TWI-HARDS!!!! It's your old pal Mike Welch, playing everyone's favorite character, Mike Newton. We have much to discuss.

As you may know by now, I took a road trip up to Portland from Los Angeles, making stops at Berkeley, San Francisco, and Sacramento along the way. The highlight of the trip- was it Alcatraz, the legendary Fillmore, the food, the clubs? Absolutely not! It was go kart racing. Have you ever done it? Not the cheese-puff family friendly go kart tracks with the arcade, and bumper boats, and 2nd grade pizza party going on inside. I'm talking hard-core, speed go-kart racing people! It's incredible. If you like a little adrenaline rushing through your blood, but don't want to jump out a plane to get it, this is for you.

A few days ago I drove to Portland from Sacramento, and I had my "mini- Into the Wild" experience. I saw the Oregon coast, did a little hiking in the woods, saw some elk, horses, and cows. I have great advice for anyone planning on road tripping, and this comes from my buddy Chris Marquette. Try to make a conscious effort to step OUT of the car when you're in the middle of nowhere. It's one thing to stop for necessities, but stop when you’re miles away from anything industrial. It doesn't have to be a big deal. I stopped every 2-3 hours, usually for about 30 sec- 1 min, just to breath the air, feel the ground under my feet, check out the scenery, and stretch. The trip is greatly enriched. It seems simple and benign, but it makes a HUGE difference, trust me.

I got a speeding ticket at the end of the night. At that point it was midnight and I had been on the road for over 12 hours. I was an hour away from the hotel. Officer Sunshine was hiding from me, laser beam in one hand and siren in the other, waiting to get us Cali folk who've been on the road for hundreds of miles. I'm not bitter, the man's got kids to feed, I understand. And I WAS speeding, no question about it. But man, you gotta be careful when driving through these small towns in places like Nevada and Oregon, where one of their main sources of income is tickets for out-of-towners passing through. But I guess the ultimate lesson here is don’t speed, idiot.

Enough of my inane ramblings, let’s get to the juicy stuff! I had lunch with the cast today. Twi-hards, I know some of you are probably worried about certain choices. But as far as I can tell, it looks like Catherine and Stephanie have put together a near-perfect cast. The Cullen's, the high school kids, everyone seems exactly right for their character. I know that sounds like self-promoting BS, but I would’t lie my Twi-hards. If I were worried about the cast, I just would’t say anything at all. Plus, we get along well as a group, so hopefully we can have some fun and create something cool together. We’ll see what happens, but I am pumped kids! We start the high school stuff on Monday.

Well, I reckon’ I ought to be moseying’ along now. Good talking to you guys, and thanks for all the support!

-Mike/Mike

Hey gang. Michael here.

As many of you know by now, I’ve been cast as “Mike Newton” in the upcoming film, “Twilight, which, based on the on-line response, appears to be the Hannah Montana of vampire books. The film hasn't’t even been fully cast yet, and there are already over 50,000 posts on IMDB. So, for those of you die hard Twilight fans, or as I like to call you, Twi-hards, Hi. I hope I can please you with what I have to bring to the character. So far, your response to me has been very kind, and I appreciate that. Feel free to continue to comment about how you picture the character and I WILL take it into account, I promise you. The satisfaction of the Twi-hards is my first priority. At this point, the only constructive note I can find is to have a “puppy-dog” like quality. If there are any other qualities or traits that you as a Twi-hard see as essential to the character, please let me know.

Now, as for the rest of you, the gate-heads, the joan-cores, HELLO! I have been working hard on projects you will probably never see. Ha.. Since late 2005 (the end of Joan), I’ve worked on 10 movies, and I’m hopeful that we’ll finally get to see SOME of them soon. It looks like “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” will be coming out in May, that’s exciting. “Day of the Dead” is coming out to DVD in April, which is better than nothing. “An American Crime,” and “The Beautiful Ordinary” should be coming out sometime in 2008. And I have a recurring role on “The Riches,” on FX.

Now it’s off to Portland for the next few months to work on “Twilight.” I’m taking a road trip, making a few stops along the way. I’ve never been to San Francisco so that should be fun. I’m gonna try to make it up to Seattle too.. Alright guys, thanks for all your support, and I’ll talk to you soon.

P.S. I hope I didn’t insult anyone with the “Hannah Montana” reference. I was just referring to its cult-like popularity. I’m not making comparisons in any other way. That is all.