Too long without a post

Yeah, I know it's been a while but I've been busy. First of all I now have a job, it's a 40 min. commute but it pays what my last job did so I can't complain too much. It's a place called Smile Reminder and basically my job is to integrate our appointment reminder software with doctors offices that want the service. I've learned more about databases and using my reverse engineering skills to get into older databases. The reverse engineering is the only challenging part of the job.

Other than that I have gotten the roll of Teddy in "Arsenic and Old Lace" at the Empress Theatre. Practices started last week and the cast chosen is pretty good. Performances start Sept. 11 and go til October 2nd so I don't have too much longer to have my lines down. Lucky for me there aren't too many lines but it sure is a fun roll! Chaaaaaarge!!!!

Wow, what a week!

The play went wonderfully! It was so much fun and we got tons of complements! I heard quite a bit of chatter that "Lumeire and Cogsworth stole the show"... well I don't know about that but we did work really well together. Here I am losing my mind:


I think this one is just after "Be our guest" where Bell wants a tour:

This second image is from the dress rehearsal, before I got a mustache; I definitely like the mustache better than the painted hands. If you want to see more images from the play, here is a link to shutterfly. Al was so much fun to work with so I found an image of he and I together:

Here I'm 'arguing' with Lumiere about letting Maurice in the castle: "...have some tea, sit in the masters chair...". Ok, one more:

Cogs:"...she was always vain about her looks, and that's exactly what she's become!" Lumeire: "A vanity." Cogs: "Little drawers, a mirror, the works!" And of course, human again:
Apparently Cogsworth has a thing for the wardorbe. Here Cogsworth is admiring her dress (and her of course!) that she now fits into! Heidi was wonderful as the wardrobe too! The play was so much fun, I would love to do it again. Hopefully I'll be able to get some videos up on this too. We'll see how well they turned out.

On another note, I was sick the whole time. Especially on Friday and Sat. it was a struggle to keep from coughing on stage, the adrenaline rush I'm sure helped that out. My voice started out a little rough on Sat. evening but was cleared up shortly after it started (I sucking on lemons). I am now still a little ill and my voice is only now starting to improve. Hopefully I'll be fully recovered by the weekend as I am thinking about trying out for a part at the empress theater in Magna. "Once upon a Mattress" has a king who was cursed as being mute so everything must be done with body language...my kind of role! If I do try out for it I'll let you all know how it goes.

Fun Time!

The play is coming along really well, we are down to the last week of practicing before the performances start! Last night we got many of the costumes and so we put on what we needed to get used to. Here is a photo of me in...most of my Cogsworth costume. Yes I will get better socks :)


And here is one of me, Lumiere, Mrs. Potts and one of the 3 chosen to play Chip. This one is where we are singing "Something There" while the Beast and Belle are reading a book (just before "Human Again"). Again, we only put on what we will need to get used to so Potts and Lumiere are only wearing the bare minimum of what they need to get used to.

And the last photo is a practice from last week. From left to right: Lumiere, Wardrobe (background, off stage really), Cogsworth (me!), Belle (she has dyed her hair dark now) and Mrs. Potts. This is just after "Be Our Guest" and wants a 'tour' of the castle. Of course Cogsworth is arguing with Lumiere that it isn't a good idea.

We found out last night that the Friday night performance has sold out so it's a good thing that I got Gid's tickets already! We also found out that we will be doing a Saturday evening performance as well as the afternoon (12:00pm and 7:30pm). Doors open 1/2 hour before the show starts and yes, for the nights they don't have sold out you will be able to buy tickets at the door. Oh, and don't forget that my daughter is playing flute in the orchestra! At 13 she is the youngest in there and she is pretty good too!

LIfe

Wow, it's been a whole month since I have posted. I actually had another interview with Mozy for a Program management position. The problem was that they didn't have the position open! They called the next day and said it may not be open for another year either. If they are as un-organized internally as they are externally I probably don't want to work there anyhow. So I'm back to square one on the job hunt, hopefully I'll be able to get more interviews soon.

The play has been coming along nicely, they have been working on props and there are only a couple of costumes left to do (mine is one of them). It's coming together really well and I'm excited to have some family to come down and watch it! They chose some really good people for the different parts and I'm impressed by every one of them.

Interview

Well, the interview with Decho/Mozy I thought went rather well, even though I got there late. You see, the building is on a new street and Google maps sent me to the foot of the mountain to similarly named streets, but still a good 20 minutes away from them. Luckily I was able to stop and ask for directions, was able to use their phone, get directions and let them know I would be a little late. Once I got there everything went rather smoothly except for the one person I was not able to meet with. You see, technical/professional interviews are typically more involved than your run of the mill interview, you typically have several interviews and/or meet with multiple people at once. I was scheduled to meet with 5 different people for about 1/2 hour each and unfortunately their QA lead was the only one I was unable to meet with. They have a hiring requirement that the candidate meet with people from different teams so they have a different perspective from others. Thankfully hat requirement was met when I interviewed with their program manager, who actually recommended I apply for a position with him as a program manager (which I did apply for)! I'll find out how they felt about the interview by Wed. of this week. It really seems like a great place to work, good benefits, nice perks, etc. and it really was a pleasure to meet all of the people that I did.

Another interview

Well, this is the 3rd interview since getting laid off; slow going I know. The schedule sent makes it look to be a long afternoon, I will be interviewing with 5 members of the Decho/Mozy staff starting at 1:00pm. First is the manager that I interviewed with over the phone, that will be only 15 minutes. I'm scheduled for half an hour with the other 4. I'm not sure if they are team members or managers, likely a mixture of both. From what they were saying I will be given a programming assignment to do and present another time. According to them it should only take about 2 hours to complete but if it's anything like what we did at Onyx it will take longer. The Onyx programming assignment was slated at 4 hours but the candidates who really cared took closer to 20 hours to complete it. I'm curious what the test will be, I'm sure it will be easy enough to complete if it's slated for 2 hours; likely something to do with wxWidgets since that is part of the job description that I applied for. Unfortunately I probably won't sleep too well tonight, likely stressing over the interview.

Other than that, play practice has started (Beauty and the Beast, remember? I'm playing Cogsworth...) and so far it has been all singing; big surprise! Tonight I get to go over my "big solo" in "Human Again". I told them I couldn't sing anything higher than an E and guess what... the song calls for and F!!!! My voice cracks if I try to hit anything higher than an E so they will be in for a surprise (me too) when I try to hit that F. They keep saying that I should be able to blend in with the others (the F IS, in fact, when singing with others) but I'm sceptical. I'll probably end up screeching in the middle of the song. I almost have the rest of my lines memorized and I'm more anxious to get into the staging rehearsals, especially with "Be Our Guest", that's going to be lots of fun!

slowly but surely

Interviews are finally starting to come. I've had 2 so far this week but at the same time I've had 2 others say that I didn't have the experience they wanted. I think the interviews that I had went fairly well but then I don't know how they felt about it. I should hear back from both of them sometime next week for either a second round of interviews or otherwise. I just need to be patient and keep sending my resume out there hoping and praying that someone is hiring.

The first meeting for Beauty and the Beast was last Thursday for the main cast so we were able to see who all were in it and get the script. I have already started memorizing my lines and practicing my singing (if you can call it singing). I was clear to them that I can't sing very well but they were obviously fine with that. Saturday we will have a meeting for the whole cast, including those who want to be in the orchestra. I can't wait to get started with the practices!