Exhaustion sets in…

as I write this digital excuse for a communication to the world.

Since last time, “Pirates” has already had 5 very successful showings, and in my position of the pianist’s page turner, I get to observe (occasionally) the cast onstage in their roles, and we (the pit crew) notice every single dropped line and missed beat. It’s not a big deal, but it gets ridiculously humorous when you know what should have just happened, and something else happened insted.
Last night, one of the pirates, while advancing threateningly downstage in “With Cat-like Tread” actually kneeled and tickled my head with the tip of his sword. In the spirit of the event, I immediately ducked back, and the audience loved it. Another one was “fencing” with the drummer (using his drumstick).
It was a little way for us to get involved, as the pirates interact a bit with the audience when coming down from the back of the theater when they make their big entrance.
I love theater, and hope to participate in more to come, as it may.
Due to the extreme time requirements by the director of “What’s Wrong with This Picture?” I have dropped out, even tough it was a lead role, and a huge production. I just can’t commit at least 3 nights a week for the next 4 months to rehearsal time.
Had the pleasure of seeing and at the last “Romeo & Juliet” rehearsal to meausre people for their costumes.
I will be playing Prince Escalus, whom, if you remember, is just a pompous voice of sanity that occasionally appears to set things straight, in the name of the law. It’snot a large part, but it’s something I can handle for now.
Also understudying my friend JB, on his part of “Brindsley” in “Black Comedy”, so if for any reason he can’t do it, I will step in. It’s more about being involved then actually getting stage time.
(He asked me if I would be pissed at him if I don’t get to do it at all. I laughed and said, “What’s the point of an understudy?”)
I’m thinking of getting more active in the directorial/production side of community theater, to work with and observe other directors’ and producers’ techniques, in hopes that someday I might be able to put a show of MY choosing on, and have it done the way I want it done. One can dream.
At work, we have re-arranged the offices a bit, and have moved me and my direct boss into our own corner office, with two HUGE windows, as opposed to the three of us in a large room with NO external light.
It seperates the third guy from us at this time, but he’s more part of another department (we overlap jobs) than mine. He’s alone, but his partner-in-crime will be returning at the end of the month, on a part-time status (she just gave birth).
The office arrangement is kind of nice, as I also have a nice balcony right off of my office door, and with my cordless phone and headset, I can spend some time out there. It also lets me berate my boss at leisure, and he’s acutely aware of that. 😉 I’m also establishing my position of “King of Order and Organization” (insert laugh-track here from everyone who knows me outside of the professional world), and at this week’s meeting with the entire larger department and CTO, it has finally been acknowledged and I have been prompted to “Keep up the Good Work”.
Note: This is after I have warned a lot of people that I am starting an Order Crusade, and no one shall escape the long arm (voice?) of The Mike. I even dropped in on the CTO unexpectedly and pointed out two of his own offenses.
Work/Lifestyle digression:
I have a strong work ethic, in that I believe that if by my efforts, 1. The company profits, and I have a better chance of receiving a bonus/raise/promotion/free ticket somewhere; and 2. by not letting things slack, and cleaning up the general mess, I have more time to dedicate to improving self-assigned tasks that will improve company functioning.
One of the programmers was hanging out in my office for a few days, as he was working on something with my boss, and he finally realized how much work DOES get done in our little office, and how much we prevent from actually being escalated to the development level. I don’t think everyone gets that. If every problem I receive immediately was routed to the development dept., they would never get any real work done, and prouct enhancement/new products would never move.
I have had three personal work victories this week, and it seems like I have had the honor of becoming primary liason with most of our larger customers. For some reason, they keep coming back to me. Is it because I find the quick solution to a problem that has been lying around for months on end by pressing three buttons? Or is it because I use the “friendly, but don’t you dare give me shit” attitude? I don’t know. Maybe a mesh of the two.
My boss is the King of Politeness when it comes to customers. He tries to put everything in a very polite, nice and flowery written tone. “Please”, “kindly” and “thank you” are liberally spattered in his communications. Is that the tone that is needed? Do we need to plead with customers, or browbeat them into doing what we want? Or, again, is it a mix of the two?
Continuing work digression onto personality question:
Am I overly militant?
I describe work to others and to myself as a “war”. The enemy is Failure, which can be viewed as problematic customers, problematic developers and the common “no idea what is wrong”. Each day is comprised of many small battles, with my goal to reach victory speedily as possible, with a minimum of “deaths” (time loss, customer unhapiness, etc). I am determined to clean the system up, and bring us all to a point where the right information is readily accessible (personal motto: “If you can’t find it in 30 seconds or less, it’s useless”) and we have more time to dedicate to improvement of an already good system.
If the system needs to be changed, I am in a position where my voice counts. One of the guys (the inter-departmental one) is happy to follow orders, “Just tell me how you want it done” syndrome. Too passive? Or am I too agressive? I figure, if there is a problem in the system, first it has to be recognized as a problem, and if I have any ideas on how to solve/improve it, I am actually heard, and considered.
In the past, I’ve tried to keep as much bitching and moaning to an informal level, i.e. not entering it into the “etched-into-stone” system, but I can see that that doesn’t work. I’ve begun to play the game by their rules (fight the battle on their terms?) and the tide seems to be turning.
In any case, I am treating this job as a career, not as something to hold me for now, but as a place that offers opportunity possibilities in the future.

Done with digressing, I have been examining my own life for a bit now, and am coming to a few realizations.
1. I am overweight. I know this, and have finally decided on a few possible plans of action to help myself obtain results. I haven’t had a drop of Coca-Cola for two weeks now, and have finally treated myself to one (1!) bottle for the weekend. There is a gym accross the street from my office, and another guy goes there every day during his lunch hour to work out. I am seriously thinking about joining him. A friend of mine is beginnig to teach an Irish dance class soon at Hebrew U one night a week, and I might join it, as it is one hell of a workout. I also am trying to eat more salads and less junk. Water.
2. Financially, I am about the same spot I was a year ago. This is due to the fact that I was enemployed for about 7 months in the last 12. This situation has basically put me back one year, with less pay, and higher inflation rate. I have tried to live as minimalistically as I feel that I can, and am making some headway. Stability and prosperousness to come.
3. I am utterly confused by the opposite gender. Need I say more?

Putting this in writing (typing) seems to be highly therapaeutic. Don’t know why.

A while back, posed the now-familiar 5 question interview to me, and I sincerely apologize that I have not held up my end of the bargain to answer him. I hope to do so soon, it’s just that the questions he asked have actually made me think more than I thought they would, and I am hard-pressed to come up with answers yet. Kudos to you, Josh. Make ME think! I shall charge you for the processor usage. 🙂

Regarding online journals (or “The dangers of public knowledge”):
A long time ago, I had a journal on OpenDiary.com. I wrote there quite often, and got some interesting replies on posts, and actually started reading other people’s posts.
I particularly liked the concept of total anonymity, which was what I had then, as nobody knew me, and I didn’t know anyone else (that I knew of 😉 ).
At some point, I wrote about an experience, and mentioned a person’s name, related to the experience. Soon after, I received a comment from someone who apparently knew the person in quetion, and we got to talking, and eventually met face-to-face, and then things didn’t work out.
Shortly after, I stopped writing there.
For some reason, I could no longer be open and honest with myself in public area, and I was extremely uncomfortable with that.
From that point forward, I realized that if I want a personal journal, keep it private. “Two people cannot share a secret, only one can.”
My take on the purpose of this is exactly as stated: An online community.
Here, I talk about the things I would discuss with my pals, shoot the shit, etc. It’s a different kind of open-ness, but at least this one makes sense to me now.

In any case, I think I’ve rambled on long enough, and I bet none of you actually read everything I’ve just been plugging in using my own two hands, eyes, and brain. If you have, I am impressed that you could actually sit this long.

Until next time, on the same Bat-channel……

Well, it’s that time of the month again….

Well, another month has rolled around, only to find me at home, getting over a nasty cold-and-cough combo.
I feel like I’ll be able to brave work again tomorrow morning, but we’ll see when the time comes.
What’s happened since last time? Who knows? The days have begun to flow together, sometimes I’m thankful for that, but at times, I wish I’d have stopped and smelled the roses.
I think a main problem I’m experiencing is committing to too much, so I’ve set myself a target: barring any really spectacular shows/performances/auditions, I have set a cutoff date for some relaxation, and that is going to happen at the end of June.
Now, I know you’re saying to yourself, “June???!!? That’s months away!”, but hey, I’m booked until then.
I am currently cast in CST’s “Romeo & Juliet” albeit for a minor part, consisting of around 20 lines throughout the entire play, and I have yet to be at an actual rehearsal, but who knows. It just might be nice.
I’m also starring in a lead role (!) in JEST’s upcoming “What’s Wrong with This Picture?” by Donald Marguiles, as Mort, the father of a 16-year old kid, and it’s going to be a challenging role, to say the least.
I also am the sole distributor of the “Oliver!” videos, finally completed editing and duplication, and have a pile of them sitting in my living room, awaiting people to pick them up.
As well as being on the set construction team for JEST’s “Pirates of Penzance” which a few of my friends are in, and that’ll be a blast.
Better yet, I’m on the committee for the upcoming Fantasy.Con 2004 convention during Pesah, being responsible for all screening materials.
Oh, did I forget to mention that I still have a day job? There’s not enough hours in the day!
On a darker note, Yaffah and I did actually go out last month, and it was quite nice, we had dinner and unwound from our respective tedious days at work, and enjoyed each other’s company.
I promised her that I’d give her a call, and have yet to do so.
I’m horrible.
I have no idea why I haven’t called, and each day that goes by, I think I should call her, but what message does that send? “Um, hey, I thought I’d give you a ring, after a month!” And then another day goes by, and the time lengthens. I think it might be some serious dependancy issues, or even worse, that I might actually like someone and might lose them?
In any case, I have to figure out what I want out of the universe, and mold it to my satisfaction. “Create the world,” they said. “It’ll be an adventure!” they promised. “What a load of crap!” I yell to the unresponsive walls.
“You can be anything you want to be!” parents tell their children, or at least mine told me.
What a crock.
Now, yes, I may be talented in certain areas, and knowledgable in others, but what if I don’t know what I want to BE? What if I just want to BE? Why do I have to BE something or someone? Can’t I just BE me?
Maybe it’s the affect of drinking scotch with medication, or maybe that’s exactly when true, clear thoughts can be made. Sometimes in order to hear a whisper, you need the cacophony to be almost overbearing to the point that all you can make out is that one little whisper.
Hell, what do I know. I know what I know. I’ll sing what I said, we come and we go. That’s a think that I keep in the back of my head.

Wow….

It’s been AGES since I’ve updated this thing.

I’m trying to decide whether or not I want to get into this right NOW, or to wait for a more auspicious time.

Ah, what the hell.

When was my last post?
{run activity-lookup}
Sep18th was the last REAL post, not one of those corny quiz results.

So, what has happened since?

Well, read on, dear reader, and find out!

Well, you may be pleased to hear that I have a job. Yes, a job! And no, not involving anything sexual, or embarrassing, or….. you get the idea.
I have landed a job within the Tech Support and Professional Services team in a software development company located in Har Hotzvim, Jerusalem.
The job itself is a daily challenge, whether it be a challenging computer scenario, or not to scream at the idiot on the other end of the phone/screen/table. I am extremely enjoying the dynamics of the job, and tomorrow I am actually going on my first visit to a client, and that client just happens to be the Israeli Police Department’s HQ (!). {internal thought – Thankfully it’s on business this time.} They are experiencing problems, and after spending about 20 phone hours and countless more in the lab, I have finally given in and am going to their location, to hopefully build an interpersonal and inter-corporate positive relationship with their tech group. This will hopefully go a long way to complete both of our objectives – work with them, instead of opposing them (they won’t tow our cars) and to further educate them on our products, so our interaction with them will be for more than “Where’s the ANY key?” kinda stuff.
I got this job through an advertisement on the AACI Jobnet site (Plug! http://www.jobnet.co.il ) where I saw an ad for a systems/network admin, and sent in my resume, at the same time that I was spamming it everywhere. (If you have received this email in error, please click HERE to be removed)!
They eventually called me, after a month or so, to come in for a 4 hour interview/testing session, where they evaluated my tech background, capabilities, general knowledge and more. That day, I met with about 2 people and had good interviews.
“We’ll call you.”
They did!
“Come in for a second interview with the CTO (Chief Tech Officer).”
I did, and that went interestingly enough. After the interview, they wanted me to meet with another department head, and after THAT meeting, I was told to wait around a bit longer.
I then met with the CEO of the company (was I blown away!) Me? a simple grunt on the food chain? My eyebrows were meeting about mid-forehead by now.
After the CEO, I was asked to stick around just a little longer, and told that the purpose of waiting around was to prevent me having to come back a million times for separate interviews.
I thought was a great idea, but had no clue why so many!!! Anyways, the last guy I met with was an Aussie, who is now my “team leader”. That meeting went well, and then I sat down with the head of HR, and she made me an offer. The offer was pretty much what I expected, so I took it!
I like my job. Have I mentioned that? Sometimes it can get annoying, but that’s usually the customer’s fault anyways, so you kick the brick wall, and put on a great voice for the other end. 🙂

So THAT’s what’s on the job front.

I had dropped my part in the chorus of “She Loves Me”, even though I ended up videotaping three shows for them, and they came out well. Last night, there was a cast get-together where we showed a tape of it on a projector on the wall.

But I digress.

Back on the performances, I had landed a semi-lead role in the musical “Oliver!”. Mr. Bumble, that was me. The rehearsals were frequent and hellish, as it was a cast of 45+ and a lot of them were children.

Note to self – there’s a reason that directors hate to work with animals and children.

During the course of rehearsals, I met a girl, Bonnie, and we went out for a bit, and fooled around a bit, but it never really went anywhere. She was on one of those “come to Israel for a semester, have fun!” programs. She’s in Italy now on vacation, and when she comes back, she’ll be spending the rest of her stay on a kibbutz down south. I don’t think it was meant to be, or that it ever had a chance to begin with.

Yesterday, I got a call from Yaffah, someone I had met through a friend, and we had gone out once before for coffee, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear from her. For some reason I thought she might have lost interest. Anyways, we had set to meet tonight after work, but as I was in the office until 9:30pm, and she was also at work after that, we both were too exhausted to get together. We’re tentative for Thursday night. I don’t have any idea of what, where we might do, but we’re tentative. 🙂

Anyways, I’m way up past tonight’s scheduled bedtime, so Dear Reader, if you have reached this line and not died of boredom, look forward to any interesting developments on this page soon, because I feel good writing to you, it seems oddly therapeutic.

Good night!

I got another part!

Yay!

One week rest from one play, and onto another one!

This one is a much bigger production, however I only have a minimalistic part, voice-wise. But I am a part of a community theatrical performace of “She Loves Me”, a Broadway musical, based on an original play in Hungarian, and also has has movie connections, such as, “The Shop Around the Corner” and in more recent years, “You’ve Got Mail”.

Our rehearsal schedule for now is about once a week for about 3 hours, and hopefully this will afford all of us to retain certain aspects of our lifestyle.

Hope I have a good time with this one, as much as I did the last one.

Here I go again….

Right. I had two distinct dreams last night/sleeping periods. This is important.

Before we deal with current events, is there any old business? I see there is some waving of hands in the back, so we’ll deal with the old before the current.

1. Contrary to the last post’s follow-up war, I haven’t given in, but I have taken it to real-life, where me and verbally slap each other when we can.

2. Life has definitely gotten stranger, and this could be both good and bad at the same time.

There is NO gray. Black and White are absolute.

Having said that, let me take you back to a birthday party mine friend threw at her house on a Friday night two weeks ago. I had gone early to assist with the preparations, and made a wonderful batch of Special Brownies. I was NOT joined by anyone I knew, esp. Hadas, who is observant of the Sabbath rituals. Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering, we had been spending a lot of time together, and I was wondering if it was going to get any more serious, as I REALLY like her! Anyways, I had gone earlier to make foodstuffs, and succeeded wonderfully. They were a great hit, and the 20-odd people there enjoyed them thoroughly. At some point, I got into some deep conversations regarding reality, illusions, and perception of life with a nice lady, Y, and we went on for hours. I seemed to have struck a chord, as by the time she left, she acknowledged one of the concepts we had been discussing seemed to be accurate by my explanation.
Now, yes, she’s attractive, and I’m no monster myself, and I toyed with the idea of asking her for her number, but had the internal conflict of, “I’ve got my eyes on another…” so I didn’t. Also at the party, whom I had completely missed, as I was tripped out on E, was D. D. is a fascinating lady, who also is attractive, and we’ve talked before, but again, nothing happened. In any case, I got home at about 5am, and crashed until the next day.
This all happened during the weekend between shows of “Free to Be…” and I haven’t discussed much about that at all, because I’m jumping around anyways, so try to follow at least ONE plot line. (Hey, my life is an episode of 24!)
Saturday night, another show, another success.
Sunday night, our only night off, half of us go to audition for ANOTHER show, and it was fun to meet new actors, sing a bit, and play around. It ended up as nights have been ending up a lot, with me and Becker at my place watching “‘Allo ‘Allo”.
So, Monday continues, and shows go on, and I spend some time with Hadas here and there. On Tuesday, she told me that she needed to be in Tel-Aviv the next day for some legal issues (not hers) and that her friends were supposed to come with, but crapped out on the last minute. Very considerately, I offer to go with her, so she wouldn’t have to go alone, and I saw it as an opportunity to spend more time with her.

Tuesday was also the day she came to the show. After the show, instead of going out to a cafe to get a coffee, we visited a friend who is recovering from serious dental surgery. When we left her place, we heard a loud boom, and then debated what it was, until we heard the sires, and started making phone calls.
I walked her home, and we sat outside for about 2 hours, neither of us wanting to go home, to hear all the details. Eventually, she went up, and I walked home.

So we set out Wednesday to Tel-Aviv, and on the way, she gets a call from the lawyer that she isn’t needed after all. She’s kind of exasperated, as she should be, and we get to Tel-Aviv with not a clue of what to do.
Brain flash! Let’s take a walk across the Ayalon bridge! It’s free, it’s beautiful, and this way our trip hadn’t been wasted. So we cross, and on the other side, we enter the “DiMall”, a very upper-class spot, and both of us are not dressed like the typical TLV yuppies, but we stroll around and act very uppity, enjoying every moment of it. In the mall, we find a bookstore, and spend a while checking out books, and talking, and having a great time. We purchase about 50NIS worth of books, coloring books, and stuff, and eventually mosey on back across the bridge to the bus station home. On the way back, we both nod off, and awake in Jerusalem. The only thought going through my mind was how beautiful she was, softly breathing, sitting right there next to me.
She came back to my place, where we hung out for a bit, and I walked her home.
On the way, she brought up our “relationship” and pretty much put it clearly that her experience with non-observant relationships doesn’t work, and religion is the one thing she won’t bend on. Essentially, she said that there’s no future for US, “but we’ll still be friends…” She might as well have shot me right then and there.
So I smile, and accept and respect her wishes, even though it’s tearing me up.
I get to warm up for that night’s play, depressed. I wanted to go home, and drown my misery so badly that I would forget it ever happened. Instead, I had to smile, sing and dance, and veil my own life for the people that came to see the play.
I felt like I had no energy or will to do that show, but I was determined to go out there and put on the best performance I had, in spite of myself. The mark of a true actor. Anyways, that was the night that came to see the show, and she can be the judge of it.

So time proceeds, as it always does, inevitably, and we finished off with a great performance at Hadassah Hospital, and had a nice, quiet weekend, and for a late afternoon meal, Hadas and I went to my friend J’s. It was awkward for me, and I suddenly felt it hard to read Hadas. It feels painful.

Anyways, last night I had callbacks for the other play I auditioned for, and they went very well, and hopefully I’ll know soon whether or not I’m in.

Back to my opening line, I had a dream last night.
I dreamt that I was in A apartment, not mine, and I don’t know whose. Two ladies from the cast of FTBYAM were there, and I suddenly noticed that the oven was aflame. I have clear memories of dousing the flames, and it seemed very urgent, as the gas tube was alight as well.
I woke up in a sweat at 5am, and tried to go back to sleep.
I woke again at 9:30ish, with the distinct impression that I now remembered another dream, and this one was more of a viewing, non-participating dream, about a kid on a skateboard crossing a street, and someone on a bicycle hitting the skateboard, and falling. Being upset, he got up, and kicked the kid’s board out from under him, resulting in the kid falling.

Now, the main thing that struck me as odd about both of these is the fact that I remembered them at all, and for the past, I don’t know, 10 years, I haven’t remembered a dream at all.

What’s going on?

Wow. It’s been a long time…

Hey there, gang.

I’ve been so out of it for almost a month now, and I think it’s time for me to once again vent everything at you all on one huge mess.

First of all, in catching up on all of y’all’s journals, I came across this:

What Is Your Battle Cry?

Sprinting out of the freeway, clutching gilded boxing gloves, cometh Miketheman! And he gives a bloodthirsty scream:

“I’m going to spank you into a fine spicy powder!!!”

Find out!
Enter username:
Are you a girl, or a guy ?

created by beatings : powered by monkeys

Now that’s out of the way, let me get onto some more serious stuff.

As you may or may not know, (and I will re-inform you anyways) I am hopefully going to be opening in a play this Sept 3rd. “Free To Be You And Me”, originally done my Marlo Thomas and friends, back in 1972 won Emmy awards, and has been an inspiration to anyone from that era growning up with the music, songs and skits. The Hadassah Center Stage Theater in Jerusalem will be running for 8 performances, so if you’re interested in coming and seeing me and my pals have fun on stage, while you have fun in the audience, feel free to contact me regarding tickets, etc.
On THAT note, let me open by saying that I WAS properly warned.
Our director is one that a lot of people are reluctant to work with. In fact, some fellow actors refused to audition, once they knew she was directing it. These past few days have been a major strain, to say the least. It’ll clear up before opening, I’m sure.

Also, to those of you whom have been following since the last episode, I have “something” developing between a lovely lady, Hadas, from the party oh so long ago. I’m really not sure where it might be going, if it is at all, but I’m hoping to know something more concrete sometime soon.

The unemployment saga drones on, as it does, but this week I got a call from a friend who’s temping at a hi-tech company, and she thinks they might have an opening. I’m awaiting their call.

In any case, hang in there, and ride the waves until you hit the surf. Then, and only then, fall off your board. 🙂

Ciao.