The Hazel Project

My boss’s wife was watching an Emmy red carpet show Sunday night.

I saw Heidi Klum & Seal being interviewed & discovered her name is spelled Klum.

Congrats to them for her emmy nomination and her current pregnancy with their 3rd child.

Then I started thinking about Seal, and it made sense to me. I like Seal, and I’ll admit it, I had

2 of his CD’s before I moved, and I bet some of that stuff still sounds good.

So, my thing for Heidi I gladly relinquish to Seal. I’m glad she has his arm instead of

somebody, say, like a former heavy metal guitar player.

Plus I saw some model types at the hollywood farmer’s market on Sunday.

I’ll be going there more often now.

Thanks for checking in,

Stephen A. Thomas

The vibe is this.

Monday night 10:30pm

My boss and I are waiting for his trusty mac to get us back up and

running with a another batch of cuesheets.

So in the meantime I’m going to start my mineral water review.

My boss is also introducing me to a “non-scripted drama” called

Project Runway pre-recorded on his tivo.

This is not one of the shows we work on, but has potential for guilty pleasure status.

Now you may ask, especially the gentlemen who read this,
Stephen why watch a show about the fashion world?

My reply is simple. Biology my friend.

A supermodel hostess named Heidi Klume.

This is my first experience observing Heidi Klume.

She has a strange accent and my boss informs me she’s German.

The Aryan gene pool had a field day constructing this woman!

She brought immediately to mind, a very descriptive lyric

from the Rolling Stones, “Start Me Up”.

Apart from that she wears really pointy boots and is married to Seal.

I bet they have a great stereo.

So, between the hair-product-laden fashion designers dropping the F bomb left and right;

and Heidi Klume’s decent attempt, to act as demure as a German woman can without kicking you in the face,

I bring you.

MINERAL WATER REVIEW PART 1.

Our first contestant is:

Blu Italy

It comes in a really skinny blue bottle for 1.09 / 750ml

My verdict,

Very sharp. kinda salty.

It has a lot of carbonation it. This is what they call the

“natural sparkling” part.

Large bubbles. Almost too much Co2 making the lime taste prickly.

but the least expensive of the 3 and my boss’s 2 year old was taken

by the shiny blue bottle.

I give it:

**1/2 for taste
**** for the cool blue bottle & distracting a two year old at dinner.
*****for price. The least expensive in my taste test.

This water actually went well watching Heidi Klume in her pointy SS boots.

My mind starts to wander.

What does she drink while watching Seal lounge around listening to himself play through an uber stereo?

I could offer Heidi a glass of this tasty water in the elegant blue bottle, & a comfy seat on a futon overlooking a parking lot. Instead of a stereo, I kindly offer free AM radio entertainment in the form of Coast to Coast, broadcast in stunning Mono.

What I really need is some ice cold tap water.

Thanks for checking in & have a good weekend everyone.

Stephen A. Thomas

This post is mainly for my fellow shopping/ coupon finder friends,

Linda & T ;

So last Friday night, I’m running an errand for my boss from South Pasadena to Alta Dena (which is about as far up the mountain they could build homes).

I’m a little lost which I’m sure comes to no surprise.
As I’m orienting myself back to my path of simple instructions:

Follow 1 road, Fair Oaks Blvd., and turn left,

I pass this very nice bookcase. Looks like a 1990 vintage with some shelves missing. It’s sitting in front of a garage, I ponder whether or not to get out and leave a note with my phone #, but I’m on a mission, and stick to my plan of making simple instructions rocket science.

I catch my boss as he’s leaving, and return his Hard Drive. I’m so glad
that I caught him I forget that he needs the 3 VHS tapes in my trunk as well.

Saturday I have no official work to do, so I decided to drop off the VHS tapes, and then follow Fair Oaks Blvd. to South Pasadena and deliver my old G4 computer to the studio for file transfer.

I never make it.

I find my self at a yard sale, back on Fair Oaks Blvd. looking at office furniture. I become excited and stressed at the same time because I have $11 in cash and know they won’t take a North Carolina check.

I make a mental note of a cool chair and small typewriter table on casters. The guy wants $35. I head to the Rite Aid drug store which has become my default ATM.

On my way to Rite Aid, I pass a yard sale with a familiar looking book case. It’s My Bookcase! The very one from yesterday!

Two very nice women out in the yard drinking Mai Tai’s offer to help me clear off all the stuff on the book case and ask me if I want any thing to drink; Champaign, a Mai Tai or water?

I kindly say “no, but this is the best yard sale I’ve been to so far.”

I introduce myself because I was going to be there a while dismantling the pressboard, hex-bolt fastened bargain.

Among other things I find a coffee grinder, kinda old, no telling what ‘herbs’ it was used for, it was too clean to have been coffee, but I offer the Ladies my $11 for all it, and go to the VW which is now my tool box. 20 mintues later the car is loaded and I’m off for cash back.

At Rite Aid drugstore, I’m at a loss. I don’t need anything. I’m thinking of what I might run out of and see contact cleaner for $1.50 off regular price. I grab it and a big bottle of Biotene mouth wash that will last until April 2007. So I have my hygeine products and $40 cash back for office furniture; and a car already full of book case parts and undelivered macintosh equipment.

Thankfully my chair and table are still available. I offer the cat $30 for both and spend 30 minutes taking parts off and repacking the car.
It was like crossing the desert again. I began to sweat, I think just for the sake of the experieince.

So,

A room full of office furniture=$40
A coffee grinder that will be used for coffee=$1
Hygeine products to buy for free cash back=$15

How’d I do ladies?

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

I’m renting a room from a nice Jewish lady who plays finger cymbals in an Indian Raga band. The apartment building shares a cat. Orange, dirty, smelly, won’t leave.
I just call him smelly cat and nudge him out of the door way. He’s always waiting outside to be fed.

Friday night I went to a free Moog concert followed by the Moog movie in Downtown L.A. at California Plaza. Just my speed, Free. My free outing only cost $22. By the time I had bought enough random things to get cash back at the grocery store and find a $6 parking lot downtown. This is just an observation of how things go here. I had a great time and actually met the director of the film. People ask me if I met anyone famous and the answer is yes. Film director Hans Fllejjerer (sp of the last name incorrect)! His upcoming movie is about the death metal scene in Norway. I’m just glad he was able to get the Moog movie done before Bob Moog passed away.

I’m excited about this weekend because the first annual ‘bleep fest’ will be hosted here
in L.A. A lot of good electronic music and lectures by Dr. Alan Wolf & Joe dispenza will occur over the day.

Next week I’ll write about that a little more. I also have a review of mineral water brands and mexican food coming up.

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

I’ve moved into another apartment in Echo park. I’m very grateful to Tim who let me crash at his place for the month of July. He’s gone out his way to make my acclimation easier.

The person I share rent with abstains from coffee and uses dial up internet. So I’ve been going through withdrawal.

Luckily there is coffee shop in Silver Lake with free wi-fi. Silver Lake is the next neighborhood over from echo park. There is a book shop next door, a record shop and nail salon across the street. Close by there’s a place called Lounge, written in cursive neon letters. One tiny driveway over is a place called Panty Raid. I guess they sell underwear, I’m not planning to check it out. Not today anyway. I’m thinking the next logical shop next to Panty Raid should be Boxer World. If any one would like a start-up investment opportunity, I give you the concept free in exchange for $0.03/ per item sold. It would probably do well here.

The past ten days I really haven’t been in the mood to write to be honest. I’ve started 2 posts but they lacked the vibe I was trying to convey. Although this post will be about some of the things I’ve experienced over the last month, it may come across sporadic and disjointed. Approriate for the time I suppose.

FOOD:
My main meals consist of cliff bars and fruit, mineral water with lime and mexican food.
Last week I was heating a tortilla over one of the gas burners, flipping the orgainc wheat flatness over and over to prevent burning. When I took it off to my amazement,
there was a slightly toasted image of something familiar.

It looked like the michelin man? no.

the staypuff marshmellow man? no

It looked like-

Patrick- the starfish from spongebob. Waving his right hand to me in a freindly fashion.

I knew there would be questioning so I took a picture of it. Not that I know how to post the picture.

Unrelated and unhumorous is how this reminded me of the 5 part series in the L.A. Times about our changing oceans.

How the rising temperatures of the sea is affecting the coral reefs, and other sea life in profound ways. Basically killing them, and scientists don’t really know what role they play in balance of the sea life.

Over the past month, I confess a complete overload on NOVA and Nature documentaries, leaving me fatigued.

These programs have focussed on everything from the importance of herring to sea lions to the depletion of certain types of salmon affecting the forest floor as they try to swim upstream.

SO if you’re tooling around with tortilla’s and burn a sea creature in it, post a little something here so we can keep track.

This is about all I can do for now. Maybe a relief for you guys that the post isn’t 10 pages long.

Wrapping up. I’ve been missing everyone; especially the last 10 days hmmm, how’s that for a connection.

have a good one everybody,

Stephen A. Thomas