he’s 24.

we were roommates in college and bffs the whole time. chris basically taught me to skate. together we were in the college of creative studies for poetry.

our senior year we shared a room. he built bunkbeds that werent really beds. it was a frame in which my mattress rested atop and his futon sat well below. all around his area he hung mexican blankets and called his space “Chris Land”.

chris, like many of our friends, was really into the grateful dead. so at night he’d put in a classic dead set and “fall asleep” with his girlfriend as i studied in the living room. after a few hours id enter the room, climb up the ladder of chrisland and pass out listening to jerry and bob jam.

after college, chris became one of the pioneers in digital video. his most successful venture was creating the elements between scenes on the Tony Hawk video games. so many of my friends went into professions based on things that they loved, so to watch chris become successful from two things that he was passionate about: video games and skateboarding

now chris is passionate about raising his kids and being a long time laker season ticket holder. there are very few people who know me as well as chris, and in his very quiet way he has been a huge inspiration to all of us. chris isnt in town to celebrate his birthday because he is helping his son Justus move into COLLEGE(!?!?!?), but we all celebrated at his venice home this weekend and many beers were drunk as we all reminisced about the good old days.

like old people do.

theres some good ones if you look

ive noticed that the difference between old pricks and old nice people is the pricks are out of shape and have given up on themselves.

anyone who has ever ended up on the wrong side of one of my angry bitter pointed emails or blog posts know that i could easily slide down into the dark side and bring quite a few stormtroopers along with me.

for some reason i dont believe that thats why the Good Lord put me on this planet.

so i have been taking the advice and consultation of my nutritionist and returned to running 5 and 10k’s through the streets of hollywood around midnight in order to sweat the day’s evil out of my system and breath in the life that is tinsel town.

and it works. every night that i run i feel way better emotionally and spiritually the next day. and yes i feel stronger physically.

not sure when i got out of shape. probably when i got a company car back in the day when i lived up in frisco. those were good days for your hero. the women of the bay had very little options when it came to straight men. i was thin, i had a full fro, and our victorian on haight was fill with wine, punk and hippy women, and so much song.

and then there was the food. ah the delcious treats from market street thai houses to soul food on divis to sea food on the embarcadero, to mexican by the park.

its hard not to look young when you have metabolism of an eighth grader.

sadly that doesnt last for ever and soon you have a cute little gut that turns into something not so cute.

thus at 103 yrs old you find yourself sweating to the oldies by moonlight through the hills of barnsdale park and then up and down the stairs of the sunset vermont metro station and then through the side streets of los feliz and silverlake dodging skunks and stoned hipsters.

this is the america they dont write about in melrose avenue plays, but they should.

two summers ago mark was one of our summer interns. he was so good that we let him finish up college Back East and kept him on as a writer. he wrote from his dorm room.

then this year he graduated so we had him travel across country (writing along the way) and move here to Hollywood where he’s tearing up the joint. freakin star.

here’s my favorite thing he wrote today: “AP decides not to LOL“

the other day he reviewed the brand new BlackBerry Torch. theres video too for all the ladies who think hes cute.

but my favorite thing that he wrote this summer (if May 11 counts as Summer) was this one that he wrote for our music blog, Pop & Hiss: Justin Bieber ruined my night at Six Flags.

theres this great book, Moneyball, that i highly recommend. its about the Oakland A’s and how they are able to stay competitive without spending a lot of money on superstars and free agents.

in a way, Mark is the equivalent of that for this paper. he’s young, he’s super productive, and he doesnt demand the super high wages of a long time veteran journalist… yet.

if he did go free agent, i bet the Times would sign him. hes really that good, extremely versatile, and so nice to be around.

i only wrote one thing today. it was for the animal blog. it wasnt a fully reported out story, but it was about ligers so thats nice, i guess, if you like pictures of two day old animals whose mama is a tigress and whos daddy is a lion.

best parts of my weekend had to do with my truest and my friends.

isnt that always the case?

last night my old roommate chris celebrated his birthday. he was also celebrating his oldest child leaving town to head to college.

damn he’s old.

people talk about age all the time. dont people know we’re all aging together?

its like traffic. people are trying to switch lanes and tailgate and flash their lights.

its ok to enjoy the ride, you know. thats why i like my friends.

and my truest.

such mellow people just doing the right things. enjoying the ride.

not hurting people, not trying to ram people off the road

working together.

being honorable.

i have no idea how i got involved with these people. i feel so lucky.

but i cant wait for friday.

(so far) in order

5. Iron Man 2
4. Inception
3. Toy Story 3
2. Exit Through the Gift Shop
1. Scott Pilgrim versus The World

i said, the hard things.

the impossible things.

the stuff people say no american wants to do

and people here illegally dont wanna do neither

i want to prove God exists

i wanna win the world series for the Cubs

and i want to convince people to start subscribing to newspapers again.

then i wanna save rock n roll.

and i like it better that way

i think my dreams know that too. and get sad.

so they sneak into my head in the day time when i can write em down on here.

or whisper em in the ears of blushing girls.

but last night i had a dream.

probably due to the fact that i radically changed my diet this week.

i dreampt i was in this plane that had six seats from the window to the aisle.

somehow i was on the aisle seat even though in real life i only sit next to the window.

and i sat there and i thought now what happens if i wanna fall asleep and while im asleep someone needs to take a leak.

which is an odd thing to think because i was already asleep.

next thing i know im walking through a baseball field.

in this crazy dream world when you change planes you have to walk through a major league baseball field.

i find myself standing in line in the bullpen. kids are asking players for their autographs.

one kid sees me and holds out a piece of paper.

i realize im wearing my typical cubs hat. and i see im in the cubs bullpen.

so i take the paper, find an empty spot on it

and sign it busblog.

for the second summer in a row i was blessed with the honor of boring high school kids about the ins and outs of online journalism, focusing on the blogs of the LA Times

a program called Newspapers2 gathers some of the most gifted youngsters of California and brings them to Cal State Long Beach for a week of learning about newspapers, digital technology, and omg blogging.

last year i spoke for an hour and this year they must have either liked me or someone bailed out because they gave me an hour an a half as i told stories about life as the blog editor, an overview of the blogosphere, and what we’ve been able to do at the Times in nearly 3 years of my tyrannical reign.

little did i know but three of the students were dutifully taking notes so that they could write a piece about my lecture. apparently the entire group is putting together a newspaper for the week, or a website, or a blog – i dont really know, because as you know i get ridiculously nervous when i have to rock the mic in front of large groups.

but as i advised the future of america, every week you should do stuff that makes you super nervous, that way when you find yourself in front of people like Bruce Willis, Hugh Hefner, or that hot chica across the dancefloor you can fake it real-good-like and get the job done.

when i was busy minding my own bees wax

first thing i saw were these guys who the security guard at the xbi swore were running our country.

America? i asked.

yessir, he said and i forgot my question because ive never gotten used to people calling me sir who werent bill collectors or beggars (same thing, i know, whatevs)

drove past these apartment buildings on the wesssside and wondered if the people in the complex on the right convinced their wives children and mistresses that the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence sidewalk.

this billboard had me speculating as to what exactly this new thing called “litigation insurance” meant. does it mean you buy insurance, and if someone say slips in your store and sues you – and you lose the case – and have to pay out a million bucks, then you go to the insurance company and they say oh ok dont sweat it We’ll pay the mil cuz you have insurance?

made me wonder if it was just cheaper to have the insurance and then hire a super inexpensive law firm and roll the dice.

then i cruised past Pinks. for some reason i cannot pass this 71-year-old hot dog stand without looking at how long the line is. typically it stretches around the corner and you hafta wait at least a half an hour.

as you see, only a dozen people were in line, so i pulled a totally unsafe and illegal u-turn and parked and got a turkey dog that i didnt even need, but it was impossible not to take advantage of rare occurrence.

interesting fact: pinks turkey dogs may have more girth and are slightly more healthy for you, but they do not feature the delightful Snap of the traditional pink’s dog. thus it fails. lesson: its a damn hot dog. get the one that tastes better over the one that is “better” for you.

then i saw all this trash that someone had politely placed IN A TREE

then i saw an old man wearing trousers walking his dogs and i wondered how old i needed to be before i get to wear trousers. and have little dogs.

then i found myself in Long Beach right in front of their crazy pyramid and i wondered why snoop dogg never had this on one of his album covers and/or why he never shot a music video in front of it. i mean no other part of LA has a freakin pyramid, but the LBC does – show it off nephew!