Month: March 2007

My IT department sent out an email about DST this weekend. In there were instructions on how to verify that your PC has received the patches.

One of the statements in the email I found funny…

“If, for example, your meeting should occur at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, it will now show as 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday. This would indicate your Outlook has been correctly patched. “

So this would lead me to believe that because we went to DST, then all my meetings get pushed by an hour.

HEH.

I don’t fully understand why we use DST to begin with. I understand the main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called “Summer Time” in many places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Sounds good enough. I don’t see why I have to change my clock to make better use of my time. I understand the argument that we save on energy usage, but it still all seems silly to me.

I will very likely never go to Hollywood.

That much is clear. I have put down roots in order to provide a small town upbringing for my son. BUT, I want to keep acting.

A year ago, I joined the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Once you’re in SAG, you can no longer do non-SAG work. I am learning that 95% of the films and pilots filming in the DC area are Non-SAG. Additionally, most commercials are Non-SAG. If I go to NY or LA, then I NEED to be in SAG.

I have found something called “financial core” – a court decision that allows me to quit the Union, but keeps me eligible for both SAG and non-SAG work. If I ever go to LA, it will likely keep me blacklisted. In DC, it means I will work a LOT (like I did last year).

So, declaring “financial core” will anger SAG, put me on the outs with the 10% of DC actors who do mostly training videos and extra work – but ALL the casting agents will likely work with me.

I respect the Union, I don’t want to undercut the Union. BUT, I am no longer being called for anything except extra work, and I’m turning down independent films all the time, because I refuse to break the Union rules. Doing this will likely mean giving up the dream of going to LA, but that seems likely anyway.

Any thoughts?

Here’s today’s list of 5 Things I Wished I’d Known Years Ago:

1. Albert Einstein once said the most powerful force he had ever discovered was compound interest. I wish I’d put $50 a month into the stock market from the age of 15 onward. I’d have $2 million at retirement age. As it is, to reach the same goal with my meager savings at age 34, I need to contribute ten times that much, or else rustle up a $50,000 investment to get back on track.
2. Google would multiply the value of its stock 1500% in the first few years after its initial public offering.
3. Undergraduate college is a waste for most people. It gives them a piece of paper which basically says “this person isn’t a complete moron”. While that may be valuable in jobs where complete morons are in the habit of applying for them, if you really want to be successful, teach yourself how to do what you want to do or get a mentor in the field. A lot of careers require degrees — for that “complete moron” reason, above — so if you need a degree to do the job you want, don’t stress out about your undergraduate years. Have as much fun as is humanly possible in your last few years without obligations before reality gets a hold on you. (Specialized graduate programs are often another matter.)
4. People who make friends with you in order to sell you something aren’t your friends. In rare cases, they may become your friends, but in most cases, you are just a piece of meat with a credit card to them. Watch for this with calls from people you barely know, relatives you aren’t close with, and neighbors who could just walk over to talk rather than calling you.
5. Door-to-door salesmen and telemarketers are abusing your expectation of friendship and/or the arrival of good things with a door knock or phone call. They are exploiting you, and you do not owe them any courtesy. That said, they are people with one of the worst, creepiest, most soul-sucking jobs on the planet; be nice to them, but turn them down in the strongest manner you think is appropriate.
6. Limited-time offers… aren’t. There will always be another sale. There will always be another discount. If someone ever tells you that you must decide now or else the offer is rescinded, substitute whatever they are saying to you with “I am trying to cloud your judgment in order to make a sale and saddle you with something you probably don’t want at a price you cannot afford.”
7. I don’t predict stuff well, nor do I track well without an external means of tracking such as a notebook or computer program. Avoid predictions of expected time or how long a list is supposed to be, because I’ll probably be wrong.

We have a PC that we use just for the kids. They are able to play their games and access the internet from it. I use a wireless USB device about the size of a thumb drive to allow them access to the home network (internet). This way the wife and I can control when they access the internet by either letting them have the USB device to plug into thier machine. A little while ago, there was a error that corrupted the AV software and for some reason it no longer likes to recognize the Wireless USB device. I have tried a few different things to try to get it back on the NET, but have had no success.

The solution I am going with is to blow their box and reload the OS and such. Seems kind of extreme but without spending gobs of time on it I think it will be a easy enough solution. While doing my morning reading today i came across an interesting linux based OS. it is called EDUBUNTU. Not sure if anyone has heard of this or not. It seems pretty dynamic and customizable.

Does anyone have experience with this or one of it’s sister OS’s? I have to do some more reading, but I am curious how the kids WIN based games will cooperate with this OS.

Due to database corruption in a number of old blog entries and comments, I will be working on the web site this weekend. The chances are good there will be several hours of downtime.

Just giving you a heads-up in case you wonder where the site went this Saturday or Sunday!

–Matt