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April 29, 2002 Ah, the first weekend is over. In an way it feels good and it way it sucks. As far as the play goes, it all went very well. We had only a few technical glitches that no one but us would have noticed. But the audience was ...okay. I mean there were like 20 people on opening night and then 6 the next. Yes, that's a whopping 6 people. But the Rude Mechanicals have wild nights where tons of people come and no one comes. Our immediate problem is that most of the audience comes from friends of the cast, which is fine, but if I'm working my ass off for four months to make a kick ass show, I want more than my friends to see it. But Saturday night we did have two people that I didn't recognize and that was cool. We did have these kick ass postcards that used the same image from the front of this site and we passed out 1000 of them in a few days. So hopefully that helped. We shall see what the next two weekends get us in terms of crowds. And there will be a review in the P.G. County section of the Washington Post this Thursday so hopefully that will help, hopefully it will be a good review! :-) The part that sucks, and the part that sucks with every show, is that the whole thing has to end. I know everything has to come to an end but I think this group has gotten really close and I know I have bonded well with some of the people and I hate to see it end. We were all at Bennigans after the first show and I was at the end of the table just watching everyone laugh and enjoy themselves and it was a really nice moment. Other than that, nothing is going on. Literally and it kinda freaks me out since I don't have an immediate show planned for the future I'm not going to know what to do with my free time. So I'm going to buckle down, get some head shots and herd myself to the cattle calls or something. Eerie. April 20, 2002 So I am sitting at work right now dreaming of reading my email. I know this sounds pathetic and I feel kinda silly but I haven't been able to read my email since noon yesterday. For some reason our cable modem is going freaky, I think cause we have two computers attached to it, and the VPN at work won't connect so now I can't do anything. Not that I get the most amazing email anyway, hint hint, but I know there is stuff I should be reading regarding the play that begins this Friday. Its just silly. So now I'm writing this although I won't be able to put it up until I get internet access. Damn technology. My kingdom for a modem. But this past Saturday a bunch of friends and I decided to head to Six Flags. It was kinda a spur of the moment thing and it was really fun. I hadn't seen a bunch of these guys since Christmas and we had a really good time at Six Flags last year and this is going to hopefully be a regular thing. The best thing was that no one was at the park. I got there around 10:20 and got a parking spot right in front of the park entrance. Nice. When my friends all arrived, 45 minutes later (arg), there was still plenty of parking. I think it was because the weather reports said rain and maybe most folks stayed away or didn't know it was open yet. So we got our season passes, my photo look horrible, and began to ride. The first was Superman. Wow, what a ride. I have linked all the coaster to the rcdb site so you can get stats on them since the Six Flag site pretty much blows for cool photos and stuff on their rides. Anyway, the Superman ride is just awesome. It is truly the way to start the day. So we hit that the went to Batwing. Now last year I didn't think too much of this ride cause I think the heat and the line got to me but this time there was no line, well a small one, and the ride didn't break down, always a plus, so this time I really like it. The thing is completely disorientating and just a crazy, wild ride. We only did this once cause the line was longer than any other and it did break down later in the day. Next was back to Superman and then over to the wooden coasters. Jokers Jinx was shut down apparently so they could retrofit the new seats to the new restraint system so there will be no more head restraint and only a lap restraint, much like if not identical to Flight of Fear at Kings Dominion. Anyway, spell of geekiness there, the next one was Roar. This is a really nice woodie. I have to give props to Six Flags in that the wooden coasters they have there are really excellent, they are both fast and not too violent. Roar is well built and has good air time. Then we hit the Mind Eraser. The is a hanging coaster that really moves! I love this one and of course as I got on it began to rain so when you are moving at like 50 mph. the rain drops really hurt! But this is a nice coaster. Next was The Wild One, the other woodie, again nice and fast. The ending of this coaster is superb, fast and scary and at any moment you feel like are going to fly off the tracks. Again it was raining and at point I had to close my eyes to keep them dry. That was awesome. Not knowing whats going to happen next is sooo cool. Next was Two Face. This is a coaster I didn't ride last year cause it looked lame. Holy Crap was I wrong. It's you typical boomerang coaster with a cobra roll and a loop but the crazy thing is the cars face each other. So you have two people facing forward and to back and two forward and so on. If you sit in the middle to face people the whole time. Nutty! I was on the end as the coaster draws you up, you see the park and everything and then it drops you. You speed back through the station, into the cobra roll and into the loop and back up the next holding hill. Now I had just done all this backwards and was feeling pretty fucked up. I was more out of it then I thought I would be. Then, now that I am facing forward, we head back through the loop and roll and back up the first hill again. Then its over. Man I'm telling you I felt slightly sick and yet it was such a good coaster. Then we headed back to Superman for two more rides, back to Roar for two more and then finished up on Mind Eraser. All in all a very good coastering day. And it was really good to see my friends again. With the plays and all I dont get that much of a chance to see any of them. Not much else has happened since the last entry really. I got the postcards for Romeo and Juliet finally. Took fucking forever. Hung out with my friend Jen on Friday night and we talked for hours. She is another person I never get a chance to see so it was really good to bond. Then I headed to my friend Mike's house for a party. Saturday went to Nation for the Black Party. Left really early, around 2:30 a.m., since I was at the park all day I was kinda out of it. But the play is going well. We are in the final week of rehearsal and the stress is finally beginning. I want to put it on now and so do the actors so it's going to be a really nice show. As long as everyone holds their energy it's going to be great. Alright more later, time to get some more work done. April 10, 2002 God, is it already the 10th of April?!?! Wow, time is going fast. Faster now that I realized recently again that my day consists of getting up at 7 to 7:30, heading to work, working till 5, getting in the car and heading to rehearsal and staying there until 11:00, driving my friend Mike home, heading back to my house and finally getting back in bed around 1:00am. And I was wondering why I'm so tired. Sheesh. But I think the play is going really well. I posted today a mirror of the Rude Mechanical site. All this week we have been doing full run throughs and seeing how sound and stuff goes together. We are going to have to re-do most of the sound track but it looks and sounds good. The lighting is a little weak but will have to do. But the actors are doing well and now's it just trying to keep them from getting stagnant since we have been doing this since January. In other news, well it's not really news but more of a recollection as I sit in my cube farm hell (without fucking walls!!!!!) dreaming of Australia. And me being me, I'm channeling like a thousand movies from Joe Versus the Volcano to Brazil to keep my sanity as I want to get out of this grey and magenta hell. I'm gonna have to put more photos of Australia up cause it was really so beautiful and if you have the chance I certainly recommend it, it's so choice. Its expensive to get there, but it is on the other side of the world, but one US dollar equals 2 Australian Dollars and they love Americans. It exactly how we go gaga over their accents here, they do the same there. Plus since a beer is like 2 bucks American, you can find friends real easy in a bar. LOL. Mmmmm VB, the best beer. What else, I'm still as horny as a sailor that's been stuck on a ship for 6 months. This sucks. One of these days I'm gonna have to find a date. Which would be easier if people didn't inherently suck. April 03, 2002 Wow, somewhere along the way I think I missed March. I guess it was stressful with the birthday and all but it still seemed to go by pretty darn fast. I'm not liking this time speed up as you get older thing. It sucks. Well I finally got to go to an amusement park this year. Kings Dominion opened this past week for Spring Break and a bunch of us took of work or school and went down for the day. As most people know I am a roller coaster fanatic. I love 'em. And Kings Dominion has their fair share of coasters. The boast the fact that they have twelve of them but two are kiddie coasters and one is not operating at the moment and one looks like it's going to be torn down cause they obviously have done no maintenance on it over the winter. But we did ride Volcano first which is a hanging linear induction coaster so that it gets it speed without the lift hill and gets to 60+ mph is a few seconds. This is a really fun coaster. Next up was Flight of Fear which is like the Joker's Jinx at Six Flags America but Flight of Fear is all indoors. This is what makes it wonderful. When the coaster takes off, and it's another linear induction coaster, you are blast off into a dark tunnel and for a few seconds you can't tell which way is up since to have to point of reference and you start with I think two of the four inversions. The best thing about this ride is that last year they changed the restraint system so that you are no longer in a harness that comes over your head which caused major headaches but now only have a foot and lap bar. Its great and makes the ride so much better then ever. Next we did the Anaconda. Its a nice steel coasters with four inversions (i.e. loops or cork screws) and is fun but a little too slow. The trim brakes they have really serve no purpose and diminish the fun factor or the ride. Next was the Shockwave. A stand up coaster with a drop of 95' and one inversion. The coaster is still fun but needs to be longer and crazier. Rumor was that PKD was trying to sell it and get a newer coaster in there. Next up was the Rebel Yell. A sprawling twin wooden coaster that has one side facing forward and one side facing backward. Amazing enough the ride was better when you are going forward and a little rougher. Next was the Grizzly. A great old wooden coaster that beats the hell outta you. Its great! The last of the ones before we started to ride them all over again was the Hurler. Wow, this is a mean coaster and yet so freaking cool! This is the only one that jarred me enough to hurt me. Its a wooden and used to smooth when it opened in 1994 but over the past 8 years has really gotten so that it gives the Grizzly a run for the money in the beat you up department. No one liked this one but me. Maybe I like abuse, who knows. The one new one we didn't ride is called Ricochet. Its a wild mouse type coaster and the line was a little too long to try it and certainly wasn't scary enough. It was too family. I
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