An Abreviated Update....I Can Be Such A Tease.....

Yet another gap between posts.....shrug.

That said, here is the update on what has occurred within the last couple of months:

Finished the Fall semester.

For various reasons, I was behind with some things and I had some worries about how classes would pan out grade-wise. But the final tally came up with a C, an A and two B's. So my GPA should stay above 3.0 and I should keep my scholarship(s).

No mainstage assignment for the Spring. Given that I have most of my classes outside the department and am unsure as to how intense their time demands will be that is probably a small blessing. I should (if things go as currently planned) have an assignment on the SDA workshop production this Spring. And I am also working up a "standing production package" for additional SDA workshop productions in the future. So with luck I'll still have some production outlet(s). I've already warned the shop manager that I'll be pulling back on my work hours to make certain that I keep up with my classes. Not that that will help the budget but if I want to go on to grad school (and I do) I need to keep my grades well into the B (or better) range.

I'm currently working on the lighting design for the upcoming Fairbanks Drama Association production of Picasso At The Lapine Agile. The current plan has me doing hang/focus work next week. The show opens at the beginning of February.

That's the short version.

Continuing to hammer at a longer, more epiphany saturated post....It'll show up. Eventually.

Blocks Are For Building, Right?

Working through some creative blockage(s) the last few days. Can't fully discern the trigger(s) yet.

I know that blockages happen to most everyone from time to time. And there are exercises to help clear them. What this is about (this blog entry) is more of some rhetorical (or maybe not so rhetorical) questions...

Do blocks come from being drained of ideas? Empty tanks? Or is it the opposite and the tanks are too full and so the pressure of concepts and ideas blocks a too small exit passage? If so, how do you "broaden your exit"? Sometimes, speaking just for myself, it seems as if the flow is being crimped off somewhere. The nagging feeling of an idea (or ideas) floating somewhere just beyond reach. The seeming inability to drag a concept from being a brain-spark down my limbs and make it "real". Annoying.

Herrmn.

Yes. That is a semi generic vocalization I use when wrestling with thoughts....amongst other things. Somewhat stolen from a video parody artists online version of Rorschach from the graphic novel The Watchmen (credit where due).

Off now to work on blockage clearing and such. More later.

This Just In.....

Bleheh.

Yes. I said it.


And that is all.

So...here's this gadget....I found it interesting:

Get Your Own Map

View Larger Map

I suspect that I have missed a state or two....But it's mostly accurate. Mostly.

That's all for now.

Japan In 2012???

Just a short post (for now) to mention this new bit of news that has shown up via several online news sources over the last few days:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/lifestyle/2011/10/10000-free-round-trip-tickets-to-japan/

What it boils down to is that the Japanese tourist industry is hurting due to some recent (March of this year) disasters there. And so they want to distribute 10,000 tickets to help bring in tourists and then have those tourists spread details of their trips via blogs and/or social media. The recipients would still have to pay for food, lodging, etc but the savings on airfare could make such a trip more immediately feasible for yours truly....And I have no issue with detailing my adventures as a requirement for being on the list....No problem at all.

The program has yet to get funding but I am going to go ahead and start working on my proposal soon (as classwork and productions allow) so I can get it polished. Yeah.....Oh yeah.

All for now. Hopefully I'll do a longer post soon.

Some Grad School (And Undergrad Too) Stuff

I'll start with some slightly frustrating undergrad news: while I had been hoping that I'd be able to work things out otherwise it appears that, rather than being able to receive my degree by Spring (or even Winter) 2012, I will almost certainly be finishing in the Spring of 2013. I'll be adjusting my resume accordingly within the next week or so. It's a question of getting all my minor requirements and some of my missing core classes completed. But that's okay. I love UAF and Fairbanks and all. After all, I plan on making this place my "base of operations" from now on so....

Now on to less frustrating and still in process news/items: while working the Mycology Society conference here on campus, I had the chance to speak with a biologist who is a retired professor at the University Of Kansas: Lawrence. It was a very pleasant talk about various things including theatre and afterward I decided, sort of on a whim, to take a look at the graduate program in theatre at UK:L. And I was sort of surprised and pleased and impressed all at once. You see, the program there does not separate into scenic, costume, lighting and tech direction. Rather it is a scenographic degree much like one might find in Europe. As someone who has long described myself as a "theatrical generalist" and who has as one of his favorite quotes the Robert Heinlein statement "Specialization is for insects" I kind of like the idea of having to do designs in multiple areas while in grad school. So I will be adding UK:L to my potential schools list, along with University Of IL: Urbana-Champaign and some of the various other URTA schools. I will definitely still (if I can arrange it) go to the URTA session(s). And continue to research and seek suggestions about potential schools and programs too. So if anyone has any suggestions or comments please let me know. Since, as I mentioned above, I will most likely not be entering grad school till the Fall of 2013 and so I have some time to work through things. And yes, I suppose that some folks may think "why start so soon?" And my answer would be, with potentially needing to take the GRE's (depending on what the schools ask for...many don't for theatre but some might) and scheduling for the URTA's and possible campus visits and interviews and.....well, you get the idea.

So....anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

Once More: Only. In. Alaska.

So here I am, doing some stuff (wow, that was descriptive) and I look out the window after seeing some motion outside and I figure "Oh, it's a raven, landing on the streetlight..." But then I really looked. And even though I have seen some big ravens in my time so far up here, I have not seen many as big as this bird was. And the body shape is wrong for a raven. And I realize: it is an owl. One that is at least as big as my head and neck combined. Maybe even a bit bigger, but it was difficult to tell since it was "fluffed up" to help deal with the rain going on. And so I sit. Watching from inside for awhile. As a smaller bird (Robin perhaps? Starling maybe?) keeps flying close in by the owl, attempting to drive it off, lure it away, what-have-you. There are some nests nearby so it might have been a "parent bird". But the owl was having none of it. It just sat there, atop the streetlight. Watching. Waiting. Because of the glare from lights inside I could not get a really good look at it so I went on outside. And as I walked up towards the streetlight, the owl would occasionally turn and glare at me. But then it would go back to just sitting. I got up to about a dozen feet away from it, plus or minus the distance of it's elevation on the streetlight (about 8 feet up). The little bird kept swooping and chirping. The owl sat silent. After a little bit I started to walk away and that is when it (the owl) decided to move. It opened it's wings and dropped down, gliding past me and further along into the plaza. As it swooped I suspect that, if I had foolishly stretched out my arm, I would have easily been able to touch it's wing as it went by. Yeah. That close. I am virtually certain that the species was a Horned Owl of some type. With the lighting level (it was 11pm local time) it was a bit difficult to get good details. And sadly I did not have my camera. Anyway, after it swooped I looked back towards where it had been and experienced another "only in AK at this time of year" sort of moment. Because in the mist, at 11pm-ish, there was a rainbow visible.

So. Darn. Cool.

All for now. More later.