July 2003*Title gratuitously borrowed from Steve Martin's "The Jerk"*
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. Here's the job description. 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.
Probably, because it's full of spyware, it's obtrusive, wants to take over everything, and newer versions have really annoying "messages" and there seems to be no way to turn off these "notifications". However, sometimes there are some cool things I want to watch in "real" formats.
Real Alternative to the rescue!
Scroll down until you see "Real Alternative".
I 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.
So 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.
on our weekend in Austin, we went around to various spots where the movie "Office Space" was filmed. I took GPS coordinates so I could make them in to "virtual caches" for geocaching. Check out the results here!
Yes 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!
Tally 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 animé 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.