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Last year I attempted to get a promotion at a foreign office my company has. The potential for a great adventure was deep in my mind. Alas it didn't happen. Now however, the chance has presented itself again and I'm still interested. Maybe even more so.

Not knowing how I failed the last time, I decided to reach out to the hiring manager and learn what I could. Based on that conversation, I came away thinking I could have a good shot at this. I shouldn't get my hopes up just yet but I'm certainly excited about it.

An image I try to remember is the old cart before the horse failure. In other words, put first things first and cross bridges when I come to them. I shouldn't concern myself with logistics of moving my life until it's a certainty.

Lefty tore a dewclaw on our walk last night and it was bleeding all over. I nearly went to the vet ER but the bleeding stopped after a lot of licking by Lefty. I cleaned and dressed the wound as best I could and went to the vet today. The doctor removed the damaged nail and bandaged his leg. Lefty is doing okay now but he was pretty stressed out. I was stressed too.

This year I went to fewer concerts but instead saw more musicals. On Saturday, I enjoyed the modern hit "Jersey Boys". Basing a show on the lives of an iconic band ensure that at least the music will be a highlight. "American Idiot" uses Green Day music but isn't about the band itself. In contrast, "Pippin" was fun in all areas except the music.

"Jersey Boys" portrays the life of Frankie Valli and the The Four Seasons. This music was before my time but I still recognize many of their hit songs. I actually saw Frankie Valli perform in D.C. on the Forth of July. Although I didn't have a good view, I can see what I missed on youtube here.

The stage production was better than I expected. A complex plot is of secondary focus. The rags to riches of a music group is common enough premise for a story. Where "Jersey Boys" excels is the song and dance. It feels like you're watching the real band at their best and not just actors. The facsimile is spot on.

There's a new movie based on the show that I'm now interested in seeing.

A few weeks back, I went to see a show at the improv theater as part of a date. The manager recognized me from when I took a beginner class there 1 year ago. That little greeting was enough to push me to enroll for level 2.

I felt the first course was sub-par due in part to an inexperienced teacher. My concerns were logged as feedback but I heard nothing more. Well in this case at least, the level 2 course is taught by the owner of the theater. He's exceptionally knowledgeable about all things improv with decades of practice in elite company. I feel quite honored to be learning from him. So much so that I plan to bring a notebook from now on (most students aren't so serious. There are no tests or failures to worry about.)

The course is all about making characters and I'm enjoying it already. Again my biggest challenge is to NOT think about it. My brain goes into overdrive as I struggle to be funny and this is the worst thing I can do. Improv that is planned is not improv. I should start volunteering right away in each exercise to keep myself from falling into this trap.

A month without a post is too long and so I'm writing today despite not having too much to write about. Perhaps that lack of content is itself worth writing. As the end of the year comes to it's final 6 weeks, work seems to slow down. Everyone is made aware that all that time off they earned is about to expire and the office becomes noticeably more vacant. I too will take some days off but have no real plans outside of the usual homebody activities. An adventure may be in order here.

Through some fortune at work, I was called on to attend a tech conference in St. Paul. As I had never been to the Twin Cities before, I arrived a couple days early for site-seeing. Here are some thoughts on that trip.

I learned a lot of history about that area during a walk around the St. Anthony Falls heritage trail.
Nicollet Island was very pretty with the autumn colors.
The Guthrie Theater is a neat building with great views of the Mississippi River.
The light rail is super cheap and convenient although the green line to St. Paul is a bit slow due to the route.
I got to see A Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald theater. What a treat!
St. Paul Art Crawl is a cool event but I didn't have time to see much.
Lots of establishments have signs explicitly banning firearms. I guess this is to offset the state's gun laws.
Took a riverboat cruise down the Mississippi River. It was at night and very serene.
Visited the St. Paul Capitol building but it was under massive renovations so much of it was closed off.
Also toured the James J. Hill mansion. Railroad tycoons had incredible houses.
Enjoy local specialty "Juicy Lucy" twice.
Went to Mall of America during a cloudy day. I escaped without a single purchase. Take that capitalism.
So many churches. Big ones too.
Snoopy statues a plenty. Charles Schulz was a resident there.
My feet hurt after too much walking so I rented a bicycle through the city Nice Ride system. Quite a lot of bike riders there.

The rest of the trip was spent at the conference so I won't go into details there. Both Minneapolis and St. Paul are great places to visit. Thanks Twin Cities!

My TV started to fail last week when it wouldn't power on at first. After a few minutes or so, eventually it would turn on. I learned this is a common problem so much that a class action lawsuit was filed against the manufacturer for the defect. They settled and offer to fix all the broken TVs. Unfortunately that offer expired last year so I was out of support.

A local TV repair shop quoted me $150 to fix it but as the issue is well known and well documented, I felt I could fix it myself. There are even kits sold specifically for this job. Capacitors on the power board had faulted and started to bulge and leak. I swapped these for 2 new ones and that solved the issue. The hardest part was taking apart the TV to get to the innards. Not because it's complicated, just big and heavy.

Modern TVs are made to be replaced more frequently than before. For a bit I considered just buying a new set. My current TV is 8 years old now which is is nearing a replacement anyway. Something I use almost daily might be worth upgrading soon. Well, it's working again now so I can continue to watch movies and play games.





The top right two capacitors are faulty as indicated by the bulge on top and the brown ooze.

Having recently finished a novel that takes place in a circus (Water for Elephants), my curiosity for circus history was peaked. All of the various mergers were barely enough to keep the circus business alive and today we're pretty much left with one show: Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey.

So that's how I found myself at the Pepsi Center on a Saturday afternoon to see "The Greatest Show on Earth". I last saw this show back in 2009 and enjoyed it more than I expected then. The show has stayed mostly the same with typical circus acts: trapeze, acrobats, clowns, elephants, big cats, and the more modern motorcycles racing inside a metal sphere. Thankfully absent are the tight wire and human cannonball acts.

I guess due to all the consolidations, there is a lot of bloat. Let me give you some examples. One: they still have a full live band performing. Most people probably don't even recognize this. Recorded music would work just fine I think. Next, each troop of performers is twice as big as it needs to be. I seem to remember that a trapeze act used to be 2, maybe 3 brothers. Then they bring in their sisters and then add the cousins. Now such an act has 10+ performers. This applies to the Chinese acrobats and clowns too. I only need to see one guy do a triple back-flip with twist to be impressed. 9 more guys doing the same thing just cheapens it. Then there's 10 big cats, 6 elephants, 8 horses, plus the menagerie: goats, lamas, dogs, donkeys, pigs, and even kangaroos. Many of these are only on stage for a few minutes to do one trick. It's a wonder they can feed all these animals.

Well, I'm no circus manager so who am I to say this is all a waste? I guess the excess is part of the appeal. Us "rubes" don't want to see a scaled back show.