Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Thoughts I have during my prime writing hours

The last post should have been called "The Curious Incident of the Blog in the Night-Time".

See what happens when you aren't thinking straight at 5:30 AM?

Also thinking: if I start numbering my pages at 5, will anyone notice? Then I wouldn't need to write 5 more pages...

Monday, February 20, 2006

The Curious Incident of the Writing in the Night-time

My sleep schedule is all screwed up. Comes from my nocturnal habits seeping in.

I think my prime writing hours happen in two places during the day: 5-7PM (which is good, because that's typically a quiet post-work time for me) and midnight-2AM. The latter writing time is the one wrecking havoc with my sleep.

Last night I was pretty content, writing until 1 AM and then tucking myself into bed (how does one tuck themselves into bed? Not easy, but can be done) Then around 5AM the bane of my existence, the thing that ruins all peace, my CRACKBERRY starts buzzing uncontrollably. When I get alert pages from work (remember, I work in IT, so I get crazy pages at crazy hours for wacky system outages. Kooky.), I get them in series of 2 or 3 pages on my phone. Each page buzzes twice. The vibration of the Blackberry in its holster is very loud with plastic hitting plastic. If I flip it on its back, it's less annoying. I usually keep it on the carpeted floor, so I can't be completely disturbed by the random buzzing at wee hours.

Last night I left the dang thing on my dresser, so the buzz of the pager was amplified by the smooth wood surface. BUZZZZZZZZZ it goes at 5AM. Turn it off, you say? Can't. One of those pages might be important. Can't risk missing the one page I really really need to see for all of the random ones about network outages in Seattle. Needless to say the series of pages woke me up, and I wasn't able to get back to sleep. So I'm blogging.

Speaking of which, I know my blog has slowed down. I'm 3/4 done with my Cold Case spec and hope to finish my first draft this week. I'm hoping to be back with more of my useless thoughts for the world to read once my procedural purge is complete.

And now, I'll probably just watch financial market news on CNBC. Might get me back to sleep.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Has 'Crumbs' been swept under the rug?

the futon critic has the official word from ABC that 'Crumbs' is on hiatus. It has been missing from the sweeps schedule the last two weeks, as repeat episodes of 'Grey's Anatomy' have done well in its time period. Though 'Crumbs' has had pretty decent numbers (definitately when compared to the other ratings for sitcoms on ABC), it still has lost a significant amount of its lead-in's audience (Dancing with the Stars).

So, is 'Crumbs' dead? For now, I think we're going to have to list it as Wating for the Axe. Pitty poor Fred Savage.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Just a reminder...

Okay, so I was using the Watch List to monitor the NEW scripted shows rolled out this year. Then people wanted the reality shows listed. Then people wanted established shows listed...

It's getting out of hand. Reality shows will no longer be tracked. The bottom part of the list is so you can see what established scripted shows are headed for the trash bin. I am only monitoring new shows. If you want a comprehensive list of everything on TV, go to the futon critic which does it better than I could ever dream of doing.

That is all. :)

Monday, February 13, 2006

Best news of my day

DRIVE (FOX, New!) - Writer/producers Tim Minear ("The Inside") and Ben Queen ("Century City") are set to team for a new ensemble drama project for FOX about an illegal cross-country road race. 20th Century Fox Television is behind the hour, which FOX has given a pilot order. No other specifics were given.

(for more updates like these, check the futon critic DAILY!)

Yay Tim Minear! His love/hate relationship with Fox continues...

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Go read Jane

TV spec monkeys, Jane Espenson is handing out golden nuggets of knowledge for FREE on her blog. If you are trying to get into TV, you need to be reading her blog.

Thursday, February 09, 2006

No love for Love Monkey

Widely reported yesterday, 'The Unit' will be taking the 'Love Monkey' time slot on March 7, putting Love Monkey on hiatus, probably permanently.

...and another one bites the dust.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Curse you MTR!

About 3 weeks ago I remembered that the Paley Festival, populated with TV panels of popular shows, was approaching. So, I did what any person dying to see the cast of 'House' and 'Battlestar' does -- I bought a membership, with the express purpose of buying advance tickets when they went on sale.

The morning of the sale, I went online prior to the sale time to scope out the website. Hm, it says 'members' should have some kind of code to purchase tickets. I'm a member, and I don't have a code. Oh well, I'll call on the phone. Surely it won't be that bad...

...and then I had a 9AM meeting. Tickets went on sale at 9AM. I couldn't call until 10:15, by which time I learned that those two particular panels (including Grey's Anatomy) were SOLD OUT. What?? I spent 50 bucks so I could be shut out?

So, now I plead to my scribosphere friends -- if any of you were fortunate enough to get tickets to either of these two events (or both!) I'd be happy to pay you for one of your tickets, should you have been one of those [expletive] who bought extra tickets so you could sell them on eBay.

And now I'm wondering whether to call up MTR, complain and revoke my membership. *sigh*