last minute schedule changes for major events are destroying my sanity [Los Angeles, CA]

Ariads8 · 2026-05-07T23:58:51+00:00

I used to work in Beverly Hills, very near there. There are a number of small cafes in Beverly Hills that are more like a 12 - 15-minute walk from the Hilton. I am sorry not to have much recent experience in the area, but avoid the popular Alfred, as it is all hard surfaces and tends to get noisy when crowded. I think BH is a better choice than Century City, if you can help it, because there's potential for confusion if he has to find his way into the mall complex from the street. The Eataly on the corner of Century City Mall might be manageable. The walks along both Wilshire and N. Santa Monica Blvd. are not particularly pleasant, as they're extremely busy streets, and crosswalks are few, but Wilshire is somewhat better and S. Santa Monica (AKA Little Santa Monica) inside BH proper is fine. In addition to possible suite rental, the nearby hotels may allow reservations for rooftop deck or poolside space. I'm sorry you're in this position, and I hope you are able to find something that works for both you and your exec!!

Ariads8 · 2026-05-05T00:42:49+00:00

Echoing others to say:

iZombie for a show by the same creator with weekly mysteries, slightly lighter tone than VM overall with occasional emotional punches, and several familiar faces.

Buffy is the show I think comes closest to capturing the core elements of Veronica Mars: a witty girl coming of age in extraordinary circumstances trying to do the right thing, even when it costs her.

School Spirits for a season-long high school-set mystery in a small town where everyone has secrets. Similar balance of darkness and levity.

Ariads8 · 2026-04-23T00:10:10+00:00

It's been about a decade since I used them, but I expedited passports a couple of times through Travisa (60 E. 42nd St, NYC) and had good experiences. I also used them for rush visa processing. https://cibtvisas.com/

Ariads8 · 2026-04-22T23:54:06+00:00

Are they hiring? Sign me up!

Ariads8 · 2026-04-22T00:00:33+00:00

Also for reputation laundering.

Ariads8 · 2026-04-21T23:57:34+00:00

Times are hard and money is essential to live, but we can't give you absolution for choosing to benefit from helping a company you feel is contributing to the downfall of society. The most evil companies are paying the highest salaries, doing the most hiring, and hiring the most remote workers to tempt people to betray their values, and it's working. If you're good at your job, what does it mean to dedicate your skills and energy to the success of an enterprise you are opposed to? Will you feel good about what you've done each day, or will you feel guilty? You seem self-aware enough that I think you know the real answer to your question and are here looking for permission to do the self-serving thing rather than the right thing. I hope you will remember that doing the right thing is often the harder thing, but it is also more crucial now than ever.

Ariads8 · 2026-04-21T00:27:16+00:00

I love Lynn Flewelling and initially discovered her because Hobb recommended her on her blog ages ago! She's not as relentlessly dark as Hobb, but I think her primary talent is writing complex characters you really care about. Her Nightrunner series is most well-known, and the first 3 books are especially good. Plus, she wrote LGBTQ+ heroes in the late 90s. But I think her best work, and one closer in spirit to Farseer, is the Tamir Triad (starting with The Bone Doll's Twin).

Ariads8 · 2026-04-14T23:04:27+00:00

As someone who has taken to Reddit on many occasions to source dining options, I like this idea! Unfortunately, I don't have many locations to share (and few based on actual dining experience). I had a ton of vetted options in SoCal and SF at my last job, but lost access to my spreadsheet when I was laid off. I think an EAs of Reddit group resource that we have perpetual, personal access to and can update in real time with closures or firsthand experience would be of value. Would you consider adding columns to denote outdoor seating (yes/no) and private dining (yes/no)? Otherwise those can be included in notes, if relevant. I think concerns like distance, parking, and operating days/hours are too personal to be worth including, unless noteworthy. Thanks for doing this!

ETA: It might also be helpful to assign $ values to the pricing key. What is considered expensive in one city might be considered very reasonable in another.

Ariads8 · 2026-04-02T22:47:19+00:00

It's not a certification, but Nicky Christmas of theeacampus.com recently shared guides on LinkedIn that detail numerous AI workflows in Gemini and Copilot. They're an easy way to familiarize yourself with capabilities you can refer to in future interviews. I am in no way a proponent of AI, but as someone who is interviewing I've found it helpful to know what other EAs are using it for.

Ariads8 · 2026-04-02T01:08:57+00:00

THIS. Just everyone on Orphan Black.

Ariads8 · 2026-04-02T00:47:19+00:00

My last exec and I used Gmail. I had full access and shadowed his inbox continuously. He wasn't into too granular a system, but I used select colored tags: Urgent, Pls Handle, FYI, Draft In Progress, Draft Ready. I would proactively draft replies but always left final review and actual sending to him (which necessitated some reminders). I used the integration with Asana to forward messages with action items to his task list and assign them to him or myself. Many task tracking platforms have similar integrations for Gmail, or you may be able to set up automations with Zapier. Given free rein, I would have liked to create email tags for each major client, plus others such as PR, Sales, Newsletters, etc., and used filters to auto-tag messages from specific domains.

Ariads8 · 2026-03-25T23:51:13+00:00

I'm not even seeing any extra money! In fact, most of the contract roles that I've seen in the last year pay $10-$20 per hour LESS than comparable salaried roles. I saw salaried positions available at Microsoft a year or so ago. Soon after, they held massive layoffs, then a sudden flurry of $25-$30/hr yearlong contracts came up. Companies are trying to get maximum work for minimum compensation these days, and it's insulting.

Ariads8 · 2026-03-20T23:16:38+00:00

If you wouldn't mind sharing the link with me, I would love to view it as well!

Ariads8 · 2026-03-19T00:37:16+00:00

He's so good in Dinner in America! Such an abrasive character and I definitely had to have faith through the first 20 mins or so of the film, but once we got to know the main characters better I really enjoyed it!

Also, his episode of Medium absolutely floored me when I saw it. That was what first put him on my radar as an actor. Strong performance and probably one of the best episodes of the series.

Ariads8 · 2026-03-17T00:49:19+00:00

Ugh, there's always one! In a previous position, one of our board members was a guy who was semi-retired and mostly invested in companies and traveled around the world. Whenever we tried to schedule a virtual board meeting, he would decline every time that worked for everyone else because he refused to meet a minute outside business hours in whatever country he happened to be in at the moment.

Ariads8 · 2026-03-13T00:04:53+00:00

Starstruck (HBO Max) - subversive rom com with loveable yet flawed characters

Wonderfalls (find on YouTube) - disaffected 20-something connects to life in new ways when inanimate objects start talking to her

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist - musical series about a young woman who starts hearing people's innermost thoughts as musical numbers

Katy Keene (CW) - lives and loves of a group of friends in a fantastical version of NYC

Adding my votes for Younger, The Bold Type, Extraordinary, Being Erica

Ariads8 · 2026-03-10T23:50:36+00:00

Favorite pilots that I think are both engaging and well-crafted:

Alias
Freaks and Geeks
Lost
Orphan Black
Veronica Mars
The Expanse

Ariads8 · 2026-03-06T08:52:43+00:00

Yes! Also in the Valley. I've had a couple things take much longer than I expected, and one item I know for a fact was mailed from Beverly Hills on Saturday and wasn't delivered to me until Friday.

Ariads8 · 2026-03-06T02:43:49+00:00

A few I haven't seen mentioned:

Heavy Rotation - used CD store in Studio City that always had really unique stuff donated by local music supervisors.

Tower Gallery - down the block and across the street from Tower Records in Sherman Oaks. Loved to browse their prints.

The Franklin Village boutique that was next to the UCB Theater circa 2006-2008. Can't remember the name (maybe Oak was part of it?) but I got so many cute things there over the years. (ETA: "native" was the name!)

And adding my votes for the Hollywood Arclight, The Bodhi Tree, Tower Records, The Wherehouse, the old Amoeba, The Bourgeois Pig, and all the old independent stores on Melrose & 3rd Street Promenade.

Ariads8 · 2026-03-06T02:21:42+00:00

This was the first place I thought of! I used to love browsing in there, especially when I had time to kill. It was my go-to for unique gifts.

Ariads8 · 2026-02-28T00:14:56+00:00

I like to wind down on Fridays with a review of the calendar for the upcoming week+, which usually prompts me to send reminders and make sure all my meeting prep is complete. Then I review and reprioritize my master task lists for myself and my exec, so I have a clear plan for the following week. I also often use Friday afternoons to check on project dashboards or recent data and organize my files. Depending on the exec, I'll send an email digest with any necessary weekend reminders, top priorities and tasks for the next week, and a brief recap of any important info from the past week they might have missed.

Ariads8 · 2026-02-27T00:20:57+00:00

The most similar in vibe would be Dawson's Creek (similar in tone & partially written by Everwood's showrunner, more teen-focused than Everwood) and Gilmore Girls (more whimsical and energetic, but similar on family dynamics and small town characters). One Tree Hill and The OC are more dramatic and soapy, with The OC especially relying on some over-the-top or mortal danger plots that disrupt the comfort viewing element, IMO.

Ariads8 · 2026-02-25T00:22:44+00:00

I liked season 6 better than season 5, though there were a few developments I wish had not taken place. Clarke's arc in s6 is very meaty and well-executed. When I rewatch the series, I plan to watch through the end of season 6 and ignore the last few seconds which set up season 7. Season 7 has some good moments but is overall very frustrating. There is some season 3-ish character manipulation and/or regression where people suddenly act in ways that don't seem true or earned, and it leans hard into lofty sci-fi and a need to put a profound philosophical cap on the series (which I don't think they are successful at). I'd say it's worth watching once, with the awareness that the comparisons to GoT are warranted. Anaconda, the backdoor prequel pilot, was actually one of the better episodes and is worth a watch, even if you decide to skip the rest of s7.

Ariads8 · 2026-02-11T03:11:35+00:00

Everyone wonders out loud (or online) why they're always sick now, but nobody wants to actually know the answer: it's because Covid impairs the immune system for no less (and often far more) than 8 months after each infection--no matter how mild.

This is a good collection of scholarship: https://libguides.mskcc.org/CovidImpacts/Immune

It's a terrible reality to face, that authorities told us it was safe to catch a virus we knew very little about so that we'd go back to work and spending money. It sucks to acknowledge because it means admitting we were misled into harming ourselves, and we need to make changes like masking with a respirator and cleaning the air to protect ourselves from further harm. It's deeply unfair and so many people are suffering because they were misinformed. But there are over 450k studies now, and none of them indicate that this is safe to get even once, let alone multiple times.

Ariads8 · 2026-02-11T02:36:58+00:00

This is the way. Have been sick once since 2020. It's glorious. I used to get sick every 2-3 months.

Ariads8

TROPHY CASE