I know that this is supposed to be about Study Abroad, but I need to take a moment to address the atrocity that has been inflicted upon the world.
You know what I'm talking about: NBC fired Dan Harmon, the creator & Head Writer of the show Community.
That might sound like a ridiculous thing to be upset about, but it's not just anger as a fan of the show, it's fear about the future. More particularly, my future.
I now know with certainty (thanks to my experiences studying abroad) that I want to become a writer for television. It's my dream, it's what I want to do, and I'm scared enough as it is trying to figure out how to break into that business (and everyone these days wants to be a writer, I've got loads of competition).
But let's pretend it's a perfect world, and I set out after graduation, write some spec scripts, manage to sell some, then I land a job as a writer for some television show. My career does pretty well, after a few seasons on the show, I come up with my own idea for a TV show, I write it, pitch it, and Bam! It gets picked up! Amazing, incredible! I'm a creator of my very own show at last! Everything I've ever dreamed of. And then we put the show out there, it's a success, has a nice devout following. And then, all of a sudden, three seasons in, the bosses at the TV station I'm with decides: we don't want Amanda anymore. So I get fired, and MY show gets given to some other writers I don't know.
Scary.
What the hell? Why don't writers have any rights in the business? Like...they can't HAVE shows or films if they don't have people to actually write them. And as far as I'm concerned, the episodes this past season have been good, so it's not like the quality of Dan Harmon's writing had deteriorated or anything.
My only slight hesitation is Dan Harmon's response in a blog post. While reading it, having first learned the news, I was with him every word, outraged, surprised, hurt. But I wonder now if his statement could end up hurting him. Having begun reading a lot of books about the film industry, most advice is, no matter how hurt you are when you get removed from a project/fired/don't get picked, you never never never burn bridges. I'm not saying Dan Harmon threw down and began cursing NBC to the heavens, I'm just saying the tone of his blog, while justified, was a bit on the accusatory side, and I wonder if it might prevent him from opportunities in the future. For all he knows, the men they hired to replace him could fail and they'd have wanted him back, but after his rant, they'd be too proud.
Just some thoughts. And, I admit, typing this up is a form (as always) of procrastination.
My Shakespeare midterm is on Wednesday.
And I feel unprepared. And I kind of don't care.
With the exception of Othello, I feel that the plays I must write essays on (The Winters Tale and Henry V) are IMMENSELY boring. I don't know what the expectations are here, but I'm concerned about how to write for 2 hours on these topics.
Right now, I should be re-reading Othello, but I'm lazy to the extreme. I know I'll get it done because I must. But these plays mostly bore me, and the exam questions can be as random as they like. With a TA this semester that had a tendency to digress a lot in class, I feel nervous about the expectations. Then there's the fact that I just don't like exams.
But once that's over, the fun begins!
I get to go to the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London with my other International student friends and spend a few days in London. Then I come back to Leeds for a week, do a couple of day trips, Cambridge and York possibly, and then BZ comes to visit and we do another week in London!
And then....home.
Although, I don't know, Leeds is the only place in the entire world where I've been on my own, it kind of has become my home too.
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