To make a short story long.
It�s now almost two weeks since I discovered Daria, and a week since I began lurking on this newsgroup. I�ve been wanting to contribute for a few days now, but rather than just "butt in" on everyone�s conversations I thought I�d introduce myself first so have an idea of the personality behind the name. But first, a warning. I�m a part-time writer (the degree of part-timedness varying from week to week), and so this will probably be fairly long (hence the subject). If you want to skip this post, I understand. I�ll try to keep my future ones a lot shorter.
Game shows, soap operas, and the dreaded 5:30 p.m. timeslot.
As the saying goes, "you don�t know what you�ve got till it�s gone", and a couple of weeks I found myself muttering those very words to myself. I was staying at a friend�s place, and the usual 34 channels I�m used to having via FoxTel was reduced to just the five free-to-air ones. I was teaching a bunch of public servants how to write (a story in itself), and while the friends I was staying with didn�t get home until after six, I was getting home around half-past four, which left me at the mercy of game shows and bad soap operas. I surfed from station to station trying to fit in as many commercials as I could, but they�re all synchronised so there was little else to do but sit and suffer.
ABC to the rescue.
I didn�t know what was on the ABC at half-past five, but in the past they�ve had the Degrassi series and Press Gang (which has some of the cleverest writing I�ve heard), and so it seemed my best bet. So I changed channel, watched some weird five-minute animation, then watched my very first episode of Daria. And I�ve been hooked ever since.
Setups, Sarcasm and suffering.
My family has a pretty good sense of humour, and so by the time I got to school I could come up with some pretty good comebacks. Unfortunately it was about that time I developed a condition known as BORMOFF � Brain On Rewind, Mouth On Fast Forward. When I heard something which could be used as a "setup" line, my mouth would immediately blurt out the punchline. Some were funny, but most were put-downs, and pretty nasty ones at that. Trouble is, I thought I was being clever, but most people just thought I was being a smart arse, and while I was never actually in a fight I came pretty damned close at times. I can relate to Daria in a lot of ways. I�m certainly no brain (that will become clear the longer I post), but I�m a writer, I was never overly popular at school, and I�m waiting for a degree in sarcasm to be created so I can be officially qualified.
Behind the eight ball.
I have no idea how long the show�s been running on the ABC, but I�ve managed to catcht six episodes so far (from That Was Than, This Is Dumb to Fair Enough), and now I�m trying to catch up by visiting the Daria sites, reading the transcripts (thanks to whoever typed them in), and following the happening in this newsgroup.
The end is... here.
There are dozens of questions I'd like to ask, but I think I've said enough for one post. Looking forward to doing it more often (but in much shorter doses).
Bill.