Track Back to April

The following is a short we filmed for our Actors/Directors/Writers Workshop at Film Acting Bay Area. It was filmed back in April, but only has now come out with a rough cut. I was written into this at the last moment, hence I only have a small part. You can, however, briefly see my pink bunny pencil case on the desk next to my pink laptop in front of another actress. Pink power! I'm also wearing my trademark dirty pink backpack which I have dragged all around the world with me - from UCLA to Seoul to every country I visited in between in Asia and Europe and throughout China and back.

Adult Education from Doniphan Blair on Vimeo.

This may or may not be edited more as this is a rough edit.

Say Hello to September

It is the early morning of September 11, 2011 as I write this entry. I've been a bit sporadic with my updates as of late, but if you must know, here are a couple of photos taken for me by a photographer by the name of Daniel (for free!) in the last week of August:

I kind of like the messy hair. I also look very Asian and cute.

This is supposed to be my 'professional' shot. I was prepared to bring my suits, but I forgot them!

Anyway, I have a lot more shots - some featuring my pretty long silky hair and a few shots where I'm wearing glasses - like a librarian. By the way, I got a haircut in the first week of September - it's about mid length now, but it'll be long and silky again in no time. And I just changed my mind...I'll add the librarian shot...can't resist showing how much more intelligent I look with glasses my dad would have worn.

Why yes, that is my hand. What do you require?

Enough with the vapid face time, what else have I been doing? Well, I've had some various training, took a trip back home to San Francisco, am back for more various training and auditioning. I also got around to doing a wee bit more of blogging.

First, here is a brief entry on my experience with race/racism in America, posted at Rollinglobe for continuity's sake.

Finally, I started two new blogs, Acting in SF and Beginning LA Actors, dedicated to keeping both myself informed and any other beginning actor who happens to stumble across the blogs. Knowledge is power, and I fully intend to expand mine.

Oh yeah, and I tried putting together a demo reel by myself (with my purely new beginning editing skills). I do have a working version, but that begs the question - to have this demo reel or not? I definitely want more opportunities to showcase my acting chops because I know I can do better and am better than some of my various rivals. That being said, this is a continuous fight to improve and get better! I really want to get to the level where I can blow my competition out of the way instead of getting pwned! :)

Thanks to the Beer Inspector for HTML Help!

Ladies and gentlemen, after futilely searching for help on how to get rid of the jump breaks on my blog, I found help from an unlikely source - The Beer Inspector, also known as Ravish.
I scoured Google on "how to get rid of the Read More button on Blogger" and came across Ravish's posts on a forum. No one had responded to him after his multiple posts, but upon visiting his website, I saw that he had successfully removed the jump breaks.
I sent him a message and he very kindly walked me through the whole process! Not everyone would respond to random internet strangers asking for help, but he did (with a very thorough explanation!) and I am very grateful. So visit his site and marvel at one kind individual who likes to rate beer!

Some more of the beer I saw in Germany!

Battle with Trojans and Return of Shy Girl

"A Trojan is good only once, but a Bruin lasts forever." Such is the popularized slogan which the UCLA faithful will rattle off when it comes time to face USC.

But unrelated to all of that college rivalry, I'm waging a battle with the trojans nesting on my hard drive. There are times like this when I do regret buying that PC instead of the Mac I considered getting.

I do enjoy learning how to solve problems on my own, so I'm going to have this thing cleared up hopefully within a day. Yes, you may laugh at me for my apparent sluggishness, but I honestly haven't been sitting around my computer for extended periods of time lately - with today being the possible exception.

Last week, I had a record number of auditions in any given week of my life (four, with three being paying gigs). Unfortunately, I failed to yield any tangible results from them. In fact, the last audition I had on Friday involved me being called in to read for a second role. Suddenly, my nerves popped up and I could feel myself stumbling. Alas! I walked out of there with a gigantic FAIL grit on my teeth. But rest assured, I had another audition on Monday (not included in the four for last week) and I ended up booking it by means of attrition. I wasn't particularly good, but there were many roles open. So, at least I can say I finally booked something after an audition (I mean I have done so in the past, but...yeah)!

Taken with a Playsport Zx3 in studio!

All of this return of nerves leads me to realize that Shy Felicia is still nesting within me. I had thought I had broken out of my shell, but the truth is she is still nesting around - just like all of the happy little malicious trojans on my computer. One can't truly eradicate them all. She comes and goes - but I realize that's all right - as long as she can be quarantined! :)

Onward to clean computer!

The Foreign Food I Have Eaten

FOOD AND DRINK, a set on Flickr.

I have an extreme backlog of photos I took during my years abroad. A silly thing I decided to do in my hunger this evening was to go through and pick out the photos I had taken of food and drink (so far I've only gotten around to the ones taken with my 450D.) Needless to say, I am starving now. And this barely scratches the surface of all the food I've eaten and now miss - I just did not always lug my hulky camera around as I chowed down.

Social Advocacy and Responsibility

After experiencing a hair-raising and dangerous incident on the streets of Los Angeles and continued reading in the news about other senseless crimes, my mind has pondered the subject of crime. It isn't enough that we have the police (I am very grateful for their service) to catch the bad guys and throw them in increasingly crowded jails.

As long as we all live in this same society, we are responsible for preventing such things from happening - cutting down to the roots of the problem.

I'm not saying that each and every one of us must devote our lives to a higher cause and advocate to stop human trafficking and global starvation and poverty as that simply is not a realistic demand or expectation. But rather, we should each do what we can to make this world a better place to live in. If you have to ask why, just remember that you and your family and your friends are not always going to be safe.

There's really no reason why an innocent 11-year-old girl should be hit by a stray bullet while she is INSIDE her relative's house. There's no reason why she should be hit by one if she were on the street, either!

It's easy to think that we live in a world separate from the shootings and stabbings and fights, even though we may live within so many miles of kids who fall into a life full of crime and violence. And sometimes it doesn't really get real until it hits you or someone you know specifically - I mean, we are always aware in the back of our minds, but it doesn't really tug at us until we literally see and feel it. The problem is not going to go away by itself.

My goal in life is not to become an actor so I can get rich and famous. No. I've always just wanted to be able to make a difference in someone else's life. If I can do it through my personal relationships, that's good. If I can do it through my writing, that'd be great. If I can do it through acting, that'd be awesome. If I can do it through all of those ways and more, that'd be spectacular.

Of course all of this is my talk - what about action? Is it enough to just be a more decent, generous human being to those you know? That is more than nothing. Even this seemingly simple act of being a better person can be a challenge. Will it help to donate? Yes, but how much can I really donate as a starving actress (It'd probably be of more value if I was actually making money...those with capital definitely do have more power)? On another note one can always volunteer - like for Reading to Kids, an organization I volunteered with during college. Something is better than nothing, even though it may not be enough.

I truly admire the people out there who have dedicated their lives to fighting for worthy causes - and there are many. From my brief year stint as a teacher, I have developed mad respect for those who fuel their time in raising the young. I am truly humbled by those who are contributing to making this world a better place - and saving humanity.

First Impressions and the Mindset of an Entrepreneur

Since my last post, a number of different events have unfolded in my life - some great, some tiring, and some downright horrifying.

I write today after a full day at the Hollywood Nextgen Conference held at my alma mater UCLA. The conference was full of bright and driven individuals. Basically I took away a few key points, for myself and in general.

1. Specificity is key.

• This point was stressed by several of the speakers and panelists. Ask what do others need and explain specifically what you do.
• No one really has time to waste on you if you can't be specific. The same goes for actors - actors need to be specific.

2. Work your ass off.

• Is ass still a bad word? But yes, you get the drift - do it all day. As I sat there, I thought of all the long hours which are required in a multitude of industries. There's always going to be this culture of having to hustle and compete. Digression: This reminds me of a lecture one of my professors at UCLA gave on how even though technology has expanded and has supposedly made life easier - people still work long and hard hours.
• Personal reminder: I have chosen a path that will not be forgiving to slackers. 

3. Have humility and empathy.

• This seems to be a general rule of thumb, but we all know that not everyone heeds to this point!

4. Risk it all and just do it.

• Arguably could be the #1 reason I put up here, but I listed them in no particular order. Scooter Braun, manager for Justin Bieber, stressed this, as did Chris Jacquemin from William Morris Entertainment. Mr. Jacquemin said if he could go back and do it over again, he would've just gone straight into entrepreneurship.
• Personal lesson: I had better do this (re: acting and/or other unmentioned endeavors).

And just for my sake, I had better keep up to date on technology news as well as those financial markets. It's always better to be well informed.

As for first impressions, especially in networking environments, I definitely need to work on being more confident. I lack confidence in certain situations - not always as I do seem to gel in others. Nonetheless, being the confused and ditzy girl that I sometimes unintentionally project myself to be is not always the best scenario. The best way to rectify this is to actually have that clear and specific goal as to what I am doing in addition to the wealth of knowledge I must acquire.

Within the past few weeks, I started Meisner Technique training (I went straight from the conference to class and got home about an hour ago). I seem to give off this reserved and polite vibe in class despite that not always being the case, depending on the group. I realized today that I'm the girl whose name is easily forgotten. I mean, my goal isn't necessarily to have people remember me "HI, I AM FELICIA AND I HAVE LIVED ABROAD AND TRAVELED BY MYSELF AND I AM EDUCATED BUT DECIDED I WANTED TO ACT AND SEE ALL THE CHALLENGES AHEAD" (Please let this not be the first Google search match pop up for my name! ...I just erased the HOM after FELICIA in hopes this will not be!) and have me stamped in their brains as I'm there to learn how to act - but it seems in any business or industry I really do have to be my own promoter. It seems I still do have to break that shell as it opens and closes. But really, why would I want to be that nameless quiet face who sits in the corner?