Category: updates

Developing the Novel… the class and the reality…

~ EMM

I’ve mentioned here before that I like to write stories. Basically what happens is my imagination comes up with all sorts of ideas for stories and characters and worlds. Then I more or less do nothing with those ideas. I have started a few “novels” — but after about 10k – 20k words, I quit and move on to something else, always meaning to get back at it, but never getting around to it. Until I started taking classes at UC Berkeley Extension, I never really finished any of my stories. And, as many great writers will tell you (here is Neil Gaiman telling you), the first rule of writing is FINISH YOUR SHIT (to quote Chuck Wendig).

And so, as I posted earlier this week, I recently set out to FINISH something I started. Just one thing. And this would have the bonus of being something I needed to do for the class I started last week — Developing the Novel I.

What a cute little plan. I should have known better.

Here’s how it went…

Day 1: okay, I’m home late from class and I just wrote a blog post, but dang it, I’m going to get those 600 words in before midnight. I can do this! (result = 710 words)

Day 2: As soon as I wake up, while I’m getting ready to hit the pool, before the sun is even past the horizon, I start thinking about when I am going to squeeze some words in. The more I think about it, the more I realize that I may need to plot out what happens in this next bit. I remember I have a book on how to outline a novel and I dig it up on my Kindle and start reading on my way to work. Immediately I’m hit by a desire to STOP EVERYTHING and create an outline. I already have notes. I need to organize those notes. I need to create MORE notes. I need an OUTLINE! (result = late that night I outline the first chapter, find a ton more plot holes that need filling, and write about 350 new words in the actual novel)

Day 3: I decide I really can’t go any further into the next bit until I HAVE A PLAN. So, I keep reading the outlining book (result = more notes / plot questions, 0 new words written)

Day 4: Shit! I really need to catch up, but I have SO MUCH WORK to do! And I haven’t had any time to outline past the first chapter — even though I’ve already written through the 11th chapter and am held up on what happens in the 12th through 15th chapter, because I already know what happens in chapters 16 – 18. (result = more reading / more notes / more questions / no new words)

Day 5-6: Repeat Day 4.

Day 7: Today. Writing about writing. Or, more accurately, writing about not writing.

But I have a plan… No wait. Not that again. How about… I have an idea. I am going to do a VERY BRIEF outline of chapters 2 through 18 (like a paragraph, or some bullet points). Then I am going to alternate between writing chapters 12 through 15 and continuing to briefly outline chapters 19 through the end. Then I have to re-write chapters 16 through 18 (they are written from the wrong point of view and need some tweaking to align with my current plan for the plot). Then it is (hopefully) clear sailing through to the end).

This means that I have to double up writing and outlining for the next few weeks. I’m going to set the goal of trying to get caught up through chapter 12, at least, today. Then I need to do 600 words plus at least one chapter outline each day until I’ve got the outline done. I’ll increase the word count to catch up to the original plan after the outline is done. Boy am I glad this actually counts as homework. With everything else I have going on this is going to be a challenging goal.

I’m learning that finishing your shit is hard. But I love this stuff. I am having so much fun creating this plot and this world and these characters. The only downside is that when I get into writing mode, I slow down on reading. So, all those great books I had planned to read? It may be a while before I get back to that…

Starting and finishing

~ EMM

I am finally getting psyched for my second to last UCBx Certificate class. At first I was a bit bummed to be giving up one of my weeknights again after having the whole summer off. I’ve been doing an online class this summer which is more flexible in terms of timing, but maybe more difficult in terms of quantity of work required.

When I left the house this morning, I was annoyed that I wouldn’t get home until late (past my bedtime), and I was anxious about what would be on the syllabus.

Then, on the bus this morning, while reading through my timeline on Twitter and catching up on the things people I follow have been talking about, I stumbled some solid writing advice. And by solid, I mean that it was exactly what I needed to read today.

Based on the advice and encouragement (and general kick in the ass) from this post in particular, I’ve created a spreadsheet to track my writing progress. If I want to finish this draft by the end of December, I need to write 600 words a day, every day, starting today. That is actually really inspiring for me because 600 words is nothing. If I can commit to getting up at 5am to go swim 2 miles in an outdoor pool before the sun comes up each weekday, I can totally commit to finding a tiny bit of time to write just 600 words.

The best part of this plan, is I’m hoping it will actually help me with my homework for class… after all, the class is called “Developing the Novel.” Now I can’t wait to get started. Right. Now. (I mean, I still have an hour before it’s tomorrow, right? I can squeeze in 600 words and still get up at 5am to swim, right?)

what to read…

~ EMM ~ 5 Comments

BOOKS!

I am sitting here trying to decide what to read next. It’s only the first week of September and I’ve already (thanks to the long weekend) finished two books (writing reviews this weekend, I hope). Due to some price drops on Amazon I’ve added an insane number of books to my “to read” pile. I just keep buying them and they keep (virtually) piling up on my Kindle and waiting for me to read them. I haven’t bought this many books since before I reacquainted myself with the library (for fun, not research) during one of my internships in college. Even if I stopped buying new books today (which I won’t) and didn’t buy any more books until next year, and even if I continued reading at this crazy pace, I would probably still have more than enough books to keep me busy until New Years.

Then why, when it comes time to pick something to read next (like tonight), can’t find anything I want to read? Before I attempt to convince myself that I need to go buy more, I thought I’d take a minute to remind myself of the excellent stories that await me. Maybe then I can just pick one I’ve already purchased.

Some of my options:

  • Eleanor & Park (Pro: recommended by a friend whose opinion I trust, Con: more YA and the last few I’ve read have been YA)
  • The Fault in Our Stars (Pro: supposed to be REALLY good, Con: also supposed to be REALLY sad, also more YA)
  • Wolf Hall (Pro: gets great reviews and I’ve wanted to read it for a while, Con: Mom just finished it and said it’s hard to get into — and this is coming from someone who loves British monarchy stuff)
  • Dare Me (Pro: probably fluffy, light read and a mystery, Con: I’ve been reading a lot of fluffy, light reads and/or mysteries)
  • Reamde (Pro: I’ve heard great stuff about this book, Con: it’s insanely long and I’m not sure I have the time to get into a long book right now)
  • Wool (Pro: again, great reviews, especially from the hubby, and we already know I’m partial to post-apocalyptic fiction, Con: not sure I’m in the mood for post-apocalyptic right now)

And these are just SOME of my choices… I didn’t even get into the non-fiction books! Or the short story collections! Is it possible to have too many books? Wait. What am I saying? That’s just crazy talk. Too many books. Never!

Okay… must pick one… it’s either that or work on my Mystery Fiction homework, and we all know that I want to procrastinate on that some more. Plus, tomorrow is Friday and I need a #FridayReads (even though I almost never actually have time or energy to read anything on Fridays… it’s the thought that counts, right? No? #doingitwrong)

So what’s it going to be? Or shall I leave you in suspense?

Update on my RSS obsession

~ EMM

So, it’s been what? A month Almost two months (I had to look that up), since Google killed Google Reader? And it’s been just over four months (I had to look that up, too) since I wrote my melodramatic “Ode to Google Reader“. I was just checking my feeds on “The Old Reader” and it dawned on me… I don’t really miss Google Reader.

To be fair, this is mostly because my habits have changed. And, to give credit where credit is due, my habits have changed mostly because Google killed Google Reader. I still want to follow blogs I like, but I am no longer obsessing about following everything. I’m still an information junkie, but now I go for days at a time without ever checking in on my feeds.

So what’s changed?

Before Google Reader died on 1 July 2013, I transferred almost all the 20 or so blogs I follow over to The Old Reader. As far as I am aware (and, internet, please do correct me if I’m mistaken…) The Old Reader does not have an Android app. So, now that Google Reader is dead, I am reader-free on my phone.

I briefly considered some of the feed reader options that also had a phone app, or that were primarily phone apps, but I didn’t really like their terms and conditions. So, I have no reader app on my phone. Oddly, I have realized that I’m totally okay with that.

I think it works for me because most of the blogs I follow are friends’ blogs. And most of these have either been completely abandoned (I only subscribe in case someday they change their mind and post something), or they are only occasionally updated (my friends are busy people, most have small children that occupy most of their time, and blogging has become somewhat uncool these days, I think).

There are only a handful of blogs I follow that are actually updated regularly, and I follow most of those people on Twitter, so I usually see when they post things. Unfortunately, when I’m on Twitter I rarely have time to read anything longer than 140 characters (it’s just a quick break to check in on what’s going on in the world). So, I almost never click through to read blog posts. I rely on the fact that those blog posts are waiting for me on my laptop at home.

Yes, that’s right, I only check my RSS reader on my laptop at home. I follow a policy of “not crossing the streams” as my IT folks at work put it. Work stuff on work laptop, home stuff on home laptop. I mean, I’ll book flights for vacation on my work computer, I just won’t access my home email, or RSS reader, or (OMG) Facebook.

(Side note: why in the world I even still ever log into Facebook, or have a Facebook account is beyond me. Actually…. I take that back… Come to think of it, I know exactly why I have a Facebook account and check it a few times a week. It’s because all those friends that stopped blogging only post stuff on Facebook. So, if I want to know what’s going on, I have to log into Facebook. God, I HATE Facebook. Why can’t everyone just get a Twitter account? Just saying… )

Anyway, I went on vacation almost immediately after Google Reader died, and I had limited screen time on that vacation. So, I started reading books like a crazy reader person, and after about a week I think I just sort of forgot about my feeds. Step one in changing a habit: if you can do it for a week, you can likely keep it up indefinitely.

When I returned from vacation, I realized that I couldn’t keep up with my favorite tech blog effectively if I didn’t have a reader app on my phone and wasn’t obsessively checking my feed reader. So, after about a month of trying to absorb a week’s worth of my favorite tech blog’s posts in one day on the weekend, I gave up. I unsubscribed from that feed in The Old Reader. I mean, I follow them on Twitter, and I subscribed to their daily email digest that discusses the major topics / stories of the day and lists them all for easy clicking. I decided that was good enough.

Instead, what really happened was that I just stopped obsessively reading about the tech industry. And that is probably a good thing. Because honestly, it’s a lot easier to read about the tech industry when you are a) not living in San Francisco, and b) not working for a big name tech company. When you’re doing both “a” and “b” you pretty much live and breath tech news. It’s sometimes all people talk about. So, having a break from it is sometimes welcome. Besides, most of these stories are just incendiary garbage meant to generate clicks and satisfy the voyeuristic tendencies of those who are not doing either “a” or “b.”

I began to realize that every story, even well written and insightful ones (and those are few and far between), have a tendency to make me slightly stabby. Either because I HATE the (stereotypical) entitlement culture of the young hipster tech geeks in the Bay Area (and that is almost always the way Bay Area tech people are portrayed in tech blogs — though, I admit, it is a valid portrayal of a not insignificant portion of the people working at these companies), or because it is really difficult for non-tech, non-business people to write a story about a technology company without going for the easy, link-bait, rile-’em-up angle.

In fairness, some people are trying. I think the blogs I choose to follow (mostly PandoDaily, and some individual journalists like Alexis Madrigal from The Atlantic, and, increasingly, the tech writers at the Washington Post) do a pretty good job, usually. When they’re off, they are usually just doing the best they can with the information available to them. But sometimes even the good guys whiff and write some face-palm story that completely misses the point.

As you’ll see when I post this month’s “by the numbers” post, the result of less obsessive RSS feed reading is more time reading ACTUAL BOOKS! And, more time thinking creatively. And, less time freaking out about the apparent deterioration of journalism (due in large part to the deterioration of the attention span and critical thinking skills of most of the population) in the US.

Okay… clearly, I still maintain the potential for working myself up into a fit of “stabby.” I’m going to hit publish now and then close my laptop and go read a book. Or talk to a human. Or something. 🙂

A few words on reading

~ EMM

Today Greg asked me if I ever get sick of reading. We were both reading at the time. He was finishing Where’d You Go Bernadette? — which was kind of a big deal because he barely ever reads novels. I was sneaking in a fast-reading, fun novel instead of finishing the slog through the final novel for my Mystery Fiction class (which is what I was supposed to be reading).

I’ll admit it, I read a lot. Lately I seem to be reading even more than usual, and regularly find myself choosing reading over watching movies. Until Greg asked, I didn’t really think much about it, but now I’m wondering if this makes me “odd.”

Sometimes I get sick of reading. Sometimes, especially after I finish a book and before I’ve decided what to start next, I can go for days or weeks without diving into a new book. But even then, I’m always reading articles on the internet, and following what’s going on in my timeline on Twitter. Come to think if it, from the moment I get up in the morning, until just before I go to bed at night, almost every free minute is spent reading something.

I read like “normal” people watch TV, I guess. And for that reason I am woefully out of the loop on all the “cool” TV shows (I’ve never seen an episode of Lost or Breaking Bad, for example). But I really don’t feel like I’m missing anything. There are just too many books I want to read. Good books, trashy books, YA books, fiction books, non-fiction books, and (this summer, at least) mystery books.

I constantly find more books that I want to read. I have two wish lists on Amazon in order to keep track of them — one for fiction and one for non-fiction. Currently, there are 81 books on my “someday / maybe fiction” wish list and 42 books on my “someday / maybe non-fiction” wish list. As fast as I read them, and as many times as I try to remove the ones I can’t even remember why I put on there in the first place, I still find more to add.

All this reading is both helping and hurting my other hobby, writing. I have limited free time, and if I spend it all swimming and reading, that doesn’t leave much time for writing. Just like I have more books on my wish lists than I’ll ever have time to read, I have more hobbies than I have available free time. Some of them (learning to program, sewing, biking, kayaking) get ignored regularly. Some hover on the precipice of being ignored (writing). And all because I have learned that in order to achieve balance in my life I must swim and I must read. 

Still, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to change things up every once in a while. I mean, I rode my bike to the pool today and it didn’t kill me. And now I’m writing this blog post instead of reading. There’s hope for me, yet.

Books for vacation

~ EMM ~ 2 Comments

Let’s talk books some more… (I’m almost finished with The Ocean at the End of the Lane and I’m taking a little break to make it last longer…)

Question of the day: How many books is too many books to take on vacation?

I’m going to take some paper books (mostly for the plane, and so I can “free” them when I’m done…) and I’m going to take my Kindle.

Paper books from my pile of unread books that I was thinking of bringing (these were all sent to me by my mom after she was done reading them and I’ve had them forever…):

These are all short and/or light reads that shouldn’t take long to finish, and I can “free” them into the wild once I’m done…

But these aren’t what I really want to read on vacation. So, I just combed through my “someday/maybe fiction” and “someday/maybe non-fiction” wish lists that I keep on Amazon and came up with the following possibilities for vacation reads…

Non-fiction:

Fiction:

I’m not sure if I’ll have dependable wireless connectivity for most of the vacation, so I want to pre-buy whatever I want to have on hand to read. At the same time, I hate buying books on the Kindle and then having them sit there. I probably have at least 5 -10 books I’ve purchased in the past year on my Kindle that I meant to read, and then didn’t read and now am not all that interested in reading. Some Greg has read, so that makes me feel a bit better about it. Still, I don’t want to buy too many books to take with me.

I’d ask which of the above would you recommend I read, but reading is a very personal thing. Different books appeal to different people at different points in their lives. I have a definite idea of the types of books I want to read on this vacation. Most of the above choices fit that mood. But, if you want to vote for any of the above, I will take your opinions into consideration.

What I really want to know is, how many books should I take with me? Keep in mind, I am vacationing with a family of voracious readers. Reading by the lake will likely be one of the main vacation activities.

At the same time, the other thing I was thinking I would do on this vacation is spend some time writing. I’m not sure if I’m more in need of a reading and “filling the tanks” vacation, or a writing and “draining the tanks” vacation. If it’s the later, I shouldn’t bring too many books to distract me. Given the logistics of this vacation, I have a feeling there will be more reading time available than writing time available. So I’ll probably go prepared for either scenario.

Which brings us back to the original question… how many books should I bring with me on vacation?

Foggy Sunday

~ EMM

I don’t usually pre-order books. In fact, before I bought my Kindle last year, I had pretty much stopped buying books. I learned to use the library. I still love the library, and I can still check out books on my Kindle. However, much of my aversion to buying books was the storing of them.

Books take up space. They are heavy. And when you and your husband have acquired almost twenty book-boxes worth of books (even after several bookshelf purges and trips to sell used books back to Powells), you begin to think hard before buying more books. Especially when you are mostly living out of a suitcase and those twenty boxes of books are somewhere collecting dust and slowly collapsing in a storage closet.

So I’d mostly stopped buying books. Until the Kindle. Now books are just (heavily DRMed) bits of data that can easily be stored in that magical data cloud somewhere in Eastern Washington, or some other landscape deemed less than ideal for humans. Now I increasingly find myself forgetting to check the library and just pushing the magical “deliver to my Kindle” button. Amazon loves me. But that’s not new. They’ve loved me since 1999.

Even though I have found myself buying more books, rarely do I pre-order them. Usually I wait for the price to drop down to that magical $9.99 price point before I hit the button. Why should I pay more for my book just because I love the author so much that I have been eagerly awaiting the release of their new book and HAVE TO HAVE IT as soon as it hits the (virtual) shelves. (Yes, I know there are economics and logic behind the initial astronomical pre-order price. I resist it. Deal with it.) I make exceptions for authors I particularly love (like Neil Gaiman) and books I know I am going to read immediately upon release (like Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue). (Resistance is futile.)

Which brings us to last week, when I (finally) hit the pre-order button on Neil Gaiman’s latest book The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I follow him on Twitter and I read his blog, so I’d known this was coming for a while. And I’d known that it was going to be special. I knew I would read it and I knew I would buy it. (When I first bought my Kindle, I purchased digital editions of American Gods and Neverwhere even though I’d already read them in paperback.) I haven’t read all his books and I’ve only read a handful of the Sandman comics, but I really enjoy his stories. He creates these darkly magical worlds that it is almost possible to believe could actually exist. Or maybe by the time you’re done reading his books you really want them to exist. Either way, I knew I would be buying his latest book.

However, reading a Neil Gaiman book is sort of like enjoying expensive dark chocolate or a perfectly aged bottle of wine. You want to find an uninterrupted period of time where you can really savor it and immerse yourself in the experience without having to jump up and go do something practical. Like work.

So, I hesitated about the pre-order because books (like new music, but unlike new movies) are traditionally released on Tuesdays. Tuesday the work week is just getting started. This was not a book I wanted to read in 30 minute stretches on my commute. This book needed a weekend. Or a dark and stormy night. I hadn’t even read an excerpt and I knew this instinctively  It’s Neil Gaiman, after all. I finally hit the pre-order button anyway — knowing I would resist reading it until the perfect circumstances presented themselves.

I thought I would start it on Friday, after work. But I was too keyed up and it just didn’t feel right. So I waited.

I thought I would start it on Saturday, after my morning swim at the outdoor pool. I might even go to The Depot after my swim and read it there over a breakfast sandwich on a croissant  washed down with a cappuccino. But it turned out that after my swim I needed to go to the grocery store instead. And even after I finally had my breakfast, it still didn’t feel right. It was a bright, sunny, perfect California day and our neighbors were being too loud entertaining their guests on their porch, loud-talking and laughing in their carefully acquired California Bay-Area dialect. I have no idea what they were talking about, even though, with their porch on the other side of our apartment wall, it sounded as though the party was in our spare bedroom. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I don’t speak Bay-Area Californian (and I hope I never do…). So I vacuumed the bedroom (to drown them out and hopefully annoy them in return) and I waited.

Then, this morning I woke up to fog and a pleasant chill in the air, welcome after yesterday’s heat. I made myself a bowl of yogurt and granola, put on the kettle, and sat down in my 70s-era lime green chair to read. Just as I finished the prologue the kettle whistled. I smiled, looked out the window at the fog settling over Sausalito, set down my Kindle and got up to make my first mug of tea. Today is the perfect day to read this book.

The perfect mug of tea
The perfect mug of tea

Sunday thoughts

~ EMM

Today is Father’s Day. I miss my dad.

Thomas B. Menozzi 1946 - 2002
Thomas B. Menozzi 1946 – 2002 (photo via @nik_x)

For those of you with dads who are alive, go hug them, call them, whatever. And tell them to be healthy and take their cholesterol meds.

My dad was the first person to encourage me to swim competitively. I remember him telling me it was a sport I would be able to participate in for my whole life. And, as was often the case, he was right. I’m so glad I listened to him.

This weekend I swam in my first Long Course Meters swim meet since high school. It was so fun to be swimming and racing in the 50 meter outdoor pool. I swam events that I don’t usually race just for fun. I had a good laugh when I proved once again that my breaststroke is faster than my backstroke. Breaststroke is supposed to be the slowest stroke, but backstroke is my “resting stroke.”

I got some help from Greg to make this Vine “selfie” that turned out better than I’d imagined it… it makes me look like a Phelps impersonator…. watch for the “photo bomb” and remember what I mentioned above about swimming being a lifetime sport — Greg swears he didn’t notice when he was filming…

Another thing I think my dad would have loved is Twitter. He would have had so much fun on Twitter. I’m sad he died before the age of Twitter. We announced a fun partnership this week with Vizify (a Portland-based start-up). The resulting movie is below.

And, lastly, also in honor of Father’s Day. I would like to mention another John Carroll Alum (like my dad) that I miss — Tim Russert — former Meet the Press host and NBC political correspondent. Mr. Russert died five years ago. He reminded me a lot of my dad (and they both reminded me a lot of John Belushi… ). The Washington Post published a nice article remembering Tim Russert this week. Pull quote relevant to my next paragraph:

Tim’s unvarnished passion is the thing that has stuck with me over the five years since his passing. He LOVED politics — the personalities, the statistics, the strategy —  and it showed. When you watched “Meet”, you knew you were watching a political junkie who relished the game and who, to his immense credit, was never overly cynical about politicians and government. He was a passionate optimist in a political world largely populated by pessimists.  And he loved what he did.

I watched Meet the Press this morning for the first time in ages and was so incredibly disappointed. Disappointed in NBC, disappointed in David Gregory, disappointed in politics and the US Government, disappointed in the lazy humans that are just not interested in educating themselves about what’s going on in the world. The state of media in the US has been devolving into sound-bites and half-truths for years now. It makes me sad.

So now I’m sad because I miss my dad and sad because the world is a mess.

But I refuse to be cynical. I’m happy I can swim. I’m happy I work for a company that defends and protects the user’s voice. And I’m hopeful that all of humanity is not sheep.

Now seriously, go hug your dad.

Summer Movies

~ EMM

It all started with Greg asking me to add something to the Netflix queue… that led me to IMDB to watch the trailer for said movie. Then I had to check what’s playing now to make sure I’m not missing anything. Then I had to check whats “coming soon” to make sure I’m not missing anything. And here I am approximately an hour later, with not just one, but SIXTEEN movies added to my Netflix queue.

Let’s see if I can recapture them in chronological order of finding:

  1. It all started with Frances Ha…
  2. Which led me to Hannah Takes the Stairs…
  3. Where I noticed that Robot & Frank was also liked by others who liked that movie…
  4. Then I checked what’s playing now and found After Earth…
  5. Earlier today I had added a few “coming soon” movies like The Internship…
  6. and The Bling Room (I’ll watch anything with Emma Watson — Hermione!)…
  7. and The Great Gatsby (it stars Leonardo diCaprio, but I’ll watch it anyway…)…
  8. and The Kings of Summer which I missed when we had the free Twitter screening…
  9. So I skipped over those until I saw World War Z whose trailer we saw before Star Trek Into Darkness, and which stars Brad Pitt, but I’ll watch it anyway, because… end of the world movie!
  10. I skipped The Heat because I will see a screening of it next week…but I added I’m So Excited on the basis of the fact that I liked Almodovar’s other movies, even though the trailer shows us nothing…
  11. Somewhere in here I noticed Red 2 which is a movie for the Boomer demographic, but Helen Mirren kicks ass, and Bruce Willis and John Malcovitch are funny old dudes at this point — all reasons I ended up watching the first Red movie — so I will probably watch this one too…
  12. Then I saw Despicable Me 2, which was also a trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness, and I remembered I haven’t even seen the first Despicable Me move, so I added both to my queue…
  13. As I was scrolling I noticed Fruitvale Station and realized they made a movie about a recent current event in San Francisco, and added it to the queue…
  14. Then we have Kick Ass 2, which I will admit looks pretty dumb, but again, I saw the first one, and I’ll probably watch this one too, but will likely wait until it’s on DVD…
  15. Then I watched the trailer for The World’s End, laughed, and added that to my DVD queue…
  16. And just now, as I was compiling this list, I noticed that I missed Epic! How could I have missed Epic. Added.

Given what you know about my taste preferences, you might notice at least two glaring omissions from this list. I have not added Man of Steel or Much Ado About Nothing to my list. The later is easy, I want to see it as soon as possible, so I will probably see it in the movie theater. It’s a movie by Joss Whedon, and stars many of my favorites from the Whedon-verse, such as Nathan Fillion.

Man of Steel is a little more tricky… it’s a “blockbuster” and should probably be seen on the big screen for best effects. But I’m growing tired of these stupid superhero movies. Not The Avengers — yet — mostly only because it’s now a Joss movie. But these superhero movies are just cash cows and never seem to have a good story. Just lots of action and “wow” effects. Meh. Not that interested.

Why is Star Trek different? I’m so glad you asked. Because Star Trek is “SPACE, the final frontier.” It’s science fiction. It’s a great big imagining of our future. And I love that. What I also love is that many of the above movies, and the biggest one that I can’t wait to see in November (Ender’s Game!), are also big immaginative science fiction movies. Space! Aliens! Robots! The end of the world!

I can already tell this is going to be a great summer for movies. If we’re finally over the vampire hump and have moved on to space invaders, I’m all in. Of course, I’m also cheap. So I’ll probably wait to see them on the small screen. Thanks, Netflix.

Open water

~ EMM

I raced in a lake this weekend!

Here I am, passing someone at the finish… That’s me on the inside, closest to the camera…

IMG_20130518_100052

 

And here I am crossing the finish line… you can see my time on the clock that is over by the “crowd” of swimming fans cheering at the finish…

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This was the finish of the mile race. Originally I registered for only the 500 meter race, but when we arrived and I realized that 500 is sort of a warm-up and I was being a chicken, I decided I’d do both races. I finished squarely middle of the pack in both races, but I wasn’t really paying much attention to my times.

The water was much warmer than I’d expected (~ 72 deg F). And I had a lot more fun than I thought I would. I was really nervous about racing in a lake. I did a Danskin triathlon almost ten years ago (wow! can’t believe it’s been that long!). The swimming leg of that triathlon was really short (< 500m, I think), and the water was end-of-summer warm. As far as US Masters is concerned (and as far as I’m concerned), this was my first open water race.

After I finished the mile swim I kind of wanted to get back in and do it again (“Coach Greg” would say I didn’t push myself hard enough…). Instead, I have to wait two weeks for my next open water race — another mile swim in a potentially colder lake.

Something about “racing” in a lake feels more like fun than serious racing. It was hard for me to get too worked up about my time or how I finished (at least before the race… after was a different story…). It reminded me of vacations at Wallowa Lake, or in the Adirondacks. And it was all over too quickly.

I think I could get used to this as a summer diversion… it’s a nice break from “serious racing…”