Felicia Day

So there’s an article on CNN here I just read that I HAD to write about.  Basically it says that 1 out of 4 adults in this country did not read ONE book last year!  And of the people who DID read books, the average was 7.  For the whole year.

WTF?!

Read the rest of the article and it even gets MORE scary.  Especially the dude who says he didn’t read any books because he’d rather be floating in his backyard pool.  I’m sorry, but the idea of not reading ANY books in a whole year…how is that even possible?  What are those people doing?!  Is THIS why MTV is still making reality shows?!

I would say I read like, 2 books a WEEK.   That doesn’t count all the crap I  read on the internet every day.  The idea that I wouldn’t buy a book for a whole year is as conceivable as not bathing for a month.  No way Jose

I don’t want to be too self-righteous though.  Some things in this article made me think about my own reading habits.  In the last five years or so I know I’ve read a lot less non-fiction than I used to.  A few times a year, I used to pick an area like art or architecture or code breaking or the Civil War and read a bunch of books about it and really educate myself.  I don’t tend to do that now.  I just target internet surf to the one thing that interests me and then move on to something new.  Because of this I don’t learn about the subject in-depth, and that’s something I’d like to change.  I mean, you want to talk about syphilis and the bubonic plague, I’m all over it, because I went on a middle-ages disease kick at one point.  WHAT HAVE I DONE THAT IS THAT COOL LATELY?!  Nothing, that’s what.

I suppose it can be attributed to age as well.  The older you get the more defined your taste, the less adventurous?   It’s kind of sad that my tastes reflect the idea that my personality is set, I want to be malleable all my life.  Young brain, not smooth brain.

The article also made me want to take a university extension class in some subject that I know I wouldn’t explore normally.  I felt pretty bad when I read this: “politics, poetry and classical literature — were named by fewer than five percent of readers.”   Yes, I’m guilty of having Barak Obama’s book sitting next to my bedside table for like…a year.   Every time I pick it up I look over to the rest of my book pile and see some horrible, yummy fantasy cover art of a Fabio-like man in armor or a impish redhead girl with magic swirling around her head and I “accidentally” read it instead.   I don’t know how to change that other than forcing myself to have a 1 to 1 ratio of “trash” to “substance.”  Not gonna be enforced, but I can put it on my “goals” list.

I think for a class I would most like to take poetry.  It seems like sharing that with other people, hearing it read aloud, interpreting it, that would be pretty fun.  And I can’t resist being in the 5th percentile.

I’ve been wrapped up on a TV/Movie watching kick for the last few days. I wildly set my Tivo to record every show I haven’t watched in the last 6 months to catch up on where a bunch of series were headed, because if I get a last-minute audition for Ghost Whisperer or something, it’s good to know that the ghosts don’t look pretty when they talk to the main character, and the tone is different from the similarly-themed Medium. And it has a lot of excellent hair and skin

With half the shows recorded, I ended up fast forwarding to the end, because it’s really hard to just jump into an episode when I don’t know where the characters are coming from. It was refreshing to catch something like Law and Order, because it’s a nice tidy story that I can immediately leap into, unlike Grey’s Anatomy where the lineage of “who’s slept with whom” is critical to understanding why one person is tiffy with another I did start to get into Bones, and the new Flash Gordon is so cheesy I can’t help like it. A little bit. Oh, and Weeds is GREAT. That went on the list of “Shows I want to watch without thinking like an actor”.

The best thing I’ve seen in my spree movie-wise is the Russian movie called “Nightwatch.” I think visually, it was the most interesting film I’ve seen in a long time. Most films seem like the director storyboarded all the cool shots in the beginning 15 minutes, and then after that, it turns into standard cinematography. This movie, even if you were like “What the hell is going on in this scene”, had breathtaking visuals that kept you wondering “how they did that?!” I was thrilled to see that the director has a big Hollywood film coming out called “The Wanted” with Angelina Jolie. Can’t wait to see if he retains his flair in English!

Lastly, I’ve watched like 6 Westerns. The best part of being a actor for me, is the part where I get to immerse myself in cultures/research that I’m not familiar with. Boy, do I have my hands full with this one I don’t want to be specific as of yet, but I am currently working on a role that has both Western and Religious themes, two of the areas which I most avoid in my daily travels. When I was a kid I ate up movies, but I tended to avoid Westerns and Military pics. I’ve rounded up a lot of DVD’s and am plowing through them, crash course in the genre. I’m starting to enjoy them! They have a set of cliches that become a little predictable, but the characters are interesting, and I try to ignore the total political incorrectness of vilifying American Indians and mowing them down like they’re James Bond henchman. If anyone could recommend any specifically with strong women characters, or religious themes I would love to add titles to my growing collection of research!

So, since I quit WOW there’s a sense of looming time to the world, like an hourglass is slowly spilling my life away. In a positive way, of course. I don’t know if it’s a late-20′s thing, but a realization of inevitable death is quite motivating. So, what has this spurred me to do?

Make to-do lists.

Yes, I’m an EXPERT at organizing myself to GET READY to do something. I subscribe to all the gem-like sites whose purpose is to keep me in a state of constant self-organization:

Life Hacker

Life HACK

Zen Habits

Real Simple (for the day I will actually cook things rather than clip recipes to GET READY to cook)

And about 50 more under my Google Reader feed category: OrganizeLazyAss!

There’s NOTHING better than finding a new way to organize my files, or browsing a “500 ways to motivate yourself” list, or downloading a new app every day to make to-do lists with. Last month I found myself buying a 65 dollar paper cutter and making a Hipster PDA. I spent about 4 hours setting it up and hand cutting about 50 pieces of card stock into quarters before I though, “WTF AM I DOING?!”

I realize now that, for a time earlier this year, I was addicted to motivating myself. There’s nothing better than that high you get when you make a new, clear plan about taking charge of your life, and plan to head out in a new direction. It’s addictive enough that just moving from self-start idea to self-start idea is enough: The hard work of actually ACCOMPLISHING those goals is a total drag. Why bother when there’s a new person telling you how much potential you have right around the corner? Why do work when you can feel good about yourself for the decision to get ready to begin doing something? Ugh, that sentence was confusing but if you read it a few times it makes sense.
At any rate, a few sites/books I’ve read have actually helped me and made me ACT on all this organizing (sometimes) and I thought that I’d share them.

http://www.profitwar.com/16-rules.htm

For some reason the clear, simple wording of this site really gets to me, and it boils everything down to self-responsibility rather than the ethereal universe giving you whatever you desire (Yes, “The Secret”, I’m talking to you ) I’m a big fan of ruthless self-starting. I realized one day that I needed to be my own parent when it came to scheduling and doing things that weren’t necessarily fun, and things started to become more of a habit for me.

And a thread started by Paul under my Ultima poem post made me want to post about this book.

This book is truly inspiring. It was written in 1938, and the writing is so clear and so wonderful, it makes you want to pick up a pen and write a novel immediately. It makes you feel like, just possessing this book, gives you the strength to try anything, and fail at anything as long as you’re being true to your soul.

The first chapter’s name is: “Everybody is Talented, Original and Has Something Important to Say.” Ok, your hokey meter is on high alert, I know. But this woman made it a mission while writing this book that everyone would find their inner passion and show it to the world. And through her words she does. I found myself highlighting ever other line sometimes, because her words strike you in a way everyone wishes their mother had talked to them as a kid.  If you ever had a passion you were afraid of following, or find you can’t get started, not only writing but anything creative, I really urge you to read this book. You will realize that it is almost your obligation to show the world that you are unique and have something to say. I mean, why else are there so many kinds of people on the planet but to celebrate our differences?

“The Guild” Episode #2 is at the top of the page for YouTube’s Entertainment category! All in color!

http://www.youtube.com/categories_portal?c=24&e=1

Editor’s PICK! So exciting! OMG I’m having some chocolate.