hmatt's blog

I have a bin full of acting books, none of which are available on the Kindle. The few that are I don’t want to ‘buy again’. The benefit of course is having the book read to me while I sit in the car.

I’m going to start a habit though, where I make time to get to someplace early so I can read these books. I have a BUNCH of plays, acting theory books and reflection I could do, but as I’m learning in BCII, you can only go so far ‘learning’ acting. The rest is doing. That is what I am preparing to do.

I don’t want to sit too long now and type up a post.. I have LOTS to memorize. Part of my new process is to type or scan the script and have the ‘robot voice’ read it to me. When I try recording the script myself, I end up accidentally doing intonations and then run the risk of always repeating them that way.

I have a scene from Angels in America (need to re-read this play), When Harry Met Sally, and then I have to memorize a dramatic monologue for my Tuesday Hollywood Playground class and a comedic monologue for Monday.

It is times like this that I really wish I had instant memorization.. someday… = )

So yeah, digital books are great, unless you have ‘non’ digitalized books that you have to carry around too.

For the past.. while, I’ve been exhausted and felt like I was running around. Today I had off of work, and I am doing something special for the month of June..

My plans for ‘Catching Up’
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-gathering a smoothie recipe collection & healthy out and about snacks (I’m sick of eating terrible-for-me foods when hunger strikes)
-setting dates for important things (like my hike-plan day!)
-recruiting others to help me with my community building (I have a list of great ways to build different communities impact l will appear soon, probably more in depth after BC2 is over. My ideas include: cold reading practices, ramshackle films, goal club, TRKS planning meeting, commercial improv, bible study group, LA adventure group, and of course a hiking club)
-getting rid of the ‘junk’ that is taking up space in my room
-mini-calendars and pencils near sites of habits to form (or checklists)
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Calendars and Checklists

Keeping track and marking progress is the best way to accomplish a goal. I made a bunch of little June calendars and my goal is to do put these near ‘stations’ where I want to forge new habits.

– Dental Hygiene: last week I got a cleaning and checkup. (thanks to a $29 Groupon). They mentioned that I have ‘pockets’ forming on parts of my gums. This is probably due to my hit-or-miss habit of flossing and rinsing. NO MORE! I made a little calendar that I’ll check off twice a day for brushing-for-2min/flossing/rinsing.

– Workout. I haven’t been to the gym in a LOONG time and I keep thinking about how that is such a wasted opportunity. Apple paid for my membership to 24 hr fitness until March 2012. I put a little calendar check off list near my pull-up bar in the hall for: pullups/pushups/situps/touching-toes. I’ll need to buy some 8lb weights for some shoulder exercises too.

– Feeding Seamonkeys. You are supposed to do this every two days, but I often lose count. Sorry little dudes.

Same thing with checklists
– Car. I once supposed that I spent $150 on gas a month. I’m about to find out how accurate this is. My plan is to fill up today and then keep track of all gas I pay for until the end of the month, then fill it up again. This should work right?

– Acting exercises. There is a collection of different exercises that I ‘could do’ and I’ll have to come up with a way to rotate these things.

-Free time list. I’ve gotten in such a bad habit of wasting those ‘free moments’ one has throughout the day. I now have my little list of free time activities that are prioritized: Submit to LAcasting/Actors access, ‘things-to-ponder’, life goals meditation etc.

As other ideas pop up, I’ll add little calendars and golf pencils near the area. I’ve tried using my phone all for such matters, but it gets lost in the sea of apps on there, and a lot of things are location specific. What good is a timed reminder that appears when I’m elsewhere?

Let the month of change begin!