Actually having a weekend..

It is coming up to what we in our culture generally refer to as the "weekend", a time which normal people usually use to do something different than the "week", when they're required to work, and a time that usually isn't that much different for me, well that's not true because since I've been living with Erik I spend the time with him as he has a regular job, but that's not the point.

The point is we're having visitor's, Erik cousin and her friend, and we're picking them up from the airport this evening, and will be doing touristy stuff over the weekend, and may even go just outside of Prague for a day trip one of the two days which make up the weekend.

Bit of random though not unrelated trivia, do you know that in Israel the weekend consists of only Saturday and Sunday is a regular work day? It's true, something to do with god. Well, they get sorta Friday off too, depending on the week. I'm sure other people could explain it better.

Here's Cooley.

Bad blogger! Bad! *slaps self*

I missed my dose of daily dorkism yesterday. After all that buildup, but.. I've said this at least 48 times and will probably cause to say it again.. no one cares or even noticed.

It's Thursday. Caption this.

Tuesday Stupid Questions nobody ever asks #1.1,finally, the kettle edition.

Just what colour is the pot anyway?

Yes, this is the one I've had on hold for weeks. Sad isn't it?

Word o the day/week.. the rabble rousing edition..

Today's word is:

foment \foh-MENT; FOH-ment\, transitive verb:1. To nurse to life or activity; to incite; to abet; to instigate; -- often in a bad sense.

noun:1. Fomentation; the act of fomenting.2. State of excitation.

Cynical politicians may even foment conflicts among groups to advance their
own power.-- Martha Minow, Not
Only for Myself

Here, over many cups of coffee and other brews, John Adams, James Otis,
and Paul Revere met to foment rebellion, prompting Daniel Webster to call it
"the headquarters of the Revolution."-- Mark Pendergrast, Uncommon
Grounds

Having burned to taste the foment of the sixties, I romanticized
Diego's experience of it.-- Katherine Russell Rich, The
Red Devil

Foment is from Latin fomentum, "fomentation," from fovere, "to warm, to foster, to encourage." /

Don't you feel smarter already :)

We're here again..

It's the wrap up o' the week.. or is it the rap up? Still an unsolved mystery that one.

Monday and Tuesday I was in a film. It was wonderful, terrible, exhilarating, painful, satisfying, exasperating.. and a host of other emotions... ok not so much the negative emotions, and really, it was as mostly pleasant experience with a few small anxieties, I'm satisfied I did well, but am still wary of looking a bit silly in places due to the nature of the film. I was playing a less than glamorous character, in fact a particularly slovenly one who hasn't left home for ages, so I wore no makeup for filming, and there were a lot of closeups, so being just the slightest bit vain, I'm not sure I want to see myself blown up to cinema size at the screening. I might just wait to get the dvd. Anyway the film was fun, and I finished earlier than expected both days so I was able to write about each day's filming when it was fresh in my mind, so no need to re-recap it further.

*wracks brain to think of anything else I did all week*

I did the usual, worked, fussed around on the internet, got involved in the Next Biggest Group on Flickr after the original Biggest Group went all haywire but nobody reading this probably really cares about that.

On Wednesday me and my beloved had a dinner guest, our first ever since he moved here, and it was quite successful. He made middle eastern type food, which is he quite familiar with after living in Israel for 4 years, and had beer and fernet. We ate, drank and chatted, and danced like dorks to 80s radio.. and a good time was had by all, and Cooley the cat, who is usually really shy with new people and runs and hides from them at first, wasn't the slightest bit scared of our visitor and seemed to like him right away.

That's about all of note, I hope that the weekend will be pleasant and that next week will be at least as, or even more interesting than this week. Happy weekend to you all.

Right, I'm gonna play properly now..

Anyone who's been paying attention will notice that I haven't been following my dorky system too closely this week, which was supposed to be the first week of doing it properly but you know what, I don't care! Hmpf!

I'm doing it today though. Caption this photo.

This is typical...

absolutely typical.

I keep up the blog for about 2 weeks and then I get lazy and can't be bothered. Well.. I just don't feel like writing today, but I'm writing anyway so I suppose it doesn't count.. it's more like I'm not doing my Wednesday thing, which to be honest is getting old and I don't feel like doing it today, so I won't.

I'm having a guest for dinner tonight, I like a grownup.

And that's a wrap..

Or is it rap? In any case I believe that's a stupid question which should suffice this Tuesday.. and I'm sure no one ever asks that.

I'm not sure if it's finished finished, but my part in it finished quite early today. I suppose I did all right. Again I had to express fright, anxiety and all that without speaking, I had to tiptoe very slowly and carefully down the stairs and look out the front door with a stupid smile on my face, not sure how that's gonna look, I was doing that while an extreme closeup was being taken, or was it just a bog standard one.. don't remember, either is close enough when one is being specifically directed to smile more.. and one can only turn the edges of one's mouth up at such a direction. Not exactly natural is all I'm saying.

And yes, "bog standard" is an industry term :)

So the knell tolled on my contribution to the film and I walked out into the aestival street, and visited my kitty friends, who were there to greet me, as if they'd been given a philter by.. er, someone who was inclined to do that sort of thing.

I believe I used those words extremely ill, but it's my way of making up for yesterday.

Between takes

Day one done for my latest film, more to do tomorrow. It was an interesting day, though I realized that this movie acting stuff is kinda hard, I mean, I've done plenty of these small films before, but maybe it's been a while.. or I was paying more attention today. Or I just had a role that had a little depth in it for once.

I am the only character in the film, really. No speaking, just looking. That's the hard part, especially if you want to be any good, which I kinda do. I was all (sorta half) prepared, with a background to my character, and had planned to delve into my inner emotions and do it the Meisner way, where you really feel what it is you're supposed to be portraying, but as soon as I got in when there were some slight changes that threw my interpretation out, I felt myself having to concentrate on being in exact position to film.. and well I haven't been to class for a long time and I'm a bit rusty on the technique which, to be honest the best you could have described my proficiency at the height of my study is "ordinary". Well.. that and I really only ever got to mid-beginner level, if one was to describe it.

In short.. I can't do it. I tried and it didn't happen. So I pretended. I screwed my face up in the way that I would expect someone who's scared or determined or shocked or anxious or any combination of those together would do. I was getting very specific instructions on what I was was supposed to feel, on top of needing to walk to where the x was.. and I don't think that I could have done it the Meisner way if I had been considerably better at it, for it is a no no to deliberately play and emotion, you're just supposed to let it come out as it does. Sort of. I even got instructions on how to screw up my mouth in one bit that was for a closeup.. so I'm unsure how one could reconcile acting via the aforementioned technique while pleasing the director, in this case. Maybe a genius could do it.

Anyway.. I think by the standards of amateur film I did ok. I guess I kinda sorta in a very superficial way "felt it" when I had to be scared or something.. if only moving my body in a way so I had the physical reactions you would, but I don't think that counts.

There's more to film tomorrow. Hopefully I'll do at least just as well as I did today.

Hyperventilates...

I'll be acting in a film tomorrow, a short one. There's no dialogue and it's all closeups and facial expressions and being scared and it's gonna look super cheese if I do poorly, and acting without lines is fucking hard.. very easy to go over the top and look like a hack which is probably what will happen.. my only hope is that I care enough to be truly, deeply worried about being shit so I will be able to use that feeling to be genuinely terrified. Then I'll look like I'm actually good at this stuff. Maybe.

Rainy Friday rambling on..

It's raining today. That's not such a surprise, but it's quite cold too, much colder than yesterday, and it's raining and overcast all day, as opposed to being sorta cloudy, quite sunny then storming for an hour and stopping and becoming sunny again, all while being very hot/quite warm. Oh well.

I notice blogger has changed the design of it's dashboard, it appears to be all the same stuff, but more streamlined and cool looking. Fair enough.

It's time for me to star in a movie again. Well.. time for me to star, I will actually be the star of this one, the only human in it actually.. except for a voice. I don't actually have any lined so I have to express and stuff. It's ok, it will be a challenge and if I'm any good everyone will be all impressed which is the main part. I will be shooting on Monday and Tuesday, so I have to analyse and get to know my character over the weekend.. so I can be deep and stuff. For real.

For some reason the blogger spellcheck thinks that ok is a spelling mistake. Odd.. I always find strange non-mistakes caught by it, I would be inclined not to trust it if I didn't know better.

Kitties!!!

I'll let you decide..

I mean.. I shouldn't be leaving myself open to this but..

Caption this photo..

*goes red*

This I know how to do.

Ok, it's Wednesday and I've been doing this forever so I won't bother with tedious explanations, I'll just get on with it:

Jer 10:10 "But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King, At His wrath the earth will tremble, And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation"

a) This LORD guy rules. He totally rules and totally governs everything and has LOADS of power right, and if he just gets pissed off at everyone in the world right.. he'll just up and destroy everything.. s,true.. I mean.. the dude literally RULES man.. isn't it awesome? I mean.. until he goes and fucks everything up that will kinda suck but fuck.. he's like.. the man..

b) Be weary unless ye anger God, our true Lord for if you do he will SMITE you everlastingly, and DESTROY the earth and it won't matter for the good cos they'll go straight to heaven but if you are a sinner you will go to HELL! Yes.. all you Satan loving whores better be warned. STOP BEING GAY!

c) Jesus is the kindest, most lovely person/god that ever walked this earth, and you know that because the bible tell us so, he's even so kind as to warn us to be good, and do good unto others that he gives us such a good motivation to follow his example and not anger him, as we will lose our earth and home otherwise..

I stun myself with my cleverness sometimes.

Tuesday Stupid Questions Nodoby ever asks #1, the not really doing it edition.

Kettles

Fuck, I should write something, and something in particular, I keep thinking kettles but further than that my brain starts to swim, or do something that would make a more suitable metaphor, but I can't think of what it is because my brain keeps doing whatever it is that I can't think of.

Fuck.

Dammit, it's the first proper actual day where I do finally get into the meat of my new anal dorky gimmicky system thingy that I've been going on about forever and I'm not even reall doing it properly. Fuck!

Kettles.

I went on an adventure today, I went out to the country, visited a workshop/junkyard, rode in a tank, met a cat and took lots of photos (of course), didn't eat until 5pm and the diesel fules in my head are making my brain swim, or whatever it is that it's doing. Kettles.

I knew it was something about kettles, but I can't think of what. I'm supposed to ask a question but I don't know any, oh yes I do. What is it about the kettles? It's a stupid enough question I think. Problem is that it's not very clever. Damn! There's always a catch.

Starting the week afresh..

It's Monday, the sun is shining, the birds are singing. Actually it looks like it might rain.. whatever, the main point is that it's a new week, so it would be time to start my new system a-proper if it wasn't for the fact that last Monday I was busy introducing my scheme and didn't actually include an idea for Monday itself.

So.. gimmick of the day for Monday shall hereby be... WORDS. A word.. Word o' the day if you like. I shall pick a one of the daily words I get daily.. (yes, I get them daily strange that) and will dissect them.. or whatever.

But today, in my what I can call a tradition if I like, of not following the rules I create for myself just yet because it's the first time, I'll just talk about a words, different words, a few particular words and their appropriateness to their function.

I will start with the word phonetic which troubles me. The entry says..

pho·net·ic - [fuh-net-ik, foh-]

–adjective
1. Also, pho·net·i·cal. of or pertaining to speech sounds, their production, or their transcription in written symbols.
2. corresponding to pronunciation: phonetic transcription.
3. agreeing with pronunciation: phonetic spelling.
4&5. etc etc etc.

So, in general, the word is to do with vocal sounds and such, but what I am concerned is with my interpretation of the word, which is no fault at all of the ancient Greeks or whoever originally meant the word to mean what it originally meant, but as I said, it troubles me. When I hear the word "phonetic", I usually think of definition #3, the one about spelling.

Do you see where I'm going here? Now, the word as it sounds, should have no effect it's suitability for a word which describes CORRESPONDING TO PRONUNCIATION, so I guess I'm incorrect in saying that the word itself troubles me, and once again, no disrespect to the ancient Greeks (or whoever) for if indeed this was one of the original meanings of the word.. I'm pretty sure they weren't the ones who decided to SPELL IT THAT WAY!!!

If you didn't get the irony before, I'm sure you do by now. A word, which spelling a word how it sounds, is spelt ABOUT AS UNLIKE HOW IT SOUNDS AS YOU CAN SQUEEZE INTO ONE SMALL WORD!! So.. in short, they fucked up. They being the deciders o' spelling with all their p,s and h,s and letters that don't sound like f, amongst others. Unless it's a joke in which case hardy fucking har har.

Ok enough about that How about a really cool word that is just perfect for it's intended meaning. I came across this one about a week ago, it is...

sesquipedalian

and can you guess what it means? Bet you can't, ok.. here it is:

adjective
1. Given to or characterized by the use of long words.
2. Long and ponderous; having many syllables.

noun:1.
A long word.

Isn't it brilliant? And so suitable! I totally have to figure out a way to work into conversation.

I'm on holiday..

It is technically part of my inaugural week o gimmicks, but Gold told me I'm not allowed to work on this day and being a good christian I'm simply not allowed to. So no gimmick today, just rambling. I think that's a chilled enough way to spend the day.

I didn't contribute yesterday either, being a weekend, and me having gone to a wedding party for someone I'd never met before on Friday night. The people, despite me never having met them before, were more than friendly and very generous with alcohol etc.. which I readily consumed. And yesterday I was fucked up. All day. Too much to even focus on a computer screen. So I didn't.

I wake up today and get online and the whole world has changed.. medals have been won, Georgia has been invaded and something about John Edwards which really doesn't matter but people keep going on about it anyway.

I think I'll go back to resting now.

It's just too easy..

We come to the end of the week.. that is if we don't include the weekend which I haven't decided yet if I'll be including in my new system.. anyway, after the astounding success of yesterday's gimmick to try and make people comment (yes I am being sarcastic) today I will be going back to the usual I-write-and-people-sit-there type of post. Which I was going to do anyway...

so.. being that it's Friday, which already has a tradition out there in the mainstream blogosphere, the random 10, which I've used a few times.. and the cat blogging which I've been doing recently.. so I may or may not use one of these for future Fridays.

This Friday, I have a kitty.

That's Cooley under there, in case you wondered.

Pick o' the week

We come to Thursday in the inaugural week of my new experiment, and today, and hopefully many Thursdays to come, it's the pic or rather picture of the week... and of course the pic/picture will be the "pick" referred to in this title... get it? Of course you get it because it's not the least bit clever.

So what I will do is choose a photo, most likely from my flickr photostream and do the old "caption this" game. I know I'm being ambitious going with something interractive here, seeing as I haven't been getting a huge volume of commenters lately.. but what the hell.

In future I'm going to try to use a photo from the previous 7 days, but as this is the first I will go with any old shot. This, is any old shot.

Be clever. Or be stupid, just be.

Ah, lets settle down to some good old fashioned tradition...

It's Wednesday.. and you know what that means...

well, if you (singular) are reading, you probably do. If I happen to have picked up a stray reader who will probably peruse this post and then never visit again, you probably won't. In the case of situation #2 I won't bother explaining.. let's just say we're going with pies tonight, just like every Wednesday since time immemorial. Or some Wednesdays since some time last year..

1 John 1:1-3 "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled,
concerning the Word of life-- the life was manifested, and we have seen, and
bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and
was manifested to us-- that which we have seen and heard we declare to you"

a) Ok, it's set up like this.. this bible thing that we are dictating right now is right and good in everything and you need to believe all of it, even the bits that contradict the other bits.. and anyway, if you do that you'll get everlasting life. Nice, isn't it?

b) Listen up and listen good.. the LORD has spoken and HE is all powerful.. which means you've got to do what he says. And what he says is do what I say and don't be gay and if yer wimmins then don't be whores and submit to yer mens.. kay.. what you doin.. don't worry about what it says there just listen to what I say.

c) .. and the kitties, and the bunnies, and the birdies, and the flowers, and the trees, and the wine, and the harp, and the sea, and the songs and the dancing.. la la la la la...

Until tomorrow...

Some steak and chips for Tuesday, or maybe just a stupid question that nobody ever asks, #0

It's Tuesday, so it's time for...

Stupid Questions that nobody ever asks. This one is part 0 because if it was part one I'd have to come up with a stupid question, and I can't think of one.. oh I have plenty of stupid questions but I can't think of the right one.. you know.. a clever one..

er...

I'm thinking kettles, but anything more specific than that I will save for the numbered entries.

I'm sad I know.

Blogging about blogging about blogging stuff.

I'm thinking of being a regular blogger again, I've done this before, and have tried a few times recently to get back into it, but I seem to keep slipping out of it. I realize the world will survive without on average daily posts by me about all and sundry, but to me it's important. At least kinda.

So I need a plan, something to help me keep at this blogging thing and succeed in my plan to take over the wo.. I mean fulfill my need to express myself and all that... obviously I've already thought of how this will be done and that's why I'm writing about it, and the idea I've come up with is a dose of total dorkism. I think I might be able to pull it off.

To be more specific I'm gonna do themes, gimmicks, days o the week, serieses.. which I've already done in small part, but I'm going to go all out, and not stop myself from doing a Tuesday whatever because just below me is a Monday random thingy pointless filler post. I'm gonna have steak and chips on Tuesday and chips and egg on Thursday and I don't care how utterly sad people think I am. Especially since they're probably not going to bother commenting at all, so I won't even know.

The way I'm hoping it works is this, I will have a bunch of different ideas for different days which will help banish the lack of inspiration I have been suffering, as I will be inspired by the subject/gimmick/whateveryouwannacallit.. and will come up with something. It might be dumb, but it's something. I will easily be able to come up with something to post every single day, so my blog will constantly be updated, and perhaps even drum up a few visits here and there, again encouraging me to post because I think people are actually reading.. the very act of posting will help give me more ideas, and some of those pots will even give me ideas.. and as I've found, I'll be able to blog more about blogging as I'm blogging more and hopefully I'll have plenty of clever, well thought out posts, which may or may not have anything to do with the subject o the day.. and on those days, I will post about anything.. as I go on I will post more and more on random things, some silly, some personal, some deeply profound.. and my day of the week themes will be needed less and less.. more people will read and comment, and I'll have more motivation to write, and more to write about and on and on and on and my blog will grow..

Or maybe I won't. Who knows. But I'm sure I'm on the right track with the dorkism thing.. something tells me I'll be a natural...

I really should write something..

I know it really doesn't matter whether I do or not, so actually I won't....






ok I will.

So what have I been up to.. I've been in 2 films since last writing, one very small role in a smallish film, and one as pretty much the only character in a tiny tiny film. It was about 4 hours filming alltogether but at least I've done something this year, it took long enough for me to get around to it.

Apart from that just hanging around, I'm sure there's something worth mentioning but I can't think of anything for the moment, so maybe it's not that worth mentioning. Maybe I'll remember later.

So that's it. Don't know why I bothered writing really...