DDR, MR, & USPS

Since I don't have any of my source html at home I can only update this site while I'm at work so usually there won't be any updates on the weekends (as if anyone actually checks this page anyways). This weekend was a very interesting one. Friday our improv show sold out within 20 minutes of opening the doors. Unbelievable if you ask me because our performance was at the same time as the Rochesterfest parade which everyone seems to go to. We thought we might have like 10 people show up but we sold out all 100 seats 10 minutes before we were even supposed to close the doors. For this show I was host so that was a little bit of a different experience. I liked it because I got to play around with the crowd and heckle back at a few of the hecklers. They hecklers definitely do get to you over time, however. By the end of the show I was starting to lose it a little with a couple of the more rambunctious members of the audience. Anyhow, our show turned out great and I was very pleased. Our next show is this Friday so I'm looking forward to that.

Ok, so funny story...well, maybe not funny but interesting in my view. After our show on Friday a group of my friends and some of our improv people went to grab some food at Perkins. Now the entire time we were all together, we suddenly became the most vulgar and sarcastic people you would have ever met. We were just mean, snippy, and grouchy the entire time and we all just treated it like normal. It was so weird. It was like we used all of our positive energy in the show being funny and all we had left inside was the jerk part of our personality for the night. I also noticed another interesting thing. The three friends of mine that came out to eat were all female and two of them were quite good looking. It was completely amazing how much the improv guys hit on the two good looking girls. The entire time all they did was be sarcastic and hit on the girls. I bet the girls ate it up but it really frustrated me that all of the sudden the guys I'm friends with just turn and instead of being their normal selves, they try to be all extra awesome and impress the girls and, at times, try to make me look like I'm not as good as them (basically this was just one guy in particular, but it still irks me to no end). I just got sick of it by the end of the night and I just kind of gave up on trying to stay in as a part of the group. Guess that's part of my anti-social attitude that shows through every now and then. It usually doesn't happen very often that I don't want to be around people, but when it does I really don't want to be around anyone.

This weekend also included the triumphant return of DDR into my life, that's right, Dance Dance Revolution. It's that wacky, Japanese dancing game and Matt just got new pads so we played for a good amount of the afternoon on Saturday. Fun times. That night I also took in Minority Report with the group. I was extremely pleased with the movie. I love A.I. by Spielberg so I was glad to see he was doing another high-profile sci-fi flick. I heartily enjoyed it and loved some of the philosophical threads that were presented through the movie. There is a scene at the end of the movie that I think is one of the best in a long time. Cruise's character is facing off against the man who is destined to kill him. Now he can either kill Cruise and prove that the precrime system is truly infallible or he can choose to not kill Cruise and thus invalidate everything proven by the precrime system. It's an interesting paradox and I like seeing things such as this in today's cinema, which is often overrun by crappy action movies, gross-out comedies, and stupid tear-jerker movies that are so manufactured and fake. Since we're on the topic of movies, I also caught The Sum of All Fears on Sunday and enjoyed that one as well. It was not a spectacular movie but I found it enjoyable for the two hours I spent watching it.

This weekend I also learned a very important lesson from my mother that I will never forget and which I will always use. You know how you're always getting mail from credit card companies, magazines, and the like in your mailbox every day? Next time you get junk mail like this don't just throw it away. Open it up and see if it has one of those "No postage necessary if mailed in the United States" labels in the upper right hand corner of the envelope inside of the junk mail. If it requires you to put postage on the envelope then just toss it in the can. If it does have a no postage necessary stamp you're in business. You see, you don't have to pay postage on this letter but the company that sent it to you does. Take everything that came in your junk mail and stuff it into the no postage necessary envelope. Good. Not full yet? Well, lets fill this letter up. Take any random old newspapers or cardboard or something and jam that envelope full. When you finally do fill it, lick it shut and drop it in the mailbox. I guarantee you will never get another letter from that company or magazine. You see, the heavier you make that letter, the more the company that sent you the stupid junk mail in the first place will have to pay. You're screwing them over for sending you crap, and it also helps generate business for the US Postal Service. Now if only there was something like this that we could do to telemarketers.....