And Stephen King is the key.....

I've always been amazed at people who've been at their jobs for 15, 25, 30 or more years. My personal best was 5 years at Roper Hospital in Charleston, SC. That's not to say I'm flighty with jobs, but between downsizing, changing careers, etc. I've just been a bit of a nomad.

While security is a great thing, I think I was meant to be one of those people who wasn't necessarily meant to stay in one career path or one place for good. I may have had a longer tenure with a company if I hadn't had such a burning curiosity for a variety of things. Even growing up this was the case. I couldn't be in band and on day one play the tenor sax and end my musical life on tenor sax. I explored everything and now I've played (or played at) tenor, alto, soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, Irish fiddle, didgeridoo and had a fun stint with rifle/color guard.

My career has seen the same multi-interest translate into new careers. Sign Language interpreting, medical technology, nursing, convention planning, etc. And now, while this isn't a career change, I am finally looking to pay long-absent attention to a creative skill I've seemed to always enjoy, but didn't realize I was always enjoying it. I like writing.

I don't plan to hash out the great American novel or even have writing a novel as a goal, but it could happen. As with any new topic my mind sparks an interest in, I first started with the Dummies books. As usual, it was a great overview and skimming of not only the writing process, but the business side as well. There were references to other books galore, but one that stuck out in my mind was Stephen King's On Writing. I started reading it this past week and I'm really impressed and surprised by this book. It's so conversational you feel as if he's sitting with you.

If you like Stephen King's fiction in the past get this book if you haven't read it already. The first nearly half of the book is almost a biography, but you see in his biography where his past created his future. The portion on where the idea(s) for Carrie came from out of his being a janitor in a high school were informative. Especially how it almost wasn't written.

So building on his very first bit of advice from writer and fellow blogger SueBob (who I get the extreme pleasure of meeting face to face this week while she's attending BlogHer here in Chicago!) I'll be adding Stephen King's fun and not so fun advice. I hope to start sharing some work, both old and new, with you soon.

Just wanted to share...

This was posted over at Neatorama. It's got a little bit of the "Watch out... white boy dancing" feeling to it, but still... What a way to get down the aisle vs. the usual, overly somber, march of death?!?!

Congrats Jill & Kevin!!

I'm Baaaack

I've been off-line for a while but I'm back(ish).
(yeah, that's all the explanation you're getting)

I was a couch potato yesterday as I was home sick from work yesterday. There wasn't anything on TV and I've seen every movie in my DVD collection at least 10 times. I had 3 movies from Netflix, but being sick and down, I didn't really feel like I was in the mood for the downer messages they all seemed to have. One I had seen, Milk with Sean Penn, and while it was the beacon of hope, he still dies and that seemed a little depressive to me for yesterday.

The other two I had not seen and now I kind of wish I hadn't. By the way, possible spoilers ahead. Look at the pictures. If you have not seen these movies and plan to, don't read on... be warned in more ways than one.

DOUBT

I can hear everyone getting up in arms for tagging out this movie with all it's power house actors and award nominations. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, whom I respect as an actor, but haven't really cared for since his icky part in Flawless (can you say acting every stereotype? I mean, he put an S in "Cracker") But to his credit, he was, from what this Southern Baptist turned Lutheran understands, the proper character for a priest and did the part proud.

Meryl Streep was great, as always. I think after watching her performance I've learned that it's not that I think actors can't do well with accents, it's just I hate the accent they're portraying. It must mean that they're doing it very well!

My problem with the movie you ask?? After so much set up and character build and silent shots of that blond boy with a self inflicted nose bleed, the story almost seemed chopped. And after an entire movie showing how Meryl Streep's character had a bigger penis than Philip Seymour Hoffman's did, it's at the END.. and I mean the LAST friggin' line of the movie, that she breaks down and says "I Have Doubts". I didn't read the book, but it felt like the writer was scribbling furiously through the last chapter and it was 4:58pm and the final product had to be in the producer's hands by 5pm or the deal was off.

Performances: 10 Storyline: meh

The other movie I think you'll agree with me on...

The Happening

I can hear some of you saying

"Why the hell did you rent it in the first place?"

I knew it wouldn't be as good as M.NS's other movies. Each as been a grade lower than before. But the most vocal opponent of The Happening (yes, you J.Kev) was also a very vocal opponent of The Sixth Sense, which I liked. I thought maybe it wasn't that bad.

yeah it was

The grass? The trees? Let me get this right.....
Not only can the plants produce a toxin that causes humans to NOT ONLY lose that self preservation part of our psyche that keeps us from allowing ourselves to be harmed, but it also makes you seek out a way to off yourself at that moment!

And that's not all!

They can apparently count also and really stick to that law about how many people constitute a mob... which is apparently 6 and up... 5 if one of you is a little girl.
And, if you think that all this cognitive ability is just way too out of line for the photosynthesis crowd, they can apparently control the wind too. It's just too coincidental that when the plants wanted to off that group of 12 people, the wind JUST happened to whip up when they finished their tally and farted their toxins to kill.

One site gag that I had a laugh at was when two smaller groups of people converged, they exceeded the allowable limit of humans so the plants pooted their "go f*#k yourself" pollen and one man had only one choice for offing himself.... laying down in the path of a riding lawnmower. I can hear the grass blades laughing their asses off over that one!

I will give the plants this though. They hit New York City first and then they hit the French.... at least they know good targets when they see them. To quote my friend Stephen, 'atta girl

When looking around for The Happening I saw the heading The Happening 2 for a sequel. After my jaw dropped, I found this.