Performance Company Spring 2008 Show Summary

Image via WikipediaAll right, the "hell week" is over. Three audiences have seen the show, and today marks the start of Memorial Day weekend. There will be no show tonight; we moved our schedule up a day to account for Memorial Day weekend. But it was still three shows.

And a memorable three shows they have been. From George's early pants removal at the beginning of the first night's show to skipping half a scene the second night (something from the last night would have been better, but I couldn't think of one), we've had our share of mix-ups and mistakes. Fortunately, many of them actually made the show funnier.

Lots can happen in two hours, and this show was very near that total. The beat sheets backstage had a list of eleven scenes and songs, some long enough to be shows in and of themselves. But we combined them all together. We even faked an intermission during entry #8, "Intermission Song". But there wasn't really an intermission; it was all a practical joke.

The full program went like this:

1. The Actor's Nightmare (scene) *
   
2. BusyBusyBusy (song) *
   
3. DMV Tyrant (scene)
4. Belly Button (song) *
   
5. Canker Sores and Other Distractions (scene) *
   
6. On the train (dance) *
   
7. Funeral Parlor (scene) *
   
8. Intermission Song (song, duh) *
   
9. Under Duress (scene)
10. Nobody Understands Me (song)
11. Medea (scene, not the full play) *
    

See, the entire show was composed of scenes ("short plays") by Christopher Durang (a Tony and Obie award winning playwright) and songs by the Philadelphia Chickens (On the train was choreographed by our, er, choreographer). Every item is funny, each in its own way. There was a good mix of all kinds of humor, from political commentary to slapstick and just plain weird stuff.

By the way, items with an * are the ones I took part in. Just thought that would be useful. As you can see, most of the list is items with *s. I was very busy.

The Acts

I'll summarize each thing here, just to give those who didn't see the show -- probably a lot of you -- an idea of what went down. (I'm thinking about asking my dad to edit and digitize the videos so I can upload them. More on that at a later date.)

The Actor's Nightmare

George Spelvin, an accountant, wanders into a theater just before a performance, and is told he has to go on for one of the lead actors (who has been in a car accident and broken both legs, taking the traditional good-luck wish a bit too far). But the situations he faces quickly get out of hand. Is it a dream or is it reality? Who knows?

BusyBusyBusy

This song is just pure funny. There's even a cellphone involved. I should know, I was part of that bit.

DMV Tyrant

James Agnes, a permit-holding student who has just taken and passed the driver's test, wants to get his (yes, his) license, but the counter clerk is none too cooperative when it turns out that neither James nor his test score is in the computer.

Belly Button

I performed a part of this song, and I still don't know what the point is. I think it's just supposed to be weird.

Canker Sores and Other Distractions

Martin and Prunella, a divorced couple in their middle age, meet by chance after ten years and are swept off their feet into love, but their choice of restaurant leaves much to be desired. The other painful afflictions don't help matters.

On the train

This is just set-up for the funeral parlor scene.

Funeral Parlor

A very strange woman whose father won't even return her phone calls any more shows up at the funeral. Very. Strange. Woman.

Intermission Song

Comic relief, and a practical joke on the audience.

Under Duress

Someone is unhappy with the way the President is running things, and decides to make her views on global warming heard.

Nobody Understands Me

Pure jazz.

Medea

Not your ordinary Greek tragedy. It's also supposed to be The Trojan Women.

The Glitches

As with any show, things don't always go according to plan. Each night had its own share of little hiccups. I've listed all the ones I noticed here.

The Actor's Nightmare

First night: George (Stanley?) drops his pants way too early, prompting a hilarious bit of cover-up (which was really fun to come up with: "Look, nobody's allowed backstage before a performance -- especially people without pants on -- so you'll have to leave..." Great fun!); part of one of George's lines is dropped in the Hamlet section; the executioner messes up kicking the cutting block over and has to try again; the entire Man for All Seasons section is totally whacked.

Second night: Tiny flub during the Hamlet section (not sure who messed up, though); Man for All Seasons part whacked again, even after multiple run-throughs before the show.

Third night: Very small line flubs and a slight mix-up in the final scene.

BusyBusyBusy

First night: Umm... It went quite well, given that it was nearly cut the day before.

Second night: The cellphone bit ended up being a bit crackly due to the transmitting end having to be relocated on account of noisy ballet dancers from the show next door (this one was most likely my fault, folks).

Third night: Great!

DMV Tyrant

I couldn't find anything wrong with this one, except that the clerk was a bit hard to hear the first two nights.

Belly Button

Failure FAIL (can there be such a thing?). Meaning nothing.

Canker Sores and Other Distractions

First night: Midge took a little long coming back a couple times, forcing a bit of ad lib.

Second night: It went pretty well; nothing comes to mind.

Third night: I definitely paraphrased a line somewhere in there... But it was a good rendition nonetheless. Which was great because I had people actually there that night.

On the train

First night: Quite well, just not always together.

Second night: Better. The downstage boundary of the train apparently moved somewhere between stage right and stage left. One or two people were too far downstage.

Third night: Very good, but there was one outlying cast member stage left. Too far downstage, again. Oh well.

Funeral Parlor

First night: Almost all the extras (everyone but me) left, and way too early at that. Only some of them are supposed to go, and not till much further into the scene.

Second night: A large section of dialogue was dropped, including the cue line for extras to start leaving to go change for their next role (the cows in the Intermission Song) and the first bit of keening by Marion. Oh, and the set was missing (a few chairs).

Third night: The best run!

Intermission Song

First night: I didn't notice anything.

Second night: Nobody fell for it! Rats.

Third night: Almost got 'em, but my triangle finger was too itchy. People were this close to getting up when I rang it.

Under Duress

Worked for me...

Nobody Understands Me

First night: Flawless. (No, that's not a problem; it's another way of saying I couldn't find anything wrong with it.) We were just missing the bass part, because it turned out the notes in it were wrong.

Second night: Very good, and we even got our bass part back (because the director figured out the right notes before the show).

Third night: I think the best one of the three nights.

Medea

First night: I flubbed a couple of the chorus lines, because I lost my script a month ago in Chicago.

Second night: It went much better. But nobody brought the boxes for the chorus (needed because the other three members are so much shorter than I am ;-).

Third night: Boxes were planned better and we all knew what we were saying. Completely.

Conclusion

So obviously we had our share of flubs. But the great thing is, the audience hardly noticed a thing! And that's the magic of theater.

One interesting little tidbit came this morning, at the end of a rehearsal for another show with the same theater school. The principal of the location I attend (the only one with a Further Stages™ program) was trying to inspire the cast of that show, Working, after an abbreviated run-through. After giving her notes, she made a short speech about the Performance Company's show.

She called it the most phenomenal show she'd ever seen at the school.

That blew me away. I guess it was better than I thought.

Since we have a tape of the second and third nights, and the third night was (I think) the best, I'm considering doing a showing for the people who didn't get to come (most of the Working cast). Also, an upload to the Internet (for family and friends who are out-of-state and/or couldn't make it) is on my mind. I'll see about getting the tape captured and encoded sometime next month. I'm really low on hard disk space, so it's going to have to go on someone else's computer.

Now I get to study for the next show. Which is next week. At the same time, in the same place. So I've now been to the same theater room on seven of the last eight days. And we're using the same sound system for Working. But that's all part of being in multiple groups within the same theater school.

First Show Done; It Went Pretty Well

Tonight was the first performance of that show I've been working on all week so far. All told, it went quite well. Aside from a few glitches (which I'll compile at the end of the week, along with a short summary of the show), it went better than I ever imagined. But that's what always happens on the first night: Things pull together.

I wish I felt comfortable saying more, but I think I'm going to have to channel most of my notes into the post I'm planning for this weekend, so as not to spoil the show for people who haven't seen it yet. There are at least a few people who read this site that also live in the area and come to see me. So no details; sorry.

All I will say, is that I'm tired and my feet hurt. Two hours is a long show. And I was running around for three hours before that, doing the final dress rehearsal. But I can't wait to do it again tomorrow.

Google Health First Impression

It resonated throughout the blogosphere a couple days ago that Google Health (<-- the actual service page) finally launched. This has been coming for a long time; it's more than six months since I found out about it, and it was in the works for a while before then. Glad it finally came out (marked "BETA", as is Google's routine).

So, I signed up for it. What else would I do? (And I think my mom was trying it out, too; she read the TOS at the very least.) Though it's going to be a fight between Google Health and Google Web History for the gh network shortcut...

The interface was a bit disappointing. It takes a while to load, and isn't really as "pretty" as Gmail or Google Reader. It's usable, but doesn't seem quite Googley enough (though I think it's built on the Google Web Toolkit, given the script and image file paths containing /gwt/). There are also several functions that load different pages and make you reload the interface when you're done (like the service- and care-provider directories).

Ignoring those things, it's pretty neat. There are great auto-completion menus for all the data fields and it allows for the creation of multiple profiles. I'm just waiting for the day when some local care providers are supported for importing, but meanwhile I suppose I could get my records and enter things myself (next month, not now, if at all; see below).

I know this is a terse review, but I haven't had that long to play with it and don't have time to write too much right now. Sometimes, I hate tech weeks. But that's just how it goes. The sites I linked at the beginning of this post have more information if you're interested. This is basically just my "w00t!" post that shows I've noticed the launch and have played with it, no matter how little. Now back to homework and reviewing lines for tonight's performance (our first one).

Digital Voice Recorder Upgrade

This is just a quick note that the post I was planning to do about a week from now detailing my experiences with the Roland EDIROL R-09 I got last month won't be happening. I turned it in to Best Buy today (technically it was yesterday, because of the midnight thing) and am waiting on a specially ordered R-09HR unit. The estimated arrival is 4-6 weeks. If it arrives in five weeks or less, I'll get it before going to Northwestern for the summer; if it takes too long, it will have to wait until I get back.

Anyway, I decided to upgrade because of a lot of reasons. First, there are new features in the new version (well, duh) like an integrated speaker and a remote (see my reasons for considering the upgrade for more). Second, the price is actually exactly the same. I was wrong when I said Best Buy doesn't carry it. According to the salesman I talked to, the stuff in the musical department shouldn't be on the website, and said my finding the R-09 on there was a mistake -- yeah, one that got them an extra sale.

That means the listing I found on eBay was apparently overpriced by $20, and it didn't even include shipping from Japan (who knows how much that'd be). Suffice it to say I'm glad I didn't decide to figure out a way to get that one. I'm getting the updated version with the speaker, included software, remote, and all kinds of stuff, for the same price, and all it costs me is a month of use (of the old one, because I had to return it). I say it's a good deal. All my performances for the rest of this Spring will probably be videotaped anyway, if recorded at all.

Gmail Tips

There are tips and then there are tips. I was just emailed by someone from another site, which yesterday published a lengthy list of tips for using Gmail effectively.

Some highlights include a few I've already heard of (Zoli Erdos' guide to importing old mail comes to mind), and a few ingenious hacks (like embedding MP3s in email; no specific link, just go near the bottom of the above-linked list). While the list mentions using Gmail's labels, it didn't seem to explain anything about them; so my views on using labels properly might complement those other tips.

It's not something I usually do here, blogging just a link -- I think such practices contribute too much to the "echo chamber" view many people hold of the Internet -- but rather than just submission to StumbleUpon, etc., I thought this one deserved a mention. Partly because it's a great list, and partly because the author took the time to reach out and ask me if this list would be useful to my readers (the few of you that there are, heh heh).

I note that the Gmail tips list is that blog's inaugural post, and I just left the third comment ever on the site (judging from its fragment ID, #comment-3). It might still be awaiting moderation; I haven't time to check.

But anyway, go read the list. Even I learned a few things, and I (at least like to think I) am an expert Gmail user. There's something in it for everyone.

As a side note, I probably will be continuing my sparse blogging schedule, as this is tech week for one theatrical production and next week is another, then I play in the orchestra at a graduation ceremony for my local high school. Plus I am behind in schoolwork. So all this Internet stuff is going to have to go on the back burner until a few of these commitments are out of the way.

Yokway Review

Last night I got an invitation to try Yokway, a social sharing service that seems to focus on the sharing of useful information (in the form of links and info about music, restaurants, and movies). The invite came from Stephan Osmont, the site's co-founder. Stephan's email asked for my feedback, and this is how I'm providing it.

Purpose

As part of the email conversation I had with Mr. Osmont while revising this review, I received this paragraph regarding Yokway's purpose and mission, along with some general future plans:

Indeed, Yokway is about sharing useful information, and news articles are useful as well, it all depends on context. Yokway makes it easy for users to define their context in order to get the information they need daily. Today the context is defined by the people you want to follow, and the topics that interest you. We're about to unveil location-based context, which will make a huge difference with users Yoking from portable devices. We have also a bunch of features to unveil soon, based on our powerful semantic engine doing some underlying magic to better tie everything together and fully contextualize the user experience.

It looks like a lot of stuff, far beyond what I cover here, is on its (Yok)way (er, yeah, that one was bad).

My personal first impression was of a FriendFeed with just the internal sharing feature. Of course, I compare most things to either FriendFeed or something from Google, so... Yeah. This initial impression was pretty inaccurate, and a bit into my discussion with Stephan I found a post about Yokway from Louis Gray -- on Yokway, actually -- who called it Digg for only your contacts' submissions. You only share what you specifically share using either the Yokway site or its bookmarklet (though Mr. Osmont hinted at an auto-sharing feature in the works, for feeds like blogs or del.icio.us favorites; in fact, there are a ton of possible uses for such a feature, reducing the amount of manual re-sharing from site to site).

Also part of our conversation was my own initial confusion over the purpose of the site. I initially totally missed the mark (even further off than the FriendFeed comparison). I no longer remember what I thought it was for at the beginning, but suffice it to say it was really, really far off. Then I read the above-mentioned post by Louis Gray and had an epiphany, which helped me rewrite the review.

Mr. Osmont responded to my confusion with an acknowledgment ("We definitely haven't spen[t] enough time explaining our positioning and we need to start taking care of this.") and another future goal for Yokway ("Shows us how much we really need to start focusing on our message and positioning a bit more."). Part of that future focus on message and positioning will likely be on the Twitter account he mentioned, @yokway. I've added it to my list; if you're interested in Yokway, you should too.

During all the discussion, of course, I was busy trying out the site. I started with registration, then uploaded an avatar and tweaked my contacts. I also tried sharing something and checked out the reading interface.

Registering

On first registration, I was at first annoyed to see first- and last-name fields, but then tried my new trick of not filling in the last name box. It worked, and I got an account that simply displays Voyagerfan5761 as my name. Works for me. Point for Yokway.

Other than the names, the registration form asks for a username, password, and email address, pretty standard fare these days. There's only one password field, though, so if you mess up and hit the registration button, you might have to guess or reset your password before you can safely log out again. For the unconfirmed password on registration, Yokway loses a point.

Picture and Contacts

I then went into the settings panel (following the quick instructions provided in the invitation email) to upload my avatar, the standard blue logo I started using last month. Alarmingly the Last Name field (profile info is on the same page as picture uploading) was filled with that literal text, but cleared itself when I submitted the form. For a minute there I thought my name was going to end up being Voyagerfan5761 Last Name, but it didn't. Point to Yokway for ignoring default values.

Then I checked My Contacts, which listed the site's founder as my only contact. I unsubscribed and then searched for people, finding Louis Gray in there (he started using the site a few months ago, it looks like, and added me back soon after I subscribed to him -- guess he's still using it). I subscribed to Louis and went back to the homepage, where I saw a stream of shared items. The subscription functionality works without page reloads (take note, FriendFeed), and the people search box (for lack of a better term) seems pretty easy to use. Another point.

Sharing

Here's where we get into the meat of the site. Yokway says it "makes it easy to share things with the people you trust." I trust most of the people I see on FriendFeed, and I've definitely seen Louis there, so he's added. Other than him I know no other Yokway users. So we'll stick with just the one person for now.

The sharing interface is pretty intuitive. All you have to do is click a button and up pops a dialog box. (Nice touch that it's draggable, so if you want to read something under it, you don't have to cancel sharing.) It starts with a Web search box, which you can change to Music, Books, Restaurants, and Movies. I'm going to try sharing my blog, this site, so I've typed in its URL.



Now that Yokway has had a chance to search for it, we see the sharing page. Since there's only one thing that matches this site's URL, there is no list of results to bother with. We can enter a text comment, or record a video comment using Seesmic (very cool), then select a thumbnail image and optional description to accompany the site. I've scrolled the list of images to a capture of the first screen of the site, entered a message about testing as the comment, and added a dummy description.



All that's left is to share! Which means clicking the button. And then the page reloads (Yokway loses a point for this; all that JavaScript and this transition is still slowed by a full refresh) with the newly shared item. (Plus, presumably, anything else shared by contacts since the last page load.)



Reading

Of course, sharing things is no use if nobody reads them. Yokway follows the same sort of follower/following as Twitter, FriendFeed, and a lot of other sites. Digg has Fans and Friends. StumbleUpon has its own similar system. Reddit doesn't have one that I know of, but maybe...

Anyway, Yokway displays all shared stuff from your contacts in a list on the home page. You have the ability to comment on and rate your contacts' material, as mentioned above, and discussions can form on especially interesting stuff. This is like lots of other social sites, where there are items and comments. There's even a great little summary widget that displays recent activity from your contacts:



Each item has a star rating (standard 1-5 like YouTube et al), an option to add a text or video comment (again, the video's through Seesmic), and a link to save the item to your favorites (in Yokway, not browser bookmarks/favorites). Some are missing from the owner's perspective (like saving), but interestingly owners can rate their own items. That shouldn't be possible, in my opinion; only readers should be able to rate items, to give an impartial (presumably at least less partial than the owner) measurement of how useful and/or interesting the shared thing is. But perhaps Yokway is intended to let sharers indicate how useful/interesting the content is to them...

Here's what things look like after other users (your subscribers) have had a chance to comment on and rate them:



One nice thing is the fact that links open in a new window (or tab, depending on browser capabilities and settings) and so don't complicate the on-page commenting and rating. No reloads are necessary for reading until and unless you want to update with new stuff, or if you share something yourself from the page you're reading.

Conclusions and Opinion

So the core functionality is all pretty easy to use, if slowed a bit by the page reload after sharing. Yokway seems to have been carefully developed for the most part, and I can see how it can be useful.

While probably not one of those sites I'll make sure to visit every single day at the moment (that's basically Twitter, Gmail, and Remember The Milk; core communication and task-management stuff), I'm still more likely to visit Yokway than I am Facebook, which currently is graced by my presence ( :P ) once every week or two. As it has been with Twitter and FriendFeed, and even Google Reader (with feeds instead of users), the more interesting people I find on Yokway, the more likely I'll be to go there.

My visits will probably be a bit more for reading than for sharing my own stuff. I just don't share things that often while I'm browsing. I use StumbleUpon to bookmark things (thinking about adding/switching to del.icio.us at present), and Digg and reddit to submit and vote on news & other interesting things. Sharing things on all the sites I have accounts with right now takes at least five minutes (unless it's just on StumbleUpon, with the toolbar, which takes ten to sixty seconds, depending on whether I'm Discovering or just voting). But I have a feeling Yokway will turn out to be a useful tool for finding more interesting articles to read. Digg especially is overrun by crazies, idiots, and jerks anyway, and FriendFeed is getting really noisy.

Update (12:20): The thought of adding even more words to this review is unpleasant, considering how long it is already, but I think these are important points... I notice that there is a way to delete comments, but the link sometimes ends up floating off to the side, hidden among the sidebar items. More critically, there doesn't seem to be a consistent way to get the URL of a specific item, unlike FriendFeed (Yokway seems to use the same hashing strategy to get identifiers). Finally, and most excitingly, I just noticed that Yokway uses jQuery! w00t!

Users to Twitter: Get Stable

I myself am included in those users. While I probably won't be participating* in the event, I thought I'd still call attention to it, within my small sphere of influence, in case some of you want to take part.

Anyway, this Twit-Out, as it's being called, was started by a couple people on FriendFeed: Shey Smith and Bwana McCall. Shey came up with an initial what-if question that sparked Bwana's idea to actually do something. Then Andrew Dobrow came along and made the logo you see at the beginning of this post.

So this Wednesday, May 21, is the first Twit-Out event. If you want to join in and try to get Twitter to realize that reliability is important (I'm sure they do already, to play the devil's advocate -- at least to some extent), just don't tweet on May 21. It's pretty simple. If you have accounts at Pownce and Jaiku, just use them. Heck, use Twhirl to post to FriendFeed instead of Twitter.

I have cross-posting set up within Twhirl so my stuff shows up in three places, but I'm not sure if I could kill posting to Twitter (with an incorrect password or somesuch) while retaining the other two services. Since I don't plan to officially participate*, I'll let you come up with your own solution. Unfortunately I have other things that need doing tonight.

While I'm not sure it'll accomplish anything, it's certainly a worthy cause. We've already seen Twitter become a very useful communication tool, and some people and even businesses rely on it daily. If it keeps going down, that's a lot of potential lost profits and time for users (however legally exempt Twitter is from actually caring about that). Though people not using Twitter is kind of the opposite thing one would expect to get them to beef up their systems...

* - May 21 will be the first performance of a show I'm in, so I anticipate being busy and away from Twitter for much of the day anyway. My tweeting will likely be pretty low all next week, actually.

[Image credit: Jersey, Suburbia by Andrew Dobrow; used with permission. Notes: I converted the image to PNG format; that is the only modification. Originally Andrew's blog had the ability to link to specific comments, but in the last few days the theme has been changed and that feature removed.]

Blogger Accidentally Reveals Rating Feature

Blogger In Draft definitely doesn't have all the new features. Just yesterday, some Blogger users saw "star ratings" -- common enough widgets, but not integrated into Blogger yet -- appear on their sites. This from multiple sources, including Blogger Status and Garett Rogers.

Since Google is usually so very quiet about upcoming releases, I thought this slip-up was extremely funny. For the record, I'm looking forward to seeing this come out on Blogger In Draft and then to mainstream Blogger. I'd like to try it out on this site.

Google Friend Connect: Interesting Service, Can't Sign Up

Yesterday, Google launched a preview release of Google Friend Connect at Campfire One. The premise is neat: Google provides you with a directory of pre-programmed social widgets (slash gadgets, slash modules, slash whatever you want to call them) that you can install on your website simply by pasting HTML code. All kinds of authentication formats are accepted, from Google Accounts to OpenID and beyond. For more nitty-gritty details, head for the official blog post or the Google Webmaster Central version (the latter is simpler).

Incidentally, there was a huge blogstorm about this yesterday, before it was officially announced and before the site was available. Rex Hammock thinks it might be the highest single-day pageview count for a 404 Error page, as he briefly states in a post entitled "Google's new Not Found feature is really fun". Go ahead, it's worth a click. (Well, Ctrl+click or Shift+click if you want to keep reading this ;-) but you already knew that, right?)

Sign-Up Error?

So, it sounds interesting enough that I want to get in on it. Like Google App Engine (my own coverage) from last month, there's a waiting list. (I got into App Engine, by the way, and immediately wasted one of my three indelible applications with a useless test listing I'll never code. There really should be a delete function in App Engine, but I digress...)

Unlike App Engine, though, this waiting list is powered by a Google Spreadsheets form. And this one doesn't work. I get a nice generic error message, which leaves me totally in the dark as to what went wrong. Argh. (It did get fixed though; see update below.)



Until it's working (I'll speculate why it's borked in just a moment), I'll paste my additional info paragraph here, just as an example (who knows, you might want to use it as a template :D ):

Initially I plan to just experiment with the service and see what it can do, but I think I might come up with a brilliant idea to actually use it for real as part of one of the sites I manage. http://www.swrobotics.com/ comes to mind as another possible site where I'd use it.

So anyway, why might this Google sign-up form not be working?

Since it's based on a Google Spreadsheet, it's bound by the limitations of the platform. Spreadsheets are limited (only one thread of many) to 10,000 rows, and with the publicity this launch got it's completely believable that 10,000 developers already applied. This is the price for Google eating its own dog food (so to speak). I guess in a way it's a good thing that they don't give themselves superpowers in their own services.

Meanwhile, I can't sign up for the waiting list. Oh well, it's not like I'd get immediate access anyway. Being locked out has increased my interest, too, so perhaps using a limited submission system was a calculated move on Google's part to generate even more desire to sign up. Who knows? It's working on me.

Anyone who gets in on it, please let me know what the interface is like from the inside. I'll probably post again if and when I gain access myself, but advance knowledge would be nice to have. (Yes, I will be watching Google blogs, official and unofficial, for more info as well.)

Use Cases

Meanwhile, I can brainstorm. This site already has social features (comments), but perhaps I'd like to do more. A sidebar game or something. Perhaps not, but you get the idea.

The Southwest Robotics website might have a comments area added where people can chat about the team's efforts or robots in general. There's definite potential in that idea. I'll have to take it up with my teammates.

Other than those few examples, I'm sure there a vast number of gadgets that I don't know about yet. Only getting into the service will allow me to really see what's possible. Stay tuned for more opinions as I can generate them.

Update (05/14): OK, the form is working again. It's also been completely changed; the number of fields has at least doubled. So much for just copying and pasting what I tried to send in yesterday.

[Google Friend Connect logo from the Google site, displayed under a Fair Use claim; error screenshot taken myself, site design and imagery copyright Google, also Fair Use claim]

Summer Not Quite as Booked...

I know I haven't been posting a lot lately. I've been distracted (so what else is new?) by homework, SimCity 4 (which I actually succeed at now), and (the largest offender) being sick. Writing has definitely taken a back seat, but I have some things I definitely want to blog about when I find the time. This one is just the most breaking.

Sometimes things are too good to be true.

Remember when I said I'd been accepted to the Musical Theatre Extension at Northwestern? Turns out that was a mistake. Let me explain. (I'm still in the theatre program; just not the Extension.)

In the list of requirements for the Musical Theatre part, there was a request for a video of me singing a solo piece, accompanied. That was never made, and never sent. My mom called the office (I don't like talking on the phone) to ask about it, and they said not to worry about it.

Apparently, I wasn't considered for that program. I made it into the five-week regular program only, which also means I don't need the digital recorder after all. (I can still bring it -- could be useful; it's just not on the packing list any more.)

The woman at the office made a note of my change, but it never got entered into the database, and so the letter was sent with incorrect information. (That's what she said in the voicemail I got today, at any rate.) Oh well, I guess I get more time to relax this way. Two more weeks to not be bustling about campus.

Blogger Scheduled Posting Polished and Officially Launched

No more having to go to draft.blogger.com to schedule blog posts in Blogger; late this afternoon (Central time, of course) the Blogger team announced the release of scheduled posting to the mainstream interface. Not that I'm switching -- I still like getting the new stuff -- but it's still nice to know that the feature I started using two months ago (give or take) is now live for everyone.

In other news, I've kind of forgotten to write about the fixes made a week and a half ago, including scheduling for FTP blogs a week or two back and a few other miscellaneous bugs with the feature (like mailing scheduled posts with BlogSend when they publish).

Just thought I'd post a brief thing about this. You can find my previous posts on the subject (including notes on the bugs) in the archives.

My Summer is Officially Booked

Well, it's official. I have something to do for this summer.

As I said in a recent canned post (the one on Web form usability), I applied to two summer programs this year. Both of them have admitted me, and I'm going to accept the invitation to attend the theatre arts program at Northwestern University's National High School Institute.

It's funny, because I didn't technically complete the application requirements for the program I wanted to do (the Musical Theatre extension). They let me in anyway. Which means I have a seven-week commitment this summer. Update (05/07): The letter was mistaken; details here. From the end of June through mid-August early August, I'll be in Evanston, IL, working really hard on everything from acting to movement, lighting to scenery.

Summers usually bring a lull in writing for this site, and I don't anticipate having any meaningful amount of free time for anything. The literature for the program continually reiterates that it is an intensive academic institute, and specifically states that free time will be rare. Given the chance, I may decide to dash off a few paragraphs once or twice during the summer about my progress, but consider this a heads-up that I probably will be pretty silent. Par for the course, right? At least this summer I'll have a library and Internet access...

Am I excited? You betcha. Nervous? Uh... Who wants to know? *nervous (dang it!) chuckle* It looks like a very good opportunity.

That brings me to my next point: This is the only year I can do it. The Institute is open to high school students completing their junior year, which means that's me. Next year isn't an option, though I can still do UChicago's travel program next year (which is why it's OK to postpone that one). No, I can't do both; the dates overlap.

So there's the latest news. Now I have to go and add writing letters to my ever-growing to-do list. One to accept Northwestern's admission, and one to politely decline UChicago's. Writing, writing, writing... Now I know why I feel like knowing how to write well is so important.

Update (22:30): I knew I forgot something! Turns out that my research on digital recorders will be good for more than just capturing orchestra trips and anecdotes; the Musical Theatre extension has a digital voice (or microcassette) recorder listed as a necessity. Well, I guess I'd better make sure I get on that upgrade.

Update (05/07): Got a voicemail from Northwestern today correcting the letter I got. I only got the five-week program after all. I was kind of wondering... More details in my latest post.