My life thus far:

For those of you who don't know how I came to this decision:

I grew up in highland, indiana; a northwest indiana suburb of chicago. my dad is a minister in the christian reformed church and my mom was a special needs christian school teacher. My oldest sister Linnay and her husband Matt still live in IN with their kids Simon, Adam and their newest baby Elliot (whom I have yet to meet). My older brother Lance lives in grand rapids, michigan and is continually starting projects on his house and then 2 years later half-finishing them. My other older sister Lauren and her husband Eric also live in IN with their 3 kids Kaylee, Cameron, and the newest to the clan Jake (AKA Ozzie), also haven't met him either.

my siblings at my college graduation: Linnay, Lance, me,  & Lauren

my nephews & nieces (4 of 6): Adam, Simon, Kaylee, & Cameron

w the Molenaar's and my parents at a Dodger game last year: Simon, me, Adam, Matt, mom, & dad

I eventually moved to jenison, michigan with my parents when my dad took another preaching job. i went to high school and college in MI, toiled through a few jobs that i more or less hated and a couple that i enjoyed, but learned how to work hard doing manual labor. After moving around all of GR to various places with friends, i was so sick of working and living in MI, i started looking for jobs in hawaii. I had a buddy that moved to LA after college and I half jokingly called him up to see if he could get me a job on one of the tv shows he works on. within a couple of weeks I found myself driving out to LA immediately after one of my buddies' weddings.

I've been out here for almost 2 years now and as of now have no plans in going anywhere else. but we'll see what happens.

on set in Malibu for True Beauty season 1

on set of True Beauty season 1 in West Hollywood. this is the back of the house

at spring training in Glendale, AZ, tailgating for the White Sox/Cubs game; Cranfill, me, & Taylor

"Hey Ozzie!"

that brings us up to the present. living in LA is expensive obviously. I've made some good money out here, but i've spent it on dumb shit other than rent. I eat out alot and when i've gone to the bars, i'll drop a pretty penny. I'm getting better as i'm trying to budget and be a grown-up, not relying on my parents so much. This is a lot of information i'm giving out, can't wait til my identity gets stolen or some weirdo I hardly know, can recite my life story.

It's funny, cause at the beginning of this post, I had some stuff to write about, but now i can't remember any of it. It probably has to do with the fact that I went running last night. I don't run. Ever. I maybe, MAYBE ran 1 mile. stopping twice. the 'run' couldn't have lasted more than 15 min. I was dead tired and with my recent back problems, it felt like someone was repeatedly kicking me in the back. so my back is jacked up as i'm running. we'll see if i give it another go round today or this week. what spurred this running excursion on was that i just bought an ipod armband for running, so i wanted to try it out. that's me spending money on dumb shit. i do need to get in better shape. the only real exercise i get is playing softball. and i immediately negate that by going to the bar afterwards or eating a big lunch followed up by a nap in front of the t.v. I am proud that i have been laying off of fast food. I used to eat that shit all the time, especially in the line of work i'm in, the easiest thing to do is to go over to del taco or carl's jr and grab some food. for the past 4 months, the only fast food i've had was popeyes. I went to carl's jr for the first time in 4 months last week, and it'll prob be at least another 4 months before i go back. i can't remember the last time i had mcdonalds or burger king or wendys. Although i'm heading back to the midwest for my friends Andy and Lindsay's wedding, i'm sure i'll hit up White Castle. That's actually going to be a guarantee. I'll be sick for the next 2 days, but it'll be worth it.

While living in LA, i've been very lucky to attend some pretty awesome events and meet some celebrities. I don't like to namedrop (that's a lie, i kind of enjoy it), but i've gotten to meet some huge hollywood stars while working. in my opinion, meeting those people pale in comparison to some of the concerts i've got to see out here. one of the jobs i have is working promotions for a radio station. One of our sister stations is the world famous KROQ. everyone knows this station. I grew up listening to Q101 which is still my favorite station, but KROQ is the mother of all rock stations (thanks for the Pearl Jam tix!). When i was in the office, you get to see celebrities every morning. last time i was there working, i was standing no more than 2 feet from Them Crooked Vultures' Josh Homme (QOTSA), Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin). I didn't get to meet them, but i swear there was an aura around all 3.

I remembering reading about this in Rolling Stone magazine while I was still living in GR. Someone stole Green Day's 'Dookie' platinum record from the KROQ studios. Green Day came back and replaced it with this.

Just the other week, I got to experience part of history (in my opinion at least). I'm a huge Rage Against The Machine fan. I saw them once w my buddy Sean of the Dead in WI when they got back together a few years back. Zach de la Rocha (singer of RATM) has a side project called One Day As A Lion. They have never played a live show. they announced their first 2 live shows ever near where i live in LA. I had no intention of going, but found myself looking for tix the day of the first show, just gauging how much they were. Surprisingly, they're were still tix available. I clicked on 1 and got it for $12. Secret location in Pomona. So I drove over to Pomona a few hours early so I could go explore and grab lunch. Turns out, the venue was a small cafe/sandwhich shop that had an open space next door. This show was fucking loud!! there were no more than 100 people there; very intimate. very sweaty. Pomona is in the valley. it was probably 90 degrees outside, all sun, no breeze or clouds. Inside the small brick enclosure, it was about 110 (I used to do insulation in attics as a summer job growing up, so 110 in midwest summers in an attic is normal). An unbelievable show. I was deaf for about 2 days. Seriously couldn't hear much for 48 hours; everything was muted or distorted. I'll be seriously deaf by the time I turn 40.

the entrance to the Hollywood Palladium

However, the show that topped that, and probably the best show I've ever seen was on July 23 at the Hollywood Palladium. This is an awesome venue that is pretty small. RATM are playing their first LA show in 10+ years. The capacity of the crowd is roughly 3,800. This show was hot and sweaty and full of energy. Although I was in the balcony, I had a great view of the stage and I didn't get sweaty like all my other friends in the pit did. That's fine w me. I didn't have to compete with other concert goers for a view and I enjoy not getting kicked in the back of the head as I'm watching Tom Morello shred.

And to top it off, this was a benefit show to boycott Arizona and the SB 1070 bill. This bill isn't so much an anti-immigration bill, as much as it's a racist, discriminating bill. True, there is an immigration problem in the US. I know first hand living in both Michigan and now Los Angeles. However, I feel that if you made it into this country without getting caught, good job. you're in. But now you should become a citizen. It's not the immigrants fault that he was able to get into this country untouched. Kudos. That's a ballsy thing to do, knowing who is out there, literally hunting people down. But now, the gov't should make these people legal citizens. I digress. SB 1070 gives police the ability to question (discriminate) anyone they suspect isn't here legally. They can literally raid a house they think an illegal is living. Sounds familiar to what the Nazi's did, yeah? It's the same thing. I recently had a good friend of mine tell me that the phrase 'human rights' is something liberals made up to hide behind the left agenda. WHAT?!?!?!? This came from a christian. I was floored when he said this. He, along with alot of my friends, believe that owning a gun is more of a right than whether or not you should be treated fairly and equally. One of the many things I get into arguments with friends. I'm clearly a lefty-leaning liberal. I am not a democrat. I'm clearly not a republican, but I'm not a democrat. I don't know what I am. Human Rights and equality are my 2 main issues. No one should ever be treated differently because of their gender, race, creed, sexual orientation, etc. It's bullshit that there's so much inequality in the world. A world where we in American pay millions upon millions of dollars to Dane Cook to make a stupid movie that won't make back half the budget. Granted I'm not playing innocent in this. I'm definitely part of the problem. I pay money to see baseball game, concerts, etc. I guess, I need to work on my priorites.