Home Sick

Today I'm home from work because I'm a little sick. I'm getting better; I feel much better since this morning. But I'm not able to relax on the couch and watch TV because we've got cleaning ladies here today cleaning up the place. But I haven't had time in the past week to actually clean my room enough so that the cleaning ladies could finish up the job of cleaning my room. But my bathroom is gonna get cleaned and this makes me very happy.

Last week I put in my vacation request at work for the all of Thanksgiving week off. I have to be at work the day before Christmas but I get the day after Thanksgiving off. So I get to visit my parents during Thanksgiving this year but not Christmas. Oh well.

The Halloween show of FELT was a fun one and the costume and talent contest between the puppets was pretty fun. Lauren won the contest with Carrot. She dresses Carrot up as a "carrot bandit" and her talent was giving a dramatic monologue but the monologue was actually the lyrics to "The Little Mermaid."

Boom Chicago was in town last week also and a bunch of people I knew were auditioning for it. A few got callbacks, which is great. Once again I failed to learn about this in time to sign up for a slot. Oh well, maybe next year.

Late Friday night I went to the Hideout where a couple of DJ's were taking turns in spinning some great tunes. It was unusually warm that night and inside the Hideout the dance area was quite steamy. But I had fun.

I did Mr. Voice for the first time at ComedySportz on Saturday. It was a 6pm show and I did an okay job at it. Then I rushed north for an 8pm Rattlesnake show. I thought the show was okay but our coach and others have said it was a really good show. So what do I know? I know that I'm losing the ability to judge whether a show was good or not. I guess that means I'm doing a better job of just being in the moment and not being so concerned with how I think the show is playing out.

Later on in the night I did Rant and that was fun although I thought my positive rant about liking Law & Order wasn't all that great.

Pennybear had our last show of our 6-week run at the Apollo last night. It was a good show and we had a good crowd. I got to catch up with a few friends I haven't seen in awhile so that was good.

Sleepy Time

After I got home from work last night, I only had enough energy to watch Sunday's episode of Dexter (On Demand!) and eat a bowl of oatmeal. An hour later I was super tired and I had a headache. I decided to do what I haven't done in months: go to bed early.

I went to bed at 8pm! I didn't fall asleep right away but eventually I did. I woke up in the dark and still felt exhausted. But I felt like I slept a long time. It must be around 3am, right?

I look around and see some light is getting into my room from the kitchen area. I get up and look and I see that the light is actually a light that's been left on in the living room. I will turn it off, but not before I relieve my bladder. That's when I hear the front door being wrestled with. Panic mode starts in and I freeze in the bathroom. All of my attention goes to my ears, searching out for more noise. That's when I hear one of my roommates walk into the apartment. But at 3am?

I go to my night stand alarm clock to check the time. It has a wash cloth draped over it because I don't like how bright the time shines in the pitch black of my room. I uncover the alarm clock and find out that I was mistaken: it's 10:45pm. I only got a 2 and a half hour nap.

Luckily this nap didn't prevent me from falling asleep and getting a proper night's sleep. I went back to bed at 11pm and this time slept soundly until my alarm clock woke me up this morning.

Notes on the Past Week

Last Tuesday I had CSz rehearsal and it was fun to feel like we were actually rehearsing things. It never hurts to work on practicing the games we do in shows. It definitely never hurts to practice musical improv. Especially for me since I'm not so good at it.

Trivial Pursuit is fun at first but if it takes too long to finish, it becomes like Monopoly which no one really wants to play ever. But at least with Trivial Pursuit you can exercise your brain muscles.

Felt is having a Halloween show this Wednesday... on Halloween. It's nice that it'll be the actual holiday for the show. Our puppets will be in costume and there will probably be a puppet talent show to see which puppet goes away with a prize. That should be fun.

I was hoping the Rockies could have at least made the World Series somewhat exciting. But they didn't.

Sent happy birthday wishes on Friday to: my roommate, my sister, and my best friend.

I'm glad I decided against Critical Mass last Friday because I would have been soaked to the bone. Instead I was safe and warm in my apartment getting hooked on Stranger Than Fiction when I told myself I was supposed to be cleaning my room. I need more TV watching discipline.

RHS show was fun and I did a great pratfall that was 0% prat and 100% fall. But it looked great and I didn't get hurt and I played it off like I did get hurt which means I'm a great physical comedian.

Saw the movie Control on Saturday. I liked the beginning of it a lot because they didn't hype it up but made it look real and ordinary, the beginning of the band. But I didn't love the movie either. I'd say if you don't want to spend $10 to see it in a theater, then wait for it to come out on DVD.

Later that night I had a CSz show and it was real fun. I'm getting comfortable playing with this theater and that's great. Then much later I went to a Halloween party in Wicker Park and was one of maybe 3 other people not in costume. The other 50 people there had really great costumes that were all very creative. I went with non-improvisers and was sort of surprised to run into a couple people I recognized.

Channel 101's Yatch Rock is a wonderful show and I wish I could do something like that.

Pennybear's show was a fun one but it was also a little wild. Another great audience, which is nice. Next week is our last show so hopefully we can sell out the theater next Sunday.

Week Abbr.

Poss. last TM Felt show. 2 silly.
Sub Nahnsen 4 RHS. Fun charac., lil 2 much same energ.
Fri. 8pm CSz. Good T's.
Bike to WP. Meet up w/ VB. Bike to LSq.
Pub crawl 4 JN; totes fun. 4 beers + no nachos. Graffton, Daily, R. Vill., Oakw.
PMU Sat morn w/ VB.
2pm lines.
Sat. 6pm; almost compl. 5 Things.
Cray-z warm weath. sweat. bike.
1030 RHS. Fun t's.
Midn Rant. OK.
Bess bd par-t @ J's. Sup tired.
Goldn Ang w/ JF.
2 nites n row: 3am bed-t.
Good sleeps. EZ Sun.
Pennybear: 19 paid, 2 comp = 21 people! Energ., respons., laughn. Good t's.
Friend hang out aft sho @ LH. Sup warm.
CLE 2 BOS 11
Cold front, rainy Mon.
Dexter On-D.
Thea bd par-t @ Brauhaus.

Pretty Darn Busy

These past few weeks have been pretty busy. Because I've been puting myself down as available for all my free weekend nights, I'm getting what feels like a lot of ComedySportz shows. Last week I had 3 shows (2 on a Saturday) and this weekend I have 2 shows. Add on top of that the start of the show Rant at iO, which opened this past Saturday at midnight. Add to the mix sketch rehearsals that involve running lines and tweaking moments during sketches. Not to mention Sunday night shows of Pennybear.

And that's just the weekend.

Between Tuesday and Thursday I've got 2 nights of rehearsal and one night of puppet improv. As such, I'm doing absolutely nothing on Monday nights and I'm going to hold onto that free night as long as I can. That's why I haven't gone over to iO to catch the Armando for that night.

My day job is also getting me down because I've been having to take customer service messages due to an understaffed CS department. While taking messages from irate customers, I have to fight the strong urge to quit my job on the spot. October would not be a good month to be without a job because soon it will be the holiday season and many places take a break from looking to hire people during this time.

I never did hear back from the Onion girl. Oh well. Too bad. But don't feel sorry for me, because things are looking good in the horizon.

Celebrating 7 Years of Serving Chicago

Seven years ago yesterday I moved to Chicago from Florida. I celebrated it by going to work and then watching TV at home. I also went to Home Depot with my roommate Tim get get fluorescent bulbs and a few other things for the apartment. Once back home we changed the old fluorescent bulbs in the hallway and the common area bathroom.

~~~~

I brought my bike to the bike shop Sunday after finally throwing in the towel in trying to find my missing key to my bike's wheels. So I'm having an entirely new wheel lock system put in. This time I'll actually register the key with the wheel lock company so that I don't have to go through this again. I have learned a valuable lesson. Thankfully doing this won't be too expensive.

But... I'm excited because that means after work today I get my bike back and then I can ride around Chicago again! Freedom! It really feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

~~~~

This week I've been reminded just how busy I actually am and how it makes finding an open night for scheduling a date with a lady super hard. Especially when one weekend she's out of town and then next weekend I've got a wedding and the opening of a sketch show. This latest Onion girl seems great... now if we could only actually meet. Someday... someday this will all get easier.

To-Do List

Yesterday I made a To-Do list for myself, hoping it will motivate myself into action. So far so good. This list has 61 items on it. I'm not going to publish it here, as it would take too long. Suffice to say it involves cleaning my room, buying new stuff, selling or giving away old stuff, and getting more organized.

The list has only been in existence for a little under 24 hours and I've already got 3 things done. The biggest of the 3 was cleaning out all the shit underneath my bed. There were a lot of old Readers and envelopes under my bed. And a shit ton of dust. But it felt good getting it done.

I plan on getting another 7 things done today. Yay productivity!

Day 31 - Last Day

push-ups and sit-ups: I really blew it this last week on this challenge. I totally forgot to do any ups this day.
One thing that is interesting, my abs have been aching for about a full day now. Perhaps they are trying to tell my body to keep doing the sit-ups and that the inactivity is hurting them.

alcohol: none.

So this concludes the August Challenge.
On the ups, I did good up until the last few days.
I successfully didn't drink a drop of alcohol.
I successfully didn't log on to my online personal ad to check to see if anyone had been checking out my profile.
And I successfully woke up before noon on the weekends.

Good for me.

Day 30

push-ups and sit-ups: none. From waking up to getting back home from a delayed flight back to Chicago, I didn't have any time to do any ups.
alcohol: after the funeral we went to this American Legion place for the reception. There was a bar next to it and I was offered a drink by one of my cousins. I had to decline. I also didn't feel like drinking. So: none.

Day 29

push-ups: 11. Even remembered to do them despite being in Minneapolis for a funeral.
sit-ups: 30.
alcohol: none.

Day 28

push-ups: 10. Guess taking a day off wasn't such a good idea.
sit-ups: 40.
alcohol: none.

Day 27

push-ups & sit-ups: I got a huge headache later in the day, which is when I do my ups and so I decided to go to bed and not do the ups. So no ups done on this day.
alcohol: none.

Day 26

push-ups: 14.
sit-ups: 40.
alcohol: none.
weekend wake-up: 7:15am; from a call from my dad telling me of my grandmother's passing away. After being up for an hour, went back to bed and slept until 11:30am.

Dark Day

My grandmother passed away today. She was 78. She was a great lady and had this great jaded way at looking at the world. I always got the sense that when things went wrong she was able to deal with it as if she expected it to go wrong. Kind of a "what can you do?" attitide. A been-there-done-that kind of thing. But she wasn't jaded all the time. She loved her family - for better or for worse - and she loved to laugh. She also had been a smoker for decades - I think she started smoking when she was around 13 years old. I always expected her to get lung cancer but she never did.

In the end it was heart failure; my guess caused in part by the smoking. My grandpa, her husband, who is also 78, is a great guy and my heart goes out to him during this painful time. His sister died about a month ago and now he lost his wife. Just not fair. They were married just over 50 years.

My grandma is succeeded by 5 children, 14 grandchildren, 8 great grandchildren, and various other friends and family. I will miss her.

Day 25

push-ups: 14. Better.
sit-ups: 40. Also better.
alcohol: none.
weekend wake-up: 10:30am.

Day 24

push-ups: 12. Ugh.
sit-ups: 35. Double ugh.
alcohol: none.

Day 23

push-ups: 12. I keep getting worse. Perhaps I shouldn't do these right before I got to bed, when I tired. Yeaaaaah, that's a pretty good idea.
sit-ups: 35.
alcohol: none.

Day 22 - start of week 4

push-ups: 13
sit-us: I had a show this day at 8pm and in the show I did about 8 sit-ups. Then 3 hours later I did my sit-ups and got to 30. So 38.
alcohol: none.

Bowling Greatness

Last Thursday after work my company had a company party at Lucky Strike. We had 8 lanes all to ourselves in our own little area and there were appetizers and later nice food served. The food was pretty good. I haven't bowled in probably a little over a year.

Back when I was in middle school, I joined a youth bowling league and it was fun although I was pretty bad at it. I think my average eventually got to around 120. But I never broke above 150. I think the league was only a fall league - meaning it only met in autumn - but I could be wrong about that. Either way, I only did it for 2 autumns before I moved on to a different hobby. Zoom forward to college and I bowled occasionally because there was a bowling alley on campus very close to the theater I was always at. I think I got my average up at around 140 during this time.

But then one day I just fell into the "zone." I got 6 strikes in a row and then in the 10th frame I got 3 strikes. My final score during that game was 222. I was so amazed I could hardly believe what I did. Luckily I was bowling with a friend so I had a witness. I believe my next highest score was around 180.

I bowled two games at Lucky Strike during the party. I got 114 the first game. Then I decided to try to get a spare every frame. I nearly did; only the 10th frame didn't have a spare or strike in it. And I got a turkey. This second game I got a score of 201. Again, I was amazed at my good fortune. But this time I had a camera.

Day 21

push-ups: 14. What the F arms?! Why can't you get better faster like your cousin, abs? I would have thought you'd be at 20 by now. Time to shape up.
sit-ups: 50. I did alternating twisting thing again this time. It didn't hurt until 30; I must be getting better!
alcohol: none.

Day 20

push-ups: 13.
sit-ups: I did crunches this time, just to see how different they were. 40.
alcohol: none.

Day 19

push-ups: 11. Spoke too soon I guess about the first 10 being pretty easy.
sit-ups: 40. Same thing as above; the first 14 were okay but then I started to slow down and feel the burn.
alcohol: none.
weekend wake-up: 11:30am.

Lollapalooza - Day 3

I was excited for Day 3 mostly because local band, The 1900s, were at the festival. I again woke up later than I wanted and rushed to the park and got to their early show half-way through it. I got to hear 3 songs but at least I got to see them. They had a good show and even got to meet Jeanine, whose one of the band members. My camera's battery died soon afterwards so I wasn't able to get more pictures taken of Day 3. But this is okay since Day 3 was pretty much a disappointment from that point on. It also felt hotter than Day 1, was WAY more packed, and the ground was wet and muddy in many places because of the rain during the night. So here's a few more pictures of The 1900s.





The other acts I saw on Day 3:
Rodrigo y Gabriela - amazing guitarists and I would expect to soon hear their music in Chipotles and Starbucks across America.
Amy Whinehouse - not into her stuff at all; kind of have a knee jerk reaction to the hyper surrounding her; wasn't impressed at all with her set and found her show (I left halfway through) to be boring.
Iggy and the Stooges - Great show; Iggy's such a spaz; he invited the audience on stage and instead of a few kids it turned into 300. It was crazy. I left halfway through the show to check out Peter Bjorn & John.
Peter Bjorn & John - their sound system blew out during their second song; waited 15 minutes before leaving; learn 15 minutes after I left that they finally got the sound system back and played a few more of their songs.
Modest Mouse - like their stuff and they sounded good but didn't really make an effort to connect or interact with the audience and so I though their show was so-so.

I didn't stay for Pearl Jam because I don't really like that band but those that did stay, I hear, had a real great time. Overall, Day 1 was the best, Day 2 had the best weather and I got to see YYY's for the 3rd time live, and Day 3 was a bust except for The 1900s. The organizers did a great job and their only slip up was putting the Cold War Kids on a small stage because their audience for their show was crazy huge and it was very hard to get through this crowd when I was trying to get over to see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. There weren't any huge lines at the food tents and only time there were huge lines was on Day 3 for the beverage booths.


Doing the whole festival took a lot out of me and I don't think I'll be able to do it again next year. Maybe I'll only get a one day pass next year, if I do go. This is a picture of me at the end of Day 2.

Lollapalooza - Day 2

I woke up later than I wanted on this Saturday (check out Day 4 of Challenge for that info) and getting up and going down to Grant Park felt like having to go and clock-in to work on time. Saturday and Sunday really felt like this festival become my job. The first band I got to see was this band that I heard had 29 people in it. It's a Swedish band called "I'm From Barcelona" and on this day they had 20 people on stage. One of which was dressed up in a bear costume. They seemed to be genuinely happy to be at the festival and their enthusiams was contagious. Their songs were pop-y and cute.


After that I checked out a little bit of the for-kids band The Sippy Cups before tracking down my friend Bess at Tapes 'n Tapes. I thought Tapes 'n Tapes had an okay show. Then it was on to Stephen Marley. I'm not that into Regae but those that I could tell loved that type of music were having a great time during the show. I listened to a bit of STS9 before walking to the other side of the festival to get a spot close to the stage for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I like this band but the reason I went to them early was so that after their show I was hoping to get an even closer spot for the next band on that stage - the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But it seemed that everyone that was in front of me had the same idea.


Clap Your Hands Say Yeah were okay but the show made me kind of dislike the lead singer. His mic volume wasn't high enough either, so that was a little frustrating. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs had a freakin' amazing show and I loved it. They really brought it and I think this was my favorite show of the festival. Things got rough though in the crowd on their last song. It became sardine-ville and after their set people were pushing in, trying to get extra close for the next band on that stage, Muse. I was packed in so much it became a little hard to breathe and it reminded me of those soccer games in Eurpose where people get crushed to death by the shear volume of the crowd. I was right next to the barrier for the AV aisle (it ran between the stage and the AV tent) and because I figured getting out of the super tight crowd would have taken around 30 minutes, I had a security guard pull me over the barrier so that I could get out. Once free I was able to breahe easier.

I had a 10:30pm show at iO so I checked out a little bit of Patti Smith before eventually leaving the festival.

Day 18

push-ups: 16. I can tell I'm getting better even though the number I can do isn't getting higher. The first 10 are getting pretty easy now.
sit-ups: 50. Same with the sit-ups. The first 20 come pretty easy. The muscles don't start to burn until 23.

alcohol: I've got a bottle of wine on my book shelf. Normally I don't pay any attention to it. Today, though, I looked at it and though that since today was kind of yucky weather-wise, that it might be nice to have a glass or two of this wine. Alcohol occasionally is fine, I don't want to come off as Straight Edge by any means. The thing that is neat - and is always neat when I try this challenge - is that I recognize the difference between actually wanting a little bit of alcohol as apposed to having some because someone offers even if I don't want any.

In this day and age, I've felt that when someone says to you "can I get you a drink" or "can I buy you a beer" perhaps we take that to mean "I want to bond with you right now." Somehow the fact that you are both drinking a beer or a glass of wine together makes it easier to stand next to each other and talk about what's going on in your lives.

weekend wake-up: 10:40am

Day 17

push-ups: 16
sit-ups: 50
alcohol: none.

Lollapalooza - Day 1

Once I got into the park I was much happier. My festival buddy, Marla, was already there and she was at Electric Six's show. I couldn't find her so instead I situated myself behind the audio tent and put on sun block. When I was applying sun block to my ears, my hand brushed my glasses frame and knocked the frame off the glasses. I rarely tighten the screws that hold the frames on the glasses. I didn't even attempt to find the tiny, tiny silver screw on the gray asphalt street and resigned myself that it was lost. To my surprise, my glasses did a very good job staying on my face with one of the frames missing and they were able to stay in the right spot so that I could see clearly around myself. I expected them to drift down my nose or hang crookedly on my face so that one or both eyes was always out of focus.

But the start of the festival didn't look good. Were my troubles with getting in and having my glasses fall apart omens to how the rest of the festival was going to be?

Thankfully no.


Later in the day Marla and I caught The Rapture's show. They were amazing and the crowd was really into them. I was already a fan of the band but became even more of a fan afterwards. Marla commented that they were her new favorite band. I'd put their show in the Top 3 of shows I saw over the 3 days of the fest.


Another show that was in my Top 3 was later that first day. It was the Daft Punk show, which ended Day 1. Marla and I were relatively close to the stage, which was curtained off with a black curtain to hide the stage set-up for the show. Their show was, for a lack of a better word, amazing. Everything that they could have done to make their music show-worthy for an outdoor concert was done.

Light show. Check.
Mixing their own music so songs are on top of other songs so that it's not just like the songs are on the CDs. Check.
Cool stage set-up. Check.

I was worried before the show if I'd be entertained but those doubts were erased during the show. They BROUGHT it. Sure, it could have been all pre-recorded stuff, already pre-mixed, and they guys in the robot suits could have been some random actors and not the actual real two French guys that make up Daft Punk. But I have faith that it was the real guys and that they were mixing their songs in person.

Well done Day 1; you rocked my world.

Lollapalooza - Getting In Shouldn't Have Been This Hard

I got off work at noon. I got some pizza for lunch and ate it over by The Bean.


Then I walked through Millennium Park to get to the Festival, which was at Grant Park.


However, I mistakenly brought the receipt instead of the actual ticket so I had to go back home, get the ticket, and come back. Super bummer. I basically did the same thing with Pitchfork Festival (except completely forgot to bring the ticket) so I guess I didn't learn anything.

Once I got back to the festival it was around 3 hour after I planned on arriving there.

Day 16 of August Challenge

push-ups: 5. I got to 3 and all of the sudden the right side of my pelvis area started to hurt real bad. It's in the same location as the appendix and I really hope my push-ups didn't make my appendix burst. Knock on wood. I should check webmd.com about this.

sit-ups: 30. The pain in my lower right side was still there but I pushed through the discomfort. But I still wasn't able to do nearly as well as I did yesterday.

alcohol: After work the company I work for had a summer party at Lucky Strike. Most people were having drinks since the company was footing the bill. I had Sprite instead. Then, after my rehearsal, a few of us Snakes went to a bar and I was offered a beer since I covered a teammate for the location and coach fees. I accepted at first but then decided to not to abandon my monthly challenge. So I had a Sprite instead. No alcohol today. Still dry!

Day 15 - start of week 3

Today is the start of week 3 of the August Challenge.

sit-ups: 46
push-ups: 16
alcohol: none yet.

~~~~

I did FELT last night for the first time in 2 months and it was good to be back. We had a couple sit-ins and it was my first time to play with Jorin since he was added to the cast. The show was good and despite the fact that summer intensive is over at iO, we still had a large audience.

I also finally recharged by camera batteries and uploaded the pictures on it to my computer. Soon I'll have time to post pictures and entries for Lollapalooza.

Day 14 of August Challenge

sit-ups: 40.

push-ups: 14

alcohol: none. We pizza, pop, and beer at rehearsal tonight. The pop was only Pepsi, which I don't like. Luckily my friend Sarah offered her water bottle to me. So the temptation to have a beer was there tonight but didn't drink any.

Day 13

sit-ups: 40.

push-ups: 14!

alcohol: none.

Day 12

sit-ups: 20. I barely made it to 20 too. By 7 I was already feeling the burn in my abs. I'm not sure why. The only thing different is that I did the ups around 10pm, instead of waiting until just before bed-time.

push-ups: 13. I wanted to go for 14 but my lower back said no.

alcohol: none.

waking up during the weekend: 11am. Okay, I know that so far I haven't failed this challenge but having each of the times being between 11am and noon is a little pathetic. I'm hoping for around 10am next weekend. It's also my goal that sometime soon (within 6 months from now, say) I'll be waking up between 8 and 9am. I want to become more productive during the weekends and actually get stuff done. Step 1 is waking up earlier. Step 2 is actually using that gained time with doing productive things. Things other than sitting on the coach and watching TV.

Challenge #5: Broken! No! I don't want to speak on this subject that much, because it's just a little too personal for my comfort, but I must admit that sometime during this past week I just wasn't able to take the pressure. I'd say that I did it just so that I wasn't always thinking about NOT doing it. I rarely think about the topic in general but the fact that I created the challenge made it so that the topic was always in my mind, even if it was only at the back of my mind. I'm being vague on when the challenge failed on purpose.

Day 11

sit-ups: 30

push-ups: 11

alcohol: none.

waking up on the weekend: woke up at 11:15am. Still not great considering that I initially woke up around 10am. I thought at the time "sweet, 10am is much better; I've done good this weekend" but then I fell back asleep.

Day 10

sit-ups: I forgot to do my sit-ups this day. I normally do the ups right before I go to bed and I actually do my push-ups first and my sit-ups second. These past few days I've done my sit-ups while I'm bed. Then I flip over and stretch my stomach the opposite way to avoid abdominal cramps. This is fine since I usually fall asleep on my stomach anyways. But for some reason when I got into bed I forgot to do the sit-ups. But I did do my push-ups.

push-ups: 12

alcohol: After my Newbie show at CSz, I went to a bar for our stage manager's birthday. I didn't drink though. I wasn't even asked, though, by a waiter if I wanted a drink. So I wasn't extra pressured for a drink.

Day 9

sit-ups: 30

push-ups: 13

alcohol: none still.

Day 8

Sweet. I've been doing this challenge for a full week now. Today starts week 2 of the challenge. Let's see how much I've progressed since then. First, I reminder on how well I did on day 1:

Day 1
sit-ups: 10
push-ups: 6

Today, Day 8
sit-ups: 26. An increase of over 150%!
push-ups: 13. An increase of over 100%!

Granted, I didn't really push myself on the first day so the percentage increase is purposely inflated. This week I shall push myself to go farther than I think I can and actually stop the up when I actually cannot physically continue and not when I give up mentally.

alcohol: still dry.

Day 7

sit-ups: 20. This time I did this method: sit up normally, sit up and twist to the right, sit up normally, sit up and twist to the left, normal, right twist, normal, left twist, and so on and so on. That way is much tougher to do. I think tomorrow I'll try a total non-twist attempt and see how much I've improved over the week.

push-ups: 11.

alcohol: None.

Day 6

sit-ups: 18. On sit-up number 6 I decided to try that thing where you twist your torso to one side so that you also work out your side muscles. Man that started to kill two sit-ups later. I was surprised I was able to get to 10, let alone 18. So good job me.

push-ups: 8. Who's still a weakling? This guy.

alcohol: None and no urge to do so either.

Day 5 of August Challenge

sit- ups: 12

push ups: 6

alcohol: none.

waking up: 11:00am. I set my alarm at 10am and kept hitting snooze until 11am. I also went to bed at 4am so getting up at 11am is good for me.

I blame a hard weekend of walking around and being exhausted by seeing a lot of music for my poor performance in the ups.

Day 4 of August Challenge

sit-ups: 20.

push-ups: 10. Wow, I'm doing good.

alcohol: none. I went to a party after my iO show and was offered beer on two separate occasions. Politely declined the offers. Didn't really feel like drinking anyway.

weekend wake up: 11:30am. I set my alarm for 8am and it went off except I hit the snooze button and then fell asleep again. I didn't hear the alarm go off again and woke up 3 1/2 hours later. I went to bed around 12:30; woke up at 5:20am and had to take some puffs on my asthma inhaler. Could the waking up at 5:20 have made me extra sleepy during the 8am hour? So much so that I couldn't hear the alarm after I hit the snooze? We'll never really know.

Day 3 of August Challenge

sit-ups: 20

push-ups: 6

alcohol: none. My friend Marla is my Lollapalooza buddy and she mentioned that tomorrow she'll want a beer. I remarked "yeah" as if I also would want one tomorrow and then remembered my August Challenge. No real urge to drink today though.

Day 2

Oh no! I already failed at a challenge! I'm such a loser. It was #4. But I did it on accident. Don't believe me?

It was my July self that did me in. I had dowloaded a video clip of a nude scene in a movie that Alison Lohman was in. I normally watch such videos and then send them to the trash can. For whatever reason when I downloaded it, the screen was blank but I could hear sound. I got frustrated and moved on to some other thing. This evening after I got back from a Rattlesnake rehearsal, I noticed an .avi clip on my desktop. "What's this?" I said to myself. I opened it up and played it because I genuinely didn't remember saving a video clip to my desktop. It was the nude scene. Half way into the scene I suddenly remembered the challenge of number 3. "Oh no!" I said to myself, this time out loud. Although technically I wasn't on the Internet when I viewed the clip, it did come from the Internet and the underlining issue with challenge number 4 is to not view pics or video of naked ladies. So it's only day 2 and already one of them has bitten the dust.

But this does not mean I can now look at pictures of naked ladies all I want since I already failed the challenge. No. Because doing so would make challenge number 5 impossible. And I still want to be the master of my domain on that one.


Sit-ups: 15. Good job me.

Push-ups: 8. I was at 4 and I started to feel my arms respond with "hey, we did this yesterday! What the Hell are you doing to us?"

Alcohol: Was offered to go to the Holiday Club after rehearsal but I decided to go home instead. That's as close as I got on this challenge. Still dry!

~~~~~

Tomorrow is the first day of Lollapalooza and I've got a 3-day festival pass. I've also got a half-day at work tomorrow so I get to walk over to the festival at noon. I'm super excited for this. But the downside is that a) I cannot see The Bourne Ultimatum until next weekend and b) I don't have time to check out another Comedy Sportz show before my own newbie show.

The August Challenge

Last year on a whim I decided to not drink any alcohol during the month of August. I had been hung over one too many times that previous July. I think I even decided to do it on August 3rd and realized that I was still good since the last time I had drank any alcohol was something like July 28th. This time I was 13 hours into August before I decided to so it again.

But since I succeeded at this challenge last year, I feel I need to go further. And why not go overboard with it? So that's what I plan on doing.

For the next 31 days, I will try to post everyday about how I'm doing with my challenge. Here are my challenges:

THE CHALLENGES
1. To not drink any alcohol.
2. To do push-ups and sit ups everyday
3. To not log onto the Onion personals to check to see if any ladies have checked out my profile recently. No loggging in at all.
4. To not check out any pictures of naked ladies on the Internet.
5. To not master-b at all.
6. To wake up before noon on the weekend.

Numbers 3-5 are going to be tough. Number 3 maybe not so much because after awhile I'll forget about my profile and then won't care about checking it everyday. I expect to fail at number 5 but I'll try not to. I vow to give an 100% effort on this challenge. I also won't do a daily update about those three numbers because the object is to think less about sex and I can't do that if I'm updating everyday about it. So unless I fail at a task, I won't mention those three things again until September 1st. Oh, and I'm allowed to kiss ladies, but I've decided that I cannot make the first move. I don't expect any lady to throw herself at me but you never know, miracles could happen. I also want to allow for the loophole for making out because I don't want to be like "oh no, this girl wants to make out with me but I can't because of my personal challenge!"

Also notice that I don't have "do not go onto the Internet at work" on this list. This is because I want to try to do tasks that I think I can attempt without driving myself mad. I need the Internet at work in order to be happy. This is not a challenge in trying to punish myself. The is a self-improvement challenge. Also note that on September 1st, I fully expect to drink alcohol, not do any "ups," check out my personal ad stats, check out some naked ladies on the Net, master-b, and sleep past noon. Should making out or asking ladies out on dates come up that day too, then it could possibly become my best day ever this year.



DAY 1
Alcohol: still dry. Not even offered any so this hasn't been a challenge yet.

Sit-ups: 10. I could have done more, but I was starting to feel the burn at 7 and I thought, "you know, I'll stop early so that when the month ends it will look like I've progressed really well."
Push-ups: 6. Man I'm a weakling. I hope I can say that my August 31st self can beat up my current self easily by the month's end.

Progress: So far I'm on track! Good luck me!

Skeleton Attack no more

A week ago today was Skeleton Attack's last show. It was a so-so show but the packed audience was about 75% friends of Skeleton Attack. When they came out for their suggestion, they had to wait a full 20 seconds to get it because the audience was clapping and cheering so much. And then at the end of their so-so show, the audience gave them a standing ovation. It was great to see people really liked and respected them as a team. The Harold Commission didn't. And it's hard to hate the commission since I know the people on it and I'm friends with a couple of the people on it. When the next schedule was released, only 2 Skeleton Attackers found themselves still on the schedule. This is a shame because those that got cut I feel have slipped through the cracks.

I feel like I no longer really understand what iO wants from its performers. I'm actually glad that I have this CSz newbie training to take me away from iO for a few weeks. Perhaps having been away from the theater for a few weeks will prove refreshing for me once I go back. I haven't been in a Rattlesnake rehearsal for 6 weeks and I'm back this Thursday. I'm looking forward to it. It will also be the first rehearsal for our new sit-in.

Harry Potter

When I got back from Montana, the release date of the 7th book of Harry Potter seemed closer than normal. I knew that with all my rehearsals and actually having to do work at my job, I wouldn't have time to read all 6 of the previous books before the next book was released. But I just had to. Therefore I decided to chip in a bunch of change and buy the audiobooks off of iTunes.

Starting on Tuesday, July 10, I started listening to the audiobooks as I did my work. It was fun to listen to the books but a few times it felt like a big chore. The first week I would switch off between the audiobooks to actual music just to switch things up and not make it boring for me. Then after the Pitchfork weekend, I did the math and I didn't have much time before the 7th book came out. It became my mission and so every minute of free time was spent listening to the audiobooks. Books 1 and 2 were finished in a day each but the rest of the book are much bigger. Book 5 alone was cut up into 11 parts that were each 2 1/2 hours long. That's around 23 hours of listening for just one book. I found that I was able to get through about 16 hours of listening each day!

I listened to it while on the train to work.
I listened to it while at work.
I listened to it while on lunch.
I listened to it while on the train back home.
I listened to it while I made myself a sandwich.
I listened to it while I went to ComedySportz rehearsals.

I couldn't listen to it while in rehearsals.

But then once rehearsal was done, I listened to it while I went back home.
I listened to it each night till around 1:30 or 2am. It was ridiculous. I will fully admit this was stupid but in the end it paid off. At 10:30pm on Friday - 1 1/2 hours before the 7th book was to be released - I finished listening to the 6th book. I then walked to Borders and waiting for midnight to come around.

There weren't that many people in costume at the Borders I went to - by Diversey, Clark, and Broadway - but that was okay. I waiting in line with my group - blue wristbands, the 3rd group in line - and didn't get my book until 12:45am. My roomie Tim got his at 12:10 he said - he went to Barnes & Noble. By the time I got back to the apartment, he was way ahead of me in the reading.

My mom came into the area on Saturday for a funeral for her aunt - my great aunt - and I went out to the burbs to see her. It was nice to see her since I rarely get to see my mom but at the same time, I was eating into my time to read the 7th book. I know, I'm a bad son. But my mom wanted to read the book too! While we waiting in her hotel room for the time to drive me back to the Metra train station, we both were reading Harry Potter - her the end of the 6th book (which she needed to do before she started the 7th book) and me the start of the 7th book. It's hilarious, I know.

I finished book 7 around 2am Tuesday morning. I'm not going to publish any spoilers. I will just say that I loved the book.

Careful Not to Burn Out

When I got back from my vacation, I had a bunch of things to do each night for 8 straight days.

7/5 10:30pm Skeleton Attack show
7/6 10pm Pennybear sketch show as part of Graffiti
7/7 10:30pm Rattlesnake High School show
7/8 9pm Skeleton Attack rehearsal
7/9 7pm first ComedySportz newbie rehearsal
7/10 7:30pm first ComedySportz rehearsal with the rest of the ensemble
7/11 7pm ComedySportz newbie rehearsal
7/12 8pm Rattlesnake show

I wanted to celebrate this long stretch with two nice days of listening to bands at the Pitchfork Music Festival but this was not to be. I'm not sure if I already wrote about this, but my bike has a flat tire. Instead of a quick release system for the wheels, I got safety locks put on the wheels so that you have to have a key to get the wheels off. I've misplaced the key in my room so my bike is still out of commission. This limited my mobility in getting to and from the festival. I went there on Saturday but only for a few hours and I was too busy Sunday to go.

Because my nights are taken up with these newbie rehearsals for ComedySportz, I've had to cut back on one of the sketch groups I was in. Perhaps when I'm done with the newbie training I'll have more time to devote to it. Maybe not; I'm not sure. I'm trying to be careful not to burn out.

Montana Vacation

My Montana vacation ended a little over 3 weeks ago. It was fun and relaxing. The experience was different from previous years because there were much more people there that I didn't know that well. I could have been a little more proactive in talking to people but I wasn't. I think I knew I needed some alone time in the wilderness and that's that I chose for the most part.

I took a lot of pictures on the trip and you can see some of them on my flickr account: http://flickr.com/photos/ehtysrofnahtanoj/

Busy Tuesday

First news first... I got hired at Comedy Sportz!!! The two nights of auditions were actually fun and I actually did a really good job in them. I was able to remain calm (somewhat) throughout the process and I was able to subconsciously make really neat decisions. I even didn't suck at the singing exercises. Good for me.

My fellow inductees:
Jess Ring (fellow Strike Force alum)
Josh Breit (fellow Strike Force alum)
Erin Pallesen (he's a guy)
Erin Carr (she's a girl)
Sarah Maher
Megan Green

Two out of 3 of my roommates are also Comedy Sportz members so our apartment just went from 50% Comedy Sportz to 75% Comedy Sportz. My roomies are promising to haze us newbies real harsh-like. I'm kind of nervous about that. I hope it's nothing like Vincent DeNofrio gets in Full Metal Jacket.

~~~

But mostly on my mind is my trip. I was able to get the rewrite done, call my uncle, get my checks on the common room table for the bills, and get in touch with Paul.

What I still need to do:
Fix my flat front tire on my bike (Kozy's; first find my wheel lock key)
Write the Care Bears sketch.
get travel sized toiletries (Jewel)
Clean my bathroom
clean out my portion of the kitchen closet
call Mikaela/Tony to see what they are doing Thursday
get video from Paul (DVD malfunctions prevented a hand-off last night)
check 5-day forecasts in LA and Montana
buy a zip-up black track sweater to replace the one I have that's missing the zipper
Say goodbye to my co-worker Justin whose last day is this Friday, which I'll miss since I'll be in MT
Get a hair cut.

Comedy Sportz Call Back

I had a Comedy Sportz audition last night and I got a call back. That's pretty cool. I've never gotten a call back before. Nice. The call back is tonight and I'll try not to suck.

But my mind's mainly on the Montana trip. Here's a list of things I need/want to do before my flight Wednesday morning.

Fix my flat front tire on my bike (Kozy's; possibly fit between work and call back)
Do the rewrite on the Toilet Seat sketch I wrote. (try to do tonight after call back)
Write the Care Bears sketch. (same as above)
get travel sized toiletries (Jewel; tonight or tomorrow)
Clean my bathroom (tomorrow)
clean out my portion of the kitchen closet (tomorrow)
pay bill/put checks out on the common room table (do this after work today)
call Mikaela/Tony and Uncle Joel for seeing which night I can visit them when I'm in LA (tonight or tomorrow)
get video from Paul for Levin's dad, Harrison (need to contract Paul first)
check 5-day forecasts in LA and Montana (tomorrow)
buy a zip-up black track sweater to replace the one I have that's missing the zipper (tomorrow)
Say goodbye to my co-worker Justin whose last day is this Friday, which I'll miss since I'll be in MT (tomorrow)
Get a hair cut (has to be tomorrow after work)

To-Do lists help.

Creativity at Work

My job is pretty boring and mundane. I scan documents into a database, make sure the scanned images go into the files they are supposed to be in, and then bind the documents together and but them in boxes to be shipped off to a storage facility.

On the tops of the boxes I write the box number. After awhile I started being a little more creative with the ways I wrote it. I basically create or proximate fonts for the numbers. This past week, though, I've been more creative than usual.

Ticket to Paradise

Another reason Monday was a good day was that I got permission from my boss to take the last 3 business days of June off so that I could combine them with the first two business days of July that I have off and have time to go to Montana again this year. Since no one from Chicago is going this year (save for me) renting a car would be too expensive and I'd never be able to get there as fast since I'd be the only driver. Flying in and out of Montana is muy expensive. To make a long explanation short - I will be flying into LA, driving to Montana with the LA crew in a 12-seater van, and then after 5 beautiful days in Montana I'll be flying out of Great Falls, Montana back to Chicago.


I'm really, really looking forward to this trip. I feel like I NEED it more this year than the previous two years. I'm not sure exactly why the need is stronger this year but I think it may be because I'm feeling a little trapped and/or stagnant in Chicago/my job.

Good Signs

Last night, Monday, was my first officially free Monday night in years. Because I had all the time in the world (or 15 hours before work the next day) I decided to get on the 22 Clark bus to get back home. The idea was to be able to sit and read a book my friend gave me a month ago to read. And to occasionally look out the window and marvel at the beauty of Chicago in the summer. But the bus was packed and I stood the whole ride up.

I took the bus also because I wanted to go to Best Buy and buy Guitar Hero II. I played it all night and it was a ton of fun.

I took a break from Guitar Hero for dinner and that meant going to the corner store for some bread, cookies, and cereal. As I walked outside, the feeling of freedom swept over me. I felt like a normal person with all their weeknights free. I could do anything! Hang out at a bar, go to a pool hall with a friend, go see a movie, bike on the lake front path. It was like I had just moved to Chicago and I had no commitments at all. It was just like the feeling I got at the start of summer vacation when I was in school. I felt great.

And as I walked back home with the groceries in hand, I saw this:


A complete rainbow arch. It was so great. I'll take that as a good sign that good things are coming to me.

Taste of Randolph Street

This past weekend was Jonny's birthday weekend. He wanted to spend it at the Taste of Randolph Street and at a bar called Johnny's. I had a Cage Match show later that night so I knew I couldn't do Johnny's so instead I met up with him and a few of his friends at the Taste of Randolph Street. I biked down there, which was great, and it started to pour as I did, not so great but a ton of fun.

I got to catch the last 2 songs of The Changes when I got there. I also saw The Walkmen and then later the Smoking Popes. I didn't care for the Popes and I saw only so-so on The Walkmen. What I did love was the drummer of The Walkmen. Jonny is right in saying this guy is the living personification of Animal the muppet.


Later Kilgore Trout did a show for the Cage Match of Fallen Teams. We actually had a good show. We did a kind of Four Square-esque show with transitional edits and it made for a sort of wacky, yet still grounded, super-fun show. I had so much fun that I wanted to win so that we could play again in a month in the second round. But we lost by 5 votes to Rumpus. Good job Rumpus.

Quick Notes

Katy, Terry, Andy, and I (from Rattlesnake) got to play with POB and Eddie Pina in a Reckoning show slot. We did the form The Reckoning have been playing with recently and although the first part of it was a little wonky, after a certain point it became really good. I got to do a fun scene with POB that was classic Captain of police and his loose cannon detective. Mondo fun.

The BBQ at Duffy's place was nice. The corn was super spicy hot from the cayenne pepper and I got to eat some nice meat on a stick, which was the source of many dumb but fun jokes.

The Rattlesnake show with 5 peeps was fun but also a little weird. It was a lot more game-y and odd at times than normal. But in a good way.

There wasn't enough people in the audience at midnight for a Cage Match so instead it was postponed for next week where there will be a double header. But since there was enough people to warrant giving them a show for their money, the two teams combined and played as one. It was dumb and I don't think funny at all but it was fun for us players to be bad improv.

Last night I was Armando and gave monologues as well as pulled lights. I asked the audience to ask me a question about something they might want to know about me and I got "are you drunk?" "No," I said back. So I talked about alcohol and my experiences with it and my thoughts on the subject. The deconstruction scenes off the monologues were really good and fun. Hardly any literal things were taken but a lot of tangential and thematic stuff, which is always the best.

Today the Lollapalooza schedule was released and I'm excited about seeing shows this summer.

Activities

My weekends have been pretty busy recently and I've been having a lot of fun. I'm having so much fun that I think it's pushed me into being selfish with my fun time. No more doing of things that I only partially enjoy. I recently started to only partially enjoy doing lights for Armando. So I decided to quit doing lights. I have one last lights duty and then I have my Monday nights free. I'm excited about that. More time to have fun. Or time to organize my life. I've been doing lights for that show since late February of 2003!

When I've told friends that I'm quiting lights for Armando, they tell me that I ought to be playing in the show. While that is nice to hear, I don't really think I'm at that level yet. Honestly. Two days ago I did the Lottery for the first time and my individual performance was not so good. I was hesitant and in my head and definitely not at a veteran level. I'm also not going to hang around iO on Mondays nights in the hopes that I get to play. I'm going to enjoy my Mondays nights for at least this summer. Besides, like most players, I'm hoping that one day Noah will tell me I'm now good enough to play with Armando any time I want.

Another cool aspect of being super busy during the weekends is that when I think about dating some lady it starts to feel like a weight around my neck; an obstacle to having fun with my friends. This is a good place for me to be in. I want to enjoy being free and single.

Three weeks ago a bunch of people that are all on the same message board decided to meet together at this German bar for fun times. It sure was fun times. I can't believe it's only been three weeks since that time. I've done so much stuff that my memories of the time in the German bar seem like they happened 3 months ago.

My last three weeks:
Tues 5/15 - German Bar; too much fun until way too late at night for me.

Wed - Felt and a Skeleton Attack show. Both were great.
Thurs - Atticus Finch reunion show at the Playground for it's 10th anniversary. Hang out with Tony who's leaving for LA
Fri - a writers' meeting on a new sketch project at iO. Afterwards went to see Maria Bamford at the Lakeshore Theater with Manley and Facklis. Bamford is hilarious, I love her.

Sat - Molly's huge birthday/going away party.

skip over 5 boring days to the following Thurs - hang out time with Rattlesnake and one last time with Molly. Pizza and hanging out at Gilley's place of employment eating weird candy.

Fri - kick-ass RHS show.
Sat - early morning helping Molly move stuff into her moving van. Eat lunch afterward and say good-bye to Molly.

Sun - Pennybear (sketch group) rehearsal. This has been more fun than I thought it would be. Skeleton Attack has good show. Later I go to Carol's with the team and friends Thea and The Ferg join me.

Mon - Memorial Day: sleep late and go to BBQ party at Brett's. Play ping pong, Guitar Hero II, and an invented-on-the-spot game dubbed "32" that involves frisbees, 8'x4' sheets of drywall, and box defenders that are literally in boxes. (you had to be there)

skip forward 4 boring days to Fri - I think I saw the movie "Once" (pretty good) and later went to Shott's b-day party at a way too-overcrowded and hot&humid Johnny's bar.
Sat - RHS show (so-so) and later bike down with Thea to the Hideout for a band's album release party but mostly to see Ben Johnson open for the band with some comedy stylings.
Sun - super early morning Penny Bear rehearsal. Followed by noon writers' meeting for iO sketch project at Charna's house. (better than I thought it would be; the meeting, not Charna's house)
This past Mon - Jamie Swise does Armando and his stories are all awesome.

Tonight the Snakes that are still in town (Topaz is in LA for LA Festival) are getting to play with still-in-town members of The Reckoning (just POB as I understand it). Then Saturday there's a welcome-back-to-Chicago BBQ for Erica & Ryan, a RHS show, and then Kilgore Trout (4-person show since people are out of town) has a show in the Cage Match of Fallen Teams.

People Moving

I can't believe I forgot to mention in my last post the actual main reason for my moody moods lately. My good friend Molly is moving to LA. And not just her, but half a dozen other people it seems like. My friends Tony and Mikaela are moving to LA also. In fact, they're probably on the road in Missouri right about now. And I know of two other improvisers moving to LA also. So I guess that's 5 people. Not quite half a dozen but close enough.

Anyway, I'm down because my good friends are moving away. This won't be that dramatic in the short term because I can go weeks without seeing good friends before I notice that it's been awhile since I've seen them. This is what happens to me with friends in Chicago. But with them in LA, I'll get that feeling and then realize that I can just make plans to see them next weekend. I'll probably only see them once a year. This sucks.

But I'm trying to not let it get me down because these changes are all great for the people involved. They are onto bigger and better things and I wish them all success and happiness, which I'm sure they'll get. Plus, I have the memories of hanging out with them to keep me company, and that's not half bad.

Here's a picture of Molly:

Bon voyage Molly!!

Emotions

This past week I've been more emotional that usual. This is not good since I'm acutally pretty good at showing my emotions. So I crossed over from emo pussy to "what's wrong with that dude?" I'm exaggerating. I little.

When I'm meloncholy, I'm actually pretty good at hiding it. Or at least I'm good at hiding how deep my meloncholy goes. The past mont has been a blast and every weekend has been jammed packed with awesome things. I've really enjoyed myself and I've hung out with some amazing people. I'm also making some new friends and I couldn't be more jazzed about it. But with any amount of frivolity comes the after-taste of slight emptiness. At least it did this past week. It's that old friend of mine: Mr. YouWantToBeInLoveDon'tYou.

Mr. YWTBILDY come from my childhood and my childhood expectations about my life. It's the white-bred suburban staple of wanting to get married and have kids and settle down when you're older. Though my brand comes with the "kids? geesh, that's a lot of responsibility, don't you think?" preinstalled. (Sidebar: I actually haven't named this "friend" of mine, I just came up with the name.) As I've gotten older the dream has been whittled down to its core; find someone to love for my whole life and grow old together. Awwwwwwwwww, it's that sweet?

Barf.

Well, this past week that's what I've been dwelling on. But the thing about it is that I only feel that way when I'm home alone and I've got nothing to do. If I think about dating some new lady, I immediately switch over to "I like my free time. Dating someone takes too much energy and time away from me having fun with my friends." So we're talking about wanting things selfishly. So unless I can find a woman that will do whatever activity I want to all the time and hug, kiss, and cuddle with me when I'm home doing nothing, then I've got to get over this meloncholy mood.

Also, a few weeks ago I was watching Iconoclasts on Sundance with Isabella Rossellini and Dean Kamen. Kamen is an inventor who is most known for the Segway. Rossellini is known as one of the most beautiful actresses of our time. Anyway, I needed to know more about this Kamen guy and I went to my trusted friend Wikipedia. My trusted friend also told me that Ms. Rossellini has one child and it's a daughter. I checked it out and found pictures of her daughter, Elettra Wiedemann. An example:


I became instantly smitten and during my high emotions state this week have deluded myself that I might actually have a shot at wooing her should I ever get successful at acting or film direction. It could happen, right? Le sigh.

Oh, the crest of my emotional week was Tuesday night when I stayed inside and watched the series finale of Gilmore Girls. These past two seasons I haven't caught much of the show and I've only been caught up on the show via televisionwithoutpity.com recaps. But I did catch the last two episodes of this last season. I was an super deluxe crybaby during the show. For a good 40 minues of the hour-long show, I was in tears over this silly show being over. Could somebody give me back my dick? I mean, c'mon.

Tonight I think was my last wave of this meloncholy. I spent intermission of Armando on the back stairs looking out into the alley behind iO and trying to feel at peace. I've felt stagnant again lately and I need to change something to shake things loose I feel. I have to jobs that I get paid for and that I had to report my earnings to the goverment about. I'm thinking of quitting both of them.

Organization

I actually cleaned a part of my room this past Saturday. This made me very happy even though I didn't really commit that much time to it. I wanted to start the task immediately when I woke up but I failed to motivate myself to get up before noon. And then I wasted another two hours eating breakfast, dicking around on the Internet, and watching some TV, before I started cleaning.

Once I was doing it, it wasn't that bad. Still, I only lasted about two hours before I "needed a break." I then watched Jodie Foster do a guest role on Kung Fu in the '70s when she was a kid (the Internet is awesome) and then watched some more TV. After that it was time to get ready for my improv show.

I also wanted to keep at it every day - to clean a small portion of my room everyday - so that after a week or so my room would actually be clean. But I didn't feel like it yesterday. Oh well.

I'm feeling the same lack of energy at work. Work is not fun. I procrastinate like crazy and I'm on the Internet way too much. I've got the awful condition of wanting the good life without having to work for it.

Spider Man 3

I went to Evanston to check out Spider Man 3 with my friend Jonny, seen above spacing out. He thought the movie was a mixed bag and I rather enjoyed the movie. I thought they did a good job of developing characters and juggling all the villains although if they had decided to cut the amount of villains down from 3 to 2, it could have been a fantastic movie. Also, Toby Maguire strutting down New York sidewalks was hilarious.

Also at the movie were a bunch of Jonny's friends who I hadn't ever met before and it was cool to meet non-improv people and still be able to be my funny self. I'm patting myself on the back for that.

Sleepy Time at IHOP

Awhile ago it was Marla's birthday. She had the celebration at Ten Cat and that was a fun time. The art of mingling is a tricky thing to get the handle of but I'm getting a little better at it. Or more accurately, I'm getting more comfortable in being in the conversation I'm having at the time. Less looking around for a better conversation.

After we closed Ten Cat, a few of us went to IHOP for some much needed food to help digest the beer we had consumed. We were also tired. It was that odd mix of half tired, half hungry. The kind that where you know you need to eat but you are so tired you grow weary of waiting for the food to arrive but also too hungry to actually fall asleep.

The funniest thing happened though, and I'm sure it's a "you had to be there" kind of thing. Danny here ordered his food and then I asked the waiters (we got 2!, a master and apprentice) why it was so cold in our section. They didn't know why. Then we looked back at Danny because the waiter needed to ask him about what side he wanted (or somethings similar) and Danny was asleep. Just 10 seconds earlier he was awake. One of the waiters leaned in to Danny sheepishly and Danny awoke to all of us looking at him. It was very, very funny.

Roller Derby

The last two weekend I've gone to Cicero for the Windy City Rollers derby action. This picture is from the first weekend I went. It's really cool and I really get into the games. The picture shows the Hell's Belles versus XX (Double Crossers) and it was a really close match. Hell's Belles came from behind to win by one point on the final jam. The other game the first weekend was a blowout by the Furies against the Manic Attackers. But the Attackers have the best player ever, Malice with Chains. She's ridiculously good.

When we went, we had to pick our roller girlfriend for the night. Gilley and I both wanted to pick Gun Show Poe the first weekend. The second weekend I went with Athena DeCrime. Oh, and we had to figure out our roller derby names.

Names:
Ann = Ann O'War
Molly = Maul-y Ringwauld
Me = Excessive Forsythe
Tara = Tara'ble or Tara Ferma
I forget some of the others we came up with.

Ben's Back

My friend Ben is back from his stint on a Norwegian Cruise Line boat with Second City. He was on it for 4 months. He kept a blog about it and it was neat to read it and be able to hear his voice speak the words he wrote.

During the time he was on the boat, not a lot of things have changed in Chicago although I've had a lot of things happen to me. I've been in and out of two relationships during that time span. All three teams that I'm involved with (playing with or coaching) have had a roster change-up. I've gotten new headshots, a new iPod, a digital camera, and a new messenger bag. But overall, I'm still in the exact same situation as I was before Ben left.

March Madness Bracket Fun

It's been awhile since I've updated this blog. I think I'll try to take bite sized attempts at updating what's going on in my life.

March Madness was a neat time although I didn't get to see as many games as I would have liked. I even entered a bracket pool. My alma matter Florida won the whole thing and because I picked them to win the whole thing again, my bracket won the pool. But as far as picking the right teams, many other people did much better than I did. I watched the finals with Strike Force friends and that was nice. Even though Florida was consistently up by at least 8 points throughout the game, it was still a little nerve racking to watch.

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

I'm not the type of person to have personal heroes. I have people that I admire and think very highly of, but to label them a hero just seems so... I don't know... lofty. I've heard that I'm part of a generation that's without any heroes, and I'd generally agree with that. But Kurt Vonnegut? If I were to have any heroes, he'd be the top candidate.

His influence on the world of comedy and sci-fi was huge. As such, his influence on me is definite. I've only read Welcome to the Monkeyhouse - and I've always wanted to read more of his stuff - but that book is one of my all time favorites. So smart. So funny.

A great light in this world has just be snuffed out.

How I Feel

Bye bye, love.
Bye bye, happiness.
Hello, loneliness.
I think I'm a-gonna cry-y.

Bye bye, love.
Bye bye, sweet caress.
Hello, emptiness.
I feel like I could di-ie.
Bye bye, my love, goodby-ye.

There goes my baby
With-a someone new.
She sure looks happy.
I sure am blue.
She was my baby
'Til he stepped in.
Goodbye to romance
That might have been.

Bye bye, love.
Bye bye, happiness.
Hello, loneliness.
I think I'm a-gonna cry-y.

Bye bye, love.
Bye bye, sweet caress.
Hello, emptiness.
I feel like I could di-ie.
Bye bye, my love, goodby-ye.

I'm a-through with romance.
I'm a-through with love.
I'm through with-a countin'
The stars above
And here's reason
That I'm so free:
My lovin' baby
Is a-through with me.

Bye bye, love.
Bye bye, happiness.
Hello, loneliness.
I think I'm a-gonna cry-y.

Bye bye, love.
Bye bye, sweet caress.
Hello, emptiness.
I feel like I could di-ie.
Bye bye, my love, goodby-ye.
Bye bye, my love, goodby-ye.
Bye bye, my love, goodby-ye.

This Past Week

Things that have happened in the last week:

I got a slap on the wrist at work for my Internet usage. At work I leave the browser window open but minimized for most of the day. But this makes it seem that I'm on the Internet all day. So they had me down as using the Internet for 6 hours of my 8-hour work day. That's crazy. My actual usage was probably closer to 2 hours, which is still horribly awful. I've been waiting for this talk from my boss for about 6 months now. I needed the talk.

I also need a job that I care about. (fingers crossed for paid acting gigs)

I had to kick off a member from the team I coach. Said person wasn't as committed to the team as the rest of the team. Said person is a great person and a really good player but missed 6 weeks of rehearsal and during this period the team was made incredible strides in coming into their own. Said person coming back would have felt like a newly added person coming onto the team. So I had said person taken off the team and now we'll have an actual new person added to the team. They have a show this Sunday and this new person will probably be forced to play with the team without ever rehearsing with them, which is actually cool and good. So each group I'm involved with has had a change in roster. Wow.

Rattlesnake had another really great show this past week. Yay us!

I couldn't think of ideas for scenes until just before class on Saturday. I had two germ of ideas and I got to present both of them. Both were drastically changed and improved by Jim. Both went over very well in the show last night. We're supposed to know by Thursday which scenes made it into the show and which did not. I'm curious to find out what our show will look like. Our group came up with a total of x scenes. Scene names: Pot Sedan, Border, Canadian Coyote, Lunch Ladies, Hamburger Pussy, Breakdown, Pot Experiment, Security Guards, Hell Cab, Airport, Trivial Pursuit, Mouth Pussy, Road Trip, Fart Car, Decembermints, Cougar Scouts, 5 out of 9, Secrets, and a few others I can't remember the names of. Our show could look like so many things depending on which scenes are kept. Also, aren't some of the names just awful? I love it.

There was a fire at an apartment a few doors north of us on Sunday morning. A 28-yr old guy was killed in the fire. There's a mini memorial of the guy on the front door of the apartment building. There's a few pictures of the guy, a couple of letters, and some flowers taped to the door frame. It's weird to think that death was so close to our apartment.

My neighborhood was crazy during St. Patrick's Day. Crazier than normal. I take it as a sign that this Cubs season will also be crazier than normal and the Cubs fans, who are already repugnant to me, will become even more of a headache.

More Changes

This week is the week for major cast changes.

In one group, Group A, person Q decided to leave the group because of personal reasons. It is sad that we can't make Q want to stay. Q is a great player and my best friend in Chicago. I adore Q and hope Q plays with us at least once more before Q leaves town. Q's leaving has lit a fire under a lot of the members of Group A to stop talking and get things done. I hope to use the lessons I'm learning from the Jim Carlson class to help spearhead a great project for Group A.

Group A is also looking to add a new member to the group. We've got a few likely candidates but there are larger forces at work that decide who we get.

Another group I'm in, Group One, person Three is being forced out. Three is a great person, we all love Three as a person. I won't go into the details but the decision to kick out Three was a business decision and not a personal decision. This has come as a complete shock to Three and I'm sure Three is deeply hurt. Person Eight broke the news to Three in person and Eight said Three felt like they were stabbed in the back. It really sucks.

The Jim Carlson Class show this past Monday went over okay, but we have yet to get notes since he had to dash out right when our show ended. We are supposed to get notes via email today and I'm looking forward to what he has to say about the scenes we presented to the audience. Our next assignment is to try to cover any theme or issue that hasn't been covered yet. A few themes and issues have plenty of scenes that deals with them already, so we don't need anymore scenes that deal with that stuff.

I'm also noting that my level of focus in doing scripted work isn't as clear as it is when I'm doing improv. I'm a much better actor when I improvise, I think, and I'm trying hard to be a good actor when it comes to scripted work. This class is working two different muscles in me that I haven't worked in some time: sketch writing and acting off a script. If I have any hope in being an employable actor, I need to really work on the scripted acting thing.

This Past Week.

Tonight is the 4th Jim Carlson's Elective Class Show. We won't be doing any of the source scenes tonight. I was almost right about the commentary scenes assignment. Jim wanted to assign us that but I think because too many hands went into the air asking questions about what really is a commentary scene, he changed it to a tangential scene assignment. I went ahead and took a stab at a commentary scene anyways. It went over pretty well in class and I get to try it out in front of an audience this evening, which I'm excited and nervous about at the same time.

Each group is going to show off the scenes we presented in class Saturday. I also get the sense that Jim is changing the format of the show from what he had going into the class. Since some of our scenes that we just pitched are much better than anything we've pitched so far, it just might be that our sources scenes get tossed all together. The carrot dangling in front of us is the prospect of getting a run if we put together a quality show worthy of a run. The problem is that it makes the class have two goals that can be at odds with each other - getting a show together and giving everyone in the class the experience of working on their material. It's hard to explain... so I won't go into further detail.

Rattlesnake had a really great show Friday night. We had six including sit-in Dan Carr and we really brought it that night. Quincy went before us and they had a fabulous show. The audience was also with them right from the start. I was a little worried that we might feel too much pressure to pick up where Quincy left off but we delivered and then some. Our suggestion was Pearl Harbor and we really created a whole world of pre-war American in Hawaii.

My friend Nora was in town this weekend and it was good to see her. I beat her in darts and also got the added benefit of witnessing how crazy her life is at the moment. She got her heart broken in Toronto and then the tables were turned in Chicago when she had to let down this guy named Tony who said he'd fly anywhere in the world for her. So awfully hilarious.

Felt had to cancel a puppet-making project, which sucked, but hopefully soon it will get done.

Picky Eater

I'm a picky eater.

But, I've expanded the things I can eat by a huge amount since I left home after high school graduation. Most of it is stubbornness in not even trying foods that look disgusting or healthy. Also note that I'm a big texture person.

Food list:
Orange - had my first orange at the age of 29 in Montana. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Texture is a little odd so I won't race to eat another one soon.
Grapes - first grape at age of 28. The skins are odd and I don't like the texture of the skins. I don't know why I was surprised that the juice inside it tasted like grape flavoring. Maybe I thought the real thing would be different than synthetic flavoring, like they could never match it exactly.
Spinach - first had it in college around the age of 21 or 22. I like it but I can't handle a lot of it in my mouth at once. I'll eat a spinach pizza slice, no problem.
Sushi - this was also in college. I love sushi now. Probably the only way I'll ever eat cucumber ever, if it's in a sushi roll. Upon eating my first sushi roll, I counted that there were 7 new things I hadn't tried yet up to that point: cucumber, fish eggs, seaweed, and eel were among them.
Broccoli - age 29. Was at a Thai restaurant and it was a garnish. On a whim (food whims are very rare for me) I decided to try it. Very crunchy, no taste, more of a workout for the mouth.
Cantelope/Melon - pretty good. Mostly water, with a sweet after taste. Reminds me of watermelon, which I'm cool with.
Bananas - this is an exception in this list, because I first tried it when I was in grade school, but I didn't like them growing up. But now I'm fine with them. I've even ordered them on purpose as a side dish. They are pretty good.

I've tried hummus and I didn't like it at all. The grainy texture was a total turn off. Same thing with grits, which I tried for the first time in college.

I haven't tried a tomato since kindergarten (the texture of it made me throw up) and I've never felt adventurous enough to tackle a strawberry. I have a feeling that pears, peaches, and nectarines will be horrible.

Fruits and Vegetables - my personal food enemy. I'm trying to force myself to try them and like them so that if I ever date another vegetarian, finding a restaurant we both can go to won't be such a difficult task.


PS. I almost forgot about mushrooms. I had mushrooms for the first time in high school and I like them. But just like spinach, I can't handle too many in my mouth at once. Sometimes I'll order the vegetarian sandwich at Pot Belly's, which is just bread, cheese, and mushrooms.

What's New? Nothing Really

I did not win the Mega Millions Illinois lottery. But no one else did too. Last I checked, it was up to 340 million dollars. 40% of that would be 136 million. The web site says you have 30 days until the option to take it in one lump sum expires. After that I guess you are forced to receive the winnings in 26-annual sums. The web site also said they'd take out 51% if you opt for the one lump sum option. I guessing that's not including the taxes the state and the federal government would take out of the winnings.

Anyway, life is still the same. Recently a lot of people have been asking me "what's new?" Other than the iO elective, nothing. I guess my life is boring. Did I mention that I put the wheels in motion to get new headshots? Well I did. I get them taken at the end of this month. My friend Nora is coming into town for the weekend and I'm looking forward to playing her in pool and darts. Just before she left for San Fran, she and I were getting to be hang-out buddies, which I don't have much of.

Tonight is the 3rd show for the iO elective. We do our source scene - Pot Sedan (which hasn't really progressed that much at all since the first time we did it) and then 4 or 5 theme scenes. Jim already said that Border (Camille's) is for sure in as a theme scene. Tonight the reconfiguring of Pot Experiment (mine) goes up and I really hope it makes it as a theme scene. It's much better now. All of the exposition is gone and we really get to the core of what the scene is: two nerds literally experimenting with pot. I get to do some funny space object work, which I love to do. Our other potential theme scenes are Airport (DeWalt's; good), Girls Lunch (Linke's; great), Security Guards (Eric's; so so), Connection (Matt's; not going up because it's too complicated); and Hell Cab (Jen's; good; and yes, we know there was a show with that name).

My prediction is that the four theme scenes of our group will be: Border, Pot Experiment, Girls Lunch, and Hell Cab. My guess is that next Saturday our assignment will be to come up with commentary scenes. I love this elective class.

Feeling Lucky?

I bought a Lotto ticket yesterday. Actually, I bought 5 tickets. I set my alarm clock radio to wake me up in the mornings and so when it goes off, I get a radio station in my ears to wake me up. I have it set to a morning radio show and the topic they were talking about when the radio came on was about the millions of dollars of unclaimed Lotto winnings because people forget to check their tickets. This one guy was at work and heard his co-worker calling these people idiots. He checked the story and saw that the store that sold a winning ticket was one that he went to. He found an old Lotto ticket and sure enough this guy was the winner. He got $100,000.

I also have a habit of eating my cereal at work. I have a couple of cereal boxes at my desk and Silo cups that I use instead of bowls. I went to a corner grocery store near my work and bought a box of Cheerios and some milk. While I was paying for them, I noticed a sign on the register about the current Lotto jackpot up to 216 millions dollars. I took it was a sign that maybe I should buy some Lotto tickets. So I did.

Great story, huh?

What would I do if I won? Well, I figure 60% of it goes to taxes, leaving 86.4 million dollars. What would I do with 86.4 million dollars? I think I'd do the following

1. invest some of it. I hear how some of the crazy rich earn so much money on the interest of their investments that they can live off the interest. I don't know if that's possible with this amount, but I'd consult an accountant to see if I could. It's kind of like wishing for unlimited wishes.
2. Give some to my parents and sister.
3. Travel the world.
4. Quit my job.
5. built myself a nice brownstone to live in. Maybe rehab an existing one and make it "green" to feel better about myself and doing my part for the environment.
6. get Final Cut pro and great film equipment.
7. finance my own independent movie. Cast it with my friends.

Other than that, nothing would change.

Go Bears!

Go Bears!, originally uploaded by ehtysrofnahtanoj.

Testing

Testing

This is a test to see if I managed to figure out how to increase the size of the pictures.

Forced into Change

To continue using this service, I was forced to create a Google account. I don't really like having email accounts I don't use. Back around 1993, when the world was first starting to hear about this interesting thing called the Internet, my parents signed us up with AOL. I've had the same AOL email account since then and I like that my email address hasn't changed.

I hate it when friends change their email accounts. Partly because I know I'll never write the new account down and when I want to get a hold of them my emails will get bounced back to me saying their email address no longer exists. It also seems that people that were changing their servers were doing so all the time. It was a pain and I didn't want to be like them. Also, it gives a since of stability to my life that I really don't have. I like illusions. Since graduating from high school, I've moved around a ton, having never stayed in one spot longer than two years. That's a lot of moving around and address changes. Since high school my parents moved to their home state and so now even the crap home in Florida that I was against all along in calling home is no longer my home. I've lost the sense of Home Sweet Home. So when I visit my parents it doesn't feel like home and I always feel adrift. I've had to adopt the adage that "any place I hang my hat is home."

I don't like having too many credit cards and I sure don't like having email accounts I never use. Just two weeks ago I had to sign up for a Yahoo.com account to use Flickr for pictures and that was a hard decision. Now I have to sign up for a second account I'll never use? C'mon world, stop making me crazy!

Also, I'm having problems figuring out how to make my pictures on my blog appear bigger. There are two blogs that I frequent a lot and both of them have their pictures appear large and I want mine to be that big also but for some reason they aren't as big. Someday I'll figure this out.

~~~~~~

Last night was our first show and it was fun. I wasn't nervous before the show but afterwards I realized I was physically drained from the adrenaline rush, which I haven't experienced in a long time. The show itself when by so fast. Group Alpha when first and they did a good job. Prayer Circle narrowly beat out Hospital for the source scene. My group, Group One, went second and I really had no idea on how our scenes went over. I felt they all went over the same, which was kind of blah, but a couple of them were fun to do. Our source scene is going to be Pot Sedan, which narrowly beat out Jury Lunch. Our task for Saturday is to write a thematic scene off one of the themes of Pot Sedan. After presenting our scenes on Saturday, we will have two days to memorize them as best as we can for our next show Monday. This is such a great experience.

I also got to play live poker for the first time in months and I ended $14 up, which isn't great but at least I wasn't down.