Waste of Time?

Last things first. We had our first rehearsal, the whole cast was called, and they started with a lesson in speaking with an Scots accent. A mild one, which can be understood by Americans. The teacher was someone I had done shows with in the 80s, but I hadn't seen for 20 years. Except on Facebook. He knew his stuff, did an excellent accent himself, and made the whole thing a waste of time for me and most of the cast by pointing out that we shouldn't try the accent while singing. Most of the cast have no speaking parts, we mostly just sing.

It was good to see everyone, and after the lesson the director did a preliminary blocking of the prologue, which I think will change when we try to sing along with it.

The real first rehearsal is next Sunday, potluck followed by intros followed by a read-through/sing-through of the whole show as is traditional. Tonight was the director jumping the gun, probably because the accent expert was available.

The good news is there are some very attractive women without gold bands, lots of redheads and several people I have been onstage with before and am happy to work with again.

Working backward, even though I stayed late at work, I had time to go to the McDonald's nearest the rehearsal hall. It is new and clean and understaffed. It is next to a Costco, so a constant line of drive-thru traffic. The wi-fi is very slow. There is a Starbucks across the parking lot, but I think it closes early. I've been there before.

At work I was able to test some bug fixes, then the boss found me some test cases to write for a different department which doesn't have test tracking software. Or literacy.

At lunchtime I went to Verizon because the Samsung was not getting a phone signal at work or at home. They changed the SIM, but it only raised the signal about half a percent. Did some online research and it looked like the S3 is known for a weak phone signal, but it sells well because everything else works great. I hated to do it, but went on eBay and bought a Moto Razr HD, which apparently solved the crappy camera problem, still has a strong signal, and long battery life.

Here's the funny: I went onto the Moto web site and looked up the employee price: $649.99. Verizon lists full retail as $599.99. On eBay new ones were averaging $450. I got mine for $432.

After Verizon I went to China Stix for the best beef chow fun around.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Pick up the 3rd set of slides from Costco
Make labels for the Boskone art show photos (I emailed them, they responded. They said they were planning on sending all the info on the 22nd. which is really cutting it way too close for a show which opens 2/15). But come to think of it, Conflikt is NEXT WEEK and they don't have a program listing yet.

FB snafu

Facebook is so flooded I can't read comments. Chalk it up to people playing with the new "spy on your neighbours" feature.

Obligatory Lance Armstrong Post

As I have posted many times before, I am all in favor of professional athletes taking any drugs they want which will enhance their performance. Heck, I am all in favor of anyone taking any drugs they want, whenever. All the war on drugs does is raise the price of drugs and escalate the violence around their distribution. We have adequate laws in place for being intoxicated in public, driving while drugged, etc.

This whole media circus over drugs in sports is ridiculous. Barry Bonds was a skinny guy who was a great outfielder, golden glove winner, and maybe he saw how bulked up his dad was when they were both Giants, but regardless, he knew he would have to put on muscle weight to do what outfielders are expected to do - hit homers. So he did what it took, and took what he did, and busted the home run records. Babe Ruth bulked up on hot dogs and beer, and it killed him. There's no asterix next to his name because beer is legal. Well actually no, it wasn't. Ruth played from 1914-1935, prohibition was in force 1920 to 1933.

The media circus around Lance Armstrong is ridiculous. I don't care what he was on, he won those races. The Tour de France is no walk in the park, and while drugs may help build muscle, they don't build the kind of determination and guts it takes to win a 21 day-long bicycle race which includes mountain passes and a variety of winding roads. Seven times! After recovering from stage 3 cancer.

And I don't care if he lied about it. The Livestrong organization he founded in 2002 has helped cancer programs to the tune of about $30 million a year. I'd lie if it would do that kind of good.

I think what the media is doing to him is criminal. Lives will probably be lost as a result of this media hounding.