Quick thoughts...

The weather outside: Frightful (in a good way).

Work is going well. It amazes me that my uncle was able to get this place up and running in such a short time considering the economic climate.

I am (not so) ashamed to admit that I've been really into American Idol this year thanks to Lucy. I didn't realize how emotional I'd get watching reality TV.

"Lost" is as exciting as I'd hoped it would be this season as well. Oh and Battlestar Geeklactica (as Lucy calls it) is equally intense. I've stopped being ashamed of my TV watching habits and my love for B-grade, mindless entertainment. There are gems here and there most definitely, and I figure if I try to look at all the crap I watch/read from the standpoint of a student, I actually can learn a great deal from it. By that I mean that sometimes watching/reading crap really teaches you how to tell a better story.

I wanted to talk a little bit about my growing love for comics as a medium. This will fall on mostly deaf ears I'm sure, but that's ok with me. The whole genre really fascinates me. I never really realized how much you can do in the medium that you can't do in others (like TV, Movies, or literature). I have Tyson to thank for that. He pointed me to "Watchmen" and Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" a couple years ago and they both really gave me a deeper appreciation. Sandman especially. I still haven't finished the series because there are just so many layers and literary references, you just want to savor every page.

I'm excited about writing our own for a number of reasons. 1.) It's forcing me to develop my dialogue. The creation process (as far as the writing is concerned) is very similar to the screen-writing process in that the focus is mostly on description and character voice. You're challenged to be as concise as possible in the dialogue (being limited by physical space in each panel) while still keeping each character's lines meaningful and unique. I sort of compare it to a cross between children's book writing and screen-writing. Incredibly fun and extremely difficult.

The best part of it (to me) is that you get to develop these really unique characters in these really exciting and action packed (sometimes off the wall) settings. Yeah the medium is cartoony and campy sometimes but often when you're reading comics you're sort of surprised by little gems of truth and brilliance. (There are also some that are achingly heartfelt).

Anyway, I'm rambling now which tends to happen a lot these days. If you're interested in some reading or viewing suggestions that you may not have considered before, let me know.

Look forward to hearing from you guys. Lucy and Lola (from the womb) say hello.