Daily Archives: January 2, 2020

Shameless S10E08

TV, , ,

Debbie Might Be A Prostitute

I thought Deb would ask Ian for advice about her situation because he’s done some stripping work but she asks Lip when she sees him in the kitchen. She’s confused at why Claudia left her the money and Lip isn’t. He tells her Claudia obviously thought you were a prostitute. If she’s wrong, go speak to her about it. Deb then sees Megan who is thrilled that Deb has found a sugar-momma. Way less grossness to deal with compared to a sugar daddy. Deb still isn’t comfortable with the idea of it all and she finds Claudia to talk it out. In doing so they both learn more about each other and Deb makes it clear that she slept with her because she had legit feelings for Claudia and wants to continue an honest relationship. With Claudia’s past and how she’s been navigating her work/life balance she was oblivious to what Deb was feeling (to be fair, Deb was sitting in the known Ho Corner of the hotel bar). It’s possible Deb is entering her first positive relationship in…forever? It might be the first time.

Lip and Tami enter the next new phase of parenting decisions: who is going to be Fred’s legal guardian? If something happens to both of them, they have to plan for Fred’s future. The future has never been considered too much by these two so it’s an interesting family matters issue for them to navigate. Their families aren’t exactly ripe with quality candidates.

Liam hits new management heights as he fends off high-quality management competition for Todd. He knows he’s only been able to land Todd basic sponsorship deals so, in order to keep up, he sets up a major promotion push for Todd to get press. He takes a picture of Todd fixing his shoes and posts it to social media as a guy “finally standing up to injustice” in South Side. He gets the spotlight, but we’ll see what he can do with it.

Carl is gung-ho about making a difference now and he gets the idea to join the police but he’s too young to apply. At the precinct, he’s pointed to a goofy youth organization that the police don’t do anything with (it looks good on a college application). Carl is offended by the squishy and aimless kids he’s introduced to and decides to do everything in his power to whip these kids into shape. In typical Carl dysfunction, he ends up making a vigilante group. It’ll be great if they can keep this going for a few episodes to see how far Carl will get to go with it.

Ian and Mickey’s Paula problem has been taken care of. She was tossed out of her apartment through the window to her death. The window was shut which makes it a more obvious murder over a suicide so all of Paula’s parolees are suspects. That includes Ian and Mickey who both think the other killed Paula. They find out married couples can’t testify against each other so they decide to tie the knot at the courthouse to protect themselves. They are getting married under false pretenses, both thinking they are ultimately “protecting” the other so when the real murderer is found, their relationship takes a turn. They’re both exposed at not truely trusting each other and expecting the worst out of each other. Marriage is a big step no matter what so the question of if they really love each other comes to the front. When Ian asks for their papers back from the clerk, essentially saying to Mickey “I’m not being forced to marry you now”, Mickey freaks out.

Kev and V get a surprising windfall from the IRS and stupidly hand over all of it in a get rich quick pyramid scheme. These fancy snail mucus skincare pads sound like the real deal. They’re gold so they must work! Of course, they end up burning everyone’s face and when they try to get their money back, their signature on the contract says no. So they figure out that the main ingredient is caffeine and that’s the main ingredient in preparation H (thanks for the tip Kermit). They might be able to unload these stupid things to hemorrhoid sufferers. At the very least we get to see them make a really funny promo video. Maybe they should talk to Liam for help.

Things are going great for Frank with Faye until she baits him into a house and handcuffs him to a bed. Faye has a past with Frank that is not in his favor. 24 years ago he got her fiance arrested for selling drugs. Frank lied his way through the trial and got off free while her man has been in prison ever since. Faye is out for revenge. Cue dramatic music!

It’s 2020!

Life

2020 looks and sounds like a number from the future, doesn’t it? Like it’s always been a faraway date in the future where we thought technology and the world would be a much different place. We thought we’d be in a world more like the Jetsons and we’re not even close to that. Which is probably a good thing because why would we all need to live in the sky? What happened at ground level to necessitate every building being on a massive pedestal?

I digress. In many regards, we live in a much different place than 2000, I think we’re just used to the incremental upgrades and changes each year (in terms of tech at least). The iPhone in 2007 seems like the last true mega disruption we’ve seen. Smartphones are so common and look so alike now that no one really thinks twice about it. There are small changes every year that don’t get the attention that it did for 4 years or so. Tesla would probably be the biggest innovator but that’s at a price level way beyond most people still (and there is a question of long term quality there that still needs to be seen).

Speaking personally, 2019 was an okay year. I have been looking forward to 2020. Saying that does sound silly though. Why do we put so much value on a certain calendar change? Like there’s a magic power that comes along with it. It’ll clean the board, rearrange things for you so everything is just right. It’s always up to you to make a change. The number of the year has little to do with it. The next day is pretty much the same as the one before it. New Years Day is just 3 words we decided to capitalize to make it look important.

I’m fast approaching the year and a half mark of publishing The Darkest Winter. I managed to hit my goal of 100 books sold which is a major achievement. The downside is that my next book is still a mishmash of ideas I’m trying to find a compelling and meaningful story in. It’s been frustrating. While it took me a long time to write The Darkest Winter, it always felt like a had the path of it in my head. As I wrote each chapter, I knew where I wanted it to go and that got me to the end. Here, I’m just stuck in first gear and for some reason, the clutch is burning so that means I’m going nowhere fast.

The only part of my new book I’ve clearly had in my head is the first chapter. I’m editing it now, what I have is incredibly rough as I don’t feel like I know my main character yet. I have a cool concept (overly simplified summary: an idea to stop terrorism without war) but there are so many variables I feel overwhelmed in picking a direction. This idea is right now more interesting than books 2 and 3 of The Darkest Winter (I don’t know if my idea for book 2 is worth telling. If it is, it’ll be much shorter than book 1). My next step is going to be writing a detailed outline. I did a pretty simple one for TDW and that served me well for the first 12 chapters or so and then I added bits to is at I went to keep me on track. I think a robust outline is the only way I’m going to be able to crack this.

In 2019 I did keep up with my overall writing. I made 67 posts to this blog on a myriad of topics and that’s a good practice for me to keep up as it keeps my writing in good shape. The writer’s group I run (5 years now) is still going strong and that is another thing for me to be proud of. I and those in it continue to get a lot out of each meeting and that means a lot to me. I’ve also edited two books for other authors and I expect one of them to be published this year. That’s also a lot of fun for me to do and it raises my writing analysis skills quite a bit each time I do it.

There’s a lot to look forward to this year. My wish for all of us is to be happy and healthy for all of it. Take care of yourself and each other.