The End of the Year Post Full of Randomness and Wonder!

OK, this is my "End of the Year Post Full of Randomness and Wonder". I hope some of it is interesting to you! I'm going to be all over the place!

I suppose I should begin by reflecting upon the year...

Made great strides in furthering my acting career. Added new "deep end of the pool" acting classes up in LA, with the Big Boys, and a high caliber coach (Rob Adler). Extremely challenging and rewarding. Took me a few classes to get my sea legs under me -- a problem exacerbated by my propensity toward social awkwardness.

Got my braces off! So I have straight teeth now. The work isn't over just yet.... I need to get another new fake front tooth, and I need them whitened. Then I'll have that "commercial smile" and make my wife and/or mother proud!

Scattered auditions and jobs, which were fun but yielded little (financially)... which might bother me more if I weren't wrapped up in an amazing web series project (Beyond the Impact), which has a live (and active) Facebook page now -- search "Beyond The Impact" on Facebook to see it. Also, the website is available for the project -- but only the splash page with a count-down timer to the premiere (which is February 7, 2015).

I've spent some serious time in front of the camera this year, and it feels GREAT. I love it, in ways that are hard to express in words (difficult to believe with me, eh? I'm so long-winded)... and if things go according to plans, this next year will be exponentially more awesome.

Here's a quick photo from the farmhouse shoot from this past weekend. This will be featured in the opening sequence...

It was a great location, and Jeff's CGI team will work wonders with the footage. And the music... o the music, wait until you hear it. It will blow you away...

Plus, I worked on a team for the 48-Hour Film Festival back in July, which was a lot of fun. I hope to work with the same team again this year.

OK, what else?

I read 30 novels this year... The Very Best included:

- The Liveship Trilogy by Robin Hobb

- The Slow Regard of Silent Things, by Pat Rothfuss
- Blade of Tyshalle, by Matthew Stover
- The Night of Cake and Puppets, by Laini Taylor

Although that last one was a short story, not a novel... but it was wonderfully tasty and beautiful. Definitely among the best of the year. Other Honorable Mentions include titles by: James Moore, Trudy Canavan, Django Wexler and Miles Cameron.

My least favorite was Steelheart, by B. Sanderson. Which surprised me, since I'm such a big Sanderson fan. Normally, I bail on sub-par books (as I did with many titles this year), since why on earth should I keep reading a turd? But I suppose since I have such a positive history with Sanderson, I kept expecting it to get good. It didn't.

I don't track every movie I see like I do with the books I read... maybe I should. I honestly don't remember all the movies I saw this year, but the one that still stands out to me as the Best of the Year was Guardians of the Galaxy, which I absolutely loved. The ending fizzled a bit, keeping it from getting a 10 from me... but I gave it a solid 9, and it was worth seeing in IMAX 3D... which is something I don't recall ever saying for a movie before (maybe Avatar?)

I loved Chadwick Boseman's performance as James Brown, in Get On Up. Great movie, amazing acting performance. Looks like he won't be getting a (well-deserved, I think) Oscar nod for Best Actor this year... competition is too stiff. He's a long-shot.

While I'm on the subject of quality entertainment, you know which TV show I feel has the very best writing? The answer may surprise you... Gilmore Girls. Wifey has been binge watching it again lately, and honestly, I absolutely LOVE the writing. The dialog is so fun and fast and sharp, it seems to me that it would be an actor's dream. Then again, as a writer, that's the type of stuff I enjoy writing. Coming from stage, where it's all about the dialog. In Gilmore Girls, nothing really every seems to happen. It's mostly character development and interaction. A show where all people do is talk, and don't really do anything? And I love it.

I tried watching the latest season of 24, based upon the high recommendation of my classmate, the illustrious Rob Dey. But I limped through the illogical, tedious, predictable, ham-fisted pilot episode and had enough. Sorry, Rob.

AND YET! I'm the same guy that found this video endlessly fascinating... and all it features is a man taking apart a ROLEX watch and then reassembling it...



Why? Why should I find something like that so fascinating? And I yawn at Jack Bauer and his antics? Plus, I dig Gilmore Girls? I think my Man Card is in jeopardy...

Another highlight of the year was getting my Second-Favorite Book of All Time (The Heroes) autographed by its author, the Great and Powerful Joe Abercrombie. Granted, I made a bit of a fool of myself in front of him when we talked, but, hey, remember by social awkwardness? That seems to be a theme for me this year... hey, what's a few harsh life lessons, between friends eh?

What else?

Music? Well, my tastes trended toward harder stuff this year, which includes Breaking Benjamin, Volbeat, Shinedown, Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger Death Punch. Hey, I'm not ashamed to admit it!

On a spiritual note, it was also a year of transition for my faith. My belief and trust in God remains unshaken, but my patience for the religious song-and-dance has all but evaporated. I still attend church and tend to my obligations there, but it's more like a job than a joy. Although the Christmas Play journey was a great joy to me this year, moreso than, perhaps, any other year I can recall. I look forward to the Easter Play...

Games? It was mostly about Minecraft. Though there were a few other titles that got some playtime, including Borderlands 2, Sir You Are Being Hunted, Defense Grid 2, TrackMania Valley, Dead Island and some old school Unreal Tournament. That reminds me... I broke my favorite mouse the other day, banging it on the desk in a fit of frustration, playing UT with some of the old crew from back in the day (they have a server up and running).... had to buy a new mouse, lol...

OK, well, seeing as how it's 2:30 am as I type this sentence, and I need to go to work in the morning, I better pull the plug on this post. Hey, I told you I would be all over the place! I'm amazed that you read this far.

Stick a fork in the year. It's done.

Adios for now,

Dave the Transitional