Whoof. What a busy day. Worked and worked and got so much done on Hot Baby. Jeff comes into town tomorrow, and trying to find a production coordinator and a line producer and finish SAG paperwork (which is frighteningly late) and insurance paperwork and bank paperwork and a zillion other things while still existing in the craziness that is the Studio. And then, as they do in the Studio from time to time, the phones go down. Just gone. Ugh. And so its just that much harder.
Had, after this long day, a ride upto a Chinese restaurant on the east side to have dinner with my partner John and Nick. Nick Brooks, Mel’s son and a talented writer in his own right who is forming his own shingle. Looks like hes a big fan of one of our projects, one I feel like I pulled out of the the back of the closet last spring, dusted off and now it seems to be a leader in getting people interested in us and Angel Baby Entertainment and I think, is likely the next movie Johnny G. is gonna direct (though we shall see). Nick is partners with special effects guru Bob Kurtzman, in their new company, and he loves the zaniness of the project, affectionately known as “Mother.”
Got home around an hour ago, sitting in the A/C, too much Peking Duck at dinner. And think, hmm, who can I call. E, nah. Though Friday nights, to me, that’s when I like being in a relationship because while I could go out on a Friday nite, after a business dinner, I would much rather head home and relax with a girlfriend, watch a movie, drink a little wine, play “That’s not my bellybutton,” the whole schmear (not the best word choice, sorry). But, I think with E, my mind is made up.
All who would like to apply, please comment below.
And Im shooting the next three weeks or so, so don’t expect immediate attention.
Ciao.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Its Hot, Hot Hot
Hot Baby is shooting next Saturday. Starting for reel (hehe).
OK – WHADDYA GOT.
Two kick ass producers. Check.
A DP who I very much believe in and who is about to get to show his stuff a bit – albeit on a low budget level. Check.
Hip, hot young cast of actors like Noah Fleiss, Emily Grace and Brian Vincent. Check.
WHADDYA NOT GOT, EIGHT DAYS OUT.
Two leads – the dirty Dr. Sid (Out to Teddy Raimi, maybe for one more day) and Tex (Reaching out to David Thornton). Uncheck.
A Line Producer. Our line producer, Jim, took ill this morning and has left the shoot (he’s in the hospital so he has a damn good reason). When we were discussing what to do, I very much felt like one of those Everest climbers that leave their compadres fallen in the snow, because they know that they cannot carry them and still survive themselves, as callous a decision as that may seen. In any event, we hope Jimmy will be well. Any line producers in the audience? Uncheck.
But despite these big gaping holes, I feel pretty good about where we are. We are eight days out, budget is looking decent, we have some fallbacks on cast in case things don’t
come together with the semi-names we’re pursuing, and the crew, AD, etc. look pretty good. And Le Tigre is on board and I love those shirts, man. Too bad I just bought five polos.
But I love making movies, which gave me my next idea. We are shooting (or intending to) shoot a documentary on the making of this low budget masterpiece-to-be.
Now when I was a kid, in junior high school, I wanted to be a director. In my junior high year book, I listed “to be a director” as my future occupation. I ended up being a producer in this round-about way because of my legal background. But I never really totally gave up my idea of directing, and have played with the thought recently of directing a short film, or a documentary (having had thoughts about doing a poker documentary or a swing dance competition documentary).
Well, falling into my lap, here is my chance. I can direct this documentary about the making of a movie that I am producing. Is it a little wacky? Yeah, maybe. But I think, maybe, just maybe, I want to do it.
Grumpy (used to be greg)
OK – WHADDYA GOT.
Two kick ass producers. Check.
A DP who I very much believe in and who is about to get to show his stuff a bit – albeit on a low budget level. Check.
Hip, hot young cast of actors like Noah Fleiss, Emily Grace and Brian Vincent. Check.
WHADDYA NOT GOT, EIGHT DAYS OUT.
Two leads – the dirty Dr. Sid (Out to Teddy Raimi, maybe for one more day) and Tex (Reaching out to David Thornton). Uncheck.
A Line Producer. Our line producer, Jim, took ill this morning and has left the shoot (he’s in the hospital so he has a damn good reason). When we were discussing what to do, I very much felt like one of those Everest climbers that leave their compadres fallen in the snow, because they know that they cannot carry them and still survive themselves, as callous a decision as that may seen. In any event, we hope Jimmy will be well. Any line producers in the audience? Uncheck.
But despite these big gaping holes, I feel pretty good about where we are. We are eight days out, budget is looking decent, we have some fallbacks on cast in case things don’t
come together with the semi-names we’re pursuing, and the crew, AD, etc. look pretty good. And Le Tigre is on board and I love those shirts, man. Too bad I just bought five polos.
But I love making movies, which gave me my next idea. We are shooting (or intending to) shoot a documentary on the making of this low budget masterpiece-to-be.
Now when I was a kid, in junior high school, I wanted to be a director. In my junior high year book, I listed “to be a director” as my future occupation. I ended up being a producer in this round-about way because of my legal background. But I never really totally gave up my idea of directing, and have played with the thought recently of directing a short film, or a documentary (having had thoughts about doing a poker documentary or a swing dance competition documentary).
Well, falling into my lap, here is my chance. I can direct this documentary about the making of a movie that I am producing. Is it a little wacky? Yeah, maybe. But I think, maybe, just maybe, I want to do it.
Grumpy (used to be greg)
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Back To Reality
Well, after a long lapse, I am back. Just way too busy away at the film festival (I worked prolly like 16 hours a day on average) to properly blog, not to mention the technology issues that I have in the Miami apt.
So anyway, Ive kind been outed. By my sis. She told people in her blog, Iendedupherehow, that I won the ABFF with my movie, My Brother. Which is true, and now you know. Just a brief bit about that before I proceed – I am totally uncertain about publicly blogging, giving the industry I work in and the nature of the personal reflections that I tend to include in my blog. I would like to hear from y’all about whether the blog should be put back in the dark (those who know, know, and maybe even a few of them give a shit). With respect to people I work with, well, I can do my best to keep you ambiguous, and I think I can do that, but undeniably that is part of the equation.
So about the festival. WE FUCKIN WON. Grand Jury prize, Best Picture. As in take the stage in from of 600 people at an awards brunch and give a speech to Eric LaSalle and Magic Johnson, and Robert Townsend and John Singleton and bunches of others and thank everyone who made this possible. The last award of this televised awards show – meaning, yeah, the top prize. Tony and I went up there, he did his thing I did mine, we brought up Nashawn Kearse from Desperate Housewives, who is our charismatic lead, and Chris Scott, who is the first African American actor with Downs Syndrome to play a lead in a movie – and we all just glowed. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life thus far. I’ve worked so hard on this movie, making it everything it could be, dealing with the limitations of working on it under very tough conditions, and it payed off on Sunday. Article hits variety Gotham tomorrow and was online today. Hopefully we’ll be posting a bunch of it at www.mybrotherthemovie.com very soon. (PS Anyone wanna send me the syntax for putting links in this blog, would be very much appreciated).
Chris also took home the founder’s award from the festival, which they award for outstanding achievement in Independent Film. No one thought he could do it (other than Tony, who absolutely believed) because he had downs syndrome and when he got up there and accepted his award and made a speech and got a standing ovation…. He was so proud. His parents and sisters, I cant imagine what they were feeling. Imagine the journey of his parents from having him born with Downs Syndrome and wondering and worrying for all those years to that time on Sunday when he was being honored by Hollywood’s elite black folks. And when he thanked his lawyer in his speech, that was priceless as well. And what a laugh he got. Im only mad cuz his speech was so much better than mine.
The rest of the week was a ton of work, meeting bunches of people, dealing with our leading suitor/distributor and getting Nashawn and Chris as much press exposure as possible. DB was a mess, self centered. Scott took off and went to Greece, unfortunate timing cause he didn’t get to come tot see the movie. But all in all, despite everything that was aggravating all week long about having little help accomplishing things and juggling a million tasks and trying to deal with preproduction on Hot Baby at the same time, hearing the buzz on the movie, how much audiences loved it and cried and thanked us for making it, made it very much worth it.
Course, when I came back to NYC to find that the Studio is in grave financial trouble (I knew it was, maybe not quite so imminent) and none of the financial supporters willing to help in the least (news to me), the elation of the festival is gone and it is back to the grind stone. Dealing with interested from a few mini-majors and one major now, but we have to find a way to keep the lights on in the mean time.
Oh and we’re ten days out from shooting.
So anyway, Ive kind been outed. By my sis. She told people in her blog, Iendedupherehow, that I won the ABFF with my movie, My Brother. Which is true, and now you know. Just a brief bit about that before I proceed – I am totally uncertain about publicly blogging, giving the industry I work in and the nature of the personal reflections that I tend to include in my blog. I would like to hear from y’all about whether the blog should be put back in the dark (those who know, know, and maybe even a few of them give a shit). With respect to people I work with, well, I can do my best to keep you ambiguous, and I think I can do that, but undeniably that is part of the equation.
So about the festival. WE FUCKIN WON. Grand Jury prize, Best Picture. As in take the stage in from of 600 people at an awards brunch and give a speech to Eric LaSalle and Magic Johnson, and Robert Townsend and John Singleton and bunches of others and thank everyone who made this possible. The last award of this televised awards show – meaning, yeah, the top prize. Tony and I went up there, he did his thing I did mine, we brought up Nashawn Kearse from Desperate Housewives, who is our charismatic lead, and Chris Scott, who is the first African American actor with Downs Syndrome to play a lead in a movie – and we all just glowed. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life thus far. I’ve worked so hard on this movie, making it everything it could be, dealing with the limitations of working on it under very tough conditions, and it payed off on Sunday. Article hits variety Gotham tomorrow and was online today. Hopefully we’ll be posting a bunch of it at www.mybrotherthemovie.com very soon. (PS Anyone wanna send me the syntax for putting links in this blog, would be very much appreciated).
Chris also took home the founder’s award from the festival, which they award for outstanding achievement in Independent Film. No one thought he could do it (other than Tony, who absolutely believed) because he had downs syndrome and when he got up there and accepted his award and made a speech and got a standing ovation…. He was so proud. His parents and sisters, I cant imagine what they were feeling. Imagine the journey of his parents from having him born with Downs Syndrome and wondering and worrying for all those years to that time on Sunday when he was being honored by Hollywood’s elite black folks. And when he thanked his lawyer in his speech, that was priceless as well. And what a laugh he got. Im only mad cuz his speech was so much better than mine.
The rest of the week was a ton of work, meeting bunches of people, dealing with our leading suitor/distributor and getting Nashawn and Chris as much press exposure as possible. DB was a mess, self centered. Scott took off and went to Greece, unfortunate timing cause he didn’t get to come tot see the movie. But all in all, despite everything that was aggravating all week long about having little help accomplishing things and juggling a million tasks and trying to deal with preproduction on Hot Baby at the same time, hearing the buzz on the movie, how much audiences loved it and cried and thanked us for making it, made it very much worth it.
Course, when I came back to NYC to find that the Studio is in grave financial trouble (I knew it was, maybe not quite so imminent) and none of the financial supporters willing to help in the least (news to me), the elation of the festival is gone and it is back to the grind stone. Dealing with interested from a few mini-majors and one major now, but we have to find a way to keep the lights on in the mean time.
Oh and we’re ten days out from shooting.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Detant`e?
The text messages were fast and furious yesterday, with insults well punctuated by entreatments (e.g. “Shall I kill myself now”) which were planned to get a reaction. My bad, they did.
We spoke at length, in a long winding conversation that proceeded from complete denial to semi-apology to recognition that she wasn’t ready to be involved in a relationship. I mostly talked calmly and did some listening. I tried not to be too forgiving, but I said that while I didn’t like the way things were, that didn’t make her wrong, make it her fault or make me angry (long-term at least).
And no, I am not hurt (despite having been upset).
She wants to be friends? Still don’t know what that means. I told her I needed some time to think it over. She asked if we could see each other before I leave for the Festival I am going to. I said, probably not. I don’t know that I want to see her at all, much less that soon.
I feel like I’ve already walked down this road, and there isn’t much point walking back up if I am just going to have to walk back down it in another few months. And I am pretty sure that’s what would happen.
We spoke at length, in a long winding conversation that proceeded from complete denial to semi-apology to recognition that she wasn’t ready to be involved in a relationship. I mostly talked calmly and did some listening. I tried not to be too forgiving, but I said that while I didn’t like the way things were, that didn’t make her wrong, make it her fault or make me angry (long-term at least).
And no, I am not hurt (despite having been upset).
She wants to be friends? Still don’t know what that means. I told her I needed some time to think it over. She asked if we could see each other before I leave for the Festival I am going to. I said, probably not. I don’t know that I want to see her at all, much less that soon.
I feel like I’ve already walked down this road, and there isn’t much point walking back up if I am just going to have to walk back down it in another few months. And I am pretty sure that’s what would happen.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Friends and Lovers
So got a text today. We didn’t talk yesterday, and now, I get a text from, yeah, the one and only E.
Basically says that I got angry and it would be nice to stay friends. Something about not shaming her, but there’s a language issue there.
Friends. Hmm. Who would that be nice for? And what exactly does that entail? Is that what we are now? If not, what are we? Or is that so she can stay in contact with me so as to help her pursuits in the film biz.
I got lotsa friends. Not sure I really need more, and I definitely don’t need friends with history like this. Not that its gotten so bitter for me, but there is always that thing with staying friends with someone who you’d fucked in the past. Plus the whole weird thing in the entertainment biz with people getting involved to further their careers (no really, it happens) , which I avoided with E. by telling her from the outset that while I was interested in dating her, that was, in my mind, mutually exclusive with working together. That said, I did find her an unpaid position on a film (her first feature) and perhaps …, I don’t know, seems like a lot of baggage.
I do think, though that I am somewhat ambivalent myself about breaking it off totally. I do like some things about her. However, I almost absolutely don’t see us together for the long haul, and at four months, perhaps this is a good time to let it have been a casual thing. She just doesn’t seem to want it to drift away.
If you’re guessing its because I am good in the sack, don’t be crass.
But I’m incredible.
G
Basically says that I got angry and it would be nice to stay friends. Something about not shaming her, but there’s a language issue there.
Friends. Hmm. Who would that be nice for? And what exactly does that entail? Is that what we are now? If not, what are we? Or is that so she can stay in contact with me so as to help her pursuits in the film biz.
I got lotsa friends. Not sure I really need more, and I definitely don’t need friends with history like this. Not that its gotten so bitter for me, but there is always that thing with staying friends with someone who you’d fucked in the past. Plus the whole weird thing in the entertainment biz with people getting involved to further their careers (no really, it happens) , which I avoided with E. by telling her from the outset that while I was interested in dating her, that was, in my mind, mutually exclusive with working together. That said, I did find her an unpaid position on a film (her first feature) and perhaps …, I don’t know, seems like a lot of baggage.
I do think, though that I am somewhat ambivalent myself about breaking it off totally. I do like some things about her. However, I almost absolutely don’t see us together for the long haul, and at four months, perhaps this is a good time to let it have been a casual thing. She just doesn’t seem to want it to drift away.
If you’re guessing its because I am good in the sack, don’t be crass.
But I’m incredible.
G
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Bad Math or missing toes
Oh. And I forgot to mention. E let slip last nite that she happens to be 31, not 26. Now she certainly looks 26, but whats with the lie. Said she says 26 so often for modelling, it became mechanical. And that I shoulda figured it out, from her multiple degrees, etc. I guess I gotta be a little sharper.
The End of an “E”-rror
After the mishigosh (sp?) of the weekend, the rainwater continued to pile up in the gutters on Monday. Message from E. in the morning – Hello.
Retort- Hello there?
Reply- You don’t want to talk to me anymore?
Hmm. Feel guilty about something, much?
Then forthcoming were accusations about my sensitivity, apologies, you know, the regular contradictory mix of statements, mixed with a certain eastern European flair that made for great theatre, though not for me.
I’d moved on.
Until I called her, figured that she deserved a less compressed way to express her feelings on the subject, even if she is the texter of choice. She couldn’t talk, but called me back late last evening.
And confirmed my earlier feelings. She spoke for a while about how she’d been spending her time. Then apologized again, not for the communications issues, but for referring to me in texts as angel, and other nicknames. When I told her I had no issue with the nicknames, she then told me not to call her sweetie, sunshine, or whatever else I may have put into a message over the past four months. She doesn’t like it now.
Then she said she was tired and wanted to take a shower. Have a good nite.
Yeah, you too. See ya.
Havent blogged much on the movie biz recently, though its been busyness as usual. We are three weeks out on our co-production on the horror film, out trying to cast names and semi-names for no money. Its going pretty well. Im happy with the cast thus far, and if we can throw a name or two in there, maybe we’ll get somewhere casting-wise. But I know we have actors in our cast that can do the job.
Fox took a look at the family movie. Senior VP of this and that. Was told by Tom Rothman (yeah, the head of fox, silly) to have a look. And he liked it a bunch, asked if he could show it to the rest of the team. Um. Yeah. Go ahead. Be my guest, and lemme know where to fed-ex the popcorn.
Hopefully, he really did like it a lot, and its not just being put through the motions because it came from TR. I have a deal on the table with this other company, and though I vastly prefer the distributor of Sideways and Napoleon Dynamite, a bird in the hand and all that.
Retort- Hello there?
Reply- You don’t want to talk to me anymore?
Hmm. Feel guilty about something, much?
Then forthcoming were accusations about my sensitivity, apologies, you know, the regular contradictory mix of statements, mixed with a certain eastern European flair that made for great theatre, though not for me.
I’d moved on.
Until I called her, figured that she deserved a less compressed way to express her feelings on the subject, even if she is the texter of choice. She couldn’t talk, but called me back late last evening.
And confirmed my earlier feelings. She spoke for a while about how she’d been spending her time. Then apologized again, not for the communications issues, but for referring to me in texts as angel, and other nicknames. When I told her I had no issue with the nicknames, she then told me not to call her sweetie, sunshine, or whatever else I may have put into a message over the past four months. She doesn’t like it now.
Then she said she was tired and wanted to take a shower. Have a good nite.
Yeah, you too. See ya.
Havent blogged much on the movie biz recently, though its been busyness as usual. We are three weeks out on our co-production on the horror film, out trying to cast names and semi-names for no money. Its going pretty well. Im happy with the cast thus far, and if we can throw a name or two in there, maybe we’ll get somewhere casting-wise. But I know we have actors in our cast that can do the job.
Fox took a look at the family movie. Senior VP of this and that. Was told by Tom Rothman (yeah, the head of fox, silly) to have a look. And he liked it a bunch, asked if he could show it to the rest of the team. Um. Yeah. Go ahead. Be my guest, and lemme know where to fed-ex the popcorn.
Hopefully, he really did like it a lot, and its not just being put through the motions because it came from TR. I have a deal on the table with this other company, and though I vastly prefer the distributor of Sideways and Napoleon Dynamite, a bird in the hand and all that.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Hot and Cold, Part Duh?
So of course, after not meeting up with E last nite, coulda told you from scratch, from memory, and of course, from experience, where Sunday was going. Went down to the pool this morning, nice and early , got a good lounge chair when they finally opened the door, and I lounged. Teach snuck in the side entrance, got sandwiches, and chilled.
And then, get two calls back to back, from E, neither of which I heard ring. She calls once, then ten minutes later tried me again. Left a message.
When I saw the calls, not so surprised (sounds like Bitter-speak). Then a text. Please come meet her if I want (yeah, obviously, thanks for letting me (and you off the hook) at Anthology Film Archives at seven.
I considered not calling back today but it simply isn’t courteous and isn’t my style. So I called back and got voicemail. Left her a message that I was tired (I was when I left it) and probably would stay in tonite (we shall see).
Took a great Sunday post-swim and sun nap, woke up and got a text back, hmm, not a call, saying OK. Have a good rest.
I will.
And then, get two calls back to back, from E, neither of which I heard ring. She calls once, then ten minutes later tried me again. Left a message.
When I saw the calls, not so surprised (sounds like Bitter-speak). Then a text. Please come meet her if I want (yeah, obviously, thanks for letting me (and you off the hook) at Anthology Film Archives at seven.
I considered not calling back today but it simply isn’t courteous and isn’t my style. So I called back and got voicemail. Left her a message that I was tired (I was when I left it) and probably would stay in tonite (we shall see).
Took a great Sunday post-swim and sun nap, woke up and got a text back, hmm, not a call, saying OK. Have a good rest.
I will.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Hot and Cold Running Water
What the hell is up with E. Stayed over at her place on Tuesday nite. Last time I saw her. Didn’t call her this week, I feel like I am always calling her, never vice versa, and I don’t like that out of balance feeling. So I didn’t call her. She texted me a bunch of times, and I texted her back, but she didn’t call me either. Finally, last nite, I called her before I left the office, maybe around eight, to see what she was upto, if anything.
No callback.
By about eight, I texted her to see what was up (Never know with some women, maybe more than some). Why no callback?
No reply, and I am sitting home, bored and now, somewhat irritated by this casual attitude. Should I be? I don’t know, but I was, and am. So I call her and she picks up the phone (and yes, I have a public number).
She says Hi. Sorry she didn’t call yesterday, really tired when she got home from work, long week. (Thinking to myself, and what about today, all day). She was out with some friend, a Japanese guy she mentioned at some point or other. Started a conversation about her week and mine, but I basically didn’t feel like having the conversation while she was hanging out with her friend. I think she was sort of inviting me too, telling me where she was, etc. the way she does when she wants me to ask if I can come meet her. Irritated as I was, and am, I just told her that I didn’t wanna keep her on the phone while she was with a friend, and we could talk some other time.
Is this normal behaviour. Maybe I am bringing it on myself? I don’t want to chase her, or anyone around, and I won’t. So if its too fuckin difficult to return a phone call, all day on a Saturday (or a text for that matter), I guess the whole deal couldn’t be so important. Or maybe she is just protecting herself again, or is that some catch-all perfect defense for bad behavior.
I don’t normally solicit responses, but any of my female readers, feel free to chime in.
No callback.
By about eight, I texted her to see what was up (Never know with some women, maybe more than some). Why no callback?
No reply, and I am sitting home, bored and now, somewhat irritated by this casual attitude. Should I be? I don’t know, but I was, and am. So I call her and she picks up the phone (and yes, I have a public number).
She says Hi. Sorry she didn’t call yesterday, really tired when she got home from work, long week. (Thinking to myself, and what about today, all day). She was out with some friend, a Japanese guy she mentioned at some point or other. Started a conversation about her week and mine, but I basically didn’t feel like having the conversation while she was hanging out with her friend. I think she was sort of inviting me too, telling me where she was, etc. the way she does when she wants me to ask if I can come meet her. Irritated as I was, and am, I just told her that I didn’t wanna keep her on the phone while she was with a friend, and we could talk some other time.
Is this normal behaviour. Maybe I am bringing it on myself? I don’t want to chase her, or anyone around, and I won’t. So if its too fuckin difficult to return a phone call, all day on a Saturday (or a text for that matter), I guess the whole deal couldn’t be so important. Or maybe she is just protecting herself again, or is that some catch-all perfect defense for bad behavior.
I don’t normally solicit responses, but any of my female readers, feel free to chime in.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
As requested (and tagged) Bitter
Some events on my birthday
▪ 1807 - A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
▪ 1906 - Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".
▪ 1967 - Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the longest-running children's series on U.S. television, airs its first episode.
▪ 1992 - After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time.
▪ 1997 - Kelly Flinn, US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial.
▪ 2002 - American civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
▪ 2003 - In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.
Some birthdays in common
▪ 1907 - Sir Laurence Olivier, English actor and director (d. 1989)
▪ 1938 - Susan Strasberg, American actress (d. 1999)
▪ 1943 - Tommy John, father of pitching surgery
▪ 1959 - Morrissey, English complainer and Smith’s lead singer
▪ 1970 - Naomi Campbell, Hellion
▪ 1972 - Annabel Chong, Singapore porn actress
A death or three
▪ 337 - Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor (b. 272)
▪ 1885 - Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)
▪ 1990 - Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1922)
and whatever the hell this is
▪ World Biodiversity Day.
Never could follow directions.
▪ 1807 - A grand jury indicts former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.
▪ 1906 - Wright brothers are granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their "Flying-Machine".
▪ 1967 - Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the longest-running children's series on U.S. television, airs its first episode.
▪ 1992 - After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosts The Tonight Show for the last time.
▪ 1997 - Kelly Flinn, US Air Force's first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepts a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial.
▪ 2002 - American civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
▪ 2003 - In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.
Some birthdays in common
▪ 1907 - Sir Laurence Olivier, English actor and director (d. 1989)
▪ 1938 - Susan Strasberg, American actress (d. 1999)
▪ 1943 - Tommy John, father of pitching surgery
▪ 1959 - Morrissey, English complainer and Smith’s lead singer
▪ 1970 - Naomi Campbell, Hellion
▪ 1972 - Annabel Chong, Singapore porn actress
A death or three
▪ 337 - Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor (b. 272)
▪ 1885 - Victor Hugo, French author (b. 1802)
▪ 1990 - Rocky Graziano, American boxer (b. 1922)
and whatever the hell this is
▪ World Biodiversity Day.
Never could follow directions.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
I start with a man, and take away reason, and accountability.
What in the hell? Sooooo, go to E’s last nite.
Flashback, two weeks ago.
Lying in Bed with E. Prolly in the morning. Saturday morning, you know, after.
Yeah, after.
So we’re lying there, and I mention that if she’d like, I am going to ask my friend, my closest friend (one of two that get the word “best”), Gus, if E can come to his inlaws house for the holiday weekend of July 4th. He always tells me that he’s excited for me to bring a date out to the house, I sleep in my own room out there (even though its not a bedroom), so why not. So I tell E, I’ll ask, would she like to go.
“Maybe.”
OK. Maybe. So I ask Gus, and he says, he’ll ask. Let him find out. Not much of a vibe one way or the other.
Ruling comes down, and it’s a negative. Not the best weekend for it, full house, BUT, another weekend, lets pick one that’s not so crowded in August, good to go.
OK, I tell Gus, don’t even worry about it. I’m treated like a prince out there, they are very generous, its always been great. Great family. Call em my summer parents (his wife’s parents).
Anyway, so more background. I was Gus’ best man. He just had a kid. I don’t get to see him that much. So I was looking forward to seeing him and I think he might have been looking forward to seeing me even more.
Now Im in bed with E, last nite, and have to let her know.
“Im going out to the beach for a few days this weekend,” I try to soft-sell it.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, and you cant go. I asked, they said this weekend doesn’t work but another weekend, would be great.”
Ensuing personality explosion. This whole to-do about the fact that I am picking to go out there instead of spending time with her. BTW, we saw each other last Sat. nite and the previous Sat. nite, having made plans no earlier than, hey, Sat. nite after eight PM both times. So wasn’t’ like I am automatically penciled in on the weekends.
And after I get this message that she cant be attached, Too recently separated. Lets not plan, yada yada.
She seemed a little apologetic in the morning, when we were leaving her place. I of course wasn’t happy and did my best to show it rather than just make up like is my instinct.
In Happy NEWS- my dad’s further health tests came back clean. In other words, he has cancer, in his prostate (sorry Dad) but it hasn’t metastasized and the surrounding area is otherwise clean. And a small benefit, his blood tests came back overall very well, so nothing else seems to be wrong. So he has very treatable cancer cuz they caught it so early.
Flashback, two weeks ago.
Lying in Bed with E. Prolly in the morning. Saturday morning, you know, after.
Yeah, after.
So we’re lying there, and I mention that if she’d like, I am going to ask my friend, my closest friend (one of two that get the word “best”), Gus, if E can come to his inlaws house for the holiday weekend of July 4th. He always tells me that he’s excited for me to bring a date out to the house, I sleep in my own room out there (even though its not a bedroom), so why not. So I tell E, I’ll ask, would she like to go.
“Maybe.”
OK. Maybe. So I ask Gus, and he says, he’ll ask. Let him find out. Not much of a vibe one way or the other.
Ruling comes down, and it’s a negative. Not the best weekend for it, full house, BUT, another weekend, lets pick one that’s not so crowded in August, good to go.
OK, I tell Gus, don’t even worry about it. I’m treated like a prince out there, they are very generous, its always been great. Great family. Call em my summer parents (his wife’s parents).
Anyway, so more background. I was Gus’ best man. He just had a kid. I don’t get to see him that much. So I was looking forward to seeing him and I think he might have been looking forward to seeing me even more.
Now Im in bed with E, last nite, and have to let her know.
“Im going out to the beach for a few days this weekend,” I try to soft-sell it.
“Oh.”
“Yeah, and you cant go. I asked, they said this weekend doesn’t work but another weekend, would be great.”
Ensuing personality explosion. This whole to-do about the fact that I am picking to go out there instead of spending time with her. BTW, we saw each other last Sat. nite and the previous Sat. nite, having made plans no earlier than, hey, Sat. nite after eight PM both times. So wasn’t’ like I am automatically penciled in on the weekends.
And after I get this message that she cant be attached, Too recently separated. Lets not plan, yada yada.
She seemed a little apologetic in the morning, when we were leaving her place. I of course wasn’t happy and did my best to show it rather than just make up like is my instinct.
In Happy NEWS- my dad’s further health tests came back clean. In other words, he has cancer, in his prostate (sorry Dad) but it hasn’t metastasized and the surrounding area is otherwise clean. And a small benefit, his blood tests came back overall very well, so nothing else seems to be wrong. So he has very treatable cancer cuz they caught it so early.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Sweatin It Out.
Getting into it heavy now on the preproduction of the new movie. Casting Friday and today, and you know what that means. All the actresses (and actors) are coming out of the woodwork for parts. There are about six parts for young teen types (remember, it is a horror movie, so we need some kids to chop shop) and then some adult parts where we’ll try to cast some semi-names – best we’re gonna do because of the limited budget. But the script is strong, the lure of this working arrangement with our big Co-Producer, the computer company, is significant, and so we shall see where we end up.
Was exhausted at the casting today. Some really good and some pretty sorry actors came in, some really beautiful women too. I don’t normally sit through every audition, I pop in and out and stay for a bit and leave. If I am not doing the reading, and am not particularly into the actor (ie. have any great curiosity to see them read) I tend to get pretty bored.
Why was I tired. Well, E and I spent Sat nite together and (1) she has no air conditioning (well, she does but its not hooked up cuz she doesn’t use it, and (2) her place is boiling hot, and (3) we have unbelievable sexual chemistry which makes, all around, for not so much sleep. I had to be at the Studio this morning at 945 (well, the casting was starting, but I didn’t so much have to be there) and didn’t get up til about then. Or actually, it was the second time I woke, after the first time, we got into it a little and I feel asleep for another hour or so after. I think in the hot apartment, we set the world perspiration record. In two rooms.
Went to Superman on Thursday nite for a National Board of Review screening. Kinda liked it. A little slow, and a very grown up movie. Well directed, and the new Superman is the real deal. Very charismatic. Even liked Kate Bosworth. Spacey seemed to be the only one playing it as a comic strip – well, he and Parker Posey, but of course, Parker always has that quality. All in all, it’s a good film, but very much a date movie. Not so much a summer kids popcorn movie, and if I were an exec at WB, I’d be worried about my profit margins. Not to mention the 800 pound gorilla that is Pirates II eight days later.
My dad should be getting test results on the bone scan for his prostate cancer this week. I haven’t really been inclined to write about it, not sure I am now. It is quite a bit on my mind, obviously, and though the prognosis is good, its that fuckin word, Cancer. Cant sound innocuous no matter how you put it.
We had dinner (parents Rich and myself ) on Saturday, lobsters at Centro Vasco. Great dinner, moods seemed to be good. Out with Rich afterwards, I drank way too much, the stress from the week, from selling the family movie, etc. just making me thirsty.
Two shots of JD. Used to be able to take it, almost heaved up the second one. Perhaps that has something to do with my Saturday nite sweats too.
Was exhausted at the casting today. Some really good and some pretty sorry actors came in, some really beautiful women too. I don’t normally sit through every audition, I pop in and out and stay for a bit and leave. If I am not doing the reading, and am not particularly into the actor (ie. have any great curiosity to see them read) I tend to get pretty bored.
Why was I tired. Well, E and I spent Sat nite together and (1) she has no air conditioning (well, she does but its not hooked up cuz she doesn’t use it, and (2) her place is boiling hot, and (3) we have unbelievable sexual chemistry which makes, all around, for not so much sleep. I had to be at the Studio this morning at 945 (well, the casting was starting, but I didn’t so much have to be there) and didn’t get up til about then. Or actually, it was the second time I woke, after the first time, we got into it a little and I feel asleep for another hour or so after. I think in the hot apartment, we set the world perspiration record. In two rooms.
Went to Superman on Thursday nite for a National Board of Review screening. Kinda liked it. A little slow, and a very grown up movie. Well directed, and the new Superman is the real deal. Very charismatic. Even liked Kate Bosworth. Spacey seemed to be the only one playing it as a comic strip – well, he and Parker Posey, but of course, Parker always has that quality. All in all, it’s a good film, but very much a date movie. Not so much a summer kids popcorn movie, and if I were an exec at WB, I’d be worried about my profit margins. Not to mention the 800 pound gorilla that is Pirates II eight days later.
My dad should be getting test results on the bone scan for his prostate cancer this week. I haven’t really been inclined to write about it, not sure I am now. It is quite a bit on my mind, obviously, and though the prognosis is good, its that fuckin word, Cancer. Cant sound innocuous no matter how you put it.
We had dinner (parents Rich and myself ) on Saturday, lobsters at Centro Vasco. Great dinner, moods seemed to be good. Out with Rich afterwards, I drank way too much, the stress from the week, from selling the family movie, etc. just making me thirsty.
Two shots of JD. Used to be able to take it, almost heaved up the second one. Perhaps that has something to do with my Saturday nite sweats too.
Monday, June 19, 2006
do it!!!
Been tardy. Been away. Been in preproduction. Or rather, been trying to get into preproduction. And financing the random lucy liu or Jessica alba film that’s presented to me.
Hot stuff.
No, not really, and certainly not until I actually get it done.
But back to the preproduction. Chief signed off on doing a horror movie. And while it isn’t the movie I wanted him to do, it’s a movie that makes sense to do. Why?
Cuz…
1. Its cheap.
2. The script is good (top 50/3000 in slamdance script competition, though it is kinda sick and weird.
3. We are producing with the hefty cooperation of a major computer company that is doing all the post-work and a nice chunk of promotional work as well. I don’t wanna be indiscreet so I wont mention the name of the Company, but its named for a fruit. Yeah, that one.
So even on this one, Chief seemed to be waffling when I spoke to him last week. Like he wasn’t sure he wanted to go ahead. I told him low budget movies were all about planning, and getting ppl ready to do their jobs (and excited about it too, hopefully). I basically told him he had to decide whether to do it now, or not too (the writer/director has only about a four week window to do the movie). He said, Do you think we should/
Great, now its on me.
I said, yeah, it’s a good deal. Lets do it.
So we’re doin it.
Hot stuff.
No, not really, and certainly not until I actually get it done.
But back to the preproduction. Chief signed off on doing a horror movie. And while it isn’t the movie I wanted him to do, it’s a movie that makes sense to do. Why?
Cuz…
1. Its cheap.
2. The script is good (top 50/3000 in slamdance script competition, though it is kinda sick and weird.
3. We are producing with the hefty cooperation of a major computer company that is doing all the post-work and a nice chunk of promotional work as well. I don’t wanna be indiscreet so I wont mention the name of the Company, but its named for a fruit. Yeah, that one.
So even on this one, Chief seemed to be waffling when I spoke to him last week. Like he wasn’t sure he wanted to go ahead. I told him low budget movies were all about planning, and getting ppl ready to do their jobs (and excited about it too, hopefully). I basically told him he had to decide whether to do it now, or not too (the writer/director has only about a four week window to do the movie). He said, Do you think we should/
Great, now its on me.
I said, yeah, it’s a good deal. Lets do it.
So we’re doin it.
Monday, June 12, 2006
More Ego stroking junk
Now that I didnt pay for it, Tickle sent me a full rundown of my test, which I've edited for brevity. Not much so far as explanations go, perhaps the person who wrote the computer program lacks a high IQ.
Your IQ score is:
142142
You scored 142 on Tickle's IQ test. This means that based on your answers, your IQ score is between 132 and 142. Most people's IQs are between 70 and 130. In fact, 95% of all people have IQs within that range. 68% of people score between 80 and 120.
There's more to intelligence than a single number, a single score or a single label. Tickle uses four distinguishable Intelligence Scales in the Ultimate IQ Test. By analyzing your individual scores on those four scales, we are able to look beyond the raw IQ score into how you process information and thereby determine your Intellectual Type.
Your Intellectual Type Is:
Your mind's strengths allow you to think ahead of the game — to imagine or anticipate what should come next in just about any situation. Because you're equally skilled in the numerical and verbal universes of the brain, you can draw from multiple sources of information to come up with great ideas. The timelessness of your vision and the balance between your various skills are what make you a Visionary Philosopher.
In addition to your strengths in math and linguistics, you have a knack for matching and anticipating patterns. These skills and your uncanny ability to detect the underlying blueprint of most of life's situations add to your Visionary Philosopher mind. Two philosophers who share the same combination of skills you possess are Plato and Benedict Spinoza. Spinoza had insight into how things worked in the world. He could envision a future based on the patterns he saw in life, and used mathematical logic as a structure within which to present his philosophical arguments. With that base he was able to use logic to formulate his theories. Borrowing from his linguistic strengths he wrote eloquent texts and, therefore, was able to bring his philosophical ideas and structure to the rest of the world. His story exemplifies the talents that are present in the Visionary Philosopher intellectual type.
Whatever you decide to do in life, you've got a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a wide variety of ways. You can expand your mind to understand a situation. Your strong balance of math and verbal skills will help you explain things to others. For example, if you were on an archaeological dig and discovered an object, you could probably use your deductive powers to figure out not only what the object was but also how it was used. Given your ability to put things together, you are more than capable of inventing a life plan that is in synch with your perspective on how things were, how they are, and how they might be one day.
Great Jobs For You
Because of the way you process information, these are just some of the many careers in which you could excel:
• Archaeologist
• Detective
• Psychologist
• Sculptor
• Architect
• City planner
• Chief executive
Some of Your Greatest Talents
You've got tons of strengths. It wouldn't surprise us if you:
• Think of the "big picture"
• Can anticipate and predict patterns
• Are good at context clues
• Can see similarities in seemingly disparate things
Your 4 Intelligence Scales
Now let's look at the factors that contribute to you being a Visionary Philosopher with a 142 IQ score.
Based on the results of your test, Tickle divided your scores into four distinguishable dimensions — mathematical intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, linguistic intelligence and logic intelligence.
Here's how each of your intelligence scores break down:
Mathematical Intelligence
Your Mathematical Percentile
You scored in the 100th percentile on the mathematical intelligence scale. This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did. The scale above illustrates this visually.
Your mathematical intelligence score represents your combined ability to reason and calculate. You scored relatively high, which means you're probably the one your friends look to when splitting the lunch bill or calculating your waitresses' tip. You may or may not be known as a math whiz, but number crunching might come a little easier to you than it does others.
Visual-Spatial Intelligence
Your Visual-Spatial Percentile
You scored in the 100th percentile on the visual-spatial intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did. The scale above illustrates this visually.
The visual-spatial component of intelligence measures your ability to extract a visual pattern and from that envision what should come next in a sequence. Your score was relatively high, which could mean that you're the one navigating the map when you're on an outing with friends. You have, in some capacity, an ability to think in pictures. Maybe this strength comes out in subtle ways, like how you play chess or form metaphors.
Your Linguistic Percentile
You scored in the 100th percentile on the linguistic intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did.
Linguistic abilities include reading, writing and communicating with words. Tickle's test measures knowledge of vocabulary, ease in completing word analogies and the ability to think critically about a statement based on its semantic structure. Your score was relatively high, which could mean you know your way around a bookstore and maybe like to bandy about the occasional 25-cent word to impress friends.
Logical Intelligence
Your Logical Percentile
You scored in the 100th percentile on the logical intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did.
Tickle's logical intelligence questions assess your ability to think things through. The questions determine the extent to which you use reasoning and logic to determine the best solution to a problem. Your logic score was relatively high, which could mean that when the car breaks down, your friends look to you to help figure out not only what's wrong, but how to fix it and how you're going to get to the next gas station.
What do all these percentiles mean?
For each scale, Tickle determined how many people received scores above and below yours. Your "percentile" represents what percentage of people scored lower than you. In other words, 90th percentile means you scored higher than 80 to 90% of people did.
How are the percentiles determined? These percentiles were determined based on the one million users who have already taken our test. We then adjusted these percentiles based on a nationally representative IQ distribution to make sure that no level of intelligence was over- or underrepresented in the analysis. Thus, the percentiles we present reflect your score compared with people in the United States in general.
What factors helped determine my score?
If your score isn't as high as you thought it would be, remember that there are plenty of external factors that can affect your performance on the test. If you were tired, hungry or distracted, you might have scored lower than you expected because you were less able to concentrate.
Your level of formal education and your familiarity with taking these kinds of tests also influence how well you do. That's part of the reason IQ tests aren't a perfect measure of your intelligence. Your score would probably be quite different if the IQ test was designed to take into account your musical, artistic, emotional and social skills.
On their own, IQ scores can't predict someone's ultimate success or definitive potential for success. Many of the qualities that lead to great achievements are learned through culture, experience and schooling - not solely from doing well on an IQ test.
What your IQ test can help explain, however, is how your brain works best. By looking at the kinds of questions you answered correctly and the kinds of questions you answered incorrectly, we can tell you more about your intelligence type — the type that explains the kind of information that makes sense to your brain.
What is an IQ?
The intelligence quotient (IQ) measures the ratio of a person's intellectual age to his/her chronological age. Most adult intelligence tests are designed for people who are at least 16 years old. For this reason, if you are younger than 16, your Tickle IQ score might be slightly lower than your "true" IQ.
History of IQ Testing
One of the first scientific investigations into the concept of intelligence, came from nineteenth-century British scientist, Sir Francis Galton. Galton believed that mental traits, like physical traits, could be inherited. He published his ideas on hereditary intelligence in his book, Hereditary Genius.
Meanwhile in France, psychologist Alfred Binet was exploring ways of measuring children's' intelligence. Like Galton, Binet was passionate about testing and measuring human capabilities. Binet worked with two groups of children - those who were average students, and those who were less mentally capable. He discovered that average students could complete certain tasks that less mentally capable students could not. Based on those findings, Binet calculated the "normal" abilities for students within different age groups. From there he could estimate how many years above or below the norm a student's mental age was.
Just before WWI, German psychologist Wilhelm Stern came up with an alternative to mental age for measuring people's intelligence. He suggested that a more accurate method for assessing someone's intelligence was to measure their capabilities given their chronological age. He proposed that for a true estimate of someone's intelligence, researchers needed to calculate a ratio between the subject's mental age and their chronological age. Since the resulting numbers were represented by decimals, scientists decided to multiply this "quotient" by 100 to get rid of the decimal places. Thus, the formula for an IQ is: IQ = Mental Age/Chronological Age x 100.
Based on the ratio that Stern created, Lewis Terman, an American psychologist at Stanford University, coined the term Intelligence Quotient for Stern's Binet test scoring system.
How People Might Evaluate You Based on IQ Score
IQ tests serve as a useful tool for institutions such as public schools and the military, where great numbers of people must be processed quickly and efficiently, and placed in appropriated classes or positions.
In the United States, kindergarten-aged children are often given IQ tests to evaluate whether they need special attention or services. For example, children scoring 130 or over are often considered "gifted" and placed in programs accordingly. However, in most institutional uses of the test nowadays, the importance placed on the actual IQ score has changed.
The military tends to use IQ test results to assess which field a recruit might be best suited to. Instead of relying solely on the intelligence rating, the IQ score, the military will now look at the kinds of questions a recruit answered correctly. Once they know that, they have a better idea of what innate skills the recruit can bring to specific assignments and duties.
And as far as the business world goes, uses of such tests for employment purposes was declared illegal — except in rare circumstances — by the Supreme Court in 1971.
In social life, the IQ test is only really applicable if you're specifically joining an organization based on IQ scores like Mensa, a society founded in 1964 for people who score in the top 2% of the IQ test. But, in general, there are still some misconceptions about the importance of test results. Chances are, people you know are more likely to be judgmental about a high or low score than most institutions are. Luckily, this is usually just a case of misinformation and is easily remedied.
Your IQ score is:
142142
You scored 142 on Tickle's IQ test. This means that based on your answers, your IQ score is between 132 and 142. Most people's IQs are between 70 and 130. In fact, 95% of all people have IQs within that range. 68% of people score between 80 and 120.
There's more to intelligence than a single number, a single score or a single label. Tickle uses four distinguishable Intelligence Scales in the Ultimate IQ Test. By analyzing your individual scores on those four scales, we are able to look beyond the raw IQ score into how you process information and thereby determine your Intellectual Type.
Your Intellectual Type Is:
Your mind's strengths allow you to think ahead of the game — to imagine or anticipate what should come next in just about any situation. Because you're equally skilled in the numerical and verbal universes of the brain, you can draw from multiple sources of information to come up with great ideas. The timelessness of your vision and the balance between your various skills are what make you a Visionary Philosopher.
In addition to your strengths in math and linguistics, you have a knack for matching and anticipating patterns. These skills and your uncanny ability to detect the underlying blueprint of most of life's situations add to your Visionary Philosopher mind. Two philosophers who share the same combination of skills you possess are Plato and Benedict Spinoza. Spinoza had insight into how things worked in the world. He could envision a future based on the patterns he saw in life, and used mathematical logic as a structure within which to present his philosophical arguments. With that base he was able to use logic to formulate his theories. Borrowing from his linguistic strengths he wrote eloquent texts and, therefore, was able to bring his philosophical ideas and structure to the rest of the world. His story exemplifies the talents that are present in the Visionary Philosopher intellectual type.
Whatever you decide to do in life, you've got a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a wide variety of ways. You can expand your mind to understand a situation. Your strong balance of math and verbal skills will help you explain things to others. For example, if you were on an archaeological dig and discovered an object, you could probably use your deductive powers to figure out not only what the object was but also how it was used. Given your ability to put things together, you are more than capable of inventing a life plan that is in synch with your perspective on how things were, how they are, and how they might be one day.
Great Jobs For You
Because of the way you process information, these are just some of the many careers in which you could excel:
• Archaeologist
• Detective
• Psychologist
• Sculptor
• Architect
• City planner
• Chief executive
Some of Your Greatest Talents
You've got tons of strengths. It wouldn't surprise us if you:
• Think of the "big picture"
• Can anticipate and predict patterns
• Are good at context clues
• Can see similarities in seemingly disparate things
Your 4 Intelligence Scales
Now let's look at the factors that contribute to you being a Visionary Philosopher with a 142 IQ score.
Based on the results of your test, Tickle divided your scores into four distinguishable dimensions — mathematical intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, linguistic intelligence and logic intelligence.
Here's how each of your intelligence scores break down:
Mathematical Intelligence
Your Mathematical Percentile
You scored in the 100th percentile on the mathematical intelligence scale. This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did. The scale above illustrates this visually.
Your mathematical intelligence score represents your combined ability to reason and calculate. You scored relatively high, which means you're probably the one your friends look to when splitting the lunch bill or calculating your waitresses' tip. You may or may not be known as a math whiz, but number crunching might come a little easier to you than it does others.
Visual-Spatial Intelligence
Your Visual-Spatial Percentile
You scored in the 100th percentile on the visual-spatial intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did. The scale above illustrates this visually.
The visual-spatial component of intelligence measures your ability to extract a visual pattern and from that envision what should come next in a sequence. Your score was relatively high, which could mean that you're the one navigating the map when you're on an outing with friends. You have, in some capacity, an ability to think in pictures. Maybe this strength comes out in subtle ways, like how you play chess or form metaphors.
Your Linguistic Percentile
You scored in the 100th percentile on the linguistic intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did.
Linguistic abilities include reading, writing and communicating with words. Tickle's test measures knowledge of vocabulary, ease in completing word analogies and the ability to think critically about a statement based on its semantic structure. Your score was relatively high, which could mean you know your way around a bookstore and maybe like to bandy about the occasional 25-cent word to impress friends.
Logical Intelligence
Your Logical Percentile
You scored in the 100th percentile on the logical intelligence scale.
This means that you scored higher than 90% - 100% of people who took the test and that 0% - 10% scored higher than you did.
Tickle's logical intelligence questions assess your ability to think things through. The questions determine the extent to which you use reasoning and logic to determine the best solution to a problem. Your logic score was relatively high, which could mean that when the car breaks down, your friends look to you to help figure out not only what's wrong, but how to fix it and how you're going to get to the next gas station.
What do all these percentiles mean?
For each scale, Tickle determined how many people received scores above and below yours. Your "percentile" represents what percentage of people scored lower than you. In other words, 90th percentile means you scored higher than 80 to 90% of people did.
How are the percentiles determined? These percentiles were determined based on the one million users who have already taken our test. We then adjusted these percentiles based on a nationally representative IQ distribution to make sure that no level of intelligence was over- or underrepresented in the analysis. Thus, the percentiles we present reflect your score compared with people in the United States in general.
What factors helped determine my score?
If your score isn't as high as you thought it would be, remember that there are plenty of external factors that can affect your performance on the test. If you were tired, hungry or distracted, you might have scored lower than you expected because you were less able to concentrate.
Your level of formal education and your familiarity with taking these kinds of tests also influence how well you do. That's part of the reason IQ tests aren't a perfect measure of your intelligence. Your score would probably be quite different if the IQ test was designed to take into account your musical, artistic, emotional and social skills.
On their own, IQ scores can't predict someone's ultimate success or definitive potential for success. Many of the qualities that lead to great achievements are learned through culture, experience and schooling - not solely from doing well on an IQ test.
What your IQ test can help explain, however, is how your brain works best. By looking at the kinds of questions you answered correctly and the kinds of questions you answered incorrectly, we can tell you more about your intelligence type — the type that explains the kind of information that makes sense to your brain.
What is an IQ?
The intelligence quotient (IQ) measures the ratio of a person's intellectual age to his/her chronological age. Most adult intelligence tests are designed for people who are at least 16 years old. For this reason, if you are younger than 16, your Tickle IQ score might be slightly lower than your "true" IQ.
History of IQ Testing
One of the first scientific investigations into the concept of intelligence, came from nineteenth-century British scientist, Sir Francis Galton. Galton believed that mental traits, like physical traits, could be inherited. He published his ideas on hereditary intelligence in his book, Hereditary Genius.
Meanwhile in France, psychologist Alfred Binet was exploring ways of measuring children's' intelligence. Like Galton, Binet was passionate about testing and measuring human capabilities. Binet worked with two groups of children - those who were average students, and those who were less mentally capable. He discovered that average students could complete certain tasks that less mentally capable students could not. Based on those findings, Binet calculated the "normal" abilities for students within different age groups. From there he could estimate how many years above or below the norm a student's mental age was.
Just before WWI, German psychologist Wilhelm Stern came up with an alternative to mental age for measuring people's intelligence. He suggested that a more accurate method for assessing someone's intelligence was to measure their capabilities given their chronological age. He proposed that for a true estimate of someone's intelligence, researchers needed to calculate a ratio between the subject's mental age and their chronological age. Since the resulting numbers were represented by decimals, scientists decided to multiply this "quotient" by 100 to get rid of the decimal places. Thus, the formula for an IQ is: IQ = Mental Age/Chronological Age x 100.
Based on the ratio that Stern created, Lewis Terman, an American psychologist at Stanford University, coined the term Intelligence Quotient for Stern's Binet test scoring system.
How People Might Evaluate You Based on IQ Score
IQ tests serve as a useful tool for institutions such as public schools and the military, where great numbers of people must be processed quickly and efficiently, and placed in appropriated classes or positions.
In the United States, kindergarten-aged children are often given IQ tests to evaluate whether they need special attention or services. For example, children scoring 130 or over are often considered "gifted" and placed in programs accordingly. However, in most institutional uses of the test nowadays, the importance placed on the actual IQ score has changed.
The military tends to use IQ test results to assess which field a recruit might be best suited to. Instead of relying solely on the intelligence rating, the IQ score, the military will now look at the kinds of questions a recruit answered correctly. Once they know that, they have a better idea of what innate skills the recruit can bring to specific assignments and duties.
And as far as the business world goes, uses of such tests for employment purposes was declared illegal — except in rare circumstances — by the Supreme Court in 1971.
In social life, the IQ test is only really applicable if you're specifically joining an organization based on IQ scores like Mensa, a society founded in 1964 for people who score in the top 2% of the IQ test. But, in general, there are still some misconceptions about the importance of test results. Chances are, people you know are more likely to be judgmental about a high or low score than most institutions are. Luckily, this is usually just a case of misinformation and is easily remedied.
Fuckin Golden
Sooo. Silence is often an effective negotiating tool. The first offer I got, that lowball offer, the one I griped loudly about last week, well, I went back with a markup of the deal and sent it into this distrib.
Among other things, I asked for a $500,000 advance against DVD sales in the event that I didn’t get anything more than a test release for the movie, ie. because it didn’t gross enough to mandate the distributor to move to a wider release.
Did I think that he would accept this DVD advance number? Not particularly. He made it very clear in his response that he wouldn’t even discuss a number like that. And that if the movie failed to get a wide enough release, because it didn’t test well, that would be because the movie wasn’t strong enough, not because the job the distrtib did wasn’t strong enough.
OK. I guess that settles that.
So I do what I do, in negotiations, to find out what the other side is really upto.
I create silence. I wait for them to respond.
Its not always easy to do because sometimes you really want a response on something and you want it now. Good or bad.
Been there? Yeah, I live there too. Used to live there all the time, so it’s a matter of willpower for me.
So now he emailed, he wants to talk on Monday, and we shall see if the waiting, if the creation of silence, helped in the negotiations.
What did make it easier, is that I don’t necessarily want to speed up the negotiations. Because, “drum roll please” – perhaps we have had a break. This woman who our in-house photographer knows from the pub around the corner, just happens to be (1) a huge fan of a old short film that the Artist did, that was nominated for an Academy Award, and (2) a fan of the movie (just having seen it and loved it). Went to lunch on Friday with her. She feels the movie is a (1) wide (2) studio or major release. When I say wide, I mean wide for this genre (or she means it) which is 800 screens.
She is going to be calling the new head of MGM and her distrib friends at FOCUS as well. She plans on telling them that the movie is a movie that they need to see and consider. I quote her “This movie should play very well with audiences. Its studio quality and better than a lot of the crap that gets released by the majors.”
OKAY.
Be following up with her this week. Fingaz and toez crossed.
Stayed at E’s last nite, first “SLEEPOVER” hehe. I think she finally decided she liked me.
(Not so) Grumpy (today).
Among other things, I asked for a $500,000 advance against DVD sales in the event that I didn’t get anything more than a test release for the movie, ie. because it didn’t gross enough to mandate the distributor to move to a wider release.
Did I think that he would accept this DVD advance number? Not particularly. He made it very clear in his response that he wouldn’t even discuss a number like that. And that if the movie failed to get a wide enough release, because it didn’t test well, that would be because the movie wasn’t strong enough, not because the job the distrtib did wasn’t strong enough.
OK. I guess that settles that.
So I do what I do, in negotiations, to find out what the other side is really upto.
I create silence. I wait for them to respond.
Its not always easy to do because sometimes you really want a response on something and you want it now. Good or bad.
Been there? Yeah, I live there too. Used to live there all the time, so it’s a matter of willpower for me.
So now he emailed, he wants to talk on Monday, and we shall see if the waiting, if the creation of silence, helped in the negotiations.
What did make it easier, is that I don’t necessarily want to speed up the negotiations. Because, “drum roll please” – perhaps we have had a break. This woman who our in-house photographer knows from the pub around the corner, just happens to be (1) a huge fan of a old short film that the Artist did, that was nominated for an Academy Award, and (2) a fan of the movie (just having seen it and loved it). Went to lunch on Friday with her. She feels the movie is a (1) wide (2) studio or major release. When I say wide, I mean wide for this genre (or she means it) which is 800 screens.
She is going to be calling the new head of MGM and her distrib friends at FOCUS as well. She plans on telling them that the movie is a movie that they need to see and consider. I quote her “This movie should play very well with audiences. Its studio quality and better than a lot of the crap that gets released by the majors.”
OKAY.
Be following up with her this week. Fingaz and toez crossed.
Stayed at E’s last nite, first “SLEEPOVER” hehe. I think she finally decided she liked me.
(Not so) Grumpy (today).
Thursday, June 08, 2006
For whatever its worth
Been sitting at work, waiting to leave (I have a dinner and a party to go to near work, not so near home, so killing time in the Studio. So run across an online IQ test and Job Satisfaction test. I took em. Walked away from the IQ test in the middle for an hour because of someone coming into the Studio, don’t know if that woulda impacted my score and I don’t wanna pay the 12 bucks to find out. Prolly not though.
Its all on Tickle.com. Consider me tickled. Looking at the jobs report though, maybe producing is the right career for me.
FROM MY JOBS TEST
Strategic and Creative
As a Strategic type, you want to be able to express yourself and your ideas through work. Sure there's a time and place for rules and procedures, but when a good thought strikes you, you don't want it to be boxed into one way of thinking. You're willing to go outside the rules if there's a chance that the risk will reap big rewards.
You are stronger than most when it comes to generating ideas. And because of this, it might sometimes feel easier to take on all aspects of a job yourself instead of wasting time explaining it to someone else who might not "get it" like you do. But because you have so many ideas and are willing to take on so much, you might find that you sometimes have trouble finishing every project you start.
Your diplomacy and adaptability make you a valuable asset. But your need to feel invested in a company that allows you to express your original ways of thinking will ultimately impact how happy you are in the workplace.
FROM IQ TEST
Congratulations, Gregory!
Your IQ score is 142
This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.
Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others — and at anticipating and predicting patterns. And that's just some of what we know about you from your IQ results.
FROM ME
The interpretation that I found for the score on another site....
FROM http://iq-test.learninginfo.org/iq04.htm
IQ stands for intelligence quotient. Supposedly, it is a score that tells one how “bright” a person is compared to other people. The average IQ is by definition 100; scores above 100 indicate a higher than average IQ and scores below 100 indicate a lower that average IQ. Theoretically, scores can range any amount below or above 100, but in practice they do not meaningfully go much below 50 or above 150.
Half of the population have IQ’s of between 90 and 110, while 25% have higher IQ’s and 25% have lower IQ’s:
Descriptive Classifications of Intelligence Quotients
IQ Description % of Population
130+ Very superior 2.2%
120-129 Superior 6.7%
110-119 High average 16.1%
90-109 Average 50%
80-89 Low average 16.1%
70-79 Borderline 6.7%
Below 70 Extremely low 2.2%
Apparently, the IQ gives a good indication of the occupational group that a person will end up in, though not of course the specific occupation. In their book, Know Your Child’s IQ, Glen Wilson and Diana Grylls outline occupations typical of various IQ levels:
140 Top Civil Servants; Professors and Research Scientists.
130 Physicians and Surgeons; Lawyers; Engineers (Civil and Mechanical)
120 School Teachers; Pharmacists; Accountants; Nurses; Stenographers; Managers.
110 Foremen; Clerks; Telephone Operators; Salesmen; Policemen; Electricians.
100+ Machine Operators; Shopkeepers; Butchers; Welders; Sheet Metal Workers.
100- Warehousemen; Carpenters; Cooks and Bakers; Small Farmers; Truck and Van Drivers.
90 Laborers; Gardeners; Upholsterers; Farmhands; Miners; Factory Packers and Sorters.
IQ Expressed in Percentiles
IQ is often expressed in percentiles, which is not the same as percentage scores, and a common reason for the misunderstanding of IQ test scores. Percentage refers to the number of items which a child answers correctly compared to the total number of items presented. If a child answers 25 questions correctly on a 50 question test he would earn a percentage score of 50. If he answers 40 questions on the same test his percentage score would be 80. Percentile, however, refers to the number of other test takers’ scores that an individual’s score equals or exceeds. If a child answered 25 questions and did better than 50% of the children taking the test he would score at the 50th percentile. However, if he answered 40 questions on the 50 item test and everyone else answered more than he did, he would fall at a very low percentile — even though he answered 80% of the questions correctly.
On most standardized tests, an IQ of 100 is at the 50th percentile. Most of our IQ tests are standardized with a mean score of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. What that means is that the following IQ scores will be roughly equivalent to the following percentiles:
IQ Percentile
65 01
70 02
75 05
80 09
85 16
90 25
95 37
100 50
105 63
110 75
115 84
120 91
125 95
130 98
135 99
An IQ of 120 therefore implies that the testee is brighter than about 91% of the population, while 130 puts a person ahead of 98% of people. A person with an IQ of 80 is brighter than only 9% of people, and only a few score less than 60.
What does all this mean. Well, i guess (1) I should be a producer, and (2) Im never satisfied, because I think Im higher than 142, even though thats in the top .5 percent or something. I hate those fucking diagram questions, like which friggin one doesnt belong. I dont play with blocks, how the hell should I know.
In fact, I can't think of any I got wrong out of 50 (who knows, I probably missed one stupidly). Maybe not, maybe I took too long cause I walked away from my computer.
G
Its all on Tickle.com. Consider me tickled. Looking at the jobs report though, maybe producing is the right career for me.
FROM MY JOBS TEST
Strategic and Creative
As a Strategic type, you want to be able to express yourself and your ideas through work. Sure there's a time and place for rules and procedures, but when a good thought strikes you, you don't want it to be boxed into one way of thinking. You're willing to go outside the rules if there's a chance that the risk will reap big rewards.
You are stronger than most when it comes to generating ideas. And because of this, it might sometimes feel easier to take on all aspects of a job yourself instead of wasting time explaining it to someone else who might not "get it" like you do. But because you have so many ideas and are willing to take on so much, you might find that you sometimes have trouble finishing every project you start.
Your diplomacy and adaptability make you a valuable asset. But your need to feel invested in a company that allows you to express your original ways of thinking will ultimately impact how happy you are in the workplace.
FROM IQ TEST
Congratulations, Gregory!
Your IQ score is 142
This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others.
Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others — and at anticipating and predicting patterns. And that's just some of what we know about you from your IQ results.
FROM ME
The interpretation that I found for the score on another site....
FROM http://iq-test.learninginfo.org/iq04.htm
IQ stands for intelligence quotient. Supposedly, it is a score that tells one how “bright” a person is compared to other people. The average IQ is by definition 100; scores above 100 indicate a higher than average IQ and scores below 100 indicate a lower that average IQ. Theoretically, scores can range any amount below or above 100, but in practice they do not meaningfully go much below 50 or above 150.
Half of the population have IQ’s of between 90 and 110, while 25% have higher IQ’s and 25% have lower IQ’s:
Descriptive Classifications of Intelligence Quotients
IQ Description % of Population
130+ Very superior 2.2%
120-129 Superior 6.7%
110-119 High average 16.1%
90-109 Average 50%
80-89 Low average 16.1%
70-79 Borderline 6.7%
Below 70 Extremely low 2.2%
Apparently, the IQ gives a good indication of the occupational group that a person will end up in, though not of course the specific occupation. In their book, Know Your Child’s IQ, Glen Wilson and Diana Grylls outline occupations typical of various IQ levels:
140 Top Civil Servants; Professors and Research Scientists.
130 Physicians and Surgeons; Lawyers; Engineers (Civil and Mechanical)
120 School Teachers; Pharmacists; Accountants; Nurses; Stenographers; Managers.
110 Foremen; Clerks; Telephone Operators; Salesmen; Policemen; Electricians.
100+ Machine Operators; Shopkeepers; Butchers; Welders; Sheet Metal Workers.
100- Warehousemen; Carpenters; Cooks and Bakers; Small Farmers; Truck and Van Drivers.
90 Laborers; Gardeners; Upholsterers; Farmhands; Miners; Factory Packers and Sorters.
IQ Expressed in Percentiles
IQ is often expressed in percentiles, which is not the same as percentage scores, and a common reason for the misunderstanding of IQ test scores. Percentage refers to the number of items which a child answers correctly compared to the total number of items presented. If a child answers 25 questions correctly on a 50 question test he would earn a percentage score of 50. If he answers 40 questions on the same test his percentage score would be 80. Percentile, however, refers to the number of other test takers’ scores that an individual’s score equals or exceeds. If a child answered 25 questions and did better than 50% of the children taking the test he would score at the 50th percentile. However, if he answered 40 questions on the 50 item test and everyone else answered more than he did, he would fall at a very low percentile — even though he answered 80% of the questions correctly.
On most standardized tests, an IQ of 100 is at the 50th percentile. Most of our IQ tests are standardized with a mean score of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. What that means is that the following IQ scores will be roughly equivalent to the following percentiles:
IQ Percentile
65 01
70 02
75 05
80 09
85 16
90 25
95 37
100 50
105 63
110 75
115 84
120 91
125 95
130 98
135 99
An IQ of 120 therefore implies that the testee is brighter than about 91% of the population, while 130 puts a person ahead of 98% of people. A person with an IQ of 80 is brighter than only 9% of people, and only a few score less than 60.
What does all this mean. Well, i guess (1) I should be a producer, and (2) Im never satisfied, because I think Im higher than 142, even though thats in the top .5 percent or something. I hate those fucking diagram questions, like which friggin one doesnt belong. I dont play with blocks, how the hell should I know.
In fact, I can't think of any I got wrong out of 50 (who knows, I probably missed one stupidly). Maybe not, maybe I took too long cause I walked away from my computer.
G
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Et tu, Brute
Et tu, Brute
Remember when I said that Id finally convinced the Artist, the director, the owner of the Studio, you know, that madman. Id convinced him that doing a movie every two years was not the way to operate a business, or to keep his studio afloat. That there was a need, indispensable, to bring in outside business, outside movies, and also to continue the work on the studios projects, which needed to be more diversified than just doing movies for one potential audience. Like, doncha put all your eggs in one basket. Big Chief supported the idea, The Artist was warming to it, Farm Boy was all in.
Then Big Chief gets cold feet, or slows the process down, as I recently vented about. I vented, but because he’s holding back, supposedly, to invest in the distribution of a movie I produced, I don’t have much grounds for complaints.
A little background is in order. When I arrived at the Studio, they were hanging on by a thread. Literally. If I hadn’t helped them out, they would have been closed. Locked up even maybe, not due to anyone’s fault, just due to some mismanagement of funds and the failings of the attorney they had previously hired.
I dug em out, with the help of the Chief. We straightened out the show, and the Studio made the movie. They stayed in business. The Artist got to continue being an artist. And I got paid a little bit of money to make the movie, and to work at the Studio. Never much, but enough to live on. And it was fine, no complaints.
Then when the movie began to take longer and longer to complete, the well started to run dry. But since the work wasn’t done, I kept working. No pay, I actually went into my own pocket, and worked my tail off for nine months without a check from the Studio.
Yes, really. I’m about to be paid fully for my work over that time, so that’s fine. No problem there. Of course, once again, with my being here, there would be no way that the additional funding would ever have come in. In other words, I got myself paid. Ive done this all along, while keeping the Studio doors open.
Flashforward. Til Sunday, just past. Without me knowing, Chief meets with the Artist and with a horror film producer, someone with a questionable record of success. Someone who wrote a movie that did fairly well for him, but who has had quite his share of failures as well.
Why? To greenlight the idea of working on horror genre films at the Studio to keep the door open.
Which means I have to be beholded to this guy (lets call him Zombie). Zombie knows more about the movie biz than me? Please. I mean really, please. His last movie, the one he just made, was one of the least distributable movies I’ve ever seen. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t distributed.
I wont work for him. Im bothered significantly that my idea has to be run by Zombie for him to approve them. Yeah, he knows George Romero and Wes Craven, but how much has that helped him make money with his movies over the last ten years. And now, I have to hear third hand that they have had a meeting regarding to consider doing the movies that I’ve brought in (or others like them), without telling me, and having the Zombie come along?
Why would I put up with this shit. Anyway, headed into a sitdown about this, I am sure. See how it goes. I have a lot invested here, yes, but I’m not going to kill myself if the investment isn’t respected.
G
Remember when I said that Id finally convinced the Artist, the director, the owner of the Studio, you know, that madman. Id convinced him that doing a movie every two years was not the way to operate a business, or to keep his studio afloat. That there was a need, indispensable, to bring in outside business, outside movies, and also to continue the work on the studios projects, which needed to be more diversified than just doing movies for one potential audience. Like, doncha put all your eggs in one basket. Big Chief supported the idea, The Artist was warming to it, Farm Boy was all in.
Then Big Chief gets cold feet, or slows the process down, as I recently vented about. I vented, but because he’s holding back, supposedly, to invest in the distribution of a movie I produced, I don’t have much grounds for complaints.
A little background is in order. When I arrived at the Studio, they were hanging on by a thread. Literally. If I hadn’t helped them out, they would have been closed. Locked up even maybe, not due to anyone’s fault, just due to some mismanagement of funds and the failings of the attorney they had previously hired.
I dug em out, with the help of the Chief. We straightened out the show, and the Studio made the movie. They stayed in business. The Artist got to continue being an artist. And I got paid a little bit of money to make the movie, and to work at the Studio. Never much, but enough to live on. And it was fine, no complaints.
Then when the movie began to take longer and longer to complete, the well started to run dry. But since the work wasn’t done, I kept working. No pay, I actually went into my own pocket, and worked my tail off for nine months without a check from the Studio.
Yes, really. I’m about to be paid fully for my work over that time, so that’s fine. No problem there. Of course, once again, with my being here, there would be no way that the additional funding would ever have come in. In other words, I got myself paid. Ive done this all along, while keeping the Studio doors open.
Flashforward. Til Sunday, just past. Without me knowing, Chief meets with the Artist and with a horror film producer, someone with a questionable record of success. Someone who wrote a movie that did fairly well for him, but who has had quite his share of failures as well.
Why? To greenlight the idea of working on horror genre films at the Studio to keep the door open.
Which means I have to be beholded to this guy (lets call him Zombie). Zombie knows more about the movie biz than me? Please. I mean really, please. His last movie, the one he just made, was one of the least distributable movies I’ve ever seen. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t distributed.
I wont work for him. Im bothered significantly that my idea has to be run by Zombie for him to approve them. Yeah, he knows George Romero and Wes Craven, but how much has that helped him make money with his movies over the last ten years. And now, I have to hear third hand that they have had a meeting regarding to consider doing the movies that I’ve brought in (or others like them), without telling me, and having the Zombie come along?
Why would I put up with this shit. Anyway, headed into a sitdown about this, I am sure. See how it goes. I have a lot invested here, yes, but I’m not going to kill myself if the investment isn’t respected.
G
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Public Service Announcement - Loose Change
No, its not perfect, and probably not totally accurate, but it raises very important questions that havent been satisfactorily answers, and if half of it is right, my god.
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