Zombies in the library?

Filming in the library is fun.  Always has been, always will be.  We recently took our Zombicorn film crew to Fondren for a scene for our newest episode.

Relativity

It's a strange feeling realizing that all your greatest achievements and projects cumulatively add up to what *might* be able to qualify you for only the most basic entry level position in a field you want to pursue.
Is pursuing passions always a succession of pushing your limits and setting goals of things only barely within the reach of your abilities?

Anyways, we've got another awesome episode of zombies up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X26dc5nPuUQ

A Little Less Chaos Please

This post is long overdue.

Last Christmas break, I decided to make the world a little less chaotic.  Inspired by this organizationally-inclined Walmart shopper, I decided to embark on a similar project in a Walmart with a group of friends.
A group of five of us had some time to kill when we happened upon a poor disorganized $5 movie bin.

We decided that the poor thing needed some tender, loving care, so we set to work.

We procured the proper equipment (notecards, a shopping cart, and silly hats, of course) and embarked on our epic organizational task.  For two hours, we dug out hundreds of movies, and sorted and alphabetized them into numerous sections of self imposed categories.

Some categories were intuitive, others arbitrary, others completely opinion based, and others still categories that movies have always needed to be placed in, but never are.  All were designed for maximum entertainment and aid in selecting the type of movie the shopper might be looking for.

After two hours with five people sorting and some pretty weird looks, we were done!

Saving the world, one act of random extraneous organization at a time!

Have you met Daniel Burns?

Ever have a crazy idea so suddenly that you get nervous?

As mentioned in my earlier post, I'm entering into the stage of applying for a real-world post-apocalytic (too much zombie research, sorry. [more on that later]) post-graduation job.  Thursday, there is a career and job fair on campus, and it would be wonderful for me to make serious progress on obtaining one of these job things at the event.

I've found one company in particular that has a positions for blogging and design that looks pretty exciting.  So naturally, I want to make sure I make an impression on them.

Some of you may be familiar with this piece of XKCD wit:

How cool would it be to set up a system in which the interviewing company starts hearing things about me before I even show up?  They're coming onto my turf, giving me a serious tactical advantage for publicity here.  I'm thinking of a poster campaign in the area between where they'll be parking and the venue, and a series of individuals showing up at the booth asking the company representative if they've met Daniel Burns yet.  This would obviously be most effective if I could get 20+ people to all do that, with little or no explanation, and leave them curious about me all day until I show up.

Thoughts?

Into the breach once more!

I know, no one has to tell me I haven't posted in forever.
Know what I was saying in January about dreams only being big enough when they scare you?
Well, fighting through those scary parts takes a pretty heavy toll.  Since that post, I've directed two plays, made dozens of costumes, read scores of books and plays, worked a full time internship, climbed mountains and canyons and buildings, and I'm still ploughing my way through the piles of hopes and dreams in front of me seeing what I can accomplish, and what will prove too much for me.

A big one of those things is the task of getting a job after college, obviously.  For that purpose, I'm creating a new blog danielburnsdesigns.blogspot.com in order to have an outlet for displaying some of my creative accomplishments.  That doesn't mean I'm giving this one up.  I still like the fun, unhindered creative outlet of a personal blog.  I just now have a new professional venue as well.  There also mayyy be another experimental blog getting made this fall as I learn some new systems.  But more on that later.

So- I'm going to make some more of these posts again.  I owe a few people some stories, and I owe a few stories the chance to be heard.

Dreams

This is a semester for living without limits.  I'm trying to take on challenges that are too big for me to comfortably tackle.  I'm already having to stretch my limits frequently and do things that I'm not fully skilled at in order to be the most effective.  It's not easy, but I'm gaining from it.  As work is ramping up, I've decided there's one quote that I think summarizes why I'm doing all this.

Today, I met someone living out their dreams.  She was a 16 year old self published author, giving a book signing in Rice's Coffeehouse.  That's a dream big enough to scare most people.  But she had a book table, a full costume, and was speaking confidently to people five or more years older than her about her work.  Publishing a book is dream many people I know, including myself, have; it is often an unfulfilled dream though, due to insufficient effort or dedication.  It's a scary thing to do, and puts yourself in range of criticism of countless people if you succeed.  Seeing someone daring to do that, to try to make that dream a reality was inspiring.  If you want the see her website and work, it's here: http://samirabellissimo.com/

What is one of your dreams that you've held back from fully pursuing, and what's to stop you from trying to achieve it right now?

Hindsight and Green Light Tonight Before the First Light

Hello World!  It is a fabulous 2013 here, slightly wacky with a chance of insanity!

I know I haven't posted much at all recently.  While I have no excuse (shame on me) I did have a few technical difficulties that hindered me, such as my computer refusing to speak to my hard drive for 2 months.

Somehow, I survived through these unbearable first world problems of being forced to use one of a dozen computer labs on campus for all my computer needs.  But now my wonderful computer is up and running again, so naturally blog posts were soon to follow!

As a quick recap of what perspective breaking madness occurred while I was not posting, I'd like to supply a few photos as evidence:

Captions?  Nope.  Each picture here has enough of a story behind it to warrant an entire post.  I know I'm not going to find the time to blog about all of them, so here's the deal: Anyone reading this can comment and ask for the a post on one they happen to be curious about, and I'll do some explaining in another post.

Anyways, the year is over, and what a year it has been.  I've *only* visited 11 states this year, road tripping a total of 7000 miles.  Plus going to Ecuador, and getting to climb a 15,000 ft peak there.
I got to learn Scottish dance, two stepping, modern dance, contact improv, more swing dance, and perform onstage in both a musical and a dance show.
On my bucket list were accomplishments like:
riding a segway, getting pied in the face, slapping someone with a fish, eating bugs, blowing up a small appliance, dancing on a roof in the rain, photobombing president Leebron, street tumbling in a parade, juggling flaming objects, cooking on my own, living off of survival rations, dumpster diving, (No, those two don't have anything to do with the quality of my cooking), successfully pretending to be a mannequin, riding public transportation in my underwear, shot off fireworks over the ocean at night, hacking through the rainforest with a machete, being photographed by almost 100 strangers in one day, performing in a flashmob, and teaching a large group of strangers how to do the wobble.
I'm very pleased, not only that I've accomplished all of this, but that I've done so while only having to explain myself to 4 law enforcement officers and half a dozen retail employees.  I also did so with *almost* no damage or desecration to any historical monuments, art installations, or places of worship!

As for the coming year, this one is going to be a doozy!  This year I'll be focusing on a couple of themes, mostly living without limits, active thankfulness, and extraordinary normality.
Hopefully, these are things I'll write more on and explain as I delve deeper into them, otherwise I might as well just post random pairings of words that sound poetic:
Sentimental euphoria.  Flashlight love.  Mediocre guacamole.  Gastrointestinal tuning.  Yak thongs.

With those profound word pairs to finish up everything, I leave you now to go carpe annum!