Loved It

My wife and I watched Hot Fuzz the other night. It's one I've been waiting for as well.

Loved it, had us both laughing from very early on, definitely put off the sleep to catch that one. Well worth it if you like the dry British sense of humour and can Simon Pegg act?! Loved his T2 type persona. Hilarious. I had read reviews where they thought the third act went on too long but I thought it was a great send up at a good length. Each to his own.

On a personal note I have actually just spent two weeks at home working. Wow what an experience! I'll have to do it again soon, back on the road next week but not for too long. Going to book in a writing weekend for myself, I need to if I want to get my main one back on track asap.

Maryan over at Fencing with the Fog is treading water waiting for the Nicholls letter. Hope she makes it, here's something for good luck. Your own Nicol (mc)



Back to the Aquawoman shoot Maryan!! :)


Just been playing with a camcorder to DVD convertor I purchased a few months back. Found this grab from a wedding my family and I attended back in 2001 up in Palm Cove in northern Queensland.

The wedding was over and my daughter (2 and a half at the time) who was flowergirl wanted to go for a walk on the beach. Mum was Matron of honour so Dad was lucky enough to be the one chosen. It is my favourite piece of footage of my daughter and I. Unfortunately, in the conversion from the camcorder to AVI the quality has taken a dive but you'll get the idea.

The thing I love about it is the differences. Me. Smart casual dress(it was beachside wedding so nice and casual and tropical summer, 38 degress and 120% humidity that day I reckon!) black shoes.

Her, special flower girl dress on, flowers in hair, shoes off. Exploring the beach, finding sticks and rocks fascinating as it is all new to her. Life is exciting, I was only allowed to point things out, she wanted to run and grab them all. It is just one of those moments in life that you do treasure. Thought it would be fun to share through the magical powers of youtube. Forgive the shaky cam work, I didn't second someone from NYPD Blue, my brother in law actually just spotted us and took the opportunity to film us, unbeknownst to me until I saw the footage later. I was very thankful he shot it.



Stay well everyone.

cheers
Dave.
PS I think my favourite part of blogging nowadays is putting the tags in.

So, I was in Texas last week…

For about 30 seconds all up.

It’s not very big.





Texas, Queensland(see the red arrow and smiley face), couple of hundred km’s from where I live(Brisbane). About 500 people, not so good for a screenwriting expo’s I imagine.

Been absolutely flat out, managed to get some writing done on the joint project but none on mine, although with the driving I have been doing lately(racked up 2500km last week) I have had time to run plenty of scenarios through the old think wagon and have come up with a few ideas to improve both screenplays, so that’s good.

Below is another map showing you the area I cover in my job. Feel free to then jump on a world map and compare the size of Queensland and Northern NSW to the US or Europe. It’s a decent size I have to cover. Anything over 1000km, I fly. We all have our limits :)



The red only indicates where I currently have properties, around 60 at present, as more come online I can go wherever I am needed in Queensland or Northern NSW. However, must say I am coming to love Northern NSW from Grafton up to Ballina. That’s a lot coming from a Queenslander :)

I tend to help this process along by downloading and burning onto a CD the CS podcasts, great company when all you are left with is ABC radio and about 4 hours of driving ahead.

I put the question out there a while ago about software for converting and burning mp3’s to a CD, discovered Windows Media does that itself. I knew it ripped but was not aware it converted…..so there you go. Saved me plenty of time.

Along with half the western world got to see Transformers, enjoyed it for what it was, fun to see John Rogers name up there, hope he did not get to shafted in the whole Michael Bay film situation. Michael Bay is an enigma to me…..hmmmmmm I may be making that too complex. I have read things, as we all have about MB, however, I have found a number of his films(not all) enjoyable – for what they are. No, they are not wildly thought provoking, etc. They are however, generally entertaining in that big screen, action, summer blockbuster way.

Someone in the scribosphere once wrote that the average movie goer is tired from the week at work and wants to escape, hence the reason for dumbing down movies(I could be a little wrong in the wording, it was a while ago). I think they are right for the first part, but I don’t see it as dumbing down so much as just making it entertaining….if you can entertain and educate(that includes making people think about a situation), bloody well done, if all you can do is entertain, then well done!

Finally saw the Da Vinci Code the other week. Neither my wife and I had read the book so we were going in knowing the basic spoiler, but still keen to see this movie. Lasted 20 minutes before we turned it off. I kinda thought it was going downhill when the priest was whipping himself and I was thinking, not as painful as where I’m sitting mate. We could not waste our time waiting to see if Tom Hanks cut his hair or changed his expression, there was sleeping to be done! It really did not entertain us at all and therefore lost us.

Hey, I’ll watch a doco about flies crawling up a wall if you make it interesting and educational.

Going to be home for a number of weeks now so will have a chance to catch up on a number of things, jobs, writing, work, etc. which will also allow me to post a bit more regularly. Stop laughing.

Parents situation is in flux. Dad has moved back home but it is day by day stuff. Must admit, did not think he was going back. Happened once twenty years ago(like I said, huge backstory, but no violence towards each other at all, nothing like that) but I knew then he would go back, but did not expect it this time. Not sure if I am happy he has moved back...hmmmm. Time will tell if it is a good move.

Take care and again congrats to all the people like Fun Joel, Chris etc that have been picking up writing gigs lately, well done!

cheers

Dave

I'll drink to that.....

July 10, 2007 12:00am
Article from: Daily Telegraph


NEW research, to be revealed at a conference of some of the world's top neuroscientists in Cairns today, has found alcohol does not kill off brain cells as always thought.

For years imbibers have been told a big night on the drink wipes out entire sections of human brain cell function with much the same destructive equivalent as a napalm bombing strike.
According to Queensland Brain Institute director Professor Perry Bartlett, this is not true.

There is no evidence drinking alcohol leads directly to the death of brain cells, he said.
"Some of the best studies, done in Italy, show a bottle of wine a night can reduce the risk of dementia in old age," Professor Bartlett said.

In moderation, alcohol has positive benefits for blood vessel health and stroke prevention. And, as an added bonus, new brain cells are generated every day of our lives.

Research by Professor Bartlett and his team has found we all have an inbuilt repair kit replenishing the more than 100 billion cells - or neurons - in our brain.

What are you waiting for? There's plenty of inspiration to be drunk!

cheers
Dave.