DRLs is an acronym for "daytime running lamps." What are "daytime running lamps?" "Daytime running lamps" are exactly what they sound like. "Lamps" that start "running" during the "daytime." Lots of vehicles have separate "daytime running lamp" that turn on automatically, but most vehicles simply use their high beam bulbs at a reduced setting. DRLs are mandatory in Canada because of the reduced sunlight and excess snow that crazy country gets. Because of that, most vehicle manufacturers simply install them on all their cars, trucks, SUVs, whatevs.
I know lots about DRLs. Much more than I knew a few weeks ago. I know that on Toyota vehicles, you have to remove the headlight relay and cut off the pins numbered "56b" and "58" in order to disable the DRLs. On Chevy vehicles, you simply remove the DRL fuse in the under-hood fuse block. Older Volvo vehicles have a screw you rotate to disable the DRLs. DRLs may be required by law in Canada, but here in America they are not. In fact, many people want to disable their vehicle's DRLs because they burn out the high beam bulb faster. Spare bulbs are like $5 from AutoZone and in THIS economy, every cent counts.
I know LOTS about DRLs. And headlights and tail lights and side markers and turn signals and dashboard lights. Not to mention center high-mounted roof lights. I know the different types of halogen bulbs there are. I know that lights equipped with LEDs burn brighter and longer than normal bulbs. I know what Altezza tail lights are.
How do I know so much about DRLs? It's cause I have a job. Kinda. Sorta. Not really. It's more of a source of income than a job. Not a "job", but it helps me earn some moneys. I write "how-to" articles for a certain website that rhymes with "me-cow." I signed up for it back in September and I've steadily been increasing the number of articles I write each week. I started with five a week and now it's up to fifty. At $15 an article, I'm making decent change. More than enough to live off of. AND it's actually pretty fun. I claim the titles I want, then research, then write. Sometimes I find out that the article I claimed isn't as easy to write as I thought it would be and so I have to let it go and choose another one, but I'm consistently finishing ten articles a day in under five hours. My best day so far has been twelve articles in just under three hours.
It was an interesting turn of events that led me to "me-cow." I kept emailing out my resume to dozens of job openings and calling temp agencies, but I never got a single response. Well, that's not entirely true. I got four rejection emails and two emails that ended up being for some job scam. I stumbled upon this opportunity while reading about 'search engine optimization' and figured I'd give it a shot. It didn't sound legit at all. Like one of those "EARN MONEY WHILE WORKING FROM HOME" ads. But that is my reality. I earn money while working from home. In my Superman pajamas. While drinking a cup of coffee from my Jurassic Park mug.
It's a sweet gig. I wake up at around 8 am, make myself some breakfast and coffee, watch the news for about an hour, and then get to work. I take a lunch break around noon, finish work around 3 pm, go to the gym, have dinner and then I do whatever I want. Some days I play video games. Some days I read. Other days I go do some improv. It's an awesome life, but I feel like I should be taking advantage of all this free time, especially since I'm sure this is only temporary.
From what I've read, "me-cow" has a tendency to ban writers for the silliest offenses. One of those is claiming similar titles. Right now, sitting in my queue, I have one article on how to disconnect DRLs, one article on how to disable DRLs, and then another on how to turn off DRLs. I can't just copy and paste the same text for each title, so I have to repackage the information somewhat. I hope I can do this for a while though, because it's such an awesome gig.
Chicago has been awesome. Chicago IS awesome. There's so much to do. Life is grand. Like those biscuits. Delma and I have been eating a lot and, as a result, I'm back up to 170 pounds (I was 160 back in August). We ended up buying P90X, but that hasn't been going so well. Each session is over an hour long! It's ree-doodoo-diculous. And some days we're just lazy. Also, the main guy has an annoying voice. But because we wanted to buy the proper equipment, we have a power tower and some weights in our living room.
The whole weight-gain thing is one of the few complaints we have about Chicago. I thought I would hate the weather, but thirty degrees is awesome! I wear lots of layers. LOTS of layers. At this moment, I'm wearing a hoodie, a thermal undershirt, a t-shirt, a pair of boxers, a pair of thermal pants, a pair of pajamas, my jeans, two pairs of socks, and a beanie. And I'm in the living room. But it's awesome! I probably won't be saying that come January, but at this moment, I love Chicago.
A few days ago, we took Vicki to the beach. She had never been to Lake Michigan before and she was going crazy running around in the sand. Then she jumped into the lake. And it was thirty-three degrees out. Poor dog.
Improv is... happening, I guess. I dunno. I'm in a weird position with it. I'm doing improv about two times a week. Once at iO for class and once at a place called Theater Momentum with some friends of mine. We got together, found a coach, and we're practicing once a week, but I honestly feel like I'm regressing in my improv skills. It's weird. I'm being stuffed with so many rules and ideas and ways to perform. A lot of them even contradict each other so what's been happening lately is that I'll go on stage and just kind of freeze up and not do anything.
All during level 3, I was told that I needed to slow down with my scene-work. I tend to rush scenes and try to get everything out quickly and establish as much as I could in a short amount of time. In level 4, I'm being told that I take too long to get shit started. I need to establish as much information up front and let the scene work its way from there. I've had great scenes unfold through both techniques, but I've also had terrible, terrible scenes happen. Back in August, I was on an "emotion" binge. Every scene had to have lots of emotion to succeed. It seemed to have worked for the most part, but it always felt like there was something missing. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that a lot of successful scenes occur because of the "wants" of the two characters. "Wants" are what drive scenes. At least that's what I think. I've had even more successful scenes occur because of beginning scenes with discovering a "want," but there have also been some clunkers as well. Then you get into the whole thing of whether the scene should play the game hard or whether it should be focused on emotional, real connections and relationships and all this other mess. It's confusing. There are some days where I just want to get up and go, but it's getting harder to do that because I keep thinking about all the things that are required for a scene to be successful.
I had an audition a few weeks ago for a performance troupe and I froze up. I got really nervous and I didn't know what to do and I ended up not really saying anything. I get in my head and once I'm in there, it's pretty hard to get out.
I could be doing a lot more to improve. There's an improv jam practically every night and I don't go to any of them. I've been to a few and my excuse is that they're lame and that I don't learn much, but if I'm doing improv every night, I'm bound to get better and learn from my mistakes, right? Maybe. I don't know. But that's one thing I'm gonna try to get more involved with. At the very least I'll meet more people. With this "me-cow" gig, I don't get out of the apartment much.
I've also been looking at acting classes. There's a place not too far away that offers Meisner classes. Not really sure what the Meisner technique is, but it has to deal with finding the truth in your characters and fleshing it out. I think. I dunno. But that's a big part of improv and I've heard that Meisner helps with that immensely. It may even help with my writing. I tend to create caricatures as opposed to characters in both improv and writing. One-dimensional stereotypes that don't hold a lot of weight. Maybe this'll help.
The biggest issue I have with Chicago is that I miss my family. Especially Kayla. But I'll get to see them in a few weeks when I go back down to H-Town.
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