I'm moving back to Utah...adios California!

After much consideration, and some VERY difficult decisions, I have decided to make the grand trek back to Utah. My time here in LA has been great, I have made my mark on the entertainment industry but it is time to get back to my family.

I have come to this conclusion after looking at how much money I had to spend just to survive in this place last year. Bottom line, it is just too damn expensive. So, at the end of this month, I will be loading up my car and making the trek back to the great Beehive State (aka Utah). On the bright side I will be be back with my family, and will be able to spend more time with my Utah friends again. OH YEAH! Not to mention, there are quite a few ladies that I want to pick things up where they left off with.


I know this is a very sudden decision, but I know in my heart that it is what is best for me. I will deeply miss all the great people that I have come to know over these past two years. My experience in the entertainment world has been MORE than valuable. I know it will suite me even better in Utah. I mean let's face it...I will be a virtual celebrity from the second I return., that's ALWAYS a good thing!

Now that this is out in the open, I need to plan some GRAND get together for my Cali peeps, before my triumphant exit. Keep your eyes peeled for an eVite , I'm thinking mid-April, I am really going to miss everyone out here. Almost as much as the weather, just kidding. Only one month left and then Mama, I'm coming home.

If it Bleeds, we can PAY it...

I had an interesting experience this morning on my way to work. Many of you may know, that I donate my blood plasma one to two times a week, for a little extra money to help pay the bills. I started doing this when I was a poor NBC Page trying to survive in the expensive city that is Los Angeles. The process is a pretty simple one. I show up, sit down, they stick a I.V.-looking needle in my arm, and a machine pumps out my blood. It then separates the plasma from the red blood cells and returns the red blood cells to my body and stores the plasma in a plastic bottle. And they pay me for that. It might sound kind of gruesome, but it is actually VERY easy.

Now you're probably wondering what Blood Plasma is exactly? It is the liquid component of blood, in which the blood cells are suspended. It makes up about 55% of total blood volume and let me tell you, it is valuable too. If our bodies had anything in it that could be compared to gold, plasma is it. They pay me $75 dollars a visit, and I can go up to twice a week. So I can potentially pull in about $150 a week for doing nothing.

Anyway, with that explanation out of the way, let me get to my experience. After my plasma appointment today, as usual, they wrapped up my right elbow with gauss and tape and sent me on my way. As I was driving to work, I felt an unusual sensation on my right arm. I looked down and my elbow was covered in blood. The strange sensation I was feeling was the warm, sticky fluid oozing out and running down the length of my forearm. My initial reaction was panic (but that was only because I didn't want to get any on my white shirt), but after further investigation, I found that whatever was bleeding had stopped. It didn't help that I noticed all this while I was driving on a busy LA highway, in heavy traffic to boot. Thankfully, I have suffered several horrendous injuries in my life time, so I am not weakened at the sight of blood and this experience was not traumatic, just more of an inconvenience. The bleeding had stopped long before I noticed my arm, so bleeding to death was not the concern, keeping the life-sustaining-fluid off my clothing was. Apparently fortune was smiling upon me today, for I did not get one single drop of blood on my nice white shirt. After all, the last thing I want to do is show up to work looking like I just gutted a cow (for you Megan). I did however learn a valuable lesson today, don't bleed and drive. It's too distracting to focus on the road.

You can see a bandage covering the spot on my elbow that was the source of my little episode.

New Month, New Goals...

It has been my new years resolution to have monthly goals. As everyone does, I started off on the right track. I had good results in January, but February was a different story, not so successful. So I am determined to have better results in March. Ideally, I would like to have my goals written down by the first of the month and I know we are already 5 days into March, but it's better late than never, right? And as the battle of "Old" Kristian vs. "New" Kristian wages, I am determined to do EVERYTHING I can to make "New" Kristian victorious. Accomplishing monthly goals is one of those things.

Here are my March Goals:

1. Work Out at gym 3 times per week.
2. Read one book this month.
3. No Fast Food this month.
4. No Carbonated drinks this month.
5. Do my taxes.
6. Eat half as much as I normally do.

They are very similar to January's, but I feel like they are good goals to have. If I meet these expectations, I feel like I am at least making some progression in my life. And that is VERY important for me right now.

Small car, or not to small car, that is the question...

Ever since I posted the entry about my ideas for a new car I have been getting a lot of people "hating" on my idea of possibly getting a MINI Cooper. All I have to say is, if you thinkthe MINI's too small, then I have made up my mind...this is the car I'm getting. The P50...

How do you like them apples?
Thanks to my little brother Kyle, for the video.

Car woes...and "Brightening my day!"

So I am completely and underly fed up with my car. Granted, I haven't had too many problems over the course of my ownership, but lately I have been hearing strange noises from the front wheel on the passenger side. I have taken it into the shop multiple times, they say they have fixed it, but the sound remains. Believe me, it doesn't sound good. It sounds like a small animal is jammed behind the tire and its precious little bones are GRINDING against the wheel all while its screeching in dire pain.

As many of you know, car issues are one of the leading causes of stress across the country, especially for those of us who don't have a lot of money (Oh, how I wish I was a billionaire). At first, I would let the sound stress me out, but I've gotten to the point that I don't even care anymore. I mean, my Toyota is a first generation Rav4, a 1997 model, so it is as old as Methuselah. The good news, I am literally weeks away from paying it off, so I have boldly decided that I am going to purchase a new car. I am going to have to hang tight for about a month, but I will definitely pick up my new ride then. Right now I am torn between The MINI Cooper S hardtop and the Scion tC. Both get very good gas mileage, the MINI is a bit more expensive, but its small size make it ideal for city life in LA. The Scion tC is a Toyota product and everyone knows Toyota makes some of the most reliable cars in America today, AND they get great gas mileage and have very few mechanical problems. That is really what I need right now, something that is reliable and sleek. I'm at a time in my life where I need to be driving something that I actually want to drive. More to come on this recent development in the life of Kristian with a "K."

In the meantime, check out this clip from yesterday's the Ellen Degeneres Show. Thanks to my coworker for sending me the link. I am eternally indebted. It instantly made me feel better, I hope it has the same affect on you!

I'm telling you, seriously unbelievable! Who would have thought that Christina Aguilera having a baby would turn out to be the best news for men across America in recent memory.

Just to pay the RENT...

What a MORNING, I just wanted to share with you how my morning has gone. First, let me give you a little back story.
In November, as usual, my roommates and I gave our landlord rent checks. A few weeks passed, then out of the blue, he contacts us, saying that he has lost the checks, can you believe that? So he asked us to cancel the old ones and write him new checks. So after being a little irritated, I wrote the new check and deducted the check cancellation fee from the total. So should be all said and done, right? Guess again, this morning, my roomie sends me a text message saying:

"don't cancel your checks, the landlord found the old ones and has already deposited them."

Okay, by this point I was fuming. Here I have already done more than my part, and now the check I just canceled might bounce? AAAARGH! Luckily, I called my credit union and they were able to work it out so my check won't bounce. Don't know why I shared this info, I just thought it was a little amusing.

Ringing in the New Year...

Before I start, I just want to wish each and everyone of you a VERY happy 2008. 2007 has officially come to a close. As I think back on the year, I remember some really good times, some hard times and see all the mistakes I made. This is the time of the year when we are supposed to make New Years Resolutions. And I, like everyone else have made them and broken them every year. We have all heard that writing down these resolutions make it much easier to keep them. This year I am going to take a different approach, instead of making several big goals for the span of the whole year, I am going to make several Goals that span the length of one month. That way I will be able to see the success of them much quicker and have a greater sense of accomplishment. That is actually one reason I am writing this blog. I want to document my results. I started this blog just over a year ago and have not been so diligent in writing on a regular basis. So this in itself, will be one of my resolutions. So with no further delay here are my goals for January 2008:

1. Gym Membership & workout every weekday(drop weight approx. 10lbs)
2. Eat half as much & No soda for entire month.
3. Write in blog at least twice a week.
4. Read 1 book this month.
5. Spend money only on necessities.

I will be keeping track of these 5 goals and will follow up at the end of the month. For those of you reading this, I would also appreciate your support and encouragement. Feel free to ask me how my goals are going. I could use the extra encouragement. Happy new year to all, stay tuned for more blog entries.

Drum Roll Please....

It's official!! After months of job searching and interviews I am officially a full time employee of NBC/Universal. As of November 5, 2007, I will start my new job as a coordinator at Universal Media Studios. After spending six months as an NBC Page in the department, I was offered the chance to stay on full time. I am so excited and anxious for this opportunity and know that it is a step in the direction that I want to go. You may have noticed my "On the Verge" Blog entry. That was a temporary job that I was doing that could have become permanent, I was being tried out to drive around one of Hollywood's most prominent producers but this coordinator job came around. It offered better pay and more importantly benefits so I took it. I know that this is the best place for me to be right now in my career. And it will give me some stability and best yet more money.

On The Verge!!!

Something pretty big is about to happen to me. This has been something that I have been waiting to happen since I moved to Los Angeles last October. I don't want to say anything more about it until it's completely official, but this could potentially be very beneficial to my future in the entertainment biz and to my career as a whole. Stay tuned...

*thanks to Kyle for making this picture!!

Job Interviews...

On my death bed, when I'm looking back on my life I will come to remember the year 2007 as the year of job interviews. I can't tell you how many interviews I have been on this year. The story usually goes like this:

1. Find job posting online and/or hear about opening from coworker.
2. Send resume
3. Recieve call to schedule interview
4. Interview
5. WAIT (why does this seem to take the longest)
6. Get a call/email saying "we really liked you but we decided to go with someone else."
7. Start over again.

In my defense, I have been pretty picky with my job search, so I have been up against some pretty stiff competition. Now, I'm currently waiting to have my second interview for a REALLY great job prospect. I have a really good feeling about this one...so I'll just wait in the meantime