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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 29, 2013 at 9:41pm January 29, 2013 at 9:41pm
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I'm going to go on record right now and say that if ARGO doesn't win Best Picture, I'm going to throw a fit. That might sound strange coming from someone who works for a company who has two films as other nominees in the same category, but ARGO was seriously that good. I have no idea why Ben Affleck wasn't nominated for Best Director, and it's a freaking crime. It's easily one of the best films of last year, if not the best. I think I'm going to read the screenplay this weekend because I'm curious to see how it translated from script to screen.
If anyone's looking for a great film to see, I can't recommend this one enough. And between ARGO and THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER last week, I'm on a two-movie hot streak. Both movies were excellent.
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January 27, 2013 at 5:13am January 27, 2013 at 5:13am
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One of my favorite movies of all time is 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU. (If you haven't seen it yet, please check it out... it's wonderful!) Among the many, many clever lines in the movie, there's a brief moment between best friends Biana (Larisa Oleynik) and Chastity (Gabrielle Union) where Chastity asks, "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed... but can you ever been just whelmed?" To which Bianca replies, "I think you can in Europe."
Well, as luck would have it, the word-of-the-day email in my inbox this morning was indeed for the word "whelmed."
And here's a little trivia about the origin of the word:
"It is not overwhelming and it is not underwhelming. You leave the production feeling merely whelmed." Thus wrote Michael Phillips in the Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2001. Contemporary writers like Philips sometimes use "whelm" to denote a middle stage between "underwhelm" and "overwhelm." But that's not how "whelm" has traditionally been used. "Whelm" and "overwhelm" have been with us since Middle English (when they were "whelmen" and "overwhelmen"), and throughout the years their meanings have largely overlapped. Both words early on meant "to overturn," for example, and both have also come to mean "to overpower in thought or feeling." Around 1950, however, folks started using a third word, "underwhelmed," for "unimpressed," and lately "whelmed" has been popping up with the meaning "moderately impressed."
So there you go! You can indeed be whelmed... and not just in Europe! 
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January 24, 2013 at 5:01pm January 24, 2013 at 5:01pm
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I'd just like to go on record with saying that, while everyone has a preference for one or the other, anyone who actually lets the issue of one space or two spaces after terminal punctuation dissuade them from reading something is completely and utterly insane. I ran into this problem over the weekend when one of my wife's grad school professors returned a paper and insisted that she fix the "technical problems" in the paper, among which was the fact that my wife only spaced once at the end of every sentence rather than twice. 
I'm not going to get into a debate about which is right and which is wrong, mainly because there is no right and wrong here. People who advocate for two spaces usually either say it's the way they were taught is proper, or cite that it makes the beginning of new sentences clearer and more distinct. Opponents who advocate for one space usually cite the fact that the publishing industry (go ahead, grab a book or magazine and see how many spaces they use) hasn't double-spaced published work since the invention of variable-width (proportional) fonts more than half a century ago.
So I get that there are people out there who fall on one side of this issue or another. But to actually let it prevent you from reading the content of the sentences... or worse, to be in a position of authority and to tell students or other subordinates that there is an absolute right or wrong, is appalling. One of these days I'll write a full newsletter about this kind of stuff, but for right now I just wanted to vent. I was so mad at my wife's teacher for not just handing back the paper and saying that it can't be graded... but for having the nerve to say that choosing to use one space instead of two is somehow grammatically incorrect and wrong despite the fact that every book and article they read in class uses one space. 
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January 21, 2013 at 8:33pm January 21, 2013 at 8:33pm
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Had a chance to watch THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER at the theater last night. Not only was it great to see it for only $2 at a second-run theater my wife and I found, but the movie itself was excellent. I still haven't seen a lot of movies from last year, but I would easily put this in my Top 3 from 2012. It was written and directed by the author of the novel, and I definitely have to read the book now. Stephen Chbosky did a remarkable job of capturing the awkwardness of adolescence, especially for those of us who had difficulty relating to others and who felt socially awkward. I highly recommend this movie and will report back once I finish the book.
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January 2, 2013 at 6:49pm January 2, 2013 at 6:49pm
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Lately I've been listening to a lot of film scores. I've found that instrumental music is great for helping me get into a writing mindset; lyrics are distracting because I get the song's narrative in my head rather than thinking about my own story, but I've found that listening to film scores, classical music, jazz, and other instrumental compositions is a great way to get my music/tonal fix without distracting myself.
One of the things I'm really excited about is that a lot of musicians are starting to get into the film scoring arena. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails won an Oscar for his scoring of "The Social Network," and did an excellent job on the American remake of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" as well. Last year, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park scored "The Raid: Redemption," and this year it was just announced that rapper Jay-Z will be scoring Baz Lurhman's upcoming adaptation of "The Great Gatsby."
I really like the music of both Nine Inch Nails and Linkin Park, and it's not surprising that I enjoyed the industrial rock vibe of their film scores. I'm kind of curious to see what Jay-Z will do with a film score and how he'll work his own sound into a period piece set in the 1920s. At the very least, it should be an interesting project!
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January 1, 2013 at 1:35pm January 1, 2013 at 1:35pm
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Another year has come and gone, and although I fell short of my goal of reading 50 books, I did reach my other goal of reading more nonfiction than fiction. I ended up listening to quite a few other things during the commute besides audiobooks (mostly podcasts), so I think that took a big chunk out of my "reading" time on the road. So my goal for this year is the same as last year... 50 books in 2013.
Here are the ones I read in 2012:
FICTION:
50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, The by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Clash of Kings, A by George R.R. Martin
Club Justice by Mara ♣ McBain 
Divine Comedy, The by Dante Aligheri
Keeper of Lost Causes, The by Jussi Adler-Olsen
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Requiem: Book of the Fallen by Adriana Noir 
Screwtape Letters, The by C.S. Lewis
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
World Out of Time, A by Larry Niven
NONFICTION:
Autobiography of Black Hawk by Black Hawk
Belief Instinct, The: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life by Jesse Bering
Black Swan, The: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
City of Falling Angels, The by John Berendt
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Common Sense by Thomas Paine
Crack in the Edge of the World, A: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 by Simon Winchester
Defining Moment, The: FDR's Hundred Days of Triumph and Hope by Jonathan Alter
Field Guide to Demons, A by Carol A. Mack
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin Mitnick
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, A by Dave Eggers
How to Win at the Sport of Business by Mark Cuban
How to Write a Movie Script with Kick-Ass and Awesome Characters by Michael Rogan
Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message by Ravi Zacharias
Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Power of Myth, The by Joseph Campbell
Simplexity: Why Simple Things Become Complex (and How Complex Things Can Be Made Simple) by Jeffery Kluger
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Whole New Mind, A: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future by Daniel Pink
Why Guys Need God: The Spiritual Side of Money, Sex, and Relationships by Michael Erre
OTHER:
COMICS - Batman: Arkham Unhinged #1-#43
COMICS - Grimm Fairy Tales: Beyond Wonderland (series)
COMICS - Grimm Fairy Tales: Escape From Wonderland (series)
COMICS - Grimm Fairy Tales: Return to Wonderland (series)
COMICS - Witchblade #1-#62
PODCAST - Nerdist Writers Panel (13 episodes)
PODCAST - Scriptnotes w/ John August & Craig Mazin (56 episodes)
PODCAST - Slate's Political Gabfest (15 episodes)
SCREENPLAYS - 57
Total 2012 Book Count: 34
Overall, my favorite books this year were Neverwhere and The Screwtape Letters for fiction, and Ghost in the Wires and Steve Jobs for nonfiction. City of Falling Angels was also very good. Looking back at the books I read though, I feel like the reading year was just okay. There are a lot of books that I enjoyed, but very few that I would rave about or wholeheartedly recommend to a friend. There were only a few books that I actually disliked, but fewer than I expected in terms of ones I would tell a friend, "You really need to check this out."
So in addition to the 50 books in 2013, I'm hoping to be able to come back and report that each and every one of them is a must read! 
Happy New Year! I hope everybody reaches any reading and writing goals they may have in the new year.
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