let's stumble towards success and pack some snacks for little breaks

Hands-down best moment of being a production assistant for Jonathan Coulton on Friday: carrying one of four cakes in a procession with Jonathan, Paul, and Storm. I think Storm got part of it on video- I hope it makes it onto the DVD. I thought four cakes wasn't going to be enough for the sold-out show, but there was actually quite a bit left over.

For those of you wondering who the heck this Jonathan Coulton guy is, here's his website, and here's an article about him that appeared on the Yahoo! main page on Friday. You may have heard "Code Monkey," "Still Alive" (from Portal), or "Re: Your Brains." He posted a while back about needing PAs for this show, and otherwise_nyc pointed me toward it. He'd already gotten the people he needed by the time I e-mailed him, but he contacted me a few days before the show to see if I was still available. (I wasn't, but I damn well made myself available. You don't pass up something like this.)

Other highlights from the day:

-I stuck a mini-flashlight and a Leatherman in my pocket before I left, figuring they might come in handy. Sure enough, I used both of them within fifteen minutes of stepping inside the theater.
-At one point, Jonathan handed me eight twenty-dollar bills and asked me to get fives. I went to several stores before I managed to break them all, and realized after I had succeeded that the three places I'd gone to were a smoke shop, a liquor store, and a porn theater.
-Part of the concert involved Jonathan playing "Still Alive" on a version of Rock Band that hasn't come out yet, so earlier in the day, I got to hang out with one of the Harmonix people who actually created Rock Band.
-JoCo and Co. failed "Still Alive" at 99% during the show. The Harmonix dude said that that's practically impossible to do.
-When I opened a bag of yellow polypropylene rope to use for blocking off areas for the cameras, I discovered a priceless little booklet entitled, "Proper Use And Care Of Rope." The first page begins, "CAUTION! IMPORTANT ROPE KNOWLEDGE."
-The camera script included some amusing bits, including "***JIB: swivel, scan the audience (wide lens); swoop and hunt, scare people," "The next song is his 'last song' (not really though)," and "Shoot people eating cake." (When I read that last, my immediate reaction was, "Cake AND death!")
-Jonathan thanked his PAs onstage, and several clusters of friends of mine hollered when he said my name. Thanks, guys. :P

Most of what I actually spent my time doing was grunt work- taping down cables, hauling furniture around, fetching things from across the building, etc. But it was fun. I got to watch the camera guys doing their thing, and all the other behind-the-scenes activity necessary for something like this, which was fascinating. Gaff tape is now my bitch, after a lot of trial and error. My muscles certainly got a good workout. Nearly everyone I met was nice and polite and fun to be around, including Jonathan, with whom I got to chat a bit. I got free food, and got to watch the concert for free too. All in all, it was a great experience, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the DVD.

The nails variety, that is. Perv.

Richard Cheese's lounge version of "Closer" (YouSendIt file)
The Beatles and Nine Inch Nails mashup: "Come Closer Together" (YouTube video)
Kermit the Frog gets his angst on with "Hurt" (YouTube video)
And of course, in the spirit of the season: Nine Inch Noels

Enjoy!

ETA: None of that is worksafe, three of them because of naughty language and the Kermit one for many visual reasons.

A video of Murdoch was chosen as YouTube's Pick of the Day.

I can't believe I know that guy. (That's him on the right in my icon.)

Yesterday in speech class, my teacher conducted a mock Jeopardy! game as review for the test on Wednesday. We played for bonus points on the test. I volunteered to work the Smart Board, so I got the same number of bonus points as everyone in the winning team. I did know the answer to the Final Jeopardy question, so I'm feeling good about the test.

I had a bit of a gender-related "oh shit" moment later, but was fortunately rescued by a sympathetic girl who had been in my situation and stocked her purse, so I didn't have to skip karate. Huzzah for Good Samaritans. On the way to the bus stop after class, I called prodigal7512, who swung by to rescue me from an early bedtime. We watched some of the fourth season of Scrubs, then I went home around one AM and slept until 3:40 this afternoon.

Today I have done nothing besides eat and sit in front of the computer. I uploaded the Flaming Lips' version of "What A Wonderful World" for lordkarel if anyone else wants it. It cuts off, though.

Cordell is in St. Louis, jumping onto the road-trip bandwagon with the rest of the family. It's just me and our humble breadwinner here at the house now. I wish I could've gone too, and visited thebitchingpost, whom I haven't seen since I met him in May, but school and work obligations sadly prevented me from doing so.

I just made... something. It might be soup, and it might be chili, and it might be stew, and it might be a very goopy stir-fry, and it might be some sort of bean dip. It's edible, whatever it is, and rather tasty.

This weekend was going to be my weekend of getting things done. It ended up being my weekend of socializing extensively. Jasmine, Sharai, Kat and I went to Westport yesterday. Kat and I ended up in one of the booths at the art fair for a total of about an hour. I'm not normally an art person, and it's difficult for me to find a painting I can stare at for a long time without getting bored, but these were truly amazing. The guy only does the one fair each year, and he doesn't have a website, which kind of sucks. I'm glad I found him at all, though.

Jasmine spent the night and we went to church this morning. We played the Pictionary-type game I learned at Chainsaw's party. Ann and Colin were there, and the four of us went to Jerusalem Cafe for lunch, then picked up Sharai and hung out at my house until Walk As One. (Hot tubs are fun in the rain.) I didn't actually go on the walk, because of miscommunications regarding where Kat was going to meet me, but I got to see Emily and Terrance and Ashley and Manal and Mikhala and Deth (Deth is running for city council!). Calvin was supposed to be there, but he didn't show. And there were oranges. Overall, it was a success. Except that Theis Park is not wheelchair-accessible, so things kinda sucked for Colin.

Ann had to go home, but the rest of us (Jasmine, Sharai, Kat, and me, plus Dan, whom we picked up at some point) went to my house and hung out until around nine. My entire family plus Spencer, Denis, and Christian were already here, so the place was pretty crowded for a while. I burned a bunch of copies of a Hellogoodbye album, because we listened to a song from it in Ann's car and everyone fell in love, and I burned Sharai a Muse mix. There was food. I showed off my gymnastic skills (whee, I can lean back into a backbend), taught Kat a couple of techniques I learned in karate class, and nearly fell asleep on Dan in the car on the way back from dropping off Jasmine.

Now everyone is gone, and I'm eyeing my "to do over the weekend" list with some trepidation. There are consequences to be paid for partying.

I have the Hikaru No Go soundtrack! With the theme song that I memorized when I was, like, eleven! Heeeeeee! My sixteenth birthday just keeps getting better and better the older I get!

(Also, Cordell is back from his summer in Japan/California. But, you know, details.)

Now I have to rewatch the entire series. I'm considering joining Sanae's new beginning Japanese group, too, so I can read the Spiral manga Cord brought back with him. We'll see how long I can keep it up without falling behind in my classes. My GPA has to come before manga, I'm afraid.

Maybe I'm just being overly picky, but on LJ's main page, it says "Baaaaah", says Frank. It kind of irks me.

I got up at 6:30 yesterday in order to be at the TLC when it opened at 8, just in case I was supposed to be there then. Good thing I did, too, because I was in fact scheduled to work at 8. Not only that, but I'm scheduled to work at 8 Monday through Friday all semester. Joy. At least they didn't schedule me for Saturdays. I spent most of the morning handing out coupons for free cafeteria stuff and helping new students figure out how to get to their classes.

I have Ms. Scott for political science, and she was very familiar with me, pretty much establishing me as teacher's pet. We'll see how long that lasts. Hopefully, she won't be too pissed at me by the end of class to give me a good recommendation letter. Sharai is in that class with me, which I suspect will save my ass multiple times this semester.

Sociology (Sex Roles and Sexuality) is interesting. The teacher didn't lecture, but had us all sit in a circle and introduce ourselves in great depth. She said that we'll be covering personal stuff during the class, so we need to be comfortable with each other. There were some boring people and some very interesting ones. One girl said perkily, "I'm eighteen, I have a sugar daddy boyfriend who's ten years older than me, and I'm taking this class because I like to have sex!" There's someone I know through All Souls in the class, too.

Someone needs notes taken for them, so I went down to ABLE/Access and signed up as a note-taker. As long as my handwriting is legible for the first three weeks and he doesn't drop out before midterms, I get fifty bucks at the end of the semester... which is pretty sweet for doing something I do already.

I played the "my love is like a storybook story" song from the credits of Princess Bride on my bass last night for about half an hour straight. I'd almost forgotten how incredibly therapeutic playing music is for me. I guess I got so frustrated with the Suzuki crap that I sort of gave up on the violin. I really hate the Suzuki method. It places a lot of emphasis on perfection- I remember my teacher making me play the same measure about fifty times in a row just because I'd settled into the habit of playing the open A string instead of the fourth finger on the D string. It didn't exactly spoil the violin for me forever, and I still play sometimes, but I always feel self-conscious. Milo just feels more peaceful. Besides, it's harder to play a sharp or flat note on a bass. And I love that "storybook story" song.

The Harry and the Potters concert was way better than last time, even though it had to be moved from Theis Park to the downtown library, inconveniencing pretty much everyone. Thanks, Mia, for the lift. I ran into Beep and Ethan at the concert, and we spent the majority of it bouncing around. I started a mosh pit twice, but we never got more than four people because Pottergeeks are apparently all wusses. Draco and the Malfoys, despite looking nothing like Draco Malfoy, were fabulous. "My Dad Is Rich, Your Dad Is Dead," in particular, cracked me up.

Guess who just called me? TERRANCE! The absolutely adorable gay guy from Anytown! (Well, that description actually fits four people, but anyway.) Terrance and I had a total blast at Anytown, waltzing and tangoing and dirty dancing and running around and holding hands and talking about guys and singing at the tops of our lungs and saving each other from running the hill and whispering too much during closing circle. Then I didn't hear peep from him after Anytown, and had pretty much given up on him when he called me at quarter past midnight today, saying apologetically, "I lost the sheet with all the contact info from people, and I just noticed that there was a phone number in your note." We talked for about half an hour, and it felt like Anytown ended yesterday. I am so happy.

I totally didn't connect the song "Here Comes a Special Boy" with Phillipe from "Achewood." D'oh. Does anyone know how Freezepop is connected to the comic? My stepdad thinks Liz Enthusiasm is married to the strip artist, but a quick Google search does not confirm or deny this.

I love this music video. I love everything about it. I love the music. I love the lyrics. I love the PostSecrets. I love that the money they paid to use the secrets was donated to a suicide hotline. I love the lead singer's eyes. I love the bag over the one guy's head. This video just all-around rocks my world.