Whew. Another show in the can. It was a great run, but I’m glad it’s over. Theater is always an exhausting process for me, but this show in particular was a particularly tiring one (and I wasn’t even on stage for most of the first act!). I’m very satisfied with the work we did. I found it particularly gratifying to hear the comments from people like aishlynn and trufflesfl, who saw the show opening weekend and again in our final weekend. They both commented on how comfortable we had gotten in the show and that they appreciated seeing how it had evolved over the run. It’s very true. There was only so far we were going to evolve without the “feedback” from the audience, and once we got the show on its feet and in front of live humans things began to change. Not big changes, but little ones in which we played with the audience. It’s a truly unique kind of show that is specifically written to LET you do that kind of thing, really. The audience gets winks and nods from the script itself, so the additional ones we added weren’t against the grain of the source material.

It was great fun.

Fortunately our last few audiences weren’t dismal, either. They could have been better, sure, but there were just enough people to not make us feel like we were playing to an empty house or make them feel awkward about laughing out loud. We enjoyed ourselves, and I think the audiences did too.

But now, I relax.

I won’t be able to be in another main stage show until the end of the year, as I’ve registered to finally take the one class I need to finish my Associates degree (technically, I need an additional class after that but I plan on taking a CLEP test to get that out of the way). I’m going to volunteer to work the subscription table a few times during the run of Grimm’s Faery Tales, but that’s the extent of my theatrical obligations for the time being.

That’s ok, really. I’ll spend the rest of the year keeping in shape working around the house – both things that are difficult to do while involved in a show. I also want to do some more work on my web site. Krystalle has been doing quite a bit on hers recently, and it’s reminded me of all the plans I had for mine that I never carried through with. I’m also not real keen on the vibe coming from Live Journal these days. I’m not as upset about it as she is, but I can definitely see them looking over at services like MySpace and trying to emulate their success. It will probably work, but in the process they are going to alienate a lot of the users who are happy with the service as it is.

Unfortunately, Six Apart is a business. Like any good business they want to make money, and if advertising and idiot-proof use is what is going to make the most for them they’ll go with it.

So expect fewer friends-only posts from me in the future. I want to start gearing my content towards the reader who just goes to my actual web site as opposed to reading me on their friends list. Eventually, I’ll probably go with something custom on my site and just use LJ to link back to posts that I make there. I actually found a really nice Cold Fusion based blogging software, but it requires Cold Fusion MX 6 or higher, which I don’t have (nor do I have the cash to shell out for the latest software). Sometimes I consider leaving CF altogether on my server, and going with something like ASP and MySQL, but that would require a great deal of work on my part – far more than I wish to go through at this point. I host several sites on my server, including one that I am regularly paid to maintain. I’d have to completely re-write those sites to make them work again, and I just don’t feel up to it.

What I need is another server that I can start fresh on. Yeahhhh, that’s the ticket.

Right, because we aren’t using enough electricity in this house as it is.

We’ll see, anyway. I’ll admit, I’ve gotten used to a lot of the functionality available to me in Live Journal – and some of the new stuff coming down the line has been great. I may not jump ship at all. Isolating myself on my web site certainly won’t lend itself to the kind of community that has been established here in LJ land.

Maybe I just need to trim my Flist or something.

nuh nuh nuh!! drama!!!

Juuuust kidding.

My Father’s Day was a lovely one. I got a grooming kit (and a very amusing card) from Alex, and got to spend most of the day with the boys. They went to the show with me and helped out with strike after, then we came home and ordered Chinese. I kinda wanted to take the family to the movies, but ordering dinner is less expensive and tiring – and I was wiped when I got home. Alex mowed the yard for the first time ever yesterday (and it shows), and kept coming up to me last night wanting to know what else he could do for me because it was Father’s Day. Such a good kid. Does a dad proud, ya know?

Had my moments of missing Dad and Richard yesterday. Such is to be expected.

I hunger now, and have eaten only a banana so far today, so I’m off to scavenge for food. Will have to run to Wal-Mart when I get off work today (stupid me forgot a bag after checking out – fortunately they have a record of it and I can get my stuff), but other than that I’m pretty much chillin’ out here.