My camera sits in front of me, and I can almost hear it crying out for usage. I have no actors to work with right now and no ideas for a narrative at the moment.

What can I do?

Tone-poems. Go out and record specific scenic shots, of nature, of a city, of people, and go out with a specific tone in mind. Then assemble the footage to attempt to establish that tone (color-correct, ad a little music, cut in different ways). It's a great way at practicing your control of tone for when you do have actors.

Definitely a good suggestion. Shooting stock footage while trying out different manual controls is also a good idea. You never know when you'll need a filler shot or a cut-away or in general an establishing stock shot. This way you you're not shooting for nothing and as Cinematical mentioned, you can practice your editing and play around with different moods.

-Kegan

Thanks for the ideas guys, very helpful.

Also, if you haven't messed around with stop-motion animations, I would suggest that.
(I think everyone ends up giving it a try at least once)
Its a good way to practice some basic film concepts, use a ton of creativity, and satisfy those big filmmaking cravings.

Definately agreed on the stop motion - try lighting that!

Thats great advice I need to teach myself how to do that I want to start shooting a web series soon. Do any of you watch those?

Also, make a music video using these shots. It helps you get used to editing to the beat and finding the exact moment to switch the shots.