Every other Wednesday night is D&D night at my friend Cal’s, but I couldn’t go tonight . . . I wanted — no, that’s not right. I needed — to stay home and be a dad.
. . . isn’t that cool? A few years ago, I would have really agonized about not being able to go play, and I probably would have ended up going, anyway . . . but I came to a realization when I was out running today: all I want in this world is to be a husband and a father. Everything I do, the writing, the acting, the voice overs . . . all of that is just a means to an end, so I can come home, and enjoy my family. It’s a big change from a few years ago, when I was myopically preoccupied with trying to Prove To Everyone That Quitting Star Trek Wasn’t A Mistake.
Writing in my blog, and then Dancing Barefoot, and Just A Geek helped me find perspective in my life, and though it took a few years, I’ve finally realized what’s important to me, and why.
I still love creating, but when I audition, I’m doing it for me now. I’m out there, doing my best because it makes me happy, and if my best ends up being the best, and that happens to land me a job, then that’s even better. If it doesn’t work out, it’s not the end of my life: I have a wife and stepkids to come home to, who I absolutely adore. And when the creative bug bites, happiness is just a keyboard away.

It’s been a rather busy week (even though it’s only half over) for me and Anne, and she wanted everyone to know that she’s working on her marathon entry in every spare minute she has . . . she just doesn’t have very many of them right now.
Also, it looks like we’ve fixed everything that needed fixing, and comments are back. I’ve missed the interaction more than I thought I would, and I’m glad we’ve gotten out shit together again. Thanks to Loren and Josh 🙂

I’ve been interested in the case of the West Memphis Three for a couple of years. I won’t go into the details here, (there are more details in the link) but I think a grave injustice has been done, and it needs to be corrected.
The WM3 are really up against it now, and I’ve donated an autographed copy of Dancing Barefoot to be auctioned on eBay. 100% of the final bid will be donated to their legal defense (defence, for you non-Americans) fund.
The last auction of Barefoot hit around $150, for St. Jude’s, and I think that rocks pretty damn hard. Every single bit helps, so if you’re looking for a Barefoot of your own, and you want to help out what I think is a very good cause, you know what to do.

A few weeks ago, I wrote:
Dude! This is too cool!
Tomorrow, I have an audition to do voicework for Twisted Metal: World Tour!
I’ve played so much Twisted Metal over the years that if I hear Rob Zombie in the car, I have to change the station, or I may get a little . . . aggressive.
This would be like a Trekkie getting to work on TNG, or me getting to work on Family Guy or Futurama.
Apparently, a Video game news site ran a story which quoted the entry, but incorrectly asserted that I had been “cast” in the game. I sent them feedback and asked for a correction, but they never ran it, nor did they respond to my request.
And now, of course, I am in trouble, because people who are involved with the project think I claimed that I was cast in the project (except that I didn’t) that hasn’t been announced (except for the 2500 google search results, including a very cool movie of the game trailer.)
I have been asked to issue a retraction, which I don’t think is appropriate, since I never made the incorrect claim in the first place, but I love Sony’s games, and I especially love the entire Twisted Metal series, and since I don’t want to hurt them, and I especially don’t want to hurt my chances of ever working with them (provided it’s not already too late) I would like to issue the following clarification:

I completely respect Sony, and everyone involved with the production of all the Twisted Metal games. I wrote about my audition on my blog because I was so excited about the opportunity to audition for something that I love so much.
I understand the importance of not revealing any confidential or sensitive information, which is why I didn’t talk about the characters I read for, or discuss any storyline specifics. I’ve been a professional actor for over 25 years, and confidentiality is nothing new to me.
I deeply regret that I was misquoted by psp.ign.com, and I am very upset that they did not respond to my request to clarify their story. I hope this hasn’t caused any harm to Sony, or anyone involved with the production of Twisted Metal: World Tour, and I sincerely hope that I will get an opportunity to work with them in the future.
If nothing else, I can’t wait to get my hands on the wheel, and jump back into Calypso’s newest tournament, when the game is released.

I would like to add that I didn’t realize this was such a big deal, and I can’t understand, for the life of me, why any software publisher wouldn’t want the free and enthusiastic publicity that my post could have — no, SHOULD HAVE — generated. It’s not like the game is a big secret.
To ensure this doesn’t happen again, in the future, unless I am specifically given permission by the game’s publisher, I just won’t write about the specifics of my auditions.
This is perfect. I got excited about something, mentioned how excited I was, and now it looks like my video game voicing career is over before it even got started.
Hooray.

Continuing the “Dreams Come True” theme from the last entry . . .
I have been invited to play on the World Poker Tour’s second Hollywood Home Game this Friday!
I am so excited! I haven’t sat at a table and played NL Hold’Em (other than a few home games) since February, so I think I’ll be studying my Sklansky, Jones, Caro and Brunson this week. If I get some time, I’ll head out to the Bike, or Commerce, and see how I do down there.
I’m sure that I will have to sign a waiver that says I won’t talk about the details of the game, but I’ll keep notes, and once it airs, I’ll write up “Lying in Hollywood.”
I got the invite in large part because of WWdN, which wouldn’t exist without WWdN’s readers. So, again . . . thank you 🙂