I've been TAGGED!
Which I guess means that I legally HAVE to blog now. I should now. I'm still a lawyer.

Thanks, Abbey. Consider this my birthday present to you. :)

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

WHAT WERE YOU DOING 5 YEARS AGO:
1. I was just recovering from my 21st birthday party, in the Dunedin Elim conference centre... with speeches, food, foozball, LABYRINTH, RED DWARF, not to mention friends and family!
2. Showing my family around Dunedin, while scoring some nice meals off them. :)
3. Studying for my exams (although I probably only had two or three mid-year exams that year... good ol' full-year papers!)
4. Preparing for the Inaugural Cutting Edge Oscars.
5. Blogging.

FIVE THINGS ON YOUR TO-DO LIST TODAY? (Since I'm about to go to bed...I'll do this for tomorrow)
1. Call in sick to work (no, really, I've got a cold!)
2. Try and get back to sleep after step 1.
3. Relax when step 2. fails by playing guitar.
4. Go see the missus for a bit.
5. Dress up as a CAT and prance around on stage for 2 hours.

FIVE SNACKS YOU ENJOY?:
1. Celery (well, maybe 'enjoy' isn't quite the word...)
2. Nuts 'n' raisins
3. Um... chocolate.
4. Still chocolate.
5. I wonder why I'm such a big fatty?

FIVE THINGS YOU WOULD DO IF YOU WERE A BILLIONAIRE:
1. Give lots of presents to deserving friends :-)
2. Tithe
3. Buy a house
4. Travel
5. Save for the future - and my (future) kids' future.

FIVE OF YOUR BAD HABITS?:
1. I bite my nails.
2. Picking my nose.
3. Not realising the horrible, horrible connection between 1. and 2.
4. Listening to my iPod instead of interacting with the world or my own thoughts.
5. Overanalysing. :)

FIVE PLACES WHERE YOU'VE LIVED:
1. Wellington, NZ - with my parents and flatmates.
2. Dunedin, NZ - Carrington Hall
3. Dunedin, NZ - flatting
4. Hollywood Blvd, LA, USA
5. Dillon, CO, USA

FIVE JOBS YOU'VE HAD:
1. Lawyer
2. Legal Secretary
3. Paintball Umpire
4. KFC signboard guy
5. Random street advertising for a flowershop by playing guitar and distracting rush-hour drivers.


TAG YOU'RE IT!:

All RIGHT! Let's see who else has the cojones to come out of blog-retirement for this baby...

David Pomeroy - even though you're my flatmate, we don't talk as much as we should. So blog it.

Bing - Hah, you thought you could escape just by leaving town?

Kristy - Because, 3 years on, I think we've e-mailed like, twice?

Justin - My man! Again, it's been too long.

Becs - Because I've been wondering what's going on in Becsville for too long.
- posted by Sam @ 10:48 PM

 
7 months...
I bet you never thought I'd blog again! :)

This is more of an update than a resurrection of my blog. So don't get your hopes up.

I'm just back from a lengthy holiday around the North Island with my girlfriend, and various others we picked up or met along the way. That was relaxing, hot, fun and expensive. I'm back to work in a few days. I'm still at the law firm I started at, and will have been there for two years in a months' time.

I'm sick at the moment, for those of you who don't know. I have Post Viral Fatigue, which I've had since August 2, 2007. It's identical to Chronic Fatigue, except that it got kick started by a virus I caught in July. It sucks. Time and rest has made it a little better, however, as I was unable to get out of bed on some days when I first got sick. Now I'm getting healthier, although any physical exertion (especially just walking up stairs, for some reason) will wipe me out.

This sickness caused me a bit of grief, particularly during November when I was doing another show (Seussical the Musical - I played the Cat in the Hat). I had to use all my sick days at work and take some extra leave. The boss wasn't too happy about that, so I'll have to carefully judge whether I should do any shows this year. I'm quite keen to do CATS in May, but we'll see.

As mentioned, I have a girl in my life, Rachel. We're going strong after 9 months together. She's a lovely young lass, studying Classical Voice at university. I've been spending most of my time with her, although I fully intend (resolve?) to spend more time with my friends this year. It's so easy to just hang out with her, though!

Because of my sickness, and my show commitments, I've stopped going to church. It's too hard to get up early on a Sunday morning, and I can never stand night services. I'm still pushing ahead with my faith, though, and I do intend to return to church. Actually, I should have gone this morning, except that I was too wiped out from 6 hours of driving (straight after 2 hours of paintball) from yesterday, and couldn't actually sleep until 3:30 this morning!

Rachel and I are looking at going to Melbourne some time this year, to see the production of WICKED that they're doing. Some of you will recall that I saw that this time last year on Broadway. I'm still a big fan. :) It also looks like I'll be one of the two lawyers helping the boss out with our big trial of 2008, in November. That'll certainly be interesting, and difficult, and I'll actually be involved in Court for the first time. Which is a little scary.

All right, I might leave it there. Any questions? I may just blog again one day, who knows...
- posted by Sam @ 3:00 PM

 
If you still read this... I'm impressed!
Well, I guess it's about time for an update. Whether or not this blog is dead, I'm undecided. We'll have to wait and see. But this counts as a post.

How's it all going in Samland? Well, I just finished High School Musical, which was incredibly fun and very exhausting. It was wonderful having a lead role (and having my face plastered around town, having to sign autographs for the kiddies, having my very own stalker, etc), and it really inspired me. I really want to get (back?) into acting. I'm considering getting an agent and everything. The only hard part is doing it while having a full time job - especially in law. It was hard enough doing this show - working 8:30 to 6, then performing from 6 to 10, for two and a half weeks (not counting the rehearsals). It took more out of me than I thought it would.

Work itself is going well. Everyone's tired and stressed about the big trial (starts in a week), which I'm not too involved in (which I feel a bit bad about - but I don't exactly want to be working weekends!), but you carry the stress of your environment with you. I've been given a lot of responsibilities at work, and while I'm able to handle them, it's quite a bit of pressure.

Which affects other areas of my life, such as my faith. It's been too long since I've been to church - months, actually. Brendan and I have a church date tomorrow, so that'll be refreshing. I just haven't had the time, inclination, or energy. But in spite of all the false idols I put up (or perhaps 'distractions' is as appropriate a term), there's still a part of me that longs for God, which I am thankful for. It means that I wouldn't be happy if I ever walked away completely. So, things are quite hard for me here - at least, more so than usual - particularly with a distinct lack of like-minded people around.

I guess the only other news is that I now have a lady in my life. But I won't post about her here, that's not proper! But I'm happy, so that should be enough.

Hopefully, with the show over, I'll get back into the swing of things, and get back on top of everything. But then, I've never been one to have a calm, easy life...

Oh yeah, and I'm 25 now. Had a great party a fortnight ago - really enjoyed it, a lot of people came (from all sorts of places and groups, it was fantastic).

'Til next time!
- posted by Sam @ 3:41 PM

 
It's been a while...


I just wanted to mention that the show website is up and running - although, there's not much of interest added, unless you're out of town and you haven't seen the poster. There should be bios coming at some stage.

No pun intended there.

This link is for Paul, by request - but I should note that a lot of those pictures are pretty crude, and can contain nudity. But that's where I get them from.

And yeah, thanks for the encouragement, Paul - I'm taking all the hope I can get in that area at the moment!

I'm vaguely tempted to do a proper blog at the moment, but not enough to do so. I'll just say that work is crazy-busy, as is rehearsing. And all the other stuff. And I'm happy. And I'll blog properly... when I do.

Which reminds me of this:


- posted by Sam @ 12:15 PM