The madness strikes in the morning as well as in the evening.

- Emotionally Disturbed Roommate arrives back here tomorrow from his jaunt to Montreal. I'm dreading his arrival. Things would be made a lot easier if those guys told me I could live with them already, but they're still debating. I dreamed about it last night, which is mildly disturbing since I'd have rather dreamed about penguins, the Playboy Mansion and its inhabitants (except for Hugh) and Disney World. - Though I am now a California resident, I still steadfastly prefer Disney World over Disney Land. EPCOT's just bloody cool, and the Disney/MGM Studios aren't too shabby either. I still don't understand why Disneyland came up with this "California Experience" theme park. You're in California already! Why make a theme park about a place you're already in? One of the reasons why EPCOT is so cool is because you have all these World Pavilions that try to simulate what other countries are like.

- I'm still expanding, despite the fact that I'm biking over 25 miles a week. I'm beginning to think that it may have something to do with the chicken teriyaki dishes that I've been getting for lunch from the building's cafeteria. But it's just chicken & rice & salad & teriyaki sauce! But it's the only thing that I can put my finger on that might be causing it. Well, that and the fact that work has put me on the "Let's Fill You Up With Junk Food Diet" as enhanced by the pizza they got us for dinner last night. I'm trying to be good though, I really am.

- It's still Passover, but I'm not observing. I made it quite clear last night when I went into the break room where the pizza was last night, took a slice of sausage pizza (I know, I know, but I only had one sausage slice) and announced, "This is the Jew going to Hell." Bread when I'm not supposed to have it, mixing milk & meat, and having a pork product too. Could I tempt Fate any more? Then again, I should've been discouraged from eating it when one of my co-workers observed that the sausage bits made it look like a rabbit crapped all over the pizza. He was right, and I do think bunnies are damn cute, but I draw the line at certain things.

- I can't be a vegetarian because I love meat too much. The thing is, I can't equate "cow" and "hamburger." There's very few -- if any -- meats that I can look at and realize that it used to be a living, breathing, sound-making animal. So it kind of boils down to the fact that in my own mind, I don't really care where it came from, but now that it's on my plate, I'll eat it if it tastes good and it's sanitary.

- I got a haircut because I was growing a shag carpet on top of my head. People at my last job used to comment that they could tell how late in the day it was because my hair would get fluffier, since if I was reading or editing something, I'd usually sit at my desk hunched over whatever I was reading with my hands in my hair. This pushed my hair backwards, so it would start to stand up because I was making it go against the way it usually does.

I think I'm gonna try going back to sleep for half an hour.

It still hasn't sunk in, really.

I was biking my usual route last night -- from my apartment to the beach & back -- and this time I actually crossed Ocean Avenue and looked down on the beach and saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time since I'd gotten here as a resident. I made it.

Strangely enough, it doesn't feel like home yet. And Boston doesn't feel like home anymore either. It just feels like I'm kind of in limbo, and it's not a feeling I like. Maybe it's because I know I'm moving out of my current apartment, maybe it's because I haven't been in L.A. long enough to establish a routine. Right now, it just kind of feels like I drove a little too far on my way back to somewhere but I don't know where I was headed.

So word has it this morning that Fox has already cancelled their new series "The American Embassy." That show was on for what, three weeks? (Not to mention the fact that they're already lacking in decent programming so they have to rerun all of their shows three times every week...) Meanwhile, "Watching Ellie" was canned by NBC after only a few weeks' run and Fox has already killed four of my favorite shows ("Futurama," "Undeclared," "The Tick" -- which only aired for a month -- and "Family Guy"), making this year's TV season the deadliest that I can remember.

Whatever happened to the patience in building an audience? Whatever happened to giving a show at least a season or two's chance in order to gather a following? Word of mouth is still an incredible force out there, and I'm more likely to watch a show if a friend recommends it to me. But the problem is that if the show's not on long enough for my friend to see it, then chances are I'm not going to hear about it so I'm not going to watch it either.

I'd like to know what the ratings were for current hit shows when they first started. I seriously doubt that shows like "Will & Grace" and "Frasier" and "Friends" instantly started off with the hugest audiences on TV and maintained their ratings throughout their entire run. But now it's like the television network executives are so eager to push the "kill" button that if a show isn't an instant smash or if the ratings go down even a little bit from the premiere, the show's gone.

I proclaimed this loudly in the restaurant last night when my friend told me that the Weather Channel had told him it was sunny & 75 all day in L.A. yesterday. It was 50, windy & overcast all day. And then this morning's Fox 11 morning show weatherperson (who's rather flaky herself) proclaimed that today would be "as nice as it was yesterday" -- sunny and warm. I firmly believe that Lewis Black was dead-on correct when he said, "Do you know what the word 'meteorologist' means in English? It means liar."

All but one of the chocolate peanut butter squares are gone already, and it's not even 1PM. They must've been popular.

Monday finds me in a bit of a morose mood. I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it's the fact that I finally heard back from the guys I wanted to move in with -- they were gone over the weekend, which is why they didn't call back -- and they're debating whether to take me in or one of their co-workers. I get a good vibe from this apartment and these guys, and I'd hate to lose the place.

Then again, it could just be that I'm tired. Like many others, when I get into conversations that I'm enjoying, I'm reticent to end them in order to go to sleep no matter how tired I may be. I just keep going until my brain shuts down. As a result, I only got around 5 hours of sleep last night. Not getting enough sleep usually gives me... well, for lack of a better term, I get that not-so-fresh feeling, despite the fact that I shower in the morning. It's important that I shower in the morning. It gives me that jolt to help wake me up, which is essential since I don't drink coffee or tea or any other caffeine-enhanced beverage in the mornings. I also need to feel clean before I face the day -- I don't go outside or get dressed before I've showered unless it's absolutely essential. I don't feel so clean when I get out of bed, plus I need to shower off all the leftover shaving cream still on my face and get my unruly hair under control.

I used to shower in the evenings. My parents kept telling me that I'd "feel nicer" going to bed if I was clean. I basically came to the conclusion that I wouldn't, because I still don't feel clean when I get out of bed in the mornings. Plus, showering at night would wake me up and I'd be up for an additional hour or so after I got out of the shower, which was not the point of going to sleep. When I'm tired, I just want to put on my sleep clothes and climb into bed, I don't want to have to think about showering first. It took my parents a while to catch on that I had switching to morning showering -- every night, I'd say good night to them and they'd say something to the effect of "we didn't hear the water running... did you shower?" And I'd tell them, no, I'd showered in the morning. I'd usually get that look of "he went against the grain! He's thinking independently! Why is he doing that? Smother it!" and the ever-present "....oh." This went on for a few months before I finally said one night (after the aforementioned usual exchange), "Look, I'm showering in the mornings now. I hate waking up and not showering, I don't feel clean when I wake up, and feeling clean when I go to bed is not a priority for me. Getting to sleep when I go to bed is a priority for me. So I'm showering in the mornings, stop asking me about it." Strangely enough, they never quite understood.

Because I'm such a cool guy and because I'm sure my co-workers won't have been stuffed to the gills with Easter dinner, I'm going to bake my famous chocolate peanut butter squares and bring some into work tomorrow. I'm just that kind of guy. The fun will be listening to them all trying to figure out who made them.

I found Tagalong Girl Scout Cookie ice cream while I was shopping for the ingredients. I couldn't resist. It's so good. My waistline is cursing me for moving to Los Angeles, home of many delicacies.

Happy Easter, to those of you who celebrate it. For me, Easter is probably the second worst holiday because I know that all that candy that I love will go on extreme discount the next day as stores attempt to rid themselves of their excess stock. I'm such a sucker for Cadbury Creme Eggs.

Cadbury Creme Eggs seem to be one of those things that people either love or hate. There's no gentle compromise with the CCEs. It puts itself on the list with anything involving the combination of chocolate and peanut butter, Hawaiian pizza and sushi. (In case you're wondering, I like everything on that list besides Hawaiian pizza. I can't understand why someone would want to put pineapple on a pizza. I'm okay with the ham though.)

On a more serious note, I hope that none of you went out and got real live bunnies unless you seriously plan on making a commitment to taking care of it. Every year, too many bunnies are neglected by their owners who bought them on a spur-of-the-moment, wouldn't-it-be-cute-for-Easter decision. Just because there's no holiday that causes spontaneous cat- or dog-buying, it doesn't mean that the bunnies are any less deserving of a good household and a loving caretaker. And if for some reason you did get a bunny and you feel you can't take care of it, please don't just let it loose in the wilds. You can get more information from the House Rabbit Society on how to either care for your bunny or put it up for adoption.

I spent tonight up in Ventura with the web goddess kd, her daughter (who I still think could double for Tara Reid, even though they both disagree) and her daughter's boyfriend. It was an interesting concert, and this one band -- they called themselves "Raging Arb & The Redheads" -- set up what appeared to be a living room on stage with a bunch of couches, a lamp and a keg. Concertgoers were just hanging out on stage with the band while they were playing, getting beers from the keg (despite the fact that they were selling beer in the back, albeit for a very-hefty $8 per beer) and having fun. It was quite an experience.

So now two separate bloggers have both told me that I "translate well" from my writing to my actual realtime persona. Somehow, that doesn't surprise me, though I kind of wonder how I come across here in my blog. I am who I am and I have a hard time trying to fathom other people's perceptions of me, especially those who've gotten their perceptions strictly from my writing.

So I'm tossing this out there: if you were to meet me in realtime, what would you expect I'd be like? Those of you who've met me or who know me in realtime are disqualified from answering that question, though.