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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
Thanks for stopping by! 
January 31, 2011 at 8:24pm January 31, 2011 at 8:24pm
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So this year started with a resolution to write with more focus... to pick and choose what I spend my time writing to maximize what I get out of it. One of those goals was to enter the WdC official contest every month this year.
That, naturally, was followed up by the realization that today is the 31st and the deadline for Dear Me is in... about three and a half hours, three of which will be spent still at work. 
Onto Plan B... this year, I'm going to enter 11 out of 12 WdC official contests this year!  |
January 31, 2011 at 3:25am January 31, 2011 at 3:25am
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This is what I'm listening to at the moment:
LIFE FOR RENT
by Dido
I haven't really ever found a place that I call home
I never stick around quite long enough to make it
I apologize that once again I'm not in love
But it's not as if I mind
that your heart ain't exactly breaking
It's just a thought, only a thought
But if my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
‘Cause nothing I have is truly mine
I've always thought
that I would love to live by the sea
To travel the world alone
and live my life more simply
I have no idea what's happened to that dream
‘Cause there's really nothing left here to stop me
It's just a thought, only a thought
But if my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
‘Cause nothing I have is truly mine
If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
‘Cause nothing I have is truly mine
While my heart is a shield and I won't let it down
While I am so afraid to fail so I won't even try
Well how can I say I'm alive
If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
‘Cause nothing I have is truly mine
If my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
‘Cause nothing I have is truly mine
‘Cause nothing I have is truly mine
‘Cause nothing I have is truly mine
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January 28, 2011 at 6:26pm January 28, 2011 at 6:26pm January 24, 2011 at 2:48pm January 24, 2011 at 2:48pm
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This last round of Preferred Author promotions had quite a few familiar faces in it. Congratulations to Melissa Murphy--Soon Published  and percy goodfellow  , and especially to my own Rising Star vickierj for their very well-deserved promotions and their shiny new case colors! |
January 24, 2011 at 2:05am January 24, 2011 at 2:05am
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Today, I finally got a chance to see TRON: LEGACY at the movie theaters. I was specifically waiting so that I could see it in IMAX 3D, and today happened to be the day I was able to do that. This was one of my "event" movies, like AVATAR, where I felt I owed it to myself to see it in the best possible environment. And I wasn't disappointed... by the visual effects. Without getting into an opinion of the story and character elements (suffice to say TRON: LEGACY was far superior to AVATAR in all of those respects), neither of these movies disappointed on a technical level. Both had amazing visual effects, and seeing them on a monstrous screen in eye-popping 3D was a real treat.
But what the whole experience really got me thinking about is the whole 3D phenomenon, and whether it's really necessary.
What got me thinking about it was the fact that I had to drive thirty miles out of my way to see it at an IMAX theater in Orange County, because the IMAX theater that's ten minutes from my apartment dropped TRON: LEGACY the minute GREEN HORNET was released. And maybe part of it is bitterness that I had to drive so far to see the movie I really wanted to see... but there's also a large part of me that wonders why the hell GREEN HORNET needs to be seen in IMAX 3D at all.
TRON: LEGACY and AVATAR were both about fantastic worlds created largely through the use of CGI... it seems natural to me that showing the film in 3D is a great way to fully immerse the audience in the world you've created, and give them a sense of being in another world for two hours. That, I get. What I don't get are the films (especially the ones shot in "flat" 2D and then converted to 3D in the post-production process) that use 3D as a gimmick. Do we really need to see beads of sweat flying at us in 3D because they thought the third STEP UP movie needed something to keep it interesting?
Nowhere was the discrepancy between "useful" and "useless" 3D more apparent than in the trailers. I saw a 3D trailer for BORN TO BE WILD, a nature documentary that follows orphaned orangutans and elephants, and the people who rescue them and raise them. As I sat there in the theater, I was amazed that the grasses of the African plains stretched out in front of my eyes, and the baby elephant that ran by was near enough to touch. I felt like I was in Africa, walking amidst these animals and the world around them as I watched. It was truly inspiring. Compare that to the 3D trailer for MARS NEEDS MOMS, an animated feature where the 3D was essentially comprised of things jumping out of the screen toward the audience, clearly going for the "wow" factor more than having any legitimate reason for it to be in the movie.
As an aspiring filmmaker, I'm excited about the possibilities of 3D and other technologies that can make the experience of watching more engaging and more exciting. But I see the potential (and the beginnings) for abuse of this new technology... the idea that making something 3D is something to be done just because it's possible rather than because it actually elevates the viewing experience or enhances the movie in some tangible way.
I can only hope that, after the initial 3D fad is over, it becomes a tool that helps filmmakers tell better stories when appropriate, rather than another device that's ruined by its overexposure. I'm excited about BORN TO BE WILD (as mentioned above), and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES, because they were shot in 3D, intended to be enjoyed in 3D (although 2D versions will also be available). Not so much looking forward to HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PT. 2 and GREEN LANTERN, both of which were shot in 2D, but are undergoing a 3D makeover in post-production. To me, if those movies were meant to be seen in 3D (and I could definitely see the argument for it with HARRY POTTER), they should have been shot in 3D. Converting them after-the-fact seems kind of... opportunistic.
But maybe that's just me. |
January 9, 2011 at 3:04am January 9, 2011 at 3:04am
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I read the following books last year... updated and finalized:
FICTION
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Code to Zero by Ken Follett
Cross by James Patterson
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
Dealbreaker by Harlan Coben
Deja Dead by Kathy Reichs
Desperation by Stephen King
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Inca Gold by Clive Cussler
Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell
The Broker by John Grisham
The Corrections by Johnathan Franzen
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
The Killing Floor by Lee Child
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon
The Poet by Michael Connelly
The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
Trunk Music by Michael Connelly
Two For The Dough by Janet Evanovich
The First Law Trilogy
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
The Millennium Trilogy
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
NONFICTION
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles
27 fiction, 6 nonfiction. 33 books total. Not too bad.
The goal is to beat that number this year. |
January 5, 2011 at 10:05pm January 5, 2011 at 10:05pm
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Audible.Com may be my new favorite site ever. They're the ones that put out so many of the audiobooks that we all download on iTunes or wherever. And as much as I hated them for their incredibly limited number of subscription options, I have to admit that I have a new reason to love them.
Originally, I didn't like them because, while an audiobook can run anywhere from $6.95 to $44.95 depending on the length of the work and its popularity, Audible offers a subscription-based plan where you can download any one book you want for $14.95 a month. Or any two books you want for $22.95 a month. I suppose if you're listening to bestsellers that are regularly $25+ each, that's not a bad way to go. But I listen to a lot of audiobooks because I spend 3+ hours in the car every day for my commute. So I can go through an unabridged audiobook in a week, week and a half. And Audible doesn't have any unlimited-type subscription plans where you can download as much as you want. You're stuck with your one or two books a month and then have to pay regular price for any others.
What I've been doing is downloading books that have been on sale. When something shows up for $9.99 on iTunes, I'll download it, in an effort to keep the costs down.
But I just found something that makes me love Audible to the point where it outweighs my disappointment with their service plans. Audible offers unabridged versions of classic literature for practically nothing. Here's what I bought the other day:
Bram Stoker's Dracula - $1.95
Moby Dick - $1.95
Anna Karenina - $0.95
The Count of Monte Cristo - $0.95
And since they're unabridged (and if you've read those books, you know how long they are), I just downloaded about 150 hours' worth of four classic audiobooks for about $6. There are a ton of books available too. The Bronte sisters, Dostoevsky, Dickens, Twain, Hardy, Flaubert, Austen, Eliot, Swift, James, Stevenson, Doyle, Verne... the list goes on and on. They're generic readings - you're not going to find George Clooney reading Tom Sawyer or Dame Judi Dench acting out Jane Eyre - but the narrators are decent.
So now it's only a matter of choosing which books to download... but I'm getting what will probably amount to an entire year's worth of commute listening for the price of one or two regular-priced audiobooks. Sure, it may not be the latest Patricia Cornwell or Tom Clancy... but I'm sure I'll survive on the classics. It might even do me some good to read some "literature" once in a while. 
Besides, I've still got Michael Crichton and Dan Brown on my Kindle for vacations, so I won't turn into a total snob. 
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January 3, 2011 at 2:28am January 3, 2011 at 2:28am
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Over the holiday weekend, my wife and I got sucked into The Vampire Diaries, where I first heard this song. It's a great show, too. I have to admit that I stayed away from it because I thought it was going to be just another vampire property and I'm sick of the whole Twilight phenomenon with brooding teens running around crushing on vampires. But this show surprised me. It's from Kevin Williamson of Scream and Dawson's Creek fame, so I should have really given him the benefit of the doubt... it's a surprisingly engrossing show with some really, really great characters and excellent writing. I definitely recommend it.
Anyway, here's the song that's been stuck in my head all day:
THE LONGEST NIGHT
by Howie Day
Is it dark, where you are?
Can you count the stars where you are?
Do you feel like you are a thousand miles from home?
Are you lost, where you are?
Can you find your way when you're so far?
Do you fear, where you are?
A thousand nights alone
So here we are set into motion
We'll steal a car and crash in the ocean
You and I, caught in a fading light
On the longest night
It's enough, just to find love
It's the only thing to be sure of
So hard, to let go of
A thousand times or more
I was close to a fault line
Heaven knows, you showed up in time
Was it real?
Now I feel, like I'm never coming down
So here we are, set into motion
Steal a car, crash in the ocean
You and I, caught in a fading light
On the longest night
I recall when we were together
Even now it seems like forever
So alive caught in a fading light
On the longest night
Can we go too far to find, what is waiting here?
A little fall from grace
On the longest night
Did we go too far to find, what is waiting here?
We'll take a little time, to open up again
Is it dark where you are?
Can you count the stars where you are? |
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