This collection of entries is from November 2005.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
MDX
As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I found something that I like better than Red Bull - it's a new product: Mountain Dew MDX Energy Soda. The taste is a lot better than Red Bull, and it's neon green. It's a soda (probably a Mountain Dew base) with ginseng, taurine, guarana, d-robose and maltodextrin... whatever the hell those are.
Yeah, much better.
My fear? It's a test and it's not in full production. In fact, I can't find it anywhere around me except for one Jewel on Roselle Road, and then only in a cooler at the checkout and not in the soda aisle or mixed-in with the other energy drinks. Hard to find. Pretty expensive, too - priced like an energy drink: $1.75 for a 14 oz. bottle.
posted at 12:52 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Back to BullI used to drink coffee in the morning when at work. But then I noticed that the sludge at work wasn't always the greatest, and sometimes I'd get a flavored coffee if there was something left, then I had to put milk or cream in it and I never really counted the sugar packets... all in all, I was doctoring the coffee everyday and it was never the same day to day. I started to think about what I needed. It was just caffeine, so I started drinking Coke in the morning. At least that way, it would always be the same, never changing in content. I drink it over a full tumbler of ice in a Thermos™ tumbler - and the ice that I get at 8 in the morning is still with me at 3 in the afternoon.
For the last month or so, I've been getting these bouts of fatigue, sometimes so severe I almost - just almost - fall asleep at my desk in the middle of doing something. The caffeine wasn't helping.
So, I tried something I used to drink - instead of Coke, I had a couple of cans of Red Bull in my cabinet. Now, it's only a one day trial, but, yeah, that did the trick. I'll try it the rest of the week. Oh, and I'll watch my sleep, too.
I just wish the Red Bull had a better taste... sometimes I think it's just the taste that keeps me alert.
posted at 01:10 PM | Link | Mundane | 1 comment § |
Monday, November 28, 2005
Blown AwayWent out at lunch to grab something to eat since there just isn't any food worth buying in the building any more. We had thunderstorms and heavy rain overnight. The rain eventually ended sometime this morning - without a window near my cube, I couldn't tell you when that happened.
I walked out of the building and didn't realize that, though it was sunny and 60º, the winds were hellacious. They were blowing from directly behind me as I walked toward my car.
For the first time in my life I almost got blown over. Almost. The wind was directly at my back so it pushed me along, but the scary part was when the wind actually blew my legs forward. In fact, the wind blew my leg forward twice. Thank God that I was balanced on my opposite leg as I walked, but it was actually really scary to momentarily lose control of you leg when walking and have it move forward by wind-power. Weird.
posted at 01:34 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Slept the day awayToday was Sleep Day. That's all I did. Carol left to go to work for a few hours before the Bears game. I went downstairs and slept most of the morning, occasionally waking-up to watch TV, but usually falling asleep while I was watching. Fell asleep during the Bears game (something I usually do anyway. I always fall asleep somewhere in the second half). Found myself dosing off the rest of the afternoon and into the evening when Carol and I were watching TV together. All of a sudden, my eyes are closed and I don't remember drifting off. It's like one minute I'm engrossed into the story on TV, and the next moment, I'm waking up, not realizing how much time had passed. OK, so it wasn't a productive day from the standpoint of getting anything done, but my body sure thought it was productive...
posted at 09:12 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Harry
B & B drove out from the city and the four of us went to the AMC South Barrington 30 this afternoon to catch a 4:00 showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
This film really is darker and more intense than the prior movies. Still great acting, great story and yet the directors have all been aware that even though it's am effects laden movie, the effects never overwhelm the storyline or experience. Also, a bit longer than I remember.
After the movie, we went back to our house for shrimp and orzo with garlic bread, and talked for an hour or so. We love seeing each other and just spending time together.
posted at 07:24 PM | Link | Movies | 1 comment § |
Friday, November 25, 2005
Quick Repair
Wonderful day off. Other than going to the Hoffman Estates skating facility this morning, it's been a day of sleep. Also, a day of snow - we got our first accumulation. It's not even an inch, though. I guess there's more up north and toward the lake.
So, I fell asleep on the couch, and may glasses fell off - again - while I was sleeping. I didn't know that when I woke up, and shifted around on the couch - that's when I heard a "ping" and my glasses shot across the room. I picked them up and put them on and they looked intact. I was wrong as within an hour I was getting a pain on the side of my nose - sure enough, I had lost a nose guard.
Damn, that means I have to go to Lenscrafters for a quick repair at the busiest mall in the state - Woodfield Mall - on the worst shopping day of the year - the day after Thanksgiving. Great.
The streets were slick, but there wasn't a lot of traffic going there. The parking lots looked full, but on closer examination you could see holes everywhere - it's late enough in the day that people were going home (I mean, the mall opened at 6am this morning), so I got a spot 4 cars from the door. The mall was full, but nothing more than a really bad Saturday. I really wasn't a bad experience at all. Totally tolerable. Oh, and service was quick at Lenscrafters, so the trip didn't take long at all. Thank God.
posted at 07:07 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Wolves Announcement
Went to the Wolves practice facility here in town. I was too curious about this Media Alter from Wednesday night. There was a big tournament going on, so there were a lot of parents and kids there, but no indication of a press conference.
I talked to a few people and the rumor flying around was that Bobby Hull was in the building.
That seems like two different things going on at once.
I was wrong.
read more of this entry »
Wolves "Sign" a Hull of a Player
11/25/2005
The Chicago Wolves have “signed” National Hockey League Hall-of-Fame left wing BOBBY HULL. He will be in uniform when the Wolves host the Milwaukee Admirals at the Allstate Arena on Sat., Dec. 17, at 7 p.m.
“I’m proud to be with the Wolves,” said HULL. “They’re a part of Chicago and I’m pleased to be back because it’s the greatest city in the world with the greatest sports fans in the world. With the new rules today, maybe I could score 25 goals – of course I’ll be 67 in January.”
The 66-year-old forward amassed 610 goals and 1,170 points in 1,063 NHL games spanning 16 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks (1957-1972), Winnipeg Jets (1979-1980) and Hartford Whalers (1979-1980). He also collected 62 goals and 129 points in 119 playoff games, which includes helping the Blackhawks win the 1961 Stanley Cup Championship.
HULL also spent seven seasons in the World Hockey Association with Winnipeg (1972-1979), registering 303 goals and 638 points in 411 contests.
The Pointe Anne, Ontario, native was recognized twice as the NHL’s most valuable player (1964-65 and 1965-66), captured three league scoring titles (1959-60, 1961-62 and 1965-66) and garnered one Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for combining sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct with a high standard of playing ability (1965-66).
“Our scouts have loved this guy since the ‘50s. He’s a young 66, and with the new rules, we expect him to light it up like never before,” said Wolves General Manager Kevin Cheveldayoff. “It should be a treat for our fans to see a legend like No. 9 at the Allstate Arena on Dec. 17. If this works out, I may have to give Guy Lafleur, Glenn Hall and Gordie Howe a buzz.” « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:56 AM | Link | Wolves § |
Thursday, November 24, 2005
RecapWow. Great dinner.
read more of this entry »
Something happened to the turkey this year. I didn't really change anything, but it turned-out totally different. More moist (not that it wasn't moist these other years). Oh, and it didn't look like a piece of charcoal itself when it was done - it was nicely browned. Only change to the bird: stuffed an onion in it. Only change to the cooking: decided to make little smoking boxes for the hickory out of aluminum foil instead of throwing wet chips onto the hot coals, perhaps cooling-off or extinguishing some charcoal. Oh - change of venue, too. With Wind Advisories out from the weather service, I moved the grill inside the garage, though I still prepared the chimneys of charcoal on the driveway.
Well, you can tell another stage in Jack's development - his lungs are bigger because his cries are much louder. He was fussy and a bit tired.
Everybody was in good spirits, and everybody actually went home at a responsible time! « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:55 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Blog-A-Turkey 2005Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!
It's turkey time here in the house and I'm way behind schedule. I'm not going to blog the doings this year - just too far behind and not enough energy.
Check out the prior years - 2004, 2003, 2002. If you want to see a video on my technique on barbecuing a turkey on a Weber Kettle Grill, be sure to check out the video in 2003.
posted at 12:33 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Wolves 4 - Hamilton 2
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The day before Thanksgiving and I'm at a hockey game alone - Carol is at home getting ready for tomorrow.
Before the game we were all talking about a sheet that was included with all of the media packages - MEDIA ALERT - WOLVES TO ANNOUNCE MAJOR SIGNING FRIDAY NOVEMBER 25 9:45 AM. What the hell was that going to be about?
The game started smooth - we had the same ref as Saturday - Scott Hoberg - who didn't call anything and just let the guys play. Tonight - different story.
At 15:21 into the First, we're winning 1 to nothing when an altercation happened against the boards on our side (boarding). Next thing we know, a couple of fights broke out. Now, to all of us in the crowd (OK, not-so-crowd - 6,612) this was just a fight - nothing odd, nothing malicious, nothing to write home about. Hoberg is taking forever calling the penalties. In fact, later, after we had seen the entire off-ice officials that were working in the scoring booth laughing at Hoberg, we found out that Hoberg changed his mind four times.
So what came of this?
How about 2 minutes for Instigating, 5 minutes for Fighting, 10 minutes Misconduct - Instigating.
It doesn't stop there - here's the rest:5 minutes for Fighting and a Game misconduct - Secondary altercation (56(f)); 5 minutes for Fighting and a Game misconduct - Secondary altercation (56(f)); 5 minutes for Fighting; 5 minutes for Fighting and a Game misconduct - Secondary altercation (56(f)); 2 minutes for Boarding, 5 minutes for Fighting and a Game misconduct - Secondary altercation (56(f)).
For the rest of the period and all of the 2nd, it felt like there was always somebody in the Penalty Box. The 3rd started the same way and then everything was fine until the last 4 minutes where there were more odd penalties, nothing near as severe that we had in the First, but this guy would call nothing and then wake-up and start calling things. Very uneven. Total penalty minutes for both teams: 151 minutes
The play is starting to pickup. We just may not finish in last place this year...
(Boxscore - Gamesheet) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:32 PM | Link | Wolves § |
Why am I still here?Counted cars out the window.
10-story office building.
59 cars in the parking lot.
Nobody is here. Why am I???
posted at 01:05 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Reiterating - I am NOT a hardware guy...I'm not just talking computer hardware either. If you know me, you know that I can't swing a hammer, I can't build anything, I can't install anything.
Exhibit 1: Ceiling Fan. Resolution: Hire an electrician.
We purchased a new curtain rod for our patio door back when we had the house repainted back in the beginning of May as House Project #2 (#1 was new flooring end-of March/beginning-of-April).
I looked at the instructions and I turned numb. It's just a friggin' curtain rod - how come I can't figure this out? I struggled looking at the diagrams and the text and trying to correlate the two and project how this works over our patio door. Nothing. Frustration builds.
Carol sensed the frustration and immediately offered to hire a handyman. She heard of a great organization and she had a coupon. She talked to the organization - they thought it should take about an hour.
The guy came today around lunchtime. Carol left work to meet the guy thinking she'll just take a long lunch.
After 4 hours and after the guy almost burst into tears trying to figure out how to do all of this, the curtain rod is actually finally installed.
If the handyman took 4 hours, imagine what I could have done... and the damage i could have made...
posted at 04:49 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Too little or not enough?When I roll around while I sleep at night, I always check the clock to figure out what time it is.
Something struck me this morning - if you you wake up and you feel that time passed quickly (like it's later than what you expected), does that mean that you had good sleep or not enough sleep?
posted at 09:03 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Monday, November 21, 2005
OK, really, The last one... I promise...A Chicago Reader story about the story - yes, another take on the A Taste of Heaven story.
posted at 02:03 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Time for Mom and JackMom's birthday is Wednesday, so, to move it away from Thanksgiving, we decided to celebrate it today by going to Diane & Melinda's for dinner.
Boy, do they look tired!!!
read more of this entry »
Jack is 9 weeks old today and - I thought - he was in good spirits. I know, it's really hard to tell when he's only 9 weeks old. He's still not sleeping long at all and just wants to eat on his schedule, and it's all based off a 2-hour loop. How the moms are coping, I don't know. Maybe it's just the knowledge that he's going to grow out of this. Some day. Don't know when. Maybe. At least, he's supposed to...
Somehow, they manged to put together a beef roast/pot roast dinner with potatoes and carrots. Carol whipped-up a birthday cake this morning.
I had my chance to hold Jack again today, since he was ripped out of my hands at the party last week. He fussed a bit, but he was pretty awake. He's in that watching "bright shiny objects" phase, so he's constantly looking at lights (he has a fascination with the dining room chandelier for some reason). It's cool seeing the changes over the weeks. I've never had this experience before, where I can see the little changes week-to-week. He's getting tall. He's also got pretty big feet, and he's constantly loosing his socks. I've got to learn to hold him better because I keep pushing up his pants legs and he looks goofy. He's getting stronger and he's lifting his head pretty well... though he's kind of throwing it around and you have to watch that he doesn't knock your teeth out. I just can't wait until he gets a little more "interactive". I just wish he'd start to sleep more just so the moms could start recovering. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:01 PM | Link | Uncle Michael § |
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Wolves 3 - Admirals 2
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We're 4-6, 6th in a 7 team division.
The team sucks.
But somehow tonight, with a packed house of 14,538 the boys actually won. And, in the First Period, looked pretty good. In fact I thought it looked like we could easily score against Milwaukee. I shouldn't have said that as Milwaukee quickly tied the game. The second period was bad. The third had a great start (which we were looking for to see what the team was made of).
Seems like we have a "goalie-du-jour", with goalies being signed, sent up, sent down, and released. It's a revolving door. Brad said that that last night the goalie (same as tonight Tuomas Tarkki) had his first AHL game - and was throwing-up in the locker room ahead of the game.
The big comment among the "regulars": "Who are these guys?" It's such a brand new team with new faces every week - it's hard to root for guys you don't know.
(Boxscore - Gamesheet) « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 11:00 PM | Link | Wolves § |
Friday, November 18, 2005
So much for the thighsCan't... walk... down... stairs... muscles... in... thighs... not.... working... well... need... medicine... NEED... EXERCISE... body... gone... to... hell...
posted at 07:02 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Thursday, November 17, 2005
DrillFriggin' Fire Drill.
It's not the drill itself. It's not the damn alarms going off. It's not that it's cold outside.
IT'S THE 10 STORY DESCENT DOWN STAIRS TO STREET LEVEL.
Back upstairs after the drill, my legs ar all wobbly. I look like adrunk when I'm walking down the aisle behind the cubicles.
posted at 03:04 PM | Link | Mundane § |
When's winter?14º this morning. I know it's only been 6 weeks, but in my head I went from sitting in the stands at U.S. Cellular Field watching baseball on a sunny 85º day to this crappy 14º wake-up with nothing in between. (I know that there was an autumn in there somewhere - I just don't remember it). We had a great lengthy summer and such a mild autumn that this transition is a killer.
I hate this time of year.
posted at 06:29 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Where did everybody go?
The evening rush hour was non-existent. It was dark, with very high winds and our first snowfall, though it wasn't accumulating anywhere, just blowing around. What I can't understand is the traffic. There was nobody on the streets all the way home. Did people really freak-out about the snowfall and leave work early? Where did everybody go?
posted at 04:13 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Nope. It won't die.
Tribune columnist Eric Zorn was sent this picture from an unknown local restaurant.
The story that won't die.
posted at 09:19 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Let's close this up...I didn't know that Tribune columnist Eric Zorn has a blog! So, here's a great, all encompassing stab at the "Inside Voice" brouhaha in his blog entry. Great opinions, different views. Check it out. All good. Be sure to read the comments, too, as people just go medieval on some of the parents.
His blog entries about this are here, here and here
posted at 01:59 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Monday, November 14, 2005
Who Is The Moron?
Click on the thumbnail above to view the picture.
It is a pickup truck this afternoon in the parking lot of the Schaumburg CompUSA
Read the large bumper sticker on the vehicle. Read it closely.
Question: Who is the moron and why?
posted at 12:18 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Inside Voice follow-upThat event that I blogged about a few days ago about a café owner on the North Side that asked via a sign on his front door that all children behave and use their "inside voices", has created an awful lot of exposure in print, radio and TV around town.
read more of this entry »
Two Chicago Tribune columnists wrote about the situation and both came down squarely on the side of the café owner.
John Kass compared café owner Dan McCauley to Mr. Belvedere just looking for some level of decency and common courtesy. This just pissed-off a whole bunch of moms to the point of boycott. And they took their rants to the local airwaves. Then the backlash started, with other parents putting the malingering moms in their place.
And A Little Taste Of Heaven's business TRIPLED.
Eric Zorn replies to a quote in the NYTimes article:
"kids scream and there is nothing you can do about it. What are we supposed to do, not enjoy ourselves at a café?"
by basically saying "What you're supposed to do is place proper supervision of your little curtain-climbers above personal enjoyment when you take them to a restaurant, movie theater or any other public accommodation. What you're supposed to do is be mortified when your best efforts at supervision fail. What you're supposed to do is translate this mortification to your children so they learn proper behavior in such settings. What you're supposed to do is pack up and leave immediately if your children don't obey such a simple, obvious, necessary demand as "use your inside voice."
He also included replies from readers, including: "When you have children you lose at least some of the ability to come and go as you please. Your freedoms are largely in the hands of a small, unpredictable person. And because your small person is unpredictable, that means either you have control over their public behavior, or they have control over your ability to go where you wish to go."
And
"There are many other places to eat and shop, so those of you who protest the establishment of behavior norms should pick up your misbehaving kids and take them to a place that will welcome you. The rest of us, who actually parent and try to teach our children how to act in public, will enjoy the relative calm created by your absence."
Then there were the polls:
At the Chicago Tribune website, 88 percent of more than 3,000 respondents to an unscientific click-poll said the complaining parents are off base.
In a WGN-AM click poll, 81 percent said they wished more restaurants and coffee shops would post signs asking parents to keep their kids quiet.
At the Channel 5/Daily Herald site, 97 percent said they thought McCauley was right to post his sign.
Hurray for somebody to stand up against unruly kids and bad parenting! « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:02 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Jack's Family DebutToday is the annual birthday event to celebrate Sam's (Samantha's) birthday. But here it is - she's turned 18 and this must be the last family party for her. The big deal today: it's Jack's first family event.
read more of this entry »
What a trooper. He turns 8 weeks tomorrow and barely sleeps in 2 hour segments, but there he was - awake and alert and tolerating the perpetual holding and being handed-off to all of these "strangers" (not to mention the amount of flash photography that far exceeded the amount I was chastised for by 10 to 20 fold). He finally started to get hungry/tired/cranky around 8 or so, but he was just great, really great. And he was just the hit of everyone because of his demeanor and just his damn cuteness.
Good job, Jack. Hope you didn't balance it all out with a Nephew-from-Hell bit with Melinda and Diane on the way home and overnight. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 10:35 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Friday, November 11, 2005
Is this right?
I came home from work tonight and I saw something that Carol told me about that I didn't believe.
Today is November 11th (Veteran's Day). Almost mid-November. One of the Daylillies in front of the garage is blooming and has some additional buds that look like they could open. It was getting dark already so I had to use the strobe on the camera to see the flower.
Is this normal for this time of year? All the others have bloomed and have dead stalks. Why did this happen? And it looks like another on the other side of the garage looks pretty green and has buds, too. What's up?
posted at 06:42 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Thursday, November 10, 2005
The uproar over the "inside voice"Big thing in Chicago. Many people, mostly moms are pissed. And, if true, then I'm pissed as well - at the moms.
Here's the deal. Imagine if you will, a bakery and coffee shop (in the Andersonville area called "A Taste of Heaven"). Imagine that one day the owner (of 14 years) puts up a sign on the front door, at kids height:
"Children of all ages
have to BEHAVE
and use their INDOOR VOICES
when they come to
A TASTE OF HEAVEN"
Now, I have no problem with this. He's just asking EVERYONE for some RESPECT for himself and his customers. It's obvious that - after 14 years - something has pushed the owner over the limit and forced him to put the sign up. Sure enough, owner Dan McCauley got pushed.
"We were surprised at how many times we would see children really out of control," McCauley said. "And we actually had people leaving the bakery because the children were so out of control."
"We thought it was just a friendly reminder to people that when they come here, just be considerate of the people around them. We had no idea the kind of controversy that was going to explode out of this," McCauley said.
RESPECT and CONSIDERATION.
Now mothers are boycotting the store, taking offense to the sign. They don't want to be told how to handle their kids. And then, get this quote from some of the mothers: The angry mothers said there are plenty of places in the Andersonville neighborhood where they can take their kids, even if they're acting out.
So, instead of disciplining their kids, they'll just go somewhere else where they don't have to do the work of a parent and let the kids disturb the customers of an establishment to the point where they may leave said establishment, causing a loss of revenue to the owner????
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU IGNORANT PEOPLE?!?!?!? WAKE UP!!! DISCIPLINE!!! OR DON"T TAKE THEM OUT IN PUBLIC WHERE WE HAVE TO PUT UP WITH YOUR INADEQUACY!!!
read more of this entry »
posted at 09:08 AM | Link | Mundane | 3 comments § |
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
BandwidthOK, people, especially the people at 64.127.124.151, 64.127.124.138 and everyone using 64.62.168.* :
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?????
You are sucking my bandwidth dry! There's not that much here to see, so what the hell are you doing?
So, that's it! NO MORE BYTES FOR YOU!
Time for a DENY IP for a while
read more of this entry »
posted at 08:59 AM | Link | Blogging § |
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Puppeteering 201Last week's (LOOOOooooog) post about my audition that started my short, wonderful career as a television puppeteer really got me thinking about those days and what it was like to puppeteer on a kids television show, and I remembered more things about that "lifetime".
read more of this entry »
To begin, let's recap about what you have to do to operate a puppet:
Duckwalk, one arm straight in the air, other arm in the air captured through the character's sleeve, head cocked to the side, watch the monitor, "saying" dialog lines, keeping the head looking in the correct "plane".
A few things came to mind when I was thinking back that really altered the "technique" that really didn't come out during that short audition that showed up during the production of the shows.
First thing was overall height. I have the sneaky suspicion that there was something that skewed the results in my favor at the audition: my height. Nancy was around 5 feet ( I think she was 4' 11", bit I don't recall right now). I'm 5' 3". Bill Jackson, on the other hand, is closer to 6'. Now, when I work with Nancy, height was never an issue. Sometimes with Bill, it is. If he was puppeteering a character, his character may be pretty tall in the scene, so sometimes you really had to stretch or figure a way to come-up on your legs to get more of an extension. But you still had to get your head out of the shot. so you had to crane your neck even further. Let's just say that hurts a LOT.
Second: When I auditioned, Bill recorded all of the character lines for all the scenes that we were running. That way he didn't have to be mic'ed, he didn't have to worry about lines, he could just focus on the performances.
During the shows, Bill would usually only pre-record lines only when he had to appear in a scene with any other character. If he wasn't visible in a shot, he would deliver the lines live. This adds a degree of difficulty to getting the mouth sync correct from take to take, because you know Bill's never going to give the performance exactly the same way as was rehearsed. Or as the last 5 takes.
Third: there's a variation or two when it comes to using a real hand a a character hand. These fake sleeves almost always had a knit glove that matched the opposite stuffed hand of the character. The one exception was Dirty Dragon who had rubber gloves with long fingers that would always flop around and were hard to keep under control and try to act natural. Not only that, they had to have some powder applied to them because, lets face it, under hot studio lights your hands sweat a bit.
Normally you use your dominant hand to operate the mouth. That's because there's a lot of things going on with your hand and wrist and you just have more control with your dominant hand. that means that if you were using the other hand with a dummy sleeve, then you'd use your non-dominant hand for the gesturing. Sometimes this doesn't work, usually because you need to do some complex of fine work with the gesturing hand. That meant that you had to "flip" the way you operated the puppet - you dominant hand was now in the opposite sleeve of the puppet and the "week" hand operated the head and mouth. Talk about screwing you up! It's just like stepping-up to the plate and hitting from the left side when you're a right-hander. The mouth sync suffers a bit as you try and concentrate using your "bad" hand and trying to keep straight and cocking your head in the opposite direction. It's really really really difficult. We really tried not to do that too often. In fact, Bill may break up a scene just so that we can break somewhere in the middle and change hands so the performance wouldn't suffer.
Another variation is when your character needs two hands. we actually changed the technique as we went through the shows. In either case, the solution was using a second puppeteer for the character. We started out having the second puppeteer use their hand opposite the one you use for gesturing. Sometimes, depending on the action, this didn't work out as well. When you carry a prop you may move your hands in different directions than what would be natural for action. We changed that so that the second puppeteer would use both of their hands for gesturing, leaving the primary puppeteer to concentrate on the head an body. This worked really well since only one person was using both hands in perfect synchronization. Looking back, this arrangement made the most sense.
Next is the oddest variation of the two puppeteer technique. We experimented with the concept toward the end of Gigglesnort Hotel, and really put it to use during Firehouse Follies and the Le Hotspot pilot. The difference? It's one puppeteer and one musician. In Firehouse Follies, the musician is a piano player. Bill worked exclusively with him. Bill obviously handled Dirty Dragon and voiced him live at the same time while the piano player worked from underneath and in front of Bill using just his two hands - through Dragon's costume - to play a small upright piano (that was actually built into the back of a prop firetruck that was used in many scenes of the show. By then end, it actually looked pretty good! I think that's what Bill was remembering when he wrote the pilot to Le Hotspot, which was about a dragon that owned a speakeasy and had his own band that performed at the club. That's leads to another variation that I actually did during the pilot - I operated a different dragon character that was the band's drummer. This required me to sort of wrapped around the stool of the drum kit, so the drummer that would sit behind me could play the drum set. His arms went through my character's arms and I had to really move around with the drummer, so that I wouldn't restrict his movement and make him miss the sweat spot of the drums. It also meant that I wasn't far from the big kick drum. It was a really difficult contortionist position to get into. Fortunately, it was only one arm and really no mouth movement, but the character was the drummer, so there was still a lot of action to portray.
You know... this has been really a hell of a lot of fun to reminisce like this. There is still more to say about puppeteering, so I might have to do another entry... « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 01:44 PM | Link | Puppeteering § |
Too early to dream it.Had a dream last night that I was shoveling snow. It's too early for that, isn't it? Please say it's too early...
posted at 06:59 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Monday, November 07, 2005
My head feels lighterI'm not a guy that schedules when to get a haircut. The other attached action: no beard trim without a haircut. Neither have been done in many many many months. Took care of that tonight.
On Halloween, I wore a red shirt along with my long hair and my long white beard. I mean, the beard was longer than normal, not like long to my knees.
Part of our (OK, actually my Halloween ritual is to allow the kids to take whatever they want from the bowl. No one just grabs and runs - everyone looks through the bowl and chooses whatever they like (it's always a mix of candy, usually chocolate related). Then I tell them they could take another if they want and sometimes they take the same kind and sometimes they'll choose something new.
Anyway, I had a little girl, 2-3 years old and her mom came to the door. The girl was quiet and just slowly picked her candy. But she was also really looking at me and checking me out.
She took her second piece and went running down the sidewalk, looked up at her mom and yelled "SANTA!"
OK, time for the trim...
posted at 09:08 PM | Link | Mundane § |
Sunday, November 06, 2005
7 weeksWent to my mom's today for our weekly "Jack Fix". He's only 7 weeks but it's so damn cool seeing the subtle changes week to week. Had a chance to hold him after dinner and it was just great. He's pretty alert (though he still sleeps alot... and doesn't sleep alot at the same time, just causing havoc to Melinda's and Diane's lives). But, overall, he really is a great kid. So I walked around with him for a while (he likes moving around instead of just being held and sitting in a chair). He fussed a bit - which, yes, is pretty normal, but it's just that really cool little piece of life. Found out that Diane's been trying to sing to Jack and hasn't been able to remember any little ditties, other than "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", which has got to be one of the oddest songs to come up with, but kinda cool and the same time. But the really cool thing that I found out, which - of course - just pulled at my heartstrings just a little - she sings to him "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"!!! Oh, oh... I never asked if she sings the words "Home Team" or if she substitutes a team name... and if she sings a team name, which team is it????? Oh, oh...
(You can hear a little bit of Jack fussing in my arms in this MP3)
posted at 10:03 PM | Link | Uncle Michael § |
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Great evening, crappy endingWent to B&B's today for some take-out Chinese and just some good conversation. Barry still seems to be hanging in there, but it's just odd seeing him without energy in his own home. I love the guy, but the medications are just screwing him up. At least, I pray it's the meds. He's a bit quieter, finding it hard to concentrate on some things. Still, he's a trooper. So is Buff, and life continues to go on... which leads me to the entertainment of the evening. First, we watched Ladykillers On Demand. Odd, quirky movie that was pretty enjoyable. I had no idea how much of a major part Irma P. Hall had in the movie - great job.
Now, comes the vile, disgusting, uneasy part of the evening - watching HBO for George Carlin's new show, Live from New York, Carlin: Life is Worth Losing.
Sorry. I've seen Carlin on HBO. I've seen Carlin in person. I felt like I needed to take a shower before killing myself. In fact, the whole show felt like something out of CSI where the comedian would be found dead in his dressing room after the show. Way the hell too dark, touching on things that needn't be touched. I'm actually using the word vile. Laughter? Hardly.
posted at 11:06 PM | Link | Friends § |
Friday, November 04, 2005
Itching for a changeI feel the need to change the way this blog looks. But if I change the way the blog looks, then it doesn't match the rest of the site.
So, if things start looking a little "wonky" around here, you'll know what I'm up to.
Now if there's somebody out there that would like to quickly redesign the site with a fresh, clean look that fits the content of this site, please let me know...
posted at 11:40 AM | Link | Mundane § |
Thursday, November 03, 2005
It Was 30 Years Ago TodayNovember 3, 1975. Thirty years ago this morning, I stepped out of my comfort zone and did something that was pretty unlike me. I have never had the courage to try it again (I don't know why), and yet I have cherished every moment it produced.
read more of this entry »
I was a freshman in college at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. I was starting to figure out that my major was going to be Computer Science. I was still trying to fit in, trying to find my way in life.
I went downtown to Columbia College, to their building (long gone now) on Lake Shore Drive and Ohio. It was an old building, and I remember having to get to the top floor of the building via elevator that 1) had an operator and 2) felt like a freight elevator.
Part of the top floor was the television facility. There was a class in session - just a plain Television Production class.
The place was pretty crowded, however, and pretty active. There had to be 20-30 students there as well as about 20 "others" milling around. plus a few people in the middle of the studio - the focus of today's exercise.
One of those people is Thane Lyman, the Chairman of the Television Department at Columbia, and instructor of the class.
In the middle of it all was the focus of today's session - a legend in Chicago Children's Television. a gentleman by the name of Bill Jackson.
I had come today to audition to be a puppeteer. A television puppeteer.
Any broadcast television experience? No. Have you ever puppeteered before? No. Do you do any voices? No. As I said - way out of the comfort zone for me. (The voice thing really wasn't an issue - Bill did ALL of the voices for all of the characters. The call today was to replace a puppeteer that had left the show. The person would step in next month to start the second season of Bill's show "Gigglesnort Hotel" that was on the local ABC-affiliate WLS Channel 7.
I couldn't tell you exactly why I did this. In high school I had been involved with the school's television studio/station for almost 3 years. At that time, few high schools in Chicago had a full fledged studio (with classes in television production). I had learned to be on-air talent (being an anchor on the daily news shows that we produced and broadcasted to 2,700 students in their home rooms). I really got hooked on it. But when graduation came, I realized that there wasn't anyplace to go to go further and still stay in Chicago. I love this town. My family and friends were here. I had no reason and no want to leave. I graduation from high school and left television behind.
One of the guys from high school contacted me, told me about the auditions, and coerced my to go. I had nothing to lose. I'd get to meet Bill Jackson. I'd get to see Columbia College.
I don't remember the group of people that were there to audition. There were only 20 (I think it was 22) that were there. I remember some people bringing headshots with them, so they must have been the "pros" that had come. Or maybe actors just trying something else.
The audition process was simple - we would be given one of Bill's characters and we would do one of a few pre-set scenes with Bill and another puppeteer of his - Nancy Wettler. The Television Production class will shoot and record the auditions.
We all gathered together in a corner somewhere where Nancy gave us a few pointers on how the puppets operated. I remember a few things about Nancy that really struck me - First, I was actually looking down at her. I'm pretty damn short at 5' 3", and yet she's shorter than me. I found out later that she was a dancer as well, which would explain the next thing I remember - she was flexible, almost pliable. As she demonstrated how to hold the puppets and move them across the stage (studio), there was a certain fluidity and gracefulness to it.
Up to this point, I had been a bit nervous. I still wanted a shot and to this day I still can't tell you why.
We would each be doing a scene. There were a couple of scenes that we'd be alternating around as we're called-up. I don't remember using any props, but the set was built simply but exactly how any typical set piece is used on the show. There's usually a table that you would be behind. The puppets would move back and forth behind.
It was clear that to run one of Bill's puppets wasn't going to be easy. When you think of hand puppets, you immediately think of The Muppets. Those puppets are basically made of fabric, with heads that are typically - with many exceptions - not much larger than the size of your hand, maybe twice the size. Bill's puppets have heads that are made of latex rubber (that he made himself). The torsos are foam rubber, and then are fully clothed. Each puppet weighed a few pounds. Some were lighter, some were less. The mouths were different from character to character. In most cases their were short rubber tubes glued to inside of the top and bottom of the mouth, so you would slip your fingers into the tubes to manipulate the mouth. In some characters, because of their size and design, the use of tubes wasn't necessary and you could just lay your hand and fingers into the mouth an easily move it opened and closed.
But, as we learned together, the first problem and the primary thing that people get wrong when amateurs pick up a puppet is something very simple. When making the puppet talk, most people instinctively do something opposite than what's required: The close the mouth when speaking a syllable instead of opening the mouth. Think about it - the instinctive reaction is to touch your fingers together with every syllable, when the exact opposite is needed - opening the mouth. Try it. Think about it. Use the simple sentence "How are you today?". When you say "How", the mouth starts closed and then opens. When you say "are". the mouth closes slightly and opens. "You" is the same way. "Today" is a quick close-open-close-open. You open for vowels and close for consonants. So, you must pay attention to your hand and what the puppet says. Oh, let's really make it harder - you don't supply the voice to the puppet, someone else does. Now you not only have to concentrate on the mouth movement, but you must listed to see how the person (in this case, it was always Bill) is playing the voice. Each take could have slightly different pacing - you can't think too far ahead. You have to listen intently and make the correct movements. (What you find out later is that Bill never does a line the same way each take. There is always a slightly different "read" for each take). You couldn't really anticipate what was going to happen - when you do, the error looks worse than being behind the speech.
To operate the puppet, you had to extend your arm straight into the air. It can't "list" in any direction. It had to be straight up and down, without flexing at the elbow.
The puppets had long torsos. Because of their length, many times the end of the body would be near your shoulder. Now the thing that made Bill's characters so great is because they looked great. When you saw them on screen, you wanted to see as much of them as possible, lending more toward thinking that they were actually "little people" instead of hand puppets. When shot, it wasn't just heads at the bottom of the screen - you wanted to see torso - body - as well. To do that, you'd have to get your head out of the shot - that would mean that - while you held your arm perfectly straight, you had to roll your head over onto your shoulder. Now when you looked straight ahead, everything would be a little crooked because, well, your head is crooked.
On top of moving the mouth on the puppet while your arm was straight up into the air and your head swiveled out of the way to get out of the shot, there were times when the character had to move around the set. We were told to duck-walk. You know, crouch down low and try to move your legs, sort of like a duck, to walk around the set. While paying attention to the mouth, keeping straight and keeping your head out of the shot, we now have to worry about balance and falling.
Now, these puppets are actually characters in a scene. They don't just look straight ahead toward a camera - they talk to and interact with other characters. You are an actor, acting through the puppet. Now, you could try looking up - sideways, mind you because you head is tilted toward the side to get it out of the shot - but you will probably be behind a piece of set and you won't know where the cameras are. This is important because sometimes you may have to "cheat" toward or away from the camera to make the angles look correct. The only way to make the shot work correctly with the characters interacting properly is to actually see the camera image on a monitor. So, underneath major set pieces there would be a a small black and white monitor, propped-up so that as you are duckwalking with your arm straight-up in the air, head cocked to the side and probably operating the puppet's mouth, you can watch what your character is doing.
Here comes still another problem that is more difficult than you would initially imagine. We are all aware of what a mirror looks like and what it does. You know EXACTLY how to move when looking in a mirror. What was SHOCKING is that the image in the monitor is actually BACKWARDS from how a mirror works. Your "gut feel" says to move right when you have to go left. Having the monitor is a blessing and curse because you can see exactly what is going on, but you have to interpret what the monitor tells you before you move and do the opposite..
My head had sufficiently started to spin by this time. There was a hell of a lot to remember - stuff that I had never had to do in my life, stuff that didn't make a lot of sense, stuff that, quite frankly, hurt. How could I remember all of this? Not only remember, but execute this simultaneously and seamlessly?
Watching the monitors you'll see another problem that pops-up. Your arm may be straight and the character is straight and not listing, but your character may be looking up high a little too much or down low too much in relation to the other character or camera. So not only do you have to concentrate on operating the mouth with your hand/fingers, but your wrist may have to be cocked slightly tilt the head downward or upward, again depending on what is going on in the scene.
Remember: Duckwalk, arm straight up in the air, head cocked, watching the monitor and interpreting the relative placement of characters and props, and moving the mouth in-sync with the character voice, cocking wrist to make sure character is "facing" the proper direction.
Oh, then the killer. Each of the character's wardrobe has slits cut into the forearms of the sleeves. A "dummy" stuffed hand can be removed from the character's arm. Why? Well, you know, these characters are just "small actors", so they have to be able to interact realistically. That means you have to interact with props and most times, just gesture to make the character come to life. There are sleeves with sewn-on gloves made out the exact same material as the characters costume. The puppeteer would put one of these matching sleeves on their "free" arm and put their hand into the slit on the forearm of the character sleeve and through the cuff. You can then just use your own hand as the character's hand and now you can interact with props or just gesture to emphasize spoken lines. But, remember, that extra arm and hand is now also above your head, attached to the puppet.
Duckwalk, one arm straight in the air, other arm in the air captured through the character's sleeve, head cocked to the side, watch the monitor, "saying" dialog lines, keeping the head looking in the correct "plane"
My head was spinning. I decided to try and pay attention. Pay attention to how the set is setup. Pay attention to the content of the scenes being done. Pay attention to the lines. And then, pay attention to the people in from of me - the competition. I want to see how everyone is handling these Rules of TV Puppetry.
And that's when I realize that nobody is nailing this. Some of the characters are large and are just pretty unwieldy and people had trouble wrangling them. Almost everyone has issues with the voice sync. Using props with the second hand is a mess. Some people have problems with balance. Lots have the characters looking high into the air, not paying attention to the monitors.
My turn starts to come up. I get my character - and to this day I can't remember who I had! I have a sneaky suspicion it was Dirty Dragon. The scene is short - under a minute, probably. Long enough to seem like an eternity. One thing I figured out quickly. When you're behind the set, looking at the monitor - don't rely on the monitor. For me, I have always been a guy that totally grasped spacial relationships. If, when I was in position, I took a second to look up, and size-up where the set pieces were, where all the characters were and - before I duck behind the scenes a quick look around and look at the camera positions. My mind could place them in a virtual scene, and I would "know" exactly where everything is. I could use the monitor - not for movement but to fine tune positioning, like making sure the head is in the correct plane. Balance is difficult. Coordination is hard - I'm totally uncoordinated and this is pushing me. I feel like I have memorized the lines so I can push that "process" back in my head and work on movement, getting the sync correct, getting that head stable and looking in the correct direction.
It went fast. Hardly anyone was left by the time I got done. I left and went home. I don't remember the trip at all.
A month and a half later, I was at WLS Channel 7 puppeteering the 1st show of the second season of Gigglesnort Hotel.
Everything - and I do mean EVERYTHING - that happened while puppeteering and working for Bill I have cherished all of my life. It really was that cliché thing - it was the time of my life. I've been in the IT industry for 25 years and yet it's this time of my life that I felt alive, vibrant, excited, energized, and like I was actually accomplishing something. THANK YOU, BILL.
Oh, and one more oddity from that day. Who was in the Television Production class at Columbia? My wife, Carol. We started seeing each other about 4 months after the auditions and have been together ever since.
Time of my life. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 12:11 PM | Link | Puppeteering § |
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
100 days
Just 100 days until the XX Olympic Winter Games in Torino (or is it Turin?) Italy (February 10, 2006).
posted at 08:51 AM | Link | Olympics § |
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
40 minutes a dayHere's something that caught my attention when... reading the newspaper today, yeah, that's it... newspaper...
The Tribune had an article that said talked about reading blogs at work. I guess this started because the writer was... reading blogs at work and found this at Romensko (which I guess started because of something that was brought up at Ad Age).
Apparently, employees spend about 9% of their work-time reading blogs. And the Tribune article thinks that one of the reasons is that reading a blog looks like you're doing work (even though the blog being read is not work-related). As the Tribune writer (Steve Johnson) says: "To a boss standing at, say, 20 paces, reading a blog resembles work." Apparently, if you look at some blog stats, you'd see that page hits "peak during working hours, then plummet on weekends when, of course, there's no incentive to read them that's quite so strong as productivity avoidance".
Now, my stats start rising dramatically at about 11am and stay there all afternoon and then dip slightly over dinner and it's back up again from 7 to 8. The weekday/weekend usage tracks toward the workweek with the weekends lower.
Still, interesting that we're out on the web reading that many blogs...
posted at 10:09 AM | Link | Blogging § |
How much change is good change?Here's were it's all going to start for the 2006 White Sox - the first player movements.
read more of this entry »
The big positive move - picking up the option on Cliff Politte for $1.2 million
The team declined the 2006 option on designated hitter Carl Everett, buying him out at $500,000 instead of his $5 million option. So he's the first guaranteed to go (and, you know, I'm OK with that).
The first Free Agent move was actually Paul Konerko last Thursday (the Sox have exclusive financial negotiating rights to Konerko through Nov. 10, but you know he's going to test the waters and God knows what kind of offers he's going to get. PRIORITY, people, let's get ready to handle getting this guy back), but another happened quietly - Geoff Blum. Both guys have said they want to return to the Sox.
Frank Thomas exercised his $10 million player option for 2006 (but the team has five days to elect to give him a $3.5 million buyout and people believe that's going to happen because of his ankle fractures).
We've got arbitration coming up for Jon Garland, A.J. Pierzynski , and Joe Crede so there's going to be more money there.
Oh, then we have the incentive bonuses: Jon Garland and Mark Buehrle can earn at least $60,000 if they finished no lower than fifth in the American League Cy Young Award voting (to be announced Nov. 8).
Oh, let's bring up something that caught my attention: The Curse of 1906
This is a Chicago-wide baseball curse. Chicago has not celebrated a postseason baseball series championship of any kind on its own soil. Didn't happen this year (ALDS was won in Boston, ALCS in Anaheim and the World Series in Houston). In 2003 the Cubs won the NLDS in Atlanta.
In 1906 it HAD to be a Chicago team: the Sox topped the Cubs at South Side Park in Game 6 of the World Series.
Great, just what the city needs, another curse. « hide the extended part of this entry
posted at 09:10 AM | Link | White Sox § |
*nose wiggle* x 2posted at 06:50 AM | Link | Memes § |
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