Felicia Day

Movie wrapped Saturday, or should I say, Sunday morning   I was really sad to drive away from the set, knowing that I’d never be going back, but at the same time, I was eager to go home and have time to vacuum and stuff, because there are dog/cat hair tumbleweeds the size of my fist floating down the hallway.

I guess I can say the name of the project now that it’s done.  It’s “Prairie Fever” and it stars Kevin Sorbo (yummolicious) and I believe it will be on the Hallmark Channel, not sure of the timing.  It’s a western, and between getting cow patties on my dress and sweating in a 110 degree heat a lot, it was a dream come true   I will definitely plug more for the show when it gets closer to airing.  I haven’t worked with such wonderful actors since being in “Warm Springs”.    It was really inspiring to me, because when I work with actors who are so gifted, it makes me want to go work on my craft, so I can be as facile as they are.   But I also I can’t wait to go back to comedy improv class from doing all this drama and pretend to fart on someone in a scene.

I am implementing some of those juicy lifehacker/zen habits lists to get the piles of undone tasks done because it’s pretty overwhelming.  Number ONE is planning on getting the new episodes of The Guild shot.  We have cast members/crew still working on other stuff for a bit so juggling schedules will be “fun”, but my task is to get the shoot planned ASAP and get the turnover time shortened so that we can have an episode out by late October.   Frustrating that there’s that long a lag, but when you’re working 14 hour days 6 days a week, not much can happen with planning, especially when you don’t have cell service or email.  Utter torture.  Also, we ARE in talks with getting money to do a bunch of episodes at a time, which is fantastic, but it’s not reality until the paper is in front of you, as they say.

As far as everything else, my “prioritized list” is as long as my arm.  I think 43 folders has a nice video on “inbox zero” that my brother has been preaching to me that I’ll be checking out.   I need the help.   I literally have 200 emails to return.   And at least 15 messages from my Mother, telling me what she bought at Target last night from the last two weeks, and how her dog is doing.  She likes to share stuff with my answering machine, LOL.

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?

I’ve been doing a lot of stuff around the house lately, it’s that Spring cleaning fever thing! Luckily (and unluckily for my bank account) they opened a Container store near my house. Oh boy. If this isn’t the REAL porn for girls, I don’t know what is!

Look at the clean lines, the spotless organization. I bet they TYPED the labels rather than hand wrote them for greater precision!
I got a bunch of the Stockholm line, the orange and lime green magazine holders and boxes to put all the things I never work on in. I swear, when I’m ready to actually DO something constructive, mess will not be an impediment!