![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A wild and wooly January...
Jan. 31st, 2001 10:15 pmThe next Shuttle flight is in just over a week, and I'm scheduled to go down to Houston next Monday to get ready to work in the MCC. Despite some apprehensions about the daily operation of the store, I will actually kind of welcome the change of pace.
Yesterday was one crazy day. It seemed for a while that everyone who walked in did one of two things: they either made a small purchase and then paid with a $20 bill (or larger), or they insisted on paying for their entire purchase with pennies. I've never seen anything like it. I distinctly recall how the first person in the shop in the morning tried to pay for two stamps (68 cents) with a fifty dollar bill. (I recall this because I did not have enough change to return to the customer.)
I attended the acting workshop again last night, and actually got an opportunity to present the monologue from Henry V. First, though, I got up and did a short presentation on memorization techniques.
In general, the key to memorization lies in making associations between the things you do not know and the things you do know. Those associations must be vivid and must leave an impression. I gave, as an example, the images I created to remember a series of names in Henry's monologue: Bedford, Exeter, Warwick, Talbot, Salisbury, Gloucester. (Start with a bed under a bright exit sign. When you go out under the sign, you see a war between candle wicks and tall 'bots (robots) that ceases to allow everyone to sit down to a lunch of Salisbury steak with Worcestershire sauce. Yeah, I know...I'm one sick puppy. :^)
I'm not sure there was too much interest in my subject among the gathered multitudes, but I gave it a pretty good (extemporaneous) shot.
At the end of the evening, I was offered the opportunity to do my thing. On a lark, I tried initially to relate the lines with a mild English accent, but Zach put the kibosh on that idea, directing me to say the lines normally. As I said, it was a lark, so I followed the direction without complaint.
What happened next cemented my decision to go see what this workshop is all about. Zach proceeded to draw me out by asking about the characters near Henry when he's saying the lines. He made me describe one man in particular - whom I called Westmoreland - and then asked me to repeat the lines, except that I should "see" my cousin as I do so and be aware that, in a few short hours, he may be dead.
It made a pretty big difference, let me tell you.
At any rate, I've been invited to play the part of Polonius in this summer's local presentation of Hamlet. I think the experience will be fun, especially since I've not done anything so grand in scale up to now, plus I stand to learn a number of techniques for manipulating my mental state. And that's always a good thing.
My word. It's after 10 pm already. Time to go to sleep. It has been a long day. Tomorrow, I get to go visit a local lawyer to see about organizing a corporation to run the store. I have this feeling that my checking account is about to get lighter again. Ye gods.
Cheers...
Yesterday was one crazy day. It seemed for a while that everyone who walked in did one of two things: they either made a small purchase and then paid with a $20 bill (or larger), or they insisted on paying for their entire purchase with pennies. I've never seen anything like it. I distinctly recall how the first person in the shop in the morning tried to pay for two stamps (68 cents) with a fifty dollar bill. (I recall this because I did not have enough change to return to the customer.)
I attended the acting workshop again last night, and actually got an opportunity to present the monologue from Henry V. First, though, I got up and did a short presentation on memorization techniques.
In general, the key to memorization lies in making associations between the things you do not know and the things you do know. Those associations must be vivid and must leave an impression. I gave, as an example, the images I created to remember a series of names in Henry's monologue: Bedford, Exeter, Warwick, Talbot, Salisbury, Gloucester. (Start with a bed under a bright exit sign. When you go out under the sign, you see a war between candle wicks and tall 'bots (robots) that ceases to allow everyone to sit down to a lunch of Salisbury steak with Worcestershire sauce. Yeah, I know...I'm one sick puppy. :^)
I'm not sure there was too much interest in my subject among the gathered multitudes, but I gave it a pretty good (extemporaneous) shot.
At the end of the evening, I was offered the opportunity to do my thing. On a lark, I tried initially to relate the lines with a mild English accent, but Zach put the kibosh on that idea, directing me to say the lines normally. As I said, it was a lark, so I followed the direction without complaint.
What happened next cemented my decision to go see what this workshop is all about. Zach proceeded to draw me out by asking about the characters near Henry when he's saying the lines. He made me describe one man in particular - whom I called Westmoreland - and then asked me to repeat the lines, except that I should "see" my cousin as I do so and be aware that, in a few short hours, he may be dead.
It made a pretty big difference, let me tell you.
At any rate, I've been invited to play the part of Polonius in this summer's local presentation of Hamlet. I think the experience will be fun, especially since I've not done anything so grand in scale up to now, plus I stand to learn a number of techniques for manipulating my mental state. And that's always a good thing.
My word. It's after 10 pm already. Time to go to sleep. It has been a long day. Tomorrow, I get to go visit a local lawyer to see about organizing a corporation to run the store. I have this feeling that my checking account is about to get lighter again. Ye gods.
Cheers...
