will type up a transcript of one of these convos to illustrate my point, cuz I feel like I am coming off as an ass hole. If you know someone who is just too god damned happy in the morning please let me know, so that I'm not the only one feeling this way.

Anywho, the wine is kicking in so I think I am going to check out for the night. Woohoo 2:53 am is going to bed early for me!

Up late for noooooooo reason.

2008-03-25T03:50:00.000-07:00

Maybe I like to torture myself. It definitely seems like I do. I have been up late every night lately, because of the freelance job, but tonight I had nothing to do. Yet, here I am at 4:52 am. I did have a fun time sketching and listening to coast to coast, so it almost feels worth it. The picture in this post may be a dramatization, but I think it accurately portrays how I truely feel.

Too much workin'.

2008-03-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

The time between posts seems to get longer these days. I have been extremely busy lately. I picked up some freelance animation work outside of my day job. Its been keeping me up late at night, but it should pay off well. It's been like having two full time jobs, though and that is kicking my ass.

I did get a nice night off last week when we went to see Les Claypool in concert in downtown Salt Lake. It was nice to give myself a little night to relax and listen to some funky music. That guy can really pluck the bass.

My side work has also sadly forced me to put off working on animations and comics for my cartoon website. I had a lot of cool ideas I was going to work on that I haven't been able to work on. I am going to set aside some time over the next couple of days to get back into the groove. I got so excited about starting the site, that I would hate to let it die so soon.

Anyway, time for work. I hope it was a great holiday weekend for everyone.

Spring forward.

2008-03-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

We sprung forward this weekend, but you never really feel it until that first Monday morning when your body is used to an extra hour of sleepy time. It was a pretty cold and breezy week, yet the day we set our clocks for Spring time, it suddenly felt like spring. We took the dogs on a walk and I didn't wear my jacket. I have been so excited for Spring since Fall turned into Winter. I really despise Winter. I have a feeling this is going to be a very nice Spring. We went to a home and garden expo and got some awesome ideas for what to do with our yard this year. I am hoping to spend a lot of time in the ol' garden.

The brick wall.

2008-03-03T03:37:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I run into these brick walls of un-inspiration. I have been awake all night trying to think of a funny idea for today's comic on channelate. All the previous comics came to me rather easily, but I knew there would come a day where I would draw a blank and not much else. I think I need a little change in environment to do some writing. There are some fun coffee shops in my area, so I might try one of them out. I even sifted through a four hour recording of our hang out on friday night and I still couldn't pull anything out of it. Its all in my head though. there are people who can do this every day, like I am trying to do and I admire them. It's not like anyone is putting the pressure on me either, I set this goal for myself, so I am only letting myself down if I miss a day.

At least my new year's resolution to work out regularly has been an easy one to uphold. I don't usually last long with commitments like those, but I have the support of Vee, who works out with me every time I go. Well, my eyelids are falling. I'm out.

The Stumble Effect

2008-02-24T23:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I know I have neglected my blog a lot lately, but it was for a good reason. I have been putting together a new website called channelate.com. Right now it is the home of my daily web-comic, "Note to Self". There are plans to also have animated cartoons and other fun crap on there too.

I titled this post the way I did, because of an interesting thing that has happened on my site, which has only been up for about a week. Before being submitted to StumbleUpon my site got no more than 10 or so hits a day. After being submitted to StumbleUpon, my hits have risen every day in surprising numbers. Thursday brought me 291 hits, Friday brought me 890 hits, Saturday brought 3,662 hits, Sunday brought in a monster 8,678! Right now I'm only 38 minutes into Monday and my hit count is 157!! I really can not believe these numbers. on the first day I thought it was a fluke, but the rise every day has me wondering if it will ever slow down. I just hope my site doesn't go over its bandwidth.

I really hope that I can get some return readers out of all this traffic that is coming in. I want this comic to be worth-while and enjoyed.

How well has stumble helped you???

Happy V- Day!

2008-02-14T14:18:00.000-08:00

Please enjoy this comic I drew in the spirit of this wonderful holiday. And if you don't have that special someone to make sweet sweet love to tonight, at least make love to yourself. :)

I am a horrible Blogger

2008-01-31T03:12:00.000-08:00

There is plenty I could write about. So, why does it seem I can only get myself to write once a week? I really do want to start blogging more regularly, so I guess all I can really do is get my butt in gear. I do not have an excuse. I have been ignoring my wine blog pretty badly too. I guess that means I need to consume some more wine. I will get started on that right away!

We are heading to St. George, Utah for a little vacation, so hopefully I will return with some fun stories and pictures. On the trip we are planning to stop by a winery that makes wine out of everything, but grapes. That should be fun, so I am sure I will have a lot to talk about on this blog and the wine blog. Anyway, I am insanely tired, so its off to bed for me.

I'm a Thai Guy

2008-01-20T02:32:00.000-08:00

So, I freaking love Thai food. It is safe to say that it is my favorite. It's Vee's favorite too and today we both had the strongest craving for it. We called up a couple friends we hadn't seen in a while and invited them to meet us at one of our favorite Thai places in town. We got there at about 3:30 and found out that it had closed after lunch and would open again at 5:00. We were so crushed, because we got ourselves so excited to eat there and we're also chubby, so food cravings have an effect on us when we are let down. Vee called our buddies to tell them we would have to find a new place to meet when the owner of the restaurant came out and told us to come in and take a seat. Vee told him she thought they were closed and he said they were, but that he would cook for us! This place is always busy, so I know he didn't do that just to get extra business. Every time I've been there he has been super nice and this just showed that he really cares about having happy customers who will return because of the great service. So, we had a great lunch with our friends today, with the restaurant all to ourselves.

Also kick ass today, my mom gave us her piano, because her new husband has a baby grand. A free piano! Kick ass! I want to sand it and paint it this spring so that it matches the rest of the house. Everything else in the living room is Ikea brown. lol

Gahd. . . it's after 4 am. What the hell am I still doing up?

I'm checkin out now.

Family Words

2008-01-12T15:40:00.000-08:00

I was listening to a local call in show yesterday and there was this guy on who was talking about "family words". These are words or phrases that your family has invented or that caught on because of a situation that made a lasting impression. It reminded me of a favorite family word that we have been using since I was a kid that I still use today with my wife.

My little sister had this annoying, controlling friend that over time had driven her so nuts that she didn't want to play with her anymore. She hadn't told this to her friend, however and was invited to the girl's birthday party. A week before the party, my sister told the girl she wasn't going to be able to make it to the party and the girl explained that her mom had already bought party hats for everyone attending. My sister told her she was sorry, but that she really couldn't go. Then, after a pause and with a grimace on her face the girl said, "Well, that was a waste of a hat!".

Since then, any situation that turns into a waste of time or a wasted trip it is referred to as a "waste of a hat".

The last time I said that was when I had worked on a file at work for a half hour with out saving it and the power went out. That was a major waste of a hat.

I hope this post hasn't been a waste of a hat for you!

Please share your family words!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T03:15:00.000-08:00

2008 already? What the hell, man? I thought we just had a new year. 2007 was really the fastest passing year of my life, yet soooo much happened in it. I started a new job, Vee and I got married, my sister got married, my mom got married, my dad got married. Man, it was an action packed year.

I don't want to make the same stupid resolutions that I always do. Ofcourse losing weight is a goal of mine, but that one is on going, so it can't be a New Year's resolution. I think I want to work toward getting over my fear of flying so that I can visit my aunt in LA more often. Its only an hour or so flight, but I am terrified to do it. How lame.

Vee and I are also going to try to make our bed every morning. Thats a nice and easy resolution so that we can have one that we succeed at and feel good about ourselves.

I think I need to make a goal of getting to bed at a reasonable hour every night. Writing this blog at 4:23 AM just isn't right. I am not going to be worth shit in the morning. Its going to be my first day back from a 10 day holiday from work. I am having the worst "going back to work" blues I have ever had.

I think I have rambled enough for one blog.

Sleep Paralysis

2007-12-20T09:23:00.001-08:00

If you are not familiar with sleep paralysis, check out this wikipedia article about it, it is very informative.

In short, sleep paralysis occurs when your mind awakens from REM sleep and your body stays paralyzed. Its something that happens to me and I used to consider it a problem. I don't consider it a problem any more because I discovered that most of the time I experience it when I fall asleep on my back, so I try to sleep on my side.

The other night, however, I accidentally fell asleep on my back and sure enough I woke up in the middle of the night unable to move. Even though I have been through it many times before, it never fails to scare the shit out of me. I was completely aware that I was awake, but sounds from my dream were still going on and it sounded like they were in the room. I tried to call for Veronica, because paralysis can be immediately stopped by someone touching you. I struggled to get the words out, but to no avail, then suddenly my body snapped out of it.

The scared feeling always leaves me immediately and I almost feel dumb for being scared. I then realized something happened that I have never thought about before: Veronica had woken up and witnessed my paralysis. I had never thought about what it might look like to see someone struggling to wake up their body.

I looked at her and told her that i had just had paralysis and she told me that she suspected that was what was happening. She said that my lips were quivering as if I were deathly cold and I had a whimper in my voice. I told her that was me trying to say her name so that she would wake me up and she told me that she was afraid that waking me up would freak me out. I told her that if she ever saw me that way again that I would appreciate it if she would shake me awake.

Hearing her description of what I looked like made me want to see if I can get a video recording of it sometime. I can usually bet on it happening if I just sleep on my back, especially if its a mid day nap. There are a lot of people in the paranormal world that might be interested in seeing a video like this. Many people think its a supernatural event, because of the auditory and sometimes visual sensations that occur.

I have personally never seen anything, but I have heard things before. One time I heard a low devilish growl while I was frozen there. It was freaky, but I don't believe it was anything more than dream noise, but man it sounded so real, like my ears had really heard it.

Maybe over my holiday break I will look into taking a nap on my back with a camera rolling and purposely freak myself out in the name of science.

Brain Jelly

2007-12-14T06:02:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I get this sadistic urge to stay up all night working on cartoons and miss out on a good night of sleep altogether. Last night was one of those nights and I am already feeling my brain turn to jelly. Sometimes I wish there was a cure for the need to sleep. Sure, I love to sleep when I get there, but there is so much I could be doing instead and the nightly battle I fight to actually get to sleep sometimes makes it seem like its not worth it. Ofcourse, right now all I can think about is sleeping and about how hard it is going to be to stay awake at work. No big deal though, we have a deadline today and I have finished most of my tasks for it.

HERE'S TO FRIDAY!

Damn you, COLA!!!

2007-12-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

I have been so weak in my battle to stop drinking so much cola. I really and truly love it. I don't just enjoy cola, its like a part of my daily life. I'm not even talking about the caffeine. I know people who try to stop drinking cola for the caffeine. Fuck that, I love caffeine, how else would I pull the late nights that I do. I'm not giving up all the coffee I drink. Its just that I have always heard of the things in colas that are bad for me and I decided to look some of them up. I looked up phosphoric acid on wikipedia. It said that too much of it can make your bones weak. ACK!!! I seriously gotta stop. And, I'm drinking one right now. Damn damn damn. Seriously.

First of many. . . I hope

2007-12-05T01:59:00.000-08:00

So, I finally have a personal blog. I hope this post will be the first of many. I have tried to have a personal blog before, but it didn't survive for long. I think I have the drive now, though.

This work week has been a busy one, which has helped keep my mind off of my puppy dying last thursday. It was really hard and still is at times, but I'm finally feeling normal. She was a pretty kick ass little pooch and I hope I can be a better pet owner when we decide to get a new pup. I have been looking at ads for malamutes and it makes me want one really bad. I had one when I was a kid and he was the coolest dog.

Well, I am hoping to be more interesting in the future, but damn it I am tired. Here's to a first post!