all hail vic

Indiana Iain and the Commercial for Cheerios (and other stories)!!!

First, for no real reason, I'm going post the two most recent books I've read:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss and Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote.

Next, I'd like to say to all that I'm fine. I spent a week in Barcelona at the beginning of this month, where I celebrated my 27th birthday along with Paco's 26th (the very next day). For those who don't know, Paco is my host brother - he lived with my family and me when I was a senior in high school and then I lived with his family for 3 months from January to March in 1999. We celebrated our birthdays together at his family's half-house (they don't own the whole thing) in the small town of Masquefa about an hour by train or car outside of Barcelona.

I went to the beach a couple times there too.

I came back and spent some more time thinking. And dorking around. And setting forth tasks to complete - some of which have indeed come to pass.

First, I wanted to get back to work on my business. Check. I've taken many notes since I've been back and set some other dominoes up to fall.

I've decided that I'm going to base the business in the States for a few reasons: the tax rates are better for businesses; I won't have to deal with the convoluted Czech bureaucracy involved with establishing a business in Prague; likewise, in order to obtain a Czech residency permit, I need only contract myself out as a "representative" of the business in Prague (in comparison to going through the forementioned convoluted bureaucracy to start a business in order to also obtain said permit afterwards); it also allows for future mobility - should I want or need to move to another locale in the future, it will be easier.

I've "hired" a friend to design a logo for the business. Should she design one I like, I will pay her and use it.

I've registered a few more domain names, which ultimately will be used for my business.

My dad sent me a book on html/CSS programming, which I'll be picking up at the post office tomorrow. (Thanks, Dad!!) This, of course, means that I'll be programming my own website; but I've known from the get-go that the website will be fairly straight forward (and likewise, easy to design).

Second task, to start earning pocket money. Small things to help with paying for my life.

I'm on the verge of ordering business cards that say something along the lines of "There are (x number) of English errors on your (menu, sign, flyer, etc.)" which I will offer to business managers and whatnot if they want somebody to do some error correction for a small fee. The business cards I'll be ordering for free.

In other forms of possible money makers (but less likely to yield results), I registered with a casting agency here. I went to an audition for a European Cheerios commercial this past Monday. They wanted an Indiana Jones-type and they told me to go. I went in around 2 p.m. with the auditions set to end around 3 p.m. and was given the number 19 - the number is fixed to me, as my photo was taken holding the number a la a newly arrested individual. The guy after me was given the number 20, which leads me to think that only a few people auditioned (in the low 20s). If that's so, the odds of me getting a callback next week sometime go up, but I can only cross my fingers. Realistically, I can't get my hopes up.

Besides, about the closest I come to being Indiana Jones is that I'm actually from Indiana.

On a personal level:

My romanticism has been slightly shaken - it's not that I'm not romantic any longer, but rather I believe I finally have a realistic perspective of what love is NOT, if that makes sense.

My knees are definitely improving. Two Saturday nights ago I noticed that they didn't hurt like they had been hurting. I hadn't done anything in particular to help them heal outside of stopping pretty much all athletic activity. They felt so good I started bouncing around and being hyperactive, in a way I hadn't been in a LONG time. It felt good to feel so good in so many ways.

I've also resumed working out in a limited way. I do very little work with my legs - I do some various lifts to strengthen the muscles that support the patella, as a few doctors recommended. Instead, I've done abdominal work and lifting with my upper body and arms. And, of course, for aerobic exercise, I've been swimming in my gym's tiny pool. This provides occassional problems, such as the guy who decided to turn on the "bublinky" in the middle of my swim yesterday - "bublinky" is the Czech term for the jets, as the pool has a seating area with massage jets a la hot tubs.

I finish similar to my beginning - what I've been listening to:

I'm deeply digging The Coral Sea's Volcano and Heart; Bears' Bears and an older album - Perry Farrell's Song Yet to Be Sung. Oh, and surprisingly, I'm really digging a vast majority of Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics. I'm currently listening to Outkast's Idlewild.

Posted by iain at August 23, 2006 09:05 PM