sweet!

Hey. Two great things have happened today--well, two that I'm telling about. 1) I've got an audition for a part in a commercial--if I get one kind of part, it'll be a thousand bucks. If I get a more primary part, it's three thousand bucks, and that part will be shot in Mexico City--pretty stinkin' cool! So those of you who pray, please pray that I get the part God wants.

The other thing is that just as I am about to take my car in for some servicing, I get a flyer in the mail from the relevant dealer with some coupons--right in the area that needs servicing.

Well, praise God for those!

More to come.

dumbing down

This article is disheartening, but not all that surprising. We seem to live in a culture where things are dumbed down to appeal to the most people and, thus, make the most money. I understand that, but I don't have to agree with it. This move by a certain company seems to be another example of dumbing things down and thus taking out the wonderful, the "magic" out of a special thing.

Here's a more relevant article that helps explain more the beef I have with the situation.

Homogenization blows. Except in milk.

money, money, money

I'm so grateful for a couple of friends, and to those who've tried to help along the way. One of these friends is letting me borrow his Dave Ramsey CDs--the Financial Peace University, and I'm learning a lot from that. The other put down in writing some of the best money advice I've gotten. I've seen a lot of other advice as colored by judgmentalism or by the advice-giver pooh-poohing the dreams I've expressed, even if they sometimes didn't mean to. This one struck a great balance of saying, like, 'Dude, it's cool to pursue your dreams, but you gotta have a plan or you'll never get there--you'll just get to a point where you have a bunch of regret...' and then put down a step-by-step plan or list of guidelines, which I am following.

I think a lot of these money problems had come from a) me being too cheap and b) me being too impatient and c) me just not knowing, concretely and in a way I can't dispute, what exactly to do...or just knowing it generally and not doing it.

And, as ever, I'm grateful to God for giving me such great, patient, wise friends.

I love you all so much!

willing to be willing

So I decided to take a friend's advice and look for a second job. So I went to a couple of places, applied, haven't heard from them, but I think God blessed me anyway for being willing to take on a second job because I've been getting asked to cover for people from work. This is ideal because it's the same place and it's overtime--the easiest situation possible workwise. I praise and thank God for that.

I don't get this

Here's something I don't understand: why all the fuss over the iPhone 3G? It's cool and new and shiny, but is that really such a big deal? As TheStreet.com notes, with AT&T's prices, this is a phone that's going to cost you about $2000.00 over the next two years. So Apple gives up a couple hundred by lowering the cost, but they'll make that up on volume, so it's not like they're really giving anything up.

Then again, people wait in line to see movies--sometimes for days.

What's this obsession with being first to get/see something new and cool? As in the case of the iPhone, just because the new one is out and makes the old one obsolete, it's not as though the old one ceases to function. Same with, say, an operating system on your computer: simply because a new one comes out doesn't cause the old one to stop working, and if it was doing well by you the day before the new came out, it should keep doing so. You can apply this to gadgets in other areas as well; everything from getting a 1080p television when your old TV was doing fine to a new camcorder to a new set of clothing (though I can see the reason for that if you're in the fashion industry)--the point is this: why go so far out of your way as to wait in line for hours, even days, to among the first to purchase the latest this or that when that same thing will still be there a day or two or a week or a month later?

I think people do this because of effective marketing, a great product and because they can. That said, if it rains while you're waiting, you're still likely to get wet.

Thank You, God!

Today, thanks to God, I was able to pay off a long-standing bill from my university. What a weight off my shoulders! Once again, God has brought me through--glory to Him.

Proud American...?

Proud American. There's a descriptive term, but I was thinking that if you really think about it, Americans who were born here have no reason to be "proud" of being born here because we have no say-so in where we're born. That's up to God and the parents. We had nothing to do with it. We can be happy about it, we can be thrilled and delighted, and we can recognize what a blessing it is to have been born where we were (all of which I am and I do), but proud? I think not. The other side of that term, along with American pride, these days, seems a little too descriptive stereotypically speaking--I think it's associated with Arrogant American, as if the two are synonyms. I think there's a difference between caring about your achievements and those of others around you, between taking care to do whatever you do well and taking pleasure in others' accomplishments because you're happy for them. But I wonder if that can be pushed too far into having a little too high an opinion of oneself because of where one is from, particularly if you had nothing to do with it (this can be which country you were born in, which family, which ethnic group, whatever).

Just food for thought. Comments invited.

declaration

Okay, I'm putting it out there: these dreams of mine that God's given me are going to manifest as I obey what it is God tells me to do. Action follows faith--one doesn't just claim something and then wait for it to manifest without doing anything. You don't just say, "I'm believing God for a new car" and wait for it to drop out of the sky. That could happen, though it'd be very surprising if it did, but there are things God will have us do, if we'll listen to and obey Him, that will join us up with the things He set in motion when we by faith, trusting Him to do what He said He would, give Him permission to move.

good lesson

I just had a good lesson: I had something very valuable and left it in a position where it was offered to anybody who wanted it. I decided to leave is in that position for 10 minutes, then go retrieve it, which I did at the end of that time. Most of that ten minutes, though, I was waiting with baited breath, hoping nobody would take it, and I learned something: that's no way to give. If you give, give.

Addendum: another primary lesson re-confirmed: get both sides of the story--I had a concrete example of the benefits of doing so as God reminded me to do so. I thank God for both of these lessons.

-Sean

well, lookee what i found!

Check this out. I'm the bald-headed guy with the goatee in the dark shirt, two rows up and the second person in. Just fast-forward to four minutes and 42 seconds in. Yet another thing for which I say, "Glory to God, and thanks to God for my not ending up on the cutting room floor!"

-Sean

"Sacred Bloods" photos and weekend

I got to work with Larry Sellers, best known for his role as "Cloud Dancing" in thirty-odd episodes of "Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman", last weekend as we shot one of our scenes in "Sacred Bloods". I think I did fairly well, and Larry mentioned something to that effect. Herewith, some photos of him and myself as well as some pics from the rest of the shoot. The first few are Larry and myself in a fight scene. The last one is Jessica as Diahna Romanus, one of the leads of the film, getting a shoulder rub and foot massage from her vampire minions:

wow

Well, I received another manifestation of the blessing today: I was going to return a receiver I'd bought and exchange it for another one of a different kind. As I was in the store just browsing around, though, I went to the part of the store that has their higher-line stuff (as I'd been encouraged by God to do when I bought the first receiver but didn't actually do). There, I saw a receiver of the brand that I wanted marked down from 799.99 to 199.99, the same price as the receiver I had _and_ the same price as the one I was going to get. So I got the one on sale and essentially have a great receiver, much higher-line than I thought I'd get, for no more money than I spent on the lower-line receiver, except for a power cord and cost of a remote for the thing (it was a floor model, and there's a new model coming out), which I don't have to hurry on because the universal remote I have already works with the thing. So, praise God for not only bringing me to the place where I could get a good receiver at a good price but getting me a great one at a great price. Really, I don't think there's anything this receiver doesn't have that I want--it's the last receiver I intend to buy for years. Thank you, God! Wow!

One more thing: I sent in my laptop to be repaired, and not only did the company fix the thing even though the extended warranty had expired 2 days prior, they upgraded my hard drive, giving me twice as much space as before, plus a few other doo-dads related to the previous hard drive's failing. Praise and thank God for that, too!

-Sean