108071267643168481

Bad news and good news about acting

Well, the bad news is as follows: Because I’ve scheduled a trip to Florida for the week of April 19th, I can’t start taking acting classes until October (at least not at the studio I trained at a couple summers ago). As it turns out, that’s the first week of the new semester and they’re going 4 hours a night, 4 nights a week, so I can’t make up that time. The next session starts some time in October, so I just have to wait until then. Some more bad news is the cost. The course is a 4-semester course that, in total, costs about $20,000. That’s a lot of cheddar.

The good news is as follows: Because this is an accredited school offering a 2-year AA, some of the courses–required by state law–are general education courses, which I’ll probably be able to transfer from my transcript at Florida. If they work with me, I think I can knock a full semester off of the total time, so it’ll only be 3 semesters and hopefully about $15,000. Also, the dollar amount is the total cost of the program including books, lab fees, tax and everything else. So, it’s a bit steep, but at least I won’t be shelling out all kinds of money and then trying to figure out where I’ll get the money for my books and whatnot.

All in all, I’m really excited about starting classes in October and it actually works out well because I’ll have significantly more financial freedom by then. The bummer is that I have to wait a full 6 months before I can start training and I feel like I’m ready to get at it now. I’m going in next week to learn more about the program and I’ll spend this week trying to figure out if their price is competitive or outrageous and if it’s the right thing for me.

Memory lane runs through the May ’02 archive on my blog

Today, I spent some time reading over the May ’02 entries from my blog and I was floored at where I was then versus where I am now. As I read over the entries, I could almost literally see myself shunning the idea of being an engineer forever and gravitating towards something in the arts. At the time, it was music that I felt would carry me, but I gradually began to think about acting. Since, I’ve decided that music, although I love it and couldn’t be without it, is probably not something I could realistically do professionally. But acting is something I think I can actually do and do very well. It was really fascinating to read what I wrote back then, and having immediate access to my thoughts from almost two years ago is plenty of motivation to keep using this blog.

It may be boring, but it’s useful for me and that’s all I ever intended it to be.

108062458902103691

Austin hopes revived?

Well, after discussing things with my co-worker today, it seems there may be a way I can get that week in Austin after all. Basically, everything revolves around scheduling and priorities and necessity, but if all those things work in my favor, I could end up being sent to Austin for a week of training some time in May. I ain’t gettin’ my hopes up, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Letterman

Janet Jackson was Letterman’s guest tonight and, as seems to be the trend when Dave interviews divas, things were pretty tense. He seemed to dwell on the incident at the Superbowl this year, but she wasn’t too keen on that. The following is a quote from the interview wherein Dave shared some of his wisdom with Janet:

Here’s the way I look at life: Sometimes, things are good. Sometimes, things are bad. And when things are bad, it’s always important to have someone to blame. – Dave Letterman on Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at this year’s Superbowl half-time show

I was shocked–spooked, really–at how similar Janet and Michael are. And I don’t just mean their faces and voices, I mean they way they speak and carry themselves. It’s pretty creepy.

Roughest workout in a while

Today’s workout was one of the toughest I’ve had in a very, very long time. First, I made the mistake of playing three games of one-on-one after I shot around for about half an hour. Then, I decided to add an exercise to my usual Monday workout. On the third set of my bench press, I was going for 12 reps and only got about 11.8. That meant I had to use the “dummies”, as I call them, to bail me out. I can’t even remember the last time I got stuck like that, but I guess it was bound to happen since I was already exhausted from playing basketball. After that, I got all my reps, but only after coaching myself through each set and continuously talking myself into finishing the workout and not quitting. All in all, it was an intense workout and I’m glad I finished it, but maybe next Monday I’ll lay off the hoops before I hit the weights.

L.A. cohort

Tonight, I talked with a good friend from back at school and we sort of allied ourselves to try and land both of us in L.A. some time soon (ie, within the next couple years). Basically, the arrangement is one where we pass along contacts and leads to each other in hopes that our combined opportunities will enable both of us to be more successful than if we were each relying on our own opportunities. I don’t know how it’ll work out, if at all, but it’s nice to know I have a friend whose goals are similar to mine and who is lookin’ out for me.

And now it’s time to try to sleep.

107932806959704189

Fun time is over

This past week felt very much like an unofficial vacation of sorts. I went to California, spent most of my time wandering around, finding stuff to do, got to sit first class on the plane on the way out there and didn’t have to go into work on Friday. Of course, with down time comes the inevitable return to normalcy that I’ve been dreading since Thursday evening when I got back home. Luckily, I’ve been enjoying my work, so going in tomorrow morning won’t be entirely painful. It’s Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and how those days will eventually bleed into weeks that concerns me. For now, I’ll just keep tryin’ to tough it out.

A friendly visit

A good friend of mine is coming to Texas to visit for a few days. She’s staying with other friends out in Ft. Worth, but it sounds like I’ll get to hang out with her on Tuesday evening after work. It’ll be nice to see someone from home, especially someone with whom I’ve been friends for a long time. Phone calls from friends and family are good reminders of home, but there’s nothing like a familiar face to keep me from getting too homesick.

Acting time

I’ve begun looking into taking acting lessons and, more specifically, earning a degree (probably an AA) in acting for the camera. As I get closer to making a decision on a studio and nailing down dates, I find myself hoping that “Hollywood” isn’t as superficial as it appears to be. I mean, I’m no ugly duckling, but I’m certainly not a “looker” either and it seems like physical appearance is a trait placed high atop the list of attributes that are reviewed when doling out work to wanna be actors. I’ve sort of decided that that is simply out of my control and I’ll have to focus on becoming good at the things I can control over the next couple years. For now, I’ll just continue trying to figure out where I’ll train.

107656512592654033

Strange Coincidence

The program I work on splits its responsibilities between two locations: here in Dallas and out in El Segundo, CA. We often send people back and forth for different reasons like troubleshooting, fixing broken stuff, consulting on various problems and planning strategies for the future of the program. For the past couple days, a guy from El Segundo has been helpin’ us out here in Dallas and I spent a lot of time working with him trying to solve problems and such.

Yesterday, during lunch, I asked him about the L.A. area–what it’s like living there, how accessible L.A. is to outsiders, the cost of living, etc.–and I eventually told him a little about how I’m hoping to get into acting in the future. I told him that my ideal situation would be to transfer to El Segundo and keep my job as a part-timer so that I could train and try to get work as an actor. Turns out he knows a guy that is trying to break into acting, mostly doing extra work, but also shooting some commercials and such. Anyway, my co-worker said he would put me in touch with his friend if I wanted, so that I would have a contact out there and could discuss the business with him and whatnot.

I was really surprised how easy it was to meet someone on the “inside” and I’m glad to have a contact like this one. Hopefully, after I’ve completed the two-year program I’m looking at here in Dallas, I’ll be able to call on this contact to help decide if I want to make the transition to L.A. I never thought I’d get a good contact for acting while working as an engineer, but I guess that’s why they invented the word “surprise”.

107603881704983770

Another Friday’s almost here

I guess I’m pretty excited about the weekend, but I can’t stop thinking about what my life could look like twenty years from now. Yes, I have a good job, working for and with good people, making good money, but I’m scared to death that I’ll still be working this same job when I’m forty or fifty or even sixty. I imagine there are people who picture themselves moving up the corporate ladder, making more and more money, managing other people and eventually running things in a big company. I bet some people dream of making it that big, but I don’t want any part of it.

So, I guess the question is What do I want a part of? and I don’t know the answer. Obviously, I’d like to delve further into acting, so I think that’s the thing I want a part of for now. If I start this summer, I’ll have an AA in two years and because Texas is a “right to work” state, I might even be able to get work while I’m still working full-time. For now, my priority is knocking out my student loan debt and I figure that should be taken care of about the same time I finish the AA in acting. I figure if I pay off that debt, get the AA and spend some time trying to get commercials and small roles in indie films while saving up money from my full-time job, I should be able to ensure some financial stability and independence via my savings account.

All I know is that I have a lot of respect for those who’ve chosen to make a career out of engineering or even business in general, but I just can’t picture myself in that sort of setting any time but the near future. But for now, the near future’s all I have and I intend to make it a bright one.