doodles and thoughts

I made this sketch of Tony in an all morning meeting. Some people have incorrectly assumed that the “nachos and beans” reference was some thinly valed comment about flatulence. It wasn’t. I just thought the phrase “fine nachos and beans” sounded funny. Ahhh comedy.

This has been an intense week. First the all day Washington trip. While I was in DC, the summer play was being cast. So I kept calling back to find out how call backs were going. I’m really excited and scared at the same time. Genet is a tough playwright and I hope we’re all up to the task. I’ll have a better idea Monday night when we have our first read through.

Then on Wednesday night I had the shootfighting test. Three hours! You hear me??!! THREE HOURS!!!!! It was grueling! The first hour was just warm ups! 15 minutes of jumping rope, 10 minutes of jogging, 25 over under drill (which in my mind were designed by Satan himself), 200 jumping jacks, and it just goes on. For the next two or so hour we threw over 1000 punches and at least 750 kicks. Then came the sparring. After that the collapsing. But everyone supported each other and we all passed. I’m still hurting from the test, but its a wonderful feeling to know that you have pushed yourself to your limits and beyond while successfully achieving your goal.

Then last night I found out that a good friend unexpectedly lost his job. And that’s thrown me for a big loop. I’ve known lots of people who have been “downsized” over the last few years, but this was totally unexpected. I can’t help thinking about what I would do if that happened. I know I would find something, but it’s still a scary thought. But I think Aaron will turn lemons into lemonade. He’s mentioned recently that he needed a good kick in the pants to do something new and I think this will be it for him. I’ll see him tomorrow so I’ll have the chance to talk more about it then.

tonight

as I mentioned on Monday, tonight is my rank testing in shootfighting. This can also be titled “a test of pain.” Basically, it’s going to be a lot of repitition of techniques. That actually isn’t to bad, except my cardio as of late is suckin’ lots of wind. I’m not worried about completing the test. I still have enough go in me to make it through all of the push-ups and stomach work. I’m a little concered about the sparring though. My prediction: PAIN. I haven’t been doing to bad with the kickboxing (and this is the real stuff… no cardio junk here. If the exercises and punching and kicking really tire me out though, I may get beat like a red headed step child.

Pictures

I have to head into a, grrrrr, all day all hands on meeting, so I probably won’t be posting much of anything today. However, you can check out pictures from the Midieval Times Trip I took a couple weeks ago.

messages captured in the past

though this posting is going up on Tuesday, it was written on Monday night in Dulles Airport outside of Washington DC. I was in the nation’s capital at a meeting with the National Parks Organization. This group is a private and publicly funded group that works with the National Parks Service to help people experience. The meeting was with a number of their proud partners (read as: corporate donors) to pick our brains about improving their website. As you might guess, I represented kodak.com. It’s been one of those down-and-back-in-one-day days. I left the house at 6.00am and won’t be getting back until close to midnight.

But it was also a useful day. I’ve been struggling with “what I want to do when I grow up.” As of late I’ve been evaluating my current career path and wondering if is the right thing for me. I had a great time today providing strategic planning and advice. I only hope I wasn’t too vocal. But this is the type of work that I think I want to do in the future. And that should be enough to light a fire under my rapidly enlarging butt to start looking at grad schools.

in other news

Being out of town, I missed the callbacks for The Balcony, the next exact theatre show. Thankfully, I’m acting as the Artistic Director for this production, so my presence wasn’t required. Still I would like to have been there. That being said, through the wonders of digital technology, I’ve already talked with Chris, the director, and Don, our managing director, and things went well. And that’s all good. This will be our first production with people outside of the core group. It’s exciting and scary at the same time.

And, thanks to travel arrangements, I also missed Martial Arts. Bleh. I have my shootfighting test on Wednesday. I jus hope my cardio is up to it. I have a feeling I’m going to be pummeled that night. But I also know that I’ll get through it. And that means that I’ll be starting to work on my grappling skills again. Woo hoo, more rolling around with sweaty guys! Oops…. I don’t think that was a sharing thought.

Finally, Heather, the ofoto album of the trip should finally be up by tomorrow (umm tonight… Tuesday) evening.

yesterday I cared

really. Myself and other kodak.com’ers participated in the United Way’s day of caring. I found myself reliving Boy Scout camp memories as we all helped prepare a Summer Camp located on Lake Ontario prepare to open. The camp, Fish-something-or-other, is a place for city kids from 6-10 years old can go to experience nature and do other summer camp type things. My fellow care’ers and I planted flowers, pulled weeds, and swept the “barn.” We had the option to do KP (that’s kitchen duty for all you uninitiated), but I turned it down. If I can’t do my own dishes, there is no chance in hell I’m doing them for others (even if it’s a good cause).

Pucca

Or Korean Pop Culture. The phrase come from “J-Pop” (Japanese Pop Culture). Where the phrase J Pop comes from, I have no idea. But it’s been around for a while and is used to describe all of the elements of Japanese Culture that have seeped into our mainstream. A great example is Anime. Any hoo, it seems that the “J-Pop” thing is dying out and the next hot trend is “K-Pop.” And in honor of that, and in an attempt to be hip, I present you some 110% fun K-Pro: Pucca:Funny Love. These anime styled flash movies are the continual story of Pucca, a little girl, whose only desire is to kiss Garu, antisocial boy ninja. Of course Garu wants nothing to do with this and does his best to avoid her, often with his cat Miro. Some of the cartoons are short and others like this one are practically epic. So check out some of the Pucca goodness (I dare ya to say that three times fast at the workplace).

brrr….

Stepping off the plane in Buffalo yesterday it was clear that I had reentered a much chillier world than then one I had left at 6.30am that morning. There has to be about a 20-degree (Fahrenheit) difference in temperature between North Carolina and Northern New York.

I brought back a bunch of great “souvenirs” from the trip and a few not so welcome ones as well. Before anyone bitches about all the heat and sun that I enjoyed, I should note that one or the lesser welcome reminders from the weekend is the great sunburn I picked up. Strangely none of the shops I visited while in Carolina carried sunscreen. Perhaps it was a “get-the-yankee” plot: as soon as they heard my accent they hid all the sunscreen and maps (driving to the festival we got a little lost. I went into a gas station to ask for a map… they didn’t have any. Mind you, this wasn’t a small gas station but rather a Mobil with a full mini mart. They did however have a HUGE selection of chew, snuff, cigarettes, cigars, loose tobacco and other tobacco products I’d never heard of… Sir Walter Raleigh would be proud… but I digress).

Another souvenir I brought back was a cold. Thanks Glenn, it looks like you got the last zing in after all. It’s not too bad, but it’s pulled me off my game. Last night I “limped” through a martial arts class. It was a bad class for a couple reasons. First of all my brain was just not firing at it’s usual rate thanks to the cold. So I ended up getting caught in the right calf with a knee. Not only is that going to leave a great bruise, but it also left me with a great “charlie horse” that I’m still feeling today. But mobility is highly overrated anyway. Then we worked pak and backfist into multiple combinations. A “pak” is a Chinese slap block applied against the mid forearms. I learned a new equation last night:

Slap + Sunburned Forearms = New Pain

But before I ask for cheese with my whine, I have to say that all of this was worth it for the trip I had. Not only did I get to see my brothers, but I also got to experience great music and North Carolina was absolutely beautiful. We spent Sunday hiking in the Blue Ridge Moutains and it was just breathtaking. The memories definitely outweigh any current problems I have as a result of the trip.