Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Sean's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
5:18 pm	Writer's Block: Doh! It's the twentieth anniversary of the first Simpsons episode today. Who is your favorite Simpsons character—Ralph? Sideshow Bob? Ned Flanders? An actual Simpson? View 500 Answers I'm gonna be a jerk here. It's the 19th anniversary. And in that spirit of being a jerk, Mr. Burns. (Comment on this)
Friday, March 28th, 2008
12:00 pm	Oh, to be a pop fly on the wall The team will host an exhibition game Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles before opening the season with a nationally televised game Sunday night against the Atlanta Braves -- one in which Bush is scheduled to both throw out the first pitch and appear in the ESPN broadcast booth. "I remember playing with Pete Rose on that '76 team, he told me, 'Curveball, fastball, all it is is baseball, and that's what you need to win.'" "Slider down and away." "You know Joe, it's, it's a crime that Pete Rose idn't in the Hall of Fame. He knew what he was doing, and the punishment, you know, the punishment..." "Fit?" "Fit, and he's served his time. He served his time and did his shame and now it should be time for him to get that Hall of Fame ticket." "The pitch, swung on and looped up over second, a base hit for Lo Duca puts a man on with one out in the third." "Speaking of Pete, I remember late 1983 I knew we were going different ways from the Phillies, and I told him, 'I'm gonna know when you get to 4,000 hits, and I'm gonna be there when you get past Cobb. And I went to Oakland and he went to Montreal..." "Ball high to Ryan Church, and the count is 1-0." "He got his 4,000th hit!" "Absolutely did, Mr. President!" "Hahahahaha..." "Heh heh heh heh heh heh..." "Heh, yes, there's a strike..." "Heh...I remember that game too. You know, you never forget a number like 4,000." "........." "........." "........." "........." "........." "So, Laura played softball in high school, is that right?" (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
1:20 am	tick tock Leave: 9:30 AM Arrive: 10:30 AM Food: 7 PM Leave: 7:30 PM Arrive: 8:45 PM Leave: 9:45 PM Return: 1:15 AM How the hell can somebody say with a straight face they enjoy 60 hour work weeks? I couldn't even handle it for like one day. Of course, I can't tolerate a 35 hour work week, so maybe there should be some give and take here. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, February 1st, 2008
11:40 pm	I can't wait for (some future time) Once a long time ago there was a boy with a button and he pressed the button and made it spit words and then sentences and the boy loved the sentences so he played the buttons more and good for you it was a fun wasn't it? The words are here. I've written five columns in five days; my word count for all of them combined is about 3,700 words. Yeesh. It'll be nice to take a day off tomorrow and just relax. Well, sort of; I'm off to a casting call for a Matthew McConaughey (sp?)/Jen Garner film. Apparently at some other call the director had my headshot and resume, so....? Maybe I'm already in; who So, terrible story on the job hunt. There is a syndicated radio station called BusRadio that was looking for an intern to develop content. That sounded great to me, this website be damned. (I get their concerns, but I did the leg work and determined the company does good work.) Anyway, I sent out a cover letter and resume and got a call back pretty quickly, maybe an hour later. So, I headed to the station in Needham a week later and interviewed; only took about 15 minutes. I turned on the charm; I provided sharp, insightful answers; I was good, one of the best interviews I've ever given. You can tell where this is going. Here's the thing. After I got the e-mail from them a few days later, I found out I left my day planner at the station, and had to go back and pick it up. That was a bucket of fun thrown in the well of joys. Tonight's ImprovJones show had our best audience in a long time; my guess is that (counting the other group) we were performing for about 30 people. That was great. The audience was still somewhat unresponsive in terms of actually producing suggestions, instead greeting our inquiries with awed, respectful silence. We pressed on. The show was pretty good, which is to say I was only irritated about how two things turned out at the end. Oh, the perfectionist! Unexpected Turbulence opened for us and were very good if sometimes a tad bizarre. There was a scene with Gollum or some such that made me stare blankly, but everyone knows how I feel about general nerdery (for it on principle that I am a nerd, but it can be overdone). Regardless, UT did stuff that we as a group cannot seemingly hope to do, which is demonstrate a wonderful multitude of characters in such a little time. It is absolutely a hallmark of people that have been trained (specifically I would say by IB) to do improv. This is not to knock our own collective training; rather, it just shows that our relative paucity of characters is offset by our group's verbal gifts. On that front, I got stuck doing the voiceover for "Slideshow" tonight. That's a game where we get a subject and I pontificate on it while the other performers make funny poses. I explain how the pictures, or "slides", relate to the task at hand. I'm the one that does this generally for one reason: I am really, really good at it. But I get a little tired of it, and would like to try other stuff. The two things I most want to try are switching up my characters (not voices, characters) from scene to scene and absolutely, totally fucking with the formats. I did it a little tonight, referring to a period of time as "since this scene began" and calling out Steve when he was thinking of something to say. I know that in bad hands this can become crutch improv, the hallmark for people that aren't good. That's not my aim. It's just more an acknowledgment that once you know the rules, you needn't be tied down by them. Someone after the show asked me if I did standup. I said no, but I will be trying it soon. I really meant it. Current Mood: Moodful (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 27th, 2008
2:21 am	I like soccer, bear with me here So technically tonight, i.e. in terms of cohesion and plot forwarding, we had one of our best shows ever at IB tonight. However, I'm still not sure whether or not the show was actually good. I wasn't sure whether our story (cold corporate douche exec. leaves wife behind to go to Denver, leaves nervous assistant in charge of office) was terribly interesting or even whether anything we did was all that funny. Overall I have quite a positive view of the show, I'm just not sure if it was something very fun for an audience to watch. I will say that Joe and I did maybe the greatest cross ever, a joke about Siamese twins that was executed so wonderfully in vocal and lockstep that I nearly wept offstage. I could not, could not be more proud of that simple joke. The show the night before was good too. It's clear to me that the two new female members of the group need to join fast so we can at least get a new perspective and dynamic on characters, if anything. I'd like the group to be a little more women friendly, myself included. It's not that we're not, it's more like this. In the 1970s the Dutch national football team revolutionized the game with a simple offensive philosophy known as "Total Football". In Total Football the team eschewed the traditional 4-3-3 (four defenders, three midfielders, three forwards) or 2-5-2-1 or 3-4-3, all of them. They played a format where there were no set defenders, no set attackers, no set midbacks. Each player needed to have an all-around skill set that best suited the situation at hand. It also helped that they had Johann Cruyff, maybe the greatest player of his generation. The Dutch finished runner up in 1974 after a tough, tough match with West Germany (the great Franz Beckenbauer marked Cruyff the whole game) where Holland scored before the Germans touched the ball but ultimately fell short. They also lost in 1978's final after Cruyff refused to travel in protest of the Argentine military junta. Doesn't matter. The point is that that Dutch soccer squad could do everything. That's what we need from this improv group for it to be a viable artistic project and a damn funny show. We need Total Football. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008
1:52 am	No joke Was going to write in the living room right now, but this reminds of what that guy did to prepare for the role of that villain in that superhero movie coming out. You know, that guy that did the other film with the guy, well he stayed by himself and didn't get a lot of sleep and wrote in character in a journal and now he's dead because he took some pills that didn't go well with the pulleys and levers and everyone's sad because he was good at what he did. So I'm gonna go to bed now and I'm gonna put on a sweater when I wake up so I don't catch pneumonia and don't have to take any medication because when you take pills you know they are a bunch of tiny little poisons balanced perfectly together and everyone thinks pills are invincible but that's all they are, a bunch of tiny little poisons put together. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
1:24 am	Long night, long trips ( I am awake at one in the morning because sleeping is inconvenient. ) (Comment on this)
Sunday, January 20th, 2008
1:20 am	Tinier selections from already small lists Songs making me melancholy in a good way, band letter B: "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" (Beach Boys), "Ask For Janice" (Beastie Boys), "Dear Prudence" (Beatles) Order of difficulty, easiest to difficultest, US Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test: 50 crunches in 2:00, 0:15 flexed arm hang, 3 full-strength dead position pull-ups, 3 miles in 28:00 Awful ways to drown: in mass wave of blood and bile from encroaching human stampede, forced face-first into small pile of water by agitated camp counselor, in bottom of friend's swimming pool counting for hide and seek at 8th birthday party Fun places to go with your aunt: arcade, park near aunt's house with kids from other town, library Weekend Football Gambling Smorgasboard: NEW ENGLAND (-14) over San Diego, New York Giants (+7) cover against GREEN BAY Sexual positions where my mind sometimes wanders to thoughts of free trade or NBC's post-strike lineup: missionary, spooning, oral (giving), after Ways in which I am prejudiced: tense walking at night when black youths come by, mistakenly assume ethnic faces are often not from this country, converse with people of other backgrounds as if I know and understand their problems Best uses of poultry: rubber chicken, chicken nachos, Chicken Run Effective uses of propaganda (demagogues of 20th century division): Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Kim il Sung, Mao Zedong ("Little Red Book") Most often found in "Down" crossword clues: stent, thou, airy, jamesgandolfini Pathetic desserts to bring to potluck: Supermarket cookie platter, tubs of ice cream, anything made with more than one fruit Shark related fears: one day the blood will stop showing up the water, fin will take over rest of body, dolphins developing jagged and harsh teeth, humans trap us in elaborate cage trick switcheroo Sexual positions where my mind is sharply attuned to everything: whatever position I am in when there is a knock on the door How wretched your offspring is at sports, ranked descending by little league position: pitcher, shortstop, first base, catcher, third base, second base, centerfield, left field, right field, pinch runner, base coach, official scorer Two sketches of little to no dialogue that crack me up: "Fish Slapping Dance" (Monty Python), Hard Day's Night parody (Mr. Show) Shitty uses of propaganda (demagogues of 20th century division): Nicole Ceaucescu, Leonid Brezhnev, Jimmy Carter, Mao Zedong (Teenagers gallivanting through countryside whomping bejesus out of peasants with "Little Red Book") Irrepressibly winsome Saturday afternoon flicks: School of Rock, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Clue, A Christmas Story, A New Hope Nicknames I will give my as-yet unborn male child which he will grow to despise: Scrawny Sam, Angelcakes, My Sweet Prince Television shows needed more on Nick at Nite: Cheers, St. Elsewhere, Hill Street Blues, Northern Exposure Most common misspellings of Mitt Romney (ascending according to Google): Mittt Romney, Mitt Ronney, Mitt Ronmey, Mitt Rommey, Mit Romney, John McCain People I'd most like to be were I wanting to be just a little bit of a dick, by decade: 1940s Douglas McArthur, 1950s Ingmar Bergman, 1960s Bob Dylan, 1970s Jack Nicholson, 1980s Michael Milken, 1990s David Spade, 2000s Jack White Integers: -14, 9, 85, -132, 16, 27, 23458, -1349, 12 Unfun places to go with your aunt: Filene's Basement, high school prom, uncle's wake Stupid Ways To End Surveys And Their Responses: Time I've Spent On This Survey (Too much!), Things I Could Do Instead Of This Dumb Survey (Soooooo much, lol), People To Pass This Survey On To (Pshh. Whatevs.), Surveys I'm Gonna Do Before Doing AP Work (All of them) Three selected songs with growly sounds I like to mock: "What A Wonderful World", "Woke Up This Morning", "Exodus" (Comment on this)
Monday, January 14th, 2008
8:46 pm	Wipe That Smile Hey, I didn't write about football tonight! And this below is pretty long and not entirely edited, but it's not a shitty mess either. ( But a long piece of fiction! ) (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 12th, 2008
1:13 pm	Expanding the rhymes of sucker MC amateurs A large metal beam fell on my head last night after the show and my head bled for quite some time. I didn't have that great a show but I didn't think I deserved that. I've been in a bit of a funk recently and it's related to finding a job...hopefully I'll have a good one by the end of the week. Here are my picks. Saturday, Jan 12 GREEN BAY (-7 1/2) over Seattle NEW ENGLAND (-13 1/2) over Jacksonville Sunday, Jan 13 New York Giants (+7 1/2) defeat Dallas INDY (-9) over San Diego Last week and playoff totals: SS 4-0 straight, 3-1 ATS JS 2-2 straight, 2-2 ATS, and the two he picked correctly on the spread he didn't straight up. Weird. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 5th, 2008
2:41 pm	This weekend's picks, how I hate them Serpico still conspicuously absent; guess it's too hard to go to Yahoo. Saturday, Jan 5 Jacksonville (-2 1/2) over PITTSBURGH SEATTLE (-3 1/2) over Washington Sunday, Jan 6 SAN DIEGO (-10) over Tennessee NY GIANTS (+3) over Tampa Bay (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
1:28 am	Being optimistic here, I've got sixty more years left. Everything that means so much doesn't mean *as much* when I consider that fact. It makes decisions so much easier; I hate it when people try to cram as much life as possible into every day. It's nice to take a step back and relax. The bus will still run tomorrow, the ice will still need to be scraped, I'll get out of bed and have breakfast. No need to rush it. Look at Conan O'Brien's red beard. He knows the score. I probably shouldn't have written this the night before I fly. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, December 31st, 2007
3:22 pm	Football pick summary interrupted by jarring political statement I wasn't around during the Vietnam era. I didn't partake in its battles, I didn't live with its divisiveness, I didn't hear the opening volleys of the culture wars. I'm tired of listening to people run for office today on the campaigns of the 60s. That's part of the reason why I'll be voting for Barack Obama in February. With that said, let's wrap up the regular season picks. Week 17: JS 8-8 ATS, 10-6 straight up. SS 11-5 ATS, 12-4 straight up. Season: JS 143-81 straight up (.638), 120-104 ATS (.536) SS 162-94 straight up (.633), 136-120 ATS (.531) All told, the statistical equivalent of one game on either side for both of us. I think this means playoff picks are necessary. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 30th, 2007
2:45 am	You must expl-hey-hey-ain why this must be Tonight I spent the evening with my best friends in the whole wide world. Tomorrow, I'll do the same. I wish you all the happiness that this brought me :) Seattle (+2½) over ATLANTA CLEVELAND (-9½) over San Francisco CHICAGO (+2½) over New Orleans Cincinnati (-2½) over MIAMI PHILADELPHIA (-7½) over Buffalo Carolina (-2½) over TAMPA BAY GREEN BAY (-3½) over Detroit Jacksonville (+6½) covers against HOUSTON Pittsburgh (-5½) over BALTIMORE WASHINGTON (-8½) over Dallas ARIZONA (-6½) over St. Louis Minnesota (-2½) over DENVER San Diego (-6½) over OAKLAND Kansas City (+5½) covers against NEW YORK JETS INDIANAPOLIS (+6½) over Tennessee Last Week: SS 9-7 ATS (8-8 straight) JS 1-0 ATS (1-0 straight) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
11:57 pm	Some numbers if you please Mr. Serpico has been dodgy on the picks recently, hence the differing numbers. First 8 weeks: JS 74-42 straight, 68-48 ATS; SS 74-42 straight, 58-58 ATS Second 8 weeks: JS 59-33 straight, 44-48 ATS; SS 76-48 straight, 67-57 ATS Total entering final week of regular season: JS 133-75 straight (.639), 112-96 ATS (.538) SS 150-90 straight (.625), 125-115 ATS (.521) It appears Mr. Serpico has chosen to sit on the ball after building up a first half lead ATS lead. However, both the straight up title and the spread title are still up for grabs entering the final sixteen games. To tie I will have to beat Mr. Serpico by about three picks straight up or about four picks ATS. This will be a challenge. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
1:13 am	Night Divine The day was merry and bright, despite the Christmas not being white. The bells are tolling for my great uncle though. He's 88 and breathes it. Uncertainty persists there. Have to pray for his health. Selfish move to put the Christ back in Christmas. The Christmas Eve Mass missed Mike Cherella. That guy's singing is like a magic trick; man presented as normal, man does something incredible, blink and while agape mouth a "wow" to everyone around you. God bless. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 23rd, 2007
10:48 am	Merry Christmas, my cough is productive Sunday, Dec 23, 2007 DETROIT -4½ Kansas City: Lions win/cover INDIANAPOLIS -7½ Houston: Texans straight up JACKSONVILLE -12½ Oakland: Jags win/cover Green Bay -7½ CHICAGO: Pack win/cover New York Giants -3½ BUFFALO: Bills straight up NEW ORLEANS -3½ Philadelphia: Saints win/cover Cleveland -3½ CINCINNATI: Browns win/cover ARIZONA -10½ Atlanta: Cards absolutely win/cover Tampa Bay -7½ SAN FRANCISCO: Bucs win/don't cover NEW ENGLAND -21½ Miami: Pats win/cover SEATTLE -10½ Baltimore: Seahawks win/cover TENNESSEE -8½ New York Jets: Titans win/don't cover MINNESOTA -7½ Washington: Vikings win/don't cover Monday, Dec 24, 2007 SAN DIEGO -9½ Denver: Bolts win/cover (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
11:18 am	Time for a headache. Covers in bold, winners in italics, both in both (1:00) Jets @ Patriots (-24.5) (1:00) Jaguars @ Steelers (-4.5) (1:00) Seahawks (-7.5) @ Panthers (1:00) Ravens (-4.5) @ Dolphins (1:00) Packers (-10.5) @ Rams (1:00) Cardinals @ Saints (-3.5) (1:00) Titans (-3.5) @ Chiefs (1:00) Bills @ Browns (-5.5) (1:00) Falcons @ Buccaneers (-10.5) (4:05) Colts (-10.5) @ Raiders (4:15) Eagles @ Cowboys (-10.5) (4:15) Lions @ Chargers (-11.5) (8:15) Redskins @ Giants (-4.5) (8:30 M) Bears @ Vikings (-9.5) (Comment on this)
2:02 am	what you are doing, awake and not out Snow can be very pleasant, soothing white flakes and gentle, soft powder. Unfortunately, this can also be an impediment to social functions. It's a bit disappointing to know that tomorrow's matinée and concluding performance of A Christmas Carol will likely go off in majestic obscurity. The cast worked very hard on the production and it's drats a tats that the shows will be on a weekend where winter wonder was wretched. I swear to god I didn't mean to put six 'w' words in a row. Moving on, I'm proud of myself for cleaning today. I vacuumed, swept up a little of my room, cleaned the oven, the counters, did the dishes, and took out the recycling while also tidying up the bathrooms a bit. There's a tiny, tiny Christmas party tomorrow at the apartment and in the absence of people here I wanted to make this place look good for the guests. I went to a shindig tonight and had a good time at the CC cast party and a decent time at Michelle and Kay's impromptu party. I have to stop writing now because I am watching an ESPN interview with Michael Jordan and he suddenly looks old. I think my pubes just started to gray even catching a glimpse of this. Sad day, sad day. But before I leave, here are four people that I'd like to perform a show with: Mel Hardy, Ethan Rosenberg, Natalie Baseman, and Lib Tietjen. That's a dynamite show right there. Maybe I'll try to make that happen. Current Mood: using the mood thingy-ish (Comment on this)
Friday, December 14th, 2007
11:55 am	LIS, LIS, LIS Yesterday the clouds darkened around 2 PM and the gray skies somehow grayed a touch more. The first grand snowfall of the year arrived and blanketed the area. Basically for about six hours it rained snow on Boston and the surrounding area. I was supposed to have rehearsal for A Christmas Carol at 7 (final dress, run through at 8), so I put on the gear. Basically "the gear" was low-level, just gloves and my green heavy coat. My roommate Chris and I went outside around 6 to dig out the car and ready the ride to the Chevalier Theater for rehearsal. However, both of us had our phones ring around that time with messages that there would be no rehearsal. I was a little irritated because the previous night's message was basically "we've worked too hard to cancel rehearsal for snow" instead of "okay, if it's really snowing, here's what we're gonna do." So when I found out Chris's girlfriend Lauren was stranded at Harvard, I jumped at the chance to not take off my snow clothes. We set off outside and it was worse than I imagined. The snowstorm was very fierce, but the snow itself was very light, making for a big mess of powder difficult to scoop with a snow shovel and not hard enough to impede driving. The result was a lot of spinning wheels. As we were digging out Chris's car, I decided to make a snow angel. I kind of stomped in the middle of mine when I got out...I guess it had been a while and I forgot the cardinal rule "When you finish making your snow angel, get the hell out of the way of the angel." Oh well; there will be other times. Also he and I, after digging out his car, decided to clean the snow off of one other car in our parking lot, as a gift. As he shoveled underneath and I brushed off the four windows and windshields, we noticed cars frantically trying to get off the roads. At 7 PM a snow emergency was to go into effect in Cambridge and as such cars could not be on the road. Chris and I spent the next forty minutes or so trying to guide cars up the little hill that leads into our parking lot, whether by shouting out directions, pushing the rear bumpers of frightened Toyota Corollas, or standing quietly as a woman tried to drive up a hill, failed, and then reversed straight into a snow bank. Without a hat, the snow caked my head and icicles formed in my hair and beard. I felt about 2% more manly when I noticed this, not gonna lie. But eventually they dissipated when I came back inside. Later, Sean, Steph, and Chris went outside to enjoy the snow, but an hour in the cold was good enough for me. My fingertips had purpled and my pant cuffs were soaked from running around and slip-siding in the cold powder. I excused myself, worked a little bit on preparing for tonight's A Christmas Carol (plenty of good seats still available at the door!), wrote a little bit about the Mitchell Report, and then watched the finale of Deadwood, a beautifully shot show. I have a bunch of Christmas shopping left to do; mayhaps I'll get off my ass and do it tomorrow. I think that would make a good day. Additionally I'm watching a trailer (I'd put up the link but it'll be gone within the hour) for "The Dark Knight" and getting a little psyched for it. Ta for now! (3 Comments |Comment on this)