Brain Games

One of the things I love to do when I have time is solve puzzles. I love them all--logic, crossword, acrostic, sudoku, jigsaw--almost everything except word search. Those I find stupid. So when one of my students (Hi, Connor) gave me a puzzle to do the first or second week of school, I was thrilled. I hadn't seen it before, so I was determined to solve it. No, I didn't google it (because that's what my husband did and found it at once), but I looked at it, and when I had a few moments here and there, I tried to solve it. So about five or six weeks later, I was lying in bed, about to fall asleep when suddenly I went, "Ah ha." I didn't even have the puzzle in front of me, but the answer clicked into place. Sure enough, the next morning when I went to check the puzzle to see if my answer made sense, I had solved it. What amazed me was how the subconscious mind will continue to work on a problem even when you don't think it's working. This happens a lot in plotting. In fact, I just solved a plot problem the other day using the same method.

So I thought I'd share the puzzle with you.

Determine the next number in this sequence:
1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221
1113213211
31131211131221
13211311123113112211
???

Keep reading,
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:

Must Love Dragons by Stephanie Rowe
Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Love Me, Love Me Hot by Stephanie Rowe

Movies, Part Deux

On the other hand, there is something to be said for watching truly bad movies. You can have a lot of fun watching hideously bad films. Look at Rocky Horror Picture Show. Horrible movie. So bad audiences started to make up movements and actions to correspond with the film, and now it's a classic (No offense to the actors--Susan Sarandon is an amazing actor, I've always liked Barry Bostwick, and I believe Tim Curry is one of the greatest underrated actors of all time. I'll watch anything with him in it--even his voice.) My daughters and I have watched a few movies that fall in this category; Deep Rising is the title that comes foremost to mind. We laughed at and mocked the screenplay until it has become one of our best family memories. (Coincidentally it stars yet another of my favorite actors, Treat Williams) Camp can be a good thing.

So here's how to watch a bad movie:
Never watch it alone. Have a group to "suffer" with you.
Have plenty of snacks.
Talking is definitely allowed.
Try to predict lines (this is fun).
Try to predict deaths (again, fun although some might call this morbid).
Try to predict the plot (Usually easy to do).
Repeat truly bad lines and act out scenes.
Rewrite as the movie plays out.
Laugh at inappropriate moments.
Scream and moan (I did this at the dialogue of Titanic. I know it's one of the most successful films ever, but I just didn't like it).
Critique as you go.
And if you get bored, turn it off. Life is too short to waste your time on a bad movie if it ceases to be fun.

And just for fun: Did you know Plan Nine from Outer Space has been rated the worst movie ever made? Bela Lugosi died during the making of it, so they have a body double playing the vampire for half of the film, his cape hiding his face in every scene. It's directed by Ed Wood, subject of a movie starring Johnny Depp. Actually Ed Wood is a pretty good movie.

Books I'm reading now:
A Family Practice by Gayle Kasper
A Lady's Pleasure by Renee Bernard
Date Me Baby, One More Time by Stephanie Rowe (who was so kind to me at the RWA National Conference in Dallas this summer. And I'm liking her book too.)

Movies

My husband and I have been members of Netflicks for a couple of years now. Our goal in joining was to show our children classic movies that are part of cultural literacy--in a way to expand their education into an area where school won't go. I know, I know; movies are hardly high culture, nor do they often provide true education, but, like literature, they do deal with universal themes and ideas. I truly believe the study of literature isn't for the examination of good writing but for the examination of the universal ideas. The arts help society deal with the changes and new ideas that bombard society, especially today with the advancements in technology and science. How can we expect people to accept stem cell research if they don't understand it? How can we as a society come to an ethical decision about cloning if we've never thought about it?Literature and stories (and the other art forms as well) can help society deal with all kinds of new ideas. OK, lofty thoughts, but you get what I'm driving at.

So back to movies. I believe that there are movies, the classics, that we should be showing children, although I firmly believe they shouldn't be taught at school--not for content reasons, but because we have to teach enough mandatory garbage there's hardly enough time for the core subjects. This generation should be exposed to movies like Casablanca, All About Eve, The Women, It Happened One Night, Duck Soup, The Heiress, etc. Some are heavier than others. I believe everyone should see Citizen Kane once, even if it does put some viewers to sleep. Let's not ignore silent films. People should know story tellers like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Douglas Fairbanks, etc. I know a lot of these names are the actors, not the writers, but they are the ones remembered.

So why this topic? Last night I watched Sunset Boulevard. I had never seen it before (yes, there are gaps in my education). It's creepy in a non horror movie way, the story is fascinating, and the humor in it is often disturbing. What a great film. I'm glad I watched it, and I'm glad my daughter saw it with me. And the theme is so interesting. It's all about selling out and compromising yourself for your dreams. Where are your limits? What would you do to be successful? And how much delusion can one person take in one's life? All interesting thoughts.

Go read a book, but watch a movie too.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Riding Lessons by Sara Gruen
A Family Practice by Gayle Kasper
Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling (Yup. My daughter and I finished Prisoner of Azkaban, and now we're reading Goblet out loud.)

Time and the Use Thereof

One of the worst things about wanting to write and having a day job is, of course, the day job itself and the time it takes out of one's day. But the truth is that if one wants something badly enough, one will make the time for it. It's an ugly truth because no one wants to hear that we are responsible for the things we do or do not accomplish. We want things to fall magically in our laps with little effort and have a big pay off for our little effort. I read an interesting article in today's Albuquerque Journal--an interview of the guy who stars in Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel. His theory is that somehow the American Puritan ethic-- hard work, discipline, duty, thrift, etc--has been replaced with the phrase "Work smart, not work hard." My students subscribe to this belief. They believe that they deserve good grades just because they show up. But I've seen the joy and satisfaction they have in themselves when they have worked hard and they earn that "A".

Anything worth having is worth working for. It would be nice if writing were easier, but then anybody could do it. And if I don't produce as much as I should, I have no one but myself to blame. Establish priorities, make goals, and work. It's simple, yet not simple.
--Gabi

Books I'm reading now:
Dead Shot by Annie Solomon
Savannah Breeze by Mary Kay Andrews