It's been a while since I've posted. In my defense, my life it pretty boring.

What's new:
1. I can't get Typhoid!
I got immunized last week. Three shots in my left arm, two in my right. Hurt like a bitch. I could barely hold a picket sign afterward. Now I just need the pharmacy to fill my prescription for anti-malaria drugs and I'll be good to go.

2. Still on strike
Everyone says they're trying to punish us and put on a show for the other unions. They want to make us stay out through the holiday to show SAG how serious they are. DGA goes into talks at the beginning of the year, which could be good or bad. I don't know how much longer this is going to last, but I might be going out for temp jobs when I get back from India. I can survive until June, but I don't want to keep eating away at my savings.

3. Mutant Enemy Day
I'd post pictures, but I'm pretty sure the whedonesque flicker already has a second by second account. The most important things were that I got to hang out with saltygoodness24 and share the joy of walking in circles with her and that I finally met electrcspacegrl in person.

4. I finished London: The Biography
I can't recommend this book. It's too scattered and uneven. There were chapters that were interesting, but it skips around too much to leave you with anything other than a smattering of new factoids. If you like your history so full of quotes it feels like a clip show and littered with grandiose, unsupported assertions: enjoy.

5. It's Christmas time
I wish I was going to be in my apartment over the holiday, I'd love to go overboard with the decorating and get a tree and bake cookies, but the tree would be a big brown fire hazard by the time I got home and cookies would just be one more thing to pack.

I finished The Prince of The Marshes. It's one of the best books I've read about Iraq. Stewart avoids the pitfalls of trying to find a unified field theory of what went wrong and instead focuses on one province and one group's attempt to rebuild. Then I read A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's perfect for the literature major who doesn't know the first thing about science. Very readable and remarkably thorough. Then I moved back to fiction and read Mother Night. Gets a little preachy toward the end but the rest is an interesting look at how what we pretend to be and what we are merge. I want to read Friday Night Lights next but Amazon is being slow.

I'm pretty much done with the great apartment redecoration of '07. I love my new furniture. The only problem is that the bed is so comfortable I can't pry myself out of it in the morning.

( here are the results of my labors )

I watched some movies. Just so you know, The Good Shepherd is the most boring movie ever. I loved the Children of Men. The visuals were amazing and it was a frighteningly likely depiction of our future. The best movie I've seen recently, though, is The Lookout. It's a truly character driven thriller.

I've been watching the Tudors. It wants to be West Wing but it's coming off more like Desperate Housewives. Still, I kinda love it. I've also been watching Robin Hood. Might be the cheesiest show ever but it's also the least cynical show since the 1950s. Robin's so unfailingly good and righteous. Plus, hot. And it's hard not to love the whole steal from the rich, protect the downtrodden thing even if they do indulge in lines like, "I shot the sheriff." "No, you shot the deputy."

I read the first two issues of Buffy S8. Not sure what to think so far. ( Am I really supposed to find )

I finished reading Collapse. I feel smarter and more scared. Diamond manages to tackle an incredibly broad topic with impressive depth. He shores up every facet of his arguments with study after study and never falls back on simplistic answers. I've started Rubicon cause I kinda miss Rome.

Work has been more of the same. The biggest excitement was the earthquake preparedness fair. I bought an emergency preparedness kit and the most brilliant device ever. It's a flashlight, it's a radio, it's an alarm, it charges your cell phone and it's all operated by a hand crank charger. I love any sort of complex electronics that can be powered with nothing more advanced than a butter churn.

I made furniture. It was really difficult... and heavy. I shouldn't have bought so much at ikea but I'm weak. And of course there was no parking in my neighborhood so I had to park illegally a block and a half away and carry the boxes of lumber and allen wrenches in my noodle-y arms. Between that, vacuuming and having a cold, I'm pretty much exhausted.

Last week I finished Embers, which reads like a really intense murder mystery where there's been no murder, the characters are too old to actually hurt each other, and the whole story is about friendship and a dying empire. But other than that, just like a murder mystery. Then I read A Long Way Gone, which is every bit as upsetting as you would imagine. After so many reviews referred to it as "uplifting" and taking into account the fact that Starbucks is pimping the hell out of it, I was worried it would be saccharine, but it's very honest about the horrors while maintaining a belief that people can come back from even the worst experiences.

Tv! I watched( bsg )
and ( rome )

Being unemployed is fun in an anxiety provoking way. I've decided to make the apartment less of a hole since I actually spend time here now. Today I went to Ikea for a lamp. Predictably, I walked out with cushions, a couple throws, new bowls, some pans, a new duvet set and a lamp. But I was most excited about the lamp, until I took it home, opened the box, and smashed the glass shade against the metal base. This is why I shouldn't be allowed to live by myself. Clearly, I still need adult supervision.

In better news, my McSweeney's order came and not only did they send me the Collins library (which is what I ordered), but also the 2006 Music issue of The Believer, Housekeeping vs The Dirt (Nick Hornby's book reviews), and Animals of the Ocean: In Particular the Giant Squid ( all of which I did not order). Nice of them.

A selection from Animals of the Ocean: "The ocean has been on the earth for thousands of years. It is generally blue and nearly always vicious. Most people feel that the ocean is not interesting to study because of these factors, but I think the ocean is not so bad. I believe my partner Benny and I are the only scientists ever to explore what is in and under the sea. The book has been created for readers of all ages and levels of intelligence. Most of it, nevertheless, will go over your head. Forgive me if I find you bothersome."

English as She is Spoke is my favorite part of the Collins Library. It's an English phrase book for speakers of Portuguese written by a man who didn't know English. You can learn such helpful phrases as: "Comb-me quickly; don't put me so much pomatum. What news tell me? all hair dresser are newsmonger." and "It is a noise which to cleave the head."

I finished Homage to Catalonia this week. It's quickly become one of my all time favorite non fiction books. Orwell's account of his time in the Spanish Civil War captures the absurdity of his ill equipped "army," the political infighting and the boredom of war. But while the book is peppered with reminisce about the haplessness of the various ant-Fascist armies ("There were nights when it seemed to me that our position could be stormed by twenty boy scouts with air-guns, or twenty Girl Guides armed with battledores, for that matter.") and the way that the various groups managed to work at disastrous cross purposes, there's also a sense of nostalgia for the idealism that drove him to the war and the camaraderie he found there.

I'm so excited about all of the new bsg promos and pictures. Best show on tv. And dualbunny's Starbuck vid is the best vid about the best show on tv. (I have a secret, shameful love for Pink!)

I got a Vox journal, cause... it's pretty and I'm easy like that. I like being able to create video, book and music collections so I can show off my exquisite taste but other than that it seems like LJ for people who don't know how to use photoshop or code even basic html. If my mom ever gets a decent computer, it would be great for her.

I finally finished reading Bleak House (Favorite quote: "She is perfectly well bred. If she could be translated to Heaven tomorrow, she might be expected to ascend without any rapture.") and moved on to The Things They Carried. An amazing book about love and writing and truth and war. There's a story in the collection called Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong that I absolutely love. Now I'm reading Memoirs of Hadrian. Hermano has been going on about how brilliant it is for years so I'm finally getting around to it.

Re: Project Runway, that was some bullshit there.

BBF isn't dead. She's just in hell. I sent a care package. She should get it sometime next year.

1. Happy Birthday jebbypal!

2. I got home around ten and wandered the streets for twenty minutes waiting for them to take down the yellow "police line, do not cross" tape. Apparently some crazy guy was holed up in his apartment with a gun. I don't think anyone was hurt.

3. I had a wonderful birthday. Among other things I got a gift certificate to Burke Williams spa, which I rushed to use this weekend. The nice massage man upgraded me to deep tissue when he felt the sorry state my shoulders were in. I had a couple of other treatments including something called Savannah's's Surrender. It sounds like a porno about a nice southern girl who's into S&M but it's actually a wonderful exfoliating scrub. I think my favorite part was the eucalyptus mist room. I need a job where I can afford to go to Burke Williams every weekend and/or install a misting room in my house.

4. ( Saw Pirates on Friday )

I worked 8 to 9 all week which means leaving my house at 7 and getting home at 10. The only thing keeping me going was the fact that bff and her sister were coming to LA to sleep on my floor and go to Disneyland. I really wanted to do mindless things like go on Space Mountain until I threw up. But then bff's sister got herself kicked out of school and her mother decided she shouldn't be allowed to go to Disneyland. And with her family melting down, bff felt like she had to stay.

She leaves for a country famous for its fish market in two weeks (It's not even that she's moving to a town famous for its fish market. It's that she's moving to a country about which the nicest thing people say is that it has a big fish market and the military junta isn't so bad, really) so I understand her desire to stay and deal with these things. I'm just... really disappointed. I even have Monday off. Monday is the first day of production so my boss is going to New York. I'm not likely to get another long weekend any time soon.

In other news, I've been watching pilots. Vanished is terrible and Heroes is worse on film than it was on the page. There's no story, just the same irritatingly simple character beats over and over and over. The dialog is on the nose and not at all helped by the mediocre acting. It has some great visuals but it has to get a lot better very fast if it's going to survive.

And I'm going to get worse. I just got a new job. It's a dream job and I can't screw it up. I really have to make a sensational impression on these people. And it's going to be crazy hours. So... bye bye internet. I'm really nervous about the new job. I like my job. I know everyone. It's very comfortable and not at all stressful or challenging, which is ultimately a problem. It doesn't even seem real yet. I don't want to get too attached to the new job. What if something happens and it goes away? What if it doesn't go away and I suck at it? Ahhhhhh

"I am sorry I was moved to speak with enthusiasm."

I saw Boston Marriage on thursday. It's every bit as bad as they say. Some of the dialog was genuinely funny but there were a number of unfortunate double entendres involving a muff. I know it must be hard to resist the temptation to go there, but he could have made some small effort. Pidgeon was Pidgeon and Steenburgen was Katherine Hepburn with a British accent. That coupled with absolutely flat delivery and rapid fire Mamet dialog made her nearly impossible to understand. Silverstone was good, but a little broad for my tastes. Overall the play was just too cold. It was hard to root for the characters. Their relationship was the only thing at stake and yet they never gave you a reason to believe in it.

"I needed a job and I wanted to shoot a gun."

Last night was the BSG portion of the Paley fest. They screened LYBD I. It was really cool to see it on a big screen with good acoustics. The panel was very funny, but not terribly insightful. They spent half the time talking about how they were cast and we've all read and heard those stories before. I took a lot of notes and I might get a chance to type them up this weekend.

My favorite part was the quiz at the end. They each had a question related to their character and the prize was a signed poster. When it was Mary's turn she read her question and went, "This would be so much fun to answer all together. Oh, but there's a poster at stake. Alright." So she asked, called on someone, they answered and she sat down but instead of moving to EJO's question, she stood again and went, "Now we can answer as a group!" She delivered the question exactly the same way, "According to President Roslin, what is the proper way to deal with a cylon?" and we all chimed in, "Put them out the airlock!" She was so thrilled and grinned like mad. When she sat back down she was the very picture of the phrase, "pleased as punch." I love her.

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil was decent. One of those books that makes up for in importance what it lacks in style. It's very insightful. Learned a lot about the ways that people delude themselves. This week's book is Magic for Beginners. Just looking at the cover makes me happy.

I slept in until 12:30 this afternoon. That's no good. Instead of going hiking tomorrow I'm going to do all of the things I should have done today. Just as well, it's really cold in Los Angeles. One of the few things I have accomplished this week is watching all of Grey's Anatomy, which I love. The characters are so warm and funny. But it's not just fluff. I've heard a lot of people slam it for being "all about the sex." It's all about friendship. The sex is incidental. And they never fail to go beyond the salacious hook and explore the emotional ramifications of the situation.

I finished Team of Rivals. Very interesting. It's amazing how much I'd forgotten about the Civil War. Mainly, though, the book just made me sad. Why don't we have any statesmen like that now? Also, the de Tocqueville quote, "Citizens assemble with the sole goal of declaring that they disapprove of the course of government. To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and, so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows," made me want to cry. This couldn't be further from the truth today. We're more likely to assemble for a Nicole Richie book signing than to opine about politics. Anyway, on to Never Let Me Go, which I'm very excited about. Seems like the perfect book for my mood right now.

This week was expensive. I bought my ticket home for the funeral (scheduled for next weekend, finally). Also got my tix for the Television Festival. I wanted House but it sold out. I did manage to get BSG and Earl. It's probably for the best that I couldn't spend any more money.

( black market thoughts )

I should be writing, but I'm not.

Finally, I love this icon.

So, we still don't know when the funeral is going to be. I love dealing with my dad's family. Of course, dad's the real problem. No one can find him, he doesn't even know his mother is dead. And we don't know he's not... lovely thought.

In more vapid news, all anyone is talking about is the UPN/WB merger and Pixar going to Disney. I also deal with a lot of literary-types in the course of a day so the Frey scandal looms large. I'm really hoping we can switch topics soon.

( I have a question about Donut Run )

But my luggage is in San Francisco. Apparently it was in LA this morning. Why not just send it over to Burbank? No idea. Instead they decided to send it back to SFO so that it could take another flight to Burbank. Ok. The debacle started last night when I got into SFO and learned that my flight to Burbank had been canceled. I could have flown into LAX and taken ground transport to Burbank but I would have gotten home around 2am so I opted for the free hotel and flew out this morning. I was kinda fun to stay in a hotel room all by myself. I didn't like the humming, though. The whole room vibrated. I had to take the lamps off the tables so the rattling would stop (no it wasn't just sleep deprivation, it happened).

My last day in Seattle went well. Mom and I had a good talk/therapy session and I got to hang out with BFF. We bought books at Elliot Bay and drank coffee in Bell town. It was a very Seattle day. Now I have to decide whether or not to brave Ikea and try to buy furniture. I wish they'd call about my luggage. It'd be nice to do both in the same trip.

They're little and have mohawks. Monkeys are good indoor city pets, right?

So, obviously, we went to the San Diego zoo. It was... pretty obscene, actually. We saw a monkey licking its own nipple. It didn't seem to be enjoying it all that much, it was more of a tentative, confused, "Hey, what's this attached to my chest?" sort of a thing. We also saw a rhinoceros penis, not sure why it needs a penis that's as long as its leg, but there you go. The panda was particularly active, so that was cool to see. My favorite part was probably the sea lion show. Those things are freaky smart. They're the sort of animals who could plot against us, but are too kind hearted to pull it off. And the giraffes were cute and posed nicely. Too bad the camera didn't work. There were a lot of cute, fuzy things that I wanted to take home, but security was pretty tight.

In keeping with the animal theme, we went to see King Kong. ( cut for spoilerish thoughts )

It was really nice to get out of Los Angeles for a while. And it's always fun to see saltygoodness24. She's one of the few people I can talk to about both life and fandom stuff. And she let me watch all the My Name is Earls on her dvr! I love that show. I can't wait for it to be on thursdays.

In closing, no matter how tempting it sounds, or how tired you are, or how much your head hurts from the withdrawal pain, don't buy coffee on Amtrak. I can't stress this enough.

I did a lot of thinking as I was driving through Central California. For example, "Dude, the same song is playing on every radio station. Oh, wait. I just keep cycling back to the one station that you can get in the middle of California." I also planned a bunch of vids. Unfortunately, I don't make vids. I have not the skill nor the patience. So really that 7.5 hours was kind of a waste.
( Vids I would make if I made vids (spoiler for Serenity) )

Now I'm listening to the No Cal rain and gazing across the bay at San Francisco. I kinda like Berkeley now that I don't live here. The room I'm staying in is very 1970 kitsch but it's surrounded by trees and we're at the top of one of the hills so I can see for miles. Right now it's miles of rain clouds, but last night it was pretty. The only real problem with this room is that it doesn't have a shower so much as a humidifier. The rain would have rinsed the conditioner out of my hair more effectively.

Our vegetarian Thanksgiving was excellent. We had tofu and curried butter nut squash and peanut sauce. I'm so glad my brother married a vegetarian. Strength in numbers. We also did the obligatory rewatch of Pangs and after pie we played hoopla for several hours. I love that game.

I know a lot of people on my fl aren't having the happiest holiday. My thoughts are with you and I hope things get better soon.

So there's this annual thing in LA: the Screenwriter's Expo. There are a lot of classes on archetypes and the hero's journey and other things that make you want yo yell, "Joseph Campbell was a self aggrandizing pseudo-intellectual hack!" The whole thing has a slightly smarmy networking feel to it and there are a lot of people praying on the desperation of aspiring screenwriters but I signed up anyway because Joss was speaking and, clincher, Tim Minear was teaching a class on story breaking.

For anyone who's terribly interested in writing for TV or in every word that comes out of Joss or Tim's mouths, here are my notes.
Note: Just typing them took forever, so I didn't put a lot of time into editing.

( Tim Minear 11/11 )

( Joss 11/12 )

For everyone just consumed by curiosity, I went with the Charlotte halloween costume. SNT was Bob Harris (the Bill Murray character) and he was a little chilly in his short robe and slippers. Outdoor parties in October aren't a good idea even in LA. Still, the party was fun. I met a lot of lawyers. I didn't know there were that many lawyers in Los Angeles. There were a few industry types as well including a costume designer who worked on The English Patient.

I've been strangely driven this week. I exercised, I wrote, I read something that wasn't required for work. Maybe it was the realization that the next couple of months are going to be light on free time that galvanized me. There will be much travel. Much driving and (yay!) jury duty. I was summoned a couple of times during college but couldn't spare the time so I'm excited about my first foray into the justice system. I hope they pick me and that it's a very long trial so I can skip work for many weeks. I've started dreaming about the office. Never a good sign. I dreamt that my boss wanted me too look into the rights for Point Break because we might want to do a remake. WTF? First of all, how could you improve on the brilliance of the original? Second, what made my mind come up with that of all movies?

( Finally, some book reviews in an attempt to make this post at all useful/interesting. )

This weekend I accomplished many things.
1. Cut my hair. Just the ends, they were getting ragged. I think it's kinda even.
2. Laundry. Which is awesome because I was this close to having to wear the frilly pink dress to work.
3. Finished Stalin and the Court of the Red Tsar. It's an amazingly thorough account of Stalin's cronies. Not stunningly well written but very interesting and did I mention, thorough.
4. Typed up a bunch of scenes and wrote some new ones. The VM spec isn't going terribly well but I've made good progress on my pilot. So much so that I rewarded myself with:
5. Icons!
6. Finally, I'm mostly caught up on TV.
( Veronica Mars )
( Lost )
( Desperate Housewives )
( Prison Break )

Just thought I'd point that out in case there was some confusion.
Also, I have a wicked cold and I'm tired and cranky.
I have big hopes for feeling better tomorrow. Because tomorrow I will commence the Writing Jump Start Week of Doom.

Brilliant idea, but the title needs work. The brilliance lies in 2 points: 1)Traffic is out of control. 2) I rarely get a significant amount of work done at home.
So, this week I'll stay in Studio City after work and diligently toil over my ongoing writing projects:
Monday: Veronica Mars Spec (finish the unwritten scenes, work on overall pacing)
Tuesday: My Pilot (Start writing. Complete at least the teaser and first act)
Wednesday: Take a break/Catch up on tv
Thursday: Post-Pegasus BSG fic (Very thorough outline)

Last night I made 3809 BSG, Darla and Illyria icons. Or rather, I recorded an action of me playing with the levels, sharpness and colors and let Photoshop do the actual work. Some of them turned out quite nice. I can't decide whether to post them as is or mess with them some more. I've been really into simple, clean icons lately.