Resolution Update

I have been planning my Christmas holidays this week and it got me thinking about my New Year's resolutions. The resolution I shared on this blog was to write reviews about the books and movies I watch on a blog. The goal was 3 a month, I may have started that way but it has now become 1 a month. Part of the reason for this is I found I prefer to write book reviews. Probably because I know most of the movies I choose to watch will be reviewed by a bunch of other people. Also I am bad at synopsi. I prefer to just say what I liked or didn't. I may continue to review popular movies but with a copied synopsis or skip straight to my opinion.

Thoughts?

Happy Day

I have been feeling great lately. I have had a couple really good days in a row. I like where I live. there is no drama between my roommate and I. I don't hate my job. It is snowing. I am getting paid enough to live and start paying back my student loans. I have things to do during the week outside of work. Now I just need friends to hangout with on days off.

Music

I love music, classical, soundtrack, classic, retro. I listen to music as much as possible.

I have just joined a community band. I am so excited to be MAKING music again. Band class was awesome in high school and I have missed playing music, in parts, in a group, since I graduated. It has only been a week but it is really good so far. Meeting new people is a bonus. The music selections are varied and so are the range of instruments. I am looking forward to next week when everyone is no longer sight reading the music and we can work on becoming a cohesive group. I look forward to regaining the level of skill I had in highschool. I hadn't practiced sax at least 4 years before this so I have a lot of practicing to do now to keep up. I am so thankful that my job allows me the time to do this.

Quitting

I recently handed in my resignation because I got a better job. I was amazed at how easy it was. Is it normally that painless? My previous 2 jobs were nightmares to quit. The bosses didn't believe I was leaving, they begged me to stay and wouldn't accept no for an answer. This time I hand in my notice and the boss asks why, I say I got a new job and they accept it at that. I was dreading this but it really wasn't that bad and most of my colleagues are happy for me.

I start my new job the day after I have to move out of my place. I really hope I have the energy to be excited, both about moving and about the new job. I am a bit stressed because everything is happening at once but both are changes for the better.

Canada Day

Hello

Canada day is a bigger deal this year because it is the 150th anniversary of Canada becoming a country. So yesterday I made this.

What's next?

Well, I quit my job. I have made pizza for just over a year and it is time for a change. However, I do not have a new job yet. I have applied to probably 80 jobs in 2 days. I have had a few interviews so far, but no job offers.

Meanwhile, I have been learning how to screen print t-shirts. Soon I will be selling t-shirts on my Etsy page, ThisLittlePiggyCo . I know I have enough t-shirts without making my own, but I had to test it somehow.

New Year's resolutions

First on a side note:

Good news! My fingers are cold!
At work I am constantly working with chilled and frozen food, also it is winter, therefore my fingers get very cold. Before the holidays my fingertips no longer felt cold, they would just start hurting and I knew it was time to stop and warm up. I was seriously worried about nerve damage, but after the break I now feel cold again. No permanent damage.

Back on topic:

This year instead of making our own resolutions half-heartedly just to say we made one, my family made resolutions for each other. This made everyone really think about what would be a challenge or benefit for another person. I now have 3 resolutions this way. One of my resolutions was to be productive about the books I read and movies I watch by starting a review blog. Right now it only has one entry but you can find it here.

Thanks for reading! : )

My Summer

I realized I have terrible titles for posts. Oh well.

I am still making pizza. I did get another film job, not paid but it should actually go somewhere beyond online festivals. The script won money to be produced and there is a name attatched. A famous in Canada, not Hollywood, name but that's cool. I joined the team as a set decorator so this will count as experience toward union work. Unfortunately I only joined a week before the shoot so I was unprepared on the day. Everything worked and now I know some more questions I need to ask before the shoot day.

Other than this awesome weekend filming I have been doing a lot of reading because my room is so hot my laptop repeatedly overheats. I havn't done much more for my Etsy shop because of that.

The library now has instruments to borrow. My goal for the summer was to learn a new instrument. I finally got a ukelele this week and after and hour realized I need something between ukelele and a guitar so my fingers actually fit the frets properly.

Summer is nearly over and my holidays was 3 days off from pizza in a row so I could help my parents move into their new house. Christmas things are in Micheals and everywhere else has Halloween stuff out. School hasn't started yet and I can no longer buy freezies from dollar stores :(

Adult summers suck

News

I am now making pizza as I try to get film jobs.

I had my first paid film job! I was a PA/ "B" Camera Operator for a series of interviews. The company was from the US so I got paid in American money. With the low dollar right now it was like getting paid extra!

I started an Etsy store. ThisLittlePigCo. I like doing stuff in Illustrator so right now it is just colouring pages. No sales yet so feel free to browse!

I seem to be using a lot of exclamation points in this post. I guess I am just excited.

Hello

 The new year is under way and I am still jobless, never mind a career. School was supposed to help get a job but it doesn't seem to be working. I have been out of school for a year and a half and have no job.

Over the holidays I decided that since nobody seems to want me to work for them I would have to find a way to work for myself. I still have not found the niche in which I could do this but it is something simmering in my mind as I continue to ask people to hire me. I have gotten to the interview stage a few times but mostly I am waiting for people to acknowledge my application.

As I wait I have been reading a lot and watching movies and TV shows. I am in the middle of "His Dark Materials" the Golden Compass series. I am keeping up with the new episodes of the super hero TV shows. "MARVEL's Agent Carter" is my favourite right now.

Now

Wow I haven't written here in a long time.

Life update:

I am in a church where I know people now! Which is awesome! I also have a job doing the powerpoint and playing bass some Sundays. So I have some people I "work" with at church.

I moved, so I am way happier now. It is more expensive and I need to take transit to go anywhere but that's not much of a downside.

I quit my job at Subway which is good, but do not have a new full time job, which is bad. I have been able to get temporary work through the school but it isn't quite enough. Still working on it.

People

Now working in the service industry I have a good chance to observe people.


Voices and appearances often don't match. Accents cannot be predicted based on clothing or hairstyle. Some large people have very quiet voices. There is a regular that sounds like Winnie the Pooh.


I have served tourists that know zero English. Pointing didn't work this time so they finally got out their phone and communicated through the advertised prices. There was also a mute person who came in and asked for pen and paper by mime and wrote down his order.


People are usually good. I was serving 2 people at once and they discovered they both wanted a 6 inch of the same sandwich on the same bread, so these strangers decided to share a footlong to save money. They took turns ordering toppings and only cut it in half at the very end.


Often when a person is working the front alone and there is a lineup customers give an encouraging word when they get to the till. Really I am not worried if I can handle the customers, I just hope that they aren't in a hurry and leave.


One guy in a really good mood was trying to ease the stress of the me serving a long line. I asked if he wanted the sandwich toasted and he said " No, frozen," which got the people in line and I to laugh and relax a bit.

Update

It has been a long time so here it is.


I am working at Subway and doing film things for free on the side. Now you are caught up.

Work

So I am now working at Subway. It is okay and I am still looking for film jobs. One job I applied for wanted my demo reel. I didn't have one so I needed to put one together. Now that I have a cinematography demo reel online the next step would be to put my production design portfolio online. Not sure what the best way to do that would be. Maybe I will just put it here on the blog so it is at least online somewhere.  




demo reel 2014  There are a couple clips missing, this link
                           will be updated when the video is finished

Blogging again

I know nobody really reads this but it feels good to get some stuff out of my head.




Today I spent 4 hours online applying for jobs. My dream job is currently on hold as my student loan repayment becomes a pressing matter. I loved school but it doesn't count toward the 3 years experience most places want before you can apply. Shouldn't the training be enough? I guess they want someone with the job as instinct and not returning to notes to make sure they did it right every time.


I have been out of school 5 months and the only film work I have had was through the school. I was a replacement gaffer and a mentor. I would love it if my full time job would be replacement positions for kids that quit school. It was a lot of fun working with a crew that knew eachother already and was organized and eager to film and experiment. it was great I worked on 1 story for 3 days and didn't have to do any of the prep work. Prep is ok but you really have to like the story to remain focused after weeks of the same thing.

Waiting for Life

Well, I have not been a student for 10 weeks and have only worked 2 of those weeks. Those 2 weeks were a lot of fun. I got to be a replacement gaffer for a term 3 VFS shoot. I was also a Term 1 mentor. The gaffer job was soooooo much fun! I got to work with students 6 months behind my class and get a feel for another class' dynamics. Being a mentor is hard. How much do you tell them what to do? Do you let them make mistakes before you tell them how to do it better, or do you tell them first? I also had to drive a very large rental vehicle to all the locations with the gear in it. I am used to driving a minivan but this SUV was awkwardly wide.

Anyway, I have no real job. I am a permittee in the Calgary IATSE union but that does not garuntee a job.

I now feel like I am waiting for life to start. I was a student so that was productive but now I am waiting for someone to acknowledge that I know what I am doing and pay me for it. Filming is pretty much done for the winter so I will get a real job until it starts up again. I really just want to use what I know.

Anybody out there need something to be filmed? or edited? or lit? or redecorated? or designed? I really want to do something....... :(

Hello Again

Hello again to my 5 followers. Thank you for that. I am sure that by now you have realized that my blog is more of a journal about me and that I sound a lot more sarcastic than in real life.

Anyway, my vacation is over and I am graduated completely from VFS. I now need to find a steady job and make some money. Unfortunately I haven't had much luck with that yet but its only been a week.

The Problem with Blogs

The problem with blogs is that once you have one it can be addicting. I know I don't write much here but sometimes I think in blog posts. It's a way to vent, but of course, being online means anyone can find and read it so you have to be careful with what you type. As well this is how a lot of the untruth on the internet gets to the internet. Bloggers are people with opinions and a keyboard. They may sound knowledgeable but that doesn't mean they are. Then there are the professional blogs that actually do know what they are typing about. Anyway beware the search engine that sends you to blogs, they may not know what they are writing about.

My New Favorite Show

Fraggle Rock is an awesome show. I just discovered it now and never watched it as a kid even though it is for kids. It is educational without being 'look at what you learned' . It is about 3 different worlds and how they are connected. Humans, fraggle rock, and the gorg garden. It has catchy songs and a variety of muppet creatures. Also the character Gobo is Canadian, of course this isn't stated but some of  his phrases and mannerisms are very distinctive. Anyway it is definitely my new favorite even though it  was only on tv In the 80s.

My favorite characters are the Doozers, they build towers for fun and wait for Fraggles to eat them so there is space to build more towers. Sprocket the muppet dog of the human world is also pretty awesome. He has fingers and communicates with his person through 'charades'. Fraggles are  multicolored anamorphic creatures with tails that live underground are about 2 feet tall and eat radishes. Fraggles call the human world Outer Space,  the Fraggle Traveling Matt is exploring human culture and sends postcards back to Fraggle Rock for his nephew to collect each week. Sprocket often catches Gobo getting the mail bet is then distracted and lets him go back underground.

How can you go wrong with a magical trash heap that gives advice? Nyah...

Other favorite shows of mine
The Magic School Bus
Arthur
Franklin
George Shrinks

Aaron stone
No Ordinary Family
Eli Stone
Alias
MacGyver
Stargate SG 1
The Muppet Show

NCIS
Person of Interest
The Following
Marvel: Agents of Shield




Th.. Th... Th.... That's all folks