I'm an idiot

OKAY, so I just posted (and this is a repeat offense) my blog on the mushoe website- I really need to change the admin settings so I can't do that anymore.

It's almost as bad as this sign in a dentists office.....

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Bloging 101

Bloging 101

Summer of Alana isn't what it used to be, I know.  Well I don't have quite the dramatic nomadic lifestyle I used to have- flying across country for parties, whisky tours in Scotland, drooling over celebs in L.A- oh Hugh....

That doesn't mean it isn't still exciting..... well, it is Seattle after all- not to be down on my pseudo home town (the real one is more like the Carmel of the north- that's my new branding for Edmonds- thanks Janie Bunch), but well it's still wet here.  Wet and cold- and when it is wet and cold the adventures tend to take place indoors instead of out- and that is usually where I find the hilarity happening.

I'll come up with some new material soon- I may start another blog that is more topical- like my friend Kyle has with his love of the UW huskies... The Dawg Dude - His breakdown to the West Virginia Mountaineers is hilare.

i have some funny ass stories- just have to find an appropriate place or outlet- or I could just let this become awesome and debaucherous... we will see.

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Blue Heron

For the past two days on my drive to work, right as I get above the marshes that are next to the UW on I-520 heading eastbound, a blue heron has flown over my car. I mean right over my car. My guess it is the same bird. I was thinking the other day as I went up and over and flat across the lake on the highway that if I was Hindu, and though it may be a spiritual evolutionary step backwards, I would like to be reincarnated as a blue heron.

All I would really need to worry about is food, moderate shelter (I assume feathers keep herons warm), and procreation--not a bad life. Little stress, and in suburban Seattle there aren't too many natural predators- random coyote, neighborhood dog, I'd be bigger than any cat I could imagine. Avoid fisherman, hang out in the marshes, Seattle has a pretty temperate climate.

I wouldn't have to deal with daily commutes, politics, taxes, health care and the like. Sounds kind of nice.

We used to see them when I was a kid at my parents house in Edmonds by the pond, but only on foggy mornings when an anabatic would blow inwards off the sea, and you could taste the salt in the air.

They are very graceful creatures, as I find most birds, but I like how big they appear- tall and sinuous, but they can't weigh more than 10lbs tops.


And on that note, here is a heron, because I like pictures- the one I was was quite a bit fatter- which makes me think he/she has the easy life here:

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Beer Friend Edamame!

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday after work that it was still light by the time I got home, and actually kind of warm- for March in Seattle.

I have not done much container gardening in the past- pots were for flowers in my opinion, of which I have little use for- but veggies in containers?!  There is a great blog I follow by Willie Galloway who is the West Coast editor for Gardening magazine (I'll have to double check on the publication) and appears on KUOW gardening panel every Tuesday at 10am- which conveniently is when I am headed to work- so I get to hear most of it in the car.  Her blog is www.digginfood.com, her twitter is also digginfood- she has wonderful ideas on how to grow edibles in an urban landscape and maximize space.  She also has some awesome recipes.

So Willie inspired me to try to start container gardening- also because the ground at our place in Greenlake sucks, and if we are renting I don't feel like spending the time or $ on raised beds.  I plan on planting a lot of veggies at my parents house in Edmonds because they built me about 4 or 5 raised beds years ago, and we grew lots of stuff last year.

Anyway, we planted some early lettuces, garlic is up from last fall, radishes, spinach- stuff that can tolerate our cool springs.

What I am most excited about is the Beer Friend Edamame I planted in one of our long containers.  I planted some last year around a trellis in Edmonds, and I got a few to come up and give me a few morsels of deliciousness- but it was not in a particularly good patch of soil- so I won't be making that mistake again.

In Washington State trials this particular variety was really prolific in our environment.  I know Pullman is not Seattle, but they made reference to Pacific northwest climate- so I am assuming they ran some trials on this side of the mountains.

Beer friend, aptly named because it is much loved with beer in Japan, I am hoping will do well- i am really excited by it- I'll keep you posted on progress in the garden

On a sadder note- my mushrooms seem to have stopped sprouting- which is irritating, I should have at least 3 more crops out of them....

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Not Quite Summer but I'm Back

So it may not feel like summer is outside, but I am trying to revive my half-yearly blog.  We'll see how committed I am on a daily basis, on whether I have anything interesting to post or not.

Today I am looking for an awesome template to use for a website my so kind brother is helping me build.  I have been looking through Text garden for something clean, but whimsical, so if you have any suggestions, let me- free is always better, as I would rather spend my money at present on other things.

On a side note, just planted some of my edamame yesterday evening.  they deserve their own post.

Side side note- www.textsfromlastnight.com is hilarious this week b/c it is spring break

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Mongol Rally

So my friend Kyle is doing the London to Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator) motor relay race- and I could not be more jealous.

So jealous I don't know how much of a post I can write. I want to go to Mongolia so bad- but doing it in an adventure format like this?! My problem is I never just have enough balls to up and do it.

Maybe when I get a second wind later I will post more, but until then... it is a neat event-- crazy overland race in crappy cars- they also have one they do in Africa. They also have an awesome Mongolian derby done a la horse back which reminds me of a story during the heyday of the Mongolian empire which exemplifies the efficiency of the empire of the day:

The Mongolians were basically sitting outside the hills of Vienna (sensing they didn't want to conquer anymore) and a diplomat asked for them to take him to their leader as fast as possible. So they put him on a horse and sent him riding. Every so often they would come to a switching post, and they would switch him to a new horse and a new companion- but he didn't get to stop. I believe he rode for three days straight like this until he reached inner Mongolia with a sore butt to be sure.

Mongolian efficiency for ya.

Here is the race website:

And here is Kyle's website for their team

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Reasons I Hate LA

Let me count the ways...

This list could be infinite.

Sometimes when I see a movie in theaters I really like I briefly consider becoming serious about acting again. I was in this frame of mind after seeing a certain nerd-tastic movie recently, until my brother called. We were sitting around watching reality tv (celebrity apprentice being one of my dad's favorite past-times these days) and we paused the TiVo to listen to the EP McGee on speaker phone- another McGee family tradition.

So he's doing a contract job for a small production house which will remain nameless even though you have never heard of them anyways. Basically they are incompetent, and colossal doo-doo hit the fan and they blame the nearest person for all of their troubles. Now, I stick up for family- but when a family member does something inappropriate or wrong in a business setting, i have no qualms telling them so. In this instance, however, my brother was in no way responsible for their incompetence and lack of brain power and foresight. Not only does scapegoating just irritate me, but the general lack of self admission of guilt in this instance- which i feel is rife in the production community, drives me insane. That is why I left LA. I am not taking a fall for your stupid ass decisions. There is a reason I am not surprised the famous Producer I worked for in LA hasn't made any of the projects we were working on back in 2005/2006.

It is hard to convey in words the loathing in every sense of my being I feel for these idiot production types whose sole purpose in life it seems is to make everyone else's life miserable.

Basically after that conversation with my brother- and how miserable these idiots were making him, i realized, or rather remembered, LA sucks.

I guess if you are talent the situation is different. You are separate from the annoying silly head games and backstabbing of office producing by your agent who deals with those idiots for you and keeps you isolated- if they are any good at their job. The actors and/or directors usually seem to have a good time doing it- but man- even my sister's good friend who was a VP at Dreamworks finally quit because he couldn't take the incompetency anymore.

I loathed having to take the blame for idiotic decisions which in turn would reflect poorly on me even though my idiot boss had made the bad choice and it would effect MY career path. "you have to work your way up Alana". Having things thrown across the room and verbally abused on a daily basis is not anything that anyone should put up with from an employer. "everyone puts up with behavior like this". bullshit- if they do they are just as stupid as the people they are working for. I met a couple decent producers when I was there who didn't treat their underlings like crap- but they were few and far between. I had the power to totally screw my producer over had i wanted- they should understand that and treat their employees like human beings. Carrots rather than sticks. I don't think they understand that concept because they are too self absorbed.

What I hate about LA is the mentality that behavior like this is acceptable, and even standard. The world does not revolve around you, get over yourself.

I also dislike the people in LA. Maybe not all, and this is a generalization, but I once dated this huge black rapper trapped inside the body of a 5'6" Jewish kid from LA who lived across the street from Elijah Wood. He got kicks out of pee-ing on elijah's car. seriously? I know this kid still, and like him, but really?

The moment I knew i had to get out of LA was when I was training the kid who was going to take over my position for the producer in Eisner's old teak lined office. He was more obsessed about box office gross then anything actually happening in the world of consequence- that and he called Scarlett Johansson 'fat'. I almost punched him. He was not good-looking and was not allowed to call her fat- i'm sorry.

The only way I could live in LA- would to be were my brother lives in Santa Monica. In a bungalow surrounded by Lemon trees 5 blocks from the beach- possibly dating or friends with Nathan Fillion, Zach Quinto and NPH.

I heart Fillion and Quinto- so pictures of them!

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