script/ my voice on tape/ advice column

Feb. 26 Script: So my co-workers know me as a writer/ blogger.  One of them asked about my script that I've been writing.  I told him about the beginning of Rain. He did ask some good questions like: "Why does she do something risky?  For a friend?  Maybe if it was family." That reminds me of the new movie Snitch with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.  He has to help the FBI so his innocent son doesn't spend 10 yrs in jail.  Feb. 27 Feedback: Today my co-worker K read the first 10 pages of my script.  He did give some really good feedback.  I was just reading in the Globe and Mail business section of the newspaper about asking for feedback.  Don't ask: "Do you like it?"  Ask: "How can I improve it?" He said things like how he liked the character Rain, but he didn't like this other character who is supposed to be likeable.  My voice on tape: I was working at the call centre and I heard my calls.  I didn't recognize my voice.  I was thinking: "Do I really sound like that on the phone?"  I remember hearing my voice while watching a video I made recently, and I was surprised by my voice. It brought a flashback of 2010 when I was at Call Centre #5 and I heard my voice.  It even reminds me of The Simpsons when the bus driver Otto moved in with the family. Bart: Mom said Otto can stay with us.  I have it on tape. Bart plays the tape. Bart: Mom, can Otto live in the garage? Bart (pretending to be Marge): Yes. Homer: Marge, how could you? Marge: That is not me. Homer: That is what they always say when they hear their voice on tape. Feb. 28: This morning I went to work, and K actually typed up his notes and his story idea for what he saw the Rain script coming to.  I thought it was good and interesting.  It was his action story idea.  It did have some things that I have thought of for other scripts and what you see in action movies in general.  K thought of kidnapping, dirty cop, etc. Mar. 1 Writer in Residence: I emailed Omar yesterday to see if he read the pages I sent him a few weeks ago.  He said he's been really busy and will email me back in a week. I feel so sure about my script that I actually printed it on scrap paper.  There was a time back in 2009, I completed 60 pages of it, and I didn't print it.  I didn't think it was good enough. It turns out K went to political science in college, and didn't take creative writing.  However, he writes a lot for college assignments. Writer's break: For the past month I've been working a lot, like 48 hrs a week.  I do get evenings off and on Sat. I only work in the mornings until 12pm.  After that I have the entire day off.  I work on Sun., but sometimes they need me until 12pm or all afternoon.  Anyway, I was so busy, I didn't work much on my script for a month so I got a break from it.  I go back to my script and see some things I didn't notice. Hackers: I already wrote about hackers before: http://badcb.blogspot.ca/2011/06/liz-murray-post-secret-hackers.html I have thought maybe there could be a hacker storyline, but it's not very good.  Do you want to watch a story of a character learning how to be a hacker?  You can't show that because if viewers are watching it, then they would learn how to do something illegal. It's also not very interesting watching someone sit in front of a computer typing.  There are a lot of movies where people learn skills and it's interesting to watch.  Movies: For example: Never Back Down is a movie where a guy learns MMA and it's interesting to see him learn how to fight.  In the movie Take the Lead, you watch a man teach inner city school kids how to dance.  You can see the characters learning and it's entertaining. TV shows: I also don't like how there is always a character on TV shows and movies and they all do something really tech savvy like it's magical.  Someone is a hacker and that person can help the good guy gain access to a building, etc. I think I will give a pass to stories like on Criminal Minds, the FBI team has Garcia.  She is able to extract all this information because she's part of the FBI.  She can access criminal records, school records, and all sorts of things that aren't available to the public.  I will also give a pass to Marshall on Alias because he was working for the CIA. School: I have a question: How do you become a hacker?  Where do you go to school?  Well I'm sure you go to some computer program, and then hackers teach other people on how to hack.  How do you enter the FBI or CIA as a techie? I did some research and there is NAIT's Computer Systems Technology. http://www.nait.ca/program_home_26138.htm Mar. 5 Advice column: I was reading David Eddie's advice column in the Globe and Mail on Fri. Mar. 1, 2013.  This guy writes in about how he makes a friend and then the friend invites him to a: "'wellness seminar'.  This turns out to be a network marketing scheme (usually involving expensive vitamins and food settlements) that they want me to join as a new customer/ salesperson, to claim the rewards of signing me up." He says he's rich and wants to know how he can prevent this from happening to him all the time.  The short version of David's advice is say "No" and "Thank you."  He goes on: "I think you'll find, with practice, it's a syllable that becomes easier and easier to utter each time and can be both liberating and empowering." Me: Yeah, I agree with the last.  I learned to say no a lot as a kid because I didn't like doing things I didn't want to do.  I have to learn that in DARE: Drug Abuse Resistance Education and peer pressure. Advice: My friend Leslie had said: "Do you want to know why you get so angry watching Dr. Phil and Maury?  It's because you take it too personal." My Counselor even said to me: "The QTIP rule.  Quit Taking It Personally." When someone cuts you off in traffic, I'm sure that the other driver isn't thinking of: "How can I get someone really angry on the road today?"  They're probably thinking of themselves and of their destination and not you.  I have to tell the above guy to not take those scams personally.  I'm 27, not rich, and I have experienced that scam 3 times already. Scams: 1. 2005: I was 20yrs old and was exposed to this the first time.  My dad tells me it's a scam. 2. 2010: I was unemployed and emailed all my friends from college about looking for a job.  One of my Writing friends emailed me about a "business opportunity."  I didn't think "scam" right away.  I just said: "No, I want a job where I can go to work, work, get paid, and go home."  That's it.  It's not until a couple yrs later, I asked her about it and she said she had to work so hard on it and didn't make much money. 3. 2012: One of my friends from high school says he made lots of money like thousands of dollars and paid off his student loans.  I asked for a website to go to, but he told me I should talk to someone about it.  I gave it a shot and talked to a guy for 30min.  Kind of sounded like a scam. That then lead me to the Writing friend who told what me what it was when I emailed her.  The thing is, these scams are so prolific, it's unusual if you didn't experience this.