Welcome All Drifters and Bindlestiffs!

Well, hello there! I've been sitting here in front of my webcam, waiting patiently for you to arrive! WAIT! No, don't browse away! It isn't creepy... it's just sad, that's all!

Look, all I'm saying is that it's nice to see you again... now, get comfy, settle in and get ready for all the cool Daveness I have planned for you tonight.

First, here, watch this high-res slow-motion video of a cheetah running... you know the routine.... hit play, then change the res to 720, and watch full screen... go ahead, I'll wait...



There, that set's things in motion nicely (and slowly), eh?

So, what next?

Still haven't received "the call" from the acting agency yet. Wasn't sure what to make of that. Went to acting class last night and the instructor said "two people were called right away, but four more actors are "on deck" to receive a call when the agent gets back in town." So there's that about it. When someone asked our acting coach if he knew who the four were, he said yes, but wasn't going to spill the news "since one or more of them may be sitting in this room right now, and I don't want to spoil the joy of getting the call themselves."

So, yeah, I'm trying not to think about it, but honestly, I wish it would resolve itself one way or the other.

But on a positive note, I've purchased a digital copy of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"! So I can start learning it by heart straight from the text (as opposed to trying to remember it from the movie). Why is that important? Well, from what I understand, all serious actors at some point decide they want to play Hamlet... so I'm just getting it going now... since I'm old and have to make up for lost time!

Even though I'm mocking myself a bit here, actually, I have always loved Hamlet -- the Gibson/Zeffirelli Hamlet is one of my favorite movies of all time. I always enjoy watching Mel attack the role with such verve. It's hard to read the scenes aloud without immediately mimicking the way Mel did it. And as a newbie actor, I am supposed to have a "classic" monologue at the ready. I have one from the play Oedipus Rex (by Sophocles) which I enjoy, but I thought I'd learn a monologue or two from Hamlet as well... I don't mean the more famous monologues ("to be or not to be", "what a piece of work is man", yadda yadda), but maybe a couple of the more obscure ones. There's so much great material to choose from in the play, it will be fun trying to narrow it down.

Well, "fun" for me and other oddballs like me, I suppose...

Other than Hamlet, I'm currently reading a sci-fi book by an authoress named Sarah Zettel called "Fool's War"... which I believe came with the Humble Bundle that I bought back in July (comprised of a bunch of books). The main characters are Muslim females who captain a space ship, complete with hijab and daily prayers... I have never put space travel and Islam together in my brain before -- it's jarring, but fascinating... cool story thus far.

I told my friend Rebecca I'd read The Red Knight next, but I didn't pull the trigger on the purchase yet... sorry Rebecca... I like the new additions to my library to come in under $5 if at all possible... The Red Knight is still $9...

What? You want another cool National Geographic video clip? Fair enough, how about this clip of a massive gathering of devil rays?



That.... is pretty dang cool...

So I finally did it. I went to a Dungeons & Dragons group and actually played with the group. I wasn't just an observer anymore. I am officially One of Them! The first time I sat in on a D&D group (to observe) was a few months back, at a game store in Poway - but that was a different group -- and a glorious group of nerds they were. But now, my new co-worker (Ian) is a gamer and has a role playing group he plays with every week... so it's a different group, but trust me, they are an equally glorious group of nerds.

Ian helped me craft a character (a satirical rogue, lol), and the Game Master skillfully wove my character into the story. That's what's so cool about the whole exercise... it's like one big improv exercise. So it's all acting training for me! Well, that's how I'm looking at it. The GM has a story prepared to tell, and we players each role play a character in that tale, dealing with the situations as the GM throws them at us. And we act our characters out, what they say and do, how they interact with each other, etc. There's a lot of banter and humor, and some serious situations as well... and, of course, battle.

Now that I've actually participated, my opinion of role playing games has changed for the better. When I was growing up, I dismissed D&D out of hand as "evil", because that's what I was taught at the church youth group I went to during high school. I never even looked into it; I just took the youth pastor's word for it. If they'd told me the truth about it -- that it was just interactive story-telling, with heroes that save the day from baddies -- I would have been playing it all these years, I'm sure.

There's a lesson about lemmings in there somewhere...

I think that's that for tonight. Thanks for dropping by.

Adios for now,

Dave the Gump