Wednesday May 14, 2008

Biking to work & biking to save lives

This is a big week for bicycling and me, with Bike to Work Day coming up tomorrow (May 15) and my 65 mile ride for the American Lung Association on Saturday (May 17). I'm excited about Bike to Work Day, as I think this will be the first time I can actually ride in. It's always funny - I ride in all the time, but something like a doctors appointment will come up and I'll miss this one day. Well, I already rescheduled my dentist appointment so I can make it this year!  I expect to see the trails pretty packed, even though my route doesn't take me along any of the "power stations", because tomorrow is also a Spare The Air Day and my last day to train for the ALA ride on Saturday.

Unfortunately, my show schedule and cold I got after we opened kept me from biking for essentially all of April - so, training didn't start until April 30.  I've done this ride a few years in a row, now, so I know I can do it - I just know that my lack of training will result in being VERY tired and sore, but I will do it.  I do this ride for my mother, a lung cancer survivor and asthma sufferer and for all of the family friends and family members we have lost to lung disease. If you can support me, I'd appreciate it. If not, please do something friendly for the environment on Saturday to help support clean air - like combine any trips by car, or see if you can walk or ride a bicycle to do your errands, or just make sure your car is passing its smog requirements.  There's a lot of us in the Bay Area - small things we do can add up.

Thursday May 08, 2008

Last Chance: Valerie in Best Little W****house in Texas! Hi everyone!

We're down to our last three performances for Best Little W****house in Texas with Actor's Theatre Center in th Historic Hoover Theater in San Jose. Reviews have been great, but audiences have been small. Thank you so much for all of you who have already come out to support us! Tonight, tomorrow & Saturday night (all 8PM curtain)

This is the toughest acting role I've ever had - my character, Shy, is not your typical happy-go-lucky musical role, but a woman with a shattered past that was so tragic and difficult that life as a "working girl" was seen as a big step up. This show is so much more dynamic that most other ones I've seen - there are sad and touching moments, right along with amazingly hilarious ones and upbeat dance numbers!

This is based on a true story, right down to the wig-wearing, over the top, "consumer activist" television star - that will have you rolling in the aisles.

I am so proud to be working with everyone of the actors on this stage - everyone is top notch (many of whom you've seen before with me or in shows we've gone to see together).

The Palo Alto Daily quite liked us:
http://www.paloaltodailynews.com/article/2008-5-2-brothel-musical
(actresses are mislabeled - I haven't gone blond! :-)

Folks on Artsopolis enjoyed it, too:
http://www.artsopolis.com/event/detail/29869

Theater info:
http://theatrecenter.biz/id126.html

You can buy tickets online or at the door.

C'mon down! A good time to be had by all!

(2008-05-08 15:36:36.0) Permalink Comments [0]

Wednesday May 07, 2008

Professional Business Women of California Conference

I was so fortunate last week to get to attend the Professional Business Women of California's conference in San Francisco. This was my first time attending the event, and I was overwhelmed with everything that went on.  Every speaker was top notch, even at the sessions, and the booths in the expo were filled with many interesting things - some career oriented, others more personal - like jewelry or health care.  My only complaint is that with 6000 women in the Moscone Center, the 30 minute breaks were not really long enough.

The opening keynote from Martha Beck was surprisingly inspirational, as I don't normally find myself going for "feel good mumbo jumbo" - but I guess that's why her talk worked for me, she had substance behind her stories.  Dr. Beck was talking about her own life and how she learned to "follow her joy" to find a career that both inspired her and that she was successful in.  She noted that many people come to her, in her role as a life coach, and tell her they just don't know what to do with themselves.  She found that they actually do know, but either think they can't do what they love or don't know how to get started.  This gave me a moment to reflect in the joy I find in the work I do. True, there are days that aren't so "joyful", but having a rewarding job that I generally enjoy makes me a very lucky person, I think!

David Garibaldi, "Rhythm & Hue", was an amazing performance artist who made 6 foot portraits of both Congresswoman Jackie Speier and Madeleine Albright live, to perfect rhythm of the music, right before our eyes. It was very impressive!

I spent my morning in "Going Green: How Women's Economic Power and Counterintuitive Business Practices Can Make a Difference" where Diane Maceachern, Big Green Purse LLC, and Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farm, spoke about green practices in our every day lives and in businesses and how they can actually save money in the bottom line.  Diane, who also authored Big Green Purse, noted that women are responsible for spending of 85 cents of every consumer dollar spent - making an excellent point that if we all make wise consumer choices, we can shift the market.  As an example, she noted that in 1999 there were no hybrid cars being sold commercially.  Suddenly in 2004, there were 88,000. Car makers took note. In 2004 there were not enough hybrids to meet demand and by 2007 more than 315,000 hybrids were sold.  Automakers went from pushing back on legislators demanding more fuel efficiency, saying there was no demand, to coming up with more options on their own.  A perfect example of how consumer demand can shift the marketplace faster than legislation.

She strongly recommends everyone to install water filters in their own house and use refillable bottles for water on the go - it's cheaper, and much more environmentally friendly.

Gary Hirshberg was also very interesting, talking about how sometimes searching for a more environmentally procedure for your business, you will find something that is also cheaper.  As an example, he noted how UPS had changed many of its routes to eliminate left hand in town turns - saving millions of dollars of fuel costs/year.

My highlight came at lunch time when I got to hear a very fascinating Cokie Roberts talk about the founding mothers of our country and all of the work they contributed to the US in our early years, and Madelein Albright talk about women's issues in general.

Albright spoke so eloquently, really giving me pause to think about everything that is going on in the world.  She noted that it is impossible to have a true democracy in a society where women are treated as second class citizens, and that anyone who abuses the dignity of one group, whether it be women or a specific race or class, is a security threat to us all.  In that vein, she urged all women to be willing to help each other, stand up for each other, and fight for education of women around the world. When the issue of the Queen Bee Syndrome was brought up, Albright noted that it is indeed an actual problem, but she felt "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other."

The day wound up with an energizing talk from Meagen Johnson on the four different generations in the workplace right now, Traditional, Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millenials. She talked extensively about how baby boomers are really team oriented, whereas Gen X folks are more self motivated and generally prefer working independently.  A neat technology point she made is that most boomers did not work with a computer until they had a full time job after graduating college. Folks from the Gen X generation on the other hand grew up with computers in the schools (I still remember my schools Apple IIe and playing Oregon Trail!).  Millenials, though, grew up with a computer always around.  It was a fun talk that made light of many multi-generational issues, yet at the same time got me to thinking.

Overall, the conference was amazing and I could not recommend it enough!

Friday April 25, 2008

ATC's Best Little W'house in Texas is honkey tonkin' along!

So we had a fantastic opening weekend for ATC's Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, even though I was sick.  I'm just now starting to feel a bit better, so I'm really excited about this weekend.  The show is really great, if I do say so myself :-)  Everyone who has come has had nothing but nice things to say.  I can't get the music out of my head, which is probably a good thing - it will help me keep the harmonies straight.  This show is never done, which is odd, because it has such a touching story, fantastic songs and so much more depth than a normal cheesy musical.

Y'all come back now, ya hear! 

Friday April 18, 2008

Security Ambassadors

I'm sitting here in one of the last sessions of the Sun Security Ambassadors conference, and thinking how lucky I was to be able to attend - getting the opportunity to learn what we are doing wrt to security in all our different GEOs, get in depth information into emerging security technologies, and I got to hear from some excellent luminaries in this field: Matt Bishop, Radia Perlman, Susan Landau & Michelle Dennedy.  We've had a great agenda and I feel like my team and I will have a lot to take away from this.

With Sun Security Ambassadors this week, and RSA last week (more on that later), I've been away from my email and "day job". That means a lot of catchup for next week!  

Tuesday April 15, 2008

first rehearsal on stage....

Last night we got to use the actual stage for the first time for ATC's Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. In some places, the stage is MUCH bigger ...in others, smaller than what we practiced with. That's what adding props and set pieces does to a little theater group ;)  The stage is much wider, and now we have access to the stage and the platforms that are between the orchestra pit and the rest of the audience.  Spacing was an interesting challenge last night, so we spent a lot of time last night fixing the big dance numbers. I only whacked one person with my tamborine last night... unfortunately I got poor Heidi more than once. I promise I'll be much more careful tonight!

Tonight we should have a few more of our costumes - I'll get a chance to try out my velcro tear off denim overalls (how else do you take off overalls over cowboy boots when you have 15 seconds to change?!?!)  I never thought I'd be wearing tear off clothing for a show... :-)

Band sounds great!

We had our Sitzprobe (sit and sing) last night with the band for ATC's Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and they sounded fantastic! The slide guitar and violin add depth we just weren't getting with the piano fill in rehearsal, and the bass and drums will definitely help us feel the beat as we dance and sing (at the same time ;).  Yesterday morning and afternoon, we got most of the set put together, so tonight we'll actually be on stage! and with the band! I'm very excited! We won't be running with costumes until at least Wednesday, which I'm a bit nervous about, as I have a few very fast changes (including one that occurs onstage!).  I'm sure it will be fine. Linda has reminded me several times that we often didn't have our costumes until opening night at the Gaslighter, and we somehow survived and still put on outstanding shows.  This will be no exception! This is one of the most challenging roles I've ever had - I'm not used to musicals having such great depth, and I've certainly never covered so many emotions in one show.

[VABF: Oops! I wrote this yesterday, but didn't post it! oops!]
 

Saturday April 12, 2008

ATC Last Rehearsal before moving to the theater!

We had an interesting landmark in our evolution towards opening night of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas - we did a full run through, choreographed the bows (because, yes, there is more dancing! yay!) and completed our very last rehearsal in the rehearsal space. Sunday we load into the theater, do our sit-sing, then we'll just have to run, run, run the show from top to bottom til we're ready to open.  I'm really happy with where we all are. Most of our costumes and hair pieces are in, everything is choreographed and blocked, and everyone is off book.  Sure, there were a few forgotten lines here and there last night, but that's the beauty of live theater. :-)  I'm so excited about getting into the actual theater so we can really understand where our entrances and exists are, and we'll have so much more space!  I helped base paint some of the sets last week, and I have a feeling that Stephen Watham is going to outdo himself again!

We're opening April 19. Make sure you get your tickets now! Actors Theatre Center performs in the historic Hoover Middle School theater in San Jose (right across from the Egyptian museum). It's a short run, and you definitely don't wan to miss out.

Monday March 31, 2008

Loudness war and perfect pitch

So, it's not my imagination - music is getting worse. I found this article from IEEE on how the amplitude of music is going up on one of my friend's blogs and found it truly fascinating. I had heard that this was getting worse, due to the way MP3 compression worked - but this article was enlightening! It seems that MP3 compression has improved enough where loss of quality is no longer as necessary, but that "louder" music attracts more attention - so that's what the sound engineers are going for.  What this really means is that my wacky friends that insist music sounds better on vinyl are right.

There was a follow on article that blew my mind - it covers pitch correcting software used in more than 90% of recordings today. I find this shocking, because I consider part of being a good singer to have a good sense of pitch. It's hard, I know - I've heard some recordings of myself where I'm learning a new song where clearly my sense of pitch at that moment was... a little off. This just seems to me too much like cheating.  How do we really know what we are listening to?  Clearly, I'll have to continue to go  see live theater if I want to see the real thing.  The second article is "multi-media" so you can actually hear the pitch corrections as they are applied.

Speaking of live theater, rehearsals for ATC's Best Little W****house in Texas are going exceedingly well. We did our first run through this week. Yes, still lots to polish, but we're really getting there!

Thursday March 20, 2008

Absentee ballot voter fraud I've long had my suspicions about the potential for fraud with absentee ballots, and this article out of the UK shows just how easy it is to abuse the absentee ballot situation. Someone actually used this to rig an election! This is a tricky issue, because obviously we do not want to disenfranchise folks who cannot make it to the polls, whether due to travel, work or disability, but a lot of states, including California, are trying to move as many people to vote absentee as possible.  We've already seen problems with stolen ballots in the state of Oregon, which votes 100% absentee. I wonder what it will take to get the powers that be to seriously look into the implications of all of this.  Not that voting in person is much better. I reregistered with my new name this year, but my polling place still had me under my old name. They let me vote with a normal ballot (vs a provisional one) anyways.  Also, my parents said that for years after I left Indiana my name was still listed at the polling place by their house.  (2008-03-20 14:47:53.0) Permalink Comments [1]

Wednesday March 12, 2008

ATC needs a few good men... So rehearsals for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas are going quite well. I'm finally starting to "get" some of the harmonies and we're really diving into the choreography.  I love how Nancy choreographs - she breaks things down so simply, even a non dancer like me can follow along.  This weekend, we're going to start working on the bigger group numbers, which means we need some more men! We need guys that can "move" and sing as Texas Aggie football players coming to visit the "Chicken Ranch" and two leading men as well: CJ Scrubs and Mayor Rufus Poindexter.  Let me know if you're interested! (2008-03-12 14:16:20.0) Permalink

Monday March 10, 2008

Bike accident I was so sad today to read about the fatal bike accident that occurred on Steven's Creek Canyon yesterday morning. We do that ride all the time, only missing yesterday because we were skiing. I love riding that road because I find that the cyclists and motorists are generally very courteous, with the exception of occasional yahoos in sports cars.  It's a nice, quiet road with a good steady climb.  My heart goes out to the families of Matt Peterson and Kristy Gough, and I'm sending as many good thoughts as possible toward Christopher Knapp - I hope he is able to recover from his injuries. (2008-03-10 15:10:20.0) Permalink Comments [2]

Monday March 03, 2008

Strong crypto in base Nevada!

My Friday night integration of 6498066 PSARC/2006/610 Data Encryption Kit (SUNWcry) Removal now means that strong crypto is available in a base Nevada system, starting with build 85 and forward.  What does this mean for you? Mostly it means that you no longer have to get special packages to get longer key lengths for arcfour, aes or blowfish and that things like OpenSSL will work out of the box.

Earlier posts to this blog explained how I took a different approach with strong crypto with Solaris 10 Update 4.  This work I just completed in Nevada, which was originally started by darrenm, is not appropriate for an update release since it removes packages and modules from the system.

Also, earlier this project was tied in with libsoftcrypto.  I worked closely with the crypto team on this, and we decided that the removal of the Data Encryption Kit was more important and needed to be integrated as soon as possible, so libsoftcrypto was pulled out of this project gate in order to speed up delivery of PSARC/2006/610.

One really cool thing about this integration? It removes tons of now pointless Sun specific modifications from the OpenSSL source. Hurray!

This should make it easier for folks to use Nevada and OpenSolaris builds, as well as make it easier to do development in the affected areas. Let me know if you have any questions!
 

Friday February 01, 2008

Sun Headlines debut! I just made my debut as an anchor for Sun Headlines. In this latest edition of the program, I'm talking about how cool Project Blackbox is. It's weird watching a video of myself, but it was such a cool experience making it and I love talking about Sun technology. I hope I get another opportunity to film one again! Check out my segment and let me know what you think! (2008-02-01 13:43:36.0) Permalink Comments [1]

Tuesday January 29, 2008

Yay! Audition paid off!

I'm so excited! I just found out I was cast as Shy in the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with the Actor's Theatre Center. And the icing on the cake? Two of my very good friends were also cast, one of which I haven't done a show with since midway through my career at the Gaslighter.  The auditions were fun because my two friends came with me, "Mom" Reynolds was on the piano and Nancy Kwong was our choreographer.  "Mom" is always a reliable player, and the fact that she gives you a hug before you sing really helps calm the nerves (yes, one of the many reasons we all just call her "Mom").  Nancy teaches by calling out names of steps, which makes it so much easier for me to follow & learn.

Anyways, I'd better cancel my appointment at the Dragon Theatre, since these two shows conflict with each other.