Girl Talk Thursday - Five Fictional Men That Still Get Me

It's been a few weeks since I've participated in Girl Talk Thursday with travel and everything happening but this weeks topic was just begging me to respond. In the beginning of September I wrote a GTT post about who my List of 5 would be. It was a serious amount of fun to not only think about, write about, and look up pictures for but also to read other people's lists and realize that in some cases mine was just wrong. I didn't include Eric the Vampire in my original list? What's wrong with me?!

Now I have a chance to redeem myself. We're doing it again. Only this time our lists are about those characters that we just can't help drooling over. The fictional men who we just wish were real. Clearly Eric will be making this one. 

1. Vampire Eric

Sorry Bill but I'm an Eric girl all the way. 

2) Jaime Lannister

Nicolai Coster Waldau who will be playing Jaime in the upcoming HBO pilot Game of Thrones

From George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. It takes a couple of books to warm up the guy but by book 5 I am all about him. 

3. Mr. Darcy

While I certainly prefer Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy, I've pretty much been in love with the man since I read the book.

4. Han Solo

Easily one of my first character crushes. He's just such a trouble maker! And the looks he gives Leia... make me melt every time.

5. Don Draper

Do you guys watch Mad Men yet? Seriously, get on that. Then I won't have to explain why Don gets me all worked up. It's self-evident.

Nostalgia Mention: Josh Hartnett in the Faculty

Since I still get made fun of for this one (rightly so, I'm sure) I may as well include him. But come on! He pulled apart a paper cutter and attacked an alien teacher with it! That was kind of badass. Right? Am I right? Shut up, I'm right.

There are lots and lots of others from movies and books and a bit of TV. I just need to stop here. I have lots of other things to do today! As much as I enjoy doing a google search for images of hot men. I feel like I should make a list of honorable mentions, past crushes, etc. Would definitely include the likes of Bud White, Malcolm Reynolds, Gambit, Robin Hood, various men from old Westerns, Rick Blaine, Jack Sparrow, Batman, Spike, a few British guys, and one or two characters from Shakespeare... others I'm sure.

See why I had to stop?

Unemployment Tuesday: November Edition

A couple of months ago I posted this entry here mostly just talking about my mental state after a month of unemployment. Since that post I've had one job and have left town once for my trip to Israel. And now here I am, once again, unemployed and sitting on my couch. So now what?

(If you find my rambles about unemployment boring and/or depressing skip to the end for links to fun stuff! I promise fun links!)

What do I do with myself as an unemployed girl in LA? My lack of job doesn't leave much room for any sort of activity that requires money. Los Angeles is not a cheap place to live and I have to be incredibly careful about what I spend when and on what. Want to buy groceries this week? Guess I'm skipping the movies! Want to go to out with a friend on Tuesday night? Let's see if I can stretch the groceries I bought last week through til next. I don't have to cut out every single thing I'd like to do, I just have to be very, very careful in my planning.

What else do I do? Socially, things like hiking are wonderful. It's a mostly free activity (there's always gas to consider but I don't do that much driving in general), I get outside to enjoy the nice weather, I get exercise, I get to spend time with friends, and the combination of all of those things is wonderful stress relief. When I have groceries (I'm kidding, I eat) I spend a lot of time cooking. Another wonderful way to relieve stress, be creative, and save money. I usually get not just one meal out of whatever I cook but several. Fabulous way to save money and stay healthy! Woo!

I don't know what to say really about the state of the economy. Last report from the L.A. Times puts National unemployment over 10% and California's over 12%. The highest since 1983. The year I was born. Not sure what that means other than the fact that I don't have a job and I'll be lucky to find one before the end of the year.

One of the problems with my industry and trying to find a job this time of year is that typically productions don't start up now. The holidays are kind of deadzone. Hollywood shuts down for almost two weeks and what's the point of starting up a film office or a television show if you're just going to have to close it all down for two weeks anyway? Why not just wait until January? Most productions do. I would love to find a job in the industry now but I can't count on it. What else can I do? Troll craigslist, register with temp agencies, continue to send my resume out to wherever I can. This wherever now includes jobs that are not necessarily film or television related.

Another question I'm frequently asked by friends is what I do with my day when I don't have a job. I do things like go for hikes with friends and ride my bike of course. Mostly though, I do actually work. I write. A lot. I read, another important activity for anyone wanting to write. While I have this free time I spend several hours a day at my computer just writing. I spend another big chunk at my computer job searching. I take advantage of the time I have being unemployed but I don't relish the idea of remaining in this state forever. If for no other reason than the difficulty it causes for things such as paying rent. I like to pay rent. It's nice having a place to live!

Hey also, guys, this whole healthcare thing... Dude, healthcare is expensive! I'm not completely thrilled with the bill that passed the House on Saturday but hey, it's something. When did trying to care for people become such a bad thing? Don't we all deserve a basic level of care? The healthcare system as it is broken. Any step towards actually fixing it seems like a step worth taking.

ANYWAY. Not trying to start a political debate on my film blog.

Hmmm... what else? How about you guys go see some movies for me and tell me how they are? Suggestions: Where The Wild Things Are, Antichrist, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Paranormal Activity... anything else out worth seeing? I'm also super excited about the upcoming Mr. Fox movie. Looks great!

How about some books? There are good reading things to do! I finally finished Stays Crunchy in Milk
which is fabulous, especially if you like fun stories about cereal characters (and you should really). Actually that's the only book I've read lately. I have another pile of reading things to do from friends so I'm focusing on those. I have a lot of talented friends!

Speaking of friends, a couple of mine and the things they've done have been mentioned places lately. A few days ago Roger Ebert's twitter (@ebertchicago) linked to this piece at Etheriel Musings about "Medicine For Melancholy". Elsewhere my friend Amy and her film "City On A Hill" was mentioned here. Nice things were said in both places about good people doing good things! Check 'em out.

Finally, my friend is trying to go to China. Vote for him?

Oh, while you're at it, you can check out my pie video on youtube (like you haven't all ready), rate it, and let me know if you think I should make another one. Maybe this week? Not that I'm going to make a video EVERY week but I am making more pie anyway... so maybe? What do you think?

I made a Pumpkin Pie and then went insane.

Last Friday before Halloween I went over to a friend's house for pumpkin carving. At the end of the night, after the pumpkins were carved, we noticed that there were still several pumpkins left. One of them happened to be a small pie pumpkin. After some insisting on their part, I took the pumpkin home.

Today, I turned it into pie.

Which in and of itself isn't all that unusual. I have even posted about pie baking in the past (remember my Blueberry Raspberry Pie over the summer?) What causes me to question my sanity is what else I did while cutting and scooping and otherwise massacring my poor, defenseless pumpkin. Um, I made a video?

Yes, I made a video. Of me. Making a pie. And then I posted it on Youtube? Well... yeah... I guess I did.

I was going to post the full recipe, and I still might later, but for now enjoy this somewhat complete demonstration of how to make a pumpkin pie truly from scratch.



I actually tried to record more of the whole process but for some reason the video thing on my computer kept stopping. So large chunks, like when I added all of the spices, just didn't record. Lame! I figured a couple of things out though and if I ever decide I'm this bored again I think I'll be able to make a few improvements.

In case you're wondering, the pies turned out great.

Bad Art: Israel Edition

A full fledged Israel post is in the works but in the mean time, I give you this. Bad Art from Israel. It was Saturday afternoon in Jerusalem and being Shabbat there wasn't a whole lot for us to do beyond hanging out in the park. Which was actually very, very nice. Some people wandered, some people played frisbee, others napped. I drew unicorns? And a weird bunny guy? Or tried to at least? Yeah, that happened...

National Novel Writing Month

I have what feels like a billion tabs open on my browser right now. Instructions on how to do something nifty to the formatting of this blog, links to cool new works by authors and musicians and artists that I like, articles about various film happenings and reviews and thoughts that I'd love to share, a page for something I'm researching, another page for a skirt I really want to buy and can't afford... They've all been open like this for the last week. Everyday I keep meaning to go through them, do what I've been meaning to do, post links to things I've been wanting to link to, and every day the number of tabs open gets larger rather than smaller.

Why don't I just sit down and get through it? The same reason that I suspect will keep me from blogging quite a bit over the next month. That's right, it's November which means it is once again National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo for those in the know (i.e. big nerds like me).

I've been wanting to participate in NaNoWriMo for the last couple of years. Last year I even went so far as to sign up, write 100 words, and promptly give up. Let's just say that I was not in a novel writing place.  I blame it one work?

This year I vowed would be different. I had an idea for my novel two months ago. I changed that idea about a week ago. I'm sticking to my second idea, thankfully. I didn't really do any pre-writing but I did think the plot through, I have a pretty solid idea of where things might be going. Then on November 1st, Halloween recovery complete, I sat down at my computer. I actually began to type. Then I began to type faster. Before I knew it I was past my daily word goal for the day. It was exciting!

It's now day four and I haven't yet reached today's goal. I've written a chapter about a new character which was a bit harder than I had thought it was going to be and now I have to take a break to do life things. I'll come back to it this afternoon or evening to finish off my daily goal. Hopefully this will happen before the baseball game starts (Go Phillies btw!). Either way, I found that what worked for me while getting through the first rough draft of my screenplay this summer was setting a daily goal and sticking to it. For the screenplay I sat time goals, an hour a day, two hours a day, whatever, since I had no real page or word requirement. NaNoWriMo is different, the whole point is to reach 50,000 words by the end of November. So each day I have my word goal. I'm going with the unambitious break 50,000 words out evenly over 30 days plan giving myself a daily goal of 1667 words. During the first 3 days I surpassed that goal every day. I'm hoping to continue to do so. I'm sort of trying to bank my words if you will. You know, in case I ever actually get a real job and loose all of my wonderful free time.

I know I'm only on day 4 here and that things will most likely not continue to be this wonderful in Elissa writing land, but at the moment I am enjoying the heck out of this. It's such a pleasure to watch the word count grow, see the story develop, get to know my characters. Everything is still flowing in that wonderfully organic way that happens at the beginning of a writing project, when everything is still shiny and new and exciting. Week 2 I hear is harder. Then there's week 3. Finally week 4 comes around and you're just happy that the light is visible at the end of the tunnel. Writing is fun?

I say this and yet really, it is! I love writing and I am so unbelievably thrilled that this year has given me the time for it.

The even more wonderful thing about NaNoWriMo? Anyone can do it! That means you! If you want to of course. The beauty is, it doesn't matter what you write. It doesn't have to be good. You never even have to show it to anyone. You are doing this thing purely for yourself. To exercise your brain muscles, be creative, have fun. Spread the word-use love. We have words! It's a wonderous thing to be able to use them. Tell a story! Make up some nonsense! Who cares what it is!

I'm hoping that at the end of this I'll actually have something good. I like what I'm doing so far. I plan on sharing it with my writing group once I get a little farther along. I'll do the rough draft this month and see where I'm at. If I still like it after 50,000 words and a month of crazy, then who knows? Rewrites in December!

If you're at all curious about NaNoWriMo, I strongly encourage you to at least go browse the website. It's definitely not too late to get started on something for the month. It's only day 4!

If you need a pep talk, although I hope you don't this early but maybe you will want to come back here in the next week or two, there are lots on their website from various wonderful authors. This one is from Neil Gaiman.

Oh! And if you're all ready signed up, be my writing buddy! Find me by my user name theladysrevenge. Let me know if you do. We can be writing friends!

Good luck guys! Let the writing madness commence. Or, at least, continue.

Happy Halloween!!!

The Post Travel Post

The trip is over. I am once again back in LA. I actually got back Tuesday night and have been fighting jetlag and exhaustion ever since. I don't think I've fallen asleep this early this consistently since I was 8. I'm hoping I can make it a bit later tonight though, as there is pumpkin carving and other exciting pre-Halloween fun to be had.

I have so many things I want to say about this trip, it was incredibly amazingly amazing, but you're going to have to wait just a little longer for all of that. Don't worry, it will happen. Possibly later this weekend.

In the meantime, get out and enjoy Halloween! I love this holiday. I failed in getting together an original costume but luckily a wonderful friend has lent me one of hers. So I will be a "Sexy Baseball Player" and yeah... Hey, don't judge! It's actually the first time I've ever done one of those "Sexy" Halloween costumes. I guess it had to happen eventually? At least I won't look out of place watching the Phillies kick butt tomorrow night!

Yeah, I went there.

Anyway, Happy Halloween kids! Enjoy! Eat candy! Don't get caught egging your neighbor's car! Actually, don't egg your neighbor's car. That's gross.

Travel Post

A quick update from Brooklyn. And my iPod. It's been a good weekend here in NYC. Tomorrow it's off to Israel first thing in the AM.

Don't expect too many updates while I'm out there. Or any. But I promise pictures when I get back!

For now I'm going to continue sitting on the couch and watching TV with an old friend. I may have just been crying from the end of Marly and Me...

See you guys in two weeks!

Stuck In A Tree

You may remember that a while back I began taking requests for whatever. Really, whatever. I was bored and asked my Facebook friends for ideas of what to do. From time to time I've posted the results on this blog (all that bad art? you bet!) but I haven't actually had access to a scanner for the last few weeks. Until I discovered the one in our office yesterday. Yes! The bad art is back!

This particular request came from a fabulous former co-worker while we were all out at the Reno Farewell Party. I was telling the story of how in my senior year of college I got myself stuck in a tree. The next day she put in the request for a visual representation. Who am I to say no to that?

Without further ado, I here now present to you... me. In a tree.

  

 

 

... THE END.

Girl Talk Thursday - Roommate Love

This week's Girl Talk Thursday topic is about roommates.

Roommates. I’ve sure had a lot of them. College, after college, now, I even had a roommate on an indie film I worked on once. We were shooting in Ft. Myers, FL and while I lived close-ish it was definitely too far for a daily commute. So the producer put most of the crew up in what used to be an assisted living facility. My roommate was the make-up artist and she was a really sweet girl with a boyfriend who built us awesome curtains out of a furni pad. The place was also haunted…

Miraculously I’m still on speaking terms with most of the people I’ve lived with and the rest it’s more of a lost touch kind of thing rather than a “She (or in one case He) was awful” kind of thing. I have good stories from a lot of the cohabitations but no real horror stories. Honestly, my roommates may have more horror stories about me than I have about them (just ask J about the now infamous Jameson night back in April. Or even better, DON’T).

Actually speaking of roommates, K and I have just passed our 2-year anniversary in Bonaparte House. We moved in October ’07. This just occurred to me. Right now. As I typed the above paragraph. Wow.

My Bonaparte Set on Flickr.

I love my house and my two roommates. Sure, we’ve had our spats, if you can even call them that. Occasionally something will be said about the dirty dishes, that sort of thing. For the most part though we all get along. We hangout, we have beer & pizza nights, we IM during the day when we’re all at work. There will be long email chains making elaborate plans for weekend activities. So what if there’s a honeycomb still stuck in our wall? Living at Bonaparte is great.

What are some of my favorite memories?

Since I don’t remember half of it, I can’t really qualify our first Halloween party as memorable per se. It was pretty epic though. A great crowd, good costumes, tasty snacks (spicy popcorn!), and a bit of scandal. Epic I tell you. Epic.

My 25th birthday was also pretty epic. K and I devouring a smorgasbord of bad for you food including I don’t even remember what. There was mac and cheese? That sort of thing. And a bottle of vodka… Then J joined us for bar adventures and general goofiness.

Speaking of birthdays, K’s surprise party this year was pretty great too.

Then there was the painting of the living room of which I was only marginally a part. I spent most of that day fighting with my old Ikea bed, trying to disassemble the damn thing. I helped paint one wall though!

Pretty much any day that’s involved a bike ride to the beach or visit to the farmer’s market has been awesome.

Or how about the night J came home late with her friend C and they decided I needed to join them for an impromptu dance party in the living room? I remember I was in bed, mostly asleep, when I became aware of whispering in the hall outside of my bedroom. Next thing I know the door is busting open and two drunk people are jumping on my bed. C picked me up, literally picked me up, spun me around, and announced that the dance party was on. What do you in the face of the craziness? Grab a beer and join it of course! I remember being spun around to the music of Justice a lot that night. It was great.

Sometimes the house feels small (it is a little), sometimes the landlord drives us nuts (leaking shower anyone?), and sometimes we all just need our alone time. Overall though, we’re three kinda nutty girls who get along and over the last two years have become close friends. I love my Bonaparte Bitches. I can’t imagine two ladies I’d enjoy living with more.