Lives to fight....

Another day.

Chinese Ryan is still kicking.

But let me go backwards.

I have one employee here in China. She works... um... hard? She is in charge of getting everything ready over here and for the most part - she is organized and does her job.

When we came for the shoot - we knew we would need some help translating for Bill and John and I get too tired doing it all the time - so we brought in Ting.

Ting Ting is a young thing. We took to her because she understood sarcasm - which there really is no understanding of in Chinese. She has a habit of wearing the exact same outfit for weeks at a time - but she is sweet and funny and a pretty good translator.

But she is one of the most opinionated people I have ever met outside of myself.

She not only has an opinion - she is always convinced she is right. Always.

To the point where she was arguing with me on the first shoot about how the model was using the skin care system. I had brought a copy of the US spots - and had it on pause on my DVD player - and she told me the US models were doing it wrong too.

She's 20. And while I admire the passion - she needs to relax a bit.

When I told her that I agreed more with the commercial which had 50 execs breathing down my neck to get right - then her - she started to cry.

That's how strong she feels.

When we were looking for celebrities - it didn't matter how many we brough up - they were always bad. Bad looking. Bad reputation. Stupid. She didn't like anyone.

Except Annie.

Amazingly - the celebrity that we have been meeting with is the only one she liked. And truthfully - almost everyone universally liked her. It truely was amazing.

BACK TO NOW

When Chinese Ryan showed up - smiling through his teeth that had been worn down like stones in a sugar river - without the pages he was supposed to write, I was pretty angry.

We really are in a time crunch and I have to get this thing up and running - and his foolishness is the last thing I have time for.

I sent him home from the meeting saying that I was pretty upset and he needed to go back and write those pages today. And call when he sent them. And then we would let him know if we needed him.

In truth - I figured he was all but gone.

That night - Ting called me to say she got the pages - but I was in bed and ignored the call.

The marketing team in Shanghai was supposed to call me and tell me if the pages were any good - since I don't read Chinese - but the head of the team was sick - so I didn't hear anything.

Yesterday - yes, we work in China everyday - we got in the cab to go to the production meeting - and I asked Ting what she thought of the writers work.

Its terrible. He has no idea how to write and he didn't do what you said and he didn't come close to writing in the voice of Annie.

That pretty much settled it for me. We got to the meeting and I told everyone we needed to find a new writer. Quickly.

But then I got the call.

The Marketing Director - from her hospital bed - called me and told me she had just read the pages. While they were not perfect - they were a good first draft and she was pretty pleased.

ESPECIALLY HOW HE WROTE SO WELL IN THE VOICE OF ANNIE.

Really. I couldn't believe it. I started laughing so hard. It was a night and day difference. I asked if she really thought that. She said she has been working with copywriters night and day for all the other stuff for our launch and this guy was really doing great.

So Chinese Ryan lives to write another day.

Good for him.

Bill and I returned to our favorite Pirated DVD shop last night so he could partake in an orgy of pretentious European art films. I just went along for the ride - content to be with my friend.

Today we really break down the creative.

It's going to be a long long journey. We still have some contract issues with our star and a bigger one with her wardrobe. So we will see how it all works out.

One more day till my wife comes.