I had a bar of dark chocolate today...

... during a meeting and was buzzing so hard by the time the meeting was done. Within an hour of getting home I totally crashed. It was a if I had drunk 20 cups of coffee. Note to self... don't ever try finishing a whole bar again.

The rest of the day was spent dealing with bills, etc. Made a bunch of calls this evening to some of the 1980 cast of Frogway. Mike and I are arranging a meet up of as many of the original cast for opening night next week. It was fun to chat and play catch-up. They all want to know if I am returning. It's nice to know that they want me to but I had to tell them that I couldn't.

There has been more news articles about the show in the local press back home. If you go over to the Frog Blog (I knew I was going to be the lone voice in the swamp on that) Just click in the sidebar for those. Also looked on Google Earth for where the show is playing and found that it's pretty close to where I used to live.

The white "x" on the bottom of the pic is where I used to live (at least as near as I can guess) and the Bangsar Shopping Centre at the top is where the Actor's Studio is located. Dang, there is a lot of development that has occurred around those parts.

I'm thinking HNT is when I'll make the big announcment of my move to the new digs. That is of course if it is ready to be moved into. BTW... I'm thinking of a "sarong" themed HNT in a couple of weeks... anyome with me on that?

Help Zonthar choose a Mid-Life Crisis

It's his birthday today. Go Over to wish him and choose a crisis... or pitch your own.

i needed that

the tummy is a little...

... queasy this morning. I'm trying to decide if it was the scotch or the chicken quesedillas consumed last evening... or a combination of the two. Plus there is the cheese factor to consider since I am lactose intolerant. Yeah, thats a bitch since I love cheese. Oh well. Queasy is better than being doubled over in pain.

The evening was a pleasant one. Great company and fun conversation. It has been a while since I got out... just cuz. Though it was a little celebration for completing the rewrite. But just getting out for a bit was a very nice change for me. The weekend will be filled with web work and video editing... that actually will be fun and creative. So no complaints here... plus they are also money gigs.

Speaking of plays... to counter the mounting bills I have decided to sell ownership to some of my plays. Meaning that if you decide to own one of them, the copyright of said play will be transfered to you. You can then market them to other theatre companies for production and earn royalties from them. I will even facilitate a place for you to market the play. If you are interested send an email to me at lecram@daplaysdathing.com and I will furnish you with more details.

Have a grand weekend!

Oh, and here are a few Time Wasters to start it off.

• Need a custom coffin?
• Cake Art
• The Singles Map
  

I guess it's official now.

A neighbor alerted me to it this morning. Apparently the story was published in the Fresno Bee on the 7th. So much for paying attention to the news. READ STORY HERE.
.
EDIT: TIME WASTERS

• Click here to put your face on money.
• Graffiti from the Ukraine.
  

Goodbye Hello

It's a late post, I know. But perhaps this will be up for tomorrow as well. We'll see how I feel and what I do. If I feel prolific... there will be a new post tomorrow.

I got back earlier from dropping my friend, Kien at the railway station. He should be arriving in San Francisco pretty soon. He'll spend a night there then flies off back to London.

This has been his fifth visit here - the last 4 to perform at the Rogue Festival... and he's planning to return again next year. (If you haven't yet... here is an article The Fresno Bee wrote on Kien this year.) It was great having him here... I will look forward to his return. He has been my touchstone and continuum to my past and early youth in Malaysia... in the present. Something that was really missing in my life for 20 odd years. There is a certain comfort in that. Helps make me feel less "alien" than I sometimes do.

Don't get me wrong. I have carved out a good life out here and I have wonderful friends who accept me for who I am... mostly... lol. But there are times when I am more aware of being the expat that I am. So, having a touchstone like Kien (whom I grew up with) feeds the need for that "special" comfort of home that I crave sometimes. Sort of like having that 'special dish that grandma" used to cook in her own unique way brings that sense of home to us.

Anyway, I get home and realize that I've left Skype on from chatting with a friend earlier in the day. There is a message from another friend from home... Mike, who has tracked me down via the internet. It reads...

"...need to get in touch with you fairly quickly. Someone wants to stage Frogway in KL, credible people. My email..."

Mike? Frogway? Talk about a blast from the past! Mike and I wrote Frogway together in 1980. We wrote as the "M&M Song Factory". It was staged in 1981 in Malaysia and then in 1984 here in Fresno to sold out audiences. It was the first play I had written... and it was a musical about a singing frog. Think of it as an amphibious "Star is Born".

So, I ring Mike via Skype and we chat for about an hour. Catching up and talking shop about Frogway. Laughing about the fact that our names are unique enough that Google search brings us up instantly.

Now Mike is one of the premiere jazz pianist in Malaysia... dare I say internationally. (Really, this cat is quite the phenom.) You can get a bit of a sense of the awe he inspires by reading THIS. It was a wonderful conversation and looks like we will be working together again after a 27 year break. It's something I'm really looking forward to. We also casually floated ideas about some other projects... plus, he may come perform in the Rogue next year. This could mean the return of the "M&M Song Factory". (Perhaps I need to brush up on my lyric writing.) It was great to reconnect again and it felt like it was just yesterday that we last spoke.

So, I said goodbye to one friend today (more of a "see ya soon") and hello to another. Both (in fact, Mike and Kien used to play together in several bands) returning from a different life I lived in the past to further enrich my present.

EDIT: 5:27 PM
Gotta go anytime... anywhere... this is what you need!

Yep, thar she blows!

The sewer backed up at the house today. Well not actually the house but the toilet in my back office... but that is the last stop before entering the main line. So, any drainage from the house was coming out my toilet. Not a pretty thing.

So, I call the roto-rooter folks who say that a "technician" would be over within an hour... which he was. Cool. He asked where the "vent" was and I said that it was probably in my neighbor's garden. I explained to him that an old back alley road use to run between the the properties and at some time the residents (way back when) were offered the option of extending their lots, etc... and that whoever lived here bought half the alley. However, this I happen to know left our water shut-off in my neighbor's yard and probably the sewer vent as well.

He dismissed this stating there was no such thing. Almost insisted the vent was under my shed... and for an extra $250 they could run a video camera down my toilet to locate the exact location of my vent. What do I know about crap... I said OK... but if I found it before the "crappy video crew" got here... we save $250. Poor Kien and I ripped and dug under the shed for about an hour and a half. Finally, the logic of the vent actually being in the neighbor's yard started to become more apparent to both of us.

I decided to call a different service... explained the situation and they seemed open to my notion that the vent could actually be in my neighbor's yard. I called roto-rooter back and canceled my original work order. The new local guy comes by and presto... yes, the sewer vent IS actually in the neighbor's yard.

Clog unplugged... I save a bunch of money and roto-rooter loses business due to the absolute thinking of one of it's employees. I've always maintained that any kind of "absolute thinking" will always do you in.

Later, as Kien and I were driving to pick up a pizza I shared that an incident like this in times past would have just pissed me off to no end and just ruined my day. The difference now is that "the job just needs to get done." He agreed that he too felt the same way... both of us smiled at the common life change in attitude. (We also compared receding hairlines.) We got our pizza, got home and shared some time together stuffing our faces in the afternoon sun.

So, that's what sucked more than half my day. Special props to Kien who had to put up with crap on his first full day here! BTW... if you are a local... he is gigging at Tokyo Gardens tomorrow (Saturday) night. Worth catching his show... really.

Yeah, we've been talking about touring...

... the show in the Summer of 2008. It's too late to apply for any of the fringe festivals this year. (We missed applications to the SF Fringe by about a week.) Still, a year and a half will give us time to fund raise for it. At the moment, Toronto and San Francisco are on the talking board between the cast, crew and I. (excerpt from the post on the TJ site today.)

Not entirely sure what is on the menu today. I'm sure I'll be able to rustle up something... so, no pictures of food for today.

My friend Kien arrives tomorrow. This gives me a day to get his room ready. His annual visits to perform at the Rogue are always fun... like having family around. Though if we were brothers by birth it would be debatable as to which one of us would claim the title of prodigal son. LOL! We spent our youth together... lost touch for 20 years and reconnected 6 years ago to resume as if those years were just yesterday. Of course, both of us had changed on our different life paths... (and perhaps even grown a little) but essentially the essence of who we were remained. I love the fact that he has carved his own niche here just from his annual visits. (Yeah, the man has groupies.)

Now to hit the graphics trail again. It's really taking longer this year that usual due to deadlines missed... but I am resolute to do the best job possible on it as I can.

So, for now... enjoy the hump of the week.

Cheers!