Cyberstalking is Fun with Good ol' Mike

Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist

Prince never mattered to me growing up, when he was at his prime. My only memories of him are hearing a song on the radio that my brother and I thought went, "Baby I'm black, come on back." Turns out it was Little Red Corvette. And I remember seeing a commercial on TV at my grandparents' house for a movie called Purple Rain. Based on the music in the commercial, I thought the only lyrics in the song were "purple rain, purple rain" over and over again.

In the summer of 1989, I was super in to Batman merchandise. This was, of course, the year the eponymous Tim Burton film came out. A friend of mine told me there was a song on the radio called Batdance. He heard it on his walkman, but by the time he got my attention and handed me the headphones, it had ended. So, later I went to the local Target and bought the Batman cassette (on sale for $6.99). That summer, I listened to it incessantly. From there, it was game on. Now I literally have hundreds to Prince CDs. I can't get enough.

Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the most “fudged” up things with

Lizzie!



I wouldn't say I do a lot of "fudged up" things, but Liz and I have certainly painted the town red a few times.

We've worked together for a long time, but we didn't start hanging out until we started being concert buddies. We go to shows all the time.

In the picture above, we're eating at Pink's in Hollywood. We were there for Band of Horses at the Greek Theater. Good times!

Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item

My most treasured item, assume one can call it an "item", is my house.



Growing up, I assumed that one day I would own a house (plus get married and have 2.5 kids). As I got older and started working, I discovered that buying a house is a big deal and not at all a given. Then there was the housing price boom, where housing prices in San Diego (which are already very high) doubled on average. Just a few years ago, it definitely seemed like buying a house wasn't in the cards for me.

Then, housing prices came down, my income went up a little and I found a perfect, little craftsman bungalow in my neighbearhood. It isn't perfect, but it's mine and I love it.

April 30th will be my two year anniversary of homeownership. Yay!

Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh



It's just so freakin' RANDOM.

lolololol

Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory

I don't know. Favorite memory? Well, without overthinking it, I came up with a moment that I treasure and that I conveniently have a picture of.

Several years ago, Mark and I went to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida. I've been to Disneyland in Anaheim countless times, but I had never been to Disneyworld before.

The day we got there, we just visited Downtown Disney, the shopping district there, and the next morning we went to Epcot Center, which is very awesome. But that afternoon, we went to the Magic Kingdom, which is Disneyworld's version of Disneyland. I stood there on Main Street in awe. I was so happy. I had wanted to be at that exact spot since I was a little kid, and there I was living a dream.

Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show

Years ago, my friend Becky started talking about some new shows she loved. One of them was Gilmoure Girls, which I eventually came to love, and the other was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.



At the time, we made fun of her for watching both shows, especially Buffy. The movie was awful, and the show looked like a typical WB (the just-starting tv network it was on at first) show.

At one point, I saw promotions for the season 6 premiere, where she was dead and was going to come back to life. I thought, "I kinda want to see how they do that." Over the course of a few episodes, it was revealed that the gang had brought Buffy back from what they thought was hell. Turns out she was in heaven when she was resurrected, and she wished she could have stayed. When I saw that story play out, I thought, "This is some good shit".

What a fantastic, well-written show! At the time, it was on re-reuns, twice a day, so I plowed through the entire series over a few months.

Joss Whedon is such a genius. It's unfortunate that none of his other projects, including Dollhouse (LOVE) and Firefly, never really took off.