Think Create - Leon Grey's Blog

Today I felt the sudden urge to blog, this was probably due to a three hour conversation I had today with my friend Jo-ann.  We decided to change our blogs, snazzy them up and bring something new to them.  I am not sure what I am going to do but Jo-ann has already registered her new blog domain name and started setting hers all up.  Check out her new site called Kohkohnut, it is a vegan cooking video-blog site showcasing Jo-ann’s cooking failures, successes, recipes and also where to find those elusive ingredients.  So if you are a vegetarian or vegan bookmark this site right now.

Ever since going to the Araluen’s Fremantle Chilli Festival in March I have been obsessed with chilli, a few weeks after the show and finally getting taste back in my mouth I decided to buy some chilli plants to grow.  My aim is to grow heaps of chillies, dry them out in the sun and make chilli flakes.  Here are some photos of how they are going., you can see one massive chilli growing.

I’m not much of a green thumb, but this is my little project so I take care of them and give them as much water and sun as they need.  One of the things I feed my chillies to make them grow is worm juice, this juice is harvested from my worm farm which I have had for over two years.  They are such productive little guys, they eat all my food waste and provide me concentrated liquid fertiliser for my chillies.

My worms have a diet of, bannana peels, old fruit and vegetables, crushed egg shells, used tea bags, newspaper and any off cuts of vegetables that I have while cooking.  Worms do not eat general trash like, meat leftovers, dairy products, onion, garlic or anything citrus.  Worm farms are great because you can use your organic food waste to feed to your worms to produce fertiliser for your plants, hows that for sustainability!

Thanks Captain Planet, you’re my hero!  Actually, thanks to my wife Kirsty she’s my hero, she has taught me everything I know about sustainability.

Happy Easter everyone!  This long weekend has been really hectic and fun at the same time.  On Friday and Saturday I was able to assisting the the casting of a new Australian film called, “Redback”.  I was able to see how auditioning process worked and also get a better understanding what the directors were looking for in an actors audition.  I had the opportunity to see a whole range of auditions from exceptional to ordinary (mostly because of nerves).   I have a featured extra role in the movie, what that means is that I will be in the background somewhere doing or saying something.  Happy Days!

One thing that I learnt was that the camera picks up everything.  It notices peoples twitches, eye movement and everything, worst thing is that it magnifies it!  I must have a look at my show reels to see if I have any of these things.

My last class for 10 weeks is next Tuesday and we start the Show reel workshop in 2 weeks, exciting stuff.  From the actors that I have seen in the last two days I feel I have a lot of improving to do.  But I have also noticed that there were actors that didn’t know their lines, so I guess Im half way there in regards to professionalism.  I would always know my lines when going in for an audition as well as have developed a very distinct character.

Life is becoming full on, with things happening at work as well as looking for auditions and honing my acitng skills.  I do hope everything falls into place. I will just trust the universe will deliver to me what I am working towards.  I feel I am walking in the right direction to have the opportunities delivered to me.

Don’t eat too many Easter eggs!

It hit me right smack between the eyes! You might ask yourself right now, what hit me?  We’ll put simply, it’s life.  I have such a hectic schedule I don’t have too much time to do anything other than my set tasks for the day.  I have been concentrating heavily on acting for the last few weeks and the pressure is definitely starting to tell on me.  My performances have been second rate to say the least and I really  need to manage my nerves better.  The last two weeks have been quite stressful, I had a my performance review at work, where they sent a trainer from the east coast to see gaps in my abilities and also reworking of my character and monologue.  Stressed and exhausted is what I am feeling right now. 

I performed my monologue last night and it sucked…..I move my eye brows too much and use my hands to much, its the salesman in me.  I need to cut out the animation from my face as well.  I have hit the wall in regards to my acting capabilities and now have to train like heck to get on par with some of the other fantastic actors in the class.  As I was driving to work today I thought to myself, when can I officially say that I’m an actor?  I’m not sure I can comfortably say that because of my inconsistent performances,  I’ll ask the other students out there the same question and see what they tell me.

Heres a photo of me in my costume for my monologue.  My character is a soldier who killed an innocent child during a firefight in Afghanistan.  Simon, another actor in class kindly taped my monologue, Ill put it up once I get it converted into a smaller file.

This weekend I have a 3 Day casting workshop with Worldwide Screen Actors Online in conjunction with JC Casting, one of the biggest casting companies in Perth.  I must bring my A-game and perform to my best abilities because this could help me with breaking into TV advertisements and also still-shot catalogues.  There is quite a bit of money to be made in that side of the industry.

Confidence has been low and I really need a pick me up, I’m getting a little run down but I know it will be all worth it in the end. 

On a brighter note I have hit 97kg. Woohoo! I am doing fantastically well in the weight loss side of things so if i keep it up ill get to my goal of 90kg in no time.

I looked in my monthly calender today and realised that I was 2 days late for my next blog entry. Yikes time does fly!

Kirsty is back from Bali and I successfully survived on a healthy diet of crumbed frozen fish and frozen vegetables.  I actually enjoyed being a bachelor for 10 days it was a refreshing change to actually be able to do nothing.  I did sleep a lot earlier than usual, I did get a bit bored.

The day after Kirsty came back from Bali we went out with her cousin and husband for dinner at the Hyatt ‘Cafe’ restaurant.  It’s the best seafood buffet restaurant in Perth and the desserts are just awesome.  My mouth is watering just thinking about the chocolate cake, cheesecake, freshly baked waffles and ice cream. MMMMMMM.  It’s $65 per head from Friday to Sunday and if you need someone to go with I’m always available. 

Check out the dessert station

I’m still losing weight at a steady pace, currently at 97.8kg.  Today my pedometer counted my total steps for the day at 19,000+, if I keep this up I’ll be at 90kg in no time.

Not much to write about currently, hope to have some interesting news next week so stay tuned!

So I’ve been playing Guitar Hero on my Playstation 3 off and on for the last 5 months. Dabbling in World Tour and Greatest hits, even playing the Beatles game.  Kirsty and I have been rocking it out on the weekends and having a great time, our fans go nuts!  So I’m thinking to myself, hey I’m pretty good at this Guitar Hero,  I think I should go in some competition or tournament.  After a bit of research I find that there are a few in Perth and after some more research I stumble upon a forum chatting about a you tube video of a world record attempt.

After watching this, I think I’ll just stay and play in my loungeroom.

Check it out

Last week I was tinkering with the idea to start writing this blog again.  I had lost my motivation and focus as to where I wanted this blog to go.  Interestingly two people on the same day had asked me what was going on with my blog and with a big shug and a sigh I said…..”I dunno”.

With a little pep talk from my primary school friend Jo-ann, I have decided to start again and in a new direction.  This blog will be less about teaching and more about my life, experiences and learnings.  So I hope you like the new format and I would be happy to hear any feed back of yours.  My next entry is not far away so stay tuned!

Ciao