Thursday, September 26, 2013

The Rosie Project/ Margaret Atwood



Sept. 6 The Rosie Project: I’ve read a review of the book The Rosie Project by Graeme Simison in the Globe and Mail.  It was a good review.  According to Amazon: 

“The feel-good hit of 2013, The Rosie Project is a classic screwball romance about a handsome but awkward genetics professor and the woman who is totally wrong for him.

A first-date dud, socially awkward and overly fond of quick-dry clothes, genetics professor Don Tillman has given up on love, until a chance encounter gives him an idea.

He will design a questionnaire—a sixteen-page, scientifically researched questionnaire—to uncover the perfect partner. She will most definitely not be a barmaid, a smoker, a drinker or a late-arriver. Rosie is all these things. She is also fiery and intelligent, strangely beguiling, and looking for her biological father a search that a DNA expert might just be able to help her with.

The Rosie Project is a romantic comedy like no other. It is arrestingly endearing and entirely unconventional, and it will make you want to drink cocktails.”

In the Globe and Mail, the review said it’s obvious that the character Don has Asperger’s syndrome.  This seems like an interesting and fun book to read.


Words: I’ve been reading and then when I find a word I don’t know, I write it down so I can look it up later on dictionary.com:

Diocesan- “1. of or pertaining to a diocese. “A diocese is “an ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.

Hagiography- the writing and critical study of the lives of the saints; hagiology.

Malapropisms- the unintentional misuse of a word by confusion with one of similar sound, esp when creating a ridiculous effect, as in I am not under the affluence of alcohol

Centrifuge- an apparatus that rotates at high speed and by centrifugal force separates substances of different densities, as milk and cream.

Numismatic- of, pertaining to, or consisting of coins, medals, paper money, etc.

Sept. 11 Syfy TV movies: I went to a job fair today, looked for a job, read the business section of the newspaper, and basically read the newspaper.  Let me treat myself to watching some more of these Syfy TV movie trailers.

Haunted High: I watched this one and immediately thought: “Isn’t that Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia from Buffy) in those glasses?  I checked on imdb, and it is.  The story of a headmaster collecting souls.


Hansel and Gretel: This was some months ago, but I watched the first 20 min. of this movie because I do like watching fairytale characters set in the present time (like Once Upon a Time) and horror movies.  I was tired that night, so I stopped watching after 20 min.  Here’s the trailer.

I think I will watch the rest of this when it comes on TV again because I have this thing to watch and complete things to the end.


Behemoth: A big monster comes out from a volcano and attacks people.


Hydra: This one seems a little bit more interesting.  These bounty hunters drop off these 4 criminals onto an island and hunt them down as a game.  There is a hydra which is snake with 3 heads and it’s eating people with their heads first.


Dinoshark: Eric Balfour is in it.  Remember the Buffy pilot where he plays Xander and Willow’s friend Jesse who turns into a vampire?  He was also in the big movie remake Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  This is basically a dinosaur and shark mixed together and it likes to jump out of the water and eat people alive and in mid-air.


Sept. 16: From watching these trailers, Syfy makes bad movies.  Hallmark makes all these soft movies about romance, family, and lots of Christmas ones too.  I only two of them: Love Begins and Love’s Everlasting Courage, because the actor Wes Brown was in it.

It was boring because there was very little conflict.  Not too complicated or interesting of a story.

Newspapers: Did you know that the Edmonton Journal changed their layout about a month ago?  I thought it looked good.

Subscriptions: I was thinking about how my family used to subscribe to 3 newspapers like the Edmonton Journal, the Globe and Mail, and the National Post.  It’s not until this year, we canceled the Post.

It reminds me of The Simpsons joke where an accountant goes through their records.

Accountant: You have 3 Vogue subscriptions.
Homer: I have 3 bathrooms.

Lol. 

Flashback: This leads to a flashback in gr. 9.  I think it was a Junior Achievement workshop and talked about the cost of living.  Newspaper subscriptions are expensive.  I just checked and it says the Edmonton Journal has a deal of $24.99 for 4 months of daily newspaper.


Margaret Atwood: She’s been in the newspapers and I have been reading interviews with her.  She’s promoting her new book Madd Addam.  I saw her when she gave a talk in 2006.  I was reading her book Oryx and Crake for college.  In 2009, she released the book The Year of the Flood to follow up the Crake.  Madd Addam is the last book in her trilogy.

The Fringe: This year the Fringe did very well, that’s what I read in the Journal.  I just read the Fringe reviews.  I was too busy with work to go and see a play.  I haven’t seen a play since 2001.  It was also for school and it was the play called “The #14” about passengers on a bus.  It was a comedy and various passengers come on and it was like a comedy sketch.

Comparisons:

A dangerous person has contact with a good guy’s family: I was watching Do No Harm, because CTV was airing the remaining episodes on Sat. nights in the summer.  The bad guy Ian was at the good guy Ruben’s place for a family dinner.

It was done on Buffy when Angelus (Angel without a soul) is talking to Buffy’s mom Joyce right outside their house.

When I was watching Do No Harm, I immediately thought: “I wrote a scene before where a woman has to introduce a bad guy to her mom.”

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Syfy TV movies/ Messages Deleted/ Fear Itself

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca:

Aug. 20 Syfy TV movies:

Sharktopus: Here's a Syfy trailer and it stars Eric Roberts.  I watched it and was cringing at how bad it was.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U87zVkIXNI0

Ghost Shark: Here's one where the shark is a ghost and will kill anyone in water even in a pool or bathtub.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk2mTHMn8Lw

Sharknado: It stars Tara Reid.  It's a tornado and it's raining sharks.  Here's a comment:

Directed by Peter Griffin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XxuBIiFZKs

Roadkill: Here's another one where a monster chases a group of young people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAav5WcM5-o

The
Philadelphia Experiment: A US warship suddenly appears in the most random places and destroys buildings.  It says "Based on actual events."

The Philadelphia Experiment was a naval military experiment alleged to have been carried out at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA sometime around October 28, 1943. The U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Eldridge was claimed to be rendered invisible (or "cloaked") to enemy devices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qcFVvNQ7fQ

Tasmanian Devils: I was channel surfing and I saw a bit on TV.  It stars Danica McKeller (Winnie from the old TV show The Wonder Years.)  I looked it up, and it turns out Zach Lipovsky directed it.  He was a contestant on that reality show On the Lot where directors compete to direct a feature film.  He's also Canadian.  I wrote about him a couple of times:

http://thevertexfighter.blogspot.ca/2012/06/tv-production-companies-social-media.html

http://thevertexfighter.blogspot.ca/2012/06/blogs-collector-edmonton-film-school.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0513554/?ref_=tt_ov_dr

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldZWG1_7fmM

Aug. 25 Mega Piranha: Here's another.  The only thing that stood out for me is that the singer Tiffany is in it.  I didn't know it was her until they said she was in it at the end.  Remember, she was pop singer in the 90s and she dated Jonathan Knight in New Kids on the Block because they toured together.  It's not until a couple of decades later, Tiffany said how Jonathan was gay.  Then she realized that he never officially came out of the closet in the public eye yet.  She accidentally said that in an interview.

She apologized to him and he said it's okay because his family and friends know and that's what matters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uylZTzrMOJM

Lonely Planet lay offs: I was reading in the Globe and Mail books section, and they said there were lay offs in the travel guide book publisher Lonely Planet.  "Theo Sathananthan, Lonely Planet’s Chief Financial Officer, says that through layoffs and redeployment, up to 80 out of 400 staff positions will be 'made redundant' across the company’s five offices worldwide."

It's because of the internet.  You don't really need a travel guide.  I still subscribe to the Globe and Mail and the Edmonton Journal, and the newspapers do have a travel section on the weekends.  I was going to put this in my job email because it's about lay offs, but it's also about the publishing industry so I put it in my writing email.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewbender/2013/07/22/layoffs-at-lonely-planet-writing-on-the-wall-for-guide-books/

Omar's advice:
Omar has emailed me back again.  He told me that the first 20 pages of a script are the most important.  After his advice, I haven't really rewrote too much of it.  I had written more to expand the story, but didn't go back to the beginning.

Messages Deleted: I was checking what's on TV and I saw this.  This stars Matthew Lillard.  I read the description on the TV and it says (paraphrase):  "A screenwriter is an object of an obsession by a serial killer.  The victim leaves a message to him before they get killed."  I like mystery, suspense, serial killer stories, and the lead character is a screenwriter.  I missed the first 25 min. of it and saw like 10min of it.  I will have to watch it in full.

I recognized a couple of actors in the film as students.  There was Gina Holden and Brandon Jay McLaren (I had to look him up.)  They're Canadian, so I immediately thought it was shot in
Toronto.  I checked imdb.com and it's shot in British Columbia.

I should forewarn the spoiler alert if you go to imdb.com.  There is the log line, and it really tells you what kind of person the stalker is and why this screenwriting teacher is being stalked.  The thing is, you're not supposed to give up the entire story in the log line.  Just a sample to intrigue you.  The TV description is less spoilery.    It got a 4.7/10 rating from like 1000 users.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1072754/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Exam: I then start checking what other movies are there and I found this one. 

"The final candidates for a highly desirable corporate job are locked together in an exam room and given a test so simple and confusing that tension begins to unravel."

It's where a group of people are to take an exam to secure a really good job.  The test is in a windowless room and the test is a blank piece of paper.  They have to try and figure out what the question is.  What stood out for me is that Luke Mably is in it.  He was the prince in movie The Prince and
Me.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1258197/?ref_=tt_rec_tti
Sept. 1 Post Secret:

“I’m thankful for the stranger that let me know about my wife’s affair.  Outing it finally made her leave.  I never could have left her.”
(There is a picture of a phone.)

My opinion: If you know your friend is being cheated on, then you should tell him or her, by leaving a note.  Send an anonymous note.  I remember reading in an advice column about that.  Your friend’s health is at stake because his or her partner could be passing an STD to your friend.

If your friend shows the note to you and ask if you sent it, say you didn’t.  Tell your friend to hire a private investigator to follow the partner around to get evidence if the partner is cheating.  I have watched a lot of the reality TV show Cheaters.  There is video footage of your partner cheating on you.

Sept. 2: What’s your friend got to lose?  Some money spent on a private investigator to prove the partner is cheating on you.  Or it proves the partner isn’t, so then you have a peace of mind.

Fear Itself: This reminds me of an episode called “In Sickness and in Health” from this mini- series Fear Itself in 2008.  Samantha (Maggie Lawson) is a bride and she is going to marry Carlos (James Roday from the TV show Psych.)

 She gets a note that says: “The person you are marrying is a serial killer.”

 Carlos is acting differently and Samantha isn’t sure she should trust the note or not.

I just checked, and Lawson is also on the TV show Psych.  I’ve seen her in other shows like an ep of Tru Calling.  I remember seeing the last half of this episode because I was working in the Soup place and I got home to watch this show.  I decided I’ll watch the whole ep from the beginning considering I missed the first half and haven’t seen it in 5 yrs.

Now that I watched the whole thing on Youtube, I still really like it.  The creepiness of the church at night, the images of the statues, and the mystery of suspense of who sent the note to Samantha and why.  It leads to a chase scene where Carlos is chasing Samantha in the church.  It was scary.

Here’s Part 1 of the ep.  The other parts are available: