"A Lot of People Like Snow. I Find it to be an Unnecessary Freezing of Water." -- Carl Reiner

Smack-dab in the middle of the weekend? Seriously? Why on earth would I take time out in the middle of a glorious southern Cauliflowernia weekend to update my blog? Well, because I want to, so there!

>:O - BUURP!

Man, it's been a while since I busted out the Angry Burper emoticon... aren't you lucky?

So, yeah, the big news I alluded to in a previous post has solidified enough to warrant a mention here. Eldest Daughter is going to get married in November.

....

I'm trying to decide if I should wax long-winded and ramble a while on that topic... or just leave it at that and move on to something less personal...

I think I'll wait a while before elaborating. She's getting married, and bottom line is, I'm good with it.

Ooh, another waterfall! I detect a possible theme in tonight's pictures!

So, we finished the bulk of the filming for our Easter short movie. On one level, it was as fun as I'd hoped it would be. On the other hand, it was hard. I went into the first night's filming familiar with the script, but not having memorized my lines. I figured I'd just carve out a little space in my short-term memory, toss a few lines in there when I needed them, film a few takes, empty out the mental space and toss a few more lines in, film more, etc., and work our way through the script. No biggie, right? I mean, I've kept entire play's worth of lines in my head many times, for live performances... how much easier it will be to adopt a quick "memorize and forget" approach, right?

Wrong. With the lights, sound, camera's all set up, the other actors in place, the call of ACTION, etc., I tell you... trying to remember a few words, much less several lines (even short ones) was almost impossible. It was humiliating, really. It was like drops of water on a hot griddle, which danced for a moment and then evaporated into thin air... I couldn't remember a line that had three words in it... three words. I sat there like a moron, as we did take after take... I wanted to run screaming from the room... me! I can navigate a live performance in front of a packed house like a champ! But stick me in a small room with a handful of people and a camera and I freeze!

Ultimately, I got to where I made it through the lines, but it made for a long first night. Plus, I shudder to think of the quality of the acting. So much for making my part really sing... I'm hoping there is enough decent footage to at least tell my part of the story without inducing painful eye-strain in the audience members (from repeated eye rolling) on Easter.

The big positive is that now I know what to expect for next time, and how to be prepared. It was great to finally get the process of film acting from theory to reality... and to learn it in a comfortable, safe environment. Next time, I will be infinitely better prepared. As for this time, I'm confident that Todd will be able to edit together a good little film - he and Abbie did much better on the acting side of it, so they'll have to carry it a bit.

As soon as I get some photos of the shoot from Trevor and/or Ethan, I'll post some here. Again, the process was great fun, and I'm super-glad I got the chance to participate. But it was humbling, that's for sure. Here I thought I would go in and kill it... I suppose getting my legs chopped out from under me like that was a good thing.

When the final cut is available, I'll post it here (after Easter, of course).

So much for the waterfall theme...

Aw, nuts... gotta head off to town for a supply run with Wifey... I have more to talk about, so I shall return and edit it in here, and you'll likely never know, since the odds that you'll be spending your valuable weekend minutes reading this post instead of doing what normal people do are slim to none... by the time Tuesday (or so) rolls around, and you finally skim through this, you'll never know the difference, because this part will be gone! MUAHAHAHA!!!

Back in a bit...

Dave the Interrupted

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I'm back. I decided to keep the previous paragraph + sign-off in place... since it lets you know that I do, in fact, get out of the office on occasion and stumble blindly out into the "real world". I don't just spend my time squirreled away playing games in front of this glowing box... in fact, OOOH! I have a quick game-related rant that no one could possibly want to waste time reading, but I'm going to vent it anyway, because it's my danged blog and I can write whatever I want to, dangit! MUAHAHAHAH!!! The Power!!!!

[For those uninterested in such things, feel free to scroll down to the next waterfall picture. Sincerely, the Management.]

OK, so I'm playing Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad recently (the single player campaign, of course, since I'm too much of a wuss to try multiplayer yet), and I'm working my way through the ruins of some big nazi-infested factory of some sort with my Russian comrades, right? And as I'm crouched and darting around the perimeter, look for a good insertion point, I keep receiving small arms fire from the defending nazi scumbags... and I keep trying to drop flat on the ground to avoid the incoming fire and I keep getting a little message saying there's "no room here to go prone"... WHAT!!! So I have to scoot around, under direct fire, looking for a proper distance away from surrounding walls to flop down flat on my stomach! And usually I get killed.

Of course, when I get killed, my dead body flops right down on the ground, no matter where I am. But God forbid I actually am allowed to flop down when I'm alive. What, may I ask, the heck! It's so frustrating and it makes me hate my life!!! >:O - BUUURP! (actually, it's merely mildly annoying - it doesn't make me hate my life at all... I just know that no one is reading this, so I'm winging it here. I could post a recipe for a nice grilled goat-cheese sandwich right now and it would make no difference. In fact, I could unload a juicy personal secret or two, safe in the knowledge that no one would ever know! MUAHAHAH! The power!!!)

OK, where was I? Oh, yeah, hate my life. OK, so I can't think of anywhere walking around out in the real world where, if I wanted to, I couldn't just drop onto my stomach to avoid small arms fire. So why can't I go prone anywhere in the game? That's all I'm saying.

And now, another cool waterfall photo...

Ooh, and it has monks in it as well! That's an added bonus, eh? Man, it's probably loud there... they could each pass unrestrained wind there without the risk of being heard, I'm sure. Which is a good thing, if they've taken a vow of silence. That reminds me, in my fantasy novel, the character I made that's based on my friend Josh is a monk... yes, he fights with a staff, which is a cliche, but that's part of the charm of the story, I think... taking certain cliche's and turning them on their heads... wait til you see how I handle it... MUAHAHAH!!!

OK, now what? Man, I haven't posted a video yet. Here, watch this TV ad for Guinness... I know you're going to love it...



Good stuff, methinks...

OK, so, against all logic, I have decided to read The Heroes again, by the great Joe Abercrombie. My favorite book from the past year (beating out the one-two punch from Greg Hamerton). With all the titles I've yet to read that are clogging up my Kindle app, I decided to read The Heroes again, just because I have such fond memories of it. I needed a good blast of Abercrombie humor and grit.

Here, let me pull a great little monologue, for your enjoyment.

Early on, we're introduced to a soldier character named Corporal Tunny, who's kind of a gambling, drinking ne'er-do-well, notoriously not fond of fighting. A certain First Sergeant Forest is introducing four new recruits to Tunny, who is to be their new commanding officer.

"Boys, this here is the famous Corporal Tunny, one of the longest serving non-commissioned officers in General Jalenhorm's division. A veteran of the Starikland Rebellion, the Gurkish War, the last Northern War, the Siege of Adua, this current unpleasantness and a quantity of peacetime soldiering that would have bored a keener mind to death. He has survived the runs, the rot, the grip, the autumn shudders, the caresses of Northern winds, the buffets of Southern women, thousands of miles of marching, many years of his Majesty's rations and even a tiny bit of actual fighting to stand -- or sit -- before you now. He has four times been Sergeant Tunny, once even Colour Sergeant Tunny, but always, like a homing pigeon to its humble cage, returned to his current station. He now holds the exalted post of standard-bearer of his August Majesty's indomitable First Regiment of cavalry. That gives him the responsibility for the regimental riders, tasked with carrying messages to and from our much admired commanding officer, Colonel Vallimir. Which is where you boys come in... You lads stick close to Corporal Tunny here. He'll keep you out of danger. If there was ever a soldier for staying clear of danger, it's Corporal Tunny. Just don't play cards with him!"

Of course, you can probably guess that Corporal Tunny accidentally manages to factor into the climax of the book, in spite of his every effort to live up to his description there.

Great book. I look forward to tearing through it again, then perhaps getting started on another read-through of the First Law series. I miss the Bloody Nine... I like reading about complex warrior-types running rampage across the battlefield! Ah, well, we all have our hobbies, I suppose...

Well, I just received an invite from an eFriend to go play Left 4 Dead 2 for a while, so I'm going to skedaddle. Adios, y'all.

Dave, Part 2