Believe the Impossible

Well, we lived through "Believe the Impossible: An Evening of Magic and Illusion" at the Topeka Performing Arts Center. It had its ups and downs, like all shows, but at the end of the night, I felt ok. The biggest problem was that we could not get Topeka's Light Board to recognize the moving lights we brought, so the show had no moving lights. The biggest success was that we had over 850 people in the audience....a great crowd for the show. Lots of families and children...lots of energy.

Getting this show started was probably the hardest thing Paul and I have ever done. There were a lot of problems we hadn't forseen, extra expenditures, and even though we tried to give ourselves plenty of time, we ran out too fast. But it amazes me how one day can change your focus....by the end of the show, I felt like we could do this again and do it better. We got past the starting hump, everything after should be at least somewhat easier. It is not the complete unknown anymore. So I never thought I'd say it, but I actually look forward to booking and producing the next show - after we get our promo material together and sent out.

I want to thank everyone who helped us get our feet on the ground with this and gave us their unfailing support. We didn't get a program insert this go around, so here are our thanks:

Brittany Coughlin, Crissy Young, John Bundy Productions (John Bundy), Amazing Productions (Terry Magelssen), Cashmark Media, Inc. (Daryn Cashmark), Visual FX, Inc. (Larry Sprang), Nancy & Jerry Ebeling, Princess Coughlin, Just Off Broadway Theatre, Thin Air Theatrics (Daniel Doss), Brent Jones Productions (Brent Jones), Blair Adams, Barbara Wiggins, Nick Woods, Teresa Collins, Misty Adkins, Brian Nance, Mike Perry, All Aboard Embroidery (Carrie Worth), & the TPAC crew (Cole, Lonnie, Eric, Jason, Travis, Dan, Daniel)

Long Term Mood

I have been so busy lately, blogging is low on the list of priorities. I am on lunch break right now from a training class, so I have a few minutes. I think it is probably ok that I haven't blogged because it would mostly be sad, frustrated ramblings.

If anyone has been consistently watching my facebook status reports for the past week, they've been very bleak, especially for me. I don't like feeling bad and often make conscious efforts to be happy or content. Honestly, I'd rather forget something that upsets me & that I can't change and move on than hold on to that hurt for a long time. I don't like feeling that way, so I decide not to - thus I get over disappoints and stuff very quickly.

Paul is very different, though. He needs time to feel things and work through them - and we often bicker because I've moved on and he has not yet. So we are learning how to deal with each other emotionally over time. But this week....it has just been bad for both of us. We are both sleep deprived, feeling very behind in our work, and feeling fairly futile in most projects we try. I hope it will all end this weekend...or at least start to get better. This is just exausting!

Factory vs. Warehouse

So, Nick told me the other day that the goal of blogging is to be a factory, not a warehouse. To constantly churn out new thoughts, not store them up and dole out.

I thought about the analogy...I thought, "What's wrong with the warehouse? Stuff comes in, sits a bit, then goes out." Then I realized, it is not changed by the warehouse - I would be taking in info and then just regurgitating it unanalyzed and unaffected.

The factory...stuff comes in, it is assembled, and then shipped out. Better, but my problem with it is that factories are usually specialized so the same stuff always comes in and the same stuff always goes out.

I decided I want to be a design or marketing firm. People come to me with their stuff, I analyze it, and give it back to them in a new way that they can use. Sometimes they like it, sometimes they don't, sometimes you get lots of repeat business, sometimes not. I like that analogy for my blogging. Many different things enter my life, I think about them and blog them out, and sometimes those blogs are helpful (sometimes not) to others.

Digital Photo-Realist Art

Well, I took a class at JCCC to learn a little more about Adobe Illustrator. The instructor showed us the work of several "Illustrator" artists to show us what is possible. One is Yukio Miyamoto and another is Bert Monroy . I've included just one example....this stuff is amazing! That is not a photograph, it is a constructed piece of art.

I learned a lot in the class, I think. Not enought to do what these artists have done, but maybe enough to do simple logos and artwork. I'll try my hand at it when I have some free time and maybe show you the results. Here's my first go at a balloon for the Ronald McDonald House Auction.

Turn the other cheek

So, I think I tend to get more emotional over rude things online than I do in person. if someone insults me to my face, most times it doesn't phase me - I really couldn't care less. But there have been several instances of people writing things online that jab at me or a friend that really got me riled up.

A while back my friend Brian had a roommate with a girlfriend who lived in CO who had never met Brian. She wrote some very derogatory remarks about Brian on her blog...and that upset me. And recently, a self-proclaimed pedant chided me for a typo I wrote in a comment to a friend....and that upset me, too. Both times I wanted to write back with some biting remarks - give the person a dose of her own medicine. I did write back the first time, I did not the second.

I think I need to learn to let these things go as easily as I do in real life. Maybe it is because I feel more articulate with the written word and have more time to stew on it than in real life. But I realized that if I sting back at the person who stings me, I am no better. I don't feel so guilty for stinging back for my friend, I wanted to stick up for him. But I'm trying to discipline myself to turn the other cheek - there is a time to speak and a time to be silent, and I am trying to discern the difference.

You watch what?

So, I mentioned in my last blog that I was watching a Christian TV Show in the morning. To be specific, it is "Life Today" and has a couple different hosts and they interview people and have short Bible studies and such. It is not something I would normally watch because I feel most such programs are preachy and closed-minded. And honestly, I'm still not sure if I like the regular hosts - a couple - a small quiet woman and a talkative large southern man.

But, I find I get tired of watching the news while eating my breakfast. Just the same old news, weather, shootings and crap. And I flipped to this channel one day because it was better than the kids' programming on KCPT and the informercials on the non-news channels. It actually interests me, not that I neccisarily aggree with everything they say, but it always makes me think about subjects I like to think about.

One woman did a study on the power of the spoken word. How much more powerful a spoken word is than just a thought word or even written word. One day they interviewed the author of "Bad Girls in the Bible," Liz Higgs. She was an extrodinarily charizmatic woman and very interesting to listen too. I never thought to read the book before because it sounded so trendy cliche...but, she was so engaging and ensightful.

Sometimes, in this culture, it is hard for me to admit that I am a Christian and participate in "Christian activities." Christians have a bad name as being shallow, narrow-minded, and hypocrits. But I don't want to be ashamed, because I am not like that. And so I admit, I watch a Christian tv show in the mornings, and enjoy it (so far =).

Cultural Warrior?

So I saw Bill O'Reily being interviewed this morning on a Christian TV Show and he talked about his book and the "cultural war" being fought in the United States. There are "traditional warriors" and "secular-progressives" battling out for control of the country and the basis of our law. He basically says the "s-p"s are trying to shift the basis of our laws from the judeo-christian roots they currently have to completely secular ones and that, in turn, will ruin the nation.

I'm a little unsure what I think of this point. I am a strong Christian and believe myself to be a moral individual. And I tend to lean towards conservative Replubican ideas. But I believe the role of the government is to facilitate communal living - not impose morals on others or to micro-manage our lives. I think drugs should not be illegal, I think abortion is a woman's choice, I think the state should not give Marriage Licenses but Civil Unions to all couples (gay or straight) and churches should decide on marriages. I believe it is the Church's duty to take care of the old and poor, not the government. Personally, I would never do drugs, have an abortion, or live a gay lifestyle - and I would council any friends against these things, but in the end - it is their decision and something that they are only accountable to God for, not the government.

I took a little poll on O'Reily's website to see if I was a warrior or "s-p"....I lean towards being a warrior. But I don't know if I feel the government needs to have a Christian base or if we Christians just need to step up and do our jobs like we are commissioned by God to do in the Bible. Love our neighbors, do good to those who hate us, take care of the poor, the elderly, the prisoners. Will that example and leadership (if we were all to do it) not be enough to keep our country great without the law stating it to be? People need guideance - look at our current housing loan situation - did the banks really think it good business to give out crazy loans and that the innevitable horrible outcomes didn't concern them?

I just don't know. I guess I feel educated and enlightened and like I know what is right to do and others should know that too. But, I realize people don't just "know" that - they need to be taught. I'm just not sure what the best method to do so is. Ideally, it would be the church teaching, but if they don't step up - maybe I need to support the government doing it. Maybe I need to focus my energy more on encouraging my church to teach and reach out and make a difference.