2:00 pm - Sunday, Jul. 24, 2005
A Sunday \"2-Fer\"

Sun 7/24/05 (12:51 a.m.)

Have to head off to the grocery store in a few minutes...

Left out a bunch of stuff in my last entry, in my enthusiasm for writing about the workshop yesterday morning (Which really was inspiring).

On Thursday, I went to Central Casting in Burbank, and signed up to be a union extra (I signed up with Cenex, their non-union arm, early after I first got here).

I was hoping I�d just be able to switch from �non-union� to �union� by showing them my SAG card, but now they�ve got a rule where you have to re-register every two years, or else pay a new $25 signup fee (For the record, I was last there sometime in �02, to update my photo).

The digital photo they took this time was terrible, emphasizing every feature--Namely, my asymetrical jaw and weak chin--that I don�t want emphasized. I don�t know why I didn�t say anything about it, but it�s bothered me ever since (To the point where I�m going to have to go back soon and have them re-do it).

(What�s strange is that I�ve now had maybe 150 polaroids taken at auditions, so it�s not like I don�t know how to pose for a picture that�ll turn out decently. I need to keep my head level with the camera lens, a little forward of my body, and ever-so-slightly turned. But for whatever reason, I didn�t do that. But anyway...)

On Thursday, I also started checking out places online that use Notary Signing Agents.
And almost immediately, I hit a snag: On one website, I was about to start the application process, when I saw they needed, amongst other things, a copy of your social security card.

And I don�t have one (I don�t think I�ve had an actual social security card since I was about twelve).

So on Friday, before work (And before my Genworth Financial callback. More on that in a minute), I went to the Social Security office on Wilshire, and applied for a new card, which I should be getting in the next week or two.

From there, I went to my callback, which was at The Casting Studios on LaBrea. It�s probably my favorite place to have auditions, because it�s close�I can get there in 15 or 20 minutes on my bike--and it�s also a pretty short distance from there to work.

My scheduled time was at 4:20.

I�d called work the day before, talking to Tim G., to say that I�d probably be late, though I�d try to hit the audition early, and indeed, I got there an hour before my appointment time (Often, if you get there early, you can get in and out before you�re actually scheduled, since they basically just go down the sign-up sheet).

But sometimes, try as you might, things are just not going to go your way�I got there an hour early...and they were running an hour-and-a-half late.

So that�s another �occurrence� for Jim at the bookstore. And I�m not sure, but that might be the one that gets me my first-ever written warning (Tim G. tried to fix it with the new office manager, but I don�t know if that�s going to make any difference).

But looking on the bright side, now that I�m in the union, the fact that I waited over an hour past my appointment time means they have to pay me. It�s not a fortune, but it�s more than I would�ve made if I�d gotten to work on time.

As for the audition itself, who knows? It was basically more of the same (As the first audition)�We watched an imaginary tennis game, cheering or booing as indicated. Except this time there were more of us (Four actors at a time, instead of two), and more people in the room.

Normally, if you don�t hear anything shortly after the callback, you didn�t get the gig. But it was quarter-to-six when I left, and they were maybe a third of the way through the �face in the crowd� actors, so I�m hoping they maybe held off making a decision till Monday.

And now, off I go for soda...

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