In school, I wasn’t the most popular of people. What I mean to say is that almost no one liked me. I don’t blame them, really. I was loud, obnoxious, chubby, socially awkward, I talked at length about stuff no one cared about, and I did a lot of weird shit without thinking. I guess I should give an example just so it doesn’t look like I’m trying to score sympathy points with false introspection: Continue reading ›
The 21st century is well under way by now. While a box on wheels hurtles us along the landscape at previously unthinkable speeds, we can use a tiny little magic trinket to communicate with someone on the other side of the world while we watch a moving picture film on the same trinket. This frequently baffles me. I think it’s fair to say that most people in the “western world” today have a pretty easy-going yet co-dependent relationship with the internet and the devices we use to connect to it. With the help of the “Information Super-Highway” (titter), we play, work, masturbate and organise our lives.
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The past few days have been great for me in terms of writing. For the first time in a while, I’m constantly getting new ideas and revamping old ones, and themes, character arcs and plot points are slowly but surely being put down in my Moleskine (Yeah, it’s a bit pretentious, but it’s such a nice notebook!).
Right now, I give you the SECOND of the two and a half episodes I originally wrote.
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In the summer of 2003, I had a summer job scanning inspection reports on pipes. Yeah, I know. Exciting. So exciting, in fact, that this job that was projected to take me four weeks was over in five days. I still had three weeks left on my contract. What can a man do with his time? I read four Discworld novels, played an old dog-fighting game for DOS, wrote a short crime story with my bosses as the main characters (My immediate boss was the hero-turned-killer), drank an inordinate amount of cocoa, and started work on a comic about how the sun went out and a team had to go out and find new bulbs for it. Silly, I know.
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I should preface this by telling you that this is a narrative I’ve cooked up based on the strangest game of Jones In the Fast Lane I have ever played. Click that link if you’ve never heard of it before. I just now discovered there’s even an unofficial Flash port of the game, so go have a look or download it from one of the abandonware sites out there if you want the authentic feeling. The Flash port has voices, though, which is pretty cool!
Tagged fast lane, gaming, jones, jones in the fast lane, life sim, sierra, sims, story, unemploymentJones and I were on the cusp of adult life. We had no job or education, and we were both determined to leave our dingy, mouldy apartments behind and make an impact on the world. We felt equally confident in our own potential and just knew that we could climb the social ladder quicker than the other.
So we made a wager.
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Hey there!
A month and a week ago now I left Edinburgh to do four shows at the Butlins holiday resort in Minehead: Lazytown Live, Brainiac Live, Looneytunes and the Aladdin panto. Since then, we’ve rehearsed and opened the former two, and the latter two are coming up in the next month. Both Brainiac and Lazytown have been amazing experiences, with dedicated crews and casts and amazing response from the audience. Everyone’s been very complimentary about my work, especially as Robbie Rotten in Lazytown, so I suppose I’m doing something right. It boggles my mind a tad, though, as I’m the only one who doesn’t have to learn a single proper dance routine. All I do is character. Charlotte, who plays Stephanie in Lazytown, has particularly impressed me throughout. Also: Paul, our Sportacus, has helped me with cartwheels and handstands and is an all-round lovely guy and (as I recently discovered from his underwear) a massive Star Wars geek. Score!
I find myself missing the cast of the Brainiac shows in the other resorts since rehearsals. We had a great time and they’re all really lovely people.
ALSO since then, my iPhone has been stolen, meaning that my online video recording device is gone. It’s been two weeks since that happened, and due to various circumstances I really can’t be arsed to share it’s going to be another week or two until I have a new phone and will be able to make videos again. On the plus side: We decided to order the new and updated Macbook Pro at the same time!
I’m missing Marit so much these days. I can’t wait for April to roll around and I can go back to Edinburgh for ten days.
Once I have a phone and I have the time to make a video, I’ll get back on the Youtubes. ’till next time: Spread the peace and the love!
Yeah, I’ve been gone. I apologise most profusely for any worry I may have caused, and in order to make amends, here’s a video of me making a fool of myself:
I’m not sure how I feel about this, but I’ve created a Paypal donation button to allow people to donate to me if they would like to. I’ve resisted doing it for a long time, but I figure it can’t hurt.
Basically, I make very very little money right now, and every video I make takes three to six hours and I make maybe a pound off each of them in the long run. At this rate, I need to find some kind of paying work which would ultimately make it difficult for me to keep making videos as a lot of my spare time is used trying to find acting work, trying to finish my university work, etc etc.
I’m thinking I’ll probably do something to honor those who donate, especially those who donate substantial amounts. Maybe I’ll send them little thank-you notes with doodles or something. Or maybe one of my origami things from my videos.
I doubt I’ll actually get much money this way (if any), and certainly not the fifty-sixty quid a video I’d need to justify not taking the first job that comes along. I might as well try, though, and I might get some trickle funding out of it. If I don’t, at least I tried.