dancrash

I love my iPhone.

Updates

Things are moving quickly. I’m now a co-owner of a new clothing company. We have yet to fully launch, but our stuff was being promoted at Warped Tour with much success. It’s going to be pretty sweet. I’m putting a lot of time into it right now.

My media blog is picking up a reasonable amount of traffic given how new it is. I’m excited about that, as well. If only I had the time to keep writing big posts every day…

Seeing Wall-E with Brian on Friday at the El Capitan, which is one of my favorite theaters and movie experiences ever. Super excited. Everyone seems to be pretty stoked on Wall-E, so Pixar had better hope it lives up to its potential. I have faith that it will.

That’s about enough updates for now, I suppose.

So my dad is remarrying...

Those of you know me probably know that my mom passed away in 2005. If you didn’t… well, you do now. My dad of all people has had trouble getting over this, meaning he never really has. He still has her stuff all over his apartment and talks about her constantly.

Which is exactly why I was quite shocked when he called me saying he is engaged.

I knew he had been dating this woman, Janet, and that they were pretty serious. But I also know that they’ve only been dating each other exclusively for, at most, two months. Maybe he was dating her on and off before then. Who knows, he never told me. But no more than two months of steady dating. And he is marrying her.

Oh well. It’s not that I hate her or something. I just want my dad to be happy, and I’m not entirely convinced that this is the way for him to do it. I guess we will see. In the meantime, I guess I will have a stepmother and two stepbrothers. Bizarre.

Look familiar?

This photo has been plaguing me for years. It probably could’ve gotten me rich by now. How? Well, go type “zombie” into Google and you’ll see why. At the time of this writing, my zombie photo from 2004 is the #1 image result.

And it’s linked to someone else’s website.

In fact, since I originally took the photo on Halloween of 2004, this photo has been received millions of views. It has been used on movie posters, t-shirts, album covers and coffee mugs, all without licensing the photo from me or even asking for permission. This is in addition to its numerous uses on websites, MySpace pages, Facebook groups, as a forum avatar and, quite literally, thousands of other ways.

My laptop with the original was stolen in 2005, so I’ve spent all this time watching its success grow, while being unable to license the original or gain any sort of recognition or money from it. As of last night, I have finally found a high-resolution version of it. It is now on Flickr, and will be on stock photo websites very soon.

I’m too late, mind you. Its popularity has already run its course and there’s plenty of better zombie photos on Flickr. But hey, maybe at least this way people will know that I am the person who took it.

Not tied down

I’ve lived in California most of my life, but in 7 different cities. The rest of my life has been spent in Arizona, Oregon, and Utah. The bottom line with having been rather nomadic growing up is that where I live really doesn’t matter to me.

It occurred to me today that the only reason I haven’t been looking at jobs in New York (or elsewhere) is that there are people in Southern California that rely on me to be around. I have a rather unhealthy family and am, quite literally, the only one who looks after everyone. But the truth is, if I had no responsibilities to attend to locally, I have absolutely no problem moving. In fact, it doesn’t phase me in the slightest.

I have a few friends who are currently moving around the country, and to them it is such a big deal and, often times, a very difficult process. For me, I could be packed up in a day, throw away 90% of my belongings in the process, and just leave without ever regretting it.

I’ve done it before. I know.

I never keep physical items for very long, I put very little sentimental value in anything material. I moved to Los Angeles with $600 and whatever belongings fit inside my Honda Civic. I only made one trip.

Anyways, this is a rather pointless entry. I guess I’m just realizing that I’ve been raised in such a way that I am not comfortable being in one place for too long. You can probably assume that I will be in the Los Angeles area for at least a couple more years… but I wouldn’t put too many bets on it beyond that.

The summer of Dan

Geoff remarked one year that the approaching summer would be “the summer of Geoff,” borrowing from the episode of Seinfeld (which we were both rather addicted to) called “The Summer of George,” wherein George plans on taking the summer off and enjoying his life to the max.

This never really happened for Geoff, and allegedly not even for George.

I have been rather useless for the last few years, but I can safely say that this summer will be the summer of Dan. I have enough projects and business ventures to get me through the next millenium. I’ve got some cool vacations planned (“cool” for me, admittedly, is probably boring for most of you) and overall just a lot of good stuff happening.

More importantly, I am fully aware of my negligence in my responsibilities as a friend, son, and grandson. I know I have been one of the hardest people to reach lately, and I promise you, this will all change.

So here’s to me keeping my word and to some truly awesome living. The summer of Dan begins next week.

Last trip

I am currently in Santa Cruz for what will be the last time for several months. (Or years, if I had my way, but it is likely I will have to come back for something.)

And I wish it were permanent. It’s been far too long. Santa Cruz, you’re a nice place, but I despise being around you. You’re beautiful, but you have nothing good to offer me that I can’t get somewhere else.

I feel stupid for even making these visits to Santa Cruz for as long as I have been. I was supposed to be the one who left and never came back.

Never have I considered Santa Cruz to be my “home” and, in fact, I get offended when certain friends (who have lived in Santa Cruz all their lives) try to tell me that Santa Cruz will always be my home, and that other places are “just temporary stops.” Bullshit. I lived in like 8 places before I turned 18. Home to me is wherever I currently reside and feel comfortable.

That about covers it. I’ll be here for a week, and will be going back home as soon as I possibly can.

Time to move on

My liver tests came back. I am just fine.

My doctor doesn’t know why they were out of whack to begin with, and I’ll be going in occasionally to keep an eye on them, but as of this moment, I have a clean bill of health. Time to stop being a hypochondriac.

This past month has been one of the most stressful of my life. I’ve learned a few things from it, though. I’m going to put this whole thing to rest, and hope to not revisit this chapter of my life for a long time.

Not out of the woods quite yet

Sorry about the lack of posting. It’s been an interesting few days.

I do not have a new job yet. I interviewed yesterday at Sony Pictures Imageworks, and it seemed to go really well. More details will follow.

Prior to going into my interview, I went to the doctor and got my liver tested. I went in about six weeks ago and had some liver anomalies, and I’ve been fearing the worst ever since. My doctor’s policy with blood work is this: If there’s a big problem, they’ll call you. If there’s not a big problem, they’ll mail you the results.

It’s been a day and I’ve gotten no phone call. If another day goes by without one, I’ll start to calm down. I’ve been ignoring my phone the whole day out of fear. Let’s hope I can just put this whole thing behind me soon.