Very Merry Unbirthday

So the Big 37 has come, though to little or no fanfare. This is fine with me. I'm not really one to care about the Holidays or Birthdays or pretty much anything else that is commercialized to the point of being banal. Besides, I get really depressed on my birthday, and I don't need to spend the whole day pretending to care when people offer the obligatory "Happy Blah-blah!".

Of course I sit and reflect the previous year come Nov. 17th, and rarely have I accomplished enough to make it seem worthwhile. No, I'm not so bad as to contemplate the unforgivable, but I am getting to the point where I'm ready to start living off the streets and eventually start my own line of clothing.

So this year has not been the Hallmark year for me. I guess I should be used to it by now.....

This is quite a lot of self-deprecation going on. I think I'll stop while I'm behind. Oh, "Happy Thanksgiving"

Update

So the thought has occurred to me, and probably only me, that no one knows what I've been doing with my life as of late. Well, I will belay your fears and provide a little update on the goings-on of Glenn. As most everyone who knows me, knows I moved out of the Las Vegas area to the quaint border town of Laughlin (right on the AZ border 90mi south of LV). This happened almost two years ago, and has obviously put a crimp on my Improv performances: that and the fact that the troupes I was performing with disbanded. Still, I have not given up hope of performing again. I say that, because I keep taking classes with the Second City Training Center, and I keep putting myself out there for auditions. Acting life is slow, however, and the most I can do at the moment is self promote myself through my website. http://www.wnc.edu/~heath I've been busy adding/updating content, and though it's a tedious process, I'm at least having fun.

How am I finding all the time to do this? Quite simply, I am not working at the college anymore. That's how. I quit my "Technical Support Specialist" job at CSN back in August to make more time for my family here. April is working on her Master's Degree, and we agreed that I should be more of a presence here for her and Livie (5th grade/School President/ingenue). It was hard leaving the people at CSN. I really enjoyed the rapport I formed with them, but I do not miss the 3 hours of driving I was doing every day. Still, I keep in contact with my friends there and they still acknowledge me. Which is good. Unfortunately, what is not good is the fact that there is little work around here in the field I've been associated with the past 4 years. I received my fifth rejection letter today for applications sent, and that's not counting all the letters I didn't get. Things happen for a reason, though, so I am not too discouraged.

I'm really hoping things shape up on the acting/performing front. I performed recently with a group of Second City actors for a "Corporate Team Building" company that set up shop in Vegas (Treasure Map). They are developing programs for meeting planners to experience Mars; hence the names "Destination Mars" and "Mars Adventures". We had a lot of fun doing improvisation as a function of the team building exercises put forth in the program, but it is just getting going, and I may not see any more work with that 'til after the new year. By then, however, I'll be taking a new class through the SCTC with Liz Allen (YEAH!), so at least I'll be honing up my skills some more. Add that with a very positive meeting with Tena Hauser (President of Lenz Talent) a couple of weeks ago, and I may just start getting some auditions for real work soon.

So what else is happening? I am trying out contact lenses for the first time. Not too sure about the current prescription, but I am only in the first week phase of assessment. I've been blinking a lot compared to glasses, but I may be able to work that into my charming personality. What else? Long pause as I determine if there is anything else. It's been a couple of minutes now, so there must not be anything else. That can't be it ... can it? How sad. How truly sad. I'm not sure if the tears in my eyes are a result of the contacts or the lack of excitement in my life. Does my right brain know that my left brain is typing my stream of consciousness? Will the WGA ever settle? Stay tuned for more.

2nd attempt

All seems well enough using Contribute instead of directly logging into Blogger to post my musings, however sparse and infrequent they may be. Regardless, these postings will be for my own amusement anyway as no one really reads this stuff anyway. So I have resigned myself to just doing it for the sake of habit. The habit that is to just write.

I've been toying with the idea of writing again (primarily the screenplay thing again) and this should get me in the motivational spirit; something I've been lacking all too much if you've paid any attention to the history of my web log/journal/pseudo conformist thinga-ma-bob. I attended a writing workshop a few weeks back through the Second City and I was hoping that would boost my spirits. Joe Kelly, current writer for "How I Met Your Mother" and former SNL writer was host and there was some discussion of how he goes about his daily job. Although interesting from a layman's perspective, I had actually hoped he would prompt some actual writing from us. I was all set to spend the day writing and getting a professional opinion back, but essentially all we did was play "pretend pitch session". Again, interesting, but not motivational enough. Granted, his take on cracking into the business was not very motivational either. It obviously helps if you know someone, otherwise, you'll be spending a lot of time writing and submitting with no real expectations. I knew all this already, which is why the actual act of writing is hard for me. When I wrote/co-wrote "The Shroud", it was because there was interest in it already and there was a time crunch to get it done. Even with other writings I've managed to complete, there was some underlying reason to finish the script. Albeit none of them panned out, but at the time, possibility was a huge motivating factor. Now with the current WGA strike, what's the motivation?

"Just do it!" keeps popping into my mind.

"You're unemployed."

"You're not doing anything productive anyway."

"You've got ideas, start putting them down." also seem to be nagging at my cerebral cortex.

But whatever the roadblock (probably the same one that prevents me from sticking to an exercise routine), it needs to have NDOT work on it. Nevertheless, I am at least partially committed to continue the writing venture. I may have to keep clicking away at the blog for awhile, but at least that's a strart. Perhaps all the writing in the blog will pay off. Stay tuned.

Oh and before I forget, I tried posting a pic through this app, but it wouldn't let me. I'm trying again with all the bells and whistles of my FTP being (crossed fingers) functional.

Damn! It's not me but the Blogger Server. Apparently if I want to add a cute lol cat or whatever, I have to do it through the actual site...........I'm not done trying though.

Yahoo!

Ah, yet another toy to prompt my shameless inability to blog like everyone else. This one is called Contribute, and it has such easy interfacing. We'll see how well this posts, and go from there. Apparently, my laissez-faire approach to blogging has not intimidated anyone, nor has it kept me in anyone's good graces. I will none the less make more of an effort as I have nothing better to do since leaving my job of 3 years back in late August. I'm certainly enjoying the extra time at home with the family, and I am hoping more acting opportunities will be afforded to me. Yet we shall see.