7 Quick Takes Vol. 32

Part of the 7 Posts in 7 Days hosted by Conversion Diary

1.     So, LCD is tentatively still my main project at the moment: I’ve restructured the story completely into a version that feels more satisfying, so it’s back to work. To give you an idea of what the restructuring looks like, consider this:

In all previous versions, a key supporting character is introduced by initiating an exposition-fill conversation with the hero.

In this version, he’s introduced doing a version of the “long-list of better insults” scene from Cyrano de Bergerac, which devolves into a massive bar fight that ends with all concerned fleeing the town watch.

2.     I’ve been reading The Temperament God Gave You, furthering my studies in personality type (though, as the authors note, temperament is not synonymous with personality). Very interesting! In case you were wondering, I’m Melancholic with a dash of Phlegm, meaning I’m a reclusive idealist who frets over the imperfections of life, but who also is sympathetic and patient with the wretched, weak people who infest this accursed world.

3.     I cannot believe I only have three more chapters of Chronicles of Hendricks left to post! Unfortunately, these are the ones that need the most work and which I’ve been putting off until now. Better do something about that.

4.     By the way, the chapter posted today, Boa vs. Python is a large part of why the book was written in the first place. See, I used to watch a lot of Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies (no, I don’t know why), and one of them was, well, Boa vs. Python. I was really excited about this one, so excited that it became the first one I watched with a friend. I also turned out to be the worst and most unpleasant SFCOM I had seen yet (the very worst I’ve seen, the one that made me give up the practice entirely, was Abominable, which was like “Rear Window with monsters, as done by someone who personally hates the viewer”). Among its many, many sins was the fact that the titular fight lasted maybe a minute and consisted entirely of the two very-bad-cgi snakes nipping at each other until one got hit by a train. So, when I started working on Chronicles (which started life as a tribute to SFCOMs), I determined to do that fight properly. Through the innumerable changes the story has gone through over the years, that fight has been one of the few things that’s always been there. So, enjoy!

If you haven’t started reading Chronicles and would like to, you can begin here.

5.     Saw The Apartment for the first time last night and absolutely loved it. It was just the kind of romance that appeals to me, and Jack Lemmon was a simply phenomenal actor (which I already knew, but hadn’t fully appreciated yet). I don’t know that I would personally classify it as a ‘comedy’ except in the classic sense (a story with a happy ending), since it’s really pretty serious for most of its running time, but I’m also not sure what else I would call it. I may write more about it sometime soon.

6.     I’ve been getting a lot of support from family and friends about my plans to move to (probably) Texas. So much so that I have to keep telling them that I still have no idea where exactly I’m looking or even the kind of job I’ll be looking for. As usual, my plans are much less advanced than most people seem to think.

7.     A fun quote:

“Some men are graduated from college cum laude, some are graduated summa cum laude, and some are graduated mirabile dictum.”

-William Howard Taft

Vivat Christus Rex!