regfoghorn

These ten (10) questions originally came from a French series, "Bouillon de Culture" hosted by Bernard Pivot. They're better known as the questions that James Lipton asks every guest at the end of "Inside the Actor's Studio." 

1. What is your favorite word? 
singing

2. What is your least favorite word? 
utilize

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? 
Good music/well done performances

4. What turns you off? 
meanness

5. What is your favorite curse word? 
Damn

6. What sound or noise do you love? 
voices in harmony


7. What sound or noise do you hate (dislike)? 
loud thumpty-thump bass

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? 
oceanographer

9. What profession would you not like to do? 
sales

10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? 
Rehearsal's at 8

First, my new-ish Canon XSi, with the f/2.8 zoom takes very acceptable opera pictures in a darkened theater. This means that the pictures with the 85mm f/2.0 lens will be super! ANd in one evening, I gained back most of my photographer's eye. It's been Too Long since I did enough photography.

And digital photography means never having to pay for development, so I can take as many pictures as I want.

ziibphoto, watch out! :-)

Second, I got cast in a show!! It is a sort of one-day Topsy-Turvy. I will be the Bass. I have solos. Whee!!!!

This offsets some of the worries for a little while.

So here's my unscheduled posting of what's happening to me...

Hmmm.. Dickens Fair 2008 went well - I think the Music Hall was a successful show, at least it started on time and ended on time almost always - the only problems were with AL taking too much time, the lack of volume from JP and KM.

On the plus side, RF & MM & EG were spectacular - especially EG who exceeded her own expectations (though I knew she could do it the first time I heard her).

And of course, PJ was a fantastic chairman.

I wish I wish I wish there was a way to do the Music Hall outside of Dickens Fair, but I just don't have the money.

Pirates went well, too - especially with ME having changed in appearance for the better.

Then, after the new year, I got laid off from my great job in early February. THis sucks, as I was perfect for the job - both a training and an accounting background! My boss even offered to resign instead of me, because she knew the company needed me more than her. But the stupid ex-IBM CEO couldn't see that. Even though the ONLY thing that was marked down in the PC magazine review was that the product was "hard to learn" (that happened before I could start on End User training).

So here it is, nearly 5 months later and I'm still unemployed. I've had to stop helping DB and BW financially, which breaks my heart, but I have to take care of my own house first.

On the good side, I've been able to sell some Lego sets to bring in a bit of extra cash. They were Arkham Asylum (7785) sets which I wouldn't ever really use,a nd I made great profit on each...

I did have some high job hopes for a little while - in late April I heard from a recruiter about a job that I know has been open for over a year - and I got through the phone interviews, resume look-see and onsite interview really well. That meant I got to fly to London for the final round of interviews with the company brass. Telecommunications industry, which I have very little background in.

And there's where things went wrong. They sent me a scenario (customer-facing technical briefing) that I had to prep a 45 minute presentation on, with my UK interviewers playing the roles of the customer. The goal was to leave the customer feeling good about 'our' technical ability and expertise, and customer-oriented focus.

I didn't really know how I was going to proceed, and so after the coaching session I got (which everyone gets) I put together a slide presentation to help get me through the meeting. Now, the VP had asked me if I had slides when I arrived in the morning, and I had said no, so he was surprised when I asked to use the projector.

Because I'm not a telecom expert, I punted a lot on specific technical questions about equipment, falling back on "our team will do whatever it takes to enable your success" as a mantra. Well, apparently that was the wrong thing to say, as I didn't get the job - and they weren't sure I could make a week-long class fun and entertaining for the students. (My job is to teach them, not entertain them). I thought that in light of the requirement for customer-focus feel-good, I was judged unfairly. OTOH, there would be a long ramp-up time because of my lack of industry experience.

So it all came to naught, though I did get one evening out at a pub.

And amazing coincidences with people I met while traveling - proof that the world really is smaller than we think.

Back to square 1. Recruiters who contact you, chat you up, take your resume, then never call you back or answer their phone/email. People who think their bits and pieces of writing and SME interviews and a few presentations make them a senior technical communicator / trainer (YES, L. - I'm talking about you!!!)

And god knows WHY they are considering LR as the SM for the Big Venue,w hen most of the management dislike her and she has the people skills of P12 (extra-coarse) sandpaper which is 90% of the job.

Grr.

Especially since because Stark Ravens are coming back with a new Panto, so there will be only one performance of the G&S show at Dickens 2009, and my Music Hall is history because there's no time for it. At least it's a new G&S show - Mikado...

Anyway - I'm feeling isolated, lonely, panicked over lack of money, and hopelessly despairing of ever getting a permanent job (and attached benefits) anytime in the rest of my life (assuming I'm not living in my car at the end of the year).

Now you know why I rarely post here. The world has enough troubles without my unloading everything onto you who have read this far.

And if you have read to this point, thank you. And please consider getting hold of me for nighttime gatherings. I do have wine I can bring....

So SUnday afternoon, Denise & I spent several hours consolidating the storage unit down from 5 x 15 to 5 x 9 - this will save $50 per month.

It meant getting rid of a couple of office chairs, which we now won't ever need, a large wicker storage chest, and 3 shelves from a Banker's bookshelf set (Don't panic, Babs - they are the units from Roger's set, and he dumped the base years ago. I still have a complete set if you want them.)

But the moving of stuff tired us both out completely. And it was scorching hot, too. We didn't really recover until Tuesday morning. (Monday was a complete loss).

But Denise is not happy that we are spending so much money on storing Lego. So the next step is to clear out ots of stuff from the garage so we can get all the stuff from the storage space into it and stop paying for the storage space.

The biggest things to get rid of are two really fabulous deco chairs with really wide sold arms - almost like built-in tables. They need reupholstering, but the frames are in good shape. we just don't have room to use them.

And what do I do with the sound system stuff? I have 4 great concert speakers, a great pre-amp and amp, a good 8-channel (6 XLR) mixing board, and 2 solid speaker stands. And at least 7 mic stands, and roughly a dozen microphones.

This is all stuff that was really useful when I was doing acappella, but I doubt that I'll ever be in a group again; I'm getting too old for it, really. If the economy was better, I'd try to sell it...

I need help creating a Yeoman/Beefeater drawing in Illustrator. I have good source photos, but I'm no visual artist.

I can't really pay, but I have lots of Lego I can trade for your services...

The goal is to come up with designs for a Lego minifigure costume (stickers) so I can really display Yeomen of the Guard in Lego...this is the last frontier for this project!

Anybody interested?

1 question...
1 chance...
1 honest answer...
That's all you get...

Ask me 1 question.
Any 1 question, anything,
no matter how crazy it is.
An honest answer.

No catch.
Except one. All comments will be screened so your question stays private between you and me, and only you will get to see my answer to your question.
But I dare you to repost this
and see what people ask you.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. It will be about or tailored to those five lucky "victims."

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year.
- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be fic. It may be poetry. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. It might be Lego. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to put this in your journal as well, if you expect me to do something for you!

Regfoghorn is a contractino of the stage name I use at Dickens Fair - Reginald Foghorn

Reginald was always a favorite of mine (so veddy British) and Foghorn gives people an idea of my vocal range (bass).

Here I am as a junior in high school.