Weekly Update

It's been an average week here, I suppose.

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with the Gilmore book project. I thought things would get better once I was working with the publisher directly- but no. The publisher wants changes, then shows them to John. John wants changes, shows them to the publisher. Etc, etc. Back and forth. I want this damn book done.

Mmm, found out I have sleep apnea. No surprise. My weight continues to creep up every year, and has since I started working the weird shifts at the hotel. That was in 204- I weighed around 230-240 then. I weighed in at 310 at the doctor's office. I've added chia seeds to my diet in hopes that they'll help me eat less but keep myself going longer. They're helping, I think, and I actually think they're really tasty, too. But more drastic measures need to be taken. I think the biggest change I could make would be to stop working weekends at the hotel. That's going to be hard to do- that would mean about $500 less money each month.

Anyway, my doctor thinks I need a CPAP machine. No big deal, except my insurance won't pay for one unless I go in for a sleep observation test. Fair enough, I suppose. Of course, the closest place to get one is two hours away. And I'm sure it will cost me huge amounts of money, because it will be an overnight hospital stay.

If I pay for the machine myself, I don't need the test. Nice. So which is cheaper? I don't know- neither the company that would provide the machine nor the sleep center has returned our calls. Joy. However, when I mentioned on Facebook about the diagnosis, one of my good friends and old college roommates mentioned he has a CPAP machine that he doesn't use, because he could never get used to it, and he's willing to give it to me. Hooray!

And then I found out he's recently gotten divorced for the second time, which led to deeper conversations and such. Ah well. And that while I'm the one who actually stuck around in college and got my Bachelors degree, he dropped out and years later got an Associates degree, and now makes $40 an hour more than I do. *sigh*

When I was on 'vacation' a month ago, I found a bunch of old cassettes from when I worked at a radio station 20 years ago. I got a USB cassette player and started digitizing some of the tapes, which contain little 'humorous' bits I used to do for the morning show. They're ... quaint.

July 4th falls on a Wednesday this year, so I'm planning on taking off the rest of the week from both jobs, so I can hopefully do some needed work around the house as well as finally have the yard sale I've been meaning to have for years. This coincides nicely with my desire to clean out all the stuff I have i the shed to see what can stay and what can go to the yard sale, but I can't put that off until the 5th, or I'll never get done in time (it's a BIG shed!) Tomorrow, I need to start dragging out boxes and sorting and re-packing, etc.

Most likely, it's going to rain.

Next weekend, I participate in the 72-hour script writing contest. My biggest worry is not so much about cranking out a script, because I know I can write something in 72 hours (whether I can right something good is another matter!) but I've never written a movie script, and I don't really know the format. I've been looking at some script-writing software online, and this week I'll start doing some crash-course studying on whats involved with writing a script. Mainly, I just want to have fun with the experience.

Nicely, this comes along: http://io9.com/5916970/the-22-rules-of-storytelling-according-to-pixar

All right, I think that's all I have for this week. See you next week.

All we hear is ...

In 1991, I would occasionally do some pre-recorded bits for the morning show of the radio station I worked for, which was decidedly humor impaired.

http://soundcloud.com/timkepple/sports

I worked overnight. The owner of the station, a bald man in his late 60s with one glass eye and cataracts in the other and a personal hygiene problem, lived over top of the studios in an apartment, so I couldn't make much noise at night. When I wasn't dodging his on-going sexual harassment attempts, I'd play around in the recording studio. I discovered the reverb machine, and Safety Tips from Captain Good was born.

http://soundcloud.com/timkepple/captain-good-01

Except for one extreme example that I'll get to later and the reverb used for Captain Good, all the voices used were my own.

http://soundcloud.com/timkepple/captain-good-02

http://soundcloud.com/timkepple/captain-good-03

Another bit was Mildred's Traffic Report:

http://soundcloud.com/timkepple/mildred-01

Scene: In the cereal aisle at the grocery store.

Andy, looking over the multitude of boxes, says, "I want crave."

I stare back at him blankly.

He looks at me. "What?" he says.

"Crave is a cat food."

"No, it's not," he replies, and points to the shelf.



"See?" he asks. "Krave."

"Crave is a cat food," I insist. "Surely you've heard of it?"

"No."

"My kitty cat craves crave? I'm going to have to sing the song to you, aren't I?"

Now it's Andy's turn to stare at me blankly, as I began to sing.

"My kitty cat crave chicken,
My kitty cat craves milk,
My kitty cat craves tuna,
so my kitty cat, craves Crave!"

Andy is slowly shaking his head. After 10 years as friends and roommates, he doesn't even bother to look around to see if anyone is within ear shot. I sigh.

"There's a second verse, too!

My kitty cat is healthy,
My kitty cat's carefree,
I feed my cat with lots of Crave so my kitty cat loves me!"

Andy is walking away now. I follow him with the cart. "You've never seen the commercial?"

"No!" he calls back over his shoulder. "Probably because it came out in the 40s."

I grumble and follow along behind him. By the next aisle, I'm humming the Crave cat food theme, and I still am when we check out 20 minutes later.

Crave cat food by weatherguru76

Crave was discontinued in the 80's but is back with cat treats now (no longer cat food, just treats.)