A follow-up to Thursday’s post: Here’s one of my favorite Louis C.K. bits, from a sit-down segment with Conan some time back. Everything’s amazing and nobody is happy.
Louis C.K. skips TV networks and puts his next standup special online
Amazing
Louis C.K. played Heinz Hall tonight, and all the cynical, warped, yet honest and true on the inside folk of Pittsburgh got to laugh and see the world from a realer, funnier perspective for a few hours.
Catch as catch can
My cats get very agitated if they don’t get exercise. That’s a challenge, because the way they exercise is by playing, and the way they play is by catching little bird and mouse toys that I make flit/scurry around. There being three cats and just one human, the cats have to take turns, and they don’t quite get that concept.
Max, the youngest and biggest, always monopolizes the game. He is also the most destructive: We’ve gone through twice as many toys in the year or so he’s been here as we did the previous several years. I took the photos below just a few minutes before he grabbed the flying birdie out of the air, breaking the string to which it was attached.
Max is also the most exciting and least exciting to watch. Most exciting because he executes dramatic, two- and three-foot twisting leaps in the air, trying to catch a toy. He’d make a great figure skater. But also least exciting, because once he catches the toy he tends to squat down, toy in mouth, and growl at the other cats without letting them have a try at playing.
I am all media
I’m the new host of a cable TV show: VA Butler Healthcare’s Veteran Connection, on Armstrong Channel 10 in the Butler, PA area. The first episode debuted yesterday, and it’ll be on the Channel 10 rotation through the month.
On the show I interview Butler-area Veterans about their healthcare and other experiences, and VA Butler staff share information about the programs and services the medical center provides. We have lots of terrific material planned, and everyone is excited about having this new way to get useful information out to the community.
We filmed the first episode back in September. At the start of the day I was strangely nervous and stiff, but everyone from VA Butler and Armstrong was calm and sweet and reassuring, and we all loosened up as the shoot progressed.
Really, once we get going it’s quite fun — everyone I interview has interesting things to share, so it doesn’t feel like work in the least, more like a little chat over coffee, but really well-lit and with Lavalier mics on everyone. It helps a lot that Amanda and Lauren from VA Butler keep everyone on track, and Carmen and Matt from Channel 10 make the technical aspects perfectly smooth and polished.
We have our second shoot later this week, and I want this one to be very smooth and fun. I found a nice Teleprompter app for the iPad, and I’ve been practicing. I think I’m doing pretty OK, but you can see in the photo that my housemates remain unimpressed.
Dealing out a healthy hand
London Underground playing cards, originally uploaded by cynthiacloskey.
In my ongoing quest to build healthy activity into my life, I’m embarking on the Lifehacker Workout Challenge.
The challenge is just to exercise at least 5 times a week for a month. Any workout will do, but the suggested workouts are so adorably simple for even a desk jockey like myself, I feel quite the fitness warrior when I complete them.
Case in point: The Deck of Cards Workout. Take a standard deck of 52 cards, assign an exercise to each suit, then flip through the deck. For each card, do the matching exercise the number of times the card indicates. For a three of hearts, for example, do your heart exercise (jumping jacks) three times. Keep going until the cards are done.
I did this workout last Wednesday. I have many, many decks of cards from which to choose, because back when I traveled for work I used to buy a deck of cards in every city I visited, and friends and family supplemented the collections with interesting finds. The deck I chose was the above London Underground set, which features historic posters from the Underground. It provided pleasant distraction from the rigors of the workout.
The official start of the challenge is today. It’s on Fleetly, and if you sign up please connect with me there so we can cheer each other on. Sign up here; connect with me here.
Onward!
A world of words
If you enjoy language, deep thinking about humanity, or any kind of provocative thought, I encourage you to watch a new five-part series on BBC 2, Stephen Fry’s Planet Word.
In the BBC’s impenetrable wisdom, it has chosen not to show the series on BBC America yet, nor in the near future. There is, after all, only so much time left after one has scheduled the required doses of Gordon Ramsey’s various series and long-ago episodes of Star Trek: Next Generation.
Fortunately, we Americans can currently find the episodes posted online…. Continue reading “A world of words”
Cause. Effect.
The upper eyelid of my left eye has has been twitching for a few days. I googled to find out why this started suddenly, and whether I need to worry about it. Here’s what I found:
Called myokymia in doctor lingo, these rippling muscle contractions in an eyelid can be triggered by:
- Stress
- Tiredness
- Eye strain
- Caffeine
- Alcohol
- Dry eyes
- Nutritional imbalances
- Allergies
OK, one question answered, and now I have a new one: Given the potential causes, why have my eyelids not twitched every day of my adult life?
Turning grief into art: Electra at the Pittsburgh Public Theater
People bandy about the word “tragedy” too easily. Continue reading “Turning grief into art: Electra at the Pittsburgh Public Theater”
The first time I met my hero
I met Steve Jobs shortly after I was hired by NeXT Computer. Continue reading “The first time I met my hero”