Posts
There are a number of topics which I need to cover in the next few posts which will hopefully make up for the complete lack of any kind of update in the past month and a half. They include: my professional future, wedding planning, artistic endeavor, life in a submarine and the upcoming holiday season.
Here goes.
As for my professional outlook it seems that not taking the GRE in college was a graver mistake than I could ever has imagined. My advice to anyone still enrolled, do it now. I wanted to avoid taking it because I do not agree with the policies of standardized testing and, as someone likely going into the educational field, I have some very decided opinions there. I also did not want to take the time to study for it and to make a trip out of town to take it. On top of that, I had every intention of attending grad school in England within a year of graduation. Well, life has a way of changing the plans you think are so very flawless. The postal system scuttled my grad school plans and then I fell in love. Now I am looking for programs here in the states where they care about the GRE. The biggest kick in the balls is that I could have taken the test for free in college but now in the real world I have to pay $150 for it.
As a result I am revising my plans for career advancement. As a means of hedging my bets and ensuring that I can be in a school program come spring which will provide me with education, career advancement and work opportunities I am now looking into the field of secondary education more seriously. I am looking into programs which will allow me to begin getting a teaching certificate and allow me to take on the five year loan forgiveness program. After five years of making a salary higher than my current one I will have the ability to erase all of my federal student debt. I consider this an opportunity not to be missed. What I need is a program to get me certified which does not wait until the summer to do so. I need to be enrolled in classes, at least half time, for the spring and I also need to be able to work. I do not want to repeat what I did last time which has become, ultimately, more expensive. And so, I search. If anyone knows of any programs or has gone through them I would greatly appreciate the input.
As for planning the wedding, that seems much more straightforward. Perhaps it is because I have a theatre background but the concept of finding a space, preparing it for a particular effect and rehearsing the people for what is, in the end, a production albeit one with incredible emotional attachment and significance is not as daunting as it might be. What worries me is our budget. We are financing the wedding ourselves which means that we need to be more creative with our planning. I definite;y see a lot of potential in our initial planning but am worried that the popular conception of a wedding is miring us in the process of creating a ceremony which is significant for us and expressive of our unique love (i.e. the end goal).
Int he field of artistic endeavor I am trying to get myself back into writing novels and possibly commercially. I might write a few proposals and send them out to publishers if I can find a good source for the proper format of such things. I also have a modern poetry project which is in its early planning stages. The most active of my current projects is a scriptwriting collective. There should be a podcast of the screenplay forthcoming.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Critical Elephants
It has come to my attention that as a blogger the news media considers me duty-bound to comment on everything in my perceivable universe especially those things of which I am poorly informed. Therefore, I have decided that my latest attempt to be a real blogger should be a feature about topics on which I have poorly informed opinions.
Today's Episode- The trouble with the CTA.
Here's the thing. The CTA is supposed to be serving me as a convenient means of transit between part of the city and another. Most specifically the "L" system is meant to be a rapid and environmentally friendly option for navigating the city. the critical element, and it's a big one, is that it should connect places people actually need to be. Why, in the name of whichever deity is in charge of things like this, would anyone in their right mind create a system like this with parallel lines! If I want to go across the city to somewhere that is on the red line It takes me an hour on the bus or I can take the train all the way down to the loop and catch the red line itself. One train between Belmont(Blue) and Belmont(Red) would clear it right up. and it would still be sufficiently inconvenient for most of the city for the CTA to keep up appearances. You don't want to be too much on the ball or people will expect something of you and I get that. The relative distance is less than between four stops on an "L". i.e. the trip could take 20 mins tops on a system which made sense.
What is more if we hope to host the Olympic games surely we need to step up our game transit wise and the way forward is in high efficiency trains. Look at any London. Yeah, the tube is about as logical as an anthill but if you know what you're doing you can get anywhere in the city and you can do it with reasonable speed.
My recommendation, since apparently I am mandated by the internet to provide it, is to create an outer loop "L" line which would follow Lake Shore Drive between Belmont and Hyde Park and then across to Pulaski where it would complete its loop.
The big benefit here is that it would also serve the purpose of the proposed Gold Line which is to serve Hyde park and it would do them one better by laterally serving the entirety of that neighborhood.
Today's Episode- The trouble with the CTA.
Here's the thing. The CTA is supposed to be serving me as a convenient means of transit between part of the city and another. Most specifically the "L" system is meant to be a rapid and environmentally friendly option for navigating the city. the critical element, and it's a big one, is that it should connect places people actually need to be. Why, in the name of whichever deity is in charge of things like this, would anyone in their right mind create a system like this with parallel lines! If I want to go across the city to somewhere that is on the red line It takes me an hour on the bus or I can take the train all the way down to the loop and catch the red line itself. One train between Belmont(Blue) and Belmont(Red) would clear it right up. and it would still be sufficiently inconvenient for most of the city for the CTA to keep up appearances. You don't want to be too much on the ball or people will expect something of you and I get that. The relative distance is less than between four stops on an "L". i.e. the trip could take 20 mins tops on a system which made sense.
What is more if we hope to host the Olympic games surely we need to step up our game transit wise and the way forward is in high efficiency trains. Look at any London. Yeah, the tube is about as logical as an anthill but if you know what you're doing you can get anywhere in the city and you can do it with reasonable speed.
My recommendation, since apparently I am mandated by the internet to provide it, is to create an outer loop "L" line which would follow Lake Shore Drive between Belmont and Hyde Park and then across to Pulaski where it would complete its loop.
The big benefit here is that it would also serve the purpose of the proposed Gold Line which is to serve Hyde park and it would do them one better by laterally serving the entirety of that neighborhood.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Bristol Weekend 1
Well, that happened.
I started off my time in Kenosha this week rehearsing for three days with the Suitcase Shakespeare Company as we prepare our new child, "Much Ado about Nothing" to take its first steps. We have been pleased to find that we will be performing at the Faire on the weekends of August 8-9 and 15-16, Mark the dates on your calendar. We will be staging our 60 minute or less "Twelfth Night" on the Trader's Cove stage. After a brief return to Chicago to commune with my poor neglected girlfriend it was time to go back for opening day.
It is difficult to find the words which will accurately describe the sensation of opening weekend as an entire populated town remembers itself after months of dormancy. The shops which had been only beginning to stir until last week, the people who had been away and the sounds and smells and colourful sights which had been too long gone all rush back into their proper places and the result is our magic. Once again we met the opening of the gates with a wave of excitement and joy. As per usual characters morphed and changed as practicality met with concept. Percival, who had recently been an excitable man with heavy OCD became the bawdy, oft inebriated barman that he was always destined to be. The street gifted me with families of amusing people, parties of adventurers who knew that there is no man better than an innkeeper to befriend and even a few furries (don't ask). Also, I realized that being an innkeeper has the added benefit of making sure that I am well and truly hydrated. I have possibly never been as well hydrated as I was this weekend. and my frequent visits to the blue boxes stood as a testament.
Having Tab with whom I can touch base periodically for mealtimes to keep me grounded and alive has also been a blessing. She makes my life glow hotter and brighter than I ever could have imagined. It is a comfort to know that we together make for a chemical reaction which is exothermic (science!). We are so lucky.
I started off my time in Kenosha this week rehearsing for three days with the Suitcase Shakespeare Company as we prepare our new child, "Much Ado about Nothing" to take its first steps. We have been pleased to find that we will be performing at the Faire on the weekends of August 8-9 and 15-16, Mark the dates on your calendar. We will be staging our 60 minute or less "Twelfth Night" on the Trader's Cove stage. After a brief return to Chicago to commune with my poor neglected girlfriend it was time to go back for opening day.
It is difficult to find the words which will accurately describe the sensation of opening weekend as an entire populated town remembers itself after months of dormancy. The shops which had been only beginning to stir until last week, the people who had been away and the sounds and smells and colourful sights which had been too long gone all rush back into their proper places and the result is our magic. Once again we met the opening of the gates with a wave of excitement and joy. As per usual characters morphed and changed as practicality met with concept. Percival, who had recently been an excitable man with heavy OCD became the bawdy, oft inebriated barman that he was always destined to be. The street gifted me with families of amusing people, parties of adventurers who knew that there is no man better than an innkeeper to befriend and even a few furries (don't ask). Also, I realized that being an innkeeper has the added benefit of making sure that I am well and truly hydrated. I have possibly never been as well hydrated as I was this weekend. and my frequent visits to the blue boxes stood as a testament.
Having Tab with whom I can touch base periodically for mealtimes to keep me grounded and alive has also been a blessing. She makes my life glow hotter and brighter than I ever could have imagined. It is a comfort to know that we together make for a chemical reaction which is exothermic (science!). We are so lucky.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Damp and Hot, gladly not simultaneously.
My apartment seems to have become sadly waterlogged. I am looking for advice on how to remedy this problem. Hopefully we will have the problem solved by our landlord who is sending "carpet people" in tomorrow but I'm not sure that they will do anything but clean up the carpet. I'd rather not invest in a dehumidifier but it's all I can think of unless I can just leave sponges out on the counters and hope for the best.
In other news the faire season is starting we've had three weeks of rehearsals so far and it is looking pretty phenomenal. My character this year, Messir Percival Cornelius Thykket Esq Prop. of the Towne Square Pub is coming around nicely. I 'm also excited about Tab's contribution, Philomela Wyllewykket, towne midwife. She's great fun and has a lot of comedy power centering on euphemistic discussion of... whodilidoos. The rest of the cast has come up with an amazing collection of townsfolk. We have two witches, two criminals, two vagrants, a knight, an inventor, a don Juan, a librarian and a gravedigger. All told I think this is going to be a gang buster year and am looking forward to watching the rockstarification of another group of phenoms.
In other news the faire season is starting we've had three weeks of rehearsals so far and it is looking pretty phenomenal. My character this year, Messir Percival Cornelius Thykket Esq Prop. of the Towne Square Pub is coming around nicely. I 'm also excited about Tab's contribution, Philomela Wyllewykket, towne midwife. She's great fun and has a lot of comedy power centering on euphemistic discussion of... whodilidoos. The rest of the cast has come up with an amazing collection of townsfolk. We have two witches, two criminals, two vagrants, a knight, an inventor, a don Juan, a librarian and a gravedigger. All told I think this is going to be a gang buster year and am looking forward to watching the rockstarification of another group of phenoms.
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