Dog Day

Today was a dog day, especially for Harley. We went outside this morning and played with all three dogs. Maverick chased his flying squirrel frisbee while Dad and I played with the new parachute toy I bought at Franklin's yesterday. (Franklin's is a restaurant/store near work that has some of the most interesting stuff for sale. The chocolate cake is pretty darn special, too.) Mom got out the "weasel on a stick" toy and fished for Harley from the deck. We played until Mom got cold and Dad wandered off to change a lightbulb or something.

I played with my Nintendogs a while and took care of my Showdogs while I finished watching Return of the Jedi and a movie about the making of Star Wars. I still say the people at work who claim Star Wars was a regional thing are crazy, especially after watching the special, but that's beside the point. I cleaned my room and Mom, Harley and I made the bed. It's a queen size waterbed, so it takes at least two of us. Harley's help was completely dispensable.

My writer's group meets here tomorrow, so we ran to Sam's Club to get some cookies, blackberries and grapes to serve them. I know, weird combination, right? I took my buddy Chris with me via my Blackberry. (Same name, different fruit... no, not Chris, the Blackberry. Chris is not at all fruity!) Then we all... Mom, Chris and I... went to the dollar store and looked at My Little Pony notebooks and stickers for Chris.

When we got home I took the dogs outside with the giant bubble wand I bought at Walmart and introduced Harley to bubbles. He loved them. Btw, if you have been wondering what Indiana was doing while all of this was happening... he rolled on his back once and stared vacantly off into space the rest of the time. That's the height of excitement for that poor dog.

Harley helped me nap by chewing on my toes and fingers and, after dinner, I took him outside for a run around in the dark with the laser pointer. After all of that excitement we put on the Harley show for Mom and Dad and now he's collapsed on their bed while I blog.

(Notice... no writing. I'm still stuck on that darn island!)

How important is Star Wars, really?

Back when I was in high schoo/college and they first started talking about VCRs I remember thinking how amazing it would be to watch Star Wars in my own home any time I wanted to. Now I'm finding out how much of a dinosaur that makes me, not just because I can remember a time before VCRs but because I actually remember when Star Wars was the new, exciting movie franchise.

We were living in Munich, Germany when the first Star Wars movie came out and someone who had seen it before moving to Germany was trying to tell us about it. It just didn't sound that interesting to me, but when I finally saw it, I was a complete convert. The epic nature of the movies, the startling special effects, Harrison Ford... Star Wars had everything.

When Empire came out I was living in Las Vegas and was in college. We went to see it over and over again in the theaters even though we really couldn't afford it. I gave my sister tickets to see it one more time for her birthday, even. These days, how often do you go see a movie at the theater more than once? I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean twice and that was a big deal. I don't remember how often we saw Empire at the theater, but it was probably five or more times.

So, what is the point of all of this? Well, I TiVo'd all of the movies, starting with the disappointing 1-3 saga and ending with the original films. The special effects in the old films don't hold up well, nor does poor Mark Hamill's acting, but I still prefer the originals. Anyway, I was watching Empire this morning, still my favorite, and I mentioned to my buddy, Chris, that Mark Hamill never looked the same after his car accident. Chris didn't know what I was talking about! Now Chris has lost all computer geek credibility. He's got to spend the weekend watching Princess Bride, Young Frankenstein and Monty Python to prove he's a true geek.

In the meantime, I asked the girls from work if they knew who Mark Hamill was. Four out of four could not identify him and only one of the four has seen the movies, and that was under protest. When I expressed shock, they told me that maybe the movies were only a West Coast thing. What??? This is Star Wars, people, not some obscure indie film. Am I the only one who remembers how much impact these movies had on our culture? Star Wars ranks up there with Star Trek and... I can't even think of anything as big. The Star Wars phenomenon dwarfs the Harry Potter franchise. Sure HP is fun, but it is not Star Wars. Of recent movies, only the Lord of the Rings trilogy can really compare.

So, how important is it that people know and love the same movies? If you believe, as I do, that every culture is defined by the stories they tell and the legends they share, then movies perform a much greater role than merely entertainment. They give us a frame of reference, a shared experience. We no longer sit around firesides and listen to stories of heroes who face down evil and survive, we sit in darkened theaters, but the effect is the same. Sure, most of the movies we see are forgettable and many of them are pure dreck. But when something comes along that speaks to our core values and connects with us on a deeper level, it binds us with other human beings who feel the same feelings. It gives us a starting point and a shared experience even if we have only just met. It gives us a history together.

How important is Star Wars... it's just entertainment, or is it?

I Didn't Quite Make It

I finished the month with just over 40,000 words written. I wouldn't have done that much if my best buddy, Chris, hadn't helped me over a rough patch in the story. With his help, though, I broke through the block and so I was able to add over 3,000 words tonight. I killed off the major baddie, revealed the answer to the big mystery and only have a few thousand words left to finish the rough draft. I think it all hangs together pretty well, but there will be a lot of rewriting left to do when I finish. At least the first draft is almost done, and if I didn't quite meet either of my goals... writing 50,000 words or finishing the first draft... I am closer to finishing than I would ever have gotten without those goals to push me to write. I actually enjoyed writing tonight, once I got started, and remembered why I like writing at all. The last week or so has been torture as I keep hitting snags. I need to remember to ask Chris when that happens next time. I can hardly believe I have 90,000 words towards my novel. How exciting is that??