Last Tuesday I packed up some necessities and headed to Traverse City with twenty other people. Two passenger vehicles, a truck with trailer, and two 24 foot Penske box trucks packed with equipment started North about 8:30am. Our early arrival in at the Grand Traverse Resort just after 11am started with receiving the delivery of two scissor lifts, the other folks arrived shortly thereafter and we had lunch at the Sweetwater American Bistro in the lobby area of the resort.

We were quickly back at work unloading the trucks, the start of a 14 hour setup. The two teams (production and decor) and groups within the teams were then given their various assignments. I was in the production crew, and was tasked with the setup of the two projectors on the wings, and various video-related setup. The initial wiring for the projectors was time consuming since it was all run above the drop ceiling, but the hanging of the projectors themselves went fairly quickly. We ended up with a pretty good looking setup…

Wednesday we had to be back in pretty early for rehearsal, which ended up being postponed, but there were kinks to work out anyway. Final adjustments for position on the projectors had to be done and later in the day the stage-right projector was only getting power intermittently, so I troubleshot and eventually found the cable that was causing the issue. I dealt with odds and ends for the next few hours and then enjoyed some scotch while working a bit on an interactive Farm Bureau Feud board for a parody skit. I drank too much of the scotch and didn’t get quite as much of the interface done as I had hoped. It would wait until Thursday.

The event started at about noon on Thursday, mostly awards and motivational speaking, current year status and goals, etc. I was running Camera Three, which was a nice low-stress show task. It wasn’t too long into the show that there was a malfunction on the downstage truss, causing loss of lighting control, and it couldn’t be resolved without physically correcting it. Once they hit a break, the scissor lift was out from backstage and the issue was resolved within a couple minutes. The resolution was done quickly and was smooth all around. The rest of the session went well and they broke for dinner.

Meanwhile we set up for the ‘Michigan Idol’ competition (read “Talent Show”) they were having that evening. I spent that time finishing up the Farm Bureau Feud interface. Two hours of FB agents from around the state singing, playing instruments, telling jokes, a snowboarding video or whatever and it was all produced without a hitch. The production side was nigh perfection.

Friday was more of the same awards, speaking and all that. It went well, and that night we setup for the last session which was basically a quick award deal followed by dinner and dancing. The setup for which looked a bit different from the others…

That night went pretty well, and the teardown was done in two shifts, one at 1am and the other at 8am. I was on the first shift because I was going to head back home at noon on Saturday. We ended up doing lunch before leaving so I was a bit late getting out, but everything worked out fine.

It was a blast, but it’s good to be home.

This came up on Digg, and now I’ve quoted it here for your enjoyment…

Switched On: Radar love (Engadget)

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

Searching for nearby Zunes… None found.
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Searching for nearby Zunes… “Lola” found.

Sending “Hello” by Lionel Richie

Receiving “Hi There” by Killdozer

Sending “Do You Come Here Often?” by The Tornados Ridin’ the Wind

Receiving “I Get Around” by The Beach Boys

Sending “Welcome To The Jungle” by Guns ‘N’ Roses
Sending “What Brings You Here?” by Sandra Knight

Receiving “Dateless Losers” by Reel Big Fish

Sending “Come On” by Technotronic

Receiving “Bad Experience” by Juan Rogelo Camilon

Sending “You Don’t Say” by Pinhead Circus

Receiving “Long Story” by Rudy Mills

Sending “I Got Time” by Letters to Cleo

Receiving “My Ex” by The Jackys
Receiving “We Had It All” by Willie Nelson
Receiving “Money” by Pink Floyd
Receiving “Fame” by Irene Cara
Receiving “Diamonds” by Los Lonely Boys
Receiving “Minions” by Wild Strawberries
Receiving “The Six Million Dollar Sandwich” by The Dead Texan

Sending “What Happened To You?” by The Offspring

Receiving “Love Died” by The Order

Sending “Let Me Guess” by Welcome to Florida
Sending “Someone Else” by The Radio Dept.

Receiving “No” by De La Soul
Receiving “Science Fiction” by Ruffo
Receiving “Outer Space” by The Muffs
Receiving “Infatuation” by Rod Stewart
Receiving “Movies” by Alient Ant Farm
Receiving “Merchandise” by Fugazi
Receiving “Little Dolls” by Ozzy Osbourne
Receiving “Life in Outer Space” by Grand Funk Railroad
Receiving “He Didn’t Care For Me” by The White Mountain Boys

Sending “Funny How Love Can Be” by Harpers Bizarre

Receiving “I Don’t Know How I Got By” by Edwin McCain
Receiving “I Freaked Out Like a Big Truck” by John Davis
Receiving “Total Nutcase” by A. Graham & The Moment Band
Receiving “Burning Down the House” by Talking Heads
Receiving “I Made Love to a Martian” by Mustard Plug
Receiving “I Did It For The Toys” by Dance Hall Crashers
Receiving “Freaks in Uniforms” by The HorrorPops
Receiving “Kill Them All” by The Upsetters

Sending “That’s Not Nice To Say” by 2nd Chapter of Acts

Receiving “I Don’t Care” by Black Flag
Receiving “I Don’t Want To Care” by Jessica Simpson
Receiving “This Much I Know” by Dwight Yoakam
Receiving “I Like You” by Morrissey
Receiving “Why Don’t We Get Drunk” by Jimmy Buffett
Receiving “Let Me See Your Underwear” by Blow-up

Sending, “Hey, Wanna Throw Up? Get Me Naked” by Minus the Bear

Receiving “Strip” by Adam Ant

Sending “I Can’t” by Sammie

Receiving “Tell Me Why” by Neil Young

Sending “Chewbacca’s On My Underwear” by Rutherford B. Hayes is Dead

Receiving “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Bing Crosby

Sending “What?” by Soft Cell

Receiving “The Breakup Song” by American Hi-Fi

Sending “Please Don’t Go” by Double You
Sending “I Don’t Want To Lose You” by REO Speedwagon

Receiving “Bozo Weirdo Wacko Creep” by David Baerwald

Playing “Alone Again (Naturally)” by Gilbert O’Sullivan

The Toyota FT-HS is one of the sweetest car designs I think I’ve ever seen. Oddly enough, coming from the same company that brought us the FJ-Cruiser, a 70’s asian hummer design reject. (Ok, it’s not that bad, but I have to give Noel a hard time for liking it so much.)

Last week was a challenge, to say the least. It started with Leah slowly developing a temperature and sleeping much more than usual. By 11pm on Monday it was serious enough (over 100ºF) for her to need to be taken to the hospital. At 4am (Tuesday) they had done enough tests to determine that she had a bladder infection and admitted us into pediatrics. I went into work Tuesday for half a day while Tara and Leah were at the hospital. I returned that evening and we were moved to a new room in the oncology area (due to a staffing issue possibly?). It was tiny; think prison cell with an attached bathroom. It was a challenge to get Leah sleeping without being able to walk more than eight feet in any direction. The next day (Wednesday) things continued, I went to work for half a day and came back that evening.

About a month ago Tara went into the hospital with an infection. They lanced the abscess and removed the infected tissue, pumped lots of antibiotics and we were on our way (after five visits.)

Wednesday night of last week, a while after I had returned from work Tara had to go down to Emergency because another of these infections had developed. They lanced it, sent the tissue to be cultured and found it was MRSA (an antibiotic resistant staph infection.) So, more than likely Tara had contracted the infection when Leah was born. When Tara returned from ER (around 2am Thursday) we were moved from oncology back across the hall to the less infection-sensitive pediatric area.

Thursday I stayed at the hospital with Leah and Tara. Tara was feeling more pain at that point because (as we found out later) not all of the infected tissue had been removed. Tara headed back to the ER that evening and was treated again (during this time Leah was discharged, but not kicked out and Tara’s mom was kind enough to stay and take care of Leah.) Two hours later serious nausea and a splitting headache landed Tara back down in the ER (Leah and Tara’s mom went home). She was given something for the nausea and they ran an IV drip to replenish her fluids. We were discharged some time later and headed home.

Friday was much less eventful.

I probably drink too much coffee. That is to say, I do not drink coffee in moderation. Eight to ten cups (four or five mugs) of coffee in a day would not be an unusual amount for me to drink. I do not take cream or sugar. I should note that by “coffee” I do not mean “cappuccino,” “frappuccino,” or “latte.” I do rarely drink alternative (Read: fru-fru) coffee-like drinks like lattes. I will sometimes allow myself to substitute tea in place of coffee.

The biggest problem with coffee house sorts of lattes and cappuccinos and such is the expense. I cannot justify four or five dollars for a single beverage except on rare occasion. If there were a good coffee joint that people I knew worked, around where I live or work, I am afraid I would blow a lot of money there.

I have read up a bit on caffeine; enough to know that its effects are very much like cocaine, sort of a cocaine-lite. It may be the intrinsic danger that keeps me drinking, the risk of overdose that keeps it exciting. Probably not.

It’s spirit week again at LCS. The annual homecoming preparations are being made, including but not limited to large posters, musical arrangements, “spaces” (formerly “boxes”), and video productions. The greatest challenge of this week is probably on the shoulders of the staff as they try to get their work done amongst the distractions. For instance, there is a band practicing in the classroom adjacent to my office. They started building their arrangement early this afternoon and so far I’ve only heard fragments of the actual product. It has made focusing extremely difficult.

On the other hand, the final product put forth by the students is usually quite pleasing and for the less noisy and more visual projects it is fun to see the development process. I’ll throw some pictures on here when the projects get to a more finished state.