So, it’s been awhile since I updated this thing*. To make up for this I’m putting up two new posts. The first (this one) is of the general “what’s new with Ryan” variety, the second (tomorrow soonish) is all about my new addiction, Team Fortress 2. OK so here are the highlights from the past few weeks:

Hollywood

About three of weeks ago I decided to take a trip to Hollywood and see what all the fuss was about. My directions led me to the wrong end of Hollywood Blvd and I found myself driving around in some shady areas and eventually paying to park in some shady lot. I made my way over to the walk of fame and … walked. Most of the names I didn’t recognize but I did see a couple Frank Sinatra (twice), Kermit the Frog, Rin Tin Tin and that’s about all I can remember. All the shops in this area seemed to consist of tattoo parlous and exotic clothing stores. The place in general seemed to be pretty dingy. Eventually I found a Borders and grabbed some coffee. After debating whether I should call it a bust and just head home, I decided to follow the crowd and see where it led me. Turns out sometimes following the crowd can be a good thing. In this case it led to a mall. This was basically a bunch of stores, a movie theatre and a couple of places to eat. Ok so it was fancy looking (Chinese Theatre), and I did get some pictures of the Hollywood sign and a pretzel because Auntie Anne’s rocks but not very exciting none the less. There were a lot of people dressed up as various characters on the streets which were kind of creepy and tons of people handing out free pamphlets & gum. This lead to a slight misunderstanding with someone selling CDs on the street; I thought they were free; he wanted to get paid…

Certification:

More importantly I retook my PRPC System Architect Exam. This is basically the exam that says I’m qualified to my job. I spent about two weeks avoiding doing anything fun, TV, DVDs, Wii, TF2, random trips etc, etc. It eventually paid off as I am now officially certified. Which give me a tiny bit more job security and makes me feel a lot better.

LA County Fair:

Yesterday, I decided to hit the LA County Fair. It took me roughly two hours to drive there (hurray traffic) and I forgot my camera but remembered the directions. When finally made it there I parked about a mile away and turned down an offer to have some guy pull me to the gate in a rickshaw-bike thing. The fair itself was huuuge way bigger than the ones back home. It was also really commercialized. There were about 8 buildings dedicated to selling you crap, the late night “call now for our special offer” kind of crap. Many of the companies were also set up in multiple buildings because you never know the fourth time you see that detoxification station you might just bite. One of the buildings was called “AT&T Winter Wonderland” which featured Santa (in September!) dressed as a lumberjack, an ice skating rink and fake snow complete with a hill for sledding. Having lived in a place that gets its fair share each yeah it seemed really pitiful but the kids seemed to enjoy it. All the animals seemed to come from a single farm as well and there were many of them, lots of variety but only a couple of each. McDonald’s also generously supplied a garden area with all sort of veggie and plants as well as eight or nine hi-def TVs playing McDonald’s ads on a constant loop. I didn’t see very many of the typical fair events, tractor pulling, animal judging, dung throwing… but at least some of those were in the program they gave me so I have to assume they were there. I did however find a place where I could bet on horse races. One of the cooler things I saw was the Shangri-la Acrobats. Some of the stuff they did made me cringe and think “oh crap that’s going to hurt.” The fair also had some really wicked looking rides such as the tango but I didn’t get to go on any of them. Overall it was fun and I got to eat my corndog which I missed out on at the Washington County Fair. I will say I always heard there are a lot of strange characters in LA and many of them seemed to be enjoying the fair.

Getty Museum:

Today I checked out the Getty Museum, which wasn’t my first choice but after realizing it’d take me almost 5 hours to get to the Joshua Tree National Park I decided to go somewhere a bit closer. I began by losing the detailed directions I wrote down (I think there’s a trend here somewhere) but managed to find the place without too much trouble. When you first get there all you see is a parking garage which seem kind of off but there is an actual museum. To get to there you take a tram up a mountain which is kind of cool. The museum also has free admission which made it extra nice. (Of course it costs eight bucks to park) Needless to say there are some pretty awesome views when you get to the top and some art too. The buildings are setup so you can wander from between them without actually realizing you it which I thought was neat. The bonus here is not only did I get to see some art, feel cultured, and justify buying a new camera but I also learn some stuff too. First, I learned that in the past people were pretty much always at minimum halfway naked. Unless they were going to be in a portrait then they tried to put as many clothes on as possible, perhaps to offset all the nakedness. Second, a museum on a mountain with free admission can make a lot of money by selling food and drink, say fifteen bucks for an iced tea and sandwich. Third, To be an artist all you really need to do is make/take pictures of strange objects (toilets, bananas, broken things, etc) and/or naked women. Although the wrong combinations (toilets & naked women) could get you labeled as a pornographer, which would arguably be more profitable.

That about sums up the last few weeks, in between I worked, surfed the web, went home for a weekend, watched some TV and played video games. I do indeed live an exciting life. Pics are coming just as soon as I figure out how this picture gallery plugin works.

*The conversion to wordpress doesn’t count, I had that ready to go minus a few tweaks weeks ago I just didn’t get around to switching it over until recently.