Huh, never do these, but the timing of this one, I couldn't pass up.

My mother was/is a huge X-Files fan, and I started watching the show with her when we both had insomnia together. Her favorite episode is the one with the garbage monster in the development (where Mulder and Scully are playing husband and wife). For me, there's two episodes:

First, definitely, "Monday." It reminds me of Run Lola Run and of course Groundhog Day, where the day keeps repeating over and over again, until it goes right--and then it has a Shyamalan twist at the end. It's a beautifully tragic episode, as the woman who keeps living this day over and over looks more broken, more desperate, everyday, as she tries to stop Mulder from dying in the bank.

Second, "Improbable," possibly the most insane episode ever. It's like if Baz Luhrmann directed an episode. Very Moulin Rouge! feel to it, with Burt Reynolds in the role of God. And some of the most interesting camera angles and editing I've seen in a TV show. I know a lot of people hated it because it was so out there, but that's exactly why I got a huge kick out of it.

As for paranormal activity, the closest I've come to that is my premonition dreams, which I've been thinking about again as September 11th comes again. I've talked about this to some, but not to all, about some of the dreams I've had...

First time it happened was a week before 9/11, where I dreamt I was in my kitchen, looking outside the back window. All the trees and houses between our house and the beach were gone, it was all brush, so I could clearly see the Manhattan skyline across the bay, with the Twin Towers displayed prominently. Then suddenly I heard a plane flying overhead, and a panic spread over my body. I grabbed one of the cats, clung to it, as I heard a missile falling and saw the plane through the window flying towards Manhattan. I braced myself for the end and... Woke up in a cold sweat.

A few days later, I dream I'm in this office building, and I hear something crash. Everyone's running out of the building, some climbing out the window. I get out and rubble is all over, with pandemonium breaking out all around me, in some major city... I duck behind a large pile of rubble as something comes crashing down...

So those were my 9/11 dreams. Then there was the dream I had where I was in the middle of a field on a sunny clear day. I looked in the sky and saw this white aircraft in flames flying overhead. "Oh my God, what is that? Is that the Concorde? Oh my God, the Concorde is on fire!!" I wake up, kinda fall back to sleep, and then my mother comes running up and tells me to put on the TV. I put it on, and there's the Columbia shuttle, going across the sky in flames, looking exactly like the aircraft I saw in my dreams.

And then there's the night my grandfather was in my dream the night he died, where he was leaving the hospital. And then, there was the dream with Matt's mother, a few weeks after we started dating, and maybe a month or so after she died--where, in Matt's hallway, she kissed me on each cheek and thanked me for being there for Matt, and then turned and walked away. I didn't really know what she looked like, and in my dream I thought maybe it was my late aunt Doris, and then I panicked that I was just with a ghost. When I woke up, I found a picture of Matt's mom, and sure enough, it was her.

So there's my paranormal-esque experience. For what it's worth, I haven't had any disaster type dreams since the Columbia. So we should be good for a while. :P

I actually dreamed last night that I downloaded and installed Google Chrome. (In my dream I liked it a lot, and was impressed with its ability to process HTML/Flash/Javascript independently and its ability to treat each tab as a separate process itself.)

So yeah, I'm a geek. That's the type of exciting stuff I dream about.

Side note, I'll be going to see Rent tonight in the city with Matt. I got us tickets as an anniversary gift (3 years on Thursday). So that delays my downloading Google Chrome by another day, most likely. ;P

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080813/NEWS01/808130379/1001/NEWS

"Strife may mean curtains for theater group"

MARLBORO — Behind-the-scenes drama between trustees and some members of a local community theater group last week had both sides calling police to help run the show.

Stuart Moskovitz, an attorney for the Marlboro Players' trustees, said "hostile and irrational e-mails" from some members prompted the board to hire Freehold Township police for security at a planned membership meeting last Friday at Empire Diner.

Not to be upstaged, members also tried to hire the department for security, Sgt. Raymond Piccolini said. At that point, the department discussed with both groups that they might "deal with their issues on their own," Piccolini said. Board members canceled the meeting.

Interestingly, with all my time in community theater in Monmouth County, I've never even heard of Marlboro's group. Maybe only vaguely, in passing. As bad as drama can get behind the scenes at some CTs, this is a first, lol. Perhaps this is why I'm not familiar with them. People need to get a grip, step away from their computers, and learn how to act like adults.

Oil company profits soar, but Exxon disappoints

Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) broke its own record for the highest-ever quarterly profit for a U.S. company on Thursday, but it was lower than Wall Street expected largely due to lost output from Venezuela and Nigeria and lower yields from some oil fields.

...

Exxon's second-quarter net income rose 14 percent to $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, in the quarter.

They made 11.68 BILLION dollars. When they made $11.66 billion for the fourth quarter, there was all this outrage and headlines all over news sites about it. And now this time, it's "aww poor Exxon, they only made $11.68 billion, that's so low!" The news is completely being buried. And the rhetoric being used in oil-related articles over the months have been sounding vaguely in favor of the oil companies and Wall Street traders, rather than objective or balanced.

Remember the good ol' days, when we used to boycott British products and throw their tea into the bay? It's sad that in some ways, globalization seems to have taken away the power of community. (If one can even say non-virtual communities still exist, particularly with the post-Baby Boom generation.)
 
 

So from Monday,  August 4th to Friday, August 8th, Matt and I will be down in Wildwood. The trip is gonna be expensive, which has both of us a little uneasy, but it should still be a lot of fun. (We were feeling really excited about the trip until we started calling motels asking for their rates. :P That deflated us a bit.) I've never been to Wildwood before, and this will be the first time Matt and I have planned and gone on a vacation together, just the two of us.

The cheapest we found was $95 per night, while everyone else was over $150. Actually, the $95/night one was originally $110 per night when we were starting on Sunday, but changing it to Monday brought the rate way down, woo hoo.

Fortunately, August is when I only have three weeks of classes at T. Schreiber, instead of four weeks, so it will only be $311.25 instead of $415 for the month. So there's $100 right there. Now I just have to figure out how vacation time works with my agency. Still waiting for my contact to get back to me. Missing a whole week's pay would really, really suck. I'm burnt out, so gimme my paid vacation time! :P

If anyone knows of any cool stuff around Wildwood, aside from the obligatory beach and boardwalk, let me know. We're up to anything.
 

We were talking about haunted places at work today, so I decided to look up some sites about the "haunted house" two blocks away from me, the "Dempsey House" aka the "Dollhouse." I never got to sneak into it as a kid, as when I was growing up there, there were absolutely no kids in my area. Just a bunch of retired senior citizens. But anyway, I thought these links were pretty cool.

Lost Destinations::The Dempsey House+

Weird NJ Stories, 2002 Weekly Story Archives

Weird NJ Stories, 2003 Weekly Story Archives


 
 
 

Even the Associated Press is talking about our dolphins:

Many ideas on how to get dolphins out of NJ river

For those who don't know, in the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers, we have a bunch of dolphins stuck. I haven't gone down and checked yet, even though they're only 10 minutes down the road. (Probably should do that very soon...) But I found this part hilarious:

Brian Burnett of Howell said stopping construction on the Highlands Bridge — one of two spans the dolphins have stayed between for the past three weeks — could do the trick. The noise and vibrations from pounding and other construction work could be scaring the dolphins away from the bridge, which they would have to pass under on their way back out to sea.

"That might be the only way to get them under there," he said.

What an insidious way to stop the construction, lol. See all the mayhem they're causing with this construction?! Miles of traffic backed up, dolphins stuck in rivers... the possibilities are endless! That's what they get for being stupid and thinking starting this project at the start of the summer season was a good idea.

...See, that's my clever way to reference moving, because if you're shifting, you're moving. See how I did that all clever-like? Oh yeah.

Bad wordplay and pompousness aside, so yeah, I've been looking into moving fairly soon. Finally. A few months ago I started to lose hope that I could do it this summer, and that I would have to wait until the end of this year. But this past month my finances have been looking really strong and I've saved up to almost my target amount I had set for myself last year. I'm super impressed.

So this past week I've been talking with people and had checked one place out already. I have another place I'll be checking out tomorrow. I'm looking to move into the Jersey City/Hoboken/Weehawken area, although I've been looking at stuff directly in the city as well. But I feel like if I don't live in Manhattan, I'd rather live in that area of Jersey than in the other boroughs, because 1) better for commuting for work/seeing people, 2) don't feel like dealing with the various complications that occur with paperwork when switching states, 3) I know the area a lot better, and 4) well, I like saying I'm from Jersey, for better or for worse. :P

So hopefully soon I'll have some good news on the moving front. The whole search was feeling kinda stressful at first, but now I'm feeling more into the groove of it.

...Thusly named by Stipe as they began their set at Jones Beach on Saturday night. I really don't think any concert will ever top this evening's events.



So that was MY day. How was yours?
 
 

Improv class went well last night, although I'm still kicking myself for not taking more risks during the class and not letting myself be more natural. I dunno, I was more comfortable in the first class than the second class, oddly enough. I guess I crack under pressure more than let my nerves get the best of me. I'm okay when I'm nervous, but when I'm like, "Okay, I have to do this again and do it better" then I screw up. I didn't too bad in class or anything, bit I could've been a lot better. And it's a very good sign that I'm kicking myself for not taking more risks. It means I'm feeling comfortable enough in the class that I know I'm capable of doing so. Next week I just gotta let it go.

So this morning, at about 6:45am (10 minutes after my alarm went off), I get text message. Huh?? Turns out it was from Matt. Keep in mind that since last night, the wind had been getting really nasty. Well, the neighbors across the street's tree fell down across the road and right into Matt's front yard. And right where my car normally parks. O_O omg, can you imagine if I decided to stay over at Matt's after my class, rather than just go home?! Finally I was spared with my car. I can't believe it. The tree also brought down the power pole and power lines--lines which were dangling right over Matt's truck. O_O;; When I called Matt right after the text, he already had the police there. The incident even showed up on the Asbury Park Press site.

Parts of 35 and 36 are getting shut down due to flooding; I'm not looking forward to the commute home at all. I'm gonna have to take the Parkway, because I know 35 will be closed in Aberdeen, but that's gonna suck. :/

Random note, I believe I mentioned I bought "Boy Gets Girl" and "The Pillowman" over at the Drama Book Shop. I finished "Boy Gets Girl" on the train ride into the city on Sunday. It was a good read, but sure enough it gave me nightmares when I went to sleep, lol. Dreamt that I was being stalked by the annoying hair salon guy at Penn Station that kept bugging me when I walked by. Lots of action-adventure stuff, not great plotting though--every time I thought the dream had reached the finale, more went on (like Randall's complaint about LOTR, lol) until it finally ended with a twist ending. I love how most of my dreams would make a decent yet hackish film.

The past week has been pretty insane, I'm not sure if I can even remember most of it, but I'll give it a try.


And now today is Sunday. I'm just relaxing and playing Mario Kart right now. I actually got sleep today, woo hoo! And then my improv class is tonight. *phew* So that was my week.

Mwaha.

It's stuff like this that makes me glad Mark introduced me to xkcd.com...

So Eve just came in at 4:15pm, asking me if the Creative Group found me anything yet, and if not, can I come back Monday.

O_O

So I'm back. 45 minutes left till unemployment, and then I'm back. The 38 page manual that I just created on Wednesday is going to be turned into a Wiki. Wow. Looks like I earned my keep for a while longer.

And I already said good-bye to a bunch of people and got a free lunch yesterday. (I liked Asanka's response to my free lunch guilt, "That's alright, we'll go out for drinks Monday to celebrate." lol)

I feel like I was just resurrected from the dead.

Just read this article from 1995. T'was amusing. Virtual libraries? Telecommuting? eCommerce? That stuff will NEVER work!

On the job front, I have a few leads from my agency; they're working to try to get me something. Hopefully they'll get back to me within the next few days. Two of the places are a long drive, but one is right in Edison, and it sounds like a cool job (a mix of both design and coding, not just one or the other). I'd be happy with any of them, though, they all sound like good jobs! I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully I won't be unemployed for too long. :(

I got to do a training session today, which was kinda cool. Had 7 people in the group at Media Relations that I had to train on using the content management system. I spent all of yesterday making slides. After Eve saw all my work, she asked me to compile them all into a PDF file. So I did that the whole afternoon. It turned into a 38 page manual. Pretty cool stuff! Hopefully it makes a difference, I'm pretty proud of it.

For those of you who were wondering if I'd still be at Rutgers for a while longer, I was just told today that this would be the last week they can keep me. :(

Oh well, I loved working here and will miss it, but there's a reason why I chose temp work. On to new challenges!

Over 36 hours with this migraine. I can't concentrate on anything. Therefore, this entry will have seemingly little point.

I saw "Stranger Than Fiction" Saturday night. I never really heard much talk about it, but I was looking forward to seeing it. Well, turns out it's awesome! Wonderful concept with well executed follow through. I love "writer-y" sort of gimmicks. Like the play "The Pillowman" I thought was fantastic. In STF, it asks the question, "What would happen if the main character in a novel could hear the narrator?" Which then begets more interesting questions... But no more or I will spoil. Will Ferrell continues to impress me--and to think I hated him on SNL. Emma Thompson was fabulous, wonderful character study involved. Actually, there was a lot of well crafted performances throughout. So many wonderful little moments of character choices that made these character flesh and blood. (Although I think Dustin Hoffman might have thrown in a little too much stuff. But eh, he's Dustin Hoffman, he can get away with it better than most actors.) So for anyone looking for a well done indie film that both makes you laugh and makes you think, pick it up. It's worth 2 hours of your time.

Then that night is when the migraine kicked in. Yuck.

I was supposed to go to see "Cabaret" performed down at Ocean Grove on Sunday, but surprise surprise, my mother bailed out on me at the last minute. $45 wasted. I'm making her pay me back, because that was really unfair of her to change her mind way after you're allowed to cancel reservations. I feel like any time I'm kind to her, she slaps it in my face. And any time she's kind to me, she expects me to worship her. It doesn't work like that. That's the last time I'm generous to her for a long time. How bad is it being stood up by your own mother? It's like dating a bad boyfriend. We would've broken up ages ago.

So that was my fascinating weekend. This weekend should be more interesting. On Saturday I'm going to a wedding with Jaimie for one of her coworkers. Sunday I'm seeing the Kids In the Hall perform live at the Nokia Theater. So I should have stories. We'll see.

Protests meet Olympic torch in Argentina

"We are here to celebrate Olympics!" said Shao Long Chen, a 19-year-old Chinese immigrant. "It's a great source of pride for us that the Olympics are being held in Beijing and that the torch is passing through Buenos Aires."

As for the pro-Tibet protesters nearby, he said: "They're using sports to deliver a political message, and that's not right."

And isn't China using "sports" to deliver a political message? It's just that other people are changing the message that China was originally trying to deliver. Welcome to the world stage, China. The US gets people pissed off at us all the time, too. Can't censor the entire world.

Reading these stories the last few weeks just keeps getting me angrier and angrier.

I have a major twitch in my neck and a muscle spasm going in my leg that's too deep to massage. Ow.

So anyways. After finishing a major project for work in only a day and a half, things have gotten a bit slow again. So that means I write. :P

How beautiful was last Saturday? Everybody's still talking about it, a wonderful spring day. Matt and I started the day trying to find this flea market that I saw a sign for on Friday. We drove over to there, and nothing! Then I remembered that by my house on 36 some flea market apparently goes on every Saturday, so I suggested we try there instead. It was inside some church I never even knew existed and there was only one car parked out front. Umm, yeeaah... So we decided to drive into the backroads of Leonardo and Atlantic Highlands and see if there were any yard sales going on.

We took the scenic road along the cliffs, which I haven't driven along in maybe 15 years. God, it was BEAUTIFUL. We stopped in the parking lot of the old Hofbrauhaus, where across the street there used to be those viewfinders. Sadly they don't have them there anymore, but it was still wonderful. All at once, a view of the woods, the beach, the bay, and the Manhattan skyline. You can't beat that! As we were looking at Sandy Hook, we decided to drive there. (Don't worry Sreya, there were no naked people there yet, hehe. :) ) We drove up to the northern part, into Fort Hancock, where all the old batteries are. Like these:



(I actually did take a bunch of pictures, but I decided to steal other people's pics for now. They'll be on Facebook eventually.)

Then we walked to the marsh area, where there's the big elevated porch to look at the scenery and Manhattan skyline, the stream, and the trails all through the trees and high grass. That was a lot of fun exploring!! All little nooks and crannies to be discovered. We actually found a path that led right into one of the batteries! It was like being in an ancient Greek amphitheater, only much smaller. And then we were on top of the battery, and probably could've walked all along it like we saw this guy and his kid were when we first drove in. But good thing we didn't, because there were state troopers there like 15 minutes later.

I really love where I live. Woods, beach, Manhattan--all in one picture? And I love how Sandy Hook is not just beaches, but also an actual park and an historic site. (What little kid on the Shore hasn't played with the giant cannons? Or gawked at the missiles?) I'm not a huge beach person, but I love all the WWI and WWII stuff and all the wildlife you find on the trails. And it's so tranquil during the spring... Saturday was perfect.

I was gonna write about a bunch of other stuff from this week too, but this post has turned out bigger than I expected it... So I'll just leave it at that. :)

I signed up today for an improv class over at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NYC. I've only been wanting to do that for, oh, 6 years or so. The money and the timing of the class finally got in sync with each other. Plus, it helps that I've been getting sick of myself not doing any new training for the past year. Seems like I'm only motivated to do things outside my comfort zone when I hit rock bottom.

So I'm pretty excited; the class starts May 4th, is on Sunday evenings, and is taught by Kate Spencer--a member of the Reuben Williams improv group which I actually quite like a lot. It's gonna be different from the improv classes I've taken before, as those ones were geared towards freeing the actor while in a scripted performance. The Harold method, aka long-form improv, is what they're geared towards teaching. It's improv for the sake of improv, not as a tool for something else.

Now I just need to get over my phone anxiety and call T. Schreiber Studios to schedule an info session. I've been mulling over taking a basic technique class with them for ages, and I think now is finally time. It sucks that I'll have to miss a few hours of work to go to it (they start every Monday at 5:45pm), but they've been very good to me about rearranging things in my schedule when needed. It just kills me to lose like $50 when I need every penny I can get to be able to afford these classes. That's not a very good mindset for what I want to do with my life, though. Just gotta suck it up. (And maybe see if I can fit an extra hour or two in during the week.)

So the one class I'm looking at is Saturday afternoons. I've also been wanting to take the voice & speech class there. My mindset is basically, once I get better voice & speech skills developed, I can start looking into voice over training, and then after about a year get a demo developed and start expanding my audition range. Plus, voice over skills are great for certain types of commercials (where you're talking into the camera rather than doing a scene). So the sooner I start taking a voice & speech class, the better.

But first I gotta get over the phone anxiety. :P That was the nice thing about UCB, online registration!

I can feel a migraine coming on... I think all the stress of running around trying to catch up on errands is making my brain angry. That's one of the unfortunate after effects of going on vacation--all that stuff you should have done a few days ago has to be jammed into a day or two.

Tuesday I somehow managed to make it into work with a few hours sleep. I opened up my first savings account with UFB Direct, which I'm pretty excited about. Their interest rate has gone way down over the last few weeks, but it's still better than most other high-yield savings accounts out there. Maybe in a few years I'll be able to afford investing in bonds and money market funds. After work I went over to Brookdale so Matt and I could grab dinner together and hang out for a little bit. He's busy building the set for "I Do! I Do!" and is going to be putting a ton of overtime hours in this week. Good for the mortgage, bad for his sanity. Add on to that the fact that "James and the Giant Peach" will be opening only a few weeks after that. That's not a lot of time to build a giant rotating peach. We'll see how that goes.

Wednesday was hectic (although work itself was slow). During lunch I had to mail the rebate for my new cell phone and the initial deposit for my savings account. Then after work I dropped off the money for the trip with Angelica and chatted with her for a bit, ran over to Commerce on 27 and put in the rebate check for my laptop, and finally ran over to Planned Parenthood before they closed to pick up my last two packs of pills for the year. Then there was the three loads of laundry I had to do as soon as I got home. Blah. Funny, writing it, it doesn't sound like it was too bad, but I felt like I was running in 20 directions at once yesterday. I guess because everywhere I had to go was all spread out.

Now whatever plans I had for today I feel like are going to have to be canceled because I know in a few hours I'm gonna be in bad pain. I'm already feeling the pressure, the dizziness, and a bit of nausea. Ugh. I'm just gonna crawl up in a ball under the covers, popping Advil, as soon as I get home.

As a side note, during the plane rides I finally started reading "The Hobbit." I've never been into fantasy stuff (with "Harry Potter" being the first and only fantasy series I've read, and I also like Neil Gaiman's work a lot--that's the extent of it), so I was never motivated to pick up any of Tolkien's stuff. Nearly every fantasy film I've seen bored me to tears. Then Matt had me see the first two LOTR films during winter break, and I really liked them. And so far, I'm really liking this book. Maybe I'll be a convert? Once I finish "The Hobbit" I'll have to grab LOTR and a couple of other books off of Matt. I've been in the mood for something different. So we'll see what happens.