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My first ‘celebrity sighting’

Really, it wasn’t a celebrity sighting at all, but it makes me feel special to say it that way. I went to Starbucks to read some of a new book I bought (more on that below) and the guy behind the counter says, “This may seem a little strange to ask, but are you into acting at all? Have you done any work in student projects?” I told him I had and he said he recognized me from a short student film he saw this weekend. I said, “Oh, well cool. I hope you liked it.” He said he did like it, he thought it was funny and that he was there to support his cousin, who directed one of the other shorts. Anyway, it was strange to be recognized as an actor. Strange, but nice. Hopefully, I’ll get to experience more of that in the future. I don’t feel I have a big need for validation… but it’s still nice sometimes.

Good run at poker

I’ve been playing well and/or getting lucky for a couple weeks now. My bankroll was hurtin’ for a while there, but then I went back to my bread n’ butter: Sit N’ Gos. I’ve more than tripled my bankroll in the past couple weeks and I’ve used some of the cash to help finance my trip to Europe (I transferred some money to a co-worker’s account in exchange for a ride to and from the airport). I also bought another poker book today. I’d already read most of it in Barnes & Noble, but I wanted to buy it so I can re-read it when I’m done. This was the first book that I bought directly with money from my poker account and it felt good. I’m sure it’ll pay for itself quickly.

Only 7 hours at work tomorrow and I’m out for two weeks!

I don’t feel I need to elaborate on that too much, so I won’t.

Kendra will win The Apprentice

Same story here.

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Rich Dad, Poor Dad

A friend recommended this book to me, so I picked it up (along with a few other books) at Barnes & Noble this weekend. I’m only midway through the second chapter, but I can already tell this will be a very good book. It’s about money and how to make it. Really, I think it’s about how to make money work for you. That, of course, is a very interesting topic to me because I’m “gainfully employed” and have just entered “the real world”. Learning how to make my money make me money is bound to be useful and I’m pretty excited to put these principles to work.

I’ve always thought outside the box regarding money–I spent the last 8 months of college living off interest-free loans from credit card companies–and I think that sort of thinking will be necessary to safely transition from engineer to actor. Or at least it’ll be necessary to try to make the transition without going broke. And, realistically, I can’t expect to become a millionaire just because I want to act. I’m hoping to make a comparable income to what I have now and that means I’ll need to be wise with my money and invest it well.

Hopefully, this book will point me in the right direction.

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Another Noble Friday

Tonight was the second Friday that I spent at Barnes & Noble since I got here. Part of me thinks that makes me some sort of extravagant loser, while the rest of me thinks it was a good time and an excuse to drop 30 bucks on some magazines and a book. I got a 5-dollar copy of Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA by Kevin Davies. The magazines were on web design, digital photography and, yes, Nintendo Power. I couldn’t resist the Nintendo Power because I used to read it when I was a kid and I figured it was worth five bucks to see what sort of rubbish I used to enjoy. Turns out it’s the boring, short-on-actual-content sort of rubbish that I enjoyed so much when I was younger.

Florida game tomorrow

I think we play Arkansas tomorrow. I think they’re doing pretty poorly this year, so hopefully we’ll be able to grab a road win and build some confidence. I can’t make any sort of predictions because I don’t know much about their team. I think I read somewhere that they have a couple strong wingmen, so that could spell trouble for our perimeter defense, especially if we’re playing a zone again. I guess we’ll see…

Speaking of Basketball

I’m playing tomorrow morning at 9, so I’m gonna’ go ahead and get some sleep now.

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The book buying begins…

When I was here a couple summers ago, I spent most of my free time at Barnes & Noble, either reading or buying books. Well, I went over there today to buy a copy of The World According to Garp and though I couldn’t find it, I managed to find some other books that needed buying. Here’s what I left with:

J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye
Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man
Wendy Northcutt’s The Darwin Awards
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
Stephen Viscusi’s On the Job: How to make it in the real world of work
Gabriele Crepaldi’s The Impressionists
and a copy of Car And Driver magazine

I also went to Target and bought a few things including two lamps for my end-tables. I’m afraid the lamps might be a little small, but I have receipts and time, so I’ll get it right eventually.

It’s a Wonderful Life

I am back to watching classics and I really enjoyed this one. I realized that I’ve never watched the entire thing before, mostly because I would gripe and complain any time it was on. Turns out it’s a really good movie that makes a good point in a clever way. Ironically, all I remembered about the movie was the sequence where Clarence, George’s guardian angel, takes George around town to show him what the world would be like if George had never been born. I didn’t realize that was only the last twenty minutes of the movie. It seems there’s also a pretty good hour and a half of movie before that. Who knew?

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Finished Wardrobe

I finished The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe tonight and I’ll be starting The Horse and His Boy tomorrow. I’m not moving through the series as quickly as I’d anticipated, but only because I’ve found other things to occupy my time. I decided I’m headed to Barnes & Noble tomorrow to pick up a copy of The World According to Garp since I began it last semester, but never finished it (the copy I was reading was borrowed). I figure that’ll give me something else to read. I also have a book on poker (The Theory of Poker) to finish up and Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. I’m sure there are others I’ve partially read, but those are the only ones that come to mind.

Basketball: Vandy vs. Florida

We play Vandy at home tomorrow and I think we’re going to trounce them. I’m predicting we’ll win by 25 points or more. I think we’ll be up by 10 at the half and we’ll get the other 15 in the second half.

Time to sleep.