journal.melendez.org

We acquiesce to the visit with Santa

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:12:00 +0000

We acquiesce to the visit with Santa
Originally uploaded by Edward Melendez

Hugaday!

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:27:00 +0000

Hugaday!
Originally uploaded by jonbolden

A fun, ad hoc troupe that just had its run at Salvage.

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:40:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:37:00 +0000

This is a test

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:36:00 +0000

Curious George Visits a Horse Farm by Santiago M. Melendez

Curious George runs behind a horse. Curious George gets hit by a horse. Curious George sees a Mom horse. "It is actually a Dad horse," his friend says. Curious George sees a Dad horse. "It is actually a Mom horse," his friend says. Curious George sees a tin of Altoids. "It is actually a horse shoe," his friend says. "A horse must have dropped it."

Curious George leaves the horse farm and goes to a cow farm. Curious George climbs over a fence. Curious George runs behind the cow who chases him. It is actually his friend who is eating a peach.

Curious George goes to the Johnson Space Center. Curious George sees everything for one day and then goes to the Kennedy Space Center. Also, Curious George goes to an owl farm. Curious George sees an owl. He tries to wake one up but it is still fast asleep. His friend does that too. They go back to their apartment and go to bed.

And that's all!

Santiago Visits Me at the Office

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:30:00 +0000

And does his best NASA Mission Control imitation.

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Mon, 25 May 2009 03:32:00 +0000

I Wonder

From May 2009

This weekend has been one of many experiences. The first is house hunting. Again, we're looking seriously at buying a house, emboldened by the lower interest rates and some hard to define sense that the economy is bottoming out for the year. Of course, the unemployment rate is reaching levels we haven't seen since the recession of 1983.

But despite the risks, I do think that unless something really interesting happens, the Austin real estate market is pretty much bottomed out, unless you want to buy a condo. Those things are in free fall right now. We are looking for something affordable in the 78704 zip code, which is about as far South as I am comfortable with. We found a pretty cool little house in the Galindo neighborhood, which has a East Austin vibe to it (read: gentrifying, albeit at a slower pace than its counterpart).

View Larger Map
Big questions: the proximity to some very well kept but very large tracts of public housing, general sense that it's a bit crime-y. �However, there are few inner city neighborhoods in our price range that aren't subject to the normal challenges of urban living. Seeing my parents' suburban neighborhood decline over the past 30 years has really put me on notice for the fast slide that can occur in less than resilient communities.

The second item that has my attention is a new book, The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence. More soon, but definitely worth checking out.

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:18:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:56:00 +0000

My Twelve Favorite Cities in the World

Buenos Aires
New Orleans
Havana
Paris
New York, NY�
Las Vegas, NM (NOT Nevada)
Santa Fe, NM
Corrales, NM
Madrid, NM �
Washington, DC
Chicago, IL�
San Francisco, CA

Holy Ghosts and Talk Show Hosts

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:50:00 +0000

The question with this guy is what's the best choice for an education that equips him effectively for a complex world? Went to Austin Waldorf. Maybe it's the one?

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:31:00 +0000

Santiago and I Collaborate on Haiku

Plenty of french fries
We need some catchup as well
They are delicious

A monkey tub toy
It is stuck in the plumbing
My toilet over flows

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:31:00 +0000

Work E-mail

This is a a report from Xobni that shows the average amount of e-mail I send and receive every day since August of last year at work only. I filtered out auto generated, mailing list and of course, spam email and show only that which is sent to me by a human. That's on average 100 pieces of mail a day during the work week. I find that to be a pretty significant volume, and I'd say at least half involves me taking some sort of action. How does that compare to other people's volume? I'd love to hear your comments.

Valentine's Day at Homeslice

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:57:00 +0000

Picture by Santiago. Not the most glamorous, but I'm happy to be with these two folks.

Austin Discovery School: Central Texas Gardener

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:52:00 +0000

I'm really proud to be associated with this school. They have great stuff going on here.

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 03:17:00 +0000

Nice Weekend

So, pretty fun weekend. I got to spend a lot of time with the wife and The Boy, which is always a delight. Everything after that is just gravy. I did get to see, and more importantly, play in, some sweet improv. On Thursday night, I was able to see the new Pgraph show, Grimm, which is improvised fairy tales. This show was intriguing to me for a number of reasons. I'm always a sucker for Pgraph. They're easily one of my favorite troupes because of their mix of funny, smart and highly theatrical improv. Besides being technically superior performers who clearly delight in each other's company, they always seem to come up with great concepts, and the whole improvised fairy tale is a pretty good shtick. In fact, one of my classmates had suggested that as a genre for my class' performance work, but since it was already in play, we decided to go to a different direction. Class was another one of my pleasures, even though it was hard hard work. This week was our first class of Improv 601, long form narrative improv.

The genre we decided to work on during this class was "mistaken identity" themes in stories. We've definitely got some work ahead of us. I certainly felt myself struggling for strong choices in my scenes. I feel like I'm getting stuck on another plateau in my learning. While I'm a little worried about how long this plateau will last, I was encouraged to take the "Get Out of Your Head" workshop at Coldtowne on Sunday. A big part of the work was about getting rid of that inner judge ("did that opening just suck? do my scene partners think I'm a moron? why wasn't that funny?") in your mind that makes it really hard to get better at this stuff. The class was pretty fun and inspired me to take some classes at Coldtowne soon. Besides, they're New Orleans folks.

I also got to see Improv for Evil's Cochise retrospective and a Girls Girls Girls show. As always, those folks at Improv for Evil are super talented and delightful to watch. I do get the sense that they're pretty much ready to retire Cochise and move onto something new. GGG was solid too. I'm always in awe of the double whammy of narrative improv plus improvised singing. Those ladies are badasses.

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:05:00 +0000

FIVE PEOPLE WHO I THINK WOULD BE GOOD AT IMPROV

1. My boss.
2. The owner of the cool coffee shop. �I don't know her name (pictured).
3. Dana.
4. Dave.
5. Brook.

Back in Austin

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:35:00 +0000

12/29/2008
Originally uploaded by Edward Melendez

We're back in town. The Boy is on the mend, but like his folks is definitely tired from the NM trip.

Train Ride to Lamy

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:58:00 +0000

I do recommend the train ride from Santa Fe to Lamy, NM. The food is an ad hoc affair, but very good New Mexican fare like green chile stew can be had from a vendor set up outside the Lamy depot. Beautiful countryside in the winter and the hippest train engineer ever.

Snowy Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 23:35:00 +0000

It looks like the antibiotics kicked in. Santiago is in a much better mood. Even up for some shenanigans in the snow at the grandparent's house. We've still spent most of the day recuperating, but we're planning dinner out and hopefully a trip downtown to see the luminarias.

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 02:51:00 +0000

So, yes indeed, Santiago has an ear infection, but the MD suspects pneumonia, so we got to experience chest x-rays and life's rich pagaent at the only 24hr Walgreen's in the area. Ever wonder who hangs out at a drugstore on Christmas Day? Seriously odd folks, like the guy in the picture with the holiday themed wheelchair. Another patron overheard at the pick up counter: "who denied her valium? The doctor? The insurance company?" �Ah, the humanity!

Xmas Day in Corrales

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 17:25:00 +0000

Happy holidays to anyone reading this. We're probably taking the boy to see a doctor today. He's pulling on his ear and he's still a little cranky.

The Trip to ABQ

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:18:00 +0000

I think everybody is ready for a trip. I have just begun to decompress from work and might finally be in the mood for some relaxation. The Xmas eve crowds at the airport aren't bad at all. Feels like less than a typical weekday morning. Maybe this is one of those examples of the economic slowdown, but it sure is nice when you're traveling with a kiddo.

This is a Test

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:04:00 +0000

Did I set up the blog by mail feature correctly? Did I?

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:09:00 +0000

Research for a Scenario Project

�

Why I Like Whole Foods

noreply@blogger.com (Edward) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:49:00 +0000

11/16/2008
Originally uploaded by Edward Melendez

They pay a living wage to their employees who, as a result, have the time to work on their artistic and political passions.