Sunday, June 29, 2003 Yay USA! Just realized that because July 4th is a Friday, I'll only have to work six days in a row! Possibly even less, because the department is moving to new facilities and we may not have an office for a day or so! Life never seemed so sunny on a cloudy Sunday morning. | permalink Friday, June 27, 2003 But one more thing... If you haven't checked out the TWoP review of From Justin to Kelly, you're missing out. I'm just sayin'. | permalink ::sigh:: So this is my last day off until next Saturday, as I start full time at the office job next week after pulling a weekend at video store job. I'm trying not to think about this too much. Lots of work to do today, some of it fun. And then I get to go see a movie. I like that. Only mere DAYS until Pirates comes out! Think of it! And with that, I leave you to drink a diet Coke and read some really bad scripts. | permalink Thursday, June 26, 2003 So, goodbye YACCS, hello Squawkbox. A commenting system that doesn't crash my website and/or make it impossible to load? Amazing! Any problems, let me know. I've got all the old comments archived on my machine, in case anyone wants to remember something they said a long time ago. We're all about change here at GFB, after all. But we also like holding onto the past. | permalink Tuesday, June 24, 2003 No shizzo my nizzle Nothing new under the sun, but look what The Shizzolator made of my last blog entry: Harry Potter 'n I had a summer fling 'bout three years ago, back when tha dude wuz just that cute kid wit da glasses, a bit afraid of girls, a whiz on a broomstick n' shit. I wuz feeling pretty young at da time, a bit vulnerable, 'n found tha dude's British accent 'n whiz-bang adventures be utterly irresistable -- izzle relationship wasn't anything earth-shattering or life-changing, but that shiznit wuz sweet 'n simple 'n exactly what I wuz looking fo' at da time." Tha dude seemed a lot mo' innocent back then n' shit. I never really ended things wit Harry, but things are certainly strained between us, especially since Harry started spending a lot mo' time wit Chris Columbus (who, if yo' ass ax me, wuz never a gravy influence on tha dude's ass) n' shit. But that shiznit's summer again, 'n I decided 'bout a month ago: Hey, why not give Harry another shot? n' shit. But it's my reading list that's priceless: Amy B. Trubek: Haute Cuisine: How da French Invented da Culinary Profession Alan Moore: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol n' shit. 1) Thank you, Snoop. Thank you so. | permalink Harry and Me Harry Potter and I had a summer fling about three years ago, back when he was just that cute kid with the glasses, a bit afraid of girls, a whiz on a broomstick. I was feeling pretty young at the time, a bit vulnerable, and found his British accent and whiz-bang adventures to be utterly irresistable -- our relationship wasn't anything earth-shattering or life-changing, but it was sweet and simple and exactly what I was looking for at the time. He seemed a lot more innocent back then. I never really ended things with Harry, but things are certainly strained between us, especially since Harry started spending a lot more time with Chris Columbus (who, if you ask me, was never a good influence on him). But it's summer again, and I decided about a month ago: Hey, why not give Harry another shot?. So I preordered Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from Amazon and moved on with the rest of my life, waiting for its release with the patience that comes with not caring too much. I know fandom, I've dwelt in fandom before. So I knew that June 21st was a very big deal indeed for a great many people. I just didn't realize how big a deal it was. On Saturday, I had work, and then afterwards I drove to the Valley to visit a comic book store I'd heard was having a sale -- and they were, and it was good. Picked up a stack of trades that I'd been meaning to try, and then brought them up to the counter to pay the piper. He ran my debit card, he complimented my taste, and then the machine beeped. He sighed. "I need to run your card again." "Was it rejected?" I asked. "No, the system just crashed. It's been doing that all day." "Why?" He gave me one of those looks. "Because everyone's buying Harry Potter." About a week ago, I had realized that I was going to have to stay offline when the book came out, because nearly every website in the world was thrumming with anticipation, and I wanted to read the book without too much prior knowledge. This wasn't too hard, as I had work and a number of other things to do -- many ways of killing time until the 25th, which was when, Amazon told me, my copy of the book would arrive. So I got home from the comic book store and checked the mail. Wherein I found a Delivery Failed card from the post office. The sender? Amazon.com. This alone? Strange. Even stranger? The card was marked: signature required. Signature required. For a BOOK. Because I wasn't going to be home during the middle of the week, I dropped by the post office on Monday to pick up my package. After fifteen minutes in line, I made it up to the front, handed over my card, and tried to look adult. The woman looked at me. "Is this for Harry Potter?" she asked. "Uh. Yeah." "Driver's licence?" I showed her my ID. It hasn't been scrutinized that thoroughly since the last time I went barhopping in a baggy sweatshirt. Finally, she smirked at me, and went to the back to retrieve the package. I took the time to look over my friendly neighborhood post office, noticing for the first time the large poster mounted on the wall: Harry Potter -- shipping June 21st! The woman came out with the specially made Amazon shipping box, emblazoned with "More Magic! Darker Secrets!" and dire threats aimed at those who dared deliver said box before June 21st. It was about the size of two large bricks. "How much did you pay?" the woman asked me. "About 17," I mumbled. "My daughter got it for 15 at Costco." "Guess I shoulda waited," I said sheepishly. "Enjoy!" They're selling it at Costco. They're selling it at drugstores. They're advertising it at the post office. Harry's changed a lot, I guess. Tonight, I'm going to let the items on my to do list fester a bit longer, make myself a cup of tea, open up the box. Shut out the outside world, and try to remember the good old days. Just a summer fling, three years ago. Just a book. | permalink Monday, June 23, 2003 All done! Well, I'm never really done, and there's a cool idea I had that has yet to be implemented. But I think the archives are nearly done republishing, the about me page is up, and everything looks mighty spiffy. Finished a first draft of my Bookslut column, too, read a script for Happenin' Screenplay Contest, and now it's time to watch Lost In La Mancha. There's still a ton of stuff to do, but I have time. And it's nice to be busy. Beats the hell out of boredom. Thanks for all your comments, even those who don't like the new design. *g* I like it a lot, and think it's the cleanest, most professional yet. But this is a civil place where disagreement is allowed. And don't worry -- the reviews won't go away. They're going to be a part of the main blog. The upkeep of two is too much work. And I've got a cute idea to make it all work together. Just wait and see. Wait and see. | permalink Sidebar's back up in its entirety. Hopefully, it actually works now. | permalink Sunday, June 22, 2003 All right. Comments are back up. Whatcha think? | permalink So this is the new design I'm trying out. No comments, faster-loading, colors that coordinate. I don't like the way it looks in IE. But I do like the way it looks in Safari. Hmmmm. | permalink Saturday, June 21, 2003 Briefly So, Amazon tells me that my copy of Harry is soon to be actually mine -- at least, they've charged me money for it. And everyone else on the planet has got one now, so I'm gonna lie low until I receive my copy and begin reading it. NO MORE LJ. I shall just have to catch up. It's 8:30, and in an hour I'm due at the video store. A job which I finally can quit, now that I'll be working full time at the office job. Video stores are fun, sure. But they pay minimum wage and they're hard on the feet. I really don't want to go to work. But after work, there's a comic book store in the Valley that's having a big-ass sale, and I wanna check it out. Then, I can COME HOME, do work, lay around and read things... And there's nowhere I really have to be until Sunday night, when I go to groove with Paul Van Dyk. My to-do list is long and epic. I haven't really made any headway on it. But after work -- the times they are a'changing. | permalink Thursday, June 19, 2003 To do to do to do... Read and cover scripts Review Bookslut book, just received in mail Bookslut column. Hmmm. REDESIGN WEBSITE Figure out second act of screenplay Catch up on email Read two other books Leave the apartment and spend time with human beings Perhaps do this while ogling gorgeous gay guys at the LA Pride Fest Try not to gorge on TiVo I'm listening to this Neal Pollack interview and it's amusing me. I'm also chatting and plotting my redesign, which will be largely inspired by Neal Pollack's spiffy new site. Not copycat inspired, but, you know. | permalink Friday, June 06, 2003 The fun thing about interviewing for a job you aren't desperate for is that it makes the entire process stress-free and fun. It was even more fun during this job interview: Recruiter: This agency is the best! Everyone loves each other and there are kittens! Me: So they're actually interested in having aspiring writers as assistants? Recruiter: They want driven people! You're driven, right? C.'s right, though -- GREAT for the ego. It was about five minutes, and she's going to send my resume on. Could be interesting. Plus, I saw Andy Richter at the Farmer's Market Coffee Bean. And that was snazzy. Sadly, though, there were no PIRATES last night. Guy who put it all together forgot to get invitations, and plus all of Orange County had turned out. But soon, soon there will be pirates. PIRATES. Now, time to finish my first act, as I'm vaguely over the writers block that tormented me for the last week. Turns out, all I needed was some extremely cheesy pop music. So, in short, thank YOU, Christina. | permalink Thursday, June 05, 2003 So much to say... It's invariably true -- every time I get less than four hours of sleep, I spend the day with random song lyrics jammed into my brain. Above is DMB, who I don't even LIKE that much. Earlier today, it was that "Cuban Pete" song from The Mask. My name is Cuban Pete, an' I'm the king of the rhumba beat... Not much is new. Still working three jobs, still trying to write, still trying to live my life. I've become a much more active person over the past few weeks, going out and doing more things than usual -- Tuesday, there was stand-up comedy at the Laugh Factory, and tonight I'm going to see a preview screening of Pirates of the Carribean (PIRATES!) in O.C. Tomorrow there's a matinee of The Italian Job with Das Roomie, possibly dinner with another friend... Lots of fun to be had. An' I love to chick-chiggy-boom-chick-chiggy-boom-chick-chiggy-boom... However... I've got about twenty pages of writing due tomorrow to Manager Guy. Totally failed to get anything done last night, and then when DR came home and talked me down from writer suicide, wisely discerning that I was overthinking the story and asking me fun why-are-your-characters-talking-so-goddamn-much questions that made me actually interested in what I was writing. Which was a problem. So tonight, after PIRATES!, there'll be another late night of writing. Right before my 10 AM job interview! That's swell, the way that worked out. (The interview is off a call from a recruiter -- I'm not really interested in what she's offering, but it won't kill me to put on a nice pair of shoes and see what's going on.) However, when it all gets done, there will be a movie and dinner and, if I've been very good, The Animatrix. I got the DVD/CD combo on Monday, and it's sat on my kitchen table since, wrapped in plastic, taunting me. No Animatrix before first act! the Post-it affixed to the shiny cover reminds me. That alone should spur me on. But it's hard, this writing business. Except when it's easy. And that, more than anything else, is the motivation I need. | permalink blog • archives • photos • about • contact This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All content © 2004.