strange (and wonderful) days

Somehow it’s been enough to update the FB status every once in a while. The blog is feeling a little stagnant. Even the epic photolog of our trip to the Dominican ended up on FB rather than here. I should remedy that at some point. That said, I daresay (and have the logs to prove it) that far more people tune in to Adrian’s world on FB than here at AdrianTaverner.com. Hardly surprising. FB is awfully convenient.

Nevertheless, I’ve had a blog for seven years, so I may as well make some attempt to keep up appearances.

Things are great!

There. How was that? Feel in the loop?

No?

Dammit.

Well, let’s see… My writing partnership with Matt & Lee has spawned an extremely healthy super secret forum, so that the next time a producer asks us (yes, it happened) if we have any ideas ready to go, we will have five ideas that could go to pre-production tomorrow, and easily a dozen others that have wicked potential. It’s a real high working in this team. We’re ruthless with the material, and unapologetic taking risks. And we’re producing really exciting stuff. One day last week I was vividly recalling a scene from a show I had watched on TV recently, but couldn’t recall what it was. I just remembered really enjoying it. And then it struck me that I was remembering a scene we wrote. I figure that’s a pretty strong sign.

So that’s going very well. We’ve done a ton of development toward an actual pilot, which we’re hoping to get into this year. Yeah, we can do that. My plan is to gear everything toward a web release, because, in my opinion, that’s the fastest way to clear a path to the guys who actually decide what goes on TV, if you don’t currently know anyone who knows those guys. It’s only going to be this hard once, so we’re kind of enjoying it. A web release is only one way to go, though, so there’s still a lot of discussion to be had on this. We don’t want to devalue a commodity (read: blow our load too soon). It’s not a perfect fit, because we have a very exciting and magical idea for this TV series that doesn’t translate to the web so easily. You’ll just have to trust me there. It’s… a game changer.

Meanwhile, we continue to build our talent pool here in New York. We’re working at capacity for Redken and various other outfits, so this is the year we expand the ranks. Joe & Joel have themselves a genuine New York address, Jonathan is very interested in continuing to work with us, and Steve is eager to increase his involvement. Matt is still exiled in Bangladesh, but we’re building a habit of getting the three of us online at least once a week to squeeze some brain. So far, it’s working. His plan is to stay over there for another year, put some honest money in the bank, and land somewhere in the Atlantic side of Canada, so we can get all three of us inside the same four walls a lot more often than once every six months. It’s a good plan, but just Phase Two. The three of us that make up the creative force of Chaos Complex need to live in the same city, and that’s that. At least The Plan is Real and In Motion.

Speaking of the same city, things with Marjorie are going awe-inspiringly well. I could go on for pages. It was unexpected for both of us, and we really took our time getting here, but now it seems about as unstoppable as the tide.

The massive downside, to bring us back to the segue, is that she’s Vancouver People, and I’m New York People. There’s some historical irony there. Shut up. You know this is different. We’ve been fantastically lucky over the past few months, managing to see a lot of each other, first in New York, then the Dominican (I took her as my Xmas present), and then in Vancouver. And she’ll be here bright & early Friday morning (which makes me giddy as a schoolgirl– there, I’ve said it). We video chat every night, and there’s always a couple emails during the day. We’re ridiculous. Orbiting around each other. Neither of us particularly cares to think much about facing a month apart (or more), so while she’s here we’re going to talk to the lawyer who paved the way for my case and see what our options are. I want her here. So does she. We’re going to see if we can make that happen with a quickness. On the beach in the DR I told her we’re a done deal, and she smiled and we kissed and it was a nice little moment, but she’s since figured out I meant it.

So life is pretty fantastic. Fuel is flourishing as a company, Chaos Complex has an undeniable stride, I’m happier than I’ve been in years, and my girl is everything I’ve ever wanted and then some. Really. And if I say fantastic again that will be three times in one post. And that’s saying something.

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the iPad… the 3rd device?

My problem with the iPhone has always been that while it really is a pocket computer, and a surprisingly good one considering the baby 256 processor, users are neatly prevented from editing documents. You can’t take your job to the beach, because while you can certainly stay on top of email, there isn’t anything you can do with a .doc except look at it.

So a year or so ago, when rumours about an Apple tablet started picking up steam, I was interested. Surely now that deal-breaking gap would be closed. Imagine my consternation when detractors were proven right, and we really were offered a giant iPod, complete with chains to the app store and still no way to get any word processing done.

Where I used to think that the iPad probably wouldn’t find much of a home with the average consumer (it’s big, it’s not light, and you can’t stick a DVD in it, much less a thumb drive), I predicted that every professional would have to have one, from doctors (easy wifi access to fully detailed records) to mechanics (large HD tech specs) to dock workers (manifests and routing instructions). James Cameron would use one to watch his actors traverse their CG world in real time. When the iPad was revealed shackled to the app store, I was worried.

Not that I had to worry for long. That same day, Apple announced the iPad-optimized version of iWorks. That, plus the Citrix announcement that you’ll be able to run Windows 7 on it, implies heavily that you will have access to the file structure, more like the iPod than the iPhone.

I don’t have any interest in anything Windows (there’s nothing in my world that Mac and Snow Leopard can’t do better) but having that option means wider adoptability, and that means iPad is in a pretty good position. If I can mount it as a drive on my primary computers, then yes, I’m interested. And apparently there’s an available attachment for pulling pictures off your camera, and that means USB connectivity. If it’s 2-way… now we’re getting somewhere.

Do I need an iPad? Probably not. My shiny MacBook Pro travels well enough to set and back. Do I want one? Yes. Yes I do. Complete with unlocked 3G access and 64 gigs of memory. I will sew bigger pockets on my cargoes.

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