I just wanted to update this blog with a link for a fun-time game:

501 Dart Challenge – Reach zero exactly in as few throws as possible

Oh, my… where did the time go?

Okay, I’m a schmuck yet again for letting this blog go so long without a post. I’d like to say I was too busy, but I was just lazy.

Why do we neglect things? Things, people… our growing disconnect is quite apparent. Especially from me. I think I tend to get… I don’t want to say “bored”. I think I just lose focus far too quickly. Not enough where it would be ADHD-level, but enough to concern me
For example, my room is in desperate need of a cleaning. When I’m not home, I know what I need to do and I am determined to get it done the instant I get home. But, sur enough, when I get home I lose all focus on that task.

Like this blog…

Hey, my wish list for Christmas is over here:

Amazon.com

That list will probably change a little here and there if I add stuff to it. If none of those appeal to you or your wallet, any (or all) of the t-shirts from here would be most appreciated, if not drooled over.

And as always, gift cards and cash awards never hurt either. :-p

Okay, I admit it… I’m a bad person for not writing in this more.

I always worry that what I put up here will be uninteresting or dull. But I have no idea why that is. Fear of failure doesn’t seem to stop othere folks who have really cheesy blogs. (And I have seen many.) So, I guess I will join the ranks of the mediocre in this case and just keep trying.

On the burgeoning acting front, I just finished my third straight show for the MCC theater dept. I have to say I think I liked this one the least — not for anything particular element, though; I just didn’t feel connected to the piece as I have to the others in the past. The play was a French farce that just felt awkward to do the whole time we ran through it. It was still a job well done, though… and we did have a great cast party (which I feel obligated to speak no more of). Maybe I’ll through a few pictures of the show up in my Flickr account when I get them in. I should also post the photos from my previous shows. More auditions coming up tomorrow as well. I really should take a break, but I feel like if I stop I will jinx this streak I’m on of continuously being cast in shows. Maybe that’s superstitious of me, but I don’t care. In addition, I will be working on shows at ASU next semester and preparing for a few class-related projects that I cannot officially speak of for a couple of weeks.

Okay, that was an awkward segue into talking about school, I admit. I’ll get better, honest. Anyway, finals start this week and I can certainly say that I am sooooo not ready for this semester to end. I think I was a little more focused on the shows I was in than I should have been and it might reflect in my grades. Yikes. I’m definitely going to do my best to get ahead on my studies for next semester so that I am ready. I’m going to be busier than ever, splitting a total of 19 credit hours between two schools, shows and the aforementioned extracurricular activity. I also need to find a new job. I left my former employer to work on these shows and I probably should not have done that. They paid pretty well for the work I did and the benefits were great. I’m not sure if I should mention the company (hint: rhymes with “bells cargo”) but I would certainly be willing to work for them again if I could find a position that fit my crazy schedule. But I digress. Maybe I overload myself sometimes with things, but some of this is important to me, both professionally (as an actor) and personally. I hope something comes of all this college because I don’t know yet how I will handle all this psychotic debt I’ve had to accrue to finish my degree.

And on other fronts, I have to get for a moment here. In the past six months or so, the bulk of my immediate family (my primary source of professional support) moved far away from here. It is certainly the furthest we have all been apart since… I almost can’t remember when. I spent Thanksgiving at my brother’s new place in New Mexico in between rehearsals for my show. I have to say that as much as I am not fond of the state as a whole, I find that I was almost reluctant to leave. I am glad that my brother and his family have escaped this town after so long here, but it’s lonely being left behind. I miss the Sundays spent hanging out with him, watching football when it was in season (Go Broncos… I guess. I’m not much for the sport.) or driving like a maniac in GTA: San Andreas out of season.

I suppose the isolation never really hit me until a couple of weeks ago. I blame my sister!! Okay, I don’t really. She met this guy recently and we all went out to lunch a few weeks back after I sat in on playing a handbell gig. (For more on that… use a search engine.) He’s a good guy and she (and has) done far worse. I think the impact that it has had on me is to really start to feel my age. I am 32 years old and I am alone. And it sucks. So what is stopping me from simply going on a date? I could come up with any number of snappy excuses, but the truth is that I may be too afraid.

For example, there is a girl I know — I refuse to say where for now. I’ve known her for a while now, ever since we first had a class together. She is intelligent, witty, attractive… and lord knows I have had endless opportunities over the past couple of years to ask her. So what stops me? I’m guessing a combination of perfectionism, cowardice and just plain fear of rejection. Last night, for instance, I had the perfect opportunity to ask her. We were walking out to the parking lot and I kept telling myself, Just ask her, man. You have nothing to lose, really. If she says “no”, just shrug it off and move on, okay soldier? And we got to our cars and I turned and said… “good night”?!!! She returned the words and got in her car. When I turned to my own car I actually heard myself mutter, “Fucking coward”.

Truthfully, I think I’m afraid to let anyone else in. I feel like I have been alone for so long and to expose myself in that way may just be too much. I put myself out there every time I audition or have to speak in voice class. I make myself vulnerable for the work, so why can’t I do that for other areas of my life? Hell, why am I doing it here?

At least here, I know there’s a pretty good chance that no one will read it. And I can always erase it if I wish.

WG’06 – Day 1

Well, the first day of the World Gathering has come and gone. Fairly good start in my estimation. After waking up early and getting a workout in the resort’s gym (located between my room and the convention center), I walked all the way over to the convention center begin the day’s fun. On the way, I did see an odd sight. One of the Disney cast members was mowing the lawn with a self-propelled push mower. That isn’t usually weird, but he was riding on a little platform trailer thing. It made the whole contraption look like a a really practical version of a Segway. Very funny.

My first event was attending the GenX meet & greet. It was kind of cool to put some faces to names that I only knew from the Yahoo! group that we all populate. It was a pretty straightforward meeting plugging GenX events going on during the WG (especially the Pub Crawl, which I am looking forward to, hosted by my friend Reno Ron). I suppose it’s not that odd that most of the GenX events involve alcohol in some fashion. Much to the surprise of the organizers of the Meet & Greet, the room we had wasn’t big enough. We had about 120 people show up… they were out the door. Awesome.

After that, I hung out in Hospitality for a bit to soak up the atmosphere. It was neat to hang out in a different setting with Gary & Gail, two longtime Mensans who are my friends and cool pseudo-parental figureheads for a lot of us younger folk in the Greater Phoenix Mensa group. Anyone in Mensa who doesn’t know them should get to know them. Anyone not in Mensa should get to know them too, as they are two of the coolest people on earth. (Seriously, I’m not just saying that).

I then attended a piano recital by fellow GenX-er Aaron Dai. I admit, I didn’t for the whole thing, but that was not Aaron’s fault. He is a phenomenal player and I enjoyed his work. I just was running low on energy and started developing a bit of a headache. So I went back to Hospitality to recharge.

When Tony, friend and GPM LocSec (Local secretary– the guy in charge, for all the non-Mensans out there), and I couldn’t get into the Sudoku tournament (seriously… a 40-player limit? That’s cold), I had a couple extra hours to myself, so I got my car and drove off-site to a local grocery store to get a few things and take advantage of my hotel room’s sizable mini-fridge. May whatever deities exist bless the existence of the mini-fridge. It’ll cut way down on my use on the abundance of unhealthy snacks in Hospitality (and there are a lot).

Well, now, here I am in sunny Orlando, having freshly arrived for the 2006 Mensa World Gathering at the Coronado Springs resort at Walt Disney World. Pretty cool. Now to plan the trip home. (Kidding… sort of)

My drive down from Tennessee was pretty uneventful. Using a map I was able to skip downtown Nashville altogether and avoid the “spaghetti crazy” that is their freeway system. That probably shaved a good hour off of my travel time. More people should use maps. By the end of the day, I had made it to Jacksonville, FL. Unfortunately, in looking for a good hotel deal, I did not take the location of said hotel into account and ended up driving north of town to stay at the Motel 6 where I had booked a room. That’ll teach me. All that because I thought I was saving $10. I’ve gotta be more pragmatic about that stuff.

But I woke up this early and continued my trek south to stop in Titusville and visit the Kennedy Space Center. The last time I was here was in 1997 and I caught a shuttle launch in the middle of the night. That in itself was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen, but I did not hit the Visitor Center that trip because I didn’t have enough time. Yeah, it’s a hell of a tourist trap, but it was well worth it to me to do it once. Some of those sites almost brought me to tears and I have no idea why. Well, I actually have some idea, but maybe I’ll put all of that in a separate entry, along with some pictures.

In any case, I spent the day there then got to the hotel to check-in to everything. That was fast and reasonably efficient. I think the only two complaints I have are the lack of free broadband access (although $10 a day is a perfectly fair price… I’m just used to free, I guess) and the fact that my room is on the exact opposite end from the convention center and all the excitement. The lack of an efficient and available in-resort transportation system makes it a very, very long walk in the heat and humidity. In addition, my room was equidistant from both stairs and elevator in my building. The five trips I made to unload my car made me appreciate the need to invest in a hand truck… definitely as soon as I get back.