the past week or so i have been craving diet coke every single second of the day, like a crack addict. OMG I WANT IT NOWWWWWWWWW.

have to say, being raised on skim milk and diet soda certainly helps towards the weight-loss and general good-health vibe i'm trying to stick to down here. and it appears to be working! observe:

when i arrived, i was wearing
size 18 jeans
size 42 bathing suit
size xl shorts
size small shirt (OBV, their shirt sizes are completely whack)

i am now wearing
size 16 jeans
size 38 bathing suit
size medium shorts
size extra-small shirt

YAY!!!! im really proud of myself. the more results i see, the more motivated i become. obviously, ive lost poundage as well, but LOL NO, im not telling you how much i weigh, NO THANKS. but suffice to say that since school let out i have lost 25 pounds total.

so work was a bitch today - the schedules were completely messed-up, and two people forgot their whistles so everyone was running around like chickens w/ their heads cut off. and 2 of our guards dont even usually work here, so they obviously had no clue where stuff was. one of them was thiago, who was one of my ellis instructors - during that first class, where they fucking failed me. i was like bitch, dont even start with me, i will push you into this fucking pool. and, honestly, he's not that great of a guard. he doesnt watch the water when hes talking to people, and he doesnt roam. plus he didnt do a lick of ac. which is obnoxious, but it makes me happy in a stupid, petty way.

had a COMPLETELY pointless 7am meeting. i mean, it was sweet and all - they gave us breakfast and thanked us for all the hard work we had done during peak season, during rideout - but it was something that could have easily been covered @ breakout. *sigh*. whatever.

um, also @ work today? thiago traded me 2 slide shifts for giant soccer w/ the kids. im thinking ok, cool - kids games, yay! UMMMMM.........notsomuch. took me half an hour just to inflate the damn thing, then when i started the game, all the kids knew each other. so they got SERIOUSLY, intensely competitive. the girls outvoted the boys that they wanted to play by regular soccer rules, meaning no hands, but one of the boys got annoyed because it was easier w/ hands. he started SCREAMING, then shoving at hitting the girls. i swear, there was almost bloodshed. so i cut that shit short, obviously we arent going to let kids beat each other, even if they are siblings. the girls were apologizing to me, saying he does this kind of thing regularly. makes me scared for that kids future.

also we had been playing w/ dive toys earlier, and we have just a RIDICULOUS amount of these little fake pirate coins, both @ the grand and the poly, and sometimes the kids dive for them. well i thought i had collected them all, but as i was putting away giant soccer i saw something shining in the sand, and apparently some kid had grabbed a handful of them and had come over to the corner of the beach to bury them, like treasure. SO CUTE!! i left it - hopefully some kid finds it next and gets a kick out of it.

ok, thats really all. i need to be in bed.

yay, i made xfiles icons!! this is what happens when i have no class on tuesdays. last one contains a casting spoiler for the new movie, so if youre spoilerphobic then id steer clear.

http://plasticeneposes.livejournal.com/13848.html

i know it's the holidays. but look at it this way: what's another ten, fifteen bucks?

in march, i will be doing the polar plunge. some of you might remember me talking about it last year, when i had to film pat and adam for their tv-10 show. well now it's my turn, and i couldn't be more excited about it!! basically, i have people pay me to be an idiot and jump into a freezing cold lake. and i'm not exaggerating about the freezing part - last year they had to chip the ice off before anyone could jump!

so whaddaya say to a small donation? the money goes to benefit the illinois special olympics, which have been held at my college several times, so look at it as buying a present for one of these kids! it's a cause that's close to my heart, as i've been volunteering with special needs kids since the fourth grade. i also have a close friend whose sister regularly participates in the summer olympics. please consider donating even a small amount of money.

and as an added bonus: the person who donates the most gets to choose which ridiculous costume i wear! i mean honestly, how can you turn down the chance to facilitate my public humiliation?

i'm still in the midst of preparing an lj entry for my halloween weekend. it was.....well, it WAS. and thank god its over. i'm $150 bucks and a functional car door in the hole. how's that for attention-grabbing?

but first, the wga strike. i know that everyone and their mothers have made their own entry about it, but it's too important an issue for me not to.

what's going on? the writer's guild of america is on strike. that means all of the scriptwriters from your favorite shows have put their pencils down.

why? writers' contracts are out-of-date, and don't reflect today's changing media market. writers aren't getting compensated for their proper share of internet downloads such as itunes, and media streamed from official network websites. it may be free to the consumer, but the annoying advertisements that you have to sit through mean that the studio is making money. the writers also originally attempted to make an additional $.04 per dvd sale, but took the offer off the table in favor of the larger issue - the internet. network execs failed to meet the guild's demands; thus the strike.

what does this mean for them? it means that writers are out of jobs. it also means that actors, producers, assistants, etc who refuse to cross the picket line are being informed that they are in breach of their contracts, and are being suspended and/or fired. many have been literally locked out of their offices. the networks are trying to play the situation to their advantage, by using the strike as an excuse to easily wiggle their way out of extended contracts that they have come to view as not generating enough revenue. basically, it's leaving writers out in the cold, and the rest of the employees having to make the horrible decision: go to work and be accused of being unsympathetic to the writers' plight, or side with the writers and risk being fired; this decision is especially hard for the numerous employees at the bottom of the food chain, who are living paycheck-to-paycheck.

what does this mean for us, the consumer? it means your favorite shows aren't being written; which means they won't be filmed, edited, or viewed. networks are showing the episodes that they have already finished, but when they reach the end of the rope it will be reruns or new reality shows that don't require guild writers. most daily talk shows (colbert, daily show, conan, leno, craig ferguson, etc) have already halted production, as they're written the day they air. how long this will continue will be determined by how long the strike lasts, and whether the networks finally give in, or decide to see how well they fare with new programming.

what can i do? DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR WATCH EPISODES THROUGH OFFICIAL CHANNELS. let's be honest, there are always going to be less-than-legal means, but many people would prefer to avoid them. that's fine. right now, it's only adding to the problem. and it's gonna suck, not being able to watch your favorite shows, but think of the writers. every episode you watch or download, that's more money going right into the pocket of everyone EXCEPT the writers. show your support through banners, icons, etc. join wga_supporters. make a post such as this one, in case there's someone on your flist who doesn't know what's going on. join pickets if you live in the area of any major studios - you don't have to be a member of the guild to do so. let your voice be heard, and let the networks know that we're not putting up with this bullshit.

bottom line:

no, the writers are not being greedy. at the end of the day, it's not even about money. it's about writers getting the credit and respect they deserve for all of the hard work they put in. it's about equality and fairness. take, for example, several writers of 'the office': last year, they wrote, shot, and produced a series of short one-acts to view only on the website. the writers won a daytime emmy for these webisodes, but the writers still haven't seen a dime from the millions of people that watched. the network wouldn't even pony up the cash for them to buy the actual emmy statue. there is something so inherently wrong about that situation.

no, editors, producers, etc who cross the line to go into work are not immediately evil. you have to realize that it's extremely hard to find decent work in hollywood, and some of these people just can't take the risk, whether professionally or financially, of losing their jobs.

and, above all, remember that without writers, THERE WOULD BE NO TELEVISION. sure actors are important. but without someone to give them dialogue and blocking, they'd just be sorta standing there helplessly flailing. television creates a very symbiotic relationship between its different departments, and when you pull one out, the whole damn thing collapses.

SUPPORT THE WGA.

dear yuletide santa,

( you might be slightly demented. but that's ok. it's dementia in the best way possible. )

......have i mentioned that you're kind of awesome?

*sigh*

ok, ive been avoiding putting this off for over a week, and its time to get it over with.

im doing a friends cut. it has recently come to my attention that i cant trust everyone on my friends list, and you have NO IDEA how much that hurts. im probably going to be overly-cautious and take off numerous people. i hope that you can understand that this isn't because any of you have directly done something to make me distrust you...its more that i dont have a specific reason that i CAN trust you. in my mind those are two completely different things. i might end up hurting some peoples' feelings, but at this point i consider my privacy more important.

i'm sorry that its come down to this. i really wish that we could all learn to keep things that are obviously said in confidence to ourselves instead of resorting to petty highschool gossipping. but apparently some of us just cant move past that, so its time for me to move past them.

once again, i apologize. i know what im doing is really mean, especially to the people who dont really deserve it. but i hope you can understand that i can't take the risk.

from now on this journal will be friends-only.

because when things are shitty and rife with drama, you focus on the important things. like this week's oth preview.

ARE YOU ON THE LIST??

oh yes, i had a mini-spaz-attack upon seeing that. oh for the love of god. i officially love oth in all its crack-o-riffic glory.

DID I MISS SOMETHING?! DO I ALL OF THE SUDDEN HAVE A SIGN ON MY FOREHEAD THAT SAYS PLEASE, GIVE ME FIVE MINUTES OF YOUR TIME, AND ILL FALL RIGHT INTO YOUR ARMS BECAUSE IM JUST THAT DESPERATE?!?!?!

i am SO motherfucking SICK of the male gender. you know what? no, i havent had a boyfriend in a very long time. you know WHY? because i dont play this shit. i dont fall for the first guy that shows the tiniest bit of interest. contrary to popular belief, that doesnt make me pathetic - that makes me smart. so fuck you all.

im watching 'a bronx tale'. i have no idea why. but i saw peter gatien's name on the credits and i was intrigued. then i remembered that it had tiny francis capra. OMG, TINY FRANCIS CAPRA!!!!! hes pretty much the most adorable kid in the entire world. even at age.....what? he cant be more than 11....hes got the pout and the puppy-dog-eyes down pat. but peter gatien produces movies?? thats just bizarre. and apparently hes planning on opening his own nightclub soon. um, have you seriously not learned your lesson??

there was absolutely NO POINT to this post.

so im getting REALLY excited about this whole study abroad thing. we had our first stw meeting tonight, which was a bit of a dud because very few people came due to the weather. but afterwards, erin and i started talking. she's doing the dong-ma program in south korea next semester.

the dong-ma program is designed specifically for mass comm majors. i mean first of all, all of asia is light-years ahead of us technology-wise. to put it into perspective, here @ isu we have about 100 people in journalism and tv production. and between all of us, we share 3 avid editing systems, 4 gl2 cameras, and 3 dvc pro cameras. and that's only this semester - we JUST got the 2 new gl2's. but in the south korea program? every student gets their own camera!! every dorm room gets their own avid!!! thats INSANE!! every week, you produce an hour-long film of some sort, and they burn them all onto dvds for you to take with you at the end of the program. i mean.....granted, korea wouldnt necessarily be my first choice location-wise, but the program.....WOAH. how can i turn down something like that?

and in addition, going with erin would be AMAZING!! the only other girl that's going is tori, who neither of us are really friends with. erin is so sweet and so much fun, and - get this. the dorms? are in the mountains. we could go skiing and snowboarding, which erin loves to do!! i am RIDICULOUSLY excited!!!!

i hadnt really planned to go until my last semester here, but now i really think that i want to go next semester. not only to go with erin, but i think it makes sense to go now, when i have the broadest amount of choices for classes that i still need to take, because obviously every course in the isu curriculum isn't offered in korea. i really think the decision has already been made!

the 'rents just called - the roads are too slippery for such a long drive, so theyre coming tomorrow. goddamn. i wish they would just come so that i can get over with it already.

i realize this is kinda coming out of nowhere, so i thought id explain. basically, the reason i want to take an extra semester is that i switched my major so late, and i wasnt able to get into all the classes i needed this semester. theoretically, i could probably talk my advisor into letting me take 21 hours for the next to semesters. but thats 21 hours in addition to tv-10, and an on-campus (and then an off-campus, second semester) internship. i just dont think that i can handle all of that at once. i also decided to study abroad - we've always had people come to our class talking about it, but we finally had someone who laid down the facts, and it would cost me the same as it would for a semester here. i could spend a semester in japan - who is already technologically YEARS ahead of us. each student gets their own avid room!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats insane! i would be a FOOL not to take advantage of this.

the problem comes in the fact that my parents have said since day 1 that they would only financially support me for 4 years, absolutely no more (theyre paying half, im paying half). the thing is, ive already made the decision. im not waiting for their approval, but i hope that i get it anyway - i feel that im doing this for all the right reasons, and as much as i disagree with my parents sometimes, i dont want to end up with them being mad at me for this.

as for the nose piercing, they also threatened to stop paying for college. i had thought about telling them, but then we had a conversation with nikki and her mom about one of her younger brothers, who keeps getting piercings and tattoos, and they were adamant about it. they dont like it, they think that once we get out into the professional world, people won't like it. though i dont think that, in tv production, a very small nose stud is going to matter very much, im hoping i can convince them that this is something that i want to do while i still have the time.

it doesnt seem like such a big deal when i type it out, but my parents are pretty strict. again, ive already made the decision, and im not letting them talk me out of it, but it would just make things alot easier if they would support me, and i see no reason why they shouldnt.

ETA: dan florek is doing some sort of commercial for buying gold? RANDOM. but dude, hes lost a TON of weight! kinda weird. almost as weird as randomly hearing david duchovny's voice in those dog food commercials.

my parents are coming to pick up the car tomorrow. which means that tomorrows judgement day - aka the day that i tell them i've decided to stay an extra semester to study abroad, and that im going to pierce my nose on my birthday.

.....MEEP!

whew! the weekend from hell is over. ive done nothing except sleep and do tv-10/basketball shifts.

you know whats really fucking cool about the basketball shifts, though? getting press passes. dude, they give us free food. and you can pretty much go wherever you please, as long as you have a little tag around your neck. theres even a special bathroom! i kid you not. i was asking a woman where the bathroom is, but at the time i didnt have my press pass on. she was trying to direct me to where it was, and was looking at me quite strangely when i had no idea what she was talking about. i said 'ive never actually been inside, ive actually only been in the trailer outside'. she goes 'oh! youre from tv-10? well, you can just use this bathroom, then,' and points me to a door like five feet away, as opposed to the one upstairs that she had been trying to direct me to. and im not even a huge sports fan, but i still think its really fucking cool.

tonight, after an afternoon basketball shift, i went to a superbowl party at jen's. godDAMN was that just about the most disappointing game EVER!!! i mean, its one thing for your team to play an incredible game, but still lose by a few points. that sucks, but its not completely disgraceful. but tonight? within 15 seconds we had already scored a touchdown, which was the most awesome start to a superbowl game EVER. and for awhile, they kept the energy up. then it was like they just completely forgot how to play the game. SO disappointing.

thursday was supposed to be oc night with jamie....lol except that i had forgotten to pay my cellphone bill, so they suspended my service. i didnt know it at the time, but none of my text messages were going through and i wasnt recieving any of jamie's calls. so, i had to watch all alone. very sad. but OMFG, what an episode!!!!!!!!!!! i am SUCH a die-hard romantic, the julie/frank thing was absolutely ADORABLE. and dear god, could you love caitlin any more?? i think the part that just broke my heart was the very end, when she asks bullet 'can we still play ping-pong?' OMG!

also? young sandy cohen = max greenfield? OMFG!!!!!! its no wonder kirsten fell for him.

AND....the weeverfic award nominations are up. dude, people actually nominated me for best author!! i mean, i figured that some of my fics were going to be nominated. i swear that i dont mean that to be as egotistical and douchebaggy as it sounds - its pure numbers, seeing as there are so few people who actually write the pairing, and ive written quite a few stories. but to be nominated for best author?! WOAH!! im really mad at myself now that i never got around to making any nominations of my own, though, because obv_hot_mess so should have been on that list.

um, tuesday? instant star? FUCK YES!!!!!

answers are 100% true, and fuck the friends cut. certain boys might want to steer clear.

( what rachel does at 2.38 am instead of going to bed like a normal person )

the word of the week, children? is LEVERAGE. learn it, love it, masturbate daydream about tj thyne to it.

and remember, size always matters.

GUH!! that was so worth the wait.

'i love new york'? comic brilliance. heat + other muscular dude = OTP. i CRACKED UP @ the pseudo-brokeback music.

more 'bridge to terebithia' commercials. the fact that i keep seeing them like every commercial break has made me go back and re-read the book. as much as i despise how they're fucking up such a simple and heartfelt plot, i have to give them this much - zooey deschanel as the music teacher? is BRILLIANT casting.

watched part of the sag awards the other night. saw grey's win....and no isaiah washington anywhere to be seen. ha, probably a smart idea. but chandra wilson had said something about a cast member being in rehab, so me and abbie got curious and looked it up - and he's in rehab for his anti-homosexual tendencies. seriously? there's a rehab for assholes??

so we didnt get finished editing until 6.30 am saturday morning. i feel like i got cheated out of a weekend because i spent the rest of the time trying to get my sleep schedule back to a semi-normal state. NEVER FORGET TAPES EVER EVER AGAIN. but rick showed the package in class today as a good example, so major major yay!

mom and dad called today - apparently, when i told them that they had to fix the car or get their licenses suspended, they didnt believe me. but now that they got a notice in the mail, all of the sudden theyre rushing to get it fixed. goddamn, this is SO not the time to have the car taken away, what with the fact that we just got this brand-new production trailer, and rick is training (and PAYING) people to work basketball games.

should have known better than to get cocky - today? was my nightmare day.

met my reporter, jenny, @ fell. checked out equipment, got in her car, drove to a local highschool - we were supposed to be covering their basketball game. it was a really small gym, and really packed with people, and there were superfans and the band and the cheerleaders...despite how little i care for basketball, i really wanted to shoot it.

the problem? i soon discovered that i had forgotten to bring tapes. i mean....tapes? seriously? how do you forget tapes? so poor jenny runs back to the newsroom to get tapes. only when she comes back, it turns out that she accidentally got the wrong size tapes. by this point the game was more than halfway over, so we decided that there was no way it was going to get done. i felt SO BAD.

so we headed back to the newsroom AGAIN, got the right size tapes, and went to take over for kayla and melissa @ the colliseum doing a hockey game. i pull my camera out and my white-balance is leveling over. and then my zoom wont work. and then it wont tape. by the time i actually started filming anything i already felt exhausted.

and THEN, i had to spend an hour and a half-ish filming the hockey game. do you have any idea how painful that is? literally - physically painful!! my arms feel like they could fall off any second, and my shoulders are so sore that they hurt just touching them. i feel like shooting myself in the head.

and guess what? its 2 in the morning and we havent even started editing yet. its gonna be a LOOOOOONG night.

but jenny, my reporter? SO ridiculously sweet. i dont know why i had this idea that reporters were going to be obnoxious bitches, but all of the ones ive worked with have been awesome. and laura wasnt mad about the basketball game mishap, either. i was beating myself up about it until she said that this is about the fifth time its happened this week. so apparently im not the only idiot in the world. hooray.

just saw the worst 'bridge to terebithia' commercial yet. why do i have a feeling that leslie isnt even going to die? i did see the rope swing in one commercial, so i suppose there's still hope. but not very much.

i also just had my second successful run at master control during the news shift. its really fun - i almost dont want to do any of the other jobs. right now im just killing time before my shift later tonight. i have the 6-11 shift...ugh. at least that means free parking.

speaking of which...heh. i thought that the parking lot closed at 10 last night. it doesnt. so i told the guy that my purse got stolen. he felt bad for me and let me through. heh. score!

.....i have nothing else to say. and there's really no point to this post. im just BOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRED.