Monday, August 31, 2009

saying/ The Number 23/ National Treasure

Aug. 29 Sayings: You know how I said in Fighting that none of the dialogue was memorable? What's interesting is that I watched the deleted scenes, and there was one good line. It's where one of the opposing managers Martinez talks to Shawn.

M: You sell peanuts, you only make peanuts.

That should inspire me to get an office job.

In Screenwriting for Dummies, there is this line on page 262: "Everything worth anything in life involves risk, fear, and struggle. This is where persistence comes in. Keep writing: success can strike at any time."

Hoarders: There is this new TV show on A&E called Hoarders. It's kind of like Intervention where people have problems, and then they have to be helped. I saw a bit of Hoarders where people collect a bunch of stuff, and never throw anything out. It kind of reminded me of a Dr Phil ep. It was back when I was trying to quit, and that ep was one of the few that didn't get me angry.

However, I probably won't watch this show anymore because I'm trying to cut down on TV. A good thing is that I read that Big Brother in the UK is getting cancelled because of low ratings. Maybe they'll cancel the American one and I can then for sure quit. Well I didn't really watch any this season except some of the first ep, so good for me.

But damn, I saw the commercials for it and I felt like I missed something. One girl got expelled from the house because she broke the rules. She covered the cameras and did something else. Then one girl started arguments with people and got evicted.

Luke Macfarlane: I saw him on Iron Road, and that's it. He is handsome, and he's Canadian (Ontario). I did learn that he's gay and he's dating Wentworth Miller. I didn't know that WM was gay, but I can believe it.

Check out LM's pic:
http://www.gaynity.com/wiki/images/5/53/Luke_Macfarlane.jpg

Funny: Iron Road did have some unintentionally funny moments. Well Tiger (Sun Li) was a woman pretending to be a man, and then she hits on James by telling him that she has feelings for him. J thinks that T is a guy and is hitting on him so he is irked by it. Then T tells J that she's a woman. I thought that it was funny now that I know that LM is gay.

Another funny thing was when T and J are hugging each other goodbye. I noticed that LM was bending his knees a bit. SL was on her tip toes so she could get her head over his shoulder in the hug.

Aug. 30 Danijel Mandic: I saw an ep of Flashpoint and it was a really good ep. In the pilot, it had Hugh Dillon's character Ed Lane shoot a man who was holding his wife hostage. Then in the season 2, ep 4, they did a follow up on it. They profiled the man's son who wants to kill Ed Lane for revenge. The son's name is Petar, played by Danijel Mandic. He is Eastern European.

It was a crazy ep because Petar comes from a war torn country and knows how to shoot like a sniper does. Here's a pic of DM in the centre, posed with the 2 actors from the show.

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm807045120/nm2973214

Today I was watching Degrassi Goes to Hollywood, and DM actually makes an appearance as a soldier. Ellie was at the airport, and DM was in his army clothes and is reunited with his family.

Jason Mewes: Also from watching Degrassi, Jason Mewes was in the movie as himself. I have never heard of his name before. It turns out he's Silent Bob in Jay and Silent Bob with Kevin Smith. Well in the movies, he's always wearing a wig, a toque and grunge clothes, so I never really noticed him.

But you take the wig, and the grunge clothes off, and he's hot. There was a scene where he was wearing a muscle shirt and it showed all his tattoos. Check out a pic of him:

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm807045120/nm2973214

Degrassi: When I saw the trailer for the TV movie, I had to watch it. It's good. Dan Levy from MTV Canada plays a producer. Vivica A. Fox and Perez Hilton makes appearances as themselves. The movie is mainly where Paige (Lauren Collins) becomes the star of a movie. However, she learns that if she becomes a diva, things can be taken away from her.

Don't read any further if you don't want to be spoiled: Manny does her audition poorly. Then she goes and auditions again. This time she has to go all the way over to LA to audition. She, Mia, Jay, Peter, Sav, and Danny drive a school bus to get there. Manny gains some confidence on her way there. She actually gets the part at the end.

What was funny, was that they made a shout out to Shenae Grimes. SG played Darcy on the show, and then left to do 90210. One of the characters mention her name in passing. lol.

Ellie bumps into an old flame Craig. They kind of get together at the end of the movie. Overall it was really good.

The Number 23: I saw this movie The Number 23 last night, and I was really impressed by it. Jim Carrey can play serious roles. It's like suspense and thriller. J plays Walter Sparrow and he finds a book that is called The Number 23. He becomes obsessed with the number and the book. The book was so eerily similar to his life.

Sparrow then has to solve the mystery of who wrote the book, because the book was about a killer. S tries to find the author to find the killer. It's a really good mystery. S does a lot of investigating with help from his wife and pre- teen kid. There was good misdirection on who really wrote the book.

The ending was amazing. S even says in a voice over: "This is not a happy ending. But a right ending." That's true. I really liked it, I recommend you all watch it. I liked the ending because it's about righting wrongs, and correcting mistakes. It's something that I would do. And maybe a lot of people would do it too if they were in that situation.

Aug. 31 National Treasure: I saw this movie last night starring Nicholas Cage. It's pretty good. It's 3 hours long. It's a fun adventure movie. There's good comedy in it. There is a lot of conflict in it and it's a wild ride to watch it.

NC plays a treasure hunter named Ben Gates. He has to find the biggest national treasure that is supposedly hidden somewhere in the world. With a series of clues, he follows the trail to find it. The first conflict is that he has to steal the Declaration of Independence to be able to find the treasure. He doesn't want to steal it, but he has to steal it or the bad guys will get it.

Ben has his funny sidekick Riley played by Justin Bartha. It turns out JB was in the bad movie Gigli and he was playing the retarded man who was taken as a hostage. I have never seen him before besides watching the movie trailer. He's 31, and he's dating Ashley Olsen, says imdb.com.

Then we have Diane Kruger who plays the love interest Abigail. A works at the museum that holds the Declaration of Independence. Jon Voight plays Ben's dad who did look for the treasure, and then quit. This movie came out in 2004. This is a smart movie. I recommend you watch it, and maybe I'll check out the second one called National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007).

Music: I borrowed the Pussycat Dolls cd called "Doll Domination." I like songs like "When Grow Up", "Elevator", "Whatchamacallit", "Love the Way You Love Me", "Take Over the World."

Job: It was crazy busy today. The summer is ending, and it always gets busier in the fall. Two people didn't show up for work, but at least one person was able to come and help out.

Quote: I was also thinking about Fighting again and there is a line that's good: "Be ready for business, be business ready."

Food: I tried out some Ukranian food last week. I went to Shumka at Kingsway. I had a perogie there. The last time I had perogies was way back in 1999 for the student council meeting. How I remember that? Well I remember a lot of things. The Shumka perogies were good. The chicken was good. The saukarat was not good. It was like a vegetable.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Ben Curtis/ The Listener/ Fighting

Aug. 27 Ben Curtis: I mentioned that the Kyle Gallner lookalike Mark told me that he looked like the Dell Guy. Today Mark actually stopped by today.

Mark: Hey.
Me: Hey. You know that Dell Guy? Well he actually has a name you know. It's Ben Curtis.
Ma: I cut my hair so I won't get any more comparisons to him.
Me: Really?
Ma: No, I'm just joking. I used to work at Blockbuster and wore a blue shirt, and people always tell me I look like him because he (BC) wears a blue shirt too in the commercials.

Here's an interview with BC. He studied acting in university in NY. He talked about the Dell auditions and how they were looking for a guy from 12- 17 years old. He was like 20, and he was the only one in the waiting room who didn't have his mom there with him. He's a nice, average, fun guy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMOFEGkUWcA

The Listener: The above was a highlight of my day. The other was watching The Listener season finale. It was really good. Toby has a telepathic ability and only his mentor Ray knew. Then in 3rd episode, T tells his friend Oz. Oz is happy and asks T if a girl likes him since he can read minds. Then in the middle of the season, T tells his cop friend Charlie about it. She and T then are able to solve cases together with his ability. Now in the season finale. T tells his girlfriend Olivia about it. Now everybody knows about it.

Well there is still mystery. In the middle of the ep, C ends up getting shot when she was trying to protect T and his friend Frank. The Bad Guy then runs. Later, Bad Guy comes at T and F again, this time F shoots BG, and he dies. T, Oz, and Olivia figure out that T's mom is in a car accident. T finds a car covered in snow. T starts digging the snow out with his hands to find his mom that he hasn't seen in years, and thought she was dead. T opens the door and it's empty. I was expecting either for her to be alive or dead. I really like Craig Olejnik's acting. T then leans on the car. Then he falls over in the snow.

Writing: This reminds me of those shows about family. T still has to find his mother, and his little brother. In the show Dark Angel, when Max ran away from the evil company Manticore, she has to find her 11 other "siblings" whom she grew up with there. She manages to find some of them in the first season.

On the show Flash Gordon, Flash travels to the planet Mongo. Of course it's cool to travel to another planet, but there has to be a deeper reason to go there. Flash mainly goes there to try to find his missing father.

Aug. 28: I was thinking about that woman dressing up like a man thing again, and I am reminded of the movie Boys Don't Cry.

I was also thinking about characters as partners. There is Scully and Mulder in X- Files and Castle and Beckett in Castle. Then there are the cop movies where you partner 2 cops who are totally different from each other and they have to solve a case together.

I don't like to write drama for teens because the characters cause drama between each other. In shows like The Listener, there's drama, but they don't start it with each other. A situation arises, and Toby has to help this person. There's drama in that there's a problem like T has to save a life. Or T has to figure out who committed the crime.

As for shows like 90210 it's mainly teen pregnancy and dating drama. Sure, there was a girl who overdosed and dealt with drug addiction, but there wasn't a lot of that.

Fighting: So I finally saw the movie Fighting and got to compare it to my movie. I would give this movie 2 stars out of 5. It was mediocre. I like Never Back Down better and give that movie 3 stars out of 5.

What's wrong with Fighting? Well I like the actor Channing Tatum since I first saw him in the movie Step Up back in 2006. I read reviews that he mainly mumbles his lines in this movie. Yeah well the other reviews didn't mention that so does Terrence Howard's character. The dialogue wasn't really that good. I say that because after watching it, I didn't really have anything to quote from it. If it's good, I would go and quote from it and tell people about it.

It's about Shawn (CT) who is a guy from Alabama who moves to NY. He is selling counterfeit Harry Potter books, and then gets in a fight there. Harvey (TH) sees him. Zulay (Zulay Henao) buys a book from him. Then later, S and H meet again. S gets his money that was stolen from him during the fight, and H tells he should be a fighter to make thousands of dollars.

I actually liked the little guy Z played by Peter Anthony Tambakis. He is H's lackey and part of H and S's entourage. I did some research on him and he's actually 25. He looks like he could be in high school. An interesting fact is that PAT worked a movie with CT before in 2006 called A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. PAT kind of reminds me of when I watched The Matrix and I liked the little guy Mouse played by Matt Doran. MD was 23 and he looked like he could be in high school too.

I did find it realistic how S talked besides the mumbling. He did stutter and stumble through his words. I guess what I don't like about it was that the fights weren't really controlled. I mean that as in a crowd of people watch the fight, and there weren't any boundaries like don't cross this line. In Never Back Down, there were these mats, and they had to stay within the mats. The fight scenes were alright. I wasn't really impressed with it. I like the atmosphere. All the fights are held in different places and they are all very different from each other. The courtship between S and Zulay is average.

This is fist fighting, not mix martial arts like NBD. Due to reading screenwriting books, I thought the antagonists were weak. S's rival is another fighter that was from his hometown in Alabama. Then there are 2 other guys who are the ones who set up the fights. Overall, I don't really find even the protagonists to be well- rounded characters either. The only surprise I liked was between Harvey and Zulay after Zulay spends some alone time with Shawn.

There was a unrated version and the theatrical version on the dvd. I watched the latter and saw the deleted scenes in the bonus features.

News: I read in the Metro that the manager Kevin Walker, of the Thunderbird Motel in Hope had charged camera crews money to tour the room where the body of a alleged killer Ryan Jenkins was found hung himself. KW used some of the money to help clients who lived at the hotel who were on social assistance and have addictions. It's good that he's helping people.

Job search: Today I kind of looked for a job. After I saw Fighting which was 108 min. in the morning, I went and returned it in the afternoon. The Rogers video was right by the Capital Health hospital so I went to the human resources department. There weren't any non- nursing jobs for me. I didn't feel I was qualified for it because they said they needed a few years experience. I didn't put obstacles in front of myself because the applications for these positions have ended on Aug. 25.

Then I went downstairs and ate some fish and chips in the cafeteria. It was good and filling. Then I helped push a guy in a wheel chair to the cafe, and then into an elevator. That's my good deed for the day.

Rant: I don't know, I put too high of an expectation on the movie Fighting and am disappointed.

Here's another rant, I was watching Tosh. O and Daniel was listing stuff that women can't do like math, and lift stuff. I was kind of annoyed and offended by that. Then I felt like watching Maury because that show is so anti- male. All the guys are dead beat dads (paternity tests eps), or cheaters and liars (lie detector eps) or abusive partners (domestic violence eps). I can't really remember the last time I had an urge to watch the show.

Well this is my 100th blog post this year.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

writing/ The Waiting Game/ Juwanna Mann

Aug. 22 Writing: I was talking to my friend Ray about Iron Road, and she says that story has so been done. A woman who dresses up like a man, and then falls in love with a guy has been done in She's the Man, and Mulan.

The Waiting Game: You know that ep on The Simpsons where Homer is Mr. Plow? He puts a commercial on TV, and then:

Homer: Now it's time to play the waiting game.
Pause.
H: This is boring, let's play Hungry Hungry Hippos.

Right now I'm playing the waiting game. I have to wait until the beginning of next month before I contact the producer John to see if he read the script. Then I also have to wait till next month before I contact the actor Giles Panton if he read the script either. I sent it to him, and then one week later on Aug. 12 I emailed him. He didn't reply. Then on Aug. 16, I emailed him again, and he still hasn't replied.

I also have to wait until Sept. before Conni Massing can come and talk to me about my new script. I sent her the first script and she gave me good feedback. Then I sent her the second script which is really similar to the first. Now in my third script, it's different. No fighting, no MMA. I want to prove to her that I'm not a one- trick pony.

Job search: I also have to wait until Sept. before I can start looking for a job again. Well I did check the Classifieds to try to find a good job.

Aug. 23 Juwanna Mann: I saw this movie, and I surprisingly liked it and didn't like Sorority Boys. In SB, there are 3 guys who are in a fraternity. They are then kicked out of the house, and they dress up like women so they could join a sorority. They then learn what it's like to be a woman. That was a comedy, and I only laughed once at it.

In Juwanna Mann, this movie came out as the same year as SB in 2002. This movie is about a stuck- up professional basketball player named Jamal Jeffries. He is so full of himself that he is kicked off his team. He loses his fortune like his mansion, and then moves back in with his aunt. J then sees a girl play basketball with a group of guys, and then he decides to dress up like a woman and play on the WNBA.

Jamal is played by Miguel A. Nunez Jr. I've never seen him before. When he dresses up like a woman, he does look like one. Maybe it's because I've never seen him before, maybe because he's African- American, I don't know. He looks more like a woman than the 3 guys in SB. Maybe those 3 guys don't like like women as easily because I've seen them before, because they're white, I don't know.

He talks to his agent Lorne, played by Kevin Pollack. KP then manages a tryout for the Charlotte Banshees. J then becomes Juwanna Mann and manages to get into the team. J is a ball- hog and doesn't get along with Vivica A. Fox's character Michelle. Later, J learns to become a team player. J also falls in love with Michelle.

Those screenwriting books have an effect on me. J has an arc in the story and character development. What's interesting is that the singer Ginuwine is in it playing Michelle's boyfriend. G is an R&B singer, and he plays one here too. Analyze: I was jotting out ideas to write a story. A man in a woman's world has been done like in the above movies I mentioned. They are usually comedies.

I read in Writing Movies book it talked about Tootsie, a guy dressed up like a woman to get acting jobs. A woman in a man's world has already been done like what I mentioned in Iron Road and Mulan. They are usually dramas. Throw in comedy like She's the Man and a Futurama ep where Leela dresses up like a man to keep an eye on Fry and Bender when they join the army.

Another idea was a "fish out of water" like The OC. A poor kid from the ghetto (Ryan) moves into a rich neighborhood. Well it's interesting to put someone into a totally new situation and see how they handle it.

The other idea was that a character thinks he's so good at something, and then he goes somewhere and realizes that he isn't that good. It's kind of like in Post Grad. A girl who gets great grades in school, and then she doesn't get a good career. The idea came to me when I was auditioning for So You Think Can Dance Canada. I got that feeling.

When I took Creative Writing in high school, there was like 15 other kids there and they seemed to be really good writers. When I was in the Professional Writing program, there were really good writers too. However, I didn't feel intimidated. I knew that I was there because I was good. I took the test and sent in 3 portfolio pieces of my writing and I got accepted.

Dream: Last night I had that dream again where I was auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance Canada. This time I auditioned for one producer, and she let me in go to the second round. I was happy that I got one step further this year than the last time I auditioned. The other dreams were I auditioned again for Blake McGrath, this time contemporary. He wouldn't let me audition. The other dream I danced to four other songs for the American version and for the judge Nigel.

Dialogue: I was thinking about how Secret Life of the American Teenager and how they repeat the same words all the time. I remember in the comedy Less than Kind, there was one scene where the family is eating dinner, and they kept repeating the word potatoes.

Dad: Can we please stop talking about potatoes?

I remember in this one convo where I was telling Hyacinthe who he looked like. I used the word brother 3 times.

Me: Matthew Lawrence is Joey Lawrence's little brother.
H: Who's Joey Lawrence?
Me: He plays Blossom's big brother.
Then:

Me: Matthew Lawrence was on Boy Meets World where he played Rider Strong's big brother. I repeated this convo to my friend Silvia and she was like: "I thought you said he looked like a Jonas Brother."

Aug. 24 Horoscope: In my Aug. 20 horoscope from the Globe and Mail, it said this: "Everything will fall into place over the next few days, so stop worrying about whether or not you are doing the right thing. You've had the courage to make changes in recent weeks and soon you will be getting the rewards you deserve."

Aug. 25: Well it's been a few days, and I don't think it has truly manifested. I don't know. I took the courage and gave the Kyle Gallner lookalike Mark my email address. He hasn't emailed me. I haven't seen him in 2 weeks, except today. He walked by the restaurant. I waved at him when he was on the way down the escalator, and he wave back. So that's good.

Shopping: I watched the Doc Zone show about malls. They even profiled West Edmonton Mall and www.deadmalls.com. Did you know that Push Mobile is opening in City Centre? It's where Sunglasses Hut used to be.I was shopping at Urban Behaviour at City Centre and this sales girl comes up to me asking me if I had an SPC card (Student Price Card).

Me: Well I'm not really a student.
Girl: Well it's okay, we don't really check anyone's ID. If they want to buy something, we'll let them buy it.

Flash Gordon: I looked for the Flash Gordon (2007) TV series dvd at HMV. You look at it, and none of the actors are on the cover. Then I look at the back, and none of actors are even mentioned in the back. I then had to go to the guy at the front and ask him to research if this is the one with Eric Johnson in it. It is and it's only $29.99 for all 22 episodes.

I then went on Youtube to see if I can watch full- length episodes, but there weren't any so I went and watched interviews with EJ instead.

Aug. 26 The Listener: The Listener season finale is tomorrow and I want all of you to watch it on CTV. Also go to this website and sign it. This petition will help get a second season. Thank you for doing that.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/the-listener-season-2-on-ctv

Saturday, August 22, 2009

motivation/ charity/ The Devil's Diary

Aug. 19 Motivation: It's hard for me to motivate myself to get a job. I read this in my horoscope today in 24: "Everything you need to implement change are at your finger tips. All you need is the desire to move forward."

Aug. 20 Tosh. O: The summer is ending, and the summer shows are ending. In Plain Sight is over, and so is Tosh. O. Well this show got renewed so yay! Here's a joke that was on awhile.

Viewer: Do you like waffle?
Daniel: No, I like pancake.
lol.

Last night's ep had the cutest and funniest thing ever. The last clip they showed was Daniel and a dog sitting at a table. The dog looked like my friend Leslie's dog Mickey. Dan and the dog both moved their heads in unison from left to right, right to left, up and down, down and up. It was so cute.

Joke: I saw Conan O' Brien the other night, and it was a rerun, but I never saw it. Conan was at a science fair with all these smart university students displaying their projects. On the back of the shirts it said: "Go for the Au." Get it? Au in the chemistry table stands for gold. That reminds me of gr. 10 science class where a sub calls my name and then says: "Golden Girl." Then he explained to me that my last name stood for gold.

A guy was talking to a group of people. Conan is standing from a distance.
C: And he is talking about how to get to first base.

Music: I borrowed the Michael Jackson cd "The Essential" which holds most of his hits. It's 2 discs. I do like "You Rock my World" and "PYT Pretty Young Thing." I read that Natalli from So You Think You Can Dance Canada was supposed to be in his comeback tour as a backup dancer, but of course that plan fell short.

Then I borrowed Emimen's new album "Relapse." His album is offensive and scary. Yeah, I hear his music and see his videos on TV and the radio. Well since I don't like it, after one whole listen of the album, I returned it the next day.

I then got Demi Lavato's 2nd album "Here We go Again." That's more my cup of tea. I borrowed her first cd from the library and like the song "In the Middle." In the first album most songs are co- written with the Jonas Brothers. In this new album I like the song "Catch Me" which is a song soley written by DL. It's a love song.

I do like the fast rock song "Got Dynamite" about you have to break down the walls around me to get to know me. "World of Chances is co- writtten between DL and John Mayer. I like "Stop the World", co- written by DL, Nick Jonas, and PJ Bianco. I like the rock song "Everytime You Lie." In fact, today is DL's 17th bday.

Fun: I bumped into my old Professional Writing classmate Meghan again on the bus. She was with her boyfriend Landon, and he was in the program too. Landon and I kind of recognized each other.

Teen Pregnancy: Yes, I'm back on my favorite topic again. I was thinking about this time years ago when I saw on Maury, about teen girls who want to get pregnant. One girl got pregnant, and she was acting all smug about it. The other girls all shook hands with her. Her mom was crying and acting upset.

I think the girl was acting smug because she knows that her mom is going to take care of her and the baby. In this case, I would probably kick her out of the house. Teach her a lesson that I won't take care of her and the baby, and she is going to take responsibility of it. If not, she could come to the decision to give the baby up for adoption.

True Life: I do watch the MTV show True Life. Well it did profile MMA fighter Kit Cope in the ep "I'm a Mix Martial Arts Fighter." Now I watch it for all these other things like "I'm in Debt." It did inspire me to clean my room of papers.

Well it profiled 3 young women who are in credit card debt and one had to file for bankruptcy at 21. Mainly things were going good, and then they lost their jobs like they got laid off, and they were forced to live on credit cards. They had to move in with their family, buy cheap food, and cash their checks at Western Union which isn't really a bank.

Job: I've been working at the soup place for a year and 2 months. On Sunday, it was so quiet, I read a lot of my screenwriting book. It's quiet from 4pm- 6pm, so I always read the Metro and 24 during that time. Here's some motivation, look for a more exciting job.

Aug. 21: I told my co- worker Jen about my job search. 99 resumes, in 8 months, 1 interview. She says that there are lots of people going to school in the fall and will be quitting their jobs. Try looking for a job then. Good point.

I was reading twop.com about "TV moments that angry up the blood" about how Chelsea Lately and her comedians all made fun of this woman who is suing her college. The reason is that she can't get a job with her education. The twoper said: "Doesn't mean you paid for college, means that you are entitled to a job. What annoys me is that CL and her comedians aren't funny. Not everybody can be good looking and mediocore comediennes. She wouldn't even have this TV show if her boyfriend wasn't the president of E! Network."

Charity: Today I donated some old school supplies that I don't use to Staples. There is a bin there to donate to children who can't afford school supplies. I donated stuff like binders, and geometry sets I haven't used since jr. high. If you have any old school supplies you don't use, donate to Staples.

Aug. 22 Post Grad: I read reviews of this movie starring Alexis Bleidel. I get three newspapers, and one gave it 1 star, one gave it 2 stars, one gave it 2 and a half stars. They mainly dissed it saying the movie doesn't even deal with the angst and the consequences of being young and jobless. It's about a girl who gets straight As in school, and then doesn't get a great job at this publishing company. Then she moves back in with her family.

Well I'm sure a lot of people can relate to it, especially now in the recession. Like the above, someone from twop.com said that only 18% of college graduates got jobs.

The Devil's Diary: Right now I'm watching this 2006 TV movie. It stars Alexz Johnson (Jude from the TV show Instant Star.) She plays this girl Dominque and her friend Ursula (Magda Apanowicz from Renegade Press). They find this book which is the Devil's diary. Ursula has this urge to write in it, and she writes about how she hates these people in her school. She wishes bad things to happen to them, and it happens.

It also stars other Canadian actors like Miriam McDonald (Emma from Degrassi: The Next Generation). On Degrassi, MM plays a good girl. On this it shows more range like a mean girl. Deanna Casaluce (Alex from Degrassi). She plays a outcast/ bad girl on the show, but in the movie she plays MM's mean girl friend. First Ursula wishes something bad to happen to MM, and she lands in the hospital.

Then later MM's friends manage to steal the book away from U, and then they write in the book that U dies. U then dies, as her friends try to save her. Then DC takes the book, she writes that she wants MM to die. MM does. She wishes all the boys to want her. Later one of the mean girls played by Laura Konechny teams up with Dominque and her friends to stop DC.

DC manipulates the two boys to go and kill Dominique when she manages to get the book. D starts ripping the book's pages. DC starts hurting. D then throws the book against the wall and it falls hard on the ground. DC is then thrown against the wall, and falls downs hard on the ground, and is killed.

D is shocked. She didn't mean to kill her. She was trying to get the boys away from her. That totally reminded me of what the producer John said to me. He mentioned how my lead character loses the audience's sympathy even though it was in self- defense. I then had to raise the stakes and make the lead character be forced to do what he had to do to save himself.

Then the next scene, D is once again forced to save herself again without losing the audience's sympathy. Her stepdad was pretty skeevy to begin with. He then takes the book out of her hands, and he attempts to assault her. She fights back, and locks the door. He is trying to break in, and she is forced to write in the book wishing that he would die. He uses a pair of scissors to break in, and he then stabs himself in the neck with it.

Cut to D all shocked that it occured. D was in talks with the Priest the entire time. Priest then gets Priest 2 to come to get the book. Priest 2 is actually evil. D then manages to kill P2 by stabbing the book. P2 is set on fire by supernatural forces. Cut to 6 weeks later, and D is a mental hospital.

D then feels that the book is discovered in the graveyard by 2 boys. One of them takes it and she knows everything is going to start all over again. In horror movies, I don't like it when the lead character fights, and fights, and then loses. I do like when they win. Or in horror movies, throw in one last scare like in Final Destination, and Final Destination 2.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Iron Road/ funny and stupid/ dance

Aug. 16 Iron Road: This is a great TV movie. It's about Chinese men working on the railroad in the 1800s. What's interesting is that Sun Li plays Little Tiger. She is a woman pretending to be a man so she could work. She is also looking for her father, after her mother died a long time ago. She also later falls in love with the boss's son James who is played by Luke MacFarlane. LM is handsome.

The first 2 hours is how Tiger wants to go to Canada to build a railroad. Each person will get paid $1 a day which is a lot back then. James's dad tells him to get 200 China men over to Canada to build it. James goes to China to talk to this old white guy to get the men. The old guy's assistant is Tiger. Tiger is also good with making fireworks.

Tiger gets into a fight with this mob boss. Later, mob boss comes and kills the old guy. James says Tiger will probably get killed if she stays there, so he lets her come with him to Canada. Tiger is a tea boy the entire time. They need to make explosives to blow up the rock so they could build the railroad.

T makes the explosives. Then at the end of Part 1 (2 hours), T reveals to J that she is really a woman. Cut to Part 2. J feels like she shouldn't be there because she's a woman. J keeps T's secret that she's a woman. Then 30 min. into Part 2, they hook up.
Then J's girlfriend Melanie shows up, so there's some tension there. J isn't interested in M anymore. They broke it off.

In the last 20 min., there is this huge revelation that totally suprised me. There is this Chinese Bookman who is the liason between the China men, and the white men. His story is that he lost his wife and daughter when his village was attacked. He has a scar on his face from it.

A white guy overhears T and J talking, and he learns that T is really a woman. T tells J, that her real name is Li Jun. White guy goes and tells Bookman, and shows him the family pic that T has. Then Bookman and I realize at the same time, that Li Jun is really his daughter. I was like: "Oh my God!" Then Bookman punches White guy in the face, Bookman runs over to the dynamite place.

Turns out one of the White men had cut up the rope, so it would give way and get one of the China men killed. T is sitting on that swing with the cut rope. Bookman is yelling out T's real name. He saves T's life, but he also gets hurt. B then tells T that he is her father. The White guy gets arrested.

Then T and J hug goodbye. Well T has to go home and bury her father's ashes. She will then come back to Canada to be with J, and keep making explosives.

At the end, it said due to historical facts, it's like 3 Chinese men died for every mile of the Canadian railroad. The Canadian govt. had made all these Chinese Canadians pay head taxes so they could come into the country. They got $23 million for it, way more than the railroad even cost to make. In 2006, the government apologized for it.

Aug. 17 16 and Pregnant: So today I watched the first half of an ep I missed where they profiled the girl Ebony. She and her boyfriend come from military families, and they both want to join the airforce. Then she got pregnant, and now only her bf can join the airforce, and he will pay to take care of the baby.

I then got this memory triggered from me. Her bf Josh had 228 unexcused abscences. He then pushed through and graduated out of high school. That totally reminded me of that time in gr. 12 and I was in Tiger Group. It was kind of like a homeroom where all three grades of 30 people met up once a week.

Miss D: Let's combine all our lates and absences together and we'll see if we can lessen it all together the next time we meet up. There is this guy Steve, who I was in gr. 8 homeroom with. He was kind of class clown. Miss D comes up to him.

Miss D: How many lates do you have?
Steve: 19.
Miss D was shocked.
S: Yeah well I still got a 92% in Math 31.

Funny and stupid: I was reading the Metro today and it talked about the strangest complaints that they got from employees. 2, 600 hiring managers did a survey for CareerBuilder.

Stuff that may conflict with the dresscode:
-Employee is too suntanned, has big hair, only wears slippers or socks at work.

-Employee breathes too loudly. (Yes, that can be annoying, but I think I'll have to be the judge of that. I'll have to hear how loudly they breathe.)

-Employee wants to check co- worker for ticks. (Sounds like someone is paranoid about getting ticks.)

-Employee spends too much time caring for stray cats around the building. (And what? Not enough time working?)

-Employee smells like road ramps. (How do they smell? If it's bad, then go tell them that.)

-Employee's aura is wrong. (This person complaining sounds like someone who's into New Age.)

-Co- worker reminded the employee too much of Bambi. (Don't like Bambi or the co- worker).

-Employee is so polite, it's infuriating. (Is that person Ned Flanders? lol.)

-Employee eats all the good cookies. (That sounds like what Homer Simpson would complain about, and so with the above line).

-Employee suspected co- worker is a pimp. (Well he is breaking the law if he is a pimp. I don't know what the evidence is.)

-Employee is trying to poison me. (That can be a serious offense if that person was trying to poison someone. Maybe put a camera up and get evidence.)

-Employee's body is magnetic and keeps de- activating my access card. (I think you need to study some science to see how access cards work).

-Employee is personally responsible for a federally mandated tax increase. (Well what's his job? They must work in government or something.)

Bank: In other news, in the Metro it said this: "Colonial Bank of Montgomery Ala., was shuttered Friday and its assets sold to BB&T Corp, marking the largest bank failure this year." This is the 74th bank closure this year.

Aug. 18 Dance: I saw So You Think You Can Dance Canada auditions in Edmonton. That girl Anna I was talking to there, she actually ended up getting to do Blake Bootcamp where Blake McGrath teaches the dancers choreography. Then at the end there was this big group of dancers who got into the finals, but I don't know if I saw her there. When I saw her there in the bootcamp, I was like: "Well it looks like she got further than I did." lol.

The guy who I see on the show, and he aslo takes my bus. He did get into the finals. Jamie the Ukranian dancer I saw, he did choreography and got rejected. There was this guy, Eric? Well he did Native dancing with hoops, did choreography, and got rejected.

This Asian girl wearing a purple shirt who did contemporary, got into the finals. I think I remember her because she was maybe the only Asian girl there besides me. She was also sitting on the row behind me and she was talking with one of the crew women.

Crew woman: Did you audition last year?
Girl: Yes.

Another thing that was memorable was this girl who did contemporary. Then she got into the finals and she was crying. She says: "This is so embarassing (crying)." Her dad hugs her, and he wipes a tear from his eye. Then her mom hugs her.Jokes: This reminds me of an old Friends episode years ago. It's where Joey lies and says that he's got years of dance experience in him so he can land an acting job. He teaches dance to all these dancers, and it's really bad. When the person in charge saw the dancing, he tells Joey to go and show them his moves.

Cut to Joey who looks like he's prepping himself to dance.
He then bolts out of the dance studio as fast as he can.
lol.

The other joke is that the other day, I was drinking some Vitamin Water. My sister saw me and said: "What are you? Gossip Girl?"

She's referring to the blatant product placement of Vitamin Water on that TV show. It's like Dr. Pepper being advertised on 90210.

I remember this old joke from the TV show War at Home. It's where the dad played by Michael Rappaport catches his teen daughter sneaking back in.

MR: I thought you were dead. Or worse.
Daughter: What's worse than death?
Cut to the Daughter pregnant.

lol. I thought so.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

article/ psychic/ funny

SUNDAY, AUGUST 16, 2009

article/ psychic/ funny

Aug. 14 Article: I wrote this down last summer: "Write article for Job Classified." But what do I write? Let's take a trip down memory lane. I mainly worked in retail, restaurants, call centres, a teacher's assistant, and a stint at a big company.

I read articles for jobs in 24. The last article I read was this guy being sarcastic. Telling people to fire employees without any notice or reason. Make them guess why they're firing you. Make vague remarks about someone being laid off before you do it.

I remember one article on Yahoo, it was a couple of years ago. This woman wrote about it being good to be a job hopper. If you work at a place for 18 months, it's totally okay to quit and then you can go on a vacation. Then come back for another job. A lot of comments were: "I don't know if you're being sarcastic." "That is bad to be a job hopper."

I was going through the past jobs I had. How I was hired at a cafe, and then it turns out they didn't even need me. When I worked there for 3 days, I was the outcast. The three workers there were in the late 20s, and Arabs. I was the Asian girl in my early 20s. There were 3 people, and they could totally manage on their own. So they fired me.

Summer 2007 was the worst summer. If I only had taken that Call Centre #4 job. It paid $10.50/hr. I then went with Call Centre #3 which paid $10.92/hr. They gave me one day of training. Then next week I called to get my schedule. They said they didn't really hire me, because they found someone who doesn't need as much training as I did. Does that even count as a job if I had one day of training? Well at least I got paid for it.

When I called  Call Centre #4 back because Call Centre #3 didn't work out, they said they already hired somebody else. Maybe even if I went to #4, it still wouldn't work out. I'll never know.

I did learn a lot that summer. I took that Big Department job, though I knew it would mean I would have to wake up at 6am to get there. I was desperate for a job. Then I did quit. The lesson is if there is a major thing you don't like about it, like waking up early, you shouldn't take the job. I took it because I thought I could wake up early, and I did.

If you have any ideas for an article about jobs, email me. Everything above was brainstorming. I am looking at www.jobclassified.ca and I could email my article to info@mediaclassified.ca.

How to Save Money: I'm watching Tyra right now, and it's about saving money. The tip is that you can get free memberships for gyms. You can try out a gym for free for a week. Friends may have buddy passes, and you can go and work out there. Enter sweepstakes. I remember watching Doc Zone about it. Tyra talked to a woman who won a $25, 000 trip to France.

I entered into 10 different sweepstakes to win a free cd. I finally won one, and that was the Mandy Moore "I Wanna Be With You."

Movies: It was a month or so ago, but I was talking to my friend Angela about movies. I then went and analyzed how much fight movies take to make, and how much profit they made:

Fighting (2009)
Gross Revenue: $11, 024, 370

Never Back Down (2008)
Budget $20 million
Gross revenue $41,624,669

Gladiator (1992)
Gross revenue $9,223,441 (USA)

Lionheart (1990)
Budget $6,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue $24,078,196

Shopping: Sunglasses Hut closed down, but now there's a kiosk called Style in Shades in City Centre. Art of Style closed down, but then I see a sign that McBain Cameras is coming soon. Is that a sign that the recession is ending?

Aug. 15 Psychic: I bumped into my friend Sarah on the bus today and we talked about psychics again. I told her about how I gave psychic Nadia a hard time by saying: "You're psychic, aren't you supposed to know that about me (whether I'm in school, and what my job is)."

Sarah: That's cold reading. A psychic can pretty much ask anyone: "Do you know a Bob?" Because everybody knows a Bob or Robert. Then they go with it. When she asked if you were in school, she knows that you're in your early 20s. Anyone in their 20s or 30s are either in school or just graduated. A lot of people start school, but they don't finish. Or they get their degree, and then later they want to get another degree in something else. That question can apply to anyone.

I then told her about that time I met this guy Parker when I worked at the big company:

Me: So are you in school?
P: Yeah.
Me: Let me guess, the U of A?
P: Yeah.
Me: Your major is business right?
P: Yeah.
Me: And you're going into you're 4th year this fall?
P: Yeah. Wow, you're good.

Well I thought people who worked at a bank have to be really smart, so that's why I thought of university. I figured people must be in business to work there too. By the look of the guy, he seemed to be at the age of the year he was going into. Though I do remember in 2004, this girl Amy in my Graphic Communications class and Jonathan who took science, both worked at a bank together. They were in NAIT with me. There's no business background in them.

That also reminds me of Steve Shirripa. He is on the crappy TV show Secret Life of the American Teenager. SS goes on Jay Leno and he plays "The Judgemental Bastard" where he looks at someone, and he makes these guesses about people. He is often right. There is one time he was completely wrong about about one guy.

Aug. 16 Funny: Last night and today I saw American Teenager. I then went on twop.com and they dissed it as usual. People actually count how many times they repeat the same words. They said "hooker" 18 times, "vasectomy" 18 times, and "sex", 24 times. The watchers always talk about drinking games. Drink every time someone says that word.

Another thing was that Patrick found this on Youtube. Lauren Conrad from The Hills was on Who Wants to be a Millionare? LC was on to do one question that was worth $50, 000 and it goes to a charity for domestic violence. The question is: "What is the name of Prince William's girlfriend?"

Me: Do you know the answer?
P: Kate Middleton.
lol. I know he would know the answer because he does follow the royal family.
LC asks the audience for help, and they pick "Kate." That was the right answer, and the charity got $50, 000.

Friday, August 14, 2009

job search/ birthday/ motivation

Aug. 10 Job search: I was talking to my dad, and he said that I shouldn't apply to that restaurant job where I get paid as a full- time cook. It's at Dallas Pizza in Capilano. The pay is $12.90/hr. He says, though you can make $3 more an hour than I do now, there still is no pension or benefits there. There's no point. So stick with that job you already have.

He also said that if I wanted to stick with restaurants, I should go to NAIT and take the culinary program there. No, I already spent thousands of dollars and got a college diploma in my true love, writing. I'm not going to spend money on something I don't love.

Am I putting obstacles in front of myself by not passing my resume to the restaurant? I have to focus on that office job. I did apply to the Edmonton Journal and Avenue magazine.

Aug. 11 Birthday: Well today is my birthday. Through the power of Facebook, my friends knew my bday. Daniel Luu, Angela, my co- worker Jennifer all wished me a happy bday on Facebook. Jen also told me that at work. My manager Stella remembered. She actually looks through our job applications and knows our bdays.

A pleasant surprise was when my friend/ old co- worker Silvia showed up at work.

S: I have a friend who has the same bday as you, so I bought some stuff for her. Then I saw it's your bday on Facebook, so I got you this cupcake.
So I thanked her, and ate it. lol.

Stella gave me a jar of Lays chips. Then I went home and ate the Toonie Tuesdays from KFC. Then we went to Dairy Queen and I picked out a cake with a tiger on it. What was interesting was that the sales girl gave me a free sundae: "Do you want a free sundae? This is a mistake, so you can have it if you want." What good luck. lol.

Dance: Today I saw the season 2 premiere of So You Think You Can Dance Canada. It was fun. You know what? It's different from the American version. I watched like the whole 2 hours of it, and they didn't show any really bad auditions. They did a fast forward of some bad ones. A little montage. I'm looking forward to the Edmonton auditions.

I saw the commercials for it, and they showed that Ukranian dancer, when I was at the auditions. They also showed that contemporary dancer guy who I also saw at the auditions. I've seen this guy take my bus on my way to work. Then I saw him at the auditions. However, we didn't talk. But he is the guy who has his mouth drop open like he got a yes or something in the commercial.

So maybe I shouldn't be annoyed about seeing all these bad dancers get to dance in front of all 4 judges. That only occurs in the American version. Maybe I should see the Edmonton audition ep before I judge. When I auditioned, I only got to dance in front of one judge Blake McGrath.

Talent: Interesting timing when I'm watching this show, because I'm reading my screenwriting book, and it talked about characters and what their talents are. It could be athletic, academic, technological, etc. Well in the script I'm trying to get produced, the lead character's talent is athletic.

In the book, there is the question: "Are writers born or made?" Well I find that people are good at something. With lots of training, hard work, and desire, you can become great at it. You have to have an interest in something first. I'm interested in reading, and watching TV. That lead me to writing for TV.

In Screenwriting for Dummies, it talked about showing Harry Potter learn magic in school and how he trains. It's like the audience is experiencing and learning with him. Same goes with The Karate Kid and Star Wars. They have the mentor teach lessons to the protagonist. This also reminded me of reading the Edmonton Journal covering the Mayerthorpe undercover cop story. It's where they lure the murder suspect Dennis Cheeseman into this fake criminal gang.

The thing is, he wasn't talented. He just unloaded cigarettes and stuff out of trucks. The RCMP officers who play criminals then praise him about his loyalty. He gets lots of money for doing something easy. In my script, my lead Shawn has this athletic talent. Then he actually goes and trains and works hard, and he becomes great at it. He then gets paid lots of money for this skill. I don't know. Maybe I want to say that TV has to make things more interesting than real life. Who wants to see a guy unload dvds from a truck and get complimented for it?

Well it would be interesting to see how undercover police work, but if you get rid of the police aspect of it, it wouldn't be that interesting. I even remember Tru Calling. Tru's little brother Harrison did that, however they never showed it. They just kind of mentioned it in passing.

Aug. 12: I remember when Tru was talking with her big sister Meredith about Harrison.

M: Maybe it was a girl. Or a truckload of dvds. Or maybe a girl with a truckload of dvds.

Writing:
I remember talking to the producer John.

Me: So do you think the script is funny or anything?
John: Well nothing really jumped out at me.
Well that's fine. This is an action, drama, crime. There is a little comedy in it, but that's not the main genre. What would be bad is that I write a comedy, and John said it wasn't funny at all.

So the other day, I got rejected from another production company. What's interesting is that I sent that version of the script to 3 companies because they asked for it. 2 of them rejected it. Only one production company Crowsnest said somewhat of a yes. John Kerr said that: "There is potential."

Now I'm watching So You Think You Can Dance Canada. I'm thinking about writing a character and his talent. I'm not going to write about dance, because there are already a bunch of dance movies out there.

Joke: They showed Blake McGrath teaching dance choreography to the contestants.

Cut to the dancers strutting forward.
B: Wait, stop. You are not auditioning for a cruise ship.
lol.

What's interesting, is that I watched 2 hours of this ep where everybody auditioned. They only showed one bad audition.

Charity: Somaly Mam is this woman was a sex slave, and then she started her charity called the Somaly Mam Foundation in preventing human trafficking of girls and young people for sexual purposes. The other partner is Beyond Borders, the Canadian link in the international group End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (EPCAT).

Aug. 13 The Listener: I was watching it, and I realized that Craig Olejnik has a tattoo on his right wrist. He was passing papers to this woman, and I saw it. I don't know what it is. It's a quick glimpse. It could be a Chinese character meaning "centre."

Agim Kaba: After The Listener, I went on the net and had CSI: NY in the background. I see this guy Agim Kaba. He was really hot. lol. He's from the soap opera As The World Turns. Check out his pic:

http://tvmegasite.net/images/daytime/atwt/autos/auto-agimkaba.jpg

What was interesting was that the first scene in this ep reminded me of something I wrote back in 2003. In CSI, there are 4 guys playing poker. One of them is dealing it differently in order to cheat. The other three guys get in a fight with him, and the guy is thrown out. Then there is a knock on the door. One guy slides open the peephole, and he gets shot.

In my script, a poker game goes wrong my protagonist wins the game fair and square. Then the bad guys go and points a gun at him so he won't take his winnings.

Aug. 14 Motivation: Today I finally sent my resume to See Magazine. Yesterday I read in 24, my horoscope was: "Your quest for employment requires a new approach. Increased motivation and schmooze- fest will work." It's hard to get motivation.

Well I thought I found some motivation when my co- worker Maygen came back to her job and she said she needed more hours. I thought I should go get another job, so Maygen can take my hours. Now my motivation is gone, because she will be going back to school and won't be working here.

Monday, August 10, 2009

analyze/ movie/ birthday

Aug. 7 Analyze: It's weird. That Tosh.O show jumped the shark so badly last week, that I couldn't even enjoy it much this week. Daniel cracked an Asian joke, which I didn't find offensive. I guess the funniest thing was he gives a web redemption to this black guy Reh- Dog who put a bad music video of him singing. He's in the shower singing about how he's sad and crying.

D: When's the last time you cried?
RD: 2 or 3 years ago.
D: I cry once a week when I look at my ratings.
RD laughs.
D: That's not a joke.

Then they cried and talked about how Old Yeller was put to sleep. RD was reading the book The Notebook, and he's crying. D was cutting up onions and crying. lol.

Drive: Today was my last driving lesson. I'm going to miss my driving instructor Tony. I could base a character on him. There goes $580 on the class, and 10 hours of driving. It was worth the money. I did learn a lot. I had fun. It's great to have a nice drive in the summer with the great weather. However, I know that I won't be driving anymore. I'm bad at it, and I need a lot of practice. I told my dad, and he says he won't teach me since his car doesn't have instructor brakes. I'm not interested in driving, buying or owning a car. It's too expensive to buy a car and the insurance.

I've been taking the bus steadily since I started jr. high. I was 12 back then. As a little kid, I did take the bus with my family members.Am I putting obstacles in front of myself by not spending more money and time trying to improve my driving? I want to use it for my bus pass.

Job search: I told my dad about me not driving anymore. Then we talked about that office job search. I told him about 98 resumes, in 7 months, and 1 interview and that it was discouraging. I didn't apply to restaurants, retail, or staffing agencies like back in 2008. This was the refined job search with the good resume that my friend Angela edited. Yeah, and the fact I did apply to a few cruise ships. So it's not office related, it's good to try something new.

Prodigy: It was interesting when I was talking to Ray at work last night. She never dreamed of being a prodigy. I always thought it would be so cool to be so young, and so successful. Mandy Moore got a record deal at 15. Jo Jo got a record deal at 13. Seth Green has been acting since he was 4. I guess my dream was that at 15 years old, I would be producing my own TV show. Well there is that guy who was 15, and he wrote the Eragon books.

Now I'm reflecting back and I wished that somewhere in the past 10 years of writing, that I actually completed a 90 page script earlier.The thing is, I did complete scripts before with a beginning, middle, and end, but it wasn't that long. Anyway, I did learn a lot by writing. I do catch some inconsistencies with my characters. I remember the character Ben not believing in something, but then he does a turn around in dialogue. But then he catches himself by saying: "I don't know why I said that."

Aug. 9 Writing: Other things I learn from writing, is the question I ask myself: "Would you want to watch this show?" I will admit that I have written things, and I wouldn't want to watch it. When I do want to watch it, I ask myself: "What are the best parts about it?"

Movie: The Chronicles of Riddick was on Space last night. It starred Vin Diesel as a hero. It's set in the future and there are lots of planets to travel to. An army comes to convert humans to be like the army, or the army will kill them. I didn't really get this movie. I didn't really like it.

It had good cinematography, action sequences, special effects, and lots of money put into it. I think I like Diesel in the movie The Pacifier more. That movie had Diesel be like a bodyguard for this family. It was more of a comedy, that had some unpredictable moments that I didn't see coming.

Back to Riddick. It was nice to see Christina Cox in it. This came out in 2004, and I saw her in the lead for the TV show Blood Ties in 2007. There was this actress Alexa Davolos who plays Diesel's love interest. At first it looked Jessica Szohr (Vanessa from Gossip Girl). It turns out AD is actually Gwen from Angel. She had the power to shoot electricity from her hands on that show.

Psychic: I'm getting a flashback of 2003- 2004. I saw the remake of the TV show The Twilight Zone. Forest Whitaker was a host on that show. There was a story where the rapper Method Man played a psychic. This young woman who was a journalist was asking him questions about the future, and he predicted everything right.

She asked him if she should go for the job, and he tells her to go home. She finds her boyfriend cheating on her, so the answer is yes, she should go for the job. Then she asks MM if she should take the flight to the job. He tells her no. Later it turns out there was a terrorist attack, and it's a good thing she didn't take the flight.

She goes to MM to ask another question, but he already left. She goes looking for him, and then she see that he gets hit by a car. It was kind of cliffhanger if he will live or not to tell her the future. There was an ep on 90210, and two women go to a psychic. One goes for fun, and the other goes along as a skeptic. The psychic predicts the future right for the skeptic. It was more of funny subplot.

I remember that British boy band Five. They had songs like "Slam Dunk (Da Funk)" and "When the Lights Go Out." In the 3rd and last album, my fave member Rich wrote in his thank you's about the past: "Whenever my sister when to see a psychic, the psychics always said: 'Your brother is going to be really famous when he grows up.'" So that came true.

Fashion: I saw this on Yahoo news. So Miss Japan is Miss Universe. Her outfit caused a stir because she was wearing a kimono, and she was wearing pink underwear with pink stockings. I didn't like it. She looked like she was going to the "Lady Marmalade" music video. lol. You know where all 4 singers were in their underwear in the video.

I read some comments below like: "Well there is this swimsuit competition in this contest, so what's the problem?"

Aug. 10 Birthday: I'm turning 24 tomorrow. Did I reach the timeline of what most 24- yr olds do? Well I got a college diploma. I have never moved out of my house. I do have a learner's permit. Though I don't feel like I will get a driver's license. I really like the song called "Birthday Sex" (remix) by Jeremiah since we're on the topic.

Let's look back since what I did since my 23rd bday. Well I did take those driving lessons. I worked at the same job for over a year so that's good. Oh yeah, and I completed my 97 page script. I got MMA fighter Kit Cope in it, and have been in talks with a producer.

Teen Choice Awards: Right now I'm watching the Teen Choice Awards. It came out 10 yrs ago in 1999, back in the day when I was 14. I think for the past 5 years I watch this show, I dislike it, but I keep watching it. Look there were good things like the America's Best Dance Crew season 3 winner Quest Crew were dancing in Sean Kingston's performance.

Ed Westwick, Chuck from Gossip Girl came out wearing a James Dean t- shirt. They're both bad boy types. I'm a fan of both actors. lol.

Fun: In other news, I took a big step and gave the Kyle Gallner look alike Mark, my email address today. Well I hope to hear from him since he said: "We'll talk." Prior to it, he came in

Mark: Hi, how's it going? Is it busy.
Me: Not yet.

He paid for the sandwich.
Me: So do you think you look like Kyle Gallner?
Mark: A little.
I gave him the change with my email address on a piece of paper.
lol.

Friday, August 7, 2009

news/ The Listener/ The Perfect Getaway

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2009

news/ The Listener/ The Perfect Getaway

Aug. 5 News: I read in the news that the police caught a serial rapist who raped 4 women in one week. It all occurred in Millwoods. I know that he's 22 years old, and that he's an illegal immigrant. He met the victims on the internet. He chatted with them for a few days, and then he lured his victims to a secluded location. Oh my God.

I want all of you to know that if you're going to meet someone on the internet, you should meet them in a public place. I met 5 people through the internet, and I met them all in a public place. Don't you read these horror stories all the time in the paper and see them on TV?

I can name them all. Remember how the Edmonton filmmaker Mark Twitchell pretended to be this woman on the internet? He then lured a guy to his garage, and then he murdered him. Also the recent news of the Craigslist Killer. The guy meets this massuese, and then he killed her. They were in a hotel room. He then attacks another woman, and now he's caught.

Don't get me started on Dateline: To Catch a Predator. I remember on CNN, they covered the Craigslist Killer. The tips were to meet in a public place, bring a friend or family member with you, or at least tell them where you're going and when you'll be back.

I read in a teen magazine to meet them in a public place. I remember in jr. high computer class, they taught us to never give our names, addresses, or phone numbers out to people on the internet. Maybe these women are adults, so they weren't really in school to learn about all these safety tips. Well I'm sure adults who are parents know this so they can protect their kids.

Stupid news: Onto lighter news, here's some bad parenting for you. A Quebec father filmed his 7 yr- old son driving his SUV. Sure they drove on a empty country road, but he was 7. How come this dad can't be like all the other parents out there who will be really strict and argue with their 17 yr- old kid about driving their car?

None of the passengers were even wearing seatbelts. Stupidity. Now this is triggering all these jokes. Remember on Arrested Development, the dad Michael was driving the car, and his teen son George Michael was sitting at the front?

M: Remember when I used to have you on my lap, and you helped me steer the steering wheel?
GM: Yeah.
M: Do you think you're too old for it?
Cut to the police pulling them over.
GM is sitting on M's lap.
lol.

Look bad parenting is funny only if it's fictional and for comedy purposes. I remember all the The Simpsons kids drove a car.

Cut to Homer driving and Lisa sitting in the front.
H: When I drive, I can listen to what I want. When you drive, you can listen to what you want.
Cut to Lisa driving, and she is listening to what she wants.
H: Eh, let's switch seats.

There is also an ep where the Simpsons have to learn about team work.

Marge: I sprained my ankle, Bart can you drive?
Bart: Sure mom, but I've never driven before.
Cut to Bart putting on his driving gloves, and he can easily back the car.

Or the one where Maggie wasn't being watched by Bart, and she was driving a car.

Chief Wiggum: Oh look, a baby driving a car. And a dog driving a bus.

Aug. 6 The Listener: It was kind of interesting this ep. The character Oz mentions about the recession. It's interesting because I heard about this show in summer 2008, before the recession occurred. I don't know. Maybe they filmed the first few eps. Then the recession occurred, and they decide to work that in. Oz's parents' family restaurant is facing struggles and needs $100, 000.

Another thing that's interesting is when I was reading twop.com, and people were saying that after Toby reveals his secret to his friend Oz, Oz asks if this girl likes him. People were saying that lots of people would get Toby to play poker, and win. Then in this ep, Toby was trying to win money for Oz's restaurant. It also kind of reminds me of an ep of Dark Angel.

Max has super human strength, good eye sight, but the thing is she did help her friend Sketchy. Sketchy needed to get a lot of money really fast, so Max and her friend Original Cindy go to this gambling place. Max is able to know how fast the roulette can spin, but not sure where it will land. She did cheat in poker. She dealt all the cards, and she looked at all the cards as she was dealing it. She memorized all the cards and whom she dealt them to. That's how she was able to win.

Afterwards, she never did it again. Though she did steal a lot in the first season like from bad guys. Or that time the sector police stole her motorcycle, and then she stole it back.

Back to The Listener. The ep was in the winter. Probably shot in winter 2008 when the recession occurred. Maybe the writers knew that mentioning a recession won't seem out of date when the show actually airs next summer. These kind of financial situations last for months and longer.

The story was good. Oz is so desperate for money, he tries to solve a murder case to get the $100, 000 reward. That seems impossible, but with Toby reading minds, they could solve the mystery like they did in other eps. This man was sent to prison for killing his wife. The man puts the reward up that if anyone finds the body, he will give the reward.

After a lot of work, T and O find out that it's the man's friend who did it. The man's son was having an affair with the man's wife (his stepmom). Then the wife disappears to make it look like the man did it. The man is released from prison because he didn't kill her.

Then the man gives O the check. Then T read's the man's mind and finds out that the man ordered his friend to kill his wife. T tells O to cash the check immediately so the man can't take the money back. T then tells his cop friend Marks about it. The ep then ends like that.

Sebastian Pigott:
 He's an actor who plays the son Tyler in the ep. He had curly blond hair. He was cute. The pics on his imdb.com profile don't do him justice.

Writing: This ep totally reminded me of a script idea I had years ago. It was where this one person wants this big cash reward and tries to solve the mystery. All I got was that later the guy gets a phone call telling him to stop investigating which means he's getting close to something. But that's all I got. I didn't even a mystery figured out.

In other writing, I have been working on my script that was supposed to be Daniel Tosh, me, and my manager Aziz all working at a restaurant together. Now I have added that what if Daniel sees a psychic and she predicts everything right?

Aug. 7 The Perfect Getaway: I'm sure you've all seen commercials for this about a newlywed couple who go on an Hawaii island for their honeymoon. There is a serial killer couple, and the newlyweds have to figure out who it is. This kind of reminds me of Harper's Island mini- TV series. Except the series was 13 eps, and it was on Seattle island (really Vancouver).

In The Globe and Mail it got 3 stars, the Edmonton Journal gave it 2 stars. They both said they predicted the plot twist. I saw Steve Zahn on Conan O' Brien. SZ is in it as the newlywed guy. At first I didn't know where I've seen him from. Then I realized he was from my fave movie Shattered Glass.

I read the article with SZ, and he said: "I can usually predict the movie after reading the first 10 pages. This one, I couldn't. I didn't predict the plot twist in the second act."

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

psychic/ funny video/ Tin Man

Aug. 1 Psychic: So I told my friend Sarah that I saw a psychic and she calls it all BS. Famous medium like John Edward is a liar, or so Sarah says. I remember watching a bit of one ep, only because AJ from the Backstreet Boys on. He was talking to his grandma through JE, and the grandma made a joke about alligators. It's an inside joke between AJ and his grandma.

I think I may have seen JE on Maury, back in the days when I used to watch it. S says that all psychics are fakes and scam artists. They are a good judge of character. Well then again, I only tried it once.

I remember this old kids TV show called So Weird. It was on Family channel way back in 1999. It was really good, it was about the supernatural. This girl Fiona went to see a medium to talk to her dead father. Then this man was trying to talk to his dead daughter Tina.

Medium (voicing the daughter): Daddy, it's me Tina.
Man: You're not my daughter.
Medium: Yes, I am.
Man: No, because I don't have a daughter.
Man gets up, and two police officers enter.
Man: Arrest him, and her. This guy is just a really good actor.

Then Fiona talks to the Man and it turns out he is a real medium. Except something tragic happened to him like his wife died. Now he's going around trying to disprove the fakes.

Funny video: I like Aubrey Graham from Degrassi: The Next Generation. He now is a rapper and goes by Drake. On Yahoo News, he collapsed on stage. It was funny. Well the song was coming on, and he was getting the audience all pumped up, then he stumbles and falls over. It's at the 34 second mark. After a few seconds, two crew guys come and carry him off the stage. When he fell, I was like: "Ohhh!" Then the song kept going. Then the camera pan to Lil' Wayne. Drake tore his ACL, but he says he's okay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyUKNntx-z0

Teen pregnancy: I was telling my friend Ray about that girl who said: "I have the upmost respect for those young women who get pregnant as teenagers, and take responsibility for their kids." Ray disagrees. It would be different if it was something like the parents died or unfit to take care of the kids. Then it's usually the oldest sibling who takes care of the younger ones. I've seen this happen on Dr Phil and Oprah where they cover these people. The whole premise of the TV series Party of Five is where the oldest child who was in his 20s had to take care of his 4 younger siblings.

Aug. 2: Or in other cases where people have to take care of their nieces, nephews, grandkids because the parents can't take care of them.

I'm getting some flash backs. You know how I told you the girls on Maury are like: "I'm going to have a baby and you guys are all going to pay for it"? Well the girls are misbehaved. I remember years ago before 2003 (when I got into this show), I saw an ep where this 17 yr old girl gets pregnant on purpose, and her mom is crying. The girl acted like she didn't care.

Unlike the girls on Tyra are well- behaved. One girl says she really wants to have a baby. Then the mom talks, and she is crying. Then cut to the daughter and she starts crying too because her mom is crying.

Joke: I was watching Conan O' Brien and there was this little sketch about racial profiling. A woman calls 911.

Woman: There are two men trying to break into a building.
Operator: Can you see how they look like?
W: No.
O: Well what if you offer them hockey tickets, do you think they would be interested?
W: I don't know.
O: What if a John Mayer song comes on the radio? Do you think they'll change the station or listen to it?
W: I don't know.
I told the joke to Ray, and she didn't get it.
Me: They were asking if they are black or white.

Tin Man: There is this mini- series about the remake of The Wizard of Oz. Zooey Deschanel plays DG (Dorothy). She has these dreams of the OZ. Then the evil woman Azkadiellia rules the OZ. She then has to get rid of DG. Her henchmen come to kill DG, but then DG is thrown into the tornado and she goes to the OZ (Outer Zone). The first thing she sees is two suns. That reminds me of Flash Gordon. In the pilot, Flash and Dale go to the planet Mongo, and the first thing they see are 2 moons.

I just went on imdb.com and it seems that this mini- series came out in 2007, and I never heard of it. Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler from X2) plays the tin man guy Glitch. Well he's the advisor to the Queen before the evil Azkadiellia took over. Glitch's brain was taken out so he's kinda dumb and doesn't have a good memory.Then they meet Cain (Neal McDonough, Edie's husband from Desperate Housewives). He was like a cop in OZ. He's the scarecrow, I guess. Then they meet Raw, the lion. He has this ability to read people's past and future. This is a really good mini- series. Go watch it by renting it.

"The Babe Effect": I read this in The Globe and Mail. "The Babe Effect" means that men will do anything to keep a hot woman with them. They covered how Nicolas Sarkozy was jogging because his wife put him on this work out regime. They mentioned Orlando Bloom who doesn't want to do Pirates of Caribbean 4 because he wants to spend more time with his model girlfriend. That is stupid.

What people would say that these guys are whipped. They talked to a guy who's been with this hot woman for 8 years. He spends above his means, dresses the way she wants him to, etc. He says: "I do it because I know that if she leaves, she can easily get another guy to do it." I feel like these guys need some self- esteem, and self respect.

Aug. 3 Confessions: I'm going to admit something to you. I watched a whole Dr Phil ep a couple of weeks ago on my day off. The last time I saw that show was in Feb. 2007. I only watched the ep for research for my script. It's about two young men who are one mistake away from going to jail. I didn't get angry watching it, and I think Dr Phil did manage to help them.

Writing: Today is my day off and you know what I did? I went and watched a Secret Life of the American Teenager ep. I felt like watching one ep made me overdose on it. Then I had to go on twop.com and read people's comments on it.

Well I know how to not write from it. The comments were how the characters had the same conversation with different people. They repeated the same words funeral, sex, and car, throughout the entire ep. Yeah, there are a few funny parts here and there, but it's still a bad show.

Aug. 4 Stupid criminals: I read in 24 today that a 30 yr old man stole a Audi convertible. Then he fell asleep in it, and the police caught him. It occured in South Australia. lol.

Funny: My friend Maygen was talking about how there are good things happening to her.

Maygen: My fiance has gotten a $16/hr job driving people around, and I'm going to school this fall.
Me: Yeah, and you're working part- time here. "Everything's coming up Milhouse."
lol.

It's from The Simpsons. Homer floods the entire town so he could create art. Milhouse puts on these flood pants, and the water soaks his socks.

Milhouse: Wow, my socks are wet, but my flood pants are bone dry. Everything's coming up Milhouse.

Aug. 5 Barack Obama: Yesterday I was watching Conan O'Brien.

C: Did you know that it's Barack Obama's birthday today? He's turning 48.
The audience cheers.
C: He says don't give him any gifts, just donate to his favorite charity General Motors.
lol.
I didn't know that Obama's bday is exactly 1 week before mine. We're both Leos in the Zodiac sign. lol. Also that reminds me my fave actor Eric Johnson will be turning 30 on Aug. 7.

Job search: I realized that I have sent out 98 resumes in 7 months and got only 1 call back. I passed out the revised resume that my friend Angela edited. I also focused all on office jobs. The Bank of Canada said that the recession is over. I don't know. I predicted it would end by 2010.