June 1, 2009 (Monday)

Today I worked as a reporter in an exterior scene in the feature film Salt.

 

 
June 2, 2009 (Tuesday)

Today I worked on a commercial for PMC Global. I believe the commercial will only play in Japan.

 

 
June 3, 2009 (Wednesday)

Today I played an audience member during a boxing match for Episode 108 ("Box Opera") of the TV series Bored to Death. Paul Feig was the director.

Of note, amongst the principal actors was Jenny McGowan, aka Miss Saturn. She is playing her performance ego in the episode. I went to Otterbein College with her, and I've even performed in the same variety shows with her in NYC!

 

 
June 5, 2009 (Friday)

Yesterday into early this morning I returned to play an audience member during a boxing match for Episode 108 ("Box Opera") of the TV series Bored to Death. Paul Feig was the director.

Jenny McGowan, aka Miss Saturn, and my fellow Otterbein alum, was there again, too!

 

 
June 7, 2009 (Sunday)

Today I worked as a bus passenger in the feature film Salt.

 

 
June 9, 2009 (Tuesday)

Today I worked on the film Morning Glory.

 

 
June 11, 2009 (Thursday)

Today I played a news station employee and "friend of Adam" (Patrick Wilson) on the film Morning Glory.

 

 
June 12, 2009 (Friday)

Again today I played a news station employee and "friend of Adam" (Patrick Wilson) on the film Morning Glory.

 

 
June 13, 2009 (Saturday)

This morning I did the NYRR Dash 10K in Central Park. I finished in 44:13, meaning my average miles were 7:07s.

I felt decent for today's run--nothing spectacular but not sluggish. The weather was about 70 degrees with a little bit of humidity, just enough to slow me down a little bit and keep me from moving very fast.

The race began near the 102nd Street transverse and finished on the transverse, going anticlockwise. This is the course and direction I know well, though I didn't know exactly how to pace it as I had never started at that place. In the first mile is Great Hill, and in the 5th mile is Cat Hill, which meant a slightly different strategy than the one with which I usually approach Central Park runs. Before the race, I did some imagery by going through the terrain in my head, trying to program myself where to push and where to hold back.

While I felt I was going at a fairly decent clip, I was only running just about 7:00s in the first couple of miles, which is no great improvement over prior races. I don't know exactly why this is the case after having had a full day of rest, though humidity probably played some factor, not to mention Great Hill's being in the first mile, plus I consumed a ton of calories in the last couple of days, making me a bit heavier than I would have liked.

My pre-race meal was green tea, green tea supplements, plus a Clif Bar 45 minutes before the race. I opened in the first corral (a first for me). For most of the race runners were passing me though I occasionally found places to surge a bit, but never really netted much improvement over other runners as they seemed to keep up or pass me again. But whatever my speed, I seemed better at maintaining it for this race. My last 10K did had 7:26s, so doing 7:07s seems to me like a major improvement.

After my finish, I chatted with a girl who had finished just before me--someone who overtook me, then I overtook before her finally overtaking me--to see what her training was like in order to gain some pointers. Unfortunately for me she'd been running all her life and I think she said she'd not trained, meaning she was in pretty good native shape! To my credit, though, I'm still getting back into this and there's plenty of room for improvement, as I imagine for her, too. I seem to be making considerable improvements still in my running since starting back up a little over a month ago.

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied. My goal was to see if I could possibly beat my Regent's Park 10K time of 43:47, set back in July in London. That was a relatively flat course and I'd had some hill training a few days before. Central Park is much hillier but I did push near the end to see if I could beat my Regent's time as I wasn't too far from doing it toward the end. (Those last 1.2 miles I could see my goal time was within striking distance if I really picked up my pace.) Not bad that I was only 26 seconds short, no? I look forward to seeing how much I can improve my next 10K time in Central Park. I think beating my Regent's Park time will be doable. I think my fastest Central Park time, which was actually for about 6.4 miles, is 42:46, when I was in my top marathon shape. That was set in October 2005. I know I can beat that time!

NYRR Dash 10K @ Central Park
10K (6.2-Mile) Race
Finished: 44:13
Pace: 7:07

 

 
June 15, 2009 (Monday)

Today I worked as a grip (a fake crew member) in the television show Michael & Michael Have Issues. The episode is called "Frogbox."

 

 
June 16, 2009 (Tuesday)

Tonight I performed an improvised sermon as The Reverend Raymond Nader for The Barrow Group's variety show Blue Plate Special, hosted by Bethel Caram and Neil Potter.

The suggestion I received for this sermon was "Republican National Convention." Amy Bucciferro was in the audience and kindly filmed the performance. I've put the video online; view it from my videos page or access it directly here.

 

 
June 18, 2009 (Thursday)

Yesterday into early morning today I played a detective in the film Date Night. Of especial note to me was that Steve Carell and Tina Fey were on set!

 

 

Today I worked as a rival office worker the television show Michael & Michael Have Issues. The episode is called "Frogbox." It is my second character in the same episode!

 

 
June 19, 2009 (Friday)

Today I attended a Kee Casting open call for future projects they are casting.

 

 
June 21, 2009 (Sunday)

This morning I did the NYRR's Annual Father's Day Race Against Prostate Cancer 5-Miler in Central Park. I finished in 34:03, meaning my average miles were 6:48s, a new record for me for this year.

Apparently you can see video of my finish on the 7online website. Click here for the video. I'm in the first video, finishing around the 34:23 mark. My finish begins around 12:03 in the video. I'm toward the left of the screen and I put my hands up in the air when I finish. I'm in a white top with fluorescent yellow stripes and black shorts.

Although the weather was damp after a rainy early morning and the humidity was 97%, the 63-degree weather did not feel all that bad. In fact, it felt pretty good. And my body felt pretty good, too, at least to the touch. My mood in the beginning of the race, however, was less than ecstatic, but that didn't phase me since I've been reading Alberto Salazar's book on running and his co-author usually set personal records those mornings he felt horrible.

The really good feelings came when the race began. The air came into my lungs easily, I happened to luck out and end up in an open area of the pack where I could sprint a little bit, and I was wearing a new pair of running shoes that were completely different than the ones I've been training in the last few years. These shoes were the Mizuno Wave Rider 12. By comparison with my Wave Creation 11's, the Riders are very, very lightweight! They were so lightweight that I think this made an enormous difference in my running today. I was not weighted down by the heaviness of the 11's, which I didn't ever think about before. I was quickly passing people in the beginning of the race. With a lighter shoe and a consciousness of how the little things can affect my finish time when it comes to doing a marathon, I started to see how having a lighter shoe was valuable for me. In fact, I also have some new, even lighter shoes by Mizuno that are not even out yet! (My brother works for Mizuno and he sends me shoes to try out.) I need to try those shoes out to see if my time dips even more!

I'd never run a 5-mile race before and I wasn't exactly sure how to field it. Before the race, I thought hard about where I'd expend my energy in the course. When it came to the race, I ran better than I had imagined, really pushing myself to sprint on several occasions. My second mile was sizeably faster than my first, possibly because of some downhills that I sped a bit on. But more of note to me was that I was deciding to sprint on some of the uphills! I think the lighter shoes played a big role in motivating that.

I ended up with a finish time that was a lot, lot better than I had thought I would get. I figured I'd be between 35:00 and 36:00. I hadn't run Thursday or Friday, and Saturday I did a somewhat wimpy workout on the treadmill, but also did some weights and 3x of 200 yards up a small hill on my block. I had green tea supplements before the race but no food other than some sugar-free licorice. I wasn't really thinking, esp. with the subpar weather, that I'd make any records this morning. "It's gotta be the shoes..."

All in all, a very good job by me. I saw that my age grade improved, which makes me feel great. I'm looking forward to seeing how lighter shoes affect my times. Oh, and I should also say that I had no ankle problems today. I went to see Dr. Stark, my sports medicine doctor, on Friday for a chronic ankle problem that happens usually only at the very start of running, a stabbing pain in my right ankle that almost makes me fall flat on my face. A year ago he'd called it "anterior capsule impingement," but I don't think that diagnosis really means much. He doesn't think it's much to worry about. I do some jumps pre-race in hopes of warming up the joint and that seems to help. Today, I tried the jumps with more of a flat foot than a pointed foot. Never had any threat of the condition today; I was wondering if the flat-footed jumping helped me.

Just after finishing, I asked a Warren Street runner named Ming who had finished just before me what he does. He had passed me a couple times in the race but I would catch him after catching him walking. He finished strong and faster than me, which made me curious how he could run so fast but also get in walking. He said he did hill repeats of Cat Hill. He would start at the Boathouse and go all the way to the Obelisk, jogging back. He'd do that 8x. My Cat Hill sprints would terminate at the cat statue. I have a feeling Ming has an idea that would be very good for me to try in my pursuit of a qualifying time for Boston.

NYRR's Annual Father's Day Race Against Prostate Cancer
5-mile (8K) Race
Finished: 34:03
Pace: 6:48

 

 
June 24, 2009 (Wednesday)

Woohoo! Just heard that I booked a print modeling gig for next week. The client is Humira.

 

 
June 26, 2009 (Friday)

This evening I worked as a subway passenger on the film Remember Me.

 

 
June 29, 2009 (Monday)

Well, if you've been a visitor of my website in the past year, or maybe the past several years, you see that I've completely overhauled my website yet again. But this time, I moved away from the black backgrounds and dark landscapes to something much brigther, lighter, and reflective of me.

Welcome to the brand new Ben Hauck online!

Most of my designs start out as a search for inspiration. Here and there designs catch my eye and I wonder if I can implement them on my own website. Usually I fail to integrate the approach or it doesn't work out. But that's all part of the process. Eventually I lock onto a simple scheme that appeals to me. Usually it is in the minimalist vein. In fact, I sometimes get in design dilemmas and to get out of them, I ask "What would be the minimalist thing to do?" And the answer swiftly speeds to me.

The inspiration for this new design was http://www.kau-raben.dk/, a website I couldn't tell you anything about. I liked how the KAU:RABEN site had a handful of headings, writ somewhat large, expanding with animation to a treasure trove of items. I found I was able to recreate the effect to a certain extent, then I played. I couldn't figure out what kind of layout I wanted inside the sliding menu items, but eventually I found that tabs (which I've never really liked) actually suited my website and its contents. As a result of tabs and animated panels, I could pack an enormous amount of information into a minimalist design.

I'm fairly proud of this achievement. I actually pulled it off. To get to what you see now took a week of solid work on the website, from first thing in the morning through much past my bedtime, sometimes staying up all night. (I can get a bit compulsive or addictive when I do web design. It presents problems I like trying to solve, even though sometimes I'm vocally frustrated.) The last days were the ones of least progress and they were reserved for figuring out the more complicated aspects of the site--the "thickboxes." The thickboxes are located in the Gallery and the Videos tabs in my Acting section. I wanted really badly to have something like these on my site to show video, and I'm happy to say they worked out. I even skinned them a bit though I couldn't get rounded corners on them.

And that was one of my fears that I overcame in this design: how to make rounded corners. I found an online generator of rounded cornters and their code, and I played with the results and was quite happy with the results. So I used them all over the site, making for a softer, less severe feel than my past designs. Fear is indeed something that is involved in web design, at least for me. You never know if you'll somehow make a typo (I make plenty of 'em) that you can't find and thus brings down your website. You may be afraid by the daunting task of learning a code language, or being forced to deal with it. You may also fright by being a bit over your head and not knowing the consequences. Finally, there is fear in having others seek the work. I'm actually excited to share this radical new design but fearful it won't work or won't display properly.

Which brings me to faults of this design. I have designed it with the very nice News Gothic font, one that is reminiscent of one of my favorite bands They Might Be Giants. But I learned late in the design that it is next to impossible for others to experience my site this way as it would require their having the font on their computers. While I still held out for News Gothic, I had to code the site also for Arial and Helvetica fonts, but I don't have a good grasp of how these affect the design. So I don't know if you seea layout and font choice that I'd really get behind.

I'm also a bit irritated by the slow load time. My last-ditch effort before launching was to change the tabs to AJAX, a programming language (or something) that allows me to call external files when needed rather than having everything download immediately. However, I seemed to be learning that when I used AJAX in the way I wanted, I lost important formatting. So I had to ditch that and deal with a slow design. (It seems the site is fastest in Firefox and slowest in IE7.)

For some reason, toward launch time my website was crashing the Safari browser, so if you have that browser only, you're not getting a peek of my site. I'm trying to figure out why the crash but I had to launch because I'm so behind on "life" as a result of this week. (I pulled another all-nighter.) I actually paid attention to how the website looked in more than just my browser. I hope that means it will look like the same for many visitors.

But apart from the bugs, I'm happy, and I feel I have a website to work with and can get behind. I do hope you'll send me an email telling me what you think. Especially email me if something isn't working right or isn't looking right. Email me under the BEN HAUCK > Contact tab. If you can make a screenshot, even better, but you'll have to wait for my reply to get it to me.

So that's that! Seriously, click around. There are so many worlds on the site. I had a great time challenging myself to do better and better work. I'm happy my Alpha phase is done ... I consider Ben Hauck online as now in Beta!

Cheers for now!
Ben :)

 

 
June 30, 2009 (Tuesday)

Today I had a print modeling job at Industria Studios. The client was Humira Gastro. The production team was Inna Khavinson Productions.

Look for the ads!