Okay, so I’m prepared to hear about NaNoWriMo for the next 30 days from all writers, established pros and aspiring ones alike. I literally have created a folder in my inbox to hear about how well people are doing, purely for selfish reasons (I like the idea of shooting someone an email on the 16th reminding them that they’ve only written 3K words since the 9th… it amuses me). I’m also prepared for people the castigate me because I don’t participate anymore. The last year I participated (2007) I wrote 96,000 words before Thanksgiving and pissed off about 100,000 people. Since my pissed people to words written ratio was 1.0 : 0.96, I decided that I would avoid this problem in the future by not participating, and instead rooting for others from the sidelines.

I spent all of yesterday on the set of Acts of God, a movie about four women whose lives all intersect through a series of tragedies. The scene we filmed was a flashback to Afghanistan, circa 2005 sometime, as a patrol comes under attack in a village. The scene concludes with multiple massive explosions (which were awesome to see live) and a tense standoff between a Taliban fighter and the five remaining squad members (which included me). I was outfitted in camo and prepped, though I seemed to have missed something. It was only later when I thought about it that I realized I hadn’t received any sort of belt for a sidearm. I looked around and saw that nobody else had either.

And my complaints about being made a corporal were for naught. No, I couldn’t get a promotion, they said. Phooey. Well, Corporal “Hujak” reporting as ordered, sir. I got to choose the last name, so of course I chose Hujak. That’s how I roll, yo.

Well, I had a speaking line, which means screen credit. So that’s two films now where I received IMDB credit. Sooner or later (I think it’s four screen credits) I’ll qualify for SAG. I’m not sure what that means, exactly, but without even trying, I’m halfway there.

Anyways, here’s a few pictures from the set so that you may laugh at me and start hammering away at my lack of proper equipment.

Do you recognize this star of stage and screen? No, not me, silly.

My “squad buddy” Nick had my back during our firefight against the Taliban.

“Full” battle gear. I can already hear the cries of “where’s your reflective belt?”