Andy Laub

Bear with me; I’m going to head back to theatre-nerd reference land for a minute. I mentioned a few times that I was just in Gypsy, a show about a young girl who is pushed into burlesque and stripping by her overzealous, fame-seeking mother. There’s an exchange in the show between one of the strippers at the theater and the daughter in which the daughter explains that she “can’t be a stripper because she has no talent.” To which the stripper responds, “to be a stripper all you need to have is no talent.”

To be a designer all you need to have is no talent. Stop and think about that for a second. How many terrible designers do you know? People that have no artistic skill whatsoever but still manage to extract the dollars from desperate clients who don’t know that there’s a better act just down the street.

Near the end of the show, the daughter has accepted stripping and become quite famous for it. She makes a statement during her act about being an “ecdysiast”, or one who sheds its skin, and exclaiming that “at these prices, I’m not a stripper; I’m an ecdysiast!”

With that in mind, there are plenty of truly talented designers out there, and as is often the case, they have higher rates. But at the same time, you’ll find designers charging like they’re ecdysiasts when they’re not, and vice versa. Such is life on the internerd: anybody can claim to be anything.

The last couple weeks have proven rather interesting for me. Fridays have found themselves full of meetings, and as a result more work and some exciting prospects that are still in the early stages of the maybe possibly happening?

I’m part of a podcast now, The Insophisticate. It’s about technology, but really it’s just my friend Dino and me talking for a random amount of time about the stuff we’d talk about anyway. You might find it interesting if you dig that sort of thing.

Wausau Community Theatre is presenting Gypsy at the end of February. I’m fortunate enough to be a member of the cast, which means I get to hone my acting skills and be with people whose company I enjoy. There’s no dancing or singing for me in this one, which I was kind of bummed about at first but has actually been a blessing in disguise since it leaves me with more open evenings.

Mass Effect was pretty darn good once I figured out how to play it; Orange Box is a game no 360/PS3/PC owner should be without. I’m probably 5% into Mario Galaxy but I haven’t picked it up since last month.

But seriously. Good things are coming (I think). There’s not one big thing that I’m looking forward to, but rather a bunch of small things that, when combined, make me happy.