Akemi and I came back from visiting the farmer's market to find Jelly's water bowl upended and Jelly splayed out on the wet hardwood floor. Her head was completely drenched and I suspect she must have done a face plant into the water before losing her balance and falling...and then not being able to get…
August 8, 2014: News of note!
Well, hey - just in time for travel season! Conde Nast offers up a list of the U.S.'s friendliest - and unfriendliest - cites: http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/06/travel/us-unfriendliest-friendliest-cities/ Charleston and Savannah, two cities I REALLY want to visit, top the "friendliest" list. On the flip side, I'm reconsidering my travel plans to Newark. No wonder they had so…
August 7, 2014: Seafood! Sumo! And scripts!
Well, my Pescatarian Week was a success. To those of you who don't know, pescatarianism is "the practice of following a diet that includes fish or other seafood" (Wikipedia). I decided to give it a try and, after seven days, I have to say, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be -…
August 6, 2014: Closing in on that first draft! Beware food! Eat cardboard and live longer! (Wait. Now there’s a new study that says cardboard is bad for you too?)
Well, I'm exhausted. Although I only wrote seven pages today, I also ended up rewriting another twenty. By the time the dust settled on my laptop this evening, I'd hit the 50 page mark. All I have to do now is finish off this conversation, completing Act V, then write the tag which will include…
August 5, 2014: Top 12 Superheroines in Need of the Big Screen Treatment!
With the news that Sony is fast-tracking a superhoine movie that will hit the big screen before the turn of the decade (http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=41823), I thought this would be a good time to weigh in with my suggestions for My Top 11 Superheroines in need of the big screen treatment! Just in case the studios were wondering...…
August 4, 2014: News of note!
Screen Rant's "1 Good Movies with Bad Endings": http://screenrant.com/good-movies-bad-endings/ Hmmm. I agree only insofar as some of these movies have bad endings. But to call them "good" is a bit of a reach. Maybe 2001: A Space Odyssey - and Sunshine and The Wolverine which I haven't seen. Space noise: http://www.thedailyepic.com/nasa-probes-record-sounds-in-space-and-its-terrifying/ See, this is why I don't…
August 3, 2014: Sunday – food with friends!
Today, Akemi and I checked out the Japanese-Canadian Powell Street Festival with our friends Nicole and Lan. The highlights (most of it food-related, natch)... The onstage entertainment. Guy mans the barbecued salmon grill. Akemi discovers how HOT the udon is. Nicole and Lan: Let the Eating Games Begin! The spam sushi - an Okinawan culinary…
August 2, 2014: The Visitors!
Today, we entertained. First, my cousin Evelina's husband and son, Brian and Jake (pictured above on their hogs), stopped by. They're apparently on a whirlwind motorcycle tour of Canada, covering the west coast before heading back home to Saskatoon before embarking on the more challenging cross-country leg of their adventure that will take them through…
August 1, 2014: Bookly Matters and Birthday Wishes!
I have a feeling that working on scripts for this new show is really going to put a crimp in my rapid-fire reading pace. Last year, I read a paltry 65 books. I was so embarrassed that I set a seemingly lofty goal for myself in 2014: 120 books! At the time, I figured it…
July 31, 2014: This and that!
Hey, check it out! Akemi received shipment of that box of packing peanuts she ordered last month. The company also threw in a tiny bottle of some cosmetic product. But who cares. Look at the size and quality of those packing peanuts! Last night, I got together with friends to check out Hawksworth which recently…
July 30, 2014: Fade in…humor!
It NEVER gets any easier. Inevitably, the jubilation of convening with your fellow writers and hashing out a terrific story is extinguished by the prospect of having to actually write the damn script. You sit down, type FADE IN and then...What? Oh, you know what the scene is going to be (You just broke it the other…
July 29, 2014: Done and done!
12 stories broken in 17 days. I suspect we could have made even better time and done it in 14 days had one of our writers ("the mediator") not been away that one week. Still, a mighty impressive feat. Now, all that remains to be done is to write the scripts, build the sets, cast…
July 28, 2014: 12 down! 1 to go!
Another day, another story. This episode, like episodes #7, 9, 10, and 11, was envisioned as a tough one that would take a couple of days to break. But, like episodes #7, 9, 10, and 11, we ended up breaking it over the course of a single day. And that leaves us with one final…
July 27, 2014: Attitudes, good and otherwise!
Hey, you know who has a GREAT attitude? NOT me. No, I'm easily offended, temperamental, and a notorious grudge-holder. As one of my friends once put it: "Joe is the type of guy who, years later, will remember that pencil you stole from him in high school - and finally exact his revenge." While not…
July 26, 2014: For the kid who has everything! How about…terror?!!
Next to clowns, furry spiders, and old timey pictures of twins, there's nothing quite as creepy as a porcelain doll. I discovered this several years ago, on my first trip to San Diego, when I stayed at a turn-of-the-century hotel that thoroughly freaked out my ex. I attribute her response to a few things: the…