Things I Love Lately

This isn't going to be earth shattering stuff here and, admittedly, I'm a little late to the party on some of this stuff. Still, there are things that have put absolute glee in my life lately and I feel I must share. So...

Evernote

Props to my brother, who told me about Evernote way back when I was but a nursing school drudge using a note taking app that I thought was revolutionary because you could color code the tabs. After school I wanted to burn it, but that would have been impossible without also, you know, damaging my phone so I simply deleted the app. Ha! Take that!

Lumping Evernote in with all the other free tasky note taking apps, I of course assumed it was something I would download, use for like a week then completely forget about and months down the road delete off my phone in an attempt to free up enough space for the most recent iOS update (what the hell is in those things)? I've had this thing for about a month and I believe the term that best describes my current feelings toward it is "geeking out."

I looooooooove it! Holy shit, holy shit! You can just put everything in here - EVERYTHING! Those workouts my sister sends me every week: Evernote. Online purchases I want to make: Evernote. Receipts from online purchases because I'm not very good about delaying gratification and plus I think I may have a problem: Evernote! Blog post ideas, random thoughts about any one of the three projects I'm working on right now, outfit ideas I pick up from the web or people on the street that I need to remember later in order to not look a fool when I dress myself in the morning (am I right, ladies?): Evernote, Evernote and Evernote!

You need it. You don't know that yet - well, I guess you do know because I just told you, unless you don't believe me, in which case I'm not sure why you're here... Just look into it.

Fade In

I have absolutely had it with Celtx. It's free, so I can't complain too much but I have reached that point in my screenwriting career where it's time to pony up and pay $200 for some real screenwriting software. Wait, what? $200? Two hundred dollars? That's (2). Handred. Dooollars? I'm going to make a short list of things I'd be willing to spend $200 on:

1. A plane ticket to Chicago

2. A pair of real pearl earrings

3. Someone to come into my apartment and clean the baseboards because MY GOD I can't get the years and years of other people's grime off of these damn things (I'm just realizing as I type this that I could probably have someone come do this for considerably less money...have to look into that).

And now, things I am not willing to spend $200 on:

1.  A plane ticket to Arkansas (yuck)

2. A side table that is basically a tree stump (West Elm, you can all go fuck yourselves)

3. Screenwriting software

Enter Fade In (notice I resisted the urge to say "Fade In: Fade In"). It is, honestly, everything a screenwriting software should be with the added bonus of being more current and having a developer that really listens to feedback. Also, I'm pretty sure when you purchase the software it comes with the optional add-on of having Craig Mazin come to your house in person should you find anything wrong with the program or if you just want to chat about how great it is. He's kind of a fan.

Speaking of Craig Mazin...

Scriptnotes

There are times when I remember to listen to Scriptnotes podcast, and those are happy times. Then there are times when things get busy and in all the bustling around I forget to listen to Scriptnotes; these are dark and confusing times, people. I love this show because in addition to learning about cool writerly things (like Fade In), you've got these two guys who couldn't be more opposite each other talking about things that are actually relevant and interesting to screenwriters, and sometimes disagreeing about those things which is one of the most valuable parts. Two great screenwriters disagreeing about something is the closest thing to magic you are going to get in this world.

So listen up.