STUPID ALTUCHER (HE SAID IT, NOT ME)

I never say things like that unless I get mad — and then I’m venting, usually privately and it’s only an of the moment thing — and like my father, I only get mad at family. Everyone else is an unknown quantity with no vested interest in your happiness and chock full of unpredictable and occasionally weird behaviors (remember I work with actors and have been known to hobnob with poets — not always the same as people who write verse). I seem to be hitting the impulsivity Bermuda Triangle(intentions go there and rarely return)these days as we have just discovered that Gayle has ADHD, which means there’s a reason she says things and doesn’t do them. There often is.

Anyway, I know there are people out there who live only for news of James Altucher so here he discusses why not to shout “it’s a robbery” in a public place with money, things that don’t make sense in the market — like companies with lower values than their cash on hand — and said companies to watch/buy.

He also suggests to cheer yourself up by taking your cell phone camera and taking a picture of the most beautiful thing you see each day. For, me the cheering activity(and I needed one because apparently Pongo had a stroke yesterday and is at the vet seeing if he’ll recover — we hope so) is to take myself out for a walk and then write something so we went for a walk (gloriously sunny almost Octoberish day), threw around a bright blue mini football and I haikued on the way home (see previous entry).

Everyone has quirks; the key is to learn them, know what to expect, and occasionally allow yourself to be surprised by one of those glorious exceeding all expectations moments (Christmas, opening night, birthdays, random days in September or March, conjunctions of planets and the crescent moon). I hope you have them, even in this grim time as the year swings into a new arc.

PING + 2

Well, when I have something to tell everyone — real or imagined– in my internet universe, it involves pinging it across four services, then adding it manually to the original movie blog and linkedin, although I should be able to ping to linkedin, but I don’t want to spend that much time at either site figuring it out. That’s a lot of pinging plus –not to mention the original upload to myToons and the I should do it soon upload to YouTube…it’s an internet broadband slogfest. I’ve given up the group e-mail at least, so that’s a little less typing.

And did I have anything else to say? Thanks to one of my Twitter follows, spent the evening listening to Blondfire/Astaire and the like on last.fm. One of my favorite songs was in French; must look into a film festival in Quebec (or perhaps Cannes — they have shorts); so much of what I turn out involves no dialogue, just music and comedy, so an international film festival might be the ticket.

Had too much to do this weekend, but finished SPCA holiday auction article and posted new animation so feeling of accomplishment and money eventually due in my bank account for the article. I also sent an e-mail of resignation to my editor. I’m giving up freelancing as of the beginning of the year(yes, breaking news, you heard it here after twitter).

Not only did
1. I get an offer to direct a what I hope will be hysterical version of Moliere’s The Miser in the spring, which will push my Taming of The Shrew preparation up to February or so as now May will be presenting the Miser month, not find and dust off my small but necessary pile of Shakespeare essentials month, but

2. there’s also the completed first draft of a really cool mystery I wrote this summer while under the influence of the Hardy Boys, Chet Gecko (who is Chet Gecko? read Give My Regrets to Broadway and laugh, laugh, laugh) and the nieces and nephews. I’m disappointed that I haven’t found the time to type it into the computer — an essential part of the transformation process. I don’t feel guilty or that I’ve been procrastinating as I have had legitimate distractions, I’m just disappointed. I’d like to see how the next draft turns out, especially as I might be dumping a character — still undecided. Hence need for a newer, better version of the story…and updating my laptop so I can work without the distraction of internet access(yes, you.) And then,

3. well, I tend to obsess and put everything else on hold while doing something and freelancing is neither an effective nor lucrative use of my time — not that lucrative is a make or break point(if I had an accountant he or she would have been sobbing for years; if I had an agent, well, he or she’d probably be making a decent living — creating I can do, selling not so much).

Right, plus there’s my fiendish plan for PROJECT PYE, which I think met with Calvin approval and finishing Jabberwocky (anyone know how you say that en francais?) and the myToons and website redesign.

At the moment, I need a good book and a week off…this may just be possible; keep your fingers crossed. Immediately, I am going to dash off some quick TV reviews and then curl up with LAST Saturday’s FT weekend…or a Chet Gecko (good late night reading).

HAIKU

Walk inspired haiku: Butterflies and clouds/Moving through wind leaves tossed/Storm bound October

ALTERNATE WEDNESDAYS

Apparently, not only is there an alternate blog (welcome), an alternate office, but now there is alternate Wednesdays, the day when I can look forward to opening up my Tuesday Financial Times and reading James Altucher’s column.  

 Today, we have Warren Buffet, a cheerful bit about demographics and making money off funeral providers as well as the James Altucher method of writing a book. As he, unlike me, has actually been paid to write one, maybe I’ll try it…Let’s see — pick a theme I can get 100 small chapters out of — Creativity; first 25 chapters inspiration; second 25, movies and Shakespeare, third, persistence, and finally, how you can do it too. Throw in a little Machiavelli and Lao Tsu and voila. Or you can just read in In The Bleak December and encourage me to write a sequel so I can finally see where Sally and Jane end up. Meanwhile, maybe I’ll try to track down Altucher’s Buffet book. I seem to be in a business mood — next on my reading table is either Driving Change, a book about UPS or Peter Drucker’s Adventures of A Bystander — yes, while not on line yesterday, I went to the library, always a fun adventure.

P.S. Altucher’s pithy and I hope parodic how to write a book advice misses the most important point: The Catchy Title, something like Creativity, Forsooth for mine, I think.

REPORTING

It’s a different kind of writing and I’ve been grumpy about it all week, so grumpy I’m even tired of hearing myself.  It’s not that it takes away from other projects — I spend too much here in my office on the computer tracking how many people have looked at my animations as it is.  I just hate phone tag, waiting to get hold of someone, trying to schedule getting hold of someone and then waiting for the call back.  And I’m not that fond of the phone.  But interviewing Tamora Pierce reminded me of why I thought it might be fun to do a little freelance reporting.  I had fun — it’s nice to talk to people about the things they are enthusiastic about and successful at, the activities and ideas that move them.  It’s invigorating and yes, I will say it, darn it, even inspiring.

 

Usually, you have to get me on Shakespeare to hear a topic that I care so much about I’ll drag people along by magnetic enthusiasm, although I can do a good job on why “In the Bleak December” should be read by more people– Jane, Sally, Mary and John are great characters, there aren’t enough gay characters in straight books or straight characters in gay books and I always enjoy rereading it (yes, yes,  I should post it online somewhere but it’s caught between computers and word processing programs and I have to add the new opening chapter– The DaVinci Code taught me cliffhangers really work for readers) and why working with orange cat puppets(aka Gullible and Twitchy) is a very satisfying thing to do — I have discovered I love problem solving and how to get them cling to things without losing major clumps of their fur is a problem. I also get that good solid charge when I’ve finished an episode.  

 

Now, where was I…oh, reporting, Tamora Pierce…the only bad thing is that after talking to someone for thirty minutes, you are left with quotes you can’t use.  This allows you to distill the interview, use the best responses and write a better more focused article as a result, but I still look a little sadly at the conversations left in my notebook sometimes.  I’m glad to have had them, but writing well means choosing well so people only get a glimpse.  The Tamora Pierce glimpse seems to be “go with your gut” and you can achieve what you want if you are willing to work very hard at it.  Not a bad message.

 

Oh and I can recommend “Defender of the Small:  The First Test.”  Got it out of the library, read it this morning before the interview, enjoyed it and will look up the next book in the series.  It’s hard to find new fantasy authors.