And the Sale is on!
Well, the Virtual Yard Sale has started! I’m selling my possessions in order to both raise money and lighten my load as I prepare for the move to Los Angeles. You can help out by taking part by clicking to the “On Sale!!!” page above and taking a peek at the various items I have to part with. Make an offer… we’ll talk!
Change is inevitable… right?
This week has been somewhat productive for me. With the upcoming move to L.A., I’ve had to start mapping out how I’m going to pull this move off. Some choices are really easy, like quitting my current job before I leave; others are not so much, like when to give notice on said job.
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 Bob’s for a couple of years at least and I could really, really use the downtime away from everything. I’ll also get to stop n on the way to visit my brother and his family, which has now grown by one with the arrival 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!
And we’re back after these messages!
So now that it’s been another eternity since I wrote on my blog, I decided it was time for another change. I moved the blog (Musings of the Somewhat-Above-Average) and my main website (Ripley’s Roost) and am merging the two together under the Wordpress platform.
This is largely an experiment to see if I can build and maintain a website on my own over an extended period of time. As I move forward with my life, I pledge the following:
- To post a written blog entry no less than twice a week to start. Hopefully I’ll be able to build up to more than that as time goes on.
- To post a video blog entry at least once a week. That’ll stay pretty static for the time being… still need to figure out how to post video here first.
I also post on Twitter often enough (for me). I’m not on there obsessively posting every little thing I do, but I’ll have notices of site updates for this blog and my new review site, Random Reviews (check it out!) as well as pithy responses to my fellow Tweeters as I can.
So I’ll wrap this post up for now. Stay tuned for news from me in the coming months.
This is a test… yes, another one.
This is a test of Flickr functionality for a different website that I’m working on updating. The photos are not related to that site (like I said, it’s a test).
I promise, I’ll post a catch-up really soon…
Summer’s End
Okay, so once again, I’ve let this go far too long without an update. Guilty as charged!
So what have I done this summer? Gallop around Europe, work a fishing boat in Alaska, move to L.A. and pursue my acting career?
Nah… I drove a cab. That’s right, you heard me…
When graduation was nigh, I decided to find a job that offered a chance at gaining some new life experience and a little extra green on the side. What I got was:
- A job where I gained valuable financial and business management experience.
- A low-earning job which made me an average of about $4.00 an hour per 12 hour shift
- Interaction with a lot of very different (i.e. mentally disturbed) customers
- A realization that the taxicab industry in this town exists solely to feed off the misfortunes of others.
Now that’s not to say that the people there aren’t good people. Like any business, you meet good and bad eggs both. But I can’t help but feel a little more heartsick for having participated in this activity while giving up valuable creative time for myself to further my actual career. Shame on me!
Anyway, on to happier stuff…
I was nominated for my first ariZoni Award for my sound design work on Proof at the beginning of this year. While I will admit that part of me wishes it had been for acting, this is an amazing honor for my first-ever sound design. And a little freaky too. I keep telling myself that it may be setting the bar too high. But I think that it also is a good message that it may be something I could be consistently good at. More in a few weeks on this after the awards are announced.
I finally received my diploma from ASU in the mail a couple of weeks ago. So it’s final… I did actually finish my college degree first ahead of my siblings! Yay for me!
Oh, and since I didn’t cross-post it here back in May, I did release the “Ashcan Edition” of my theatre company’s first production. It’s over at the Aureality Project blog site. Go check it out if you haven’t already.
I may be moving soon too. So I’ll do my best to keep you up on that.
Got a Cigarette?
How do I feel about this? I’m honestly not sure. I think I’m happy to see it done. Everyone keeps saying it’s quite an accomplishment for anyone. I agree, but I think that’s largely from a financial standpoint because with skyrocketing tuition every year, fewer people can afford to attend college to get a four-year degree. I myself took a huge risk in the last couple of years by not working — and racking up a huge student loan debt in the process — in order to focus on my studies.
Everyone also keeps asking me “what’s next?” Again, I am not certain yet. For now, like a number of my fellow graduates, I will have to find work outside my field of study in order to save up some funds for a while. I do know that I want to leave Phoenix. I think I need to live somewhere else for a time in order to get a better sense of the world and really push myself in some way. But I also would like to continue my studies in graduate school at some future point as well. We’ll see, I suppose…
April Showers…
Freedom!!
Poverty!!
Oh, yeah… almost forgot about that. The umpteen thousand dollars of student loans hanging over my head. The need to find a job most likely not in my field of study.
Dang it.
Mourning the State(s) of Politics
I came across an article by David Gergen today. You can read it here, but what he said really struck me as true. The Democratic candidates are spending a lot of time quiblling over personal attacks and alleged racist comments rather than dealing with the pressing issues of this nation. After reading all the various comments, none of which struck me as particularly insightful, I decided to post my own there. And I’m reprinting it here as well:
While it is true that they do need to focus again on the problems actually facing this country and its citizens, I don’t know if that’s been true in any recent election, going back almost as long as I’ve been alive.
It’s become a world of sound bites and photo ops because that is all that both politicians (I include their operatives) and the media think we want to read or see. A world where all we get to see are video clips of candidates preaching to the choir, made up of those who can afford to pay $1000 for a fundraising dinner in the hopes that they have some chance to exert influence in a way that benefits them (the buyers, not the candidate). It is one giant Potemkin village of shiny, happy “voters” and I mourn the loss of a truly inquisitive citizenry.
This is why voter turnout has plummeted in this country… because we know deep down that our votes really don’t matter and that those who run for national office really don’t care one whit for what we have to say or what our concerns are.
I think it’s becoming more and more important in this day and age for we the people to challenge the government as much as we can through intellectual discourse. Only by questioning and challenging their actions can we hope to make our government and those who seek to control it do better on our behalf, which is why they are supposed to be there in the first place.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have donated to Barack Obama’s campaign and support his candidacy for the presidency. However, I have never had any direct contact with any of the candidates or their campaigners, even though I am a resident of Arizona and thus a constituent of John McCain in his role as our senior Senator. I feel that my comments above express my feelings about the political process in general and my hope that it will get better.
New project in the house!!
I’ve got a new podcast blog up and running for my new enterprise!
It’s the basis for (and hopefully an outgrowth of) my senior capstone project in Theatre at ASU. I am creating an original radio drama to be recorded live in front of a studio audience that will then be offered over the internet. The premiere is anticipated to be late April 2008 (because I have to graduate right after that), so check it out. I will also be podcasting the development process leading up to the first show so that people can get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of this art form.
Check it out: The Aureality Project
Alive… it’s ALIVE!!!
Too overexcited? Too bad!
My personal website is finally posted and online. As I go, I’ll fill out the functionality of it and hopefully add some extra features not currently available. But check it out:
Feel free to let me know what you think of the site. Constructive criticism is always welcome…