Corey: The Animated Series

The Accidental Metaphor

2009-08-25T00:55:00.002-04:00

Today, we, meaning the freshmen of the Photo/Video Boot Camp pre-orientation group, Brian Palmer, and myself interviewed a retired sailboat racer named Ralph "Towney" Townsend. He grew up in Chestertown and has been sailing since he was ten years old. After high school he planned to attend the Naval Academy, and after passing all but one of the required tests for acceptance, he was asked to identify a couple letters within colored circles. He could not do so, was told he was colorblind, and rejected from the Academy. So he attended Washington College and graduated in 1952 with a major in Physics.

He's been hugely successful in sailing and racing, winning so many awards and trophies he started giving them away to his crew, and when one of the students asked him how he became so successful as a sailor, his response was accidentally some of the most inspiring [and metaphoric] advice I have ever [indirectly] received.

Well...I guess it could be because I've been at it for so long, but I think it's because I'm so focused. I'm always focusing on making the boat go. That's the most important thing; making the boat go. I see these other skippers focusing on the other boats and where they're going, where they're headed, how fast they're moving, what they're doing. Yeah, they're making sure they don't collide with the other boats, okay, but I'm just focused on making the boat go. Not how fast it's going, not where I might end up...just making it go.

If you don't get it or just don't care, that's cool, but I was frozen when he said this. I knew after he said it that every single word was literal and that he was talking about actual sailing the entire time, but man, was that just amazing, yet simple, to hear as a senior in college. I was blown away that every single phrase seemed to build upon this unintentional advice. It was a little crazy that there was no part of what he was saying that wasn't sinking in. It all fit into this fantastic metaphor created by him telling us why he was considered a talented sailor. I have never really been asked why I am good at something, and that sounds like a peculiar, maybe awkward, question to answer, but I think that if I could answer it...and I mean really answer it and not just say "practice, practice," I think I might be able to inspire someone, too. Just like Towney.

It truly was inspiring. Maybe it's the boat metaphor, maybe it's hearing it from a man in his 70's that I am quite convinced I would love to talk to for hours, but the mindset that he has when he is sailing is what I want and what I need to be able to tackle the sometimes overwhelming path that I have chosen to follow to my future.

Twittered. :O Second City?

2009-08-20T19:49:00.005-04:00

Well... I made a Twitter a while back, and within a week I deactivated my account, thinking it was useless, annoying, and kind of a lazy blog. Well...I could no longer deny its usefulness for advertising and since the internet community is steadily getting lazier, I thought it would be a good idea to reactivate it. I refuse to actually answer the question "What are you doing" unless I have something interesting to say though! Otherwise, I'll just update with stuff about my upcoming videos or something funny. Once I graduate, I hope to be able to update it [and this blog] with news about future performances and strides I'm making in the comedy industry.

So, before I move on with that thought - http://twitter.com/CoreyHolland - Follow if you're interested. Though I'd much rather people subscribed to my youtube page ;)

So I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to do after graduation, and one thing I'm highly considering is taking classes at Second City in Chicago. Some amazing performers have come out of Second City, and I know it would be a really great decision for me. They have courses in improv, comedy writing, comedy performance, sketch, stand up, and they have their own sketch and improv groups. Of course nothing is final right now, but it is definitely an option. It's an awesome gateway into other jobs in the industry as well, even performing on one of the teams Second City has. Justan audition for one of those would be a huge honor.

Well, it's back to school this weekend...

Summer is winding down...

2009-08-13T23:07:00.004-04:00

I finished work at the MPC last Friday, and I'm home for 2 weeks before I return to school once again. I'm working the Photography and Videography Boot Camp again this year, so I'm going back a week early.

For the past few days, I've been at Claire's house which was great! I love hanging out with her! We saw Funny People, which was alright, but, like most Judd Apatow films, it needs some script editing. Someone needs to give that man a second opinion. It was a wonderful weekend, and I even got to stay an extra night since there were pretty bad thunderstorms. Her parents insisted that I stay :) Claire and I went to this great coffee house called Saxby's and got smoothies. It was a really nice place. I wish The Cove at our school was like that, I'd totally love to hang out there! I told Claire that I think it would be awesome to own a place like that and hold performances there - live sketch and improv, bands, stand up comedians, and even video showings or whatever. Maybe someday.

What the hell is up with this commercial where Jack-in-the-Box sings with midgets?

So I ordered a brand new HD video camera, the Canon Vixia HG21 and it came today! It's awesome! I love it! I looked at the difference between my ZR500/800 and the new HG21, and it's such an enormous step up! I can't wait to start filming with it!

Travis and I are currently working on a few different projects that we are really excited about. I'll explain the larger project later, but right now we're focusing on making a Batman vs Rorschach fight! We were actually a bit surprised to see that it hasn't been done yet, which is awesome! We better get to it before someone beats us to the punch. (...no fight pun intended. Ew.) We have pretty much worked out the opening and closing plot (if I could juuust get Claire to help out), and we're meeting soon to work on fight choreography and figure out some costume and location details. This shall be EPIC!

Here's a little preview of how the fight will go. Let's look at the facts here... Batman is basically a super ninja that knows almost every style of martial arts. He's super rich and can afford to have all sorts of crazy gadgets and has dealt with some of the most insane villains in the DC universe. His "superpowers" are being super rich and the ability to prepare for anything. Rorschach is definitely badass, but he's just a street fighter who refuses to go down. He'll put a good fight, but let's not kid ourselves...

I clicked Small, so sorry it looks enormous...just click and look at it. I don't know why it's not cooperating. Oh wells.

Watch The Fret!

2009-07-30T11:04:00.003-04:00

My new video, The Fret, is up online! Check it out! Rate, comment, and subscribe. You should should definitely subscribe :D

Click here to watch The Fret, starring Mike Ross and Corey Holland!

Hope you like it!

Almost finished...

2009-07-28T15:21:00.002-04:00

The Fret will most likely be done and online by tomorrow. I finished the video portion and am doing all the audio tonight. It will be awesome.

I had a wonderful time with Claire this past weekend! I'm so glad I finally saw her, it's been forever. We saw Orphan this weekend, which was pretty cool despite the psycho mom that always made things worst, and I got a haircut. I'm happy to say that it was the first time in a while that I walked away satisfied. Usually I think, Hm...maybe I'll like this in about a month.

This weekend is going to be great. People will be watching my new movie hopefully, I'm hanging out with my bud Ben for the first time since winter break, and I think my brother and I are going to see Funny People on Saturday, which should be great. Even though he's been in far too many recent comedies, I don't mind that Seth Rogan is in this one, he seems to fit the part of a slob comic that insults himself... maybe that didn't come out right. Whatever. Hope it's good. We'll see.

Melting Lampshades

2009-07-20T10:05:00.002-04:00

This weekend was extremely fun and productive. On Saturday, my brother, his wife, and their friends came over for a barbecue (Did you know you could spell it with a "c" instead of "q?" ...huh), and we went swimming in our pool. Daniel put the basketball hoop next to the pool so we play in the water, which was fun. It wasn't as hazardous as the time when he took the slide from our old swing set, strapped it to our dog pen with bungee cords, sprayed some water on it, then called it a water slide. The only problem with that was when we jumped quickly, the water decided to hang on to our trunks. I could not comfortably go all out, so my dunks were pretty half assed.

Chris and Jessica brought their 9 month old baby, Riot, which is indeed a strange name for a child, and that he is "a good baby," as my dad put it. He didn't cry the entire time he was at our house, and he was there for a good 8 hours, well past his bed time. I found his baby babbling so amusing, and it was even more amusing when we all would respond to his babbling. He was totally cool with being in the pool, too. I was a little jealous of this crazy baby raft he had that even had its own sun roof. Once we got out of the pool, we played "House Ball," as we called it where just threw a ball on my roof and let it come back until my dad suggested we, meaning Daniel, Chris, him, and I, should play dodgeball. So we had two fairly ineffective dodgeballs that would curve with the wind. We decided you were out after two hits just to make our 2 on 2 last longer than 3 seconds.

On Sunday, Mike and I continued to film "The Fret," and we really made some great stuff. We played with lighting for the first time by moving lamps and pointing the lampshades around Mike's house, and later my garage, which really improved our shots. My boss, Brian, insisted I get some practice with the $2000 Gyro stabilizer, and let me take that home. It gets pretty warm since it has a fast-spinning motor inside of it, so when we smelled burning, we thought it was the Gyro. I went to redirect a lampshade, only to find that part of it had melted onto the light bulb. Goopy shade stretched as it hung on to both the shade and the bulb. Luckily, nothing caught fire, and we continuing using it, being a little more careful to prevent the shade from touching the bulb again. Overall, it was great, and it made a lot of progress, but we will need one more day to film, so it won't be complete this week as I hoped, but still very soon.

I'm so excited for this weekend! I get to see Claire on Friday! I can't wait! :D

Weekend TO DO List

2009-07-17T03:13:00.003-04:00

(first off...I just saw a gnat flying across my screen and for a moment I thought my mouse cursor was going haywire.)

-Finish filming "The Fret."
-Compose part of the music for "The Fret."
-If time allows it, possibly film "The Gay Mood."
-Call Claire.
-Call Claire.
-Think about calling Claire, but get a little shy about it...
-Call Claire.
-Find...the remote.

"The Fret" - Coming soon!

2009-07-15T23:19:00.003-04:00

Well, we filmed the first part of our new sketch, "The Fret," that will be submitted to the FND Film Fest! We will be finishing up this weekend, and I am going to try and get the video up sometime next week for all you chitlins to see, love, and re-see... ? Whatever, it'll be great.

I play a street guitarist who takes personal offense when someone like Mike doesn't want to hear his music. You'll just have to wait and see how the plot unfolds!

In other news, Claire comes home this weekend, and I get to see her in a little over a week, which I can't wait for!

What would you be interested in seeing?

2009-07-07T11:07:00.002-04:00

So I have a bunch of projects currently in the works. Because almost every video contest/competition I want to enter has a deadline set at the end of July, I have decided not to make the Rock Band music video since it is a large scale project which would require way too much planning. I would rather focus on videos that I enjoy much more and that are a little more up my alley of entertaining everyone.

Fronk 'n Dego, one of my favorite online sketch groups along with Derrick and a couple others, is having their second Film Fest, which I definitely want to enter. It's going to be a lot more fun to do since it isn't restricting like some others I've found. The only specifics are that it needs to be a sketch that is under 5 minutes, has to include the line "I used to have two, but my dog ate the other one," and the theme must be one of the following: Desperation, Power, Revenge, or Friendship.

I have a few ideas, but you'll just have to wait to see the video.

Aside from that, I have a few sketches in the brainstorming stage, but I don't want to share too much just in case someone wants to steal my awesometasticlasmic ideas like The Gay Mood and The One Ha Joker.

So, what else would you like to see videos about? I think it would be really fun to get the point where I'm actually making videos by request in a Songs to Wear Pants To fashion. Anyone?

Also, I'd just like to say that Claire went to Europe to visit her brother and do some traveling, and I miss her dearly.

Summer Progress

2009-06-24T15:50:00.003-04:00

My summer working at the MPC has been going pretty well. I've been studying and using some new programs and equipment and getting better at them. My new favorite toy is After Effects, which pretty much has limitless possibilities. Here's something I made, thanks to Andrew Kramer's tutorial at videocopilot.net.

Spooky, no?

Many windows have opened in terms of what I can do in my movies, which is great. I'm also looking at several different video contests as a way to gain some huge amounts of cash so I can finally buy a decent camera. We will see how that pans out as the fall gets closer. Brian told me about a really great camera, the Canon 5D Mk II, which doubles as a still and video camera, which would be great for production shots. The depth of field features and high light sensitivity give it amazing quality that requires little to no color correction in post production, which is awesome. It shoots in HD and really looks professional, and it's only about $2600, which, sadly, is not very much when it comes to film equipment. It'd be a fun toy, but I'm not banking on having one anytime soon.

Seen some movies, making some others

2009-06-10T00:33:00.004-04:00

I couple weekends ago, I visited my gal, Claire, and we had so much fun! We saw Terminator: Salvation, and even though Claire has not seen any of the first three movies, she still really liked it. I read some reviews about Salvation after seeing it, and a lot of people were very critical of the references to the other movies. I actually loved them! I would have loved them even if the character turned to the camera and said, "Eh? Didja catch that?!" Some of those are very enjoyable. Sure there were a few errors like Christian Bale killing a Terminator with bullets after we watched three movies of Arnie getting lit up by bullets that had little to no effect, but that can be explained. My brother and I agreed that those killed (destroyed?) in the beginning were not T-800s like Arnie was, so they were probably slightly easier to take down. We also decided that since everyone was using bullets, despite us seeing flashbacks (flash...forwards...?) of the future where they used lasers in the previous movies, that they had not yet been invented.

Rachel: So this movie takes place before the first movie?
Corey: Well, it's actually the before part of the after part of the first movie, which is shown in the beginning of the second movie.
Daniel: Yeah.

Claire, don't think I've forgotten about your need to watch Terminator 2: Judgement Day. :D

Also, a certain video contest has caught my attention, and looks to be hilariously awesome. Funny, a few days before hearing about the contest, I was thinking, Wouldn't it be funny to have a Rock Band Music Video? BAM. A few of the videos are really great, and some of them are......well, interesting to watch. I think it will be a lot of fun.

Right now, my friend and I have narrowed our song choice down to:

The Kill by 30 Seconds to Mars
Life is Beautiful by Sixx A.M.
Welcome Home by Coheed & Cambria
The Joker and the Thief by Wolfmother
I Don't Care by Fall Out Boy

Yes, there is a FoB song in there, and it is least likely just because it is FoB. I couldn't deny that, from the list of songs, it would make for a better music video than a lot of them. I'm pretty excited to get started with that.

Mike and I also have plans for a music video of our most recent single, Yo Sista, and a few other shorts as well, so keep an eye on my youtube channel or subscribe like a true friend would.

Just the one.

2009-05-27T22:23:00.003-04:00

Normally, when you first arrive at a new dorm room, it is completely empty, but someone left something this time, or maybe the housekeepers are just extra friendly. There was a single beer in one of my drawers. Just one. Who leaves one beer? Who clears out an entire closet, opens the drawers, sees their one beer (that they kept in a drawer?) and thinks...no...this one...this one stays.

...no, I'm not gonna drink it.

This chair makes me lose my stomach...

2009-05-26T19:32:00.002-04:00

Hello all! I hope to revive this blog and post in it much more than I have been this semester. Once, maybe twice a month? I would like to think I'm interesting enough to have at least 3 a month.

For those of you who have not yet seen WACmen, please do so! It's our newest movie, and was our entry for the 24 Hour Video Challenge this year, and we won for the 3rd year in a row! :D

That was all too much fun to make. I loved it, and I think it came out great.

So I finished my junior year of college. o_O; I can't believe I'm going to be a senior in the fall. Why is it that 2 years of middle school felt like an eternity, yet the past 7 years of High School/College have blasted by?

So after a couple weeks at home, guess what? I'm back at school! I'm working in the Multimedia Production Center here for the summer. FINALLY! I've been hoping to work here for the summer since freshmen year, but they never provided housing, and I didn't want to spend a huge chunk of my doe paying for an apartment.

*Oh! Slow Cheetah just came on my iTunes... such a great song!*

So I was finally offered free housing on campus. I'm living in one of the newer dorms, Chester, and man, my room is enormous! I heard the singles here were pretty tiny, but hey, a double to myself is pretty damn big :D

Still haven't completely unpacked everything, and I'm not sure I'll keep that desk by the window since it blocks the closet, though I don't really care since I have a spare :p I definitely need some posters on these walls though.

I really like it! It's at least twice the size of my single on the Western Shore. I'm sure I'll miss it next year, but I'll deal haha.

This summer is going to be a good one, I know it! I've worked at a Cold Stone Creamery since I was a junior in high school, and it's about time for a change. I always worked from 4 in the afternoon until 1 in the morning at Cold Stone, so the next day I would wake up at 11 at the earliest, have a couple hours to myself in an empty house, then do it all over again. I barely ever saw my parents or my brother and sister because of our schedules, and I had a shift waiting for me the day I got back home from visiting Claire on the weekends. I haven't looked forward to a summer in years because they were so draining and repetitive. NOT THIS ONE!! And since I don't have to drive to work at get gas every couple of days like I used to, I can afford to go home or go to Claire's any weekend I want! Funny...I'm further away from home, yet I'll probably see everyone more often than I have in the past few summers.

Anyway, I'm going to play some Left 4 Dead or something. I can't wait to see Claire this weekend!!!! :D

Filler Episode

2009-04-08T11:51:00.005-04:00

TL;DR: 3rd Place in What's Your WAC, ready for 24 Hour Challenge, did some schtuff, gonna do some schtuff.

This show needs a new episode. It's like when Dragonball Z was on and they weren't finished dubbing the next saga so they just showed the previous sagas again and again and again...but hey, I still watched them. That's why I know such an usual amount of information about Dragonball Z; because I've seen every episode a dozen times. So I'm assuming all of my readers are now very familiar with the previous episodes. Today's entry is just dedicated to updating, I don't really have much to rant about or make fun of.

On the last episode, our hero was battling for his prize in the What's Your WAC video competition and even had the support of Tom Fulp, the creator of Newgrounds, and easily one of the coolest people in the world. Tom put me on the front page of newgrounds and within a day, I had hundreds more votes than before. It was incredible how this internet community supported me and expressed so much concern for me despite most of them not knowing me. It didn't matter who I was, it was the fact that a newgrounder needed some support, and they jumped all over it. For that, I thank them. Tom Fulp is a badass leading his legion of thousands of newgrounds minions. And I can't forget all the amazing people of the VAC! They were all over that, and each of them were individually devoted to helping me out. Thank you!

Unfortunately, despite Newgrounds' best efforts, in the last few hours of voting, I was tied for first place, and I received a few hundred downvotes that I'm sure had been saved up for me by my competition. I highly doubt that suddenly there were two or three hundred people that signed on to youtube, saw my video, and hated it enough to give it a 1. Look at youtube - very few users actually rate movies. They express their like or dislike in the comments section much more than using the ratings system. Anyway, the downvotes actually knocked me from having a pretty good shot at 1st down to 3rd place. I figured as much would happen, and my boss even told me I was going to get 3rd before they announced the winners. Maybe to soften the blow? That tells me he didn't like the way things ended up, which is quite perplexing since he was the one running the competition. Ah well. The time is past. It's nice to have $250 to spend on equipment right? Doesn't matter that that's 32 times less than $8000 and the cheapest piece of equipment I want is about $3000. o_O;

Hopefully next week they are going to hold the 24 Hour Challenge. In previous years, my team and I made WAC Zombies and WAC Heroes, and we have big plans for this year, so if that challenge doesn't happen, I'm going on a rampage where I uppercut babies and punt small dogs and cats. Now I'll be honest, I don't want to have to do that.

This coming weekend Claire and I are going to my house for the weekend. I've been dating this chick for over 2 years and she's only been to my house...what, twice? I must fix this! We're probably going to go to the movies 8 or 9 times, eat a bunch of Quiznos - FO' FREE - and I have a little art project planned for us as well. :D It will be great to see Daniel and Rachel and the rents, and Claire can meet Daniel's dog, Rocky! He's a crazy hyper golden retriever. I just smiled a little thinking about how funny he is.

And now I shall leave you with some pictures of my last stand up at an open mic night, and some shout outs.

My favorite story to tell about this night was when I said:

"...That doesn't work with every situation. You don't always want to date a girl because she has something you've never seen on a girl before."

"What are you getting at?" << Amusing drunk woman.

"DICKS."

Shout out to Mike for an amazing thesis production of Some Girls. It was awesome, man. Great performance, amazing set, and it is clear that Brian really is a "fearless shit."

Another one out to Christina Izzo for winning the 60 seconds or less Challenge with The Box, my personal favorite of her shorts.

I don't understand people...

2009-03-19T11:13:00.002-04:00

A recent comment left on one of my competitor's video...

This video sucks! I judge movies based on two key criteria: number of reasons Corey Holland think he's the shit and overall pretentious, jerkoff attitude. This piece of shit contained neither! All I got out of this was a couple of fun, goofy guys showing some cool things about Washington College. What bullshit! ...

If you share my taste in films and want to a see a real moviemaking masterpiece, check out the one Corey Holland made. It's FILLED with reasons Corey Holland think he's the shit and is simply bursting with condescension: my kind of movie! I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure these bitches don't win the prize money, because they're planning on giving it all to charity, and I think charity is totally gay. Fuck you guys. Corey Holland is great.

...if you can't tell. That's sarcasm. T_T I found this to be very insulting and I can't believe someone would be so flat out mean. I ignore silly comments like "this sucks" or whatever, but to write something so detailed and to personally attack me by name... ouch.

I should just stop making films. It always makes me seem like a pretentious jerk. I'm not, though. I strive to do the best I can on my projects and I have high standards FOR MYSELF. I don't consider myself that good, so every time I make a film, I try to make it better than my previous ones.

I can't stand people. I try to keep an optimistic view on every part of my life and that has really done a lot for me, yet I still have to be treated like I'm an asshole? Why does someone else think I don't have the right to be in this competition just because I'm competing with someone they support? I'm tired of people saying that my video makes me look full of myself! It's "What's your WAC?!" I did it! My WAC is all about acting, improv, performance, and videos! Back. OFF! Geez... would it have been better if at one point I said, "I auditioned, but wasn't cast, in such plays as According to Goldman, This is Our Youth, and Fat Pig." Should I have gone over a few bad grades I've had in school? Cover my failures or something? I'm sorry that my approach makes a student look like he's succeeding and enjoying his school, and I am!

...I can't wait for this weekend.

Help me Win $8000!!!

2009-03-04T18:59:00.002-05:00

I need help!! I'm entering a huge video competition and the grand prize is $8000 worth of equipment! Winning this will give me the ability to do freelance video work, something I'd love to do, and I'd even be able to get started setting up a home studio. It's a chance of a lifetime! I need your help!

Sign into youtube, watch my video, and give it a 5 star rating right underneath the video. That's all I need! All the ratings will help me win! Thank you so much!

Click HERE to watch my video and VOTE!

A sad, sleepy little person

2009-02-25T11:53:00.005-05:00

Well, I have neglected this blog for long enough, haven't I? Considered this is an "animated series," I'm going to give you all a fun fact that it takes about 9 months to make an entire episode of Family Guy start to finish. 9 months! It takes Trey Parker and Matt Stone 2 weeks to make a new South Park! So... not so bad waiting a month for another episode of me, huh? ...whatever.

So today. Today. Ah, today was not a great morning. I had a meeting with my professor this morning around 9:15. I would have been able to meet in the afternoon, but that's when my playwriting class is. I'm leading the discussion on Friday in class and we have to meet with him before hand to go over our plans. I completely forgot about the article I was supposed to read for our meeting - a 20 page essay about bringing people into war - so I read it quite late last night before I went to bed. I must have read the first paragraph 6 times... I still don't know what it meant! It was so dry. Yes, I understand you're smart, but if you want to inform someone else about this stuff, please make it easier to understand!

So I woke up at 8:30 this morning, extremely tired, and when I went to put my contacts in, they weren't in the case. Well, where else would I put them? I put them in 2 places and that's in the case or in my--DAMMIT! I slept with my contacts in! I brushed my teeth and got ready for bed before reading the article, but left my contacts in to read it. Thinking my bedtime preparation was complete, I went to sleep. I'm wearing a brand new pair too, so I hope I haven't worn them out already...while sleeping. So I was ready to go to my meeting, my eyes even more red than usual, looking like I'm high as a kite, and I head to the library. I print out the article to bring to the meeting and head to William Smith.

Ok? There's a class in our classroom, so my professor must be in his office...which is...where? I wasted a few minutes going downstairs, looking to see if my professor's office was listed, then I decided to just go to the library and find out for sure. I found his office to be in Goldstein, headed over there only to find that he had already left to teach his next class. He was teaching a 9:30 class after our meeting at 9:15. So...we were going to meet for about 5 minutes? So I walked from Goldstein back to Howard, and said to myself, "I am a sad, sleepy little person right now."

Less than an hour later, I headed back to William Smith for class and suddenly remembered that I don't have playwriting today. We're meeting individually with TM, so I can, in fact, meet with Kelty this afternoon. I went to Kelty after class, ready to apologize for missing our meeting, which apparently had about a 5-8 minute time frame, and he greated me with "Hey, Corey, we're going to meet later today, right?" Are you unaware that we were going to meet this morning? Whatever. 3's good? 3's good. I'll see you at 3.

On the bright side, I did laugh out loud at this email exchange I had with TM, my playwriting professor.

Me:

I'm pretty sure I'm meeting with you at 3, but really,
I'm not sure. I'm quite skeptical of my tricky memory.
Can you confirm my meeting time with you tomorrow
afternoon? Sorry, but thanks!

-Corey Holland

TM:

You're meeting with me at 4:00. If you show up at 3:00
I won't talk to you.

TM

Stoned...

2009-01-29T22:26:00.002-05:00

Ok... I had a wonderful weekend, but I can barely focus on it because of how much my week has sucked.

Friday night, Claire and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary, which was wonderful, and I had a great weekend.

Saturday night, I stayed up sort of late, as I do on many occasions, and when I finally went to bed, I just couldn't sleep. My back was sort of aching, and I tried to stretch it to make it feel better, but it only got steadily worse. It was well past 4:00 am and my back was really bothering me, though I attempted to deny the fact that the pains were very familiar. They felt just like they did right before I went to the hospital at 5 am during my senior year of high school to find out I had a kidney stone. That was awful. Finally, I couldn't deny it anymore and I called my mom and she thought it was best to wake up a friend and go to the hospital.

I woke my friend/RA, Mike, up and told him I needed to be taken to the hospital. Without asking any questions, he quickly got ready and we went. After 4 or 5 hours of pain, nausea, medication, cat scans, and doctors and nurses switching shifts, I was back at my dorm, only to get sick again. Yes, indeed, I had another kidney stone. The rest of the day was not awful next to that morning.

Monday was great. I had little pain, went to the dining hall, had company, and was doing alright. Unfortunately, Tuesday until now has been terrible. I have had constant pain, missed several classes, and woken up at 4:55 am every morning. This. Sucks.

It better be over soon. I read online that most adults pass them between 1 and 4 weeks. It better be closer to one, or I'm going to go crazy. :(

In the booth, baby!

2009-01-17T01:42:00.002-05:00

I have some very exciting news! Exciting to me, anyway, and if it's not exciting to you, S my D. If you choose the ladder, sorry, I'm charging superpowers these days.

First off, New Year's with my darling Claire was fantastic. I love visiting Claire, and to my delight even the ride there was quite smooth. Considering these days boredom is my only worry when driving distances longer than an hour, I'd say it was a quite successful trip. Claire and I did what we do best, and that's entertain ourselves with each other's company. Not that an occasional trip out isn't nice, but I feel that if you can spend the entire day with someone doing what some may define as "nothing," but still have the time of your life, you have found someone special. Whether it be with shackles, chloroform, or simply treating her right with love and passion, you'll want to hang out to that one, sonny.

We ate pizza, pasta, and...pa...somethin'. Buuut no matter what the name, it was pa-leasing to me! We also saw Yes Man, which was overall a great movie with some very real moments if that makes any sense. I enjoyed it. It was a great visit, and I'm ready to see her again on Sunday when we go back to school! :D

Here's some sweet news! Over the summer, a DVD called Adventures in Voice Acting was finally released after being announced two years ago... When I bought the DVD, I also signed up for newsletter updates online, which usually announced upcoming Voice Acting Workshops in LA. I knew I should unsubscribe because it was just a tease to me, but for some reason I enjoyed reading about stuff I couldn't do. It's not like this was a long email either, we're talking about back-sleeve type of a text, which I would read several times to make sure "Los Angeles" wouldn't fade into "Corey's Living Room."

So a little while back one of the updates said they had a workshop in New York. Wow! On the Eastern Shore? I was very excited, but had missed the time. Well, maybe I'd go to the next New York one. Then there was an area where you could request a workshop near you. You bet I did! I typed Maryland on there quite a few times. Sure enough, a few nights ago, I got an email saying they were holding a workshop in DC! WOO! I signed up and paid the next morning. There's only 15 slots open, and I GOT ONE!

Very exciting. I can't wait! I actually get to go in a studio with a voice director and record and practice in the booth. It's going to be way too much fun.

Aside from that, a couple guys from my school are starting a small talent agency and they emailed me asking if I'd like to be represented as a comedian! That's pretty awesome. We're going to meet about it when we get back to school next week. At the very least, that is a really nice gesture, and considering I only do stand up at open mics for fun, what have I got to lose? Sounds like a lot of fun, and possibly being a working comedian in college is really awesome.

I'm so ready for next semester. Voice Acting Workshop, Stand Up, Improv, Playwriting, and I've even chosen my thesis - Baby with the Bathwater by Christopher Durang. Let's do it.

Excited for New Year's!

2008-12-29T23:58:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in a little while, and I don't have much to say except I'm going to visit Claire tomorrow for New Year's! I'm so excited to see her and give her lots of presents!

:D

Merry Christmas!!

2008-12-25T00:56:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! I wonder what I'll get for Christmas when I wake up tomorrow. I didn't know what I wanted - whenever people asked me, I just didn't know at all, so it will be very surprising to see what I get!

Enjoy the holidays!!

Doodle Time - Frieza!

2008-12-22T15:30:00.005-05:00

Here's my version of Frieza, one of the most intimidating, yet gender confused, villains of Dragonball Z. Yeah, it's a guy, voiced by Linda Young. Also, if you have a problem with me not drawing noses... take it deep.

Doodle Time!

2008-12-21T01:08:00.003-05:00

My sister, Rachel, asked me to draw her. So here she is.

*Note: I am terrible at bodies... especially boobs. (drawing them, that is.)

One Liner.

2008-12-19T14:57:00.001-05:00

You know your eyes are bad when you see a small orange sticker on a pack of toilet paper and your first assumption is that it says "USED."

The radio sucks...

2008-12-19T00:41:00.002-05:00

I took a short journey to the video store today because mi Padre y yo wanted to watch Iron Man. I realized I had forgotten my ipod which I had thought to take before I grabbed my coat. I grabbed my coat...and forgot my ipod. I stepped outside, shut the door, and remembered my ipod. Ah, whatever, I'm already outside, so of course I thought it was too much work to backtrack six or seven steps. I'm on the fasttrack, baby, try and keep up!

I got in the car and caught the ending 10 seconds of some nameless rock song, and then it went to commercial. I switched to another modern rock station...commercials, and finally the classic rock station...commercials. I hate the radio. I drove for about ten minutes listening to nothing but clips of commercials as I continued to switch between three or four radio stations like I was attempting to form new sentences with these random words I heard. I arrived at my destination, rented Iron Man and Step Brothers, and when I get back in the car, I hear the chorus of The Offspring's You're Gonna Go Far, Kid. Sweet, I love this song, but wait...it's the last chorus, and we're done! Yay. So on the way back I listened to commercials once again -- extra commercials since the jerk in front of me decided to drive 30 in a 30...IN WHALEYVILLE -- until finally a Three Day's Grace song came on. After all that, they give me Three Day's Grace? And it's Animal I Have Become, which is mediocre at best.

/Radio rant.

So Iron Man was great to see again. My dad liked it while my mom said his escape from captivity was very unrealistic. Yeah...I don't think Stan Lee was going for realistic when he created Captain America, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and Iron Man. Why's it always gotta be ***-Man, anyway? Why not chap, gent, bud, kid, or....dingo. I mean, what evil-doer wouldn't be intimidated by superheroes like The Angelic Gent or Fire-Dingo?!

Whatever. I've still got dibs on Cocktimus Prime.

Step Brothers sucked. They weren't 40 year old guys who lived with their parents, they were 8 year old characters played by 40 year old men. Nothing happened. A couple funny parts, I suppose. I'm just glad there was an unnecessarily long fart in the movie. I've gotta have something to like about it.

I have ascended to the next level!

2008-12-17T19:03:00.002-05:00

Alright...call me a loser, a geek, a dork, or whatever, but I still think Dragonball Z is freakin' awesome. One of my e-buddies drew me as a Super Saiyan, and it is one of the coolest looking things EVER. If you want more info on what a Super Saiyan is, you should watch this video and gaze upon the awesome power of a Super Saiyan! Claire, watch the whole thing and you'll totally think it's awesome!

Now join me as I nerd out and take a look at Super Saiyan Corey!! The arms are a little larger than in reality in case you guys didn't know, but that waist is spot on! haha

D for Done!

2008-12-12T10:37:00.004-05:00

I am so relieved to be done by Computer Science exam. It was extremely difficult, and I was surprised I had an answer to put down for every question. Now, how well these answers fit the questions is a different story, but I had answers nonetheless. I'm glad it's over, but I'm very disappointed that despite my best efforts it is literally impossible for me to get above a D in this class. I went to help sessions every week, sometimes twice a week, studied hard, met with the professor several times, and I'm still in danger of failing this course.

No, I'm probably not going to lose my scholarship or get kicked out of school, but I am probably going to lose the discount I have on my car insurance which is expensive with or without said discount. Doesn't valor count for anything in these types of classes? Against all odds, he stood! Amidst his fallen brethren, he remained in place like stone wielding his broken shield, battered sword, and severed pride. Perhaps......too much. Yeah, that is a little more epic than in reality, isn't it? I wish it was more complicated than "I suck at Computer Science," but hey, I suck at Computer Science.

Going home tomorrow - so ready! I'm gonna go jizz in my pants.

2 Finals down...1 to go

2008-12-10T11:15:00.002-05:00

I just got out of my second final. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but I was definitely squeezing for content on that last essay. I also typed "Giovanni's sister" at least 10 times because I could not remember her name for the life of me. We had to write 3 essays, selecting them out of a list of 5. Altogether we had to cover 6 plays total, and each essay had to cover 3 different plays, meaning only a few of them could be repeated for different essays. I really just wanted to write about Tartuffe and A Midsummer Night's Dream for all of them, but obviously I could not do that. I'm glad it's over with.

I'm really dreading Friday's final...Computer Science I. It. Is. Horrible. I'm taking it for my math credit because I hate math, but I find myself wishing I had taken Algebra III in high school so I could take Calculus here. I just cannot understand any of this C++ programming stuff. It never makes any sense! I've been blasting this information into my head and it refuses to go anywhere but out of the other side. Though with that metaphor, that sounds reasonable. I think if something blasts into your head, it should probably come out of the other side. I'll be so glad to get this class over with. I just really want at least a C in this class. Isn't that pathetic? I'm hoping for a C... that's awful. Our last class was going over brand new material - no review, no catching up, nope. The only "review" he does is, "Does anyone have any questions?" Everyone replies with the typical 9:30am response of "duuhhh..." and we leave. I just don't understand why my professor seems to think everyone gets it. Hasn't he noticed that every other week the size of the class goes down by 40-50%? We started with a roomful of students, and our last class only had 6 or 7 people in it. Then he seems to think I "have a firm grasp on the information," and I "ask great questions in class." Well, if by "firm grasp" you mean I can faintly see it on a wet, soggy map, and by "great questions" you mean "...what?" Then, yeah, you're right! I got an 18% on the first exam before the retake, dude! 18%!!! (I just hit caps lock for numbers... /stupid. There, I bolded it.)

I know I can memorize all the definitions of stuff, but when we have to write pseudocode, I'm going to bomb. Eh...

In other news, I'm going home on Saturday!! I'm so excited! I can't wait to be home for over a month and do absolutely nothing and have nothing to worry about except my thesis proposal.

Papers out the Wazoo!

2008-12-02T09:43:00.000-05:00

Blah! I have to go to my 10:00 class in fifteen minutes... and I just finished my paper. I was working on it last night, and I just really wanted to go to bed. I rarely wake up in the morning to finish a paper. I hate doing that. I had a paper due yesterday, the one today, and one more on Thursday. That's all on top of the rehearsals I have for 2 scenes I'm and a 10-minute play I'm in. All of those scripts need to be thoroughly studied and well-memorized by Friday at the latest.

I've got way too much going on. Ironically, finals week has always been one of the least stressful weeks for me. Hopefully we'll keep it that way. I cannot wait for Winter Break. It was nice to have a week to chill out over Thanksgiving, but I am so ready to have a month to do the same thing. I'm so glad I won't have a truckload of work around the corner waiting to jump me in a dark alley like last week.

Thanksgiving Break!

2008-11-27T01:21:00.000-05:00

I am finally home again. Man...freshmen year there was so much open space and time to do whatever. I came home every once and a while to visit my friends and family, but now that's barely an option. This year and last I've only come home on the school's breaks. Now, my schedule is busy busy busy all the time. I'm so glad to be home where I can do absolutely nothing.

I've been playing a lot of Guitar Hero: World Tour the past day and a half, and I must say...it is spectacular. Sucks for the singer because for some reason the font is all squished looking so it's tough to read, but I think that's my only complaint. Maybe it's just the TV I'm using? When my buddy Mike and I were playing yesterday, we made up our own lyrics to songs that we thought were boring. We would take turns singing lyrics and watch as our "song" spiraled into a horrible horrible NSFW situation, but it was still really fun and hilarious. Mike has a talent with improv. I wish he went to WAC...he'd so be on the improv team. Mostly Junk!! I got really excited when we played Misery Business and Hayley Williams walked out on stage. That was cool. I mean...the graphics are kind of crappy...but she had the orange hair, and Paramore and her are a bunch of badasses.

It was great playing with Daniel and Rachel. They are the coolest people to have for siblings. We get along so well and there's nothing like when we're all three together. No one can keep up. I love it.

Tomorrow (technically today) is Thanksgiving! I'm so excited to EAT! Happy Thanksgiving!

Supermassive Black HOOOOLE!

2008-11-24T21:05:00.000-05:00

I'm listening to Muse's Supermassive Black Hole. Man, that's a good one. Muse is such a strange and unique band. That haunting bridge in Knights of Cydonia... oh MAN! Gotta use that in a movie sometime.

Or will YouTube once again rob me of my movies? Lately, youtube has made its goal to remove all of my favorite videos from my youtube channel. They took away not my favorite, but my most popular video, which is very important! It's my breadwinner! It was a video for AFI's summer shudder, and that was how I tricked people into coming to my channel to look at my stupid videos. It had over 40,000 fews and had really weird 14 year old emo girls trying to get my AIM screenname and e-assholes calling me a fag. CAN YOU SEE HOW IMPORTANT IT IS??? (I wasn't even planning on ranting about this) So a couple weeks later I get an email telling me Late For Class has been taken down as well!! GAH! What's the deal? I own the song, why can't I make them an awesome music video? I bet Sum 41 would appreciate it. I was able to get it back up on youtube with a new song provided by youtube, Step Up by Drowning Pool, which is apparently approved. It fits...ok, but when I edit I go for audio timing, so all of that is shot. In the original song, Tony freezes mid-air because there is a drop in the guitar audio, buuut now he just freezes for no apparent reason. Ah well, it's cool anyway. Summer Shudder is back up under its short story alias, "The Rain," and has a stupid instrumental track behind it making me look like an abstract indie-film artist. ...HA!

Today's been a good day. My professor, Michele, questioned why I wanted to hug her on occastion. Well, first of all, Professa V, you are totally awesome, and secondly, Larry won't hug me.

My boss Brian brought his lil dog, Nacho the Chihuahua, with him today. I was talking to him in his office (Brian's office...not Nacho's) when I noticed a small, brown animal trotting around. I alerted Brian immediately of the intruder's presence. He was surprisingly aware... O_o; haha It's the most precious thing. I don't think I'd want a chihuahua, but Nacho seems like a cool little dude. Claire, I freaking want a dog named Link! What's wrong with naming a dog after the Hero of Time? Maybe she'll just have to watch me play Zelda for hours upon hours until she understands... Oooh... now I get it, she says. Claire claims that she did not know any guys at her high school that had played Zelda. That CAN'T be true!! I'll tell you something about guys from Claire's high school... THEY ARE NO FRIENDS OF MINE!

Claire's at home watching movies on her TV, which has a severe case of elephantitis (Wiki has just told me that that's a common misconception. It's actually "elephantiasis"). I miss Claire already. I didn't have a huge appetite at dinner, so looks like it's going to be a pizza or McDonald's night...without Claire??? Ah! Going home tomorrow baby! YEAH!

-Corey

The Pilot

2008-11-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

Hello interwebbers, get ready for a long read! It's the beginning, mmk? I've wanted to start a blog for... oh, maybe a year now, and I've finally got around to doing it. I have a knack for putting things off.

My lovely girlfriend, Claire, has an awesome blog called Intransit, and reading hers made me want to make one even more.

So I've been told I'm animated and I've been flat out told I'm a cartoon character, so now you have no need to inquire about the blog's title. Welcome to my animated series! MA LIFE!

Let's start from the beginning and do some character analysis: When I was younger, I was imaginative, I was creative, and I was sometimes really annoying. I made weird noises all the time, and I mimicked everything! My toy supply consisted of pretty much only action figures. I lived out in the boonies, so I didn't have a lot of friends over until I was older. As my brother got older, I played by myself more and more. WOW! This sounds pathetic! What I'm getting at is that I did the voices for an entire cast of superheroes and supervillains all by myself. I copied the voices on the radio, the voices in cartoons, and the voices of everyone around me (this was the annoying part). I still remember seeing the voice acting scene in Mrs. Doubtfire and being utterly fascinated! I also saw an interview with Rob Paulsen, voice of the original Ninja Turtles' Raphael, on Regis, and later an interview with Christine Cavanaugh, voice of Rugrats' Chuckie, on Nickelodeon. I went insane when I saw live action cartoon characters. In the back of my mind, voice acting was always a career I would have loved to pursue, but would never believe it was actually possible. (ooh...Billie Jean just came on. I love this song... dun...dun...dun...dun...shacka chish shh!)

So let's fast forward a few years. When I was 13 years old I met someone that would forever change who I am and who I will be. I met my best friend in the world, Ben. And if anyone ever tells me that Dragonball Z can't change the world, I will shove a TV down your throat and watch all 276 episodes through you, you jerk. Dragonball Z is the whole reason I met my best friend, Ben. I don't feel like elaborating on that, but it's true. So Ben and I get a bunch of DBZ action figures and start making stop-animation movies using them. We split the voice cast, and I usually had the bigger half. It was amazing. In fact, I want to do that ...right now.

So freshmen year of high school comes around. At this time, my older sister, Rachel, is a member of the show choir and her stories of laughter and fun performances told me I wanted to join this group. This was my first time ever in chorus since elementary school, where the hardest thing we ever did was clap our hands during "The wheels on the bus." Show Choir required harmonies, facial expression, body language and...dancing. Yeah, I'm a dancer, baby. I'm so glad I took Show Choir because it taught me how to be comfortable in front of a crowd. I think it was a better idea than taking Drama, which had always been recommended to me, but I never did it. I'm not accusing everyone, but a lot of times people are what I like to call "high school actors," and they don't always get out of it. It breaks them. If you're wondering why I'm glad, it's because when I later got to college and tried out for a show as a favor, I found out how much I love acting. Not only do I love it, I'm pretty damn good too. I even ended up being a Drama Major here at Washington College with a minor in Creative Writing.

Acting saved me, and it's my comfort because I was starting to get worried about my future. Senior year of high school I was under the impression I was going to be an English and Creative Writing teacher. I love to write, but man, I hate to read. What kind of teacher would I be? "Mr. Holland, I don't understand this part." Well, I didn't read it, stupid...I'm the teacher! I had taken a Communication Arts class during the second semester of my senior year and found I was very skilled with a video camera and editing software. That summer, after already being accepted to Washington College, I started to have second thoughts. Did I want to attend a film school? Obviously, my parents were not happy with my doubts. I went to WAC, and it has all worked out. I've even won and placed in several video competitions at WAC, so I didn't have to stop filming. I just love it. I've found some real passions here - Acting, improv, sketch, and stand up comedy. I love it all, and I hope to eventually share it with more and more people. I've met some amazing people...people that I never want to part with, and when I thought things couldn't get any better, I met the love of my life, Claire. We will have been together for two years in January, and she's still an incredible girl. She went home for Thanksgiving break yesterday, and I already miss her. She is the only reason that I think Winter Break is too long. She's smart, she's beautiful, and she puts up with me. If you want to lose a debate, try and tell me you're a cuter couple than us. I love you, Claire!

I'll have my last thoughts here, so you guys can just tune in for the next episode and not be subjected to such a long read. Please enjoy my most recent stand up routine. It's about a great memory from freshmen year. (feel free to check out the rest of my youtube videos as well...)

-Corey