Toilet Epiphanies

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".

Fun, Friends, and Food

...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

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.

January (so far)

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.

John Williams is the man

this guy comes in a close second...

Music Man Haiku

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

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

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

M & M's Combat

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?

"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.

The next 36 hours...

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.

This Week In Brief

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

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

time's slipping away...

Not sure how I feel about turning 30, yet.

Familiarly unfamiliar territory

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.

Updates

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!

why my friends are awesome...

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...

humpday update

...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

"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.

my life in scrubs

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

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?