July 2004So Coke and Pepsi have both come out with new versions which contain "1/2 the carbs" of their normal drinks. I took the liberty of coming up with a new slogan for these (in my opinion) pointless drinks:
"For those who can't commit to being healthy, but want to feel like they're doing something!"
For some reason, I have never been able to get into animé. I find this odd, since there are so many people I know who absolutely love it. People who I generally have a lot in common with, and like a lot of the same things. Somehow it's just never hooked me. I've tried half-heartedly a few times and always found my inteerest wandering and thinking about going and surfing the net or something. I really feel like I should love animé. I will give it another go (in fact Jess has "Spirited Away" for me to watch), but I just feel weird. It's like if everyone you knew, respected, hung out with, loved Krispy Kreme donuts, but you just found them bland. Of course that scenario is just ridiculous, for Krispy Kremes are the krack of the food world. I think my animé gene is broken.
So some friends of mine are putting in a good word for me at a company that I've wanted to work for since I moved here. As far as "jobs" go it would be about as good as they come. In fact it would be one of the jobs I have been actively pursuing. However, something dawned on me last night that is also kind of scary. If I did end up getting this job, I would not want to leave it. That sounds like a good thing, I'm sure, and it is in many ways. However that puts a scary angle on my acting/film crew/music work. If some opportunity arose, I would not leave my job to pursue it unless it was a proverbial "big break". If I got some kind of offer for a month long PA job, acting job, music tour, etc., I couldn't take it because I sure wouldn't quit such a great job for a temporary gamble.
So this raises the question, "Which is more of a prison: a job you hate or a job you love?"
Now to be fair, I would still pursue it all to the best of my abilities and work around my job as much as I could, while also being far happier at my job and outside of it, but still it's a scary prospect in some ways. Considering I haven't even had an interview yet, I realize this is putting the cart before the horse, as it were, but I'm a ponderous guy.
I make so many entries about browsers, programs, mice, etc, that I thought maybe I better start prefacing them with "Geek Alert". I've thought about implementing the "category" function of Movable Type, but always talk myself out of it since I really don't think it would serve much of a purpose. Besides it would take lots of fiddling.
Anyway, my newest geeky find is Roboform. Very cool. It saves all the information you could ever need to put into online forms and easily fills it in with a click. It can also save logins and passwords, but Mozilla does that on it's own so I don't really care about that feature. I love it however whenver I need to fill out the whoe "name, address, blah, blah". To make it work in Mozilla, just be sure to download the Netscape/Mozilla adapter (available on the same page).
I found this terribly amusing.
Drove 3 hours to my band gig yesterday. Played one and a half sets before the sky unloaded on us and we had the tear everything off the stage as quickly as possible and put it in the garage (we were playing a wedding reception at a really nice house in the country). We then sorted out all the haphazardly rescued equipment,and drove, soaking wet, 3 hours back home. Got about 4 hours of sleep, and now must go to work. Rock and roll, man, Rock and roll.
On a side note, does anyone else ever hesitate making a new blog entry when the last one you've made hasn't got any comments yet? I'm always afraidit will just get buried and ignored if I make a new entry. My "I Robot" entry hadn't had much time online, and I almost hesitated in making these last two entries. Then I did obviously. Just me?
This is the one. I've got it, I love it. Feels good, looks good, performs good. Top of the mouse heap in my opinion. And as a compliment, pick yourself up the best Mouse surface ever too.
Actually a very good movie. Now to be clear, don't go expecting Asimov. As the end credits say, "Suggested by Isaac Asimov". However, don't let that stop you. Also don't let the misleading trailer (as the majority seem to be these days) stop you. It's not a mindless action flick. Jess was expecting something just above crap, and ended up liking it quite a bit. There is plot, and mystery, and actual story!
On a side note, while this movie aims to an anti-prejudice message (don't worry, it's not preachy or heavy-handed), it spreads it's own prejudice; prejudice against red lights in technology. Don't worry, no spoilers ahead, just generalizations. No specifics.
Anytime someone wants to show and "evil" robot or computer, or toaster or coffee maker in a movie, it always has some ominous glowing red light somewhere. Someday when robots rule the earth...er...serve mankind in useful ways, there may be some dapper robot who likes the color red and decides to have a red light put in his head. Maybe his creators put red lights in him because it matched the new ad campaign colors in their new campaign, "Robots! They don't eat old people's medication for fuel!" Now this robot would be oppressed, feared, and probably attacked by mindless mobs everywhere he went because of the years of conditioning teaching us that red lights in technology=EVIL!
However, there is an upside to this issue. There is an easy way that we can keep all technology and future robots safe and subservient. Simply never install any red illumination anywhere in them. No red light, no evil. I'll await my Nobel prize in the mail, thank you.
I actually laughed out loud when I caught a glimpse of it hanging in a book store:
Top ten reasons I procrastinate:
1.
Slash, Duff and Matt Sorum from GnR plus Scott Weiland from STP, add Dave Kushner on guitar (sorry Dave, never heard of you previously) and you get the album "Contraband". Very rockin'. I'm a fan. I recommend it highly.
For my Firefox using pals, there is now a nice spellchecker for version .9 and later here. For future reference, I added it to my Firefox extensions and tweaks page which is linked to in the Firefox section of my links page.
Johnny Depp. Stop motion animation. Great cast. The Corpse Bride.
Skin on*.
*"skin on" is one of the many catch phrases that have cropped up between my cousin and me (we seem to be catch phrase machines when we're together). It came from a restaurant menu who served their potatoes "skin on". We decided that this sounded like an affirmative reaction. Later, due to another restaurant menu, we decided that a good response to "Skin on!" was "Bone in for flavor!"
Because life likes to taunt us, I received a call to be a PA on a VH1 show filming for 5 days here. Well, not only would I have to quit my job to do it, but I have a band gig one of those days, so I couldn't do it no matter what.
Don't you hate when Opportunity knocks and you have to tell it "Sod off you bloomin' Opportunity! I'm not home!" and then Opportunity goes next door, and you hear it having tons of fun with your neighbors as they drink and yell, and scream bad songs together (although they erroneously sing "fire all of your guns at horses" during "Born to be Wild"), and then Opportunity is like "Yo dudes! We're out of queso! Let's hit the store!" and they all pile into someone's car with the stereo cranked through the crappy car speakers, and screech off down the road to get more queso, and other party supplies, and you go to sleep grumbling under your covers until you are awakened by Opportunity and your drunk neighbors bellowing more hits from the 80's as they come back from the store and order a pizza just as the pizza place is about to close (but it's O.K., they tip the driver very nicely) and you eventually manage to tune out the euphoria and get a few winks because you have to work your crappy job the next morning and as you leave for work you see through the bay window that Opportunity and everyone are crashed out on the couches and floors amidst pizza boxes, queso stained upholstery, Queen albums, and swim suits (from the sojourns in the jacuzzi), but it's all O.K. because you have your red stapler.
Not the good kind. Not as in "We want the funk. Gotta have the funk." Funk as in, I'm in one. I can't shake it. Yes this is yet another entry of Heath whines about his dissatisfaction with life in general, so feel free to move on to more enlightening reading.
The usual stuff. Job is miserable. Which generally makes it hard to really enjoy anything even when you're not at work. I've come to the realization that even if I get a better job, I'm just trading one prison for a more comfy and acceptable prison where you can at least enjoy your life outside of prison. However, it would still pretty much prevent me from really pursuing the things I want to be doing. It would still be a step up though.
I kinda feel like maybe my moment has passed. I'm too entrenched in the machine of life to break out and do what I want to do. Time to wrap up the dreams in a shoebox and put them in the closet with old photos and such. Perhaps I've dabbled in too many things and mastered none. I just don't feel like there's any chance of doing any of the 100 things I want to do barring some random chance at life's lottery.
As much as I love Austin, I still think that if I really wanted any chance of acting, voice acting, or film crew careers I would have to go to L.A. Take, for example, this excerpt from voice acting 101:
Equally important is that you really should live where the jobs are; in North America, this means Los Angeles, where most of the cartoon voice work is cast and recorded. Some actors such as David Kaye and Stephanie Morganstern are based in Canada, but they are exceptions. No one will hire you if you live in New Jersey or Texas, no matter how talented you are. When a casting call comes, you need to be there, sometimes within the hour.
I feel like I need to get to a destination that's 5000 miles away with no vehicle, no maps, and no clue.
Ahh, enough whining for now. Trying to corral my personal mental Charybdis and put it into words just ends up as a rambly mess. I just feel bad that my frustration, and moreso my current job prevents me from really enjoying anything anymore. I have a great wife, and want to be able to not be a big bummer around her. I hate that she has to suffer due to my frustration.
Two weeks of great fun and vacation really makes you realize how much you hate your job when you come back.
Because you can go to The Alamo Drafthouse and enjoy some good food and drink while watching a restored print of the 1925 Harold Lloyd silent film, "The Freshman" with a live band providing the score. Twas very cool.
Quick update.
Went to Liverpool. Went to "The Beatles Story" museum. Very cool.
Went on a tour of John Lennon's and Paul McCartneys childhood homes. VERY cool. Quite momentous and moving for me.
Was treated like a total celebrity when I sat in with a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute band. The fact that I am from Austin seems to carry it's own inherent set of credentials. A very nice guy named Tony brought me a choice of 3 different guitars, and a very nice amp to use. I sat in on several songs and it went great. The band is "Texas Hurricane". They were excellent and more than that were all the nicest of people you could ever hope to meet.
Had somewhere around 30 people over to Jess's parents house for her birthday. We barbecued outside all day and partied into the wee hours. I gave a small acoustic performance in a back room of the house. Invented the "Captain Archer" dance. This is my second dance invention, the first being "Do the Pope Hat".
Barbecued again today for the 4th of July. There were 3 of us Yanks here so we used it as a good excuse to use up the ton of food left over from the day before. Casey (my cousin) and I did the barbecuing since it was a holiday for us, and we felt we should "host". We decided the Brits should also celebrate today as "yay! We got rid of the Yanks!" day.
Perhaps I will elaborate on some or all of the above when time permits. Cheerio, pip pip, and all that guv'nor.