Yes, I’m still around. I just haven’t felt like writing. I’m having fun with my new laptop. I finished typing up all my handwritten pages of my Texas novel using my new laptop, and that’s been fun. I went to CompUSA yesterday to try to find a laptop sleeve for it, and ended up buying a Mac laptop sleeve because it was the only one I liked. I think I remember seeing laptop sleeves at the SFMOMA store, so I’ll have to make a trip over to there to see if I can find a better sleeve. I just want to find something to cover the laptop when I’m carrying it in my backpack or another bag so it doesn’t get scratched.

What else? I got an A on my Greek Drama midterm. We have to do a 8-10 page paper and I received approval to compare Eugene O’Neill’s “Mourning Becomes Electra” to Aeschylus’ Oresteia. Supposedly O’Neill based this play on Aeschylus’ trilogy and my paper will compare and contrast the two plays. I haven’t read this play since junior high and don’t remember any of it, and I’m looking forward to rediscovering it. I fell in love with Eugene O’Neill’s play “Long Days Journey into Night” when I had to do a book report on a play, and ended up reading most of his works. But like I said it’s been awhile. I wonder if I’ll still love O’Neill as much now that I’m older.

I’ve been reading Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” this week, and having only ever seen most of the movies, it’s been fascinating to read the book. The book consists of letters from the captain of the boat in the North Pole to his sister. The sea captain picks up Frankenstein and ends up telling the man his life story. The captain then faithfully writes to his sister all that he’s been told, and Frankenstein even edits the letters to make sure the captain has his story right.

I think Kenneth Branagh’s portrayal of Frankenstein comes the closest to the person written about in the book, but his movie plot version altered the book’s plot in a big way although much of the important plot points were kept in place. No other Frankenstein movie comes to mind except for Gene Wilder’s version. The creature in Mary Shelley’s version is much more menacing and more evil in that 19th century romantic sort of way.

I wonder if the Dracula movies were based on any novels. I’ll have to investigate because that genre of horror movies is a particular favourite of mine.

I typed up 8.5 pages last night, and 2.5 pages this afternoon. I might type up more later when I watch the new NBC series "Revelations". It was on Bravo at 6 pm, and I watched and was very intrigued. It's an interesting series to say the least.

I'm going to try to get up at 5 am to write on the weekdays. I'm not a morning person, but everyone says that writing in the morning is the best. I'm going to have to change my sleeping habits and go to bed between 10-11 pm. What an early time to go to bed. I've been going to between midnight and 12:30 am for years. I need my 6.5 hours of sleep to function, so if I want to get up at 5 am I have to be in bed earlier. Wow! Talk about a change in lifestyle. What a frickin' drag!

I can write at night after work, but it's too easy to have that time gobbled up by other things. I have to think how this is going to affect my workouts. I haven't been going to the gym at all, and I feel guilty because I do pay a monthly fee for it. It's better to go to the guy after 7 pm during the week when it's not crowded. 5 pm to 7pm is the gym's crowded time.

I guess I could still go to a coffee shop and write more or read or something. I haven't decided if I should continue to write by hand or write by computer. If I write by hand, I could spend the time after work typing up what I've written. Or there's always editing. I could be editing after work instead of writing, since editing is a different skill set than writing.

I'm not going to start taking my laptop to work with me just yet. Maybe someday, but not now.

I'm typing up this message in my living room, and typing up pages from the Texas novel on my new laptop and listening to some super storm movie on the SciFi channel. It's kind of cool to be transcribing my handwritten chapters while listening to the tv at the same time. It's so relaxing to sit in my chair and type into my laptop and half listen to a movie on tv. This is so much better than sitting at my desk.

I think I might go to the coffee shop later. I want to finish typing up all my handwritten pages before I start writing again. The next movie is about earthquake aftershocks in New York. I hate earthquake aftershocks. For two years after the big earthquake here, everytime the ground shook I thought it was an earthquake aftershock. I remember being at a friend's tennis court in New York (how rich are you when you have a tennis court as part of your backyard) and feeling the ground shake and thinking it was an aftershock. When I mentioned it to my friend, she laughed and said it was probably just a heavy truck driving by.

I was walking through Golden Gate Park and walking along Stow Lake, when I saw all these people with telescopes and cameras watching these two birds in the tree. There was a woman with a table selling cards, and when I stopped to check it out I found out that we were all watching a blue heron couple mating in the trees.

I heard someone say, "I think she was on top of him." The woman at the table explained that the blue heron couple had produced 71 babies and have been mating in Golden Gate Park for years. It was so cool to watch that I bought a card of the blue heron couple as a souveneir.

It was so beautiful and sunny day in the park, even though it was a little chilly at 60 degreees. I love living next to Golden Gate Park. It's like having this amazing nature preserve as my backyard.