Mon Feb 1 = This morning I contacted three TV stations about my frustrating experience scheduling for my second COVID-19 shot. This afternoon I got a phone call from Chanel 3's Whitney. We had a short visit and that was it.
- I decided it was time to start using my phone for my grocery shopping spreadsheet instead of the little, hard-to-read, Jornada 680 pocket computer I have been using for the last 20 years or so.
- The result of my research and a little trial and error is using Google's spreadsheet. Shopping with it was sort of slow, as you'd expect for my first time.
- Today's trip was to Winco Foods for my semi-monthly grocery shopping, LA Fitness to finish off my short slow heavy torso workout with torso rotations, deltoids and tibias and to Fry's to pick up some blackberries on sale.
- Got to bed at 10:32
Tue Feb 2 = My creative writing today was an email to Nike to see if they will send me a pair of their new Go FlyEase shoes. The shoes WOULD make my life easier.
- The rest of the day was tech-out day, with the arrival of my new Garmin Drive Smart 55 GPS receiver from Walmart and my 5'x7' pop-up background screens and stand from B&H Photo in New Jersey. I took a few test pictures with the blue and green chroma background colors, but could not get the background of either color to become usably transparent.
- Here's my background setup with the Chroma Blue/Green pop-up. Tomorrow I'll work with the white and black backgrounds.
- For the new GPS, I downloaded the instruction manual and only had to review it because the new GPS is pretty much like my old one, only with a few more features.
- Got to bed at 10:38
Wed Feb 3 = Taking new headshots today was kind of iffy. For ideal lighting I was hoping for a clear sky. It turned out to be partly cloudy. I decided it was good enough since I need to get the pictures done for the posters I'll be sending to Yuma as part of my publicity kit.
- In preparation for the photos, I did a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
which I followed with a warm bath - full hot, 98° F, with the water heater having been set on A, - My ideal time to start the pictures was 11:30, but I didn't get around to it until about noon. I took over 400 pictures before I got them pretty close to what I wanted.
I had the white balance set to automatic on my face and the white background turned out light blue. Next time I'll set the white balance to the white background. I'm not going to take the pictures again for that slight improvement.
- This afternoon I made a set of seven protein frosties with my new Ninja blender. I used to make six, but the Ninja, set on ice cream, beats so much air into them they esily fill seven 10oz containers.
- I was fortunate to know the founder of what is now
, 40 years ago. Today I learned that she, The Rev. Dr. Dosia Carlson, died of complications from COVID-19. She was active and involved with a positive attitude until the last.
- I had a protein frosty but never made it to a gym, taking and evaluating all my new headshots.
- As part of my Holdingcomedy set at El Charro Hipster I did a short tribute to Dosia Carlson.
- I checked with Celia Contreras, one of my gravitationally gifted comedy friends, for her reaction to my Basic Economy set which includes my experience with a BBW (Big Beautiful Woman). Celia said that she was not offended by it. I concluded that anyone who is is offended is probably over sensitive and out of line, although in the future I will consider those people.
- Got to bed at 11:09 :(
Thu Feb 4 = Last night I decided that I wanted to take additional headshots wearing a mask, so back to the set-up and more pictures. My goal is an Easter egg, so I have a mask when someone hovers over my image at the top of my web pages. Here's my set-up.
- Since I worked with the new images instead of I going to the gym I was later than I wanted to be to Adventurous Stills, so was 10th for my making fun of some of the comedians and the first part of my Maui routine. The dozen people there had a lot of fun and did a lot of laughing. Unfortunately later I accidentally deleted my audio recording :(
- Of course I was late to Improv Mania. I had decided to skip the show since it would put me home way late. Dave, the owner put me up earlier for my Yoga routine so I got to bed at a somewhat decent hour. Thanks, Dave!
- Got to bed at 11:13 :(
Fri Feb 5 = It helps to send to the correct email address. Today's project was to do that and, from Office Depot, order the Publicity Kit with a corrected poster to be sent to the Yuma VFW (left).
- The American Legion in Yuma came up with their own poster (center). It is interesting comparing their poster to mine (right).
- This evening I decided to crop, rescale and upload the new head shot for the top of my web pages. Naturally it took longer than expected so I...
- Got to bed at 11:02 :(
Sat Feb 6 = With someInternet research I tried about four different ways to get the picture at the top right of my web pages to wear a mask when you hover your mouse over it. Nothing worked out.
- The Urban Beans show was 100% comedians: All 10 performers, 11 counting me, the host.
- After the show I stopped by a gym for a short slow heavy arms workout, then at home, I worded some more on the hover mask-picture HTML... no success.
- I have added another learning element to my JUGGLING: counting my throws out loud, but waiting to say the number of the throw until the ball starts to come down. Hopefully that will make me more aware of the timing and when to throw the next ball.
- Got to bed at 10:39
Sun Feb 7 = This morning, wearing my Webmaster hat, I couldn't get the special headshot hover mask to work at the top of all my web pages, so I've got it only on my Comedy Home Page, to the left of the microphone. Hover your mouse over this headshot:
- Recuva is a PC program to resurrect deleted files, with which I have never had much luck. Today I learned how to use it, recovering some test files, but, unfortunately, could not recover the recording at
Adventurous Stills on Thursday which I had accidentally deleted from my Sony ICD body mic because I had overwritten the file.
- This afternoon, wearing my Graphic Artist hat, I made five posters for my shows in different veterans' posts in Texas and Arkansas.
- I made it to the Planet Fitness gym for a short slow heavy torso workout.
- About bedtime I started watching today's Super Bowl commercials. After bedtime, I still hadn't seen them all, so I have something to look forward to tomorrow.
- Got to bed at 10:55 :(
Mon Feb 8 = Elon Musk and his Space X corporation are using ion thrusters to position his Starlink satellites into their orbits. Here is a Gridded Electrostatic Ion Thruster:
- With my Graphic Artist Hat on I made eight more posters, which will take me through May and the eastbound portion of my road tour. When I was on a roll it took about six minutes per poster.
- Then, wearing my Booker's Hat I sent out emails, due to the fluid situation with COVID-19, to confirm some shows.
- Folding the 5x7' pop-up background screens is a challenge. I spent about a half hour watching videos and practicing. Got pretty good at it although I still don't look cool in the process.
- Got to bed at 10:30
Tue Feb 9 = Most of today I was as a publicist, contacting veterans' posts and putting together four Publicity Kits that Office Depot will print up and send out to some posts in Arizona, Texas and Arkansas ahead of my tour.
- I lucked out by NOT getting drawn for this evening's Armature Night at House of Comedy. At noon I had put in for the drawing on FaceBook, but got so involved in arranging for some of my Publicity Kits to be sent out that I forgot to check back on FaceBook at 3pm to see if I was drawn. During the show, which I had completely forgotten about, I was arranging for and ordering a Publicity Kit for a VFW Post in El Paso.
- I did get two or three JUGGLING sessions in.
- Before supper I went to Albertson's to buy about six pounds of grapes on sale at 75¢ a pound. On the way I just couldn't resist stopping by the next-door Anytime Fitness gym for a light full-body workout ahead of my legs workout scheduled for tomorrow.
- Got to bed at 10:42
Wed Feb 10 = Last night I decided to take more headshots, only with over exposed backgrounds, so this morning I set up all my portrait stuff again, adding high-powered LED floodlights to light the background. Hopefully this will result in images that can be manipulated better to use for new business cards etc.
- I have been ignoring a frosty bag of cranberries in my freezer for six years. This morning I tried one of the cranberries and it was delicious, so next time I run low on grapes I'll thaw out and switch to cranberries.
- Something new for my comedy: The first of each week, all at one time, I'll decide on the likely topics for all my comedy appearances for the week. That way I will have more time to think about tweak the topics.
- Marcella and I booked a show, Sun Mar 14, 2021; 7:00pm;
American Legion Post 19; 2575 S Virginia Dr; Yuma, AZ 85364. That will be three Yuma shows in one weekend, making my 3-hour drive to Yuma worth while.
- On the way to the El Charro Hipster Open Mic I stopped by LA Fitness gym and did a short slow heavy legs workout.
- I got to El Charro Hipster about two hours before the show, so was able to sign up second, following Celia Contreras. I had taken my computer so made the poster for the new Yuma show, checked my email and updated three of my web pages. Three to nine of us comedians had fun sitting around hamming it up before the show started.
- My set was a lot of fun, especially at the end when I did a callback to a motion that I had learned just before the show, referring to a comedian trying to cover himself in the hole he just dug.
- After the show, here at home, I picked up my mail, which included the weekly grocery adds. I put the few sale items into the Google Spreadsheet on my Pixel 4a phone and, in the process, learned how to input, edit, search and sort.
- Got to bed at 10:31
Thu Feb 11 = This was headshot day, round four. Today, with lighted backgrounds. Of course it started with a bath and a freshly spiked, but thinning, quiff. I took about 240 additional pictures with four background colors at three distances. Yes, I achieved my goals.
- As you can see from the left picture, I added two 100W (equivalent to 550W each) daylight floodlights to guarantee the even overexposure of the white, chroma green and chroma blue backgrounds. Of course I opened the vertical blinds for left-side lighting. The southwest window provided the catch lights. For the black background (right picture), I shut off the floodlights and added an opaque reflector/shield to direct the light from the northeast window from the background and to me. The stick is for framing the shots and the red marker indicates the location of my eyes.
- Good comedy evening in Tempe and Chandler, although I got home too late.
- My impulsiveness (trying to complete things while I'm at it - especially my blog, website or doing something on the Internet) is going to be the death of me. At my age, that could be a serious matter.
- Tonight it was finding, analyzing and purging some humongous four-hour files on my
ICD
little stereo Sony ICD-UX560 voice recorder that I use for taking notes and for recording the audio of all my comedy appearances
from back in May, 2019... while I was uploading tonight's audio files. This is my version of the media's, "...but first..." tease tag. All that made sense to me when I wrote it :)
- Got to bed at 12:10am with a headache :( JUGGLING RECORD in my middle-of-the-night practice session: I caught all 30 balls with the two-hand two-ball practice.
Fri Feb 12 = I had a mild headache most of the day due to getting to bed so late last night. One thing I seem to have lost, getting older, is the ability to effectively bank up on sleep.
- I organized and standardized the format of the paste-in information that I use for my bubble tags and other HTML stuff. This will make managing my website a little more efficient.
- Just before supper I scheduled four landscapers to come over and check on maintaining my yard for me.
- After supper, on 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
, I ran across about nine talk-show files that accidentally got downloaded to DOWNLOADS instead of one of my
ICD
little stereo Sony voice recorder that I use for listening to my favorite podcasts
recorders, so I put the shows on the ICD that I use for listening to podcasts.
- For JUGGLING, I am now trying to count my catches rather than my throws. That should give me a better indication of any progress I make.
- Got to bed at 9:57 :) - early to get up early for a landscaper to look at my yard.
Sat Feb 13 = Today was landscaping day. I had four landscapers scheduled to look at taking care of my low-maintenance yard for the next year. Two neither showed up nor contacted me, one spoke no English and another came early and talked my socks off. On the average all were perfect.
- The big trip this afternoon and evening was to a gym for a torso workout, Urban Beans for the variety show, home for supper, to the State Farm Stadium in Glendale for my second COVID-19 vaccine and to Winco Foods for my semi-monthly grocery shopping.
- At Urban Beans there was a small in-and-out audience of 15, including the six performers -all were comedians except Mystre Roberts who did poetry. I had my RECORD 11,000th audience count, Andrew Chung, so I gave him my traditional $5.
- At Winco I spent more money than usual, but not nearly the $320 of this group of five Spanish speaking gentlemen.
Sun Feb 14 = HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! This morning another landscaper came by to look at my yard. He said he would send me a bid.
- Finance Day: I projected budget through May, paid off all my credit cards, downloaded my credit union statement and checked off the posted items.
- I updated my medical records with the COVID-19 vaccine on my computer & then backed up online.
- By evening I was low on energy with a headache, which I had expected while my body was making antibodies from the COVID-19 vaccine. During the night my fever peaked at 100.7
- Got to bed at 9:40
- Got to bed at 10:58 with a sore arm and slight headache :(
Mon Feb 15 = It was a publicity morning, sending information to various veterans' posts.
- Afternoon was for graphic arts when I made the final decision on which head shots to use and changed my poster templates and magnetic sign files accordingly.
- My checking account resolved on the first try, which was a surprise considering I had been chiseling away at the project in a piecemeal fashion for several days.
- Got to bed at 10:18
Tue Feb 16 = This morning I had a nice phone call with
Cindy
my younger brother George's wife
. She and George will be heading up to their Christopher Creek place tomorrow to make sure it is ready for the comming cold snap. They just got most of their things unpacked for their new Mesa house.
- This evening I went up to
Rick Bronson's House of Comedy on High Street for a special show because Rick Bronson, himself was going to be there critiquing the comedians lucky enough to be drawn from the bucket for three minutes of stand up. Of course, my name was not drawn, but it was a good show anyway.
- Got to bed at 10:33
Wed Feb 17 =This morning, in the booking department, the bar manager and I canceled my Sunday Mar 14th show for the American Legion Post 19 in Yuma by mutual agreement. I did invite them to come to my two other Yuma shows:
- For today's big project I organized a naming system and renamed all 22 new images of me WITHOUT GLASSES for my Electronic Press Kit
.
- I quit reading Sherlock Holmes and continued where I had left off with Mark Twain. I've had all that I can stand for a while of Arthur Conan Doyle's evil minds.
- I lay in the sun for a total of 20 minutes at noon. More vitamin D!
- I stopped by LA Fitness Gym for a 10-minute slow heavy legs workout on the way south to El Charro Hipster where I signed up for spot number 1 :)
- While waiting for about two hours for the show to start, I went out to my van's office and computer to redo the entire Media Images section of my Press Kit. My van was a good place, quiet and without interruptions, because I needed concentration, dealing with 24 images of various types and related links. The result is below.
- For comedy, this week, I am doing my Introducing Arizona Lou/History set with revisions in preparation for the Yuma shows next month. It went pretty well tonight at El Charro Hipster.
- Got to bed at 11:00 :(
Thu Feb 18 = Wearing my Graphics Hat today I phoned my daughter, Anne, in Maryland to get an opinion about my head shots from her public relations viewpoint. I mediately started working to implement her ideas.
- Mountainside Fitness was the first stop on my trip, supposedly on the way to Tempe for a comedy show. After a
poster trim
weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
, a shower and a short slow heavy arms workout I turned around and drove back home to get my body mic recorder and cell phone. It is a sad state of affairs when I don't remember to count to four so I have all the stuff I need. Fortunately, it involved only 10.6 miles additional driving.
- I was first on the list for both of the
Adventurous Stills and
Improv Mania
shows tonight :) so I got home, had time to upload audio recordings of my sets and still get to bed early. - Got to bed at 10:30
Fri Feb 19 = Since
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife sold their house in Mesa, Arizona and are now in Christopher Creek.
were in downtown Phoenix, they drove up here and we went to a nearly Hobby Bench to look for something as a housewarming for their new house. We didn't find anything but certainly got a lot of ideas.
- More on my headshots: I put a new picture of me on FaceBook without glasses and updated my profile a little.
- My landscaper, Pedro, came over and trimmed my shrubs a little. the yard looks nice.
- LA Fitness, Moon Vally was the location of my slow heavy torso workout. Although the workout was shortened some, I did more back exercises than with my usual shortened torso workout.
- Google is giving me problems. When I click on my website at the top of their search results, their search engine pulls up a an illegal online pharmacy site that may include malware. Other search engines like Bing and Duck Duck Go do not have this problem
- For the first time, the other day, I shortened one of my YouTube videos. Today I noticed that the audio was about 20 seconds or so out of sync, so I deleted the video and uploaded this 1:30 good version of the shortened video:
- Got to bed at 10:44
Sat Feb 20 = This morning I went to Anytime Fitness to see my new landscaper, Larry and to meet his wife, Donna... and to do a light full-body workout
- At Larry's suggestion, I made a cover to keep the sun off my drip controller, using an old windshield sunshield. I made a second cover as a spare, since they may not be very durable
- On the way south for the
Urban Beans show I host, I stopped by Karsten's Ace Hardware for nail-in feet for the stage and a rope for the grip stick I use in the gym.
- For the show we had ten performers who made 11 performances including guitar, singing, rapping, poetry and, of course, comedy. Total audience count was 16. Thanks to the feet I installed on the stage, it was solid as a rock for a change rather than rocking and rolling while teetering on the irregular stone patio floor surface.
- Got to bed at 10:34
Sun Feb 21 = I stayed in pretty much the whole day, working on stuff
- Fake Spot finds the best prices and shipping on things in exchange for giving some of your information to advertisers. I decided it is not for me.
- This morning I was going to spend a few minutes shortening the dead time between some segments of an
video I sometimes use with my shows. I decided to do fade transitions, so spent half a day learning how and doing it with CyberLink Power Director 18.
- This afternoon I tweaked and printed out the B&W backs of 50 sheets of 8-up mini-poster slips (white) and 6-up email request slips (pink), saving a little time and about $8.60, printing them while I'm on the road.
- Got to bed at 10:39 :(
Mon Feb 22 = Larry, my new landscaper came over this morning and applied preemergence pellets and watered them in. He even brought his own garden hose. He loves taking care of yards and making things grow. What a guy!
- Naturally, before bedtime I think of one more thing to do which will take too long for getting to bed on time. Tonight it was ordering single-vision prescription glasses from Zenni Optical as an experiment for $16.85, just to see what it is like to see with perfect 20/20 distance vision instead of the almost-perfect vision I now have without glasses.
- Got to bed at 10:42 :(
Tue Feb 23 = This morning I mostly wore my Booker's Hat.
- This afternoon I had an appoint at Mountainside Fitness with Matt, the head trainer. It was an interesting and educational session.
- This afternoon I also took an hour's nap, knowing that I would likely be out late tonight.
- This evening I went to Jon Carden's farewell show at
Rick Bronson's House of Comedy. Jon is going to continue his comedy career in Austin, TX. For the show, ten of the area's best comedians took the stage followed by their roast of Jon.
- I finally saw all three at once in one place: Jon Carden, Rob Maebe and Mike Enders No wonder I have gotten them confused; all about the same age, height, similar voices, bald and with a big beards. After the show Mike snapped this pic, which is now at the bottom of my FANS.
Mike Enders at Rick Bronson's House of Comedy, Phoenix
- Got to bed at 11:53
Wed Feb 24 = I organized doing something each day in each of nine categories. We'll see if the organization helps me get more of the important stuff done.
ICD notes from last night
Emails
Website
Comedy routine
Bookings
Publicity
Finance/Buying
House - clean etc
Health/Gym
- I stopped by the Colonnade LA Fitness Gym for a short slow heavy legs workout on the way south. Because I forgot my
XPS
Dell XPS-13 laptop computer with 13.3" touch screen, 60WHr Integrated Battery, Windows 10, Intel 7th Generation Core i7 CPU, 16gb memory and 1TB SSD
I drove all the way back home to get it then to El Charro Hipster where I arrived in time to sign up for spot number 1, but instead took #4 which is sort of my sweat spot.
- While waiting for the show to start I worked on my website, mostly my blog, at one of the tables. I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but did get in a little socializing which is also important.
- My Minivan/Kids and Anemometer routines were a big hit.
- Back at home I ordered a new spare power adapter for for my XPS to replace the one that quit working.
- Got to bed at 10:37
Thu Feb 25 = I wasted about an hour tracking a Publicity Kit to Searcy, AR that Office Depot showed had not yet been delivered, when it actually had been, three days ago. Office Depot needs to give four missing pieces of information on their Order Tracking/Detail page. The:
date the order was shipped
carrier
tracking number
up-to-date tracking information showing when it was delivered
- Tonight was probably my last Thursday for the Tempe/Chandler comedy circuit as I will be winding down for my annual road tour. On the way I did a short slow heavy arms workout at Esporta Fitness gym and drove down to Urban Beans to pick up the little suitcase, that contains my T-Shirts, that I had left out on their patio on Saturday. Thanks, Urban Beans for watching out for me and my stuff!
- The audience at
Adventurous Stills tonight was only seven, but they were fun... three non-comedians!
- At
Improv Maniathe host, Zac Allen, gave me a good introduction and the audience of 35 gave an even bigger cheer when I walked onto the stage :) My Opening Act and Anemometer routines were a lot of fun. The audience gave another big cheer when I walked off the stage. I was fourth on the list and fourth on the show, having arrived over 1.5 hours before showtime.
- Got to bed at 10:09
Fri Feb 26 = This morning I made a couple of venue posters and ordered one of my Publicity Kits to be sent out for a veteran's post in San Antonio.
- I worked on my merchandise display - particularly the price lists and Albums' Contents since I am no longer calling them Flash Drives.
- I bought some .030 thick plastic at Hobby Lobby for a new 3x6" plastic folder to protect the mini show posters I'll be carrying on tour in my pocket. It was twice as thick as the .013" I wanted, but was all I have been able to find.
- Got to bed at 11:05 :(
Sat Feb 27 = I'm still working on my merch display information sheets.
- Urban Beans was was one of the best shows since November with 12 performers and a total audience count of 28.
- Got to bed at 10:44
Sun Feb 28 = This morning I ordered a DISINO 1/4 Mono to 3.5mm Stereo Adapter, Gold Plated 6.35mm TS Male Plug to 1/8 inch TRS Female Audio Connector - 2 Pack since I can't find the one I had custom made for me in Cincinnati in July. I will use it if I have to connect the output my PA system to the imput of a venue PA system using my 1/8 inch stereo extension cables.
- This afternoon I laminated a bunch of sheets to use with my merch displays while on the phone with with
George & Cindy
my younger brother and his wife who live in Mesa, AZ.
. Cindy is mostly flat on her back, recovering from Thursday's surgery on her left eye.
- Got to bed at 10:37
