Thanks CuppaJo

Ya know, I could be depressed right now. I really could be. If you've been reading the 'blog regularly, you know that I've had a veritable flurry of auditions in the past couple of weeks. Not a single one of them panned out. Oh, I got a call-back for Lion In Winter at Lakewood, but that's as far as I got.

So, I could be pretty down right now... except I keep recalling something that someone I've never met recently said.

This is kinda long and fractured, so bear with me... the message boards for City of Heroes are moderated by a lady who goes by the handle "Cuppajo." She's an incredibly fair, even-handed go-between who handles communications between the playerbase and the game developers.

The message boards themselves are a collection of praise, criticism, and suggestions for the people who make the game. Add in a large dose of comedic silliness and some player-created digital art and movies, and you've got a real off-the-wall spot in cyberspace.

Recently a bunch of grumpy CoH players asked, "Why should we test the next version of the game (on the "Test Server," a special server where advanced versions of upcoming changes are put in place so players can bug-hunt them)?" There was a lot more to thi rage-against-the-developers post than that... if you really want to you can read the whole mess
here (don't say I didn't warn you, though...)

Her response to the question (which you can read in its entirety if you click the above link and scroll down a little) was understanding and informative of the game developers' philosophies. What really stuck with me, however, was one of her closing statements.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

So, here I sit, having thrown myself into the emotional meatgrinder that is the audition process (ask any actor, we'll ALL tell you it's the worst part of the job), and I could feel down in the dumps. I could be downright depressed. But that one line from someone I've never met keeps coming back to me... And somehow I feel a whole lot better.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw that out there.

In case you were hoping for righteous indignation or silly web links, here's today's dose:

• My regular check of Something Positive (read the cartoon... 'sfunny!) yielded this little nugget of information: Anne Rice has a new book series out - The Jesus Chronicles (no, that's not really the title). Anyway, an interesting little bit of info... click here for the real story on her new book and her, uh... reawakening of faith? Yeah, I think that's what you'd call it...
• I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this story from the AP about Tom Delay's continued efforts to discredit the judge assigned to his case. I mean, Jesus, in his world should we all be immediately disqualified from our jobs if our political beliefs don't march in lock-goose-step with his? Oh, that's right... he's the victim. He's the victim... just keep listening to the grating voices of Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh telling you that over and over. The real comedic part is the last paragraph, though... be sure to read all the way to the end.

Yeah, so that's my life these days. Hope you're all doing well.

-Harold