Philippa Stood Me Up

Her loss.

More after class tomorrow.

So Much For the War on Terror

To destroy Al Qaeda, we must end the war on terror: Rand Corporation - Boing Boing: "A new Rand Corporation report comprehensively surveys the ways that terrorist groups have been disbanded in the past: 'Military force was rarely the primary reason a terrorist group ended.' Instead, historic wars on terror have been won with policing and settlements. Rand's conclusion? To defeat Al Qaeda, we need to end the war on terror."

Shorties

• 10:40 $1.50 Cheesecake day, nom nom nom #
• 14:18 @scoutfinch2271 and it's not even August #
• 21:42 5 down, 3 to go - I CAN HAS DINOSAUR... Purnell Shop...7/31/08 8:00PM #
• 21:46 Leaving work, 9:45, someday I will figure out the hours on this gig. #

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Shorties

• 14:41 Work, dino drawings, Woods estimate, & final schedule - a barrel of monkeys #
• 14:40 @technovinci want to come to school one friday this fall and teach SketchUp to sophomores? #
• 15:51 @renelae yeh, keep your head on a swivel #
• 18:44 only 2 out of 5 dino patterns worked first try - have to edit now #
• 22:05 all dinos fixed - tomorrow we make chips #
• 01:31 2064, damn level 4...tinyurl.com/6aka3y #
• 10:40 $1.50 Cheesecake day, nom nom nom #

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.sig War

So today I got an email from this guy:

Michael M. Chemers, MFA, PhD
Director of Dramaturgy Program
Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature
330 Purnell Center for the Arts
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-2399

I work with him and we like the fun, you know, and email is boring and everything, so when I replied to the email I sorta did this to his .sig at the end:

Michael M. Chemers, MFA, PhD, Total Douche
Director of Dramaturgy Program
Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature
330 Purnell Center for the Arts
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-2399

And then at the end of his reply I got this:

.___ .........._... _.. ___
|...\ __ ___ _(_)__| | | _ ) ___ ._____ _____ _ _ ___
| |) / _` \ V / / _` | | _ \/ _ \/ -_) V / -_) '_(_-<
|___/\__,_|\_/|_\__,_| |___/\___/\___|\_/\___|_| /__/
Oh Look at Me Everyone I Can Do ASCII pics which were cool maybe in the 80's
Option Coordinator Associate Professor of Drama - Technical Director
Carnegie Mellon University - Purnell Center for the Arts
http://www.cmu.edu/cfa/drama 412-268-2146 dboevers@cmu.edu
http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/

I had to add in the dots because I can't figure out how to make blogger add in the spaces in HTML - which is a good reason I should change my .sig because in most email readers it now looks like poop. Anyway, I continue to escalate and I send an email appended with this:

Michael M. Chemers, MFA, PhD
Director of Dramaturgy Program
Al Qaeda Squirrel Hill Chapter President
Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature
330 Purnell Center for the Arts
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-2399

Which then precipitated this:

.___ .........._... _.. ___
|...\ __ ___ _(_)__| | | _ ) ___ ._____ _____ _ _ ___
| |) / _` \ V / / _` | | _ \/ _ \/ -_) V / -_) '_(_-<
|___/\__,_|\_/|_\__,_| |___/\___/\___|\_/\___|_| /__/
Third Runner Up, All-State David Boevers Lookalike Contest
Carnegie Mellon University - Purnell Center for the Arts 412-268-2146
http://www.cmu.edu/cfa/drama dboevers@cmu.edu http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/
ETCP Certified Rigger

Prompting this:

Michael M. Chemers, MFA, PhD
Director of Dramaturgy Program
Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature
But Really I Want To Direct
330 Purnell Center for the Arts
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
412-268-2399

Culminating with this:

.___ .........._... _.. ___
|...\ __ ___ _(_)__| | | _ ) ___ ._____ _____ _ _ ___
| |) / _` \ V / / _` | | _ \/ _ \/ -_) V / -_) '_(_-<
|___/\__,_|\_/|_\__,_| |___/\___/\___|\_/\___|_| /__/
Third Runner Up, All-State David Boevers Lookalike Contest
Voted "Most Likely To Die of Unnatural Causes," Yale University 1997
Carnegie Mellon University - Purnell Center for the Arts 412-268-2146
http://www.cmu.edu/cfa/drama dboevers@cmu.edu http://cmuptm.blogspot.com/
ETCP Certified Pirate (Up Yours)

And then we got bored and stopped.

Well, it was funny to me.

Ellipses...

Dino workshop is coming... Is it worth purifying all the water if only 2% gets consumed? Makes you think... The Monica Goodling report has me irritated. She should be deported or something... Now taking bids on a gravel driveway rehab... Dark Night on IMAX was awesome, and as a bonus there were only trailers for IMAX films, and no commercials... I did an "are you internet famous" thing today. I got a zero... Mad Men is back, after watching the room appears to be filed with smoke, which you hardly can see behind Joan's bosom... First show is ready for a WAG pass... I'm purging 9 years of paper files. Have to remember to lubricate the shredder... I think I am going to see if I can negotiate some kind of frequent flyer program for my dad at the hospital... I know sometimes he's hard to listen to, but we need people like Michael Savage, sort of a counterweight to a lot of the rest of what we hear... Now Wal-Mart is into the locovore movement, what do you do when such an awful company does something so socially responsible? Guess be thankful for small favors... I still can't beat level four... Is comic-con really so important? News to me... The next two weeks are going to be big for printing, got to run new renewal binders... My twitterverse is growing, but very slowly... I'm not watching Operation Kill, but I think I should be... I don't like to think about it, but school starts real soon... Did you hear the Iraqis won't have an Olympic team this year? I think we're going backwards sometimes... Watching Black Gold? Some real American work ethic on display there... I think when he was there speaking Obama should have said to the Germans: "Today, I too am a donut." That would have been so cool...

Even In The Highest Ivory Tower

Jamie Lee Curtis: Home Economics: "I am only saying that my ability to sew this outfit, pants, hat, and jacket, with facing and grommets and zippers is only because I was TAUGHT. It reminds me how far we have fallen in giving our children the skills they need to succeed either in the big business world or in the big household world. We are FAILING. In music, art, home-ec, cooking, shop (remember shop?) as well as the basics, according to every study we are FAILING. We are Americans and we are getting an F in educating our children."

Google Got My Dad

or it could be bigfoot, in our garage, with a cup of coffee...

That's One Way

stagehand : LikeItHateIt

Know This Person?

I am looking for someone for work, does this sound like anyone (anyone in the world) you know (know of)?

What are we looking for... Well, the school has "supporting pillars" for our mission statement, perhaps that's a place to start. The mission goes: "To educate and train the theatre artists who will become the collaborators, innovators, and leaders of our profession, committed to the enrichment of diverse communities." and the pillars are Education, Leadership, Experimentation, Diversity, & Community.

So I guess if there were a scorecard, candidates would score highly on each of those five indexes.

Also this needs to be someone with some name recognition, either Domestically or Internationally within the theatre community.

Less celestially, we are looking for a strong leader (as we're a herd of cats, if there isn't a more Brownian motion animal available), someone "connected" to some aspect of the industry on the bleeding edge (so as to be able to bring excellent people to our community), someone who is a strong manager (as there is no "managing director" analog in our management structure - this person has to be the ideas and the brains), someone who is a proven strong fund raiser (as that is fortunately or unfortunately a large portion of the job description), someone who has at least some small previous education experience (because we are a school), and someone who is personable (there are a wide range of people this person has to engender good feelings in with relatively short exposure).

Perhaps more interestingly... We don't have a producing/theatre management program, so someone that brings that experience is bringing us something we can't already provide. Our directing program is in the midst of a fairly heavy turnover, as is the grad playwriting program, and the Sound Design & Dramaturgy programs are still fairly embryonic; the new head will wield very real influence on the development in these areas (moreso than where we are either very established or very facultied up). The university is very interested in fostering "Art & Technology" efforts, so someone with a vested interest in technology (in the broadest possible definition) would be a natural fit.

Those are the broad strokes I think.

If it does, get me the name - make me a hero!

31%

Shorties

• 12:09 @aerdin dry heat - they say "like putting your head in the oven." Driving with the window open is like putting your face in a hair dryer. #
• 12:09 @scoutfinch2271 go ahead, buy it, why not? #
• 12:09 Today, I feel like K-rap. #
• 15:13 All 5 cats vetted for another year. Finally. #

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They Like Me, They Really Like Me!!!

Thanks so much for coming by.

Dear Verizon

You suck.

For The Technician Who Has Everything

I present the $40,000 Leatherman. No shit:


The Collection - Leatherman

Now, I like me my tools; and one would have to assume this is sort of a non-starter in the "buy cheap/get cheap" universe, but seriously $40,000?

Going to count my change.

Shorties

• 13:45 office. not sure why #
• 14:38 :-( The LoudTwitter people say their service is broken. how sad #
• 18:04 @aerdin its this thingy that ports my "tweets" to my blog - or it did #
• 00:33 The early project runway episodes are easier, because you're not attached yet #

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P.S.

I don't want to make anyone nervous, but we're about to reach 70,000 hits.

I Know What They Say

But this deal looks SOOOOOOO good...

I checked other sites and mostly this is about half.

Half as good too, you say?

Harbor freight is always so cheap.

It's not what *they* say, it's what *Kevin* says:

"Buy cheap tools, get cheap tools."

But then, maybe I'm in the mood to buy a cheap tool.

Maybe.

Shit.

Where's The Good News?

First few Google "Top Stories":

Hurricane Dolly Aims for Mexico, Texas; Alerts Issued (Update3)
Texas grand jury indicts 6 in polygamist ranch case
Serbian Premier Tells Fugitive War Crimes Suspects to Surrender

Yahoo:
• Dolly becomes hurricane, churns toward Texas
• Angry Serb nationalists clash with police after Karadzic arrest
• Polygamist sect leader Jeffs charged with child sex assault

USA Today:

Jet carrying 7 Texas congressmen loses pressure, lands in New Orleans

Polygamist leader Jeffs, 5 others indicted in Texas

Study: Viagra may boost orgasm in women taking antidepressants

Dolly becomes Cat. 1 hurricane as it nears Texas

It's not exhaustive, but you get the point - or you will. Actually what it is is exhausting.

I am getting close to the point where I can't pay attention to news anymore. Getting in the car and turning on All Things Considered sometimes gives me the urge to pull into the garage, close the door and crack the windows. (Those of you who have been can reassure the rest that this cannot happen due to the state of my garage.) Watching the TV news is one crap story after another, even sports radio has been tragic lately what with the Steeler's ownership issues and Farve going crazy.

What happened to good news?

Normally when I bitch about the news I take local news to task for not covering their local beat. We have national newscasts for national stories, how about you cover Monroeville - tell me why all those stores closed. Things like that. But not now, now I am depressed and "the media" isn't helping. Even this blog doesn't help much. Mrs. TANBI was saying that the content of my blog is fairly universally depressing (when I post from other sources - pictures of the cats are never depressing, even when shaved). I do tend to post things about our terrible government or grabby corporations, but then it's sort of a GIGO thing, yes? That's what I see.

One would think this isn't about outlet either. I am a fairly omnivorous news gatherer. I listen to NPR, but I also listen to Limbaugh and Savage, and even local news and sports radio. I have news feeds from Google and Marketplace as well as the nicheier AirAmreica. There are 25 feeds in my reader under "news" and really that's probably only 25% of the total feeds. My point here is that I don't think I am partial to sources that cover the world atypically. I think news outlets have become bogged down with bad news.

Once upon a time I think news editors tried to balance the tone of their output. I don't think they ever looked at it as "good news" vs. "bad news" but you could depend on the end of a broadcast being a "public interest story." I think we may have even lost that these days. More often than not that closing story will be about Britney's divorce or how Paris spent the night in jail. Those stories now run to gossip, and we're lucky when they are only the public interest story and not the lead. But moreover, the tone of these stories is also often down. They don't talk about people's achievements, they give us something we can snicker at, so we can be selfish and condescending.

I say we're snarky enough, thank you very much.

Briefly searching "good news" one will find that the phrase has been co-opted. That's too bad, because I think there really is a need now for a positively leaning newscast. This isn't to say that we should as a group bury our heads in the sand and not pay attention to the things that are going on, but rather that we need something to help counterweight against all the strife we're bombarded with on a daily basis. I know that the Bush administration is a bunch of weasels, and I am going to notice them trying to declare birth control pills a form of abortion without being inundated by it on every newscast.

There must be someone that finished something, discovered something, achieved something, gifted something, refurbished something, recycled something, birthed something, that somehow doesn't also include the eventual downfall of our nation, the deaths of thousands, or destruction of the planet - just has to be. Sure would be nice to hear about things like that.

I think I will take a little more time to look for it from now on.

Take Pictures!

So I have probably said this before, but it can't be overstated: If you are in the industry I work in, remember to take pictures.

Why is this coming up again you ask? Well, I am mid-review again. In May-June I tightened up my CV, did a personal statement & position description, and somehow managed to narrow a list of over 200 referrers down to the 25 they wanted (for some reason they wanted quite a bit fewer this time around). The item for July-August? Update my submission binder, and so of course oh so recently I have been thinking about things I have no record of - or at least no good record of.

Which brings me to this: save everything and take photos. My kids this summer were curious as to why I still have the draftings I did for drafting class as a freshman at CMU. That I guess may be overkill from a portfolio standpoint. I probably won't be using those pages to land a job anytime soon (although with the economy the way it is and my renewal an unknown maybe I do have a job as a draftsman to look forward to). But along with those plates in that drawer are most of the drawings I did in grad school as well as the drawings from when I was a TD at MSMT.

What's not in there? There are only drawings I did from two projects at CSSI. I guess if I had to pick two I picked good ones, I have the 1996 DNC and the '96Vote project for ABC. But I was also the project manager for maybe a dozen shows at the Marriott and I have exactly zero plates from there. I did a great showdeck with automation tracks and access hatches for some Christmas show - zip; really cool automated asian fan and storage box - nada. Over the time I was at CSSI I probably did upward of 50 projects and I have drawings of two.

I think I have photos of about 6.

It's hard to make yourself look prolific when you don't save any of the evidence. I think I actually did a little better at TEN than CSSI. By then websites were more ubiquitous and I managed to get some photos digitally. I've got nothing for drawings though.

So if you are out there and you're working remember you are going to need these things and digital files and photos don't take the storage space and caravanning my paper drawings did. Whatever you're doing, get some pictures.

Shorties

• 12:25 head search meeting, woohoo #
• 15:36 Knots today: sheet bend, bowline, clove hitch, tautline, trucker's hitch, alpine butterfly, figure eight... #

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Why Would You Vote for a Democrat?

How about "are you better of now than you were eight years ago?"

Here's Something You Don't See Everyday

Couple of what I think are falcons gaurding the Morewood parking lot...


They were making quite a racket. Pretty cool though.

Know What This Means?

7/31/2008

Shorties

• 12:34 Blood Pressure still up :-( #
• 16:23 Did you hear Fresh Air today? Great Stagehand story. #

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Bra'tac Has A New Do

He was all matted and shedding like crazy, so we went for the full "lion cut." It's different. Right now none of the other cat's recognize him (must smell like shampoo). He chased his tail all afternoon, I think it's possible he's never seen it before.

Shorties

• 13:00 anyone remember a pond in Into the Woods? For nude bathing? #
• 15:05 note to self: hosing down the cat in it's carrier is not a good bath plan. #
• 22:09 Should I trust Comcast with my internet? With my phone? Should I trust T-Mobile with my home phone? I may be through with Verizon. #

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Who Are These People? - updated - updated

The trouble with giving your AIM handle to students is that eventually you have this slew of buddies who's names make no sense. It doesn't help that I have the thing put up real names either - so my buddie remembering muscles don't get much of a regular work out.

Do you know who these screen names belong to?

• Freddy1886
• SerenityDsgn
• Kirstenth
• Greenday9887
• Zazon5

I'd like to know which category to put people in. Thanks for your help!

Shorties

• 13:06 4am to noon, that's 8 hours, what's the problem? #
• 00:15 Ever have a day where most of what you did you were quite certain you were just going to have to do again? <--- My day today. #

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Ellipses...

This LoudTwitter thing makes it really hard to not post, don't want to look like I'm slacking, even if I am... First class went ok, almost everyone seemed interested... That game: http://tinyurl.com/6aka3y - driving me nuts, cannot get past level three, it sucks your life away, hour after hour. I haven't had that happen with a game in ages... I redid course descriptions today, again. With the pace of our curricular review, by the time the catalog is published the descriptions - sometimes even the courses are no longer correct... I am REALLY worried the entire economy is going to collapse. That article tying commodities prices to the mortgage mess really rung my bell. Today I thought about withdrawing half our money from the bank... Chemers gave my url to all the prekies, not cool, they are supposed to have to learn to use Google and everything. Maybe I will give out his blog address... Oh, and by the way, even if the entire economy does collapse, I don't want the current administration to fix it. Someone send them on vacation... If you use Google Reader, give me your handle so I can see your "shared items." My shared items ROCK... My brother-in-law is interneing at SI for Kids in NYC this summer and they didn't send him to the All Star Game. That blows... I signed up for a class at LDI, so I'm goin to Vegas. Now I have to decide how much more of LDI I should see... Still trying to figure out how to get my dad to want to quit smoking... The Closer came back tonight. It's waiting on the DVR. That's some good TV... I saw an ad for a job in the Science Fiction part of the Experience Music Project. Would it be cool to be head of education for a SciFi museum? It unfortunately appears I may be over educated (read: will want more money than they will pay)... Today as part of a pitch to a prospective grad student I said at one point "I don't know why that happens, it's possible we just suck." I have to work on my patter... No news is good news from Chicago, but I really ought to call tomorrow...

Shorties

• 13:13 Lazy Sunday too. Upon further consideration I may just be lazy. #
• 22:08 Melissa pics are up #
• 03:03 1423 - best I can manage... tinyurl.com/6aka3y ... must go to bed #

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Melissa PICS!

So I have been holding off on writing any kind of a Melissa post until the pictures came back. I got them yesterday, did my scans and some clean up, and now they are ready for posting.

I should say something about taking pictures at a Melissa concert. This is maybe the third or fourth time I had taken a camera in. Because I am paranoid about security taking it away I have always done this with a disposable. Years ago at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas I did actually have a camera taken away and I was glad it was a throw away. They told me I could check it at the front desk and get it later, but that would have meant missing like 20-25 minutes of show - both annoying and expensive. So we took a throw away. The other important thing to think about is that taking pictures can really ruin the concert. You basically have to watch the whole thing through the viewfinder, waiting for the picture to come up and then jump on it. If you don't you will never get the shot; so your concentration isn't on enjoying the show, but rather on shooting pictures.

I compromised this time. We took a throw away, but I shot most of my pics pretty quickly and spent most of the show with the camera in my pocket - and I gave myself permission not to care if I missed "the perfect shot."

Most of the photos are blurry because these cameras aren't meant for this kind of lighting environment, and because for the first half of the show I didn't use the flash to try not to call attention to myself. One of the security gaurds had been real nice to us and I didn't want to screw that up. So they're blurry, poorly composed, the color is lousy, but what do you want? I did start using the flash eventually because it was sort of a photo free-for-all. Also, for what it's worth, the throw-away was a Kodak APC camera - which strangely none of the 1-hour places seem to want to develop. I only picked that camera because it came with a zoom lens. Naturally none of the zoomed pics came out.

That's the photo inside scoop.

Seats are always an adventure at these things. If you are in the fanclub you can order seats through a back-channel and they are guaranteed to be good, I think the first third of the floor or something. Unfortunately you don't get to see exactly where you are sitting until you pick up your tickets at the will call. So there's always a little bit of xmas morning excitement as you watch fan club people open their envelopes and discover where their seats are.

This show was at the DAR Constitution hall, so here's what we were up against:

Not actually a very intimate venue as it turns out. I hadn't looked ahead of time, but by the name I was expecting something smaller. When we got our tickets they were Row D, seats 9 & 11. So far they seem like they are good, 4th row, although I have been places with an AA (or more) in front of A so there's no real knowing. When we got into the space I was a little disappointed as I gathered that we were all the way against the side - when I checked, the middle sections were in the 100's, so at that moment I was just hoping that 1 was against the wall. But that was unlikely.

So we did have pretty crappy seats. But then it turned out that we were in the first row of that section they'd sold. So even before the show started we moved up to row C on the aisle which was a vast improvement. After that it became clear they hadn't sold row A either. Often they withhold those seats and give them away to enthusiastic looking people in the back. There was a security person at the top of the aisle who wouldn't let us right into the front right away, but after a few tunes he let in one couple and then at the next blackout he let us up. So for the bulk of the show I was in the front row. Before the encores I moved into the middle. So by the end I had a pretty cherry spot. Here's our journey:
The show was great. Something I have discovered about Melissa is that the first 6 feet or so is a totally different show that the first 10 rows or so, and that's totally different than the rest of the floor. It really pays to be real, real close up. This show was organized as a personal history, so she started with old stuff and worked her way forward. I have to say that I didn't so much enjoy this formula. She left out a lot of the songs I really like. She hasn't played The Angels in a very long time, but this time there was also no Like the Way I Do or the absolute monsters from the last time I saw her: Giant & Secret Agent. But I shouldn't complain. The show was three hours, she did an encore and then did Piece of my Heart to finish up. There was Bring me Some Water and I got to hear 2001 live for the first time, and she played all her newest environmental/political tuneage. I think it's likely that Imagine That/What About Tomorrow might find it's way to the Obama people if it hasn't already. There also was lots of wild guitar from Phil Sayce, and the drummer this time around was decent too (although I miss Kenny Aronoff). The stage was nothing to speak of either way, and the lighting seemed like an afterthought - but Mrs. TANBI and I are snobs in that respect.

Soundwise we paid for our spot. We were just in front of the guitar monitor and really for the whole show that's pretty much all we heard. There was just no intelligibility to the vocals at all. I didn't mind much, the missus thought it was too bad. What was really too bad was that when I did move to the center I discovered that they had thought to include a small vocal reinforcement speaker for those people. So if we'd move 6 or 7 feet in at the begining we would have heard the whole thing perfectly.

So this is probably my favorite of the pictures I did get. The reason is that it was a true "snapshot" in every sense of the word. I got an inkling of what was about to happen and pulled the camers out of my pocket, stuck it up in the air, and shot the photo without looking - all in one motion. I had to crop it a bit, and from the sharpness it looks like I never stopped moving, but it really does have that "rock star photo" quality to it.

Mrs. TANBI asked me what it was that I liked so much about Melissa Etheridge. I am not sure I can explain aside from that I connect on a very deep level with the music. There's something to the rhythms of the tune and how they fit with the lyrics. It's almost as if she's able to fill more counts with words than anyone else would be singing the same lyrics. I think that's about intensity, like if you or I were to sing it we would punch it up by going faster but she just moves along with her power, her punching it up coming from inside. She's like a thunderstorm to me, like the Las Vegas sun or the wind off Lake Michigan, she is just so forceful in the way her feelings come across. That's not a good description, and it's certainly colored by my seeing her live which does nothing to explain what pulled me to her music to start with, but it's all I've got - it's about bandwidth, volume (as opposed to pressure), intensity, authenticity, power - there's just so much of her coming through.

I've been to a lot of shows now. I actually think I lost count, but it's something like this: Chicago, New Haven, New Haven, Chicago, Las Vegas, Chicago, Chicago, Las Vegas, New York, Cleveland, Rochester, Pittsburgh, Rochester, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC - so that's 16 times. The last half dozen or so I have gotten a handshake at the end. I'm not sure if it's because I'm typically a little taller than the women around me or if I'm memorable in some way or if it's nothing. I am going to pretend it's because I'm memorable, but it's probably because I can reach higher. I did get that handshake again this time. Afterall, we were fairly close. Here's our version of the pic everyone seemed to be taking:

Mrs.TANBI says it looks photoshopped, even though she took it. By the end of the show, hell from about 20 minutes into the show, I was a little sweaty - maybe that's the memorable part: "the guy that looks like he's about to have a coronary."

Anyway, good tunes, good times, fun people, absolutely worth the drive and the money. I guess I will keep my fan club membership active a little bit longer.

Here's the rest of my pics:

Shorties

• 13:17 lazy Saturday. I like lazy Saturdays. #
• 20:14 so far, the "upstairs litter experiment" is working well #

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Porbably What I'd Do

Beware Bush's preemptive strike on torture | Salon: "So don't be surprised if some time before Inauguration Day 2009, President George W. Bush issues a blanket presidential pardon to ensure that those who organized and implemented brutal interrogation techniques such as 'waterboarding' (a terrifying simulated drowning) are never hauled before the courts. A pardon would prevent future administrations from ever prosecuting those responsible for torture and other mistreatment at Guantánamo Bay and secret CIA detention facilities elsewhere overseas."

Did Your Read it Last Time?

The Great Oil Swindle - How Much Did the Fed Really Know? « Operation Awakening: "The Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) is investigating trading in oil futures to determine whether the surge in prices to record levels is the result of manipulation or fraud. They might want to take a look at wheat, rice and corn futures while they’re at it. The whole thing is a hoax cooked up by the investment banks and hedge funds who are trying to dig their way out of the trillion dollar mortgage-backed securities (MBS) mess that they created by turning garbage loans into securities. That scam blew up in their face last August and left them scrounging for handouts from the Federal Reserve. Now the billions of dollars they’re getting from the Fed is being diverted into commodities which is destabilizing the world economy; driving gas prices to the moon and triggering food riots across the planet."

Shorties

• 07:56 stagecraft, then rigging, almost like working #
• 13:21 Class at 1:30, not 1:00 - DOH! #
• 15:22 Can I skip working out today? I went to the grid. #

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Slowly But Surely

The Great Oil Swindle - How Much Did the Fed Really Know? « Operation Awakening: "The price of oil has more than quadrupled since 2001, from roughly $30 per barrel to $126, WITHOUT ANY DISRUPTIONS TO SUPPLY. There’s no shortage; it’s just gibberish."

Shorties

• 13:58 rrrrrrrrr, somehow Microsoft jammed up ZoneAlarm and I had no internet. crapweasels #
• 14:03 ok, office, woohoo #
• 19:08 @aerdin seriously don't fall asleep in class #
• 00:06 teaching in the morning, I wonder if I remember how... #
• 00:14 @KatyK Cool. Where are you moving? #

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Things Not to do at The Movies

Mrs. TANBI and I went to see Wall-E the other day. We both fell asleep somewhere between EVA's return to Earth and their arrival on the space ship. Still we both enjoyed the movie, so I guess that will be a reason to see it again.

I would however like to use this trip to highlight a couple of things I could do without at the movies (and I don't even mean the new version of Screen Gems - whatever it is, that will get its whole own post some other time). We witnessed both of these things and while you may not agree it is after all my blog.

Number 1: You can't save seats for your friends after the movie starts.
The show we were at was fairly heavily sold, so much so that people were having to sit in those three rows in front of the cross-aisle, down close to the screen. Off to our left there were three kids who had a whole empty row in front of them and every time people walked up they were all like "these are saved." I should mention too that during this time they had their feet up and over the backs of these seats and were just generally being rude. Anyway, their buds did arrive - a few minutes into the magic act, but I am sorry; once the film starts, those seats should be available to people there already. If you want someone to save your seat (and lord knows with the new pre-show I am SURE that will increase) then you had better get there before the lights go out.

Number 2: You can't bring in take out from Chang's.
I know the food at the theatre is priced more than a gallon of gas, and I guess bringing in your own food makes a certain amount of sense, but chowing down on a container of beef with broccoli is just over the line. Maybe second grade rules ought to apply here and if you are going to bring in food like that you have to bring enough for everyone. We're going to have to smell it, we should be able to eat it - if you like beef w/ broccoli. I can't imagine what the kid who cleans up between shows will feel if you just so happen to spill your kung pao scallops, and the people next to you didn't plan on going to a restaurant, they went to a film. It's hard enough with the cell phones and the talking and the babies crying - full blown restaurant take out is over the line. Sneak in a bag of Skittles if you must, but leave the lettuce wraps for another time.

This concludes the evening's rant over people I can do without. I am sure there will be more as time goes on.

My LOL

Shorties

• 11:26 airports: MDW -----------> PIT woohoo! #
• 19:07 Pittsburgh, down, safe. #
• 19:24 When asked, the Iranian ambassador said the missiles will be used strictly for mail delivery. #

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Score Another One For the Democrafts

Oh wait, that didn't come out right. But I was sure they were running things now, no more Bush/Cheney crap.

Today our legislators passed immunity from prosecution for all of the telcos that let the government tap US citizens without warrants. That just about rubber stamps Cheney's "the President can do whatever he wants" theory.

Early during the day I read a piece of speculation that the President will pre-emptively pardon everyone involved in any of the interagations or decisions revolving on the United States using torture.

We're not much of a nation for consequences any more are we? You ever get the feeling there are two sets of rules?

Quest communications deserves some kind of medal. I don't know who would give it, but they really do deserve it. When the government came calling, Quest wouldn't give them access without a warrant. What do you want to bet that whatever they might have had in government contracts in the past Quest will find themselves without them now.

Congress immunizes illegal searches.
The President pardons torturers (I bet).
The Fed bails out greedy businesses.

Doesn't sound like of the people by the people for the people.

The people have to remove their shoes at the airport - like that adds 1% to our safety.
The people are paying $4/gal and more for gas.
The people have to wonder who might be listening on their phone.
The people have to worry about extraordinary rendition and waterboarding.

Sounds more like of the police by the corporations for the wealthy.

Maybe it is time for some kind of Libertarian Revolution - the reformation of the American Dream.

I watched Weeds tonight. Part of this week's episode had the uncle looking through the grandmother's house for her hidden cash. She'd survived the Holocaust and was saving money for bribes for when the government turned on her again. That should sound foolish. I'm not sure it does.

Well, maybe something cool will happen tomorrow and I will forget to think about how disappointed I am in our government again.

Ideas?

So I have this problem: my dad won't quit smoking. Yes, this is the dad who got the whiz bang pace-maker, defibrillator, espresso maker implant this week, and suffice it to say this was not the only health issue he's ever dealt with.

Seems like every doctor he talks to asks him if he wants information on smoking cessation. It must sound to him like the dental hygienist sounds to me when she's talking about floss.

Do you think I could get dad to give up smoking on any day I manage to floss?

I'm really stuck here. There has to be some way to get the man to stop, or I guess more accurately to get the man to want to stop. So does anyone out there in cyberspace have any ideas? I am willing to be mean, crass, impolite, unreasonable, annoying, insufferable (or good things too I suppose).

What would you do?

More David! More David!

Twittering at dboevers.

All Is Well

Dad has his teeth back and is resting calmly. I go back to get him in the morning.

Thanks much to all the well-wishers.

Waiting

So I am waiting. Dad's in his surgery. Pre-op took like three hours, or more accurately pre-op too like 15 minutes spread out over three hours. I listened to TV, Sportscenter and Law & Order and dad napped. Now he's in the operating room, I have his wallet and his teeth, and I am waiting.

The hospital gave me a pager and will text if there's news or when they are done. Don't tell anyone, but I ran out for food before starting my waiting on my own. Then I stole someone's cat5 cable off their desk so I could use an internet hookup (they had a station, but no cable). Eventually that person showed up at her desk and I had to give the cable back - at which point she produced the loaner cable the desk couldn't find. Maybe I should have randomly rifled through drawers instead of stealing a cable that was actually in use.

So I am waiting. This morning while sitting with Dad I thought about how important it is to learn to wait. I don't think I really learned until I worked for Cirque, so that would be like 29. During Creation they would call us in at the top of the day and we would just sit until they needed something, sometimes for hours. The manager in me spent the first week or so slowly going insane. I imagined these gas pump gauges on every crew member's chest spinning up overtime while we just sat. But I did learn to wait.

I was thinking I should add a waiting exercise to Basic PTM. Maybe come in at the top of class and tell them I'll be right back and that they should just sit quietly and then not come back until the end. In the meantime maybe I could tape them and then we could discuss what they did while they were waiting. Not sure it would have the desired impact. During the curicular review we heard a story about studnets in a music program that were made to sit quietly before doing ear training to sort of clear their aural palette. Apparently at the begining of the course several kids would burst into tears after being forced to sit quietly for 30 minutes.

They will not do well in a hospital waiting room.

At least there's internetm for the moment.

Chicago

Today: airports
Tomorrow: hospital

Maybe this is what kids are for.

Fourth of July

We had no plans for the holiday, so fairly last minute we invited some people over to have no plans with us.

So here, in jiggly video is our 4th of July observance...



And then we have some random kids playing with fire...

Got to love playing with fire.

And on that note, the pyro-exhibition ended with a rare performance from Doc Flambe!



All in all a great time was had by all. The rain held off, the grill stayed hot, the chicken cooked through, and nothing that wasn't supposed to catch fire burned.

Too bad this only happens the once a year.

Surprise Ultimate

So this really cool thing happened on the DC trip. Late at night while doing the flipping thing I discovered that the Donovan House gets "CBS College Sports Channel." This is a channel that's not part of the cable package we have at home. Anyway, while doing the flippy-flippy I happened upon this channel and what should be on - the college ultimate nationals.

I haven't played or seen decent ultimate in maybe three years; the last game I played (and saw) was the summer league finals I played in a few years back. So this was really cool to happen upon. Needless to say I stayed up to watch. All in all it was a decent game, but I kept having those "when I was a kid we had to..." thoughts.

The game was Wisconsin against Florida, all by itself that was sort of shocking to me. In three years of nationals I don't think I ever even saw either of those teams. I can remember an Indiana team, but nothing else really from the midwest. The team furthest into the southeast must have been ECU, pretty east but not too far south. My life was full of Cornells and Santa Barbaras and Princetons. Florida and Wisconsin, what's up with that?

Mostly the game was a bit of a blowout. All through the first half Wisconsin built and grew a lead. At one point later in the game they flashed a stat saying it was the largest blowout since Chabot played in the finals in 1987 - as if that was sometime before the dawn of history. As it turns out I was at that game, at Penn State, in the crowd. I'm old. Also of note is that Yuk played Chabot closer in pool play that year than any other team at the tournament, I have it on video tape. Not that a pool play loss in 1987 has anything to do with the finals in 2008, but its a nice little, tiny, connection for me.

So I'm watching and the crotchety old man is saying, this sort of sucks. I mean, the play is ok, when they're playing. But the whole thing got all ticky-tack early with call after call and didn't loosen up for the whole game. It was interesting to watch a game with pretty active observers. When I played observers could only speak up on line calls, in or out of the goal or the field of play. Now the observers are in on everything. At least it cut down on the argument time, although I guess on TV they could just edit the arguments out.

Seemed to me like I kept seeing a zone like the 4-2-1 Pittsburgh Zone, except it also looked like they were pinching one of the hammer stops and playing the back like a 2-3-2. The odd thing is that from the throwers perspective it looked like just a cup and then deeps. Add to that they were switching marks so the count never really seemed to get that high. I was just looking at it dumbfounded thinking bender to the flat or that cup will open up if you'd just throw a believable fake already. I know it's probably better than it looked on TV, and it was probably windier than it looked on TV, but it did seem like a fair number of summer league teams would have made pretty quick work of it (and then walk uphill both ways through the snow - why when I was a kid we didn't even have a box...)

Geek, geek, geek.

So, maybe next spring I'll look to add that channel to our cable package so I can ridicule another zone.

All David Honor Roll

I neglected to post the Spring 08 All David Honor Roll for people's performance in my courses (or my portion of group classes). I now rectify that. Congrats to those students who did really well this past spring:

Kendra Albert
Corrina Archer
Matt Bailek
Bart Cortright
Peter Dolkas
Chase Fiore
Nick Harper
Joe Israel
Jason Myers
Kevin Service
Tamar Shavit
Teddy Sosna

Well done everyone. Have a good summer, you earned it.

Ellipses...

No ellipses on the page right now, so it must be time... 37 posts in June, pretty easy to tell school is out... Melissa didn't blog about the DC show, too bad... Firefox 3's spell checker doesn't understand contractions. I wonder how long it will be until they patch that... All five cats need to go to the vet, any volunteers? Really, I think I will pay... WGN is sure excited they are running ET this weekend. I don't know why... Did you notice the Supreme Court giving Exxon that huge sloppy blowjob? That was unfortunate... If you buy four pounds of grapes and four pounds of strawberries at the Costco, you have to eat them... I am glad the Captain of the Cornelia Marie didn't have any broken ribs, or lung cancer... I didn't even know there was a bike race in town. It looked pretty cool on TV... Mrs. TANBI and I can't decide on 4th of July plans. We're running out of time... Are the Cubs for real? I can't help but watch... I didn't miss BSG at all last Friday. An *outstanding* Doctor Who episode probably had something to do with that... We really liked The Donnovan House Hotel in Washington DC, if you go, and they're having a special, you should check it out... The prekies are all pretty small, pretty young, and XX - well mostly. I don't actually teach until a week from Friday... Quick trip to Chicago coming up. Dad's going in for a repair... I'm looking at smartphones again, not sure why... The scale at the Air & Space Museum (yes, the Earth one) said I lost some weight. I wonder if they rig it so people feel good during their visit... If Jagr returns to Pittsburgh would he be a hero or a dick? Either way it will be interesting... I think I may be getting a vacation from the Green Page. Now I just need someone to be me on this page for a while... I still owe a spring shoe winner and spring semester all David honor roll. Maybe tomorrow...

More From The Newseum

While Mrs. TANBI and I were walking (ok lost) to the Newseum some very nice boys in Newseum t-shirts happened to walk by and straighten us out. They also gave us vouchers for the Be a TV Reporter experience. So we did it.


They put you in front of a blue screen (or a green screen - we did blue so I wouldn't disappear) and give you a story to read off a teleprompter to match the background you choose. You get to do one rehearsal and then you do a real take. After, you get to see your broadcast on the TV there and the next day you can download a photo (above) and your video:



It's ok for what it is, but it could be a lot better. What's missing is the TV part. The woman running the thing didn't do the "5-4-3..." countdown that everyone who's seen Wayne's World knows. They obviously didn't take an audio level. There's this monitor off to your side where you can see what's happening, but you don't have any opportunity to look at it. All of that would be easy.

And then they could kick it up a notch by adding some edumacation. Maybe you could do a guided activity where you write the text that goes on the teleprompter. You could watch a video about chromakey technology. You could watch a video about reading off a teleprompter; there's a great scene in Broadcast News where William Hurt is coaching Albert Brooks that comes to mind. Maybe they could tape the rehearsal and then you could edit the two together.

I understand that they want to keep the thing streamlined for when it is busy - but it isn't always busy. While we were participating it was clear to us that the priorities were to not leave our bags and to not touch the equipment. That shouldn't be the impression the audience gets. If you go to the Newseum, wander around a little bit first to try to get yourself some vouchers, I would have felt ripped off if I had paid.

Oh, about reading of a prompter - it's hard. I kept getting ahead and running out of text. I really did need the rehearsal.