Flat Stanley In The Hills

For our last stop of our Sunday around town, Meg drove me to a road called Mulholland Drive, which is very curvy and fun to drive on. We saw houses built into the hillsides here and there, but not much else besides rocks. I was getting a little impatient, but Meg told me to hang in there, because the short trip would be worth it.

Then we pulled into a small parking lot. The signs said that we were at the Mulholland Drive scenic overlook, whatever that is.





Whatever this place is, it must be pretty neat because there was an open-roof tour bus and lots of people that were also visiting.



Just as I was about to ask Meg what we were doing here, she picked me up so I c0uld get a better look over the fence that was blocking my view. I could hardly believe my eyes! You can see the entire city of Los Angeles from up here! WOW!!!!!!



And next to my hand, you can see the seats from the Hollywood Bowl, where we were earlier this afternoon! NOW I understand why they call it a bowl! They even have a special viewer you can look through to get a closer view of downtown. It works kind of like binoculars to magnify things that are far away.



And on the way back down the hill, we saw the big letters on the hillside that spell "HOLLYWOOD!" This is one of the most famous landmarks in Los Angeles, so of course we had to take a picture. It's a little hard to see, but it's right in the top center of the photo right below the little red and white tower.



Boy, am I glad Meg decided to bring me here. This was the perfect place to end such a beautiful day! I love Los Angeles!

Flat Stanley's "Entertaining" Tour of Los Angeles

Since Meg was in the house writing something called a "blog" most of the day Saturday, we decided Sunday would be a beautiful day to get outside and see more of Los Angeles. She told me that Los Angeles is famous for creating all kinds of entertainment, from music to television, to my personal favorite - movies! So we decided to visit some of the places where these things happen. Boy does this sound like fun!

Meg wanted to start with music, since she loves it very much. The first place we went was very near where she lives. It's called the Grammy Museum. A "Grammy" is a special award given out every year to people who create and perform music that lots of people like.



Meg told me she really likes a man named John Mayer, and he has won LOTS of Grammy awards. He even has a plaque in the sidewalk shaped like a record with his name on it! He must be very talented.



We decided to stick with the music theme for our next stop, but Meg said I also needed to see a place called Hollywood while I am visiting. So we went to see the Hollywood Bowl next.



When I think of the word "bowl," I think of cereal or ice cream, not a place to go to a concert and see music. How strange! So I asked Meg why they call it a bowl, and she told me it's because of the shape of the theater, which is outdoors and built into the hillside in the shape of a bowl so the sound is really good. I really wanted to go in and see it for myself, but it was closed. Even though it is a very pretty day, it gets too cold at night now to have concerts outside. At least I know where it is, and hopefully I can see an actual concert when I come back.

Music is OK and all, but I wanted to see some movie stuff! Luckily, Meg said we were right down the street from a place called Hollywood and Highland, where there are lots of movie and TV related things. So that's where we went next.



At first, this place looked like a really big shopping mall. Then Meg explained what some of the things were and it made a little more sense. The first place we visited was the Kodak Theatre. This is the place where all the movie stars come to get their awards, which are called Oscars. Those are also given out every year, just like the Grammys.



Outside in the courtyard, they have this HUGE arch. I guess it's so you know you're somewhere important. And after all, they like to do things really big in the movies!



Then we walked out towards Hollywood Boulevard, which is a street, and we saw the El Capitan Theatre. This is the place where they hold premieres for all the Disney movies, like CARS (my personal favorite). Meg explained that a premiere is like a big party to celebrate a movie coming to the theatres, and sometimes so many people come out to celebrate that they close down the entire street! All the movie stars get to walk on a red carpet and get their picture taken. That sounds like fun to me!



The funniest part about Hollywood Boulevard is that they have stars in the street with people's names! It's called "The Hollywood Walk of Fame," and you have to be pretty important to get your name on a star. For instance, this person, Keanu Reeves, is one of Meg's favorite actors because he is very handsome and makes action movies where he saves lots of people. That sounds like enough to have a star!



Meg also explained that you can have a star if you have enough money to buy one, which I guess explains why this man has one. I didn't know who he is, so he must not be in the movies.



We didn't see any actual movie stars, but Meg said we can look again later. But we did go see some places where they actually MAKE movies, which was very exciting! This is the main entrance of Paramount Studios, which is on a street called Melrose in Hollywood. I think there is a TV show named after this street, but I'm not entirely sure.



Then we drove over to a place called Burbank and saw Warner Brothers Studios. Apparently Keanu Reeves has made some movies here, which is why Meg likes visiting here. I just liked all the comic book characters on the side of the building.



Whew! Los Angeles certainly does do a lot of entertaining. I was getting pretty tired, but Meg said there was one more place we needed to go, and we could drive there. She wouldn't tell me what it is, but she said I'd like it. I guess we'll see!

"Battle Studies" Is Here!

Well, dear Mr. Mayer's ears must have been burning during my concert ticket beefing, because he rewarded me with the delivery of my pre-order copy of Battle Studies today in the mail!



And part of the pre-order package also included a t-shirt to promote the new album. Now THIS is motivation to get back in the gym !







Time to crack this baby open and give it a listen. And there may have to be an album review blog...you'll just have to wait and see!

Creative Process

One of my favorite scenes from the movie Swordfish is Hugh Jackman's character clacking away at the computer, drinking a bottle of wine and jamming out to techno music while writing complicated computer code to build a "worm" that will either destroy the world or save it, depending on who controls the thing when it's complete. Since I'm committed to spending most of the weekend clacking away at my own computer trying to get 2 weeks of delayed blogging done, I've been thinking about my creative process, especially as it relates to writing.

I never really did enough serious writing to understand the concept of "writers block." I always thought it was the most intellectual explanation for procrastination ever invented. Yet I've found myself suffering from a case of writer's block for the past 2 weeks. I've actually had time to blog, but just couldn't get myself motivated to write.

Part of the problem is where I'm expending brain power lately. Work is picking up again, as it always does towards the end of the year. So for lack of a better explanation, I have to think harder at work, which leaves me less brainpower for my personal thinking. The other problem is simply inspiration. I know what I want to write about, but the language takes longer to come sometimes.

Why? I guess because my style of writing is more conversational - it's like cocktail party gossip, and I have to hear it my my head. I also think good writing needs to have some emotion attached, whether it's making someone laugh, choking them up, or just making them think. I think the emotional aspect of writing is the reason that, unlike Mr. Jackman's hacker persona, I have difficulty writing with music playing, unless the music specifically matches the emotion I'm trying to convey. Not the easiest thing to accomplish when you have the iPod on random shuffle. Try as I might, I find it hard to talk about hip checks and hockey fights listening to "Lost In Love" by Air Supply. Although techno music would be the perfect motivation for writing about hockey! Do I have any techno....?

OK, focus Meg! The other thing I really need to start doing is writing rough drafts of my blogs. When I was in school, my teachers always emphasized the same process for writing. Do an outline, write a rough draft, sit on it a little while, then go back to it and make your revisions. Lather, rinse and repeat. But I had to be a rebel, so I always ignored that process. The outline phase was stored up in my brain, and most of the time I knew what I wanted to say, so doing a rough draft seemed like rework. My normal process was to write and edit as I went. Looking back, I must have used more typewriter ribbon than anyone on earth, because typing does not lend itself to my compositional methods. And I was the kid in college that was up at 1 AM, hopped up on No-Doz and Jolt Cola, STARTING the term paper that was due at 9 AM. Plenty of time! Maybe I DO have a procrastination problem, not writers block...

So even in the age of computers, why do a rough draft? Because my brain seems to be storing more ideas than ever, but not always in a cohesive pattern, and I lose them if I can't get back to them. My brain feels like a computer hard drive in need of a defrag program - get in there and re-sort all that mess so I can find things faster, would ya?

Come to think of it, maybe all I need to improve my creative process is a bottle of wine...

The Changing World of Concerts

There are very few things that can get me out of bed early on a perfectly lazy Saturday morning, but a John Mayer concert is one of them. In this case, the event was not the actual concert, but the start of ticket sales for John's winter tour to promote "Battle Studies," his new album scheduled for release this coming Tuesday.

In some ways, the changes in the music industry in the last 5-10 years have been great. For instance, getting 12th row floor seats (which I did), used to require camping out all night outside a record store with a Ticketmaster vendor, or calling and waiting on eternal hold. The Internet has changed all that, and I was able to make my purchase in just a few minutes from the privacy of my home in the comfort of my PJ's. Of course, I had to pre-order the album through John's website to get the special code to give me access to buy tickets before they went on sale to the general public. This was no sacrifice since I would have purchased the album any way, and loyalty buys you insider access in today's music world.

But the newest evolution in the concert going experience is NOT one I like - PAPERLESS TICKETING. You heard me. I bought two tickets to John's show March 26th in San Jose, CA, but I will not receive any actual tickets. Huh?

Apparently the process works like this:

• You get an e-mail from the vendor confirming your purchase.
• You show up at the venue at the designated date and time, with the rest of your party.
• Your credit card gets swiped at the entrance to the venue, which accesses your purchase record.
• They let you in.
• You proceed to enjoy the show.

Yeah... So let's think through this and discuss the positives and negatives.

Reasons Paperless Ticketing Could Be Cool

• No worrying about getting all the way to the venue and realizing you left the tickets in your other purse at home.
• Great way to beat the scalpers!
• It's more environmentally friendly.
• Easier to scam open seats that are closer than yours since the ushers can't check your ticket and make sure you're in the right seat.

Reasons Paperless Ticketing Sucks Big Time

• See reason #3 above - how do I know some loser from the 300 level isn't gonna steal my seat and lie about it?
• If the other people in your party are stuck in traffic, running late, or just generally rude and not on time, you're stuck with the choice of waiting outside the venue and being a good friend, or ditching their butts so you don't miss the show and ruining a friendship.
• How secure is my credit card info? Do I want every minimum-wage usher with a scanner having access to me?
• What happens in the event of an emergency and I can't go to the show? I can't sell or give my ticket to someone else, so I just lost a not insignificant amount of money.
• What am I gonna put in my scrapbook? I have NO memento of the event! Which means I'll be spending MORE money at the merch stand for a t-shirt...

OK, I tried to be objective, but I don't think I'm gonna like this process. Come back in March and I'll let you know how it all turned out. John, it's a good thing I love you....

The Gut Check

At various times in your life, you have to stop and evaluate what you're doing and why. The start of my "In Training" self-improvement process began for that reason, and for 60 days things went along pretty much according to plan. In the last 30 days, the plan has been derailed a bit, so I decided it was time for a gut check to figure out what's going wrong and fix it before it gets worse.

Before you worry too much, rest assured I have not packed back on the pounds I've lost - at least not all of them. At various times I've been anywhere from 2-5 lbs higher than my top loss of 27 lbs. But I haven't gained any ground either, and I was hoping to be 30 lbs lighter by now.

More importantly, I'm starting to struggle with motivation, which is the part I'm worried most about. So I had to ask myself some tough questions about why this is happening. Is something wrong with me? Am I not trying hard enough? Am I just making excuses because things are getting harder?

I really believe that working hard and giving your best effort is the key to success in pretty much any endeavor. IF you can honestly say you gave it you all had - left everything on the field, the ice, the table, or whatever your surface of choice is - and it still didn't work, then you failed honestly and you learn from it. If not, you have to look in the mirror and ask yourself why you didn't give it all. Then you refocus and get back to work. There's no point in hiding, because the only person you defeat is yourself.

So did I give it everything I had in the last 30 days and failed anyway? Not even close. I abandoned my food diary. I know what to eat, right? It's just one more thing to update every day, and I'm already too busy. OK, maybe not. I'm also a stress eater, and things got more stressful at work this month. My personal schedule is busier. Christmas is coming up, and I have gifts to figure out and order. I need to finish making travel plans for Toronto in January. I have 3 hockey games this week. And the list goes on....

But at the end of the day, these are all just excuses. Dates and times of scheduled events are known quantities, and I can plan around them. Exercise is a great stress buster. And I am tremendously organized, so Christmas should be cake. But I didn't think this way at all. Instead, I let all these things become barriers. I got complacent. I thought I "earned" a break here and there from workouts because I was pressed for time. I didn't want to get worn down and get sick with all the cold and flu bugs going around the offices I'm visiting. So I gave it less than everything, and I failed with no one to blame but myself.

But I'm also learning how to forgive myself. I am a perfectionist by nature, and I hate to fail, so not beating myself up when I do is a challenge for me. But it's one I'm going to embrace. Because falling off the horse hurts, but being afraid to get back on hurts more. So here's my summary for the month:

Things I Learned
I still lose focus too easily
I need sleep and I don't get enough
I stress out easily, which makes me hold onto weight
I start to panic if the scale goes the wrong direction, even for a day

Things I Know
I have a lot to work on
I am strong enough to do this
I will not give up
I will leave it all on the table
When I do, I will win.

Time to get back on the horse...

Flat Stanley Makes An Office Visit

Hello from Riverside, CA! Meg and I had to leave her house and drive an hour to get here in time for her meeting this morning, but it is a beautiful day so we didn't mind. And I always thought palm trees only grew at the beach, but they have them here way east of the ocean as well! California is a pretty amazing place.



Riverside is about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, and one of the many California cities where Meg's company has offices. She has to come here the next two days for very important meetings, so I get to tag along. The people that work in the Riverside office are very creative, and they must have know I was coming. They designed a special bulletin board for me so I could learn some new things about the city of Riverside. How neat!



The most interesting thing about this office is that the people dressed kind of funny. Tara here is wearing a necklace made of black and red feathers! Meg says it's called a boa, and Tara only wears it on special occasions, like very important meetings. They were having a meeting with something called a "Hollywood Theme." Meg said we will go to Hollywood and look for movie stars while I am visiting, and then it will all make a little more sense. I thought she looked very pretty, and I'd really like to have my own feather necklace someday.



These nice men got dressed up too, and they were all wearing matching outfits so everyone knew they were doing a presentation together. They look very official and important, don't you think?



One of them seemed to have a little trouble tying his bow tie. It came with instructions, but they were pretty hard to understand, as you can see.



I guess this is one of the more difficult things adults have to learn. I hope I never have to wear a bow tie! If I do, someone had better be around to help me tie it.

Well, we have to get back to our meeting now. But keep reading, because Meg says we're going to have some fun adventures this weekend. I can't wait!