Yes, I met the man some call, Ben Stein.

I'm going to try and update this as much as possible. Been slackin' lately.

Tomorrow marks the first time I'll be signing up for a racquetball tournament. It's for beginners I believe at LA Fitness. If I do well, I may step up training. If I fail horribly...well, I may just step up training.

The wife and I are looking for houses, and of course the closer we get to that, the more it seems that the housing market may be getting stronger. I'm hoping that's just a slight growth until we can move in.

Update after my LA trip. I did in fact meet Ben Stein. He's honestly the nicest person I've met. Incredibly down-to-earth. And for someone in Hollywood and prominently displayed in the media, it's nice to see someone so adamantly sharing his belief on Intelligent Design. I just so happen to agree with that belief.

He arrived pretty early to the convention as our keynote speaker. As he was waiting, I decided I'll just introduce myself. Not 20 feet away, four other people surround him and decided to talk to him as well. I just stood a ways off pretending to fix my camera while I waited. Meh...

Well, his time before his speech was spent with those four, so I decided to wait until the photo op. He was a little under the weather. Apparently, he traveled back to LA just before his speech and was drinking tea throughout the speech.

Anyway, during the photo op, my turn came at last. When I walked up to him, Ben asked for my name. I proceeded to tell him that his documentary, Expelled meant very much to me as a fellow ID believer. His eyes opened a little more and he began to talk of evolution not explaining anything like the theory suggests. It only raises more questions. I agree, but I won't get into that on this post. Maybe on later posts since I'll be focusing less on games...

We briefly discussed that, took our photo and he was again sucked into other conversations since he wanted to leave and rest. Fifteen minutes went by, he walked to the exit for his driver. At the exit, he looked at me and yelled over everyone, "Thanks for the kind words, Kyle."

Pretty cool that he was able to remember my name. And, I'm glad that I was able to offer any encouragement I could. I can only imagine how much flak he receives for his belief.

Sad.

That was my first meaningful brush with a celebrity. I do hope to speak with him again sometime in the future.

If I could meet 10 people, I'd like to meet the following:

1) Ben Stein - DONE
2) Denzel Washington
3) Seth Rogen
4) Will Ferrell
5) Kirk Cameron (after Fireproof, I just had to put him on this list)
6) Ben Stiller
7) Mel Gibson
8) Michael Cera
9) Steve Martin
10) Mathew Fox (and the cast of Lost)

I'm sure I'd exchange a few of those for someone else, but those are the first 10 that I thought of. No women. Funny. Honestly though, I don't think I have a favorite actress.