The only thing more phenomenal than this headline is misreading this headline and replacing the last word with "sticks" instead of "stocks." (I think the "giant" claim may be a tad unsubstantiated, but as longtime readers of FOMW/WBW know, these creatures are not to be taken lightly and should be reported immediately to the proper authorities) Though I have to admit, if I'm the squid, I'm pretty hacked off. That's got to be the least intimidating picture of a Humboldt I've ever seen in print. Now, this one here pretty much says "Evil Torpedo of Murky Death." This one is more of a "Ghostly White Angel of Death" look. And this says "And Now We're Coming Out of the Water to Get You." (Or, "If Mega Man Jumped On Us, He'd Be Dead.")
Fortunately, the plan is to send out an army of robotic warriors to make the seas safe once again. (At least, I assume this is the plan) Unfortunately, while progress on this front is definitely being made, it's coming very, very slowly.
The robot-squid war is coming.
Which begs the question: William Hanna and Joe Barbara: first anti-robot, pro-squid propagandists? We report, you decide.
Youtube fail: A quick search for "robot vs squid" gives you nothing useful.
Youtube win:
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
v2, d156: From the Past
I know what's wrong.
You haven't played Bubble Spinner in a while, have you?
I know, I know, you haven't even thought about Bubble Spinner in months, have you? Well, there's good news: Bubble Spinner forgives you.
And now, a Bubble Spinner haiku:
Click. Bloop. Click. Click. Bloop.
Click. Click. Woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh.
Wow. It's three a.m.
You haven't played Bubble Spinner in a while, have you?
I know, I know, you haven't even thought about Bubble Spinner in months, have you? Well, there's good news: Bubble Spinner forgives you.
And now, a Bubble Spinner haiku:
Click. Bloop. Click. Click. Bloop.
Click. Click. Woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh.
Wow. It's three a.m.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
v2, d155: Striking and such
"Theatre is probably the only field in the world in which the term 'strike' means 'more work.'" I've heard many variations on this quote over the years, but its inherent irony still amuses me. And it is, of course, absolutely right.
Tonight was Leaving Iowa strike, which is also changeover into Driving Miss Daisy, because that show opens in less than two weeks. Tonight's goal was to strike our fairly-massive set and all of the lights, and we accomplished all of that before things got too too late. It sort of reminded me of summer stock, only if it were summer stock we would have stayed until four a.m. or whatever until the next set was mostly loaded in. Those were great, great nights.
I had a blast at strike. It seems like such a long time ago now (reality check: 11 years), but my first professional theatre gig was primarily working with the set and lighting teams. For the next six summers, that's what I did when I wasn't in rehearsals, and for four years at college that was how I spent any afternoon I wasn't in class. Actually, college had convinced me that shop work was likely going to be my place in the world of theatre arts, and my first year at A. D. Players seemed to confirm that. Of course, then I hurt my back a couple times, and then they threw me in an office, and there I've been ever since. Nights like this are fun, though, because they remind me how much I really enjoyed all of that stuff. It's nice to get back to it at a fairly intense pace every once in awhile, because while I know some of my instinct and skill has diminished somewhat over the past five years since I was a shopworker (again, reality check: five years!), I still enjoy the work, and I always enjoyed the busy/rushed seasons the best.
Spending (likely) the whole day with the shop crew again tomorrow, 'cause while we've managed to bring one show down, we've still got a whole other one to get up ASAP. Just like the good ole' days :-)
Tonight was Leaving Iowa strike, which is also changeover into Driving Miss Daisy, because that show opens in less than two weeks. Tonight's goal was to strike our fairly-massive set and all of the lights, and we accomplished all of that before things got too too late. It sort of reminded me of summer stock, only if it were summer stock we would have stayed until four a.m. or whatever until the next set was mostly loaded in. Those were great, great nights.
I had a blast at strike. It seems like such a long time ago now (reality check: 11 years), but my first professional theatre gig was primarily working with the set and lighting teams. For the next six summers, that's what I did when I wasn't in rehearsals, and for four years at college that was how I spent any afternoon I wasn't in class. Actually, college had convinced me that shop work was likely going to be my place in the world of theatre arts, and my first year at A. D. Players seemed to confirm that. Of course, then I hurt my back a couple times, and then they threw me in an office, and there I've been ever since. Nights like this are fun, though, because they remind me how much I really enjoyed all of that stuff. It's nice to get back to it at a fairly intense pace every once in awhile, because while I know some of my instinct and skill has diminished somewhat over the past five years since I was a shopworker (again, reality check: five years!), I still enjoy the work, and I always enjoyed the busy/rushed seasons the best.
Spending (likely) the whole day with the shop crew again tomorrow, 'cause while we've managed to bring one show down, we've still got a whole other one to get up ASAP. Just like the good ole' days :-)
Saturday, August 28, 2010
v2, d154: A Note for Daddy
My wife is a smart woman. She knows that, when I have to work late and won't be back before she goes to bed, the best way to remind me of something I'm supposed to get done before I go to bed is to leave me a note on the computer. Tonight, after an evening at the theater, I returned to find a Word document open on the computer. This is what it said:
Put your white shirts in the washer and start the load.
Underneath that:
"We left a note for Daddy"
I was later told that the first line says "I love you," but Kim's not sure what the rest of it was supposed to say.
Put your white shirts in the washer and start the load.
Underneath that:
/./dsasdsd fgfffffffffsshz jm ;nj k.jbmmmmmmmvggg n / hbvnm mmb jhg bbnmmm,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, RRRBBV BV 7 XCVBNM,./
And finally, in quotes:
And finally, in quotes:
"We left a note for Daddy"
I was later told that the first line says "I love you," but Kim's not sure what the rest of it was supposed to say.
Friday, August 27, 2010
v2, d153: Girls are Good. Guys are Good, too.
I don't think it's a surprise to anybody here that I have a bit of a soft spot for "the ladies." Now, don't get me wrong, I've never been a guy who really "chases skirts," though I did go through a bit of a girl crazy phase (and what guy hasn't?). I've also never been one of the guys who prefers the company of women to the company of other guys (for every random adventure with Holly and Sherri at OBU, there was either a regularly-scheduled Manly Movie Night or an impromptu NHL Hitz/X-Men Legend-a-thon). Looking back over my life, I've always preferred--and for the most part, managed to achieve--a balance of equally strong friendships between my guy-friends and my girl-friends. I've even had several of (possible bad Spanish alert!) mis amigas comment on how well I (generally) "handle" women--which is funny, because I somehow seem to strike this balance between the "obnoxious older brother/pest" role to the "supportive/protective older brother" role and the "chivalrous gentleman" role as the relationship/situation demands, often going from one to the other and back within the same conversation.
Why am I bringing this up? Because! Lately I've been realizing how this pattern has greatly influenced literary tendencies, and it interests me. Feel free to move on if you're bored ;-)
I've been mulling over a short story I've been trying to finish for awhile and wondering why I just can't get excited about finishing it, as much as I love the concept and as easy as it should be to wrap the whole thing up. An odd thought came to me this evening while I wondered at my current conundrum: Maybe it's because there are no females.
Now, my initial reaction is that a story I like should be a story I like regardless of the gender of my characters. Especially if it's one I'm writing. And especially if I'm pleased with the way it's going. What does it matter if there are any girls or not?
Then I thought back on everything else I've written in the last five years. There's usually a pretty strong male-female balance in my characters. There's a lot of dualism going on. I've never really written a story where there wasn't at least one woman who is equally important as the leading man or vice versa. That goes for my plays, my novel, any shorter stories I've tried. Even the play I wrote for a cast of three of either gender, I had the stage directions written as if the performers were two men and one woman. Even when I was a kid writing stories on the back of old homework assignments, I usually had to work a girl into the gang somehow.
And then there's this story. I had a grandmother, and she's pretty essential to the story, but she died in, like, chapter two. And then there's a mom, but she's more a non-factor, she and dad are pretty much a single entity with two heads. My protagonist goes to a boys' school, has male professors, and runs off with one of his classmates to have an adventure. And now they're on the side of a mountain going on an amazing adventure with nothing but one another to lean upon...and, they bore me. Interestingly, I originally plotted this story almost immediately after I wrote The Hero Squad vs. The Princess Snatchers in 2005. Back then, the plan was to have a boy and girl share the adventure, not two boys. Maybe I shoulda stuck with that? ;-)
As I further entertained this line of thinking, I thought back to the last few books I'd read. I'm currently working on Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, book one of his epic Wheel of Time series. It's very good, though it's very long, and the pages are quite dense. (Most books I've read with this many pages have had shorter pages. These pages are packed with words!) It took me a few days to get into because A) my schedule hadn't been allowing extended periods of reading, and B) I didn't find anything particularly engaging within the first few scenes. In the last two days, however, I've become hooked and have debated not blogging in order to read more (hence lack of blogging lately). Looking back, the "hooking point" seems to have coincided with the introduction of a few interesting female characters. Astounding! A similar thing happened when I was reading Stephen King's Cell not long ago. The two leading men were good characters and interesting to read, but the story itself sort of dragged during the initial zombie apocalypse. (It wasn't really a zombie apocalypse, but it was pretty similar) The book really started picking up for me when Alice joined the party. (Fun fact: I can't actually remember the two "more important" characters' names; I think one was Tom?) She was about half their age, so there was no romantic spice added, but her very presence and the fact of her femininity added a new dimension to each of the men. (There was no romance anywhere in that book, come to think of it)
Conversely, I just finished Roald Dahl's Sometime Never, and while I can't say it was a dreary book solely for the fact that there were no female characters, still, the fact remains that there were no female characters. Wistrix Donn was a bad book for a lot of reasons. Upon reflection, however, none of the female characters had anything particularly feminine about them (please note: by feminine, I don't mean "weak." I consider Tolkein's Eowyn a supremely feminine character, warrior chick and all). The only character whose femininity was a necessary character trait was the vixen who seduced men to kill them. The others, really, could have been men and the story wouldn't have changed much at all.
Examples abound on both sides (and I can find some counterexamples, too, but most of the ones in my experience are non-fiction; I've also never been a huge fan of single-gender plays like True West or Steel Magnolias), and while no one factor can really be singled out as the determining factor as to why I've liked some stories, both read and written, and not liked others, I have to concede that there is, at the least, a coincidence of correlation.
Are you still reading? Because this is probably boring to you, but it's really fascinating to me.
All of this is to say that I'm discovering a new way my life informs my artistic choices. I love women, but not just in the typical male-female attraction way. I love the added dimension that women give to men. I love the many different shades of the male-female dynamic. A night out with three guys is an entirely different experience than a night out with two guys and one girl, and it doesn't matter if the girl is a major tomboy (not many girls are still true tomboys into their late twenties, you notice that?). The entire dynamic of the evening is changed. Women add spice and dimension to men, and hopefully men do the same for women. When God said it was not good for man to be alone, it wasn't just because man was lonely, it was because he needed a woman to unlock other parts of who he really was--and not just romantically. When I write, I find everything my male and female character do together interesting. The way they joke together, the way they fight each other, the way they fight together, the way they pray together, it all interests me. I truly believe they bring out the best--or at least, the most interesting--in each other. "Male and female created He them." That is one of the greatest services He ever did unto mankind.
I'm not saying that, if I were actually headed for an unknown adventure on a mountainside, I'd rather go with a woman than with another man. I am saying, however, that given a choice, I'm sure the adventure would be a lot more interesting with one of each ;-)
Why am I bringing this up? Because! Lately I've been realizing how this pattern has greatly influenced literary tendencies, and it interests me. Feel free to move on if you're bored ;-)
I've been mulling over a short story I've been trying to finish for awhile and wondering why I just can't get excited about finishing it, as much as I love the concept and as easy as it should be to wrap the whole thing up. An odd thought came to me this evening while I wondered at my current conundrum: Maybe it's because there are no females.
Now, my initial reaction is that a story I like should be a story I like regardless of the gender of my characters. Especially if it's one I'm writing. And especially if I'm pleased with the way it's going. What does it matter if there are any girls or not?
Then I thought back on everything else I've written in the last five years. There's usually a pretty strong male-female balance in my characters. There's a lot of dualism going on. I've never really written a story where there wasn't at least one woman who is equally important as the leading man or vice versa. That goes for my plays, my novel, any shorter stories I've tried. Even the play I wrote for a cast of three of either gender, I had the stage directions written as if the performers were two men and one woman. Even when I was a kid writing stories on the back of old homework assignments, I usually had to work a girl into the gang somehow.
And then there's this story. I had a grandmother, and she's pretty essential to the story, but she died in, like, chapter two. And then there's a mom, but she's more a non-factor, she and dad are pretty much a single entity with two heads. My protagonist goes to a boys' school, has male professors, and runs off with one of his classmates to have an adventure. And now they're on the side of a mountain going on an amazing adventure with nothing but one another to lean upon...and, they bore me. Interestingly, I originally plotted this story almost immediately after I wrote The Hero Squad vs. The Princess Snatchers in 2005. Back then, the plan was to have a boy and girl share the adventure, not two boys. Maybe I shoulda stuck with that? ;-)
As I further entertained this line of thinking, I thought back to the last few books I'd read. I'm currently working on Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, book one of his epic Wheel of Time series. It's very good, though it's very long, and the pages are quite dense. (Most books I've read with this many pages have had shorter pages. These pages are packed with words!) It took me a few days to get into because A) my schedule hadn't been allowing extended periods of reading, and B) I didn't find anything particularly engaging within the first few scenes. In the last two days, however, I've become hooked and have debated not blogging in order to read more (hence lack of blogging lately). Looking back, the "hooking point" seems to have coincided with the introduction of a few interesting female characters. Astounding! A similar thing happened when I was reading Stephen King's Cell not long ago. The two leading men were good characters and interesting to read, but the story itself sort of dragged during the initial zombie apocalypse. (It wasn't really a zombie apocalypse, but it was pretty similar) The book really started picking up for me when Alice joined the party. (Fun fact: I can't actually remember the two "more important" characters' names; I think one was Tom?) She was about half their age, so there was no romantic spice added, but her very presence and the fact of her femininity added a new dimension to each of the men. (There was no romance anywhere in that book, come to think of it)
Conversely, I just finished Roald Dahl's Sometime Never, and while I can't say it was a dreary book solely for the fact that there were no female characters, still, the fact remains that there were no female characters. Wistrix Donn was a bad book for a lot of reasons. Upon reflection, however, none of the female characters had anything particularly feminine about them (please note: by feminine, I don't mean "weak." I consider Tolkein's Eowyn a supremely feminine character, warrior chick and all). The only character whose femininity was a necessary character trait was the vixen who seduced men to kill them. The others, really, could have been men and the story wouldn't have changed much at all.
Examples abound on both sides (and I can find some counterexamples, too, but most of the ones in my experience are non-fiction; I've also never been a huge fan of single-gender plays like True West or Steel Magnolias), and while no one factor can really be singled out as the determining factor as to why I've liked some stories, both read and written, and not liked others, I have to concede that there is, at the least, a coincidence of correlation.
Are you still reading? Because this is probably boring to you, but it's really fascinating to me.
All of this is to say that I'm discovering a new way my life informs my artistic choices. I love women, but not just in the typical male-female attraction way. I love the added dimension that women give to men. I love the many different shades of the male-female dynamic. A night out with three guys is an entirely different experience than a night out with two guys and one girl, and it doesn't matter if the girl is a major tomboy (not many girls are still true tomboys into their late twenties, you notice that?). The entire dynamic of the evening is changed. Women add spice and dimension to men, and hopefully men do the same for women. When God said it was not good for man to be alone, it wasn't just because man was lonely, it was because he needed a woman to unlock other parts of who he really was--and not just romantically. When I write, I find everything my male and female character do together interesting. The way they joke together, the way they fight each other, the way they fight together, the way they pray together, it all interests me. I truly believe they bring out the best--or at least, the most interesting--in each other. "Male and female created He them." That is one of the greatest services He ever did unto mankind.
I'm not saying that, if I were actually headed for an unknown adventure on a mountainside, I'd rather go with a woman than with another man. I am saying, however, that given a choice, I'm sure the adventure would be a lot more interesting with one of each ;-)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
v2, d152: "Spots and guests and all!"
Man, if they had got the sound to sync with the video on that clip, the whole thing woulda been freaking awesome.
Tonight was our annual recognition of our season ticket holders/end-of-the-year awards show. This is often a stressful event for everyone involved due to a number of factors. A lot of it has to do with scheduling, because it's always going on while one show is still running, the next is rehearsing, and our other departments are working toward starting up the new year. It's an awkward time to try to add an event that includes the entire company, but there's really not a better time to do it. (There are other factors, too, such as juggling so many schedules to try to find enough rehearsals in a short span of time, etc, but who wants to get into all of that on a public blog? Not this guy.)
This year, I learned I was going to be "directing" the entertainment portion of the event. I have to admit, I wasn't looking forward to this assignment. The director of Spotlighter has never been a person I've envied, and I didn't think there was really a way I was going to succeed with it, but I decided to do the best I could to try to make it as smooth a process for everybody involved as possible.
Much to my surprise, rehearsals were very productive, we were able to identify and take care of tech needs early, the script was enjoyable, and attitudes were (for the most part) very patient and positive. I feel God's hand has been all over this process, helping us avoid major headaches. A lot of people commented on how smoothly the whole process went, and I know it's nothing special that I did. I'm glad that it's over, but I'm also glad that it happened. It was a positive experience, and that's not always something we're all able to say afterward.
Interesting side note: I've suspected this for awhile, but it turns out I've got terrible taste. We give out something like twenty awards, and as company members we get to vote on all of them. Of my twenty votes, two of them turned out to be winners! This is generally the trend I've noticed. Not that I don't think the winners aren't all very deserving, they just weren't the ones I'd pick. And this happens pretty much every year. So, if you're reading this and you're somebody I voted for, I'm sorry. I may very well have jinxed you. Next year, I may try to identify the biggest "threats" to the people I want to win and vote for them and see what happens.
Seriously, though, congratulations to all of the winners. I'm always so proud of all the work and care that we all put into our shows. In most cases, it's really hard and, in my opinion, unfair to try to pick a "best." Fortunately, I don't think many feelings get hurt over these things.
Funny fact: the only Spotligher I've ever taken home (and likely will ever take home) was my intern year for a props design.
Clearly, I've missed my calling with all this extraneous stuff I've been doing since then ;-)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
v2, d151: Danger, Will Robinson!!!
The NHL is selling Cup-clinching games on iTunes at 2 bucks a pop.
This is pretty unequivocally awesome. Just think, if I had an iPod with better storage capacities, I could watch Ray Bourque hoist that big shiny trophy over his head wherever I happened to be when the fancy would strike me. (And that fancy actually does strike from time to time) Ditto the Pens' glorious 2009 nail-biter in enemy territory. Or the marathon game that ended the 1996 season and forever burned the name "Uwe Krupp" in my memory. (I'd bring up the 2004 Tampa Bay Cup, but I've already got that on DVD) But oh, there's more. Both early '90s Pens Cup clinchers in their entirety. The great Oilers teams of the '80s, the Broad Street Bullies, the dynastic Habs of the '60s and '70s. Even video proof that yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs have won a Stanley Cup. The hockey history nut in me is totally geeking out about this.
And there are more than just Cup-clinchers for sale. Playoff classics, overtime legends, rivalry games, Soviet-vs-NHL matchups. Pens-Wings game 5 from 2008. Bolts-Flames game 6 from 2004.
Disappointed no Miracle on Manchester, no legendary Avs-Wings playoff brawls, no Stars-Ducks 5 OT games. But hopefully they'll add more as time goes on.
Now, two dollars doesn't sound like much, but boy can it add up quickly...spend wisely, Wordslinger...
Maybe I'll make it an end-of-the-month incentive or something. Like, "if I write a certain number of words this month, I can buy another classic hockey game."
Okay, off to finish this droll book and go to bed.
This is pretty unequivocally awesome. Just think, if I had an iPod with better storage capacities, I could watch Ray Bourque hoist that big shiny trophy over his head wherever I happened to be when the fancy would strike me. (And that fancy actually does strike from time to time) Ditto the Pens' glorious 2009 nail-biter in enemy territory. Or the marathon game that ended the 1996 season and forever burned the name "Uwe Krupp" in my memory. (I'd bring up the 2004 Tampa Bay Cup, but I've already got that on DVD) But oh, there's more. Both early '90s Pens Cup clinchers in their entirety. The great Oilers teams of the '80s, the Broad Street Bullies, the dynastic Habs of the '60s and '70s. Even video proof that yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs have won a Stanley Cup. The hockey history nut in me is totally geeking out about this.
And there are more than just Cup-clinchers for sale. Playoff classics, overtime legends, rivalry games, Soviet-vs-NHL matchups. Pens-Wings game 5 from 2008. Bolts-Flames game 6 from 2004.
Disappointed no Miracle on Manchester, no legendary Avs-Wings playoff brawls, no Stars-Ducks 5 OT games. But hopefully they'll add more as time goes on.
Now, two dollars doesn't sound like much, but boy can it add up quickly...spend wisely, Wordslinger...
Maybe I'll make it an end-of-the-month incentive or something. Like, "if I write a certain number of words this month, I can buy another classic hockey game."
Okay, off to finish this droll book and go to bed.
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