How I Spent My Thanksgiving Vacation

Actually, as I write this it's 10:17 pm on Monday, so I still have another day-and-a-half or so of Thanksgiving Vacation left, hee-hee. :)

But the Thanksgiving part of it is over, so I'll share that with you in excruciating detail.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Brian & I left Austin around 11:30 am and had a nice drive. We drove past every color of tree you can imagine! I'm talking green and brown, sure, but also yellow and red and orange, and some really groovy combinations of those color pattens! Really gorgeous!

We rolled into Shreveport around 6:30 pm, where Mom put us up at the Fairfield Marriott. (She & her hubby are renovating the guest room at their pad, so she prang for a room in town.)

After we checked in, Mom & Step-dad picked us up and took us out to eat at an Outback Steakhouse, and I had some Shrimp & Fettuccine that made me weep! OMG!!! The shrimp, somehow, tasted like steak, and the fettuccine was simply heavenly! I swear that they must have made the past by hand, right there in the restaurant or something, because I have never had tastier pasta!!!

The conversation was good, also, naturally. It's been a while since we've seen Erminio (Step-Pops), though Mom & I have been keeping in touch via email.

Afterward, they dropped us back at the hotel around 9:00 pm, where we found the beds to be possibly the most comfortable, relaxation-inducing beds EVER!

Okay, that might be a bit of exaggeration.

But I wasn't exaggerating about the Shrimp & Fettuccine!

At All!

Brian & I don't have cable, and therefor don't get Cartoon Network at home, so it was a really pleasant surprise to fall asleep to a show called Total Drama Island! Very funny show! I need to Netflix it when it comes out on dvd.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

When I woke up, C.N. was playing a Tom & Jerry marathon. (Not my cup of tea, but it was cool to wake up to toons, none the less.)

The hotel served a complimentary breakfast that was nice. I usually think of huge bowls of scrambled eggs and stacks of sausage patties and bacon and maybe a vat of gravy when I think "complimentary breakfast", but what they served was a bit more sensible and healthy than that, lol. There were piles of fruit and single-serving cereals and oatmeal and bagels and muffins and the like.

And, they did have biscuits and gravy, though!

They also had a nuke-able bacon/egg/cheese sandwich, so I got my eggs & bacon that way.

It was good.

8:21 pm - Just got back from the Horseshoe Casino!!!

No, wait! This was AFTER the traditional family Thanksgiving!

It was cool! We got to Mom's & Erminio's around 9:30 am and hung out as she cooked & stuff. Gan-Gan has a little house on their land, and Brian & I hung out with her on her porch for a lot of the time, chatting with Gan-Gan and just digging on all the nature around us!

Sometimes family Thanksgivings can be super stress-filled, but today was super-chill. I even got a chance to check my email! And waiting in my Inbox was a Thanksgiving greeting from Her Hotness, my Gnomey Goddess, wishing us all a happy Thanksgiving!!! :D (I mean, how SWEET is she! They don't do Turkey-Day up UK-way!)

I think it was around 3:00 pm or so when we all sat down to give thanks -- by way of stuffing ourselves with tasty, tasty food and grunting and groaning at each other about how delicious the meal is and how we really shouldn't have another helping, but we're going to anyway -- and then we all sat around for a while, bloated and deliriously contented.

Then Mom & Brian & I walked a little of the meal off as she gave us the tour of their land. It's a huge patch, and I can't think of a better place for Mom to do her retirement-thang! Had Brian & I become rich and famous already, I don't know if either of us could have picked out a better spot to set her & Gan-Gan up in.

THEN...

...around 5:00 pm (after what felt like an already long and well-rounded day) Mom got jiggy wit it!

She lives in Louisiana, and yet she doesn't get to go gambling very often. So she took Brian & me to the Horseshoe, where we three proceeded to hit the slots.

I thought about joining a Texas Hold 'Em game, but chickened out at the last minute. I've been playing it on the computer for fake dollars, but I wasn't sure how long could hold my own against real folks. I would hate to have blown my gambling money in fifteen minutes, then spent the rest of the time following Brian around the slot machines.

Wrapping up Thanksgiving Day with some gambling is probably not what our Puritanical forefathers had in mind when they created the holiday, but I've got to say: I am THANKFUL on this day! :)

This has been an unbelievable day of abundance (and some excess, hee-hee) and family and ENJOYING family!

OH, YEAH!!! Entering the casino, I GOT CARDED! This is SO GROOVY to me because I'm pushing 40 and I'm STILL getting carded, lol! My li'l bro -- 4 years younger than me -- and he just strolls in with Mom. Me, they stop and ask to see my I.D.!

How is that possible? NO idea! But it's flattering! ;P

Brian & I fall asleep to a House marathon, which is cool because it was random episodes -- some we've already seen and some from this season, with characters that Brian hadn't met yet.

Then Friday Mom fixed us breakfast and we said our good-byes to Ermino and Mom and Gan-Gan and hit the road.

I spent Saturday vegging, spent yesterday with Stephen King's newest book of short stories, Just After Sunset, and I watched Hancock and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian tonight before hunkering down to work on my current story.

I'm taking a break now, sort of rebooting the gray matter before I get back to my work.

And I kind of can't believe I've still got 8 more hours or so left in this day, as well as all of tomorrow before I have to get back to my "day job"!

A very nice vacation, indeed! :)

Blissmas Day Update...

Just checking in to let you know that since Brian woke up he has well embraced the concept of Blissmas, and we're currently laughing and dancing about to '90s dance music as I play Buffy the Vampire Slayer on PS2.

It's crazy, lol! :D

It's one thing for me to experience this cool-ness, but it's another to have my li'l bro so thoroughly embrace the Blissmas spirit, lol!

IT'S A BLISSMAS MIRACLE!!!

I hope that whatever you're doing, you're enjoying a Blissmas of your own!

PEACE!!!

:D

Happy Blissmas!!! :D

Today feels like an actual holiday to me, so I'm giving it a name.

Brian & I drank and watched a marathon of House yesterday (disc 4 of Season 2) and then I crashed and woke up around 5:00 am, while it was still dark outside. Before I went to bed I talked him into sticking Peter Jackson's King Kong in the player, and when I woke up the movie was still playing. (Usually, Brian goes to sleep with a DVD playing, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night he'll press "Play" and roll over and go back to sleep. But sometimes before he goes to sleep he'll change the disc out with one of the Star Wars or Lord of the Rings movies, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that he hadn't switched the King Kong disc out.)

I don't know how or why, but it felt like waking up on Christmas morning. Brian & I are both off work for several days, so no responsibilities pressing down on us and our only obligation is to enjoy ourselves. When you hear or read the word "contentment" this is the feeling described by that word.

So I grabbed my comforter from my bed and hunkered down in the comfy chair and watched me some King Kong. :)

Then Brian woke up and we started chatting and enjoying the genius of Peter Jackson's film, and the holiday feeling just grew and grew!

So I decided that since we sort of create our reality, this actually is a holiday for me. So I decided it needs a name.

Hence, Blissmas.

The neat thing about Blissmas is that it doesn't have to happen on a certain day of the year, AND it can come more than once a year! So if you have a day without responsibility, and you have someone cool to share it with, and you get that groovy vibe like you got when you were a kid on Christmas morning or Halloween night, that is your Blissmas.

The only thing I wish is that my Gnomey-Goddess were here with us to share this with me. I can just imagine waking up before her, watching her sleep next to me for a couple of minutes before I wander into the living room and see that King Kong is still playing. Then, after I grab the comforter and hunker down to watch the flick, she wakes up and wanders into the living room and snuggles in next to me. I imagine she dozes for a bit, her head against my neck, and as I watch the film in near-silence, I can feel her breathing against my body. Then when she finally wakes up, and she and Brian & I are all watching the end of the movie, the day begins in earnest and the 3 of us laugh and joke and chat and enjoy this day of perfect leisure together.

Mmmm... :)

Okay, so I've got some PS2 King Kong to play, so I'll leave you to ponder your own Blissmas day.

PEACE, LOVE & HAPPINESS!!!

:D

Ghost Trackin'...

G'Morning! :)

It's just about 9:30 am as I write this, and I've already had a full night's sleep. That's because I decided to go ahead and flip my sleep schedule to Normal Folk Time. Lately I've been having trouble getting to sleep on Sunday morning when I get home from work, so since I'll be spending Thanksgiving with normal people on a normal sleep schedule, I decided to go ahead and stay up as late as possible last night. I went to be a little before 8:00 pm and woke up a little after 4:00 am.

Fascinating, isn't it?

Anyway... My bro wanted to research the towns we're going to be driving by/through on our way to and from Mom's house. He wants to know where the hauntings are. (Not that we're planning on stopping and investigating on either trip -- we've yet to actually go on an investigation so far -- but just to know.)

Well...

Obsessively looking things up on the Net happens to be something I do regularly, so I volunteered to write up a report on which towns are supposed to be haunted and what's supposed to be haunting them. We don't have printers that work, so I can make text files out of them and upload them to my iPod for convenient travel and reference.

3 HOURS LATER...

My shoulders are tense and my vision is blurring, but I've got the best superficial notes available! :)

(Ideally, one would actually visit the libraries and local newspaper and hall of records and so forth of the individual towns, if one were doing real research. But since we may not even be stopping in any of these towns, superficial -- i.e. Internet-only -- research suffices fine.)

I haven't created the text files and uploaded them to the 'Pod yet. I wanted to rest my brain for a moment.

So, here's why you should be impressed with me. Besides Google-ing each town, I went to Ghost Village.com and searched through a decade worth of Personal Experiences archives, we're talking 1999 to 2008, scanning each year for 18 different cities.

I also took notes on 4 towns from so-called reports on Ghosts of America.com before realizing that these accounts are COMPLETELY FABRICATED! Probably using a computer program! I came to this conclusion when, on the 4th town, I noticed that certain aspects of the excounters were identical to other encounters in other towns.

For instance: Austin might have "reports" of skeletons sipping blood from a jar, and a girl with a machete sticking out of her head throwing throwing into Town lake. Then Houston might have a sighting of a girl with a huge knife sticking out of her head sipping a jar of blood, and a coal miner throwing bricks into Lake Houston!

I boggled at the revelation!

Then I read the About Us page, on which the webmaster(s) states that they "believe that everybody has the right to read about ghost sightings in their own towns or cities. So for the towns and cities around the country that are not lucky enough to have their own sightings we have made up fictional sightings as a public service. As a city or town gets more and more sightings submitted the fictional sightings are automatically dropped."

Okay, so I have to give them props for that. Had the Net been around when I was a kid, I would have dug reading about a scary skeleton with a clever sticking out of its head throwing jars of blood into Buffalo Wallow, lol. Though, interestingly, Odessa (where I grew up) actually has real sightings there. So they wouldn't have had to create fictitious encounters for my home town.

Still, before I read that I was pretty annoyed. The fictitious accounts are written with hair-curling-ly poor grammar that is not merely an aesthetic pain to read, but also a logistical nightmare to wrap your brain around! Like this little nugget of prose gold:

"The ghost of a coal-miner is rumored to have been witnessed on frequent instances being carried by a bicycle on a murky highway near Franklin (Texas)."

Did your head explode?

I mean, the fact that the entire thing is in the passive voice is enough to make you want to vomit prepositions. But exactly HOW can a highway be "murky" and did the bicycle in question possess arms?!

But if the folks at Ghosts of America are using a computer program to randomly generate
these stories, that explains the sense-bending grammar, lol.

I was helped a bit in my research by Texas Ghost Hunters.com. They didn't have reports on many of the towns we'll be driving through, but the shed some light on a couple.

I started out with Shadowlands.net. Most of their info seems to be culled from other web sites, but it's a decent place to get started. It's easy to navigate, and if you find reports there you at least have some ideas to follow up on. If you don't find anything in their index, you know you've got more intense searching ahead of you, and you're braced for the possibility you may turn up nothing.

Like I said, though, Brian & I haven't even performed a single investigation here in town, yet. We're still piecing together the equipment and reading up on the subject and whatnot. We just want the info for this trip to amuse/educate ourselves on the drive.

Okay, so I'm going to get this info onto my iPod and then rest my brain for a few hours.

Hope you have a spooktacular day!!!

:D

Gearin' Up For Turkey Day!!!

Sorry I haven't been around for a while. I spent last weekend in bed. (And not in the sexy way, either, lol.)

It's 60° outside and it's sprinkling, and I just could NOT be in more of a Holiday Spirit!!! :D

Which is really cool, because I JUST STARTED MY VACATION!!! I'm off work for the next 10 days!

Brian & I are going to Louisiana to hang with Mom, her hubby, Gan-Gan and our new "sister" Daisy. (She's Mom's new dog.)

That's going to be cool! :) It'll be the second time we've been in Louisiana (though we've driven through it twice before).

Also, I'm on a bit of a mission:

I was listening to a back episode of Jason Hawes & Grant Wilson's radio show Beyond Reality Radio that featured a guest named Charles J Adams III who informed me that telling ghost stories during Christmas is an age-old tradition, and A Christmas Carol isn't Dickens' only Christmas ghost story!!! :O

This thrills me to no end!

I've always had trouble deciding if my favorite holiday was Halloween (with goblins & ghosties & all things spooky) or Christmas (the time of year that folks agree to band together as a human community and treat each other with love). Even though I enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas -- the whole Yule season, if you will -- I always feel a bit resentful when the Halloween decorations come down and the Christmas decorations go up. (I don't really have a problem with the Thanksgiving decorations because they tend to be brown and orange and yellow and have pumpkins and stuff, so they still remind me of Halloween. But Christmas decor is just 180° different to Halloween decor.)

BUT NOW...

I can continue enjoying my goblins and ghosties, even as I'm celebrating peace on Earth and good will toward men! :D

But here's my problem: I can only track down 6 of Dickens' known 10 (thought there may be more) Christmas Ghost Stories.

Hmph.

The way I got the number 10 was by doing a quick Google search for "charles dickens christmas ghost stories" which turned up this discontinued book on Amazon.com, cleverly titled Charles Dickens' Christmas Ghost Stories. Now, if you read the product description, it says the book is:

A anthology featuring ten seasonal ghost stories written by Dickens includes ""The Signal Man,"" ""The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain,"" ""The Haunted House,"" and A Christmas Carol...

So that gives tells me that at least 10 of the 22 books/short stories Dickens wrote about Christmas are ghost stories. And that tells me that 4 of those are "The Signal-Man," "The Haunted House," The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain and (naturally) A Christmas Carol.

Further poking around reveals that Dickens wrote 5 Christmas novels, starting out with A Christmas Carol in 1843 and wrapping up with The Haunted Man in 1848. Of those novels, only one wasn't supernatural: The Battle of Life (1846).

So that gives me the titles of 2 more of Dickens' Christmas ghost stories.

Then I also discovered that "A Christmas Tree" is another one of the short stories.

So that's 7 of the (known) Dickens Christmas ghost stories:

1. A Christmas Carol (1843)
2. The Chimes (1844)
3. The Cricket on the Hearth (1845)
4. The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain (1848)
5. "The Haunted House" (1859)
6. "The Signal Man" (1866)
7. "A Christmas Tree" (18??)

But that's where the trail goes cold. (No pun intended.)

I mean, I know that's pretty damn good, and that I really shouldn't obsess over it.

But...

My curiosity is up now, lol. I'd love to discover the titles of the remaining 3.

Okay, now somebody has to be wondering "Why don't you just buy a used copy of the silly book?! Then you will not only know, you'll also have them for yourself!" But the answer is that I don't have any money, so I'll be reading them free online. Like at Online-Literature.com or Dickens-Literature.com.

And I've already tracked down text copies of all of them, as well as free audiobook copies of The Cricket on the Hearth, "The Haunted House" and "The Signal Man" thanks to Librivox.org! :)

(You can also score a few different readings of A Christmas Carol, but I have one read by Patrick Stewart (back in 1992), so I'm good on that one. ;P)

Still... I'm obsessive, lol. Even if I couldn't read ever one of them, I'd like to at least know which ones are the ghost ones.

I mean, yeah, I could simply read all of them -- which I will probably end up doing eventually -- and then I'll know for myself which ones are the ghost ones and which ones aren't. But for the time being, I'm too impatient for that, lol.

Okay, blah.

I figure I've bored you long enough with this, lol.

Okay: Vacation time! I've got me some Tomb Raider Legend to replay, hee-hee.

Thanksgiving is 4 days away: I hope you find plenty to be thankful for!!! :D

OMFG!!! :D

I just finished Breaking Dawn and IT IS AMAZING!!! :D

As I've said before, I read the Twilight saga because my daughter said it was great and I wanted to have yet another level on which to relate to her, but I ended up ADORING this PERFECT series of novels!!!

Any astute writer could tell you that you have power when you tell a good story well, but only the serial stroyteller can relate HOW MUCH power you possess when you carry characters and situations beyond a single story into many. And Stephenie Meyer utilizes that power with ASTOUNDING SKILL! Each novel is excellent by itself, but when you sign on to the saga as a whole and go from start to finish, she rewards you with a Happily Ever After that you never dreamed possible!!! :D Stephenie Meyer REINVENTS the phrase "Happily Ever After"!!!

If you're into the supernatural -- namely, vampires and werewolves -- and into romance and the concept of family, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this series!!! These novels are SO worth your time and emotional investment!!! :D

Btw, if you -- like many fans of the Harry Potter screen series -- prefer simply to watch the movies (unconcerned with experiencing the depth and breadth of the series available through the novels) be sure to be in theaters BE SURE to see the flick in theaters on November 21st!!! A strong performance for the first flick will help ensure that you get to eventually watch the 4th (and 5th, as they're planning to break the last book into 2 movies) which will ROCK YOUR WORLD!!! :D

If you're not that patient (like me, hee-hee) then rush out and buy the novels and read them all immediately!

Surf's Up!!!

I just wacthed Surf's Up here at work, thanks to Netflix's "Watch Instantly" feature, and I REALLY DUG IT!!! :D

Very fun flick! The ads when the movie came out looked like just another CGI feature, but it's SO NOT that! This is a really sweet little flick with fun characters, a great world and EXCELLENT acting!!! The cast is all world-class character actors, the types of actors you don't expect to be in a CG animated feature, lol!

Now, granted, I watched the movie at work, and it was kind of free (sort of), and I had absolutely zero expectations, so...

Still, I look forward to watching it again soon! I dug it that much! If I had some money I'd rush out and buy the dvd on my way home from work! I really liked it! :)

Just thought I'd pop online and share that with ya.

PEACE!!!

I Ate Goat Cheese!!! :D

Brian had this Starbuck's Goat Cheese & Mushroom sandwich that he hadn't gotten around to eating, and he reasoned that it would probably go bad before he got around to it, so he offered it to me. And I ate it. Pretty groovy! :)

I believe that was the first time I ever ate Goat Cheese.

Now, I realize that health-conscious people and/or people who spend more than $5 a meal have probably had goat cheese several times. But that was my first.

Very exotic for me. ;P

I'm on Chapter 9 of Breaking Dawn, the last book of the Twilight Saga. I really enjoyed Eclipse, but Breaking Dawn, but they all start off with so much tension and angst that you kind of want to put the book down and do something else. But for 3 books so far, by the time the novel is over you're just in love with the world and characters and can't wait for the next one, lol.

One bummer about trying to catch up to my daughter with the Twilight Saga is that I'm not writing as much as I should be. :( More than that, I'm not the slightest bit bored. See, boredom is a creative person's best friend. When you're bored, your imagination does interesting things. But reading a great novel (or novels) is not really conducive to creation.

I mean, I learn stuff -- I see how one author tweaks a story point or conveys character in an engaging way and other technical stuff -- but I'm not creating my own stuff in that time.

So I feel this sort of dual joy/guilt thing when I'm engaged like this in some one else's genius.

Blah.

But my Gnomey-Goddess still believes in me!!! :D That sort of adds to the guilt a little, but it mostly reassures me that my career as a writer will begin when it's supposed to.

Okay, I need food now.

PEACE!!!

:D

How Was Your Halloween?

Mine was fine.

I worked, but I also found time to watch this year's Homestar Runner toon!!! :D In fact, there were a couple that were fun to watch, one of which was a funny costume commercial! (It's funnier if you're old, like me, and remember what store-bought Halloween costumes were like in the '70s.)

I don't remember if I had yet when I last checked in, but I finally got around to listening to several episodes of Jason Hawes' and Grant Wilson's Beyond Reality Radio!!! It's absolutely as awesome as Ghost Hunters is, but for different reasons! :) In fact, I listened to the last 10 or 12 episodes they broadcast a couple of times each, then had to go back and snag the last 10 available at Planet Paranormal.com because I was still jonesin', lol.

Then I get this text message from my daughter, like, Monday asking me how I was coming with the Twilight saga, and I had to inform her that I hadn't picked up the next book yet because of my script.

However...

On Thursday nights/Friday mornings I'm just workin', workin', workin' and I have no time to even think about any project I'm writing... So... I figured I could pass the time by listening!!! :D

So I started Eclipse (Book 3 of 4 (so far)) last night! I'm only on Chapter 6, but I'm diggin' it so far.

I really enjoy being back in that world again. It's a bit like reading the Harry Potter series in that you grow to know and love the characters so much that you're anxious to see what they're up to now, and the previous book always left you wondering how the world would be changed when you rejoined it.

I really hope the movie adaptation for Twilight does well, because I'd like to see the whole series (what I've read of it so far, anyway) on film! I'm diggin' on the actors they've cast to play these characters, and the source material is just golden!

I do sooooooo which I could see Twilight with my Gnomey-Goddess when it comes out, though! It's totally gay, I know, but the relationship between Bella and Edward just keeps on reminding me of Gnomey!!! The way the author describes what it feels like to both appreciate and long for another human being like that... If you've ever been TRULY in love, you can so relate!

Okay, I'm gonna unwind from my workday and listen to some more of Eclipse, so PEACE, Y'ALL!!!

:D

HAPPY Nigh-HALLOWEEN!!!

It's All Hallow's Eve EVE now! I'm workin' Halloween, so I won't be enjoying it in any wild-n-crazy way, but a bad Halloween is still better than just about any other day of the year! :D

If you're like me and you don't have any super-groovy plans, please allow me to suggest some free entertainment options:

First off, you can't go wrong with some Homestar Runner on All Hallow's Eve!!! If you've tuned into www.homestarrunner.com during Halloweens past you know what I mean. But if not, you simply MUST check it out! Scroll down (within the "Holiday" sections of "Toons") to the very, very bottom and start with "Homestarloween Party" (2002) and then keep going up to the present. (Not certain exactly when the Brothers Chaps post the new episode, so no idea excatly when this year's episode will pop up.)

Next: HULU!!! They have a pretty decent "Huluween" section that includes whole, unedited editions of classics like Atomic Age Vampire and Night of the Living Dead to contemporary entries such as Underworld: Evolution and 28 Days Later to some classics from my youth like The Island of Dr. Moreau (when I was WAY-young) and John Carpenter's The Thing. I almost wish I had absolutely NOTHING to do Halloween night just so I could get bored wnough to watch Hulu.com all night, lol. (That's one part of my personality. Another part of me would rather be at a Halloween party with dear friends, and still another would prefer to be wandering haunted cemeteries with a camera and digital recorder, hee-hee.)

AND... It being Halloween and all, don't forget that Hulu hosts new episodes of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International! (That's only 4 eps per show, but that's just under 8 hours of ghost-huntin' GOODNESS!) Which is a useful segue way to my next free Halloween celebration suggestion...

I've just recently discovered Beyond Reality Radio, which is the 3-hour talk radio show about the paranormal hosted by Jason hawes and Grant Wilson, and it's A BLAST to listen to!!! Seriously genius! The above link takes you to their show archives on Planet Paranormal. I dropped 11 episodes into my iPod and am close to halfway through the 9th episode, lol.

But I can't represent the mighty Ghost Hunters (as brilliant and funny as they are) without reminding everyone about my first paranormal love: SPOOKY SOUTHCOAST!!! :D That's a 2-hour radio show that focuses on the paranormal, located in a virtual Hellmouth of every kind of activity imaginable! Plus, the guys -- Tim Weisberg, Matt Costa and Science Advisor Matt Moniz -- are just a blast to listen to! Not to sound gay, but this show sort of broke my paranormal cherry. I've been into the paranormal since I was, like, 10 years old but this show got me reading books again and looking into this current paranormal boom. ACTUALLY... if I'm honest... The reason I finally broke down and checked out GH and GHI is because Spooky Southcoast kept having TAPS members on their show!

And if we're talking podcasts, I can't overlook Paranormal Podcast, which has been producing a ton of eps this month, since it is Halloween month. These episodes are more sort of "bites-sized" in that last around 45 minutes per ep. But with so many episodes out this month alone, and the mind-boggling variety of topics covered promise hours and hours and hours of listening nirvana! :) And if you're not already a Paranormal Podcast listener, then you've got years' worth of episodes to enjoy!

So these are a few inexpernsive suggestions, should you lack stuff to do tomorrow night, there ya go. :)

Of course, if I could enjoy this Halloween in any manner possible, I wish I could you a Halloween party with my Gnomey-Goddess (who would, in my imagination, be dressed in some super-sexy Naughty Nurse costume or Tempting Vampiress or some such)!!! xoxoxo :D

Whatever you do, though, I hope you have a BLAST this Halloween!!! (Have extra fun for me, okay?)

:D

NEW MOON by Stephenie Meyer

Okay, I am SO hooked on the Twilight Saga now!!!

I finished the first book, Twilight and I was so enchanted I had to watch the trailer for the movie (Tish told me there is a movie coming out) just to see if it looked like it would do the source material justice.

IT LOOKS GOOD!!!

So then I launched into the second novel in the series, New Moon...

...and I was less enchanted by that! :(

It starts off fine, but then plunges you into this place you SO don't want to go!

Except...

Okay, I'm not reading the text of the Twilight Saga... I, um... found a way to score the entire series (including Meyer's "adult horror" novel The Host) for free in audiobook form.

Here's my thing: I didn't know if I would enjoy the series, but I definitely wanted to give it a shot, because I dig exploring things Tish is into. And the easiest way to enjoy a novel, for me, is audiobook. You can listen while you're driving, playing videogames, even working! Sometimes you miss a few details, but you get the entire experience: It's like speed reading. (I'm a VERY slow and thorough reader, but I actually do know how to speed read... I just never do it, lol.)

But when you get something super-cool for free, you sometimes get what you pay for. (What I mean by "sometimes" is that, to date, I usually get a great deal MORE than I pay for. But sometimes the quality of the product reflects the fact that you got it free.) (Btw, I didn't steal the audiobooks, just in case my vagueness leads you to wonder, lol. I'm not that guy!) (P.P.S. The Internet is our friend, and it truly, really loves us! *wink, wink*)

This dictum ("you get what you pay for") proved true while listening to Twilight in that the chapters sometimes clipped. The end of one chapter would be missing, as well as the very beginning of another. But the phenomenon was tolerable because I still got the whole story... I just got jerked out of the moment for a sentence or two, then slid right back into the riveting narrative.

New Moon, however, suffers from a more significant problem: Some of the chapters are well out of order, lol!

So I begin New Moon and it's cool because it returns me to the world I've grown to love.

THEN...

Nothing significant happens, but the world I love is shattered into a bazillion pieces and Bella Swan is miserable! (And, therefor, I am miserable!) And there's no acceptable reason why!

The reason is that 2 whole chapters have been skipped, and I just knew that X happened without any real explanation, other than "this is what the author made to happen."

So I drop the book for a day and enjoy a few chapters of Ghosts of Austin, Texas: Who They Are And Where To Find Them -- more research for my screenplay.

And this turns out to be a positive thing for me, because last night was a relaxed night, and I ended up writing several pages on the screnplay because of the free time! :D

But tonight was ALL WORK.

And I am dead-set on experiencing everything Ms. Meyer has written so far, if only to have some fodder for conversation with my Tisha! So I returned to New Moon as I worked.

AND I FELL BACK IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD! :)

I won't go into any specifics, as I have no desire to spoil the experience should you happen to get curious and read the saga yourself. But things progressed and got more interesting, and then...

...the chapters jumped back to the missing 2 chapters from the beginning of the book!

And Stephenie Meyer set everything up, and let everything play out, in such a way that even though you HATE where the story is going, you're still hypnotized by the journey!

What happens at the first of the second book -- the thing you NEVER would believe COULD happen by the end of the first book -- is no longer a function of a sadistic author, but a necessary step in an obviously well-thought-out progression of life events that will evolve Bella into a well-rounded and powerful woman (eventually).

I was in the hands of a master storyteller, but for a day and a half I didn't realize it!

This experience in disjointed narrative has convinced me that Stephenie Meyer is a writer that I can trust! I CAN NOT WAIT to experience the whole of the Twilight Saga!!! Not just the novels written, but the novels to come! And I'm excited to watch the sage unfold on the Big Screen, as the screenwriter and director seem to really have a strong hold on what made the novel such an amazing experience! :D I think the best comparison (this is before the movie has been released, please note) would probably be the translation of the Harry Potter novels to the Big Screen! I honestly believe it may be that kind of experience for fan-boys/fan-girls!

So now I'm on Track 20 of 60, and I'm loving the ride, even though I've leaped backward in story-time once again to fill in some gaps that -- at this point -- I hadn't really missed, lol! But discovering what lead from X to Y is just as entrancing as the events of Y, if not more so! ;P

Um...

It occurs to me that this might all sound like drivel.

If so, I can clear it up thusly: Go buy Twilight and read it. Then buy the rest of the series -- New Moon, Elcipse, Breaking Dawn (because once you've read the first you'll want to read them all) -- and READ THEM!!! :D

Don't simply wait for the movie to come out, GO READ!

If you're a romantic and you have a dark side, you will SO enjoy this journey!!! :D

Or, let me rephrase that: If you've ever experienced what you believe is True Love, experienced what felt like true loss, and you also enjoy more mythic, Gothic stories, you WILL ENJOY THIS JOURNEY! :D

Now, back to the book for me. :)

I LOVE YOU, MY GNOMEY-GODDESS!!! :D xoxoxo

More Marathons...

Heyya!

In case you're curious, my daughter text-ed me about a series called the Twilight Saga by author Stephenie Meyer. She called it a Forbidden Romance series with vampires and werewolves.

Sounds cool!

So I spent much of this morning/today listening to the first 14 chapters of the audiobook version of the first novel: Twilight. I'm diggin' it! :) (Btw: The links I provide contain SPOILERS, so if you click on them, be careful not to ruin anything for yourself.)

And Brian's off tomorrow, so when I woke up we jumped into a marathon of a show My Genius Friend Dave recommended, Torchwood -- a spin-off series from Dr. Who -- and then we wrapped up Season 1 of House.

VERY COOL VIEWING!!! :D

If you want to watch Torchwood for yourself, follow the above link and find the "Videos" button. That's the only online way I know to watch it right now.

If you want a House fix, I don't know of a way to view it online for free, but you can watch the 4 most recent episodes at Hulu.com.

Also, before I started on Twilight last night/this morning I watched Episode 3 of Fringe -- J. J. Abram's latest masterpiece! :)

Finally. I, very irresponsibly, haven't written a single word on my script, lol. But watching shows like Fringe, House and Torchwood do have the benefit of making me think about writing, as they're all written so brilliantly! (That may sound like a cop-out, but it actually is true.)

After hours and hours of being entertained, however, I needed a break. I needed some Quiet Time to let my mind settle a bit.

No idea what I'm gonna do after I post this.

It's late/early enough that I could go to bed, but I'm not really sleepy. I've got some 3-5 episodes of Season 2 of Monk to finish watching. I'm also excited to finish Twilight -- and the other 4 Stephenie Meyer books, for that matter -- as well.

Then, also, my Hulu queue is backed-up and I should probably watch some of those shows, too.

I truly have an embarassment of riches in the Entertinment department. Too bad I don't have, like, another 2 weeks off to enjoy them all, lol.

Still... If I have to have a problem, this isn't a bad problem to have! ;P

Here's hoping YOUR life gives you more fun than you know what to do with!!!

:D

W&R...

I'm in Writing and Research mode right now.

I'm not blogging much because I'm working on a screenplay, and my free time is spent mostly writing and reading and watching TV shows and movies.

Not a bad fuckin' life, I must admit, lol! :P

In fact, it's pretty much the life I imagined having when I was a teen! Except, in my fantasies I was also married to a super model and had millions of dollars in the bank.

BUT...

My Gnomey Goddess is DEFINITELY super-model HOT... I just need to work on that bank account thang, lol. ;)

Btw, my poor Sweety...! In addition to her normal family drama, she's had to endure some torture from the dentist's office! Disregard the 30-year-old stereotypes about Brits and their dental hygiene: They have dentists, too, and their dentists are -- apparently -- just as masochistic as ours. :( She called me a couple of days ago and related her rather harrowing dealings with this misanthrope, lol. (I jest: I'm sure he's a lovely man, but he made my baby hurt, so I have a grudge against him!)

Usually in my blog entries I say "I''ve been up to more of the same" and leave it at that, but I realized that that really doesn't accurately cover it. spend many, MANY hours on the Net, and I could so easily relate what I've been up to by sharing the links with you!

So here's the past couple of days:

I'm researching the paranormal for my current movie, so I'm watching episodes of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International at Hulu.com. And naturally, I've been listening to Spooky Southcoast and also Oprah's Spirit Chanel and Jim Harold's Paranormal Podcast and Tim Sheet's The Nightwatch Show. I've learned that the TAPS members have a radio show calle Beyond Reality and I hope to listen to some Beyond Reality soon.

This is just a cross-section of what I've been doing, and when I have more time I may relate in a more entertaining fashion. ;P

PEACE!!!

LOVE TO MY GNOMEY-GODDESS!!! :D

I DID IT!!! I BROKE MY MOVIE'S SPINE!!! :D

I just experienced, like, a half-hour long writer's orgasm! Like, a story-gasam!

A STORGASM!!! :D

Here's why:

Writing (fiction) is about story and character. You could say Story, Character and World, because I believe that a strong factor in why we watch movies and TV shows over and over again is because we enjoy hanging out in that fictitious world that the storyteller has created. Take Seasons 5 and 6 of Buffy for example: Those weren't the best stories that they told then, but we still liked hanging with the Scooby Gang.

But the world doesn't exist without the characters there. Imagine 2-minute shots of the empty halls of Sunnydale High or the quad, or empty shots of the Bronze. After about 35 seconds you'll want someone -- anyone, at that point -- to step into frame (character) and do anything (story).

So for practical purposes, I consider the world part of the characters, because it really reflects upon and is reflected by the characters that live there.

Blah.

So, when you're a novelist you can just set some characters loose in a world and sort of see what they do. I've read some MAGNIFICENT novels where there was very, very little story. But I didn't care! I really enjoyed the characters (and world) and the ideas the writer wanted to get off his/her chest through these characters.

However, in screenwriting -- where structure is god -- the writer falls into the opposite trap. Characters and their world sort of feel stiff and fake, and you really don't care about what happens to these people; you're just waiting to see if the way the movie ends justifies the time you're spending watching this piece of... um, celluloid.

This is the problem I have often suffered from in my writing. The screenplays I've been working on all summer feel like a bunch of "...and then this happened and then this happened and then..." with no real character, nothing that REALLY made you particularly concerned about what happened next.

(I may exaggerate... I'm a bit harsh on my own work, I've been told...)

But a week or two ago this miraculous thing happened...

Three ideas for scripts that I felt really had something fused together to create... something NEW! Two of these ideas, I felt, were my "winning lottery ticket", only when I went to write them they... somehow didn't live up to expectations...

BUT THEN...

For the last week or 2 I've been running around in this rich, textured world, getting to know these people who do interesting things for interesting reasons! They were excellent tour guides, and I've been really enjoying getting to know them and their world!!!

However...

Like getting drunk at a party on Christmas Eve, I had this nagging feeling in the back of my head that there was something else I really should be taking into consideration.

That something else was story. Plot. Screenplay structure.

You can't really structure a screenplay until you know the entire story. I know others will enjoy hanging out with these folks as much as I do, but I have to give people a reason to come in and meet these characters in the first place!

Imagine a friend telling you she has this friend who is just so funny and you have to meet her! You go, "Cool. I can't wait!"

But then nothing happens.

However, if she tells you she and her friend are going out to dinner Wednesday night, do you want to come? then you go, "Yeah! Love to!"

So the story is the reason to hang with these characters, and I would poke around and try to figure out what that story could be (this should be a ridiculously easy process, easier than most writers would lead you to believe -- particularly considering that it's one of my most-developed skills as a screenwriter) but I kept drawing up a blank!

Coming off a weekend (Sun-Tues) without any real advance in cracking this figurative egg, I was determined that I would find this bugger Wednesday, when my "work day" had hours that I could spend pondering the problem.

But nothing.

Thursday rolls around... This is a bugger of a day in the best of circumstances, and this Thursday was actually quite do-able... up until the time my shift was supposed to be over and I discovered there was an issue about my replacement's schedule: I didn't have a scheduled replacement.

Still, I get off work a mere hour late (I though it might be as much as 4 hours late!) and get home, go right to sleep... but that's not unusual after a Thursday shift.

Friday I go to work, and I really hope I'll figure this out. I've had some interesting story ideas on the way to work, and I get a few interesting ideas over the course of my shift...

However...

Now, realize that in my mind, being able to write this screenplay soon means that I'll be able to rewrite it before long. After a rewrite or 2 (or 3 or 7) it will be in shape to send off to Hollywood, where someone will pay me money for it. When paid that money, I won't merely get out of debt and be able to breath a sigh of relief in a time when the American economy is circling the drain, I will then be able to be with the love of my life, and provide for her, and raise babies with her!!! (No pressure there, lol.)

So every once in a while I get these teentsy, tiny little anxiety pangs when I realize that I can't start the real work on my script just yet. Now, I'm largely Buddhist in my philosophy, so when I get those pangs I go to my breath and look around at the life surrounding me and remember to live in this moment, rather than get lost in "what could be", and lose my mind in the ruin that my life could possibly become.

But still...

I would really like to get started, in earnest, on this screenplay as soon as humanly possible.

So tonight (last night, really, Saturday night) I have the lightest shift of my work week. Plenty of time to figure out this Story-thang...

So I set about the problem.

I work it this way, I work it that way... to no avail. I mean, at some points I'm actually talking to my characters out loud (during smoke breaks, when I was alone, and also I was more whispering just in case someone was around that I didn't know about) and my characters really don't know what their story is. THEY'RE CHARACTERS. They can't see the Big Picture. That's God's territory.

As Saturday night wears into Sunday morning, and my shift wears closer and closer to being over -- when I'll begin my weekend and have 3 days to write... IF I have something to write -- I even email a collaborator of mine (on whom one of the characters is loosely based) begging for help.

But here's my experience with collaborators:

They DO NOT give you what you need.

That's no poor reflection on them. It's just that the folks in my life (a) aren't writers, or if they are (b) they write different genres than I do. My buddy Kelly, for instance, is an amazing writer/director, but he's more Drama-oriented. He can give me an idea, but it won't really fit easily into a Horror/Action type of movie.

So I reminded myself that this writing thing is probably one of the aspects of my life that (at least, judging by past experience) is something I have to do alone.

Which means, though, that I already have been given, or have already earned whatever tools I need to solve the problem. (Everything is "spiritual practice" with me; that's just how I experience this life.)

So I look at the problem:

If this is the problem, then this character walks in and fuckin' solves it. No muss, no fuss.

No frickin' STORY, either!!!

Robert McKee very astutely defines Story as the gap between what a character expects to have happen as a result of an action he takes, and the world not responding the way he expects it to.

I think, "I haven't talked to my friend Aaron in a long time, but I don't have his number. I'll just call Tommy at work and get it from him." So I call Tommy, but unbeknownst to me Tommy has just been bawled-out by his boss for not fixing a mistake that Tommy didn't even make or know about, and now Tommy is struggling to fix this problem before he can even get on with his already problem-laiden day! So I call and I'm all, "Hey, Tom-bo, how's it hangi--" but then Tommy explodes at me about interrupting his work day, and not everyone works overnight and he doesn't call me when he knows I'm at work so why am I being such a selfish bitch and calling him when I know he's going to be busy?!!

Now a gap has opened up between what I hope to accomplish and actually accomplishing it.

(By the way, my friend Tommy REALLY IS that mean! He beats me often! And forces me to call him "Lord Tight-buns" as I cry like a little girl and beg him to let me get back to my meditating. It's pretty messy.)

So if I've got a problem that a character can solve easily, THERE IS NO STORY.

BUT THEN IT HIT ME...!!!

Reverse Engineering!

That's part of the beauty of being God: Time has no meaning!

There is always a temptation for the writer to take a situation and move forward through Time/Space with it and see how it plays out. I mean, that's how Life works, right?!

But when you pray for something, for instance, there are a lot of variables that have to fall into place at the exact right time for that to happen; folks have Free Will and stuff, and we're always making erratic decisions at weird times; so for an event to occur by divine intervention, we have to believe that God can move backward and forward through Time/Space AFTER we pray to make all the puzzle pieces fall into place in time for us to go "Wow! Thanks for making that happen, God!"

And the writer, being the Story-God, has that power!!!

(This all didn't really go through my head at the moment; I'm just adding this as a bit of a dramatic flourish.)

So I realize that if a character can solve the problem that easily, there might be something that happens to PREVENT the character from understanding the TRUE NATURE of the problem!!! :D

It's like the Logical Hemisphere of my brain (be that Left or Right, I really can't remember)
took the problem and said "Well here's what your problem really is. What you need is this." And my Creative Hemisphere goes "Oh, that's EASY! You just need this!" And then my Logical Hemisphere goes "Hey, that's a story beat you got there, let me write that down!" And then my Creative Hemisphere goes "And if that happens, then this would happen right after that." And my Logical Hemisphere goes, " Hey! That's ANOTHER story beat! I'll just... No wait! That's TWO story beats! I'll just write those down..." And as that's going on, my Creative Hemisphere is going, "And then THIS would happen, and then this, and then this..." and my Logical Hemisphere is typing as fast as it can, catching and categorizing all this story until...

I DID IT!!! :D

I fuckin' broke the spine of this screenplay!!! :D

Btw, "spine" is also called, in screenwriting jargon, the "throughline" which is the single line of story that runs through a movie like a roller-coaster rail: Stay on-track and the audience gets one hell of a ride; go off the track and everyone's fucked. (Including the track designer.)

So why does this excite me so much I feel the need to blog about it?

Because having an interesting world filled with interesting characters doesn't allow me to write pages. If I were a novelist, I could do that. But for a screenwriter, I need that throughline, that spine, before I can figure out what goes on Page 1. (In a screenplay, you actually have to grab the reader with the first line, then peak their interest AGAIN before they turn the first page!!! It's not dissimilar to being a songwriter in some ways.) Then I need to be able to structure the most interesting points of the story along a page-by-page layout to ensure that a Reader (a studio executive, development executive, producer, director, actor, anyone in the industry) feels fulfilled by the experience of reading my screenplay and wants to pay me money to shoot it.

Also, as I sort of stated above, I've had a few ideas that I knew had the characters/worlds that people would pay to see. And I've written some screenplays that I knew would keep the pages turning in an excited, breathless pace.

Now, however... with THIS movie...

I believe I have the balance RIGHT. :)

And that is one storgasmic feeling, my friend!!! :D

WOO-HOO!!!

I'm blogging from home! :D

You know what's cool about having the Internet at home?

WIKIPEDIA!

In the last email my Gnomey Goddess sent she said that she was on her way to the Granadas -- or so I thought -- and I was able to look it up, see that it was in South America, then reread her email and see that she was actually on her way to her granddad's, lol. ;P

Still...

It's really cool to have that power again. :)

It Is BEGUN!!! :D

The second series of Dirk Gently on BBC Radio 4, The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul, began Thursday!!!

I have been waiting for this... well... FOR A YEAR now! And I'm SO VERY EXCITED! The first episode shows a great deal of promise! It appears that Dirk Maggs has made some bold choices with this series, including linking it to the Hitchhiker's Guide universe! I can't wait to see how Tea-time unfolds, and then, of course, what Maggs does with The Salmon of Doubt.

This is a good time to be a Douglas Adams fan! :)

I am writing this on Friday, October 3rd, 2008. If you're reading it before Thursday, October 9th, 2008 you should be able to listen to the first episode on the BBC Radio 4 Dirk Gently site. Look for the "Listen Again" button.

I also found a new paranormal podcast. It's called NightWatch and it's hosted by this super-cool guy named Todd Sheets. I believe it's a radio show that podcasts its episodes after they've aired. I haven't really done any research on it because I've just been listening to the episodes themselves, lol.

I got turned on to Todd Sheets because he was on a really, really early episode of Spooky Southcoast, and he just seemed way-cool, so I checked it out.

Speaking of Spooky Southcoast... :( I've been listening to some of their first episodes because they haven't given us anything new in a long time. (...grumble grumble...) I don't know if they've been on-air each week and simply failed to post the shows or if they haven't been on-air. (I still don't have Net access at mi casa, so I have to go to the actual websites and get the episodes off there, and the newest episode offered on their site is from August 2nd.)

But the good news is that SSc eps easily bear repeat listening, and even the earliest eps are really, really great! (There was a brief period when the show first started that Matt Moniz wasn't a part of the show! Who knew!)

(Oh, and if you're like me and jonesing for some SSc, track down the "Off the Air" episode! August 19, 2006! You'll thank me later. It's Tim and the Matts just hanging out! VERY cool!!! It's really groovy to get to hear them with their hair down, so to speak.)

Thanks to My Genius Friend Dave, Brian & I have seen the 1st season of Monk and are about to watch Season 2!!! VERY cool! I had seen a single episode (one from Season 4, I believe) and liked it, but watching it from the start is just straight-up genius! That is a great show!

I also hope to catch up on Ghost Whisperer via Netflix. I love Medium and I've had a crush on Jennifer Love Hewit since Trojan War (or maybe it was the first I Know What You Did Last Summer; I can't remember which I saw first), so I'm thinking there's no way I can hate Ghost Whisperer. (With the title, though, I'm guessiing the writing's not going to be quite up to the high quality of Medium, so my expectations should be realistic enough to enjoy the show.)

Okay, I need to get back to work, so peace out! :D

LOVE TO THE GNOMESTRESS!!! xoxoxo

I Had A Blowout :(

It was crazy! I'm driving on an overpass on Highway 183 and I was nowhere near an off-ramp.

So I pulled over onto the shoulder, which happens to be just wide enough that you can change a tire on a medium-sized car.

It went smoothly. There was a point when I wanted to grab my camera and take some pics, because I realized I will probably never be on an overpass in the middle of crazy traffic, but my hands were too grubby. So sorry I can't show ya pics.

I've got some exciting things going on with my screenplay writing, but I shouldn't really talk about anything until I'm a little further along. Still no money on the horizon... yet. ;) But some groovy, groovy worlds and characters swirling around in my noggin!

Ooh! I heard from my gorgeous Gnomey!!! :D

No particular annecdote related to that, but it always make me giggle like a giddly little school girl when I hear from her sweet self, lol.

I should get back to work, but PEACE & LOVE TO ALL!!!

EVOO To You, Too, Dude

I keep hearing this phrase that I am completely unfamiliar with: "extra-virgin olive oil".

What the hell is that?

When confronted with a configuration of words that is completely alien to me, my first step is to analyze the individual words and ascertain their meanings.

Which leads me to a rather odd mental image...

So, it would seem, in the case of extra-virgin olive oil that not only have the olives not had sex, but they've never even masturbated.

Which, to me, is kind of a sad life, right? I mean, you grow up never having experienced an orgasm, then you're liquified and eaten!

(And not in the fun way, either!)

I mean, I suppose that if I'm eating a food cooked with olive oil, I prefer that no one has had sex with the olives beforehand. So I guess I can get behind the concept of virgin olive oil.

But I think "extra-virgin" is going a little too far. I say let the olives touch themselves as much as they like during their short lives!

And how Puritanical and repressed are we as a society that we are so concerned with the chastity of olives? Is this emotionally healthy behavior? Should we be peeking in olives' bedroom windows?

I'd like to make some kind of sexy joke here about "extra" meaning that the olives are bringing more olives into the mix, but if they're virgin olives they're probably not doing anything particularly interesting with the extra olives.

My buddy Pete told me that, apparently, extra-virgin olive oil is just what folks are using now to cook with. Like, when my parents were kids people cooked with butter, and their parents cooked with lard, and when I was a kid everyone cooked with "cooking oil", and I guess now it's EVOO. But I don't get where the "extra-virgin" bit enters into it. Does this phrase actually comunicate information about the preparation of the olives, or is it just filler like "super-duper"?

I'll Wikipedia the phrase and find out.

One second...

Okay, so it appears that extra-virgin olive oil (DUDE! I totally got the spelling right before I had seen the phrase in print, right down to the hypen! You're impressed, aren't you!) means that the oil has no more than 0.8 % acidity which, apparently, means the oil has a better taste.

Ya learn something every day. :)

LOVE TO MY GNOMEY!!! :D

Hurricane Ike...

This bugger has taken over my entire workday.

I came into work with My Genius Friend Dave squealing like a stuck pig because of pressure being applied to him from all possible directions. Then I slowly got to see (sort of) what he had been going through all day, lol.

I mean, I've still got the sweeter shift. I'm dealing with maybe a third of what he had to deal with. (Maybe...) But this is most definitely what Genius Dave refers to as one of those days wherein I earn my check. I'm glued to my switchboard watching the live coverage of Ike (the eye of the hurricane hasn't yet reached Houston; it's still getting walloped by the northwestern "eye wall" and more than three million people are already without power there) and cutting the local weather-babe in when she's got local info to impart.

Whoa. Had to pause while writing because I had to do a cut-in.

But I was saying, it's not heavy lifting or breaking rocks or anything, but I have to pay close attention tonight.

It's kind of interesting, though: I've actually experienced this hurricane as it has landed in real time. It's an interesting thing. Watching a hurricane begin to come onto the coast, then actually "land" (which weather-type folks count as when the middle of the eye of the hurricane is over land -- despite the fact that the destructive winds hit land LONG before the eye does) and make its way from the water across the land...

One can easily imagine an H. P. Lovecraft type Elder Thing slowly slipping out of space and devouring the planet, impossibly slow and impossibly inescapable.

Well... One with my sick li'l mind can imagine it, anyway, lol. ;P

But it's odd. We're a society that has little patience. If you're not watching the radar for hours upon hours you might be tempted (as I was today, actually) to look around you and think that probably nothing's going to happen.

But when the thing eventually arrives and you start seeing that footage -- winds that scoop boats out of their ports and lob them inland -- and you remember that this really is a scary friggin' event that's transpiring! And THEN, as you wait and wait and WAIT for this thing to slake its figurative hunger and move on, you really REALLY get a sense of the horror. It just comes and comes and comes and keeps coming, then there's the half hour to forty-five minutes of catching your breath during the eye, then it's on again, and again it just seems to keep coming!

I've got to say that, selfish as the sentiment is, I am so very grateful that Ike is unlikely to attack Austin.

Okay, I should get back to work.

Just wanted to check in, and to say "LOVE YOU, SWEETY" to my Hot-Thang! ;D (She's such a goddess!!!)

If you're safe and warm at home, ENJOY! :)

Hola, All! :D

'Sup?

Sorry it's been a while, but there are 2 very good reasons for that:

1. It's mostly been more of the same in my life, and
2. I don't have Net access at my casa for the time being.

(Finances are a little tight right now, but I'm guessing you've got your own fiscal issues if you're reading this in the States, lol.) ;P

This weekend was quite remarkable: I played a lot of Tomb Raider 2, watched 6 hours of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (the movies Lucas re-edited from the episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) as well as a few hours of historical documentaries included as bonus features with the flicks, and I re-watched The Prestige and Jaws and Jaws 2 as well as the accompanying making-of documentary features for both, AND...

I also rewrote my outline for my current screenplay! :D

I did SOOOOOOO MUCH slouching, and I STILL got an impressive amount of serious work done, too!

No idea how. Not a clue. It just happened.

Oh, I started off last weekend by re-listening to the BBC Radio 1997 7-episode dramatization of Stephen King's Salem's Lot. I think that might have helped with the getting-writing-work-done thing. King always makes me feel like a slacker when it comes to writing because he's such an overachiever.

In his book On Writing he prescribes a writing regimen that, if I actually applied it, would probably result in my producing about 6 screenplays a year. (When I get going, I can write like a madman!)

And while that would be ideal, really, the most important part of the regimen is having a set time of day when I write... And this is something I haven't been able to accomplish since my first writing book suggested it to me back in 1992. :( I just can't find a chunk of time EVERY day that I can devote to writing.

I do, however, have success with a weekly page goal. That's how I did the Script Frenzy scripts the past 2 years. I break down how many pages in a week I need to finish in order to accomplish the monthly goal, and I usually end up starting late and finishing early.

So that's my regimen, I guess.

I'm tellin' ya, tho'... When I win the lottery (or sell a few screenplays and can quit my day job, whichever happens first) I'm creating a daily writing schedule! It's, like, a fantasy of mine since I was 21: A writing office (some place I can shut myself up in for 5-10 hours a day and ONLY think about the current story), one of those wrap-around desks that can comfortably house a computer AND a reference library, a laptop (for when I want to write at the park of at Starbuck's or something) and a set time of day -- every day -- when all I'm allowed to do is write!

I don't know why that's so exciting to me. Maybe I'm just a frickin' nerd or something. But the thought of a set time & space that is devoted SOLEY to writing just turns me on!

As it is, I feel sort of like a creative nomad. My office is a 1-gig jump drive, a plastic clipboard with loose-leaf notebook paper clipped to it and a handfull of good pens inside it and a plastic envelop of 3x5 cards.

That's it. That's my "office'.

From a creative standpoint, I'm a homelss person.

And a scavenger: I haven't had my OWN computer in a couple of years now! My computer broke down just a few weeks after Gnomey and I hooked up, which is right at the 2-year mark. So I use whatever computer is available to me when I have the time to do some work.

Actually... I guess that's a little romantic, in a Jack-Kerouac/Henry-David-Thoreau kind of I'll-create-my-art-anywhere-and-any-time sort of way. :)

But I still want the office, desk, laptop and set writing time.

Blah.

Okay, I'm psychic! Wanna see? I know what you're thinking right now!

"If you were just gonna go on and on about wanting an office to write in, you really didn't need to even bother making an entry this week."

I'm close, right? ;P

My Gnomey's such an angle, though! The 3 days I'm off work I don't have access to the Net, right? So when I come back to work and check my mail, who do you think has an email waiting for me? (# guesses, and the first 2 don't count.)

What a hotty! Not just super-cool & loveable & desireable, but so considerate, too!!!

Okay, I'm writing this at work, natch, and it's been a few minutes since I even looked like I was doing some actual work. So I should probably sign off for now.

Before I go, if you're not checking out the site for the new Star Trek flick, you TOTALLY SHOULD!!! Check out who's playing Spock and Scotty in particular!!! :D GENIUS!

Also, if it's been a while since you visited Homestar Runner.com, there's no time like the present to get reaquainted! Brian & I have been watching the dvds a lot recently, and Homestar just never gets old! :D

Hope you have a super-groovy Labor Day weekend!!! :D

Talkin' w/Tisha

Today has been a really cool Sunday for me!

I started it off listening to Star Wars: Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, which is one of the best Expanded Universe novels I've read! I haven't read a lot of them, because even the ones that are nigh-cannon tend not to be as cool -- to me -- as watching the movies. But this one came out in 2004, just before Episode III and it focuses on Yoda and Count Duku, and the reviews on Amazon.com were really positive.

Plus, you know, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars is out in theaters, and I can't afford to see it yet, but I'm really excited about it. So I figured reading the book might help me cope mor patiently, lol.

And it did! Really great read!

Afterward I was sort of going on and on about it to Brian, so he popped in Return of the Jedi, so he could get his Star Wars fix, and around 1:44 am my phone rings.

At 1:00 in the morning, it can't be bill collectors... And 1:00 am my time is about 7:00 am my baby's time (she doesn't get up quite that early, usually)... So who could be calling me?

Turns out, it's my daughter! She's spent that last week down here in my neck of the woods, and the weekend was spent in San Antonio at Sea World or Fiesta Texas. (I want to say it's Sea World, but I don't exactly recall just at the moment.)

But when she calls, she's up around Abilene, on her way home.

Now, she's about to be 18, but in my mind she's still somewhere around 16, lol. So it's a bit of a shock to be talking to her on the phone as she drives around Texas at 1:40 am.

But it's also REALLY COOL! :)

It was a really nice conversation, too. Just chatting about nothing and everything (like Melanie, her GPS with, inexplicably, a British accent, and the Olympics). It was particularly fun to listen to her arguing with Melanie, lol. ("You telling me to go the wrong way!")

I wound down after work this morning by watching this week's Psych, and I finished out my shift at work by watching the recent remake of When A Stranger Calls on Hulu. So I would say that this weekend is starting off rather nicely. Really low-key. :)

I could stand to get some writing done, though.

The day is still young for me, yet. But I need to block out about 32 scenes, hopefully before Wednesday. (I'm kind of snail-ing along on my current project.) But, like I said, I've still got plenty of time.

I suppose this entry is just about me enjoying what a cool, relaxed-but-groovy day I'm having so far.

Hope your day is groovy, too! :)

The 2008 Olympics Continue...

Relaxing weekend for me. Watched Space Chimps with my li'l bro and really enjoyed it! :) Also, listened to a BBC Radio 7-part audio dramatization of 'Salem's Lot, which was awesome. Got to talk to my daughter for a while, too! :D She's in town this week, but I won't be able to see her because of work. :(

Now I'm hangin' at work, watching the repeat of last night's Olympic games. It's kind of lazy work because it's a live event, so I have to pay attention to it and be ready to throw a break whenever Network decides to throw one. So I can't be working on a story or anything while this is going on (which is another hour-and-a-half, then after that I have to pay attention because we're geering up for our local news starting then).

So no playing for Ray Jay, lol. (I actually have to work for my pay until the Olympics are finished, lol.)

Gnomey and I have been a couple for 2 years as of today!!! xoxoxo :D I wish we could celebrate together, but besides that I really couldn't be happier! :) I'm incredibly lucky that she's stuck around this long, and I can't believe such blessings have befallen ME! I mean, I'm a lucky guy... But having Gnomey in my life is, like, SUPERNATURALLY good luck!!!

And something cool to mark this occasion is the release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, because she's a MAJOR Star Wars fan! :) So every time I see the trailer, I think of her and our 2nd anniversary, hehe. ;)

Okay, I need to get my attention back on work.

I hope if you have a significant other in your life youshow him/her some extra appreciation today! :D (And if you're a dude, you'll get extra bonus points, because we tend not to think to do special things for our ladies for no reason at all!)

I'm A Sick Man...

And not in the fun, comical "Oh, you sicko" sort of way, either. :(

My body isn't playing nice with me, lol.

But I think I may be getting better, though, which I look forward to.

Here's an irony: I started feeling not-quite-well about halfway through my first day back at work, and I may be getting better just about the time of my weekend, lol.

I haven't called in sick because my first day that I was pretty sure I was ill was the day that I'm most needed. Well... that and the fact that I don't know if I have any sick days left. ;P But I made it through Thur/Fri and figured I could make it through Fri/Sat as well.

And I did!

And I'm kind of glad I did, too. We aired the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics and I've got to tell you, it was pretty cool! If you didn't catch it, it was AMAZING! It was all color and music on a larger scale than you've ever seen, ever!

And we re-aired the Opening Ceremonies for the last half of my shift, so I started my work day off with them and ended my shift with them, too.

Very groovy!

And sense I was already feeling like I was in an hallucination, the Opening Ceremonies seemed to fit right in.

But now I must sleep.

I want to make sure my bod gets as much rest as it deems necessary so I can get back to 100%.

If you have you health, I invite you to take a moment and simply ENJOY the fact that you do!!! :D

Tired & Smilin'!!! :D

I stayed up late yesterday morning to help a friend move, and what did I get for my good deed?

A CALL FROM MY GNOMEY!!! :D

It was the coolest thing!

Had I not agreed the night before to help my friend after work, I would have been asleep and my phone would have been turned off when my baby called me. But as it was, since I was being helpful, I got to hear my gorgeous, amazing girlfriend's beautiful voice!!! :D

I just love things like that, "coincidences" that you can read as simple happenstance, if you're of that mind, or you can accept as precious little miracles!

I also like the implication that I live in a loving universe that will reward me when I am helpful to others. :) (And with a reward like my Gnomey Goddess, I'm inclined to help ANYONE, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, ANYHOW!!!)

I'm still the slightest bit sore from moving, so I'm going to veg-out before going to sleep. But I hope this day gives YOU a tiny miracle that makes your heart jump for joy!!! :D

Gearing Up For X-FILES

Brian & I plan to see The X-Files: I Want To Believe tonight, and I can't wait!!! :D It's been a while since I've had me some X-Files in my life!

This is turning out to be a GREAT day! I woke up to an email from my Sweety -- and AMAZING way to start off ANY day!!! :D

And waking up this way -- and knowing that I've got X-Files in my immediate future -- is really just a continuation of the groove-age that was yesterday...

I went to sleep last night watching a very peculiar movie: A Boy And His Dog. Ever heard of it? 1975 film starring an 18-year-old Don Johnson, with Jason Robards in a featured part? Based on a novella by Harlan Ellison?

Fascinating flick!

It's the most recent Cult of UHF podcast, and I remember reading something about it being an important Sci-Fi flick (?!!), so after watching about 5 episodes of House -- this is AFTER an episode of Burn Notice and 2 episodes of Ghost Hunters International -- I decided to wrap-up my day with this flick.

Now, I remember seeing the VHS at my local National Video way back in the late '80s, with a picture of a young Don Johnson (who, frankly, looks exactly like the old Don Johnson somehow) wearing a cowboy hat. With a title like "A Boy And His Dog" and a pic of Johnson in a cheesy cowboy hat, there was NO WAY I was going to rent this stinker...

Then not too long ago I remember reading something listing A Boy And His Dog as (a) and important Sci-Fi flick and (b) A POST-APOCALYPTIC MOVIE.

I'm all "A Boy And His Dog is POST-APOCALYPTIC?!! Don Johnson in a cowboy hat is post-apocalyptic?!! And 'important' to the Sci-Fi genre?!!"

So when I was syncing my iPod earlier this week and I saw that the Cult of UHF episode for this month was this movie, I was kind of excited. I can finally see what this is all about.

And I did.

I like the flick. :) It's quirky, it contains some bold ideas (particularly for 1975) and it doesn't back down from them. In the '80s and '90s there was this tendency for Sci-Fi flicks to be all about the concept (and getting butts in the seats) and less about conveying an IDEA -- actually SAYING SOMETHING to your audience -- the thing that makes Sci-Fi and important genre. This movie has something to say, and they're not bashful about saying it, lol.

(Another selling point: I'm pretty sure the movie has boobies in it, but I was too tired and the iPod screen is too small to be sure, lol.)

The only thing I'll say about the film is that it starts off in 2024 after World War IV has scoured the surface of the Earth with nuclear war (Road-Warrior style, only this came out long before before Road Warrior) and a telepathic dog is guiding Don Johnson through the wasteland, helping him avoid bands of scavenging raiders.

That's the first minute of the film. ;P

It just gets more interesting from there.

You can download the flick or watch it online, or you can Netflix it, which ever you prefer. If the setup interests you, don't think you'll be disappointed by the movie!

I'm going to grab some breakfast and check out the showtimes for X-Files.

PEACE!!! :D

HULU RULES!!!

Just finished this week's Burn Notice and I'm settling into an episode of Psyche ("As in 'gotcha?!"; 2nd episode of 3rd season).

This is after SEVERAL hours of Sherlock Holmes OTR. (Sherlock Holmes ROCKS!!!)

All of this is my way of enjoying my weekend while I bang my head against a great screenplay that refuses to talk to me. I don't recall saying anything offensive in its presence or anything. I certainly didn't hit on its girlfriend, as I have quite a tastey one already.

Speaking of whom, Her Awesome Sweetness waited up just to chat with me yesterday!!! Could she be more scrumptious?!! :D

Honestly, she's always working and my schedule is bassackwards, but she waits up just to ive me some love!

(Sorry if I'm a little sentimental at the moment, but I've been watching a bunch of stuff that deals with relationships, so naturally I long for my Gnomey Goddess.)

Do you realize that Psych is kind of Sherlock Holmes? H'es a super-brilliant deductive annalyst with Dule Hill as his Watson (Dule Hill's character sells pharmasueticals) and there's even an Inspector Lestrade character!

My friend Lothar brought to my attention that House is Holmes. (Very cool!)

Okay, I've got some heavy-duty procrastination to get back to, so see ya! :)

If You're Interested...

YOU, TOO, Can be a Mangey Raider!!! :D

It's kind of hard to find Brian's & my designs on Cafe Press, so Brian whipped up a page that links to both stores.

So just in case you're interested in a new shirt or new thong, and are in the mood for something playful, try MANGEY RAIDWEAR!!!

It's pirate-y (who doesn't love pirates?!) and the logo means whatever you want it to mean because it wasn't developed by some huge corporation trying to purchase your soul, lol. ;P

Give it a look, you might get a giggle out of some of the stuff we offer, if nothing else. :)

I'm Back :)

I love my Gnomey Goddess SO MUCH!!! :D

Poor thing still isn't feeling well, but she saw me online and chatted with me anyway. :)

I watched by first episodes of Ghost-Hunters and Ghost-Hunters International today! :D Very cool! I've been hearing members from both teams as guests on Spooky Southcoast and I discovered that both shows are on Hulu, so I checked them out.

I wasn't disappointed! :)

After I finished the GHI episode where they go to a Romanian castle, Hulu shut down for some scheduled maintainence, so as soon as they're back up I plan to watch some more episodes of both.

Also, Burn Notice is back and I'm 2 or 3 episodes behind, so I hope to catch up on that tonight, as well.

I LOVE THE INTERNET!!! :D

I should probably try to get some writing done, as well... But I feeling lazy, lol. ;P It's the last night of my weekend, and I think I'll just enjoy being off. I just want to catch up on some TV tonight, I think. I may feel more industrious a little later, but for now... VEG!

Whatever you're doing with your night, I hope you enjoy it to the fullest! PEACE!!! :D

HOLY EPIC, BATMAN!!!

Couldn't wait for tonight, so my li'l bro & I saw The Dark Knight last night!!!

IT SO RULED!!!

If you haven't seen it yet, seriously... the Citizen Kane of comic book movies!

Ooh!

My baby just logged into IM, so I'll cut this short and just say GO SEE THE DARK KNIGHT if you haven't yet, hehe!

PEACE! :D

Got Batman Fever!!! :D

I woke up to an email from my Gnomey Angel!!! :D

The bad news is that she's not feeling well at all. :( But the good news is that my sweet darling, who always has to work, 6 days a week, is making time to rest. I can just imagine how adorable she must look, all snuggled up in bed, her mind flitting through some dreamscape as her body heals itself!!! xoxoxo

She has fallen asleep before when we used to chat via vidcam into the wee hours of the night (her time) and I can testify that she is GORGEOUS & CUTE when she sleeps! ;P

So I hope by the time she reads this she is well rested and feeling 100% better!

I woke up thusly (to her email) after watching the behind-the-scenes featurettes for Batman Begins after work, and then drifting off to sleep listening to the soundtrack to The Dark Knight.

If you live in the States, you know that it opened this weekend, since Thursday night and most of Friday the movie -- and stories about the lines of people waiting to see it -- the opening was all over the news, lol.

Brian & I hope to see it Monday. But if the soundtrack is any indication, this movie should be AMAZING!!!

I didn't have as much down-time as usual last night at work, but I foudn myself spending a little of it watching some Batman: The Animated Series online, hehe. :)

It's not the epic grandeur of the Chris Nolan films, but it's a well-written, well-made series!

Just the same, I can't wait for the graneur!!! :D

I've always loved me some Batman! Back in 1989, when the first Michael Keaton flcik came out, my friends and I (Tommy, Brian, Chuck and some others) celebrated the eve of the release by making out own Batman short! Tommy was Batman and I was the Joker, and the thing turned out pretty damn cool, if I may say so myself!

I SO wish I still had a copy! It would be cool to go back and see how we did. I mean, I remember it as being surprisingly good for something shot and edited on VHS, but I'm sure some of that memory is romanticized. I'd like to check it out with a more objective eye.

Plus, it would just be cool to watch it again and say "WE did THAT," lol.

It was incredibly simple: Joker is walking down the streets at night, Batman appears in front of him, Joker pulls a gun on him, but Batman kicks the gun into the air and catches and discards it, then two henchmen appear on either side of Batman and a fight ensues. Batman beats Joker senseles and disappears mysteriously. The writing isn't up to the par of Batman: The Animated Series... But I dare say we told our little mini-story with some style, hehe. ;)

Wow, how time flies!

I sat down here with a couple of hours before I need to go to work, and now I should be maiing myself some breakfast and getting ready, lol.

I hope you get to see The Dark Knight this weekend and bask in the feeling of Event that everyone else is, and I hope your weekend treats you like a king!!! (Or queen, as the case may be.)

PEACE!!! :D

The Moon Was Flirting With Me Just Now...

(Not tryin' to make you jealous, Gnomey Sweety, but for the reals!)

I'm waiting for some programs to download here at work, and there were no readings to be taken or anything, so I stepped outside for a smoke break.

AND THE SKY WAS AWESOME!!!

There are places on this Earth that are still not over-urbanized so much that the skyscrapers crowd out the sky from view. Austin is one of those places.

So I walk outside and just happen to look up...

...and the sky was this majestic blue-black (not actually "blue-black" but imagine the darkest shade of blue possible just before it becomes black) and these luxurious mountains of gray clouds were drifting lazily across it, framing this intensely bright full moon!

It was ridiculously breath-taking!

You know how you're not supposed to stare directly at the sun or it'll burn your retinas? Well this was a retina-scalding moon!

And one mountain of a cloud would slowly, playfully drift in front of the moon, then slowly drift past, revealing the moon like a bride lovingly disrobing on her honeymoon night, making a meal of the revelation of each forbidden swell of her flesh for her new husband.

And this intensely shining moon dis AMAZING things to the colors of the sky! It highlighted the soft, gray mountains in a lighter shade of gray, turning the bits that passed before it this silver-blue.

And you remember how you used to draw the sun when you were a child, with yellow lines emanating from it to depict the sun's vibrant rays? Well this moon actually has blue-white rays emanating from it! Only they're not those even rays that we drew shooting out of the sun when we were kids; instead it was more the way Medieval artists portrayed an almost star-like protrusions of white light from some holy object!

Naturally, I can't even TOUCH this sight with my pitiful description. I considered, for half a second, grabbing my camera and trying to take a picture, but I've photographed the moon before, and I knew that my camera is completely incapable of coming CLOSE to conveying what the miraculous human eye can perceive!

But I had to try to capture this in whatever pathetic way I can, because such an experience needs to be shared!!!

I couldn't keep this to myself!

I had this glorious areal landscape all to myself, and I felt guilty hording it!!! I mean, east-to-west, north-to-south I had this 3-D Omnimax diorama of quiet majesty bathing my eyes and mind and soul, and I just SO wish you could have been here! Whoever you are, whenever you're reading this from where ever, I wish you could have seen this astounding view!

(And, naturally, I wish my Gnomey-Goddess were with me to see it, hehe! If if she were, we'd probably still be making out in the parking lot, adding our passion to the foreground of this amazing work of natural art. And it probably wouldn't have occurred to me to rush in here and write this, lol.) ;)

Okay, back to work. Tonight's my busy night.

PEACE!!! :D

I Slept Through Monday...

It's true.

Weirdest thing in the world, but I spent the majority of Monday in bed, sleeping. When I wasn't asleep I was listening to Lux Radio Theatre -- which is hour-long OTR adaptations of popular movies of the day, usually with 1 or more of the original stars reprising their film roles. I listened to a lot of old movies that I had never (and probably would never, lol) otherwise see. Which is cool, because it gave me a flavor for writing throughout the ages. (Well... you know... the early-to-late 1940s, anyway...)

I also discovered a mini-golf game for iPod... so I bought it... and played it... A LOT. There are 18 holes per level, and you have to shoot par or less to unlock the next level. It took me a few days, but I managed to unlock all 3 levels! :D

And this morning I played that one online mini-golf game I mentioned before, Mini Putt 1, and I shot a 44... and par is 48!!! :D

Very exciting for me!

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but I'm NOT pathetic!!! I'm just... in a place where I'm... easily amused sometimes... ;P

Okay, my shift is almost over so I'm going to sign off.

LOVE TO MY GNOMEY-GODDESS!!! xoxoxo :D

And may the rest of you have a groovy, groovy day!

THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE!!!

Friday Night!!! :D

...and I'm stuck at work, as usual, lol.

BUT...

I just finished 18 holes of mini-golf and I shot a 45... which is 3 strokes UNDER PAR!!! :D

My first game, I shot a 67. :(

But still, it was fun.

Thanks to the Net, I can sort of/kind of imagine that I'm having a normal-people Friday night. (Except, of course, for the pesky work, lol.) But I think it was last week that I actually got to watch Hancock on a Friday night. And thanks to the miracle of Flash animation I can bowl, play Poker or play mini-golf... all Friday-Night kinds of things. If My Sweety were awake I could even chat with her!

Um... I can't get drunk... but that's probably just as well. I was sick Wednesday and most of Thursday and am just feeling like my regular self again. So it'll me nice to enjoy Regular Me for a bit before I go exploring Drunk Me again, lol.

I finally finished Alias!!! I'm caught up on all things J. J. Abrams now! :)

Also, I broke down and bought The X-Files: Revelations!!! :D It's an 8-episode collection of classic The X-Files episodes that's intended to get us primed for the second movie's release in 13 days. Great episodes, too! I watched 2 of them before bed this morning, and I can't wait to watch the rest of them.

I want to own the whole series on dvd! I used to have the first 2 seasons. But I'll have to wait until probably after I sell my second screenplay before I can stockpile my X-Files. (That's cool. I'm a patient man.) And that makes this 2-disc/8-episode set all the more precious for the time being, hehe. :)

Okay, I need to go do some work, then I can get back to pretending I'm not at work. (It's a bit difficult, because I have to pretend in 15-t0-20-minute blocks of time, which really hampers the illusion.)

Hope you're having a GENUINELY EXCELLENT Friday night!!!

:D