The Bridge/ layoffs and payoffs/ magical thinking

May 30 The Bridge: This is a Canadian TV show about cops. This episode was on a few weeks ago. It was original with a creative plot twist that I have never seen before. I have never read about it in the news either. At the beginning two cops chase down a suspect in the car.

Cop 1 starts shooting.
Cop 2: My gun's jammed.

Cut to the end, and the lead character Frank Leo tells Cop 2 to shoot at suspect because she has a gun and she is pointing it at them. Cop 2 doesn't pull the trigger, so another cop shoots the suspect.

Frank takes Cop 2's gun.
F: What? It's empty?
That is so bad. Cop 2 didn't put bullets in it because he didn't want to shoot and kill anyone. Cop 1 never noticed it because Cop 1 always went in first, and Cop 2 was always behind him. F then talks about how he has heard about cops carrying empty guns.

The ending was like F being Tony Soprano from The Sopranos. F locked Cop 2 in the cop bar. The other cops put a bag over his head and starts beating him up. Being a cop is a dangerous job, and your partner doesn't have your back if he's carrying a empty gun.

I remember watching the episode that got me into this show. The trailer had F go and talk to these 2 bad guys who were holding people hostage in a restaurant. F wasn't wearing a bullet proof vest so he was risking his life. I saw the ep, and there was more. A cop was in the restaurant and he has been shot.

The ending had the SWAT team in there and the 2 bad guys weren't holding guns right then and there. SWAT team starts shooting and kills them. I thought they were going to get arrested.

Saying: I found this in Edmonton Journal's Sunday Reader: "Getting fired is nature's way of telling you that you had the wrong job in the first place." -Columnist Hal Lancaster in the Wall Street Journal.

Wal-Mart: I was talking to my friend Justin today. I told him that I was going through my notes and I applied to Wal-Mart in March. This must be a sign, because I was reading Sunday Reader. This woman who was a customer service manager stopped a man from stealing a $600 computer by stopping him at the door and asking to see a receipt.

Man fights her, and then he runs away leaving the computer behind. Some people come and ask if she's okay. She then gets fired because only a store manager or a security guard can stop a customer. So maybe I shouldn't go and work there. It's like the saying: "No good deed goes unpunished."

I'm sure a lot of people think: "Well this just confirms that Wal-Mart sucks."

Rant: I was at City Centre and I saw this new place that will be taking over where Cargo James and Tea was. It's called "Press'd The Sandwich Company." I wish City Centre would have forced the Soup place to change the name to Press'd and I would have still had my job. I did check out that Anger Management for Dummies book. It said to rate your anger on a 1-10 scale. I already do that. Right now I'm at a 5.

Layoffs: I read in the Journal that when a person gets laid off from their job, they are more likely to have a step down in pay. Now that reminds me of that old Baby -Sitter's Club book called Poor Mallory! Mallory's dad is a lawyer, and he gets laid off. He gets another job at a law firm, but doesn't pay as well.

It's unpredictable. When I got laid off in 2006 from Call Centre #1 at $8.75/hr. Then I went to G&T for $7.90/hr. After a month, I got Call Centre #2 at $9.50/hr. That was a step up.

This year, I got jobs that paid $1 lower than what I was working for at my restaurant and call centre job. There isn't really much of a difference.

Writing: I finally buckled down and read my Rain script straight through, as I was listening to every Robin Thicke song on Youtube. lol. It's good to read it with fresh eyes since I haven't read it since Feb.

I'm going to say it: All the characters seem 2-dimensional, except the funny sidekick Eddie, and he seems to steal the spotlight.

June 1 Payoffs: I was reading my screenwriting books and learned about "the pay off." In a fight movie, the protagonist learns and trains in fighting. The pay off is the ending where he fights off his antagonist and beats him. Same goes with comedy like the Malcolm in the Middle episode back in 2001. The dad Hal makes this huge painting throughout the entire episode.

The next day in art class, I was talking to my friend Leslie about it.

Me: It was funny and everything, but the only thing I didn't like about it was that they didn't show how the painting actually looked like.
Leslie: Oh yeah, I hated that too!
We laughed.

The payoff should be showing how the painting looks like, even though it may not look good. The ending was that there was so much paint on this canvas (that was as big as the wall), all the pain peeled off and fell on Hal.

A punchline in a joke is a payoff. It's like my favorite joke: "So the other day I bought of condoms.....because my last one was expired."

Bank: I got a phone call from a bank today. It could be about my job. But then it could be about my account.

Magical thinking: This was a couple of months ago, and it was in the morning. I was reading my horoscopes.

S: That's magical thinking. Thinking that how the stars align affects your life. How something that isn't real affects your life.
Me: Like religion? "Dear big invisible man in the sky."
S: Where's that from?
Me: MadTV. They made fun of Kitchen Nightmares, and called it Soup Kitchen Nightmares. Gorden Ramsey remakes a soup kitchen into a restaurant. It was run by a nun and priest.

Psychic: I'm still kind of angry, and it's been a couple of days. While I'm at it, I might as well add that Psychic Nadia and Terri were both wrong. I'm supposed to get an office job by Feb. or Mar. 2010, and I haven't. I guess Terri was right that she doesn't see me working at a call centre long. Well then anyone who isn't psychic, but reads the newspaper, or has friends who works in the industry knows that there isn't good job security.

Job rant: As usual, when I'm mad about one thing, I take out my anger on all these other things. I applied to Thomas Cook Travel Currency and Exchange yesterday. They're hiring at the airport, but that's too far away from me. They just hired someone at West Ed which I'm willing to go to. The thing is, I always have to be on the lookout for another job due to lack of job security and a better office, entry level position is always available.

June 2 Stress: I'm like that "Sex Therapy" song by Robin Thicke. The lyric: "Stressed out, uptight, overworked, wound up." At the Soup place, I can sit and read the newspaper, or just sit. Now I have to work throughout my entire shift. That's fine, I can read the newspaper on the bus to work, during my break, and on the bus to home.

It's like that line on the TV show Human Target: "It's a job, sometimes it's fun, and sometimes it isn't. So stop being a baby." At first there were about 5 or 6 people on the job, and we were bumping into each other. Now there are 4 people working, and there's too much work.

You may think: "You've been off work for nearly 2 months. Now when you're working a full-time job, you're overwhelmed. You have relaxed too much." Not really, I've been pushing myself with a job search for the past 2 months.

June 3 South Park: I heard about that South Park episode back in 2006 when I was reading about Justin Berry on twop.com. Someone said: "The whole time I was watching this, I was thinking about the episode where Cartman writes: 'I'm a 10 yr old boy' and then everybody starts IMing him."

I saw the episode the other day, and Cartman writes: "I'm a young boy looking for older male friends." Then 10 windows pop up and they want to talk to him. lol.

The episode was making fun of NAMBLA (North American Man/ Boy Love Association). It was kind of funny with Cartman going to meet up his internet friends, but FBI keeps coming to arrest them.