hmmmm...

Jean-Luc Picard

An accomplished diplomat who can virtually do no wrong, you sometimes know it is best to rely on the council of others while holding the reins.

There are some words which I have known since I was a schoolboy. "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." These words were uttered by Judge Aaron Satie -- as a wisdom, and warning. The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.

Jean-Luc is a character in the Star Trek universe. This Next Generation fan site has an outline of his career.

amazon.com - strange but true

Well, last night I ordered two movies - The Sword of Gideon, a movie from the late 1980s based on the novel Vengance by George Jonas (which in and of itself is also the basis for Spielberg's new movie, Munich) and One Day in September which is an award-winning documentary. All of these films of course chronicle the events that occurred at the 1972 Munich Olympics, in which a number of Israeli athletes were murdered. Anyway, this afternoon I received an e-mail saying One Day in September had been shipped. It also said: "We thought you'd like to know that we shipped this portion of your order separately to give you quicker service. You won't be charged any extra shipping fees, and the remainder of your order will follow as soon as those items become available."

So I thought, well ok, they are having troubles getting Sword of Gideon, whatever. I'd have ordered it from amazon.ca but that site noted that the title wasn't available for 6 - 8 weeks, the American site said it was available in 2 - 3 days.

Then tonight, I received an e-mail saying Sword of Gideon had been shipped. Both e-mails estimate them coming at the same time - between December 29 - January 5. I've found recently the estimations are conservative, my Mother and me have recently ordered a number of items from both the Canadian and American sites and they've all arrived on time or early.

So I talked to my Mom today and got my Christmas present today Final Draft Scriptwriters Suite. I installed it on my laptop and have to install it yet on my main hard drive. I'm looking forward to using it to develop my story ideas. I chose this suite because it has both Final Draft which is designed for film and tv scripts as well as theatre plays; and it has Final Draft AV which is designed for doing documentaries, videos and advertising commercials. And I have ideas for all areas that this package covers, that I want to develop over time.

So that's cool.

In spite of some issues in terms of our group project for International Business, which unfortunately we scored low on, I was able to pass the course with a C+. I'm glad the term is over with; it was harrowing dealing with KSA stuff. I'm looking forward to the spring term. I've been working hard on my online courses which I'm continuing into the spring, till at least the end of February, although I have until the end of January for one final extension of an additional two months which would give me to the end of April. But I can't drag my feet any longer with those courses. Especially as I want to take a few more online courses and I want to have them all done by June.

Anyway, time for bed.

- Steve

the work continues...

Well, worked more on the kitchen this morning. Scotch-guarded the rug in the eating area and cleaned more cupboards (about 85% done). My Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0 arrived from Amazon.com. This Region 1 release is only available in the United States right now, and won't be available in Canada until May, 2006. This DVD features the first ten (10) episodes of season two (2), which to date have only aired on US television's Sci-Fi Network. The episodes will air in Canada on Space: The Imagination Station starting in January 2006, and in the UK on Sky One. I've had the pleasure of watching the first ten episodes already via the wonders of the internet and plan on enjoying the DVD over the holidays. I hope to post a review on all the DVD releases for this great show within the next few weeks.

Last night, I started reading Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films by Stuart Voytilla. I want to plow through it fairly quickly.

Anyway, gotta go up town with Mom to get some last minute stuff for Christmas done. Then back home to work on some more cleaning!

- Steve

tired

well, since my last post, the oven racks are clean, so the oven itself is done. I've cleaned up about 75% of our cupboards and drawers, and I moved the kitchen table, vacuumed the rug under the table and then moved the rug to vacuum and wash the tiles in the eating area. I cleaned our bird's cage. When the tiles were dry, I put the rug back down, vacuumed it again, and then used our new mini carpet cleaner on it as our new dog has had a few accidents on it. In the morning we'll scotch guard the rug as it's fairly new, to protect it from possible future stains. Still have some more cupboards to do, but will finish in the morning. I just did the rest of the kitchen floor, vacuumed and washed it - but will probably have to redo it tomorrow after I finished the rest of the cupboards and drawers.

Bleh. So I’m a bit tired. Still have to clean up my tub before I can shower tonight – used it to clean the oven racks, soaked them in ammonia and warm water for a few hours, then went at them with S.O.S. pads.

Tomorrow I’ll finish everything in the kitchen and probably attack our closets and apartment storage areas. They aren’t dirty but could be better organized.

- Steve

bleh...

Well, didn't do too hot on our international business project, which I kinda expected. Hopefully with the other marks in the class I'll still pass the course. Anyway, I'm not going to get stressed over it. Today I've been working on cleaning up our kitchen. I have been pulling every corner apart and scrubbing it. I was going to start Christmas baking today but started to tidy up and what was going to be a quick tidy up became this in-depth job. Cleaned the oven, cleaned most of the cupboards and drawers and the utensils. Still some cupboards and drawers left to do, which I'll go finish in a moment.

Going to do the floor tonight as well, and the carpet we have in the eating area. With our new puppy, her learning how to go to the bathroom has resulted in some accidents on that carpet.

I went to Biz Books today, and browsed around and found some great books. I bought a few as well. I got two very good books on doing treatments (which I will have to do in the screenwriting course I take in January), another book called Making a Good Writer Great: A Creativity Workbook for Screenwriters by Linda Seger and finally a book called Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Mythic Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films by Stuart Voytilla. The book is a companion piece of sorts to Christopher Vogler's important work The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers which explores the elements of the Hero's Journey as developed by Mr. Vogler, based on his study of the work of Joseph Campbell and others. I'm a little disappointed; of the 50 works chosen I only own 34 of them ;)

So I'll work through those books in the next few weeks. I just finished The Writer's Journey and plan on writing a review on it shortly.

They also have (at a very good price that's comparable to the online student pricing that this company offers), Final Draft Scriptwriter's Suite. It's priced at $385 Canadian, which is about $70 CDN higher than the educational pricing the company offers. But when you add on the costs of shipping & handling, etc. the store price isn't that bad, plus Biz Books is the only Vancouver distributor for the product and they are a small business and whatever small profit they get off the package is probably worth it. My Mom was willing to get me this nice tripod device for my camcorder for Christmas but I'm going to ask for this instead... want to really work on developing the many story ideas I have for various projects and this program is supposed to be one of the best for taking those ideas and producing them into workable, usable documents.

Anyway, should get back to cleaning.

- Steve