I think I just created a new mask, Something I swore not to do ever again.

About three years ago, I had a personality crisis, when I was pretending to be three differant people to three seperate groups, and I lost track of the person doing the pretending, Since then I centralised, and managed my Masques – if you like – to stop me going insane.

The masques I use vary from Aquarion, the quick-witted, incorragible punster most of the Internet know and hate; to Nick, the helpful guy of infinate patience that you will encounter if I ever go into Lecturer Mode; though Robbie, the latest incarnation.

Robbie is the person I play in Stags and Hens. I had a lot of trouble with him at first, because he is a Ladies Man, a rogue, one of those bastards you see with a girl on each arm. Then I read Lonecat’s piece on Masks, and it started to fall into place, Robbie’s confidence was just another mask, but a mask on top of what? I solved that, but then managed to fit the mask to Me as well.

The population will never meet Robbie, because Robbie is only ever seen at nightclubs. Todays expericnce of being dressed in full 70′s gear in a nightclub, and the comments it gathered, gave me a great chance to learn Robbie as a person, and how he reacts. (All the comments I got were positive. Pictures soonish. Promise). And although it gives me an extra thing to hide in if I need the confidence, Robbie’s Brashness will probably get me into trouble…

Plume Returns from the brink

I’m *really* bad at making phone-calls, so when I actually got my act together to phone people to make sure they were still a) alive, and b) thriving, it is always nice to hear that they are doing both. Long may it continue, and may the summer bring Much Goodness, and may the Easter bring much drinking… :-D

Mewise

My arm hurts, and I don’t know why. I cannot use my elbow for anything more strenuous than typing, because I get a shot of pain what cripples me for a couple of seconds. I think I must have slept on it wrong or something…

As you see below, the preview happened, and the reviews are in. Direct Hit. The play went down like… well… something that goes down Very Well Indeed. Project over. I shall never have to channel Robbie again.

I probably will though, see the next entry for an insight into both Me and Robbie (It’s on my Windows drive atm, and I can’t be bothered to go get it :-D)

I’ve spent the last couple of days going over the next project: PHP/mySQL. I have the book, and the programs are installing as I type (Also Netscape, so I can’t actually post any of this until the download finishes). This project hits three stages, the first is a data-driven interface to the world of Aquarionics, so instead of fifteen differant pages it will be spoo’d forth from a single database.

This, however, is going to involve me moving hosts. Over the next few months sometime, Aquarionics will go down so I can move across. This is going to cause mass-disruptions across the entire world of Aquarionics, including all @aquarionics.com addresses, mailinglists and sites. This Is Bad. But it will be as quick and painless as possible. Promise.
But first I have to learn the language, and not least write and test the system, so it may not be a while.

In Other News, Terra Incognita, the ezine that is rising from the ashes of the Sunderland Scifi Soc. brings it’s first edition into the world on Sunday 1st April 2001. Be warned, there be dragons.

There are two more projects under the “Nick Learning mySQL” umberella, as well as “Nick Finding a Real Job”, but I’m keeping those under wraps for a bit, because they will probably go titsup.com when I realise how hard it is :-D

The play preview. We were also reviewed. I’ll post that when I find it :)

First performance is over. It went fantastically well, I did my lines, played the audience like a puppet, and enjoyed myself muchly.

I have also updated Precious, so it scans better :)

So, Yesterday was the final rehearsal for the play. The second of two total run-thoughts. The play opens tonight at 19:30 for a magnificent two night stand at the Royalty Theatre, Sunderland. I’m slightly more confident about it today than I was yesterday (Not that I could have got less confident than yesterday). Rehearsal started 18:00, ended 21:00, decamped to the pub. At 23:00 the pub closed and the idea was suggested to phone out for a crate of booze and just sit at Rachel’s house and get pissed, because we all felt like it.
Which we did.

So Last night/this morning was spent in a drunken environment, saying things we have never said to closest friends to people we have only known for six months, Drinking, playing cards, playing other games, discussing the play. And it was fun, and I haven’t had that much fun for a while.

And this time Friday, the play will be over, and I can get back to the important bits of my life again :-D