Month: January 2005

I give Blockbuster props for implementing this — yes, I said props — but my chief complaint about the store has never been the late fees. Five days to a week seems like an ample rental period to me. What I’ve always found annoying was the fact that the films I want never seem to be in, and that the shelves are stocked primarily with empty display cases. I’m not just talking about any particular month’s most popular movie, or about the most obscure esoteric art film. My tastes run a wide enough gamut, I think. I’m talking across the board here. If Blockbuster can do a better job of keeping its shelves full, maybe then I’ll have more reason to browse there.

Tina Fey, one of two head writers for “S.N.L.”…said that the show’s sensibility was simply too immediate and its production schedule too chaotic for a formula to dictate its contents. Writers may draw their material from celebrity tabloids scattered around their offices. (“They’re like pornography,” she joked. “That’s how disgusting you feel.”) But more than anything, they are inspired by a fundamental, Darwinian desire to get their material onto the air. “Everyone’s trying to figure out their road to job security,” Ms. Fey said. “It’s almost like one of those experiments with pigeons pecking at things to get food, and if you peck at something and get food, you’re going to keep pecking at it.”

That’s definitely the sense I got from watching A&E’s biography of the show a year or two back, and it’s a large part of why I cut the show some slack when it fails to be funny or relies too heavily on recurring characters. There’s very little turn-around time for the writers, and they are, as Fey says, desperate to get material on the air. When you have less than a week in which to work, you don’t often have the luxury of creating smart comedy or sharp satire. I only worked on a rinky-dink college sketch comedy show, with two weeks turn-around time, and even I can tell you that. Recurring characters, sophomoric humor, and pulled punches are just par for the course.

Which is not to say that I want to write poorly, or that I think poor writing is a respectable goal. It’s just that my biggest hang-up as a writer is worrying over my words until I run up against a brick wall and can’t write anything. I’m too much of a perfectionist — and, worse yet, I lack the patience and committment required to make things perfect. So what I need to do is just write and worry about making it perfect (or at least better) the second, third, or five-hundreth time around.

At the very least, I want to continue working on the stories I’ve been writing at 600 seconds. Of course, come to think of it, I’m not really interested in doing the very least this year. So I’m just going to make sure I find an hour every day when I can sit down with pen and paper and write.

I also want to start eating better. I was, shortly before I moved in July. I was cutting calories, eating more fruits and vegetables, I was exercising five, six, or seven times a week. I want to lose thirty or forty pounds, for both health and self-image reasons. So I started to set attainable goals and follow through on them.

I got into a nice pattern of running after work, which was do-able when there was a free indoor track, free locker rooms, and free parking less than five minutes from where I worked. Now, when I don’t get home until after 6 or 7 and don’t have a gym to which I can go…not so much. I’m eating too much and I haven’t exercised since I’ve been home. I don’t feel healthy.

So I’m going to work on that. My employer offers discounts on gyms, as does my health insurance, so I may be able to find something that fits my schedule and needs.

I also need to continue looking for new opportunities and work. New York is a good stepping stone, a good experience, and I like my new job, but I can’t see doing this — by which I mean the sum of this, the whole of my New York experience — for years to come.

I have no idea if 2005 will be any better than 2004, but I suppose that’s a good part of what makes new years so interesting.