Phoenix Rising

My son had a choice on how to do his book report this month. One of the choices was ‘Radio Drama’ so he immediately chose that option, and then consulted with me as to how to do it. So I talked him through the process. Here it is:

Audio Teaser

As some of you are no doubt aware, the G-20 international summit is in Pittsburgh today and tomorrow. This, I thought, would not affect me in any manner, as I don’t go through any of the roads planned for protests. Well, evidently, the po-po disagreed. At around 4PM, we saw large numbers of hipsters travelling not as a pack but more as a stream of people down the street behind our office (which used to be in front of our office, until the GetGo convenience store bought the parking lot). About 30 minutes of that, and then they taper off, no doubt due to the large number of police that lined up on the street. There were more police than there were people walking towards downtown. So, I go back to working on messing with Microsoft’s nmake, until it’s time to leave. I grab my laptop and ipod, head out the back to the garage. I reach the street to observe several ranks of police, each about 50 officers ‘strong’, about 50 yards apart. They’re not really doing anything useful, just standing about in vague ‘ready to form up’ positions. I cross the street between two ranks, and walk along the sidewalk. About halfway between two ranks, there is a cluster of about 5 officers, most of whom are sitting. The one standing was about 2 meters away from the rest, and my path would have taken me between the officer and his cohorts. There is also a group of about 5 hipsters behind me by 3 or 4 steps who would also pass through this gap. The officer felt it necessary to order (he asked in a tone of voice which indicated a beating if there was no compliance) all of us to either go right or left, but not through his personal space. Not really in the mood for a beating, I just walked left around through a small parking lot. As I reached my car, I realized I had left my cell phone in the office. So, I dump my laptop and iPod, head back to the office. After picking up my phone, I return the exact way I came. As I (and 2 other guys from the office) approach to about 3 meters from the first line that I would have to pass by, one of the officers yells, “I NEED A LINE!” and the other officers take up the call, “LINE FORMATION! WE NEED A LINE!” and immediately move to block the entire width of the road and sidewalks. I say something to the effect of “My car is right over there, can I go by?” The officer on the end replies, I shit you not, “Negative! Please find an alternate route. May I suggest around the block?” Well, again, no desire to receive a beating, so around the block I go.

I looked online just now, and heard of minor clashes between police and protesters. I can’t help but think that if the city had been more organized and thoughtful when managing the protests, none of this would have happened. Oh, I’m sure some bad apple would have thrown a rock (as happened), but instead of punishing the entire city, just punish the fucktard. They locked down the entirety of Baum Boulevard from Liberty Avenue to probably Downtown. With lines of police ranging from 50 to 100 every 50 yards. They didn’t bother blocking Liberty Avenue, which also goes Downtown, and is right there. The police are just flexing their muscle and being assholes, and I can understand why people are upset at the abuse of power and abuse of civil rights.

In the end, this will likely end up as a minor skirmish compared to, say, the WTO riots in Seattle. But it just goes to show again that the many governments that run our society (and those that rule other societies) don’t really have our best interests at heart.

A friend of Austin’s from church won some tickets to the Pirates game today. The friend could not attend, so they gave the tickets to us. There were only 2, which gave me an excuse to take my son to a ball game, even if the Pirates are the best farm team in the Majors.

Austin is also engaged in this year’s Battle of the Books. This is where the groups of 3-5 4th and 5th graders read 12 books over a period of 8 weeks, and then have a competition to see which group remembers the most facts from the books. I got suckered into being the ‘team manager’ for Austin’s team. Which means I have to read all the books, generate questions to prepare the kids, arrange meetings to test the kids, etcetera.

These items are related, really they are.

One of the books is about Roberto Clemente. Now, I’ve always known the guy died while shipping out of San Juan, Puerto Rico to help earthquake victims in Costa Rica (I think). But after reading the book about him yesterday, and then prior to the game today having a presentation about him on the Jumbotron, I really have a new appreciation for the guy.

So, you know, yay Roberto Clemente.

Staccato Caprice – Serena

Hymn and Rippling Water – Austin

Aura Lee – BOTH

It’s official. I have done all of my required tasks for Pendant. Superman 56 and its commentary are out the door. My talented co-director is now sole director, and I’m now an EX-director. Until Jeffrey comes up with something else for me to do, no doubt. Of course, I have plans that may delay any future action, but they’re so nebulous as to be non-existent at this point, so maybe I shouldn’t say that. In any case, I’M DONE!

Remember that post where I said I lost the 140 line scene, and then in comments revealed that I was being a drama queen? I was loading that scene up to add the music, and it won’t load. At all. And the forums for the software say ‘save often!’ Well, FUCK, it WAS saved, I opened it and it all was there, and now it’s gone, so it’s not like I fucking DIDN’T HAVE A GOOD FUCKING SAVE FILE! FUCK YOU!

Thanks to Tenzil, video of me being a complete idiot:

VIDEO PROOF

I’m coming up on finishing the last episode of Superman I’m directing for Pendant, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. I mean, I knew going in that I wouldn’t want to direct the show for too long. But with this web project which is almost done (although now the pressure is not NEARLY so high as it was during the time that my co-director was doing all the work, it’s not nearly as hard), I didn’t have time to do it. And my boss at real-job is giving me crap due to lack of focus on his projects, although that may just be lack of sleep as well as too much to do…

But it’s a change in my life, which will give me free time to do more things I enjoy. Not that I didn’t enjoy working on the show, on the contrary. But while it is a creative endeavor, I was unable to really go to town creatively, because of the time constraints I did nothing to ease (again, purely my fault here. Not placing blame).

Anyway, on to different things.

This weekend was pretty busy, relative to normal.

Friday, my lovely wife and children went up to visit the breeders of our new puppy. They’re also selling their very well trained 2.5 year old Blue Merle male dog, if anyone wants such a thing (Their website). That evening, before they returned, I went to Friday night soccer with Tenzil. Saturday was the 4th of July, duh, wherein we go to Kennywood to celebrate the birthday of Tenzil’s first kid (oh, and something related to independence). This year was excellent because said kid has a cell phone, so we just sent our kids out with him to go on all the rides, while we adults did what we wanted. We checked in every so often, and everything was just fine.

We (being GreenLion, Tenzil’s sister, and I) finally caved and did the SkyCoaster. What’s that, you ask? Well, it’s basically a free-fall ride. You are strapped into a big harness (each one individually, and then the three of us were linked together), then lifted 180 feet in the air. Then they count down 3-2-1-FLY! The person on the right (Tenzil’s sister, in this case) then pulls a ripcord, and we freefall for about 3 seconds, then swing back and forth several times, until they hold up a loop for us to snag, and then we get down, and go change our shorts. It was fun. I’m looking for the video that Tenzil took, but not finding it on Youtube. We got home at like 11PM, and put the kids to bed. I mean, they were already asleep, but we got them upstairs to bed.

Today, I had to run to the store to get something RIGHT at opening time, deal with the end result of that, then Tenzil, GreenLion, MightyBob7, amfetterolf, chatty, wildpaletz, and monkat came over for gaming. We finished a HUGE battle that started last session, finished a fairly long story that is like 10 sessions old, and now we have no idea what’s going to happen next. I don’t think. After that, I had to boot people out of my house, because my lovely wife returned home from the pool, and we had to go next door to the 3 year old girl’s birthday party. They’re very nice people, and Serena and their little girl get along wonderfully.

Now I have a headache, which implies either allergies, a cold, or a significant change in the weather. And of course, tomorrow, I have to get up like 2 hours earlier than usual to take Austin to C-MITES summer camp, where he learns his first programming language, ALICE…Don’t know anything about it, but I’m sure he’ll enjoy it.

Blech.

Just got done with a 140 line scene for Supes 56…and Audition crashed on me before saving. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!