Now for the actual January 12th post!
Hey y'all. I spent much of the morning catching up on HomestarRunner and Red vs. Blue "cartoons." They're both hilarious websites... and HomestarRunner has only gotten funnier since I last saw it. Red vs Blue was funny the first season, but it got crappy in the second season and I stopped going to the website. But I went back and saw what they've done for the third season... and they got back to being clever. So good for them. And if you stopped going to that website like me (Ken), go back and check out the third season.
Today I also got a weird call from Emily. I saw weird not because I answered it, but because she left a really weird message. Like "Hey... let's get a cup of coffee sometime" and I sat there, listening to the message and thought to myself "what the fizzle?" I mean, it literally came out of nowhere... because I haven't tried to contact her in months. Isn't it odd how people's minds work? *nods* It is. And don't worry, dear reader... even if you haven't tried to contact me in months, I'm thinking about you. All the time. Did you buy that? Good.
Speaking of weird Chicago occurrences, it's sixty-five degrees in Chicago!!! I know! I don't get it either. But it's thunderstorming/raining out... and, from what I hear, people all over the greater Chicago area are having problems with flooding from the rain plus the melting snow. What weird weather we get here in Chicago!
This has nothing to do with anything, but I hear that the government has new Dietary guidelines. This equals changes to the food pyramid! It's already different from the food pyramid I learned as a young lad... but now it's completely different. One of the big changes is that they've done away with the "serving size" thing that no one understood. That's a good thing, except we all got used to the serving size thing. I suppose this is the same thing as that whole metric system deal--it will be better for us in the long run... but I'm an American and I like what I know, damnit! Additionally, the government is now saying 4 1/2 cups of fruit and vegetables (CNN said that would be like NINE of the serving sizes we're used to) per DAY. Nine servings a DAY! Hey Zeus Christi that's a lot! In the immortal words of Dave Atell, "I like tattoos because they don't belong on your body but you put them there... to say something about yourself. Much like my layers and layers of fat. This shit doesn't belong on a human body, but I put it there to say something about myself. You know what it says? I don't like fruit. I don't like it!"

Tonight I had Mockupations rehearsal. We started with a speed-through of lines... and then we went through the whole show in one of the classrooms. And because today was freakishly hot... and big buildings have trouble shutting off heat once it gets going... it was very very warm in Piper's Alley. I mean, all three of us male actors were sweating pretty badly during the classroom run. After we finished one run-through, we got notes and then headed out into the lobby, which was cooler than the classrooms. We had to stay because tonight was also our tech rehearsal.
By the time we got to the actual tech rehearsal, all the actors were SO tired. Amanda was actually sleeping at one point in the lobby. I don't know what it was, but we ALL got really tired. Maybe it was the heat. I don't know. But, instead of going from cue to cue, we ran the whole damn show AGAIN. We were SO tired by the end of rehearsal, we could have fallen asleep in a heap on stage. Thankfully Mike gave me a ride home, or else I would've had to sleepy-walk back.
Hey... there is some good news! I actually seem to have some good press for a show I'm in. Too bad it's not a Chicago paper. Joe, the writer of Mockupations, had a Milwaukee paper interview him for an article. YOU can find it here. That's all I've got.

#7 Worst of 2004 - The End Of The Second City Writing Program This is also known as my writing five show. "Why is this so terrible?" you ask. "It didn't sound so bad in the past, why is this on the list?" Well, dear reader, here's the thing. I spent one year, and over a thousand dollars on the Second City writing program... and it's culmination, the zenith (if you will), is the Writing Five show. One would THINK that this would be the most satisfying part of the whole program... finally getting your writing on stage. But one would be wrong. I started being disappointed in Level 4 when MT sucked the fun out of my sketches... and then the sketches that I DID want in the show didn't get it. I got one of them in (Jeff's Ark) but not the other ones. And then MT allowed the writers WAY too much freedom creatively. It's almost as if she didn't want the responsibility of directing everything, so she asked the writers what they wanted way too often. And dipshits like Chris jumped at the opportunity to fuck with every aspect of his scene. I was very VERY disappointed with the end of my writing classes at The Second City. Oh well... it looks good on a resume, at the very least.