Blog Archive 2024 Jan
Mon Jan 1 = HAPPY NEW YEAR! and welcome to tax season :(
- Seven times a year my meals get wonky. You see, I have even-day
meals and odd-day meals. Because December has 31 days, yesterday and today were both odd days so I did two days of a combination odd/even meals.
- Before supper I drove to Planet Fitness for a light, fast torso workout
- At least on that trip the new Velcro on my van refrigerator passed muster - the refrigerator did not tip over with my left-hand turns, even with the heavy compressor end to the right.
- Today's comedy project was making venue-specific posters & media files and sending them out as electronic publicity kits to the two American Legions is the San Fernando Valley where I am booked for shows the first part of March. The process was slow because I was out of practice and had to update my Brochure and Publicity Kit Instructions.
- While I was at it I also better organized my source file locations and naming scheme. I have t act like I'll remember nothing when I start again, near the last of January.
- OK, so I can afford a new blue pencil that becomes almost invisible in photocopies, but to me it is the challenge of minimizing the use of resources. Also it is not always easy to find just the right shade of blue. I retired my last blue pencil when it got so short it was no longer usable in the special stub-holder I made. Top (left) is the retired stub and the stub holder, which is adjustable depending on the length of the stub. Bottom is the new blue pencil I had in reserve.
- Got to bed at 10:45 for 9:05 hours of sleep and 2.3 pees
Tue Jan 2 = It took a while this morning to reactivate my old Yahoo email account because I had let it lapse. Now I have it on my calander for TWICE a year.
- I feel good about today:
- It was an even meals day, which is my favorite
- I made three booking phone calls using my new technique
- Make one call from my past pending task list
- Make one initial call to an American Legion post (if it has its hours listed online) from my active posts list
- Make one initial call to a VFW post (if it has its hours listed online) from my list of those who have hosted district meetings
- 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
- Got a haircut at Kings Barber Shop, one week behind schedule due to my cold
- Drove to Mountainside Fitness for
- a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
- Poo
- Shower
- Medium-weight full-body workout
- Three new fans
- Came home for a turkey sandwich supper
- Got two booking phone calls (one from California and one from Pennsylvania)
- Got to bed at 10:40 for 9:01 hours of sleep and 2 pees (pretty good for me)
Wed Jan 3 = This morning I drew icons for my five minutes in tomorrow night's open mic. I'll be talking about, at my age and getting a cold.
-
- Today I worked hard at booking shows for my spring/summer comedy tour. Didn't get any new shows booked but did score
158 on
- The Booking Game
- a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- This evening I went to LA Fitness and had a nice visit with my friend Tim who owns the Power Station juice bar there. Of course I showed off my new Headshot T-shirt. I also got a new fan:
- This evening I could hardly stay awake at my computer so shook things up a little. I did my shopping list and downloaded and read parts of the manual for a Diamond D-40 airplane.
- On social media I also posted tomorrow night's 7pm open mic show at
Wayward Tap House;
1028 Grand Ave;
Phoenix, AZ 85007.
- Got to bed at 10:29 for 10:16 hours of sleep and 3.5 pees
Thu Jan 4 = This morning I planned out a perfect day. It didn't quite turn out that way. The getting ready part was preparing to meet with my comedian friend Josh Boyle to learn abou making videos with
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
.
I certainly need to get some instruction and see a good demonstration. I was taking a nap when Josh textd me to make sure I was still on for this afternoon so missed seeing or answering his text.
- I ate an early lunch and drove down to Whole Foods, for the produce part of my shopping. Why Whole Foods? because I received a gift certificate and it was on the way to Josh's studio.
- Next stop was Josh's studio. Since I missed his text I did not know he was not going to be there, so waited by his studio door for about a half hour then went out to my van, worked on my computer a little, checked my emails and took a 15-minute nap.
- It was still about an hour until I needed to be at Wayward, so I went to the downtown Phoenix EōS Fitness for my first heavy arms workout since coming down with a cold about three weeks ago and three new fans:
- I got to Wayward Tap House a few minutes before 5:00 and was the first comedian there and got to pick my spot, so chose slot #8 for my new Old Cold routine. The show celebrated the two-year anniversary of the beginning of the Wayward Open Mics and a tribute to my comedian friend and poet, Theodore Chris, who succumbed to a cancer-related infection, still in his 60's.
- Got to bed at 10:54 for 9:26 hours of sleep and 2.4 pees
Fri Jan 5 = This may look dangerous, but alltogether everything takes less than 50 watts. This is the way I charge the pack that powers my 10" monitor screen and the five cameras before a recording session.
- Since I had no idea of what to expect, I took my five fully charged camcorders and three tripods. The situation, it turns out, was not good for any video recording. Also I was parked three blocks away.
- I forgot to turn on my audo recorder for my approximately six-minute set. Dustin Headlock, the producer, did the best he could for rounding up an audience for me. He got four: a middle-aged couple and a couple of teen-aged boys. Along with the people who got an earful as they walked by, I counted a total audience of 12, bringing it to 39,510 since I started doing stand up comedy ten years ago.
- After my set I packed up my little table and T-shirts, walked back to my van and drove to the
Stir Crazy Comedy Club in
Glendale north of the Cardinal's Stadium to see comedian, James P Connolly. In addition to one of their healthy salads, since it was my treat night I had half of one of their chocolate brownie ice cream disearts. The other half I shared with a couple at the next table.
- On the way home I stopped by Winco Foods to finish up my semimonthly shopping.
- Altogether on today's trip I got four new fans: two at First Friday and two at Winco.
- Got to bed at 11:55 for 9:11 hours of sleep & 2.4 pees
Sat Jan 6 = Today I made some booking contacts for a score of
88 on - The Booking Game
- a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
- Made one call from my past pending task list
- Made one initial call to an American Legion post (if it has its hours listed online) from my active posts list
- Made one initial call to a VFW post (if it has its hours listed online) from my list of those who have hosted district meetings
- Made some scheduled followup phone calls
- The first action for my 2025 tour was today, printing out the four calendar grid sheets for 2025, on four different colors of paper. Next step will be to fill in the dates.
-
- 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
- Anticipating maybe using social media more I educated myself about hashtags and added a TikTok tab to my Firefox Browser's home page.
- Today's gym visit was to Planet Fitness for a heavy torso workout and a new fan:
- This evening I researched external USB drives for backups.
- It was way past my bedtime by the time I joined Amazon Prime (free for a month) and ordered two
Crucial X9 SSDs as well as a second clamp-on camera pole to use for hanging a headshot T-shirt at my merch tables on tour.
- Got to bed at 11:59 for 9:11 hours of sleep and 2.5 pees.
Sun Jan 7 = It is always unexpected, and I really appreciate it, when people return my tour booking phone calls. This morning it was from the American Legion in Glenside (Wyndmoor), PA. Thank you, Jess!
- Practice pays off; at least I thought it did today. On a special page on my website, I spent four minutes of intense practice signing up for Wednesday's show at
Stir Crazy. Then on their website, although I was not perfict when actually signing up, I got in. Guess others trying to sign up were not perfect either. I congratulated myself until I received an email from Stir Crazy saying that I was not selected. I went back and read their web page. They have changed their procedures. Now comedians have an hour to sign up and the Stir Crazy system randomly selects 10 of them to participate. I was not selected.
- So I had to remove the Wednesday appearance that I had scheduled on my website and discard the 32 microposters I had made for the event.
- You lose some and you win some. In the winning department this evening I got an email that on Wed Jan 17th at 7:30pm I'll be at
CB Live;
Desert Ridge (21001 N. Tatum Blvd); Phoenix, AZ 85050. If you're interested in going you'll get in free if before 7:00, you show this ticket to the box office or say you're there to see
Arizona Lou
- After supper I went to the 19 Ave & Bell Crunch Fitness for a light fast legs workout and two new fans
- Deciding to get some value out of my free month of Amazon Prime, this evening I watched my first Prime movie, "Interstellar" starring Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon. It will probably be my last due to Amazon Prime's limited selection.
- Got to bed at 11:26 for 8:51 hours of sleep, allowing for losing about 16 minutes at 4:50 this morning, after being awakened by the back yard remote thermometer alarm I had set to 29° F, to protect my natal plum plants from freezing by covering them with flannel sheets.
Mon Jan 8 = Today was a good day for booking. My previous day's phone calls paid off because I booked two shows in PA, scoring
143 on
- The Booking Game
- a game I devised to score when I work on booking comedy shows
.
- Before leaving on today's trip I made 104 8-up microposter tickets for the New Faces show at 7:30 on Wed the 17th at
CB Live;
Desert Ridge (21001 N. Tatum Blvd); Phoenix, AZ 85050.
- My exercycle has a new home! It did not sell a few months ago on Craig's List. I wanted to get it out of the house so put it out by the curb for the City of Phoenix bulk trash pick up with a note saying, "Works perfectly except for the right pedal." Within a couple hours it was gone. Someone got a steal of a deal.
- Before supper, my trip was to Aldi (out of their famous cinnamon rolls), Fry's Food (for expensive eggnog), Winco (to exchange a sliced box of Grapenuts), Crunch Fitness (for a light fast arms workout and two new fans) and to Albertsons (for their on-sale blueberries, blackberries and Yogurt).
- This evening
- George
- younger brother who lives in Mesa, Arizona
and I had a good phone chatt.
- Got to bed at 11:45 for 8:59 hours of sleep. I got up early in the morning for 43 minutes to phone PA about a comedy show. Bubber there said they have been sick and, "Not this year." That was good for me... one less VFW post to worry about contacting.
Tue Jan 9 = This morning I made some good booking phone calls, ate an early lunch, took a nap and got ready for this afternoon's trip to see...
-
Josh Boyle at his
Heavy Feathers studio. We spent about 3.5 hours teching out. He helped me to understand
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
better. Josh was glad to accept 17" and 21" monitors from me and I was glad to get them off the floor of my office. I helped him hook up the 21" monitor and extend his Mac's desktop to it and his big (probably 43") monitor.
- Josh became my latest fan. What a guy!
- Got to bed at 10:40 for 9:19 hours of sleep, getting up to pee only 2.4 times and setting a recent record sleep 4:26 without peeing.
Wed Jan 10 = First thing after breakfast this morning I drove 2.5 miles to my nearby Aldi before they opened at 9:00 to buy a package of their legendary cinnamon rolls that have a tendency to sell out by the time I get there. I bought a pack of six. No wonder they're legendary: They are covered with sugur frosting, which I have never bought, but this is an experiment. I put them in the freezer and will cut them in half for my Monday night treets. The pack should last me about 12 weeks, with a couple Hostess Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cakes thrown in.
o Hostess cakes are 170 calories with 5g of fat and 19g of sugars.
o Half an Aldi roll is 120 calories with 6g of fat and 12.5g of sugar.
- Back home I made a few booking phone calls and then headed out to Albertson's for grapes on sale and a new fan, Costco to fill up with gas and to Mountainside Fitness for a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
shower, brief slow heavy legs workout and two new fans.
- I made it home in time to
- 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 evening I added my newly received hard drives to my Speed Tests spreadsheet.
- Got to bed at 10:50 for 9:09 hours of sleep with only 1.3 pees and another recent record of a 4:30 sleep
Thu Jan 11 = I had arranged a booking phone call to PA this morning at 8:30 my time. No one answered the phone :( Later I phoned the post and the gal who answered the phone made an executive decision and scheduled the show for Jul 19th. Thank you, Cindy!
- The ret of the morning I spsent checking the read and write speeds of the 256GB SanDisk flippy drive (USB A & C) drive I got from Tom Taylor, executive Director of PAC 14 in Salisbury, MD.
- The main result of my tests is that Type C USB can be a lot faster than type A (no surprise). Type C with a 9" cable is 20 times as fast as with a 6.5' cable.
- No gym today.
- This afternoon, in preparation for my meeting with Joey Capuana at
Wayward Tap House, I went over all the audio notes I left last night on my voice recorder. Joey is going to help me with social media.
- It was an interesting evening with Joey and the show.
- I sold a Headshot T-shirt to my comedian friend Daniel Bright, to go with the Stool Logo one he bought over four years ago.
- Got to bed at 10:48 for 9:27 hours of sleep, 1.5 pees and another record 4:500 hours maximum sleep
Fri Jan 12 = I checked out the seven comedy clubs in the valley and bought tickets for Jeff Ross at Stand Up Live in downtown Phoenix.
- On the way I stopped across the street at the Downtown EōS Fitness for a heavy arms workout and two new fans. The guys at the front desk were excited to see me, as you might guess from CJ's appearance (2nd picture below).
- At the comedy club Jeff put on a good show. The people at my table became my fans when they found that I was "America's Favorite Old Man" for a total of 10 fans today. Live
- Got to bed at 11:45 for 9:10 hours of sleep with 2.4 pees
Sat Jan 13 = This morning and half the afternoon I teched out although I had not planned it that way.
- Like a good boy, I updated 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 know the computer's password, but in the process I was asked my Apple ID password. Naturally that information is... on the Mac, which I could not access without the password.
-
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.
to the rescue. This is the little computer I used for a while after 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 that died on tour in Texas in April, 2023
died. I found a file on it that had the password information I needed and got my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
going again.
- While I had the Alcatel out I embarked on a big, maybe week-long, project. I have made audio and video recordings of over 99% of my performances but the recordings are somewhat scattered, especially since my XPS died. For the last three years I have been using EaseUS to do my XPS backups, which creates a big bundle of a file that is readable only by EasUs, which is a Windows program and brings the Alcatel into the picture. I started it copying the show files from my 1TB Western Digital spinning drive to a new little 2TB SSD before this evening's trip. Estimated time to copy: 7:30.
- The trip was to Planet Fitness where I did a heavy torso workout and got these two new fans:
- When I got home the Alcatel had quit so I had to start copying all over. Learning my lesson, I set the Alcatel to never sleep or turn off while plugged in.
- I did the first preliminary step for making a new batch of my protein frosties by starting a fresh new batch of ice "cubes" with my refrigerator's ice maker after emptying out the old shrunken ones because, the way the dispenser works, they do not make good crushed ice.
- Got to bed at 10:32 for 9:28 hours of sleep with 2.5 pees
Sun Jan 14 = The big project today was to continue finding my show media backups.
- Under a clear blue sky with about a 56° F
temperature 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 was today's quick trip to four Goodwill Stores looking for a warm ski-type jacket (found none) and to LA Fitness for a brief light legs workout.
- During yesterday's drive my van refrigerator tipped over (with left-hand turns) because, when in the non-motorhome mode the heavy compressor is to the right. The velcro held but its 10-year old adhesive let go. Andicipating that that might happen I, fortunately, had a pillow for the refrigerator to land on.
- On the way home from the gym and Goodwill I stoped by Home Depot for some 15-pound hevy duty Velcro with the latest new adhesive. I tested the velcro and noticed that it was stronger in one direction than the other so mounted it on the refrigerator accordingly. I also moved the anchor velcro to the van's threshold closer to the refrigerator for more of a sheer pull.
- After supper I did some up-and-around projects:
- Hoping that we have had our last freeze, I folded up and stowed all of my natal plumb night-time flanel sheet covers.
- This evening, on MailChimp, I changed my audience to 472 contacts from the Phoenix area.
- Got to bed at 11:27 for 8:59 hours of sleep and only one pee, although I was "full of it" when I got up :)
Mon Jan 15 = 10:53am MST (12:53pm ET, MailChimp time) I sent out 472 emails announcing Wednesday's show.
Within 40 minutes
- 464 emails were delivered
- 25 were opened
- 0 were clicked
- 8 bounced
- 1 unsubscribed
- "Warning: Using a DYMO printer on a Mac is the most difficult setup and while it is supported, we do not recommend this setup." That's what I got when I tried to use my Dymo 280 label printer with my
- Mac
- the MacBook Pro I got in May 2023, with an m2 Max processor 64GB of memory and a 2TB SSD hard drive
.
- According to Google, here's where I traveled last year, never getting out of the USA:
- I was in a bad mood when I went to Anytime Fitness for a light arms workout. No wonder, I had just paid over $4,000 in estimated taxes to the IRS and state of Arizona.
My mood improved after I got these two new fans:
- I came home to find the 2 TB
Crucial X9 SSD had been delivered from Best Buy, giving me a total of five to use for backing up my MacBook and for my show media files.
- Two tarabyte drives? each drive can hold about 1,000 million pages of text, which would be a stack of paper, printed on one side, a little over 775 miles high. Altogether my five new drives could hold a stack 3,877 miles high.
- Got to bed at 11:30 for 9 hours of sleep w 2.3 pees
Tue Jan 16 = It took me 49 minutes to do the monthly payoff of my six credit cards
- At 12:53 pm today, 26 hours after sending out the 422 emails through MailChimp yesterday:
- 464 were delivered
- 104 (22%) were opened
- 0 were clicked
- 8 bounced
- 3 unsubscribed
- After lunch I took a 20 minute nap then posted tomorrow's CB Live appearance on FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram:
Come tomorrow, laugh your head off and be a part of my taping for social media. You'll also have a chance to see other comedians, new and old and buy one of my new Headshot T-shirts (all profits going to Alzheimer's research).
Tomorrow Wed Jan 17, 2024; 7:30pm; CB Live; Desert Ridge (21001 N. Tatum Blvd); Phoenix, AZ 85050.
No charge for admission if, before 7:00, you show this ticket to the box office or say you're there to see "Arizona Lou".
- Swinging into action prematurely seems to be one of my tendencies. Before starting this afternoon's trip I wasted some time, paper and money by making 32 more CB Live microposters. (After the trip I found 32 extra ones in my van).
- Then off to Mountainside Fitness for a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
shower and a light torso workout. Four people Googled "America's Favorite Old Man" but none wanted to be a fan, which is OK.
- This evening I added the Lansdale American Legion to my tour schedule, arranged files from Vienna Austria for multicam processing and finalized my set for tomorrow evening which I plan to tape for social media.
- Got to bed at 10:52 for 9:32 hours of sleep with 2.4 pees
Wed Jan 17 = Simple solution to a BIG problem: This morning I noticed a broken image on my
Definitions web page. Come to find out there were 101 broken images. Fortunately this was only locally on my computer and not on the internet. After some investigation I fixed all 101 images by moving the Definition Images Folder back where it belonged from where I had evidently accidentally moved it, to the Comedian Images folder.
- At 2:59, today, the day of tonight's show and two days after sending out the 422 emails through MailChimp:
- 464 emails were delivered
- 109 (22%) were opened
- 0 were clicked
- 8 bounced
- 4 unsubscribed
- On the way to the comedy show I stopped by Mountainside Fitness for a quick heavy legs workout. My main motivation was 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
.
- I got to the comedy club in time to set up my five cameras: three for the audience and two for me, the comedian. This time I changed all but one of the cameras to manual exposure and reduced it to correctly expose the comedian. The result was an audience so underexposed there was no detail.
- Josh Boyle my friend who is a comedian and videographer, was there with his three cameras and new long lens.
- My set tonight was specialized with more short jokes. Hopefully I'll be able to split it up into short clips to put on social media. The seven vidio angles and my body mic sound track will give my
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
a good run for its money.
- My friend, Josh Graves was the host and Here's the list of the other comedians:
- Got to bed at 10:36 for 9:20 hours of sleep and 2.5 pees
Thu Jan 18 = This morning's project was uploading my six media files from yesterday's show for
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
and preparing for this afternoon.
I did not have time to start processing the videos
- After
- 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
there was barely enough time to pack my things up and head to Josh Boyle's studio to tech out and work on the videos from yesterday.
- At Josh Boyle's studio we worked on FCP some and he took a series of head shots.
- Our session ended in time for me to stop by the Downtown EōS Fitness for a heavy arms workout and a new fan.
- At the Wayward Tap House I met with Hilda, the owner and, on Thursdays at 5:45pm, I'll be able to unofficially meet with a few comedians for my "Arizona Lou Legacy - Tour Techniques Seminar" before the open mics. I hope my seminar brings some business to Wayward.
- I did not have enough new material prepared for my set, so did some old stuff that I had not done yet there. That went pretty well.
- Got to bed at 11:30 for 9 hours of sleep with 2 pees
Fri Jan 19 = Trying to streamline taking pictures of me with fans, I installed and tested
Resizer HD on my old Pixel 4a. It worked so well that I put it also on my Pixel 7. It allows me to take a selfie, reduce the file size for the web and email it to myself.
- It took a long time for me to process my set from Wednesday using
- FCP
- Final Cut ProX the fancy video-editing software I got for my MacBook Pro from Apple in Sept, 2023
because I did lots of precise camera (angle) switches, anticipating chopping it into short segments for social media
- Got to bed at 11:15 for 9:05 hours of sleep with 2 pees
Sat Jan 20 = Using AI (so-called artificial intelligence) I got a logo for my seminars. It cost me $30:
Today's big trip was to:
- Dollar Tree for some black marbles for catchlight detection
- Ace hardware for stuff to make a crank for my Merch T-shirt poles (they were closed)
- Walmart for marbles since Dollar Tree did not have them; plus a new fan (below)
- Winco for my semi-monthly shopping
- Planet Fitness for some of a heavy torso workout (inverted shrugs; torso rotation; back extensions); plus a new fan (below)
- Fry's Food to return a glass egnog bottle and get my $2 deposit back
- Home Depot for ideas about adding a crank to my T-shirt poles
- 99¢ Only Store for bananas
- Albertson's for eggs & apples on sale
- Anytime Fitness to finish the torso workout
- This evening I ordered four expensive black marbles to help in analyzing catchlights for head shots.
- Got to bed at 12:04 for 9:01 hours of sleep with 2.3 pees
Sun Jan 21 = First job after breakfast was adding to my Fans web page, two new fans from yesterday's trip. It was the
FIRST time I was able to take fan pictures as selfies with my Pixel 7 because I can now reduce their file size from 1,100K to 29K using
Photo Resizer HD on the phone. In the past, to solve the larg file size upload problem with my phone I have been having the pictures taken from a distance and cropping them. That approach was hit and miss and resulted with inconsistant file sizes of 60K +/- about 2K.
- On FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram, at 3:28pm I posted my new logo with this information:
Pick Lou's brain weekly for about 10 Thursdays at
5:45 pm at The Wayward Tap House
1028 Grand Ave; Phoenix, AZ 85007
É Then at 6:30 sign up for their Open Mic if you wish
Cost: purchase a drink
A donation to Alzheimer's research is suggested
email Louis@arizonalou.com to sign up, or just show up
Limit: 20 participants
- First stop on today's trip was the 19Av & Bell Ace Hardware for a couple bolts to use in making a crank for my T-shirt poles.
- Next was Crunch Fitness. Sadly, they have closed their doors so I went to LA Fitness for a light legs workout and a new fan.
Back home, I recharged my fingerprint padlock.
- A T-shirt pole is to toe right in the second picture. Trying to bend the bolts from Ace into spinner cranks, the bolts just broke, even when heated, so I ended up adding the bolts as spinner levers (white in the first picture) for the T-shirt poles I use on my merch tables. The levers should save me lots of time, considering typically I have to tighten the pole clamps 50 revolutions, depending on the thickness of the table.
- Got to bed at 12:05 for 8:57 hours of sleep and three pees
Mon Jan 22 = This morning, after a little more research, I ordered duplicates of what I already have: a Sony HDRCX405 camcorder and a Sunpak TravelLite Pro Reverse Folding 63' Tripod as another audience camera for videoing my shows to replace the Panasonic camcorder that splits long recordings into multiple files.
- On eight FaceBook groups I left information about my Legacy - Tour Technique Seminars that will start Thursday at Wayward.
- Today's big shopping spree was all online. I ordered a
- tripod from Best Buy
- tripod plate from B&H Photo in New York City
- Xamcorder from Amazon
- This evening I netted seven new fans at the Cave Creek Rd EōS Fitness, along with a light arms workout:
- Got to bed at 11:20 for 8:49 hours of sleep, getting up to pee twice.
Tue Jan 23 = After breakfst I worked up most of my Stir Crazy routne: One for three minutes and aditional material fir seven minutes (if I get 3 or more guests there).
- A phone call to Selma, AL yielded booking a VFW show in July. That booking will give me ten shows in ten cities
- After an early lunch I went to Mountainside Fitness for a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
and shower. No time for a workout fefore the appointment with Dr. Ferris, my gastrointerologist.
- Fortunitely Dr Ferris' office is on the fourth floor so I got some good exersize using the stairs.
- Got to bed at 11:18 for 8:32 hours of sleep with 2.3 pees
Wed Jan 24 = During my third pee last night I fixed most of breakfast to save time this morning, considering I would have only 25 minutes from my alarm to leave to pick up Lyn under the auspices of
- Duet
- The organization I support and through which I take non-driving seniors shopping and to their doctors' appointments
for her dental appointment way over in Glandale. That's where I also found a new fan (1st fan pic below).
- About 5pm I left for Glendale and the Stir Crazy Comedy Club in the Westgate Entertainment District. On the way I had time to stop by the Glendale LA Fitness for a brief heavy legs workout and a new fan (2nd fan pic below).
- At Westgate I found another fan (3rd fan pic below) and met a delightful three generation family who had tickets for the comedy show to see no one in particular, so I adopted them as my guests and sat with them during the show: Ashley, Tammy, Cindy, Ron, Lance and Mike.
- On the way home I stopped by Winco for a new fan (4th fan pic below) and some clear liquids like white grape juice, apple juice and broth.
- Got to bed at 11:28 for 9:07 hours of sleep with 2.2 pees
Thu Jan 25 = Why didn't someone tell me that going on a totaly liquid diet would result in loose bowels? I was totaly unprepared for the result. Fortunately I was at home and happened to be in the bathroom when I needed to pass some gas. I had returned from Albertsons to buy some consomme and broth with which I finished my breakfast. I was wearing my street clothes. I proceeded to fill my underbriefs with; let's say unpleasantness. Luckily the briefs were up to the task, barely, and contained it all, which made the cleanup a lot easier.
- I met Josh Boyle at his studio for about an hour. We talked about the head shots he took last week, lighting and
catchlights.
- So far as the
Arizona Lou Legesy - Tour Techniques Seminar is concerned, no one showed up tonight for the kickoff. However I did get four people signed up for the event, which will now start next week.
- For the open mic that followed, I was able to go up first - a good thing because I had to leave shortly after to make it home to begin my purge for tomorrow's colonoscopy.
- At home I had some juice and then did the first purge before bedtime.
- Got to bed at 11:02 for 8:48 hours of sleep and 1.3 pees
Fri Jan 26 = While I was up to pee about an hour before my alarm I drank 12oz each of white grape juice and apple juice, wanting to hydrate myself and get a little nutrition, considering that after the morning purge I won't be able to eat or drink anything, including water.
- Then I went back to bed until my 7:50am Alexa alarm. After a quick shave and 2 minutes on the elliptical I started the purge, which I finished at 9:05am.
- Filling out most of the Surgical Center form took a lot of the rest of the morning. Every specialist has a different company for their patient information, which ask you a thousand questions.
- I turned my water heater on high for about a half hour for a very warm bath before leaving for my
colonoscopy.
- At the
Deer Valley Surgical and Endoscopy Center I got two new fans (first pic) and the staf was great. I'm glad I did the colonoscopy without anathesia. I enjoyed seeing everything "live," listening to the tour guides (Dr Fares and his staf) and being able to ask questions with a few wise cracks thrown in. It was interesting. Dr Joseph Fares found nothing but a normal colon :)
- Just like nine years ago, after the procedure I took the stairs, ran to my van (gotta stir up my tird blood and keep up my bone density) and stopped by Costco for gas, Albertsons Grocery Store and Anytime Fitness for a heavy torso workout and a new fan (second pic).
- Got to bed at 11:30 for 9:03 hours of sleep with 2 pees
Sat Jan 27 = Instead of getting down to business first thing, I checked out drum sets, mostly digital, for a friend.
- My big project, which took most of the rest of the day, was adding a new web page for my
Legacy Seminar. The thing that took the longest was a
mailto link that will open an outbound email to me with the subject and other fields prepopulated.
- Planet Fitness was my gym visit today for a light legs workout and two new fans:
- Got to bed at 11:18 for 9:02 hours of sleep with 1.6 pees
Sun Jan 28 = Before you buy a house, go to
https://climatecheck.com/ to see if it might have risks with things like heat, precipitation, wildfire, drought, flooding. This information will impact your ability to get reasonably priced insurance or even the ability to get insurance at all.
- It took too much time, but I changed all my files and links from AZLegacy to azlegacy, which is harder to read but faster to type.
I spent a lot of this afternoon saving exporting 17 segments for social media reels from my Tempe Improv performance from last November. It is not ideal because I didn't anticipate needing short clips when I did the show. It turned out alright because the audience did lots of laughing, which I got on video.
- A light fast arms workout filled the bill at Esporta Fitness, along with three new fans:
- I have been wanting or needing to do it for a while so tonight, before bed, armed with a pair of scissors, I further enlarged the opening at the top of the nose cushions for my CPAP, since the angle of the cushions is not adjustable and they need to aim more directly into my nostrals.
- Got to bed at 11:18 for 8:56 hours of sleep with 2 pees
Mon Jan 29 = I had a slight headache most of the night and most of today so I took it easy on my
- elliptical
- Pro-Form Cardio HIIT
and for the rest of the day - no gym.
- This afternoon I went down to work with
- Josh
- Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and a social media guru
on my social media. I had the 16x9 videos prepared for 17 short reels. As a demonstration he showed me how to convert the first one to vertical format and to properly pan and crop it.
- Back at home I used the knowledge I gained to redo the first reel for practice and also the next three reels. I am happy with what I learned and what I did. I even did some panning with keyframes!
- Got to bed at 11:27 for 9:03 hours of sleep with 2.4 pees
Tue Jan 30 = Today I must be feeling better. 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
,
but took it a little easy on my
- elliptical
- Pro-Form Cardio HIIT
.
- I looked at the balances in my credit union accounts and plan to move some of the money to where it can earn a little more interest.
- Around suppertime I speced out and ordered the first two physical -ty kits to be shipped for my 2024 tour - in this case to be sent to California for shows: Sat Mar 2, 2024; 7:00pm;
American Legion Post 817;
13553 Reedley St;
Panorama City, CA 91402
and Sun Mar 3, 2024; 3:00pm;
American Legion Post 176;
602 Pico St;
San Fernando, CA 91340
- Today's trip was to Fry's Food for grapes on sale and a couple of new fans (first pic) and to Mountainside Fitness for a
- poster trim
- weekly trimming of my beard, eye brows and little quiff so I match my poster photos
,
a poo, a shower a light torso workout and, of course, another fan (second pic).
- It took a while, but this evening I managed to add captions (subtitles) to my first reel. Hopefully you'll be able to see the result on Feb 1st.
- Got to bed at 11:58 for 8:52 hours of sleep with 2 pees
Wed Jan 31 = It is getting closer to tour time. The little California tour is the first of March and I just projected my budget through March. Also I decided where to put some of my credit union money where it will earn more interest.
- This morning I used Veed to add subtitles to three more social media reels I am developing. I didn't figure out how to get all caps like my mentor,
- Josh
- Joshua Boyle, my good friend who is a videographer, photographer and a social media guru
,
wanted.
- Then for booking comedy, once I got all the windows organized and ready to paste, it took me about 3.25 minutes average to email each of eight contracts to veterans' posts in Pensylvania.
- Today's trip was after supper to LA Fitness for a heavy but low energy legs workout and a new fan:
- Got to bed at 10:30 for about 8:40 hours of sleep and 2 pees.
