Breaker, breaker, seven one niner alpha november...

I found this picture on the internet. Though I don't always find the fantasy genre to my taste, I thought it rather intriguing.
It's called "Night Angel" by fromtheshadowsart. A link can be found to this picture on the site www.fromtheshadows.com. Do you see the earth in the background? Isn't that neat?

Brings to mind the passage:

"Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

From Sarah Williams: "Old Astronomer to His Pupil"

Long awaited...

~ "You may regret that one of these days!"
"I may regret a lot of things when the time comes, but that time hasn't come- Get back!" Jared hissed suddenly, throwing his arm across Sam's chest and veritably flinging him back against the wall.
Two of the Council guards made their way past, conversing amicably in a dialect that Sam didn't recognize but apparently (judging from the considerable interest suddenly showing on his face) Jared had a working knowledge of.
In a second he was changed from his usual surly countenance to grinning like a madman. He waited only long enough for the two men to make it around the corner in the direction of the Council House before gloating, "Well what do you know! The Minister seems to have been out sick for a couple of days. Isn't that handy?"
Jared smirked and Sam found himself fearing for either his life or sanity once again.
"Jared, we can't just walk into the Minister's office."
"Oh yes we can. And we will. And be quiet about it! This isn't a Bond movie you know."
Those who knew Sam well agreed that he had considerable will power. And it took every last shred of it to restrain him from hitting Jared at that moment. The impulse died a sudden death when Jared, a dangerous glint still in his eye, shoved out of their little niche and started down the alley with the nonchalance of a tourist.
Sam made a spluttering noise that sounded ridiculous even to his own ears, but got no reaction. He finally just snatched up his pack, determining to fight that battle later, and caught up with Jared just as he was turning down another alley.
"Good grief Jared, was it really necessary to throw me at the wall?" Sam complained, rubbing the back of his neck. "You knocked the wind right out of me!"
"All the better. I didn't need those guys hearing you breathe."
Once again in a span of two minutes Sam wanted to lay into Jared. He reminded himself to take deep breaths as Jared took another corner into a crowded souq.
The air was thick with the odors of camels, dust, sweat, decaying fish, and a mixture of spices and heavy incenses that assaulted the nose unmercifully.
Sam supposed that some of the smells, taken by themselves and in small doses, might even be pleasant. But not most of them.
Jared paused by a young boy with a reed basket and spent five full minutes bartering for two oranges and a handful of almonds. The child drove a stiff bargain and finally Jared acquiesced, paying full price, handing one of the oranges to Sam and slipping the little bag of almonds into his pocket.
Same didn't complain, it was past noon. Having had what Jared called a "good breakfast" (the ritual three tiny cups of ridiculously strong coffee and a piece of flat bread wrapped around cold rice and mutton, remnants of last nights supper which, incidentally, hadn't gotten less tough or better tasting overnight) he figured that it was high time for lunch. ~
~I made this!

I'd like to call attention to the fact that today is Veterans Day, and I want to say thank you. Thank you very much.

The transit-ional period...

Today (or yesterday truth be told, seeing as it's after midnight) my grandfather sent me a link to an article about the upcoming Mercury transit. I kid you not, I spent a full five minutes trying to figure out how the living heck that was possible. It just didn't make a bit of sense. The geometry is all wrong! Mercury can't come between the Earth and Sun!
After a bit of this kind of logic and even a bit of Space.com surfing for more info I finally realized that it's a Mercury transit.
Now I can here you saying to yourself, "Yeah, Mercury, you said that. What's the point?"
Well, my friend, the point is that in my little planetary diagram buried deep within the synapses of my little brain I had juxtaposed...wait for it...Mars with Mercury. Yes indeed. Not consciously. I did not actually sit there and think to myself, "Mercury is farther from the sun then Earth." But I apparently stopped reading at the "M". Do I do that often? I don't think so...
Funny moment when I finally realized that, oh gee whiz, there can conceivably be a Mercury transit because...it's Mercury!
And that, boys and girls, was Renee's Genius Monday Moment.
Thanks a lot folks, I'll be here all week!

~~~~~~
Worth checking out, at the very least because I've been blamed for something on it and/or it's got a great name! And it's published by my friend Kara. ;) www.ChevronSeven.blogspot.com

A bit of dream journaling...

...is what I feel up to right now.

So this morning I woke up from a rather...interesting dream. I have often said that I almost never have nightmares. Occasionally I'll have disturbing dreams, and I'd call this one slightly disturbing. I did want to go back to sleep and see how it turned out though. Even my disturbing dreams I find rather fascinating. Part of the reason being that I get to experience things that I wouldn't be able to otherwise.

This particular dream began with my being on (as near as I can figure) an 1800's war ship. Now I must have been either a prisoner or an impressed crewman, because I definitely wasn't fighting on their side. One of the funny things about it is that through the entire dream I believe I played a female role. It would seem that of all my dreams where I'm a man this should have been one of them. I mean really, on a navy ship in the 1800's?
Anyway, I ended up accused of being a traitor. And I didn't deny it. By their definition I certainly was one. I mean heck, I was sabotaging the ship. There was a bit of a pseudo trial and I was sentenced by the captain to walk the plank. At some point during this part of the dream the captain started (or perhaps had always been?) morphing into my father (hehe, what's that tell ya Freud?), and the ship into our home. But I was still supposed to be killed, yes, at home, via walking the plank.
I didn't fight the sentence, simply set about getting my affairs in order. I know that I hoped that there was some way out, but in the mean time you might as well prepare for the worst. The most vivid part of this portion of the dream was when I decided that my mom (who was exhibiting sorrowful resignation funnily enough) should give my tennis shoes (and supposedly whatever else I had) to somebody that needed them. I would walk the plank in my leather moccasin slippers. (Looking back I'm not really sure why I couldn't walk the plank barefoot, dignity mayhaps?) I then went outside to fill up Tiger's water trough and apparently say goodbye to him. I felt bad because the trough was empty and I thought he'd probably been thirsty.
My first impression upon waking? Relief that it was just a dream. No, not because I didn't in fact die, but relief that it was just a dream that Tiger didn't have water.
Second impression, a wish to go back to sleep to see what happened.
I thought that throughout the dream I acted very much as a spy/prisoner/sabotager (is that a word?) should. I had no choice but to be on the ship, and I made the best of the opportunity by gosh. I also faced my inevitable fate with an icy calm and dignified composure.

That's why I like my dreams! It's just like watching a movie, except that you're in it and you feel everything.
And just like an actor, in my dreams I usually don't see things from the perspective of "Renee". More often then not I am someone else, quite often a man, as I referenced before.
That's quality entertainment!

Another shot at this...

Ok, I was at work and I wrote an uber big long post and saved it...twice! And now it's gone! Completely wiped off the face of the World Wide Web. Ggggrrrrrrr, Blogger!
It occurred to me that perhaps saving it redundantly actually negated it....

First off, a gigantic welcome to Peace and Talbert who were press ganged- eherm, I mean invited, into the Fools Fold last night. Congratulations guys!!!
Hehe, you know what this means right? I'm not the newest newbie anymore. Not that Cowboy will care.

So I was contemplating the flow of time and a friend of mine that is depressed about turning 23. To me 23 is nothing, but he feels like life is rushing past him, like he hasn't accomplished anything.
I kind of know what he means. There are so very many things that I want to experience but I only have a limited amount of time you know. I find myself simultaneously wanting time to speed up and slow down.
I want it to speed up because this semester my courses are trying to rip out my still beating heart and stand holding it over my limp shuddering body, laughing maniacally as my nonexistent GPA steals the last breath of life from my weakly convulsing lungs.
And next semester is going to be worse.
I want it to slow down because I want to savor every single second I have with my friends here. It's funny, and I'm not sure how or when it happened, but I feel closer now to the guys in the SoF and the C-crowd as Jamie calls it then I have to anybody in a long time. Possibly closer then I have to anybody ever. Not counting family of course, just friends.
The day I moved up here last semester my grandfather told me, "I'll bet that you will meet somebody here that you will be friends with for the rest of your life." I believed him then. Now I can say with complete conviction that that's true. I think it's already happened. And I got more then one out of the deal, and that's just awesome.
Also, according to Benji, the SoF can get you women. And it's true! I can name at least three people that count towards your traditional "girlfriends", or "gal pals" if you will. That's really something new for me. It's not that I don't like women, I have just always had exponentially more men/boys as friends. Why is that? I don't know.

They say that your college years are supposed to be the best of your life. I will naturally always try to one-up that. (After all, why limit yourself? The ceiling is where you build it.) But the SoF and those associated have, and will continue, to make topping this a really tough job for me.

I am happy that one cold January morning so very very long ago I happened to look down at the sidewalk and saw a poster...

"Need a hug? Ship of Fools: Improv comedy..."

So this is my...

...first post of November, and it also marks the 9th month of this blog's existence. You see, if I had gotten pregnant instead of making a blog, I would have something to show for it by now. Not that I would condone such a thing. Goodness no. Not for all the space tourists in Russia. Which brings me to the point:
Why is it all the smart people that choose not to reproduce, and the stupid people that breed like rabbits? Is there something wrong with that picture? But moving beyond that:
The Hawkins show last night! I think it went fantastically well. We had a good sized audience (the room was crowded, not that gigantic of a room, but it was crowded) (kinda quite crowd at that), the regulars were there, free pizza was there. All in all, a winning combination. I invoked Happy Feet in Benji by giving him one of the fliers from our floor that advertised us as the "Ship of fool improve comedy club". I think that we do improve comedy.
So today at work I got a windfall in the form of 19 Science journals. We had a bunch that were donated that needed to go to recycling and it happened to be my job to mark them. Naturally I started getting interested in the pretty pictures on the fronts. So I was all like, "Yo homes, can I take some of these?" And they were all like, "Fo shizzle my nizzle." So I did.
Technically I got them to bring home to Shiloh. But I'm going to read them first.

~ If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not the sport for you! ~

*EDIT*
Ok, so looking back on it I realize that my comment on "stupid people" was at the least cynical and at the worst (dare I say it) downright rude. I really don't have room to talk...I mean, my own father isn't exactly what you'd call genius material, and yet here I am. And I'm happy of my existence. When I say stupid people I mean more the people that are jerks and that you wouldn't want to leave a dog with, let alone let them raise the future leaders of America. That's still pretty rude, but what I'm trying to say is: I do lots of stupid things. I do lots of idiotic things. I do lots of colossally moronic things. But I do try not to be a jerk.

Bestseller list, here I come...

~ Jared lay on the floor, stunned. He’d felt the impact; he would have expected it to hurt, but all he could feel was the stinging burn on his palms where they’d gotten in between him and the rough concrete on his way down.
He saw his shirt, torn and stained, on the floor in front of him. His hand inched out, reaching feebly for it. Reaching for that little bit of his shredded dignity. Had he thought about it he would have realized that he probably couldn’t get it over his own head. He didn’t think about it.
Akbar and the guard each grabbed him by an arm and hauled him upright. Had he been able to take a breath, Jared would have screamed. He’d never in his life felt pain like this. He begged himself to blackout. At that moment in time Jared would have given his soul to the devil if only the searing pain shooting down his back would stop for two seconds.
After what seemed a short eternity the pain waned enough for Jared to realize that his lower back and legs were strangely numb. Icy panic hit him. He was paralyzed, he was sure of it. His mind raced, searching for a way out. He was completely helpless. Suddenly the images flashing through his mind stopped. Through the fog of agony the picture snapped into focus. It was his father, sitting in the nursing home. He looks up, he smiles. Today he remembers. Had they told him? Had the Agency told him anything about this?
With a start Jared returned to the present. The guard on his right was raising a short thick wooden club, just like the one Akbar, out of sheer rage, had cracked over the small of Jared’s back only moments ago.
He opened his mouth. His voice didn’t sound like his own. The club began descending.
“I love you dad.”
The thud of wood on bone, and the beautiful merciful darkness swallowed Jared again. ~
~It's me again, as if you couldn't have guessed.

The show must go on...

...and it did at that!
I'm speaking of the Annual Ship of Fools Halloween Show of course.
I believe I'll skip right to my favorite part of the show. In fact, I think I'm safe in saying it was a lot of people's favorite part of the show. The zompocalypse. Yes, you heard right. There was a zompocalypse. During the show. The Halloween show.
Perhaps I should begin at the beginning.
During the show Ryan got Benji out of the room by cleverly planning a Press Conference, in which Benji was the celebrity. Once the door was shut tight The Rex gave us the lowdown. Benji is looking forward to the zompocalypse...and (correct me if I'm wrong, Benji) is apparently hoping for it to happen on his wedding day. Our parts in the ordeal were assigned and signals arranged. Benji was called back in and did a successful Press Conference. That's when things started to get interesting.
Ryan immediately got him back on stage after PC was over for a Blind Lines game. The setting: Benji's wedding. The scene is going fine. Some good advice was passed on from Ryan's grandma ("Today you are a real boy!") and so on and so forth.
Suddenly, oh my gosh! What's that? Zombies! It's the zompocalypse!

Ryan: "What do they want?!"
Zombie Audience: "Braaaiiins."
Ryan: "When do they want them?!"
Zombie Audience: "Braaaiiins."
As one the zombies rose to their cold dead feet, reaching for the two mortals with their stiff clammy arms, a vacant otherworldly glint in their collective eye, and started shuffling forward.
Ryan (snatching up his shotgun and throwing down a chair to entrench himself behind): "Benji! Defend yourself!"
Benji (pulling out his cane sword, prepared to fight off the un-dead hordes with his second at his back): "To infinity and beyond!"

It was a lot of fun.

~ "I'd like to smear you in chocolate and have some fun with you." ~
~ Spanke, last line of If You Know What I Mean

The Insane Simians...

...or something like that. Yup you guessed it! It's tomorrow! So I'm writing about what was today, but is now yesterday, per the plan laid out yesterday. Yeah.
So Saturday I went to see the Crazy Monkeys for the first time in my long and eventful life. Up to this point they'd always had their shows on a Friday night, and anybody with two brain cells to rub together should know that there is no way on the bosom of the good Mother Earth that I'd play traitor to the Fools to see the Monkeys in action. There's just no way. None.
But this week they had a show on a Saturday. So I went. And now I shall try to report on it, in as honest and unbiased way as possible. Stop that snorting! It's not polite.
So anyway, the C. Monkeys, I was disappointed to find out, went more for the short form genre (though their short form games are longer then ours, but I'm getting ahead of myself).
The games they played were:
~Evil Twin (good game, one we don't do)
~Chain Murder Mystery (which looking back on I really should have volunteered for!)
~World's Worst
~Vacation (same as our slide show, except they had two people telling about the trip and the other members weren't necessarily all in all the slides all the time),
~Slo-Mo Sports (another one we don't do, quite entertaining)
~Nightmare Day-in-the-Life-Of
~Do Rap
~Head-in-a-Bucket (or Oxygen Deprivation) (which I had read of and was happy to see performed, though they didn't justify being wet as was set out in the instructions I read. Difference of preference I imagine. Any game that requires 6 beach towels and a mop to clean up after should be funny.)
~And finally Anti-Freeze (like freeze, but the scenes have to all be related, backwards in time. Complicated, hard to do I've no doubt)

And now the Compare N' Contrast!

Monkey Pros:
~Jane Goodall
Bwhahahahahaha! No but seriously folks. She's a chimp expert.
~Great character potential! They had six members and all of them seemed extremely versatile and creative.
~Good shirts, with their names.
~Great teamwork/communication. They all seemed comfortable going into a scene where they had to completely depend on the other person not to drop the proverbial ball.

Monkey Cons:
~King Kong
Bwhahahahhaha! Oh come on, like you didn't see that one coming!
~I think the group would be brilliant in long form. Character development is crucial to short form, but you can't spend to much time on it.
~They have names. We have nicknames!
~They're games seemed a bit loose round the edges. I have come to learn that timing is all important, especially knowing when to end a scene. End while the audience is laughing and before they get tired of the game. Our games (even the identical ones such as CMM) seemed much more fast paced and hard hitting. (case in point, they had 9 games for a set that was about 75-80 minutes. We plan 12-14 games for a 45 minute set.) With theirs, it was harder to follow because you weren't necessarily on the edge of your seat.
True, I laughed aloud at the Monkeys. False, it was not uncontrollable laughter, as is usually the case with the SoF. With them, I found that I was laughing more at the various character developments that they were incorporating. Again, I'd still like to see them in long form. Or longer form I guess. I'd like to reiterate, I am frankly jealous of some of their members ability to completely embody a character.
But the Fools still win.

So there ya have it! My contributions to the show?
~CMM location: In the dimple on a golf ball.
~Vacation destination: The Moscow Kremlin
~Do Rap name: Jill
With great regret and sadness I must report that I was not able to use the suggestion "zompocalypse" for Benji, who was with me in spirit, but actually being productive in body.

To end with an all too applicable quote:

Kyle: "It kind of looks like Curious George."
Benji: "It looks like curious something!"
~Annual SoF Halloween Show, 2006

Join us again tomorrow when we'll learn all about the Annual SoF Halloween Show and the party thereafter!

The things they are a happenin'...

...and never were six words spoken more truly...truthful...truthfully...with a lot of truth!
Today we're actually going to start something new, since my last few days have been just so jam packed with news. To try our best to avoid the freakishly long and tortuous post we're going to try...wait for it...series!
You see, today I will tell you about today. Tomorrow I will tell you about yesterday. Follow me? And then the day after tomorrow I will tell you about the day before yesterday. It all makes so much sense!
Ok, today starts at midnight. Round about midnight if I remember correctly I was probably sitting on Kyle's couch rocking out to Ryan "T. Sexy" Garwood's party mix CD's. "Who was sitting with you?" You inquire inquisitively. Well I'll tell ya, seating was a hot commodity last night. The party (see tomorrow's post for the beginning of the party which started yesterday) was really standing room only, and there wasn't even much of that. There was a lot of shuffling going on. In short, I was probably with some combo of Kara, Cowboy, Benji, and Freshman.
It was great fun, Cowboy got Kara trained for the reflex arm raising and "Huzzah!" whenever she hears "Time out". He also made repeated attemps to haze me.
Cowboy: "Noob! Did I give you permission to use the trash can?"
Me: (in his face) "No, no you didn't!"
Cowboy: "Good job, way to stand up for yourself."
And:
Cowboy: "Did I give you permission to touch the Benji, Noob?"
And:
Cowboy: "Did I give you permission to speak, Noob?
My responses were pretty much consistent throughout (aka blatant denial, insubordinate backtalk, picketing, etc).
Cowboy: "I haze because I care."

The whole shebang went on until about 2:30 this morning, but more about that tomorrow.

Unfortunately it was not all fun and games for everybody. A car caught fire in the Wood St garage. I was not present but word on the street is that there was also at some point an explosion involved (having seen the aftermath I am inclined to believe this). Because he has the darndest luck in the world, Alex's car happened to be parked next to the one that exploded. When he was ready to leave he went out to get his car and it wasn't there. They'd had all three of the cars (the Jeep that started the whole thing, SOG's beautiful new red 2003 Corolla, and the Ranger that was on the other side of Alex's car) towed after the fire department had got them extinguished.
This morning I drove him and his girlfriend down to the towing yard to take pictures and see if there was anything to be saved inside it. It's terrible. The whole drivers side scorched, most of the windows broken, most of the interior burnt or melted...
All I have to say is, I'm sure glad Alex wasn't in there when it happened!
Two things we all found very helpful were the man that they sent out to watch us looking at the car and his buddy that joined us after a bit (we were thinking that they were possibly imported from Alabama) . Their comments ran along the lines of:

~Guy #1: "It smells like burnt car." I'm not exactly sure what he thought we'd think it smelled like...

~Guy #2: "Hey, your water bottle on the floor survived just fine!" Oh, thank goodness!

~Guy #1: "Those CD's should be just fine if you cut the cases off and leave em to dry face down on a shelf for a day."

~Guy #2: "Was he a forner?" Referencing the owner of the Exploding Jeep.
Guy #1: "Yeah, couldn't speak no English!"
Guy #2: "That explains it!"

Ok, so my series plan is working great, but so far we've only gotten through the first 12 hours of today. We'll extend the series! Tomorrow (which will then be today) I'll talk more about today (or yesterday, tomorrow), and then the day after tomorrow I'll talk about yesterday which will at that time the day before yesterday, and then the day after the day after tomorrow I'll talk about the day before yesterday. Ok?

Until next time (tomorrow):
Guy #1 "It'll all be ok once the insurance man gets out that checkbook and starts writing."

Oh, you know you like it...

~ "Jared lay huddled in the corner, shivering violently, his shirt soaked with sweat and vomit. With irony that he found sacrilegiously out of place he thought that at least it was his own vomit.
They hadn't taken him out for any questioning for two days now. Tonight it would be three. Yesterday he'd prepared himself to die. When you're no good for information, you're no good for much of anything. But then, shockingly, they'd sent someone down with some food for him.
He just wanted the pain to go away. He wanted to sleep, but he couldn't. Before, the stress of one "good" interrogation session added to his illness had almost always left him unconscious for the rest of the day and night, but now it felt like he was painfully aware, every nerve taut and vibrating.
He shivered again, how long had he had this fever?
His mind snapped with unexpected clarity to Sam. Yes, Sam was here, or he had been here at least. Jared had almost forgotten. How long since he'd seen him? Days? Weeks? Jared wondered if they'd killed him. He thought that he should be more upset at that prospect but he couldn't make himself feel any emotion. His memory of Sam seemed so distant. Maybe there was no Sam, maybe he was a dream.
Jared surprised himself by almost laughing. If he was going to dream about somebody he would have wanted them to at least be female, and hopefully good looking.
He felt a sudden wash of guilt. Sam was here. He was real. Jared hoped that he was ok. His emotions finally caught up with his cognition and his eyes stung with tears. Sam was as close to a best friend as Jared had ever had.
The darkness started closing in on him. He pleaded with God for Sam to be alive...somewhere." ~
~From the mind of Renee

Something I thought was funny...

...A couple things actually.

1) A bit of AIM away message levity. For those of you playing along at home: docmilanowski = Benji, joyful zephyr = Me.
Auto response from docmilanowski: With a friend like joyful zephyr, who needs hallucinations?
Benji is always great entertainment late at night. If you know what I mean.

2) 668: Neighbor of The Beast.

3) Canadian DOS prompt: EH?\>

"Bwahahahahaha, oh Renee, you always crack me up!"

To the heights of insomnia...

...and beyond! Yeah, I can't sleep.
I got an interesting call today. It was from my old roomie. Yup, you remember her don't ya? Of course you do! How could you forget her! Our conversation pretty much went like this:

Me: "Oh, hi."
Her: "Hey, could you curl my hair at about 4:35?" (What do I look like? Your personal stylist?)
Me: "No, I've got something going already." (That something pretty much consisted of me wanting to take a nap.)
Her: "Even if I paid you?" (Yeah. Dignity, get your dignity right here! Cheap, close-out prices!)
Me: "Fraid not." (Over my cold dead rigor mortis afflicted body.)
Her: "Oh. Ok."

That conversation is pretty indicative of our general relationship.

I found this bit that I apparently wrote last semester stuck in a notebook. Hope you like it. Just for background info, this is before the Dynamic Duo get captured and subsequently tortured.

~Sam leaned back against the cool brick wall and took a few deep gasping breaths, eyes half shut. After a few moments Jared couldn't help but notice the state of things.
"What's wrong with you?", he demanded.
"I forgot to tell you, I'm a little claustrophobic."
Jared's eyes narrowed slightly. "Well pull it together. We don't have time for that."
Sam glared at him. "Thanks Jare, that really helps!"
Jared gritted his teeth. "Don't call me Jare!"~
~Me, s'all me baby.

Insanity prevailed...

...and there was a slight breeze out of the northwest. Thus begins the everlasting record of the first ever SoF show with Kamikaze acting as helmswoman.

7:00-9:30 After some initial practice and game run-throughs in Beering 2280 the troupe headed over to Stake n' Shake for some pre-show refreshments. While there we entertained the waitress immensely and played peek-a-boo with some cute little kid a couple seats down.
In addition, a plan for some supplemental income for the Fools was developed. The enterprise will be called Shank n' Shiv. "Having trouble in the showers? Call Shank n' Shiv! With the Deluxe Package we'll even supply the alibi!"
There may be stock options available shortly.

9:30-11:00 Arrived at Co-Rec and found not very many people in attendance as of yet. After some initial standing outside the back door tasting the "popcorn air" with Kyle (Benji and Cowboy being the onlookers) the group congealed in the middle of the large gym floor and rocked out to the jammin' tunes. A tiny isle of insane fun alone in the midst of hardwood basketball courts with a few seemingly solemn people skulking against the far walls and dodging in and out of shadows. And I'll tell ya, we've got some smoooooth dancers in this group! Some of the spectacular moves included: The Sprinkler, The Monkey, The Weird Little Thing You Do With Two Fingers Across Your Eyes, The Shopping Cart, The Slide, The Robot, and so forth. It was awesome!
And then someone said "Let's shoot some hoops!" And most of us took off down the room for some pseudo basketball. At first it was two on two, which morphed to three on three, and then Tripod jumped in. He was just playing for the team in the black shirts.
In no time at all we were bundled outside by our Fearless Leader for 5 minutes of fast paced warmups before our set was supposed to start.

11:00-11:45 "I want every one of you to be hoarse tomorrow!"~T. Rex
The acoustics sucked. But soaring above and beyond trifling issues such as not being heard, the SoF prevailed! Twas a good show! Unfortunately I missed some of it, what with being behind the performers you can't take in all the good facial expressions and stuff.
Some highlights included:
~A very active Countdown in which Alex hurt himself yet again by throwing himself (with gusto) at the floor, perhaps utilizing Douglas Adams' method of learning to fly? Where better to be distracted from hitting the ground then at an improv show? The game also included a lot of people carrying other people across the stage.
~The successful completion of a human pyramid (always funny!) during That's How It Really Happened. That always gives you a warm and tingly feeling when it gets pulled off.

All in all, a great evening!

"My phone's more manly then your phone!" ~ Cowboy
"Oh yeah, well my phone knows how to love a woman!" ~ Benji

Yeah it's new...

...do you like it?

Anyway, update: You have until next Friday to let me know if you want an SoF shirt. The pre-order deadline has been extended.

Also of interest: Guess who has a profile! No, not David Duchovny! Me! http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~improv/wordpress/meet-the-crew/
And it all happened just like that! Exactly like it says.

In other news: My first show is this Friday! Woo, yeah, show me that! *eherm* Sorry, got carried away.

I'll leave you with an IM quote from Ryan. I am totally the Pimpin' Kamikaze!

AKindOfMagic14: nothin' like dive bombin' some sucka' with an iced out Zero, right?

SoF collectible memorabilia...

...marketing and junk.
OK , I forgot to mention. Anybody in my family, or for that matter any random Tom, Dick, or Harry that happens to read this, can order a real authentic satisfaction guaranteed Ship of Fools t-shirt now. I'm sorry that I can't afford to just get everybody one, but I'm a down and out college student.
They're gray (high quality cotton mixed with other junk) with the SoF logo on the back and the words "Ship of Fools" on (I believe) the left breast.
If you let me know by this Friday that you want one (and what size you want) I can set you up for the stunningly low price of $12 a piece. I know a guy. If you wait you can still get one but it'll run ya $15, and you're kinda taking a chance on the whole size thing.
I do plan to get mom and Shiloh each one (don't tell them), and if anybody else would like that for a Christmas/birthday gift then by all means let me know right away. It'll make my holiday shopping all that much easier!
So anyway, spread the news and get em while they're hot!

Just so you know...

...I have decided to go ahead and drop aeromechanics. At this point, yeah I might be able to salvage it, but not without sacrificing big time on my other 4 courses. As much as I hate quitting, it's not worth it to get bad grades across the board. I can't take the chance of failing anything.
Dr Garrison gave me permission to continue sitting in on the class and turning in homework, so I will try my best to catch up (I didn't ask if I can still take exams, we'll see about that later I guess) and understand the material so it won't be so hard next semester.
Speaking of which, I registered for spring classes today. Right now we're looking at Aeromechanics again, Thermo, Linear Algebra, Multivariate Calc, and Intro to Anthropology. Do I hear the devil laughing?

Thank you Christine and Jenny for the encouraging, complimentary, and inspiring comments! I really appreciate it that you took time to try to cheer me up and give me advice. It did help, really. You've no idea how highly I value a good friend. Well maybe you do know. They don't grow on trees.
I still don't feel good about the whole thing, but that's ok. I'll do what I have to do. This is better then indecision at any rate.

Oh and I have my car back. Stu drove me over in his hot red sports car to pick it up yesterday. No check engine light anymore. Yay.

And now I must get back to analyzing Eternal Sunshine. Thanks for letting me and Kara hang with you and watch it Jenny! I had a great time. That's the kind of homework I like.

~ "On the way there I saw a specimen of the rare but spectacular Sprinting Geek. As he shot past, shirt tail flapping in the wind I briefly spotted the glint of his telltale pocket protector in the moonlight." ~ Yours Truly

Just one time...

...I'd like to have some real academic success here at Purdue. Just to remind me what it feels like to actually do good at something again.
I try not to fill this blog up with pages and pages of whining, but this is my outlet, so my advice to you is: If you don't like hearing me complain, don't read this.
Got my aero exam back today. Failed it. Failed. Not the first time I've failed an exam by any stretch of the imagination, but I had really hoped that maybe I could eke out a passing grade in this course the first time around.
The feller next to me asked how I did. I said "Horribly" and something about having to take the course over. He said something encouraging along the lines of "Oh you can catch up, this is only the first exam." Also only half way through the semester and my last chance to drop it without a failing grade on my record.
When is it a good idea to give up? When do you have to simply accept the fact that you can't do something? When are you an idiot for waving the white flag to soon? When are you an idiot for waving it to late?
I can't fail a course this semester. I have to come back here. I can't get suspended.
Why is this so hard for me? Don't I have what it takes?
I don't want to give up.

Crash and burn...

...duck and run, suck it up and take it like a man. All good sayings.

Since it's only 10:30 on a Saturday morning and I have no friends currently logged into AIM I shall air my dirty laundry here.
Today I took my sweet lil' ol' car down to the Friendly Neighborhood Midas to have the oil changed, wiper blades replaced, stuff like that. Simple right? No. The other day on my weekly supply reconnaissance mission it started to overheat. The little "check engine" light came on and the whole schlemeel. I take a peek under the hood and notice that the coolant is mighty darn low (similar to the Sahara being "mighty darn low" on water), so I dump some in there. Coolant is something I carry with me in the trunk for just such an occasion. So anyway, I tell em to check it out for me, cause even after that the darn thing was still getting too hot.
As it turns out, the bottom seal on the radiator is shot. You put coolant in, and coolant comes out. They're going to get a new one in on Monday for me ("So they say." she notes, incredulously.) but this whole deal is going to run me about 500 smackeroos. Granted I've had the car for almost a year now and this is really the first thing that's gone wrong with it, so I guess I'm lucky, but my previous car (and car repair) experience has left a bad taste in my mouth.
To add to it! I decide to leave the car there and they call a taxi for me (my first taxi ride ever, and it was all I ever dreamed of) and I ride back over to Hawkins. As I get out of the car I automatically brush my hand across my belt to check that my keys are there (never lock em inside that way) and realize that I left my keyring at the mechanics. Yup, all my keys are still on it. Thankfully you can borrow room and bathroom keys from the front desk or I'd be screwed. And thankfully I'm not opening the library this weekend, or I'd be screwed.

In other news, I now have a nickname! I think Benji dubbed me, although there might have been joint effort going on there between Ryan, Cowboy and he. Hard to tell, it was in the middle of a crowded Applebees. I am now Renee "Kamikaze" [Insert last name if you know it] (ha! take that Internet Stalkers!).
The Non-Kamikaze (yeah, there's a story there) is more accurate, but hey, since when did "SoF" become synonymous with "accuracy"? As I told Cowboy, I've always wanted to be a pilot...just not that kind...

I also had my first 1000 Blank White Cards game last night. And this morning. The game went until after 2 AM if I remember correctly. It was quite enjoyable. There are points involved, but they really don't matter (it is a legitimate strategy to make up a card that says you win the game). The point is to make your friends, the people you love, do as many insane and humiliating things as possible. Wait, that doesn't sound fun...But it is. Of course, they're out to do the same to you as well, so that balances it out. I don't remember even a fraction of the cards played but a couple that stood out to me were the Make Out With T. Rex card, the Nuclear Winter card (where all crazy enough, stood outside of Hillenbrand shirtless for 5 minutes), the Bay of Pigs card (played on me, I lost a ton of points but gained 3 Cuban cigars, totally worth it), the Back to The Future Line Recollection Standoff (came down to me and Cowboy, who seemed to have many more up his sleeve so I really don't think I had the dimmest chance of winning that one.), and the 60 Seconds From Hell card (variation of 60 Second Alphabet, played on Tripod and myself, and I got through the alphabet! Here's a shout-out to my mom who homeschooled me up to my senior year of HS! How's it going moms?). After the Nuclear Winter card I was set upon by the urge to play the Purple Nurple card. Anyone who stood in front of Hillenbrand stripped to the waist lost 1000 points (the same amount that they gained by doing it) but then Andrew (or Peace, as we have taken to calling him, thanks to Cowboy) played the Revenge of the Y Chromosome card. If you were female with a name that started with "R" you were docked 6000 points. Coincidentally the same number of collective points that were taken after the Purple Nurple card. Hmmmmm
To sum up:
It was hilarious, it was great, overall, fantastic hangoutage. It doesn't get much funner then that!

Kamikaze signing off.

~"You licked my chest!!!"~
SOG, after the Gay Chicken card was put into play.

I'll apologize ahead of time...

...to those of you with delicate sensibilities.
HAHAHAHA

Alrighty then, I think all ya'll know that I recently was home for October Break. Oh you didn't? Well you do now.
There were a couple of high points that I must mention.

1) I found a small piece of a (mammalian) jawbone (with three teeth still attached) packed in Tiger's hoof. At first I thought it looked like a toe, because I could only see one tooth which looked like a claw, but once I got it out and rinsed off, I recognized it for what it really was. A piece of a jawbone. With three teeth. Still attached.
I think Stu's words describe it quite well:
"Oh, it was much cuter in text!" (Referencing our IM conversation in which he pointed out to me the fact that "Tiger's bad side" is pretty much synonymous with "the bottom of Tiger's hoof". The man has a point.

2) Cleaning out my car on Sunday. "Why Renee darling, why would you have need to clean out your car?" Well, we won't go there. Whoever reads this regularly will already know why, and any poor unsuspecting strangers probably wouldn't want to know why.**

Can you believe that the semester is half over already!?! Yeah! Half over! Next week I have two midterms and an advising appointment to register for next semester's classes. How time flies when you're having fun! I'm kinda ticked right at this very moment. I've been trying to get on the course description website to figure out what classes I can take in the spring and the bleeping page won't load. Perhaps it's awash with whatever web pages become awash with.
Next week will also mark my first SoF show! Well first show as anything other then a groupie. I'm very excited. Also desperately hoping that I don't completely spaz out. (Kamikaze, ey Ryan ;)

And now from good deed corner: You know how I love sharing the love! Well today I gave kisses to three men, one of whom professed to be starving. Good deeds don't get much gooder then that! And yes, go ahead and say it, I do kiss and tell!

~ "Yeah I can leap tall buildings...with a running start...and favorable winds..." ~

**It's cause my brother threw up in it. All over it. Yeah.

EDIT:
I forgot the third highlight! New Washington has a flashing yellow light now! Yeah! Driving home on Friday night I saw it and was all like, "Yo homes, when was all this put in?" It was awesome.

And I just want to add that I now know how I want my remains taken care of. Before I had no preference. I was all like, "Yo homes, I'll be dead, I won't care." but just now while in the shower I was contemplating industrial car cleaning equipment and death (Oh yeah! Like you can honestly tell me that you don't think about those two things when you're showering!) and it occurred to me that I would like to be cremated and then have my ashes flown up in a plane (or even better a jet, but word on the streets is that it's harder to roll down the windows on one of those.) and then one of my poor survivors will try to dump my ashes out, but they won't go out! They'll get blown back in all over the plane, and then the plane will land on a highway and taxi into the nearest available carwash where I will be sucked up out of the upholstery by a SuperVac. I estimate that this stage will cost 1-4 dollars, depending on how well spread I am.