New Year’s adventures

[fbhjr]

The weather has gone from cold, to wet, to warm, to nice in the last week or so.
Once in a while it has hit that clear fall air I like so much.


We celebrated the Celtic new year by picking up my wife’s new glasses, eating at O’Connor’s and Sunday morning making waffles.

Our waffle maker is old enough to drive. And, I think it must age in dog years because it is clearly ready for retirement.
For the last 16 years, I’ve sprayed it with oil every 4-5 waffles and it has been fine.
Sunday, waffle #2 stuck in it so badly that I had to unplug the waffle iron and chip it out.


When it got to the plate, it wasn’t much better.


In many years of waffle making, this was the only time I’ve ever seriously considered just throwing the mix away and making something else.
But, the night before I told my wife we were going to have waffles for breakfast and she clapped her hands in joy and said how happy she was to hear that.
So, I went through a lot of non-stick spray Sunday morning. And, I think there will be waffle iron shopping in the future.

But, at least I have a new mouse.


The old one just got more and more ornery about scrolling when I wanted it to. And, the Apple store told me they did get the shipment.
Picking dinner time on a big party Saturday, I went back to the mall and it was practically deserted. I was in and out with the mouse in about 10 minutes. That’s how it should have been last week too, but it’s my own fault for going at peak hours.

Yesterday at practice we had our big fight review for the coming show in Mobile.
Folks trying to hide their identity were dissapointed.


Everyone put on a good show and the over all rating for the fights went up about 10%.


Some people went up more. The judges clearly had a favorite and her scores were very high.


Without any offense to her, I was very surprised. The fight I did with her was rated very highly and one person said best of the show. But, I know I screwed it up. So, I expected it to be pretty low, not up near the top.
That is why we bring in outside judges. What my wife and I think is good isn’t always what other people want to see.
My wife and I were both happy to see that the scores for the new folks went up. Some of them have been trying very hard, and driving long ways to get their early, and I’m glad that the extra work shows to outside people.

Comments

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that the "dress rehearsal" went well - you will all have a much more comfortable trip and be less anxious knowing that you've all done it before, and done it well.

Like some points that you bring up and on malterre's post as well, while I don't know the background of your panel of judges, I think that many people who may not be experienced in acting or stage/show production:
1. Really like battles that have alot of energy/movement/action, even if the technical level isn't necessarily high
2. Really like battles with a lopsided appearance, especially if the "good" character is the underdog/smaller person/female versus the expert villian/giant/man.
3. As in #2, if the "underdog" wins that automatically raises the level of satisfaction of the viewer, regardless of whether the "villian" made mistakes or not.
I think you did a brilliant thing by doing this all and having an outside panel judge the fights - you can use this info to further tailor your activities down in Mobile for maximum crowd pleasing effect. Excellent business plan - good on ya!!!

Oh, and yes -

[evrgreen.livejournal.com]

DO replace that waffle iron!!!

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Trust me, we've known for a long, long time that the underdog has to win to make the audience happy.
And, we know "noisy" fights tend to be well liked as well.

But, that doesn't mean that we aren't surprised by what the judges pick as favorites.
The over all trends are pretty close to what we predict. But, we can never tell if there is one person who will really strike a cord with people.