safety/ long shot/ blog

Dec. 15 Safety: Here are some safety tips I got from Cosmopolitan.

1. Think like the hunter, not the prey. That will instantly build confidence and make you more alert.
2. Always take the same route home. You would then be able to pick up on something different.
3. Have an escape plan. Know the business to run into for help, and the exits.
4. Look at body language: "subtley clenched fists, reddening face, heaving chest, flaring nostrils."

Writing: I was watching The Hills the other day. Let's for a moment think that this is a reality show, and not written. I've been told by a professional reader, a producer, and my friend Ray to work on the dialogue in my script. Say The Hills is how people talk in real life. The dialogue on the show isn't that good, but it's how people talk.

Dec. 16 Job: Today the Soup place called and I worked there for 4.5hrs. I still got a shift at the call centre so that's good.

Dec. 17 News: I was reading in 24 about how a 17-yr-old girl who texted the police after a sexual assault. The police were able to catch the bad guy really soon afterward. The rapist was actually doing door-to-door sales, so be careful about answering the door. I think I read a couple of stories where people did text people during a kidnapping and all that. Way to go technology.

Long shot: Yesterday I took a long shot by applying for an intern position at this publishing company. I was going through my school email and I decided to send in my resume and writing samples. It's the saying: "You miss all the shots you never take." I thought about how I wouldn't get a job at a big company, and then I did. Then it didn't work out because I wasn't good at it, but it was proof that I could get one.

Today I'm going to take another long shot. I'm going to email this TV producer again. He gave me the short answer of no, but he did say my main competition is that there are a lot of fight movies out there. I'm going to convince him that my movie is different from the others.

CSI: NY: It's sweeps, so they had 3 big guest-stars like MTV host Vanessa Minnello, reality star Kim Kardashian, and music artist Pat Monahan. After I saw the ep, I realized I read about this crime before in the newspaper a long time ago. It turns out VM and KK pick up a homeless guy off the street, and help him get off the street. Give him a good apartment, nice designer clothes, and jewelery.

One of the woman pretends to fall in love with him, buy life insurance for them. A couple of years later, they go and kill him and make it look like an accident. The women then are the beneficiaries of the life insurance. PM was going to be the next victim. I remember in the newspaper two women did the same thing, but they were in their 40s and 50s. They don't pretend to fall in love with the men though.

Saying: At the end of CSI: NY, there was a saying (paraphrasing):"Temptation will always ring the doorbell, but opportunity only knocks."

Guilt: The other day my shift was canceled. Today I got a call from work to go in when it's my day off. I went in, and basically I was there for 2hrs reading the newspaper. I guess I could have stayed longer, because I was getting paid. There was something wrong with the project, because for 2hrs, the people in charge were trying to get it fixed. The numbers we're getting we're already finished surveys. I went home instead so I could eat pizza.

Food is tempting. Last night I thought Criminal Minds was a repeat, but it turns out it was new and I missed it. I was so mad. I got home today and was able to catch it at 6pm, and it wasn't on any other time today. I also wanted to watch a new ep of The Mentalist.

The pros are that I did work for 2 hrs and get paid for it. My sister said that I would be getting paid for another hour too because something about the Legislation saying that. So yay for me.

Jonathan Torrens: The last time I saw this actor was in a drinking and driving education video over the summer during my driver's ed. He has his own TV show TV with Jonathan Torrens. I read about it in the paper. The other day I checked it out. The episode was how he analyzed news magazine shows like 20/20, and Dateline.

He is funny as usual. He gushes about how he has a crush on the host Elizabeth Vargas from 20/20. He asks: "What's the point of these shows? To scare us?" I find these shows are informative, interesting, and entertaining. Usually after an ep, I write about it in my weekly email/ blog.

20/20: The other episode I saw, they talked about how tanning salons are bad. Dermatologists say if you want to tan, do it naturally with the sun. You can get skin cancer by the tanning salon. You can also get skin cancer from the sun, but wear your sunscreen and moderate how much.

Host: How much time is enough when going into a tanning salon?
Dermatologist: Zero.

There was also this website that advertised self-injections to your face. Don't do it. They showed a video of a woman injecting stuff into her face like botox, and she looked like she knew what she was doing. There were interviews with three women who did it, and there were bad allergic reactions to it.

A doctor said by putting the needle in the wrong place, could result in blindness. I remember way back in 2004, I watched the show Growing up Gotti, about Victoria Gotti (daughter of mob boss John Gotti), and her three teenage sons. She went to the doctor to put botox in her face, and when I was watching it, I was cringing. I remember her assistant Jen was crying when she saw the procedure.

Dateline SNL: I was watching Saturday Night Live and they did a parody. What if the host of Dateline: To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen got to be a late night host? It was so funny. They really got CH's personality down. CH was interviewing celebrities like how he was interviewing internet predators.

CH had the same tone of voice, and was asking questions like the celebs did something wrong by appearing on this late night talk show. CH confronts them with an email: "You said you're just here to talk? Or are you here for something else? I have an email from a producer that says you're here to plug your new movie."

Blog: I was reading in The Globe and Mail about how a person started a blog, and two months later got a book deal. Look at me, two years later, and still no book deal. I advertise my blog on my Facebook status update. I told the TV producer John and he read at least one entry.

Tip 1: "Write about something that interests you." I got that down by writing about my life, TV, and movies.

2: "Don't over promote." "People can honestly see when you're trying to do something to do something else." I was upfront to John about it. I told him that the Juno writer Diablo Cody wrote a blog, got discovered, wrote Juno, and now she's a successful screenwriter. That's where I want to be at.

3: "Post your email address." I just did that right now.

4: "Resist get- rich quick offers." You may get money to put ads on your site, but you could wait until later when you get even a bigger check from someone else. Jessica Hagy wanted her site to be ad-free, and the she got a bigger check from Viking than she would have from previous ad offers.

5: "Don't be picky with media." Do interviews for small blogs and media. Eventually big media will find out about you. Here's my Christmas present you can give me, that doesn't cost anything. The tips are email all your friends to go to my blog called www.badcb.blogspot.com.

Say this in your email:

"Hi, I have a friend named Tracy Au and she wants to be a screenwriter. Go check out her blog at www.badcb.blogspot.com. She writes about TV, movies, funny things she saw or heard, or things that happened in her life. After you read it, tell all your friends about it too. Thanks."