It all makes sense now.... Mercury is in retrograde again. It started on Saturday and won't end until Dec 4. AGHHHH!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
DC - Day 2
Well training went well today. Afterwards I went to the Washington Monument only to find out that tickets are only available until 4:30 and it closes at 5:00 which means that I won't have an opportunity to go up the monument this time around. Maybe I'll have a chance to do it in December when I come back for the next training.
Since the monument was closed I went and saw the WWII memorial and then the Lincoln memorial. They were both breathtaking. It was the first time that I had seen the WWII memorial, and I have to say it is quite powerful.
All-in-all, a good day.
Since the monument was closed I went and saw the WWII memorial and then the Lincoln memorial. They were both breathtaking. It was the first time that I had seen the WWII memorial, and I have to say it is quite powerful.
All-in-all, a good day.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Off to DC - Day 1
Well, I made it to DC safe and sound. It's been a bit of an ordeal througout the whole process thus far. First off, the limo service van came about 20 minutes early so I was still taking care of last minute things so it took a few minutes for me to get down to the van, and to top it all off I got a call from the dispatcher for the limo service telling me that she "needed to get the driver out of there", aka I needed to hurry up. Thankfully at that point I was climbing into the van, otherwise I would have given her a piece of my mind for getting there outside of the appointed time and then expecting me to be instantly accomodating to their changes.
Getting into the air was pretty rough with all of the wind gusting about off the water. It sucked because normally I love take-offs. This one I was tense the entire time. Not the most auspicious of beginnins. The rest of the flight went fairly well and the landing at Dulles was passable.
After this I take a bus to the Metro and then walk the block to the hotel. This was a bit of a pain since I had no idea where Pennsylvania Ave was from the train station and then I ended up going the wrong way. After getting turned around a few times I finally got the hotel. I have to say the room is nice. I went to get setup on the internet only to realize I had no ethernet cable. I packed EVERYTHING else I could need and I guess I just assumed they'd be doing wireless. Whoops! Well thankfully the front desk had an ethernet cable I could use. I then plugged in and got ready to check my e-mail etc and then... nothing. All I could get was a 169.*.*.* address, so I called the Front Desk, who told me to call the support company.
I called the support company and they walked me through about 5 tests I had already donen and then asked me to manually set the link speed to test that as well. Those tests all failed. At that point I exhasted the options at that level of support and I was told that they had to kick it up to Tier 3 so they could look at the network configuration of the Hote. I was told I should be contacted in about 30 minutes. 45 minutes later I called again and was told the SLA was 2 hours and that no one should have told me 30. I thanked the phone tech and waited for the rest of the 2 hour time period. 2 hours comes and goes so I call back. This time they kick me directly to Tier 3 and I get someone who walks me through additional steps, most I've already checked and still no success. At one point he has me empty my temporary internet files, which makes no sense at this point. I could understand if I had an IP and couldn't get to their internet provisioning server but at this point I still didn't have an IP. Finally he restarts the switch and voila, internet. The only good thing is that the entire time I was doing this I was sitting in my nice comfy hotel provided aeron chair.
So at this point I'm off to bed so I can get up for breakfast and training tomorrow. Lets hope things go smoother tomorrow.
Getting into the air was pretty rough with all of the wind gusting about off the water. It sucked because normally I love take-offs. This one I was tense the entire time. Not the most auspicious of beginnins. The rest of the flight went fairly well and the landing at Dulles was passable.
After this I take a bus to the Metro and then walk the block to the hotel. This was a bit of a pain since I had no idea where Pennsylvania Ave was from the train station and then I ended up going the wrong way. After getting turned around a few times I finally got the hotel. I have to say the room is nice. I went to get setup on the internet only to realize I had no ethernet cable. I packed EVERYTHING else I could need and I guess I just assumed they'd be doing wireless. Whoops! Well thankfully the front desk had an ethernet cable I could use. I then plugged in and got ready to check my e-mail etc and then... nothing. All I could get was a 169.*.*.* address, so I called the Front Desk, who told me to call the support company.
I called the support company and they walked me through about 5 tests I had already donen and then asked me to manually set the link speed to test that as well. Those tests all failed. At that point I exhasted the options at that level of support and I was told that they had to kick it up to Tier 3 so they could look at the network configuration of the Hote. I was told I should be contacted in about 30 minutes. 45 minutes later I called again and was told the SLA was 2 hours and that no one should have told me 30. I thanked the phone tech and waited for the rest of the 2 hour time period. 2 hours comes and goes so I call back. This time they kick me directly to Tier 3 and I get someone who walks me through additional steps, most I've already checked and still no success. At one point he has me empty my temporary internet files, which makes no sense at this point. I could understand if I had an IP and couldn't get to their internet provisioning server but at this point I still didn't have an IP. Finally he restarts the switch and voila, internet. The only good thing is that the entire time I was doing this I was sitting in my nice comfy hotel provided aeron chair.
So at this point I'm off to bed so I can get up for breakfast and training tomorrow. Lets hope things go smoother tomorrow.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Que Syrah Syrah
Had a lovely glass or two of Syrah wine this evening. As I've recently found it apparently Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape. I've also found out that's not to confuse them with being the same wine. Shiraz is typically the Australian varietal and is usually more of a modern sharp crisp taste, while the Syrah is usually the European varietal and is often a more rounded old world style flavor. All in all a very nice addition to my collection of wines that I like.
I changed around the setup of my living room last weekend for my the housewarming for my Mom's side of the family. I have to say I'm very happy with it. It definitely opens up the room a lot more. Amazing how switching around furniture, even just a few pieces can really change a place up.
So next week I head out to DC to do training for Blackboard (for the WPI kids reading its the software behind myWPI). Should be fun, haven't been traveling in a while.
I changed around the setup of my living room last weekend for my the housewarming for my Mom's side of the family. I have to say I'm very happy with it. It definitely opens up the room a lot more. Amazing how switching around furniture, even just a few pieces can really change a place up.
So next week I head out to DC to do training for Blackboard (for the WPI kids reading its the software behind myWPI). Should be fun, haven't been traveling in a while.
Monday, October 23, 2006
MIA
So yeah, I've been missing in action on the blog front. I've been so very busy lately, and while part of me hates to be so "go, go, go" all the time, anther part of me knows that I go nuts when all of a sudden I stop and bam, I've got nothing to do, nothing planned, nothing scheduled. I've found I thrive on having my life planned out weeks to months in advance. I've gotten to the point where I find it hard to be spontaneous, partly my own doing and partly because if I wanted to be spontaneous, all the people I'd want to be spontaneous with are busy with other things because I didn't schedule things in advance. *sigh* heh
Part of why I haven't blogged in a while is decompressing after Sweeney and adjusting to new job responsibilities. After such an intense schedule for Sweeney there was a lot of things in my life that I had neglected that needed catching up on. Additionally I've come into new responsibilities at the office.
One of the server administrators left to go to another institution and since I was in the process of becoming the backup administrator for the online course management software that we run at WPI, I ended up by default as the most knowlegable person on the systems. Now, don't get me wrong, I am happy to have gotten more responsibility and am looking forward to the challenges but its very stressful to suddenly be dropped into a position that you know very little about and have to run with it. The good news is that I'm flying down to DC for training next week and that should alleviate some of the feeling of flying blind.
Another reason for lack of posts is not for lack of things to write about. In fact there have been several times I've thought of posting something. The problem is that every time I got to that point the mental filter went through its checklist and vetoed the post. When I started out this blog I swore that I would do my best to not use this as some sort of passive/agressive method of complaining about issues that I wouldn't do otherwise. I have a few key things that I use as checks and balances on my posts. If the answer to the question is no, then I don't post.
Part of why I haven't blogged in a while is decompressing after Sweeney and adjusting to new job responsibilities. After such an intense schedule for Sweeney there was a lot of things in my life that I had neglected that needed catching up on. Additionally I've come into new responsibilities at the office.
One of the server administrators left to go to another institution and since I was in the process of becoming the backup administrator for the online course management software that we run at WPI, I ended up by default as the most knowlegable person on the systems. Now, don't get me wrong, I am happy to have gotten more responsibility and am looking forward to the challenges but its very stressful to suddenly be dropped into a position that you know very little about and have to run with it. The good news is that I'm flying down to DC for training next week and that should alleviate some of the feeling of flying blind.
Another reason for lack of posts is not for lack of things to write about. In fact there have been several times I've thought of posting something. The problem is that every time I got to that point the mental filter went through its checklist and vetoed the post. When I started out this blog I swore that I would do my best to not use this as some sort of passive/agressive method of complaining about issues that I wouldn't do otherwise. I have a few key things that I use as checks and balances on my posts. If the answer to the question is no, then I don't post.
- If I'm complaining about something, have I dealt with the issue directly yet?
- If I talk about someone in particular, would I say the same to their face?
- Would I be comfortable if a person involved read the post?
- Would I be comfortable if my mother read the post? (very appropriate since she and my aunts do, in fact, read my blog)
When I hit those areas I either deal with it and then post or talk to a friend (or several friends) directly about it and don't post. Also for those things where I just want to write it out I'll usually just write it in my diary.
Finally, it all comes down to an excerpt of Netwon's First Law (yes I'm a geek) which states "An object at rest tends to stay at rest...". What this essentially means is that the longer it is between posts, the larger the effort it is to post again. Hopefully that means that now that I've begun posting again I'll keep it up.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
A dream come true
When I came to WPI in '97 it was after two years of being involved in my high school musicals as well as show choir. (For those who don't know what show choir is, basically its choreographed songs, usually show tunes, and put together in a group to form a theme. Our group usually went for more of a concert medley of a full Broadway show such as Tommy or Jesus Christ Superstar than just a mix of songs) I loved singing but I was starting to really enjoy doing more than just standing on a stage and singing. It was fun learning all the dance moves in Show Choir and learning lines and blocking in the musicals. Upon arriving at WPI I immediately went to both the initial meetings of Masque and Glee Club. I quickly found out that Masque only did stage plays (they have done musicals but only once in a great while and each one affirming the mantra that "musicals just can't get done at WPI), and that it was pretty much an either or situation with Glee Club and Masque. There just really wasn't time to fully dedicate to both.
I never stopped wanting to do a musical and when John Delorey arrived in '01 we started discussing musicals. I nearly fell off my chair when he told me he'd optioned the rights to Les Miserables. Unfortunately with all the rules and regulations on getting the rights to perform the show, it still hasn't become a viable option yet. We began the road to a musical in small steps. We started with a concert of show tunes from shows such as Oklahoma, South Pacific, and A Funny Thing Happend on the Way to the Forum amung others. John also put together a chamber group to perform Mahogany and then later a semi-staged version of Whitchwife.
Last year we began discussions of doing a full out musical with lights, sound, set, costume, props, the works. We mulled around several different shows and came up with Sweeny Todd. It was a good size show, wasn't too rangey, not too many or too few characters and could have a small chorus. Also important was that it had name recognition. The next question came as to when to have it. Formost in my mind after two years of being involved in Masque is that we didn't want this show, and hopefully future musicals, to compete with the existing framework of shows at WPI. After mulling it over we ended up going with A term as the show dates for the production. We would Audition the show in C term and then go on a mini-hiatus during New Voices so as not to compete for time and then do rehearsals before the summer and then give everyone their scripts to learn over the summer.
The rehearsal schedule was VERY aggressive when we came back. We had rehearsals nearly every day for at least 2-4 members of the cast depending on the scenes being run and for the last two and half weeks its been pretty much rehearsals every day. It was a lot of work and a lot of stress but finally it ends tonight and I'm so proud of what we accomplished. The first two nights have been INCREDIBLE. We've gotten glowing acolades from the President of the college as well as the provost for the Opening show and Susan saw the Friday performance and said that we did a wonderful job and that she enjoyed our performance.
Tonight nine years of wishing and hoping and five years of working with John have finally born fruit with the close of a very successful run of the show.
I never stopped wanting to do a musical and when John Delorey arrived in '01 we started discussing musicals. I nearly fell off my chair when he told me he'd optioned the rights to Les Miserables. Unfortunately with all the rules and regulations on getting the rights to perform the show, it still hasn't become a viable option yet. We began the road to a musical in small steps. We started with a concert of show tunes from shows such as Oklahoma, South Pacific, and A Funny Thing Happend on the Way to the Forum amung others. John also put together a chamber group to perform Mahogany and then later a semi-staged version of Whitchwife.
Last year we began discussions of doing a full out musical with lights, sound, set, costume, props, the works. We mulled around several different shows and came up with Sweeny Todd. It was a good size show, wasn't too rangey, not too many or too few characters and could have a small chorus. Also important was that it had name recognition. The next question came as to when to have it. Formost in my mind after two years of being involved in Masque is that we didn't want this show, and hopefully future musicals, to compete with the existing framework of shows at WPI. After mulling it over we ended up going with A term as the show dates for the production. We would Audition the show in C term and then go on a mini-hiatus during New Voices so as not to compete for time and then do rehearsals before the summer and then give everyone their scripts to learn over the summer.
The rehearsal schedule was VERY aggressive when we came back. We had rehearsals nearly every day for at least 2-4 members of the cast depending on the scenes being run and for the last two and half weeks its been pretty much rehearsals every day. It was a lot of work and a lot of stress but finally it ends tonight and I'm so proud of what we accomplished. The first two nights have been INCREDIBLE. We've gotten glowing acolades from the President of the college as well as the provost for the Opening show and Susan saw the Friday performance and said that we did a wonderful job and that she enjoyed our performance.
Tonight nine years of wishing and hoping and five years of working with John have finally born fruit with the close of a very successful run of the show.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Eyeliner is hard to remove
I now have so much more respect for the lengths women go to to make themselves look good. Sweeney Todd is the first show that I've done that I've had to do any major stage makeup and just doing foundation and eyeliner each night is not that easy, then you have to make sure you don't touch your eyes AT ALL so you don't smudge your makeup. On top of that if you get anything on your face you need to reapply your foundation. After all of that is the lovely process of REMOVING it all. Eyeliner just doesn't want to remove itself at ALL.
At any rate, the opening night was fantastic! This is going to be a great show. If you are coming to the show I advise you to come early because the next two nights are looking like they will sell out. If you haven't already reserved your tickets you should do that now at sweeneytix@wpi.edu.
Well, gotta get back to work!
At any rate, the opening night was fantastic! This is going to be a great show. If you are coming to the show I advise you to come early because the next two nights are looking like they will sell out. If you haven't already reserved your tickets you should do that now at sweeneytix@wpi.edu.
Well, gotta get back to work!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Attend the tale of Sweeny Todd
I'm currently in a production of Sweeney Todd, playing Judge Turpin. The show will be September 21, 22, and 23 at 7:30 pm at Alden Hall at WPI. Tickets are $15 for general admission and $10 for students. Tickets can be reserved at sweeneytix@wpi.edu or by calling (508) 831-5051. I highly suggest reserving your tickets now since we've had quite a number of people reserve them already and we haven't even started the real major run of publicity.
I hope to see you there!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Requiem aeternam dona eis
It's the end of an era today. Interstate 8, WPI's "No fella, a cappella", has been retired. It has become the Technicords. For more specific information go Tara's blog.
I try my best to stay out of the blog wars and escalating emotions that can sometimes happen on blogs but today I just have to say my piece.
Founded just a year before I got to WPI in 1996 I've seen the girls through many changes and iterations. I was there for the Julie years, the BJ years, the Diane years as well as seeing them helmed by a few other very capable women. Whether it was their signature piece "Swing Low Chariot", Heather doing an incredible "Moondance", Malia being "Beautiful", getting the shivers listing the the incomprable "Alone (The Jam)", or the updated Alma Mater, their music could always make me smile.
I just found out today. I don't know what to say, or how to say it. I'm a bit numb right now. I have been a fan of I8 for years. I've personally known just about every Alumna of the organization. I would always say that they were all "my" I8 girls. There were years when I was jokingly referred to as the I8 groupie. It was always great seeing the new girls every year because they were a connection to some of great people I was friends with at WPI; Jillo, Heather, Diane, Sara, Malia, Tara, Terry, Julie, Christine, Sunshine, BJ, Jen, and so many more that I know I'm leaving off this list.
The question that rings through my head is "Why". I just don't understand. I know things change and I know time passes but I don't understand this.
Some of you may say its just a name, and didn't Shakespeare ask "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet." Unfortunately there's more to it than that. Every year was a new group of girls, some old, some new, but all were I8. It was the common factor. It was the thing that connected everything. Now its both new girls and a new name, the connection has been broken.
I have nothing against the new girls in their endeavors and I wish them well, but I hope they realize they have retired that which made the group unique and special amongst the other groups.
I also understand the hurt that the alumae are going through. I saw these girls give blood, sweat and tears to this group. They sacrificed much to keep it going. I saw them struggle to keep the group afloat when they seperated from Alden Voices, I saw the members decide to do I8 gigs rather than do other events or social events.
One other thing to the Technicords, you only stand so high because you have the benefit of standing on the shoulders of giants. Each one of those girls brought the group "Higher and Higher".
I will always have the friendships I made, the CDs, the memories and my I8 postcard saying "I8 Loves TC" signed by all the girls from 2000. :)
A toast and good bye to my dear friend I8. I'll miss you.
I try my best to stay out of the blog wars and escalating emotions that can sometimes happen on blogs but today I just have to say my piece.
Founded just a year before I got to WPI in 1996 I've seen the girls through many changes and iterations. I was there for the Julie years, the BJ years, the Diane years as well as seeing them helmed by a few other very capable women. Whether it was their signature piece "Swing Low Chariot", Heather doing an incredible "Moondance", Malia being "Beautiful", getting the shivers listing the the incomprable "Alone (The Jam)", or the updated Alma Mater, their music could always make me smile.
I just found out today. I don't know what to say, or how to say it. I'm a bit numb right now. I have been a fan of I8 for years. I've personally known just about every Alumna of the organization. I would always say that they were all "my" I8 girls. There were years when I was jokingly referred to as the I8 groupie. It was always great seeing the new girls every year because they were a connection to some of great people I was friends with at WPI; Jillo, Heather, Diane, Sara, Malia, Tara, Terry, Julie, Christine, Sunshine, BJ, Jen, and so many more that I know I'm leaving off this list.
The question that rings through my head is "Why". I just don't understand. I know things change and I know time passes but I don't understand this.
Some of you may say its just a name, and didn't Shakespeare ask "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet." Unfortunately there's more to it than that. Every year was a new group of girls, some old, some new, but all were I8. It was the common factor. It was the thing that connected everything. Now its both new girls and a new name, the connection has been broken.
I have nothing against the new girls in their endeavors and I wish them well, but I hope they realize they have retired that which made the group unique and special amongst the other groups.
I also understand the hurt that the alumae are going through. I saw these girls give blood, sweat and tears to this group. They sacrificed much to keep it going. I saw them struggle to keep the group afloat when they seperated from Alden Voices, I saw the members decide to do I8 gigs rather than do other events or social events.
One other thing to the Technicords, you only stand so high because you have the benefit of standing on the shoulders of giants. Each one of those girls brought the group "Higher and Higher".
I will always have the friendships I made, the CDs, the memories and my I8 postcard saying "I8 Loves TC" signed by all the girls from 2000. :)
A toast and good bye to my dear friend I8. I'll miss you.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Thunder and Lighting
Its amazing. I was tired enough that I was going to crawl into bed at about 7:30 pm tonight and then just as I'm settling in I see the beginning flashes and at that point I know. It's a thunderstorm. At this point I'm wide awake and there's no thoughts about sleeping, not at least until the storm gets a bit further away.
Now I know what you might be thinking, and you'd probably be wrong. I'm not up because I can't sleep in a thunderstorm, but because I don't want to. Ever since I was a kid I've loved the rain and especially thunderstorms. I don't know what it is but there's something to them that is just incredible. This one is a particularly loud, flashy one. There's even been some actual strike lightening as opposed to the usual cloud light show.
Personally I don't care for the single loud boom, as anyone who knows me will tell you I spook easily and will jump at any loud or sudden noise, but I prefer the thunder that is more of a peal or a tear. The ones that are loud enough to show they are close but take a good 2-3 seconds to finish.
I estimate that I'll be up for at least another 20 minutes enoughing the sound of the rain on the roof and the flashes of lightening and the slowly reducing sound of the thunder.
Oh and before you think I'm crazy to be typing away at my computer during a thunderstorm, rest assured I'm on my laptop away from any plugs or electrical cords. I'm on pure battery power at the moment. :)
Now I know what you might be thinking, and you'd probably be wrong. I'm not up because I can't sleep in a thunderstorm, but because I don't want to. Ever since I was a kid I've loved the rain and especially thunderstorms. I don't know what it is but there's something to them that is just incredible. This one is a particularly loud, flashy one. There's even been some actual strike lightening as opposed to the usual cloud light show.
Personally I don't care for the single loud boom, as anyone who knows me will tell you I spook easily and will jump at any loud or sudden noise, but I prefer the thunder that is more of a peal or a tear. The ones that are loud enough to show they are close but take a good 2-3 seconds to finish.
I estimate that I'll be up for at least another 20 minutes enoughing the sound of the rain on the roof and the flashes of lightening and the slowly reducing sound of the thunder.
Oh and before you think I'm crazy to be typing away at my computer during a thunderstorm, rest assured I'm on my laptop away from any plugs or electrical cords. I'm on pure battery power at the moment. :)
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