On Writing: Viki King uses a phrase in How to Write A Movie In 21 Days that rings so true to me. She says something along the lines of, "No other book deals with the fact that you think you're going to die of this."

She's right. You do. At times it feels like pushing out another sentence will absolutely kill you.

It doesn't make sense at all. All you're doing is writing. A story which you made up. A story you can alter any way you want to if, by some chance, you write something you don't care for. In fact, after you type the sentence, you could instantly delete it, and nobody will ever know it was written to begin with.

So why is it that there are moments when the prospect of putting that sentence down are meant with the mental resistance of a dentist appointment?

It kills you not to write. It kills you to write.

AFI's Quote List: I don't have enough time this morning to read over any blogs and find out how much whining is going on in response to the AFI show last night. If it's anything like the last bunch I'm sure it's a lot.

And there's a lot to gripe about. Interview William Goldman and Rob Reiner, but ignore Princess Bride?

But remember, the only reason people do lists like this is to get attention. They're trying to tick you off. So feel free to point out their idiocy--sometimes deliberately inviting criticism can be biting off more than you can chew, and AFI should be disrobed and proven to be the as undefinitive as any other source--but keep in mind the attention is really all they're after.

That said, the actual content of the show last night was a bunch of films and interviews done by other people, and all of that was tremendously entertaining.

Another Website?!?!: As part of my new web service, I now have MB with my name on them over at Earthlink. I can't think of a single thing to use them for. It's not like I don't already have enough websites all over the net.

So my MB are just sitting out there . . . somewhere.

Maybe the infinite particles on the servers will arrange themselves into something interesting for me. Like an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters.

Although, I must admit that I've never really bought the infinite monkey theories.

There could be an infinite number of parrallel universes that are all slightly different from each other, and many in which I don't even exist, but I can guarantee that in none of them, no matter what, would you ever catch me at a Rob Schnieder movie.

Firefly: I've been reading Firefly hype everywhere, so I've been anxious to give the show a shot. Last night, I watched the pilot episode, "Serenity." I must say I was enjoying it--until they stumbled upon my pet peeve in all of television, and committed the nearly unforgivable sin.

Needless to say, "Serenity" spoilers follow.

The absolute, positively worst thing a filmmaker can do--especially in sci-fi--is mock the viewer for believing. The second you do that, you absolutely destroy the willing suspension of disbelief, and you drive the viewer right out of your story. Trust is destroyed--at that point, if their heart was ever in it, it has stopped being in it, and you will have to work even harder to get them back.

As you've probably guessed, "Serenity" has one of these moments. There's a character who is shot, and though she spends most of the episode trying to recover, there's a moment when "the hand falls." Now, if at that point she'd have turned out to be alive, I'd have been okay with that. But then, the guy who dropped her hand actually tells someone she's dead.

Now I knew the character wasn't dead. She's on the IMDB cast lists, and she's in the opening credits montage. So when I see the religious character headed towards the girl, I think, "Ah. There's going to be a fantasy element here, where they bring her back from the dead."

But it's nothing so profound as that. See, it was a joke.

The character was joking when he told the other character the girl was dead, and, apparently, joking when he let her hand fall. He and the other characters get a good laugh out of this.

Except the real joke isn't on any of the characters--it's on the viewer. And when you mock your viewer for believing you, you lose them.

I'm not saying I'm not going to continue watching the show, nor that the show has no redeeming qualities. I will and it does.

That was like something out of a student script, though. I hope the rest of the games they play aren't as amateur.

One Day Down: Twenty to go.

Happy Birthday To Me: The 21 days starts today. If you see me nosing around online or on MSN or something, tell me to get back to writing. It'll be like you pitched in for my present.

My New Favorite Amazon Reviewer: This guy makes me sorely tempted to delete every review I ever wrote and start over.

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Yeah, I was at the beach today. No, nobody else was there. No, I don't think this had anything to do with the tsunami warning--that wasn't until I was already over at Disney watching the fireworks.

Yeah, I was at the beach and watching fireworks at Disney all in one day.

How was your Teusday?

Obligatory Post On The Verdict: I missed the OJ trial. So I'm just discovering all the stuff that you folks found out way back then.

Like that prosecutors aren't super-lawyers. Just because the guy's brought charges against Michael Jackson doesn't change the fact that he's just a government employee in some town who's just doing his job. Putting him up against a team of super lawyers who make seven digit incomes is like putting your local dog catcher in a pit full of tigers.

This wasn't a verdict about Michael Jackson at all. At some point, he stopped being on trial, and the accuser's mother became the defendant. As soon as the case stopped being about him and started being about her it was all over.

Of course she was a money-grubbing, greedy lady who was looking to get ahead. Who else would have let their kids near MJ after the last $20 mil settlement? What other types of people would Michael even be able to find, let alone molest?

Does that really make him innocent?