Andy Laub they call me "The Solution"

I have a lot of shoes. Many of them were acquired during my years of work for a place that may be described as a “foot locker” of sorts, but even after my departure for greener pastures, I still find footwear (of the sneaker-ish variety) relatively enthralling.

As a result, I don’t tend to wear any given pair a lot, and so they all reach a point of looking somewhat worn but not completely broken before I move on to the next thing that catches my interest. And that’s why I’m confounded by a pair of Vans I bought 5 years ago.

When I first started wearing the Slip-Ons, I was somewhat skeptical. It’s not that they were uncomfortable by any means; more that I wasn’t sure if I liked how they looked on my feet. But I quickly acclimated to the sight of that solid white strip of sole, and the Vans became my go-to shoes. They’ve been with me to Chicago and Vegas (among other more local places), rehearsals and performances, work and play, and they’re one of the few pairs of shoes I have that remains consistently stylish (I believe the word is “classic”) regardless of what they’re paired with.

It soon became clear that I had found a staple to my wardrobe; I wore the Vans more frequently than any other shoes. Like a great pair of jeans, they got more comfortable and better-looking with age, each little rub and tear adding to a perfect patina. But, paranoid as I am, I knew they wouldn’t last forever, and I knew that I’d want to have a replacement on hand for when that time came. My first second pair of Slip-Ons were the vaunted checkerboard colorway, which were soon joined by a cappuccino pair (both on sale, so why not?).

The thing about Slip-Ons is that they get better with age – the blackened sole, worn down logo on the heel, the weathering of the seams. So when presented with a choice between unbroken new shoes or perfectly-worn not-new shoes, I almost inevitably choose the latter, which is why both of the other pairs are still relatively new-looking. I’ll be honest: I think brand new Vans look a little goofy; it’s only after they start to wear that they look like they should. The problem is convincing myself to push through that goofy phase (it’s kind of like when your hair is too long to be short but too short to be long) instead of just wearing the other pair of shoes that I already like.

But I’ve been feeling for awhile that my favorite pair has been close to critical mass. They’re not as bad as they could be, but it’s time to transition them to semi-retirement status. Fortunately, I think I’ve lined up a suitable replacement (for real this time), and so the cycle begins again.

Last year I introduced the new year by participating in what had to have been one of the lamest questionnaires ever. This year I feel the need to again look back on the year that has just passed, but I want to do something that’s a little more original. Instead of a bunch of arbitrary questions, I’m choosing one event or experience from each month that has held the most significance in my mind.

The year started strong. January didn’t bring the same drama this year that it brought in 2008 (thankfully). Instead, I get to point out that that was the birth of the current iteration of this website.

February was relatively uneventful as well, aside from preparing for shows. But I did put together some awesome LEGO.

I spent a lot of time complaining about the weather this year, as I was already raring to get back on two wheels when March rolled around. That was only exacerbated by the new toy. The day trip to Minneapolis to pick it up was awfully fun too.

In April I put new wheels on my car. No, I mean I put them on. By myself.

May brought the first of a number of shows last year: The Last 5 Years, in which I was approximately 50% of the cast. It was a great experience and the theatrical accomplishment that I continue to be most proud of.

Then Godspell happened in June, and that was awesome too! Great cast, great technical staff, great venue, and a great show. Probably one of WCT’s best, ever.

Things wound down a bit in July, but we had the official Godspell reunion / cast party up in Tomahawk. AKA Real World: Godspell. TEXT MESSAGES!

August was a quiet month, so I spent a lot of time on the bike, and did my first (and second!) 40-mile ride(s).

After years of planning and months of labor, Citizen Wausau 2.0 was finally launched in September, much to the excitement of those involved.

In October, I ran.

The only potentially negative item on the list happened in November, when I passed out on stage. Even then, it’s just something that happened, but I don’t think of it as being decidedly “bad”.

I had such a great vacation in December, you guys. Seriously, it was wonderful. Plus it was my birthday!

At the beginning of 2009 and more recently I talked about my efforts to save money and not go crazy buying games. Looking back I would say I did a pretty decent job; I saved myself from a few titles that were definitely not worth buying but still had the opportunity to play through pretty much everything I wanted. Finding a game that you want on sale is an added bonus over just being able to go out and buy it, and practically becomes a game in and of itself. I even managed to mostly abide the “no $60 games” rule, with Forza 3 being an obvious and acceptable exception.

* gift card incentive
** shared purchase

Earlier this year I wrote about how much money my video game habit has been costing me, and how I hoped to be more judicious in my purchasing habits. My goal was to better evaluate potential purchases and determine their worth based on how much entertainment they’d provide. Forza Motorsport 3, for example, is a game where I’m very close to (if not past) the $1/hour mark. On the other end of the spectrum, Modern Warfare 2, while a lot of fun, would’ve cost me somewhere around $6/hour if I had bought it versus renting.

It’s the games in the middle that get you. I knew I could hammer through MW2 well within the 72 hours that it was in my possession, but that’s not always the case. I had been toying with the idea of a GameFly subscription (like Netflix, but for video games), but never made the leap until a recent promotion came along.

The Honeymoon

My initial experience was extremely positive. The first game in my “Q” (ugh) was Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The game shipped on Monday and I had it on Thursday, just in time for a relatively uncluttered weekend. I plowed through it and had it back in the mail early the following Monday.

The Marriage

Then I waited. GameFly claims that they work with the postal service to scan games as soon as they’re put in the mail. When a game gets scanned, GameFly treats it as a return, and immediately prepares your next game. However, I didn’t experience this. Uncharted didn’t process as a return until Thursday.

In the meantime, I eagerly awaited my opportunity to play The Saboteur. Unfortunately, being a brand-new game, it must have been in short supply, as they skipped it and moved on to the next game on my list: Prototype. When I read the shipping confirmation email, my heart sank.

Which is odd. I was really excited for Prototype when it first came out, and then I gradually lost interest in it as time wore on. By the time it reached my door (this past Monday), I had little interest in actually playing it (admittedly, this is all my own fault) but I persevered.

The Divorce

Whether the game itself is good or not is irrelevant here. But in playing it I’m finding the achilles heel of GameFly membership: you feel forced to play whatever game is in front of you at the expense of doing anything else you may have preferred to do; only by moving through games and returning them as quickly as possible are you getting the most value out of the membership. Even then, you’re handicapped by the shipping speed.

Netflix somehow manages to avoid these issues, at least in my mind, for two reasons:

1. The time spent “experiencing” a movie is not the unknown that it would be with a game.
2. Netflix’s digital distribution methods offer instant gratification.

it would be interesting to see GameFly (or a similar service) explore methods of digital distribution, but I don’t know how it would work. In the meantime, this trial membership has been effective in determining that GameFly just isn’t my thing.

Let me begin by apologizing for the near incident that occurred last week. As someone whose feet are in his top three preferred modes of transportation (pending weather and destination), I want to say that I understand the hassles that accompany being a pedestrian in this fine city we both call home, and that those hassles are only compounded when vehicles (large and small) become involved.

However, I feel that there are a few things that went awry in this situation that could have easily led to a catastrophe. I would begin by suggesting that, when you inevitably need to cross a street, you choose a location other than a few yards around what is essentially a blind corner for traffic. You could’ve begun at the corner itself, where I would’ve been able to see you before I turned, or you could’ve walked the extra block to the next intersection where there are crosswalks and crossed there, or even waited until you were a few yards further down the block so my experience wasn’t just “turning-BOOM-pedestrian” (fortunately not literally).

I am happy you were at least as far from the corner as you were, as when I rounded the corner (with no stop sign, mind you) there was a fair gap between the right side of the street (where you had come from) and where you presently were (nearly in the middle of the road). As such, I altered my course appropriately, veering slightly more toward the right to give extra space between you and my vehicle. I chose this approach as it represented a clear path for me without inhibiting your progress, since it’s preferable for me as a pedestrian to, well, get my ass out of the street as soon as possible since that’s where cars go.

Imagine my surprise, then, when instead of continuing on your way (or even stopping in the middle of the street, similar to a deer!), you decided the best course of action was to jump backwards into the path of my car. You got me good here – I definitely was NOT expecting that move! As I steered to the left in an attempt to avoid your maneuver, I was already sensing futility in this exercise, and was not disappointed when you jumped back the left, and in front of me a second time.

At this point I must ask if you’ve ever been walking down a hallway and encountered someone going the opposite way? If so, you’ll be familiar with that awkward little dance that happens when right of way is being determined. Between two (relatively) slow-moving people, it’s little more than an annoyance. However, I would not recommend playing this game with a car, or really anything larger than yourself. I’ll just say that I’m glad I stopped and did not hit you, but only because of the hassle it saved me in the end. I’d highly recommend that next time this happens to you (and given your self-righteous tirade afterwards, I’m sure it will), you act in a more predictable manner instead of like some sort of wild animal.

Saturday started innocently enough. A half-hour run, followed by some delicious cereal and a couple hours of nerdery before making my way downtown to prepare for the first of the day’s two performances of WCT’s 1776. It was shortly after noon when I walked through the stage door of the Grand Theater with my recently acquired sandwich, which I made short work of as I readied myself for the 2:00 matinee. Life was good.

As the show began, I felt awfully tired. I wrote it off to the heat, and after the first scene took the opportunity to rest a bit backstage as I had a long while before I need to return. I was still feeling a little sluggish afterward, and digestively something just felt… off. My next scene came and went, and while the tiredness went away, the nausea did not. I opted to miss my next entrance and spend some time in the bathroom (fill in the blanks), which seemed to help, and felt cool and rejuvenated for a short period after that. The feeling was short-lived, and the final few scenes left me feeling beat from every direction. I was still nauseous, and the tiredness from before became a full-on exhaustion.

It’s fortunate for me that 1776 is based around congress, and as such there’s a lot of sitting, because there’s not a lot else I was able to do at that point. It was a struggle just to keep my eyes open, and the lightheadedness I felt was becoming worse every time I had to stand for any reason. There was a point where I experienced what seemed to be a total disconnect between my brain and the rest of me, as I could not make my hands function.

As the show neared its end and we all approached center stage to sign the Declaration of Independence (spoiler alert!), I was struggling to keep it together for just a few more minutes. All I had to do was stand for a few moments, and then make it through bows, and then I was done. I failed.

My first thought: SHIT. I awoke to the curtain call music and the face of Edward Rutledge, one of a group of my fellow congressmen to carry me to the wing. If you’ve ever fallen asleep slightly while in a lecture or meeting or any other place where it’s inappropriate to do so, you may be familiar with the state where you start to dream and then you kind of wake yourself up. I think that’s what happened to me, except while I was standing up, and on stage. I’m fortunate that I was surrounded by others so I never even made it to the ground.

The next few minutes were… interesting. I only opened my eyes briefly after waking up, but I was so exhausted that I couldn’t keep them open. They sat me in a chair offstage, and I felt like I could’ve sat there basically forever and been happy. I can’t describe how relieved I felt (physically – how I felt mentally is an entirely different story) to just finally stop. I can certainly understand the cause for concern, as while I was totally lucid, that’s probably not what it looks like when somebody collapses and then just sits there with their eyes shut for ten minutes.

Eventually we went down to the orchestra lounge, where there are couches, and I rested a bit more. Abe brought me a Subway-brand cookie and that was delicious (did I mention he was in the audience for this show and this show alone? I was thankful for that). I was still feeling a little off when I stood, but I had some delicious pizza with the rest of the cast and felt a lot better. Fortunately the brother of a fellow cast member was able to step in for the Saturday evening performance (and did so with aplomb!), which left me free to go home and rest.

So it could’ve been a lot worse. Some people thought the collapse was part of the show (because that apparently happened when it was hot in congress back then), so I guess I can consider it my body’s own personal ad-lib. Fortunately I was able to return for the closing matinee on Sunday and celebrate the end of yet another fantastic WCT production with the rest of the cast and crew. I also owe them my thanks for their concern and help both before and after the incident.

(PS: I’m pretty sure it wasn’t actually the flu.)

I’ve made it no secret that I’m a huge bike nerd. I’ve spent countless hours poring over cycling websites and forums, reading about new gear, and just generally obsessing about things that a normal person wouldn’t give a second glance to. I have brand preferences, and I can list off the parts that I would put on my dream bike at any given time, from memory. I’ve cleared well over 3000 miles this year on a bike I’ve only had since March. So why have I only broken 100 miles (nearly all of them indoors) this month? There are a few reasons:

Weather

It’s October, and apparently it’s been decided that good weather is done for the year. It’s cool at best; windy and rainy at worst. I feel bad for not riding to work, but I don’t miss the hassles that it brings in terms of clothing and preparation. I’ll admit it – when you’re used to getting places under your own power, driving becomes one of those guilty pleasures.

Reliability

I’ve been constantly afflicted by a flat rear tire in the past two months. I couldn’t figure out what was causing it, but I was going through a tube every few rides or so. For that reason biking was no longer a reliable mode of transportation for me. I couldn’t justify trying to squeeze in 15 or 20 miles if I knew I’d have to spend a portion of it on foot, hoofing it to a gas station.

Time

I was trying to average 20-25 miles a day when I was riding during the summer. It wasn’t terribly difficult when I was going to and from work twice a day, but no matter how you slice it that ends up being nearly 90 minutes of riding, which is a time commitment that I’m just not interested in making when reason number one comes into play.

Disinterest

When all the reasons above combine it makes for an experience that’s just not enjoyable anymore. One alternative is to train indoors (I picked up a set of rollers earlier this year), but it is seriously boring, and not something I want to do everyday (if at all).

A Solution

With all this in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to start running.

Here’s the funny thing about that. I suck at running… or at least, I did. I couldn’t run a mile to save my life, and if by some miracle I did manage, my lungs would be on the verge of exploding so it may have been a self-defeating act. My very first run (in recent history, at least) consisted of a distance of about 1.5 miles, half of which were walked.

I paid for it dearly. My major mistake was opting to wear the Nike Free’s that I used for Wii Fit. While they were fine for a more aerobic use, they were terribly unsuccessful at dealing with the foot-to-pavement interaction, and my hips were out of whack for two days afterwards.

When I finally did recover (read: when I could walk without being in pain), I decided to give it another go, this time in a pair of borrowed Nike Shox. While I didn’t much care for the feel of them (Shox in general seem relatively heavy) they did a much better job of absorbing the impact and left me feeling much less damaged the second time around.

The fact that I committed to a second run at all is something of a miracle, as I don’t think I’ve ever reached that phase before. Apparently, that’s all it took. I lucked out and found a pair of Nike Zoom Start +, and the deal was sealed.

Nike +

It was no accident that I ended up with a pair of shoes that are Nike + compatible; that was basically one of my only requirements when searching. When it comes to exercise, stats have worked in my favor in the past, so I had no doubt they would work their magic again.

I was right. When base your distance on landmarks instead of hard data, it’s easy convince yourself you’ve gone farther than you actually have, and to feel more entitled to a break. The little voice in my ear told me otherwise, which made the little voice in my brain say “Keep going! You can do it!”

As it turns out, I can do it. In spite of the extremely temperamental weather (which fades to the background once warmed up) and the sporadic pain (which is assuaged by time on the rollers) I’ve found that I actually do love to run. It’s such a simple activity, and that’s why I was always frustrated that it always seemed to escape me before. It carries a lot of the same traits that I enjoy about cycling without the drawbacks. I’ll openly acknowledge that it’s harder on the body, but I’m getting more done in less time (in terms of exercise) and I don’t have to worry about random equipment failures.

And I can listen to music while exercising, which is basically a deathwish on a bike when you’re on public roads.

Speaking of raccoons, allow me to regale you with tales of urban nature this Labor Day weekend:

Tale #1

It was about 9:00 on Friday night when we were sitting in the media room. I was messing around in Little Big Planet while Abe was doing… whatever he does. We heard a noise, but didn’t think much of it, as we live in a house where noises are practically de rigeur. Honestly, I’m not even sure I heard the noise at all. I don’t really pay attention well.

So ten or fifteen minutes later, we go to the basement bedroom to find that the screen in the window has been pushed outward, leaving a much-larger-than-cat-sized opening and reducing the number of active cats in the household by one. From what we can deduce, Marshie (shown in anger mode), saw something (most likely a cat) outside that caused him to lunge at the screen. Imagine the surprise of both parties when the screen gave way and Marshie was suddenly outdoors.

By the time we got out there, he was frantic and desperate to return to the safety of the house, but so confused and upset that he ran past us several times. He finally showed up at the back door, where we were able to let him back in. He was still pretty upset, but a few minutes and some Party Mix brought back the Marshie we know and love.

Tale #2

We were driving and saw a raccoon. That was pretty neat.

Tale #3

So, it’s now 4:00 on Sunday morning. Sleep is happening, because that’s what I like to do at that time of the day, when I awake to banging on the same basement window as before. Inspection reveals two subjects: Subject A is a white cat sitting on the ledge of the window well (at ground level) – it’s the neighbors’ cat, and very likely the one that riled up Marshie the other night. Subject B is a rabbit that the cat has chased into the window well, and is now trying to escape.

This particular window well was added to the house when the previous owner started to finish off the basement. The window is probably 4′ x 3′ or so, and this well is sized to accommodate a human who would be climbing out of that window in the event of an emergency, so it’s of similar dimensions. That would be why the rabbit is having so much trouble. They are pretty impressive jumpers, but aren’t exactly practiced in the vertical leap; he’s manages to get about six inches from the edge, but then falls back down.

Let’s finish this story. I grabbed a towel and a pair of gloves and went outside. I managed not to step on the rabbit when I jumped down into the window well, and that’s pretty good considering I was only half awake. It was when he continued to run in circles that I realized getting the towel on him might be more challenging than I had originally thought, but he finally paused for a second so I went for it. Unlike birds, mammals just freak out more when you cover them with stuff, but fortunately he just kind of bumped into the window and stopped long enough for me to pick him up.

I set him down next to the ledge and uncovered him, and I think he was dazed for a minute because he just stared at me. Then he hissed (I swear!). Then, finally, he ran away, where he was probably eaten by that cat. I went back to bed.

How was your weekend?

First, a confession: I haven’t picked up Wii Fit since April, if that. Instead, I’ve been biking. Riding. Cycling. I think I like that last term the most; it sounds so official. I never felt comfortable calling it that when I just rode my mountain bike(s) around town; you need drop bars and skinny tires first.

I’m pretty much smitten with the LeMond in spite of the combined efforts of the weather and mechanical gremlins trying to make me hate riding. I mentioned after picking it up that my goal was to reach 1100 miles on it this season – equal to the cost of the bike. I figured it was doable, but what I didn’t know was how quickly that milestone would be reached.

Not quite three months later, I had my answer – I reached that goal on June 11th. Then came 1500 miles, and yesterday I hit 2000. I’m finding that 500 miles or more a month is pretty easily attained, especially now that I don’t have constant after-work commitments.

Furthermore, weather this year has been awfully strange; it seriously feels like everything is delayed by 1-2 months. If this trend keeps up, the great biking weather could continue well into November. In the meantime, I’ll ride outside as much as I can until the snow falls, and then I have to figure out what kind of routine I want to use to keep the exercise up – Wii Fit again? Rollers? Some other ridiculous Wii game?

Time will tell. For now, I bike.

Back in February I talked about a show that I was going to be part of called The Last 5 Years. Rehearsals for that picked up in early April and posting here (at least as far as articles of substance) correspondingly became few and far between.

Well, the show ran at the end of April/beginning of May and went absolutely great. We got so many compliments, and the Jefferson Street Inn totally delivered as a venue – seriously some of the nicest staff ever (thanks for the cookies). Shortly thereafter… actually, that’s not accurate; while L5Y rehearsals were going on, auditions and rehearsals for Godspell also started. I’m not going to go into details here with regards to the story of the show (uh – the bible, basically), but I will say that there were a couple weeks in April in May where I found myself totally overwhelmed with the prospect of a) working on two shows at once and b) catching up on the second show after the first show wrapped. There were some rough nights as I struggled to pick up choreography that I was absent for, and to experience that bond that actors get after they’ve been seeing eachother on a daily basis for 3 weeks in a row.

As June rolled around I was still stressed but starting to feel better about things. As though I didn’t have enough going on, I also was trying to squeeze in a daily bike ride and manage the graphic design for the show, which required not only materials for Godspell “the show” but also the imaginary band we created – but I digress.

Because both shows are so great, Abe jumped at the opportunity to direct both of them, leaving him in basically the same boat as me. His vision for Godspell (an interesting attribute of this show in particular is that it can really be set where ever you want, as long as it involves people coming together and forming a friendship) was that it would take place after a massive rock show at the Grand Theater. Thus, the setting for the show could remain as it had been during the concert, and the actors are “fans” of the band that have hidden away in the theater and snuck back on stage after the crowd departs.

So if you’re going to have a rock show, and fans, you need a band. Thus, The Almighty was born. And with the Almighty came posters, CD covers, and T-shirts, plus a generic graphic that could be easily applied to other items.

End digression. Anyway, so yeah, as if being stressed about acting weren’t enough, I was also stressed about the identity for this imaginary band. But in the end, everything clicked.

It would not be a lie to say that this is the most amazing show I’ve ever been apart of. I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of my stage experiences, but this one in particular stood out as the perfect storm of really great material, a strong and original vision, and a cast and crew who came together to produce what we’ve been told over and over is one of the best theatrical experiences they’ve had in a very long time. I really want to thank everyone who had a part in it, because everybody gave it their all and it shows.

I think everyone has their own way of deciding whether a particular performance was strong – I definitely reflect on my own contributions and try to determine what needs to be adjusted. But I also really enjoy trying to read the audience. I suspected we had a winner when there was screaming (of joy, obviously) after the first big song. I knew we had a winner when the standing ovations were immediate, every time. If you’ve ever been to a play, you know what I mean. Sometimes the audience won’t stand at all, or will stand reluctantly and gradually because a couple overly enthusiastic people jumped up right away. That was not the case here. As we lined up on stage, before we even got a chance to bow, butts were out of seats.

And now I’m thinking about it and feeling a little sad. I’m so proud of what we were able to put together. I mean, I’m really proud of my work in Last 5 Years, especially the singing that high, that much for 6 shows and not losing my voice part. But like I said, Godspell was a perfect storm. Of awesome.

Here in Wausau, the bike shop of choice is Rib Mountain Cycles. They’ve established themselves as having the most knowledgeable staff and some of the best product. I feel like I have a decent rapport with them, which is not something I can say about any of the other shops in town.

And that’s why I felt so guilty when I bought my Bianchi in 2007 – a bike I chose to buy over the interweb even though it was available locally. As is often the case, the bike as it was online was still hundreds of dollars less than RMC’s price, even after shipping and tuning. And being as the Bianchi was a niche bike, and one I didn’t particularly need, my reasoning was this: it wasn’t a tossup between buying the bike online and buying it locally; it was between buying it online or not buying it at all.

As a penance I resolved (again) that my next bike would be a local purchase, and assuming I won the lottery, it would say “Specialized” on it – a brand I’ve always liked sold by a shop I’ve always liked.

Well, I lied. All of the joy that accompanies getting a new bike turns to sheepishness when you walk it through the door of the shop you didn’t buy it from. At least with the LeMond it’s an easy excuse: RMC doesn’t sell the brand; RMC doesn’t sell a cross bike with disc brakes at all, much less one that I could afford. They even complimented it (that still makes me smile, even nearly two weeks later)!

I feel singled out in this experience, but it’s unrealistic to assume that the crew there doesn’t deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis. Cyclists are a finicky bunch, and a single shop can’t reasonably hope to be everything to everyone. So instead, Rib Mountain Cycles finds success in being a bike shop that is fun to go to; one where the staff is so nice and helpful that I want to spend my money there. And considering it’s biking that we’re talking about, there’s always an excuse.

I like the concept of comments on blogs. While I don’t see too many comments here, I like that the few people that follow my bouts of incoherence have the option for feedback. Of course the occasional spam seeps through, but Akismet is pretty effective in catching that sort of thing.

But I woke up this morning to a comment on a post I wrote months ago about video games, in which the commentor basically just called me biased and said I was a fanboy. While the bias accusation just leaves me stupefied (in terms of bias, that particular article ranked pretty low – you may be more interested in this one or this one or this one) but as a whole I’m not sure how I’m even supposed to react to a comment like this. I could write a real rebuttal or offer a slightly less mature response (the PS3 sucks and so does your face), but both of those would be based on the assumption the commentor is going to show up again, which seems unlikely – they took their shots, why would they come back?

So the only option left is to ignore it, which just irritates me. I just can’t figure out what compels someone to Google “MS NXE vs PS3 XMB” and leave a half-baked comment on the first site they find about how M$ sucks and Sony r000lz. It’s sad, because I love discussing this sort of thing and would be totally willing to have this conversation with a total stranger regardless of bias, yet these are the sort of people who share this hobby.

Oh look – option four is whine about it. I can do that!

While I usually try to avoid doing the self-quiz/meme/etc thing, especially on this site, one occasionally comes along that I find genuinely interesting. The latest as such is spreading though Facebook, and simply asks users to share 25 personal facts. As I read a few lists put together by friends and acquaintances, it became apparent that when you start to add up all these relatively miniscule bits of data your result is a good portion of the writer’s personality. It’s not just the actual facts themselves, but the way they’re presented and the fact that those were the points that were included.

With that said, here are some things about me you may not have known:

1. I like a good conversation, but I have a hard time telling people about myself when they say “tell me about yourself.” And I’m awful at small talk.
2. I prefer multiples of 5. I always have – for some reason, that seemed like the ideal number to me. I’m pretty consistent in my work about following this compulsion, as a number like 625 or 630 just makes more sense to me than a number like 627.
3. I never finished college, even though I was there for four years. It would’ve taken another year or so for me to get a degree, and instead I started a full-time job doing the thing that I was originally getting the degree for. Even so, I remember looking at the calendar occasionally and thinking “If I was still in school, I’d be almost graduated, etc”. That feeling has slowly gone away over the years, because…
4. …I’m not convinced having a BFA would put me any further along in my life than I already am.
5. I own a lot of stuff but I feel guilty about it, especially given the current economic situation.
6. I somehow manage to be both hard-of-hearing when somebody is talking to me, and hypersensitive to ambient noise.
7. I am not totally sure how I should be spelling my middle name. For the longest time I thought there was only one T, but there may be two. I continue to use one.
8. It wasn’t until I got to around fifth or sixth grade that everybody started to call me Andy instead of Andrew.
9. I don’t think I know anybody in my family all that well, and while this makes me kind of sad, I also feel as though it’s too late to change that, partially because…
10. …I don’t think anybody in my family knows me all that well either, and I’m not convinced they are that concerned about it.
11. A project as it ends up on paper very rarely lives up to the standard I’ve set in my head.
12. I’ve had a blog since 2002, more for my own sake than anyone else’s. I’m not deluded into thinking anyone else cares that much about what I have to say.
13. I’ve cut my own hair since I got out of high school.
14. I’ve never broken a bone.
15. I didn’t take any serious art classes until college. My electives in high school were geared toward drafting and engineering. I originally wanted to be an architect – sometimes I still do.
16. I would like to live in a house of my own design someday.
17. I feel that there is no such thing as “too much” garage space.
18. I worked at a library in high school – it was my first job. As such, it only supported what was already a pretty voracious appetite for books. However, when I left that job, there was a sort of stigma placed on libraries in general and I while I would happily still read a ton of books, I don’t go to the library to get them and so I end up not reading very much at all.
19. I generally prefer remakes of movies to the originals (sorry). On that subject, I have not seen very many of the movies that people consider to be “the classics.”
20. I rarely prefer movies that were based on stage productions – for all the added budget they seem to lose an awful lot of personality and creativity.
21. I like seeing myself in the mirror but I rarely like photos or videos of me – what I look like in my head is nearly always different than what I actually look like.
22. I am trying to be less of an asshole this year.
23. My favorite musical instrument is the piano. I think it’s one that can contribute something of value to any type of music, and the acoustics of a grand or baby grand are just amazing to me. Close runner up is drums, because I like rhythm. I wouldn’t mind a piano + drums band.
24. I go through spurts of really needing to hang out with people, and then some of wanting to just spend some time alone. It’s not your fault.
25. I have a million grey shirts, I prefer my electronics in black, and I want a white car.

Until relatively recently, my stage experience beyond the obligatory grade school Christmas Pageants was extremely limited. I was comfortable in the theatre environment and being around theatre people (I live with one!), but beyond The Wizard of Oz in high school and Cabaret in college, I hadn’t really thought much about acting.

Then Urinetown came along and the perfect storm of factors (awesome show + familiar setting + “the itch”) led me to a few solos and some actual lines.

I was hooked.

Connections from that show led me to Wausau Community Theatre, where I eagerly anticipate my eighth new role in the last two years. Again, it’s a show that I’m incredibly fond of, and again it pushes me into a new and strange environment. This is the first time I’ll be working with Abe as a director, and the first time that I make up exactly 50% of the cast.

The Last 5 Years is a story about a man (Jamie) and a woman (Cathy) and their relationship as it develops and ends over five years. The twist, if you want to call it that, is that Jamie tells his side of the story from the beginning to the end, while Cathy starts at the end and rewinds to the beginning. It’s quite interesting, because you’ll hear songs where Jamie is excited and enthusiastic about his life with Cathy, while she is frustrated and unhappy, and vice versa. If it sounds kind of convoluted, that’s because it is; but when you hear the music, it all clicks together and works really well.

Auditions for the show were quite early because of another WCT show happening first, and so rehearsal for this hasn’t kicked in yet and probably won’t for another month or so. Still, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this is the most excited and nervous I’ve ever been for a show: excited because it’s a role I’ve often admired, and nervous because I pray that I’m able to pull it off.

I get headaches. Migraines. It’s kind of hard to pin down a frequency; it seems there are blocks of time that are months long where they’re a weekly occurrence, and then some shift in life or climate or Daylight Savings Time will happen and they will leave me alone for awhile.

If I had to guess I’d say that boredom, stress, and stale/gross air are all factors. Every so often, the perfect storm of these elements comes together my eyes start to hurt. Then the nausea sets in, I plod through the rest of the workday and head to bed when I get home, hoping to wake up headache-free the next morning.

I was resigned to this routine for years. None of the pain relievers I tried made much of a difference, to the point where I no longer even bothered with them.

But I haven’t had a debilitating migraine since September, and I blame it on exercise. Maybe that’s not entirely the case; after all, it was also around that time that I started using Target’s version of Excedrin. Taking one pill any time a headache seemed imminent has actually been effective, but I’m not willing to give medicine all the credit.

For me, headaches have always been caused as much by mental factors as physical. As soon as I feel a headache I begin to obsess about it, which only makes it worse because it’s all I can focus on. Even when taking some kind of relief, I’m more than halfway convinced it won’t do any good – and I am often proven right.

But factor exercise into the equation and that’s where the magic happens. Take today for example – I was feeling the beginnings of a pretty wicked headache by the time I got home from work. I popped a couple of Fakecedrin and ran for half an hour, and just like that, it was gone. Yes, I’m sure the pills did their job, but they were enabled by my complete preoccupation with something else (which is why sleeping it off usually worked).

It’s because of this that exercise for me has now become something even more than just fitness – it’s pain relief. People have asked me if I feel different after losing weight; the answer is yes and no. I don’t feel particularly light on my feet or anything like that, but it’s little things like this that have made life so much easier.

Yesterday marked day 120 of Wii Fit, so I’ll start with the numbers:

BMI: 22.18 / Weight 167.3 for a total loss of 6.51 BMI percentage points and 48.7 lbs.

Not bad, but it’s slight increase from my all-time low of 21.83 / 164.7 lbs. And the numbers aren’t nearly as impressive as they had been the previous three months. But that’s because I stopped worrying about it.

Two weeks ago, something in me snapped. I had reached the point where I was sitting just around BMI 22, and not losing any more weight. By anyone’s standard, this is a healthy number, but I had become addicted to the process, to the thrill of seeing those numbers drop.

I realized it was keeping me from enjoying food, making me skip the occasional breakfast, pushing me to work 20 more minutes on top of what I was already doing. I decided it was time to let it go, and just enjoy eating again. So I did. I kept working out, but I stopped measuring for a week. And I ate horribly and indiscriminately: Pizza Hut, pasta, cookies (I missed them so), muffins – you name it.

When the next week rolled around, I stepped on the proverbial scale again, dreading the inevitable increase. I figured it was going to be big, regardless of how much exercise I had been doing in the meantime.

I was very wrong. It was two pounds. Two. It was then I realized that I don’t need to worry about this anymore. I’m going to enjoy eating again, and I will keep working out. But to lose nearly fifty pounds (with a video game!) during the middle of winter is a pretty fantastic victory for me.

So with that, consider this my wrap-up review of Wii Fit. It works.

2008 ended last week, I guess. I feel like I wrote a decent amount, and I had every intention of writing a sort of “year in review” type of post. But I never got to a point where I had the right tone in my head, so instead I present you with this meme I found on the internerd. INTERNERD.

Achievements & Landmarks

What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Lost weight on purpose. Went into debt for a car that I fell in love with.

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I guess so, and probably not. They were always a half-hearted promise to eat better and take better care of myself. Also I’m pretty sure I was resolving about a Mac Pro heavily at this time last year.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

Uh, our neighbors? Or did you mean emotionally close? Then no.

Did anyone close to you die?

Sort of close. It would be wrong to say we weren’t close at some point.

What countries did you visit?

This one.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Patience.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I don’t think there’s one big thing that stands out, but I’m really proud of the work I did on Over the River and Through the Woods and Sweeney Todd. And losing weight counts as a major thing for me.

What was your biggest failure?

I let things fall by the wayside that shouldn’t have, and got angry way more than I should have.

What was the best thing you bought?

The Mac was the most practical best thing, and the Miata was the least practical best thing.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

What? Not mine, that’s for sure.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

People I thought I could trust. Myself included.

Where did most of your money go?

Toys. Lots of toys.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Grand Theft Auto IV. Driving stick. Singing in public.

What song will always remind you of 2008?

Monsters, by Matchbook Romance. Lame, I know, but it got me stoked for rides at Nine Mile.

Compared to this time last year, are you:

Happier or sadder?

Sadder, but I shouldn’t be.

Thinner or fatter?

Way, way thinner.

Richer or poorer?

Richer.

Miscellany

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Enjoying myself. Letting things go.

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Worrying. Spending money.

How did you be spend Christmas?

With people whose company I enjoy.

Did you fall in love in 2008?

Only on stage.

How many one-night stands?

None.

What was your favorite TV program?

I enjoyed SNL, as usual. Surprise second goes to Prison Break for no reason whatsoever.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Yeah.

What was the best book you read?

I don’t know – something that was on the bookshelf.

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Stephen Sondheim. The man is a genius.

What did you want and get?

Dollars, which enabled me to get many other things that I wanted.

What did you want and not get?

Resolution. Recognition.

What were your favorite films of this year?

Iron Man, easily. Dark Knight was also enjoyable.

What did you do on your birthday?

Complain. It was a tough day for me this year. That’s what I get for being born on Christmas Eve.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

“Hey, this fits me now!”

What kept you sane?

The internerd. Driving. Acting.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Obama would be a logical answer.

What political issue stirred you the most?

Obvious also starts with an “O”.

Who did you miss?

People I could only talk to online.

Who was the best new person you met?

Somebody who helps keep me sane.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:

Let. It. Go.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

I don’t think I can. That’s pretty lame, even for this.

The other day Kottke pointed out this thing on MetaFilter that basically talks about quality of life and how it can be dramatically affected by some of the things we use every day.

I find the concept fascinating, and it hits close to home for me. When I reached a point where I became self-sustaining, I started to adopt the philosophy that if I’m going to buy something, I might as well do it right the first time. Otherwise I know that I’ll just regret it down the line, and eventually buy it again. Since then I’ve still found myself burnt on occasion, but that’s not what this post is about. Nope – I think it’s time for a good old-fashioned meme:

• I love my iPhone. I am convinced it is the best phone in existence for me. I realize this is not the case for everyone, but regardless, something you use every day should be something that works with you, not against.
• Intel Macs are phenomenal. I can’t see a reason to go with any other brand for day-to-day computing.
• Get the biggest, nicest, highest-resolution LCD you can afford. There’s no such thing as too much screen.
• High-speed internet should be obvious.
• One year I spent my tax return on a really nice office chair. It’s a Herman Miller Mirra, and it’s awesome. I can’t say that it’s the chair for everybody, but everybody should have a chair that is equally awesome for them.
• Dyson vacuums suck so hard. In a good way, though. Especially the ones with The Ball™.
• The filtered water from our GE Profile refrigerator is the best water I have ever tasted.
• If you’re into TV, then you should have some sort of DVR. We went with TiVo, and will probably be shopping for a TiVo HD shortly. But it’s so nice not to be chained to your TV (or worse, a VCR).
• On that note, Hulu and friends are awesome, but they’re even better when you can watch them on your TV. There are a ton of approaches to this, so whatever works for you. But the ability to lay on the couch and watch the internet go by is key.
• Finally, one of the best things about no longer living in an apartment is a garage. Especially in snow country – I think I cleaned my car off a total of 5 times last season, and I can live with that.

Those are a few that came to mind as I was vacuuming this evening (ha!). What do all y’all think?

Last Monday I learned that Sprint is going to be adjusting their administrative fees again, meaning that subscribers desperate to jump ship can use this as an excuse to waive their ETF.

You may be surprised to learn that I was not among the desperate (this time). My 2 years is up come December, and I didn’t feel like arguing this with a Sprint rep, something I’ve tried before to no avail. But the article did pique my curiosity – when would my contract lapse, exactly?

So I logged on to Sprint’s customer service chat to find out:

Andy: I need to know when my contract expires.
[Rep]: I am showing your contract will expire on 12/17/08.
Andy: Okay – so is 12/17 the earliest I can close my account (I am planning on moving to a different carrier)
Andy: (without an ETF, I mean)
[Rep]:I am showing you will not have an ETF from this day forward.

Wait, what?

Andy: From 12/17?
Andy: Or from today?
[Rep]: From today on, you will not have an early termination fee.

So for whatever reason, my contract expired a month early. Which is why, since last Monday, I’ve been glued to my new iPhone 3G.

My final Sprint bill was for $4.04.

I’ll be honest here: for the last couple of years, I really haven’t been pleased with what I saw when I looked in the mirror. Because looking back at me was someone who was out of shape and yet not motivated enough to actually do anything about it. I could remember when I liked how I looked, and I missed those days. Days I haven’t seen since college, at least.

I’ve tried my share of remedies – eating a little less, biking a lot more, situps here, pushups there… heck, I was even going to the gym for awhile. But there was no discernible difference, no matter what I did.

So I’ve approached Nintendo’s Wii Fit with cautious optimism. I’d seen lackluster reviews from some of the gaming sites but also some positive real life experiences. I figured I’d keep an eye out for it and maybe pick it up if I got the chance, but I didn’t approach it with the same tenacity that I did when looking for the Wii or other hard-to-find items.

But the time finally came at Best Buy last month, and as I walked out with Wii Fit in hand, trying not to let too many people see it, I found myself wondering if this was really a good idea.

If I could call myself back then, the answer would be a resounding yes.

Day 1

Setup is relatively straightforward, as expected. You register one of your Miis to your account, put in your height, and when it weighs you it scales your poor avatar accordingly. I prepared for the worst, stepped on, and…

BMI: 28.69 / Weight: 216.5 lbs

Well, that’s kind of depressing, but not as bad as I had worried. You see, I have actively avoided weighing myself for the better part of five years. Maybe that had something to do with the motivation.

At the same time, the BMI (Body Mass Index) numbers provided by Wii Fit have been the cause for some contention throughout the internets, and the reason for this lies entirely in the hardware: the balance board is just a scale with some extra sensors. All it can do is measure your weight and determine what quadrants your weight is being placed on. It does not have the body composition sensors that some of the nicer body monitoring scales have, which means that it has to use a fixed table (similar to this one) by cross referencing your weight with your height. The problem here is that people with greater than average muscle mass may still be labeled as “overweight”, when they are in fact quite healthy.

But I digress. Wii Fit has four different types of activities: yoga, strength, aerobic, and balance. Yoga is pretty self-explanatory, strength consists of exercises like pushups or jackknifes, aerobics included running and boxing, and the balance category is home to some games that get old fast.

My major problem with the game (if you want to call it that) was that they really don’t tell you what to do. It’s helpful in that it will tell you what the results of each activity will be, but there isn’t any kind of recommended regimen for weight loss, or for strength training. Quite honestly that’s the one feature I feel they really omitted.

Routine

Over the next week or so I gradually unlocked all of the activities and started to establish a routine that I felt was working. In the last 31 days I’ve spent just over 27 hours on the various activities, which averages out to about 54 minutes per day (I missed a day when I was out of town). That 54 minutes generally consisted of:

• Free Run – 10 minutes
  Run in place for a set number of minutes. I can do a little over 2 miles (according to the game, so take that with a grain of salt) in that time, which should give an idea of my pace.
• Advanced Step
  Some step aerobics. A nice cooldown after the run.
• Super Hula Hoop – 6 minutes
  Easily my least favorite activity. Swing your hips around until you die!
• Pushup / Side Plank – 10 reps OR Arm & Leg Lift – 20 reps
  Just some generic arm/core exercises.
• Jackknifes – 30 reps
  Abs. Actually I find this really relaxing.
• Tricep Extension – 20 reps
  Lift a thing up and down, up and down.
• Basic Run – Long
  Instead of being timed, this has you run for a set distance. “Long” is actually quite short – about 4 minutes.
• Rhythm Boxing – 10 minutes
  I was really bored by this one, actually. I wanted to like it but it’s so slow and feels like I’m not accomplishing anything so I started doing more step aerobics instead. However, it seemed to be getting results so I’ll probably start doing it again.
• Free Step – 10 minutes
  Like Free Run, it’s timed and you step on and off the balance board for that amount of time. I do about 1300 steps in that time.

Overall though, it seems to be going pretty well. I’ve felt better about myself even if I don’t find the results particularly noticeable. Speaking of which…

Day 31

When I weighed in today it made me wish I hadn’t eaten the fried chicken from Texas Roadhouse but WOW it was so good this time. That reminds me of another point – weighing every day has a way of making you much more aware of what you’re eating. I still eat mostly the same stuff, but I’ve been trying very hard to eat less of it. I’ve also cut out some of the unnecessary trimmings (mayo, syrup, etc) and I don’t really miss them. Also no more full packages of cookies (this makes me saddest of all).

But it has its benefits, as my final numbers after a month were…

BMI 26.27 / Weight 198.2 lbs

That adds up to 18.3 pounds and 2.42 BMI lost! I am pretty proud of that – it’s been a long time since my weight started with a one, and I intend to keep it that way. I’m still not at ideal BMI (that would be sub-25) but I am well on my way and it’s suddenly become a very achievable goal.

…that I have found myself looking for in the past month, but cannot bring myself to move beyond that stage for any of them.

• A road bike
• A PS3
• A motorcycle
• A convertible
• A digital SLR
• A piano or keyboard
• Acoustic drums
• An iPhone
• A television
• Peace & quiet

That is all.