up where we belong

monday was just a typical day at the office*. Projects like Birdcam make my life interesting on snowy days. More on that tomorrow.

The weekend was good. My apartment is starting to get ready for the party next weekend. I finished of the collection of Japanese Short Stories I was reading. Saturday night was spent visiting friends in Syracuse. Sunday was spent at the theatre (with a far better audience) and then watching the Big Game (which was great, one of the best Fourth Quarters ever)!

oh, there’s a new MP3 De Jour to your left. Check it out!

* 700KB Quicktime movie

note to readers: this blog is going use up my saucy word allotment for most of 2002. Not for the faint hearted

assholes

the title says it all. For the last few days (outside of quality time with friends) I seem to be surrounded by them. Which came to a nasty head on Thursday night when I took in a play at RIT. Clearly I missed the note on my ticket that I was sitting in “Section Asshole. Row 3.” The guy next to me spent the entire play doing his homework. I understand that students are assigned in classes to see these productions. However that’s no excuse. Especially when you need to continually flip through pages. Then his cell phone went off. Admittedly I’m a theatre/movie person. I really enjoy both. I’ve been involved with the production of both. I respect both. And I respect the people around me. I’m not super bright, but even I can grasp the idea of “shut off your damn phone before entering a theatre!”

(Side note: Personally I’m always paranoid about my cell phone going off during this type of event. I actually had it happen to me once. I had just gotten my phone and was at a movie and this cell phone goes off, and I think “Great, some asshole forgot to shut off their phone. Way to ruin it for everyone jerk!” After the movie, I pull the phone out of my pocket to use it and notice that it was on and that it told me I had missed a call. Ever since then I’ve removed the battery before entering a theatre.)

So, you would think that after one phone went off, everyone else with a phone would think “hey maybe my phone is still on… I’d better check and turn it off if it is….” Oh no, not in section Asshole. It happened one row in front of me ten minutes later.

Then, even through we are at the back of the theatre, the guy behind me decides it’s time to take some pictures with a small point-and-shoot camera (can you say “not going to come out well?”). And so Asshole Adams behind me starts snapping flash pictures. Once, when acting, I had the distinct pleasure to be distracted by random flashes of light from the audience. It’s not a fun experience for you or the other actors on stage when your mind goes temporarily blank because the mother of some kid in the chorus really needed to share that moment. The playon Thursday was a difficult enough piece without the added distraction. I finally had to turn around and, as quietly as I could, ask him to stop. The worst part is that he didn’t really get what he had done wrong.

Thankfully I managed to get a different seat for act two. And wouldn’t you know it, ten minutes into the act, another cell phone goes off in the section I had been sitting in. God, sometimes I hate people.

Other than that things are pretty good.

it’s snowing

I woke up this morning to find my car covered in “soap opera snow.” Living in Rochester I’ve gotten well aquainted with many of the various forms of snow out there. Soap opera snow is a light, fluffy, “cute” snow. It’s like the pastic/soap flakes they use on most soap operas or tv shows. It doesn’t pack and it brushes right off of your car (which is always a plus when you don’t want to spend much time shoveling out for work). Unfortunately it has been followed by freezing rain, which means everything will have a nice layer of ice over it by the end of the day. A car cover with what seems like a hard candy shell just isn’t fun when you’re trying to open the door or see out the windsheild.

I also don’t understand Rochesterians and snow. Why, once a flake falls, does everyone forget how to drive in this area? They’ve lived with snow all thier lives! It isn’t new or unexpected. But once that first bit of snow hits the ground natives seem to loose all control of their cars. Why not just slow down and take it easy??!! Ohhh no, it’s either “Yee Haa, let’s kick in the 4 wheel drive and speed up” or “my car has shifted into snow mode and the gas and break have switched places….” Sigh.

Oh, I’ve added a new site feature in the left column. From time to time I’ll post an MP3 de jour. I can’t always promise they’ll be good, but they will definitely all be 100% fun! So check it out! More goodness will be coming soon!

wasn’t there some guy who occasionally updated this blog?

Well, the new site is mostly up. I’m still trying to figure out how to get PHP running here so I can use the user feedback Heather sent me. I also didn’t realize that when I formatted my computer late last year I didn’t reinstall Dreamweaver or Homesite. So editing the layout the page has been a pain (especially because I want to revamp it to take advantage of the extra disk space I now have). I haven’t really touched HTML is about a year so trying to make small changes to the layout has been a constant frustration. But that’s what this weekend can be for I guess.

Otherwise life has been pretty good. The apartment is cleaner than usual. The last two rehearsals for the Ives production went really well. I’ve got one heck of a skinned knuckle from working a punching bag, which is good believe it or not. I’ve also managed to get up early the last couple of days to practice some kung fu before work. If I can manage to keep that up it will be a major coup for me!

Mardi Gras party is next weekend and things are starting to pull together for that as well. My sorta new look is in place (more on that in a future blog). And I’ve been hanging out on the top of Kodak Tower. Again, more on that in the near future. That’s it for now… I have to order some beads for the party!

waking-dream.com is now up and running!