pliSkiNAKE

These pictures were taken by Natalie in a cemetary close to my house. I want to do something like this again sometime. If only time would permit it.
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Friday was pretty awesome. Party over at Jessie and Brian’s for Naki and Brian’s birthday. Lots of rocky people there, Beth, Naki’s sister was there also. I decided to crash over there for the night. There was of course alcohol, a keg, food, music, and bad weird anime almost porn. I think every rocky party includes bad weird anime something. A lot of us found it quite funny. It was just weird. I brought my camera so I was recording some of the night. Jessie is of course nice enough to make sure I had a place in the house to stay for the night, as opposed to the floor. Barry was cool to let me crash on the other bed in the basement. There were some people up quite late. I crashed around 4:40 or so. Only because I was up for work Friday morning at 4:30 otherwise I would have been able to stay up later. Maybe I will post some pictures, but maybe not.

The word of the day is myriad.
myr·i·ad [mir-ee-uhd]
–noun 1. a very great or indefinitely great number of persons or things.
2. ten thousand.

–adjective 3. of an indefinitely great number; innumerable: the myriad stars of a summer night.
4. having innumerable phases, aspects, variations, etc.: the myriad mind of Shakespeare.
5. ten thousand.

This word, brought to you by the letter 3.

Am I setting myself up for disappointment? I hope not. I don’t think I am. I just have to keep in mind what I already know is going to happen in the end. If I know what is going to happen then, and I know that now, I can’t be disappointed in the end. I do believe it is helping me proceed further and beyond what was holding me back. I don’t even feel out of place anymore. I am able to get close. Yeah, none of this is going to make sense to anyone but me (and maybe one other person). Why am I typing this?

Store opens in less than a week. It is coming up soon. Registered for classes today at Columbia College. Maybe (hopefully) hanging out with Beth Friday. Movie? Hell yeah!

I wish I would have updated a few weeks ago when I wanted to. I don’t even know what I wanted to post about back then. I had a good 4th of July. I got to hang out with Beth finally, yay. Knowing me and my shyness I didn’t feel nervous at all. I was quite relaxed and just not tense. I really enjoyed myself. We talked about movies for a while and then watched Mirrormask. Saw some fireworks and stuff. I wish I would have pushed for this months ago. It has been a while since I have made some friends. She is leaving in 43 days I believe. That is too soon. I hope she does well at school though. I guess I will post more later. I decided to go to work today instead of Sunday. Maybe that will create more time to hang out…

Today is my last day at the Whole Foods Market in Wheaton. I will be starting at Halsted and Waveland on Monday. I am really going to miss everyone at the store.

Lisa and her leadership: Lisa, you have a skill for encouraging team members. You have helped me grow from the ground up. Little bits of encouragement and motivation helped me get to where I am right now. You have a skill; use it to the best of your ability.
Kelly and her humor: She is tough at times but she makes up for it with her humor and quick remarks. I love them all. There may not be anyone like that at my new store but I do hope so.
BJ with how much she cares about Team Members who she is close with: You are one of those good parients. You remind me of my dad (and I mean all the good things about my dad which means a lot.) You have a good heart, keep it up and something good will continue to come from it.
Jean and her motherness to the Customer Service Team: Jean, I have learned so much from you, probably without even you knowing it though. You really are like a mother to the team, a mother-like figure to a home away from home. I wish you good luck on your upcoming surgery.
Sebastian and your, well, Sebastian ways: You have taught me some stuff with just being myself. Say it how it is, no sugar-coating it. Sometimes that is just what is needed.
Jessica and her attention to detail: You always keep an eye on the details. Also your innocent soft-like attitude really makes me smile.
Lauren and your self motivation to do things. You venture off and don’t wait for someone to take the path first. Thats awesome. More vegan restaurants with Brian is what I see in the future.
Andi and her innocent perky, bubbly self. You are so filled with happyness and smiles. You bring a smile for yourself and other people around, myself included. You seem to be a go-getter as well. This is my Andi Pandy and I am your Drew Bear; we only let certain things into the den. (if you don’t get it, don’t worry)
Jason H and his silent soldier but also silent leadership. Jason, you showed me the ropes from the get-go. Walking me around the store like you have done so many times with other new Team Members. Then, I was let loose to bag for customers. That was quite scary for me, very scary. I belive my words were something close to “…is someone going to be bagging with me at least?” Yeah, that never happened, but I turned out alright in the end. I was taught by observing your actions. Thanks
Linda and your down to earth jokes with me. Some of the conversations we had would only be understood by us. I loved all of them. Even when you really didn’t want to be here, you still kept a fun joking attitude. It helped make it past those last few hours (or minutes). I am really going to miss talking with you, even if it was only for a short time.

Brian M and your earth concious whatever way works for you attitude. It is awesome how easy going you are. Little bits of knowledge hear and there, getting off onto tangents is so much fun with you. I hope to do more as I will still be around. That and go climbing with you too.
Ronda and your code knowledge. I thought I had you beat for a while Ronda, but no, you pulled out in front and then left me to fend for myself. I loved it though. You kept me on my toes but I still had someone to fall back on. I even wanted to call you at home once to get a code. Almost. I remember doing HTGR with you though. That was a fun time believe it or not. I will now enjoy when you shout my name across the front end when I come into the store. Everyone will know that I am in the store shopping. It always brings a smile to my face.
Brady and your silly safetyness. If something isn’t safe, you are there to change it. I love it; every minute of it. You might be loud at times but that’s alright, it comes with humor. I won’t be forgetting your new system though (Hey, check out page 7. Does it look alright?) As much as I probably won’t use it, it makes me laugh, and then shake my head.

You might not be mentioned here, but don’t worry. I still have my memories of you. It isn’t that you didn’t impact me, it is because if I added anyone else to the list, it would just be too long. I guess it doesn’t really matter how long it is since I don’t think anyone that is even on the list will read it, but well, if you want me to continue the list (and I have no problem doing that) post a comment to tell me to. All good things come to an end, but others are just beginning. Tomorrow is a new beginning.

I will be at the Whole Foods Market booth at the Cream of Wheaton. There was a note on the timeclock that two people were needed for it and I emailed Deb (our Marketer) about it. Bam, I’m in. I will be there from 2pm to 10pm on Saturday. I believe we will be handing out free frisbees, flyers, maybe some coupons or something *shrug*. Also I think we are sampling either drinks or food of some sort and maybe selling some stuff. It will be myself, Deb, and Amy our sign maker for the store. June 2nd, Saturday, Evening. Then, after that, it is off to Rocky Horror.

So I didn’t mention this earlier because I forgot I had the ticket and, well, yeah, I forgot I had the ticket. I went to the Arcade Fire Concert in Chicago at the Chicago Theatre. The concert was way better than I was expecting it to be. For the record (you probably know this if you know me) I am not one to like new bands that come around. I am stubborn about that type of stuff. So for me to be introduced to a band, like them enough to listen to them quite often, and then hear about a concert and attend is a pretty big step or it just says a lot about the band. *shrug*

The visuals were simply creative, obscure, and also amazing. The lighting was good; they had some new “effects” that I hadn’t seen before but NIN and Tool have been more creative. I can’t really compare them to Arcade Fire thought because they are on completely different levels. It is always slightly hard for me to judge sound at a concert. When I talk about sound, I don’t mean the lyrics. If I didn’t like the lyrics I wouldn’t be at the concert. When I talk about sound, I am talking about accoustics and also mixing of instruments and vocals. So the sound was done quite well. I stood by the audio booth and was watching the girl play on the audio board. I think she didn’t like me watching her because it is a “looking over the shoulder” annoyance. After about 10 minutes she asked me if she could help me with something. Sorry to whoever that was, I am just a little kid that am interested in lights, knobs, and sliders.

Now for the good parts of the concert. I will be leaving some stuff out (opening band, waiting in line, etc) for just making this a shorter post. I mean no one will be reading this in the first place, but if I do get someone reading this, I only want the good stuff in it.

When I saw the stage I thought “damn, that is a lot of shit”. The first thing I noticed were these white-looking strips that might have been attached to mic stands that were at their hightest height. Then the 5 white circles that were attached to lighting tripod stands. I didn’t really know how those would be incorporated into the show but I will tell you that one later. Then I noticed the small set of hanging pipe organs. Finally the numerous amps that were on stage. I believe there were around 8 or 10. There were 2 keyboards, one of those large-ass wood intruments (ya know the ones you have to stand up to play that are higher than you), the playing part of the organ, some guitars, drum set, and some misc brass intruments. There were tons of different instruments up there. There were also what looked like 2 projectors in the back next to FOH (front of house which means audio).

When the show began, those white circles turned into a moving animated logo of their new album which is called “Neon Bible”. So my first thought was that “hmm…maybe there are 5 different’ projectors somewhere? No that would be way too hard to aim, what if they got moved by the people playing? Maybe it will be a set image, a moving one at that. hmmm….”. Those 5 or so white strips were actually lights and when they first turned on they sorta flashed a pretty lighting color flash and then turned red. There were more of that same type of lighting along some of the different platforms. There was one more of those circle projector (or what I thought might have been a projector) on the kick drum as well. They came on stage and started playing.

All their music was pretty good. They played some songs from their first album but I wasn’t very fond of their first album. Not quite my cup of tea (especially because I don’t like tea). Okay, so more on those circle things. I found out from my observing techniques that they were in fact projectors. The circles were being projected from the rear (rear projected). And it wasn’t anywhere backstage but better yet, attached to the circles. The white circles weren’t just white circles but red squares with a white circle in the center. I believe they did that so you could only see a circle of the image that would then be projected.

Also, they did not just project their current album logo. They had grainy looking recordings of people playing instruments. I say grainy but I am talking about just poor quality cameras or low end. Then, as I looked closer at the people playing, I noticed that they were in rythm of the people on stage playing. Upon further looking I saw that even the hand movements were the same. Then I said “no….no, it can’t be, can it? Holy Shit, it is! There are cameras on stage, cameras about the size of pennies or nickles probably”. There were probably 10 or 12 cameras in different positions on the stage. Throughtout the show I also think I decided that they might be able to move as well because someone would be singing in the center and the two cameras, and the two circles that were showing the camera images, the cameras wouldn’t be quite on center with them. I saw movement (very very very slow smooth movement) of one camera, then bam, she was centered. Then I saw the other one move and she would be centered again. I don’t know what type of small cameras they were or how they got them to move, but I know they were moving, I know it.

Okay, more on the camera and visuals. During one song they put up static on the 5 circles. Then the sorta blended the static with colorbars that were wavy from left and right (as in the waves were going virtical). That looked really cool. Then they blended the static with the camera feed. That was awesome. And now for the part I can’t wrap my head around. Well I understand it but I have never seen equipment that could do it. They blended the static, with the wavy colorbars, AND the camera footage. From my experience the most you can do on a switcher is blend two sources together. hmm…just thought of this, but maybe they had two switchers. One that had a 50 - 50 on two images and then the second, being the main one (as in the feed coming from the first switcher, instead of that going to the projectors it gets fed to the other switcher as if it were it’s own feed, its own images) with a 75 - 25 with the third image. 75 being the mix of the first (sub) switcher. I guess that might be possible. Along with the circles they also projected on the back black cyc two images. Probably overlayed somewhat.

Now back to the beginning. When they came out I thought maybe some stage hands came out as well but no. There were ten people playing stuff. 10 band members! There were two on the back right (house right) platform playing brass intruments. Two on the floor in front of them playing woodwind intruments like violen and that big standing intrument that I can’t think of the name of. The main guy vocalist had a small guitar type instrument that I think was wooden. The girl to HIS left (or house right) was the main girl vocalist and was playing some winding instrument. It was like a fat wooden guitar. She wound it with her right hand and somehow played it with her left. She (or another girl) also had an accordion. That was awesome. Those things are so cool. There were two blow horns on mic or lighting stands. Ya know, those things people hold and talk into to make themselves louder The electric ones. They had mics attached to the end of them as well which is quite creative. There were some misc single standing instruments that you would normally find in a set; like a symbol on a stand, standing alone, or a snare drum. They were off to the left (house left).

It seems like almost every song, they were shuffling spots or jobs. The drummer came down to play on the keyboard while the main girl vocalist went to drums and put on a headset mic so she could still sing. That is pretty cool. One of the middle songs I looked over to my left and there were two girls dancing in the aisle. I believe they were doing somewhat of swing dancing, which was cool. The song was correct for that type of dance anyway. My face lit up with joy to see that. I love when I see audience members get into it as much as that. The lead girl vocalist danced a little on stage too. She had a very pretty black dress with a red cloth type belt I think, or it went over her shoulder somehow.

Finally, my favorite visual thing which had me drop my jaw. They said that it would be their last song and they walked off stage. The stage went black but I saw a few roadies put something on stage. It was a human size cutout of the guy lead vocalist. His face wasn’t there though. It was white. Of course I didn’t think of it at the time, but once it happened…yeah. They came back out to play. He played “My Body Is A Cage” and was at the organ spot. Very soon after that the white spot on the cutout wasn’t white anymore but instead was an image. It was one of the camera feeds. It was just of his face so it looked like his cutout was singing at the mic. Beautiful, creative, inventive. I believe they played two other songs after that. Two of the band members, they were mainly playing on the left side (house left), were switching instruments like crazy. They also played those single, solo instruments. They were going all out. One of them was singing into the blowhorn mic, then throwing it up in the air, only to catch it again and sing the next part. He did that a bunch of times. The other had drum sticks in his hand and playing the cymbal along with a snare drum. Later he picked up two cymbals with handles on them and clashed them together. Fucking ingenious. I loved it.

Again, overall I thought the show was awesome. Creative ideas, new inventive use of graphics, mass amounts of instruments, and all the energy to use them along with giving us energy. I am glad I got to go.

Yes, that is right. I had an interview on Tuesday for the position of SSI (Store Systems Integrator) for the new Halsted store that will be opening at the end of June. I did quite well in the interview and I received the position. WOOOHOOOO!!!!! Yay me. My first choice would have been the new South Loop store but someone with lots of previous experience was already getting that one. Still, it will be pretty awesome. The first few months will be hard. I will post more about it tomorrow maybe?

Well, we didn’t watch clue but instead we watched the Final Fantasy movie. It was pretty cool. Lauren ended up not coming though so it was just Jessica and myself. That was alright though because I get along with Jessica just fine. We talk about movies a lot and quote movies, make silly sounds, goofy comments; it was quite the time of fun. She really enjoyed the company, and also needed it. Her husband was out for the week. I think her and myself are becoming pretty good friends; close enough friends that we can talk to eachother about things that we normally wouldn’t talk to people about. I was over there until 2:10 or so. Fun times.

Backtracking, the board meeting was fun for me. (yeah yeah, don’t make fun) We talked all about making the new stage, our ideas for sound and lighting, and then the nitty gritty of what we need to do with some cast members. I am pretty psyched about the stage. I want to get started on it but we need to create blueprints (or something equivilant). *goes off to look at lighting equipment*