Video Creations
Here is the page where I will try to keep my video projects updated as they come out. I am also working on updating this wordpress thematically.
Something new.
I haven’t touched this site in a long time. As in pretty common in my behavior I start something new and tend to not finish it. There have been dashes of information here and there, but nothing congruent.
I have been practicing some coding in html and css, something I have never done before. I hope to be able to use these skills in wordpress and make something that can be useful to me. Due to this new infatuation, there will be some design changes coming in the coming months. Things will be broken, layouts may be, amateur to say the least.
The 700 day plan still runs strong, albeit thin. I think some kind of compendium at the end of the 700 days is all I am likely to get. That seems like a very short-sighted viewpoint and will hopefully change as this project develops.
&Fjorlorn
Week 1
As I assumed, not a whole lot has changed dramatically in the first week. I’ve learned some things at least. The gift of play-doh that my supervisor gave me really resonated with me. It reminds me that you must exercise learning in all areas of life. Even the simple act of kneading this doughy children’s toy keeps brain practicing abstract thought.
League of Legends has been my game of choice in the past, but lately I’m playing Guild Wars 2. Part of that stems from a friend of mine mentioning that he and a few other people I knew from high school had recently started a guild there. The other part is the receding desire to do well in LoL. The player base can get pretty nasty, and its never fun when you feel like you have to compete with your team. I will continue to play, but I don’t know that I could continue competitively without a team. Finding time to play is not easy considering a lot of my spare time is spent at the theater, at work, or being with Traci.
We all need friends. Friends we interact with regularly and who love us. Things change so much sometimes. Change makes it hard to hold on to things from the past without major energy expenditure. So many friends have faded away or moved away that its hard to feel genuinely connected at times. But change can bring about fresh, new things too. Experiences that broaden the mind and bring understanding. A view of the world no one has ever seen.
The 700 Day Plan
100 Weeks.
700 Days.
16,800 Hours.
1,008,000 Minutes.
60,480,000 Seconds.
August 9, 2016 is the end of my 700 Day Plan. By that time, I will be 24. Do I still have the same car? Who are my friends? Do I have enemies? Where am I working?
I have created this 700 Day Plan because I want to examine changes in my own life over a period of 700 days. I believe that where you go and where you have been are important parts in an individuals narrative. Time passes and things change. I want to be able to say “that is what I was, but this is what I am now.”
There is no other goal than realization and self-actualization.
I do not guarantee blog posts every day, but I do need to maximize the amount of expression I have. Playing music, singing, writing, drawing, etc.
Give some meaning to the name Fjorlorn.
Actor’s Mantra
Energy! Energy! Energy!
Pace! Pace! Pace!
Volume! Volume! Volume!
Diction. Diction. Diction.
Concentration. Concentration. Concentration.
Focus. Focus. Focus.
Pick up the cues! Pick up the cues! Pick up the cues!
Listen to each other. Listen to each other. Listen to each other.
Listen to the audience. Listen to the audience. Listen to the audience.
(Listen to the music. Listen to the music. Listen to the music.)
Hold for laughs, hold for laughs, hold for laughs.
Stay in the moment. Stay in the moment. Stay in the moment.
Don’t fuck up. Don’t fuck up. Don’t fuck up,
but if you do; Have Fun! Have fun! Have fun!
This is what I consider the actor’s mantra. These words have been a cast warm up exercise in the past few shows I have been doing. I think that it really embodies values that actors hold while on stage. When everyone in the cast comes together to practice it, it becomes something like a prayer. A reminder to everyone of what the goals of the performance are. It’s important to remind everyone of principles before you go onstage. Everyone is fussing with hair, clothing, makeup, remembering lines and blocking, thinking about who is watching tonight’s performance. Somewhere in all that, we forget how to perform onstage. You can practice a hundred times, but its always different when you are standing in front of a room full of people. Things you thought were memorized suddenly become fuzzy and unstable. The lights are hot and blinding. Someone misses a cue, or flubs a line. Actors have to be able to take whatever is handed to them with grace and then proceed onward like nothing was wrong. Preparedness is key, and this mantra provides a reference point for an actor to compare themselves to while they are on stage. Hopefully, it provides strength and stability.
Trust
Its 10 minutes before showtime. My hair is full of gel, its 95 degrees outside, and I’m in a wool jacket. I can’t stand the conversations in the green room. Generalization and stereotype comedy isn’t something I try to indulge in regularly, so I go backstage behind the curtain. A feeling of cozy comfort envelops me. The show has sold out. Conversations among patrons make the air buzz with energy. I love the sound. It screams to me of malleable minds waiting to be twisted into beautiful shapes. Soon I will go on stage and grasp that energy firmly. I will pull and stretch it, discover its tension and weight. To discover how it reacts to emotion, and where it is comfortable going. Watch it resonate with music, shudder at pain, flourish with laughter. I will wear it as a mask or cape. I will tear it to shreds, and then put it back together wrong. In the end, it will leave the same way it came in. Maybe stronger or brighter, I hope. But they will never leave without having felt something. The only people who truly understand this relationship is the audience. If they trust you and feel that what you are experiencing is genuine, they will follow you wherever you go.
Worth?
I was recently received a bill from an emergency room I visited. I was having some worry some chest pain, and the only health care around was a hospital. They checked me in, did and EKG and x-ray of my chest. Somehow they didn’t find anything, and a week after I return from vacation, I find a bill from the hospital in the mailbox for $1350.00. I was so shocked I cried. The bill didn’t get sent to insurance, so I am fortunate in that someone will be covering the bill for me. I only work part time because i volunteer in theaters around my area. I couldn’t pay this bill myself. I couldn’t help but feel powerless in the situation. If I was a person who had no insurance that is working full time minimum wage, the consideration of not getting health care for financial reasons would certainly cross my mind. Visiting the emergency room once is almost a month’s wages. Urgent care would’ve been a better and less expensive option, but when you are 100 miles from an urgent care, in pain and scared, what else are you supposed to do?
In a way it feels like money imprisonment. Don’t get sick or do bad things or we will take your money away. And money is the only way to live within the current system. There is nothing to do but what your employer tells you because you have no other option. Its even worse when there is no empathy within the employer employee relationship. They don’t care whether you are really sick, as long as the position is filled and the work is being completed.
I hope one day things will change, because otherwise I will be in debt up to my eyeballs just trying to stay alive.
Colored eyes
I found this street art during my trip to Victoria, BC. I really enjoyed seeing the sights and finding tasty visuals like these.
It really gave the town character and a sense of uniqueness, which I could only assume is a common feeling when you are in a new place for the first time.
Such art feels like an attempt to put you in the perspective of the local people. I don’t think people would choose to put such imagery up without careful though, and it shows in the execution.
I am always grateful for any opportunity to travel, learn, and experience. I hope more opportunities like this will greet me in the future.
Fjorlorn 