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.

Ambition Difference

During the weekdays, I have lots of plans. Plans for the weekend. Things I'm going to accomplish and things I'm going to implement.

Things:
Get up earlier (around 9am sounds nice).
Do my French lessons
Listen to Podcasts
Do the "ups."
Clean my room
Expand my wardrobe
Get headshots duplicated
Get an agent

During the weekend, however... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I have gotten some minor things done. I got a new phone. I got a new iPod - now with video capability. I got two new sneakers and 1 pair of moon boots; the boots I got the night before the blizzard and it was worth every penny.

I started the Jim Carlson workshop/elective at iO and it's a blast. We have our first show tonight and we pick our source scene from it. Right now the 7 scenes my group has to choose from are: Family Dinner (meh), Border Car Ride (fun), Poker (fun), Basketball (meh), Block Party (meh), Church Pew (fun), Jury Lunch (so so). The other group has some quality group scenes as well.

_____the pain away

I'm 30 now. My birthday was yesterday and it was spent relaxing, otherwise known as what I normally do on a Sunday.

Friday Rattlesnake had a show and it was a good one. This new opening that we're playing with really frees us up to be creative and inspired. There's so much information created with such great mental images that recalling info to use for a scene is easy for me, which is something I've always had a problem with. I got to do a really great scene with Katy as this '70s couple who were getting ready for bed on a hot and sweaty summer night. Johnny Roast Beef were short people and needed one sit-in. Because it was my birthday weekend, the Snakes chose me to be the one from our team to sit-in with them. After the Dream I was pushed to remain on stage and while we were getting the suggestion for the show it suddenly hit me that I had no idea what type of opening they were going to do. Were they working on something specific? My senses became heightened and I was immediately keyed into what everyone else was doing on stage. I was a great frame of mind to be on stage and it lent itself well. The Roast Beef show was a good one and I had some really fun scenes with them. Particularly a scene with Piero where we were kids at camp talking to eachother from our bunk beds.

I posted my birthday hangout plans on a couple of sites but didn't really make plans to arrive to places with people. As such, both nights the first 30 minutes at my hangout locations were very lonley. I got to the Gingerman Tavern and sat at the bar with my beer waiting for people to show up. I felt like a bar fly and it was uncomfortable. The next night at the Hideout and smooshed myself into the middle of the dance floor and started dancing by myself in the middle of a sea of people. I tried not to be self concious of not knowing anyone around me but I failed. Lucky for me I eventually saw some familiar faces.

Both nights were nice but on the birthday party scale they were rather ho-hum. And to top it all off, on the first night the lady I had been dating put the final nail in the coffin of our dating-thing. I can't call it a relationship or really a breakup since it was so so-so for most of it, but a comment she made finally put to rest what our laziness and lack of seeing eachother in the past 4 weeks was actually saying. What is odd is that night I had a dream where our "breakup" was actually much more dramatic. In the dream there was crying and dramatic emotional reactions.

On Saturday I went to see Children of Men and it was a good movie. Not quite as good as I was hoping but good nonetheless. On my actual birthday I got a couple of birthday calls and a few birthday texts. The calls were from my parents and my friend Ben who is doing a Second City boat tour. The call from the parents was expected and the call from Ben was a pleasant surprise. It made me feel good because that morning I had been in another one of my "infinite melancholy" moods. I've been dealing with turning ever since I turned 29 so I've had a whole year to prepare for it. I took stock of my life and wasn't generally happy with my lack of ambition acting-wise. I was also thinking about how none of my close friends came out to dance with me the previous night. It kind of hurt. So in the morning I was thinking about how I've got no real hangout friends. No real friends that text me crazy like when the Bears win. No real friends that call just to say hi for no real reason. No friends that lean on me when times are tough. Mostly the feeling that I've got no real close friends to lean on when I'm feeling bad. It's borderline depression. I almost wish I could hit rock bottom so that I can start to climb up and rebuild my life and start feeling better about myself. But I don't want to hit rock bottom. I shouldn't have to hit rock bottom to lift myself up.

So my improvement of my life will have to be a slow process. I need to stop sleeping the weekend mornings away. I need to organize my finances. Maybe get my roomie Tim to help me out; adopt his method of being so organized. I need to get in shape. I need to make my room look like an adult lives there; an adult who at least seems like he's got his shit together. Everyone around me seems to be doing so well; creatively, professionally, relationship-wise, mentally, and physically. I hope that come this time next year I'll have made some giant leaps forward with my life. After all, I don't want to become one of those beaten down people whose dreams have been broken. That's not for me. No way sir.

I'm Turning 30!

Want to help celebrate me turing 30? Sure you do.

If you're in town this weekend, please come out.

Deets: Friday, January 26, come out to Gingermen Tavern around 10:30pm. I'll be riding the high after a kick ass Rattlesnake show at 8pm.

Or

Come out with me to get your dance on at the Hideout on Saturday, January 27, at 11:30pm. It goes until 3am, cost $5. It's also a fundraiser for WLUW. Mary Nisi will be co-DJing it. ALSO, her birthday is the same day as mine (January 28) so if you come out you will also get to wish her a happy birthday.

Can you DIG it?

Company Change

The memory stick came yesterday. That was fast. I put it in and on the "fine" setting, I get 950 pictures! 950? Are you kidding me? Damn. On the "superfine" setting, which I guess really makes use of the 8.0 pixel thing, I get 560 pictures. That's still a freakin' ton of pictures. A 2G memory stick sure is huge. And it was only $40.

I played around with the shutter speed setting and took this picture from my window of my apartment. As you can see, the L train tracks are right outside my window.




---

I forget if I mentioned, but Molly and I have started our own iO blog on the iO website. In it we talk about what it's like to be an improviser in Chicago, specifically in regards to being an iO performer.

---

A month ago we got news at my company that some other company has bought part of what we do here. Basically, half of what we do was bought by them. Our offices in a building just north of our main offices were also bought by this company to start their Chicago branch and will house the portion of our company that the bought. Many departments were affected. About 20 people are going over to this new company to work for them to do basically their same jobs. Another handful of people got severence packages. My department was left unaffected so my job's fine.

Today is the last day for a good portion of the people at work today. After work there will be a going-away party for people.

It's Great - to be - a Flooorida Gator!

The Gator football team stunned everyone including myself by kicking Ohio State's ass in the BCS Championship Bowl game. 41-14! That's crazy. Right before the game I got a text message from my roomie Tara who was talkin' shit. She wanted me to update her about the game since she would be busy with SC stuff. She didn't go to Ohio State but grew up around it. Here are my texts:

7:35 pm - Os td on opening kick off
7:43 pm - Uf td, tied 7-7
8:02 pm - Uf td. 14-7 uf
8:26 pm - Uf int. 8 plays ltr, 1stQ ends. 1st play of 2ndQ, uf td. 21-7
8:29 pm - Os firedup, rolls over ufD. Os td 21-14
8:57 pm - Uf fg! 24-14
9:08 pm - Another uf fg! 27-14
9:14 pm - Os fumble, 3 plays ltr, uf td! 34-14
9:17 pm - Halftime. 34-14
10:20 pm - 3rdQ ends, no scores. Still 34-14
10:40 pm - Uf td, 41-14. Time left: 10:20
10:59 pm - It's over. 41-14. Wow.

At 10:06 pm Tara sent me a text: Holy. This game is insane.

It truly was insane.

-------

This past weekend RHS had a really good show on Friday. Gracer was there to play with us which was great. We had one scene that turned into a group game where Bill sang an "I'm Sorry" song and the rest of us did this really odd dance like thing. It was freaking amazing and I loved being a part of it.

I got to see Levin and Taylor and Bryan too that weekend. Their 25th Century Heros show was neat and probably the most political sketch show I've seen in a long time. Great satire with bears in the place of terrorists. I got to see Sketchcore do a shortened verion of "Deep Inside Your Box" and it was great. The audience loved it and Nina Metz from the Tribune called Sketchcore the "Best Sketch group of the future." Their show was sold out as well and for a minute there I didn't think I'd be able to get a seat but was able to borrow Dunbar's pass.

Sunday was a nice lazy day and I spent it watching NFL football with Levin and Terry.

Best Buy tells me that my memory stick is on it's way to me. I'm supposed to get it tomorrow. I can't wait. Then I'll be able to fool around with my new camera. Yay!

I still have yet to use my Macy's gift card. Apple released at their conference the iPhone and it looks neat but the touchscreen will be the make-or-break thing about it I feel.

New Camera

I got a digital camera. The memory stick that will allow me to take more than 6 pictures is coming in 1 to 2 weeks.

Christmas Vacation

My Christmas vacation was not relaxing enough. I'll try to be brief.

Got driven to O'Hare (nice), got a bon voyage kiss (even nicer), and then sat around waiting for the plane to come (not nice.) Our plane was coming from Minneapolis and was late due to bad weather. About 50 minutes late. So late that I missed my connection. It was also the last flight to my destination and the flight they rebooked me on was for 4:14pm the next day! My mom and dad had to drive down to Minneapolis to pick me up. I was not able to get the one bag I checked in because it was in locked storage and they didn't have the man power to retreive it since they were busy dealing with an already tardy luggage delivery system. It was mayhem at the airport. I got to my mom and dad's place at 2am. (ugh)

The next day we drove to St. Cloud to do last minute Christmas shopping. Or for me, all of my Christmas shopping. It's okay because I've only got to get gifts for 6 people. Then we went to the airport to pick up my luggage. I was afraid they wouldn't have it but they did. (thank God)

The day before Christmas, we drove down to Minneapolis for my mom's side of the family's Christmas get-together. It was at my Grandma and Grandpa's place, which they've had since the '60s I believe. It's super small and we had about 30 people crammed in there, many of them kids. I rarely see my relatives so it was nice to see them. Then we had to drive back to Brainerd and got home around 11pm.

Christmas was the only day I didn't travel around and I was so glad to not have to be in a car. We watched a lot of DVDs. My parents love watching movies. I got a $200 Best Buy gift card (towards a digital camera), $20 gift card for Macy's, white socks, a red sweater, and a billfold that I don't need.

I also learned what are all of the surnames of my great grandparents. Mine are:
Forsythe
Kirberger
Morgan
Showalter
Komro
Kothbower
Lowry
Cook

I traveled back to Chicago the day after Christmas and it was a long day. I had to get up at 6am to go into work with my dad, who was driving me to the airport. My first plane was 40 minutes late and this made me miss my connection. They rebooked me on a plane that left Minneapolis at 3pm, so I had 2 hours to kill at the airport. It turned out to be a longer of a layover since the 3pm flight ended up being late by 30 minutes. I was very worn out when I got back home.

I took the next day's morning off of work so I decided I could play poker late Tuesday night, which I did. I played it way too late and got little sleep. Not surprisingly, I woke up Wednesday feeling sick. By the time 5pm came around, I was full blown sick and feeling awful. Thanks God for Advil. And chicken soup. And green tea.

Skeleton Attack had a killer show in the Caberet space to open for Millies and Carl and the Passions. I was super proud of them. Then I went upstairs to perform in FELT. I was feeling much better by this point (yay green tea and medicine!) and our show was awesome. And it was in front of a full audience, which is always nice.

I'm still feeling ill, but not as bad as yesterday.

Wasserbomben!

The CBC documentary on the u-boat shoot was fun although it was long and tiring. I thought I would have had more downtime so I could listen to music and read the book I brought with me. I got to say a couple of lines, most notibly "wasserbomben!" That means "water bombs!" Meaning depth chargres. The director said he'll probably dub over my voice since I didn't have the German accent down. Se la vie.

Speaking of French, the whole crew spoke it predominately since they were all from Montreal. I got to ask francophile questions, which was nice though. Shaving my beard was almost not necessary but I was in the last shot of the night - moving a crate of limes and lemons down the aisle - so I guess I did need to shave my beard.

The iO holiday party was last night and it was fun but the gift exchange didn't even last an hour, which was surprisingly dissappointing. I got to silly dance later on in the night, which I always enjoy.

Being in the mood to work while at work gets harder and harder each week. Other aspects of my life are going okay. I have been feeling a bit of envy lately when hearing about some people's new projects.

Last Night for Beard

I have to shave my beard tomorrow. This is a picture of my beard. Once I shave it off, I will start the ever so slow process of growing it back. So I guess I am now making a conscious decision to have a beard. Also, a beard really DOES protect my face from the cold. I wouldn't have thought that my crappy and spotty beard would have done that but it does. How about that?