I had a writing group meeting tonight. I love the people in my writing group. We've known each other for three years now, and have been a group for two years. It's really amazing to be friends with other people who are trying to write and trying to create. I know my friends and loved ones mean well and support me, but none of them write. None of them relate to what I'm going through as a writer like my writing group.

We are a diverse group, each with our own ideas of what we want to write and how we want our creative expression to be in this world, but at the same time we're all artists with a common goal, a common struggle, and as I discovered tonight, on the Myer Briggs scale, we're NF's, intuitive feelers. That's so cool. I'm close on the F/T scale to a T, but my F wins out. I can logically analyze a situation, and I do that first, but then I step back and I let the feeling of the situation decide my final action.

Writers, artistis are a strange breed. Someone in the group said that NF's make up only 10% of the population, something I didn't know. 10%. Well in my writing group NF's are 100%. So what does that mean?

For statistical purposes, I'm an ENFJ sometimes and an INFJ other times, depending on my mood. I've tested both either way. For the Enneagram, I'm a four with an five wing; the artist, romantic with an intellectual bent. I love personality tests, don't you?

The wind is howling outside, and it's still raining. It's been raining here since Friday, and it's not supposed to stop till Tuesday. The commute tomorrow morning is going to be bad.

At church today, the pastor mentioned that there was tension going on between him and some of the church members. I had no idea this was going on. You can't escape politics, even at the church level. I was skeptical about the new pastor myself, but now that I've gotten to know him, I really like him. The guy is really smart, he's grounded and practical, and I think his heart is definitely in the right place.

He said tension between members and a new minister always come up, so it's not unusual. I have no idea what the tension is all about. The new pastor is granted a little more conservative than our last one, but I think his conservatism is in keeping with the times. I might have to do a little investigating to find out who's he feuding with in the congregation, because I'm so curious to find out who he's have disagreements with.

The new pastor totally emphasizes the Holy Trinity of the father, son and Holy Spirit. He said in Kerygma class, that some of the staff are resistant to emphasizing the Holy Spirit. I don't know why. Christianity is based on the Holy Trinity, and all three parts of it need to addressed. I mean, why wouldn't you want to invite the God the Father, Jesus Christ the son, and Holy Spirit into your church meetings. The Holy Trinity is like the three sides of a triangle; take one point away and the whole thing falls apart.

I think that the new minister is having tensions with the more radical left of our congregation. We don't have very many, as my church tends to be mainstream to conservative in view, but hey it's San Francisco, and there's a always few left wing whackos in any group.

It's bad when people leave the church to join other congregations, but it's a free country and there are a ton of churches in San Francisco. If there are disgruntled members, they should leave. No one is putting a gun to their head so they stay. I'm a hard one, when it comes to stuff like this. There are left wing oriented type churches in the City, and if a churchgoer wants that type of environment, they should seek them out instead of trying to turn a mainstream/conservative more to the left.

I saw Harry Potter, and I really loved it. Some kids and their parents walked out, I think becausefor very young children the movie is pretty spooky. Harry Potter is definitely for mature 8-year olds and up.

The actors are going up really fast. The Ron Weasley actor had a crackly voice, probably because he's entering puberty. The other actors are growing up as well, and I don't know how much longer they'll be able to play their parts without looking too old for them.

It was sad to see Richard Harris on screen, and knowing that he was sick during the filming of the moive and would die later. He didn't look like the same Professor Dumbledore from the first movie.

The movie makes the confrontation that Harry has with his muggle guardians more vivid, and sad. His guardians treat him so badly. What the muggle guardians do to Harry Potter amount to child abuse in my eyes.

I think it's going to storm all night, and I'm praying that the electricity stays one. I hate having to take a shower in the dark, especially in the morning.

I just measured myself again, and since October 25, I've lost 5.25 inches. I thought I was getting smaller, so I wanted to measure myself to make sure. It's nice to know that even though my weight loss is going ever so slowly, I'm at least losing inches even though I'm only four pounds lighter.

Here's the scariest part. Since May 29, 2001, I've lost 34.25 inches. That's almost 3 feet of me of me gone. 3 feet! It's hard to imagine I was almost 3 feet bigger than I am now, except I've dropped at least two to three sizes. I'm 1.5 inches away from my hip size in high school, which is wild to me. I wonder what my measurements will be when I hit my weight goal of 130 lbs. I can't wait to find out.

That screenwriting seminar I took today from the UCLA professor was fantastic! It was definitely worth every penny. The guy is a tenured professor and has taught at UCLA for over 25 years. He knows George Lucas and helped write "American Graffiti". The Wall Street Journal calls him one of Hollywood's powerbrokers in the world of screenwriting. The works of his students include recent movies like Spiderman, Panic Room, The Road to Perdition, Repo Man, Real Women Have Curves and Highlander.

I loved the guy. He is so spiritual. In fact, he's the most spiritual writing teacher I've ever come across, which is so shocking and ironic since Hollywood is considered by some one of the most unspiritual industries on earth. Here's some things that he said, and I'm using my own words.

Don't afraid to put God in your work. I recently discovered God myself in the last few years. Why should God only belong to the right wing conservatives?

I was in Washington DC and heard Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous "I have a dream speech."

A movie is a romanticization and idealization of the human experience.

Writers get paid to daydream, and the writer's job is to get the daydream into the head of your reader/audience.

The beautiful thing about being a writer is you can be anybody. (He didn't spout the political correctness drivel that you can only write personal experiences that you've had, like if you're white you can't write about the african american experience, or if you're a woman you can't write about the male experience.)

Art is the lie that tells the bigger truth. Writers get in trouble when they try to be too truthful to the data. Play fast and loose with the experience. Lie about the data, but be completely truthful about the feeling. (This is why you don't have to always base your writing on personal experience. Writing fiction like a screenplay is a lie. The "real" truth only applies if you're writing a documentary."

Art is about reaching as many people as possible. Film is a populist art. The great works like the Greek dramas and Shakespeare were all popular in their day in the lifetime of the writer, and were commercially successful. A successful screenwriter reaches as many people as possible. Your script has to raise enough money to support the enterprise. (He debunked the whole myth of art having to be obscure and commercially unsuccessful to be good.)

Kramer vs Kramer is about how commitment to love can make your career soar. Love and commitment is not a trap, lt will not limit you; it will expand you.

To be a successful writer, you need a litte bit of talent, a lot of discipline and a ton of courage.

I loved it when he said "Don't be afraid to put God in your work." Wow, what he said is so refreshing. My screenwriting teacher in SF told me my screenplay is my take on the Prodigal son story from the bible. She even reads the book of Proverbs to get story ideas.

But in a recent screenwriting group meeting, someone said that a film was "too christian" for them, and said it was such disdain and disgust. That person totally freaked me out. I started to get discouraged about the way I write, because I can't help be influenced by my christian upbringing and christian beliefs. I was afraid to be part of that group, and have my screenplay critiqued by that person. I let her remark make me feel ashamed of my work, which I know is bad and wrong, but that's what happened.

And now here comes this guy, who is intimately connected with the Hollywood film industry, saying that "it's okay to put God in your work." That person from the screenwriting group has never sold a script to Hollywood, but did write and produce a self financed independent film. This guy from UCLA has influenced Hollywood screenwriters with successful films for over 25 years, and has helped write successful commercial films himself. I think I believe the UCLA guy more than I believe the person from my screenwriting group. The UCLA professor totally validated me and my way of writing, and that validation was so worth the money I paid for the seminar and them some. In fact, what he said was "priceless" to me.