Day 2: Thursday, 20 August 2009 - Bug ride

My morning is not really worth writing about - just the regular chores, reading and writing that I do, a game or two with X... but the afternoon has been something else.

It's amazing how much you can shove into a VW Bug. My wife and I both own black VW Bugs. Hers is a 2002 with black leather interior, a sunroof, and turbo power under the hood. Mine is a '98 with tan cloth interior, a nicer stereo and heated seats. We didn't set out to get his and hers cars, it just sort of worked out that way. We both liked the Bug, there were two available and the price was right. Anyway, since the air conditioner bit the dust on my most recent roadtrip and today promised to scrape temperatures in the triple digits, we decided to pile into hers. There were the various bags, water and snacks. Oh yeah, and our two newfoundland mix hounds.

They aren't true newfs - they're too small for that. Maggie is about 50 pounds and maybe the size of a border collie. Earl breaks 75 pounds, but is still much smaller than what one might expect of a newf. Earl is dopey and sweet, while Maggie is quiet and somewhat nervous. Both are good sports and were anxious to join us on our five hour journey west. It took little more than opening the door and they both clambered into the back and took up positions next to X. I filled the co-pilot seat and we strained out of the driveway under all the weight, and clawed our way forward down the road.

As it turns out, Burns, Oregon is far from everywhere. We spent the first two hours just getting to Bend, Oregon. We cruised across oceans of sagebrush and juniper, and what used to be an ancient prehistoric shallow sea. There are birds of prey, the occasional pronghorn and, of course, cows. Lots of cows. Maggie and Earl focused most of their attention on the air conditioning and ignored the cows.

About thirty or forty miles east of Bend, we could see the outlines of the Three Sisters. Then Mt. Bachelor. Then Mt. Jefferson and all the smaller peaks that surround them. The change in scenery helps make the last part of the drive into Bend go a little more quickly and before long, we were joining all the locals on the road as they got off work. Bend and Redmond entertained the dogs what with all the cars and activity, and a stop for quick nourishment intrigued them further. But it didn't last. Soon, we were on our way again, hugging the eastern edge of the cascades, and the dogs settled in.

We crossed the Cascade range at Government Camp. Prior to leaving for Alaska, this was our old stomping grounds. It was also the first home that Maggie and Earl knew, and I wondered as we sped through whether they remembered romping through those woods, tearing down the crosstown trail, or hunting squirrels. I didn't see any indication of such memories, but I think they were happy with the 74 degree weather - a drop of over 25 degrees from the beginning of our trip.

They came to life as we pressed on through Gresham, then Portland and across the 205 bridge into Vancouver and the state of Washington, our final destination. I cut the A/C and rolled down the window to let in the air. Maggie and Earl filled their noses and lungs with the air and they truly recognized the neighborhood. Amazing.

Sighs of relief when we at last rolled into the driveway. Even from the dogs. It was a good ride. But we're all glad to be out of the car.

Day 1: Wednesday, 19 August 09 - Taking up the gauntlet

I have a friend that I’ve never met before. She’s a filmmaker polyglot living in New York with her dog. She likes music and reading and traveling the world. She looks sad in her photos, or fiercely introspective, except for that one where she is lit up and sitting in a director’s chair. She loved the movie ‘Julia and Julia’ and is busy writing a novel and screenplays and what not.

I’ve collected other friends like this on Facebook. People with whom I’ve networked because of a shared interest in something in particular or because we both know someone and it just seems to make sense that we should stay in touch. It is one of the things I love about Facebook - meeting people. From people I learn, I am inspired, I am entertained, and I am amused. And occasionally, I am challenged.

My New York friend with the dog up and decided today that she is going to do 365 days of writing (something she loves) and wrote ‘Join me’, which I took to be a challenge. In fact, it was an invitation, but that’s not really important. She wrote in her first blog entry, “So here I vow to write at least 500 words EVERY DAY for the next 365 days. That means I should be able to complete at least three new feature scripts. Not bad! Don't you love goals? I love goals!”

I know the question was rhetorical, but I must reply with an enthusiastic ‘Yes! Yes! I too love goals!’ Many times in the past I’ve sat at my desk and carefully figured out that if I could write x number of words each day I could finish x number of scripts each year. And I’m with her when she writes, “After all if I can practice Yoga every day than I can write every day.” Replace ‘Yoga’ with whatever and the logic stands. In my case, ‘Yoga’ might become ‘walking the dogs’ or ‘drinking my coffee’ or ‘making odd faces at myself in the mirror’. So I’d like to set the same goal for myself and blog each day at 500 words.

500 words should be easy. I Twitter or Facebook WELL in excess of 500 words each day. And my goal has always been to journal each day. I spent hundreds of dollars flying to Los Angeles last fall to attend the Creative Screenwriting conference so that I can be (hold on to your hat) a writer. So this is great inspiration and I’m going to go for it... Thanks to my big city friend on the east coast.

Today has been an interesting day. I started out in a bit of a funk, mostly due to feeling completely overwhelmed by the number of tasks I need to carry out to get my martial arts business off the ground, the work involved with my photography and the writing I need to do for my next short film (which I plan to shoot in Alaska this winter) and for my first feature attempt (which I will shoot in the Spring - God willing). I am also juggling a number of other items and it’s weighing on me. I’d also posted a quote from a former minister of health in the United Kingdom that generated a huge comment thread and the response, while fascinating, also wore on me. I wrote that the poem best expressing my mood today was Whitman’s ‘When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer’.

But a road run, some writing and reading, work on my future gym and good conversation helped turn things around. I also watched a documentary film by Antony Thomas called ‘Inside the Koran’. It’s a fairly comprehensive look at the Koran and at Islam in general - and it was fascinating. I recommend it. It helped me put much of what is happening in the world in context for me and it gave me a deeper appreciation for faith.

And now I close out the day by writing - thanks to some inspiration from the big apple - as it should be.

الله أَكْبَر

A Package From Australia

My wife walked in from work yesterday and announced that I had received something from Australia. It was a small package from an old friend who had spent a year as an exchange student at my high school. We'd recently found each other again via Facebook, and now I was receiving a mysterious package from her. Truthfully, I was mostly confused because I didn't know that people still mailed things to each other... I thought everything had turned electronic. I find that now, if I sit to write a letter, my hand begins to cramp within minutes. Who needs that kind of pain? Anyway, then I was confused when we opened the package and money came out. Had I won some sort of Australian sweepstakes? Did Pam still owe me money from that one time at Siuslaw... you know...? Had Fremantle beat Brisbane and Pam felt obliged to send me coin, even though we hadn't bet on the game?? Then we found a picturesque postcard contained within explaining the reason for the package. She thought it'd be great if my boys collected coins that they could add Australia to their collection. In truth, we spent most of the time looking at the water on the postcard and wishing that we were in Australia swimming... but then we remembered that Discovery Channel episode about the great white sharks and thought maybe that would be a bad idea. Or those deadly jellyfish... or swimming kangaroos... The coins gave me the opportunity to quiz my 6 year old son Alex on his geography. I began with the easy question... In which country do we live? He responded confidently with 'Oregon'... Ok, that's a state. Which COUNTRY? I erroneously believed that if I put stress on the word country, he would come to his senses and realize that we live in the United States. He did not... I explained that the coins came from an entirely different country in an entirely different part of the world - the Commonwealth of Australia, a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland, which is both the world's smallest continent and the world's largest island, the island of Tasmania, and numerous other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. I further explained that Australia is a technologically advanced and industrialised nation, a prosperous multicultural country that has excellent results in many international comparisons of national performance such as health care, life expectancy, quality-of-life, human development, public education, economic freedom, and the protection of civil liberties and political rights. He, of course, glazed over. Then I held up pictures of Mel Gibson and Nicole Kidman and he understood. I followed up by pouring us both a tall glass of Foster's and we savored the rich nectar that comes to us from that nation. We had a nice afternoon yabber about the attacks on Frances Nelson, one of the most respected legal identities in South Australia. Alex thought that after hearing about the attacks launched against her this week by senior state ministers, from the Premier down, that she sounded a little bit like a crackpot. I countered by telling him that was grossly unfair given the pioneering lawyer has been chief of the state's parole board since 1982, meaning that she has been reappointed and served under six premiers, three Labor and three Liberal, during almost three decades. He remained unimpressed, so we watched some footy on the tele and screamed every time one of those wankers made an error.

To Pam, thanks for the package. These two septics tanks are very grateful.

Obama disappoints

Just learned this evening of Obama's choice for VP will be Biden from Delaware. I don't know much about Biden... I know he's kicked it around the Senate for a while, that he's a lot older than me (and Obama), that he's from this tiny state out East (and North), that he likes Amtrak, and is an Irish Catholic. He's probably a nice guy, tries to make things happen across party lines, and works hard for the American people. So why am I so pissed at the Democrats and disappointed with Obama?

Because it feels like the same old thing, different day. 

Seems to me the Democrats had a real opportunity to be daring, creative, exciting and progressive - Biden represents none of those things. I wanted to see the kind of change that I thought Obama was talking about. I wanted to see someone that would drop mouths and shake up Washington. I wanted to be inspired. 

This feels like milk-toast tastes. 

Remember in '87 when Biden's candidacy had been overwhelmed by "the exaggerated shadow" of his mistakes, leading to his dropping out of the race for the presidential nomination? Or remember just last year him having to try and explain his "You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking." remark? I can only imagine that his name on the ticket is going to hurt Obama, not help.

Case in point: Obama just lost my vote.

Song with no music

Just wrote this song. Now I need music to go with...

I want to quit
for the first and last time in my life
I want to quit
living vicariously through others
I want to feel
sand beneath my feet
as a free man
tied to nothing
but out to find the world

I want to move
a pen with clarity of thought
I want to sleep
deep and long
I want to run
with no watch
and no meetings
tied to nothing
but out to win the world

Roll over and wake me up
I'm ready to open my eyes now
Can't you hear me
screaming in the dark?

She stares
at a screen and waits
She hopes
for approval and a smile
But they're both
walking in circles
floating down rivers
without maps
and without paddles

Roll over and wake me up
for this dream needs to end
I've got to open my eyes
and make a new beginning

They're sitting on the curb
locked outside their car
pelted by the rain
holding keys in numb hands

Roll over and wake up
I want to walk together
Out into the eye of the storm
And never leave

Damn Dog

To sleep... Perchance to dream. Unless the neighbor dog continuously barks.

Bleary-eyed, I checked the clock this morning and it read 0515 - long before the alarm is set to sound off. I lay there, hoping the dog would stop... but no such luck. I swung my legs out from under the covers and slowly shuffled to the bedroom window. I opened it a bit further and shouted out to the dog to shut up. It paid me no mind and continued warning the neighborhood... but about what?

The cool air brought me to my senses and my eyes began to scan the yard. There, in the growing twilight, a female moose was helping itself to the bounty at the edge of our grass. This moose was both unimpressed and unfazed by the dog's protests and ambled along at its slow pace, stopping from time to time to reach up and grab new growth. It must have been a little dreamy eyed too, because it tripped on a rock in the yard - a visual first for me. Without a hint of embarrasement, it continued on.

I encouraged this massive beast to go and trample the fucking dog. I wouldn't say I pleaded, but the dog was driving me nuts and my encouragement grew. It would have been so easy for the moose. With maybe two quick strides it could have covered the ground from where it ate to the hound and put it and the rest of us out of our misery.

Instead, it made a line for my neighbor's property and slowly (VERY slowly) disappeared across those imaginary lines.

On the one hand, I appreciate the wake-up call because it gave me the chance to see this moose. On the other hand, I don't appreciate my neighbor's complete lack of attention to their dog going ape-shit. Hey world - if your dog is outside and it barks for more than a minute or two straight, do me a favor - go attend to the animal.

It did finally calm down and stop barking, however, and I did find my way back to bed. And I did fall back asleep...

... until 0620.

Damn that dog.

Tech Geeks

I have a colleague at work that is preparing to give a presentation at the Ragan conference next month titled "Geek Culture: How to Talk With IT People - and Get What You Need". She asked for feedback from the IT department (where I work). My response to her follows:

I’m in the ‘IT’ department, but I’m not a techie. Perhaps my contribution would be – don’t assume that just because someone is in the IT department that they are a tech-head geek.

It’s true that I AM a geek, just not a techie. I’m a huge ‘ST: Next Generation’ fan, for example. But I’m also NOT a geek. I rock-climb, I write screenplays, I make short documentary films…

It begs the question: What IS a geek, anyway? Can’t you be a film geek? Can’t you be a sports geek? I mean, anyone who gets so caught up in every freakin’ minute detail of whatever could be considered a geek, could they not? When I rockclimb, there are guys out there with HUGE amounts of gear on them. Call them what you want – gear junkies, gearheads… essentially, they’re gear geeks, right? I listen to the Creative Screenwriting podcast featuring Jeff Goldsmith, that magazine’s senior editor. Jeff is simultaneously cool AND a complete film geek. He knows all these crazy details about the writers and producers and actors… And that’s his world. But he’s also so cool – hanging out with the likes of Ethan Hawke (also a geek/stud), John Logan, and Simon Kinberg.

Further, I’d just read an article in the BBC recently that suggests yesterdays ‘geeks’ are today’s ‘cool’ (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/793983.stm) – a premise that I believe is more and more true.

Dennis Miller noted that being called an ‘Einstein’ in our culture is viewed as an insult. There’s been such a dumbing down in US society that anything requiring thought and intelligence is seen as geeky and uncool. I personally have an extremely hard time with that.

But I also believe that IT ‘geeks’ are partly to blame for their reputations. They use their understanding of technology (in some cases) as a means to look down their collective noses at the rest of the world. The “How do I…?” questions or the ‘I’m having a problem with…’ that we non-techies ask are met with heavy sighs, condescension and a rolling of the eyes, which then generally elicit a collective middle finger from those of us that bothered to ask for help in the first place. Not every question or problem is an ‘ID 10 T’ error. Asking someone for help makes one vulnerable, and there are tech-geeks out there that just don’t have the social skills to recognize that fact and to treat people with the dignity that they are due. I had a colleague at the University who was in charge of IT. He used his tech knowledge as a weapon against others, making people feel dumb and building up (what was probably) his low self-esteem. Most people that had computer problems just tried to avoid him and find others around the office to help them. I just started using my Mac – problem solved. ; )

That being said, let’s not give the techies ammo or tempt them in any way. Before asking for help with something, do the basics… Is your machine plugged in? Is your battery dead? Is the mouse and keyboard plugged all the way in to their ports? I think we need to make sure that we do as much troubleshooting as possible before we go wasting someone else’s time. There is way too much throwing up of one’s hands into the air and letting someone else fix the problem. And lastly, let’s also remember to keep a sense of humor about our own limitations… Have a thick enough skin so that if an IT geek gives you a bit of a hard time, you can just roll with it. Everyone has their talents… I speak Chinese, but I can’t code. Levi codes but can’t speak Chinese. But that’s maybe a bad example since we’re both so cool.

These are my initial thoughts on the subject. I’m going to take this and put it into my blog, however. IF I blog, does that make me a geek? If I twitter, am I a geek? If I have Spiderman action figures on my shelf at home, am I a geek ? (I don’t, by the way – I’m not a total geek)