Something Cool About Working For A Studio

Many of the offices are housed inside a backlot set, which means - for instance - that one must enter a 1920's police precinct station house in order to obtain an employee ID. The picturesque facade ends with the facade itself - the interior of the building is a typical and drab workplace.

Interestingly enough, there is plentiful signage outside regarding fictional police operations, but nary a trace of the true function or office of the facility. This deception is charmingly confusing.

The Instant Raise

So I walk into the human resources office at Sony, fill out some paperwork, and then ask about the salary.

The HR person looks over the forms submitted by my supervisor, and asks,

"You're a paralegal, right?"

For a brief instant, I think about it, and then reply with a straight face,

"Of course I'm a paralegal."

"Ok, good."

She then quotes me a salary that is thirty percent higher than the rate offered by my supervisor. You see, that's what paralegals make. She says she needs to clear the rate, and asks me to return the next day.

The next day, I return to confirm the rate, and she tells me that I've gotten another raise - an extra two dollars an hour. I'm now getting the upper end of the paralegal salary range.

I could get used to this. The most exciting thing about this is that I now get to tell people that I work as a paralegal. Robert Lo, Esq.

Do you have any legal questions? Please allow me to answer them.

In the meantime, all this paralegal money is going straight into the war chest. I've got a trip to Europe to pay for.

So Wait A Minute

You're saying I have to wake up early, spend the bulk of my time in a morass of boredom and fatigue, and then come home only to find that the day is already spent and I can only muster enough energy to browse the internet?

What kind of life is this?

The job is no worse, really, than my last one. But I used to do this! This was my life! I even wrote a screenplay in these conditions!

Surprisingly, the best part about working in Culver City is lunch. When I worked in Westwood, I had a panoply of mediocre dining options. The only truly satisfying refection in the neighborhood is Pinkberry, but I've got one in Larchmont right next door to the yoga studio, so Westwood can safely cease to exist. Culver City is far less bountiful in the number of fine dining establishments, but we've got some real doozies here: Honey's Kettle, Santouka. They've even got a Famima!! here.

I've been on a real ramen kick lately, so allow me to address the matter of Santouka. I didn't try their trademark shio ramen, so I can't make a valid comparison to my current fave Atch-Kotch, but it would be very close. (The two are very different stylistically, so the comparison may be useless anyway. I ain't hatin' on you, Atch-Kotch. I got much love for you and your utterly asinine valet parking lot.)

Santouka is a Japanese chain which recently opened its first branch here in Los Angeles, inside the Mitsuwa grocery store. You put down less than ten dollars, and you get a humongous bowl of incredibly tasty ramen, an artfully hard-boiled egg, and a bowl of absolutely perfect rice topped with a traditional Japanese accoutrement. In my case, I chose the salmon roe.

Seriously? They could just charge me ten bucks for the rice and roe. It's amazing. I walked out of the place happily satiated, which is a regrettably rare occurrence with Japanese food. (It's not the taste, it's the portions.)

It's a shame I don't make it out to Centinela that often. Here's hoping that Santouka opens a branch in Hollywood. Same to you, Famima!!

Coming Out Of Retirement

That's right, folks. I'm hanging it up and going back to the office grind of the wage slave.

For a week, anyway.

Sony Pictures needs some help finishing one of their movies, so I've gotten the call to come in and clean house. I'll be working the good ol' nine-to-six for the rest of the week, helping the Sony people sort out the movie's ending credits.

I will even have to abide by a dress code - collared shirts and non-sneakers! That will last all of one day - just enough time for me to make a positive first impression - and then it's right back to the t-shirts and the badminton shoes.

Which movie, you ask? Some direct-to-video thing about a guy who gets bitten by a spider. Yeah, I don't really get it either.

The good news is that only about twenty people worked on the film, so sorting out the credits should be no sweat!

Flickr Bug

Apparently, one of Flickr's image caching servers is acting up and so the service is randomly displaying other people's pictures instead of my own. This is actually kind of amusing, if you look through this blog's archives. Apparently, I hang out with ravers now. The issue should be fixed momentarily.

The Birthday Party

Today I did something fairly unprecedented: I awoke before the crack of nine in the morning. Unfortunately, this is going to be a repeat occurrence in the coming week (more on this in a bit.)

Today the reason for rising early was that my yoga instructor was having a birthday party/charity event at a yoga apparel store in Beverly Hills. You see, my instructor has an endorsement deal(!) with the store, and serves as their spokesmodel. In fact, if you see an ad for yoga clothing in the alternative newsweeklies, chances are you're seeing my instructor flamboastin' on Rodeo Drive. Inside the store, they have erected a pantheon of Los Angeles' greatest yoga instructors, comprised of banners depicting the instructors performing poses in front of LA landmarks and listing their institutional affiliations. The effect is not unlike the retired jerseys hanging from the rafters of a basketball stadium.

Anyway, it was quite the event. My instructor led a class, while the children of Beverly Hills stared at us through the windows. Meanwhile, the store employees chopped up coconuts at my instructor's request (she loves her coconuts), and an adorable chihuahua puppy wandered around the room, crawling on people's backs . This puppy noticed that everyone was holding downward-facing dog pose at the beginning of class, and decided to show everyone how real dogs do it, which caused a total cute meltdown, effectively shutting the class down for a few moments.

Taxes

More good news.

Looking at the early numbers, it appears that the state of California has given me the very generous gift of allowing me to live here FOR FREE. That's right - all those important and expensive social services we utilize daily as citizens of this fine state? I'm not paying a dime for them. I'm in the VIP, yo!

Also, because of my radical change in income brackets, it appears that the federal government was just a tad aggressive in withholding my income, and so the largest refund check in my short financial history is en route posthaste.

It's way too early to start talking about South America, but let's put it out there:

Next Spring.

The Importance of Good Budgeting

Another word on my trip to Asia.

I thought I might address the question of the potential impact of a month-long trek in Asia upon my financial timetable. Japan is obviously a very expensive place to visit, and three weeks in China are not exactly cheap. Does the trip cut the tenure of A Very Big If short? That is, will I go broke more quickly as consequence of taking this vacation?

The answer: absolutely not.

Let me explain exactly how under budget I am. I am so under budget for 2006, that my financial surplus can not only sustain the damage of one overseas voyage, but two. Not to mention the looming increase in leisure spending that has previously been alluded to.

Looking at the accounting ledger, it's as if the trip simply doesn't exist. And yet the tickets are in hand, and the backpack has been pulled out of the closet.

It's way too early to start talking about Europe, but let's put it out there:

Autumn.

Some Valentine's Day Advice

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and here is some lovely advice from the master... of Guitar Hero.

Rob: and there was this girl playing guitar hero
Rob: anyway, Kevin walks me into the room, introduces us
Jon: ahh
Jon: gotcha
Jon: haha
Jon: that's awesome she plays guitar hero
Rob: she's better than me but that's not saying much
Jon: how do you know shes better than you
Rob: because I watched her play
Rob: she even beat Kevin
Rob: and Kevin killed me
Rob: yeah, she likes Iron Man
Jon: thats cool
Jon: but i could DESTROY her
Jon: i play expert only
Rob: yeah
Rob: but for me, I don't want to beat girls at guitar hero
Rob: that's not my primary goal
Rob: good for you, though
Jon: haha whatever dude
Jon: you beat her, you win the key to her heart