Author: Todd

Wednesday evening at 5:30 Mel and I were on our way to the big show at the Staples Center. Now I ain’t the biggest and bestest Sarah McLachlan fan but then…I’m a dude. Songs about star crossed lovers who die on the way to happily ever after ain’t exactly my thang. But I’ve learned to appreciate the music, talent and the lyrics after years of living within earshot of Mel’s MP3s. As for Mel…she was stoked. It would be a safe bet to say Sarah’s her favorite. The ride was pleasant and rather than fight the 101 it was decided to take the more scenic PCH.

Now one must understand that Mel’s previous concert experience left a substantial amount to be desired. While I was busy partying my way through 5150, Bon Jovi and the Synchronicity tour Ms. Mellie was dazzling herself with the skin crawling talents of the Pointer Sisters and Air Supply. She was certainly aware of her creepy track record and by the time we reached the ocean she could barely contain herself.

We fought our way past security…which was ample…because as we all know any gathering of the McLachlanites is sure to bring the Taliban out of the woodwork. Once inside we split up for a romantic dinner of Dominos and Mickey D’s which we scarfed down quickly so we could find our seats before the song spit started to fly. And it certainly did fly. From the 3rd row we were in perfect spray range. It should be noted that McLachlan spittle tastes a little like butterscotch.
And speaking of 3rd row seat spittle this experience has revealed yet another advantage to the entertainment agent. Concert tickets. Could it have been easier? I called Lazar’s assistant, Trey, months ago. I had barely mentioned the concert when Trey interupted and said he’d take care of it. Good man, Trey, good man.
Now, as I said, not Sarah’s number one fan. But I must admit I got caught up in the music and the atmosphere. And let’s take a moment to discuss said atmosphere. As a therapist-proclaimed rescuer of women, I was in hero Heaven. Every female South of Saint Nick’s summer home was scuttling around wearing her tightest. You couldn’t walk three feet without Mel or myself proclaiming…”Helloooooo Nurse.” Single men and lesbians take note, if you live in concert range then you might consider hitting a McLachlan concert. Like shooting chicks in a barrel. Of course, Melanie got more phone numbers than me. Single men and Lesbians take note. Perhaps you should just stick close to Mel and pick off the table scraps. There were more women buzzing around her than there is stupid buzzing around Kentucky. She was like Kurtz and the Staples Center was her jungle. Had she dropped a hanky she would have started a lesbian riot. It truly is freakishly weird.

The show was…well it was very good. Better than good. Rarely seen Mel so happy. You gotta consider how big a fan she is and that we were hearing the music we played when we first started dating…she was overwhelmed to say the least. Pretty lights, everyone around you singing and swaying. It was hard to resist. Half way through the first song Mel was crying. The girl two rows over was crying. The tattoo’d chicks three rows up. Mel squeezed my hand, stared at me with big puppy dog eyes welled with tears and proclaimed that this was the song she was listening to when she fell in love with me. I lost my battle with masculinity.
I became a woman. I sang. I swayed to the music. I had an overwhelming desire to cuddle kittens. I was so cranked up on feminine hormone that estrogen seeped from my lower orifices. And I’m damn near certain I lactated through most of the second half.
After three encores we floated with the crowd out of the Staples Center and located Tom, our freakishly tall driver. Who, by the way, seemed much better looking to me after the show than before it.

On the drive home we debated the issue of late night food and ended up filling baskets at the Westlake Village Ralph’s while Tom kept the car idling. It should be noted that only the truest of rednecks would take a limo to the grocery at a hundred bucks an hour.
It was a long time before I was able to fart like a man again. The best I could produce were annoyingly high pitched poots for several hours.
Mel and I have been working our way through X-Files season one. So what better way to end a romantic evening than with a little Moulder and Scully and some good ol’ fashioned alien abduction stories.
Wednesday morning I was back to normal. I picked up Devin for a day of computer tweaking and gaming. Mel slept most of the day because her life is so freaking cush. Dean has been tearing through his draft of Thunder and by the time he hit page 51 he joined Devin and I online for some Quake II deathmatch. It took some tweaking to get the connection solid. Dean was having some lag. You’d think having a computer guru sitting next to you would be a quick fix for any lag but Devin found Dean’s discomfort a splendid excuse to run around collecting extra ammo.
I won game one and by game two Dean unleashed his special power. Chris. I got Devin screaming in one ear and Chris screaming in the other. When I killed Dean Chris would scream that I was cheating and when I got killed he would proclaim the evil destroyed. Twerp. Of course, as is a father’s duty to keep a child grounded in reality…Dean was quick to inform Chris, that, “Yes, I was a cheater and utterly evil.”
Course, it wasn’t all fun and games…it never is. I got some notes on Demonik. I figured out a spin on Magnus. Blake Washer from the F13 boards called and we caught up on current events. I spoke with Patrick and he gave me some news that made my blood boil…but that’s his life and you’ll have to read his journal for those tid-bits of drama. Mark Haslett called and we chatted about his “Last House on the Left” and I think we came up with some interesting twists. We left the conversation with his going off to put the new ideas into an outline. I doubt I offered very much but I know sometimes it’s nice just to have someone you can bounce ideas and clear your mind with.
Tomorrow…or today rather, I assume I’ll either tool over to Dean’s to work on Thunder or I’ll finish Magnus or I may drag Mel to I Robot. Either way, at least I’m no longer lactating.

Well, it looks like we are officially back in action. There were rumors floating around that the Universal/NBC merger would cause some turmoil for our little mini-series but SciFi is ready to move forward. There’s a conference call scheduled for Friday where they will give me notes based on the Outline draft two. Next week I should be officially into the script.

Mel’s been a little under the weather so Dean and I had to venture into the crime heavy Brickstown without her. Above we see Fyre Bug (Dean), Blueduck (Todd) and an online buddy, Dr. PMS, doing a little breakdancing before we ventured out to kick arse for the Lord.

Today was young master Christopher Lorey’s birthday party. The theme was one of military slash super secret agent spies.

The pool went unused but the jumper saw unending usage while the treehouse served as the super secret holding facility for the super secret backpack full of super secret treasure. But please don’t spread that around for it is super secret information.

N.O.C File#: 78A653b-001noc2
Super Secret Agent: Christopher Lorey
Codename: The Rule Maker
Specialties: Master in stealth and hand to hand combat. Superior training in high tech gadgets and experimental alien confiscated technology. Grand Master of disguises. Innate ability to become invisible. Has been known to shoot lasers from his eyes. Please note the extreme look of concentration which clearly displays a willingness to complete the task without remorse.
Languages: Some English.

Melanie adores Ms. Sarah McLachlan so we’ll be heading downtown next Wednesday where we’ll squeeze into our 3rd row seats. Of course, with Ms. Melanie still slightly under the weather I’m hopeful she’ll not only be feeling up for it but for the little backstage visit afterwards.
As for the work front…I’ve got a week, two tops before I jump back into the SciFi gig. Dean and I are meeting Tuesday to map out what will hopefully be our last draft of the Thunder Outline. I plan on upgrading my Magnus story and perhaps making another pass through Narcosis before handing it off to Patrick. It’s gonna be a busy couple of weeks.

Was up and down all night. The sun is rising. No use going back to bed now.
Wrote 45 pages on a new spec. Got it out of my system. Will go back to Narcosis now…or finish my Magnus outline.

I spoke with F.J. about Magnus yesterday and he seemed very excited about the pages I sent over. He had some pretty good ideas. Guess I’ll combine the both and pull together some form of quick pitch outline.
Or I may work on a video Game outline based on an old spec I was gonna write with Mark Haslett. We’ve chatted and think we may run the idea by Tiger Hill. I’ve written up the first act of the flick into video game level/cutscene form.
Couple of nights ago Mel, Dean and I were playing City of Heroes when Mel’s mom logged in. We invited her to the group and I traveled a couple of zones to escort her to us via a string of teleports. When we first got her there it was about the funniest thing that has happened in a few weeks. I’d teleported her across the world and we ran through the underpass which zoned us into Independence Port where Mel and Dean were waiting. Dean then teleported her to them at which time Mel’s Mom took off running right smack into a group of baddies. We were all typing STOP! STOP RUNNING! DON’T! Mel’s mother lived roughly 23.2 seconds.
After a quick trip to the hospital she was back with us and all was never quite well again. She kept us on our toes to say the least. Dean, Mel and I have our own way of doing things. There’s a method to our madness. Mel’s Mom has a method too. Rush in and attack with little or no preparation. Part of it is simply because she is used to playing at level 9 where the bad guys aren’t nearly as organized. The other part is that she’s new to MMORPHs.

It all worked out though. But how funny is it that we play City of Heroes with my wife’s mom? I say it worked out but that’s ignoring the fact that Dean’s laptop kept going Linkdead. Which is a problem since I retired Horseman.
I am now Blueduck.

Blueduck is a controller named after the Killer Injun from “Lonesome Dove” I use Ice and Force Fields. I cast Force Fields around my friends and cage my enemies in Ice. It’s nice to escape the world of healing. But the problem is that Blueduck has been much lower level than the rest of the group so either Dean or Mel have to sidekick me. That basically pulls me to their level. When Dean goes LD I suddenly become a level 12 in a level 25 zone. That pretty much translates to instant death.
This was never a problem when Dean had his Alienware but since it crashed and since he shipped it back to the bozos at Alienware for a fix he’s been stuck on the laptop. Two days ago I hounded him into buy the best piece of crap Best Buy had to offer. “It doesn’t need all the bells and whistles. It just needs to get you through the next three weeks until your Alienware shows up, then you can toss out the window or donate it to the public school system.”
I met him at the Best Buy where he made the purchase. We tooled back to our place while the Geek Squad upgraded the mem to a gig and shoved a 9800 into her guts. Two hours later it was back to Best Buy to pick up the best of the low end mass manufactured crap computers on the market.

In and out in one day. That was the key. Had he ordered another Alienware or switched to a Voodoo or Falcon then it would have been a month or two wait. This way you make the purchase and that night we’d be playing City again…without linkdeads. And that was the case.
Granted in the end they’d shoved the memory in wrong and he had to take it back to Best Buy to let one of the Geeks up there fix it but as of last night it seemed to be running fine.
Devin and I have been discussing the slim chance of going in on a dedicated server. My message boards have gone down a dozen times this month and Devin’s entire site is down at the moment. Is it worth slitting 100 buck a month for a stupid hobby website? Dunno. I sent Blake and Brenna an email. They share a server with one other user for their F13 site. Figured I’d get their thoughts on the matter.
The Neighborhood kids were kind enough to leave me a note outside. You’ll have to look closely at the bottom of the pic…on the sidewalk.

Or I’ll go close and flip it over.

Now ain’t that just the sweetest thang. And people complain about the kids today. I love’em. Want some candy little girl?
Speaking of little girls, Chris’s birthday is today.

Big party this weekend. I expect there to be an inflated bouncer and lots of beer. And knowing Dean, all the heroin you can eat. And strippers. Male, of course. But not gay. Bi. Dudes I went to college with.

It’s a cute snore. I’m sitting here watching Gus Hanson about to win his third WPT championship with Bilbo in my lap. Bilbo is the name of the little laptop. I guess it would be safe to say that Mel and I collect computers. Bugsy and Gollum sit on her desk. Snape and Smeagol sit on mine. The Kurgen sits on a shelf in my closet and Little Princess is still sitting in the middle of our bedroom floor. I keep thinking I’m gonna reformat Little Princess and turn her into a Hardware Firewall but I’ve yet to start that little time sink.
I know I’m restless. I think I’m grumpy. I’ve written about 30 pages on “Narcosis” and I should go further but I’m feeling a pull toward a couple of spec ideas. Dean has another three weeks before he returns to the show so the plan is to solidfy the new “Thunder” outline. One of us will then pound out a rough draft. I’m thinking it will be me although it’s clearly his freaking turn. There will be plenty of work on “Demonik” but with a 2006 release date I don’t expect to be pressured for quite some time. I’m playing around with “Magnus” based on the comic book for Branded Entertainment but that’s a development gig and won’t go to script form for quite some time if it does at all.
So, the question is, what should I be working on? Narcosis yes, but I need a couple projects to bounce back and forth. Thunder? Maybe one of my new ideas? Yes. New ideas. That’s what I should do tomorrow. I should brainstorm. I think it’s time for a new Toddly spec. Just me and the darkness of my dungeon office.
Funk. That’s what I’m in. A funk. I hit the funk numerous times a year. It only lasts a few days but I’ve never been a fan of the funk.
Mel’s talking in her sleep now. She just said, “The wolves are coming.” Most would assume I should wake her. That she’s having a bad dream. But one should never try to second guess the mind of Melanie and how it effects the fragile stability of the Universe. If I wake her now there’s a very strong chance that Jupiter could explode, Bigfoot could knock on the door wanting to use the phone and Canada could invade Alaska. I think I let her sleep and fight her wolfy battles. Believe me. We’re all safer that way.
Goodnight heroes.

The trip to Texas was just…okay. The food was good though. Nothing wrong with Texas food. By Thursday night I was feeling poorly and ended up tossing and turning all night covered in a fevered sweat. Rather than wait for my 8pm flight back to LA I took the 12:17. Of course a storm rolled in and we ended up sitting on the runway for two hours. Not the funnest time to have when you are feverish.
I came back into Mel’s open arms and spent the weekend in bed.
On the Riddle Me This front, my part is finally complete. Constanin should be cutting me a final check. Hensleigh will now take over. He’ll do his rewrite and if all goes well he should have the little flick moving forward in no time.
Since the NBC/Universal merger Sci-Fi is clearly in a place of nervousness. Still no “official” word on what is going on with “The Last Vampire”.
I’ve started writing the “Narcosis” spec. Patrick spoke with Glenn Williamson who has still received neither a yeh or neh from Paramount. Patrick said Glenn wanted to know if we’d be willing to go back to Dreamworks (now that DeLuca is gone) and Universal among a few others. We agreed that would be fine but I’ve started my pass on the draft anyway. My guess is if we’re gonna sell this thing it won’t be off a pitch. It’ll be off a script which shows without a doubt that this thing is a movie.

Devin, the Harry Potter of the computer world, hooked me up with some GMail this week. So the name Wendago now has the 1 gig lovin that only Google can provide.
I spoke with David Wohl over at the Tiger Hill. David was in Texas and escaped my biohazard sickness unscathed. We chatted and what may or may not have been accomplish during our little trip and I have decided that he’s a good man. He created Witchblade and Darkness among others while he was still with Top Cow. Big Dave’s gonna join our little City of Heroes grouping. I told him to join the Pinnacle server, create his character and give me a ring for a sidekicking.
Last night Melanie and I hooked up with Devin and the three of us hit the Commons where we dined and saw the Spideyman. Good flick. I liked it better than the first.
Enough for now. I’ve a spec idea I think I want to play around with. That or I’ll play Far Cry.