I'm Just Sayin'

I didn't spend on one of my credit cards for almost a year, the raised my limit by $1000, Bay area FasTrak gives me like $5/mo to come back to SF, Netflix just gave me two free months because I canceled in June-I wonder if I ignore Ryan Gosling more often it will have the same effect. I have been ignoring him, Jake Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, etc.. for years now-come on boys! ;p I mean, seems like the more you ignore something, the more it comes to you...right? Is all of life like a bad boyfriend? I gave up TV writing last summer to work on my YA book series, and BOOM! TV writing job falls in my lap. I give up looking for work and jobs come out of the wood work. It's really interesting how things like this happen. I swear I am now getting credit increases left, right and center because I am not spending-shouldn't it be the other way around? I mean the reason I am not using your credit card is one of two reasons, 1) I can't afford it and 2) (The more likely reason) ...

Whatever happened to fair dealing And pure ethics And nice manners? Why is it everyone now is a pain in the Ass? Whatever happened to class? Class. Whatever happened to Please may I And Yes thank you And How charming? Now every son of a bitch Is a snake in the grass Whatever happened to class? ~ Chicago the musical. Okay folks, so earlier this morning I was 100% convinced that Obama was going to win and I ignored the internet, but then people starting talking about it and I looked and was beyond shocked that Mitt was winning-What the F? Seriously? How could this be happening, my life was flashing before my eyes as the worse thing in history was about to happen? A tad dramatic? Yeah, a bit, but I am a writer.  That said, I was worried, but I had a talk with someone who actually is smart and has a brain and isn't a jerk and this person actually made me see that it would be okay, the world would go on and to be fair, my life probably wouldn't change that much. This person was righ...

I woke up today ready to dive into a new chapter of the year falling back into the proper standard time Starbucks in hand and then WHAM! I log into FB and see that my friend Laurie has died. ALL day I have been in a state of shock, anger, WHAT THE FUCK?, sadness, grief, disbelief and then all over. What happened? Why? Why? I want to know why? How did this happen? She died from Cervical cancer. WHAT? In 2012? WHAT? How? Laurie!!!!!!! Didn't you get check ups? How could this happen? I didn't talk to her every day, but we were good friends and we did talk a lot about writing. We met in 2009 at the Santa Monica Write On Online group and became instant friends. She was great, full of life, and I am just so upset about this. I know her closer friends and family are even more devastated than I am, but it's just so awful. My father died in June, so I have been terrible about keeping up with everyone on FB, but I remember her posting something about her stomach not feeling right thi...

You have heard the expression-thinking with your dick-right? Not just for men anymore. Us women definitely let the "little" brain take over. There isn't a good way to say it for women, and it's the same thing. I am going to try to never let this happen again-yeah right, right? Right. Okay, so you meet someone and you are attracted to them-that is human nature and what if the Mayans were right? Who I am to deny myself a basic human right just because the wrong brain is leading me? Okay because it always causes trouble? And can make a mess of things? Yeah well...so can other things that aren't as much fun. Just saying, my little brain is sometimes wiser than my big one!

A couple months ago I lost a new friend to suicide and then there have been a few "industry" (the entertainment industry) losses, I thought I would write this today so people can have some hope of understanding. Suicide is the hardest thing for loved ones left behind to grasp because they always feel like they could have done something and the thing is, you couldn't have. The suicidal person is NOT thinking about you, or anyone else, they are thinking about themselves, period. I hate when people say, "suicide is selfish" like that's a bad thing. Of course it's selfish-this person is having the WORST day of their life so they don't care about anything but stopping the pain they are in. Ever get a headache or break a bone and think, "I wish I would just die the pain is so bad," ? Yes you have, we all have, but we don't mean it because we know it's temporary. The suicidal person's pain is temporary, but to them, it's constant ...

Today in Hollywood the comedy stopped as well learned of the sad news that funny man Alan Kirschenbaum had taken his life. On the outside, and IMDB everything looked great, but obviously something was terribly wrong. I didn't know him. I always wanted to work with him or at the very least take one of his classes. I followed him on Twitter out of respect and he was funny.  People often seem fine on the outside when they are really tragically sad on the inside. Suicide is something that is so hard for people to understand, but you have to know that it's never your fault. Except I think in the case of my uncle Ricky, who when he was sixteen-long before I was born, took his own life but wrote my Dickens-esq grandfather telling him that it was his fault-in that case yes, it was maybe. But really at the end of the day it's the person who decides to do it. Ultimately no one can change someone's mind when they are in that dark place. It breaks my heart that three people ...

Geek out Sunday.... Who do like for characters, not the comic or the films, the characters? Batman, Superman or Spiderman and why? Just curious-for me it's Spiderman for many reasons, the biggest reason is that he has to deal with real life shit and is a true geek. While I love Superman-he is perfect, so it's like, "eh" okay whatever you can fly really fast and you're super strong-we get it. Spiderman had more problems besides the daily crap in real life, he also had problems on the side-you know fighting evil. I have received a lot of comments on my YA book RYUAN like, "it's obvious you like Superman." Well the book is about an alien who was sent to earth-but not to save himself to save his own planet's people when he grows up. BUT, he isn't perfect and his abilities are more realistic and he has to deal with a ton of normal shit-like being bullied and people dying in his life constantly. I was inspired to write it because of David Copper...

This is what is bugging me. You know how channel 7 news has this, "what's bugging you?"thing? Well CA drivers bug me. First of all, it is a speed requirement. If you go under it, especially 20 mph under it, you are just as dangerous as those who are speeding-get your shit together, put your foot on the gas and drive. Second of all, why are all Prius drivers, Pri-ASSES? You don't own the road and you don't get to make your own rules. Thirdly, it's called a turn signal to SIGNAL the person behind you, NOT to flip on as you are already making the turn. Look, I took the California driver test-it's hard, so why are there so many bad drivers here? This city was built around driving, but seems like people can't here more than anywhere else. Maybe it's all the pot these people smoke like it's legal-still not legal folks-but I digress. Please Californians, learn how to drive, I am begging you.

Hey everyone~ So sorry I haven't been blogging as much as usual. Things have been crazy since my father passed away in June. I was in and out of work and working 100 hours a week to survive for low pay or no pay-seriously...welcome to the industry. But I got a great illustration gig and have been writing a lot more. I also moved apartments and 'burbs of Lalaland so it's just been a question of time. I have started back up with the ghost story a day for October. Check them out at www.thedailyghost2012.blogspot.com and am getting my novel, Four Seconds ready for publication so I can help raise money for the Bridge Rail Foundation. I also am going to be doing the NaNoWriMo for RYUAN book two this Nov-next month. Before any of that, I have to do my taxes! I am STILL waiting for 1099s and w2s...yup, it's October. I called the IRS and they said to just get it filed and I can always go back later. UGH. What a pain. That said, I am doing the best that I can and if anyone ...

Hrm? Katie Couric has a talk show? Katie Couric? That just seems weird to me. I always thought she was a great journalist and loved her interviews. She has never been Christine Amanpour, but a daytime talk show? I have to be honest, I won't be watching because it just seems like all the other shows out there and I love Ellen's, so why add a new one? I don't get it. The adverts don't look appealing and she is putting out an image of being stupid. Putting flyers on cars? What? UGH I wish One Life to Live would just come back. I'm just sayin'~

“I'm inspired by my own children, how full they make my heart. They make me want to work to make the world a little bit better. And they make me want to be a better man.” — President Obama You know I have done my very best to NOT be political this year on any social networks or blogs or anything because honestly people are idiots and they just want a reason to fight and I am all about being positive these days. I suffered two major losses this year with my dog of almost 14 years suddenly dying of Westie Lung Disease in January and then my father passing away in June. I was out of work for some of that time and the days were dark a lot of the time. That said, I was always hopeful about my future and one of the reasons is this man right here. PRESIDENT OBAMA He doesn't just stand for the left side, he stands for everything that is right in this world and it blows me away that everyone can't see that. He is all about family. He is about peace-but not such a wuss tha...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/capitol-hill-grieves-for-homeless-man-who-was-neighborhood-fixture/2012/08/21/1395b668-ebc8-11e1-b811-09036bcb182b_story.html?socialreader_check=0&denied=1 This is a great story that will warm your heart. Here is a bit of it below, but click on the link for the full story in the Washington Post. Capitol Hill grieves for homeless man who was a neighborhood fixture. By  Steve Hendrix  and  J. Freedom du Lac ,  Published: August 21 Peter Bis may have been the most rootless savant on Capitol Hill. He lived most of the past decade on the streets near Union Station without an address, a phone, a job or even a reliable connection to reality (unless the former law student with the uncanny memory really  was  Princess Diana’s former lover and a onetime aerospace magnate). But in the week since Bis died of an apparent heart attack near his favorite corner at Second Street and Massachusetts Avenue NE,...

Whoooo-hoooo viva Italiano!!! Are you afraid of gluten? Or grains? Or beans? Come on! This is from the Mayo Clinic AND the guy, Ancel Keys, who named this diet lived to be 100. So there. Here is a great article!! I didn't write it, but I am sharing it.  Mediterranean diet: Choose this heart-healthy diet option The Mediterranean diet is a heart-healthy eating plan combining elements of Mediterranean-style cooking. Here's how to adopt the Mediterranean diet. By Mayo Clinic staff If you're looking for a heart-healthy eating plan, the Mediterranean diet might be right for you. The Mediterranean diet incorporates the basics of healthy eating — plus a splash of flavorful olive oil and perhaps a glass of red wine — among other components characterizing the traditional cooking style of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Most healthy diets include fruits, vegetables, fish and whole grains, and limit unhealthy fats. While these parts of a healthy diet remai...

Many of my close friends and anyone who has ever been around me for about 2 seconds knows that being healthy, not skinny, is part of who I am. I drink tons of water, my diet is mostly plant based and I don't eat sweets that often, so I am all for wellness blogs and such. That said, everyone thinks that they can tell others what to do. So as a blog reader, you really need to be careful. Recently someone who I know personally who isn't that healthy, but is obsessed with trend diets is now claiming herself to be a fitness, wellbeing and health expert. This person knows nothing and unless you can get a degree in nutrition in a month, then, well you know. She didn't even work out until last summer. She ate terribly and was just a pain to be around. So now all of a sudden she is telling people what to do. One of her blogs is telling people that 8 glasses of water is excessive? WHAT?  I mean how can you take someone serious who doesn't even practice what they ...

I have been wanting to get out of the hot weather for so long, but as things happen I go with them. I am very excited to say that I found a great apartment without even looking in my old neighborhood-that I left because the rents went up to crazy high rents and thus my move 25 miles north to "Agrestic". I have been looking in Santa Monica and San Francisco, but looks like I'll be a "Valley girl" a bit longer. And before you think it's too good to be true for me? There is no central air-but I am excited, my closest friends all live in that area, so YIPPEE!! I actually said to the universe, "okay, if and only if there is a great place for under X amount on these four streets, I'll stay in the Valley, otherwise, find me something great on the west side." So in tune with my last post, I did put this out there and the universe delivered. I am so excited to decorate a new place! Things I like about the Valley: *Tons of industry people everywher...

As many of your know I have been working contract/freelance for many years and not entirely by choice. Freelance in the animation world used to mean more money and less hours, now it means way less money and way more hours. The studios are cutting corners and so it is what it is. I love to draw and I love writing, so working freelance was a great way for many years to do both. Also the studios are hiring less and less in house people, so it just sort of happened. I have also been working as a freelance script reader for a few companies around town and even offering up my own services, and it's been great. I am very lucky to do what I love. If you read my last post you will see that I am taking that full time-I will still freelance in animation-I mean after 17 years it is part of who I am, but I am excited to be getting more and more clients for Script Concierge,   www.stephanieolivieri.com and more and more people interested in my class on dialogue. Now the dreaming begins. I...

http://scriptconcierge.wordpress.com/ Script Concierge is up and running! As many of you know, I have been doing a lot of script reading and coverage lately and I love it. I really love the feeling of helping a writer get their script into the best shape it can be in. I also love telling new writers about great coaches and workshops such as: Ellen Sandler. True story I was doing coverage last week for a fellow writer who wants to work in television, and she had never heard of Ellen!! I was shocked-but then I remember 5 years ago when I was trying to get my first show on the air, I hadn't either. I told this writer to go buy Ellen's book and she did and her pilot is already stronger. Yay! I know that stuff. The last five years have been intense for me, in the scriptwriting world. I have taken so many classes and workshops and online classes and attended many panels that now I have this wealth of information that took me five years to collect-almost like going to university ful...

Funny how the universe seems to know what's going on. Lately I have been feeling "off" maybe because my father died in June and or my doggie died in January, the fact that work is unpredictable and or that I am - EEEEK - middle aged, although it does NOT feel that way. In any case, I am not sure why, but my usually strong self has been having a lot of questions and the biggest. WHAT THE F*@K AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE? I know what I am doing, following my dreams and working in entertainment. But that comes with always being rejected, ALWAYS, and then getting a job and then it ends early, or doesn't start, or is great and then you are out of work, AGAIN. Sigh.. but in any case, I have been trying to make a new plan of action to support myself while I am pursuing my dream-writing. I got this in my inbox today and thought I would share because it's perfect. If you aren't already signed up on the Daily Om, you should, it's great. Here is the link and the...

So I ran out of coffee about three days ago and have been so busy with this latest project that I haven't had time to leave the house and get more, I have been living on Yerba mate, but it's not the same. I was scrounging in my apt and found a last Tassimo espresso disk, but I have no milk disks left for lattes or cappuccinos. What is a girl in need of a fix to do? Remembering that in places like Italy they think we are insane over here with "coffee"-they don't seem to understand it's a different bean-I remembered the "Americano" and thought to myself if I just filled the cup with hot water, I would have sort of a coffee. Oh before I go on, I have to tall you, I was out of milk, so I only have non dairy dry creamer, which does NOT work in espresso, only coffee. I did it!! And it was soooo YUMMY. I am excited that A) I got the coffee I needed and B) now I have a new drink.

In college and even some job applications that age old essay question always pops up: "Who would you have dinner with, dead or alive, if given the chance?" In 10th grade, I answered Madonna because I thought she was strong, ambitious, smart and could do whatever she wanted. I admired her so much, and wanted to be like her in many ways-not a pop start-but I wanted to be like her spirit. I was living alone at the time (long story), and had really no one in my life to look up to and she was a role model to me. In 12th grade we were asked the same question and again, I answered, Madonna for the same reasons. Although at this point I had moved in with my mother and my step-father, who hated me in high school. I was really close to my step-brother John, but still felt isolated and alone and Madonna symbolized someone who made it on her own, even though things were hard. Throughout the years I have had many idols and of course that question has been asked of me in interviews a...

Nobody can do anything to you that you don’t allow it. People treat you the way you treat yourself. I allowed a friend to treat me terribly for about 4 years, everyone around kept asking why I was still friends with her. I mean EVERYONE, even the mailman and other people in the neighborhood were asking me, but I kept giving her chance after chance and thinking she would change. She wasn't abusive or anything like that, but she brought being selfish to new heights and I am a little sad the friendship is now over-my father dying inconvenienced her and so I was done, I just couldn't take it anymore-because she isn't a bad person, just a selfish one. I don't believe she did anything to me out of malice, but rather just didn't care-at all. She would constantly make me an option while I made her a priority, she talked behind my back to get attention from her friends-yes drama queen. She was just a child-really immature and she pouted about everything. That said, I...

Wouldn't it be fun to put on a scarf, hat, gloves and jacket on days like today when we are in the triple digits and mess with people? I can see it now. Walking down the street and saying ridiculous things like, "This is a cold day in Phoenix, when it drops below 110 we get out the winter gear." just to see the look on people's faces. If I didn't get bloody noses, headaches, sick to my stomach and general passing out on days like today, I would do just that. Ever notice in the winter, when it's 40 degrees and pissing down rain, some eegit from Chicago, or somewhere like that, always is wearing shorts and claiming "this is a hot day where I come from." News flash, 40 degrees is cold everywhere jerk. Just sayin'

I don't really understand fake meat, fake cheese, gluten free bread etc.-if you don't want to eat that stuff-don't, it's really simple-but swapping natural things for processed because it's "something free" doesn't make a whole lot of sense now doe it? You hear people all the time saying things like, "I have been vegan and healthy my whole life, I have no idea how I got cancer, I mean, all I eat is fake meat, fake cheese, and low fat processed shit all the time." I mean, honestly, it's like the whole world has gone crazy. When I am vegetarian, I don't eat meat-PERIOD-I don't have fake meat, I don't eat meat. I eat veggies, it's that simple. I don't understand this obsession with low fat everything either, I mean, how does it become low fat? PROCESSING. How can that possibly be good for you? Soy milk? How is soy a milk? PROCESSING. Use your brain a little bit. Is it worth it to save 30-60 calories? Another way you...