The Avengers

Watching the commercials for The Avengers, I groaned. I knew I would see it in the theatres, but it looked like the worst of the three preceding movies (Iron Man 2, Thor, and Captain America). I wasn't looking forward to wasting my money.

It turned out to be my favorite. Good fun, and so funny at times, I need to see it again to catch the lines I missed because we were laughing so hard. It was so good, I was talking to the screen like I was at home. (or I'm turning into my mother.)

More thoughts. Yes, there are spoilers, so continue reading after you've seen the movie.

Based on the previews, The Avengers is for families (Brave, Frankenweenie), teen age boys (Battleship, The Amazing Spiderman, The Dictator, Dark Knight Rises), and fans of the first Alien movie (Prometheus).

Was it wrong of me to laugh at the end of the preview for The Dictator? 'Cause that part was funny to me.

Battleship still looks like Transformers.

I'm sure Dark Knight Rises will be good. But…

Nice integration of the Black Widow stunts. So much better than in Iron Man 2, where we saw the sharp cut from stunt woman to ScarJo posing with all her might. This time, I almost believed it was her.

Fun Easter Egg*. Cap'n looks asleep, and Dr. Banner looks like he hadn't eaten in years.

I heart Jeremy Renner.

I miss Phil.

I'm glad the lady didn't die in the beginning.

I miss the ambiguity of Loki that we saw in Thor. But I'm satisfied with how he came to be less ambiguous in his evilness.

I'm not saying the Avengers is unpredictable. I'm saying the journey is fun.

Nice subtlety to the Acura plug.

Seeing Cap'n ride a motorcycle reminds me of Wolverine.

Not sure you needed to grease up Hawkeye's biceps that much. But thank you.

I was worried the Lego commercial would ruin the movie. It didn't.

All due respect Mr. Whedon, but a tesseract is a wrinkle in time, not an unlimited form of energy from Asgaard.

Samuel L. Jackson in a black leather trench coat. He's a baaaddd…shut your mouth.

I've got so many comics to read. Who's the Red Guy?

Natasha and Clinton sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

It was a small moment when Dr. Banner realizes the Hulk is indeed controllable. But it was a nice moment.

Just the right amount of drama .Of course Tony will make it back through the wormhole thingy. Unless that's somebody's sequel…

Yeah, I would actually pay money to see in the theater again. It was that fun.

*An Easter Egg is a bit o' something after the closing credits, but before the screen turns blue.

TRON: Uprising

Flipping through the channels, I saw that TRON: Uprising would be on at 6:30pm. I made a point of watching it.

I'm a little surprised by how much I enjoy the TRON movies. I find the original entertaining because it was meant to be bit cutting edge for its time. They named the accounting program RAM? Really? Truth be told, I really like the light cycle sequence. Despite the age of the special effects, it still mesmerizes me.

Of course, I like TRON: Legacy primarily because Garrett Hedlund is such a cutie pie. Reason #2: Michael Sheen chewing it up at Zuse. This is the guy who played Tony Blair in The Queen. Love how over the top he is in T:L. Reason #3: The colors. Or lack of. Black, White and Red. Interesting set decoration and such.

TRON: Uprising is a new cartoon that takes place before TRON Legacy. Clu has taken over. Tron is thought to be dead. Another program, Beck, rises to take his place and free the Grid from the tyranny of Clu.

It's animation in a computer universe. You've got characters voiced by Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore,

Emmanuelle Chriqui (who also voices Cheetara in the ThunderCats re-boot), Reginald VelJohnson (the dad from Family Matters), and Bruce Boxlietner, reprising his role as Tron. You've got Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the folks behind Once Upon a Time. What can go wrong?

Maybe it was the tv, but the sound was so loud I couldn't hear the dialogue. The action scenes were uninspiring. I don't know if it was the story or the animation, but I wasn't drawn in. Things seemed promising…but flat. I'm not sticking around to find it in its normal time slot. But I do think it has the potential to be a better show. I hope it improves.

April 19, 2012

Someone once told me my life was exciting. Here is a bit of evidence to the contrary:

After logging onto my computer and getting a cup of mint tea, I started my workday stuffing envelopes.

Then I continued learning more about our new Experience Modification Estimator*. Figuring out what should be on the spreadsheet so it uploads as a check box. Taking screen shots. Writing notes so I can draft semi-comprehensible reference documents. Ah, the joys of transferring to a new system.

By lunchtime, my brain was so tired, all I wanted to do was sit. No reading, no sleeping, just sitting and contemplating daydreaming about nothing. And having a Bowl of Soul.

Bowl of Soul** was invented at Parchments, the coffee shop at my church (Cornerstone Fellowship). It's a tea latte (I use rooibos), with a shot of flavor (I use vanilla), extra foam, and a drizzle of honey.

If you're at Starbucks, this is the best way to order it. But their honey is in packets, which gives it a KFC honey-sauce vibe.

Naturally, it's better at Peet's. Only don't ask for a tea latte, ask for a tea au lait. Plus you get to drizzle (or in my case, over-drizzle) the honey yourself. Delicious.

I brought my own cup to Peet's, which the barista filled to the brim. Naturally, lidding the thing caused a mess. It wasn't epic, but it did call for me sipping hot liquid out of the lid of my tumbler.

I sauntered over to Yogurtland. Got me a combination of taro, coconut and guava-pineapple frozen yogurt topped with red bean, mango, and exploding lychee boba.

That's right. Edible bubbles.

I sat inside, next to the window. A toddler stared at me. I smiled. He smiled back and turned away. Then turned back. I smiled. He returned the smile, eyes laughing.

Repeat with slight variations, including him smushing against the glass with a small thud. Peek-a-boo without putting hands to face.

Which made it easy for me to eat. But hard to daydream. Just before my mind would slip into reverie, cutie patootie would come to the window, looking for my smile.

Two young ladies walked by at wandering, wondering pace. The one closest to the curb wore a red dress. Five minutes later, they walked by again. Same positions, same pace.

Ah, snap! The Matrix is real!

{pop!} Mmmmm. Exploding lychee boba.

A successful drive back to work, as I did not spill the remainder of my drink while turning several corners. The frozen yogurt became my lunch, and my packed lunch, dinner.

They say the Lioness Warrior can survive 4.5 hours of desk work on acidophilus-laced dairy products and red bush tea…

* It's an insurance thing. Don’t worry about it.

** I have no idea why it's called a Bowl of Soul when it comes in a cup. I might have the name wrong.

A Good Birthday

Thank you, Everyone, for your wonderful birthday wishes. Hugs and warm fuzzies back atcha!

It's not a milestone birthday by most standards. But, since I've also finished school, it might be considered a milestone of sorts. At 38, I'll be entering a new phase in my life.

It's been good birthday. I was more alert than usual when I woke up. Despite getting a late start on my morning routine, I got to work on time.

I had sushi for lunch.

I ate the last piece of cake the previous day's department birthday celebration. A nice, dense cake with strawberries in the filling. I didn't like the filling, but maybe it can be done with whipped cream instead of the super sweet stuff I scraped off.

I found gluten free cookies to bring to rehearsal. (One of the actors has celiac disease, and I wanted to make sure they could have some sweets too.) One cookie and several large fragments were all I brought home of that.

My sis and I had a conversation about the TV show Once Upon a Time.

There was a card, a box of Rice Krispy Treats, and a carton of mini Cadbury eggs on my desk when I arrived at work in the morning.

The front of the card: "Your life is filled with wondrous possibility."

I was not the only birthday at rehearsal. My stage son was also born today (Happy Birthday, "Murray"!). His mom made homemade fudge. (I'm in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Yes, I'll wait while you look up some of the characters. Funny, eh?)

Video wishes from adorable tykes.

I noticed my sole gray hair (which I've had for a while) acting like a piece of lint after I declared on twitter that I don't look a day over 25. Well done, gray hair. Pop that ego before it balloons to big.

As Ice Cube said, "Today was a Good Day".

My First Management Position

Before I started my last quarter of school, I auditioned for the Civic Arts production of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I had a horrible audition. Still, I wanted to be a part of this fun story. 'I can help backstage if I don't get a part' I told the director.

'How would you like to be the stage manager?' she offered a week or so later. A phone conversation later and I was at the next production meeting. I was a stage manager!

With no idea how deep the pool was.

Sending rehearsal reminders, supporting the photo shoots and costume fittings and make-up classes, running production meetings, shushing the kids (who make up most of the cast) – that was the easy stuff.

Understanding the stage? My comprehension of left and right is slightly worse than that of a 3-year old. Despite the fact I've been onstage before, getting Stage Left and Stage Right correct – with 4 wings, 24 actors, props upon props upon props – took some serious diagramming. And even then, I got turned around the minute I went from the rehearsal space to backstage.

And that's still the shallow end of the pool.

Then came tech week. Or as it's known in theatre, "Hell Week". Come tech week, the stage manager takes charge. It's the stage manager who calls the lights and starts the show on time. The stage manager is there for every performance. The first few days of tech I kept telling the production team, 'Uh, guys? You do realize I don't know what I'm doing, right?'

I shouldn't have worried about being in the deep end of the pool. Theatre is a team project. One never works alone. Every member of the production team was an excellent teacher, available for my questions, setting me straight when I strayed. The theatre staff was wonderful; I asked, and it was provided. Crew and staff basically said 'Uh, dude? We're your water wings. Chill'.

Late nights, early mornings, no sleeping-in on weekends. It was good times.

We closed on a Sunday. Monday morning, I went to work with a sigh. No more animals, or playing cards, or mystical creatures. I missed my kids.

The Last Days of the MBA

My last two classes in the MBA program were entrepreneurship courses. In New Venture Development, we wrote a business plan for an idea that could not be a consulting project. In the Entrepreneurship Capstone, we did a consulting project for a local business.

In the business plan class, groups were limited to 2 - 3 members. Before class, we each had to come up with 3 ideas; as a group, we would select one to focus on for the plan. Instead of a book, we bought $100 software that did fancy machinations based on our entries. Presto! A pretty business plan could be spit out or exported, with tables and charts and graphs, oh my! It's cool beans.

There's a lot to think about when starting a new venture. If you're going to have an internet based business, how are you going to get folks to look at your site (or twitter or facebook page) in the first place? Who are your competitors? What are your estimated costs? How do you plan to harvest (sell or IPO) the business? (The bulk of an entrepreneur's money is made at harvest.) How do you plan to make money?

As an entrepreneur, all you do is sell. You're always seeking to close the deal. Not like a swarmy, pushy, used car salesman, but the type of salesperson you like.

If you know me, you know I've said "Oh, I don't do sales" at least a hundred times. Yet by the end of the course, I was thinking about trying to bring some of my ideas to market. Though I was worried at first (the professor has an in-your-face style), it turned out to be one of my best classes.

In the capstone, we filled out a questionnaire, were divided into four groups of six, did a few team building exercises, heard presentations from two businesses, selected our consulting project, did research, gave an interim presentation, re-tooled, and gave a final presentation and report. Yes, it did go that fast.

The capstone is the course where we apply everything we've learned in the MBA program. Our class had a live case study to analyze and comment on – a real company with real issues. Our suggestions should to help them improve their business.

Our group had three strong-willed women and three quiet (but by no means push over) men. There was no way we could make it out of the storming stage of team building by the end of the quarter. And if I didn't do what I do best in such settings (editing), the chances for misery would increase exponentially.

Yes, I thought about positioning and costs and how the company could interact with their community. But time and again, what I applied the most to the project was the knowledge of who the group was, and what I could control. I was much less stressed than I was at the beginning of the program when I was first put into a group.

Which is was the point, of course. If nothing else, we learned how to play well with others.

I'm in a play!

Civic Arts Stage company is presenting Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing, an adaptation of the book by Judy Blume. I play Mrs. Yarby, who just loves babies.
Tickets are available now at http://www.firehousearts.org/events/events-list.

IMPORTANT: We have 2 casts, so to see me on stage, you must buy for the following dates/times:

Saturday, 5/5, 7:30pm
Sunday, 5/6, 2:00pm
Friday, 5/11, 7:30pm
Sunday, 5/12, 2:00pm

See you at the Firehouse,