Mars. The god of war. Maybe the WMD's are up there...

You have no idea how much better I feel. Yesterday was the best day I've had in longer than I can remember. Yesterday I felt free again. It was like sophmore year all over again. Something happened. I'm not sure what sparked it, but something happened. I feel normal again.

I'm back.

9:12am

eleven hours to go.

i have to stay up until 8pm. doesn't sound hard. that is, if i just woke up. i didn't. i've been on the weirdest sleeping schedule, and im trying to correct it. ive not been able to fall asleep, so i toss and turn until 10am. then i fall asleep and miss the entire day. i woke up yesterday at 8pm. 8PM. 8 at night. So i'm forcing myself to stay awake for 24 hours, so that when 8pm rolls around, i'll be able to fall asleep, and if i do sleep for a really long time, when I wake up it will still be an acceptable time to wake up. i need to get back on schedule, i dont even know what day it is.

9:16am

i'm fading fast. i've only been awake for thirteen hours. now is the hard part, because everyone in the house stayed awake until 7am. now it's quiet. they wont get up for another eight hours. i could work on the rotoscoping, but that will put me right to sleep. i'm not going to make it. they have taken the bridge and the second hall. we have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. the ground shakes, drums... drums in the deep. we cannot get out. a shadow lurks in the dark. we can not get out... they are coming.

that's what I'll do. another quote quiz thing. this time marcy has promised not to cheat and ruin everyone's fun. so THIS person will get to be the quote winner in the credits, marcy still is lame-o cheater.

here we go.

1.) "I can be in the NBA. I'm tall, I like to wear shorts. I'm all about three points. Hook! Hook!"

2.) "I got a mother, you got a mother, the sarge has got a mother. I'm willing to bet that even the Captain's got a mother. Well, maybe not the Captain, but the rest of us have got mothers."

3.) "Nobody knocks off an old man in my neighborhood and gets away with it."

4.) "Okay, those guys in the black pajamas, they jumped me, and... and that rat... I saw you in the parking lot... and you guys... I have no idea where you came from..."

5.) "The fate of the planet is in the hands of a bunch of retards I wouldn't trust with a potato gun."

6.) "Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me!"

7.) "He's trying to kill me! I asked for the salted nuts. He brought me the unsalted nuts. The unsalted nuts make me choke!"

8.) "Life's a bitch; now so am I."

9.) "I wish to God that someone would be able to block out the voices in my head for five minutes, the voices that scream, over and over again. Why do they come to me to die? Why do they come to me to die?"

10.) "These men would never break, never lie down, never bend over for anybody. Anybody."

And here's a clue if you get stuck. All these movies flow in the six degrees of Kevin Bacon sense. An actor who was in movie #1 was in movie #2, an actor from #2 was in #3, etc. etc. Leave a shout out of the answers to claim your prize.

enjoy.


-jp

ps. its now 10:30am. I'm not going to make it.

Temporary Twelve Page Paper Site. Go here.

What movies are these from? (I'll bet Jo wins.)

1.) "You can't lose what you don't put in the middle... but you can't win much either."

2.) "You aren't Mr. Current Affairs are you? The "Mad Fish" went mad, and "The Gun" shot himself."

3.) "You don't want to hurt anyone."
"But I do, and I'm sorry. It won't stop."

4.) "I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind. "

5.) "Because they might have daddy longlegs and um... dead things, Mikey. DEAD THINGS!"

6.) "This guy's methodical, exacting, and worst of all, patient. "

7.) "The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was, is lost, for none now live who remember it. "

8.) "I wanna be an airborne ranger, I wanna be put in danger."

9.) "Seven chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby. Step into my office."
"Why?"
"'Cause you're f&#%in' fired!"

10.) "Your pals... they're not bad people. Maybe we, uh, oughta give them a couple of days to think it over... No?... Grease 'em now? Well... okay. You are a viscous bastard Rotelli, and uh... I'm glad you're dead."

Leave your answers on the shout outs. Winner gets a "Quote Winner" credit in my film.

This is inspiring.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Second Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Moderate
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Moderate
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Divine Comedy Inferno Test

Today I truly took a day off.

Tomorrow I have a lot of things to do, but today, starting at 6pm, I started watching the box set of the second season of 24. The season starts at 8am, it was 10pm when my DVD player finally crapped out. It's 5:30 in the morning right now.

Only ten hours to go. But without commercials it's like only 7.5 hours.

I was going to work on the movie today, but while doing post work, my computer locked up on three different occasions, and on three different occasions I lost all progress.

F.

Got to sleep now.

-Joe

We're doing pretty good so far.

Today I had one of those moments. Like the day I realized I should use Old Manci for the Nazi scene. I think I just added another fifteen minutes to the movie. Perhaps. I don't know, I need to really sit down and think it through. It might not work. But it might.

We'll see.

George Lucas
Hollywood, California
re: Star Wars Episode 2.


Dear George Lucas,

After much consideration, I have decided that I want my $7.50 back. Actually, if you could toss in another $7.50 for episode 1, that would be terrific.

Thank you in advance.
Joseph G. Parcell


p.s. Pick up a hammer and build a set for episode 3. Or make it all a cartoon. Just pick a side, man.

The first minute and a half...

"Do I have an original thought in my head... my bald head... maybe if I were happier my hair wouldn't be falling out... life is short, I need to make the most of it... today is the first day of the rest of my life... I'm a walking cliche.

I really need to go to the doctor, have my leg checked... there's something wrong... a lump... the dentist called again... I'm way overdue... if I stop putting things off I would be happier... all I do is sit on my fat ass... if my ass wasn't fat I would be happier... I wouldn't have to wear these shirts with the tails out all the time... like that's fooling anyone... fat ass... I should start jogging again... five miles a day... really do it this time... maybe rock climbing... I need to turn my life around...

What do I need to do... I need to fall in love... I need to have a girlfriend... I need to read more... improve myself... what if I learned russian or something... or took up an instrument... I could speak chinese... I would be the screenwriter who speaks chinese... and plays the oboe... that would be cool.

I should get my hair cut short... stop trying to fool myself and everyone else into thinking I have a full head of hair... how pathetic is that... just be real... confident... isn't that what women are attracted to?

Men don't have to be attractive... but that's not true... especially these days... almost as much pressure on men as there is on women these days...

Why should I be made to feel I have to apologize for my existance...

Maybe it's my brain chemistry... maybe that's what's wrong with me... bad chemistry... all my problems and anxiety can be reduced to a chemical imbalance or some kind of misfiring synapses... I need to get help for that...

But I'll still be ugly though... nothing's gonna change that...."

If you haven't seen Adaptation... you should.

Work work work all day long. Every now and then it's good to take a break from this film. I'd like to still like it by the time it is done. But seeing as I am writer, director, producer, editor, rotoscoper, chromakey artist, lighting, transportation coordinator, ADR mixer, ADR recorder, foley, sound effects, music coordinator, DVD author, advertising, camera operator, digital import, set designer, script supervisor, and 2nd unit director, I really don't get that much time off.

See, kids, when you make real movies, you have what is called a "crew" which means you only have to do like one or two of those jobs. And then you get paid.

Swiped from Jo and Lola.

1. What did you do in 2003 that you'd never done before?
I almost finished filming a movie. I learned how to rotoscope and do chromakey. I got accepted to a film school. I got fired from a job. That's about it I think....

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't think I made any. And no.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Tom had a son.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
I don't think so. Wow. It was a good year.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just the boring old US this year- I didnt even go to Canada!

6. What would you like to have in 2004 that you lacked in 2003?
Money.

7. What date from 2003 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
January 4. That was the day I started writing.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Twelve Page Paper.

9. What was your biggest failure?
A tie between my career at Select Comfort and my love life. I think I was too busy for both.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Again, not really. I was sick for about two weeks in December. That's about it. It was a good year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
This PC that I've done a lot of work on.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
The cast of my film. They're all troopers.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
George Bush. Not to get political.

14. Where did most of your money go?
My production budget.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The premiere of this film.

16. What song will always remind you of 2003?
Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" it was the opening song of the film, and I must've heard it at least 200 times.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Much happier. Yet still missing something.
ii. thinner or fatter? I'm a bit bigger now.
iii. richer or poorer? Dead even, which is flat broke.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I wish I would've made out with more girls. Like maybe two all year.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worrying.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I don't know, it's like 350 days away.

21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
I don't know. Erin probably.

22. Did you fall in love in 2003?
No.

23. How many one-night stands?
I had a date, that only happened once. She said she'd call me back when she had her work schedule. That was seven months ago.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Don't really watch TV.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No I still hate all the same people.

26. What was the best book you read?
Michael Moore... I don't really read a lot.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Josh, at Bilbo's. "That was f*&#ing AMAZING!!!!"

28. What did you want and get?
A few new friends.

29. What did you want and not get?
A new girl.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Return of the King

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 23, and I got fired. Then I went to Chuck E. Cheese.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A sense of purpose.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2003?
I've always worn what is comfy.

34. What kept you sane?
Whatever it was, I don't think it worked.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I recently came to the conclusion that if I could be anyone from the movies, it wouldn't be James Bond or like Superman or Neo, it would be Ferris Bueller.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Republicans. Same as usual.

37. Who did you miss?
Laura and Yerty.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Chuck, Jamie and Matt. And Scuba Steve.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2003:
"You can't respect someone who kisses your ass." --F.B.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"She Hates Me" by Puddle of Mudd.

weather round here chopping and changing... surgery in the air... print shirts and southern accents... cigars and big hair... we got the wheels, petrol's cheap... only went there for a week... got the sun, got the sand, got the batteries in the handi-cam... her eyes are swimming pool blue... dumbells and diving boards... lady's always attracted to the things she's afraid of... big girl with the sweet tooth watches skinny girl in the photo shoot... freshmen... squeeky clean... she tastes of chlorine... miami... love the movies too... love to walk through the movie sets... get to shoot someone in the foot... get to smoke some cigarettes... no big deal we know the score... just back from the video store... got the car... got the car chase... what's he got inside the case... i want a close-up of that face... here comes... car chase... i got two new suits... pink and blue... i took a picture of you... getting hot in the photo booth... i said she looked like a madonna... she said maybe... she said i want to have your baby... baby... we could make something beautiful... something that wouldn't be a problem... we could make something beautiful... something that wouldn't be a problem... at least not in miami.

I am the first of my friends to post in 2004.

This New Years was better than many that I've had. Only because nothing bad happened...

I'm having deja vu.

Hold on a sec...

I think I wrote that last year. I couldn't find it. I probably just said it.

Woo hah, I got you all in check.
--joe