As so many of my fellow unemployed friends know, it’s hard to be thankful sometimes, and it’s oh-so-easy to sink into modes of anger, self pity, and depression as we are hit with bills, rejection and isolation during these seemingly endless months of unemployment. I find myself feeling these emotions on a daily basis, but today I want to give thanks, because, as miserable as I sometimes feel in these times if hardship I do have much to be thankful for.

I am thankful for my parents. Yes, I sometimes feel the edges of my sanity fading into oblivion as I spend countless hours sulking in my childhood bedroom, or watching movies at 10:00 am with my retired father. However, without my parents I would be stuck in a lease right now, draining my savings account, talking to myself as I slowly loose my mind from lack of human contact. They were kind enough to see that though none of us would choose this living arrangement, I needed a place to stay while I looked for a job. I needed a place to store my things, a place that I could up and leave at the drop of a hat if I somehow found work out of state. This temporary living situation is making things more manageable for me. And so, though it is not always ideal, it’s the most financially responsible thing to do right now and I am so thankful that they (now empty nesters) were willing to allow me back into their home… for an indefinite period of time. And they sometimes feed me.

I am thankful for my friends. These last twenty-five weeks would have been agony without the great friends I have in my life. Thank you for the random phone calls, the emails saying hello, for getting together and sharing a meal, for spontaneous nights out on the town, and for trips to Miami… these events are my reminders of what’s important in life. Thank you for understanding what I am going through, and if you really don’t understand at all… thank you for at least trying, and for not judging me. Without you (my friends) I would be lost.

I am thankful to be a part of my Goddaughter’s life. I’m not the “mothering” type, but being actively engaged in her life is more rewarding than I ever could have imagined. I love seeing her grow, change and learn new things. When she calls me up and says, “I love you Auntie Chap,” I just melt. And she motivates me, in her own way, to find work so that I can open an education savings account!!

I am thankful that I’m single. GASP… did she just say that? Yes. I did. Don’t get me wrong; I have my moments, in which I miss having a partner, or long to meet someone new. Especially after I go to see New Moon and watch half-clothed young hotties romp around the wilderness. But, for more than just the obvious reasons (that my close friends know and understand), I am thankful to be on my own right now. Being unemployed is stressful, and as many of you know, puts stress on ALL of your relationships. I am thankful I don’t have to put this stress on my partner. I can sulk and hate my life in peace, and I can be rejected time and time again without having to worry about my partner asking me why, or failing to understand how hard it is right now to find work.

I am thankful for television. Okay, seriously, does this deserve to be on the list? Absolutely! What got me through my breakup this year? Watching Weeds. What got me through feeling completely isolated as I was living on a farm in the middle of nowhere? Watching Dexter (for 12 hours straight). Right now I have been watching old Gilmore Girls episodes… and they make me laugh. And that is a GOOD thing. It may sound cheesy, but these moments of preoccupation really help me. I’m not an athlete, who would maybe turn to jogging or something. Yoga can only do so much. I don’t really feel justified in taking up a new hobby (because it costs money), so I am thankful for television. And anyone who has known me for a long time will not be surprised by these sentiments at all!

I am thankful I have legs (Chap, that one’s for you).

So my dear friends, even if you feel like you have nothing, you probably have SOMETHING to be thankful for. So, go forth, give thanks, and eat Turkey (unless you are a vegetarian like myself).

Happy Thanksgiving!

(Just one response to doubt.)

Weeds they do

Weeds know how to write poetry!

They do it every day. Count the leaves.

Just try to discourage their seeds!

Words pour forth, abundance.

Identify which is bloom, which is rain.

You can fool yourself so easily.

What is reinforced, persists.

What does not, fades. Early spring

has answers for every seed.

Sow what you will. Breeze will do

the same. Two hands that may

plow in unison. Unity, one word.

When the weed becomes the garden,

just as it always has been.

Weeds know how to stitch.

How to sew, needle

and thread. Soil and sky,

the loom that weaves.

And this is how you write.

Neil Reid © November 2009

The lake is not looking especially healthy at the moment – and this picture was taken before the worst of the recent weather. Birdlife is scarce (though I have recently added the Sacred Kingfisher to the list), so I’ve decided to continue with my series on the flora of the lake. This is the second post in the series. The first can be found here.

Common Blown-Grass (Lachnagrostis filiformis) Seedhead

Common Blown-Grass (Lachnagrostis filiformis)

Common Blown-Grass is easily the most conspicuous of the grasses around the lake. It’s one of a number of “native tumbleweeds,” seedheads of which are often found in large drifts by roadsides. Hairy Panic (Panicum effusum) is another well-known and widely distributed species.

Onion Grass (*Romulea rosea)

Small-Flowered Onion Grass (*Romulea minutiflora)

These two are common, widespread and potentially destructive introduced species. They are a favourite foodsource of the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) and Galah (Eolophus roseicapillus), however.

Barley Grass (*Hordeum sp.)

Ripgut Brome (*Bromus catharticus)

Soft Brome (*Bromus molliformis)

Dandelion (*Taraxacum officinale) Seedhead

Ryegrass (*Lolium sp.)

Narrow-Leaf Plantain (*Plantago lanceolata)

Flatweed (*Hypochoeris radicata)

Mouse-Ear Chickweed (*Cerastium glomeratum)

Tall Flatsedge (*Cyperus eragrostis)

These are all very common, very widespread weeds. The following are also weeds, and also reasonably common, but are at least better-looking!

Common Centaury (*Centaurium erythraea)

Celery-Leaved Buttercup (*Ranunculus sceleratus), aka Cursed Buttercup, Poison Buttercup

Redflower or Carolina Mallow (*Modiola caroliniana)

Redflower Mallow can be recognised by its distinctive fruits. This is a young fruit and this an old one.

Wallaby Grass (Austrodanthonia sp.)

This is probably the most successful native grass in the area, frequently appearing in lawns and parks. Austrodanthonia species are not easy to separate – so I haven’t bothered trying.

And finally, some fungi:

Puffballs (Lycoperdon sp.)

The following fungus (Bolbitius vitellinus, I believe) formed an enormous colony, extending a kilometre or more, alongside the walking track next to the lake.

Young Fruiting Body

Typical Fruiting Body

Older Fruiting Body

This last fungus is among the most common in the area. I have seen it near the lake, on Willans Hill and in many local parks and gardens.

Laccaria lateritia

That’s all for now. There will probably be more later.

Istället för att göra slut med bloggen funderar jag just nu på att göra slut med Weeds. Ni vet, serien som jag hissat i ett antal inlägg tidigare.

Den är helt enkelt inte bra längre.

Säsong fem har dragit igång på Canal Plus och misären är total. Fast inte på det där dråpligt underhållande viset som tidigare har gjort att Weeds ändå kan kategoriseras som en komedi, utan på ett beklämmande allt-är-mest-bara-hemskt-sätt. Hjältinnan är nu gravid med en mexikansk knarkbaron. Han hotar att ha ihjäl henne, så hon super och röker i något slags pubertalt försök till protest. Då våldtar han henne. Däremellan blir hennes barn bestulna på sina knarkplantor, när de inte filmar släktingar som har vilt otrohetssex i tvättstugan. Låter det roligt för er? Nej, trodde väl inte det.

Jag har aldrig varit någon moralens väktare och lite sälta och svärta kan ofta rädda den blekaste anrättning. Men utan värme och kärlek blir det bara cyniskt. Och ganska hemskt att titta på.

Därför funderar jag på att i fortsättningen göra något bättre av min tv-tid, än att bli lite vagt illamående av en serie som i sin iver att spränga gränser mest bara har lyckats med att förgöra sin egen charm.

Thoughts are like weeds in a garden.

If you aren’t aware of them, they will run rampant.
If you feed them thinking they are the plants you wish to cultivate, they will grow.
If you attempt to pull them out by anything but the root, you only make them stronger.
To get rid of weeds you must pull them out at the root, you must see your thoughts naked for what they are, penetrate to the root of your thoughts and they will be born, grow, shrink and die of their own accord.

Vi este trabalho, através de outro blog e achei-o interessante.

A forma bastante humorística e fria com que Albert Exergian aborda algumas séries, fez-me expressar muitos sorrisos… Espero que tenham em vocês o mesmo efeito.

Estes são os posters que, para mim, mais se destacam.

Frequentem o site de Albert Exergian aqui e fiquem a conhecer mais acerca do seu trabalho.

This has got to be the best office in the world!!!!

The sunrise view of South East Bay from my bunk

I’ve just spent a week with 14 other staff, four volunteers and two owners on Tuhua (Mayor) Island.  Whilst the view of the sunrise from my bunk each morning was a great way to start each day, it was certainly no holiday. 

Each day we loaded our gear and set off on a range of tasks all over the island, returning at the end of day to eat and fall into bed, exhausted but excited to have made a dent in the long list of jobs we had to complete.

Our hard work was rewarded by regular sightings of rare birds, plants, lizards and marine mammals.  Here are just a few of the locals that we saw.

We’ve been working in partnership with the owners (Tuhua Trust Board) for many years to restore the pest-free island and now we’re helping them to make it more accessible for people to enjoy.

I spent three days with our botanist and weed specialists spraying and searching for weeds all over the island, including one day of wading through a wetland, pushing through head-high walls of vegetation in search of the invasive royal fern.  

Spray unit loaded and off to spray weeds

The wetland we waded through

My last day was spent helping to fix the floor of the caretakers cottage and shifting firewood.

Eveyone’s skills and expertise were used around the island – upgrading buildings, tracks, water supply, removing massive fallen pohutukawa logs from where they had fallen on top of buildings, cleaning up the ammentity areas, killing weeds, patrolling the Marine Reserve, searching for springs in preparation for our orange-front parakeet transfer coming up in December and checking on the pateke (brown teal) and kiwi that have been released on the island.

Rope & chainsaw skills got put to the test

Dave checked out a cliffside kiwi nest

Chris and John fixed the floor

Tawara cleared the track

Dean & Alastair built a huge firewood pile

As inviting as the water looked, I only managed one swim – the cool water and 2m shark we saw swimming in the bay on our first evening were a little off-putting.  But when I did get wet, I took mask & snorkel with me and got to see some beautiful kelp beds, big angel fish and incredibly glossy obsidian.

Click here to find out how you could visit Tuhua – Tauranga’s piece of paradise.

I still have a little bit of work to take care of during the next to days, but no complaints from me I don’t have to go anywhere to finish it. I just caught up with almost all of the shows that I watch religiously. If I had to rate the order of my favorite shows it’d go in this order. 1.Fringe 2.Lost 3.Community 4.Weeds 5.30 Rock 6.Parks And Recreation 7.The Office and a distant 8. Heroes.

Un símbolo. A veces sólo falta eso para que la serie de turno nos venga a la cabeza. Eso es lo que han debido de pensar los autores (o el autor) de estos carteles que hacen referencia a series de gran éxito. Algunas actuales y otras con más solera. Lo bueno es que su simpleza tambien tiene su complicación. Ya que estas cosas no se hacen así como así. Hacen falta grandes dosis de imaginación y saber bien sobre la serie que quieres tratar de homenajear. Por desconocimiento hay algunos carteles que no he llegado a entender muy bien, mientras que hay otros que al seguirlas los he reconocido de inmediato. Precisamente el que abre este post es uno de ellos. Los que no veais la serie “Dexter” igual no entendeis muy bien que han querido decir. Pero es una clara referencia a uno de los secretos del protagonista. Esas láminas de cristal en las cuales deja una gota de sangre de cada una de sus víctimas. Todas en una cajita, alineadas y guardadas en un aire acondicionado (en la cuarta temporada cambia su ubicación ).

Mis preferidas son, ésta, la de Prison Break, Twin Peaks, Los Ángeles de Charlie, Héroes, House M.D., El Coche Fantástico y McGyver. ¿Y las vuestras?

Fuente: exergian

Fdo: Snake  

I get a vocab word sent to my phone every morning and today’s was hoodwinked.
Fun little or not so little word, isn’t it? It means tricked, but it sounds like such a fun word.

Thursdays are cleaning days. This includes vacuuming, dusting, the laundry, and filtering out the build up of nonsense in my head. It’s nice and I just go straight back to work afterwards.

My first college semester is coming to an end rather quickly. Yesterday was the last set of lecture classes and all that is left now are the finals. It’s exhilarating yet astonishingly sad.

I’ve never been happy with the fact that time seems to move on so fast and a lot of the times, it leaves me in its dust.
Sometimes, I’d much prefer being in the dust than running along by its side in full speed. It scares me.

It’s scares me to no end actually.

It makes me feel anxious and out of time. Then I realize it really does not matter since everything comes to an end. Then I find myself caught in another vicious circle about why I work so much when I’m bound to die one day. (Of course, I fight that argument with myself by saying that I could make a difference in the amount of years that i am alive.)

But yes.  Every time I am outside with my dog, I watch her run around happily and stare at the grass when she isn’t close enough to observe. I see tiny purple and yellow flowers, grass, pine cones, a whole lot of dirt, and weeds.

I love weeds. I know it sounds odd and I probably feel this way because I have never had to weed-pick, but I think they’re special.

I think it’s safe to say that our lives are much like flowers. As children, we are buds– beautiful and young; highly anticipated. And when we reach our golden years, we have come to a full bloom. Of course, that is the highlight of a flower’s life. It’s colors are at full-scale, along with its petals, until it begins to wilt. Flowers wilt slowly and inevitably, showing the aging process in an almost painful way. They brown and wither, we wrinkle and lose posture while shrinking– it’s all the same.

But weeds… well.

Weeds will always look the same. They receive no more criticism than, “I don’t want them in my lawn,” and if you find them in their natural surroundings (not someone’s fertilized and mowed backyard) they are beautiful. Some are just green shrub-like plants, while others are more textured like dandelions. They are not awaiting to bloom nor will anyone notice them dying because they honestly don’t pay much attention to them. They are free to be and do whatever they want, but flowers always have to place in the show.

I want to be a dandelion. I don’t want to have to live up to any expectations of blooming or becoming something more, but I want to be that surprise that no one expected from a dandelion. They seem more normal to me. On top of that, they are more resilient. You could pull as many weeds as you want, but they will constantly come back to haunt you. I don’t haunt people, but what I’m saying is I’m here to stay. Weeds are much more powerful than we give them credit for. At least I think so.

We don’t wish upon roses, but we do wish upon dandelions.

But it’s nothing more than a weed.
They’re useless and hideous.
They only cause trouble.

I don’t think so. I just think they’re misunderstood, like many of us actually.
People bloom in different ways and definitely don’t follow a timed schedule for growth by any means.

If we wish upon dandelions, they are right up there with the stars.
Norms can really kill a perception of something or someone.
Nothing is set unless you believe it to be so.
In the end, we’ve all been hoodwinked, all the time by the way.

I think most of the vegetables in the garden didn’t mind the cold much, and are very appreciative of the return of some sunshine! I know I’m glad the sun has returned, at least for a few days.The resilience of plants is always surprising.

This winter wheat was grown for a 4-H banquet centerpiece, and then was unceremoniously dumped into the compost bin. It seems quite content with its lot, even though it is going to get ground up and mixed into the compost this afternoon.

This salad mix (lots of mustard and choy) and the lettuce next to it seem none the worse for the little bit of frost earlier this week. I think I may have a harvest to report by next Monday. Yum!

In case you couldn’t tell from all the labels, this is the Swiss Chard.

Hmm…maybe this is the wrong picture to end on. This is some tiny, seedling henbit that is growing in the bed out by the lattice wall. I guess henbit is our winter crop for that garden!

Have a great weekend!

Fine, still, reasonably warm. Planted 6 lupins (paid 9d), said to be mixed colours. NB. that T[itley]. says that with lupins one should spread their roots out & not insert them too deep. Limed & began digging the final strip. This will need more doing than the rest as the ground is very sour & full of weeds. Cut down the remaining phloxes, tied up some of the chrysanthemums which had been blown over. Difficult to do much these afternoons now it is winter-time. The chrysanths now in full flowers, mostly dark reddy-brown, & a few ugly purple & white ones which I shan’t keep. Roses still attempting to flower, otherwise no flowers in the garden now. Michaelmas daisies are over & I have cut some of them down. The second lot of Brussels sprouts (planted as little plants 19.8.39) sprouting[1] up, also some of the savoys planted at the same time beginning to hearten up a little. All that lot are small kinds. None of my broccoli yet heading to any extent, though the plants have grown well. T. says oak leaves make the best mould, & then beech.

8 eggs. Sold 8 @ 2d each (a mistake – price miscalculated).

[1] Orwell wrote ‘sproutening’. Peter Davison

Good morning.  Epix is about to take the stage at this the last day of Streaming Media West.  Watch the keynote live at:  www.livestream.com/streamingmedialive/beta. Presentations this weekend at streamingmedia.com/west.  We’ll be posting the remarks here along with a summary of what was said this week by other content distributors and producers:

Emil Rensing, Epix
Epix is a joint venture of Paramount/Lionsgate/MGM that launched three week ago as a FiOS Pay TV cable channel that for $10/month makes its content available to subscribers on any platform :  on TV, on demand, and online.  Epix owns the multiplatform rights for all their titles in the PayTV window of 9-10 months after theatrical release for at least 2y and doesn’t have restrictions on their content like legacy cable providers who signed deals 10 years ago and now have to renegotiate rights for TV Everywhere.   Currently offering 180 first run blockbuster movies and classics, Epix seeks to grow it’s library to 3,000 titles as well as offer outstanding original and event-based programming similar to the HBO, Starz, Showtime model.  Programming like Madonna and Kings of Leon concerts, Sam Shepard’s  Tough Trade and Charlize Theron’s Atlas Shrugged.  Seeking to become home to original storytellers….original programming builds brand for the network.  In terms of the size of the Epix acquisition budget, having just launched they are small now 62 staff, a third focused on digital, wondering whether sponsored star-studded sitcoms like Easy to Assemble and Justine Bateman’s FM78.tv then become an attractive option. Emil Rensing, founder of Next New Networks, shares space with Boxee in New York, is a digital guy agnostic about formats, hoping to see Epix on that toaster we’ve been talking about.  A media business, Epix is proud of its technology partners who provide a seamless playback experience: Akamai, Adobe, ClipSync. Amazing friending feature allows you to invite up to four friends to sit in a virtual screening room, watch the movie together, and chat via pop up speech bubbles.  The friends do not need to be an Epix subscriber. You can check out Epix this weekend.  Three day passes are available at www.epixhd.com/invite.   Watch Iron Man, Cloverfield, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, all four Indie Jones movies, even Scorsese’s Mick Jagger doc, Shine a Light.  Epix will be the first to run the Star Trek movie in the new year, so stay tuned.
(per SMW remarks)

Anthony Soohoo, CBS
CBS distribution strategy online, on mobile, in the connected home has been open, non-exclusive hyperdistribution to AOL, Yahoo!, Google, MSN. CBS.com watch full shows. TV.com nexgen navigation with integrated TiVo functionality and online personalized guide watchlists for the 20mm users of TV.com (2mm iPhone app downloads).  TV shows now, movies in the pipeline.  CBS Web Originals believes there are different ways to tell stories in terms of byte size text format, take about 3-4 different shows on a quarterly basis, on a project finance basis, find a sponsor working with the creators, then distribute across CBS properties and CBS Audience Network, bring expertise on sales side, largest video sales force out there, CBS Interactive is the 4th largest video player in the world, reach on a monthly basis 120mm.  Offer content creators sales and distribution piece mixed up with the TheInsider.com, TV.com, Chow.com, CBS.com.  300 syndicated partners.  A combination of having limited resources and it being early stage for the connected devices, focusing more on mobile right now.  TV Everywhere great for consumer, but only 52% of broadcast nets making content available, 10% cable nets, no economic model/measurement.
(per Commonwealth Club SmarterTV remarks)

Tom Gorke, MTV
Tasked with monetizing content off owned and operated 300 websites worldwide, goal is multiplatform, to stay close to consumer, drive awareness and traffic.  MTV is the largest provider of content to Xbox and iTunes.  The biggest driver of paid download to own is the need for portability, take it with you on the flight.  The need to aggregate a library of content has matured.  Done well on Hulu, Fancast, Atom, GameTrailers, DailyMotion, Veoh.  MTV is all about automation, too much content, it wouldn’t scale if had to customize, even putting a flag in a feed is tough.  Have close relationship with syndication partners, provide exclusive one off promotional content, lots of assets, art work, graphics.  Syndication partners care most about reliability and regularity of delivery, and standards of quality of content.  FB pulls a lot of content from MTV.  Really saw the power of Twitter during the VMAs with Kanye West.  MTV integrates Twitter into sites, audience of engaged folks.  Leading provider of mobile content, sold over 1mm of the 16 iPhone apps, VCast.  Live streaming tentpoles like Kids Choice Awards, VMAs. Live streaming is completely different technology (Ustream, Justin.TV, Kyte, Livestream).  When Ashton Kutcher did his Fantasy Football Show on Ustream viewership went from 100,000 to 1mm viewers, it had a watercoolers effect and was played everywhere all at once.  For the experiment, bought ad unit and inserted Ustream player – was expensive.
(per SMW remarks)

Vanessa Pappas, Next New Networks
500mm streams online in 3 years, 30mm views/month, believe in super-syndication concept, be where the audience is.  Yahoo! has been great for family entertainment, long form does well on iTunes.  TubeMogul is integrated in content management system but do a manual refresh to optimize sites that perform for you.  Recently hired category manager from YouTube.  Know your syndicated partner’s audience.  On Twitter you can’t just post and pray, need to have dialogue with engaged community.  Share office with Boxee, getting on Boxee, Roku..
(per SMW remarks)

Brett Wislon, TubeMogul
Free supersyndication service to Blip.tv, Break, Brightcove, DailyMotion, eBaum’s World, Facebook, Graspr, Grind TV, Howcast, i2TV, Imeem, Metacafe, MSN Video, Myspace, Revver, Sclipo, Sevenload, Streetfire, Twitter, StupidVideos, Veoh, VideoJug, Y! Video, YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo, 5min, Zoopy.  Best campaigns are hybrid like the recent intentionally lame Windows 7 videos.  Got 5.5mm views in September, impressive for a brand.  http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/video-windows-7-launch-party-parody-is-bleeping-genius/3.  Most have given up on trying to make money in online video.  Although YouTube is 50% of the game, study found that those that also syndicated to niche sites saw a 100x increase in viewership than those just on YouTube.  Greater success with vertical focus.  Analytics allow you to see where video is most embedded, can see if a specific mommy blog is an important outlet and starting feeding them exclusive content which they love because content drives traffic.  Moving from super-syndication (content everywhere blast) to hyper-syndication (content to engaged fans fast).  FB has no video strategy but is a top ten video site.  Study found most engaged viewers came from Twitter.
(per SMW remarks)

Brandon White, FUNimation
License anime content, aim to meet the needs of the licensors in Japan.  Syndicated via ad-supported video, iTunes, Xbox/Zune, PS3.  Use YouTube for fingerprinting.  Plan to syndicated across all CE devices – mobile, Blu-ray, web-enabled tvs.
(per SMW remarks)

Jim Louderback, Revision 3
Syndicates 20 shows including Diggnation broadly anywhere, anytime, any device, want to be where our audience millennial men live.  Auto-syndicates with Tubemogul but still need to manually refresh metadata at each site.
(per SMW remarks)

Dominik Rausch, Eleven Minutes Production, Easy To Assemble
EasytoAssembleSeries.com is a sponsored star-studded sitcom that has garnered 4.2mm+ views between its Season I & II on MyDamnChannel, YouTube, Ikeafans.com, KoldKastTV, Hulu.  Also distributed on iTunes.  In talks with DVD sales, releasing on hotel networks, subtitles for 10-15 additional countries in Europe & Asia.  Innovative series where in addition to celebrities like Illeana Douglas, Justine Bateman, Tom Arnold…IKEA is a co-star.  Web series same premium quality as film, all 10 episodes of second season strings together as a movie.  Production company is thinking of new ways to make content adapting to fragmented time-shifting society.  As traditional TV distribution disappears, new media will take over distribution for all platforms.
(per Commonwealth Club SmarterTV remarks)

Brent Friedman, Electric Farm
Production budget for Crackle’s Woke Up Dead is over $1mm, high for a web production but has talent attached which attracted integrated sponsors like Kodak.   (Premise of show is friend trying to monetize fact that friend is a living zombie, sub-plot pitching to brands for sponsorship).  Sometimes you have to take a risk to get a bigger payoff just like more marketing dollars equals more views.  Kodak also cross-promoted on their own site which over a million monthly uniques.  Valemont is a success with an engaged community of 25,000.
(per SMW remarks)

Thom Woodley, Dinosuar Diorama
All-For-Nots co-produced with Eisner’s Vuguru.  Doesn’t like sponsor integration, hurts show creatively, prefer ad-insertion, and smaller more engaged audiences of 50-100,000, hasn’t quit his day job as ad agency exec yet. Show All’s Faire about the Renaissance Faire reaches 20,000 Renaissance Faire fans plus sci fi, comics and comedy buffs.
(per SMW remarks)

We’ve hit that time of year. You know what I’m talking about. The time of year when you drive to work in the morning in the dark and the sun drops from the sky without warning in the afternoon. This is the time of year that I stop caring about things. I abandon MSNBC for HBO and Showtime. I avoid conversation by plugging into my iPod. I put the kids to bed early and hit the sack by 9:00. Oh motivation, you mischievous badger, why must you hibernate through the winter when I need you most?

I don’t watch a lot of network TV. I pretty much just watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and then move outside basic cable for the good stuff. With Nurse Jackie and Weeds on hiatus, I’ve been turning to a couple of other old standbys—Californication and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

With the exception of the introduction of Sue Colini, this season of Californication has been a disappointment. I get it. David Duchovny has a sex addiction problem. I thought this was about Hank Moody? What happened to the story?

Curb Your Enthusiasm this season has been great with the addition of the cast of Seinfeld. Hollee thinks I am Larry David incarnate. I don’t know that I necessarily agree with that. But her point is duly noted.

This season also brought a new show to HBO, Bored to Death. This season has already come to an end and I really loved it. Hollee didn’t care much for this show. For some reason, I just really like Jason Schwartzman. I think the timing of his dry humor is perfect. Teamed up with Ted Danson in the role of his career makes it that much better.

Well, folks, there you have it. My take on my favorite television shows currently on the air. Maybe tomorrow I’ll thrill you with a breakdown of my top five favorite foods. Or maybe my all time favorite quotes. Oh oh oh, or maybe I’ll breakdown the elements of a great ballad (which must include a killer guitar solo and a tear).

But more than likely I’ll just be writing about how idiotic conservatives are who criticize Obama for showing respect to other cultures. In the meantime, check out these shows. They are way better than How I Met your Mother or House.

Until next time, peace out playas!

[Photo Credit]

Well the good news is… things aren’t getting any worse. Not that there was much scope for the spec script market to fall any more. Universal and Sony have used up their development budgets for this year, or had it taken away form them The other studios aren’t faring much better. So far this year, the proportion of scripts that have gone out wide and sold, hovers at around 1%. That’s about the same figure during the writers strike. Dire news, but at least it’s honest.

Although the persistent economic storm clouds are gradually starting to  lift, with major companies beginning to recapitalize, things should turn in the new year. Progress is likely to be slow as we still face the possibility of a double dip in the economic recovery. You know things are bad when the top tenpercentaries are selling single single digit numbers of projects. Scripts are still being circulated so that writers can display their wares. Make sure you’re one of them and get as many query letters out there as possible, hopefully even a few reads. We still need to market ourselves and network like crazy.

The screenwriting landscape has changed dramatically since the WGA strike of 2008. Television networks are relying on reality tv shows despite audience drops of around 20%. Reality tv shows can cost less than half that of scripted dramas, so are highly profitable. Networks have learnt to live without us. Where major shows used to hire 10-12 writers, the number has dropped by around 30 -40%. The number of pilots commissioned by the television networks has fallen by a similar amount. The good news is that the best television writing around these days is in cable television. Ratings of scripted cable shows have improved by around 20 -30%. Look at the Emmys, with shows like “Mad Men”, “Breaking Bad”, “Weeds” and “Hung”. Go Showtime, HBO and AMC. You rock!

The feature business is murkier. Producers are finding it tougher to get projects off the ground in light of costs increasing by around 10% per year. Many studio films are unprofitable and are considered advertisements for DVD sales and merchandising, both of which faced decreasing sales in the current economic climate.  Old school mentality dictated that you were only as successful as your last project. This adage no longer holds true. Studios are increasingly hedging their bets with franchises, sequels and comics. The beleaguered MGM studio is likely to be auctioned off shortly. In the absence of many serious buyers, it may not survive, given that it’s library is considered old and unlucrative. The worst case scenario would be one less buyer and one less lion roaring.

It has been argued that in 2009, it was easier to get a $200 million plus project like “Star Trek” greenlit than a $10 million indie. The “specialty” film business, which was once swallowed up by the studios, have still not returned in vogue. Studio balance sheets show that the more you spend on a movie, the more money it earns to justify their budgets. Studios aren’t even sure where to  spend their P & A dollars anymore. Given the declining ratings, traditional television advertising isn’t as effective as it once was. Virals and other internet campaigns are gradually being rolled out as audiences are spending more time on the internet.

However, we need this destruction to allow for new creation. How biblical! Old debt based business models need to altered to suit the new streamlined modern age. Can you believe that shows celebrating their 100th episode are really celebrating when they break even financially? How could that be sustainable? You gotta hand it to “The Simpsons” who are just recently starting to post profits. There’s creative accounting for you.

Still, the world will always need storytellers; that means us. However, the media in which we operate will change. As writers, we need to diversify our outlets. Consider writing for downloadable or streamed radio plays, webisodes, audio books on CD, mobile phone content. Nobody has figured out a viable business model for these formats, but they will in time. Necessity is the mother of invention, so we too must evolve. New foliage will sprout in the burnt out forest and we’ll be there to nurture it.

please please please

(please)

never stop believing

the weeds are flowers.

because i am a weed

and you are a weed

but that doesn’t mean we cannot be

beautiful

flowers.

Dig in, internet! It’s the long awaited Brad Klausen interview!!!

For most of you reading this Brad Klausen needs no introduction. But for the few of you who may not know, Brad is a Seattle based designer/illustrator best known for contributing a bulk of great design work including a ton of amazing posters for Pearl Jam. As a designer I have to say the way Brad came out of relative obscurity and hit the ground running with PJ posters when the bar had been established at a dizzying height by the Ames Bros. is pretty awesome.

When you get called up to the majors and you look like you’ve been there before, it’s a Hell of a thing. From that start with Pearl Jam(which he continues to do posters for) to posters for all kinds of bands(Built to Spill, Mogwai, MGMT, The Gossip etc.) Brad continues to be a fucking powerhouse in this screen printed, signed and numbered niche, and a super nice guy to boot.

So with all that said, let’s see if we can’t get to know the fella.

Jon: Alright let’s take it back, where you from? Montana? Idaho? Colorado? Everything east of the Cascades is all the same to me.

Brad: I am from LA basically… grew up in Santa Clarita, Newhall to be more specific, which is about 30 minutes north of LA. But I commuted to school in North Hollywood and all my friends lived in the LA area, my dad lived in Playa del Rey, so I grew up in a car stuck in traffic on the freeways of LA. But Newhall is by no means LA, over the course of years we had a variety of different animals, a couple of horses, 2 goats, 3 pigs at one point, they’ve always had chickens, there were some geese and ducks briefly,…to all my friends in LA I lived on a farm out in the sticks, and while we had farm animals here and there, it was by no means a farm. Since my folks have lived there, it’s changed drastically, the population I think has tripled. Not sure if you watch the show Weeds, but they filmed the first few seasons there, and where the show takes place in the planned community of “Agrestic” with all it’s “little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same”, that’s Santa Clarita now… growing up there you could just watch the development, that’s the wrong word though,.. development implies growth or progress and to me, covering over all the hills as far as you can see with boring, lifeless cookie cutter homes and cramming as many as you possibly can into as much land as you possibly can and then naming the communities something regal similar to  ”Agrestic” to make it feel like it’s a fancy area is not growth or progress. How many of the same house can we cram into one hillside over and over again until all you see is houses… but it’s not just Santa Clarita, that’s just California for ya…

Never would have pegged you for a SoCal guy…but then again most people I know around here are transplants to Seattle.

I went to the same school from kindergarten through 12th grade. A small private high school in North Hollywood.. my graduating class was I think 63 students… I got a plaque at graduation for being there 13 years. You can’t really be a loner in that environment, teachers I had in third grade I had in 10th grade, it was a small environment that little did I know had made me socially retarded when I got into the real world. Standard stuff like meeting people and introducing yourself, were not skills I had from existing in the same place for 13 years. But all in all high school was alright… looking back on it I probably thought it was way worse then it actually was because I was an ignorant teenager and that’s what teenagers do. Towards the end I had had my fill of the place and couldn’t wait to move away and get as far away from LA as possible. I was applying to schools in Maine and Vermont but only made it as far as Denver, which wasn’t the opposite coast, but it wasn’t LA so I was fine with that.

Brad: After that, I went to the University of Denver. It wasn’t an art school but they had a nice little art department. Apparently DU is known for its business school, which shows what I know, I had no idea, even when I was there. I actually didn’t know there was such a thing as art schools, I found out about those after I graduated from college, again showing how oblivious I can be… a friend of mine who graduated from The Art School in Pasadena, CA took me for a tour through the school a little after I had graduated, and it made me wish I had gone to an art school… but the more I thought about it, I was glad I had the experience I did, I had a lot of fun in college and I don’t think I would have enjoyed art school nearly as much as a regular old college. Plus the small art department at DU was bad enough with all the kids in there trying to find their identity by playing the role of “eccentric art student”… those kids drove me up the wall… a few of them, that’s who they truly genuinely were and they lived and breathed it,.. but most of them were just trying on the uniform to see if it fit. You could tell who was for real and who was just searching for their personality when it came time to put art up on the wall for critique days. So I don’t know if that would have been worse at an actual art school, my gut says it would have been much worse. Always made me giggle though, you can make art and be an artist and not be a weird eccentric character, but for some people who they are is far more important then what they make…

Got home from Europe, they flew me out for an interview and asked if I’d be willing to relocate from LA to Seattle, which I quickly replied to with “YES!” since I couldn’t wait to get out of LA once again and out of my parents house (don’t get me wrong, my Mom and step Dad are awesome, but when you go from living on your own in college to moving back home, it’s no good). I moved up to Seattle in November of 1999, right in the midst of the WTO riots… it was a quite a greeting…

Jon: Ha! Way to date yourself grandpa. I watched the WTO riots on TV in High School, Junior year. I still need to see that movie about the WTO riots, it looks kinda shitty though. Plus Michelle Rodriguez is in it and she renders all things she stars in unwatchable.

Okay we’ve talked about this before in person plenty, without getting too convoluted I think generally people think of Brad Klausen as an illustrator more than a “pure” designer although I find the more designy posters in your catalog just as impressive as the hardcore line art posters…but this is more of a technical question than a design vs. illustration question though. I want to know how often you use, and how much you like or don’t like Illustrator. How do you look at it? The approach, you know what I mean…

Brad: I use illustrator mostly to clean up my hand drawn type. I’ll draw all my letters and then scan them and bring them into illustrator and redraw them in there so that i can make things more consistent.. you know, make the spacing between things more even and make sure each letter is the same height and width where it needs it. But other than type, I don’t use Illustrator all that often. I might use it to make a pattern or a particular shape if I want to make sure that things are precise and even and symmetrical. Mostly I just draw everything in pencil then use a light table to ink the drawing and then clean or alter that in photoshop. I use photoshop far more then I use illustrator. But I like Illustrator a lot, it’s a resourceful tool in the shed.

Jon: I’m sure by the time this posts your Monsters of Folk poster will be out there for all to see and purchase. I had the pleasure of racking this print at D&L, I trust the registration held up and the there were no bugs??? Blend turned out nice?

Brad: It came out great, the graveyard shift did well as always. Blend looked good too…it’s always kinda cool to see how blends can actually start to blend away from the original idea and combine the two… there were a few in there where the brown overtook the orange and the blend went from a brown to orange to a brown to a lighter brown, but those looked cool too… I know both Steve and Cary get mad at me for using blends as frequently as I do… you might be more privy to them cursing me when the blend isn’t working right on a print run of 1500 pearl jam posters that need to be done tomorrow…

Jon: Oh, I’ve been meaning to tell you, you’re targets are too big. To pinpoint the registration it’s a lot easier to work with a target that’s like 3/8″ , so I would say shrink your targets by about half of what you usually use.

Anyway, speak on the future of Brad Klausen, workwise and or personal if you got anything cool going on. I know you just moved, if you’re digging your new place/neighborhood etc.

Brad: The new place is ok. It’s on the west side of the hill of Magnolia near Discovery Park. And while it’s awesome to take the dogs for daily walks through Discovery Park, this side of Magnolia is sleepy and quiet. Mostly just old folks and families. It’s kind like living in a sleepy midwest town, there’s Magnolia VIllage, which is one or two streets of a few restaurants and shops I think there’s a pub, and on a Friday or Saturday night after 8 pm it’s a ghost town. No one comes over here. My girlfriend and I have started referring to it as “Mangolia”.

In MyWord there is a lot of weeds

But why not??

More pieces of MyWorld you will find here

/T

Backlit wild flowers.

Web site: www.robhuntley.ca
Click on the image to go straight to the same image on my website.

Nuggets from “As a man thinketh” by James Allen

2. Effect of thought on circumstances– PART-1

( Explanation to the 2^nd chapter of “As a man thinketh”)

If your mind is compared to a garden, then you could do two of the following things (It all depends up on you, entirely up on you):-

You can either intelligently cultivate it through providing your multi-faceted mighty mind with USEFUL, EMPOWERING, POSITIVE, GOOD NURTURING THOUGHTS,

Or

You could allow it to run wild with weeds of NEGATIVE THOUGHTS, DISEMPOWERING, DISCOURAGING THOUGHTS.

There is only one land, your mind. All the good things or bad things that happen to you could only come from that land, that one land of hope! No choices in this— what kind of harvest would you like to have?

Your external circumstances or your friends or associates, or any negative news you watch on the T.V. or sudden old memories, try to make your GARDEN a garden full of weeds!

These weeds are no good in anyway, but in fact are detrimental to your very progress. So why do you want to allow them to enter your mind in the first place?

But what a bliss it would be if you watch your garden from all the weeds and cultivating good and powerful thoughts all day long, however your surroundings may be!!

By seeing the result in your circumstance as a result of good thoughts, you’ll soon learn that you are the director of your life and not the other way around.

SO WHAT’S YOUR JOB?

Just follow the process of fostering good thoughts, encouraging thoughts, and thoughts that would boost you rather than put you down. As you keep on following this process, you’ll ever-increasingly discover that how your thoughts literally decides your circumstance for you.

Character and thought are one and your character reflects your circumstance, as character is expressed and is always reflected in your circumstance.

Though it’s not always that the circumstance is a complete reflection or indication of a man’s/woman’s character, it is also always true that ones outer world is intimately connected with his/her vital thought element.

There could not be any error or whatsoever in the universal laws.

If so, then your thought fostering your circumstance is a law which cannot deviate from its natural course, every time.

In that sense, you are who you are now by the thoughts that you have built in to your character. Again, as said before, it is a law and a universal law will never deviate. Likewise you’ll be a different person and see new circumstances and a new person in you when you start to revamp your thoughts from today– and now!!

Wish you all the riches to come with God’s blessings

Peter Anand