World 2-1

Well, it's here, Christmas break.

I'm happy to say that the goals I set for myself to meet by Christmas Break...are mostly done. Had I not decided to go back and re-write most of the episodes, then my goal would've been met, but essentially the 7-episode cycle is done. There's just a ton of editing to do.

Kyle showed me some sketches of the Cortex puppet yesterday during a 1 A.M. rendezvous at Eat n' Park. This rendezvous may or may not have also included a conversation that alluded to us doing an homage to Ghostbusters during an episode with Pirate Ghosts. Hey, it's the imagination, anything is possible. :-)


Sadly though, my editing is being delayed due to the fact that my laptop won't allow me to stay on it for any more than 30 minutes, or so it seems. Poor girl, she's on her last legs. I tried e-mailing Ash our outlines and it won't let me get that far because apparently Gmail is a little too much for Navi to handle. Oh well, Hakuna Matata. A little R&R will be good because this whole month has been work work work.

To those of you who've contacted me regarding wanting to help out, that's AMAZING. I didn't think I'd be getting a response like that so soon. Once I secure a date for the staged readings, then I may be contacting you, but for now your just fueling my fire for making this thing go right.

Off to Erie where there's no High-Speed Internet and no Xbox Live, but plenty of fun.

Merry Christmas to all!

Leveling Up?

I'll never claim to have the best workstation in the world. Oftentimes, my room has at least 1 light bulb burnt out. Nevertheless, I love my desk and all of its little inconveniences. However, in the past week I've tried to edit some episodes and every time I start to get somewhere, my Laptop decides to die. To those to know my computer, you know what I am talking about. She chugs along, barely keeping iTunes open while Final Draft is up, and if I am lucky, on the holiest of days, she'll let me have AIM open as well. I'm afraid those days may be long gone.

Yes, it may be time to put my Laptop down.

Navi (as I named it), was given to me roughly 4 and a half years ago and ever since one day Sophomore year, she's been slowly dying. I can't put a finger on exactly what happened, or how it started, but it may be time to pull the plug. I'm hoping to upgrade to a MacBook, making the upgrade from PC to Justin Long, er, Mac. This way I can post videos, pictures, and other productive things. My current PC won't even play videos. Anyway, we'll see. Money doesn't grow on trees, no matter how many nickels and dimes I plant in the back yard.

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I once again have to applaud people's enthusiasm towards this project. People are volunteering to give me things to use for the zombies and vampires. Granted, I do live in Pittsburgh and Monroeville Mall is just a stone's throw away so zombie make-up is as essential and bread and water here, but it's still a nice gesture.

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Also, speaking of zombies, check out the Toby puppet here

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Speaking of puppets (how's that for a train of thought?) I really need to find some puppets for these readings. I've only ever assisted in making puppets and have never actually MADE anything. That's what Kyle and Joey did, the most I ever amounted to was making a Sai for the TMNT movie. If the Prop Shop at school blows up, they'll at least know who did it.

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We had a little video conference of sorts today to talk about the show. I drew up a little outline for Ashley, Kyle, and James to look at and peruse. We talked about the way the show was going, and where we thought it would eventually lead and all that cool stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how people's creativity sparks different ideas. Ideas I've never even thought about but are VERY interesting. Needless to say, today was fantastic for getting some insight into where the show could lead, and its also giving me a different idea about how the last two episodes should end...

It's all happening :)

~ Aaron J.

Happenings...

Well, would you look at that?

The past week has been a sort of steamrolling experience for LAN'ded. Kyle and I talked about how the series was moving forward and a number of exciting possibilities were brought forward. I'd gush about them but I'd rather just continue working on what we've already locked down. So far we're looking at 6-7 episodes with an (ever-growing) cast of about 10-12. There's many re-occuring characters, and what's really amazing about going to a theatre school is looking around and seeing people that mirror who you write about.

I'll admit, it is very difficult not to just write for one person or another but if that's where the inspiration comes from, why push it away?

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It's so...weird (great word right?) to consider making a Facebook Event for the readings the next big step forward. In talking to the Playhouse folks, we've decided that the only feasible time to have a staged reading of any kind would be late Feb or early March. I have always admired the playhouse for housing independent projects like ETP's amazing "Dotty Dot: The Musical" and other shenanigans, so I hope we don't disappoint them. So we've got a space, now we just need actors. Only 2-3 people have been approached to play parts in the readings, but we do need a few zombies and vampires...

Yes, there will be zombies and vampires. Episode 3 is almost pulled straight out of a horror movie. Can you blame me though? What's more fun than the undead?

We'll also need a puppeteer for the project, two maybe. With Kyle on the road, our usual puppeteer choice is out...hmm...the search continues.

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I admire the amount of support people are giving me for this project as well. It's funny, people here are really supportive and I find that their enthusiasm rubs off on me and I just want to keep writing and working on this. Hopefully all this hard work pays off.

I gave Kyle publishing options for the blog as well, so if you see him chime in, take a second and look at his other projects he's working on at the moment at puppetfix.blogspot.com and at fisticuffpuppets.blogspot.com

~ Aaron J.

In the beginning...

Well, you've found it. This is the new blog for LAN'ded!

But what is LAN'ded, you ask? I'm more than happy to answer that!

LAN'ded is a story about video games, sci-fi movies, red bull, and the anti-social workings of three people living in an apartment in Chicago. It's the world of Christian Bartholomew III, and his world just happens to contain two friends...only they're imaginary and that tends to complicate things.

Be sure to check back here periodically for updates, pictures, and happenings on how it's going!