I got this from Amnesty International:
Dear Tracy,
Right now Amnesty activists are asking tough questions about the killing machines known as drones. This month we launched a cross-country "Game of Drones" tour and we're training student activists from coast to coast to increase the pressure on legislators to prevent unlawful killings. On October 31, we're planning a massive drone die-in action in Los Angeles, California. You can take part. Donate $25 today and we'll add a symbolic placard for you during the mass action. At each stop on the tour, we host a screening of the acclaimed Sundance Award-winning documentary Dirty Wars. Then, expert Amnesty organizers facilitate a training with student activists. Finally, we mobilize those activists to pressure legislators to rein in the killer drone program and ensure accountability for unlawful killings through innovative mass actions like the drone-die in. Training activists is the heart and soul of Amnesty's work. Please donate and symbolically take part. We'll send you a photo of the action with placards. As part of the tour, we just released a major report, "Will I Be Next?: US Drone Strikes in Pakistan" that documents alleged unlawful killings. We're working to publicize our findings and raise awareness about the killings. We'll keep you posted on our progress in the weeks ahead. Thank you for all that you do to fight for human rights. Sincerely, Zeke Johnson Director, Security & Human Rights Program Amnesty International USA |
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Game of Drones: The bus is coming
This girl deserves the truth
I got this from Amnesty International:
https://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/site/c.6oJCLQPAJiJUG/b.6662481/k.2BA2/Donate_Now/apps/ka/sd/donorcustom.asp?msource=W1311EDSHR2
https://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/site/c.6oJCLQPAJiJUG/b.6662481/k.2BA2/Donate_Now/apps/ka/sd/donorcustom.asp?msource=W1311EDSHR2
Dear Tracy,
Why did the U.S. government kill Nabeela's grandmother? At age 8, Nabeela Bibi witnessed the unimaginable horror of a U.S. drone blowing her grandmother, Mamana Bibi, to pieces. Last week, she and her brother and father traveled over 7,000 miles to tell their painful story to Congress. Nabeela had to relive that terrifying day all over again. Adding insult to injury, the Washington Post reports that only 5 members of Congress bothered to show up. Today, I'm asking you to help this child and her family seek the truth. Donate to Amnesty International so that we can help Nabeela and her family find out why the U.S. killed their beloved Mamana and defend human rights worldwide. In the past few weeks I've crisscrossed the country building a movement to raise awareness about Mamana's case and rein in the killer drone program. It's been incredible to watch people learn about the secrecy and devastation of the U.S. government's drone program. Every evening, I look at a photo of Nabeela, and I am appalled at the suffering this child has endured. And I vow to help this little girl get the answers she deserves. We're taking this fight to President Obama and Congress until they tell the truth, and there is justice for Nabeela and others like her. Make an urgent donation today to support this important human rights work and help us create the level of public pressure needed to prevent illegal killings. What will it take to make the government talk about these attacks? We must make our cry for justice louder and more powerful than the drones. Amnesty has a plan to kick this movement into high gear, but we can't take it to the next level without you. Follow Nabeela's lead — stand up for human rights. This is your chance to make a difference. In solidarity, Kalaya'an Mendoza National Youth Program Coordinator Amnesty International USA |
Afghan Film Project/ Meet the Fokkens/ J. Cole's "Crooked Smile"
Oct. 30: I found this article in the Edmonton Journal on Feb.8, 2013. I was looking for inspiration. It talks about two Afghan boys who are in a movie about two boys who want to become buzkashi players. It’s like polo players. It was inspirational to read about two boys who sell maps and dictionaries, are now in a movie.
http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=78495d55-4728-4578-86e4-5c6dc7c28a3f
A tale with a Hollywood ending
Kabul boys in Oscar-nominated Afghan film to walk red carpet
Kim Gamel, The Associated Press
Published: Friday, February 08
It will also be his first time out of the country and his first time on a plane.
Mohammadi was plucked from the dingy streets of the Afghan capital to be one of the main stars of Buzkashi Boys, a coming-of-age movie filmed entirely in a war zone and nominated in the Best Live Action Short Film category.
The movie is about two young boys who are best friends and
dream of becoming professional players of buzkashi, a particularly rough and
dangerous game that somewhat resembles polo: Horseback riders wrangle to get a
headless goat carcass into a circular goal at one end of the field.
It's also part of an American director's effort to help revive a film
industry devastated by decades of civil war and by the Taliban, an Islamic
fundamentalist movement that banned entertainment and burned films and theatres
during its five years in power.Philadelphia native Sam French, who's lived in Afghanistan for about five years, said his 28-minute movie was initially a way to train local film industry workers - the first instalment in his non-profit Afghan Film Project.
"We never dreamed of having the film come this far and get an Oscar nomination," French, 36, said from Los Angeles, where he's preparing for the Feb. 24 Oscars and raising money to fly the two young co-stars in for the ceremony.
The two boys playing the main characters - Moham-madi and Jawanmard Paiz - can barely contain their excitement.
"It will be a great honour for me and for Afghanistan to meet the world's most famous actors," said Mohammadi, whose real-life dream is to become a pilot.
The farthest Mohammadi has ever travelled was to the northern Afghan city of Maz-ar-i-Sharif. Mohammadi's father died a few years ago, leaving him with his mother, five brothers and a sister.
He started selling chewing gum when he was about seven and soon expanded his trade to maps and dictionaries.
In the movie Mohammadi plays the blacksmith's son, Rafi, whose father wants him to follow in his footsteps.
Afghan Film Project: The article mentions this, so I went to the website. It’s inspirational. They are a non-profit organization that tells Aghan stories and create the Afghanistan’s film industry. You can email them and donate to them.
This sounds like a really good organization. However, I don’t have a story that would fit for this company. Check out the website, it’s good.
It’s like charity, but it’s film-related.
Meet the Fokkens: I found this movie review in the
Edmonton Journal on Mar. 22, 2013. It’s called “Sex workers’ tale
bittersweet.” The movie Meet the Fokkens
is a documentary. It got 4 stars out of
5. It’s about Louise Fokken and Martine
Fokken who are 69 yr old identical twins and work as prostitutes. Louise’s abusive husband got her into
prostitution by beating her up and putting her in the red-light district to
make money. Martine followed out of
anger and loyalty. Martine is still
working as one, but Lousie quit because she got arthritis. When asked if they would ever do it again,
they said never.
My opinion: I want to educate and entertain in my
writing. When I write my script, I did
want to teach the audience something and make it interesting. I want to inspire them. I remember watching a Rookie Blue
episode, and I was thinking: “I don’t want to make people cry. I want to make people feel.”
Nov. 1 Literary editor: I have a lot of clutter, but
it’s mainly newspaper clippings. I
usually type them up in my emails /blog, and then I recycle them. I do keep some articles because they are so
good.
On my Jun. 2, 2012
blog post, I wrote about “Editor’s joke.”
On that post:
I was going through my newspaper articles and I found this
from the National Post. On the Weekend Post edition there
is a books section. Here's a little article from Apr. 30, 2011.
I only typed up a couple of lines. Here is the entire article:
“Instead the editor, having read 17 things this morning, keeps going, thinking: A run-on sentence in the first line! Oh no, another story with the character waking up hung-over and getting a phone call. Why must they flash back before anything interesting happens? That isn’t really funny. We don’t publish travel articles. Does no one read the guidelines? This one gets good in the middle, but then the character just sits down and thinks about stuff. Wonderful minor character but the main one is self-pitying. Almost. Good scene. Pretty good. Not quite. Please can’t somebody just dazzle me so I can pick something and stop this?”
I then looked it up on the internet, and it turns out the
above paragraph that was published in the National Post is part of a way
longer blog post here:
I didn’t read it, because I’m not submitting to literary
magazines. I will now recycle the article.
Nov. 4 Crooked Smile: I was watching this music video
“Crooked Smile” by J. Cole feat. TLC. I
have heard of the song before and I like it because I like TLC. I then caught the last half of this video on
TV. It was so good. I had to watch the whole thing on the
internet. I was impressed. It’s a short film by Sheldon Candis, what it
says in the beginning. It’s a 5:36 sec video.
There is a really good story to it. J. Cole plays a father and he is a drug
dealer. A white guy is playing a father
and he is a DEA agent. J. Cole is
celebrating his 4 yr old daughter’s birthday by having cake and a little party
in the backyard with his wife, and father.
The DEA agent is with his other officers and they bust down
the house. The little girl gets
accidentally shot. I really felt
something there. The music turns into an
organ music and we see the girl in heaven.
J. Cole is sitting in the cop car, with tears in his eyes.
The ending says “For Aiyana Stanley-Jones. And please consider your war on drugs. A message from J. Cole.” The comments were that it made them cry.
My opinion: I really like this video. There is a good story, there was emotion and
I felt something when watching it. Great
production. I was going to put this in
the fun email, but I think it belongs in the writing email because of the
story.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
The Listener/ Tori Kelly/ self-deprecating and funny
Oct. 30 The Listener: I
was checking to see if anyone made any comments on my blog and someone did on
my Aug. 14, 2009 post
“job search/ birthday/ motivation.” I
wrote this:
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."
Anonymous say: the tattoo in The Listener is an Ankh, an
Egyptian hieroglyph that means "life" ;)
I Google it, and here it
says Ankh means life.
Lasik MD: One of my co-workers got laser eye vision. I thought I would check it out since it’s a
free consultation at City Centre mall.
The receptionist was really professional and gave me this folder with
brochures and information. The
consultation would be 2-3hrs long. The
brochure says the process results is “corneal shape that is closer to the
normal curvature of the natural eye.”
The people who would
benefit it are people with higher-than-average prescription, thinner- than-
average corneas.
I read about the
important question I want answered: “Can I become blind?” It says there are 1.4 million procedures per
yr in the USA, and 140,000 procedures done in Canada. From
infection with scarring is 1/50,000.
I thought about it, and
it’s an elective surgery. I don’t 100%
need or want perfect vision. Maybe when
I’m really old and my eye sight gets really bad, then I will think about it.
Nov. 4 Neighbors:
I was on Facebook, and one of my NAIT friends complained about her neighbors
parking in her parking spot. My friend
has a young kid who can’t walk, so it’s an inconvenience. One of the comments from her friend was that
there was a time, she had that experience too.
She pulled up her car from across the street, and asked her neighbors to
carry the groceries into her house because she was carrying a baby. The neighbors helped her and were
apologetic. They really didn’t think
about where they parked their car and how it affected the neighbors.
Tori Kelly: I found this great song cover of Michael
Jackson’s “PYT”. Here is Tori Kelly
singing and playing her acoustic guitar.
She’s got a great voice:
Here’s her singing Justin
Timberlake: “Suit and Tie”:
My name: I was checking out names for characters and I
found this good website called www.sheknows.com. They tell you about the meaning and the
origin. They also tell you about the
“SoulUrge” number and “Expression” number that tells you about your
personality.
The name Tracy is a baby boy name.
Rate this name:
This name has 0 vote.
Anglo-Saxon Meaning:
The name Tracy is an Anglo-Saxon baby name. In Anglo-Saxon the meaning of the name Tracy is: Brave.
The name Tracy is an Anglo-Saxon baby name. In Anglo-Saxon the meaning of the name Tracy is: Brave.
American Meaning:
The name Tracy is an American baby name. In American the meaning of the name Tracy is: Brave.
The name Tracy is an American baby name. In American the meaning of the name Tracy is: Brave.
Latin Meaning:
The name Tracy is a Latin baby name. In Latin the meaning of the name Tracy is: Bold.
The name Tracy is a Latin baby name. In Latin the meaning of the name Tracy is: Bold.
Greek Meaning:
The name Tracy is a Greek baby name. In Greek the meaning of the name Tracy is: Harvester.
The name Tracy is a Greek baby name. In Greek the meaning of the name Tracy is: Harvester.
English Meaning:
The name Tracy is an English baby name. In English the meaning of the name Tracy is: From Thracia. Surname dating from before the Norman conquest.
The name Tracy is an English baby name. In English the meaning of the name Tracy is: From Thracia. Surname dating from before the Norman conquest.
French Meaning:
The name Tracy is a French baby name. In French the meaning of the name Tracy is: From Thracia. Surname dating from before the Norman conquest.
The name Tracy is a French baby name. In French the meaning of the name Tracy is: From Thracia. Surname dating from before the Norman conquest.
SoulUrge Number: 1
People with this name have a deep inner desire to use their
abilities in leadership, and to have personal independence. They would rather
focus on large, important issues, and delegate the details.
Expression Number: 22
People with this name tend to be a powerful force to all
whose lives they touch. They are capable, charismatic leaders who often
undertake large endeavors with great success. They value truth, justice, and
discipline, and may be quick-tempered with those who do not. If they fail to
develop their potential, they may become impractical and rigid.
Nov. 4 Self-deprecating
and funny:
Comedy Network: Here’s one from a stand-up comedian on Comedy
Network. It was back in 2000.
Comedian: So the other
day I bought a box of condoms
There is a pause.
A guy in the audience says:
“Ow, yeah!”
There is a pause.
Comedian: Because my last
one was expired.
The audience laughs.
Andrew Bush: This was from 1999. I was watching the TV show Street Cents and
the host Andrew Bush was ranting about Levi’s jeans.
Bush: The Levi’s jeans
have these yellow lines on the back pockets that don’t bring anything. At least with cargo pants there are these big
pockets where you can put a bunch of stuff in them. C’mon, I used to wear sweat pants up until I
was in gr. 9. I also wore suspenders too
so people won’t pull them down.
The Simpsons: Groundskeeper Willy does a stand-up comedy
routine for the talent show, and he tells a few jokes. No one laughs so he gets angry and lashes out
at the audience.
Willy: Oh is that
it? You don’t think Willy is funny
unless he’s on his hands and knees cleaning up your kid’s puke?!
The audience laughs.
Willy: Oh, thank you
everybody, you’ve been a great audience!
Feedback: I feel like Groundskeeper Willy from the above
scene. I send 3 weekly emails and no one
replies. I like feedback. It’s been about 5 days since I sent that
“Sears/ effort quotes/ charity work” email asking for my friends (and blog
readers) if there are any ways I should go in my career and life.
I remember the days of
2005-2006 where I send like 3 little emails every day. That’s a lot and one of my friends told me to
stop sending so many emails. I knew I
was getting kind of annoying with it so I decided to send 2 emails a week. So that was more manageable. It was in 2006 “The Year of Anger Management”
where I got laid off from Call Centre #1 and I was feeling angry, lonely, and
bored so that’s why I wrote so much.
I wanted the
instantaneous feedback from my friends.
Well, I got to get over it and get used to the fact that there is only a
little feedback here and there. Like I
may get a reply from my friend Sherry once every one or two weeks depending on
the topic. There was that one time I did
send an important email asking: “Is this job a scam?” and my friends Sherry,
Angela, and Leslie all said it was. Or
that other one where I asked the same question about a different job, and
Sherry and Leslie said it seemed legit.
I do like feedback
because there are some things that I have no idea about. For example like that time I accidentally offended
my friend and she said she didn’t like how I leave messages on her phone
expecting her to be there at the time of a Sat. afternoon. Or that time way back in 2006 my friend
Jessica said my 2 weekly emails are too long.
So I adjust accordingly:
Don’t leave messages on this person’s phone and don’t make my emails so long.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
job interviews/ TV news/ Make Something Edmonton
Oct. 28 Job interviews:
Hair salon: I did a job interview last week. I
think it went well. I arrived on time and looked nice. I think I
can do the job
and can learn it. There are 2 days and 2 nights to work, and 1 weekend
day alternating.
Pros:
1. It's a stepping stone. If
I work at this receptionist position for a long time, I can put this on my
resume. I can stay with the company
long-term and grow within it and learn.
2. The pay is fine, and I have to
pay half of my benefits and the company pays the other half.
3. I can still work at the
restaurant one day a week.
4. The latest that I would have to
stay is 9pm or 9:15pm.
Spa: I did an interview here. It was a holistic spa. The hours were part-time. Two shifts ended at 8pm. It was kind of far where I had to take a bus and an LRT to get there. It was a little New Age.
Oct. 30 Journalism: Yesterday I talked to my friend Dan L. on the phone and I told him about journalism. I didn’t even say the Grandpa Simpson joke: “The newspaper?! That’s going to die before I do!” He said he had a friend who is a great writer for the Metro, and she got laid off. Then I told him what Grandpa Simpson said.
TV news: I thought: “How about TV news?” I went to CBC’s website, and to see if there are any jobs in Edmonton. There are only 3 jobs in Edmonton. Two of them are a TV host. If you want to be a TV host, you have to a degree. Here’s what it says on the website:
“We're looking for a candidate with the following:
- A university degree or equivalent.
- Five years of comparable and relevant experience that demonstrates knowledge of the broadcasting industry and an understanding and awareness of issues and events particular to the region and/or the type of program being hosted.
- Excellent reporting, interviewing and writing skills.
- Ability to present material with creditability and authority in a range of situations.
- Ability to generate lively discussion on air.
- Superb analytical skills and ability to make complex subjects easily understood.
- A strong presentation style and ease with live coverage.
- Ability to generate original and innovative material.
- A demonstrated ability to originate new story ideas and establish a track record in breaking news stories and gather information from a variety of sources.
- Ability to work effectively under pressure and deadlines.
- Strong interpersonal and team playing skills as well as creativity and flexibility
- Ability to work various shifts and overtime”
My opinion: The question is this: “What did you think being a TV news host would require?” I don’t know. I didn’t think you would need a degree. I did think there would be a lot of pressure, deadlines, various shifts and overtime. “Ability to generate original and innovative material” sounds like being a writer.
The other job they’re hiring for is a switcher/director.
24 News: I’m sure all of you know about 24 News closing some of their newspapers like the one in Edmonton. On Aug. 3, 2013, the 24 newspaper box at my bus stop was removed.
Nov. 4 Law office: I did a job interview at a little job office last
week. I was kind of debating if I should
go to it. I had to wake up at around 5am so I could get to work early because the other
department needed me. I also woke up at 12:30am because I needed to use the washroom and I couldn’t
get back to sleep.
The job was also a temporary 1 week job. I was putting obstacles in front of myself. I decided to go to it, because if I didn’t I
would always think: “What if?” I was
curious to see the place. I went there
and I did impress the interviewer. She saw
my resume and said: “Oh, you speak Cantonese?”
The duties were answer phones, and take
payments. I did learn that there would
be confrontational people I would be dealing with, even though we would be
helping them.
She said that she would call all the interviewees
back, because the job was to start really soon.
I did get a call and she said that I didn’t get hired because they were
looking for someone with some law experience.
That’s okay.
I did not anticipate she would ask the question if I knew anything about
law. The only thing that came to my mind
was that I did take Legal Issues for Writers as an elective in Professional
Writing and Tort law came to my mind. If
I did say that, she would ask: “What is Tort Law?” And I would have to say: “Uh, I think it’s
about domestic issues?” So I didn’t say
that at all because I wasn’t 100% sure what is Tort Law.
I went to Wikipedia:
A
tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a civil wrong[1] which
unfairly causes someone else to suffer loss or harm resulting in legal
liability for the person who commits the tortious act, called a tortfeasor.
Although crimes
may be torts, the cause of legal action is not necessarily a crime as
the harm may be due to negligence which does not amount to criminal negligence. The victim of the harm can
recover their loss as damages in a lawsuit. In order to prevail, the plaintiff in
the lawsuit must show that the actions or lack of action was the legally
recognizable cause of the harm. The equivalent of tort in civil law jurisdictions is delict.
Make
Something Edmonton: I was reading the Edmonton Journal and found
this ad. I went to the website because
it sounded like there could be jobs there:
In 2012, then-Mayor Stephen Mandel asked Amy Shostak and Chris LaBossiere to assemble and lead a group of volunteers to find a single, uniting story we can all tell about Edmonton. The story arrived quickly. Amy and Chris decided to inspire, encourage and provoke Edmontonians to prove it, in multiple ways, to do what they had always done and what they had always most loved about the city. They invited Edmontonians with ideas for community projects, business startups, festivals and events to just do it. Make Something Edmonton would be a place to inspire, collect and celebrate new projects.
Do. Participate. Ask for help. Help.”
A: Edmontonians love it here. But if you ask them, they have trouble saying why. We need to change this, and it starts with giving Edmontonians like you a compelling story you can tell about this place, proudly and confidently. That's what Make Something Edmonton does: it gives you a focal point and a common language to tell our story and confidently answer the question, "Why Edmonton?"
My opinion: I went through the website, and it’s
good. Though I don’t see any jobs. If you have a small business, you can send it
to them.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Twitter sensation Kelly Oxford hooks Hollywood
Oct. 30: In June, 26, 2012, I found the Edmonton Journal article “Calgary blogger finds Hollywood Success” by Nicole Sperling. I had to cut it out, because it was what I aspired to. I’m going to cut out the headline “blogger finds Hollywood Success.” I bolded the parts that inspired me.
“She tried a screenwriting seminar but realized that at 19, she had no life experience to draw on.”
Me: I’ve been writing scripts since I was 14 yrs old, and I
didn’t have a lot of life experience. I
just watched a lot of TV and read a lot of books. I knew what I wanted to read or watch, so I
wrote it. So here’s the article:
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/19/entertainment/la-et-twitter-oxford-20120619/2
Twitter sensation Kelly Oxford hooks Hollywood
Social media's quippy queen Kelly Oxford goes from tweeting to screenwriting on the strength of her posts, snagging a book deal and reeling in Hollywood fans like Jimmy Kimmel.
June 19, 2012|By Nicole Sperling, Los Angeles Time
|
|
|
From a snow-crested corner of Alberta, Canada, Kelly Oxford made her Hollywood screenwriting dream come true. She did it without leaving her close-knit family or giving up her free nationalized healthcare. She did it without toiling in Westside coffee shops or confronting painful rejections.
She did it 140 characters at a time.
Oxford, a suburban housewife and mother of three, is a Twitter superstar (@kellyoxford), with more than 350,000 followers. Oscar winners, late-night talk show hosts, even film critic Roger Ebert follow her on the social media service, eager to read wry observations about daily life and celebrity culture.
The worst part about having kids is that they magnify every single thing that's wrong with you. And they wake up early.
If you have a taxidermy marlin and you've never tried to joust someone with it, you're wasting everyone's time.
If the majority of your followers are idiots and you like wine, you're probably more like Jesus than you think.
Those are a few of the 2,900 tweets she's sent since she discovered the medium three years ago.
NBC hired Oxford to write a pilot last fall, Harper Collins will release her first book of essays ("Everything's Perfect When You're a Liar") next April, and in April she sold her first movie script toWarner Bros. It's about a pot-smoking young woman suddenly confronted with the prospect of motherhood.
Her success points to an appetite for humor from a female point of view. But unlike stars such as Tina Fey and Kristen Wiig, who honed their craft in the "Saturday Night Live" writers' room, Oxford found and shaped her comedic voice in online chat rooms and blogs and on Twitter.
"She's just funny, very consistently and solidly hilarious," said comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who befriended Oxford after following her on Twitter. "It's heartening to know that somebody with nothing other than the quality of their tweets can become very popular and actually make a living as a result of it. It's like Twitter was invented for Kelly Oxford."
Long before the advent of social media, Oxford, 34, yearned to share her stories with the world. The child of two hippies dreamed of having her own public access TV show, and she loved taking trips on her uncle's house boat, as long as she could operate the CB radio.
When she was 8, Oxford created her own newspaper filled with reports she invented about her lower-middle-class neighborhood in Edmonton.
In high school, her love affair with writing took a back seat to adolescent flirtations and a few part-time modeling gigs. She dropped out of Mount Royal College in Calgary after one semester; her professors, she says, were more interested in teaching her to write like famous authors than in helping her cultivate her own voice. She tried a screenwriting seminar but realized that at 19, she had no life experience to draw on.
Oxford waited tables, sold shoes and had a baby at age 23 with her boyfriend James, an environmental engineer. She didn't go back to work after her daughter Salinger was born. Instead, she spent time in chat rooms as she got used to life as a mother.
In 2002, she launched an anonymous blog,
posting daily, short stories about her adventures in motherhood or rants about
the world at large. Nothing was off-limits.Her confessional style generated lots of comments. Soon, she had struck up email relationships with those readers, and they championed Oxford to their friends. Before long, thousands were reading regularly and had signed up to receive email alerts any time Oxford posted something new.
"I was so happy ... knowing that every time I wrote a blog about my kids or whatever, that there were 7,000 people excited to get an email," Oxford said in a phone interview late one night from her home in Calgary. "That was enough for me."
Oxford used MySpace and Facebook the way a comedian uses small clubs — as a place to try out material. Twitter made her irreverent humor accessible to the masses.
Daughter in Gymnastics = 1% chance she'll be an athlete. 100% chance she'll be the drunk girl doing backflips in a bikini.
Kids are home from school and arguing. Remembering them as their former selves. Orgasm.
"Twitter is like the back page of Tiger Beat, where you found celebrities' addresses and you could write them a letter," Oxford said. "On Twitter, all the celebrities and producers and writers and directors were there. You didn't have to write them, but you could see what they were thinking about. It was suddenly an even playing field."
Not only did she cultivate her own online celebrity, but celebrities began to take notice of her.
First it was screenwriter Diablo Cody, the blogger-turned-screenwriter who won an Academy Award for "Juno." Then it was singer-songwriter John Mayer, who brought Oxford to the attention of his own Twitter followers. When Ebert started retweeting her riffs, Oxford's fan base expanded further.
"She speaks honestly from her own experience," Ebert said in an email. "She can be funny and some of her tweets are snarky, but there's a person there, leveling with us."
Enchanted by Oxford's voice, Emmy-winning screenwriter Jhoni Marchinko encouraged her to write a pilot and offered to serve as her mentor.
Cody became a close friend and confidant. A
stripper-turned-blogger who came to Hollywood
after being discovered by her current manager, Cody believes that starting a
career through social networking is a sound strategy."As someone who came from the Internet myself, I don't know why anyone wouldn't," she said. "Self-publishing is fantastic. You don't have to deal with anybody. There are no rejection letters. You just find your audience. Plus, you get instantaneous feedback."
Oxford had visited Southern California as a teenager and again in her early 20s, quick trips to L.A. to "soak it in" or, in one instance, on a failed quest to meet her movie star crush, Leonardo DiCaprio. In March 2010, she flew to Los Angeles for her first business trip, a four-day visit in which she met with just about every studio and development executive in town.
"A lot of them thought I was going to be this cute country housewife or something," Oxford wrote in an email. "I guess they had no way to know that I'm fairly controlling and business savvy, except for the fact that I've been controlling my entire image and work myself for the past 12 years online."
Oxford stays up late most nights to write at a cluttered desk in her second-story bedroom in her home in Calgary. A bulletin board near her head is covered in children's art and baby photos of Salinger, now 11, Henry, 8, and Beatrix, 3.
Her fingers race across the keys of her MacBook Air while her husband James — they married in 2007 because Henry became enchanted with the idea of being a ring bearer — strums his guitar a floor below.
In addition to making final revisions on her book, she's rewriting her screenplay, "Son of a Bitch," which Oxford says is about a young pot-smoking party girl with a legion of loyal online followers who must reconcile her new motherhood with her online persona.
Last year's summer box-office hit "Bridesmaids," a raunchy comedy starring Wiig that earned two Oscar nominations, paved the way for unflinching depictions of young women in previously taboo settings.
"Before 'Bridesmaids,' I never would have thought to pitch an R-rated girl-centric movie because I knew the odds of it going were pretty slim. But all of a sudden there is a market for this — the outspoken women," said Oxford.
Lately, when she travels to Hollywood, she stays with Kimmel and his girlfriend Molly McNearney, co-head writer on his ABC talk show"Jimmy Kimmel Live!" They've opened their Hollywood Hills home to Oxford, and lent her a car.
Now, Oxford
is preparing to transplant her family to Hollywood
for a six-month trial run. ("My weirdest friends are there," she
said.)On a recent Thursday, she slid into a seat at a Sherman Oaks bakery, a bit anxious about the day ahead. She was in town to sign contracts, meet with studio brass and check out a rental house.
Running 15 minutes late, and dressed in a lace top, chunky beaded necklace and jeans, Oxford looked more like a coffee shop employee than a budding Hollywood player.
She was well-armed for the day's affairs: extra shoes, an extra purse, a new outline for her meeting with Warner Bros. development executives. Her biggest concern was her stomach. James was sending reports from home: All three kids caught a flu and little Bea had just started eating again. Oxford wasn't hungry — a bad sign for the usually ravenous writer.
To make sure she left each meeting in time to make the next one, she had set the alarm on her iPhone. She's become a master at Google maps. "It's like' The Amazing Race,'" she said, checking the traffic before heading to her next destination. "I've never been late yet."
Her agent, Cliff Roberts, said he isn't worried that her impending relocation or her higher profile will dull her edge.
"She's not coming out wide-eyed, fresh off the bus from Iowa," he said. "She's had some pretty fancy people that have been chasing her to do stuff for a long time."
The tone of her tweets certainly hasn't changed. In a recent one, she asked her followers, "How do you get a red wine stain off a baby?"
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Arrow/ Free the Children/ Kane Hodder
Oct. 22 Arrow: I finally watched the season 2 premiere of this show on ctv.ca. It came out two weeks ago. After I saw it, I looked for the season 1 bloopers. I think the best part was 1:58 seconds in. Stephen Amell is kissing and carrying Katie Cassidy and he is to put her on the bed, but they fell off the edge of it onto the floor.
Fortunately Cassidy falls on top of Amell and he asks: “Are you okay?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnPWdg3JwSA
Oct. 23 Melissa
McCarthy: There is fuss with Melissa McCarthy who is plus size, and she’s
on the cover of Elle. She is
covered up in a big green coat. Critics
are saying they should have let her show some skin, I think so too. However, McCarthy said that she chose the
coat and wanted to wear it.
Oct. 25 Pretty Little
Liars: Here are the bloopers and it’s from season 1-3. It’s pretty funny. I think the 2 min. mark, it’s more physical
comedy. There was a raccoon at the top
of the stairs, or that’s what Shay Mitchell says she saw.
Oct. 28 Funny news:
I read in the Metro on Oct. 24, 2013 that people who tried to make a noise complaint
from a San
Francisco
marathon to a 311 hotline, got misdirected to a phone sex line instead. The difference was one was a 866 and an 800
prefix.
Free the Children: I was also reading the Metro and it talked about
the charity Free the Children. Rahab
Sopiato was a single mom at 12 yrs old.
She made charcoal for a living by finding branches, chopping them up,
burning them, and burying it in dirt.
She had 3 kids and to send her eldest daughter to high school, it was
going to cost $350 Canadian a year.
She heard about Me to We
Artisans where you can make beaded handiwork and sell them to the Western
market. She made lots of bracelets and
jewelry. Her daughter is 29 and she
graduated out of high school. Rahab
bought two cows and set up a shop to sell flour, rice, and pop.
Saudi Arabia women drivers: On Oct. 25, 2013 in Metro, the headline was: “Honk for the ladies
in Saudi
Arabia.” There aren’t a lot of women
drivers, and if they do drive, they get harassed. However, the govt. has started a campaign to
crack down on men who harass women who drive.
Stephen Chalmers: I written about him before. On Oct. 25, 2013 in Metro, it’s reported that he got a 1999 used
trailer to live in. There are still some
other residents that need trailers to live in.
I put this on my Facebook status update to please donate:
Kane Hodder: I was reading in Metro on Oct. 18,
2013 called “The Man
behind the Jason Mask.” Hodder plays
Jason from the Friday the 13th movies. I couldn’t copy and paste the article from
the internet, so I’ll have to type it up.
“Early in his stunt
career, Hodder received nearly fatal burns over 50 percent of body. So today he raises funds for burn survivors
through the ‘I helped Kane’ program of Scares that Care (scaresthatcare.org), a
non-profit that mobilizes the horror flick community. And whenever the movie convention regular
visits a major city, he visits hospital burn units to offer support and understanding
to survivors, including the inevitably encountered super-fan of his frightening
alter-ego.”
Metro: How did that delay
impact your recovery?
Hodder: Things got
progressively worse, not better. I was
in so much pain, I got a staph infection throughout the burn area, and the
doctor told my family I might die. He
was egotistical, and thought he could handle my situation. Many years later, after I realized he f----
me over and made me suffer because he was inept. I went to his office. I honestly wasn’t sure what I was going to do
when I got face to face with him.
I probably could have
beaten him to death; I had so much hatred for this guy. But he looked me in the eye and admitted that
(he) had been wrong. It caught me off
guard. It defused my anger. I walked out.
Though I sometimes think that (anger) might be why I’m able to be so
convincing with extreme violence on film.
I think maybe I draw from my own past.
Metro: Did the experience
put you off of stunts? Does anything
scare you?
Hodder: It never
dissuaded me. Maybe it was my ego, not
wanting to be defeated by a certain type, but I ended up specializing in fire
stunts. There’s really nothing in life
that scares me! Maybe because I’ve been
through the worst hell I could ever imagine.
Music video:
Katy Perry: I saw the last half of the video “Roar” on TV and
I decided to finally watch the whole thing.
I like that there is a story to it.
Perry’s plane has crash landed on an island with a guy. She is panicking, but then she adapts to it.
It’s a fun video. She looks good in it, and there is a
beautiful island paradise.
American Idol parody: Here is MADtv making fun
of American Idol. I remember watching it
way back when it first aired in 2002.
Kelly Clarkson guest-starred in the sketch. The real Randy Jackson and Paula Abdual
played themselves as they judged the talent.
Michael McDonald played Simon Cowell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DRR6aEfDPI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DRR6aEfDPI
Rihanna: I found this on Yahoo, “Rihanna kicked out
of Abu Dhabi Mosque, Doesn’t Seem to Care.”
She was wearing a black jumpsuit and head cover in front of the
mosque. She didn’t have permission to be
there for her photo shoot, so she was forced
to be removed.
A lot of Yahoo comments are saying that she has no respect
for the culture. I don’t see any
controversy with this. I thought the
photos looked good. The good thing is
that at least she left when they asked her too.
Dateline: I’m sure a lot of you guys are thinking
this: “Whenever I see Tracy writing
about Dateline: To Catch a Predator, I immediately skip to the next
paragraph because I don’t want to read it.”
Yeah, well the thing is, it’s like something I have to go back to and
check on the snarky comments.
“I bet the crew ate the strawberrys and cream backstage”
Me: lol. That’s a new
one. I never thought of the crew eating
it. I thought it would be evidence, but
they should take a picture of the stuff he brought and the crew should be
allowed to eat it.
decoy: "wow"
who the hell falls for this lmfao. They deserve to be on this show, dumbass pervs xD”
“I get lonely as hell too and desire the company of a woman,
but mother------ the majority of us don't drive for miles to f--- children
because of it. The asian guy with the koala plushie is a pisser. He's acting
as though he's been busted smoking by his dad who is very disappointed, lol,
mother------ you're going to get murdered in prison.”
"Wait a minute..this ain't no HOUSE! -- CHRIS HANSEN! Now everyone will know I'm a perv! UGH! *boom* // "Oh GOD it's Chris Hansen! *boom* // Chris Hansen!! *boom* // Dateline?! *boom* // I KNEW it!!! *boom* // (wait for it)
There aren't really BROWNIES!!! *boom*
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