Author: Dalanel

Dalanelhttp://dalanel.com
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How The Great Paul Benjamin Inspires Me

PaulBenjamin_HiI’m a big fan of the great Paul Benjamin. Who is he? An actor. A good actor. A very good actor.

Am I saying this because he’s also my uncle? Probably.

Have you seen some of his work? Probably. Examples? Well:

Movies:

Midnight Cowboy (debut)

Distance

The Education of Sonny Carson

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Escape from Alcatraz

Do the Right Thing

The Five Heartbeats

Television:

Starsky and Hutch

Kojak

New York Undercover

ER

Law & Order

The Shield

He’s done a lot more of course. I’ll let IMDb handle the rest of the list and bio.

So, I have made it a personal goal to watch each and every one of his movies. I get all giggly when I see him. Whether he’s a lead or small part, he’s my uncle and he’s the best.

He and I have the same nickname, although for different reasons. Heck if I know his story. I’ll have to ask. Anyway, our nickname is “Boy”. I know. For me, there was a short period after I was born where I was nameless. Dante was not my name for my whole life. So, until my parents could decide my name, family members would refer to me as “the boy”. How’s the boy doing? That’s an example of how slightly awkward things were.

My dad wanted to name me something African-y. He was shot down. Now-a-days, learning that I’m West African, perhaps my dad was on to something. However, I and my sisters don’t know which of our parents are of the origin. My mom wanted to name me after dad. She got shot down. Thank God. I love Christopher but I’m glad I have my own name. Dante Jr. ain’t happening.

I have the chops to be an actor. I don’t have the physical appearance to make it big unless most of my comedy makes fun of it. Think Kevin Hart and his getting old short jokes. Most likely, I would be stand-up comedian with plenty of voice over work for shows and movies. I have an odd voice that, while I hate, would probably make good for comedy.

Nah, I’m pretty sure I could make it if I put the effort in. My uncle does inspire me to do it. Since I have never known what to do while in school…since I don’t know what I “want to be when I grow up” perhaps acting is something I should get into. Like I said, I gotta be willing to put effort into it. I know it’s not a “one role and now a big star” thing. I’m willing to start small. And I may never make it big, although that would be fine. Good even.

Are you a fan of his work? Have you enjoyed the shows and movies that he has been a part of? Let me know!

-DALANEL

Dante vs God Part 2

Welp, here we go again. This one is a little more humorous. God is funny sometimes.

Round Two: Christmas Cantata 2013

If you are new here, I’m sorry but, I’ve hit on a lot of details already. My regular readers are probably ready to decimate me if I go into it again.

Last year, the show went badly for me. Emotional, mental, and physical breakdown all came together that Saturday.

People tell me all the time that I’m the man for the job. I disagree strongly. I believe that there’s plenty who can do so much better than what I’ve done. I spent 2013 gagging at the thought of going into the flames again. Next thing I know, there’s a new director and new script that looked rather complex. Still, this new director came at me hard. For one, she told me of quite a few people that recommended me for the job of lighting.

See, when I heard of the new director and new script, I wasn’t going to volunteer myself. She was going to have to track me down or get somebody else. She must’ve asked people who could handle the lighting and they said me. Great.

So yeah, I wasn’t going to get involved unless she asked me. And, even then, I wasn’t going to just jump in like it was nothing. In August, she started making moves. One of the moves was to take the miming team, which was a bunch of teens and some kids and axed their usual part in the previous cantatas. My sister is in the group so I was aware. Also, Nia is part of it too.

By the way, I have a fear of mimes so hearing that they wouldn’t appear didn’t kill me inside. But, the church absolutely loves them. Whatever.

Continue reading →

Daily Good News 38: Seven Year Old Donates $750, Six Year Old Saves Life

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A 7 year old leads a charge to donate to a family that is supported by a woman’s shelter.

By the end of the year Kathryn had saved more than $54. “We thought that Halton Women’s Place in Burlington would be excellent (to donate to),” wrote John. “In late November we found out about the program that HWP offers whereby you can sponsor a family who needs it the most.”

Healey’s Allstate office team wanted to contribute to what his daughter had started. “Through passion and dedication we were able to cover off all of the requests on the family’s list,” he wrote. In the end, the effort raised a donation of $750 to the family supported by the shelter.

Good job, Kathryn!

Next, a little boy jumps out of a moving car to save his grand father’s life. Not kidding:

Sullivyn Vedaa and his grandfather Ronald were driving to a relatives home for Christmas dinner on Wednesday night when Ronald went into diabetic shock.  Sullivyn, who was sitting in the backseat of Ronalds Chrystler 300 noticed his grandfather acting strangely and very sleepy.  When Sullivyn realized Ronald was not responsive, he decided to jump out of the moving vehicle and run to the nearest house to call for help.

Yeah…there’s your action movie star right there!

Did I mention that kids are awesome? Because, they kind of are.

-DALANEL

Dante vs God Part 1

Before we start, this isn’t a headline ploy to drag you here. This year, I’ve literally called God out on a few things. Considering how great and powerful God is, this probably isn’t the best thing to do. But, I’ve been doing it big time this year. There’s a few things I’ve challenged God on. Let’s take a look.

Round One: Foodbank

I mentioned how I finally found my role at Foodbank. I briefly mentioned how I told God that I wasn’t gonna go back unless certain things happened. Okay, so, I’ve gotten used to talking to the clients at foodbank who sit in our “waiting room” waiting for their number to be called so they could get their food. Right now, it’s me, and a couple of…er…older gentlemen. One guy tends to engage the crowd while the other does this sort of sermon. Me? I always tend to do a little of both. I’m all about the future. And I understand that, at some point, I’ll have to step in as the head…I don’t even know what to call it.

But, like I said before in my original post, going to foodbank is a pain more times than not. And, a lot of times, I just go there and sit there while the other two guys handle it. There have been a few times where I’ve been the only one so I would step in to handle the “service”. As usual, the rubber band that I am, there was eventually one incident that set me off. See, one of the clients ended up shoving one of our volunteers in their quest for food. The victim? A ten year old girl. This girl just so happened to be Nia, one of my assistants for the cantata. I’ve grown attached to her so hearing about this hurt. She’s 11 now so time has passed but, it was then that I was ready to tear heads off. Considering that both of my little sisters volunteer there, I considered what would happen if some fool pushed my sister.

And it was then that I had to call it a day. See, I used to help people carry their food to their cars. It got tiring because they would do this towards me. They also played mental games. My favorite was how they would ask me if they were supposed to get meat of a canned good or type of produce. For the record, we prepare each bag the same. Each thing has the same stuff. Exceptions? We do give extra for families of the larger size. Also, seniors get a little something every once in a while. There’s a program for them that I forget what it’s called but it’s something from the state. Other than that, you get the same stuff. Some people try to get over though. No problem with that; I expect them to do that. Just don’t drag me along for the ride. They would turn to me as if I’m supposed to storm the castle on their behalf for them to get something. I never went for it. I always claimed ignorance. Whether I knew or not didn’t matter.

Anyway, I had to get away from it and the other stuff. So, I went to the other side. And it’s kinda cool. They are a different people on the other side, which amazes me. I’m the only person to have done both sides so I see both sides of the people. They are so nice and calm on the waiting side. It’s amazing. But, still, I was on that side when I heard about the shove. So, I called it a day. I tried to convince my mom not to let my sisters go back. No avail. Me? I was out.

But God was like “Nah”. I knew what I had to do. But I didn’t want to. I’m Jonah like that. So, I decided to hand it over to God. Here was my offer to Him: I’ll come back when I need to. If there’s a need, then I’ll step in.

What I am about to say might put God in a bad light, especially if you’re not a big fan of His.

One of the gentlemen had a stroke shortly after my offer. Now, some might say God did this. Me? Nope. I figured God was letting me know that I was needed because He saw the stroke coming. I just have to be ready because both of these gentlemen are…over 60…ish. And, males in this country don’t hit 70 on average. Just saying. Anyway, I embraced this incident and go to foodbank as a way of training myself for my eventual emergence as the head…guy…or something.

The key for me is that God wants me there. I think I know why now. Oh, I’m still Jonah about it. I usually go there kicking and screaming. But, I have to be ready to do God’s will. I have to suck it up and move on. If God wants me to do this, I will.

So, that’s part one. I’m not going to let you know how many there are yet.

Just Because I’m Leaving DALANEL Doesn’t Mean Good Content Goes

I told you that this month would be my last month of personal stories. I won’t be talking about me unless it directly affects the blog like if something comes up that causes me to not blog on a day or when I die.

And while I am a firm believer that my life tied into this blog has helped it become very successful, I think I’m the only one who thinks that way. I’m leaving my blog. And boy, that sounds dumb.

Like, I am DALANEL. This blog is based off of my life story. And yet,my life story is dragging the blog down. No, I don’t want that. This doesn’t mean I’m giving myself up. No, for you see, the blog content is still a part of me. In a sense, I still have a voice. Part of it is that I’m probably not a good story teller anyway. Instead, I’ll just go ahead and chill from the stories that give you access to me.

I’m still very connected to this blog. But, you’ll notice my tone change in the upcoming weeks that will make it seem like I’m a little distant from my blog. That’s probably going to be me RIP from the events that will transpire from this blog.

I said passion drives the blog. It does. I have the passion. Don’t worry about that.

This was just a short update. I’m presenting quite a bit of updates today and the rest of the week. Nothing major. Bits and pieces.

Talk to ya later and be sure to not pee on yourself.

-DALANEL

Audiobook Version of My Book On the Way

I finally caved in, you guys. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and I think I’m gonna give it a try. I’m going to make an audiobook of my book, Interpretations & Illustrations.

I did the research and I think I have what I need to make it work. I have a microphone with the little foam tip (in my research, this was key apparently to avoid sound distortion) but I haven’t tested it yet. I would think it would work out though. The only thing that’s been holding me back was who was doing the recording. I am. Mercy. As I said in the past, I feel like I’m the only one who truly understand my content. I can speak with the proper emotion and tone that I had when I first wrote it out. I’m just not comfortable with anybody else doing it. I’m not confident that the message I’m sending will still get through with someone else voicing.

Once again, I’m going with Amazon for the publishing. They control ACX. And by them, the book would be available through Audible, iTunes, and Amazon.com. So you should be able to find it.

Now, for some of you, maybe there’s some concern. There’s various characters in the book; both male and female. How will I voice them, and yet you know is talking? Well, most likely, I’m going to go with announcing who is speaking before they speak. Basically, I’m going to read what I wrote as I always mention who is about to speak before they speak.

When will it be ready? Good question. Since I have the tools to get it done, and since there’s nothing major involved in the process in terms of time consumption, I could realistically say before my birthday in July it would be done recording. Of course, you’ll know the exact date as I get closer to it. Lucky for me, I have a pretty short book with short chapters. I work on a chapter per week, and considering there’s 15 chapters, that’s almost four months of recording. So yeah, July could even be too much into the future.

I’m excited about what this all means for the book. I’ll be available electronically, paper, and audio. To get updates and info on my book, go the page simply labeled “My Book” which is under the “Who’s Dante” page.

Speaking of electronically, the Kindle version is still under construction. Sadly, my efforts to improve the quality of the book are proving to be futile. At least the price is cheap anyway. If I could make it free, I would. Wait…can it be free? I’ll see about that. Okay so, keep it here at DALANEL for future updates.

Also, have you made an audiobook? How’d it go? I’d love to hear your story.

-DALANEL