Summer Vacation: Day 7

DATE NIGHT!

:D

Have a busy SL schedule that keeps you running from one project to another, one event to another, and doesn't allow time for you and your Better Half?

Or maybe your schedule doesn't mesh as well as you would want with your Online Other's.

Date Night is the answer!!!

My SL gf and I have been missing each other quite a lot lately, so for the past week or so we've been looking for the most opportune day for a date.

TODAY WAS THAT DAY!!! ALL DAY!!! :)

We started around 4:00 pm today (about the time I woke up and got online) and it wasn't over until just before midnight! :) We checked out an in-world art museum, went to a place called The Exploritoreum -- apparently constructed to commemorate some significant luna elipse, with elaborate and quite breath-taking displays! -- and did other stuff :)

It was FANTASTIC!

The next time I have a girlfriend I'm DEFINITELY instituting a date Night!!! It's just too easy to miss people in your life, and after a while that just becomes the norm -- you're coming, she's going. And then after a year you're wondering where all the love has gone! And why you haven't had sex for a year! lol

So I've had a GROOVY day!!! I can't afford to go on dates in RL... even if I HAD a girlfriend! So I just ENJOYED THE HELL out of TODAY!!!

Best date I've ever been on. EVER. (And I've been on some pretty amazing dates before today, too!)

I also got to catch up on an anime series I own called ELFEN LIED. I bought it many, many months ago, but haven't had the time to watch it.

OOOOHHH...

And Brian and I cooked up some salmon steaks, shrimp scampy, mashed potatoes and garlic bread! So I ate like a king today, too!!!

Now I'm trying to decide which of 2 Chinese horror flicks I want to watch tonight: THE EYE 2 or A TALE OF TWO SISTER. THE EYE 2 is -- obviously -- a sequel, which in America would mean it's less likely to be good... However... Asian filmmakers seem to take as much care with their sequels as with the original. (At least, in the films I've seen... which are, admitedly, few.) So THE EYE 2 can't be ruled out immediately.

Then there are a couple of classics I'd like to rewatch before my vacation is over: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and ESCAPE FROM L.A.. Don't scoff. You've got YOUR guilty pleasures, too!

And I'm curious about GARFIELD: THE MOVIE. I've got it from netflix and Brian didn't hate it, so I'm curious. Actually, I got it because I was curious: The sequel is in theatres now. IN THEATRES. I knew they were making a sequel, but I figured it would be straight-to-dvd... And probably animated. But they got Brekin Meye (sp?), Jennifer Love Hewit and Bill Murray back, so it can't suck too bad. Also, the fact that they made a theatrical sequel suggests that the first one wasn't necessarily bad. (I know, I know, you're gonna point out that there's a third THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS playing now. But I read the Garfield comic strips -- and comic strip collections -- religiously between the ages of, like 10 and 13... So I have a soft spot for the character.)

I still have some OTR to listen to, too, but I watch movies less frequently than I listen to OTR, so I may just follow the mood and pop in a flick :)

AND TOMORROW IS SATURDAY!!! I've enjoyed today as though it were Saturday... It's FELT like a Saturday! BUT IT WASN'T! :)

Okay, so I'm off for now. Hope you enjoy your weekend!!!

Summer Vacation: Day 5

Sorry I haven't been keeping up :) Part of being on vacation for me is letting things slide ;D

Okay, so my last post was... Let me check...

OH YEAH!! Sunday!!!

Okay, so after I described my wonderous walk, Brian and I went in-world and played around for a while. We actually treked across a considerable swath of SecondLife! I don't remember exactly how it started...

He was asking me about this device I have called a Host Watch. It keeps in-world time, but it also has a slew of other abilities, as well! One of them is the ability to rez object -- like vehicles -- on other people's land.

Here's the significance of that: Let's say I want to go driving around. But I don't have a stretch of road next to my property. I fly around until I find a stretch of road, then tell my watch to "rez" my car. (If you've seen TRON, rezzing is the opposite of derezzing. If you're too young to have seen TRON, go back and watch it; you may be surprised by some the concepts and how they've actually come to be -- in different forms -- in the ACTUAL evolution of computer programming. And while you're at at watch Michael Crichton's LOOKER! There's A LOT there -- in reguards to HOW marketing works -- that came to pass a long time ago; even though we're much farther from duplicating humans in the computer than they thought we would be by now.)

Anyway, I was testing out my Host Watch, seeing just where all I could rezz my vehicles, and I ended up sailing a strecth of water I hadn't sailed before. I was sailing not too far off from some of his land -- a patch that we use to build stuff on. He noticed that if I followed the waterway I was on, I could land no too far from where another patch of our land is -- a patch that contains the Whitelight Entertainment building.

It's my vacation... I had the time :)

So I went sailing, and Brian decided to catch up with me and we sailed together! (He has very generously moved the best computer into the dining area, so I get to use it... But that means he was on the eMachine... So I navigated and he just followed me and prayed the computer he was on didn't crash.) After we landed we discovered we were just a sim ("sim" stands for "simulation" or "simulator", in SL terms, and describes a HUGE square of land... and everything on it, and above it, including the sky -- ALL the way up) away from out land. So we decided to continue the trek on foot.

We played around with using vehicles, but they got stuck several times, so we just walked the rest of the way. (We could have easily just flown, but that would have violated the spirit of this trek.)

Just as we're arriving, my SL gf logged in and IMed me! She hadn't seen the Whitelight building, so I offered her a teleport to where we were and showed her around. Afterward we went to a store called Omega Concerns and both she and Brian bought their own Host Watches.

Brian noticed a patch of land with a tribute to the Twin Towers, so we all went there and checked it out. (The Twin Towers have profound personal significance for my SL sweety.) Also on the land were automated horse-drawn carriages and some horses; my gf and I hopped in a carriage and Brian hopped on a horse.

And from the Whitelight building to the store to the carriages, we had the MOST ASTOUNDINGLY FUNNY coinversation I've been a part of in a VERY LONG TIME!!!

See THAT'S one of the things I love MOST about SL!!! You can be flying attach choppers or dancing or just whatever you can imagine, and if you've got cool, smart, funny people with you you can find yourself enjoying HOURS (literally) of just GREAT conversation!!! It can be profound, it can be intelligent, or it can make you roll on the floor laughing! I mean, the three of us could have had that conversation in the living room, no ploblem (except my baby doesn't live around here) but the fact that it took place as 2 of us were riding a horse-drawn carriage and the other of us was on a horse circling the opposite direction to us just ADDED to the atmosphere! (AND the jokes! Burnt-out situational comedy writers need to spend some time in SL!) I actually saved the conversation, it was SO FUNNY, but I wouldn't feel right publishing it.

So anyway, the last half of my Sunday was just SPECTACULAR!!!

Monday... Umm...

Monday Mom took Brian and me shopping :) That's always fun!

I believe I played 2 or 3 levels of BUFFY, too :)

I don't remember SL being particularly memorable... excpet that I sold a couple of my Superman avatars that I designed to look like the movie Superman(s). The other one I've seen in-world is more like the 1950s/1960s comic book incarnation. But with SUPERMAN RETURNS coming out this summer, I figured some people -- like myself -- would want a movie incarnation.

And I was correct, apparently ;) More on that in a sec.

I also got to IM with my daughter for an hour or so! That was cool!!!

TUESDAY...

Tuesday was THE DAY!

You may recall that on Uber Friday I reported having purchased a couple of tickets to the 10p advance screening (BEFORE OPENING DAY) of SUPERMAN RETURNS...

Well yesterday WE SAW IT, BABY!!!

Don't worry (Tommy) no spoilers here ;P And I don't want to overhype the movie, either, BUT I LOVED THIS FLICK!!!

Listen, if you're into the Superman movies and are waiting till the weekend to watch it, or waiting until the crowds die down (like next weekend, when PIRATES opens) go ahead and watch the first 2 SUPERMAN flicks again! One, it'll prime ya for how much further sfx and screenwriting have come in the last 20+ years, but more than that it'll prepare you for some very clever nods in this flick to its predicessors! (Is that how you spell it?)

I notice that one of the big differences of Superman in film and recent TV, and all the other incarnations -- THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, any animated series before 1997, the radio series and even most of the comics themselves -- is that the film medium concentrates on Superman's humanity. See, it's hard to care about an imortal man who is invulnerable. It's hgard to emotionally invest in The Man of Steel.

But what Richard Donner and Tom Mankiewicz showed us is that just because your body is invulnerable to pain doesn't mean your emotions are! And Bryan Singer and Michael Dougherty & Dan Harris (the screenwriters; Singer came up with the story with them but Dougherty & Harris wrote the actual script) are smart, smart cats! They get what makes Superman work in the film medium and they tailored this movie to give us the most bang for out buck!

I seriosuly LOVED it! And Brian did too! We had so much fun talking about it afterward that we had to pop in the 2nd flick to catch up on stuff we weren't sure about! (He's been playing the first flick since Friday, when I got I and II in the mail. So it's fresh in both our minds.)

I started reading the novelization of the movie because I couldn't wait for the movie to come out. I got about halfway through it. Now I'll be finishing it because I want to re-experience the movie!

And today, Day 5...

Um...

Woke up with an itch to animate, so I began creating the head of my first character for a quirky little short I may or may not finish. (It took me all day today to get a single chicken head in 2 possitions, lol!)

I got to spend time with my sweety!

I also got to help Mom out!

I emailed her a copy of our short script "The Caretaker" but she doesn't have Acrobat Reader. So I took a copy in doc format to her place and printed it out for her. I also tried to salvage the short stories that she had written over the last few years, but it wasn't possible. Some new hoity-toity version of Microsoft Word corrupted the pre-Windows-XP files and now they're gibberish! So basically, my mom's gonna have to REWRITE THE STORIES SHE WANTS TO KEEP!!!

I don't get why programmer creating what they think is the Next Badass Program can't avoid trying to reinvent the wheel!!! If it's NOT BROKEN than don't friggin' "fix" it!!!

My friend Tommy spent I-Don't-Know-HOW-MANY months shooting his adaptation of "The Tell-Tale Heart" -- his first baby, his first masterpiece! But he made some post-production choices that didn't work out (he was WAY ahead of his time tenologically) and after he had learned a better way to approach it and went back to recut the original footage, he discovered that the codec he used to store the raw footage NO LONGER EXISTS!!!

What happened to Tommy and my mom is the result of someone, like, figured out a more efficient way to store money than banks, and then they burned down all the banks in the world... Without giving people a chance (or a mean) to withdraw their money BEFORE the banks were burned down.

Blah.

I'm on vacation. Rant over.

Anyway, Mom sent me home with homework: I got to burn her first mix cd for her tongiht :) It's really cute! How many mix cds include Captain & Tennille and Sonny James?!! :D (She's got some Phil Cillins and Elvis in there... I'm NOT saying my mom's square or anything.)

OH! And while I was burning I got to listen to Lux Radio's adaptaion of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL!!! believe it or not -- Sci-Fi geek that I am -- I just haven't gotten around to watching the movie yet! But I got to HEAR it this evening!!! :)

ALSO, today alone I sold 5 Superman avatars!!! (If you're not initiated into SL, wearing a Superman avatar would be like wearing the costume... as well as the body. You've got the hair, the muscles the blue eyes... ALL of it. And in SL you can already fly!)

I put the avatar out for sale a couple of weeks agao, and I sold, like, 3. But then I sold one Monday, 2 yesterday and 5 today! :D AND... I supect that after more people see the movie, more will want to buy the avatar! ;) (It's a GOOD movie!)

I think that brings us pretty much up to date.

Brian's building stuff in-world on the cool computer, so I may steal the PS2 away from him and try to get somewhere in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. (I'm so used to using the keyboard with Laura Crogt that the PS2 controler is just awkward...)

Hope your Hump Day went well, and I hope the rest of your week IS EVEN BETTER!!!

Summer Vacation: Day 2

The day is, in some ways, just beginning and it's already been really cool!

I sort of pre-woke up, meaning that I became conscious, but was nowhere near ready to begin my day, around 2:30 pm. To ease myself into consciousness, I listened to the first episode (of 52 or so) of HORATIO HORNBLOWER. Not as powerful as the A&E movies, but not a bad listen at all!

Then Brian & I did the road-trip thing w/Mom. We found the outlet mall she was looking for, then decided to just go straight back home and get food there. Sonic! Very summer-y :) Brian ordered a double cheeseburger and a foot-long Coney, and it sounded so good I copied him! Talk about "summer-y"!!! For some reason that meal just screamed SUMMER for me.

AND... I'm STILL full! I have a case of cool, refreshing beer in the fridge, and I can't even think of popping one because I know it'll just make me feel heaviER. (I learned never to drink when I'm stuffed... Bad juju!)

But here's the cool part...

My car's Check Engine light is on, so I dropped it off at the autoshop that has fixed this car since my Dad first bought it. It's maybe a quarter of a mile from the apartment. It's right around dusk. And I WALKED HOME.

Okay, maybe that statement doesn't convey the sensations I'm trying to communicate, so let me try another tack...

It's a warm, but mild, 80+ degrees outside. Slight breeze. Just enough to soften the air and prevent me from breaking a sweat as I walk.

I've got my ZVUE in my pocket and my earphones in. (Not those silly earbuds; I'm talking crystal clear sound.)

It's Sunday night. Everything in North Austin is buzzing in that sort of suburban way: Plenty of movement, but not too much, just enough to make your surroundings feel ALIVE... but not oppressive. I wouldn't say North Austin has a buzz, but sort of a gentle, unobtrusive hum about it. I am by no means the only cat cruising around this evening, but everyone else is so far away from each other that none of us intrudes on each other's private little stories.

The sky is dark blue above and purple nearer the horizon, and orange right at the horizon.

Also, the North Austin sky is BIG. Much bigger than the Central or Downtown Austin sky. But not as big as, say, the Odessa sky. North Austin has few buildings over 3 stories, and in my little neck of the woods the buildings are nicely far apart. So you can see the whole sky around in many areas, and still enjoy the plentiful trees.

The first song I listen to is Red Hot Chili Peppers' cover of "Roller Coaster", the extended and unedited version. This is such a joyful tune that it not only matches what's in my soul right now, but nurishes it, feeds it, grows the feeling to the next stage.

I rarely ever hike, but hiking is in my nature. Despite the fact I have the tummy of an inactive person, my legs are built for power and distance. Despite the fact that I was asthmatic for the first 12 years of my life, and the fact that I am a smoker, my lungs keep my oxegen levels plentiful. I seriously seem to have been constructed for the purpose of walking A LOT. (Not running, mind you; running hurts and is annoying, unless I'm being chased... or am chasing ;D)

Moreover, I SO enjoy feeling tiny! That is to say, I'm a biggish dude. My drivers liscence says I'm 5' 9" but everyone tells me I must be 6 feet. And my wieght never seems to get below 200 lbs, and my heaviest seems to be about 230 lbs. So I'm not a little dude. But when I'm hiking around an environment with tall buildings and tall trees and the distances between them and me are such that they look small -- though I know they are not -- I just feel GREAT PLEASURE in that. No idea why, but I do! It's actually not that I feel tiny AT ALL, but I get a sense of how much BIGGER everything else is than I am. And somehow, I enjoy that feeling :)

So Red Hot Chili Peppers' extended and unedited version of "Roller Coaster gets me across the highway and under the overpass, past the Starbucks and some sandwich shop and past the Chase Bank drive-thru island. And as I enterthe parking lot of what used to be the Showpalace 6 -- the building has still not been rased or leased by someone else after a decade, at least -- Dido's "Take My Hand" begins its slow pulse through my brain and veins.

I cross this vast, empty parking lot where trees break the asphault here and there (as they've always done), past a couple of cop cars parked next to each other for whatever reason. I walk past a high school Track track which encircles a football field to my right, while a small fire station hoses off one of its engines to my left.

Dido builds and builds and BUILDS to an orgasmic cresendo which levels out and continues cruising along for a while longer, and the skys grow so subtly darker -- but not nearly oppressively so :)

I pass the high school tennis courts and it's VAST parking lot (this is a physically LARGE high school) and "Take My Hand" finally eases to a close a couple of yards before I get to my street, where I'll be turning right. As Dido fades away I hear the crickets chirping and decide I'll enjoy the natural ambience for the last leg of my hike.

The last leg was the shortest, but it was still immensely pleasurable!

I wish EVERY Sunday night could be like this!!! I mean, I'm sure it could be, but knwoing I'm going back to work the next day tends to make other activities seem more pressing.

Although... When I do get back to work I'll have a new schedule... Wherein I'm off Sunday through Tuesday...

So a Sunday walk would be the BEGINNING of my weekend...

Hmm...

Anyway, what I've described is just a flash of a glimpse of the wonderful experience I had. Never the less, I wanted to capture it for you, and for myself sometime later.

I SINCERELY hope your Sunday was as pleasant and fulfilling as mine is so far :D

Summer Vacation: Day 1

This day owes me nothing :)

I'm SO enjoying vacation!!! In fact, just before I woke up I kinda-sorta woke up and looked at the clock and it was 2:00 pm, and I thought I might as well get up and get started with my last work day before vacation... Then I remembered that I ALREADY DID THAT YESTERDAY!!! THIS IS VACATION!!!

I actually threw my arms up from under the covers, forefingers and pinky fingers poking out, like I'm at a rock concert!!! I was THAT happy :D

Brian and I just finished watching SYRIANA! Good flick!

Earlier we wactehd THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS. Also very cool :)

But more than the fact that they're good movies, I'm so stoked that I actually GOT TO WATCH THEM! I haven't had time to watch movies for a while now. And as a result I have to budget my movie-watching time carefully. Which means that I only watch (a) big movies that I HAVE TO see on the big screen or (b) big movies that on dvd that I so love I HAVE TO own them. I can't risk watching movies that might not be that great or that might be a downer, because what a waste of time THAT would be! That's 2 movie-hours, and I might not get 2 movie-hours again for a month and a half!

So I have to be careful.

But for the next 10 days, I don't have to sweat it!!! I have 16 hours in my next several days (assuming I sleep a full 8 hours, and also assuming I only sleep 8 hours) that I get to do with as I please!!!

Naturally, I got som SL time in :) Lots of it! So much that I was bored with it!

I got to spend soem time with my SL gf! Not as much as I would have liked, but QUALITY time!!!

I also got to create pop-out monsters. I commishioned this device from an in-world scripter that makes things jump out at people. I've had it for a while, but I hadn't gotten to test it and figure out exactly how it works.

Today I created 6 pop-out monsters for a future Haunted House (or something)!

Ooh, I also got to help my gf with her offices! That's cool!

And I played a level and a half of BUFFY! (I still haven't gotten past Level 8, but today I started back at the beginning and just played until something else caught my attention.)

I haven't dived into my Old Time Radio yet, but that's fine for now :) I still have 10 days!!!

And now I'm about to retire... BECAUSE I WANT TO!!! (Not because I have to!)

Really diggin' on life right at the moment! Hope yours is treating you well, too :D

And Thus Begins UBER FRIDAY :D

When I get off work tonight (Sauturday morning for the rest of you) I will be beginning an 11-DAY VACATION!!!

I am SO READY for a break, too! I'm not brunt-out, per se... But there's so much going on that work kind of distracts me from. So It'll be REALLY NICE to be able to choose where my attention goes for the next 11 days!!!

Got some fun stuff already planned...

Mom wants to drive to San marcus w/Brian and me Sunday. (She has to go there -- for some reason she refuses to divulge -- and she wants Brian and me with her on a test run so she knows where to exit and stuff on the day.) And we'll do our weekly Family Dinner thing in San Marcus.

Last night I bought 2 tickets to the 10:00 pm June 27th early screening of SUPERMAN RETURNS!!! So Brian and I are DEFINITELY going to see that!!! (BTW I'm, like, 180 into the 330+ page novelization of the flick, and it's gonna be GOOD!!!)

Brian and I are developing 2 feature-length screenplays now! (The one that is good-to-go first will be the one we make next year.) So it'll be GREAT to have the time to just toss ideas at each other and watch these stories grow!!! :D

I have some Old Time Radio to listen to, also: I got the complete HORATIO HORNBLOWER radio series, 2 discs of LUX RADIO movies adapted for the Theatre of the Mind, and a disc of Sci-Fi Favorites!

Moreover, I think I found a Savegame for BUFFY, which I will try to get onto my PS2 memory card during this vacation. (That way I can play all the levels and just skip those annoying-ass Boss Battles!) And even if I can't get the Savegame onto my memory card, I'll most likely spend a day or so just replaying BUFFY from the start, just 'cause I love it so!

I have some movies to watch, too!!! I just recently aquired this Chinese horror flick called A TALE OF TWO SISTERS... Looks COOL! And I haven't seen THE EYE 2 yet! (Although, I'll probably want to rewatch THE EYE before I do... Just to refresh my memory.)

Also, when I return to work I'll be on an overnight schedule. So I'll be able to reset my sleep schedule over the course of this next 11 days. (I'll need to start going to bed at 10:00 am so I can wake up at 6:00 pm. FULL-ON Vampire Hours now.)

Originally, I asked for this time off so Brian and I could drive to Florida and watch our good friend Chuck's production of Othello... But I realized at the beginning of the month that we wouldn't have the money :( So that's kind of bittersweet. And I'm hoping I'll be able to get a hold of him sometime during this time off.

Still, it feels almost like the last day of school before Summer Vacation :D

Except for the fact that I will be working my ass off -- probably for all 10 hours of my shift -- from the time I get to work until sweet, sweet release tongiht (tomorrow morning).

But stilll... 11 DAYS!!! :)

Stuck in the Old Quarry

I can't (yet) get past Level 8 (of 12) in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: CHAOS BLEEDS.

I've gotten THROUGH the level. I've gotten to the Boss Battle. and around 5 am this morning I came REALLY CLOSE to defeating the Boss... But I'm not there yet.

ALSO...

I broke down and had to get the novelization of SUPERMAN RETURNS... I couldn't wait until the 28th, I HAVE TO know the story NOW.

I'm so lame, lol.

I did the same thing in 1989 with BATMAN.

I just wish there were a novelization of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST!!! I would LOVE to read that!

Plus, that would be a great series of novels anyway! After the 3rd movie comes out, you could keep reading the adventures of jack Sparrow and Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann! How great would THAT be?!!

They have a juvenile series about young Jack Sparrow. That looks cute, but I want and adult series! Like the Horatio Hornblower novels, only with supernatural stuff, too! I can't believe Disney isn't already working on this! (They probably are, only they're holding off on the release of the series until after the film series is complete in some clever marketing strategy.)

Blah.

DUDE!!! I've seen a trailer for both the PIRATES game and the SUPERMAN RETURNS game, and they should both be OUTSTANDING!

How geeky am I?

It's fine though! I LOVE summers!!! I love having things to geek-out about! The anticipation is so fun, and the pay-off when the movie/game/whatever is as good as I hoped, and the breathless conversations before and after with others of a similar geek-like bent :)

I'm able to geek-out with both Brian and Kel about SUPERMAN RETURNS, and I can geek-out about PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST with Brian and.. EVERY WOMAN I KNOW :) Women who NEVER like the kinds of movies I like LOVE the PIRATES movies. (I wonder why that is... lol)

Okay, I'm gonna wrap this up and get back to SUPERMAN RETURNS. Lex Luthor looks like he's up to no good... Let's see what happens...

Happy Fathers' Day!!!

Around 10:00 am I got a call that sort of nudged me into consciousness, but didn't fully drag me out of my dream.

Around 2:00 pm (MUCH closer to my regular wake-up time) I got a call that dragged me back into this world enough for me to get up and check the number.

It was TISHA!!! That woke me up!

I listened to the message she left then called her right back. I got her voicemail, so I left a message, and just as I was wrapping up I heard my other line beep, so I swicthed over and it was her, calling me back!

She wished me a Happy Father's Day! :)

Which is REALLY COOL for a couple of reasons:

First, her DAD is my ex-father-in-law. What I mean by that is that he's there EVERY DAY, raising her and taking care of her and laughing with her and arguing with her and teaching her. This is a function he has served as far back as she can remember. (I only raised her had her for the first couple of years.) So I'm the "biological father". And functionally, I'm kind of like that wierd uncle that she sees a few times a year and swaps IMs and text messages and emails with.

So it really touched me when she called me to with me Happy Father's Day!!! That's not a title I feel I've earned, but one she very generously has granted me. You know? (It's the old "E" for Effort grade, if you're old enough to remember that. I'm not, just old enough to have heard that it once existed.)

The other reason her phone call was a great way to start off this Fathers' Day is because this is my second Father's Day without my pops. I mean, I don't believe for a second that I am WITHOUT him, he's here. I feel him sometimes :) But this is the second one since he passed away. And I've been wrestling with what to do to remember him today, or if I should really DO anything besides just spending some private time with him, talking to him.

It's kind of a wierd thing, you know? How the living interract with the dead. I'm not a cerimonious person. I'm super low-key when it comes to expressiong my emotions in that I like to keep it between me and the other person involved. At Dad's memorial service I had ZERO desire to stand up infront of everyone and tell them how I felt about dad. That's between me and my pops.

So to start off my day with a phone call from my daughter wishing me a Happy Father's Day turn a potentially downer day into a VERY positive, celebratory one! :) Tisha set the tone for my day (and I wouldn't be surprised if my Dad had somethign to do with that ;) )!

Yes... I Know... I'm A Dork...

Okay, I officially an uber-geek:

I have a girlfriend in SecondLife!

I've been abstaining from admitting this for a very long time now, because I TOTALLY get how it sounds. But I can't deny it any longer, I'm head-over-heels for a chick I'll never meet in RL, who has a realy life outside the game!

Okay, but before you pass judgement let just give you some perspective...

For the past 9+ years I really haven't been able to "get out there" and try to find Miss Right beause of my going-on-14-year pursuit of a career in filmmaking. And I'm actually okay with this fact. It's a choice, and one I make consciously and consentually: Would I rather spend my time and energy trying to find the woman who will date a broke divorceee who can't afford to take her out and will respect my career as a writer and filmmaker BEFORE I HAVE the career, or would I rather pursue a career as a writer/filmmaker and pray that there will be a woman out there for me when I finally have the money to start having a social life?

The fact is that after 14 years, I don't know how to NOT pursue my dream. I have lost faith in the possibility of it happening, but even then I couldn't stop pursuing it. I am I, Don Quixote...

And this reality is what lead me to the frustrated blog entry around January or February when I wonder aloud why I can't just enjoy a virtual relationship in which I get to enjoy the flirting and the fawning and feel desired and have an object of my desire, even if I don't get the more substantial -- carnal -- bennifits of a relationship. I believe I posited that if I have to wait for another decade, at least I should be allowed to enjoy partial fulfillment.

Well...

Turns out that if you wait long enough in SL... You just MIGHT bump into your virtual soul mate!!!

This woman is just SO COOL!!! I mean, I drive to work now with this big, giddy grin! It's like an actual relationship in many ways!!!

Okay, fine, poke fun. I'm an easy target right now, I know.

But...

Ya gotta admit... This poses some interesting questions about the nature of Reality. I mean, I have not met this woman face-to-face, and yet when she tells me I'm sexy I believe her! (As opposed to when my girl-friends do it: They're basically saying "No, you'll never see me naked, but SURE you're sexy.") I actually believe she means it when she says it.

Now, one could argue that it's easy for a woman who will never see me in person to say that she thinks my pic is hot. HOWEVER... If you dared me to PROVE that she's telling me the truth I would dare you to DISprove it. Her actions (to my knowlege and in my experience so far) support her claim that I am hot.

Granted, all this "evidence" exists merely in the SecondLife... BUT THAT'S KIND OF THE POINT! As far as the reality of SL, she is into me.

But let's say it's just a game: Does it matter? Half a year ago I was talking about how I'd just like to be able to pay a monthly fee and have email conversations, as though I were in a relationship, just so I can get the emotional "sustinance" that the human psyche needs.

Well...

The way this woman treats me goes WAY above and beyond anything I might have proposed paying a subscription fee for! AND... No fee! She does for my psyche (and ego and insecurities), for free, MORE than I would offer money for!

And according to her, I do the same for her!

"Okay," you say, "But it's not REALLY real. It's just an online game."

Sure, okay. But what is REALITY? If I experience joy on a daily basis from this unorthodox relationship, are those emotions not real emotions? A very wise woman schooled me lame dismissal we guys sometimes throw out there of a woman's emotions when we say "I'll bet it's just That Time of the Month." She said, okay, maybe it is That Time of the Month... Does that make the pain or frustration she's feeling LESS VALID? And if so, how is that fair? She's still FEELING those emotions!

So if I'm feeling happy about something that is somehow illusory, are the emotions an illusion? Am I actually not feeling them? And if not, wtf AM I feeling when i think I'm feeling those positive emotions?

Okay, but here's the flip side: I know a lot of Worriers. I know A LOT of people who spend a lot of their time thinking about the negative things that might happen. They experience discomfort and negative emotions because of bad things that have not happened yet (if ever). Some of them cry because of how bad something might become.

This behaviour is not consicered wierd. You yourself are probably thinking "Well, that's just normal. That's just being smart and being prepared for the future and being intelligent." And yet, what about the negative emotions. Extended negative emotion leads to PHYSICAL health problems.

And positive emotions behave conversely -- producing physical bennifits to one's health.

I mean, it's a great deal more complex that that. If you just run through it in your head you'll see that you tend to be nicer to people when you're in a good mood, you tend to be more generous with time/resources when you're in a good mood, tend to sponteneously think of OTHERS when your in a good mood, and thinking about things that make you happy tends to put you in a good mood. Conversely, when was the last time you were in a bad mood and sponteneouly thought "My wife might like some flowers for no reason"? Okay, when is the last time you were in a bad mood and your wife asked you to do something you had already said you would do a week ago, and yet you felt attacked by her when she asked "Are you going to get around to that this week?" And thinking about things that make you unhappy tends to put you in a bad mood.

Prove me wrong.

I'm not really trying to teach a Psyche course here, I'm just trying to make this point:

If it's perfectly aceptable for someone to fret over bad things that might or might not happen and put themselves into a bad mood over them, what is so wierd about me accepting a virtual relationship for what it is and experiencing the psychological, emotional and spiritual bennifits of that relationship?

But if the emotions experienced are real, how "fake" could a virtual relationship be?

What IS Reality? What would define a REAL relationship for YOU? What criterion would have to be satisfied before you could enjoy the relationship as real?

What IS real?

Just Defeated the High School!!!

Had a groovy day today. I build a Moon Base in SL for Brian's, like, 5th store. He really liked it :)

He had build this huge box that looked like you were walking around on the moon, and he wanted to put a store there, but he was running low on ideas. So I created this sort of Retro-Futuristic building with bay windows that looked out onto his moonscape, so that inside it, you get a sense that your actually in a structure on the moon!

Then he and I listend to Allison Dubois' second book WE ARE THEIR HEAVEN together! Some very great stuff in that book that spoke to us personally -- particularly reguarding our late father :)

I spent plenty more time in SL. Got to listen to some FIREFLY while I was in-world as Brian was watching it in the living room... Exposure to Joss Wheadon is ALWAYS a good thing!!!

Brian helped me figure out the next 5-10 pages of our feature screenplay. I kinda knew where I was headed, but he got me there :D

More SL...

Then I wrapped up my day by KICKING LEVEL 7's ASS!!! That's the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER game I'm refering to. I had mastered the level, but it ends with a boss battle. (Evil Anyanka, the vengence demon.) And it's just REALLY a pain in the ass!!!

But Brian watched as I played, and he gave me INVALUABLE tips each time I died, so that I finally was able to beat the level!!!

But then I realized that I had misses one of the 2 secrets!!!

In order to unlock all the extras -- such as interviews with Joss and the actors -- you have to get all the secrets.

So I replayed the level and, like a trooper, Brian sat right there with me and provided moral support!!! (THANK YOU, sir!!!)

And now I intend to fall asleep listening to some more of Mrs. Dubois' wisedom and insight.

:D

I Am Living In A Magical Time

I'm writing this entry for me ;)

I just got off the phone with my friend Kelly in L.A. (actually, my phone ran out of juice and died) and he was telling me about the days he has had working for M. Studios. We were in the midst of a VERY COOL conversation about the new Superman movie, and the previous (donner-directed) ones.

The first time he called I was on the phone with someone special to me.

At work, earlier, I got a call from my friend Kal who is back in Texas for the time being -- he has spent the last several years in L.A. -- which is in really good timing with Tommy and Brian and I shooting this summer's short and next year (hopefully) shooting our first professional feature.

Before that I took a break from work to talk to the above-mentioned Someone Special.

And now, as I type this, my brother's asleep on the couch in the living room with THE TICK on the PS2.

I'm writing this because I will look back on this in a few years with fond memories of "where it all began". Things are coalescing (sp?) in my life, and I can sense it. Puzzle pieces, sought after for more than a decade, are coming together, showing me where they should be placed.

And a few years from now I will ask myself "What was the Starting Point? Where did it all begin to come together?"

And I will have this entry in my blog to remind me.

I invite anyone reading this to examine the quirky details of their life, the last couple of months, and see if maybe they're at an important intersaection of their lives that they may want to remember. You know if you are. Listen to the quiet whispers in your ear and trust what they have to say. Not the noisy cacophony of voices, but the really quiet ones. I'll bet as you read this, events and circumstances are converging in such a way as to reveal a long-hoped-for path that you may not have known you could travel.

Hope you have a GREAT weekend!!!

Vexing Ad Language

I spend WAAAAAYYYYYY too much time airing comercials!!! I work at a TV station, so even though I don't watch TV at home, I'm still bombarded with mind-numbing crap.

Like this one comercial...

You see hot girls wandering around outside and having their pictures taken while hot music plays... Then finally a silky female voice says "Why settle for just 15 minutes of fame? BOGO: Buy One Get One Half Off."

WHAT?!!!

WTF is that SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!!!

Have you seen this? Is this just a regional ad?

How is the act of buying 2 pairs of shoes going extend one's "15 Minutes of Fame"?!! It's like the so-called "writer" of that commercial believes that just buy placing that sentence (well, that clause) behind that question will somehow magically create some sort of logic or meaning!

I mean, don't get me wrong... The BOGO campain has been doomed from the start. The first commercials featured Star Jones (a woman famous for... Why is she famous again?). And even the term "BOGO" shows that the advertising firm is WAY-lazy! "Buy One Get One... half off..."

And when did Dairy Queen become "DQ"?!! I mean, I know WHEN... but did calling the place "DQ" ACTUALLY make it a hipper place to eat? Are Tweens and Teens and College Students suddenly going "I need me a Hungerbuster, Yo!"?!!

And "KFC", too! Are the Cool Kids now hanging out at KFC on Saturday nights because the franchise dropped the "entucky ried hicken"?!!

Another way-stupid name: "Smart Start Healthy Heart"... WTF?!!! The box says it may -- may -- help make your heart healthier. It's a perfectly legal claim that, in fact, promises NOTHING to the purchaser of the product. NOTHING. Moreover, the claim goes on to include "in addition to a healthy lifestyle".

So... If you live a healthy lifestyle AND eat this Smart Start Healthy Heart, then you MAY have a healthier heart.

?!

However, I can make the claim that if you life a healthy lifestyle AND ready my blog religiously, you MAY have healthier bowels. And my claim is ABSOLUTELY AS VALID as the Smart Start Healhty Heart claim.

Advertising language is designed to be sue-proof, and the only way to be completely free from litigation is to SAY NOTHING. If you never want to get sued, don't say, do or think ANYTHING... and you may have a chance.

But what's the point of advertising if you're not really telling anyone about your product?!!

The point is (a) to tell you that the product exists -- and, ideally, tell you while you're riding the high of watching your favorite programs -- and (b) to HOPE YOU'RE NOT LISTENING. Seriously, sue-proof language relies on the assumtion that YOU, the viewer of the ad, is not paying close attention to what is ACTUALLY being said. They want you to hear "healthy heart" and not "may". They want you to hear "get one half off" and not hear "buy one".

There's another one, and I'm pretty sure it IS regional (not national), and I can't remember what they were trying to sell me. But the commerical starts off with the question "Would you like to potentially increase your income by 50%?"

And my response is always -- and sometimes out-loud, 'cause the ad vexes me SO -- "No!"

You caught that, right? "Would you like to potentially increase your income by 50%?"

If they asked if I would LIKE TO INCREASE my income, they might (MIGHT) have my attention. But these wieners don't even have the balls to offer me that! They ask if I want to POTENTIALLY increase my income!!!

Now, the fact that someone paid to have this spot aired a billion times over the next however-many months suggets that they want my money. Somehow, someway, they want me to pay them.

But they're not even offering me anything. ANYTHING! They're offering me the POTENTIAL to earn more money. I can buy a book about business for half price (or less) at a used-book store and possess the POTENTIAL to increase my income by up to 50%. Hell, I can by a $0.25 business book at a garage sale and possess the potential to increase my income by 400%!!!

But you remember what your parents said about potential? "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

So why am I gonna give someone my money for potential? A dollar buys me the potential to become independantly wealthy... Why don't I just sink my dough into the lottery?

Ad agencies believe that the reason I'm going give them my money isbecause I'm going to hear what I want to hear, and not hear "potential". Because I'm a mindless consumer, and I don't understand the language I speak well enough to understand what ALL the words they use mean together.

Blah!

Sorry. I just... This is how I earn my paycheck, listening to this crap for 40 hours a week. And the writing stands out to my ear in particular because when I hear it I'm thinking "Somebody GOT PAID to write those words while I'm sitting here getting paid to listen to them".

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to write for ad agencies. Not that it isn't a noble occupation. Lawrence Kasdan wrote for an ad agency before he wrote RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK -- a screenplay that is STILL studied for it's brilliant and innovative craft.

But I am annoyed that Payless Shoes heard "BOGO" and didn't say "WHAT?!!! Try a little bit harder, you fucks, or we're hiring someone else!" kinda makes me nuts. You know?

I guess what annoys me most is this: If you can't legally make a claim about your product, then DON'T. It's pretentious to try to be all cool and hip, or to take yourself seriously at all!

Before X3, my brother and I watched this GREAT Sprite commercial...

It's many differnt brain-bending scenarios intercut, but one of them is 2 big-ass Sumo dudes, one painted yellow and one painted green. They're in the middle of this obviously fake forrest at night, running in intense slow-motion toward each other. Between them is a Napolean-Dynamite looking dude wearing a powder-blue, Disco-era tux, just sitting obliviously on a rock. These Sumos keep charging each other until, finally, their big ol' Sumo bellies collide... AGAINST THE GEEK-DUDE'S FACE!!! His face is SKWISHED between the Sumo Bellies...

...AND THEN HE'S REFRESHED!!! Having his face pancaked by a giant yellow and a giant green Sumo Stomach refreshed him! WHY? Because this is an ad for Sprite!

And I laughed so hard that a couple of kids sitting next to me asked "Are you okay?" And in a very high-pitched voice between tummy-torturing laughs I said "I don't think so".

But see, Sprite goes "Look, we're not gonna make you healthier, we're not gonna make you richer, but we're Sprite and we want your money. So here, laugh for 30 seconds."

Now, I still drink the generic version because I'm Po' Folk, and I prefer the after-taste of diet colas anyway.

BUT... Sprite's not insulting my intelligence, treating me like some mindless livestock.

Blah.

Okay, I'm done ranting.

Just had to get all that out of my system before it festered.

Halfway There!!!

I have made it through "Downtown Sunnydale" (Level 5) and "Sunnydale Hospital" (Level 6) and am about to enter the "High School" (Level 7 of 12)!!!

I am SERIOUSLY kicking vampire-, demon- and zombie-ass!!!

Life is SO SWEET!!!

OH!!!

And Brian and I saw X-3 last night, too!!! Very cool flick. A thought-provoking end to the series!

OOH, OOH!!!

AND...

We saw SAW 2 the other night! That was really great because Brian and I are working on a horror movie, and the SAW movies are SPECTACULAR examples of how to write horror flicks! Scary and smart! Entertainment with something to say!

:D

This is a GOOD summer ;) Life is happy :) I am fulfilled :D

All of this in addition to a rich and fulfilling SecondLife ;)

Tommy's out of town this week for work, so I don't get to hear what he thinks about the feature film idea yet. But I'm redoing some of the pre-pro stuff on the short, so that's still moving along.

I just kinda feel like I've got all my bases covered!

I wish CLERKS 2, SUPERMAN RETURNS and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST were out already... But other than that, my summer is coasting sweetly along!

Hope yours is going well, too!!!

Squeezing Blood from a PS2

This morning I completed the 4th level of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: CHAOS BLEEDS!!! The 4th of 12!

I'm kinda kickin' ass :)

That means I conquered "Magic Box", "Cemetery", "Blood Factory" and "Magic Box Revisited". Next I'm going to be tackling "Downtown Sunnydale".

I friggin' LOVE this game!!! Somehow it's like being IN the show AND it's like watching a Summer Blockbuster version of the show.

Don't aks me how that makes sense, it just does.

It's DEFINITELY summer, though, because I'm SO jonesin' to play videogames.

Not SL... That really doesn't feel like a videogame to me. that's hanging out with cool people and building stuff. The videogame "feel" is fast and exciting and makes my palms sweat. SL sometimes makes my palms sweat, but for a VERY DIFFERENT reason ;)

Okay, I'm at wor and I should probably get back to it. Just wanted to share my ecstacy with you! yesterday before work I completed the 3rd level and today I completed the 4th. I'm on a roll, baby!!!

The Grail Is At Hand!

Okay, HOW stoked AM I!!!

I've been bangin my head against a wall for some 14 years now, trying to figure out how to get people to pay me to do what I already do for free -- namely, write movies and make movies.

This past week I finally figured out what I was doing wrong...

I've been trying to figure out how to contact the people who have the money to risk in an indpendant feature film. Which is a dificult thing to do since I don't know WHO those people are!

But then I was reading an article in... What was it? OH! It was on the Highland Myst Productions website. And it was about their business team. And I realized that there are some people in the world who enjoy making deals as much as we enjoy making movies. THESE are the people I need to be seeking out! Because these are the people who know who has the money to invest, and what it is they're most interested in investing in.

That's what these people DO! They spend as much time cultivating contacts and revising business strategy as I spend nourishing my understanding of what makes movies great and revising my understanding of story structure. Ted Elliot and Ted Rossio have said on their website Wordplay that we should become screenwriting EXPERTS.

Well...

There are people who devote their time to becoming experts at getting a movie rolling!

So I desperately email my friend Kelly, begging him to tell me how to find one of these experts. He's in Hollywood, that's where the money is -- or at least, the people who know how to get at money for that particular purpose.

It was a long conversation, and Kelly told me everything I need to know to get started!!!

First step, natch, write a fantastic screenplay.

NO PROBLEM!!!

I'm sorry if that seems arrogant, and please believe that it doesn't come from some misguided belief that I myself am some master screenwriter. This confidence comes from the belief in the AMAZING TEAM, of which I am a grateful part!!!

After some of the initial responses for the short we're gearing up to shoot, I'd say that Brian and Tommy and I are the top of our game!!! I'm really proud of the script, but mostly I'm proud at the ideas that make the script a fun read -- most of which, I'm not at all ashamed to admit, came from Brian and Tommy!!! All I really did was find a way to make them work in a single story, and to make sure folks didn't doze off while reading that story :)

So this has been an EXCITING weekend for Ray Jay!!! It's like like running a long-distance race, seing the finish line ahead, and then lloking back to see that everyone is half a mile behind you and losing steam! All I have to do is keep running and I'll win!

But don't get me wrong, I'm sweating buckets and my legs feel like they're about to give out.

I mean, not really. I was extending the metaphor, but it looks like I may have stretched it out so it doesn't fit anymore.

I mean that there is still work to be done before the big First Deal is struck. Like, we need to write a GREAT movie that can be shot for a really small budget.

But like I said, we're in a groove!!!

2006 isn't following the plan I laid out for it at the beginning of the year, but I like the plan it laid out for me a GREAT DEAL better :D

And I hope things are going twice as good for anyone reading this!!!

Just finished listing the following necessities for the flick:

-Characters
-Sets/Locations
-Props
-SFX

Fun.

But useful!!! It's a necessary step. We need to know what all we need so we can start tracking stuff down, or at least form a gameplan as to HOW we will start tracking stuff down.

Anyone in Texas know of someone who owns or manages a rural cemetery with a grounds-keeper house on the premisis?

Couldn't hurt to ask.

Also, I got a glowing review on the script from my ex-wife!!! So I'm stoked about that!

Don't get me wrong, she's always supportive of us and our filmmaking endeavours, and my writing in general. But she's got good taste in movies and books, so if she disliked it I seriously would have taken a closer look. But instead, she loved it!

So YAY!

Now I'm waiting for our writer friends to get word back to me... And their job will be to cut me NO SLACK. So it's REALLY cool to get some ego-massages beforehand :)

Okay, U2 is on Conan O'Brien tonight, so I'm gonna go watch.

Checking In...

I'm working on a new novel.

I had this idea for a while for a novel based on my SecondLife experiences. I was going to sort of borrow the structure of BIG TROUBLE (the movie, I haven't read dave Barry's novel yet) and make it this sort of no-holds-barred comedy aventure thing.

But recent events have made me more contemplative about what SL is, and so the current novel will probably be more like FORREST GUMP (the novel, not the movie).

Thanks to my eMusic subscrition, I now own the first 4 of Lewis Black's 5 cds!

That's really cool! Although his humor is as smart and as biting as George carlin, he's somehow less scary. One night I made an uber-playlist of Carlin's carreer in albums, and by the 4th album I was kinda hatin' on the world. But Black allows me to laugh at our (mankind's/societies) foibles without wanting to slap people around for being idiots.

No idea what that's about, but there it is.

Looking foreward to seeing THE DA VINCI CODE Saturday with my friends Lisa and Regina! That should be groovy :)

Oh, and we -- Tommy, Brian and I -- are working on lists of things we need to make the movie in the next couple of months (actors, locations, props, etc.). So things are moving forward still with the flick!

VERY cool :)

Tons of SL stuff, none of which I can blog about. Which is a little frustrating, because some of it is fairly profound. But all of it involves other folk's lives and stuff, and therefor is not my story to tell. I could simply talk about the impacts of these events on my perspective, but none of it would make sense without the context. (Like when I first started blogging about SL, before I started putting pics up. Ya know?)

Blah.

Soooo...

Not much to tell ya about. But it just feels like I've been away from here for a while.

PEACE, LOVE & HAPPINESS to anyone reading these words!!!

As Of 1:43 a.m. Central Time...

Hola, Peeps & Peepettes!!!

I finished the third draft of the screenplay for the short flick Tommy & Brian and I plan to shoot this summer!!!

YAY, ME!!!

I'd LOVE to say that I finished it in SeconLife, like I did the first draft, but that would be a lie. Truth is I loaded it up Saturday, but I just wasn't feelin' it.

This behavior is what non-writers might call "Creative" -- as in, "No, no, he's not retarded. He's Creative..." -- and writers refer to as "Undisiplined". Or possibly, "a writer". (Apparently Douglas Adams, among others, just "didn't feel it" quite often when he had a novel due...)

So Monday night, at work -- when Tommy and Brian & I were meeting Tuesday -- I finally pulled it up and finished the second draft. Then after the production meeting I wrote the third draft, and now I've got a WHOLE WEEK OFF FROM WRITING!!!

This excites me to NO end!!!

God bless Tommy for his busy schedule! 'Cause Tommy simply can't meet with us this coming Tuesday.

And now the script is in other hands. Tommy sent the script off to two writer members of our creative Core -- Kelly (director, editor, screenwriter in L.A.) and Chuck (Playwright, Actor, theatre director and Theatre Teacher in Florida) and a third set of eyes, a screenwriter he knows, but that Brian and I haven't met yet.

So we'll be getting valuable feedback soon, to help turn our very good script into, hopefully, a GREAT script!!!

Also, part of the reason I didn't do any writing on Sunday is because I was reading THE DA VINCI CODE before the movie comes out! GREAT BOOK!!! Dan Brown writes a lot like Michael Crichton, in that his stories are taught suspenceful action mixed with thought-provoking, fact-based ideas.

I know, YOU'VE ALL read it already. I'm WAY behind everyone else.

That's cool. I don't have any problem with that. I enjoy stuff when I'm "feelin' it" and not before. I didn't get into Harry Potter until the first flick was announced... and then I had 3 novels to catch up on.

I can live with that.

BUT, how many movies are YOU gonna shoot this summer? Huh?

I didn't THINK so :)

*winks*

Pardon me, chat-lingo is seeping into ALL my written communications, thatk's to my SL habit. I now know what "afk" and "rofl" mean!!! (Btw, "brb" and "lol" were the first chat phrases I learned. Followed quickly by "lmao", "omg" and "wtf"... FYI.)

Dudes!!! If you're looking for a good read, may I suggest Kevin Smith's 9-part essay "Me And My Shadow". It's SO worth the read!!! You'll never see Jason "Jay" Mewes in the same light EVER again!!! (Or Kevin Smith, for that matter...) Dude brougth tears to my eyes more than once, and not all not all of them sad!!! You wouldn't think the "Noitch-noitch-noitch" dude could be a hero, but the portait Smith paints of his "boy"'s struggles is both heart-wrenching and inspiring!!!

Then, jump ahead to the May 9th article, "Johnny Rotten vs. Stan Lee!"!!! I would love to have been in THAT room Tuesday night!

Have I meantioned that Eddie Izzard's SEXIE finally came in the mail?!! A couple of weeks ago, but I recommend it to anyone who likes to laugh!!! It's right up there with DRESS TO KILL as some of Izzard's very best work!!! I had to wait, like, A MONTH to get it because I ordered it from his site so it came all the way from England -- which kinda makes it COOLER, you know, in that fan-boy geek kind of way -- and it was SO worth the wait!!!

What else?

Um...

Nothing I guess. I think you're caught up: I've torn myself away from Sl long enough to write 2 more drafts of the short and read THE DA VINCI CODE and listen to the latest Eddie Izzard.

I've slept some, too.

Yep. That's about it :)

Writing at Walden Pond

Remember me mentioning that Tommy and Brian and I are working on a new short? Well I finished the script for it thts past Saturday!!!

Ask me where!

WALDEN POND!!!

Some SL friends created Walden Pond -- immortalized by Henry David Thoreau in his 1854 novel WALDEN -- on their land, as a personal escape for them and an attraction for others in SecondLife. I looked up pics of the place, past and present, and they NAILED! It looks JUST as it did for the 2 years and 2 months Thoreau lived there!!!

The pictures below won't do their creation justice, though. 'Cause this entry's about ME :)

So I know I need to write. And I know there's not much going on for me in-world at the moment. But I'm not feeling the desire to write in my Writer's Pad (my Home in SL).

Despite the RIDICULOUSLY HIGH Pretntious Factor [I've read Thoreau and I, sir, am NO THOREAU], I decide I'm gonna go write in Thoreau's cabin, and see how much work I get done.


Okay, so a screenplay -- even a short one -- has 4 essential components which, for our purposes here, I will arbitrarily call The Open, The Meat, The Climax and The Resolution. If the script is 7 pages long, then The Open might be 1 page, The Meat might be 3 pages, the Climax might be 2 pages and the Resolution might be 1 page. (If the script runs longer, the only component that expands significantly is The Meat. The rest stay comparitively tiny; and I think the Crap Draft of our movie runs approcimately 17 pages, making The Meat closer to 10 pages long.)

I got The Open late, late, late Friday night just before I left work.

So I sat down at Thoreau's table and got started.

The land has its own soundeffects, so as the sun set the chirping of birds faded away and I got to hear the hooting of owls out the window as I typed :)

It was WAY COOL!!!


Now looking at the layout of the cabin, there's a table, a desk and a bed. The table was most likely intended strictly for eating. Maybe reading. But Thoreau was a writer... I'm guessing he did some writing there, too :) (He probably did some writing under a tree just outside, and probably by on a rock by the pond. I mean, 2 years and 2 month? He probably did some writing on just about every square inch of that land, right?)


So I wrote at the very same table that THOREAU probably wrote at!!!

...if he had a computer with a cable modem and an XP operating system....

And there probably wasn't an alien sleeping on the bed next to him as he wrote.

These pics are me revisiting the places i wrote at. At the time I wasn't in picture-taking mode. And Brian's computer takes MUCH better snapshots than mine, so I asked him to come with me and be the photographer for these.

Which means that sometimes I'd turn around and find him in wierd palces.

So anyway...

I wrote The Meat of the script here. And after that 10 pages or so, I felt like I was probably done for the day. So I got up to stretch my legs and IM some friends and see what they were up to, and just generally feel good about myself for having done some good work, and having done it IN THOREAU'S CABIN ON WALDEN POND!!!


I strolled over to the campsite there and sat infront of the fire.

...and discovered I WASN'T spent for the day! I wrote a paragraph that had popped into my head, a piece of dialogue that seemed to come naturally after that...

And before I knew it, I had completed The Climax of the script!!!


So I ran around with my SL friend April and checked out some of the ASTOUDING things she's created in-world, and then I get an IM from my friend Tam. She's dancing at a club (HUGE surprise) and can I come dance, too?

I've done A LOT of good work today (12 or so pages in a day for just about ANY screenwriter is GOOD WORK) so I go celebrate! There are topless women dancing around me, the music is blasting, everyone's chatting to each other, and to me...

And I decide I want to work out this ONE SCENE...


So I turn my music off and whip out the Notecard I've been writing the screenplay on...

And half an hour later I'VE FINISHED THE CRAP DRAFT OF THE SCRIPT!!!

This is PARTY TIME, INDEED!!! Before I was celebrating because I had come VERY CLOSE to finishing the script! NOW I'm celebrating IT COMPLETION!!!

In the pic above is Tempest Jewel, she manages Baby Dollz, the club I wrote the Resolution in. She was there Saturday night, and when Brian and I went back to the club to get a picture, she was there THEN, too!!! All alone, playing music and dancing to it.

And Tommy left about 20 minutes ago. He and Brian and I talked about the script, about what changes we want to see in this next draft.

So I've got more work to do this week/weekend.

AND SECONDLIFE SEEMS TO BE THE PERFECT PLACE TO DO IT!!!

Exhaustive Fun

So as of Tuesday Tommy, Brian and I are working on a new short!!! It's been a couple of years, so it feel GREAT to be working on a new one!!!

Monday night after work, I go in-world and track down a TON of free scripts and decide to try to figure them out. AND I DO!!!

Well, to a degree...

I mean, I can't write scripts from scratch, but I can now read scripts a little better than I could before! They make a little more sense to me now :)

So much so, I was able to create some poseballs of my own!!!

Oh... Definition -- Poseballs are these devices in SL that allow Avatars to perform specific actions. Like, if you wanna sit down in SL you click on a sit poseball and it makes your Av sit down.

OR...

Let's say you create a haunted land, and you wanna create little scenes for visitors to pose and take pics of themselves, you might need a die poseball, for example...

Which is convenient, because Brian added onto his biggest store -- Freddy's Alley -- and created a hallway that you can walk down to get to this GREAT GRAVEYARD!!!

But that was mostly Tuesday night. Monday night I explored the Wonderful World of Scripting!

I stay up until 7:30 am or later Tuesday morning, then I wake up Tuedsay afternoon just before 1p. About 5 hours of sleep. But I don't so much feel it because I wake up and hop in-world, and I'm all being productive and stuff!!!

Then Tommy comes over -- just a little earlier than he usually does, even -- and he and Brian and I spend the next 5 and a half hours creating what I think is a GREAT short film story!!!

It was some SERIOUS fun!!!

And then after Tommy had to get home, Brian and I got back in-world and got back to work on the Haunted Land.

I built this box: The walls look like SL woods ad midnight, and the ceiling looks like a starry midnight SL sky. So whatever time of day it is, when you're in the graveyard it looks like it's midnight! Plus, the graveyard actually exists some 700 meters in the sky. But the graveyard looks like it's on the ground, in a wooded area :)

Very cool!

And then Brian made the cemetery (and the "Dark Woods Box) twice as long and set up a 2-story caretaker type house at the back of the graveyard. So if he's in the house and a visitor to the store wanders into the graveyard, he can appear behind a tree at the back of the cemetery and spook 'em :)

I stayed up WAY TOO LATE creating death poses and more poseballs for future visitors. I think I got maybe 5 hours of sleep Tuesday night (Wednesday morning, for those of you who have Normal People schedules...).

And last night at work was TORTURE!!! When I had my work done, I COULD NOT stay awake for my life!

Oh, it SUCKED.

One of my female friends called me and chatted at me for for 4 hours -- until my phone died -- and she was all frustrated because I just WAS NOT myself. Now, part of it was that she was talking AT me... She sometimes just love to tell me what she did with her kids today, and often she'll list things she bought at the grocery store, or list every food she ate at a particular meal... So it's not really like she was talking TO me.

But still, usually I'm MUCH more vibrant and... you know... much more ME.

More than that, this Sleepy-Whenever-I'm-Not-Moving thing seems to have started last week.

I've decided that it must be this: When I'm not at work I'm CONSTANTLY engaged in something that stimulates my interest. Seriously, I wake up and there's SL and/or PS2 and/or email. And when I get off work there's SL, PS2, email, and/or movies until I finally force myself to go to sleep. But work... Except for Fridays, I have a few hours work right up front, then just maintainence-type stuff every half hour.

So my body goes "You're not doing anything, let's have a nap."
And I'm like, "I'm DOING something! I'm working!"
And my body's all, "Nah, we're napping."
And I'm all, "HA! COFFEE! Take THAT!"
And my body's all, "sssslllleeeeeeeeeppppyyyy"
And I'm all "yawn; quit it..."
And my body's all "sssslllleeeeeeeeeppppyyyy"
And then I'm a zombie for the rest of night.

So when I got home last night I'm all like "I'll show YOU" and I went STRAIGHT TO BED, no SL, no PS2! I was in bed by 3a.

But then, around 5a my body's all "HUNGRY" and I'm all "NO! Go to sleep!" and it's all "HHHUUUNNNGGGEEERRRRRRRYYYYYY!" So I'm all "Okay, toast... And maybe something sweet..."

And then I finally crash around 6:30am or 7a.

But still, I woke up when my alarm went of with little hassle.

So I'm hoping tonight I'll be less narcolepic.

We'll see.

Groovin' Weekend

Okay, last entry I gave you the sort of overview og the weekend, but I wanted to go into a bit more detail.

If you're sick of reading about my SecondLife, you might want to stop reading here...

It's just so cool, the way SL and RL mesh for me! I spent all day Friday working and waiting for 2:00 am, when I could go home and get back in-world. When I do, it's like I never left.. only a lot of stuff has happened that I have to hear about.

Plus, weekends LAST LONGER in-world. Days cycle, like, every 2 or 3 hours in-world. So even if I'm just bombing around the world (because all my friends are off-line) on a Friday night/Saturday morning after I get off work, I've seen 1 or 2 sunsets and sunrises. I feel like I've lived an entire weekend before I go to sleep Friday night!!!

So anyway, my weekend begins in earnest on Saturday. I'm meeting Lisa and Regina at the theater to catch SILENT HILL Opening Weekend! This is HUGE for me! I missed STAY ALIVE at the theaters because of time/money/circumstance, and I was a little afraid that I might have to wait for dvd for SILENT HILL, as well. But stuff worked out just fine, and I GOT TO SEE IT!!!

And that's cool enough! But it just so happened that I got to have some cool, intelligent conversation about the movie for a few minutes after, as well!

Then I hop in the car, and I'm on a mission: I need to get in-world in time for the opening of the club I helped create!

Now don't get me wrong, the opening of the club is not my triumph, personally. Tam is the genius behind the vision! And this chick's SMART!!! And then Brian's also a genius, because he was able to physically (in cyberspace) create the building itself. THESE TWO are the heroes in this little story.

But I'm super proud to have been a part of this team!!! And both of them are quick give me props for my small contributions, so I don't feel guilty thinking of the club as "our" accomplishment. (But I have no actual delusions about just how small a part I actually played...)

So anyway...

I totally want to be there to celebrate with my friends!!!

So this is my mission: Get in-world for the Opening.

But...

...I have a side-mission: Brian and I need smokes and beer.

It's been a while since we drank, and I got paid Friday. So beer just seems like a groovy idea for tonight, Celebration night. Then, we need smokes. Brian's low on dough until next week, and we've both been smoking a LOT more than we usually do, so if I score a carton of cigarettes, that'll help the next week go by more smoothly.

Plus, you know... IT'S THE WEEKEND.

Oh, and I have a Netflix movie I need to drop into a mailbox. (Our complex doesn't have an enclosed Outgoing box, and the 2 times I've chanced dropping my movies off in the complex mail box, Netflix didn't get the movies. TWICE in just over TWO YEARS. Coincidence? Probably; but I don't take the chance anymore.)

Okay, so this should be a one-stop trip. There's an H.E.B. just down the street from our appartment... AND there's a drive-by public mailbox in the parking lot!

So first I drop off the Netflix movie, then I roll into H.E.B.. They're having a sale on beer, so I'm able to load up for less than I expected!

But they don't have the smokes I'm looking for.

Scheiza.

Okay, there's a Texaco down the road that I KNOW has the smokes I'm looking for, and plenty of them. It's a little bit out out of my way, and will cost me about 15 minutes. But once I've procured the smokes, Brian and I are set for the weekend!

Now, the weather's all Summer-y, and I've popped in my "Summer Jamz" mix cd, so I'm kind of getting a whiff of some of teen-dom. This, after I've FINALLY gotten to see a good Horror flick IN THE THEATER on OPENING WEEKEND...

I'm having A GREAT DAY!!!

I snag the smokes, roll home, slip into my Comfy Gear and log into SecondLife!

In-world, Brian and Tam are dancing, the club's not packed but it's got plenty of dancin' folk, and Tam reports that she's happy with the attendance tonight.

SCORE!!!

If she's happy with the way Opening Night went, then it was a success!!!

After a little while Tommy shows up and joins the fun! I have IM conversations with him and Tam and a couple other people while Brian and I are laughing and shouting down the hall to each other.

So there's more danincing and chatting and laughing and fun.

After a while, after everyone else goes to bed (in RL) Brian and I go to a screening of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW in-world!!!

I meantioned that last time. But it was REALLY fun!!! I mean, it's 1:30 am or later in RL. Nobody's awake except US at this hour. But in SL, there are some other freaks sitting and watching this movie with us, yelling at the screen and laughing at each other!!!

It's a GOOD life!

Then yesterday, had the Family Dinner thing with Mom, and that was groovy. And we burned some dvds for her, which took up the slower computer -- the one I usually use for SL when Brian and I are both home. So Brian -- generous cat that he is -- pops in BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE on the PS2 (it plays better than the dvd player in the living room) and takes over the burning process, allowing me to use his computer to go in-world!!!

(I WUV my bubba!!!)

So I get to hang with Tam and others at the Shark Pit, dancing and chatting. After the first dvd is burned, the pc decides to act wierd, so I'm sort of in-and-out of Brian's room. But that's cool when you're dancing in SL! To any in-world on-lookers, you're dancing with them. You might be slow to respond to questions, but it doesn't hurt the atmosphere or the vibe any.

Some hours later, the dvds are burnt and Brian has -- VERY GENEROUSLY -- decided to let me continue using his pc while he goes in-world on the slower one -- the living room one!

That means that ANYTHING I do in SecondLife, ANYWHERE I go, the graphics are just about as good as PS2 graphics! I get to experience the world the way the creators intend it to be experienced.

Meanwhile, Brian's such a geneous in-world that he's still wicked-skilled!!! I'm on his computer and he's on the living room computer... He STILL creates circles around me!

He's THAT GOOD :)

[He would humbly argue with me -- something along the lines of "Aw, now... I'm OKAY, but..." -- but he never reads my blog... Too busy in SL :) ]

But it would still be a while before I joined him on our Build Land. I was dancin' with Tam at the Shark Pit :)

Eventually, the later it became, the Pit crew was own to Tam, a woman named Loki and me. The ladies decided to go to another club, so we all teleported there seperately. And it was the COOLEST feeling when we all entered the front door at THE SAME TIME...

First of all, this club is in a city, and the teleport landing spot is ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE CITY from the club. So you have to make your way through (or OVER... you can fly in-world) streets made to look exactly like RL Amsterdam.

And if your TerraWarp Belt is set on 2 (out of, like, 5 -- and Speed 1 will make you shoot around like a rocket), you're gonna bump into a lot of stuff.

Okay, the secondly... You know this sensation, it's happened to you before SOMETIMES in your life:

You're out with your friends, you're running around, having a FANTASTIC TIME (you feel like a teenager again... or like a GOD), and you get seperated momentarily, but you agree to all meet up at the same place. It could be the mall, it could be a dance club, it could be a movie theater. But you're all arriving in different vehicles and you've all left at slightly different times.

Then you get there, and you're walking past the sidewalk, walking toward the front door... And you look over and see your friends doing the same thing at the same pace. You ALL just happened to arrive at the SAME TIME, completely independant of one another! And you feel like a rock star or something!

And none of you says "Oh, there you are" or anything like that. You just notice each other and keep walking, each of you probably feeling that same cool vibe.

And where you're headed is actually quite a bit inside the doorway, so you all just keep walking, and the distance to your destination inside somehow makes you feel like you're a rock star in a movie about being a rockstar, and you've just entered the building and you just keep moving toward the stage, to that crowd that's cheering you on inside...

I KNOW I'm not the ONLY person who has experienced that! Right?

Anyway, that's what it felt like as I'm walking into the club (on a computer that has crystal-clear graphics, even when you're entering a new region [with visual data that needs time to render]) and I look over and see the ladies also arriving at the same time, and then the three of us take our own path through the loby and to the dance floor, and then we ARRIVE... people dancing and chatting to each other, the party that has just been warming up until WE got there :)

Yes, yes, I have a HUGE ego. I've been told this before. But truly, that's the way it FELT.

Better still, we're there only for a few minutes when we hear that it's Pajama Night... :)

You don't need details about this... Just imagine you're in a room with hot women, you yourself are a hot male, and EVERYONE is in their pajamas :)

THAT'S a good room to be in.

This entry's going on FOREVER, isn't it?

Anyway, let me cut to the chase...

So I'm up until 7-ish am this morning, and I set my alarm to 2:00 pm to give myself 6 -- rather than 5 -- hours to sleep. I hit the Snooze a few times this monring (MY "morning", mind you) and then I finally decide to get up and I turn the alarm off.

Then at 3:00 pm, I wake up again...

I had dozed off after I killed the alarm...

I have to jump in the car at 3:30 pm to make work on time...

So I jump into some clothes, throw on my No-Time-To-Make-Myself-Purdy hat, and race to work. In the car, I've still got my Summer Jamz playing :) And I get to work about 5 minutes late, and my boss in in the room when I show up.

He's in mid-conversation, though, so he says Hi to me and continues talking.

10 minutes later, I'm caught up on everything I have to do IMMEDIATELY upon arriving at work, and I'm able to join the conversation.

So for me, this weekend seems to have been about me racing around from one place to the other, conversing and laughing, and feeling cool.

And now it's time for me to race home from work and hop back in-world... and feel cool :)

Here's hoping YOU feel cool very, very soon, too!!!