David Chiu

I’ve got tech recruiters from agencies all over Los Angeles calling me everyday – almost twice a day pitching me jobs and my number is not even listed anywhere. Tech recruiters have always used somewhat “grey” techniques in trying to find candidates such as asking people to refer their friends or colleagues to receive a referral fee, or cold calling companies asking for random people until they find a tech person who they can pitch a candidate, or pitch a new job. Now these agencies are trolling LinkedIn cold-calling companies and lying that they are connected to you through LinkedIn. What really annoys me is their fake way of trying to establish a friendship with you asking “what are your plans this weekend?” I’M NOT YOU’RE FRIEND! Why the hell should I tell you? And do all tech recruiters use the same script? I’ve been asked the “what are your plans this weekend” question multiple times by multiple recruiters at multiple agencies. AND NOW the new technique they are using is “I’m not calling to pitch you a job, but to ask you for a reference”. TWO recruiters from TWO different agencies almost used those exact words. Is there some shady tech recruiter conference that these people all go to?

I should open up my own tech staffing agency – but run it like the Hollywood studio system back in the old days. Hollywood studios used to sign actors with whom they saw potential and would groom them to be movie stars. I would sign top programmers who could not only code but were attractive and had really good presentation skills and then represent them through their entire career through the myriad of jobs that tech people go through – or help them start their own company. Top Hollywood agents and managers do this now and just collect a 10%-15% agency/management fee or establish a back-end deal with the actor.

On another note – why do tech people need to use recruiters anyway? In this day and age of LinkedIn and other social networks it should be easy enough for anyone to find a job through their friends and end up with a higher salary since they aren’t going through a recruitment agency. The true hustlers will never need to use an agency. They will find business opportunities for themselves or even better, create their own opportunities.

Don’t get it twisted. In many ways I’m not mad at this situation. There’s obviously no recession in the internet/tech sector.

Harvard Magazine has a transcript of J.K. Rowling’s commencement speech where she talks about benefits of failure and the importance of imagination. Her speech is elegant, humorous, very inspiring and a must read. Here are a few quotes from her speech:

“So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

“…You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.”

“Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone’s total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.”

“One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”

Another sign of the times – a new indie film site called The Auteurs is promoting itself at the Cannes Film Festival with a video competition sponsored by HP, Facebook and Flip. 250 people will get the chance to grab a Flip camera and shoot a 3 minute short film. The winner, as determined by a jury receives $10,000 cash and a HP workstation with a 30 inch display – plus you get to keep the camera. Don’t expect the resulting videos to be Cannes-worthy though since the Flip video camera is a small solid state consumer device that only shoots 640×480 video. It will be interesting to see how many people actually participate in this competition. I think this sort of stunt/promotion would be better suited to another film festival such as Slamdance .

Here are my final results for the Navy Seals Fitness Challenge:

*breast stroke or side-stroke only

Not too shabby since my only preparation was a 250m swim and 500m swim the previous week. My only complaint is that I was stuck in a swim lane with 2 slow swimmers ahead of me. I passed one guy but couldn’t get around the second guy which cost me making the SEAL standard time of 12:30. The running on the other hand, is something I knew I would have problems with. In the end, I was the last competitor on the track, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to complete the course no matter how long it took me. Plus, I have never run a 7min mile in my life – which is about the pace I would have needed to run in order to meet the standard. My running is awkward to begin with. I’m a total “heel-striker”, which according to my Google research, is the most bio-mechanically inefficient way to run. So I really need to work on my running. But overall I had a great time. I’ve caught the competition bug. Next stop, Ironman.

It’s fascinating to think that the industry that I fell into while trying to be an actor has set Hollywood on fire. The work I do at my day job adds fuel to the flame as we find creative ways to attract bigger audiences on the internet using video and interactive experiences. So Hollywood finds itself in the same position I’m at in my professional life – re-invent yourself or die. So while Hollywood struggles to find a profitable place on the internet, I struggle to find a profitable place in Hollywood as Talent. But I see myself as the next generation of content creators and talent. Not only do I have the skills to produce anything and everything on the internet, I also have the skills to be in front of, and behind the camera. I’m like Robert Rodriguez meets Kanye West. So while WGA strikes and SAG talks about a strike next year, I will be making my move.

Here’s an inside look at why Hollywood is in trouble:

——————–

This WGA strike is going to suck.
The other side is prepared to have us sit on our asses until the SAG
contract is up in JUNE. They all claim to be working toward a resolution,
but um… They are already reshaping the midseason. Do the math.

The studios and networks are sitting pretty and seem fairly convinced that
they own the internet.

THE WGA HAS NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT THEY ARE DOING IN THE NEW MEDIA REALM.
I met yesterday at the WGA offices and have agreed to help them try to
create a web presence worthy of the fight they are launching over new media.
As it stands, I had to explain that a BLOG is not a website.
I have my hands full.

They asked me yesterday, “how do we link videos to our website?”
What?
The two members of the communications committee
asked me what FACEBOOK is?!!

We are truly doomed if our negotiations committee doesn’t fold and take a
shitty deal. Seriously. The PR alone is going to kill us.

I’ve tried to explain the advantage to using the internet to our advantage.
Today I’m supposed to present a plan to use daytime soap fans to bang down
the doors at Colgate Palmolive and boycott their products unless they put
pressure on the other side to give us a piece of new media.
I talked to a communications member last night who didn’t realize there are
soap opera discussion boards and mailing lists!!!
“How do we find out where they are?”

OMFG!
I’m in hell!

This Friday I have a audition for a new Jude Law/Forest Whittaker movie currently called Repossession Mambo directed by Miguel Sapochnik, a one-time storyboard artist. I’m trying not to get too excited, but it’s hard for me not to think that this could be the break I’ve been waiting for. I’m reading for the role of:

[RAYMOND PEARL] late 20s – mid 30s. Another of Frank’s top-notch repo men, he is a “psychopath with a Union scalpel.”

What was interesting was that I received not only my sides for the audition, but FTP instructions to download the short movie “The Dreamer” by Miguel Sapochnik. The short movie was awesome and in the same vein of Children of Men or Blade Runner with a similar storyline to “The Island”. I understand why Hollywood came knocking.

So my reading is this Friday and I’m getting private coaching from my fabulous acting coach Lisa Mililo Clarkson who teaches scene study and audition technique at Joanne Baron/DW Brown and is currently the on-set coach for Days of Our Lives. The actual audition will be taped and sent to the director who is currently in Toronto. I’m just hoping to make a good first impression and make it to a second reading.

Over the past couple days I’ve been upgrading my various blogs to Movable Type 4. So far it’s been a pretty bumpy road – especially since I’ve also been migrating from a shared hosting plan over at Dreamhost to a super-fast VPS at Zone.net.

One of the biggest problems I had was with the new commenting system. Everything else seemed to be working fine, but every time I submitted a test comment the server would take a while to respond then give me a 500 error. Several google searches later and still nothing. I had a hunch that my problem had to do with the new captcha implementation in MT4 and the use of ImageMagick, but no documentation suggested that ImageMagick was a required component. Besides, I didn’t have captcha verification turned on. Another hour passed and I decided to go ahead and install ImageMagick…

BINGO! Now comments worked. So the lesson learned is:

ImageMagick is REQUIRED in a MT4 installation even if you don’t use captcha verification.

One of the biggest thing you’ll notice is that MT4 has a completely new look and feel. Personally, I don’t like it. It doesn’t seem to make it any easier to administer the system. In fact, it seems a little harder to navigate around MT4 since all the options are now buried within the new drop down menus. Another notable feature is the implementation of Javascript WYSIWYG text areas which make it easier to format text without having to type out HTML tags. There is also an option to switch between different text formats depending on your needs (coding, word formatting, etc). The MT Template tags have also been expanded to include the ability to set variables and create If/Then/Else logic structures. All of this is pretty helpful but I’ve found it better to create new index templates which output PHP modules which are then called by all the PHP archive pages (and main indexes) to include the content. For example, my Recent Entries sidebar module is actually setup as an index template which outputs a recent_entries_module.php file which is then included into my other pages using PHP:

<?php include (’recent_entries_modules.php’) ?>

The benefit of using this method is that this content is only generated once and written to the file system which saves on MT4 processing time when rebuilding pages. I’ve also found this method beneficial for more static content such as AdSense code, Flickr photo code or YouTube code because I can easily update those modules and have the change reflected across my entire site without having to rebuild the entire site.

There are still many more features in MT4 that I have not yet begun to explore, but so far I’m not all that impressed. BUT I still think Moveable Type is one of the best blogging/publishing platforms available – and I’ve tried the majority of them.

Breathing is the most basic part of life but the majority of people do not realize the power that breath has on mood, energy and focus. That’s why you’ll find that in Yoga and Martial Arts, breathing is an essential component in training. In the past it would take years of practice and training under a Master in order to perfect breathing techniques, but now there exists affordable biofeedback devices that can quickly train you how to breath properly in order to reduce stress.

Recently I’ve noticed ads in different magazines for a device called StressEraser.
Basically it’s a small portable biofeedback machine which gives you a visual guide on how to breath while measuring your heart rate. It’s been receiving a lot of good reviews from very reputable sources such as Good Morning America and The Washington Post so I decided to look it up on the internet. The device costs $300 which is kinda expensive, but you’re paying for an easy portable way to train yourself to relax and relieve stress. A few years ago I actually bought a biofeedback device which you connect to your computer and is bundled with gaming software, called The Wild Divine Project.

What attracted me to this system was not only the good reviews, but the idea that you could use a video game to train yourself different breathing patterns. This idea alone sparked my imagination and I had to try it. The Journey to Wild Divine only costs $199 and comes with a biofeedback monitor and software. The software is a game called The Journey to Wild Divine and has a similar feel to the popular game Myst. In the game you explore this magical land and encounter different puzzles which you can only solve by changing your heart rate and breathing patterns in different ways. I really enjoyed the system. The difference I see between the StressEraser product and the Wild Divine product are portability and flexibility. The StressEraser is aimed at reducing stress and is ultra portable. The Wild Divine can be used to not only reduce stress but teach you different breathing patterns to create energy and change your mood.

I originally purchased The Wild Divine to help me with focus and to help me combat my anxiety attacks which had sent me to the emergency room twice. Well, it worked. I haven’t had an anxiety attack for more than a year now. My next goal is to conquer my hyperhidrosis/stage fright which I know stems from lack of self confidence – which I feel like I already have a good control over. It’s all the result of knowing how to breathe.

Update: 10,000 Joost invites now available here: http://www.joost.com/presents/techcrunch/

If didn’t already know… convergence is the wave of the future – the merging of Hollywood and the Internet creating a new digital media landscape. Joost is the company/buzzword of the moment which was started by the lucky bastards who created and sold Skype to Ebay for a couple billion. Joost is TV on the internet delivered to your computer full-screen with added features such as instant messaging and search baked right in. Right now, Joost is still in beta and is invite only. But you can get your own invite right here. But they only have 20,000 invites so you better click the link right now.

I’ll be trying it out on my MacBook Pro tonight.

At first I thought this was an Ed Hardy hat but when I flipped it over the label said “Miami Ink”, which I could only guess is from the TLC show of the same name. The dragon design is embroidered and the fabric is distressed. I thought it was pretty cool so I bought it. Later on I decided to look for more Miami Ink apparel and found a bunch of very cool shirts and hats on Amazon. I guess tattoo prints are the new trend. I’m totally down for that.