On Friday the 16th of Nov I was heavily into manipulating some digital images on my computer when Chris reminded me that Mike's birthday party was going to start soon at a local pub. I was not too sure that I wanted to go, after all I had gotten into a groove. With much deliberation I decided to don my party hat and join Chris, Scott, and Jake (the latter two are friends that just moved into the house on our left). After the party we headed home and we were met with police cruisers, yellow tape and helicopters. There was a stand off. Somewhere on our block there was a man held up in a house while the police quietly took over the neighborhood. They were everywhere on roofs behind bushes and in garages. We were told to go to Norm's or Denney's for a few hours until the situation was over.
Chris was very tired and we headed to a hotel. They had one room left with one bed. The night manager noted that there were four of us and that would not work. We then headed over to Sara's house. We kept her up for about an hour or so then went back to the house for another go around. And turn around again we did. Still no resolution, with none in sight. A decision was made that I was going to stay at Jason's house and the rest would go to Chris' parents. We stayed up for a while and eventually turned in around 2:30 A.M. or so. When I awoke the next morning after a not necessarily peaceful slumber Jason took me to my house, as I was with out wheels. This time we were able to get closer to my house than last night. But still no dice in the hot shower department. The lady cop manning the road block had only just arrived on the scene at 10:00 A.M. It was now 10:30 A.M. The guy standing next to me at the barricade knew more than she did. It was while he was describing what happened that I saw my neighbor Steve. He lives on the right side of us when looking out my front door. He was out on his driveway and the police were taking his picture. He was wearing a yellow blanket. According to the local newspaper a member of the SWAT team at about 1:15 A.M. on Saturday morning fired a fatal shot. Steve was killed instantly. The Street was littered with little placards that all had different numbers on them. Like the kind you get when waiting for your food at Carl's Jr. These are usually used to mark evidence, in this case it was the metal casings from the shots that Steve and the police traded with each other. Steve was depressed, at least that is what everyone is saying. In any case he brandished a gun at his wife. She managed to escape and alert the police. They arrived on my block at 11:45 P.M. Friday night.
At that time I was at The Old Ship in Santa Ana. We had just finished listening to Russ becoming Elvis on the karaoke machine. Blake and Scott were told to hold on to their day jobs. We were having a really nice time.
What finally snapped me to attention was the lady cop asking what house was mine. I told her it was the one next door to Steve's, that my car was the one with the cop cars all around it. That was when she informed me that my house was part of a crime scene, and that I would have to wait until at least early evening before I could get back into it. Still dumbfounded I mentioned that I was going to have my 30th birthday party today and I had sent out about 100 emails. She suggested that I get on the phone and call 'em all up. Jason took me back to his house. I sent out an email to those that had received email invites and had managed to call a handful of people before my phone quit. That's right the charger is in the house. That day was weird as you can imagine, and now that I think about it I can't remember what I did. I remember that the guys, Jason included went to Justin's house and took me by once more to my house. It was about 8:30 P.M. this time we were in luck. Gone were the cars, the crowds, the flares. Gone were the helicopters, the police, and the light. My house was dark although I could see some light coming from my room. I had left my computer on. I went inside and I stood for a moment listening to the quiet. I could hear the freeway through an open window but it was a quiet night. I showered and went to Justin's house to meet everyone.
The next day Chris went next door to offer his condolences to the family. When he came back a few of us were standing in the kitchen opening windows. I had burned some microwave popcorn and nearly destroyed the microwave in the process. Chris related to us that the first thing the widow had said to him was to tell me that she was sorry for ruining my party. I dropped the remote. Well if I had been holding a remote I would have dropped it. I could not believe that she would think that I would care about a silly party when her husband was not coming home. I had to tell myself that she was still in shock and would be so for quite a while. It still made me feel about this big ( I am holding my fingers close together. About the size of a chiclet apart.)
Many people have asked me if I plan on rescheduling my 30th birthday party. I am not sure if I should. The fact is that the party that was planed was already close to a month past the actual date. It almost seems like I should not be thinking about such things in light of what happened. I don't know. What do you think?
here is the local papers reporting of the incident

The carnage is over!! Well at least my part in the carnage that is Time Changer is over. It isn't really carnage I just said that to be funny. Monday was my last day of the show. It was also suppose to be the last day of filming but we or they needed more days. So off to Visalia they go for another week and here I stay hard at work on another masterpiece of film, a 1-800-the law-2 in Spanish commercial. The last few days for me during the "Changer" were spent in Orange Ca. My hometown. It was good to be home and in my own bed again. We shot at the TBN studios and at Paul Crouch Sr.'s office at the new building in Costa Mesa. It is referred to as the "Love Shack" by those in the know. Even though I am glad that my part in the production of Time Changer is over I would be remiss if I did not say that I will miss all of the people involved with it. There were some really great people working with me that I got to care for and I will miss them. Most of the jobs that I get are rather short. By that I mean they last from 1 to 4 days on average. I spent over 30 involved with Time Changer. When you spend that much time with people you get into them and they into you. And you can't help but feel a sense of loss when it is over. Sure I plan on seeing some of the crew in the future but a few live far away and the likelihood of meeting again aren't very good. But I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow and I must slumber.

Kate and Andy got married today go here for my gift to them.

I got 98% on the GI Joe quiz.

While on the freeway today somewhere on the grapevine I came across two semi trucks that had just collided. One went over the side of the freeway after taking out the second trailer from the other truck. The driver of the first truck seemed to be fine while he was crammed in the cab upside down with his pants halfway off. The first thing the other driver said after he got out of his truck was "He hit me so hard it knocked my hat off." He seemed fine as well. The police arrived shortly after and I went on my way. Oh yeah I did take some wrist cam photos and will put them up soon.

Later in the evening Blake came over and made dinner for Chris, A Train and me in honor of my return to OC.

I Stab-ded my hand. It sure does hurt. Tony am not smart.

Why do I have one "loner" sock? I don't think that I lost one up here (Vasalia) I guess I only packed 6 and a 1/2 pair. That sucks. But today is laundry day for me and Eric. We plan on going to Tulare to some outlet mall we saw from the highway. The J has now joined us in Starkles absance and tonight Angelique's husband is flying in. I guess she is happy as that is all she has talked about for almost the whole show. "You have got to meet him. We are going to have lots of sex." Well I don't remember if that is exactly what she said but it is close. The bad part about that whole sex thing, my room is under hers. I can hear everything that goes on. Does anyone have any ear plugs I can borrow. Wed was another one of our days off and Reecca, Rene, and Chris (wardrobe, wardrobe, and hair) went to San Fran for a few hours. I must admit I was a little jealous even if it was only for like three hours there to seven or so hours of driving. Wed night or Halloween night a bunch of us went to Bo Bo's and Lounge Lounges a bar we have been to a few times. They give us VIP treatment and it feels good. We don't have to pay to get in or wait in line and that night we had a section roped off for us. That didn't stop people from gaining access to us but that was ok. It was a lot of fun and by the end of the night I was soaking wet with sweat. Yesterday was kinda hard...no not really hard just stressfull for me. Kirk (the guy above me in "rank") was gone, so I replaced him but we were short a man. So being short handed and then having to step up and be the "Key" got to me a bit. Things settled down after we got the big stuff done. It was not that I was worried that I could not do the job itself, rather it was all of the other factors that are felt and not seen. I'm not sure if you know what I mean but needless to say I got through it with the help of my grips ( Eric and the J).
It is now much later in the day. In fact I am 'bout to go to sleep. Well remember when I talked about the room upstairs? Well boy howdy is that a reunion. If I didn't know details I would have called the police as someone was being murdered by the sounds alone. The J opted not to leave his room today. Eric and I stopped by to see if he wanted to get some food with us. We were on his bed for all of five minuets when the San Fran road trip crew came bounding in. We watched "becoming" on MTV and then left. The longer we all stayed the farther the J moved across the bed away from us. As Eric said it was a "moment". The j went from being alone the entire day to having 5 people 3 that were almost complete strangers. I had fun. Tomorrow we go back to Fresno and Stifflers mom, I can tell you about that later.