Well, I tried to do a little stop mo the other day. Didn't turn out very well. My joints started to ache in the middle of shooting it, so I kept accidentally bumping the camera. Sunday I was down all day with a migraine, and yesterday I was trying to catch up from being out Sunday, so I have been neglectful in my posting duties.

Today I have a job interview, so cross your fingers and hope for the best. Then I plan on coming back here and seeing what I can salvage from the audio I recorded and see if I can get something to happen with it.

The Douglas Adams Video Contest is still taking votes, so if you would be so kind, please go over there and vote highly for me. I keep slipping to #2, (insert poop joke here), and would like to stay at #1 (more sanitary that way).

I have got to go get ready for my interview. Tonight I will give an update on my RL-RPG points and hopefully have some footage - maybe- to post.

Here is a pic from the one I tried to accomplish Saturday:

Yup...it was a short 20 seconds of Mr. Snail encountering the Dalek and running away from it. Probably not worth watching, even if it was steadier. I have a weird sense of humor.

As I have been working on gaining XP points for my RL-RPG, one of the things I have been researching is storytelling styles. This has really fascinated me. There seem to be as many styles as there are people who tell stories. There are basic similarities, but each one has their own spin and thier own way of doing things.

Tonight I listened to the story The Mayor of Mitchell garden told by Danny Lobell for the Risk! podcast. This was a story about his time working at a retirement home as the person who kept tabs on the kosher kitchen. I liked his style of storytelling, though I don't know that I would adopt it for myself. This story was more of a fond recollection story than one that had a point or a moral to it. He told it well, and you could tell in his voice that he really did care for those people. That is what made the story enjoyable for me. I liked that instead of describing the people, as in how they dressed, what color hair they had, etc, he told about who they were as people- the mean old man, the WW11 veteran. He helped us see them through the stories they told him and the things they did. He told enough detail without overburdening you with too much flowery speech. I like flowery speech, don't get me wrong. But like everything, flowery speech has a time and a place. I also liked how it felt firmed up without feeling rehearsed. It didn't feel like he was telling the story for the millionth time, though that might have been the case.

It also didn't feel like he was reading. One thing that brings me out of a story anyone is telling is when it is stilted and sounds like it is being read. Even if someone is reading a story to me, I want it to sound like they are talking to me, not reading to me. In storytelling that feels very unprepared and unprofessional. If you are going to do this you need to learn how to go without the notes. Yes, that does sound harsh. But storytelling is a performance art. If that person was a professional musician we would expect them to take hours and hours to practice the piece, to be able to play it without stumbling, or at least be familiar and comfortable enough with the piece to be able to hide stumbles. We forgive them the music on the stand, but still expect a practiced performance. I recently listened to a story telling podcast where all of the storytellers (supposed professionals) sounded stilted and like they were reading to a child. I might give them a few more episodes, but seriously, don't present them as practiced if they are not. I can forgive a newbie or someone still getting their feet under them to struggle with that still, but someone who should know better? I will expect no less of myself, which is why I will be recording myself telling stories and listening to them. I have not yet found anywhere in Eugene that does this kind of storytelling. They do children's storytelling at the library on some Saturday mornings, but that is all I have been able to find. Maybe after I get myself going a bit more I will see about possibly organizing a group here.

OK, that is enough about that for now. I spent my hour listening and analyzing. It looks like the voting is still going on at the Douglas Adams Video Contest, so if you feel up to going over there and giving me a vote or two I would appreciate it. The judges will compile a long list of final candidates on April 30th. I am guessing that maybe that is the voting deadline? The rules are really too ambiguous. So if you go there and can vote, please do. If you go there and you can't vote, well, I appreciate the support.

If you have been around a while, you know that I created a little stop mo video for the Douglas Adams Video Contest. The rules are a tad ambiguous. As it doesn't really list a date on which voting ends, but it does list a deadline date for April 15th (today), I have been assuming voting ended today. Still not clear on that point, but it looks like they are still allowing votes. I worked really hard on this project, and I keep seeing it slip to the #2 spot. This is heartbreaking for me.

SO - If you have time today (or several times today) PLEASE go by and vote for me. Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on top? I need a win terribly bad right now. Not a "win" win, but something that feels like a win.

I don't even know if I can win this thing for real. There is no way I will be able to afford to be at the Towel day event in the UK. As much as I really, really want to, there is no way. I don't even have a passport. There is nothing in the rules that say the winners have to attend, but it doesn't say you don't have to be there either. The way my luck has been going lately, even if I do win they will say I have to be there to win and I will be cut out of the running. And that's fine. It is their right to do so (or not do so - crossing fingers). So for some odd reason, just in case this happens, I have put more weight on the page votes than in the final announcement.

So please...help me feel like a winner. Help me prove to the fear monster that it is a lying sack of shit. Help me accomplish something that I can tell people I did with pride, instead of a mumbled "Oh, I entered". You will make a fat nerd very very happy.

Wow. Time passes quickly sometimes. I have spent so much time trying to find an income of ANY type and trying to reorganize my life that I I totally lost track of time. It is Friday already. Sheesh. I have done nothing regarding stop motion. I have done nothing regarding crafty things. However, I do have a more solid plan, which I suppose is good. Below is a sketch of my plan. I am putting it here mainly so I have it down somewhere public so I feel more inclined to hold myself accountable, but also so those who want to can egg me on. If you don't care, feel free to skip the rest of this post.

EXCEPT - Before you leave take a minute to go to the Douglas Adams Tribute Video Contest and give me a vote or two. Only 2 more days until the contest is over, then I will post it in my video section. Now you can go. :)

Writing: My goal is to get better at writing and to get something good enough to publish. In order to do that, I need to be writing every day. I need to put myself out there. I need someone to tell me when I am on target, but be gentle with me when I am not. My previous experiences with writer's groups have not been pleasant. So instead, I have signed up with YMI Doing This. My goal is to have something post worthy every Friday. As I just decided this yesterday, I have nothing to put there yet. That will be next Friday's goal. Every time I spend an hour writing on something I am giving myself 2 experience points. An additional 1o XP will be awarded every time I actually post something. Every 500 points I will raise an experience level. So right now I am a Level One Writer. I am not counting writing blog posts or writing scripts. This is strictly writing to be read.

Fitness: Let's face it...I need to lose weight. A lot of it. I am so out of shape it is sad. I have never been skinny, but the last 5 years I have had at least one major physical disaster a year (sometimes 2), which has precluded me from exercise. It feels like I just get to the point where I CAN do stuff again when I injure myself again. I hate exercising in the traditional sense. It is boring. Gym workouts? It is hard to find the motivation for those. I do have a pedal thingy I bought myself last year, thinking I was going to use it and haven't. I LOVE to go hiking and canoeing and repelling and other things like that. Those all take money and transportation, neither of which I have at the moment.  So my fitness goal is to ride the pedal thingy for an hour a day and walk at least 2 miles a day.  I used to think nothing of walking 7 miles to get to class. Now that I have a phone that allows me to play mp3's, I can load up on podcasts, audio books and music. That should make both more endurable for me. I am giving myself 2 experience points for every day I do the pedal thingy and 2 points for every mile I walk in one go. For every pound I lose I am giving myself 10 XP.

My diet isn't that bad. I eat lots of fresh fruits and veggies, mainly because I like them. I don't like the taste of salt, so most snack foods are out. I drink 32-64 oz of water a day. The worst I do is coffee, tea, and Taco Bell. Taco Bell isn't even that bad. I get their $2 meal, which includes a chicken burrito and a soda and a bag of Doritos that usually gets stored for when I don't have grocery money. I have to walk 1/2 a mile to get there and 1/2 a mile back, so I figure if I don't do it too often (usually once or twice a week) I am ok. So right now I am a Level One Fitness.

Creativity: One of the goals I have is to be creative with other creative people. I don't get out much. I can't afford to go anywhere, even by bus. I get so isolated it hurts at times. I forget the the surge of adrenaline I get when one of my ideas sparks someone else's imagination, and visa versa, when planning something fun to create and what to do with it. One of my problems is I feel like a creative fraud. I am a creative person, but I am not as creative as some people. Which will always be the case. There is always someone more WHATEVER than you. So my goal is to connect with someone creatively every day. I have bookmarked several blogs and message boards on which I can interact with others like me, even though I can't get anywhere. I award myself 1 xp for each blog response, and 1 xp for each message board interaction. If I actually create something with someone else, I will award myself 10 XP. So I am Level One Creative right now.

Music: I love to sing and play music. I used to perform it all the time. I never had stage fright growing up. It was a foreign concept to me. Now that I have had a few really bad life experiences behind me and my confidence in myself is shot it plagues me. Sometimes to the point of wanting to crawl under my bed and live there for the rest of my life. But I love to sing and perform. I want to do that again. I took voice lessons for a while, and I was starting to get over it. It has been over a year now since i last had the opportunity to perform in public, and I am almost back to square one. My goal with music is to write, arrange and perform again. So for every hour I spend practicing I get 1 XP, every hour I spend writing music I get 1 XP, and every hour I spend arranging I get 1 XP. It may seem low, but doing it and doing it a lot is the only thing that is going to make it better. If I get too many points for doing something small I will do it less. So in a way it is a motivator. I hope, anyway. Then my goal is to record 1 song a week on my computer and post it here. I will give myself 10 XP for every song I record and 10 XP for every one I post. Ok, so Level One Bard.

Storytelling: Ever since I was a little kid I have always been into storytelling. When I was little, I remember sitting with my sister, best friend and her sister telling stories ab out the worst babysitter in the world that we used to have. Well, we didn't, it was all made up, but I loved seeing the looks on their faces when I was telling about how I escaped her evil punishments by climbing into the attic (which me never had) and acrobatting from beam to beam. The more I told those stories, the more elaborate they became. And the more believable they became. It was FUN. I used to love to tell stories to anyone who would listen. I never did get to the point of performing though. As an adult, my interest in storytelling has been rekindled, thanks to things like Kevin Allison's Risk! podcast. I have found I prefer stories that are true ( or mostly true), or at least told as if the story happened to the storyteller. Though traditional Fairytale/folk story storytelling is ok too, I prefer it when it is more of a first person POV. I want to get to a point where I can do this professionally. So I set goals for myself. Every day I am going to spend time on one story. Not writing it, yet, but listening to others tell them. I will take that story and assess it. Did I like it? Why or why not? Was it the way it was presented, or the words that were being used? For every story I listen to I will give myself 1 XP, and every completed written evaluation I will give myself 5 XP. When I get to the writing part, I will give myself 10 XP for completed written story, 10 XP for recording it and posting it, and 20 XP if I perform it. So Level One Storyteller.

Technology: So the last category (I PROMISE) is technology. I just graduated with my Computer Networking Degree. and yet, as I don't really use it every day I feel like I don't know jack shit. Also, as I haven't ever done any job in the technology field, I am not getting any offers for jobs using my degree. So my goal is to spend 1 hour every day reviewing technology. I will choose a concept I have already learned and review it, I will check tech blogs and see what is new, I will test myself to see if I remember stuff I already learned in school. I will also write about it, as regurgitation is the best way to solidify things. So 1 XP for every hour of review, plus 1 XP for every 30 minutes spent on blogs and news sites and 1 XP for every piece I write on technology. And 10 XP if I  publish it here or on YMI. So Level One Technonerd.

I suppose I could create a structure for my employment search, but I am having a hard time doing that. there really isn't anything measurable as far as results for that. Either people want to hire me or they don't. No amount of exertion is going to change their minds. I can set a goal of at least 5 applications a day (which I do) and time searching, but I feel like that would be setting myself up for failure. With all the other categories I will be able to see myself getting better. With employment, either it happens or it don't. It is more likely to happen if I do those things, but the outcome is completely out of my control. I can easily see myself getting depressed and sullen if I keep track of how much I have failed in getting a job. Employment is a major goal for me but it will have to be something I just do, not something I measure. For my sanity's sake.

From time to time I will post my scores. I am working on making a graphic that illustrates my XP points and levels in each category. If I get it done today I will post it here as an edit.

Thanks for stickin with me on this LONG and BORING post. :)

EDIT: So here is my lame ass attempt at making a graphic for my progress. I have never made one in GIMP before, and after several hours of not getting what I want decided this one is good enough. Maybe by next XP update I will have a better one.

Wow. Setting up the RL-RPG is not as easy as I thought it would be. I know what I want, but the goals I have are not conducive to the format presented. I have spent the last couple of days trying to figure it out. I mainly just need to figure a way to word it so that I can attach mini-goals so I can set up an XP system. Par example, one of my goals is to become gainfully employed. How exactly does one create steps that are measurable? All I can do is what I have been doing, namely throwing my resume and applications around until someone decides to call me back. Despite what they tell you, contacting companies you want to work for even if they don't have any jobs posted is totally not ok. I have temped in many HR offices. It bugs the shit out of them. They don't have time to do their normal jobs AND answer 400 calls from people begging to be employed. It is right up there with applying for a job you are obviously not even close to being qualified to do. And if you happen to catch them on a bad day, they might just remember your name and the irritation you caused and it might effect employment possibilities with them in the future.

But I ramble. :)

I haven't done much to forward the progress of the next video. The past couple of days has been consumed by the RL-RPG and trying to find a job. I walked to the grocery store and got some much needed fresh vegetables. I feel a lot better and less hungry now.

OK, before I go back to job hunting, just a reminder that there are ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT IN THE Douglas Adams Video Tribute Contest. Yup, this thing is almost over. And now there are 11 videos up there, so it is even more important to throw a few more votes my way. Then I will stop bugging everyone around me. Unless I win (or heaven forbid place 2nd or 3rd). Then I will be saying "Hey everybody! This video won a contest!!" And I'll be shoving the actual video in people's faces instead of the link to the contest. But I promise not to be mean about it.