Some kind of random update
So... a breakdown of where I'm at:
1. I found out that I'm going to be at GVSU until 2012... two years later than expected. Oh well. I can only blame myself. Frankly, it's not that bad. I can spread things out and just get everything done nice and easy. Let's just hope I finish this semester with B's...
2. mat42dr -- the new TV show I'm directing/writing for GVTV -- has it's casting call on the 14th of this month and man I'm nervous/excited. My nervousness is basically fueled by my worry that a) people aren't going to show up to the casting call and b) if people do show, I'm going to be too picky on who plays who in this show. I mean, I know I have until next Fall semester to figure everything out but because I'm me, I'm worrying now. Nonetheless, I am still super excited for this show. I'm really proud of the 6 and a half episodes (I'm in the middle of writing episode 7) I have done and since my goal is to write 18 episodes (3 seasons of 6 episodes), this is going to be a lot of fun.
3. As always, I'm looking for more work. I have some side projects that, as of yesterday, will be taking up my time this summer, but more work = more money = my life easier. Of course, not having a car sucks... My hopes for this summer are to find a second job in Allendale and maybe make enough money to buy a cheap used car to get me by for the next 2-3 years. Here's hoping!
4. C2E2 in Chicago is next week. I'm heading out to that with the GVSU Comic Book Club. Flipping Alex Ross, Daniel Way, Greg Pak and numerous other writers and artists are going to be there which basically means I'm going to be peeing my pants with excitement for three days straight. That's going to be fun.
5. And the final big thing is in May. Russ Terbeek's wedding. My best friend is getting married and I'm going out to Arizona to be his best man for the occasion. It's going to be expensive, but damn it all it's going to be fun. May 26, 2010. Hell yes.
And yeah. I don't think there's that much more going on. Comics are always on my mind and watching a good TV show or two is fun... I finished Buffy, need to watch Angel, I'm on season 4 of Supernatural... anyone have any good suggestions? (I've seen Firefly, Reaper, Spaced... and a bunch others)
Getting involved
I've been at GVSU for three and a half years now. It's really crazy to think about for me. Three and a half years of knowledge, partying, friends, enemies, good times, and bad times. So much stuff.
Although the main goal of going to college is to ultimately get a degree in something and use that degree to get some high paying job and blah blah blah, I have to say that, when it comes down to it, getting involved outside of academics was the best choice I could have ever made at GVSU.
Three fantastic things have come out of me getting involved:
- I've met and kept many great friends
- I've created something I am overly proud of despite it's many flaws
- That would be my TV show, 'Jeff & Mike Write A Comic Book'
- I've discovered how much I like to talk to groups of people, especially those I'm comfortable with
Haunted Forest
This past week I got a call (or text, I don't remember) from my buddy Brian about helping out in a Haunted Forest up on Belding, MI, with a group from GVSU--the Capoeira Mandinga group. I agreed seeing that I was flat broke from my 21st birthday celebration the weekend before in Chicago and so Saturday I went out to Belding and the epic began.
We arrived and it was cold. It looked like it was going to rain and man was I not dressed to be out in the cold and/or rain for five hours. Luckily, they provided a nice warm tent for us to hang out in until 7pm and some free brats as well.
Around 7 Brian, Duncan (a mutual friend of ours) and I were assigned costumes. Brian was a werewolf, I was a zombie, and Duncan got the most bad ass part: the crazy Doctor. We donned our costumes and took a tour of the 'forest' while there was still daylight and eventually were assigned our spots to creep people out.
8:30pm came and we took our places and waited for groups of people to come through. Being a zombie, I was in a ruined and dug up graveyard, in an open coffin--totally Dracula style. Let me just say that two hours in a casket and moving around for 30 minutes all night had me freezing my hands and feet off. I almost ditched the whole thing I was so damn cold, but I did managed to scare a few people by leaping out of the near-darkness of the coffin.
At 11:15pm they ended the whole ordeal and thanked us all graciously. I pulled my plastic mask/wig off and I swear a liter of condensation fell off the mask and onto my hand. It was ridiculous. The best part of the night was when the event leader, Cindy, begged our friend Duncan to come back to play the Doctor in the 'forest' because he was so good. Mind you, Duncan is a theatre major at Aquinas and basically knows how to act like an insane person. I wish I had seen him in action.
All in all, it was a great night despite being utterly angry at the cold of the coffin/graveyard I was in. I had fun.
(the links to the costumes above are the actual costumes we wore.)
Things have been going down
Since my last update (almost a month ago) things have been going down.
A student at GVSU was shot on accident or something--no one really knows--I've gone unprotected on Twitter, I asked for more hours at my new job, debt is slowly consuming me, I've started to drink more water, I've been on a Kanye West binge, I've switched Twitter clients on my Mac (from Twitterrific to Lounge), I've started trimming my comic solicitations (that happened today!), and the biggest of them all: Jeff & Mike Write A Comic Book has begun shooting.
Let's talk about that last one a bit more. So! After GVSU's spring break I went to the GVTV meeting that Wednesday and after finding out my producer and (former) director were unavailable to shoot that weekend and was feeling kind of crappy about the show. It didn't seem to be going anywhere. So many delays with people and I figured it was never going to get aired. Anyways, at the GVTV meeting I mentioned that we were delayed due to people's availablity John Tremblay jumped on top of things. We had our location, we had our actors--well, two of four--and all was ready to shoot so a crew was assembled on the spot. It was then that I managed to the courage to ask one of the members of the GVTV club to be "Frenemy" on the show. I had been wimping out for the last two weeks to do so and as soon as I asked him he immediately said yes. So we were set. All we needed was the girl character: "Andrea."
After the GVTV meeting I was so excited for the show I decided to treat Dallas and Jeff to some 'late nite' food at the Main St. Pub just off campus. We sat down and hung out for a bit and Jeff and I explained our show to a bunch of Jeff's friends who we ended up sitting with and for some reason this girl, her name is Ashley, was like, "If you guys ever need any help, let me know," to which I asked if she wanted to play "Andrea" on the show. She agreed and I almost jumped ten feet in the air because, hey!, we managed to get our whole cast set in one effing day!
So our first day of shooting was planned for that Saturday (March 14 for reference) with the new crew (John Tremblay, Adam Burl, Ryan Smith, Jon Sessions, and Randy Strobl) and the whole cast (Jeff, Randy, Ashley, and myself). Ashley ended up not even being needed, so I sent her home, but after about four hours of shooting, Randy was taking control of the directing and I just threw it out there that we really didn't have a director and if he wanted the position, it was his to take. Again, he immediately said yes. All of the awesomeness goes to John Sessions for the mastery on his part that day. After six hours of shooting we packed things up and it was an incredible day.
This past weekend (the 21st) we found out we had to re-shoot almost all of what we shot the previous weekend due to some lighting issues and some mis-matching with a camera that no one could predict--which was no problem at all. We started shooting at about 1:30pm and kept on going until about 7. We were only a three piece crew after Greg Farmer--our producer--showed up then after her left, Leah Vukovich showed up to save the day. All in all, we filmed a few different scenes and, according to the crew, everything looked a lot better and Jeff and I were pretty good as well. All in all I was satisfied with everything we got done. I'm so pumped for filming the rest of the show.. which will be taking place at Nick & Rob's. ha!
From how things are going, the show will be airing next semester (September '09). I'm excited to see how ridiculous it all looks on screen.
I just pitched a TV show
Yea. That's right. I pitched a TV show to GVTV, the on-campus TV network. I don't know what came over me to do this, but I just did it.
The show is called "Jeff & Mike Write a Comic Book" and guess what it's about? My friend Jeff and I writing a comic book. But it's mainly about our really wacky ideas for characters and such with a plot that influences our thoughts and all sorts of awesomeness.
So I pitched it, explained some basic plot, got some questions asked of me about the show and yeah. What was the best part was that I made all four of the judges laugh. That boosted me up like none other. So, I ended up explaining things and got off stage. Leading up to my pitch, I was fucking nervous. I mean, seeing 3 other people present their shows relieved my nervousnes, but seeing them laugh just eased all nervousness.
After the whole "Pitch Your Show To GVTV" meeting, I left and as I was heading towards the stairs to go upstairs in Kirkhof when one of the judges came running after me and she tapped me on the shoulder and she told me she "loved" my script I gave the judges and that she'd fight for my show.
Could I be any more excited? Just wow. I know I probably didn't have the best show idea, but the fact that one of the judges liked my story just made me happy. Here's to hoping I get seriously considered...
Apples & Oranges first meeting of the year
Well, it's that time of year again; time for me to be the big man and head up the Apples & Oranges group for GVSU. Apples & Oranges, in case you didn't know, is the Apple User Group for Grand Valley which I am president of.
Last night we had our first meeting and it was pretty good. I bought some ice cream chips and pop and at about 8:45pm, I ended up at the meeting. The usual suspects (ie. Nick, Rob and Beckey) showed up with probably 10 more new people along with our advisor, Eric. Jeff, my house-mate was there for the free food and pop, and Dallas and Samantha showed up for a moment. From how I saw it, it was actually a pretty damn good turn out. I got e-mails from two or three other people who wanted to be there but were either busy or just forgot, so I see that as a good sign for next week's meeting.
This week, I kind of stood around like a professor and tried to help people with their Apple issues by talking them through the process. We got onto som crazy topics like torrents, converting movies for your iPod and ripping music from your iPod (specifically the iPod Touch, ugh). Nick and Rob had comments here and there and by the end I was sitting down trying to fix Mail problems which sucked (I absolutely hate Mail).
Outside of having no structure and me not having my damn mini-DVI to VGA adapter to show people how to do things on the projector, it was a pretty good meeting. Next week I'll have to take a more commanding lead and keep the discussions focused. We drifted a lot.. but I'm not going to go further than that. As I said, next week will have to be more focused.
I have plans to show off how to rip music off of your iPod (specifically the iTouch, but also any other iPod) as well as maybe showing how to transfer your iTunes library. Nick wanted to show off Transmission and how to use BitTorrent so we may have 2 mini-meetings going on. After next week I want to definitely show people how to use Handbrake and iSquint, then maybe one day I'll show off the greatness that is Quicksilver. All in good time though.
Here's to hoping next week is just as successful as this week.
Moving — Day 1
Hey look, my stuff is packed up
So, I'm in the process of moving right now. Currently I'm living in an apartment in Allendale, MI, with my buddy Nick Nelson and have been doing so since the end of April. It's been fun.
The new house I'm moving to is in Allendale as well, although a bit further into the actual city. It's not such a bad distance from GVSU (probably around 4 miles) so biking to class is an option for the upcoming school year which is pretty cool--if I can buy a bike or get one donated to me. In the meantime I'll be driving back and forth every day, but it's not so bad.
As I said, I'm in the process of moving so today I plan on moving some boxes over with things I don't need at the apartment--computer parts/accessories, books, DVDs, etc.--and somehow I plan on pulling some money out of my ass to pay nt only the $950 for this semester, but also the $400 security deposit. Sadly this vast amount of cash is putting Dallas on the brim wondering if she'll be able to afford living at this house with me. We'll see how that pans out this coming weekend...
Now, I'm excited to be living in this new house but like any house, it's going to have it's problems... For one, the house apparently is prone to flood but only if the electricity is out... so let's hope that never happens.
This of course brings up the question of which room I want to live in and I have three options--all have closets mind you:
- Upstairs in a room that gets sun all day thus tends to be hot, has stained/not fun carpet, and has 1 big window. This is probably the smallest room.
- Downstairs in a room with no carpet, just cement floor, has 1 medium sized window, a cool mini-entertainment center built into the wall, one wall has a ledge to stack movies/books/etc and the room tends to pool small amounts of condensation on the floor every so often. Probably the middle-sized room.
- The biggest room, has a ledge on 2 walls for books/movies/etc., has tiled floor, 2 medium sized windows, a light in the closet, has no tv access (the other two do), and tends to flood the least if there is a flood.
So those are my options. Let me say that this house was left in a terrible state by it's previous inhabitants so all of the problems with the rooms were caused by those who lived their last... also the basement flooded this past spring thus ruining all of the carpet in the basement, so that's a factor.
I'm just waiting on Dallas to see if she will be able to live at this house... she claims she can't afford it, but that's so not true. I know she's just worried about the possibility of not having enough money which is understandable, but as of three days ago she was all for living at this house whereas now she isn't... I'll see how this weekend goes after I move in and she sees the house and I'm hoping she'll change her mind once she sees the house and all that jazz.
