Tag asmc (25)
Austin Summer Musical for Children time!
Mood: tired
Posted on 2012-07-18 22:34:00
Tags: asmc
Words: 124
1. Come see me in the Austin Summer Musical for Children! This year we're doing Alice in Wonderland, we have free shows starting Aug 4, and for adults we have a Gala with a silent auction (and cash bar!) Aug 10. See the website for details.
2. I was tired last week, and caught up on sleep last weekend, but then I had a bad nightmare Monday night (one of those "someone is breaking into the house with a knife" affairs), so I'm exhausted again. And I have musical rehearsals/performances 17 of the next 18 days (hooray for Sunday!), so if I look grumpy/asleep, that is why. I swear I will try not to bring this up constantly, as I am wont to do.
prop 8. musical done! joining a choir?
Mood: happy
Posted on 2010-08-09 14:14:00
Tags: asmc gay politics
Words: 556
Last week California's Prop 8 was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. Hooray! I read the entire ruling (warning: 138 page pdf) and it's pretty convincing - the judge ruled that laws that discriminate against gays are subject to strict scrutiny, while Prop 8 doesn't even meet the rational basis test.
I followed along with the trial and it seemed pretty clear that our side would win - David Boies and Ted Olson (i.e. the head lawyers for Bush and Gore in Bush v. Gore) are fantastic lawyers, and the other side called very few witnesses which were easily discredited. I'm not sure what the rules are on appeal if the other side can "substitute in" other lawyers, but if the case goes all the way to the Supreme Court (as many expect) I think we have a decent shot at winning!
Ted Olson was on Fox News this weekend and it was very much a Nixon going to China moment - he explained very succinctly the case for gay marriage. I know he's been a conservative stalwart but he earned a lifetime pass from me with his work on the case.
--
The musical is done! The shows went well despite the A/C mostly being gone the second weekend. I've never sweat so much in my life. My favorite moment was getting hit in the face with a book while we were supposed to be frozen. A few seconds later my glasses fell off my face and hit the floor, but I stayed (mostly) frozen until we "woke up" :-)
Performing in the musical reminded me that I like to sing and I kinda miss it - even singing the kid-focused songs was kinda fun. So I'm thinking about joining a choir. My ideal choir would be something singing good classical music meeting at most once a week in which I know people. Here are the possibilities I've found: (in decreasing order of probability I'll join)
- Austin Civic Chorus - I was in the Austin Civic Chorus when I first moved to Austin. I liked the kind of music they sing, but I don't really know anyone in it, and I vaguely remember not liking the director, although that was a while ago and maybe I'm misremembering. Also, auditions are very soon and I may have missed my chance already. The Civic Chorus itself requires $180 dues (!) and their concerts aren't free, which makes me a little unhappy.
- Capital City Men's Chorus - I know at least a few people in it from the summer musical, and it looks like a fun group. The music seems to vary wildly in genre.
- Austin Singers - never heard of these folks before, but they do music I like. Rehearsals are Mondays 7-9:30 - kinda long and downtown.
- Conspirare - good group but looks a little serious/"too good" for what I'm interested in. They have a professional choir as well as a volunteer one, so maybe the volunteer one would be OK? To audition you have to submit a resume and they'll let you know, which honestly sounds kind of intimidating.
- River City Pops - I know some people in it from the summer musical, but the music they sing is, well, pop, and there's dancing involved which isn't really my cup of tea.
--
Anyway...I dunno. Anyone in one of these? Or interested in joining one of them with me? :-)
catching up
Mood: cheerful
Posted on 2010-08-02 14:18:00
Tags: pictures asmc projects
Words: 93
The summer musical went well this weekend, although I was losing my voice by the end on account of doing the pirate accent. Happily, today begins 3 days of no rehearsals/performances, which hasn't happened since we started rehearsals just under a month ago. So, I've been catching up on a few things:
- Pictures from Jonathan and Sarah's wedding are finally up:
- My PasswordHash thing now has a Google Chrome version. Unfortunately right now there's no support for adding things to the right-click context menu, so it just copies the password to the clipboard.
FlightPredictor wins! and a new life rule
Mood: happy
Posted on 2010-07-28 10:09:00
Tags: health asmc palmpre projects
Words: 83
Palm just posted the official results of the Hot Apps competition, and FlightPredictor made the list! Really looking forward to improving it and making some new apps once I have some free time...
Speaking of which, a new life rule: no sushi close to shows. Of course, the one time I get sick from it is during a rehearsal. (nothing overly dramatic, but I did feel pretty crappy and sat down a lot) Hopefully tonight is better - only 2 days until we open!
happier when busy, sorta
Mood: cheerful
Posted on 2010-07-26 10:22:00
Tags: asmc links
Words: 43
We're happier when busy but our instinct is for idleness - interesting study and it kinda jibes with what I've noticed about myself.
Seemed appropriate since yesterday was the beginning of Hell Week for the summer musical. So I guess I should be ecstatic :-)
so it begins
Mood: grumpy
Posted on 2010-07-07 10:44:00
Tags: asmc palmpre links
Words: 246
Tonight is the first real summer musical rehearsal. I know it'll be fun (as it always is), but rushing home most nights to have dinner and then rush off to rehearsal gets a bit tiring. And the rehearsal schedule is brutal - WFSa this week, MWFSa the next, and then eleven days in a row until we open.
My Palm Pre's screen wouldn't turn on on Saturday, and the Sprint store told me it was out of warranty and would cost at least $100 to fix. Later that day, it started working again, but it conked out last night and hasn't come back. So I guess I have to argue with them about why it's out of warranty (I think their stance was that this phone is already a replacement, but the warranty should carry over, right? I'm still within a year since I got the phone...)
And I cut my finger last night just enough to be annoying. And my legs/feet/ankles are sore from ice skating, which means rehearsal tonight might be kinda painful.
Anyway, enough whining: check out this story about the Russian spies. Apparently one of them made contact with someone who she thought was from the Russian consulate, although none of her actual contacts vouched for this guy, who was in fact an undercover FBI agent. She was having trouble with her laptop that she used to contact the Russians, and then handed over her laptop to the FBI agent to fix it.
final musical notes
Mood: accomplished
Posted on 2008-08-11 09:17:00
Tags: asmc
Words: 255
notes...get it? (BOOs from offstage) ...Hmm, didn't like that one, huh?
I woke up a bit cranky and tired for our last two shows yesterday, and despite having a nice relaxing time in the guy's dressing room was kinda meh even up until the overture. (it didn't help that the audience, not even applauding at the end of the overture, sounded pretty dead) Once we got going, though, I felt really comfortable and the show went really well, probably our best one of the run. (the audience did laugh some, but they made us work for it!) The next show also went really well, and our wonderful crew was striking the set even as the show was going on. It was pretty weird having fewer and fewer props backstage every time I left the stage :-) We finished striking the set and a nice cast party followed at Spaghetti Warehouse.
Thanks to all y'all who could make it - it really makes it more exciting to have people you know in the audience.
All in all, I had a good time - the best part is at the end, when the lines and blocking and music and choreography is pretty rock-solid and I can really try to channel my character. I had a rougher time at rehearsals this year than usual, possibly due to the compressed schedule. Also, my feet still hurt and there may be something wrong with my left big toe (hurts to walk without shoes).
Next up - vacation with my family in Maine from Wednesday-Saturday!
random stuff friday!
Mood: determined
Posted on 2008-08-08 10:01:00
Tags: asmc politics links
Words: 164
Back to the summer musical grind tonight. It should be fun though - only one show and then the silent auction and a cash bar! Wooo!
random stuff:
- What I Learned Buying a Rug in Turkey - a narrative of good salesmanship. By the end I want a rug, too!
- The Tire-Gauge Dust-Up - contains this gem from Obama: "It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."
- Women would rather carpool with Obama: because that matters for the leader of the free world. I'm glad Obama's winning that question (and the coveted "Who would you rather vacation with?"), but come on people!
- Nasty Democratic primary ends - I think "Jew-baiting" is a little strong for the ad that was aired, but it was nasty, and she lost.
Ever had that experience where, months or years after the fact, you discover there were crazy things going on you never expected behind the scenes that would have totally changed how you acted or felt? That always weirds me out.
first weekend is over
Mood: tired
Posted on 2008-08-06 15:22:00
Tags: movies asmc worldofwarcraft
Words: 250
As djedi mentioned, we survived the first weekend of shows. Friends and Family night went OK although I screwed up a part and was generally jittery - maybe because it had been two years or something? Anyway, I settled down into a pretty good rhythm about midway through Saturday and no major catastrophes. (one time I said "three minutes" twice instead of "two minutes", but in the grand scheme of things, not so bad)
Saturday was of course long - three shows and we had to do pictures between the first and second shows. You can see the ASMC pictures here (warning: spoilers!) They turned out well.
It was nice to get Saturday evening off and some sleep before the two Sunday shows, although I forgot that while two shows is a lot easier than three shows, it's still a lot harder than (say) no shows.
Days off are good, although what with NIWeek this week work has been tiring too. And tomorrow we have a short rehearsal and then back to shows again! Easier because I'll be better rested, harder because we're up until midnight Friday night with gala stuff.
Saw Batman in IMAX. It was awesome. The part where he jumps off the building looked even more incredible. Would see again.
Got my WoW account restored (at least all the important stuff). Pretty sure it's crashing because of memory, and if I run in windowed mode it doesn't seem to. At some point I need to actually fix the problem.
(no subject)
Mood: okay
Posted on 2008-07-23 10:14:00
Tags: asmc work worldofwarcraft
Words: 195
Rehearsals are going pretty well, albeit a bit tiring. We're about to get into "oh crap the shows is really really soon and we all suck" mode (it's an annual occurrence), but once we buckle down I think all will be well.
After rehearsal last night, I arrived home to find a few "dude, did you steal all the stuff in the guild bank?" IMs. Not a good sign. Tried to log in to WoW and couldn't, so I reset the password online and discovered that I had, indeed, done so. The weird thing is that the thief took basically all 5000 of my gold, but didn't sell any of my soulbound gear, and cleared out most of my bank but not all of it. And didn't find the 8 Primal Mights and 450 gold on my auction house mule.
Anyway, I filed a petition to get my crap back, which I think they usually do, and presumably they'll restore the guild bank as well. Yet another way WoW is better than the real world :-)
This week I've been superproductive at work...let's see if that continues today.
This article about purity balls is kinda creepy.
Musical friends & family show?
Mood: blah
Posted on 2008-07-18 14:13:00
Tags: asmc
Words: 33
Before I forget, does anyone want to come to the ASMC friends & family show? It's Friday, August 1 at 7 PM. I have a few spare tickets but in general they're going fast!
not a complaint
Mood: worried
Music: Peter Gabriel - "Down to Earth" (from Wall-E soundtrack)
Posted on 2008-07-16 10:38:00
Tags: movies music asmc
Words: 1015
but we have to be off-script and music by Friday. Like, two days from now. That is extremely frightening/implausible.
I bought the Wall-E soundtrack
(you probably shouldn't read this if you haven't seen the movie. and you should probably see the movie.)
Put On Your Sunday Clothes - this is the music that plays over the opening credits when they show what's left of Earth. It even has the nice fade-out effect over the last line "and we won't come home until we've kissed a girl!" which gives it an emptyish feeling. Catchy! 4 stars.
2815 A.D. - the main theme as I think of it - pretty harp music with slightly unsettling background music. Nice xylophone part later. Very...harpy and spacey. 4 stars.
Wall-E - a playful theme - I think this is him doing stuff outside, oh and probably the cockroach bit too. 3 stars.
The Spaceship - Something's happening! A bit of a dancing theme (with the red landing dot, I assume), and then off to the races. This is when Eve's spaceship lands. 3 stars.
EVE - the theme when Eve emerges and flies around gracefully. Harpy again and very pretty and flowing. Definitely 5 stars.
Thrust - not sure what's happening here - maybe the ship is taking off? Back to unsettling/cautious feeling. 3 stars.
Bubble Wrap - I'm guessing this is when Wall-E is showing Eve his home, with the Rubik's cube and bubble wrap and whatnot. Mostly calm, although building a bit. 3 stars.
La Vie En Rose - After Eve shuts down, this is the montage of Wall-E trying to wake her up/take care of her (I think). Or maybe it's Eve and Wall-E adventuring around together. Good Louie Armstrong number. 4 stars.
Eye Surgery - Hmm, maybe these songs aren't exactly in order? Because this is presumably when Eve breaks Wall-E's eye and he has to find a replacement. Harpy and a bit playful. 3 stars.
Worry Wait - oh, or this is when Eve shuts down. Sounds very worried/panicked at first. 3 stars.
First Date - aww. Maybe this is Wall-E taking care of Eve? Upbeat, kinda cheesy and muzaky. Ends with the sound of Pong being played. 4 stars.
Eve Retrieve - back to the main harpy spacey theme. I presume the ship is landing to pick Eve up now. Now it's more action-y as Wall-E tries to get to the ship before it takes off. Danger! But then triumph! 3 stars.
The Axiom - Starts out peaceful and pretty. They're flying through space! Then they approach the Axiom and a nice trumpet theme which is big and regal at the same time kinda implying something is wrong (with some neat discordance). 4 stars.
BNL - Cute little BNL jingle. I like jingles! 4 stars.
Foreign Contaminant - Mouse droid is chasing after Wall-E and stuff. Very active theme - sounds like movement and robots and stuff. 3 stars.
Repair Ward - Eve gets fixed. Kind of an "undercover" feel here. A little boring. Weird drill noises at the end. 3 stars.
72 Degrees and Sunny - Kinda the general Axiom theme, when you see all the BNL signs and everything. Strangely upbeat. 3 stars.
Septuacentennial - yay, 700 years! Short and frantic. 3 stars.
Gopher - not sure what this is, but sounds like robots are moving. 3 stars.
Wall-E's Pod Adventure - dramatic! This is when he's headed back to Earth but manages to escape. Nice cello/viola/something line. 3 stars.
Define Dancing - Wall-E and Eve's dance through space. Very pretty, flowing, harpy. 4 stars.
No Splashing No Diving - I suppose this is when the two people actually get in the pool. Calm, followed by a funky robot beat. 3 stars.
All That Love's About - pretty little love theme. Maybe when Eve is watching what Wall-E did for her after she found the plant? 3 stars.
M-O - that "undercover" theme again. I'm guessing something to do with the mouse droid. 3 stars.
Directive A-113 - captain sees plant is missing, I think? A bit of slow spacey theme at first that turns more sinister and then Axiom-ish. 3 stars.
Mutiny! - um, the mutiny part. Fast moving and robot-y at first, then more action. 3 stars.
Fixing Wall-E - the bit in the trash center on the Axiom where they almost get vented into space. Slow, sad, and xylophony! Turns more upbeat near the end. Pretty. 4 stars.
Rogue Robots - sounds like chase music. Presumably chasing them through the ship :-) 3 stars.
March of the Gels - Axiom-ish theme. I think this is when the broken robots defeat the sentry bots. 3 stars.
Tilt - Presumably when Otto steers the ship and everyone on the Lido Deck (that's a great name for a deck, btw) falls down. Sounds dangerous and dramatic! More of the neat axiom theme with some choir stuff at the end. 3 stars.
The Holo-Detector - When the plant goes in the plant detector? Triumphant at first, then more Axiom-y, then...xylophony, maybe? Something like that. 3 stars.
Hyperjump - Jumping back to Earth! Excited-sounding and dangerous, then triumphant again (with a bit of dissonance). 3 stars.
Desperate Eve - Eve zooms off to try to fix Wall-E. Robot-y, concerned. 4 stars.
Static - Aww, Wall-E doesn't remember Eve! Sad sad xylophone and violins. 3 stars.
It Only Takes a Moment - The love song from Hello Dolly - ends with "to be loved our whole life long". Awwww. 4 stars.
Down to Earth - plays over the end credits. I really like songs over the end credits of good movies, presumably because I'm in a good mood because the movie was good. Anyway, I love this song and it's been stuck in my head for a few days and will probably stay there for a while. 5 stars!
Horizon 12.2 - pretty music that maybe also played over the end credits? Sounds spacey and harpy. 4 stars.
Anyway, wow that was a lot of typing for minimal benefit. Next time I do this it will be on an album with fewer than 38 tracks!
not the ideal situation for starting 3 solid weeks of rehearsals
Mood: tired
Music: Nas - "Black President"
Posted on 2008-07-09 13:33:00
Tags: asmc worldofwarcraft programming politics links sleep
Words: 260
I've been unable to get to sleep the last two nights. Last night was particularly bad so eventually I got up and programmed some and played a little WoW. (won a close AB battleground on my 46 pally) Even then after returning to bed it took me a while to sleep. I had no sodas yesterday, which is the most common cause of insomnia for me. Hopefully it just kinda disappears. The alternative is that I get so tired that falling asleep is no problem, but I'd kinda like to avoid that :-)
White House, 2005: Setting the Record Straight: Democrats On An Artificial Timetable In Iraq
The President Explains Why Timetables For Withdrawal Are Bad Strategy. PRES. BUSH: "Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a message across the world that America is a weak and an unreliable ally. Setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would send a signal to our enemies - that if they wait long enough, America will cut and run and abandon its friends. And setting an artificial deadline to withdraw would vindicate the terrorists' tactics of beheadings and suicide bombings and mass murder - and invite new attacks on America." (President Bush, Remarks On The War On Terror, Annapolis, MD, 11/30/05)
Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday that his government would not sign an agreement governing the future role of U.S. troops in Iraq unless it includes a timetable for their withdrawal.
scenes that made me look twice
Mood: mischievous
Posted on 2008-05-06 12:48:00
Tags: music asmc
Words: 70
1) The guy who had his laptop open and was doing work on it while walking down the stairs during our fire drill.
2) The elderly woman playing some sort of puzzle game on a pink Nintendo DS at lunch.
I was thinking about doing "Mix Tape" from Avenue Q for my ASMC audition Saturday, but now I'm pretty convinced "My Girlfriend, Who Lives In Canada" is the right choice.
shows done! palm to google calendar done!
Mood: cheerful
Posted on 2006-08-01 09:27:00
Tags: asmc palmtogooglecalendar
Words: 257
I am happy to announce that my Palm datebook to Google Calendar app is complete! I was having trouble with the Google authentication (and so were other people using that API), but it all seems to work now, so give it a shot if you're interested. Whee!
The ASMC shows went well this weekend. Saturday was grueling, as usual - it's the only day we have three shows. But a lot of friends came to see it (onefishclappin, krikwennavd, Teresa & Lucas), as well as my family who had driven up from Houston the previous day. I snuck out for lunch with them, which was nice :-) Crowds in general were a little down, but they're still reasonably-sized which is nice. And maybe that means people aren't having to wait in line for a long time to get tickets, which was the case at least some of last year.
If you haven't seen the show, we have a nice gala this Friday night - after the show everyone comes out and mingles and there's a silent auction and a cash bar. I'd highly recommend it!
We hosted game night last night and I played my first live game of Go with Todd - got beaten both times, but I've played so few times that every game is helpful. It's very hard to tell what's going on, though!
Also started a new Civ 4 game yesterday on Noble. Haven't played too many turns and I'm already a little behind, but hopefully I can turn it around. Viva Japan!
Back to the work grind...
Opened!
Mood: tired, but ready to go!
Posted on 2006-07-29 07:27:00
Tags: asmc
Words: 89
First show went well last night. I was full of energy, as was everyone (or so it seemed). No major screwups, although my glasses did almost fly off my head during one of the songs because my face was so sweaty. Decent size crowd, 50 people or so (a "private" friends and family performance). Ron also did my hair up all crazy like which took three successive shampooings to get out :-)
Anyway, today's the killer day - three shows at 10, 1, and 4. See you on the other side!
the future's looking good to me
Mood: ready
Posted on 2006-07-28 13:49:00
Tags: asmc links
Words: 129
So we only did one runthrough last night, and we got yelled at (well, not actually yelling) because it sucked. I screwed up at least three different times, lines were dropped, etc., etc. Which should mean that opening night (tonight!) should be fantastic!
I found this pointer to an amazing presentation about Sustainable South Bronx. Maybe I'll send them some money. Wow.
Army Dismisses Gay Arabic Linguist 'Outed' By Anonymous Email Campaign. Note that Sergeant Copas didn't "tell", yet he was certainly "asked". I don't understand why "don't ask, don't tell" applies to non-field personnel, anyway...
The congresswoman involved in the security dustup in April is losing in the Democratic primary. The system works!
A story from a former airport security person. Another example of "teaching to the test".
whatevs
Mood: grateful for the little things
Posted on 2006-07-27 14:57:00
Tags: asmc poll links
Words: 205
Rehearsal went well last night, except we didn't get a chance to do a runthrough because we had to re-setup the sets (someone used the theater Tuesday night) and lots of other stuff. So we're doing two runthroughs tonight, which we need, but is going to totally exhaust me. On the plus side, I'm not too exhausted since we didn't runthrough last night :-)
There's a part of the show where me and some other guys lift Vixen (a doll) up in the air. Last night it didn't go well, and we sorta half-dropped her, although she ended standing up. I hold her legs and feet, though, so I got kicked in the jaw. Totally not her fault, of course, but it's still bothering me a bit today :-/
Lance Bass (member of NSync) is gay! Neat!
Nerd Attention Deficit Disorder - I have this, most certainly.
Clips from the new Simpsons movie look good so far. Maybe it really will come out next year :-)
Tour de France winner Floyd Landis tests positive for testosterone, although the results aren't final yet. Hope it isn't true, but if so...ouch.
TIOBE ranking of most popular computer languages - wow, didn't realize Java was #1. Ruby's only #17. Also, go LabVIEW! (#34)
over!
Mood: content
Music: 50 Cent vs. Michael Jackson - "In Da Starlight"
Posted on 2005-08-08 11:36:00
Tags: asmc charlottesweb work
Words: 455
Wow...so, crazy weekend.
Friday night was gala night, which was very well attended. The show went pretty well, then I went out and hung out with my family - it was nice to see them again, although I'm going to see them next week on vacation as well :-) Then I was cashier for silent auction people, and then my family and djedi and I headed over to Kerbey Lane Cafe which was good (although the service was quite slow). After that, bed, then we met my family for brunch the next morning at Whole Foods and went back to the theater for two more shows. By this point I was really getting tired - my part is pretty high-energy (stumbling all over stage and whatnot), so it takes a lot out of me. Anyway, after that we went to church and came home and had wildrice13 over for dinner.
Unfortunately, I had some work stuff I was pretty worried about so I went in to work to try to fix stuff while djedi and wildrice13 played some FFX-2. I ended up spending longer than I meant to at work (3.5 hours) but I eventually got in a groove (involving listening to my current music over and over again) and fixed both of my major issues, which I was quite pumped about! Came home, and FFX-2 was passed (including the special 100% cutscene) not too long afterwards. Congrats!
Sunday I slept in a little bit, which was really nice, then back to theater for two more shows, striking the set, and the cast party. We didn't stay too long because we were tired, then we headed up to destroyerj's for a monitor-viewing and games, including a rousing game of Simpsons Clue (Smithers did it!), Snipe Hunt, and a few rounds of Bop It!
So, today is my day between shows, and Charlotte's Web rehearsal starts tomorrow. I need to work more on memorizing my lines. Busy week between gamenight, two rehearsals, and djedi's birthday (happy birthday!). I think I'm done with djedi's code for now - it seems to work and the major source of confusion we had was cleared up...
So I wear a nightguard now when I sleep so I won't grind my teeth (which I apparently do like nobody's business...). The last time I had a nightguard it was for orthodontics work I had, and it hurt every morning when I woke up (presumably because my teeth were trying to shift back or whatever), so I was pleasantly surprised to find that this one doesn't hurt much at all, and it only makes it a little harder to get to sleep (which hasn't been much of an issue so far given how exhausted I've been!). Yay!
lots of balls in the air...
Mood: busy
Music: nothin'
Posted on 2005-08-04 13:57:00
Tags: asmc
Words: 264
I'm juggling a lot of things right now. So, to make myself feel better, I'm going to list them, and then they won't seem so bad. Here goes!
- Work is rapidly becoming busy. I have a big deadline on Monday that I need to hit, so I'll probably have to come in this weekend. Which will be difficult because...
- This weekend is the last ASMC weekend. Gala is Friday night, and my family's coming into town, which will be a lot of fun. But it means I have to leave work a little early on Friday, and stay up late Friday night (gala doesn't end until around midnight), plus two shows Saturday and Sunday, and the cast party on Sunday.
- NIWeek is rapidly approaching, which doesn't necessarily make me more busy (I'm not doing a presentation or anything), but lots of people around me are busy, which means I might need to help them, and it's harder to get help for myself. (cue "I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends" music...)
- I have a list of tasks that I've been putting off because of the musical that I really need to do, like get my car oil changed (next week! for real!)
- djedi's birthday is coming up! That's fun.
- Wrote some more code for djedi, and will be working on blamantin's stuff again soon, I think.
- Charlotte's Web rehearsals start on Tuesday. So, I'll have rehearsals, and I need to learn my lines.
- I'm playing Space Trader, an addictive game on my Palm.
Well, that doesn't seem so bad. See, there!
tired, and ugh
Mood: worried
Posted on 2005-08-01 15:36:00
Tags: asmc charlottesweb
Words: 280
So this weekend was ASMC weekend #1. The show Friday night didn't go very well, but the rest of them (3 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday) went from fine to good. All the shows (except for the friends and family Friday show) sold out, which is quite a difference from last year (perhaps because "Peter Pan" is a better draw than "Fractured Fairies and Tails", which is a little less clear exactly what it is). I had fun, but it really drained my energy so I was both physically and mentally tired by Sunday evening. The kids seemed to enjoy it, though, so that's good.
So I've been stressed this weekend and today about totally different things. Today I'm stressed about work, which I think is a sign that I need to be less invested in my work. Which I'm not good at doing. So, um, we'll see how that goes.
The other thing I've been stressed about (I think this is the big thing) is Charlotte's Web - I started trying to learn my lines during performances and downtime this weekend, because lately I've been almost entirely unable to not do something I consider "productive" during free time. But that's another story. Anyway, I'm really worried about learning all my lines (there are gobs and gobs of them). And I'm having second thoughts about the whole thing (not in the sense of backing out - I've already signed a contract and all that, but whether I would say yes again if I had the chance). It's not like I've ever done any sort of "real" theater before...the acting and stuff was all incidental to the singing.
So, I'm a little down.
some thoughts
Mood: determined
Music: Francis Dunnery - "Good Life" (from the Scrubs soundtrack)
Posted on 2005-07-26 13:52:00
Tags: asmc referrer
Words: 392
So djedi and I visited his brother and sister and Houston this past weekend. We watched a few movies - "The Importance of Being Earnest" (rented) and "Bewitched" (in the non-Alamo Drafthouse theater). "Earnest" was pretty good - I have the vague recollection of either seeing a movoie version, or reading the play, or something before, but not enough that I knew what was going to happen. It was entertaining! "Bewitched" was...OK. I guess I didn't realize it was a romantic comedy, which it very much is. And it was a bit sappy at times. Will Ferrell was good (as expected), and Nicole Kidman wasn't bad. Plus Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell had small parts, so that was kinda neat, too :-)
It was interesting - they had placards in front saying that taping movies was illegal and they would kick you out (or arrest you? can't remember...), which I think are relatively new, or maybe I haven't been to an Edwards theater in a while. Then, during the movie, an usher walked in (with a lightsaberish thing so he could see a little) and walked across the theater and then back to the entrance. This happened twice, so I'm wondering if he was doing it to (somewhat) surreptitiously check for people filming it. *shrug*
Aside from that, we grilled hamburgers (which turned out well, although a little less done than we would have liked), played some video games and board games, and went out to supper. Rehearsal started at 1 on Sunday, so we had to leave early to make it back in time (which we did!), which was a shame.
ASMC Tech week is going pretty well, although I'm tired after every rehearsal (our choreographer says that if we're not sweating by the end, we're not working hard enough. I'm working hard enough!) It's fun to see the show come together, though, and it definitely is coming together.
Random referrer: Searching for built-in bookcase on Ask Jeeves brings up a picture of my apartment (with, in fact, a built-in bookcase). Nifty.
Work is going well...have another project that hopefully I can wrap up by the end of next week. That would be sweet! There are some interesting NI blogs written by employees, which would be kinda neat to do at some point. Maybe. I never know how much I can talk about "publicly"...
Ugh
Posted on 2005-06-27 12:57:00
Tags: asmc python challenge allergies
Words: 393
Ever since we got back from the Disney World trip, my allergies have been kinda bad. It started out as the usual stuff (for me) - nose stuffed up, which causes my throat to be dry and scratchy, with the occasional headache. The weird thing is that they haven't gone away, and are getting worse. The last few nights I've had to get up in the middle of the night so I could stop coughing (sitting up helps), which means that today I'm tired on top of everything else. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a cold (but I doubt that it is).
The optimist in me thinks that the problem is that there's mold or mildew in the apartment (the air conditioning has been leaking like nobody's business, and the maintenance people have come out a couple of times to "fix" it...), because then at least we could fix the problem and I'd feel better. I hope it's not just "normal" allergies, because these suck.
Anyhow, despite feeling kinda cruddy, I managed to have a pretty nice weekend. Saturday was ASMC rehearsal, where we learned our last song and choreography (not bad...) and got out way early, so I spent the afternoon on the couch with djedi playing FFX-2. I'm starting to get into it a little bit - seems like a neat game. Saturday night we went out to dinner with destroyerj and then saw "Batman Begins", which I enjoyed a lot. Afterwards we stopped by destroyerj's place to watch some Half-Life 2 stuff (which he had just beaten).
Sunday I came into work for a few hours, but beforehand djedi and I walked around the nature trails here at work. It was fun, and neat to explore the grounds a little more, although it was quite hot! Didn't end up getting the work done that I had wanted (not my fault), but oh well. Then wildrice13 came over after supper for more FFX-2.
In other news, I'm totally hooked on the Python Challenge - I was a little discouraged when I needed hints on levels 5 and 6, but I made it up to level 12 (and now I'm pretty stuck!) Having a lot of fun with it, though.
Just took some Sudafed which should help my various ailments and make the afternoon more pleasant. Then ASMC rehearsal tonight again.
weekend, credit card, stuff
Mood: irritated
Posted on 2005-06-20 22:39:00
Tags: asmc family del.icio.us credit card
Words: 385
So I had a fun weekend. I was going to write about it, but wonderjess did such a good job that I'm not going to bother. Thanks!
Work's going generally well, although I'm a little stressed because I'm trying to finish the feature I'm working on by the end of this week. I think I can do it, but it's gonna be close.
ASMC rehearsal went OK tonight - I missed rehearsal on Saturday so I'm way behind on the choreography (but I picked up some of it...) I'm a little disappointed that all the songs I'm in are pretty easy, and not horribly interesting. Oh well.
So I applied for a new credit card, and the stuff came in the mail on Wednesday. However, the credit card wasn't with it! I looked everywhere for it, and David said that sometimes they send them separately from the info, which makes sense, but I figured that that couldn't possibly be the case since it didn't mention that anywhere, and it said specifically to activate your card and stuff like that. Figuring it somehow didn't get sent or whatever, I called and reported it as "lost or stolen". And then, today comes the other letter with the credit card in the mail. Grrr!
Reasons that del.icio.us is cool:
- You can store your bookmarks there and access them from anywhere. This is pretty handy (although, be careful, they're all public so anyone can see!)
- Each bookmark has tags associated with it - as many as you want. On my bookmark file at home, I have different categories, but they're kinda hard to tell apart (is that bookmark "Linux" or "reference"?) Tags solve this problem in the simplest way possible - it's both! Then when you look for the tag "linux" it's there, and it's also there when you look for "reference".
- You can search for multiple tags at once in your bookmarks to narrow things down. For example, del.icio.us/gregstoll/pictures shows all my bookmarks with the tag "pictures", and del.icio.us/gregstoll/pictures+family shows all my bookmarks that have both the tag "pictures" and the tag "family".
- The name del.icio.us is cool!
- You can have useful tags like toread and topost that keep track of what's on your reading list.
Check out my bookmarks at del.icio.us/gregstoll. Next time - ways to look at other people's bookmarks!
meaning to post for a while - here it comes!
Mood: ecstatic
Music: New Kids On The Block - "Keep On Smilin'"
Posted on 2005-06-17 12:54:00
Tags: linux asmc tivo family computer
Words: 1065
Hmm. I meant to post yesterday, but I guess I've been kinda busy. I'm leaving after work to meet my family at a condo in Conroe (hmm, that kinda rhymes!) for Father's Day, as wonderjess has been mentioning. It'll be nice to see everyone in a relaxed environment. And apparently there will be pie! Mmm.
So David left yesterday to go home for Father's Day as well, so I was on my own yesterday. Work went pretty well (finally fixed my stupid problem), but I didn't leave until 5:40, which is really cutting it close to eat dinner and get to ASMC rehearsal by 7. I ended up cutting dinner a little short and not finishing the spaghetti I had reheated so I could get there on time. Baaad move, as we didn't start until 7:15, and we didn't "really start" (i.e. start running a scene) until almost 7:50. This is frustrating. But I'm still gonna make an effort to get there on time. And I brought the new Penrose book The Road to Reality, which is >1100 pages and supposedly a heavy read (I'm still reading introductory math stuff, but even some of it is stuff I haven't looked at in a long time). It's a birthday present (thanks, Mom & Dad!) that I'm slowly working my way through...
Rehearsal went well - we did "my" scene, and I have a pretty good idea of how it's going to work. Although it takes a lot of energy - we're supposed to be generally disorganized, running around and poking each other and stuff. Fun, though :-)
After I got home, I did some packing, printed out directions (there are apparently no good ways to get to Conroe from here, everywhere has me going on like 6 or 7 different highways...), and worked on a computer problem that I eventually solved.
So one of David's and mine (um, how does the grammar work there?) longish-term projects is to get TV shows off of the TiVo (using TiVoToGo) and burn them onto a DVD. So my first approach was to get them off onto David's computer, turn them into MPEGs, then edit them on my computer and burn them to DVD. I tried this a while ago, and I couldn't find good programs to do it on Linux (and burning a video DVD on Linux is crazy complicated, with .xml configuration files to configure the menus and stuff like that. Stuff that I probably could eventually figure out, but I finally gave up). So our next approach was to download the trial software that TiVo recommends to do it, and see if we could get that working.
The software is Sonic MyDVD, and it worked well once I figured out that I had to downgrade TiVo Desktop to 2.0 (you can download it from here) - it crashes all the time with version 2.1. Anyway, so I did that and eventually created an .iso image, and things were looking good.
A few days ago, I tried transfering the .iso file to my computer using WinSCP. It was going well, until the program wasn't able to make the file bigger than 2GB - it would error, and then quit and crash if you tried to reconnect and resume. This is where I was until last night.
So David and I had a number of ideas why this was happening - maybe the WinSCP program didn't work with greater than 2GB files, maybe the protocol didn't support it, or maybe my filesystem didn't support it. I had done some research that suggested that the protocol did support it, the WinSCP program did work with it, and my filesystem (ext3) did support it. So I was a bit at a loss.
The night before I wrote a quick program in C to try to create a 3GB file and see what happened. Lo and behold, it would quit once the file was 2GB, saying "File size limit exceeded". So I figured it was one of two things - either my C program needed to use 64-bit aware function calls, or my filesystem didn't support it.
So, we come to last night. First I looked at the filesystem, and everything I could find seemed to say that ext3 with 4KB block sizes should support up to 2TB files. I even tried creating a new ext3 filesystem on a spare partition and creating a big file there - no dice. So then I thought maybe my particular C program was the problem, and found a bunch of random documentation on the web about how to make the calls correctly. But all the documentation was old, and everything suggested that these calls should have been being made correctly by default, and indeed I couldn't solve it that way.
So I was kinda frustrated at this point, and thinking maybe my particular ssh daemon (the server side of SCP) was broken in some odd way or something. Finally, inspiration struck - there's a shell command "ulimit" that sets various limits on stuff you can do - how many files you can have open, how many processes you can be running, and, at long last, the size of files you can create! I had apparently played around with this before and set the maximum size up to 2GB (back in early college, I think). And I think the word "limit" in the error message I got should have tipped me off a little bit. But anyway, I fixed that, and it transferred over just fine. Then I burned it onto DVD (after first creating a data DVD that had the .iso file on it - doh!), and lo and behold, it played in the DVD player. Hooray!
That was oddly cathartic.
Anyway, the upshot of the story is that I was up until 2:20 or so, which was kinda fun (especially since I got stuff working!), but now I'm a little on the tired side. Should be OK for the drive, though.
Public Service Announcement: It has come to my attention that some readers of this journal are not impressed by del.icio.us. So, to increase understanding and adoptance, I will be posting neat features of del.icio.us on my future posts. (starting with the next one) Look for them in a journal near you!
In a related story, LJ added support for tags, which is pretty cool, so I'm gonna start tagging my entries. And you should too! :-)
This backup was done by LJBackup.