The year without a me

Sunday was the day of the play. We put on an adaptation of the animated holiday special The Year Without a Santa Claus. We've been working on it since waaaaaay back in August, so it's pretty weird that it's all over now. We've put in so much work, but the person who's done the most work is Nick, who had the idea for the play last holiday season and adamantly pursued his dream over the following year. And guess who volunteered to play Santa Claus? That's right: me. So I put in a lot of work too. I was at every rehearsal, even when I was sick. I've spent nearly every single week since maybe August or September working on my part.

In the end, I fouled things up pretty grandly. But I would have done it grandlier if it hadn't been for my friend Reid (the actor)'s mom, who provided the whole cast with lots and lots of direction and advice. Overall, it was an enriching experience, I'd say, though having to act while wearing a wig and a fake beard and glasses and a sort of pillow under my shirt is kind of difficult (hence my fouling up a few times). Fortunately, I was hardly recognizable in my costume. In fact, after the show there was a photo op to have your picture taken with Santa, and some parents actually did bring their kids to have their picture taken with me, Santa. (Mrs. Claus might have been next to me, but I couldn't tell because I could only see directly in front of me, what with the long hair and beard and all, and even then, my glasses were pretty dirty.) But as with any realization of a dream, it's nice to see that it all worked out pretty okay. Plus, there was a party afterward, and at the party there was cake.

Would I do it again?

I got home kind of late after the party. Not really late, but later than I'd like to get home on a school night. I was in bed by a reasonable hour, though, and eventually, I fell asleep. But then -- yes, the play was over, but we were going to have another rehearsal. Another rehearsal, after the final show! I, being a good sport, decided to stick it out, even though I really, really, really didn't want to be there. I just thought about how it would all be over in a little while. So I went over my lines... my tired, worn-out, hackneyed lines... and opened one eye, and saw that it was 2:00 in the morning. I closed my eye again. I was onstage, and the cast and crew were all around. I told myself that I had to go, that I couldn't stay around for this anymore, that it was far too late. Then I realized, having just peeked at the clock, that if I ignored them, they would all go away. But I couldn't. And they didn't. I was just going to have to go through the motions one more time, and I didn't want to hurt everyone's feelings. Then I found that when I shut my eyes tighter and drew them up, I could focus on going to sleep. I couldn't get comfortable because I was alternately too hot and too cold, but I finally fell asleep somehow. I woke up very tired in the morning.

No.

The other day I made a Fake Cyrillic Generator to convert entered text into faux Cyrillic text. The whole thing came from a segment that they play on the morning announcements on TV at school. They occasionally play a video clip of some girl walking around the campus with other people pointing and whispering because the selective camera angles make it look (kind of) like she's naked. Then it cuts to a shot of her ID badge in her car, and then we see the words, "Not wearing your ID badge makes you feel naked." I got a good laugh out of seeing that a few times (because the school is telling you what to think), but what really got me was when the segue to introduce the clip went something like "You're supposed to wear your ID badge at all times while on campus. Here's what some students think about that."

Unlike some of the school's media outlets, the morning show is basically the voice of the administration conveyed through the students. (Don't get me started on Monday's Math "Challenge" and Wednesday's Word.) It really does amount to propaganda; Brian and I have shared a laugh over it, and we agree. So one day last week, while I had access to a computer and a printer, I printed

УФЦ FЗЗL ИДKЗD ЩITHФЦT ЧФЦЯ
I.D. БДDGЗ

and put it on Brian's desk. He had a good laugh. Anyway, that inspired me to create a utility to make faux Cyrillic text online. So I spent a few hours working on it. I wanted the user to be able to choose which letters should be replaced (some people might not like all those E's that look like 3's), but when I realized that I didn't know how to do that, I decided to keep it simple. So, like in Soviet Russia, you don't have choices (or, as the case may be, choices don't have YOU!!).

Another arbitrarily selected Top 10: Useless Limbs (and Other Vestigial Organs).

While we're at it, here's another: Worst Internet Acquisitions Ever. I don't remember some of them.

Two years ago: "It took only a few minutes for him to air our conversation and the song, which was a pleasant surprise."