October Words of Wisdom

If you are not thinking for yourself, someone else is thinking for you. Choose for yourself and become free from society's undertow. --Michael Bernard Beckwith

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. That is true freedom.
--Coco Chanel

To reach a port we must sail sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I just wanna lie down, watch the sunset, listen to the waves, and forget about everything. --Unknown

Don't confuse comfort with happiness. --Dean Karnazes

She dreams of the ocean late at night and longs for the wild salt air. --Unknown

Rise. Don't get angry, or enraged, or insulted. Rise above the bullshit. Flick your light back on, and shine it brighter than ever. And fall so deeply in love with your own life that anyone who tried to wrong you becomes a laughable, ridiculous, distant memory. --Unknown

The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.
--Cornelia Funke

Smell the sea and feel the sky, let your soul and spirits fly. --Van Morrison

She took a deep breath and let go of the would've, should've, could've that had been weighing her down. She smiled at how light she felt without them.
--Unknown

When we focus on gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in. --Kristin Armstrong

Food is not just fuel. Food is about family, food is about community, food is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we do it well. --Michael Pollan

When we learn to accept difficult circumstances, the real problem disappears. --Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. --Robin Williams

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination. --Tommy Lasorda

To all the girls who no longer believe in fairy tales or happy endings: You are the writer of this story. Chin up and straighten your crown, you're the queen of this kingdom and only you know how to rule it. --B. Devine

Negativity is the enemy of creativity. --David Lynch

There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature. --Rachel Carson

Nothing will work unless you do. --Maya Angelou

To escape and sit quietly on the beach - that's my idea of paradise. --Emilia Wickstead

As I unclutter my life, I free myself to answer the callings of my soul. --Wayne Dyer

An attack upon our ability to tell stories is not just censorship - it is a crime upon our nature as human beings. --Salman Rushdie

The future depends on what you do today. --Gandhi

Once can choose to go back towards safety or forward towards growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.
--Abraham Maslow

If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. --Ray Bradbury

When you're in a dark place, you sometimes tend to think you've been buried. Perhaps you've been planted. Bloom. --Christine Caine

Never regret being a good person, to the wrong people. Your behavior says everything about you, and their behavior says enough about them. --Unknown

If the words you spoke appeared on your skin, would you still be beautiful? --Unknown

Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing. --Eckhart Tolle

No, Chef!

Robot chefs take over Beijing restaurant. From the linked article:

(Bloomberg) -- In Haidilao International Holding Ltd.'s hotpot restaurants, robots are replacing chefs and waiters.

Asia's biggest listed restaurant chain by market value is partnering with Japan's Panasonic Corp. to open what the two companies say is the world's first eatery with a fully automated kitchen Oct. 28 in Beijing. At the new Haidilao restaurant, robots will take orders, prepare and deliver raw meat and fresh vegetables to customers to plop into soups prepared at their tables.

Not cool, although if they want robots to take over for some of the Z-list celebrities posing as "chefs" that have taken over Food Network and the cookbook industry in recent years, I'd be cool with that. That way they wouldn't be displacing any, you know, actual chefs.

Sigh

Got the new Westways Magazine from Auto Club today, and was greeted by this:

I know what to do in Marina del Rey, Westways.

Except live there, apparently.

A cluttered life

H/T to The Life on Purpose Movement on FB.

Guess I was due for another cruel jab

Oh I don't know, Marina del Rey?

Thanks a lot, Doctor Beach on Facebook.

Have I watched one too many crime shows? Heck yeah!

In fact, I've watched a heck of a lot more than one too many. I'm surprised I didn't get 100%. Still scored genius level. Yay me!

You can take the quiz here to see if you can out-CSI me.

Happy Birthday, Dad

Today would have been my Dad's 78th birthday. Missing him and my Mom a lot lately.

WHAT. THE. EVERLOVING. FUCK?

Sorry for the language, but this is one of the more bizarre headlines and stories I've seen in a long time. And as someone who spends waaaaay too much time on the internet, that's saying something.

Man tries to buy 8-year-old at Walmart for $200,000.

And just to make this story even more bizarre, dude is 81 years old.

I hope he at least turns out to have been on drugs or something. At least that would be a partial explanation. Either way, the hell is wrong with people?

Submitted for your approval - August/September edition

So, the past couple of months has been slow on the submission front.

August saw the aforementioned Chick Stuff with Whitney and Alannah submitted to short screenplay competitions with Screencraft and the Atlanta Film Festival. Screencraft already announced their first cut and we didn't make it.

I hit a major writing block in September and didn't get much of anything accomplished. I thought about submitting a couple of previously written short stories, but they didn't quite match what the publications were looking for and I know how much editors hate it when writers submit stories that don't match the announced theme, so I decided to move on.

I went ahead and submitted a story yesterday for an upcoming edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul. Titled The Cat in the Hat Box, it was one of two entries I submitted to the Writer's Digest Annual Contest in May. I am pleased to say that both earned Honorable Mentions. The Chicken Soup deadline isn't until October 31, but since it was ready to go I thought I'd get it out so I'd have something to show for September.

In better news, I just started a new UCLA Extension writing class, this one for original 1-hour pilots. The instructor is the same one who guided me through my Better Call Saul spec last year. I had tried the pilot class with another instructor, but her methods didn't work for me the way the previous instructor's had, so you can imagine my joy when I got the catalog for fall and first instructor was doing the pilot class. I already feel like it's reigniting the writing fire that's been so dormant lately, plus I'm already enjoying interacting with my classmates.