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May 31, 2006
Biking
Trip Odom 7.15 m
Moving Avg 13.7 m/h
Time-Moving 31:26
We've dipped under 60 days on the wedding counter, and so, vanity, vanity, I'm trying to get in shape so I'm not all puffy and blobby for the wedding photos. The wedding is one day, but the wedding photo is going to be up at our parents' houses for-ever. Hence the yoga class last night, and I'm trying to ride my bike to work more. And I love riding my bike anyway, and I always want to be riding to work. My rule is that if it's over 50° and not raining and I don't have anything really heavy to carry to work, then I ride my bike. Except I break that rule all the time. Today was the fourth time I've ridden to work this year. Pathetic.
But hey, I got my new Tony Hawk HelmetCam (why? why not!) and so I shot my whole trip into work this morning. And then sped it up to make it one minute long. And added a delightful midi sound track of the song that you are required to add to sped-up video (it's a law). The camera's not really that bad, but somewhere in the compression to make it not a 26 meg download, the whole thing acquired this sort of soft-filter, dream-like quality. Which I don't think is actually that bad for this sort of video, so I'm not going to fix it. Anyhoo, Fuzzy's Commute (2.6 Meg Quicktime movie).
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:37 PM | Comments (3)
A nice night
Not to get all LJ on you here, but here's the ingredients for a nice night: ride 7 miles home, go to your first yoga class and find out what all this stretching stuff is about, get a big mess of Persian food from Paradise, drink a big calimocho, and watch a bunch of Tivoed SNL cuddling on the couch with your hunny.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:45 PM | Comments (1)
Hey, Frank!
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2006
Challenge 2006 - Editing Day
In the Challenge, you get 14 hours to write, 24 to shoot, and then 34 to edit. And, um, just between you and me, I didn't need all that time.
A number of people on the team offered to help me edit, but none of them edit, so in the absence of just trading-off the editing suite, there's not much someone else can do. I dove in alone and had a finished video by 5 pm on Sunday night. I went back to it about an hour before it was due on Monday and tweaked a few bits of sound, re-exported it and handed it in. That was the trickiest part -- the films were due at 400 E Randolph, on Upper Randolph and I kept getting turned around trying to get there. And leaving, I discovered that over by the lake there's Way-Totally-Lower Wacker -- a Wacker Place under Lower Wacker Drive. And you can't get anywhere from Wacker Place. I think I'm still there, driving around and around.
So now, we wait. I'm not sure all the whys, but after all that hurry-hurry, the showing is not until Sunday, July 2 at the Lakeshore Theater. The showing will be judged by Image Union and winners will be shown on that program.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:05 PM | Comments (0)
Challenge 2006 - Production Day
Saturday was Production Day for the Challenge -- we got up Saturday morning and emailed off our script and received a different one. (That's an innovation for the Challenge -- previously, there was one big meetup each day of the Challenge. Now, each team is responsible for doing the hand-off to the next team however they want, which for the scripts meant email.)
The script we received was titled "Weddings are Cool" and was basically a single scene of things going horribly wrong during the preparation for a wedding.
We've done enough of these things now that it all seemed pretty standard -- Shaun and I read through the script separately and then had a quick phone conference. Shaun called everyone to coordinate the costume pieces they needed to bring and then he and Kristen emptied out their spare bedroom to turn it into our set. Meanwhile, I made a prop run, heading down to Strange Cargo to get a titular shirt made for Shaun and a tuxedo t-shirt for me (I want to get one of these full-length screen-printed ones, but on short notice Strange Cargo does an iron-on that they can go on any shirt. Is it weird that I kinda want one on the back of a work shirt?) and then over to CVS for a disposable video camera. The script called for the videographer character (me) to be using a "disposable video camera like from CVS". I guess we could have used any of my other crappy video cameras, but I thought if it was available, we might as well be faithful to the script-writer's vision. The camera was rather pricey for a one-use camera with 20 minutes of storage ($30), but fortunately it can be hacked for re-use.
We all got together at noon and applied hideous amounts of make-up to Andrea. With only one location, there wasn't much need to build a complicated shooting-list, so we just started stepping through the script getting closeups and wide-shots of each line. It took longer than I thought it would, but not as long as Shaun thought it might, and we were done by 4:30 -- plenty of time for Andrea and Erica to make it to their KOKO show at the Playground.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:11 PM | Comments (0)
Snow Ponies and Pixie Dust
Our friend Caitlin exactly nails the essential nature of Erica:
I just had lunch with my friend Erica. She is, hands down, the nicest person I know. Its like she's made of snow ponies and pixie dust. Like she'll take your hand and you'll be transported to a magical world made of candy and dream-sparkles.
Posted by Fuzzy at 2:46 PM | Comments (1)
Gerdes and Reid
The air-conditioning was ge-broke at the Playground on Saturday night, so it was mug-gy in there, but all of the performers at the Belmont Burlesque Revue stepped up to the plate and the whole show rocked.
And I include, immodestly, Gerdes and Reid in that assessment. We tried out our new characters (Pretty Lady with a Mustache and Gorilla in a Tux) and our new routine that we wrote at Midway Gate A-16 (Gorilla in a Tux setups up all the jokes in Gorilla-speak and Pretty Lady with a Mustache delivers the punch-lines). All covered up in my super-cheap/super-sweaty Gorilla mask, I could barely tell what was going on, but Erica guided the comedy-ship safely to shore.
You'll have a chance to see some similar characters when Gerdes and Reid host Don't Spit The Water in a few weeks (Saturday, June 10).
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:05 PM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2006
Book #30: Specials
Specials, by Scott Westerfeld, finished up the Uglies trilogy with a bang. Tally Youngblood has been transformed once again and is now an agent of Special Circumstances, the super-fast, super-strong, and super-ruthless secret police of her future city.
Holy Cow, was this book good! The first 50 pages are one of the best action sequences I've ever read in a book, and it doesn't let up from there. And there are surprises and plot twists and... wow.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)
May 27, 2006
Oh yeah
And as if this weekend weren't crazy enough with the whole making-a-movie thing, Erica has a KOKO show at the Playground tonight (Saturday) at 8 and then we're both comic guests at the Belmont Burlesque Revue at a quarter past midnight, doing a new bit that we wrote in the departure lounge at Midway, waiting to fly to Mississippi.
Posted by Fuzzy at 4:17 AM | Comments (1)
The Challenge 2006
FuzzyCo is doing the Challenge again this year, and I just got home from writing our script. The Challenge is the oddest of the fast-filmmaking contests we enter -- over the course of this long weekend we'll make a third each of three movies. The script we wrote tonight will passed off to another team tomorrow morning, and we'll get a script that was written for our team's actors. And then Sunday morning we'll hand off the footage we've shot to yet another team to edit, and receive footage that we'll edit.
The past two times we've done the Challenge, I was exempt from doing the writing portion since I was going to be doing the editing segment all by myself. This year, though, we had a couple last minute back-outs and the writing team was down to just Shaun. So I said I'd help him. Thinking I was excused, I had already planned on going to see X-Men 3 tonight. Driving from picking up the suggestions we needed to base our script around (genre: sci-fi comedy, target audience: desparate housewives) to the movie, I got a flash of inspiration and so I had a couple of phone-conferences with Shaun to get him started working on a script based on my brilliant ideas. When I finally met up with him (awesome movie, by the way), he had been unclear enough about my ideas that he had decided to just wait for me. Well, heck, it's my blog so let's just say that I wrote the whole thing while Shaun played Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and failed, over and over, to get past Moloch.
Oh, here's a weird thing... the actors we were (I was) writing our script for: we know them all. Megan Grano, Allison Bills, Bumper Carroll, and Pat McKenna. All four great improvisors, so we thought for a minute of just handing them a script that said "say funny things here".
OK, I'd better get to bed, so I can wake up in time to do the hand off in the morning and start filiming.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:41 AM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2006
Book #29: Pretties
The plan set in motion at the end of Uglies is well underway when Pretties by Scott Westerfeld begins -- Tally Youngblood is back in New Pretty City, now transformed in a "Pretty" -- a supermodel-level beauty. Like everyone. But also, like everyone, her brain has been turned to a bubble-headed mush by the operation. Will she escape the city? Will she even remember that she ever wanted to escape? (Ellipses... Of... Doom...)
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:46 PM | Comments (0)
Widget
Thanks to the genius minds at Metroblogging HQ there's now a little widget over on the right-hand side of my front page (somewhere in all that mess) that shows the last 5 posts I've made on the Chicago Metroblog.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)
Creme de Fleur
The best thing about the Creme de Fleur at Oh the Pain is that they don't make them every day. If they did, I eat one every day and I'd weigh a metric ton. Tonne. Whatever.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:29 AM | Comments (3)
May 23, 2006
Book #28: Candyfreak
Mmmmp mmm mm mmmmp mmm mmmm mmmmmm.
Sorry, my mouth was full of candy. I think I gained 5 pounds just reading Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America by Steve Almond.
Candyfreak is in that genre known as creative non-fiction. As in, we learn a bit about the history of candymaking in the US, a bit about some people who make legacy candy bars, and a bit about Almond himself and his obsessions and neuroses.
Posted by Fuzzy at 7:18 PM | Comments (0)
Happy Birthday, Dad
This is my dad:
It's his birthday.
My dad got colluded with me in getting our family's first computer, an Apple //e. We built a joystick for it together from plans in a hobby magazine. We built a model railroad together and never quite got around to making it all super-realistic. He gave me a great camera and then gave me another one when I lost that one. He taught me that we should probably hang onto this because it might be useful someday. He taught me to shave.
I'm saying, it's his fault I turned out this way.
Happy birthday, dad.
Posted by Fuzzy at 10:56 AM | Comments (1)
May 22, 2006
Congrats, again
Congratulations, again, to my soon-to-be-brother-in-law. Too bad that he had that giant sneeze just as he was shaking hands with that official dude.
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:34 PM | Comments (1)
My Power Move
This will make no sense if you don't watch The Show with Zefrank, but here's my Power Move (1.5 MB MPEG Movie).
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:08 PM | Comments (0)
More important reports from Vicksburg
Allie (who was the kitten the last time we were in Vicksburg, but is rapidly entering the world of cat-ness) was lying in the doorway to the upstairs bathroom and could not be bother to move her tail out of the way as I opened and closed the door.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)
Kittens!
Blah, blah, blah, wedding, shower, friends, family... the important thing is that there were kittens!
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:09 PM | Comments (0)
Please insist
Our upstairs neighbors like to have parties. And English is not their first language. So I think this new sign on our front door means, "come on up." Or maybe "push the buzzer" (they did newly label their buzzer button). Or maybe something else?
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:48 AM | Comments (2)
Book #27: Uglies
Yes, I'm reading some more Scott Westerfeld. Uglies is the first book in his "Pretties" triology. Fortunately the third book just came out, because this one ended on a pretty serious "this is the plan, now let's get started"-style cliffhanger and I have the feeling that I'm going to get antsy if I don't keep plowing through the whole series. (I've been deliberately not-reading the 12th book of the Series of Unfortunate Events because I know it's going to end on a terrible cliffhanger and the last book won't be out until October.)
Anyway, Uglies is set in a far-future where everyone gets an operation at age 16 that turns them into a super-model looking "Pretty". But is there more to the operation than just the looks...? (Well, of course there is. It'd be a pretty dull triology otherwise.) Oh, and hoverboard chases.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:40 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2006
Codes in The Boy Detective Fails
After I finished reading The Boy Detective Fails, I went back and solved all the codes in the book. I really went back and forth over marking up the solutions to the codes in the book, or doing it on scrap paper. In the end I worked them out without marking up the book, so that I could hand it off to other people and they could enjoy solving the puzzles on their own.
If you've read the book and you're having trouble with the codes, or you're just lazy (like me), I wanted to provide some help. I'm not going to provide the solutions, just how to solve the codes, but I'm still going to treat it like a spoiler and hide the rest of the information past the jump...
There are three codes used in The Boy Detective Fails (that I know of).
- 1-
The copyright page notes "To the astute reader: It may be of interest to you to note, for the purpose of decoding the hidden story placed within these pages, that A=N." From pages 27 to 313 there are encoded words at the bottom of each page, which can be decoded, as the note suggests, using the substitution code A=N, B=O, etc. This code "loops" so that N=A, if that makes sense. So the entire code is:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
For various historical reasons, this was a fairly oft-used code in the online world of yesteryear, and is known as ROT-13 (as in, each letter is ROTated 13 positions through the alphabet). If your hand or mind tires of translating the words, you can use the automatic services of rot13.com.
In the advance copy I have, the very first word on page 27 is misspelled and should be Qrerx'f.
- 2 -
On pages 113, 202 and 265 Billy receives a message consisting of numbers, and a key (X=1, ) that refers to the Boy Detective Decoder Ring encluded on the back cover. If you cut the decoder ring out and place the numbered ring inside the lettered ring and line up the indicated letter/number combo you'll have the substitution code to decode the messages. If you don't want to cut up your book, here's the three codes:
X=1
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| X | Y | Z | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W |
D=11
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S |
K=24
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
- 3 -
On pages 306-307 Billy realizes that Caroline's diary entry contains a code: The first letter of every other line spells out a message. This code is also true of the diary entries on pages 19, 59-60, and 185.
- Hidden Message Word Search -
After the end of the book, there are several "activities" such as a connect-the-dots, a maze, and a hidden message word search. Cross out the words provided and the letters remaining will spell out a secret message. Three hints if you're having trouble: the words can be found horizontally, vertically, diagonally, and may be backwards; some words overlap; and there are extra un-used letters beyond what's needed for the puzzle.
Update: The first code leads to a correspondence and another code, and I've posted some hints for solving that one.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:51 AM | Comments (3)
May 18, 2006
Book #26: Storm Front
My friend Chuck has been going on about these Harry Dresden novels by Jim Butcher. So I thought I'd give the first one, Storm Front, a read. Eh.
Harry Dresden is a wizard who lives in present-day Chicago, advertises his services in the yellow-pages (which doesn't always sit well with his fellow magical practitioners) and, you know, fights crime.
The premise is intriguing enough, but the book didn't really grab me. (Well, I did tell Erica I had to finish a few pages before I could have dinner last night. I mean, you can't just put down a book in the middle of a giant scorpion attack.) Besides the generally lack-luster writing, the Chicago setting of the novel kept bothering me. Because, aside from some geographically accurate details about going down to the Dunes, it's not really Chicago, it's a Generic Big City. For example, Harry Dresden's apartment is on 10th. Except, there is no 10th St. (8, 9, skip, 11.) And there's a crucial scene where Harry is trying to escape from a demon by getting over the bridge on Reading Rd. Which also doesn't exist. Jim Butcher lives in Oklahoma, but there are these things called maps...
OK, I'm not sure why it bugs me so much. I guess it especially grates since I just read The Last Hot Time which really captures the feel of Chicago, albeit transformed by magic.
Oh, and this is egregiously mean, but compare the first six words of Jim Butcher.com with the fourth paragraph of this essay.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:10 AM | Comments (1)
May 16, 2006
Book #25: The Boy Detective Fails
On Saturday night Erica and I went and saw the opening night of the House Theatre's newest show, The Boy Detective Fails. The play was adapted by Joe Meno from his own novel of the same name, which won't be available until September. But they have advance copies for sale at the show. I enjoyed the show so much that I picked up a copy of the book and devoured it over the last few days.
Wow.
The story is fairly simple: Billy Argo is a former child detective in the mold of the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. Scarred by the suicide of his sister, he himself attempts suicide and then retreats into a mental institution for ten years before emerging, blinking, to try to make his way in the world. But it's a book full of sadness and wonder and magic and mystery.
I'm still just a bit... wow.
======
Oh, and I'm now halfway through my little challenge, just a hair ahead of schedule. I'm a bit worried about the summer, since I'm trying to ride my bike to work more than take the train, which loses me about an hour of reading time a day. Do audiobooks count if they're unabridged? Hmmm ...
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:15 PM | Comments (1)
Where's Mustapha?
An easy one for Tuesday morning.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2006
Book #24: Native Tongue
When I finished up Strip Tease, I noticed that I had a copy of Native Tongue lying around my cube as well, so I decided to make it a little Hiaasen-fest.
Native Tongue follows the shenanigans surrounding a second-rate Disneyworld knock-off, the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills, starting with the abduction of two endangered blue-toungued mango voles, and proceeding to encompass, in normal Hiassen-fashion, real estate development, extra-ordinary steroid abuse, the Mafia, a one-eyed former Governor, and a little old lady who shoots a surprising number of people.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2006
My Name is Earl?
Hey, do any of y'all have the season finale of My Name is Earl on your DVR and could dump a copy off to tape or DVD for us? TiVo and I had a little fight while I was trying to record Hide and Creep and we ended up missing the season finales of both Earl and The Office. We ended up buying the The Office episode off the iTunes Music Store and watched it sitting in our home office, sitting in our office chairs. Very apropos. But Earl remains a mystery.
Update: Got it. Thanks all.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:57 PM | Comments (3)
May 12, 2006
Ted McGillicutty, Man of Action
When I started my little vodcast (Video-pODCAST) back in November, I thought I'd be posting a short film a week, since I planned to just start by working my way through the FuzzyCo back catalog. Well, it's May and this is the fourth film I've posted. Oh well.
But to get things started back up, here's FuzzyCo's hit -- Ted McGillicutty, Man of Action.
We filmed Ted back in January 2003 for the Fast Forward Film Festival. You can read the entire story of making the movie here. Since that time, Ted has been selected by the producers of the Fast Forward for their Producers' Choice DVD, won an award at the Chicago Really Short Film Festival, been shown on WTTW's Image Union and screened at the Music Box Theatre as part of Image Union's Short Film Showcase, and was a semi-finalist in the Second City Shortcuts Film Festival.
Anyway, here's Ted ...
Click to play 10 MB Quicktime movie - requires Quicktime 7. (You can also right-click here to download the movie.)
Vodcast XML file (for your newsreader or aggregator) or subscribe with iTunes.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:01 AM | Comments (1)
May 11, 2006
Book Learnin'
Hooray for my learned soon-to-be-brother-in-law.
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:15 PM | Comments (0)
May 9, 2006
Sass Patrol
Hey, I've been coaching this improv group called Sass Patrol for, god, months now. Months! And they haven't gotten tired of the rambling I call "notes" yet. They perform for the first time tonight at The Playground (3209 N Halsted). Yeah, that's right, Tuesday night, mother f-ers! Please come cheer on Ryan Gilmour, Tyler Lansdown, Kristen Studard, and Chrissy Swinko. (Charlie Carroll has some deadly illness, so he won't be gracing the stage.)
Posted by Fuzzy at 3:45 PM | Comments (0)
That's Doctor Fuzzy to you
Erica: According to this box, this printer will make us doctors.
Fuzzy: World-weary doctors. Yes.
Posted by Fuzzy at 1:57 PM | Comments (0)
May 5, 2006
Just in case...
I'm moving fuzzyco.com between registrars over the weekend. In theory, it should be a seamless move, as the underlying hosting isn't changing. In practice, fingers crossed...
Posted by Fuzzy at 9:05 AM | Comments (0)
May 4, 2006
Noah's podcast
Noah Ginex interviewed Erica and me (but we were only allowed to answer one word at a time) for his new podcast. We're in episode 3, which may or may not be directly downloadable, but you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes and then select that one. If you listen to the podcast in iTunes or on your photo/video-capable iPod, there are many pictures of us ganked from my Flickr account.
Posted by Fuzzy at 6:09 PM | Comments (0)
May 3, 2006
Book #23: Strip Tease
We saw a trailer for Hoot last week and it reminded me that I wanted to read some Carl Hiaasen (it did not make me want to see the movie). And lo-and-behold I had Strip Tease lying around.
Is there something in the water down there in Florida? Hiaasen's books seem to be firmly rooted in the Elmore Leonard model -- huge casts of odd characters trying to make their way through the depths of borderline-criminal Florida society. (Come to think of it -- Dave Barry's Big Trouble and Tricky Business were the same -- it must be the water.) But there are much worse models to follow and Hiaasen does a masterful job with this story of the chaos that ensues when a US Congressman tries to defend the honor of a stripper by nearly beating a man to death with a champagne bottle.
Oh, and speaking of movies, I didn't realize until I was nearly done with the book that it had been adapted into the Demi Moore movie of the same title. Was that movie terrible or just lackluster?-- it's been so long since I've seen it that I forget. No matter, the book is neither.
Posted by Fuzzy at 11:29 AM | Comments (5)
May 2, 2006
Book #22: Directing Improv
I picked up a copy of Directing Improv by my friend Asaf Ronen at the merch table of the Phoenix Improv Festival. And I read it. And I reviewed it for the New Improv Page.
Posted by Fuzzy at 5:40 PM | Comments (0)
May 1, 2006
Comedians of Comedy
Friday night we met up with Ben and Emily and Dan and Victoria at Cleo's (grilled cheese! with bacon and tomato!) and then headed over to the Comedians of Comedy Tour at Logan Square Auditorium. Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Brian Posehn, and Eugene Mirman all danced like little monkeys for our collective pleasure.
Good things: They really are all very funny. Maria Bamford is extra very funny. In theory, I don't think I'd like Eugene Mirman just reading a letter he wrote, but in practice I like it just fine. I took pictures over people's heads.
Not-so-good things: It was very hot. Two hours is a long time to stand, especially when it is very hot. In theory, having all four comedians on stage recreating their in-van banter (ala their TV Show and Movie) should be very entertaining, in practice it is not. On a not-unrelated note, I am worried about the amount that Patton drinks.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:53 PM | Comments (1)
Tetris DS
Our Tetris DS friend code is 7277-1792-4430. I say "our" because it might be me and it might be Erica. If you defeat us easily, it was me. If we kick your butt, it was Erica.
Posted by Fuzzy at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)