Resolutions

So, I’ve decided to make an early resolution this year, starting today: Every day I will spend an hour working out and an hour writing, two things that I have been falling in and out of the habit of doing the last couple of years. Well, I’ve decided to get a little pro-active and take steps to ensure that I concentrate my energies as productively as possible.

The reason for this resolution is twofold. First of all, I sat down and sketched out what my typical day looks liked a couple of weeks ago. Hour by hour I broke down what I typically did- Sleeping, working, eating, traveling, screwing around on the internet, anything that happened with any regulatory I put down. I ended up with three different breakdowns- For days that I worked day shifts, for days that I worked evening shifts and for days off. The results were pretty surprising. I discovered that I usually got less sleep than is typically healthy, except on days off where usually I would get MORE than is good for me. Preparing and winding down from work usually takes me quite a while. And most days I have between four or five hours of “free time”. Since I have a lot of things that I like to do in this free time (writing, working out, rehearsing & memorizing, practicing guitar, playing video games, hanging out with friends, drinking) it struck me that if I want to be serious about any activity, I need to make a point of doing it because otherwise I’ll never get around to it through elimination.

The other reason is that I’m on a pretty tight schedule and I’m tired of falling behind in projects. I finished the draft of a play that I wanted to finish at the end of November on Christmas Day. I still have another draft that was due in September that needs tons of work before I can do anything with it. And then I have another script that I need to finish by the end of January. This is no time to screw around! As far as the gym is concerned, on top of wanting to meet some personal fitness goals, I also may be embarking on a very exciting (but also physically strenuous) journey come March. I’m in decent shape but I need to take my conditioning seriously if I want to be ready to go should all the pieces fall in place.

So there you go. I haven’t written in this blog for a while, so as part of my writing initiative I’ll try to keep up to date here.

The Rules:

For every day that I miss one activity, that hour gets stacked up and must be used by the end of the week, which is Sunday. For every hour not made up by Sunday, I will penalize myself five dollars, which will be used at the end of the year for something yet to be determined (Probably donated to a charity. Maybe a charity that I hate, so it will further motivate me.) Sunday is my “day off”, so I can use it to catch up on lost hours, to relax, or to continue writing and working out because it is good for me. There is no way to bank hours- If I write for five hours on Monday, I must still write the rest of the week.  (If I work out for five hours, I probably have a glandular issue.) The point is not to get a certain amount of work done, but simply to write constantly, about whatever I can manage. Hopefully work will just happen to get done along the way. Also, “working out” is generously defined as any activity that is physically strenuous, within reason. So playing soccer would count, going for a walk would not. UNLESS IT WAS AN EXTREME WALK.

So, why am I writing this? Well, for one to keep myself liable. I have said I am doing this, so now it must be done. I also hope to see other people pick up on this initiative, or something similar. I told Cory the idea and he thought it was a good one. We haven’t worked out the details yet, but we might add some competition to it, possibly with the winner (he with the least amount of penalty hours) choosing the charity, or something like that. As well, if anyone has any suggestions, words of encouragement or racial slurs they want to throw my way, please, feel free.

Except for the racial slurs part. I was kidding, and it’s kind of hard to tell on the Internet sometimes. I WAS KIDDING.

Oh, and I’ve been updating www.brenthirose.com. You should check it out!

Billy Bishop in Mid-Flight!

So Billy Bishop has devoured my life, which is why you haven't heard anything from me in a while. Also, Fallout 3. However, Fallout 3 will be around for a long time, while Billy Bishop only goes until the 16th.

Uptown liked it. The Uniter loved it. You'll probably want to marry it. So come see the freaking thing!

Another Still Alive Post

Hey, just letting you know that I am still alive. I have been very busy as of late and very much so need to decompress, it's just that a public internet forum is probably not the best place to do so. Our princess is in another castle.

As an aside: For those of you who have the means, please play Braid. It is so good.

That is all.

P.S. I have a mustache at the moment.

P.P.S. I lied when I said that was all before. Sorry.

Sheepish Hello

Okay, so let me tell you all a story. This is the story about a guy named Brent who used to blog pretty regularly. But then, over time, he did so less and less until eventually he pretty much never blogged ever about anything. Oh wait, you know this one? Never mind then.

So, I've been busy, but that's a crap excuse, since I'm always busy. But, priorities get shifted, life gets crazy and your milk goes sour. Yeah, that kind of came out of left field. Except not, since my milk is ALWAYS going sour. Like, the carton I've got right now is supposed to be best before the 19th but it is already tasting a little funky. Come on!

It used to be that I could follow up on the events in my life by reading my blog. This has not really been the case as of late. I don't really know what to say to fill in the obvious gap in the time line here except that a whole crap load of stuff has happened: The Fringe has come and gone: I performed in and wrote Identity.com, directed Paper Jack, performed outdoors with Funny Box Theatre in our kids sketch comedy/improv show Candy Dish as well as appeared in the final performance of Bat Boy: The Musical. Identity.com and Paper Jack walked away with a Jenny award, bringing my grand total up to four: Coffee and One Last Thing being the other popularity contest winning shows. Currently the Jennies for Coffee and ID.com are either kissing or head-butting on the shelf above my bed.

Speaking of which, I am indeed sleeping at a new place these days: Right near Confusion Corner in a Bachelor suite on the second story of a house. I love it love it love it: It's nice a cozy, a near perfect location and I've got plenty of friends who live close by. I also just bought an HDTV, so I've got plenty of reason to hang around. My only problem is that there isn't a lot of space of have people over and because of that I havn't really spent too much time with friends here yet. Hopefully I can figure something out so I don't spend the winter cold and alone.... Holy crap that's emo.

You also may have noticed (if you're reading this at my blog proper and not in the migrated Facebook posts) that I've changed some of my links, most notably my former acting page. I've been working with my friend Kevin for ages to build a new site and it went live on June 27th! I just never got around to really advertising it anywhere. Well, consider this notice: As of now (a.k.a. June 27th) my old domain yous.iscrappy.com is retired and in its place will be BrentHirose.com! Check it out! There isn't a huge ammount of content but I think the whole thing is pretty damn spiffy.

Anyway, I'm currently working on a couple of projects: However most of the updates for my theatre work will be migrating over to the new page. Henceforth, this blog will stay more on the random observation/life chronicle end of things. I've had other side blogs that have quickly trailed off before, but hopefully I've got that much content left in me.

Anyway, I've got an audition, a workshop and a stern talking to coming tomorrow, so I should get some rest! Later!

E-MAIL!

So apparently when I'm away from my computer for about a week I get a lot of e-mail. I had 40 messages waiting for me today! Yikes!

If you're trying to get a hold of me, while usually e-mail is the way to go, I have yet to get it working at my new place, so, for the love of god, call me if you can!

Alive!

Just a quick note: I'm alive, and very very busy, as is usual to these summer months. I'm also moving, and will be soon living very close to Confusion Corner in a great little bachelor suite. Hopefully once life has calmed down again I can resume my attempts at making it look like this blog is a priority. :)

In Soviet Library, Book Read You!

Busy busy busy-

I've been working on finishing up Identity.com and have promised the world that I will have the third draft wrapped up by tomorrow. Personally, I'm looking forward to it. I've actually made some decent progress today, so provided that a massive boulder of writer's block falls upon my head or an alien abduction or if I decide to play video games until the end of time I SHOULD BE ABLE TO PULL IT OFF. Still, thoughts and prayers my way are greatly appreciated.

Today has been the most friend-filled day I've ever had at the library: Cory, Erinn, Levon, Kami, Joseph, Kevin and even the ever elusive Meaghan Holden (now Brooks). Whew! This has actually made the day go incredibly quickly and I've actually enjoyed myself more than I usually am used to. WEIRD. So, from now on, friend, visit me at work. I'll ply you with library books and tales of wonder and merriment. Huzzah!

Speaking of video games (I mentioned it up there if you'll recall) I've been playing a crap load of No More Heroes in the time that I had originally put aside for Smash Brothers. Because of this I've yet to unlock all the characters but instead have now taken Travis Touchdown to the position of the number 2 top ranked assassin. Man, that game is awesome.

Anyway, back to writing and thinking and living and stuff. Later!