Valentines Thoughts

Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and of course, I have thoughts:

1. Am I the only one who thinks the 15th is the REAL holiday? Savings on chocolate is just the beginning. I bought a couple of those steaks that they put into the heart shaped containers. DEAL!

Dear Santa from IntimiDATER

Dear Santa,

My request this year is of a unique nature. I was going to ask you to have the elves in IT put together a subset of your master list, with the following:

Single Resolutions – 2014 Updated

A lot of you guys are still single and frankly, I don’t need the competition.  We need to get some of you pair bonded, post-haste.  I’m not sure if you paid attention when I dropped the Top 10 Single Resolutions for the 2011 New Year’s season, but go ahead and catch up because ALL 11 of those Top 10, still apply.  I’ve just added a few to the mix.

Before we get to that, let’s talk about resolutions or whatever you want to call them: visions, intentions, plans…they’re all the same thing.  Anyway, why do we constantly set ourselves up for failure?  Throw in a few gimmes and you’ll feel better about yourself.  I resolve not to make people feel guilty about the fact that they aren’t running a marathon, so I will refrain from running a marathon this year. DONE.  I resolve to support the good people who own and work at micro-breweries. COUNT ON IT.   I resolve to do my part in solving state problems. For example, prison over-crowding is a problem and I resolve to prevent my temper from adding another number to the system. PERFECT.

OK, let’s jump into these additions to the list of single resolutions!

JD Rant – Low Flow Toilets

Happy Friday Everyone!  I apologize, in advance, but sometimes I just need to get some things off my chest.  One of those times is now.

I recently had to have low flow toilets installed in the building that I manage.  Sure they’re touted to “save water” and thus, the environment, but is the full story more complicate and dare I say “messy”???

As is the case lately, this was shot with the Nokia Lumia 1020 with the Cast & Crew of 1, in my apartment. Enjoy!

Home Turf

My mission: To put my #NoExcuses manta to work.  Last week, I wrote some mini-short scripts and now I wanted to shoot them.  I was having trouble scheduling with anybody to help me, so I picked one that I thought that I could shoot on my own and I just decided to do it today.

It took a good portion of my afternoon, but I like how it turned out.  I was able to show off the Nokia Lumia 1020’s HD capability.  I was also able to (hopefully) show a bit of the funny that exists in my head.  Most of all, I just got something done and that is so important in creating the habit of creating.

OK, let’s jump into it.  I’ll give a few tips along the way…

Money Robbins Needs Your Help (w/ Video)

Several years ago, I wrote a script called “Field Training” featuring a character I called “Money Robbin”.  He was a parody of the Tony Robbins style of sales guru and motivation speaker, taken to a ridiculous level.  He’s back now and he’s added an “s” to his name.  That’s not all; He’s redefining ridiculous.

“Field Training” didn’t go so well, as a short film, the first time around, but I’ve learned a lot since then.  I always liked this idea and I’m excited to jump back into the role and the project.

If you thought you’d have to wait for us to finish shooting the short film to get your Money Robbins fix, then you don’t know Money!  Here is his reintroduction to the world with info on how YOU can be a part of the experience.  No, this isn’t a crowdsourced funding request.  Keep your money; We’ll tell you how you can help after the video!

Rapping Parent Video Throw-down

My friend posted a rapping parent video today.  It’s the 3rd one that I’ve seen so I thought I’d have a throw down here on the ‘ole blog. I’m going to post all 3 and provide no commentary.  Seriously, I’m going to say nothing.

After you watched all three videos, you get to make your voice heard by VOTING in the snazzy poll at the end.  You can even drop some wisdom on us all in the comments section.

Now enough with this intro – let’s drop the beat on this throw-down!!

YouTube Acting School With Ricky Gervais

Look at that picture of me.  That’s me doing some fine acting in the short film “Textually Active”.  You can, of course, read about that in my earlier blog entry JD: The Gifted Director.

I have been at this acting thing for quite some time now and it was interesting to have a chat with someone recently about all of the training we do.  We spend a LOT of time, energy and money trying to get back what we did naturally as kids.  When we were kids and played cops and robbers, we believed that we were the parts we were playing.  When my sister had a tea party, she WAS the fancy hostess.  It was play, but we committed to it.

As grown ups, we have that playing squashed out of us, so we ‘study’ to try bringing it back.  It can cost a lot of money, but now we all have a chance at learning from a leader in his industry.  We can learn from him and his guest lecturers for free and even without their knowledge.  I have collected clips and provided commentary so that you can learn from the Unofficial Ricky Gervais School of Acting’s (RGSOA) YouTube Campus.

DalyDose of…Valentine’s Daly

Valentine’s Day gets a bad rap as a corporate holiday, but in reality it is…well, it’s so much worse.  It’s so bad that it doesn’t even warrant a day off for our valiant postal workers.  In fact, it would seem to me that they have to work extra hard on this day.  You can take that to bank.  I mean, literally, you can take it to the bank because the banks are open on this “holiday”.

To make matters worse, this is the most exclusionary holiday on the calendar.  Another saint’s day, Patrick to be exact doesn’t require one to be Irish; anyone can get filthy drunk on this holiday.  That’s inclusion.  President’s Day is coming up next and we’ve all voted for somebody that won.  If you didn’t vote, then you have probably at least been screwed by presidential policies at some point.  We all get to enjoy the holiday.   As I rack my brain, every single holiday other than Valentine’s Day is for us all.

What about this day devoted to St. Valentines?   

DalyDose of…Phone Sex. Is it a Date?

I like writing, but it would be so much better to get paid for it.  I came across this opportunity to submit a blog sample to this company starting a website for single people.  They were looking for funny, unique views.  I submitted my DalyDose of…10 Single Resolutions and they responded that they would like a 500 word sample using their test topic.  The test topic is “Does phone sex count as a date?”. 

I took on the challenge.  I transformed myself from nice guy to inner jerk and starting hitting the keyboard.  They wanted 500 words or less….here are my 493: