Life As I Know It
Multi-talented or dabbling hack?
0O.K., I know I’m not a dabbling hack, but that’s not the point. “What is the point?”, you may ask.
Lately, I’ve really been examining my career goals, and how to best approach them. I’ve always had many diverse talents and interests. In one way this is good in that I am very versatile, and there’s a lot of paths I could take. On the other hand, it also leads to confusion, and trying to juggle things, and risking that you may split yourself in too many directions.
Today, I realized just how scattered I am when I thought about all the things I’ve thought about pursuing. Let’s look, shall we? We all know of my acting, and music aspirations. You an divide music into further sub-categories such as writing, producing, session playing etc., although lately I’ve been wondering if I’m really good enough to be a session player. I’m not so sure about that. I’ve also been pursuing crew work as a production assistant on films, TV, commercials, and just about anything, really. I think that as far as crew work goes, my eventual goal would be to work into an Assistant Director capacity. When I did an infomercial not long ago, I really took note of Og, the A.D., and realized that’s a position in which I really thought I would excel.
I’ve thought about trying to get into film scoring a la Danny Elfman. This isn’t really feasible at the moment since I would need, at the very least, a really nice workstation keyboard. Something along the lines of a $3000+ keyboard with tons of sounds like having an orchestra at my fingertips. Even then I wondered if I could really do it without also reading and writing sheet music. I would really like to know more about Danny Elfman, and his exact process. I could record a film score and someone else could notate it I suppose. This is one of the most unknown avenues to me, and one of the least likely as a starting point. It would more likely be something I would get into after somewhat establishing my career in some other way first.
I’m also a writer. I think I’m quite a good one (not that this blog is any evidence of that). I’ve got a screenplay which is about 2/3 finished which I think is brilliant, and one of my best possibilities for getting somewhere. Unfortunately, I’m also very lazy and slow. I wrote the first half in like a month, and have spent the next 3 years, slowly trying to finish it. This has led me to various other thoughts (which are really way too far down the line to worry about right now, but that doesn’t stop me) such as should I just outright sell it if someone made me an offer, or should I hold out until I can get a deal to star and direct it too, which is really my vision, and how I think it needs to be done. Part of me thinks “if you actually get an offer at all, you’ve hit the lottery, so take it!”, while the other part thinks “Don’t compromise what you want. It is good enough that someone will agree to my terms, and that’s really the only way my vision will ever be fulfilled”. The first option compromises my dream for the sake of money and career advancement.
I’ve also thought that I could write reviews, or magazine articles quite well, but yet I have no portfolio or anything to convince anyone of that.
Many people have told me I should do stand-up comedy, which I’ve also though about. In fact I have a notebook of ideas that I’ve kept since like eighth grade, albeit only sporadically, to the tune of several pages. I’ve probably forgotten more brilliant things than I’ve documented. If I did take this route, it would only be as a stepping stone to other things since I don’t really want to be a touring stand-up comedian.
There’s probably many more I’m forgetting at the moment, but you get the idea. I’m happy, and blessed to have so many areas which I feel at least fairly confident in my talents, and while that gives me many avenues to pursue, and hopefully gives me more chances to make some money, it also confuses things.
A bit of a random tangent: my aunt says she knows someone who is a “Book Index Editor” who works from home on his own hours. How the hell do people get these kinds of jobs? I’d love to have any kind of job where I can work my own hours from home, at least for now!
The world is my burrito, I just don’t know what I want on it.
So, how was your last 3 days?
4Mine were action packed. As you probably already know, Sunday night while we were sleeping, the valve on our toilet broke and flooded our entire apartment while we slept. We had to move our entire apartment onto the patio so they could pull up all the carpet, remove the padding, and then put big dryer fans under the carpet for two days. Sunday night we stayed with my aunt at their house.
Monday, we came back, hung out on the patio for a while, and talked to management about the situation. We still don’t have the details solidified, but we’ll probably get a month’s rent or something.
The studio called me that morning about submitting a demo for another jingle (for which I will be paid). That afternoon I went by and picked up some samples of the type of thing they were looking for.
That night I went to a rehearsal for a play (the previously mentioned one where a guy I had met a few times had recommended me). The people were all very cool and fun. The play itself wasn’t necessarily my kind of thing (a lot of religious content about a guy who goes to jail and finds god), but work is work, and the people were all very cool. I knew it paid, but much to my surprise, it paid fairly well, even for my tiny part in it, and the fact that I will only be in one performance (the second one I can’t make, and there may be some more out of town touring performances in November for which I will be paid more).
After that, we went back to the apartment so I could get to work on the jingle, since I wasn’t sure how much time I would have in the next couple of days being that Tuesday was supposed to be the day the carpet got finished up, and Wednesday I’m going into the studio to record another cut for the album. I haphazardly set my computer up on the living room floor (where the carpet was rippling wildly from the fans), with the monitor stacked on top of it, the mouse on the monitor, and the keyboard on a chair. I whipped up a jingle by about 12:30 a.m. and emailed it off. It was not quite the quality I like to put out, but under the conditions, it was all I could do. Hopefully no one will hear all the carpet fans whirring behind all the vocals. No biggie anyway since my vocals will be replaced with a girl singer. We cleared off our bed, maneuvered around all the fans and dehumidifiers, and just roughed it sleeping in our own bed.
Tuesday, I got up, did some revisions to the jingle as per email, then just lazed around on the patio most of the day. I had a message on my cell phone from a girl saying they wanted me to come in and read for a part in some movie production. She told me to call the director back, but unfortunately did not leave a number. Through some detective work I determined who I thought it was, and left a message on his mobile phone. Haven’t heard back so I’m not sure if it was the right guy or not. Eventually the carpet guys came back, finished up the carpet and the shampooed it. This unfortunately left it kinda wet again (sigh), but in a purposeful way. We finally got our place back to normal and then went out to eat. When we were moving the couch back in I noticed 4 broken springs poking through the bottom, so I got some tools, and MacGyvered a fix using some little screw hook things. Woo! Go me!
Tomorrow I go into the studio as previously mentioned. In other good news, the car jingle I did with Craig and Spencer sold (doesn’t mean much to me personally as far as money goes, but it still bodes well). Hopefully more work to come from that venue too. Then of course, Thursday is M day! Mindi will be arriving for a visit! What fun she’ll have cramming into my truck with me and Jess and doing lots of cheap/free stuff! 
Hey, it’s all about the company, right?
Where am I?
7I feel as if something has happened the last few days…what could it be? Oh yeah, we moved to Austin. You would hardly know it looking at our apartment which does not look like we just moved in. We are efficient moving in machines! For a full account see, Jess’s entry here. Still have to iron out the internet/cable/toilet issues, and look for jobs ASAP.
Several movies are casting, so I hope to get in on that. One is a new Luke and Owen Wilson movie. Monday night, we’re going to a monthly meeting for Austin Actors, to meet people and attend a Q & A with a talent agent here.
That’s about all my addled brain can come up with at the moment. We’re here. The adventure has begun.
And so the adventure begins.
3At 5:00Pm CST today, I become unemployed. Tomorrow we begin the move to Austin, finishing up on Friday. Scary.
On another front, Just as I finally put the foot down and stomp out the few computer bugs I’ve been trying to track down at home, my computer took a complete and utter nosedive. Long story short, I had to completely reinstall my operating system, and basically start from scratch like it was a new computer. Luckily I was able to retrieve my documents and bookmarks and vital things like that.
Spent about 13 hours yesterday getting my machine back up and running. Still have a lot of programs to install and testing to do to make sure what the problem was so it’s not repeated. Ugh. It made me utterly sick, and frustrated and I wanted to cry, and go to bed and never get up. Bad, bad day.
Things look on the up and up though, except for the scary moving and not having a job thing. However, while it’s scary, it’s also all very exciting. Many good opportunities lie ahead. Hopefully you find me on the streets of Austin holding a cardboard sign.
All engines ahead! The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.
P.S. and for anyone who might not have noticed, and who would actually care, if you put your email in the little field up top, you can get an email telling you when I’ve made a new entry. Don’t all rush for your keyboards!
I’m somebody!
3*Title gratuitously borrowed from Steve Martin’s “The Jerk”*
Looky here!
Aside from that, we’re just preparing for the big move to Austin in two weeks. I’ve found a job that I REALLY want yet have about as much chance of getting as I do of winning the lottery. It’s working for the Austin branch of Sony Online Entertainment who run Star Wars Galaxies. The application process is one of those nameless, faceless “cut and paste you resume in this online form” processes which sucks. I also mailed a hard copy to their San Diego headquarters just for the hell of it. Man, that would be too cool, but I’ll be shocked if I even hear back from them.
In an effort to not repeat the financial fiasco of having 6 overdrawn fees of $32 (one of which was on a $.09 copy, thus becoming a $32.09 copy) I have downloaded a totally kick arse, and FREE program for my Palm Vx called Ma Tirelire, which apparently is French for “My Piggy Bank”. Last weekend I searched through all the freeware financial programs for the palm, and this was literally the last one there was that I hadn’t tried. As it turned out, it was also by far the absolute best. The functionality and features of this program are just outstanding. Far more than you’d get from most commercial programs. I never thought I could get excited about a financial management program, but this one has got the goods. If you use a palm device, I highly recommend it.
Anyone still here?
6I really need to update more if I want to keep the three readers I have.
So I’ve been pretty busy with preparing for the move to Austin. I’ve been searching for jobs, but with no luck yet. It didn’t help morale any when I asked one of my work contacts who was here helping with an upgrade if he knew of any jobs in Austin, to which he burst out laughing and said “You’re joking, right?” Apparently it’s a bad time to be looking for jobs in Austin. I’ve been wondering if maybe I could teach guitar out of my apartment and get enough students to make it work.
On the “jobs I want to be doing” front, I have new headhots (as decided by votes from many of you!) I sent my resume, headshot and voice demo (all of which have been updated and can be found in the “actor” section) to two agencies in hopes of getting an agent in Austin.
Random Note:
I was planning on putting together a costume as one of the aliens from “V” for Halloween. I had done much research and collected pictures of the red jumpsuits, guns, props, etc. I had also found a few places online where you could supposedly get some replica props and costume pieces, but they never returned my email. It looks like it’s highly unlikely I’ll get it put together, especially since it would take some finances. Not a lot, but at least some.
Another costume I wanted to put together, but is just about as unlikely is Captain Jack Sparrow!
Let’s end with a link. If you haven’t already seen it, check out The Incredible Hulk’s Blog.
Byt the way, the first time I typed this whole thing out, we lost internet for about 10 seconds…right when I clicked “save” so I lost the whole thing and had to do it all again from scratch. grrr. arrrgh.
Eep! Brave or just stupid?
5So we got the call today that we are officially approved for our apartment in Austin. I then went and told my boss that my last day will be August 14. So now, in just over a month, I will be quitting my job and moving to Austin with no job lined up.
Hopefully my lovely wife can get a good job since she has a degree and then I can pursue this acting, music thing. [wink]
I also have a possible lead with Craig Davis concerning writing jingles, which could also be a cool job. Many opportunities, yet nothing solid. It’s exciting and scary as a mofo. And mofos are really, really scary.
I’m a renegade of funk.
3Yes that’s right, we’re off for another weekend in Austin! We’ll be going out for Jess’s birthday tonight, and then just enjoying the fourth of july festivities all weekend with some possible geocaching in there too.
Random point #1:
I have found new inspiration to practice my guitar playing in the form of Guitarport. Line 6 decided to make my Pod XT compatible with their Guitarport software which was a genius move. Now us Pod XT users can make use of one of the coolest tools I’ve ever seen for guitar players, and Line 6 get a bunch of new Guitarport subscribers. Basically it’s a program where I can backup all the amps, effects etc, that I’ve tweaked in my Pod XT, and for a subscription price, I can access tons of online tones, lessons, and tracks to jam along too. For example, Eddie Kramer, who produced Jimi Hendrix, has remixed some original Hendrix tracks minus the guitar, so it’s like you’re actually jamming with Hendrix’s band on your computer. You can also load up any song on your hard drive if you want to jam along with that. Plus the interface and functionality are just incredible. I’ve found new inspiration to actually sit around the house and play! Words can not express how cool this is.
Random point #2:
In other geeky joy, I also have a new version of my geoaching program for my Palm Vx (which I use as my GPS unit by attaching it to an external GPS attachment). The program is Geoniche and the new version rocks. I easily downloaded 10 geocache waypoints yesterday and loaded them into my unit with complete descriptions and all thanks to the new java applet. Much better than entering in all the coordinates and such by hand.
So now that most of you have most likely stopped reading long ago thanks to my ramblings on things that probably sound like gibberish to you unless you’re into guitar playing or geocaching, I leave those of you who made it all the way through with an amusing mondegreen (misheard lyric) of my own. Before I knew what Rage Against The Machine were actually saying in “Renegades Of Funk” I thought it sounded like “Random Case Of Funk”. This came up because after a shower this morning, I commented to Jess that the bruise on my knee from toooooooooooobing last weekend had turned “lovely shades of funk”. After a pause we both looked at each other and started singing “lovely shades of funk” to the afore mentioned RATM song. Ever since then I’ve been singing to myself “With a random case of funk! With a random case of funk!” That, and Weird Al’s “Hardware Store” which has been stuck in my head since I bought the album.
Have a great weekend, everyone! Miss us!
Fun, fun, fun! Ow.
4Tally of injuries from last weekend: 1 highly bruised knee, 1 slightly jammed finger, super full body soreness.
We all met up at TGI Fridays on Friday night (how apropos!) Jess and I drove into Austin from College Station, Esteban came from Dallas, and my cousin Casey, who lives in Austin, came from indoor rock climbing with some friends. Not much else happened Friday night. We all went back to Casey’s house and they decided to watch Cowboy Bebop (the movie) which I had no interest at all in watching, so I surfed the net on a mac on a slow dial up connection until I just decided to lay down on our air mattress and maybe drift into a bored sleep.
Saturday we all hit the Comal river for tooooooooooooobin! It was about a 2 hour trip down the river so we did it twice. Inevitably you end up doing a lot of paddling to keep up with each other and such, so your paddling muscles get quite sore. It was a nice relaxing day (and Esteban’s birthday) with good friends and a cooler full of snacks. It was on this trip that there is a section, after a fun man made tube chute, where you get out and walk down a few hundred feet before getting back in the river. While exiting, I couldn’t see the metal stairs very well so I proceeded to smack my knee into the side of them. It hurt. A lot. Afterward it looked as if I had a small hamster implanted in my knee. Never the less, twas a fun day.
That night we went to the Alamo Drafthouse where we had more good food and the better-than-crack Root Beer Float made with Amy’s ice cream while watching Hulk, which was alright. It was definitely worth the free tickets which we had procured.
Sunday it was Schlitterbahn time! America’s #1 water park as rated by the travel channel! Esteban bailed on us to go back to Dallas, which while his company was missed, I was glad that I would no longer have to have every free moment filled with some anim� DVD being put on the TV.
We were supposed to meet Dave and Misty at 9:30, but due to a never ending chain of circumstances we were about an hour late. I’ve determined that as a group increases in number so does the amount of time you are inevitably going to be late. I think the next trip is going to be every carload for themselves. Meet at 9:30 and if you’re not there we’re going on without you and will meet you at a predesignated location at noon. Hardcore, man!
It was during a tube ride that I jammed my finger. Also, my water shoes were rubbing me in an annoying way so went half the day barefoot. Lots of walking uphill and up stairs, and more paddling added to my full body soreness (particularly my calves). We were there from about 10:30 am until 7:30 pm. We had Dippin’ Dots, the ice cream of the future! It was good. We went back to my cousin’s had pizza and collapsed.
Monday Jess and I went to check out a potential apartment, which we both really liked and will most likely be our new home in Austin. It was nice AND cheap! They also had a great move in deal which eases finance worries quite a bit. $99 application fee to move in, no deposit, and first month’s rent free! Score! When we got home, we played a bit of SWG, and recreated our characters on a new server since the original server we were on was full and non of our friends could join us. We then watched the next disc of “24″ from netflix, and went to bed.
Thursday after work, it’s back to Austin for Jess’s birthday and the Fourth of July weekend! Ahh, if only every week could be a 3 day work week.
Off to Austin…again!
0We’re heading to Austin again this weekend to go tooooooobin down the Guadalupe river. Last year I went and the river flow was so low, that it totally sucked. Half the time our asses were dragging across rocks and occasionally we had to get up and walk across some precarious rocky bits because we certainly couldn’t float over them. Ironically, while we were toooobin last year, it started to rain. That rain continued for weeks and completely flooded the river pretty much wiping out everything that was along it’s banks including all the toooooooberies.
My friend, Esteban, had kept his car key on him instead of leaving it with the toooooooobin office who had a special place just to keep people’s keys. Consequently, we got back to his car only to realize we couldn’t get in. He called some number for the Volkswagen place since he had a road-side service deal or something, and then we waited for like an hour and a half in the pouring torrential rain for the guy to come open the car up. Once the guy actually got there, he had a really hard time getting it open too. Ah, good times!
So hopefully this year will be more fun. The flow looks much better than last year, and I have my wife with me this year too! Esteban’s birthday is at the end of June so we’re all going to back again in a month to go tooooooooooooobin down the Comal (which we also did last year and found it much better than the Guadalupe) and go to Schlitterbahn, the #1 water park in the country according to the travel channel! See you all Monday!