Yet Again, I Blame the French...

Greetings, earthlings! How goes it, eh? EH? Speak up!

Oh, I had my earplugs in, sorry.

OK, fine, I put the earplugs in on purpose! Yes, to block you out! Because you ask too many questions, that's why! Sheesh! Just because you're a private investigator doesn't mean you need to get your questions all over me! I mean, I'll never get them out of this silk shirt... I just bought it, too... just when I was finally updating my wardrobe after 20 years...

Looks like I'll have to go back to jeans and T-shirts...

OK, fine, ask your questions... How's things? Ummm... could you be more specific? No?

Fine, I'll wing it.

But first, I have to post a sad photo of a blind cat...

How sad...

OK, now, where was I..?

Things are going great!

There, now what...

The webseries is progressing nicely... took a road trip up to Lancaster with Jeff (aka Herr Director) this past Sunday, to scope out Lancaster and get a good feel for the place. We had a chance to chat a lot about the story and the scripts. Progress was made! And then... we got Weinerschnizel on the drive home... and it went downhill from there! Chilidogs + car windows up = living life on zee edge! Actually, it wasn't that bad... though I was prepared in case we ran out of gas...

Speaking of crazy Russians in cars...

(That's Jeff driving, and me in the car seat...)

That's either exceptionally cool, or grounds for arrest...

So I finished two books since last we spoke (yes, it has been that long). One was called Promise of Blood, by author Brian McClellan. That was a fantasy tale of the "sword and sorcery" variety, with heavy doses of muskets, pistols and other gunpowder-related fun... the summary I gave it on Good Reads is as follows:

A solid sword & sorcery (& gunpowder) tale, with some good action, and a handful of juicy story elements. The middle of the book -- especially Adamat's investigation -- could have used a little more thought and polish. But it starts and ends well, and has some memorable characters and moments (and some not-so-memorable ones as well). Some of the situations felt a little too forced/convenient. Nevertheless, it's well worth a read if you're a fantasy fan at all. It may agree with you better than it did with me. Not sure if I'll continue reading the series, but that shouldn't stop you from giving it a go.

3.5 stars for a good read...

And then, there's Night of Cake and Puppets by a gifted female authoress named Laini Taylor. This is a novella (about 100 pages) and was wonderful. I'm a grown man, for crying out loud, and I was weeping like a school-girl! Yes, I'm not ashamed to admit it! Ok, a little ashamed, but hey, we're all friends here, right? I mean, you all attended my bar mitzvah that one time, remember? So, yeah, we're close...

Anyway, this book is so far out of my normal reading realm, I'm not even sure when or where I got it... I think it was a recent "Kindle Daily Deal" or something. Anyway, the two main characters are Zuzana and Mik, who are seventeen, and both deeply interested in each other, but afraid to approach each other... Zuzana decides she's had enough of unfulfilled longing and decides to plan an elaborate set of magical steps to lead Mik to her, starting with a treasure map she leaves in his violin case. The story bounces back and forth between the two as the night evolves, and it's so achingly sweet and beautiful, it wrung out my heart... 5 stars. A fast, wonderful read.

OK, fine, here's my Man Card... when can I have it back?

Never?!?!? Wait! What if... uh... what if I climb to the top of Shanghai Towers with these two crazy Russian dudes?



Would I get my Man Card back then? Good...

OK, what else?

Family, work and church are all going fine. It's proving difficult to find time for everything lately... even game-playing is getting minimal time... I still read during lunch each day, and a little at night, but other than that, my time is going nearly completely into the web series, in one capacity or another. And, frankly, I'm loving every minute of it. In fact, as soon as I finish here, I'm going to pull up Adobe Story and dive back into the script for episode 2...

The Oscars are this Sunday. I'll probably watch them for a little bit... then again, maybe not. I mean, I watched a tiny bit of the Super Bowl a few weeks back, and even less of the Winter Olympics... I seem to be experiencing a quantum shift in my routines and predilections and tendencies! We'll see where it ends up, eh?

Muahahaha!!

Hey, doggie, what do you think of that "tennis cat" photo?

"I love it"

Thought so...

That's it for now. I'll check back in again soon...

Dave the Evolving...

Truth is Stranger than Friction...

You see, all the really cool bloggers can go, like, 5 weeks without updating, and then just casually stroll back onto their blog like it's no big deal, and just pick up where they left off. And they don't even bring it up, which is why they're so flippin' cool. And stuff.

And then there's the hacks, amateurs, mouth-breathers and slackers like myself. Our way is different. See, we're like those clods that try to sneak into the house without waking anyone up, and end up kicking something, tripping over it, falling through a coffee table... everyone's jarred from sleep, the neighbor's dogs are barking, the lights come on... and there we are, smiling sheepishly, feeling every bit a moron...

Yeah, me and stuff.

That reminds me... every night, Wifey goes to bed early while I stay up until the wee hours. I have to sneak past her peacefully-sleeping form when I head to the bathroom to brush and floss and otherwise prepare myself to collapse in exhaustion into my own bed... I try to be as quiet as possible... usually, with some level of success, in spite of the fact that she's a light sleeper... but, the reason I mention this is that I have an odd habit I need to embarrass myself by sharing. As I leave the master bath, and quietly cross the pitch-black room to the door to exit, I will always make a goofy face at my wife on the way out. It's pitch black, she's asleep, she couldn't see it even if she was awake... but I do it anyways. I put on, for example, a huge, goofy grin and look in her direction, or a scared face, or a comically angry one, or any of a number of others... as though my invisible audience was in the room with night-vision goggles on, and I need to entertain them somehow...

Yeah, another odd foible laid out on the table here, for you to think a smidge less of me for...

Dangling participle. Deal with it.

So I escaped being put on a jury yesterday, by the skin of my teeth. It was a month-long civil trial... I thought for sure I was doomed to be attached, parasite-like, to this trial, throwing my already-busy life into a state of upheaval (I bet you didn't realize California was a state of upheaval!). I won't bore you with all the details, but let me just say that I was "juror #15" when they started the final sifting process. I was moved into the Top 12 after a pair of dismissals, putting me into Seat 3 in the jury box, thus sealing my doom -- or so I thought. The Prosecuting Attorney then promptly "Thanked and excused Mr. Wagner"... I'm like, "Hey, wait, that's me!" You would have been proud of me. I kept cool until I reached the hall outside the courtroom, at which time the Hallelujah Chorus played, and I spun down the hall, arms spread out, like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music...

Hey, I don't mind doing my civic duty and taking the hit when my number comes up for jury duty... but at this time in my life, a month-long trial? No thank you! I tell ya, walking into that hallway and heading for the elevator, I felt like I'd been released from prison due to some clerical error... I high-tailed it out of there before they could change their minds, and send the bailiff out to drag me back in by the scruff of my neck...

The other cool thing about it was that my good friend Yanni D. had somehow managed to get the jury duty summons the same day as me... imagine my surprise when he plopped down into the chair next to mine after orientation, in the lounge! Come on, what are the odds that I'd know anybody else there in the lounge... seriously, that was cool.

OK, enough jury duty stories...

Acting news?

The web series writing duties are consuming my full attention, and about every ounce of my creative energy. I'm loving it, all of it... but it's challenging. Finished one script (a rough draft, anyway) and most of a second, plus have detailed notes about the next four or so... my goal is to have all 12 episode rough drafts done by the end of this month... wish me luck! The trickiest part is filling in the blanks... I gather as much info as I can about characters and where the story is supposed to go, but there are always gaps that need to be filled. I have no choice but to make educated guesses and let them fly! I invariably make many missteps, which the director (Jeff) has to correct. I don't mind much, that's what rewrites are for. Still, my personality is such that I much prefer to get it right the first time. I realize that's unrealistic. Still, there's part of me that always feels like a bit of a failure when I realize I got something wrong, as far as characters, and what they would/wouldn't say and do.

Hey, I'm learning! And like I said, I wouldn't trade this for anything. I'm enjoying it tremendously.

We're still set to begin filming at the end of February. We'll see. One thing (among many) I like about the director is that he hasn't saddled himself with arbitrary deadlines. He wants to make sure it's in a good place before starting.

Plus, it will have jet pilots in it!



Easter approacheth. Gonna have to play a minimalist part in this year's Easter production at church. I'll probably write the script, and then turn the reins over to others to direct/produce/act in it. I'm only one man! I can't do it all! Of course, I usually do have my hand in everything, lol... but, hey, this year, it doesn't look like it's gonna happen that way. We'll see. I anticipate being neck-deep in the web series until further notice.

That reminds me, I need to upload the video of the Christmas play... check back here soon, I'll rip it and upload it in the next day or two... It turned out pretty good, I think. Anyway, if you recall, the Christmas play had only three actors in it, we played The Three Wisemen. It went well, and was well-received, so we're thinking of doing something similar with the Easter play... three female characters only... Mary Magdelene, Martha and Mary (Jesus' mommy)... I can think of plenty to have them say/do in a similarly-structured three-act play... We'll see...

Why didn't someone invent this back in the day, when I used to read real books!?!? Now that I've gone digital, I'll probably never read a "real" book again... yeah, I'm just so new-school like that...

Still finding time to read books, actually. Just finished "Ex-Heroes" by Peter Clines today, which is a genre-blending superhero/zombie novel. It was a good read, but the characters weren't very well developed, and the action a bit predictable. There were some memorable moments, though. Enough to make it worth the ride. There are more volumes in the series, but honestly, I feel no real need to continue. Gonna move on to something else.

Also read The Private Investigator's Handbook, by Chuck Chambers, in an effort to try and learn what law enforcement types do when looking for missing persons. Not much useful info, sadly. The bulk of the book seemed to focus on how to find out if your spouse is cheating on you -- or contrariwise, how to keep your spouse from finding out you are cheating on them. There was also an interesting section on how to "drop off the grid", making it next to impossible for someone to find out details about you and your life. But precious little on missing person's cases -- at least, the type that I would need to write about in the scripts for the web series.

Holy crap, I'm rambling tonight. Bet you didn't miss this, lol...

OK, well, yeah, dropping by for an update. I'm sure I forgot stuff, so I'll hopefully be back on again. And yeah, I'll post the video of the Christmas play...

Adios for now,

Dave the Goof