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 My primary Writing.com blog. |
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Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics). Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:  "The Soundtrackers Group"  "Blog Harbor" "Blogging Circle of Friends " "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" "JAFBG" "Take up Your Cross" Thanks for stopping by! 
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| To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish. Movies  Aftermath Exterratorial Gladiator II Havoc — DNF Lilo & Stitch (2025) The Magician's Elephant Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning Sniper: The Last StandOf all the movies I watched this month, I probably liked Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning the most. It wasn't my favorite movie in the entire franchise, but I do really like these films and it was engaging, if a little long. For an "end of series" entry, I think the stunts and other action were a little lackluster, but I did find the story engaging. This was also a month where I saw two of my friends' movies, which debuted on Netflix. They were both kind of generic action movies, but I'm super excited for both of them; it's really cool to be able to turn on Netflix, see a movie a friend of yours wrote, and watch their names go by in the credits. If you like direct-to-video style action movies, you could do a lot worse than Aftermath and Sniper: The Last Stand. Television Abbott Elementary (Season 4) Andor (Season 2) Hacks (Season 4) Killer Heat (Season 2) — DNF The Rookie (Season 7) Shifting Gears (Season 1) — DNF Sirens Will Trent (Season 3) Your Friends & Neighbors (Season 1)I'm honestly surprised at how much television I watched this month. From really good new shows like Sirens and Your Friends & Neighbors to the return of older favorites like Hacks, it was a really good month for television. Pretty much the only things I didn't like were Will Trent (which my wife likes having on in the background), and Shifting Gears which is Tim Allen's new show where he basically just plays Tim Allen again, this time with a slightly different "manly" job and family situation, which he uses as a foil to criticize modernity and lament the loss of the good old days when the world was simpler and more conservative.  The standout show this month was clearly the second season of Andor. I thought the first season was really good, and this one exceeded my already lofty expectations of what a sophomore effort would look like. Knowing that they were heading into a specific result (i.e., Cassian Andor's journey leading up to the events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), they broke the show up into four, three-episode blocks, each tackling one year in the life of all the revolutionaries, building the nascent Rebellion into a movement that could realistically defy the Empire. It was a really well done political drama/thriller that raised a lot of questions of morality, intrigue, commitment to a cause, etc. If you like political shows, even if Star Wars isn't your favorite, it's really great. And it perfectly leads into Rogue One, which in turn leads perfectly into A New Hope. TOP PICK: Andor (Season 2) |
 PROMPT: "Note: 48-HOUR CHALLENGE : Media Prompt Deadl..." This is one of those songs that just seems to perpetually come around every few years. It was originally released in Fall 2013 as a promotional single for Magic!, which was then re-released by a major label (Sony) in Winter 2014. Over the course of 2014, the band performed it all over the place, including on both morning and late night talk shows, and the song ended up being one of the Top 10 bestselling songs of the year. It's also been covered a remixed a number of times, including by some very popular artists like Zedd and Selena Gomez. I think the last time that I listened to this song regularly was during the pandemic. While everyone was sheltering in place for COVID-19, my wife and I were stuck at home with two young children, and we spent a lot of time listening to music and watching videos. Music videos were particularly popular in our house, and there were quite a few that played on repeat because the kids liked the song and the video captured their attention. This was one of them, and I think we watched it so much that the YouTube algorithm still populates it in my personal feed of music videos whenever I put on a playlist. As with so many of the songs that I listened to during that time, there's a part of me that feels nostalgic whenever the song comes on. After all, I've heard it enough to practically memorize the lyrics and the melody is instantly recognizable. On the other hand, it's a reminder of what was a very difficult, borderline traumatizing time in all of our lives, so the memories that come flooding back with songs like this are often quite vivid. None of that changes the fact that it's a catchy, feel-good kinda song though.  |
 Prompt #43: Have you ever wanted to be the boss at a place you've worked? What aspects of being a boss are appealing? Do you think you'd actually be good at it? I actually think I'd be really good at being a boss. I know a lot of people think that they'd be a good boss, but that often comes from a place of wanting the perks of being a boss without an understanding or appreciation of what's actually involved in the job. I've actually been a boss before on a small scale, so I have a bit of an understanding of what's involved. I'm not sure I'd want to be the boss at the place I currently work (leading a massive, publicly-traded company seems like a huge headache  ), I'd definitely want to be the boss at some of the smaller places I've worked, where obligations to shareholders or public relations is less of a concern.There are three aspects of being a boss that I think I do well. First, I think I'm good at synthesizing information and making informed choices. I'll never be the guy who's a brilliant lawyer, or a finance whiz, or has all of the HR policies memorized... but I do know a little bit about all of those areas, and quite a few others. And I'm confident in my ability to see the bigger picture, so I actually think I would be really good heading up a company where I'm faced with a challenge, given input from Finance, Legal, HR, Operations, etc. and then making the best decision about how to proceed. Second, I'm a pretty good-natured person who's not afraid of making tough decisions. While I definitely want everyone to like me and while I'm generally well-liked, I also know that not every decision a boss makes is popular, but I think I'm an affable enough personality that I can make difficult decisions while still maintaining support from the company as a whole. I've never had to put that to the test on a large scale (i.e., beyond a few employees here and there), but I have a feeling I'd be able to, for example, find a way to be encouraging and shore up morale even in the face of difficult decisions like layoffs or other austerity measure. Third, kind of going along with the second one, I've been in the position of the rank-and-file worker for over twenty years now. I've worked at both good and bad companies, and have had both great and terrible bosses myself. I think, if nothing else, I would be able to approach my leadership responsibilities with the perspective of the people who work for me in mind most of the time. One of the biggest issues I see with leadership in a corporate setting these days is a real disconnection from those outside the ranks of leadership, and it would be important to me to maintain a sense of grounded perspective as I made decisions that affect the entire company. Overall, I think I would be a good boss. At least in terms of managing people and internal decision making. That said, there's a lot of other things that go into being a good leader, including things like vision, execution, crisis management, market positioning, etc. and I suppose I won't really know how I'd do with those things until I get to that bridge and have to cross it. |
Prompt #44: What would you spend your money on if you won the lottery? After all the usuals (paying off your house, clearing your debts, buying your parents a new car, etc.), what would you spend the rest of your fortune on? If I won the lottery, after all the usuals, I would probably invest most of my winnings in a business or other investment opportunity of some kind. My heart would want to start a film and television production company so that I could write, produce, and direct projects, but I know what a risk investing in entertainment products can be. So my head would want me to start some kind of real estate business, or maybe invest in a company that's trying to bring a product to market. Were I to start a production company, I think I would start with something akin to what Jason Blum did for Blumhouse, where there was a very specific, low-budget business plan, in order to maximize the chance of having a return on investment, and to be able to produce a number of different projects, rather than just one or two big ones where all of your success is riding on whether it works out or not. I'd also consider maybe starting an animation production house, because then you can truly make any kind of project you want, and aren't reliant on a lot of very specific production costs even if you want to do something in the fantasy, science fiction, or period spaces that would normally cost a lot more if you shoot a live action version. Were I to start a business, the most likely place to start would probably be running my own family office, where I can choose where the investments and opportunities go. But I think it would be really interesting to find someone with a vision for a product or service that I really believe in, partner up with them, and see that business through its launch and (hopeful) growth. I could see myself investing in a company developing some kind of medical device or research, a nonprofit of some kind with a mission I believed in, or something along those lines. A large portion of any lottery fortune would also go to charity, and after years of attending and trying to build up small churches, I think it would be an incredible blessing to be able to help finance a small church plant and ensure they have the finances to continue building for years to come. In Orange County, real estate is at a premium and rents are through the roof; a lot of church plants that have gotten off the ground have done so by having a generous benefactor basically provide them with a building (either to own or to lease at a steep discount), which is what allows them to gain their footing. It would be great to have the funds to be able to purchase a few buildings and then transfer them to churches in the community, free and clear. No matter what way it plays out, though, I definitely see any big lottery winnings I may happen upon as more of an opportunity to invest in and give to others, rather than an opportunity to live large. I don't need to live in a fifteen thousand square foot mansion, or to drive a Lamborghini Revuelto around town, or to have libraries and other buildings around town with my family's name on them. I'd rather invest that money in something that could do some good for others, whether it be direct charity or building a company that would employ people and take good care of them. |
Prompt #2: The World Economic Forum has found the average adult will outlive their savings by approximately a decade. What are your best tips for wise spending and saving? When it comes to finances, I really only have two pieces of advice for good practices: 1. Save before you spend. 2. Don't spend more than you make. For that first one, take a lesson from religious folks who tithe... whatever it is you can afford to put away for a rainy day, do that before you spend money on anything else. In a lot of Christian circles, it's called "first fruits," something you set aside from the first and best of whatever you make. In the agrarian days, that used to be a reference to an actual portion of your crops or whatever it was that you made your livelihood doing. These days, it's usually the money you bring in for doing whatever it is you do for work. The best thing you can do is set a realistic amount of money that you can dedicate to saving every time something goes into your account. For most people, ten percent is a good target. So if you take home $50,000 a year, aim to put $5,000 in savings every year. If your biweekly take-home pay is $1,120, aim to put $112 into savings as soon as that paycheck hits your account. Saving money is a gradual thing, and if you can develop a regular habit of doing it, those little sacrifices now will pay big dividends later. Which brings us to the second point... Don't spend more than you make. That sounds trite, but it's amazing how many people don't follow that advice. Who regularly live beyond their means by charging things to a credit card, or taking out loans, or borrowing against their assets. And while some of that is inevitable because even the most thrifty of us are unlikely to have cash-on-hand to buy a house, or a new car, or to deal with an unexpected expense like a medical emergency or a business opportunity, a lot of people will extend themselves on credit to maintain a lifestyle beyond their means. One of the things that my parents always stressed to me was the importance of having zero debt as often in your life as possible. Interest on debt can be a killer, where you end up spending many times the principal on servicing the interest on the debt. Aim to pay of your credit cards in full every month. Have a goal of not taking on debt until you have to, and when you do, to paying more than the minimum and paying it off as quickly as possible. That's it... those are my two pieces of financial advice for anyone looking to make it to retirement with some money in the bank. Oh, that and putting money in a retirement account. Compound interest is magic, and you're unlikely to regret any money you're able to squirrel away in a 401K, IRA, Roth IRA, or other retirement vehicle where you're getting a decent return and the dividends keep getting reinvested and build upon themselves over time. |
Prompt #1: If you were an actor, do you think it'd be more interesting to be a "that guy" or "that girl" character actor (i.e., someone who audiences recognize from a bunch of different roles, but isn't famous enough to have many leading roles or to be a household name), or to be an actor that was really famous for one role years ago (e.g., Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Jennifer Grey as Baby from Dirty Dancing, etc.)? I've never really had the desire to be famous. Money and adoration is nice and all, but I also really like my privacy and the freedom to just live my life free from public scrutiny, which is not something that I think I would get if I were an actor famous for a really iconic role, even if that role were years or even decades in the past. I also have a tendency to be forward-looking with my goals and aspirations, so I'm not sure I would do well with fans that were always stuck on the one big thing I did a long time ago. Working in the entertainment industry, I know people who have been in that position, some of whom are really resentful that the majority of their livelihood is made by going to conventions or making appearances as the same character over and over again, getting asked to say a particular catchphrase or quote over and over again, playing the same hit song over and over again, etc. I think I'd get really resentful of having to basically perform the same role over and over again. On the other hand, the idea of playing different supporting roles throughout my career sounds like it'd be right up my alley. Even if it made me a journeyman actor who never made the big money or had a big break, there's something exciting about the idea of having different acting challenges and being employed consistently enough to explore a multitude of roles. For the same reason as outlined above, I don't think I could be a niche character actor (like those actors who always play the evil henchman, or the police captain, or the protagonist's significant other). I'd probably be more interested in playing a lot of different diverse roles, so that people would recognize me but be surprised where I showed up. For example, the boss in a workplace rom/com, then the comms specialist on a black ops team, then a defense attorney on a legal procedural show, etc. Then again, I know actors who are in that position too, and some of them get really annoyed by people always coming up to them and saying, "Excuse me, but aren't you the guy from such-and-such show or movie?" I'd probably get annoyed with having to constantly either confirm that yes, I'm the person they're thinking of, or no, they're actually thinking of this other actor and I'm someone else entirely. Ultimately, I think what this prompt is reinforcing for me more than anything is that I definitely don't want to be an actor. I don't like being the center of attention, I don't like the idea of having both a private and public persona, and I don't want to have random people stop me out and about in the world, even if they are fans or really well-meaning. If money and power and fame are on the table for me, I'd much rather be one of those anonymous celebrities. The one where maybe, maybe someone recognizes my name, but otherwise I'm just some random guy sitting in a coffee shop or walking down the street. |
Prompt #42: When it comes to friends, do you prefer a few ride-or-dies, or many casual acquaintances? I've always been the kind of person who appreciates the depth of some friendship more than the breadth of many friendships. I'm someone who gets along well with just about everybody, and I'm certainly happy to have casual friendships with anyone who's interested in one, but I often find myself gravitating toward investing heavily in a handful of friendships and having those deep relationships comprise most of my socialization. When I was a teenager, I hung out with the same group of friends throughout high school. We went to each other's birthday parties, played D&D together, and went to each other's houses to hang out after school regularly. We mostly lost touch when everybody moved away for college, but I could count my good friends on my fingers and everyone else was just an acquaintance. In film school, it was the same way. There were three or four other people in my film program that I really bonded with and we spent all our time helping one another with our assignments, short films etc. Similar to the high school group, we lost touch after graduation... but there was a period of a few years where this friend group was my entire world. Rinse and repeat for pretty much every job I've ever had. When we're working together, I find some office friends who I get really close to and we're each other's ride-or-dies through the trials and tribulations of the working world. We inevitably lose touch once one of us moves on to another job, and when the person moving on is me, then I find a new friend group at the new job. There have only been a handful of people who have stuck through these transitions, and it's often a challenge to make time to see them. I suppose that's the difficulty of being a working parent; it's hard to make time for adult friendships when there's a million other things going on between work life and family life and all that stuff. All that said, I am a fairly social person with a lot of varied interests, so I definitely have a lot of casual acquaintances that slot into one area of my life but not the entire thing. I have my friends that I can talk about Formula 1 with, my friends that I can play D&D with, my friends that I go to church with, my friends that I hang out with here on Writing.com, etc. The interesting thing is that almost all of those groups of friends are numbered at about half a dozen or less, at least in terms of the people that I proactively seek out and work hard to prioritize maintaining a relationship with (as opposed to just being friendly with one another). I can't think of anywhere in my life where I have dozens and dozens of friends that I engage with. I suppose the closest would actually be this community on Writing.com, where I'm involved enough that I cross paths with a lot of different people, day-in, day-out. |
| To qualify for my Watch List every month, the following has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, but it can't be reruns or rewatches of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish. Movies The Life List — DNF A Minecraft MovieI didn't love either of the movies that I watched this month. The Life List was a generic romantic dramedy on Netflix, starring Sofia Carson as a young woman who works for her mother's company and, when her mother dies, is forced to go on an adventure of self-discovery. It ultimately felt like a rehash of P.S. I Love You, right down to the person who died giving the person on the journey prepared messages from beyond the grave. Overall, I haven't been terribly impressed with Netflix's original films, especially the ones of this variety where it seems like they're looking to compete with generic Hallmark or Lifetime cable movie fare with their own stable of regular actors. I usually watch movies straight through but we started this one late and I just had no interest in continuing it the next day. A Minecraft Movie was just okay. I'm not a huge fan of Jack Black under normal circumstances, and this kind of reinforced the fact that his schtick just isn't my thing. Jason Momoa was really funny in the role of a past-his-prime former gamer celebrity, but the script didn't do him any favors by making his character incredibly dumb and pretty much a one-note joke. I wish they would have given him a little more to work with, because Jack Black and the other characters were pretty dull and he was the sole bright spot until it became repetitive. Unless you're a huge fan of Minecraft, I don't think there's a lot to this movie for anyone else. Television Bosch: Legacy (Season 2) Bosch: Legacy (Season 3) The Pitt (Season 1) The White Lotus (Season 3)Unlike the disappointing movies this month, the television was all okay-to-pretty-good. Bosch: Legacy is a continuation of the very successful Bosch series on Amazon Prime, based on the bestselling Michael Connelly crime novels featuring the same character. I'm probably biased because I love the books so much, but I really enjoyed this series. The original Bosch was great, and this spinoff focused on his daughter Maddie (who was a teenager thinking of becoming a cop in the original series) finally getting her badge and starting her career in law enforcement while her father Harry transitions to a second career in private investigation. The stories were really interesting, especially the one where Maddie was kidnapped and buried out in the desert so that the killer could use her as a bargaining chip for a lighter sentence for other crimes. The Pitt was something that I first thought was just going to be an ER-spinoff (many of the same creators and it even has Noah Wyle as a doctor), but this one took a different approach where, instead of a case of the week, the entire season covers a single day in the ER (each episode is one hour of the day, told chronologically), on a day where there's a mass shooting at a music festival and the hospital has to become a trauma center. It was a really compelling way to tell a story and apparently they already have plans for another season told the same way (with all episodes covering and hour-by-hour account of a single day), and I'm definitely invested enough to see what they do the next time around. The White Lotus was something I was really looking forward to seeing. The first season set at a "White Lotus" chain in Hawaii was a surprise hit, and the second season featuring a mostly-new cast at an Italian branch of the chain was interesting. The third season was set at a third resort in Thailand, which is a location that I really loved, but none of the characters were interesting to me. Usually each season has a couple of people I'm fascinated by, a couple of people that I think are somewhat interesting, and one or two that are duds. This season there were no fascinating characters, only one or two interesting ones, and a whole lot of duds. If there is a fourth season of the show, I hope Mike White figures out a way to get back to interesting characters and storylines. TOP PICK: Bosch: Legacy (Season 2) |
 Day 3822: Who is your favourite character from one of your favourite novels? Three characters immediately came to mind for this prompt, one from one of my favorite novels, one from a novel (trilogy) that I really, really enjoyed, and one from a novel (trilogy) that I have yet to finish but this character dramatically stood out in the first novel. Mark Watney from The Martian is a great character from one of my favorite novels. I found the story of an astronaut trapped on Mars and trying to find his way home completely captivating. The character's brilliance is enhanced by his sense of humor, and the way the author walks us through his thought process from realizing he's stranded to figuring out how to survive to figuring out how to communicate to figuring out how to get home again is simply marvelous. As a reader, you get a ton of insight into this character's rational, logical thought process that you begin to believe, time and again, that he's actually going to pull of something that should be impossible, even when he has to deal with setbacks. Sand dan Glotka from The First Law trilogy is another favorite character of mine, and I absolutely loved this trilogy. All of the characters are really well done, but none better than Glokta, who is a former handsome champion with a life of honor and heroism ahead of him, who heads off to war and is captured and tortured by the enemy, and later comes back into society as a disfigured cripple who becomes an inquisitor/torturer working behind the scenes. The character development is incredible; not only do you get a sense of all of the aches and pains and indignities that Glokta now has to deal with on a regular basis, but you get flashes of the charisma and humor that he used to have and how his current situation has twisted his view of the world but hasn't at all impacted his intellect or his ruthlessness. Glokta could easily be the subject of a semester-long character study in some undergrad college literature program. Lady Kiva from The Collapsing Empire (Interdependency trilogy) is an absolute riot. The book focuses on the business, politics, and machinations of an interstellar civilization on the verge of change, and while many of the characters are basically playing Game of Thrones in Space, those moments are interspersed with a couple of characters who break up the "seriousness" of the narrative in key ways. Lady Kiva is basically a spoiled child of nobility who spends her time pursuing her various impulses and desires (mostly sleeping around and offending everyone's "respectable" sensibilities). It's hard to properly describe this character without going into too much detail, but I found a book reviewer who summarized it perfectly. Rogue Watson describes her as "a delightfully horny, vulgar, bisexual disaster" and, you know what? That's absolutely spot on, and it's so much fun to see a character that DNGAF running around DNGAF-ing all over the place in an otherwise serious situation. |
Prompt #41: If you were on trial for a crime you didn't commit, would there be any circumstances under which you'd consider taking a plea deal? If so, what and why? I would really struggle with this decision because I have both a very strong sense of right and wrong (and I share MLK's belief that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice"), so a big part of my inner monologue would be screaming, "You didn't do this! The judge/jury will see that. You shouldn't have to confess to a crime you didn't commit!" and I would have a very hard time coming to terms with the idea of taking a plea deal (which usually involve an admission of guilt). That said, I'm also a very, very practical person, and I tend to dislike risk. If it was a reasonable plea deal, I'd be very tempted to put up with a smaller injustice than entertain the possibility of being subjected to the greater injustice of being found guilty of a crime I didn't commit. For example, if pleading guilty meant probation rather than jail time, I'd really have to consider that. If the guilty were something that could eventually be reduced or expunged, I'd really have to consider that. I suppose, ultimately, it would come down to the crime I'm being accused of and how close to it that I actually came to committing it. I don't know that I could in good conscience plead guilty to murder, for example, if I definitely didn't murder someone. But if I was accused of, for example, assault and battery by someone I had gotten into an altercation with, I'd have to consider whether the plea was worth taking even if I didn't personally believe that the altercation rose to the level of the legal definition of assault and battery. So I guess all of that is to say I suppose there are circumstances where I'd consider taking a plea deal if I was innocent. The justice system is hardly perfect, and I've seen enough innocent people convicted of crimes that I don't think I could say that I would categorically stand by my own innocence at all times, especially if I saw the case trending in a wrong/unfavorable direction. But it would definitely be a last resort because, as an optimist, I'd like to still believe in the idea that truth and justice can win out, and that I won't be found guilty for something that I truly didn't do. |
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