Leucotome The Musical (AKA: The Orbitoclast)
August 20, 2008
I have an idea for a stage musical called Leucotome: The Musical. Perhaps subtitled “The Tragic Life of Walter Freeman.”
Everything about it sounds like a lot of fun, and I think it would be a fantastic project. The only problem is that I know absolutely nothing about writing musicals, let alone music.
But, I can see it in my mind’s eye and it’s glorious. It’s the life and times of Walter Freeman (fictionalized for drama’s sake, of course).
Walter Freeman reinvented the lobotomy in the 1930’s. Before Freeman, the lobotomy was a horribly medieval process that involved drilling holes at the top of the victim’s forehead, and performing the lobotomy through each of them with a complicated and faulty device. After Freeman, the lobotomy, while still medieval, left fewer scars - because Freeman discovered that a lobotomy could be performed through the eyes of the subject with a glorified ice pick.
He called the new procedure the “Trans-orbital Lobotomy” and proclaimed it a miracle cure.
Freeman, a psychiatrist, started out working with a number of neurosurgeons to complete the process on hundreds of patients, but eventually he convinced himself that he was capable of performing the procedure himself.
Now, not only did he do it himself, he performed the procedure on his patients in his office!
The story is beautiful in the horror of it. Watts, his neurosurgeon friend, walked in on him performing the procedure once and completely turned his back on the well-meaning psychiatrist.
The story goes on, and I haven’t even gotten to the fictionalized parts of it yet - everything so far really happened!
All in all, Freeman was responsible for the lobotomies of over three thousand individuals. He was a little obsessive about it, and once performed 25 of them in 24 hours.
Freeman was a showman at heart and would often perform the procedures for medical audiences, where, after he grew bored with one-handed lobotomies, he started doing them with both hands at once.
The story is ripe for a musical retelling and I don’t think anyone would regret it…. Okay, well maybe I would.
If you or anyone you know writes music, is familiar with the process of musical storytelling, and is a little twisted, please let me know.
Upcoming Radio Drama
July 25, 2008
A couple of weeks ago I got really interested in radio dramas. Whether it was a result of the podcasting I do, or because it was a new interesting medium that I’d never had the opportunity to dabble with, something about it pulled me into the idea. I searched the interwebs looking for old scripts, and found a couple of really good sites. The best one was Generic Radio, which has a truly amazing compilation of radio dramas.
But, when everything was said and done, and I decided that I had learned a lot about radio drama, I still felt the need to write my own. The format and the appeal of doing big budget things on a small budget had, and still has, a very delicious appeal for me that I just couldn’t resist.
It’s a short script, all in all it would probably only run about 25 minutes on-air; and it’s completely unpolished at this point - although not sophomorically (unless, of course, you ask my friend Jerame).
I had a lot of fun writing it, and realized all at once that unless I keep it fresh, no one else would ever even know about it. So, I decided to publish it here. Over the coming 7 weeks, I’ll publish one scene per week. By then, I hope to have time to work on the script, and clean up some of its problems, and then actually produce it with the help of some of my actor friends (I’ve already cast Dana as Kathina). When the final product is finished, you’ll see the audio file on this site as well.
So, starting tomorrow, and for the next 7 weeks, look for updates to the script. You can find them on the website under "radio" on the main navigation bar, or if you’re subscribed to the rss feed, you’ll get the updates automatically.
Update: I realized that in 7 weeks I may be a new father. So, the production of the radio drama might roll in a little later. Heh.
Busy with babies and plays (With a special message)
July 24, 2008
Hello again. It’s been a little while since I’ve written an actual blog post and I thought I’d let everyone know why I was neglecting you.
Work has been a little hectic with quite a few things changing recently, and out of the blue I was called to audition for an understudy role at Circle Theatre for their next production Unnecessary Farce.
The actor who was doing the role (a very good friend of mine, and an excellent actor, David Fluitt) came down with an inner-ear infection and couldn’t work. The director Robin Armstrong cast me as the understudy, and after it was confirmed that David wasn’t going to be able to come back to the production, the role was recast with me.
That was the Sunday before last.
Since then I’ve been in rehearsals in the evening and at work during the day, including the all-day parenting classes Dana and I attended on Saturday and Sunday as well as the baby shower we had the Saturday before. The only time I’ve had off was Sunday night after 5.
Not that I’m complaining. But, now you probably have a better idea of where I’ve been.
Unnecessary Farce is a contempary american farce. Picture one of those old commedies where seven or eight people chase each other into a motel hallway ,everyone runs into a different room and then they switch rooms, throwing up their arms in surprise everytime they run into the person chasing them. That gives you an idea of the flavor although it certainly isn’t indicative of the actual plot.
Here’s the description of my character from the Unnecessary Farce website:
TODD (male, speaks with a Scottish accent): a professional hitman. Cool, quiet, and perceptive when at his best, but more frequently an angry Scotsman — and the angrier he becomes, the thicker his accent gets, until he is entirely indecipherable.
It’s a lot of fun and I hope you get a chance to come see it.
Also, I mentioned the baby shower earlier. It was amazing and Dana and I were both overwhelmed by how many people came out. We got a lot of great stuff that’ll help with starting our little family, but we’re still short a few important things.
We still need a stroller, car seat, crib mattress, and all of those little things that it’s easy to over look. We’re going to be buying these things over the next couple of weeks, but they’re extremely expensive for a young art couple, and I wanted to provide a way for friends/family with a little spare cash to chip in.
We would really appreciate any help you can give, from pennies to million-dollar bills. I’m going to set up a page on this site, but I wanted to mention it here too.
So, thanks if you can and we still love you if you can’t.
The Kid, in 3-d
July 2, 2008
Well, it’s not 3-d, and I stand by this regardless of other opinions and regardless of whether or not it means I’m an a-hole. It’s a 2-d photo with "relief." Hehe.
Dana and I went to a specialty sonogram clinic this morning called "Window in the Womb." And, while the name is an unfortunate choice, the service they provide is pretty cool (if slightly over-priced). It’s a "4-d" sonogram.
They call it 4-d because it’s a video, and probably because it makes it a little easier to sell. Time is the 4th dimension in this case. Unfortunately, even with time, it’s still only 3-d… Sorry, I digress.
I’ve included a 2 dimensional photo below and, because I’m feeling generous, I’ve excluded the "inspiring" elevator music they had playing on the video.
Without further ado, here’s my child, in 2 dimensions… I mean 3… No, I mean 4!
I realized all at once that you might not be able to make it out. Its face takes up the entire right side of the image, and it is turned to the left side of the image. Its little nose is just below the center of the pic.
Dana’s iPhone + Toilet Incident
May 11, 2008
Dana’s iPhone had a run in with the toilet last week and I decided to do surgery rather than give up on it. When she called and told me, I told her to turn it off immediately, rushed to the theatre (Where the incident had taken place), and immediately disassembled the phone to let it dry out.
Three days later, I reassembled it, after a bit of customization, and other than a little scratched metal, it seems to be working perfectly.
Here are the pictures:
The Newly Disassembled phone, still a little damp on the inside:
And the final product with the forest green trim:
By the way - it was clean water in the toilet…
MySpace, I hate you
May 7, 2008
I had two friends with birthdays this week and MySpace was kind enough to let me know. MySpace went out of its way to send me an email, letting me know about my friends’ birthdays.
The email itself was very nice looking and well-formatted and told me, very clearly about the birthdays. The one thing it left out, of course, was the only thing that in any way mattered: the names of the friends who were having birthdays. Instead of names MySpace was kind enough to let me know that if I visited MySpace I could find out which of my friends were having birthdays.
It was just a reminder of how much I hate MySpace.
From the crappy obscene ads to the crappy user pages that crash my browser and assault my senses. From its auto-play music to the fact that MySpace mobile is completely unusable, I hate MySpace.
I thought that being owned by Rupert Murdoch (the owner of Fox News [a disturbingly conservative news network]) would put enough money in the coffers to truly fix the problems that made MySpace stink so much, but it didn’t change a thing.
At this point MySpace is bloated and falling apart at the seams, and I hate it. I hate the fact that I have to maintain an account because I have so many friends that only use MySpace.
Do me a favor, if you read this, do us all a favor. Put in a vote for decency on the web, a vote for clean easy to use websites that aren’t so obvious about treating its users like eyeballs for their ad network; and at least sign up for, and try out a different social media site.
If you need help finding good ones, take a look at my home page, you’ll find a list of the ones I use and a link to my profiles. I know it’s a pain to recreate your profile elsewhere, but you’ll be glad of it in the end I think. And, when you’ve migrated your stuff to the new service, add me as a contact and let me know.
Twitter for the Beginner
April 17, 2008
Twitter’s picking up popularity, and lot of us, who didn’t have very many friends on Twitter before, are shouting, “Finally!” It’s a fantastic service with about as many different uses as there are people using it.
I won’t try to describe to you what it is, because you really should decide for yourself by signing up for an account at Twitter.
All right, All right, I’ll try a really succinct explanation, that I think a lot of people agree with: Twitter is a water cooler around which to stand and communicate with only the people you want to communicate with.
What I will do is try to tell you how all the technical stuff, that can seem like so much complicated bologna, works together.
The reason I’m writing this, is because a friend of mine @thoughtstorms, posted that he was trying to work through all the applications that work with twitter and figure it all out. And, I thought the explanation would make a good blog post.
So, I don’t really have time to go through all the apps that work with Twitter, so I’ll go through the ones I use, the main food groups if you will.
But, first, a little about their relationships:
So, Twitter started as a web service and mobile phone application. As far as I know, that’s all you could do: post on the web and on your cell phone, and get updates in those places.
Then, Twitter released its API which means that people could create applications of all sorts for it - and they did. People wrote applications that live on your computer and talk to twitter, they created applications that live on the internet and talk to twitter from other places. And they wrote the API into existing applications, so that you could control twitter from those too.
But, the thing you have to remember is that twitter is the hub - and all the other applications work around it. Here’s a diagram:
So, basically, you have any IM client (Google Talk), The desktop clients (Twhirl/Snitter), Twitter itself and all of the online applications like facebook and Jott that can integrate it as well.
Something to keep in mind here is that when I say “an IM client,” I’m not saying that only Google Talk works - any IM client will work with Twitter. And, there are tons of applications, for your desktop and on the web, besides the ones I mentioned. If you’re curious you can always check out the Twitter Fan Wiki.
On a side note: The fact that facebook has an API for their website that allows third party developers to integrate it with API’s from other online applications, like Twitter, is enough to make my head start to spin a little.
So, give twitter a try. And, don’t become overwhelmed by all of the third-party-whatnots. They’re there to help, and if they’re making your life more miserable you should just ignore them.
If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at http://twitter.com/flowersjustin - Oh, and add Thoughtstorms while you’re at it, he’s a pretty great guy with some interesting ideas.
5 Tips for Breaking the Bad News
April 6, 2008
Sometimes it’s necessary to break a bit of bad news to a large group of people. And, if the people you’re breaking the news to is a group that you rely on, it can be a tricky situation to break the news and maintain their trust and your position of leader in their minds. Especially if the bad news is your fault. Here are a few things that can be helpful.
- Don’t Wait - Tell them the news as soon as you can. Get it out and in the open before they can find it out another way. This will put them in a position to react to the news more responsibly and it will show them that you care about their needs.
- Tell Everyone at Once - Get together your entire group and tell them. Don’t single out individuals to tell them separately from everyone else. If you think that meeting your group one by one to tell them the news individually is a way to keep your conversation with them more personal, you’re wrong. Breaking up the group creates more problems than it solves. First, it creates an atmosphere of secrecy - Second, it makes the situation seem worse than it is - Third, it turns your group against each other. Stand up like a responsible person and tell them all at once.
- Apologize - If it’s your fault, apologize for the mistake. There’s a strange idea out there that apologizing makes you weak - It’s just not true. A strong person apologizes when they’ve made a mistake. A person with weaker convictions cowers behind false strength
- Explain the Situation Thoroughly - Don’t make the mistake that under explaining the situation and misrepresenting some of the facts will be overlooked. Make sure that you are completely straight forward. Hiding things is probably what got you in trouble in the first place, this is your opportunity to finally come clean.
- Put it in Writing - Nothing says “Trust Me” like putting everything in writing. If you want something, especially if you need help resolving the situation, don’t expect anyone to come to your aid if it’s not written down and signed by you. If you can’t put it in writing, then you probably don’t deserve the help. And, don’t wait for someone to ask - Just do it!
I’ve probably overlooked some really important points - Let me know in the comments if you noticed any specific ones.
3 simple things to improve SEO on your blog
March 30, 2008
Search engine optimization (SEO) can go a long way toward connecting you to the people you want to reach. And, it’s nearly always an important consideration (albeit, secondary to quality content) when you’re working on your website or blog.
And, there are a few simple things that anyone can do that will help your content rise in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
- Put keywords in the Title - For me, it’s important for my blog to rank high in a search for my name. I want my blog to be one of the first things listed when someone is searching for me, so I put my name in the title of my blog. This blog’s title, instead of just being The Flowercast, is The Flowercast | Justin Flowers’ Social Media, Marketing and Technology Blog. Make the title more valuable than just telling your readers where they are.
- Add a meta description - Most blog templates give you a place to insert your description. The description is the text that you’ll find in the search engine result directly under the title of your site. A good rule of thumb is to keep it about the same length as a twitter post (140 characters) so that the search engine doesn’t cut off the end. The description will help people find your site, and it will tell search engines a little bit more about your content.
- Add a meta keywords tag - This might be a little bit more difficult if you know nothing about HTML, but it’s time to face the facts if you’re a blogger and learn a little bit - it’ll make you a better writer and will help you present your writing in a better way. Go to W3Schools’ website for tutorials on all the pertinent bits. For keywords you’re going to want to find the things that you focus on most with your blog. Come up with ten to fifteen words or phrases that encapsulate the meaning or reason of your blog (including your name), and put those words into your meta keywords tag. Failing that, think of ten to fifteen words/phrases about things that you’re interested in - hopefully your potential readers will be interested in the same things.
These three SEO tips alone should go a long way toward making sure that the people who are looking for your blog and its content are able to find it, but the rest is really up to you and your content. The best thing to remember about SEO is that it’s really only a supplement to your real talents. The best SEO in the world on bad content can’t maintain a large following, while the best content with no SEO can.
Do you have your own tips about simple blog SEO? Please let me know about them in the comments.
What is OpenID?
March 12, 2008
When I first laid eyes on OpenID, I had a lot of trouble understanding exactly what it was and how it worked. The existing documentation was pretty vague or didn’t explain enough.
The only thing that brought me back to it was its promise of simplicity.
The OpenID website says, “OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.”
How’s that for vague?
Since then, I’ve researched it a little more, seen the value in it, and added support for it to this website. I thought I’d explain it, hopefully a bit more clearly, and show you why you might consider getting one.
How do I use an OpenID?
Well, put simply, OpenID is a simpler way of navigating the web that eliminates the need for multiple usernames and passwords across different websites. But, more than that, it’s a way to take control of your online identity.
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Find an OpenID Host - You first have to find an OpenID host. You can find a pretty good list of providers on the OpenID website that includes a few places where you might already have an account.
I host mine with ClaimID but there are tons of choices and you should look around to find the one that works for you.
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Get your OpenID URL - After you’ve found the host, you’ll sign up for an account with them, and they’ll give you your OpenID URL.
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Use Your OpenID URL - On sites that support OpenID, like this one, instead of using the regular username/password login you can open an account with your OpenID.
This is where I was originally confused. I thought, “You know, all it would take is for someone to guess my URL and they’d have access to my OpenID account.” Which didn’t make much sense.
So, to save the same confusion for others, here’s how it actually works:
When you punch your OpenID URL into a login form and hit enter, the site that you’re signing into communicates with your OpenID URL and asks it if you have permission to use that ID.
If you haven’t signed in to your OpenID, you’re redirected to your OpenID site and asked to sign in.
Once you’re signed in, you’re signed in for the session - which is to say until you close your browser.
So, the convenience is that you only have to remember one password and you only have to use it once.
The upsides are:
- the ease of use,
- the reduced number of logins you have to remember,
- increased security against phishing attacks
The downside is that there is only one password that has to be compromised in order for someone to get access to all of your logins. Which is a pretty big downside if you’re the type that isn’t careful with your passwords.
If you’re the type of person that does a lot of worrying about security, OpenID probably isn’t ready for you yet.
If, on the other hand, you’re the type of person that has a lot of online logins, and you want an easier way to remember them, get an openID and start keeping your eye out for the openID logo, or try it out on this site today.
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About
Justin Flowers
Mad Scientist
Zombie Expert
Fort Worth, TX -
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