So, my Sunday and my Monday, two pretty interesting days. Sunday was the big day, the day when we'd all find out who got cast, and for what part. I've never felt so anxious and nervous over anything in my life, which is a good thing, this means that I've found something I really enjoy doing, and it's not just what I'm doing, it's the people I'm doing it with, they make it about a thousand times funner.
Anyway, the cast list was posted last night, and I got cast! However, not as a lead role, but also not as an understudy! I got cast as one of the main characters, the brother of the lead, who's delusional to everything and thinks he's Teddy Roosevelt. Basically, I'm the comical relief character
Our first day of rehearsals was today, and it was ridiculously fun. We did a read through of the first act, and I read all the lines of Teddy, and every single one made both me and everyone else in the theater room laugh, that feeling was so great. I'm now extremely excited to be performing this in front of everybody at the end of October.
The character really matches with me personally, I'm able to change the tone of my voice extremely quickly, and I'm very fun loving and not intimidating. I'm meant to be harmlessly fighting off the normal issues a President of the first decade of the 20th century would have to deal with, such as the Panama canal and Yellow Fever. All in all, it's really fun, I'm really happy with the role.
In other news, my friend recently showed me a band called The Postal Service, now, a lot of you have already heard of them, I'm slow, I don't listen to music unless I find it and actually want to listen to it. But really, they're amazing, and I can't stop listening to them. It's basically the reason there was no Song of the Week, because everything by The Postal Service serves as this week's winner.
I'll be off now, going to listen to them, and play a few games, and maybe research a bit on Teddy Roosevelt. It'll be a great two month-long rehearsal.
I've done a lot of walking in the past two or three days. I haven't blogged in about two days because I wanted to wait until I could accumulate more things to talk about, and, well, here we are!
No better way to start off a blog than with Michael Caine
Anyway, on Friday, I got called back for my audition, which means I did good enough to where the stage manager and the theater teacher thought I had potential, so I stayed at school yesterday until about 6:30, working on several different parts to see if I fit in the play. I think I did well, and the theater teacher told me that I handled what they threw at me with grace, good to hear, but I'm still skeptical as to whether or not it's good enough.
I won't lie, I REALLY want to be in this play in a main role, because it's my last chance to do something like this in front of all of my close friends and family before I head off elsewhere, it'd be great for me. I think that if I'm going to be in the play, I know what role they'd have me playing as, I'm sort of hoping I won't be an understudy, though, because I wouldn't be sure if that means I could perform in front of both the students during school and my family/friends after school.
Regardless, I'll find out my role either tomorrow or on Monday, I'm incredibly anxious over it, but that'll pass once I find out. I'll either be really disappointed (if I don't get a role at all), or I'll be satisfied (if I get a role, but as an understudy), or I'll be extremely excited and happy (if I get a main role). There's probably 80 other emotions, but that's the simplified version for that.
Anyway, moving on. You know they're giving Ash Ketchum an eye color on the new season of Pokemon?
You'll be staring at this picture for at least 10 minutes.
Now, this change threw me off, but you know what? I welcome it. He always had brown eyes (if you watched the anime like I did, you'd notice in certain scenes), but they never actually gave him noticeable irises.
Even if, the new Pokemon season will be....interesting. Brock's gone, officially, they're replacing him with this new guy who's also the first gym leader of that region. Really, that sucks, but we'll be fine. Brock's a great character but the change could be a good thing, they start out fresh to welcome in new gags and all that good stuff.
When I was typing the word "gags", I accidentally mistyped and said "gaga", so by default I had to put a picture of her here.
Anyway, I'm going to rock in my chair anxiously while waiting for the cast-list to be posted. Later.
Today was the big day, and it was an exciting day, too. If you've read any past blogs, you know that I had an audition today for my school play. It was a big step for me since I'm shy and quiet around people I don't know. However, I was able to pull enough guts together to audition along with a couple of friends. As for the audition itself...
My audition was from this movie.
It wasn't perfect. I had it memorized but not characterized completely, so I came up with a character for it last minute with my friend who had a lot more acting experience coaching me, that helped a lot. I stumbled at the start but from there it was smooth sailing. The first thing the Theater teacher said to me then was "Where have you been? You're a Senior?" He liked me, which made me feel great. He told me I had an amazing speaking voice, that I talked like a certain famous something, forgot what it was, and that he I did really well. Is it good enough? Who knows, he seemed enthusiastic but I'm never sure enough of myself to believe that I did something that well on my first try.
Imagine getting a bulls-eye playing this on your first try
Anyway, when I saw both his enthusiastic look and the also enthusiastic look on my friend's face (she's the stage manager, and therefore is the leading student in this play), I realized something. Without her, and all of my other friends from this newer school, I probably wouldn't of made it this far. My Sophomore year, I talked to nobody at all, but the next school was different. They came up to me and asked me to be their friend, I was thrown off by how nice people were. And without those people, who I can now, very happily, call some of the best friends I could ask for, so if you're from Peoria and you're reading this...Thanks, a lot. Every single one of you have helped me.
Picture taken by friend at lunch, my one flowing-hair thanks you all.
Anyway, few other things:
The suspiciously dead cockroach (really, it'd take a real monster to kill a cockroach that big) has mysteriously disappeared from my walking route, any news on it's current whereabouts, tell me ASAP so I can avoid it at all costs.
Seriously, these bitches fly. Even when dead (TRY USING FLY WITH A FAINTED POKEMON, IT WORKS)
I found this morning that my glasses have a series of annoying scratches dead-center of the right lens, leaving a permanent smear in my vision, extremely annoying.
Four girls behind me in my English class have officially titled me as the Smartest Person on Earth, and my teacher noted it as a "wonderful thing to be known as"...Yay?
Not much else to say, tomorrow's the school year's first half day, and later that night I'm taking my mom to meet my French teacher for the first time, should go down well.
Hey kids, it's Mr. H 2.0. Those who actually know me knew of yesterday's dilemma. You see, there's this bitch of a virus that goes around and basically tells your computer that it has viruses, it doesn't actually have viruses, but it still does. If you've watched House or any other medical drama, you've seen cases where the brain makes you believe in things that aren't true, it's the same concept with the virus.
Pictured: Another metaphor for a virus that tricks people into believing something.
Anyway, usually, when I get this virus, I can get rid of it because I got a hold of it quickly. However, this time, it hit my computer when I was asleep, so it gave it all the time in the world to tell the entirety of my computer that it can't run. So, in short, my computer got hypnotized and hurt itself, and forbid me from using any of it's functions. The only thing I could do yesterday was Facebook, and even that was a hassle.
Seriously, fuck this move.
So, in short, I had to reload XP. I was able to get my hands on a clean copy of it and I formatted my computer. All of my music and pictures are now gone, but that's not that big of an issue. I have a list of all my music, and pictures are a dime for thousands of dozens. So that was my yesterday, battling this horrendous virus that decided it was tired of my shit.
Actual picture of me battling the virus
Anyway, today was a normal day. I've become a bit more involved in actually tutoring the beginning French students in my second hour, which is good because it helps me personally refresh on the basics of the language. Also, I wrote a 7-page essay on myself in English. Isn't that insane? She told us last week to write a narrative about ourselves, and we all did. But I went all out and splattered my paper with lead, thus making 7 pages of Mr. H. That's about it.
Oh yeah, French club. I have that every Tuesday. I decided that, "Hey, I do a lot of French stuff", so I ran for president of the club. I won, and adopted a new pseudonym (Vanna White) in the process, great joy.
Pictured: What will become of French club
Well, that's all for now. Tomorrow will be an eventful day as it is my audition. Hopefully it goes well, I've got it memorized, and for the most part, characterized. If it goes well, I get cast in my first play and hopefully it goes off from there. Until then...
You know, it's a school night and I really shouldn't be blogging, but I have to get this off my mind in order for me to sleep. This blog will be less extravagant, it won't have pictures or that much humor.
I just had an eye-opener of a conversation with a good friend of mine, primarily about gay rights, and how they're treated. Point being, I've never had any issues with gay people or what they stand for, and I never will. I support their fight and who they are. But it's so easy to misconstrue what I mean in a topic as delicate as this.
Point is, gay people do suffer. They have to fight for what they love, most people in America don't need to do that unless they screwed something up themselves. But gay people didn't screw anything up at all, that's just who they are. If I were gay, I'd hopefully do the same thing. Horrible things happen to them, because of who they are. I like the underdogs, the people that aren't in control always get my vote, because they deserve it. Unlike the fight against racism, more and more gay people will always come, which means that fighting against it makes you both clueless, insensitive, and unable to see anything of the future.
For me to have anything against gay people would be wrong, as I have family members who are, themselves, gay. Saying I didn't like gay people is like saying I don't like my own family. But I haven't seen the struggles they've gone through, or the ridicule they endured. If I did, maybe I'd be more radical on the subject, rather than just giving a "yes/no" question. Also, I have a few gay friends, some bi, some gay. They're all the nicest people I've ever met, and I don't put adjectives in front of friends, except the usual "best friend".
At this point, it's just me trying to prove that I'm not against gay people, right? Seems that way, after reading what I've typed.
Yes, I support gay rights, I support what they stand for, but what's causing any unsure feelings I have? Truth is, I have absolutely no idea. I was not raised with any opinion on gay people, my parents didn't have anything to say about the subject, because it was never relevant to our lives up until later on when members of my family started coming out. At that point, nothing changed! Meaning that the whole "gay" title, to me, when I was 10 and starting to learn my own way around the "think-for-yourself" world, meant nothing. It just meant you happened to like the same gender, no harm, right?
Usually when voicing an opinion of mine, I'd put a witty twist on how I say it, but I can't here. I have friends and family who could be hurt in the process of my doing that, so I'm personally confused on how to say things.
This MAY be analogous to my opinion on people who are religious. If you're religious, that's fine, I don't care. If you're gay, that's also fine, I really don't care. You as a person is what matters. If you're gay, but you're a dick, I won't like you. Not because you're gay, but because you're a dick (no pun intended, seriously). Well, I need to add in some humor here, I make fun of a certain family member of mine for being gay, and we laugh about it. If you have that sense of humor, you're the leader in this fight for your rights. You're the ones that can convince the world that you, too, deserve what the majority of the world gets. Would I expect that out of every gay person? No, some people have had to really fight whereas the one I joke around with, in my eyes, hasn't.
I don't know, this is hard for me. It's usually not hard for me to voice an opinion but when you think something's at stake, anything can throw you off. I'm unsure of things, and when people are unsure, they say odd things, and sometimes those odd things can hurt people, and for someone like me to hurt someone, it sucks.
In Mr. H's seconds "versus" blog, I'm going to take a look at today's generation of FPS games and their players. I'm going to specifically spotlight the stereotypical angry teenager who has no other concern rather than what their Kill/Death ratio is.
Pictured: Lies
Anyone who knows me and plays video games with me knows my stance on the Xbox 360 and the PS3, I don't play those games because I don't feel as if Microsoft and Sony have the right mindset for video games. Of course, I'll admit that they have some great games like Grand Theft Auto and Prototype, but as a whole, I lost their focus and too fiercely target the inner dragon in the world's 14-year-olds. I always have, and always will be a Nintendo fan. I'll always play their games because I think they're actually moving forward.
I have this shirt
Anyway, what's the reputation that goes with Xbox and PS3 (mostly Xbox)? First-Person shooter (FPS) games, and just FPS games, but the "angry, lazy, no-life, etc." people that play them. Do I believe that EVERYBODY who plays these games fits into these categories? No, not at all, in fact, probably a smaller percentage than people think actually do. Now, I'll cross off anger right away, I don't care what game you're playing, getting angry at video games is surprisingly easy to do. If you've played video games, you've done it. Laziness? Eh, most of the time it's caused completely by the person themselves, not the game. If you don't want your kid slacking off due to video games, take them away. However, if your kid's anything like this guy, I can't help you. No-lifing, that goes with laziness, eat, sleep, breathe video games, don't like it? Take it away.
The question is, why were FPS games chosen to be the stereotypical one? Truth is, all genres have their stereotypes, but none of them branch out further than video gamers themselves. If you have no idea of any video game genre or their stereotypes, I guarantee the one you have or will hear about is the one behind FPS games. Well, look at it this way: When Mario's first platformer game came out in 1985, video games had a squeaky clean image. In mainstream games, there wasn't very much violence, blood, any of that. However, when stuff like Mortal Kombat, Doom, and Wolfenstein 3D came out, parents and politicians threw the biggest bitchfit of the 20th century. Mortal Kombat had things differently, since it was a fighting game, and fighting games already existed prior, and at the time of it's release, it was the only one that had such an excessive amount of gore. However, with Wolfenstiein and Doom, you had guns, full-fledged guns. People don't like guns, kids do, people don't.
Pictured: Evil
We now had an entire genre dedicated to shooting things, violence, and death. As such, when the genre became the most popular around the release of Halo and the first Call of Duty, you know that people were against it were going to talk about it. They had M ratings, and taught your kids how to break pretty much anything with a little throw of your controller.
Wrong type of throw, but it still conveys the same message. (Thanks Andrew)
Anyway, I don't like today's FPS games, I play a game called Soldier Front, which is an older online game that I play primarily to kill time and egg on the easily-upset people on that game. Other than that, I don't play any FPS games regularly. Goldeneye is one of the best games of all time, and Perfect Dark is basically a copy of that.
Copies, that brings up another point. Call of Duty. I hate Call of Duty. Why? Not sure, just do. Sure, if a friend's playing it, I'll play it with them, but I don't like it at all, and I never will. Point being, I think Infinity Ward (company behind it), is in this business for the completely wrong reasons. They're ONLY in it for money. ONLY. I know that every other video game company is in it for the money, too, but most of them at least care about the quality of their games. Now, is Call of Duty bad quality? No, not at all. It's repetitive quality. The 7th Call of Duty game is coming out in November, what are you going to see on it that's new? Maps, guns, and a new storyline. That's it, nothing else. Take a look at my good friend, Mario. Who went from becoming a raccoon, to riding Yoshi, to collecting Power Stars, to hosing down an entire area, and then into fucking space.
DUDE, SPACE.
Now, Halo's finally doing that in their 4th upcoming game, and that's good. I like Halo, they're doing more than just a war and guns, they're doing a war, and guns, in space, in the damn future. Is it that much? No. But it's sure as hell a lot more than what Call of Duty offers me.
Now, back to Call of Duty, around CoD 4 when their online play became flawless, that's when shit hit the fan, and people started realizing that they've just been enslaved (and were okay with it). Call of Duty gives kids that competitiveness to feed their testosterone, both guys and girls. On an every day basis, people need some sort of competition, whether it's with ourselves or with other people, and we usually get that dose without even knowing it. For those that don't, they have Call of Duty. They need to be the best, and they'll do anything to prove that. It's kind of like that person on MySpace who accepts everybody as a friend. A lot of people who play FPS games will do anything to show how highly-skilled they are, usually by some sort of ranking system that they can abuse by taking turns shooting their friends.
Seriously, I hate this game.
I could go on forever about Call of Duty, but I'm done.
Point being, FPS games of today give us the adrenaline that normal activities don't give. Companies know that and milk us for all of our money by reproducing the same game over and over with slightly more features and slightly better graphics, rather than a completely new twist of their own. That's my main quarrel with FPS games, is that they're stale. There's no more imagination in them, they've reached the limit as far as creativity go, so now all they can do is vary that limit as much as possible, but it's such a slim branch that they can't do it well enough to prove to me that they can do it at all.
But in this case, my opinion does not matter at all, the only thing that will conquer FPS games in the gaming world is an even more competitive genre. Not happening
Whatever, I'm done. Expect to see a sequel to this blog, when it's one of your main interests, blogging about this is easy.
I've been coming onto a lot of new songs lately, and so these decisions are getting harder. However, I was able to choose a song this week relatively easy.
Credit goes to my friend Melody for this song.
Song of the week: Chicane feat. Adam Young - MiddleDistanceRunner
I live in god damn Arizona. Rain here is either a breath of fresh air or a sign of an apocalypse. It was unexpected too since most of today has been pretty bland and clear. There's thunder, too. Yeah. In Arizona, storms are fucking SWEEEEEET.
It'd be a crime for me to sleep now since it's raining, so I'll blog. Sound good?
Well, consider this the official announcement that I will be auditioning for the school play on Wednesday (originally Tuesday but I have French club elections that day). I've made this final decision for a few reasons:
Last school year, I kept saying "I might audition", and everyone told me I should do it because they felt I had the right kind of personality
I really want to get more involved in school. I've done a lot more than I usually do, theater teching (hopefully), Cub Links, French club. But it doesn't seem like enough. I need to get my actual name into the yearbook multiple times rather than just my picture. It's my last year, and my last chance.
I want to surprise people. Anyone who doesn't know me, literally doesn't know of me. I don't talk to people I don't know, and the teachers I've just met think of me as a shy, quiet, and collected person. I want to break out of that.
I've got to get over the shyness I have.
I want to try acting
Most importantly: My mom told me today that she admires me for doing this, because she knows of my issues with talking to people. Not only that, I have the monologue, I have it memorized, and I'm getting the characterization down. I've gotten "good lucks" from everybody. If I chickened out now, I'd not only be a coward, but I'd be letting everyone who told me I could do it down. I can't do that.
That's enough about the actual audition. I wanna talk about that monologue I chose (it's a couple posts down, take a look if you haven't yet). Quentin Tarantino is easily the best director there is, lol. Not Steven Spielberg, not Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino. He could convince me to do anything. And as such, he convinced me to audition, because I really love my monologue.
It's so true, it really is. How else would Superman of come up with that persona? That way of thinking? It's so interesting how Tarantino put it into perspective, I don't think I'd of ever been able to make that kind of connection. Now, that has a bad side too, since I have to convey this monologue to the Theater Guild. And when you copy one of the best monologues ever written, they're going to expect a damn good audition. Which is even harsher on me because it's my first time doing ANYTHING related to acting, I have absolutely no experience.
I haven't used this pic yet, so...
Whatever, I'll keep working on this and I'll tell you all how it goes. I told my friend I didn't want the male lead in the play, however that's susceptible to change. If I can get the male lead on my first audition, this could mean something for me. I've tried a few things, this is something completely different for me, and if it leads to something good, it'll end up being one of the more important decisions in my life.
