My thesis statement: When working on a Pendant show, you don’t work WITH most of the people on the show.

Now, let me clarify that statement somewhat before everyone jumps on me like rfrancis did. When I say ‘work with’ I don’t mean ‘have input from’. I mean ‘have a back and forth discussion which leads to a better relationship (at least, better working relationship)’. In the case of Pendant, that ends up meaning better shows. By this definition, I have worked with Jeffrey, Tom, Jared, and Bruce. I may be considered to have worked with Philip, simply because I had conversations with him regarding his roles. I never had a conversation with Ryan about his acting, nor Susan (except one case where I asked for a retake of some barfing), nor Daniel, nor Rene, Perry, Steve nor any other actor in the shows I’ve directed. I’ve asked a couple actors to send in specific lines for a recent episode of Dixie (the crowd grumbling about Billingsly winning the science fair was 3 actors I asked in the chat to send in lines). I’ve asked for line re-takes for line quality or pronunciation issues. That’s hardly working with them on a long term basis.

Now, I BELIEVE (and I know he’ll correct me if I’m wrong) that rfrancis was suggesting that the idea that they’re sending him lines and he’s using those lines is sufficient to say that they are working together. Or an even more extreme case, when he, Tom, and Pete were in the same scene during Ex Tempus, he considers that working together. I don’t. There was no interaction. The three actors sent in their lines independently of each other, with (to my knowledge) no prior discussion about how the lines should be done, no rehearsals, no discussion with the directors about how they felt about it, etcetera.

Another way to look at ‘working with’ would be ‘receiving input about style/technique/etc from’. Again, I don’t think I’ve had that happen. I’ve asked a few times to people, and only when they were training me to replace them was there any feedback about my style/technique/etc. Jeffrey has done it based on the episodes I’ve sent him, but I’ve already stated that I consider myself to have worked with him.

Yet another way would be the managerial side of things, where someone like mamamoira rides herd on the slacking directors and actors, and rfrancis on the slacking writers. There is somewhat of a give and take with that, but it’s more just schedule management. They do a valuable job, not one I would like. But mamamoira has fine tuned it into a set of form letters (which I think is the most sensible thing) and “all” she has to do is keep track in a spreadsheet (I put the quotes because I don’t believe it’s all that easy to do). There’s some interaction there, but it’s not relationship building nor filling the creative needs of the shows. It’s filling the needs of the production staff, and is very valuable, but … not really working WITH the creative teams.

I don’t mean to bash Pendant here, I think there are some excellent shows, and the staff do a bang-up job of managing the process. But when you are producing the shows in the manner that Pendant does, you don’t have the luxury of bouncing your acting off the co-stars of your scene. You don’t end up with the chemistry that comes with face-to-face acting, like, for instance, Decoder Ring Theatre does. With the release schedule that Pendant has, it’s very difficult to generate the rehearsals that would aid in this endeavor (again, not bashing Pendant - the release schedule is for the most part fucking brilliant, except for this one flaw).

Anyway, that’s why I said what I said, and if you don’t like it, or if you do, there’s a convenient “comment” button somewhere over that-a-way.

Elbow doc
Sleep doc

But overriding the mindless “Yeah, you’re fine now.” that those entail, I have discovered a NEW health problem…

Well, OK, it’s not NEW, but it’s newly injured. Ever since high school, I’ve had a problem where my knee does what I call dislocating. I don’t know if that’s what happens, I’m too busy screaming and falling down to really analyze it.

Which is what happened at soccer today. A guy named Eric, a really nice guy who just had the bad luck to bump into me in a way that caused my knee to go. He was really upset, or at least pretended really well. Dunno if I’ll be playing soccer again soon, going to call the Ortho doc tomorrow to see if I can get an appointment right away.

I’m not in favor of guns, in general. They’re dangerous when not used by individuals who are trained/qualified to use them, and for the most part are not used for the (stated) purpose for which they were bought (for instance: home protection). And most people are not trained/qualified to use them.

That said, even I as a Progressive of some sort understand that wanting to own guns is within the scope of the Constitution, and it would be stupid to pass a law to disallow your average citizen the right to own guns, if they want.

HOWEVER, it’s my opinion that the gun laws as they exist right now are insufficient to control the spread of firearms to individuals who seek to own weapons for less than legal means. The NRA stands against the idea that guns should be regulated at all, as far as I can tell. Thus, the guy down the street who is slightly mentally unstable can pick up his AK-47, throw on his flak vest and run down the street shooting at me, because I don’t agree with his viewpoint. Completely unregulated gun ownership would result in a literal arms race as Wacko buys a pistol, I buy a rifle to make sure he can’t get close with his pistol, he buys an assault rifle to out do me, I buy a bazooka, etc…OK, a little extreme there, but you get the idea.

People who are pro-gun talk about how incidents like the Virginia Tech shootings or Columbine wouldn’t happen if everyone was allowed to carry a gun, because they say when an armed individual saw that VTDude was shooting other students, they would pull out THEIR gun and shoot him. There are some problems with this:

1> VT dude (Cho) used a .22 pistol and a 9mm pistol. Assuming full access to larger weapons, do you think he would have stuck with those weapons? No, of course not. Would he have purchased body armor of some sort? I bet he would have. Thus, guy with a .45 and no body armor and an interest in not getting shot (i.e. would not risk his own life to get a clear shot on Cho) versus a guy with an AK-47 or 6, body armor and no concern about being hit. In that fight, I’m picking the guy with the bigger gun.

2> I would argue that shooting a person is a little different than shooting targets. Sure, you could say “I did it because otherwise I would be shot.” I don’t disagree with that statement. But when you’re being shot at, would you actually risk your neck just to get a hopeful shot off? It’s iffy. Even in the military it’s unclear how many soldiers fire rounds during live fire battles (S.L.A. Marshall says only 20%, but the information does not appear to be based on any actual evidence).

And of course there is the “THINK OF THE CHILDREN” argument. It doesn’t appear that gun ownership at home contributes significantly to the death rate (in 1991, 551 children were killed in accidental shootings, according to USA Today). But tell that to the parents of the 551 kids. Or their friends. I’ve always disliked the “THINK OF THE CHILDREN” defense, because all the person saying it is trying to say is “Let someone other than the parents have the responsibility to protect their children.” I don’t agree with that. But I don’t want to have to monitor every parent of every child that my children visit. I don’t want to find out that my kid got shot by some kid whose parents are alcoholics and didn’t take care of their weapons (and I have a specific parent in mind, here).

When they get old enough (which may be soon for the older), I’m going to try to find a way to expose my children to firearms in a safe manner, so that they understand that guns are not toys. But I don’t want guns in my house, in my neighborhood, or in my children’s schools. I’m sure there is a way to allow individuals who are trained and qualified to own firearms. The Constitution allows it in some form (the discussion of the exact intent aside). But the NRA’s viewpoint is flawed and dangerous, and I oppose it.

But, wait, what is this, I have Pendant work to do? I do. Rats. Well, that means Sins of a Solar Empire will have to wait. But its siren’s call is so alluring!

I will have to carefully structure my time to make sure I do the following things during my non-work hours:

1> Spend time with the family
2> Get Pendant work done
3> Take over planetary systems

Dixie is a show set in the 1940s (during and just after The War, y’see). The music and sound effects should reflect that to some extent. Yeah, the music…

Music is always the hardest part of directing an audio drama. I like how Decoder Ring Theatre does it…they don’t bother with mood music. Just interstitial stuff for scene transitions. But this show has had music for the first 45 episodes, I’m not about to change it for the last 5.

But finding emotionally compelling music that fits a particular type of scene is VERY difficult, when most (nay, perhaps all) of the music available is…much more upbeat than you’re looking for.

ARGH. Fucking music.

Seems like there are two major issues with the joint:

1> Muscular. If I hold my hand on the desk palm down (like when typing), the muscle that is dab smack on top of my forearm is VERY tight. As in, a HUGE knot of muscle. Well, smaller now that she’s working on it. That was the bending problem.

2> Ligament. It appears I may have stretched/torn/done something to the ligaments on the outside of my elbow to cause the extension to hurt so much.

So, to sum up, improving very quickly.

Bah.

Serena is a regular contributor to the purchase of band-aids, with regular cuts and scratches from a variety of sources (many of them the cat).

La femme in an effort to help with dealing with Snowmageddon (is that the current term these days?) got tendinitis in her elbow AND cut her hand on Easter Sunday.

So, to trump her, I mowed the lawn.

In our back yard, we have a hill that is about 6-7 feet tall…when I say hill, I mean rocky cliff. Well, grassy cliff. ANYWAY. My shoes are a little old, and don’t really have a lot of traction. If any. I pushed the lawnmower down the hill and let it go (turned off, of course). It stopped well outside the location I was coming down. Then I started walking down. And my feet slipped out from under me, and I landed firmly on my butt and elbow. My butt has sufficient padding to absorb this shock. My elbow? Ehn, not so much.

End result: hairline fracture of my left elbow (I guess the top of my radius? not sure which is which), which looked all the world like an inch long potato chip came off my bone.

That’s right, I broke my arm mowing the lawn.

*facepalm*scream in pain as elbow bends more than it wants*