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Tuesday, 31 July 2012 (a girl without a country) 9:14am New article up on the weekly, one I'm very excited about, concerning a free double feature of La Jetée and Meshes of the Afternoon at SFMOMA next week. It always makes me happy to get to geek out about arty movies in public. I also rode all the way down to Fulton and back this morning on my bike. I'm getting braver! Still wouldn't want to do it when there's a lot of cars out, though. sometime after midnight Marta and I went to Pete and Sarah's at nine for Breaking Bad, but stayed until midnight for the Olympics. It was fun. | ||
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Monday, 30 July 2012 (under every radar) 10:27am Several rewrites later, I've sent off the review. Now moving on to other things. 3:12pm My panel thingy at Everfree Northwest, "Deconstructing Equestria: On Recapping Ponies For Fun And (Very Little) Profit," is now listed on their events schedule, so I guess that makes it real. And, since she's coming with me and Porter to the convention, Ilene is coming over tonight to watch more of My Little Pony: Frienship Is Magic with me. | ||
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Sunday, 29 July 2012 (feeding the beast) 12:41pm Marta and I are having brunch at Howard's Cafe, where I'm having a salad. I also had a salad last night at Manora's. My salad-at-a-restaurant periods come and go, and apparently I've re-entered one, and I'm okay with that. Especially since I've been getting told a lot lately that I'm noticeably slimmer, and I'll never not enjoy hearing that. 3:58pm I watched the screener yesterday morning, and now I'm writing the review. Y'know what's nervewracking? Trying to say something vaguely meaningful about a movie whose nuances I don't fully get (it takes place during a turbulent 27-year period in Taiwan, and assumes the viewer is familiar with the culture) and doing so in 225-250 words. The English-language press kit is helping out a great deal, thankfully, and since is what I hope will be the first of many I do for the Voice, it needs to be well-written enough that they ask me to do more. No pressure! 11:41pm Pretty good turnout for Fast Five at Bad Movie Night. And it was fun, which is almost as important. | ||
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Saturday, 28 July 2012 (memory and machines) 1:23pm Playing Scrabble with Marta at Wicked Grounds (after dinner at Manora's), killing time before we go to Perverts Put Out!, where she's going to be reading as a replacement. I'm very proud of her for stepping up. 11:32pm She killed, as I knew she would. And it also occurred to me tonight right before I went on stage that this month is the ten-year anniversary of the first time I read at K'vetch, which I consider to be the beginning of my writing career. What have we learned? | ||
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Friday, 27 July 2012 (nullis pretii) 9:35am So it begins: my first Catster article, about taking Perdita to Fresno, is up. The scary thing is that unlike my posts for the weekly, Catster articles get lots of comments, and internet comments are by definition evil. (It's one of the reasons I don't mind that most of my posts for the weeky don't get comments, even /especially my Pony recaps—at least it means I won't have to deal with haters and trolls.). Marta was kind of enough to look at the comments first, and she assures me they're all pleasant. 2:14pm The screener arrived! Now I just have to watch the movie and review it by Monday. But first, I head to Marta's. | ||
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Thursday, 26 July 2012 (no commercial potential) 11:47am I just talked to the film distributor in Los Angeles, on the phone like a professional grownup person and everything! He said the screener's out for FedEx Delivery today and is supposed to be delivered by 3pm, and that he'll look into it and also send me the tracking info. Meanwhile, I've been continuing to pitch articles to the editor who left the weekly to join Catster, and he seems to like them, so I've been writing 'em, but when any will get published is out of my hands. Mouse came by earlier and fixed the bike, which just needed some chain-untangling. He showed me what I need to do to keep it from happening in the future, and said that once he gets a certain tool that he ordered for his own bike, he'll be able to fix it so it won't be as much of a problem in the future. And, most importantly, he said he genuinely enjoys doing this kind of thing, working on friends' bikes. Whew. 4:45pm Picked up a new flash drive at Best Buy, using a very small portion of a $125 gift card they sent me a while back when they changed 4G providers. Not that I use 4G, but I wasn't about to object to the card, either. But, wow, bicycle pumps at Sports Basement start at $50? Okay, that's gonna be a problem. 11:30pm Went to KrOB's for a truncated Jerry Lewis viewing (The Big Mouth), and then to Pete and Sarah's to watch the first episode of Justified with them, and now back home, where I'm finally having dinner. Poor planning on my part is making it happen later than usual. | ||
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Wednesday, 25 July 2012 (nothing but commitments) 9:45am There was some goofiness with the timestamp at first but my recaps of episodes 20 and 21 of the second season of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic are now up. As much as I've been enjoying doing them, I'm also kinda glad this project is winding up, particularly right before the new semester begins. I'll most certainly recap the third season, but not until ends next year, I figure. (Or not. I can hardly picture what things will be like next July, any more than I could have predicted last July how things would be now.) 6:23pm So it turns out there was a miscommunication regarding the writeups I'm doing for the Fall Arts issue, in that the part where I was told they were due this Thursday was actually supposed to be told to somebody else about something else. I'm still doing them, but they aren't due for a few more weeks, and while I'm assured I'll be getting paid what I'm promised, said payment of course won't happen until then. Ah, the romance of freelancing. On the plus side, I've finally gotten my first actual movie-reviewing assignment, and with it came a whole bunch of new paperwork, because it'll be for the weekly's parent company, Village Voice Media. Dig me, I'm reviewing movies for The Village Voice! Assuming I don't screw this one up, of course. The screener is supposed to be overnighted to me, which is a little tricky what with the lack of a functioning doorbell. If this becomes a regular thing that I do, and I hope it does, I may need to have my landlord fix that doorbell. Again: ah, the romance of freelancing. | ||
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Tuesday, 24 July 2012 (playing for lost time) 9:06am New article up on the weekly, one that I didn't much enjoy writing but pays just the same as the ones I do enjoy writing, so beggars and choosers and all that. Went for another ride this morning, and I already broke my bike. Did something goofy to the chains while figuring out what shifting the gears does. Apparently one of the settings is "do something goofy to the chain." Thankfully, Mouse is more than willing to come over later this week to undo what I did, and I'm even fairly confident he won't make fun of me for it. That's not his way. 1:35pm Checked in with the editor who'd promised me movie-reviewing work a while back, and while he doesn't have anything to offer me on that front just yet, he did ask if I'd like to do four to five writeups of upcoming events for the weekly's Fall Arts issue. They're due by this Friday, and they'll pay handsomely, which will almost (almost) offset the loss of income from the work-work job this month. Sold American! 3:44pm Marta and I are exploring Fishmerman's Wharf and Pier 39 for a book she's writing. It's so weird to think that this is San Francisco to much of the rest of the country. But so long as they keep spending money here it's all good. 10:52pm Went to Pete and Sarah's to watch the new season of Breaking Bad. Yay for ritual. | ||
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Monday, 23 July 2012 (thinking about what's mine) 1:23pm Davina delivered my bike! I went for a ride, and it's going to take a while before I feel comfortable with traffic, but I'll get there eventually. I've also done all the paperwork, W-9s and such, to get paid by one of the new sites I'm freelancing for. It's all online now, interestingly enough. The future! | ||
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Sunday, 22 July 2012 ( ) 1:34pm My flash drive, on which I keep entirely too much of my work, has died. Most of said work is not backed up. It's nobody's fault but my own. sometime after midnight Yet another bleh turnout at Bad Movie Night, for Fast & Furious. But it was fun, and I got off at least one show-stopping joke, so that makes up for it. | ||
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Saturday, 21 July 2012 (the acadmey in peril) 1:59pm At the California Academy of Sciences for the new Earthquake show at the Planetarium. So many people. | ||
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