I'm Not LOST At All!

My mind is just getting battered this week and I wanted to share some quick thoughts with you on the things that are beating me senseless.

First - LOST - I'm really enjoying the heck out of this show. This season especially has played right into my wheelhouse of pleasure - time travel. Before I became an uber-blogger, and before I attempted to write my first novel, I spent three years writing short stories around one theme - time travel. In that time I probably spent the equivalent of months bashing through every possible time travel theory you could invent. So when I see a complex and compelling time travel story, I just get all gooey inside. Its like having all the fun of writing a really complex time travel series without any of the work or headaches. Much more enjoyable to let someone else try and figure out all that continuity and keep it straight. So for me, LOST is awesome. My Dad, on the other hand, is completely... well, LOST. And I don't blame him cause I'm guessing that the average person might find some of the show hard to follow. Not me, though, I've already been there and done that.

Second - Novel #2 - which I'm really enjoying the heck out of writing because... yep, you guessed it, its all about time travel! It's a complex and compelling time travel story with tons of continuity to keep straight. But for those of you who might assume that I'm being somehow inspired by LOST, I've been trying to write this story for years. But last summer I finally found the piece of the puzzle that I'd been missing and its all finally falling into place. I just finished the final reveal chapter last night, so the only thing left is to wrap up the synopsis and begin the actual writing. I can't wait!

Third - God - Aside from the Kenya trip which weighs on my mind constantly, I have been having a hard time associating with God lately and I finally figured out that my intellectual stumbling block is based on a Character trait that I can't wrap my brain around. In many depictions of Jesus that are not Biblical in nature, we see Jesus as a caring, loving, guy - a leader of men who also happens to be the son of God. So, in my mind, I'm picturing the sort of guy we all like to hang around - only better. Take your best friend, scrub out all the swear words, drinking, and carousing, and add a touch of humility, kindness, and compelling leadership, and that's basically the Jesus I depict. That Jesus is easy to see walking around the Holy Land with a group of 12 guys doing their thing, joking around, bonding, etc... But then, there's the other Jesus - the one who is the son of God, the Most High, the revered and worshiped and praised! The Jesus that bends every knee and collects every hallelujah! Its not that I can't picture Him... I can. Easily. Its that I can't reconcile the two together. I can't picture a guy swapping jokes with his friends one second and being the object of total submission and praise the next. Anyway, this is something I need to work through, but this stumbling block has been on my mind a great deal lately and its something I'm trying to reconcile... whenever I'm not traveling backwards or forwards or sideways in time, that is.

The Road

"What I want to know is what's next? If I do this, how far do I go?"

Profoundly deep and personal questions asked of no one in particular on a journey down a long road by a good friend of mine. The answers, I suspect, will come in due time. But the timing of these questions of concern over a path whose end cannot be seen came to me right as I stood at a crossroads in my own life, and right after I had finally gained the answer that I knew I would find.

When I reached the end of my last path it was March of 2000. I had been with Century Theatres for nearly 9 years by that point and knew that I could no longer bide my time with them any longer. Without having any clue what I would do next, I wrote out my two weeks notice and handed it in. At that time, I had only a vague notion of the God that would walk with me over the next part of my journey.

Within a week I had a new job - one that afforded me weekends for the first time since I'd left High School. I decided to go back to church, having existed in that gray area of the unchurched for far too long by that point. Soon I made a commitment to myself to start reading the Bible - something I'd never done before in any meaningful way. I committed to one chapter a night. I wondered to myself if I'd ever be able to keep that up. After a couple of months, I found myself being drawn to the Lakeside choir and to bell ringing. I'd had no intention of doing either ever again. Then there was a new opening in the previously well staffed youth group. I volunteered to fill it. I had no idea what I was getting into. A few months after that, I was asked to sit on the church's governing body. I considered it carefully, but eventually accepted the position.

During the three years I was on the governing body, my church was rocked with scandals, three clergy people and one music director left before we were able to call a new minister, and I found myself not only assisting the youth group, but actually leading it. I was tempted to leave many times, but I stuck with this rocky road because God had called me to it. It was three of the most difficult years in my life.

My leadership of the youth led me to some special relationships. Two of the youths approached me and wanted to make a movie. I said, okay. We made a movie. It sucked. So I went back to film school to figure out a way to make the movie better. Three years later, I finished my first film and have plans to make more.

After seven years as youth leader at my church, I finally felt called to lay down the leadership of the youth in order to go in a different direction - where, I didn't know. This January, I joined fellow church members on a mission trip to Pearlington, MS to help rebuild homes and lives left devastated by Katrina. I ended up gaining so much more than I gave. When I got back to church, I knew I couldn't wait another year to get involved again. I looked around and found another group that was planning to help street children in Kenya.

Kenya? What the heck did I know about Kenya? Wait just one second here... what's next? If I do this, how far down this road will I go?

I went to the meetings and watched the movies. I tried to figure out what it was that I was supposed to do here. They needed someone to film something... okay, but it didn't feel right - not my calling. I jumped at the opportunity to help plan the trip to Kenya by a small group of volunteers. Trip planning is something I'm good at and something I enjoy. Why, I'm planning three trips of my own over the next three years to Florida and Europe and... what's one more trip to plan? Was this what God wanted me to do? Was this going to be a short journey after all?

Less than half an hour before I heard those words uttered yesterday, I had a vision. I was walking down a dusty road. People were passing me on both sides - women carrying large jars on their heads and men dressed in loose cotton shirts and wearing shorts and sandals. I had a group of small children running in my wake carrying a soccer ball. And I knew that I was in Kenya and that my heart was full of love and peace and understanding.

No, my dear Will, you do not get to stay home and help others go to Africa. You must go to Africa and feed my sheep.

So, sometime next January or February, I will board a plane for Kenya. I don't have a darn clue how I'm going to pay for it. I don't have a darn clue what I'm going to do there. I don't know what this means for my job or my plans or anything else. But I've seen it happen. I will walk that road because that is where I am called.

When Networks Attack!

Here is the problem with this country in a nutshell. You know those commercials on TV that show the guy with his Cell Phone network walking around (Verizon, I believe)? You know, everywhere he goes he allegedly has about ten million people following him because he's connected to them all through this mythical network. While that seems like a fantasy, in some cases it can be very real, and that's the problem.

Miss California apparently discovered that the hard way. She was asked a question about Gay Marriage. She responded in the way that she believed. Everyone in her "network" immediately jumped up and said, "You Go Girl!" Everyone in the other "network" immediately shunned and vilified her. The two "networks" then started attacking each other. Words were exchanged. Then fists. Then it was a carnal blood bath of Biblical proportions like a giant media fueled dog fight. At the center of it all, one young woman expressing her opinion like she's done a million times before, who probably had no concept that her network was standing behind her, rabid, and itching for a fight. Nor that the other side was hiding in the shadows waiting for the exact same thing.

Its easy to see how most people in this country are a little gun shy about expressing their real opinions when large networks roam around ready to take the fight to them at any second. Every turn of phrase, every opinion expressed, even well conceived arguments for or against any subject out there is likely to set one or the other network off causing mass catastrophe over the simplest of words.

What started as a spot on parody about the rabid nature of Americans on South Park has unfortunately become a reality. Discourse is now a blood sport.

To be fair, a pageant contestant isn't exactly hiding herself from world opinion. She shouldn't be naive enough to assume that every word she says and every gesture she makes won't be immediately analyzed by the people that seem to care about this stuff. But having a rabid argument over pumps or high heels is a bit different than starting world war three because of a beauty queen's opinion on gay marriage.

Seriously, President Obama needs to have a giant Bong-In for the entire country and just tell us all to Mellow Out Already! That would be a great way to spend our stimulus money! (Oh... and it wouldn't hurt the California economy either ;)

Important News!

Skinny People To Blame For Global Warming and High Medical Costs - (TAC)

It has been clearly proven in a study that athletically skinny people are to blame for most of societies ills, not overweight people as has been reported in the past.

"It's just a case of the blind leading the blind," says Dr. Knotso Fast, lead investigator of the study, "Skinny people clearly want to see the world through their eyes and therefore anyone not like them must be to blame for all of societies troubles. This is clearly the worst miscarriage of scientific justice since the scientific community tried to claim that smoking pot lead to violent crimes."

In this study, it was clearly shown that an increased range of activity such as skiing, snowboarding, skydiving, skateboarding, wakeboarding, windsurfing, bungee jumping, strenous excercise, bicycling, etc... actually lead to more accidents and deaths, and higher doctor's bills, than the combined effects of diabetes, heart disease, and other illnesses related to obesity.

"Its worst than that," Dr. Fast added, "Because these people tend to live longer and thus generate all the medical bills of geriatric people as well. If they were to develop a fine case of heart disease, say, they'd cut off at least ten years of medical costs at the end of their lives."

In addition, the study clearly proved that while obese people need more fuel to move their added mass around, thus increasing their impact on global warming, their lack of movement in general more than offset the cost of the additional mass.

"These people just don't move... that's the whole reason they're obese in the first place," Dr. Fast explained, "They don't hike or swim or play golf or soccer and, therefore, they don't drive to all of those locations. Generally, the fitter you are, the more active you are, and the more active you are, the greater your carbon footprint. Clearly this is a case of the pot calling the kettle black."

As well, the fact that obese people tend to die younger means that their lifelong carbon footprint ends up being much smaller in the long run and doesn't add to the problems of over-population.

"If you were to read those other reports, you would be left with the conclusion that the best thing for Planet Earth would be for everyone to be fit, young, fertile and blessed with an overabundance of opportunities to procreate - and that's the worst possible scenario for earth. Believe it or not, obese people are doing us all a favor by dying young. We should encourage more obesity, not less."

Clearly, Dr. Fast's study has not been received well by the 90210-ish scientific community, but he's not concerned.

"Someday my research will be regarded as visionary."

THIS JUST IN!

The Bush Administration had terror suspects tortured. Oh my God... who would have thought?!

I admit to being on the fence about President Obama for the past three months. I don't know a fiduciary fund from a fickle finger of fate and you've got plenty of expert naysayers on both sides telling us the bailout was one or the other. So, no comment. I just don't have a clue whether this bailout and budget will work or not, but I know that its too early to max out my credit card just yet. So, for the most part, the President's performance for the first three months has been average - which is just fine.

But over the last week or so, I've become increasingly impressed. First, the way he let the Navy handle the Pirate situation means doom and gloom for the pirates. Quite frankly, I'm not entirely sure why we didn't handle the whole thing over to the Navy Seals as a training exercise a long time ago. Here boys, have some bullets and have at 'em. But when push came to shove, we not only saved the life of an American hero, but we showed the rest of the world that Navy Seals are bad ass once again! And all the President had to do was get out of the way. Good President. Smart President.

Next, he defied conventional wisdom with regards to Cuba by being the first person to acknowledge that our "blockade" of Cuba hadn't done diddly squat to bring about the end of communism in that nation. I'm surprised that the Reaganite Repubs hadn't figured this out years ago. What brought down the Berlin Wall? Was it rampant militarism and constant vigilance? Or was it the desire of young, easily impressionable and revolutionary aged, kids for blue jeans and rock and roll? The American Brand is extremely seductive and totally corruptive. We need to export it like the plague! Instead of dropping bombs on North Korea, we should drop IPODS and Girls Gone Wild videos. The President seems to recognize that any chink in that wall that keeps US goods out of Cuba will allow us to corrupt that nation's youth faster than a full fledged invasion of Cuba with nothing but Navy Seals. OOH RAH!

And finally, the President did something that neither the last two Presidents could do. He moved past partisan bickering and Congressional hearings, and just went ahead and came to his own conclusion about governmental wrongdoing. Instead of bogging down Congress with endless hearings and political posturing about who was doing the right thing and when, President Obama simply released the reports on torture during the previous administration. And then he pardoned everyone involved. Nobody is going to jail. The nation takes its well-deserved black eye and then moves on. And the sooner we all forget about it, the sooner it becomes history. Imagine if they'd taken that approach with the Mitchell report? Heck, we might not even be in this current economic tailspin had Congress been more concerned with the economy than with whether A-Rod was injecting a banned substance into his rear to get another 50 feet on his home run!

Now, to be fair, there are a fair number of intelligence implications of these reports being revealed. However, I think the implications pale in comparison to the knowledge that these things were done. And believe me, the people who were having this done to them, already knew, and already hate us. So, I'm not sure that the downside is all that large. After all, if you want to convince the rest of the world that the bad old days are behind us, the first thing you have to do is wash your hands of those practices and allow everyone to see that you have a clean slate. In the end, I think we are actually safer than we were yesterday because we've taken our first real steps towards combating that perception in the rest of the world that America is evil and hypocritical. They may not like what we stand for, but at least they'll know that we do keep our word and cherish our laws.

So, for now, I'm saying that President Obama has impressed me this week. I don't know that I'll always be on his side, but so far, he hasn't stumbled in my opinion. And eventually, I think he might even quiet some of the polarizing vitriol in this country - which would be a great legacy for any president.

The Year We Make Contact

Russia and the US are about to destroy each other with nuclear weapons. A member of the crew has died. The mysterious monolith continues to taunt them from the orbit of Jupiter. The crew of the Discovery is still dead. And now, they have to take a slow trip back to Earth with the previously homicidal HAL-9000 in charge of the ship and their life support functions. Things couldn't look bleaker.

And then a message... "Something's going to happen." "What? What's going to happen?" "Something WONDERFUL!"

This scene from "2010" is probably one of my favorite moments from all Sci-Fi movies because it speaks of seemingly incomprehensible hope in the face of impenetrable darkness.

I said it last year and I'll say it again. Economic recession, wars, personal disasters, and all the incredible bad news that seems to be piling up around us; and I can't help but sharing this message that I keep receiving...

"Something's going to happen. Something WONDERFUL!"

I know I must be crazy. I know that I can't see a few months in front of me because of the darkness crowding around my own life. But I still can't shake the feeling, the almost certainty, that great things are just around the corner.

Keep the faith! Keep the hope! And be assured of wonderful times ahead!

The Big Story In The Little Box

About nine months ago I dreamt up the entire plot of my second novel. It literally came to me in a single day. I started thinking up ideas and then I wrote them down in four pages of notes and the next thing I knew, I had the entire story.

All I had to do was flesh it out a bit.

Nine months later and I'm just now reaching the end of the synopsis. So, a few things happened along the way that did delay the writing. One was the movie. That took up a huge chunk of time. But the other was the realization that this plot was so darned complicated that I had to tread lightly and deftly while writing it or I would end up writing myself into a corner, or worse, make some illogical leap in the story structure that would cause my readers to groan and put the book down.

The good news is that I've actually worked through all the kinks, finally, and am racing again at breakneck speed towards the end. The even better news is that I didn't have to compromise any of the fun or the action of this book in order to weave such a complex plot. This story sizzles along from Howland Island in the Pacific (that's a hint) to the fall of Shanghai, Berlin in the 30's, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and an explosive finale that you will never see coming. There is romance, action, Nazi's, conspiracies, and plenty of swashbuckling to go around.

All this in only 24 chapters and about 280 pages (estimated). As soon as the synopsis is done, I'll start straight away into the first draft of the story. I'm guessing two drafts because it might take me a while to get just the right tone for the characters.

And tonight, we're starting the actual script for film #2 - still tentatively titled, Dane. So, I said that I would take a semester off from film to write and so far, that's exactly what I'm doing.

Writing keeps the realities of the world at bay. When I'm writing I can imagine my life any way I want it to be, and that means no wars, no murders, no crappy TV, and no financial recession. For those of you struggling with the problems of this world, I would suggest sitting back with a good book or a good pen and paper. Either way, you will be transported to a world away from your own for a while, like a mini-vacation. Then you can come back to the real world refreshed and ready to rumble.

Musings From The Left Coast

Don't have anything profound to say, especially after having read the wonderful post from Musings From The Hinterland that can be found here. Compared to such a poetically thought out logic piece, I gladly accept my place in the intellectual pantheon as a boot-licker. ;) No, but seriously, Randall's summation of the Garden at Gethsemane was thrilling in its implications and a wonderful picture of the true nature of Holy Week.

Beyond that, Andy at Mile From The Beach is no longer allowed to attend Giants games - not because he lost last night's game to Milwaukee, but because he allowed the opposing PITCHER to hit a three run homer off Hall-of-Famer, Randy Johnson. On a two strike, two out pitch nonetheless. Clearly, at the very least, he should remove his Giants hat and burn it as a sacrifice to appease the Baseball God and maybe he should find some baseball virgin and take them to a game and toss them to the Garlic Fries. Something must be done to remove this stain on his baseball soul.

Speaking of truly strange religions and mystical implications, LOST is getting wonderfully good as it hurtles towards its season Five ending. I love the fact that it can both show you something completely new and yet leave you completely befuddled about what it all means. Which gets me to an idea for a category that my Dad and I came up with yesterday...

What is the WORST possible way for LOST to end? I mean aside from the obvious It Was All A Dream... what would be the nightmare ending for a show that has captivated its viewers from the very beginning with its mysteries upon mysteries? What would be the one thing at the heart of the puzzle that would make you toss your TV out the window so that you could enjoy watching it smash into tiny pieces on the ground below?

I'll take your answers in the comments below.

Get A Rope!

I'm normally against the Death Penalty because I don't think it actually solves anything and is questionable on moral grounds. Still, when I hear about an 8 year old girl being killed and dumped into a pond inside a suitcase, it gets my dander up. If someone were to come through my office now ready to deputize a posse, I'd be the first one to sign up (well, I might have to stand in line...). There are times for frontier justice... and this feels like one of those times!

Perfection

Today is the day I give up my long struggle to be perfect.

As in most things in my life, I have been proceeding under the false assumption that by playing fair, following my coaches advice, and working hard, I would achieve perfection. I have struggled day in and day out to do the right thing while others around me struggled to get ahead by any means necessary. We have all been seeking the same glory. And we have all failed.

But now my thinking has undergone a radical conversion based upon a simple mathematical formula. Glory can not be achieved by seeking perfection, but only in perfection itself. We can never be perfect, therefore we can never reach perfection. The only way to reach glory is to have it given to us by someone who has achieved it. He will give it freely to all who ask PROVIDED that they admit their mistakes and ask forgiveness for them. Since only those with mistakes can ask for forgiveness, anyone seeking perfection is not seeking glory.

Therefore, I have decided to abandon my long struggle to be perfect and will instead use my time seeking something else. Whatever that something else is, I'm bound to suck at it... gloriously.

The Process Begins Again

Last night, Vagabond Pictures reached an important new milestone - the completion of the synopsis of our second film, "Dane". For those who aren't familiar with the process of writing a film, there are certain steps you follow before a film is complete. Each step reveals a little bit more about the project. After coming up with an idea (first step), a very basic beginning, middle and end are figured out (step two), and then the entire story is fleshed out from beginning to end in a very basic Good guy shoots Bad guy type format which is called the Synopsis (third step). At this point, the writers know the entire story from beginning to end. So now, if you were to ask me what it was about, I could tell you with much more confidence.

In house building terms, the synopsis would be the framing. It doesn't look anything like a house, but its the structure upon which everything relies. If the framing is screwed up, the house will fall down before its finished. So in terms of writing, the synopsis might just be the most important part.

The next step in "Dane" will be to take the synopsis and scene by scene flesh it out into a script. In the first draft of the script, we will give voice to the characters, describe their movements, and start to visualize the look of the film (locations, time of day, important props, etc...) And then in subsequent drafts of the script, we will simply refine the script until we have exactly the story we want.

Ironically, the completion of the script is only one third of the story creation process. The story gets further refined during the actual filming as Director, Actors, and Crew work to bring nuance and meaning to the words. And then the story gets its ultimate polish when it goes to Post Production and editing, sound, and music are added to make the film a real world that you can visit for the duration of the story. But no matter how much additional polishing that will be done to the story, at its core you will still find the structure created by the synopsis.

We've created the story... now begins the process of making the film.

(Oh, and did I mention we want to start filming in June... so, the next part might be a little rushed. ;)