Burnished Isle

I am way too hard on myself, and I bet to an extent, you are too. If you think you can trash talk me, I should share with you the transcripts of some of my daily “self-talk”. If you could see it, you'd probably think to yourself He’s got that angle covered. If you're looking for harsh words or tough love to incite me to action, dream on. Even using such language on myself, it doesn't work. From an early age, I thought of myself as lazy. I’m the kid that wanted to carry seven suitcases at once. My dad called it “the lazy man’s load.” That stuck with me, and every time I tried to bite off too much too fast, I thought of it as lazy. There is a fine line between efficiency and laziness. I have often crossed that line, and there were other times I didn't even enter the arena. I would half-ass things scholastically. I was a B-C level range student. I wrote a paper on A Clockwork Orange without really reading it. I would cram for tests the night before. I wouldn’t cheat,...

So I saw Solo, Directed by Ron Howard and written by Lawrence and John Kasden against the wishes of those who wanted to boycott the movie. Trolls and extremists aside, I found myself again empathizing with them a little, though I am not onboard with a boycott. See it or don't, it's up to you and let the market decide. Overall, my take is that once again, it’s been proven that it’s hard to write a Star Wars movie. By the way, spoilers abide, so don’t read on if you are sensitive to that sort of thing. First what I liked.  I love the heist scenes. That was good fun. The movie centers on two different missions to get some very expensive and volatile fuel rods. The scenes, one involving a train, and another which  involved the famous “Kessel Run” mentioned in episode IV are when the movie is running on all thrusters. There is a lot of great moments in the initial train heist scene involving pirates, droids, and near-misses. I also welcomed a lot of the actors in this movie ...

Sometimes I think these notices are sent out as a reminder that at some point, we signed up for them. I bet a lot of these sites are happy about the GDPR as it gives them an opportunity to update you on what you signed up for back in the day. How many sites have you signed up for, forgot about, only to be reminded by notices like this? I think for me it has to be at least in the high teens or low twenties.

I recently decided to resurrect a blog I abandoned a number of years ago known as The Burnished Isle. This is my mental island home, a vacation from the worries and woes of civilization. So paint your volleyball with a bloody handprint, remove a tooth with the blade of an ice skate and hang out and enjoy!

So this somehow got into my Facebook feed the other day: The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it's not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of another person--without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.”    This was written by Osho, who is an Indian spiritualist. You can look up his name on the internet.  At first glance, this seems very profound, but to me I didn’t like the exclusive and sometimes vagueness associated with it, so I decided to break it down and examine it, after all, isn’t that what we are supp...

Seems to me that lately the bar has been raised on "mean" for Survivor.  It probably would not be as obvious to me if I were watching it alone, but watching it with my sister's kids makes every depiction of bad behavior all the more painful to watch. At eight pm on a Thursday, it is kind of family hour and yet we are hearing phrases regarding female dogs and "ghetto trash" thrown around as much as geeks throw around "douchebag" in a flame war about their computer platform preference. You have Russell (the oil company owner) who is trying to prove what? That lying and cheating will get you far in the game, and so far, he has proven himself to be correct. But at what expense? He walks around referring to females as "dumb" until one sizes him up and so she has to be removed because he is threatened by her.  Threatened because she is not adhering to his idea of what his alliance should contain: stupid females. Secondly, tonight we had a cha...

Finally finished the third installment of Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi and I have to say I am liking this series.  For those of you unfamiliar with the books, this series takes place after the movies.  What I like about it is that this is really the first time I have felt they have finally made Luke into someone other than a Jedi who sits, studies, and broods about being a Jedi and how you can't act but let things happen "in the force." There are about three plots going on.  The main one is that Jedi are starting to freak out and might be contracting something similar to a "Force disease" that causes them to view all those around them as "imposters."  In reaction to the Jedi getting violent the Jedi have taken it upon themselves to lock their kind away and try to study and find a cure to the disease.  This does not sit well with the head of the Alliance who is headed by an ex imperial named Daala. Because of this the Alliance has filed legal penalti...

This on the other hand is Farm Town, the social application that was around before Farmville. Graphics are not nearly as good, but the playability has a couple upsides such as you can get others to harvest your crops and plow for you. I hit the highest level a couple days ago and was able to buy my mansion. Now I will slowly add buildings which will slow gameplay to a crawl.

This is the highly addictive game farmville, still in Beta. Fun for the whole family.

It was one year ago today that my father died. Don't really have much to say at this point. He was strong to the end, had a love of life that is hard to emulate.

I have a coupleshort stories, one screenplay, and a novel in the works. This I do in addition to my blog, and yet I cannot help but think I am being lazy. Lazy is as lazy does. I have done some source reading for the short story/novels and now all that is left to do, is to do it. Sounds easy, but for a writer sometimes we are weary of messing around too much with what we have written. Just as an artist knows when it is time to leave well enough alone. Hint about one story is simply this: What would happen if two timeless sci fi stories "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "War of the Worlds" were really two parts of the whole. What would happen after the invasions. What would happen also after the Body snatchers had snatched? I will leave that hanging. I have a screenplay in the works maybe because this story to me is so "visual." Plus I am so new to screenwriting that I need to do this, to wet my chops. I am in Hollywood, after all. But being a...