Accidently Rolling at a Movie Premiere

In a uniquely LA moment, I was eating dinner at a Mexican place about 2 blocks from my new pad when crowds, limos, and an army of paparazzi showed up at the National Theatre across the street. I was cynically amused by the crowd reactions, choreographed photo shoots on the carpet, and the whole lifestyle of the famous. One of the limos even drove into a barricade which scratched down the whole side of the car. It is a very weird environment to observe. Eventually, Jessica Alba and Dane Cook emerged from one of the vehicles to promote their movie. She did a good job approaching the huddled masses across the street to sign autographs, she seemed at ease - he seemed a bit rigid. By random occurrence due to my dinner, I was about 25-35 ft behind and to the left of the included image when it was snapped by the enormous wall of photogs. What is scary is how tiny the actors are, even the men - the camera must really add 20-30 pounds (they look like mini-people up close) It was made all the more glaring when former Boston Celtics center Bill Russell walked by me and was contrasted towering over all the actors and actresses. He looked twice their size as a 60-70 year old 7ft giant. Eddie Murphy and 80's pop singer Debbie Gibson were the only other people I recognized. It made for an amusing dinner, but the police presence, ostentatious displays of wealth, endless lines of limos with anonymous studio figures was somewhat disgusting. Everyone in fantasyland does truly appear to be detached from the real world. One good thing about the numerous theaters where I live is that they are all monolithic with old Hollywood decor and can seat enormous audiences in the traditional opera house style. Although, there is a raised dais segregated section for fat cats and celebs to separate themselves from the peons during the shows. In any case these movie houses have much more ambiance than the mall style cineplexes that dominate the rest of the country. I wonder how long it will take for me to be corrupted by LA's emotional vacuousness? I'm too mentally tired now to prevent it. Finis.

Descent Complete: Time to Attempt an Ascension from the Clutches of a Tortuous Abyss

Disclaimer: This blog post is of a personal nature, but I felt it necessary to explain to any interested parties what has gone on since my last blog. This will be the last blog of this type.

I continue to adjust to life in LA having battled my way through the myriad planes of hell this summer, I emerge spiritually purged by another test rife with life's incessant miseries. Hopefully, enduring perpetual hammering while transfixed on the anvil of life's journey has further tempered the steel in my soul so that I do not break. One way or another, I return to the blogosphere after a significant hiatus brought about by circumstances beyond my control. My daughter's well-being was severely assailed by the continued deterioration of her environment. All of my energies this past summer have been centered around providing my daughter an avenue of escape from a circumstance that was imploding around her. The situation has been dire and threatens to limit my ability to continue on in LA, but I am still working on measures to protect my daughter's future prosperity. I should be able to attain legal custody within the next 10 days, but obstacles may still emerge. My entire situation is still being evaluated, but all my decisions will be predicated upon what will give my daughter the best chance to have the highest quality of life. Her long-term prosperity may still be a function of the successful of my PhD program, but I will continue to weigh her present development against my absence in LA. After considerable deliberation with my family, she will reside with my family in her familiar environment of the sheltered valley farm where I grew up. I am unwilling to further disturb her life with a move to the chaos of LA in a time of such turmoil. In addition, it seems dubious that I could provide the best environment as a single parent in LA due to the requirements, constraints, and realities of my particular PhD program. For now, I will proceed with my program and see how things develop. At this point, that is all that can be done - but the future of this entire endeavor hangs on a precipice. Such is life, but I will just try to keep moving forward and make the best decisions I can. In any case, my future blogs will go back to their old style as best I can - I hope everyone is doing well.

Apologies for my Lack of Blogging

I apologize for my recent inability to post anything, but my present circumstances have inhibited my opportunities. My recent move, while allowing me great amounts of time with my daughter before UCLA, has been complicated by an extreme upheaval in her environment that I have been trying to rectify. I do not know the outcome yet, but I think things have been moved in the right direction. I am hoping the situation stabilizes, but it is to early to determine at this time. It has served as a reminder, however, that the stresses of the academic world are not as significant as many people think that they are. I will be thrilled to get back to worrying about things of an academic nature as a pleasant break from what life can actually throw at you from the bowels of hell! "Tell your heathen gods to ready for blood!" - Deadwood.

I've found myself in an extreme heat wave with temperatures as high as 109 degrees for the past few days. I was on a nostalgic tour last night and took my daughter to the drive-in in my hometown. I hadn't been to the drive-in since I moved to Eugene. It was good, but the evening was simply too hot to be comfortable. There were also an extremely high number of annoying people and screaming kids, but it was an experience. I recently enrolled in classes at UCLA and my schedule looks very favorable. I will not have classes on Mondays or Fridays (yaaay to 4 day weekends!) - there will not be any annoying required methodology courses as all my requirements are directly in my field or linguistic. I will have a seminar on Ancient Rome on Wed afternoons, a two-quarter Medieval seminar on Tuesdays, and a Latin Literature survey course Tues and Thursday mornings from 9:30-10:45. All in all, the most favorable schedule I've had as a grad student. I'm very happy to have no teaching or grading! I'm progressing slowly with my preparation this summer, but it is going well. My only real problem this summer is a severe financial crunch that is limiting my ability to do anything. I want to make a brief trip to Eugene in the middle of July to visit everyone when KFR comes up, but it is dubious at this point - maybe I can work something out, we'll see. Be well!

Transitions

I have started to integrate myself back into my old home environment. My daughter's birthday went well and I had a great past week with her. I'm kind of in limbo for the next two months, but it will have some advantages. I must be vigilant in avoiding being sucked back in to the stormy tempest that was my prior life - unfortunately, extreme complications continue. I'm posting this from one of my favorite asian restaurants - so my time is brief. My connectivity in this town is very limited, so I will post as frequently as possible - but it will be limited until I descend to UCLA on Sept 1. Hope everyone is doing well!

A Good Send-off Weekend

My last weekend in Eugene was highlighted by a great wine-tasting sojourn with many of the wonderful friends that have entered my life since my time at UO. Quality food and wine was had by all, topped off with a nice dinner at Marche. Fond farewells were given to Austin and Nina (until the wedding in July) along with Morgan and Bob. I will have to bid an additional farewell to E today with a drop-off at the airport (preceded by some final drinks at Rennies) for her impending trip this week. I will begin to load up my car tomorrow for my departure from Eugene, anything I can't fit into my car gets either sold or donated by Tuesday. As I leave town on Tuesday I will bid farewell to the BCC and go to Toys R Us to get some presents for my daughters 10th birthday this week. At that point, I will begin my return and ascent to the mountainous lair of my familial homestead for the next two months in preparation for my move to LA in September. My four years in Eugene provided a great opportunity to meet some wonderful people whose friendship and support allowed me to navigate through an extremely difficult period of transition and transformation in my life. For all my ideological cynicism (which I still feel is completely justified), the presence of quality people in one's life is all that enhances the good times that make life memorable and worth living - the rest is all meaningless. Contrary to what my distrustful nature, harsh rhetoric, and bitter personal experiences might suggest, loyalty to friends and family remains my primary virtue and the cornerstone of my moral system (the rest of it has considerable pragmatic flexibility). In any case, my loyalty to my Eugene cohort will remain unquestioned - anytime anybody needs anything, I'm usually a steadfast and imposing ally to have on one's side. This is about as soft and mushy as I get. Thanks to All! Stay in Touch! Have a Great Summer!

I Graded My Last Green Book

Following a hectic weekend of graduation celebration and tortuous moving (an activity I despise more than any other), I just graded my last green book for quite a while. This particular batch of finals was particularly poor. I think it was the worst group of tests I have graded since I've been at UO, even though it was largely upper division (must have been an acutely severe case of senioritis and warm weather laziness). In any case, it feels very good to be truly done, but I'm still having to clean the office (KFR, Matto, and E left massive piles of tests in cabinets, shelves, and boxes - things that should have been forced back on the Prof's to store last year). After sending a pick-up load of stuff from my apartment this last weekend, I have to reduce the remainder of my possessions down to what I can fit in 1 car load when I leave Eugene on June 26 (I might try to make it back down when KFR comes up in July - we'll see). Graduation festivities went very well this weekend and my family thought all my friends and Prof's were great people. I hope everyone is doing well and having a great summer!