Perception is everything...

Be it in anything.

I've had a ladybug wandering all over my desk, the last few days. Just whispering along, staying warm under my lamps. Sometimes resting on a sheet of paper, sometimes on a paper napkin I have folded and to one side, sometimes on my keyboard.

But this evening, my hands were still wet from doing dishes when I sat at my computer, and she crawled on to my finger. She proceeded to drink the water still there, then did a few circles and grew still for at least half an hour. I had no problem adjusting my actions to keep from crushing her. Guess she was thirsty.

At the same time, I trapped a fly under a jar to stop its buzzing around. Normally I kill the damn things because they irritate me as much as cockroaches, fleas and ticks, but for some reason I just couldn't. The ladybug had wandered off, again, and I didn't feel like ending any living creature's life, just then...so I slung it out into the hallway. But if it comes back, tomorrow...

Flies aren't all that different from ladybugs. They're both insects...but ladybugs are fun to be around while flies could go extinct and I would not be the least bit sorry.

Looks like I'm going to be dragged into the current world despite myself. I just joined up with Skype, which has been around for a while, to video-conference with a script doctor over "Return To Darian's Point." We're set for Sunday evening...and it's going to be hard to keep the appointment. A job I'm doing -- packing and shipping what I thought was 750 books -- just doubled in size and increased in scope. So the time I've allotted for it will not be enough. Instead of Sunday being a down day, I'll be working and may have to push back my trip to LA. Ugh!

Hope there's a Starbuck's nearby so I can take a break.

A bit more Macau and Hong Kong...

 Macau's Science Center...

 View of Buddhist Goddess and the city

 Old New Orleans, Macau style...

 Tudor England Macau style...

Back to Hong Kong and watching funky ferries at Pier 9...

Chicago then LA...

Well, I'm spending next week in Chicago and most of the week after is in LA...Valencia, actually. Should  be interesting. Guess I need to get a new suitcase, or continue to make do with my big one. It's pretty unwieldy...

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to work on, next. I should start back on The Vanishing of Owen Taylor, but I can't decide. I'm also thinking of Underground Guy, lately. It's been almost a year since I came up with that one's storyline, and I'm pretty sure I know where to go with it. OT is going to be an editing job...bigtime.

I spent some of this evening trying to set up a one-on-one conference with another screenwriter over one of my scripts. Don't know how this will work out with me heading out of town, again...but it doesn't hurt to try.

Working on Bugzters did show me how much like a novelist I am when it comes to writing my scripts. And how much not like one. I didn't pay much attention when I was shifting The Lyons' Den to novel format because it was going in such crazy directions. But BZ had a bit too much actor direction in it. And I know it's dealing with kids and some of that is necessary...but it still felt like a bit much.

And yet...Spike Jonze did it...

Maintenance day...

A day for trundling through piles of bills and paperwork on my desk and figuring out where I am, at the moment. Things like balancing my checkbook and making sure I'm current with everything tend to vanish from my sightline if given the slightest excuse. I didn't even do laundry, today; took me a nano-second to talk myself out of it, once I saw I had clothes enough for the week. Next Sunday will be a massive laundry day.

I also watched a very interesting VOD seminar with Jacob Krueger discussing Spike Jonze's screenplay, Her. For the first time, I connected completely with a screenplay instructor. He's dissing Save The Cat and even Syd Field, and talking about 7-Act structure...and I loved it. It wasn't that long ago I was getting into arguments with people because they said you couldn't write scripts in 2-acts or 5-acts, even though I'd done so.

He does say a script has to appear to have a 3-Act structure since, few producers can think beyond Field's lecturing, but overall his comments were fascinating. It was nearly 3 hours of streaming, and I felt a hint of vindication at the end.

I also got a copy of Jonze's script, and he puts in actor directions and camera directions and everything. Granted, he was directing it, himself, but my fear that I was overdoing that stuff may be unwarranted. And maybe I always was meant to make my own movies and not try to do the for hire crap. I'm not good at it.

I'm gonna get this movie...and probably kick myself for not seeing it in a theater.

50,800 words

That's with padding; I'm sure of it. Going back through, I found things to cut and condense and rearrange...but I refused to let myself follow that path and stuck to adding in. Now it's as lumpy as a story can be...but I met the challenge. In the first rewrite, I'm sure I'll cut a lot and bring it down way below the 50K mark. Is that a form of cheating? I don't know. I'm too used to having my books explode into magnum opuses (opi?).

Then, again, there are areas I can expand upon, too. Like why the Chesters...er, Hex-on are willing to drive the Bagh-star to extinction when they need them so much. And how does the whole dynamic between Alex and his absent father inform on the dynamic between the Bagh-star and the Hex-on? Those haven't really connected, yet. In short, the story needs to be lived in, and I have a ways to go for that.

I'm putting some books and things up for sale on ebay. I have been offering them on Amazon's Marketplace, but they make it so hard to deal with and charge a ludicrous percentage of the final price. Try and pull together some money for Christmas and the new year.

Okay, brain death impends...

Slow build...

Well...I feel a lot better, today, so I added nearly a thousand words while going through Bugzters. Taylor is now into quoting Einstein, Tesla, and Aristotle when trying to explain herself...then gets lost in rants that Alex cannot understand.

I also increased the number of Bagh-star to 7 so I could have one more to play with -- a Ladybug's joined with the Praying Mantis, Dragonfly, and Butterfly, while Taylor's laptop and iPhone each carry one and the Bagh-star leader stays in Alex's computer. Lots of complications, there. Now, just as Alex and Taylor are trying to get away from the Beige Pair and their crew without being seen, one accidentally gets left behind, and Alex has to go back for it. Adds some suspense. I hope.

I should note -- I was also sidetracked by a story concerning Shia LaBeouf. He says that he was brutalized and sexually assaulted by a woman during his art installation, last February, but only just now acknowledged it. I don't know if the story's true or not; he's a troubled young man who's having a hard time keeping any sort of balance in his life.

But reality is, such things are possible and have happened...and that anyone still brushes claims of rape off, these days, appalls me. On top of that, the comments about it were so vile and disgusting -- mocking him, making fun of what happened, calling him a liar, a publicity hound, a loon -- I flipped and got into some FaceBook battles with the more obnoxious ones. Didn't help my mental or emotional state.

So that is all I've done in the last two days. I'm amazed I got anything completed, yesterday; I was still mashed up by the trip and it was hard to concentrate. I couldn't even take a nap, my brain was so weird.

Man, I never want to get sick on a 16 hour flight, again. From now on, I carry Contact, vitamin C, and crackers with cheese or peanut butter, and I will always have at least a jacket. I'd bring my own water, too, because airline water is cheap-assed...but I'm finding in foreign airports they do a last-minute security check and won't let you on the plane with a bottle of anything.

This is what I get for not making myself stay at the hotel in HK, on Saturday, and work on the story. If I do make it to 50K words, it'll probably be at 11:55 pm on Sunday night, the last day of the challenge.

And that's still a big If...

UPDATE: I just heard Piers Morgan barged into the Shia situation with more vile comments dismissing  the whole story. I'm close to deciding global warming isn't coming fast enough to kill off the human race.

46,305 words...

That's what Bugzters hit, and that's with me not being very precise in my grammar. In fact, most of the story is pretty damn sloppy. Shoving in Mrs. Rutledge and Drew, and expanding on the Chesters, added to the count but are like slabs of concrete over unfinished granite. However, my main goal was to get the story into book form, and it sort of is.

Now I'll run through and see if there's anywhere I can add on without merely padding the story with things I'll have to take out, later. Then it's going to need at least a solid rewrite and polish before I can even think of showing it to anyone for feedback. No sense being told what's wrong (or right) with it till I think I've fixed what's wrong with it and made what's right better.

I've worked out a number of possible images for it:

1. Battle with Billy in space
2. Alex & Billy argue in Techno-Splosion
3. Alex & Mrs. Rutledge on street
4. Alex & Taylor watch Mr. Smith and LeGrande
5. Alex and Taylor at homes, for sale sign
6. Alex & Taylor at computer
7. Bagh-star come down to satellite dish
8. Alex, Taylor and Hal-Bagh-star, Drew watching
9. Hex-on become Chesters
10. Bagh-star in insects
11. Julia almost sees Alex on the branch
12. Chesters hit by truck
13. The Beige Pair arrive, meet the CPO
14. Chesters watch Alex's home
15. Alex in Dragonfly buzzing C-1
16. Taylor shows off Butterfly
17. Morika's mom yells at Mr. LeGRande, Morika wailing in bg
18. Alex loses C-3
19. Billy sees Taylor and Mr. Smith with Tarantula
20. Alex and Drew
21. Beige pair and team scan house
22. Crowd at toy store
23. Globe chases Alex & Taylor
24. 3 Chesters have laptop
25. Alex & Taylor at computers

Not much to do. Maybe I'll have it ready in time for Christmas...of 2020!

Mindless...

I got no brain to hold me down
To make me laugh or make me frown.
I had brains, but you can see
I got no brains in me...

Not tonight, Josephine. Still recovering from United trying to poison me and 48 hours with no sleep. I zombied about a little, today -- to the bank to get a new ATM card since Wegman's doesn't like my current one, to the office to drop off paperwork, to the building manager to arrange for some repairs -- and then crashed onto my bed. No writing done, today...but tomorrow...I hope to be back in gear.

In the meantime, here's one of my rare selfies, taken at the Museum of Art in Macau. You can't tell, but that sketch behind me was exquisitely detailed.

Of course, I've never been detail-oriented...not even in the Orient.

Hong Kong's Christmas Light Show

It seems more sedate than last year's but it's still enjoyable.

I guess I should get a steadicam for my phone...

Back from my travels...

And I have to say, United is a very inconsistent airline. Aside from the scramble to get to NYC in time for my flight to Hong Kong, the trip there was decent. The food was good enough as far as cheap frozen dinners go (hey, I've eaten Banquet; they work in a pinch). The flight attendants were pleasant. And going through Hong Kong Customs is relatively easy; reminds me of London Heathrow and Amsterdam's Schiphol. Plus, my seat had a power outlet, so I did get a bit of writing done on BZ.

But coming back? Snappish flight crew. A power outlet that refused to work. An in-flight entertainment system that was very cranky. A fish lunch that made me ill, literally. I spent half the flight in the bathroom, and that's after taking some Imodium. I didn't want the fish, but I was hungry and the only other choice was chicken. From this point forward, if I'm fool enough to fly United I will ask for vegetarian meals or bring my own (which is what the other guy in my row did; we had a seat free between us),

What's worse is, they route through Newark and that is no excuse for an airport. I mean, Terminal B is okay, I guess, even though I couldn't find anything really interesting to eat there when headed to HK, but Terminal C is like it's still stuck in the 1950s. And Customs was a mess...though not half as chaotic as having to go through Security, again, because the people who are paid to herd us like cattle couldn't figure out left from right from up no down so just made the mess worse.

My gate was the very last one in the half-mile long terminal, and I had to sit on the floor to use an outlet for my laptop because the few power stations had a dozen people hovering about them. Plus the WiFi never worked, not even through Boingo. And I flew back on a tiny turboprop that you could hear coming from miles away. Very tight, very uncomfortable, and because it's a propeller job, takes 50% longer.

So I was awake for nearly two days going and coming...and I am feeling it. I'm coming down with a cold, too, because for once I figured I wouldn't need my coat or jacket with me on the trip...and the jet from Hong Kong was very chilly. I used 2 blankets to try and keep warm.

Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed being in Hong Kong. Seeing people I've known for years and checking out some of the books they brought. I found a place that has the best damn Lasagne I've ever tasted...pricey, but for once worth every penny. TWG Tea! You can find boxes of the teas at Dean & Deluca, and their Mango was beautifully smooth. But here's the cool part -- they infused their Lasagne with some. They do with all their food. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven, and I ate it up before I thought to take a photo. But DAMN, it was good.

For that, alone, I'd go back...even on United.