The List

To add to the collection of awesome moments of pausing the TV, I submit this photo.

I've come to learn that I organize my life best in lists.  There's the list of things that aren't allowed (dying being the top priority), the list of movies I need to see, songs to buy, the ever-changing to do list, and my TV watch list.

It's the TV list I've been working on today.  The TV Watch list is huge.  It includes the things I watch now, the shows I love that got cancelled, mini series, and the massive amount of shows I still need to watch (and they all keep growing!).  Today I put together a virtual version of the TV Watch list.  Granted, I haven't finished it yet, some things are still in the works, but if anyone is interested in seeing what I watch now (or rather in this past season as most shows are ending this week if they haven't already), then check it out here.  The list can also be found as a tab along the header of my blog anytime.

Sometimes I Don't Know What I'm Doing with My Life

I seem to be in a blogging rut.  I spent most of the past four days lollygagging around on the internet, and this list is pretty much what I have to show for it.  Not bad though, check it out:

I've recently discovered the blog The Write Practice which is giving me all sorts of great ideas about my writing.

While I'm not really a hiker, these hiking exercises are still pretty awesome.

27 Ways to Live Intuitively.  Awesome.

This could be useful --> How to Support Friends Who Are Trying to Lose Weight.

Stop Apologizing.  Seriously.

On keeping in touch with far flung friends.

Ideas for how to be productive.

This week: Tomorrow I have jury duty.  I was actually quite excited for jury duty until a friend of mine asked if I could help out on a production he's working on in LA.  Now I'm just hoping that this is a one day event so I can high tail it down to Los Angeles.  Either way I am working on developing a pilot script for this contest and hanging out with friends.

Write What You Know

The oft' given writing advice is to write what you know.  I always feel like I've been cheated out of actual advice when I hear that.  I don't know what I know.  At least not what I know that would be worth writing about.  Rock climbing, Nancy Drew, list making.  I can write about these for a little while, but then I'm not sure where to go with them, and they're certainly not quite fiction material.

People I'm around talk a lot about stories.  How we live our life, tell our life, and learn new things through stories.  I wholeheartedly agree.  Half the reason I remember so much about architecture is because it was told to me as a story.  But when I'm in charge of the story?

It's probably terribly bad form to put what I'm about to say on the internet where future employers can find it, but I feel like part of learning and growing in my writing is admitting what I'm not good at and then trying to find a solution.  I'm terrible at creating my own plots.  I think up wonderful concepts to tell a story in, but when I sit down to write I get stuck because the characters aren't doing anything.

I can find my way out of a plot line any day of the week.  Especially in SciFi or fantasy.  Bring on the twists and I will think of a way to maneuver around them.  I love shows like Once Upon A Time and Fringe because they give me the plot and then they leave me hanging to try and figure out what I want to happen.  And I figure out a way I think the story is going to go.  The next week they show me what their solution is (Sometimes I like my solution better).

Finding plots is something I'm trying to work on.  I want to be better at this, but for now I have trouble with plot.

Finals Week

Picture only related in that the wonky angle is how I feel about my life right now.

This week is finals week.  I wound up in three writing intensive classes classes this year, and three of my classes have actual final exams.  Two of those are comprehensive.  I would say that my likelihood of leaving the apartment today is very slim.  I have a  paper yet to go and edits to be done on the second.  On top of that I am prepping for Manifest.  Which will be awesome... but more awesome once it's over.  This is my only Manifest, this is my only Manifest, this is my only Manifest.

Needless to say I wont be around much this week, and I think after Friday I will want to sleep for a week.  Good times.  Catch you on the flip side.