A friend convinced me to go to some Halloween event, because it is kind of like a national holiday of sorts. I told her I'd go just to go, but I would probably leave early. I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I'm tired. Plus, all that yummy halloween potluck food is making my tummy ache! Guess I didn't need to eat another cupcake with orange frosting.

Happy Halloween!

There's nothing like pigging out at an office potluck, and eating the various orange frosted and halloween looking cookies, donuts, cakes and cupcakes. I've got a headache from all the sugar I've been eating. HELP!

It's Halloween, and it's another office potluck. I was in a fried chicken mood, so I bought some at the local grocery store. It's a good thing I've been eating less than 1,200 calories since Saturday so I can splurge today and eat all the scrummy food. It's the total calories at the end of the week that counts, not the daily total right? ;)

Time goes very slowly when you're waiting to hear if your computer is dead. I priced a computer on Dell, and I ended up spending way too much money. I'll have to really think about what I really need because it seems very easy to spend over $2,000 for a new computer.

I'm definitely buy a laptop before the end of the year. If I had a backup system, I could have finished my screenplay. My LG Phenom is a great little tool for writing on the go and for checking email on the road, but it's no substitute for a laptop. If I was a freelance writer with an article due, I'd be out of business by now. Luckily I'm not dependent on my writing for income, but I'm going to have to start treating my computer like a business investment and have system redundancy (two systems in case one fails), daily backup procedures, and on and off site data storage. I even checked out solar laptop batteries, and found solar panels used by Peace Corp volunteers to power their laptops.

Part of me wants to buy a laptop today, but I keep telling myself to wait until I know the fate of my pc. But waiting is so hard!!!

I spoke to Gordon Zaft, a regular reader to my blog, yesterday. I've met people through online dating sites, but I've never met or spoken to anyone this way or any othey way for that matter. He was my first. We had a nice and long conversation about all sorts of things, and it's cool to connect a voice to an email address.

I've been reading PC and notebook reviews all day. After much thought, I've decided I will purchase a new PC next year, and will get a Dell PC. I worked with the Dell sales reps in 1999, when I was working on a Y2K desktop replacement project. My company wanted to purchase 3,000+ desktops, and I attended the meetings with all the major vendor reps; Dell, Compaq, and IBM. I was impressed with Dell's customer service, and their willingness to bend over backwards to meet our needs. Plus, I've had a Dell PC at work since 1999 and I've never had a problem.

I'll probably end up getting a mid range Dell for under $1,000. Since I'm not a gamer and only use my computer for writing and checking email, I don't need a lot of firepower. A mid range pc will be however be good for the few games I'd like to play, like The Sims and that civilization game I keep hearing about.

In the meantime, I'll probably pick up a used IBM Thinkpad. My last company issued Thinkpads to their sales reps, and I heard horror stories of how they treated their laptops. Those Thinkpads amazingly can take a lot of punishment without breaking, and that's the kind of laptop I want; a workhorse laptop to check email and write with when I travel.

I'd like to keep some of my old pc equipment, but it seems cheaper to just buy a whole new system with everything included. I have a great set of speakers with a subwoofer, and a great monitor, but they are 5 years old now. I'll probably keep the scanner and the printer though. I'll donate my old equipment to some charity if I can, and take a small tax write-off.

I took my computer to CompUSA for fixing. They did a good job last year, and it's near my office so I can take care of it without missing any work. Boy, do they have a backlog though! It will take them 6 days to even get to my computer, so I won't find know my computer's fate till next week.

Thank god for my little laptop, so I can still write and check email at home. And thank god I backed up all my writing awhile ago on CD. My screenplay didn't get backed up however, because it's so new. I didn't back up my email either, and I'll have to do that if I get my computer back. I need to also back up my pda files as well.

My poor computer. It's so old. I bought it in 1998, and it has served me very well.

My computer died again on Sunday, right in the middle of Game 7 of the world series and just as I was about to finish the second act of my screenplay. My computer did the same thing last year, so I'm hoping it's the same problem. I had a power surge in my apartment on Wednesday, just as I was turning on my computer on and blew a fuse. When I replaced the fuse, the computer was working fine. Last night, when I checked the back of hard drive, it was very hot. I wonder if the two incidents are related.

Thank god I have my baby laptop, so I can at least check email and not feel totally computer deprived. My baby laptop runs pocket explorer and Blogger Pro doesn't support it, although regular blogger did.

I'm not ready to buy a computer yet, although a friend just purchased a computer from Gateway for $1,000. Buying a new computer is going to take a lot of research. The tech guy at work told me he would build me a new one for a fee. I just need a new hard drive, and want to keep all my other peripherals like my monitor, scanner, cd burner, modem and printer. On the other hand, my last computer was built by a friend of mine and it wasn't without problems, so I'm wondering if I should just order a new computer from Dell. Then there's the process of transferring my files, and I'm not looking forward to that.

I'm also still torn between buying a pc and just getting a laptop with a docking station, but I'm starting to think it would be nice to have both in case one breaks.

I think I can get another year out of my old computer, if it can be fixed, so I put a note in my Palm to buy a new computer in August 2003. Delaying a new computer purchase till then buys me time to figure stuff out. What I could do is buy an old laptop for now, and start migrating my files to the laptop, so when I'm finally ready to get rid of the old computer it won't be such a big deal. An old but serviceable laptop would also be insurance in case the computer decides to die again.

I doubt now that I'll get my computer fixed in time for me to enter my screenplay into that contest. But if my computer isn't fixed by Friday November 1 when Nanowrimo starts, it's not a big deal because I start writing on my baby laptop since it has Pocket Word.

I definitely want to finish the screenplay with or without the contest. I'm trying to look on the bright side. I'm telling myself that I was arrogant in wanting to send a second draft of my screenplay to a contest. I know some of the people entering the contest probably wrote 8 or more drafts of their screenplay before submitting it, maybe even more. Some of the people entering the screenplay contest have written at least three or more screenplays, and are submitting their best work, and not just their first ever written screenplay like me.

I'm surprised by how calm I am. I don't know if I'm in shock, or I'm not being fazed since the same thing happened to me last year. I used to think that in my ideal world, I wouldn't have any problems. But that's not true. I think if you live in this world, you will always problems. Maybe an ideal world means that when bad things happens, you don't freak out and you have faith, supreme faith that everything will work out and works out for the best. That maybe you'll stumble a little, but you won't fall flat on your face, and if you do, you won't die, you'll get up and live to see another day. Now that's an ideal world.

I'm a little over my posting limit for the the next three days, so the posts will be very short.

On tap for today.

Heading downtown to get my bangs trimmed and to buy some items. I hope that the anti war rally is over by the time I get down there. Those anti war protestors can be downright nasty sometimes. I am a cautious supporter of the war on Iraq, only because I think if we don't do something, they will. 9/11 has definitely scarred my dove attitudes.

Then back home to write and watch the game. I think I read somewhere that no baseball team has ever won the world series in game 6. It's baseball, so it's all about tradition, statistics, records, and momentum changes. I love the Angels, only because they are such underdogs having never won a world series. The Angels are also very friendly to the media and fans, which I admire. The Giants, well they're the home team and you have to root for the home team, no matter what, even though they're not the most media friendly team in the league. So Go Giants.

There's a big Nanowrimo/Halloween party in Oakland tonight, hosted by the founder of Nanowrimo Chris Baty. Depending on how I feel, I might drive over there to check it out. Only after the game, of course.

GO GIANTS!

The Giants win Game 5 of the world series, and I have a writing breakdown. Life is great isn't it? I never hit the wall when I was running marathons, but I think I might have hit the wall with my writing. I tried to sit down on Thursday and write, and I couldn't do it. Then I just freaked out, canceled my Friday earling morning appointment with my screenwriting teacher, and started crying. I really thought I could get it done, but I couldn't.

I spent the rest of night watching the game, and trying to figure out why I had a writing breakdown. My conclusion was I was just tapped out, and I didn't know it. I hit the writing wall. I never pushed myself this much in my writing. I've had to do it at work, but not in my writing. I've had impossible deadlines to get stuff done at work, and I've gotten them done, but it wasn't without much pain and agony. I hate working under a deadline. I can do it, but I hate it.

TV episode writers work under intense deadlines to get scripts written, but they're writing one hour of TV scritps. I wrote an hour's worth of my movie in three days. Maybe that's the limit. Maybe you can only write one hour of movie time in a short period of time. I wish I knew.

I reread "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron last night. She says that you have to take care of the creativity well, and keep it stocked. She says to set small and gentle goals and meet them. I guess I didn't do that. I guess I didn't take of my artist child, and like any child, she threw one hell of a tantrum, shit fit and sulk all at once.

This was hard lesson to learn, but one that was probably necessary for me. I can't just write exclusively like I've been doing. Maybe I can do that work, because I've had, but creativity is different. I can't put my life on hold and write, and I did that for the script. I haven't been going out and I didn't rent any movies. I let myself watch the world series, but even when I was watching the world series, I felt so guilty for not writing. Silly huh?

I'm still mulling over my writing breakdown. I don't know if I'm lazy and undisciplined, which a part of me thinks, or if I just hit the writing wall and didn't know it. All I know is I'm exhausted and mentally tired right now, and I still need to finish the rest of my screenplay by Sunday.

My review of Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme.

First impressions. The set reminded me of Moulin Rouge. I read in the paper that Luhrmann created La Boheme long before he created Moulin Rouge, and you can see in the set and costume designs echoes of the movie.

What was different about this production of La Boheme, was the opera singers. Most opera singers in are older and look it. Most opera singers also tend to be broader and bigger. The cast members of Luhrmann’s La Boheme all looked so young, probably age 30 and under, and looked like normal young people. For La Boheme’s story, this type of casting works incredibly well since the opera is about young bohemians. The guys actually looked like the parts they were playing. Since Luhrmann sets the opera in the 50’s, the time charge further added to the very modern look of the opera. The modern look definitely draws a more younger audience in, especially an audience not used to opera. Opera has the reputation for being stuffy. Luhrmann’s La Boheme was anything but stuffy.

Luhrmann uses 3 pairs of couples to sing the role of Rodolpho and Mimi, since the roles are so demanding. The three pairs have been dubbed by the media here, “the red, white and blue” cast. I saw the “white cast”, which all the reviews said is overall the strongest pair of singers and actors.

I thought the singing was very good. The only thing I didn’t like was the singers were miked, and you can tell they were miked. For the size of the theatre where La Boheme was performed, microphones were unnecessary and a good opera singer would have been able to be heard without a microphone. In interview, Luhrmann said that microphones were used just so the singers didn’t have to worry about being heard.

What I loved about this version of La Boheme was the costumes, the set, and the activity going on in the background in the café scene. Everyone in background cast, except for the main people were all dressed in shades of gray. Most of the sets were also gray. With the gray costumes and sets, the main characters really stood out when they were on stage. My friend and I immediately thought of the girl in the red dress in the movie “Schindler’s List”. That girl in the red dress really stands out in the movie. Here the color scheme is reversed, but it has the same effect with the main characters standing out so to speak from the crowd.

The best scene was the one where the main characters are in a café in town. There was so much activity going on, and so many background people on stage, that it was hard to actually pay attention to the singing. But all the activity and people really made for a very visually exciting scene, that I’ve never scene before in a musical or an opera. I was reminded of the freneticism of Moulin Rouge.

All the activity and background characters on stage reminded me of watching the new Star Wars movie, “Attack of the Clones”. I saw the movie at a special digital theatre. There was so much going on in the scenes, that sometimes I would start paying attention to something that was happening on the right edge of the screen, and not care about the main action. I had the same thing happen at La Boheme.

If the tickets weren’t so expensive, I would definitely go to La Boheme again to view that one busy scene just to see what I missed the first time around.

Of course, I loved the story in La Boheme. What I got this time around, the tragedy of the ending. How a person can convince themselves that everything will be okay, even when they told themselves earlier that a situation was hopeless. It’s kind of like to get through life, you have to always be hopeful, be an optimist, even if you know that the coming events are going to be unpleasant and unfortunate. This is tragic to me, because it’s like you experience the pain twice over. First, the initial pain of realizing that a certain situation is hopeless, and then the second pain of hoping against hope that the situation is not hopeless, but having your suspicions confirmed at the end. I didn’t cry at the end of La Boheme, but there were people who did so, and that’s always the sign of a good opera.

Other things I liked about Buhrmann’s La Boheme. They had subtitles which were easy to see, but SF Opera does that too. When they were set changes, the audiences sees the set changes and even the director, so it’s kind of like you’re watching movie. The characters are also in freeze position in the beginning, and then come to life when the lights go up. The people who moved the set were also in costume, which I thought was a very nice touch, because then it gave continuity to the whole production.

Some scenes that were slow moving, but as a whole the production moved along very nicely. Baz Luhrmann’s La Boheme adds a modern, young, and visually exciting look to opera, and for that I think Luhrmann should be congratulated.

I heard an interview with Harold Kushner, who wrote "When Bad Things Happen to Good People". I wrote some things down that he said. Here they are.

You teach morality to override human instinct.

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you’re an honest person, is like expecting a bull to not charge you because you’re a vegetarian.

Prayer is thanking god, and asking God to be with you because when you come into the presence of God, everything seems easier. What kind of things are easier to do, if you think God is with you. You don’t believe in God philosophically, you experience God.

Going to church is communal commitment, to find a congregation, to find a community of believers.

A person who you think has treated you badly does not the deserve the power to jerk your mind around, the person doesn’t have to share the space in your head.

I've only ever read his book "When Bad Things". I found the review for another book that Kushner wrote, "Who Needs God", which I will probably as well. Mr. Kushner seems to have very interesting thoughts on religion, some of which deserve my serious consideration.

Interesting article from New York Times columnist, Edward Rothstein on Defending Post Modernism in a post 9/11 world.

The Giants won game 4, and I am so incredibly distracted by this world series that I can't concentrate on my screenplay. I thought I would push up my deadline and have it finished by Thursday night, but I don't think I can do it. Last night, I was too burnt out to write. Tonight was my bible studies class, and we were discussing the crucifixion and the ressurection and whether it matters if you believed the events actually happened or if these events are just metaphors for faith. My mind is buzzing on that whole discussion. I think there were people in class who probably don't believe that the crucifixion and resurrection actually happened, not that it matters to me if they do or don't because that's a person own private and personal business, and who am I to pass judgment on what other people believe or don't believe. I certainly don't want other people passing judgment on what I believe or don't believe, and this is where for the bible teaching of "do unto other as you would have them do unto you or judge not and you shall not be judged" come in. What was interesting was the sense of shame and secrecy that stole over class about the whole subject. I totally believe it's true, but that's just me.

How can I go back to writing my screenplay after a discussion on what I think is a cornerstone of christian faith; the crucifixion and resurrection of JC.

I only pushed up deadline to Thursday night because my screenwriting teacher is leaving for Europe Friday morning, and I wanted her to take my screenplay with her so she could read it, which she said she would do. I originally thought I would finish my screenplay by Saturday night, because I didn't think I could write with that kind of intensity. It certainly looks like I was right about myself. I think it's hard, at least for me, to write that intensely day in day out. I did it for Nanowrimo, but that was because I think you can write very intensely day in and day out on a first draft. In fact I'm starting to think now that first drafts should come out as quickly as possible, just to get something down on paper.

For my screenplay, I'm in second draft mode. I am doing the second rewrite from scratch, but it's not like I'm just writing off the top of my head. Since I pretty much know how my characters are and how they behave from writing the first draft, when I rewrite the story I have to really think about whether my characters would actually behave and talk the way that I'm writing that they do. In first draft mode, at least in my first draft mode, I sort of know stuff about my characters but not how they actually talk and behave. There's a sense of discovery and exploration of the character in first draft mode. In second draft mode, it's more like does what I'm writing ring true for the character from what I already know about him or her.

That whole section above probably didn't make sense at all, but there is a difference in a second draft rewrite.

I was thinking of taking tomorrow off, but I decided not to. I want my screenwriting teacher to read my screenplay before I send it off to the contest, but if she doesn't, it's not that big of a deal for me. It's not like this is a final, final draft. This is the second draft of my screenplay, and I'm sending in to the contest for two reasons. One, to see how I rate along side other writers and two, to move my screenplay to a state, a place, where I can comfortable leave it until I decide to work on it again.

Since it's the world series as well as football season, I'm into sports analogies. Using baseball analogies. The first draft of your work is like getting to first base. Second and third base represent either a 2nd or third draft or however many drafts you feel you need to get to second and third base. When you write your final, final draft, then you've scored a run. Using football analogies. The first draft is the return after a kickoff. The drafts represent downs, and who know how many downs it will take you to get to the goal line, or get your writing piece to a point where you're satisfied with it and you feel there's nothing else you can do to improve on it. The final final draft means you've scored a touchdown.

Entering my screenplay into a contest in second draft mode is like going from first to second base. I've moved the screenplay further along in the process. I can either leave my screenplay at second bae, or if I wanted to, I could work on it some more and move it from second to third base, and then work on it again until I'm absolutely done, which will mean I've reached home plate and scored a run.

It's good to for me to move my writing pieces out of first draft mode, and to get them further along in the process. I haven't been very good at moving my writing pieces along, having only rewritten two short stories. I'd like to change that. This screenplay will set the table for my writing pieces to move towards final draft mode.

Maybe if I didn't work full time, or if there wasn't a compelling world series on with the hometown team playing, or if I didn't have this very interesting bible class I attend every Wednesday night which makes my mind reel and buzz, I could write with the kind of intensity that I'd like to have. But life is always going to get in the way of my creativity, so I think I just need to write with the kind of intensity that comes naturally to me. And for now, my intensity is there, it's just not there every day. I definitly need time off just to recharge my creative energies, especially after an intense writing session. I wrote for four hours on Monday, and two hours on Saturday and Sunday. I probably could have written for a longer period of time on Saturday and Sunday, but it was hard to settle down to write. Once I do settle down, the writing becomes easier and I think if the world series wasn't on, I could concentrate a little better and get more writing done.

Some part of me wonders if I'm just making excuses and rationalizing my laziness and my inability to meet my own deadlines. I wish I knew the answer.

Right now all I can think about is GO GIANTS!

Jungle karma? Brian Sabean, the GM for the SF Giants, was interviewed on the Jim Rome's radio show, The Jungle. Does he believe in the jungle karma? Was he on there to get good karma for the Giants in tonight's world series games 4? Hmmmm ... interesting.

Wow! Scott Ostler, a sport columnist for the SF Chronicle, saw the similarity between the way the Anaheim Angels play baseball and the "west coast" football offense of the 49ers. - Scott Ostler's column on World Series game 3.

I can't believe I called it, and a sport writer agreed with me. Trippy!!!

An unproductive night. The world series is such a distraction. I think I burnt myself out on writing last night, and I guess I needed to take a break. 13 scenes in a night is a lot. I upped my schedule and was pushing for a Thursday night finish, but perhaps this was way to aggressive. I have bible class tomorrow night, and I'm usually burn out afterwards. I originally wanted to finish my screenplay by Sunday, so I'm really still on track.

The game tonight was tense. The Angels play really great ball. Most clubs seem to rely on the homeruns, but not Anaheim. They seem to play baseball the old fashioned way; base hits and lots of stealing. The Angel offense reminded me of the much vaunted football "West Coast Offense", which I believe was made famous by the 49ers. The team does short a quick pass, and gets down the field on extra yardage run after the initial catch. One announcer tonight said, you gotta keep those players moving around the bases in baseball. In football, you've got to keep the bal moving down the field towards the end zone. I guess it's the kind of same thing in baseball. You got keep the players going around the bases to score runs and win games.

The Angels really made the game feel like a team sport, since all the players contributed. I'm not sure what happened to the Giants. I wonder if they got nervous, since it was the first world series in Pac Bell park. When the A's, who beat the Angels, played the Giants, the A's always looked like the stonger team. Does this mean that the American League is a stronger league?

I exercised tonight, which made me feed good since I didn't exercise last night because I was too busy writing. I was bummed too, but the time just got away from me.

I'm going to miss game 4 of the world series because of bible studies, and I am tempted to skip class. I would do it normally, but the pastor gave everyone a lecture last week about coming to class and doing the homework. I don't think even the excuse of a San Francisco world series would be a good excuse to skip, unless I had tickets to the game.

The experts are saying the series will go to game 7. I don't know. Those Angels looked really strong. For the Giants' sake, I'm praying it goes to game 6 or 7. Tonight's loss guarantees that the game go back to Anaheim for the final two games. At least it will be warmer down south than it is here tonight.

I finished to scene 30, which means I'm half way through my screenplay. I'm only on page 37, which sort of worries me, but there are more scenes this time that are purely visual with no speaking. This is definitely the most visual draft of all my screenplays. I'm trying to think of it as a silent film, meaning that if you were watching the movie without sound, I'm trying to make sure an audience would still get the story or get the story more or less.

I'd always thought of myself as a very visual thinker, but writing this screenplay has challenged this assumption. Supposedly men have an easier time thinking visually than women, and I'm starting to wonder if that's true.

I'm more relaxed about my screenplay and writing than I've ever been, and I have to thank my baseball character Jim Reilly for that. He's taught me that writing is like any sport or any job for that matter. You've got to work your bunnies off to get anywhere. I think I put myself under a lot of unnnecessary pressure thinking that I had to be perfect and successful right away. I was consequently freaking out, because I've never been perfect and successful about anything starting out. I didn't how to do that and I was freaking out about it.

But my baseball dude guy has taught me that writing is going to be about hard work. And I can deal with that. I've worked hard at stuff all my life. I've had too. Nothing has come very easy to me, at least in my own mind. When I got really good at tennis in junior high, I played every day and did stroke work in front of a mirror. I lived and breathed tennis 8 hours or more a day, especially n the summer. My old doubles partner from junior high told me at graduation, that she wished I kept on playing tennis. Kara said that together we could have ranked # 1 in doubles in state. She didn't too bad without me, she and her partner ranked third in state.

I suppose it was nice of her to say this, although looking back it pisses me off that I stopped playing tennis, but I didn't feel like I had the support at home to continue in that demanding sport. And that's a whole other story.

Anyway, I guess I feel better about my writing because now I feel like I have the necessary skills to succeed. I know how to work hard, and stay on point, and get stuff done. With my work ethic, I was able to run 3 marathons. I know how to work my bunnies off to distraction and get stuff done. All the creativity stuff, I'm not too sure about, but hard work, I definitely have that part down. It also makes me more relaxed since like any sport or job, it takes awhile to get good, a good long while. I figure I have a few years more to go get good at writing, and that means I have a lot less internalized pressure to deal with.

Yep, I definitely have the work like a dog part down good. I only hope the work like a dog thing helps with my writing. At least it can't hurt.

I've been pondering the wisdom of sending the 10-draft outline, 2nd-written draft of my screenplay to a contest. I think it's going to take at least 3 more written drafts to get my screenplay to a final draft state, and 3 drafts is really an optimistic number. But entering my screenplay into a contest is the only way to measure how I stand up to the competition. Sending the secreenplay out into the world is a also a good place to end the project and move on to my other types of writing.

I'm looking forward to starting Nanowrimo in November and I even have a new novel idea. The working title to my new novel will be "The Crow Priestess". It's about an 18 year old superstar head priestess of an ancient tribe, and her rise and fall from power. This will be my first attempt at fantasy type literature, and I am so looking forward to it. I won't have to deal with conventions of reality. I will be able to create this wild and fantastical world where magical creatures exist and people can do fun magical stuff. I can make my characters literally as big and powerful as I want them to be, or small and insignificant as insects.

My 18 year old superstar priestess will be betrayed by her fellow priestesses, who crave her power. I see the novel as study in power, and how it affects people. People who want power but don't have it, people who have power and don't care about it, and people who want power and will do do anything including murder to get it. My teenage superstar priestess has an ancient family secret, which is the source of her power and her abilities. She has been sworn never to reveal it, but the power of her position goes to her head and she ends up revealing the secret. Pride is her downfall, and it will cost her the head priestess position and practically her life. I decided that I didn't want to kill her off at the end, but she will be left at the end to ponder very painfully the consequences of her actions.

Isn't that more of a fun plot than my silly family drama baseball screenplay? I would have given up on the screenplay a long time ago, if I didn't have this crazy urge to finish it. By October 31st, the baseball screenplay will be done, sent off and out of my hands, and I am so looking forward to that day.

I'm kind of wishing I was still working in downtown San Francisco, so I could go to the World Series SF Giants rallies. I would even lurk around Union Square to see if I could get an Anaheim Angel sighting, since the team is probably staying at one of hotels there. If the Giants win, I'm sure they'll parade down Market Street. The 49ers did that whenever they won the superbowl, and it was such a trip to see the football players in the cable cars waving at their adoring fans. Steve Young looked massive up close, and he was small compared to some of the defensive guys.

If the Giants win the World Series and they have their victory parade, I'm definitely taking time off from work to go and see them. The crowds will be massive and it will be chaotic, but it will be so much fun. And who knows when the Giants will ever win the world series again, since it's been about 40 years since the last one.

GO GIANTS!!!

The weight loss is going slowly, but at least it's going. I'm down to 157.5 pounds, despite the fact that I made my way through a pint of Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream with fat free chocolate sauce chocolate. I definitely can't keep ice cream in the house, without eating it every day. I don't usually crave icecream either, so I'm sure it was a stress craving.

I bought some strawberries on Sunday, so when I'm craving a dessert I'll have strawberries with chocolate sauce. Strawberries are probably better for me than icecream anyway. I also bought some apples, and I'm looking forward to eating applies with fat free caramel sauce.

What's weird is I can see eating like this for the rest of my life. It's really not that bad. But who knows what I'll feel like doing in April or May, which is my new target time to be at my weight goal. I can easily see myself totally binging on chocolate and icecream for a week, just to celebrate. I might even break down and eat a steak, just to really be evil and bad. It's been years since I've eaten a steak, so maybe I'm due for once every five year steak meal. I know just where to go too; Harris Steakhouse. I think it's supposed to be the best steak house in San Francisco, and I've never been there, and I want to check it out.

Look at me, I'm already dreaming of binging on chocolate, ice cream and steak next spring. YIKES!!!