All Hail Rae

I hereby bow to the awesome power that is Rae.

“My goodness,” you must be saying. “It’s been TWO MONTHS since there’s been a new post on the Death Star. Every two weeks my foot. Did Mark suddenly paralyze himself from the waist up, or what? What’s going on here?”

These questions and more are surely running through your heads. While I can’t answer all of them, allow me to put to rest one very important issue: No. I have not been paralyzed. At least, not literally. I suppose one could contend that my life has been so busy recently that I’ve been metaphorically paralyzed, for I have not had the time to write one of these extremely time-consuming posts for a while. Heck, I haven’t even updated my xanga in ages.

So, no doubt, with that explanation, your mind is simply bursting with interest in the answer of this question: “What was making you so busy?” Of course, I COULD say, “I’m not going to tell you,” and just end the post right here. But three paragraphs is hardly a blog post from me. Three paragraphs are to my blog entries as a microscopic spec is to Jupiter.

Anyway, so I suppose I shall have to answer the question.

Well, there have been a few primary things keeping my metaphorical hands tied behind my symbolic back:

The Wizard of Oz Yeah, that darn show I auditioned for back in December. I don’t think it had even opened when last I posted. But now it has closed. Which means that the entire run of it, plus probably the last two or three weeks of rehearsal, have been taking up my life since my last post.

Back in the week before Tech Week and Tech week, I was quite frustrated with this show, and would’ve probably dropped if it hadn’t been so close to opening. Back in the old days (by which I basically mean, before I was involved), Lifehouse cast members would call Tech Week by the name, “Hell Week.” I had always chuckled at this, since certainly no tech week could ever be THAT bad.

Yeah, I’m not laughing anymore. Wizard Tech Week was HORRIBLE. It wasn’t really anyone’s fault in particular, it was just . . . insanely frustrating. Jen and Wiley (the directors) weren’t really on the same page as Matt and Lauren (the choreographers), and no one was really sure what was going on with the tech. I realize that tech is a very difficult thing to do, and I don’t want to diminish the awesome work that Daniel, Kyle, and Randy did, but they came in with it really late. So . . . yes. That was frustrating

It didn’t help, either, that Matt was extremely disorganized. He himself agrees with me on this point, and he apologized to me for being so disorganized. He also has trouble communicating what he wants to happen. The choreography was good, but he couldn’t tell us what it was, so it didn’t look so good. It also didn’t help, of course, that the re-choreographed Twister (the most choreography-intensive number in the show, probably) on Thursday of tech week . . . meaning three days before opening.

*throws confetti half-heartedly* Yay.

It also didn’t help that I had very few friends in the show. I use the term “friend” loosely here, just to mean people with whom I hang out with backstage where there’s a mutual enjoyment of the company. There was Rachel, obviously, and Jason. Taylor dropped a few weeks into rehearsal, and . . . yep. Pretty much those two. There were a couple of people who generally went along with them (Tyler and sometimes Kris with Rachel, Wiley and sometimes JulieAnn with Jason), but they were pretty much it.

By the end of the run, I was no longer horribly lonely (it’s hard to take the time to be lonely when Jason and Wiley are making you laugh incessantly), but I wasn’t too sad to see it end. Especially since everyone except . . . two, maybe three people that I would miss are in Pocahontas anyway.

Speaking of which . . .

Pocahontas. Yep. I’m stupid, huh? Wizard just ended, and already here we go with Pocahontas. Woo-hoo. But in Pocahontas, I at least get to die on stage hallucinating about fields. Probably about pink butterflies, too. But yeah. Lots of backstage time for me in this show, too.

Of course, it probably won’t be as bad as Wizard, because now I can deal with not having a whole lot of friends backstage, and I’ll still have Wiley, Jason, and JulieAnn back there, plus David, Emily, Rachel, and Kelsey seemed willing to allow me into their little group. Which is nice of them.

So yep . . . rehearsals start tomorrow (orientation was a week or so ago), although I won’t be there for a week because . . .

Sincerely Yours. My gosh, I’m REALLY stupid. Even as Wizard was still running, I was in rehearsals for Sincerely Yours. It opens on Thursday, though, so things should hopefully be calming down.

This show is also going to be a blast, so it’s cool. It’s the first really MAIN part I’ve had in two years (not counting the understudying for Hollywell and Young Scrooge), and it’s a blast. The part is a lot of fun, the show is a lot of fun, and I really like all the people in the cast. So y’all should come down and see it if you get a chance . . . we could use the audience. It’s not at Lifehouse, it’s at Heartland Players, a teensy little theater in Yucaipa that no one knows about. So you should come and give us an audience.

You also shouldn’t come on April 20th, partially because I won’t be doing the show that night, and partially because you should all be at Chief Sound Architect AJ’s senior recital anyway.

Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. So, like, remember in my last post how I was talking about my obsession with The Office? Much as I still love that show, and own way more episodes over iTunes than any sane person would, it’s been bumped back to #2 on my list of “The Greatest TV Shows of All Time.” Stargate SG-1 officially takes the cake now, and my obsession with the show has gotten completely out of control.

Sarah is responsible. It’s all her fault. She gave me the first season way back last summer. Dad and I watched the first six or seven episodes while we were in Palm Springs, and then once we came back I stagnated for a while. Then, in December, I got sick and it lasted for a full week.

I was lying in bed, done with school, and feeling miserable. “I want to watch something,” thought I. “But I don’t want to go downstairs and get a movie.” My eye swept across my room. It lit upon the two box sets of Stargate SG-1 seasons 1 and 2.

By Friday, I’d gone from the middle of the third DVD (of five) of Season 1 to the middle of the fourth DVD (of five) in Season 2. So I basically watched an entire season in a week.

The rest, as they say, is history. I’m currently in season 8 of SG-1, and I’m also going through season 1 of the spin-off, Stargate Atlantis, the events of which are parallel (chronologically) to season 8 of SG-1. I’ve been trying to cut back recently, since I’m unable to obtain seasons 9 and 2 for a while, and I’ve finally gotten myself down to one episode a day.

But yes. For quite some time, watching Stargate was pretty much all I did in my free time. I’ve known that it was out of hand for a while, but I really realized just how ridiculous it was when I was watching a Youtube video (a montage of scenes from various episodes set to music and all that). It lasted about five minutes, and I could identify about 95% of the scenes.

I also spent something like three hours one day searching for a Daniel Jackson wallpaper for my computer . . . In the end I made my own, then switched when I actually found a half-decent one.

And for those of you not convinced that it’s a great show . . . how can any show that involves a guy knocking a criminal out by throwing an avocado at him NOT be a great show?

I’m FAT. This insanely clever pun refers to both the fact that I greatly enjoy eating and to the fact that my school year is titled, “Foundations of American Thought.” We Foundations students are often referred to in Torrey Academy circles as “FAT Juniors.” We rather like it.

We’ve been reading all kinds of cool books . . . obviously there’s good ol’ Locke and Hobbes and them, which I’m sure I mentioned back when we read them at the beginning. More recently we’ve read some short stories (yay Poe! Boo Melville . . .), some poetry, some Ralph Waldo Emerson, and also some of AJ’s single favorite author of all time, Henry David Thoreau. If you want to know about Thoreau, ask AJ about him, and then don’t believe a word he says.

Watch out world, here we come. March 16th, 2007. What a day. I got up earlier than I would’ve liked, and immediately started freaking out. We got in the car, and I continued freaking out, and the intensity grew. We got to the building, went inside, and it grew still more. We were sent out to wait in the line, and it reached a climax.

A blonde-haired lady got into the car. “There will be no talking during the test,” she said. “I’ll give you directions, so you’ll always know right where you’re going. So just re— or, well, TRY to relax.”

Roughly half an hour later, I emerged from the building clutching a piece of paper that had some very precious words on it: “Interim Driver License.” I have since received my regular license in the mail.

To top it all off, this day ALSO happened to be Sarah’s 18th birthday. Seth and I went over to her house (I drove myself) and hung out for the afternoon. We watched Flushed Away, which should not be confused with Spirited Away. If you go in expecting to see Spirited Away, you’re going to receive quite a rude shock.

Anyway, I absolutely loved it. One of the best animated movies I’ve seen in a long time. I highly recommend it to anyone out there except maybe Eleanor, because it makes fun of the French.

After the movie, we watched some of the first episode of Firefly, the TV show that the movie Serenity was based off of. There’s only 14 episodes, and it was (inexplicably, according to Sarah) cancelled after 12. I’ve only seen the first half of the first episode, but I’m excited to see more of it . . . which I’m sure I will one day.

After that Sarah opened her presents. I gave her a shirt, Seth gave her Final Fantasy XII, and she got a number of things from her parents (most notably to me a cell phone). Then we ate pizza and some AMAZING pie, and then I had to go to Lifehouse. Alas.

And actually, I think that that’s pretty much it. There, that wasn’t so bad, was it? Only four pages without comments . . . so yes. Be happy.

I promise that I will try to update more consistently in the future . . .

So for now, adieu, one and all. May you all have a blessed life.

And to close as Wiley would: make good decisions, everybody!!

Comments:
AJ: Ah, curses. I knew I forgot something. “Overcoming difficulty and failure and succeeding at last against all odds” was due to my miraculous success in finally, FINALLY, figuring out how to properly shoulder roll in fencing. I’m still not very good at it, but I can at least do it without hurting myself most of the time now.

Amy Grace: I did indeed used to watch Alias, yes . . . great show, that. Although it would’ve been nice if they let dead people stay dead every once in a while . . .

Rae and Eleanor: My goodness . . . I never realized that my blog is such an arena for fierce competition. As for convincing certain other male members of my family to read P&P . . . well, Eleanor handily took care of the dancing problem, so maybe there’s hope after all. AJ, read Pride and Prejudice.

Rae: Well, yes, I’d assume that any actual human with any idea what they’re doing could soundly trounce me in boxing. But I’ll take what I can get. And I’m sure one day you’ll find a way to gain video game pride . . . just learn to use Jigglypuff in Super Smash Bros, and you can soundly trounce anyone. That’s my gaming advice . . . although I’d imagine Stephen is rather a better source than me.

speaking of Stephen: I apologize, I haven’t had time to read your Spiritual Gifts series yet . . . I fully intend to read it soon, though. And Other People, read it! . . . although probably everyone who reads this already has . . .