Whew - no pitchforks or torches

Last night at UC Irvine was quite fun... it was for me, anyways. Don't know if the students had fun. It'd make for an interesting story if they hated me, but I don't think they had enough time to build up that level of animosity.

In all seriousness, the students were great. They asked some great questions and it was fun to go back and forth with them. I felt for the ones who were quiet and didn't ask any questions - that would have been me, when I was their age.

And to make it more fun, I brought fellow writer Nicole Dubuc along with me. She'd planned on just sitting in and watching, but she ended up in front of the class and took questions, too.

Thanks to Northrop Davis for inviting me. Hope I didn't do any permanent damage to those students.

Am I getting college credit for this?

In the first couple years after I graduated from college, I had a recurring nightmare that always went the same way. I get a letter telling me that I didn't graduate, that I'd forgotten to complete some requirement, and I'd have to go back and take some ridiculously difficult course to get my degree. I had this scary dream ALL THE TIME. My theory was and is that it was my mind adjusting to no longer being in school after 17+ years. As more time passed, the nightmare stopped happening.

Until a few weeks ago. It happened again, and I know exactly why.

UC Irvine Extension is teaching a new course, “Manga & Anime Explosion: What, Why, How & Wow!” It's being taught by Northrop Davis, screenwriter, professor, big manga fan - I'm friends with him through the Asian-American Writers Committee of the WGA. The class looks like it'll be a lot of fun and the students who're taking the class are in for a treat.

My only concern? Their first guest speaker is horrible - he's deathly boring, unfunny, and smells funny.

You see, Northrop asked me to be the guest speaker. I said no, since if *I* was a student taking his class, I'd be pretty disappointed to find out Eugene Son was the guest speaker. But for some inexplicable reason, he thought I would be a good speaker - and for some more inexplicable reason, I agreed to be a speaker.

So tomorrow night, I'll be at UCI talking to a class of students about writing, the animation industry, trying to get an agent, all that good stuff. I still can't believe I agreed to this. If this goes as badly as I think it will, I'm going to have the getaway car with the ignition running outside the lecture hall.

The old saying goes - those who can't do, teach.

And those who can't teach, become guest speakers.

Legion of Super Heroes

While I have a sec to blog, just a heads up to check out the new Legion of Super Heroes toon on Kids WB this Saturday. It looks terrific and there's a who's who of great writers who've written for it - including the remarkable Rob Hoegee, the amazing Amy Wolfram, the excellent David Slack, the incomparable Stan Berkowitz, and the phenomenal Matt Wayne.

Okay - back to work. If next week stays the way it looks right now, it's going to be even nuttier than this week. Wish me luck!

Greetings from Deadline Hell

Population: Me

Sorry for the lack of updates. With this pesky writing thing that I've been wont to do every now and then, along with the WGA Rally and other commitments this week, I've had no time to blog. But man am I having a fun week.

Okay, Final Draft is calling to me - and for some reason, its voice sounds like Eddie Murphy's singing voice from "Party All the Time".

I'll try to post something later.

Music Diary - September 2006

For those seeing this music diary through MySpace for the first time, here's the recap. Cameron Crowe keeps a mix tape for every month of his life, so that he can just listen to the tape and remember what music he was listening to at various points in his life. I loved the idea - so I stole it and I post what iTunes tells me I'm listening to most each month.

But first off, I've been playing with the new iTunes 7. I didn't want to update to the new version right away, but an episode of The Replacements is available for free from if you have iTunes 7. So I upgraded to get my free Replacements fix.

But the best part of iTunes 7 is the album cover jukebox. There's a new setting where while you go through your music, it shows off the album covers. It feels like a jukebox as you skim through the artwork. I don't know about you, but since all my music purchase are electronic now, I can't remember the last time I stopped to enjoy the album covers. Look - there's the old Chumbawumba album cover. There's the old Paula Abdul album cover. There's the old Wreckx-N-Effects album cover. There's the old....

Yeah, you know what, I'm going to go ahead and turn this setting off. Thanks for not ever mentioning it again.

Here's what iTunes 7.0 is telling me I'm listening to this month-

Horny as a Dandy - Mousse T vs. Dandy Warhols (mash up)
Chasing Cars - Snow Patrol
Miss Murder - AFI
Los Angeles - Sugarcult
Work It Out - Jurassic 5 featuring Dave Matthews Band
Cobrastyle - Teddybears featuring Mad Cobra
Best of You - Foo Fighters

Yet another mash-up. I've heard that there're some hilarious Horny as a Dandy music videos on YouTube... but I'm afraid to sit down and watch them.

Not my favorite Snow Patrol or AFI songs ever, but they're catchy enough that they're getting regular play this month.

Los Angeles is probably the most cliche topic you can write a song about. We get it - we get it. L.A. sucks. Tell us something we don't know. But I like Sugarcult and the track is free in the iTunes music store.

I love Work It Out - such a great mellow groove. And Cobrastyle is so bomb-de-bomb -de-dang-de dang catchy. The Foo Fighters track is just one of those tracks that got played a couple times this month when iTunes randomizes my music while I work.

I think I'm gonna be sick

So for dinner tonight, I had some fish, rice, pasta, and a couple bites of some yummy spinach. It was lightly cooked in sesame, so it had a nice crunchy taste and solid texture to it. As soon as I'm done eating, I go online and this is staring at me in the face-

E. coli cases traced to bagged spinach

This health alert was LITERALLY posted at the exact same moment that the wonderfully slightly under-cooked bagged spinach went into my stomach. So now - am I really going to get sick? Or am I just going to suffer from some sort of psychosomatic reaction where I end up moaning in agony when there's nothing wrong with me?

Anyways, if I don't respond to your email, it probably means I'm dead. Killed by spinach.

"Everything I know is wrong!" - Dick Daring

Congrats to Dan Santat, whose Disney show The Replacements premiered last week and pulled in a huge rating.

I wonder how many of those millions of viewers realize that the creator of the Replacements was a floor hockey goaltending LEGEND at U.C.S.D.? How many show creators can say that they backstopped a triple-A intramural floor hockey team to the Patel Cup championship after having designed the jerseys for said floor hockey team?

Anyways, if you're not watching it, you should check it out - it's on Disney Channel and ABC Saturday Mornings. The show is hysterical - and the people working on it are awesome. And check out Dan's web site.

R.D.S - My Secret Shame

As I sit and spend seven plus hours zoning out in front of NFL football, I felt like I should talk about a serious problem that I never see anyone talking about.

For whatever reason, it doesn't get enough press or publicity. Maybe some people out there don't consider it important, but I'm personally afflicted by it and I know many many people who also suffer from it. Especially among creative types I know, like writers and actors, but it's a serious problem among normal people, too. I've met other people with the problem. We've talked about our problem. We've tried to find ways to deal with the symptoms. We've talked about ways to hide our shame.

But I feel like if I can talk about my problem, then other people will step forward and talk about their problems. The support of others doesn't help the problem, but it does help to know that you're not suffering alone.

I'm talking about R.D.S. - Runaway DVD Syndrome.

And I have it. My DVD shelf is a disaster. At one point long ago I had enough room for all my DVDs - but now they're overflowing on top of the shelf, jammed horizontally in the cracks above the DVDs, on the floor. It's even caused me to cut back on DVD purchases, just because I know there's no place to put them.

I know. Horror. But don't cry for me. I'm not alone. I've talked to other people who suffer from RDS in a search to find a good fix. But there's no good way to fix the problem without creating new problems.

-Buy a bigger shelf. Yeah, I could do that - but it costs money. Plus it's going to take forever to find one that fits the exact spot that I have. And really, buying a bigger shelf is like fixing a hole in the wall with masking tape. It's technically a fix... but it's not going to last very long.

-Alternate storage system. They sell these things where you can store just the discs, then you save space by putting the boxes and inserts elsewhere. The problem with that is that it ruins the whole beauty involved with displaying DVDs. Unlike my old laserdiscs, DVDs have this inherent pocket attractiveness, the way a good bookshelf filled with books is irresistible.

-Cold turkey. Stop buying DVDs. Sell the ones that I don't watch and then stop buying new ones... and we all know THAT is never going to happen.

So for the time being, I've gone with a new set-up.

-Explore the space. Move the DVD shelf about 5 inches away from the wall, then use that space to stack TV show DVD boxed sets. Then put a set of bookends on top of the DVD shelf to keep more DVDs up there.

This'll hold off the problem for a few months, but at some point, I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a bigger shelf. Considering the small space that the shelf would have to fit in, I might have to buy the wood and build the shelf myself.

Hopefully more people will be open about their RDS issues. Then maybe someone will come up with an easy way to keep DVDs that doesn't involve me having to risk cutting off my fingers with a jigsaw.


[Oh yeah - before I wrote this, I made sure to google and wikipedia the term "RDS" to make sure it wasn't some horrible awful term. Last thing I want is people coming here when they're looking for "radical disco seatbelts" or "rabid dilbert-loving seamstresses" or something...]

My NFL Predictions

The fun thing about buying sports tickets with a credit card is that Ticketmaster sells your contact information to all the offshore sports betting sites. So every year, I get sent magazines that appear to be pre-season football magazines, but are just advertisements trying to get me to gamble on football.

Pro football gambling is all kind of scary anyways. My one football gambling story. Years ago, I put $10 on a parlay bet and won like $100. I felt like the biggest baddest guy in town - that is until I went Sunday night to collect my winnings. I had to stand in line with all these pro-football gamblers - big, scary-looking guys with beady eyes and no necks. They'd get their winnings in the THOUSANDS... and then I felt like a small fry as the sportsbook guy had to find the small bills out to pay me.

Anyways, in honor of parlays, point spreads, and legally-murky off-shore sports gambling, I present my predictions for the NFL season.

AFC EAST: New England
AFC NORTH: Cincinnati
AFC SOUTH: Indianapolis
AFC WEST: Denver
WILDCARDS: Baltimore, Pittsburgh

NFC EAST: Dallas
NFC NORTH: Chicago
NFC SOUTH: Carolina
NFC WEST: Seattle
WILDCARDS: Atlanta, New York

Superbowl: Carolina over Cincinnati

And what of the Oakland Raiders - Eugene's favorite team? That's easy. He predicts that they'll break his heart. They always do.

Sorry for the lack of updates

Crazy busy at the moment. I could spend time coming up with some funny/interesting posts, but if I do that now, you're going to see an increase in really crappy television 12 months from now. And nobody wants that.

I'll try to post something later this week.