God Damn, Memorial Day weekend was a hot one in Chi-town. My room is a hot box of sweaty pain. What just jumped to the top of the "Stuff Jon Needs to Buy" list? Fans, that's what.
Other things to do:
Clean bathroom. "Hey Jon, did you look at that sink of yours? Dirty city. And that toilet? Vomit-town."
Clean huge pile of hardly ever worn clothes.
Weed out clothes that I don't ever wear and donate them.
Sell old hybrid bike.
Clean room. Start with alcove I never enter. Then work on bed area. Last work on desk area.
Rearrange room so it uses the space better.
Buy an actual bed. Move futon over and use it as a couch.
I should also think about decorating my walls with pictures. Remember that b&w photo of San Fran in the '70s? Maybe actually get around to hanging it would be cool.
But mostly, the best step I can take to ensure that these things gets done is to not sleep all day and instead of dreaming about all the shit I can get done, actually get out of bed and do something. ANYTHING. Taking a shower would be a nice start. Man, I really waste my weekends like no other.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Updates
Finally got my new road bike. It is super awesome. ... except it sometimes likes to shift gears by itself. I will get this fixed.
I got handed a new iO team to coach about 6 weeks ago. They are good. Coaching is fun and challenging. Let's hope I don't mess them up too much.
I got to play in Armando for the second time ever. The first was a week before my last birthday. The second time was this past Monday. Both times it's been because the cast was really low and needed bodies to do improv. I was really nervous the first time. I did a pretty good job. I was less nervous this last time. I did okay.
I'm going to LA in two weeks to participate in the LA Improv Festival with Rattlesnake High School. It will be fun. Perhaps my sister, aunt, and uncle can see me perform in a show. Visiting with them will be great too. My friend James will be there with nothing to do during the daytime so it will be cool to hang with him in LA. Everytime I've gone there and rented a car (2 times) they have given me a free upgrade. I will predict that it will happen again.
I don't get enough sleep.
I may get the chance to direct a sketch show. That would be cool.
I still need to get my headshots duplicated.
Apparently I take really good photos.
Felt opened last Wednesday and it surprised me how well our first show went. We did slow and patience and grounded scenework. They put a promo we shot on the iO website and it is funny. Nathan is adorable.
I did Critical Mass last month at it was mondo fun.
I'm looking forward to this coming three-day weekend.
I got handed a new iO team to coach about 6 weeks ago. They are good. Coaching is fun and challenging. Let's hope I don't mess them up too much.
I got to play in Armando for the second time ever. The first was a week before my last birthday. The second time was this past Monday. Both times it's been because the cast was really low and needed bodies to do improv. I was really nervous the first time. I did a pretty good job. I was less nervous this last time. I did okay.
I'm going to LA in two weeks to participate in the LA Improv Festival with Rattlesnake High School. It will be fun. Perhaps my sister, aunt, and uncle can see me perform in a show. Visiting with them will be great too. My friend James will be there with nothing to do during the daytime so it will be cool to hang with him in LA. Everytime I've gone there and rented a car (2 times) they have given me a free upgrade. I will predict that it will happen again.
I don't get enough sleep.
I may get the chance to direct a sketch show. That would be cool.
I still need to get my headshots duplicated.
Apparently I take really good photos.
Felt opened last Wednesday and it surprised me how well our first show went. We did slow and patience and grounded scenework. They put a promo we shot on the iO website and it is funny. Nathan is adorable.
I did Critical Mass last month at it was mondo fun.
I'm looking forward to this coming three-day weekend.
Monday, May 08, 2006
Super Awesome New Road Bike
I bought a super new awesome road bike last Sunday (not yesterday, the Sunday before yesterday). It is mondo expensive but with a purchase like this, which I'm gonna use a ton, it's good to get something that I know won't break down and need repairs a week into me using it.
The three previous Saturdays were spent trekking down to the southside to check out Working Bikes. For those of you not in the know, it is this super small shop on Western, a block or so south of Taylor. They take donated bikes and give them to poor kids across the seas. But they also fix donated bikes and sell them to poor Chicagoans. Most of the bikes they have go for between $40 and $99; although I did see one bike on sale for $150 - but it was a really nice bike. I probably would have bought that expensive bike but it was way too small for me. If I had been 5' 6", that bike would have been mine.
The first weekend I went down there was Easter Sunday weekend. They were closed. Completely my fault for not figuring they would be or at least calling first.
The second weekend I went down there, I went on a Saturday and got there around 1:15pm. All the bikes were gone.
The third weekend I went down there, I went on a Saturday and this time got there before they opened. I almost slept through the time I need to start my hike down there but luckily woke up in time and wisely decided to skip showering and eating in order to get there on time. I got there so early that I basically volunteered myself to help them move bikes over from a block away to there store.
Now, I didn't know this since I've never ridden a road bike, not even my Dad's old 10-speed, but old road bikes have the gear changers in a very odd space. They're basically at the base or top of the handlebars. I'm used to the newer models of mountain bikes where you can change the gears where you have your hands. As such, I needed to find a newer model road bike. And since I had been desiring a road bike for the past month and a half, I decided to bite the bullet and buy new.
I went to Kozy's Bikes downtown (thought they'd have a wider selection than they one on Halsted) and picked out a nice road bike. I went home and immediately realized that I bought the wrong type of road bike. I wanted a sport model, which had the super awesome gear changers right next to the hand brakes. So I went back the next day and got my order changed. They said they had the bike on order and it would arrive in about a week and then they would have to put it together, with the extras that I bought with it, like a back fender to keep the dirt off my back.
So it's been a week since I placed the order and I hope and expect to get a call Wednesday or Thursday telling me my bike is ready. I cannot wait. Then I will sell my current hybrid bike - hoping to get 200 bones for it - to make my bike purchase hurt a little less in my wallet.
But it will all be worth it to be able to cut throught the wind and go fast and change gears without have to wait a few seconds for the gears to actually change. So awesome. So super awesome.
The three previous Saturdays were spent trekking down to the southside to check out Working Bikes. For those of you not in the know, it is this super small shop on Western, a block or so south of Taylor. They take donated bikes and give them to poor kids across the seas. But they also fix donated bikes and sell them to poor Chicagoans. Most of the bikes they have go for between $40 and $99; although I did see one bike on sale for $150 - but it was a really nice bike. I probably would have bought that expensive bike but it was way too small for me. If I had been 5' 6", that bike would have been mine.
The first weekend I went down there was Easter Sunday weekend. They were closed. Completely my fault for not figuring they would be or at least calling first.
The second weekend I went down there, I went on a Saturday and got there around 1:15pm. All the bikes were gone.
The third weekend I went down there, I went on a Saturday and this time got there before they opened. I almost slept through the time I need to start my hike down there but luckily woke up in time and wisely decided to skip showering and eating in order to get there on time. I got there so early that I basically volunteered myself to help them move bikes over from a block away to there store.
Now, I didn't know this since I've never ridden a road bike, not even my Dad's old 10-speed, but old road bikes have the gear changers in a very odd space. They're basically at the base or top of the handlebars. I'm used to the newer models of mountain bikes where you can change the gears where you have your hands. As such, I needed to find a newer model road bike. And since I had been desiring a road bike for the past month and a half, I decided to bite the bullet and buy new.
I went to Kozy's Bikes downtown (thought they'd have a wider selection than they one on Halsted) and picked out a nice road bike. I went home and immediately realized that I bought the wrong type of road bike. I wanted a sport model, which had the super awesome gear changers right next to the hand brakes. So I went back the next day and got my order changed. They said they had the bike on order and it would arrive in about a week and then they would have to put it together, with the extras that I bought with it, like a back fender to keep the dirt off my back.
So it's been a week since I placed the order and I hope and expect to get a call Wednesday or Thursday telling me my bike is ready. I cannot wait. Then I will sell my current hybrid bike - hoping to get 200 bones for it - to make my bike purchase hurt a little less in my wallet.
But it will all be worth it to be able to cut throught the wind and go fast and change gears without have to wait a few seconds for the gears to actually change. So awesome. So super awesome.
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Jury Time!
What's playing right now while I'm writing: Trouble of My Own by Slumber Party.
The trial was a personal injury lawsuit. I'll try to keep this short.
Background:
Landlord own building. Building has two stories. Landlord, Cynthia, lives on 2nd floor. Jennifer Gray (not the famous one), lives on the 1st floor. There's a small room aread in the basement, Brad, Cynthia's good friend and hair stylist, live there. Cynthia and Jennifer both have dogs. They have both helped each other out in walking each other's dogs when the other was away. Cynthia's dog is an 11yr old, 130lb dog. Huge dog, but old. Cynthia has a holistic vet fot the dog. She even got the dog accupunture sessions to help his arthritis. His name is Budha. Jennifer's dog is named Moxie.
Time line:
1. Cynthia goes to California for vacation. Asks Brad, who is usually hanging out in Cynthia's place to use her kitchen, to look after Budha. Also asks Jennifer to help out if she can, like take him out on walks.
2. Jennifer pops her head into Cynthia's apt to check to see if Budha needs a walk, since she is about to take Moxie out for a walk. Brad and his friend are in the apt eating a steak dinner. Brad says that he and his friend took Budha already out for a walk earlier in the day but if Budha wanted to go out, then fine.
3. Jennifer gets the collar and leash and puts it on Budha. Budha lays down indicating he doesn't want to go out. Jennifer tugs lightly on leash and calls his name to get him to get up. Budha growls. Jennifer wait a bit before tugging on the leash again. Again Budha growls. Jennifer then talks to Brad about stuff for about 2 minutes later, to let Budha cool off.
4. Jennifer crouches down to take Budha's leash off of him. As she reaches for it, Budha bites her hand. The bite is pretty bad.
5. Brad takes Jennifer to the hospital. They treast the bite.
6. The next day the hand swells up. She goes back to the hospital. They keep her there for 3 days while they keep her hooked up to an IV to give her antibiotics for the infection of skin on her hand. Jennifer's hospital bills - or at least what she had to pay out of pocket - were around $8,000. She also missed a vacation to the British Virgin Islands since she was in the hospital. Expense for vacation added with loss of wages from her job, as a producer for Harpo, amount to around $2,000. her lawyer is also asking for pain & suffering, disability, and disfigurement losses. Suggests amounts of $35,000, $30,000, and $15,000.
The whole trial lasted two days. It was pretty much boring and much of it was spent waiting around for it to start on time, which it didn't and waiting for sidebar sessions to end, which there were a lot of. Every person involved were characters. I watched them very carefully so that I can sometime in the future can play them on stage.
The judge was this very old black women. She was sort of scatter-brained and at times it looked like she wasn't even paying attention to the case. Sometimes when one of the lawyers had an objection, it looked like she was mentally flipping a coin to make the judgement, as if she had missed what had been said just a minute ago. Some of the other jurors said they saw her asleep at one moment. I didn't see that.
One of the three court deputies, but the main one we dealt with, was this black man with super thick glasses. He seemed a little slow and maybe a little blind. When he would hand out our check to us, he would call our names and when someone said it was for them, it seemed like he had trouble figuring out who said it. He also didn't like it if anyone questioned his authority, which I witnessed one time when on of the more disagreeable jurors wanted to make the calls on something.
When Cynthia took the witness stand, she was in tears for a good portion of it. Very distraught and her answers were pretty evasive. The plaintiff's counsel took to reading transcipts of a deposition taken a month or so before the trial to get her to answer the way she had during the deposition.
Jennifer seemed still and devoid of any real emotion while on the stand. I'm gonna guess she was heavily coached or at least she's just a cold woman.
The doctor who examined Jennifer couldn't be there so they read from the transcipts of the depostion to hear what he said during it.
The plantiff's counsel was this large fat man who could be compared with a bull dog. At times he could get really angry. All the blood would rush to his head, causing his face to get real red. The defendent's counsel was this rail thin man who took his time with things. He seemed a little unorganized and low in energy. Whenever any of his questions would be sustained he had a hard time of rephrasing them to make them okay.
My fellow jurors were a neat bunch themselves. But I wont go into detail since I'm already bored of talking about this whole thing. We went into deliberation on the second day. Under the Illinois Animal Control Act, we found that the defendent, Cynthia, was liable for what her dog did to Jennifer. We decided that Jennifer should receive full compensation for the hospital bills and for losses due to her being in the hospital, like missing work and her vacation. So that's $10,000 right there. I believe for pain & suffering, we made that equal to the hospital bill (I thought it should have been less at first but in the end agreed to the amount). For disability I think we gave her $1,000 and $1,500 for disfigurement. So the whole total was around $20,500.
If you see me in person, ask me about the jurors and what characters some of them were. I'm leaving a bunch out but, like I said, I'm tired of typing about it right now.
Song playing right now as I finish this post: Wild Horses done by The Sundays.
The trial was a personal injury lawsuit. I'll try to keep this short.
Background:
Landlord own building. Building has two stories. Landlord, Cynthia, lives on 2nd floor. Jennifer Gray (not the famous one), lives on the 1st floor. There's a small room aread in the basement, Brad, Cynthia's good friend and hair stylist, live there. Cynthia and Jennifer both have dogs. They have both helped each other out in walking each other's dogs when the other was away. Cynthia's dog is an 11yr old, 130lb dog. Huge dog, but old. Cynthia has a holistic vet fot the dog. She even got the dog accupunture sessions to help his arthritis. His name is Budha. Jennifer's dog is named Moxie.
Time line:
1. Cynthia goes to California for vacation. Asks Brad, who is usually hanging out in Cynthia's place to use her kitchen, to look after Budha. Also asks Jennifer to help out if she can, like take him out on walks.
2. Jennifer pops her head into Cynthia's apt to check to see if Budha needs a walk, since she is about to take Moxie out for a walk. Brad and his friend are in the apt eating a steak dinner. Brad says that he and his friend took Budha already out for a walk earlier in the day but if Budha wanted to go out, then fine.
3. Jennifer gets the collar and leash and puts it on Budha. Budha lays down indicating he doesn't want to go out. Jennifer tugs lightly on leash and calls his name to get him to get up. Budha growls. Jennifer wait a bit before tugging on the leash again. Again Budha growls. Jennifer then talks to Brad about stuff for about 2 minutes later, to let Budha cool off.
4. Jennifer crouches down to take Budha's leash off of him. As she reaches for it, Budha bites her hand. The bite is pretty bad.
5. Brad takes Jennifer to the hospital. They treast the bite.
6. The next day the hand swells up. She goes back to the hospital. They keep her there for 3 days while they keep her hooked up to an IV to give her antibiotics for the infection of skin on her hand. Jennifer's hospital bills - or at least what she had to pay out of pocket - were around $8,000. She also missed a vacation to the British Virgin Islands since she was in the hospital. Expense for vacation added with loss of wages from her job, as a producer for Harpo, amount to around $2,000. her lawyer is also asking for pain & suffering, disability, and disfigurement losses. Suggests amounts of $35,000, $30,000, and $15,000.
The whole trial lasted two days. It was pretty much boring and much of it was spent waiting around for it to start on time, which it didn't and waiting for sidebar sessions to end, which there were a lot of. Every person involved were characters. I watched them very carefully so that I can sometime in the future can play them on stage.
The judge was this very old black women. She was sort of scatter-brained and at times it looked like she wasn't even paying attention to the case. Sometimes when one of the lawyers had an objection, it looked like she was mentally flipping a coin to make the judgement, as if she had missed what had been said just a minute ago. Some of the other jurors said they saw her asleep at one moment. I didn't see that.
One of the three court deputies, but the main one we dealt with, was this black man with super thick glasses. He seemed a little slow and maybe a little blind. When he would hand out our check to us, he would call our names and when someone said it was for them, it seemed like he had trouble figuring out who said it. He also didn't like it if anyone questioned his authority, which I witnessed one time when on of the more disagreeable jurors wanted to make the calls on something.
When Cynthia took the witness stand, she was in tears for a good portion of it. Very distraught and her answers were pretty evasive. The plaintiff's counsel took to reading transcipts of a deposition taken a month or so before the trial to get her to answer the way she had during the deposition.
Jennifer seemed still and devoid of any real emotion while on the stand. I'm gonna guess she was heavily coached or at least she's just a cold woman.
The doctor who examined Jennifer couldn't be there so they read from the transcipts of the depostion to hear what he said during it.
The plantiff's counsel was this large fat man who could be compared with a bull dog. At times he could get really angry. All the blood would rush to his head, causing his face to get real red. The defendent's counsel was this rail thin man who took his time with things. He seemed a little unorganized and low in energy. Whenever any of his questions would be sustained he had a hard time of rephrasing them to make them okay.
My fellow jurors were a neat bunch themselves. But I wont go into detail since I'm already bored of talking about this whole thing. We went into deliberation on the second day. Under the Illinois Animal Control Act, we found that the defendent, Cynthia, was liable for what her dog did to Jennifer. We decided that Jennifer should receive full compensation for the hospital bills and for losses due to her being in the hospital, like missing work and her vacation. So that's $10,000 right there. I believe for pain & suffering, we made that equal to the hospital bill (I thought it should have been less at first but in the end agreed to the amount). For disability I think we gave her $1,000 and $1,500 for disfigurement. So the whole total was around $20,500.
If you see me in person, ask me about the jurors and what characters some of them were. I'm leaving a bunch out but, like I said, I'm tired of typing about it right now.
Song playing right now as I finish this post: Wild Horses done by The Sundays.
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