A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”

- Rebecca – age 8

First thing you should understand about me is that I’m not much of a drinker. No, it’s not for religious or health reasons, but rather because I just don’t like the taste of much alcohol and because I don’t get any sort of buzz from drinking it. Having said that, even I from time to time will enjoy a vodak cooler or something else along those lines.

Now, in Canada if you want to get your hands on some booze, you’ve got to find yourself a government owned and operated shop called (in Ontario) an LCBO. You’ll find them around if you look hard enough. So imagine my surprise when I came down here and saw that booze is EVERYWHERE! It’s even in the grocery store. I’m not kidding… right across the street from where I’m living is a giant “Ralphs” grochery store… and at least 3 full aisles are all booze. And it’s CHEAP! I’d say at least 15-20% cheaper than in Canada. Beer is like half the price.

Every grocery store, every corner store, every Popsicle stand in the city also sells alcohol. It takes a little getting used to.

Despite all the fun I’m having here in LA, and all the beautiful weather (especially when compared to what they’re getting back in Hamilton Ontario right now), one of the unfortunate negatives of my time here so far is lack of sleep. I’d like to tell you that lack of sleep comes from the all night Hollywood parties I’m attending each and every night… but no. I just can’t sleep.

For some reason I’m only getting like 4-5 hours of sleep a night. I’m having trouble getting to sleep (it’s just past 4am here now), and then for whatever reason, I’m still waking up at 8am each morning whether I want to or not.

It’s really starting to take its toll on me too. Not only do I notice that I have a lot less energy… I’m also a little more irritable and I’m having a hard time focusing. On top of that, you can REALLY see it in my face. I took a picture of myself today and when I looked at it I was shocked by how totally sickly and exhausted I looked in it. I really need to start getting some sleep.

I’m actually thinking of starting to jog again. I haven’t jogged in years, and quite frankly I hate it, but a number of articles I’ve read suggest jogging in the day can really help you sleep at night, and at this point I’m willing to try just about anything.

My second observation that I’ve made about life here in LA is that NO ONE WALKS ANYWHERE! I swear, if anything is more than a 3 minute walk away… they drive. I’m not kidding. Here’s a good example:

The other day I’m talking on the phone to a woman I know here in LA. She was asking me how I was enjoying my new place and I told her that I love it and that one of the best things about it is that it’s just a 40 minute walk from “The Grove” (A fantastic outdoor shopping centre here in LA). She burst out laughing at me. “Are you serious?” she asked. She then proceeded to tell me how cute that sounded.

But it’s not just her. Talk to anyone about walking anywhere that’s more than a few steps away and they look at you like you’re a freak.

Well… for those of you who may not know, I’m now in Los Angeles and will be off and on from now on (at least for the next couple of years). Doug and I have been here for 2 weeks now. Our place is amazing (I’ll post pictures later) and we’ve already been able to do more cool stuff in 2 weeks than we have all year!

We’re living right in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. We’re within walking distance to EVERYTHING. Every time I leave the house I’m seeing something amazing. A few days ago is was Jim Henson’s studios. We live a 5 minute walk from the walk of fame, the Chinese Mann’s theater, The Arclight, Ameoba music, the magic castle… I mean… you name it… we’re close to it!

Sorry I haven’t been posting at all the last 2 months. I’ve just had tons to do and then getting moved down here took a lot. I’m back to posting daily now.

I came across this little practical joke online today to pull on someone. I’ve got to try this:

1. On your mark’s computer, go to the Desktop and make a new folder.
2. Rename the new folder to e.g. “Porn”
3. Make a screenshot
4. Delete the folder that you’d just created
5. Install the screenshot image as a Desktop wallpaper
6. Enjoy!

I’ll let you know if I try it and what the results were.

Well, it’s been a little over 24 hours since I’ve announced the world that I’m shutting down The Movie Blog and joining up with ComingSoon.Net (the world’s largest and most popular internet movie news site) to become the managing editor of a new site called SciFiMission.Com. The site will cover everything Sci-Fi and Fantasy including movies AND TV shows. I’m beyond excited about it.

It’s odd thinking about waking up Monday morning and not instantly start writing posts for the site that I’ve been working on for over 4 years. The Movie Blog has been more than a “job” for me. It’s my creation, my baby, but it’s also given a lot to me. Thanks to The Movie Blog I’ve been able to experience a lot of very cool things, meet some very cool people, go to some very cool places and in general just have a wonderful time.

I almost feel guilty that I don’t feel bad about moving on from it. The opportunity and potential of SciFiMission is just so fantastic, that it’s hard to think about anything other than getting started on the new site. I’ll write more about it when I’m not so dead tired.

Ok, so it’s now been about 24 hours since I installed World of Warcraft on my computer again. I’ve played a bit last night and today, and the world is every bit as vast, rich and engaging as I remember it to be.

However… I also was quickly reminded of some of the annoyances of the game. Not a lot… and nothing too serious… but for some reasons they’re bugging me more this time around than they did last time.

1) Running
Holy crap is can take FOREVER just to get from one place to another (especially at the lower levels when you don’t have spells or a mount to get you around faster. Even just running the simplest of beginners quests can take ages just to run to the place you need to do it and get back. Heaven forbid your inventor gets full before your quest is done and you want to run back to a town to sell the stuff… only to then have to run back, finish the quest and run back to the town again. I understand the advantages to this system… but that doesn’t stop it from being a bit annoying when you’re starting.

2) Repetitive grind leveling
Pretty much the only thing to do when you’re starting out as a level 1 character is to get to level 2… then repeat for a few more levels before you get into the really interesting stuff. I’ve only been back at it for a day and for some reason this time around I can’t stand sitting at my computer more than about 20 minutes at a time just doing the same thing over and over and over an over again. Killing the same easy monsters in the same way repeatedly. It gets annoying… and worse… boring

3) Use Stone only once per hour
You know the stone… the one you can use to teleport yourself back to your inn. It’s a great help against the annoyance of point #1. The problem is once you use it… you can’t use it again until its “cool down” period elapses… which is 60 minutes. Grrrrr… that bothers me.

The game is still one of the best ever made…. but I gotta tell you this time around I’m really not worried at all about getting addicted to it again. Now I’m not even 100% sure I’m going to play it again tomorrow (I probably will… but not 100% sure)

Ok, so as I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve installed World of Warcraft on my computer again after being rid of it for over a year. Got it all loaded up… and realized I can’t remember how to do a bloody thing. It was kinda frustrating. Doug is coming over later tonight to do the Movie Blog podcast… he still plays so I’ll just ask him to show me how to do everything again. So my relapse into addiction has been delayed by a day.

“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” – Voltaire