Friday Favorites: Thug Life

Yay for the first week with bookend posts! I've been keeping a mental list throughout the week of all the cool links and pictures I want to include on here today. I'm working hard to be entertaining while keep- SWEET JESUS ON A PONY THERE IS A GIANT HORNET IN MY OFFICE NOOK!!!


Holy shit, sorry guys. There was a giant black hornet in my office nook. I took care of it. Don't worry, I documented it on Twitter, so you know it happened.

Thug Life

OK, now back to our regularly scheduled programming....

Here's stuff that distracted me from writing this week:

-Thug Kitchen (NSFW) 
Vegan cooking never sounded so bad ass. Even if you're not Vegan, this site has some delicious recipes and is hilarious. (My favorite one is his thoughts on Hamburger Helper)

-Bald Solo in NYC
Watch his whirlwind tour of game shops in Manhattan

-WTF Are You Watching?!
My friends Kyle and Lincoln are celebrating their 100th episode of their weekly movie-review podcast! The next episode will go up on Monday September 2nd. Don't miss it!

-These 13 Things to Help You Get Through a Rough Day
BuzzFeed's the best, isn't it?

-Vash & Justin
I know I've featured them on my blog before, but I have to put them on again today because while I wasn't having a fight to the death with a hornet, I was busy making a little cameo on this week's episode. 

 

Memory Lane Monday: Life on Set, and Why I'm a Ninja

I keep saying to myself, "Jess, we need to get back on a more consistent blogging schedule." Myself usually responds with something like, "You know, you're right, we've been lazy as hell lately, let's start writing immedi- ooo look a new video game!"

I can't blame laziness entirely for my falling off the blogging wagon. I had a very busy weekend at work, and then I had to get up before the ass-crack of dawn last Monday to go work on an episode of Boardwalk Empire. It was a great day. I woke up at 3am, took a shower, got dressed, made coffee and left my apartment to go catch the courtesy production bus that would take me to holding and set in Staten Island. I wasn't being sarcastic when I said it was a great day, either. Yes, waking up at 3am is crappy no matter how early you go to bed the night before, but normally a day on set lasts at least 10 hours, and is more likely to be a 14+ hour day. But this day was awesome. I spent almost 3 hours in hair, make-up, and wardrobe, and less than an hour on set before they wrapped us for the day and sent us home. This was an almost unheard of short day. It rocked. And dammit if I didn't look super cute!

3 hours baby! Three. Hours.

On Wednesday I helped out as a production assistant on a low-budget indie web-series called Ghost Light. Boyfriend was the Director of Photography and our friend Neil was directing. I was there to provide general assistance, but I mostly ended up babysitting the slow-as-molasses sound operator. In his defense, he was using professional-grade equipment that was borrowed from another friend of ours, and had never worked on a set before. Nonetheless, dude moved slower than frozen honey in a glass jar, and the stakes were pretty high for this production. They had 5 days to film 8 episodes in this great old theater in NJ called The Barn Theatre. That was it. No do-overs, no option for re-shoots. Nada. So saying that time was of the essence was a bit of an understatement and something Sound Dude clearly missed the memo on. He also had no sense of spacial reasoning, he hit Boyfriend in the head with the boom at least 9 times. He got tangled in his own cables and would stand in frame every time we set up a shot. No observational skills, you guys. None. So, it's a damn good thing that when I'm in the right place at the right time, I'm in the god damn right place at the god damn right time. But I'm getting ahead of myself...lemme esplain:

This was a very low-budget project. We had two lights. Expensive lights. Hot lights. These lights are hooked to telescopic stands so they can be raised and lowered as needed. These stands are fairly light-weight so they are easy to move, but when the lights are on them and they are raised to a height of eight feet, they become slightly top-heavy. You mix this with Sound Dude who has no spacial reasoning, and you get a disaster. Unless you have a P.A like me who turns into a ninja after her third cup of coffee!

I'm totally getting this on a t-shirt, you guys!

Sound Dude cut in the middle of a take because he needed batteries or something, so everyone paused what they were doing, holding their positions so we could be ready to continue as soon as the batteries situation was taken care of. I was standing in front of one of the aforementioned lights  on the edge of the stage, holding the boom cable so that it wasn't a tripping hazard for anyone (i.e Boyfriend, Neil, and Sound Dude.) Sound Dude, apparently oblivious to his proximity to the light stand puts down his equipment and knocks the light stand completely over. There was a collective gasp that rang out in the quiet theater, and like the mysterious bad-ass love-child of Spiderman and a Kunoichi, I reached diagonally back behind my body and caught the stand with my left hand (my non-dominant hand, thank you very much) and with just enough leverage to prevent the light itself from smashing onto the concrete house floor. Did I mention I did all of this while still holding the boom cable with my other hand? The ashen fearful looks on the producer and assistant director's faces quickly melted into relief once I put the light stand upright again, and applause from everyone else on set made me feel like a god damn hero.

In this picture, you can see the light I so badassadly caught. For perspective, the guys in this picture are all 6 feet or taller.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but two nights later at the wrap party, everyone was still talking about how awesome it was that I caught that light.

So, the long and short of last week is: I got to spend lots of time on set and I'm a mother fuckin ninja! 

Friday Favorites

Alright it's not the most original title, but this is going to be a somewhat phoned-in post. You're welcome.
I had another crazy busy and exhausting week and not too much to show for it, but I'll address that all in Monday's post. Right now, I'm bringing you fun stuff to start your Friday off right. Here's a bunch of cool things I scrounged up on the internet this week when I wasn't working:

Source

  
-18 Obsolete Words, Which Never Should Have Gone Out of Style 
How could we ever allow a glorious word like pussyvan to go out of style?!

-Patrick Stewart Wins the Internet
But really, when does he not?

-Stephen Colbert Dance Montage
If this doesn't make you laugh, I'm sad for your soul

-Intelligent, Classy, Well-Educated Women Who Say F*ck A Lot
It's like this page was made just for me, you guys!

-My sentiments exactly:

Via Whovians United

-The Good Men Project
Such a wonderful resource for fathers, brothers, uncles, boyfriends, etc.

And last but certainly not least, the internet went off its collective nut at the announcement that Ben Affleck will be the next Batman. I'll say this: I don't care for him as an actor -I do think he's an amazing director- and I don't think he can carry a superhero movie (Daredevil, anyone?) So, I may or may not see it. But, that all being said...

Via The Nerd Code

Also, I saw #Batfleck getting way more attention on social media than Antoinette Tuff did and that's a shame. Who is Antoinette Tuff, you ask? Oh, she's just an elementary school employee who PREVENTED A MASS SCHOOL SHOOTING, and probably saved hundreds of lives, nbd. Seriously, guys, somebody get this lady a fucking medal!!!  
Antionette Tuff IS the godddamn Batman.  End. Of. Story. 

But, whatever, internet, you do what you want.



One last thing only because this made me guffaw when I saw it:

Thanks Bald Solo!

Memory Lane Monday: Star Wars and Existential Crises

Last Friday, Boyfriend's good friend and former roommate, Bald Solo, made a whirlwind, 24-hour visit to NYC for a job interview. I was at work all day, so I couldn't join the boys on their fun-filled nerdy boy day in the city, but Bald Solo did bring with him the Star Wars: The Edge of the Empire tabletop RPG! So, Friday night our usual Pathfinder group got together and we had a blast playing through most of the first part of the adventure. I've heard all of Boyfriend's stories about his adventures with Bald Solo when they were roommates together in Brooklyn, so meeting him for the first time was semi-surreal. I'd heard stories about him for 6 years, I felt like I already knew him. But even Boyfriend's stories couldn't capture the magical personality or the epic fanboy-ness of Bald Solo. Seriously, you guys. Biggest. Star. Wars. Fan. Ever. 

In our game, I played the "hired gun" character, a Wookiee named Lowhhrick. Since I usually play magic-users and healers in my tabletop RPGs, it was fun to get to play a barbarian/brutish character this time around and be the one who charges blindly into battle, and then kicks ass and takes names doing so. Edge of the Empire was a lot of fun, and since it has pre-built characters and it's own dice-rolling system (dice included) it's a great game for absolute beginners, but it's engaging enough for intermediate and seasoned players alike. 

We had a grand old time, and when we called it a night at 2am, we were exhausted, but I left wanting to play more. Playing with Bald Solo as our GM was a blast. Observing his enthusiasm throughout the evening brought me back to my tween years, when I first became obsessed with Star Wars. I was that obnoxious kid in middle school who brought everything back around to Star Wars. I corrected factual /cannon errors in Star Wars trivia games, I was willing to argue to the death about anything involving Star Wars, I even made a Star Wars themed PowerPoint presentation in my computer science class. Yes, I was that kid. But, so were all of us sitting around the table Friday night. I felt a wave of calm.  But then, of course it all changed when my crazy brain decided it wasn't providing enough crazy in my life.

After the game, we all said our farewells and see-ya-laters, but watching Boyfriend and Bald Solo say goodbye almost made me tear up. They were such good buddies and two wonderful, giving, sweet, kind-hearted men who obviously missed each other. The idea  that Bald Solo might be relocating to the East Coast very soon while we are relocating to the West Coast even sooner almost broke my heart. Thus began my existential crisis for the week. 

The reality of moving suddenly became real this week. It's as if it just dawned on me what we would be leaving: everything I've known for the last 6.5 years, great friends, a routine, and a semi-comfortable life. Our life is not the greatest at the moment -few job/money prospects, an asshole landlord, a shit hole apartment, crazy neighbors, a city that's chewed me up and spit me out a few times- but it's a life I know. Los Angeles is a whole new unknown. The phrase that keeps running through my head this week is "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't."

But then it all goes back to Star Wars. Luke Skywalker leaves a place he always complained about, but underneath really loved as his home. He leaves because there's nothing left for him in that place. He goes on an epic journey, an adventure, and eventually finds his destiny, his place in the universe. Maybe this is just my afternoon beer talking, but I'm trying to stay calm and be hopeful that our epic journey across the country (we're driving...did I mention that?) however scary it may be, will lead to something bigger and better.

OMG 11 weeks until we move!!!  Now I'm going to go cry anxiously while I start Phase 1 of Operation: Pack All The Things.  


 

Re-purposed from Hyperbole and a Half

A really great overview of the game we played can be found here.

Find Bald Solo elsewhere on the interwebs:

Twitter
Facebook
YouTube

Memory Lane Monday: Sorry I Disappeared

It's Monday and I am looking at my draft folder and realizing how behind I have fallen on my blog upkeep. I have very little excuse, really. I've been super busy, but also easily distracted as of late, thus the giant folder full of half-written, half-started, half-titled, and half-assed blog posts that may or may not ever see the light of day. But I'm here now, writing (and finishing*) a post.

So what have I been doing these last weeks? Well, I closed my much-praised show, I started a newish job promoting Statue of Liberty boat rides (it's as thrilling as it sounds,) I worked on an episode of Boardwalk Empire, Leeloo started doggy manners classes, and I finally started playing Bioshock Infinite. So, most of the reason I have been/will be scarce is because of gaming. I'm determined to finish BI before someone spoils the ending for me. Boyfriend keeps unintentionally hinting at things while I'm playing, since he finished it while I was at work last weekend. Miraculously, I have not heard or seen any spoilers up to this point. 

Let it be known: if you spoil the ending of Bioshock Infinite for me -so help me- I will hunt you down and string you up like a marionette and force you to dance barefoot upon a pile of Legos for the rest of your days or until the authorities carry me away to the loony bin.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need me some more vigors!



*Irony alert: as soon as I had typed half of this post, I realized I had to be somewhere and left this post sitting open, unfinished, and unpublished on my computer...for 3 days. 
~sigh~