paper graffiti

One of the hardest parts about being a writer for a living is that it makes writing for yourself seem like a job sometimes. One of the last things I really want to do after working all day on a storyboard is picking up my own fiction project and getting a few more scenes in before bed. It feels like I’m trying to squeeze blood from a rock. I’ve been struggling with that with NaNoWriMo these past couple weeks, and I haven’t had just a whole lot of success. I’m doing better than I have with previous NaNo participation, but not as well as I’d like to be.

I’ve got to write for work this weekend, so I don’t know how much of my own stuff I’m going to get done. I’m trying, but it’s hard. I should start using my short breaks from work to write a paragraph or two instead of blogging or reading the Internet or watching TV, but sometimes I get so focused on work that I need to break from it and do something completely different.

And I’m not even fighting for DVD and online media residuals!

My thoughts are with my friends on the production side of things who are being affected heavily by this writer’s strike. I support the writers, and I believe they have a right to have their contracts renegotiated fairly, but I hope that this gets resolved soon, and not just so I can keep watching new episodes of Heroes. I want my friends to have jobs, too. I’m not totally heartless!

Word Counts - Today: 0 | November: 0 | 2007: 0

So I’ve started watching the new Showtime show Dexter, starring Michael C. Hall (who I recognized from Six Feet Under). It’s good so far–fascinating in a really creepy way. I also picked up the books that the series is based off of, which I’ll read as soon as I finish my current book. I’m really into TV these days, as evidenced by my growing list of weekly TV watching. I watch it on my own schedule, thanks to technology and the Internet. Dexter is certainly different from the rest of the shows I’m watching–more macabre than Jericho, simply because it’s more about the hidden evil inside people than the widespread terrorist kind of evil.

It’s a morally interesting show, since it’s about a serial killer who only kills bad guys. He apparently has something wrong with him due to something really bad that happened to him at an early age that makes him the way he is, and this is the “outlet” that he and his cop foster father figured out to keep things from getting out of hand. The things that he does are truly horrible, yet he does them to avenge the other truly horrible things that people do. He’s charming and strangely vulnerable, because he basically fakes social skills to get by, and seems to honestly wish that he could feel something for the people in his life that he comes closest to caring about, like his foster sister Deb, and his cheery, damaged girlfriend (played by Julie Benz, who played Darla in Buffy).

I’m interested to see how this show is going to play out. If you have Showtime, I highly recommend checking this out…if you don’t, you can view the first two episodes here. Enjoy, but be warned–the show is pretty graphic when it comes to the dead bodies and the blood.

Word Counts - Today: 0 | October: 0 | 2006: 0

The turning of the leaves…wait, nope, I live in Texas.
The cool weather…yes, 90 degrees on October 4th.
The new television premieres…ahhh, yes. There is something that signals the beginning of my favorite two seasons, no matter where you live or how many months out of the year you run your air conditioner.

I am addicted to TV this season. So many shows, so little time. Thank goodness for the advent of downloadable TV. Where was this when I was in college and only got reception if I all but hung my TV out into the quad? I’d have spent less money on taquitos at 7-11 and more money in iTunes. Of course that would have required a computer with a hard drive larger than my smallest flash drive and more memory than my cell phone. My poor, poor first laptop. May it rest in eternal peace, orange screen of death and all.

This season I am watching Heroes, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, Jericho, Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, and, of course, my one reality show addiction, that one and only car crash in a lava lamp–America’s Next Top Model. Yeah, I realize that I have a problem. An addiction. An issue. I don’t care. I love TV.

So far I’m loving the new shows, as well as the return of my favorite show. Veronica Mars has started off even better than ever this season, although one thing makes me laugh. She’s at school in California, and just like any show with a college set in California, it’s set at UC Sunnydale. Or, for those of you who were later-season 90210 fans, California University. University of Generica. It’s good to walk those hallowed halls again.

Heroes is pretty much the most awesome show, but what is it with apocalyptic storylines in shows this year? As if I wasn’t already paranoid about being blown up in nuclear holocaust as it is. No, really. The very idea terrifies me, especially when North Korea is all, “Yeah, we’re going to test some nukes. By sending them towards America! How’s that for ‘ronery’ now, bitches?”

I should be doing laundry, or writing, or something useful and/or productive, but I’m going to bed. I’m a rebel…that’s how I roll.

Word Counts - Today: 0 | October: 0 | 2006: 0

The stage is set for this to be a fabulous week. The second season of Veronica Mars premieres on Wednesday, Serenity comes out on Friday (I’m hoping to go to a midnight showing on Thursday!), I get paid on Friday, and it’s the last week I work at my current job! Plus, there are plenty of plans to hang out with my good friends and my honey. I got to kick off the week right by spending my Sunday with Shawn + fam, which was nice and relaxing.

I’m super excited about my new job. I’ve been reading a book on instructional design just to get all the “lingo” straight, and all my writing reference books are ready to go live in my new office. I’m very excited about doing the writing thing on a daily basis, surrounded by all my writer accoutrements. It’s geeky, and I’m sure MAV will likely come over to my desk and make fun of me, but that’s OK. I’m sure I’ll find something to mock her for before too long. I’m a bit nervous because I know I’m going to have to dive right in and produce results, but at the same time that is awesome because that’s the way I work best–under pressure.

I’m also super excited about going shopping for new work clothes. I also need an actual briefcase-type bag as well…for some reason that is completely thrilling to me. I guess I feel like it’s some big milestone I’ve reached–needing a briefcase to tote around files and stuff to meetings. Finally, a job that justifies fashionable accessories!

Word Counts - Today: 0 | September: 0 | 2005: 0

Even though it has possibly the worst theme song in the history of television, I am really sad to be done with Firefly. I finished the last disc (FINALLY) last night and I have grown surprisingly attached to these characters. It happened quietly, unassumingly. Damn that Joss Whedon and his likeable characters and great dialogue! This show didn’t have a lot of stuff for me to directly relate to, like Buffy did when it came out (the teenage girl stuff, not the vampire slayer stuff), but I really felt connected to the crew of Serenity and their world.

I am really REALLY excited about the movie in September now. I do think that parts of the show will really lend themselves better to a movie than TV, though I do hold out a bit of hope now that if the movie does well, the show will reappear on TV. One can only hope.

Thank goodness I finally got a new DVD player so I could finish watching Firefly. I know Mars and Jason will be happy to have their set back. Now if only Netflix will report back on receiving my discs and send me the next 3 discs in the Gilmore Girls Season 2 set…

Word Counts - Today: 0 | July: 0 | 2005: 0