i am sitting at my computer, procrastinating yet again.

i should be writing a patch and possibly cues for show #1. i should also be picking color, and putting together a light plot for that same show.

instead, i am surfing the web, shopping ebay for stuff i can't afford, and drinking mountain dew first thing in the morning... which is not the way to start my day.

i'm also debating whether i have the $$ to buy a drafting table, with a drafting machine, i saw advertised in the paper. the guy wants $95 for it, and that is a steal of a price. before he'll sell it, though, his daughter wants to put it on ebay. so i'm sposed to call back on tuesday to find out whether he'll be doing that or will sell it to me for $80, which he said he'd be willing to take. cross your fingers.

in other news, i will be 30 in two months.

some quick observations from watching the republican national convention:

i think i may have seen 10 non-whites during the entire broadcast.

the republicans need a new chant - "four more years".

i have to say that zell miller is a very compelling speaker, even if you don't agree with what he's saying.. he's very fervent.

i've seen several seemingly disinterested people in the audience.

if democrats, generally speaking, were so unpatriotic would they really care who was running the country? wouldn't they just get high and burn flags? or move to belgium or peru?

i'm so glad the Military is the only issue up for debate in the election. clearly we have everything else under control. i mean, do we really even need health care? i feel fine.

dick cheney just said "george w. bush" and "wisdom" in the same sentence.

listening to all the republicans talk about w's 'warm/big/open/generous heart' and 'loyalty' make him sound like he'd make a great dog.

my ass hurts.

we went riding yesterday for the first time in two weeks or so. we did lots of running in the woods and i had a smashing good time. now my butt is sore. i have mostly sitting work to do today, so i suppose that is good, since my legs also hurt. it was totally worth it.

meetings in chicago this past weekend, will post more later.

you'll be relieved to know that my tetanus shot is up to date now.

i stepped on a rusty nail at work today and it went through my shoe and into my foot a good ways. not through my foot, but enough that it bled pretty profusely there for a minute. i cleaned up and went to the doctor's where i got a five day supply of cipro and a tetanus shot.

then jessie bought me dinner, and i spent the last $15 of my birthday money on austin powers I and II - for $8 apiece!

i am back in illinwah. not really by choice, more by obligation.
the cat is pleased to see me, and has not left my side since i got back last night.

i spent this morning sifting through emails about show #3 and deleted a bunch of stuff that was just group mailed and has nothing to do with me. i'm going into the city on sunday to present the design and meet the cast, etc. monday i have a meeting at 12 noon, so i will probably stay at gurl's (although she doesn't know it yet). wednesday or thursday i will be back in the city to watch a runthrough (hopefully) of show #1 so i can do a light plot to hang that weekend.

i've made headway on show #2 this morning also, and feel better about where i'm headed with that one.

i'm currently listening to the lost 80's lunch hour on the radio - with all the good songs that came out in the 80's, how come people keep requesting the same 10 songs? how many times can you hear "oh mickey" or "99 red ballons" before you just want to shoot someone?

i am home at my mom's. i love it here. i don't want to leave. i got here yesterday, and have spent the past tow days playing with jackie's two year old twins. they are awesome and love their Aunt Neen. one drinks "waka", the other drinks "oya". both stand for water. tomorrow we are going shopping, where i will use up birthday $$ on new clothes, which i need. saturday, i'm going to baltimore to see a movie with jackie, and possibly hit the town for the afternoon. she is fine after her appendectomy this weekend, and says that by monday she feels she'll be back to normal. tuesday my mom and i are going up to watch the babies while jackie gets her staples out. i got an email today about issues with drawings for show #3; the email attachments opened okay but are not showing up the way they need to. i don't have them with me, so they will have to wait for new ones until i get back. anyhow, that's life in the (temporarily) slow lane.

just as a psa:

woman does not equal moron.

i ate way too much today.

strike went well but we didn't get quite as much done as i'd hoped. we still have time tomorrow though, and i'm sure we'll get everything done in a reasonable amount of time.

my sister is in the hospital while i'm writing this - she had an emergency appendectomy early saturday morning. my mom said she's okay and would be home tonight hopefully, but since she hasn't called, i guess maybe it's tomorrow instead. i'd prefer that my sister stay out of hospitals from now on as i don't know what i'd do without her.

still counting the minutes 'til i get the hell out of here - motivator is still broken.

for those of you on the edge of your seat in anticipation, i was successful last night in my attempt to eat free snackysnacks and drink more than i should. we had a grand time, both during the show and after. there was pizza, and we pumped up the sound system and i turned on some artistic lighting so people could get their groove on. when we tired of that, a few of us moved down the street to the belwah to sober up. i had more water in that two hours than i've had all week. we dished, and gossiped. and then we dished some gossip. i had a grand time. this moring i felt a little queasy, but was over that in a matter of seconds.

today is strike day; we will take everything down and put it in neat piles to load up our truck on monday to take everything back to storage. i anticipate a smooth operation today, and monday too. tonight is the volunteer dinner for the pony park - it's at tumbleweeds and they'll give us whatever we want under $8.99. i am very excited.

tuesday i anticipate laundry and sloth. wednesday i fly home, and couldn't be happier about it. i'm lookin at a whole week of maxxin and relaxxin. with some baby playin and some dining out mixed in, it promises to be a little slice of heaven.

so far today i have managed to remain relatively unproductive. it's frustrating really, i think something in my motivator is broken. i have been to the bank, and downloaded etc offline so i can write cues at home for #1. i did all the dishes and took out the trash. i sent out some important emails and made some design choices. these are all positive things, but not things i had on my "i'm a professional working at home, i should do these things today" list.

tonight i go up to beloit for our last show of the season. there is an after-part, with free wine and cheese. this should be a good time and will hopefully extend on into the night, at the bar down the street. i plan to help myself to the free snackeysnacks. tomorrow and monday we strike and put the space/shop back in order and that's the end of my summer gig. which is fine.

i've put out an invitation to several friends from college that i haven't spoken to in a while - i hope they show up.

yesterday i sent out an email regarding show #3; i'd sent drawings but hadn't heard as to whether they'd been received or whatever. they got them, had one question, and are off and running. so show #3 officially goes on the back burner... i have to do a sketch, but the big deal is over for now. this leaves shows #1 and #2. i had meetings for show #2 this week, and am very excited.

over the past season, i felt like we'd sort of turned into an art factory - what does the show require - get it up, done is good. i feel, with this script, like i have a chance now to push the envelope again, and i feel like i'm finally working with someone who inspires me as an artist, rather than a facilitator. i'm pumped.

show #1 is slightly more complex, since i'm doing lights, i really need to get in to see a runthrough. this is in the city = lots of driving. i can't really do a plot to light stuff until i know where it's gonna happen. so right now i'm picking color, etc, and trying to get ahead of the game so when i go into hang and focus it goes lickety split. also, i'm hoping to get my hands on etc offline so i can write cues before i get there. then i hope to be able to just plug them into the board and tweak as we go. say a little prayer.

today i plan to do some laundry and work on #3's sketch and thumbnails for #2. i think i will take #1 and #2 home with me, to some degree, and that's prolly fine.

woot!

well, i've changed the template. are we happy now?

here's what i've decided as far as titles go - if one strikes me, i will title it. otherwise, i will continue to just blurt things out like usual.

also, jackie thinks my blog is too dark. questions? comments? concerns?

SAB, Matthew

bible trashing, anyone?

appropo

i bought catsup today. the label says : "will work for food".

this weekend there is a jehovah's witness convention in town. during lunch time they all come out to their cars, and tailgate in the parking lot with their coolers and nametags... the sidewalk was full of them yesterday and all i could think was "look at all those people with no birthday".

today i attended a memorial service at nat for one of our board members that passed away last week. it's weird to attend something like that for someone you didn't really know that well - watching someone else's family celebrate their life.

right now i'm listening to indigo girls' rites of passage - it's like the soundtrack to half my college career, gives me flashbacks. good ones though, not like some crazy lesbian acid trip.

tomorrow is a company picnic for nat staff and crew - it's out at the park where we ride ponies; we hope to get in a ride before the picnic.

just sent away drawings for show #3. i think they're done so now all that show needs is color elevations and i can put it to bed for a little bit. got to work on show #1 - order color and stuff 'cause it's creepin up fast. show #2 is lookin like it's gonna be pretty small, not because it's easier (in some ways it's not) but because it's right for the script... things are shaping up in my favor and, since i'm not entirely used to that, it's kinda wiggy.

i'm thinking about starting to title my blog entries... what say you?

well, as it turns out, the $$ i make from shows #1 and #3 will not be spent on a shiny new pda like i had hoped. it will be spent on part of a new fuel pump and coolant sensor for my car. i say "part" because the $450 total dollars in fees from those shows will cover about 2/3 of the cost of the new pump and sensor.

today i hate my car. i had a '91 escort before this.. it was old, but did everything i asked it to. the whole purpose of selling that and getting a newer car was so i could budget for payments instead of surprise $400 radiators and shocks. that has not proved to be the case, and i could not be more pissed about it.

cars suck.

we all see these kids. some of you are these kids.

hipster bingo

yesterday i cleaned like a mofo.

i find it hard to be productive and creative in a messy house. now, don't think for a minute that i'm some kind of neat-freakhousemustbecleanatalltimesiwearwhitegloveswhenicheckfordust wierdo, but i can only tolerate a certain level of mess for so long. since i've been so busy over this past summer, i haven't had a chance to clean on a regular basis. the bathroom was gettin' pretty nasty - you can only spot clean a bathroom for so long before you just straight up lose that battle. yesterday i threw a lot of stuff away- some of it was stuff that's been sitting around for years. it felt good. when my house is messy, i feel like my life is spinning out of control. when i get that feeling, it's not sexual healing i need, it's a clean bathroom.

now that it's lookin decent around here, i have some work to get done.. sketches and groundplans. last night i worked on show #1 in bed- can't continue on that one as much until i get a groundplan. also, since NAT starts up soon, i will be picking up show #2 here very shortly. it's a little unnerving when i look at my calendar for septemeber; i'm not entirely sure how i will service shows #1 and #2 with such overlapping schedules in different cities. i'm sure it can be done though, and i will find the way.

it helps that i'm doing lights for #1, that the space is small, and the script is short. there is no intermission and it's about 43 pages long total. i went through that script again last night, making little q notes. there are some opportunities in there for some really cool sutff - saturated colors and maybe some pattern work too.. very exciting. then there's show #3, another show in the big city. for this i am doing the scenery, but all i have to do is drawings and some elevations, then show up for load in. i am not as concerned about this one as #1/#2 because it's production schedule does not appear to overlap with anything at NAT. this is the show i need to work on today and tomorrow; i've got to get revised sketches to the director and a revised groundplan so we can discuss, revise again and then i can create drawings to send to the TD, who will build and paint it.

i think though, that i will brunch before i sketch.. you should never sketch hungry...or, wait, is that grocery shop?... i can never remember.

see, the problem i'm having is - is my schedule typically busy enough to require the use of a pda?  i've been fine without one for this long, and i'm not sure what kind of freelance work i will pick up during the season - am i making enough contacts to warrant spending $$ on something like this? my friend beth has one, a shiny new dell one with all sorts of bells and whistles.. some stuff i'm not sure i'd ever use.  i found a deal on some palm pda's for like  $50, last year's model, and wonder "if i'm gonna buy one, should i just go all out and get one that's got extra stuff so i 'm not just buying a new one next year?"

you see my dilemma?  i want to know, who's got one, do they like it, what kind is it, any advice?