Category Archives: update

Workout Update 2 – But without video

I keep thinking that I’m going to do a video from the elliptical machine or one of the weight machines, but I’ve been too chicken to do it. I build up the gumption and then, as soon as I’m in the room, I freeze up. I feel like there is definitely some kind of unspoken law that cameras remain out of the gym. Is this accurate? I look forward to your responses in the comments.

In the meantime, I’m really enjoying my workouts and have been looking forward to them with excitement so far. Part of my motivation while exercising is listening to music. I used to listen to podcasts, but I’ve been using my phone as my Walkman (follow the link if you’re too young to remember what that is) and I don’t currently load anything to it, I play everything through the net. I’ve been using Pandora since it does not require a subscription.

I used Kylie Minogue as the seed. The rhythms are consistent and energetic, the songs are fun and easy and it really helps you blowout a cardio routine. I played with a few other styles when I first started working out, general pop, New Wave, rock; but none of them worked quite as well as the Kylie station is.

While I’m not seeing huge results yet (duh, it’s only been a week), I am definitely feeling results.  Even though it’s only been a week I’m already feeling more energetic and alert. My metabolism must be kicked up a notch because I’m suddenly warm everywhere, even when I’m out with Frankie doing the late-night potty, and my appetite has adjusted. Instead of eating due to it being the scheduled time to eat, I’m actually hungry. So far I feel like these are positive signs.

What do you listen to when you workout, if you workout? I’m open to listening to new stuff, Kylie only has, like, a dozen albums.

See you next time!

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Filed under getting fit, music, update

No, I’m Not Dead, But I’m Going To Be Away For A While

I’m sorry I haven’t updated this blog in a while, I recently got a new job in addition to the jobs that I already have and getting the schedule and everything sorted has required a lot of time.

That being said I’m also going to Oregon for about a month to train for this new job.

You might be asking yourself, “What does that mean? Why the hell are you even mentioning this?” Because I’m going to be in Oregon for the first time and without my wife I’m actually probably going to be blogging more, but the Project: Iron Man blogs that you guys have been reading like crazy probably won’t be back until August (although I got one more three book arc that I’m trying to get out before I go).

Yeah, this was really a Project: Iron Man update disguised as a general update.

See you soon!

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Late November Update – Released in December – About Toddlers & Tiaras – And Stuff

I was going to do an update, be boring and awful mostly because the last few times I’ve sat down to write I’ve just been completely empty. I’ve had nothing. All my juice has been used working – and that’s a VERY good thing! Things are really kickin’ and I dig it.

And not just for me, but all the people around me too! Sometimes I think the good stuff gets lost in the shuffle, but it’s all there, the signs of cool shit popping up everywhere and I think that this can all be illustrated by the new season of “Toddlers & Tiaras.”

You heard me, “Toddlers & Tiaras.”

Say what you will about the show, the parents on the show, whatever damage you believe the children will have but this is some serious quality television.

And by television I mean high end performance art where the artist is an editor and director and the subject is a focus of glamour that society strives to achieve against any kind of reason.

You might think I’m kidding or trying to be ironic or funny – but I’m dead serious. This show is a microcosm of a society that allows Kardashians to be celebrities and TMZ to be a syndicated hit.

Programmers and studio executives always want to know what’s going to “sell” or “work” in middle America and the cynical of us kind of always knew that, when dealing in lowest common denominators, this is it. Keep it young, dress it up and cover it in so much paint it’s unrecognizable and you have something that people are ready to watch.

As content creators I truly believe that most want to do the work that challenges an audience and is smart and  effects people emotionally…

…but when you need a paycheck suddenly principle and creativity take a backseat to what you can sell and then the self-fulfilling prophesy takes hold and suddenly you are making the very content that just last week you were railing against in your blog.

That last line sounded really biographical but it wasn’t. I was trying to make a point. I’m in a much more satisfying place creatively… which is probably why I’m broke.

All that aside I am looking forward to the rest of this T&T season.

Should we live tweet the next episode?

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under rant, toddlersandtiaras, update

The Last Alphabet Edition of Story Time with Ray!

After months of commentary on Dr. Seuss and his book about the alphabet we have reached the end – Y & Z has been released today and here it is:

I think you can tell that Ray is tired of doing the alphabet. It looks like viewers were too since we’ve seen a bit of a decline in views in the latter half of the alphabet. I can say that we have shot a series of new rants that are WONDERFUL! I’m really looking forward to posting those. If you are a fan of older men getting all cantankerous and grumpy then you’re going to love the new episodes. And if you have stuck through the alphabet I think you’re going to love the new stuff even more!

Now I need to go and study a script, write a script and make sure that funds are moving in my direction.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under Story Time with Ray, update, Wiggy VonSchtick, wiggy webs

I, Literally, Saw A Meat Sack… And Joss Whedon

I have been powering away at a new blog for a few weeks now.  It’s still cookin’, I’m working on my endings since then tend to peter out at the end, but it’s not done so in the mean time I thought it might be a good idea to tell you about other things.  Things like what I saw today while shooting the documentary. We can ignore the fact that I ran into Stan Lee in the parking garage (even though it was frickin’ cool!) because what I saw today was pretty gross and shouldn’t be remembered in the same brain cells.

As you probably already know we’re working on a documentary about plastic surgery and a part of that is filming surgeries. Today we got to see two of the original breast implants from 1983 removed from a woman.

1983!

Twenty-four years!

From what we were told today, and later saw, those old implants were never designed to last that long.  They were intended to be placed for ten years and then replaced – like tires.  At least that’s what we were told. The scary part is that both implants had burst.

That’s bad.

It was kinda’ ok though because her body had formed scar tissue, called encapsulation, around the implant completely containing the leaking silicone.

Except that encapsulation is bad too.

Her body has been fighting the implants and trying to heal for almost thirty years!

When the doctor removed the scar tissue it looked like really thick placenta filled with sand, crumbled egg shells and cottage cheese.  It was awful.  The implant had discolored and the silicone looked like baby poop or diarrhea.

It is relieving to know that modern implants are built to outlive the person they’re in because this was a very unfortunate sight to see.

On a happier note, new “3 Minutes with Curtis & Dean!”

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under 3 minutes with curtis and dean, documentary, new media, plastic surgery, rant, update, video, Wiggy VonSchtick, wiggy webs

December: I may not have been writing, but I was active!

Hey y’all, it’s December 26th and I have been a poor blogger, but I’m not going to waste space complaining about that.  Instead I’m going to wax on about other stuff. 

For example December was SHOCKINGLY BUSY!!!  I can be counted on to be a bit of an exaggerator, it’s a specialty of mine, but I was truly caught off guard by how much activity December tried to contain, and the holidays did nothing to slow it down!  I did a play this month, a Christmas show titled “Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart, But The Very Next Day You Said You Were Gay” for Theater Out in Santa Ana, CA.  I played the only straight guy in the show.  It has been a Christmas tradition for Theatre Out for three years and the show is really funny and a lot of fun!  With any luck it will run again next year!

Business-wise there’s been a lot going on – the hunt for film funding never ends and there have been a lot of in roads made… that I can’t actually talk about until they are finalized.  It’s a bit like the space program, for every successful launch there have to be 100 failures.  The good news is we’re running out of ways to fail, 2010 is looking good.

The holidays, including both Thanksgiving and Christmas were wonderful – quick but wonderful.  Christmas in particular had the same feel to it that the Christmases of the past used to have.  I was a very giddy adult this year and it has set me up really well for the new year.

Now I’m going to go eat and then Rene and I have some stuff to shoot – YouTube stardom here we come!

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Filed under general, update

Geek-A-Tude Update


So I’m getting back into the swing of things and getting my “paint” back on practicing on the remaining unpainted Which Hunters in my Mordheim warband. Is it Greek to you already? No problem, there’s no more “game speak” from here on out, just “art speak” and even that will be at an elementary level.

Half of the fun of playing the games that I play is the “crafty” half where you paint and put together all the toys you’ll eventually play with. After dusting off all my stuff from storage I was met with the rather unfortunate situation where a little over half of my paints were dried out! Yikes! Paint isn’t expensive, but it isn’t free either and when you have to replace over half of a color palette that includes about 80 shades it means that getting back to full takes some time.

In my off hours the last few days (between 9pm and 2am) I’ve had a chance to whip out the brush. The picture at the top of this blog shows my current works in progress. No, not the one on the left, he’s finished and there to remind me of my color choices for this warband, but the two on the right. The center guy is a Which Hunter – think Salem Which Trials, but less tolerant and more trigger happy – and the guy on the right is a bounty hunter. All that aside I was able to finish their faces last night.

As you can see on both the completed Which Hunter and the WIP Which Hunter I’ve gone for very contrasting skin tones so that they look gaunt and pale, like they spend too much time inside torturing prisoners. I also tried to keep the areas around the eyes unusually dark to add to the “crazy stare” appearance. Tunics, weapons and capes will have to wait, however because I don’t have all of those colors yet – close but not quite!

The bounty hunter is a bit different. I still went with high skin tone contrast, but favored healthier looking skin since this is a fella who is probably good at his job as evidenced by his ability to buy food thereby adding to his corpulent appearance. He also has a rather prominent mole on his chin. I’m still trying to figure out how best to show that it is a mole. As it is right now it is a dark mole. I’d put hair on it if I could.

Up next I’ll be painting some war dogs. I have all the colors for those and fur is fun and quick to paint.

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under Games Workshop, geek, mordheim, update, warhammer 40k, which hunters

Casting, Editing and eBay


This last week I have been a busy little beaver! I was casting a print ad for Traveler guitars – it shoots tomorrow – and in perfect Hollywood fashion it came right down to the wire to make sure we had the talent we needed on time and on budget.

Result: Success!

Another project that I’ve been working on – really longer than it should have taken – is the editing of a demo reel for one of my students. It should have only taken a few hours to edit, title and burn the whole thing, but it was shot on DV tape and it took me a week to find someone with a DV deck that wasn’t a full-fledged post house. After all was said and done the video did get transferred and it is sitting ready in the editing computer waiting to be finished. But it isn’t finished yet. It’s a primary goal for Tuesday. Special thanks to Zeke Pinheiro, Rodney Wilson, Scott & Liz Sanford over at Wazza, Inc. for helping me get the video free from its magnetic bonds and to Hannah and her parents for their patience.

Result: Fail! – So far.

Also my eBay sales have been blossoming! I’ve been shipping all of the sold products and should have the final international items sent by Wednesday! The only problem has been putting up new items. I have BOXES of all kinds of stuff waiting to get posted, but I’ve been too busy to take the pictures I need – those photos should be finished by the end of the week. eBay is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Result – Domestic eBay Sales: Success!
Result – International eBay Sales: Pending.
Result – New Posts: Fail!

Now I’m watching “Daisy of Love” and finishing up for the night. Why is this show so damn watchable?!?!?

See you tomorrow!

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Filed under general, update