"Don't Settle Until You're Dead or Damn Well Close to Dead"

I've encountered a lot of great quotes in the past year or so - many of which are very inspirational. Usually these quotes come from someone established, notable, and otherwise important.

I just got back from an acting class about an hour or so ago, where I was reminded of a well quoted, "I am enough" or "You are enough."

A high school friend of mine just mentioned she encountered another long unseen high school friend randomly who said she had settled into her job.

Then this quote came to my mind:

"Don't settle until you're dead or damn well close to dead."

- Felicia Hom

Now I know I am not influential on the majority or even a small corner of the world nor do I wield any sort of credible power, so I can't really count myself as being "quotable." But as I was reminded earlier today, "I am enough." And so be my quote.

Earlier today I was also reminded over at Bill Dance Casting of that thing called passion. The way of an actor truly is a tough one - what with all the training and training that goes beyond mere acting and general immersion into the arts, but that's what one must do for something he or she loves.

Life in the Background

Background work isn't considered acting and seems to be unanimously shunned as something you should never put on your resume. Indeed!

However, I have found myself doing background work several times so far in Los Angeles. You may have seen my post earlier this summer about Japanese clubbing, in which I look nothing like an actual Japanese clubber.

Nurse Felicia... in the future Dr. Hom's scrubs (I mean my sister)

In the past couple of weeks, I have been everything from a guest at the wedding of Korean superstar Lee Minho, a nurse on "Body of Proof" and just your average gal passing in the background of "Cougartown." I must admit it was a bit cool to see Jeri Ryan and Courteney Cox as I had watched "Star Trek Voyager" and "Friends" in my youth (a time when I actually watched TV). I wasn't exactly starstruck as I have now grown used to seeing actors and actresses - but Lee Minho was a total surprise since he doesn't prance around Hollywood very much. He was of special meaning to me because he rose to fame while I was living in Seoul. I even included him on some of my English worksheets as all my students knew who he was and watched him on "꽃보다 남자." Crazy! I'd never seen any Korean stars when I lived in Korea - so unexpectedly, a couple years later, I end up seeing one in a random corner of central Los Angeles.

Agent Hom's backside might appear on "Chuck"

Background work does have some pros as I do get to see all these stars, but also get to learn more about the shooting and production process.

Now, an acquaintance of mine mumbled something to the effect of, "You don't want to be stuck in the background forever, do you?" Why, no, of course not. But until I end up actually booking the job and demonstrating that I am a better fit for various roles, it seems I will be consigned to hover in the background until I can bring the A-game. That, or make the A-game. This reminds me that I am nearing the deadline on my one-year goal statement and still have to self-produce!

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.