AIM account

Hey friends,

Sorry I've been MIA for a little bit, but I've been HELLA busy.

Anyway, I thought about how I have so few AIM/iCHAT buddies so I thought I'd open it up to ya'll...

My AIM account name is: willisTmcdougal

Drop me a line sometime or feel free to drop your name into the comments section.

Peace out!

Willis

Unplugged

I'm at work this morning. I got here at 8:45. All because my computer busted and I had nothing else to do.

It's bizarre being uplugged from the Matrix. When I woke up, I was like oh I should check the weather. Couldn't do that. Oh what time do the Wizards play tonight? Couldn't check that. Oh I wonder if there is any news on this this and this? Nope.

And when you start to think about how much time you spend online, it kind of freaks you out. I would probably have arrived here at 10:00. I would have putzed around. I personally kind of like not having the computer around, but my life is tapped into it that I could never get rid of it; it would be easier to get rid of my cell phone. My life and work are so caught up with technology I had to start doing yoga to feel human, and help my lower back from sitting at the desk! As a community, it brings us closer, but it pushes us further away. There will come a time when we will all get together in the same room, but instead of talking we'll be iChatting and surfing the net. I sometimes think my computer might be my best friend. It's kind of why I don't want an iPhone. Are we that far away from the "Demolition Man" and making love through the headsets, or have no idea how to even touch intimately, like Neo and Trinity in the "Matrix Reloaded"; I don't know.

It's slightly disturbing, but I guess that's where we're heading, anyway I have some more websites to look up while my editing projects imports some graphics.

Another R.I.P.?

Hello friends,

So this morning, I went to work and my computer it was acting a little wonky... you know... programs were stuttering... little things... I had just done a few software upgrades the night before, so I thought perhaps I just needed to restart it. Well, it never came back. It went to the dreaded gray screen. The Gray Screen! I put in the old install disc to see if I could do an archive intstall... but the hard drive it's not showing up... and I'm getting everyone's favorite Box with a Question mark in it.

I'm sorry, but FOR REAL! Did my hard drive die again! Now, on a new computer! I haven't even dropped this one! And I have to take it into the damn mac store and see if they know what's wrong with it and of course I'll probably lose some shit. I think Mac sent out random bad programs to scare people into getting their new Timemachine doohickee. I swear if I could I would go back to pen and paper!

Oh, by the way, I watched a bootlegged X-Files 2 movie online today and it was awesome!

R.I.P Internship

On Friday, March 28, 2008. At 3:37 PM.

My Internship died, murdered by my duties as the family patriarch.

It was a good internship. It was a hard internship. It taught me many lessons about Hollywood that I will need to know in the future. Like you have to have a really thick skin to survive and you need to write in complete sentences, but you can't actually say complete sentences and that when you just say fuck it and not worry about things it becomes much easier.. of course you also know they can't fire you.

The Herzog & his Amazing Friends sabbatical is over and now we can return to our regularly schedules program.

Note 2

I'm too old for this shit...

A Note

Being an intern sucks!

A Hectic Week and a Writing Update

Um.. did I spell hectic right? I don't even know anymore.

So after I posted about not getting the internship, the next day I did indeed get the internship and I started the next day, which was Wednesday. It was indeed a very hard day, and I did not want to let you all really know just in case I did not make it past the first day. I did make it through the first day, but I learned that I have a problem thinking in complete thoughts and writing in complete sentences. I wonder why?

Anyway, the internship is at "Film Rites" a production company in Bev Hills. They get material from agents and writers, read it and decide if they would be interested in turning that material into a film or at least think about it. I am mostly reading scripts and writing summaries and making notes. There is a lot to learn and if you do have a thinking problem I recommend reading "The Elements of Style" by Strunk & White. It is solid and powerful.

I have also been working at Herzog here and there too, trying to finish some longstanding projects and assist in some other projects in development.

I'm off!

Random Conversations #003

It was Wednesday morning. I had on my sunglasses. I had my music blaring and windows were down.
I was cruising through Hollywood, turning onto La Cienega from Sunset when it happened.
I stopped at a red light and this bizarre looking girl ran up to my window. We shall call her Girl.
She was a round faced girl wearing round glasses. Her brown curly hair was cut low. She was wearing a brown fuzzy jacket, the
kind of thing you expect to see at a liberal arts college in December or any hostel around the world.
She knocked on my window.

GIRL: Hey do you think you could give me a ride down to Wilshire? (five blocks away)
WILL: Uh, okay.

The Girl gets into my car. She settles in. She didn't put on her seat belt and started looking at me all curious like. For a second I thought she was new age hippie granola chick that liked to pick up rides just to meet people and go on adventures. I wasn't in the mood for an adventure and I sure don't like being looked at like I'm under a microscope and she was doing exactly that.

WILL: So where are you from?
GIRL: I'm from West Hollywood?

And then I knew we had a problem.

GIRL: Where are you from?
WILL: I'm from Virginia.
GIRL: Oh my brother's been to West Virginia.
WILL: That's cool.
GIRL: So where are you going?
WILL: I have a meeting in Beverly Hills.
GIRL: Oh yeah, what for? What do yo do?
WILL: I'm a DVD producer and we're going to talk about some pitches and stuff.
GIRL: Cool. I love DVDS.
WILL: So uh, what do you do?
GIRL: I sleep with people for money.
WILL: Oh, right on.
GIRL: Yeah, I use the whole "catch a ride" to avoid the cops. It just looks like I'm hitchhiking.
WILL: That works. Really?
GIRL: Yeah, it's great!
WILL: I can't believe that... And you do well?
GIRL: Yeah, I do great.
WILL: ....
GIRL: You know, I've had the chance to do a lot of drugs, a lot of hard core drugs, but right now, you know I'm just sticking to marijuana.
WILL: Well, that's good.
GIRL: Yeah. So do yo want A TEN-DOLLAR-FUCK?
WILL: Naw...
GIRL: Are you gay?
WILL: Naw...
GIRL: Do you have a girlfriend?
WIll: Nope... I'm just not into it.
GIRL: Ok?
WILL:...
GIRL: So where's you're meeting?
WILL: Down Wilshire.
GIRL: Cool.

The conversation begins to linger. I think about pulling over and kicking her out; she's exuding all kinds of nasty energy, and I want nothing to do with. But no, I'm a man of my word, I'll take her to Wilshire. She helps me make a slightly dangerous driving maneuver and I come to a stop on Wilshire.

GIRL: Sure you don't want to fuck?
WILL: Yeah, I'm sure.

The Girl opens up the door.

GIRL: Later.
WILL: Good luck.

The Girl leaves. I see her make a move towards a pick up truck and then I drive away. I look up at God and shake my fist. He was fucking with me, again, and he was having a good laugh about it.

This was all true.

X-Files: The Journey Begins Anew

The X-files premiered In the fall of 1993, when I was just starting eighth grade. That was a big year for me. It was my third year living in Virginia and I had a solid group of friends. Well, one of the things we used to like to do was get together and watch the X-Files.

And this show scared the bejesus out of us. I mean seriously. Every week it was another nightmare from the minds of Chris Carter and his other excellent writers. It showed us a world of unknown, where really anything was possible. It also showed us a world where the upper hierarchy could not be trusted, and as teenagers we could relate. Oh yeah, and Gillian Anderson was kind of hot, and David Duchovny was cool, but dorky.

Back in those days, we used to love the night, just being outside. It was Northern Virginia, suburbs and strip malls, but at that time there were still forests and places where you could really feel outside. We used to sneak out and run crazy. Well, when you watched the X-files and had big imaginations, when you looked up in the sky, you could seriously seriously freak yourself out, and I remember this one time where we really thought there was a light following us, and we totally freaked out and ran like crazy back to my house. There were some nights where everyone would share their own personal ghost stories and we would scare each other to death. Personally, I have never seen a ghost, well there was this one time when I was driving my brother and his friends through the middle of the night, we see some fat guy in the middle of the road with a brief case and he might have been a ghost, but it's not confirmed in my mind, and well that fat guy was staring at us, and I don't feel very safe right now. But I do know that I've seen some weird shit, and lost time and whatever.

So as the years went on friends became not friends and interests changed from TV shows to girls and partying and movies, I kind of lost touch with the X-Files and scaring myself to death through television. But all that changed last night when I popped in Disc 1 of Season 1 of the X-Files. And guess what, it's still scary and it still scares the bejesus out of me.

I can't wait to go through this Television Series. I think I've only seen most of the first 5 seasons. Maybe some of the 6th. And I know that it had it's rough patches in it's later seasons, but well, so what. I'm going to try to watch as much X-Files as I can, because in a few short months, Mulder and Scully will be back. That's right, for all you non-movie industry, fan boy types, the Second X-Files movie is coming out this summer. And that's it. That's all i got. I have no more time to write because I have a lot of X-Files to watch.

High School Reunion Poll

Hey Friends I'd like to throw this question up to everyone who reads this blog.

SHOULD I GO TO MY 10 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION?

It's a little expensive to go, but I can probably find the money somewhere, but I'm not sure if I really want to, but I kind of want to, and I'm curious to know what ya'll think or what you might do.

Please friendly readers comment. I know that comments can be kind of scary, but we're all friends and I'd like your opinions.

Thanks!