Screwing Off At Work

I'm supposed to be working on a report, so naturally I'm actively groping for things to do on the internet. I'm being a lazy bum, but I'm also just preopccupied with various and assorted shit.

One thing that is taken care of: I am booked for work at Universal for Monday on Ghost Whisperer as a 'Restaurant Patron'. Interestingly, I'm dead certain that I would have been cast as 'Village Atmosphere', a less featured catagory of background they need for Monday, if I hadn't just re-registered and updated my photo. How your photo looks makes an enormous difference in how much work you get and how you get cast; in the new photo, I'm wearing a dressy black jacket, hip necklace, my hair is down and glossy. I'm not smiling, although I suppose I look content, my regular repose. I look good.

The last one was fine, but I had a smile, which in still shots can make me appear goofy or as if I'm hamming it up a bit, and I was not dressed very up (not very down, either), but the slightest things can make a huge difference in how you're perceived. The rule that clothes make the person is true in spades here, where their whole idea of 'you' is this one photo they see over and over and over. If you're in a dressy black jacket and your expression is neutral, you're seen as an "upscale person". This not only means they can cast you for way more stuff, but that they perceive you as versatile and someone who can be relied on to show up looking neat and prepared regardless of character type. I will definitely get more work this year, and it will definitely be easier. Knock on wood.

Central realizes the problem I'm describing (they always have and do try to keep themselves in check), so they now offer the option of putting more photos of you in your file, for $10 per extra shot. I'm gonna do this in the coming couple weeks, so there's one in there with me wearing an actual color and with my hair tied back (how I nearly always look in real life), which has me looking almost completely different.

What else...? Jeez, there was something else. I'll come back and add later if I think of it.