rolled into work at... well. 4pm. Left at 8.30.

lunch: palak paneer on brown rice from Trader Joe's.

Dinner: cod cake, arugula with lemon juice. Rockrabbit wine.

so far-- cash only today.. with the aid of a $10 gift certificate to Whole Foods.

Operation: povertà non più

or, operation: Broke no more.
I need to change a habit or fifteen.

Effective immediately:
I will be living a cash only lifestyle, with the exception of items for medical necessity. Alcohol does not count as a medical necessity. Each Monday I will take $120 out of the bank, and live on that. In the majority of the country, this seems like a more than reasonable undertaking.

In fact, even in New York, it is a totally reasonable undertaking. It does mean that I'll be changing a lot of things. In the past few years I've gotten into the very bad habit of eating out nearly every meal. Some of that comes from the social structure in New York. When we want to get together, we go to a bar or a restaurant.

Part of that is the culture of singlehood. Part of that is related to the fact that most of my friends don't have living rooms to speak of- I do, but I don't have people over very often for two reasons. 1) I live in the equivalent of the Canada in relation to the rest of the city. And 2) as much as I like my roommates, keeping the apartment clean with these two is a Sisyphean task.

Breakfast at home before work, pack lunch, come home and make dinner.

Outline for next screenplay is tomorrow's project.

Tonight's dinner:
Spinach and goat cheese quesedilla with a side of almonds and kalamata olives.

Wine: Rockrabbit Sauvignon Blanc 2006. $9.99 at Trader Joe's.

Fun, very fruity, crispy but not wimpy and not a hint of that oak.
Cheerfully drinkable with a screwtop. I would serve it to others with dinner. I'm thinking salmon with a mushroom risotto. Tomorrow's dinner I think.

Ah. It seems I'm being fed a line of something silly.

It seems between London, New York, Springfield, LA, Las Vegas, LA, New York, Hartford, New York, New Haven, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Hartford, New Haven, New York... I've somehow picked up a nasty cold. It has made me just surly enough to boss the roommates into cleaning up after themselves.

I was feeling pretty good about the results of my bitchiness until I cut my finger while cleaning the metal dish rack.

Aces. Just... Aces.

office gig

Had the work holiday part on Wednesday night. Champagne, followed by dinner at the Stanton Social Club and Karaoke.

But first, the ever dreaded Secret Santa gift exchange. I'd already given my person her present, which seemed to go over ok. I did give her the gift receipt so she can get what ever she wishes from Borders.

but! my gift was wonderful and really thoughtful.
The EIC got me The KISASS Guide to Screenwriting by JT O'Neal. Simple, concrete. It serves as a good reminder that sometimes when a scene isn't working it is the simplest things that a writer already knows in his/ her bones... but just needs it brought to attention every once in a while.

WW2 script and 'Funeral in Vegas' are both on hold until this coverage is done, and all I want to do is write write write.... sadly the day job is needed to pay dem billz. I actually like my job for the most part.

As it has been at least four days since I've waffled again on this topic: to move to California or not to move. That is the question. Whether tis smarter to suffer the slings and arrows of New York until a script is sold; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing, move my ass to California with no money and no job.

Get me a red pencil!

Spent the week with friends (FutureLawyer and Scientist, and Scientist's 8 month old child) and Amanda's family. There was birthday cake with purple frosting and asti spumante to drink. For the first time in a long time, "Happy Birthday" was sung where it didn't sound like a dirge. It was upbeat and fast and as cheerful as we could make it.

A's mom shoved a card into my hand. It read:

Take comfort in knowing that there is one more angle above us.


I laughed, immediately seeing 'angle' instead of 'angel'.

A's Mom: You know she's hollering for a red pencil, right?

ME: Oh no. She's knocking on doors left and right, demanding to apply to this angle position. "I want to be an angle! They're in everything! Especially a right angle. I could be in buildings, everywhere! I am always right. Not an obtuse angle. That just won't do."


I take comfort in knowing that there is another angle above us.

posthumous birthday party

December 3rd a blood clot killed a friend of mine. She was talking and laughing one moment, the next she died. It was the day after her 30th birthday. Me and the rest of her friends are flying to her hometown, Las Vegas, and instead of having a memorial service, we're throwing a birthday party.


I hate that I've spent my weekend writing an obituary for one of the brightest, most creative people I've ever known.


Amanda Fox has left the building

Amanda Fox passed away peacefully December 3rd, 2008. She was a creative, funny, warm, interested and interesting person who took advantage of the opportunities life presented.

After graduating from Smith College in 2000, working at a magazine in Boston, and tiring of Northeastern winters, she returned to Las Vegas to perfect her online scrabble skills while working for the family company.

While the world had her for too brief a time, her presence made it a far more joyful and sparkly place.

Her memorial celebration and posthumous birthday party will be held on Dec 13 in Las Vegas, please contact afoxmc@gmail.com for further information.


The family has requested no flowers. Donations made in Amanda's name to the Las Vegas SPCA (http://www.nevadaspca.org/donate.htm) would be greatly appreciated.

coverage

Coverage.

The cornerstone of the the entry level development position in the 'wood. Or so I'm told. By some twist of fate I've been doing it on and off since 2004. The downside is that I do coverage of books for production companies. Books take much more time to read, and are generally more complicated than scripts are, simply by the nature of the text.

I sometimes get very frustrated with the process. As a screenwriter I'm told that people put my script down after 7 pages if they aren't wowed... and yet I have to read the entire damn book despite knowing on page 4 that this isn't something the company can use.

If I'm being totally honest with myself, sometimes I resent the coverage because it is time that I'm writing something that isn't mine.

Conversely, I would never have had the confidence to finish a script had I not seen what else is out there, had I not had practice writing structural critique.

Got a pedicure and watched Fellini's Satyricon. Not at the same time, though perhaps that would improve the viewing experience.


I'm not sure if it would be much improved with a better sense of Petronius's work.... but thus far the film just seems to take all joy out of life and sex and love. My impression of the original work is that there is satire and bawdy, but for means of laughter as well as critique.

The deliberate (at least I think it is deliberate) lack of syncopation with the sound and the picture- making it looked dubbed-- just serves to make it more distant and less relevant. I also really don't understand the appeal of this kid that everyone is mooning over.

Supernatural spec will soon undergo transformation- I will turn it into a feature!
Also- I've decided to roll up my sleeves and go back to the epic adventures of Girl Assassin. You can blame Carlo, AKA CDC and a few too many margaritas at Dos Caminos when she shows up again in the various and sundry inboxes in my life.

Wrote and registered a treatment today. A dark comedy about faith and redemption. One of the things brought up in the WB seminar was that genre writers were getting hired based on their original work. Of the 970 scripts submitted, 13 were Supernatural scripts.

This is pertinent because of the 30 or so in the room, the majority of the people in there were comedy writers. Chris mentioned one of the scripts he remembered was as a "Supernatural script having great dialogue and character development, but weak monster of the week."

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that was my script. I wish that I'd put my hand up and said. "I think that's mine."

I realized the other day that I tend to regret things that I don't do more than I regret things that I do do.

Julie and I saw 'The haunting of Molly Hartley'. It comforted both of us to know that if this crap could get made, we could get produced.

Back from Ell Ay.

The muse struck and struck hard on the flight home. I really wan to be writing, but I know that I have to get to bed. so I can get up. and take a shower before they shut the water off from 9am to noon tomorrow for plumbing repairs.

Apartment is a mess, reimbursement check from work is short $186.00.

Drove to Las Vegas and got to see Amanda. She looked so very very skinny, but things seem to be looking up. Visited with Julie, briefly saw Lesley before she went off to her production meeting.

more about the actual WB meeting later.

Back from London late last night.

A lot of thoughts are running through my head. Mostly, I'm a little bummed that I missed this. Cowbell and all.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrj_bc2Xy9s

Casino Royale, to James Bond--

M: Arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand in hand.

reporting live from Baltimore

Side rant: Since when did working your ass off and getting an education and bettering yourself make you an elitist?

Went to Lexington market, ate a tasty crabcake from Faidley's. It was so very very good.

I like the vibe of the city. Maybe because it reminds me of the smaller New England cities of my youth, or maybe because everyone I've encountered since arriving here has been nice.

bad math.

I've started watching Burn Notice, with an eye to writing another spec.
It has a decent combination of action and humor. We'll see how it progresses. I should really be working on the feature instead.

The day job is becoming increasingly frustrating. I've taken to playing the McDonald's monopoly game as a retirement plan.

sweet sweet rejection. No, seriously

Got my letter from Warner Brothers today.

"Thank you for applying... After careful evaluation and consideration of the hundreds of scripts we received, we are unable to include your submission in the final round.

It is important to note that you did make it into the top 5% of scripts reviewed. Because of this, you are invited to attend a free evening seminar where we will share some tips and tricks on spec writing... This lecture is only for Workshop applicants in the top 5% ( no guests please).

...

We encourage you to submit again next year and thank you again for your interest in the workshop."



Looks like I'll be in LA for a few days in November! Which will be good as I'm going to start the job search process.

Not bad for a first script. Now I think I'm going to take it and turn it into a full length feature.

Eeeeek!

There is a mouse* in my house**.

*We're going to use the word 'mouse' because if we use the other, more precise word that starts with an R and ends in a T-- I will need to be sedated. A great deal.

**Well, OK, apartment.

Good Quote-

Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.
Olin Miller

I don't know what the deal is with alligators of late. Hmm. Think I just figured out how to get rid of a fictional corpse.

decisions, decisions

I'm torn on which project to work on next.

1) Changing the Supernatural spec to a feature ( supernatural suspense) .
2) The World War 2 script that's been plaguing me for years.
3) The dark dark dark comedy-- I think that one's a play.
4) The angsty-ish low budget drama.

or this:

http://www.cnsi.ucsb.edu/stage/guidelines/guidelines.html

In short? This is a contest that pays $10,000 --- and it would actually allow me to utilize that higher education thing. My undergraduate minor was in History of the Sciences, and my major was Anthropolgy, specifically in cultural and medical arenas.

And we hurry up and wait. some more.

Still nothing from the WB.

19 days until I hear if I made the first round of cuts for the WB writer's workshop.

Hurry up and wait.

submitted the script to WB and ABC. And now we just... wait and see.

Times

Everything I know about football, I know from listening to my dad place bets with his bookee (sp?) and from George Carlin.

I bring this up for 2 reasons. 1) RIP George Carlin. A motherfucking genius. 2)I'm blown away by the skill of writing for Friday Night Lights... and I might be writing a spec script for it.

Hey! I'm walking here!

While walking across the street I got clipped by a woman driving a minivan. Yes, I'm fine. No, I didn't get her plate number. No, she didn't ask me if I was ok, or say Sorry. I was walking with the light. No, no one asked if I was ok once I got to the other side of the street, and I don't know I'm so bothered by that. One woman did kinda give me a look, but I don't know if it was a ' I can't believe the nerve of that lady' or ' I can't believe that you said that.' Cause those words that well bred women don't use? Oh, I used them.

I have lungs.
Two of them
I used to swim daily. I sing. I run.
I have a voice that projects without my intent.
So when I started flinging obscenities... they were flung with great force. I'm not necessarily proud of that fact that I screamed like a banshee, but holy crap had she been going a little faster, had I been slower to push my left and arm against the car to get out of the way, I could have been seriously hurt. My left hand and arm are sore, and I suspect that back muscles of left side will make their presence abundantly known tomorrow.

Thwarted

sat down at desk.

C called.

Then Mom called.

then I spilled my beer all over my desk -- including a graphic novel that belongs to Curmudgeon This is...very not good. I mean, it was good beer, but books are sacred and I try really hard not to damage any of the ones that are under  my care---especially if I don't own them.

Then TD called, computer crisis, then NG called for clothing consult.

and.. then at around 11, I finally started writing. My eyes are killing me, so I guess  now would be the time to shut down. I got rid of 3 pages, and wrote 4. So, I'm up ... one.  And I just wrote  END of Act 1.. which is the most difficult for me. I usually try to cram too much in to one place at one time.

Dear Spec Script: 

Stop Sucking.

Thanks.

PS-- handy dandy chart that was made last month that clearly detailed page numbers and act breaks? Please, come home.

Fail!

For those of you who don't roam the streets of Midtown at lunchtime,  The Treats Truck is a truck- which is a bakery storefront.  They sell tasty snack s for reasonable prices.

It was supposed to be parked on 38th, near 5th. But Alas, at Noon, this was not the case. I was thwarted in my quest for a raspberry brownie.

I ended up getting lamb and rice from the Rifiki's cart on Madison and 28th.  So very very good. 

Saw 88 Minutes last night.

If Al Pacino's character was a heroine in a genre romance, I would have stopped reading 10 pages in, as I would have found said character far too stupid to live.

Close Up

The magazine decided against the 6 week follow up, so only the 'before' photos made it to print. Behold! Me! With Make up! 

Tomorrow I firm up plans for creating a Medical Narration  demo cd.  These are exciting times. No. Really. I swear.

Dear Guy who picked up my stuff in Penn Station:

This afternoon,  I was running as fast as my feet would carry me through Penn Station.

The All aboard was being called for my friend's train.  While I'm not a fast runner, I'm faster than she is. I was hustling to get to the gate when my backpack spewed its contents all over the Amtrak arena of engagement.

And you, Mr. Nice, picked up my scarf and sunglasses, which had fallen out about 100 yards back.

Thank you. Thank you, Thank you.

My friend missed her train, but Amtrak put her on the next one without charging her the difference. A lovely weekend during which I accomplished very little but watching bad sci fi. It was some good times.

Kiss it.

St. Patrick's Day today.

Where people who've never been to Ireland celebrate:

- On a day named for an Englishman

- Sing a particularly big downer of a song, also written by an Englishman.

- Wear green plastic hats

- Desecrate beer with green coloring.

Leprechauns.

Let's discuss, shall we?

Or rather, let's not. 

Just did upper body weight routine.  I'm starting to see a difference in  my shoulders. 

I am now drinking my one beer of the week.

Shortly, I'm going to have my photo taken again for the magazine. I saw the first round of photos. I look very stepford wife-y. Good, but stepford wifey. 

Between getting sick, not eating because of the perpetual pukeness, and then eating everything that wasn't nailed down-- and then some.

and really? have you ever tried to do crunches when you have vertigo? I really really don't recommend it.

Acting classes start second week of April. I'm moving ahead on the TV spec script. 

Voice over classes... those I'm going to have to see if I can find another classmate with whom to split the costs. I heard one of the demos today. It was really well done, and she had a great deal of range. The sound quality was excellent.

On that note, I'm going to finish my weekly allotted beer, and then go to bed.

Uno Dos Tres Quatorce

Still aboard the SS Tilt-A-Whirl.  Vertigo comes in and out.

Do . not. want.

Timing

Earlier today, I got a text from a friend. It was a quick heads up that the fiance of our mutual friend was killed in a car accident. Third hand info says ' the police said he was driving pretty fast'

Perhaps it is my overactive imagination, I find the timing... interesting.  He was in divorce court with a soon to be ex-wife, and they were arguing over large sums of money. Very. Large. Sums.  

As in, her monthly alimony would have been enough to live on for a year in some parts of the country. Granted, it would be lean living, but ... yeah.

My friend has been living with him for the past year and a half, maybe two years. They live in an overpriced apartment in a luxury building. She will be unable to pay the rent alone.  So, not only has she lost her love, the man she planned to have kids with-- she'll be losing her home.

and waiting.

Today, I came home, wrote some pages of script which I aim to use for Scriptapalooza and 2009's  ABC DISNEY writer's fellowship.  I hope to get this done in the next few weeks, and then possibly start following The Sarah Conner Chronicles. I hear the writing is of the good. I also think that I'm going to start watching 'My name is Earl.' From what I've seen, I think it brilliant and I have some white trash running in my veins. I could do a script justice.

I have a cold. and I don't like it. At all.

Dropped a line to the magazine. They said to be patient. u-huh.

Sure. Totally. The first word people think, when they think of me.

Productive

Woke up this morning with an ominous rattle in my chest.  Mr. Kate and I made a run for the drug store as she was rocking an not insubstantial cough. Came back home, made pancakes. Ate pancakes. Put on a face masque. Next I shall paint my nails!  I don't know why I'm having such a hard time getting going. ugh. I need to get some exercise in, head down to the Chelsea drug store, outline spec script and do 20 minutes of voice work.

I heard from Monday. Her query letter should be done by end of day Sunday.

**** 10 hours later.

ugh. sick.