Hobbes' Journal
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends]
Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Hobbes' LiveJournal:
[ << Previous 20 ]
| Monday, November 16th, 2009 | | 12:41 pm |
Doctor, Doctor! Can’t you see I’m callin’, callin’!
It’s early September. The official soccer season is over for us old farts, and it’s the first week of ‘pickup’ soccer, where everyone who wants to gets together to play soccer. We have about 15 players per side, all of them on the field. It’s a bit crowded, to say the least. But, I’m not really THAT tested as the goalie. We play for about 2 or 3 hours. About 30 min before we’re done, I feel this pinch in my right hip, about halfway between my groin and the outside of my hip. At the time, I think nothing of it. But it keeps hurting for longer than it should. And when I sneeze and cough, it hurts too. So, I figure it’s a sports hernia, the initial treatment for which is “Don’t do that again.” for a while. Well, it’s been 2 months, and I still have some pain there. Probably a sign.
Also, two weekends ago, I went for a day event with the cub scouts, where there was a lot of hiking, and then the next day did a swim meet where I was standing on a pool deck for about 8 hours, give or take. Since those two events, when I climb stairs, I hear a loud *click* in my right knee when I climb stairs. This is new behaviour.
So, I have an appointment on Friday to talk to an Orthopaedic doctor (with the same last name as me, no less) about these two issues. I expect I’ll be under the knife within the month.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 | | 8:50 pm |
Healthcare fucking about
OK, the healthcare industry said that if the health care bill passes, premiums will go up by 110% within the next 10 years. All the “progressive” pundits seem to be missing is this:
A> NO SHIT premiums will go up. Every healthcare insurance company is gonna rake in all the profits while they can.
B> When premiums go up due to A>, everyone who wants to kill this bill is going to say, “LOOK WHAT HAPPENED, KILL THE BILL!” when it’s clear it’s bullshit political maneuvering.
Of course, the bill is flawed, but that’s not really the subject of this post.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Sunday, October 11th, 2009 | | 6:38 pm |
Audio runs in the family.
My son had a choice on how to do his book report this month. One of the choices was ‘Radio Drama’ so he immediately chose that option, and then consulted with me as to how to do it. So I talked him through the process. Here it is:
Audio Teaser
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Thursday, September 24th, 2009 | | 7:26 pm |
G fucking 20
As some of you are no doubt aware, the G-20 international summit is in Pittsburgh today and tomorrow. This, I thought, would not affect me in any manner, as I don’t go through any of the roads planned for protests. Well, evidently, the po-po disagreed. At around 4PM, we saw large numbers of hipsters travelling not as a pack but more as a stream of people down the street behind our office (which used to be in front of our office, until the GetGo convenience store bought the parking lot). About 30 minutes of that, and then they taper off, no doubt due to the large number of police that lined up on the street. There were more police than there were people walking towards downtown. So, I go back to working on messing with Microsoft’s nmake, until it’s time to leave. I grab my laptop and ipod, head out the back to the garage. I reach the street to observe several ranks of police, each about 50 officers ’strong’, about 50 yards apart. They’re not really doing anything useful, just standing about in vague ‘ready to form up’ positions. I cross the street between two ranks, and walk along the sidewalk. About halfway between two ranks, there is a cluster of about 5 officers, most of whom are sitting. The one standing was about 2 meters away from the rest, and my path would have taken me between the officer and his cohorts. There is also a group of about 5 hipsters behind me by 3 or 4 steps who would also pass through this gap. The officer felt it necessary to order (he asked in a tone of voice which indicated a beating if there was no compliance) all of us to either go right or left, but not through his personal space. Not really in the mood for a beating, I just walked left around through a small parking lot. As I reached my car, I realized I had left my cell phone in the office. So, I dump my laptop and iPod, head back to the office. After picking up my phone, I return the exact way I came. As I (and 2 other guys from the office) approach to about 3 meters from the first line that I would have to pass by, one of the officers yells, “I NEED A LINE!” and the other officers take up the call, “LINE FORMATION! WE NEED A LINE!” and immediately move to block the entire width of the road and sidewalks. I say something to the effect of “My car is right over there, can I go by?” The officer on the end replies, I shit you not, “Negative! Please find an alternate route. May I suggest around the block?” Well, again, no desire to receive a beating, so around the block I go.
I looked online just now, and heard of minor clashes between police and protesters. I can’t help but think that if the city had been more organized and thoughtful when managing the protests, none of this would have happened. Oh, I’m sure some bad apple would have thrown a rock (as happened), but instead of punishing the entire city, just punish the fucktard. They locked down the entirety of Baum Boulevard from Liberty Avenue to probably Downtown. With lines of police ranging from 50 to 100 every 50 yards. They didn’t bother blocking Liberty Avenue, which also goes Downtown, and is right there. The police are just flexing their muscle and being assholes, and I can understand why people are upset at the abuse of power and abuse of civil rights.
In the end, this will likely end up as a minor skirmish compared to, say, the WTO riots in Seattle. But it just goes to show again that the many governments that run our society (and those that rule other societies) don’t really have our best interests at heart.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Sunday, September 20th, 2009 | | 9:27 pm |
21
A friend of Austin’s from church won some tickets to the Pirates game today. The friend could not attend, so they gave the tickets to us. There were only 2, which gave me an excuse to take my son to a ball game, even if the Pirates are the best farm team in the Majors.
Austin is also engaged in this year’s Battle of the Books. This is where the groups of 3-5 4th and 5th graders read 12 books over a period of 8 weeks, and then have a competition to see which group remembers the most facts from the books. I got suckered into being the ‘team manager’ for Austin’s team. Which means I have to read all the books, generate questions to prepare the kids, arrange meetings to test the kids, etcetera.
These items are related, really they are.
One of the books is about Roberto Clemente. Now, I’ve always known the guy died while shipping out of San Juan, Puerto Rico to help earthquake victims in Costa Rica (I think). But after reading the book about him yesterday, and then prior to the game today having a presentation about him on the Jumbotron, I really have a new appreciation for the guy.
So, you know, yay Roberto Clemente.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 | | 9:16 pm |
| | Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 | | 8:43 pm |
Superman no longer!
It’s official. I have done all of my required tasks for Pendant. Superman 56 and its commentary are out the door. My talented co-director is now sole director, and I’m now an EX-director. Until Jeffrey comes up with something else for me to do, no doubt. Of course, I have plans that may delay any future action, but they’re so nebulous as to be non-existent at this point, so maybe I shouldn’t say that. In any case, I’M DONE!
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Monday, July 13th, 2009 | | 7:41 pm |
ARGH
Remember that post where I said I lost the 140 line scene, and then in comments revealed that I was being a drama queen? I was loading that scene up to add the music, and it won’t load. At all. And the forums for the software say ’save often!’ Well, FUCK, it WAS saved, I opened it and it all was there, and now it’s gone, so it’s not like I fucking DIDN’T HAVE A GOOD FUCKING SAVE FILE! FUCK YOU!
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | | 6:56 pm |
| | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | | 10:19 pm |
The end of an era
I’m coming up on finishing the last episode of Superman I’m directing for Pendant, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I knew going in that I wouldn’t want to direct the show for too long. But with this web project which is almost done (although now the pressure is not NEARLY so high as it was during the time that my co-director was doing all the work, it’s not nearly as hard), I didn’t have time to do it. And my boss at real-job is giving me crap due to lack of focus on his projects, although that may just be lack of sleep as well as too much to do…
But it’s a change in my life, which will give me free time to do more things I enjoy. Not that I didn’t enjoy working on the show, on the contrary. But while it is a creative endeavor, I was unable to really go to town creatively, because of the time constraints I did nothing to ease (again, purely my fault here. Not placing blame).
Anyway, on to different things.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 9:08 pm |
Busy weekend
This weekend was pretty busy, relative to normal.
Friday, my lovely wife and children went up to visit the breeders of our new puppy. They’re also selling their very well trained 2.5 year old Blue Merle male dog, if anyone wants such a thing (Their website). That evening, before they returned, I went to Friday night soccer with Tenzil. Saturday was the 4th of July, duh, wherein we go to Kennywood to celebrate the birthday of Tenzil’s first kid (oh, and something related to independence). This year was excellent because said kid has a cell phone, so we just sent our kids out with him to go on all the rides, while we adults did what we wanted. We checked in every so often, and everything was just fine.
We (being GreenLion, Tenzil’s sister, and I) finally caved and did the SkyCoaster. What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s basically a free-fall ride. You are strapped into a big harness (each one individually, and then the three of us were linked together), then lifted 180 feet in the air. Then they count down 3-2-1-FLY! The person on the right (Tenzil’s sister, in this case) then pulls a ripcord, and we freefall for about 3 seconds, then swing back and forth several times, until they hold up a loop for us to snag, and then we get down, and go change our shorts. It was fun. I’m looking for the video that Tenzil took, but not finding it on Youtube. We got home at like 11PM, and put the kids to bed. I mean, they were already asleep, but we got them upstairs to bed.
Today, I had to run to the store to get something RIGHT at opening time, deal with the end result of that, then Tenzil, GreenLion, MightyBob7, amfetterolf, chatty, wildpaletz, and monkat came over for gaming. We finished a HUGE battle that started last session, finished a fairly long story that is like 10 sessions old, and now we have no idea what’s going to happen next. I don’t think. After that, I had to boot people out of my house, because my lovely wife returned home from the pool, and we had to go next door to the 3 year old girl’s birthday party. They’re very nice people, and Serena and their little girl get along wonderfully.
Now I have a headache, which implies either allergies, a cold, or a significant change in the weather. And of course, tomorrow, I have to get up like 2 hours earlier than usual to take Austin to C-MITES summer camp, where he learns his first programming language, ALICE…Don’t know anything about it, but I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.
Blech.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 | | 9:54 pm |
AUGH
Just got done with a 140 line scene for Supes 56…and Audition crashed on me before saving. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Sunday, June 28th, 2009 | | 9:20 pm |
| | Sunday, June 14th, 2009 | | 8:01 pm |
Soccer
I joined Tenzil and GreenLion’s soccer team this year, and today was the last game of the first session prior to the end of session tournament (which not really a tournament, it’s just two games: Play for 3rd and Play for 1st). Lots of people on all teams were away, so there was quite a bit of ‘Hey, can you play on our team?’ stuff going on. We had a 30 minute game at 4PM, which we unsurprisingly lost to Blue, and then a half-hour break, then a 1 hour game at 5PM against Gold, which we actually won. For the 4PM game, we recruited a Gold player to join us. For the 5PM game, we recruited a White player. Then, after our 5PM game, I played goalie for White, and did pretty well for myself, except for the scraped knee. I was informed that someone broke their ankle in the Open league, and in the game I played goalie, one of the girls on White fell awkwardly and separated a rib. I tried to help her by cracking her back (at her insistence, I didn’t offer but didn’t mind doing it - she’s not unattractive, after all), but didn’t really succeed, as my technique is particularly suited to backs, and not so much to ribs.
Good fun. But 3 hours of soccer.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Monday, June 8th, 2009 | | 10:26 am |
Audio Drrrrrrrrrrrrrama
In an effort to broaden my audio drama experience, I’ve picked up a few production companies outside of Pendant to listen to. Here are my observations:
1> Pendant is a very writerly production group. By this I mean that a main goal is to show off your writing chops. This is shown by all the long term story arcs and interpersonal conflict in the shows. Also, the writers generally have more authority than the directors, and if a writer insists upon a specific change, it gets done. This isn’t to say this is a BAD thing, it is what it is. As a director, you are told this before you take on a directorial role, so it’s not like it’s a surprise.
2> This is not meant as a slam on Pendant, but audio drama companies that meet up together and rehearse ahead of time and record their lines together, instead of recording them line by line and mixing them later, have a more authentic conversational style. I try as best I can to mimic that when I direct, but it’s not always easy when two people don’t see the scene the same way. With a director in the same room as the actors, you can get around the limitations of recorded lines.
Some recommendations:
Decoder Ring Theater. Home of the Red Panda and Black Jack Justice. Very good stuff.
Afterlives: An interesting story set in a universe of Heavens and Hells, the main characters are all dead and are trying to solve what appears to be an epic mystery in the Afterlives.
Umket Industries Presents The Dixie Stenberg and Brassy Battalion Adventure Theater: Pulp-ish (not quite pure pulp) WWII show. DISCLAIMER: I work with Pendant, who produces this one.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Friday, June 5th, 2009 | | 8:13 pm |
Base-y-ball-o
Austin had his first experience pitching competitively tonight. It was against a team we’d played before. He pitched the first inning. Allow me to describe my thought process:
Last week: Coach informs me Austin will be pitching tonight. I say to Austin, “This is your first time pitching. Expect to get the maximum runs scored against you (5), and not to get any outs. If you manage to get a strike, I’ll be proud of you.” I didn’t want him to think he would succeed against these guys on his first try.
Tonight, after the game: HOLY CRAP! A ground out and 2 strikeouts! Only 4 runs score! VICTORY!
He was proud of himself. I’m proud of him.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 | | 8:56 am |
| | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | | 3:07 pm |
My Pendant Project
So, once I got caught up on Pendant stuff (as in, when I was done with Superman 56, since that’s my last episode), I was going to start work on a NEW show for Pendant. There was some discussion about whether it would be an original show or a ‘fan’ (i.e. copyrighted, or in this case trademarked) show. Thanks to the help of a copyright lawyer I know, we contacted the trademark holder, and after discussion, it turns out that they were not willing to allow us to use the trademark. Which would result in a likely takedown notice upon the release of the first episode. So, it’s a no-go.
For those interested in what it might have been:
Being a reprint from the reminiscences of_ JOHN H. WATSON, M.D., _late of the Army Medical Department.
A STUDY IN SCARLET
In which we are introduced to the great detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his erstwhile compatriot, Dr. Watson.
Oh well, I have other ideas.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 | | 9:39 pm |
Star TREKKIN’ across the universe!
I am not a Star Trek kind of guy. I grew up with Star Wars, and Trek fell in my ‘not watching much TV’ period. TOS was before my time, and TNG was after my time. DS9 looked interesting, but I was doing other things then. Voyager sucked ass, and Enterprise was a blip on my radar for all of two episodes.
With that in mind, my wife and kids went to Kennywood today, and I knew they wouldn’t be back before bedtime (in fact, 11PM), so I went to see Star Trek tonight. There were 4 people in the theater. Me, another guy by himself, and a couple. That’s not really relevant, except that it means that maybe the movie won’t be in theaters much longer.
Anyway, as to the story:
( Read more... )
If you don’t want your kids to see violence, this movie is not for your kids. If you don’t want your kids to see sexual content, cover their eyes for the 30 seconds in the first 1/3 of the movie that has women in their underclothes, and you’ll be fine.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. | | Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 | | 6:45 pm |
RID-IC-U-LOUS
The Penguins/Capitals series was billed as a match-up of superstars. On one hand we have Alexander Ovechkin, league leader in points for a couple seasons. On the other, we have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (the latter of whom was league leader this year in points). The NHL nearly wet their pants when they saw the match up.
The teams obligingly ran with it. Five games won by one goal, three of which were overtime games. Three overtime games in one series. That right there is epic. The skill level of both teams was just over the top.
Tonight was game 7. The deciding game. Win or go home for both teams. Whatever cliche you can think of.
And it was kind of anticlimactic. I mean, up 5-0 halfway through the game? Final score of 6-2?
And now, the Penguins get to play the winners of Boston vs. Carolina. If Carolina beats Boston, we have home ice. Otherwise, Boston does. I want home ice, but I want to beat Boston because my brother-in-law and his wife are no doubt B’s fans, and I have to tease them. Whatever.
In the Western Conference, it’s the Blackhawks against Detroit/Anaheim (tied at 3 games). It would be nice to play against Detroit, but they’re still a really good team. The Blackhawks aren’t slackers either.
No matter what happens, it’s a great day for hockey.
Originally posted at Phoenix Rising. |
[ << Previous 20 ]
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
cmdrhobbes's journal
