MadMup.com

Okay, here's the idea - I've got an extended weekend and I've been planning on a re-design of the site for a while. Why not combine the two like some sort of chocolate and peanut butter-inspired madness?!?

So, hopefully, by the end of Monday, I'll have the new design up. Unfortunately, that will probably mean the loss of the comments thus far, but it will mean good things, too. I'm just not sure what all those will be yet.

So, here's hoping! And if the new design is awful and you hate it, I give you permission to say so. 0 comments

Wow, three whole days of nothing. How's that been for you? Does it take some of the pressure off you? It frees up your schedule a bit, yes? Not having to read something new every day and all.

Well, it's been a weird week. Things are really picking up at work - summers are the best time to do lots of work at schools, after all.

Lots of other stuff going on, but mostly, it's just been a lack of subjects that have kept me from posting. Hope you haven't missed me too much.

Actually, I really hope you've missed me a lot. It would totally rot if you haven't missed me at all.

Well, I'll try to come up with something interesting soon. All righty? 0 comments

Well, that was fun.

The show went very well. It wasn't a sold-out crowd, but it was pretty full. Everything went rather smoothly, and it was all over much too quickly.

Here's the list of games we played (My team was Red):

What Are you Doing?: Red vs. Blue, head to head. Our team won, but it had little to do with me. Note to self: go earlier in the round so that you don't have to do a topic and two letters.

Forward Reverse (Blue) vs. Slide Show (Red): The Blue team did a scene involving parachuting over the Alps and out Slide Show was of a dream involving going to the moon with Gloria Steinem. I thought we did a pretty good job, but the audience judges voted 2-1 for Blue.

Revolving Door (Red) vs. Audition (Blue): In our game, each person on the team has a key word - when that word is spoken, that person needs to either enter or exit the scene, depending on where (s)he is at the time, and justify the entrance/exit. Our topic was "a bank," so we did a robbery. Blue's game was an audition for a made-up play, with one person telling the others how to play their part, including accents, mannerisms, and the like. We won this round 3-0.

Five Things (Red): We needed to get one of our team members to guess five things that we could only act out through mime and gibberish. I don't remember them all, but we had to try and get our teammate to guess that she was eating worms and dirt (she guessed it), swordfighting with Jonny Depp (she didn't guess it, largely because I can't do a Jonny Depp impression to save my life, and the thing I was trying to do (his character from Pirates of the Caribbean) she wouldn't know because she hadn't seen the movie), playing baseball using a sledgehammer for a bat and a watermelon for a ball (she guessed it), and two more things I don't remember. In all, we got her to guess three of the five things.

Chain Death Murder (Blue): This game is like the game of Telephone you used to play as a kid where you'd start a phrase in a circle and see how it sounded when you got to the end, except the first person is acting things out using only mime and gibberish. The first person was trying to get across that the murder had taken place on a highway, the person's occupation was a taxidermist, and the murder weapon was a postage stamp. Then the second person tried to get that to the third, and the third to the fourth. The murder weapon got all the way down, but the location and occupation did not.

Grand Inquisitor (Red vs. Blue): We can only speak in questions. I think we won this one, too, but I didn't help much. I got "Oslo, Norway" as a topic, and after mentioning lutefisk, I was pretty much done. Bah.

World's Worst (Red vs. Blue): A topic is given and we had to some up with an example of the world's worst whatever it was. The Blue team got more points in this game, but not enough.

Red won, which isn't that big a deal, except that I got presented with a shovel. Granted, they called it "The Silver Shovel," but it was still just a shovel.

Very fun.

And, to top it off, I was asked to join the troupe! Huzzah! I only vaguely have a sense for what I've signed up for here, but I'll guess we'll see how it goes, eh?

Thanks for all your well-wishes!

0 comments

We had our last practice this morning, and the "fillers-in" joined us as well. You'll recall that our class is small enough that we're getting 3 people from the regular troupe to fill in.

We didn't get asked for our three characters, which was good because I never got around to making any... I ended up doing a German-ish/French dude accent for one game that I was pretty happy with.

The teams got switched around, so it's now my team that has two of the regulars and two of us class members. Our practice went pretty well this morning, so I'm hoping it'll be good tonight. And by "good" I mean "funny," of course.

Yes, I'm nervous a bit. Since it's improv, you never know how a show will go. If we get lousy suggestions, it's hard to make that funny. At the same time, though, if we get familiar suggestions, I feel guilty. Like if we were to get "farmer" as a suggestion, the temptation will be for one of us to dance as a clue. I know that makes no sense, but it's one of those "in-jokes" that just happened through the practices. So if I were to get "farmer" I would want to do whatever else I could to get that across, because I'd feel guilty using the dancing. However, if they just weren't getting it, I'd default to it. It's kind of a cheat, in my opinion.

I'll let you know how it went after the show. Six hours to go until showtime! 0 comments

I forgot!

By tomorrow (Saturday, in case you're confused) I'm supposed to have three characters for our final improv class. They can be anything, but I gotta have three. I do "loud guy" too much, so I need others.

Maybe "quiet guy"? "Guy with breathing problems"? "Bearded lady"?

Hmmm.

I'm guessing I shouldn't do like that one time in 8th grade where we needed a pantomime and I made mine up on the spot because I never worked on it. It was "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" and it got a lot of laughs, but it's poor planning.

"Mute dog"? "Smilin' Jimmy"? "Ninja with garlic breath"?

Man...this is gonna be rough. 0 comments

I ate at McDonald's for supper tonight and got my second favorite thing: Chicken McNuggets. I always get both Barbecue Sauce and Hot Mustard Sauce. I'll dip the first McNugget in the barbecue, and the next one goes into the mustard. On the very last of a 10-piece, though, I'll dip into the barbecue rather than mustard, which would be next in the rotation.

It's because I prefer the barbecue sauce.

Why then, you might ask, do I even get the mustard?

Well, I like the mustard. And on the occasions I've tried to eat the McNuggets without the mustard, it just wasn't right. I guess I've gotten used to the taste pattern or something.

So there's something you didn't know about me before, most likely. 0 comments

I was all geared up for a Lime Lifesaver today. The nurse at my school has a jar full of Pepp-O-Mints and Lifesavers, and I spied a green one. Immediately the ol' tongue got happy. "Lime! Lime! huzzah!"

So I dug it out and popped it in and was immediately disappointed.

Sour apple. Blech.

Don't get me wrong, sour apple is fine in some instances. It most certainly is NOT fine when your tongue is expecting a refreshing lime blast.

Skittles did this to me a while back. They changed the green ones to sour apple from lime. I eat skittles by the handful. I've come to expect a certain taste from all those colors mixed together. Sour apple threw the whole balance off and made me angry.

Oh, well. To fix today's situation I ate a brownie. That put good tastes back in.



"Refreshing lime blast." I should be doing commercials... 0 comments

Found at Cynical Rantings:

This fun little site that tries to tell you what famous person you look like. I tried with two different pictures. The first time I got Mark Dacascos, David Beckham, and Timothy Dalton. The second picture told me Ben Affleck, Tom Cruise, and Paul Simon (the singer, not the politician).

I'm not so sure it works all that great, but it's fun to try it! 0 comments

Maybe.

I'm still hoping maybe I can get a semi-regular gig, but who knows?

Anyway, in tonight's practice, we ran through what the actual show would be like - what games to start, what games would be played, who is on each team - that sort of thing. I could ruin it for you and tell you the order, but you'll just have to come and see it for yourselves. Anyone unable to make it will be able to read the list here after the fact ;)

I like the way the teams got split. As mentioned earlier, we don't have enough people in the class, so we're having three of the regular performers join us. The team I'm on will get one and the other team will get two. While the temptation is to think "Oh, they'll have an advantage because they have two regulars," that misses a couple of important points: a) We're not trying to win, we're just trying to put on a good show. b) We haven't worked with these people beofre, so we're not familiar with them. That can make a difference. c) Maybe the regular people aren't that good, either.

Apparently I was kind of cranky when I went to practice this evening. Our leader kept saying things like "Did you miss your therapy session today?" But it was all funny, so it worked out okay.

I still don't feel quite "on," so I'm interested to see how things go on Saturday.

I also don't know if there will be a taping yet, so I don't know if I'll be able to post any video. We'll know on Saturday, I guess! 0 comments

My latest review is up over at Digital Entertainment News. It's for the game Alias. The thing I'm noticing is that my reviews are getting longer and longer. I'm wordy! Who'da thunk it?!?

Labels: game review

0 comments

It's funny the great lengths I'll go to to be reachable by people. I have 5 or 6 active e-mail accounts, a cell phone, and IM clients open 24 hours a day. You want me? You got me.

Strangely, I don't hear from people much. I get less than a phone call a day. I get a few business-related e-mails a day, but very few personal e-mails. IMs see the most action.

And even though I don't get much contact from people, I still check. My cell phone doesn't get a signal inside any of the schools where I work, so I'll check my voicemail every so often "just in case." There's never a case.

I leave my IM client open even when I can't chat, just to see if I'll get buzzed.

So when I'm going to be AFK most of the day (like today), I feel the need to tell someone. "Hey! You won't be able to get me today! Just in case you were gonna!"

So, yeah, I'll be gone most of the day, without even an IM client open. There's that whole "E-Mail Me" link to the side there if you get desperate. I'm fairly good about writing back - even to that nice youraretard2002@yahoo.com who suggested I "get a life."

Have a good day, friends. 0 comments

Funny how it goes...

Now, when you do a search for "Q*Bert T-shirts" on Google, I'm the fourth one down.

I may never find a Q*Bert T-shirt!

EDIT: Here's a link to The History of Q*Bert, for those who don't know who he is. 0 comments

The world sure has changed.

(With a profound statement like that, you know this has nowhere to go but up, eh?)

Think about what you know of life 100 years ago. No cars, airplanes, or TV, and phones weren't popular yet. The people you knew were your family, for the most part. People in cities knew more people, but you knew a pretty small group of people. You lived where you grew up, for the most part. Extended families under one roof were not uncommon.

With the advent of things that let you travel further faster and things to let you communicate with people a long way away, people started moving all over the country. Instead of needing a "pioneer spirit" or a lack of prospects in your current situation, you could move "just because." So people moved.

And it changed the way we lived. Relationships changed. Any time technology advanced, relationships changed. And, strangely enough, it was entertainment and leisure that drove the advancement of technology, and technology drove the advancement of leisure. 'Tis a circle, it is. A vcicious one, even.

It sounds like a cliche, but radio and television changed the American family. It seems simplistic to say, but people who were watching TV or listening to the radio weren't reading or talking to each other. And as people got used to new forms of entertainment, that entertainment drove them to want more and different entertainment. It doesn't take a genius to look at the first television shows and compare them to today's shows and notice there's a pretty big difference.

It's tempting to go off on a "what's wrong with America" tangent, but that's not where I was headed. I'm talking about relationships.

As people moved away from people they knew and new ways of hearing about the world and about each other came along, they started relating to people differently. Instead of knowing their neighbors and spending time with them, people withdrew. They talked on the phone to people hours away rather than cultivating friendships with those right next door. Rather than gathering in groups to pass news along, people got their news in their own homes from the television and from newspapers that also benefited from the new communication methods.

You know where this is headed, right?

Fast forward a few years.

Enter the Internet. Now it's so much easier to get info and "meet" people without ever leaving your house. And it's changed relationships again. It's given rise to the group we always hear about - those who pretend to be someone else online. But we overlook the other things. I have a friend who's getting married this summer - to a fellow she met online. Twenty years ago, they would never have found each other.

I myself have friends all over the country now - New Mexico, Wisconsin, Washington, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina - and some international friends - Canada, Luxembourg, maybe Australia and England. These are a mix of keeping up friendships I started "IRL" (that's "In Real Life" for those who don't know) and people I've "met" online. Some are an interesting mix of the two. One of my online friends is a person I knew in high school but only recently re-caught up with. Another is the younger sister of a friend I've had since 9th grade - we knew each other, but we've only recently become what you'd call "friends." And they've introduced me to other people. Others are people I've met in online "communities." There again, technology has changed relationships and definitions.

I make no distinction between "online" friends and "IRL" friends. One of my online friends went to Vegas with his wife a few weeks ago. When they got back, he told us in the "community" about his trip. A few days later, I was getting my hair cut when my stylist (yeah, she's a "stylist" not a "barber") said something about how she got married in Vegas and I said without pausing to think, "Yeah a friend of mine just got back from Vegas. He really enjoyed himself."

I've talked to a few of my online friends on the phone. I've seen one or two of them on webcam. I play golf with some of them online. We talk about our lives and jobs, our joys and pains. We give advice to each other on everything from decorating to taking driver's tests. I may eventually meet some of them and usher at their weddings. And you've already seen how a bunch of them helped me celebrate my birthday.

I guess what I'm saying is it's easy to look at some of the changes technology has made and be sad for how things have turned out. (I have a friend who says she thinks she would've made a good pioneer woman, what with all the working and pie-making that went on.) But technology has made things possible that were never possible before. I know someone who lives in Luxembourg, and I don't even really know where Luxembourg is! (Of course, also with the help of technology, I could find that out...and I probably will when I'm done here.)

There is a downside, though, to having mostly online friends - you can't really call them to help you move a desk... 0 comments

Here's what my new Beatles poster looks like:



I like the way Paul is kind of hiding behind Ringo. I don't know why. 0 comments

I was in the mall today, for no particular reason, and I walked past the Hot Topic store. I happened to notice they had a few video game-related shirts, and I glanced at them as I went by. It turned out they were mostly Nintendo-themed, and therefore didn't interest me much (I'm a Sega fanboy!). So I walked on.

Then it hit me.

And I turned back and stuck my head in the door and asked the fellow with the 900 piercings in his face, "Do you have any Q*Bert T-shirts?"

He said, "No, but that's a really good idea."

And I replied, "You're durn tootin' it's a good idea." And I went on my way.

Here's a few odd things about that encounter:

1) Me being anywhere near a Hot Topic store is a study in contrasts. My general attire is khakis and a collared shirt. When I get comfy, it's jeans and a T-shirt. If you know Hot Topic, you'll understand why that's funny.

2) I used the phrase "durn tootin'" to a fellow who could have been half my age and had more face piercings than I've ever personally seen.

3) They didn't have Q*Bert T-shirts.

A strange trip on my lunch break. It wasn't a total weird-out, though - I got my favorite ever Beatles poster at Suncoast. Nifty. 0 comments

Time is drawing nigh...

We have two more practices left before the performance.

Last night's practice actually went pretty well. We played Audition, Forward Reverse, 185, What Are You Doing?, and Slide Show. I've played them all before, but before last night, Forward Reverse was a game I hated. The way they play it around here, though, takes away the part I hated, so it becomes totally fine!

Let me 'splain: With Forward Reverse, you start a scene. When the ref/MC/whoever yells "Reverse!" you have to go backwards through the scene - not speaking backwards, but delivering lines in reverse order. The reason I've hated this game for years is that I've always had to play it where sometimes the scene would go in reverse past the point it had started, so we'd have to come up with stuff that led up to the stuff we did. Sound hard? It is. But with this group, they don't do that as a general rule. They stick to what we've already seen and it makes it sooooooooo much easier. I actually thoroughly enjoyed playing it.

Improv is kind of like blogging for me. It's one of those things I love to do just because it's fun to do, but it's so much more fun when someone notices and, hey, maybe enjoys it a little.

Next week we'll actually do run-throughs of the show, which is as close to a dress rehearsal as you can get with improv. Basically it means we'll go through the games we're going to play in the order that we'll play them. We obviously have no idea what the audience will suggest, so that remains the wrench that will be thrown in the works. We'll also do a practice or two on the actual stage so we can get a feel for it.

We asked him (our teacher guy) last night if we could video tape the performance, and he said he'll have to check into that. He doesn't want to set any precedents. So if I can, I'll get some clips up here, but I have no idea if that'll happen, so don't bet your farm on it.

The funny thing is, they'll be advertising the show as if it's a regular show, not a "this is a new class" show. We will be having three members of the actual troupe involved in the show, so that should be interesting and maybe make it worthwhile for the people who are paying $4 to get in.

I'll certainly keep you posted. 0 comments

Feeling a little blue today?

Here's something that will cheer you up, unless you're the crankiest of people.

(And the assist goes to Brian for that one.) 0 comments

I noticed something peculiar the other day.

I squint when I put my glasses on in the morning.

I know why I do it - it's because I used to wear contacts, and I'd always have that involuntary squint as my finger was coming toward my eye. Apparently my weird little brain has now associated "being able to start seeing" with "must squint now."

Here's the really odd thing - I haven't worn contacts for at least three years.

It's a weird little brain I have. 0 comments

The strangest thing has been happening.

My neighbors moved out a week and a half ago. It's been kind of weird without them around - I got used to the noise of the three kids playing with their friends in the yard.

But about a week ago, the daily newspaper started getting delivered to their mailbox. Every morning, there it is.

Okay, so maybe they lucked into some sort of lottery the newspaper has where they choose an address at random to receive the daily news. I doubt it, but it's a possibility.

Here's the even weirder part: someone is picking them up. There isn't a pile of newspapers, it's just the one, every day. And I checked - it's the most recent one.

I've been tempted to take it myself. I know for a fact that no one lives there. But this paper... Yesterday, in fact, I picked it up, intending to take it. I didn't, though. It isn't my paper, even though I'm not sure whose it is.

Today the Sunday edition got delivered. It's still there now. I was again tempted to take it, and again did not. This time I was actually only tempted to take a part of it - the Best Buy ad - but I didn't do it.

I'm very perplexed by this. I'm wondering how I could find out what's going on. 0 comments

It's the end of my birthday, and what a birthday it was!

I talked to several good friends today, which is always the best part of a birthday. I got e-mails from family and friends, and I talked to my Mom, too.

But you want to know the weirdest and wackiest part of the day? Lots of people from the THorum got together and did my birthday up like you ain't never seen!

Get this - people from all over the world got together, collected money over the Internet, had a cake (almost) delivered to me, and are sending me a Best Buy gift certificate!

"All over the world? you ask.

Yes! Mostly from the States (Washington, Texas, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Florida, and more!), but also from Canada (Nova Scotia!) and even Luxembourg (it's in Europe...). I think there might be a couple of other countries represented, but I'm not completely sure. Sorry if I left anyone out!

I even got immortalized (sorta) in a comic! That's me in the first panel in the background there - the one with "Mup" on his shirt.

"Wait!" you say. "What do you mean by 'almost delivered'?"

Well, they had it all set up to be delivered, but the bakery messed up - they said they couldn't find my place. Well, I was informed of the situation, and I said I would go pick it up. The bakery's only a few blocks from here, which makes it all the stranger that they couldn't find me. Oh, well. I got a nice German chocolate cake out of the deal, so it's all good!

Thank you to everyone who had a part in my 32nd birthday. You made it memorable! 0 comments

We've moved on to learning the actual games now. It's a little weird because I've played a lot of these games before, but this group plays them just a little bit differently. The strategies and tips I've used before aren't quite right, and I feel like I don't know what I'm doing.

I read back over these reports, and it sounds like I'm hating the class, but I'm not. We work better as a team now, and we've had some really funny moments. I'll just never be as good at anything as I want to be. Meh. Fact of life, right?

We've only got three more practices before the performance, so it'll be interesting to see how this all comes together.

For those who are curious, the games we played tonight were Revolving Door, Da Doo Run Run, 5 Things, and Chain Murder Death. 0 comments

Well, folks, you are reading the ramblings of an idiot, and I have proof.

I ran out of gas on the way home from visiting some friends. I was 30 miles north of Lafayette on I-65 and my car just stopped running. I drifted off to the side of the interstate and was able to restart the van and go for about another mile before it died again.

I called the State Police to let them know my van was going to be there while I went in search of some gas, and they said, "Please stay with your vehicle. We have someone on the way." "Great!" I thought. "They'll bring me gas and I'll be on my way!"

About twenty minutes later, a trooper shows up. "Are you sure you're out of gas?"

I was. He had me put it in neutral and pushed me farther over to the side of the road, then pointed me to a spot between his vehicle and mine. "Stand right there, sir." I learned long ago not to argue with people who are a) helping you out, and b) carrying guns, so I stood where he pointed. I watched as he went to the front passenger seat of his car and moved some things to the back seat. As he came back towards me, he was putting on a pair of gloves.

"I need to pat you down."

"Pat me down?"

"It's like frisking, only less 'personal'."

He had me interlock my fingers behind my back as he checked to make sure I wasn't carrying anything dangerous. To anyone driving past, I'm sure it looked like your standard everyday bust of an idiot in a minivan. When he had ascertained my biggest weapon was my sheer stupidity, he let me get in the car. He drove me 5 miles to a gas station and left me there with some business cards for tow trucks in the area. "I'm not allowed to transport fuel in my vehicle," he said. The smart aleck in me immediately thought, "What does your vehicle run on then?" but I was able to suppress him.

The lady at the gas station was more than happy to let me use their gas can, but her husband had the car and she didn't know when he'd be back to give me a ride.

Then a customer walked in, and I did a dumb thing: I asked him for a ride.

After much pleading on my part and reassurances that I was not a lunatic and that, yes, I would gladly give my information to the nice lady behind the counter, he agreed and took me and my little gas can the five miles back to my van. Well, he took me to the north-bound side of the road opposite my car, but that was fine. I played my own personal game of Frogger and got over to my van safely, put the gas in, and drove back to the gas station to fill up and retrieve my driver's license. It cost me $30, but I didn't care. I also bought a bottle of Nestea Lemon Iced Tea, an experiment for me, as I normally only drink raspberry iced tea. They didn't have raspberry, and I was thirsty.

I got back into my van and headed down the road, happy to be on my way. I opened the tea...and it spilled all over me. Did you know that tea stains jeans? I didn't, but I do now.

But you know what? That tea was pretty good.

Labels: driving

2 comments