But... I can't be normal!

Here are my results from this test.

Joe Normal 34 % Nerd, 39% Geek, 13% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal. This is not to say that you don't have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside of you--we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren't much of an outcast. I'd say there's a fair chance someone asked you to take this test. In any event, fairly normal. Congratulations!

Monthly update?

Well let's see...

Andrew's gone back to Australia. Dad and Ruth went to Mexico for two weeks, and came back about a week and a half ago. Ian's still in China doin his thang. Mom and I are going to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico for a week at the end of November. One of my online friends might be coming up to visit for a couple days around the third week of November. I'm housesitting for a couple who live just down the street from Dad and Ruth's, for three weeks til October 2nd. They've got two super sweet dogs and two super sweet cats, who I love taking care of.

As for the job front, I haven't heard anything from the restaurants I've applied to, so I'm gonna do some follow-up calls today. And as for the agents, I've got packages together for five agencies; I just need to print out the cover letters for them.

Not much else going on right now... keep your fingers crossed for me to get a job and an agent soon.

Be well, all of you.

Holy crap, an entry!

Yes, it's been months since my last entry. No, I have no good reason why I haven't posted in a while.

So, my life right now:

I'm a college graduate with a Diploma in Performing Arts. I'm back in Vancouver, living at home with my Dad and Ruth, and currently jobless. I have a boyfriend who is currently staying here while visiting Canada, although he's going back home to Australia on September 9th. His name is Andrew, aka Whitey, and we met online. (Insert comments about net-dating here.) My brother Ian is currently in China - you can read his blog here to read about his adventures.

I dropped off resumes at, filled job applications for, and talked to the managers of, several restaurants in the area (including Earl's, Red Robin, Boston Pizza, Hurricane Grill...) yesterday, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something will come of it in the near future. The manager/owner of Hurricane Grill actually went to my highschool and is the older brother of a girl in my graduating class, and recognized me, so I'm hoping that connection might pay off with a job. He said he wasn't looking right now, but once September hit and people went back to school etc, he may need someone so he'd keep me in mind. (Most, if not all, of the managers I spoke to said something along those same lines) So keep your fingers crossed for me!

On the acting front, so far I've been incredibly lazy. On my done list: send cover letter/resume/headshot to Bard on the Beach to hopefully get an audition for next summer's shows. No word yet.

On my to-do list:
- Research agents/agencies and make a list of those I want to send my package to.
- Send my package to (or drop it off at) said agencies.
- A week later, call said agencies to make sure they've received my package.
- Check out the ACTRA site, as well as a few others I have on a list somewhere in my recently-unpacked room, and see if I can get on some mailing lists for audition notices and calls for submissions.
- Apply to become an Apprentice Member of both ACTRA and CAEA.
- Check out what kinds of classes the Vancouver Film School offers, and check out prices and dates etc.

Also on my to-do list but not related to acting: cut my hair and dye it dark brown, once I have the money to do so.

Currently I'm taking care of Ruth's mom Jean, who has alzheimer's. I call her in the morning, do something with her (go for coffee, go to the dog park at Ambleside to sit on a bench and pet the dogs, etc), then call her in the early evening. Basically I'm just there to make sure she's doing alright, and so she has someone to talk to if she gets confused about something or forgets something. So far she's doing great despite Ruth's absence, and remembers things rather well.

Along with that, I'm watering plants for the people who live in the house behind Dad and Ruth's, who are also away for a couple weeks. It's just every second day, and only takes me 10 minutes at the most, including hauling the hose out onto the street to water the California lilacs and coiling it back up again. I don't know how much I'm getting paid, but it's not much trouble and any money would be great right now (god I hope I get a job soon...).

Also (see, I am keeping busy), I'm going to be house-sitting and dog-walking for John and Valerie, a really nice couple who live just down the street from here. I'm doing three days from the 25th to the 27th, then three weeks from September 12th to October 2nd. They have two adorably sweet dogs, Tala and Lucy, and two big old cats, Abu and Dhabi. I'm really looking forward to it, as the pets are wonderful, and I get paid to play with them (plus they have TiVo... ;P). And while John and Valerie are away in September, I'll be walking the dog of their neighbour, Margie, on Tuesdays. So while I remain basically unemployed, I'm at least doing some odd jobs and getting some money.

That's about all I can think of as far as updates go... I'm going to try to keep updating regularly, but I can't promise anything judging from my previous long gaps between posts.

Toodles

We really did just want to see a movie!

Katie and I had quite an adventure tonight, and since I'm too lazy to type it up myself, I'lljust link to her livejournal cause she wrote it up nicely.

Katie's LiveJournal entry

And nudged is definitely the right word for it, since the car just kind of gently rolled forward into me, and I got pushed to the side into poor gimpy Katie (she broke a bone in her foot). The driver swore she wasn't talking on the cell phone she was holding in one hand, and that she was turning right, even though she was in the left lane and had a red light, so should've stopped anyway. And if she wasn't on her cell phone, she must've had her eyes closed because two girls crossing on a well-lit cross walk, one of them in a santa hat and the other on crutches, are pretty hard to miss otherwise.

What a night!

3 weeks to go

But who's counting...

Yesterday J.D. (the guy who's sort of in charge of this whole tv series thing) and Reuben (camera/sound guy) were set up in the Bathurst theatre doing interviews, so I offered myself as an interviewee. Before he started the interview J.D. got a phone call so he went off to answer it while Reuben finished setting everything up. I started doing this clapping thing I learned in gymnastics as a way of keeping the rhythm of a song, and Reuben asked what it was, I explained and showed him another rhythm thing I know (involving hitting your chest, snapping your fingers, and clapping, and the rhythm goes chest, snap, clap, chest chest, snap, clap, snap and repeats from there). Just then J.D. came back and asked me what I was doing, so I explained that it was just a rhythm thing I knew, and we started the interview.

J.D. asked me things like what makes me special so that an agent or a casting director would want to pick me, what being at Randolph was like, etc. Then he asked me about the rhythm thing, and whether I can find rhythms like that anywhere. I said you can find a rhythm anywhere if you look hard enough. I think I said something about the rhythm of life to... lol. Then he asked me if I could dance the rhythm I had done before. So I moved the stool I was sitting on aside, did the rhythm through a few repeats to get the beat, and improved a dance for about 10 seconds or so. It was really fun! :D

Tommorrow I have a rehearsal from 10-12 for coffee house. Jason (the guy I did a dance with in 2nd term Dance History and coffee house) recorded a song that he'll be singing at coffee house, and has asked me, Sally, and a few other girls to choreograph and dance something to it. So tommorrow we're getting together to come up with something and see what we can do.

I slept in rather late today (4pm...) so I'm expecting to end up staying up kind of late tonight. Other than that, I have no plans yet for tonight.

long time no update...

No I figured I should get my act together and update everyone on my life.

Let's see... well, my life is basically just school right now, so I'll talk about that.

Two guys are thinking about making a tv series at Randolph. They don't know exactly if it's going to be more of a drama or more reality-based, but either way we studens will play characters that are closely based on ourselves, and it will most likely be part scripted and part just us doing what we do. Right now it's just in the beginning stages, and we have a meeting about it tommorrow to find out more details. Sometime next week, I think Thursday/Friday, they'll be filming stuff to put together a promo episode so they have something to pitch to different networks. They don't know when the show will be filmed or when it will be aired if it does end up happening, nor do they know which network will take it, but they'll be pitching it to many (including HBO!). I'll let you know when I have more details.

Besides that, our 4th term Cabaret is starting to look really, really good. We're doing 'In Dreams' from Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, and a movement piece to 'Hedwig's Theme' from Harry Potter, among many other cool things. Jeffrey (the musical director) wants as many different kinds of songs (genre/nationality/language etc) which fit the theme that we can find, so everyone brought songs in today and he took those he and Linda (co-director, focused more on dance) liked. They're deciding which songs they'll do, and I hope they'll let us know at least which ones they've picked if not who is singing them, tommorrow.

I did my monologue in Scene Study yesterday and actually left my teacher, Greg Schneider, speechless, along with the rest of my class. That was a pretty damn amazing feeling...

Greg gave us an assignment to find a completely new monologue and present it next week. Eek! I'm going to the reference library tommorrow in my 3 hour break, and hopefully I'll find something. It has to be from a Canadian playwright, which limits things a little bit. But there are some f-ing amazing Canadian playwrights so there's no lack of good material; I just need to read a bunch of plays to find one that suits me but still challenges me enough to be worth my time.

My singing is getting better by leaps and bounds, which makes me very, very happy.


As for my life outside of school... well, I don't really have one. So that's that. :P

What's going on...

Well, let's see...

Everything at school is kind of frantic, since this is the last week of classes and all our final presentations and everything are being done this week. I have my final exam in theory on Wednesday, as well as the final presentation of our scene in Scene Study. Our Shakespeare show is a week from Thursday, and we're kind of going at a stop-and-go pace with rehearsing that with Peter, the teacher/director. I feel confident about our performance, but both my scenes definitely need more work before they're ready.

I had my Voice & Text interview last Tuesday, and I have my jazz and tap interviews together on Friday (since Natalie teaches me for both classes), and my Movement and Ballet interviews next Monday. Next Monday is also a yoga class instead of ballet (we have to come in early for the yoga class, then have our interviews afterwards). And Then Wednesday there are two final term presentations (I believe it's Dance History 2 and Cabaret 2) and Thursday we have our Shakespeare show followed by the other half of term 3's Shakespeare show. I'm ushering the 5th term play once and the 6th term musical twice (although I can't remember exactly when I'm doing that... I have to check with Ina), and then I just have my Ronterview on August 2nd, and then I fly home on the 5th!

Wow, it's going to be a busy couple of weeks!

Oh, some good news: I heard about a really good deal for a Dell Notebook (Insprion 6000) and colour printer for $1296 (the laptop alone is usually $1900) and Mom bought it for me! I'm sooo excited about that! THANKS MOM!!