The Importance of Being Idle: July 2009

So, I started apartment hunting on Thursday and I'm already feeling totally exhausted. I also know Astoria like the back of my hand now. I was literally about to put a deposit in a realtor's hand today until the landlord decided she really only wanted a single person in the apt...unless I moved in for July 15th - because that really makes sense?

You'd think I'd be a little tired of The Beatles due to work, but I'm not! I'm actually watching Across the Universe at the moment (damn do I love me some Oh! Darling), and bought tickets for Sir Paul next Tuesday at Citifield. Let's just hope these tickets aren't fakes and me and my mom will be good to go. And speaking of the gents, I never posted photos from this year's E3.

My flight was coming into LA that Monday morning from Chicago (more on that later), so I had to book it to the Microsoft press conference. When I landed at LAX I realized that due to our idiot travel agency, my rental car was cancelled. I had to sort that all out, actually figure out how to operate the car, and then figure out the directions (got lost right near the place despite having a GPS.) I ended up at the back of the line when the conference was kicking off and I knew our game was up first, resulting me doing something similar to a wee wee dance but couldn't plead with security because of the confidentiality of what was gong down inside. I missed the beginning (Harmonix speaking and playing the game, screening of the game's intro cinematic - if you haven't seen it you really should watch this beautiful piece of work, and our 10 song gameplay trailer.) I got in just in time to see Dhani Harrison come out followed by Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono though, phew!

...followed by Sir Paul and Ringo. Seeing the audience reaction was almost as awesome as actually seeing them.

Tony Hawk photo for good measure...

I left to go to the convention center before Steven Spielberg came out, oh well.

Anyway, our booth was bangin'!

The outside was designed to look like Abbey Road Studios...

As was the inside...

We won G4's award for best booth!

Harmonix demo team working their thang for the crowd inside "Abbey Road Studio 2"...

Stephanie and Cheryl, aka one half of the "Booth Babes" (yes, myself included)

Lego Rock Band action...

In case you didn't know, there are a LOT of songs available on Rock Band!

This year's E3 was a lot different from last year's. 2008 was great and all, but I barely ate and that was no fun. This time I had a handful of awesome meals and fun activities in the evening. This includes stepping on light-up floors with my co-workers...

After that I stayed with Melanie and Eric in Pacific Palisades. They were having some drama with a funky smell emanating from somewhere. After multiple theories, the last thing concluded (when I was there) was that the stink was coming from the spiritual center's lake behind their apt.

Things that look pretty don't necessarily smell pretty...

As a result of the stink, Melanie and Eric were told that they could camp out in the empty apartment across the hall, so we basically squatted there for 2 nights. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice Melrose Place-style building, and a beautiful renovated apartment, but we were still squatting - like we literally dragged mattresses over, the computer for entertainment, and we would run across the hall to shower and get our things. It was bizarre!

Fosters (acting like they usually do)

For the dumbass moment of the weekend (I know you're thinking there could have been many of these considering it was me and Melanie together) - we rented Pineapple Express, and in case you don't know anything about it, the whole movie revolves around potheads. We were about to put it into the computer, Melanie opens the case and realizes it's not in there. We called Blockbuster and she explained this to the guy, and just as she's doing so, Eric walks in and asks what the problem is so I tell him - and he points out that the disc was on the floor right next to us...whoops! Melanie simply told Blockbuster "Nevermind we're dumb" and hung up. Of all movies for us to have done that with, it really could not have been more suiting.

High class squatting...

Pre-LA I went to Chicago for Zoe's wedding. Debbie (my new friend of a friend who is now my friend, yay) split a room and were buds for the weekend. We stayed out with some peeps after the rehearsal dinner which landed us with two big hangovers. Not only that, but we got ourselves stuck with some dude who wanted to sightsee with us the next day. At least we had someone to take our photos :/

Me and Dee on a bridge...