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Friday, September 19, 2003

I got into a Second City Television mood, and started surfing the internet for news about them. I remember watching their show a long, long time ago, and thinking they were so funny and just as good as Monty Python's Flying Circus. I love Monty Python!

The big news is the Second City Televisious group is releasing on DVD next year their shows from NBC. I bel they'll be expensive, but definitely worth getting.

Then I went surfing for Monty Python stuff, and they have a 14-dvd set of all of their Flying Circus shows. It's not cheap, but it might be worth getting one day.

I have this one memory of an SCTV show, where there some kind of murder on the show and the people involved were all children's television stars. It must have been very funny if I still have memories of it to this day.

I have a couple of Monty Python Flying circus memories as well. One is a sketch where there's a bunch of people in a boat, and they're out in the middle of the ocean. They're starving and have to decide which people to eat.

My other vague memory is when they used to go out and interview people in the english countryside, and the interviews were always so strange, but funny in an odd way. It wasn't until I saw British television years later, that I realized they were spoofing BBC interviews.

BBC news is a riot. They're so different from american news. When I was there in the mid 90's, I couldn't believe they didn't show satellite pictures for the weather report. Instead, they showed what looked like felt cutouts for rain over a felt cutout of the British Isles. What a goof!

Thursday, September 18, 2003

Following in the Dark - tentative chapter divisions and titles

1. In the Beginning
2. The Mother of all experiences
3. Alone with him
4. Darkness pulls you
5. Darkness Descends
6. Following in the Dark
7. You can't see in the Dark
8. You can't hear in the Dark
9. You can't move in the Dark
10. Darkness has no pain
11. Alone in the Dark
12. In the Darkness all is revealed
13. Entombment
14. Between the Darkness and the Light
15. Out in the Light
16. The Darkness hides all
17. The Stranger in the Light
18. Light hurts
19. Light lets you move
20. Light lets you hear
21. Light lets you see
22. Leading in the Light
23. Light lifts you up
24. Light invites you
25. At one with him again
26. The start of something new
27. Another beginning

These chapter titles are so structured, and I've never done that with my stories before. Usually I just write and write, and then afterwards step back to see what I've done.

Not this time. This story is structured like a pyramid. You go up, get to the top, and then descend in the way you went up, so the chapters for the ascent and descent mirror each other.

I don't know why I made it so complicated, but it makes sense somehow to structure the story this way.

But who knows? I could change it all next week.
I went to the library last night to do a writing session, and oh my god, it was so hard. I don't why I just can't sit down and write. I think I'm a little down because I'm not sleeping well, and when I don't sleep well my whole world feels off.

It's not like I even sleep that much either, but I need my 6.5 hours of sleep to feel good and I'm not getting it. Not sure what's wrong other than I'm having disturbing dreams.

I didn't think I dreamed very much, but I've been dreaming 2-3 dreams a night. They're all very disturbing, and I wake up in a sweat. I go right back to sleep, but it's the waking up that's disturbing my sleep.

I usually sleep like the dead, and have slept through parties, roommates, etc. But not these last two weeks.

Since I couldn't write, I decided to work on my structure for the novel, "Following in the Dark". I was able to do that, and I now have 27 tentative title chapters. OY! That's a lot huh?

I didn't even think of having chapter titles, but I'm reading "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier and he gave each chapter a title. I thought it was so cool, that I decided to do the same thing for my novel.

These are just tentative chapters divisions and titles. 27 chapters might be too many, and I think I could even whittle down the chapters to 15 or even 13 by just combining what I already have. But I'll decide that later. This is just a first pass at dividing the story into chatpers.

I'll post them separately.

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

Sayings of Zen to start your day with a smile

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much
leave me the hell alone.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.

3. Its always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

4. Sex is like air. It's not important unless you aren't getting any.

5. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

6. No one is listening until you fart.

7. Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.

8. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

9. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

10. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

11. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

13. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

14. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

15. Some days you are the bug; some days you are a windshield.

16. Don't worry; it only seems kinky the first time.

17. Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment

18. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

19. A closed mouth gathers no foot

20. Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

21. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

22. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

23. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

24. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

25. We are born naked, wet, and hungry, and get slapped on our ass...then things get worse.

26. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

27. There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."

28. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

29. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday.. . around age 11.

30. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

31. THE MOST WASTED DAY OF ALL IS ONE IN WHICH WE HAVE NOT LAUGHED!

32. Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.

33. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks.

34. You can demonstrate a program for a corporate executive, but you can't make him computer literate.

35. Well-written software is its own heaven; poorly-written software is its own hell.

36. The more beautiful the rose the deeper cuts its thorns.

37. There’s nothing wrong with a one-track mind, so long as its on the right track.

38. If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water.

39. It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.

40. In a hundred-mile march, ninety is about the halfway point.