Saw "The Village" tonight. I enjoyed it. I can understand where it might get mixed reviews, though. Personally I think it should have been billed as a drama or love story instead of a thriller. It would have changed the context people watched it in.

Most (not all) of the scenes from the trailers all show up in the first ten minutes of movie, which is unusual. I enjoyed that - it made me feel like I hadn't already seen all the best parts. And believe me - what I consider the best parts, both plot-wise and cinematic-wise don't show up in the trailer.

I enjoyed how he drew each of the main characters. I enjoyed the relationships between them. I enjoyed the social commentary. I really enjoyed the storytelling methods and the images.

I still think Sixth Sense is M. Night's best movie so far, but I did enjoy this one a great deal.

Books: I tried to write a chapter today but instead I cleaned the bathroom.

I'm going on a roadtrip next week. Oddly enough, that seems to be the times I get the most reading done. Books on tape are heavenly. My mother got me hooked, and I'm planning a special trip into town tomorrow to pick out some good ones for the 40 hours or so next week I'll be spending in a car.

Unlike those roadtrips I used to take in college, this one's going to include a couple of kids - my niece and nephew to be exact. It's been a long, long time since I traveled long distances with kids in the back seat.

Books: I don't know why this chapter is fighting me so much. Maybe I just don't have the world sketched out well enough. Time to break out my pencils and.... well, maybe I'll do it in photoshop instead.

Breaking ranks from all my blogging bretheren, I'm not going to blog about the democratic convention tonight. I'm going to say that I spent a splendid hour sitting out on the grass with the sun on my face with the loudest noise being the buzzing of two insects over in the shade of the house.

That, my friends, is living.

Books: I should be writing right now. Instead I'm playing video games.

Have I mentioned that I've been playing a lot of Star Wars: Galaxies lately? Well, I have.
It's a massive multiplayer game which means I can meet up with my friends from Chicago and they can help me out by giving me advice and money. I'm not very good at managing my imaginary money. I hope that isn't some indication of real money problems (though it probably is).

Games bring out the unintentional funny in me. The other day I heard myself saying aloud, to no one in particular, "Wow, that's a nice dress. Too bad I just spent all my money on a new gun."

Come to think of it, that's kind of me in a nutshell right there.

Books: I've decided to rewrite the rewrite of the opening chapter I just did. Something more specific perhaps is called for. As usual, though, I'm struggling with the eternal question of how much to give away in the first chapter.

Brand-new thing for me - I'm going to an acupuncturist (so I can get acurately punctured, I guess). My other doctor recomended I give it a try since there wasn't anything else she could do to control my pain (I've tried all the pills).

So now I get needles stuck in me every week or so. Life is nothing if it's not counter-intuitive. I was pretty nervous the first time I went in for treatment. But I was surprised at how similar the whole thing is to getting a massage. Just the laying quietly for 45 minutes, listening to soothing music is worth the price of treatment.

I'm getting some results, too. Yay traditional medicine.

Books: Hmm? Books? What books? I don't see any books around here.

Getting back to work after a long vacation can be.... challenging, as they say.

I'm too accustomed to allowing myself the luxuries of distractions, just bouncing from one thing to another without any real care about the time.

Now I've got two writing jobs, both with similar deadlines and there's no way (note to Sarah, no way) they can both be done after midnight the night before drop-dead-date. So I have to force myself to sit down and do a little slogging every day.

I'm just not used to it anymore.

However, I'm not going to let a little thing like the hours in the day get the best of me. Somehow I will prevail.

Books: My writing is crap. Just don't tell the people who just hired me. I'll probably feel better in the morning.

The word of the day is "gantry" - which dictionary.com defines in several ways, all with the general meaning of "a support structure" but includes contexts as varied as aerospace and wine making.

You know you're a word geek when you have the strong urge to rewrite the dictionary.

I recently ran across the word during research for a medicine-related article I'm writing. I have yet to find an actual definition for the term in that context, but my research is just beginning. (And I think I can safely move ahead assuming it means "support structure.")

Every community grows its own jargon over time, borrowing words from other places and grafting on new meanings. The most challenging part about writing science articles is deciphering the lingo. Then for writing science fiction the opposite is a problem. Most readers aren't scientists, so jargon words that shortcut the concepts have to be kept to a minimum. Still, that changes over time. I still chuckle over sci-fi I wrote ten years ago that struggles to communicate concepts like online chats - which now are pretty easy to get across to the general public.

Books: I have been reminded that my fondness for the passive voice is not a universally-shared attribute. Though it may be enjoyable to me, it's not considered good form amongst...... well..... pretty much anybody else. Thus, much rewriting must be done.

So, I got started on trying to get this blog going again. But alas, I'm easily distracted. Blogger has come out with new functionality so it now has its own thingy for comments. I've spent the last week or so trying to get it to work instead of actually posting a new entry.

When I finally sat down and read the instructions I find it only works on new posts - so if I'm going to check the functionality I actually have to write something.

What a nasty trick to play on us procrastinators.

Books: So instead of pining over my old book I've decided to get on with my life and start a new one. It's totally unrelated - yet giving me just as many fits as the last one. One difference, though.... this one's going to be a lot shorter.