ch ch ch ch changes

last night i wore a turtleneck outside, because it was chilly enough.
last night was our official opening of the 33rd season of nat.
this morning it's chilly enough to wear my sleeper footie pajamas.
today, my ghetto neighbors are moving out.

yay for changes.

i mean, really.

if you've just watched the first presidential debate, how could you even consider voting for w?

i mean, really.

technology teaser

well, i can blog from work, and surf the internet aplenty, but i cannot use aim or internet radio - these are two things i was really looking forward to. i am on the server at work now, though, so i have official email and get memos and use my outlook calendar and everything!

additionally, jessie got us tix to go see rufus wainwright on oct. 13 at the vic for my birthday. it's just him, no band, and i couldn't be more excited!! i hope i can afford a t-shirt this time!

office environments

guess who's online at work now??

the home stretch

show #1 is open - i await my paycheck with which i think i may purchase a wide angle lens for my camera so i can take full-stage shots at work.

show #2 is tantalizingly close to finished. we cut a bunch of scenery over tech weekend. we felt it was starting to diminish the effect we were going for so we scrapped it, making us even closer to being finished than i had initially anticipated. woo!

i still have hives, though they appear to be subsiding. i've decided recently that they are most likely a product of stress more than new deodorant, although that probably didn't help. nonetheless, i threw out the almost new stick of secret... i was a little sad. i fucking hate hives - the are an instrument of the deveeeeel.

this coming week i am going on vacation - in my house. i don't want to talk to anyone, help anyone, decide anything, go anywhere, be depended upon for anything. i need to take back my life, and spend some quality time coralling all my ducks back into a row. they have gone astray, those poor, poor ducks. i need to pay bills, clean my house, do laundry, play with my cat, clean my car, and watch copius amounts of rental dvd's.

speaking of rental dvd's, i recently rented starsky and hutch and girl with a pearl earring. i enjoyed them both. i think owen wilson and ben stiller together are just generally funny. s&h was a silly movie, that i didn't have to think about, that made me laugh. i don't think i'll own it, but it was $4 i didn't mind having spent. i especially enjoyed girl...earring. i found it very intriguing and was sad i didn't get a chance to watch it again before i had to take it back.. i may own that one someday. there is a great 'anatomy of a scene' special feature that encompasses not only actor stuff but has a great piece on the production design aspects, and that's always a thumbs up in my book. i feel i may rent it again down the line to see if i can pinpoint what makes it so interesting.

and.... scene.

and all your titles are belong to me

i'm trying titles.

i have hives in my entire underarm area. i've decided they are a result of a mixture of new chemicals + stress... every time i encounter the tiniest bit of stress, they itch more.

what a perfect time to be going into tech for show #2.

also, i applied for health insurance today, and this makes me an adult.

so there.

Armpits of Fire


i think i'm allergic to secret deodorant. when i woke up this morning, both my armpits appeared to have a little rash goin on. by the time i got home tonight, they are both rashy, bumpy, swollen, flaming red, and burn like hellfire. i've put cortisone10 on them, so hopefully that'll do it. what's weird is i've been using the deodorant for about a week or so now, and this came on literally overnight.

i thought for a minute that it could be stress related, since i'm practically oozing stress right now, but it seems like an odd place to manifest, no?

show #1 is essentially done. any more notes from here on out can hopefully be accomplished via email.. this week alone i drove into chicago 5 times. i'm so tired of the kennedy. it's an interesting show, and i will post reviews as i find them... it opens on tuesday night and marks my professional chicago debut. it's a new company and the space is interesting.

now i can move on to show #2 altogether.. it's coming along.

i'm taking my inflamed armpits to bed.

and this! do this now too!

George Says...

go do this now!

John Says...

those of you who know me pretty well might find this article interesting... amusing, and interesting.

IOL: Science & Tech

i used to write poetry, way in the way back years of college. this is the professor i had. how cool is that?

Barb Hurd wins a prize

you know how sometimes conan o'brien has "george w bush" on as a guest - on the tv screen with someone else's mouth? tonight he had "zell miller" on, who challenged conan to a duel. when conan refused, miller said he was left with no choice but to challenge him to ... a duel of hungry, hungry hippos.

i haven't laughed that hard in a while. except maybe when i see the dq commercial for the new 'moolatte' where there's a woman 'taste tester' who runs, blindfolded, into a window wall. that one gets me every time.

today i was a responsible citizen. i was a pro-active american.

today i registered to vote.

of course, i plan to vote "the right way" as my mom says.

got vote?

you know what's on my radio?

"doin da butt"

who got a big ol butt?
sexy sexy!

today was semi-productive.

at work, i moved my office space around to accomodate my new drafting table. you see, i used to share the office in the scene shop with the td and lighting designer. since we've restructured and renovated upstairs, a good deal of space opened up on the third floor. now that i have my own table, and can draft on the computer and send it downstairs on the network, i am more portable than i once was. after four versions of spatial relations, i finally settled on the arrangement i have now, and i think i'm going to be very happy.

i also managed to finalize (i think) the design for show #2. i feel good about where we've gone with it, and it's definitely different than anything i've done. i'm excited about it.

i even wrote rough cues for show #1, which goes into tech this weekend. i still have a final pipe of lights to hang, and i have some left to cable - i also have make sure what's in the air agrees with my plot, otherwise i'm going to have some issues. i left my notes on saturday, that had some changes i'd made on the fly. i think i remembered them correctly; if not, i will cry since the show i wrote tonight is based on those revisions.

as a matter of interest, what could be better than neopolitan ice cream sandwiches? and sex doesn't count since that's already a given.

away! to slumber!

yesterday i bought a drafting table. it is sweet, and more table than i ever thought i could afford - i may be inclined to post pictures later. it cost me $80. it should've been illegal.

today the service engine light came on in my car, and i got a letter from the bank that says i never made august's car payment, which i am typically religious about.

what is that????

i think i don't like doing "storefront" theater.

today was "hang and focus" day for show #1. there were sposed to be "crew" to "help" "us" hang the plot (that's being used by his show also). instead, it was me. the guy that said "we" would have "people" spent the day fixing other stuff, running power to the booth so the board could be plugged in. i spent the day up and down on a wooden a-frame that was c-clamped to a table (with no wheels). the two other guys that showed up were building the set for the show that shares the light plot. they helped me move the table around when i had to go where i couldn't drag it myself. guy #1 left for a while, came back before he had to go to work, and waited while i plugged in all the dimmers at the racks. then we fired up all the instruments i'd managed to hang, circuit, and color myself from 10 to 5. i got through 3/4 of the plot. there is still a batten over the house that needs done, but i have to do it from an extension ladder that has no rubber on it's feet so someone needs to sit on it while i'm on top. one of the pipes that i hung yesterday can't be fired up until saturday because i ran out of adapters for the asinine combination of edison and twist lock plugs. also, all the battens are unistrut, which is a tool of the devil.

the bottom line is that i drove into chicago today hoping to be done with hang and focus by the time i left. i am not. i have to go back saturday, hopefully with help, and hang the last pipe and re-circuit the one i couldn't finish. i have to beg twofers and gel frames from eric, and hope that etc offline works the way i think it does, so i can do all the board work here instead of sitting at the board there.

fin.

yeah, i forgot that i do have tiny other news.

i have been presented with an opportunity to go up to some college in wisconsin and speak to a class, as a professional scene designer, about the design process which resulted in our first show this season, the guys. apparently, these kids are going to come see the show and the teacher had hoped one of us could go talk to the kids afterwards, at their school, about how the design process unfolds and develops into a realized production.

now, i don't know whether these are college kids in an arts class like my sister teaches, or if they're design/theater students. i don't even know if it's something i want to do. the thing is (and there's always a "thing"), i hope to go academic sometime in my career and if i hope to do well i have to get over my "i hate public speaking" thing. so i've decided that even if i don't want to, i should take this opportunity.

that's my other tiny news.

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.