Tuesday, January 31, 2006

no, i didn't come up with the monkey names.


hey everybody, i got me some new boots tonight. i'm pretty excited about them. i have been very seriously considering getting cowboy boots for the last four or five months...and then i got invited to go watch some PBR february 10th, so i figured it was about time.

in other news, oh no wait...there isn't any. oh well. my show is going well. one more weekend to go. i've had a few nights off this week. so life hasn't been as stressful. although, my improv class sure is a thorn in my flesh. i'm already nervous and the class isn't for another sixteen hours yet. i think it's making me break out. hey, when are we supposed to stop doing that, by the way? i'm 24. it's getting kinda old already.

Monday, January 30, 2006

The monkeys' names are Swift, Milton and Kafka.

Okay, i get it. i don't want this to be a dead blog. i don't have anything earth-shattering to say, so maybe a little life update will work. the last couple weeks have been insane! i am working on a show at school, which means for three weeks i sort of go into hiding and you can only find me in the theater, dressed in black. turns out it's a pretty good show, so i am enjoying myself. but i haven't seen any friends in a while (haven't seen any paychecks or tips either, so that's a bust). one more week left!

my classes are getting a little harder. theory and criticism is kind of a joke. we've been talking about plato and aristotle for like three weeks now. i personally feel that a half hour of discussion on each one is more than enough, since neither one really has anything helpful to say about theater. but, whatever.

stage combat is one of the best classes i've ever taken! it's fun, it's useful, we actually learn tons of stuff each time (it's not one of those classes where you talk about it for half a semester before you actually get to do it). plus, i get kind of a workout practicing the combat techniques in class. we have to repeat our motions a lot to get timing right, and when we do punches, it's sort of like doing tai bo. except the instructor isn't billy blanks, it's christopher villa...a little, middle-aged, mexican dude. so that's cool.

i HATE improv! with all that i have in me, i hate it. it makes me nervous, and stressed, and tired just thinking about it. i don't know why i can't handle it. i'm not afraid to make a fool out of myself in real life. i like having an audience. so i don't know what the problem is. but when i'm on the spot in class, my mind goes blank. i can't think quickly, i don't react to anything...i just sort of stand there. haha. it's too bad, really. the good thing is that she doesn't grade on talent, she grades more on attendance and participation and things like that (or in my case, attendance and standing there). but the thing is, i don't really want to go to the class...so i guess we'll see how that turns out. i've only ditched once so far. hahahaha.

directing is tough too. not because i can't do it, but because it's a lot of work. we have a million things to read, and a million things due all the time. one of the projects (yes, one of the projects...there are many) is to direct a 10-15 minute scene or one-act play during showcase week in april. the requirements for this project are a cast of 3 or more actors, and 15 hours of rehearsal during a 4 week period. HA! how is this possible? you have to find three people who are willing to give you 15 hours over four weeks, memorize 10-15 minutes of lines, and perform one night in april. all for nothing. they don't get anything out of this. i guess it's not as hard for people who live on campus who find actors who live on campus as well. the theater here is full of people who jump at every opportunity to perform. but i'm not gonna spend 15 more hours in costa mesa than i have to. and i don't think any of them would be in my play anyway. so i've asked three of the high school kids at church to do it. haha. it's going to be awesome. Gudy, Jon Kertes, and Alaina Henderson. We're doing the play Words, Words, Words by David Ives. It's about three monkeys who are put in a room together with typewriters in order to test the theory that monkeys typing into eternity will eventually produce Hamlet. or something like that. anyway, they're gonna be monkeys, and that's all.

and finally, my last class is computer-aided design. holy poo. i missed one day in that class, and i don't think i'm ever going to catch up. it's nice though, there's no homework. (probably since they can't require us to buy the $2000 dollar program and install it on our own computers...imagine if they could!). so whatever i get done in class is all i have to worry about. improv and stage combat don't have any homework assignments either, so that's nice.

i think that this makes up for a couple weeks of hermiting in the theater and not updating my blog. has anybody seen curt?

Read Choke!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

genius


First of all, a big "Go Ducks" to Kevin and John for making it into the baseball hall of fame. Not bad guys.

Secondly, if you are my teacher and we are having a class discussion on Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet and you say, "okay, I still need to hear from amy, colleen, jeff, julie, and joey," because we haven't contributed to your stupid discussion yet, then when I have my hand raised for the final fifteen minutes of class in order to be recognized and share my opinions on the theme of time in the film, don't ignore me. because that really bothers me.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

i've been cleaning up pee all week. not mine.


this is our new dog. her name is Dora the Explorer. we call her "Dora" for short. or "Pooper," whichever. i like her because she jumps around and runs through the living room for like five minutes and then she's exhausted and sleeps for ten hours. she's fun. and she looks like nathan's dog Boo. also, if you're going to leave the room and you don't want her to go anywhere, you can just put her on the couch or on a chair because she's too afraid to jump down. she just freaks out and starts barking at the floor. only her bark doesn't really sound like a bark, it sounds more like a squeak-toy. she likes to dig, but so far she hasn't had much luck with that, since she chooses to try and dig into things like the hardwood floor, or my foot. she likes to chew on fingers and toes, and she's bi-lingual.