Last night, Millard, Devin and I went to the theater down the road and saw The Number 23. It was a pretty good suspense thriller over all. Jim Carrey was really good in it and after seeing him in non-comedic rolls (The Majestic and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), I had a feeling he would do just fine in this movie. It had a couple of unexpected twists and turns and had, what I thought, was a refreshing ending.

I also cataloged all the comics I had laying around for the last few weeks, and bagged and boarded them. I’ve updated the list in the Digital Archive.

Sick Thought of the Day: Taught nuts in a vise make sweet cheese extracts.

One again, it seems like forever since I’ve blogged. The odd thing is that I’ve been thinking about blogging a lot, but every time I go to do it I just seem too tired or busy to execute it. Well, I’ve had a good night’s sleep finally and nothing is going on right now so…

The new job’s been great. It’s long hours and the work can be a little overwhelming, but it’s a lot of fun and the people are great. Yeah, yeah, I know I keep saying all that, but it’s so weird for me to deal with that. Traditionally, I’ve worked with companies that try to really keep this stiff business lip and that kind of environment really drains me. I feel that I’m a very creative person in general and really know my stuff professionally, and the sterile environment of some companies drains me like you wouldn’t believe. Those are the kinds of places where I really don’t care if I’m late or what people think of me there. I mean, I’ll try to be professional and all, but I really have no energy to take initiative. These are usually places that hire someone like me (with 10 years of IT experience) and then never trust what they say because they either look too young to be credible, or they act like they listen to you but really have no interest in what you’re saying because it boils down to money, as most IT things unfortunately do. When I’m in that environment, I feel like “why should I put forth by best effort if they won’t take me seriously or care about what I’m saying?” It’s not like that at the company I’m at now. These people WANT to know what’s going on and RELY on that knowledge. They actually LISTEN to what the hired professionals tell them and earnestly TRY to find ways to make it happen. The effort of the owners and board really shows too. It’s not all smoke and mirrors. That’s such a cool, new thing for me. Exactly how I’d run a company.

On the Suncoast Studios front, the photo contest that we entered into still has not been concluded in that the judges haven’t announced the winners yet. I hope that comes to fruition in the next week or so because, with a little insider information I gleaned, I think that we really have a chance of winning the contest. The new production that’s started is going full-force and we’ve made a lot of headway. We’re still in development, but we’ve started some pre-production things and have actually built a couple of the main pieces we’re going to use in the shoot. Set building is scheduled to begin in the next two weeks and we are going to be writing a script shortly thereafter. I would bet that you’ll be hearing a lot about the shoot on the Suncoast Studios website in about a month or so.

Millard’s in town. He flew in Thursday morning and is doing some work for a local company. Shauna and I have him staying with us. Thursday night, to christen him back to Sarasota, I picked him up from the job he was doing and we went out to the store to grab a bunch of food. That night we made some Mexican food and he and I both wolfed down huge-assed burritos. Last night all three of us went out to Wings N Weenies and ate way too much food.

Speaking of Wings N Weenies, the weirdest fucking thing happened there last night. We get there and sit down at a table and order drinks. We’re talking, joking about things (you know the usual) and the one of the waitresses comes up and says “How’s the movie going?”, I thought I mis-heard her or something and was like “What?”. She repeats the question and I ‘m still not sure what she’s referring to and it occurs to me at that point that maybe she think’s I’m someone else and that I just saw a movie at the theater next door and yada, yada… So I look at her all funny and say “Which movie?” and she’s like “Aren’t you Matt?” and tells me my address. I’m totally confused and I look over at Millard across the table and he’s looking at me like I’m crazy, which is exactly how I felt right then. I look back at her with an apparently blank look and she says “You guys were making a movie a while back.” Ding, ding, ding! Fucking duh! “Oh, it’s done shooting and we’re now editing.” is what I tell her. I think at that point she said something else and walked away, satisfied with the answer I gave her. So, at that point I’m weirded out by how the fuck she knew that and I verbalize my thoughts about it to Shauna and Millard, and Millard reminded me that that same girl delivered food to my place one night while we were set up and shooting in my living room. Ah, it all flooded back to me then and I remembered the entire incident, and the waitress’s comments all made sense. Then I thought about it and realized that it was like eight months ago or so that we did that shoot and the girl remembered it, my NAME and my ADDRESS. It must have made some impression on her (hello, my ego), or she just has a really good memory (most likely the case). That stunned me for like half an hour last night. It was weird for me to be instantly recognized for something (and she hasn’t actually seen the movie, just knew we were shooting it). Sure, in the inner-circle of my friends and family, they all know what Suncoast Studios is and what we’re doing, but to have someone else actually come up to me like that was odd. It was odd in a good way though. After I got over the initial shock of it, I really felt good about it because I realized that I went from someone who is behind the scenes to and actual filmmaking. It was a sudden jump in (and I use this phrase SPARINGLY) “celebrity-status”. I got a taste of what it must be like for other, important people in the industry. I loved it.

So, after that we went back to my place and watched the new Mike Judge movie, Idiocracy, which was pretty funny. Today, with the help of Brad Fries, we’re gonna go clean out the storage unit where we’ve been keeping all the MutantMall merchandise and Suncoast Studios equipment. Later on we’re gonna hang out with Devin.

Sick Thought of the Day: Bring the beef to the lips, make the sausage sing.

This is a long overdue entry. I’ve been extremely busy getting acclimated with my new job. I get up at 6:00am, hit the road by 7:00am, and get to work sometime between 8:00am and 8:15am. I work until 5:00pm (sometimes 6:00pm) and get home around 6:00pm or 7:00pm. The drive is crazy. I have to drive 65 miles each way back and forth to Tampa. I’m very comfortable with the job now, and even when I leave work I’ve got tons of energy. However, by the time I get home that energy is gone and I’m exhausted from the drive. I need to learn how to relax on that somehow. I guess it’ll come in time. So, I usually go to bed around 10:00pm so that really only leaves me with about 3 good hours each night. And, if there’s a Lightning game on, I get home, change into shorts and a tee, and watch the game, then off to bed with me. I’ve been doing that a lot.

However, I’ve found some time to be creative. Suncoast Studios has entered into a photo contest sponsored by Informa, my prior employer. Jeff and I worked for about 20 hours or so planning, shooting, and editing the photos. They were submitted this week and we’ll know if we win in the coming week or so.

I’ve also begun pre-production on a new project which has blossomed into a very promising endeavor. I’m very excited about it. I don’t want to say too much about it right now, but, suffice it to say, it’s going to be huge and could very well be the breakthrough project for Suncoast Studios. Jeff and I are co-creators and will both be equally involved in the production. Keep your eye on the website in the coming weeks for more.

This past Saturday marked the completion of my 33rd year of existence. Luckily, there were no friends visiting my bedsheets. Instead my mom, Glen and Amy all came over for the day and we ate pizza, watched movies (Clerks II, Click) and got really sleepy from all the carbs. We celebrated my birthday and Shauna’s, whose is this coming Monday. She got me Superman Returns and Iron Man on DVD, and I got her a new necklace.

I’ve been getting to a point lately where I really have been inspired to loose weight. I’ve been an off-and-on exerciser for a couple of years, but I’m really getting serious about it finally. I figure I need to loose the pot-belly and get a little healthier. My goal is to loose 50 (!) pounds, which sounds like a lot, but it’s not really. That’ll bring me down to my ideal weight. Those of you who frequent my blog know I really don’t talk about this kind of thing unless I’m decidedly serious on doing it. So there. I’m gonna do it. I have my handy diet and exercise software on my iPaq and am ready to go! Maybe this will counter the 2 months of sitting around eating while I was laid off.

Sick Thought of the Day: Smashing fingertips with the lead pipe, making nails pop off and blood leak.