Recently Defective Yeti featured last year's revised AFI Top 100 Films of All Time list and made watching every single film (that he hadn't already seen) on the list one of his new year's resolutions. Ambitious? Focused? Admirable? All three. Worthy of emulating?

Hmmm...

I was thinking about putting this off til April, cause I believe it was April of last year that I did my big 30 in 30 challenge, and hey, I could just continue the movie theme for that month and pretend like I plan these things out on some kind of grand scale, but I think I want to tackle this one now.

So. FOR FEBRUARY: I will make sure I have watched all 100 of the AFI's top picks.

Really, it's my duty as a filmgoer.

( AFI 100 Greatest Movies of All Time (For Keeping Track Of) )

FOR THE ROOM: That pile of boxes in the corner by the bathroom. GONE. Must clear that out. And figure out if that space is getting an armoire or shelves.

I am thankful for:

1. Extra steak at lunch today. Thanks Commissary Dude!

2. I GOT THE CAR LOAN!

Oh, I didn't tell you Cesar Jose Lima died? Yes. It was sad. And not a little scary. Three hours of non-fun at a 76 just off the 5. But! I got a loan! For a new car! The one that I want is pretty! With features! I would say 'mit funktionen' but I think the only person who would get it no longer reads this. Still! I got the loan!

3. NEW CAR. I KNOW I ALREADY MENTIONED IT, BUT IT DESERVES ITS OWN LINE.

4. I now like "Chinatown." That makes two Polanski movies that don't bore me to tears. But don't worry, I didn't drink all the kool aid, "Rosemary's Baby" still sucks.

5. The mere fact that this exists:



Seriously, is it not awesome? Also the toothpick holder. I would enjoy looking at him on my table while I eat dinner.



PS-- I really really like Chinatown. It's beautiful. What can I say? Sometimes you just grow up.

I WILL: dress better. I'm sick of t-shirts and jeans all the time! It's lazy, it's sloppy, and it's not my best. I can do better than that. I have plenty of cute clothes in my closet. So in January, I'm going to wear them. My boring comfort zone of t-shirt/ jeans/ sneakers will only happen twice a week. Other than that, I'll show off my style! Starting things off right today with a very cute oversized houndstooth check skirt. Whee!

FOR THE ROOM: my closets are a disgrace. I've started clearing my clothes closet with a preliminary sweep of everything I knew I didn't wear anymore and shouldn't have in there. That included getting rid of my lovely long brown dress, the first thing I ever spent quite a bit of money on when I was 16. I've actually never spent that much on a single piece since. I loved it, I felt beautiful in it, I knew I'd never wear it again. I have pictures of myself very happy in it, I don't need it hanging uselessly in my closet. Besides, it went to a good home where it will be appreciated all over again. I'm clearing those closets, taking care of what I keep, and passing the rest on to those who can use it.

New Year's Resolutions never get kept, do they? Oh well. Still making them.

1. An "I will" every month in 2008. I took a couple months off in 2007, but I think I can set a goal every month this year. And hopefully acheive a couple of them.

2. I will go to Ireland to visit Marie in October. This means lots of money saving and sacrificing throughout the year, so I don't think further money goals are necessary. It does mean I will not be getting a new Disneyland pass after this one expires May 13th. I either better get a job that includes a silver pass or deal with it after that. Since the trip includes a day at Disneyland Paris, I think I'll survive.

3. An organized life. And room. Thinking I'll get it done in a month is a bit like trying to build Rome in a day, so I'll take it slow with small goals each month IN ADDITION TO that month's "I will."

4. Gratitude posts every week. I feel like I'm doing really well right now and I'm so looking forward to 2008! I want to keep that feeling and energy in my life and focusing on the good instead of the not-so-good seems like a great way to do that.

5. I want to recognize the goodness of the people in my life more. I have such wonderful friends and family and I don't think I tell them how much they mean and what happiness they bring to my life enough. So I'll try to be better about that, in whatever small ways I can throughout the year.

Doesn't 2008 look good from here? I wonder what the year will bring to all of us.

With horns and song and happiness!

I'm really looking forward to 2008. I'm in a great place right now and excited to see what happens next. It's going to be a good year. Big plans, big hopes, big dreams. Resolutions for the new year and every month (that's one of the yearly resolutions.)

Subtitled: Dude, I have been a total bitch all month.

I have. I've been down and blue and irritable and snappish and generally no fun to be around, even for me, for absolutely no reason. Nothing hugely awful has happened, it's actually been an alright time, with games and live Eddie and Tim Curry, and a concert and stuff. And yet. I have been miserable. I think I know what it was.

WITHDRAWAL.

I stopped eating fried foods = I instantly became a lot less fun to know. Nothing else changed this month, and yet everything's clouded over. Don't know why or what chemicals this has affected in my brain, but it sure seems like it has. That's it. If I want that chicken biscuit tomorrow morning, it's on. Queso and chips? I'm not denying myself. The last couple weeks have not been pretty, people. I think this will fix it. If a Chuychanga can't solve the problem, I don't know what can.

I thought scheduling the ever-loving life out of the next two weeks would snap me out of this funk. It did well enough for the weekend but today is grey, blue, and various shades of ugh.

Friday-- Dinner at Pitfire and four one-act plays by Noel Coward: Well, dinner was kind of the highlight of the evening. The plays were alright, actually kind of reminded me of Roald Dahl's surprisingly dark short stories. Some humor in the dim bits of life, but mostly lots of unhappiness. Yay? The Unintentionally Hilarious award goes to the waltz sung in the last play. Anybody seen All That Jazz? Remember that awful sexy sex airplane sex musical number with the song "Take off with us/ Take off with us...?" The first two lines of the waltz had exactly that beat, tone, count, everything but the words. It was all I could do to not giggle.

Saturday-- SoCal Games Day! Arrived a bit late, but played lots of fun stuff and stuck to my no fried foods pledge despite the delicious onion rings at Everest. Met up with playmayt for the all-star cast of the year: Eddie Izzard, Tim Curry, Billy Connolly, Emily Mortimer, Jane Leeves, Tracey Ullman, Jim Piddock, and Eric Idle in Idle's new play, "What About Dick?" How did all those names fit in one little paragraph, much less on the same stage? It was a staged reading of Idle's "film for radio," presented as a radio program with actors sitting at the back of the stage when quiet and sharing three microphones to speak their parts. It was funny, it was filthy, and Tim Curry's voice is the single most beautiful sound I have ever heard in my life, but the play itself wasn't that good. It felt very disconnected and patched together and the extended EM Forster/Howard's End/films of Emma Thompson & Anthony Hopkins parody just didn't work for me. The people watching was fun, though. Lots of Brits, movers & shakers and stars and such, and I'm pretty certain I saw Jeff Lynne striding up the aisle wearing sunglasses during intermission (really? 9.30pm inside the theatre and really? O... K...) Billy Connolly was the hit of the night with an incomprehensible Scottish detective, and Eddie Izzard was very cute while dropping things and being silly, and, well, everyone was excellent, but. It's no Spamalot.

Sunday-- Din Tai Fung! More Games! Agricola, which is unbelievably amazing. But I was hitting my MustHaveProtein wall so bailed, only to find that I'd left my lights on and my car was dead. Chris was very kind and as he put it, jumped me outside. Made it home safe, toasted up a little dinner and happily watched Torchwood.

Monday, today-- Awful migraine kept me home this morning and I've felt sick all day, but cannot stay home tonight as I have Spoon tickets. Any other band... any less money spent... and it would be me and my jammies and the Doctor Who S2 disc 6 of special features, fer sure. As it is, I will rally. I must. "Anything You Want" demands it.
( Rest of the schedule for this week and next back here: )

Dude. You guys. It is only Day Two. And I have not had a Frito pie since I don't know when. And yet. Today. All I want in the great big world. Is a Frito pie.

Stupid fried corn chips.

Ah, November. Month of NaNoWriMo, NaBloPoMo, NaNoReMo, and even NaNoKniMo or NaNoSweMo. AUGH. So many monthly goals, none of which I am participating in.

What am I doing for November? Even I'm not that sure. Well, I'm sure, but I'm scared. I have an idea, but it's going to be hard. I haven't liked how I've felt lately. And I have (actually, shockingly,) started to notice what I'm eating and how it makes me feel. Not always great on both counts. I know I can do something about this. I am an adult. I control what I eat and what I don't eat.

I've noticed lately that treats have become commonplace. Too commonplace in my diet (diet meaning usual food intake of a person, not a restricted set of foods with intended health results.) The yummy things I've treated myself to in the past, well, lately I've indulged myself too much. I can't justify anything by saying "oh, it's only once in a while," cause I let myself get away with way too much when I go down that road.

So. For November.

Deep breath. This is hard, yo.

For November, NO FRIED FOODS.

You heard me. You were sitting down, right? I probably should have warned you.

What's really crazy about this is that I'm going to Texas for a week and a half. Texas, the land of chicken biscuits and Chuychangas and Shipleys and deep fried turkey and Ren Fest foods and OMG CHIPS AND QUESO.

Could I have picked a worse/better time for this? Probably not.

So this is it for the month. I don't want to say I'll try, cause "trying" is just giving yourself an automatic out and that's bad. I don't want to make excuses for myself or any "just this onces" or any of that crap. Cause I should do this. Ultimately it's better for myself. And really, it's bad that I spoil myself this much. I can't stand spoiled children, and yet I spoil myself horribly with what I let myself get away with. No. Nope. No more. So I'm not going on a dreaded "diet" or restricting calories or doing anything drastic that I would undoubtably buck against and ruin quickly. Just making a little change that needs to be made. Putting treats back in their place and hopefully breaking myself of a bad habit.

Let's do this thing.

There were no resolutions for September. The last few months hadn't stuck, and I was busy and tired and tired of the whole thing. Tired of making myself promises that I wasn't keeping. Also, my schedule, it was insane. I was constantly out of town, or having people visit from out of town, or doing something. I'm exhausted.

So I'm revisiting a new year's resolution that didn't really take. Really. I just got TiVo and I'm thrilled. I'm tired of being tired all the time. Two birds with one stone: I'm staying home.

For the month of October, I will only go out two nights a week between Sunday and Thursday. "Out" is any night I'm not home by 7pm. If two things are already scheduled, no impromptu plans, or things get cancelled. If something comes up and I stay out, the next night I stay in.

More sleep, more TiVo, more home. I can't wait.

I did pretty well with the whole not buying anything in July thing. There were a couple stumbles, but I stuck to it for the most part. This might be a thing I do every once in a while. A financial detox of sorts.

Now, August. I'm not sure what to do this month. Pages read and CDs listened to and movies seen have all been considered and filed away for later. I will have highly anticipated company in September, so really my room should be my goal. Perhaps a box a day? That might work. Alright.

In August I will go through and either put away or eliminate the contents of one still-packed box or bag everyday. If I do not have time that day, I will do two the next, and so on.

Hmm, I expect Ikea to get lots of money from me for storage solutions and whatnot this month. Congrats, Swedes. Way to make a girl broke. This had better work.

Also, I have decided that I definitely am going home for my 10 year high school reunion in September. Mainly because it's the weekend of Biggio's last game in Houston and Dad got us awesome scalper tickets, but the reunion is part of it. Also, the free ticket from Southwest is a factor. Brendon, I know that neither you nor your lovely wife went to Clements, but perhaps a visit two hours and forty-five minutes south of your home could be arranged for that weekend? That would be nice.

Despite a farmer's market full of cute tops, dresses, and purses Friday night, a trip to Chinatown Saturday, and being on the 3rd Street Promenade yesterday, I was very good all weekend and bought nothing! But now I'm in a bit of a pickle. Because there's a very special darling girl's first birthday this month and toddlers just don't get the whole "A donation has been made in your name" or "College fund fun!" thing. Also, other babies are on the way. Babies who need cute socks. And itty bitty shoes. And obnoxious noisemakers. So. Would it really be buying something and breaking my vow if that something is for a tiny someone else? Hmmm...

Lofty goal for June didn't quite work out. I've got a first act I like and the rest of it outlined, but 20,000 words and a complete screenplay? Not so much. So I'm making it a little calmer this month.

I will not buy a single thing in July.

Toiletries, food, and gas only. Usual bill payments as well, of course. No books, no clothes, no DVDs, no CDs, no makeup, no jewelry, no concert or play tickets. If you have a birthday this month, expect a donation to be made in your name.

There's this really cool article that I'm printing and pinning up over my desk, and from the looks of my datebook I've got enough prepaid events and activities to last me most of the month. I've long thought that the Wardrobe Refashion pledge and blog was a really cool idea.

Due to the impending car payment, I need to check out this budgeting and living below your means thing. (How much you wanna bet that this will be the month that Amazon puts Freaks & Geeks on some crazy $20 sale? If that happens, I get to get that and only that. I reserve that single exemption here and now.)

I am allowed to buy lunch at work twice a week, and dinner out as I see fit (I don't expect it to be often.) Also, I don't see many movies in the theatre lately, so I'm still allowed one a week. I'll probably see one all month.

Wish me luck! It may seem little and silly, but it's probably going to be harder for me than you or I think.

EDIT: Just to reassure y'all that I'm not going all warpath responsible, here's a clue as to how I spent Friday night. Other San Francicso pics up as well, family dinner pictures (all featuring Brady the adorable, I believe) to follow tomorrow.

Age 13: Decides to direct movies. Seriously. Is absolutely sure of this for the next four years.

Age 17: Theatre teacher says "Even though she's not sure what she wants to do yet, we know that whatever she decides she will give it all she's got." in spite of continued and determined "I'm gonna make movies, I'm gonna make movies, I'm gonna make movies." rants.

And I guess, even though I tried to shrug it off at the time, that a tiny seed of doubt was planted in my mind right there. I still wanted to make movies, and I told myself was still sure I was capable of it and would be doing it, but if this woman, whose approval I cared about so much in high school that looking back on it now makes me sick, didn't know that about me or care, did I really care enough? Was it really and truly part of me? Would I do it? Would I want it enough? Would I make it?

UT had a great Radio-Television-Film program at the time, very difficult to get into. I was accepted into my third choice of major, History. I applied to the College of Communications and RTF five times before I finally made it at the end of sophmore year. I had already decided that if I didn't make it I would just be an English major. I loved my production, theory, and history classes. Most all I loved screenwriting. The back and forth, the discussion, the way that it could all be broken down and plugged in. I loved reading the produced scripts, finding pages 5, 15, 30, 45, 60, 70, 90. I even loved writing coverage and loglines. Trying out a sitcom and jumping into the heads of characters created by other people. Telling a story silently. Telling a story in ten minutes, in five, in three.

In the summer of 2001 I took my only summer session class in all of college (which is probably why it took me four and half years to finish.) I had just moved from an apartment I shared with two friends from high school to a dark tiny hovel all my own. I was living alone for the first time in my life. I had a job I hated at a daycare that didn't last long. I let the class take over my life. The class was Screenwriting (2). All we did, all summer, was write. One screenplay. Nine weeks. We met twice a week, discussing half the class's work on Monday, the other half on Wednesday. Ten pages were due from me every Sunday night and you'd have thought they were written in my own blood with how hard it sometimes was for me to get them out. But I did it. I was one of the few people in the class to stick with the one story the whole time and actually complete the script. What's even more surprising is that I still like what I wrote.

Once I knew that I could do it, that I could finish it, that FADE OUT are sometimes the sweetest words of the English language, I felt like I could do anything. Just finishing that first one meant so much to me. So I started another... that's still just sitting there as a treatment. One cold night at my aunt's house in the bleak wintery spring of 2002 just after I moved to California, when my spirits and my hopes were at their lowest, I had an idea I loved, the first thing that had inspired me in months. I ran to write it down, get everything I could out. That one made it a little further, and I think I'll still go back to it and finish it, but it's still just a stack of about thirty pages, waiting to be picked up again. Then there's the children's book adaptation that's very much a pet project for me. It was the last thing I tried to write and it was while struggling with that my first spring in LA that my trusty Final Draft 5, bought for a song at $60 though one of my film professors, died, finally and completely. No more Final Draft. I was terrified. Formatting, spacing, tabs, returns. They were my friends, they were my comfort. I knew I felt better when I wrote, I felt like I was doing something, but without the software I let myself abandon it, forgetting about that feeling of Doing Something. I bounced, I floated, I stagnated. I hated my job, I got another. I was a runner, a countermonkey, and for an entire year, a worker bee at a mortgage factory. If I hadn't had to deal with the traffic, I would hardly have known I was in Los Angeles. Then the best thing in the world happened: I lost my job. I stumbled into a temp office in Glendale with no hopes and three hours later got a call about a three week position at my dream Hollywood company, temp only, no hope of temp-to-perm. But it did turn permanent. I got out of the non-business, out of my crummy little shoebox, out of stagnation. I'm working where I've always wanted to, loving where I live again, and feeling more like myself than I have in years.

Y'know what else I wanna do again?

I wanna write.

When Liz pointed out Script Frenzy it seemed like the perfect springboard. While April's goal went really well, May's has crashed and burned. Time to do something and see it through. This is it. I asked my parents for the shiny new Final Draft 7 to see me through the formatting and I was off. I've spent the last couple nights playing with the commands, re-entering my one completed screenplay into it because all I have is one paper copy, and I'd feel much better if it was both on disk and registered with the WGA.

Tonight I begin the new one.

Goal for June: One complete screenplay.

GO!

My birthday present from my folks arrived today! I'm really excited cause it wasn't supposed to get here til the middle of next month and that would have been too late. It's all tied up with June's big goal, so I won't say too much more now, but I can't wait to get home so I can play with my shiny new toy and I can't wait for June 1st!

I didn't work out last Friday morning. Or Monday. Or this morning.

I didn't post to my Disney blog or FWDT Thursday or yesterday.

I hit the snooze button this morning. Three times.

Good intentions and all, but maybe it was a lot to attempt all at once. Or I'm just a lazy bastard no matter what high-falutin' aims I may claim.

Bah.

When my alarm goes off I hit the snooze button. Again and again. Lately it's been getting worse, and I hit the snooze seven or eight times or so, spend an extra hour in bed, then rush about getting ready for work and still end up late.

Also, I don't feel so great afterwards. It feels like I get groggier and sluggier every time I steal nine more minutes from myself. I don't like it at all.

So I'm not doing it anymore.

In May 2007:

I will wake up every work day morning at 7am when my alarm goes off. I may lie in bed for a minute and listen to the song playing if it's one I particularly like, but I will under no circumstances hit the snooze button or close my eyes again.

I will work out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning for about half an hour. I'm going to have almost an hour of extra time every morning. Got to do something with it!

I will post at either my Disney blog or Fun With Dead Trees on Tuesday and Thursday, just so that they don't feel like Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are getting all the fun. My Dad's been giving me hell about neglecting my duties, asking me if we're ever going to get out of Adventureland. Yeah, Dad, you made your point. And I love to read and must conquer typepad. The interface is different and a little confusing, but it's not like I knew everything about livejournal when I started writing here. I can't let a few questions of form stop me from talking about books when Kapgar was kind enough to add me to the site.

That's it. In May it's all about the day to day working week.

I'm finding that setting year-long schedules for anything is unrealistic. And if long-term is what you're thinking, you really need to break it down into short-term steps that you can take along the way. If I have to wait a whole year to check the DONE box on anything, I'm going to get discouraged and lose interest long before that time comes. So what can I do about it? I'm setting smaller goals, and checking them off as I go. And I'm not waiting til a big date (New Year, My Birthday, Anniversary of Being in LA, Anniversary of Getting The Job) to start. It starts now.

Problem: I wish I was watching more new movies and keeping track of what I thought of them, like what I did last year.

Solution: I can do that! I just have to let go of the "year" notion and do it now.

So.

I will watch and write about thirty new movies in April. 30 in 30.

I'm really excited about it. It's small, cause as of Mayday I don't have to think about it anymore, but it's also big, cause that's a movie every day. Last year's goal was only a movie about every 3 or four days. Future months might include:

Get my room in order month (with before & after pics if I'm really brave.)

Read 3000 pages in one month (About 100 pages every day. I kinda used to do it college, right? I can do it again, especially now that I'm not writing papers or anything.)

Write a screenplay month (Using my handy {though slightly ridiculous} copy of this book.)

And I've already watched the first movie!

1.Water-- A seven year old girl is widowed in 1938 and goes to live in a widow's ashram. Forever. As far as society is concerned, this little girl's life is over at seven. I don't know about you, but I was all about Barbies and the Snorks and CPK when I was seven. I hadn't even met Anne Shirley yet, for goodness sakes. So with such a powerful premise for the movie, I expected to be grabbed and shook and absorbed. But I forgot one thing. This is a foreign arthouse movie. That means not so much grabbing, as flowing. One won't be so much shook, but rather touched. Not absorbed, but impressed. Once I got into respectable arthouse drama mode, it started to work. Because this film is beautiful, but it's also a bit slow, paced, and distant. Every so often I felt close to the story, but then it would spin off from me and I felt removed again. Excellent performances from all involved, every shot is lovely to look at, but I still was left wanting more. So many of the widows depicted in the movie are interesting that I wanted more about each of them. They were all so wonderfully realized that one made me crave a ladoo, even though I had no idea what they were or had ever heard of them before watching this. That's how good the performances are in this movie. Nothing is easy and nothing is given without work. If you can take slow pacing on the verge of boring, then I recommend this for the beauty of the cinematography and acting.
3.5 ladypuppy tail wags (out of 5)

I know that it's an arbitrary time to pick them, but I like the new year, new hopes, new everything feeling that comes over me at the beginning of the year. Right now I feel like I could do anything. So this is just a list of what I would like to do with this year. Nothing is written in stone and I reserve the right to change my mind about any and/or all of it. Some of it might not happen. I hope most, or all, of it will.

1. 100 more new movies in 2007.

2. 30 new books in 2007.

3. Organize my life, beginning with this journal. Tags on everything. Also, a stronger commitment to punctuation, and, when it suits me, grammar.

4. One snail mail letter each week. At least. Recipients will vary. Heartfelt messages in cards may count.

5. One new finished screenplay by the end of 2007. Since I found that the laptop LB gave me has a working copy of Final Draft on it (Thanks babe!) I have no more excuses or roadblocks. I will get "500 and a Room" registered with the WGA and I will finish another full-length. Just one. Doesn't have to be good. Just has to be there.

6. More gratitude in my life. I will notice one thing each day that makes me happy, comforts me, or reassures me of the basic goodness of the universe. It's too easy to let those little things go by and focus on what's hard and unfortunate and unfair. Just one good thing can turn your day around if you let it.

7. My room is far too big and full of promise to be full of clutter and crap. I will get everything unpacked. I will set up that room how I dreamed. I will have a Making Table and Clear Closets and Stuff On My Walls. I will make my room a place I enjoy being in. This must be well underway by the time my mother comes to visit in April.

8. I will only spend two nights between Sunday and Thursday outside of my house each week. Otherwise I'll never have the time to get all the rest of this done!

9. I will talk to the people I care about and stay in touch with them and make more of an effort where they are concerned. I will not fritter my money away on small ridiculousnesses, but will take the trips I've planned and wanted. I will get a passport. Planned trips for the year:

Austin in March for Julia's 4th birthday.

Atlanta for a road trip to Charleston with clndestyn.

Houston in July for Eleanor's first birthday.

Dublin in October to see Marie.

Long weekend in Paris with Marie. Possible day at Disneyland Paris.

Christmas in Texas, including Jim & gypsy_pie's wedding.

10. Fiscal responsiblity. I would like to get a new used car in June, and to make that happen I need to once and for all get my shit together. Credit cards must be gone. Goal is to make double the monthly payment each month.

11. At least two entries in my Disney blog each week. If I really want to work as a historian for Disney, should it be this hard to write about their awesomeness? No. Get to it.

12. 30 pounds gone by June 1st. That's six pounds a month. Totally doable.

New Year's coming. Time to get onboard.

well, who'd've thought I'd be invoking new year's resolution 6 so soon.

craptacular.

I'm still too generally glowy to be pissed, but I'm not thrilled. apparently our conversation at the end of last year didn't take and was meant only to take care of past badness and will not at all prevent new badness.

craptacular.