a very disney birthday.

i turned twenty-nine this past sunday, jan 25th, 2009! i've always loved the fact that i was born on a zero (1980), it makes figuring out how old you are much easier! anyway. i had a great birthday weekend, but i'm going to devote this blog entry to my first disneyland experience.

i really don't have that much to write about it. more just put up some pictures. but thanks to my friends richard, grete and alex for spending the day with me at disneyland. it was a good day to go because the rest of the weekend had been rainy, so i think it kept people from going on sunday because they were afraid of the threat of rain, which we got none of that day! so it was a bit less crowded than most sundays tend to be, or so i was told. but it was a great day, and i got to feel like a little kid for the last twenties birthday of my life :) totally a great experience. thank you disney for giving away free birthday tickets for 2009!

here are pictures (i took a bunch on film too, but haven't finished the roll yet so these are iphone and pictures from alex)

lyle.

some of you might remember that when lyle was a baby kitten. soon after i brought him home, i woke up one morning and could NOT find him. i was really worried that he had found a way out of the house or was stuck in the basement somewhere. but i figured there wasn't much i could do but hope he came out (after searching for sometime). i am not sure exactly why, maybe to get the tv remote, but i opened the top drawer to the coffee table... and ah! there he was, curled up asleep in a closed drawer. he had figured out how to climbe up through the back as the drawers didn't go all the way to the back of the table. anyway, he would sleep in there as long as he could until he got too big! needless to say, he is a fan of the small spaces.

so the other day i was looking for him, and my current apartment is very small, so there aren't many places for him to really disappear to. i happened to notice the smalles of space open on one of my boxes that are like drawers on my shelving units. annd there he was all 10lbs of him :). now he has decided to get in there quite frequently. i didn't take photos of that first find, but here are a couple from today.

quick update.

i'm ok. hamstring not pulled just hurt last night. feels fine today :) i'll write more later. still watching the inauguration. good times.

slipped.

my building has a laundry room, thankfully, across the hall from me. but lately the light in the room hasn't been working, so doing laundry at night is just short of impossible. that and the machines tend to break frequently. its been nice though because this one dryer is just stuck in activation mode, so no money is needed. well finally i got the only working dryer tonight so i go in there to dry my couch blankets and some sheets but because the light is not working i did not notice the HUGE puddle of laundry detergent someone had just spilled. so i step in it in my vans and immediately slip which cause your body to do anything to stay upright and i pulled my hamstring or something in that region... ugh. i hope its just semi pulled and not officially pulled. i'm just finally getting into a rhythm with a new workout schedule and am seeing results. i hope i can get up tomorrow and feel better and ready to get back at it!

anyway. thats the story for tonight.

shooting.

something i've really been struggling through as of late is how much i DON'T shoot anymore. i mean sure, i take photos of the cat in his new surroundings. i take a lot of photos with my iphone, who doesn't. but i don't shoot what i'm inspired to shoot anymore. part of me understands this as a transition time (it's been 8 months, am i still in transition mode?), but i also know i didn't move out here JUST to tech or work for a company. don't misunderstand me, i'm very happy working at splashlight and the opportunity and training it has to offer, but that by no means means i can't shoot! arri and i actually talked about it yesterday and without me even mentioning how i've been feeling lately, she said "you need to keep shooting." and she is right. even if only once a week or once every two weeks with editing and research the opposing weeks, i need to be shooting and hunting down small gigs to bring in extra money and hopefully start to take off.

that being said, this is the start, its nothing fancy, i didn't even use a reflector, let alone lights, but it puts me in a train of thought, looking at objects as potential subjects again. next, this week, i'm setting something up and shooting. so hold me to that.

matthew.

blogging.

i'm really not good at this. i thought i would be, but for some reason i always start a blog entry, or have the idea to start one and just don't. maybe it's cause i feel like most people have an understanding of whats going on in my life via facebook and chatting. and i know for sure people have seen most if not all my recent picture posts via facebook. but there is something to actually putting down words with pictures in one place. so here we go again.

the new year has panned out to be a busy one so far. i think i've only had 2 totaly days off since flying back to la after a nice 9 day stint in michigan with the fam. i brought lyle (my kitty) back with me finally. and he's adjusted well. we've had a few rough nights. see living in a studio apartment, there really isn't any place for him to go at night that isn't near me.. and for some reason those kitties like to make lots of racket at night, but i will give him this, there have been a few nights, the past two included, where he's either not woken me up at all or very limited. so i think he's starting to understand :)

this is (obviously) the best weather i've ever experienced in january. i do feel bad for those stuck back in the midwest where the temps are well below zero, but i would be lying if i didn't share how glorious it has been walking and riding my scooter in temperatures reaching the high 80's (87 one day... and yes i was sweating in a tshirt walking to the post office, never thought i'd say that in january).

my first week back i was on set with photographer chris buck. we were working on a financial institution out of canada's campaign. we photographed a live 600lb brown bear. i hope to post a link to the campaign once its finished so you can see the final outcome, i'm looking forward to it.

here's to a great 2009 and more blog posts!!