The Back-up Plan/ Warehouse 13/ names

May 9 The Back- up Plan: I'm experiencing writer's block. So I'm going to write about other works. I read a review about the movie The Back- up Plan. It turns out the writer who wrote it, wrote sitcoms. The reviewer said that person should stick with writing shorter pieces. That sounds like advice I get from the Writers in Residence at the Edmonton Public Library.

Another review dissed it saying it was unrealistic. Whenever someone says: "I have something important I want to tell you", you don't go and say: "But first, I want to show you my cheese collection." That's what happened in the movie.

I will give this movie points that the lead woman works with animals instead of in the fashion industry like all those other romantic comedies have women work at so they would have nice clothes. I remember Natalie Portman said that.

Warehouse 13: This is a new show that airs on Friday nights. It's co- created by Buffy writer Jane Espenson. She wrote good funny Buffy episodes like "Superstar" where Jonathan becomes the hero of Sunnydale. Though she did write a poor episode "Double Meat Palace" where Buffy gets a job at the fast food place.

The show is supernatural. It's kind of like The X-Files with two FBI agents solving mysteries. You got the straight-laced Myka who is played by Canadian Joanne Kelly. I've seen her in the Canadian TV movie Selling Innocence. She played a bad guy who later redeems herself.

Her partner on the show is played Eddie McClintock. He plays Pete, the fun guy. Saul Rubineck plays the brains of the operation Artie. He runs a warehouse out in the desert called Warehouse 13. It houses all these supernatural items. There are already a few episodes out. It's an average show. I'm watching it due to the loyalty I have of Buffy writers.

Unlike when I saw Dollhouse, created by Buffy creator Joss Whedon. I have a loyalty, but I also found that show to be really good. I watch other shows with the writers like David Greenwalt. He created the short-lived show Jake 2.0. It's sci-fi and it was average to me. There was the show Wonderfalls and it was created by Angel writer Tim Minear. It was average, and short-lived.

I think this show is shot in Canada because I already saw three Canadian actors play the smaller roles on this show. I saw Simon Reynold's (Jude's dad from Canadian show Instant Star) play one of the supporting characters. He's like a boss to the agents.

Desperate Housewives: I liked that the show fast-forwarded 5 years into the future so there could be more story lines. Let's show the kids become teenagers. But I don't know if you noticed this, there are certainly more flashbacks over the 5 years that we didn't see. That's fine, because this show has always been consistently good.

Stay positive: I'm over getting let go from Call Centre #4. I also can look back at Call Centre #3, and think that this supervisor got laid off too. He's the one who told me to: "Lie your ass off (to get completes)."

Etsy.com: I was told about this website from my friend Jessica. She's the one who's planning on making jewelry and selling them. It's a good arts and crafts website to check out. I realized it would be good for Mother's Day, though it's today and it's kind of late by the time I send this weekly email/ blog post out.

May 10 South Park: I was watching South Park, and Cartman hides his cat in the attic.

Cartman: Here's a journal so you can write in.
I laughed out loud at that shout out to Anne Frank.

Then they made a shout out to Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." I remember reading this for school way back in gr.8. They're supposed to stone this woman. A woman hands this little boy a rock.

On South Park, people were taking pictures of Britney Spears. A woman hands a little boy a camera as a way to kill her. They were taking pictures of BS, as a way to stone her.

Then there was a towel who wrote a story called A Million Little Fibres. Then he goes on Oprah which is a direct shout out to James Frey and his book A Million Little Pieces. However, I didn't really like the episode because it was about Oprah and not about the 4 boys.

Little joke: I was watching Jay Leno and they made fun of Goldman and Sachs who are being investigated for fraud.

The camera pan to the executives, and then it stops at Mr. Burns from The Simpsons!
The audience laughs.

May 11 Writing: This is a mild rant. I emailed Chris Craddock my The Hunter script. He gave me a few lines in the email. The thing is I know this all just bits and pieces of scenes. It's not like the completed script The Fighter or even the 60 page script Rain. I could look at things negatively or I can turn it into something positive. Next time I send Chris something, I will send him a complete script.

Compelling plot: I thought of this term when I was reading about TV in the Globe and Mail. The article said that Accidentally on Purpose may get canceled because it doesn't really have a compelling plot. It's a sitcom, and most sitcoms don't have that.

However, dramas do like Flash Forward. What if the whole world blacked out for 2 min and saw their lives 6 months into the future? Doesn't that sound interesting? Or Lost about a group of survivors that land on an island where their plane crashed. Will they be rescued?

EI: I got $342 from EI deposited into my bank account today. That's way more than last time where I only got $145.

Fat burger: This is the name of the restaurant that's taking over my old Soup place. That's like A&W's burger called "chubby chicken." I feel like Jay Leno is saying: "How fat are we getting?"

Names: In summer 2007, I met my manager named Aziz. Then in 2009, there is the actor Aziz Ansari on the TV sitcom Parks and Recreation. Then I was watching The Bridge, and one of the characters name is Aziz. I named a restaurant manager in my Rain script Aziz.

I was reminded of an old character name Twitch. It was back in 2001-2002 and he was supposed to be a bad boy. I think I was trying to be like The Matrix with their names. I remembered it because I was watching South Park and there was a character named Tweek. He drank a lot of coffee and was always jittery and twitching.

I haven't thought of that name Twitch and the script in years. It was never as developed as my other scripts I wrote.

Kingsway: I went to Kingsway mall and saw the new store Teopia. It sells tea and tea pots. I also saw a sleeping parrot which I have never seen before. I saw a Lamb- Chop puppet. You know Shari Lewis had her TV show called Lamb- Chop's Play-a- long? I watched it when I was a kid. Though SL did die of cancer.

Break: I took a break from my job search for a few days because I secured another call centre job. We'll see how this one goes before I resume the job search again.

May 12: I was reading my horoscopes and it said: "If the goal you are pursuing is a goal others have persuaded you to aim for it's unlikely to lead to happiness."

The astrologer Sally Brompton put it so eloquently. My friends like Leslie have said: "Your parents tell you what to do, but what do YOU want to do?"