Small parts vs small actors

I got a question about the size of my recent role in Saratoga Drama Group's Bye Bye Birdie, which I thought I'd talk about here. Gloria is definitely a cameo role - I was only on stage as Gloria for about 4 minutes, but I made it as big of a part as possible while I was on that stage! Many folks commented on my character after the show as being "naughty", "obnoxious" or "funny", so I obviously did make an impression.

My middle school director, Miss Nichols, always said, "There are no small parts, only small actors", which is a hard thing to hear when you're a heartbroken 12 year old who just found she only got a bit part in the school's big show, but my experience as an actress has shown me that it is true!

If you were to look at my acting resume, you'd see my stage life is filled with bit parts and character roles, and I have found they can be the most fun! You don't have to learn as many songs or lines, yet it's possible to make your character just as big (or bigger) than any of the leads. It's about realizing that every role in a show is important, or the author would not have put it there in the first place.

In addition to my role as Gloria, I also played a teenager and a parent in various scenes. This required I actually step into a different role and focus on who I was. Even though my teenager role had no lines, I still had a name (chosen myself) and a undying lust for Conrad Birdie. Audience members who did not know me did not realize I had been multiple characters - the best compliment I can get as an actress! Even though I literally came back on as a teenager only moments after my Gloria scene, I blended right in - although I'm sure this will be the last time I'll be cast as a teenager - I am getting "long in the tooth"! :-)

Years ago, I did HMS Pinafore, and instead of being a standard sister, cousin, or aunt, I was cast as a sort of escort/guard to Sir Joseph Porter. Another woman, Connie, and I were dressed in military garb, had jet black wigs, and very stark makeup. We followed Sir Joseph Porter around, serving him tea, and other odd things. Connie, like me, knows there are no small parts, so the two of us worked together to synchronize our movements and both dove completely into our roles. Nearly every night during notes, though, we got told by the director that we actually had to pull back - we were stealing the scenes!

A good friend's mom actually won an award for best actress in a community theater group for a role in which she had only ONE LINE! I did see the show, and I did agree, she was outstanding. She showed every emotion with just expressions, never needing to speak. Her "background" character was fascinating and compelling, telling an entire story with just her eyes.

It is important to keep this in mind, whether you're a lead role or just in the ensemble - you are there for a reason! Step up to the plate and become that character. The entire show will be much more enjoyable for you and the audience if you do.

There is a great website, StageAgent, where you can go to look up role sizes, vocal ranges, and amount of dancing required. Check it out!

Telnet vulnerability FUD is making me crazy!

Sun did a pretty awesome thing this weekend. A vulnerability was reported on an OpenSolaris alias, not even the correct place to report a security vulnerability, an engineer who happened to be reading his email on the weekend saw the post, reproduced the bug in house, fixed the code, got code review, tested and integrated a fix into Nevada (aka OpenSolaris) within HOURS. On a weekend. We have folks that are on pager call for handling this type of stuff, but since this was not sent to that alias, we were so lucky that several other engineers were watching an open alias for this & responded & fixed it on their day off.

The next day, Monday, the fix was integrated into the Solaris 10 patch gate, with official T-Patches on their way, yet I'm still seeing articles like this from News.com which make it sound like we're still trying to figure it out. And gets the facts wrong (I believe the Sun rep was misquoted, but I don't know that for a fact). The article mentions that only as of last month did we start shipping with SSH enabled by default. *UGH* We've been shipping with SSH enabled by default since Solaris 9 - for YEARS now. I think what they meant was that as of last month, Solaris 10 Update 3 started shipping with ONLY SSH enabled by default. That is, telnet, rlogin, etc are all disabled by default. It was part of our huge security initiative, Secure By Default.

There are several workarounds to this problem:

• Disable telnet on your S10, S10U1 or S10U2 system
• make root a role
• Disable telnet to root for non CONSOLE logins (default, btw, since the initial release of Solaris)

Solaris 9 and earlier are not affected. This was unintentionally introduced into the Solaris 10 & Nevada code base when a major project integrated into Solaris 10.

I am mystified as to why we didn't immediately release a SunAlert with the workaround, but I know those folks were waiting for the IDRs to be available - and they are now. Official patches will be available Real Soon Now. I'll keep poking a sharp stick at folks to try to convince them to do better OFFICIAL communication, but what we've got going with OpenSolaris on the discussion aliases is very cool.

Fiesta del Mar is now a limited time engagement

Woe is me, the best Mexican restaurant this side of the Mexican border now has a limited lifetime in Mountain View, its home for the last 16 years. Normally, I would not be so up in arms about a restaurant closing, but this little place has always made us feel at home, has the most polite and friendly servers and clientelle, unlimited home-made salsa & chips, and delicious hearty entrees that cause a Pavlovian reaction just thinking about them - and this restaurant has done nothing wrong!

A friend of mine noted that this is just capitalism at work, and that my objectivist college background should enable me to see past the loss of this fine establishment, and rejoice in the redevelopment of this into office space. While that may be true, I just can't get past how this closure seems inherently unfair. The business itself is thriving! Customers come from as far away as Dublin & San Francisco on a regular basis. Even when visiting on a Tuesday night, an hour long wait is not unusual. The staff will happily make you a pitcher of margaritas to bide your time until a table opens up, where they will promptly serve you - all the while engaging you in conversation or teaching you some Spanish, if you're so inclined.

This would be different if the business was failing and someone was coming into Mountain View to revitalize this space, but that's not the case. As a resident of this fine city, I think it's imperative that we try to keep local flair and flavor, to continue to bring visitors and revenue into the city.

I'm not sure what I can do, but I hope to figure it out soon - any advice?

Close call!

Riding our bicycles in today, we were nearly involved in what could have been a very nasty accident! Mark & I were waiting at the red light at Middlefield and Shoreline, in the bicycle lane on eastbound Middlefield. We were chatting away, and missed when the light turned green. That slight, and unusual, delay saved our lives. The car sitting next to us, a small Toyota, started driving just after the light turned green, but just before us. Mark & I casually entered the intersection when suddenly a blue van came RUSHING southbound on Shoreline - running a very red light at about 40 mph. Because of our minor delay at leaving the intersection when the light turned green, the small Toyota was hit by the van instead of us. Even then, I was suddenly faced with two cars coming towards us - out of control. I screamed and totally froze - crashing metal at those speeds that close is too much for my little helmet to protect against. We were very lucky that the little Toyota wasn't a bit further in the intersection, or the severity of the impact would've certainly sent the crashing cars just that much closer to us and I wouldn't be able to write this now.

Please, please, please drivers - don't run red lights. Is it worth nearly killing two cyclists to get to work on time?

Shaken and fortunately not stirred.

Ten years later....

Walking into the building today after yoga, I caught the strong odor of burnt toast. This reminded me of an... incident I had when I started here ten years ago while trying to get a bagel *extra* toasty. I started here in January 1997, just as the Internet boom was starting to ramp up. At Sun, we still got free bagels and donuts once a week - heck, I can't remember if it was on Tuesday or Wednesday anymore! These donuts and bagels were a BIG incentive to get into the office early, otherwise you'd miss out on the deep fried delicious snacks.

Fresh out of school, I would arrive here at the office, dressed business casual, at about 8:30AM. One morning (a Tuesday or Wednesday), I was toasting my bagel & decided to toast it twice (as the first time it came out a bit underdone). The smell of burning bread alerted me to trouble, and I reached into the toaster oven to try to retrieve my bagel. After burning my hand trying to grab the incredibly hot doughy delight, I tried reaching in again with a paper towel... Even though the element was off, it was still hot enough to catch that paper towel on fire. Oops! Quickly, I dropped the paper towel in the sink & turned on the water. Waited a minute, then retrieved my now overdone bagel and sulked back to my office. Embarrassed by my rookie bagel move, I was still relieved that Sun engineering is a late rising bunch, so nobody else witnessed my bagel flambe.

Looking back on the last ten years, I've been all of the following:

• Novice
• Solaris Test Collection Gatekeeper
• JavaVM, GreenThreads & Javadoc tester
  
• Firewall novice
• Sustaining Engineer
• Patch creator
• Chief complainer about SunScreen's NAT facility
• Architect and developer of new NAT in SunScreen EFS 3.0
• SNMP expert
• Tweaker of all things stateful in SunScreen
• Documentation reviewer & sometimes writer
  
• Bug princess
  
• IPQoS Novice
• CIM/Wbem novice
• ON novice
  
• IPsec novice
• Userland cryptoframework component designer & implementor
• Test developer for PKCS#11 components
• Bug queen
• BoF organizer
  
• Solaris update release tech lead
• ON CRT
  
• Chief receiver of complaints about update releases & patches
• Open Solaris sponsor
• Open Solaris sponsor.. sponsor
• Smartcard novice
  
• Crypto export rule enforcer
• Fixing code I wrote many moons ago... geez, why didn't I comment that code?!?! Who wrote these lousy man pages?!? I did?!? Oh, well, then... I guess they aren't that bad. ;-)
  

Here's to a great ten years at an incredible company where I've had many different jobs (only one job change actually involved an interview), and even more roles. I've learned you can't be just one thing here at Sun, you must take multiple roles, do multiple tasks, and keep learning. There's always more room on your plate - there has to be. It's how we grow, both as a company and as individuals.

Here's hoping for a few more good years here! Who knows what jobs or roles I'll be doing next year?

Ten years later....

Walking into the building today after yoga, I caught the strong odor of burnt toast. This reminded me of an... incident I had when I started here ten years ago while trying to get a bagel *extra* toasty. I started here in January 1997, just as the Internet boom was starting to ramp up. At Sun, we still got free bagels and donuts once a week - heck, I can't remember if it was on Tuesday or Wednesday anymore! These donuts and bagels were a BIG incentive to get into the office early, otherwise you'd miss out on the deep fried delicious snacks.

Fresh out of school, I would arrive here at the office, dressed business casual, at about 8:30AM. One morning (a Tuesday or Wednesday), I was toasting my bagel & decided to toast it twice (as the first time it came out a bit underdone). The smell of burning bread alerted me to trouble, and I reached into the toaster oven to try to retrieve my bagel. After burning my hand trying to grab the incredibly hot doughy delight, I tried reaching in again with a paper towel... Even though the element was off, it was still hot enough to catch that paper towel on fire. Oops! Quickly, I dropped the paper towel in the sink & turned on the water. Waited a minute, then retrieved my now overdone bagel and sulked back to my office. Embarrassed by my rookie bagel move, I was still relieved that Sun engineering is a late rising bunch, so nobody else witnessed my bagel flambe.

Looking back on the last ten years, I've been all of the following:

• Novice
• Solaris Test Collection Gatekeeper
• JavaVM, GreenThreads & Javadoc tester
  
• Firewall novice
• Sustaining Engineer
• Patch creator
• Chief complainer about SunScreen's NAT facility
• Architect and developer of new NAT in SunScreen EFS 3.0
• SNMP expert
• Tweaker of all things stateful in SunScreen
• Documentation reviewer & sometimes writer
  
• Bug princess
  
• IPQoS Novice
• CIM/Wbem novice
• ON novice
  
• IPsec novice
• Userland cryptoframework component designer & implementor
• Test developer for PKCS#11 components
• Bug queen
• BoF organizer
  
• Solaris update release tech lead
• ON CRT
  
• Chief receiver of complaints about update releases & patches
• Open Solaris sponsor
• Open Solaris sponsor.. sponsor
• Smartcard novice
  
• Crypto export rule enforcer
• Fixing code I wrote many moons ago... geez, why didn't I comment that code?!?! Who wrote these lousy man pages?!? I did?!? Oh, well, then... I guess they aren't that bad. ;-)
  

Here's to a great ten years at an incredible company where I've had many different jobs (only one job change actually involved an interview), and even more roles. I've learned you can't be just one thing here at Sun, you must take multiple roles, do multiple tasks, and keep learning. There's always more room on your plate - there has to be. It's how we grow, both as a company and as individuals.

Here's hoping for a few more good years here! Who knows what jobs or roles I'll be doing next year?

Rocky Horror Show - Live!

Wow! What a blast! A large group of us went to see the Rocky Horror Show - the musical - last night in San Jose with the Actor's Theatre Center. The production was incredible! The sets were fantastic, and the troupe really did a great job working with the small stage. This is the first time I've seen a non film production of this, and I was very impressed. The live band really added to the ambience of the show. The entire cast did a great job sticking with nuances from the movie, leaving the pregnant pauses exactly where we expected them so we could throw our our comments, wise cracks and jabs with no fear of interupting the actors. Tad Morgon really shone as Dr. Frankenfurter, belting away the tunes so smoothly that he could put a young Tim Curry to shame! The show was wonderfully costumed and the cast were all very adept at moving around in 4 inch high heeled platform shoes. They were all obviously having a great time, which helped us have an incredible time in the audience. My favorite scened had to be the slow motion death of Columbia, Dr. Frankenfurter & Rocky. Hilarious! Special kudos go to David as Brad & Aaron as Rocky. You guys both rocked!

Late last year, I also saw Gilligan's Island - The Musical, done by the same group (different actors, though) and was just as impressed. If I'm going to keep this up, I should probably save myself some money & get a season subscription!

There are still two shows of Rocky left tonight (8PM and midnight) If you read this before then - go catch the show. A good time will be had by all! I promise! Do the time warp one more time for me.