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 I’m not really upset, because I knew Stainless was particularly flawed when I mailed it, super out of date since I started it in 99 and since that time CSI has killed the genre.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.

annual deafness

Few things I want to cover today, first being that I’m back from my vacation, almost completely healed of radiation posioning and only minor scars to show from it. The vaction seems to have spawned a series of bad luck for me- First my ear is all ruined again. Like last summer (http://www.livejournal.com/users/nerium_oleander/70758.html)and the 2 summers before (http://www.livejournal.com/users/nerium_oleander/2002/06/04/), I am deaf in one ear, due to all sorts of nose drain ear tube malfunction. The standing record was 3 months before hitting the Doc’s office and I came away with Bronchitis, Sinusitis, some other -itis and Pneumonia. That was last summer, two summers ago or so I had the whistling ear drum, and since things are just now gearing up there’s no telling what the outcome will be. Place your bets now. Note for the Odds makers, Cory has the inside track, being in medschool and all, but he’ll be hesitant to gamble large, what with the Hooneymoon forthcoming.
Which brings us to the second disaster- my wedding attire. Yes I ordered it later than I probably should have, but still, I did write down the date for the wedding on a piece of paper when I ordered but apparently no one pays any attention to that. The Wedding Clothing industry is one of the biggest scams on the planet- I mean if you go to a tailor for a suit, custom fit for you, is it reasonable for the tailor to say “Come back in 12 weeks”? I mean that guys got other customers too, so 3 months for a skirt and a shirt? Yeah, I’m not the most reasonable person out there, but that’s just a little 11th dimension to me.
Next on deck was my first flat tire. I been driving for nearly 11 years now, one accident that wasn’t my fault and one speeding ticket. I feel like I have a good driving record. It was pretty interesting when it happened though. The car started to slide, and I thought, man this feels loose, and I realized what was going on, so I got over and pulled under the overpass and dug out the spare and the wrench set and wtf, the Jack was attached to the trunk. I couldn’t see it that well, but pull as I might that damn thing wasn’t coming out of the trunk. Now remember my first flat tire, so I don’t know these things, but brother’s slow ass is on the way, and I just sit in the A/C reading CP’s “CHOKE”. Wasn’t expecting anyone to stop so I was suprised when one guy did. Jumps out of his big ass truck, I tell him I can’t get the jack out of the trunk and he’s like well, let’s see and in two seconds he’s got the jack out. It’s like this clippy thing where you unpump the jack and it slides right out. WTF? Yeah I look like a total moran… So He changed my tire right quick, I thank him profusely, making inane, helpless comments, ask his name, Sam, and shake hands and that’s over with. I ditch Brother to the wilds of I-40 and head home.
At home the bathroom ceiling has begun to leak again. The pipes from upstairs run on the ceiling, exposed, and now it’s drip drip dripping when Upstairs showers. Thank god it’s the shower and not the WC. But not to be outdone by leaking Pipes, my toliet breaks off the little rubber stopper, not the ‘ballcock’, and so it just sort of dangles from the chain. I can deal with the running toilet and the leaks, for a while so I put in a service call yesterday morning. When I get home the bathroom breaker was blown so I figured maybe they were working in there, but nope, it just turns out that the A/C in my bedroom, my bedroom, and my bathroom are on the same circuit and that fuse is fried. So no Electricity in the bedroom last night, so no A/C and no alarm. It was sort of a fitful night. So I’m expecting meteorites and locusts any day now. But in the mean time I have been watching a TON of Justice League Unlimited (http://www.tv.com/justice-league-unlimited/show/3914/summary.html). Man Dwayne McDuffie (http://www.dwaynemcduffie.com/) and Stan Berkowitz (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0075487/); who I already love because of their DCU animated exploits, are now that greatest animation writers evah! JLU is phenominal right now. Please I beg you to watch it. It’s sorta punched into the new obsession slot for the summer since House is on hiatus, but the writing is sharp and it’s great. It also has me sketching a lot, so my DA account is more active (http://nerium-oleander.deviantart.com/) than usual. I am crushing bigtime on The Question (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Question). New tablet at work is causingall kinds of inspiration. Actually I’m feeling all kinds of insipred lately, writing wise too; have an idea for a short that may help get me back into the groove for Nickel and Dime.
But seriously JLU and The Question. My things of the moment. Wedding soon. Half Blood Prince soon. Competition results soon. Vacation photos soon also.

highway to hell

Got the AC/DC going right this second and it woke me up enough to post a bit, which is a change from the rather terse mundacity that’s become my SOP of late. I’ve also been having some wicked dreams and crippling self doubt recently, but I went clothes shopping earlier tonight so that should be cured here shortly. At this point I’m sure some of you are thinking to yourself, “What? Nicolle- clothes shopping? It’s the apocalypse!” but I did need to extend the business attire since I will be going to Greenville next week to romance some NSF bigwigs. And by romance I mean drive them around from meeting to meeting, get the VCRs working, pick up their lunch and basically be a slave gopher, etc. I doubt it will be much fun, so I’m hoping it will be suitably mindless.

And I did balance the clothing purchases with some suitable audio gear- 2 mics and a nice 8 channel board from Behringer. They sound great, and I’m just toally in lust with em, until I realize I don’t have all THAT much to record, and my singing voice is just a notch better than Marge Simpson swallowing a broken glass and acid cocktail. With no radio promos and no more commercials to VO- I’m not sure how I’m going to justify this; but being the good little consumer I am, it comforts me to possess them. Who says cold, hard technology can’t make you feel all warm inside? Oh wait, maybe that’s a short in the ac wiring…

Saw The Futureheads (http://www.thefutureheads.com/) last week @ The Lincoln Theater- which was ehn. The band rocked, but one employee gave me a hard time with getting my ticket, which was my own fault for buying late, but still people need to GET OFF YOUR CELL PHONES! I walked in at about 5pm and of the 4 people I saw, all of them were on the phone ignoring me. Lamers. Then the FHs had crazy ass lighting that would have given the most hardened clubkid a migrane. And jeez, do I need to take out a loan to buy beer. Lame. Still like the music, but the show was a B- if I’m being generous.

Getting a little behind on my Netflix and new releases, but I’m behind in my writing so I don’t deserve it. Lot of revising needed before I can move forward now. With four plots, two extensive emotional character arcs, a complex heist and backstory and the inane fact the whole mess spawned from one drug addled dream I knew it was going to be one hell of a messy knot. So there’s a bit of backtracking to be done yet before I can move forward with the scenes I haven’t written yet. I’ve added “You’re a sucky lamer!” to my stickies widget (http://www.konfabulator.com/).

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