Blog Archive 2024 Oct
Tue Oct 1 = Today I researched the Maricopa County
Proposition 479 in preparation for tomorrow at Stir Crazy.
- After supper I missed the VP Presidential Debate because I forgot. Instead I was at LA Fitness doing a light torso work and getting a new fan:
- This evening I ordered a pack of two replacement suction cup mounts for my Old Shark dash cam for $16 (almost half of that is shipping). The camera is literally swinging on a thread... of dried WeldWood rubber cement.
- Got to bed at 12:24 for 9 hours of sleep
Wed Oct 2 = Today I skipped
- sunning
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
,
because I had to leave for my BIG 136-mile trip and would be walking around in the sun in shorts and a tank top.
- Best Buy in Peoria was the first stop to have them recycle my IBM Wheelwriter 6.
- Second stop was way out west to look at two parcels of raw desert land I bout about 1.5 years ago.
- Mountainside Fitness was my next stop for a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
and shower with no time for a workout.
- Next stop was the Westgate Entertainment District in
Glendale They were having a car show and I got two new fans:
Then at
Stir Crazy I did a rant about Maricopa County's Proposition 479 (transportation) after asking the audience if it was OK. They cheered!
- Here are the comedians that were on the show:
- Although it was a little late, on the way home I wanted to earn a
- Frosty
- The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
so I stopped by LA Fitness for a heavy legs workout.
- During today's driving, my dash cam dangled lower and lower. By the end of the trip it was swinging around on a 1" band of dried WeldWood contact cement.
- I really enjoyed the Frosty!
- Got to bed at 12:42 for 9 hours of sleep
Thu Oct 3 = This morning I did my 10 minutes of comedy writing and organized some pictures I had taken for my website.
- I
- sunned
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- This afternoon, while working on some other things, I watched Tuesday's VP debate. It was refreshing to see the candidates acting like adults, as opposed to the presidential debate.
- In two days Amazon delivered the suction cups for my Old Shark Dash cam. It feels like luxury having a solid cam instead of one that swings wildly.
- Since it had been 4.5 weeks since I got a fan from the Cave Creek Rd EōS Fitness, I went there for tonight's heavy arms workout. It paid off with these six new fans:
- Got to bed at 12:35 for 9 hours of sleep
Fri Oct 4 = Listenning to the
Rich On Tech podcast while fixing breakfast may have been a mistake. Rich mentioned that you can have your drivers license on your phone if you live in certain states, including Arizona. I spent over 3 hours this morning trying to get that done, but Google Wallet would not take an image of the back of my drivers license. Finally I was sucessful getting the license on my phone by installing the
Arizona Mobile ID on my phone.
- Big financial move while working with my phone: I added my gas credit card to my Google Wallet. If only I can remember to use it instead of the actual card - so much more secure
- Because my MacBook does not play nice with my, Dymo 280 Labelmaker,
I dusted off my
Alcatel - The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. Its 32-bit operating system with a x64-based processor is tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card helps.
and made 30 official show tickets to pass out for Thursday's New Faces show.
Tempe Improv in
Tempe
- This evening I went to the 32 St & Bell Esporta Fitness, did a heavy torso workout and got two new fans
- When I got home I had an ice cream sandwich (Friday night treat), worked on the
AARP Wish of a Lifetime and added the two fans to
Fans.
- Got to bed at 11:45 for 8:38 hours of sleep
Sat Oct 5 = This morning I arranged with Roger to go shopping with me this afternoon under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
.
Whiile we're at it we will try to get his phone fixed at T-Mobile and maybe get him registered at a gym that is on the way from his house to Winco Foods.
- In the writing department, I did 10 minutes each for comedy, for Prop 479
and for my
AARP Wish of a Lifetime project.
- A little before 3pm I drove down to Sunnyslope to meet Roger for the first time. The first thing we did was to fix his phone so it rings so he can tell when I phone. He had accidentally turned the ringer to silent. This meant that we didn't have to stop by T-Mobile. Then we took our first shopping trip together; of course to Winco where I got a new fan:
-
- On the way I finally got my last kite shipped to Joseph in North Carolina. Sending it by
Pirate Ship cost less than half of that of UPS or USPS.
- Boy am I tired. I was so busy today I never had time for a nap so I fell into bed at 11:20 for 9:30 hours of sleep
Sun Oct 6 = For the first time since getting back from my tour almost two months ago, I fired up
- Roomba
- The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
and had it vacuum the whole house. It seemed a little disoriented at times.
- This afternoon I worked on writing for my comedy set for Monday and finished the first draft of all the answers for my
AARP Dream of a Lifetime project.
- Also I attempted to make some booking contacts and actually talked to one human.
- Additionally, I added 33 new emails addresses to my list. I got all of these emails when their owners got their pictures with me for my fan web page.
- Today's trip was just a little one with three stops: First to AutoZone which found my van battery bad, and Albertsons for some mustard. I decided paying $4 for 12 oz was outrageous so did not buy the mustard. Third was Anytime Fitness for a light legs workout and two new fans
- With MailChimp this evening (to Phoenix area people who asked to be on my email list) I sent out 496 emails about this week's shows on Monday and Thursday
- Got to bed at 11:55 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Oct 7 = This morning I forwarded an email to the county about their mistake on the property taxes for my two Tonopah lots. Because of this glitch, I decided to not pay the first half of all my property taxes, but to wait and pay the full amount of all of them in December.
- I left on today's big trip about an hour later than scheduled, but I did get in a good 20-minute nap. Destination: all the way to eastern Chandler with a stop by the Cornerstone Mall to pass out show tickets for Thursday's show at the
Tempe Improv there.
- Trader Joe's there was a gold mine of possible ticket targets. I passed out about three tickets and got two new fans there:
- Since there was no time to stop at the Tempe LA Fitness, I headed directly to
SanTan Gardens in
east Chandler where I met Paul, the producer of the show (first fan pic below) and Sherat, the bar tender. Keith (2nd fan pic below), also a comedian, was one of the rare people who told me that he came to the show because of an email from me.
- The show was mostly music with Keith and me mixed in as comedians.
- I sold two T-shirts.
- On the way home I stopped by the Gilbert Winco for spicy brown mustard at a reasonable price and the Desert Ridge Mountainside fitness for a light fast arms workout and another new fan.
- Alltogether today, I passed out eight tickets for Thursday's show.
- Got to bed at 12:20 AM for 8 hours of sleep (up with landscaper at 7:30am for 30 minutes)
Tue Oct 8 = This morning I took my van in to Brakemasters to have them replace the battery that went bad six months after they installed it. The one they had installed had:
700 cold cranking amps and a reserve capacity of 130 minutes
The original battery, and the one they put in today was AGM and had
900 cold cranking amps and a reserve capacity of 160 minutes
They refunded what I had paid for the too-small battery and did not charge me for installing the larger one today. However they did charge me almost double what the larger battery would have cost at many retail stores.
- This evening I went to Rick Bronson's House of Comedy up on High Street near Desert Ridge for their
Trash or Treasure comedy show... as an audience member. I wanted to see what the show was like to see if I'd be interested in participating some time. Probably not. I knew one of the six comedians. Some of them were pretty good.
- My server paid for my salad and bought two T-shirts :) I also got three of my comedian friends as additions to my fan webpage.
- After the show I stopped by the Desert Ridge Mountainside Fitness for a light torso workout, a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
a shower and a new fan out in the parking lot:
- Before bedtime I mixed up two pounds of the healthful mustard/garlic/pepper condiment that I use on my odd-day evening beef sandwiches.
- Got to bed at 11:58 for 9 hours of sleep
Wed Oct 9 = I spent the better part of the mornning and afternoon on booking my Central Calafornia Tour for the last half of February.
- This was a T-shirt evening because, as of last night, I am out of L and XXL
Comedy design T-shirts. I inventoried all my
Comedy design T-shirts and used a special spreadsheet to help figure out how many of each size to order. In the process I noticed that I may have paid too much for my last order due to figuring the price on an order of 24 rather than 48. This will be the first time I'll be placing an order of 96 shirts - all the
Comedy design.
- An email was in my inbox from Advanced ENT, "Urgent: Your account is past due!..." As a result I wasted my time phoning Carol in Arkansas who said that she took my pymentt on Oct 2nd, I am up to date, to disregard the email, owe nothing and need to allow a little more time for payment to process. Why can't they get their system working right??
- This evening it took me slightly over 15 minutes to upload seven new fans in these 5 images (an average of about 3 minutes each image).
- Got to bed at 12:23 for 9 hours of sleep
Thu oct 10 = Today I had my smoothest video production yet (my last Stir Crazy appearance with three cameras) using
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
,
thanks to some of the notes I took during my last session with my coach, Josh Boyle.
- This afternoon I wasted an hour in traffic using up gas driving down for another session with Josh. It was partly my fault and, I think, partly his fault. He sent me a text that he was not feeling well, and then an email a half hour before I was leaving. I always check my texts morning and evening, so I missed the text. I did not see his email before leaving. People should close the communications loop and receive an acknowledgement for important communications. In my case, a phone call is best.
- Speaking of which, I have been trying to reorder
Comedy T-shirts from Nancy Perry Productions but she seems to be too busy to get back to me.
- Squeezed in before this evening's comedy was a visit in west Phoenix to
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
for their Vision Society reception. It was neat to see the Duet people with whom I deal mostly by phone and to get acquainted with some of the other patrons that were there.
- I arrived at The
Tempe Improv in the
east valley in time to set up all five of my cameras and touch bases with Sarah, Josh Boyle's girlfriend who was there to get some closeup video of my set.
- My five minute rant on Maricopa County's Transportation Proposition 479 was a lot of fun, with some audience members definaately agreeing with me, that Prop 479 should be defeated.
- Before the show I got two of the other comedians as new fans and after the show sold three T-shirts:
- I skipped fitness today neither riding my elipitcal nor going to a gym, but I did walk around some and took stairs a couple of times. d
- Got to bed at 12:05 for 9 hours of sleep
Fri Oct 11 = Being forgetful this morning had its benefit. You see yesterday morning I loosened the head on my Remington shaver for cleaning before its next use. Of course this morning I forgot and turned the shaver on with the loose head. It jiggled around and dumped its contents of whisker dust onto the carpet in my master bathroom. What an opportunity for
- Roomba
- The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
.
When I had it vacuum the area I was surprised. It got all the whisker dust on the first pass.
- This morning I spent the better part of an hour making my T-shirt ordering spreadsheet more sophisticated. Now, all I have to do is change one cell (the base price) and everything else is automatically updated :)
- I
- sunned
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
and ended up with a mild headache the rest of the day and evening.
- I had
- Roomba
- The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
do the whole house this afternoon. Roomba is still getting disoriented some. Hopefully its navigation will improve with additional excursions.
- I uploaded all the media files from yesterday's performance. Looking at them, I learned: ALWAYS get someone to adjust my audience cams. The left-side wide angle view was not usable because it was not in focus; For the zoomed in left-side view a guy who was my primary target left to use the bathroom just as I started my set and didn't return until the end.
- This evening I scurried around and made it to the Moon Valley LA Fitness before 8:00 to catch my friend, Tim, before he shut down his Power Station bar. Well, he wasn't there; was in Mexico for a wedding. Although I didn't get to see Tim, I did get to do a heavy arms workout and get two new fans:
- I waited until I got home to have an ice cream sandwich as my Friday night Treat.
Tonight before going to bed I was downloading my checking statement when I noticed my Venmo withdrawals were not posted. A little research revealed that I had tied Venmo to another bank's account and that account was in overdraft status. Thank goodness for the overdraft protection I have on that account, although I am not sure how much I will owe in fees :( Instead of going to bed on time, I set up a transfer of funds between the banks. Due to the weekend, unfortunately the money won't get there until Thursday.
- Because of all that unexpected stuff, I got to bed late: at 12:30 but still got 9 hours of sleep by getting up late.
Sat Oct 12 = This morning after restarting my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
I could not start Xampp, my Internet host, so will be a little more conservative in putting things up on my website because I cannot test them before uploading.
- Working on the HTML coding for people to input ther email addresses using my
Alcatel - The little Alcatel Plus 10 10" Windows 10 computer I bought to get me by in Tobago in 2017 after my Dell laptop died. Its 32-bit operating system with a x64-based processor is tight, with only 2gb RAM and a 32gb SSD hard drive, but the 128gb micro SD card helps.
as a tablet, I got an email prefix box (like louis) and a sufix box (like @arizonalou) set up with a drop-down selection for suffixes.
- This evening I went to Planet Fitness for a heavy torso workout. A couple people looked at my website but didn't want to be on my fan web page.
- Got to bed at 11:48 for 9 hours of sleep
Sun Oct 13 = Today I told Alexa to have
- Roomba
- The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
vacuum the whole house, so she did and it did.
- Today I finished writing the application that I plan to submit for the
AARP Dream of a Lifetime on Tuesday.
- This afternoon I had a half hour phone meeting with Josh Boyle, my social media guru.
- I didn't get lazy, but ran out of time before I ran out of things that needed to be done: things like adding a "Tue" to my 6-up announcing slips, updating this blog, revising
Comedy Home and figuring the stops for tomorrow's trip to see Josh Boyle,
- George & Cindy
- my younger brother and his wife (who had a masive stroke in 2022) who live in east Mesa, Arizona
,
Planet Fitness and then the
Yucca Tap Room for comedy.
- Got to bed at 11:38 for 9 hours of sleep
Mon Oct 14 = I had an extra hour because Josh Boyle couldn't meet me this afternoon so I took a 50 minute nap, knowing that I would be out late with this evening's show starting at 9pm.
- I had a nice visit way out east with
- George & Cindy
- my younger brother and his wife (who had a masive stroke in 2022) who live in east Mesa, Arizona
.
Cindy laughed and laughed at a couple of jokes I had specially for her.
- Next it was west to the Tempe LA Fitness for a light combination of arms and torso workouts and these three new fans there:
- Then across Mill Avenue to the Yucca Tap Room and comedy. All the rest of the acts were music. After my set the host said that most comedians have trouble keeping the audience for five minutes, but I "killed it" for 18 :) I also sold two T-shirts and a signed sticker. There were stickers all over, so I added my stickers to four of the bathrooms.
- This, my first visit to the Yucca Tap Room, was really neat with a good supportive audience of 30.
- Got to bed at 12:40 for 8:34 hours of sleep
Tue Oct 15 =I didn't ride my elliptical this morning. Instead, as I typically do every fourth day, I held off and road it after I
- sunned
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- This morning I had Roomba vacuum the whole house, something I may do on a regular basis on the days that I
- sun myself
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- I worked out the details of takng Natalie to her doctor's appointment under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
and phoned her.
- I downloaded the "house" video from Thursday's show at The Tempe Improv (thanks Geoffrey Woyner) so now I have my work cut out for me with seven camera angles for the show.
- Bad news from Maricopa County, after I spent 45 minutes on hold. I found that the property taxes on my two Tonopah desert lots can not be changed for this year, although they are three times as much as I think they should be. I can appeal the taxes for 2025 if I do it before December 15th this year.
- This evening I researched and scheduled two more weekly open mics:
- Tonight I also transferred my
Wish of a Lifetime writing to AARP's online application, tweaking it some along the way. I did not send it though. I respect
- Rose Anne
- My X wife who lives in Payson by a lake
's
opinion and want it before I press [Send].
- Got to bed at 12:13 for 8:41 hours of sleep and, for the first time this season, used covers: a towel up to my waist. I call it .5 Towel. It's getting downright cold here in Phoenix: forecast to be down to 70° F here in Phoenix tonight (got down to 64.3° F in my back yard).
Wed Oct 16 = After hearing Kim Komando talk about people having their properties sold out from under them by criminals, I signed up for my county's Title Alert progam. Criminals particularly target paid-off raw desert land. They use fake id's and the true landowner ends up no longer owning the property.
- This afternoon I placed my largest T-shirt order yet. By ordering 96 of the Comedy Design I'll have them coming out of my ears, but it will more than double the profit, all of which goes to Alzheimer's rearch.
- I inventoried and alphabetized all the 22 items in the storage box under the closet for my van and moved the box to it's non-tour location in the center cabinet under the island in my kitchen.
- I only had time for a 12 minute nap this afternoon, which means trying to go to bed early tonight to catch up on some sleep.
- Before supper I went to the Desert Ridge Mountainside Fitness where I did a heavy legs workout and found three people who Googled "America's Favorite Old Man" on their cell phones. One became a new fan:
- Since I wanted to get home to phone the Palmdale, CA VFW by 5:00, tonight before going to bed I did my
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
trimmed my hairs. I should sleep well tonight.
- Got to bed at 11:15 for 9:25 hours of sleep
Thu Oct 17 = This morning I did a final tweak and then submitted my application for the
AARP Wish of a Lifetime, to be on the Tonight Show.
- After an early lunch I left a little early to run my van through an automatic car wash on my way to take Kat to see her doctor under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
. As new fans, I got her and a guy there in the waiting room:
- After seeing her doctor I delivered Kat back home and just south of her condo was the N Tatum LA Fitness so I did a heavy arms workout and got these three new fans:
- This evening I booked a show at the Quartz Hill, CA VFW and worked out all the details with Eric the Jr. Vice Commander who handles the entertainment.
- Got to bed at 11:42 for 9 hours of sleep
Fri Oct 18 = While fixing breakfast I listened to the 10/16/24
Kim Komando Today podcast and was inspired by an interview of Nate Blecharczyk, cofounder of Airbnb. Here's how Airbnb got started: renting out three air mattresses for one night in New York City:
- Speaking of graphics, here's the nebulous places where our $28 billion will flow if Maricopa County's transportation Proposition 279 passes.
- This evening I chose Planet Fitness because I hadn't gotten any fans from there for a while. I closed out my three-heavy-day sequence with a torso workout and got three new fans:
- For the last week I have felt lame without XAMPP, my local web host working. After trying six different ways to get it started without success, I fixed it by reinstalling it from my Downloads folder with the help of this
YouTube video.
- Got to bed at 11:53 for 9 hours of sleep
Sat Oct 19 = It was a relatively cool day (for Phoenix) so I enjoyed the
- sun
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- This afternoon I learned more about MERV and added this HEPA Filtration chart
here to "Definitions."
The days are getting shorter and it was after sunset when I made it down to the Cave Creek Road EōS Fitness for a light legs workout and 11 new fans:
- Got to bed at 12:19 for 9 hours of sleep
Sun Oct 20 = Checking my emails this morning, I updated my payment information for Hostgator. My website is so efficient that I'm using only .81GB of MY 976GB of storage space on their "Baby Plan."
- I also stumbled across some very interesting information about flat-panel displays
here on Electronic Clinic's website. First pic is an LCD display. Second pic is an AMOLED display which is thinner, has higher contrast and takes less power.
With AMOLED, the darker the screen, the less power it uses. That is why I use my Pixel 7 phone with a black background.
- This afternoon I booked a comedy show with Terry at the Rosamond VFW post so I will, at this point, be doing five shows for veterans on what is going to be my
Antelope Valley California Tour the last part of February.
- That, along with a phone call to Josh Boyle, my Social Media Guru, put me slightly late to pick up Roger
who is my shopping partner under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
.
- On the way to Winco we stopped by LA Fitness. While Roger talked to the staff there about joining under Silver Sneakers I did a light arms workout and got five new fans:
- Then it was to Winco Foods where we both did our semi-monthly shopping. Of course while I was there I got these four new fans:
Andrew and Nadine in the last picture have
Andines Kitchen, a very interesting YouTube channel with all sorts of healthy cooking ideas from the Caribbean.
- This evening I updated
Fans with today's new fans, and added five California shows to my Google Calendar.
- Got to bed at 11:58 for only 8:38 hours of sleep, considering I need to get up "early" for
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
transportation.
Mon Oct 21 = Things had to go like clockwork this morning. Before leaving I had 40 minutes for shaving and toiletries, riding my
- elliptical
- Pro-Form Cardio HIIT
real fast for two minutes, fixing and eating breakfast, dressing and leaving to pick up Natalie for her doctor's appointment under the auspice of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
.
- In Natalie's optometrist's office was the first time I have heard Christmas music playing 10 days before Halloween.
- While waiting I got my 2024 Tour Schedule copied to
Past Comedy Appearances and started the process of adding 2025 bookings to
Comedy Home.
- On the way home after dropping Natalie off at her apartment, I stopped by Esporta Fitness for a light torso workout and a new fan:
It surely felt good to get the gym out of the way so early in the day.
- This afternoon I changed my Dig solar-operated drip system from a two-day to a three-day interval, keeping the same start time of 3pm and drip length of 2.5 hours.
- A big harry project followed after a late lunch: starting a new section for
Comedy Home for 2025, along with the necessary additional links for
Comedy Home's contents etc. After that I added the first tour shows for 2025.
- This evening, when I got too drowsy to function at my computer I mixed up a batch of six of the delicious
- Frosty
- The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
that are my Wednesday rewards after doing a heavy legs workout.
- This evening I added 10 new addresses to my email list from my recent fans.
- After a little research I named my California tour the
Antelope tour.
- My house is close to energy neutral this time of year. During the day I raise the blinds to let in solar heat with the sun screens still on and the pilot light in my water heater provides adequate hot water.
- Got to bed at TIMEforHOURS hours of sleep
Tue Oct 22 = It took me two tries at the quiz but I passed the online General Aviation Security course and renewed my pilot Security Awareness Training for another year.
- I didn't get very far trying to find additional local Tuesday open mics for my schedule the last part of November.
- Today's trip started by going south to meet up with Josh Boyle and his side kick, Randhal Rosie. We worked out a strategy for reducing from two to one reel each week and diversifying the topics and format. Then way west, eating supper on the way.
- It was my first time at
Jicky Jacks (JJs) which is
way out in west Phoenix. In fact it is so far west, you go a couple of blocks and you're at the Avondale Mountainside Fitness where I did my
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
took a shower and got these two new fans:
- Jicky Jacks was an awesome place. It turns out that their weekly open is a contest, and the rowdiest open mic I have ever been to. No wonder the place was filled with non-comedians. Burk Forsythe did a professional two-camera shoot of the whole show. In addition I got four audience angles during my set. It all should make a pretty good video... if I can get
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
.
to work.
- The show stretched on and on - at least from an old guy who was out beyond his bedtime and a long drive home after the show.
- I did sell four T-shirts. One of them was a rare 4X sale. Also I got these two new fans. The first pic is Ruben Bugayong, who produced and hosted the show:
- Got to bed at 12:44 for 8:36 hours of sleep
Wed Oct 23 = This morning I scooted of to the doctor's to check my leg cramps and to get a referral for CPAP supplies. On the way home I got gas at Costco with 23 miles left in my tank.
- At solar noon I
- sunned
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- After lunch, under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
I took Natalie to her doctor's appointment. I was glad to be able to help someone who struggled just to get to my van and reached her physical exertion limit getting into it.
- On the way home I stopped by the 32nd St & Bell Esporta Fitness for a heavy legs workout to earn a
- Frosty
- The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
,
considering I mixed up a new batch of six yesterday.
- After a late supper I frustrated myself by trying to get
- FCPX
- Final Cut Pro X the fancy video-editing software I got from Apple in Sept, 2023 for my MacBook Pro computer
.
to cooperate, which it never did.
- Got to bed at 11:30 for 8:40 hours of sleep
Thu Oct 24 = Today's project was one that I did not anticipate. I checked out the
Xtremexperience for
- Anne
- My daughter who lives in Flagstaff with Roby her husband, and their daughter Brooke
and me driving a race car at the Firebird race track in Chandler. It turns out that the only time they offer the XtremeXperience there is three days in December and there were only two double slots left, so I got in gear, coordinated with Anne and scheduled for us to each drive a Lamborghini Hurac‡ne for three laps around their 10-turn racetrack.
- This evening in various shopping carts on the Internet for some of my grand nephews I put:
- Raspberry Pi 5 8GB, for $80 - adafruit.com
- Mini USB stereo speaker, for $12.50 - adafruit.com
- mini USB microphone, for $5.95 - adafruit.com
- Official Raspberry Pi 5 Desktop Kit, which includes The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner's Guide - adafruit.com
- Raspberry Pi for Kids (A "For-Dummies" book) for $9.74 - Walmart.com
- (I put this information here as a baseline to see if the prices change before I buy the items)
- I didn't leave the house today. I was going to go to a gym when I discovered a braken image on my
Fans web page and four broken images on the Fans web page with my local host. Fixing that took my gym time.
- Got to bed at 11:06 for 9:20 hours of sleep, making up for last night's deficiency.
Fri Oct 25 = I wrestled some more with fcp today.
- By phone, Josh Boyle and I arranged for a Sunday shoot at North Mountain Park for more reel content.
- During and after supper I checked out the comedians appearing this weekend and figured how to make this check more effecient in the future. With my Firefox browser I created a new "Comedy Phoenix Clubs" bookmark folder and put all seven of the comedy club calendars in it, so now one mouse click will get me everything I need to decide if, when and where to go. Oh yes, I decided to go to no show this weekend.
- I made it to Mountainside for a heavy arms workout and these four new fans:
- Back at home I scheduled three more open mics so I'll have six for my next announcement sheet. I wasn't cool, though, calling the venues on Friday evenning.
- Got to bed at 11:58 for 8:37 hours of sleep
Sat Oct 26 = This morning I finally got
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
.
to work after stumbling around with it for 15 days since my performance at the Tempe Improv. Here's the result:
- Also I trimmed the sourse videos for a series of one-minute videos to use for experimentation and, hopefully, more fully understanding FCP.
- Today's trip was short but fruitful: First stop was Anytime Fitness for a heavy torso workout. I forgot my phone so ended up with more work for myself. Nikki, my new fan, took our selfie and emailed it to me. When I got home I had to download the image, open it with my
Graphics Manipulation Program crop it and reduce it from a 4,000K file to 40k:
- The second and final stop was Albertsons for franks, eggs, fat-free cottage cheese, all on sale, with the 10% off coupon to boot from my last flu shot.
- Hopefully I'll get faster, but this evening's project was to check out all the comedy venues in Albuquerque and send exploratory emails to three of them and FaceBook messages to two others. I thought the FaceBook messages would be private, but I guess they weren't because 15,000 people liked my 8:34pm message to
Quezada's Comedy Club & Cantina and 145,000 people liked my 8:48pm message to
Inn of the Mountain Gods!
- I did my flossing, brushing and water picking early this evening when I got a little drowsy. In anticipation of tomorrows vacuuming by Roomba, I enlarged the
keep-out zone for the north train tracks. If I got it right, Roomba will not tangle with the tracks and still vacuum the entryway.
- This evening I got around to doing my monthly blog rollover. It took me 23 minutes.
- Got to bed at 12:13 for 8:42 hours of sleep
Sun Oct 27 = This morning I got my video from October 10th posted on Youtube (see yesterday's blog).
- I had Roomba vacuum everything. It's the first time I just let it work without keeping track of what it was doing. I don't know if Roomba vacuumed the entry because while Roomba was doing it's job I
- sunned
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
(with a very thin layer of high clouds).
- Boy am I confused! My MacBook Pro has two similar "Humor" folders. One is in in my "Desktop" folder and the other one is in my "Documents" folder. What did I do? I renamed both folders and moved them to a new "Humor" folder and changed the links on my desktop. I'll use only one of the folders from now on, pulling files from the other if they are more recent.
- I worked with
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
,
"multicaming" the one-minute test files I made yesterday. I think I have it figured out now. Tomorrow I'll make sure by following my new instructions.
- This evening I went to the Cave Creek Rd Eōs Fitness for a light legs workout and a new fan:
- Got to bed at 11:45 for 9:20 hours of sleep
Mon Oct 28 = I tamed the beast after 13 months! It took me 30 minutes to process my one-minute test vidos using the multicam feature of the beast,
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I bought from Apple Sept 9th, 2023 for my MacBook Pro
,
and to tweak my instructions a little.
- This evening I went to the Moon Valley LA Fitness for a light arms workout and these two new fans:
- Got to bed at 11:55 for 9 hours of sleep
Tue Oct 29 = This morning I projected budget through the end of the year. I also added light gray .02" horizontal guidelines to my Sleep Log Chart so I'll keep things on the level and make my logging more efficient. Since Libra Office's writing program, which I used for the Sleep Log Chart, has no way to evenly space horizontal lines, I used Libre Office's drawing program to add the lines to the charts I printed out with the writing program.
- The result of my blood work on the 23rd came in. My:
- glucose 2, low at 63
- blood sugar was quite low the, doctor said, from fasting for labs (but I hadn't fasted)
- both iron and iron saturation were up into the normal range
- creatinine was still a little high
- today's ultrasound of my legs, taken due to some leg cramps, was pretty much normal
- On the way home I went by a Fry's Supercenter for five pounds of their 97¢ grapes and a new fan at the self checkout.
- The evening trip that started about 5pm this afternoon took me to Walmart for the curb-side pickup of two pounds of flax seed meal, then almost to Bull Shotters. On the way, in the same parking lot as Bull Shooters, there was a Planet Fitness calling my name, so I went in for a light torso workout and a new fan
- At 6:00 there were only three comedians. By the time the show started a little after 7:30 we had an official list of comedians. Other comedians came in during the show so, by the end, we had a full slate.
- At 7:20 I went out of the comedy room to the rest of Bull Shooters. It is a big place, taking the space of what used to be four stores. I told several people about the show and found two who liked stand up comedy who came to the show. They were enthusiastic and did a little participating.
- Strategy for selling T-shirts: Tonight I sold two T-shirts, but only by asking people personally if they wanted one. Both bought the Lou designs:
Telling the audience about the T-shirts, by me as part of my comedy set or by the host, informed people about the T-shirts but did not get them thinking about actually buying one. It was the personal touch after the show that sold the shirts..
- Announcing slips? I have six shows listed on the back of each 3x5.5" slip, which is good for six weeks. Bull Shooters was the last show listed on this list. I had six slips left over, which is pretty good. I did not run out but didn't have a lot left over.
- Got to bed at 12:34 for 8:48 hours of sleep
e
Wed Oct 30 = For the first time I wore compression socks (which were delivered yesterday from Beister). The socks are 20-30 mmHg, which is considered a moderate compression level (higher compression at the ankle). They were tighter than I expected when putting them on but once on, hardly noticeable, except they tend to uncomfortably squeeze my toes together.
- I'm still researching candidates and filling out my ballot - four pages.
- For the first time this fall season I wore my sweatshirt (I stole it from the skeleton). Happy Halloween!
The ocasion was LA Fitness for a
- Frosty
- The The 9oz chocolate/cinnamon protein treat, that I mix up six at a time, which is my weekly reward for doing a heavy legs workout
,
a heavy legs workout and two new fans:
Never before had I spent over 20 minutes getting a fan picture (the last one above). Celeste was a real talker. After listening to her life story I ended up taking 20 pictures by the time we got one that suited her. While I was selecting the pictures she kept trying to swipe, select and delete pictures... from MY phone.
- Got to bed at 12:17 for 8:55 hours of sleep
Thu Oct 31 = I had
- Roomba
- The iRobot Roomba j7+ self-emptying robotic vacuum cleaner I bought in Jan 2023
vacuum today and
- sunned
- I lay in the sun for 10 minutes on my back and 10 minutes on my stomach at solar noon when the sun rays are maximized for the skin's production of vitamin D
.
- This afternoon the substitute mail carrier was delivering to our mail boxes when I was leaving for Anytime Fitness for a heavy arms workout. He became my latest fan and, I believe, the first mail carrier.
- After supper, waiting for my first Trick-Or-Treaters, I added 16 email addresses from the last 11 days to my Fan Email List.
- My first Trick-Or-Treater didn't come until late, at 7:00. My first customer was a little boy about five. I asked him if he liked trains. After he said yes, I blew my train horn. He jumpped out of his skin and then ran to his parents out on the sidewalk. He may not be returning to my house next year at 7:00, or any other time.
- All the other Trick-Or-Treaters enjoyed the horn. Yes, it DOES sound exactly like a train. I made the horn by adapting three toy air horns which I then tuned to match a BNSF locomotive.
- I am peeved at
Xtremexperience for not honoring the 30% discount they advertised, so peeved that I filed a complaint with the Chicago Better Business Bureau and warned others on Facebook so they do not end up like me. Not that Xtreme Xperience tried to deceive, but they were careless, not having their disclaimer in an obvious place.
- Got to bed at 11:16 for 9 hours of sleep
