Questions for musical fans

One of my favorite things is seeing plays and musicals. Someone sent me this silly fun survey for Musical Theater fans. 

1. How often do you see musicals? About once a month
2. Why did you see the last musical you saw?  Godspell at Theatre Downtown
3. What do you think about straight plays? Do you see them often? Plays are ok as long as they are not too long. I see a play or two every week. 
4. What do you consider to be the most over appreciated musical? A Lion King
5. How about the most under appreciated? Anything by Jason Robert Brown
6. Dreamcast your favorite musical actor in three roles. 
7. Dreamcast your favorite musical actress in three roles. 
8. Dreamcast your favorite musical. 
9. Do you consider any musicals to be your guilty pleasures? Dance of the Vampires
10. The musical that failed to live up to your expectations? A Chorus Line a/k/a 2.5 hours I'll never get back.
11. The musical that surpassed your expectations? Evita
12. When listening to musicals, does language matter? Do you enjoy showtunes in other languages than your native one? I prefer English, but I have all the Phantom cast albums in other languages.
13. If you had to take a person who has never seen a musical to watch one, which one would you pick for them? This happen and I took him to see Wicked. It's an easy story to follow and good music.
14. What’s your favorite non-Broadway musical? Love Never Dies
15. Bootlegs – yay or nay? Yay
16. Do you prefer sung-through musicals or ones with dialogue in between songs? Either
17. Have you ever seen your favorite musical actor give a performance you didn’t like? No, I pay too much to not like something.
18. Do you always have company when going to theatre, or do you go alone? I prefer to go with someone, but most times I go alone. 
19. Which musical has made you laugh out loud the most? Le Worse (A musical Katie and I wrote about our lives)
20. How about cry the most? 
21. Which is your favorite cast recording right now? On the Record, which is a compilation of all Disney songs
22. You have to remove a song from your favorite musical. Which one goes? Wandering Child
23. Your favorite understudy performance? Whoever was Sutton Foster's standby in Little Women
24. What started your interest towards musicals? I saw a school play in 7th grade and fell in love with the music. 
25. You’re having a dinner party with five musical people (actors, directors, composers…), dead or alive. Who do you invite? Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jason Robert Brown, Sierra Boggess, Gillian Lynne, Sutton Foster.
26. If you only could watch one musical for the rest of your life (but you could watch multiple performances and productions of it), which one would you choose and why? The Phantom of the Opera. It's my thing, I've seen it more than 40-times. Can't stop, Won't stop. 
27. Make a musical-related confession. See above
28. A musical you used to love, but don’t anymore? Chicago
29. A musical you didn’t like at first but love now? Les Miserables
30. You get to be cast in a musical. Which one, and which role? The Phantom of the Opera, Christine Daae.

Wins and Fails for March

So anyone following my blog knows that I broke down last month and bought a Samsung Chromebook, which is a Netbook running completely off Google. After a month I can say that this was probably the best purchase that I've made in a very long time. I forgo ed my Spring Coach purse and bought this mostly because I needed a computer.  It is portable and more powerful than it looks. I use to game, watch YouTube, and mostly write. At first I was concerned that writing would only be limited to places with Wi-Fi, but there is Wi-Fi everywhere. It also has an offline function that allows me to write and then it will automatically save changes.

I miss my Mac dearly, but it still works and when I need to design something or need something more powerful. One of the few drawbacks of using a Chromebook is that obviously iTunes is not compatible. I spent far too much money to just let my iTunes account disappear.

Chromebook = Win

In my previous post I discussed how ear drops are equivalent to lava for a dog. I am officially declaring a fail on ear drops. As much as we love this dog, the amount of bites and bruises on us is just not worth it. She's just too smart. I made her an Oscar for "Most Dramatic Performance."

Doggy Ear Drops = Fail

One of my biggest procrastination vices is the Game of Thrones Ascent Facebook Game. I'm starting to get really good at it and found myself playing while asleep. Then I got Johnny playing.  If you love the Game of Thrones series, you'll love this game.

Game of Thrones Ascent = Win

I've let the world know that I've openly declared virtual war against "serial criminal crime families." Dealing with these people on a daily basis, you would think that I've had the best training in the world to get comps or upgrades. Well I failed miserably to try to get something on my upcoming cruise. When I booked, I missed a promotion. Then the week after I booked all the Carnival ship drama occurred and missed another promotion. I didn't ask for a refund, but something as a goodwill gesture. I ended accepting a "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do."

Negotiator on the other side = Fail.

Things I learned this week WE 3/16/13

Princess Charger don't got time for ear drops

1. Putting ear drops in a dog is similar to walking into a cage fight with a lion that hasn't eaten in a week. You would seriously think that I pour hot lava into this dog's ear the way she screams and fights. My dog is a 92-pound alpha German Shepherd, who holds a grudge for at least two days. I have 11 more days of ear drop madness.

2. For two weeks I've woken at 3am from straight slumber covered in almonds including in my mouth. How I haven't died yet is beyond me. This week I learned that almonds have magnesium, which acts as a sleep aid. In my case, almonds are basically Kim chloroform and I don't remember eating them either.

3. Nutella is amazing. This week I had Nutella for the first time. Now I'm obsessed now. We had some at work and now I can't stop.

4. Despite my better judgement, I decided to watch Game of Thrones Season 2 with the notion that there would be less grown up parts. I was wrong. Lots of gratuitous sex and anatomy.

5. I waste a lot of time playing Game of Thrones ascent on Facebook. I'm not at the point where I'll spend real money, but I waste far too much time at night playing this silly game.

6. The first 50-pages of "Beautiful Creatures" is horrible and can be passed. I trudge through the first 50-pages for book club. I put the book down because it sucked, but book club people promised that it would get better. On page 51 things really did get better and now I can't stop. Though I find the story very superficial and nothing too deep, it's still a good story.

7. Driving on I-4 during rush hour really sucks. I can't imagine anyone having to drive that route every day, it is horrible. When I have to see shows downtown and leave my office at 5, it takes 1.5 hours to go 11 miles. This other night I saw a tractor trailer flipped upside down with it's contents strewn about the roadway blocking two lanes and an exit ramp at 10pm. Fail.

8. I'm a better dancer than I thought and it really is like getting back on the horse. I had my last ballet class this week and finally had a challenging class. I loved it, but my schedule was getting too difficult to manage (Surprise!).

9. I think I'm getting famous. People know me because of my theater reviews. Win. Most epic win.

10. I'm getting old. I got wind of my 10-year high school reunion happening this summer. Crazy. I don't think I've accomplished enough to show up. Also, it's kind of unnecessary because Facebook keeps everyone worth keeping in touch.

More smoke signals

I'm trying to start a trend much like "More Cowbell," except it will be "More Smoke Signals." If you think about it, this is a very effective form of communication.

One of my tasks at work is to disseminate information. My publishing deadlines are on Saturdays, yet sometimes decisions to change performance times can happen on the hour. Enter the frustration and miscommunication that happens when you have to tell thousands of people different information.

Watching the new Pope being elected made me think about the simplicity of smoke signals. We live in a world where messages and information come through instantly, but when things are so fast paced, then again, so is the chance to make mistakes. A smoke signal is a clear message that something occurred. It's easily noticeable and many people can see it.

This is where my preposition to utilize smoke signals comes in. Obviously colored smoke would mean either one thing or another, so maybe for things like "It's a Girl" or "We will have a parade!" can use this technique.

More smoke signals!