GOOD BEACH DAY.

 last entry was 3 weeks ago? wow. oh my god, lj, does this mean i'm getting older? am i moving on? or am i still spending the same amount of time on the internet, just forgetting to post about things? or even worse, i just have nothing to post about? all these options are possible.

in any case, going way back, the improv grad show went well enough. who wouldn't be self-critical? but it was a good turnout (thanks, pals!), and i really do think i lucked out with the people who were in my class. now to sign up for level 2, except that any work-friendly class (read: not 12pm on a weekday) is sold out, of course.

i think i officially decided to not go to boston for the 4th weekend. i know, i should have. and my excuses are flimsy, but geez, i really do need to clean this place up. plus, have time for radio stuff, laundry, and i couldn't just leave liz to be the third wheel for her brother's date. HA. anyways, i think i want my 4th of july to be full of eating meat and drinking beer. i would like that very much.

this means i should get to boston another time this year. maybe september or something. but i have such travel plans for the rest of 2009! to the wonderful and pleasant town of utica for the boilermaker maybe, to north carolina in early august for a big ol' family reunion (and then my brother will be crashing here for a little while, which will be an adventure in itself), to buffalo before the summer is over hopefully (allison! i have the pilot episode for a new show this season that is a direct rip-off of twin peaks, so hellz yes are we watching it together), and then thanksgiving will be motherfucking HAWAII for a family meet-up on the other side, and christmas hopefully in az. whoosh! i still want to get my act together and visit china in 2010, doubly so if butler will be there, because then i go hang out with him in beijing or wherever he'll be, and that will be awesome. but these are lofty dreams, i know. i'll save it for a new year's resolution. visit ASIA.

nothing else really to report. i had an awkward interaction with a mute woman in the lobby of my office building. liz and i went to a ramen restaurant where the entire staff yelled something in japanese to every person that walked in. my converse are falling apart, so i've got to buy some new ones. time to finally retire the green. the mosquitoes are snacking on me, but i'm trying to stay positive and hope that my body is slowly adjusting to the bites and will no longer have an allergic reaction. mind over matter, man.

and somehow it's 1am again, even though i swore i'd be asleep by 12.30. a nightly routine by now.

 what's up with me? what's up with YOU, lj-verse!

not much is up with me. i started off this morning badly when i found a giant dead roach in my shoe. i threw the shoe against the wall, put on another pair, and got the fuck out of there. guys, i don't like bugs. but that just meant i had to deal with it when i got home, which wasn't fun either. seriously. i started with a wad a paper towels, then moved to a re-elect bloomberg mailer, and finally on to a large piece of cardboard. and i had to leave the room between all those steps, too. it's ridiculous! my tragic flaw, i suppose.

my hair is much shorter now. i posted a picture on twitter, which i suppose shows how trendy i am. i went bumble and bumble for one of their classes, which meant the cut was free. it was fine enough, but i guess i hoping for something more exciting. that's how i am at every haircut though. you always think it'll revamp your life. it does NOT.

work is fine, although this past week has been a little stressful since we're all so behind schedule. and i am not used to being so behind. i'm hoping i can churn out everything i need to do tomorrow so i can avoid working over the weekend, but we'll see how i actually do.

we're signing our lease for another year, although i wouldn't mind signing it for the rest of my life. not true, actually, but i don't want to give this apartment up. i've been missing the big old country lately, even though i haven't really done much country living. but the thought of moving out to new mexico for a year sounds so great to me. i'm not sure why. maybe i'm just dreading summer in the city. 

improv class has been going pretty well. most of us have gone out for drinks now and we'll see each other at shows and say hi. i've got to sign up for level 2 soon. our show is coming up soon, and who knows how that will go. i'm not worried, but i'll be geeky excited about actually being on the ucb stage. it's stupid.

i've also been geeking out over conan taking over the tonight show, even though i didn't watch conan all that much late night. just every summer and winter break, basically. i felt weirdly proud for his first show, like, "hey, i've been with you, man!" even though i haven't at all, since he started a helluva long time ago. but it's nice to see the legacy passed down, and i've always been a nerd for nbc legacies.

still working on 'twin peaks' and just started up 'infinite jest,' which will take me all summer. not just because it's long, but also because it's about five feet thick, so i don't carry it around with me. my co-worker lent me the first season of a canadian show called 'twitch city,' which is in the quirky 90s vein, and is really growing on me.

and THAT's what's going on with me. thank you and goodnight.

 this saturday was HIGHLY entertaining, as it was eating peruvian food with allison and then star trek! although i feel too geeky now...must counteract it by buying a leather jacket or some sweet shades or something..

 hahahahahahha.

for fun times, read the talk page of the wikipedia article on hipsters. i've never seen a more hipster talk page.

 why today was a good day:

--pizza lunch at work!

--moving to the corner desk, a palatial workspace compared to my awkward table in the middle of the room!

--drinks with co-workers after work, paid for by the company!

--a miles-centric 'lost' episode!

simple things, i know.

 aw, man, there's totally a job opening at sci-fi that i am honest-to-god qualified for. but i'm not going to apply for it. it's weird to sort of just settle for awhile after being in transition for the past nine months, always on the lookout for jobs. i've got one, i'm kind of settled in it (still learning, but mostly for handling rare crises that come up occasionally [like, say, the entire play-out system is limping along and will die this weekend, what do you do?]), and i'm probably going to stay there for a fair amount of time. and i guess i should get used to this? well, yes, i should. people stay at their jobs for decades, sometimes. DECADES. jesus.

but no complaints, really! things are going alright. had my first improv class last week (none this week, thanks to easter), and besides being pretty nervous the entire time, it went alright. i was surprised to find everyone else in the class to be pretty great in general; after hearing horror stories, i was expecting at least one or two that would either think they were too good for this or would freak out to speak in front of people. but everyone seems nice and easygoing and funny. the only downside of the class is the humbling part of, right, these are all the flaws i have! but i guess that's the point of these classes: to learn and fix shit.

crap, i should go get my laundry before they close the place for the day. yeah, that's right. exciting saturdays!

 remember november, when i posted every day? ha, it's been a far cry from that.

i don't know, maybe because there are just other places i can update more frequently in shorter entries. or that nothing THAT exciting or out of the blue has been happening. work has been going pretty well. a few times i get frustrated, but then i have good days where everything goes well and i think, yeah! i can do this! for awhile!

had a grand ol' time at colgate last week, cooking a big dinner with emma that i think went over alright. now i know i can cook roast beef. at least with a more talented co-chef by my side.

my class starts on sunday, gulp. a little nervous, but my teacher was in one of the groups at the show i saw last night, and it was a relief to remember that she's pretty funny. i've been going weekly to shows now, and it's nice to look forward to.

see? that's it! now you know why i'm not updating a lot.

 oh my god i just got netflix and i am flipping OUT. my god. i am going to watch so so so so so many movies. so. many. movies. ohhhhh the possibilities. seriously.

also, a bit of hilarity for you non-twitterers. i read the nymag daily intel blog every day, and every monday they post 'sex diaries,' which is basically just a week sex diary from a random new yorker...usually, they try to be deep or deep AND promiscuous. but anyways, this week's ( http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/the_recent_college_grad_whos_n.html ) is a girl from colgate class of 08. no idea who it actually is, because, well, i don't really run in the same circle as she does. but if you ever want to remember the good old days of college...

 so remember that time i could waltz into work around 10 and be the first person there? no longer the case. apparently our manager got lectured about how loose our dept is (compared to the hardworking sales people), so we have to start coming in at 9.30 every morning. it's really not that bad for me, just a half hour earlier. plus now, we don't have to stay until 6 so that's great too. but basically they think he's running a ship of fools, since there have been some mistakes in the past with switching over to live feeds, not loading in schedules, etc. i've been pretty good at the channels i program, but they're both a lot more hands-free than other ones. of course, we found out yesterday that two big national ad contracts have NOT been running in one of my channels; this is very bad. selfishly, i do realize that for this month and the next or so, i can get off scot-free because it was clearly the people before me that didn't set up everything correctly. but those days are dwindling and i need to make sure everything is running pretty perfectly. and i'm kind of almost confident in the fact that i can do that, which is a nice feeling to have. this job isn't amazingly hard or frustrating, it's just meticulous. and i can DO meticulous.

thursdays are usually improv night, but i'm missing it because stupid person i go with is seeing 'the watchmen' instead. and i don't really have the gumption to go wait in line and attend on my own. i still haven't seen a movie in the theaters on my own. gotta work on that.

but anyways, thank god it's thursday (it's my friday!). i think i'm going to skip cereal today and buy a big coffee and muffin from the breakfast truck guy. it makes me happier.

what is there to update about?
i felt like i slept in 15 minute increments last night, which happens to me occasionally. that's probably not the case, because then i wouldn't be able to function the next day, but it's still an awful way to spend a night.

i started a twitter. @thoole. i like it because 140 characters leaves me hardly any room to embarrass my future self. roommate and i also started a blog that we're both enjoying greatly right now. don't worry, we don't expect it to become the next gofugyourself or anything.

i've been spending money like crazy. i don't even want to look at my account balance. i know i have enough for rent/bills (don't worry, dad!), but i like having a safety net for no reason. time to go back to conserving! more ramen, less take-out. i need to get used to bringing lunch to work.

riley and i are going to see final fantasy and grizzly bear tonight at BAM, and i'm excited not just for the music, but the great people-watching that is sure to happen.

i finished 'the watchmen' this morning. it would have been months of waiting at the NY public library, but once i reserved it in brooklyn, it took three days to show up at my library. i'll be interested to see how they actually make it into a two and a half hour movie. trailers make it seem like an epic action movie, but it's more flashbacks, narration, and alan moore hatin' on the world than anything else.

i'm back up to two to three cups of coffee (minimum) every day. haven't even thought of switching to decaf at all. i realized that i actually feel sad when i get to the end of a cup. it's great that i'm taking enjoyment from the little things in life, but does it have to be from something that's probably going to give me cancer?

finally got a wedding invitation in the mail for az friends. it's probably not worth it to go home for just two days to attend the wedding, where everyone i know is in the wedding party and therefore i'll be awkwardly sitting in the back. but how can i miss this? it's been like five years in the making. this should be a solid reminder of just how old i'm getting.

i've been going to improv every week with kyle (although he's ditching me this week bc of a midnight showing of 'the watchmen,' and i'm a little bummed out to miss the group performing this week). i'm excited for my class to start, but i don't want to build it up too much. at the least it'll be a mental workout and some forced social interaction once a week. that's all i need.

i'm so disappointed in top chef.

this has not been my evening.

i had a bitch of a time with a big file at work today, something that needs to play tomorrow (my day off) at 9am, and it just kept disappearing. i had to keep calling the market to ask them to drop it in the folder again, and i would watch it slowly download and then pfft. disappear. right at 6pm too. AND i can't work from home because a vpn isn't set up yet for me.

okay, change. it's finally fixed, since a co-worker helped me out. agh. but that doesn't change the fact that i also, in a huff to leave, i forgot the second half of my fivedollarfootlong. NO! and i'm not back in tomorrow, so i had to embarrassingly email another co-worker to ask her to throw it out tomorrow morning. rah rah rah.

whatever. i just need to detox. it's the weekend, and although it's all plans and stuff, i'll still be able to sit around and not worry about stuff. except a little.

hooray! one new year's resolution down. i finally was able to sign up for an improv class today! of course, it doesn't start until APRIL, so i've got all the time in the world to get anxious about it. that was my exciting bit for the day. i was mad productive at work (even though i feel like it never looks like i'm being hard at work, i swear, i am!), but i had a frustrating time getting there. by the time i actually made it to the office, the elevator was out. i spun around on my heel and headed to get coffee, because no effing way am i walking up seven flights again. no thank you. i am not in shape and i really don't feel like huffing and puffing. plus, you have to get someone to let you in from the stairwell, so...no. i lurked around the lobby until the elevator repairman took pity on me and let me go up to my floor.

i was randomly social this past weekend, which including seeing 'burn after reading.' excellent, if just for john malkovich. yum dim sum in flushing, seeing some bands, seeing some friends...seriously, that's just not like me.

but! improv! yessssssss.

Road signs in Texas...


And where can I find an advance copy of this??


From the Amazon.com Product Description:
"'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone crunching zombie action."

EXCELLENT.

whoa, it's suddenly almost february. life is just chugging along as per usual. still learning at work but hopefully taking on more responsibility at work as of this week. it's a little frustrating because i don't feel that i totally 'get it' yet. i know a bunch of little things, but i just want the big picture of "here is how you would program one day's schedule." step by step. flow charts. i like flow charts.

i've been doing well at not being a hermit recently too. i love having people over at our place, because i can be lazy AND social. a quick trip up to colgate was FREEZING, but nice. it was odd to kind of feel...school spirited? but not for the whole school, just wrcu. i guess seeing all these alums who really did love being a part of the radio station and wanted to give money and get the new station built, well, it was nice. another reason to be super-successful and rich.

and we also made the best purchase of at least my life:
DVR. sure, it just feeds my tv addiction, but it makes my life better. it really does.

hi david simon! it was nice to see you at the ribbon-cutting ceremony!

so...work! today was the first day, although it was a half-day for me, really. i didn't do much at all because i don't have a computer yet, but i DID get to set up my phone and extension. that's right. my own phone and extension. i'm in the majors now.

everyone is pretty nice. i've at least got the names down of my immediate co-workers, the ones in the same position as me. all girls except for one guy that doesn't talk at all and looks like karl pilkington. just a young version of karl pilkington.

the only thing is that i'd just like to skip forward through all this training stuff so i can just know what i'm doing and do it. i hate being all clueless and new. but hopefully in two weeks that will be the case. all i know is that i'm mad lucky and i will do my best to enjoy this!

i have actually been busy. too busy to update. that is a very very rare occurrence. but benhoo was in town for the weekend and there were multiple improv shows, a theater show, lots of subway rides, milkshakes in the snow, etc, etc. good times.

and now? the new job is imminent. very, very imminent. i feel like i've had too much time to be excited about it and now i'm just sort of nervous. but i'm also tired of telling people i meet that i'm "between jobs" and "starting soon" and not being able to fully explain it because i don't know exactly what it entails. but, we shall see.

and today is just filled with leftover stuff i couldn't get to: cleaning, radio show, sleeping, and being nervous. oh, and avoiding outside as much as possible, even though i should do laundry.

1. today liz and i ate dumplings. i paid three dollars for ten dumplings and a soda. and these are not tiny dumplings. + 1 million points

2. the cupcake place was closed by the time we got there. - 1 million points.

the second worst show on television right now is "true beauty." the absolute worst show on television right now is "the secret life of the american teenager." for reals. this was ASTOUNDINGLY bad. i want to rent a car, drive to the set, and slap molly ringwald out of whatever drug haze she must be in to say those lines. the teenagers had the great idea to get married at 15, but since they're too young, they needed to get fake IDs. FLAW. FLAW IN THAT LOGIC. that was just one of ten million problems in only an hour of tv. ugh.

oh all right, peer pressure, peer pressure

( a is for... )

okay, so yesterday i woke up at 11, went to lunch, got home at 3, went to sleep until 9, ate soup and stayed up until 11, and then woke up at 11 again this morning. i'll take it easy again today and hope that i can reserve enough energy to make it past midnight.

( oh look, nye )