TomBlog

Rain in LA

tom@ekaweeka.com — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:20:19 -0800

In Seattle warm sunny days are heralded as a gift, everyone beams, moods are lifted. I have seen this in New York and Boston too.

In Los Angeles a rainy day is the same thing. Especially these days when rain is so uncommon. We had less then 9 rainy days last year, there have not been many more this year either. we are in permanent drought.

With all the fires, rain also comes with additional threat of mud slides.

But any morning I wake up to that oh so unfamiliar pitter padder it feels like first snow like a gift to be appreciated. We don't smile for this but it gives the same relief, the feeling of completeness.

More news about the Timmy's Eggs

tom@ekaweeka.com — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:43:52 -0800

Timmy/Timmina laid 2 more eggs today.

It is veterans day - Saturday Nov 10 in Los Angeles. Bri and I went out to Burbank's Noah's Bagels for breakfast. We walked around a street fair there and then came home to get to work - Bri on her blankets and knitted hats, me on website stuff and a quest to track down silver hoops to put in my old piercings which I recently discovered never healed up. I have four in total, two in my left ear, one in my nose, and one in my eye brow. I don't want to bother with the brow. But now that I can work from home I figure it would be fun to have my nose and ear rings back in.

When we got home I noticed Timmy had laid another egg. It was too late, she had eaten it (yes she eats them if we don't catch them in time) like I said Timmy will eat anything. Oh well, time to clean the aquarium. It's well over due anyways. I took a shower and when I finished and walked into our bedroom Timmy was floating with all her limbs tucked in. It was a trance like state that I have never seem. I confused her tail for her head for a second because it was dilated and bulging out, and I watched with wonder as an egg shot out and fell to the rocky aquarium floor below her. This time I got it out before she could devour it. And this time I looked up more information on turtle eggs.
According to The American Tortoise Rescue Website - the eggs if kept right hatch within 70-77 days. The writer of this page says her friend currently has 64 eggs incubating!

What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?

Timmy Lays Eggs

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:27:02 -0800

I got a turtle a couple months ago. It's name is Timmy. I spent about 2 months deciding whether or not I should get a turtle. After I was convinced that it wouldn't stink, that I could take care of it, and that it wasn't going to break the bank, it was the day that I realized the turtle at the pet shops name was Timmy that I decided to bring Timmy home.

Timmy eats gold fish and turtle pellets. They are messy eaters and since Timmy is an aquatic turtle the food floats in the water and the fish help Timmy eat it. Luckily we got a high powered filter that cleans the water well so we only have to give Timmy fresh water ever couple of weeks.

Timmy will eat anything. The way we socialize with Timmy other then petting Timmy and talking to Timmy, is by putting our fingers up to timmy's face and watching Timmy try to eat our fingers.

A day or two before Halloween Timmy started laying eggs. I had no idea but Timmy was actually Timmina lady turtle of the rocks. I also call her Tammy sometimes now. We are currently trying to incubate some of Timina's eggs as there is a possibility they will hatch. We hope to have baby Timmies soon :)

Getting Back to Business

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 10:55:41 -0800

Why do I feel like the more fun I have the harder it is to get back to work? We went up to Ynez valley north of Santa Barbara on Saturday - that was quite a treat. We stopped by Demetria Winery a small family owned vinyard on Foxen Canyon road. They produce 8,000 cases a year. The owner of the vineyard hosted our tasting and we had an amazing time. Look them up, but call in advance they only do tastings by appointment.

Now I get back to work, and boy do I have a lot of work to do.

It's Important to Record

tom@ekaweeka.com — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:30:49 -0700

It's been a while since I laid down a track, busted out the mini-disc recorder or any other device for making an audio record. I'm back in Palo Alto, looking through the CD's ellery has preserved, and I found his copy of one of my first records.

It's been a while.

September 2001 I finalized and mastered to my best degree the set of songs that would be laid down on "Bohemian Day Dream". I've made all the decisions in the past which did not include making more audio records, and it would be nice to have something to show the change over time, progress or experimentation. It isn't too late though.

I believe it is important to record, wih digital media just opening up, all you have to do is make it, upload it and eventually it will get out thereand make a life of its own.

When that is all it takes, if you possess the ability to, and the desire to, you should.

I will make more recordings. Its important.

Like We Never Left

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:57:04 -0700

Two years have passed, since then I've spent less then a month back in the city over a course or 3 or 4 visits. But it feels like we never left only I want it again. The pedestrian lifestyle, The way so different from any other. I know why people never want to leave New York, it's because everything seems like it is here. The culture's the food, the language, shyness, attitude, art, struggle and joy... they are all encapsulated in everything you do here. We landed last night, Heather had a toothache so we had to find somewhere else to crash. Charles having just arrived at LaGuardia offered to pick us up from JFK. We drove back to his place in the UES at 88th st. We drank beer and talked. This morning we took a bus down to 18th and shacked up at 71 on Irving for coffee and email checking. I fixed a bug or two on Ekaweeka, emailed about some new Flash projects and then Jimmy showed up to have coffee with us. Score points for Jimmy and Charles. But those two went beyond the call of duty and made it clear that anywhere anytime our visit would not be ignored. Same to you Masha - you guys just know the art of making someone feel welcome. Now Bri prepares for the "W event" and I head out to that dreaded club land on 28th street to meet her for it.

Going To New York

tom@ekaweeka.com — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 08:11:32 -0700

We set off for New York this morning. The second trip in the past two weeks. Last week was Seattle - we visited family and I showed bri my old stomping grounds (ish) in the University District area. This week she is helping out with a W mag party, the rest of the time we'll be visiting friends, and stopping by our favorite coffee shops - a la "our old stomping grounds" :)

I hope to check out the new exhibits at the Met, see Ellery, go by the Vangaurd offices, stop by Battery to see how the developments are coming and maybe I'll ride the Staten Island ferry too. I love New York so much, it's like a very special old friend, I don't think of this as travel even though the experience with exhaust me and I'll miss Commie every second we're gone. This is a visit and revision on old times passed.

I'm a Victim of Auto Insurance - Identity Theft!

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:20:16 -0700

In what is probably the truest testimate yet to why I can't stand major corporations and being a car owner combined into one, I discovered yesterday that I am a victim of indentity theft in an incident with my car insurance.

Over 15 months ago, a call was made to my insurance company about a car accident that I was supposedly in, driving a car that was not my own involving another car that also wasn't my own. The caller provided personal information about my insurance policy, gave the claim rep a different phone number and email address then my own and I guess that's all that was needed to make it official.

since then I have renewed my policy, with no word about the incident, my rate didn't go up, I never had to make any payments, I was never even alerted about the change of phone number and email on my account, why would I? They still had all my phone numbers, they were still sending me emails to my email address. And yet yesterday when Briana was adding me to her car insurance, the insurance rep she was speaking with checked my driving record with DL# and SSN and found this incident which reportedly had left 2 points on my driving record.
I've never had any accidents, no moving violations and all of a sudden I have two points on my record.

So how did it happen? I don't know but it's definitely identity theft, and even though no money has been lost, I had to call all the credit bureaus, I had to file a report with the federal trade commision, and I need to send formal statements to my insurance company to get their formal statements so I can file a police report and make get the whole incident on paper.

AY YAY YAY!!!

Today - Catch Up

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:57:11 -0700

We went camping in the Sequoia National Forrest last weekend, a lot of fun but no internet and no cell signal. So I've got a lot of catching up to do. And that tax extension I filed not too long again is about to be over..... so much to do so little time.

Efficiency

tom@ekaweeka.com — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:52:54 -0700

Was listening to NPR mmmmkay and there was this guy talking about cutting down to a 4 hour work week by strategizing when and how he did ANYTHING..... mmmm thinking about... sounds kind of nice. It's called the 4 hour work week. Check it out.

BLAAAAAAAAWWWwwwGGGGGGGG!

tom@ekaweeka.com — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:24:35 -0700

What To Do

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:45:51 -0700

In-between other work - I sit down, go to my Ekaweeka account and wait for something to bug me... it might be a certain position of a header bar, or the margins around a certain section in one of my pages. Then I fix it.

Frequently there is more then one thing that I want to fix and I become conflicted, like a downhill skier who's skis have become crossed and their legs are about to slam into each other. My head gets tangled and a choice must be made. It is at this point where (hopefully) someone will write in and say "you know I just wish I could do this...".

"thank god" I think to myself - something I can do for someone else - it's always easier to put their needs first.

Google - Evil? Maybe But They're Giving Evil A Friendly Face

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:38:18 -0700

So let's see here..... google now watches what we search for, what sites we go to, our IM chats, our shopping patterns, our video watching tastes, our web site traffic, they host our blogs, they sell us domains, they serve our advertising needs, they provide our online document spreadsheet calendar and presentation software services and believe me if you look around at what is in their labs (and the hundresd of other projects they don't tell us about) you'll agree Google has their hands in everything.

I believe they even condone click fraud, when I have used their adwords (advertising with their services), my search engine results jump by about 10,000% and all the sites that our ads show up on are link farms (fraudulently created websites that only show advertising links).
Since Google gets 50% of the revenues for those ads and they currently only flag about .005% of ad traffic for click fraud it's safe to say their 80 billion plus profits would be hurt if they took a harder stance on click fraud... still I have to say after my experience with Authorize.net, I'm really loving Google Checkout. And Google seems to be one of the few companies (eehhhheemmmm! Microsoft) that focuses strongly on making the user experience easy and fun.

Yes, if any government were able to look through their data (they probably already do) then more then one can of worms would be opened and our privacy as a result is seriously at risk... but how much privacy do we really have on the web anyways? Think about the scams on MySpace where people are encouraged to post "learn about me" questionaires that are just sifoning your info to a hacker office that is compiling your personal info so they can hack your bank and other online accounts. If you spend more then a little time on the web, and if you do anything beyond browsing - you are giving up some privacy.

Not that I think we should give up our privacy but really this is how things appear to be.

And yes I think Google is evil, I just heard some folks on NPR comparing their operation to the deathstar. But as one journalist pointed out - if Google is the deathstar then paypal/ebay mapquest are the rebel alliance... and I don't know something doesn't sit right with that. Seriously try sending a customer support request to paypal or ebay... if anything they are the evil ones and the rebel alliance has won .. and made themselves a friendly deathstar.

Perhaps its all about power, google has power and power is evil.... but if it is friendly use of power does that make it friendly evil? Is there such a thing?

Authorize.net is the worst company in history!

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:23:39 -0700

I don't want to disclose this in the main site blog but basically over the past two weeks as we tested the new shopping cart - Authorize.net gave me the worst customer service I've ever had in my life.

Everyone I know uses Authorize.net (AN) for their website commerce needs, however the way we all use AN can be different. You can set up a merchant account with Wells Fargo and elect to use AN. But if you sign up all your merchant needs with AN they'll set up your merchant account with an in house department that outsources their work through another service. The difference is (as I learned the hard way) if you set up everything through AN they onyl have an email address to write to if you need help with your account. Where as is you set up your commerce through anyone else like Wells Fargo and elect to use AN as your gateway, you'll have 24hour 7 day a week customer support by phone, web conference, and email.

The difference really showed last week when AN decided to put a hold on all funds going the Ekaweeka as a result of a chargeback that happened over 2 months ago. They never contacted us after the charge back, they just simply started holding transactions after 2 months of letting everything be fine and dandy.

I begged and pleaded, I told them how difficult they were making life for us, to no avail. So I have vowed to never set up another shopping cart with AN in this way. Some of you probably use them, if you do - please please feel free to ask me about my experience. If you think your cell phone company blows at customer service think again AN is the worst company in history!

Bay Area vs. Southern California

tom@ekaweeka.com — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:05:45 -0700

We recently discovered that we might have a once in a lifetime opportunity to move back into the house I grew up in, in Palo Alto sometime next year. Ever since moving out for college I've wondered if I would get to move back in, then when my parents moved out it became a very unlikely option. Now that we have found a great home in Los Feliz it is hard to image going anywhere. Moving up north would be fantastic for Ekaweeka and a lot could happen between now and next year which could sway my own feelings on the issue. Briana is very excited about this - she loves that house as do I.

When I was younger I was always intrigued with the concept that people and their families would move accross the country sometimes accross the world for work. For the first time I am having to make similar decisions, what trip life is.

The Perfect Surf

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 12:07:14 -0700

I found the best beach yet. After the Ojai festival yesterday we drove back to the coast and headed up to the first exit on the 101. There is a great little stretch going about 3-5 miles right next to the beach there. I've meaning to check out the breaks on this stretch for sometime. I didn't even bring my board but at the very least I was still exited to try body surfing out there.

The waves didn't look phenomenal at first, but something about them just made it perfect. The breaks we're about 50 feet and 100 feet from the shore and they were 4-6 feet high without much of a curl, but the break just came all the way in to beach in a rather gentle motion. We were probably only there for 25 minutes but I got in a few good rides and one amazing one which I had to take as a cue to leave as my surf excursions are never that perfect. To top it off the beach was mid way between LA and Santa Barbara so I felt like I wasn't going to grow a 3rd arm after swimming in the water for half an hour :p

I'm going to have to bring all my friends out there it was truly amazing, if anyone is looking for a good beginner break this is the one!

Riding My Bike

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:34:25 -0700

I've started riding my bike to work, as with most positive choices I've made in the past it wasn't directly because of the benefits. More because my clutch suddenly started skipping when we picked Alaine up from her cruise ship in Long Beach last Sunday.

I've been wanting to switch to an electric car for a while now, and I'm not quite ready to make that kind of a purchase so I decided to see just how far of a bike ride it was to the Ekaweeka headquarters. Turns out it took me less time to ride there!

So now I'm wondering if I should even fix my car....

Surfing this weekend

tom@ekaweeka.com — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 08:38:22 -0700

The water is finally warming up, Britt is in town from New York and there is nothing she wants to do more then to go surfing! So we're going to head out to shores and try to find some nice breaks. I'm a little tired of my short board so I might look into getting a stand up paddle board - these are super cool extra long surf boards that you stand on the entire time and use a paddle to get around. They end up working more muscles and you can catch the tiniest of waves.

I'll send some pictures when I have em!

Commie's Story

tom@ekaweeka.com — Fri, 18 May 2007 11:00:36 -0700

I realized recent that Friendster might delete Commie's profile anyday now and well her bio is too important to let them do away with it. So I'm reposting it here just in case. Read it if you have a chance. It's to die for.

I was born in a small village in rural Mexico. My papi was a scottish ex-pat Jack Russel who found my village just long enough to knock up my chihuahua mami and head off to glamorous beach towns. I spent my early years as a semi professional salsa dancer, but quickly got caught up with the wrong crowd as I fell into a circle of corrupt gangster salsa club owners. Things were flying high until a massive government crack down landed me 20 years in Hacienda National Prison, the grittiest female dog prison south of Baja. After doing my time (these years are much too traumatic to revisit) I returned to a village that had long forgotten me. I said my goodbyes and headed across the border to America, the melting pot of diggies from all over the world, the last source of hope for my unloved mixed-nreed bastard of an ex salsa dancer. After wriggiling under a fence in the blistering Texas heat, I was scooped up by a man promising free passage to a place called Boston in exchange for 6 months of service for his sea food restaurant for minimum doggie wage. Day after day I scrubbed dishes as I watched dozens of house dogs getting walked and pampered by their owners, I knew this was the life for me so I sabatoged my return to the clean world and went back to what I knew best. I quit my job and went to sign up as a fighting dog in the underground fighting pits of Cambridge. I was bought by a bastard named Rosko. After a dismal 0-14 start, Rosko called me useless and banished me into the basment of his apartment building. A shivered there for 5 days, unfed and cold until that fateful day, Thanksgiving 2003. I was taken in by Thomas and finally given the opportunity to be a real house dog. I now spend my days not moving, watching TV, getting fed and stroked all the time. On occasion I think back to the wilder days, the Mexico city drug binges, prison orgies, and the cutthroat underground fights, but I dont miss it a bit. Now I much prefer making sparkly things.

Just added a photo upload feature to the blogging system.

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 11:12:20 -0700

Mom and I on top of the Pacific Crest Trail in Ashland Oregon.

I joined Ani Difranco's Band

tom@ekaweeka.com — Fri, 11 May 2007 11:58:05 -0700

Had a dream last night. I think it started around 6 or 7 am. Ani Difranco was performing with a band at some small venue, there was a different band playing on another stage in a different room. The guitarist's string broke and for some reason I had a Fender Stratocaster with me, it was one of the crappy ones that are made in Korea. The guitarist was grateful at first but quickly realized my guitar was a piece of shit (it was). So I tried to replace his strings quickly but there were too many broken. This all went on until I was suddenly hanging out with Ani and crew after their show.

Somehow I was suddenly proposing that I play back up with the band. They weren't into it. I grabbed someone's guitar and began to demonstrate my chops. This didn't go over well so I jumped on a piano and busted out a progression. They dug the progression and became open to discussion. Some where around this time I started waking up, it was around7:30am and I vividly remember popping in and out of my dream:
"it's 7:30am, should I get up?"
flashing back into my dream "I don't want to wake up I'm about to join Ani Difranco's band! Noooooo!" :
"I have to go back to sleep!"

I did go back into sleep and continued the story. I'm not sure if I was aware of how I had just consciously decided to continue the story, I might have just be praying in my dream that it wasn't a dream... maybe I really was about to become a permanent fixture in this awesome touring act!

Next thing I knew I had become aware that the players weren't all convinced I was made of the right stuff for their gig. I confronted them. I told them I was good! I was better then good! I was afraid they were going to steal my songs and leave me behind. When all of sudden I opened my eyes; it was 9am I had slept in. As a side note I realized I wasn't in the band.... it was a dream. Weird.

Groups

tom@ekaweeka.com — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:10:02 -0700

Last night I got burst of motivation and started cranking out the groups section. This is by far the largest build I've ever done completely on my own for Ekaweeka. It involves all sorts of programming I haven't had to do yet. The challenge is so invigorating though. Without hesitation the solutions to each obstacle came to mind immediately. I should get an acknowledgement badge or something.
I was trying to explain to the Box Eight guys how programming was very artistic last night.... hahaha well it is, it's making something out of nothing. Only difference is the results are not so much visual as they are giving life to something that had none.

Watering Plants

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:45:43 -0700

I had to get up early today to water our plants. Everytime I do this, I remember my childhood. My neighbor was a botanist and whenever she and her husband went out of town she would pay me to come by and soak all of her plants - and there were a lot of them. I would go over to her house and feel like I had vanished out of Palo Alto and emerged in a jungle in a far off land. When they are watered enough, plants seem to produce an air.. it might be oxygen or just the smell of the droplets coming up into the air. Whatever it is it smells great and I loving going to this place.

Moving

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 09:12:58 -0700

Jeff and I are driving to San Diego today, he has relative who is getting rid of all her furniture to make space for a new furniture. We're going to pick up the old stuff, bring it back, keep what we like, and find new owners for the rest. I guess I can add "mover" and "furniture" dealer to my resume now :D

Earth Day Festival

tom@ekaweeka.com — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:41:26 -0700

We just got back from Santa Monica where we were helping the Earth Day LA team. We helped set up the booths, got each exhibiter set up at their station - and unloaded their cars without incident.

We got there at 6:30am and finished at 11am. Then we walked around and met all the amazing people with booths. There were bio-diesel vehicles, electric vehicles and scooters. All sorts of green lifestyle companies with environmentally friendly alternatives to everything from interior design to baby food.

Coolest of all was the live music which was powered by a solar panel. I have yet to follow up with all the amazing people I met there but there is no doubt that we will be collaborating in the future to bring more clean air and clean energy practices to the main stream :-)

The New Politics of Email

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:39:54 -0700

Now that blackberries have infiltrated many levels of society a new type of protocol for email has yet to form.
It all begins with the owners of these gadgets who generally do not know how to turn off the send and receive schedule for their email. So at all hours of the day & night those crack-berries are chirping beeping buzzing w/e because emails still come in at all hours even though calls have temporarily suspended during the night. Problem is people don't think about this when drafting up an email at 1am. Which shouldn't be an issue but the sender may want to consider that their email could not only deliver a message but also wake up the receiver in the middle of the night.

The alarm of a new email in the middle of the night is just one problem. As convenient as the blackberry is, it tends to only fit a few dozen words into one screen shot. So while a 3 paragraph email may have been well thought out, chances are the first paragraph gets most of the attention. Email is not text messaging but this condition has spurred a new wave of short half sentence replies. The recipients should be responsible and decide to go through lengthy emails later so to give them the full attention they require.

More on this in a little .. just a rant yah know - these things take time :-)

Volunteering

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:46:01 -0700

So I am volunteering for the Santa Monica Earth Day festival this weekend. It's a part of the whole "Step It Up" climate action thing that is going on for the next two weeks in support of fighting global warming earth day etc.

6am - 11am Saturday morning Briana and I will be setting up booths on 3rd Street Promenade. This is all very exciting except we have to go to a orientation thing tonight that will get us informed for the actual volunteer day which is Saturday. Basically driving to Santa Monica for the "prep meeting" tonight in addition to the crack of dawn volunteering on Saturday is less then hmmmm how do you say - ideal?

Blogging Professionally

tom@ekaweeka.com — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:40:33 -0700

Does anybody out there blog professionally? I must have 15 blogs now... and I don't know if there is some strategy to blogging for bucks but if you got information - I got interest and I'm all ears!

The Pages System

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 13:58:55 -0700

One of the biggest ideas we had when we were making Ekaweeka pre-launch was the pages. Ekaweeka was supposed to be a website creation tool and custom pages came hand in hand with that. Right off the bat we noticed people weren't using it, there was too much freedom or something. But some had suggested that they wanted to be able to make a "press page" that looked just like the rest of their pages, which made sense, instead of making them figure it out, we could have every custom page start out looking like the other pages but with a space where they could fill in the content and make a page relevant to their business; such as a "press page".

But time has passed and aside from a few people we're still not seeing very much use of the page system. My next hunch is that we need to make pre-made pages that can be added optionally - like "add a press page". If that sounds interesting to anyone - let us know we'd love your feedback.

Close your eyes

tom@ekaweeka.com — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 19:13:10 -0700

It will go faster then you think.

Waiting For Brunch

tom@ekaweeka.com — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 11:54:16 -0700

I'm waiting for Julie, Joey, and Annie. We're going to have brunch at 'The Dive' on Highland @ Melrose. Formally called Highland Grounds. They are late, but it was good cause I got a chance to put up some new featured photos and all the business. It's overcast, has been for almost a week now. In LA this usually happens in June and so it got the name "June Gloom" but for some reason it's happening in April ... a tad bit early. Nothing is dying out, my plants are all still wet from being watered days ago, not really the "L.A." that comes to mind when people think of this year round sunny 70+ degree beach-side city. But I also have a feeling I'm getting more work done as a result.

People Watcher Blog

tom@ekaweeka.com — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 10:23:02 -0700

I recently started a new blog, not to leave this or the EkaBlog in the behind. It is the People Watcher Blog. The idea is I have been taking pictures since I was 5 - always photographing subjects, things of interest. But occasionally people I don't know are in the background of those photos. So People Watcher is to serve as a place to post pictures of those who accidentally ended up in the graphic memories of my past. Possibly opening doors to missed connections, coincidence, and other magical synchronicities.

Finally Moved In

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 09:43:00 -0700

We brought over the last load of stuff yesterday, I met with the newest sublet candidate; got his cash and gave him the key + garage door opener. Afterwards I had to run a couple errands and then got home to Tiffany's Birthday party. The party went well at least it seemed so - we'll have to wait and see if there were any complaints. Considering that everyone was inside after 8:30 I think the noise was contained for the most part.
Now I have to jump in with everything right where it was left off. Ekaweeka, closing out our apartment without loosing the security deposit, my side work with LA Street Dreams and Soul Salon... my help with Reputation and Super Kid Photography. The list goes on and on.

Yard Sale - Illegal!!!?!

tom@ekaweeka.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:01:34 -0700

A few weeks back Andy, Emma, Jeff, Tiffany, Briana and I all put together a yard sale at Andy and Emma's house. We all had some stuff to get rid of and we didn't feel like posting it on Ebay or Craigslist. So we organized, got a bunch of wine - and made an evening of imbibing and making funny signs for our yard sale that weekend.

The next day (Friday) Jeff and I drove around Hollywood putting up the signs. Saturday we had the garage sale, we sold a bunch of stuff and were done by 1pm. We went and played golf and BBQ'd. It was a fantastic day.

Fast forward a month ahead, Jeff calls me this morning to say Emma just got home from a trip to NYC and she found a fine in the mail from the City of Los Angeles for posting a sign on private property. The fine was for $194.00 and requested a court appearance.
WTF! We didn't post our signs on anything but electricity polls where we had seen signs in the past. Whats even worse there could be more on the way. Jeff later heard from a friend that it is illegal to have a garage sale in Los Angeles - because they want you to pay a tax for anything you sell!

Not much more to this post then that - but for real who knew! This is insane. Next thing you know it's going to be illegal to BBQ without a helmet!

New Home In Los Feliz

tom@ekaweeka.com — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:52:16 -0700

Last week Bri and I went out to drinks for an ABC social event at Power House which is probably the most bar like bar in the Hollywood Blvd. tourist area (the chinese theatre, star walk etc.). We went around 8:30 and left Commie in the apartment. When we got back around 11:30pm there were two very angry anonymous computer typed notices about Commie barking.

We've already had tons of problems with noise issues at the apartment. Basically we are never unaware of how much noise we're making because our floors are hardwood and the guy below us can hear everything! The letters spoke of calling the police, fines, and while they were anonymous they were addressed to Apt #33.

This was too much, and though we had casually thought of finding a new home in the past we were quite content with our own dwelling. Bri started pulling possibilities off Craigslist that night. Saturday morning our friends Jeff and Tiffany called me to see if I wanted to look at a duplex that was for sale in Los Feliz. We went and it turned out to be for rent or for sale which ever came first. So I put down an application on one of the units to rent. It was on a noisy street (fountain ave) and wasn't adjoined with any other properties so I was excited about the thought of living in a situation where commie barking wouldn't be a problem.

After we left Tiffany mentioned a 3 bed 3 bath house in the hills with a great view, it was listed at a rate we could all afford together so we decided to go look at for shits and giggles. Little did we know the place looked amazing! We made an appointment to see it with the realtor the next day.
Sunday came Bri, Jeff, Tiffany, and I all got into my car and drove over to the hilltop house. We called the realtor to confirm our appointment and he said it would be better if we came back a an hour later... we didn't like this cause it meant he was probably showing it to other people before us! So we drove over there and decided to casually "pop in". The realtor was there showing the unit to an older couple. He was obviously not into us and told us he already had an approved applicant who just needed to drop off the deposit on Monday. He also said they weren't interested in renting to two couples. He asked us if we were going to make it a "party house" and suggested that we would put too much wear and tear on the house. In privacy Jeff asked him if he would rent to us at all, and he told Jeff he wouldn't.

The experience really messed us up. We loved the place and couldn't believe that we wouldn't get it because the realtor got the wrong first impression. We furiously started looking for other houses. On Monday I called the realtor and asked him if he got the deposit from his applicant and he said they had backed out. There was still a chance!!! He confirmed that the property owner wouldn't rent to us but this wasn't enough. Even though we had all given up unknowingly Tiffany and I both emailed the realtor to see if there was anyway at all that they would change their minds. Tiffany's email must have been convincing because the next day the property manager emailed back and said the owner changed his mind and would rent it to us.
It had already been an emotional roller-coaster and now we were sensitive to the thought of constantly having the property manager watching our behavior under a microscope but we knew we wanted the place.

We put down the applications, got the acceptance call, I got a certified check for the deposit, and I drove it over to the realtor's home office. It is done. Here is photo of the view, it looks out over Los Feliz (Hillhurst, Vermont, Western @ Franklin), and hollywood, and you can actually see Beverly Hills beyond Hollywood. The second photo is from the livingroom looking out. The view is really what sold us, each room has it and each room has a patio. All we could think about when we saw it was how we would be able to garden so much more with all the sunlight. I know it looks like we're big high rollers, but this was completely about the fact that we were willing to share it with friends thus being able to split the cost down the middle. So that's the story of our new home, hope you like it as much as we do.

Multi-Tasking

tom@ekaweeka.com — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:34:26 -0700

I've been working my butt off!!!!!! With the global warming stuff, upcoming birthdays, ekaweeka site development and the ongoing hope to find some more side jobs to pay the bills I am poooped!

To top it all off Bria and I went out last night for drinks at Power House a bunch of our friends from ABC were meeting there for their monthly trashy bar get together. We left commie at home around 8pm and got home around 11:30pm with computer printed angry notes about commie barking. The notes were simply addressed "Apt 33!!!". I've never been a fan of such letters and to be addressed as apt 33. No dear neighbors down the hall. The notice wasn't apologetic, or sympathetic, not did it suggest the fact that this hasn't been a problem in the last 18 months that we've lived here. It was the straw the broke the camels back.

So this morning I went and looked at a house (YES I SAID HOUSE). The lady there was nice and obviously liked me more then other candidates she had met. I say that cause she said so.. and why would I think she was just blowing smoke up my ass? She has no reason to do so. She had a terrible case of tendenitius and I told her about my own experiences with carpol tunnel and how to fix it asap.

Anyways, the house is great, we have gardening space, it has tons of light. It's in a funny neighborhood... not the Hollywood Hills we're accustomed to, but I think after last night we can live without that. And besides we really want to gardening and lighting.

Oy! How was that for a vent?

Global Warming Meetup Tonight!

tom@ekaweeka.com — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:52:05 -0800

Tonight we hold our first Hollywood global warming meetup. If it goes well I will start at least one more for the community of Los Angeles proper. This is exciting for me because we will discuss a range of issues. In one way or another we'll expand the awareness and understanding of what is at hand for anyone willing to admit that global warming needs to be tackled immediately.

Ekaweeka will have event and group tools shortly, but until then if anyone wants to start their own local global warming group go to www.meetup.com just search for "Global Warming" meetups if there isn't one already in your area you can be the first to start it!

Branson offers $25m reward to fight global warming

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:11:37 -0800

Article from The Guardian UK - By David Adam, environment correspondent

Richard Branson yesterday threw his weight behind the quest for a new wonder technology to defeat climate change when he announced a $25m (�12.7m) reward for the first scientist to develop a way to suck carbon dioxide from the air. Brushing aside suggestions that it was hypocritical for an airline boss to talk about climate change, Sir Richard said he wanted to spur the "world's brightest brains" to develop ways to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and "possibly save mankind itself". He also called for the world's population to be "urgently" limited, to help tackle global warming.

Sir Richard said: "Most of us have only really encountered the concept of a planet under threat in science fiction films. The plot is often that no one believes the threat until it's almost too late and then a superhero steps in to save the day. Today we have the threat, we still have to convince many people that it is indeed both urgent and real, and we have no superhero. We have only our ingenuity to fall back on."
But the prize - known as the Virgin Earth Challenge - was attacked by a leading climate scientist as promoting "hopeful, madcap magic bullet schemes". Kevin Anderson, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at Manchester University, said: "He's misguided, misinformed and potentially quite dangerous in making people think there is some great technological hope out there."

Backed by the former US vice-president Al Gore and senior scientists, including Jim Hansen of Nasa, Sir Richard said the prize would go to the first proposal that the judges agreed would remove greenhouse gases equivalent to at least a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere, in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way.

Previous suggestions include giant artificial trees coated in chemicals that would absorb carbon dioxide from the wind. The most mainstream idea involves seeding the oceans with iron powder, to stimulate plankton which soak up carbon and carry it to the seafloor when they die.

Last month the Guardian revealed that the US government wanted scientists to develop technology to block out the sun as "important insurance" against rising emissions. Mr Gore yesterday called those plans "horribly mistaken" but argued that technology to remove carbon dioxide from the air was worth pursuing.

Sir Richard conceded that such technology may be impossible and stressed the importance of existing research into alternative fuels and renewable energy. On his aviation interests, Sir Richard said: "I could ground my airline today, but British Airways would simply take its place."

But Dr Anderson said: "He should rethink his attitude to rail and aviation rather than take this wacko, futuristic route."

Calculate Your Personal Contribution To Global Warming

tom@ekaweeka.com — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:55:12 -0800

This might not be pleasant for some, but all in all it would help to know just how much damage you are causing in your own personal lifestyle. Once you know you'll be much more likely to want to change, see how you can change, and be inspired to tell others how they can change.

Click Here To Calculate Your Personal Contribution To Global Warming.

Ten Things You Can Do Now

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:54:23 -0800

Many people feel helpless when it comes to global warming. They throw their hands up in the air and think "I have to drive a car to work there's nothing I can do!". Driving a car is only one of the many lifestyles that contribute to carbon emissions, but there are tons of things you can do to make a difference some as easy as washing your clothes with cold water! Here are ten things you can do right now to fight global warming:

1. Buy energy saving light bulbs (a.k.a. Compact fluorescent bulbs).

2. Use cold water when hot isn't absolutely necessary.

3. Shop at local farmers markets.

4. Buy organic.

5. Unplug anything that doesn't need to be on. I unplugged my coffee maker, coffee grinder, microwave, printer, speakers, TV, DVD player, phone charger, and laptop charger.

6. Turn down your AC, turn down your heater.

7. Ride a bike.

8. Get oil changes for your car regularly.

9. Keep you car tires full.

10. Recycle. Buy products with recycled packaging. Buy recycled products period.

11. Plant trees.

12. Tell someone else how easy it is for them to reduce their carbon emissions.

13. Go to www.fightglobalwarming.com to see what else you can do.

LA Street Dreams

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 13:16:11 -0800

I've taken on a couple side projects, one of the first is LA Street Dreams. LA Street Dreams is a project that opens doors for people when opportunities are all but lost. LA Street Dreams videotapes people's dream requests and circulates their requests via the Internet. They follow up with a video of successful dream fulfillments, not only in Los Angeles, but throughout the country. The people we meet are human beings, just like you, who need a helping hand in order to live a better quality of life.

I am helping the founder Rande Scott with the landing page for LAStreetDreams.com where they will take donations and post the show and some information about the program.

This is a wonderful opportunity to give back, come show your support: www.LAStreetDreams.com

Green Energy - Fight Global Warming

tom@ekaweeka.com — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:52:49 -0800

We are going green, we already were no doubt, but now it's a priority like never before. While I can't buy a hybrid tomorrow, there were 2 things I was able to do immediately to get the ball rolling.

Unplug everything!
We unplugged the TV, the DVD player, the coffee grinder, our cell phone adapters and bedside lamps.

Call Utilities and switch to green energy!
Who knew all this time we could have switched our energy from power plants to renewable sources like windmills and a hydropower. It took me 1 minute on the phone and a simple request to make the switch. They say our bill will be about $3.00 more per every $50.00 which is nothing especially since our bills will probably go down with all the stuff unplugged!

Check out climate crisis for all sorts of ways to fight global warming

Let me know what you've been doing to fight global warming! We're going to make sure Ekaweeka is a green company everyone has to do their part.

The photo gallery

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 13:41:30 -0800

I've been hacking away on the photo gallery all weekend. After getting things cleaned up on the front side I had to add the same features to the edit mode. The edit mode is getting pretty sweet though, you can add and / or change the photo title. If you have comments on your photos you can see those while you browse from the account pages. You can change any photo to be your logo now with ease. Soon we'll have placement management and more.

All of these are very fresh and undoubtedly need work, so it would be great to get feed back if anyone has it!

My Memoirs

tom@ekaweeka.com — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 13:14:46 -0800

Many of you don't know that I work in a Talent Management Company for about 4-5 hours day Monday thru Friday. I don't actually work for the company, I used to before I quit. I quit to start Ekaweeka but I wanted my desk and to pretend that I was still a cool talent manager working in an office with a view of the hollywood sign. Well I still do have that view and I still do feel cool even though I spend alot of my day coding!

Anyways, the owner of the company is quite a character. He used to be part owner of The Gersh Agency and has similar connections to Innovative. Now he runs his boutique artist management company and has less to tout but none the less is quite interesting and has many "somewhat old hollywood esk" stories which I love to hear, he still barks on the phone at producers, casting directors, and agents. He has quite a temper and in every other way fits the agent profile.

So today I was sitting at my desk reading dear Simon's new blog Very Hot Jews and Brett (president of Ashy Agency) yells accross the building to David "do you know (fill in the famous producer in new york ladies name here)?" and "yes" David replies.
"How do you know her!?" Brett responded.
"Because I used to be a big shot in New York" David shot back, "would you like her home phone number?".

That was it. And maybe you had to be there to get it, but this was the funniest shit I have heard all week. I had to laugh out loud and told David that when I write my memoirs I will mention him and some of the things I've heard come out of his mouth.

Trying out Item sharring

tom@ekaweeka.com — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:12:49 -0800

We've got an item sharring page you may have not noticed it, when you are looking at an ekaweeka item there is a link called "Share This Item" in the top right bar. I'm trying to add a field that lists a hyperlink for fast copy and paste link links. These are great for bloggers or people who want to add a link to their item on another website.
Here is a link that was made on the page, lets see if it works!
Throw Blanket, By: Lullabee

The Blog System

tom@ekaweeka.com — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 15:19:51 -0800

Here it is folks! The blog system has been put in. There are actually many site updates and it's been a bit overwhelming so I kind of put my hands up in the air and just dropped this one in. If you find any problems let me know!

The Photo System Just Got Better

tom@ekaweeka.com — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 11:35:09 -0800

We just added a new feature that allows you to set a photo in your photo gallery to your profile image. The new profile image change feature unlike before allows you to change without deleting the original profile image. And you do not have to upload the image at the time of setting it as your profile image.