Say no to 'Flightplan'

This is a public service announcement:

Under NO circumstances should anyone be put through the 1.5 hours of hell known as Flightplan. We got it on NetFlix this weekend and watched it last night. I've been eagerly waiting for it because I love Jodie Foster and, despite the reviews, I thought it looked creepy. NOT!
Just stupid! Want a movie with plot holes you could fly a big-ass plane through? This is it!

And as long as I'm helping out... also avoid "Elizabethtown." Hard to believe Cameron Crowe did this one. Believe all the critics. It is that bad!

Don't say I didn't warn you.

If you are looking for something good, here are a couple recommendations:

Junebug (Amy Adams is awesome!)
Murderball (best documentary ... even though I loved those darn penguins, too!)
The Island (great stunts!)
Saw II (not as good as the first one, but I liked the stuff with the bad guy)
Lords of Dogtown (Heath Ledger shows his pre-Brokeback acting chops!)
3 Iron (an Asian film that is bizarre but also really fascinating)
Band of Brothers (my friends lent me his copy and I was blown away!)

Refreshing

So, I was having a pretty crappy Sunday because I had to go into work for much of it.

After work, I stopped by Wal-Mart for a few items we needed. The place was crazy. Packed. People bumping into people. Getting pissy.

And then I went to check out. Unlike many of the times I go, most of the checkout lines were open. I picked a small line to stand in and I noticed the checkout clerk. She was laughing and smiling and joking with the customers. She was just great. When it came my turn to tally my stuff, she was so happy and chipper, it just made the rest of the crap I was carrying go away. If a Wal-Mart person can be this happy, why can't I? Really turned me around.

Anyway, my new happy persona is continuing to work on my book. Yeah! I have been doing a rough edit of the pages I already wrote (as I read it because I forgot much of what I've done already!). So, I'm guessing I'll be done with that tomorrow and Wednesday will be the push into the uncharted (literally because I have no idea where the story is going!) waters of "Black Sheep."

It's a start

Well, first day of my renewed plan for writing ...
Goal: 30 minutes
Did: 45 minutes

It's not much but it's a heck of a lot more than I've done in the last few months!

Vow

So after enviously reading the blog of my friend Eric Anderson who I mentioned earlier, we had lunch together yesterday. We mutually griped and groaned. We even talked how it was almost a year ago that we attended the Pikes Peak Writers Conference to begin our "official" writing careers (yeah, right!). The different now is that Eric has been writing recently and I haven't. I kept telling him how jealous I was that he was actually getting writing done.
Of course this is stupid. I know I could be doing the same thing. He said so, too.
Duh!
Eric has made a commitment to himself to write. So, I decided to do the same. Beginning Monday (I need time to get my body back in shape to wake up so early), I am going to write for 30 minutes a day -- 3.5 hours a week. That seems a reasonable non-Nano goal for me.
So, that's my vow. 30 minutes. One less sitcom. One-forty-eighth of the time it takes Jack Bauer to save the world.
That's it.

Missing the groove

My buddy Eric Anderson is in it. Heck, it seems that a lot of people are in it.
Not me.
I'm missing my groove right now.
After November, I felt pretty darn good about where I was with my writing. Work since then: NADA! Oh, sure, I could use the defense that I have a new job, I have two active kiddos and we have been helping my wife's dad in California (plus the fact that another friend lent me the 10-disc set of "Band of Brothers" and I'm burning up the postal usage with NetFlix).
But they all sound like the same excuses some of my friends use when they say they can't do NaNoWriMo every year.
Eric has the right idea. It's time for me to stop wishing I was a writer and do something about it. Heck he even uses some sage advice from George Brett and turned it to his writing and it seems to be working for him.
So, I guess I'll take the advice of the Pine Tar king and do it.
Hopefully, I'll be grooving again soon.