Monday, February 22, 2010

Winners!

Go Chunkles!

Our athletes are doing amazing. On Saturday, Apolo Anton Ohno raced in the 1000m short track and earned his seventh medal, making him the most decorated winter Olympian in history. Way to go, Apolo! What's even more amazing, is that a bad pass sent him from second to fifth place in a manner of seconds, and he managed to catch up to snare the bronze. I look forward to watching his upcoming races.

Though I'm still pissed at the judging call that took Apolo's teammate, J.R. Celski, out of the semis. A Frenchman grabbed his hips from behind (I kid you not, I couldn't get that out of my head, either) and when JR flung his arm back to bat him off and keep skating, Mr. French lost his balance and crashed. Okay, so the guy is actually Canadian, but his name is French. And the ref called the foul on JR and disqualified him. Maybe it's my ignorance of the rules of short track, but how the heck was JR the one fouling? Did he make a bad pass? Are you not allowed to swat Frenchmen off your ass?

Just five months ago, JR's own skate cut his thigh and he nearly bled out on the ice. Now he's got a bronze in the Olympics!

We'll see you at the rest of your events, JR!

And yesterday, Alpine Skier Bode Miller had the ride of his life in the men's super combined. His downhill time wasn't the best, but his slalom run was phenomenal, and he won his first Olympic gold. More importantly, he felt that he earned the gold because he gave the run his all, and worked so hard for it.



Awesome job, Bode!

Olympians aren't the only ones setting records. For the second year in a row, I have won the national BEA Media Arts Festival Student Screenwriting Competition for my script Daughters of the Wind. On top of that, I also took Best in Festival out of all the screenwriting categories. This is a big deal for my university, which continues to show its writing dominance over expensive film schools like UCLA.

I was excited to go to Las Vegas for the festival until I realized it's on the same weekend that I have to take my MFA exam. Luckily, my screenwriting professors are rallying behind me and have been pressuring the program director to let me take the exam earlier, so we'll see what happens.

In related news, I've been having some great conversations with a manager and am about to start work on an outline for her. If all goes well, I'll write the script, she'll sell it, and I'll sign with her. I'm also working with an agent at one of the top 6 agencies to pitch 10 ideas for TV shows. This isn't the first time I've started down this path, and I've learned not to hold my breath. I've just never shared the news publicly before. I guess I was superstitiously paranoid that I'd curse it. Or maybe it's like a pregnancy and you don't want to tell anyone till you're sure all is going well. At any rate, now you all know. What comes next is anyone's guess!

All right. That's it from me today. Enjoy the last week of the Olympics. I should get some writing done!

Mackenzie's Momma -- Yes, thank the gods for DVRs! I'm so glad you were able to watch the skating. I hope my blog didn't spoil the results for you! And you saw Apolo? Like, walking by? How cool! I would've stared. And walked into things because I was staring.

2 comments:

Mackenzies Momma said...

I've really been enjoying the Olympics this year (more than normal).

Such good sportsmanship and what not.

And no you didn't ruin the results for me. I'd seen it THEN read your blog ;)

As for Apollo it was some event down at Seattle Center (I think) and he was there. I didn't actually talk to him, but I saw him around at the event. Also I totally get the 'walk into things' thing...I would *so* do that with Kavan Smith ;)

Oh and good luck with the scripts and agents and whatnot. Have I ever told you that my aunt used to be an Associate Producer on Married With Children?

the other amanda said...

YYYEEAAAHHH APOLO! GO CHUNKY CHUNKLES!