Been busy, so I haven't had a chance to say much of anything, but I'm back.

Our commercial is finished for our banking client, Charlotte Metro Credit Union. I will have a link to the finished spot up soon, as well as some behind the scene pictures. It turned out well and the client is happy.

Now on to a new commercial, for our sleeping client (that is, a client who helps people get sleep, not a client who is asleep) This one is going to involve two people and a dog. We seem to be doing a lot of stuff with animals lately. We just got the approval so I'll start setting it up soon.

We're getting closer to starting a project that we've been working on for three years, involving a young girl named Hope Stout. If you want to read a little more about it, click here.

It's raining here in Charlotte right now. Gloomy and depressing weather, not helped by the fact that I'm tired because I didn't sleep well last night. Oh well.

On the fun side, I've been playing Spore when I'm not here working. I haven't gotten very far yet, only making it to the civilization stage of my first creature, which I call the Lorothians.

I'm also on Facebook, if you want to connect with me. Just search for Paul Barrett in Charlotte NC and you should find me.
That's about it for now. More as it comes along.

Dragon Con was a hoot. As always, there was too much drinking and not enough sleep, but I had a grand time. Got down there Friday around 6, went through registration in about 5 minutes (the beauty of pre-registering) and just strolled around for a bit. I actually got about an hour workout in, since I knew that would probably be the last time during the weekend I could.

The big event Friday night was the Con Sluts party, which I got an invite to. The theme was Co-Ed Locker Room, so I showed up in an Aladdin towel carrying a brush and a bottle of body soap. There were other folks dressed in very little, including a lot of old friends. There was drink and music and all in all it was great fun. I was up until about 3:30. Went back to the deli in my hotel and got a turkey sandwich and some chips, and I tell you, it may have been the drinking, but those were the best potato chips I've ever eaten.

Got up about 10 AM on Saturday, grabbed some eats, walked through the dealer's room, then went to a panel on Low Budget filmmaking. I went to meet the filmmakers and just get their take on the whole process, to see how different it was from when we made Night Feeders. Not much, except they spent three years getting theirs finished because they didn't pay anybody. Their film was called Red Victoria. They made it for $5000. I thought it was going to be horrible, but it turned out to be really, really good. I'm getting a screener copy from them and I'll post a review shortly after I watch it again. The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with friends, walking around in costume, and then going to another party (a lot of Dragon Con is about going to parties) Didn't get to bed until 4:30AM (another part of Dragon Con is getting almost nil sleep)

Sunday, feeling a little ragged, I got a hearty breakfast at the hotel restaurant, then went and waited in line to get my picture taken with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk, from Firefly. I did this for two reasons. 1. I like their work. 2. I wanted to get the names of their agents, because they would be good in a couple of projects we've got. They were both very nice. After that, I went to wait in line to go into the panel discussion "An hour in the Firefly verse" (Dragon Con is also about waiting in line. Even the Starbucks line took 15 minutes) The Firefly panel was a laugh riot. The four actors (Nathan, Alan, Jewell, and Morena) kept the entire ballroom in stitches with their jokes and anecdotes. It's obvious they all get along really well and had a great time making the show. Then I went back to the room and took a little nap (those are allowed) then got back in costume and walked around, and went and watched the Anime Music Video award winners. They were funny and touching, and there's a lot of work that goes into making them. After that I got out of costume (the flat sandals were beginning to kill my feet) and went to the gaming room for a bit, then went to bed.

And that was my Dragon Con experience. I must have had about 100 people ask to take my picture and I won a ribbon from one of the Dragon Con people. I was awarded "Grade A Top Choice Meat" I was very honored. All in all it was a wonderful experience.

Monday I headed home, got about halfway back, and realized I had left my laptop in the hotel room. So I drove back, got my computer, and then headed home. All in all, I was on the road for eight hours. That was the only downside to the trip.

So in order to get ready for Dragon Con, I've gone to a low carb diet for a week to get some last minute trimness in, and boy does it suck. If you've never been on one, they are not to be taken lightly. We're talking less than 20 grams of carbs a day. No rice, no pasta, no bread, no sweets. Arrrgghh.

Day one isn't so bad, because your body's not aware of what's happening. Day two is the worst, because your body starts freaking out that it's not getting its seratonin dumps. You get moody, depressed, and ready to kill someone. I'm surprised more killing sprees aren't started by people on day two of a low carb. Day three gets a little better, and day four even more so, but it still stinks, especially if you're throwing a birthday party for a friend and they're all having cake and the best you can do is a low carb protein shake.

Still, I'll stick with it because it's working. Four pounds of water weight are gone and I suspect another two to three will be gone by time for Dragon Con. Then after Dragon Con I'll be back to eating bread. Not too much, but enough that my body isn't ready to throw me out for some one who let's it eat spaghetti on occasion.

We presented our concepts to sleep client and, surprise, she liked all eight of them. Score! Now she has to narrow it down to three to present to the big boss. More as it develops.

I'm currently involved in two projects that could be a lot of fun. One is a commercial for our banking client and we're going to be using animatronic pigs for the spot, so that should be interesting. We're scheduled to shoot on the 26th, so more as it develops, including pictures. The other project is a short film showing the different paths the city of Charlotte can take toward the future, depending on decisions we make now. It's sort of like Crash meets Rashoman, if that makes any sense. I'm working as script supervisor and will be on it from the 11th-20th. I'll talk about it more too.

As some of you may be aware, in January I decided I was going to DragonCon in Atlanta, and I was going to go as a Spartan from the movie 300. So since Janurary I've been working out to make that a reality. On March 25th I started personal training at Fitness Together, working strictly on core and cardio. They've done a great job and now I have them working on my arms and legs, while I do cardio and core at the gym on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I'm working out five days a week, sometimes six. I'm real close to looking how I want. I'm not going to look quite like the guys in the movie, but as close as my body can get.

The next step is to help show off that work. To that end, I've started tanning at a tanning salon, in the high pressure bed that is supposed to get you tan pretty quick. I have about a month, so I hope it is quick. I'm also going to order parts of the costume today. I will throw some pictures up after the convention, so everyone can see if I hold my own against the Spartan hordes.

I'm a big fan of Weeds, but I'm not sure if the move out of Agrestic to just across the border from Mexico was a good idea or not. There are parts of it that are really funny, but some of it is just painful. And the thing with Shane and the pictures of his mother that came near the end of this past week's episode was pretty close to going over the line. I love Shane's character, but that was pretty damn creepy. Have to admit it will be interesting to see if anything develops out of it.

And I've really been enjoying Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Smart, sexy, and a lot of fun.