one mooooore thing…



This is actually very humorous I think, it seems Nicholl letters went out this week, and since I’m sorta bad about checking my mail, I didn’t know until someone mentioned it on a board, so I check my mail and find this:

Yep, rejection, in an particularly gruesome fashion, if I do say so myself. I’m not really upset, because I knew Stainless was particularly flawed when I mailed it, super out of date since I started it in 99 and since that time CSI has killed the genre. But most of all I entered cause I felt rather obligated because I haven’t entered any real screenwriting comps that aren’t local. Can’t be much of a writer without competition, eh? Really, though I know it’s not all that good, so it did what I wanted it to do.

BUT, one wonders what about the script was so bad that Greg Beal reacted like that? I mean, half a letter? How many folks get that kind of smackdown? Maybe it was the JFK line- some people don’t like it:

JUDE
Hard to tell, no skin left to pull residue, but it’s fairly clean, definitely not blunt. I ran the track and there’s no trace left. He’d been in the mud for a while.

REYNOLDS
Exit?

JUDE
Look for yourself.

Reynolds eyes Jude warily for a moment before slipping his hands under the base of the corpse’s neck and lifting–

–exposing a caved-in mess of liquid tissue, which spills out of the head onto the table. Reynolds drops the head in surprise, causing a bit of the soup to splash in his direction.

REYNOLDS
Shit!

JUDE
Rumor has it, JFK’s head was like that.

Reynolds stiffly brushes at his clothing.

REYNOLDS
Yeah. Sorry.

JUDE
He was a goner long before you arrived.

So I guess the lesson here is don’t crack on JFK, even in a study of morbidity. Sorry about that Greg and readers, I’ll avoid it in the future.

still a-live!



The rumors of my nonexistance have been greatly overstated. Mostly due to my ignoring the site here. Sorry, my egoism failed me for a bit there, and well, wedding and such kept me busy.

Let’s be honest. I’ve been reading Harry Potter this whole time. Which was great, and I won’t really go into much detail, although I might post an essay if the whim keeps stabbing me. So I clocked in about 12 hours or so on my first read and enjoyed it crazily. Could not have written a better book myself, because it focused and touched on exactly the stuff I would have, and left me with even more questions and confusion. JKR is just great that way. I hate her for tormenting me, but she’s great.

Also been doing a lot of study on theory and structure in an attempt to understand what I lack. Now I lack motivation and willpower sometimes, and I certainly lack a giant plasma TV, but I’m happy to say I feel like I’m learning again. When I’m not learning I get stuck and depressed and all those writerly excuses that we dress up as neurosies. So lots of philosophy including some Spooner, Stirner. Avoiding Rand just yet, because I don’t know if it will be productive to what I’m working for. Still reading The Origin of Consciousness…- which was displaced by Half-Blood Prince. Reconsuming McKee’s Story, beefing up ideas and concepts, lots of essays and Ted and Terry forum posts. Truby’s breakdowns, scripts, scripts and more scripts. Scripts and then Movies and back to scripts. A cartoon now and then, and back to stacks of philosophy essays. Just really trying to hammer the junk into my brain. Cause my brain is stupid, and tries to convince myself that I’m not a moron every time I turn around. But I know better than that, so I keep reading.

All of this of course in an effort to turn Nickel and Dime into something worth writing, and worth showing the Workshop and not wasting everyone’s time with. really trying to evolve some sort of work ethic through all this, but short attention span is dangerous. Think it has some sort of death wish for both of us. Need to buy pool pass. No doubt alternative form of exhaustion will do me good.
…
So that’s the current state o’ Nicolle, and meanwhile it’s hot as armpits outside. Off to ponder thematic concerns and work habits, thanks for stopping by.

peanut butter



Man. I just don’t even want to talk about the last week and a half. All I’m going to say, is more distaster settled on my shoulders. Cars. Plumbing. Madness.

But we’re gonna let go of that junk here and now. Moving forward, right now I’m listening to Hot Hot Heat and trying to get the final bits of N&D’s outline done. I don’t know why, but it’s sure kicking my ass, like no other script I’ve done. I have two theories- 1st I’ve been writing the wrong way up until now. This is most likely. 2nd This story sucks, which is probably equally as likely, but considering that for too long depresses me. And we’re done with being depressed, we’re moving forward, right?
Wedding is this weekend, so I will be gone for a bit of misdirected friend-stress. Half-blood Prince is also this weekend. And Charlie. I still hold out hope I might get a few minutes to address these between doing the electric Slide. Speaking of which I should have some fun pictures to put up at some point from the wedding shower.
What else is going on right now? Ehn, reality is a right good suckfest, with G8 and the bombings, so I’m enjoying a respite in comic books and cartoons. Still quite keen on Justice League Unlimited, and The Question (http://www.deviantart.com/view/20460825/). In fact so keen that I have a few sketches I’ve dropped on the DA account (http://nerium-oleander.deviantart.com/), AND I’m looking to add a section of my favorite stuff here on the dot com. It’s also got me active back at ToonZone (http://forums.toonzone.net/) which is nice, because it’s been a while since I was over there.
No movies to review lately, not a whole lot drawing my attention, to be honest. Just lots of books, drawing and writing. BSG is starting up Friday as well, so I’m gonna plug that, as it rocks. So that’s about it.