Tag: tv

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes…

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Earlier in the week, I talked about my writing habits and pointed out that one of the difficulties for me was not a dearth of ideas, but rather a lack of time. So beginning this week I am going to try and combat that somewhat by regaining some lost time. How?

No TV after work.

It’s that simple. I am going to forgo TV after work and allow TiVo to do it’s job. Assuming I get home at 5 PM, that gives me three and a half hours to pack lunch, eat dinner and do some chores. The rest of the time is my own. I can, for instance, spend an hour or so reading. But at the very least, I am trying to reserve the 7-8 PM hour to write. I get too easily sucked into TV and perhaps this will help reclaim some time.

So when will I watch all of the accumulated TV? Sunday’s, of course, my free-day. With the shows that I TiVo, I expect that I’d be able to get them all watched on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Now you might be thinking that I am really not gaining any time. You are wrong on two counts. First, I can skip the commercials of the TiVo’d shows, so I gain 20 minutes per hour (sad, but true). Second, while I could spending my Sunday afternoons writing for 5 hours, that’s impractical for me. If I sit down to write for an hour in the evening, I can usually get something done, and feel accomplished at the same time. (Sometimes, I may even write longer.) It doesn’t work the same to block out five hours on a Sunday and then try and write that whole time. With rare exceptions, I just can’t sustain that and I’d come away feeling like I didn’t meet my goal.

So I’m giving it a shot. No TV after work, which essentially means no TV until next Sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Wrapup

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I think I’ll be going into work tomorrow. I participated in two meetings from home today and my alarm is set for 4:30 AM. It will also be the first time since Tuesday that I will get to the gym.

I got a call from Trevor tonight. I hadn’t talked to him in a while and I was really glad he called and we had a little time to catch up. I could hear thepopeswife say hello in the background and it was nice to hear from her as well.

I’m a little more than halfway through The Winds of Change and Other Stories. I’m anxious to finish up the story that I started writing earlier today, “4005 B.C” and if I am lucky, I will finish it up in time to get it in the mail next week.

I watched Smallville this evening (another good episode). And for the first time, I used the DVR in my bedroom to record The Office (which is on at the same time as Smallville) and I just finished watching that too.

I received my last issue of THE NEW YORKER in the mail today. I didn’t renew my subscription because I already have more than I can possibly read and that magazine was one that was going completely unread, except by Dad who would read the cartoons when he came out for ball games during the summer. I also received a refund check from Verizon in the amount of $36. I have to mail that into the bank at some point.

Writing and wrapup

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I started yet another new story tonight, making it the first time I have ever had three stories in progress at once. I don’t have a title for the new story yet, but my working title is “The Time Machine”, and it is essentially about a person with a lifelong obsession of building a time machine.

Yes, kruppenheimer, I know that someone already wrote a story called “The Time Machine”; mine is a working title; I will have a permanent title before I finish the story. Sheesh!

I just wrote 1,700 words of the story and had a great time doing it! It’s one of those stories that just flows out without any planning (other than the fact that I know how the story will end). What’s more is that I think this is going to end up being a short story. If I had to guess, I’d say the story will end up being around 4,000 words or so. I’m stopping for the night, but 1,700 words is very good for me for one evening. Not only that but I stopped at a point at which I am eager to start up from again, which means I am already looking forward to writing more of the story when I get home from work tomorrow evening. It really felt good getting it on (virtual) paper.

Work was frustrating today (as I mentioned earlier) because of a project that may get dumped onto my team. And when I say my team, I mean me. I have my biweekly tag-up with my boss tomorrow and I have a feeling that during that meeting, I will be volunteered for the project. It is the least interesting project I could possibly work on, it would force me to break existing commitments on other projects (in the name of “higher priorities”) and in my opinion, it could have been avoided if certain people stopped being firefighters and started planning ahead.

I got through about 55 pages of The Winds of Change and I am really enjoying it. Somehow, I’d never read Asimov’s story “Belief” before (although I knew about it from reading his autobiographies). I really enjoyed that story.

I thought about staying up tonight and watching Heroes and Studio 60 in real time, but that is just nuts and I have decided against it. I have to be up at 4:30 and I’m getting into bed in 10 minutes. I won’t go to sleep right away (I have to wait for the laundry to finish up), but I won’t be up late and I’ll try to get a decent night’s sleep. In the meantime I’ll let TiVo do what it was designed to do.

I have a recommendation for a new tax person (my tax person retired two years ago and last year I used H&R Block and was really disappointed with their service). I’ll be getting in touch with her later this week and get the process of tax preparation started.

I’m caught up on Battlestar Galactica, having watching the latest two episodes over the last two days.

Okay, I’ve got a few things to do before I go to bed. G’night everyone!

Immitation of life

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Last night, I caught Jarhead on HBO and afterward found myself thinking that I wanted to be a Marine. Don’t get me wrong, this is not unique to either the movie, or the subject of the film. I often find myself wishing I was whatever it was that I was just watching on some interesting show. I wonder, though, if this is a common phenomenon (at least one that people will admit to). Here are some examples of what I mean:

  • When I watch any of the Rocky movies, I find I want to be a boxer
  • When I watch The Office I tell myself I want to be just like Jim Halpert (especially when he thinks up the clever practical jokes
  • When I watch Smallville I want to be Superman
  • If I watch a movie about lawyers, I want to be a lawyer; if I watch a movie about astronomers, I want to be an astronomer
  • When I watch House, I want to be just like Gregory House
  • When I watch Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers I find myself wishing I was an E Company soldier fighting in World War II

I suppose that well written film and television are supposed to have this effect on people, but I never hear anyone talk about it. As far as I know, I am the only person in the world who has ever admitted to these feelings of imitation. Do other people think like this?

What’s more is that I find myself doing this with my writing as well. If I have been reading Harlan Ellison stories, what I write shortly thereafter will have an attempt at a Harlan Ellison edge to it. If I have been reading a Barry Malzberg story, I’ll try writing something that has a Malzberg feel to it. Same for Bradbury. Or Asimov.

It has made me wonder if I have any personality of my own, or if I am just jumble of imitations and impressions I get from my reading and TV watching and movie watching. Sometimes I am hyper-conscious of this and other times I am completely unaware of it. Regardless, the feelings are fleeting; they last for a little while and then they drift off, replaced by feelings of imitation for the latest show or movie.

So don’t worry, I didn’t run out and join the Marines after watching Jarhead last night. I did get a pretty short “military-style” haircut, though. No, instead of joining the Marines, I thought long and hard about joining some counter-terrorism unit and becoming a super-secret agent. Of course, I had just finished watching the latest episode of 24, but I’m sure that had nothing to do with it.

Mini-celebration

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I’ll probably celebrate my big news Friday after work with some friends. But tonight, I am having a mini-celebration. I am forgoing my “no carbs at dinner” rule, and ordering a pizza and some cheese bread from Pizza Hut (Norm will be happy). I’m not a big pizza fan, and only like having it once in a rare while, but what the heck, throw caution to the wind! (Also, I don’t feel like going out and getting chicken from Boston Market.) I am going to relax and watch TiVo’d episodes of Heroes, Studio 60, and Battlestar Galactica.

When I got home from work, I found in my mail the April 2007 issue of ANALOG, which contains mabfan‘s story (co-written with Robert Greenberger) “Things That Aren’t”. So I know what I will be reading in the next day or two. The rest of the mail was junk.

Shout

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“Shout” by Tears For Fears just finished playing on my iPod and thereby hangs a tale. strausmouse will recall this because he was there, even though we didn’t know each other at the time. At the time this depressing song was a hit, I was in junior high school and was invited to the Bar Mitzvah of a friend of mine, Brian Berry. At the reception was a DJ who was taking requests for a lip-synch contest or something like that. For reasons known only to Satan, I decided to volunteer and I told the DJ that I wanted to sing the song “Shout”. I spent the next half hour or so nervously wondering what the hell I just did and asking myself how it was that I got myself into these awful situations.

The DJ decided to have a little fun with me. When it came time to do my diddy, I got up there, and the DJ started the music to “Shout”–only it wasn’t Tears For Fears version of the song. Instead, it was The Isley Brothers version of “Shout”. I stood there stunned, not knowing what to do. I imagine it got a good laugh. Finally, he put on the version I asked for and things didn’t get much better. Several of my friends had to get up there with me to help me get through it. It was utterly humiliating, and if I could go back in time, I would kidnap myself from that reception in order to avoid embarrassment. Paradoxes be damned!

One other thing I recall from that reception was that I hung out with a kid I’d never met before–Joshua John Miller–but I recognized him as the guest star of a recent 2-part episode of Highway To Heaven, “A Song For Jason“. The whole episode was about a camp for kids with cancer and Joshua played one of the kids (the main guest star). In fact, when I met him, his hair was still growing back in. I spent most of the party hanging out with him, and I remember little else, even what we talked about. Although given my attempt at singing and my penchant for bending the truth a little back then, I can only imagine it was equally humiliating.

I could fill a book with embarrassing moments like these. But I won’t.

Post script

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I received the March 2007 issue of ASIMOV’S in the mail today and Robert Silverberg had a nice memorial essay to Jack Williamson.

Just before heading off to bed, I turned on the TV because TiVo was recording something and I was curious what it was. It was Jay Leno. I don’t watch Jay or Dave, except in very rare circumstances. But I’m glad TiVo recorded it because Jay’s guest was one person who will always get me to tune in, Don Rickles. He is one of the funniest men I have ever seen in my life and I just spent about 20 minutes laughing so hard my sides hurt. That’s a good way to wrap up the evening.

No workout today (again!)

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I forgot to schedule my training session with Bernard last time and so there is no 4 PM appointment this afternoon. Now, I could go into the gym anyway, but I am going to take advantage of the fact that I have completely screwed up my strength training this week, and skip this evening’s planned workout. I’ll be back in the gym tomorrow for cardio and then in the gym on Saturday for arms and shoulders, and back on my regular routine. Screwing up one week out of six isn’t great, but it’s not too bad either, and at least I’ve been keeping up with the cardio and the light strength training I do afterward (or so I tell myself to make me feel better and less lazy).

The truth is it has been a hectic day anyway and I just want to get home and relax. I’m even planning on staying up until 9 PM! tonight so that I can watch a long-awaited episode of Smallville. I don’t even plan on going out and grabbing my usual chicken dinner tonight, just vegging and being as completely lazy as I can manage. Everyone’s got that coming once in a while, right.

Whatever. I’m getting ready to head home. It looks like snow out. But then again, it was 70 degrees here last week, and it snowed in Malibu last night. Nothing to worry about though. There really is nothing to this whole “global warming” thing.

Wrap up

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I did take it easy today. I didn’t check email or my phone messages for most of the day, and I just chilled. In fact, I skipped my workout today, which I feel guilty about since I also missed a workout on Saturday. But I do feel well-rested.

All my chores are done, the laundry is done, lunch is packed for tomorrow. I’m going to shower and then get into bed and read for a while before lights out by 8:30.

I’m more than halfway through The Engines of God and I am also almost finished with volume 1, issue 2 of SCIENCE FICTION AGE, so I should be posting more on that soon.

No mail today, which was strange. I also watched the first two episodes of season 1 of The Office today. (Norm and Vicky recommended once again, forcing me to watch a few episodes the last few times I visited them.) I also watched the first 4 episodes of 24, which TiVo recorded for me.

Odds and ends

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It has already been a busy and productive morning, and it’s only 10:30. Much of my morning has been spent writing some perl scripts to transform and import a large amount of legacy data into a newly designed database for the data. It is a multi-step process but I’m pleased with the progress I made this morning.

When I got into the office, my iBook AC adapter was sitting on my meeting table, right where I left it.

Smallville is a repeat tonight, but Gray’s Anatomy is all new. I think I’m going to take the opportunity to skip TV tonight and make progress in other arenas. I’d like to finish up Humans today, and maybe even get a bit of writing done this evening.

This was a meeting-heavy week for me, but some meetings have fallen off my calendar, which has helped a little bit. I blocked off my calendar for next week, indicating to one and all that I am not available for any meetings. We’ll see how well that works, but I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get some meaningful work done.

I found out today that my boss will be in town next week (he works in Santa Monica, while I work in Arlington, Virginia). He’s taking me to lunch on Friday, December 8 because I won’t be able to make my team lunch in Santa Monica the following week.

The DirecTV service people are coming tomorrow afternoon, and so I’ll be working from home in afternoon tomorrow. I was scheduled to interview someone in the afternoon because I had forgotten about the service appointment so I don’t think I’ll be able to participate in the interview; fortunately, there are others to fill in for me.

It’s going to hit 70 degrees in the Metro D.C. area today–for the last day of November that has got to be close to a record.

Andy Rooney: Viewer Discretion Advised

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Andy Rooney had a good piece on TV’s propensity for using “Viewer Discretion Advised” labels to attract attention to shows. Personally, I think TV should be able to show whatever it wants and people should have the option of tuning out what they don’t want to see. But, I am in the minority in that I am rational about the matter.

BTW, like Andy Rooney, I too follow a handful of the ten commandments, and I rarely use dirty words (except in my stories, where they tend to appear more frequently than I would like).