Here's a list of things I need to do before School Starts, semi-prioritized:

1) clean up/figure out my finances
2) clean up my computer and optimize for editing
3) gather production gear
4) get Summer '06 trip squared away
5) finish backyard projects
6) deal with my spare car
7) design and test a commuting plan
8) visit family back home
9) camp
10) figure out and adhere to a regular exercise schedule

1) Clean up/figure out my finances:
(Hey! I figured out how to do underlining! And italics, for that matter! Whoohoo!) Federal Student Financial aid isn't exactly an unlimited pile of money. And I've got a few debts. Nothing major, really, but enough that maintaining the debt while living on student aid might be a problem. So this one is the TOP priority.

2) Clean up my computer and optimize for editing:
I put this one near the top of the list because it takes time, and some of the components can be expensive...and you'll note that priority numero uno is to get OUT of debt, not climb farther in. Since USC owns anything made with their equipment, I'm going to try to do as much as I can with my own stuff. I want to have my system stable and humming before I find myself crashing and cursing on some first-semester-they'll-kick-my-ass-out-if-I-don't-pass panic deadline. I want to do as much as I can at home, though, because I can be with my girl and my dog more, it's comfortable, and there's plenty of food in the kitchen, so I won't eat out ($$$ and lbs). At least, that's my naive plan right now. Could be that I'll get to school and discover there's some kind of policy preventing me from setting up my own home workflow. And I'm a little nervous that a home workflow will reduce my opportunities to bond with my classmates. But for now, I'm preparing for the best-case scenario.

3) Gather production gear:
Turns out there are lots of little tricks to indy filmmaking on the cheap and lots of tools you can build yourself, given the time and resources. They're all over the web (try googling DV rigs). I've got 135 or so days to get this one together (subtracting Christmas and Thanksgiving), so I'm already running short of time. I need to start plotting these projects out on the calendar.

3.5) (NEW!) Plot milestones from now to January on the calendar:
Just like it says.

4) Square away Summer '06 trip:
Participants need to be locked in, the deposit needs to get sent in November, and the budget and the gear lists need to get finalized. This is November's project, I think. I'm not going to say much more about it, because this is another one of those things that could blow my anonymity.

5) Finish backyard projects:
Well, duh. This one's mainly a function of budgeting weekend time carefully, and committing to the nasty chores involved. Our backyard has the potential to be awesome, but there will be some serious elbow grease involved.

6) Deal with my spare car:
Which is currently in pieces. I need to get it all in one place, get it put back together, and sell that fucker. Okay, maybe drive it around for a week or two, and then sell that fucker. Well, maybe a month or two. But then I HAVE to sell it. That fucker. God, I love that car. And hate it. And love it. It's just not fair...

7) Design and test a commuting plan:
Everyone I've talked to has the same response when I ask about parking at USC: they get a horrified look on their faces, like I've stirred a memory of a past life...maybe as a sailor in the british navy, punished with thirty lashings of the cat-o-nine-tails for stealing water rations. Strung up on the yardarm, the whip pop-slicing the tender skin of the back as the entire crew winces in empathetic pain, watching blood flow down the sailor's back, the salt spray stinging the newly-opened wounds. That's the memory, and that's the look. The parking is apparently THAT BAD.

Now, I know that NOBODY likes to sit in traffic. But I'm a special case. I REALLY hate traffic. I'm not an angry driver, and I don't get frustrated or drive like an asshole. I don't change lanes constantly (and I think people who do are idiot control freaks who don't understand the dynamics of traffic flow -- spend an evening talking to one of the engineers who developed Cisco's routing system for internet traffic, and you'll figure out that the same rules apply to LA freeways -- by switching lanes, you're actually impeding the flow of traffic. If we all obeyed the same rules, KEPT GOOD SPACING BETWEEN CARS [I mean you, cockbag in the BMW checking out the results of your toothbleaching in the chrome of my bumper] and only changed lanes when we needed to exit or merge, traffic difficulties would disappear.)

If I'm confronted with daily traffic nightmares, I fall into a deep, morose depression. So I'm trying to put together the most efficient and least expensive mode of transit to school, because I like where I live and I'd rather not have to move. With some luck, I'll be able to use mass transit (In LA? Crazy!) Check back next April, when our lease is up, to see how I did. If you see a headline similar to: "Packing Sucks Ass," you'll know I was unsuccessful in finding a satisfactory commute.

Wow. That was a long one.

8) Visit family back home
I get the feeling that I won't have many chances to do this during the semester, timewise or financially. So this is another item to carefully plot on the calendar.

9) Camp
I love camping. I love it, I'm good at it, and I need it. Camping fixes something in my soul, I think. I haven't been in two years. I used to try to go at least four times a year. I must get at least two trips in before school starts.

10) Figure out and adhere to a regular exercise schedule
Blah, blah, blah. New Year's resolutions, blah. Gotta lose blah pounds, I'm so out-of-blah, etc. Fact is, I'm got getting any younger or lighter, and I want to do this. Besides, discipline is part of the artist's regimen for success, right?

This is just the stuff that's on my mind today. I know there'll be more...