Tim's Personal Blog

School Audition Number Three: Acting @ U-Windsor

2010-03-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

I should start this off by saying Windsor is my hometown, and at the same time it's the school I know the most people at. So... Technically I might find myself leaning towards it for those reasons, but the program looks really great too.

MY FAVOURITE HIGHLIGHTS:

- All the acting students are a family. The competition is "inside themselves rather than in each

other," and the younger and older students all connect together very well.

- People who work with Windsor students say they actually have humanity, rather than being acting machines. I'd be fine with being an acting machine, but humanity is always good.

- The school! OH my god. The theatre school is brand new. It's the cleanest place I've ever seen. Kind of like what I first pictured Ryerson to be like.

- Not only opportunity, but time for me to continue with Palates and Dance.

- Conservatory style program, jumps into acting, movement, and voice classes right away instead of just theory for a year. (hack, hack, york.)

The Audition:

First, we did movement and voice warm ups lead by the movement and voice teachers, which gave us a feel of what it would be like to be in their classes. I wish I had worn sweatpants, as we then did an interesting movement piece that was sort of like a mime but we had to do exactly what the teacher showed us. It was a thirty second little piece and I'm pretty sure I rocked it, although my pants restricted my movement.
Next we went up one by one and read our monologues. They did cut us off, but that was fine because they had told us previous to the audition that we would have a minute for each monologue, (rather than three minutes, as some auditions told us we would have.) I did very well.
We then sat in their upper floor lounge for a while while they called some specific people back that they wanted to see again, (asking them to rework their monologues.) I wasn't called back, but I feel it is because they liked the way I did my monologue and didn't have a need of correcting me on anything.

I should mention that Ellie (another auditioners) and I were relatively ahead of the pack as a whole, in all aspects of the auditions, and we connected well with each other. This comes to play in a bit.. Next, one by one, we read a sonnet they had assigned us. I think this really helped with their decision because there were some people with whom I was pleasantly surprised to see read their monologues, but who later proved not to work to their full potential on the assigned text. It separated the competition even more.

Next, we did improv which I openly admit is a weak point for me, however this wasn't "get the best laugh" improv. They just wanted to see how we would interact with another person on the stage and whether we could give and take. I lucked out, and was put with Ellie for this portion of the audition. Sure, I would have worked well with anyone, but I believe we were both able to use the connection we had established earlier in the day to our full advantage, and now by the end of the audition I believe we will both be accepted.
I've already been accepted into the BA in theatre program offered by Windsor, and it is the BFA Acting that interests me. As I was accepted into the BA program, it is clear that my grades are certainly in an area that will get me acceptance, and so was my audition so I think it's pretty much a done deal.

Once we were all done with our auditions, we held a little powwow with our panel who will be our movement, voice, and acting teachers. They told us much about the program and cleared the air on how Windsor's program differs from the others. It is one of the rarer University programs that allows you to actually act in your first year, among everything else listed above, and although it comes along as second to UTM's program for me, I'm feeling a huge draw towards it.

Something that will factor into my choice is that while I was here this weekend I reconnected with some old friends. Family, I knew was a benefit of coming to Windsor, but I realized this weekend that if I come to Windsor, even though the program wouldn't necessarily be my first choice, I would be happier there and fit in more than I would in other places, to a point. Also my eyes have been opened to the fact that in Toronto, I would be a dime-a-dozen actor looking for work, but in Windsor I would have the opportunity to nurture and build theatre in the area, and it would probably be a good career move to think about the extra options available to me by schooling in my hometown. To be honest, it tears me up inside, and I don't want to have to make the hard choice that I know will be coming, but I think I would regret going to Windsor more than I would regret missing any of the other schools.

ON A SIDE NOTE: I was not accepted to Ryerson or even wait-listed, which I kind of expected and wouldn't have gone there anyways so all to the good.

NEXT POST -- The National Theatre School of Canada (Tuesday)

School Audition Number Two: Theatre Erindale

2010-03-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

The Erindale Theatre and Drama Studies program is a theatre program combining a great university education from UTM with a conservatory-style education at Sheridan. This was a great audition, and was possibly the polar opposite of Ryerson in how it was done.

At the beginning, you entered into their little briefing room and handed in your resume/letters/headshots, then they had you fill out some forms to get to know your style better and they took smaller headshots of you to staple to your folder for later reference.

The school facilities were in much better shape than I talked about in my last post, although I definitely got the impression they were well used. It wasn't grungy at all though, more.... Homey.

So while I was bent over the table, vigorously filling out my form, somebody pulled back the chair next to me and asked "Is this seat taken?" I began to say not at all, but as I turned I saw that it was the beautiful and talented miss Kristin Boivin, who I wasn't expecting to see. She asked me if she was going to be in my blog, and I said of course, and that I'd describe her as beautiful and talented... So that's why I mentioned it.

Once we handed in our forms they sat us back, invited a few parents into the room, and gave us a huge presentation on their program and how it differs from other theatre schools. This school truly understood that we were auditioning them, as well as them-us. Let me tell you right now: They are definitely on my callback list!
Next, they brought in The Panelists. These were some previous students who made it big in the real world, some founders of the program, some teachers, and one current student (in her fourth year.) Our audition panel would consist of three of these people, pretty much luck of the draw. Also present were a variety of students either in their first, second, or third year of the program, and as far as I think they pretty much chose little groups of us auditioners, and each student was a "buddy" to 5 or 6 auditioners.

When my buddy called out "Timothy," to say I was in her group, I was mortified. I signed Tim on all the forms and on the resume, but apparently OUAC wasn't as obliging. Kristin was also put into my group of 6, and we proceeded to venture into the basement of the building.

We waited out in the hall for a moment, to ready ourselves, and then three of us went in to do a quick improv session. Kristin, another girl that will be at the NTS audition on Tuesday, and I went in together and did a nice little park bench scene about dry heat, travelling, and kayaking in a bench... I've always hated park bench, and now I know why: Everyone else who has ever had me play it, had us do it wrong. Sure, the goal is to get the person off the bench, but you can play back and forth and they can get you off all in the space of the scene. The bench is just a way of giving your character a task to do, and other than that it should play out like a real improv scene. (not like a two second nose picking attempt.)

Anyways; while the next three did their improv, I volunteered to do my prepared stuff first.
When I went in, they were very welcoming and everything.

Oh, I should probably talk about my panel... I got the fourth year student, an improv expert, and a linguistics teacher or something. They were awesome.

So I was able to do my full monologues and my song, and I rocked them. Then came time for the interview. I won't spill any of the questions they asked me, but I will say that they definitely liked me as well as I liked them (I heard from others that the panels gave negative feedback when it was due, instead of just being nice, so I was very happy with my lot.) No bones about it, they said they loved me and I was a perfect fit for the program, and that maybe I should work on getting my average up in school just to be sure. Acceptance is based 50/50 on your audition score and your marks, with the top 25 being accepted. They told me they were giving me extremely high audition scores, so that's all to the good.

After, Mom was shopping at MEC, so I hung around to talk to some of the current students. They love their program and seemed like really chill people, and I would love to go to school with them. This was all last weekend and so far no word, so I'm assuming I'll find out sometime after the highschool midterms are released.

Thanks for a great audition experience, UTM! Hope to see you next year!

Next Post: University of Windsor's Acting Program.

Theatre School Audition Number One: Ryerson University

2010-03-12T22:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm a little bit pissed off.
For Ryerson I was asked to prepare two three-minute monologues (they said you would perform one and use the other as a callback if necessary,) and a three minute personal presentation in which I would do a play in three minutes.
I was fine with that. It felt like a cool assignment. I put together an awesome Oedipus play for myself to do. Lets backtrack and start at the beginning of the audition:
(cool rewinding noise dedicated the the awesome girl who did the Odyssey as her 3 min play)

When I think of Ryerson as a school; I picture clean and shiny. This may be true for a lot of Ryerson, and their courtyard was certainly beautiful, but it was not so with the Theatre School. The building was well-used, and looked-- well, like you would imagine a theatre school to look like. We aren't a spectacularly clean bunch and we tend to drift towards older buildings-- anyways, it wasn't really what I was expecting. Moving on: I'll admit I was forewarned. I met a girl who had just finished her audition and she told me that they stopped everyone about a minute into their personal presentation. Initially, this came as a relief, as the ending of my Oedipus was a weak point. However, I thought when she said a minute, she meant a minute. I got about 30 seconds in.
Upstairs, in the green room, we had the opportunity to sit around for an hour and speak with our fellow auditioners. I met a girl named Becca (3 Minute Play: Cyanide and Old Lace) from New Brunswick, who I became very fast friends with and spent the rest of the day talking with (and I must say her audition blew me away.) A bit later, she and I met two guys that had carpooled-- I think they were from Restoule. Might be wrong. Their names were Josh (Cabaret) and Owen (Rocky Horror Picture Show). We all exchanged stories about the shows we had done and different directors we had worked with, and what pieces we were auditioning with... Eventually, two of the senior (fourth year) drama students at Ryerson took us into the ballet studio that would host the rest of the proceedings.

This is when it got a bit scary. Not the nerves, but what we did for the next hour.  There was some sort of delay with the adjudicators; so these students lead us in a warm up for an hour. I'll admit it did get me warmed up, and I discovered some new techniques, but they were quite literally talking to us like we were a kindergarten class learning how to warm up for the first time. I can guarantee every person in there was probably very experienced in all aspects of theatre, and didn't appreciate being lead around like children. Needless to say, it caused some doubt about the program.. Next it was time to sit and begin the audition. Unfortunately, Becca and I were separated at this point as we would be sitting (and performing) in a specific order.

There were 18 of us auditioning in total, and there were two rows of uncomfortable plastic chairs facing each-other across a gap. Then, on one end of the procession there was a small table with old peeling block-letter stickers that spelled out "Ryerson Theatre School" on the flat surface, with two very comfortable looking chairs behind it. Becca sat almost across from me, next to the short effeminate boy (Romeo and Juliet). I sat between the Italian guy with acid-wash pants (Little Shop of Horrors) and the classily overdressed younger girl (very funny, chose rather sexual monologues). Josh was first in my row, with Owen right next to him. The performers would stand almost at the opposite end from the judges table, in front of the spaced out curtains.

Now, we were instructed to go in order of our row. We would stand, announce the names of the pieces we would do, and then choose whether we would prefer to perform our chosen monologue or 3 minute play first. Everybody in my row did the monologue first. Let me note here that I found it was really funny how you could guess who out of our bunch was to audition at NTS, just based on the monologues they chose. Made my day..
Josh and Owen performed and did well. I was impressed. Following them was a girl with dark long hair and the sort of clothes you would wear to a yoga class (or maybe a mime class.) She did the most beautiful rendering of the Viola speech from Twelfth Night I've ever seen, following it up with the coolest presentation ever. The Odyssey in three minutes. Amazing.
---- Oh, right. I should mention here that everyone was being cut off about a minute into their monologues, and slightly less than that into their 3 minute presentations which was REALLY BAD because they should have just told us to prepare it for 1 minute. I'm pissed. I'll explain why now. ---

When my turn came about, (for those familiar with my rendition of Sister Jude) I decided to skip the beginning "rain" section of my monologue and start with "I have to tell you this out loud." I did reasonably well, but they cut me off right after "I have drunk shooting sherry to excess, seven times," and I didn't even get to the good stuff. The reason I chose this monologue was because any time somebody watches me do the ending of it, they are left speechless. I realized directly after the audition that I could have just started halfway through at "I come up here often" and I would have been amazing. Too late.
Next is what really killed me. My play was a creative mix of song, classical speech, funny children's poetry, narration, and southerner introduction speech "ladies and gentlemen, here she is...." I decided to just start at the beginning and hope I at least got to the Oracle's first song... Nope. I did my cheesy little beginning intro rhyme, then a tiny bit of narration, and right before I got to the good stuff I was cut off. AFTER SAYING A CHEESY RHYME when EVERYONE ELSE DID SOMETHING AMAZING.  I felt like a fool. It doesn't help at all that I just realized an hour ago that I could have just started with the Oracle's song and went on from that point and the plot would have both made sense and been entertaining.
I feel completely and utterly that this audition was unfair, as we all worked hard on preparing this presentation and they should have bothered to see us do the entire thing after they gave us this assignment. I'm pretty sure I got shafted the worst though... All because of my silly intro that works with the whole piece but looks stupid on it's own.  The sad part is, they didn't even cut people to save time. They weren't pressed for time at all. Frankly, I'm disgusted at how this all played out.

For the callbacks, they basically called back the five people that they felt didn't act to their full potential, and who I'm pretty sure they couldn't even hear, because I was closer and could barely. So, those of us who didn't get callbacks were relatively pleased about that because obviously it meant they thought we did fine.... They said we would know our results in within three days. THREE DAYS? That's the other thing: Our whole group was really talented. What if another group later on isn't? I think they should wait until everyone has auditioned to decide.

Anyways, it was raining outside, and Becca and I said goodbye as she hopped into her uncle's car. She's doing even more auditions than I am... I do hope I see her again, even ending up at the same school would be a treat. The same goes for Josh, Owen, and the Viola/Odyssey girl (who I did talk with after and was surprised to find that she was only really aiming for Ryerson, with no other potential schools. She would have been amazing at NTS, but doesn't want to do a conservatory style program just yet. Sorry, I forgot her name) and really everybody else at that audition. We were together for maybe 3 or 4 hours, but those hours actually felt more like a drama class than an audition. Asking around about everyone else's auditions, I think it's very possible that I just might see some of them again.

Oh, and as for Ryerson? Well... It may have jumped down from second to third choice during this process. Sure, the program is apparently amazing... But I wasn't that impressed by either the current students (who not only lead our warm up but I observed singing Aladdin in the student lounge/green room--- not that there's anything wrong with singing Disney music, I do it all the time,) or by the surrounding environment. I've definitely realized that I need to pick it up for NTS, and I'm very glad I have two more auditions to go before the really big one.

NEXT POST in regards to Auditions: University of Toronto: Mississauga/Sheridan -- Theatre and Drama Studies

"Fair" Access Policy

2010-03-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

I'm getting really upset at the "Fair Access Policy" that satallite internet providers have in place to limit you from "hogging the bandwidth."

Let's recap on what this means: Depending on the MB threshold in your contract (most being 200MB; 500MB is seen as 'pretty good,') the companies will slow down your internet speeds so bad that they resemble dial-up on it's worst days-- this can last for a day, a week, or in some cases even a month. In the reading up I've done, they often refer to 5% of people as being "MB Hogs." Basically, they do this so everyone can experience optimum browsing; but these are the things HughesNet says you shouldn't do if you dont want to get cut off:

Full-length movie downloads
Peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing programs such as Napster, Kazaa or LimeWire
Downloading or viewing streaming media content such as audio or video programming
Hosting of server devices such as email, FTP or Web servers
Hosting computer applications such as Web camera feeds
Automated computer to computer connections used for archiving of local computer content
Extensive downloading of Usenet Newsgroups (NNTP)
Use of BitTorrent applications
Simultaneous file downloads
Downloading large files (i.e., file sizes that are close in size to the download threshold of your service plan)

Do you know anybody that doesn't do at least one of these things? I do almost all of them. Sorry if I expect my internet provider to allow me to do all the things the internet is capable of in our modern world.

Theatre School Auditions

2010-03-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

In the coming month, I will be attending four auditions for various theatre schools. I've prepared both a contemporary monologue (Sister Jude: I play a sexually disturbed man yelling at God to strike him down) and a classical monologue (Hamlet: Act 3, scene 4, lines 52 – 72). For Ryerson, in addition to those, they have asked me to prepare a personal presentation in which I "do" an entire play in three minutes. The only rule is that I am not permitted to ask for further clarification on what that means... And so I have chosen to do Oedipus; and am actually connecting different Oedipus plays rather than condensing one. The bulk of the piece will be songs and funny poetry from the adult musical Oedipus for Kids, and I'll include some of classical text from the W.B. Yeats interpretation of King Oedipus. Mainly, the Second Messenger's speech about the marriage bed, and the hanging, and the stabbing of the eyes and all that fun stuff.
I'd include a copy of the script; but then future students hoping to do this audition would be able to do a quick google search and use it. I'm thinking the point of this part of the audition is to show off your creativity, so I'm just not going to put that option out there for people. Let me assure you, though, it is very cool.

The Classroom

2010-02-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

We were given a writing prompt to write about the atmosphere of a scene without integrating any main characters. I started describing our classroom and then I drifted away from that and it became a futuristic sort of thing. Here's what I ended up with:

The sweltering classroom was arranged in a contemporary manner, with the candy-coloured desks creating a semi-circle around the teacher’s podium. Sweat soaked through the boys’ plaid shirts; while the girls in their LuLu Lemon sweaters acted as though they were chilled to the bone. The low hanging energy efficient lights hurt their eyes as the students hunched over their Macbooks, labouring over the most recent writing assignment. One of the boys at the back of the classroom, overwhelmed with the heat, had simply leaned back against the wall, and was starting to fall asleep. The nondescript teacher sat at his desk behind the podium, surveying the hot and cold students that were almost all identical in the way they looked. Colourful posters lined the walls, with witty messages on the importance of language. One that stood out distinctly portrayed yellow and black caution symbols, with the words “Due Dates Are Closer Than They Appear” written in a bold, red, stencil cut font. The floor was a hard veneer, masquerading itself as pink and grey marble. Suddenly, one of the girls stood up and walked over to the window. Opening it slowly, she turned to see the rest of the class looking at her: some with relief in their eyes, others with shock that she had given up her game. Before anything could be said, a loud clanging noise echoed through the room from the little intercom speaker in the wall, and the students all stood up to proceed to their next class.

Computer Crash Heartache

2009-11-24T11:51:00.000-08:00

So earlier today, I dropped my bag completely by accident. I thought nothing of it until an hour later, when my computer was severely fucked up when I opened it.

The colours were all weird; there was an odd backlight and green sparkly stuff flickering and vibrating, and all the white turned to purple. It was horrible! I immediately went into shock and had a major freak out.

I sought out the tech help guy in the basement and he told me it would probably be a pretty costly fix.

I went into a mini depression. Over lunch, I resembled someone who had just been dumped after a three year relationship. It occurred to me that I care WAY too much about my computer.

My friends took me out to lunch during our spare to cheer me up, and it worked a bit. I decided that it would be a lesson to me; and I would start using my computer more for work and less for leisure, and I would go to bed on time rather than staying up online all night. (or at least, I'd stay up and read all night instead of being online.)

I went through a huge change.

When I got back to fifth period, I opened my computer in philosophy not hoping for much but thinking it might have magically changed.

It hadn't.

I fiddled around for a few minutes, and then started trying to type a note even though I couldn't see very well.

Within five minutes, my computer screen flickered a bit and then went right back to normal. Somehow, I think it was more of a lesson to me about the power technology holds over me, and over people in general. The entire time of my thinking my computer was dead, I was only relieved that at least I still had my iPhone.

I'm taking from this what I can, and I'm going to pretend that it was all in my imagination, as a lesson to me, and it didn't actually get banged up or anything (just so I don't fear it happening again.)

Well, I'll listen to you this time, computer/fate/crazy head/technological depression.

Life and Death

2009-11-07T20:49:00.000-08:00

Today I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; and it made me very sad. I felt like everyone in the movie was dying, and it was just really depressing. As I painfully worked my way downstairs (I'm REALLY sore from this ballet class I took a few days ago) I started to think about Life and Death.

Of course we know that everyone must die, it is one of the basic realities that everyone has to face. In a perfect and natural world, everyone would die in old age and therefore a circle would keep turning. However, as things are today, people die randomly at different ages. Mostly old, but many die young as well.

Is it intended that most parents die before their children? That children must watch their parents die because for some reason it causes them less pain than it would the parents the other way around? Is that even true? Does it cause more pain for a parent to see the child they raised pass away than for a child to see the person who raised them go?

I will never be able to watch my parents pass on. If it comes to it; I could handle AT THE VERY MOST the deaths of maybe my grandparents, or a couple aunts and uncles... But when it comes near my parents... I wouldn't be able to handle it. I am so much more connected to my parents than most people are. Words cannot or will not express what will be happening inside my head when that inevitable moment comes.

Is it selfish of me to wish that I will kick the bucket before my parents do? Is it selfish and horrible that I would rather put them through the pain of seeing me in a coffin over having to see them in that same position? I wonder how people cope when this happens. I remember the year before last my favourite teacher's father died. He went on a leave of absence for the rest of the year, did a lot of therapy and soul searching, read a lot of books about therapy and soul searching. I think he's okay now.

I wonder how this will all play out; whether everyone in my family has years to come, or something happens tomorrow that will change the course of my life. Whether or not I will be the first to die. I wonder if somebody I love will get sick, and I'll have to sit by their bedside and watch them in pain. I wonder if I'll get sick, and have everyone think I'm dying when BOOM! and someone else goes down in a plane crash... So close, but I still have to see that happen. I don't think I'd be able to handle life knowing I'll never see my parents again. I wonder whether I'd stay in my house for years later... Or end up in a psych ward... Or something worse. Hopefully, I'll have the strength to stick around and comfort whoever else is worse off then me... That option isn't very likely.

My parents are both extremely healthy. I take some comfort in that, but it doesn't change anything. If I could make the two of them immortal... I would.

If Everybody Knew Everything...

2009-10-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking, on the topic of debates and arguments and such... If everybody knew the truth about everything, they wouldn't need to argue about it. But if we don't argue about anything, then do we not know nothing? How could we know everything, yet know nothing? Would we think we know everything but be wrong about it? Would we simply just know everything, with no tagline?
How do we learn anything if we don't argue about it? We wouldn't think to research something if we already knew the answer, and we wouldn't get the full education of it...

Anyways, that was just a thought I had... If we knew all the answers, we wouldn't understand the questions.

Equal Experiences?

2009-09-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's pretty obvious and well known that every human begin goes through a personalized, different life experience than everyone else. That's fact. We know it. But I had a thought earlier today... Do all our experiences; good and bad, equal out to the point that we all have the exact same human experience?
For example... Someone lives in New Orleans and their home and life is torn apart by that hurricane, but other than that they live completely happily, and at the same time in another part of the world, someone lives relatively happily but fails a lot of courses and has bad luck and can never find a partner, etc. Do these two human experiences equal out in terms of the good and the bad? Does having your life torn apart in one moment but spending the rest of your life happy even equal out to having regular bad lack? Obviously, I'm simplifying the examples a little bit too much...
What I'm getting at is... Do we, as people, all experience the same amount of emotions? Do we all share a certain level of synergy? If that is true.. Is there a certain quota of experiences we have to experience before we can die? If that is true, does it all tie into death in that something else is out there planning our deaths so they coincide with our experiences, so we don't have too many of them? All these thoughts came running into my head when I had this one root thought. It all came from a conversation about tornadoes... Someone in the conversation was talking about how they were in a car that got flipped by a tornado, and I thought... Well, gee. That's never happened to me... Next, I thought, "maybe I'm too young. Maybe that will happen to me, but I haven't reached the right age." Then, I realized that obviously not everybody has been in a tornado accident, and I started to think about ways it could be evened out so everyone got to experience the fear of being in one.
Clearly, my theory must be wrong. I mean, There are children who die seconds after being born. There are people murdered who obviously have not experienced their whole lives.... But maybe, maybe my theory ties into the idea of reincarnation. But a different sort of reincarnation. Like throughout all our lives, we are striving to meet this one quota of experience, and when we reach it, that's when we can go somewhere else? So, when a young person dies... it is because they really HAVE reached their quota: they are just finishing it off from another life. Wow. Now I'm scaring myself and I'm starting to think of Final Destination, with everyone's deaths being planned........... Or, maybe after reaching our quota... We can simply choose when to end it. Or maybe we've already chosen how we want to.....
Wow.
I'm done. No more.

Playground Laments

2009-09-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

Today, I took my nephew Aiden to the new playground they built in South River. Due to new playground specifications in the area, there are no Swing Sets. Apparently, swings are too dangerous for kids these days. No, no, we're not worried about the kids in danger here. It's perfectly fine for the kids to fall off of 7 foot tall risers when leaning out to slide down a fireman's bar. It's no problem if they hurt themselves on the completely unsafe faux ziplining contraption. They can bump themselves on the deep, treacherous looking slides that no adult would ever think of straying near. But it is COMPLETELY unacceptable for them to sit and swing on the most traditional playground piece. How are these kids going to be affected when they grow up and have zero swinging memories? It very well may be that it took us swinging super high and jumping off the swing and bumping our knee as a child to learn about risk taking. To learn about acceptable risk and satisfaction. To realize that we can hurt ourselves if we're too reckless.
I'm pretty disgusted that of all the dangerous aspects of a playground, they decided to remove one of the most fun and versatile. On swingsets, kids can race, push eachother, spin, and try to gain new heights. I'm disgusted that they removed the swingsets from the area's schoolyards and playgrounds rather than just making them a bit safer, since some parent caused a fuss.
Oh, I could go on at length about parenting. I see SO many examples of horrible parenting on a daily basis, and yet I can't say anything about it, because without having kids of my own, I just "don't understand the pressure of parenting." I think that the other non-parents can agree that we know enough not to dress our six year olds in slutty clothing befitting somebody four times their age. I would think that we know enough not to let our kids play with matches. I know we know enough not to just watch as our kids climb up to places they weren't meant to play, up above the playground. So, some kid tried to climb up a swing chain instead?
You know, those parents can curse and blame "the swingsets" all they want, but the problem is right there at home.
I realize I'm addressing two issues at the same time here, and trying to blend them in together unsuccessfully. I apologize, the two thoughts just hit me at the same time.

Without Email

2009-09-01T14:16:00.000-07:00

Email has been around for a while. It has become a main method of communication for many people, especially in the business industry. Actually... Screw communication. It's become way more than that. You can no longer survive in our modern world without email, unless you are one of those older people that are unable to accept new technologies. Teenagers and young adults, at least, cannot survive in our modern world without it. Sure, you could completely shun technology and the internet; go live in the middle of a desert or something, but that doesn't exactly qualify. If we want to sign up for anything; a newsletter, say. They don't mail newsletters anymore. They email it. Your kids want to play games on the net? Oh, well, they need an email to sign up for that. Even in our schools, our teachers ask us for our emails to keep in touch and remind us about homework, we are required to use our emails to log into class calendars and see our marks. Email has opened up many, many options for us... Couchsurfing and geocaching are two examples of activities that require us to use the internet and have an email.
What with new development in Twitter and Facebook, I'm finding that the usage of email has declined somewhat. In fact, quite a bit. These days, when I log into my gmail account, I find not personal letters from friends and colleagues, but notifications from facebook: Carly Lucier wrote something on your wall! Or, from twitter: phogtom is now following you on twitter. What is the point of email nowadays anyhow? Has it simply become a sounding board for other venues? Is email becoming extinct? It looks like it. An email is no longer a "communication tool." Now, it defines who you are on the internet. It is the one reliable piece of information most websites ask for. It is a place for your notifications to arrive: your personal hub, connected to the rest of the Web. Have we so easily forgotten our roots? Forgotten that this all spawned from a faster way of sending letters? What is next for email? Will we pass it on? Moving on instead to identification numbers, and codes that send facebook notifications directly to our brain? How quickly are our communication technologies evolving?
We're in a new age. An age where everyone owns a laptop and nobody bothers to read a book anymore. We're in a new age and I don't like it.

2009-01-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of the poster I designed for the one act play I will be performing on wednesday, jan 14th. It really is an amazing play, if I get a video of it I might post it on youtube or something soon :)

WAY too real. or Just Real Enough.

2009-01-03T19:44:00.001-08:00

So I stumbled across this hilarious comic strip not too long ago... Is This Too Real For You? to read the comic: scroll down to the pictures section, click on the first picture of the four, click previous to get to the ACTUAL first picture in the comic strip, keep clicking previous through over 200 pictures. It should give you many many laughs, and if you're a good fan, she'll even mail you a funny personalized letter. YAY!

Responsibility and Girly Vampire Books

2009-01-03T19:11:00.000-08:00

Does it seem to anybody else like there is a sort of pressure to update people on your life on the internet? Everybody has a blog, and facebook, and probably twitter too. The blog is there simply for you to rant on. Facebook keeps asking "what are you doing?", and don't even get me started on what twitter wants you to do. You have a responsibility. You have a responsibility to your friends, followers, and random people interested in the same things as you to post your thoughts. Okay, okay, maybe you don't feel that pressure, but I do. My dad, my mom, my sister, my uncle tom... They all have blogs. They all represent all these ideas to the people reading those blogs. It makes me feel like I have to do the same, and when I was thinking of starting a blog, I didn't know what to talk about. I felt speechless. Like I had nothing to say. And then I thought: that's bullshit. Everybody has something to say. So what do I have to say? I don't know. Maybe I'll never know. Maybe there is no theme to what I'm saying. Whatever, I'll still say it or at least I'll try.

Books. I like books. Lets talk about books. I'll talk about books to you. Have you read twilight yet? It's taking the world by storm. It's the new Harry Potter. (at least for girls between the ages of 14 and 30 + me)....... I told myself I would never read it. I said "what's this? a vampire book? a girly vampire book? no. I could never read that. I had an obsession with anne rice when I was 14, I read the vampire chronicles and the witch ones to boot at the tender age of too young. I'm done with the vampires. That was before I read the book. and then the second book. and then I watched the movie. and now I want to buy the other books. Sometimes, an author just hits me, and I have to devour everything written by that author before my thirst can be satisfied. This has happened multiple times with Mercedes Lackey... Anyways, ignore your prejudices about twilight, especially you men out there. I did, and I rediscovered my fascination with vampires (by the way, they SO beat werewolves in my book. (hah! accidental) I love wolves, but not werewolves. they are way too carnal.) Just read the damned book.

I'll Take It: A Comment on my own viscious cycle of consuming.

2009-01-03T18:51:00.000-08:00

"Shopping - my little contribution to global warming - is personal.To understand consumption, one has to investigate feelings about buying stuff. MY feelings, MY buying, MY stuff."
- Judith Levine

I went shopping today. I bought a new mercedes lackey book (paperback, but only so that it would match my other books by her), an expensive new pair of shoes, and (as an add on) an expensive pair of Burkenstock sole inserts for said shoes. As I thought about how grateful I am that burkenstock creates these magical inserts that give any shoe the feeling of being a BURK (at 70 bucks a pair), I reminded myself of the book I am reading by Judith Levine: Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping.

Judith and her husband, Paul, conduct a yearlong experiment to not buy anything they don't actually need. Judith keeps a journal on this and published it as a book. In the first few pages even, the reader is brought into a world of Panic. Are printer cartriges necessary? Absolutely. mesclun salad or unprocessed lettus heads? Smartwool or Tube Socks?

The author's comment on Smartwool brings me back to my Burkenstock issue. Sure, it makes my feet feel nice. Sure, I could technically consider it a necessity. But do I really care? I know all the issues about the environment and-well-everything. With my parents, it would be hard not to. But do I really care that I (and by I, I mean my mother, thanks mom!) spent an extra 70 dollars on Burkenstock inserts when the shoe probably had perfectly fine ones? I do, but I still need them. My arches are used to them after the summer and I cannot in good consciousness submit them to a flat-footed shoe.

The book, even? I need the book. I need books, I'm out of things to read. Mom says I should never re-read a book because there is so much more out there. I usually read a book about 5 times or more before I'm completely done with it, and even then I want to keep it near me in case I have a hankering for (lets say, for examples sake) the time traveller's wife. Why not get a library card? Pick up a few new books every week and return them the next? I CAN'T! I have this thing, I need to own my books. I want them near me. Plus, it costs me a lot of money to get a membership in the north bay public library, because my taxes do not pay for it as I live twenty minutes PAST south river. ugh.

Here comes the biggest confession: Today, in the book store, I considered buying the soft cover book of Son of a Witch by Gregory McGuire. Not so bad you may say, but read the next bit: I already own it in hardcover. I want the new softcover because it matches my version of Wicked (ps kayla give it back). And because the cover just looks GOOD. On my son of a witch book, it matches the original wicked he wrote. I want the one that matches the poster for the musical and the book of wicked that I do own. I am disgusted at myself for picking that book up and flipping through it, and yet, I still want it. I want it on my shelf. How am I being a good consumer in any way if, not only do I buy books, but I re-buy books?

I could go on and on: about my personal movie collection, about my clothes, about... (kraft dinner). SSSH!

but I won't. Instead, I will switch to politics.

POLITICS:

why the fuck do people even consider voting conservative or liberal anymore???
GET IT IN YOUR HEADS PEOPLE!!! IF WE HAD BEEN VOTING GREEN A LONG TIME AGO, WE WOULD HAVE A LOT LESS ISSUES IN THE WORLD!
even vote for that ndp guy, he doesnt seem so bad, but seriously. I don't see why people do not get it into their heads to actually vote green. Is it just because people dont sway from the party they have supported in the past? Is it because people actually don't give a fuck about the environment? I am seriously pissed right now that the contest is mainly between conservatives and liberals, when one wants to cut arts funding and the other wants us to pay more for everything. Even as a child I knew green was better. When I was 8 I made a metaphorical comparison: green party being a nice asian salad with lightly grilled veggies/tofu, and liberals being steak and potatoes. sure, people eat the steak, it seems easier to eat, it is seen as better tasting (it isnt), but it is not one whit healthier for you. not even close. seriously, vote green. eat right. feel free to consume, but at least have the decency to feel bad about it.

that is all, have a good day people.