Is Your Future Looking Sketchy? Mine Is.

And if you hang out with me on a few select nights in December and January, your future will be sketchy too. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Hot on the heals of my amazing performance in "The Smelly Janitor", I've been asked to be part of a new Sketch Comedy Show. It's being put on by Chris Berubian, of The Berubians theatre Company. The schedule and location is also a little sketchy (pun definitely intended) but I believe we'll start the 2nd week in December for about 6 weeks. The first show will probably be in Anaheim at the 2nd Stage Theatre. The remaining shows will be in LA at The Next Stage Theatre. Shows will be on Friday Nights ONLY. Yep, one show a week. Again, the exact dates aren't clear to me - look for a future blog post for that info.

I hope all of you can make it to see my sketchy debut, and thus make your future a little sketchy as well.

-- Rex Hoss

College Review

I saw "The Little College on a Hill" last night because my friend and fellow actor Leon Cohen was in it. The Play was written by two of Dominguez Hills Alumni and was basically a brief history lesson of the University mixed with insightful and apparently true stories of some of the students and faculty of the school. It was acted well by all. Leon did a great job as President Leo Cain - the schools first President. It was an interesting mix of live acting and many pictures and video from the schools past. There was a little diffcutly understanding some of the video, mostly because of the sound quality, but generally it was minor. The actors were all great - perhaps I'll get to work with some of them one day. There are only two more shows - tonight and Sunday afternoon. If you want to learn about the College, support the arts and be entertained - Go see the show.

Debut of "The Smelly Janitor"

Click on the video below to watch "The Smelly Janitor". A film by my friend and fellow actor Trent. I met Trent several years ago at a school we were both teaching at. Since Trent was an actor and at the time, I was just beginning my journey into acting, and because we're both a little nuts (and computer geeks too), we became fast friends. I always knew Trent had a lot of talent, and working with him on his Second Film School project, I got to witness his talent first hand. I think the film is both funny and well done (for a sophomore film-school effort, heck for any effort) and clearly shows his talent for writing, directing acting, and basically story telling.

I am thrilled to have been a part of it. I was both an actor in it, and also served to document the film by being the 'still photographer' and behind-the-scenes photographer. The cast was all great! A special kudos goes out to my friend Josie Nicholas who was cast (at my suggestion) as the 'lady with the walker'.

You can also check out more about the film, and Trent's other, and upcoming projects at his website.

-- By Rex Hoss

How to Tame Wild Warts

 A couple of months ago I had finally reached critical mass with my computer room/office/photography studio/spare bedroom! Rather I should say I'd finally had enough with the gigantic tangle and MESS of wires, cords, connectors, electric plugs, which has spawned like demon rabbits under my computer desk. Admittedly I'm a tech junkie, so I have just a very few tech gadgets in my office. That is if two computer, two printers, one scanner, three USB drives, mice, tablets, Pocket PCs, speakers, monitors, TV, and...I'm sure I missed a few items, but you get the idea. Anyway, I've been annoyed about the tangle by my feet since I moved a year and a half ago. I have been reading various things online about getting organized and, during my critical mass breakdown mentioned above, I decided to start doing something about it. It started slowly, I got the cords and connects and power strips off the floor (to be covered in another post) and then I had the Epiphany! I have since had my brilliant idea confirmed as brilliant by a couple of other bloggers. There it is: Now to Tame Wild Warts! Of course I'm referring to wall warts, or the bulbous, bulky transformers which accompany nearly EVERY electronic gadget sold in the last 10 years!

The problem is this! You decide to get organized and plug all your devices neatly (with some king of logic hopefully) into a power strip. Then you have a seemingly innocent event...You need to unplug your, oh, say, cable modem because you lost your Internet connection and can't finish reading my blog post. You duck under your desk and look frantically for the ONE PLUG which will need to be temporarily unplugged and then reinserted into the outlet. YIKES! You have at least 14 or more devices all plugged mercilessly into power strips - which one goes to the cable modem??!?!?

The Solution! Label all your warts! It takes only a minute, and using one of those ever so convenient P-Touch labelers which everyone should have right next to their stapler, it's so easy - even fun! Why take the time you think - I have have linksys modem, the plug probably says the manufacture name on it right? Wrong! Most plugs are not labeled and you may have several similar plugs anyway. By labeling the plugs you know instantly what device it's used for.

This may seem trivial, but it has already made a world of difference for me. It's also very handy if, like me, you carry several devices around with you (external hard drive, battery chargers for my phone, IPaq, etc.) I grab into the bag for the phone charger and because it's labeled, I can easily find it!

So go ahead, get your warts under control - label them and see how much nicer they are to you.

-- Rex Hoss

How to Post Pictures Online Instantly

Eye-Fi Inc., has just recently unveiled their lastest WOW product! The Eye-Fi Card – the world's first wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. The Eye-Fi Card uses home Wi-Fi networks to create an effortless and convenient way for users to send photographs from digital cameras to PCs, Macs and online photo and social networking sites.

What you say? How can it be? The great wireless devide has now been crossed. While there are plenty of 2Gig SD cards on the market this product is so much more! It's WOW factor is in the ability to transmit your pictures AS you take them to your wirelessly connected PC or MAC. It can also upload your precious pixels directly to your favorite photo sharing site, Flickr, Picasa, etc.

It works just like a regular SD card and can hold potentially hundreds of pictures on it's own (depending on your camera and settings), but also wirelessly transmits those images to your computer or favorite photo site.

It reatials for $99.00 and is expected by the company to be a big hit for the Holiday season - heck, a friend of mine has already asked me if that's what I want for Christmas! Hmm, can I wait that long to get my hands on one of these beauties?

You can check out more details here: at DPReview

Happy clicking!

--Rex Hoss

The Smell of Success

 

 

 

 

Well last Sunday I finally got un-confused. We filmed The Smelly Janitor - a film by my friend Trent. It was a really fun and exciting shoot for me even though my role was very brief. To make up for it and since Trent had asked me to (I would have done it anyway) I spent most of the day photographing the behinds the scenes - making of the film. Trent had asked me to act as behind the scenes vidiographer, but it proved to be too much trying to do still shots AND video. Zach, who played the "handsome man" stepped up to the plate (OK, he didn't really have to step UP, being already 6'5" tall) but he took over the video camera so I could concentrate on my still shots with my much mentioned Nikon D80. Above are just a couple of the many shots I took. Actually, the photograph of me was taken by Dong Chul Oh, the camera assistant and a good photographer in his own right. He was nice enough to take several shots of me and other cast members with my camera.

The shoot went well, except for a couple of glitches - like one of the lead actresses going AWOL and not showing up. Paige Kimball was selected to play the role of the beautiful woman instead and filming proceeded. Everyone involved - cast and crew was so great! No funky attitudes and everyone was excited, high energy and into making it a great shoot. I think Trent ended up being overwhelmed by the process of Directing, Producing and Acting in the film. Since I only heard from him tonight two days later, he confirmed my suspicions.

For those of you who acted in the film, I'll have more pictures online in the next day or so - I'm trying out a new photo hosting site by Zenfolio which should make a nice online viewing experience. Check back here in a day or so for further postings about the shoot and links to my online photos - I had a TON (if pixels actually have a measurable weight) of pictures so it's taking a while to go through and select the best and get them ready for viewing.

-- Rex Hoss

How to Scare Yourself on Halloween

I've been reading "Hideaway" By Dean Koontz. This is an intreaguing story of suspense and a little supernatural. It starts off a little slowly but gets very interesting quickly. As seems to be a theme with Dean Koontz, very early in the story a character dies, but the twist is that in this story - death is not the end, in fact, it's the beginning. I have to say that my favorite character in the story is a little girl named Regina. Koontz' ability to bring life to her and endear her to the reader is phenominal! She's a hoot, and brings humor and levity to an otherwise, sommber yet quite suspensful story. It's not always clear where the story is going (and doesn't that always make it more fun?), but the ride is very enjoyable. I've read a couple of Dean Koontz' other stories and I'm really liking his story telling. Usually a mix of real and surreal, but always keeps you turning the pages (or in my case - listening to the next audio CD). So if you're looking for a good book to read in honor of Halloween, and need a good scare, or fun story, this book is highly recommended.

Story by Rex Hoss