2011 Part 1

With the year 2011 coming to an end and 2012 almost here, I'm going to have a series of significant end of the year things. Since I've been under the weather for a few days, I'm going to update with posts of JibJab's New Year videos for the last few years leading up to 2011. Enjoy:
2005


2006


2007 - This is my favorite one, by the way.


2008


2009


2010


2011 - I'm a little sad they didn't include the Snowpocolypse. That was kind of a big deal.

Christmas Spirit...

Are you in the Christmas Spirit yet?



How about now?

Ask David Some Weird Crap Episode 2

Hey, this never posted when I tried to load it. Let's try it via YouTube!

Coming Soon...new question video

I'm getting ready to do a new "Ask David some Weird Random Crap" video. Since nobody asked me anything, this one will be all questions taken from song lyricis. I will not say here what the questions are. But the artist and bands include ASIA, Bob Dylan, Bowling For Soup, Bruce Springsteen, The Elders, Jackson Browne, Meat Loaf/Jim Steinman, Huey Lewis & the News, Warren Zevon, and Green Day.

Look for it by sometime this coming Monday.

Thanksgiving

I swear, I'll make this the best Thanksgiving we've had since you married me...
back in May!

-Local man rehearsing in the bathroom mirror.

Okay, no, I made it up. It's a joke. Deal with it.

Jackson Brown sings "Don't Let Us Get Sick"

I was listenig to 4 different versions of this song on repeat for about 2 hours. What? Do I NEED to cry or something? Oh look! Version number 5!

October Okay! Geeze!

Here: It's October Awareness! Get used to it!

Somewhat new song

Bob Seger has a new album coming out. It's mostly a Greatest Hits Vol. 2.5. Most of the songs appear on either Greatest Hits 1 or 2. But it will have this which is a new recording of an old song by Tom Waits.

Halloween is almost here!

And with that in mind...

Matthew of the IHOP Restroom part X: Final Part

About ten that morning, Matthew and Mary went into Mass Street music with the extra strawberry syrup from IHOP. They were looking for some place that an inter-dimensional portal would open up but they couldn’t find it. Mary continued to look while Matthew got distracted by the guitar that he had had his eye on for some time. He picked it and started to play it. There wasn’t a real specific song he tried to play; it was just the one he had been writing. The guy who was working came over to ask what he was doing. But at the moment he hit the seventh bar to the song, the room started to swirl around him. “Okay, what did I do?” Matthew asked.
The guy who came over to investigate wasn’t sure what to make of it. He was going to tell Matthew to put the guitar down but he was awestruck. “It looks like you’ve just opened a portal to another world! I’m getting out of here!” he said and ran out.
“Wait a minute,” Mary said, “you really are the chosen one!”
“Yeah, I know, we’ve been through this already. I’m Matthew of the IHOP Restroom. You would remind me of that all the time…well, you used to anyway.”
“No, you don’t understand,” she said. “The legend of the 18th dimension tells us of a true chosen one who would bring peace between the Planet of Stroganoff and the Shipgoes. They say the chosen one would open a portal to our dimension with his bars.”
“I just played a song on the guitar. That’s all I did,” Matthew said. “It was the opening to some silly little song that I…” he paused. He thought for about two seconds and then said, “that I wrote myself…” All the time he was arguing with the fact that it was fate that brought him to the 18th dimension when all along, it was the opposite.
“And to think that I was given to and owned by the true chosen one,” Mary said. “Oh, if only I knew…” she paused and her thoughts drifted.
“You’re right, Mary Ann, I do own you, and we’ve got business in the 18th dimension, to take care of. And I’ve got some wrongs to right.”
“Oh, yes sir,” Mary said. They walked through the portal where they immediately found themselves back on Captain Bill’s ship about an hour after they had left for the third dimension. In that time, the Shipgoes who had attacked were beaten off and The ENVOY was heading back into port. “Uncle Bill!” Mary called.
Captain Bill turned around surprised to see the both of them back there. “What are you doing back? Iiiiiiiieeeeeee thought you went to find the holy grail.”
“We did,” Matthew said as he and Mary held up the syrup together.
“Oh miiiieeeee gosh, it does exist!” Captain Bill said. “Iiiiieeeee need to get you two to Klapertoes McAmsterdam.” There was no way to get them to Klaper by sea. So the ship remained an air ship as they sailed on the breeze to where Klaper was. As the ship was hovering over his exact location, Captain Bill called out “McAmsterdam!”
Matthew and Mary came down and handed Klaper the canister of Strawberry Syrup from IHOP and said that it was the Shipgoes’ holy grail. When Klaper asked how they got back to the 18th dimension, Mary told him how Matthew played a song that he wrote himself (making that part very clear) on a guitar that opened up the portal. Klaper got excited and told Matthew that he WAS in fact the true chosen one.
Klaper took the canister of syrup and contacted the Shipgoes who were peaceful and gave them the syrup. This fulfilled the prophesy that the chosen one would bring peace between the planet and the Shipgoes. Of course, the fundamentalist Shipgoes started battling with the peaceful Shipgoes because they didn’t see them as following in the “true” footsteps of Pinky. But that’s their own separate story to be told and I’m not quite through with Matthew’s story just yet.
In the land of Nude, there was a parade and a feast in Matthew’s honor. Klaper told him that he could come and go anytime he liked but that he would always be treated like a king. Matthew insisted that he had to go back home but he had one more thing that had to be taken care of. He had to go to the path of desire. So he, Mary, and Klaper went to the path of desire. He made the wish he had to make, but nothing happened.
“What happened?” he asked. “I made my wish but nothing happened.”
“Did you wish with your heart or with your head?” Mary asked. “If the wish you tried to make isn’t from the heart but from your head, you’ll need the Path of Necessity.”
With that, Matthew asked Klaper to take him to the Path of Necessity. When they got to the Path of Necessity, Matthew made his wish and it worked. But Mary started to feel funny. “What’s happening?” she asked.
“I told the path that I needed to free you and let you return to your life as a wind gnome. The Path of Desire wouldn’t let me but you said come here so I did.”
“Wait, you did that just for me?” Mary asked. She began to cry. Or rather she would but she was already back to her wind gnome state. And wind gnomes don’t cry. They’re just sad. And then, Mary floated away. Matthew didn’t know exactly why Mary was sad. Neither of them would have to put up with each other ever again. With that same idea in mind, he didn’t know why a part of him was sad as well.
Matthew eventually found his way to a portal that took him back to his own dimension where he went about with his everyday life. But the next day while he was waiting for class, the unthinkable happened. Katie Waller came up and talked to him.
“Hey Matthew,” she said, “can you help me figure out something?” she asked.
“Mary Ann!?!? What are you doing here?” Matthew exclaimed.
“Mary Ann? No, I’m Katie. Katie Waller. We have this lit course together. I wanted to know if you had some idea what the connection was the teacher wanted us to make between James Joyce and Edgar Allen Poe since you are in class every day.”
“Oh, sorry,” Matthew said. “No, I don’t think I know. I’m sorry.”
As she went in, he found himself thinking almost humorously that he now knew three things about her, she was hot, she had a class with him, and she didn’t know something that he didn’t know either. At least they had two things in common. A moment later, he was once again disturbed by…Katie? “Hello stranger,” said the girl.
“Katie,” Matthew said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know the…” he paused and looked up and realized that it wasn’t Katie at all.
“No, not Katie! It’s Mary Ann! You remember me, don’t you?”
“Uh yeah, of course I do,” Matthew said. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, you know,” Mary said, “the usual. I went to the Path of Desire, asked to be made human again and to be brought here to the 3rd dimension so I could see you again.”
“But,” Matthew said, “I thought you hated me.”
“I thought so too,” Mary said, “but then all of a sudden and before I knew it, I fell head over hills for you. And when you freed me with your mind because your heart couldn’t, I just knew that somewhere along the lines, you felt the same way.”
She paused when she saw Matthew give her a happy, kind of excited but also confused look. So she said, “My uncle gave me an album called MR. BAD EXAMPLE and it has a song on there called “Searching For A Heart” and contained the lyrics, ‘They say love conquers all, you can’t start it like a car, you can’t stop it with a gun.’ I knew then that I would never stop feeling this way and I had to let you know.”
Matthew didn’t need to hear anymore. Katie Waller would never even think to quote Warren Zevon to him. But Mary had. “Mary Ann, you went searching for a heart and you found mine,” he said with a smile that melted Mary’s heart. She saw that he did feel the same way and that he was pleased to have someone feel that way about him. That was enough to satisfy her.
So, this brings us to the end of Matthew’s story. Well, the end of the part that absolutely has to be told. So the song lyric I opened with came full circle at the end after all. But life is full of coincidences. It’s also filled with other things as well. At first they seem wrong. But they can become so right. So remember that everyone makes mistakes. But maybe you’ll find your grail. And maybe everything will work out in the end for the better. Then maybe, just maybe, you will find your own personal happily ever after…
(Whatever happens, hopefully it’s not as clichéd as this ending.)

I love Key Of Awesome Parodies...

Memories are a funny thing...and there not always the same in everyone's eyes for some reason. Oh well...

New Beginnings and eventual death...

ATTENTION: The following is in association with church related stuff. I don't usually blog about this in an entry only. But it's been an issue lately and has put certain things on hold for awhile like the Part 2 of summer stuff telling about improv related things...don't worry, I will get to that. This entry, however, isn't going to be what some would call "overly religious" but, involving my church, there will be the occasional religious thing getting pointed out. Involving something that has pissed me off for the past week, there may also be the occasional blue streak coming up that I will try my best to keep to a minumum since I do want this blog to remain family friendly.

Caution: Everything that will follow is a combination of facts and my own opinion. Anything involving dollar ammounts will be taken from facts that I have.

Now, are we ready to begin this discussion?

I attend a church in Mission, KS called Countryside Christian Church. It's named for the city that it was built in when it was first built back in the 40s or so. (Mission and Countryside were once 2 seperate cities. They have joined cities around the late 90s but there you have that brief history).

I have been going to this church since somewhere between 1989 and 1990 (I was in lower elementary at the time) and I was baptized in 1992 (which makes me a member there physically and, I believe, a member of the faith no matter what churches you go to during your life...but I'll get to that later). During my time there, I have been in a Youth Group, a Kids of the Kingdom music group that we had for children 3rd-6th grade, I have been a deacon for three years and I have also been on the audio/visual group for the contempary service and I have been the person who changes the sign in the front yard (if you look in the picture, that's the sign that is somewhat covered by bushes). I was also in a short lived drama team and was briefly part of the short lived Green Team.

But enough about my involvement and on to why I'm typing this entry. In May, we got into these mini-groups called New Beginnings. Very few of us were actually aware of what this was about (I thought it was a Bible study at first). In the meetings that were 1.25 hours long aprox. and went from May 22 to the first Sunday in July (but really needed a retreat over the course of 2 or 3 Saturday afternoons) we found that, 60-70 years after being built, the church is in trouble in more than one area:

1. There is something called a "Water Table." This wasn't a problem when the church was first built. But due to erosian (sp.) that has happened over the years, there is water pooling around there and, if it weren't for the west wall in the santuary, the santuary would be in 4feet of standing water.

2. There is an electrical fire hazard. The wireing of some of the lights in the church are super old (for wireing). They are beyond repair and need to be replaced. A fire hazard is there. We don't know when or if it will happen but the potential is there. If a fire marshell walked into the building and inspected it, s/he would be forced to close the church right then and there.

3. We have mold REALLY bad on the ceiling of the santuary. We have had several leaks over the years and the moisture has gathered in the air of the santuary and it CAN'T be removed. The mold is in there deep and is multiplying and simple bleaching isn't going to get rid of the mold.

4. We have a daycare at the church. The daycare is actually very successful. There is one problem though. There is a child to toilet ratio that legally must be maintained. I'm not sure what the ratio is but the children have only 2 toilets to use. We can't legally take in more children until we fix the lack of toilets.

5. All of the above must be paid for to be fixed/corrected. There is aprox. $15,600 in the checking account. We require money from loans, grants and/or gifts to pay for what we are not getting from the offering.

6. We severely lack in communication within our own members. Unless someone is involved with something within the church, they don't know what's going on...and then, they only know it from within their own group. I heard about a kid who answered the phone one time and, when asked what the church does for the community, the kid said we did nothing. For record, we do do things for the community. We have a food pantry. Our youth has gone on mission trips and always had. I went to Texas to build a house once. Some have gone to Juarez, Mexico. Some have gone to Colorado. A group went to Greensburg after the tornado hit there a few years back and also to a city in Kansas that was hit back in May or early June by a tornado. When I was in the Youth, we took a trip to Harvester's and did some work. When I was a deacon, we did many community services. Last August, we put on a musical extravaganza to help raise money for the childcare department that I mentioned. We do things. But propper communication isn't one of them.

7. We aren't getting as much money as we need from the offering. Here's why: The average age there is around 75. The church is in a neighborhood of people 35-45 so there is a serious problem of reaching out to the community. Also, people who are members are leaving by a few possable means. They are leaving because they have found another church that fits their schedule and/or meets their calling. They move away (a lot of people my age and younger have left to go to college or start a family in another location). Or they are dying off. Our member count of out-going is growing while the number joining is static. The more members that leave mean less cash inflow in the offerings.

After these meetings, we found that the plan was to get the congregation ready for a proposal that would have us joinging with a church congregation called Cherokee Christian Church. This would involve packing up all we want to keep and taking it to this other church building where the congregation was ready to accept us. By the end of the advent season, we would have been relocated. Then, both church corporations would close and then reopen with a completely different name and mission statement...further on down the line, we would end up building a whole new church building that incorporated the new congragation.

Here's the thing, from what we learned from New Beginnings, Countryside will more than likely have to close up in 3 years...Cherokee has all the facilities we need including the childcare toilets. They don't have a water table...what they do have (or they did back in July) was 6 months before they had to close. This new merger was going to be perfect and all the signs seem to say that this is what God most wanted us to do.

And then Hell broke loose. All of a sudden, everyone was remembering that they grew up and got married at Countryside. That is more important of a thing following the will of God as a church congregation because God didn't take into account the pwecious wittle memories. Then everytime the time came to vote on what to do, it kept getting pushed back. People starting blaming the ministers for not doing their jobs right. One minister was being too busy visiting patients in the hospital and doing marriage counceling, one was too busy being a preacher and trying to get a message across, and one was wasting time leading the youth. I mean, how dare they do the job they were given. Grrr. (Please note my sarcasm in this paragraph).

We've had 2 votes on it...one pushed it back from Labor Day weekend to this last weekend. The problem is that it wasn't enough time to change anyone's mind. Everyone was just as much for it or as much against it as they were to begin with (if not more so). On this last Sunday, we voted on how to go about doing this. First we voted to do one of the following 5:

1. Collaborrateion with other congregations.
2. Alternative Location(s)
3. Securing necesary fundig throgh loans, grants and/or gifts
4. Formation of a satellite congregation.
5. Lots and lots of prayer.

If you're keeping track, we voted as a congrgation to accept one or more of these stratagies. 1, 2, 4 actually involve leaving the church building. 3 involves getting money from sources that we don't even know we can get them from since we're already in the hole practically and based upon a system that you're expecting to get something (but I've never studied business), and 5 dosn't seem like it'll be much help if you've given listening to the obvious signs anyway. Anyway, on Sunday, aprox. 130 of us voted to either Yes: join corporately with the other church and then form a whole new church or No: we don't want to do that because then our precious wittle memories will ugh...and boo hoo hoo. Well, the No's had it. The majority decided to kill the church (though that wasn't their intention, that's what they pretty much did) because they already voted to go with one of 5 things where 3 involved leaving, 1 is stupid because it's imaginary and 1 is relying on prayer after they have basically said "F**k you, God! Die in the dirt already!"

If you can't tell, I was pretty pissed about it. A number of us and a few others are going to start actively leaving the church and seeking new congragations starting at or after advent. This is, currently, including me. This has been affecting me in the head all week and then I got even more pissed off when I read (by the way, have I said pissed off enough time in this entry for you to catch my drift? Yes? No? Whatever...) this letter that was sent to me:

September 28, 2011

Dear David,

After a large turnout for the congregation meeting Sunday, September 25, 2011, I thank all of you for your prayerful participation. We dealt with several very important issues, and now we need to unite as never before to face the tasks of moving ahead. 140 members signed in at the beginning of the meeting, but quite a few had to leave before teh ballot was taken. We are nearly evenly divided on how we will face the future. We run the risk of losing up to half of our members without prayerful cooperation from everyone as we seek to determine God's will for our future.

The Council is holding a special meeting on Tuesday, October 4th to begin addressing many of the issues voiced by the congregation.

However, we immediately need to face a pressing financial problem. At the beginning of the month, as indicated on the handout for the meeting, our checking account balance was $15,600, and we have "borrowed" almost $80,000 from our other funds. In spite of a very high attendance Sundaay, the collection waas down to $4,300. Currently our expenses require approximately $7,500 per week. We are being very selective about what bills are paid each week, annd the Council will consider requesting more "loans" from memorial funs to stay current unless donations come in at a sufficient rate to covver our expenses.

The Council will discuss more active follow up with the membership, goals for measuring progress, reviewing duties and responsibilities of various ministries and staff, and attempt to maximize our resources. We will also discuss Capital Improvement and Stewardship campaign strategies.

In short, our collective tasks are just beginning.

Please continue to pray for God's guidance aas we embark on this program.

After reading that letter, I had this to update my facebook status with:

I got a letter from my church informing me of everything that has to be done as we move forward and that we risk loosing 1/2 our members and I thought, yeah, no $iht! I'm one of those members you risk loosing.

I have said before that I don't want to be part of a dying church. And it seems that the majority of the congregation has already voted to let it die through unwillingness to leave the pass behind them and move on and also it seems to me that they have actively turned their backs on God so I don't know what good praying will do if they've already stopped listening.

I intend to stay at least until the end of October. The senior minister is stepping down and retiring and instead taking on the role that he's really been best at all along which is visiting patients in the hospitals and counceling. He will still get paid for that service but it is a pay cut...mostly so that funds can be focused better onto other matters. Then, I will probably start actively looking for another church.

Oh, but before this gets posted, I want one thing to be mentioned. There are some who complain that there are too many paid staff members. They should instead be unpaid volunteeres. Now, here is why this pisses me off: That doesn't work. Okay, I do volunteere work. I change the sign (as I stated). I've been doing it since at least 2008...maybe even 2007. I am a little burned out on it because I can't really put it on a schedule...I have to either ask if it needs to be changed the Sunday before I am considering coming up or get called about it. I drive from North-East Shawnee to the church to change it...not a huge deal when you consider I drive about the same distance (or maybe even furtehr) to go out to Bonner Springs just in the opposet direction. The reason I keep going up as the one to change the sign is for 2 reasons: I like feeling needed and two...volunteerism doesn't work...there is nobody else to tag team with me.

This is pretty much what's been going on at my church...especially for the people who have been asking me.

Mario Kart the Movie

I'd see this movie...

Weird Al's "Polka Face"

Weird Al has a video for his polka medley Polka Face! Check it out here!

Summer 2011 Part 1

Now that Summer for the year of 2011 is officially over, I am going to put together a review of what happened with me this summer...mostly the movies I saw (at the theater), the books I read (yes, I did read some books) and my improv involvement as well as some other odds and ins if I get to it. To make sure I get everything involved, I'm going back to mid May
MOVIES
The first "summer" movie I saw this year was THOR. At best, I would say it was OK...and to me, calling it OK is being nice. I didn't really care for it. Maybe I had to be a fan of the comic and I never read the comic. Maybe I should have known something about Nordic mythology. I really don't. When it comes down it, I just all around didn't care for the movie. I have been falling out of love wwith super hero movies for some time. Super heros have to be a certain way for me. I don't know. Anyway, for me, THOR was really underwhelming.

I have noticed that one thing that I do enjoy in super hero movies is when children are the super hero and they have cope with being different in a world they already struggle in anyway with school (high school or collage). So, countering the worst super hero movie I saw this summer with the best super hero movie I saw this summer was X-Men: First Class. Now, I loved this movie. I don't know if it's supposed to be a prequel or a reboot to the other X-Men movies or what. But I genuinly really liked this movie. Maybe it was the cast. Maybe it was the fact that it felt like an X-Men movie the way it should feel like (X-Men 3: The Last Stand was underwhelming...but maybe I should watch it again). But up to this time, X-Men: First Class was the best movie I had seen this year up to this time...but before was THOR and The Green Hornet...so as far as I was concerned, it didn't have much compatition.

The third movie I saw this summer was also a Part 3. It was Transformers: Dark Of The Moon. I thought it was really good. But then, I'm a little biased because it had Leanord Nimoy in it...and then went out of it's way to reference Star Trek almost every single chance it got. I also enjoied that a major part of the action took place in a city that I've been to before, Chicago, IL. Yeah, I don't get out much. Finally, though not exactly better than the first Transformers movie from 2007, it was better than Revenge Of The Fallen from 2009.

The last movie I saw this summer was ironicall also the last in a line of series and books: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2. I saw this the day it came out in IMAX 3-D. This movie was built up and, as far as I'm concerned, it delievered. There were some differences between the book and the movie (besides the fact that the book was not seperated up into 2 parts). But unlike Harry Potter and the Half-Assed Prince (yes, I was upset with the 6th movie) Deathly Hallows Part 2 had everyone rising up against the Death Eaters and had an all out battle between good and evil. This was one of the things that was going to piss me off if it was left out. Snape had some very significan memories and I was also going to be mad if that was left out. There were whole movements in the theory that Harry Potter should have died in the book. I was going to be mad if the director decided to go ahead and kill him off. About the only major deviation from the plot of the book was the lack of Dumbledore's history. Though this wasn't needed for the movie (even though they had led up to getting this information in Part 1), it's really the only thing that I was upset to see left out. Okay, well, not the only thing...some really minor character detail moments for Harry Potter. But overall I loved this movie so much...and I don't usually like seeing movies in 3-D.


BOOKS

I read a lot of books this summer. The first book was actually the first in a series of 3 books called The Hunger Games. Book 1, I mentioned in my top 5 purchases from Borders update. I won't say much more about it than Katniss is this girl who, along with a boy named Peeta, gets sent off to die (basically) in a reality type survival game show.

Catching Fire was the 2nd book in the series and also, the second one I read. Basically, in this book, a revolution is getting started. Katniss has to go back to the games. But the revolution actually starts in the games themselves. Since this is a seris book, I won't go into much more detail.

Mockingjay was the final book in the Hunger Games series. The Revolution is already in full swing and Katniss, though not the leader, basically becomes the mascot of the revolution. These books, though I can't say I really liked them and that I was happy with the way it ended, did leave an impression on me.

Next I read The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magicicans Nephew. You know, I never got much pleasure from reading when I was growing up. I just didn't. So I'm reading a lot of children and young adult fiction while in my upper 20s. This is the first Chronicles of Narnia books going in chronicallogical order...which is how I choose to read them. This book is really about the birth of Narnia and how the white witch wound up in power.

Next, I read The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. As mostly everyone knows, this is the Easter story told from a fairy tale land of Narnia point of view. I don't really need to go into more detail than that. I still have yet to read any of the oher Narnia books.

Next, in less than 2 hours time, I read a book called Werewolf Haiku. Over the course of 136 pages, the main character, a mailman, gets attacked by a dog(?) while on his route, turns into a werewolf, tries to court a young lady and gets into trouble with the law told through the 5-7-5 style format of Haiku...the entire story is writen in haiku. By the way, this isn't the only werewolf book I have. It's just the only one that tells it's story through poetry.

Finally, and also, about the time that Biblioclast did Hitchhicker's Guide To The Galaxy, I finally read the book So Long And Thanks For All The Fish. This is the 4th book in the Hitchhicker's Guide series in which Author meets a woman who fasinates him (not Trish...they had a falling out, apparently) and Ford Prefect goes looking for Author...and Author meets a rain god who, no matter where he goes, can't get away from the rain. After this book, it's part of the Ultimate Hitchhickere's Guide, so I also read the short story "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe."

Anyway, that's all the books that I have read and finished. I've read on a few others but I haven't finished yet. I'm going to wind this entry down now. It's taken me a long time so everything else I wanted to mention will go in the entry Summer 2011 Part 2.

Update

Have you cheecked out my friend Hannah's new web series, One Of Us, yet?
If not, then let's journey back to my blog entry from 1.5 weeks ago in which I gave a short advertisement for her show.

Now, I genuinely enjoy this show and it isn't just because Hannah is my friend that I say I like it. But I wouldn't have known about it if she didn't advertise it first. And, as a friend, I'm trying to get the word out...so that others may hear about it simular to how I did.

Also, I've got some friends who still live in America and who I perform improv with at the Roving Imp who will be playing charicters in the show in 1 or more upcoming episodes...not entirely sure when...but upcoming! They will be playing the main charicter's family.

Now, since the entry I mentioned earlier, 2 episodes have been uploaded. And I'm going to provide you with links to where you can find them...
Watch One Of Us (The series's webpage).

Vimeo...especially if you want to watch it in HD (yes, this is where I fall in...)

It is also availble on YouTube. I watched episode 2 on my phone on YouTube!

And now, before I say anything else, let me just say that One Of Us is on Twitter.

On a side note, Summer 2011 officially ends in the next 2-4 hours. Tomorrow (Friday) I will update my blog on the summer of 2011.

9-11 "political" issue...

I take issue with the fact that some people take issues with 9/11 first responders rescue workers needing healthcare. I should warn anyone who reads that this is one of my few political uploads. I don't understand why some people support the idea of denying healthcare to the rescue workers and first responders on 9/11. So I made these inspirational spoof posters depecting the exact opposent of my point in a mockery fashion. That seems to be the best way (and more entertaining way) for me to get my point across...




Let me restate for the record that I don't agree with what I said. I said what I said mocking those who do say what I said...
I don't get it.

One Of Us...Coming very soon

My friend Hannah The Mott has been over seas in a place called Poole, England. For her, it has also been called school. After graduating from KU and dabbling some with improv at the Roving Imp, she headed off to get her Masters in film. With her year being up, it's time to work on her master project: a web series called One Of Us.

Hannah is the director, producer, co-writer and basically the brains behind One Of Us. Mike Histon is also the assistant director and Co-writer of the series. The story is about a girl from the Midwest who, board from the Midwest, decides to move to England. But why read my boring words when you can get the lowdown from them personally...

If you are not interested yet, you may just be not quite right in the head. If you are intrigued, then all you need to do, come September 14th, is head over to the website of Watch One Of Us.

Star Trek met it's 45th year!

Star Trek first aired on September 8, 1966. That means yesterday, Star Trek turned 45. Unfortunately, The History Channel left that information out when, on it's fan page when it gives what happened on that day in history, it did mention that the Oprah Winfry show first aired on yesterday's date back in 1986.
I always have to make commentary on the History Channel's This Day In History. So here is what I said about it...

The Oprah Winfrey Show broadcasted nationally for the first time today in 1986. But Star Trek first aired today in 1966...a full 20 years before hand. Therefore, Oprah has to step up her game...like 10 movies (and a reboot), 4 spin-off series (and a cartoon series) and she must invent new nerdy things that become main stream in 40 years (like cell phones and skype) before she is legit.

Anyway, in other news, there is something big coming up next week...September 14th. I'm not necessarily involved. But a friend of mine is and I said I would put an advertisement for her thing up on here...yes, it's something to be advertised.
I just want to make sure I have enough time to give it the full credit it deserves.

Borders

In less than a month (maybe even less than a week in places) one of the biggest bookstore chains, Borders, will be closing their doors for good all over the country. It's only fitting that my return to blogging on a somewhat regular basis has me saying something about the store, one of my favorite stores ever to exist, closing their doors for good. Borders was the book store that I would go to even if I didn't really have anything in mind to get...I just liked looking at books. I have even tried...on about 3 or 4 different occasions...to actually get a job at Borders. There were some little things. But that's not what is important in this particular blog entry. In this blog entry, I was going to list my top 5 favorite (in no particular order) purchases from Borders.

5. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon by Crystal Zevon. This book came out in 2007. It came out before my bithday but I wasn't able to wait for my bithday so I went ahead and got it. I didn't finish it right away. In fact, I didn't finish it until a year ago when in July or August when I would go up to the Roving Imp for reading night but I'd get there early while the Monday night class was still winding down. This was a book about one of my fvorite artist, Warren Zevon, who passed away due to a rare form of lung cancer called Meslotheslioma (sp.) on September 7, 2003...coincidentally enough, 8 years ago of the day that I offically started this entry. This book was in with the rock an roll biographies. And when I got the book, it was when I was REALLY gettin into the music of Warren Zevon and I was currious about the person himself.

4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I decided to read this book because I had at least 2 friends reccomend it...one specifically reccomended it to me. I wound up getting this book in paperback at the Borders in Shawnee in May and I finished the book in about a week. This is a young adult novel but it deals with a girl named Katniss who is sent from her district to fight in the Hunger Games...24 children ages 12 to 18 enter...only 1 child survives. This is entertainment for the people of the nation's capitol and used to keep order in the districts to prove to them that the capitol had supreme athority. Or as I liked to refer to it...Ancient Rome had the reality show of Survivor...only they were killed instead of voted off. This was also the first book I read that was getting turned into a movie since I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

3. The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman. This is probably my most favorite book I ever bought randomly. It's a novel about a man who travels through time using a device that he invented to be something else. Each time he goes forward, or the time machine rather, it goes forward through an incriment of time that quadruples (or something like that) from the previous time. It was about 5 chapters before I really got into it. But then the rest of the book was a breeze and I read through it in a matter of a week all together.

2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowlings audio recording read by Jim Dale. A year ago between May and July, I read all of the Harry Potter books. But I decided to get some assistance with Order Of The Phoenix. Enter Jim Dale...who has actually won a Grammy for his audio work on the Harry Potter series. Jim Dale's reading of this book was such an expierence that when I reread the series this year, I listened to the rest of them (except for the 1st and 4th) just to hear the Jim Dale take.

1. Life'll Kill Ya by Warren Zevon. This is the only one on here that I can rightly say that it is located at the correct rank of number 1. This album was originally released in 2000. But for whatever reason, it's rare. I had to order it. It was the first Warren Zevon album I ever ordered. This is the CD that is on my list of albums that I want to take with me if I ever get stranded on a desserted island with a CD player. This album includes "I Was In The House When The House Burned Down," "For My Next Trick, I Need A Volunteere," a cover to Steve Winwood's "Back In The Highlife," and a song I can't say on a family friendly blog but censored as "My $iht's F**ked Up." And one of my all time favorite songs, "Don't Let Us Get Sick." You can even find my overview of it by clicking here.

Well, I think that list came full circle. I started with a book about Warren Zevon and ended with one of Warren Zevon's albums. Yes, this is my list.

Good bye Borders. I will miss you.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Here's a slow-jam for the Harry Potter series put out by The Key Of Awesome...a subgroup for a group that is, like me, Barely Political...

Status updates

Since I haven't posted in a while...and I don't want to be up all night typing a bunch of stuff, I want to post a few status updates I've had recently...

Friends who know something about quarters: Do you know what they are doing now? I got a quarter back in change that is Gettysburg on the back. Are they now doing sites of famous addresses...memorials, or is that a national park?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck of a woodchuck would get stoned?

I need to get some new *nice* cloths. I haven't worn slacks since I ripped the butt seam on stage back in April playing a chicken.

I'm unsure as to why stores sale striped buttoned shirts with the stripes going side to side as opposed to up and down. I'm perfectly capable of looking fat on my own without the help of cloths, thank you very much.

And by cloths, I meant clothes.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses? What do you mean no? You mean to tell me that since it is a hot summer night, you've chickened out of Meat Loaf? Come on! It's not even as hot as it has been.

It's been really hot in KC lately...

So what do I look like? A discruntled ex-employee of Wal*Mart hellbent on taking over the world? Because that's just silly.

You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find...
That it still doesn't always work out that way.

Does anyone remember that new horescope sign they found in the sky 4 or 5 months ago that really pissed off the people who give a huge damn about what there sign is. I can't remember the name and it never gets listed in the paper with the rest of the horescopes.

I found out from Allen who had to Google it that it was "Ophiuchus". Great, I want to use this in a new song parody...but how am I going to rhyme it when I'm not sure how to spell it?

Lord Voldemort is your daddy.

"I will protest weddings until I can marry the woman I love," says stalker to random gay dude in New York.

I enjoy it when my phone tells me that there is a thunderstorm. It provides a scene that reminds me of the escape through flight in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

To raise awareness of humans, please change your profile picture to a picture of yourself. My hope is to raise awareness of human life on this Earth...and to figure out what you look like.

There are a lot of comments like this involving the changing of profile pics...my current one is me in my 3-D glasses seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

I asked this on another status that was related to the situation: Where do transsexuals go to the bathroom? They don't have a stick person representing them.

I think I may have used the wrong word here because the comments I got seemed to refer to crossdressers...anyway.

Royals beat the Indians 12 to nothing...
Seriously!

The Royals are not having a good year. But every now and then, they do have a good night...and once in a blue moon...a VERY good night.

Can one of my friends who still play farmville send me a cow that I can throw at one of my friends who still play Mafia Wars?

I feel old. Not satisfied with the spelling of a word and not getting any leads from autocorrect, I got out a dictionary to look it up. Then, with the correct spelling, it turned out the word didn't even fit grammatically...that, and I'm 28.

One of my favorite authors was born today in the year 1965. Yes, it is J. K. Rowlings...who shares a birthday, ironically, with Harry Potter.

Turns out I used Ironically wrong. I have a record 25 comments (a record for me) on this status update about it...when I meant it as a joke like I didn't get the connection.

One shouldn't spend all their time in the past. Looking back too much will put a crick in the neck.

I think I may have finally said something that has meaning to some people!

I think we should just not bother paying our debt to China. That's what they get for poisoning our children's toys with lead. That should make our debt to them noll and void. Copy and paste if you think this makes as much sense as anything else right now.

Joseph Priestley discovered oxygen on this day in the year 1774. I guess he was living under a rock and forced to breath his own methane output. I don't know, what did humans breath before oxygen was discovered?

I get a lot of status updates like this from the History Channel fan page.


I tried to post this from my phone but unfortunately, it didn't post well...

I will never understand the fashion industry. I don't care who made the clothes. I don't understand the concept of getting paid to put clothes on. I am a guy and not wired like that. The only reason I bother to get dressed is to keep from getting arrested.

That's all I'll say about that.

I'm sorry to have just another status update about the heat. But it got up to 104 today in the KC area and tomorrow, they are predicting 106 or 108. Might I recommend a jacket made entirely of ice cubes?

Take from these what you will...

Matthew of the IHOP Restroom Part IX

It's about time I posted part 9, I thought!

“You do realize that Matthew of the IHOP Restroom isn’t going to come after me, don’t you?” Mary said. “Kidnapping me will just be a waste of your time.”
“But why would he not come after you?” One of the Shipgoes asked while swaying back and forth to the car’s motion. “As you said, we kidnapped you. Doesn’t he want you back?”
“Are you kidding?” Mary scoffed. “He loathes me with every inch of his being.” She paused for a second. “Or something along those lines. Anyway, I love him too so it’s completely fine.”
The Shipgoe was completely confused. “Wait, what now? I don’t get it. It’s completely mutual with him hating you but you loving him?”
“Love,” Mary said, “eww…who said anything about love? I said he loathes me and I loath him. They’re completely different words. In fact, they are 100% anagrams of each other. I should know what I said.”
“Yes, you probably should know what you said,” the Shipgoe said, “and it was definitely not any thing resembling a word for hate.”
“Look,” Mary said, “we have a mutual hate towards one another because he owns me and he’s wanted to get rid of me since we met. I’m owned by him and I’ve wanted to get away from him since we met. It’s as simple as that. He probably saw you kidnapping me as finally being rid of me. Of course it kind of leaves me stuck here in the third dimension though.”
Mary was distraught by the fact that she was actually brought down with a Freudian slip. She would be even more so if she had an idea who Freud was but since the psychological always just sort of came together in the 18th dimension, names of doctors and their theories never really came together. But she knew that she actually did say love instead of loath and she couldn’t stand the idea that it could possibly be true. And maybe she really wanted Matthew to come save her before getting the Strawberry Syrup to the Mass Music Store…which is where her uncle’s studies had said to take it. But Matthew would probably not know what to do with the syrup once he got there.
The Shipgoes continued to drive out of control. At one point, they passed a police officer who had an early morning speed trap out. When the officer turned his lights and sirens on, the Shipgoes remembered they had their ability to sort of teleport out of there so the put the car on cruise control, transported out of there and appeared several miles away already in the Lawrence city limits. The car itself wound up crashing into a woodsy area off of K-10 where they were “driving”. The police officer was stumped and had to think about what to do.
Meanwhile, back with Matthew and his friends in his car, they were behind the Shipgoes several miles. Since the Shipgoes were driving manically, they stayed ahead several miles and growing. Jim was finally starting to get sober and asked Matthew to tell him once again where they were going.
“We’re going to the Quick Trip in Lawrence. My friend Mary Ann is there.
“She’s the one you came out of the restroom with, right?”
“Yes, and she’s in trouble.”
“Oh my gosh, Matthew!” Jim exclaimed. “Did you get her pregnant?!?!”
“No. I told you what happened about the 18th dimension and everything.”
“Oh that.” Jim said. “Oh I didn’t believe that.”
“Wait a minute,” Dan said poking his head up from the backseat, “you’re talking about Mary Ann, the hot girl we saw you come out of the IHOP restroom with?”
“Yes, because we came back from the 18th dimension together. She’s in trouble and we have to save her. And do me a favor,” Matthew said, “don’t go calling her hot, okay. There is so much about her that you don’t understand and the fact that she’s hot has something to do as to why she and I are both in this trouble.”
Then Dan said, “oh my gosh she is pregnant and you impregnated her.”
“NO!” Matthew said.
“Oh okay,” Dan said. “But at some point, you’re going to have to admit you kind of like her because we know you do.”
“You know what,” Matthew began, “I’m not talking to you anymore.” With that, Matthew continued to drive West to Lawrence. It was shortly after arriving in Douglas County that they saw the car that the Shipgoes had taken smashed and being taken away by tow truck. Matthew knew no one was in the car. If there was a Shipgoe in the car, a lab coated scientist would have been there monitoring the body. Finally, after the slight backup caused by the accident (which fortunately wasn’t much since it was about 4am) and all the road construction along the highway, Matthew, Jim and Dan had made it to the Quick Trip in Lawrence.

Fiction...Parody to Alice Cooper's "Poison"

Original song with lyrics:


Fiction, the song parody I wrote:
Your tale‘s divine
It does, entice
One page, I’m hooked
I’ll read, your book...

I wanna meet you but you’re just too fake (too fake)
I wanna see you but there are no pictures to see
I wanna touch you for goodness sakes (-ness sakes)
I wanna love you but your author says that you’re fiction
You’re a figment of someone’s imagination
You’re Fiction
Just one more complication

My mind, can see
Your hot beauty
Just leave, your page!
Your literary cage....

I read your description and it’s driving me nuts (me nuts)
I joined Deviant Art just to glimpse at your fan-made pics
Don't mean to stalk you but your book never shuts (won’t shut)
I should stop fantasizing about someone who is totally fiction
Your imagery keeps me up all night
You’re Fiction
Am I messed up or am I alright?
Fiction...

One chapter, One book
I’ll buy your nook...

I hope the movie, it comes out real soon (real soon)
If for nothing else to help put a face with your face
I’ll need a cold shower if it’s a kiddie cartoon (cartoon)
You never know when you deal with someone who’s fiction
I wanna put down your book and read your lips
You’re Fiction
Fantasies of you are like an acid trip
Fiction (Fict-ion....)

I wanna love you but you’re paper and ink (and ink)
I can’t wait to meet you in my own fan-made story.
I hope your author doesn’t raise a stink (a stink)
You can always have a happy ending when you work with fiction
Yeah....
Barns & Nobles has got my bill
Fiction
Your sequel will be quite a thrill
Glad to hear you got a movie deal
Fiction
Fantasies of you, they haunt me still
Fiction

I'm coming up with the concept for a new song parody.
Want a hint?
Watch this video/hear this song...
will my parody idea ever see the light of day? I don't know. But the concept is coming to terms in my head using this song...

Ask David Some Weird Crap

This video was inspired by Ask That Guy With The Glasses. A couple of years ago, he had a contest to get viewers to answer stupid questions that he would usually answer. I of course didn't have a webcam at the time. But now I do!


Hey, submit your own questions for episode 2!

Google Street

I enjoy google street view. There is just one problem. I personally have a lot of road rage. And even though it seems at time as though I'm about to get ahead of the car in front of me, it never happens. This is because they are going the same speed if not faster in real time as the van that went around taking the pictures. Then, when I finally gain on them, it's a completely different hour...maybe even different day.
About a year ago, somebody posted this:

This reminded me a little bit of google street view because I would more than likely be listening to Warren Zevon as I go riding.

Improv in Bonner Springs...and beyond..?

First off, I have a personal announcement: I will be performing in the 2nd season of The Next Big Improv Show.

Last I heared from John, there were 2 spots left.

Second, I can finally note for sure that we are (for the summer anyway) leaving our Lawrence location where we have been performing improv and Thursday nights and we are moving to The Great Mall of the Great Planes in Olathe, KS.

Only, instead of performing on Thursday nights, we'll be performing out there on Wednesday evenings. As it says on the Roving Imp page about our first show out there: "The Roving Imps take the show on the road to the Great Mall of the Great Plains for the first of a series of shows highlighting games, fun scenes, and hilarious longer made up plays. Join us from 6:30-8:30pm for this FREE show!"

Finally, as much as I would love to do my own version of "We Are The World" for this, I just don't have the rescourses to do it on my own. Even if others joined me, I'd still need your help! But it's more important to follow this:

As stated from it's page on the Roving Imp website:
Kansas has a reputation... and it's not a good one. Whether it's the topic of evolution or the arts, we've gotten a lot of bad press. It's our firm belief that lack of artistic opportunity in the state of Kansas will lead to another generation of boring, selfish, television watchers. Kansas needs to make opportunities to learn a creative skill - and that's where the Kansas Improvisation Foundation comes in.

The KIF will create opportunities for the people of Kansas to be exposed to the many varieties of improvisational acting. KIF will use its funds to give scholarships to take improv classes, to bring in outstanding teachers from other cities, and to provide classes and performances to areas with no other access to this kind of art form.

The KIF is just getting started, and needs funding to make its launch official - that means it needs 501(c)3 status to be able to apply for grants and other help.

Don't let the forces of evil win. Help spread the fun and skill of improv all over the state of Kansas!

The amount that needs to be raised is $520. That is $20 to file in the state as a non-profit. Then $400 need to be rasied to file with the IRS. Then, we need the final $100 for legal fees and fund-raising charges to make it happen.

There are things you get if you go to this website:

For a donation of $1:
A heartfelt thank you on the KIF web site (included at all levels of giving!).

For a donation of $10:
Two tickets to an improv show at the Roving Imp Theater (supporting partner of the KIF).

For a donation of $20:
Two tickets to a show, plus two coffees of any size at the Roving Imp Coffee Shop.

For a donation of $40:
Four tickets to a show, plus four coffees.

For a donation of $60:
One month of free improv classes at the Roving Imp Training Center AND a month of free improv shows.

For a donation of $100:
Two months of free improv classes, two months of free improv shows, and opportunity to take part in up to four improv shows as an actor, tech, or volunteer.

For a donation of $200:
We send to you a one-of-a-kind video of an improv scene or game personalized to include details of your life, or a favorite hobby, AND a month of free improv shows at the Roving Imp.

For a donation of $300:
A one-hour private comedy show for you and up to 60 of your friends at a mutually agreed-upon location AND a month of free improv shows at the Roving Imp. This perk has a limited geographical range. Contact us... we'll talk about it!

That last one is so great, I don't really have a decent new link to provide for it.
So yeah, if you even remotely come across my blog here, please check it out!

Lawrence shows...

There is a big change happening involving the Thursday night Lawrence shows. First of all, we're movie to a new location and maybe even time. Unfortunately, I can't say anything here just yet. But don't worry, there will be something to say when it happens!

Original song vs. Parody

Sometime ago, Katy Perry did a song called E. T. with Kanye West (for some reason).

Anyway, Barely Political did a parody to it:

Now here's the thing: I heard the song/watched the video for the parody first. This is actually common for me. I usually listen to classic rock songs and so to me, I'm finding these new songs because of the parodies. So I usually get it in reverse order. For example, I saw this video first:

Then, to figure out what the original song was like, I looked up:

I want to do a video of this song but unfortunately, I can't think of anything other than something Transformer movies related since Megan Fox is in the video and won't be in the 3rd one.

Yes, I am a dork and proud of it!

Okay, so some people take issue with parodies. I, quite frankly, love them when they are done right.

A friend of mine sprained their ankle pretty bad and using crutches. They don't know how long it will take before they can stop using the crutches. I posted this video of me using a crutch as an air-guitar. Please note that I did not have music for this originally.

Matthew of the IHOP Restroom Part 8

“You do realize that Matthew of the IHOP Restroom isn’t going to come after me, don’t you?” Mary said. “Kidnapping me will just be a waste of your time.”
“But why would he not come after you?” One of the Shipgoes asked while swaying back and forth to the car’s motion. “As you said, we kidnapped you. Doesn’t he want you back?”
“Are you kidding?” Mary scoffed. “He loathes me with every inch of his being.” She paused for a second. “Or something along those lines. Anyway, I love him too so it’s completely fine.”
The Shipgoe was completely confused. “Wait, what now? I don’t get it. It’s completely mutual with him hating you but you loving him?”
“Love,” Mary said, “eww…who said anything about love? I said he loathes me and I loath him. They’re completely different words. In fact, they are 100% anagrams of each other. I should know what I said.”
“Yes, you probably should know what you said,” the Shipgoe said, “and it was definitely not any thing resembling a word for hate.”
“Look,” Mary said, “we have a mutual hate towards one another because he owns me and he’s wanted to get rid of me since we met. I’m owned by him and I’ve wanted to get away from him since we met. It’s as simple as that. He probably saw you kidnapping me as finally being rid of me. Of course it kind of leaves me stuck here in the third dimension though.”
Mary was distraught by the fact that she was actually brought down with a Freudian slip. She would be even more so if she had an idea who Freud was but since the psychological always just sort of came together in the 18th dimension, names of doctors and their theories never really came together. But she knew that she actually did say love instead of loath and she couldn’t stand the idea that it could possibly be true. And maybe she really wanted Matthew to come save her before getting the Strawberry Syrup to the Mass Music Store…which is where her uncle’s studies had said to take it. But Matthew would probably not know what to do with the syrup once he got there.
The Shipgoes continued to drive out of control. At one point, they passed a police officer who had an early morning speed trap out. When the officer turned his lights and sirens on, the Shipgoes remembered they had their ability to sort of teleport out of there so the put the car on cruise control, transported out of there and appeared several miles away already in the Lawrence city limits. The car itself wound up crashing into a woodsy area off of K-10 where they were “driving”. The police officer was stumped and had to think about what to do.
Meanwhile, back with Matthew and his friends in his car, they were behind the Shipgoes several miles. Since the Shipgoes were driving manically, they stayed ahead several miles and growing. Jim was finally starting to get sober and asked Matthew to tell him once again where they were going.
“We’re going to the Quick Trip in Lawrence. My friend Mary Ann is there.
“She’s the one you came out of the restroom with, right?”
“Yes, and she’s in trouble.”
“Oh my gosh, Matthew!” Jim exclaimed. “Did you get her pregnant?!?!”
“No. I told you what happened about the 18th dimension and everything.”
“Oh that.” Jim said. “Oh I didn’t believe that.”
“Wait a minute,” Dan said poking his head up from the backseat, “you’re talking about Mary Ann, the hot girl we saw you come out of the IHOP restroom with?”
“Yes, because we came back from the 18th dimension together. She’s in trouble and we have to save her. And do me a favor,” Matthew said, “don’t go calling her hot, okay. There is so much about her that you don’t understand and the fact that she’s hot has something to do as to why she and I are both in this trouble.”
Then Dan said, “oh my gosh she is pregnant and you impregnated her.”
“NO!” Matthew said.
“Oh okay,” Dan said. “But at some point, you’re going to have to admit you kind of like her because we know you do.”
“You know what,” Matthew began, “I’m not talking to you anymore.” With that, Matthew continued to drive West to Lawrence. It was shortly after arriving in Douglas County that they saw the car that the Shipgoes had taken smashed and being taken away by tow truck. Matthew knew no one was in the car. If there was a Shipgoe in the car, a lab coated scientist would have been there monitoring the body. Finally, after the slight backup caused by the accident (which fortunately wasn’t much since it was about 4am) and all the road construction along the highway, Matthew, Jim and Dan had made it to the Quick Trip in Lawrence.

‎1984 was published on June 6th in 1949. It would be the last Van Halen album with David Lee Roth and features songs like "Jump" and "Panama" and "Hot For Teacher" all taking place in a distopian future with the T.V. show called Big Brother...wait, somethings not right...

This was a status update I had on facebook today.

Distopian Futures

Okay, so I'm not really a fan of Distopian futures in Sci-Fi Fiction. This is mainly because Utopian and Distopian aare all realitive to the surroundings fo the main charicter...or as I say, one man's distopian future is another man's utopian future. And yet, I've started reading The Hunger Games and I can't seem to put it down. Of course, I do have to sleep sometimes.

Oh, and my friend Chris has linked to a Star Wars parody of the song "Friday." I've posted the James@War parody, "Friday."

Harry Potter In The Hood

You should totally check this out!

2007...yeah, that seems like a good title.

I want to go back to Spring 2007...as me...but knowing now what I didn't know then. I've got my reasons.

Matthew of the IHOP Restroom part VII (or 7)

Matthew thought, Lawrence, Kansas? Figures… Lawrence, Kansas almost always winds up as being a significant location to science fiction stories. Lawrence is, after all the center of the universe, in cording to one of the google.earth sites or something like that. So it would be no wonder that the Strawberry Syrup would have to be taken there.
“You need to take it to a building that has the name Mass Street Music,” Mary said. “Do you know where that is?”
Matthew knew where it was indeed. He had wanted to go in and purchase a Stratocaster guitar he had seen there once. He had been saving up for it. He had a song in his head that he tried writing but hasn’t sounded good on any guitar yet…but maybe that one…but that was beside the point.
“Yes, I know where it is,” Matthew said. “But we can’t just take the Strawberry Syrup. That’s stealing.”
“Allow me guys,” Dan said. The waitress was coming over to find what was going on and as Dan went up to her, he said, “why hello, sexy. My friends here are in desperate need of taking the Strawberry Syrup. Is there anything I can do to persuade you to let them take it? You will get a huge tip. Oh, it’ll be MASSIVE.” As Matthew and the others expected, the waitress slapped Dan in the face. This fortunately was hard enough to cause Dan to sober up instantly and he was no longer intoxicated. “Whoa! Ouch! Hey, does anyone know what just happened? Oww…” He said rubbing his jaw.
“Okay, besides anything he has to say,” the waitress said pointing to Dan, “what’s going on here?”
“Miss,” Matthew said, “with the exception of the pervertedness of my friend here, what he said before about us needing the Strawberry Syrup is correct. We specifically need the strawberry syrup in the specific container. I promise, you will get a big tip, and by big tip, I actually mean money, unlike my friend here who you have made sober now…thank you for that by the way.”
“Well,” the waitress started. She would have continued. But as she was continuing, three Shipgoes came charging out of the restroom. One of the Shipgoes came and knocked down Matthew while another one grabbed him by his shirt. Jim and Dan were leaning up against the table, hiding the syrup from view as well as the sweetener and the silverware with absolutely no clue as to what was going on.
“Ah-ha, Matthew of the IHOP Restroom; we have followed you here to the third dimension. Where is the Holy Grail?” shouted the Shipgoe holding Matthew by the shirt.
“Unhand him,” Mary said as she kicked the Shipgoe in the growing who was holding Matthew. Matthew was confused. Not because he was just dropped to the ground about two feet, but because he could have sworn that Mary just defended him? He passed it off as though all it was was that she just wanted to see the mission completed. It would have been out of her character otherwise. After all, she had already stated to him how much she loathed him. It was obviously an ordeal with a common enemy.
The Shipgoe crouched down to the ground in pain and shouted, “grab her!” She was grabbed by the other two and taken outside as Mary yelled back, “Matthew, get the syrup to Mass Street Music!”
The Shipgoe that Matthew assumed to be the leader looked down to him and said, “you will have no need to go there. If you want to see your friend again, you will have to do battle with me personally…here.” He slammed a map down with a sword onto the table that showed the location was at an old abandoned gas station in Lawrence. With that, the Shipgoe left. Matthew took a close look at the map and decided it must have been old because where the battle was planned; there was now a Quick Trip.
Matthew looked at the waitress and asked once again to take the Strawberry Syrup container. “What strawberry container?” she asked.
Matthew faced the syrup and pointed to it and started to say this one only to see that the waitress had up and left already. He grabbed the syrup and left IHOP and going to the car, he said to Dan, “Now Dan, for future reference, how many times have I told you there are certain dangers to falling in love with your waitress. Besides, you don’t want to go cheating on your date with the vacuum cleaner…”
“Oh, that’s right,” Jim said to Dan. “You’ve got a hot date with the vacuum cleaner. That’s what you told us,” he said as he started to laugh.
“A date with a vacuum!?” Dan said. “Well that sucks.”
Matthew drove out of the IHOP parking lot and began to drive to Lawrence. He wasn’t sure if he minded Mary being gone but he knew that he absolutely had to rescue her from the Shipgoes. He just wasn’t sure why he wanted to save her. Was it because he promised Captain Bill that he would take care of her? Was it because she saved his life so he would decide to save hers? Or could it possibly be because he was starting to actually like her and he personally didn’t want to see any harm brought upon her?
No. Absolutely not, Matthew thought. He couldn’t stand her. Not in the slightest. Why would he even begin to think that he actually liked her? If anything it was one of the other two. But one way or another, he had to get to the Quick trip in Lawrence to get her back.

That's A Good Charicter!

What is it that makes or breaks a charicter?
First off, a good charicter is real. S/He has real emotions, real thoughts, and real relationships with those who are around them. A bad charicter is one who is basically a steriotype or charicature of a charicter. A good charicter can still fall into those steriotypes. But they need something different about them to set them apart.
For the record, this isn't just in improv. This is part of good story telling/writing. One of the things that makes good science fiction or fantasy good is when aliens or robots or whatever is science fictiony about them has human like qualities about them...they think...they feel (about things AND towards those who are around them)...they have wants and desires that are unique to them. This is why B-Rate science fiction pics from the 1950s and 1960s were so MST3K worthy because they were all around bad. Aliens who came to earth were a representation of the "communist threat." This means that, no matter what an alien was doing, it was evil by default. No matter what, it was..."THEM...The Other Guy...The Outsider." The evil ones were usually giant spiders or giant praying mantises...or blobs...or just something to run...not walk away gingerly from. Even the good ones (The original Day The Earth Stood Still) he was bad because he wanted earth's nations not to destroy eachother...so, naturally, he was evil and had to be shot down (I'm being sarcastic here).
But I'm going off on a science fiction tangent on a blog entry simply about charicters. What I'm trying to say is that charicters become better when they are developed 3-dimensional charicters with real wants and desires, feelings, and relationships. When I read the Second City Almanac of Improvasation, there are a section in it devoted to charicter in improv performances (workshops, rehearsals, or shows) that your charicter is so much better without the usual steriotypes and cliches that come with the charicter you're playing. The Italian doesn't always have to be a mafia hitman who eats pizza all the time...or a plumber for that matter. An Asian doesn't have to be incredably good at math while being bad drivers. I can't remember word for word. I just know those are a few of the steriotypes that exist.
Now, if you have a charicter that just follows preconceived steriotypes, all you're doing is going for the easy laugh or a joke. This may or may not be ok when writing a story...depending on what you want from the story. But if you do this in improv...well first of all, you shouldn't. You shouldn't go for the easy laughable joke in improv anyway and if your charicter is just a joke to begin with, you will loose the interest of the audience before the scene/show ends...but good luck to you if your try and pull that stunt. Hopefully, you're new to improv if you do try it. It's easier to forgive beginners with that since they are new to it.
However, like any work of fiction, if you're doing an improv scene, your charicter should have good real relationships with your scene partners' charicters as well as a real wants and real charicters.
I'd probably have more to say about charicters if it weren't after 3:30am. Maybe I'll come back to this subject sometime.

Yeah, that's what I said.

Have you been up to Lawrence for improv yet on Thursday nights?

April 14th was the first night that we performed for the Roving Imp up in Lawrence on the KU campus. We're performing in the ECM building between the Kansas Union and the new hotel...this new hotel was built where the campus bar was when I was at KU...and I only graduated in 2009.
Anyway, we continue on with the 5th episode of Maddox Family Wrestling Syndicate Saturday night. This is the one where I'm playing Harry Wallace. John provided the audiance Thursday night with a little preview by performing as Cranston Maddox giving the worse advice in Good Advice, Bad Advice, Worst Advice.
Also, while speaking of Lawrence shows, Thursday night this week was the 2nd show out there. I claimed on facebook that my personal highlight was singing the last verse of a protest song about campfires. I'm one of those weird people who finds musical games very relaxing...for the most part. Irish Drinking Song, Hoedown, Protest Song...about the only one I'm not extreamely comfortable with is Beasty Rap. It's one thing to come up with a rhyme yourself...or come up with a word that someone else has to rhyme with...or knocking down a rhyme you were set up with. It's something else to have to come up with the rhyme AND drop the hints to your team can guess what it is you're wanting to say. Sometimes it's easy...the word you're rhyming with is Book. You want your team to say "hook". "I'm Peter Pan fighting Captain..." "HOOK!" That's easy provided you know who Peter Pan is and you can hear and understand the hint. Sometimes, if you are a member of the possy, you can't understand the hint because of the beat or the hint means nothing to you. There was one time in rehearsal I was on a team with John and Ashley. John was trying to get Ashley and I to say bar...using the hint to refer to the bar that a lawyer has to pass. I know this now because I was there. I had no idea what John was talking about. Fortunately, Ashley is a lawyer so it made perfect sense to her. The fortunate thing about the other song games, except for Irish Drinking Song, you set up your own rhyme. I love rhyming by the way. Irish Drinking song, you set up the rhyme for whoever is the number 4 person whenever you're number 2. Provided your word is easily rhymable, the number 4 person can come up (in theory) with anything in the world to rhyme with and make a complete sentence.
Anyway, I just really like rhyming/singing games for the most part.
Anyway, on the subject of Improv, congradulations to John and Keith for getting accepted to the Duo Fest again this year!
Now before I post this, I'm going to say that I'm going to sincerely try and keep this updated more often.

Matthew of the IHOP Restroom part VI

Captain Bill’s ship sprouted propellers from the deck which started to swing around and around like the propellers of a helicopter. This caused the captain’s ship to lift above the water and take flight. Matthew had never seen anything like it. He wanted to say he saw something similar to it in a movie but he couldn’t because he hadn’t. He was equally surprised to see that the ship covered itself in metal once it got up to about 2 miles above the planet. It the ship took on the form of a space ship. The ship was no longer a sea port ship or an air ship but a flying saucer.
“So, the ship can fly and it can go up into space?” Matthew cried. “Is this even possible?”
“Oh please,” Mary said, who was really the only one who noticed Matthew’s peeked interest in all things ships taking flight…or whatever it would be called; “you’re just not thinking 18th dimensionally. All pirate ships can fly into the air and into space.”
“Really?” Matthew inquired. “I guess that would explain why the holy treasury is relying on captains like your uncle to fight there battles.”
“Well,” Mary said, “IHOP Restroom over here has finally figured one out on his own.”
Matthew was either flattered or insulted…or maybe a mixture of both. It was the first assumption he had made that was correct. Then, he remembered that it was already stated by Captain Bill that they were a pirate ship and they were at war. So he figured Mary was just being sarcastic with him. If that were true, he thought, it wouldn’t surprise him. But before he could fully decide whether Mary was being sincere or sarcastic, he looked out the window and noticed that they had reached space. In the distance, he saw a ship that he only assumed belong to the Shipgoes. A shipmate came in the room and said that the captain wished to see them on deck.
Matthew and Mary followed the shipmate to what Matthew assumed to be the bridge. As they got there, another shipmate said something to the captain about the Shipgoes trying to communicate as they appeared on a screen in the front of the room. This was the first time that Matthew saw a Shipgoe and the first thing he noticed was that they looked like giant rats. They said something to the captain that didn’t make any sense to Matthew. It was nothing but a bunch of squeaking.
“Rodent talk will get you nowhere with me,” Captain Bill said to them.
“I don’t have the proper translation track down, Captain,” said another shipmate, “I’ve got it…now.”
“Hopefully, now we can understand each other,” Captain Bill said. “Iiiiiieeeee am Captain Bill of sea, air and space ship ENVOY.” The captain’s ship being named after a Warren Zevon album intrigued Matthew. But what made him smile and caused him to have to hold back a laugh was how the rat-appearing shipgoes responded.
“Oh great, we got the pirate who emphasizes the I!” one said but trying to look as though he didn’t say that. “We came for the Holy Grail, Captain, where is it?”
“Iiiiieeeee have no holy grail on miiiiieeeeee ship. Nor is it on the planet. You will have to look elsewhere.” The Captain said.
One of the Shipgoes spotted Matthew and said to the other, “look, behind the captain, it’s the Chosen One! It’s Matthew of the IHOP Restroom!” All the Shipgoes in the screen looked at each other. Matthew was worried. So was the Captain because somehow, he hadn’t even seen it coming. “ATTACK!” yelled the Shipgoe who had spotted Matthew.
“FIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE-RE CANNONS!” cried Captain Bill. He turned to Matthew and Mary. He saw that Matthew had a questioning look on his face. “It’s okay,” he said to Matthew, “cannons can be fiiiieeee-red in space. They just have to be shot with enough force. Anyway, you shouldn’t be worried about that riiiiiieeeeee-ght now.
“I wasn’t worried about that. If I was home in the third dimension, I would question the science. But I’m not a scientist. All I’m worried about is getting out of here,” Matthew said.
“Matthew,” Mary cried, “you need to go back to the third dimension to get their holy grail. I saw the plans for it in Uncle Bill’s quarters. What they seek can only be found in the third dimension.”
Matthew was intrigued. Not that it was starting to make sense to him, but it was the first time that Mary had called him Matthew…just Matthew…no IHOP Restroom or anything like that. But after spending five seconds thinking about that, he realized that he had no idea what to look for when he got there, how to get back there, or even how he would come back to deliver the holy grail to the Shipgoes.
“I don’t know how to get back. Klaper never said anything about it,” Matthew said. “I don’t even know what to look for.”
“I’ll go with you,” Mary said.
“Are you sure?” Matthew asked.
“You currently own me. Remember?” Mary said. “I doubt I really have any say in the matter.”
“Oh yeah,” Matthew said. “I guess I kind of forgot.” It was strange how Matthew had forgotten that very important matter over which they had just been arguing pretty much the entire day up to that point. But since the Shipgoes started attacking THE ENVOY, there isn’t anymore time to talk about Matthew and Mary arguing. Both sides were fighting mad.
“Iiiiieeeee’ve got a portal opener on this ship. It’s down in the cargo hold. Iiiieee never had any need for it. Someone sold it to me in exchange for a three copies of the song ‘Just What Iiiieeee Needed’; one biiiieeee The Cars, one biiiieeee Sister Hazel and one biiiieeee Poison.” Matthew agreed so the Captain took them down to the cargo hold. But as they were heading down, seven Shipgoes spontaneously appeared on the ship. They were trying to capture Matthew but the shipmates held them off. “We’d better hurry,” the Captain said.
They made it down to the cargo hold and the captain dug it out and turned it on. It started to swirl around. They started to enter when the captain said to Matthew, “take care of miiieee niece. Got it?” Matthew agreed and they step through…but not before they heard him scream in attack. It was too late to actually do anything because at that exact moment, they found themselves right outside of the IHOP restroom.
“Alright Matthew!” shouted Jim and Dan, “coming out of the restroom with a hot chick!”
Matthew looked at a clock that said it was 3:05am. He realized that nothing had changed. The only difference was that Mary was with him this time. “So he looked at her and said, “Don’t mind them, they’re drunk.”
“Hey Matthew,” Dan shouted, “I just scored a hot date with that little number right over there.”
Matthew looked over to see that it was the vacuum cleaner he tried hitting on earlier. “That’s a vacuum cleaner, Dan.” He said. “Anyway, we don’t have time for this.”
“We need that canister of red liquid,” Mary said.
“We need Strawberry syrup?” Matthew asked.
“Yes, and we need to take it to a place called Lawrence, Kansas.”

I don't know what's going on.

Okay, so it's been a while since I updated. I've been wanting to post a video but for some reason, my new computer won't let me load video to blogspot...or blogspot won't let me post video from my new computer. Either way, I don't know what's going on.

Also, with the new computer, (by the way, have I mentioned on here that I got a new computer recently? Because if not, I did.) I'm wanting to transfer my music to rhapsody so that I can use my new lap top for my mp3 player. Unfortunately, it doesn't know how to load my music that I transfered over from my old computer with the data transfer. Anyway, whatever it is, I don't know what's going on.

Starting last Thursday, (April 14th) the Roving Imp started doing shows in Lawrence on the KU campus in the ECM building. At first, it was going to be in the Carnagie Arts Center which it's not called that anymore. Then there was going to be a show at the Union Station/Visitor Center. But it's now taking place in the ECM building. I have a realitive idea as to what's going on.

Last week, I accidentally washed my memory stick in the washing machine and didn't find out until the end of the dryer cycle. Turns out it doesn't work now. This is the memory stick I use for the powerpoints at the Roving Imp. So I had to get a new memory stick. It just so happens that the new memory stick has 4GB of memory availible. But the computer at the Roving Imp doesn't want to read it. Also, the new powerpoint - PowerPoint 10 - saves files as a pptx as opposed to ppt. It's kind of screwy and I'm going to be doing some more expieramenting with what my options are. I have an older memory stick that holds 64mg and I can save it as a '97-'03 ppt file which I learned about Saturday night from Chris. Didn't know about that before hand. Also, I'm going to try and save a version of it and e-mail it to John, to see if he can save it on one of his memory sticks and load it from there. Here, I've got an idea as to what is going on.