Delayed Update

So I've been a total loser and I haven't bothered to update anything yet. Which is my loss more than yours anyway, so go you! You get to read new information! W00t!

I have a job now! It's kind of boring and mind-numbingly simple. I restock shoes in a warehouse (There house. There, Paycheck!) The company that owns the warehouse is NGL - Network Global Logistics. They rent out space to various other companies to store their crap until its needed. Kind of like those rent-a-shed storage places I guess, just on a much larger scale. Anyway, this particular company that has all these shoes is Online Shoes . com. Google them at your own risk, I haven't seen there store yet. Considering what I stock every day, they've got just about everything under the sun as far as footwear for the average American. At least, I haven't seen any Prada or Manolo Blahnik or Dulce & Gabana or whatever. They do sell Berkenstocks, though I would hardly consider them to be haute couture shoes. Bloody expensive, sure, but not Devil Wears Prada worthy.

Anyway, that's the biggest announcment. I've been there over a week now and no problems so far! Honestly, I picked up on my duties after the first hour or two and was doing things that the trainer hadn't even talked about after the first day.

I did come tot he realization, though, that I am totally being wasted in a warehouse. I could really make a difference somewhere, I know it. I'm just too lazy and easily distracted to actually seek out a position that would enable me to make a difference somewhere.

Tragic flaws. I has them. And they sux0rz.

I'm playing WoW again, on Lothar as always. I even started dungeon-running. It's not as difficult as I had thought it would be. Go figure, huh?

In other News, I talked to the Theatre department as OSU and found out that they will be seeing Graduate applicants at this coming URTA (University/Resident Theatre Association) conference and auditions. Unfortunately for me, it's not until January. Less fortunately for me, the local theatre companies have already done all of their casting for their seasons in February as well. No matter which way I look at it, I'm stuck until this coming winter unless something miraculous happens, which is highly unlikely, given my personal track record for career advancing miracles.

I seem to be caught between everything at the moment. I wonder if that bodes ill or well for me? Time will tell, I guess.

-S.

Il Dottore

So there's this show that a bunch of friends of mine follow. It's a really popular show and it's been running for almost 50 years now. It was first aired in the UK and since then has crossed the Pond and become fairly popular in the US as well. It's sci-fi and bounces between philosophically profound, deeply moving, irreverently hilarious and cleverly executed.

If you haven't gotten it by this point, I'll give you a big hint: He wanders through time and space in a 1950s British Police Box.

Yeah. Now I'm a fan of the Doctor as well.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for time-traveling aliens.

-S.

Moving Day Is At Hand!

True, it's much less dramatic than an apocalypse, but it's still a source of sweat, blood and exhaustion. Kind of like a pitched-battle, only fewer casualties.

Huh. You'd think people would have made that connection sooner...

Anyway, tonight is the last night I will spend in the Lakewood Apartment, dubious distinction that may be. Amusingly, we discovered this morning that the noisy neighbors next door to us are acquainted with Bruce. All that time and he could have walked over and talked to them about having loud sex.

Probably a good thing that we didn't set Mm-Bop to repeat in the girl's room all night then.

Now their junk is moved up one flight of stairs in a New Apartment in another town entirely and I will be relegated to sleeping on their couch/air mattress until I have to move.

It's Official: As of Wednesday, I will no longer live in the Garden State! Cheers and Jeers!

-S.

Westward Bound

I will be moving to Ohio next week.

Not completely, just the big stuff. Bed frame, bookshelves, things like that. The move is scheduled to begin on Thursday and I'll be borrowing my sister's care to get there. And I'll probably be leaving my mattress and boxspring in New Jersey because it would be seriously impractical to take it across country, not to mention the fact that a coworked of my sister's told her that most cops would be pulling me over on the trip out that way.

Now, I don't think it's quite that extreme (I could be wrong though), but the practicality of the situation demands that moving that much will be difficult and awkward at best; impossible at worst.

So I'm going to leave the mattress and box spring behind and live off an air mattress in Ohio once I finish moving out there.

And by the way: I'm totally going to try to get into OSU for furthering my education.

-S.

Waiting

I admit, I'm a terribly impatient person. I'm totally a child of the "Gimme-Gimme NOW" generation. I believe in instant gratification as a way of life. Partially because I'm a lazy bastard, partially because most things are that convenient anyway nowadays, and partially because I keep waiting for that epic montage of stills showing the passage of time for all events pertaining to waiting for something.

And finally: Because I feel like a waste of space if I have to wait for someone else to give me information that I can act on.

So, I've had this plan for the last month or so. It's either South to Virginia, where I'll affirm my personal independence and try this whole adulthood thing AGAIN - maybe even get it right this time! - and plan from there. Or I head West to Ohio, to the house of my forefathers - er, Mom'n'Dad, anyway - and a) stave off personal insecurities for moving into my parents basement and becoming that guy or b) enrolling in Ohio State and actually learning something useful. Maybe get a teaching cert., maybe study political analysis - I don't know.

The final decision, however, hinges on one thing: Having a job set up in Virginia in the first place. I can't execute anything until then.

The sucky part is that I have to start moving by the end of next week. OSU hasn't gotten back to me yet on possible acceptance/transfer of usable credits, and SVU is still sifting through potential applicants for the position in question.

This leaves me at an impasse. I can't finalize my plans and execute them without the answer from SVU.

Let me be clear: I don't have a serious issue moving in with Mom'n'Dad for a little while in either case. I'll do what I must to survive, even if that means bending my own proud neck to accept their charity until I get on my own two feet in Ohio; whatever happens.

It's just winding down to the deadline and I haven't gotten an answer yet 'Yea' or 'Nay'.

Hurry up & wait my left butt-cheek! It's torture is what it is!

-S.

Terminated

Today - that is to say, the 25th - I was fired from my job.

Yes, it was anticipated, so it wasn't a complete shock. I had made several mistakes in processing transactions relatively close together - as well a few items that were not mistakes that I got blamed for anyway - that culminated in my termination.

Yes, I'll be fine. I haven't been fired before, but I have been reprimanded several times before this so I already knew how to handle it. At least I can chock the whole thing up to Life Experience and say that I've become a slightly stronger man because of it. I've had harder knocks than this before, and will likely have harder yet to come. This won't stop me from attempting my dream anymore than it will keep me from being my usual cheerful/cynical self.

No, I don't really resent my former employers. They did their jobs, I did mine, and I failed to meet their expectations and demands. Suffice it to say that I hated my job and I can now focus on other things now. Like finding a new job for example. Or writing more or something.

It's just another bump in the road on my one-way ticket ride.

-S.

Curtains!

So, remember how I didn't think it was going to work? I was only mostly wrong about that.

Not going to lie, I was kind of worried during this past week or tech rehearsals that the show wasn't going to go off without a hitch or three, but barring the scenery getting their last coat of paint, it's all ready. The actors are memorized - well, memorized enough to pull of a show - the changes are teched, the scenes are blocked and the major issues are dealt with. Anything else that will come up should only be temporary.

The problem comes in the level of talent the cast is bringing in, which - in my humble and outspoken opinion - is insufficient. Some of the cast can actually pull of the roles they are playing, but a couple of the others simply aren't up to snuff.

My biggest issue is the music. It's too...blunt? sometimes. The word is hard to find for it. It's like it wants so very hard to be incredible, but instead of making that leap to being incredible, it kind of laughs incredible off and is acceptable instead. That's just the music for the show itself, I'm not going to get into the performances yet. There's a song that a friend described to me as heart-wrenching and deeply emotional, but when I heard the music, all I thought was, "Was that it?". Don't get me wrong, there were some great phrases in it, but then the tone of the song changes and it's completely different than before. In the end, I was left with a feeling of bland disappointment. It doesn't help that the actor singing the number isn't as good as he might be thinking he is.

Now, for a community show, it's pretty good. The sets are cheap, but under Light they look okay. The sound is mediocre, but the actors shouldn't rely on the mercurial devices anyway. The costumes are about what you would expect for a decent high school performance. The actors are a little hit or miss, but on the whole they do well enough that I think people will keep coming, because they're at the standard for what the local crowd has come to expect I think.

So, if you're in the East Brunswick area of New Jersey any weekend in Febuary, I'd take a little time and see if you can drop by the show. It'll be entertaining certainly. I mean, how many hangings do you get to witness nowadays, right?

One last thing: There's more than one killer. Cheers!

-S.