Dream Sequence

Okay, here's another dream that I just had last night. I was teaching an improv class in this odd room. It was roughly L shaped, and it had a pass through thing on the south part of it. Anyways, I had three people from the class come up and I told them the improv scene they were going to do. There were two kids that I don't recognize, and Lothar, Grace's dad. So I told them that they were at work and the two kids were going to totally screw up unplugging a toilet or something like that, when Lothar, their boss, comes in. I remember saying "remember the pizza? Kinda like that." I don't really know what that was about. Anyways, so they start the scene and Lothar stands off behind the class to wait for a good entrance. So the two kids start doing something. I couldn't quite tell what, but before I can figure it out, a whole bunch of people (they weren't there before) run into the scene and start trying to see what's going on. So there's two groups of people in front of me, and everyone is being loud and crazy, and I remember seeing this little lady in a green dress tearing like heck around one of the groups. Finally :Lothar comes up next to me and says that I should probably stop it since things are getting out of hand. He told me to yell "King" for some reason. So I stop everyone, and send everyone who isn't in Drama 25/35 out. There are these two random kids who can't quite remember if they are in those classes, but then the girl says "wait, we were in Terminator, so we must be in it." Then I got the whole class to sit down and I asked them all what they liked about it, what they didn't like, and what they would have done differently. Then I woke up!

Quote of the day

That's the thing about freedom. It's never free. - Logan Kale from Dark Angel

the feelings of words.

Today I realized the power of using very specific words. I was at work and I was already having a pretty stressful day because of all the tables that I had in quick succession. I was behind on getting everyone their drinks and I had just had another table sat, so I still had to take their order, and I was just really stressed. And then Ali comes up to me and says "uh, you know that they ordered a perogy pizza at 63 right?" (all the tables are numbered so we can keep track of them) And so I started freaking out cuz I had no idea what to do, should I get that taken off the bill? Should I order a new one? Should I just pretend that it was the kitchen's fault? (totally wasn't) So I mush have said something out loud because Ali just says "oh, just order a perogy. They're just munching on the pepperoni for now." And just because of the word munching I totally calmed down. Just right there. Oh, they're just munching, that's okay! No panic there! It was the weirdest thing ever, but I thought it was really cool and I'm going to be looking a lot more for words with a very interesting reaction. I'm kinda excited!

Tactics

Hey everyone! This is about a thing that my Uncle Dan taught I think it was last year actually... I'm kinda behind on writing about it, but whatever! So, anyways, tactics is simply a bunch of different tactics that we learned about with talking with other people about beliefs and whatnot. It was very interesting and very good! The first thing that we learned about is called the Columbo tactic. Named after the famous fictional detective who used the tactic of always asking questions to solve his cases. So it's pretty much the same thing for us! The basic questions are 1:"what do you mean by that?", "how did you reach that conclusion?", and the last one isn't so much a question as finding the flaw or flaws in the other person's reasoning and asking them questions about it until they figure out that it just doesn't work! I thought that this was really cool because that's what I like to do anyways! I've found that if you ask people questions they are much more likely to talk, and if you ask them specific questions you can get them thinking in the right direction! After all, not many people like being told what to think, but if they reach the conclusion themselves, they're much more likely to accept it and like it! So, the first question is simply for clarification, it's a stall tactic as well, giving you a little more time to think about whatever you need to figure out. And it also avoids confusion later when you're both saying the same thing, but meaning different things! The second question is to make the person defend their claim, after all, it's whoever makes a claim that has to defend his view. Anyone can make a claim, but for it to actually be worthwhile it has to stand up to scrutiny! So, the second question gets the other person to actually defend his or her idea and you know what's funny? A lot of the time they actually have no idea how they reached their conclusion! Usually it's just something they've been told and accepted without thinking about it! And if they do actually have a thought process, it gets you more information on what they're thinking and why, and also gives you a chance to look for flaws in their thinking. The last question depends on what the conversation is about but basically it's just finding the flaw in the thinking and bringing it to the other person's attention by asking questions about it. I found this to all be really helpful, but it's also kinda hard cuz if you're not careful it becomes a contest to try and prove the other person wrong instead of actually wanting to know what they think and why. The desire has to be there or you're just fighting instead of talking. Not so good. And that's pretty much the Columbo tactic! After that there was the suicide tactic, the "taking the roof off" tactic, and the steamroller tactic. I'll get back to those later!

Dream Sequence

Hello dear readers! I've had another dream this fine night, and I felt that I would share it with you. Actually I've had it three times in the past few nights, I just haven't been able to fully remember it until now.

So Meaghan calls me up and tells me that we should do some drama stuff and hang out. I say okay and then things get a little foggy, but eventually it turns out that her and I are up on a stage and we're doing Wicked. At least, we're pretending to do Wicked. She is doing all the lines, but I don't know them so I'm just improving away having a great time, and apparently I'm doing rather well! It's at this point that I notice that I'm wearing my bathrobe over my costume. Or maybe that was my costume... Dunno! So then we get to the last lines of the play and she sings a few bars of a song and I harmonize perfectly, and then we run off stage. It's at this point that I notice that there's an audience there and they all start clapping and I stand at the back rather stunned while Meaghan runs up onto the stage to take her bow. Then about eighty kids run up and also take a bow, and I try to run up, but there seems to be some kind of scaffolding in the way, so I have to crawl under it, and then I get on stage just as everyone is stopping clapping. But that's okay with me! Good times!