Garmin Nüvi 270 GPS Unboxing

Recently, I pulled an “ol’ one-two” to a credit car company. Well, not really, because people do this kind of stuff all the time, but it’s cool to get free stuff. Anyway, recently, I was turned onto the site mygpsoffer.com* from the SomethingAwful forums.

If you signed up for their credit card, you get a free GPS. So I said what the hell…got approved for the card instantly (good credit) and bought myself a Timbuk2 Messenger Bag that I had been eyeing. I was going to get one anyway with the recent acting gig money that I was getting, so why not get a free GPS along with it?

Well, today it has finally come. Here are pictures of it’s unboxing for those interested:

Here be the Nüvi!

The coverage area on the Nüvi 270 is really good. All of the blue is covered. The advantage of the Nuvi 270 is that it offers coverage of not only all of the U.S. and Canada, but also most of Western Europe (and parts of the Baltics and Western Asia).

The first thing you see is pure AWESOME.

Everything that comes with the Nüvi in the box. From left to right, dash disc, car charger, the unit itself, and a dash mount.

Apparently, Garmin likes to cut down alot of trees and ship ELEVEN manuals in different languages. 

Anyway, that’s it for now. I think I’ve lost the blog off this month, AGAIN. I got too busy in the middle of the month.

*The offer is currently unavailable, but it doesn’t seem like it will be forever. If you’re interested, bookmark the page and keep checking back. The card itself isn’t such a bad deal, actually, and now I have Miles if I end up wanting to keep the card.

Featured on the BREAK A LEG Thank You Video

If you’re unfamiliar with the internet sit-com “BREAK A LEG” then you are WAY out of touch. I’ve been watching this show since it’s began. It’s one of the unique times that you can start watching a show in new media when it just starts because you have the ability to openly communicate with alot of the people who are making the show. I did this and have talked to the shows creators and stars on several occasions. I’ve gotten shooting advise from several of them as well. Always very approachable and always very friendly and helpful. 

Anyway, awhile back, as they were starting to get popular and gain sponsors/backers and trying to get into the public eye, they held a contest where you would vote and review them, then send in your name and they’d add you in their credits. I, of course, did this. I was the second or third person to do it, actually, I think. I’m sure that this, and because I talked to them, asked them for advice, encouraged them is why they had my name in their thank you video.

Awww yeeah, boyyyyy! I also got an ENTIRE VERSE devoted to me. And how I make Mint (a character in the show) so CRAZEHHHH, in the HAZEHHH, FO SHAZEHHH. You can watch it at 1:18 in the video below.

Sukki’s Bag of Tricks

Well, it is currently 3:45 in the AM and I just got back from a shoot with Brian at his gig at Casino Del Sol. This was my first time stepping inside of a casino, and the only word to really describe this evening is: surreal. I saw some crazy shit tonight that I am glad to have brought my camera for. Brian had never done anything like this, as it wasn’t so much stand-up as it was to mingle around the huge bingo hall and make fun of people between games. He did great and people liked him, but there were some strange people there.

The first and foremost that needs to be talked about is an older, Hispanic looking woman who must be a regular there, because every knows her and her infamous purse full of dildos. Her name is Sukki (I don’t know how it is spelled, but I’m spelling it the way it is pronounced, which is “Sue-kee”). Not even two minutes into Brian’s routines, Sukki comes up to him and grabs his dick. No joke. Just walks right up and grabs his shit. Needless to say, this startled him quite a bit, and also needless to say, this was excellent footage. Brian’s relationship with Sukki lasted most of the night, climaxing with Sukki handcuffing him to her and dragging him into the family bathroom to pretend to have sex with him. This ended with Brian playing along and then subsequently pretending to shit on Sukki’s chest. This also on film. The crazy thing was, Sukki had her entire family there with her, INCLUDING her mother, who must have been in her 80s. She was unfazed by the bag of dildos.

I have, of course, taken a picture of Sukki for everyone to see. Here’s a picture of her and Brian before we took off.

Now, onto my observations from tonight. This was my first time inside of a casino. The times when I wasn’t filming or after Brian was done and we were wondering the casino floor, I had alot of time to observe alot of the casino people. They are a strange breed of people. As I walked around, or observed people, I couldn’t help but think about the American Dream. People were getting genuinely pissed off whenever they didn’t win. Each one of those people in there came there to strike it big. They were going to win the jackpot. The constant grind of loss must have driven many of the people, including Sukki, insane. I witnessed Sukki flopping a giant dildo around in Brian’s face and waving it around for all to see. I saw a lady playing a “Skin Flute”, a flute in the shape of a cock and balls. What exactly is wrong with these people? What happened in people’s brains that allowed all this to be socially acceptable. You would never see someone waving around sex toys in public, would you? You would never see anyone becoming the Pied Piper of Penis in public, would you? I’m not refuting how entertaining it was, but I’m just curious as to why it’s acceptable in a casino and not outside.

Anyway, I’m just rambling now, but it’s something to think about. That’s all I have for tonight. Stay tuned for more updates about the documentary I’m filming.

Camera and Storytime

There it is! About a month ago, I found this camera on a listing on cinematography.com (which is a great forum if you’re a filmmaker, by the way, check it out) and in my mind I said, “I MUST HAVE IT!”. The reason I needed it was because I used to be able to borrow an XL2 from Robert Encila, but because of certain circumstances, he needed to give it to this other guy, Tom DeMoss. Now, prior to this, Tom DeMoss seemed to be a nice guy. However, the moment he got the camera, he turned into a cocksmooch. 

First of all, this guy didn’t know how to use this camera whatsoever, but that doesn’t matter so much. We had both been borrowing the camera from Robert previously. Well, I needed to use it, so I e-mailed him asking for it back. He returned an e-mail telling me that he owned it now and that he didn’t like lending out HIS equipment. I’d been using this camera for months before he came into the picture, so it didn’t make much sense to me. So this asshole started to get all arrogant towards me about the camera and owning it and stuff. 

Well, in order to appreciate the absurdity of this, I think I need to tell you what he project was he was working on with the camera. He was going to get one hundred people and have them sing “100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” one-by-one. I usually don’t like to judge other people’s film project, especially before I see them, but…give me a fucking break. You don’t need an XL2 to dick around.

So anyway, fueled with a great want to up him in terms of camera equipment and fueled even more so by the NEED of some high level camera, I was able to secure $4100 loan from my parents and bought the camera you see above. 

My first project that I’m working on is that I’m making a mini-documentary on Brian Neufang, the homeless comic, while he is still around town. Tonight I head over to some casino to record some footage at a gig he’s doing. I’ll do another post about it later.

Update and October Post Off

Well, I haven’t been able to update my blog in awhile. I’ve been so incredibly busy, it’s been ridiculous. So I’ll attempt to write a not as long update on everything that’s been going on. I have to save myself for this month because of the Post-Off, which I’ll get to in a little bit.

The main reason why I haven’t been able to post regular blog posts is because I’ve been doing back-to-back shows for…well, I don’t even know how many months now. It can really kill you doing shows back-to-back at a repretory theatre like Top Hat Theatre Club is. For example, my schedule for these past several months have been: rehearsals Monday-Thursday and then shows Friday-Sunday. Absolutely no break, although there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel. I should be able to get a break after we open “The Nerd” on Friday. Come see it by the way…it runs October 3 – November 16. 

Also, on September 29th, I scored an acting gig thanks to my good friend Brian Neufang from homelesscomic.com. Apparently in Japan, karaoke videos have videos playing behind them. So I scored $150 for only 6 hours of work (in actuality, I only spent 2 hours actually working). So that was actually pretty interesting. It was cool to see how different cultures film movies as well. Here’s a few pictures I took on my cell phone on the set:

They were shooting on Sony HDV for anyone that is interested. And that second picture is the camera mounted on the truck that I had to drive. Pretty crazy, but it was fun.

Now, the other reason that I’m starting to post more starting now is because it is a blog POST-OFF, yet again! Back in June, Jacob Karnas and friends had a blog post-off, and we are doing another one for the month of October. So far, the contestants include:

Myself
Jacob Karnas
Ryan McShowoff
Nikki Brzescinski
Kate Russell

And hopefully more to follow!

Anyway, that’s all for now. Next post will be about my new camera, etc.