Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 264
November 29, 2010
How to Avoid Thanksgiving Overeating
I somehow managed to come down with a killer cold the afternoon before Thanksgiving (very soon after reaching my parents' house). On the bright side, that prevented me from overeating. My head was so stuffy that I couldn't taste much of anything, so I wasn't really tempted by anything. My mom had even just made chocolate candy, and I didn't eat a bit of it the whole time I was there. I pretty much spent the holiday lying on the sofa and watching football with my dad. I made it through an entire Cowboys game for the first time in years and watched parts of a few other games where I wasn't entirely sure who was playing. In the state I was in, I wasn't really following the games. My parents how have HD, so I was appreciating football on the "oooh, pretty picture" level.
I started to feel moderately human and coherent by Saturday, so I was able to drive back home, and now it seems to have mostly run its course, aside from a lingering cough and a lot of tiredness (which probably has something to do with the cold making it difficult to sleep). As often as I've been sick this fall, I'm wondering if I have a bit of first-year teacher syndrome. Apparently, people who haven't been around kids much who start teaching school, especially with younger children, get sick a lot their first year because they don't have any immunity to all the bugs kids pass around. I'm only around the kindergardeners once a week, but that may be enough to keep me coughing and wheezing.
I need to get back to normal quickly because the Christmas season is going to hit with a vengeance, and quickly. This coming weekend will be the crazy one, which I hope will mean the rest of the season is easy. Saturday morning, I've got a choir rehearsal and then there's a community service project going on at the church that I'll do some work on while I'm there. Meanwhile, the next town over is having a holiday festival on the old downtown square, with the festival doubling as the grand opening of the new rail station, so I may swing over there while I'm out and about to check out the new station and see if I can feel festive from looking at an old town square all decked out for the holidays. That night, I'm going to a party. Then Sunday morning, my children's choir is singing in the early service and then I'm singing with the adult choir in the late service. We're doing our community Christmas concert that evening, so there's another rehearsal that afternoon before the concert. I hope I get my voice back by then, and I suspect the following Monday will be a veg-out day.
Otherwise, I just have events on both of the subsequent Saturdays. I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to decorating my house. I'm not really in a holiday mood yet. I did watch my first bad Lifetime holiday movie of the year on Sunday when I was huddled on the sofa with a pot of tea (the movie was mostly interesting because the actor who plays Nathan the numb but sensitive detective from Haven was the romantic hero, but he had spectacularly unfortunate hair. Like, I couldn't even look at the screen when he was on and not wearing a hat). There are years when I contemplate skipping the holidays, aside from external events. Like, I'd still do the choir stuff and go to parties and buy gifts and visit my parents for Christmas, but I wouldn't bother decorating my house, listening to Christmas music at home or watching Christmas movies. Taking a year off might make it more special later. But then I like doing all that stuff and would probably miss it. When I'm feeling better and have been exposed to a bit of the usual seasonal things, then maybe I'll be more in the mood.
I am going to try to stay in the writing groove. My grand plan is to find balance, to spend the days when I have no other plans doing serious writing, even into the night, but then take some other days off. The plan is kind of for today to be a writing binge day, since I don't feel much like doing anything else.
I started to feel moderately human and coherent by Saturday, so I was able to drive back home, and now it seems to have mostly run its course, aside from a lingering cough and a lot of tiredness (which probably has something to do with the cold making it difficult to sleep). As often as I've been sick this fall, I'm wondering if I have a bit of first-year teacher syndrome. Apparently, people who haven't been around kids much who start teaching school, especially with younger children, get sick a lot their first year because they don't have any immunity to all the bugs kids pass around. I'm only around the kindergardeners once a week, but that may be enough to keep me coughing and wheezing.
I need to get back to normal quickly because the Christmas season is going to hit with a vengeance, and quickly. This coming weekend will be the crazy one, which I hope will mean the rest of the season is easy. Saturday morning, I've got a choir rehearsal and then there's a community service project going on at the church that I'll do some work on while I'm there. Meanwhile, the next town over is having a holiday festival on the old downtown square, with the festival doubling as the grand opening of the new rail station, so I may swing over there while I'm out and about to check out the new station and see if I can feel festive from looking at an old town square all decked out for the holidays. That night, I'm going to a party. Then Sunday morning, my children's choir is singing in the early service and then I'm singing with the adult choir in the late service. We're doing our community Christmas concert that evening, so there's another rehearsal that afternoon before the concert. I hope I get my voice back by then, and I suspect the following Monday will be a veg-out day.
Otherwise, I just have events on both of the subsequent Saturdays. I'm not sure when I'm going to get around to decorating my house. I'm not really in a holiday mood yet. I did watch my first bad Lifetime holiday movie of the year on Sunday when I was huddled on the sofa with a pot of tea (the movie was mostly interesting because the actor who plays Nathan the numb but sensitive detective from Haven was the romantic hero, but he had spectacularly unfortunate hair. Like, I couldn't even look at the screen when he was on and not wearing a hat). There are years when I contemplate skipping the holidays, aside from external events. Like, I'd still do the choir stuff and go to parties and buy gifts and visit my parents for Christmas, but I wouldn't bother decorating my house, listening to Christmas music at home or watching Christmas movies. Taking a year off might make it more special later. But then I like doing all that stuff and would probably miss it. When I'm feeling better and have been exposed to a bit of the usual seasonal things, then maybe I'll be more in the mood.
I am going to try to stay in the writing groove. My grand plan is to find balance, to spend the days when I have no other plans doing serious writing, even into the night, but then take some other days off. The plan is kind of for today to be a writing binge day, since I don't feel much like doing anything else.
November 24, 2010
Over the River ...
As soon as my dishwasher quits running, I'll be heading over the river and through the woods for Thanksgiving. I imagine there will be much food and football. I have to pack for approximately three different climates because the weather is changing that much. Warm today, cold tomorrow, moderately chilly Friday and Saturday. That means bringing both the winter coat and the light coat, though I may just declare that I'm not leaving the house on Thursday and not bring the heavy coat.
So, a happy Thanksgiving to my American readers and a good rest of the week/weekend to everyone else.
So, a happy Thanksgiving to my American readers and a good rest of the week/weekend to everyone else.
November 23, 2010
Book Report: Fantasy Realms
First, happy Doctor Who Day! On this date in 1963, the very first episode of Doctor Who premiered.
I kicked off my Thanksgiving week last night by rewatching the "Turkeys Away" episode of WKRP. That has to be on the list not only of best Thanksgiving episodes or specials ever but also the funniest half hours of television ever. "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." I still remember when that first aired and I was worried that my dad was going to stop breathing from laughing so hard.
And now, a book report. Normally, I don't do critical reviews of books -- in either sense of the word. I figure that there isn't enough time to talk about all the good books, so why waste time discussing a book I wouldn't recommend? And because of that, I don't really get into in-depth analysis of books. I talk about and recommend books because I figure that people who like the books I write might like some of the books I read, and the discussion pretty much amounts to enough about the plot so you can decide whether or not it sounds interesting, plus what I like about it.
I'm going to make an exception today because I'm dealing with a book that I think might be of interest to my readers but that I can't just recommend, and explaining why it might be of interest and why it may not be what you think it will be requires being critical in the analytical sense, which may involve being negative in places. But I figure that this isn't an author I'm likely to run into, and since the book got the Big Book treatment, the author has experienced enough truly critical (in both senses of the word) reviews that me not being overwhelmingly positive isn't going to make him cry, even if he isn't so bombarded with enough media attention that he still bothers to have Google alerts set up.
The book in question is The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Essentially, it's Harry Potter meets Narnia, so you can see why it might be of interest to my readers. To sort of sum up the plot, it's about a bright teenager in Brooklyn who gets sidetracked on his way to his admissions interview for Princeton and ends up going through the entrance exams for what turns out to be a magical college. Ever since he was a kid, he's been obsessed with a series of Narnia-like fantasy novels, and learning that magic is real and going to a magical school is like a dream come true. Life after school turns out to be not so magical, but then one of his friends discovers that those books were actually based on fact, and he finds the way to travel to that magical world.
Except that's not really what the book is about, and if that's what you're reading it for, you'll likely be disappointed. It's not so much a fantasy novel as it is a literary novel that makes use of fantasy tropes to explore a particular approach to life. The first big clue is that describing the plot doesn't actually give a sense of what the book's about -- a sign of a literary novel. Then there's the pacing. There's no real "plot" to speak of, with little conflict or action until late in the novel. The first two-thirds are about the time in school -- think the Harry Potter books without any of the Voldemort stuff, just the going to classes and hanging out with friends stuff -- with just one appearance by the bad guy to hint at the fact that there is something dangerous out there but otherwise with no sense of building toward a threat. Then there's a Bright Lights, Big City style interlude where the newly minted magicians deal with the boredom of the real world by doing drugs and having sex. And then finally, in the last quarter of the book, we gear up to go to the fantasy world and face the bad guys.
But I think the big thing that keeps this from being a fantasy novel is that, as a fantasy, it's incredibly derivative. The author barely bothers to file off the serial numbers of the books he's building on, and it's all based on a fairly superficial reading of the books. In fact, it's almost like his familiarity with the Harry Potter series is from seeing the movies and like he's only just heard of the Narnia books without actually having read them, or perhaps not having read them since childhood. The school is essentially Hogwarts on the Hudson. It's a college instead of a secondary school, but that mostly seems to be so there can be more drinking and sex, but otherwise the kids have to wear school uniforms like something out of a British boarding school (why I say it's based on the Harry Potter movies rather than books because in the books they wear robes, not boarding school uniforms). The students are divided into Disciplines, like majors, based on an assessment of skills, but they also hang out primarily with other people in their Discipline and even have their own clubhouses and compete in a sport that's like a more athletic magical chess against the other Disciplines. The main character even has a best friend who's the smartest girl in the class and something of a magical prodigy who has learned a lot of the spells already before the first day of classes. This book doesn't do anything original with the Harry Potter trope. Because the school is a pastiche of British boarding schools, the book doesn't explore the possibilities inherent in American magic or in the higher education of magic. Every so often a character will make a Harry Potter reference, almost as if to make sure we know that the similarities are intentional.
Then the "Narnia" books are barely disguised. They involve a family of British kids who travel into a magical land by going through the cabinet of a grandfather clock, the land is ruled by godlike twin rams, and the kids become kings and queens in this land. There's nothing about this world that really differentiates itself from Narnia or that's at all unique in the fantasy genre. The reason I doubt the author was a real Narnia fan is that the kids are surprised when they go to "Narnia" and find that it's a scary, dangerous place, not the cute magical land from the books. Narnia was never a safe place in the books. Even the "cute" talking animals turned out to be dangerous.
I'd think that any fantasy editor would demand more originality from the fantasy elements, as would most fantasy readers. That leads me to believe that this wasn't meant as a fantasy, but rather was using culturally familiar fantasy touchstones to tell a different kind of story. That story is somewhat interesting as it explores the clash between fantasy and reality, and how even a fantasy-like reality can't live up to an imaginary fantasyland from childhood. There's a cynical part of me that wonders if the message is supposed to be that reading fantasy novels is bad for kids because fantasy establishes unrealistic expectations about life, and you're better off reading "realistic" books where bad things happen to people and magic isn't real. If you're familiar with the fantasy tropes, it makes for a coming-of-age/ennui of the modern world novel that's more interesting than most, but if you're reading it as a fantasy novel and wanting to explore what it might be like for a recently graduated magician to find his way to the fantasy world of his childhood and really have to deal with it, then you'll have to wait for me to figure out a way to steal the idea and do it right without it being obvious that's what I'm doing.
I kicked off my Thanksgiving week last night by rewatching the "Turkeys Away" episode of WKRP. That has to be on the list not only of best Thanksgiving episodes or specials ever but also the funniest half hours of television ever. "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." I still remember when that first aired and I was worried that my dad was going to stop breathing from laughing so hard.
And now, a book report. Normally, I don't do critical reviews of books -- in either sense of the word. I figure that there isn't enough time to talk about all the good books, so why waste time discussing a book I wouldn't recommend? And because of that, I don't really get into in-depth analysis of books. I talk about and recommend books because I figure that people who like the books I write might like some of the books I read, and the discussion pretty much amounts to enough about the plot so you can decide whether or not it sounds interesting, plus what I like about it.
I'm going to make an exception today because I'm dealing with a book that I think might be of interest to my readers but that I can't just recommend, and explaining why it might be of interest and why it may not be what you think it will be requires being critical in the analytical sense, which may involve being negative in places. But I figure that this isn't an author I'm likely to run into, and since the book got the Big Book treatment, the author has experienced enough truly critical (in both senses of the word) reviews that me not being overwhelmingly positive isn't going to make him cry, even if he isn't so bombarded with enough media attention that he still bothers to have Google alerts set up.
The book in question is The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Essentially, it's Harry Potter meets Narnia, so you can see why it might be of interest to my readers. To sort of sum up the plot, it's about a bright teenager in Brooklyn who gets sidetracked on his way to his admissions interview for Princeton and ends up going through the entrance exams for what turns out to be a magical college. Ever since he was a kid, he's been obsessed with a series of Narnia-like fantasy novels, and learning that magic is real and going to a magical school is like a dream come true. Life after school turns out to be not so magical, but then one of his friends discovers that those books were actually based on fact, and he finds the way to travel to that magical world.
Except that's not really what the book is about, and if that's what you're reading it for, you'll likely be disappointed. It's not so much a fantasy novel as it is a literary novel that makes use of fantasy tropes to explore a particular approach to life. The first big clue is that describing the plot doesn't actually give a sense of what the book's about -- a sign of a literary novel. Then there's the pacing. There's no real "plot" to speak of, with little conflict or action until late in the novel. The first two-thirds are about the time in school -- think the Harry Potter books without any of the Voldemort stuff, just the going to classes and hanging out with friends stuff -- with just one appearance by the bad guy to hint at the fact that there is something dangerous out there but otherwise with no sense of building toward a threat. Then there's a Bright Lights, Big City style interlude where the newly minted magicians deal with the boredom of the real world by doing drugs and having sex. And then finally, in the last quarter of the book, we gear up to go to the fantasy world and face the bad guys.
But I think the big thing that keeps this from being a fantasy novel is that, as a fantasy, it's incredibly derivative. The author barely bothers to file off the serial numbers of the books he's building on, and it's all based on a fairly superficial reading of the books. In fact, it's almost like his familiarity with the Harry Potter series is from seeing the movies and like he's only just heard of the Narnia books without actually having read them, or perhaps not having read them since childhood. The school is essentially Hogwarts on the Hudson. It's a college instead of a secondary school, but that mostly seems to be so there can be more drinking and sex, but otherwise the kids have to wear school uniforms like something out of a British boarding school (why I say it's based on the Harry Potter movies rather than books because in the books they wear robes, not boarding school uniforms). The students are divided into Disciplines, like majors, based on an assessment of skills, but they also hang out primarily with other people in their Discipline and even have their own clubhouses and compete in a sport that's like a more athletic magical chess against the other Disciplines. The main character even has a best friend who's the smartest girl in the class and something of a magical prodigy who has learned a lot of the spells already before the first day of classes. This book doesn't do anything original with the Harry Potter trope. Because the school is a pastiche of British boarding schools, the book doesn't explore the possibilities inherent in American magic or in the higher education of magic. Every so often a character will make a Harry Potter reference, almost as if to make sure we know that the similarities are intentional.
Then the "Narnia" books are barely disguised. They involve a family of British kids who travel into a magical land by going through the cabinet of a grandfather clock, the land is ruled by godlike twin rams, and the kids become kings and queens in this land. There's nothing about this world that really differentiates itself from Narnia or that's at all unique in the fantasy genre. The reason I doubt the author was a real Narnia fan is that the kids are surprised when they go to "Narnia" and find that it's a scary, dangerous place, not the cute magical land from the books. Narnia was never a safe place in the books. Even the "cute" talking animals turned out to be dangerous.
I'd think that any fantasy editor would demand more originality from the fantasy elements, as would most fantasy readers. That leads me to believe that this wasn't meant as a fantasy, but rather was using culturally familiar fantasy touchstones to tell a different kind of story. That story is somewhat interesting as it explores the clash between fantasy and reality, and how even a fantasy-like reality can't live up to an imaginary fantasyland from childhood. There's a cynical part of me that wonders if the message is supposed to be that reading fantasy novels is bad for kids because fantasy establishes unrealistic expectations about life, and you're better off reading "realistic" books where bad things happen to people and magic isn't real. If you're familiar with the fantasy tropes, it makes for a coming-of-age/ennui of the modern world novel that's more interesting than most, but if you're reading it as a fantasy novel and wanting to explore what it might be like for a recently graduated magician to find his way to the fantasy world of his childhood and really have to deal with it, then you'll have to wait for me to figure out a way to steal the idea and do it right without it being obvious that's what I'm doing.
November 22, 2010
Coming Attractions
I woke up today with a bad case of the don't wannas -- only to realize that there really isn't anything I have to do. I always compare the completion of a book project to the end of a semester in school, where you've just gone through a long period of always having something you were supposed to be doing, and the final push is really intense, and then when it's all over, you feel kind of weird not doing anything, like there's something you're supposed to be doing that you forgot about. This project isn't exactly done, but this phase of it is, and although I'll probably keep working on it out of a sense of optimism, I'm not on a deadline.
Between seeing the new Harry Potter movie twice this weekend and getting bored and going through all the coming attractions previews they have OnDemand, I feel like I've had a good glimpse into the future of moviegoing, so here are some of my thoughts and observations on the coming attractions.
There are apparently two "green" superhero movies coming out, The Green Lantern and The Green Hornet, and because I'm not really a comic book or superhero person, I can't quite keep track of which one is which. One seems to be more of the straightforward heroic type thing involving a guy with some serious abs and the other seems to be more of a comedic thing involving one of those overgrown manchild slacker guys (I won't even say "frat boy" because a frat boy has at least managed to get into college). Neither movie looks particularly interesting.
They ran the Cowboys and Aliens trailer both times I saw Harry Potter, and it got the same reaction both times. It starts out looking very traditional old west, and then there's an alien attack, and we see James Bond and Han Solo fighting against spaceships in the old west, and then the title of the movie comes up and the audience totally cracks up. I guess because of the "Aliens" instead of the more traditional "Indians," but I still wasn't sure why that title was so very funny after the trailer we'd just seen.
They seem to be giving the Little Red Riding Hood story the Twilight treatment in a movie called Red Riding Hood. The trailer mostly seemed to involve moody shots of a long red cape swirling around on the snow, mixed in with earnest scenes of attractive young people saying things like, "We can never be together!" and looking angstily at each other.
I'm very excited for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That book was very cinematic, so it should make for a good film. I just want it to do well enough that The Silver Chair gets made (IMDB currently has it "In Development") because that was my favorite book in the series, and I think the quest story would make for a good movie. Plus, since they seem to like trying to add teen romance to the series (since there was none in the books but that's good for box office), that's the one book where the two Earth kids traveling in Narnia aren't related to each other, so I think it would lend itself well to a budding attraction that develops along the way, depending on how old the kids are by the time they make it.
On the romantic comedy front, it looks like my holiday season romantic comedy will be How Do You Know. I like the lead actors, and it looks like it's Paul Rudd in nice guy romantic comedy lead mode, not frat-pack mode, and I generally like James L. Brooks movies. It doesn't look like it's a holiday-set film, though, since it seems to be taking place during baseball season. I really need another holiday-set romantic comedy, since I think The Holiday was the last one. On the other hand, Love and Other Drugs looks like it will fall into the "not for me" category.
I admit that I'm kind of intrigued by the new version of True Grit. Supposedly, this one is more based on the novel than the John Wayne version was, and the cast looks good. There was a condensed version of the novel in one of those Readers Digest Condensed Books volumes we had when I was a kid (that we probably got from my grandmother), and that was one of my chosen ways to traumatize myself. I have a snake phobia, and for some weird reason, I liked to force myself to read the scene where the girl falls into the snake pit. I don't remember anything else from the book, so I may not have read it all, and I suspect it would have gone over my head, as I was about six or seven at the time.
I did watch one non-Harry Potter movie over the weekend. There was a British supposed romantic comedy (which was actually neither) on Sundance Channel OnDemand called Someone Else. Basically, it's about a man with a longterm girlfriend who has been seeing someone else, breaks up with his girlfriend to be with his other girlfriend, only to find out that other girlfriend is seeing someone else, and he sets out to find someone else but has bad luck with that, mostly because he's a selfish, boring idiot. It was so bleak and depressing that I ended up watching a CSI marathon on Spike afterward to cheer myself up and get a more positive outlook on life (and I don't even normally watch CSI). But I guess all of that love sucks and people suck stuff is what made it Sundance-worthy. It's not art if people are happy.
So, anyway, I may actually be going to the movie theater in the next month or so. I'd like to see Morning Glory (maybe tomorrow) because I used to work on a morning news show. After I get back from Thanksgiving, I'll have to see Tangled. Then the next week I'll see Voyage of the Dawn Treader on opening day. The following week, there's How Do You Know, and then my friends will be going to see the new Tron that Saturday (though I never saw the first one, but I think that will be rectified the previous weekend). I admit that I'm kind of intrigued by Black Swan because of the whole psycho ballerina angle, but I doubt that will be playing at my neighborhood theater. I may have to make a trek downtown for that. I hope it will play at one of the theaters I can get to via train, since they'll be opening the line that runs up to my part of town in early December.
Oh, and while I was at IMDB, I couldn't resist peeking at the Enchanted, Inc. movie page. Apparently, there's now some Facebook thingy where you can "like" it. Only 4 people like it so far. I don't know if getting lots of "likes" will help give it a push, but if you feel so inclined ...
Between seeing the new Harry Potter movie twice this weekend and getting bored and going through all the coming attractions previews they have OnDemand, I feel like I've had a good glimpse into the future of moviegoing, so here are some of my thoughts and observations on the coming attractions.
There are apparently two "green" superhero movies coming out, The Green Lantern and The Green Hornet, and because I'm not really a comic book or superhero person, I can't quite keep track of which one is which. One seems to be more of the straightforward heroic type thing involving a guy with some serious abs and the other seems to be more of a comedic thing involving one of those overgrown manchild slacker guys (I won't even say "frat boy" because a frat boy has at least managed to get into college). Neither movie looks particularly interesting.
They ran the Cowboys and Aliens trailer both times I saw Harry Potter, and it got the same reaction both times. It starts out looking very traditional old west, and then there's an alien attack, and we see James Bond and Han Solo fighting against spaceships in the old west, and then the title of the movie comes up and the audience totally cracks up. I guess because of the "Aliens" instead of the more traditional "Indians," but I still wasn't sure why that title was so very funny after the trailer we'd just seen.
They seem to be giving the Little Red Riding Hood story the Twilight treatment in a movie called Red Riding Hood. The trailer mostly seemed to involve moody shots of a long red cape swirling around on the snow, mixed in with earnest scenes of attractive young people saying things like, "We can never be together!" and looking angstily at each other.
I'm very excited for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. That book was very cinematic, so it should make for a good film. I just want it to do well enough that The Silver Chair gets made (IMDB currently has it "In Development") because that was my favorite book in the series, and I think the quest story would make for a good movie. Plus, since they seem to like trying to add teen romance to the series (since there was none in the books but that's good for box office), that's the one book where the two Earth kids traveling in Narnia aren't related to each other, so I think it would lend itself well to a budding attraction that develops along the way, depending on how old the kids are by the time they make it.
On the romantic comedy front, it looks like my holiday season romantic comedy will be How Do You Know. I like the lead actors, and it looks like it's Paul Rudd in nice guy romantic comedy lead mode, not frat-pack mode, and I generally like James L. Brooks movies. It doesn't look like it's a holiday-set film, though, since it seems to be taking place during baseball season. I really need another holiday-set romantic comedy, since I think The Holiday was the last one. On the other hand, Love and Other Drugs looks like it will fall into the "not for me" category.
I admit that I'm kind of intrigued by the new version of True Grit. Supposedly, this one is more based on the novel than the John Wayne version was, and the cast looks good. There was a condensed version of the novel in one of those Readers Digest Condensed Books volumes we had when I was a kid (that we probably got from my grandmother), and that was one of my chosen ways to traumatize myself. I have a snake phobia, and for some weird reason, I liked to force myself to read the scene where the girl falls into the snake pit. I don't remember anything else from the book, so I may not have read it all, and I suspect it would have gone over my head, as I was about six or seven at the time.
I did watch one non-Harry Potter movie over the weekend. There was a British supposed romantic comedy (which was actually neither) on Sundance Channel OnDemand called Someone Else. Basically, it's about a man with a longterm girlfriend who has been seeing someone else, breaks up with his girlfriend to be with his other girlfriend, only to find out that other girlfriend is seeing someone else, and he sets out to find someone else but has bad luck with that, mostly because he's a selfish, boring idiot. It was so bleak and depressing that I ended up watching a CSI marathon on Spike afterward to cheer myself up and get a more positive outlook on life (and I don't even normally watch CSI). But I guess all of that love sucks and people suck stuff is what made it Sundance-worthy. It's not art if people are happy.
So, anyway, I may actually be going to the movie theater in the next month or so. I'd like to see Morning Glory (maybe tomorrow) because I used to work on a morning news show. After I get back from Thanksgiving, I'll have to see Tangled. Then the next week I'll see Voyage of the Dawn Treader on opening day. The following week, there's How Do You Know, and then my friends will be going to see the new Tron that Saturday (though I never saw the first one, but I think that will be rectified the previous weekend). I admit that I'm kind of intrigued by Black Swan because of the whole psycho ballerina angle, but I doubt that will be playing at my neighborhood theater. I may have to make a trek downtown for that. I hope it will play at one of the theaters I can get to via train, since they'll be opening the line that runs up to my part of town in early December.
Oh, and while I was at IMDB, I couldn't resist peeking at the Enchanted, Inc. movie page. Apparently, there's now some Facebook thingy where you can "like" it. Only 4 people like it so far. I don't know if getting lots of "likes" will help give it a push, but if you feel so inclined ...
November 19, 2010
Harry Potter and the Blown-Off Workday
I finished and sent off the proposal yesterday, and now I'm going to take a long Thanksgiving holiday (though I do have some medical school work to do). I celebrated by making a Target run and getting the new Josh Groban CD (I've decided to fully embrace the fact that I have a middle-aged woman's taste in music, which I've had since I was a small child, but now I've finally aged into it), then digging into my new set of Doctor Who DVDs that I had been too busy to look at, followed by a bubble bath and some reading. During some of the reading, I had the sixth Harry Potter movie playing from HBO OnDemand in the background (I have the DVD, but it's easier to pull it up OnDemand right now).
Then this morning I went to see the first morning show of the new Harry Potter movie. Yeah, I'm getting together with friends tomorrow to see it, but what's the point of working for yourself and getting a project done if you can't play hooky for a day and see the first show of the day? Since my friends happen to be gathering at my neighborhood theater, I decided to go to the theater at the mall that has digital projection, since it's rather redundant to see the movie twice at the same theater. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. In this one, the digital sound and projection were lovely, but the walls between auditoriums were apparently made of tissue because in the quieter moments (and they do a lot of letting silence speak volumes) you could hear the movie showing next door well enough to understand the dialogue. It was the same movie that started half an hour later, and I was able to track exactly where in the movie they were next door. That sort of ruined the impact of those quieter scenes. I don't recall that problem at my neighborhood theater.
As for the movie itself, no spoilers, but I liked it. I'm glad they cut it into two films because that allowed them to get the important stuff in without it feeling too rushed. I would say that you might be a little confused if you haven't read the books -- not so much this book, but the rest of the series. There were several things in this book that I was wondering how they'd deal with them, since the plot lines that set up those things had been entirely left out of the movies. I was surprised to see that they were more or less dealt with exactly as they were in the book, so the set-up came out of nowhere. Even weirder, they referred to events that didn't happen in the movies -- and I'm not just talking about things that might have happened off-screen, but where they changed the way things happened in the movies and who was present for those events. That made for a couple of weirdly unnecessary references. I may have to rewatch the fourth movie, because there's something that was in that book that I was pretty sure wasn't in that movie that gets referenced here, and it took me aback. There's also one little thing changed from the book that really bothered me because changing it struck me as falling into the category of Missing A Major Point They've Been Setting Up For Seven Books, but I suppose there's still a way it could be made a factor in the second part, so I'll let it slide for now.
Other than those nitpicks, I enjoyed it. The three main actors have really grown into those roles and you believe in their bond, and that makes everything else work well. There's some inspired casting for the "adult" roles. I'm probably still in the "squee!" phase and may be able to be more analytical after tomorrow's viewing.
While I'm in review mode, I'll need to give it another listen, but I think this Josh Groban album may become my favorite of his. With his others, I have favorite songs I've put on playlists, but I seldom listen to the entire album. This one is an album to listen to in its entirety. It's a lot more intimate and less of that "popera" bombast that his former producer seemed to like. And, weirdly enough, it almost works as a soundtrack to the book in progress. That could be because that's what's on my mind and that makes me see everything that way, but there's something about the sound that seems to fit for me and many of the songs could come from the perspective of the characters.
And now the sign is telling me to go spend the rest of the day relaxing and reading. Or baking cookies. I suddenly really desperately want cookies. That is, the sign says I do (actually, it's just telling me that there's a town hall meeting coming up, but I think that's code for "bake cookies").
Then this morning I went to see the first morning show of the new Harry Potter movie. Yeah, I'm getting together with friends tomorrow to see it, but what's the point of working for yourself and getting a project done if you can't play hooky for a day and see the first show of the day? Since my friends happen to be gathering at my neighborhood theater, I decided to go to the theater at the mall that has digital projection, since it's rather redundant to see the movie twice at the same theater. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. In this one, the digital sound and projection were lovely, but the walls between auditoriums were apparently made of tissue because in the quieter moments (and they do a lot of letting silence speak volumes) you could hear the movie showing next door well enough to understand the dialogue. It was the same movie that started half an hour later, and I was able to track exactly where in the movie they were next door. That sort of ruined the impact of those quieter scenes. I don't recall that problem at my neighborhood theater.
As for the movie itself, no spoilers, but I liked it. I'm glad they cut it into two films because that allowed them to get the important stuff in without it feeling too rushed. I would say that you might be a little confused if you haven't read the books -- not so much this book, but the rest of the series. There were several things in this book that I was wondering how they'd deal with them, since the plot lines that set up those things had been entirely left out of the movies. I was surprised to see that they were more or less dealt with exactly as they were in the book, so the set-up came out of nowhere. Even weirder, they referred to events that didn't happen in the movies -- and I'm not just talking about things that might have happened off-screen, but where they changed the way things happened in the movies and who was present for those events. That made for a couple of weirdly unnecessary references. I may have to rewatch the fourth movie, because there's something that was in that book that I was pretty sure wasn't in that movie that gets referenced here, and it took me aback. There's also one little thing changed from the book that really bothered me because changing it struck me as falling into the category of Missing A Major Point They've Been Setting Up For Seven Books, but I suppose there's still a way it could be made a factor in the second part, so I'll let it slide for now.
Other than those nitpicks, I enjoyed it. The three main actors have really grown into those roles and you believe in their bond, and that makes everything else work well. There's some inspired casting for the "adult" roles. I'm probably still in the "squee!" phase and may be able to be more analytical after tomorrow's viewing.
While I'm in review mode, I'll need to give it another listen, but I think this Josh Groban album may become my favorite of his. With his others, I have favorite songs I've put on playlists, but I seldom listen to the entire album. This one is an album to listen to in its entirety. It's a lot more intimate and less of that "popera" bombast that his former producer seemed to like. And, weirdly enough, it almost works as a soundtrack to the book in progress. That could be because that's what's on my mind and that makes me see everything that way, but there's something about the sound that seems to fit for me and many of the songs could come from the perspective of the characters.
And now the sign is telling me to go spend the rest of the day relaxing and reading. Or baking cookies. I suddenly really desperately want cookies. That is, the sign says I do (actually, it's just telling me that there's a town hall meeting coming up, but I think that's code for "bake cookies").
November 18, 2010
Warning: This Post Was Written with Book Brain
I'm really close to finishing this book proposal. I just have about 60 pages to read out loud for proofreading, and then I need to review the synopses. I was going to town rewriting the synopsis for the second book and incorporating all my fun story ideas for it, and then I remembered that my agent said one page would be enough. At the time, I had five pages. It's down to two, and I may trim it further. At this stage of the process, vague is actually kind of good because details give them something to quibble over. I may even try writing it as though it's back-cover copy. I'm determined to get all this done today and sent either today or tomorrow morning because tomorrow is Harry Potter day, and although I'm planning to see the movie with my friends on Saturday, there's not much point in working at home for yourself if you can't play hooky from work on opening day to see an early showing. Besides, I'd like to see it once on my own to actually watch the movie before I see it as a social experience with friends.
So, that means book proposal has to go before I go. Then in addition to seeing the movie, I have a book that I need to finish reading by Saturday because it's due back at the library, and since I got it from the "new releases" shelf I may not be able to renew it. I also have a lot of TV to catch up on. I taped Monday's House, but I may not bother with it because the new character infuriates me. Seriously, they hired a third-year medical student for a fellowship? I will not go into med school mode to explain in detail why that's preposterous, but honestly, Hollywood writers, "smart" doesn't trump everything in medicine. It's more about skill and experience, so stop it with these "super genius" characters who haven't had time to develop any skills or experience (and which seem to mostly be an excuse to hire ridiculously young actresses, since, apparently, women actually old enough to be in that position in the real world would be icky because they'd have to be over 30). Ahem. I'm planning to catch up on Hawaii Five-O and NCIS: LA OnDemand, maybe over the weekend. I'm less and less enthusiastic about the latter because I'm afraid they aren't going to see the error of their ways, and I'm resigned to feeling like the fun, quirky show I liked was cancelled after one season and replaced by a generic, paint-by-numbers cop show. Even when I actually like a show at the top of the ratings, I can't seem to win and they find a way to "cancel" it.
But I think the book reading and movie viewing have to come before TV viewing on the priority list. Meanwhile, I just thought my body was complaining yesterday. The full pain from the jazz class kicked in last night, about the time I was sitting on the floor in the children's choir room with a kindergardener in my lap (the little girls compete to see who gets to sit with the teenagers, and the loser gets me). For a moment, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get up again. Today I'm moving like a less-graceful Frankenstein monster. When I finish the book proposal, I may reward myself with a nice, hot bubble bath. Then I might be able to move tomorrow.
So, that means book proposal has to go before I go. Then in addition to seeing the movie, I have a book that I need to finish reading by Saturday because it's due back at the library, and since I got it from the "new releases" shelf I may not be able to renew it. I also have a lot of TV to catch up on. I taped Monday's House, but I may not bother with it because the new character infuriates me. Seriously, they hired a third-year medical student for a fellowship? I will not go into med school mode to explain in detail why that's preposterous, but honestly, Hollywood writers, "smart" doesn't trump everything in medicine. It's more about skill and experience, so stop it with these "super genius" characters who haven't had time to develop any skills or experience (and which seem to mostly be an excuse to hire ridiculously young actresses, since, apparently, women actually old enough to be in that position in the real world would be icky because they'd have to be over 30). Ahem. I'm planning to catch up on Hawaii Five-O and NCIS: LA OnDemand, maybe over the weekend. I'm less and less enthusiastic about the latter because I'm afraid they aren't going to see the error of their ways, and I'm resigned to feeling like the fun, quirky show I liked was cancelled after one season and replaced by a generic, paint-by-numbers cop show. Even when I actually like a show at the top of the ratings, I can't seem to win and they find a way to "cancel" it.
But I think the book reading and movie viewing have to come before TV viewing on the priority list. Meanwhile, I just thought my body was complaining yesterday. The full pain from the jazz class kicked in last night, about the time I was sitting on the floor in the children's choir room with a kindergardener in my lap (the little girls compete to see who gets to sit with the teenagers, and the loser gets me). For a moment, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get up again. Today I'm moving like a less-graceful Frankenstein monster. When I finish the book proposal, I may reward myself with a nice, hot bubble bath. Then I might be able to move tomorrow.
November 17, 2010
The Hero's Journey: Approach to the Inmost Cave
Today's really late start came courtesy of taking two dance classes in a row last night, which left my body whimpering this morning and refusing to leave the featherbed. I may have another late night tonight, since I have choir and I may try to finish this book proposal, but I swear, on Friday I'm setting an alarm to try to force myself back onto a more reasonable schedule.
I got a synopsis for the first book written yesterday and one for the second -- until I started working on the third and came up with ideas that fit in the second book, which ended up totally changing the plot of the second book. I'm sure editors know that proposals like this are subject to change when the book is actually written and they just need to be able to show that there are plans for more books where stuff will happen. At least I think I'm beyond the point of the book 3 synopsis going along the lines of "Lots of stuff happens, things blow up, good triumphs over evil, love conquers all, and they live happily ever after." Which was where I was before yesterday.
Now, for a writing post. I'm still following the stages of the hero's journey, as outlined by Christopher Vogler in his book The Writer's Journey, which takes the work on universal myth done by Joseph Campbell and distills it for modern storytelling. Last time, we went through the Tests, Allies and Enemies phase, in which the hero gets used to the special world of the story. Now we get serious, with the Approach to the Inmost Cave.
In this part of the story, the hero prepares to enter an even more special sub-world within the story's special world -- the enemy's fortress, the temple, the forbidden kingdom. The previous phase has been a time of generalized preparation as the hero learns the rules of the special world, assembles his team of allies and learns who his enemies really are and what they're up to. In this phase, he does more specialized preparation for a focused mission into the heart of the enemy. This isn't the lead-up to the final major confrontation, but rather to the initial major confrontation -- the mid-term exam instead of the final.
A lot of things may happen during this phase. It's one of the two main places in the story where love scenes are likely to happen. If a romantic relationship is brewing, this may be where the characters first acknowledge it as part of their preparation for the ordeal that's coming. It's a time of bonding that may be used to raise the stakes if the love interest is put in jeopardy during the coming ordeal. This is also a time for serious preparation -- specific research and recon, arming, setting out weapons. Think about most military action type movies and the scenes where we see the characters slamming magazines into their weapons, checking weapons and strapping grenades onto their belts as they get ready to go on the mission or storm the fortress.
During the approach, some of the earlier steps of the journey may repeat in a more intense way, since the hero is crossing another threshold. He may run into tests, obstacles or threshold guardians who are trying to keep him from crossing the threshold. Once over that threshold into the special-special world, the hero has to quickly learn any additional rules that apply to this realm. Since the original myths that this story pattern came from usually involve the hero being in a temple, the underworld or the realm of the gods at this phase, there may be semi-religious or psychological undertones to this part of the story, where the hero has to confront aspects of himself or his beliefs before he can move on. The most obvious (and rather on-the-nose) example of this may be in The Empire Strikes Back, where Luke has to enter the magical cave as part of his training, where he runs into Darth Vader, fights him, and cuts off his head, only to see his own face under the mask.
When I think about examples of the Approach from films, I've been amused at how well the imagery often fits the "cave" concept. So often, we'll see our heroes going underground, into a mouth-like entrance or otherwise entering a place where the physical surroundings become narrow and confining, like their options are being closed off. There's the Mines of Moria scene in The Lord of the Rings. In the original Star Wars, the ship gets pulled into the gaping maw of the Death Star. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones goes underground into the chamber where the Ark rests.
In pacing terms, this phase of the story isn't usually an action sequence. It's more about anticipation and suspense. You know something big is about to happen, and the events of this phase should increase the suspense, making the audience more and more tense.
Next time: Things happen as the hero goes through an ordeal.
I got a synopsis for the first book written yesterday and one for the second -- until I started working on the third and came up with ideas that fit in the second book, which ended up totally changing the plot of the second book. I'm sure editors know that proposals like this are subject to change when the book is actually written and they just need to be able to show that there are plans for more books where stuff will happen. At least I think I'm beyond the point of the book 3 synopsis going along the lines of "Lots of stuff happens, things blow up, good triumphs over evil, love conquers all, and they live happily ever after." Which was where I was before yesterday.
Now, for a writing post. I'm still following the stages of the hero's journey, as outlined by Christopher Vogler in his book The Writer's Journey, which takes the work on universal myth done by Joseph Campbell and distills it for modern storytelling. Last time, we went through the Tests, Allies and Enemies phase, in which the hero gets used to the special world of the story. Now we get serious, with the Approach to the Inmost Cave.
In this part of the story, the hero prepares to enter an even more special sub-world within the story's special world -- the enemy's fortress, the temple, the forbidden kingdom. The previous phase has been a time of generalized preparation as the hero learns the rules of the special world, assembles his team of allies and learns who his enemies really are and what they're up to. In this phase, he does more specialized preparation for a focused mission into the heart of the enemy. This isn't the lead-up to the final major confrontation, but rather to the initial major confrontation -- the mid-term exam instead of the final.
A lot of things may happen during this phase. It's one of the two main places in the story where love scenes are likely to happen. If a romantic relationship is brewing, this may be where the characters first acknowledge it as part of their preparation for the ordeal that's coming. It's a time of bonding that may be used to raise the stakes if the love interest is put in jeopardy during the coming ordeal. This is also a time for serious preparation -- specific research and recon, arming, setting out weapons. Think about most military action type movies and the scenes where we see the characters slamming magazines into their weapons, checking weapons and strapping grenades onto their belts as they get ready to go on the mission or storm the fortress.
During the approach, some of the earlier steps of the journey may repeat in a more intense way, since the hero is crossing another threshold. He may run into tests, obstacles or threshold guardians who are trying to keep him from crossing the threshold. Once over that threshold into the special-special world, the hero has to quickly learn any additional rules that apply to this realm. Since the original myths that this story pattern came from usually involve the hero being in a temple, the underworld or the realm of the gods at this phase, there may be semi-religious or psychological undertones to this part of the story, where the hero has to confront aspects of himself or his beliefs before he can move on. The most obvious (and rather on-the-nose) example of this may be in The Empire Strikes Back, where Luke has to enter the magical cave as part of his training, where he runs into Darth Vader, fights him, and cuts off his head, only to see his own face under the mask.
When I think about examples of the Approach from films, I've been amused at how well the imagery often fits the "cave" concept. So often, we'll see our heroes going underground, into a mouth-like entrance or otherwise entering a place where the physical surroundings become narrow and confining, like their options are being closed off. There's the Mines of Moria scene in The Lord of the Rings. In the original Star Wars, the ship gets pulled into the gaping maw of the Death Star. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones goes underground into the chamber where the Ark rests.
In pacing terms, this phase of the story isn't usually an action sequence. It's more about anticipation and suspense. You know something big is about to happen, and the events of this phase should increase the suspense, making the audience more and more tense.
Next time: Things happen as the hero goes through an ordeal.
November 16, 2010
Blaming the Sign
Last night, the sign across the street tried to tell me to make brownies. I made some over the weekend, but they were for sharing, and they were all gone, and the sign seemed to think I deserved some of my own. But a combination of cooking laziness and work diligence won.
That sign may prove to be a better excuse/scapegoat than Stan the ghost. Between the two of them, I may never have to take responsibility for anything ever again. Either Stan did it or the sign told me to do it.
I had another very late start to the day, but I earned this one because I was working until around midnight last night. I think I'm done with most of the revisions to the first hundred pages of the book. I completely rewrote a pivotal scene last night, and now I think I need to re-read it to make sure it still makes sense. Considering the state I was in while I was working on it, I might also need to make sure it's actually in English. Now I just need to write a synopsis, now that I have a better idea of what the plot actually is, along with outlines for the next two books in the series. Normally, I know the character arcs but am fuzzy on the specific plot details. This time, I know the major plot details but am fuzzy on the character arcs because I have to get to those plot events to know how they'll affect the characters. There's also a potential romantic triangle brewing, and I'm not entirely sure which team I'm on in the long term. I'm currently leaning one way, but that could change if the other guy does something to surprise or impress me.
In other news, I think I want to steampunk my Christmas tree. It's already fairly Victorian, so I'd just need to add a few touches to take it into the steampunk realm. Now I need to find sources for those touches. And the time to do something about it. But I should be shipping this proposal off this week, and that will give me breathing room.
It will be another late night tonight because I think I'm going to take jazz tonight, and then Craig Ferguson is doing a Doctor Who episode on the Late, Late Show (or whatever they're calling it now) with Matt Smith and Daleks. Matt Smith appears to be almost as odd as the Doctor, so that could be highly entertaining.
Uh oh, the sign just told me I had to get to work (actually, I think it was just something about a town hall meeting, but without my glasses on and without the binoculars, I can decide it says whatever I want it to say).
That sign may prove to be a better excuse/scapegoat than Stan the ghost. Between the two of them, I may never have to take responsibility for anything ever again. Either Stan did it or the sign told me to do it.
I had another very late start to the day, but I earned this one because I was working until around midnight last night. I think I'm done with most of the revisions to the first hundred pages of the book. I completely rewrote a pivotal scene last night, and now I think I need to re-read it to make sure it still makes sense. Considering the state I was in while I was working on it, I might also need to make sure it's actually in English. Now I just need to write a synopsis, now that I have a better idea of what the plot actually is, along with outlines for the next two books in the series. Normally, I know the character arcs but am fuzzy on the specific plot details. This time, I know the major plot details but am fuzzy on the character arcs because I have to get to those plot events to know how they'll affect the characters. There's also a potential romantic triangle brewing, and I'm not entirely sure which team I'm on in the long term. I'm currently leaning one way, but that could change if the other guy does something to surprise or impress me.
In other news, I think I want to steampunk my Christmas tree. It's already fairly Victorian, so I'd just need to add a few touches to take it into the steampunk realm. Now I need to find sources for those touches. And the time to do something about it. But I should be shipping this proposal off this week, and that will give me breathing room.
It will be another late night tonight because I think I'm going to take jazz tonight, and then Craig Ferguson is doing a Doctor Who episode on the Late, Late Show (or whatever they're calling it now) with Matt Smith and Daleks. Matt Smith appears to be almost as odd as the Doctor, so that could be highly entertaining.
Uh oh, the sign just told me I had to get to work (actually, I think it was just something about a town hall meeting, but without my glasses on and without the binoculars, I can decide it says whatever I want it to say).
November 15, 2010
Things the Sign Told Me to Post
I'm hoping the start to the day isn't some sign of how it will go because I got a ridiculously late and slow start. I didn't really sleep in because I wasn't exactly sleeping. I was lying there, thinking and daydreaming. I had a mental story going, and I had to get to the end before I got up. I suppose there's nothing to stop me from doing my daydreaming while sitting at my desk or on the sofa, but there's also no real benefit to doing so, aside from being able to say that I got out of bed at a certain time. Meanwhile, there is benefit to lying nestled in the featherbed and snuggled under the comforter while doing the daydreaming. I consider the daydreaming to be vaguely work-related. The particular mental story I was playing with wasn't directly related to any project currently in progress, but I sometimes find that the themes or situations that come up in mental stories are a good source of ideas that I can use in real projects. I guess it's the mental version of writing in longhand on notebook paper when I'm considering changing something big and I'm afraid to commit. It doesn't feel as "real" when I'm scribbling on notebook paper, so I'm more free to stretch my ideas, and then when I'm done, I can tell the new thing is better, so it's less scary to type it into the actual document. With the daydreaming, playing with an idea with a totally different set of characters makes it easier to explore the idea without getting it too mentally associated with the characters. If it doesn't work, I don't want to remember that happening with those characters because it might color the way I see them, even if I don't write that into the book. If it does work, I can then steal it and apply it to the real characters. At last, that's my rationalization for spending a couple of hours lying in bed, thinking, in the morning.
I had another weekend that actually felt like a weekend. Friday was my standard watch TV/read/cook night. Saturday there was a meeting of a group I'm in (pretty much a social club for geeks -- it's an official club and all, but it's mostly just friends hanging out). Afterward, we watched the last Harry Potter movie on Blu-Ray, in preparation for our planned outing next weekend to see the new one. I got to watch most of the movie while cuddling an official Harry Potter stuffed dragon, courtesy of my friends' little boy, who walked over and presented it to me at some point during the movie. I feel rather honored to be the kind of person to whom small children entrust their toys. Then there was an excursion for hamburgers. So I actually went out on a Saturday night. Wow.
And then for more "world comes to an end, film at eleven" events, I actually watched most of a Dallas Cowboys game, for the first time in ages. That was because of the coaching change. I loved Jason Garrett when he was the backup quarterback in the 90s, probably because of my thing for unlikely heroes. Here was a guy who went to Princeton who was a practice squad quarterback (the guy the defense practiced against) who then became a backup on the actual team, and then suddenly found himself coming off the bench when the two guys ahead of him were hurt, and he won games. The same thing seems to be happening to him as a coach -- they fire the head coach midway through the season, and he suddenly has to take over a losing team and pulls off a win. It's like someone scripted it. I'm mentally casting Damian Lewis for the movie.
Speaking of whom, I discovered that HBO had the entire Band of Brothers series OnDemand, I guess for Veterans' Day, since it ends today. I watched a couple of episodes yesterday evening. I need to get that series on DVD. It still works as stress relief, I guess because it makes my problems seem so insignificant.
Meanwhile, my new essential desk accessory is a pair of binoculars. My desk faces a set of sliding glass doors, and since this is on the second floor (don't worry, there is a balcony, not just a random set of doors on the second floor), I have a nice view of the street behind my house. They've put up one of those lighted message boards on the street corner, just where I can see it from my desk. However, I can't quite read it without the binoculars. Mostly, it's neighborhood announcements, but every so often, they flash the time and temperature, which is handy to see. That's when I grab the binoculars to get the update. I'll also grab the binoculars if there's a screen I don't recall seeing before. I may be the best-informed person in the neighborhood because I don't think anyone else has this direct a view of the sign. Oddly, I can't seem to read it when I'm driving by it or at the stoplight at the intersection, so it's possible that I'm the only person who can actually read the message board.
If it starts sending me messages to kill people or gather my followers and wait for the aliens, then I will put away the binoculars. And maybe close the blinds.
Right now, though, the sign is telling me to get to work because I have to get a proposal done.
I had another weekend that actually felt like a weekend. Friday was my standard watch TV/read/cook night. Saturday there was a meeting of a group I'm in (pretty much a social club for geeks -- it's an official club and all, but it's mostly just friends hanging out). Afterward, we watched the last Harry Potter movie on Blu-Ray, in preparation for our planned outing next weekend to see the new one. I got to watch most of the movie while cuddling an official Harry Potter stuffed dragon, courtesy of my friends' little boy, who walked over and presented it to me at some point during the movie. I feel rather honored to be the kind of person to whom small children entrust their toys. Then there was an excursion for hamburgers. So I actually went out on a Saturday night. Wow.
And then for more "world comes to an end, film at eleven" events, I actually watched most of a Dallas Cowboys game, for the first time in ages. That was because of the coaching change. I loved Jason Garrett when he was the backup quarterback in the 90s, probably because of my thing for unlikely heroes. Here was a guy who went to Princeton who was a practice squad quarterback (the guy the defense practiced against) who then became a backup on the actual team, and then suddenly found himself coming off the bench when the two guys ahead of him were hurt, and he won games. The same thing seems to be happening to him as a coach -- they fire the head coach midway through the season, and he suddenly has to take over a losing team and pulls off a win. It's like someone scripted it. I'm mentally casting Damian Lewis for the movie.
Speaking of whom, I discovered that HBO had the entire Band of Brothers series OnDemand, I guess for Veterans' Day, since it ends today. I watched a couple of episodes yesterday evening. I need to get that series on DVD. It still works as stress relief, I guess because it makes my problems seem so insignificant.
Meanwhile, my new essential desk accessory is a pair of binoculars. My desk faces a set of sliding glass doors, and since this is on the second floor (don't worry, there is a balcony, not just a random set of doors on the second floor), I have a nice view of the street behind my house. They've put up one of those lighted message boards on the street corner, just where I can see it from my desk. However, I can't quite read it without the binoculars. Mostly, it's neighborhood announcements, but every so often, they flash the time and temperature, which is handy to see. That's when I grab the binoculars to get the update. I'll also grab the binoculars if there's a screen I don't recall seeing before. I may be the best-informed person in the neighborhood because I don't think anyone else has this direct a view of the sign. Oddly, I can't seem to read it when I'm driving by it or at the stoplight at the intersection, so it's possible that I'm the only person who can actually read the message board.
If it starts sending me messages to kill people or gather my followers and wait for the aliens, then I will put away the binoculars. And maybe close the blinds.
Right now, though, the sign is telling me to get to work because I have to get a proposal done.
November 12, 2010
Life With Stan
I made more progress than I expected yesterday. I'm still analyzing the book for what needs to be fixed, but then I also got the second book outlined, and that gave me ideas for things to sprinkle in the beginning of this book. I think I may have something ready for my agent when she gets back from vacation.
Meanwhile, Stan has been acting up a lot lately, and he's getting into the electronics. I don't think I've mentioned Stan in a while, so here's the backstory: I sometimes joke about having a "ghost" because although I live alone and there's very seldom anyone else in my house and no one but me has a key, it often seems like things have been moved around or hidden. I can spend days looking for something, only to have it reappear in plain sight. It probably really is just me being disorganized and sloppy, but it's more fun to blame my "ghost." My house was built in 1984 and is pretty much the typical 80s bachelor pad kind of place. Furthermore, because of the layout and location, the consensus among my neighbors is that the original target market for our houses was airline crew members (and I think we do still have a fair number of airline crew members living here). So I decided that my ghost, whom I named Stan, was the ghost of a 1980s bachelor airline pilot who died while trying to impress a date with a stupid flying stunt. In my head, he looks a lot like a cheesy version of Magnum PI. He does seem to steal my 80s music CDs most often.
Well, lately, Stan seems to be trying to send and/or receive faxes. I ended up having to unplug my fax machine because of this. Suddenly, for no apparent reason and without the phone ringing, my fax machine would act like it was receiving a fax and printing it out, only nothing came out. The problem is that the printer cartridge on my machine is one of those rolls of film types, and it was advancing the roll even though it wasn't actually printing anything, so it used up an entire cartridge on the ghost faxes. This kept happening even after I removed the printer cartridge. I'd be sitting in the living room and hear a funny sound coming from upstairs, and it sounded like the fax machine was sending something. So, I unplugged it to end Stan's fun.
Meanwhile, he's been tinkering with my cable TV settings. With digital cable, there are about a zillion channels, and I only get a few of them, but all of them still show up on the onscreen cable guide, so favorites lists are a must. And yet I have to re-create my favorites lists every other day or so because I think Stan is rearranging them. Channels that aren't on my list will suddenly appear, while other channels that are on my list will disappear. I'll even have multiple versions of the same channel, with the original and a couple of different digital and HD versions (even though I don't have an HD box). Stan is no high-brow because PBS is one of the channels that always disappears from the list.
I could be falsely accusing Stan because my cable box reset itself last night while I was watching TV, and now my favorites lists are all messed up again. I don't know if it's my box or the system, but at least this is an improvement over the last box, which kept losing the signal and then distorting the picture. I can watch TV just fine with this box. It's just the favorite's list that I have to keep re-creating. And it's more fun to imagine a cable box war with a ghost than to think I have yet another faulty converter box.
Now I need to get to the library before the weather takes a turn for the worse. We're already approaching the "look out for British child-care professionals sailing under umbrella power" levels.
Meanwhile, Stan has been acting up a lot lately, and he's getting into the electronics. I don't think I've mentioned Stan in a while, so here's the backstory: I sometimes joke about having a "ghost" because although I live alone and there's very seldom anyone else in my house and no one but me has a key, it often seems like things have been moved around or hidden. I can spend days looking for something, only to have it reappear in plain sight. It probably really is just me being disorganized and sloppy, but it's more fun to blame my "ghost." My house was built in 1984 and is pretty much the typical 80s bachelor pad kind of place. Furthermore, because of the layout and location, the consensus among my neighbors is that the original target market for our houses was airline crew members (and I think we do still have a fair number of airline crew members living here). So I decided that my ghost, whom I named Stan, was the ghost of a 1980s bachelor airline pilot who died while trying to impress a date with a stupid flying stunt. In my head, he looks a lot like a cheesy version of Magnum PI. He does seem to steal my 80s music CDs most often.
Well, lately, Stan seems to be trying to send and/or receive faxes. I ended up having to unplug my fax machine because of this. Suddenly, for no apparent reason and without the phone ringing, my fax machine would act like it was receiving a fax and printing it out, only nothing came out. The problem is that the printer cartridge on my machine is one of those rolls of film types, and it was advancing the roll even though it wasn't actually printing anything, so it used up an entire cartridge on the ghost faxes. This kept happening even after I removed the printer cartridge. I'd be sitting in the living room and hear a funny sound coming from upstairs, and it sounded like the fax machine was sending something. So, I unplugged it to end Stan's fun.
Meanwhile, he's been tinkering with my cable TV settings. With digital cable, there are about a zillion channels, and I only get a few of them, but all of them still show up on the onscreen cable guide, so favorites lists are a must. And yet I have to re-create my favorites lists every other day or so because I think Stan is rearranging them. Channels that aren't on my list will suddenly appear, while other channels that are on my list will disappear. I'll even have multiple versions of the same channel, with the original and a couple of different digital and HD versions (even though I don't have an HD box). Stan is no high-brow because PBS is one of the channels that always disappears from the list.
I could be falsely accusing Stan because my cable box reset itself last night while I was watching TV, and now my favorites lists are all messed up again. I don't know if it's my box or the system, but at least this is an improvement over the last box, which kept losing the signal and then distorting the picture. I can watch TV just fine with this box. It's just the favorite's list that I have to keep re-creating. And it's more fun to imagine a cable box war with a ghost than to think I have yet another faulty converter box.
Now I need to get to the library before the weather takes a turn for the worse. We're already approaching the "look out for British child-care professionals sailing under umbrella power" levels.
