If I Can't Make It, Maybe "He" Can

A friend at work came across a casting call for "Into The Wild" here in Portland on Friday. The call was specifically for boys 3-6, so I loaded up my son Evan to see if he could have better luck getting into Hollywood than I've had.

We explained to Evan that acting is like "pretending." He seemed to get the whole concept and seemed cool with going to see some people who might ask him to pretend to be "angry" or "silly."

We were #117 of what I can only imagine was a thousand or so youngsters. Rumors had it that they were looking for a very specific look. (Great...Evan has one of those!) I think I overheard that they were looking for someone to play the lead (Chris?) as a youngster, who sneaks out of his house and into a neighbors house when they're gone.

We were there for about an hour or so. Everyone seemed very nice. We had our 30 seconds with the casting director, Marty. And then we were off. Evan was mad at me afterward because nobody asked him to pretend anything.

Today was a second day of casting calls (for adult extras), so I would imagine that if we haven't heard anything by now, we won't be hearing anything. Oh, well. At least we had a little adventure. And I have an excuse to put up a picture of the cutest boy in the world!

What Did Mommy Do?!

Hollyn is amazed by Mommy!

And is very proud of her too!

Examples of Fortitude

OK...let's just admit it. Presently I'm clocking in on the old blog at about one posting a week! And to come clean...I don't see that changing all too much in the near future. Not that I think the two of you reading this care much! :o)

Truth is...it feels like Winter to me lately, and every Winter I tend to go through a little gloom and doom mini-depression. Something about going to work when it's dark and coming home when it's dark. And although we're not at that point yet, my soul is ahead of schedule this year and I've been bummed lately for no reason.

My writing has come to a stand still. My dieting too. Early August seemed to be the fruition of some minor dreams, and late August seemed like a haze of "where do I go now."

Luckily today I was presented with an OUTSTANDING example of fortitude. My wife accomplished something she's been working on for a LONG time, and she deserves some serious kudos for seeing it all the way through to the end. We don't have the official word on it yet, so I won't spill the beans here and now. But hopefully I'll be able to post more about it real soon. Regardless, she crossed a milestone she's literally been working on for five YEARS!

Gives me some perspective on my writing and encourages me stick with it. So please bear with me as I detox through the whole "sell" mentality of the Writer's Conference and get back to the joy of writing for writing's sake!

Lincoln City, OR

I apologize for taking a full week since my last post.

The wife, kids and I spent a long weekend on the Oregon Coast with my parents in a town just south of Lincoln City, OR.

Lincoln City is by far our favorite coastal town. We've done Seaside, Astoria, Depot Bay, etc....but nothing compares to Lincoln City. It's got great beaches (especially for agate hunting), a wonderful outlet shopping mall (for my regular Reebok shoe purchases), a killer casino (Chinook Winds Casino), and lots of quaint little Mom & Pop shops. We try to get down there pretty much every couple months, and it had been about seven months since our last trip so you know we were dying to get down there.

Usually one of the only downfalls of the Oregon Coast is suspect weather, as there's a little rumor out there that it rains a lot up here in the NW. But this weekend, it was BEAUTIFUL. 65-70 degrees, clear blue skies, no fog! It seriously couldn't have been nicer!

So you'll just have to forgive me for not getting to the blog sooner.

Besides, there's not much news on the script front. No word from Cory at Benderspink. No word from anybody.

My resolve is quickly turning to the fact that I need to worry less about shopping and concentrate much harder on reading/writing on a regular basis.

To be very honest, I haven't written much of anything the past few weeks, and lately I've been feeling like if I don't "make" time to write, it will never happen.

And I'm battling that with the thought of "how can I invest three month's worth of time into something that's not good enough to sell anyways?"

I really need to get the whole thought of "shopping" my scripts out of my mind and just focus on writing for fun again. Who cares what ever happens to it once it's done. Just do it and get it done.

That's just where I'm at right now!

The Fulfillment of Manhood

I woke early today. Birds chirping. The sun rising gently. Something about the air seemed a bit more crisp and clean. There's a feeling in my soul this morning. A feeling that things are somehow better today. Sure I'm a man who believes in a God who watches over me and delights in giving me good things, but today is more special than that.

Today is a day that only comes once a year. OK, I guess every day is a day that only comes once a year, but not like today.

Look at the faces of the men around you. On many you'll see a different glow today. Heck, you'll even see it on some of the women in your vicinity.

Why are these people enlightened today? It's really quite simple.

Today marks the start of the 2006-2007 NFL Season!

Ahhhh....breathe it in! It's a more glorious aroma than some high blend morning coffee. It's more delicate on the palate than a French pastry. It's more healing to an aching heart than a Toni Braxton CD.

The season kicks off tonight when the Miami Dolphins travel to Pittsburgh to clash with the Steelers. I can't wait.

My observations for the season:

* Seattle will get back to the playoffs, if not the Super Bowl.
* Arizona will be a playoff team, even after Warner goes down early and Leinart has to take over at the helm.
* Philadelphia will drastically improve over their 6-10 record of last year.
* Dallas will start very strong, struggle in the middle, and implode by the end of the year.
* Washington is in big trouble because of Portis' injury and tinkering with their backfield.
* Eli Manning's team will out perform Payton Manning's team this year.

So raise your glasses to the beginning of another fun-filled NFL year. Here's to Sunday BBQs with friends and the Seahawks getting revenge for getting jobbed last year!

Peach Melba vs. Mango Raspberry

Years ago I loved to get a drink at a fancy burger restaurant here in Vancouver called Red Robin. It was called a Peach Melba and was basically a peach milkshake with raspberry syrup mixed in with it. Don't know why I took to them so much, but I did. They were awesome, but eventually Red Robin stopped making them. A number of times afterwards I was able to explain to the waiter/waitress what it was and still get one, but it eventually became more and more difficult so I stopped.

Well, imagine my surprise when I was in a McDonalds yesterday and saw they have a special shake flavor right now called Mango Raspberry. Mmmm...sounds good. So I tried one. Holy smokes!! It took me back to the peach melba. I loved it!

So although it's not the healthiest thing out there, I beg all of you if you're nearby a McDonalds anytime soon, to give it a try and encourage Ronald to keep it on the menu for a long time!

My Plight Is Nowhere Near This Difficult

My wife is a substitute teacher for a number of school districts in the Vancouver area. She has been a sub for about six years, but has been doing everything in her power for the last couple years to become a "contracted" full-time teacher.

The district she has worked the hardest for is the Vancouver School District. She has held short and long-term sub jobs and even a few short-term "terminable" positions (basically taking over for contracted teachers who need to take some leave).

She has jumped through every hoop the district has put up to try and get a contract, but year after year we watch painfully as they fill their empty positions with fresh-from-college people (some from completely different States) who we can't help but believe aren't nearly as qualified as Heather. One year in particular Heather was called in at the last minute to start the school year for a girl that had been hired that didn't even have her paperwork in order yet. Heather had to open that girl's class while the girl got her certificates. It was a very frustrating time! Even after the girl got her paperwork in order, it was obvious to Heather that she didn't have a clue how to run her classroom. Heather helped her out a lot, but it was still very frustrating. Why was that girl hired, not Heather?

We've learned through the years that logic and fairness play no part in hiring in the VSD though. Heather has letters of reference from a few of the most highly thought of principles in the district. She even had a petition started on her behalf and signed by nearly everyone in one of Vancouver's nicer schools.

What we've determined is that the gate keeper is a lady in Human Resources that seems to make all the hiring decisions. So even though Heather has a principle saying she's great and they'd love to have her at their school, it doesn't matter as this HR lady has the ultimate power.

Ultimately, it's proving incredibly frustrating. Here we are with school ready to start in a couple days, and still no job for Heather. And to make matters worse, a couple days ago we heard through the grapevine that Vancouver was desperately looking to fill some last minute openings. HELLO!! And this after Heather had left two notes and two voicemails within a week for this HR lady.

It's hard at this point not to become a conspiracy theorist. Has Heather been black-listed for some reason that they're not sharing with us? Does VSD not hire their subs because they're afraid of losing a good sub? Does Heather not meet some "profile" that would make her more hirable (ie. race, gender, etc.)? Is Heather too qualified (she is about 10 hours of work away from having her Masters Degree and is thus more expensive than a fresh off their Bachelor student)? Has Heather somehow inadvertently pissed off this HR lady?

WE JUST DON'T KNOW!

And so here we go again. Round and round the merry-go-round. Heather does everything she can to get into Vancouver, and we watch as they give the positions to under-qualified, not-nearly-as-passionate people!

I'm More Than Preferred, I'm Ultra-Preferred

For those of you who've been reading the blog since the beginning, you know that from April 1st to June 30th I embarked on a new diet to drop some pounds and get my cholesterol in line so I could get the best rate possible on some life insurance.

I didn't really need the motivation. I'd been overweight for the last couple years, and had been feeling it more and more of late, so the extra financial nudge was just the cherry on top.

Well, as I noted before, the diet was a success. I was able to drop almost 25 pounds, and although I haven't watched what I've been eating so militantly anymore, I've been able to keep it off the last two months. And better yet, with the assistance of my herbal supplement genius father, I was able to drastically reduce my cholesterol numbers also.

So last week a doctor came out to run my wife and I through our life insurance physicals, and the results are in. My hard work was worth it as I qualified for my provider's "ultra-preferred" rates! That's $7 less a month, every month, for as long as we own the policy. I can dig that!

For any of you out there dealing with high cholesterol, don't buy into the whole prescription medication thing. There are natural herbal supplements that will drastically decrease your numbers. If nothing else look for a "Cholesterol Essentials" supplemant, which is a combo of all the things that help.