Los Angeles is a funny place. Most towns, big and small, have local celebrities that people look up to because they "made it." In Columbus, depending on your tastes, we have Dwight Yoakam, Bow Wow, and Maggie Grace. They're the people that have accomplished the unthinkable and achieved some sort of national recognition. Here in Los Angeles, it seems like you're constantly running into people working toward that level of fame, with widely varies levels of success.

Our first week in Venice, we were having some issues with our DirecTV service and the landlord's husband was on our roof trying to get the satellite dish adjusted properly. We were discussing TV shows with her and ABC's new series "Castle" came up when said said, very nonchalantly, "Oh, Jon's on that show. He plays Esposito." We weren't quite sure how to respond, especially since we only saw the first half or so of the first season. But that evening we downloaded the most recent episode and, sure enough, there he was, our landlord Jon Huertas, starring opposite Nathan Fillion and guest star Alyssa Milano on a major prime time TV show.

So bizarre.

A couple of weeks ago, we kicked off work a little early and drove into Studio City to watch a taping of CBS' new series Accidentally on Purpose. While we were there, we obviously saw TV stars like Jenna Elfman, but it seemed like everyone we talked to was involved in TV or film in one way or another, including a gentleman named Will who is one of the writers of Adult Swim's Children's Hospital series and a musician/actor who goes by the name "CHiLL" who has an upcoming role as twin jugglers in NBC's Heroes. Even our host at the taping was talking about a role he was filming for Disney's upcoming TV movie Starstruck. It seems like everyone out here is at some point in the process of working toward their dream of stardom.

As far as the taping itself goes, it was a really interesting process. We were told up front that this wasn't going to be a typical taping, which is generally done in sequence so you can see the entire show being filmed from start to finish. Instead, we were seeing a series of scenes from the season finale being filmed somewhat out of order. I'm not sure how often that is done, but I'm sure the reason had to have something to do with the fact that Jenna Elfman, the star of the show, is just weeks away from giving birth in real life.

I'll be honest: Watching the filming was tedious. There were lots of breaks in the filming, often taking 15-20 minutes just to set things up for a 2 minute shoot. To fill the gaps, we had an announcer giving us background on the story, juggling, doing contests, and providing just about any distraction he could think of. It was certainly informative, though, to see exactly how much work goes into a single episode, but I wouldn't recommend going to one of these non-sequential filmings unless you were really, really into the show and have a lot of patience.

This past week's taping of The Big Bang Theory is another story entirely. If you haven't seen the show yet and are a fan of sitcoms, do yourself a favor and rent the first season now. Along with How I Met Your Mother, it's one of the few sitcoms worth watching today, and we were lucky enough to get tickets to a taping. We actually had tickets to a filming several weeks ago, but after arriving we were told that space was a little tight. They had to turn away everyone except for the first 128 people in line, and we were numbers 138 and 139. As an apology, we were given VIP passes to a taping yesterday.

We arrived at Warner Brothers' studios about an hour and a half before taping began at 6:30pm and slowly worked our way through the security process. I don't know whether it was the fact that it was a more popular show, or just tighter security at Warner Brothers, but their screening process was much more intense. Whereas at the taping of Accidentally on Purpose, "security" consisted of a single guard asking us if we had cell phones or cameras and getting our hand stamped, at Warner Brothers we had to go through multiple metal detectors, get our identification scrutinized, and have a security escort at all times. When they say to leave your cell phones and cameras in your car, they aren't joking around.

Once we were seated in the studio, they went to a lot of trouble to make sure we were entertained and in good spirits. A gentleman by the name of Mark guided us through what we were going to see that day and introduced a never-before-seen episode of the show that had only very recently finished going through the editing process, "The Excelsior Acquisition," which is scheduled to air March 1. I won't spoil anything, but it featured Sheldon spending time in jail, a whole lot of comic book jokes, and an appearance by comic book legend Stan Lee. It didn't disappoint.

Shortly after this, we were introduced to the cast of the show and filming of the upcoming episode "The Precious Fragmentation" began. The studio space was set up as you might expect, with the stairway / elevator area at the center and the apartments off to either side. Off to either side of that were various other lesser-used scenes like the Caltech cafeteria, The Cheesecake Factory, and Leonard's bedroom. As you might expect, they worked their way through the episode scene-by-scene, shooting each one at least twice to make sure they got the coverage they needed. Each take was a little different so they had options when they went into the editing room, and also to see which variation got the best response from the audience. We were reminded over and over that we were a "part of the show" and that our reaction and laughter was the actual laughter that we'll hear when the episode airs.

If you're interested in the actual plot of the show, I'll give you a little detail here. If not, feel free to move on to the next paragraph. The episode starts off with Leonard, Sheldon, Wolowitz, and Koothrappali carrying a large box up to the apartment. They explain to Penny that instead of picking up dinner, they bought a large box of miscellaneous memorabilia at a garage sale. Among other things, they find a production prop from the Lord of the Rings trilogy -- the actual One Ring. As they all chipped in for the box, they all feel that they had a claim on the ring, and the ring is entrusted to Penny until they can figure out how to share the ring equally. After various attempts to steal the ring, including Sheldon trying to take it from her neck in her sleep and Koothrappali enlisting the legal help of his brother-in-law from India, the boys decide to hold on to the ring -- literally -- and that the last person holding the ring will be the rightful owner. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure how the episode will end, as they filmed several different options and dream sequences that could be used.

It was really interesting to see how the actors interacted with each other in between scenes. I've heard that Jim Parsons, who plays uber-nerd Sheldon Cooper, gets nervous before tapings. In between scenes, he mostly paced around practicing lines to himself. It was only at the end of the last scene that he allowed himself to relax a bit and goof around with the rest of the cast. Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar, who play Howard Wolowitz and Rajesh Koothrappali, mostly jumped around and fidgeted to work off nervous energy in between scenes and Johnny Galecki, who portrays Sheldon's roommate Leonard Hofstadter joked around with most of the cast and crew between takes. And before all of her scenes, Kaley Cuoco had to give a little laugh to get herself into the comedic mindset. Above all, though, everyone was taking every scene very seriously to make sure they got it right. They were really careful to make sure they used the right hand with certain props in order to maintain continuity as best as they could, and there's even a dedicated person on the crew who takes polaroids of each scene so they can reference exactly what item was where and in relation to each of the cast members so that the final edit looks right.

All told, we were at the studio from about 5:00 in the afternoon until 10:00pm -- a pretty big time investment, but definitely worth it, especially if you're able to get tickets to a show you really enjoy. It was so much fun to watch, and I'm really exited to see the final product air sometime in March. Pay attention to the bedroom scene with Penny -- you might hear January's lone chuckle when nobody else is laughing.

[UPDATE: Some people may be interested in knowing how to go about getting tickets to a live taping. I'm sure there are several similar sites, but we got our tickets through Audiences Unlimited. The tickets were free, but you may have to check the site constantly over a period of weeks to get the show you want instead of Dr. Phil.]

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During our time in Los Angeles last January, I had grand plans to get up every morning before work -- which starts at 5:30am, by the way -- and getting a good run in on the Venice boardwalk. I envisioned myself running along before the rest of the world was up, listening to music, and getting in shape. For obvious reasons, this plan never really took shape and the only time I spent on the boardwalk was well after 10am and was mostly spent reading and eating funnel cakes.

This year has been different; Although it's never happened before 5:30, I've been going on regular runs along the Pacific Ocean and taking advantage of the nice weather and beautiful atmosphere.

The last time we spoke about running, I had just run my first 5 mile race. That was two months ago, and while I've kept up running on a fairly regular schedule, I haven't done a whole lot to increase my distance. My pace has improved -- I'm averaging around 12.5 minutes per mile -- but I'm still running somewhere between 2.5 and 3 miles at a time. This past Saturday, I decided it was time to start pushing this a little further, so I set out to run my first 10k.

I came to this decision on Thursday. There was no official 10k scheduled, and I didn't even realize it was going to be 10k that I planned to run. The street we are living on is almost exactly halfway between the Santa Monica pier and the Venice pier, and most of my runs have been from our street down to one of the two piers.  On my last run to the Venice pier, I ran all the way to the end of the pier and I had the bright idea to run from our street to the Santa Monica pier, all the way to the end, then run down to the Venice pier, all the way to the end, and back home. As it turns out, this is almost exactly 10 kilometers. Here are a few highlights from the run.

You see a lot of weird stuff on the boardwalk, and this is one of the least weird things I've seen: an aerobics hula-hooping class. This class was being taught just north of where the boardwalk ends and where my ran start so I was feeling pretty good at this point, just running along and enjoying RJD2's "Deadringer" album.

This is the famous Santa Monica pier as I approached the 2 kilometer mark. At night, the ferris wheel lights up and you can hear people enjoying their evening all the way down the beach. During my 10k run, however, I was just using it as a nice visual marker so I would know when I was about a quarter of the way through my run. The running path took me right up to the base of the pier where I turned around and headed back south toward Venice.

Here's a shot of the less glamorous Venice pier. No ferris wheel, no roller coaster, no cotton candy. Just an amazing view and lots of fishermen. The run back from the Santa Monica pier was kind of uneventful and I didn't take any pictures at all. Most of my runs have been on this norther half of the path, and so I was very familiar with the scenery. I was happy to see the Venice pier coming up, which would mark the 7k point in my race.

Seriously. I was as close to this guy as it looks like I was. Midway down the Venice pier is a big stainless steel sink that the fishermen use to clean their fish. This guy hangs out hoping to make off with an unclaimed fish head or two. The pier is full of fishermen and tourists just lazing the day away, so I felt a little out of place huffing and puffing my way down to the end.

Once I reached the end of the pier, I was rewarded with a fantastic view of all the boats out from Marina del Rey, as well as the view of Venice from about half a kilometer out. I was definitely finding myself getting fatigued, so I decided to mix things up and switch my iPod to The Magnetic Fields' new album "Realism," which I highly recommend.

As I made my way down the homestretch, past skateboarders, rollerbladers, the sleeping homeless, and street venders, I saw January roll by on her bike to congratulate me at the finish line. As great as The Magnetic Fields are, they weren't quite giving me the energy I needed so I switched to the good old rock and roll of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "Baby 81."

It was amazing that I was able to hold the camera up at all, but I was excited not only to be able to finish the whole 10k, but to finish it at right around 12 minutes 43 seconds per mile. I did walk a few hundred meters here and there, but in all I was pretty proud of my performance.  If that's not enough detail for you, here's the RunKeeper infographic.

I'm really glad I decided to run this longer distance, and I think it's something I'm going to start doing more often. I'd really like to be able to run the Columbus Half Marathon in the fall, so I'm really going to have to start getting my distance up. Next big race: The St. Patrick's Day 8k in Washington, D.C. It's obviously shorter than this 10k was, but it will be my first time running that distance in an official race since last year's Turkey Trot. Stay tuned for updates or, if you're in the area, come run with me!

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It started innocently enough; On our first day in Venice, a large truck pulled up across the street from us advertising "Tacos y Burritos y Mariscos" and we wandered across over to check it out. $1.50 tacos? Sure, we'll try a couple. From that moment on, I was hooked.

I don't know how I missed out on the whole food truck culture when we were out here last year, but this year it's been unavoidable; La Isla Bonita, with its tasty tacos, burritos, and quesadillas, is parked directly across the street from us five days a week. On Abbott Kinney Boulevard, the hip and trendy section of Venice a few blocks from us, gourmet food trucks line the streets offering everything from mexican and vietnamese to waffles and hot dogs. If you've never eaten from a food truck before, you'd be surprised at how good food cooked in a truck can be.  This past weekend, dozens of the areas most popular trucks gathered in West Hollywood for a Haiti relief benefit. The moment I looked at the list of trucks in attendance and saw "The Grilled Cheese Truck," I was out the door with my wallet in hand.

Seriously, there were dozens of trucks, all parked along both sides of the street. Nearly all of the trucks are brightly colored with really interesting artwork. They all sounded delicious, but I had my heart set on grilled cheese. The Grilled Cheese Truck turned out to be the favorite of the group; I waited in line -- I'm not even kidding -- for 50 minutes to get a sandwich and tater tots. Was it delicious? Absolutely. Was it worth a 50 minute wait? Definitely not. However, I am still extremely interested in their dessert option (banana puree with nutella and marshmallow sandwich) so I may have to hunt that truck down again.

From what I can tell, there are two distinct food truck "scenes" in LA: The hipster, gourmet food truck variety and the old-fashioned, good-but-cheap trucks.  Some trucks, such as La Isla Bonita that parks across the street from us, can be found in the same place every day and offer a consistant and standard menu. They don't have Twitter feeds or Facebook pages, but they do have really good food at a really cheap price.

The hipster trucks on the other hand tend to be a bit more mobile; If you want to know where the Flyng Pig BBQ truck is, you should check out their Twitter Feed.  They also tend to be a little more out of the ordinary in their menu offerings. The Dogtown Dogs truck, for example, sounds pretty typical in their offering of hot dogs, but they eschew the standard ketchup and mustard toppings in favor of chili, fritos, cole slaw, and other more quirky options. They're also definitely on the pricier side. After my nearly hour long wait in line at the Grilled Cheese Truck, I shelled out $10 for a sandwich and tots. For that same $10, I could have gotten a cheese quesadilla, a burrito, and two tacos at La Isla Bonita!

Checking out these food trucks has definitely piqued my interest, and I'm looking forward to hunting down the few food trucks that Columbus has to offer when we get back to Ohio. I doubt I'll be able to find a shaved ice truck, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

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The weather here in LA has definitely taken a turn for the worse. While it's definitely dampened (no pun intended) my ability to enjoy the beach, I've had plenty of other distractions to focus on.

American Psycho

For Christmas, January and I splurged and got ourselves a Kindle e-book reader to share. So far we absolutely love it and we're rediscovering our love of reading. On the drive out, we bought Donald Miller's "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years," which January read aloud to me. We both really enjoyed it and recommend it for a nice, casual read. The Kindle is also nice because it will read any PDF formatted document, so if you know where to find books in that format on the Internet, your possibilities are almost endless.

After finishing up "A Million Miles," I decided to give "American Psycho" a shot. I'm a little more than midway through it, and I'm beginning to regret my decision. Not because it's bad, per se, but because when I read, I'm really susceptible to the mood of the material I'm reading. My favorite books are the ones that are kind of introspective and moody, which kind of keeps me in a neutral place. If you've read "American Psycho," however, you know that it is downright disturbing. And what's worse, it doesn't really just dive straight into the insanity, it's a gradual process that sucks you in. The first third of the book really just details the monotony of the main character's life and it's only in the middle of the book that his psychosis really starts to come through, and in very sudden and graphic ways. As a completionist, I hate the idea of not finishing the book, but I'm wondering if I really have anything to benefit by sticking to it. Maybe I'll just watch the movie.

24

I'm also ridiculously excited that some of my favorite shows are back in action this month. I've seen every episode of 24 since it first aired eight years ago and, like most fans, my opinion of the show has been all over the place. The first couple of seasons were bold, groundbreaking television and since then the show has slowly begun to be little more than a parody of itself. Really for the past five seasons I've been saying over and over again how it needs to stop rehasing the same old plots (virus outbreaks, assassination attempts, nuclear bombs), the same writing devices (There's a mole in the government! CTU headquarters is breached! A character we thought was dead is alive!), and come up with something new to reinvigorate the show. Well, I've changed my mind.

What 24 needs this season is more of the same, but done well. Let's face it: 24 is a show about government corruption, torture, stuff blowing up, and Jack saving the day and almost dying in the process. I'm resigned to enjoying the ride, as long as the writers don't give us anymore bullshit subplots about Jack's "nephew" being kidnapped, his daugher being stalked by a cougar, or Tony Almeida still being alive somehow. Assassination attempt before a peace treaty is signed? And the whole thing is just a distraction for something even bigger? Sounds great, let's do it!

So that's how I've been whiling my time away during these pacific storms. Looks like it's going to keep up at least two more days, any suggestions on other books or TV shows I should be looking at while the sun's not shining?

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