So, here we go. The time has come again for me to get tired of the design of my blog and redo it all. It happens. This redo is a little more than just a different look. This one comes with a few useful adjustments. For one, the stuff that actually changes fairly regularly has been moved to the top of the front page. Twitter and Flickr are right up there at the top.
Second, the text got really big, or rather it stopped being really small. For a long time people, myself included, have felt the need to shrink text until its tiny. This makes it harder to read and is just completely unnecessary. If this is the sort of thing you enjoy, you can read more about the 100E2R idea at Information Architects. For the rest of you, just enjoy the fact that you don’t have to strain your eyes to read my stuff. I also switched to using a more rigid grid system. You notice that as you scroll down the page, certain stuff lines up all the way down the page. Isn’t typography fun?
The other thing I did was make the comments a little more noticeable. There is probably more coming in that regard, but for now, there is that big link to the side of the articles. I last change was to make a little better separation between the long comment posts and the short link posts so they don’t all run together.
Things are a little hard to test so, if you see stuff that looks wrong: overlapping text, screwy layout, non-functioning stuff, certain pages that look completely different, leave a comment and let me know so I can fix it. Have fun.
So the last couple of years, I have been going with a theme of sorts as my Christmas list. This does a couple of things. First, I know it isn’t easy to buy gifts for me, this makes it much simpler. Second, it makes it pretty easy to come up with a list that is just a bunch of expensive stuff. Third, people can go with the theme, and I still get to be completely surprised.
That being said, this year, if you are wanting to get me something, but can’t decide what, feel free to go ahead and get me a board game or two. I recently became aware that Amy and I have almost zero board games. This was particularly obvious when we were trapped in our house for 3 days by a hurricane with no reliable electricity.
So today is special for two reasons. One, its my mother’s birthday, but she lives overseas right now, so its kinda hard to call her. I tried last night, and I will try again tonight, but in case I miss her, Happy Birthday Mom! Two, this is the four month anniversery of my wife becoming my wife, and I have loved every minute of it. I love you, Babe!
[Update] Apparently, I forgot about October. It’s been five months since I got married. You should forgive me.
In a world where the seas were angry, seven brave souls set out in defiance of that aquatic anger. Our goals for that day were two fold, to escape the murderous rioting mobs roaming the crowded battlefields some know as shopping malls, and more importantly to claim the seas as our own by capturing it’s beasts for our own consumption. Not only did we succeed, we succeeded in high fashion. Even the smallest among us, my sister, handily speared the bait fish skull and outwitted a fish to his detriment just moments after we arrived at our first location. At the conclusion of the epic battle between grad student and lane snapper, her mark, a single slash through the head, was made on the fish. Her thirst for fish carnage awakened, she dove back into battle. One by one each of the seven showed their worth on the battleship. The port side of the ship echoed for hours with victory cries. From the galley, sodas ran free; on the deck, fish blood ran equally as free.
Both my brother and my sister, found some of their captures to be too weak to disgrace our table. Those fish were slaughtered and thrown back to drive fear into the cold blooded hearts of our enemies. Still other captured fish we deemed to excel too much in our game of cat and mouse. Having gained our respect, we released them back into the world to go on their way so that we may meet and fight again. One such sea monster was brought aboard by our captain, Peter of Brookeville, son of Charles. His prisoner of war had to have been yay big, no, it was certainly larger by far than that. Why it must have been 25 pounds if it was 1!
Some of our starboard compatriots also had quite the day in battle. Some of their spoils of war included sea bass, snapper, grouper, triggerfish, barracuda, shark, and stingray. As for us, in the end we found 3 fish worthy enough to grace our table, all lane snapper, caught by my sister, brother, and his fiance.
As the day died out, we traveled home. Our hands covered in scales and the blood of fish; our minds and stomachs thinking of the feast that was to come. As we sailed into the harbor, my wife stood on the shore, waving us home. Happiness. This day we fought, this day we won. This Friday was only black for those who live beneath the seas.
PS: Sarah, that is the way you tell fishing stories.
I had a long-ish post mostly written about how I hardly ever get cast in parts I really want, which is entirely different from getting parts which I enjoy. It also said something about how, regardless of how disappointing it is for me personally, it has been my observation that the director almost always chooses someone that is better for the part in the long run. But then I deleted the whole thing and saved you from reading 3 paragraphs of my quasi-whining, while still getting the same point across. You can thank me later. On a side note, if any directors out there in Central Florida are looking for a very old Artful Dodger for Oliver, or Jack from Into the Woods, or any speaking part from Jekyll & Hyde, give me a call.
The observant will have noticed that I sort of just mentioned that I did not end up getting any speaking part in CVP’s current production of Jekyll & Hyde. I did however end up with a collection of solos and trios throughout the chorus numbers. Last night we had the first run through, and I can tell you this is going to be a crazy show. I was sitting on the floor, in a rehearsal room (not the actual stage) with a piano in the way, with no costumes, props or lights, and the death of Lucy still creeped me out a little. We open in two weeks, and run for at least 3 (maybe more) and if you can, you should definitely see me about getting tickets.
The last thing I wanted to mention concerned the audition for this show. I was called back along with 10 or so guys to audition specifically for Jekyll/Hyde. It was, by far, the longest, most intense audition I have ever been a part of. Each one of us did the second half of This is the Moment, and the entirety of Confrontation. The Confrontation, in particular, was just crazy. I know the song forwards and backwards so I did it completely off book, and have very little idea of what I actually did. It was completely adrenelin. I do know at one point I realized I was up on my toes, and one of my legs was jumping uncontrollably. Afterwards, the director made a comment about how getting a taste of the part would make it harder to not get the part. Most of the time, I would completley agree. Most parts, once I want them, getting to do a little bit of it would just make me want to do it all the more. In this case, I am not sure that is the case. It might have only been like 15 people watching, and it certainly wasn’t anywhere near perfect, but as an actor I think it was one of the most “real” moments I have ever experiened on stage. I was Jekyll/Hyde. The only time I have had that kind of rush, that kind of natural high while on stage was the final megamix of my final performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat at the Greenwood Community Theatre. It was our last show. It was the final show of our director of 10 years. When that happens it’s greater than a single show. It’s for more than the audience. It’s the reason I do theatre. So, yeah, it was a good audition.
It took awhile, but I need a new list now.
things to find
Uhhhhh uhhhhgghgh ughhhh uggggg. Day 4. I believe I have reached my fitness level. I finished all the required pushups. But just barely. ugggh hhgggg
Well Friday came and went. So did 63 pushups, but only barely. It was enough to move on to week two. Now time to rest for a couple days, you know, the kind of rest you can get when you are trying to finish up a project demo in time for a conference at work, and trying to move out of the apartment you have been living in for 3 years, oh and getting married in less than a week. That kind of rest.
After the first day, I didn’t feel much until late last night, at which point I felt like my upper body had been punch a few times too many. It is entirely possible I am not very fit. Regardless, day 2 arrived and I more than made it through what was asked of me. The total for the day was 57 pushups, though that came with a number of rests that went a little over the recommended 90 seconds. Also of note, Amy has started doing this with me, so I might actually keep with it. She is starting out a little behind me in terms of number of pushups since she has a hard time with doing full pushups, but we are both defintily working on getting to a 100.
The personal challenge of doing 100 consecutive push-ups has begun. In the initial test, I was able to do 17. That put me in the highest level going into the first week, which means that I did 43 push-ups just now, and my arms are a little wobbly. More to come on Wednesday.