Tidbits

Some more thoughts:

When you go to the store looking for something specific you can find everything except the one thing you're looking for. Sometimes this leads you to try a new product. Sometimes this leads you to walk up and down the same four aisles for twenty minutes.

Blue hair doesn't lose it's charm.

Every mafia family has a member named "Sal;" a statisic that is clearly proven in cop shows. Furthermore, the same guy who played a mafia leader on two seperate shows was also the voice for Hercules' trainer in the Disney movie. No wonder Phil always seemed so commanding. And Italian.

Ice cream trucks are freaky.

Whenever there is feedback in an auditorium most people look to the speakers; I look to the sound guy.

When you go to the library, be sure to pick up all of the books in a series at once. This will prevent you from making numerous trips to the library in a single week.

I have no confidence when operating miniblinds.

Chili's really has the best chips.

Photo Hunter: Book(s)

I wish I was at home for this one so that I could take a picture of our bookshelf, which is double stacked in many places and creatively squeezed to fit everything in, except for my top shelf which has a lot of blank spaces from me shoving books into the hands of my friends with (and some without) free time. And I certainly don't have enough books.

However, since my shelves live about two hours away, I have an older picture to present. Last year we were about to recieve a new, large screen, incredibly heavy TV. Christina was not certain that our TV cabinet would support the weight, so we started piling on objects until she was satisfied. One of our other roommates, Rachel, was actually asleep on the couch when this all happened. With two science majors, we found that the easiest thing we could use to add weight was the collection of all our textbook(s).

Photo Hunter

Blood Wedding Documentation

Finally got the pictures narrowed down. A quick plot synopsis:

The Mother has lost both her husband and oldest son, each murdered by a member of the Felix family. Her youngest son, the Bridegroom, wants to marry the Bride. The Mother is hesitant but agrees. The Bride lives four hours away from the town with only her Father and Maid. No one really knows much about her mother nor about her previous engagement to Leonardo of the Felix family.

As it turns out, Leonardo and the Bride were unable to get married because he was too poor and he married the Bride’s cousin (the Wife) and they live with Leonardo’s Mother-in-Law. They have one child with another on the way.

The wedding goes as planned, but at the reception the Bride’s nerve fails and she runs away with Leonardo. The Bridegroom chases them into the woods where the rules are different. The woods are ruled by the lonely Moon and three Spirits that do his bidding. Death appears and leads the Bridegroom to Leonardo and the Bride. There are screams as Death and the Moon celebrate but it is unclear who has died.

The last scene consists mostly of sobbing women as the Bride seeks out the Mother to accept responsibility for the deaths of the Bridegroom and Leonardo and to explain that she could not have made any other choice.



Unfortunately, the slideshow window is as big as it can get. If you want to see larger pictures, hover over the bottom left corner and click where it says "Bodas de Sangre." Then click "Slideshow" at the top left. Either way, enjoy!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Michael! Hope it's a great celebration.

Observations

Not a lot has been going on. I spent three days filling out applications and I've been able to schedule a few interviews so I'm mostly just waiting. This means reading and getting caught up on TV shows and working on the next play mostly. Here are some observations I have made recently.

The nephews will play with anything. It's amazing what joy light switches and cat toys can provide. Also, the trebuchet is always a party favorite.

There's nothing better than turning on the radio and hearing the song that's stuck in your head.

I saw a boy today that had a monster truck toy on a leash.

I heard a man on the radio that had recently broken off an engagement because his fiancé wanted him to get a job and help support them financially. He was heartbroken because they already had everything planned -- a ceremony at Mr. Gatti's Pizza Buffet.

Parking lots designed by enviromentalists are difficult to navigate.

In a strange way, I have missed having cat hair on my computer. Cat hair in my mouth, however, not as endearing.

In Austin, there are not seperate radio stations for seperate genres of rock. As a result, the single station consistently plays terrible music. However, I am convinced that there is a sensor that enables them to play Pink Floyd only if I'm about to get out of the car. Tragic really.

There's not much purpose to having a "right lane ends" sign six yards after the merge.

Jason's Deli is an ideal place for five hour lunches. I would also like to report that I only had one bowl of ice cream during that time.

Maybe I've listened to a radio station too long when I can identify the songs by the first chord.

NCIS has progressively worse lighting, progressively worse sound, not much character development, and a strange new way to cap commercial breaks, yet it is the most successful and/or accessible series I like. The others have beyond brilliant designs and characters but are canceled, facing cancellation, or are impossible to find on DVD. Also, it is very difficult to find a good show these days that is not some kind of cop show.

This is my 100th post!

Well, I think that's enough for now. I'll probably have more substance (or pictures) soon. Catch ya later.

Photo Hunter: Plastic

Plastic? Really? Okay. Here goes!

The summer after my junior year in high school I went on a summer-long mission trip to Peru. As we were approaching the city in our small airplane I noticed the periodic columns of smoke. When we got to the place where we were staying we saw a well and excitedly ran over to check it out. We were disappointed to find that it had a bunch of trash in the bottom. We found out later that they used these "wells" to collect trash in and once it reached a certain point they would burn it. Thus, the smoke. My friend, Rachel, and I had a habit of wishing at the trash well which was a fun game for the summer. Here is a picture of us wishing on our plastic coke bottles:

Also in Peru, our plastic shower. This was all good and well until the kid on the street got his kite stuck in the tree above the shower and climbed up to retrieve it...

Photo Hunter

Adventures in Waco!

About a month ago I recieved an email from my sister warning me that my second grade nephew had sent me a letter that was part of a school project, but she didn't know what it was. A few days later, I was pleased to recieve a visit from Flat Stanley. According to the letter, Flat Stanley was flattened when a bulletin board fell on him. Now he can visit friends in different communities and see what happens there. I was supposed to take pictures at Waco specific locations with the cutout and send it back to my nephew. So, I spent a couple of weeks in the company of Flat Stanley and have documentation of our adventures.

Flat Stanley attended a performance of Blood Wedding. He sat on headset (and he used the light board).












He also joined the gypsy band.











Afterward, Flat Stanley met Death. I couldn't decide how creepy she actually was so I didn't send this one to the kids.











Flat Stanley also got to meet the director who never quite understood him. This was a lovely picture until I realized what was in the background.









Did you know that Dr. Pepper was first made in Waco? You can learn all sorts of interesting facts at the Dr. Pepper museum.






Flat Stanley saw one of the campus squirrels. This is actually one shot, but it looks like he was held in front of a postcard.













Flat Stanley went to the bear pit and surprisingly, one of the bears was active.









If you're ever in Waco, be sure to bring Flat Stanley because he now knows all the hotspots (and has backstage access to theatre productions)!

Good Times

Mmhm. Summer was made for me. Normally I would be a little bored and restless by this point - a full week with no scheduled activities, but at the end of this year I am soaking it in as much as possible. I was TIRED. This year was a test of endurance like I've never experienced before. I have had a good mix of activities; some reading, a sound project for a friend, a lot of detailed cleaning, a project for my nephew, and lots of outings. There have been several shared meals of the cleaning-out-the-cupboard variety, three distinct and wonderful games of Scattegories, a fierce and passionate competition in Bop-it Extreme - a game I did not even know I owned until the beginning of this week (I currently hold the high score, 56, that's right.) Several movies have been involved, including the midnight premiere of Angels and Demons (I liked it, but it's the first exposure I've had to the series, books or movies) which freaked me out when my sister, Julie, called the next night and asked if I had seen any good midnight premieres lately. There was also one fantastic night when a group got together and didn't play games or watch a movie, but just talked for several hours.

So, after a year of hard labor I am pleased to report that it does pay off and I do have the ability to take it easy now and then. I am also blessed to have sat in the presence of many different groups of people and felt at ease and seen the comradarie abound even as the dynamics shift. My time in Waco is winding down and I will need to get a job soon, but it is time to move on and into a working atmosphere again. However, I will always be grateful for every moment I have lived in the last week.

Photo Hunter: Painted

It's odd, but my mind went first to performers who wore heavy, "painted" makeup. I was going to flip through my banquet pictures to find someone who went a little extreme on the make up, then I remember that we completely painted our moon character in blue makeup. Here he is as he is being painted.

The spirits also had pretty extraordinary makeup, so here are our painted woodland creatures under stage lights.

Photo Hunter

Honey, I'm Home!

I am back. Finals are all officially over, I have pulled my last working all-nighter until August (who knows if any midnight premeires may come up), and I started reading one of my books for fun. Summer is here! I don't have a lot to say since my thoughts are still scattered all over the place, but I have a few projects like organizing the 500+ Blood Wedding pictures I have into a presentable form for other people and finishing up the Flat Stanley project for the nephew. I am also working on my website for my portfolio...it's slow going though. So, here are some teasers of what should be coming in the next few weeks. By the way, I'm living with the very gracious brother and sister-in-law this summer, so I'll be relocating next week. Thanks for letting me run away! I promise to fill in the gaps soon.

Photo Hunter: Walking

I have now been to a couple of countries where they drive on the left side of the road. This wasn't as confusing as I expected in the form of motor transportion, largely because I never drove. However, as a pedestrian I lost all confidence in my ability to cross a street because I learned how instinctive it is to look over a particular shoulder first and how impossible it is to consciously change how I view things. That is why I greatly appreciated these instructions when walking in Hong Kong, especially with the arrow:

Photo Hunter