2014 Goals
Time to put down, on digital paper, some of the things I’d like to accomplish in 2014. Just a post that I can look back at and review throughout the year and see how well I’m doing. I attempted to do this in 2013 and only got part one of my goals typed out. As for those jobs, I didn’t do so well. Only got a visit to the Grand Canyon in. I was lucky enough to book enough jobs to keep me floating in 2013 but did not find a steady job. And I did not even look at Time Skippers in 2013. Though, I did write a brand new 53,000 word novel so I’m not writing 2013 off completely as a literary loss. Although, now I have two books I need to edit through. Eventually.
So I’m going to list some goals below, but I wanted to talk about a sort of ‘big goal’ I have for 2013. In the tail end of 2012, I went to Michaels at one point and bought a big bag of self-adheisive goggly eyes. I then proceeded to stick them on random places to make faces. Parking meters, salt and pepper shakers, my mom’s fancy salt holder in her kitchen, etc.. Just to add a little fun in random places.
Somehow, in 2013, I lost that. At the beginning of December of 2013 I put on an old jacket and four some of the self adhesive goggly eyes in the pocket and instantly smiled. And then later that day I stuck them on a light switch at the job I’m on. It felt really good. Someone even noticed them while I was standing there and asked if they’d always been there. I said, “I don’t know.”
So, one of my goals for 2014 is to stick more goggly eyes on things. Seriously. It makes me happy to do it and, for the most part, it doesn’t bother anybody, so why not? Might make a few other people smile as well.
Okay, on to other goals…
Participate in NaNoWrimo again. This year I had it sort of easy because I wrote on a story I’d had in my brain for several years. I have no such story now. So I should start thinking of one.
Visit another state on vacation, not as part of a job. I have a couple trips plans as part of work, and some possible ones as well, but I want to visit another state purely for vacation purposes. Much like I did last year to Oregon. Preferably a state I’ve never been to.
Continue make videos of Uncle Interloper projects. I love making these short goofy videos with Uncle Interloper. They are, usually, pretty easy to film, so I want to continue doing so.
Continue development on the Saturday Morning Media App. I started on this and actually came up with something, but the result was not to my linking. I’m currently looking into new ways to get this app out on the market and I need to find time to really delve into how to get it up and running.
Read more. I have a stack of books from Christmas 2012 that I need to get through. Not to mention the ones I got in 2013! I’d like to read more this year.
‘Thoughts on Creativity’ Blog. At the beginning of last year I started the daily practice of coming up with a sentence or two about some aspect of creating and posting it on Twitter & Facebook. This seemed to get a lot of traction and I actually got feedback from people saying they looked forward to it everyday. After a few months, I sort of ran dry but I kept a record of all the things I posted and put them in a file. Then at random times throughout last year I would take one of the thoughts and write a 300-500 word blog post using that sentence as a springboard. Starting next Monday, January 6, 2013, I will begin posting these here on this blog. My goal is to do one a week, so fifty two. We’ll see how it goes.
Record more audio but look at different ways to promote/distribute. I produced a lot of podcasts this year. Not counting the video episodes of Uncle Interloper stuff and the Advent Calendar show, I produced twenty one episodes of Thunder Crester and Fifteen episodes of Deputy Guppy. I just need to find a better way of distributing them. The schedule of one episode a week, more so with Guppy, has sometimes been a little grinding. Different ways I can handle this, go to a more lax schedule (bi-weekly) or treat these podcasts like a author treats a book or musician an album. Work on the season until it is complete and then release it as a CD/digital download as well as podcasting it. I think it’d be an interesting model. Have the full season for sale so those who want to support the cause or listen to them all in on fell swoop can do so. And those who want to get it for free via podcast, they can. This may also lead to my first foray into Kickstarter or something similar. At the beginning of last year I made it a rule to pay each person who came a did a voice for me at least something. I can’t afford ‘scale’ voiceover rates, but I gave them something. Because of this I need to find a way to start monetizing the podcasts. The traditional podcasting ways aren’t working and though I’ve pushed these shows to the Dr. Floyd crowd, it doesn’t seem to have been accepted by them.
Find someone who will get me meetings. I create a lot of content. I have the content that I put out and then a ton of ideas in notebooks, computer files, etc. People always ask, “Why aren’t you pitching this.” and the answer is simple: I’ve got no one to get me meetings. For 2014, I’d like for that to change and find someone who will get me meetings to pitch these ideas. My ideas ARE just as good as any of the ideas that are getting made. SO this year I find someone to help me get those pitch sessions.
And that’s the short list for 2014. And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve to go go stick goggly eyes on something.
Health, Decide & Love in 2014.
It is the start of a new year and so time to pick three new words I’m going to attempt to focus on in my life for 2014. This is a practice I picked up from C.C. Chapman‘s book Amazing Things WIll Happen.
Last year my three words were Create. Rebuild. Live. I would say out of those three I hit Create the hardest. I certainly was not wanting for creative projects to occupy my time. The Live focus also got some attention this year, but not nearly enough as I would have liked. The Rebuild portion was a hard one. Rebuilding relationships often takes more than one person and, despite efforts, I was not always successful in this arena, though small steps were made.
But those were the words for last year, it’s time to focus on the words for this year.
Health. A lot of people make the old Heath resolution in January and it falls by the wayside weeks later. Back in October, I focused on health for 20 days and it worked. Not only that, it was easy. But then I went to Toronto and instead of keeping going it all flew out the window. Any gains I made were lost. And then some.
So for 2014 I have a goal of taking better care of my self. Yes, this includes eating right, exercising and losing weight, but it means more than just that.
2013 Annual Review
Here we are at the end of 2013 and it’s time for a look back.
My initial, gut reactions to 2013 is that it was not a very good year. In fact, my gut tells me that 2013 was the worst year in recent memory. And that includes 2012 where I spent most of the year with a broken arm. There was a lot of ‘personal life’ drama this year that I choose not to discuss in a public matter (hence why it’s call personal) that really mired down 2013. Unfortunately, some of it still lingers here at the end of the year, but there seems to be a some light cracking through the dark. There was also a lot of work uncertainty and frustrations in trying to find a ‘real job.’
But even as I sit and look back at the bad there was a lot of really great stuff in 2013 and a lot of it in the professional realm. So let’s take a look at it.
- Booked several voiceover jobs via Voices.com auditions
- Principal puppeteer for Missed U 2 music video.
- Did my first Library performer showcase where I booked several “Mr. Grant” shows at libraries across Southern California.
- Puppeteered on a sizzle real for a project I so wish I could make public, but I cannot. My hope is that someday I will be able to show you guys the footage that was shot. I’m not saying this as a, “I know and you don’t know.” type thing, it’s just that I think the project is truly funny and deserves to be seen.
- Helped launch the FlappCast, the podcast of Flappers Comedy Club. I produced and co-hosted the first 15 or so episodes until they decided to bring all production in house.
- Launched Saturday Morning Theatre in April. The show started with the series The Adventures of the Thunder Crester and then rounded out the year with the underwater western, The Tales of Deputy Guppy. This all sort of coincided with the launching of my family friendly media focused company, Saturday Morning Media.
- In April, I was fortunate enough to be asked to puppeteer on the final Stuffed & Unstrung tour. Final because the show’s name went back to PuppetUp afterwards. We played 11 shows in 7 states and despite a rocky start with scary bus trips and an unpleasant hotel, it was some of the most fun I’ve had with the show. You can read my tour diary from the show starting HERE. This trip also included what I consider the Best Day Of The Year, the day we unexpectedly got to go to Walt Disney World.
- Late April I filmed a diversity video that I was commissioned to write for R.D. White Elementary School in Glendale, CA.
- In May, I flew to Austin, TX to help stage Leslie Carrara-Rudolph’s show Wake Up Your Weird.
- Late May I shot six episodes of Ketchup With The Hot Dogs for The Jim Henson Company’s Henson Alternative and Nerdist.
- Also in May I directed a video for a song about Romeo & Juliet.
- In June I produced the B.O.R.E.D. Tour the longest running comedy music show…anywhere.
- On August 2nd, I recorded a few voiceovers for an upcoming animated series on Comedy Central called Trip Tank. This made me, for the first time and years of trying SAG Eligible. Now to scrounge up $3000. My episodes are schedule to air in the new year.
- August saw the launch of The Uncle Interloper Show, a bi-weekly, video podcast that features a rotating bunch of segments including the flagship segment, The Cartoon Doghouse.
- In October, I got to travel with Puppet Up again to Toronto, Canada for two weeks of shows at the Panasonic Theatre. It was during this run that I realized that, doing this show, is my absolute favorite thing to do. If I could perform in Puppet Up daily for the rest of my life, I would. The fun I had with the cast and crew and the amazing crowds in Toronto, some of whom I still keep in touch with via social media, just brought that point home. Puppet Up is my dream job. You can read the Toronto Tour Diary HERE.
- In November I completed my first ever NaNoWriMo novel. From November 1 through November 30th I wrote 53082 words in a novel titled SIGN FORCE ONE. The writing continued into December and the first draft came in at 54,192. No idea what I’m going to do with the pile of slop right now, but something will be done with it. Someday.
- November also saw me taking a job at the Bob Baker Marionette Theatre in Los Angeles. I pursued this job in order to gain more experience with marionettes because previously I had none. I figured that getting paid to learn how to do marionettes would be pretty sweet. To go from the ultimate creative project in Puppet Up to the Bob Baker Show (a show with all prerecorded tracks) was a major gear shift and took some time to adjust to. I’m glad I did it. I won’t say I”m an expert with marionettes now, but I’m certainly more comfortable with them. I performed in the Bob Baker Holiday Spectacular, right up through the end of the year.
- On November 23rd, I had what I call my Second Best Day of 2013. It was the day that I did a Saturday Morning Media LIVE show at Long Beach Comic & Horror Con. I was surrounded by my favorite talented people and we put on a live recording of a Thanksgiving themed episode of Thunder Crester and a Christmas themed Deputy Guppy. After we walked around the Comic-Con and reeked out and then, we all went out for a big barbecue dinner. I remarked, “This is exactly how I’d want to spend my birthday.” Even though my birthday was in May, I consider November 23, 2013, the day I celebrated it.
- December marked the beginning of the 2013 edition of Grant’s Advent Calendar Video Podcast. Proud to say it was a successful season and fun was had by all. Especially me.
- Throughout the year I performed with my comedy music act Throwing Toasters,
- I continued to lead Adventures By Disney Tours at The Jim Henson Company
- I was also fortunate enough to continue doing backstage and ringside interviews for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood and even got paid for the first time. I’m really a pro now!
- In December of 2012 or January of 2013, I heard about The Magic Spreadsheet from my good friend Mur Lafferty. Form the day I started (which was January 12th I believe, but I can’t remember for sure), with the exception of three days, I wrote every single day throughout the year. Most days I wrote over 500 words. These writings included my NaNoWriMo novel, scripts, blog posts on here (including this one) and some personal writing. I have no other years to compare it to, but it’s safe to say that I’ve written more this year than any other day. I’ve created a habit of writing and can’t lie down and rest at night until I’ve ‘done my words.’ Including this post, I’ve written 247,172 words so far. And that doesn’t include the 500+ I’ll do later today to finish out the year.
Looking back, I’ve accomplished a lot. A lot I should be proud of, and I am. Would I like a bigger audience taking in the content I create? Sure. Do I get insanely frustrated when I see others getting bigger audiences for less creative ideas. Yep. Does it infuriate me when a certain New York puppeteer is constantly stealing my ideas and passing them off as his own without giving me credit? Uh…yeah. But with this look back, I see I’ve done a lot. A lot of creating. Had a lot of fun. Overcame a lot of challenges and had a pretty good year.
A damn good year. And I thank you for being part of it. Enough of 2013…
Bring on 2014!