Updates: Civilian War, Surprise Party, Harry Potter, & Life After Darryl

Okay. SORRY about having nothing but a pickle on my blog for a month. Thanks to the brilliance of David, I am updating my blog with the nice convienence of having all of my pictures on one section. So- here, in one fell swoop, is what I have done since Halloween thus far.

As a surprise birthday present for Peter (whose birthday is Nov. 27th) I took him to a civil war reenactment (I KNOW! I can't believe they hold those in California either!). Peter LOVED it. The whole week he thought I was bringing him to an autograph signing for Patrick Stewart (Trekkie) because he thought that I was going to do the same surprise I did with David. So when we drove to bumtown country he was SO confused. Ha ha... but the look on his face when he saw what it was was so worth the trip.




Well... Pete's birthday isn't the only one in Nov. Darryl's is too (Nov. 6th) so when his came I decided to throw him a surprise party. I figured since he was leaving this month (left yesterday for home for possibly FOREVER*sob*) I would bring all his California friends to him so they could say goodbye.




He was pretty syked about it too. He had NO IDEA!!!! I took him to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles (OMG David and Angel, I have to bring you to this place) and we went home. And SURPRISE!!! :) It was awesome. Unfortunately I have no picture of his face during the actually surprising because I was behind him. :(

Anyway- like the cool dorks we are- on thursday we lined up for the first screening of Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire. We went to the midnight show at Grauman's Chinese (the theatre with all of the hands and feet in cement). OMG OMG OMG OMG. THE SINGLE BEST THEATRE EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD. And- in my opinion- the best EVER Harry Potter flick yet.



We were in the front of the line (it went around like 2 blocks).




Wingardian Leviosa!

Me and Darryl :)


But, alas, my weekend was not as fun as the days before. Darryl left! :( :( :( Because of immigration laws and the film industry Darryl has gone back to Grenada (HOPEFULLY temporarily) and for the first time in 4 years I must sleep in a cold bed. :( :( *sob*


Darryl packing through the night.

Fortunately my roommates are awesome. Darryl left in the morning and I couldn't come home from the airport (because I had to go to work) but I didn't mention this too anyone at home, so halfway through the day I get a call on my cellphone from Andy, Peter, and Erick WORRIED that I had driven my car off a cliff or something. And when I finally did get home they were SO SWEET!!!! Aww... it was almost hard being depressed, because they were so concerned. I love them all so much.

*Sigh* Life after Darryl... is boring. Today I spent my day mooping around the house (although I went to the Samonases for a early Thanksgiving dinner, pics later). I found a weird formation of what might be spider eggs on my office window and I showed it to everyone.


Peter was nice enough to get rid of it for me.



My life without Darryl, though hard, is infinitely easier because of the amazing people I am lucky to live with.

Okay, so now I'll leave you with something funny. This is Peter's bike. Peter found his bike one day with a broken tire, so he decided he was going to fix it. How did he fix it? He CUT IT UP AND TAPED IT.



*sigh*


Goodnight Guys! I miss you Darryl!

Ewwww....

I spilled my lunch all over myself today and now I smell like pickle.




Shamefull.

Long story...

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

The following pictures, respectively, are of the 1. West Hollywood Halloweed Block Party, 2. The Boring Ride Home from Las Vegas, & 3. Spending Halloween Weekend in Las Vegas.

At the WeHo Block Party I was a geisha. I've posted a few pictures on here, but I have dozens more.

In Las Vegas I was a Rock Star. Again... more pics that you can see if you want to.

Here I am, making a face (because I had to scratch my nose.)

My own personal ipod!

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Fry Man, Master Shake, and Me

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Awesome costumes

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Carnival Queens and A Geisha

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The Local Wildlife

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Congrats!

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My queens win an award on stage.

Cool

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

At first we thought it would be funny to put Pete in girl sunglasses but then we realized that he looked pretty awesome in them.

Hmmm...

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

I was told that I look like this ALL THE TiME. (You know... because everyone is taller than me. ha ha bleh)

Artsy Fartsy

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Where's Darryl?

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Erick

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Tired but Happy

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

My Knights

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

I got tired of the rockstar costume....

I think this one should be a postcard.... taken by yours truly :)

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Erick's Music Video Pose

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Cool Darryl Photo

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Look at the pretty lights!

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Under a Las Vegas skyline :)

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Cool Pic

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Camillo, Darryl & Erick

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Wasn't it nice of them to let me sit in the front?

The Rockstar & the Dead Lumberjack

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Originally uploaded by SummerB.

Pumpkin Carving

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

We carved pumpkins yesterday! My first time ever! We all got pumpkins and sat around to carve them- the one that I am holding is mine.

His name is Frank.

It was pretty cool. Dan and Jake came over to carve too, and Pete got a special pumpkin just for Camillo. Afterwards we lined the pumpkins up outside and took a picture.

Maybe I'll post that sometime this week. :)

Me and my pumkin!

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

The filmmaker house (and friends) hard at work.

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

Andy force feeding Erick pumpkin goo.

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

Dan and Jake

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

Camillo!

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

Camillo is here to visit. My kitty was in heat so I had to stay inside while taking this pic, so don't mind the lines from the screen door.

Iron and Wine

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

We at the filmmaker house would like to send a shout out to a lucky friend: our great professor Mr. Beam, aka Iron and Wine. We went to his LA concert a week or so ago and OH MY GOD was it HUGE.

All my Miami friends will remember the little boheme hovel Churchills Bar on N. Miami Ave where Beam used to perform to a small smoking crowd of drunks and students. Well- THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE. I took this picture from the balcony of the Wiltern(?) theatre in West Hollywood- a $30 ticket that got me about as close as the poor dead moth sitting on the ground in row #500.

No- I do not have a picture of that.

And THE FANS. OMG. Hundreds of people grooving around us to songs that WE helped make music videos to. ADORING FANS.

Wild. Two groups preceded Beam, Calexico and someone else. They were pretty good but the moment Beam stepped onto the theatre I could hear nothing but the deafening roar of the multitude.

Go Mr. Beam!

FINALLY

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

So after the AMAZING concert we walked around begging someone to let us see Beam. Of course the security people thought we were insane obsessed fans who were lying about the fact that we used to be taught be the illustrious IRON AND WINE singer but, after many minutes of sitting in the cold, dark alleyway behind the back entrance of the theatre (while watching cooler looking, more beautiful HIP people get in past security) FINALLY the door opened and out stepped Mr. Beam.

Mr. Beam! Wow. From the moment he stepped out you could tell he was tired. His eyes weren't really focusing too well- NO, not drugs- and his skin was drained of all humane color. But still, it was him, and we were happy to see him.

This is him signing Erick's Iron and Wine poster.

Adoring fans.

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

Poor Beam. He was exhausted. Of course, a gaggle of old students surrounding him asking for autographs probably didn't make him feel any better.

Me and Our Scarecrow

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

Yeah, so I was at the store and I saw this scarecrow, and if you don't understand why I HAD TO BUY HIM then you have no soul.





its a joke mommy :)

Out for Blood

I can taste it in my mouth- the sweet bitter rush of blood on my tongue from the helpless online flower shop customer service rep. He told me today that he cannot give me a refund until the TX flower shop opens. The left side of my brain understands, but the right side wrestles it down and screams profanity.

"I'm not waiting any longer." The lioness roars.

"Please ma'am, I'm sorry but I cannot do anything at the moment." The mouse squeaks.

I dangly some hope in front of him- "Well, if you do not want to take the responsibility of giving a customer a full refund for work not done, you could upgrade my order to the normal offer on the web: instead of my 1 dozen roses, you give me 3 dozen roses for half the price. Of course I could not be expected to pay that horrendous sum I did yesterday since this is no longer what you would consider a "same day" delivery, so I will be seeing about $15 back."

"But ma'am, I do not have the authorization-"

"Well apparently sir you do not have the authorization for anything. I mean- what am I doing talking to you? You can't even get a flower shop on the line. Let me talk to your manager."

At this he surrenders his soul and gives the expected reply "let me see what I can do."

Ha ha. They are weighing my offer. I will get a call back in a few minutes. Hazzah the forsaken queen returning to her throne!



That, Mommy, was the "package" I wanted you to wait at home for. A dozen roses- Happy Birthday!

Update: $10 off plus another 20%, including an apology card from the shop and the courtesy of meeting my mother wherever she wants to deliver the flowers. Success!!!

Complete Devestation

I can't write.

I haven't been able to write in 2 months.

I'm so dejected, I haven't loaded any new photos on flickr to show my nice blog community what I have been doing in the last week. AND I HAVE SOME NICE PHOTOS- even one that I took with the 'okay goodbye!' guy that shows up at the logo after American Dad.

Without my writing my life is totally, utterly useless.

Worst thing is that, for inspiration, I went to Allegra's site and her writing is so funny and awesome and original that it made me even more depressed. So I went to Thuy's site (who is a DENTIST and should NEVER BE funny, awesome, and original) but that didn't help either because she kept talking about her 40 year old neighbor who was keeping her up at night because he and his 20 year old friends kept freestyling, and it was TOTALLY FUNNY/AWESOME/ORIGINAL.

How am I supposed to follow something like that? Argh! ARGH!
I think today I will watch my "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" VHS (OMG VHS!), read my "The Artist's Way" book (which is infamous on the internet for taking writers block away from writers, but hasn't really done much for me so far), and hopefully get the energy to write the script outline that Roberto asked me to do for his documentary.

*&$%!!!... I totally forgot about that! *sob*

I am a lion in her den. Hear me hiss and back away. :(


P.S. Happy Birthday Hazel, Keianna, & Mommy. :) I'm glad have no money because if I did I would spend it all on gold and diamonds for your smiles.

OMG Angel and Bim

AAHHHH!!! Guess what I saw?! I went to the FIRST EVER screening of this film- it's so big that the lines were huge (and it was a secret screening!) and they had infrared scanners in the theatre to catch anyone secretly filming. I'll give you three hints (you'll never guess):

-it's release date is in December
-it's based on a best selling book
-Hatsumomo is a b*tch

I've said to much! You'll never guess! I've said to much! You'll never guess!
OMGOMGOMGOGMOGMGOMGOGOGMOGMOGMOGMOMGOMGOMGOMOGMOGMGOMGOGM
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLMFAOLOLOLOLOLOL

Misc:
-UNICEF and the Smurfs don't mix. What do I mean? http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,17550,00.html
-Listening to Ryan Seacrest in the morning talking about getting his hair bleached while millions of people have died somewhere else makes me wonder why christians don't blast people like him for not caring for their neighbor.
-Doing ANYTHING while thinking that somewhere, someone has lost their whole family makes it difficult to breathe.
-What is happening with the world?

BY SUMMER BERDIN

BY SUMMER BERDIN
Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

My first serious attempt at making a desktop background. Tools: My trusty Mac, Photoshop, & Illustrator. I got the photo on the left from the official japanese site, and cloned the umbrella & flowers to have them blend towards the right. The letters were my own, the last font Hanshand with a couple filters: film & backlight(?).

Proud of the most: Keeping my hand steady enough to extend the umbrella lines, and matching the 'antique paper' by mixing paintbrush tools with good color sense.

King of the Mountain

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Originally uploaded by itzkoolaid.

Peter on his throne. Quintessential.

You take my love, you take my land...

Just watched Serenity.

OMG *sob*

Advice: Rent the series, watch completely, see the movie. It's well worth it and in no way a waste of time. I'm a huge fan of Firefly, which says A LOT because I don't watch tv (much less watch a show that was CANCELED $@%# a year ago).

Round Up: The tv show is smart- WITTY- has actual 3 dimensional characters and not the usual crap 'stereotype', has AMAZING history, depth, feeling. It's scifi, but for those who do not like scifi just ignore that fact. It doesn't have severe make-up job aliens or robotic people or anything... it's kinda like a western in space. Oh! I know = Cowboy Bebop in the wild west.

Review: Pretty Okay. Three and three quarter stars out of five. It was nice to see the ship again (SWEET handheld of the whole set in the intro) and the storylines from the show were there. Seriously- I can't review it without saying exactly what I would have said about the show, and as a transition from tv to film Whedon did a good job. Only flaws I saw were: 1. Josh Whedon still seemed like he was FILMING for tv in the beginning, 2. Shephard was hardly in it. 3. Mal was a bit preachy a couple times... but that has to be let go because it's HIS BIG SCREEN MOMENT.

Like I said: Rent the series, watch completely, see the movie. Lather, rinse, repeat.