The Death Star

Of Arks and Chair-like Box Thingies

2007-07-05T23:25:00.001-07:00

Hey folks! So I’m probably going to be going to posting every two weeks, but I figured I should try to get a post in this week because I’m going to be away all next week, and I seriously doubt I’ll have time to write a blog post.

A quick note on Hunchback before we start. I read a review of it a few days after opening, and I must say that it is probably the single worst review of all time. Not because it said negative things about the show . . . on the contrary, it was very positive, but . . . the show was directed by Dustin Ceithammer, costumed by Debbie Rao, and starring Heather Sembeida (that spelling might be slightly off . . . I don't have my program handy). The review, however, talked about (I am not making this up) the wonderful acting and singing of Heather Sambaed, the great costumes by Debbie Rio, and, best of all, the wonderful direction provided by (really, I promise I'm not making this up) Dustin Catheter. So let's have a big round of applause for Mr. Catheter and his team. 'Cause they really would've done a good job, no doubt, had they actually existed.

My respect for The Sun is pretty much gone now.

Okay. Now that we have that out of the way . . . since I'd like your opinions on it, and since AJ asked me post it anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to show you all the monologue I wrote for Noah Auditions. Since that took place far prior to this post, I feel like I need to start with it before we get into more current things. And so, without further ado:

A Rant on Biblical Names by Mark Harbison
Look, I’m not saying anything against Christianity, I just think naming kids after Biblical heroes is taking it too far. Yeah, we want to emulate them, but I think their biggest weakness was naming their kids. Takes Job’s buddies: Bildad, Zophar, Elihaz, and Elihu. No doubt their parents were sitting there, contemplating what to name their children, and somebody sneezed, and they said, “Hey, yeah! That’s great!” I think Saul’s son Jonathon was probably drinking some wine or something, and in the middle of a big gulp his wife took him by surprise by asking, “Hey, Jonny, what should we name our son?” Jonathon probably didn’t even know they were having a son, and so naturally he tried to ask what was going on. But since there was still wine going into his mouth, and probably coming out his nose, it just came out as something unintelligible, and bam, his wife named their son Mehpibosheth. His friend David probably heard about that, and when his wife Maacah wanted to name her son, he didn’t know what to say. But he was using Absalamisil for his athlete’s foot, so he named the kid Absalom. Or, hey, take Noah. Great guy, but I don’t know about his naming skills. I guess he was hungry or something, and he thought his wife was asking what he wanted for dinner when he named Ham. So you’ve gotta admit, all things considered, naming our son Wayne isn’t THAT bad.

And there you have it. It was originally about twice as long, but I had to cut it down in order to make it fit the time requirement (one minute). But I was rather happy with it, and Mom, Dad, Uncle Ted, and Bev all really liked it.

As, apparently, did Burning Foxes. (Burning Foxes is the production company that’s working with Lifehouse to produce Noah . . . Dustin, Nathan, Tim, and Randy.) Tim happens to be Bev’s son, and he was talking to her about completely unrelated issues and I came up (I guess), and he apparently told her that they had all been “blown away” by my audition and were all very impressed that I’d written in myself. As I said, though, they were unable to find a place for me in the show because Dustin had very specific people in mind (as Amy Grace mentioned, most of the cast is made up of his friends that he called and asked to be in it).

However, apparently it DID get me something in their eyes, because last Thursday morning I got a mysterious phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. I was in a different room than my phone at the time, so I didn’t get it, but they left a message. Upon checking the message, it turned out to be Nathan. He asked me if I wanted to be “part of the Burning Foxes team producing Noah at Lifehouse.” I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, but I was (of course) interested, so I called him back.

It turns out that one thing Burning Foxes is trying to do is make Lifehouse more professional (something that Wayne has been campaigning for as long as I’ve been there). Nathan said that one thing most professional theaters have that Lifehouse doesn’t is Stage Managers, and so they were looking to start getting Stage Managers for Lifehouse shows. He also said that “Stage Manager” doesn’t mean someone who sits backstage and does all the dirty, thankless work (which is essentially what stage managers were when Lifehouse DID have them), but more of an assistant to the director. Their job is basically to know everything so that when confusion arises, there’s someone there to clear things up if the director is not around or is busy with other things. Essentially, the impression I got was that it’s essentially a gopher and a trouble-shooter. (“Gopher” as in when they need something done that’s not really in anyone’s job description, I do it . . . e.g., go for coffee, go for such and such prop, etc. Not the animal.)

Anyway, as I’m sure that you’ve guessed by now, Nathan offered me the position of Stage Manager for Noah. He told me, “You’re going to think this is a load of bologna, but it’s probably the hardest job on the production staff. But we think you can handle it, and we’d love it if you were part of the team.”

Obviously I wouldn’t have said all of that if I didn’t say yes, so I am officially the Stage Manager for Noah and the Ark. This means that not only do I get to be involved in the show I’ve wanted to be involved in for five years after all, but I get to see the side of producing shows I’ve never seen before.

Orientation was last Thursday, so that was my first experience . . . on that night, my job was basically to be production assistant; to get their paperwork (medical release forms, code of conduct forms, etc.), get their conflicts, get their contact information, and so on. It was kind of overwhelming at first, because I had basically no idea what I was doing and they had to give me a 20-minute crash course on the job, but once I kind of got into the swing of things it was all good.

Orientation followed pretty much your typical format: introducing everyone, going over Lifehouse’s history and mission and such, and then reading through the script, with the addition of a worship time before we read through the script. Which was really really cool.

As, for that matter, was the script. The show (as advertised) follows in the tradition of Esther, being a primarily comedic retelling of the biblical story (unlike Esther, however, it is not a “Dazzling Musical Comedy,” but rather a “Musical Good Time”), and it is HILARIOUS. However, it’s also extremely poignant and powerful (especially at the end). After the read-through, I thought to myself, “If this is executed well, this has the potential to be right up there with Esther, Pilgrim’s Progress, and Hunchback . . .”

On Sunday night, celebrating Dad’s birthday was cut short by a call from Tim asking if I could be at Carl’s Jr. for a production meeting at 5:30. (Speaking of which, Happy Birthday, Dad! I hope you don’t think I’m just skipping over your birthday celebration . . . but there’s really nothing to tell . . .) It was my first-ever production meeting, so it was pretty exciting. They went over everything from the pose for the publicity photo to the color of the chairs. I offered my input a few times, but mostly I just sat there and soaked it all in, watching some of the most creative people I know just pounding out ideas of how to make the show work.

The entire set consists of eight chairs, three ladders (two six-foot, one eight-foot), two planks, and eight trunks that sit on the edges of the stage and never move. And the remarkable thing is, every location that is needed for the show can be easily built out of those pieces. The entire ark is built out of the ladders, planks, and chairs, and it somehow still looks awesome (Dustin had models and was building stuff for us). A really large, really impressive looking altar is made entirely from chairs. It’s probably just about the coolest set ever.

And the ironic thing is that, even with only those pieces, the set goes over the budget set aside for it. Aside from the budget being ridiculously low (low enough that I, who have no experience in this stuff whatsoever, noticed that it was really low), they also have to buy all three ladders (which aren’t cheap) and build all eight chairs, ‘cause . . . they aren’t really chairs. I believe Randy termed them “Vaguely chair-like square objects,” or some such thing. So, if nothing else, you should all come see the show just to see the chairs.

On Tuesday, we had the first rehearsal (in case you haven’t guessed, Noah is pretty much the only things that’s been going on since I last posted). The first five rehearsals are slated to be music rehearsals (although I’ll be missing the next two, since I’ll be in La Mirada . . . read on). Normally, music rehearsals are long and boring, but for a number of reasons I really enjoyed this one. For one thing, we had a worship time at the beginning of rehearsal again, which is really cool. When I was talking about it with Dustin, he said, “Yeah, I really like it, too. It reminds me why we’re doing this . . . and without it, I’d just get caught up in work-mode, and become a perfectionist.” It’s just a really cool way to start rehearsal, and it kind of helps me relax from whatever stress I’ve had from the day and just focus on God for a few minutes . . . which also clears my mind to focus on Noah once we start rehearsing.

In addition to that, it was also cool because I wasn’t just learning harmonies that will never actually be enacted on stage (which is usually what happens at music rehearsals). For one thing, since there’s only eight people in the cast, the harmonies WILL happen onstage, because it’ll be glaringly obvious if people aren’t doing them. It’s also a cast of really responsible, strong singers, who are all eager to sing harmonies anyway. For another thing, I wasn’t actually LEARNING these harmonies (which I’m rather bad at), I was just writing down what notes I could about them (such as who was singing the high, middle, and low parts, who was making the funky sound effects, who came in when for the round, etc.). I think that they’ll be helpful, too, if confusion or forgetfulness ever sets in . . . so I felt pretty good about it. And it was kinda fun.

And it helps, too, that I really like the songs and the harmonies. I’m typically rather indifferent towards them, but these are really, really cool . . . I think, anyway. I suppose AJ might have a different opinion if he comes to see it. But we’ll see.

On July 4th, we had a second production meeting (we’ll ending up having three . . . hopefully not more). At THIS meeting (taking place at Del Taco), we went through the script line-by-line, going over most of the blocking, set changes, props, lighting effects, and sound effects . . . and other such things. We were hoping to go through the whole script in two hours, we ended up getting through act one in four. But, as with the first one, I really enjoyed it . . . seeing how everything comes together, seeing the show from the side of the production staff . . . and just watching Dustin work. My respect for him grows every time I see him. Anyway, at the meeting I did pretty much what I did during rehearsal: I wrote down everything I could, as quickly and legibly as I could (had to kind of find a happy medium). But again I had great fun . . . and I’m now convinced, based on the one rehearsal and the production meetings (now that I have a general idea of the talent level of the cast and a more complete idea of what’s going on), that this could definitely be the best show Lifehouse has ever done. So everyone needs to come see it.

And that’s pretty much all that’s been going on. As I said at the beginning, there’s definitely not going to be a post next week, because I’ll be at Biola University, at Emmaus Forum. Emmaus Forum, for anyone who doesn’t know (which I think is everyone except AJ), is a summer camp/retreat-thingy that Torrey Academy does . . . so we live on campus for a week, and attend lectures and discussions and stuff . . . it’s essentially what we do during the school year (other than the on-campus thing . . . and the in person thing, for me), except that we have different texts and topics, and it’s more concentrated. I’ve been looking forward to it all year. So . . . that’s where I’ll be next week. When I get home, I’ll no doubt sleep for a few days, and then post about it.

In two weeks, then.

Comments:
Stephen: I’ll have to check those sites out sometime, when I have time to get obsessed with something else. Wow, that’s amazing . . . 780 on math is, like, unearthly to me . . . darn you crazy smart people. I fully intended to go back this week and try to figure out the pants thing, but I forgot . . . maybe tomorrow. I’m happy you guys liked the quote. I see . . . well, yeah, I guess pursuing another girl when you’re engaged WOULD cause problems. I’m not really sure which job strategy to take . . . I’ll get back to you guys on that. Congrats on first comment!

Rae1 (and 2, since they’re the same): As I said, I’m not really sure which strategy to take . . . but I’ll take both into careful consideration. Thanks for the advice, guys!

Amy Grace: Yeah, I know, when I saw the cast-list, I thought it looked almost like a Lifehouse All-Star team . . . all the old stars coming back . . . incidentally, it’s Erin Allen now. But everyone keeps calling her Erin Mahoney and correcting each other . . . it’s funny . . . and *gasp*! What show are you thinking of doing??

AJ: I’m happy you’re so excited about all this stuff. I added those as much for my convenience as anything, as I can now get to them without going through other blogs. If you had a choice between the cast there is, and substituting me for one of those people, I really rather doubt you’d pick me . . . and I’d hit you over the head if you did (but thanks). Still haven’t heard from anywhere. Good luck seeing Pirates. I’m . . . not really sure when Hunchback closes . . . but yeah, you should see it. You have you precious numbering system to thank for this. I’ll look forward to the notation. Go Stephen. It’d be step-cousin . . . John would be our step-cousin-in-law. Actually, you had 15 once.

Two Weeks Later

2007-06-26T19:24:00.001-07:00

Well, here we are, just two weeks later, and here I am posting again! Go figure. And not a whole lot has happened in that time, so you might actually get a marginally short post this time!! I guess we’ll just have to see.

First order of business, I’m gonna pull an AJ here and talk about the changes I’ve made to the Death Star. If you’ll direct your attention to the far right side of the screen, you may notice that it looks a lot more organized now, and there’s a few more links. I added categories for organization purposes, so that it would look nicer than everything being thrown randomly together. Under the Blog section, I added Mike’s (AJ’s roommate) and the Team America site. I also added Mere Orthodoxy, which is the TA tutor blog. I haven’t been reading it on a regular basis for very long, but most of the posts are fairly interesting. I’d encourage you to check it out sometime. I also added David’s xanga and a number of entertaining sites. Legendary Frog is flash videos, mostly parodies, and Giant in the Playground and Real Life are two webcomic sites that I recommend.

Speaking of Real Life, I was pretty bored towards the end of the week before last and that weekend, and so since Stephen suggested that I check it out, I decided I’d see what it was all about. I got sucked in rapidly, and unfortunately had nothing to do all weekend, and so I wasted the entire weekend catching up. I ended up reading about seven and a half year’s worth of comics in four or five days. Obviously, I greatly enjoyed it, so my thanks to Stephen for introducing me to it, and my recommendation to everyone else if you get really bored.

Anyway, let’s get going with actual events. First off, not this last Thursday but the Thursday before I auditioned for Noah and the Ark at Lifehouse (which, incidentally, I am told is actually spelled “LifeHouse,” but I really don’t care). In addition to the usual song, we also had to give a minute-long comedic monologue. After hours of agonizing and unfruitful web searches, Mom suggested that I simply write my own, which I did. It got rave reviews from my family, so I figured I’d give it. The audition itself went pretty well . . . I was really nervous, so my voice was shaking on the song, which typically doesn’t sound very good. The monologue went very well, though, I thought.

The results were supposed to be posted online on Friday. Two days before this, however, I got a phone call from Wayne himself, telling me that I didn’t get in. He apologized profusely and told me how great I was, and then hung up. I was rather impressed that he’d actually called me personally. But since the results are STILL not posted, I’m thinking that perhaps he called everyone, and that it wasn’t really anything worth being impressed over. But either way, I didn’t get into Noah. Alas. But I didn’t really expect to, ‘cause it’s only eight people . . .

So that’s the deal with Noah: there IS no deal with Noah.

In other news, I’ve recently been job searching. I’ve realized that I 1) have no income and 2) have nothing to do this summer (especially without Noah), and there’s an easy way to fix both of those problems in one fell swoop. So far I’ve put in applications at Target, Barnes and Noble, and Gamestop. Tomorrow I’m going to see if I can get an application at The Frugal Frigate, which is a local children’s bookstore. Last Thursday, I had an interview at Target, and as a result, I’ve pretty much given up hope of getting a job there. I thought most of the questions were stupid (and Taylor and my mother both agreed with me), especially for someone like me who has never had a job, but I had difficulty answering them. Funny how when you actually NEED to remember something, your mind goes completely blank . . . but anyway, yeah. That interview didn’t go so well. But I’m supposed to find out in two weeks if they want to interview me again (which would be a sign that I’m fairly close to getting a job) or if they’re not interested.

And the vast majority of the time I spent at the interview was sitting and waiting for them to call my name. There were a LOT of other people getting interviewed, and not too many people interviewing, so it was going fairly slowly. But the guy sitting next to me (whose name was Anthony) was very friendly, so we were talking most of the time, so it wasn’t excessively boring or anything. The girl sitting across from us was friendly, too, so she joined in occasionally.

But yeah, that’s the epic story of my job search thus far. Neither of the other places have contacted me yet. So we’ll just have to wait and see . . .

This weekend was a pretty exciting one. On Friday, I finally went to see Pirates 3. I don’t know how many of you, if any of you, have seen it, so I won’t give anything away. But I really enjoyed it. It was a lot better than I expected, and definitely better than Dead Man’s Chest. And I really really liked the ending, which I really really didn’t expect to. As always, I was extremely impressed by Johnny Depp’s acting, and everyone else (other than Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom, of course) was good, too. Keira Knightly was slightly better than the other two movies, I thought, but she was still not very good.

The plot was slightly hard to follow, I must admit . . . because you have pretty much every character in the movie making deals with everyone else in the movie, and then betraying them at the last minute. But if you are willing to actually pay attention to what’s going on, I’d highly recommend it. It was a lot of fun.

It also improved on the second movie in that it didn’t suffer from what I (with help from The Ninja) have named “Gore Verbinski Syndrome.” In his review of Dead Man’s Chest, The Ninja said that the movie could’ve used “a lot more gore, and a lot less verbinski, which I think is Russian for ‘bad dialogue.’” Spiderman 3 suffered from this, because it was an action movie that had about ten minutes of action in two hours. But Pirates 3 clipped along nicely, with action at every turn, which is nice for an action movie.

So, in short, while it wasn’t a GREAT movie, it was a lot of fun and I’d highly recommend it.

On Saturday night, I went to opening night of The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Lifehouse. Now, when I saw this show before, I really didn’t like it that much, because I was young enough to not really care about important and depressing stuff, and just wanted something funny. But watching it again, I must say that it has to be right up there with Esther and Pilgrim’s Progress as the best in the Lifehouse library. The script is awesome.

This particular run of the show was fantastic in its own right, as well. I liked the hunchback and Captain Pheobus better last time (if it means anything to anyone, the hunchback last time was Jason Livesay, and Pheobus was my step-cousin Tim), but other than that, everything was fabulous. The choreography was good enough that I actually noticed it was good, and all the mains were really good. Even the two that I liked better last time were still good. I actually thought that the hunchback himself was the worst of the leads, but it’s actually the smallest part of the leads, so it worked out nicely.

After the show, the Pocahontas cast hosted a dessert for the Hunchback cast, which I attended since I was part of the Pocahontas cast. It was fun, ‘cause it was kind of a reunion with most of the cast . . . We really didn’t mingle with the Hunchback cast much, we just hung around with each other. And . . . I don’t know if this will be as funny reading it as it was hearing it, but I’ll say it anyway. I have to post this quote SOMEWHERE, and this just seems like the best place:

“‘Jason’ and ‘rules’ just don’t go in the same sentence. Wait . . . I just put them in the same sentence!! Oh CRAP!!!!!”

So I dunno. But I thought it was really funny.

On Sunday, I spent most of the day at Seth’s, where WE spent most of the day playing one of the most fun video games I’ve ever played. I doubt any of you (except maybe Stephen) will have heard of it, but it was called Alien Homonid. Nintendo Power rated it one of the most difficult Gamecube games ever made, and I’m inclined to agree . . . but the miraculous thing about it is that it’s incredibly fun, but not at all frustrating. I suppose perhaps it might’ve been if I’d been playing it by myself, but we didn’t get frustrated at all. We spent most of the time playing co-op mode, too, so it was probably considerably easier than it would’ve been with just one person (as evidenced by the fact that on Sunday, we got about two-thirds through the game, and Seth hasn’t advanced at all in the two days since).

The only other event of significance at this point is that yesterday I finally got my hands on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and have been playing it constantly since (although obviously I took a break to write this . . . aren’t I committed?).

So . . . that’s pretty much it for this time! Enjoy your lives!!

Comments:
AJ: Yes, well, my GE is going to be replaced by Torrey, which I’m sure will be a highlight of my college career. I WOULD like to know how you notated playing inside the piano. “Awakening” is a Switchfoot song from Oh! Gravity., my favorite on the album. Well, take the script of Sincerely Yours up with Didi, not me. A “scrivener,” if I recall correctly, is a law copyist.

Stephen: You and Rachel broke it off?? Why? What happened?? Well, yes, Bartleby was good for “what the crap” discussions, but I just . . . I just thought it was boring. You know, with you, people don’t even have to ask what your SAT score was to know that it was awesome (although, incidentally, what was it?). Alol at your lessons from Poe. Do you know any pants samurais? Good job equaling AJ.

Victoria: You read my blog!! Yay!! (For anyone who didn’t figure it out, she was one of my classmates.) I hope you continue to do so! And hey, how could I NOT be a Sith Lord, considering how heartless I was towards everyone? :-P Thank you!

Amy Grace: Thank you! And while it’s true that only 14 people auditioned, I think they were looking for VERY specific people . . .

“Jamie Ford:” Um . . . do I know you? I don’t recognize the name . . .

Another Post!!!

2007-06-13T23:04:00.001-07:00

I guess it’s pretty ironic that I make a post about how I’m going to start posting again, and then post nothing for a month and a half . . . but in any case, the silence is ending now, and hopefully it won’t happen again. Knowing my track record, it probably will, but we can all dream. In fact, we all do, even if we don’t want to and don’t remember.

But anyway, I guess it’s time to get started. Unfortunately, most of the things I mentioned in the last post are fairly distant memories, so I might have to kind of breeze through them . . . but I will cover them, nevertheless, because far be it from me to break a promise that I’m sure tantalized so many people.

Music To My Ears. Well, way back on April 20th, some pretty crazy things happened. We went down to Orange County for the day because I was visiting Biola to meet with an admissions counselor and to tour the campus and because AJ’s long-awaited Senior Recital was that night.

First thing’s first, Biola. We got there, and had to wait a few moments before Jason Mundy called us into his cubicle. (Where, incidentally, he had a Mac.) (Yes, sadly, that was the first thing I noticed.) Mr. Mundy, besides looking painfully but inexplicably familiar, gave us a quick run-down on admissions and such, and talked to us about the film program and the Torrey Honors Institute (THI). He said that trying to do both (as is my desire) is a pretty tall order, since they’re both demanding problems. More recent studies have shown that, while I’m sure it WILL be difficult, THI covers pretty much all of the GE requirements for Biola, so if I get into both, then I won’t have to worry about too many GE classes. Wee-ha.

After meeting with him, we had to rush to catch up with the campus tour, which had started a few minutes before we got out of our appointment. Megan Burk, our tour guide, was having everyone introduce themselves and give a favorite Disney character . . . I said Jaffar, which got me a weird look from Ms. Burk, and a fist pump from a guy across the circle. Dad said Gepetto, because he was trying to think of someone nobody would’ve said yet. Mom said Sleepy, because she just didn’t care. After this wildly fun icebreaker exercise, we went off on the campus tour. There’s not really a WHOLE lot to tell about it . . . Mom was REALLY annoyed Ms. Burk. I think she has a natural bias against college-age blonde females. Not all of them annoy her (Jessica, for example, would be a notable exception), but the majority of them seem to be simply intolerable.

After the tour, we walked around Biola a bit ourselves, and then went to dinner somewhere, I’m sure. I think we went to Chili’s, but I really don’t remember. And after that, we moved on to the main event . . .

We arrived at the Little Theater at about 7:30, and AJ’s recital was to start at 8:00. The Vander Flippets were there, and shortly after Mike and Doug showed up. AJ was running around like a madman (and his hair certainly didn’t help dispel that image), and the excitement was rising. At something like 7:45, the doors to the theater opened and people began to flood in. It filled up quite nicely, with lots of both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Uncle Ted came. Eleanor was there, Rae was there (with quite impressive boots), Rae’s fiancé was there, Stephen was there, Jessica was there (she proposed to me), and lots of other people were also there. I could continue the list, but I see no real reason to . . .

Anyway, eventually the recital actually started. I could probably give a run-down on every piece, but I don’t remember them well enough to truly do that well, and I feel that my lack of musical knowledge might make it an exercise in futility anyway. But they were all very good, and some of them were really interesting . . . Uncle Ted remarked afterwards that he’d be curious to know how AJ notated (is that the right word?) playing inside a piano.

And I probably could go on, but since I’m sure everyone who reads this was there, I don’t really think I need to . . .

There I Sat. Hopefully that will be the lamest of the event titles in this post, but no promises.

Saturday morning, May 5th, way too early to even conceive of getting up. Especially for a Saturday. My alarm goes off. Woe is me. But I must get up, for today I take one of the most important tests I shall ever take. Today, I take the SAT.

I get out of bed and go through the motions of my normal morning routine, trying to wake up. Mom graciously gets up and makes me breakfast. I drink coffee, that helps. I get in the car and play “Awakening” on the CD player, hoping that it will have a positive effect on me. Eventually I get to Redlands East Valley High School. I follow the large mass of people moving back into the area where we were supposed to be. I get there to see that there’s a really crazy amount of people there. I’m extremely nervous.

I randomly mill around for a while. Andrea comes and joins me in randomly milling. I’m clearly more nervous than she is. She attempts to calm me down. We sign in and whatever, and go to our separate testing rooms. The teacher-person (proctor?) in mine is eating breakfast. All of the students are sitting nervously, and I guess he wishes to put us at ease, so he says, “Hey, all you guys eat breakfast?” There is a collective nod. “Well, I hope your breakfasts were better than this crap,” he says, throwing his trash into the Carl’s Jr. bag and throwing that into the trash can.

Eventually everyone gets in and situated, and the test begins. Section one is the essay. This was the section that I really wasn’t terribly worried about, since I have to write an essay every two weeks for Torrey. So I was able to remain calm mostly through this, which thankfully set a tone for the rest of the test.

So all in all, it’s a pretty annoying morning. But eventually it ends, and we go our merry ways. And then, weeks later, I am awakened by a strange pounding on my door. I roll over to look at the door, and Uncle Ted’s head appears. “Your SAT scores are back!” says he. I jump out of bed, throw on my glasses, and run downstairs.

Reading: 730
Math: 630
Writing: 740
Essay: 11/12 (thank you, Mr. Selby!)
Overall: 2100

So I was extremely happy with that. Also because a 1360 on Reading and Math means that I qualify for the highest possible merit scholarship at Biola, which is a pretty big deal since Biola is insanely expensive.

”I belong to you, Margeruite Brighton, body and soul, and I am truly and sincerely yours.” That there is the closing line of Sincerely Yours, my first (and to this point, last) show at Heartland. I really only mention it ‘cause I said I would, ‘cause I really don’t know what to say about it . . . it ran through April, and it was fun. I got to play an antagonist for the first time, which is of course really cool, and I got to pretend I was playing a piano . . . and I made some new acquaintances, and so all in all it was a good experience. Unfortunately, Kristen stole my script, so I don’t have it anymore . . . but ah well. Life goes on. And this post will now do the same.

Most American writers should have a scarlet “W” fastened to their breast. The name of this year’s Torrey Academy academic term was Foundations of American Thought, and when you’re dealing with that, naturally you’re going to have to read some influential American literature. We read Hawthorne, Irving, Melville, Twain, and Poe. Well, we also read a few more, but those were the most notable in my eyes. Poetry-wise, we read Longfellow and Poe, and some others that I really didn’t care about. I’ll deal with Irving and Melville first.

You’ve probably heard Washington Irving’s name in association with either The Legend of Sleepy Hollow or Rip Van Winkle. I’ve read both, although we only read Rip Van Winkle for school. My basic feelings towards him: “What the CRAP was the point of that???” His protagonists don’t really seem to learn anything or change throughout the course of the story, and all of the cool elements are ridiculously underdeveloped. Of Melville’s, we only read Bartleby the Scrivener. The only thing I’m really happy about in regards to that was learning the word “Scrivener,” ‘cause it’s lots of fun to say. And that should tell you how much I liked his work.

Of Twain’s we read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Something Or Other That Involved Bluejays. Now, to be perfectly honest, I’m a fan of Twain’s. I loved Tom Sawyer, and the Bluejay story was fun (if stupid). But Huck Finn was, if I may be blunt, boring as heck. Most of my classmates enjoyed it, but I just found it boring and repetitive. Granted, it had Twain’s flair of wacky fun, but rather than the wacky fun being in the foreground and the serious issues as undertones, the serious issues were in the foreground, and the wacky fun was an afterthought. So I wasn’t a huge fan of this book.

And then there’s Hawthorne. Ahh, Hawthorne. We read The Scarlet Letter and Young Goodman Brown. Young Goodman Brown is a creepy story about selling one’s soul to the devil (sort of), that I really couldn’t make heads or tails of. The Scarlet Letter is (in my opinion) a critique of Christianity in general and Puritan society specifically. I believe that there are two real points that Hawthorne is trying to make in this book: 1) hypocrisy is BAD. 2) repentance is futile, so just do what you want. So he starts out good, telling you not to be a hypocrite, but then he ends up telling you that you shouldn’t be a hypocrite ‘cause it isn’t worth trying to hide the sins that you’re perfectly justified in doing anyway. Or perhaps not “perfectly justified,” but at least unable to escape from. Now, while I obviously disagree with this, that alone is not enough to condemn the book as “bad,” because he’s allowed to publish his own opinions. However, I thought that while it was an interesting picture of hypocrisy and Puritan society, the book as a whole was boringly written. It had an interesting story and context, but the writing itself was boring. Kind of reminds me of what AJ said about Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code, I suppose.

And then there’s Poe. Ahh, Poe. Poe was a breath of fresh, mountain air amongst the smog of downtown LA. Sure, he’s creepy, disturbing, and kinda messed-up, but hey, he’s actually a GOOD writer. His stories are interesting, and the actual way they’re written is interesting, too. Of Poe’s, unfortunately, we only read The Fall of the House of Usher and some poetry. My personal favorite of his poems (and of all the poems we read) was The Conqueror Worm, if you care. We determined as a class that the purposes for Poe’s writer The Fall of the House of Usher were: 1) to make money, 2) to be creepy, and 3) to caution his readers against the dangers of burying family members alive. I wrote an analysis of The Conqueror Worm as an assignment, and if you’re interested in reading that, you can let me know and I’ll give it to you to read. But I don’t want to bore you by making you read it if you don’t want to.

And then there’s Longfellow. Longfellow was the other poet that I really liked. His poems, while fraught with death (but really, whose WEREN’T?), were more musical than most others, and (I thought) more beautiful. I can’t really pick a favorite, but I was an especially big fan of The Grave and The Arrow and the Song.

So, all this to say: read more Poe and Longfellow, and read more British literature. All hail Lewis and Williams.

The Age that Doesn’t Jive. So I was talking to Sarah about turning 17, and she told me that being 17 doesn’t jive with me. Apparently 15 and 18 do, and 16 is okay, but not 17. Unfortunately, however, I couldn’t skip being 17, so I’m stuck with it until next April.

There wasn’t really a big to-do about it this year like there was last year (if that can be called a big to-do), ‘cause different people had different things going, so a birthday party was pretty much out of the question unless I only wanted like two people there. I DID go to see Spider-Man with Seth, Sarah, and Rachel a few weeks later, but that’s it. But AJ was in town because Jeff got married on the 28th, so he and I and Mom and Dad and Uncle Ted and Bev went out to Red Robin for dinner on the 29th, and then came back and I opened presents. Which consisted of four CDs (U2, Weird Al, Switchfoot, and Billy Joel), some add-ons to my movie software, two books (Outbound Flight and Till We Have Faces), Season Two of The Office on DVD, and probably something else that was tremendously important to me which I promptly forgot about. Additionally, Seth got me a gift card to Barnes and Noble, and Sarah is going to get me Start of Darkness (essentially a comic book . . . but it’s complicated) whenever it finally comes out.

I see fields . . . and dinosaurs . . . and pink butterflies . . . After Sincerely Yours ended, Pocahontas promptly started. I played the incredibly important role of Sgt. Jacobs, whose untimely demise on page 5 of the script leads to John Smith’s hostile take over of the English settlement. I also made a video of life backstage (and occasionally onstage) to show at the cast party, which I did.

When AJ and Eleanor graduated, since I couldn’t go to Eleanor’s graduation or party because of the show, I dedicated my performance to them. I even wore Eleanor’s graduation button under my costume that day. And that’s that . . .

I don’t really know what else to say about it, but it’s over now. I’ll be auditioning for Noah tomorrow (Thursday), and that’ll be that. I probably won’t get in, though, ‘cause it’s an 8-person cast, so . . . yeah. That’s that. And I really don’t know why I keep repeating that phrase. But ah well.

The cast party was on Sunday, and it was fun . . . Eric has a big karaoke machine that everyone was playing with . . . I never got up the nerve to go and sing myself, but it was fun listening to everyone else. I also got to play fooseball, so that was fun. Wyatt said, “Hey, can I whup you at fooseball?” And then I beat him 10-3 . . . hee hee . . .

So that’s pretty much Pocahontas.

And really, that’s pretty much my life these days. I’ve also gotten recently into Heroes, and I watched the whole first season online . . . I discovered that it’s possible to burn your finger on the turn signal if it sits out in the sun too long . . .

Oh, and I didn’t even mention that I got Firefly over Netflix, and watched all the episodes, and . . . Sarah’s right. It’s the best thing that ever happened to television. So, naturally, it got cancelled mid first-season . . .

But anyway, I’ll bid thee adieu now. I hope that I’ll be able to win back some of my loyal readers, and that I’ll be posting more consistently in the future . . . but I guess we’ll see.

Comments:
Stephen 1 and 2: I’ve heard good things about Babylon 5 . . . I’ll have to try it out sometime. And that comic was awesome

AJ 1 and 2: Dude, even I make typos sometimes. Forgive me for not proofreading all of these posts. And no, I never found the Matrix/Stargate wallpaper . . . but I did find a good Daniel Jackson one. It has since been replaced by a Firefly one, though. As far as the art of cinema goes . . . I must admit that I wasn’t really considering it as I wrote that post. However, I would say that it is essentially the same as theater. It combines all (or almost all) other forms of art within itself.

An Apology to My Fans

2007-05-01T17:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends, Family, and Fair-Weather Fans,

I sincerely apologize for my lack of consistent blogging over the past months. Now that I really think about it, I suppose that over the past year I haven't been consistent at all. For the majority of that, I can't really remember my excuses. As it stands now, however, I have simply put too much on my plate the last five months, and this has led me to cast a number of things aside in life. Blogging was one of those. I'm not going to lie and say that I have had NO free time in the past five months, indeed I have had a fair deal. However, a number of things took priority over blogging, as either I enjoyed them more or deemed them more important. A good example of this would be Stargate.

However! I ask you, my dear readers, to take heart. My blog is far from dead. It may be lying on the ground, cut in a thousand places and drowning in a sea of its own blood, while its attacker looms above it still, brandishing his sword for yet another thrust, but it is not yet dead! It will rise again, to smite the attacker by retreating to a safe distance and pulling out a gun! I know not how long it will take for this to happen, but if I had to ballpark it, I'd say things will calm down on approximately May 13th.

And when they do, you can be sure that a post will arrive containing thrilling accounts of exciting events such as C.S.A AJ's Senior Recital (and, for those of you who may be confused, that stands for "Chief Sound Architect," not "Casting Society of America"), my visit to Biola with attendance in sight, my experience with the SAT, the run of Sincerely Yours, my birthday, and perhaps even an account of why I hate Nathaniel Hawthorne.

It is fairly likely that my xanga will be updated soon, as a post has been bouncing around in my head for a few weeks. However, I am waiting until I finish a certain book to write it, as I will probably cite the book in the post, and wish to have a full understanding of the author's position and intent to assure myself and my readers that he does, in fact, mean what I imagine him to mean.

And so I must bid the adieu for now, fine members of the blogging community. If you have yet to read the post below this one, I encourage you to do so as you wait for the new post to come out.

So fear not. I am very much alive, and the Evil Empire has yet to be thwarted.

— Darth Harbison

All Hail Rae

2007-04-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

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 . . .

A Typical Two Weeks in Redlands

2007-01-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

Pride. Prejudice. Captivating dialogue. Six-foot spears. Hardcore battling. Overcoming years of difficulty and failure and succeeding at last against all odds. One incredibly screwed-up roadtrip. One phone playing “Rockin’ Robin” from the ceiling of Dunder-Mifflin, Scranton. One Electric Monk sincerely believing that a desert valley is pink.

It’s been an exciting pair of weeks here in Redlands, California. Well, okay, perhaps “exciting” is a strong word. But things have happened here in the last two weeks, and it’s my job to relate those things to you, no matter how boring, pointless, and completely devoid of an interest factor those things are. Too bad I don’t get paid for it.

Thursday, January 11th. Life, generally speaking, is good. Then, I’m hit by a stunning revelation: “It’s Thursday. January 11th.” Why is this significant? Because Friday, January 12th, is the day of Lit. Club. This time, we are discussing Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Which is 375 pages long.

Which I hadn’t started yet.

Accompanying the stunning revelation came the thought of a single word: “Crap.” This was followed by another word. A beautiful word. A word that has been the salvation of many, a word that is so sacred that it is never spoken except in times of great need. What is this word? “Sparknotes.”

I was thus faced with a moral quandary: should I go for the Sparknotes, or try to get through the entire book in less than 24 hours? The former, obviously, would be greatly preferable in terms of time spent. But on the other hand, reading the Sparknotes would also obviously give me less insight into the nuances of the characters and Austen herself as the narrator, which would no doubt have adverse effects on my ability to participate intelligently in the discussion.

In the end, it was something seemingly completely unrelated that decided it: I’m a Torrey Academy student. How does this apply, you ask?

Torrey Academy Student Requirement #29: “All Torrey students know that reading Cliffsnotes is for amateurs — we WRITE the Cliffsnotes.”

Obviously I could’ve justified it by saying that I’d be using Sparknotes and not Cliffsnotes, but I chose in this situation to obey the spirit as well as the letter of the law.

So I opened the book and began to read.

Unfortunately, this story has a somewhat anti-climactic and non-inspirational ending, because I failed to finish the book by 7:00 PM on Friday. I did, however, get to page 325, which was farther than I was expecting to go. In the end, then, I was forced to turn to Sparknotes to get the last fifty pages of plot, although obviously it was fairly easy to predict.

The discussion itself was cool as always. Not really a whole lot I can say, I don’t think, unless I really want to spend a lot of time on this part of the post, which to be honest I really don’t. I will note, however, that every girl present enjoyed the book, and surprisingly most guys as well (myself included). There was only one person that I remember who expressed a distinctly negative reaction, saying that there was “not enough action . . . dancing doesn’t count.”

Saturday was a pretty typical non-Lifehouse Saturday, other than the addition of football to the mix.

On Sunday I went back to Seth’s after church and hung out for most of the day. We spent the majority of the afternoon messing around with my lightsaber (nothing damaging, of course) and playing Seth’s Wii.

This was my first experience with the new(-ish) Nintendo Wii, and I must say, I’m greatly impressed. The games I played were Wii Sports and (briefly) Twilight Princess. Twilight Princess I didn’t really do much . . . I just rode around on Epona flailing about randomly with my sword, pretty much. Wii Sports, however, I did much. The game was quite simplistic (it was more an introduction to motion control than an actual game), but it was a blast.

The first thing I did was bowling, where I was soundly trounced by Seth, and then Tennis, where I came really close to beating him but failed, then Baseball, which ended in a 0-0 tie, then Golf, where we (we alternated holes) ended up at roughly +15 after three holes (in my defense, Seth played one hole and went +7, I went +8 in two), and then finally boxing by myself. I triumphed greatly at Boxing because it was painfully easy. It required basically no skill whatsoever. I just jabbed nonstop, alternating hands, and basically totally smacked down every opponent I faced. And that was pretty much that.

The next big, exciting thing that happened was on Monday night, when Josh walked into rehearsal carrying a six-foot spear. Unfortunately, Nikko gets to use it and not just your average Winkie, but it’s still freakin’ cool.

We didn’t get to see it in action until Tuesday, when we actually choreographed the fights. Which are fun, even though I get a bastard sword and not a spear. And even that I lose several seconds into the fight. But it’s all good.

Other interesting events that have happened, in no particular order:
— Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Another book by one of my three favorite authors, who I haven’t read in a while. I got this book for Christmas, and started it this week. My impression thus far is that it isn’t as good as the Hitchhiker’s series, for the most part, but it’s still pretty good.

— The Office
I had a random craving a while ago for this NBC comedy based on the award-winning British comedy of the same name. Remembering that you could buy TV show episodes on iTunes, I bought the episode “The Coup”. I greatly enjoyed it, and decided maybe I’d buy one more, just for fun. After that, I became completely obsessed, and have now bought eleven episodes. A big part of this came out of a sub-obsession with the Jim/Pam story, so I bought a number of episodes purely because I knew that they factored into that (specifically, “Casino Night” and “Gay Witch Hunt”). So basically, I’m completely in love with this show now, and I’d like to publicly express my condolences to Karen (not that she actually exists or anything like that). I like you, and it’s too bad about Jim.

— Little Miss Sunshine
This is a comedy that came out a while ago starring Greg Kinnear and (more importantly for me) Steve Carell. Due to my fledgling Office obsession, I’m a big fan of Steve Carell at the moment. Anyway, we watched this on Friday night because Uncle Ted and Bev had heard good things about it and gotten a copy of it from somewhere (I can’t remember where specifically). My reaction to this movie in one word: bizarre. If it wanted to be, it could be one of the most depressing movies I’ve ever seen. But it wasn’t, because it was a comedy. And it was HILARIOUS. Not the sort of movie I’d want to watch again and again (although I WOULD watch it again if I were watching it with someone who hadn’t seen it), but it was a very good movie. All the acting was great, the writing was great, and I . . . can’t think of a third thing to compliment. There weren’t a whole lot of special effects or anything like that, so I can’t go that direction . . . but anyway, it really was a very good movie. If you have the opportunity to watch it, I’d recommend it . . . but watch it with other people, not by yourself. And also, be prepared for quite a bit of foul language . . .

— The New Moses
If you haven’t seen it yet, check out So_Thoughtful to see a brand-new post, the first in a long time. It’s about Val Kilmer playing Moses in The Ten Commandments: The Musical.

And that’s pretty much my life for the past two weeks. And now you’re all caught up. I might go to posting every two weeks instead of every week (theoretically, anyway), I haven’t decided yet. But be sure, there will be a new post in a few weeks.

And until then . . . adieu. Drive safely.

Comments (some skipped):
Stephen1: One of my friends wanted to get the Mace Windu one . . . don’t think he ever did, though. And from the sound of it, I have about the same level of desire to get a facebook as a myspace . . . which is roughly zero.

Amy Grace1: Why thank you!
AJ1: *deep breath* Thanks. Yes, he’s dead. Most things could be better. Thanks again. Well, it’s the truth. Because when you button it, it secures the collar. Me, too. Undoubtedly, but “a wever” is much more fun. I had to look it up. Would “Congratulations” be better? Yes, good job.

AJ2: Thanks again again.

Stephen5: I love how you can tie Tolkein and MacDonald into a conversation about video games. Although . . . I guess D&D isn’t really a video game, right?

Rae: Well, it would be kind of unfair to give you the award since you didn’t comment, wouldn’t it? I’m sorry that my masculinity in Wizard wasn’t terribly clearly defined for you. I’ll try to remedy that in the future. Yay! Another person who’s seen UHF! Hurrah! And that’s not true . . . there’s some uncool girls trying to be cool girls out there, too. And then there’s the girls who just ARE cool . . .

Amy Grace4: Well, then, good for you. Paul’s a pretty good guy to emulate.

Pointless Award that No One Cares About, #3: My goodness, there were so many great comments on the last entry, it’s really difficult to pick a winner. In the end, though, one person stands out. Stephen left 5 comments, but as he won it last time, I can’t give it to him again already. Rae, despite being my top commenter for so long, didn’t get hers in until #11, and only left one. Although she looks poised to be making a comeback, possibly in the next entry. AJ only left two comments, and was the third person to get two comments in. Which leaves, as the winner of the third postly Pointless Commenter Award, Amy Grace! (As a prize, her blog has been linked in the sidebar.)

Reports of My Demise were Greatly Exaggerated

2007-01-07T16:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, so obviously it’s been over two months since I’ve updated, and probably you’re all thinking, “Has the Death Star finally been destroyed? Has the Luke Skywalker of an actual life fired the proton torpedoes of face-to-face communication into the exhaust port of indirect virtual correspondence? Has the Rebel Alliance of Mark’s extroverted tendencies finally gotten the best of him and become the New Republic, or at least the Alliance of Free Planets?” Or maybe you’ve just been asking yourself, “Has Mark’s Star Wars obsession finally gotten out of control to the point where he’s ceaselessly using metaphors from it to describe the current state of his existence?”

The answer to those questions is sometimes, “yes,” and sometimes, “no.” Which of course is completely unhelpful and reveals absolutely no information.

Obviously, the Death Star hasn’t been destroyed . . . for one thing, if you tried to look at the site, it was still here. There was nothing new on it, of course, but it was here. And now you can see that there IS something new . . . this post. So the Death Star has not been destroyed.

As for the other questions . . . Not really. I still don’t have a life, I’m pleased to report. The answer to the last question, however, was clearly “yes.”

Anyway, the reason I haven’t updated in so long is because, despite nothing changing on the “getting a life” front, I’ve been crazily busy lately. School has been insane, and Scrooge was insane for quite a while, and then even fencing was a little crazy at times. Basically meaning that certain things had to fall by the wayside for a while, and this blog was one of them. I’m sure that you’ve all been disappointed beyond all possible measure that it’s been so long, and for that I apologize. I hate to cause suffering.

But in any case, things are (hopefully) slowing down at the moment, so we’ll be able to get back on track, at least for the time being.

I’m not even really going to try too hard to get everything that’s happened in my life during the past two months . . . although I suppose I should give an overview, at least . . .

In case you didn’t know, Marley is dead. And since this comment has caused some confusion in the past, this is referring to Jacob, not Bob. Although I believe it’s equally true for both of them, I can’t honestly say that Bob’s death had much of an impact on my life.

Jacob’s did because there’s a song about it in Scrooge, in the form of a barbershop quartet. Since there’s a shortage of talented basses in the cast (and by “shortage” I mean “complete absence”), Rebecca (our music director) decided to make me the bass of said quartet.

Since I include myself in the untalented mass of basses, she also threw in John to help me out. In the end, he didn’t turn out to be terribly helpful . . . No offense to him, I like the man a lot, but he doesn’t know the part at all. *sigh* Oh, well.

In the end, though, I think it came off pretty well for all this . . . AJ might disagree with me on this, I’m not sure . . . but I’ll let Mr. University Singers speak for himself and enlighten us all with his opinion. But I know that I was happy with it, and I think Wayne and Rebecca were quite happy with it, as well.

Speaking of singing, I was also tossed into the Carolers as a bass . . . actually, no, I was originally cast as a Caroler, but originally Vince was also supposed to be one, so we would have an actual strong bass there. But, of course, Vince dropped, so that left me. I convinced Rebecca to add John (not Nowak . . . the other one . . .) to help me out, and I think that that’s worked out pretty well, all things considered. I mean, we’re not the greatest bass section ever, but we could be a lot worse (and would be, if it was just me).

But enough about acapella singing, although I could go on and talk about all the joyous drama that it’s caused . . . but I’m sure you all get enough drama without me adding to it.

Let’s see, what else . . . oh yes. On Monday of Tech Week, I was walking towards the office (to retrieve my coat, I believe) when Adam stopped me. “Hey Mark,” he said, “Could you do me a favor?”

“Sure,” I replied, expecting his next words to be something along the lines of, “Could you grab me a water while you’re in the lobby?”

“Want to play Fred and Young Scrooge the nights I’m not here?”

For those of you who may one day be in Adam’s situation, do people like me a favor . . . DON’T start a question like that matter-of-factly. It’s not nice. Making us do a double-take and say, “Wait, what??” is just plain cruel.

In any case . . . yeah. I became Adam’s understudy that night, and have successfully played Fred Hollywell and Young Ebenezer Scrooge twice. Hooray! *confetti*

So yes . . . Scrooge has been eating up my weekends recently.

“Get your lazy butt on the dance floor!” (Credit to Megan for that quote.) December 9th, 2006: It is Saturday. Two shows have been completed. At one of them, I performed in the roles of Young Scrooge and Fred Hollywell. It was the first time that I had ever done such things, and I was greatly stressed out. Lots of running around, lots of raising my hands above my head and screaming silently, lots of desperately hoping to get on stage, in costume, on time. (The height of irony . . . a quote from Taylor: “Mark! RELAX!!”)

There was also a female backstage who was not a member of the cast. This is, of course, frowned upon by the authorities, and of course I would NEVER abide by any breaking of any rule set out by any of the powers that be at Lifehouse, but in perfect honesty no one really cares. So there was this female, and she was wearing a very pretty dress, and curling her hair (which for some reason took her the entire show).

Her name was Andrea. Her reason for being there? The other reason that December 9th, 2006 was special: the Kimberly Juniors’ Christmas Dance.

Miss Andrea had found herself previously without an escort to said dance, and she had to go. She also had to have a male escort. In lieu of a more suitable partner, I was chosen to accompany her.

Upon the completion of the show, I went backstage and tried to change quickly into my suit (it was, regrettably but not unexpectedly, a semi-formal dance). I say “tried” because it sounds better than “miserably failed.” The dance had started at 9:00, and obviously the show wasn’t over yet at that point, so we were rushing over after the show (carpooling with Taylor and Daniel, who were also going). I had my suit and everything with me, but I also had to take my makeup off, hang my costume up, and get that STUPID button that’s under the tie buttoned . . . the one that you can’t button until the tie is already on, but which the tie being on makes it nearly impossible to successfully button.

I then discovered, much to my dismay, that I’d forgotten my comb. Obviously, since I’d just performed in a show in which I wore a hat, my hair was a complete mess. I didn’t have a terrible problem with this (I rarely do), but I figured that probably Andrea would prefer to show up with a guy who looked like he’d made SOME effort to look nice. In the end, I was able to borrow a hairbrush from Austin the Elder, so it turned out okay (I think).

As I quickly scurried out of the dressing room (several minutes after I had hoped to), I got several comments from the other guys on my appearance (most of them positive but confused). I reached the lobby, where everyone was standing around waiting for me. We quickly took pictures, then ran out to the car and drove to the place. I can’t remember what it was called . . . it was near Smiley Library, but that’s about all I figured out.

When we got inside, we had to go down this thing that was called (I think) the Receiving Line, where Andrea had to present me, her escort, to all the powers that be in KJ’s (yes, I’ve used the phrase “powers that be” twice now). Then we were allowed to go into the actual room where the dance was being held.

And so, here it is. My first impression of the first dance I was ever present at (and the last, to this point): “Dang . . . it’s freakin’ LOUD in here.” And when I say loud, I mean LOUD. Like, instant headache loud. I suppose all dances are like that, and I should’ve known this, but . . . yeesh.

We stood awkwardly in the doorway for a few minutes (and were waved at by a number of people), then went and sat down at the nearest table. We sat there for a while, then figured we should stand around awkwardly some more, so we went out on the dance floor and stood around awkwardly, and then went and sat back down.

We tried to have meaningful conversation, I think, but we failed because of the aforementioned ridiculous volume level. Daniel said he was very tempted to go and mess with the soundboard a little bit, but he refrained (much to my disappointment).

It was around this time, I believe, when Megan came over, grabbed the back of my coat, and roughly heaved me out of my chair. She then went over to Andrea and told her to get up, and then said what I have immortalized as the heading of this section.

And so we did. And we remained on the dance floor for the next hour and a half or so, and really, what’s there to tell? Depending on how you define “dancing,” we either did very little or quite a bit . . . several people came over and joined us at times (usually Megan and/or John, who, I’m discovering, has a name that’s way too common), and at other times we were just there ourselves.

After that we went and sat back down with Taylor and Daniel for a while, then got up again to dance the last song.

The most exciting thing that happened was towards the end of the night, when Taylor actually managed to drag Daniel out onto the dance floor for one song . . . but then, since almost none of you know Daniel, that won’t mean anything to you.

After the dance, Andrea (well, her father, technically speaking) took me home, and that was that.

If ever a wever a wiz there was . . . On Thursday, December 14th, auditions were held for The Wizard of Oz, and I chose to participate. After waiting a year between Lifehouse shows before (Cinderella-Scrooge), I shall now wait only a single show (Shadowlands) before I once again grace the stage at 1135 N. Church Street.

Anyway, this audition actually went well, as far as auditions go . . . wasn’t a miserable audition like my Scrooge audition was, or my Oliver audition . . . I sang “If I Were A Rich Man” from Fiddler on the Roof . . .

And then on Tuesday I learned that I’d made it in . . . as did Rachel and Taylor. Sarah also auditioned, but for mysterious reasons (meaning, reasons I don’t feel like explaining) she’s not in it.

So yeah . . . fun times there.

Roadtrip!! On December 21st, as I was putting the ornaments on our Christmas tree and drinking eggnog (non-alcoholic eggnog), we heard a car door slam shut on the street outside. We heard a muffled thumping, as though some large animal had jumped out of a truck.

We heard another car door slam. We all looked at each other, knowing what was coming. Jersey was placed in confinement in the office. I took another sip of eggnog, put another ornament on the tree.

Then the front door opened, and in walked the closers of the two car doors and the large animal: Uncle Ted, Bev, and Achilles. They moved out here from Indiana, and are currently living with us while they try to get back on their feet financially.

So for the rest of the night, we were sitting around talking with them and petting Achilles (who made a great first impression by destroying my glass of eggnog with his tail). And that, as they say, is that.

Bring us the dang figgy pudding already! On December 24th, it was Christmas Eve. The day wasn’t terribly exciting . . . we had church as usual, then watched football as usual.

That night, we followed through with our typical Christmas Eve tradition of a buffet of hors d’oeuvres (pronounced “horsey dor vers”) while watching some Christmas movie or other (despite complaints that several “House” episodes would be better).

This year, AJ and I spent a while searching to try to find the movies we watched every year when we were little, which consisted of a bunch of recorded TV specials. We watched “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and “Eureeka’s Castle Christmas.”

They were all, of course, pretty lame, but they all had their charms, and of course they brought back countless memories. I don’t think Mom and Dad enjoyed them very much, but AJ and I did.

Just before that, we’d celebrated AJ’s birthday and given him his presents, of which there were only two (one from me and one from Mom and Dad, because his big present is money for the roadtrip).

After we’d finished watching everything, Uncle Ted and Bev came back (they’d been off at a party with Bev’s children), and we hung around and talked for a while. Uncle Ted also showed us the not-really-famous “Ping Pong Ball Routine,” in which he makes three ping pong balls disappear (wow!) and then reappear. He also showed us that if you stick a ping pong ball in fire, it’ll flare up and then *poof*, be gone forever. And ALSO that they’re filled (essentially) with Vicks’ Vapor Rub.

All in all, an interesting night.

The gateway to . . . adulthood? Christmas Day. 2:29 AM. Welcome to the adult world, brother. AJ turns 21.

Later, everyone gets up and we have the traditional present-opening time . . . this was the year of the CD. AJ got 9, I got 6 (and I bought another one with giftcards). Four U2, one Weird Al, one Switchfoot, and I bought Coldplay.

My two biggest presents, however, were not CDs. The first one, which I was somewhat expecting, was a black fedora, which joins my trench coat (and the scarf that Moe made me) in my “uncool-guy-trying-to-be-cool” look.

The second one I didn’t expect to get in a million years, because I’d wanted it terribly for a long time and Mom was always telling me what a horrible waste of money it was (and I won’t deny that it is, much as I love it). I am now, however, the proud owner of a Master Replicas Force FX Episode V Darth Vader Lightsaber. Hoo-ah.

The main part of the day didn’t start until early evening, however: AJ’s official 21st birthday party. The details of this party were captured on video, and I can never hope to do it justice with words.

AJ will soon be in possession of a DVD of this video, as will I, so at some point you all should watch it. But suffice it to say that it was a fun night, filled with Uncle Ted’s crazy antics and lots of alcohol for everyone but me.

It’s over!! On December 31st, 2006, Scrooge ended. Despite a LOT of frustration during rehearsals, it was a good run and I enjoyed it a lot. As always, there are parts that I’ll miss (mostly people) and parts that I REALLY won’t miss. And . . . what else is there to say?

Happy New Year! It’s 2007! Yay!

Wizard rehearsals also started on Thursday . . . as you can tell, I’ve somewhat run out of gas in terms of writing this and just want to get it up. So we’ll leave off there with that.

Get ready for a 2007 filled with (hopefully) more consistent blogging here at the Death Star, which is, by the way, fully operational once again.

Comments:
Mrs. Perry: Did I say “old?” My bad, I meant to say “young and beautiful” . . . what the heck was I thinking? And yes, Sarah definitely did look amazingly beautiful. My apologies if my description seemed less than outstanding.

Stephen: You’ve seen UHF?? Awesome!! I wasn’t expecting that anyone I knew would’ve seen it . . .

AJ: I feel like the majority of responses to your comment would be outdated now . . .

Amy: Amy! Hello!! Thank you! I always wanted to be a Gravedigger, too . . . I was really happy when Rebecca upgraded me. Kelly was one because there was a show or two when we had a serious lack of Tenor, so she learned the part and sang it for us.

As for the completely pointless award that no one cares about . . . it’s a toughie. I’m inclined to give it to Mrs. Perry or Amy just because they are Mrs. Perry and Amy, who are not regular commentees here. But on the other hand, Stephen commented about UHF, which gives him major points. And then there’s AJ’s 11-part comment . . . in the end, though, AJ disqualified himself by claiming that he won before I even started thinking about it, and Stephen outclasses Mrs. Perry and Amy by being in contention AND being a consistent supporter of my work here at the Death Star.

Congratulations to Stephen, winner of the second Best Commenter Award!

This is a clever title.

2006-10-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well . . . I guess it’s been about a month since I’ve updated, hasn’t it? Crazy how time flies when you don’t stop to update your blog.

So I suppose I should start chronicling what happened in the past month or so. Well, the first exciting thing that happened was on the Saturday after I posted (the 23rd, I believe).

David and I were hanging out (going to Gourmet Pizza Shoppe to eat), and we ran into Katrina and Brandon. So we were talking to them for a while, and David ended up getting a ticket to Pinocchio from Taylor’s mother through Katrina (and Katrina’s cell phone).

Then we ate, and then David looked at his watch and realized it was 7:10, and that he needed to be at Lifehouse in the next twenty minutes. So he said, “Hey, want to go to Pinocchio?” I really didn’t, but I figured I might as well, to save David trouble. I wasn’t extremely averse to going, so I just figured what the hey.

I don’t believe I’ve mentioned this, but this was opening night. And there had been rumors flying that this show was NOT ready to open (fueled by such as the fact that a few nights before there had been a gathering of pretty much every director at Lifehouse’s disposal at rehearsal).

We got there a little bit late, and actually ended up getting into the theater at the perfect time, just when Crickey (Lifehouse’s version of Jiminy Cricket) was saying, “Now, for those of you who’ve just arrived . . .”

After the show, we — wait, what’s that? What’s that you say? I didn’t review it, or give any indication whatsoever what I thought about it, after making a big to-do about how people were saying that it wasn’t ready to open?

. . . Darn. I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.

Well, I suppose I might as well answer the question. The question is: Was the show ready to open? The answer: No.

Taylor did very well. She was extremely nervous, and her part was complete fluff (she was Angelina the Angel, and basically she just acted as a deus ex machina any time anything bad happened), but she did well.

Bill did very well, as always, but it wasn’t one of his better performances.

Mike did very well as Mr. Evil Puppet Person. Matt did very well as the Fox. Tina did pretty well as the Cat.

And . . . um . . . yep, that’s about it. I’m officially out of positive things to say now. I really despise this show anyway (I think it may be my single least favorite script in all of what I know of Lifehouse), and there really wasn’t anything to help that. The part of Pinocchio was played by a girl, which in itself was lame, but she wasn’t even good. Most of the choreography was so-so at best. Even the set was kind of drab and boring. And, worst of all, they had the same miserable problem they had last time they did this show: Pinocchio’s nose was extended via a string, and the string was very clearly visible. Which kind of destroys the effect a little bit.

Taylor also had some problems pushing the nose back in . . . but that was more amusing than anything else. And after the big transformation into a real boy (from puppet donkey), Pinocchio forgot to remove his (her?) donkey tail, and so she was laying on stage, completely human except for a random donkey tail. Taylor saved that one, but it amounted to adding insult to injury.

So yes . . . basically, I’d give this show a thumbs down. Which, as you’ve probably gathered, is fairly rare for me at Lifehouse (or really anywhere, when it comes to plays . . .).

Okay, moving on. After the show, I went to Denny’s with David and the cast, and sat next to a blonde female whose name (I think) was Lanae . . . David can correct me if I’m wrong. I’d never met her before. We were talking to each other for most of the night, as well as to Taylor, David, Nicole, and (eventually) Matt.

Oh, and a word to the wise here: when you have young children, don’t let them out of the house around David. Because he’s going to say things to them like, “You’re emasculating me!” or “Good-bye, little hermaphrodite!”

The next day, I found out that I had gotten into Scrooge. I’m Broker #1, a Gravedigger, a Spirit Dancer, and a Madrigal Caroler. I was originally only supposed to be Broker #1, a Spirit Dancer, and a Madrigal Caroler, but then Rebecca asked me to be a Gravedigger when Bill dropped.

Incidentally, Taylor and I came up with an incredibly lame slogan for me: “I’m Broker #1. Not #2, #1.” Yes. I don’t know, it was funny at the time.

(On that same note . . . Jen was trying to encourage us to come up with characters for ourselves in the songs, and she shouted to John [the other broker], “John! You aren’t Broker #1, you’re . . .?” And he paused, and then replied happily and with confidence, “Broker #2!”)

Rachel also got in, which of course made me very happy. Taylor, of course, is also in it (as may be gathered from the paragraph two up from this one), and Scrooge is being played by Mitch, which is of course totally awesome.

Not to use the word “incidentally” again, but isn’t it strange how the people that they always get (at Lifehouse, anyway) to play the parts of mean old men are, like, the nicest guys in the world? Like Jim (and Gary, actually) playing Mr. Pendleton . . . and Mitch as Scrooge . . . yes. Craziness.

Anyway . . . let’s see . . . fencing has been moved to Mondays and Wednesdays now, and we’ve started working on a routine for the Christmas recital, and Josh has elected to let us use the Megaman song that AJ sent us last time *happy dance* And, of course, AJ and David will be the only people who know what that song IS, but . . . everyone who reads this should have access to one of them or me, I’d imagine, so if you really care you could find out all about it.

So yeah . . . not a whole lot has really been happening . . . or least, wasn’t for a few weeks . . . maybe I’ll use that as my excuse for not updating for ages and ages . . .

So let’s fast-forward to when Scrooge rehearsals started. The first experience I had in the rehearsal process was interesting . . . I walked into Lifehouse, very nearly literally crashed into Taylor, and she said something along the lines of, “Ah! Mark. Rachel’s mad at you, ‘cause she got here before you, or something.” Then she shoved a CD in my face and walked away.

I stood there for a moment, bewildered, then Rachel snapped me out of it by yelling, “MARK!” So then I went over to her, and gave her a hug, and we went and sat down.

For the rest of orientation, it was basically just your typical orientation . . . I talked to Rachel all night while pretending to listen to Wayne and Mark drone on for ages and ages. Incidentally, Mark is NOT a public speaker. Whoops, I-I mean he’s a GREAT public speaker!! You can see it from this riveting part of his speech:

“I really want to, uh, stress memorization. You’re, uh, going to get sick of me using that word, uh, memorization. ‘Cause, like, if we’re not memorized, then, uh, we don’t have a show. And I’ve noticed that, uh, songs are usually, uh, harder to, uh, memorize than dialogue, so, uh, work hard on the songs.”

Although he DOES get major points for the following (which is as close to a direct quote as I can remember):

“. . . [Kelly] told me a lot of the quirky things that I did . . . although I wish she’d told me about my eyebrows. Nobody ever told me I’m the eyebrow monster.”

So, to avoid confusion in the future (since my name is Mark), I’ll be referring to this Mark as The Eyebrow Monster, or possibly just TEM.

In case you haven’t figured it out, Mark is the director . . . actually, he’s the co-director with Mary Lynn, who was the director last time I was in it.

The next rehearsal was at the Drayson Center, and I got there second (behind Taylor). I was somewhat distressed, because I had absolutely no clue where I was supposed to go, but a few minutes after I walked in the building, and was standing there awkwardly wondering what I should do, I saw this little blonde girl walking around the corner with urgency. I didn’t pay too close attention, ‘cause let’s face it, that’s just what little blonde girls do.

But then I heard a strangely familiar voice emanating from this little blonde girl, saying, “You!” I replied, coolly, “Me.”

By this time, I’d realized that the little blonde girl was Taylor. Dad might describe the situation as a “Flannery O’Connor Moment,” because my salvation (from having absolutely no idea what I was doing or where I was going) came from a very un-looked-for source, one that would be seen at first glance as being a bad thing (Taylor).

. . . And I get the feeling that I’ve been hanging around Taylor way too much at rehearsals . . . which of course means that I have to be mean beyond all possible reason to her here . . .

And probably the reason that I have to be cruel beyond all reason here is because I’m trying to be nice to her in person. Some of you (i.e., AJ and David) may have seen my post on my xanga entitled Signs of the Apocalypse. If you haven’t, it might behoove you to do so in the near future, to help stress the following passage (it’s really short).

On that same Monday night where Taylor acted as an FOCM, she came up to me after rehearsal and said, “I’ve decided something. I’ve decided that during this show, we’re going to be nice to each other.”

I replied, “You’ve decided? I get no choice in the matter?”

She responded by smiling and saying, “Nope!”

So to this point, we’ve been attempting to uphold this peace treaty, and that’s what brought on most of the situations in Signs of the Apocalypse. Taylor is also a workaholic, and this has led to her and I practicing a partner dance from Scrooge pretty much every spare moment of hers, which has been interesting.

Speaking of the partner dance . . . that was the third rehearsal or so when they choreographed it, and . . . well, let’s just say that the last time I was that frustrated, I was standing in the lobby at Lifehouse with a little blonde girl who was very frustrated with ME, because I was completely incompetent and had absolutely zero upper body strength.

I’m dancing with a very nice girl name Brooke, who is very light, but who doesn’t seem to like me very much. She seems to have issues getting within, say, a foot or two of me, which leads to problems when I’m trying to dance with her. Especially when, like, I’m supposed to throw her into the air and catch her.

So then that weekend, my parents went away for their 25th anniversary (congratulations to them), and I went to Seth’s for the weekend.

Well, actually, before that, on Friday, the Pelevs invited me to go with them, David, and Tina after dance class to go see One Night With the King, which (if you don’t know) is a movie about Esther.

Between dance and the movie, we went to Rubio’s for lunch, which was fun . . . but not really anything to report. So I guess I’ll just move on to the movie review . . .

“I don’t want to spoil this for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but I’ll just tell you one thing . . . y’know, just to establish some context . . . this is a HORRIBLE movie.” — The Ninja

Okay, and that probably made no sense to any of you. I apologize. Actually, it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t that good. At all. Definitely a thumbs-down movie.

For one thing, they took WAAY too much poetic license. During the credits, it revealed that it wasn’t actually based on the book of Esther, but on the novel Hadessah by some dude. So, basically, it was loosely based on something that was loosely based on Esther.

The director (whose name I can’t recall) also had a crazy obsession with Lord of the Rings . . . for one thing, both John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) and John Noble (Denethor) were in it. And Xerxes had the same haircut and general look as Aragorn. And the big climactic scene (where Esther approaches Xerxes in court when she’s not supposed to) began with Esther shoving open the palace doors EXACTLY how Aragorn shoved open the doors to Helm’s Deep. Right down to the position of her head and the state of her hair. Exactly the same.

Haman also had a much smaller part than he should’ve (he was just kind of a shadow in the background for the first half of the movie), and he had this funky bracelet thing that his ancestor made for him (which was made out to be, like, this huge deal but really had no significance in the movie), and it was basically a swastika with bent edges. Which kind of annoyed me.

Esther also had this necklace that her parents had given to her before Haman killed them (apparently he’s a lot older than he looks), and when light shines directly on it, all these stars of David are projected across the room. And there’s one part where Haman is holding a torch, and it accidentally falls on the necklace and sends the stars flying everywhere. There’s a big suspenseful moment when we see the stars on Haman, but since they’re actually ON him, he doesn’t notice, and the moment passes without issue. What the director failed to notice, however, is that the stars ALSO would’ve been projected onto Esther, meaning that he was staring right at them and didn’t notice.

So yes . . . the costumes and sets were amazing, and there were some good performances (most notably John Rhys-Davies as Mordecai), and it wasn’t BAD . . . but it really wasn’t a good movie at all. If you like really pretty costumes and random stupid lines that are supposed to be cool (“Where are you from?” “I am of the wind . . . I fly here, and I fly there, and no one knows from whence I come.” “. . . Right.”), then go for it. Otherwise, let it go.

After the movie, David and I headed over to Andrea’s house, because she had enlisted us to help her with a huge girl scout project she has: making a movie about (as David so eloquently put it) the decomposition of society. Basically, it’s about how standards of speech, politeness, dress, etc. etc. are getting consistently lower.

We spent about an hour and a half or so going over basic conceptual stuff and beginning to write one of the scenes about bad cell phone use (during which, of course, David got a phone call and had to duck out for a moment).

After that, David dropped me off at Seth’s house, where I spent the rest of the weekend.

Most of Friday night was fairly uneventful we sat around talking for a while, ate dinner, Sarah came over briefly, went out for ice cream (at which time I ranted about One Night With the King to Seth), played SSBM, etc. But then, at around 10:00 or so, something happened that has changed both our lives forever.

We watched, for the first time, UHF. For those of you who don’t know (which I’d imagine is all of you), it’s a movie co-written by Weird Al Yankovic, in which he also stars. It’s about George Newman (Al) and a TV Station (UHF) that his uncle won in a poker game. George is named manager of the station, and he gets a lot of totally insanely wacky shows, and cool stuff happens.

And it is HILARIOUS. One of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen. Of course, it’s Weird Al humor, so if you don’t like utter randomness with no real coherent plot, you probably wouldn’t like it. Seth and I decided that we think it was the original inspiration for Napoleon Dynamite. But, of course, it’s a million times better than Napoleon Dynamite.

A good deal of the movie is made up of parodies of other movies and TV shows (usually either as a TV show on UHF, or a dream that George has), all of which (except for one) are amazing. Imagine Gandhi holding a machine gun. And that’s pretty much what the entire movie is like.

As another point in its favor, it co-stars Michael Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld), who is also (of course) amazing. So yes. BIG thumbs-up for this one.

Saturday was an interesting day. After sleeping half of the day (no surprise there), we were eating breakfast when we got a call from David. He told us that Mrs. Perry (my speech teacher from . . . I guess it was two years ago? I dunno . . . my old speech teacher, anyway, if you didn’t remember) was starting to work at Cope on Tuesday, and that they were in the process of converting a storage room they’d been given into a classroom. He said that she needed help, and the only help she really had was his family. So she still needed “tall help,” which naturally made him think of Seth and I. So we went down to Cope and spent the next seven hours helping renovate the room.

It was pretty cool . . . We spent most of the day measuring, cutting paper for, and putting the paper up on billboards to make them presentable. We also put posters and borders up on those same billboards, and Seth very nearly put my hand on the billboards as well (twice).

We also did other odd jobs (like hanging posters on the windows, taking out the trash, eating pizza, flicking thumbtacks across the room at David, drawing tombstones for the Monkey of Susa with David, and so on), and they paid us (as you may have guessed) with pizza.

Seth and I also acted as Mrs. Perry’s bodyguards after it got dark . . . of course, David’s blackbelt cousin was sitting in the classroom at the time, but Mrs. Perry elected for Seth and me to guard her instead . . . I miss Mrs. Perry . . . she makes me happy.

Anyway, that was pretty much Saturday. On Sunday, we went to the River, and . . . uh . . . yes. We went to the River. And we left. And I was happy when we left. The worship, as always, was great (Jeff and Bill rock), but the preaching was severely sub-par. They got a new pastor relatively recently, and I’d never heard him before, and . . . yeah. Not a good speaker. At all.

He actually reminded me a lot of the high school pastor at Trinity, although he wasn’t as good. But he had a similar preaching style . . . which is a style that works well for a high school group, but not for a whole congregation. To give you an idea of the quality of the preaching . . . he opened his sermon (after reading the passage from The Message Bible) with a clip from Everybody Loves Raymond, and things went downhill from there.

Much as I love Everybody Loves Raymond, I really don’t think it works well in church . . . not to mention that the part he showed really had absolutely nothing to do with what he was talking about (the episode did, but not the scene he showed).

After church we went out to lunch at Kay’s Café in Highland, and then back to Seth’s house. We spent the afternoon filming random scenes for a movie we’re making . . . which, speaking of which, I should get going on finishing it up . . .

Anyway, after that I went home, and then out to dinner with my parents. Then on Monday, the grind started again.

I had rehearsals all week long, but that’s about it until today.

Today, Sarah, Seth, Sarah’s dad, and I went to a Civil War-era Ball in Lake Arrowhead. Sarah wanted to go because “deep down, [she IS] a girl and [she DOES] like wearing a pretty dress now and then,” and she asked Seth and I to go with her, so we did. I wore a confederate officer uniform, Sarah’s dad wore a union officer uniform, Sarah wore a really pretty dress, and Seth (being Seth) wore jeans and a T-shirt.

We didn’t really do a whole lot, but it was fun. We spent most of the time hanging around watching everyone else (which included Sarah and Sarah’s dad at times) dance and just talking. We also ate for a while, and then after dinner I danced a couple of songs (if for no other reason than that I know my friends would never let me get away with going to a ball and not dancing), and then we left because Sarah wasn’t feeling good.

Some random quotes from the male Dr. C driving up and back:
“They have ALL of these national forests all over the country with live trees, they have to have ONE with dead trees.”
“Well, you know what the police have to do, is they have to [enforce the speed limit on freeways] with laser-guided missiles.”
*after seeing a guy with a camera randomly sitting on the curb* “I guess Russian spies have gotten less discrete since the Cold War ended . . .”

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Comments:
AJ: My sincere apologies. “Shuttle” was a typo, and I guess I thought there was an “of” . . . ah, well. Won’t happen again, master.

David: Thanks for the congrats . . . and you really shouldn’t be looking forward to it . . . I mean, I’M not . . . partially because it means I don’t have any breaks in the first act longer than a few minutes . . .

Rae: If I’m not mistaken, dear lady, it is currently Saturday night, and the week doesn’t begin until Sunday . . .

I suppose David gets the “best commenter” award this week (month?) simply because he had the most comments . . . but in the future, I’ll also be checking for quality . . . quality and quantity, folks!

Of Men and Mud

2006-09-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Wow . . . well, ya know, perhaps I should just hold a weekly Best Commenter contest . . . ‘cause that seemed to get me a heck of a lot of comments . . . So comment the most on this post, and maybe (just maybe), I’ll put some sort of award on here like Rae did! So hurry up and get those comments in, before it’s too late!!

Anyway, I apologize for the relative lateness of this post . . . the weekend was an extremely busy and extremely tiring one, so I didn’t get around to updating. But here I am now, so . . . yay.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days, if memory serves . . . nothing out of the ordinary, just lots of Hobbes (who, by the way, is not nearly as interesting as Locke).

Tuesday NIGHT was a bit special, though. You see, my step-cousin just got engaged, and she was having her engagement party on Friday night. Naturally, my uncle and aunt were invited to the party, so they flew in from Indiana to attend. They were staying at our home, so we waited until they arrived (11:00 or so, not terribly late), then talked briefly with them, until Uncle Ted said, “Well, you guys need to sleep, so we’ll let you go to bed.” So we took advantage of his kindness and retired.

Wednesday was a different matter altogether. David called me at some point during the afternoon and proposed that we hang out, to which I agreed. He stopped by around 4:30 or so (possibly a little later), and off we went.

We (read “he, with my agreement”) decided that the thing to do would be to display our complete lack of lives and go harass people at Broadway Expressions. They were holding auditions (for their “Team Broadway” class, I think) at the time, but we quietly snuck in and stood there for a moment, watching someone sing “Tomorrow” from Annie.

As we stood there thus transfixed, a vaguely purple blur shot across the room directly towards us. It turned out, in the end, to be Megan, who was apparently not doing anything at the time. We therefore retreated into one of the various side-rooms (I have no idea how many there are, but they seem to pop up all the time when I’m there) and hung out therein for quite a while, occasionally being accosted by two little ones who seemed to crave our attention (and, in the case of the boy, aggression).

After a while of just sitting (and standing) there talking, David looked at his watch and had a horrible realization: “Crap,” he said. “I have a meeting for the mudbowl at Chipotlé in about five minutes.” This naturally meant that I would be tagging along, since he didn’t have time to take me home. Megan also wanted to come, having nothing to do, and so about three (or maybe it was more like 5 or 6) minutes later, we three departed Broadway Expressions and booked it to Chipotlé.

Upon arrival, there was a surprising lack of Trinity people, who should’ve been there a good 10-15 minutes already at that point. Confused by this, David whipped out his cell phone and called someone (Monet, I believe). He discovered, to his horror, that the meeting had been relocated to the University of Redlands Chapel without his knowledge.

He shepherded Megan and me back into his car and drove over to this location, getting out of the car and running full speed into the chapel. Megan and I took our time, since we didn’t have to go to the meeting, and ended up in the actual sanctuary part of the chapel.

On the way over (first to Chipotlé, and also to the chapel), Megan and David had been insisting that I attend the mudbowl myself. I protested that I was unable, because Seth was coming over on Saturday (because it was either my house or a country western concert). They kept insisting, saying that I could just drag him along with me.

Anyway, Megan and I entered the sanctuary-place, and a fairly large black man who strangely resembled the Monet that David had called earlier approached us. He recognized Megan, and asked her (somewhat more tactfully) what the heck she was doing there, since it was the college group that night, and not the high school one. She explained the situation, and although he still seemed to retain his confusion, he was very kind and told us we were welcome to wait in the sanctuary-place if we so desired.

His gaze then moved up a bit and back a bit, coming to rest upon me. “Have we met?” he said. “No,” I replied. He extended his hand and introduced himself, and I did the same. I think I said something about having been to Trinity several times, at which point he (like a born salesmen) ripped something brown off of his arm and handed it to me.

“Really?” he said. “Well, just so you know, this Saturday, September 16th, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, we’re having our annual mudbowl. We’d love to see you there, and you’re more than welcome to come. It’s absolutely free, and you can sign up at the website on the inside of this bracelet. You can keep it, it’s yours. I hope to see you there!”

I did my best to keep from laughing (which I think was pretty good), thanked him, and took the bracelet. Megan saw Nathaneal a ways away, and went to greet him. I sat down in the chair and whipped out my iPod, figuring that I had nothing better to do.

I spent the next two or three minutes untangling the cord for my headphones, and when I finally emerged from this trial triumphantly, Megan returned and said, “I’m gonna go practice vocals in one of the practice rooms. Wanna come?” I agreed, and somewhat sadly rolled the headphones up again and put them back in my pocket.

We wandered around for maybe ten minutes or so, looking for an empty room for her to practice in. Eventually we found one, but it was a very small room, ¾ of which was occupied by a piano. We entered it, and she sat down at the piano. She played a few random things, and tried (futilely) to get me to do the same.

We sat there and hung out for a while, until David called to find out where we were. He seemed (from what I could hear . . . he called Megan, not me) unduly upset that we weren’t in the sanctuary-place, and a little bit freaked out. Which was somewhat ironic, because as we were leaving the sanctuary-place to find a practice room, Megan had said to me, “Will David freak out if we’re not there when he comes out?” My response had been, “Probably.” Yay for being right.

Anyway, Praxis (Trinity’s college group) was starting at about that time, so David went in to join them, and Megan and I hurried up to the balcony place to spy on them. I’m not exactly sure why, but we did, and we stayed there for a while until Megan’s mother came and took her away.

I returned all by my lonesome little self, and remained there for a few minutes until David came out and asked me if I needed a ride home, which I did. So he took me home, and that was that.

Later that night, I got on AIM (because, as you all know, I have nothing else to do), and Megan and Seth were both on. Megan, it turned out, was in the process of convincing Seth that he desperately wanted to go to the mudbowl on Saturday, and that it would be idiocy to suggest that I not go.

I laughed, and signed up online (with Seth) to go.

The next day was also ordinary, for the most part. Then evening came. What was happening on Thursday evening, you ask? Auditions for Scrooge, says I. There was a remarkably small group of people auditioning, but I knew quite a few of them (Rachel was among them *rejoice rejoice*).

The audition itself was easily the worst audition I’ve ever had . . . even worse than Oliver. I’d never heard the accompaniment of my song, so I missed the starting note and just couldn’t find the melody. Mercifully, all of the people on the panel are people who’ve worked with me before and know that I can usually carry a tune.

After auditions, Mom, Dad, Uncle Ted, and I met Bev and Erin at Pat & Oscar’s for dinner, which is always nice. We spent a few hours there, talking and laughing and eating. On the way home, I called David to ask if he could give me a ride to dance the next day, and he spoke to me, Bev, and Uncle Ted, which made for a very interesting conversation.

Friday, as I recall, was fairly uneventful, save for a call from Jeff asking me to attend a dance audition on Saturday morning at 10 for Scrooge. I said that was fine, and did so.

It went much better than the singing audition, actually . . . and there were only four guys there (counting me), so I’m fairly sure I got in . . . which is cool.

Rachel was sad at the audition, because she had nothing to do all day except homework, so I invited her to come with Seth and I to the mudbowl. She agreed, said it sounded like fun, and told me to call her before we picked her up.

Seth was fairly late getting to my house, so we got a late start, but we DID make to Trinity eventually. We got there right when they were finishing up the organized games. The three of us stood about awkwardly for a minute or two, then saw David and started calling to him. Everyone was inexplicably deaf there, but we did get his attention eventually. He waved to us and went back to what he was doing.

A minute or two later, however, it became apparent that the game wasn’t going to start for another minute or two, so he turned slowly towards us, flung his arms wide, and came barreling towards us with a shout of, “HI, GUYS!!!”

Rachel and Seth, being the chickens they are, of course stepped promptly behind me, leaving me to be attacked by David’s muddiness. I took it like a man, standing there with my legs wide (so as not to be knocked over), and embraced him as he embraced me. In the end, I really didn’t even get all that muddy, just wet.

But then he had to get back to the game, so after hugging me as messily as he could, he ran back over to the actual mud bowl.

After the game was over, Rachel’s friend Adam came over to us, and the two of them went and jumped into the mud (Seth and I were going to wait until after we ate, since we’d just have to shower off and then most likely get dirty again). Rachel got miserably covered in mud.

Moments later, a greenish blur went flying into Rachel, who grabbed it tightly and sort of spun around with it. As I’ve discovered blurs do fairly often, it resolved into Megan. Rachel and Megan exchanged a few words, and then looked in our direction.

“Crap,” I said. Turning to Seth, I added, “You might want to run.” He did. I turned back to find that my suspicions had been confirmed. Megan was a greenish blur again, hurtling full-speed towards me, shouting, “HI, MARK!!!”

She attacked me in much the same way David did, although she managed to get me a bit muddier than he had. Seconds after this initial onslaught, I was hit from behind by Rachel. If this seems hard for you to picture, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even the great Rae said later that she was having trouble picturing “a muddy Mark sandwich.”

So anyway, by this time I was already soaked in mud, and Rachel and Megan were pulling me towards the bowl. Since I was already muddy, I figured what the heck and went in and sat down. David chased after Seth, but gave up after a while and I had to go get him. The six of us (me, Seth, Rachel, Megan, David, and Adam) hung out in the mud for a while, and then were called to assemble with the rest of the group over by the food (which was a truck of In’N’Out).

After washing off a bit, and talking to Kyle a bit, and getting our food a bit, and walking over to where everyone I knew was a bit, I sat down to eat, while Monet (who had happily noted my presence earlier) gave away free shirts and stuff to people whose names were pulled out of a box. After this, Dr. Langer gave a short little sermon thingy, which was really cool (I’ve always wanted to hear him speak).

Once that was done, we just kind of hung out with people for a while, and then went home.

After showering and such, things were arranged so that AJ, Rae, and Eleanor would pop up down in Redlands, pick Seth and I up, and go see Arsenic and Old Lace in Rialto, since they were giving free tickets to friends of cast members.

And so they did. We ate pizza, and then headed off to Rialto. On the way up, we had a long conversation about the State of Nature (as presented by Locke) and other such political things. We were also accosted by a homeless lady, who had been off drugs for seventeen years. Or, wait, no, seventeen months, she meant. (Or, wait, seventeen days . . . seventeen hours . . . seventeen seconds . . .)

There were quite a few people that I knew there . . . Katrina and Brandon were there, Megan and Andrea were there, the Lopezes were there, Dr. and Mrs. Wines (the older), and Lucas and Mark (not me).

The show was really good again . . . although David hit himself in the face with a suitcase, causing him to black out for a few seconds and resulting in bleeding . . . which is always fun . . .

But yeah, the show had evolved a fair amount and was much funnier than it was the first time (despite how good it was the first time).

After the show, we went outside and greeted David, and hung around talking to him for a while . . . he offered us the wonderful advice that “if life gives you lemonade, make lemons.”

We then went home, and hung out with AJ, Rae, and Eleanor for a while. After a number of angry (AJ was angry, at least) phone calls regarding a certain towed car, they departed back to Fullerton, and Seth and I started getting ready for bed.

The next morning was church as usual, except that David and Megan came (and left), which was cool.

After church, Sarah and I went over to Seth’s house and hung out with him (and Indy after a while).

And that was basically Sunday. Nice ’n’ simple to chronicle.

The remainder of the time since then has also been fairly uneventful, although fencing has been moved to Tuesdays and Wednesdays now instead of Tuesdays and Fridays (and may very well become Mondays and Tuesdays soon, apparently).

And so I shall shuttle off of this cyberspace coil once again, in the hopes that you have enjoyed this and look forward to many more to come. And don’t forget . . . the best commenter might get a reward of some kind in the next post!!

Comments:

AJ 1-2: Well, see, I couldn’t remember whether “baptize” was spelled “baptize” or “baptise.” So I figured I’d go with one of each and be safe. And my apologies about quandaries . . . I’ve never seen it used before, only heard it from Wayne (and Sarah imitating Wayne).

David 1-5: Um . . . yes. To everything you said.

Rae 1-7: Okay, well, obviously, you and I both went to Arsenic with AJ and Eleanor, so . . . yay! And yes, all of the headings last time were actual quotes from those situations (the first by Sarah, the second by me, the third by David, and the final by the two pastors).

David 6: I would argue that the reason you have a larger vocabulary than mine is due to 1) your greater education, and 2) simply the fact that you’re smarter than me. Because, you see, if I actually looked up the word, I would get the same result (knowledge of the definition) than if you just answered me when I asked you. So you could actually save me a lot of trouble by bestowing your wisdom upon me, the lesser mortal, while still allowing me to expand my vocabulary.

Quips, Quotes, and Quandries (or not)

2006-09-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Yo yo yo, peoples. Well, it’s that time of the week again . . . time to update. So, even though I’m a bit tired and a bit . . . hm . . . contemplative, for lack of a better term, I am here, faithfully updating my blog for you to read. Since I’m sure you all look forward to it every week, just counting the hours until Sunday comes and my blog is, once again, new and fresh.

So today we’re going to divide things up in general events again, but we’re going to do it slightly differently. Instead of giving events numbers and clever titles, I’m going to characterize everything by a quote that was said by someone in regards to it. There are also fewer than usual, so y’all can rejoice that you might actually have a little extra free time this week that normally would’ve been spent reading my blog (although you never really know).

”I’m confuzzled!”
On Monday, since it was Labor Day, I had no school. Which was cool, making it the last day of my summer vacation. Also since it was Labor Day, Mother decided that we should have the Christisons over for dinner.

And so we did. Although David and Dr. Mrs. both had migraines, so they couldn’t come, which was very sad. But Sarah, John, and Dr. Mr. all came over. We sat around in the family room talking for a while, then Sarah, John and I went to play video games while the adults remained there. We played quite a few games . . . we had a pretty even split of victories and losses, too (partially due to the fact that Sarah was barely functioning, so I could actually beat her).

Then came dinner itself. ‘Twas good, it was Pat & Oscar’s chicken, breadsticks, and salad, and two of mom’s pies. We talked about many things . . . football, for one. That was cool . . . John knows so much about football that it scares me. But he picked the Broncos to go to the Super Bowl this year, so yay.

After dinner, Sarah, John and I retreated back into the office, where Sarah determined to get me un-stuck in Tales of Symphonia (I’d been stuck for . . . gosh, I dunno, maybe a year or so). She did get me unstuck, although it took longer than she’d anticipated. We progressed in it fairly rapidly (to everyone’s surprise, since neither Sarah or I had played it in ages, and I’m not sure how long it had been since John played), and were going steadily and strongly until we hit the third boss after where we’d started. This guy totally creamed us, easily, three or four times. It was depressing. Then Dr. Mr. came in and summoned his children to leave (though not before I’d given Sarah her wonderful little Spider-Man quarter-machine thingy).

“I’m confuzzled” comes from while we were playing ToS, because since Sarah hadn’t played it in ages she didn’t remember a whole lot, and so every five seconds or so she’d say some variation of “I’m confused.” It sort of became the theme phrase of the evening . . .

”I’m tired . . .”
On Tuesday, school started. *ominous music* Initial impressions:
Geometry: Math. Sucks.
Chemistry: Math. Sucks. But hopefully it’ll improve as it goes along . . .
Vocabulary: Meh, same as always. Not too bad, not too great.
French: See above.

And Torrey we have to take a bit longer with.

First off, Second Treatise of Government by John Locke is freakin’ amazing. I love it. Everybody is always talking about this book as the dreaded Locke reading, the first reading of FAT (Foundations of American Thought), the beginning of the toughest year of TA (Torrey Academy). So I went into it somewhat apprehensively. But I got half-way through the first page, stopped, and said, “This rocks. I’m gonna love this.”

Of course, being written in 1690, it’s just fun to read because of the kind of language he uses. It makes me realize how rich the English language really is, and how little of it we really use. Not to mention that his logical progression is amazing. The whole book is basically one big syllogism, which makes it quite easy to follow for something of that sort. He starts way back with Adam, and progresses through what he believes to be political and legal history. I don’t agree with everything he says, but it’s still amazing.

On Tuesday we also had orientation. This basically means logging onto Breeze (the program we use for class) and having our tutor (Mr. Selby) brief us on how things are going to work. The class seems really cool, I think I’m going to like most of the people, and it’ll be a fun group to work with. Mr. Selby seems cool, although he seems a bit more serious and strict than Mr. Arcadi was. Which is depressing because I tend to be a bit . . . well, not-serious. Like, after my first impression, I doubt I’ll feel comfortable at any point during the year telling Mr. Selby to “get a real girlfriend,” which I did Mr. Arcadi (and no, it wasn’t mean in context . . . actually, it was the comment of mine that got the biggest response from my other classmates all year). He’s also imposing a dress code . . . for an online class . . . which is very nearly cruel and unusual punishment . . . he said something about it “getting us into a serious frame of mind,” but it’s still depressing. Not so much for me as for the sake of the people who wore pajamas all year last year, but still.

So yes, that was basically school for this year . . . Précis are still evil incarnate, all that jazz. Where “I’m tired” came from should be fairly obvious, I think . . . going from summer to school.

”HOO-AH.”
So on Friday, David came to pick me up for dance as always. We went to Didi’s, as always, and had dance, as always. Nothing out of the ordinary, everything perfectly normal.

We start going home, everything normal, nothing wrong at all. And then, at a red light, David’s battery just completely dies. This isn’t terribly strange, it’s happened before. All he has to do is get out and tighten the cable, right? . . . Right?

Wrong. He went out and tightened it, and that got the electric system back online so he could put the hazard lights on. He spent the next five to ten minutes desperately trying to get it hooked up so he could start the engine. He failed.

So he comes back, opens the door, and says, “alright guys, teamwork time. Sarah, I’m gonna need you to steer. Mark, you and me will get out and push so we can get it out of the middle of the street and onto the side.”

So we did. Sarah was protesting, because she had only read about how to steer and such, and had never actually done it. We did, however, successfully get the car around the corner and onto the cross-street at the side.

We then determined to push it up to the MPH sign, which was about 30-50 feet up from where we were. I say “up” because we realized once we started that we were pushing the car uphill.

The car, by the way, is actually a minivan. With tons of stuff in it. And Sarah in it, too. So we were heaving and shoving for a good half an hour or so to get it up the hill, but finally we succeeded. We then took a break in the shade under a tree while David called first his mother (to ask for help) and then Carly and Katrina (to complain).

Eventually it was decided that Sarah and I would walk back to my house (we were fairly close), and then David would swing by and pick Sarah up when he got the car working again. We were maybe halfway back when Dr. Mrs. swung by and picked us up, giving me a lift the rest of the way.

Maybe half an hour later, I got a call from David and Sarah, noting that it would’ve been a HECK of a lot easier had we put the car in neutral, rather than left it in drive. We all slapped ourselves at our idiocy, then commented on what a great workout David and I had had.

So yes . . . not-so-fun times, although it’s all amusing (to me, anyway) in retrospect.

”In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
That probably surprises a few of you, being something more commonly seen on AJ’s blog than mine, since I tend to keep mine as light and happy-happy as possible and try to avoid going into anything even moderately serious.

This, however, was definitely worth mentioning. Earlier tonight, I went to Trinity’s Fall Reunion (whatever that is . . . I was there, and I’m not entirely sure), where they baptized a rather large group of people that included Zach, Megan, and Taylor (and was supposed to include David, but didn’t in the end because of a number of things).

It was really cool. Everyone being baptized gave their testimony before being baptized . . . lots of tears and such, as always. It was really cool, though . . . I dunno, what else can I say? My family is now bigger :-D

So yeah, that’s basically it for this week. So go get some sleep with the time you’d usually spend reading the other five pages of stuff I’d written here.

Comments:
AJ: Ah, Twilight Zone, of course. Yeah, I thought you’d like the kayak thing. As for the train metaphor, it's true that the train didn't get hit, and it's not overly inspirational for the reader or the train. The metaphor, however, was referring to the penny, which got hit and managed to turn an entire train, something easily a thousand times its size. If you ask me, that's darned inspiring.

Rae: Heh, yes, “Pyaaaaanamaaa” wasn’t really expected to be gotten by anyone but David . . . I love it, too. And I think I’ll let David give you the info on it . . . if everything works out (such as, like, my parents okaying it), I’m probably going to try to go again next Sunday, if you’d be interested in seeing it with me and whatever Lifehouse folks I can get together . . .

I'm ALIVE!!!

2006-09-03T23:52:00.000-07:00

Well . . . it HAS been a while, hasn’t it? I just figured that my readers needed a few more weeks to comment, to find time to read my post . . . I know how difficult it can be to find time out of your busy lives to read my humble (but long) posts. But, alas, no one else commented! *sniff sniff*

But anyway . . . lots of stuff to talk about. First, I have to talk about what happened on Wednesday, August 9th, the day after my last post. You may recall my mention of Romeo and Juliet in that post . . . both my going the week before and that I was going again. And so I did.

This second time was a different cast, starring Michael and Megan as R and J. No offense meant to the previous cast, but I liked this one a lot better. I thought most of the leads were better, and of course all of the people who had been in the first cast were more comfortable with their roles (allowing them to act drunk more effectively).

It was also more enjoyable, because it was almost (as David put it) a tragicomedy, especially in the “wherefore art thou” scene. At one point Megan sacrificed believability for comedy, when the Nurse kept calling her in, and she walked back to the door and yelled, “Will you shut up?!” This was a bit jarring after hearing words like “wherefore,” but hey, it was funny.

And also, no mention of this play would be complete without a note about the brilliant performance turned in by Brandon as the apothecary. This is a fairly small, lackluster part, one that requires skill to make remarkable. This skill is what Brandon brought to the part, playing the entire scene as a Jack Sparrow impression, which made it the most fun scene in the play.

Best of all, the gunshot actually sounded a little bit like a gunshot, unlike the wimpy little pop that had come the previous week. Which made Megan’s death a bit more emotionally effective than Katrina’s had been.

This was also the second of three weeks of MTC (Musical Theater Camp) at Lifehouse. What this meant was that I spent all day on weekdays chasing around young children who found it necessary to deliberately drive me crazy. Well let me put this question to you older, more mature folks . . . is the idea, “don’t talk” really all that difficult to grasp?

Of course, young kids will be young kids . . . and so frustrating as it was, I forgave them (most of them, anyway). The REALLY aggravating part of it was the fact that I was the only male counselor out of 8 counselors. Which meant, of course, that when the 19 boys needed to get into costume, I was the only authority figure allowed in the dressing room. And for some reason, most of these 19 boys found the idea of whipping one another with shirts, hats, belts, pants, or really pretty much anything simply enthralling.

And, of course, the 7 girls couldn’t let me get away with being the only boy. So not only did I have to deal with 19 screaming, violent boys all by myself, I also had to deal with 7 teasing, cruel girls all by myself.
But on Wednesday, August 16th, these girls (and Didi) invited me to join them (and Adam, one of the counselors from the morning camp) in going to see Step Up, the Disney teen romance movie about dance. I went into expecting crap, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. It wasn’t a great movie, but the acting was pretty good, the dancing was pretty good, and it was pretty funny.

It also took a dark turn towards the end, allowing it to deal with fun issues like doing the best with the (crappy) cards you’re dealt in life.

You can read more about the way I reacted to the movie on my xanga. (As of now, Sunday September 3rd 2006, it’s the second entry.)

And then I think the next things of note are the camp shows . . . well I suppose I should first mention the morning camp’s dress rehearsal. Dimyana asked me to do the morning show so that she, “Bethanne, and Tina will all have partners.” Of course, it just wouldn’t be right to refuse such a high calling, so I agreed. Unfortunately, what this meant was that I had to be present at the morning dress rehearsal, meaning that I actually had to (*gasp*) get up on Thursday morning.

So I did . . . it was painful, but I did it. It really took me back . . . I almost grabbed my Driver’s Ed book and pen on the way out. Thankfully, I didn’t, because luckily, I wasn’t going to Driver’s Ed.

Unluckily, I was going to a place where I knew I’d have to deal with 39 screaming kids. 19 of whom were boys, inhabiting the boys’ dressing room. It wasn’t that bad, though, because Nick and Adam were also there and they were older.

But anyway, I was introduced to the kids formally and then somewhat less formally introduced to Lunden and Christopher, the two youngest boys and my official projects for the camp. Unfortunately, I had a rather bad first impression of Lunden . . . nearly immediately after I met him, he came through the side door of the theater yelling, “Sandy! Sandy! I dropped my hat in the toilet!!”

In the end, it turned out that he actually dropped his hat into the toilet BEFORE he flushed the toilet, as well . . . so Sandy was in a pretty darn bad mood for a few hours after that. And believe me . . . much as I love Sandy, when she’s mad, stay out of her way. Period.

Anyway, after that Lunden did very well. He knew his lines, knew when to say them, and just needed a little help knowing where to go in the dances (and praise the Lord that Amy knew, because I sure didn’t).

Christopher was another story. I could tell immediately that he was a trouble child. He had a bit of a problem sitting still, and he didn’t know when to say his lines (although he did know them). He wasn’t a bad child, he just needed some help paying attention. Thankfully, Nick was helping me take care of him.

The afternoon dress rehearsal went fine, as well, nothing of note to report.

Then came the morning show. It turned out that (horror of horrors) Nick was at Disneyland, so he couldn’t make it to the show. Which meant that I had Christopher and Lunden all by myself.

This was a problem, because I really didn’t know where Christopher was supposed to be. I knew Lunden’s stuff for the most part, but it’s hard to learn three parts in one day . . . since I didn’t know Christopher’s stuff of his part, I didn’t prompt him. Amy was supposed to anyway, but I didn’t know that and neither one of us could get Christopher to follow us anyway.

As a result, he got horrendously mad at me. “I’m not talking to you. I hate you. I lost my line because you didn’t prompt me. I’m NOT doing this again.” To which I almost tersely replied, “well, if you’d been in the right spot, or had actually listened to Amy or me, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.” Thankfully, I stopped myself. As it was, all I said was, “well, you weren’t in your spot . . .” and left it at that.

The second show was all better, and it was all good. The winner of the ticket-selling contest also had the best answer I’ve ever heard to Wayne’s question (“Is there a secret to your success?”): “Yeah . . . a great mom.”

And, best of all, after the second show, when all the kids had gone home, Didi FED us. That’s right. World-famous Didi bread and world-famous Didi Potato Salad. It was really, really good . . . especially after a hard day’s dealing with Christopher.

The afternoon show also went well . . . There was a problem with the sound effects people (my group of royals-turned-pirates backstage), but it was quickly and completely worked out. Yay windmaker.

After both shows came the wonderfully entertaining task of cleaning up. I was given the job of striking the set, along with several other people. At first, I reveled in it, seeing all safety pins and ripping them out with unrivalled passion and fervor. Then, however, I encountered the horrible truth of how the mystery banner had stayed up: staples. Horror of freakin’ horrors. I rushed to get a screwdriver to rip them out of their home in the styrofoam rocks. I retrieved a screwdriver from the random-but-useful box in the rehearsal hall and proceeded to brutally slaughter them. It was not pretty.

As I was joyfully ripping down the banner, something terrible caught my ear: the tortured scream of a damsel in distress. Something to the general effect of: “Dang, I can’t reach the top of the netting from here . . .” It was Dimyana, trying to take the rigging off of the treehouse. She tried going up the back ladder, but she was too afraid. So I heroically stepped in and climbed the ladder into my old house, memories of last summer cascading through my mind like a kayak down a snowy mountain. Screwdriver in hand, I banished all thoughts of chucking it through the window/door at Dimyana (the temptation was great, but the danger was even greater) and took it mercilessly to the staples in the wall holding up the netting. Amy attacked it similarly from the other side and we had it down in no time, to the glorious sound of thunderous cheering (Dimyana going “yaaay!!”).

And, approximately 42 boxes, 35 bags, 54 baskets, and 17 random items later, I climbed into Dad’s car and went home.

In the weeks that followed, I found myself doing a lot of crashing (despite my recent training in Driver’s Ed) and even more vegging (despite my preference of meat). Also quite a bit of loafing around (despite my aversion to getting dressed up unless a coat is involved).

All in all, exciting times. The next interesting thing happened . . . I guess it was two weekends ago? Or was it one? I can’t remember . . . I actually feel that there was something else first, but I can’t remember . . .

In any case, one Friday night my parents were going to Brian’s Big Birthday Bash in Beaumont (Wayne has taught me well), so I had nothing to do and no one at home that night. I happened to glance at an orange piece of paper on my floor a few days earlier while contemplating what to do, and I noticed something very important. The sentence was run-on and horrendously awkward. But soon I got over it and looked at the orange paper, and happened to notice that Friday was none other than opening night for Arsenic and Old Lace at Rialto Community Players, starring (sort of) none other than our very own David Y. *last name deleted for privacy purposes* as Dr. Herman Einstein.

“Hey!” I said, hit with inspiration like a train hitting a penny on the rail at 95 MPH and flying off the side of a cliff and exploding, killing all aboard. “I could get the gang together and go see it!”

I suggested this to David (or maybe he suggested it to me . . . I can’t remember), and we agreed it was a good idea. So I began by calling Rachel, who said that she was going to a going-away party for “Charlie.”

Next on my list was Moe. She was getting over a cold, and it showed in her voice. “I have plans,” she croaked.

I called Seth next. The phone rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. And rang rang. Then it clicked and I heard a familiar voice saying, “You have reached the Martins! Leave a message and—“ and I hung up, forlorn.

There were several other people on my list, but one by one they were all eliminated with similar problems or just the impossibility of coming before I even called them (such as Preston having a show the same night).

It was thus in a state of complete despair, frustration and pessimism that I reached the final name on my list. Looking cruelly at the (imaginary) list, I saw the name “Megan.” I punched the send button on my phone. It rang. And rang. And rang. And rang.

And then, suddenly, apparently out of nowhere, an extremely cheerful and shockingly loud voice cried out, “HI!! You’ve reached Megan!!! Leave me a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can!!” After the initial moment of excitement (because “HI!!” would not be a terribly strange way for Megan to actually answer her phone), I slumped again and muttered a message about going to David’s play and call me back.

After this I sent a text message indicated my complete and utter failure to David. He responded, suggesting that since there were still forty-five minutes until 3:30 (when Megan started dance), I should bombard Megan with calls until she either picked up or it reached 3:30.

I called her roughly 7 times, all with the same result, and gave up, snarling.

The rest of the day passed without incident, and then at around 8:00 I thought to myself, “Y’know, it’s 8:00. Megan’s had plenty of time to call me back.” So I called her again. “Hi Mark,” said a slightly less exuberant voice. “Can I call you back in like two minutes?” At this point I actually laughed out loud, more out of frustration than mirth, simply because everything seemed to be going so positively miserably that day. “Sure,” I said, and hung up.

Seven minutes later (yes, I was bored enough that I actually counted the minutes to see how close she was to two), my phone rang again.

Me: “Okay, so I called you like seven times earlier, did you notice?”
Megan: “Yeah . . . it was during dance class, and my phone kept going off . . .”

There was more, but that’s sufficient for the purposes of this blog. So naturally I felt pretty darn bad about that . . . but not half as bad as I did (being the fallen man I am) after this next comment:

Megan: “Yeah . . . it’s more likely I won’t be able to make it than that I will be. What time is it? I’m assuming it’s around seven . . .”
Me: “The show’s at 8, yeah . . .”
Megan: “Okay, yeah, I won’t be able to come . . .”

At this point I very nearly just melted into the floor. Even though none of you will have any idea what this means, I felt like Dustin in Gaston after Jeff and Jen dropped . . . sliding slowly to the floor and spreading my limbs as if to say, “take me now, Lord!”

So yes . . . that was a wonderfully frustrating day. And to top it all off, the next day the RCP phones were all messed up, so I couldn’t even reserve a ticket for myself and had to buy one at the door.

Oy . . . the only thing that went right out of the whole fiasco was that the Christisons were going (separate from me) and were willing to give me a ride.

The show itself was very good . . . everyone (except the poor minister, bless his soul) was very good . . . David of course was great, and the guy who played Jonathon (another Lifehouse guy) was very twitchy, which made me happy.

And of course it would take a lot of bad acting to make Arsenic and Old Lace unenjoyable, And . . . really, it’s been a few weeks, and I can’t remember most of what I wanted to say about it . . .

But what I DO remember is that community theaters don’t, contrary to popular belief, have money coming out of their ears. So if someone, say, crashes into a door carrying luggage and, say, totally destroys the window on the door, it’s expensive.

It’s also somewhat illusion-ruining if that same person later rips the opposite window off of the hinge and pulls off the curtain, revealing a wall where the cemetery should be . . .

It also ruins the illusion somewhat when that SAME person is referred to as being 5’6” . . .

But anyway, if nothing else, I DID take away from that glorious performance the incredible observation: “Ve’re going to Pyaaaaaanamaaaa!!”

Anyway, yes. The only other interesting thing that’s happened happened yesterday . . . David had been reigning down my neck all week to randomly show up at Smiley library to spice up the long days of study that he and Megan were putting in there. On Saturday, since I had nothing better to do, I finally complied and went.

I saw them, greeted them, and promptly went to the children’s section to search for William Steig to read while there. Unfortunately, they only had Abel’s Island, Dominic, and The Real Thief, two of which I own and all three of which I’ve already read.

After that failure, I went an immensely more mature route and picked up The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Mr. Douglas Adams. I got about three pages into it, total.

So we were sitting there for a while . . . probably about an hour. David I were reading (sort of . . . and you can tell who the intellectual in our group was: there’s me reading Douglas Adams, and there’s David reading Plato), and Megan was alternating researching the Jesuits, writing about the Jesuits, railing about the Jesuits, and randomly shaking her computer’s monitor (presumably, to beat the research and writing into submission). We were all conversing off and on, as well. Somewhere along the way, I must’ve said something about having nothing to do with my life, and he gestured and Megan and told me to go bowling. Megan kind of chuckled, so I figured it was one of their countless inside jokes sprung from a week of overexposure (my motto for the day was “not gonna ask”), so I just rolled my eyes and said “again, not gonna ask.” Megan responded with, “no, really.” Which confused me, because no one bothered to explain.

In the end, it was in reference to Megan’s little sister’s fifth birthday party, which was at Empire Bowl, and at which Megan didn’t want to be alone in her age group. David couldn’t go because he had no money, and therefore wouldn’t be able to pay for himself. And, since Autumn (the afore-mentioned little sister) hadn’t invited him, that would’ve been bad. I, of course, was simply ROLLING in the dough, so I was told to go.

In the end, of course, all three of us went, and I paid for David (for the most part, he paid about half of it). The three of us played a game all our own, which was documented by David and Megan with David’s fancy-shmancy expensive camera. Most of the pictures seem to be of me, because Megan generally made David delete the pictures of her, and only started taking pictures so that she could get pictures of him as revenge. I didn’t really care, so David just kept snappin’ photos of me, and then complaining that it was always the same (perhaps because I’m actually consistent in how I bowl . . .?).

Before playing, we had all made sure that the others knew how much we sucked. Megan said, “You guys have to understand that I’m a really crappy bowler.” I responded with, “I seriously doubt you’re worse than me.” David finished things off with, “I haven’t bowled in a decade.” In the end, the scores proved us right. David won with a 78, I came in second with 72, and Megan lost with fifty-something.

After that we went back over to where the little ones were, and hung out over there for a while . . . just talking and generally getting in the way. Or at least, I was getting in the way, Megan and David seemed to be doing just fine staying out of it. And not only was I in the way, but once again it was apparent that I just have a bad effect on little girls naturally . . . they always either try to attack me or ignore me completely. Megan introduced David and I to an adorable little girl, and David said a few things to her which she responded to. I then asked her something (can’t remember what . . . something basic like “what’s your favorite color”), and she kind of stared at me for a minute, then looked away and refused to look at me again for the rest of the day. Let me tell you, that is a freakin’ DEPRESSING thing. Megan told me that I should be surprised, because that’s basically what she does (either try to kill me or completely ignore me), but it’s different because she’s not in the “young and innocent” age group where you expect them to just kind of accept everything as being inherently good . . . I mean, people like Megan I can understand, because they’re aware that I’m evil to the core, but little kids . . . especially little kids I’ve never met . . . *sigh*

Anyway, after that we went and sat up in the snack area and talked for a while about dirt and worms (the “cake”) and spoons and other such things . . . then we got out of the way for the actual kids to enjoy it, but we got to eat it. After that we were just sitting around hanging out for the rest of the time . . . Megan took it upon herself to completely destroy the tablecloth if possible, and used every method available short of setting it on fire (and she came pretty close to doing that, but her stepdad took the lighter away). But to make up for not setting the table cloth on fire, she destroyed her spoon with her teeth and set it and a fork on fire.

And then, to finish things off, as Megan and her family were leaving, she decided to put the leftover Dirt’n’Worms to good use. So she made up a big plate of it and set it in front of David, who removed his glasses and had at it, face first. Face only, actually. Megan got several pictures of that, I think, I got one. After he had had his fill (or, rather, we had had our fill of watching him), she pushed the plate over to me, but I (being the boring person that I am) declined. Partially to save myself humiliation, partially because there weren’t any napkins left.

And that was basically my day yesterday. My day today basically consisted of church and messing around on the computer, and writing this.

So there you go. You’ve got an update out before school starts, which will be on Tuesday. *sob sob* Hopefully I’ll get another one out next Sunday about tomorrow (Labor Day) and the first week of school.

So until then, this is the ever-illustrious Darth Harbison, signing off.

Comments:
AJ: If I recall correctly, I said “ROFLOLSCAMCS,” which means “Rolling On the Floor Laughing Out Loud Spitting Coffee At My Computer Screen.” Picked that one up from Sarah. I’d imagine you’re right about Juliet. Something will probably be up on So_Thoughtful in the next few days . . . I have a couple of ideas. “What the, I was expecting—“ “Some kind of celebrity??”

Stephen: Um . . . I feel like an idiot, but what does TZ stand for?

Megan: Heh, you’ll have to forgive me for that. You should’ve seen what I did to Beth when the blog was first starting . . . not intentional, but she got quite upset . . . anyway, option number two picked, was that good enough? And you’re gonna have to send me that paper when it’s done.

(Final Count: Pages: 8, Words: 4139)

What do Romeo and a slumber party have in common?

2006-08-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

And so the red sun sets, and so I shall attempt to, once again, grace the readers of my blog with an update. And once again, I hope that they comment, because they were much better about it last time.

So really, only two things of consequence have happened the past week or so, minus camp (which I’d rather forget about for the time being).

The first was that on Wednesday, I went to see the Broadway Expressions production of Romeo and Juliet. I went for two main reasons: Katrina was Juliet, and I wanted to compare that cast with the other cast (performing this week; I’m going to see it tomorrow night). I was supposed to go with Sarah, but then it became apparent that she had miscalculated how much school she had to do, and so she was unable to come. I went, therefore, all by my poor little lonesome self.

I’ve decided that Megan has to be one of the most interesting people in the world to be greeted by. Every time I see her, it’s something different . . . sometimes it’s violent, sometimes it’s nice, sometimes it’s downright scary . . . and usually it’s some combination of all three (example: after the dress rehearsal of Beauty and the Beast, she came back stage and came running at me full speed with her arms flung wide). This time, it was a simple, shouted, “YOU!” To which I replied, nodding sagely, “Me.”

After that highly intelligent exchange, I bought a ticket and went and sat down. I read the program (was somewhat frightened to find that Carrie was playing a guy), talked to the Milligans (who were everywhere . . .) for a while, and then talked to Daphne (who sat next to me) until the show started.

The show was very good. The language was a bit hard to follow at first (I’d imagine that’s a pretty common problem with Shakespeare), and it bugged me because at times it would go into verse for no apparent reason and then go right back out of it again a moment later. But the acting was good, the fighting was good, and they were very good at playing dead. Which is good, because with a gunshot like the one they got, Juliet isn’t going to be doing anything else.

Yes, a gunshot. It was set in the 1950s, sort of meant to be a gang war type of thing, I suppose. Most of the characters carried switchblades, and Mercutio and Tybalt were killed by them. Juliet, as I mentioned, killed herself with a gun, and that was too bad, because a knife would’ve been a lot more convincing. The gun kind of went, “pop?” whenever it went off, which left me laughing rather than deeply moved by the emotion of the scene. (I also laughed when Tybalt died, because a muffled shriek came from the back of the audience, where a certain blonde sat gripping her face in terror.)

I was also informed by Mrs. I-Took-A-Shakespeare-Class (Daphne) that “Juliet” is pronounced “Jule-yet,” rather than “Jule-ee-et.” I was not aware of this, so I figured I’d pass this information on to the wonderfully eager-to-learn readers that my blog attracts.

After the show was over, I was sort of drowning in Milligans (I would be talking to one for a while, then they would leave and another would come and take his place), trying desperately to find a way to go talk to Katrina and John and Carrie and other such non-Milligan people from the show that I knew.

In the end, I simply told Josh, “Well, I have to go, and I want to talk to Katrina before I do, so . . .” and mercifully he took the hint. I DID talk to Katrina, although it wasn’t a terribly interesting conversation other than her informing me that she was “E-LATE-d!” I’m still not entirely sure what that meant, but I’ve learned not to question people in situations like that.

I worked my way slowly but surely towards the door, where I encountered and spoke with Carly for a brief time, and then David for an even briefer one. As I was there talking to David, however, Megan came up and sparked what has to be the single most intelligent statement of all time:

Megan: *slapping me* “Stop growing!”
Me: “I’m sorry!”
David: *to me* “I could drive you . . .”

And rest assured, this statement was not in reference to anything that we had been discussing before Megan came over.

So that was that. Then Thursday, camp happened as usually, and I said to myself all the day long, “This is the last day of the week . . . this is the last day of the week . . . this is the last day of the week . . .” And I apologize to the poor kids, it’s just that there’s a certain few that I did NOT miss over the weekend . . . this camp has given whole new meaning to the verse, “And may Canaan be his slave.” (There is a child named Canaan who I wish would respect authority in the way that slaves respect their masters.)

On Friday, dance happened for the first time in a month or so, although nothing terribly interesting happened (except trying to do the tap routine with only half of the class).

On Friday afternoon, Seth showed up at my house to be transported (along with me) to Preston “Vander Flippet”’s birthday party (Vander Flippet is the last name given to the family by David, who can never remember their actual last name). We were the first ones there, and we hung out in Preston and Jordon’s room and insulted their cheap speakers while listening to Johnny Cash. Exciting times.

Then other people showed up and we went swimming, and had a major war, which I would claim that my team (me, Seth, and Jordon) won, although those who opposed us (Blake, Zack, Preston, and Josh) would say that they won. But since at the end of the battle, my team had four out of the five weapons and were totally destroying them, I’d say that we won.

Then we played Marco Polo for a brief time, in which Jordon and Seth kept tagging one another. Then we went inside and ate, and then we played Cold Apple (they didn’t have any potatoes), Drop the Eraser into the Apple Juice Jar, and Hula Hoop for Longer Than Everyone Else. I completely and utterly failed at all of these games. Although with Cold Apple, I got a crap throw from Jordon which I had to lunge halfway across the room to retrieve, and while I was retrieving it the music stopped, eliminating me and not Jordon. Curse him.

After that happened most folks went out and had an air-soft war, but Seth and I weren’t enthralled by that prospect and instead harassed Kelsey for a while and watched a video of Mrs. Vander Flippet when she was in high school (which was quite amusing). Then Mr. Vander Flippet hooked up his projector and sheet and put some Twilight Zone up on the big screen.

I’ve gotta tell you, I’m not sure I’m a big fan of The Twilight Zone. I saw one a long time ago with Dad that wasn’t scary but sure as heck wasn’t interesting or entertaining in any way, and then I saw the beginning of one here that was funny just because it was made so long ago. It was about this man (William Shatner . . . the other reason it was funny) who thought he saw a gremlin on the wing of a plane, and the gremlin looked basically like a guy with mime make-up in a tail-less beaver suit. But it wasn’t interesting or funny enough to hold my attention.

A while later (after some cake and nighttime swimming with glowsticks and the creation of our own personal whirlpool), we watched another episode . . . one that I actually did watch to the end. And it was one of the most depressing things I’ve ever seen. It was about this guy who loved to read (and I mean LOVED to read . . . he was obsessed with reading), but who never could because his wife didn’t like him to read at home, and his boss didn’t like him to read at work. He’s kind of a dorky guy, with big Ron Rifkin glasses and dorky hair and all that. So one day he’s at work (he works at a bank), and he goes down in the vault and starts reading the newspaper. The front-page headline reads, “H-BOMB CAPABLE OF TOTAL DESTRUCTION.” Naturally, the instant he reads this, everything starts shaking and we hear a ridiculous explosion. He exits the vault and walks around to find that the H-Bomb was, apparently, capable of total destruction, because nothing else seems in tact. But then he finds the grocery store and, while the store is blown to bits, the food is all perfectly fine, so he eats a little bit and then takes a nap on a convenient couch which he finds right in front of the store.

When he awakens, he wanders around, desperately hoping to find the company of someone. When he fails, he picks up a gun from the local arms salesman and holds it to his head. His finger is tensing on the trigger when he suddenly spies something . . . a fallen pillar reading “Public Library.” The library is no more, but the books are all miraculously unharmed. He therefore spends a long time going through the books and organizing them into piles to read each month. He then sits on the stairs and says to himself, “And the best part of it is . . . now there’s TIME. There’s nothing to stop me from reading them, and I can just read them all the time, for ever and ever.” He sighs contentedly and scratches his face. But in the process, he knocks off his glasses. They his the ground and break.

Meaning, of course, that now he will finally be able to read all he wants, but he is unable to see. He breaks down crying and shouting, “It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” and then it ends.

It was so freakin’ depressing. Like, I had to go and be silly to the point of ridiculousness with Seth just to cheer myself up while the rest of the group watched another one. After that, we hooked up the Gamecube and played Melee for a while. Then we went to bed.

A while ago, however, a devious scheme had been concocted by some devious minds . . . those of myself, Seth, and Ben. We determined to play the good ol’ whipped-cream-in-the-hand-tickled-nose prank on whoever fell asleep first (it was a slumber party). Somehow word of this plan had leaked to the ears of Jordon, who of course leaked it to the rest of the group. As a result of this, Preston got very upset and went and told his mom, claiming that, “She won’t allow pranks.”

Mrs. Vander Flippet, however, turned out to be a very cool person. When Ben went to explain things to her, instead of saying, “No. We will have no pranks in this house,” as Preston had indicated she would, she replied, “Well, you can’t do the whipped-cream thing, because that gets really messy. But if you wanted, you could take the streamers and tie them around people.” So not only did she give us permission to pull a prank, she gave us an idea of what prank to pull.

When we thought everybody was asleep, Ben, Seth and I went out and ripped down the streamers and such and brought them in to arrange over our victims. Preston, thinking he had won, stood up and announced triumphantly, “I’m not asleep!” He had thought we were coming for him. We replied, “No, but THEY are! Shhh!” So we streamered, toiled papered, glow sticked, and otherwise pranked Josh and Tristan, and Tami actually came out and helped us.

After it was over and Tristan and Josh had both woken up, we sat around a metaphorical campfire and Tami told us stories about her childhood and what kind of pranks SHE had pulled when she was an evil child. She and everyone not part of our team (everyone except Ben, Seth, and me) then planned to prank US in the morning. They planned it in careful whispers, so we couldn’t hear them. They told us that we would be pranked when we woke up.

Little did they know that I’m not a very heavy sleeper, even when I’m really tired. And even if I was (which, in all honesty, I am), you aren’t supposed to put the items you’re pranking with on the face of the victim. I felt something fuzzy brush across my face, and I awoke to find Jordon standing over me with a Barbie doll. “Go away,” I said, “you’ve failed.” Or at least something along those general lines.

Then I heard Tami moving around a while later, and with their dog Buddy’s help (he came barreling into my face at Mach 2), I sat up and smiled triumphantly, knowing that I had escaped en-prank-ment. Ben and Seth, however, were not so lucky. They were adorned with anything that could be found in Kelsey’s room. As you can imagine, this resulted in some quite amusing predicaments.

After we’d all had a hearty laugh at their expense (and Ben had chastised me for not waking up my fellow prankers), we ate breakfast burritos and then played some more Melee. We did this for much of the day, and spent the rest of it in the pool, aimlessly doing pointless stuff.

All in all, it was a fun time, although I was very tired both Saturday and Sunday. And that, basically, was my life this past week.

Oh, and AJ showed up on Sunday night, and I hung out and talked to him for a while about lots of different things. One of which has bearing here.

*Note: Some of you have, no doubt, already seen AJ’s post about this on his blog. If that’s the case, my apologies for making you read about it twice.*

No doubt y’all remember my DT’s . . . Deep Thoughts . . . Delvings into the depths of rational thought, questioning any and all things that came along. No doubt y’all also remember that there were only two of them. Well, they’re coming back. But so that they don’t interfere with the weekly chronicle on this site, I have devoted a Xanga to them. This xanga is http://www.xanga.com/So_Thoughtful. I started it a long time ago as a sort of journal, and then I realized that that was dumb because people could happen upon it and read all sorts of things that I wouldn’t want complete strangers to know about me. So I decided that I’d use it as a “random thoughts blog” back in March, when I did a piece called, “On Cruel and Unusual Punishment,” a (if I do say so myself) brilliant eye-opener about murder and barbershops. I later made a quiz on quizzila.com, and posted the URL on this site for reference.

The last post on the site is the quiz URL in April. That will not be the case for much longer (quite possibly not even by the end of tonight). I’m going to be posting DTs on there (although they probably won’t be so labeled or numbered) as often as I can think of DTs to post. So you should check it out from time to time (the link has been added to my sidebar) when you want insights into the world from a slightly lighter perspective than many are inclined to take in this day and age.

And on that note, I bid thee all adieu.

Comments:
AJ: Okay, maybe water-under-ice cold. Go to Pirates first, it’s better. No.

Stephen1: Ooh . . . that’s brutal . . .

Rae1: Yes . . . well . . . the dive-bombing tree kind of got overshadowed in my mind by the winds, because they were more obvious to me. Hmm . . . well perhaps I just saw a clean episode of Flying Circus then. I saw Flying Circus on TV, AJ and I rented ANFSCD a long time ago and watched the first ten-fifteen minutes, then turned it off. And yeah, I’ve heard good things about the Cheese Shop.

Rae2: Yep. Yay for finally having enough time to actually figure out how to do it. And for finally having a picture worth putting there anyway.

Stephen2: Hm . . . well, I may have been a bit rash. Laughing one’s swords off is definitely a worthy and original endeavor. You’ll have to forgive me for assuming that the S stood for Socks.

Beauty and the Heat

2006-08-01T21:21:00.000-07:00

*Rachel voice* Nobody LOVES me! *sniff sniff* A whole two weeks with only two comments from one person . . . well, at least I have Rae . . . drat the rest of you. You’d better comment THIS time, or I’ll start quoting cheesy X-Men lines at you unceasingly. And believe me, you don’t want that.

ANYWAY . . . so the past two weeks and this week so far have been crazily exciting. On Sunday night we rehearsed again, as those of you who read it would have gathered from my last post. I don’t recall Sunday being TOO terrible, but it was still ridiculously hot.

Then we had rehearsal on Monday, when we finally had the right lighting (well . . . theoretically, anyway) and makeup. But, I’ll let you in on a little secret . . . *whisper* The entire week, I never wore any makeup! Not a bit! And nobody cared! It made me very happy.

The biggest thing I remember from Monday is that the lighting, as they say, SUCKED miserably. Which was distressing to those of us with scene changes. It’s harder than it looks to run up a four-foot platform, place a giant dome on a table (in the dark), then run down the four-foot platform while three people in giant costumes are coming up it . . . all in about four seconds. And of course Wayne, being Wayne, yells out to me and Sarah, “That’s gonna have to be quicker! You have to get it done before the lights come up!” Not realizing that the lights barely even went out . . . *SIGH* Alas.

But then on Tuesday, the public dress rehearsal, they changed it, so not only was the lighting much better, but I didn’t even have to do the scene change anymore *rejoice rejoice* So that was cool.

Tuesday was mildly depressing at the beginning . . . it was the first time I’d ever performed in front of such a huge crowd, so I was starting to get majorly excited, and I got quite a rush from the applause after “Belle.” And then Wayne comes back stage and says, “Alright, reset yourselves, we’re starting the show over.” *cue “GLOOM” appearing above my head* It kind of broke the spell for a while . . . until Gaston, where of course the applause was simply deafening.

The dress rehearsal went marvelously after that, and so we got Wednesday off. Oh, and did I mention that it was ridiculously hot again on Tuesday night? My gosh . . .

But then Wednesday, things really got interesting. I woke up with a bit of a fever, a sore throat, a clogged-up nose, and a cough. Joy. The first time I get to perform in front of an audience of like 6,000, and I of course magically get sick right in the dead of summer that week.

To make matters worse, Wednesday was the only day for a really long time that we’d be able to go to the DMV and get my Learner’s Permit. So I had to sit, sick, in the DMV for an hour and then take a test. I was pleasantly surprised that it was only an hour, but still. It was dismal. And I passed, so I now have my Permit . . . although I can’t use it until I take the first day of Driver’s Training, which probably won’t be until next Friday or so at the earliest. But oh well.

Thursday, I was feeling a little better, but my throat was still dismally sore. Which wasn’t good, because Beauty and the Beast is a musical. Thursday’s show, despite my condition, went brilliantly . . . and, although we didn’t know it at the time, would be the only show that wasn’t fraught with peril . . . (and there, dear brother, is some better foreshadowing for you)

The show went well, but it was still REALLY hot . . . REALLY hot. I think it was around 108° when we started. Great fun.

Friday. Ohhhhh, accursed Friday. It was (I think) 111° at 8, and something happened that has (as far as I know) never before happened at the Bowl: the dimmer switch overheated and actually had to turn off to avoid exploding. As a result of this, for those of you who (like me) have no idea what a dimmer switch is, none of the lights were automated anymore, and had to be operated manually. They also had two positions: “on” and “off.” They couldn’t be gradually brought up or gradually fade out. As a result of THIS, the show was delayed.

As 8:15 came and went, 8:25 came and went, 8:30 came and went, the cast and the audience grew more and more apprehensive. Wayne told us later that they came “within an eyelash” of calling the show, and he was walking up to the stage to inform the audience as best he could about what was going on. As he passed by the grassy area, he heard a little girl say to her mother anxiously, “. . . but they ARE going to perform tonight, right, mommy?” This, he said, melted his ice-cold heart (okay, the “ice-cold” part was me), and he decided that, gosh darnit, we were going to HAVE this show, if we could use only the spotlights to light everything.

And so we did. We had a bit more lighting than that, but it, as they say, SUCKED majorly. As the show went on, things cooled down a bit (the sun going down and the influence of coolant such as CO2), so they added more lights, and by the end we were back to the same as always. But for a while it was miserably lighted and it took the sheer genius of Dustin’s brilliant stein-dance to keep the audience cheering. Well, that and Megan yelling “YEAH!!!” at the top of her lungs after every scene.

Then came Saturday. Saturday was a big day for me, because not only were Mom and Dad coming, but AJ and Rae were coming down from Fullerton and Stephen was coming from Hisperia to see it. I woke up and felt miraculously better, with very little trace of my sickness remaining. Which was cool.

Then I heard it — thunder. I looked outside, and it was cloudy and gloomy. Wayne had told us weeks ago that it has never, in thirty years, rained on a Bowl production. I was afraid that this would be the exception.

When we got to the Bowl and had the cast meeting, Wayne said, “I’m fully expecting a hurricane tonight, folks. I woke up this morning thinking, ‘Well, we had the overheat last night, what could possibly happen?’” (And so that my dear mother/teacher won’t chastise me for my ignorance . . .) The man had, apparently, not done his research on the weather. If he had, he would have realized that there ARE no hurricanes in California, and that we are inland far enough that we probably wouldn’t have had to worry about it anyway.

In the end, it didn’t rain, but the wind was a’blowin’ somethin’ fierce. And yet, even with the breeze-that-was-a-wind, it was STILL around 110°. I was with my parents in the audience before the show and AJ called, and one of the first things he said to me was, “It shouldn’t be allowed to get this hot. Seriously, like, there should be a law. This is ridiculous.”

Someone’s (I can’t remember who) comment on the problems we’d been having: “It’s a good thing this is the last show, ‘cause if we had another one, we’d probably summon the apocalypse or something . . .”

The show went very well despite the wind and heat, however, so it was cool. And afterwards, we had a cast party type’a thing which was attended by AJ, Rae, Stephen, and David (as well as the cast, of course). They fed us pizza, there were emotional speeches, an emotional song, and the claiming of steins by the cast members as souvenirs.

Afterwards, we came home and Stephen left, then I hung out with AJ and Rae in our family room for a while (and Jersey, although he was mostly with Rae). We talked about Pirates II, and Stargate, and (mostly) M. Night Shamylan (sp?). Then they left, and I went to bed.

The next day, I joined my family (minus AJ) in going to a much-needed vacation to Palm Desert. My friends (specifically David and Sarah) didn’t understand why in the world we would go to the desert in the middle of the summer. Which is understandable. But you know what? When we got there, and I got out of the car, I said honestly, “Ah, this isn’t too bad . . . no hotter than backstage.”

It was a wonderful vacation. We were in the Willow Creek Golf Resort, which had a little condo-thingy for us to stay in, a pool, and a free arcade. Most of the games in the arcade were pretty bad, although Dad and I played a golf one several times. I’m proud to say that I set a record on that game: I shot a +34, thus setting the record for the worst round ever played on that course.

So basically we spent the week reading (mostly by the pool), swimming, eating out, watching TV, and watching movies. As far as TV goes, I saw for the first time in my life Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I was a bit wary of it, afraid that it would lean more towards And Now For Something Completely Different than Monty Python and the Holy Grail in terms of the humor. It pleasantly surprised me by being very clean and absolutely hilarious. (Guy 1: “I’m here for flying lessons.” Guy 2: “Okay, okay. Get up on the desk.” *Guy 1 does so, obeying all instructions* “Now, flap your arms good and hard. Harder. HARDER! There you go. Now jump!!!" *Guy 1 does so, landing with a crash on the floor* “Wow . . . that was bloody rotten.”) The best part of it was that every time the characters walked by an animal, the camera would zoom in on the animal, and the animal would then explode. It would then (usually) go back to the characters.

As far as movies go, we saw Superman Returns in the theaters, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, DareDevil, and Sky High in our room. (I won’t review Narnia or Sky High because I’ve seen them both before, but I recommend both of them. Sky High is a stupid comedy but it’s really funny, and Narnia you of course all know about.)

Superman Returns: One of the best superhero movies I’ve seen. The character of Superman isn’t as interesting or as cool as, say, Spiderman or the X-Men, and since he’s kind of all-powerful I could see it getting boring after a while. But the movie was very well-made, very well-directed, and VERY well-acted. If I may, for a moment, compare it to X-Men 3. My initial thought in this area is that Bryan Singer should’ve stayed and done X-3, because then it would’ve rocked. As good as it was, it could’ve been much better. The high point of X-3 for me was Ian McKellan (who I love . . . as an actor, not as a person) as Magneto, and I thought that for sure no villain in superhero movies could ever effectively counter that performance. I was wrong. Kevin Spacey was AWESOME as Lex Luthor, playing him as a fairly likeable guy for much of the movie, letting glimpses of cruelty shine through occasionally, and then at the climax became absolutely despicable. It was a glorious performance. Superman was pretty good, Lois Lane was okay, and I really liked the kid and Richard.

In short, go see it. It’s really good. But if you haven’t seen Pirates II, see that first.

DareDevil: This movie wasn’t nearly as good as Superman Returns. It required more of a suspension of belief than most superhero movies (because it didn’t explain how DareDevil acquired his powers, so I got the impression that he was just a normal guy with sharper hearing than most). As a result of what was mentioned in the parentheses, it seemed as though you had a regular guy — a regular BLIND guy — doing all these incredible things. The high point of this movie was Colin Farrell as Bullseye. Not on level with McKellan or Spacey, but still brilliant in its own way. Because the character of Bullseye obviously has issues, and Farrell played it that way. He didn’t play the character (as I think many would have) as a secure crazy assassin-man who had occasional outbursts of problems, but he played him as a sort of nervous, twitchy, wacko who also happened to be crazy good. (“DareDevil . . . he made me . . . *twitch twitch* MISS.”)

So the movie was a lot of fun, but not great as a movie. If you have the opportunity to watch it, I’d recommend it, but just remember that it’s just basically a mindless action movie. But it has Evanescence, so that’s gotta count for something.

As far as eating, we went to (if I can remember . . .):
~ Red Robin — in Redlands, before we left . . . great burgers
~ Pat & Oscars — AMAZING breadsticks, really spicy wings . . . there’s one in Redlands
~ Mimi’s Café — good bread, good burgers, good meatloaf, good pot roast
~ La Casuelas — Probably the best Mexican food I’ve ever had
~ California Pizza Kitchen — Better than Gourmet Pizza Shoppe, same type of place
~ The Elephant Bar — food from around the globe . . . the burger I had was good
~ The Olive Garden — great Italian food, though their breadsticks are inferior to P&O
~ The Cheesecake Factory — save room for dessert, period
~ IHOP — great omelets

As far as reading, I finished Eragon, got about a quarter of the way through Eldest, read the first few chapters of Theater and Incarnation, and read the entire Essential X-Men: Volume 1.

I’m currently reading X-Men Volume 2, and I feel that there’s a good chance I’ll become mildly obsessed with X-Men. So be prepared for random references to it whenever you’re around me.

We also did some shopping (mostly Mom), and I got an awesome dolphin statue and a fish cup to add to my collection of fishies.

On Sunday, we came home. I just laid around for the rest of the day (after picking up Jersey). On Monday, I was settling in for some serious time-wasting, maybe even some blog-updating.

But then I got a phone call from Tracy. “Hey,” she said, “Are we picking you up for camp today, or do you have a ride?” My response: “Uhhhhhhhh . . . camp?”

She was referring, of course, to the Lifehouse Musical Theater Camp, which I had agreed months ago to be a counselor for. I had forgotten about it, and even having forgotten about it I thought it began next Tuesday. It turns out that this is not the case.

So I’ve spent the bulk of the afternoon of the past two days doing that. MTCs are alternately fun and infuriating. It’s kind of cool to have 30 kids watching you to figure out what they’re supposed to do, and to have stuff demonstrated for them, but it’s also really annoying having to deal with 39 screaming kids for three hours. Especially when one of them absolutely refuses to obey . . .

The most fun thing we’ve done so far (for me, at least), was this: Didi wanted to play a theater game, and she called the counselors together to demonstrate it. The game was entitled “improv.” Basically, we were supposed to improvise a scene, having been given a fairy tale to choose a scene from.

Our (the counselors’) fairy tale was Cinderella. Being the only guy, I was (of course) the Prince. Dimyana was the Queen, Rachael was Cinderella, Tina and Bethanne were stepsisters, and Erin was the stepmother. It was a lot of fun. It actually turned out pretty well, although I utterly failed to waltz (which was not surprising to me).

Then we had the kids do it, in groups of five or so with a counselor in each. I was with a group of five doing The Three Little Pigs. You’d be surprised how hard it can be . . . think about it. Who’s the fifth character in The Three Little Pigs? There’s only four . . . we ended up having a narrator, but it didn’t go so well . . . it was going okay (although there were several long pauses), but then our third little pig said to the wolf, “Okay, come on in.” It’s rare that I honestly want to slap my forehead, but I came darn close to actually doing it there.

The only other thing that’s happened was last night, when Sarah came over. We just hung out, watched Wolf’s Rain and FullMetal Alchemist (which was . . . different), and then I introduced her to MST3K, which she seemed to enjoy thoroughly.

Other than that, nothing to report. *there is a spurt of flame and the smell of brimstone, and Mark is . . . elsewhere . . .*

Comments:
Rae: Heh . . . yeah, Shel rocks . . . that must be interesting . . . and obviously, I’ve already come to your blog.

Freakin’ COMMENT this time, people!

Sunday, Sweaty Sunday

2006-07-16T15:48:00.000-07:00

Here it is, Sunday yet again. And here I am, updating, yet again.

The past week can really be summed up in one word: “AAAAAAHHHH!!!!” This is easily the craziest week I’ve had since last year’s debate boot camp, and probably even crazier than that because it’s SO FREAKIN’ HOT OUTSIDE. If anyone from out-of-state ever comes up to me and says, “Man, I wish I lived here, the weather is so nice all the time,” I’m going to slap them in the face.

Perhaps I’m just strange . . . but why can’t it be cold every now and then? I mean, yeah, it gets chilly in the winter . . . and THAT’S when everyone talks about how wonderful the weather is out here . . . *sigh* But alas for summer. Shel Silverstein once wrote a poem that applies to my life right now, and I’ll quote it for you later when I get there.

But first, we should go in order. Last Sunday first. We had church as always, although it was a pretty small group. We began our summer study of Psalms, and Dad began it with an overview of Hebrew poetry and then a study on Psalm 1. At the end, Dad decided that he wanted to fuse Hebrew poetry and English poetry, so he cruelly made us all write, not just poems, but limericks based on Psalm 1. It was pretty crazy . . . I’ll spare you all the trouble of having to read them here, but it was crazy. It’s pretty hard to write a limerick at the drop of a hat, you know . . . you’d be surprised.

Anyway, after church there was a lot of just hanging around and writing blog entries. But eventually it was around 6:30 or so, and it was time to actually do something. Aaron, Megan, and John (in that order) had all told me the previous night at Tom Sawyer that I should come to a Shakespeare Showcase thingy they were doing at the Redlands Police Station that night at 7. I figured I might as well, since I had nothing better to do, and it was Shakespeare.

So I showed up at the Redlands Police Station at about 6:45 or so. To my confusion, there didn’t seem to be anyone around. I looked about, and Rachel showed up and I talked to her for a while, but we couldn’t find anyone. In the end, confused and saddened, we went home (I had tried calling Megan, but her phone, of course, was off).

In the end, I ended up getting my Shakespeare in that night anyway. Just in a slightly . . . um . . . different way. We had gotten a movie version of Hamlet from Netflix a short while ago, and decided we might as well watch it. But this wasn’t just any movie version of Hamlet. No, this was the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Hamlet, which is at the same time undoubtedly the worst and the best version.

“Horatio . . . you’re standing on my foot . . .”
“I—I’m so frightened!” “Of what?” “. . . your hair!”
“Get thee to a bakery! Wait, no . . .”
“‘To be or not to be:’ the verbal equivalent of ‘Dun dun DUNN!!’”

I could go on, but I wouldn’t want to ruin it for those of you who have yet to see it. After it was over, I called Megan again, and her phone was on but she didn’t answer, so I left her a message. She called me about half an hour later, apologizing profusely. As it turns out, there’s a difference between the Police STATION and the Police DEPARTMENT . . .

Anyway, on to Monday. On Monday, everyone’s favorite canine friend was due for a trip to the vet. This, as always, resulted in major pain for me. Jersey gets a bit excited when he’s in the car, and since I’m the one not in the driver’s seat, he gets to sit on my lap. And stand, and jump, and shiver, and run around, and rip the skin from my knees.

I’m usually in a fairly foul temper by the time we reach the vet, and this was no exception. Mom picked Jersey up and took him out of the car, then set him down on the ground so I could get out. When I exited the car, she was brushing her shirt off, muttering something like, “I hate getting dog hair all over me.” I scowled bitterly and gestured to my navy-blue shirt. Or at least, what used to be my navy-blue shirt, but was now my white, furry shirt.

We went into the vet and waited in line for a while, then waited in the waiting room for a while, then waited in the doctor’s room for a while, then finally the nurse came in. Eventually, it was all over, and Jersey was proclaimed in great health. Perfect health, in fact, for ripping up my knees again on the way home.

At this point, I was in a very bad mood, and the fact that I was tired from getting up early (at least for me) to take him to the vet wasn’t helping. Things brightened a few hours later, though, when I went with David and Seth to see Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest. A lot of people seem to not like this movie, but I don’t see why. I personally thought it was a rocking awesome movie, and it has one of my favorite individual shots of all time.

Johnny Depp was amazing as always, and my belief that neither Orlando Bloom nor Keira Knightly are that good was strengthened. But that’s okay, because no one cares about Will and Elizabeth anyway. But I really liked the story, especially the ending . . . most people seem to despise the ending, because it’s a cliffhanger of sorts, but it made me very happy. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that it was a lot darker and a lot less funny than the first one. It did, however, have a couple of really good lines, my favorite probably being:

“Check this out.” *Bang* “There. An undead monkey. Beat that.”

And I’m almost positive I saw Dustin, too, which made me really happy. For those of you who might not know, Dustin is a Lifehouse guy (he directs and choreographs mostly), and he directed Esther and is choreographing and co-directing Beauty and the Beast at the Bowl. He’s an awesome guy, and is amazingly talented. He made the final cut for a main part in the movie (I’m not sure which), but he ended up just getting an extra.

After the movie, I ran (literally) over to the Bowl for rehearsal, my mom bringing me food and supplies for the night. It was our first dress rehearsal, although the villagers (such as me) didn’t have to wear costumes until Wednesday, which was cool. Most of the enchanted object costumes are really cool . . . at least to see. I really like the Beast costume, too.

Other than that, not much to report from Monday other than oppressive heat. But it wasn’t too bad. Not unbearable, anyway.

Then came Tuesday. Tuesday morning. Much earlier than I usually am conscious. A morning cursed by the fates to forever bear the name, “Driver’s Education: Day 1.” This is the primary reason for the business of this week. Every morning, I would wake up way too early, get ready, then go pick up Sarah, then go to Economy West and sit there for 6 hours or so learning about cars and laws and how to break them.

A word of sage advice for . . . uh . . . well, for Megan, I guess, since she’s the only one who reads this who’s younger than me (and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read it consistently, anyway, but hey): when you take Driver’s Ed, take it with someone. I would’ve DIED had Sarah not been there. Just random wry comments about stupid phrasing, stupid policemen on the videos, and sadistic bus drivers served to make the day bearable. And, of course, having someone to eat lunch with was really nice, too.

And for the record: maybe I’m just cynical, but I really didn’t find Red Asphalt to be all that it was made out to be. Everyone always talks about how terrible it is, and how they wanted to throw up and run out of the room, and stuff like that, but . . . I was perfectly fine. I mean, yeah, it was gross, but other than that one dude who got his head smashed into two pieces it wasn’t THAT bad. The worst part of it was actually the narrator:

“You drink and drive, you die. You take drugs and drive, you die. You don’t wear a safety belt, you die. I don’t like you, you die.”

Okay, that last one was Sarah, but the other three is a direct quote from the video. He was really annoying. But not as annoying as the Wyoming Highway Patrol guy on the other video:

“It’s nice to be right, but you don’t want to be . . . DEAD right. In the end, it’s not a question of who’s right, it’s a question of who’s . . . LEFT.”

That one is completely a direct quote. It’s sad, really. But yeah, that’s Driver’s Ed . . . majorly boring stuff. That went on from Tuesday until Friday. We also had rehearsals every night . . . dress rehearsals, mostly. Nothing really spectacular other than my (and probably Sarah’s) level of fatigue by the end of them.

Then came Saturday. I was rejoicing in the fact that Driver’s Ed was over . . . that now I can get my permit (yay! . . . haven’t gotten it yet, but probably this week). I got up and had a nice pancake breakfast courtesy of Mom, then hung around until it was time to head over to Lifehouse to see Tom Sawyer one last time. As always, it was awesome. Afterwards, I went to Chipotlé with Mom and Dad, then to the Bowl.

If there is a single worst rehearsal experience I’ve ever had, it’s Saturday night. We had the set for the first time, which was really nice (and we did really well), but it was so hot that it was almost unbearable . . . it was 109º when we started rehearsal. When we got out, at 11:11 PM, it was still 89º. This alone would be bad enough, having to be outside. But add to that the craziness of the show (or at least of “Gaston”), and the fact that it was a dress rehearsal, it was crazy.

Add to THAT the fact that I ran out of water and got majorly dehydrated and majorly tired, and it wasn’t that great an experience. I will now pause for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. This is what I felt like last night:

It’s Hot! By Shel Silverstein
It’s hot!
I can’t get cool,
I’ve drunk a quart of lemonade.
I think I’ll take my shoes off
And sit around in the shade.

It’s hot!
My back is sticky,
The sweat rolls down my chin.
I think I’ll take my clothes off
And sit around in my skin.

It’s hot!
I’ve tried with ‘lectric fans,
And pools and ice cream cones.
I think I’ll take my skin off
And sit around in my bones.

It’s still hot!

Okay, so not EXACTLY, but that’s pretty much what it was like last night. It was absolutely ridiculous.

And that brings you back up to date. So all y’all better come see Beauty and the Beast, it runs this week only! So come on down and see this incredible show! Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go prepare for yet another rehearsal . . .

Comments:
AJ: Websites that publish the post twice when I only hit the button once are lame.

Megan: 4 posts? Wow . . . you must’ve been really bored . . . And that’s right, you did, my mistake . . . but you said hi before that, and then moved on to other things and didn’t come back to me for a while. So I guess I forgot.

Eleanor: ELEANOR!! Welcome back! All of us here at the Death Star are proud to welcome you back into our readership. And in Beauty and the Beast, I AM supposed to be French . . . *sees potential excuse* And . . . since you’d better come see it, hopefully next week some time :-D

My blog, my blog, I have not forsaken thee!

2006-07-09T15:36:00.001-07:00

So yes . . . my apologies that it’s taken so long. The whole time/mood thing has been stalling me again. But not a whole lot has really happened in the last four weeks, so we’re going to split this up into events like I’ve done before.

Event #1: Wayne is lame. So the Saturday after my return from the Train Station was opening night of Tom Sawyer at Lifehouse. My good friend Preston happens to be playing the title role, and another of my friends is playing Huck Finn, and a number of my other friends are in it in one way or another. That, on top of the fact that Rachel is moving soon and I want to spend as much time with her as possible, made me decide to go to opening.

The night started with Rachel being about half an hour late picking me up, which kind of scared me, since the office had threatened to take away our tickets if we weren’t there fifteen minutes before the start of the show. Thankfully, we got there right at 7:15, and got our tickets and went into the theater, where the pre-show band was already playing.

The best part about the pre-show band (other than Diana being the lead singer) was that Josh had a sort of Amish beard on to disguise him (the character he played would probably not be the sort of fellow who would play in a jug band). It was hilarious. To add to the humor of it, Peter actually wore the same beard later on during the actual show.

Anyway, the show was really good . . . much better than it was last time. If I didn’t know Preston, it probably wouldn’t have been QUITE as good . . . parts of it wouldn’t have been as funny (same with Megan, actually . . . seeing her fawn over Preston wouldn’t have been nearly as amusing if I hadn’t known both of them). I’d say almost every character was better this time around . . . except probably Mark Twain, but that’s just because they cut a lot of his stuff out and turned it into voice-overs. Oh, and Ben Rodgers . . . but Zach played that last time, so that almost goes without saying. But the one that really surprised me was the villain, Injun Joe. He was played last time by a guy who was commonly held at the time to be the single best villain-actor Lifehouse had. But the guy who played Injun Joe this time . . . I mean, I know him, and I know he’s really good, so I guess I should’ve figured he’d be better, but . . . yeah, I was really impressed.

Anyway, that’s that. The Wayne being lame part came about twenty minutes into the show, when one of my personal favorite scenes in all of Lifehouse came up: the white-washing scene. The beginning of the song “Whitewashin’” is a parody of the Queen song “Bicycle.” Last time (which was the first time) we did this show, when I was in it, they cut that part of the song out because some people found it offensive, being a Queen song and all. This time, they left it in. Which was awesome, of course, but lame because they didn’t let us do it. So Wayne was lame.

Event #1.5: Denny’s is lame. After the show, Rachel and I being Rachel and I, we invited ourselves to join the cast at their opening night celebration at Denny’s. Carly was nice and transported us there with Katrina and Caroline, and Carly was very excited about getting an Oreo Milkshake. So excited that she asked everyone who came through the door, “Guess what kind of milkshake I’m getting?!”

Eventually we got to our tables and sat down. I was next to Rachel, of course, with Mrs. Emert on my other side, and Mr. Ware beyond her. Across from me were Carrie, Hannah, and Preston. Lots of fun times . . . the creation of “Face Cake,” reciting the first half of the Weird Al song “Albuquerque” with Hannah, the “Preston Suit,” Caroline NOT looking like R2-D2 . . . fun times.

I was one of the first people to order, but it took them FOREVER to bring out my order. I ordered cheese fries, too, so it’s not like they had to take ages and ages to cook a burger or anything. Megan ordered the same thing, several minutes after I did, and she got hers way before. I was upset. It was lame. And when it came, it wasn’t even that good . . . the fries were all rubbery and stuff, like they’d been sitting back there all day . . . which they probably had. But to that I say: if they were sitting back there all day, why the crap did it take them so freakin’ long to bring it out??

Anyway, Rachel and I eventually went out front to wait for her mom to come and take us home. We sat there and talked to Jimmy (who had also come to the show and invited himself to Denny’s), who told us his woes of playing Conrad Birdie in “Bye Bye Birdie” at his church . . . poor fellow. Those lower back pains are killer.

Event #2: My friends are NOT lame. The next day, David, Carly, and Katrina all came to my church. We had more fun times . . . although I felt kinda bad because I left the VHs all by themselves . . . but what could I do? I had friends there, and the table would hold all of us . . . so yeah. It was fun. We were talking about children and parents and their responsibilities to one another . . . Carly was kind of out of it and tired for the first half of the study, but she woke right up as soon as Dad started talking about mistakes that parents make. It was quite amusing.

After church, as always, Kelsey came up to me and said, “Can we go up to your room? Can we go up to your room??” I have NO clue why she finds my room so entertaining, but she asks me every week if we can go up . . . anyway, this week it was special because it got the best reaction I’ve ever gotten to that question: Carly saying, “You have a ROOM?? That’s AWESOME!!! Can I see it??” So we went up and looked at all my Lifehouse pictures hanging on the wall. Then Carly and Katrina had to leave, to get to Lifehouse and all that, although David stayed and talked to us for a while, then left when his family called him angrily, asking where he was.

Event #3: Sarah is NOT lame. The next Sunday, Sarah came to my church. As a result of this, I was accused (or so I’m told, I wasn’t there) by Megan of having a cult designed to draw people away from BOB. But anyway, Sarah came, and she enjoyed it . . . although the chairs gave her a bruise. Our chairs aren’t very nice.

After church, Sarah and I went over to Seth’s house and hung out and played SSBM all afternoon. It was a lot of fun. It actually was cut short because David and I had to practice for Event #4. But it was a lot of fun.

Event #4: David and I are almost lame . . . literally. So, due to David’s and my incredible physique and muscular prowess (or maybe the fact that we take a stage combat class and we’re her friends), Didi asked us to do a fight demonstration for two of her camps, one at the U of R, and one at Lifehouse. We did our half of the fight we did for the Broadway Expressions recital, plus a few other, more basic things . . . we did Around the World (a basic sword routine) really fast, and got quite a reaction . . . and we talked about flips and swords and knives . . . and showed them the awesome shirt-knife disarm that Josh invented a long time ago.

It was a lot of fun, but of course you always gotta have a few trouble kids . . . there was a young gentlemen in the U of R camp who raised his hand to ask a question, and when David called on him, he said, “Yeah, so speaking of swords, I was playing [Dungeons and Dragons] this one time, and I tried to throw a sword at the bad guy, and I ended up hurting myself, and he tried to throw . . . I don’t remember what he tried to throw, but it ended up killing one of his own guys. *laughs hysterically*” And the Lifehouse group was like the quietest camp I’ve ever seen . . . they had, like, two questions out of all thirty kids . . . it was crazy . . . no D&D stories, though, so it wasn’t all that bad.

I also did my Mark Twain thing for the Lifehouse camp, which was okay. They were a pretty tough crowd . . . if my eyebrow hadn’t fallen off halfway through, I wouldn’t have gotten any laughs at all. So remember, all you theater people: spirit gum is underrated. Medical tape doesn’t work nearly as well. Moe is also underrated. Because without her, I never would’ve gotten my wig on over all of my hair . . . but Moe was nice enough to pin my hair up for me so that the wig would fit over it. Yay Moe.

Event #5: The audience at the Bowl is lame. That very same day (Tuesday), there was a happening at the Bowl, as there always is on Tuesdays. Wayne had given the B&B cast off for the night, and David was going to the Bowl Happening with people, so I went along. The group was made up of David and me, Rachel, Carly, Katrina, and Megan. We brought bread and cheese and strawberries and sugar to eat instead of dinner, which we did.

At one point, Megan, Carly, and Rachel all went back to Megan’s house for juice (she lives about a five minute walk from the Bowl), and David went to buy more bread, so Katrina and I were sitting there alone. We were kind of grasping at strands of conversation for a while, then we heard a buzzing and decided that God was calling someone on their cell phone and enhancing the sound of the vibration so they’d be sure to notice. Not really sure where that came from, but it was cool.

It also became apparent that people should be careful when they make jokes, because you never know when one’s going to actually be true. For example, we always were kidding around with Carly about her “Winterfresh addiction,” because she chews it all the time. But now, after a trip to the dentist’s office, it apparently has had adverse effects on her: she has TMJ from chewing Winterfresh. So she was told by her dentist to stop chewing it. And in attempting to do this, she discovered that she is, in fact, addicted to it. It’s a tragic turn of events, and we all wish Carly well in her endeavor. I saw her last night, and she said that she’s down to a piece a day or so, which is considerable improvement (she had a pack-a-day habit before).

Anyway, the Bowl Happening was the winners of the RCMA Young Artist competition. They were all very good; my favorite was the flautist, while pretty much everyone else liked the violinist, who was amazing because he’s only like 10. But I still liked the flautist.

But the best part (and the part where the audience was lame) was in-between the musicians. Tim was the head stage-crew person, and Drew was his assistant. So every time they came out to change something, the six of us burst into wild cheering and applause, resulting in the first time I’ve ever successfully cracked the stage crew of a show. But the rest of the audience never joined in with us, which was lame.

Event #6: Josh continues to be lame. That Saturday, David and I volunteered at Tom Sawyer, and saw it again. (We also met Megan’s friend Sheena, who was also volunteering, and aside from having a freakin’ awesome name, she seemed really cool.) It was just as good as the first time, although they changed something that I didn’t really like (the scene in the beginning that happens twice, they changed it so that the second time is different, which bugged me). But we were in the front row this time, so we were much closer to the action.

Josh was lame because he still didn’t do a Southern accent (even though he was probably told not to), because he’d been bragging before about how well he could do a Southern accent. He was also lame because he didn’t burst out laughing in the middle of his scene, despite David sitting in the front row (and, I assume, trying to crack him).

Event #7: Sarah still isn’t lame. The next day, Sarah came to our church again. She’d come the last two weeks because the person she usually baby-sits at Trinity was in Chicago, so now, alas, she can’t come again for a while. But ah well. Anyway, she came again, and seemed to enjoy it again. AJ was also there this time, although he didn’t lead worship.

After church, Sarah and I again went to Seth’s and hung out, this time with Indy as well. There was company, celebrating Mr. Martin’s birthday, and also those of his mother and brother. This was also fun, because we got to hang out for pretty much the whole day. Fun times.

Event #8: My dad isn’t lame, either. Sunday just happened to also be my father’s birthday. More fun times there . . . after I came back from Seth’s, we ate cheesecake and Dad opened his presents. Mostly uninteresting stuff (to me, anyway). But yes. My present to him was actually still in the mail, so he didn’t get it until Thursday or so . . . but he seemed to like it when he did get it, so it was all good.

Event #9: My hair is lame. Okay, so Mom decided that I needed to get my hair cut. However, we were forbidden by Wayne and Sally of the Redlands Bowl to get our hair cut during the show, which means that I was breaking the rules. So I didn’t get the back cut, because that’s a lot more noticeable. But what happened was, they just cut the front, and they cut it shorter than I wanted it (although at the length Mom wanted it). I don’t really like it as it is, unfortunately, although I liked it before it got cut . . .

Event #10: Event titles with the word “lame” in them are lame. Because I can’t think of one for this last event. Last night, I went to see Tom Sawyer yet again with Rachel. She was late, so I spent a while talking to Aaron and Andrea before she got there. Eventually she DID show up, sunburned to a crisp and in serious pain. As a result of this, she winced when people hugged her, which was really sad.

Anyway, the show was great again, no surprise there. Rachel and I broke the rules and went backstage at intermission (because quite frankly, no one cares, except maybe Steve). Preston informed me that he was quitting life, Evan informed that I was a pokeable person (he actually knew my name, which surprised me, since I don’t think I’ve ever actually officially met him). In response to Event #9, Megan came up to me and, without even saying hi, asked me, “Why do you have a mullet?” *siiiiiiigh* The really sad part is, I can’t even deny it anymore . . . before, I didn’t really have one (despite what David will tell you), because it was long in the front, too, but not anymore. Alas.

And there you have it. My life for the past month. Let’s end with the following quote from Carly: “I LOVE the pie-eating contest!!!!”

Comments:

AJ: I WAS smiling . . . just not very much. And there is no such thing as a flattering picture of me. It just doesn’t work. And yeah . . . I completely forgot to mention Red. Alas. And I didn’t think I had to put a link in, since there’s a link to your blog on the side of the page anyway.

Rae: A comedy sports battle? What’s that? . . . And as I recall, you lost in the only game you played that night, so I wouldn’t be a’braggin’ about your R-P-S-I skills until you can prove them. >:-D

David: I’ve already responded to ALL of this comment in person, but for the value of other illiterate folks who may not know . . . “Momma in her kerchief and I in my cap” is a line from “The Night Before Christmas.” And forgive my lack of knowledge of the Eastern part of the world . . . but pretty much every oriental movie I’ve heard of has Chinese actors in it, whether it’s supposedly Chinese or Japanese.

My blog, my blog, I have not forsaken thee!

2006-07-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm not even gonna try . . .

2006-06-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

. . . Because there’s so much happening in this update, that even if I pack every word with meaning no one knew was possible for one word to have, it’ll still run super-long. So Momma in her kerchief and you in your . . . uh . . . head had better settle down for a long summer’s read.

Before we get into the main events of this post, there was an event between my last actual update and the Torrey Banquet. That Monday, which happened to be Memorial Day, Mom graciously gave me a day off from school. I was, therefore, just hanging around wasting time as I always do when I don’t have school.

And what should cut into my wasting of time but a phone call. The Megaman theme played loudly, and I pulled my phone off of my belt and looked to see who was calling me. The number was one I didn’t recognize (I should have, but my phone was being stupid and didn’t list a name with it, so I didn’t). I debated for a moment whether I should pick it up or not. In the end, I decided that the number did look familiar, although I wasn’t sure what it was, so I answered the phone. “Hello?” I said. The response was quite sudden and made me jump: “MARK HARBISON!! “ Let me tell you . . . if Megan ever dials a wrong number, someone is in for a terrible shock.

Anyway, she invited me to join her and Hanni, Carly, and Caroline that afternoon to play a game. She told me that Carly was inviting David, so I wouldn’t be “alone in my guy-ness.” I accepted the invitation. Moments later, Megan called me again to tell me that David wasn’t going to be coming, so I would be alone in my guy-ness after all. I sighed, but went anyway.

The game turned out to be a game that didn’t have a name. Someone (I think it was Megan, but I can’t remember) dubbed it “Repeat” in a great burst of creativity. The easiest way to describe it is that it’s basically several people acting out the premise of the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day. We just repeat the same thing over and over and over again. There really isn’t any point to it, but it’s fun to see people’s faces when they see you having the exact same conversation you had five minutes ago. Or, in Caroline’s case, to get weird looks because you’re acting like a total madman.

So we did it twice, for about 45 minutes to an hour each time. Once at GFE, once at Starbucks. So really, it didn’t cut into my wasting time at all, it just put it in a different location and had other people doing it with me. But it was lots of fun.

The next significant event was on Tuesday. Mom and I left the house, Mom proclaiming to Uncle Ted (who was in town, if you’ll recall from the last update) that we weren’t coming back until I owned a suit.

Our first stop was Men’s Warehouse in San Bernardino. We went in and walked over to the coats. We were then approached by a man with a tape measure around his neck who offered to help us. Fifteen minutes later, I had a suit. It was truly amazing. Three hours the Thursday before, fifteen minutes on Tuesday. We were very happy, though. Keep reading and you just might see more about that suit . . . (That’s called foreshadowing, kids!)

On Wednesday I hung out with David and Sarah for a while at Yogurt Paradise, just talking and eating (and talking to AJ briefly when he called). Really nothing to tell there . . .

Friday was the big day. Packing, then going up to Fullerton. We dropped Jersey off at Coventry Pet Resort (that’s right, it’s not a kennel, it’s a pet resort), then went up to Fullerton. We went to the Train Station and dropped my stuff, then went out to lunch at Chipotlé. We then headed over to Rosepointe Apartments, where Mom co-signed for AJ’s new apartment while I read the sports section of the newspaper in the lobby. It turns out that one of Cal State Fullerton’s baseball players (CSUF has an awesome baseball team) had gotten hit in the face with a 87 MPH pitch a while ago, and that since he had come back from that, he’d been awesome. His name was Justin Turner, and his nickname was Red. Keep reading and you just might see more about that guy . . .

After that we went back to the Train Station and hung out for a while with AJ and Stephen. We read a couple of AJ’s essays (on things that AJ and I had discussed earlier in our lives), then sat there and talked for a while. Andrew showed up somewhere in there, I think . . . anyway, as we were preparing to get dressed and leave for the Banquet, Stephen told AJ that he thought he’d discovered a way to get his NES working again (it had apparently stopped working at some point). As I walked out the door, it was strewn all over their table.

But I didn’t just walk out the door in any old clothes. No, I walked out of that door on the way to the Torrey Academy End-of-year Banquet! I had to be properly attired. I, therefore, looked like this:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y270/darthharbison/MeinSuit.jpg

The Banquet was a lot of fun . . . a lot more fun than I had expected it to be. It’s kind of weird to know people exclusively by their voices, then to actually see them and hang out with them for a while. They’re cool people, though . . . I could show you pictures of them, too, but that would take up quite a bit of space, so if you want me to you can petition me and I’ll post them on Sunday. If not, don’t bother and I won’t.

Anyway, I didn’t win any of the awards (not surprisingly), nor did anyone else from my class. Two of the three winning essays came from people studying under Mr. A, though, which was cool. There were a bunch of speeches from different people . . . three of them were reflections on Torrey Academy and what it’s meant to them and all that stuff. One of them made me very happy.

“Two books in my first year had a major impact in my Christian walk,” he said. “Ironically, one of them was Descent Into Hell. […] Of course, disagreeing with Charles Williams is a mortal sin.”

They also had an award called the Aston Moffat Award for Excellent Scholarship, which was cool, especially because Mrs. Hartenburg said that “We were going to have a Wentworth award, too, but . . .”

So yes. Lots of fun Descent jokes. Yay. I also got a certificate saying that I completed the first year of Torrey Academy and got to stand up on the stage and be applauded. Then I got pictures with and of lots of cool folks, and then went back to the Train Station.

I expected to see the NES still strewn about the table, perhaps with Stephen leaning over it, perhaps with Stephen having given up and doing something else entirely. But for the first of many times, I realized that I don’t know Stephen all that well. I entered the room to see Stephen and AJ playing Double Dragon, a game that AJ and I used to play with Uncle Tom all the time when we were little, and a game that is played on none other than the NES.

Eventually, Mom and Dad left, and Shiloh came. I think he went to bed or something, because I don’t remember him being present for the rest of the night, but I know he was there when Mom and Dad left. After AJ and Stephen beat Double Dragon (keep in mind this is NES, so the games are only an hour or two long), AJ started playing a game called Blaster Master, and Stephen worked on hooking me up with a way to play NES games on my computer. This is the kind of thing that never works for me, no matter how hard I try to get it to, so I wasn’t too surprised when Stephen failed to get it working.

But once again, I discovered that I don’t know Stephen all that well. When my computer failed, he headed in to AJ’s room and got it on AJ’s computer. He then whipped out his thumb drive and transferred it onto mine. For the second time that night, I realized that Stephen is a fair deal more knowledgeable about these things than most people I know.

Anyway, I think Rae showed up shortly afterwards . . . but maybe that was later . . . I don’t remember. But she showed up at some point. Jessica also came home from work at some point and came in.

AJ and Stephen then decided that it was high time I started watching Star Trek. Rae wanted to see the pilot episode of TNG, so that’s what we did. It was . . . interesting. Quite amusing, too, and often unintentionally. AJ and Stephen both told me that it got better as it went on, and decided that I had to watch an episode from Season 3 before bed. It was indeed much better . . . AND there was swordfighting in it, which means that I got to see John (although I didn’t think of it at the time . . . I was too busy noticing how wonderfully the fight was choreographed). When that ended, we all went to bed.

On Saturday, after getting up, I just hung around for a while, then Rae made us all Dutch pancakes. You know all that stuff I was saying (or at least implying) about Stephen, and how great he is with technology? Yeah . . . switch the name to Rae and switch “technology” to “cooking,” and that will save me the trouble of having to do it myself. As we ate, she put Memoirs of a Geisha on, and we watched it. It was okay . . . I didn’t think it was anything special, really . . . and it had a happy ending, which is strange for a Japanese movie (although it was apparently written by an American guy, so . . .).

After that, I went grocery shopping with AJ and Stephen, which was actually fairly enjoyable. It’s always fun to see two people of somewhat respectable ages turn into a frozen foods aisle and run towards the burritos like a child running for the bus at the end of a school day. And then after that, running for the toquitos (sp?) with the same speed and enthusiasm.

We got back to the Train Station and unloaded everything, then hung around for a while (there was a lot of this during the week). Shiloh and I then accompanied AJ to Embassy Suites, where he played the piano as background music for the guests (and Shiloh and I, who just took advantage of the free food).

When we got back, we ate dinner while AJ played Duck Hunt. His intent was to beat the previous community high score, set by Shiloh. In the end, he beat it by about 80,000 points. Then we watched a Star Trek movie, Star Trek Generations, which was a lot more enjoyable than Memoirs. Slightly different genre, but hey . . . anyway, it was cool. There was a flat-out fist fight at the end involving Captain Picard, and it was fairly obvious that it was John and not Patrick Stewart for a lot of it, which made me happy.

On Sunday, AJ and I went to AJ’s church. The pastor was in Oregon, so they had another guy speaking. He was only okay . . . I didn’t like him that much. AJ and I got home from church before everyone else. Rae was having a pool party that afternoon, but since no one was back yet, we just changed and decided to play Double Dragon until the time had come.

We conquered. Then we ate. Then we hung around with everyone. Then everyone went away, and I went swimming while AJ played his guitar out by the pool. I discovered he knows a lot fewer U2 songs than I expected he would. After we came back from that, AJ showed me an episode of a TV show called The Office (he had it on his computer). He then showed me a scene from Moulin Rouge which contained a song we’d been talking about earlier and that he’d downloaded.

Then he wanted to download another song, and enlisted my “help” in choosing which version of it to get. Eventually he freed me from this torture and I ate dinner.

Jessica and Rae came down and decided we should watch Unbreakable, which we did. For any of you who might not know, it’s an M. Night Shyamalan movie with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. For any of you who might not have seen it, do so at the first possible opportunity.

It made a serious bid for the best movie I’ve ever seen. You can read all about it on AJ’s blog, but I’ll give a quick summary of my reaction to it here. The story was great. The acting was fabulous. The cinematography was simply amazing. And Shyamalan paid so much attention to detail that everything fit together so perfectly that it was almost scary.

And of course, best of all, Samuel L. Jackson had hair. Not just any hair, either. Funky, dead-animal hair. And one of the coolest canes I’ve ever seen.

So yes . . . if you haven’t seen it, see it. Now. If it doesn’t seem like the kind of movie you’d like, see it anyway. If you absolutely despise both Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, get mental help then see it.

Monday was a pretty uneventful day. The first thing that happened was my accompanying AJ to Embassy Suites. I listened to AJ playing, and ate the free food, and other such things for most of the time, then about half an hour before it ended Jessica showed up and sat with me. She drew pictures of me, and wasn’t happy with the way they turned out . . . which just enforced my realization that I can’t draw to save my life.

Mary, the person AJ kind of works for at Embassy Suites, had discovered that I was AJ’s brother when I went there before. So when Jessica sat down next to me, Mary passed by and said, “Are you the sister?” To which Jessica promptly replied, “Yup.” And so it was decided that Jessica is my older sister.

When we came back, the girls’ mentor, Doreen, was visiting, so I went up with AJ and Jessica to meet her and hang out for a while . . . both of which I did. She was cool. After that, we came downstairs and watched Conan, and activity which became something of a ritual while I was there (in that we did it every night).

I learned a life lesson on Tuesday: watching an android and a borg queen make out is NOT pleasant. We watched another Star Trek movie (obviously), which was also good . . . I actually liked the first one better, although this one was a better movie. And that makes no sense at all. But the first one was more enjoyable to watch.

On Wednesday, I had rehearsal, so AJ drove us back to Redlands. We listened to Billy Joel on the way (and on the way back), and I discovered him anew. Quite an amazing guy . . . not U2, but still amazing.

Rehearsal was quite fine . . . a choreography review. After it was over we went back to Fullerton and hung out with Jessica upstairs for a while. We watched a number of short little thingys on her computer . . . first we were watching Macintosh ads, which drove Stephen absolutely nuts. Then we watched various funny things . . . we watched an SNL skit, which was hilarious (it was a rap song about the Narnia movie), we watched Take 5 commercials, which are always hilarious, and we watched the Talking Photo Booth, which was also hilarious.

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day, but an eventful evening. Went to Embassy Suites with AJ again, then came home and saw Stephen and Andrew playing Star Wars Battlefront II. Naturally, I was intrigued, and stopped to watch them. *whiny voice* I want Battlefront II . . . *sniff* Stupid Lucasarts . . . not making it for Gamecube . . .

Anyway, it was Shiloh’s last night at the Train Station, so he was given a send-off. We went to Golden Spoon and got some great frozen yogurt, then walked around aimlessly for a while. I did a little movie thing on my video camera with everyone except Andrew, who thought it was dumb and walked away. Eventually we decided we needed to do something, so we decided to play Rock-Paper-Scissors Infinity, which is a variant of Rock-Paper-Scissors which is a lot funnier, a lot more creative, a lot more fun, and a lot more logically slanted all at once. Rae videotaped it, so next time you’re around me and I happen to have a fully charged video camera on me with that tape in it, I can show you how it goes.

Friday was the beginning of the end of the Train Station. AJ, Stephen, and Andrew spent most of the day packing, and I’m not entirely sure what Doug was doing. Rae played me an awesome song that was a collection of John Williams themes with Star Wars lyrics . . . it rocked greatly. The rest of the day is kind of a blur until 5:30.

At 5:30, I was standing in the main room of the Train Station Underground (aka the guys’ apartment), wondering what to do. Just as the thought, “What should I do?” crossed my mind, Stephen walked by. He stopped as he passed me, turned towards me, and said, “Hey, I should force you to play Psychonauts.” So I played Psychonauts for a little while . . . you know, the next five hours or so . . . fun game, that. Although at one point you’re basically in a 70’s club and you stay there for AGES and it’s terrible. But you get a handy power for the torture, so it’s okay.

While I was playing, Doug randomly sat down next to me and started a serious discussion about change. I’ll talk more about that later, but wanted to mention it now so that it doesn’t seem out of place later.

Anyway, Rae offered to cook AJ, Stephen, and me dinner, which of course we all agreed to. I’m not sure how to spell what she cooked (even though it’s French . . .), but, like all of Rae’s cooking, it was awesome. We watched Roxanne while we ate, which wasn’t that good . . . it’s a Steve Martin romantic comedy, but it wasn’t all that funny. If you ever have the choice to watch either Roxanne or Unbreakable, don’t hesitate for an instant, choose Unbreakable.

Saturday was a very, very busy day. It was draining both physically and emotionally. I’ll get to the emotional stuff later, at the same time I get to Doug’s conversation, but we’ll do the physical stuff now.

Quote of the day for Saturday: “It’s beautiful.” This, of course, is not funny at all, as most QotDs are, but it was said so often that it simply has to be. This was in reference to AJ’s packing up of his car.

AJ moved on Saturday, with my help. I helped him disassemble his bed, then borrow a truck, then load up that very truck with all the big furniture. After we had put everything in it, we came to a horrible realization: some of the stuff was too long, and we couldn’t close the back!! We also only had one half-decently sized bungee cord, which didn’t provide much security for keeping stuff from falling out.

We were perplexed, wondering what to do. Jokingly, I said, “Well, I could ride in the back and make sure nothing falls out.” AJ’s response: “I like the way you think.” My next thought: “Oh, crap.”

So I rode all the way across Fullerton in the back of a truck. The other people on the road weren’t too happy, because we were driving 35 or slower the whole way. Let me tell you people, 35 might seem slow if you’re riding in the car, but when you’re stranded in the back of a truck it’s awfully fast. But once I got past the gripping terror and the prospect of a gruesome death, it was kind of fun.

We spent the rest of the afternoon moving most of the rest of AJ’s stuff. That night we went to a baseball game with Jessica, Rae, Andrew, Tim, and Jessica’s father and stepmother. This baseball game was the Cal State Fullerton Titans vs. the Missouri Tigers. The winner of this game went to the College World Series. The loser went home.

Final score: 9-1. Titans. We all had a blast, even AJ. I was sitting with Rae, AJ, and Tim, and that always leads to interesting conversations. You’ll see some excerpts from them later.

After the game we went back to the Train Station and loaded up the rest of AJ’s stuff into his car. We then said farewell to everyone who was around (which was Stephen, Rae, and Jessica). Then we departed to AJ’s new apartment and went to bed.

We went to church the next morning, then assembled AJ’s bed in the afternoon. We met Mom at Coco’s at six or so, and she took me home from there, ending a thoroughly enjoyable week.

So now I’m going to get more serious than I usually dare to get here. It was really interesting staying there the last week . . . seeing the way everyone reacted to the end of the Train Station. Particularly seeing Jessica’s face when she was saying goodbye to AJ. And having Doug randomly decide to tell me about how hard change is, and how it can seem really terrible when it’s happening. And even seeing how much guys really do try to cover being sorrowful about something. I doubt it was even a conscious thing, but I noticed that all four of the guys were trying to act all happy and normal the last few days, but were obviously very upset about it. Specifically (and I apologize, AJ) AJ, because I know him better than any of the other people there, and I can read him fairly well, I think. He was just as happy and cheerful as ever, but deep down it was clearly very hard for him.

So yeah . . . I don’t really know what else to say, or even really why I said that. I just felt that I should. And to all of you Train Station-eers who read this, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your hospitality and allowing me to be present during this time. You’re all awesome people, and I sincerely hope that AJ and I both continue to communicate with you.

*Whew* Okay. Now, obviously, I can’t end on that sort of note. Therefore, may I present: THE QUOTE FILE!!

The whole time I was at the Train Station, I took note of the interesting and humorous quotes that were made. I saved them all, and present them now to you. Some of them require no context, and to those that do I shall do my best to provide it. But in any case, here they are:

(while watching Star Trek) “Awww, they’re holding . . . pseudopods.” — Stephen
(“To boldly go where no man has gone before” . . .) “Ahh! A split infinitive! NOO!!” — Stephen
“I’ve never seen a pear that wasn’t somewhat questionable.” — Stephen
“So the primary thing that made up for Captain Kirk being in this movie was that he died.” — Stephen
“Some people call us a race of listeners. We . . . listen.” — Dr. Soran from Star Trek
“Oh no, universe, where did you go? This could be awkward . . .” — Stephen
“McDonald’s does soda like M. Night Shyamalan does movies.” — AJ
“Beethoven! No, wait . . . Hannah!” — Doreen
“Gravity? Or the best candy bar EVER?” — Take 5 Commercial
(On evolutionists saying that fossils show body parts improving) “I mean, you see the same thing with cars.” — Stephen
(On the guy who crawled into a cage and got mauled by lions after claiming God would protect him) “Afterwards, God said ‘Sorry, but the lion had been praying for days that an idiot would crawl into his cage.’” — Conan
(Describing the Terminator plot) “Judgment day. It happened in 1999, if you’ll remember.” — Stephen
“Two Morons? Or the best candy bar EVER?” — Take 5 Commercial
“Please throw your daughter in the air to activate camera.” — Talking Photo Booth
“I’m sure we can prove logically that mosquitoes don’t exist.” — Lucas
“Whichever ad agency is responsible for that needs to be firebombed. Now.” — Stephen
(While trying to think of something to do) “Let’s mug someone!” — Stephen
“Change is hard. Stay doing what you’re doing now for the rest of your life.” — Doug
(On Tori, a stuffed elephant) “It doesn’t have a sex! I didn’t give it a sex!” — Rae
“Theological smackdown!!!” — AJ
(Describing Mike) “This is the guy who created awkwardness.” — AJ
(After my saying “Do feel that you’re closer to everyone?”) “Do you feel that having my feet near your face will be a problem?” — AJ
(On people who are into College Baseball)“Why do you care? STOP CARING NOW!!!” — AJ

Comments:

Rae: Yeah, Hugh Jackman has already signed a contract for a Wolverine spin-off. And imagining you as Dark Phoenix . . . *shudder*

AJ: Yeah . . . well, as you can tell by this post, shortness isn’t a big deal at the moment. Have you seen the movie yet?

David: Argh!! I knew I missed something . . . the Snakes on a Plane preview was that something.

Stephen and David: Alright! Alright! So maybe it was useful! So complain to Mr. Burton, not me! I’m not doing any math that I don’t have to!!

This post brought to you by Wonderful Greece!!

(Final Count: LONGEST POST EVER! Pages: 9 Words: 4517)

Despite what it may seem, this is not an update

2006-06-05T13:43:00.001-07:00

This is basically just a post to say: "No update this week." There are two main reasons I'm not updating this week:
1) I want to tackle my visit to the Train Station in one go, and it's not over yet.
2) About 90% of my readers could probably hear me typing this if they listened for it.

So yes. Next week expect a nice, long post about such amazing topics as the Torrey Academy End-of-Year Banquet, my first prolonged experience with Star Trek, my first experience with M. Night Shyamalan, a close encounter with the Wrath of the Frog of Judgement, and a rediscovery of a happy childhood activity involving causing others pain.

All this and more — NEXT (week). It might not be until Monday, depending on what happens on Sunday.

Until then, go about your lives.

Under the Mercy.

Despite what it may seem, this is not an update

2006-06-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

An X-Tremely Stupid Title

2006-05-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

Well will you look at that! Here it is Sunday and I’M UPDATING!!! Rejoice. Throw a party. Invite me.

In any case, it really hasn’t been that long since I updated (since my last update was on Tuesday night), so you’ll probably get an update that isn’t a tome for once (special thanks to David for originally calling my posts “tomes”). Enjoy it. Revel in it. Because if it’s not that long, you don’t have any excuse for not reading it. Gwa-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Anyway, I guess I should get started. Wednesday is the first day that has yet to be chronicled here. Not a whole lot happened, really . . . at least not that I can remember. There was a rehearsal, I know, at night, but I think that was it. Altogether a good day, as memory serves.

For the rehearsal, we choreographed (well, Dustin choreographed, we learned) The Mob Song, which will be really cool. And it’s actually not terribly hard . . . except for one part that’s quite fast. But it’s cool.

The most interesting thing at rehearsal was during the break, when I went over and sat up against the wall (or a table laid against the wall, actually). Sarah came over and plopped down next to me to write down the choreography (I was too lazy to do so). Lucas decided to join us, so he made a big show of running up and stopping right before hitting me.

In the end, he actually came really close to hitting me because he tried to stop too quickly, and almost plunged head-first into me. Thankfully, however, he caught himself. Anyway, he sat down next to me and we started talking. He began to sing the song, but he changed the words to: “Grab your swords, grab your knives, we’ll kill Dustin and . . . his . . . wives?”

This, of course, got us onto the topic of King Solomon. Go to my Xanga if you want to hear his musings.

The next day was Thursday. Oh, accursed Thursday. This was not such a good day. School and class happened, and then Mom decided that we should go shopping for a sportcoat (for the end of year banquet at Biola on Friday). Yippee.

But it gets better. We went to Gottschalk’s at got me shoes and socks (the shoes are niiiiice), and then charged on over to the coats, tasting the sweet flavor of victory. But it was not to be. We discovered fairly quickly that my coat size is 40 Long, and we looked at every single coat they had (even the hideous, greenish-brown ones), and there was not one 40 Long. We asked Mr. Help Person, and he said, “We don’t have any 40 Longs.”

So we heaved a bitter sigh and left. Our next stop was Mervyn’s. We searched high, we searched low, we searched side to side, but we could not for the life of us find any coats. So we asked Mrs. Help Person, and she said, “We don’t carry coats or suits.” We heaved a bitterer sigh and left.

Next stop: The Inland Center Mall. Specifically Macy’s. We went in, we looked around, we found the coats. We searched and searched, and all hope had begun to fade — then we saw it. A tag on a coat that said “40L.” The coat was navy blue and quite nice. Our hearts pounding, we hurried over, took it off the rack, and I tried it on. It fit.

We began to rejoice. Our efforts had not been in vain. Then the fateful moment came . . . the moment when mom looked at the price tag. “$495,” it said. The death knell of our dreams sounded. There was no way mom was going to pay 500 bucks for a coat I’ll probably wear a grand total of once and then outgrow it.

We heaved the bitterest sigh yet and went to Sears. Nada. In her despair, mom said, “Let’s go get a drink.” So we went to the food court and did just that. Then Mom’s cell phone rang. It was Bev . . . Uncle Ted had arrived from Indiana, and they were at Starbucks. Mom decided that her and I should leave the mall and go home, so we began to walk back to Macy’s (where we were parked) while she talked on the phone. Eventually, as we stood at the place in Macy’s where the path branches off into like six different ones, Mom hung up.

Then began the great door fiasco. “Which way did we come in?” Mom said. “This way, I think,” came my reply. “No, it wasn’t that way,” she said. “I think it was over here.” “But I don’t remember coming in at the corner of the building,” said I. “Well maybe it was this one,” said she.

So we went out that door, and quickly concluded that no, this was not the door we’d come in by. We went back into Macy’s, and looked around, and then Mom proclaimed, “I remember! It was this way!” We went out that door, and sure enough, there was our car.

I looked back at the door and realized something. “That was the door I originally said we came in,” I said. We heaved yet another bitter sigh and went back to Redlands.

We went to Starbucks and met up with Uncle Ted and Bev and hung out with them for a while. Uncle Ted told us horror stories about his secretary (Carl Jung apparently underwent a sex change at some point in his life and changed his name to Carol Fung).

Then we went home and Mom took my measurements and decided she’d order a coat from Land’s End online. Finally, it seemed, the answer had come to us.

But things are not always what they seem. Land’s End, it turns out, does not have Long sizes. We heaved ANOTHER bitter sigh and gave up for the day.

After that things started to look up, and when Dad came home from work we went to Red Robin and met up with Ted and Bev for dinner. It’s gonna be fun having a Red Robin just down the street. If any of you have never been to Red Robin, you’re terribly deprived and must go (we had one in Colorado, and we used to eat there all the time).

Anyway, after that we came home and basically did nothing and went to bed. Friday dawned, a bright new day with bright new promise.

And a movie coming out. This movie was entitled X-Men: The Last Stand, and it starred such people as Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellan and John Nowa— er, Patrick Stewart. But you all knew that.

Sarah had invited me to join her, David, Dr. Mr., and Seth to go see it, so I did. After dance, David took us to Seth’s, where we acquired him, then to their house, where Dr. Mr. took over control of the operation.

Seth gave Sarah a downloaded copy of FMA 8, and throughout the car drive she made many whimpers and groans while reading it. It was quite frightening.

Eventually we got to the Krik, and they told us we couldn’t go in yet (the show was at 1:00), but that there was no one ahead of us in line. As it was 12:08 by my watch, I couldn’t believe either of those things.

But they were both true. So we stood in line for a while, having pointless discussions and listening to various excerpts from The Lexicon of Stupidity. We noticed a guy carrying The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a VERY nice edition. “It looks like a Bible,” Sarah said. “Well, to some people,” I replied. “To totally crazy people . . . unlike me . . . because I don’t have a towel in my backpack, noo . . .”

Then they let us in, and discussion turned to where we should sit. In the end we let Dr. Mr. decide, and he picked seats right around the center of the theater. Several interesting discussions were brought on by the various advertisements on the screen.

Then finally the trailers started. Nothing that really caught my eye except Ghost Rider, and that not because I necessarily want to see it. That one just caught my eye because Nicholas Cage is the title character, and he REALLY doesn’t strike me as a zombie-type.

Then the movie itself finally started. On the whole I liked it a lot, and I’d give it a fairly large thumbs up. The acting was pretty much all very good (Ian McKellan rocks my world), the special effects were quite good, etc. etc.

My biggest problem was actually the new main-ish character, Beast. I didn’t like him at all, and when he fought I thought, “If there was a battle on Sesame Street, this is what it would look like.” My other big problem was the new character Angel, who was utterly pointless. They had a whole subplot with him, but they condensed it to about ten minutes, and his interaction with the overall plot was very nearly zero and he could’ve been replaced easily by already existent characters or even non-characters. Sarah tells me his point was as a symbol, but whatever.

But the movie really was very good, and a lot of fun to see. I recommend it. But don’t believe the title. I don’t believe for a second that this is truly the last stand, and the ending supports my view. (Oh, another thing . . . if you go see it, STAY UNTIL THE CREDITS ARE OVER. THE MOVIE ISN’T OVER YET.)

So yeah, that was basically that. Then I came home and schooled for a while, then went to fencing, then came home and ate pizza and watched Moonlighting.

On Saturday, I managed to waste pretty much the entire day, although I did go to a Bible study at Lifehouse at noon, which was cool.

Then today we had church as usual, and then Rachel invited me to go see Heidi with her. I had no particular desire to see the show again, but I figured what the heck, it’ll be fun anyway to go with Rachel. So I did, and so it was.

The cast party was also today, and Rachel told me that I should go, but I declined. So I hung around for a while with Rachel and other peoples, and then Uncle Ted took me home, and I updated my blog.

And that, as the bard really wouldn’t tell us, is the rub.

Comments;

AJ: 1: I’m doing Scrooge, and yes, I’m happy about the other two (although I won’t be doing them). Ruth . . . well, they have to have a Biblical musical every season . . . and actually they have two, so who knows . . .
2: Well, for one thing, 0 is a value that something can be more than. 4 is more than 0. So if I had a female-ness of 0, and a girl had a female-ness of 4, that girl would be more female than me. So your comment isn’t mathematically correct in its implications. But yes, I am somewhat female . . . haven’t you heard?
3: I didn’t mean ALWAYS. Just USUALLY. And I was hoping for some unusuality with War of the Worlds.

Stephen: “Stem and leaf plots • Measures of central tendency • The normal curve • Standard deviation.” That’s what the chapter’s thrilling title is.

Rae: Welcome back! And the difference between this and homework (hopefully besides the entertainment factor) is that nobody is making you read this . . . and as we all know, it’s only work if someone makes you do it. And I don’t expect to be John Smith, no . . . I’d imagine someone a bit more John Smith-y in appearance and age will get that part . . .

(I guess this was pretty long after all, huh?)

I know what you're thinking

2006-05-23T22:17:00.000-07:00

You’re thinking “Ha-ha, Mark and his broken promises . . . ‘I’ll update every Sunday’ . . . Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.”

Well I’ll have you know that I fully intended to update on Sunday. But I was busy, and didn’t have a chance. So I’m making up for it by updating today instead.

And so we come to the age-old question: what happened this week?

Well, Monday was, all-around, a pretty normal day. I can’t even remember what was due in school on Tuesday, so I’m not entirely sure what I did for school that day. I could, of course, go check, but that would require my getting up, and that’s boring. And requires physical effort. Which I don’t like.

But we DID have rehearsal. I remember because I remember standing outside waiting for rides with Sarah afterwards and saying to her, “I don’t want tomorrow to be Tuesday.” And we choreographed what will undoubtedly be the coolest number in the show (okay, maybe not, but it’s the most fun one that I do so far): The Fight.

I’ve never been involved in a dance fight before . . . obviously, I’ve done stage combat before (even some to music . . . which you’ll hear ALL about), but never a fight that was actually a dance in disguise. It’s awesome. Dustin is a genius.

And one thing I never thought I’d hear from someone choreographing a fight: “We’re can-can dancers, people!!” But yes. Y’all must come see Beauty and the Beast at the Bowl this summer . . . it will rock. Because you’ll get to see me getting beaten up by a napkin.

After learning the fight, we reviewed Belle . . . which pretty much all of us pretty much completely forgot. Which kinda sucks. But we relearned it and I think it’ll be okay . . . Dustin never ceases to amaze me . . . even when he’s extremely frustrated, he’s still a lot more amiable than some people I know are when they’re perfectly happy (NOTE: this is not referring to anyone who reads this [as far as I know]).

Then came Tuesday, which I did not want to come. Why didn’t I want it to come? Because I hate Tuesdays. Why do I hate Tuesdays? Because they suck. Why do they suck? Because they have both Torrey class AND Algebra class. Torrey class really isn’t bad at all . . . but the assignments usually due on Tuesdays are. As the TA blogring on Xanga says: “Our nightmares are filled with précis.”

But it really wasn’t THAT bad . . . because at Algebra, Mr. Burton actually admitted that one of the chapters in the math book was completely useless! This is a big deal, because he’s a math teacher, and a strong advocate of algebra’s practicality. Not only that, but he also revealed that we only had one more class before it’s over (not that this was a big secret . . . Jenna’s been counting down how many we have left for months now).

And then I’m thinkin’ we had rehearsal, but I can’t think of what we did . . . unless I somehow got my weeks mixed up and that rehearsal that I thought was on Monday was actually on Tuesday, and the time that I told Sarah I didn’t want the next day to be Tuesday was some other week. I think that’s the case.

So yes. Just transplant everything that I said about rehearsal to here.

Ahhhh!!!! I remember! It WASN’T rehearsal on Monday! It was fencing! HA!

Okay. So the Broadway Expressions Dance Recital was on Satuday, right? Right. And Josh wanted us to do a fight for it, right? Right. So we had extra fencings to make sure we were ready. One of these was on Monday.

Right. Okay. And also something else out of the ordinary happened on Monday, and for some reason I was under the impression it had happened on Thursday. But now the mist is clearing, and I can see again.

So yes. On Monday my aunt arrived from Indiana. My aunt’s name is Bev, and I can never bring myself to call her “Aunt Bev.” I have no idea why this is. It’s not because I don’t like her or anything . . . on the contrary, I like her very much. It’s just that somehow the term “Aunt Bev” doesn’t seem to fit her. So she shall be called Bev from here on out.

So I got home from fencing on Monday night and she was here, and I was talking with her and Mom for a while. She had noticed earlier that my room was clean, and was inquiring as to how this had come to be. Her first thought upon seeing my clean room: “Did he get a girlfriend or something?”

Now, jumping back to where we were: it is Wednesday. Wednesday was a big day. Because it was on this day that Josh, David and I were to show Brenda our fight routine and see if she thought it was okay for the dance recital. So we went to Broadway Expressions and practiced it for a little while (David liked landing the floor . . . it was a very nice floor). Gabe (er, pardon me, Chipper the Moose) also showed us his mad falling skillz. And called me David about ten times.

So then we showed it to Brenda, and she said “You’re gonna scare all the little kids . . . good job, boys.” So we got to do it for the recital. Yay.

And actually, I think the recital is the next significant thing that happened . . . yeah, it was. So we’ll skip ahead to Saturday.

I got up far too early for a Saturday, and went over to REV. Distressingly, I got there before David, which meant that I was pretty much the only person there who had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Thankfully Emilie got there the same time I did, so I was able to follow her to know where I was going, but then I was completely lost for a few minutes until Josh came out from the depths of backstage.

He then proceeded to show me around, then told me to drop off my stuff in the dressing room and warm up with him. These things I did. Then finally, right as Brenda started talking (giving the standard director’s pre-last-rehearsal spiel), David walked in. Josh showed him around (with me in tow), then we all went out and sat down behind everyone else and listened to Brenda explain the rules (including “[the swords and knives] belong to Josh Milligan, and if you touch them I will give him permission to beat you up”).

Then they started re-spacing the dance numbers (since the REV stage is gargantuan), and David, Josh, and I stretched and all that fun crap. In the aisle. With people stepping over us constantly. It was quite annoying . . . so then we moved, and people changed their courses to step over us.

Then the rehearsal finally started. I watched a fair amount of stuff from the wings, and was wandering around and such when Josh summoned me to help warm David up by flipping him a few times. Then it was our turn to rehearse the fight.

My GOSH, it sucked. The tone was set by the sound guy forgetting to turn the music on, and so we walked out and were standing there looking menacing for about three minutes only to hear an “Oh, sorry, my bad.” So then we went back and started again. This time the beginning went pretty well . . . but when I disarmed David of his knife, it flew straight under the curtain and was lost forever. The flip was horrendous. Then I died, and Josh and David had to skip the entire beginning of their fight because the knife was gone. And part of their fight wasn’t so great, either.

So then we went backstage and collapsed in the dressing room, telling one another how terrible we’d done. Josh went out for a little while, then came back and told us we’d made a little girl cry. David and I high-fived each other.

For most of the rest of the rehearsal, I stood in the hallway talking to Katrina and Josh. Then came the Great Bowing Fiasco . . . initially, none of us had considered the idea of David and I bowing. Then, as the music of the final number began to fade into oblivion, Josh turned to us and said “hey, you want to bow?” I didn’t, but David decided we might as well. So we went out and totally messed up the entire group’s bow because neither one of us knew what was happening.

So we did it again, and it went a little bit better. Except that as we were walking backwards after bowing (where the curtain would be closing in the actual show), Megan told me to dance, and grabbed my arm to make me do so. In grabbing my arm, she accidentally pushed me into someone else . . . someone else who happened to be the one person in the entire group that I didn’t know. Sigh.

Then there was a fair deal of waiting, and a little bit of warming up the wrists with the rapiers, and a bit of complaining that the sun was too bright, and a LOT of watching two younger folks battling each other to the death. It was amusing for about five minutes, then it got mildly annoying, then it got fairly annoying, then it got quite annoying, then it got REALLY annoying and I left the room.

Then the show began to happen. I watched most of the first act from the wings, up until the song right before the fight, at which time I went to find Josh and David and get into position.

To be honest, I was quite nervous . . . probably the most nervous I’ve been performing something on stage in a long, long time. Just because it was the first fight I’d ever performed, I suppose . . . but in any case, the fight went MUCH better this time. The knife still went beneath the curtain (all the powers of fate be cursed), but we had Katrina at the ready to kick it back onstage.

The only real problem came after the fight was over. Before Josh was killed, he took note of where the swords were so we could take them off in the blackout. But when the lights went away and he leaned over to pick them up, horror of horrors . . . they weren’t there.

Then the lights started coming up again, so he just booked it offstage. The next song, of course, had to be a soulful ballet solo. My parents got great amusement out of seeing two swords slowly disappear behind a curtain during this song. SIIIIIGH.

For the second act, David and I secretly went and joined the audience until near the end, when we came down to bow. The second act was quite good indeed . . . although the fight had apparently gone SO well that the dancers felt that they had to steal from it. Michael did two shoulder rolls, and Hanni did a little punch-kick combination. But everything was pretty good . . . except the music for Michael’s song. Because all I could think of through the whole thing was “all this music is is a cheap imitation of U2.” They used the same musical style, a lot of the same musical effects that U2 uses frequently, the same vocal technique . . . everything. Except that it was all quite inferior. But the dance was good.

One of the things even had some magic tricks in it. ‘Cause the younger Team Broadway was doing sections from Seussical, and Aaron played the Cat in the Hat, and he turned a silk into a cane. It made me happy.

Then we left to go back and bow, which actually didn’t go too horribly. After standing around for a bit, I went home and took a shower and changed into more comfortable clothes (“more comfortable” meaning “not long pants”).

I had discovered during the recital that the older BE crew (like Brenda and Jay and them) were performing You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown that night, so I decided to go to that since I had nothing better to do with my life.

I’m running out of time, so I won’t make a full review, but it rocked. Jay was awesome (I was trying to talk to him for like literally ten minutes after the show, but he was constantly swamped by other, more female adoring fans). He was Snoopy, by the way.

So then I went home and to sleep. The next day just happened to be Sunday, so we had church as usual, then Seth stayed for the afternoon and we hung out. Then we went to Lifehouse for the Season Celebration, in which the 13th season was announced and Wayne was put on trial by Lifehouse villains (no one really cared about what the season was).

It was very clever and very well done, and very funny. Although the end portrayed Wayne as the almighty ruler over Lifehouse, which (while I suppose is true) was kind of cheesy and annoying. But there were thunder and lightning effects and Dr. Mr. was actually the one who saved the day, so it was all good.

Then they talked about where Lifehouse might be going in the future, and different things they might like to try (Bethlehem Marketplace took a prominent role in this section). Then they awarded the first ever Lifehouse Scholarship to Josh Lomeli, and then they announced the season, which is to be the first season ever with nine shows.

They are:
Pinocchio
Love and Laughter
Scrooge!
Shadow Lands
The Wizard of Oz
The Story of Ruth
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Noah and the Ark

So that’s exciting. You can expect to hear about my horrendous auditions for several of those.

Then we came home and watched an episode of an old TV show called Moonlighting, starring Bruce Willis, which I had never seen before. If you’ve never seen it, and you happen to have the opportunity to watch it, don’t pass it up. It’s hilarious. It’s a detective show, but it’s a comedy, and it rocks.

Nothing really significant happened on Monday . . . well, technically it did, but not for me. The Alias series finale was on, but Mom and Dad were both working so we taped it and haven’t watched it yet. You can expect to hear me wailing about that in the next update, most likely.

Which brings us to today. Today was a day of great joy. Why? Because IT’S OVER!!! IT’S FINALLY OVER!!!!!!! Yes. We took our Algebra Final today. *does happy-happy dance*

Rejoice with me! Rejoice with me! For the tyranny is over! WE’RE FREE!!!! (“We’re ointment!”)

And on that happy note, we shall end. On to comments:

AJ: I think you took that comment a little bit too seriously. I wasn’t referring to Shakespearian tragedy . . . just to a general sense of sorrow underlying the otherwise happy ending. Because Hollywood likes to give us happy Disney-style endings, and that’s annoying to me. When you have a character die, why can’t you just leave him dead? That’s all I was saying . . . not that I wanted War of the Worlds to be like Hamlet.

Stephen: Which is precisely why I just used the Star Wars curse I felt like using. If there isn’t one that works, use whichever of the non-working ones is the most fun. Or something like that.

Three Birthdays and a Wedding

2006-05-14T20:53:00.000-07:00

Alright, well, as you can see, rumors of this blog’s death were greatly exaggerated. Well, okay, maybe not greatly, but it appears to live in some shape or form at the moment. And I want to start off by saying the following: I have resolved to update every Sunday from now on, either with an events post or a DT or whatever else I feel like talking about. ‘Cause I usually have a fair amount of time on Sunday afternoons, and if I’m in a show Sunday nights (if that changes, I’ll change the day, but I’ll still try to update once a week).

So. Happy Mother’s day to all you mothers out there. Hope it’s goin’ well for ya.

Now that we’ve gotten the formalities out of the way, let’s get started. First off, I want to express my pride at my successfully sitting through War of the Worlds without squealing, throwing up, screaming, or gripping the arm of the person sitting next to me. I thought it was pretty good . . . Dakota Fanning was really good, Tom Cruise was okay (although . . . I thought Bono couldn’t sing . . . wow) . . . I was pretty disappointed at the end, though. Why can’t Hollywood actually let main characters die?! I don’t care if he lived in the book or not (I don’t know . . . I’ve never read it), but let him die!! Give us tragedy!! Make us bawl in sorrow! Make us hate you forever! But let a freakin’ main character die every now and then!!

But I actually saw that on Friday, so I guess I should go back to events that happened shortly after my last post. Now that I’ve taken my shots at Megan, that is.

Okay. So the first big thing that happened since I last updated was AJ’s big show at McClain’s. Mom was working, but Dad and I went. ‘Twas very good . . . he had a brand-new song which is no longer brand-new, and it rocks. And then Concept6 played after him, and they of course are amazing, so that was good.

Sorry to breeze through that, AJ, but there’s not really a whole lot to tell about that . . . concerts are like that. You’ll just have to get over it.

Then the next day Hannah got married. Which, naturally, was a pretty big deal. The actual ceremony was really short . . . had some nice slide shows, though (one of Hannah, one of Grant, and one of both of them) . . . even a picture of AJ back when he had dorky short hair. Afterwards they released some doves (of which AJ got some GREAT pictures), and then had the reception. The reception was catered by Chipotlé, which AJ dubbed “the greatest idea ever.” Much of the remainder of the reception was spent wandering around aimlessly with AJ, Seth, Indy, and the Von Helfs. David showed up at one point (decked out in his Hiding Place costume pants and makeup), and then we all left. So yes. Hannah is now married. Yay for Hannah.

Sometime after that, I received the letter in the mail I had been nervously waiting for. A letter from Mr. Wayne Scott. A letter that said “congratulations on being selected as part of the cast of Beauty and the Beast.” Sarah received the same letter. So yeah, we both got in . . . happy days. Rehearsals for that have been going well . . . Dustin is, as always, an awesome choreographer (although he caused me to have multiple bruises on my lower back . . . and I get to do that on cement for the show, what fun!), and Nolan and Jeff (his assistant, I suppose) are fabulous music directors. Especially Jeff. He’s amazing. To read fun quotes from rehearsals, go to my Xanga. And when July rolls around, come see it. It’s going to be überly awesome.

The next big thing was my mother’s birthday. It just happened to fall on the same day as the University Singers’ recital at CSUF . . . of which AJ is a part. So we all headed up to Fullerton for the afternoon. It was Saturday, April 22, 2006. There had been some wondering as to where we would go to dinner, but in the end AJ decided that we should go to California Pizza Kitchen, where Jessica works and could be our hostess.

We did so. But when our little buzzer thingy went off to inform us that our table was ready, Jessica was on the phone, and some stranger dude stole us from her! She was very upset. But she came to visit us at our table, so it was all good. She even recommended food to us. We ended up getting what she recommended, and it was REALLY good . . . I can’t remember what the pizza was, but Dad and I (and I think AJ, too, but I’m not sure) also got BBQ Chicken salads . . . they were amazing.

And after we were done, Jessica suddenly appeared with a free sundae for mom. In a cruel twist of ironic fate, she actually couldn’t eat it because of her diet, but it was a nice gesture. And it was nice for AJ, Dad and I, because we DID get to eat it. Yummy.

And then, of course, there was the recital . . . it was very good. They did some stuff from Carmina Burana, which AJ says is something everyone should listen to before they die, and it rocked. The entire second half (after intermission) was all one piece, which was a bit different . . . very long. But it was in English, so I could actually follow it (and they had the words in the program, too, which was nice).

Then we went home and to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream . . . I’m not sure when exactly that happened, but I also saw Hamlet with Mel Gibson . . . that was really good. I might even have mentioned it in my last post, I don’t know. I’m too lazy and my internet is too slow to go check. But yes.

So after that it was MY birthday (a week after that, that is). AJ came down. The party-ish thingy was actually the day after my birthday, but AJ came down on the actual date to celebrate. That was not intended to rhyme. But anyway, yes. I’m sixteen now. Yay.

On the actual day, I received a number of books from AJ (Passion & Purity, Hinds’ Feet on High Places, and Morning and Evening), an electric shaver from Dad, and a video camera and accessories from Mom and Dad.

The next day, we had church as always. The Von Helfs stayed for a little while afterwards and AJ put on a mini-concert for them . . . I got a recording of a song on my brand-new video camera. He also played a new song that no one had yet heard, which wasn’t as good as the new one at the show, but it was still good. Forgive my terrible grammar.

Eventually, they left. Lunch happened afterwards. My party was supposed to start at Lifehouse at 1:50. Sarah and David weren’t to be there, ‘cause they were going to Crafton instead and meeting up with us later. So it was supposed to be myself, AJ, Seth, and Megan. Seth needed a ride, so he came to my house a few minutes early, and went with AJ and me to Lifehouse.

We were about five minutes late, but in the end it didn’t matter ‘cause Megan ended up being half an hour late and barely made it in time for the show (some lame excuse about “traffic” . . .).

Oh, ha-ha, I should probably mention what the show was, huh? ‘Twas Heidi. This show is not the highest in my esteem, and I have bad memories from it (the show itself, not the cast). I believe it was one of Wayne’s earlier shows, and . . . well, it can be summed up in three words: “The Oom-pah-pah Song.”

Megan described it as “the most entertaining Lifehouse show [she’d] seen in a long time.” I’m inclined to agree with her, but the important thing to note is that this entertainment was not intentional. Let’s go to the play-by-play:

During a big, villainous song, the spotlight on the antagonist is off and her head is cut off.
Later in the same song, there’s a complete blackout, and when the lights come up again they’re on the wrong side of the stage.
During the lunch scene, someone misses a line and Heidi goes of on what is apparently a tangent completely unrelated to the current discussion.
Peter’s voice holds a wonderful amount of emotion, but his hands, face, feet, and every other body part don’t move for the entire show.
The singing of certain people is . . . well, let’s just leave it at that.
In the last scene, one of the goats has a very visible icepack coming out of his head.

So yes. Great fun there. After that, we met up with David and Sarah at the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe on State St., and spent about half an hour deciding what to get. Then we sat down at a picnic table, and Rachel complained that there were three conversations going on at once, so we moved to a round table. Then we got the pizzas, and the cheeseburger one didn’t have any lettuce on it. So AJ asked a passing waiter to give us some, and he did. More than some. A giant bowl full of it. So we gave Megan the honor of sprinkling it upon the pizza, which she did with unmatchable finesse (until she got fed up with the amount of it and just dumped it out in the center of it all). David then christened it “happenin’ lettuce.”

After much intelligent and thought-provoking discussion (intelligence: AJ and David converse in Latin; thought-provocation: Megan hears AJ and David converse in Latin and says “how did I become friends with you people?”), we went back to my house for cake. Mom had made an Oreo Cheesecake, and all of us but AJ (who was full) ate it. My mother is a very good cook.

So after a while of eating and discoursing, it was declared time for presents. Rachel was given the job of filming it. AJ was given the job of playing Happy Birthday (the opening chords had a “sense of foreboding,” according to David), and everyone else the job of singing after just eating a piece of oreo cheesecake. It was quite . . . um . . . interesting.

Anyway, after that I did open my presents. Actually, Rachel didn’t get me one ‘cause she was strapped for cash, Seth had given to me earlier, and Megan’s is a special one that I haven’t gotten yet (*pointed look at Megan* Finish it, woman!), so I was just opening Sarah and David’s. I also already knew what Sarah got me, because at Dance that Friday, David had told me that she bought it, thinking she had bought it for herself. But it all turned out alright in the end because it rocks. I’ll get back to it in a minute. David got me two things: a book the two of us had been laughing at in a bookstore a while ago, The Tao of Pooh, and a Mark Lowry DVD that I actually forgot about until now and still haven’t watched yet . . .

But anyway, back to Sarah’s gift. What was it, you ask? It was All That You Can’t Leave Behind, an album by the band U2. I had recently seen a U2 song in an Alias episode, and it made me realize “Hey, I’ve always rather liked U2, but I never got any of their CDs . . . maybe I should pursue that . . .” and pursue it I did. I downloaded Best of 1990-2000 from iTunes, and absolutely loved it. I therefore asked for this CD for my birthday, and ended up getting How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, another of their CDs, from Seth. I am now officially obsessed.

If there are any of you poor souls out there reading this who have never had any extended exposure to U2, I pity you. They’re amazing. They’ve overtaken even Weird Al on my all time favorite musical group/artist list. I hope you all have a chance to listen to at least one of their CDs at least once all the way through (with the words in front of you) before you die. In addition to becoming my favorite band of all time, their song Walk On (from ATYCLB) has taken the top spot on my all-time favorite song list.

So anyway, we then hung out for a while and one by one all the folks were carted away (except for David, who carted Sarah and Seth away). And so the artificial lighting was turned off on the end of my first full day as a sixteen-year-old.

Nothing really exciting happened the rest of the week, and on Saturday it was Seth’s turn to have a birthday party. Basically, it was a giant Super Smash Brothers Festival, with a few card games and some eating thrown in here and there.

Sarah didn’t come initially, ‘cause she had too much school, but after we ate we called her and told her to come over, which she did. She started playing SSBM with us, wailing pitifully about how she hadn’t played it, or even a real-time game, in ages. Then, of course, she goes and clobbers Indy, Seth, and I, the accepted champs of the group. *Sigh* Girls are so weird . . .

Then some other stuff happened for a while, and Seth opened his presents and got lots of money and giftcards and a shirt and hat. And an iPod, and electrical tape. We then got the idea that we should play tapeball. We were doing so, but it was far too dark for such a thing, and after ten minutes or so we lost the ball, gave up, and went back to SSBM. Then I went home.

After church the next day, Seth and Indy stayed for a few hours and played MORE SSBM . . . in which I discovered that Jigglypuff rocks, and Seth discovered that Zelda/Sheik rocks.

Then . . . let’s see . . . I don’t think anything really significant has happened since then . . . well, AJ and I rediscovered William Steig, but you can read all about that on HIS blog.

So welcome back to my life. And expect more updates from now on. Now, to comments:

AJ: Oh yes, of course . . . if Matchbox 20 uses the same phrase, it’s all okay . . .

Stephen: Well . . . I suppose, but I don’t think that’s how they’d use it. From my experience, the term “Sith” or “Sith Lord” (when used as an expletive) is usually kind of a substitute for the B-word, whereas Sithspawn is more the S-word or, more appropriately, crap. That’s my reasoning. You, however, have far more experience in this issue, so I might be wrong . . .

David: Well, hey . . . I had to take some kind of shot at you, and the piano lent itself to that rather well . . .

Stephen Again: Yeah, I noticed that . . . I figured it was just some glitch. But I’ll remove it now. Is your old one back to being existent?

And here it is!!!

2006-04-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

What?! Mark’s posting again?? No way!!

Yeah. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? My apologies. I suppose I’m starting to make a reputation for myself as one of those people who go months at a time without posting . . . people like Rae :-P

But anyway, not a whole lot has really happened this past month and a half, but some stuff has. That, not surprisingly, is the stuff I’ll be writing about (my apologies if I seem weirder than usual . . . I’m in a weirder-than-usual mood).

So let’s see . . . I guess we’ll go through the end of Cinderella first, then move on into the stuff that happened afterwards. Wow, I’m brilliant.

Okay. So Vince decided at some point that since he’s 35 and not in a relationship, and therefore has nothing better to do, that he would set up cast hang-out times every weekend, basically meaning that we would go to Denny’s every Friday after the show. Which was always a blast. The first time we went, I was sitting near the end of our long table-thingy with Vince and Rachel across from me, and Bonnie next to me. And then random people to my right occasionally participated in the conversation.

Vince likes to shake things up a bit over the Saturday break, so he comes up with some random thing for the group that goes with him to do. The first one was they went to Uncle Howie’s (I was not a part of this group at any time), and a birthday party was raging. Vince therefore challenged (and offered ten bucks) for Josh Lomeli to go over, cut himself a piece of cake, and come back without saying anything. He did, and got his money. They then were given cake by a second birthday party, which had Cinderella cake toppers, so they went over and sang a song, and then got cake.

The point of that was because Vince and Rachel came up with one (that they never did) at Denny’s that night. We were going to do it walking into Denny’s, because Rachel was dressed really weirdly (tye-dye scarf and giant sunglasses), but we didn’t ‘cause nobody had suits. They decided that they’d go into a restaurant, claiming that Rachel was a French model who had come to SoCal to start a career in movies. She was a major celebrity, and therefore had a group of bodyguards (to be played by Vince and one or two other guys in suits). So they were going to walk into a restaurant and demand service and privacy, and just see what the people would do. They never did it, though, which was a shame.

The next week, I’m pretty sure I didn’t go for some reason . . . but the next week I did. So we’ll skip to that (‘cause nothing really interesting happened during the shows that I can remember, at least not stuff worthy of such a great location as my blog). We went to Denny’s, Rachel, Katrina, Sean and I riding with Vince (with crazy music that we all went crazy to in the car [including Vince, which was scary since he was driving]). When we got to Denny’s, we discovered that the unthinkable had happened: someone had stolen our reservation!! Vince asked the cashier dude what was going on, and he explained that someone had taken that reservation already (although he believed that it was ours and was stolen, but they were already eating so there was nothing that he could do). Vince asked for permission to take them out of the restaurant one by one by the ear, and the cashier (who seemed like a cool guy) gave it. Although he made Vince promise not to tell anyone he’d given it.

Anyway, in the end, Vince and Jeff (who was with us for some reason) decided that we’d go to IHOP instead, where they could take us. So we did. And while we were in there, it started raining. Rachel had a brilliant idea: “Let’s go run around in the rain!!” So we did. At first it was just me and her, but then we came back in and got Katrina and went back out. I went in first, and then Katrina and Rachel came in a few minutes later.

Oh! Ha ha! I remember why I didn’t go the week before that! It’s because the cast party was that weekend, so we didn’t go at all! So yeah. Guess I should chronicle that before I go any further.

Actually, there isn’t a whole lot to chronicle. It was at the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe, and — no, wait, first there was a dodgeball game.

Between the show and the cast party there was a dodgeball game, which the whole cast was supposed to go to (most of them did, but not all). We were playing the #1 team in the league, and it was a must-win game. When it started, we were getting soundly trounced. We went down 4-1, I think, and had lost three in a row. Bonnie then took a game off and ran out to her car. A few minutes later she came back, wearing her padded rear-end from the show. We didn’t lose another game. Final Score: Theatrical Threat: 7 No-names: 4. Wee-haw.

Anyway, then there was the cast party. It was at the Gourmet Pizza Shoppe, but the shoppe was open for business, so we couldn’t do skits or even really be loud. So that made me angry. And Wayne, too, was upset. So he said that to make it up to us, the next weekend we’d have a cast party between shows on Saturday at Lifehouse and do skits and stuff. I cackled gleefully. Because I, of course, had written a skit, to redeem myself for the not-so-wonderful Esther one.

So the next Friday was the IHOP Escapade, and then Saturday was the Cast Party Mk. II. It was a lot more fun than the first. The Johnsons sang for us, first off. They were amazing. Like, I’ve never really been a big fan of gospel music, but . . . holy sithspawn, man. They rocked.

After that, Adam and Nick finally got back from dinner (Nick was the lead in my skit), and Nick had his hair dyed for some reason. So we had to wait a while before doing the skit. So while that was happening, Vince did the final awards ceremony (he’d done a bunch before — they were basically just stuff he’d picked up at the dollar store which reflected some aspect of someone’s personality). Then it was time for the skit. Which went over VERY well — I think I was vindicated. Yay.

After the show that night, a bunch of folks went to a Karaoke bar somewhere, and I went for a little while. Didn’t sing anything (thank goodness I left before Vince made me), but it was fun.

Then came the last show. ‘Twas tragic. *sniff* It brings a tear to my check . . . not really. But yeah, it was sad. It was a great cast.

After the show, there was another dodgeball game, and the whole cast was supposed to go as a big closing-show bash type-a thingy-ma-jigger. AJ was in town for one reason or another, and Mom was working, so Dad decided that AJ, he, and I would go out to dinner after the game. And through a long and complicated process, David and Sarah were also coming to the game.

So I went in, fearing that I was late. I ran and ran and ran. Only to find the team and most of the cast hanging around in the hallway rather than the gym. I asked Vince and then Josh Riley and then Nathan what was going on (surprisingly, Nathan was the one who actually gave me a real answer). It turned out that the game had been cancelled due to the fact that the next day was a holiday. As if THAT made sense.

So I trudged dejectedly out of the Drayson Center and back into the parking lot, only to see a hooded figure (and a non-hooded one, but that’s less dramatic) coming towards me. Naturally, hooded figures coming towards me in the night scare me. Especially if under the hood is Sarah’s face.

So I met Sarah and David and told them that the game was cancelled, and walked back with them to my car, at which point Dad invited them to come to dinner with us. They did so. For those of you who have never been to Pat & Oscar’s, go. Now. Even if you’re not hungry. Just go and stand in line for a few minutes, and they’ll hand you a breadstick, and then you can eat it and leave. But you have to eat they’re breadsticks, they’re the best in the known Universe.

Anyway, we had a good time feasting and fellowshipping. Then we went home. Then the next day, since it was a holiday (though not for me . . .), David suggested that a group of folks get together at The Golden Spoon and hang out.

I agreed to this proposition. So did Katrina, and Carly. So we were supposed to meet there at two. I got there at about 2:10, and saw David standing there alone. We waited for about ten minutes, then David called both of them (and Megan, too, I think, although she wasn’t expected to show up). No answers. Then we got ice cream, then called them again. No answers.

Then finally Katrina showed up. She explained that she’d been in Driver’s Ed., and so hadn’t been able to answer her phone. So she got ice cream and joined us, and we spoke of many things . . . and I was lightly breaded with the graham cracker crumbs that were my ice cream’s topping. I also lightly breaded the table.

Eventually we got fed up with Carly not being there, and decided to go to Broadway Expressions and give her a piece of our minds. It was within walking distance, so we walked there. I had never been there, and stood marveling at how well hidden it was. The only sign they had (although I’ve been told they’ve added a new, bigger one) was a piece of 8 1/2x11 paper taped in the window that said “Broadway Expressions” on it. I commented (as David had before me) about the lack of a sign, and we were discussing it when Megan and Carly came running out shouting, “Go away! Go away! We don’t want you here!”

About thirty seconds later they invited us to come in, which we did. Carly and David got in a brutally violent argument over whether or not David had called Carly (Carly’s phone showed he hadn’t, David’s phone and my memory showed he had). Eventually they were reconciled, and David and I were invited to watch them rehearsing for a dance. Which we did, twice through, and then Brenda walked in, and we felt really awkward, ‘cause we’d gone from friendly observers to intruders upon a private class (well . . . maybe not, I have absolutely no clue what the Broadway Expressions visitor policy is, but that’s what it felt like). So we left.

Katrina disappeared somewhere into the studio and didn’t come with us. So we went to Barnes and Noble for a while, then I came back home.

And . . . wow. I didn’t even mention that Uncle Ted and Bev were out . . . a pox upon me for the nerve. Well, they were. And they were taking us out to dinner that very night, to a place called Mill Creek . . . if you haven’t been THERE, go there . . . but make sure you’re REALLY hungry. I got the Philly Steak Sandwich, and when it came . . . well, you know how restaurants put toothpicks in their sandwiches to hold them together? For this sandwich, the toothpick looked an awful lot like a steak knife. It was awesome. And it tasted great, too.

Then that Wednesday, Didi invited mother, father, and me to come to the final rehearsal of The Princess and the Pauper at Heartland, which we did. It was funny, although it got off to a bad start and Didi had to yell at the cast to get it back to good. Or whatever. Kinda lost my grammatical prowess there (not that I ever had any).

It was made up almost entirely of teenagers, with a few younger folks and a few older folks. On the whole everything was really good . . . very good acting, good singing (except Nick bit his tongue of his big romantic song and started cracking up), well choreographed . . . the choreography was actually pretty funny, too (intentionally), which added to the comedy of the whole thing . . . Music was good . . . And I had something else I wanted to say about it, but I can’t remember. If it was still running, I’d highly recommend it, but it’s not. Sorry.

I think something happened that weekend, but I can’t remember what it was. And the next thing that happened was the weekend after that, when I went to see Princess again, this time with Sarah, David, and John. It was better then the previous time. And what else is there to be said?

So we’ll jump to the next weekend after that, which was an exciting Sunday. First, thanks to David’s brilliant planning, Dad and I went to see Hiding Place at Lifehouse. If you haven’t seen it yet, then a pox upon thee. See it. Now. It’s incredible. And it’s leaving April 15th. Train Station People: This Means You!! Give David and I a hand pestering AJ to organize something like he usually does.

It’s not a musical, and it’s probably a good thing that it’s not . . . there are two songs, but they’re in places where people in real life could conceivably sing (one’s a praise song, the other’s a song sung at a party). The script is really phenomenal. It moves a bit quickly through the first act, but it summarizes the events comprehensively and well. The second act slows down a bit, and is majorly powerful. (On a side note, I say that it’s just plain wrong that “majorly” isn’t actually a word.)

The acting, too, was great. Almost every accent was believable, and the only one that sounded fake was an actor for whom English is a second language. So we can cut him some slack. But if Karen (the lady who played Corrie) doesn’t get an ITL (Inland Theater League award), I will be very upset. ‘Cause she was amazing. And David did well, too . . . although you can tell he’s not really playing the piano . . .

And, to my surprise, Wayne allowed Josh to use blood, and lots of it. So when people get beaten up, they get beaten up. Blood and all. Yay.

So yeah. If you haven’t seen it, make sure you find time in your busy schedules to see it. ‘Cause it needs to be seen.

Then afterwards, I went down and was talking to David and saw Daphne for the first time in ages, and was talking to her for a while . . . I learned that they make scented bowling balls. As absolutely pathetic as that is.

Then, as was the plan, Dad went home, and David and I headed over to REV to watch Bye-Bye Birdie, as presented by Broadway Expressions. We met David’s friend Jenna there, and a few minutes before the show started Tim came to sit with us.

The show was absolutely hilarious. I shall forever have the image of Megan gripping Matt’s leg yelling “I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU” etched in my mind. The only thing about it that I really didn’t like was the one bit of fighting there was in the show . . . Michael was supposed to punch Matt, and it looked very fake. And Michael of all people should know better.

But other than that it was very good. Quite a mood change from Hiding Place, but once the initial shock was overcome we’re okay as far as that’s concerned. It was also somewhat odd to see a Milligan playing a bartender, and seeing another Milligan ask for drinks . . . made an impressive roll down the stairs, though.

Then, before I knew it, it was March 10th. What, you ask, is the significance of it being March 10th? Well, it was a Friday. The next day was Saturday March 11th. Which was the date of auditions for the Bowl. I got my sheet music in the mail on the 10th. And was desperately trying to prepare satisfactorily for the impending audition. I begged AJ to come home and play it for me before auditions. I freaked out a lot.

Then I called Sarah to coordinate meeting at the church. “I can do it next week, actually,” she says, after all my scrambling to get ready for the next day just because she couldn’t do it the next week. So I collapsed in relief and watched The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is NOT a good thing to watch. If you haven’t seen it, don’t. Spare yourself the torture. Unless you love Alan Rickman, in which case it’s almost (almost) worth the torture.

But again before I knew it, it was March 17th, the day before auditions again. And this time there was no way out. I was also more prepared, but I was still freaking out. For the record, I hate auditions. And I suck at them.

So I got to the church the next morning, bright and early. I was supposed to meet Sarah there, but I got there before her, so I figured I’d start filling out the paperwork. I was number 49 (they continued the numbers from the previous week, so I was pretty close to the beginning). To my dismay, someone else (Zack DeZon, actually) walked in about thirty seconds before Sarah and snatched number 50, which meant (naturally) that Sarah and I would be in different groups.

This did not make me happy. I was already extremely nervous, and my audition buddy was going to be in another group. It turned out, however, that the last number from the previous week was 36. So groups were from 37-42, 43-47, and 48-52. So we were in the same group, after all.

But the audition panel managed to make it as nerve-wracking as possible. They called us in groups of five, to be sure, but those five then waited in the hall. And they called auditioners in one by one. The room was HUGE . . . it was the fellowship hall (I think) of the church, and there were tables at one end, and an X in the middle, on which you were to stand. The audition panel was also rather large (7 people, I believe), and one of them was Nolan, and another was Dustin, which didn’t help. Being in the presence of such greatness does not translate into wonderful singing. For me, anyway.

It went alright, though, and in the end I got a callback. Sarah was sick for callbacks, so I didn’t have her to latch on to, but Lucas and Zach tried to replace her (in terms of me having someone to latch on to). The song (Be Our Guest) was kind of a little bit WAY too high for me, but just barely low enough that it’s awkward to sing it an octave lower. So that sucked.

We also had to learn and perform a short little dance thing. They taught it to us, then gave us about an hour to practice it while they did the mains’ vocal stuff. I faithfully practiced it for the entire hour, with the aid of Lucas and Zach. I got it down perfectly. I totally had it. Then came time to perform it. I was placed right directly in front of Dustin.

*Woosh* went my thoughts. It was the sound of the dance completely leaving my head. So I just kind of fumbled around for a moment, then turned my head (desperately hoping that I’d see what the others were doing and pick it up again). Nobody else in my group (we went in groups of five, like auditions) remembered it, either, so we were all floundering. Then Dustin graciously let it start over. I remember a bit of it, but my performance of it completely sucked. As did the vocal thing afterwards.

So I went and despondently sat down, thinking, “Well, there go my chances of getting in.” Then, to my amazement, I watched as every other group sucked just as much. With the exception of a few certain people who, of course, did it wonderfully and then complained about how terribly they’d done it. There are times when I really loathe Carly and Katrina . . .

So I’m still waiting to hear the results from that. But I think I might get in, since everyone else sucked, too. And that was that.

Next interesting thing was yesterday. After fencing, there was a Bible study which I was invited to stay for (it’s open to anyone . . . y’all should come sometime). It was really cool . . . Vince led it, and it was well done, and all that good stuff.

Which brings us, finally, to today. Today we had a Passover Seder for church, complete with Yamakuhs (sp?). Then I came home and read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And then blogged. And here I stand, I can do no other.

Comments (a few skipped):

AJ: Well, a generally reliable friend of mine spelled it “foozeball.” Get over it.

Stephen: So it DOES mean wireless fidelity? Weird . . . I still don’t get how that works, but whatever . . .

Megan: 27 days . . . enjoy ‘em . . .

David and Megan: Done and done. Finally.

(Final Count: Pages: 7 Words: 3737)

Hi-diddly-dee, a blogger's life for me.

2006-02-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

Alright, sorry sorry sorry sorry. Life's been crazy. So whenever I've been in the mood to write an update, I haven't had the time. And whenever I've had the time, I haven't been in the right mood. So yeah. Here, at last, it is: THE NEXT POST!!!!

Anyway . . . I guess I'd better get y'all caught up on my life, huh? Well, I'm not gonna do official events like I did last time, but I don't remember a whole lot of dates. So it'll be main events, only not separated as they were last time.

Okay, so I've seen King Kong twice (almost three times . . . but we'll get into that later) since my last post. On the whole, I thought it was awesome. Andy Serkis deserves an Oscar for best actor for Kong . . . Jack Black was good, Adrian Brody was okay, and Naomi Watts . . . well . . . she was pretty good, but . . . she had like 20 lines in the movie, and she closed her mouth 3 times. THREE!! Like, it was always open for no reason. It drove me nuts. And then recently I saw a preview for another movie with her in it, and it showed her in one shot of it . . . AND HER MOUTH WAS OPEN!!!! AARRRRGHHH!!!!!

Apparently this bothers no one else. But it bugged the cran out of me. I don't know why . . . I seem to notice mouths more than other people . . . although curiously, it took a few times watching Batman Begins to get annoyed by Christian Bale's mouth . . . but now I am.

And then there were leeches. The size of people. And bugs. The size of people. That kinda freaked me out a bit, being arachnophobic and all . . . But other than that, it was really good.

Oh, and I just realized that, although I talked a lot about Lion Witch in my last post, I didn't explain what the heck was going on and why I was seeing it. Sheesh. When am I ever gonna learn??

So anyway. It was a group of Lifehouse people that were going to see it, Lifehouse having Lion Witch as a play and all. So we got there and were hanging out in line and such . . . for me, primarily with Bonnie and Rachel and *shudder* Shiloh. But we won't talk about him. Then eventually we were allowed in.

I sat between Rachel and one of the countless Joshes I know. The owl one, if that means anything to anyone. And in order to fit more people into the theater than were allowed by seats, we put up all the cupholders and were able to fit about three more people on our row. Made it a bit uncomfortable, but it was cool. Especially when someone had to leave for whatever reason . . . fun adventure there.

Anyway, you heard all about the movie. On to the events afterwards. After the movie, a bunch of us (but not all of us) went to Uncle Howie's to eat, and then go to Miracle at Lifehouse (they had a special Sunday evening show for some reason). So we had fun times there . . . Melody and I got a pitcher of Cherry Coke, of which I had one glass and she had the rest. Poor Melody.

Anyway, we had some fun times there . . . then Bonnie took me and Josh to Starbucks, and Adam and Jamey also went, but in a separate car. That was fun . . . we all put in weird names (except Adam . . . dork). I put in “Tumnus,” and the lady asked me how to spell it. I told her. She STILL managed to spell it wrong. And the lady didn't even try to pronounce it, being daunted by it . . . after correctly pronouncing “Elphaba” a moment before. Starbucks people, man . . . they're sad.

Also, at Uncle Howie's, it was discovered that Taylor's birthday was the next day. Being the simply WONDERFUL friend that I am, I decided that we had to do something after the show to humiliate her.

So we went to the show, which was fun . . . we made fun of them . . . sang along to a few of the songs, and to all the carols at intermission . . . and while everyone else was smiling and looking all pretty in their costumes, it looked an awful lot like Taylor was glaring at Melody and I . . . I feared she'd gotten wind of my plans.

Turned out she hadn't. After the show, we all went up to mingle with the cast, and such, and I made sure I got to the stage before most of the audience was gone. I got there right after Amanda, who Taylor hugged and said, “I could hear you cheering” to. I asked if she could hear me. As planned, she said, “yes, Mark, I could hear you,” and hugged me as well. I grabbed her arm and dragged her up onto the stage, with surprisingly little difficulty . . . probably because she was too stunned to wonder what kind of evil scheme I was enacting. So I got her onto the stage and yelled at the top of my lungs, “Hey, everyone! Just so you all know, it's her” - I pointed at Taylor - “birthday tomorrow, so let's all sing happy birthday to Taylor!”

It worked beautifully, although I got a number of bruises. The entire audience that was left sang, as did the entire cast. Maybe even Wayne, I'm not sure, I couldn't see him. So after stomping on my foot as hard as she could (in character shoes) after the song, Taylor stormed offstage. I saw her a few minutes later talking to Chris, and she saw me and ran backstage. It occurred to me at that point that perhaps, just perhaps, Taylor hadn't taken it as a friendly gesture of humiliation, but as an UN-friendly gesture of humiliation.

Long story short, I apologized and she forgave me at rehearsal the next day (but not without telling me that the stomp hadn't hurt enough first). But other than the feelings of remorse after she took it worse than I'd expected, it was a lot of fun.

Okay, so there's that day. And I already mentioned King Kong. What else happened . . . ah yes. Christmas happened. And as a result, I am now the proud owner of a cell phone! Hurrah! I also own a number of other things I didn't before . . . for example, a “Sith Happens” shirt that I'd wanted for a very long time. And a shirt that says “Everyone is born right-handed. Only the gifted overcome it,” both of which I got many compliments for in rehearsals afterwards. And I believe I already mentioned Rachel's scarf. If not, it's a scarf she got me that's just like the one Tumnus had in the movie, or at least almost like it.

After Christmas, there was a week in which there was no school or rehearsals. I don't recall much of that week, but I don't THINK a whole lot of stuff happened . . . I saw King Kong with David (that was the second time), but other than that it was just a fun week of pointlessness.

Then, night fell on the fateful night of December 31st, 2005. It was a Saturday, of course, as hopefully you all remember. But, as Douglas Adams would say, that was just a meaningless coincidence and has nothing to do with the story at hand.

So anyway. Generally, my church will have a New Year's Eve party, where we'll go over and play lots and lots of foozeball and football and eat a lot and worship and pray in the new year, which is always awesome. However, since Christmas was on a Sunday, we'd just had a party less than a week ago on Christmas evening, with lots and lots of foozeball and football and eating and worship and praying. So we decided not to have a party on New Year's Eve and just have a service as normal on New Year's Day.

So I was kinda bummed, having nothing to do. Mom apologized to me, saying that perhaps next year (if for some reason we don't have a church party again) I could invite some friends over or something and while away the hours. But for the time being, it was just a “bum holiday,” as Mom so eloquently put it. So I was just messing around online, talking to Sarah. Eventually I got bored of the internet and decided to watch Batman Begins 'cause I felt like it. I watched it on the computer so that I could continue talking to Sarah.

When the fated hour came (midnight, if you couldn't guess), I wished Sarah a happy Sunday. She said, “Same to you . . . and all it entails.” To which my response was: “That being . . .?” Yeah. Should've gone to bed instead. I've heard sleep helps the brain to function.

Church the next day was pretty cool, we had like an actual sermon, which was rather rare at that church. Speaking of which, I just realized that I haven't even written about our new church . . . sheesh. This is ridiculous. AJ, next time, instead of just bugging me about it, whack me over the head with a copy of Ender's Shadow, which you had better be reading at the time.

So yeah . . . church. Dad preached, and he gave kind of a quote of the year type thingy-ma-jigger. So Mom now has it hanging by the door, the first thing one sees when they walk into our house: “If you always do what you have always done, and you always go where you have always gone, you will always be who you have always been.” - Tristan Gylberd (who is a poet, I think).

And that was that. It didn't feel like New Year's Day, 'cause we didn't have our usual tradition: eat all kinds of ridiculously unhealthy snacks and sit around watching college football all day. Since we had church, and it was pro football. So instead we just kind of did our own thing, and the NEXT day we had the tradition (although I REALLY needed some sleep . . . 'cause I forgot it was the New Year's holiday and was about to start school . . .).

Then on the 3rd, school started (for real this time), as did Cinderella rehearsals again. And it was brought to our attention that we had only 10 rehearsals left until opening. Which scared the living sithspawn (if there is such a thing) out of us. Jen (madame director), however, was very pleased with our rehearsal, because we apparently had worked hard over the break and knew our stuff. Smooth sailing, right?

Naturally, I wouldn't say that if it was. Turned out that we had worked hard on our Act 1 stuff, but Act 2 was miserable. Which depressed me because that most likely meant a Saturday rehearsal, and David had been trying to put together an end-of-break . . . um . . . thing . . . get-together . . . whatever for that day. Which meant that I probably wouldn't get to go. Which made me sad.

Eventually Jen told us that if (as was most likely) we had rehearsal on Saturday, it would be from 1-4. So I called David, he told me that wasn't a problem, we could just do it at 4. Then came Thursday, the day that Jen officially made her decision. She sat us in the seats and delivered the terrible news: “Saturday's rehearsal,” she said, which was accompanied by a collective groan, “will be from 12:45 to 5.” Which made me even more sad.

Anyway, Saturday came, and rehearsal began. David called me to tell me that he had changed things around so that we'd meet for dinner at 5 and then go to King Kong, so Rachel, Katrina, and I could still make it (although Katrina made up some lame excuse about homework and didn't go). Rehearsal was loooong and boring . . . dancing at the ball is fun at first, but when you go over and over and over it for two and a half hours, it gets kinda tedious. I mean, taking three hours to learn it was one thing, but running it over and over was a totally different story. Especially when they spend an hour on the first song of the ball, which you're not in because you're in Magical Things and have to change, but everyone else IS in it, so you sit around doing nothing for an hour and then run over YOUR boring dancing for another hour and a half.

All in all, rehearsal was not overly pleasant. Afterwards, Dad drove Rachel and I to Denny's, where we found David, Sarah, and Carly waiting. Megan showed up a few minutes later. It was fun, although my friends turned out to be thieves. But in the end, faced with the crushing grip of reason and a long jail term (and the check, which they would've had to pay my part as well as their own), they gave back my money.

King Kong was at 7:30, so we left Denny's at about 7-ish and walked over to Krikorian. The line was longer than I've ever seen a line there. Across the box office place, down the stairs, and halfway around the block. It was ridiculous. By the time we got there, it was 7:15, and we didn't think we'd make it in time for the movie, so we started discussing contingency plans. We go onto the porch-ish area where the box office is at about 7:25, so we figured we could probably make it, but I went up to check the movie times just in case, hoping for a 7:45 of something.

It turned out that the website had allegedly lied to David, and King Kong was actually at 7, and already well underway. The only other movie showing at any soon time (the others were all 9 or after, I think . . . possibly 8:30) was Fun with Dick and Jane, and since we had nothing else to do, we decided to see that instead.

The previews were just starting when we got in, and the only place with 5 seats together was the very front row (Sarah had gone home from Denny's, so we didn't need 6). I'd never sat there before. It was an interesting experience. It's really not nearly as bad as people make it out to be, because there's actually leg room. The only real difficulty is having to actually turn your head to follow someone walking across the screen, but you got used to it after a while.

The movie itself was pretty good. It had some bad parts, but on the whole it was pretty funny. Not quite Bruce Almighty or anything like that, but it was funny. I don't feel like doing a whole review, so that's all you get for the moment . . . get over it.

After the movie, Rachel left, and the remaining four of us hung out in the lobby for a while. Megan ran into a friend, and David and I ran into Mrs. Perry. Which had actually happened when we went to see King Kong, too. Weird.

Eventually we made our way out of the building, and found Rachel still standing there waiting for her dad, freezing to death. We chastised her for not coming in and waiting there until her dad came. Megan's step-dad then came, so our group was reduced to three: David, myself, and Carly. After much mind-boggling argument and a long discourse on the pros and cons of various things we could do, we decided to go to the Golden Spoon. (“Hey, you want to go to the Golden Spoon?” “Hey, sure.”)

We got back to the Denny's parking lot, and Carly drove off, while David and I called our parents to tell them we were going to the Golden Spoon. After calling, David tried to start his car and follow Carly. He failed.

It was both funny and kind of scary at the same time, because David was not only my ride to the Golden Spoon, but my ride home. After a few tries and failures at starting the car, David called Carly.

“Hey . . . my car's not starting. Do you happen to have any jumper cables?” “Uh . . . jumper cables? What are those?” *laughter* “Never mind, I think I have some in my trunk. But I'll need your car.” “Okay, actually I just called my mom and she said I can't go anyway.”

After a bit more small talk, Carly returned to the Denny's parking lot and was preparing to figure out how to give someone a jump start. David was remarking that it was odd and scary that he could turn on everything in his car except the motor.

Carly's response; “Well, is it in park?” David: “Huh?”

So he put the car in park, put the key in the ignition, and turned it. There was the familiar rumble of an engine starting. All three of us burst out laughing.

We then said our farewells, and Carly departed. David suggested that he and I still go to the Golden Spoon, which we did, only to find them closed. After driving around for quite a while, we found a Starbucks that was open and got drinks, then sat on the porch only to be told that they were closing and we had to leave.

We drove to the State Street area and found a bench, where we sat and discussed many things, such as death by hypothermia. Then we walked around for a bit, then went home. All in all, it had served nicely to counteract the unpleasant rehearsal from earlier in the day.

After that came Sunday, which was our last Sunday with the house church, because we were starting our own the next week. They had given us our official send-off the week before, because Mom was working this day. But they did have a little “Good-bye and good luck” for us.

Then Heck Week began. On the whole it wasn't THAT bad, but Josh (owl Josh) missed a few rehearsals, and since he's the other coachman (who was unfairly made Jamey), I had difficulties with the carriage, and Tim had to bail me out and add an extra scene for me himself, playing the extra coachman and helping me with the coach.

Speaking of the coach, it needs to die. Like, I've hated props before, but . . . this is right up there with the monkey pants from Wizard on my list of “Things I really hated having to touch with a ten-foot pole in Lifehouse shows.” It's not even really that heavy, but . . . argh. It's evil. It's irresistibly attracted to the stairs, and won't stand for us to take it up into the wing without crashing noisily into them. So we have to inconvenience everyone and take it up at intermission instead of right before the song. Just to complain. Now, back on track.

Saturday arrived, with excitement levels to the point of . . . um . . . being excited. I was going to say that you could actually feel it, but usually you can feel excitement (hence its classification as a “feeling”), and it really wasn't any more exciting than your average opening day.

Wayne always used to say that a bad Saturday run-through generally leads to a good opening show, but I never believed him. The only bad Saturday run-through I could remember was Lion Witch, and . . . yeah. We came within a hair of not opening that show, and the audience could tell (at least, for the first couple of weekends). I had never hoped that it was true as much as opening day of Cinderella 2006.

The run-through was horrendous. We actually stopped about fifteen or twenty minutes in and started over, it was so bad. And still everything that could go wrong did.

The show itself, however, was a smashing success. Which naturally leads into Denny's. At Denny's (well, actually at Lifehouse after the show, but I didn't really talk to him until we got to Denny's) I finally got to meet Rachel's boyfriend, yet another Josh. At the table I was sitting at, it was me, Rachel, Josh boyfriend, Sean, Burrel, Dia, Josh Riley, Zach, and Jamey, and Andrew and Preston (who had come to the show) came and went throughout the night. It was a lot of fun, although the only really notable moment that came out of it was Sean playing crickets chirping on his cell phone after a number of bad jokes.

Since then, I only remember a few notable events and the times at which they happened, although there are several that I have no idea when they happened or in what order.

First (or possibly not), there were the racist jokes in the dressing room. Naturally, it was understood before we told them that no offense was meant, and so people whose races were being made fun of were laughing just as hard as everyone else. Most of them were really funny, but I don't remember hardly any of them. I do, however, remember three:

The first, told by Nick (a joke from the fifties): What do you call a bus full of white people? The way it should be.

The second, told by Vince: What do you call a white guy with four black guys? The center. What do you call a white guy with ten black guys? The quarterback. What do you call a white guy with a hundred black guys? The warden.

And finally, the third, told by Vince: What's white and goes up? A retarded snowflake.

Okay, so the last one isn't racist. So sue me. But it's funnier in the context of racist jokes, because you start thinking about how it's about to make fun of Caucasians.

The second really memorable thing happened in the back stairway, waiting to go on for Celebration Proclamation. Josh Riley had a tendency to be rather late, and to always make a show of his entrance . . . stuff like sticking out a Jazz hand around the corner or falling to “make sure the stairs are sturdy.” One day he was later than usual, and Tina was right behind him. I didn't see what happened, but apparently she accidentally tripped him, 'cause he fell flat on his face.

Which was odd, since he grabbed the rail on his way down. The rail had actually come out of the wall and fallen with Josh. We put it back, but knew it wouldn't support much weight. Josh told Debbie about it, and the next day, it was gone. They didn't bother to fix it, they just took it down.

The two things that I DO remember are dodgeball games. Lifehouse recently (as in, during rehearsals) had made up a dodgeball team. They have games on Sunday nights, and one Sunday I decided to go. At that point we were 2-0 and the second-best team in the league (out of 12, I think . . . possibly 6, but I'm not sure). I got there and sat with Bonnie (who is on the team, but didn't have shoes with her and couldn't play). It was soooo much fun. We beat the other team 10-2. Much much fun.

There's really not a whole lot to describe . . . although this one time, a guy on the other team cheated, and after a conference we decided to just let it go and keep playing. Taylor (Joseph, not little mouse Taylor) was outraged, and decided that if they could make up their own rules, so could he. So he determined that from that point on, he could only be knocked out of the game by a green ball thrown by a white chick in Mexico with her tongue out. Ironically, for the rest of the night, every time he got out it was by a green ball.

The second time I went we got beaten 8-4, but it was still a lot of fun. It's hard to describe, but there's something appealing about nerf balls flying everywhere and organized chaotic violence ensuing for 45 minutes.

And that's just about it. So here, on page 8, we have at last reached the end of another post. Hopefully I'll be able to start updating on a more regular basis, but you never know. And if you want more entries . . . take a hint from a very wise man, who just happens to read this blog (Stephen): “An active audience makes an active poster.” Or something like that.

(Final count: Pages: 8 Words: 4226)

Happy New Year — Death Star Style

2006-01-01T01:33:00.000-08:00

What's a New Year's bash without a few blown-up planets and dead Jedi? *pow, zzzzz, bang, boom, "NOOOO!!!!!"*

Anyway, it's officially 2006 (and I hope that mom isn't upset that I'm up this late . . .). Now, I regret being unable to quite nail down what I wanted to do for my year-in-review post, but I knew I had to do SOMETHING, so . . .

. . . So I stole something else from Megan. Although I'm pretty sure that she stole it from someone else, so I don't believe she has any right to be annoyed ("You're trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen" . . . *slap*). But it seemed to fit. In any case, it's a little survey/quiz thingy-ma-jigger . . . so I'll shut up now and just do it.

A look at 2005...

~January~
1. Did you have a new year's resolution this year?
Yes, to read 50 books . . . but I lost count somewhere along the way.

2.Who kissed you at midnight?
Um . . . bleeaach!

3. Does it snow where you live?
Alas, no.

4. Do you like hot chocolate?
Does anyone NOT?

5. Have you ever been to times square to watch the ball drop?
No . . . nor do I have any particular desire to.

~February~

1. Who was your valentine in 2005?
Um . . . bleeaach!

2. What did your valentine get you?
See above answer and try to figure it out.

3. When you were little, did you buy valentines for your whole class?
Why would I buy a valentine for my brother??

~March~

1. Are you Irish?
1/4, yes. And proud of it!

2. Do you wear green on St. Patty's Day?
I don't remember . . . I think so.

3.What did you do for St. Patty's Day in 2005?
I don't remember . . . let's see . . . I think I had rehearsal.

~April~

1. Do you like the rain?
Yes.

2. Did you play an April fool's joke on anyone this year?
I wanted to, but he didn't call . . . accursed Uncle, always foiling my plans . . .

3. Do you get tons of candy on easter?
Usually.

~May~

1. What's your favorite kind of flower?
*odd look*

3. Do you like the spring?
Yep.

4. Finish the phrase: April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?
Um . . . the phrase is finished, buddy. But since I know what you meant . . . stupid questions.

5. What would you think of as a spring color?
Uh . . . I wouldn't, but I guess Green and Blue . . . possibly Yellow, too . . .

~June~

1. What year did you graduate from school?
If this is referring to High School, I haven't yet . . . 2008 will be here before I know it, though, I'm sure.

2. Did you go on any vacations last June?
I think so. Might've been July . . . can't remember.

~July~

1. What did you do on the 4th of July?
Stood up on the porch and enviously listened to my friend gloat about the Martinelli's she was drinking while watching the fireworks.

2. Do you go on any vacations during this month?
Not usually.

~August~

1. Did you do anything special to end off your summer?
Technically . . . I threw shoes at two of my friends *evil grin*

2. What was your favorite summer memory of '05?
Throwing ballet shoes out of my window . . . good times.

3. Do you go swimming a lot in the summer?
I wish.

4. Do you go to the beach a lot?
Nope. Once a year at the most.

~September~

1. Did you attend school/college in '05?
I did.

2. Who is/was your favorite teacher?
Um . . . well, I could probably give a whole thesis on this topic. 'Cause TECHNICALLY my Mom is my teacher, but I do also have other teachers, and lately Mom doesn't do a whole lot of actual teaching, she just grades stuff and helps me when I need it. Which leaves me (for 2005) with Dr. C, Mrs. Perry, Mr. Arcadi, Mr. Burton, and kiiinda Mrs. Lane. I'd have to say that Dr. C and Mrs. Perry tie on this one.

3. Do you like fall better than summer?
Yes and no. I prefer the Fall weather, and in places other than California, I prefer the Fall foliage. But I REALLY like not having school.

~October~

1. What was your favorite halloween costume ever?
Um . . . probably my Ninja costume years and years ago (didn't hold a candle to the four T-shirt Ninjas, of course). Next year's is gonna be the best, though, 'cause I'm going to borrow the Tumnus costume from Lifehouse . . . *shifty eyes*

2. What's your favorite candy?
If it contains Chocolate, I like it. Usually. (Turkish Delight leaves something to be desired, but I've heard that it doesn't usually include chocolate anyway.)

3. What did you dress up like this year?
Episode I Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was going to be Mark Twain, but . . . well, you've all read the story, no doubt.

~November~

1. Whose house do you usually go to for Thanksgiving?
Didi's.

2. Do you like stuffing?
Bleeeeaaaaaaach!!!!!! No.

3. What are you thankful for?
Whew, boy, I could go on for a while here . . . I think I'll save my answer to this question for the end of the entry. ;-)

~December~

1. Do you celebrate christmas?
Last time I checked.

2. Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe?
Um . . . bleeaach!!

3. What do you want this year for christmas?
Well, it's past . . . my most wanted gift was a video game (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance), but my favorite gift that I got was my cell phone.

4. What's the best present you ever got for Christmas?
(I would like to take this moment to point out that Megan, your answer here was cheesy . . . true, perhaps, but cheesy.) Probably my cell phone.

5. Do you like cold weather?
Very much. Especially with a good book, hot chocolate, and a crackling fire (from which AJ can derive a song).

And there you have it. Now, I suppose I COULD do the listy-thingy to list experiences from 2005 . . . but probably that would take a long time. Instead, I shall summarize the year.

First, 2005 in a word: Full.

Now, 2005 in a few more words: 2005 was an interesting year. In some ways, it was the best year of my life. In some ways, it was the worst. On the whole, the good parts outweighed the bad, but when I was in the midst of the bad they seemed awfully heavy. But some really good things came out of those bad times. For one, I discovered a best friend in all the people I hung around with. When the next bad time rolled around, I found another really good friend among the people I hung around with. That process repeated itself every time a bad time rolled around. Turns out I hang out with some pretty cool people. A tentative plan for my future education was also decided upon, and I discovered that I already have a connection (of sorts) in the college I plan on attending *evil grin*

And, of course, all of it was topped of with the various ways I've made an idiot of myself. At times they were embarrassing, at times they were fun . . . and, more often than not, they were both. Everything from dressing up like a faun (complete with a terrible make-up job and mohawks on my legs), to dropping a girl I was dancing with (a total of FIVE times, not the eight she will tell you about . . . and none of them hurt her anyway), to having a guy who I just met thinking I had recently tried to commit suicide (although, to me, the scars looked an awful lot like licorice), to an hour of trying and miserably failing to learn how to flip (despite the apt teachings I was given), to hanging out at Denny's until 5 AM (which is what prompted my mom to get me a cell phone for Christmas), to watching my brother telepathically throw cows around. And everything in-between.

And so we come to my answer to that question earlier: what am I thankful for? Obviously, there's the basic stuff . . . a house, food, a bed, lightsabers, etc. And then there's the cheesy but true stuff . . . and the "who"s that I am thankful to.

First and foremost, I'm thankful to God. For everything, basically. And what more can I say?

I am thankful to my wonderful family, for loving me, for providing for me, for always being there for me, and for STILL loving me after having seen me at my worst.

I am thankful to Wayne Scott for founding Lifehouse Theater, a place without which my life would have virtually no meaning and a place without which I would have virtually no friends.

And finally, I'm thankful to my friends, for always being there for me, for caring, and, of course, for being willing to put up with me in the first place.

I'd like to close out this entry, and in essence 2005, with a quote from the broadway musical Wicked:

"I couldn't be happier, no,
I couldn't be happier, though
It is, I admit, the tiniest bit
Unlike I anticipated.
But I couldn't be happier,
Simply couldn't be happier. . . . Well, no, not simply . . .
'Cause getting your dreams,
It's strange, but it seems
A little, well, complicated . . .
There's a kind of a sort of . . . cost.
There's a couple of things get . . . lost.
There are you bridges you cross
You didn't know you'd crossed until you'd crossed. . . .
Still, with this perfect finale,
The cheers, and the bally-hoo,
Who wouldn't be happier?
So, I couldn't be happier."

And thus endeth 2005. And ya know what? I can't wait to see what God does with 2006 . . .

The long-awaited next post, in all its 7-page glory

2005-12-23T00:25:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well. It’s been almost a month since my last update, and waaay more since my last “log” update (as David calls them). I haven’t even written about Esther closing yet . . . *sigh* Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves. It’s gonna be a LOOOONG read.

I’ll split it up into the major events that have happened, to avoid “and then . . . uh . . . I don’t remember what happened . . .”

Event #1: Closing of Esther. On Saturday, November 14th, 2005, Esther closed at Lifehouse theater. It was weird. Because usually, we close on Sundays. But this was different, because the Musical Theater Camp (for younger kids) had its shows on Sunday, so Esther closed the day before. ‘Twas a sad time. You can imagine my sorrow when I went backstage after the scene and hung my little crappy flashlight airplane guidance thingies on the hook for the last time. Even remembering it brings a tear to my eye. Either that or my contact is bothering me.

Anyway, the terrible truth of closing was somewhat weakened by certain events after the final show. We were hanging out (waiting for rides and stuff) in the theater, and people were trying the zipline. It was rather amusing to watch the terrified looks on the faces of people as they went flying by. Although I knew that mine would’ve been far more terrified.

Then came the joyous moment. Anyone who has ever been in a show at Lifehouse who did not witness this will regret it forever. Kelsey had just gone down the zipline, and she handed the hand thingy to Larry, who said something to the general effect of “okay, who’s next?” That’s when it began. The chant. A curious spell seemed to have been cast on the . . . uh . . . cast (somehow that didn’t work). It started with a few . . . then the call grew and grew, until the building itself was pulsing with it. A single word, repeated over and over, with significance that non-Lifehousers cannot truly appreciate. “Wayne . . . Wayne . . . Wayne . . . Wayne . . .”

And he actually did it. Wayne R. Scott went down the zipline. Oh, frabjous day, callooh, callay! ‘Twas wonderful. ‘Twas glorious. ‘Twas one of those times when one though sticks out in the mind: “why, oh why, oh WHY do I not have a video camera?!”

And just to top off the glory of it all, Debra let me keep my airplane thingies because they were just crappy flashlights and construction paper. And let me tell you, those are CRAPPY flashlights. I hope my life never depends on them working.

Event #2: Thanksgiving week. Hard to believe that I haven’t written about this yet, but I haven’t. Well, my grandparents on my mother’s side came out to visit. Not a whole lot happened, really . . . we didn’t do anything exciting, we just kind of hung out until Thursday, which was the day itself. On this day, as was the custom, we went to Didi’s. And had loads of wonderful food. The only thing missing were Sandy’s world famous mashed potatoes . . . but alas. It was still good.

Actually, one thing did happen on Wednesday. I was talking to David online, and he suggested that we go catch an 11:45 showing of Harry Potter 4. I agreed. But by the time we got there, it was 11:55 or so, and we had missed it. It was also the last showing of the night, so the box office had closed. Sithspawn. So we went to Denny’s, instead, and just hung out (and ate . . . David had French toast with a syrup that tasted like peach-scented shampoo). We lost track of time. I opened my front door at about 5 AM. Mom was not happy.

Okay, sorry, back to Thursday. After dinner, of course, we had to have entertainment, so Dimyana sang a few songs (one with AJ accompanying, one with a CD), and AJ sang a few songs (with his guitar . . . very different type of songs). Then it was determined that all “children” there had to perform (“children” in quotations because AJ apparently qualified). Now, conveniently, Tracy was out picking up her friend. Dimyana and AJ had just performed. Why, that leaves . . . me. Joy.

Now, I hadn’t counted on doing anything. I’d done my Mark Twain act last year and had thought that that would cover me for a while. Apparently I was wrong. So they were trying to tell me to do something. Stand-up comedy came up. “Yeah, right,” was my reply. Then, Didi had a brainstorm. “You can do the tap-dance!” *siiiiiigh*

So, ten minutes later, there I was. All alone, doing a tap-dance meant for six people. In sneakers, doing a tap-dance meant to be done with tap shoes. Well, it went okay until I got to the roll-off. THAT was embarrassing. So there are supposed to be six people, right? And there’s only one. So I did my part of the roll-off, and realized “cran . . . I’m the only one here. Which means that now I get to stand here looking like an idiot for an 8-count. Yippee.” Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE looking like an idiot. On stage. In front of 200 people that I don’t know. NOT in a living room in front of 10 people that I DO know rather well.

ANYWAY, after that intense humiliation, we kind of just hung out for a while . . . Dimyana, AJ and I went and played The A-Maze-ing Labyrinth. Fun game. I won. Then Tracy and her friend Christina showed up and the five of us played Clue. Fun game. AJ won the first game, Christina one the second game, I won the third game.

Then came Friday. Since Thursday’s thanksgiving dinner had been rather . . . Bulgarian in nature, and thus untraditional, mom decided to have a more American-style dinner on Friday. She gave AJ permission to invite Jeff. I in turn received permission to invite David and Sarah. Which I did.

Jeff had said that he was going to be a bit late, so Mom wasn’t going to wait dinner for him. She DID, however, wait dinner for David, Sarah, and I (we all came together because I was at fencing with David). And then everyone was upset because we got there at 6:30, after being told it was supposed to start “around six.” Or maybe it was 5:30 and five. I can’t remember. Anyway, we were late. And they were mad at us.

Dinner was fun, and tasted good. Jeff showed up just as the rest of us were eating dessert. Him and David together in the same room . . . *intake of breath* it was a combination of two of the greatest comedic minds to ever come out of Redlands . . . very interesting conversation.

After dinner, I attempted to help Sarah figure out something in Fire Emblem (which is a video game I had loaned her). I failed. So we were messing around with it for a while.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that that morning I had somehow managed to rip my last pair of contacts, so I was wearing my old crooked glasses. I had trouble seeing. And they were uncomfortable. I didn’t have TERRIBLE trouble seeing, but I certainly couldn’t see very well.

Anyway, after messing with Fire Emblem for a while, I finally showed Sarah and David some Legendary Frog (if you haven’t seen anything on there, go here and go to movies). After that, David suggested that we go catch a 10:30 showing of Harry Potter 4. I agreed. AJ and Jeff, however, had seen it earlier that week and declined to go with us.

So David, Sarah, and I piled into the Davidmobile and went off to Krikorian. We made it in time for the showing. And we saw a preview for what will certainly be the greatest movie of all time: Happy Feet. I mean, what could be better then two hours of animated penguins dancing?! I can’t wait . . .

But eventually I was forced to move on to Harry Potter 4. Which I will not review (because there’s another movie I want to review, and I don’t want to do two reviews in one entry), but which was very good. Then David brought me home, and I went to bed.

The next exciting thing was seeing Miracle on 34th Street at Lifehouse on Sunday. Wonderfully acted, but had rather weak material. And a forced Christian message if I’ve ever heard one (and Santa’s an angel! . . . no, I mean literally).

Event #3: A shorter one. I got into Cinderella! Yay! Rehearsals have started. I’m a footman. A certain mouse turns into me. *sob sob* That mouse happens to be Taylor. *sob sob sob WEEP WEEP*

Event #4: New glasses and contacts. See title. But my glasses are the coolest things ever. They’re called Flexon, and if you bend them, they’ll just POP BACK INTO PLACE!!!! So no matter how many times I get hit in the face with a football, they WON’T BREAK, AND THEY WON’T GET CROOKED!!! *ahem* Not like that’s ever happened to me before, but, uh . . . gotta be prepared, you know . . .

Event #5: Skipping ahead a bit. December 11th, 2005. ‘Tis a Sunday. I show up at Lifehouse at 7:00 PM. I see David walking up the sidewalk towards me. I greet him. We enter the building. Minutes later, Rachel walks in the door. We get tickets. We hang out. We go outside of the building and start looking at the footprints and handprints. Bonnie joins us. We hang out some more. We go inside, and Bonnie gets her ticket. We hang out some MORE, and David forever etches himself into Bonnie’s memory (“I’m freeeeee . . .”). We are finally allowed to go to our seats. We do, and we look at the program and stuff. I look around. Jay has long hair all of a sudden. It freaks me out.

The lights go down. The first strains of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” play through the crappy sound system. The Broadway Expressions Christmas ’05 Dance Recital has begun! As the previous one (which happened in August, I wrote about it, you can dig through the archives and find it, you lazy bums), it was amazing. Before we get into a more detailed look at it, let’s take some random thoughts that came out of it:

1) I hate Michael.
2) Carly is such a sithin’ good singer. It’s not fair. I hate her, too.
3) I hate Michael. Grr.
4) Grr . . . Megan is also an incredibly good singer. I hate her, too.
5) ACK!! THESE PEOPLE ARE TOO GOOD!! I HATE THEM ALL!!!!

Now, in case you’re wondering why I hate Michael . . . it’s because he’s sithin’ younger than I am, and he’s such an incredible dancer and singer. Pretty much the same reason I hate everyone else, only Michael is a guy who’s younger than me, so theoretically I should be able to do what he does. Gr.

But, all hatred aside, the recital was really, really good. It was about on par with the August one, in general, as far as the dancing and singing was concerned. So it was very good, but expectedly good.

There were, however, two things that raised the bar from the previous time. In the August recital, there was a brief little tap number which basically consisted of Aaron and Michael imitating one another. This time they had a full-fledged tap class that did a number. I always love watching tap dances, because I can actually pick out what they’re doing, unlike most types of dance. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and after it happened I knew that it was going to be my favorite part.

I was wrong. As awesome as the tap was, they were able to out-do it. The second thing (which they might’ve done in August, but I don’t remember it if they did) was called “Team Broadway.” They had two of them, but I only knew two people in the first (younger) one, and they did Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, which I’ve never seen.

The second, older one, however, I knew almost everyone in it and they did Les Misrables. And I can describe it in two words: holy cran. I know that probably all this stuff I’m saying sounds forced because I keep saying it, but . . . this was just so incredible. It was during this that I determined that I hate Carly and Megan. Carly did a solo that Cosette (or however the heck you spell it) does, and . . . my goodness that girl has a voice. At the August recital, she had a vocal solo, and the thought going through my head was “man, I knew she was good, but this is amazing.” The thought going through my head for this was “she was good in the August one, but this is amazing.”

And a quick question to ask all of you. Why do I keep going back to the August one? Like, I mean obviously it’s the easiest thing to compare this to, but . . . I don’t know. I guess my mind is just working weirdly. I’m tired. It’s late. I’m also just me.

Okay, back to business. Megan did Eponine’s song, and I hate her. I hate her hate her hate her. I can’t decide whether she or Carly was better. It’s not fair . . . all these dratted talented people . . . ah, well. At least I don’t have to worry about them stealing any of my parts . . . ahh, the joys of being a guy.

Oh, wait . . . Michael . . . sithspawn.

*ahem* I apologize, folks, this is sounding more like a ranting xanga entry (for examples, go here) than a blog entry. Perhaps it’s because it’s late and I just read an entry on that site. But seriously, it was really good. I was impressed anew with these people.

Event #6: Lots of loud people I don’t know. A few weeks before December 17th, a conversation very similar to this one took place at my mother’s work place:
Random Nurse: We don’t have anywhere to have this floor’s Christmas party this year . . .
Mom: Well, if no one else will have it, I can . . .
Random Nurse: Cool! Christmas Party at Roberta’s!

And so it was, on the 17th. I was given the job of photographer. It was supposed to start at one o’clock, so at one I was all dressed up and ready to go take photos. But no one was there. Actually, no one showed up until 3. And then it was a lady with her 5-year-old son. Mom volunteered me to play videogames with him to keep him occupied.

From that moment on, I was the unofficial childcare person. 5-year-old’s name was Andrew, and he liked to talk. “This is why I get the star? So I WIN??” For about four hours. I was playing a game with him that requires the player to shoot water at this mud stuff. He couldn’t grasp the concept that you had to be pointing the water AT the mud in order to get it to go away. *sigh* He also couldn’t grasp that when I told him to “turn around” so he was facing the mud, I meant a 180 turn, not a 360 turn. It was not fun.

Then finally he left. There was another girl there at that time, but she was nine and occupied herself on the computer. I stole upstairs to massage my ears and stop hearing “That’s how I WIN??” I enjoyed myself for a while, then there was a knock on my door. It was the nine-year-old, asking my help to print out something. I was rather surprised that she couldn’t figure it out for herself, but I kind of shrugged and agreed. I went down, only to find that the computer screen had a gigantic “PRINT THIS PAGE” written across it. And she said “how do you print this out?” *siiiiiigh*

Then I went back upstairs for a while. Shortly thereafter I came down and actually took a few pictures. Then I met Daniel, a 3-year-old. VERY hyper. VERY curious.

“What’s this? Who’s that? Can you do this? Can you draw a fish? Can you draw a bird? Can you draw a bird inside a fish? Can you draw a house for the bird? Can you read this book? Come over here. Sit here. Sit here and read this book. Who’s that? Can I do this? Give me straws. What’s this? Who’s that? Can you do this? Can you . . .”

Eventually he contended himself with walking up and down the stairs. His father then asked me if he could play his CD. I said “uh . . . sure.” He did. I discovered that he was Romanian. So I got to witness some Romanian dancing.

It was actually quite enjoyable to watch. It was also funny to see them next to an American (I think) couple, who was also dancing, but who obviously had no idea whatsoever what they were doing. Like, I’m certainly not the best partner dancer in the world, but . . . I’d like to think I’m better than that guy. (And if any of you so much as THINKS the name “Taylor,” you will die.)

Then eventually they, too left. No one was left. The word “free” popped into my mind. I checked my watch. 9:30. With the exception of about an hour or so when I was upstairs, I’d been doing childcare off and on for about six hours.

I’m thinking twice about having kids.

But on the bright side, mom paid me for my services. And we got a lot of good food that was left over. Buffalo wings rock. As do cookies.

Event #7: Narnia is a land of fun . . . December 18th, 2005. 12:45 PM. Krikorian Theater. A 15-year-old gets out of the car, waves farewell to his father, and starts walking up to the door, where he meets Rachel. The two enter the theater, then spot the group of Lifehousers in line. They join them. After much waiting, they enter the theater. After much more waiting, the lights go off. And everyone is transported to WWII England.

I have officially seen The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I can describe my initial reaction to the movie in seven words: move over, Peter Jackson. You’ve got company. I know I said I’d review this, but I’m actually kinda strapped for time, so it’ll be brief.

The acting was awesome. All four kids were great (although Edmund was no Lucas . . .). Aslan was Liam Neeson, ‘nuff said. The White Witch was totally sithin’ amazing. She wasn’t as attractive as she should’ve been, but her awesome acting made up for it. All the animals were very good. And of course, most important of all, Mr. Tumnus was very good.

I was very impressed with the movie on the whole. They didn’t tone down the Christian message at all, which was very refreshing. As I said, the acting was awesome. The music was awesome. The animal animations were awesome. And, best of all, the Witch has sithin’ POLAR BEARS pulling her sleigh in the big climactic battle.

Movie gets 4 ½ out of 5 stars. In fact, just the way that they did Tumnus made the movie that good for me. And he had an awesome scarf on through the whole thing. And at Cinderella rehearsal a few days later, Rachel gave me my Christmas present . . . a scarf. Just like the one he wears. It made me very happy. I have decided to wear it everywhere.

I had a few minor problems with the movie, but nothing major . . . things like, Lucy wasn’t a blonde, the Witch wasn’t attractive enough, stuff like that. There were two slightly bigger things that were problems, too: 1) Tumnus was not turned to stone as soon as he was captured. But I can deal with that.

Then there was my biggest problem with the movie: the Professor. Until the very last scene, he wasn’t the character he should’ve been. He wasn’t the kind, clever, caring, jolly old fella that he is in the book. He was a kind of creepy, detached, older, not-as-nice guy. Except for the very end. Which, by the way, was the perfect ending. If only the Professor had been like that through the whole movie . . . ah, well, alas. I have that one perfect scene to cherish forever.

So that’s pretty much my life since my last update. Except for two things: 1) Christmas break has started — YESS!!!!!! 2) Last night, I was talking to a friend online, and she was doing homework. Math homework. She asked me how to do something, and I actually KNEW!!!! It was unbelievable. I shall never forget it (because it’s published online).

So this entry should give you something to chow down on for a while . . . but I’ll be getting another post out next week, around New Year’s. I intend to do a Death Star Year-in-Review. Look forward to it.

DT #2: Don't get stuck in a not-so-hot-spot.

2005-11-29T22:36:00.000-08:00

First of all, I promise that a regular post will be coming soon. Hopefully by the end of this week. Now, let's jump into the DT:

With the Nintendo DS portable video game system going Wi-Fi, lots of talk about playing games with people across the globe has been around on the internet. However, more than anything else, one question sticks in my mind: Why Fi?

Wi-fi, Hi-fi, Sci-fi. To be perfectly honest, I'm only certain of the meaning of one of those (Sci-fi = Science Fiction). I think that Wi has something to do with wireless, but I have no idea what Hi means. Something with a TV, I think.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the “fi” in Wi-fi and Hi-fi does not stand for “fiction.” Now, probably, computer-literate people know what Wi-fi stands for. But I don't. And I'm sure that there are many people in the United States of America who are just like me in that respect.

Of course, pretty much all it would take would be going to Google and typing in “wi-fi” to find out. But that would be the reasonable way to do it, and since when have I done the reasonable thing? Instead, I call my brothers-in-ignorance to join me in my crusade to get a better meaning, to rally behind my banner desiring a clearer path, and to stand up for the slogan: “Why Fi?”

Using “fi” will cause confusion among the readers who are confused. “Fi,” they will say, “Fiction.” Much as I touched upon in the beginning of this post. They will then look at the first part of it. “Wi,” they will say, “uh . . . wireless? Yes, wireless. Wireless fiction.”

Which really isn't so bad an idea . . . just imagine being able call up the great works of fiction on your laptop or mobile phone. The power of a library . . . in the palm of your hand.

But that's an entirely different ballgame, because the fact is that Wi-fi, whatever it does stand for, does NOT stand for Wireless Fiction.

Also, among the younger members of our nation, there may be some confusion about the “Wi” part of it. If they can't QUITE read yet, they might read it as “why fi,” my slogan for reform. Which may lead this poor, impressionable young child to believe that the Nintendo DS has gone activist, has gone anti-fi. And they shall quickly run to their mothers, shouting, “Mommy! Mommy! What's fi? Is it bad?”

Naturally, their mothers will probably have no idea what they're talking about. “Fye?” they will say, “Like, Fe Fye Fo Fum?” Child: “I - I don't know, mommy, but my Nintendo Power says that the DS says 'why fi?'” If the mother is not overly computer-literate, they will probably not immediately identify “Wi-fi.” “Hang on, Billy,” says Mom, “Let me call your brother and ask him.”

The mother might not be computer-literate, but she's not dumb. She knows that if it has to do with Nintendo, probably a teenager would know more about it than she or her husband. So she calls up 15-year-old Joey, who is at school: “Joey? Hi, this is Mom . . . Billy came across a term in his video game magazine, and I'm not sure what it means. Fi . . . you know anything about Fi?” “Fi? As in, Wi-fi?” “Yeah.” “Uh . . . I think it has something to do with playing online.”

And this, dear readers, is the tragic conversation that is brought about by the term Wi-fi. A new age is dawning! A new time has come! We must stand united, united for peace, justice, liberty, and clarity! GIVE US A NEW SITHIN' ABBREVIATION FOR WIRELESS PLAY!

WP would be fine. Wi-P. Wi-Pl. Still want it to rhyme? Then use the best of all: Wl-Pl. Because, then, see you get WireLess PLay. Which is cooler, to me.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the time has come to end the tyranny. To end the confusion. To shine the light upon this dark age. We must all take a stand, we must be true. We must support Wl-Pl. We must start an e-mail chainletter saying “Sign this petition supporting Wl-Pl instead of Wi-Fi, or you shall have bad luck in your love life until you're 77!! Because, believe it or not, we control your love life! GWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!”

Why Fi? Heck if I know.

insert awesomely witty and hilarious title here

2005-11-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

Goodness gracious me . . . you don't post for two weeks, ya get 17 comments. Wow. It's amazing what people starved for entertainment will do :-P

In any case, I suppose I should probably get y'all up to speed with my life, eh? I do believe I left off after weekend #1 of Esther . . . So I suppose I've got a little bit to catch up on.

Weekend #2 started the day after my last post, and I don't seem to recall any major events happening during that time . . . although I could be wrong. My memory isn't the greatest.

Well . . . check that, something did happen. On Saturday night, David came to pick Sarah up, and we were talking, and one thing led to another and I went to Trinity the next day. Again, not the greatest speaker . . . but he used movie clips from Return of the King, so you've gotta give him something.

And . . . let's see . . . after the high school service, I went to the regular service, which was cool, it reminded me of the River somewhat. Yes, David, it reminded me of the River. Get over it. The sermon was your basic “you can be saved right here, right now, ask Jesus into your heart, say yes” type thing. Not bad, although his final illustration was a bit weird . . . he used the end of Air Force One, talking about how we need to change our callsigns . . . it was weird.

Um . . . my apologies, I'm not thinking very well right now. I'm a bit sick, so my mind isn't what it usually is . . . which isn't really saying much . . .

Ah, of course, how could I forget? We had a crazy, once-in-a-lifetime event this year. Three holidays, all in a row. Crazy times. What were these holidays, you ask? The first was that Sunday, the 30th: Reformation Day. The second, of course, was the day after it, Monday the 31st: Halloween. The third was just as widely known, but probably not as celebrated . . . Tuesday the 1st: Star Wars Episode III comes out on DVD. I, unfortunately, didn't get my hands on it until Thursday (and didn't get to watch it until Monday), but I rejoiced with our nation anyway. Oh, stop rolling your eyes, Megan, you know it's true.

Anyway, if I may skip back to Monday. Halloween. Usually, the Pelevs invite us over, and we go up and have a party. But, for whatever reason, this year they didn't. So nothing was really planned . . . then I got a call from Rachel, telling me (not asking me, telling me) that I was going to her apartment and hanging out with her and Preston. In costume, of course. So I had to throw together a costume . . . I had planned to go as Mark Twain, since I've worn that costume so much that it takes no time at all to put together.

There was just one problem: my spirit gum was at Lifehouse. GAAH! No Mark Twain for me. I wasn't about to be like Rae and use “gap-a-goo” . . . So I needed a costume, and I needed one fast. I scanned my room, scampering around trying to think of something. Then, something caught my eye . . . *gasp* There's a lightsaber handle on my file box thingy!! Ten minutes later, I was Obi-wan Kenobi from Episode I. Problem solved.

I headed over to Rachel's at about 6:30, to find her still getting into her costume, an abstract representation of fear. She was pretty freaky, too . . . he had her hair spray-dyed black, and was wearing all black clothing, and her face was completely white except for around her eyes and mouth, which were black.

A few minutes later, Preston showed up. He walked into the room, and I was eager to see what costume he'd come up with . . . he looked surprisingly like Preston in pajamas. After repeatedly being told he was a dork and a loser for not having a costume, he said, “well, I brought a cape . . .” So we made him put it on, and he became Preston in pajamas with a really cool cape.

After hanging around talking for a while, we decided to go outside and walk around, and see if maybe we could freak out some little kids (yes, we know, we're impossibly cruel). Unfortunately, there was nobody around, so we had to settle for freaking out a Stater Bros. worker instead. She was gathering karts in the parking lot, and the three of us came walking by, and we randomly start running in circles screaming our heads off . . . then Rachel and I stop and keep moving, but Preston keeps running around screaming. The worker just kind of shook her head and started working faster. It was awesome.

Maybe five to ten minutes later, we ended up at Preston's house. “Hey,” we said, “It's Preston's house.” So we decided, hey, as long as we were there, we might as well do some trick-or-treating. Then we realized that we had no bags. “Hey!” I said. “Let's use Preston's hood!” And so we did. We went up to the door and rang the doorbell, and his mom answered it. She laughed, then invited us in. Since we were friends (and family), she decided to be nice to us, and gave us a handful each of whatever our candy of choice was. Rachel got Milky Ways, I got Reeces (or however you spell it). We put them in Preston's hood. Then he got a whole bag of butterfingers, and we put that in, too. At this point, he was finding it difficult to breathe.

Preston's mom: “Hey, you guys want some Twix, too?” Rachel and I: “sure!” Added to Preston's growing stash. Preston started to complain about being choked, and he ran away to avoid more being put in there. Rachel and I ran after him, and finally found him in his room, the candy scattered on the floor all around him. Rachel and I picked it up and put it back in his hood, then Preston's mom drove us back to Rachel's.

Once back at Rachel's, we pigged out on candy and talked for a while, then we started playing Scategories. Or something like that. It's a fun game, and I was really good at it, 'cause all you need in order to play it is a lot of useless knowledge. Naturally, I won. Preston actually kept it pretty close, but then I scored like 9 points in a round (the average was probably 5), and from there I began to pull away. Gwa-ha-ha-ha.

It was awesome, too, 'cause . . . well, like, not to brag or anything, but I think I'm a little smarter than they are, and so they just assumed I was right in most cases . . . like, we had to come up with something in the desert that began with an “L.” I couldn't think of anything, so I just put “Llama.” And they LET ME HAVE IT!! DOES THAT ROCK OR WHAT?? (Just to be fair . . . that was the only case like that, and I won by more than one point.)

Then we told scary stories for a while, then my mother came, and I went home.

After that, I don't recall much of the week . . . kind of a blur of doing lots and lots. I do recall Thursday, which was auditions for Cinderella. I was somewhat nervous, since, lacking an accompanist, I hadn't practiced much. But I think I did all right. I never have good auditions, but this was probably one of my best. Of course, I do well on the one that I don't have a specific part I want . . . come Tom Sawyer I'll probably suck again.

In any case, shortly thereafter it was time for fencing and then another weekend of shows. Actually, dance was first, but I don't remember like anything about it. It might've been the week we only had three people . . . I can't recall. In any case, fencing . . . fencing . . . ah yes, at fencing, Cavarno was there, and Peter and Daniel. Yes. Daniel Milligan actually picked up a sword and was fighting Aaron. It was an awesome sight . . . In any case, David showed up about an hour late, and Josh and I had come up with a new routine by then, which we taught to him and Cavarno.

Then 'twas time for the show . . . again, nothing special that I remember. Saturday . . . now that's another story. The afternoon was nothing special, but . . . the night . . . so many things happening all at once . . . Firstly, it was the ASL translated show. Secondly, it was video night. Thirdly . . . AJ and his compatriots came. Which is most of you. I shall try to do your visit justice.

The first act went well, as far as I can remember . . . nothing really bad happened, I don't think. Then came intermission. I went out into the audience, to harass them, as usual . . . I was following Zemos around, and we went outside, then back into the lobby, me telling him to buy me a cookie. Then, all of a sudden, I had two Ls at my head . . . I turned, and there was Stephen, and AJ right next to him. There was a little bit of talking, in which it was decided (somehow) that I had a Babylonian accent . . . then, as the show was starting again, I asked Andrew if he could scoot over so I'd have a seat for the second act . . . I expected a long argument. Instead, he happily complied and jumped onto AJ. I tried reaaaaally hard to keep a straight face, but I think I probably failed. In any case, I had a nice big seat all to myself for the start of act two. The rest of the show went well, I think . . . and at the end, Wayne was doing a little thing of talking about some people who'd grown up at Lifehouse, and the experiences that they'd had. In the end, it all turned out to be leading up to Ben proposing to Heather, which was really cool.

Then there was some hanging out onstage after the show (and some rude people picking me up and carrying me backstage . . . *glare*). Then there was some going home, and some eating a (really) late dinner, and some more hanging out. We had some interesting conversations . . . we played some really weird games of telephone . . . Jessica and I tap-danced, Will tried to kill me on multiple occasions, I did some logical chains . . . turns out that Stephen is the cosmos *gasp*!

Eventually, everyone left, and I went to bed. The next day, church happened. Dad was preaching, but it was a sermon I'd heard before, so nothing special there. After church, there was another show, to which David came again, and Carly came again, and Megan came. And it was a jolly show . . . whatever the heck that means. That just kind of came out.

In any case, after the show was the cast party. Earlier, I had announced that for once I had no skit to perform. Sarah and Taylor were infuriated. They made me (with their help . . . immense help from Sarah, she pretty much did it herself) write it during and immediately after the show . . . and then we performed it. Gosh, it sucked. I wish I hadn't done it. I may have soiled my reputation . . . That just makes me all the more determined to do something good for Cinderella . . . if only Zach were in that . . . but alas.

Anyway, after the skit, we had a prayer time and a short worship time, and then just some hanging out until it was time to go home. My shirt was totally reduced to trash . . . one part of the skit (Taylor's idea, of course) had been three girls attacking me and putting make-up on me (which didn't go too well, 'cause 1) they got powder in my eye and 2) they didn't do enough, so it wasn't funny at all). Well, Taylor, in trying to put lipstick on my face (but NOT on my lips . . . I made sure of that), somehow managed to miss my face entirely and got it on my shirt . . . along with a bunch of powder and some blue eyeliner . . . so now there's a giant pinkish mark on the shoulder of my shirt, and some weird blue lines.

Then, during the hanging out time, I got a bowl of ice cream (completely covered in chocolate syrup and peanuts and sprinkles . . . yummy), and was eating it when David came to pick up Sarah (who was sitting next to me talking to me while we ate), and I started talking to David, and was gesturing with the hand that held the ice cream . . . BAAAAD move. Never do that. Now, to accompany the pink and blue, there's a nice shade of brown running all down the front of it. On a gray shirt. Which I really liked. *sigh* Sometimes life just sucks, doesn't it?

So then I went home, and AJ was here. 'Cause his car wasn't working. So he was crashing here until it got fixed and he could go back to Fullerton. So he was here, and we hung out for a while, then it was bed-time.

Then, the next day was Monday. School. Wahoo. But also the most awesomest day in quite a while, because I FINALLY got to watch Episode III. Ahhh . . . good times. Then Monday night, I started to get a sore throat. “Uh-oh,” I said. Or thought, anyway, 'cause it hurt a little to talk. Tuesday came, and I felt pretty lousy . . . but I started feeling better as the day went on, so I went to Algebra class anyway. Wahoo. About halfway through I started feeling lousy again. But by then it was too late.

So I went home and took it easy for the rest of the day, and then I didn't go to debate on Wednesday. Thursday was a really bum day . . . 'cause I had Torrey class, and I had to finish a paper before it . . . so even though I felt REALLY lousy I still had to do school. *sob* After that, I just took it easy all day until six or so, at which point I went to Lifehouse, feeling a lot better.

Doing the show actually made me feel a LOT better. I don't know why, it usually makes me feel worse. But I felt a lot better afterwards. Then today . . . I feel better today, my throat is feeling better, although my nose is very clogged . . . *sigh* I hate being sick.

Anyway, today I slept in, and didn't go to dance (partly because I wanted to play it safe, partly because it was cancelled). I'm not going to go to fencing, either, just to make sure I feel okay for the show.

And tonight is Lit. Club, which I won't be able to go to . . . . AAAAHHH!!!! I READ THE SITHIN' BOOK IN FOUR DAYS FOR NOTHING!!! NOTHING AT ALL!!!!!

*ahem* So yeah. Now you're caught up. On to comments!!

((again, skipping a few))

David: “running running running like a constipated weener dog” is from a Weird Al song. It wasn't supposed to make any sense.

Rae: Yeah, I think that Esther is Lifehouse's best show, personally. If you come to see another one, it might be kind of a letdown after Esther . . . just to warn you. And stop using the accursed word!!! It was in my vocabulary, too, but I was able to get it out with ease!! (As were most of my friends . . . most of them don't say it around me anymore unless they're trying to bug me.)

Jessica: Ah! Jessica has returned to my blog! Huzzah! Yes, we did put quite a bit of work into it . . . especially Randy (who did all the lighting). Anyway, yeah, tap-dancing with you was a lot of fun. Bring your tap shoes next time! (And you like that picture WAAAY too much . . . my face is soo stupid . . .)

Megan: Will you shut up about the stupid tango men from New York?! I already told you, it's Dustin, what do you expect? (You gotta love the question mark, though . . .)

All the evil spam comments: *Strong Bad voice* WORD VERIFICATION'D!!!

Esther, Esther, Hebrew girl of righteous sovereignty . . .

2005-10-27T21:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, I'm SORRY ALREADY!!!!! You people are so demanding . . . ah, the struggles of a writer . . .

I'm fully aware that it has been two weeks. But you all just ASSUME that I have nothing else to do but blog. Which . . . is . . . usually true. But not this time! This time I've actually been very busy. Not a WHOLE lot to write about, mostly Esther rehearsals (and opening, woot woot!). But since all of you are longing so for an update, here it is.

After coming home from the Train Station, not a whole lot of special stuff happened, although Esther rehearsals were progressing nicely. They also mentioned that they have now done away with cast cleanup (woot woot again), and replaced it with a cast work day, in which the cast comes and helps John (and Randy, in this case) with the set. And since several of you at least probably don't know, John is the guy who does the sets for Lifehouse.

So yeah . . . rehearsals were pretty normal (or as normal as rehearsals can be), and we got the show finished and were just running running running (like a constipated wiener dog . . . *ahem*). On Friday night, they had a sign-up sheet for the work day, to tell what time we'd be there. I was planning on going at like 2 PM or so, but Sarah asked (rather forcefully) me to do it at 10 AM, because she didn't want to be the only person there. After much complaining and whining on my part, I consented, and signed up for 10-12.

It was actually quite fun. I was given the assignment of painting an arch. I was given a roller, some paint, and a gigantic cover-all. I learned a very valuable life lesson that day: Styrofoam is NOT easy to paint. Especially when it has weird little other-foam thingies on it that resist paint.

Or then again, maybe it's just me. But either way, it was difficult. But it was fun anyway (I've always enjoyed painting stuff, even though I'm terrible at it). Sarah was also assigned to painting an arch, and so we had a long conversation about many things (like fun things you can do in chemistry . . . like burn down a house . . .).

So that was pretty much that. After working, I went home and was pretty bored all day. I went online, hoping to talk to some interesting people, only to find that no one was online. Not even online and away, no one was even online. All sithin' day. It made me sad. I said to myself, “since when do any of my friends have anything better to do than sit at the computer all day??” But anyway, I pretty much spent the day wishing that people were online to talk to (I was really bored for some reason), and playing Madden.

Then Sunday came, and I got up and went to church. *shudder* Now, I usually enjoy church. But this Sunday (10/16) was the most boring service I've ever been to in my life . . . We had a lady come to talk to us who had gone to Texas to help with hurricane victims. She was given 15 minutes to summarize her trip. She stood up at maybe 10:30. She sat down at 12:30. 15 minutes would've been interesting. 2 hours was infuriating. And to any of you who know my dad, to show you just HOW boring it was, Dad actually stood up and left the room halfway through it and went and stood in the kitchen doing nothing, and had a better time than he'd had in the other room. And this is DAD doing this. I mean, if I did it, it wouldn't be a huge deal (in regards to showing how boring it was), or Josh, or even mom, but seeing Dad do that . . . yeah. It was awful. Mr. Von Helf joined him a bit later.

The stories could even have been interesting, but the lady was so incredibly disorganized, and not really a good public speaker . . . not to mention that she could've used a slice or two of humble pie, if you get my drift . . .

So anyway, yeah, that wasn't a whole lot of fun. Then we went home, and I watched football for a little while, then went to check my email and such (I didn't feel like blogging on Saturday or Sunday, since probably you folks will pounce on me about that . . . not to mention that there really wasn't enough to write a full update about). So anyway, I go on the computer, and STILL no one is online. Not even away. Just completely offline. “Grr,” says I.

So Sunday afternoon was pretty much the same as Saturday. Then came Monday. The start of the special time each show . . . that wonderful time when we all say good-bye to our families for a week . . . that fabulous time when we stew in three-layer costumes while Wayne and whoever the director is give notes for an hour . . . that joyous time when we all spend 5-6 hours each day at Lifehouse . . . yes. It was Heck Week.

But before I get into that, the daytime. School took up much of it, which was not cool. However, I started reading a very . . . special book. And by “special,” I mean “good but extremely disturbing at the same time.” It's called Descent into Hell, by Charles Williams. And perhaps I find it more disturbing than it really is. Who knows. Not I.

In any case, I started reading that on Monday, and then I finished school (I was reading the book for school), and went to check my email and blogs and such in the short amount of time I had before rehearsal. STILL no one online. At this point, I'm rather suspicious. One day is one thing. Three is another thing altogether. Especially over a weekend. My friends don't even have lives during the week. So I began to investigate . . . to see if maybe I accidentally told it not to separate my buddy list by availability or something.

Boy, I really outdid myself this time. In going through the preferences, I discovered the reason no one had been online all weekend. I had somehow (I have no idea how or when) managed to block every single person on my buddy list. Every single one of 'em. *sigh*

Anyway, rehearsal came rather quickly. We didn't have all of our costumes yet, so we just had a normal rehearsal, rather than a dress rehearsal. As far as I recall, it went pretty well. But I didn't have the prop that I had so longed for (which I won't say what it is, because that might possibly take away a bit from the show for those of you who haven't seen it . . . probably not, but you can't be too safe).

Tuesday was more of the same. Nothing really special, other than spending a LOT of time at Lifehouse. Still no prop.

Wednesday was the first ever dress rehearsal. I knew that my Haman's Guard costume was awesome, but unfortunately I discovered that I only wear that in a few scenes. For most of the scenes I'm just your average, every day, friendly neighborhood Persian. Which would have been fine, but for the fact that the costume had no shirt. It took me a minute to realize why. I was supposed to go shirtless, with just pants and a vest. I was unhappy about this. But I had no choice.

So the show went pretty well, considering it was our first time with costumes. Although I swear that one day that rope is going to kill me . . . and again, I cannot elaborate for fear of ruining something (gosh I love creating suspense :-D). You'll all find out, I'm sure, when you come see it. And to any who have seen it (aka David, I don't think anyone else who comments has seen it), who DO know what the rope is, not a word out of you. Don't ruin one of the most awesome moments (in my opinion) of the show.

Also, at the end of rehearsal, Wayne made the welcome announcement that he didn't like seeing twenty shirtless guys on stage. Megan (the costumer, not the one that reads this) said that we should go buy black tank tops to wear under the vests. I did, the next day.

Then came Thursday, again a rather normal day. Mom and I went to Fun Corner to buy make-up . . . remind me to never again buy make-up there for a show running during Halloween. It was very crowded. And that place is bad enough without lots of little kids running around. *shudder*

Rehearsal was, again, nothing overly special, although two of our future lighting people came to watch the rehearsal (for the two of you who know who they are, it was Nick and Lauren). Nick sat in a 15 seat. I got to harass him. It was fun.

Then, after rehearsal, Wayne was giving notes. He said that it was great being able to give “picky notes this early in the week” . . . on Thursday . . . which kind of scared me . . .

Then came Friday. On Friday morning, there was dance, as usual. I took Descent into Hell to read during ballet. I read like two pages in 45 minutes. It was pathetic. 'Cause they were all talking about things I was somewhat knowledgeable about (such as Esther), so I felt a need to participate in the conversation. Not like there was no one else in the dance class who knew about Esther . . . Sarah and Dimyana are both in my dance class and Esther, but hey. Anything to get out of doing school, right? (Although at the time I was actually somewhat obsessed with Descent into Hell . . . as disturbing as it is, it's an interesting story, and I was very curious to see how it ended. I was actually kind of disappointed when I finally got there . . . but that's a whole other conversation.)

So then, after dance, I went home and did school. Then, before I knew it, it was time for fencing. I got to Lifehouse about five-ten minutes late. (Stupid lines at Subway . . . they take forever. But I made a big difference in the “sandwich artist”s life . . . he said it was nice of me to ask how he was, and acknowledge that he was a human being . . . and he made a big deal about it and it took him like five minutes before he got around to asking what I wanted . . .) Even being late, I was the third one there. David was late (not surprising), and Josh was early (not surprising), and Megan was there (which WAS surprising). And this is the Megan who reads this, not the costumer. So she was working with Josh (or more Josh was working with her) learning about the basic stuff, while I just did moulets (or however you spell it . . . French word, pronounced moo-lay) and swoops and stuff while I waited for David or Michael to arrive so I could actually fight someone . . . finally Michael showed up, and then Josh and Michael switched places, and I fought Josh until David finally got there (twenty minutes late).

Once David got there, the two of us started slaving over our special sword-and-knife fight that we've been working on for the past several weeks. So that was fun . . . we actually made it through the whole fight without actually hurting the other person. It was the first time we'd been able to do that (and I've got the scars to prove it . . .).

We worked on that for a while, and then Josh and David started working on some physical fighting, and I was fencing with Megan for a while (no serious injuries to either one of us). Then 5:30 rolled around, and it was time for me to eat and head inside to the rehearsal. Sarah was there doing homework, so she agreed to eat with me, so that I wouldn't be all alone. Megan was supposed to leave at 5:30, but her ride wasn't there, so she also ate with us . . . well, she didn't really eat (except the Doritos that Sarah didn't want), but she was there.

Then it was time for rehearsal. I walked into the theater to find Debra and Taylor making my prop!! The prop that I had so longed for!! It made me very happy. Then we started rehearsal, and I think it went pretty well . . . they let us go home at like 9:45, so it couldn't have gone too bad . . .

Then. Saturday. Opening day. But since Esther is such a short show, Wayne told us we didn't have to be there until two. So I went out to breakfast with David, and it took a bit longer than I expected, and I was a few minutes late to Lifehouse.

Then our final rehearsal started, and I think it went really well. There really isn't much to tell. Over the dinner break, I stayed at Lifehouse (as usual), and ate with Sarah and the Tierces. Then I went onside, and was hanging out with Sarah in the make-up hall, when Rebekah Tierce walks in and says, “hey Mark, Taylor told me to bug you.” So she spent the next twenty minutes or so trying to bug me (she succeeded, too, although I made a point of not doing anything to her, knowing that she was just the messenger).

Then it was call time. The excitement began to rise. I asked Taylor what her motive for having Rebekah bug me was. She said, “well, I was walking by the make-up hall, and I thought 'I wonder if Mark might like to be annoyed right now.'” So she sent in Rebekah to make me happy.

After prayer and warm-ups and such, I had quite a long time between when I was ready for the show to start and when it actually started. So I was just hanging out backstage . . . and soundly got back at Taylor for having Rebekah annoy me . . . but I'll be nice and not publish it. If you REALLY want to know, you can ask me in private. That way she can't get mad at me for publishing it on the internet.

Anyway, for some reason I wasn't really all that excited about opening. I still don't really know why. A lot of people were depressed because Dustin (the director, if you don't remember) was leaving the next day for New York, where he got a job, so he won't see us again. *sniff sniff tear tear* I was kinda depressed about that myself, but I don't know Dusting as well as some cast members, so I didn't think that that was the whole reason I wasn't overly excited.

Then came the fateful call: “Places!” All of a sudden, I was really excited. I walked to my first entrance (saw Nathan on the way . . . told him to make sure his costume didn't pull the fire alarm :-P). Then the overture played. The lights went out. And the show began. It went really well, although Tedd (King Xerxes) messed up a line. But other than that it went well. Really not a whole lot can be said.

Then it was time for the traditional after-opening party at Denny's. Mother and I took Sarah, and we were the first ones there. We were joined shortly thereafter by Taylor (J. . . . not little female Taylor, big male Taylor). Then a little later female Taylor got there, and Matt, and Kelsey and Rachel . . . and lots of other people. But those were the folks sitting around me. We had lots of fun times doing stupid things . . . like playing rock-paper-scissors slap, and watching Taylor and Matt play paper football with a sugar packet. And I got a new expletive out of it! I'd been looking for something to say instead of “crap,” because everyone says that. I'd been saying “Cavarno,” but several people told me not to be mean to the person who's name that is, so I stopped. And anyway, at Denny's, I said “crap,” and Taylor (having one of her frequent blonde moments) said, “what? What the heck does cran mean??” So now “cran” is the word. So if you hear (or see) me saying it, you'll know what it means.

So after lots of silliness and randomness (and whacking), it was time to go home. So I did. Well, actually, I called mom, and she came and took me home. So then it was bed time. Since I was up so late on Saturday night, Mom told me I could sleep in on Sunday, so I did. Then I got up and started watching the Eagles game (final score: Eagles 20, Chargers 17, woot woot yet again). And at 12:30, it was time to depart for Lifehouse and do it all again.

Sunday's show also went well, Maria and Cedric and Carly were in the audience, so it was really responsive for a Sunday audience. Oh, and Cavarno was there, too. Although I think she might have been running lights. I'm really not sure. In any case, it was a good audience, and the show went well, too . . . although Shane missed his palace rounds, and I had to do it for him . . . humph.

So anyway . . . yeah. That's pretty much my life recently. Nothing much has happened this week, although . . . well I suppose I COULD go into what happened at debate . . . but this is already running a bit long.

So I'll just say: Disadvantages in debate ROCK. The guy who was teaching us about them was able to prove (in his DA) that if Ayla (a girl in debate . . . he was just using her as an example) eats McDonalds often, the entire American economy will collapse. It was so cool. Actually, it was kind of scary, but it was still cool.

Now, I'm sure that you all have had the Death Star content in your blood returned to healthy levels. So I shall advance to comments, and close there.

Okay . . . well, most of the comments don't really require replies . . . so I'm skipping quite a few.

Cormack: Well, hey . . . some of us don't have lives, and can spend time writing 6-page long updates, as evidenced by the one you just read. :-)

Eleanor: Yes, I rather liked the baseball scene, too . . . it was awesome, 'cause there were like 8 or 9 guys, and then there was this one girl who was like totally out of place . . . it was awesome.

Rae: Wait . . . Kyle read ALL of them? Like, all 52 or so?? Wow . . . and I thought I had no life . . .

(Final count: Pages: 6 Words: 3292)

Training for college: a stupid pun

2005-10-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

Well. The time has come, I suppose. Time to write a new blog entry. Now that I've officially chased everyone away by lack of posting . . . but it really isn't (entirely) my fault. I really have had very little free time lately.

Since I have like 4-5 weeks to catch up on, I'm going to skip all the minor little things and just get the three big things: seeing Ragtime, seeing Round Table (twice), and my weekend at the Train Station.

Before I get into that, since the primary thing in my life is Esther right now, just figured I'd say a few things about that. First: it's going well. Second: it's going to be AWESOME. Third: so y'all better come see it, or I'll be forced to resort to violence.

Oh! And when you come to see it, sit either in A 7-8 (to get pounded by the guards chasing Haman . . . and have Justin thrown into you) or 15 of almost any row (so that I can harass you).

Okay. Onto the big stuff.

First, Ragtime. A few weeks ago, I went with much of my dance class (minus Sarah, David, and Katrina and plus parents and Maria) to see a play called Ragtime at Performance Riverside. It was the story of a black man's struggle against death and injustice, and a story of the fight for equal rights, and other cheesy stuff like that.

It was really good, though. The choreography wasn't astounding, but the acting was really good. Or perhaps I was just too busy paying attention to the acting to really notice most of the choreography. But it didn't strike me as overly impressive.

And of course, like all good plays, it had a real car that was driven across the stage. Okay, so maybe it wasn't a real car. But it LOOKED like a real car, and it didn't look like there was any other way it was moving . . . unlike the Wardrobe, which had one door that mysteriously never opened. And guns. Ragtime had quite a few guns. At least like four people got shot. And one person beaten to death. And there was almost a huge explosion, but the main character saw reason a few minutes too early for that.

It was also surprisingly funny for a show of that type. There was one scene where a white guy wanted to help a gang of black people, so he went to their hideout place and was talking to the head guy (who also happened to be the main character), and there was a whole big song about how he (the white guy) wanted to say how he thought a great injustice had been done, how black people should have rights, and all this heroic stuff. But in the end, all he said was, “I know how to blow stuff up.”

Of course, that's probably not funny at all in writing. Get over it. Come see Esther. It'll more than make up for it.

So yeah. That was pretty much that. Afterwards, the Pelevs and Maria had to leave, but the Anackers and Mom and I went out to dinner at CBU (a weird place to eat, true, but it was actually really good). And, like every other parent in the world, the Anackers asked me how I like the “Biola thing,” which got us talking about books, which is always an interesting discussion with the Anackers (and I mean that in a good way).

Anyway, the next day, we went to see Round Table at Lifehouse. It's about a bunch of “quotable notables” (a Wayne phrase if ever one existed) who come from the past and have a long conversation.

Many people find it boring. I find it fascinating. Act I was Socrates, Martin Luther, Sigmund Freud, and Florence Nightingale. It consisted mainly of Luther and Freud debating, but the other two put their two cents in here and there. I personally found it extremely interesting (one thing Wayne's good at is doing his research, and the characters were very accurate) and very clever. There were also a few funny moments, such as when Socrates says to Freud, “You were so rejected in your own day that you had trouble finding work,” and Freud replies, “Yes. And you were so rejected in your day that you were executed.”

The second act wasn't as interesting, but I still liked it. It was Galileo Galilei (sp?), Charles Darwin, and Theodore Roosevelt. I was impressed with the second act, however, because Wayne actually allowed there to be a cuss word. I was astounded.

The highlight of the second act was actually when Galileo was talking about gravity. He had a gun, and was aiming it at Daniel (the sound tech) and talking about how long it'd take him to shoot and kill him. It was hilarious.

And actually, I just remembered something else that happened before the Train Station. We had Lit. Club last Friday. We were doing To Kill a Mockingbird, and I had forgotten all about it until that Sunday, so I had read the book in four days, and was happy that I finally got to see the long week of trudging through it (although, for the record, it was an awesome book, it's just that I was reading it practically non-stop all week) conclude in the Lit. Club. Seven o'clock (the starting time) comes and goes. No one shows up. Seth comes at about 7:09. Seth hadn't read the book (he'd had even less time to do so than me, so he just saw the movie). More waiting. Micah comes at about 7:14. Micah hadn't quite been able to finish the book, although he got most of the way through it. More waiting. More waiting. At 7:35, no one else has come. Dad decides that we'll do the book next time instead (much to my anger . . . I read the book in four days for nothing!!!!). But, so that Seth and Micah didn't come all that way for nothing, Dad felt that we had to do something. So we watched X-Men instead of discussing the book. It was a really good movie, but I don't feel like reviewing it, so I won't. But it was good.

Okay. That brings me to my weekend at the Train Station. If there are any out there who don't know, the Train Station is my brother's (and his friends') apartments (two — one for guys, one for girls). For this, I'm going to steal an idea of Megan's that I liked. I'm not going to go into detail about each little thing that happened, like I usually do, but instead I'm going to summarize it all in a long list of memorable moments and phrases. Here goes (and Megan, you can't kill me, because I gave you credit):

AJ late picking me up.
The “Man-walk.”
A girlfriend for AJ.
A long, serious discussion about family.
The “evil Anakin face.”
The secret attic.
66 different hugging combinations.
The Frog of Judgment.
Fun with AJ's camera phone and Jessica's hair.
A painful metal bar in the small of my back.
Bedtime: 4:00 AM.
Time to get up: 12:02 PM.
Weird bowls for cereal.
Mass cell-phone phonebook purging.
6 degrees of Kevin Bacon/Star Wars characters.
Star Wars violence.
Shooting myself in the head 11 times.
Unknowingly charging alone into the enemy stronghold.
Dying many, many times.
Yummy Dutch Pancakes.
More Star Wars violence.
Yummy chocolate Dutch Pancakes.
An inch between the dirty dishes and the faucet.
Stephen practicing throwing his sheath.
“Get out of the tree!!”
The Frog of Judgment - in the flesh.
Telepathically throwing cows around.
Stephen nearly killing Jessica.
Easy Mac.
Concept 6 wanting to sell CDs.
A weird flute-thingy.
Tuning a ukulele.
Breaking a ukulele while tuning it.
“Gap-a-goo.”
A completely black grilled cheese sandwich.
A not-so-black but just-as-ruined grilled cheese sandwich.
Yummy dessert crepes.
“I'd have thought that ultimate darkness would be more like” *kwosh* “That?”
“Benton . . . I'm going to have to turn you into a dog for a while.”
Doug's black shoes.
The gum-chewing aisle.
Farewell to the Train Station.

Many thanks go out to AJ, Stephen, Doug, Faye, Rae, and Jessica for their hospitality, to AJ for inviting me, to Stephen for letting me blow things up, to Doug for his shoes, to Faye for looking for AJ's g/f, to Rae for her fabulous cooking, and to Jessica for her hair, and of course for saving us from the Frog.

And I apologize if you wanted something a bit longer . . . but it was either this, or wait another day.

Sorry . . .

2005-10-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, everyone, I know I keep telling you that my posting will get more regular, and it never does. One day, one glorious day, I'll actually have time to post regularly. But I have had very very VERY little free time the past two weeks.

And although I may have misunderstood some comment conversation, I have no intention of permanently discontiniuing either deep thoughts OR regular journal-like entries. I simply have no time to write either of them at the moment.

Perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps Sunday, I'll finally have time and get y'all up to speed. But until such a time as that, I really am sorry. Farewell for now.

DT #1: Blue skies, smiling at me . . .

2005-09-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, seeing that DTs are new, I decided to start off with a question that many have asked through the ages, one that has puzzled the greatest thinkers and scientists of many ages:

“Why is the sky blue?”

Of course, I'll immediately have certain people jumping on me, telling me the scientific explanation, which is something like human eyes having only a small range of vision in terms of color, and we see the sun glinting off the water droplets in the Gamma quadrant of sector four as described in the 77th law of thermodynamics, and nuclear fusion in the sun which causes our eyesight to lessen, and so when that happens we're left with the theory of cold fusion to repair our eyesight, and blah blah blah and so on and so forth for hours and hours. I, however, do not believe this explanation to be true.

Well, perhaps it is. But certainly there is either a better way to put it, so that laypeople can understand it, or an alternate explanation for those of us who do not memorize 77 laws of thermodynamics. I shall do my best to locate this explanation and pass it on to you.

“Why is the sky blue?” Well, there is, certainly, one more explanation that immediately pops into mind. “Why is the sky blue? Because it is, that's why.” However, perhaps we should examine the question a bit more.

The question “Why is the sky blue?” immediately implies three things: 1) There is a sky, 2) it is blue, and 3) there is a reason for this. I believe we can all agree that #1 is true. Now, that brings us to number 2. Naturally, one would say, “Ah, but we can also see that number 2 is true. All we need do is look up into the sky.” However, I believe it is also safe to say that our vision is not infallible. Also, the sky is not always blue. We look up at night, we see a blackness, punctured by little spots of light. We look up in mid-January, we may see a gray sky.

“The grayness is not sky,” you will say. “The grayness is clouds.” Ah, but what, then, is sky? Is sky not the expanse that stretches above the earth? If that is true, then clouds fill that expanse, and are therefore not sky. However, if we work with this hypothesis, we could also say that the blueness is not sky, either, but is merely something that fills sky.

If we really want to get right down to it, one could argue that there is no substance nor color that can truly be called “sky.” “Sky” is, then, nothing but an idea, a belief, something that we believe to exist that we cannot explain. “Sky” is not so very unlike the Matrix.

Or maybe it is. Maybe I just totally related a statement to something it does not describe. But I like the Matrix, and so I shall assume that I am right. And if this idea of “Sky” is not unlike this thing we call the Matrix, does that not mean that “Sky” stars Keanu Reeves?
Ah-HA! And therein lies the connection. No, not Keanu Reeves. Stars. Both Sky and the Matrix have stars. Thus they ARE similar. However, we are back to assuming that Sky is the expanse above the earth, which contains stars. But that's okay, because we now have a deeper understanding of it, now that we see its connection to the Matrix.

Now, if we want to get deep into the Matrix to try to discover why the sky is blue, we must naturally inspect the colors of the Matrix. In the Matrix, two colors stand out above all others: black and green. And what do you know? We have already said that the sky is black at night.

Could we not, then, assume that the sky is not, in fact, blue, but green? Perhaps we could, perhaps we couldn't.

At this point, you are no doubt exclaiming “The sky is blue! What is all this crap about the Matrix??” And I say to you that in the Matrix, there is a sky, and this sky is blue. And we see thus that within its very self, the sky is blue. The sky's mental projection of it's digital self is blue.

Therefore, in its own mind, the sky is blue. And we, as mere outside observers, cannot be more reliable then the thing we are observing as far as that goes. And so I trust the sky to tell me that yes, the sky is blue.

“Why is the sky blue?” Because the sky said so. And that oughta be good enough for you.

Of Persia and Princesses

2005-09-17T20:43:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, so I know I went over six days, sorry, sorry, GOSH. I was pretty busy this week. From here on out, it’ll probably get more regular, though, as I begin doing DTs.

Okay. So I left off after Esther orientation, I believe. Firstly, I want to say that I did Esther for three main reasons: 1) I knew that if I wasn’t in it I probably wouldn’t see Jason for a long time, 2) I knew that if I wasn’t in it I probably wouldn’t see Maria for a long time, 3) I knew that if I wasn’t in it Sarah would kill me. So I was happy that I got to be in it because I would be in another show with those three people.

Well, much to my EXTREME HAPPINESS, both Jason and Maria dropped. So now the only remaining reason of the original three that I was in the show is Sarah.

All of this is said to set up a story. Because of both Jason and Maria dropping, I was seriously contemplating dropping myself and risking my death at Sarah’s hand. I’ve wanted to be in Esther for four and a half years (because it’s such a freaking cool show), but it totally ruins the experience for me if I don’t have many friends in it. So I thought, “well, I had the opportunity to be in it, but most of my close friends aren’t in it, and some of my close-ish friends that I was doing the show for dropped, so maybe I’ll just drop myself and audition next time they do Esther.”

And probably, that’s what I would’ve done. Had it not been for the sheer genius of a great man named Dustin.

Dustin is the choreographer and the assistant director, and he’s pretty much without a doubt (for me, anyway) the best choreographer that Lifehouse can possibly hope to get.

So on Monday we had a choreography rehearsal, and we were choreographing the Finale. At this point, I was considering dropping, but I didn’t know for sure if Jason had dropped, so it wasn’t a major issue. So this rehearsal was somewhat fun, and rather tiring. There’s really not much to tell. If you want to see how it looks, come see the show.

Then Tuesday night we had a vocal rehearsal, which are always boring. For the first time in my memory, I’m not singing harmony in this show. It rocks. Because I really have no idea how the songs go. So singing harmony would be rather difficult, since I don’t even know the melody.

Anyway, it was at this rehearsal that I discovered that Jason wasn’t doing it, and so it was Tuesday night into Wednesday that I really began considering dropping. And now I must put this story on hold to tell you of what happened on Wednesday before rehearsal, so mark this story well so that you don’t forget it.

Okay. On Wednesday I had my first debate club meeting. It was informational, not a whole lot happened . . . I think it’s going to be fun, though. Although I’m not sure how many tournaments and stuff I’ll get to do . . . Lifehouse might get in the way, and Lifehouse is a higher priority for me.

So anyway, we had the meeting, and I saw some of my friends from the debate camp I did over the summer. I actually think the chances are rather high that I’ll end up partnering with one of them . . . we’ll have to see. Anyway, it was interesting to see the people who were counselors at the camp as just regular students . . . but some of them are really cool, and I hope to become friends with them . . . and gosh that was kind of an out-of-place sentence there, wasn’t it?

Anyway, after this I got home just in time to eat and go to rehearsal. At this point I was really really really considering dropping, and thought that there was a chance that this was my last rehearsal. (End Cormack Reading — Day 1, if you like cliffhangers)

This rehearsal was for the “13th of Adar” people, aka Haman’s henchmen. Of which I, of course, was one. So I got there, and there was Matt, and Zack, and Jeremy, and Nathan, and Ben standing around outside. Matt asked me what I was doing there. He asked it in a kind of joking way, so as not to offend me, but I think he was actually wondering. ‘Cause since I got in the show after auditions, no one (other than Dustin and [thankfully] me) knew who I was. So that question kind of strengthened my thought of, “I really should drop.” I felt like I was just kind of in the way.

Then we went inside and started rehearsal with prayer (and Dustin telling us scary things about his foot . . . he has some kind of rare skin disease). Then Dustin told us that we were going to choreograph the Thirteenth of Adar and Haman’s Welcome that night. The first one is a song when Haman determines when he’s going to kill all the Jews, and the second one is a fun song at the start of Act 2 where Haman tells the audience that Act 2 is going to rock.

As often happens, we got onstage and started learning choreography, and everything else kind of went out of my mind. Including my thoughts of dropping, for the moment. Again, if you want to see the choreography that we did, you’ll have to come see the show. But it’s freakin’ awesome. All of us guys worked so hard . . . we were all literally dripping at the end of rehearsal. Which I guess isn’t actually all that impressive. But yeah. It was hard.

So anyway, because we were working so hard, and because the choreography was so cool, we were having a blast and really bonding with each other. Then we started doing the second song, and it’s seriously going to be one of the coolest choreographed songs in Lifehouse history, I think. It’s very hard, and very physically taxing, but it’s really fun.

I got home that night, and I took a shower before going to bed. As I was brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed, I remembered that I was considering dropping. I thought back over the rehearsal, over how fun it had been, how hard it had been, how much I’d bonded with the other guys. And I said to myself, “Well, I’ve made up my mind. I’m not dropping.”

Not like any of you really care, but that’s the story. Since the main purpose of this blog is to chronicle the ever-continuing story of my life, I figured I should tell y’all. (End Cormack Reading — Day 2)

Now let’s see, what happened after that . . . well, on Thursday, I woke up, and my leg was so sore from the previous night that I could barely walk . . . that wasn’t fun. Thankfully, I didn’t have rehearsal that night, so I didn’t have to move very much.

I had my second Torrey (Biola program thingy) class on Thursday, and things started to get interesting . . . the first class had basically been spent covering the stuff that the tutor was unable to cover in orientation. We were discussing Genesis on Thursday, and we spent most of the time making a summary of it. He (the tutor) had us each take three or four chapters and try to summarize them in four words or less. It was interesting. Then he was asking us about what Genesis as a book was about, and then what we thought the author’s purpose in writing the book was. So it was interesting, but not overly so.

Which brings us to Friday, yesterday. As usual, there was no rehearsal on Friday night. However, Rachel and Preston and I had arranged to go see Preston in Once Upon a Mattress at Heartland Players, then have a slumber party (if three people can be called that) at Preston’s house afterwards. So Rachel and I went to see the play, and I of course must review it.

I can describe the essence of the play in 8 words: The Most Freakin’ Hilarious Thing I’ve Ever Seen. Basically, it’s the story of the Princess and the pea, but they say that we all hear the fairy tale, but here’s what REALLY happened. It’s awesome . . . the prince is a total wus and idiot . . . the king is under a curse and can’t talk, so he has to pantomime everything, and the princess is from the swamp, and is more manly than the prince.

The main plot is much the same as the fairy tale, only funnier. There’s also a subplot involving a knight (Sir Harry, played by none other than Dustin) and his girlfriend, who can’t get married (by law) until after the prince is married. Which wouldn’t be funny at all were it not for Dustin’s incredible acting ability.

In any case, the king is the best character, and is made even better by the fact that he was played by none other then *snicker* Steve, the director of Oliver. It’s actually probably the most difficult part to play in the show, because he can’t open his mouth when he’s onstage (until the curse is broken at the end). But he’s really funny to watch, because he does all of his lines like a game of Charades with the person he’s talking to. And my favorite part . . . were it not for the king’s being mute, I probably wouldn’t have thought it should even be in the play. But it was sooo funny. The king has to have “the talk” with the prince, but this is made difficult because the king cannot talk. Of course, it would be easy to turn that into a very inappropriate scene. But they didn’t. They had the king trying to speak in examples, which was quite amusing as the prince is a total idiot. “Okay . . . there’s a boy flower, and a girl flower . . . and there’s a seed . . . and it becomes a baby flower . . . I . . . I don’t get it.” (End Cormack Reading — Day 3)

So yeah. It rocked. After the play was over, Rachel and I were hanging out in the lobby talking to people we knew from the show while we waited for Preston. Then finally Preston came out, and his mother arrived, and we went back to his house.

It was a lot of fun, but there’s really not a whole lot to write about. We spent most of the time just talking, or playing video games, or watching movies. We had a few . . . interesting moments . . . Preston needs new blinds in his room now. But hey, that’s what you get for giving me a stick.

I had planned to give a list of funny quotes, but I forget what they all were. I remember only one, and here it is:

“WHEN did I get a dog??”

And even that isn’t really very funny without context. So I shall now move on to comments:

Stephen: Really? You mean that if I wanted to publish a book of all my blog entries, it’s possible that I would get in legal trouble? That really sucks . . . and that’s the only part of your comment that I understood. Advanced science (or whatever it was . . . physics, possibly?) is beyond me.

Rae: Uh-oh . . . well I’d hate for people to come to my blog and end up in smurfville. . . . And what fall retreat are we speaking of, exactly?

Cormack: How can you possibly MISS math????

Megan: Okay, okay, I’ll admit, I’m a hypocrite. So sue me. And if you look closely, you’ll notice that I mentioned the start of school in my last post, just not at length ‘cause I was too depressed about it to write a whole lot on it.

The Death Star

Of Arks and Chair-like Box Thingies

Two Weeks Later

Another Post!!!

An Apology to My Fans

All Hail Rae

A Typical Two Weeks in Redlands

Reports of My Demise were Greatly Exaggerated

This is a clever title.

Of Men and Mud

Quips, Quotes, and Quandries (or not)

I'm ALIVE!!!

What do Romeo and a slumber party have in common?

Beauty and the Heat

Sunday, Sweaty Sunday

My blog, my blog, I have not forsaken thee!

My blog, my blog, I have not forsaken thee!

I'm not even gonna try . . .

Despite what it may seem, this is not an update

Despite what it may seem, this is not an update

An X-Tremely Stupid Title

I know what you're thinking

Three Birthdays and a Wedding

And here it is!!!

Hi-diddly-dee, a blogger's life for me.

Happy New Year — Death Star Style

The long-awaited next post, in all its 7-page glory

DT #2: Don't get stuck in a not-so-hot-spot.

*insert awesomely witty and hilarious title here*

Esther, Esther, Hebrew girl of righteous sovereignty . . .

Training for college: a stupid pun

Sorry . . .

DT #1: Blue skies, smiling at me . . .

Of Persia and Princesses

insert awesomely witty and hilarious title here