Independence Day randomocity

I think I'm finally beginning to emerge from my slump.

Over the past couple of weeks everything I've tried to write--with the exception of a couple of song lyrics--has royally sucked. I tried writing a few treatments for film and TV show ideas and they were just awful. Good ideas, just terrible execution.

This morning I made another attempt at a treatment for a pilot for a TV show and this time I think it's hanging together. So far. I'm about halfway through it. And, of course, it'll need to be rewritten a few times, but that's something I'll worry about when the time comes.

That's the real secret, really--just get it down on paper. Don't worry if it's beautiful, or perfect, or grammatically correct, or even logical. You'll have plenty of opportunities to rewrite, and nobody expects a first draft to be perfect. Get it down and then worry about making it beautiful, logical, dramatic, funny, etc. It's my boss's favorite saying--how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The first draft is that first bte. Don't worry about the second bite, don't even think about it, until you've chewed and swallowed the first one. And so on.

To help celebrate the holiday I got some ribs from Outback yesterday, and I have to say they were lovely. Outback also has a really cool online ordering system, too. Check it out. About as easy as it can get.

As I type this Style TV is rerunning the 2006 season of Project Runway--I think that was the last season I followed the show. Fashion is one of those things that has roven to me that it is, indeed, possible for me to appreciate an art form without necessarily wanting to participate in it. That's something of a first, for me--normally when I read a great book, or see a great film or TV show, it inspires me to try to create something like that myself. Not so, with fashion--I can appreciate it without wanting to create it myself. Of course I'm the same way about the visual arts, I guess, since I have no talent for drawing or sculpture.

I do still dig the show, btw--it's the only reality TV show I'm even passingly interested in--but it usually conflicts with something else I just can't miss. Since I don't have a DVR, something has to go . . .

Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it before, I"m becoming addicted to the xkcd comic strip. Genius. It also inspired an idea in me for a web series--that, though, is something I'll need to think about for a while yet before going into any further details. But, in the mean time, if you are one of the unititiated, go to http://www.xkcd.com/ and take the plunge. You'll thank me.

So what are you doing this holiday?