Re-Fresh

*Sigh of exhilaration!!! I feel renewed, refreshed, revived... not that I wasn't looking forward to my acting career before... but I am now inspired... I am going to take charge of my career and work at being the best actor that I can be. Look out remainder of 2010, Paul is here.

- Officially graduated with a B.A. in Communication Studies and a minor in Theater from CSULB
- New agency
- New head shots (being finalized)
- Signed up for commercial classes with Killian
- Refocused on my priorities and ready to kick butt

I will keep you updated blog!

Where now?

I just got home from taking (hopefully) the last final of my college "career!" I can't stop smiling. It's been a long time coming but the day has finally arrived. There's some paperwork I need to take care of with the community college I attended before and if everything goes smoothly (hence the hopefully), I will be officially done with school. What does it matter? I really don't know... a sense of accomplishment for me, I guess. Many years ago, I decided that college was not something for me and I focused my attention on running my business, Infrared. That didn't go so well and I found myself working at a full-time job in the motorcycle industry (Vance & Hines) which I quite enjoyed... not the office part, but the traveling across the country part. It's funny how things work out, because if I didn't get the job there, I would not have met my friend Tom who guided me into deciding to go back to finish school. It was tough because I had a good job at V&H and I was comfortable... but that's what I guess I didn't like, being comfortable. So I decided that acting and school was what I wanted... the life of having no money, total insecurity, no secure job... but that was exciting to me. Three years later, I'm done with school. I've learned a lot about myself and the world since I left to finish school... and I'm glad I did it. Now I can move on to work on my acting career. To some, it's an unrealistic dream... but I don't think so. There's something about not knowing that is exciting for me. I'm not trying to be famous, I just want to perform and have fun taking on different roles, different characters, being in different worlds... even if it's only for a few weeks. It beats sitting behind a desk for the next 50 years. Will I have a big house, fancy cars, and all sorts of "cool" material things to show for it? Perhaps not, but I feel like that's not what I'm here for. I'm here to learn about myself, the world around me, the world far from me, and everything in between. I've got some personal projects I want to work on and mostly, I look forward to performing. I hope to see you all there! I want to thank everyone who stuck by me from the bottom of my heart. I look forward to being with all of you for the rest of my life... you can count on it.

Disneyland

Man, I haven't been to Disneyland in at least 10 years, and that's being conservative with the estimate. I went with Maggie for my nephews 3rd birthday. Wow, he's growing up (that's what kids do, right?) real fast and it was actually really fun just to be around Andrew and Noah (my other nephew). A lot of that time was spent walking around, waiting on them, or just figuring out what to do next... but that's cool though. Considering I only see Andrew every few months or so, it was good fun spending time with him and seeing him having fun with Noah.

As far as Disneyland goes, that place is crazy. It has changed so much since I last visited yet it hasn't changed at all. Being older now makes me realize what a zoo that place is though. But I can't help thinking about how much fun a lot of the rides would be if the crazy lines weren't there. My cousin Peter, who has an annual pass there and goes about once a week, says the weekdays are the best times to go because there isn't a damn person there. Anyway, it was fun and we had to get a picture with the kids in front of the castle... whose castle I don't know.

Delay

Here I am playing catch up again... the last time I posted was after Michael Jackson's death. It sucks that he's gone and listening to his songs brings up many memories. I can't help but reminisce about the past. Life goes on.

Since then, I've just been climbing a lot... climbed my first V5... I've gotten two V5's and it's tough to progress, but I am determined to move forward... or upward is more appropriate.

I'm not going to lie though, what really inspired me to blog today was the acquisition of a new laptop... but not any new laptop... I actually purchased a Macbook Pro yesterday... I never thought I would see the day that I would purchase a Mac... but I did and so far so good. It definitely looks good... it's years ahead in design when compared to a PC... we'll see how well it performs... Chris seems to think that I won't be going back to a PC any time soon. Take a look... Gotta have Rossi on my desktop... It's a good looking laptop... no doubt about that... but we'll see how it performs... I'm definitely a PC guy but I can't argue how cool it is... so far so good... but I've only been using it to go online... I'll see if I like it during school... which starts in about a week or so... I'll be graduating in the spring of 2010... I'm very excited to finally complete it... so wish me luck.

With that said, I'm currently planning to take a trip to Asia for 2 or 3 months... it's only in the idea phase right now, but I definitely want to do it... I've never been abroad for too long and I've basically been a California boy all my life so it'd be cool to travel and see the world from a totally different perspective... I'll blog about it the more things become clear.

Long live the Captain...

There's not a single doubt in my mind that there are a million posts up about Michael Jackson's death. It's tragic really. What's funny is that when I first heard about it from Maggie, I didn't think much of it. I thought it sucked, but what did it have to do with me. As I sat and watched the coverage during my lunch break, they started showing images of Michael as a kid and it really made me think about what the guy must have gone through. Obviously, there is no way I'll ever know, but try to imagine being as young as he was enjoying the up sides of fame... and the down sides of it. Being responsible for the well-being of his family and all the expectations... No one will ever know what went through his head, but it made me feel sad. Then I remembered how much I loved Michael Jackson as a kid. Not to the extreme as most people and I wouldn't even claim to be a fan... but as a kid, I remember that I loved watching 'Captain EO' at Disneyland. How he turned the bad people into good people with his 'spirit fingers'. The robots were the coolest. I really had a blast watching Moonwalker too... I used to have the video in my drawer and I can't seem to remember who let me barrow it... and the 'BAD' video was super fun... when he turned into the stop-motion rabbit... Thriller, Bad, Billy Jean, Beat it... good stuff. I guess maybe I lost touch as I grew up... plus there's the fact that he didn't look the way he did as I remembered him as a kid... all the weird stories that went around... with all that, his music trascended all of it! He's certainly a legend in his own right and it will be interesting to see his music live on many years from now. Well, life goes on and soon, we will all pass too.

Hello new friend...

Well, I was gonna hold off for a year to purchase a new car but I ended up going to the dealership and drove home with a new one. Recently, my bro got into an accident and totaled his truck, which I was planning on using to take my bike to the track. He ended up getting a 2009 Honda Accord Coupe so I no longer have a way to get my bike to the track when I finally hit a track day. So I've been thinking a lot about purchasing a truck... it wouldn't have been a smart move but I figured it would be good to have one for the bike and since I'm doing a little more out door climbing now, I'd be able to use it whenever needed to get up some off-road trails... after toying with the idea a bit, I decided it would have been much too expensive for an actor to do such a thing. The $3000 I'd be spending on insurance a year alone could pay for acting classes and the monthly payments (probably of about $400 - $500 per month) could be used towards things such as head shots, more training, etc... things that would contribute to my chosen career path.

Anyway, Chris, Peter, and I all decided to go check out trucks anyway and luckily, they did not have the Toyota Tacoma I was looking for. Chris left for work and Peter and I trekked over to the Honda dealership... with NO intention of buying... just test driving... but one thing lead to another, we sat in the cubicle and started wheeling & dealing. The down payment and monthly payment seemed like a good deal and I went through with it. Peter and I ended up driving home that night in a brand new 2009 Honda Fit. I had a post where I said good bye to my old friend, my 1997 Honda Accord... so I thought it was FITting to say hello to my new friend. Everyone seems to like it and most importantly, I like it. I like that it's very practical and very chill at the same time. This will definitely be there with me during auditions and stuff when I finally move my ass out of my parents house. Well, here it is, my new friend!!!

I'm a die-hard Yamaha Motorcycle loyalist... but when it comes to cars, I love my Honda's... I think their engineering is far superior to American and European brands. My Accord treated me so well that I had to go with another Honda. I'm definitely glad that I did.

It's 2am right now so I'm going to bed... however, wait a little bit and I will show you how cool and practical the Fit really is!

The Great Outdoors...

I don't think I've mentioned this here, but I enjoy rock climbing. Chris, Peter, Johnny, and I have been climbing since about July of 2008... unfortunately, Chris and Johnny are no longer really into it so it's just been me and Peter. Since then, it has strictly been indoor climbing. We've both progressed from struggling on V0's and 1's and now we're solid V3 and V4 climbers. Peter has the slight edge cause he's a really strong climber and it's awesome to see him finish routes so easily now. I'm a bit of a weaker climber, but I tend to focus more on the quality of the climb as opposed to just finishing it. Either way, I think we've both found something that we really love besides motorcycle riding and we both want to get even better. Recently, we both went with a fun group of climbers from Rock City to 'The Tram' in Palm Springs, CA. It's a beautiful mountainous range about 8k feet above sea level... it was our first time outdoors together (although I went a few days earlier to Steele Valley, blog to come) and it was amazing. The feeling is so different compared to climbing indoors and as a climber we ran into said, "survival mode" kicks in. Here's a picture of my proudest 'send' outdoors so far. The name of this route is 'Yo Picasso'... perhaps because it looks like a distorted face or object that Picasso is known for... either way, it's an 18 foot send and it was amazing.

As usual, it took me a while to get the sequence down. Watching Peter and the others helped... although I do want to mention that I did provide Peter with a beta to get from one point of the route to another too!

The sequence we followed up was a V3 and I worked really hard to get it. The first time I attempted the finish, it was SCARY. You're about 16 feet off the ground (which doesn't seem that high), but when you're hanging on your finger tips and everything in your body wants to fail, it is crazy scary! My arm was too weak to pull myself up so I came back down. Peter finished it immediately after.

This was motivation for me to get it because I knew if Peter could get it, I would eventually get it. I did. This time, I tried to conserve as much energy as possible because the ending was where it counted the most. It was a proud moment and I don't think I'll ever forget it... if I do, that's what I've got this blog for!