Quote for today by Elmore Leonard

"The best kind of character is one who starts out in a minor role - sometimes without even having a name - and talks his way into the plot."
- Elmore Leonard

From the book "Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life".


In unrelated blogging news...

We are going to Universal Studios today!

Yes, got a day off. YEAH!

I'll bring my camera.

“Freakonomics” and another 11PM movie review

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?

I don’t know. But I”ll find out for you as I read the book, “Freakonomics”

Jake and I went to Barnes & Noble last night and grabbed a couple of books to read in the connecting Starbucks coffee shop. I had just started reading my book of choice, “Freakonomics”, when he asked, “what’s your book about”.

I had read a brief write-up on “Freakonomics” and tried to recall some of the ‘themes’ that he might be able to understand. Economics itself, and the rogue term, ‘Freakonomics’, would definitely be outside his bubble of vocabulary. I fumbled for words to try and describe what I was reading, “It’s about people. And life. And things like that.”

I keep forgetting he's five years old now and giving him answers like these isn't going to stimulate his brain. And if you know Jake, he gets bored if his brain isn't worked.

Then, a light bulb popped over my head as a recalled something written in the intro of the book on how the author observed a homeless man walking by his car with fifty-dollar headphones on his head - better headphones than his. Expensive headphones. Of course the term ‘expensive’ is relative as some might think fifty-dollar headphones are expensive and some may think it’s nothing when it comes to good sound.

I tried to relay that idea as best as I could so Jacob would ‘get’ the thinking behind that and quickly responded with, “It’s about how people that have no money but they still buy expensive things.”

His response… “You mean like you?”

I thought about that for a second and smiled… “Yeah – I guess so.” I was quick to make sure to put these people, you know, the people with no money but buy expensive things, in a group so I wouldn’t stand out so much and added, “It’s like everyone.”

How does he equate me with having no money and still able to buy expensive things?

Do I? Do I say I have no money? Do I buy expensive things?

Well, you know... having money, having no money, saying something is expensive or cheap... It’s all relative.

So then on to another movie review.

My 11:00 PM DVD of choice for last night was “Underworld” with Kate Beckinsale and Scott Speedman. Yes, I’m finding that 11:00 PM is the prime time for me to put things aside and watch a movie. That eventually only gives me five or so hours of sleep but who needs sleep when you have Netflix and an X-Box?

I turned off the lights, sat in front of the TV, pressed play, and was hooked from the start. The movie was two hours long and hit all the right beats at all the right times. It was well structured and very entertaining. A smart Vampire movie!


Underworld (2003)
My rating: 8/10

Quick review: Vampires and werewolves are at war when one female vampire warrior falls in love with a human who has the ancient bloodline to create the ultimate immortal species - a Vampire Werewolf. It’s Romeo and Juliet with a bite fetish.

Yeah baby! Guns. Vampires. Werewolfs. Love. This movie had it all. And if you like the dark underworld of Vampires, this movie is for you. Jump into the future and experience centuries of ‘bad blood’ (no pun intended) between two species of undead. Kate Beckinsale was awesome and Scott Speedman (Ben from ‘Felicity’) made a good pair. But the best performances came from supporting actors.

Viktor, played by Bill Niley (who played Billy Mack from ‘Love Actually’) was the perfect ‘lord’ of the vampires. Shane Brolley and Micheal Sheen, the leaders of the werewolfs and vampires respectively, butt heads and brought great performances when they shared the screen.

If I told you this was a Vampire/Werewolf/Action movie with great acting you’d probably think I was crazy. But it is and it does.

And I’m not crazy.

Although, that’s all relative too.

The Asian Poster, "Tag", and some SERIOUS thai food!

A night at THE ASIAN POSTER gallery.

"TAG" screened at this art gallery in Santa Monica. It was a small, cozy gallery with about 100 chairs set up in front of a small drop down movie screen. The turn out was decent and the hand picked films ranged from documentary & experimental to dramatic narative and comedy.

Walking around the Gallery prior to the screening I was able to look at the many Asian Poster on display. I took pictures of some of my favorites. Unfortunately, the low light situation didn't bode well for photography, and using a flash would cause a glare as each poster had a plastic protective cover.

I adjusted the exposure as best as I could.







After the screening there was a brief question and answer session. That's Dale up front.



After the screening, Dale, his wife and I headed up to Hollywood and stopped by my favorite Thai restaurant. "Chuan Chim".





The dinner was...
Chicken skewars
Hot and Sour soup with chicken.
Yellow curry chicken.
Prik King with beef (green beans)
Chinese Brocoli with chicken

OH MY GOD! It was so good!

Another DVD for your viewing pleasure

So here I go. I fight off late night munchies despite TWO Ben & Jerry's ice cream containers pleading me to take them out of the freezer. I'm avoiding those early evening glasses of red wine and ice cold beer that sedates me. Instead, I'm turning to NETFLIX to fulfill my needs. It's bed time and there's a movie to be watched. It's a movie that would have racked up some serious late fees if it weren't for Netflix. And when I say serious, I'm talking three figures here. It's a movie that I had to watch in order to get another one to replace it. And you know what... I wish I watched it sooner.


Maria Full of Grace (2004)
My Rating (9/10)

Quick Summary: A frustrated, independent, 17 year old girl in Columbia, desperate for a better job and better life, accepts a job as drug-running "mule." She smuggles a half-kilo of heroin into the United States when everything goes wrong and her life spins out of control.

Wow. I kept putting this movie off shoving other movies into my DVD player instead of it. Finally, it had to be watched. I didn't plan on staying up late to watch it, and I thought maybe I'll watch thirty or so minutes of it and doze off. I was so engaged in the story and the character I fought off my sleepiness, sat up in bed and watched it all the way through. It was an hour and forty minutes, it was past 1:00 AM and despite the late into the night drowsiness, I wanted more. I wanted to see what happened next to Maria. I wanted to know how her life turns out. I was rooting for her. Unfortunately, the movie was over and I had to go to sleep.

Watch this movie. You will be pleasantly surprised.

50/50? It's more like 50.08/49.92!

Okay, so I need a break from all these analysis on costs of implants and charges associated to them, profit/loss and margins. Boring stuff.

Here's a more meaningful analysis for those who care.

I was flipping a coin while talking to Dale and I got 6 heads and 4 tails out of 10 flips. I did it ten more times and got 7 heads and 3 tails. That's 13 heads and 7 tails total. That's a 65/45 ratio. It's not 50/50.

But that's a small pool sample. So I used a powerful tool to calculate random generated numbers in order to get a ratio.

Microsoft EXCEL - my favorite analysis tool ever. If I had Excel 2000 in school, school would have been a breeze.

I used the "random between" function to generate a number that is 1 or 2 =randbetween(1,2) (you'll need to addin the analysis toolpack if you want this function).

To control the results a little better I used 50,000 rows of data in 10 columns, for a total of 500,000 RANDOM results.

The end result:

1s = 250401
2s = 249599

For a 50.08/49.92 ratio.

Yes, you can round and get it to 50/50, but the difference is 802 more 1s than 2s.

Each column differed. The closest to 50/50 was a column with 24994 1s and 24882 2s for a ratio of 49.99/50.01 for a difference of only 12 more 1s than 2s.

The largest margin was a column with 25168 1s and 24832 2s for a 50.34/49.66 ratio with a difference of 336 more 1s than 2s.

This says tons about things being 50/50. From feeling so-so, you know, 50/50, to flipping a coin before a football game.

There's a heavy favorite between one side of the 50 to the other side of the 50 on the 50/50 ratio concept. It may be a slight heavy favorite, but that edge could mean a world of a difference.

This only goes to prove that if you split a pie 50/50, a piece of candy 50/50, a slice of chocolate cake or a cookie 50/50 or split lottery winnings 50/50, one of you will end up with 50.08% of it and the other a measly 49.92%.

Now that you know this you will always have the edge over your so called 50/50 partnership, deal or coin flip.

Beware of this and don't ever ever find yourself short changed.

Movie Reviews: Old Boy, Koma, Land of the Dead

More Summer Movie Fun... At home or in the theater, here are some choices that you may not normally find yourself watching.


Old Boy (2003)
My Rating: 7/10

Quick summary: An imprisoned man, kidnapped then drugged and tortured for 15 years, seeks revenge on those that imprisoned him with the help of a female sushi chef.

I enjoyed this movie. I hear they want to remake this film in America. I'm not so sure it will work. If you like 20 minutes of explanation (like in Vanilla Sky) then you might not have any problems with it. The twist, and controversial subject matter may draw some attention, good and bad. Overall, fun movie to watch if you can stay on board. There's a great (realistic) fight scene that seems to last forever but not long enough.


Koma (2004)
My Rating: 9/10

Quick Summary: After entering the wrong hotel room and finding a bloody corpse that's missing a kidney, a Hong Kong debutante gets caught in the middle of an organ theft ring.

I'm really not familiar with this genre. It was suspenseful like "Dressed to Kill" and it reminded me of that from the start. The music, the suspense, the aprehension and fear. I was at the edge of my seat... well, I was in bed holding on to a pillow... but you know what I mean. I really, enjoyed this movie. And despite a late night viewing with tired eyes, I could not turn it off. RENT IT!


Land of the Dead (2005)
My Rating: 4/10

Summary: George Romero is back with his Zombies that are trying to take back what they think belongs to them. Their land. Hence the title. "Land of the Dead". Yes, Zombies with half a brain.

Having watched "Dawn of the Dead" I was looking forward to another fun Zombie movie. This was just blah to me. It relied on things jumping out of the dark to create a sense of fear. The overall Romero Zombie types don't keep me on edge. I want some real life shit if you know what I mean. Watch it for fun, but don't expect much.

Quote for today

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write. Stephen King (1947 - ), On Writing, p. 147

Rules to live by. Don't touch steam from hot rice.

Last night I put some hot steaming rice on Jacob's and Bella's plate. It was extremely hot, fresh out of the rice cooker.

Jacob started waving his hands over the rice and through the steam saying, "See, it's not hot." Of course, Bella did the same because her brother was doing it.

So I reminded him of the time he climbed up on my aunts table and waved at the steam coming off of the rice cooker and it burned him. The burn blistered up. It was really bad. We had to take him to the hospital and he got bandaged up. It was so sad.

His response to this memory recall was, "Yeah, but that was hot."

I just sat down and ate dinner.

I had taken a picture of his wrapped hand when he came home from the hospital. It was so pathetic yet it has always been one of my favorite pictures. He was maybe 1 1/2 years old. He had to keep the wrap on for 10 days.

I found the picture.


Jacob. Early 2002.

I love that pic!

Huh? What? Where?

Ramblings... because I'm completely out of it.

"Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you." ~Marsha Norman

I was so out of it this morning. I got out of the shower, made coffee and got dressed for work.

I went to pour myself a cup of coffee and pulled out Bella's bottle instead of my coffee cup from the dish washer. I was totally lost and couldn't figure out what I was doing. I figured Bella would be awake soon so I decided to pour her some milk.

The milk cartoon has a spout so its easy to pour the milk into the bottle. After I poured it, I couldn't figure out why the top of the bottle wouldn't screw in right and I realized I was trying to screw it onto the milk cartoon spout.

I shook off my confusion, poured coffee into my mug and brought the bottle to Bella. I hope she's drinking milk and not coffee.

Then I realized I had tons of dreams last night. Dreams about driving, driving by the beach on a long never-ending drive. I had dreams about reading and looking at a never ending stack of books to read. I had dreams about wearing yellow socks, a bright sunny day, kicking back in the back seat of a car as if I was a kid on a family vacation. I dreamt all night long it was weird. I remember driving by the beach and seeing a dolphin through the rocks. But I couldn't get a clear view of it as I pointed it out and I thought maybe it was just a rock I saw. I remember driving up a mountain path, the white sand of the beach below and a bright MORNING sun beating down on me. I noticed I was wearing yellow socks with black converse hightops. I also remember being in a room at the library thinking there are too many books to read. There was this girl with a pierced upper lip and I couldn't stop staring at the little diamond. I wasn't sure if it was a mole, but I knew in my dream it was a diamond.

I'm still a little out of it. Maybe not. I don't know. I do know, I'm dreading work.

I don't know what these dreams mean. Maybe its true, they are just illustrations from the book my soul is writing about me.

The other day someone asked me what I've written and why I became a writer.

So I decided to reflect back about me... about my writing days and how I started.

I never knew I'd ever write a screenplay. In high school I dreamed about being a novelist. An espionage, spy novelist. I also thought I needed experience and during my last two years of high school I was really thinking about joining the army. I wanted to be in the Special Forces. I wanted to go under cover and do some dark, deadly things. Eventually hiding out in some cabin in some remote, secluded area of Switzerland writing memoirs of my missions.

During the 1st Gulf War I was ending my last year of college and I felt guilty that I wasn't there. I thought hard about enlisting once agian after getting my degree. I had put writing aside because of an article in Writer's Digest I read about not having enough experience to write till age 30.

I wrote my first feature screenplay at the age of 30. I wrote it in seven days. It was called "SATURDAYS" and it was about a guy who's religious upbringing, strict parents and mixed up morals kept him from his passions. He quit college to be a writer and produce his own movie. Every newbie writer will write about a writer as their first script. It's unavoidable and has to be done. And it usually sucks but you have to get it out of your system. I've heard pitches and read scripts from tons of new screenwriters who have written themselves into a script and its all about writing. They were all boring. Just take a Begining Screenwriting Class somewhere and listen to all the scripts people are planning on writing about writing.

I shelved "Saturdays" after passing it around and never ever looked at it since. It's horrible.

But then I took some elements of the script, enrolled in a screenwriting class and wrote my second feature called "BLIND LOVE" (Currently called "Sushi a Go-Go"), a cross-cultured romantic comedy about a conservative guy and an exotic dancer. I entered it into screenwriting competitions and it came in as a Finalist to one of the TOP THREE competitions at the time. The Chesterfield Fellowship. It gave me confidence as a writer. That script has been sent to several competitions and has gone on to more qualifiying positions, Semi-Finalist, Quarter-Finalist, than rejection letters. It just has never won.

The next script was a family script. It was called "Ethan and the Lost Dog from Outer Space" (Currently called "Zen and the Way of the Space Dog"). It is about a boy and a lost dog from outer space. And that too made it to verying levels of competition status. But it has never won.

I wrote a feature with a writing partner called "A Loss of Words" but I lost passion on the project, and writing, and left it with him. He's done well with it.

Then there's those features that I shelved because they sucked. "Full Circle", "Life Love and My Virgin Best Friend", "Misdirection"...

And tons of screenplays that I have never finished.

It's weird thinking back at the past eight years and all that I've written. There's tons of short films that will never ever be read, tons of short stories, and tons of journal entries spread out from the internet to handwritten journals. All this while starting a family, holding a full time job, and trying to produce films on the side.

I've written alot. But it's frustrating because I realize I haven't written enough.

The past eight years... it's like a dream.

"Man is a genius when he is dreaming." Akira Kurosawa. Japanese filmmaker.

I guess I was a genius last night.

"The Right to Write" Chapter: THE WALL OF INFAMYI'm supposed to set aside a half hour. Number from 1 to 3 and cast three people who have been "creative monsters," that is, people who have criticized, undercut, or sabotaged my creativity.

It's about anger and writing from anger, frustration, etc. The list is to help bring out that anger and focus it on paper.

This was tough. I'll go through each and give explanation.

Really, there hasn't been many who have criticized, undercut, or sabotaged my creativity but I'll start off with the one obvious one.

So number one...

1. ME.

I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to creativity. I sit down, get caught up with a baseball game or DVD or the Internet. I know that I need to edit pages, or continue on with a script but the next thing you know its the next day and work has not been done. Other things get in the way that I choose to do when I could just write. So the number one "creative monster" has got to be me.

2. J. KUNASAKI

I worked for a very big company as a business analyst back in the mid 90s. This woman was my boss. I thought there was a lot of potential working for her. Then I realized SHE HATED MEN and wanted my female counterpart to succeed. Yes, even my counterpart admited to me, "JK TOLD ME NOT TO SHOW YOU HOW TO DO THIS." Damn bitch... a damn bitch. I'd say 100% of the department didn't care for her. Maybe some hated her like I did. She was a brown nose suck up who thought she was 'all that' and when she walked away people would shake their heads and think otherwise. During a performance review she told me that I wouldn't amount to anything if I didn't focus on one thing - like work. She said I should quit acting, playing hockey, trying to write, and focus on business if I wanted to make it. Hell, I've made it in business without fricken focus, and I've managed to act on stage and write, start a family and succeed in almost everything I do. You have to make it happen. She basically said I had too many interests and I was never going to amount to anything. God, she was such a bitch. I guess she's not really a "creative monster" because she didn't hold me back creatively, but she looked at me like I was a failure.

3. Parents.

I'd like to be apart of everything Jacob is going through. I'd like to know what he's passionate about and support it in any way possible. Not only support it, but make sure he knows I support him, his passions and actively be there for him. My parents have never ever ever done that with my writing. NEVER. It's always about how much will I get paid. It's always about the money. It's never about hapiness and well-being. They believe money is the cause of problems and the remedy. If we are in debt, its because of money. But if I had money, I wouldn't have any problems. I could care less if I was in debt. I care more about being able to write.

Next is to number from 1 to 3 again and list 3 people you'd like to "show".

I'd like to 'show' all three people above my eventual success to put them in their place. Yes, even me.

100 Things I love

Can you make a list of 100 things you love? It takes time to do this. And part of writing is actually taking the time to sit down and do things. It might seem tedious or useless, but the practice is just doing it. And getting use to it.

In Julia Cameron's book, "The Right to Write", the chapter on DRAMA instructs the writer to set aside thirty minutes and list 100 things that they love. Then keep a copy of this list and pull it out and read it whenever stress strikes. It will connect you to the sense of well-being apart from the current drama.

I passed over this chapter assignment and read on to other chapters. I've followed each chapter and its writing assignments (not always in order) but this one kept nagging at me as I thought it was a waste of time. I mean, 100 things?!? That's a long list that I might not be able to complete. I felt guilty for not doing the assignment.

So, today, as quickly as I can, I will list them. From 1 to 100. From the top of my head to the bottom of my toes, here are the 100 things that I love.

1 - Family - Family - Family!!!
2 - Friends
3 - Meeting with Dale about projects
4 - Meeting with Dwight about our comic strip
5 - Watching Jacob play baseball
6 - Watching Jacob sleep
7 - Watching Bella sleep
8 - Eating sushi
9 - Drinking strong coffee
10 - Writing
11 - Watching movies
12 - Eating popcorn at a movie theater
13 - Taking pictures of the kids
14 - Spending time with Donna. ALONE
15 - Mark & Brian radio show
16 - My iPod
17 - Driving with the windows down
18 - Playing Paintball
19 - Rice, Bacon and Eggs
20 - Dodger Dogs
21 - Dodger games
22 - A new pair of shoes
23 - A fast computer
24 - A good book
25 - Buying DVDs
26 - Buying books
27 - All songs by U2
28 - Rain
29 - A good joke
30 - Reading blogs and online journals
31 - A good juicy steak
32 - Beni Hana restaurant
33 - Donna's Shrimp Pasta dish
34 - Donna's beef with olives and stuff
35 - Christmas
36 - Thanksgiving
37 - A day off work
38 - Complete silence
39 - Hawaii
40 - Vacation in Alabama
41 - Disneyland
42 - Santa Anita Racetrack
43 - VEGAS, BABY!
44 - Writing "THE END" at the end of a script
45 - Apple Martinis
46 - Ice Cold Beer
47 - A soft pillow
48 - Clean sheets on a bed
49 - A long hot shower
50 - Visiting cousins in Sacramento
51 - Playing Fantasy Baseball with James
52 - Talking on the phone with Dale
53 - Talking on the phone with James
54 - RIP Factor all playing paintball together
55 - Memories of Summer Vacation
56 - Little tiny babies
57 - A babies breath
58 - A babies feet
59 - Hugs from my kids
60 - When Bella kisses me without telling her to
61 - The fact that Jacob read "Green Eggs & Ham" to me in one 45 minute sitting
62 - Saladang restaurant
63 - Chuan Shin restaurant
64 - An exciting Nascar finish
65 - Playing video games
66 - A Sunday afternoon nap
67 - Santa Barbara
68 - A two hour massage
69 - Sports Chalet
70 - No traffic
71 - A car wash
72 - Jamoca ice cream from Basin Robbins
73 - Calls from good old friends
74 - New Years Eve
75 - A paycheck
76 - The internet
77 - Watching TV
78 - San Diego
79 - San Francisco
80 - A long summer day outside of work
81 - Mangos
82 - A nice juicy apple
83 - A sweet orange
84 - Superbowl Sunday
85 - The NHL Playoffs
86 - Duke's Buffet
87 - Leaving work early
88 - Reading comic books
89 - Sleeping in
90 - Tommy Burgers
91 - My mom's fried chicken
92 - Costo
93 - Toy stores
94 - Comic book stores
95 - Walmart
96 - Late night poker with friends
97 - An ice cold coke
98 - Cell phones
99 - Palm Pilots
100 - People that love my scripts

And as quickly as I could, there's the list.

I got stuck around the 40s and then again in the 70s. I breezed though from 90-100 and thought I needed more.

Now when I'm in complete stress, I'll pull out the list and contemplate my well being. Let's see if it works.

Here's a couple of pics from my birthday dinner...

One of my best friends, Debbi, came up from Dallas and joined us for my birthday dinner at "The Yardhouse" in Pasadena (on June 11). Alex, who moved to Florida and worked with us as well came up with Debbi for a short vacation. We use to work together long time ago. The company centralized in Dallas. She went, Alex moved to Florida and I stayed. She was also one of Donna's bridesmaids. The last time we saw each other was in Hawaii, five and a half years ago. It was a nice birthday surprise to have her join us. She use to be part of the whole birthday gatherings.


Here are some of us that were at my dinner.
Dasie, Dale, my sister Liza holding Makena, ALEX, DEB, Jake, Donna and Bella.


That's the building in Pasadena where Debbi, Alex and I use to work.


Debbie's reaction to all the kids she has not seen. She saw Jake in Hawaii when he was 6 months old but has never met Bella, Colby or Makena.


Lori, Chip, Deb and Donna.


The three amigos. Jake, Bella and Colby.

You might think this outfit is all Jacob wears. Well, it practically is since its his favorite basketball uniform out of the five he has. He dreads it when it has to go in the wash and just so happens has it on whenever I have the camera out.

Real life Zombies?

Just released was a confirmation of an area quarantined by the government similar to that of Area 51. This area was on an uncharted island one hundred miles south of New Zealand. The island is called AZS51 and Australian military sources confirm the island's call sign stands for A: AREA, Z: ZOMBISM S: SCREAMLAND and the numeral 51 to mirror the stretch of land in Nevada, a sub-area of the Groom Lake facility, where UFOs are stored, built, and tested also called “Dreamland”.

AZS51 was inhabited by natives of the island but a compound housed what they are calling, Zombies - reanimated dead quarantined there for scientific testing.

Two months ago a scientist infected with what they classify as a Type: X-12 virus was able to exit the daily physical exam with a clean bill of health. He never reported back to base. His name has been withheld from the media.

It is confirmed that the majority of the island inhabitants have been infected with the Type: X-12 virus through bites from "Zombified" victims. The population as of 2004 census shows 60,000 inhabitants on the island. There is a 100% mortality rate once infected.

One to five minutes after a person dies by infection, the body resurrects in a 'zombie-like' state and acts in very violent ways - like a rabid-dog. It wanders with aimless aggression biting those that are within reach.

The compound has an automatic lockdown and approximately two hundred people are still within. Leaflets were dropped onto the island with instructions on how to protect yourself and on the symptoms of the Type: X-12 Virus.

Both the US officials and General Bradshaw of the Australian Military have stated that the outbreak of the Type: X-12 Virus has been contained to the island and the public has no need to worry but they also admit that they are currently trying to locate two other doctors who went through the same physical exit exam before departing to Japan and The United States on the day of the Type: X-12 virus outbreak. If one or both of these doctors are infected, the outbreak may move quickly through the general public with no known cure.

A military plan is already being set to extract the remaining individuals from the compound on the AZ51 island.

Information on the virus.

TYPE: ZOMBIE X-12 VIRUS
Signs and Symptoms

Once infection occurs, the ZX-12 virus grows in muscle tissue and may go undetected for several days or months depending on the size of the wound where the individual was infected. You can only be infected through a bite by another infected individual carrying the ZX-12 virus.

During the incubation (or latent) period, the infected human appears healthy and shows no sign of infection. Eventually, the virus migrates to the nerves near the site of the infection and spreads to the spinal cord and brain (i.e., the central nervous system). It will spread through the peripheral nerves to the central nervous system. At this point, the disease progresses rapidly, and the infected human begins to show the classic behavioral signs of ‘turning’. The virus spreads to the saliva, tears, breast milk, and urine. The human then shows no signs of life and within 1 to 5 minutes reanimates into a full-fledged TYPE: ZOMBIE X-12.

Prior to death the infection progresses in a predictable manner, from the initial prodormal phase to the excitative, or furious, phase to the final paralytic phase.

The first sign usually is a change in behavior. Humans that are infected should be aware that behavioral changes can occur as a result of many conditions, from digestive disorders to poisoning.

Infected humans usually stop eating and drinking, and may appear to want to be left alone. After the initial onset of symptoms, the human may become vicious or begin to show signs of paralysis. Some bite at the slightest provocation and others may be somnolent and difficult to arouse. Once the infected human shows signs of paralysis, the disease progresses very quickly and the human dies.

Prodromal phase: first symptoms of ZX-12 infection
The early symptoms of the ZX-12 infection tend to be subtle and include the following:

• Change in tone of voice


• Grinding of teeth


• Fever


• Loss of appetite


• Subtle changes in behavior

Furious phase: "mad dog syndrome"
An infected human may viciously attack any person verbally or physically.
They may show the following signs:

• Craving to eat anything


• Constant irritability


• Episodes of aggression


• Facial expression showing anxiety and hyperalertness


• Restlessness


• Seizures


• Trembling and muscle incoordination

Paralytic phase
Initial symptoms include the following:

• Appearance of choking


• Dropping of the lower jaw


• Inability to swallow, leading to drooling and foaming of saliva (i.e., "foaming at the mouth")


• Paralysis of jaw, throat, and chewing muscles

Paralysis then spreads to other parts of the body, the human becomes depressed, rapidly enters a coma and dies.

Zombie phase
Within 1 to 5 minutes of death, the deceased body reanimates into a full-fledged TYPE: ZOMBIE X-12.
The Zombie will show all of the following behaviors.

• Craving to eat Humans


• Dilated pupils


• Disorientation


• Erratic behavior


• Aggression


• Facial expression showing anger


• Irritability


• Restlessness


• Roaming

Cure for the Type: Zombie X-12 Virus
There is no known cure after the Zombie phase at this time. Decapitation of the head, extreme physical trauma to the brain or reducing the body to its base elements through burning are the only means to stop a TYPE: ZOMBIE X-12 from continued reanimated life.

Someone wrote up the following on why these Zombie's target Humans.


ZOMBIE PHENOM EXPLANATION
1) Brains cause conscious mental phenomena. (2) There is some sort of conceptual or logical connection between conscious mental phenomena and external behavior. (3) The capacity of the brain to cause consciousness is conceptually distinct from its capacity to cause motor behavior. A system could have consciousness without behavior and behavior without consciousness.

Brains cause conscious mental phenomena and the reason Zombie's are only attracted to human's is a phenomena we have yet to figure out. The reason Zombie's are only attracted to human's could be the same reason a human is attracted to other humans. From jealousy, love, spite, need to be included, need to be revengeful, sexual, etc.

Everything stored up in their conscious is acted out in the only way a Zombie can act - through devouring a human being.

Like the conditional response to going to the mall, or holding up a sign day after day, the Zombie's are going to do what they are accustomed to do as rational humans. But now they aren't in control of their rational. They are drawn to the living and trying to devour their flesh in order to be alive themselves.

Maybe, in their own mind now, they are fulfilling all the steps of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. By devouring a human, they achieve: Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem, Self Actualization in their own state of mind.

That's what we are all driven by and is in our conscious, now that they are Zombie's and are not in control, they are still accustomed to these needs and by condition, try and fulfill it by devouring humans.

Puppy's have unconditional love for their owners. Yet they bite. They don't know its wrong yet.

Lion's don't eat their own, but they eat others to survive. It's that animal instinct to do so. The Zombie virus destroy's the brain and possibily that part that KEEPS US from behaving like blood thirsty animals.

For those who didn't get it by now - this is fiction. It's part of my script I'm working on.

Movie Reviews: Batman Begins & Dawn of the Dead

Batman Begins(2005) My Rating: 9/10

On Friday around 11:00 AM I walked into my boss' office and told him I was bored and asked him for some work. He had nothing to give me so he told me to take the rest of the day off. He's a great boss ain't he?

I got home and dragged Jessica off the internet and we went to see "Batman Begins". It was a good way to spend the afternoon with your daughter. We had a snack at Seoul Grindz then had popcorn and soda at the movies. It was alot of fun.

As a Batman fan I'd have to say this movie ROCKED! This is what everyone else is saying - the Batman we've been waiting for. Yes, there were holes in the movie but I'm letting that go. It's a comic book.

But there were no flashy stars or comedic characters, just bare-bones Dark Knight and the dark villians he has to deal with played by awesome actors.

Christian Bale is by far the best actor to play the part of Batman. But the best thing about the movie was the use of great names to play these character parts - even the small ones.

Michael Caine was excellent, Morgan Freeman was absolutely great as usual, Gary Oldman awesome, Liam Neeson was spectaular, Tom Wilkinson was totally convincing, Rutger Hauer was magnificent and Ken Watanabe was a special treat!

I mean, look at all these great names that didn't get bigger than the story, film or the role they played. They just did their job.

And the noname actor in Cillian Murphy was just brilliant. The next James Spader in my opinion.

But the least important character in the movie was... Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes.

Rachel Dawes was a character with no impact to the overall movie. Some may say they like the 'strength' of a good female character. She was strong, but that strength came from nowhere. Where's the depth? All we know of her was her relationship with Wayne as kids. That's it. That's all. Where's the depth and drive to be who she is or do what she's doing?

Mary Jane Watson in Spiderman was both strong - doing desperately what she wanted to do - model/actress, and also had depth. She had history behind her. An abusive household, a teenager desperately wanting something more and going for it by herself, and having that hidden love for Peter Parker. Rachel Dawes... she just wanted to bring people to justice. What was she really motivated by?

She doesn't need to be in the next movie. Her acting was flat and the scenes she was in were flat. And from what I hear I'm not the only one sharing this sentiment. Let's bring in someone like Jessica Alba!

I do highly recommend this movie to those who want some action, a good comic book storyline and especially those frustrated with the later releases of the Batman franchise. This one is a hit. And just like I felt with the Star Wars episodes I had to say to myself... "Finally!"

Dawn of the Dead (2004) My Rating: 8/10

Dale handed me a DVD during my birthday dinner. It was a Zombie movie. HA! I'm not a Zombie movie watcher, fan or affcionado. I'm far from it. I do need to watch a few Zombie movies for research purposes so this was a good start.

So I watched it.

I'm now a Zombie movie watcher, fan and possibly affcionado of this whole Zombie phenomenom.

I really, really, really was entertained by this movie. I felt there were a few questionable scenes, one that I might thing was irresponsible film-making, but at the end of it all, no way. YOU HAD TO DO IT.

Slick photography, good actors, enough conflict, butting heads, and good directing! To me, nothing was overly done as I may have thought in a Zombie film.

This isn't a 'scary' movie per se. For movies like that watch "The Sixth Sense", "The Ring" or something like that. This is pure horror fun! Just be prepared for some very gruesome scenes. As a Zombie film, this was what I would say is a damn good movie and exceptionally fun. And I mean that. EXCEPTIONALLY FUN!

Paintball on Father's Day

This is how I spent five hours of my Father's Day... It was fun in the sun!!!

It's been rare that the five members of Rip Factor can get together. But finally, after a long time, we were back together again and had a great time.

Here are some pictures of the day.


This is what a Paintballer's trunk looks like.


Here I am listening to the rules for the day.


Dean - our back player.


Dale - our back/mid player.


Chip - our mid/front player.


Steve - our front player.


ME - our mid/front player.


The number one thing to wear in paintbal. Eye protection!


Here's our tent and table and chairs and where we share our stories for the day.


I got eight welts today. These are five of them.

Father's Day

"One night a father overheard his son pray: Dear God, Make me the kind of man my Daddy is. Later that night, the Father prayed, Dear God, Make me the kind of man my son wants me to be." -Anonymous

Father's day started out really well. A good cup of coffee, a beautiful day, and a day of paintball in which Donna sent me off to play. I had a BBQ rib dinner I was also looking forward to. It was going to be a perfect day.

Here's the three of them as I left. Jake was kinda mad because he wanted to draw with his new chalk outside. I told him I'd do that when i got home.



I decided to leave paintball a little early and I had just missed a call from Donna. It was 1:00 PM (normally I play till 3:00 PM). She left a message stating that Jacob wasn't feeling well. He couldn't breath, his nostrils were flared and his breaths were quick and short. He was wheezing. She was taking him to the Emergency Room by the instructions of his pediatrician. I panicked.

I have asthma. An asthma attack is the scariest thing in the world. And I would never wish it on anyone. Especially my kids. I dreaded the day it would happen because it was bound to. It was today.

My sister was watching Bella when I got home so I took over. I called Donna to see if I should come down but they said he was getting some breathing treatment and his O2 level was climbing back up. It was quite low. X-rays were done and they just had to wait because the E.R. was busy.

In the meantime, I just waited at home with Bella. (Who pooped TWICE by the way).

They got back around 4:30 PM. Jake was tired. He threw up on the way home and just wanted to sit with me and watch TV. I was so happy to see him. I hate it when my kids are sick. Its the most helpless feeling in the world.

And the BBQ Rib dinner... postponed till sometime this week.

As I drove to paintball I was thinking how great it was to be a father. On the way home I was reminded of how scary it is to be a father sometimes.

This is Jake in the hospital.

Sad huh?



I love you Jake, Bella, Jessica and Donna! Thanks for making Fatherhood the best thing in my life!
- PAPA

Quote of the day

Jake was looking at the comic strip that my artist/cousin drew for our strip and commented:

"Why is Dwight such a good drawer? He's the best.

He's better than no-one." Jake

Hard drive status

I got my replacement hard drive from Dell. I slipped it in, loaded Windows XP and MS Office, etc... Everything works. It took me a while to get the Internet going and I had to turn my back on it for a couple of days, but its up and running now. There's a few irritating kinks but its up and ready to go.

Now on to the old hard drive woes. I have a couple of options. The first would be to try to access my files by setting up my old drive as an external drive via USB2.0 cable. That would only cost $30.

The next, and last resort, would be to get a data recovery company to recover the data for me. And I do need it recovered.

And here is the quote:

The estimate to recover data from the 30GB hard drive you described is:

• Standard 1-2 Business Day Service: $900-3900.


• Economy 5-7 Business Day Service: $500-2700.


• There is a $200.00 attempt fee if the data is not recoverable.


• Priority Round-the-Clock/Weekend Service: $1800-8900, with a $800.00 attempt fee.

A special 10% discount will be applied to your final recovery cost. This discount does not apply to the attempt fee or to any backup media you may purchase.

Recovered data can be put on the media of your choice such as a replacement drive, CD, DVD, DAT tape, magneto-optical or removable media cartridges and floppies.

So I'm taking donations right now! Paypal is best. ;)

Knowledge is like the ocean...

"Knowledge is like the ocean. The deeper it gets the more silent it becomes." Glen Baker, GAE/GAA School Principal during his Principal challenge speech to the students June 2005 (I think I got that quote right).

I've come across people who act like they are smart, and who continually claim how smart they are. Usually they're just ignorant fools. I've come across several individuals who don't have to act up the 'smartness'. Intelligence just drips from every word, action or even their silence, and I find them captivating.

When Glen Baker made that statement at Jessica's graduation, it made so much sense to me and I wanted to call "an old co-worker" and say... "maybe you should just shut up about how smart you are."

This old co-worker once wrote to me and asked me to give critique on a paper she wrote for a film class she was taking. This was three years ago but it still touches a nerve. I was already dreading the paper and all its errors and misuse of irony, way off symbolism and themes. When I received the paper I was shocked at how well it was written. It was structured and well thought out. And I didn't give this person credit for this paper after reading paragraph one.

I immediately went online with a few key words and FOUND the exact same paper being sold on some term paper website for like sixty bucks (now they will email it to you for twenty five bucks). Here it is if you want to cheat: ""CITIZEN KANE" AND "VERTIGO": SENSE OF SPACE"

Why would this person continually want to prove how smart she was to me? Was she trying to show off about how great she was by sending me her interpretation of "Citizen Kane"?

I couldn't believe it. She wanted me to waste my time reading and then commenting on a six page term paper that she bought online just to impress me? I mean, she didn't even need to show it to me. Just turn the paper in and get a grade for it. But she went out of her way to contact me, after not working with her for several months, in order to flash this magnificent piece of work in my face. It took a couple of days before I laid into her about cheating and what she was going to gain from turning in the paper. She claimed that it was a paper that her teacher handed out to her, etc, etc... I then asked why she had it on MS WORD with her name as the author. She couldn't even lie 'smart'. We've never exchanged emails since. And good riddance.

Wow... This entry wasn't even supposed to go there. I was actually writing about Graduations and how its not the end when I got sidetracked by remembering Glen Baker's speech.

So let me get back on track to the original blog entry which was originally titled:

"GRADUATION IS NOT THE END... IT'S THE BEGINNING"

It's graduation time of the year. And having witnessed several 'graduations' in the past month you would think graduation symbolizes the end of a journey of sorts. But graduation is really not the end, it's really the beginning of something new.

It's true. From graduating 8th grade, nursing school, completing first season in tee-ball, terrible twos and finishing a script. It's not the end... but the beginning...

There's alot to be proud about in the HungryScreenwriter household...

• Jessica graduated 8th grade and was class president.
• Jacob was rewarded as MVP of his first Tee-Ball team.
• Donna graduated Nursing School.
• And Bella graduated from being cute and cuddly to the 'leave me alone' terrible twos.
• I guess I should be proud that I sat down and wrote two short Zombie scripts.

Let's start with Jessie-Wessie...

I kinda let her go through 8th grade without too much strict discipline. When she came home with bad grades she knew she had to do something about it. And for the most part, she did. So I backed off more - although she probably thinks I didn't. Algebra was the hardest subject because it was advanced and a prep class for high school. I knew it would be hard for her but she got through it and asked for my help when she needed it. That's a huge accomplishment. Followed by the disappointment of losing out as a class president in 7th grade, she gained redemption by being the 8th grade president and had a presidential address during graduation night. Despite our over expectations, I think she did very well this past year. So 'props' to the Wessica!!! I'm proud of ya.

I already dedicated a whole entry to Jacob and his achievements in Tee-Ball. Now we are on a waiting list to his favorite sport - basketball. His cross-over dribble will help him against the taller players as his size isn't really a plus.

Donna did great. I can't believe she's finished. But it continues as she spends three days and two nights at school studying for her boards. It reminds me to make sure to never go back to school!

Bella. The terrible twos make me laugh. It also makes me mad. On occasion she's the sweet Bella with monkey kisses. Again, it only reminds me my baby is not going to be a baby that much longer and that is really depressing!

Me... Zombie scripts. Everybody writes Zombie scripts. If you're interested in reading the latest, here it is in PDF format: "Circle of the Dying".

I started watching "Dawn of the Dead" last night for research around 10 PM before Bella woke up and tried to watch it with me. I put her back to bed and ended up falling asleep. It is actually entertaining. I can totally get into this Zombie thing. But I'd rather write a Vampire movie.

Last Friday we went out to celebrate Donna's graduation with her class. We were prepared to stay out till 1:30 AM. We hit the sack around 11:00 PM due to fatigue and old age. Here are some pics of Donna and her friends. She looked awesome that evening!

I hate flash photography. I changed these to B&W because they looked better and got rid of red-eye. Yuck.






The next day was Jacob's last tee-ball game. Here's one more picture of him playing second.

The End... er... The Beginning

Situations in my life that I currently am trying to metabolize

I was trying to come up with situations in my life that I am currently trying to metabolize. I really couldn’t think of just one thing. My mind has been a mess lately, trying to deal with my fallen computer, work frustrations and some personal writing deadlines that I have pushed to the wayside. In desperation to gain some focus, I did a list of things that are possible situations that I can focus on and am or should or will deal with.

Buying a camera… Which leads to actually purchasing it before I change my mind once again on what camera I want. I have to motivate the non-motivation I’m dealing with to order the camera. It would be as simple as going online and ordering it. The change needed would be to just do it and accept the fact that I made the right choice in cameras.

Writing in my journal… Sometimes it’s a struggle. I have nothing to write about. Nor do I want to write about anything that needs to be written. I just need to write. And that’s what I’m doing.

Zombie script for Dale… Its all in my head, I just need to focus, settle down, and get it from my head, down to my fingertips, and onto the keyboard for display on my monitor. I have to get my brain synapses firing!

I guess now all the three things I’m trying to metabolize are actually happening or have already happened. In the process of coming up with this situations, I have promised myself that I will order the camera this evening. As I contemplated writing in my journal about these things I finished a short Zombie script for Dale and emailed it to him. Which left me with one more thing – writing in my journal and as you can see, here it is.

So there you have it - three hundred fifty + words in ten minutes on situations in life that I currently am trying to metabolize.

And yet I still think the word metabolize is misused in this whole entry. But that’s just me.

I’m going to have a Numero Uno Calzone for lunch today. At least I think I am. I mean, I could change my mind and eat Split Pea Soup and Orange Sesame Chicken. But I doubt it.

Cambodian school siege ends, Canadian child dead

My dad use to tell me stories about when he was a young boy in the Philipines during the war. Bullets would fly and people would scatter. He'd grab his little baby brother (my Uncle Buddy) and run as fast as he could to hide. Usually they'd run and hide in ditches as he called them. I only had images in my head of how this may have looked - until I saw this picture on Yahoo today...



When I saw this image I saw my dad.

It put things into perspective. The feeling I got was of complete dispair. Fear. I can't even imagine how it would feel to be this man carrying the girl. Or the man to the right carrying the boy. Are these their parents? I can't even imagine how my dad felt running and seeking out his baby brother to dodge the bullets.

I don't even want to think about it anymore.

Here's an excerpt of the Cambodia story. Truely sad. Horiffic. Tragic.

Cambodian officials rescue children out of Siem Reap International School where gunmen held a teacher and pupils hostage in Siem Reap, northwestern Cambodia, June 16, 2005. A Canadian child and two gunmen were killed on Thursday as Cambodian troops and police stormed a school in the tourist town of Siem Reap to end a six-hour hostage drama near the Angkor Wat temples, police said. (Stringer/Cambodia/Reuters)

Do parents matter?

I didn't learn to read till I was like 12... Well, that's an exaggeration. I started reading at the 'appropriate age'. Whatever that was back then.

I was addicted to books at a very young age (I still am). My sister and I would race through our 10 books each (which was the maximum allowed to borrow at the library), on Saturday afternoons after church. Then I'd read hers and she'd read mine. My sister started reading younger than I did. We weren't allowed to do anything else on Saturdays, and we were actually frowned upon when we did read on Saturdays (as this was our family's "Sabbath"). So when our parents took their afternoon naps on this day, we'd open the books and read-read-read. It was what I would say the number one pleasure in life growing up. And now, it’s hard to even sit for an hour to read.

But I don't remember reading at age 4 or 5.

The other day, I had a migraine. I didn't want to watch TV, play baseball, surf on the net, write... nothing. I wanted to close my eyes and hear silence.

Jake was very kind as I explained this to him. So he decided to take out a book and 'read'. I quote the word 'read' because reading for him is like sounding out words and guessing on words that he doesn't want to sound out. It’s a little frustrating sometimes sitting with him.

His teacher says that he can figure it out, and we should let him instead of solving it for him. He can read, but it’s not about comprehending, it’s more like sounding out words, even when the word repeats. He sounds out words, it’s a struggle, and most of the time he gets them right.

At age TWO I had him recognize a few words from a Winnie The Pooh reading flash card set that shocked people. Words like GARDEN, FRIEND, KITE, etc. It was a select few words that he recognized without the pictures. He slowly forgot the words, or didn't want to recognize them anymore, when he started the 'real' way to read from his teachers.

I didn't want to rush him. But I've been very anxious for him to start.

I told him he could sit on my lap and read. He climbed up on my lap as I reclined and did his 'reading'.

And I was in shock. All of a sudden, what seemed like out of the blue, he was reading to me!

I couldn't keep my eyes closed because I wanted to see for myself. He was reading the words, slowly but surely. Each word wasn't sounded out unless it was hard. He'd read a word by sight, recognizing it as a word versus figuring it out every time as he once did.

We follow his schooling closely. When he finishes a new workbook, or reads a book we are informed and we praise him. Sometimes, and we should do it more often, we read a book to him before he goes to bed. But now, he's reading to me!

The headache temporarily went away as I sat there and watched him read the book again.

It was amazing! I was so happy.

But then again, it just reminds me... he's not a baby anymore and that makes me sad.

Here's a video of him reading at around 22 months: Jake Reading

Cute huh?

Here's some interesting information on Reading that I came across:

Study of children's reading habits shows encouraging results

According to a Tesco study that asked 2,600 parents about their children's reading habits, the perception that children spend their lives glued to a computer screen is either a myth or a huge exaggeration. About 40% of parents think their children read more than they did at the same age, which has given rise to the phenomenon of "crossovers" - books that children recommend to parents. The most famous example of a crossover is Harry Potter; others listed in Tesco's top 10 include Holes by Louis Sachar.

Caroline Ridding, the book buyer for Tesco, said, "Contrary to popular belief, children read more today than ever before. Far from being obsessed with TV and computer games, our study show their love of reading is greater than ever."

The most popular children-to-parent children titles were:
1. Harry Potter (books 1-5), JK Rowling
2. Adrian Mole series, Sue Townsend
3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon
4. His Dark Materials (1-4), Philip Pullman
5. Holes, Louis Sachar
6. A Series of Unfortunate Events (1-11), Lemony Snicket
7. Sophie's World, Jostein Haarder
8. How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff
9. Junk, Melvin Burgess
10. The Scarecrow and his Servant, Philip Pullman

The most recommended parent-to-child titles were:
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
2. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkein
3. The Borrowers, Mary Norton
4. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkein
5. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
7. Famous Five series, Enid Blyton
8. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
9. Mallory Towers series, Enid Blyton
10. Heidi, Joanna Spryi

This research came from http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/, a literacy organization in the UK.

I love that the top two on the most recommended parent-to-child titles were "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and "The Hobbit". I tried to read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe" to Jacob at the end of last year but it was boring for him. I might just bring out "The Hobbit" and start reading that to him.

Back to the title of this post. "Do Parents Matter?"

One of my favorite blogs is written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Their blog is called, "Freakonomics". On May 5, 2005 they wrote an article for US TODAY that dealt with reading, education and role of the parent. I found it interesting.

Do parents matter?
It's who you are — rather than what you do — that makes the biggest difference in the development of children.

By Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt

By now, the letters have landed.

The fast-track nursery schools and the “gifted and talented” public schools and the Ivy League colleges have mailed their acceptance letters, and parents everywhere are either a) congratulating themselves for having shepherded their children into the dream school or b) chiding themselves for having failed.

In the first case, the parents may tell themselves: It was those Mozart quartets we played in utero that primed her for success. In the second case, they might say: I knew we shouldn't have waited so long to get him his first computer. But how much credit, or blame, should parents really claim for their children's accomplishments? The answer, it turns out, is a lot — but not for the reasons that most parents think.

The U.S. Department of Education recently undertook a monumental project called the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, which tracks the progress of more than 20,000 American schoolchildren from kindergarten through the fifth grade. Aside from gathering each child's test scores and the standard demographic information, the ECLS also asks the children's parents a wide range of questions about the families' habits and activities. The result is an extraordinarily rich set of data that, when given a rigorous economic analysis, tells some compelling stories about parenting technique.

A child with at least 50 kids' books in his home, for instance, scores roughly 5 percentile points higher than a child with no books, and a child with 100 books scores another 5 percentile points higher than a child with 50 books. Most people would look at this correlation and draw the obvious cause-and-effect conclusion: A little boy named, say, Brandon has a lot of books in his home; Brandon does beautifully on his reading test; this must be because Brandon's parents read to him regularly.

But the ECLS data show no correlation between a child's test scores and how often his parents read to him. How can this be? Here is a sampling of other parental factors that matter and don't:

Matters: The child has highly educated parents.

Doesn't: The child regularly watches TV at home.

Matters: The child's parents have high income.

Doesn't: The child's mother didn't work between birth and kindergarten.

Matters: The child's parents speak English in the home.

Doesn't: The child's parents regularly take him to museums.

Matters: The child's mother was 30 or older at time of the child's birth.

Doesn't: The child attended Head Start.

Matters: The child's parents are involved in the PTA.

Doesn't: The child is regularly spanked at home.

Culture cramming may be a foundational belief of modern parenting but, according to the data, it doesn't improve early childhood test scores. Frequent museum visits would seem to be no more productive than trips to the grocery store. Watching TV, meanwhile, doesn't turn a child's brain into mush after all; nor does the presence of a home computer turn a child into Einstein.

Now, back to the original riddle: How can it be that a child with a lot of books in her home does well at school even if she never reads them? Because parents who buy a lot of children's books tend to be smart and well-educated to begin with — and they pass on their smarts and work ethic to their kids. (This theory is supported by the fact that the number of books in a home is just as strongly correlated with math scores as reading scores.) Or the books may suggest that these are parents who care a great deal about education and about their children in general, which results in an environment that rewards learning. Such parents may believe that a book is a talisman that leads to unfettered intelligence. But they are probably wrong. A book is, in fact, less a cause of intelligence than an indicator.

The most interesting conclusion here is one that many modern parents may find disturbing: Parenting technique is highly overrated. When it comes to early test scores, it's not so much what you do as a parent, it's who you are.

It is obvious that children of successful, well-educated parents have a built-in advantage over the children of struggling, poorly educated parents. Call it a privilege gap. The child of a young, single mother with limited education and income will typically test about 25 percentile points lower than the child of two married, high-earning parents.

So it isn't that parents don't matter. Clearly, they matter an awful lot. It's just that by the time most parents pick up a book on parenting technique, it's too late. Many of the things that matter most were decided long ago — what kind of education a parent got, how hard he worked to build a career, what kind of spouse he wound up with and how long they waited to have children.

The privilege gap is far more real than the fear that haunts so many modern parents — that their children will fail miserably without regular helpings of culture cramming and competitive parenting. So, yes, parents are entitled to congratulate themselves this month over their children's acceptance letters. But they should also stop kidding themselves: The Mozart tapes had nothing to do with it.

Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt are the authors of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.

See article: "Do Parents Matter?

Although I believe this research is not at all a very complete one as they also state: "the data show no correlation between a child's test scores and how often his parents read to him", I thought it was an interesting coorelation between books and education.

Siths, Dinosaurs, Strippers and Wine...

I knew the Dinosaur part would catch your attention...

I've been trying to stick with Julia Cameron's book, "The Right to Write". I'll pick up a chapter here and there and use it as a way to get thoughts on paper based on chapter by chapter 'assignments'. Here's an excerpt from the book.

Why should we write?

We should write because it is human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It makes it directly and specifically our own. We should write because humans are spiritual beings and writing is a powerful form of prayer and meditation, connecting us both to our own insights and to a higher and deeper level of inner guidance.

We should write because writing brings clarity and passion to the act of living. Writing is sensual, experiential, grounding. We should write because writing is good for the soul. We should write because writing yields us a body of work, a felt path through the world we live in.

We should write, above all, because we are writers, whether we call ourselves that or not.

-from The Right to Write (Julia Cameron)

Having said that... I'll write some movie reviews.

I haven't written my movie reviews in a while so I thought I'd catch up. Here are several movies that I have watched in the past two months or so with a rating and quick review.


Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)
Rating: 8/10
I took Jake and Jessica to see this movie a couple of weeks ago. I hate the first two episodes. Jake was bored begging me to take him to Auntie LaLa's house. He then was at the edge of the seat during the fight scene between Obi-Wan and Gen.Greievas. He turns to me after that sequence and says, "This is a good movie!" He proceeded to fall asleep with about an hour left in the film and when he woke up he said, "That was a good movie!" And yes, I have to agree. I really-really enjoyed this movie - "Finally" I said to myself.


The Land Before Time (1988)
Rating: 6/10
This was the first time I've ever seen this movie. I played it for the kids and kicked back in bed to watch it with them. This was a very-very depressing movie. We have three Land Before Time DVDs. I don't think I'll put this movie in again. It was good, yes, but too depressing to watch over and over again like the others.

&
The Land Before Time IX: Journey to the Big Water (2002) &
The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (1997)
Rating: 8/10 for both
Both of these were quite enjoyable for the kids. The music was also fun. Both Jake and Bella can be heard at times singing "Friends for Dinner" and "Big Water". Good movie for kids!


Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2000)
Rating: 4/10
I am not a fan of Sandra Oh. This movie is the reason why. I watched it a while back and rewatched it on TiVo recently trying to give it a chance. There were several story lines about the lives of several strippers in this movie. That's way too many to keep me engaged. If they picked one or two, this movie would have been a better film. The most compelling story line was about a sister who, in her past, had a love affair with her brother. It was weird, uncomfortable, and sent chills up my spine, but it was the most interesting story line to watch. Nothing was resolved in this movie. Tons of loose ends. A big fat BLAH of a movie. If you want an excuse to watch naked girls like Sandra Oh, Daryl Hannah and Jennifer Tilly dance, then rent it. Jennifer Tilly's character, although very irritating, was the best of them all. Well acted with layers that made me laugh and cringe out of irritation. That's the only highlight of the movie.


Sideways (2004)
Rating: 9/10
I finally saw Sideways. I'm not a fan of Sanda Oh as stated in my previous review. But she turned me around in this movie. She was very good. I can SO identify with the Miles character. I enjoyed this movie finding it hard to find flaws in it. There was an odd turn in the movie (the wallet scene) but other than that, a very romantic, funny and well written film. The dialogue was awesome!

News, Views and Monday Morning Blues - along with Mid-Years resolutions.

News: There are no mother in-laws in town. It was cause for sadness and celebration. Therefore I had two hangovers in two days.

Views: Mike Tyson is a nut. Thank goodness we didn't rush home to pay for this circus that is Mike Tyson.

And in Monday Morning Blues: I had a great attitude about work today. Then I realized I had to go to work.

And on to my journal entry...

Here's a joke:

Eye Exam

A guy goes to his eye doctor for an examination. They start talking as the doctor is examing his eyes. In the middle of their conversation, the doctor casually says, "You need to stop masturbating."
The guy replies, "Why Doc? Am I going blind?"

The doctor says, "No, but you're upsetting the other patients in the waiting room."

Did you hear - men are complaining about blindness due to Viagra use. Let me add that there are common myths associated with masturbation.

If you masturbate you will go blind or bald or get acne or hair on your hands -- or lots of other anomalies.

Maybe there is some truth to at least one of these myths. Mabye due to the use of Viagra, these 'blind men' are compelled to masturbate more. Maybe doctors should check for baldness, acne or hairy hands before actually saying Viagra causes blindness...

Just a thought.

Man, I'm having a hard time seeing the computer monitor lately. ;)

Okay. Back to serious stuff.

We are pratically right smack in the middle of the year. As July approaches I have to reasses my resolutions of the New Year. What were they?

I use to write in a journal. Hand write that is. I stopped around October of 2004 as it was easier to type than physically write with a pen. One of my resolutions was to maintain a journal. I guess in a way I have as I update my Hungry Screenwriter blog and my Rotten Tomatoes vine on a nearly daily basis. So this resolution is staying the course.

Read a book a month. Hmmm... It started all so well. Going from 2004 to 2005 I was reading a book a month. In February I bought a book called, "Honeymoon" by James Patterson, and it was so boring I put it down after a couple of chapters and never went back.


I have read most of Stephen Kings "On Writing" and all of "Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life" and have referenced several How to Draw Comics type books... but haven't read a novel in quite a while. I have to get back on track. I can do two a month if I don't watch TV. And since its all repeats, I'll be back on track in no time.

Every year I have a resolute to work out. To get physically fit. Have I? Not really, no.

These three things are quite important to me. It all has to do with my brain.

Writing in my journal almost everyday means that I'm writing. It may not be a script or story, but I'm writing which is what I love to do more than anything when I'm alone. Except for, you know, the taboo act of self pleasure but I don't want to go blind or go bald.

Reading stimulates my brain.

And getting physical helps everything fit in my brain.

So more focus will be done on the above three resolutions as I make my Mid Year Resolutions.

Mid Year Resolutions
1. Read two books a month
2. Maintain my journal
3. Get physically fit
New ones
4. Learn photography
5. Finish two feature screenplays
6. Never wake up with a hangover

To bookend this entry I will include a phone pic in a private moment in the life of Jake...

We were at YARDHOUSE celebrating my birthday when he had to go to the bathroom.

If a picture says a thousand words, then this one really makes that statement true.


Ah, moments to chereish... :)

And that's that!

And sometimes it doesn't matter...

For a moment in time things like lost data on a hard drive, frustrations at work and writer's block really do not matter.

It's that special moment in life you'd like to cherish - one you'd stop if you could in order to look at the glow of your child's face forever that makes everything else in life just what they say - "the small stuff".

Today was Jake's last tee-ball game. It was a fast season. All the kids improved in their skills and knowledge of baseball. It's remarkable that after twenty weeks or so these kids actually know how to play the game better than they did when they started. At 4-6 years old, it is truely an amazing feat by our head coach - coach Albert.

At the end of the game, the coach gave a season ending speech that made some parents and some kids cry. There were hugs and "hope to see you again'' well wishes. It was, to be honest, kinda sad. I spent at least 20 weeks with these kids. And now I probably won't see them again.

They awarded the usual game ball to one of the kids and then awarded the MVP to the Most Valuable Player of the season. The player who always listened, always tried hard, never quit and was the heart of the team. They awarded it to Jacob. The smallest, quickest, and second youngest player on the team.

I wanted this to happen for my own selfish reasons. As part of the coaching staff I was unaware of this. The other coaches voted without me. And when I heard his name, I was just as overjoyed as Jacob. He looked up, unexpecting the award, and smiled at me. I smiled back, really trying hard to fight back the tears. I know, its just tee-ball, but truely - its more than just tee-ball. It's about Jacob loving a sport that I love. It's about Jacob always wanting to excel. It's about Jacob, on his own, without me holding his hand, or throwing the ball for him, or hitting for him, all on his own, doing the things he's learned to do - by himself out on the field.

I had to fight back the tears. (James - you would have cried if you were there) And I hooted and hollered like any proud dad would. Hopefully there will be many more moments like this. But this was the first. And its a constant reminder to me that he's not a baby anymore. He's growing up. He's learning new things. And he's doing well.

Congrats Jacob! I love you!!!
-papa

Here are two pictures I took of him today.