skipthehero.com

The Waiting Game

2009-06-18T11:59:00.005-05:00

only a day away...

Tomorrow (Friday, June 19, 2009), my patience will finally pay off.

The first iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. A little over a year later, on July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G along with the ability to run iPhone OS native Applications (Apps) purchased from the App Store via iTunes. Then again, Apple updated the hardware and announced the iPhone 3G S on June 8, 2009, with an unprecedented release date of June 19, 2009.

I've been with AT&T since January of 2000. Which means, I was there when the company switched from BellSouth Mobile to Cingular; when Cingular bought out AT&T wireless; and when AT&T reacquired its cellular services by taking over Cingular. I've had 2 different Nokia phones and 3 different Motorola phones. All of which have served me well. The last one, my RAZR being my pocket companion throughout my desire for the iPhone.

When my 2 year contract was up, I started getting wind that Apple would soon release new hardware. So I waited.

My patience was rewarded on June 8, 2009, during the Keynote presentation at the WWDC 2009 in San Francisco, when Apple announced the iPhone 3G S. I ordered my phone on Apple's website that night, and it has been a torturous two weeks.

Tomorrow, Fed Ex will deliver my new iPhone to my apartment. And my patience and loyalty will not have been in vain.

St. Louis: Work So Far

2009-06-09T15:41:00.003-05:00

working beneath the stainless steel arch.

I've been in St. Louis for 6 1/2 weeks, now. I've worked hard, and tried to play just as hard.

Little Shop of Horrors opened at the end of May to great success. The show is really fun, energetic, and the music is VERY catchy. It's one of those shows that I have a difficult time getting tired of.

There are some really neat elements to the show. Obviously, the man-eating-plant is a sight-to-beheld. Lighting-wise, there wasn't a lot of neat effects that we had to mess with. The stand-outs are the giant LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS sign that lights up and changes colors, and various windows that light up. A big project that I wired up were a bunch of solenoids, which are electro-magnetic actuators, that release vines all around the theater house for the big finale of the show.

Since Little Shop opened, the build crew has been busy at work on The Drowsy Chaperon. This week, the lighting crew gets a hold of it. Apparently there's fiber-optics on a bunch of the walls. We used Fiber last year on ALL of the walls for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The effect actually got "oohs" and "ahs" and applause, something that rarely happens with lighting (in my experience).

Toilet Epiphanies

2009-05-10T09:23:00.002-05:00

Musings from "the can".

All bathrooms should have reading material. A magazine is preferable due to the length of its articles. A book with short chapters would work as well, such as The DaVinci Code. Nothing that you can't easily put down when "business is finished".

Homemade Pimento Cheese Spread

2009-04-15T16:26:00.003-05:00

a homemade recipe.

Ingredients:

2 parts Velveeta Cheese, Chopped
1 part Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded
Pimentos, Diced
Miracle Whip
Mayonnaise

Notes:

- I buy the Velveeta Cheese in sliced form and the sharp cheddar in "finely shredded" form to make things easier.
- If you're going to use 8 oz of Velveeta (the 2 parts), use 4 oz of Sharp Cheddar (the 1 part). To make more, simply use more, for example 16oz Velveeta to 8 oz Sharp Cheddar.
- Most of this recipe is based on individual tastes and hasn't be actually measured out.

Directions:
1. Chop or grate the Velveeta Cheese into tiny pieces. Grate the sharp cheddar.
2. Add Velveeta and Sharp Cheddar cheeses to a bowl.
3. Add some Miracle Whip (to taste) and stir until the cheeses are mixed.
4. Add Mayonnaise (to taste) to create a more spreadable / smoother consistency.
5. Add diced pimentos (to taste).

Serving Suggestions:
Can be used as a cracker topping, or put on bread and make a sandwich. Sometimes I like to make Ham and Pimento Cheese sandwiches. :)

Enjoy!
If you liked this recipe, or have an interesting tweak or serving suggestion, feel free to drop me a line in the comments section.

The New Jersey Chronicles: Part III

2009-03-23T08:54:00.001-05:00

The Return! (dun, dun, duuuuuuun)

Originally, my flight was supposed to be leaving back out of Newark Airport on Wednesday evening. Well, since we kind of lost the first day to "travel funk" and none of us were particularly productive, Matt asked us if we'd mind staying one more night, so that we had ALL of Wednesday to work. We all agreed and Matt set to changing our flight plans. The only thing they had available the next day out was at 8:00am. Oh, and the four of us minus Tanny were flying out of Laguardia.

Tanny had his own problems. In the end, he had to take a train from Newark to Philly to catch his flight out (the connecting flight was in Newark).

So we all worked on Wednesday, and the plan was as follows:

- at 2am, we'd stop working. Tim would drive Tanny to Newark in the car I rented from there, drop the car off and catch some "zzz"s. Matt stayed to finish up some of his projects. Robert and I went back to the hotel to pack and catch an hour and a half of sleep.

- at 5am, Matt would pick Robert and I up at the hotel. Then we'd drive to the Newark Aiport to pick up Tim, who'd been hopefully catching some sleep on some seats.

- once we picked Tim up, the four of us drove to LaGuardia in the second rental car to drop it off and catch our flight out.

The plan worked pretty well, with the only hickup being we almost didn't allow enough time to drive through Manhattan. :(

We caught our flight from LGA to ORD (NY to Chicago) and Matt had actually upgraded us all to window seats so we could catch some sleep. The beautiful thing about my flight from NY to Chicago was that I had a 3 seat row ALL TO MYSELF! It was beautiful.

We landed in Chicago, looked to the big board for our flights, and luckily, mine out was in the same concourse! I unfortunately was confused by the time-zone difference for a moment and thought my plane was already boarding. So I rushed down to the opposite end of the concourse and saw that they weren't boarding for another hour. So the flight left at LOCAL time... not what-ever-time-Scott's-watch-is-set-to.

The flight from ORD to CMH (Chicago to Columbus) was another where I had the row all to myself. Which meant I had rows all to myself the whole round trip. (my two flights into Newark were smaller planes with one side only having one seat in the row)

Next... conclusions...

The New Jersey Chronicles - part II

2009-03-21T17:36:00.004-05:00

Getting there...

I've traveled a decent amount, I'd say, mostly by car, but occasionally by airplane. CSG was flying me out of Port Columbus International Airport with a final destination of Newark, NJ, where I was to meet up with another guy (Tanny), get a car, and head to Rockaway, NJ.

Airport:CMH [Port Columbus International]
First of all I woke up at 3am in order to make it to the airport by 4:30am for my 6am flight out of Columbus. Everything went smoothly, even though TSA searched my backpack since I was carrying on tools (all of which were smaller than the 7" length limit as stated on the TSA website), they were concerned about my wrench, pulled it out, and decided I wasn't a threat, returned it to the bag, and sent me on my tired little way.

The flight out of CMH was headed to Dulles (Washington D.C.). It was a short flight, very smooth.

Airport:IAD [Washington Dulles International]
We landed, and I look at the big board to find out what gate to catch my connecting flight to Newark. Next to my flight number and destination (in big yellow letters) it says, "CANCELLED".

Crap.

I go to the customer service kiosk, pick up the phone and work on getting a flight to Newark. The (nice) lady on the other end tells me that there's not another flight to Newark until the next day. I told her that wasn't going to work - I had to be there TODAY. Eventually (somehow) she found a flight for me leaving Dulles at 12:30pm. Originally I was supposed to be in Newark around 9-9:30am. With the new flight, I wouldn't be getting in until 2:00pm.

A flurry of phone calls were made. Three of the guys were flying into Laguardia, and Tanny and I were flying into Newark. Tanny was already at Newark, he was waiting there for when I landed so we could get the car and head to the church (30 minutes away). In the end, the solution was the guys landing in LaGuardia would swing by and get Tanny. I would grab the car when I landed and head to the church. Cool.

I grabbed my flight out of Dulles with no further incident.

Airport: EWR [Newark International]
Upon arrival in Newark, I grabbed my checked suitcase (which miraculously made it to Newark), and headed for the tram that would take me to the rental car place. When I arrived at the rental counter, something had gone wrong with the whole switching the reservation into my name deal, and in the end, I ended up putting the car on a credit card.

The neat thing about the place where we got the car from is when I showed the attendant my reservation, he pointed at an aisle and said, "Choose a car from this aisle."

I drove a 2009 Chevy HHR around NJ for four days. Pretty sweet.

Next... The Return Trip and conclusions.

The New Jersey Chronicles

2009-03-20T18:23:00.002-05:00

business, no pleasure

Went to New Jersey with Church Solutions Group to work on an install for Christ Church in Rockaway, NJ. Never heard of it? Don't worry, people i know from NJ hadn't heard of it, either.

My portion of the gig was to work on the lighting system for the church. There were some ups and downs about this system.

The ups - I learned the basics of working with a new lighting console, the ETC ION. The really neat thing about it is it has touch-screen functionality. I love learning new gear and figuring out how things work, so this was really the fun part for me.

The downs - the church was going for a "broadcast" feel for their lights. They planned on broadcasting their service to a satellite location. To them, this meant all the lights needed to be white light. BORING. In addition to that, the ceilings were low which created kind of a "deer-in-the-headlights" lighting angle to the people onstage. The Senior Pastor complained about this, and so MUCH though and work went into figuring out how to keep that from happening while still getting plenty of light on the stage.

It was pretty fun. Mostly because two of the other guys who were working on the install were people from my church in Lexington who I hadn't worked with in about a year. It kind of felt like a bit of a reunion.

So that's just what was going on when I got there. I had a whole mess of problems GETTING to NJ in the first place... more on that later.

Fun, Friends, and Food

2009-03-16T04:20:00.001-05:00

...and landing jobs!

The past week has been a whirlwind of friends, news, and activities.

I left Ohio on Monday to head out west to visit Kirsten during her spring break. We had a blast! We went rock climbing at Upper Limits, hosted a beer and burger party at which I made my amazing burgers on the Forman grill, visited City Museum, and saw “The Watchmen” at a really cool movie theatre that had nothing but comfy leather couches for seating.

On Thursday, my patience paid off, and the production manager at Stages called to talk about the 2009 season. After a phone call, and a couple of emails, I’m heading back to St. Louis for work starting April 27th.

Heading back east, I stopped in Richmond for a visit with Dustin, Katie, and Xander for a night before heading to Lexington for a couple night visit with Logan and his fiancee Kristin, which is highly confusing me when I’m talking about her and my lady friend in the same sentence.

My last day in Lexington, I went to Sunday service at St. Awesome’s. I got to visit with a few friends from church and a few of us went out for an amazing lunch at a mexican restaurant. What was even a bigger blessing that day, was that I was offered a gig for this week. So Monday through Wednesday, I’m going to be going to New Jersey with a company called Church Solutions Group. They consult with churches and install audio, video, and lighting for worship. It should prove to be a lot of fun and hard work, a mix I tend to enjoy!

True Tales of Txt-ing

2009-03-03T20:44:00.004-05:00

OMG. I'm an idiot.

The following conversation is not made up.

Dustin: You don't happen to need some contacts, do you? ;)

Scott: Not really. Just ordered some last week. Why?

Dustin: Well.... I have some here that I'm pretty sure are your prescription, a whole box as a matter of fact. :)

Scott: [thinking Dustin found an old box that I might have left there.] Haha! Throw them away. They're probably an old prescription.

Dustin: But they just came in the mail.

Scott: [A realization] What!? Oh crap!

Quickly pulling up the shipment confirmation email from 1-800 contacts, I discovered that I had changed my billing address... but not my SHIPPING address.

...yup.

new "kicks"

2009-02-24T16:28:00.004-05:00

good-bye soggy feet!

Bought some new shoes today for the first time in... well, I can't exactly remember! My old shoes (which are near and dear to my heart) have no tread left, the insides are worn down to a plastic inner shell, holes in various parts of the top, and slits in the bottom that allow ANY amount of moisture that might be on the ground into my shoe. Here are my new sneaks in all their new-nian glory.

Vegas Valentine

2009-02-21T17:49:00.000-05:00

sans Vegas...

This Cupid's day was one of the most fun I can remember. I've only been in a relationship during two Valentine Day's ever, and the rest I've been single.

This time, I had the fortune to have an amazing person offer me some comps to a hotel near Louisville, KY. No ordinary hotel, no. It was the hotel connected to the Horseshoe Casino just across the river from "the ville". This deal was offered to me since it is pretty much equa-distant from Columbus and St. Louis.

So Kirsten and I were able to have a much nicer Valentine's weekend than we normally would've (due to either poor-college status or in-between-job status that Kirst and I have).

Friday we met in Louisville at my big brother's house. We stayed there friday night and headed over to the hotel/casino on Saturday afternoon.

On Saturday we explored what was basically a town unto itself in middle-of-nowhere, Indiana. Saturday night we enjoyed going to dinner and then heading to one of the bars to listen to some live music. We exchanged V-tine gifts. I got Kirsten a thin silver necklace with a small heart for the charm. She got me a belay device and carabiner for climbing.

Because Kirsten is in grad school, and really needed to do some work, Sunday was mostly comprised of her getting school work done. We had room service bring us breakfast, and then I watched TV and read while she worked. It was a very relaxing day. That evening we headed out to the actual casino.

I should mention that it's my first time to a casino, and it was a blast! I took $30 to "waste". First thing I did was put some money down at a black jack table. I played for about 10 minutes. I could've walked away after about 5 minutes and would've been ahead, but I was just having fun playing. Eventually I lost all the money I had put down and Kirsten and I went to play some slots and video poker. At one point while playing the 2 cent slots, I was up $5, and probably should have cashed out and moved on, but I was just enjoying playing the game, and I eventually busted.

The true highlight of the night was Keno. Kirsten saw it and was really intrigued, so we asked the guy at the counter what we had to do. He explained it to us and we sat down and picked out numbers (a lot like choosing lottery numbers) and gave him our ticket. He handed us our "official cards" and we sat down and watched the numbers as they came up. Kind of like the lottery, you have to match a certain number of numbers to win. The more numbers you match the more you win. Well, the first time we played, I won $20 for matching 6 out of 10 numbers. It was fun! We played a couple more times but didn't win anything. So we decided to head back and have some dinner. Kirsten ended up spending $15 at the casino, and I only lost $10 thanks to my big Keno win!

Unfortunately, the wonderful weekend came to a close on Monday morning when Kirsten headed back to St. Louis, and I headed back to Columbus. To add insult to injury, Sunday night, I started coming down with a cold. So I drove home with a cold on Monday and spent the next couple days taking Day- and NyQuil, curled up in the recliner, eating chicken noodle soup.

Many thanks to Kelly and Jamie for their immense generosity! It was such a fun weekend!

January (so far)

2009-01-22T22:29:00.004-05:00

playing catch up.. ketchup... catsup?

New Year's Eve
Lexington, KY
I drove down to Lexington to visit some of the old gang down there. Ashlee was having a party and I was pretty excited to see some familiar and friendly faces. Among the many highlights of the night was talking to William and Sam via Skypewho (at the time) were in New Zealand for part of their year of traveling around the world. The party was featured on one of their podcast videos, and I had a little bit of a post traumatic balloon flash-back around the time the ball dropped. I crashed on a friends couch that night in Richmond, had a lovely breakfast, and then headed on to...

New Year's Day - Jan 5
Richmond, KY
...Dustin and Katie's. My main reason for heading south. I had just came down an extra day early for the New Year's Eve Party. I was spending a few days with Dustin, Katie, and their (at the time) four month old baby, Xander. Dustin was turning old... i mean 30, and he was having a big get-together on Saturday. I got to see plenty of friends, some I hadn't seen in a couple of years. One night we went over to Katie's brother's house, where he has a "man cave" and played a few games of Halo 3. On Monday morning, I drove down to...

Jan 5 - 8
Nashville, TN
...see another couple of good friends of mine, Ben and Rebekah. The following things usually happens when Ben and I get together: go to a coffee shop; talk geek; eat sushi; talk geek, etc. In between the geekery and food we have some entertaining times. We went mini-bowling. I'll have to describe this later or something... in essence - shorter lanes, smaller ball, smaller pins, no bowling shoes. Unfortunately my time drew to a close with them, and my trip started taking me back north via...

Jan 8 - 11
Louisville, KY
...Kelly and Jamie's. I was able to spend a few days with them and their daughter Malorie. Bub (Kelly) was able to "meet" my girlfriend via skype. It was a very nice relaxing time with them (as always)... and they always feed me really well. The highlight of the menu was a wonderfully grilled Filet, baked potato, and grilled red pepper, and to drink.. a nice cold beer. Feeling like I had been living out of a suitcase for nearly two weeks, which I had, I decided it was time to head back...

Jan 11 - 16
Columbus, OH
...home. Or at least where home is for the time-being. We got a lot of snow this week. I was able to go climbing a couple times at the indoor climbing gym that I joined near the end of December. Then, on Friday, I packed up and headed out to...

Jan 16 - 19
St. Louis, MO
...visit my girlfriend, Kirsten! It had been since the middle of December that we had seen each other, and decided it was time for another good face-to-face. The first night I'm there is usually low-key since it's a 7 hour drive to St. Louis from Columbus. We ate at an Irish Pub, watched a movie, and called it a night. On Saturday, I "dragged" Kirsten out to a local rock climbing gym in St. Louis, that I had wanted to check out. We took their "first timer" class that most gyms require you to take, and then climbed for a good solid few hours after the class. Of course, with a full day of climbing, one tends to crash pretty hard at the end of the day. Sunday, Kirsten had to do some work for class, and it was pretty low-key again. Monday, we made another trip to the gym to use the $10 off coupons we got for taking the class. *grin*
Of course, Tuesday morning came WAY too early, meaning Kirsten had class, and I had to drive the 7 hour trip back to Columbus.

Jan 19 - present
Columbus, OH
So, now, I'm pretty much doing a lot of rock climbing at Vertical Adventures, eating, sleeping, working on some portfolio stuff, and playing some video games here and there.

It's nice to be home... but on the down side... none of my friends are here.

The Rumors are True!

2009-01-09T18:54:00.002-05:00

believe everything you hear...

I AM still alive.

Thanks for asking.

John Williams is the man

2008-11-13T19:58:00.000-05:00

this guy comes in a close second...

home, yet not home

2008-11-06T07:27:00.002-05:00

dichotomy in action...

As many of you probably already know, I've been back in Lexington for the past week working on a lighting design at the Opera House. A couple of my friends generously offered their spare bedroom for the week.

The weird thing about this week is I've felt very at home, since I know my way around well enough to get anywhere I would want to. But since I'm staying with friends and living out of a suitcase, I've felt a bit... removed. It's very odd for me to be here as more of a guest than a resident.

In other news...

The show (Willy Wonka) opens this morning, and I'm jumping on a plane to Allentown, PA, to be in a wedding for a couple of friends of mine. We're heading into the city on Friday for the bachelor festivities, and then the wedding is in Allentown on Sunday. It should be a fun few days.

Music Man Haiku

2008-09-28T22:37:00.002-05:00

what we do to stay sane...

During the Saturday evening performance of Music Man, the music director came up with a fun little way to "pass the time" during the show. We were each to come up with a haiku about The Music Man and turn them in at intermission. I think they're going to make some kind of collage eventually and post them somewhere. But here are the ones that I came up with. Enjoy!

MM Haiku #1:
Stubborn Iowa
Harold is a Music Man
Pool is devil's tool

MM Haiku #2:
Shipoopi dancing
melts the heart of Marian
kiss on the footbridge

MM Haiku #3:
School Board members fight
the quartet sings Lida Rose
just can't corner Hill

MM Haiku #4:
Oh we're in Trouble
The Show is three hours long
I need a cold beer

Transparent Rooster

2008-09-15T17:57:00.002-05:00

30 years of life summed up in a comic...

from the online comic, Not From Concentrate (#292)

M & M's Combat

2008-09-05T21:38:00.001-05:00

Survival of the yummiest.

Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.

Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round.

I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&Ms are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&Ms as a race cannot survive long in the intense theatre of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world.

Occasionally I will get a mutation, a candy that is misshapen, or pointier, or flatter than the rest. Almost invariably this proves to be a weakness, but on very rare occasions it gives the candy extra strength. In this way, the species continues to adapt to its environment.

When I reach the end of the pack, I am left with one M&M, the strongest of the herd. Since it would make no sense to eat this one as well, I pack it neatly in an envelope and send it to M&M Mars, A Division of Mars, Inc., Hackettstown, NJ 17840-1503 U.S.A., along with a 3x5 card reading, "Please use this M&M for breeding purposes."

This week they wrote back to thank me, and sent me a coupon for a free 1/2 pound bag of plain M&Ms. I consider this "grant money." I have set aside the weekend for a grand tournament. From a field of hundreds, we will discover the True Champion.

There can be only one.
(original link)

What's in a Name?

2008-08-27T22:52:00.003-05:00

"Let's do, Chuck! Chuck, chuck, bo buck...

After I got home from work this evening, I decided I didn't want to make anything for dinner, and that I would go out and grab something to bring it back. My choice for this evening ended up being an obsession I've had since about a month ago. Imo's Pizza makes this amazing and delicious Meatball Sandwich, and if you ask for it on Garlic Cheese bread... wow!

But this story isn't about a sandwich.

I called ahead to Imo's and went in to pick up my sandwich. I handed the woman behind the counter my debit card, and she inquired, "I've always been curious about this bank. Why is it called Fifth Third?"

I replied, saying that I had often wondered the same thing. We had a laugh about it, the transaction was complete, and I took my sandwich home, and ate every delicious bite.

After dinner, the conversation came back to mind, and so I did a quick search on the interwebs, and this is what I found:

Abbreviated from the Wikipedia Article

Fifth Third's unusual name is the result of the June 1, 1908 merger of two banks, The Fifth National Bank and The Third National Bank, to become The Fifth Third National Bank of Cincinnati. Because the merger took place during a period when prohibitionist ideas were gaining popularity, it was believed that "Fifth Third" was better than "Third Fifth," which could be construed as a reference to three "fifths" of alcohol. The name went through several changes over the years, until on March 24, 1969, the name was changed to Fifth Third Bank.

I'm pretty excited by this (on the inside... I'm not doing cartwheels about it or anything) since I feel like my "useless knowledge trivia" well had been starting to run dry.

Hooray!

2008-08-25T11:56:00.004-05:00

Congratulations are in order!

Dustin and Katie just sent out a photo of their brand new baby boy! I'm so excited for them. And they're the first of my closest friends to have a baby, and so now I'm Uncle Scott! I can't wait to get to Richmond and visit the new boy.

Alexander (Xander) was born on Aug 22 at 11:09am. He weighed in at 6 lbs, 12 oz, and 20 inches long. Enjoy the photo of the beautiful baby boy!

The next 36 hours...

2008-08-16T22:13:00.004-05:00

lots to do.

Okay. So here's my schedule for the next (approximately) 24 - 36 hours.

11:30pm (Sat) - 8:30am (Sun) -- Sleep
9:30am - 11:00am -- Setup for Jungle Book
11:00am -- Run the last Jungle Book
2:00pm -- Run Joseph
4:30pm -- 6:30pm - Dinner
7:30pm -- Run the last Joseph show
9:30pm -- Start Strike for Joseph
3:00am -- (hopefully) finish strike for Joseph

Wish me luck.

36 hours in Paducah

2008-08-15T23:37:00.002-05:00

Home is where your friend is.

At the beginning of this week, I took a brief trip to Paducah, KY. "What's in Paducah," you might ask.

Normally, nothing of much importance to me is in Paducah. This past week, though, Stephanie and Chris were there.

They were visiting with some of Steph's family, and they invited me to stay with them. I headed out Sunday night after the performance of Joseph, made it to Paducah, reunion full of hugs, and then crashed about 1:00am.

Monday was my day off, which is what enabled me to make this little mini-vacation, and it was SO much fun and very relaxing. Chip and Sonya (Steph's relatives) have a really nice house with an in-ground pool and a home theatre (not just a really nice tv and surround sound... an ACTUAL home theatre). So as soon as we woke up, we had some breakfast, and then headed out to the pool for outdoor recreation. The highlight, for me, was they have a little Sea-Doo Scooter that pulls you along under water. It was a lot of fun to put on a pair of goggles and see if you could make it all the way around the pool on a single breath of air with the thing pulling you.

When we had our fill of the pool, we came inside to watch a movie or two. We finished up the usable daylight in the pool and headed inside for dinner, and some more movies. Over the course of my 36 hour stay, we watched "Bank Job", "21", "Licensed to Wed", and "Fools Gold".

Tuesday, we ate breakfast, watched another movie, and then just relaxed and watched some of the olympics before I had to head back to St. Louis for the show that night.

It was wonderful to see Stephanie and Chris again! I'm so fortunate to have them in my life!

This Week In Brief

2008-07-28T19:23:00.002-05:00

Just the Bullet Points.

- worked some
- played some
- dropped my buffalo wings
- huge bruise on my left hip
- saw Hancock
- haircut
- opened "Joseph"
- dressed like a gangster

The Road to One Hundred: Introduction

2008-07-20T23:47:00.000-05:00

Drop and Give Me 20!

Tomorrow, I'm starting this training plan called One Hundred Push-ups.

I stumbled upon the site a few days ago and contemplated what it would be like. I've needed to do some physical activity, since the majority of my job is just standing around at this point. So I'm going to do it. Starting in the morning, I'm going to make my way toward being able to do 100 consecutive push-ups.

The program boasts that if you stick to it, and don't cheat yourself, in six weeks you should be able to do 100 consecutive good-form push-ups.

I already did the initial test, and I could do about 20 good-form push-ups. So I figure I'll be at a good starting point in the program. Check out the website if you get the chance. I'll be posting my progress as I go.

Eleven Days

2008-07-18T00:10:00.001-05:00

time's slipping away...

Not sure how I feel about turning 30, yet.

Weekend Revue

2008-07-07T19:37:00.002-05:00

Four days off isn't nearly long enough...

Friday, I headed back East to visit some friends for the weekend since I had four straight days off.

That night, I hung out with the group of fine folks that I did most of my fun stuff with in Lexington. Ryan (and Ann) were hosting a cookout. Well, it rained, so it really ended up being a cook-out-then-in. We visited and played some games. William and I ventured out when it stopped raining and threw some frisbee in the street for some one-on-one male bonding time.

On Saturday, I got up and did some coffee-shop-hopping. I hit up Starbucks and used their new 2-hour free Wi-fi policy before heading over to the old apartment (cue Barenaked Ladies' song) to hang out with Logan for a bit. We pretty much acted like we normally do around each other. I got to meet his new lady, too. I grabbed a few things that I had left behind when I initially moved, packed up, and headed over to Common Grounds where I spent the rest of my afternoon in free Wi-fi bliss.

That night Ashlee had a few people over to her house and I got to visit a little more with some good friends. We decided it was too nice of an evening to spend it ALL inside, so we grabbed a frisbee and tossed it around in Ashlee's back yard. There were various neighborhoods shooting off their fireworks from the rained out day before. It was fun. Afterwards we played some Scrabble and ate some ice cream.

I got up early and went to St. Awesome's on Sunday morning. I was really lucky and very happy to see so many of my friends.

After church, I had lunch at Johnny Carino's with Dustin & Katie, and we caught up on our lives as well as all the TV Show chit chat and movie "reviews" like we usually do. Dustin and I are just too similar sometimes to have been born from separate parents. ;)

That evening I started the trip back West by stopping in Louisville to see my "Big Brother", his wife, and their 15-month-old baby. We grilled out for dinner and had a real nice time visiting.

Monday morning came, and I left Louisville to finish the trek West back to St. Louis.

Going Home

2008-07-03T01:15:00.002-05:00

you CAN go back...

Friday I'll be heading to Lexington for a couple days. We have an extended weekend off during the July Fourth weekend, and I'm using it to head back and visit with some friends. The very loose itinerary is as follows:

Friday Morning: Leave for KY
Friday Night - 6pm: 4th of July Cookout @ Ryan's house
No fixed plans on Saturday
Sunday morning - 11:15am: go to church at St. Awesome's (hopefully see some friendly faces)
Sunday afternoon - TBA: head back to St. Louis

If anyone's free or would like to catch up, give me a call, email, or send a carrier pigeon.

I'll post how the weekend was when I get back.

That was 1922

2008-06-30T10:56:00.002-05:00

Millie Memoirs...

Well, Thoroughly Modern Millie is over, and we're now in the changeover process going into Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which opens for preview on July 18.

I had some good times running that show. This post is kind of a list of my favorite moments from the show.

- Pamela (played Miss Dorothy) saying the line, "Trevor", always cracked me up.
- Mamie (played Millie) declaring war on me to make me laugh during the show so hard my spotlight shook.
- Trying to make Stacy (our Stage Manager) crack up when she's doing the backstage announcements over the mic to the actors.
- Ben (played Jimmy) popping out of the laundry basket he and Mamie were hiding in with red lip marks all over his face.
- Amy & Allan (played Alice & Bun-Foo) having a "boy-meets-girl" moment on stage every night.
- Mamie singing the HELL outta "Gimme Gimme". That song was also my favorite for my spot cues.
- Breaking Jana (making her laugh) in the middle of a cue.
- Following along with the motions that Graham (played Graydon) and Mamie did during "Speed Test".
- Any and all cues when I had to be spotting one person on stage right, go out, and then spot somebody on stage left, and then back again. :)

Familiarly unfamiliar territory

2008-06-27T00:52:00.002-05:00

weird frontier...

I've spent my last 7 summers (2001-2007) working at Jenny Wiley Theatre. It was always a lot of hard work, and always a lot of fun. I normally had the opportunity to hang out with everyone I worked with, although there were always one or two people that seemed to slip through the cracks and I may not have gotten to talk to until the last week or two of the summer. This included all the technical production staff as well as the actors.

This summer is weird. I'm just now feeling like I'm mostly acclimated to St. Louis and living here, and finally breaking out of my "new place" survival mode. The trouble with that is with some of the actors, they're only here for a month. I know that there are a lot of amazing people here this summer, and I can't help but feel a little... like I missed out on something by not getting to hang out with some of these fine folks before it was too late.

Too late officially arrives on Sunday.

A Good Day

2008-06-17T09:50:00.002-05:00

or two...

As many of you many know, most of my time spent here in St. Louis is occupied with work. A typical week has me running up to 9 shows per week (2 on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays) as well as coming in to the shops to work on the upcoming show on the days we don't have two shows.

This weekend was a little different. We only had one show on Sunday.

A bunch of the crew and I had planned on going to City Museum after the afternoon show and go have some fun. Unfortunately, their hours on Sunday end at 5pm. We scrambled to figure out something else to do on our bonus evening off and landed on bowling.

Bowling was fun and beer filled (as it should be on both counts), and we all played some arcade games prior to and after bowling. Later on a few of us went and played some Night Frisbee. One of the props people, Nick, has a Frisbee with LED lights on it, so you can easily see the disc as it's flying through the darkness.

My official day off started with me sleeping in until 10am. That afternoon, I chose to explore a little more of my current locale. I found a giant, three-story mall that had a few dangerous stores for me to enter. It was the first time that I had ever set foot inside an actual Apple Store, and it was amazing! There was also a store called Sony Style (i think) that was entirely Sony products... who knew Sony made so much crap?! One of my downfalls is always a Godiva kiosk, and this mall had a whole STORE! I forced myself not to in, since I usually come away with about $50 in chocolate, usually in the form of various truffles. I grabbed some Chinese food in the food court, and headed out to do some more exploring.

I came across a movie theater, and caught a showing of The Incredible Hulk. It was INCREDIBLE!! (uhm... right) But seriously, it was a great movie. Ed Norton did an amazing job as Bruce Banner, and the CGI was smooth and hardly noticeable. I saw a couple previews while in there that got me REALLY excited. (and of course, I just blanked on all of them.)

After the movie, I stopped in a Barnes & Noble to browse around, ended up not buying anything except a Vanilla Chai latte from the "Starbucks" inside.

That evening people came over to the apartment to watch the Jeff Dunham DVDs I had bought at the mall.

Not too shabby of a weekend, if I say so myself.

St. Louis Bound

2008-06-03T00:34:00.001-05:00

a short film

St. Louis so far

2008-06-02T16:49:00.003-05:00

my life west of the Mississippi...

Life has been pretty interesting so far. Mostly I've spent my days / nights working at the theatre getting the first show, Thoroughly Modern Millie up and ready. It went into Previews on Friday, and it officially opens on Wednesday. Even with the show in Previews, my work load has dropped off quite a bit, for now.

My first week was pretty bland. When I wasn't working, I did a little exploring to find the necessities... y'know, Grocery Store, Wal-Mart, Post Office, Best Buy, etc. And past the first week, if I wasn't working I was sleeping (or at least trying to). We had work days that ranged any where from 10 hours to 20 hours. I'm still recovering.

I live near a town called Kirkwood, which is only about 40 minutes away from downtown St. Louis. My drive between the really nice 3 bedroom apartment Stages set me up in, and work is really easy. One of my favorite parts of the drive is passing this one Fire Station... it looks like an old cottage out of a fairy tale or something. One of these days I'll stop and take a picture of it. Oh, and there are 7-11's everywhere!

St. Louis has most of the comforts of home, but I haven't had too much down time that doesn't include sleep to really explore past those things I needed sooner rather than later. On one of my days off, I plan on finding a decent Disc Golf course for some outside fun. There's also apparently this place called City Museum that has what can only be described as an adult-sized equivalent of a McDonald's Playland.

Oh! And I almost forgot... I'm now in the land of Anheuser-Busch! I think I'll have to find the plant and take a tour, too. Maybe they'll hand out some free samples!!

Last but not least - I miss all my friends who are starting to become scattered across the globe at an alarming rate. Send me mail (e or otherwise) and definitely come visit when you get a chance!

That's all for now!

Updates

2008-04-18T23:31:00.003-05:00

more than you can shake a stick at...

Friday, April 4
(That's right two weeks ago) Logan, being the awesome roommate he is, and sensing I needed something to cheer me up, invited me out to hang out with some of his friends (most of whom I had met or hung out with before) at O'Neill's for a birthday celebration. We saw a really awesome 80's cover band by the name of Long Duk Dong. I had a couple of drinks there. Then a bunch of the gang decided to go to The Dame where they were having a Dance Night. I had a couple more drinks there, and I shook my booty until the wee hours of the morning. I had such a blast and it was just what I needed to blow off some steam. Thanks to Logan, Rebecca, and Rachel for helping me have such an awesome time!

Saturday, April 5
Saturday was sleep in and then go to work day. Crashed hard that night.

Sunday, April 6
More work, then went to William's to hang out and roasted some marshmallows and made smores in his fireplace.

Monday thru Saturday
Pretty much same old, same old - work, class, sleep, and eat. Except I also went to a couple of rehearsals for The Music Man (which I was light designing).

Sunday, April 13
I woke up, did some work on Music Man design, and then went to work. I got off work around 9:30p, and started back to working on Music Man design at about 10:30pm. I worked straight through the night until ...

Monday, April 14
... 7:00am when I took a shower, and printed out my plot to take to the Opera House. Got to the Opera House at 9:00am, and didn't leave until 11:00pm or later. Went home and did some homework (class and design), and got a couple hours sleep.

Tuesday, April 15
Back at the Opera House again at 9:00am until 11:00pm. Had a meeting with Stage Manager, Director, and Assist. Director at Denny's afterwards.

Wednesday, April 16
Got some sleep that night, but had class in the morning. Back at the Opera House at 1:00pm to finish up design stuff. Left at ... guess ... that's right, 11:00pm.

Thursday, April 17
Slept most of the day, because I needed to. Went into the Opera House to give the Stage Manager and Master Electrician some final instructions for opening night. Then I headed over to my friend Sam's house to work on a video project he was working on. It was so funny. I can't wait to see the footage he shot!

That's my past two weeks in a slightly larger than normal nutshell. I'll post more details about the Music Man at a later time. That was such a rewarding experience!

What?

2008-04-16T16:24:00.001-05:00

protractors aren't cool...

Watch this video... and weep. Then... point and laugh at how ridiculous Microsoft is.

design refresh

2008-04-07T23:55:00.003-05:00

allow me to point out my flaws

Well, I've done it again. A new redesign. If you thought my last design was clean and clutter-free, you almost won't know what to do with yourself this time.

I wanted to get it up and going so I could start using it, but it's far from complete.

Bugs/issues to be fixed/completed -
- individual post pages are broken
- no styles on individual post pages
- blue bar doesn't extend alongside of the posts
- "home" button to be styled better
- navigation at bottom of page
- arrange/style "labels"
- style links to fit better with scheme
- add links n such to sidebar
- "about" page to be added
- "photos" page to be added
- "videos" page to be added

Music Man Design

2008-03-31T08:24:00.004-05:00

Quick Bits

I just got the tech specs from the Opera House. I'm like a kid in a candy store... at Christmas!

>> (256) ETC SourceFour lighting fixtures
>> (288) 2.4kw ETC Sensor Dimmers
>> (1) ETC Obsession 600 console

why my friends are awesome...

2008-03-26T20:32:00.002-05:00

No babies were delivered during this post...

A friend of mine is studying to become a doctor and she's specializing in Pediatrics. She's been doing shifts in the delivery room lately and she finally got to actually deliver a baby! I found this out via her IM status. As an homage, I changed my status. Other of our friends followed suit. It was awesome. Here's the end result...

Easter Weekend

2008-03-24T10:07:00.005-05:00

Big weekend. Little sleep.

Thursday
I know, the weekend usually begins on Friday... but since this weekend was a big deal, I'm including Thursday in so that it doesn't feel left out.

I went into church at 9:00am to work on the light setup a little more for the Easter services. I got them all patched and looking good before I had to go to work that evening.

Friday
Typical day. Worked that night.

Saturday
At church again at 9:00am to put the finishing touches on the lighting setup and then start programming the show. The rest of the production team showed up at about 10:00 and we went to eat lunch at around 11:30. After lunch, I worked furiously to get my cues written on the console. As I mentioned before, we had rented a bunch of gear for this weekend, so the curve was a little steeper than normal. At 5:00, I finally had the show basics written in and we went to the Green Room for a quick meeting and to pray over the weekend.

The services that night went really well. I was able fix a few things that I missed on the fly, and fixed a few other things between services and after the second one.

Went home and crashed hard.

Sunday
Rolled into Church before the butt-crack of dawn. Fixed a few things in my cues before the first of three services began that day. You could tell everyone was a little groggy due to the early morning. The last two services of the day were probably the best. All the kinks were pounded straight and all the wrinkles had been ironed out. The energy was high and it was ... AMAZING. God did wonderful things in that room.

After the services were over, I went home and crashed. That evening, I went out to eat at Mr. Kabab's for a Schworma Platter (aka, gut-buster with paint-peeling breath).

humpday update

2008-03-19T17:22:00.002-05:00

...and other douchebag things

So far this week has been pretty decent. As stated earlier, after classes on Monday, I hung out at My Time Coffee (formerly know as LiveWire) and helped out a friend with some web page stuff. After that, I hung out with a good friend from Nashville.

Tuesday was greeted via lunch with Ben (said friend from Nashville) and Matt. After lunch we stopped by a production company to rent a bunch of gear for the Easter services this weekend. Back at the church, we began setting up said gear. I'm VERY excited. Here's a quick list of what we rented:

- (7) LED PAR Light Fixtures
- (8) "Truss Warmer" PARCans
- (4) 10' sections of Box Truss
- (3) 1/4 ton chain-lift motors
- (4) Elation Design Spot 250s [intelligent fixtures]
- (1) Hazer

That night, I hung out with the gang at William's, where we enjoyed a tasty meal of Fettuccine Alfredo and some fun conversation.

Rolling through Wednesday was a normal day, until after classes when I decided to hit the coffee shop again and enjoy a Vanilla Chai and some Wi-Fi. I was delightfully surprised to see one of the guys from Inlightened Ministries there. We share a table and played a game of Lux Delux. Shortly, I'll head over to FBC in Richmond to watch the guys at Youth Connect. After that, I'll get to visit with my buddy Ben again (probably just briefly).

Twitter in Plain English

2008-03-18T17:21:00.002-05:00

"scott hopes you join"

Found this via a friend's twitter (and another's blog). I've invited a few people and they seemed to not understand it, and I was very unable to effectively describe it. So sit back and take a gander at this short video.

coffee shop monday

2008-03-17T16:02:00.006-05:00

feels good...

Sometimes you find yourself in a very familiar situation. Sometimes these situations are unpleasant... then others make you feel great.

Today is one of those days.

I'm in Richmond hanging out with a couple of really good friends. It feels like no time has passed at all, as last year (has it really been that long?) coming to the coffee shop was a very standard occurrence. We just hang out, have good conversation, and surf the web.

Today, I was helping Katie with a project for a graduate class she has. It happens to deal with creating web pages. Dustin did a lot of the grunt work, I'm really just an extra pair of eyes and a fresh mind.

Anyway, the whole point of this is to say that this familiar feeling is nice.

my life in scrubs

2008-03-17T08:56:00.002-05:00

a playlist

1. Come Around - Rhett Miller
2. Tell Her This - Del Amitri
3. Waiting for My Real Life - Colin Hay
4. Question - Old 97's
5. Hold on Hope - Guided by Voices
6. Camera One - Josh Joplin Group
7. Fighting for My Love - Nil Lara
8. 100 Years - Five for Fighting
9. She Is - The Fray
10. Anything Can Happen - The Finn Brothers

Piggy-back, Ponytails, and Prayers

2008-03-16T21:20:00.003-05:00

alliterating my life...

Working in retail gives me an excellent opportunity to people-watch. One of my favorite things is when I see a family either walking into or out of the store. What gives me pure joy is when I see a father carrying his daughter on his shoulders and asking the mother, "how low the bridge is" so he can duck when entering the doorway.

Another fun one is a child walking between the two parents, holding one hand of each, and the parents are counting, "one, two, THREE!" and on three, they swing the child into the air and land him gently back on his feet - all the while the child is smiling and laughing, without a care in the world.

I always see these things and think, "wow, one day, I want to be a great dad like that." I know it's not my time, yet, and I am not mentally actually ready to have a family, but it's nice to think about the future...

Everyone once in a while, something really neat happens in the parking lot at work. Today, I was stopped by (what seemed to be) a family in an SUV. They mentioned that they are driving around asking people if they need anything to be prayed about. They also mention that they're from St. Awesome's! I just thought it was really neat that they were doing that. It gave me a burst of energy and warmth.

Also - today was nice to work outside. Let's keep that rain away for a bit... or at least between midnight and 9:00am, if that's okay?

Happy Pi Day

2008-03-14T12:53:00.005-05:00

3.14 is the tastiest number...

Today is March 14, also written as 3.14.

Excerpt from Pi Day website:
Pi is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi = 3.1415926535... Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th.

In celebration, I'm going to have Pie tonight after work.

How are YOU going to celebrate Pi Day?

real conversations, real people

2008-03-14T10:26:00.003-05:00

Friday Edition

Here's a snippit of a conversation my roommate, Logan and I had a couple days ago. What a good friend, checkin' up on me and what-not.

weekend review [midweek edition]

2008-03-13T22:44:00.004-05:00

a lot of driving...

Okay, so you know that I went to SETC last weekend. I accomplished two goals while there. 1) find a job 2) hang out with some old friends.

I drove back from Chattanooga on Sunday, recuperated Monday, and drove up to mom's on Tuesday. I had three goals while up in Columbus. 1) visit mom 2) see some family 3) visit with a friend. (i only accomplished two of the three on this trip)

I got to visit with mom and with some of my family while up there. This was really nice since I wasn't able to see any of them over Thanksgiving or Christmas due to the Bullseye claiming dominion over my soul.

On Monday, I got my first job offer as a result of SETC. It was a HUGE load off my mind. On Wednesday, I got my second offer. All this was a tremendous relief of stress. I felt I had interviewed well, but you just never really know what the other side of the table is thinking.

Drove home this morning since I had to work tonight. I almost didn't hate going to work tonight. The weather was AMAZING! It's one of the only times I've been grateful for having to work outside (aside from Summerstock jobs).

More info on the job (and life) front as it rolls in. Later!

Rolling In

2008-03-11T17:21:00.005-05:00

the anticipation was killing me...

I got my first job offer as a result of SETC today.

Stages St. Louis (www.stagesstlouis.org)! The contract length is May 12 - October 17. The pay is decent PLUS housing. The housing is a three bedroom apartment in which I'll get my own room. The housing is within a 15 minute drive of the theatre.

As shown earlier, this was one of the more promising potential jobs that I interviewed for at SETC. I actually had two interviews with them at SETC, an initial and a follow-up. The icing on the cake is it was one of the jobs I was hoping for.

More info as it becomes available...

UPDATE:
03/12/08 12:43pm - Colorado Shakespeare Fest. offered me a job.

SETC - the "potential" report

2008-03-09T21:46:00.003-05:00

aka - hire me, please!

Here's the four places that I feel the strongest about, either in how much I want the job or how likely I feel an offer will be extended...

Arundel Barn Playhouse | Arundel, Maine

Description: This place was the first sit-down interview I had. They're a very small theatre in Maine. It's an indoor venue built in a converted barn.

Position: Lighting Designer / Master Electrician

The pros: $350/wk + housing. Expand my design resume. Indoor theatre.

The cons: small venue, many not be very challenging, the higher salary may mean they need to sweeten the pot due to living or working conditions.

Cedar Point Entertainment | Sandusky, Ohio

Description: Theme park shows.

Position: Lighting Technician

The pros: $408/wk. Close to family. Indoor.

The cons: Theme park.

Santa Fe Opera Company | Santa Fe, New Mexico

Description: Covered outdoor opera house.

Position: Electrician

The pros: Hourly pay. Overtime. Well-known theatre.
The cons: Hourly pay. 80-90 hours work-week.

Stages St. Louis | Chesterfield, Missouri

Description:

Position: Electrician / Spot Op

The pros: $350/wk. Housing (-$50/wk). Indoor.
The cons: unknown at this time

SETC

2008-03-07T17:10:00.006-05:00

job hunting with a side of friends...

Thursday
I woke up early, and ended up leaving the apartment a little earlier than expected. Arrived at the hotel right at 3:00, checked in, and headed to the convention center to meet up with some folks. Google Maps doesn't have any compassion at all. Apparently I typed in Street instead of Drive (or vice versa) and it put me 5 miles away from where I needed to be. Had a little "i got lost" adventure. Made it back to the hotel to use the wi-fi to check the map again. Finally figured it out, and made it to the Convention Center.

When I arrived, I instantly saw Anthony and Fries (pronounced FREEZE) when I walked in the building. I registered for the conference and checked in with the Job Contact room. The rest of the evening was basically free time for me, as I had decided that I would do all my interviewing the next day. So I hung out with and got to see a bunch of people that I knew. I stayed up later than I should have...

Friday
Got up (too) early, took a shower and ironed my shirt to wear with my suit. I looked sexy. Grabbed my interview paraphernalia and headed to the Convention Center. There were about 15 jobs posted that were either in my pay-scale or my job title. I wandered from booth to booth either dropping off resumes or doing interviews. This lasted all day since sometimes there were lines waiting to interview with certain companies. I had 4 really promising interviews, I interviewed with 8 total, and dropped resumes off at 7 others. I was finished around 6:00, but I had developed a headache, so I went back to the hotel to change into street clothes and nurse my headache before hanging out with people later that night.

Saturday
I had two follow-up interviews on Saturday morning. The first one, the company called me the night before to schedule (promising?). The second one was scheduled after a first round review of resumes on Friday. Both interviews went well. Job Contact shut down after noon, so I was again basically free. I hung out with some of the Jenny Wiley crew the rest of the afternoon and into the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday
Checked out of my hotel and wandered around Chattanooga for a while waiting on a couple of friends that I hadn't gotten to visit with during the conference. We met up and ate at a Mellow Mushroom. We had a good time catching up. After lunch, I headed home.

back on the radar

2008-03-03T13:43:00.005-05:00

playing a little catch-up

Remember when I used to be better about updating this thing? Yeah. Me too.

Sorry if you're been a little confused lately about the fact there has been no skipthehero to check up on... when I moved, I also moved banks, forgetting to change the information for my web host. I finally stopped being lazy and fixed it, so I'm back... with a giant-sized update!

Life hasn't treated me too badly since last time I posted. Work and school and a little bit of social life have taken up most of my time since October. I finally got my driver's license back in January. Vehicular freedom is WONDERFUL!

The holidays were really difficult for me this year, I'm used going to visit my mom and spending the time with a HUGE family... this year, due to work and my lack of a driver's license, I wasn't able to have that at all. Luckily, my friend / roommate Logan kidnapped me on Thanksgiving to take me down to his family's house. And mom was able to make it down for Christmas Eve... but it wasn't the same. :( That plus the fact that last year I had an amazing person in my life and this year I didn't, made the holidays a little less vibrant and a little more sepia toned.

Right now, I'm just trying to make it to graduation in May, while keeping myself sane with the free time I have available.

Work is going well. It's been going even better the past week since they made a new policy not to keep Cart Attendants past 9:00.

In my free time, I've done a little bit of rock climbing at EKU, learning how to walk on stilts, and played board games galore with a really fun bunch of people I met via my friend William. One night, we had a "Pride & Prejudice Party" where a couple of people made a bunch of traditional English meal items (Cottage Pie, Bangers and Mash, A Triffle, etc) before watching the (marathon of a) movie, Pride & Prejudice. At intermission, we had tea and scones!

Later this week, I drive down to Chattanooga, TN, for Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). While I'm down there, I'll be able to connect with some old friends / colleagues, and do some job searching for after graduation. It's been a few years since I attended SETC since I only really ever needed summer work, and Jenny Wiley was always willing to offer it. This event is to find work for the other 9 months of the year. I'll probably blog at least once from SETC, and let you know how it goes.

over due

2007-10-20T17:04:00.000-05:00

the life and times of skipthehero

It's been a while since I've updated this blog thing. Hope you all will forgive me. As you all know sometimes Life catches us off guard and forces you to concentrate harder on yourself than on the rest of the world. This is where I've been since about mid-to-end summer.

First off, if you haven't already heard the reason why I'm car-less right now, here it is. The gist of it is, I forgot to pay a speeding ticket, was pulled over while on a suspended license due to said unpaid ticket, and license was suspended for 6 months.

This has posed a few challenges. The obvious one is that not being able to drive makes it quite difficult to get around. The less obvious ones are that I live in Lexington and go to school in Richmond. I also needed to find a job close to where I live. Many of these challenges were solved by many unselfish people in my life. I want to thank all of these people that have been gracious and willing to help me out in what has been a very trying time for me.

On the upside - I live really close to a huge shopping area of Lexington, called Hamburg. I can walk there, easily within about 15 minutes... but even better, I can ride my mountain bike there in about 5 minutes. I have even gone out for a few bike rides for fun. Grocery shopping can be a bit challenging, though. :)

I have also landed a job with Target doing, what I like to call, "slinging carts". I'm a cart attendant and cashier backup. This will bring it's own personal challenges, especially around the holidays. More on this some other time, though.

A few quick words of thanks, which cannot even come CLOSE to expressing my appreciation for these people.

Logan - thanks for taking me to class at 7:30am even though you don't have class until 1:30pm.
William - thanks for picking me up and taking me home so I can have a social life outside of class. It has been a major blessing.
Patrick - thanks for picking me up for church on the weekends. Another huge blessing.
Thanks to Kate & Robbie - Kate for bringing me and half my stuff home, Robbie for bringing my car and the rest of my stuff home.
Special thanks to Erin - for being wonderful and coming to visit me when she could.
Also many thanks to all the people this summer and this fall who drove me around and made sure I didn't feel like "that guy".

Book Tag - GO!

2007-09-25T22:49:00.001-05:00

...new meaning to the term "throw the book at them"...

Erin tagged me with this one, so here goes ...

Total number of books owned:
- a little over 100 (just the ones I have at my apartment, that doesn't include children's books and other things I have stored at my mom's house)

Last book bought: The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde, and The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide by Douglas Adams

Last book read: it was either Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire or The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

Five Books that Mean a Lot to You:
(I'll even go so far as to WHY they mean a lot to me)
1. For One More Day by Mitch Album / First book Erin gave me. It was a present on our first christmas together.
2. The Alchemyst by Michael Scott / A book given to me by a very good friend for my birthday this past summer.
3. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis / The first books I remember reading for fun.
4. The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren / This book helped me build a stronger and more personal relationship with my Lord and Savior.
5. The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling / Because it's always fun to take an amazing journey with characters you love, and even more fun to take that journey with friends and discuss the books with them when you're finished.

I tag -- Stephanie and Patrick

Illustrator "Fun"

2007-09-17T10:50:00.000-05:00

... and by fun, i mean work that is mildly amusing.

This is our third assignment for my Electronic Publishing class. The first two were nothing big, just teaching us to use Adobe Illustrator. This one has us using Illustrator for something potentially useful. We were supposed to either draw something free hand or "trace" an jpg image we already had. I chose to trace a pirate devil duck that Erin's sister, Abby, gave me for christmas last year.

Here's the original.

Here's the one I made.

redesign preview!

2007-09-12T08:35:00.000-05:00

you saw it here first...

Hey gang, I've been working on a new design for my portfolio website. Check out a couple of these preview shots I decided to post in order to tease you a bit. :)

[view of the header]

[view of the nav bar]

[view of the quick gallery]

Hot off the presses...

2007-08-24T07:51:00.000-05:00

get your updates here.

Well, I'm finally back from the summer, but I'm not quite settled, yet. I guess that's what you get when you come back a day late starting for classes, no apartment, and no car. (All will be explained later)

Some good news - upon returning to EKU this semester, I was suprised to find that a few of my projects from the past two semesters classes have won awards at IGAEA's Gutenberg Awards. The contest is open to colleges and universities across the nation.

First off, a calendar project that my class did last semester won honorable mention in the print division. I'll try to post a few photos of the calendar later.

Next, a t-shirt I designed and printed in the fall won First Place in the screen printing category.

Lastly, a web design project from last semester won Best In Show for the web publishing category! (go see it)

So as far as that goes, I'm pretty excited!

(more updates later)

The coolest people...

2007-07-09T02:24:00.000-05:00

txt msg fools.

Setup:
I'm at the theatre while the designer and director write light cues for West Side Story. I'm bored. I have to be here in case I'm needed, but I don't have any real work to do until the end of the night when I strike gear.

Payoff:
A couple of the ladies in the cast and I started txt msging back and forth. It got really fun with one of the girls sending me "secret admirer" messages since I didn't have her number. The was all kinds of fun being sent in digital form. It was definitely the most number of txt msgs I've ever sent and/or received in one day. I think the tally came up to over 60 msgs total... sent and received. The awesome thing was, they were doing it to keep me entertained while I was bored at work!

Here's to Meg, Anabel, and Nicole! Some of the coolest gals I know! Thanks ladies!! You made my night!!

it's been a while...

2007-07-07T11:35:00.000-05:00

i'm getting bad at this.

First off - Happy 07/07/07!!! Today is the day the seventh Harry Potter book should've been released.

Anyhoo... life's going pretty well here at Jenny Wiley. We've got three of the four shows up and running and the fourth (West Side Story) starts technical rehearsals on Monday.

I've been a bit miserable this past week due to a fairly nasty sunburn I acquired on a day off while out on a pontoon. Luckily, I've had a really great person to apply aloe to my back.

As of this writing, I've finally met all the actors, and had some good conversations with more than a few. There are still a few allusive that I'm trying to open up to me, but the majority of the company is great fun! In fact, all of the residents of Cabin B are pretty much addicted to the Discovery Channel. Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch, Mythbusters, and Man vs. Wild is pretty much on the TV anytime we're home.

The shows are going great so far and High School Musical is a lot better than I anticipated. I avoided watching the movie and listening to any music prior to the summer in order to not get burned out on it. This group of actors is probably the most talented (overall) that I've seen at Jenny Wiley. There really aren't any weak-links in the chain. The production crew is amazing as well. They've put in so many long hours in order to get the past couple shows up... and they've done so without complaint. They're here to do their job.

In other news - I was fortunate enough to get to talk with Erin a couple times this past month, which was a real blessing! It was fun talking with her again. Nice and normal.

Anyway - a few final words before I head out.

"Enjoy the journey or the destination will pass you by."

One Down

2007-06-16T15:53:00.000-05:00

two and a half to go...

I decided I needed to write a quick update so as not to go a whole month without posting.

The past four weeks have been pretty good. The production crew is all really talented and mostly fun to be around. The acting company has all arrived and started rehearsals for High School Musical. I've only met a few of the gang, but those I've met seem to be pretty cool.

This past week was load-in, setup, and tech week for Forever Plaid. I had a few long nights of work, with most nights getting to bed around 2 or 3am. I ended up having to pull one all-nighter in order to get lightboxes ready to be installed the next day. Luckily the past couple days have been a little less stressful and easy-going in lighting world. We opened up Forever Plaid to a great audience.

This coming week, we tech and open up the kids show, The Princess and the Pea. It might be another high-stress week as there are times when the crew needs to be in two places at once.

A few of the actors from last year have returned, including one of my favorite people from last season, Katie Mitchell. We've had a couple of really awesome conversations since she's gotten here, and it's the first time this summer that JWT has felt like the home it has the past 6 seasons I've worked here.

All in all, everything is going fine. I miss my friends who are strewn about the globe very much, and think about everyone often.

Stephanie & Chris - I'm very excited about seeing you at the end of the summer!
Dustin & Katie - I hope you guys are having a blast in France!
Erin - I hope you're having a great summer and that things continue to go well for you! JWT is not quite the same without you here.

The story so far...

2007-05-21T17:09:00.000-05:00

kicking butt and taking names.

Well, I've been in Prestonsburg for a little over a week so far. We've gotten a lot accomplished, and start to hang lights tomorrow. That's my favorite part of the season, because that's when I can see physical proof of my accomplishments.

As usual, only the production crew is here right now. It seems like we have a good bunch of folks again, this year. With the exception of one particular year, and a couple of exceptions over the past couple years... most of the people have been really great to work with.

As for myself - well, I'm doing just fine. Sometimes it's tough to go back to someplace that you had such a wonderful time in and think that you might actually have a good time there again. I have good days and bad days... but don't we all? Anyway, that's enough rambling from me. Feel free to keep in touch. I can usually check my email once (possibly twice) in a day, but the posts will come fairly sporadically. So you should all be sort of used to that. ;)

Take care, and God Bless.

bittersweet

2007-05-12T13:42:00.000-05:00

hitting the road.

This time of year is always kind of weird for me. It is always a time of transition. Most of the time, I have usually been ready for it. This time... well, I'm not so sure. So much is different this year.

In about an hour or so, I'll make the two hour drive to Prestonsburg, where I'll spend my summer living and working as the Master Electrician at Jenny Wiley Theatre. Most years I look forward to this place. It is like a family, and it gets bigger and changes every summer. This year, I'm not sure how I feel about it. I am definitely ready to be working again, and making money. I guess my worry is that I had such an amazing summer last year, that nothing else could possibly compare, and that I'll be disappointed or depressed. I'm also worried that in this possible funk, I'll miss out on a lot of fun and merriment, and will just kind of dread being there.

I guess this also comes from a slightly uncertain future, as when I return from the summer, I am moving into a new apartment... which I will have to find in the due course of the 15 weeks I'm gone. I will also need to find a job in order to sustain said apartment and the ability to buy food.

So, I guess this is a call for help. What kind of help? I don't really know. If you have my number, feel free to call and chat some this summer. If you have my email address, drop me a line. If you frequent my blog, go ahead and comment. And if you're totally awesome, come on out to Prestonsburg later this summer, hang out, and check out a show.

Thanks. God bless. And stay well.

To Do

2007-05-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

getting things done for May 12.

Here's the stuff I have left to do before I leave on May 12.

UPDATED: Friday, May 11 @ 12:49pm
Item 1: "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" Costume Design
Item 2: Video project for Web Animation
Item 3: Calendar project for Graphic Communications
Item 4: Graphic Comm exam
Item 5: Astronomy exam
Item 6: Web Animation exam/presentation
Item 7: Literature exam
Item 8: Costume Design presentation
Item 9: Pack for JWT
Item 10: Move out

what i learned in class

2007-05-07T21:34:00.000-05:00

fun with iMovieHD and Garageband.

This was the final project due for my TEC355 Web Animation class. Cheesy and fun. Like me. Enjoy!

Work Abroad

2007-05-03T21:37:00.000-05:00

I prefer plan "A".

The past month or so, I've been evolving a plan in my head about what to do after graduation... especially now that I can finally see an end to my undergrad years. I haven't told too many people this plan, nor is it anything set in stone, but it is definitely something I need and want to do.

Plan A
Starting now, I have one year and a week before I graduate. I plan on working this summer and working while taking classes this next school year. Hopefully, I'll be able to save some money, pack up a bunch of crap, and live and work in London (England) for 6 months. I've learned of a program called BUNAC that helps college students or recent graduates find work abroad for up to 6 months. It would be an amazing opportunity. Not only would I be working in another country, but I would get to spend some good quality time with Stephanie and Chris. I would also be able to really enjoy the culture... something I wasn't able to do the last time I visited.

Plan B
Should various factors prove inconvenient, I will still save up money, and go visit for a couple weeks. I just won't be making any money during my visit.

Plan C
I whore myself out to afford a plane ticket to London and become a street performer.

So, y'know... I should have fun no matter which way the wind blows. :)

weekend

2007-04-30T19:36:00.000-05:00

When it is worthwhile.

Thursday
The IM guys came in this weekend for another event at First Baptist, which is always fortunate for me, because that means I get to hang out with some of the coolest bunch of guys I know. Thursday evening, Ben and I hung out at my local haunt, Live Wire, and had some good conversation about life, love, and relationships. It is one of the two most recent conversations I've had that have made me feel a little bit better about things. If Erin W. is reading this, I'm sorry if I've acted like a douche, and thanks for your caring and patience.

Friday
I had an eye doctor appointment in Lexington in the afternoon. I finally am wearing contacts again after running out of them over two months ago! It feels good to wake up in the morning and be able to see. I'm pretty excited because my prescription didn't change hardly at all. (whoo hoo) Hung out with Ben and Topher a while that afternoon. That evening hung out at Live Wire some more and caught part of the Jazz Crawl that took place in downtown Richmond. I've never in my life seen so many people crammed into that small coffee shop! Back at the ranch, some friends were in town, and we played a card game called, "Oh Hell". Good times, good friends.

Saturday
Slept in. Went to St. Awesome's at 3:00 to volunteer as Video Switcher. For those of you not "in-the-know" the video switcher is the guy that sits in front of a lot of buttons and a wall of TV monitors and "switches" from Camera 1 - to Camera 2 - to a DVD playback - to Camera 3 - back to Camera 1... etc. Of course this is all done via input from the Video Director. It was fun. It was also my last weekend volunteering before my summer gig at Jenny Wiley. Another thing that made it fun was that it was something different, and it was challenging. I love working outside my normal comfort box and learning new things. That evening, my friend William had a housewarming party at his BRAND SPANKIN' NEW HOUSE! Not only is his house awesome, but we all had a lot of fun, and I met some really cool new people, too.

Sunday
The morning came way too early, as it usually does when I volunteer on the weekends. At St. Awesome's at 8:15am to continue my Video Switcher role. After the last service, Matt, Casey, Patch, Tim, and I grabbed some quick lunch from Backyard Burger, and headed back to the church. Back at the church I helped lead a Lighting Seminar with Matt for the rest of the guys. It was fun, but I'm so horrible at that kind of thing. I teach much like I learn, by doing rather than being told how. After the seminar, I went back home and crashed hard. Slept for a few hours, then did homework, and went to bed.

Revue. Rewind. Replay.

2007-04-24T20:02:00.000-05:00

The Short Version.

Let's go back all the way to last Tuesday...

Tuesday | April 17
Normal LONG day. Went with some friends to a free stand-up comic that was on campus after my last class of the day. He had high points and low points, but overall, I laughed a lot.

Wednesday | April 18
That night I went to see All The Great Books, Abridged presented by EKU's Theatre Department. The three guys cast in this show had great chemistry and awesome timing. It was a fun night.

Thursday | April 19
I had my first "The Dame" experience. Went with Logan, Lucy, and Chris to see Unknown Hinson. Google him, or check him out on YouTube. He's an interesting character, and a lot of fun to watch.

Friday | April 20
After some quick laundry, I drove to Louisville to hang out with a couple of friends and go to Thunder Over Louisville. Marshall and I played a LOT of Guitar Hero II (on Xbox360) that night.

Saturday | April 21
Headed down to the river at around 10:00am to get a good spot. And get a good spot, we did. At 3:00pm the festivities got going with an air show that was awesome... and loud! When it got dark, the real thunder began... the largest pyrotechnic display in North America! It was amazing! (I'll post photos later) After the festivities were over, we went over to another friends house and played more Guitar Hero II... this time on a HUGE screen TV. We rocked until about 2:30am.

Sunday | April 22
Slept in. Took naps. Had lunch. Drove home. Picked up General Tso's chicken from Tsing Tao on the way home. When I got home, met the girl that's going to be dog- and house-sitting for Dustin and Katie while they're having fun in Paris. That's right, France.

That's all. Now scram.

Tragedy again

2007-04-17T10:07:00.000-05:00

Sometimes life gives you lemons.

There's no making sense of situations sometimes. Much like the awful scene that took place yesterday at Virginia Tech. I was talking about it with my mom on the phone, and she was talking about how frustrating the reporters were handling the press conferences. They were desperately searching for a "fall guy", and asking the same questions over and over, to which the person had no information about.

In a time when we should be sorrowful and prayerful, I'm thankful. A couple of my cousins graduated from Virginia Tech, and just thinking about the fact that if this happened a couple years ago, they could've been victims in this tragedy makes me feel a little sick to my stomach.

If you do nothing else today, please, take a moment of silence at some point and pray for the families affected by this event at Virginia Tech.

weekend

2007-04-16T13:34:00.000-05:00

I haven't done one of these in a while, let's see if I'm rusty or not...

Thursday
Woke up to some troubling news about a fire in the Paddy Wagon. The Wagon was a cool Irish Pub downtown. By far my favorite watering hole in Richmond. The truly scary part for me was that my favorite place to hang out was only a couple doors down from the pub. Luckily it was only closed for the day (due to that section of Main Street being blocked off), and it reopened on Friday. To console myself, I grabbed General Tso's chicken from Tsing Tao.

Friday
I spent most of the day finishing up my costume design project for class. We had to design costumes (and changes) for two of the main female characters in Fallen Angels. When I get all my projects back, I'll scan them in or take a photo of them so you can see what I've been up to in that class.

Went to class and my teacher was very impressed with the progress that I've made since the beginning of class. He was very complimentary. This project had to be painted in watercolor. I'm terrible at painting, but we've been practicing in class, and his comment made me feel much better about my work.

While sitting at home, I got a call from Ben. He and his wife were in town! A pleasant and unexpected surprise. We went to dinner at Casa Fiesta and caught up a little bit. They were in town for a funeral of a friends mother. :( So a good thing under not-so-good circumstances. Later that night I went to another local watering hole with my friends Casey and Michelle. One of Casey's friends was playing at the place that night and so we went and listened for a while.

Saturday
I originally had other plans for this weekend, but they were sort of changed, so I was able to enjoy relaxing at home for a little bit, watch TV, and straighten up the room some (not serious cleaning, just a little). Later that night, I met Ben, Rebekah, Chris and his friend at Miyako's for sushi! We actually sat in the sushi bar section since Rebekah finally realized she likes sushi. :) After dinner, Ben, Rebekah, and I hung out at Rebekah's parents house. We chatted, watched some stand-up, watched a little National Treasure, and Ben and I played a little bit of Lux.

Sunday
Woke up and went to church at St. Awesome's. They started out the service with a Mute Math video. Pretty sweet. Went home and lounged around for a while. Dustin, Katie and I hit Qdoba for dinner, and then I went into solitude to relax, watch TV, and read my homework for class the next day.

Tragedy

2007-04-12T09:09:00.000-05:00

too close for comfort

maxx7736: I have some really bad news...
skipthehero: what?!
maxx7736: The Paddy Wagon was on fire this morning.
skipthehero: OH NO!
maxx7736: They had a lot of downtown blocked off to fight it.
skipthehero: ohmygosh
maxx7736: It reached the bar next door to it, but last I heard that was it. So on the brightside livewire should be okay.
skipthehero: that's good.
maxx7736: It looked pretty bad though, at least from what I could see.
skipthehero: that stinks... do you know if anyone was in either of the places?
maxx7736: The report said that they believe everyone made it out safe.
skipthehero: good

My List

2007-04-11T15:33:00.000-05:00

What dreams may come?

Inspiration abounds after I saw this on Erin's livejournal. One dream for each year of life. That's 28 for me. Here they are in no particular order.

1. Graduate College
2. Have my own place of residence
3. Have a decent paying job that I enjoy
4. Get married
5. Go on a cruise
6. Visit Stephanie and Chris in London
7. Travel to Ireland
8. Make my friends and family proud
9. Watch all the classic movies
10. Act on stage again
11. Be a better man (person)
12. Be a better Christian
13. Learn a second language (French or German)
14. Tour with a show at least once
15. Tour with a concert group at least once
15. Visit my father's grave
16. Be a Big Brother (for Big Brothers and Big Sisters)
17. Learn to play the guitar better
18. Learn to love more
19. Teach my (someday) children about life, love, and laughter
20. That everyone I know will know and understand how much I care for them
21. Have a beer with my son on his 21st birthday
22. Play Mark in RENT
23. Play Seymore in Little Shop of Horrors
24. Spend more time with my family
25. Travel around the world with good friends (and/or significant other)
26. Learn to dance (and lead)
27. Own a boat
28. Make others happy (and laugh)

There's my list. Now it's your turn.

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T14:45:00.000-05:00

The REAL good news.

I setup and ran lights this weekend for the Easter services at St. Awesome's. The energy in a room of over 1000 people singing in praise of their creator is just simply put, incredible.

Normally to setup for a weekend, we meet about 1:00pm on Saturday. Since this weekend was a bigger event, and there were a lot of things that were being added and incorporated, there were about six of us that showed up on Thursday and Friday evening to get jump start on the setup. It was probably one of my favorite stage setup's we've done at church. Here's a couple photos I took this weekend. Click on them to see a larger image.

My Savior loves
My Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me

My God He was
My God He is
My God is always gonna be

Good News

2007-04-06T14:35:00.000-05:00

About time something went right.

Yesterday I applied for a job on campus (that would start in the Fall Semester) at ResNet as their Publication Designer.

Today, as I sat down in my last class of the day, I got a phone call from them. I have an interview with them on Monday! I'm very excited. It would be awesome to have a job to come back to after the summer when I return to classes in the fall.

almost there

2007-04-03T15:50:00.000-05:00

The tunnel opening is just ahead.

I registered for my classes this morning at 12:30am (as soon as EKU's registration site was ready to go). I'm taking 13 hours next semester (4 classes for you non-college lingo type). After that I'll only have 3 classes to take and will graduate in May of 2008 (cheering all around). For all you stalkers out there, here's my class lineup for Fall 2007.

08:00am - 09:55am MW TEC313 (Digital Photography)
10:10am - 11:00am MWF ENG212 (Literature II)
11:15am - 12:05pm MWF BIO121 (Principles of Biology)
12:20pm - 02:15pm W BIOlab (Biology Lab)
02:30pm - 04:35pm MW GCM217 (Electronic Publishing I)

LiveWire Friday

2007-03-17T19:53:00.000-05:00

Day 9.

My last official day of Spring Break was a good one. I spent most of the day hanging out at LiveWire. Started around 12:30 to meet Dustin for lunch. After he left, I worked on my design portfolio site a lot. I also played a few games of Lux. Later that day, Dustin and Katie showed up again, and we listened to Shoshana play some acoustic guitar. She's the one that got the Oasis song stuck in my head. Dustin, Katie, and I played some cards while we listened to the music.

The day was really nice. Relaxing and productive. Too bad it's all over, now.

Days Six thru Eight

2007-03-16T19:10:00.000-05:00

good friends and good food

Day 6 | Tuesday
Woke up and right before I left town to visit my friend Ben in Nashville, I got my hari cut. I felt 10 pounds lighter. The trip down was uneventful (which is actually a good thing in a car). Ben and his wife (Rebekah) and I went to this awesome Italian place for dinner called Mafiosos Pizza. They have pizza slices bigger than your head! (or the same size as your head if you're Patch) I had this awesome fried macaroni with lots of cheese and jalapeños in it. Amazing. That plus the two ginormous pizza slices left me quite full (and a little uncomfortable).

Day 7 | Wednesday
Got to sleep in. Ben and Rebekah had to work. Luckily Ben only had to work until noon, so after a yummy lunch, Ben and I vegged out, and talked a little geek. We got bored and went over the Rebekah's office to keep her company for a bit then walked down to a coffee shop and talked more geek. That night, Rebekah made a scrumptious dinner consisting of chicken, seasoned potatoes, broccoli and cheese, and cheesy garlic biscuits. Rebekah had a party to go to, so Ben and I watched some CSI (original and NY), and of course - talked geek. Ben also introduced me to Lux a RISK-type game for PC. Really fun, and addictive! It's a free download. Check it out.

Day 8 | Thursday
Hung out with Ben and Craig at Bixby's coffee shop. Played around on the internet (yay free WiFi!). Had lunch with Ben and then headed back to the land of EDT.

You know you want to hire her

2007-03-16T13:01:00.000-05:00

Most beautiful.

Erin got new head shots. She's gorgeous.

Last week, she went to SETC She auditioned in front of about a hundred companies. It was her first year to go, and she was really nervous. But she did a great job. I'm incredibly proud of her.

Day(s) Three thru Five

2007-03-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

buy two, get one free!

Day 3 | Saturday
Worked on laundry a bit more in the morning, then headed to St. Awesome's to volunteer as LD. After church, I decided to stop by LiveWire to just chill out for a while. There was live music that night (since it was a Saturday) and for the sound check the girl play a song that I sort of knew but not fully. That song would end up plaguing me for three days. (gah!) Returned home to continue the marathon laundry session.

Day 4 | Sunday
Actually made it to call-time on time despite the three-week-early "spring forward" to Daylight Saving Time and my inopportune bout of insomnia. Sunday after church, I continued to do laundry (seriously). I took my car to a car wash, came home and cleaned the inside out really well. Used the easy Armor-All wipes all over the place. My car looks mostly clean, now. I just need to vacuum the floorboards.

Day 5 | Monday
Slept in. Ahhh. Then I met Dustin for lunch at Live Wire. We don't get to meet as much for lunch this semester because Dustin is taking three classes and pretty much uses his lunch break for those. Bummer. After lunch I ran some errands and almost got my haircut. I decided I wasn't in the mood, though, and bought some new jeans. Then went home and finally finished my laundry! (Whoo hoo!) That night Dustin, Katie and I had dinner at Rally's (yumm) and then hung out for a bit at Live Wire (of course). I finally figured out the song that I couldn't come up with. It was Wonderwall by Oasis. That night I found tablature to the song and learned (sorta) how to play it.

Day Two

2007-03-09T22:11:00.000-05:00

close to spring

What a beautiful day today was! Today started out slow. I slept in (Ahhh) and then worked on cleaning the room up and doing laundry.

Around 2:00, my friend William called. So I took a break from the cleaning (hey, it's my Spring Break, after all) and headed up to Lexington to play around of Frisbee Golf with him and his friend Daniel. I did better than I expected, especially for it being the first time I played this year. Then we grabbed some grub at a new place called Culver's. Really good burgers. They server frozen custard, too. Yummm.

Afterwards, came home and continue to clean and finish the laundry.

Day One

2007-03-08T23:54:00.000-05:00

Spring Break starts now.

My last class before Spring Break was finished at 1:20pm. In celebration I went to LiveWire and hung out. I read some of a book I'm reading, and worked on my computer a little while. Dustin and Katie joined me later, and then we all went and ate at the happiest place on earth. Qdoba finally opened in Richmond! And not only did they open, but I got my Chicken Queso Burrito for FREE, thanks to my Qdoba Card!

When we got home, I helped Dustin and Katie make cakes and desserts that they're taking to her family tomorrow.

Later this evening, Erin called from SETC and reported a long, fun-filled day. :) Everybody wish her luck and send her good thoughts and prayers. She auditions on Saturday morning.

Today was a good day.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2007-03-07T18:24:00.000-05:00

cue music

The Good
- All my classes for Friday are canceled.
- Next week is Spring Break. I'm going to go visit some friends in Nashville.
- Today was a beautiful day outside. I didn't have to wear a coat.
- Dog Judo. Funny website. Check it out.

The Bad
- I'm officially in a funk. Bummer.
- I auditioned for a show. I really loved the script. I didn't get a part.

The Ugly
- I need a haircut.
- I need to finish cleaning my room.
- I need to clean out my car.
- I need to do laundry.

Project Flash

2007-02-27T17:10:00.000-05:00

What the heck is a "Tween"?

For more information, check out: Project355:MotionTween
Update: Sorry, I forgot to mention that I made this. It's a part of my Web Animation class. It's used to demonstrate the ability to do different things. Tell me what you think.

week + end = X

2007-02-25T21:03:00.000-05:00

solve for "X"

I've been a bit down and blue this past week. The reasons I won't discuss on here as that would be inappropriate. But I do want to thank those of you who do already know what's been going on for offering your advice, your support, and your friendship. It means a lot to me.

Aside from that, I've been busy in my classes (which are going well). I've done a couple projects for my Costume Design class, and been in the computer lab in the technology department working on different projects for a couple of classes most of my free time. My literature class is going well, and I really love the in-class discussions of the text. On Thursday night, I went out to the observation deck for my astronomy class to look at the moon and planets (Saturn and Venus were the only ones up). It was cold. My fingers stopped working about halfway through.

This weekend I ran lights at church. After church Saturday, I grabbed some Qdoba to cheer myself up. Ran lights again on Sunday. Afterwards, I hit the movies. As a treat to myself, I took in a double feature. First I watched "Bridge to Terabithia". I really enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot of my childhood. It made me cry. The next movie I saw was "Night at the Museum". I enjoyed this one quite a bit as well. It had a lot of heart to it. It made me laugh. After the movies, went home, grabbed a couple of Hot Pockets and some Swiss Cake Rolls and retired to the bedroom.

randomness abounds!

2007-02-16T16:32:00.000-05:00

so much to do...

Let's see where to start:

- Ladies and Gentlemen... it is WAY too cold to be wearing flip flops on campus!
- I'm mostly over my pneumonia... I still have a bit of a cough, but it's WAY better than how I was feeling.
- I miss my girlfriend.
- Started work on redesigning my portfolio site - check it out: www.scottglascock.net
- Filed my taxes yesterday. I get a refund. Whoo hoo! C'mon direct deposit!
- I miss Stephanie.
- I have an actual free weekend this weekend. I'm not sure what to do with myself.
- Had a wonderful weekend in Charleston, WV, last weekend with my girlfriend, Erin. We celebrated Valentines Day and our 8 month anniversary.

The End.

Inner workings

2007-02-08T23:22:00.000-05:00

see my guts

Made this Animated GIF for my TEC 355 class.

the radar

2007-02-05T14:45:00.000-05:00

flying low

In case anybody wonders why they haven't heard much or seen much of me lately... it's because I came down with a little thing called pneumonia.

HUGE bummer. Which might be an understatement.

Anyway. I'm taking anti-biotics, drinking plenty of fluids, and eating my chicken noodle soup.

Send all the good vibes and prayers you want, they'll be appreciated.

New Podcast

2007-02-01T10:59:00.000-05:00

geeks unite!

Go check out the new podcast by Patch and The Colonel. I haven't listened to the whole episode, yet, but so far sounds interesting.

Check out the website at: www.notsolive.com
Grab the 'cast, here.

Project 335

2007-01-31T17:13:00.000-05:00

rockin' the class

Started building my web page for the TEC355 (web animation) class. So far it's WAY better than the 225 site. In 225, we were building the site according to instructions, and we had to show off the ability to do certain things (whether we wanted to or not). This semester, I made the page look how I wanted off the bat. Our first project was drop down CSS menus. I'm pretty proud of mine. So check them out and compare. Let me know what you think...

TEC 255 - last semester
TEC 355 - this semester

Social

2007-01-31T16:37:00.000-05:00

life hasn't flatlined

Traveled down to Berea last night after class with Chris G. One of our friends from my Graphics Comm/Web classes (Logan) is in a band, Delorean Grey (myspace), and invited a couple of us to see his band play.

They were awesome. But I can definitely tell that I'm getting older. The music was way too loud. They did a great job, though. The lead singer's voice reminded me of the lead singer of Incubus. The concert was fun, and on the spur of the moment. Some of the best kind of moments to have.

Guitar Hero

2007-01-27T11:22:00.000-05:00

mark your calendar

LiveWire is hosting a Guitar Hero tournament all during February. You come in sometime each week during the first three weeks, play, and get ranked to see if you play in the final week. I think I'm going to sign up, I mean, I'm in there enough. I've only played the actual game once, but I've played a guitar game at an arcade in Ohio several times.

Here's where you guys can help. We're supposed to come up with a rocker name for the tournament. I need a name. The winner will have the honor of me choosing that name as my own. :)

Madly

2007-01-25T19:28:00.000-05:00

...in love with a girl...

There's a series of messages currently going on at St. Awesome's. It's called God Trusts Us... And this past weekend it was God Trusts Us... with our sexuality. In the middle of the teaching element, No Nick Name Fred asked Patch to jump up and relate to us some of his experiences. First off, I think it takes incredible courage to talk about sex to a large group of people.

But this isn't really about that... what struck me most is when Patch was talking about his girlfriend. What stood out most about his stint speaking was the following words:

"I am madly in love with this girl."

What an awesome statement. To spit it out... without hesitation... to an entire group of people (whom you may or may not know). It really inspired me.

I know I have talked about my girlfriend Erin a little bit before to some of you... but I think it bears repeating here and now.

I am deeply and madly in love with that girl. The best part is that I see her as "the one". With a capital T and a capital O. The days I'm without her are tough, and the days I'm with her are wonderful and amazing. For the people who have not found this yet (if they are searching)... it's wonderful. Don't give up. For the people who have found it...

...isn't it awesome?

LiveWire: Invaded

2007-01-19T16:34:00.000-05:00

... the wee ones are taking over...

Today Dustin and I are sitting in LiveWire and enjoying a nice relaxing lunch. We noticed that it was a little bit busier than it normally is when we're there. We then continue with our normal conversation, until a few minutes later, the coffee house is stormed by what seemed like a million kids (in total it was about 50). Apparently some teachers at an elementary school in Richmond had the bright idea to bring all 50 of them to a small coffee shop that has seating for about half that number of people. The noise was overwhelming. Kids were everywhere. My main concern was for the employees... I hope the teachers had called way in advance to at least warn them that the classes were coming in. Needless to say, Dustin and I cut our lunch short... I hurried through my hot vanilla chai, and we scrammed. No quiet reading or working on homework at LiveWire for me today.

As we left, another thought crossed my mind... what do kids drink when they go to a coffee house? Please GOD don't give them coffee.

check it out

2007-01-18T19:27:00.000-05:00

seriously... check it out

Since I've gotten literally 1's of 10's of requests to put Erin's blog on my favorites list... it's over there. I generally make sure people are cool with it before I put one in my side bar. Much like many of you others, though (I'm looking at you, Steph) she doesn't update really regularly. Check it out anyway.

How to be Lovely

Update:
... also... everybody go check out patrick's blog...

(you okay, buddy? wanna soda?)

the return of wee mee

2007-01-17T17:52:00.000-05:00

you know you missed him

This little guy here (and in my sidebar) was created at wee world. When ever I update his look on weeworld.com, his appearance will automatically update on my blog. Here he is sporting a winter coat, hat, and scarf.

Two Oh Five

2007-01-16T09:52:00.000-05:00

...i remember when...

I paid $2.05 for gas yesterday. When I left town on Thursday, it was $2.25. I should go to Tennessee more often.

how to: be awesome

2007-01-04T15:53:00.000-05:00

that's how i roll...

These are graphics I made. I'm going to rework my design portfolio site... I liked it, it was awesome, but it wasn't quite me. I'll unveil my work once it's finished. But don't hold your breath.

Holiday Hooplah - part 2

2007-01-04T01:25:00.000-05:00

.. he began to dance around...

The Family
I actually spent a good deal of time in Ohio this holiday season. First bit was quiet and visiting with my mom. Then the full season kicked in. On Christmas Eve, Mom and I exchanged gifts before heading over to my family get-together. There were probably over 30 people there. It was a lot of fun, except for the stress of the Bengals losing to the Broncos.

On Christmas Day, Erin came over for lunch and met a manageable portion of my family, a few uncles and an aunt. I gave Erin her gifts, and then we went to her house for dinner, and that's when she gave me her gifts. We played some cards (a really fun game called Shanghai) and then hit we all hit the sack.

The next day Erin, her family, and I went to her Grandma's house for her big family get together. She has a really fun family, reminds me of my own, actually.

New Year's Eve was fun with Erin's friend Alexis and her fiance' David. We played a couple games, burned some pieces of paper that had all the bad stuff from 2006, ate 12 grapes and sang Auld Lang Syne at midnight. This was the first time in a couple of years that I've gotten to see "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve", and I couldn't help but mourn a little bit. The end of an era is close at hand.

After Midnight we watched really bad horror movies... so bad you can't help but laugh at how bad they are. We watched until we fell asleep.

In between all these things was more games, food, laughter, and good times than you can shake a stick at... and believe me, I can shake a stick at a whole lot of fun.

Happy New Year! Have a wonderful and blessed 2007!

Holiday Hooplah - part 1

2007-01-02T22:16:00.000-05:00

all the whos down in who-ville...

Recapping the holidays...

The Loot
- The first gift of the season was given by Stephanie and Chris (although it was WAY earlier than Christmas). They got me a nice watch from Fossil!

- Dustin & Katie got me the Friends Edition of Scene It (a very fun trivia game!)

- My mother got me more than I expected - Canon Digital Camera; Memory Card for Camera; a handmade Christmas Pillow; and Dark Hot Chocolate

- My wonderful girlfriend, Erin, got me some Superman PJs, a couple of really nice shirts, a book called For One More Day, and our first date movie on DVD (The Lake House)

- Erin's family got me "Pirates of the Caribbean Game of Life", an Ohio State hoodie, Harry Potter (Prisoner of Azkaban), Devil Duckies, Skip-Bo, A Fleece Blanket, Tuesday's with Morrie, and X-men 3.

Stay tuned for the real meaning of Christmas...

the return

2007-01-02T18:48:00.000-05:00

home again

Well, I'm back home from the crazy holiday season. Updates will abound in the next couple of days to fill you in on all the exciting news...

Merry Christmas

2006-12-24T22:30:00.000-05:00

... so bring us some figgy pudding...

MERRY CHRISTMAS
and
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season this year. May your days be blessed with abundant love, peace, and happiness.

... and in the words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one."

weekend

2006-12-18T20:45:00.000-05:00

the party edition

Thursday
The best girlfriend in the world came to visit me (no, not yours... mine). I took her out on an awesome date that night since our six month anniversary was on the 9th. We went to Johnny Carino's for dinner. It was yummy. We then went to see Happy Feet. It was REALLY good. Erin and I laughed so much it hurt. Not only was it a very sweet movie, and it had some political and environmental messages as well. After that we went to the Paddy Wagon for a couple of drinks before heading back to watch some Ghost Whisperer before bed.

Friday
Erin and I slept in, then went to LiveWire and met Dustin for lunch. I left Erin and Dustin to gab a bit since I had to go to my Web Publishing class for my final, which consisted of showing off our web pages and getting back various papers and our grade for the class (I got a 94... yeah, I'm awesome). For dinner, Erin and I ate at B.D.'s Mongolian Grill... AWESOME. I highly recommend it! After dinner we went to St. Awesome's Christmas Party. We sat at a table with a bunch of the guys I volunteer with and Erin and I danced to the music the 3 piece jazz combo was playing. After the party wound down, we headed home and watch MORE Ghost Whisperer.

Saturday
I made brunch for Erin, Dustin, and Katie. Probably the biggest meal I've ever attempted. I'm generally a one dish meal kind of guy... mostly because it's tough to make a full meal for just one person. We had scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, and biscuits. Erin helped me do some more Christmas shopping before the big party at Dustin and Katie's. We had a blast! We played a couple rousing games of Scene It and had a wine-gift exchange. We tried one wine, and it tasted like Dimetap cough syrup.

Sunday
Erin left. I was sad. I wrote out Christmas Cards and went to bed.

Monday
Finished up Christmas shopping! ... and six days before I needed to be! Now I'm watching the Cincinnati Bengals play the Indianapolis Colts. Major game.

exciting

2006-12-13T21:50:00.000-05:00

like i have ants in my pants...

Erin comes in tomorrow!

YAY!