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Sorry. I promise the conclusion to "Shawn's" story will come.

But I'm a bit beat up right now.

I never should have answered this ad...

We who work - even loosely - in the entertainment field have a strange work ethic. It is usually a semi-relaxed atmosphere that is very jokey - sarcastic and fun - until shoot time where it gets crazy and busy and you don't sleep and people can get really grumpy and angry and use lots of drugs and sleep with each other and destroy their lives and their families.

I work on the fringes of this. And - occasionally - when I pick up a job that calls for my experience with China - I work on the outer fringes.

The problem with me - as I have said before - is that I can be seen as middle finger. I do my job - and do it well. I work really hard. But I don't play a lot of political games - and this usually bites me in the ass.

Being the China guy usually puts me out on a limb. It is a very hard position to control - since you can't control China. No one knows anything about the country or they wouldn't have hired me - and they don't understand what goes one there - or they wouldn't have hired me - and so they have to rely on me to tell them what's going on.

And then -

They still can't control it. Nothing they know about here applies there. And I can see how this can be very frustrating. So usually this results in them trying to put their thumb on my back in very unhelpful ways.

I'm in the middle of one of those.

I'm getting yelled at for something that was previously agreed upon as fine - and now is being looked at as a bad thing. And I don't care for this attitude. Its one of those things that might happen to someone who's a secretary - but not someone who they want to move out there in a senior producer position. Not that I think I'm all that - and those of you who show up here know full well that I'm not - but it just a bit patronizing and demeaning and it really tires me out.

It's one of those where you don't know what to yell at so you pick one thing that you shouldn't but its the only fight you can think of so you choose that one at this moment kind of fights.

Sigh.

So I don't know how much longer I can do this one. I do like the work - but this pettiness is taking its toll. And trust me - I'm sure all of you have someone just like this where you work - and I'm not pretending I'm special. But it's a long way from family to keep having these fights - so I don't know how much longer this can last.

In other, happier news:

My agents called me twice last week. That's two times more than they called me in the last 6 months.

My Paramount producer wrote me to say that there is a guy who has distribution with Sony that really likes my script and wants to talk as well.

So maybe there is a backdoor.

So for now - I keep working.

For now.