Author: Todd

The Server went down on Thursday and only just came back up. They replaced a harddrive, had SSH problems and kept moving the restore ETA further and further into the future. I called them on Saturday in a panic, thinking I and the Sexy Olga had lost all of our work, but they assured me everything had been backed up just before the crash. And it seems they told the truth. Good to be back up. Now I must chat with the Sexy Olga and learn the process of backing up myself. Perhaps not a bad process to learn.
The new and improved treatment went to Sci-Fi on Thursday. Michael read and approved and so did Whitley so now we must wait and see if Sci-Fi considers it new and improved.
Friday afternoon Mel and I joined the Loreys for “The Day After Tomorrow”. Loved it. My kind of movie. ID4, Armageddon, I love these movies. They are the reason I loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly. I sent both Josh McLaughlin and Whitley emails wishing them luck with the opening as well as praise after seeing the flick. As of Friday’s estimates it looked like Day had beat the Ogre by 4 million. That is good for Josh and good for big movies as a whole. And it’s nice to see Quade finally get a box office break.
Whitley has been very excited about the movie and I can’t blame him. The movie is based loosely on a book he wrote with Art Bell. And I think Whitley wrote the novelization of the flick. He’s moving out to LA from Texas this summer for the production of “Last Vamp”. I look forward to our becoming close friends.
“Past Tense” was a big script I wrote as a spec a year or so back and I loved working on it. Was always bummed that I couldn’t get it set up. Josh was a huge fan but we couldn’t win Mark Gordon over and he, of course, writes the checks. But who knows…nothing is ever truly dead out here.
Friday night Mel’s mom joined the cast of “City of Heroes”. Sadly, her experience with Diablo had not prepared her for the task of moving a character around in an EQ type of game. But she’ll catch on in time.
Picked up the next episode of Thief today and I’m not sure if I dig it as much as the originals. They’ve changed gameplay slightly and I wasn’t really getting into it. I’ll give it a couple of levels before shelving it. And of course, Mel, Dean and I played a few hours of City of Heroes tonight and as always we had a blast.
We watched Bubba Ho-Tep to put Saturday to bed and what a charmingly strange little movie. The story is ludicrous but they play it real and it is so oddly sweet. A wonderful little goof of a movie.
Mel is zonked so I figured I’ll curl up next to her and watch tonight’s TiVo’d Texas Hold-em until I fall asleep.
Well, as it turns out I can’t post this yet because the password system is screwed. Will post later.
SUNDAY
Bought a suit for my brother’s wedding next month. Not much call to wear suits around here and they don’t normally go with my bald head but one should never be without a Hugo in the closet.
The password problem is solved so it seems the site is back up and ready to roll.

Many years ago I grabbed a book from the bargain bin because I liked the cover. It was called “The Cutting Edge” by Dave Duncan. The first in a four part series. I devoured the series with a passion and was both hurt and inspired to discover that there were four other books that told the story when the characters were younger. Hurt because I’ve always had remorse over not reading the first series first and inspired because I wish there were twenty other books in this series. Since then I have read all eight books once a year and have bought every book Duncan has published.
One year I gave the books out as Christmas gifts. Dean Riesner, Dean Lorey and a few friends from back home. Dean Lorey became a fan. Just before he and Elizabeth moved to Calabasas he presented me with the most ultimate gift.
Dean not only loved the first four books he also loved the artwork on the covers. He located the orginal artist, built a relationship with the man and learned that he still owned all four orginal oil paintings. Dean bought two.

He gave me book one. Which hung over our mantle at the old apartment and now hangs in my office at the new.

Book two hangs in Dean’s office. I bought him a copy of the sword Sting a year back (because he reminds me so much of Frodo) but I’ve got to say he’s now pummeled me in the gift department.
I’ve started reading a new Duncan book from the Blades storyline so this was fresh on my mind lately.

He’s still kickin’ my butt. Monday was harsh. Horse riding is certainly an active sport but I clearly felt what it was like to go without training for a week. My body is in pain.
I rewrite my treatment and sent a new draft to Michael and Whitley this afternoon. We will have a draft ready for Sci-Fi by week’s end.
Mel bought her mother a computer today. She had bought her mother a copy of City of Heroes for Mother’s Day but the game wouldn’t play through their old video card. Tonight we will download and install ZoneAlarm, Avast, FireFox. We’ll run all of the Windows Updates and make sure City of Heroes runs fine before shipping it out tomorrow. We may also install Dark Age. We share several accounts with Dean so we certainly have room for Mel’s mother to join us online and play.

I finished the treatment…made a second pass with their notes in mind and I just shot copies to Michael and Whitley. I still don’t exactly understand this step backwards but who am I to understand the thinking of a Network?
Mel, Dean and I played City of Heroes last night and as always it was fun. We tried to play Quake II but my firewall is clearly blocking us. Gonna have to bring Devin over to do some of his magic. I miss killing Dean. No one should be forced to go without the warm feeling it produces.
I met with F.J. Desonto and his assistant yesterday at a Coffee Bean in Beverly Hills. It was a 5-o-clock meeting which forced me to leave at three and fight traffic the entire way. But…this general meeting I fully enjoyed. The company he works with controls the rights to several comic books and I ended up with some free copies to read and consider coming up with the feature versions. All three stories he pitched me were great. They all sounded interesting. Tomorrow I’ll read over them and see if one jumps out at me over the others.
Patrick and I are waiting to hear back from Mark Evens at Paramount. He and his team have been considering Narcosis. Last week their concern was Patrick directing. Clearly Narcosis is going to be a good size budget, larger than anything Patrick has done to date. Although I’ve no doubt Patrick could direct it, studios are leery without a proven track record.
Initially when we went in we said we’d just write it and pursue his directing later but I guess his agents may have jumped the gun. Anyway, Patrick told them that we were more than willing to just write it and that seemed to be what they wanted to hear. So, that’s where we stand.
Navid and I are going to continue development on Hostel and will most likely sit down next week.
Spoke with Mark yesterday. He’s finished a new draft of “Last House on the Left” based on New Market’s notes. They seem to have no problem with Mark writing and directing at a 2 million dollar budget. This could be the break Mark has been waiting for.
Of course, Susan was unaware of this little venture Sean struck with Mark and seemed miffed about it. I should have mentioned it to Mark but it slipped my mind. He should talk to her. He’s been working on this for two years. Would be a shame to see it crumble because of Sean and Susan’s childishness.
Will most likely go see Shrek II tomorrow.

Stayed up most of the night writing a treatment…growing angrier and angrier. I best not work on it more until I”ve had a chance to cool off.