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Wednesday, May 05, 2004

There's all this talk of banning people who support abortion rights from taking communion in the catholic church. What about banning people who kept quiet about child molestor priests?

What's worse, abortion or molesting a child or teenager? Statistics say that about half the kids who were molested as children or as teenagers end up killing themselves because of what was done to them. The child molestor priest or whomever might as well have killed them with a gun.

The bible says as you sow so shall ye reap. I don't think the catholic church has right to cast the first stone at anyone as there is much hanky panky going on in their own house. The rumors say more than half the catholic priests in the USA are gay ... what was that catholic church policy and view about homosexuality again?

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

It was Youth Sunday at church where the teenybops lead the service. They chose the song "Here I am Lord" as the closing hymn. What a tear jerker of a song! It makes me cry every time I hear the chorus. It's such a great camp song too!

Here I am Lord
Words and Music by Daniel L Schutte
copyright 1981

Genesis 46:2
"And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I."

I, the Lord of sea and sky,
I have heard my people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save.

I who made the stars of night,
I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them?
Whom shall I send?

Chorus: Here I am, Lord. Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night.
I will go, Lord, if you lead me.
I will hold your people in my heart.

I, the Lord of snow and rain,
I have borne my peoples pain.
I have wept for love of them.
They turn away.

I will break their hearts of stone,
Give them hearts for love alone.
I will speak my word to them.
Whom shall I send?

Repeat Chorus and try to stop from crying.

I, the Lord of wind and flame
I will tend the poor and lame
I will set a feast for them
My hand will save

Finest bread I will provide
Till their hearts be satisfied
I will give my life to them
Whom shall I send?

Repeat Chorus and cry uncontrollably!

Monday, May 03, 2004

Here's the SFGate.com's review of "Syvlia", Morris' 'Sylvia' forgoes showy dancing for an old-fashioned, irony-free romance.

On Sunday, we saw Yuan Yuan Tan and the dancer talked about in the review. It might be fun to see it again with a different dancer.
Then on Sunday I went to see the San Franciso ballet. I had a three-performance subscription, and this was our last one. The performance was Mark Morris' Sylvia. "Mark Morris' world premiere is the first complete staging of Sylvia ever created for an American company."

The ballet was colourful and sweet, but not very challenging for the dancers. Morris is no Balanchine, but the balled was well done. Morris is more clever and interesting than innovative I think.

Then my friend and I decided to go to Chevy's afterwards to have an early Cinco de Mayo celebration, and I had a huge mojito and we split a shrimp and crab quesadilla, which was so heavenly. I had such a nice buzz by the time I left the restaurant, that by the time I got home I was so sleepy I went straight to bed. I thought I would only take a short nap and work, but I couldn't wake myself up so I just kept on sleeping.

I did workout at my friend's health club before we went to ballet. She was showing off her snazzy new very expensive ($70/month), which is just a few blocks from her home. The health club provides towels, has a separate women's sauna, and lots of free beauty products in the locker room. There's also a nice pool for swimming laps and a racquetball court.

It was nice but that's a ton of money to pay for the club. It's good for my friend because it's such an incentive to have a gym within a five minute walk from your front door. But for me, I'd still have to drive and probably pay for parking to go to the gym there, and at their other location. Besides their gym equipment wasn't that up to date, and I didn't see free weight room.
The weekend was so busy, I didn't even touch my work laptop. Memo to self: when you have events planned on both weekend days, it's not a good idea to bring work home because you won't have time to do it.

On Saturday, I headed down south to Palo Alto to go to a writing seminar on how to write a love story, "Michael Hauge: SEX, LIES AND LONGING: Creating Powerful Love Stories for Your Novel or Screenplay." It was probably one of the best seminars I've attended, and I learned a new way to create a plot structure.

The class was full of people who had already published their own books, were in movie development deals with Hollywood, had agents, and were way more advanced in their writing career than I am. These people were serious writers, all looking to score their first pot of gold by selling a screenplay to Hollywood.

One woman I ate lunch with had published two children's books, one non-fiction book, had an agent, an editor and a publisher, but said at the end that her writing wasn't a money-making venture. I think there were a ton of people in her shoes at the seminar. Half the people there were novelists who had switched to screenwriting or were adapting their novels for the screen because Hollywood pays more money than book publishers.

There were even a few women who stood up and said they were romance novelists. I was talking to a woman at the break who was a budding romance novelist, and telling her that I would love to be a romance novelist. I just never seem to create characters and stories that have happy endings. Even the "love story" that I'm trying to write called "Texas is a state of mind" has a bittersweet ending. The budding romance novelist said my "love story" isn't a love story if my characters don't end up in love and together at the end. Sad isn't it?

I was so inspired about my writing because of the seminar that I went to the library today, and rewrote one of my short stories to fit into his plot structure. I didn't think my short story would fit in his structure, but it did. I spend much time plotting out structure, even for a short story, so his way of plotting is not that different than what I've been doing.

Hauge's plot structure is nice because it ties up loose ends in a way I never thought possible before. He's a firm believer in character arcs, and it's a great way to structure a story that's very satisfying I think to a reader. Hauge said we could apply his plot structure to any story, and not just to screenplays.

I liked the seminar leader alot. He gave a really sweet writers pep talk at the end, which made me want to cry. He was so spiritual without ever being new agey, religious or maudlin. The guy was definitely genuine, and knew his stuff. I bought his book, which he signed and two cd-sets of his of two of his other seminars. One of the seminars was a comparison of his plot structure to Christopher Vogler, who wrote "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers". The two of them critique each other's methods in the seminar. Vogler's book is inspired by the work of mythologist Joseph Campbell, so it will be interesting to see how the Hauge's structure compares to Joseph Campbell's hero's journey.