Finishing up one project, looking at old stuff.

My nights and days have inverted again.

Sort of a strange few days. Got a deal on a new phone, slightly larger than my old one, but it's way faster, the screen is clearer, the ringer is louder, and everything loads so much quicker. Still, there were a lot of problems getting my old number transferred over, and I'm starting to see why people with steadier incomes just lock themselves into a phone plan. At least then, I guess, you have a contract you can shake at your provider and say "See? This was promised. I don't care that it's four in the fucking morning, make my phone work."

There was even one strange day where I got to sit with a phone that could not take calls. It could act as a two gigabyte mp3 player, it could take pictures, it could play PacMan... it just couldn't do any of the things you sort of expect a phone to do, like, you know, take calls. If you dwell on it long enough, the crotchety old man instinct can take over, until you're just shaking your head and thinking "Feh. Technology."

Anyway. I sent off what I think will be the final draft of copy for my current website job, which apparently I nailed pretty much on the first go. It was just a matter of making sure it was typo-free and adding a small blurb that hadn't been made available to me in the first go round, and then I shot the new content off to the client late last night, my near vampiric hours once again better serving clients by the promptness in which they find copy in their inbox the next morning.

I always thought we got this whole work hours thing wrong. Yes, I toil away after the sun goes down like some nocturnal madman, racing to get done before the sun comes up. But then for everyone who works during the daylight hours, well, they're always sure to have exactly what they need upon getting up the next morning. Trust me, I know these things, as my dad used to deliver newspapers -- the thing you need in the day, so it must be taken care of the night before -- a profession that proves that divvying up day jobs and night jobs better would solve all sorts of problems for people who work on both sides of dawn.

That, and maybe society could cater to us night owls because of it. I would kill to get pizza or Chinese takeout at four in the morning.

Other than the phone and the work, most of my week has been spent thinking about older, unfinished projects [re: Trendsetter, and The Familiar], including a comic book idea I had back in college that I'm not entirely sure why I never bothered to finish it. Two issues already written, and I just up and forgot about it, save for a bunch of notes I cannibalized back when I was trying to put together that treatment for a pilot [re: Sweet Home]. Paying work has made me not really keen on sitting down and typing at the computer, so all of this work has mostly been scribbled in the moleskin, but it feels nice to be creative again, and even in the case of the narrative problems I'm having trouble solving [Familiar in particular -- every time I think I fixed something, I find new plot holes to obsess over] I'm thinking about characters and stories that haven't been on my mind in a long time. Better writers than I probably won't think much of this, but having those names, those places, those situations on the tip of my tongue or in the back of my mind [because apparently writing is like fellatio, kids!] means that sometimes I step out of the shower or into the soup aisle and suddenly realize how to tie something together better. And its always those eureka moments that seem to get me motivated to get the most done.

Pleasant reminders I can still, occasionally, be clever.

Also got some big news concerning some friends of mine. Sort of waiting to see them in person before putting anything here about it, though. Seems more personal that way.

It's my friend Nick's birthday today, too. He's big into tumblr, and for his birthday, you should go check out his blog "Blue-Eyed Devil."

Finally, and not to bury the lead in the least, Savannah's TV show "Huge" was not renewed for a second season. There's currently a petition up to save the show, and whether you were able to watch it or not, whether you were a fan or not, I really would consider it a personal favor if you'd go, and sign. Another one of my friends [Hannah], put it best [and in an especially apt way for this blog, which has always been about writing and creativity]: just think, if you were given an opportunity to tell a story, to make something important to you, and then had your funding yanked out from under you and were unable to continue, let alone finish, the story you were trying to tell. I don't know a creative person that wouldn't be heartbreaking to, so please, sign the petition, spread the news, and just generally get the word out. Realistically, maybe this is a long shot, but with the internet we have seen cult shows saved by fan outcry before, and a show this smart, this funny, this different deserves a second chance.

Or at least some kind of gesture by us, the fans, to show those involved how much their work was appreciated.

2 comments :: Finishing up one project, looking at old stuff.

  1. "I would kill to get pizza or Chinese takeout at four in the morning."

    This is New York on the line. Pick up.

  2. Oh, so now it's calling me back.

    No, I should really visit again. I miss the city in the winter.