Joke gaffe and mental exercises

The family sat down to watch Robocop last night. Yes, that is a particularly bizarre choice for us, what with the constant sweating and hyperviolence (obviously it would be fine if it was just us younguns).

At one point Simon said "He's more machine now than man." And my dad said something along the lines of 'that could be a line from The Six Million Dollar Man'.

Now, that is exactly something that I would say, it's right in my humour mill- to say something is from X when it's clearly from Star Wars. I mean Y. But I was pretty sure there was no intention of this.

I says- "Dad, you just said something that, were it done on purpose, would be REALLY funny to me. You know that line Simon just said is from Star Wars, right? Specifically The Empire Strikes Back.. no, wait, Return of the Jedi."

But, yeah, no. As expected, total accident. Bummer.

In other news, I've been getting exceptionally tired at work lately. While it's possible to attribute this to my increased frequency of gym attendance, more likely it's the case that with crackdowns and a changing workforce, I'm just not getting chatted with enough to keep me mentally stimulated.

Did you hear it takes 14 minutes on average for people to fall asleep? Yeah, sounds about right.

Considering how ridiculously easy it is to get a second wind with the slightest bit of social interaction acknowledging the fact of my existence, today I took to engaging MYSELF via mental exercises. First I concentrated on pokemon type match-ups; strengths, weaknesses, resistances, and how they stack up. Then I got to thinking about those cool feats of mental ability on t.v. when people play chess in their imaginations. So I pictured a board, figured out the check/space nomenclature (I'm guessing using the best available knowledge.. again, my own head.)- A-G, by 1-8, and then made a white move, followed by a mental flip of the table before making the mirroring move (you'd have to be insane to think I made some different move and was ACTUALLY playing against myself. I wish! That'd be really cool! And totally unverifiable!)

I made three moves and their mirror- the kings side knight to D3, the C2 pawn to C4, and the kings side bishop to C2, along with the corresponding moves on the black side of the board.

This actually helped to pass the time pretty well. I should get to work on some writing that I had previously worked on in my head so I can clear space for a new project, the enthusiasm of which would surely carry me for a few days at any rate.

Yes, I definitely need a new job!

Meet Mr. W.M. Hackman

I had a brainstorm today-

I want to write more, I have a number of projects in my head that want to exist outside of there, but one of the largest stumbling blocks is how impossible it seems to me to take these ideas and make them perfect things, wholly communicative outside of myself. Because of course that's impossible. Wires get crossed, oppourtunities missed, and it just won't ever be perfect. But the attempt is a daunting thing.

But what if it wasn't?

What if I created an alternate persona to do my initial writing for me- a self assured hack that could bounce from one project to the next, comfortable in the notion that whatever he writes will be "eh, good enough for me" and that eventually his old editor Isaac will get to re-emerge, to take these scraps, remold them after the fact, and steal them as his own.

It's brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT!

So, a pen-name's the thing, a pseudonym.
Readers are a cowardly and superstitious lot.

I shall become "Will Manning Hackman" (a well-meaning hack...man.)

(This could be the opening chapters for a strange re-telling of the Jekyll/Hyde story. Not that that story really gets all that much stranger)

Anyways, yes, this is just a trick to psych myself up. I'm not actually going insane. Probably.

Pokemon Tournament

Just got back home from the YAMA/York Anime Club's pokemon tournament. Although I got beaten by Jordan in my second round of the singles match-ups (in a supremely bum rap- our first match there's a connection issue, I bring it to the judges attention, Jordan says "I was winning though" and therefore Jordan is declared the winner. Whatever.) our next match-up Jordan legitimately beat my team I guess, but that was hardly a best two out of three situation, is it?

More importantly, in the double battle tournament, Jordan and I started with a buy, then we faced each other (AGAIN? these guys seriously need to figure out a better system..) I won, then faced Mike, who I beat thanks to my skill and luck, mostly skill (thankfully late in the game I had a bunch of misses that really slowed me down, so I feel it kind of balances the number of times he was paralyzed and at my mercy). I won, then lost to Jonas in the finals.

But do you know what that means?

I GOT SECOND PLACE IN THE DOUBLE BATTLE TOURNAMENT AGAIN!!

Two years in a row! I'd been bragging about my standing all this past year, and now I get to do it again!

But I'm tired now, I'm going to nap (10pm naps aren't the norm...)

Thanks for playing! And thank YOU, Keymaster the Klefki!

January is packed

Besides a draft that I started a few weeks ago and never published, this will be my only post for the month again. And right this second I don't have much time to do it- I need to go get comics, go to the library, pick up some groceries for the coming week, do some story discussion stuff over at a buddy's place, go to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (which will be great) and then go to a comedy show to round everything out. Augh, too much. I'm trying to cram four days of stuff into two days without going nuts.

I'm probably failing at that.

I've been working hard, doing the security five days a week. The writers room commitment is over, but I still need to actually write the sitcom the whole thing was for. Man, I need to do that. I've got a month, and I'm not sure my characters will work how I want them to.

Alright, I need to get moving.

Toy drive 2013

I've managed to add shifts to my work schedule. I did this of my own free will, but man do I hate it. I figured, well, I can't have all my eggs in one half-basket*, hoping to stumble upon a fun job that I won't mind doing full time that will pay well enough that I can pay off my debts and move myself forward.

*I know half-basket isn't the phrasing.. I'm suggesting my strategy was even less viable than keeping all your eggs in one basket. Imagine a basket that has been literally chopped in half, and the eggs are always threatening to roll out.

Maybe five or six months will be enough to climb out of this hole?

Six months? Sheesh.

This Christmas I donated much earlier than my usual last minute contribution, I think I picked it up at the Indigo Chapters toy area at the Eaton Center, having been reminded about the whole thing the weekend before by some toy drive people accosting me for a donation at my gym. Though I'd promised to donate after my workout, by the time I finished they were gone, never to be seen again.

Well, wherever I picked it up, I had good options this year. I think I could have gone with either Leonardo, Michelangelo, or Donatello (I'm pretty sure I didn't see Raphael). And the winner was:

Now, my favourite turtle has historically been Donatello, for reasons that I probably don't need to go into yet again. However, this latest incarnation has a slight inferiority complex (from what I've seen) and, more troubling, is his obsessing over this version of April. (I'm not saying it isn't funny or not a good fit for the show, but it takes away from my high personal vision for him)

Contrary to that, they've upped their game with this version of Leo. Gone is the boring brown noser who only had the swords as a redeeming factor- this version is a bit of a daydreamer, borrowing something from Mikey's personality, idolizing the Kirk of the cheesy Star Trek show he watches. He wants to be a hero in the same way we all do- by mimicking our own heroes and trying to grow into something like them.

And that's exactly the kind of thing I'd want the kid who gets this toy to do- daydream a bit, and emulate a heroic attitude.

Oneironautics

It's due back at the library today, so I should mention having read "A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming: Mastering the Art of Oneironautics".

The title rather says it all, at least about the books purpose. The actual execution seemed more in line with a pop-self help book. Not a whole lot of useful content.

Though I have become lucid in a dream before- it's pretty rare, but it has happened- I can report I managed to become lucid since reading the book. So whatever other faults I have with it, I have to give it props if, for no other reason, it kept the idea of trying to become lucid in my mind so that it would eventually happen.

But come on, guys, it's a small enough book as is, with some pretty large print. The dream flying tutorial was hardly any use. Wait, let me rephrase that. I wasn't any use.

*Silver the Hedgehog's voice* "It's no use!"

While I'm on the subject of dreams, this morning I dreamed something particularly upsetting, but for once it isn't immediately clear what the whole thing was about. I wasn't me, but some little boy who felt really guilty about taking some money from his job to buy a handful of junky looking garage sale type trinkets.

It was pretty strange. I woke up with tears in my eyes, with no clear understanding of why.

Well, here's to happy dreams in the future.

Today's agenda

You'll be happy to know that I have been, true to my word, much more creatively active as of late. That that hasn't translated into blogposts is a shame, but hardly the end of the world.

I ate an entire large bag of harvest cheddar sun chips things last night. And now, awake earlier than usual, my stomach hurts. There may be a correlation.

I aggressively eavesdropped on a conversation to people were having about me. This was more okay than normal, seeing as I was dreaming this- but anyway this dream person described me as "jolly, but unhappy". Again, as this was a dream, the person who ACTUALLY said this is much smarter and more actively involved in my life than the person who appeared to say it.

I've added a number of people to my the facebook friend list. More importantly, last night I was added by someone else, a friend from way back in kindergarten through to grade 5. Crazy right?

I wish my stomach didn't hurt right now. I know, I know. My own fault.

On my agenda for today: watch the Doctor Who serial 'The Caves of Androzani' in preparation for the Doctor's 50th anniversary celebration. I read a list the ranked all the television stories, and this ranked number 1 and it's classic Who (versus NewWho) so I've never seen it before. Also, the google page today has a Doctor related thing-y. Doctor Who really has gotten mainstream. Unless the people working at google are a bunch of nerds. (NERDS!!)

Also, picking up comics.
Also, going to the gym.
Also, showing my 4 page screenplay to the other contestants on the nycmidnight forums and doing some criticing of my competitors work. Whatever you think of my personal story construction skills, I stand by my ability to tear a work to pieces. I'm helpful like that.