108148133037808170

Good idea, Bad idea

We’re getting into Spring now, so I thought I should go ahead and start gettin’ me some sun. So, I figured I usually shoot hoops before I work out, so why not shoot hoops in the sun? I’ll tell you why not: It’s stinkin’ hot out there and the sun will sap all your energy if you let it. Sure enough, it let it and it did. So, I shot around for about a half hour, hopefully getting some sun, and then I went ahead and started my workout. About two sets in, I felt awful–tired, nauseous, sweaty, dehydrated–and all I wanted to do was go home. Looks like I need a new way to get some sun. Maybe I’ll have to resort to reading by the pool.

The books are in

The books that my acting instructor recommended have arrived and I’m well into Acting in Film. So far, I’ve found it to be a very practical book with a lot of good information for a guy like me who hasn’t ever been anywhere near a set. The book’s not about “being a tree” or the ethereal part of acting, but it covers more of the basics like how to act on a set, how to prepare a scene and things like that. It’s really interesting and I’m sure it’ll help me even next week at my lesson. Best of all, it’s an information-packed, fast read.

One week

A week from tomorrow, I’ll be in Jacksonville, beginning my version of Spring Break. I’m really looking forward to it and I’m sure it’ll do me some good to rest up, but I’m not yet to the point where I feel I need to “get away”. I think that’s good, though, because I’m not getting stressed at work and I won’t put unrealistic expectations on my trip. I’m looking forward to seeing my family and friends and just sittin’ around and gettin’ paid.

107985288953870536

Slippin’

Well, of eight games today, I essentially lost six. I still have all my Final Four teams and most of my Elite (or “Great”) Eight teams, but it ain’t lookin’ good. Unfortunately, others who’ve picked Kentucky to go all the way have very similar brackets to mine and haven’t gotten burned like I did in the second round today. There’s still an outside chance I could win it, but it’s a slim one.

Watchin’ the game with the guys

I spent several hours today watchin’ the Tourney games with my buddies and I have to say it was a blast. For one, it’s just fun sittin’ around with a couple guys, screamin’ at the TV and crackin’ jokes at the commentators. For another thing, Tourney time reminds of being at school every March, when things get kinda’ crazy in Gainesville. Usually, around this time, we’ve all just gotten back from Spring Break and, although most people think they can avoid it, we refuse to do work and our performance in our courses begins to slip. Then, just as we’re getting determined to pick it back up in school, March Madness rolls around and we’re sunk. A full month of Conference Tournaments and then the National Tournament distracts us from from school and forces us to spend hours and hours of our time in front of the television, rooting for thirty-something teams, many of which we’ve never heard.

Ah, the Madness. Just thinking about the fun my friends are having in Gainesville right now makes me miss it… and it makes me glad I’m going home for a week at the end of April.

What a poorly written, but emotionally motivated post. I really gotta’ work on that.

107509717014831294

Plano: Day 13

First off, I’ve decided to stop the monotonous “day count” at 14. I figure after that, everything will be best chronicled normally. Other than that, I don’t have too much goin’ on. I didn’t go to church today because I’m trying to find churches to visit, but I didn’t find anything for this morning. I’m sure I’ll find somewhere to go for next Sunday morning. I mostly just laid around watching TV, playing GameCube and messin’ with TiVo for most of the day. In fact, I don’t think I left the apartment.

I spoke with a couple friends on the phone and that was nice, as always. It’s good to know that I have allies back east and that they’re thinking of, praying for and lookin’ out for me. It sounds like a friend of mine is coming out sometime in March, near the end of “Spring Break” (for the college kids). I figure I’ll be getting back to Plano around that time, so I should get to hang out both here and there with friends from there. That should be a good week.

Digital Camera shopping

I don’t know how soon I’ll buy one, but it seems like I should go ahead and get one while my life is still in transition. As I look around me, I see things that are so ridiculous that they need to be captured on film. The pile of boxes in my dining room is so big, a friend of mine said, “You buildin’ a fort?”, as soon as he saw it. I’m sitting in a computer desk chair with my feet propped up on a coffee table. My computer is to my left and my TV is in front of me. I’ve been sitting here, checking e-mail, surfing the web, doing some online shopping and messing with TiVo for several hours now. Not to mention that the place is a total wreck and I don’t see an end to that coming for a few weeks now (as that’s when the rest of my furniture will be arriving).

More work

It’s midnight and I’m still up, though I’m finally getting tired. I’ll be up at 7 for another day at work and I’m hoping to be doing something interesting soon. So far, I’ve just been reading documents, looking over drawings and looking through some training material related to my project. Once I’ve ingested all that background stuff, I should be ready to head out and start working with the actual equipment. Hopefully, that’ll happen tomorrow.

More Wardrobe

I’m still reading the Chronicles of Narnia and enjoying them very much. I’ve slowed down recently–mostly ’cause I haven’t been home much during the week–but I intend to get back on track this week. I’m having to pace myself, though, ’cause I don’t want to exhaust this source of intellectual entertainment too quickly.

107493577880339580

Plano: Day 11

I’m officially back online and I don’t know how I ever went without the internet. Anyway, I had been keeping my weblog on my computer, so I’ve posted the past 10 days’ posts. Most of it’s really boring, I’m sure, but I thought it would be good for me to record my transition to DAL for future reference. I’m not sure how, but I feel that I might eventually learn something from all those posts.

Up late

It’s after 3 am and I’m still going strong. My coffee table/end tables arrived today, so I went ahead and put them together tonight. I’m really happy with them aesthetically, and they’re pretty sturdy, too. They’re not “real” wood, but are apparently a combination of various woods and “veneers” or something. Anyway, they look good to me and I hope they last.

The dining room set I ordered was cherry wood, so at least that’s the real thing. The color of the woods should match pretty well, even though they’re not the same. Regardless, I’m ready for my stuff to get here, but I’ll have to be patient and keep comfy and occupied while I’m waiting for it to get here.

I’ve also been working on getting my TiVo online… It’s a pain ’cause the stupid thing was designed specifically to use a dial-up connection to download the information it needs to get for daily programming updates and such. There is a workaround in that it has USB ports that can be used to connect it to the internet over a wired or wireless network, but that’s turning out to be a hastle. I’m hoping to get a little adapter at Best Buy tomorrow that will allow me to get it all setup. Once it’s setup, it’ll be pretty super, but I have to be patient until then.

Spring Break

I’m thinking about taking some Paid Time Off (PTO) during UF’s Spring Break. I guess I need to find out what all’s going on, so I make sure I don’t waste a week of PTO to go hang out in an empty city or by myself on the beach. I told my boss today and he seemed to almost encourage taking some time off and he said it wouldn’t be a problem. Right now, plane tickets are about $300 American, but I’m hoping that’ll drop a bit before March.

Along Came Polly

A friend and I went to see this flick tonight and it was pretty good. It’s definitely not Ben Stiller’s best work (I think he was much better in Zoolander and The Royal Tenenbaums), but it was still a funny flick. Jennifer Anniston did a great job and was fun to watch. Philip Seymour Hoffman was funny and constantly impresses me as a character actor. Anyway, it was nice to get out and do something and I discovered there’s a huge Cinemark movie theatre about a block from here; it has reclining seats and everything.

Ok, I’m going to try to get to sleep now… I’ll have to see how that goes.