There were two additional things that helped things click into place. First was listening to the Inside Acting podcast, which I believe should be a must-listen for actors of all stripes. In fact, go to their website or into iTunes and subscribe to it immediately. Don’t worry… I’ll wait right here.

Umm… actually, you could just open the links in a new window so that you don’t leave me behind. I get lonely…

Done? Phew… I was beginning to think you weren’t coming back. Where was I? Oh, that’s right.

The second thing was this post on Wil Wheaton’s blog from November (which was brought on from a blog post by fellow author Warren Ellis, etc.) that talks about the idea of “Get Excited and Make Things”. The basic message is to take your creative ideas and make them concrete. Hell, you could be probably make them out of concrete if that’s your chosen motif. But I started thinking about all the things I’ve been meaning to create and continually putting off. And since the best thing for ubitquitous capture (look it up, kids) is to write it down, I starting writing during the bus ride to work.

Thirty minutes later as I disembarked from L.A. public transit, I looked at the havoc I had wreaked across three pages of my Moleskine — outlines, quotes, sketches, mini-flowcharts, tasks, dreams… the list goes on. I was amazed that I had that much piled up in my head but more importantly, I was excited! So now it time for the second half of that… I need to make these things a reality.

I have decided to use this blog to chart my progress as I am adopting “Get Excited & Make Things!” as a personal motto and getting to work in a number of different areas. Most important is listing them all here and I figured I make some sort of formal declaration. Ah-he-he-hemm…

Whereas I, the ActorGeek, having determined that the year Two Thousand and Ten, by the common reckoning, shall be known as “The Year of Getting Excited and Making Things”, do hereby commit to making the following things happen:
(I promise it’ll be normalspeak from here to the end)
- Completely written and produced episodes to complete the Magellan’s Children storyline
- More trips out of town, esp. to visit family (incl 1 trip each to NM & WY and a possible trip to TN)
- Attendance at more Mensa events, including both L.A. & Phoenix RGs and the 2010 AG in Detroit
- Appear for 2nd time on an L.A. stage
- Yoga as a daily practice
- New headshots
- Obtain representation
- Lose 50 lbs
- Minimum first drafts of 3 written works and 1 piece of music
- Gain a basic working knowledge of 1-2 new languages
- Direct a reprise of Touchstone, U.S.A.
- Direct a full production of Gambler’s Daughter

It’s a lot, I know, but as I said, as long as I get at least a few accomplished and make headway on the others, I will consider it a damn good year.

I currently am still looking for a day job (NOTE: if anyone has any leads, pass them on) which means money has gotten insanely tight, up to and including the fact that I owe my incredibly generous and tolerant roommate for my half of the utilities. Over the last two weekends I’ve had a dozen auditions — all for non-paying projects — and it comes down to two productions that directly conflict with one another on the calendar. Details later. I get a callback for one and while I’m at the callback I schedule an audition for the second one on the off-chance that I don’t get cast.

A few days later, I go to the second one, which was a bit of a drive, only to find out that it was a last-minute casting and rehearsals start that night. I nail that audition and get cast, but I started feeling queasy at the read-through, because I hadn’t heard from the first one yet.  (Honestly, I was hoping I was sensing an immortal who was going to lop my head off.)  Turns out, after I get home , I get a late-night email that I was cast as the lead in the first play!  Sonofa–

An ominous choice lay before me, because I committed to a tiny role in this second show. I hate going back on my word and I talked to several people whose opinions I value before making the choice to back out of the second show. For a better role? Oh, yes. Guilty? Hell, yeah. But if I made an enemy or a mistake, I’d rather make these mistakes now. The lesson I learned? As much as we as actors need to keep hustling work, this kind of thing is vital to watch out for so that you don’t step on a lot of toes on the way up. I don’t know what consequences I’ll incur in the future for this action, but I can only hope they aren’t too severe…

Additionally, motivation can be a factor.  My room in its current state could probably be declared a federal disaster area, which would be really great because I need the money.  However I don’t see that happening, so I’ll have to clean it myself.  I also find it a challenge to actually get rid of things.  I’ve managed that sort of mega-purge a couple of times before.  Most of the crap this time is paperwork that I need to carve through one step at a time… fun fun!

I also had my last business meeting as the head of my local Mensa chapter this week.  I’ve had that gig for two years and I think it’s been largely positive for me — better growth of my social skills and trusting others with accomplishing tasks while still feeding the control freak in me.  But I am glad my time is done in that job… honestly, in some cases term limits can be a blessing. (With a friendly nudge, nudge to Congress) So now it’s time to look forward.  I don’t know what will come next in Mensa for me…  I’ll still be a webmaster for a while.  I’m sure I’ll be active in one of the several L.A. area chapters as well, but I’m also needing to focus on my entertainment career, too.

Thankfully, if I’ve timed everything right, I’ll be able to take a small road trip before landing in L.A.  I haven’t been up to my uncle’s house for a couple of years at least and I could really, really use the downtime away from everything.  I’ll also get to stop in on the way to visit my brother and his family, which has now grown by one with the gold master release of Son V2.0!  I’m excited to see the little critter and all the rest of them, too… it’s been too long.  Almost wish my parents lived within this circuit too, but I’ll have to wait until the bigger holidays to see them, I suppose.

Per my previous post, I’m still working on the video end of things.  I’m working on finding a way to keep the bandwidth costs down for doing this, but I may just end up sticking it on my YouTube channel and linking it here. Stay tuned for that as well as additional updates from me as I keep working on this site!