Up to a smelly bum. Not mine, thankfully. Little one's been making gravy all night! Yum. We played all morning and watched Bob the Builder and Thomas and Friends. Note... back home in the UK, it was known as Thomas the Tank Engine and the fat bloke in charge was known as the Fat Controller, not the insipid pc term they have for him in the US, "Sir Toppam Hatt". What the hell? Anyway, Thomas rocks!
We coloured and we played with trucks. I love my time with the monkey! Out for a walk to the Post office, the bank and the library (yes, I know, I live on the edge, don't I. I'm an adrenalin junkie, me). We did pass by the PDC so we stopped and watched the fountains for a little while. That's the monkey smelling flowers in the picture!
Played some more in the afternoon and then off to his friend's house, just down the road.
Linked up the UK vcr J kindly brought with him to my 'puter (through the video card which I have working now) and it works as sweet as a nut! Yeehaa. Checked out a tape from 1982! Yes, I do indeed have video tapes from 23 years ago! Several, in fact. Wow, what was I watching back then, blimey! Erm... The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (yes, there was a series made for UK TV), a kids show called 'Murphys Mob' which I was in (fleetingly), rally car racing (which I'm still into although they call it WRC now) and a couple of other things which I forget for the moment.
Sat and wrote Christmas cards and stuck R's piccy on them. Sweet!

Fairly easy going Friday. Was online submitting my clients (yep, I have principal talent too!) on LA Casting. Did some work around the house while M&R were out and about. Been working on the 'puter a lot today. On LAC as I said and on myspace too. Getting more into that as each day passes. More info about Getty came in today and I sat down and worked out my calendar until March 1. Blimey, I'm gonna be busy.
I truly, seriously and sincerely hate Windows XP. When it's great, it vvgood, when it's bad, it SUCKS! I'm fairly handy when it comes to computers. I built my desktop from a 'barebones' machine (most techies will know that it isn't a major challenge!). I've had it a couple of years and just recently wanted to start grabbing DV via firewire and adding a large hard drive via USB2. The MSI board is supposed to be equipped with both. Is it? Even after 2 BIOS upgrades and the latest SP2 service pack. Bollocks is it! I have WASTED so much time on that machine, tweaking settings, researching online, just tearing my hair out. I finally gave in and bought a new USB2 card (which was ULTRA cheap - checkout tigerdirect.com - they are absolutely brilliant for everything - no sales tax either). The hard drive worked brilliantly for a couple of weeks... more on that in a moment. As I mentioned before, the motherboard was supposed to be firewire too. In fact it had a four and a six pin slot. Great, looks promising. Can I get it to function as anything other than a network connection. Nope. Please don't try and give me advice here. I have read every Microsoft bulletin, updated and triple checked that I have the latest version of XPSP2, read every DV camera site, read every FAQ page, every blog, everything with even the briefest mention of 'Microsoft DV and Camera' or MSDV.inf you can possibly find on this Earth. I have tried everything. Every cooky suggestion, every uninstall and reinstall, every method of getting that thing to see a DV camera. Nothing, absolutely nothing. I gave up. I don't generally give up but in this instance, I did.
If you have reached this page by searching for 'MSDV' or anything to do with XP & DV camera capture then I strongly suggest you use that old analogue capture card you have lying in a drawer somewhere (you know, the one with the three plugs rather than the shiny new DV plug). Believe me, you will save yourself so much trouble, you won't believe it. Unless you're working in HD with Premiere (if you're working with Final Cut Pro, you're on a Mac anyway so you're fine - you don't even have to deal woth Windows... why do you care about all of this), the results are gonna be pretty useable anyway.
Oh, back to the USB2 card. Yep, worked fine for a few weeks. Now XP decides to ignore the fact that it even exists, physically connected to the motherboard (I'm looking at it right now). Several 'System restores' later, I'm still trying to persuade XP not to freeze up or decide arbitrarily that it's not going to 'see' parts of the hardware if it doesn't feel like it.
So, that's what I'm doing right now.... waiting for Windows to start up AGAIN (for the eleventh time - yes, 11th) in the hope that it will play ball this time thru....
Rant over....
Hum, let's see if I have any piccies to post on my lappie for you....

Had a long night with the monkey. Up at 5, I think. Thought of the girls probably aready going to set to book in on 'September', the new Oliver Stone movie. I was booked but got cancelled. Not old or ugly enough, apparently. Yes, they've replicated Ground Zero in Playa Vista for the movie. I'm told it looks amazing. Anyway...
Back to bed and up in time to take R to drop-off. He was a little quiet, lots going on in that little head of his I don't doubt.
Carried onto the office. The girls along with Ir arrived at the same time I did, looking tired! Been up since 3. Pot of coffee fixed us all up and then it was business as usual. Viz today so people started coming in and chatting. Production were on the 'phone to J which managed to reduce her to tears which, a) I've never seen before and b) I don't like one bit. These guys basically work long hours (13 yesterday) with little information which then changes at the last minute and are expected to jump thru hoops. Yes, I understand that once production give you a problem to sort out, it's yours to sort out but give 'em a break. Back to J, she basically gave up and went home to sleep. Don't blame her. Spoke to BB at Uncle with dates for the shoot. Turns out I'm off to Atlanta, Costa Rica and Mammoth over Jan/Feb. Fantastic!
Ir is off to Miami and Nat has a meeting with a producer. She's a great girl, very pretty and has her head screwed on just right I think. She'll do good, I'm sure.
Left at 1 to pick up the monkey. Home again. We played and then went out for a walk. Ah yes, The Griswold family walk!
J & A came over later on before they went to LAX for their flight. We'll miss them.
I was feeling like **** so I went to bed for a couple of hours.
Finished the night off with some TV and then cutting up some snowflakes for R's get together tomorrow. Ah, what a varied set of skills a daddy needs!
Heard that an old friend of mine, Peter Catmur, had died after a stroke back home in the UK. Very sad, he was such a nice guy.
R.I.P. Peter. Sleep well.

Found out that the pilot just decided to send a completed and signed contract but were actually passing me for the part. Not really sure the reason for that but anyway, never mind! My dance card is full for January! Met with the movie group this morning. We're setting up our characterisations to help R, who's writing the screenplay and shooting it. The movie basically (without giving anything away) centres around a situation where we're stuck somewhere in something and all have to get along for 3 days. We'll carry the plot and message in the principle location as well as staging flashback sequences to add background to each of the characters.
Also spoke about the beginning sequence of the movie. Much discussion!
Class day today. Great class. Worked with E. She rocks.
Finshed clas with another movie group meeting. No-one's actually collaborating on the yahoo group so it seems that the only time we get to move things on is every Wednesday at the meeting(s). Seeing as the entire movie has to be finished by May 2006, we are going to have to move VERY fast. R seems to think that if we start shooting in March, we'll be ready. I'm pleased about that as Jan & Feb are fairly chokka. I guess that if R has a clear vision in his head, we'll get it done.
J & A came back from San Francisco. They had had a wonderful time. It was apparently nice and warm but they're not used to West Coast weather so they were thinking it was subtropical whilst the natives were bundled up in coats and hats!
We had a great dindins at the Hard Rock and the monkey had a great time, colouring with the boys. Home again, home again. Lots of tea & chat. Boys back to the hotel. zzzzz

Well, I'm back and in the mood to blog! I guess what started me off again was a crew member's blog at http://filmhacks.blogspot.com/ . I read an article about it in the LA Times and have started reading it on a daily basis (2 days so far)! She's keeping her identity secret as she thinks revealing it would screw up her employability potential. I guess she's right! Having worked on a couple of movie sets, booking & 'checking in' background (Rent, AFI's Save Me and 'Choose The Right Guy) and playing background myself (just to get my vouchers you understand! Most recently on Rent and The Good German), her daily grind looks very familiar, even as a non-crew person.
Anyway, since my last ramble, I've joined SAG so I'm now 'Union'. Yeehaa! Basically this means I'm going for jobs against a bunch of people different to the bunch I was going up against when I was non-union! Actually, in this game, you have to 'know' that you have NO competition! You're the best 'you' you can be. You can believe it or not. I do. I have to or else there's no point in being a pro thesp.
That said, staying positive and working away at it, I've managed to book a Microsoft Industrial which still hasn't appeared on the Microsoft UK website (it'll be under 'Small Business Security' if it ever sees the light of day), an Industrial for QuigleySimpson.com (yep, check it out, that's me!), an Internet commercial for LG Electronics where I was filmed with a (gorgeous) ARRI D20 HD camera (film geeks may salivate at this point) walking along Hollywood Boulevard in front of the Chinese Theatre singing a version of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' into the 'phone with everyone looking at me as if I had two heads. They used a long lens so most of the onlookers couldn't see the camera (or the 20 crew walking around behind it) and thought I was just another Hollywood freak (there's a LOT of those BTW). That isn't 'out' yet either so go figure. What else? Oh yes, I'm going to be in a musical version of Aristophones 'Wasps' at the Getty Villa in Malibu on Jan & Mar 2006. And also I'll be appearing in a new 4D (which is 3D with a funky chair) 'ride' at the World Of Coca-Cola in Atlanta, Georgia from next year for... wait for it... 10 years! Filming starts in Jan 2006 and should be a lot of fun.
Oh, received a signed contract from C20th Fox for a pilot which I haven't heard a squeak from since my screen test and the long since past hold date. D has called them to find out if I've booked it after all. Hey ho.
Chatted to AB, SC, Bj & Rob on IM today. Nice to catch up with the folks back home.
Started reading 'How to win friends and influence people' for the 5th time today!
Off to walk DD. zzzz