Baby's First Post

Well yes maybe this means I've jumped on the blogging bandwagon, or perhaps it means that I am temping as a receptionist and it is a rather slow day. Or maybe it could be a brilliant combination of both. I dare not assume it has to do with me having anything remotely insightful to say.

Nonetheless.

Hello and welcome to I Didn't Choose This, the blog where I get to update you on my life as a struggling actress. The name of my blog comes from a very popular saying, at least within the community of struggling artists that I am fortunate enough to call my friends which is "I didn't choose acting, acting chose me". If you think for one instant I want this life, then think again. I come from a very stable upbringing - both my parents were highschool English teachers so proficient in their art that after retirement have gone on to teach the craft of . . .teaching . . . at Queen's University (Ontario, Canada). In fact my entire family is made up of teachers (for more information on teaching in my life and indeed me, please visit my website www.adriennekress.com).

Then why are you an actor you may ask? You seek stability and comfort. Well I don't know. Let's leave it at that. Let's maybe say something profound like I need to act the way I need water, that when I go months without, my soul is parched. But that's flaky - though really a pretty cool analogy written on the spot at my current temping placement.

Ah the art of temping. Yet more instability. But I have to say it is possibly the funniest sort of job I've ever had.

I once had this job ... okay you know those new sort of voice mail services where you talk into the phone? You know, they ask you to say yes or no instead of push a button? Well I worked for this company who programmed such systems and they were trying to make it more efficient. So it was my job to 'teach' the computer how to be smarter. Someone in the company compiled a whole bunch of yes/no audio responses to their service (actual people using the service - never think you're not being listened to, cause I've heard you all!)and they were played back through a computer. If the computer understood what the person was saying, ie if the person said 'Yes' and it wrote 'Yes' then I didn't have to do anything, but if the computer got it wrong, wrote 'no' instead, I would have to correct it. Worked there a week. Got so good I could listen to 1000 yes/no's in 45 minutes. I mean, that's talent. The best thing was when the person would get mad at the system from repeating yes over and over and it not understanding and finally I would hear 'Oh for f*** sake give me a real person!' I understand the pain.

But I digress.

This is long enough.

I'll tell you some more tomorrow.