John's Musings » Fun & Games

I’m not playing with a full deck…

John — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:50:04 +0000

…but you can!

That’s right, I’m now on a desk of cars, along with a bunch of my pirate friends!
You can get you own deck by using this order form.

Photo Booth Duty

John — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:29:55 +0000

Sunday afternoon we found ourselves milling about near the end of the parade route, talking to people, and of course having pictures taken. While there I was approached by Bob and Jen Curry with a surprise gift. The night before, Bob had taken it upon himself to make some incredibly awesome cedar wood signs. Each sign had a different phrase and relevant image hand burned into them. He presented them to me, and instructed me that they were for us to use during pictures. BRILLIANT!!! His timing could not have been any better as we were actually on our way to the official photo booth for our 1:00 to 3:00 shift. I placed the signs in the fabulous haversack that TJ had made and given to me as a gift on Friday. It turns out that the signs were and exact fit for the sack, and by leaving one button unbuttoned I had easy access to them at a moments notice!
We had taken no more than 10 steps before we were approached for pictures, and so I sprung into action and selected an appropriate sign, “Bilge Rat” and had one of the two boys posing with us hold it. The parents chuckled and took their picture. A few more steps and we were approached by two young girls, out popped the next sign, “Pirate Property” for the two of them to share. We progressed slowly due to a combination of pictures and my need to stop and talk to any number of the fifty million people that apparently know me.

A bunch of Salty Dogs

We arrived at the photo booth right on time, and introduced ourselves. As it turns out, that was almost unnecessary, as the photographer had worked with us two years ago during the Christmas on the Corners event. The same event were we all started working together. We started out the photo shoot with a picture with the photographers daughter. His wife had previously gotten a picture with me that night, and she now wanted one of her daughter with us all as well.
It didn’t take long before people began to notice Captain Jack was available for pictures, and before long a line started forming. Thanks to the skill of the photographer, our antics, and the differences in the subjects I don’t think there were any two pictures that looked alike. After the first 20 minutes or so we began to autograph the pictures as well, and the line continued. We had our pictures taken with individual kids, whole groups of kids, whole families, and even family pets. Before we knew it it was 3:00, and our time was over, or was it?
While Ian and I were standing off to the side waiting for a solo Captain Jack picture we were approached by Dean from Bounding Main. It turns out they were the next group scheduled for the booth, but they had a conflict and were wondering if would be possible to get out of photo booth duty. I agreed on the spot. After all the Photographer had just told us we were the best group they had all weekend, and had drawn lines they had not yet seen, and we had all been commenting on how much fun we were having. Realizing I had just answered for my cohorts, I quickly asked Ian and TJ both to confirm my assumptions, and when they did we bid Dean adieu, and started our second shift.
Any time we noticed the line dwindle away I turned my already trashed voice up to 11, and would bellow out “PIRATE PORTRAITS”, holding the last syllable as long as possible. The first time I swear 3/4 of the tent turned to look. After the 2nd time Ian began timing me. I started at ~18 seconds, and worked my way up to 28 seconds. I think, had I not already trashed my voice, I might have been able to go longer. Muahahahah. At one point I even got into a competition with the massage booth who took a cue from me and started doing the same. It seemed like no time at all had passed when the Photographer began packing up his equipment. We looked at our watches and discovered it was 5:30, two and a half hours had passed in the click of a shutter.
We thanked out hosts, who thanked us profusely and then headed off to end our weekend.

Ian and TJ

John — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:08:02 +0000

I cannot begin to properly express how lucky I am to have the opportunity to work with TJ, and Ian. We first officially met two years ago at the Port Washington Christmas on the Corners event. There we teamed up and wandered the town doing our best to entertain folks on the street, in the shops, and the occasional horse drawn carriage. If I remember correctly (correct me if I’m wrong) that was TJ’s first experience with this type of improv / street entertainment. His good nature and willingness to be our pawn allowed Ian and I plenty of opportunities for fun, including one of my favorites, presenting Captain Jack Sparrow to the local hair salon for a makeover.

Over the past few years every time we have ~~worked~~ played together, (work is such a strong word, we have to much fun, it’s can’t be work…) our abilities to play off of each other has grown. I see it most in TJ, and am VERY proud of his growth. I was reflecting on this with a friend Saturday, and had no sooner had I relayed the story of that first night together did Captain Jack appear behind me escorting two young girls over to me to attempt to barter a sale. We bandied back and forth about prices, haggled over value for the price. “I’m even including the hair mate” “The hair is included!?!?!? Wow, that is a deal! Now what about the umbrella? On a day like this that’s a valuable commodity. I suppose that’s extra?” We asked for opinions from the group of folks around us, asked the father to confirm their worth, their work ethic, had them open their mouths to inspect their teeth, and all the while the girls were laughing hysterically. Their father frequently snapped pictures between his own fits of laughter, and interjections. We brought it to a conclusion that included a negative bidding war between the father and another person we decided to let the girls go and they bounded off to their father the three laughing about the whole experience. Afterwords my friend had a look of awe on his face and commented how much fun that whole bit was. TJ had proved my point better than I could have in an hour of talking about it.

From the minute Ian and I met it was ‘go time’, “Oh look there’s someone over there!” He is just as willing to pounce on anyone as I am, and is always ready at a moments notice with something to add into the mix. We often find we have the same ideas of where to go with various bits and can pop back and forth between each other with ideas as if we had rehearsed them for days. We also both just can’t help ourselves even when we have reached the end of the day. Sunday we were walking back to the hotel to part ways at the end of the weekend, and even though the festival was officially over we still just couldn’t help ourselves. We talked of a variety of casual things, then we saw a random stranger and jumped right back into the thick of it making comments to them, after they passed we once again just dropped right back to casual conversation as if we had never even stopped in the first place.

They are both truly talented entertainers, and I consider myself most fortunate to have the chance to work with them. I am even more so lucky to be able to call them my friends. Ian, TJ thanks again for such a brilliantly wonderful time this weekend!!! I look forward to our next encounters Look out world!

The twittered catalog

John — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:37:20 +0000

Tonight, I managed to twitter enable our library catalog. Now, if you find a book you want to recommend to your friends, just click the “tweet this!” link, and fill in your twitter username and password, and click “tweet”. As if by magic, the item is tweeted, complete with a link to it in our catalog. Yup, I’m a geek! Twitter folks, try it out at:

http://library.waubonsee.edu/catalog/

Hawser and the Hilton

John — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:47:47 +0000

Last night I attended a party for Talk Like a Pirate Day, in Milwaukee. I’ll post more about the actual party in a future post. Some of the most memorable moments of the evening happened while I was at the Hotel waiting to be picked up to go to the party, and after I was dropped off after the party. I would like to offer a disclaimer on the post-party behavior, I had been drinking some and was certainly not 100% child friendly, not that the situation really warranted it at ~2:15 a.m.

I arrived at the hotel, still in street clothes, and started the process of checking in, the clerk asked me why I was in town. I explained that I was there for a Talk Like a Pirate Day Party. “But that was yesterday… I missed it, didn’t realize it till it was to late” “Well Lad”, I said while slipping into pirate talk, “Seein as how the day falls on a friday, we are celebratin the whole weekend. So as a pirate, I give ya permission to talk like a pirate for the rest of the whole bloody weekend if ya want” The rest of my check-in process continued in pirate speak from both parties. As I turned to walk away, one of the other clerks said something to my clerk, and he responded in pirate, to his co-workers shock, and confusion… I then heard him explaining about me, and the whole situation to his co-workers, and as the elevator door opened I heard one shout “ARRRRR”.
I entered the elevator and just as the door started to close, a young couple stepped in. She looked at me, looked at him, nudged him, he nudged back… “excuse me… uh…” “yes?” “Did I hear you say you were in town for a talk like a pirate party?” “Ahh, yes, that you did” “Uh, I thought that was just for offices?” Again, I switched to pirate, “Nay, tis a common misconception.. ya see we pirates like a good party and so a holdiay like this aint about to go uncelebrated!” At this they both were grinning ear to ear “You are awesome!!! Is the party in the hotel, can we come?” “Sadly miss ’tiss a private party at a personal residence, but If it were in me power ta bring ya along I’d certainly do it” “Awww…” “Well tis been a pleasure speaking to the two of ya, enjoy yer evnin” and at that I stepped out of the elevator to a “that was so cool!!!!”
After I got settled in my room, and changed, I got the call from saying that he would be arriving shortly to pick me up to head to the party. I headed down the elevator, alone this time, and when I stepped out into the lobby I proceeded straight to the front doors. As I was walking I heard a few “Arrrrrs” from the distance, and just let them be. I stepped out the doors onto the street to await my ride. While there I became aware of just how many people were around. A few years ago I probably would have shriveled up and died at that point, but not anymore. I took it in stride. I sauntered back and forth up and down the street as if it made perfect sense for me to be there. I’ve discovered that half the battle of fitting in to a location is to tell yourself you belong there. If I believe its perfectly normal for a pirate to be wandering around the street in front of a downtown Milwaukee hotel, then before long those around me will think so too… I began to notice that as I walked people were making a wide berth around me as they too walked the street. Two small children took notice, and grinned at me trying to work up the courage to say, “hi” but, their mother jerked them away. In fact the entire time I was there, only ONE person was brave enough to speak to me. A man stepped out of the hotel, a lady on each arm, he looked over at me, grinned, and proceeded to state “you see ladies, this is another prefect example of acceptable business casual attire. One I would accept fully at my office.” I flashed a smile back said “thankee sir… evnin ladies” and left them on their way. Thinking about it now… I should have asked him for a job
While I had been pacing, I also overheard rumblings of the word pirate, real, no way, and hell no, from the group of bellmen who suddenly had better places to be than standing in front of the hotel.
I then moved over to the street corner to get a better view of traffic and to keep an eye out for . While there a group of teenagers passed by, again taking a wide path away from my location. As they crossed the street I heard one state, “man, that’s one hard core mother f-er”. I chuckled to myself for a good minute, it’s all in the look apparently…
Shortly after that arrived and we headed off to the party. As I said earlier I’ll cover that in another post.
When we returned to the hotel, at around 2:15 a.m. I thanked , and headed into the hotel. As I opened the door I could hear an argument that sounded very much as if it was about to turn physical. I rounded a corner to see a group of what must have been wedding guests on the lobby floor, one in particular was shouting at another guest standing on the stairs. Things were escalating and I was bracing for the impending fight to erupt as I stepped into the line of sight. From up on the stairwell I heard, “no F___ing way!” Oh great… drunks, ready to fight, are now focusing on the pirate… great… I really don’t need to be in a brawl… The other crowd on the floor also noticed me and stared slack jawed as I waked past, paying them no attention what so ever. Fortunately the lady of the guy on the floor level saw this temporary distraction as a golden moment and used it to remove her confrontational man from the entire situation. So, really… without saying a single word I probably prevented a fight at the hotel…
I then stepped onto the elevator, where I met another guest of the party, who stood there holding his beer. He looked down at the beer, as if to question its contents, looked back up at me and said, “are you f-ing kidding me!” Again, I would like to warn you, it was late, I had been drinking, and there was no one else but he and I in the elevator, I turned off the decency filter… I looked at him, raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like I’m f-ing kidding you?” He glanced down again at his beer… “no..no…no f-ing way… you aren’t for real are you” ”I’m as f-ing real as you are” “Holy Shit, woah… Hey are you like a Vikings fan or something” The first thing that came to my mind was, “vikings fan? I’m dressed like a pirate you inebriated twit…”. I decided it wise to say something else… I said something about being from wherever the winds take me, and how he had not been drinking enough to question my origins. I can’t really remember in full detail what I said as it was just ad lib spur of the moment… It must have impressed him. “Wow! You are f-ing for real!” “Yer damn right I am, and ya best not be forgetting it”, I said. As these words were spoken I caught a glimpse of myself in the elevator mirror and was actually taken back by the look on my face, it was menacing. Frankly I wouldn’t have wanted to mess with me… “woah! nice attitude! Dude!! wow!!!” the elevator doors opened, I sauntered out, and once they closed behind me, I laughed my ass off in the hallway.
I can only imagine the story that man will have to tell at the office tomorrow.
As I said when I started this post, the hotel provided for quite a lot of fun last night.

Gravatars

John — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:10:10 +0000

So, for quite a while the blog software I use has had avatar support. The thing that confused me about this support was that I could never find a place to upload my avatar. This weekend in my free time I dismantled the blog software a bit and discovered that these avatars are actually coming from a site called “gravitar.com”. This fact intrieuged me, and so off I went. From thier site:

A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites.

Cool concept, so I went ahead and signed up, and uploaded my pictures. I then discovered I can also addon support for these gravitars to my email client. It’s kinda cool. It also has options to set defaults to randomly generated images for each user, currently I have it set for monsters.

So, if you want your icon on my blog to switch from a silly looking monster to your real picture, go sign up. Do it, you know you want to!

I may see if I can add support for this to the software used by the BDB too, it might be nice to offload some of that file space / bandwith from Tom to a 3rd party company if he is interested.

Personality Test

John — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:37:01 +0000

Again with the lemming-ness…

Your result for The LONG Scientific Personality Test…

INFP – the Healer

You scored 36% I to E, 42% N to S, 10% F to T, and 53% J to P!

You are more introverted than extroverted. You are more intuitive than observant, you are more feeling based than thinking based, and you prefer to go with the flow rather than having a plan. Your type can best be summarized by the word “Healer”, which belongs to the larger group of idealists. You have a capacity for caring that is deeper than most. You strive for unity, are fascinated by the battles between good and evil, and can be something of an idealist. Only 1% of the population shares your type.
As a romantic partner, you are usually supprtive and nuturing, however, you have a high need for individuality. Harmony is extremely important to you as you are very affected by conflict and tension, which also makes you resist confronting your partner directly about problems. When you get angry, you usually blame yourself, rather than your partner. You can also be stubborn and unyielding when you feel you are being criticized or mistreated. You feel the most appreciated when your partner listens to you carefully. You need to be understood. You need to hear your partner express their feelings, the more often, the better. Your group summary: idealists (NF)
Your type summary: INFP

Take The LONG Scientific Personality Test at HelloQuizzy

Lemming anyone?

John — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:21:23 +0000

Hello, my name is John and I will be your lemming for the day…

I’m waiting for something to finish up here at work and so I figured… eh… what the heck… So heres a meme…

Your result for The Elemental Balance Test…

Balance

~ 52% Water ~ 52% Wind ~ 63% Earth ~ 44% Fire ~

And I know and I believe There’s a way out to the sea of happiness

It seems your personality is in perfect harmony; your impulses are tempered with thoughtfulness, and your emotions are balanced with a healthy amount of reason.

In order to maintain that harmony, try wearing a Jade, a Chrysoprase or an Agate; all three enhance balance and stability, as does the Snowflake Obsidian that will help remain balanced during times of change.

In detail: You are more balanced than most people. Your Ground Chakra, (associated with the element of fire and representing our basic desires and driving force), your Creative Chakra, (associated with the element of earth and representing our need to preserve and grow), your Heart Chakra, (associated with the element of water and representing our sense of love and compassion), and your Throat Chakra, (associated with the element of wind and represents our desire to learn and communicate), appear to be on an equal footing with each others.

These are the results you will get if you score highly on…

None of the four elements: Balance Wind: Gust Fire: Blaze Water: River Earth: Valley Wind & Fire: Thunder Wind & Water: Clouds Wind & Earth: Canyon Fire & Earth: Lava Fire & Water: Tornado Water & Earth: Trees Wind, Fire & Earth: Storm Wind, Fire & Water: Stars Wind, Water & Earth: Forest Fire, Water & Earth: Avalanche All four elements: Harmony

Take The Elemental Balance Test at HelloQuizzy

Row, Row, Row yer kids…

John — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:06:24 +0000

I had another most memorable moment with the oars this weekend. (Best prop I ever bought) I was rowing along, and I rowed past a family 1/2 dressed as pirates, and 1/2 dressed as fairies. As I rowed by, the father shouted, “Hey! Where’s your boat!” I was going to jump into the whole build an imaginary boat bit, but noticed the mother on the phone giving directions to someone as to how to find them, so I realized they wern’t going anywhere for a while. “Well thats a fine question sir, ya see, I find it’s quite difficult ta be gettin a boat to actually row proper in gravel… it just doesn’t work well, and is murder on the hull… He chuckled… at that one of the kids chimed in “well why don’t you just walk???” “Why don’t I just walk… well no thats just crazy talk, beside, it’s much more fun to row”, I responded, channeling my inner Tom Sawyer. “Here would you like to try?” and I held out both oars. The kids all tussled for the opportunity, and before long I had two victims…er… volunteers… One child got in front of me, and the other behind me, and they started paddling. “ROW ROW ROW” I chanted, and we rowed all around the area, finally returning to the parents. “SEE, Told ya rowin much more fun than just plain walkin’, isn’t it?” “YEAH!!!!” the kids responded. In my head I was laughing my ass off… Then some guy come trotting up thinking he was going to be smart… “WHERES YOU BOAT?”, the family burst into laughter, the guy looked at them like they were from mars. I looked over at the one boy who had been rowing, and he had a shit eating grin on his face. I called to him “Tell em lad!”. To my amazement the kid burst to the front of the family, and said “YOU CANT HAVE A SHIP ON GRAVEL!!! IT WILL BREAK!! BESIDES ROWING IS FUN!!!!”

I lost it…

The guy who had asked the question started laughing too and walked away.

There’s a ship out, on the… Gravel???

John — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:27:19 +0000

This Saturday at Bristol we had a rain day. Most people tend to hate the rain days, or at least dislike them strongly. Me I kind of like them. I realize they are bad for business, and really cut into the profits, so yeah that’s bad. I still have a lot of fun with them though. As of last year during rain I have taking to rowing myself around the site. It’s pretty funny on its own, and I get tons of people that laugh at the sight of it. Comments are always plentiful, such as “Where’s your boat”, or “Rowing with both oars in the water?”, etc… I tend to make some sort of remark back and we laugh and I row on. As I said this in itself it a lot of fun. However, my FAVORITE thing to do with it is to get other people involved. For example, I happened upon a family walking across the site. There were 3 kids, a mom a dad, and a grandma. They had the obvious look of a group on a mission. So I rowed up along side them and they started laughing, dad began taking pictures.
The mother asked, “Where’s your boat?”
“What are ye blind? `Tis right here…”
“Oh, Oh… ooooffff course… I see…” , the kids laughed… (I’m pretty sure they could see it just fine)
“Well, since we are headed in the same direction, why don’t you climb on board”
more laughs, “oh.. ok.. sure…”
So we started walking again mostly in a line, dad to the side getting more pictures….
“So, now that yer on board… tis time to be giving ye yer duities”
the kids looked at me like I had just assigned a book report on War and Peace over spring break…
“You m’lady, since you are in front, you shall be the figurehead”, she chuckled again and with a smile we continued to walk.
“Oh, these are treacherous waters, we are going to need a gunner, you there lad…”, I pointed to the youngest of the children, a boy about 5 years old, “When I say so you fire the cannons, with a big loud BOOM, can you do that?” he nodded. “Alright, lets hear ya!” “BOOOM!!!”, he shouted at the top of his lungs. Mom dad and grandma laughed. We continued “sailing”
“Oh dear, it’s hard to see… we need us a lookout! You lass, you are now our lookout!”, she looked at me quizically. “You look out for rocks and thing, so put your hands up to yer eyes and look like this…”, I put my hand up flat as if i were blocking the bright sun. She followed suit. “Good lass you got it” We took a few more steps…
“FIRE CANNONS!!!”, “BOOOOM!” came the reply followed by laughter from my gunner, and his family
“ARE THERE ROCKS AHEAD LOOKOUT???” “YES!!!” came the reply, for in fact were walking right towards a flowerbed, thank you mom for playing along so well…
“Oh blast, well now what are we to do… AH HA I KNOW!, You lad”, I pointed to the 3rd and oldest child, You’re the helmsman, stear us away form the rocks”, without prompting he reached forward and grabbed the ships wheel and began to navigate us away from the flower bed.
“Good on it lad, fine sailor ya are”
“FIRE CANNONS”, “BOOM”
“ARE THERE ROCKS AHEAD?”, “NOPE!”
“STEADY AS SHE GOES, LAD”
“Now for you m’lady”, I approached the grandmother, all the while still rowing…
“Oh no… just leave me be…” she responded while holding her umbrella up to stay dry, “I’m enjoying this just as it is”, “Well that’s perfect then, because holding your parasol like that, you make the perfect mast for the ship…” , She chuckled, and dad snapped a photo.
“FIRE CANNONS!!!” , “BOOM!!!”, followed by more laughter
“Are we headed towards the restroom?”, the mother asked…
“AYE MAM, the privys be just ahead on yer left, in the white building with blue trim”
“Thank you!”
“Well, with that I think I shall leave you, you have a fine ship here, and have safe travels, do enjoy the rest of your day”
“FIRE CANNON!!!”, “BOOOM!!!!!”

I love it when something just works…

Thank you A-E, I kinda owe this bit to her, and the one day of rehearsals I attended last year… this is sort of my take on the great machine bit… I just focused it a bit more to suit my needs…