Happy Thursday! This message is coming at you from the future! Thanks to time travel!
See, I exist in a moment in time where I have access to a computer. However, when you will be reading this, probably on a Thursday, I will not, at any moment of that day, have access to a computer.
So it's not so much as this message is coming from the future rather than it's going to the future, but in either case it strikes me as being unstuck in time. And that's always worthy of note.
So apparently this is the first time in four years that I haven't been in contact with a computer on a Thursday. Presumably longer. That's kind of crazy, but it also is our culture; there was another time and place where someone might have been shocked to be similarly separated from say a horse. If one considers a horse to be a technology. It's not better or worse, just different!!!! And that's my senior sem paper in a nutshell.
I would like to tell you about my all-nighter from Sunday night. I camped out in the ER after work (which ended at 11:30), hijacking their computers for Word and Final Draft and Final Cut (which I wouldn't have had anyhow). I made progress on my senior sem paper (it's 11 pages now!) and my short screenplay (5 pages!) and my sound design project (tedious) and tried to work on my HEROES paper, but I was too foggy and this time travel business wasn't making any sense at all.
I took a short nap on one of the couches at the back of the office from like 6 - 7 in the morning, because I had to move my car out of it's nearby faculty spot at that second time. And then I came back and did some more Sound, and then I went and got a tea from Heritage and came back and enjoyed the morning, and then I went to chapel!
The day was pretty fine, but I was noticeably loopy. Loopier. And I didn't hear the second half of Sr. Sem because I was starting to drift into another world--a place, which, incidentally, I haven't experienced since high school. Why was I so tired in high school? I feel like I was that tired all four years.
So, in the past 62 hours, I've had about 7 hours of sleep. This is as of approximately midnight on Tuesday. Which is the past, but hey.
Going to Mexico tomorrow. Gonna sleep in and then go to Mexico. I gotta finish packing.
Also, Carolyn came to visit me on Saturday and that was so fun. I drove us on the freeway to Pasadena and we didn't die!!! We went to no less than three eating establishments. We played Star Wars Battlefront all day and watched SPEED RACER which I undoubtedly love. The colors, Duke, the colors! (I'm colorblind, kid) We also tried to play Brianna's "My Horse and Me" Wii game, but we couldn't figure out how to turn left. Try chasing the chickens out of the corn, or trying to sort the butterflies with only well-planned right turns. It's awful.
I like the show CHUCK and I like the show HEROES and I like the show THE OFFICE. I like Sylar/Elle. I like the show VERONICA MARS. I like stuff like that and mid-sentence I realized that some day soon this blog will likely be only about tv stuff. How awesome is that.
Also, it's raining. Mexico is going to be a mud puddle.
Have a lovely Thursgiving Day. I'm sorry I'm going to miss out. (Or will I? Mexican Thanksgiving Part 2????)
-Steph
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Writey writey
Happy Thursday. You may not know it, but a common element in my speech pattern is to refer to something with a repeated diminutive of a verb that represents it. There are variations of this, like, it doesn't have to be diminutive. Sometimes it doesn't have to be repeated. Like Rick Deckerd's "eye glitter glitter" or Sylar's "cutty finger power."
Rick Deckerd is from BLADERUNNER which I saw for the second time last night because I had to do a presentation on it today for Sci-Fi class. I still didn't like it. And I feel utterly justified in my judgment because after my presentation we had "someone from The Industry" (in this case Bill Marsilii, co-writer of DEJA VU) talk about it as well, and he ripped it apart. In fact, he cites the poor quality of the script as the reason he took his first screenwriting course because he knew he could write better than that. He's a really cool guy and maybe I'll get his contact info and hit him up for some advice.
Screenwriting has suddenly become my most favorite class ever. Nothing about it has changed, it's exactly the same it's been all semester. But I feel like I'm getting so much out of lately, and I wish I could keep taking classes like that. All the other classes are blah or unpleasant, but this one I'm really digging. I think it might have something to do with me wanting to be a screenwriter.
So I've been working on "Mad Scientists," my superhero anthology, in my little black notebook that I take with me to places like chapel and work. I've had this story mapped out since the end of summer, but I've had no time to dedicate it to print. But I'm loving that I let it, what's the word, age? in my mind, like a food item that needs to sit in a dark cellar for years before it's properly edible. This, I'm told, is a necessary part of writing, and let me tell you, it's something I've been doing since I started writing. It's just that most of the time things get stuck in there and I never write them, or forget about them before I have the chance to really develop them.
But lately, in these moments that I have, I flip open my notebook and the story just falls in there. Not perfectly, of course. Usually quite clumsily and embarrassingly. But I've come to realize this, too, is an appropriate thing, called by Dr. Parham's friend the "vomit draft." Just get it out. Fix it later. Editing and rewriting are new to me, but also necessary. I'm learning.
And also outlining. Since I've rarely written anything with plot progression before, outlining seems unwieldy to me. I don't know what to do with them, or even how to do one. But they're so important! They're like the physical representation of what you've already thought out. And then when it's done, you just write the details and DUDE you're done. In my purple notebook I've been outlining the pilot for DREAMERS, and that's been going along great. Great in that I've been thinking and developing and vomiting out an outline and realizing what's working and what's not.
And it was while thinking about the outline (before Megan said, "just write it!!!" I was complaining about how hard it was to think about) that I realized something special. I just love writing. I think I tend to forget that when the going gets tough, when the outline gets stuck or when I feel stupid and uncreative and boring. But sometimes I can take a step back and understand that there exists something I absolutely love, and no matter whether I'm any good or not, just the fact that I love it makes me so happy. I don't know that many writers, but I wish I did. I don't know how normal people spend their thought-time, but I spend it writing, and I'm so glad for it. It's those times that I notice that I love what I'm doing that I can really appreciate the field I'm going into, the opportunities I've had to learn about it and study it and execute it. Wow, I think I'm really not making any sense here, but the gist of it is, I love writing and there's nothing that can ever stop me from doing it.
Unless maybe I go blind and lose my hands.
The point is, it's not even a matter of career. If I get a job writing, then I'll be getting paid for doing something I love. If I don't get a job writing, I can still write. It's not like I love space exploration and can only do that once every five years or whatever. It's not like I love something impossible or limited like that. What I love I can do no matter what, and getting trained in order to make money off of it? That's just a lovely lovely bonus.
In other news, I'm thinking that if my creativity keeps it up, and I can find some good editors that wouldn't mind giving serious critique to it, I'd like to turn "Chaos Watch" into a book. Now that I've said it out loud it'll never happen. But I've got many good years ahead of me in which to continue writing all these stories that I actually have planned. Planning them is the biggest step, because then you have something to write, when you get the chance. I have the entire Bade/Code Master story planned! They have several plot-oriented adventures! It's so possible that I could churn them all out and then polish them for publication. I think that's a good long-term goal.
Also, writing short films and entering them into contests. I'll have two by the time I graduate, so that's a start. That, and I should start on some spec scripts for shows I love, for fun and for profit. (For practice and sending in to networks)
So forgive me for rambling about writing, but this is my life. And these last few hectic weeks of school may be Now, but they are fleeting and soon I will be in Life and all this whimsical writing stuff will become so much more important than this crunch time ever was. Or, I hate this crunch time and I wish it were already over. Either way, I love writing, and you can't take that away from me.
-Steph
Rick Deckerd is from BLADERUNNER which I saw for the second time last night because I had to do a presentation on it today for Sci-Fi class. I still didn't like it. And I feel utterly justified in my judgment because after my presentation we had "someone from The Industry" (in this case Bill Marsilii, co-writer of DEJA VU) talk about it as well, and he ripped it apart. In fact, he cites the poor quality of the script as the reason he took his first screenwriting course because he knew he could write better than that. He's a really cool guy and maybe I'll get his contact info and hit him up for some advice.
Screenwriting has suddenly become my most favorite class ever. Nothing about it has changed, it's exactly the same it's been all semester. But I feel like I'm getting so much out of lately, and I wish I could keep taking classes like that. All the other classes are blah or unpleasant, but this one I'm really digging. I think it might have something to do with me wanting to be a screenwriter.
So I've been working on "Mad Scientists," my superhero anthology, in my little black notebook that I take with me to places like chapel and work. I've had this story mapped out since the end of summer, but I've had no time to dedicate it to print. But I'm loving that I let it, what's the word, age? in my mind, like a food item that needs to sit in a dark cellar for years before it's properly edible. This, I'm told, is a necessary part of writing, and let me tell you, it's something I've been doing since I started writing. It's just that most of the time things get stuck in there and I never write them, or forget about them before I have the chance to really develop them.
But lately, in these moments that I have, I flip open my notebook and the story just falls in there. Not perfectly, of course. Usually quite clumsily and embarrassingly. But I've come to realize this, too, is an appropriate thing, called by Dr. Parham's friend the "vomit draft." Just get it out. Fix it later. Editing and rewriting are new to me, but also necessary. I'm learning.
And also outlining. Since I've rarely written anything with plot progression before, outlining seems unwieldy to me. I don't know what to do with them, or even how to do one. But they're so important! They're like the physical representation of what you've already thought out. And then when it's done, you just write the details and DUDE you're done. In my purple notebook I've been outlining the pilot for DREAMERS, and that's been going along great. Great in that I've been thinking and developing and vomiting out an outline and realizing what's working and what's not.
And it was while thinking about the outline (before Megan said, "just write it!!!" I was complaining about how hard it was to think about) that I realized something special. I just love writing. I think I tend to forget that when the going gets tough, when the outline gets stuck or when I feel stupid and uncreative and boring. But sometimes I can take a step back and understand that there exists something I absolutely love, and no matter whether I'm any good or not, just the fact that I love it makes me so happy. I don't know that many writers, but I wish I did. I don't know how normal people spend their thought-time, but I spend it writing, and I'm so glad for it. It's those times that I notice that I love what I'm doing that I can really appreciate the field I'm going into, the opportunities I've had to learn about it and study it and execute it. Wow, I think I'm really not making any sense here, but the gist of it is, I love writing and there's nothing that can ever stop me from doing it.
Unless maybe I go blind and lose my hands.
The point is, it's not even a matter of career. If I get a job writing, then I'll be getting paid for doing something I love. If I don't get a job writing, I can still write. It's not like I love space exploration and can only do that once every five years or whatever. It's not like I love something impossible or limited like that. What I love I can do no matter what, and getting trained in order to make money off of it? That's just a lovely lovely bonus.
In other news, I'm thinking that if my creativity keeps it up, and I can find some good editors that wouldn't mind giving serious critique to it, I'd like to turn "Chaos Watch" into a book. Now that I've said it out loud it'll never happen. But I've got many good years ahead of me in which to continue writing all these stories that I actually have planned. Planning them is the biggest step, because then you have something to write, when you get the chance. I have the entire Bade/Code Master story planned! They have several plot-oriented adventures! It's so possible that I could churn them all out and then polish them for publication. I think that's a good long-term goal.
Also, writing short films and entering them into contests. I'll have two by the time I graduate, so that's a start. That, and I should start on some spec scripts for shows I love, for fun and for profit. (For practice and sending in to networks)
So forgive me for rambling about writing, but this is my life. And these last few hectic weeks of school may be Now, but they are fleeting and soon I will be in Life and all this whimsical writing stuff will become so much more important than this crunch time ever was. Or, I hate this crunch time and I wish it were already over. Either way, I love writing, and you can't take that away from me.
-Steph
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Call Me Beep Me
Happy Thursday. (If you want to reach me - thanks Kim Possible). My computer died. Hello again, computer lab! What a good friend you are to me.
Guys. I just don't know what to do. Ink-Man has one scene/location left but no where to shoot, no one to act or crew. Any solution to this at this point is going to be like the worst student film you ever saw. But only for the stuff we have yet to shoot. The rest of it will be an average student film.
Had a draft of my critical paper on HEROES due Tuesday that I didn't know about. I wrote him the first page and a half a little while ago and turned that in.
Still haven't done my first project for Sound Design and I'm not sure if there's something I need to be turning in today. In ten minutes.
Had a first draft of my senior sem. paper due yesterday. Gonna try to do that Saturday.
Have a presentation on some movie I've never seen for that class due Monday. Have a presentation on BLADE RUNNER due for Sci-Fi on Tuesday or maybe Thursday. That's not my fave movie.
At least in acting the guy who was filling in (our prof is in a stage show and was away at rehearsal this week) said I'm very funny and would like to see me get into acting. With the exception of that I don't know how to act, I really appreciated his comments and might look into it (not in a life-changing, money-making way, just the opposite of avoiding it) in the future.
Had to work with Ben yesterday and he makes me grouchy when my friends come to visit.
Sam turned 21 and we all had a fun time at Red Robin on Monday. Kelly I think is 22 today. Happy Thursday birthdays, guys!
Apparently the burners on our stove were broken for a week but I wasn't even home to know about it.
Last weekend shooting went really well, got everything done that we needed to do, and in the time we'd had allotted. My thanks goes out to everyone who participated.
I always get this eye/head ache when this class starts, and it's three hours and I really don't want to go to it. I had packed a peanut butter sandwich and a bottle of water, but I guess I didn't bring them and that makes me emo. I think I probably won't go because I have nothing to contribute and nothing to learn. Even though I actually started on my project this week, I gave up my drive to the Ink-Man editors to get a start on that (because the assembly cut was due this week, and now it's next Monday) so I couldn't work on my Sound stuff.
Guys. I just don't know what to do.
Haps Thurs, though. :<
-Stephanie
Guys. I just don't know what to do. Ink-Man has one scene/location left but no where to shoot, no one to act or crew. Any solution to this at this point is going to be like the worst student film you ever saw. But only for the stuff we have yet to shoot. The rest of it will be an average student film.
Had a draft of my critical paper on HEROES due Tuesday that I didn't know about. I wrote him the first page and a half a little while ago and turned that in.
Still haven't done my first project for Sound Design and I'm not sure if there's something I need to be turning in today. In ten minutes.
Had a first draft of my senior sem. paper due yesterday. Gonna try to do that Saturday.
Have a presentation on some movie I've never seen for that class due Monday. Have a presentation on BLADE RUNNER due for Sci-Fi on Tuesday or maybe Thursday. That's not my fave movie.
At least in acting the guy who was filling in (our prof is in a stage show and was away at rehearsal this week) said I'm very funny and would like to see me get into acting. With the exception of that I don't know how to act, I really appreciated his comments and might look into it (not in a life-changing, money-making way, just the opposite of avoiding it) in the future.
Had to work with Ben yesterday and he makes me grouchy when my friends come to visit.
Sam turned 21 and we all had a fun time at Red Robin on Monday. Kelly I think is 22 today. Happy Thursday birthdays, guys!
Apparently the burners on our stove were broken for a week but I wasn't even home to know about it.
Last weekend shooting went really well, got everything done that we needed to do, and in the time we'd had allotted. My thanks goes out to everyone who participated.
I always get this eye/head ache when this class starts, and it's three hours and I really don't want to go to it. I had packed a peanut butter sandwich and a bottle of water, but I guess I didn't bring them and that makes me emo. I think I probably won't go because I have nothing to contribute and nothing to learn. Even though I actually started on my project this week, I gave up my drive to the Ink-Man editors to get a start on that (because the assembly cut was due this week, and now it's next Monday) so I couldn't work on my Sound stuff.
Guys. I just don't know what to do.
Haps Thurs, though. :<
-Stephanie
Thursday, November 06, 2008
People
Happy Thursday. There are some people that I just don't ever want to have to deal with again, and luckily soon they'll be a bad memory. "Like a long night after a bad taco," as Mr. Sylar would say, but that's not very relevant.
Sam turned 21 today! His very own Blackjack Thursday Birthday. Which reminds me that I haven't kept track of ANY real Blackjack Thursdays this year, and that makes me sad. Maybe I'll do a retroactive count of them all. Anyway! Happy Birthday, Sam! I wish you all the best.
So for the movie we have this stuffed horse which we just started playing with as a member of the family. Beth named him...Reginald. I have forgotten his name every time I talk to him, calling him things like Roscoe and Rodriguez and Rocky and once Rocko. At some point in this, Megan turned to me and shouted, "HIS NAME IS SYLAR."
Guys, just telling you know, if you don't watch HEROES you're really missing out on half of what I ever talk about.
Wasn't on this week, but I think it'll be back next week? Took the time to watch HSM and HSM back to back before I had to return them. Those movies are wacky. And I went to a meeting tonight about going to Mexico, so I'll have to catch the OFFICE and 30 ROCK at some future point. (Both episodes from last week were fantastic, by the by)
Seeing as my Mexico trip is a four day thing, I've decided to call it Mexico AX. Where people dress up and buy cute souvenirs...? They showed a documentary about what "short-term missions" has come to mean, and how we're doin it rong, and it was very interesting. Someone teach me Spanish?
Shooting the movie is coming along. Still so much to do and not enough time to do it in. While it's going on I really don't feel like talking about it, so in a month or so you'll be getting a deluge of water-color memories about how great it was.
I think Blockbuster is paying me again tomorrow. Yay.
When I have so much going on, I tend to fall back on my natural creativity, and it's the least important things that start getting done. Like my miniseries and my sci-fi/fantasy "comic book" serial. I've rebooted the notemaking/outlining process on the first and actual writing on the second. Writing has always been my first line of defense against reality, my most natural and available form of escapism. I just wish I was always this productive, like when I have the time for it.
But seriously, I'm going to sell my miniseries for millions of dollars one day.
When I started my car today, the DJ on KROQ said Happy Thursday and I yelled at her with a startled fondness.
Oh yeah, and I hear we're getting a new president?
I'm going to go have some sleepytimes now. Or maybe I might get some quality Bade/Codes time in.
(Oh, and November started and apparently so did Winter)
-Steph
Sam turned 21 today! His very own Blackjack Thursday Birthday. Which reminds me that I haven't kept track of ANY real Blackjack Thursdays this year, and that makes me sad. Maybe I'll do a retroactive count of them all. Anyway! Happy Birthday, Sam! I wish you all the best.
So for the movie we have this stuffed horse which we just started playing with as a member of the family. Beth named him...Reginald. I have forgotten his name every time I talk to him, calling him things like Roscoe and Rodriguez and Rocky and once Rocko. At some point in this, Megan turned to me and shouted, "HIS NAME IS SYLAR."
Guys, just telling you know, if you don't watch HEROES you're really missing out on half of what I ever talk about.
Wasn't on this week, but I think it'll be back next week? Took the time to watch HSM and HSM back to back before I had to return them. Those movies are wacky. And I went to a meeting tonight about going to Mexico, so I'll have to catch the OFFICE and 30 ROCK at some future point. (Both episodes from last week were fantastic, by the by)
Seeing as my Mexico trip is a four day thing, I've decided to call it Mexico AX. Where people dress up and buy cute souvenirs...? They showed a documentary about what "short-term missions" has come to mean, and how we're doin it rong, and it was very interesting. Someone teach me Spanish?
Shooting the movie is coming along. Still so much to do and not enough time to do it in. While it's going on I really don't feel like talking about it, so in a month or so you'll be getting a deluge of water-color memories about how great it was.
I think Blockbuster is paying me again tomorrow. Yay.
When I have so much going on, I tend to fall back on my natural creativity, and it's the least important things that start getting done. Like my miniseries and my sci-fi/fantasy "comic book" serial. I've rebooted the notemaking/outlining process on the first and actual writing on the second. Writing has always been my first line of defense against reality, my most natural and available form of escapism. I just wish I was always this productive, like when I have the time for it.
But seriously, I'm going to sell my miniseries for millions of dollars one day.
When I started my car today, the DJ on KROQ said Happy Thursday and I yelled at her with a startled fondness.
Oh yeah, and I hear we're getting a new president?
I'm going to go have some sleepytimes now. Or maybe I might get some quality Bade/Codes time in.
(Oh, and November started and apparently so did Winter)
-Steph
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