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Lazy weekend

Normally, I’d say a three-day weekend is super and then I’d talk about all the great stuff I did to take advantage of my extra day off. Unfortunately, I didn’t really do anything to take advantage of the extra day off and I wasted most of my weekend sleeping. I guess that’s not all bad–I hadn’t really had the chance to just sleep for no reason in a while–but it would’ve been nice to use the weekend for something productive.

I did play basketball on Saturday, but it was an all around bad experience. I didn’t feel right during the first game and then, about half way through the second game, I started feelin’ dizzy and my chest felt funny. So, I sat the rest of the game and decided I felt better. I played a few more games without any of those symptoms, but I also played at about half speed. I wasn’t really playing to compete, but just to see if my body was trying to tell me I needed to get checked out. After I played a few more games, I kinda’ figured maybe I just got started too fast or I was dehydrated or something. That was the last I heard of the dizziness and such. But then, half way through my last game, I jammed my thumb real good (during a dead ball, no less) and that’s probably going to keep me out of commission for a week or so.

So, I went home and slept and then watched a movie and then slept some more. Sunday was about the same and I slept till 11 this morning. The highlight for the weekend was my acting lesson. During my last lesson, my instructor said he was going to find something where the stakes were very high for me, emotionally. This time, he had a short scene from The Devil’s Advocate, which we cold-read, and a much longer scene that I’ll be working on this week. It was challenging and fun to work on the scene and I really had a chance to think outside the box and try to be present in the scene emotionally. I wasn’t completely satisfied with my performance, but I’m going to work on it this week and hopefully turn it into something good.

Work, work, work… blah, blah, blah

This is the part where I moan about having to get up early and go to work and all that. Mostly, I’m used to it, so it doesn’t bother me much. The thing that concerns me most is that I’ll have trouble getting to sleep tonight… I hope I don’t have any trouble because I don’t have any more Tylenol PM to bail me out.

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Almost done with Rich Dad, Poor Dad

I’ve only got about 20 pages left and I’m still wavering on how I feel about this book. I think it’s got good information, inspiring thoughts, nice anecdotes and other good qualities, but I’m having a hard time finding tangible ideas that I can use today. Maybe I need to find another book to address my particular situation: recent college grad with a pile of student loans to pay off, but also planning on trying to get out of my current profession and into the risky acting business.

Anyway, it’s definitely worth the $15 I paid for it, but I’m hoping the last 20 pages offer a little more practical and tangible advice.

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New music (to me)

I picked up a copy of Nora Jones’ feels like home and I’m likin’ it a lot. It’s good, soothing music and I’ve been reading to it, but I wouldn’t recommend using it as driving music or anything like that. Mostly, she just focuses on singing good lyrics over excellent jazz. It’s definitely a nice change of pace.

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Need to rest up

As usual, I played basketball on Saturday morning. I played pretty well–I had several good plays on offense, some good passes, nice shots, some good defensive plays and such–but I also played “flat”. It’s hard to describe, but I basically just felt like I never really got out of second gear. I could do everything I wanted and everything I did do felt slow and forced. As I thought about it, I realized I may be pushing my body too hard with conditioning, weight lifting and playing basketball. I think I just haven’t given my body enough time to recover lately. So, this week, I’m going to seriously limit how hard I work out. Mostly, I’ll cut the shootarounds from my pre-workout routine and I won’t do any specific cardio. I’ll just go in, warm up on the bike for ten minutes or so and then hit the weights. It’s not exactly taking a week off, but it’s definitely toning things down a bit. I’ll try that and see how I feel next Saturday. I’m guessing I’ll feel looser and more energetic.

Watched 4 movies this week

I only saw one in the theatre and the other three were on DVD:

Troy

I had been careful not to get my hopes up because I’m not a big fan of epic war films and I’d also heard some mediocre reviews. Turns out the reviews were a reflection of the movie itself and I was better off not having gotten my hopes up. It was a good movie, but that’s about it. I certainly didn’t feel that the producers were justified in spending hundreds of millions on dollars producing it. Mostly, I just felt it was pretty lackluster in most aspects. Two scenes that stood out were Achilles’ fight with Hector and the Trojan king’s conversation with Achilles in his tent. These scenes were well written, shot and directed, but the rest of the movie felt pretty ho hum.

Chasing Liberty

Yeah, got this one by accident. Apparently, Netflix mistook Lawrence of Arabia for a 2003 chick flick. I figured I had it, so why not give it a shot. I got about half through and just couldn’t take it any more. I thought the acting was fine–a little over the top, but I got the sense that the actors were directed that way–but the writing just wasn’t holding my attention. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but this movie was asking way too much of me in that department.

Seven Samurai

This here was quite an experience. An old Japanese film, black and white, subtitles and three and a half hours of character development with the occasional battle scene to change things up a bit. Yes, it was a good movie. Yes, there were some great ideas and pieces of philosophy. Yes, I thought it was well written, directed, shot and acted. No, my American attention span would not ever allow me to try and watch it again. As it was, I had to watch it in four separate sittings, each one spent mostly watching the timer on my DVD player count closer to “03:28:00”, when I knew it would end. This was a good movie and I could see why it’s critically acclaimed, but it just ain’t for the regular person wanting to see a good movie. It should definitely be watched more as an intellectual pursuit than as entertainment.

Stuck on You

Another one I just couldn’t quite finish. I thought the premise was kind of funny, but it just didn’t play out very well on screen. I could see this story being written well by somebody like John Irving who has a knack for writing strange characters in strange situations, but this movie just didn’t get my attention. I tried and tried to finish watching it, but I didn’t even make it an hour into the movie before I had to call it quits. The jokes got old after the fifth telling and the gags were worn out just a few minutes into the movie. Thumbs down.

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Coming right along…

The song/progression I mentioned in my last post is coming along nicely. I’ve finished writing it, but I’m having trouble physically playing it because there are a lot of strange chord formations and transitions. Basically, I’m just having to get used to it and use repetition to burn it into my brain and hands. It’s probably the most intense chord progression I’ve used because it involves more than ten chords and moves over seven or eight frets. Many of those chords are changed in transition as well (one note will drop a step or something), so there’s a lot of movement throughout the individual chords.

Anyway, it’s fun to play and my hands are slowly working up the calluses they need to get through it. I played some Taylors at Guitar Center today and they made me think of hanging up the Takamine and dropping some change on a Taylor, but I thought better of it. Eventually that’ll happen, just not yet.

Short day tomorrow

I only have to work about five hours tomorrow, so I’ll be splitting around 1 o’clock. Hopefully, I’ll use my afternoon wisely, but I have a hunch I’ll end up sitting on the couch, watching movies. Netflix made its first goof and sent me Chasing Liberty instead of Lawrence of Arabia. How that happened, I have no idea, but I figure I’ll give Mandy Moore a chance and see if it’s not a decent movie. I will also hopefully finish Seven Samurai this weekend… I’ve been working on it for about six weeks now. It’s a decent film, just old and it has subtitles. It would never make it in American cinema today because the plot is developed far too slowly. I think it could seriously be condensed down from just about three and a half hours to two hours without much trouble. But then, the art and philosophy would be lost. Of course, it’s probably lost on me anyway.

I’m out.

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I was this close

Today at work, I almost bought a plane ticket to Atlanta. It was only about $260 round-trip and the trip home would’ve been in first class. I figured I could get it for Memorial Day weekend, take that Thursday and Friday off and have myself a nice little 5-day vacation. Anyway, I decided against it and I’m still not sure I made the right decision. At least I have the flexibility at work so I can just take off a couple days if I need to. It’s nice to have that kind of freedom even though I’m in “the real world” now.

Guitar? Is that you?

I’ve been playing more and more guitar lately, and it’s very refreshing. Tonight, I put together a nice progression with an interesting melody and I really like it. It’s been a long time since I felt that creative itch and I’m hoping this is a burst that will last a while. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, training as an actor, a little writing and now I’m back to trying to create music. I’m finally starting to be productive with my time. I just wish it hadn’t taken almost five months to get back in the swing of things.

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Rich Dad, Poor Dad

A friend recommended this book to me, so I picked it up (along with a few other books) at Barnes & Noble this weekend. I’m only midway through the second chapter, but I can already tell this will be a very good book. It’s about money and how to make it. Really, I think it’s about how to make money work for you. That, of course, is a very interesting topic to me because I’m “gainfully employed” and have just entered “the real world”. Learning how to make my money make me money is bound to be useful and I’m pretty excited to put these principles to work.

I’ve always thought outside the box regarding money–I spent the last 8 months of college living off interest-free loans from credit card companies–and I think that sort of thinking will be necessary to safely transition from engineer to actor. Or at least it’ll be necessary to try to make the transition without going broke. And, realistically, I can’t expect to become a millionaire just because I want to act. I’m hoping to make a comparable income to what I have now and that means I’ll need to be wise with my money and invest it well.

Hopefully, this book will point me in the right direction.

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Wacky workout schedule

Ideally, my workouts (or at least the weight-lifting ones) are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Because of my schedule and my laziness I haven’t had a set routine in several weeks. I mean, once I’m in the gym I do about the same stuff every time, but it’s a matter of actually getting there. I did my Friday workout yesterday and last Monday’s workout on Tuesday. Today, I went to the gym and played basketball–a little one-on-one and mostly just some shooting around–for about an hour and a half. No weight lifting. Tomorrow, I’ll do my Monday workout and then I’ll play it by ear for the rest of the week.

I guess the reason my schedule is so wacky is that, right now, my ultimate goal is to get into the best shape possible, so I can be ready for the basketball league that starts in June. Basically, I’m hoping to be at my best during the league and that means I’ve gotta’ work pretty hard right now and until June 15 when everything starts. I’m still very focused on weight-lifting, but with the intention of getting stronger and faster, so I’m a better basketball player. I’ll save the benefits of weight-lifting as seen on the basketball court for another post.

Early day on Friday

I put in 9.5 hours today, which means that if I work the standard 8 hours for the next 3 days, I’ll leave at 2:30 on Friday. Of course, my goal will be to work that time down to around noon, but I’m not sure if I’ll have it in me. My acting lesson is cancelled this week, so I’ll have a little more flexibility, but I just don’t know if I can stay at work past 5 o’clock for the next two days. I guess it’ll just depend on how busy I am.

And now it’s time to sleep.

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Hanging curtains? What?

That was the highlight of my weekend. I’m not sure what it means, exactly, but let me explain. I moved in here about four months ago and, ever since, I’ve gone to sleep at night annoyed by how bright it is in my room. As with many apartments, there’re street lights outside and one (or two, or three) of them happens to be focused on lighting up my room. So, I’ve sort of gotten used to the light, but not completely. That’s just at night, though. In the day, it’s like God put a super nova in my room, just for me. About 6 am, when the sun comes up, I start tossing and turning because it’s just too bright to sleep well. Naps have been out of the question and “sleeping in” has meant 9 am.

So, this weekend, I went out and blew a bunch of money on stupid curtains. I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond, which I realize could have been a financial mistake. They have really nice stuff, but they’re not exactly bargain priced and that’s really what I was looking for. Next time, I’ll probably go to Target instead. Anyway, a couple hours and $130 later, I have navy curtains covering my windows and my room is dark as night whenever I want it to be. Naps are back and they’re here to stay.

Bad Basketball Blues

I played pretty poorly yesterday and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who thought so. There were some highlights–I hit a couple “big” shots including a game-winner–but all in all, I played pretty miserably. I knew I was in trouble when, during the first game, I missed a couple layups on fastbreaks. They weren’t the easiest finishes in the world–both were reverse layups with a defender in pursuit–but they’re layups that I’ll usually make. I just couldn’t get anything rolling and, more importantly, I couldn’t seem to synch with my team. I have that problem with a lot of the guys that play on Saturday morning. It’s not that I’m a bad player or that they’re bad players, we just don’t play well together. It seems like whatever I’m thinking, they’re thinking the opposite: if I think we should switch on a pick, they think we should stay at home; if I think they’re going to the rim on a fast break, they’re actually spotting up at the 3-point line; if I think they’re trailing me in the lane, they’re actually trailing on the block.

Anyway, I feel like I’m in pretty good shape and I’ve been playing well overall, but I just can’t seem to get on the same page as the guys that play on Saturdays. To them, I’m sure I seem like I don’t know what I’m doing, but the real problem seems to be that they play a style of basketball that involves a lot of selfish play and yelling at teammates. I figure if I can learn to play well in that environment, then there aren’t many situations in which I won’t play well in the future. Here’s to learning to play well with dudes who don’t want to learn to play well with me.

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Crazy week in Texas

Monday was my last night house-/dog-sitting for a friend. Although I didn’t mind helping him out while he was vacationing, it was really nice to get home where I could sleep in my own bed. I didn’t realize how much I like my apartment until I was displaced from it for a week. I really have made a home here and I’m very comfortable in the environment that I’ve created. It’s cozy and it’s home.

My first movie premier

Tuesday evening, I attended the premier for a local indie film. I have to say it was pretty bad and I was really surprised at the attention that such a low-budget, low-quality film received. I think a lot of it was pure hype by promoters and moneymakers, but in the end, it just wasn’t a good movie. I would give details but it’d be easier to say this: the only redeeming part of the film was the lead actress, but even her performance wasn’t enough to save this movie. It was so bad that, at the end, they were giving away prizes–copies of the DVD, T-shirts, movie posters–but when they called the winning ticket numbers, no one claimed the prizes. There were three or four unclaimed prizes before an older woman and a child claimed some stuff. It was sad and funny at the same time.

Another great session for the acting

Tonight, I was given a cold-read–it was a scene from a local Dallas indie–and I had a reading partner. It was a great experience because I was able to learn a lot about myself, my natural ability, the ability that I’ve gained through my work so far and my ability to interact–listen and react–with another actor. All in all, I was very pleased with my work tonight, but I definitely see much room for improvement. While I’m learning more and more about breaking down a scene and making it into a workable, believable piece, I’m still having some trouble digging into the scene to find the proper motivations for myself and my character. This will come with time, I know, but at least I’m aware of my shortcomings and that’ll give me something to work on.

I just e-mailed my instructor a copy of (what I guess one would call) a treatment that I wrote back in the Summer of ’02. He’s going to look over it and we’ll decide whether there’s anything worth turning into a short film. If there is, we’ll probably start working on it and eventually lay it down on tape. I’m half expecting him to hate it and pan it, but I’m half expecting he’ll find something worth working with. I’ll just have to wait and see.

Busy tomorrow, too

Tomorrow night, I’m going to a friend’s belated birthday party (he and his wife are actually sharing a party and it’s closer to her birthday than his), so I’ll probably be good and exhausted by tomorrow night. I’m not really sure who’s going to be there, but at least I’ll know the happy birthday couple and maybe a few other kids. It should be fun.