A few years back, the music director where I was working and I decided to present the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue, Some Enchanted Evening. For the first part of the process we held vocal auditions and cast the singers with the songs. I then turned to the task of how to stage the piece. NoteContinue reading “Strange (?) Inspiration Part 1”
Author Archives: stephenschrum
You’re a Character—Or Two
Another wrong number text message hit my phone this past weekend. “She” started on the offensive (there’s probably some chess gambit I could refer to here) but I hit back immediately. You have to admire them for only wanting to be friends. Anytime the conversation goes sexual, they deflect. I should probably be grateful forContinue reading “You’re a Character—Or Two”
Myths of Customer Service & Tech Support
There are certain recurring phrases you’ll hear frequently when calling either customer service or tech support—a move I try to do as little as possible, because, let’s face it, the service and support is often lacking. If our calls were truly important, they would hire more humans, get rid of the horrible music and senselessContinue reading “Myths of Customer Service & Tech Support”
Fer Crine Ott Lodd
The title comes from my rendering of what a medical office person with the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania area dialect said when struggling with her non-responsive tablet. It actually bears no connection to the rest of this post, but I hate to waste anything. Instead I wanted to write about quotations I often heard when I workedContinue reading “Fer Crine Ott Lodd”
Thorny Bush of Near Death
As I was toiling in the garden, I came too near a malicious rosebush. Suddenly, viciously, it swatted at me with the swift backhand from one of its branches. Multiple thorns dug into my flesh, and as I attempted to evade another blow, the hooked blades struck deeper and deeper, eliciting a torrent of bloodContinue reading “Thorny Bush of Near Death”
Alien Something!
First, I found this post on Facebook: The description inspired me to create the movie poster for “Bad Milk Blood Robot” because, well, that phrase is just too perfect. I have been using fotor.com but the results have been a bit lame lately. So I decided to use Microsoft Copilot and it came up withContinue reading “Alien Something!”
Odder and Odder
The mobile game ads seem to be getting odder and odder. I get that they’re pushing AI companions so lonely people can date HER. Or one version of her… Though I’m not sure how “elegant” the one on the left is, if the caption isn’t quite good English. And there’s this: Besides the fact thatContinue reading “Odder and Odder”
A Panoply of Typlos
Yes, that was deliberate. But I’m sure the errors I constantly find in game ads that continue to parade across my screen are not deliberate. Yet they do amuse me. For example: The voiceover says, “Delete that rubbish,” so we know that the caption happened through human error. However, this one seems to not beContinue reading “A Panoply of Typlos”
And Just Then…
When I thought I might have a day off from the wrong number scammers, here comes this one. I was impressed that the opening gambit differed from previous ones; usually they tell me I’m some Asian woman and that they’re a friend of mine. Here “she “uses my name, but flips the script and saysContinue reading “And Just Then…”
Short-Circuit the Scam
Last week I had a half dozen of those wrong number scam messages. Frequent readers of my blog know that I usually like to play along with them. But lately I’ve decided to play against them and see what happens. This is an example of attempting to short-circuit their script. I did expect some sortContinue reading “Short-Circuit the Scam”
MUSOFYR 