My last hour will be done in eight minutes! Yay! Today we worked on interjections, which are ridiculously easy; I'm so glad we're done with prepositions, which are apparently very difficult if you don't know what verbs are. Understandable.

I found five screenwriting faculty positions open today during a search. Will apply this week. I'm not necessarily getting my hopes up, as I know that in writing especially, they like professors who have published/sold material, and I haven't, but I can't get hired if I don't apply. And one of the positions is at UT, which would at least be an environment with which I'm familiar.

Halfway done with Lizzie Borden! I'm really happy with it thus far; obviously it needs more work and a polish, but it's very tight for a first draft. Probably because so much of the story already existed, which is new for me.

Heroes tonight yay! It's been a really long summer. We already watched the Chuck pilot On Demand last week, and it was pretty good, although honestly, I'll primarily be watching for Adam Baldwin.

I was working with my sister on a paper last night, and realized I need to reread the Bible, as I haven't looked at it in years. I thought that Abraham had done the whole Isaac-sacrifice-fakeout before God made his covenant with him, that those two were tied together. And I could not for the life of me remember what Ishmael went on to do. I know it was something? But the very unhelpful man who works behind the help-desk in my brain just kept handing me a piece of paper that said, "Call me Ishmael" and smiling up at me, annoyingly, as though that was the only bit of information my brain had on the topic. But I felt I was more confusing than helpful and am now afraid that I misremembered all the stuff with God's covenants with Noah and Moses, too.

The other prompt was about Aristotle and Plato and government, and I just wrote a paper on that in February, and already that was a little hazy, too. But I was able to remember the entire plot of a Who's the Boss? episode (that I must have originally seen in 1992) while flipping this past week and catching ten seconds. I guess that in the long run, my brain decided that Tony and Angela was more important than the backbone of Western civilization.

I just finished up with my interview with ABC, and apparently we're supposed to hear tonight whether or not we got the job, so keep your fingers crossed. I felt the interview went well--I'm not really nervous talking in front of people in general--although I was a little worried when they asked if I'd be happy working in post since I want to be a writer. So I had to convince them, YES, I want a job in MOVIES AND/OR TV, and it doesn't matter WHAT right now since I am UNEMPLOYED and HOMELESS.

Burbank's really nice. We're looking at apartments here regardless. As soon as I'm done with lunch, I'm going to go check some out. (It's still a novelty having a car to drive around with willy-nilly, even though it is a rental.) Then I get to fly home for a six-week break, although I have a lot of writing I want to get done in the interim.

Oh, and I guess I have a masters now. I was so tired last week that I didn't even really make note of it other than, "I'm (mostly) done." But now, after finishing a final and turning in grades and a polish, I'm totally done. No more school forever!

I'm flying to Burbank on Thursday and to home from there, so I've been packing packing packing. I turned in my thesis and report on Friday, so I just have my History of Greece final on Wednesday and then I'm done done done.

We made more posters, for the films of our other classmates. UT Laura's up first:





And mine:

Each Friday people hand out the pages we're going to workshop the next week. Why do I always wait until Thursday night at 11pm to read them? I've had them for a week! God!

I'm halfway done, and I don't want to read anymore. I still have some Polybius to read for section tomorrow, too. I don't care. One more week of school ever, and instead of feeling sad and treasuring it, I just want it over NOW OMG IS IT CAN BE OVER NOW TIEM PLEEZ?

Lord, beer me strength.

FRAKKING DVD WHY WON'T YOU BURN RIGHT?

I'm having Some Issues burning right now, and I had to give myself a time out so I didn't set my desk on fire.

Just finished up an act of TV. It can be nice, after one has written several days of serial killer slash family melodrama woeangst, to write some fun fluffy sarcastic magic stuff. I like taking a break from work with other work!

So, I've been back in Austin for a week after a week of Spring Break. I finally got some time this morning and I thought I'd catch up on these type things, and couldn't believe I hadn't posted here since March 5th. That's pretty impressive when I really only didn't have internet access in that span for a week, and even then had to go to the library to check email for students twice.

It's been really busy. I know I've said that before, but the crunch has commenced. A bunch of us were talking before class yesterday that we'd been busy before, but not like this. The only break I've taken since Sunday is two hours to watch the KU basketball game. And even then, I was working during the commercials. Thesis, thesis report, TV pilot, spec script, feature polish, two classes' worth of grading (which is coming to around 250 pages a week to read and grade), finding an apartment and job before we move to LA, and God bless UT, but a random history of greece class. UT Laura and I actually scheduled time today to watch a movie. Sneakers! Yay!

I just typed, "Hopefully in less boring news," but then couldn't think of anything less boring to write. Which is another reason I don't think I've posted since March 5th, because I don't think anyone's interested in a daily breakdown of writing time.

Is it can be no more grading times now plis?

My official Oscars prediction list:

Picture: Little Miss Sunshine
Director: Martin Scorsese
Actress: Helen Mirren
Actor: Forest Whitaker
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin
Editing: The Departed
Score: The Queen
Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine
Adapted Screenplay: The Departed
Cinematography: Children of Men
Foreign Film: Pan's Labyrinth
Costumes: Marie Antoinette
Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth
Song: Listen, Dreamgirls
Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth

We'll see how I fare tomorrow. I'm very excited for the Oscars this year. Last year kind of sucked, as I hadn't seen a lot of the movies and wasn't really pulling for many people strongly; I feel more invested this year. Plus, I would totally be happy if three of the five BP nominees won (Departed, LMS, Queen), which is HIGHLY unusual. And since those are probably the top three going in, I hopefully won't be shocked and appalled (CRASH). I've resigned myself to Hudson winning, which still irks me, but whatever. I am going with Arkin, because I think LMS has the momentum and the guilds (PGA, WGA, SAG), and winning just BP and probably screenplay (unless The Queen sneaks up) feels a little soft. One supporting win will be more substantial, and Murphy's weaker. I also kind of wish O'Toole could grab this one, just because he's so amazing and this is probably his last chance, but Whitaker's been almost as much a juggernaut as Mirren.

Speaking of which, I saw her at some function this weekend wearing heavy plastic stacked heeled hooker shoes. She's amazing. I want some kind of Ocean's 11 movie, except with women: Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, Mary McDonnell, Cate Blanchett, Emma Thompson, etc, etc. Would that not be the most beautiful thing ever?

Instructor surveys finally came out from last fall. (Two people thought Polish professor's class was excellent? Seriously?) I am now going to copy/paste the four comments I got, because they make me happy. (There are only four, because now they do them online instead of in class, so most kids probably don't bother anymore.)

• Shannon was extremely helpful and available when we needed her to be.
• You were awesome. Loved the workshop environment.
• Really good. She was very helpful, often going above and beyond.
• Shannon was an excellent TA. She really had an interest in my writing and wanted me to do better. I felt that she was very knowledgeable on the subject and I hope that she may be able to help me and my writing even after the class is over.

It is to be warm inside. I mean, I felt last semester I'd had a good rapport with my students, but it's nice to see it in text-form. I have two students who are still emailing me this semester with questions, which is cool. Honestly, I really enjoy teaching, and being able to teach screenwriting at a university level would be something I actually wouldn't mind falling back on. Not that I'm not going to go out there and try to be a writer for reals, but it's good to know there's this also available.

I think I forgot to mention that my History of Greece TA is from New Zealand. He keeps apologizing for his accent, and I'm like, "Honey, don't apologize." Although I guess most people didn't watch hours and hours of LOTR behind the scenes docs, so it's probably a hard accent to decipher.

I had a terrifying sleep paralysis incident last night. I woke up, and thought that I'd heard a loud noise, but I didn't know what it was, so I waited to see if I heard it again. And then, I heard my BEDROOM DOOR OPEN. Which, it sticks, so it's a loud, friction-y, squeaky sound. All I can think is, I left my keys in the living room, someone has broken in to the apartment and has unlocked my bedroom door, and now they're INSIDE, and now they're GOING TO KILL ME.

By the time I finally was able to move, I had so much adrenaline that there was no way I was going back to sleep, so I was up at 6:30 this morning. Suffice it to say, that's a lot earlier than I usually get up.

Saw The Queen yesterday, which was very, very good in a kind of deceptive way. I enjoyed it well enough while watching it, but wasn't quite sure if it was BP material. And then I ended up thinking about it the rest of the night, and replaying scenes in my head, and even ended up reading all about Elizabeth II online. (She was a mechanic during WWII! I had no idea! So awesome.) And what I loved about Helen Mirren's performance is how it's not big and showy, but it's still so real and powerful, and you get the sense of the person behind the facade. I have felt lately that winning performances, especially leading performances, have had a lot of histrionics and show to them, so it's nice to see so much acclaim for a performance that goes against that type.

In a bit of a coincidence (OR IS IT?), I watched the first part of Elizabeth I, the miniseries she won her Emmy (and assorted other awards) for, which was actually at the opposite end of the spectrum, performance-wise. Elizabeth is a hard character, because she was so mercurial, and Mirren captured that perfectly. You felt her moods along with her, as she swung from one pole to the next. And the rest of the miniseries--the other performances, the mise-en-scene--was also quite good (the costumes! I was disappointed at the lack of brightly dyed beards, though), so I'm looking forward to part two.

Wow, January went by FAST. One twelfth of 2007 is already gone! I am already a month closer to death! (Maybe that one goes too far.)

I have to take one more random non-film elective, so I'm taking History of Greece, and boy oh boy, am I not enjoying it. There were no prerequisites listed for this course, but the professor is teaching with a lot of assumed knowledge, plus skipping over stuff that was explained in the reading. Like, hello, I DO NOT DO THE READING BEFORE THE LECTURE, BECAUSE I AM NORMAL. I'm annoyed at this stupid undergrad class, and that I have to actually do any work for it (something not true for my previous two random non-film electives), especially when I'm not overburdened with time these days.

Me and UT Laura and Screenwriting Guy went to lunch today, at just a regular pizza joint next to campus, and I kid you not, we waited an hour for our food. AN HOUR. I even went up and was like, "Oh hey, are you assembling the food atom by atom with cosmic tweezers or something?" One wildly hopes for the food to be taken off one's check at this point (which didn't happen), but rightly assumes that one will get an apology (which also didn't happen). So, laters, pizza joint, in the future I will go to places that don't make me forget what the hell I even ordered before they bring it out.

But then we were talking and I was like, I kind of like complaining about things, and it's always better when I have legitimate things to complain about. You know.

Dear Austin: it's 50 degrees outside. There's no reason to set your thermostats to Grandma.

My life has been deeply boring since I've come back to school. The only exciting thing that's happened in the last two weeks is finding out that the Polish professor from last semester (who never read anyone's pages, hated genre stuff, didn't give us a syllabus, etc.) quit. Although unfortunately, I guess since he was no longer an employee of the university he felt he had the right to write this totally unprofessional, rude, mean email to one of the screenwriters telling him how horrible his script was, and how he didn't know anything about the craft. Three pages of that! This guy and me both got A-s in the class, which is crap, and we both challenged him on it, like...why didn't we get As? What the hell is your grading criteria? I guess the other guy hit a nerve that I didn't, because I didn't get a mean e-mail (although I was secretly kind of hoping for one, just to be able to bitch about it). But anyways, the prof. also said in his email that he only gave the other writer an A- because he worked hard in class, and if he'd based it on his script and his knowledge of screenwriting, it would have been "considerably lower."

What the hell kind of thing is that to write to a student? It makes me wonder, after the student evaluations came in, and after a semester of us telling the top dogs in the department what a joke this guy was, if there wasn't some pressure for him to leave. It would certainly explain the totally ridiculous amount of animosity in that email. Like, he told him that his plot was totally confusing and no one could understand it in class (not true), and that his characters were completely one-dimensional and no one in class cared about them (also not true). Like, such hyperbolic nonsense intentionally designed to wound as much as possible; one couldn't possibly take what he wrote as constructive criticism. I hope UT won't give him a recommendation any where else, should he decide to teach again. I hope we broke him, the bastard.

Last day in Texas. Laundry, packing, cleaning. I finished the first draft of my King Arthur script this morning and sent it off, and we TAs turned our grades in yesterday, so that's that.

I'm a little bummed, because of the six of us in the film lab class, I was one of the three scripts that didn't get picked to go on to the next semester. They had a selection committee, and one of the people on it, at my reading, asked, "What if her dad WASN'T a serial killer?" Which since the log line of my film is, "A young woman returns home and investigates her mother's death, beginning to suspect that her father was the infamous serial killer who terrorized her home town..." I kind of knew then that maybe I didn't have the best shot. But my professor gave me some good notes, and told me that the committee did think that I had the best shot of actually being able to sell my script, which was good to hear. I'll do a rewrite over the break anyway, since this will probably be my thesis script, since I put the most work into it.

UT Laura and I are going to develop a TV pilot next spring in homeroom, so we're using the break to do development on that project, mainly focusing on writing the Bible. I don't want to say anything about it just yet since it's way, way in the early phases of knocking ideas around, but we think it's a pretty cool concept thus far. And, I'll probably do a second draft of my Arthur script, because I'd like to enter it in festivals as well, since it's a genre thing and I'd like to come out with two polished(ish) scripts instead of just one. I also might see if I can do two scripts in revision class in the spring instead of just the serial killer one, although that may be biting off more than I can chew.

Ergo: busy break. Which is good in a way, since a lot of the time I just lay around on breaks and start feeling useless and depressed, and it's actually not all that much writing if I spread it out over the month (like, two or three hours a day, which seems like nothing when I was writing eight to ten hours a day during the crunches this semester).

Flying home tomorrow morning, yay! I think this is the latest I've headed back for Christmas, although I realized today that I have no idea what I'll be doing next year and how breaks and the like are going to shake out, so I've determined to enjoy this break as much as possible.

Wow, have the last two weeks been both very busy and very boring. Grading, writing, readings, etc. Now the end is near, and I just have to finish my last script and read/grade the students' final revisions, and to home on Saturday (Huzzah!).

UT Laura and I are making Christmas tins filled with cookies and sweets for the gang this week. I haven't ever done Christmas baking on my own; only ever helped my mom with hers, so this should be exciting. And probably expensive, but that's okay. Right now I'm making sugar cookies shaped like trees, magic bars, Santa's whiskers (coconut and cherry), peanut butter balls, and maybe one other thing. I'm thinking either fudge, which is super-easy, or peppermint bark, which is also easy. It may come down to which is cheaper, but I'll have to see what the rest runs me.

There are so many movies coming out that I want to see, which is always the problem with December. I'm trying to decide if I want to see movies based on people wot I like (Cate, Kate, the Damon, etc), or movies I think will score big with the Oscars (Dreamgirls, Flags/Letters). We'll probably end up seeing Night at the Museum, because it looks fun and holiday-y, and I'd still like to see The Queen, and Pan's Labyrinth. Choices, choices.

Oh frabjous day!

That shriek you heard at 8:30pm central standard time? That was me. Screencaps will be forthcoming, but let's just say that it's like if someone reached into the crazy fanfic inside my head and just filmed it for the show.

BSG + me = happy.

So, I went ahead and switched over to the Blogger Beta thing, since they were so adamant about it. I don't notice any differences as of yet, so we'll see what happens.

This week was really long and busy, but not in an interesting way, so...one more week of class left, one week of grading. Boo, school. (Ooo, I looked up, and now you can do bullets! Exciting.)