Wed Nov 1 = I tripled my Internet speed with Cox Cable for an additional $5/month for 6 months. My download speed is a little better than their advertised 15 Mb, but my upload speed is only 39% of their advertised 5 Mb, which is not going to help much when I upload YouTube videos.
- Tonight I appeared at Toso's. Since there were not many comedians I did 10 minutes of Old Man, Roman Numerals, childhood & T-Shirt. Host, Durell Jackson, ran a good show.
Thu Nov 2 = Today I got my Social Security direct deposit and other things moved from my old
DSFCU
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union
account to my new
AFCU
Arizona Federal Credit Union
.
What Clark Howard claims is so easy has involved the web, phone calls and an old fashioned letter. For example I was unable to do the Social Security online so had to spend an hour on the phone - most of the time on hold. Allianz required me to print out a form, fill it out and physically mail it to them in Minneapolis.
Fri Nov 3 = This evening I, with along with everyone in the area from India, went to the
Tempe Improv, 930 E University Dr; Tempe, AZ 85281 to see Indian Comedian, Vir Das at the 7:30 show. He was good, but I liked him better in some of his videos than in person.
- On the way I stopped by the E Camelback Rd LA fitness where I had time for the first half of a slow, heavy torso workout.
Sat Nov 4 = How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big is a book by Scott Adams, the creator of the famous Dilbert cartoons. What a guy and what a concept and what a fascinating interview. Bottom line: Live a system, not goals. Enjoy this 43-minute interview by Peter Adams (left) of Scott Adams (right):
- Today's trip started about 1:30. First stop was the home office of the Arizona Federal Credit Union for their US Experience, with all sorts of tents for food, credit scores, insurance, saving, technology etc. etc. Although I didn't have much time, I could have spent over an hour there and still not seen everything.
- Second stop was for the second half of my heavy, slow torso workout at LA Fitness on East Camelback Rd.
Sun Nov 5 = I impulsed, bringing back memories by reviewing some of my videos on YouTube. So far I have 166 videos, about kiteboarding and other subjects, but mostly about stand up comedy.
- I have been having padlock troubles after losing my cool Master 1500iD at a gym several days ago. Two replacements that I got from Home Depot did not work: couldn't open them. I'm glad I tried them out before using them to lock up my stuff in a gym locker.
Mon Nov 6 = I'm proud! My little IRIScan compact document scanner had started adding repeating horizontal distortion bars to its scanned images. After reading the instructions and doing some research online, I figured out how to calibrated the IRIScan by pressing several function buttons at the same time, scanning a blank white piece of paper. That fixed the problem, saving me a phone call or series of emails.
- At this evening's weekly Writer's Table at Comedy Off Main St in Mesa, Ricky offered to re-write my DR/Hand set with his ideas... provided that I will try it word-for-word before a live audience. So when I got home, I sent him my version as a DOC file.
- This evening there was the largest crowd yet for the
Time Out Lounge; 3129 S Mill Av; Tempe, AZ 85282: 25. They seemed to enjoy my Living to 100 and Maui SUP routines.
Tue Nov 7 = Tonight I did something that I have never done onstage. I almost read my routine. I had agreed with Rick Olson that I would perform, word for word, the Dominican Republic/Hand routine he wrote for me. I mostly read it from the page. First time in 1.5 years that I even had notes onstage. That is not my style, but it was interesting. This I did at both Dos Gringos and at Grand Avenue Pizza.
- Between those two appearances I worked in a 20-minute light, full-body, workout at the LA Fitness in South Tempe.
Wed Nov 8 = First thing this morning I took my van C & R Tire. As I suspected, it needed a new serpentine belt tensioner. It also needed a new serpentine belt. I saved the old one as a spare.
- I corrected my voter registration affiliation. Somehow they dad me down for the wrong political party.
- Website wise, I did the monthly rollover of my blog and updated the blog through yesterday.
- No comedy for me this evening, but I DID go to the gym for my slow, heavy, legs workout, which I HAD to do after having one of my Protein Frosties.
- Back home I ordered some USB type A and type C cords, a USB 3.0 hub and right angle adapter. I learned that you can tell a USB 3.0 Type A connector because the divider will be BLUE.
Thu Nov 9 = How about a smart umbrella from Shadecraft? It:
is solar powered
closes at night or if the wind picks up
senses where you are and adjusts to keep you in the shade
charges your devices
has motion sensors, cameras and wind sensors
is Wi-Fi connected
- This evening I made my monthly appearance at Improv Mania in Chandler. I did my Maui SUP routine, warming up for The Tempe Improv on the 19th.
Fri Nov 10 = Thanks to our veterans and those who are now serving to keep our country free. Also to their families.
- I got some goodies delivered yesterday and today:
You have probably seen what happens when you have an expert pianist who is also a comedian. Here is 2-minutes of the fun when Victor Borge was young, followed by 8 minutes of a crazy conductor when he was older. I particularly appreciate the second video, having played in several orchestras and having also done a little conducting, myself.
Sat Nov 11 = This morning I fine tuned and recorded my procedure for downloading electronic statements from
AFCU
Arizona Federal Credit Union
and
DSFCU
Desert Schools Federal Credit Union
.
The latter changed their entire format, which meant my redoing almost everything.
- After checking out all the comedians coming to the major comedy clubs here in the valley, this evening I went up to
Rick Bronson's House of Comedy; 5350 E. High Street #105
to see Jimmy Shubert. I saw several of my comedian friends there, including Jeff Piccirilli, who was the feature.
- How lucky can I be. Across the street and a little west is a brand new Anytime Fitness - so new that the wheels of the decline bench still had some of the shipping plastic wrappers on them. What a place for a light, fast legs workout. I was the only person there for most of my workout, until another guy came in for the stair machine.
Today I ordered
a Master Lock 1500iD Speed Dial padlock (it only works 10% of the time) to replace the one I got from Home Depot (that worked only one time) which I got to replace the one I lost (which works very well)
a pair of Master dial combination locks, to replace the Master Lock 1500iD Speed Dial lock that I had misplaced about a month ago
White 3' 3.0 USB Type A to C cable
Right 90° vertical 3.0 USB Type A adapter to give me more space to the right of my
XPS
Dell XPS-13 computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
for the mouse.
Sun Nov 12 = I drove over to see
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, Arizona
.
We had a good visit and George gave me stuff from his backyard garden.
- At The Phoenix Center for the Arts' Infuse Open Mic, it was unusual for all the comedians to have clean material. After my appearance there, I drove back to mesa for the scheduled Comedy Off Main Street open mic. The place was dark and closed. Canceled shows without notice seems to be too common.
- I was proud of myself when I was able to dig around in the CSS file for my Sumatra PDF reader and change the highlighted search color from yellow to blue. Goodness knows why they had chosen yellow, which is almost impossible to see.
- Tonight I came down with a sore throat. Not too bad... yet.
Mon Nov 13 = I tried to not talk too much, hoping that y voice will be 100% for my big (for me) appearance at the Tempe Improv.
- Without a whole lot of energy I drove back down to Comedy Off Main Street for the Writer's Table. There were five of us there, working on our various comedy projects and helping each other out. Good group.
Tue Nov 14 = I got a robo call from my urologist's office confirming my appointment with their PA. I canceled the appointment because it was supposed to be with my Doctor, who I have not yet met. With our mutual schedules, I will not be seeing him until the last week in January, 2018. No special concerns at this time.
- All day and all night, along with the sore throat, I have had a low-grade fever between 98.0° and 99.3° F.
- The next few days would be the prime period for passing out tickets to my Sunday appearance at The Tempe Improv, if I felt up to it. Unfortunately, I am not up to it without jeopardizing my ability to actually do the comedy due to my sore throat.
Wed Nov 15 = This 20-minute talk by Sir Ken Robinson at
TED2006
Technology, Entertainment and Design
is interesting on a lot of levels: Human Creativity, Brain Functioning, Presentation and Humor in a speech, including effective use of tag lines and toppers.
- Grocery shopping was on the agenda for today and I am about running out of some things, so I ventured out to Winco Foods, Fry's Food & Drug and Bashas'.
- Today I officially started my three-week countdown for my trip to Tobago. It is going to be four weeks because a week will be spent with family for our Holiday celebrations, which will be in early December.
Thu Nov 16 = Today I stopped using my voice almost entirely. I didn't make or receive any phone calls or even ask
Alexa
my Amazon Echo Dot which does unbelievable things in response to voice commands
to turn my lights on and off. I used my phone app instead, or used the old fashioned method of physically touching the switch modules.
- Live Chat seems to be the best way to work with
AFCU
Arizona Federal Credit Union
because a phone call typically takes at least a half hour - mostly on hold. my nearest branch is a 10-mile drive... each way. After four days of frustration, today, Jeff, there activated my remote check deposit feature, which is one of the reasons I moved to AFCU. It was so slick! The money was in my AFCU account within minutes.
Fri Nov 17 = I asked a friend, who runs a new, small comedy club, to look at my Press Kit and its VIDEOS for some feedback. He said, It's awesome better than anything I've received. Hopefully other club owners will like it... and my comedy routines as I try to book some summer gigs.
- The only talking I did today was a few must make phone calls, trying to locate a inoperable cell phone to use in videoing my appearances.
Sat Nov 18 = I ventured out today in spite of a low-grade fever, sore throat and mild headache. The Goodwill cargo pants that I have been using onstage for about a year are ready to fall apart - especially the pockets, which I have already patched. After considerable online research I found just about the perfect stage pants. You see, the cargo pockets have to be non-baggy, big enough for my electronics and high enough so my stuff does not bang around on my knees. At Target, I bought two pair of 32/30 Goodfellow Slim cargo pants: slim in the hip, thigh and leg. These should last me 'til I near my mid 80's. If something happens before then, they should be good for my funeral if no one can find a suit for me.
Sun Nov 19 = This morning I did the final tweak on my 5-minute routine tonight for The Tempe Improv. I hope I can do it OK. Well, that was a no-go, as I did not have the required ten guests, even after giving out 120 tickets to people who said they would come. It didn't help that I was sick and couldn't go out much the last week before the show. I guess people have other things to do.
Mon Nov 20 = Steve, owner of a Tesla Model S electric car, confirmed my rental of his car through Turo.com. I'll use it to drive over to Mesa with
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who is retired as a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS
for
George's
younger brother who lives in Mesa, AZ
70th birthday celebration a week from Saturday.
- I have my Yoga routine that I have been working on and tweaking to perfection, I thought, and have delivered around 100 times. Tonight, after The Writer's Table, I was told that I should throw the whole thing out and start all over. What a blow! After I picked myself up off the floor, and thought about it, here's what I decided. As a result, the routine might be improved and get more laughs. Also, in the process, I'll get more experience in writing comedy.
- After putting my name on the list for the Time Out Lounge I went across the street to an LA Fitness gym for a quick light full-body workout. I want to be in shape for a heavy legs workout on Wednesday.
- At the Time Out Lounge I tried some of the ideas suggested at The Writer's Table for my Yoga routine, to a mostly unresponsive audience of 11. I had to cough a couple times during the set to keep going with my sore throat. That's scary to me.
- Going to bed now, after a pretty rough week with my cold, sore throat, not getting on the Tempe Improv show and The Writer's Table.
Probably what a true FREE RANGE chicken looks like. CoverArtPrints
Tue Nov 21 = I spent some time jumping through hoops today, added full insurance coverage to my 1996 van so I'd have coverage with the Tesla, checked out other options and decided to stick with Steve's Tesla. I don't guarantee it is correct, but here's some Tesla information I gathered:
MODEL
BATTERY
RANGE
PERFORMANCE
NOTES
Model 3
50 kWh
220 miles
0-60 in 5.6 sec
11/22/17 - later battery technology
Model 3
70
310 miles
0-60 in 5.1 sec
11/22/17 - later battery technology
Model P85D
220 miles
0-60 in 4 sec
Insane Mode
0-60 in 3.2 sec
Model S P90 Ludicrous
0-60 in 2.8 sec
Roadster
220 kWh
620 miles
0-60 in 1.9 sec
Base Model, $200,000 introduced 11/22/17
- The table above is special. It took quite a while, but I created the HTML code for it in a spreadsheet. Hopefully the spreadsheet will pay off next time I need a table. If I remember to use it, all I'll have to do is plug new information into the spreadsheet. I left a note in the code of this web page to remind me.
- This evening I did a good light full-body workout at the LA Fitness at 32 St & Bell, then had a leisurely Goodwill shopping experience at 7th St & Union Hills where I bought some neat air-tight squarish clear plastic canisters.
Wed Nov 22 = I spent a lot of time today with issues concerning my disgusting Samsung LASER printer, organizing my stuff, contacting Samsung by online Chat, being told that warranty work for their printers is now being handled by HP, eventually finding that HP's website did not recognize my printer, trying and trying to find a human by phone or online chat and giving up on HP.
- My last hope was to phone Citibank for their extended warranty protection. I submitted all the stuff they required and it appears I may get reimbursement for the Imaging Unit I just ordered from Staples for about $60.
- I earned my Protein Frosty at LA Fitness gym in Moon Valley tonight with my first heavy legs workout in two weeks. Two weeks due to my cold. I just hope I did not overdo it.
- Overdoing it also includes stupidly staying up 'til 3am working on the above table and updating my website, but my Blog sure looks good, though!
- Earlier today I shaved off the hooks near the edges of two patches of Velcro to use in reattaching the digital meter holder to the dash of my van. This is industrial duty self-adhesive Velcro. You may know that self-adhesive things tend to eventually peel off - starting at an edge. Hopefully having no pull on the edges will alow this Velcro to stay on and the meters to not fall off.
Thanksgiving Nov 23 = I hadn't herd from anyone about their Thanksgiving plans so had my day planned out to work on my new Yoga routine and get the meters mounted in my van. Then a little before three,
George
younger brother who lives in Mesa, AZ
phoned and said I was invited to dinner at
Shane
My nephew, George's son who is an engineer for a high-tech company
's.
Of course I accepted. Lots of good family fun over there. On the way home I parked back of Rick Bronson's House of Comedy on High Street for an hour's nap in my van and then a heavy neck/inverted balance routine at the new Anytime Fitness across the street. The whole area was pretty much deserted.
Fri Nov 24 = FedEx delivered the Master 1500id Combination Padlock replacement. FedEx never puts packages at the back door as they're supposed to do. This driver knocked once on the front door, dumped the package, ran out to his truck and sped off.
- Today I started working my feet around in the foot straps of my twin-tip kite board to develop calluses for my Tobago trip. Also started hanging in my harness to toughen up my rib area for the kiteboarding.
- This evening I bought some Velcro at Home Depot (fresh stuff with good adhesive, hopefully), some tall kitchen trash bags at Dollar Tree and finished the slow, heavy arms workout I started yesterday.
Sat Nov 25 = I've given up on Samsung repair, as they have not returned my emails. A new imaging unit arrived for my Samsung Xpress M2835DW B&W Printer and the printer still streaks, just like before. I will be replacing the printer with an identical one from Fry's Electronics tomorrow. Why the same? It has the features I want, it got top reviews from Consumer's Report and I have toner and, now, a spare imaging unit for the printer.
- I have found out what I dislike, by my order of procrastination. Instead of writing comedy I accomplished other things that I have put off in the past, like straightening up my desk, starting my Christmas letter and cleaning off the kitchen counter. The comedy writing has a deadline: Tomorrow evening at Comedy Off Main St and Monday's writing class, so it WILL get done. Another thing that getts put off is the writing this blog and, especially, contacting comedy clubs for booking my spring trip. SHAPE UP, LOU!
Sun Nov 26 = Today I practiced some on my routine for tonight. My trip included:
Fry's Electronics where I bought a new toner cartridge, which fixed the printer
Guitar Center where I found an oversized mic microphone clip for my wireless mic
Comedy Off Main Street was closed up and no one there except eight of us comedians waiting on the sidewalk when the show was supposed to start at 7. When Scott did arrive he did not have the right key, he called Chris, the owner, who was accross town. We finally got in to the club at about 7:30. It turned out to be a pretty good for an open mic. I did revised Yoga routine.
- I got acquainted with a homeless man who came to the show. He even made his first on-stage open mic appearance. He was interesting. He makes a living entertaining people on street corners with his fancy flippy signs and antics. He even bought one of my T-Shirts
Mon Nov 27 = After laying in the sun today, I mostly straightened up the house for tomorrow's company, reviewed my routine tonight and got ready for this evening's Wirter's Table class. I printed out copies for the group of the transcript from my set last night. The group not only helped me with my routine, but helped me decide in what direction to take my comedy efforts.
Tue Nov 28 = MY 76th BIRTHDAY! This evening I picked
Stan
Stanley, my older brother who is retired as a machinist for Eaton Corporation in Hutchinson, KS
up from Sky Harbor to kick off a good brotherly visit.
- I heard that it is important that you don't get so stuck in the day-to-day that you forget the big picture. In other words, LOOK AHEAD! I need to remember that!
Wed Nov 29 = Stan and I sort of teched out today.
Thu Nov 30 = I took Stan up to the High Street Anytime Fitness. He walked around outside while I did a workout.
