I went to Stonestown to write. Why I can write in the middle of a mall in food court, where people are talking and eating and they're blaring god awful music and not in the quiet of my own place where I can play my own music, is a mystery to me right now. But writing in very public loud places seems to be the only way I can write this month.

I interviewed the brother character Michael in my screenplay. After finishing up the interview, I decided to change the title of my screenplay to "Going Home Again". I looked up the word "going" in imdb.com and I couldn't find this title in their movie list.

My reviewers told me that I needed my title and I was opposed to it, but now I think they were right. My story is about a a guy going home again and I have him say "some people say the hardest part of leaving home is actually leaving. I think the hardest part of leaving home is going back home again."

On the way home, I also realized that this is my second story about failure. Art is Scary was about the fear of failure, or so says my acting director. I disagreed with him at the time, but maybe he was right. I had a fantasy of Roger Ebert talking about my screenplay and saying that "it was filled with pathos and a sense of failure, failure of parenting, failure of finding your dreams, failure of a father, failure of a son, failure of the american family and finally failure of american society."

And what do I have my movie family saved by? Baseball. How ironic since there may well be a baseball strike this year. I'm not sure what I am trying to say about society and baseball, but I guess I must be saying something.

I hate that I seem to only write about failure. I hate failure. I used to think that failure was not an option in my life, but I have had so many failures that I have proved myself wrong over the years. I love all the many ways people fail and that I've failed. And failure is sometimes accidental, sometimes driven by fate, and sometimes completely voluntary. Is it any wonder I am obsessed with failure as a theme in my writing?

God, I’m really lucky. I signed up to comments yesterday and today the commenting software place is no longer accepting signups. I wonder what happened. Oh well. Commenting seems to work though.

And what a miracle. The baseball players unions has decided not to strike. Doesn't it make you think that they were just testing the waters to see what a strike would do the sport. Guess the reaction wasn't very good. Even that freak Paul Harvey made a comment called millionaire baseball players "bums". It's like you know if you see a report saying that something is fashionable on CNN Headlines News, the item is so no longer fashionable. This is how people become fashion victims; BEWARE!

I'm adding comments. Let's see if this works.

Skip Bayless from The Mercury News says in his column that baseball fans will be back, even if there is another baseball strike. He says baseball in our American DNA and that there's too much shared memories that get passed down from parents to their children about the game. I'm not sure I agree with him.

I think the American psyche has really changed since 9/11. I think the constant stories of greed and hype from the dotcom boom and bust to the Worldcom and Enron debacles have taken a toll on America's wallet. What are these baseball players thinking?

The US economy was still reeeling from the tech collapse in 2000 when 9/11 happened. 9/11 didn't cause the US economy to tank, it was already on its way, but 9/11 definitely was the kick in the butt down the economic hell hole we are finding ourselves in today. Has the baseball players' union not been reading the news? Are they so rich that they're that immune from the current economic downturn? I guess they must be, because they are striking for more millions for their multimillion dollar salaries.

I hope the baseball players come to their senses, because Skip Bayless is wrong. Baseball hasn't recovered from the last strike. There are still teams who are losing money, especially the small market teams. To get the fans back into the stadiums, the owners have mortgaged their future to pay players exhorbitant sums. And I'm sorry, it's now working.

Sure, some fans will come back, but not all. And the ones who left because of the first strike will stay away, passing down different memories to their children. If you follow Skip Bayless' argument that baseball is in America's DNA and is kept alive by memories. what happens to baseball when fewer and fewer americans have those memories. Baseball might not die a quick death. No one does. Quick painless death are only in the movies. Most people die incredibly painful deaths that go on longer than they should. The same will be true for baseball. As the game, the players and the owners become more out of touch with the people who actually watch the games, the game will surely die. Slowly and painfully of course. And baseball will probably be around longer than it probably should, but it will end and die nevertheless. And that will be a sad day for America and it's favorite national pastime sport.

I've been upgrading my page and even added links to blogs of friends and acquaintances. I hope to find more blogs to add soon. I'm thinking of adding books I'm reading and music I'm listening to as well as favorites sites and shopping pages. One day.