We’re trying a new game here at Daniel’s blog (and yes, I’m talking about myself in the third person).

It’s called “Daniel Gives a Title and YOU Write the Entry”.

It doesn’t have to be long…it could be a shorty…but give it a whirl all ye who lurk here…

Let me just say I CANNOT WAIT to see what you come up with…

(P.S. family visiting, I may be silent for the next day or two)

GO! WRITE!

Stay at home dad = craziness…chaos…constant talking…

How do people do this?

I mean, I love my children, but they are driving me nuts!!

I know I promised you an iPhone story…but I’ll just say this. I called the Glendale Galleria (location of closest Apple Store) to inquire about the line that would be forming for the iPhone…I called actually about TEN TIMES and got a different story every time. No one will be allowed on the premises before 6AM…the line will start around 5 or 6…it’ll begin at around 4 or 4:30, you can call back…
Finally around midnight I called again and asked what time I could come…another noncommittal answer by the security team over at the Glendale Galleria. So I followed up with another question, “Ok…is anyone waiting out there right now?”
“Oh yeah…there’s some people waiting out there now in their cars and stuff…”
“THANKS A LOT!” I said and slammed down the phone (ok…I just pressed “end call” on my old iPhone…but slamming it down just sounds much more dramatic).
So I ran out of the house a few minutes later after gathering together the essentials: fully charged iPhone, fully charged laptop, a vitamin energy, vitamin water, and a few other snacks…and a camping chair to sit in.
And thus began The Great iPhone 3G Experience of 2008.

Other Highlights:
-Being 15th in a line that eventually became over a thousand people
-Meeting a producer in front of me in the line…and talking about movies and stuff for about the last two hours before getting our phones.
-A 5AM trip to Starbucks to download a music file that I had to work on that the composer had literally JUST finished writing. Thank goodness for free AT&T wifi at The Bucks!
-Daniel being ineligible to buy the phone because I had forgotten to pay my cell phone bill. OOPS! But I called and paid it right there, so it all worked out…phew!
-Not waiting ALL DAY in that line, but rather, all night…I still went home and worked AND met an 11AM deadline for that music I had downloaded and worked on at 5AM.
-Having an iPhone 3G
-Hanging out with friends the whole day
-Feeling like poop for most of Friday since I didn’t sleep a wink.

Christy started working at Starbucks last week. Can you say 30% discount?
YEAH BABY!

THIS is where we win all our money back…

Oh–and Starbucks releases new drinks today. A couple of Sorbettos and a new healthy protein drink or something. Check it out! You KNOW I will…

Having internet woes today. Can’t get it in the studio right now and my email is freaking out. Argh!
Anyway….that may be why you aren’t hearing from me right now….

Yes. I have one.

One of the first in line and in the store this morning…

…the whole story coming soon…after I get at least a moment’s sleep (none since yesterday so far!) and have a chance to actually organize anything that is remotely close to a coherent thought.

Even now I struggle…

…but let me just say…all that transpired to get this little thingy…

IT

WAS

TOTALLY

WORTH

IT

(awesomeness in my hand)

This is what is currently in my studio fridge:

I mean…who WOULDN’T want to come over and make beautiful music in my studio?

Ahhh…this picture contains so much wonderfulness…

Christy just called me from IKEA on the cellular phone. She was whispering excitedly…our conversation went a little bit like this:

C: “They’re filming a movie in here or something. I’m standing like 15 feet away from Jeff Goldblum!”

D: “What!!??!”

(distant shouting on a megaphone): “Just keep shopping. Don’t look at the cameras, and shop QUIETLY.”

C: “I gotta go! I gotta go keep shopping!!!”

…

SCORE:

Burbank: 10 millions-billions
Everywhere else: ZERO

…

Side note:
Christy loves Jeff Goldblum. She has ever since Jurassic Park and something else…maybe his guest appearance on Friends…I can’t remember…but when I say she loves him, I mean she LOOOOOVES him.
Let’s just say I won’t be surprised if she calls me from jail because she couldn’t resist the urge to rush good ole Jeffy-G for a kiss or two (hundred).

For a long time I have drooled at the prospect of owning a Prius. It’s a hybrid car—no, wait—it’s the KING of the hybrid cars. It’s a Toyota (can’t go wrong), and let’s be real, it’s kinda futuristic. I mean…an electric car. How cool is that?

Well…let’s do some quick math here:

The Middle East Peeps have us by the tail and oil prices are higher than ever recorded in history…and they are NOT going down. Quite the contrary. It’s business, you raise the price because you can. Just talk to Starbucks…they’ve slowly raised the price of their beverages about once a year, and people are still buying them (even though we have 600 stores closing…and only one of those is in Los Angeles County). Oh wait…where was I? GAS…it’s not getting any cheaper. For Daniel and Christy that means the $1000.00 we spend a month in gasoline will only go up…

are you following me here? We spend about $1000.00 per month in gas. That’s math variable numero uno.

The U.S.S. Enterprise (as so aptly named by these goofballs) gets somewhere between 15-20 MPG (variable two).

A pretty car, with lots of room, a DVD player, fold-down seats, power rear and sliding doors, aaaaaaaand no gas mileage. And what really matters right now? I gots to have my MPGs.

So factor into our equation that a Prius gets between 45-60 MPG (variable three)…you come to the conclusion that owning a Prius means spending about $350.00 a month in gas instead of $1000.00
YES. Those figures are correct.

So after much discussion, we came to the conclusion that even if we had to get a car payment that was a couple of hundred dollars more than what we’re currently spending, we’d still be saving around $500.00 a month.

Wait.

What?

What did you say, Daniel?

Did you say that buying a new car will actually SAVE you money?

YES.

And not “in the long run”…we’re talking RIGHT NOW. Buying a Prius means money in my pocket.

Killer.

So we looked, and we looked, and we looked…

…and here’s the saga in a nut-shell (a.k.a bullet-point list).

-You can’t find any of these things in stock ANYWHERE.
-If you DO find one, every Toyota dealership in LA and Orange County is selling new Prius’ with a tacked on “premium” of 4-5 grand. That’s an extra 4-5k on top of the MSRP of $24,500 (for the lowest model they ship to California).
-There are a handful of used ones around, but they are going for $29,900 and up for the base model. Why? Because they have to give more for the trade-ins, and then make them “Toyota Certified” with a whole bunch of stuff they fix and a longer warranty.
-We’re a little bit negative in our equity for our current vehicle. We rolled over some negative equity last time, and the value of vans and SUVs is at an all-time low. No one wants one…so financing was an issue for us.
-We called a zillion places in LA, the OC, and San Diego. Everyone wanted to sell us one on a waiting list or just talk us in to buying a Matrix or Corolla. No thanks. A Corolla is double the gas mileage, but it’s not triple…
-We stopped at just about every Toyota place between Midway Baptist Church and our home in Burbank, including a side trip to Glendora to pick up some music.
-The story was the same everywhere. “No, we don’t have one right now…”, or “We have ONE used one…”, or “I’ll call you as soon as one comes in…”.
-There was one place that would sell us the car at M.S.R.P. AND take our negative equity + trade-in to finance the deal…but we’d still have to pre-order it (or pri-order it

So after working out some of the details, we made a deal on Monday morning with Carlsbad Toyota. We put $500.00 down and will be getting our car in 4-12 weeks. Yipee!!
I can’t wait.
I really just felt good about the whole thing after placing our order…the Ozone layer will be pleased…and so will our checking account.

So I picked either blue-ish-green-ish or white.
Which is your favorite?

or

?

This crazy blogger has some cool pictures of the Prius up close, if you’re curious (and if you dare).

Christy discovered a few giftcards in her purse that had been there a long time, unused…we’re not sure exactly HOW long…except that one had snowmen on it and looked clearly like a Christmas card.
She tells me that there can’t possibly be ANY balance on the cards, otherwise she would have used it up already. But me, being the genius that I am, called the 800 number on each card to find the prospective balances.

Chili’s: $25
Target: $11
Coldstone: $3.5

Oh yeah…

So we went to Chili’s for dinner tonight on the way home from San Diego, and what TASTY little thing do I stumble upon on the way to the restroom?

This little guy:

Probably the most horrifying, grotesque, and evil picture I have EVER seen.

When I imagine Satan, this is how he looks in my mind…

Today I had a Twinkie. They were just there…at the Independence Day picnic…staring at me.

The last time I had one of those it was the 80′s or possibly the early 90′s.

Happy Birthday America.
Today I am a little fatter because of you.

I am proud to say I was one of the peeps that downloaded Firefox 3 on the day it came out to help set this new world record.

…and I have a certificate to prove it! HA!

I remember that it took them 5 years to make Back to the Future 2 because they had to come up with all of the technology and stuff that they were going to use to show the year 2015. I also remember watching in wonderment as Marty and Griff raced around Hill Dale on hoverboards, wondering if that would ever really happen…ahhh good times…

The Back to the Future Trilogy is one of my all time favorite movies…all three of them are great. It’s actually true that if you were to ask me what my “dream car” was, the answer would be the DeLorean. Maybe it’s just a child fantasy to have one…or maybe it’s really just an awesome car, OK!?

Come on…who WOULDN’T want one of these babies?

(quick trivia: all of the 1885 part of BTTF III was filmed right outside of Jamestown, about 20 miles from where I grew up…they were using extras from my county, and I really wanted to be one, but I don’t think I ever told anybody…oops!)

Yesterday I got an email advertising a pair of glasses that plugs into your iPod so you can watch movies wherever you want…check it out. It’s totally Back to the Future 2.

Then, while I was surfing around looking at cool BTTF stuff on the interwebs, I found the coolest video ever—it puts together scenes from the first and second movie intersecting The Enchantment Under the Sea dance. It’s totally fascinating how of each scene they had to re-shoot from different angles for part II…and it’s also AMAZING how much of it looks EXACTLY the same. I’m talking same hand gestures, same facial expressions, same timing…same everything. After watching this video, I have so much more respect for the way they made it all come together.

And I joined the facebook group…heehee

(and one more for fun)