Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in madcap23's LiveJournal:

[ << Previous 20 ]

Monday, November 9th, 2009
1:36 pm	What am I up to and why am I not posting??? Well readers I know there may not be many of you left but I am still around, I have been and continue to be horribly busy at work so I do not get much time to post here. So here is a bit of a brain dump from me: 1) Work: Very busy, too many things to do and not enough time to do them in. 2) Writing: After talking to my "sister" about the start of my story I have decided to go back and rework some of the characters to avoid tropes 3) Fun: What's that? No I have been trying to make sure I hit up my normally scheduled activities like D&D and some of my other gatherings. 4) Fest: Am I crazy for thinking about 2010 already? Maybe but I have written up a proposal that the other 3 facilitators are looking at for Stage Combat out at the festival for next year, now I need to have one more meeting with one of the facilitators then schedule an open meeting for end of November for all interested parties. To expound on #4 I will be laying out some of ideas we the facilitators have about next year including some definitions and requirements. I will answer any questions you may have at that point. The problem is that I cannot offer any assurance of compensation or even that the fight will be accepted as something the Festival wants to put up. What I can offer is my encouragement and support to get your fights off the ground and ready to be performed. But more on this later. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
1:14 pm	Cause Jen made me do it If you comment on this post: 1. I’ll respond with something random about you 2. I’ll challenge you to try something 3. I’ll pick a color that I associate with you 4. I’ll tell you something I like about you 5. I’ll tell you my first/clearest memory of you 6. I’ll tell you what animal you remind me of 7. I’ll ask you something I’ve always wanted to ask you 8. If I do this for you, you must post this on yours (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
4:26 pm	Why? So I am sitting here wondering to myself why it is that people always make things into an us against them ordeal. Ren Fest is the perfect example of this behavior. A few examples include Participants thinking that Safety Services is "The Man"... WTF?!? Really these men and women are great, they keep us safe and yeah some of them will bust your ass for breaking a law, but most of the time they will give a warning about do not let us catch you doing it. Participants vs Management, this one makes my head explode! Peterson is the OWNER of the Festival, for better or for worse that is the way it is. Think about it this way, if you car pooled to work and on your month of driving the car pool insisted that you paint your car a different color because all of them liked that color better, you own the car you do not have to do what they say, they can find another car pool if they do not like the color of your car. I am thinking about these things because I was talking to some folks about my current job and how it has become more difficult and I have had to change several behaviors to fit with the current demands on my time. I wonder if I would still have a job had I acted as if this was me against "THE MAN" and tried to prove my point that I was right? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
3:22 pm	Gonna Try this to see if I can brighten my moods Things that did not suck this week: 1) I am still breathing 2) I just got paid 3) I have a great wife (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 9th, 2009
1:01 pm	Meh My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul madcap23 goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as Zombie. alisonnolan gives you 12 purple strawberry-flavoured wafers. angelady gives you 6 dark blue spearmint-flavoured wafers. anjilak tricks you! You lose 3 pieces of candy! dramatekcv gives you 19 dark green grapefruit-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. evilpixi2000 gives you 15 orange raspberry-flavoured gumdrops. flora_baggins gives you 19 purple vanilla-flavoured pieces of chewing gum. ladyserena2005 gives you 6 mottled green strawberry-flavoured gumdrops. librajaime tricks you! You lose 10 pieces of candy! litterbox_kitty gives you 11 light blue root beer-flavoured gummy worms. mamajenzie gives you 16 dark blue grape-flavoured pieces of bubblegum. madcap23 ends up with 91 pieces of candy. Go trick-or-treating! Username: Another fun meme brought to you by rfreebern. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 14th, 2009
12:29 pm	Dear world... My mind is set, my resolution is steel, my will is greater than anything that has yet been thrown at me. The fight troupe will happen, I will make it happen with the support of three very good friends. I have what could be a practice space that will cost about $15 per hour of use. I will have a polished product to show the Festival next year, I have a will ask for and will settle for range for the set of shows. This will happen. If this upsets you or you think I do not have the right to do this I offer you three choices: 1) Compete with me 2) Join me 3) Move aside The sound of steel will ring out once more in the streets! (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
10:46 am	For My Ren Fest friends I would like your attention for a few moments. The sound of steel on steel has been gone too long from our show, seeing Luis bring back the Merry Man Show set this into sharp relief for me. I want to see a fight troop out at our show. To that end I am asking interested parties to contact me, if you know of people that are willing and able to work on fighting have them contact me. Here is the problem we face, there has been NO fight troop out at festival since Dayna and Capa Ferro left. This, in business terms, means we have no prior product to rely on. This means that the first year of our fights must be one of proving what we can do. This means we may be doing fights for less than what some people believe we should be getting for fights, for the first year. My plan is to start working shortly after festival ends this year, getting several street fights up and running so that when we approach Festival next year we have a polished product to show them. I want our fights to be things that make the audience stop and stare in open mouthed awe. I want there to be quick stories that are told by violence. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 8th, 2009
12:31 pm	Interesting observation number three OK so I was going to wait on this for a moment and come back to it later this week, however I may as well post it now. Another bunch of sweeping generalizations in coming: The right, in recent years the right has become a party of fear. What do I mean by this? As lucyruthe pointed out in my last post it is obvious by the language they choose to use that they are trying to play on our fears (Evil doers and the like from Mr. Bush's speeches). This is possibly the tamest of examples. The thing that I get bent out of shape about is the Right's "WAR ON *" where * could be Drugs, Prostitution, Pornography or any other item that does not fit their "Moral" high ground. In many cases the right will use terms like War on something to frighten you into joining their cause, because in a war you are either on one side or another, there is no middle ground. What ever they are fighting against must be good, and thus if you do not side with them well you are evil! It is standard fear tactics. I was told that all men that enjoy looking at the female form sans clothing will eventually assault a woman. This is simply not true, there is no evidence to support that, however because they are using fear tactics people will believe this. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
9:34 am	Another interesting observation WARNING OVER GENERALIZATION INCOMING!!!! I have noticed something in people that are on the left, the liberals, those that follow the Democratic party, they tend to bash on people that follow a faith such as Christians or others. They tend to dismiss these belief systems and claim that people who hold them are closed minded. Yet I see these same people saying things like they have faith in Obama or that they consider Al Gore a profit or agent of change. Sure this is a bit different but these same people saying that actually threaten people that expose holes in either the doctrine they are spreading or the plan they have to help the world/nation. For example I pointed out to a friend that, according to a few economists, the current Economic plan will likely cause a longer recession rather than shorten it. I was called several names including a bigot. Another example is that of the group that exposed that Al Gore's energy usage, during the time that his film was out, was in one month equivalent to 17 months of the energy usage of the average household in that city/state. These people, who got the information legally, got death threats and got told they were scum just for showing that the "Crusader for Climate" was not practicing what he preached. Now since then Mr. Gore has changed some of his appliances out for more effeciant models and has changed some of his lights to the compact florescent ones but still he uses much more energy than the average person. Meh just an observation, as for the Right, they always attempt to instill a sense of fear in people about what will happen next... more on that later. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 5th, 2009
8:57 am	Interesting observation. So it should come as no surprise to people that know me or that read this here that I am Centrist or Libertarian in my political views. Now as a person that has never totally agreed with either of the major parties I have observed something about BOTH of them. What I have observed in our last three presidents is that each side wants to take credit for an upswing in the economy, no matter how few days their candidate has been in the office. Conversely they want to blame the other party if the economy is still on a down turn after their candidate has been in office for some time. It happens on both the left and the right, it seems that politicians want us to hate and fear the other side of the row. From what I recall of economics, it was the early 90s when I took it, the roll government plays in how the economy fluctuates spans multiple years; like a pebble being dropped into a pond, something that happened 10 or 20 years ago can and will continue to have impact on the economy today. In that macro view to blame the guy that was just in office for the conditions that exist seems a bit short sited. Just my thoughts this morning. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
3:36 pm	TAX TAX TAX!!! I am simply amazed by our political machine! Currently I get the privilege of working 40+ hours a week to take home 40-60% of what I earn! This year, unlike most government workers, I will NOT be getting a raise. It does not matter that my company is making a profit; we are "Bracing for hard economic times". Yet I will have to pay more into the government either on income tax or increased taxes on things that I buy or enjoy. And NOW I hear more taxes, in MN a tax on beer, wine and spirits to off set our deficit, at the federal level a tax on beer, wine and spirits to off set the cost of health care. A "fat" tax on food that is not healthy for you, and on and on and on. WHY can't the politicians in DC act on behalf of their constituents? Why can't they make due with what we already give them? Why do they get raises year after year even when they fail to do their job (meaning balance the budget). Balancing a budget means spending only within your means, why is this concept so hard for them to understand? This brings me to my next point, if the Government cannot balance a budget of several BILLION dollars and spend only within its limits, HOW can we trust it to create a Health Care plan? If they cannot understand that they must spend within their means, what could we expect from health care? Amputation instead of knee replacement? These are the things on my mind right now... (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
1:18 pm	There is no good in the world. It used to be a great comfort to me too think that there was still good in the world. Today after several months of crap I have determined that there is no longer any good in the world. Prove me wrong. (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 26th, 2009
10:02 am	Our new President... I have heard of three major things that he has done in his first few days of office: 1) Remove some of the legislation that Bush imposed on Abortion/Birth Control. 2) Allowed for Stem Cell Research to be carried out. 3) Closing Guantanamo Bay Prison. Well two out of three I agree with, but the third; it worries me. I do not think that the US has any idea how to deal with the Middle East or Terrorists for the most part. We tend to think that if we are nice to every other country in the world they will in turn leave us alone or be nice to us, this is not the case. Some groups want nothing short of a world dominated by their people, nothing less will do. They do not have a live and let live attitude. Closing a prison like this could be seen as a sign of weakness on our part. Just my 2 bits. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
11:15 am	My opinion OK so I am opinionated, I know that, I am also a Libertarian/Centrist in my political views.I will be weighing in on the Auto Bail out and providing some reasons to back up my views here. First, as much as it goes against my stated political views, and as much as it personally annoys me to say, I have to say that without a bail out of the US auto makers the economy will suffer; thus I am in favor of a bail out. I am for the bail out because if the US auto makers are forced out it will have wide ranging implications, other industries will fail or be forced into labor cutbacks. Additionally it could spell higher prices for cars as the demand increases, I personally do not believe the remaining companies could produce enough cars to make up for the loss of the three US auto makers. What do I think should be done? Well I think the UAW should not exist, I think most unions outlived their usefulness several years ago. I believe that reducing the labor and operating costs of the current plants would make them more profitable. I believe that the US auto makers need to stop offering hundreds of different options for one feature of a car (worst offender had 84 different options for MIRRORS). My two bits take them or leave them. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
8:56 am	I really like this explanation. A friend of mine forwarded this explanation of taxes, I looked at several replies to it on the internet but I still really like it. "The Tax System - Explained With Beer Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. The sixth would pay $3. The seventh would pay $7. The eighth would pay $12. The ninth would pay $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings). The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 ( 25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings). Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!" "That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back then I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill! And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier. For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible. David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D. Professor of Economics University of Georgia " Feel free to discuss. (22 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
10:46 am	So now what? My body seems to be trying to tell me I am old. Screw you body! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
10:36 am	So First I gotta say that this is the first time in 15+ years that I have voted and not felt any remorse about who I chose. See I did not vote for either major party and as much as I was tempted to I did not vote Ron Paul. I voted for the candidate that supports all of my views on what Government is for, both in the President and in the Senate race. So now I ask, does this give me the right to put a "2008: Not my President" sticker on my car? :D (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
9:58 am	I am... I am a coward in several respects, I could not find the courage to attend the wake of an entertainment director that recognized my talent and presented me with an award. I could not bring myself to go there and say one last good-bye to Pam, I could not face the thought that her death happened. Pam was a good Entertainment director, I will not romanticize her memory, but I believe she did all she could for the cast. This is why I am a coward, I sat and denied the reality. I did not go out and face it, I simply could not... and now I feel regret for not attending. Pam, may your spirit find peace and may your memory bring a smile to people's face. Light to your path (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 31st, 2008
2:09 pm	Annoyed I am annoyed... I got an email from these people http://www.forgodssake.us/ So what you may ask is annoying to me about the email and the web site? 1) "For God's Sake" is in my opinion disrespectful to both those that follow religion and those that do not. 2) "You can have all the science on your side" is an incorrect claim as in every session of the Kyoto conference there have been people that have stated either there is not sufficient evidence to support the theories put forward or that they do not agree that it is caused by man. 3) It does not state how these senators they call out "consistently opposed effective American action on global warming." So honestly it is number 3 that yanks my chain the most. Let us say that someone did a bit of research and found out that not all Ethanol is the same, let us continue with that thought to find that Corn based Ethanol actually takes more energy to produce than it can provide. Would a person that then votes against more Corn Based Ethanol refineries be seen as "consistently opposed effective American action on global warming."? If so then the same organization is not using "all the science" they are selectively using things to promote an emotional response to further an agenda. Just rambling really. Current Mood: annoyed (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 27th, 2008
10:08 am	Taken from a few folks... Comment and I will.... a) Tell you why I friended you. b) Associate you with something -- a fandom, song, color, photo, etc. c) Tell you something I like about you. d) Tell you a memory I have of you. e) Ask you something I've wanted to know about you f) Tell you my favorite userpic from your list g) In return, you need to post this on your own LJ. (30 Comments |Comment on this)