There will be no posts the rest of this week. Tomorrow morning I am leaving for Chicago to attend a ventriloquist training festival called “I-Fest”.
It’s a week long festival but I am going for what they call “Superfest” which is Thursday through Saturday. The event is sponsored and facilitated by a company called “One Way Street.” They are a large supplier of puppets, materials, and supplies for Christian puppeteers.
The event is being held on the campus of Olivet Nazarene University about 40 miles outside of Chicago. This will be my first time and I’m not sure what to expect. However I am excited about going. I know that Steve Axtel, the man who runs the company that made my turtle and owl puppet will be there. I’m hoping I’m familiar with some other ventriloquists too. I know it’s going to be a learning experience.
Anyway I will leave my house at about 7AM on Thursday and not be back until Sunday some time. Don’t worry though I plan on taking lots of pictures and I’m sure I’ll have lots of stories to tell and pictures to share when I get back.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A Day Care Performance
After having to postpone it twice I finally got to do my ventriloquist performance at our local day care center today. Most of the children there have seen my performances at the library and are familiar with my characters.
Today I used my magic dry erase board to present for the first time a talking beach towel named "Harley". Also I had my turtle character, Cecil, debut his "mind reading" skills. That routine is not my original idea. I "borrowed" it from David Pendelton; a ventriloquist I saw perform at a youth rally earlier this year.
The little boy standing next to Cecil and me in the picture was the volunteer who let Cecil read his mind. The most important thing about the picture is the smile on the 7 year old boy's face. It's moments like that captured by my camera that make being a ventriloquist worth it.
That was the last scheduled performance I have for this summer. For me it's now on to the International Festival of Puppetry and Ventriloquism in Chicago for a few days. I'll write more about that tomorrow.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The Children Give Me Homework
Today for the second week in a row I taught Children's Church at my local church. I promised the boys & girls last week that I would bring a puppet character that they hadn't met before. I have used Schnozz at the local library but not at church.
Schnozz is a black puppet kind of on the design of Elmo but he has ping pong ball size eyes with a large pupil in the center of them. He also has a pair of short green antennae on the top of his head. He's dressed in a light green shirt with a tropical print. His name comes from the big bright pink egg-sized nose in the middle of his face. He's quite an unusual looking character.
Now I had created a history for Schnozz. I decided that he was from an island in the South Pacific near French Polynesia. The island is called "Proboscus." He loves the beach and I even made up a greeting for him in the language of Proboscus. The greeting is "Ibida Yoctabay nick nick." It means "The bigger your nose the better you smell."
Anyway I took that background story and used it at the library the first time I used Schnozz. At church this morning when I brought Schnozz out to help the children review the lesson they were taught I used the same background information as part of Schnozz's introduction.
I got something I wasn't quite ready for. The children liked Schnozz so much they started asking lots of questions about him. Like what does he do on his islandand what just exactly what kind of creature is he? Of course I didn't have answers for those questions because I never thought about them.
I promised the children that I would bring Schnozz back again so I guess that means I've got some homework to do. I have to give Schnozz a complete personal history. That includes actually deciding just exactly what kind of creature he really is and how did he come to live with me.
That's the way it is with children you can never be fully prepared. Thanks kids for showing me what I needed to do to make Schnozz a complete character.
Schnozz is a black puppet kind of on the design of Elmo but he has ping pong ball size eyes with a large pupil in the center of them. He also has a pair of short green antennae on the top of his head. He's dressed in a light green shirt with a tropical print. His name comes from the big bright pink egg-sized nose in the middle of his face. He's quite an unusual looking character.
Now I had created a history for Schnozz. I decided that he was from an island in the South Pacific near French Polynesia. The island is called "Proboscus." He loves the beach and I even made up a greeting for him in the language of Proboscus. The greeting is "Ibida Yoctabay nick nick." It means "The bigger your nose the better you smell."
Anyway I took that background story and used it at the library the first time I used Schnozz. At church this morning when I brought Schnozz out to help the children review the lesson they were taught I used the same background information as part of Schnozz's introduction.
I got something I wasn't quite ready for. The children liked Schnozz so much they started asking lots of questions about him. Like what does he do on his islandand what just exactly what kind of creature is he? Of course I didn't have answers for those questions because I never thought about them.
I promised the children that I would bring Schnozz back again so I guess that means I've got some homework to do. I have to give Schnozz a complete personal history. That includes actually deciding just exactly what kind of creature he really is and how did he come to live with me.
That's the way it is with children you can never be fully prepared. Thanks kids for showing me what I needed to do to make Schnozz a complete character.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
2008 Highlights...So Far
At one minute past midnight on July 2 the year 2008 was officially half over. 183 days gone, 183 days to go. To me the completion of another half of a year is a bench mark. It’s a time to look at what has happened in my life so far this year. There's been a lot of things that have happened. My life has changed quite a bit since January 1. I can't begin to mention all of them. That would take a book not a blog post. However I am a man of lists. So here is my list of what I consider to be the top 20 most significant events for me in the first half of 2008.
They are not in any specific order of importance they are all significant to me. Although I did try to put specific events in as much of a chronological order as possible. They aren’t numbered but there are 20 of them.
1. Participating in the Crown Financial Bible study at church
2. Making contact again with my God son, Chris, through letters
3. My sisters both having surgery: one has gastric by pass surgery in February and the other had knee replacement surgery in May
4. Creating a practice area in the house to practice my ventriloquism
5. Reading the books “What is A Healthy Church” and “Personal Evangelism” both by Mark Dever
6. Getting my special “talking” dry erase board to use in my ventriloquism act.
7. Seeing my first professional hockey game in Nashville
8. Discontinued teaching Children’s Church on a weekly basis
9. Seeing ventriloquists Taylor Mason (at Zanies in Nashville) and David Pendelton (at a church in Beaver Dam, KY) perform live.
10. Losing my job at Perot Systems
11. Creating my RH Factors blog
12. James being deployed to Iraq
13. Purchasing a turtle and owl Axtel puppet from a local puppet group
14. Living in a 2 person household after Michael buys a house and starts moving out
15. Going to see the documentary “Expelled” with my friend Brent
16. Reading aloud and performing ventriloquism twice at the local public library
17. Teaching a class of 4 & 5 year olds for Vacation Bible School at church
18. Singing the song “Statue of Liberty” in church
19. Singing a “duet” as part of a ventriloquist performance at church
20. Going to a seminar for Bariatric surgery and considering a lap band
They are not in any specific order of importance they are all significant to me. Although I did try to put specific events in as much of a chronological order as possible. They aren’t numbered but there are 20 of them.
1. Participating in the Crown Financial Bible study at church
2. Making contact again with my God son, Chris, through letters
3. My sisters both having surgery: one has gastric by pass surgery in February and the other had knee replacement surgery in May
4. Creating a practice area in the house to practice my ventriloquism
5. Reading the books “What is A Healthy Church” and “Personal Evangelism” both by Mark Dever
6. Getting my special “talking” dry erase board to use in my ventriloquism act.
7. Seeing my first professional hockey game in Nashville
8. Discontinued teaching Children’s Church on a weekly basis
9. Seeing ventriloquists Taylor Mason (at Zanies in Nashville) and David Pendelton (at a church in Beaver Dam, KY) perform live.
10. Losing my job at Perot Systems
11. Creating my RH Factors blog
12. James being deployed to Iraq
13. Purchasing a turtle and owl Axtel puppet from a local puppet group
14. Living in a 2 person household after Michael buys a house and starts moving out
15. Going to see the documentary “Expelled” with my friend Brent
16. Reading aloud and performing ventriloquism twice at the local public library
17. Teaching a class of 4 & 5 year olds for Vacation Bible School at church
18. Singing the song “Statue of Liberty” in church
19. Singing a “duet” as part of a ventriloquist performance at church
20. Going to a seminar for Bariatric surgery and considering a lap band
Friday, July 4, 2008
Random Independance Day Thoughts
It is the 4th of July and fireworks and picnics are the orders of the day. As our nation celebrates it's 232nd year of freedom I have these random thoughts to offer:
Q:Do they have the 4th of July in other countries?
A: Of course they do it's just not a holiday.
Q: Why did Mrs. Paul Revere buy 3000 pounds of spare ribs for her 4th of July picnic?
A: Because her husband kept saying " The British are coming, The British are Coming?
Does it bother anyone else but me that we celebrate our biggest national holiday by firing off millions of dollars worth of fireworks that were made in other countries?
Finally the best advice I can give to those of you who enjoy your holiday with mass quantities of adult beverages is this:
He who goes forth with a fifth on the 4th may not go forth on the 5th.
Q:Do they have the 4th of July in other countries?
A: Of course they do it's just not a holiday.
Q: Why did Mrs. Paul Revere buy 3000 pounds of spare ribs for her 4th of July picnic?
A: Because her husband kept saying " The British are coming, The British are Coming?
Does it bother anyone else but me that we celebrate our biggest national holiday by firing off millions of dollars worth of fireworks that were made in other countries?
Finally the best advice I can give to those of you who enjoy your holiday with mass quantities of adult beverages is this:
He who goes forth with a fifth on the 4th may not go forth on the 5th.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Return of the Wandering Dog
On Monday night I gave my dogs, Dory and Angel, a bath. You can review the typical dog bath routine by reading the May 21 posting. Yesterday morning, Tuesday, I let them out of their crates and then into the back yard without their wireless fence collars on.
We had a wireless fence installed around the perimeter of our property 3 years ago because we couldn't keep Dory from climbing under or over our chain link fence. The wireless fence did it's job; Dory stayed home.
About 3 months ago the batteries in both of the dog's collars went dead and we hadn't replaced them. Dory was so conditioned by the collar that she never even made an attempt to get near the fence let alone try and get through it. So yesterday morning I didn't see any problem with letting Dory outside without her collar on just this once.
About half an hour later I went to let them inside. Angel was there ready to come in but Dory was no where to be found. I quickly realized that she had returned to her wandering ways for the first time in about 3 years.
I got into my car and began to cruise the neighborhood looking for her. It took me about half an hour but with the help of several neighbors I tracked her down about 2 blocks from our house. While looking for her I got too close to a dog chained up in a backyard and had to hightail it out of his tethered reach.
Finally I got her into the car and back to the house. I let her outside a couple of times the rest of the day with her collar on and she stayed put. Problem solved without much action required on my part right? Wrong!
This morning I let her out in the yard just as the previous morning, only this time she had her collar on She hightailed it for the hole in the back of the fence and was gone in a flash. This time I was checking on her occasionally and got a bit of a jump on her escape. I managed to head her off before she even left our block. It had taken a couple of months but the dog had finally realized that her collar didn't work like it used to and she could go wandering. Sometimes she's too smart for her own good.
A quick trip to Walmart for a fresh supply of batteries, replacing them in each dog's collar, and a test to make sure they worked and the case of the Return of The Wandering Dog was solved.
I now have a 3 month supply of collar batteries in the house for good measure. I also have come to realize that Dory has a never ending case of wanderlust that she will never get over. I guess I'm going to have to start taking her for walks on a regular basis. Then she'll be so happy with me she'll want to stay home...at least that's the plan.
We had a wireless fence installed around the perimeter of our property 3 years ago because we couldn't keep Dory from climbing under or over our chain link fence. The wireless fence did it's job; Dory stayed home.
About 3 months ago the batteries in both of the dog's collars went dead and we hadn't replaced them. Dory was so conditioned by the collar that she never even made an attempt to get near the fence let alone try and get through it. So yesterday morning I didn't see any problem with letting Dory outside without her collar on just this once.
About half an hour later I went to let them inside. Angel was there ready to come in but Dory was no where to be found. I quickly realized that she had returned to her wandering ways for the first time in about 3 years.
I got into my car and began to cruise the neighborhood looking for her. It took me about half an hour but with the help of several neighbors I tracked her down about 2 blocks from our house. While looking for her I got too close to a dog chained up in a backyard and had to hightail it out of his tethered reach.
Finally I got her into the car and back to the house. I let her outside a couple of times the rest of the day with her collar on and she stayed put. Problem solved without much action required on my part right? Wrong!
This morning I let her out in the yard just as the previous morning, only this time she had her collar on She hightailed it for the hole in the back of the fence and was gone in a flash. This time I was checking on her occasionally and got a bit of a jump on her escape. I managed to head her off before she even left our block. It had taken a couple of months but the dog had finally realized that her collar didn't work like it used to and she could go wandering. Sometimes she's too smart for her own good.
A quick trip to Walmart for a fresh supply of batteries, replacing them in each dog's collar, and a test to make sure they worked and the case of the Return of The Wandering Dog was solved.
I now have a 3 month supply of collar batteries in the house for good measure. I also have come to realize that Dory has a never ending case of wanderlust that she will never get over. I guess I'm going to have to start taking her for walks on a regular basis. Then she'll be so happy with me she'll want to stay home...at least that's the plan.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Happy Birthday Paula
Today is my wife Paula's birthday. For the next 10 weeks we are the same age; at least in whole numbers. As a wise and considerate husband I will not reveal her age.
My wife is truly my soul mate. She is the Love of My Life. The story of our romance is one that would truly make a decent movie for the Lifetime cable channel (is putting "decent movie" and "Lifetime Channel" in the same phrase an oxymoron?)
I don't even want to think about what my life would be like without her. As a matter of fact I will forever treasure how she saved me when I really needed to be rescued. I don't discount the fact that God brought us together and that His hand was on us all the time. But if Paula hadn't been there I wouldn't be here today. I mean that emotionally, spiritually, geographically, and any other way I could mention.
I know I'm posting this message late on her special day but due to her responsibilities at work I wasn't able to make this day very special for her. So long after July 1 has come and gone I want her to be able to come back to this post and be able to read this Love Letter I leave for her now:
My Sweetest Paula,
You mean everything to me. I love you with all my heart and soul. You encourage, support, and help me to be the person God wants me to be. As we walk together into a new phase in our lives and individually struggle to make decisions that could make the days ahead better I want you to know this. I'll be holding your hand all the way; for we are "one" in the eyes of God.
I Will Love You Always & Forever,
Ron
My wife is truly my soul mate. She is the Love of My Life. The story of our romance is one that would truly make a decent movie for the Lifetime cable channel (is putting "decent movie" and "Lifetime Channel" in the same phrase an oxymoron?)
I don't even want to think about what my life would be like without her. As a matter of fact I will forever treasure how she saved me when I really needed to be rescued. I don't discount the fact that God brought us together and that His hand was on us all the time. But if Paula hadn't been there I wouldn't be here today. I mean that emotionally, spiritually, geographically, and any other way I could mention.
I know I'm posting this message late on her special day but due to her responsibilities at work I wasn't able to make this day very special for her. So long after July 1 has come and gone I want her to be able to come back to this post and be able to read this Love Letter I leave for her now:
My Sweetest Paula,
You mean everything to me. I love you with all my heart and soul. You encourage, support, and help me to be the person God wants me to be. As we walk together into a new phase in our lives and individually struggle to make decisions that could make the days ahead better I want you to know this. I'll be holding your hand all the way; for we are "one" in the eyes of God.
I Will Love You Always & Forever,
Ron
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