Maybe not much, but i was checking the RPoL Chamber of Lost Souls section when i spotted something i hadn't before. Not sure why, maybe i just looked past it a number of times, but i hadn't really noticed it was there until today:



Dunno, just made me grin. For a second my mouse hovered over the 'Request Access' button, but i decided not to after making a guess which thread my account name would have shown up in.

Some games you just want to not be a part of i guess :P

Redundancy to Job offer in 2 hours. now thats good going.

My son finished this semester with a 3.8 GPA - all A's.  I am so proud I could bust.  Such a smart kid and has to put forth little effort.  He plans on going to college for graphic design or video game technology or something along those lnes.  He talked of moving to Seattle for school (gulp) but now he is talking Chicago (I live in Indiana so that is a relief!).

On a less than bright note - I am now the mom to a senior.  Say what?!

It's opening night.  I'll admit it...when the Power That Be said they wanted a show built around a live rock band on the stage with the singers, I had my reservations.  A LOT of reservations.  And if the band members had been cast wrong, I think it could have been a disaster.

But the band is awesome, the singers are great (and with only a couple of exceptions, are learning how to make the most of having a live band on the stage with them and interact with the band instead of acting like the band is set dressing and the music tracks are still pre-recorded), and I'm more excited for this show to open than I've been for opening a show at the park in a LONG time.  Even though about half the music is stuff that we've used in other shows, earlier, I actually feel like we've created something new, rather than just recycling the same stuff again and again.  It helps that we've got new choreographers this year...who actually believe that even if the song is something we did before, we should try and make it SOMEHOW a little different (the choreo we've had for the past eight or so years just remounted the old numbers, without bothering to figure out a different dance routine...)

But I'm excited about being excited, even...sometimes I worry that this job gets me jaded, that I get so tired of the same stuff that I stop caring as much and stop trying as hard.  It's good to know that I can still be hyped for opening night, as opposed to coming into it thinking, "Well, thank goodness we made it through dress rehearsals without me wanting to shoot anybody..."  THIS feeling is part of why I got into theater...the joy of coming up with something new and original.  I've missed it, here.

Welcome back, old friend...

One week from today I will be heading off for vacation!!  Two weeks of being away from the stress of every day life.  Woot!

I love the fact that I live so close to a small community-appeal movie theater.  Yeah, if I want to see the latest and greatest movies before people get a chance to spoil them at least a little bit for me, I've gotta go to one of the megaplexes in the area, but I never get into the same kinds of conversations with people there as I do in the one just down the street...

Like tonight...went to see 'Admission', and saw Michael Sheen's name in the credits when it was done and knew it was familiar, but couldn't remember why.  I was apparently not the only person to have that reaction, because some lady on the other side of the theater whipped out her iPad as soon as the credits started and looked him up.  She found a picture of him in the last Twilight movie and pointed it out to her friends, who all started discussing it quite animatedly.  At this point, we were pretty much the only ones left in the theater, and it looked to be a good bet that we were all staying until the credits finished...and it was literally impossible to NOT overhear the conversation.

Now, I'm no fan of Twilight, at all.  Haven't read the books, couldn't be bothered to go see the movies, even though I could have seen any and all of them for free--it just utterly failed to inspire my interest.  But the mention of Michael Sheen's name in the context of vampires and werewolves reminded me...'Lucian', from Underworld.  So, as we all stood up as the final credits scrolled up the screen, I mentioned that he'd also been in the Underworld films...and the same lady responded, in surprise, "THAT'S RIGHT!  I had completely forgotten about that, but now that you mention it, I can totally see him with the long hair and all..."

We walked out of the building talking about Underworld and Van Helsing and how incredible Dracula's brides were (both as beautiful women and in the way they handled them with the visual effects for the movie), while the rest of her group looked back and shook their heads.  She laughed and said, "I love movies like that...I don't think any of them ever watch anything like that, though..."

Now...if she'd just been about fifteen or twenty years younger....

The CEO of another company just vomited praise about me to my CEO.

I finally have a pair of new shoes!  OK, they aren't perfect (is there such a thing??), but they are new, not held together by gobs of glue, and they fit well enough that I'm not thinking about my feet all the time!  (My requirements for shoes are very specific, in a size large enough not to allow much choice, let alone anything that will do.)

I was finally able to buy my ticket for my vacation this summer! ^_^

Had a great night over friends last night. Saved my one mate's relationship and kind of sorted things out with my first love to be in the comfortable friend-zone rather than the exes-now-friends-but-still-kinda-awkward-but-it's-cool-I-guess zone. I'm hung over but I made myself feel good by making other people feel good and resealing bridges.
Good stuff.

Here's to making a good impression on the boss!  The senior exec where I work asked me...for the second time...to mark some suitcoats for alterations for him.  The first time, I told him that I have no formal training in it, and my experience in alterations is all theatrical, where it doesn't have to look good when you're right up close and personal, as long as it looks good from stage.  But apparently, I did something right, because he had me do it again.

Never a bad thing when the president of the company has you coming by his office to do him a favor...and it was nice to see a more 'human' side of him--his sister (another one of the execs there) and daughter were both there to provide feedback on the suits, and hearing the interaction between them (and occasionally even chiming in on it) gave me a more nuanced view of the man.  I still disagree with the way he does a lot of stuff...but I've definitely got a more personable image of him in my head than I did last week.

Three times the minimum number of responses needed for hubby's research and they're still coming in!

A big thanks to everyone here who completed the survey!  *hugs*

Husband is at work, and kids are gone for the night.  I have the house ALL TO MYSELF!!  ^_^

Not only did I finally sell off the eyesore of an entertainment center that's been hogging up a ton of room in the living room, but while cleaning up around it I found two jackets... with a total of $15 in the pockets!

Found money is always good.  Time to go to lunch!  XD

I think I might be able to afford to buy something cool from amazon today! ^^

Well, if I'm going to have a bout of insomnia, at least this was a good reason for it (definitely not a good time for it, but...*shrug*)

A friend of mine who's recently gotten into film-making (can you call it that when it's all shot on digital video and there's no actual film involved?  I don't know...  Anyway...) said a few weeks ago that the next project he wants to do is a Western.  With no dialogue.  Just visual storytelling with some sound cues to help move it along.

When he said it, I thought, "Hmmmm...that could be kinda cool."  A week later, I thought, "Okay...I've got a general concept that would work for this...."  A couple of days ago, I started thinking about titles.  Tonight, the title gelled in my head and I also found a great, significant name for the town where this fictional story is set.  And discovered that I couldn't sleep because it was all rolling around in my head.

So, I wrote it.  Just the bare bones of it...the action, the characters (which have no names because nobody has any dialogue, so the characters are 'the horseman', 'the marshal', 'the saloon girl', etc), and the few key visuals that I thought were necessary to tell the story.  My version of it, double-spaced, came in just under 4 pages.  I'm curious to see how long it ends up being when he goes through and puts it in 'proper' screenwriting format, along with all the extra notations about shot selections and camera movement and such.  But I feel like it's a very do-able project (if we can just find locations for the exterior shots we need.  I think I know of a location for the interior shots...but whether or not we can use them will wind up coming down to a question of how much money are we willing to sink into this, and how much do the people who own the various locations that I'm thinking of want for the use of their space...

But at least now I think I can sleep.

When Albert Einstein was making the rounds of the speaker's circuit, he usually found himself eagerly longing to get back to his laboratory work. One night as they were driving to yet another dinner, Einstein mentioned to his chauffeur (a man who somewhat resembled Einstein in looks & manner) that he was tired of speechmaking.
"I have an idea, boss," his chauffeur said. "I've heard you give this speech so many times, I'll bet I could give it for you."

Einstein laughed loudly and said, "Why not? Let's do it!"

When they arrived at the dinner, Einstein donned the chauffeur's cap and jacket and sat in the back of the room. The chauffeur gave a beautiful rendition of Einstein's speech and even answered a few questions expertly.
Then a supremely pompous professor asked an extremely esoteric question about antimatter formation, digressing here and there to let everyone in the audience know that he was nobody's fool.

Without missing a beat, the chauffeur fixed the professor with a steely stare and said, "Sir, the answer to that question is so simple that I will let my chauffeur, who is sitting in the back, answer it for me."

Well would you look at that, I made it to my 21st birthday intact!

Oh, thank you for cancelling rehearsal tonight.  I need the rehearsal, I know...but I also desperately need the five or six hours of rehearsal time we would have spent to try and get stuff finished up for the other show I'm working on.  Your timing could NOT have been better.

As a follow-up to the last one...Still not done with everything I need to finish before rehearsal tonight.  I was SURE that I had to work today...got to work and saw that my name was, in fact, not on the calendar at all for today.

Thank you!!!!  Six more hours of unexpected prep time...(now, if you'll all excuse me, I've gotta go make good use of them!!!)

I might have part time work that will extend past the summer and through the rest of my education so I can have work experience when I graduate!

I passed the first of my Oracle exams today (with a fairly decent grade), so I'm happy about that. I have the next one in around 2 weeks time, so I'm not anticipating much of a break between now and then.

Evil Hat are Awesome.  With a capital "A".

I got my copy of FATE Core on Wednesday, and it had been damaged in transit.

Yesterday I got an email from Evil Hat, saying that they'd had a few Kickstarter backers contacting them to say their books had arrived damaged, so they would replace any damaged copies, free of charge, no questions asked.  And no need to return the book, just send them some photos of the damage.

Sent them an email today, with photos, and said that since I don't live in the US I'd understand if I'm not included in the offer to send a replacement.  Five minutes later I had a reply telling me they'd send out a new copy today.

Would definitely spend money with them again.

Recently announced the Volkswagen GTD (diesel version of the GTI) is FINALLY coming to the United States. About bloody time. Sadly, it looks like we'll still have to wait another year, maybe two, before actually driving one off the lot. To quote the birds from the movie Nemo. "Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine...". Estimated price was stated at $27,000 USD. Not cheap but more or less in line with the pricing for the current VW GTI model.

Yeah! I'm still alive.

Always something to have on a good things list! ^_^