The Write Journey

The day after...

*sigh*

The mistletoe is limp, the tree is drying out, miniscule scraps of wrapping paper are strewn everywhere, and there are enough leftovers crammed into the fridge to feed the army of Saruman (that's a Lord of the Rings reference, for those not in the know), so it must mean that Christmas has come and gone.

Had another wonderful day. Got lots of DVDs (including the Spiderman Limited Edition Collector's set and the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition :smile), a Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game, clothes, and a handheld color TV. Awesome, huh?

Well, since seeing The Two Towers saturday, I've slowly become more and more obsessed with everything Lord of the Rings. I watched the theatrical version of the movie again Christmas Eve, I can't wait to see the extended version now, and I'm seriously thinking about buying the soundtracks too. I'm a long time fan of the books, but I don't remember ever being THIS enraptured by the tale. I guess the hype and excitement of seeing this dreamworld become a visual reality has infected me. Now if I can only survive until December 2003...

Call for Help, a show on my number one favorite network, TechTV, is having an 18-hour Help-A-Thon today, and it's SO cool! I love watching the personalities there because they geniunely seem to love what they do, as well as one another. I have great admiration and respect for that in people. Besides, the network's all about tech! How could it get better than that?

Well, okay, maybe if Techlive anchor Michaela Pereira were hosting the Call-A-Thon... :wink

The eve before "The Eve"

Can't believe Christmas is day after tomorrow. Seems weird, as I've said before, that's its here already. As always, my uncle and his family, my grandparents, and my sister will be here. That's always the best part of the holiday.

And oh yeah, opening gifts ain't so bad either. :wink

Spent some highly productive time writing today while listening to the soundtrack of "The Two Towers" on AOL. While I'm not a classical music enthusiast, per se, I may very well purchase the soundtracks to "The Lord of the Rings" movies, which reminds me...

I saw "The Two Towers" with friends Saturday, and in a word, it was incredible! I don't know how anyone could possible do a better job of bringing that beautiful and complex story to the big screen. I've heard it said that the middle was a little slow, but think of it this way, the movie's three hours long without an intermission. There needs to be a potty break section somewhere, doesn't it? :lol

Besides, it's slow because it's one of the few movies that actually has a plot. Remember those, when the story itself actually matters as much as the overall blood and gore meter? "The Lord of the Rings" is a rich, detailed story, and I'm glad that director Peter Jackson took time to make sure the plot remained intact.

Now if I can only survive until "The Return of the King" premieres a freaking year from now...

-The WheelMan

In the blink of an eye

Last night I learned that my godfather, who I hadn't seen in years, passed away on Wednesday. Turns out that he had taken sick in October, was diagnosed with cancer only two weeks ago, and now he's gone, seemingly in the blink of an eye. He lived in New Jersey, and when I was a baby my parents and I lived there as well, where my godparents and my parents became best of friends. He was great to be around and was a fun and caring man. Even though I never spent a lot of time with him since I was really young, I always felt close to him whenever he was around.

While I don't feel the loss the same as if I were around him more often, I find it hard to believe he's gone. It's moments like these when you truly despise the time you spend apart from those you love, and realize just how tenuous our lives on earth truly are.

Going to take a long time for the fact that I'm never see him again, on this world at any rate, to sink in...

-The WheelMan

One week left...

Hard to believe Christmas is only ONE WEEK away! Time keeps speeding by like a wayward freight train, but all's good.

I love this time of year, especially all the wonderful holiday nuggets on TV. I haven't watched my newest holiday favorite, "Olive, the Other Reindeer", or the great classic, "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" yet, but I have them both on tape and will be revisiting them shortly.

Recently, I wrote a Christmas story that's the kind of story I tend to enjoy most, and in keeping with this season of giving and sharing, I decided to put it up on my website today for all to enjoy.

So, if you're into the traditional, heartwarming, possibly sappy, holiday kind of tale, then please read: "Living with Mrs. Klase".

Man, that sounded like an ad for "It's A Wonderful Life", didn't it? What can I say? I'm a writer. Selling myself is what I do. :wink

-The WheelMan

Money, maturity, manipulation, and manhood

LeBron James is a 17 year old high school basketball star from Akron, Ohio who's already being courted by a line of NBA teams and is having his games broadcast on National TV as well as on local pay-per-view. He's tall, talented, and seems to have his head screwed on properly. Surely colleges everywhere are drooling at the mere thought of getting there hands on him for just one blessed year, yet they all know there's not a chance. Why risk going to college, where he could possible get hurt and ruin his career without ever earning a dime when millions of dollars are sitting on the table, waiting for him to get his high school diploma in the spring?

But is this right? And if not, where does the fault lie?

I don't begrudge the kid the money or the fame. He's got a gift that people are willing to shell out big bucks for (there's about $25 million from Nike waiting on him now, as I understand it). But there just seems to be something wrong with the system as a whole. No matter how you look at it, James is being exploited by the press and the "Basketball Powers That Be", thrown up on a pedestal for what he might become, what he could potentially do.

But what happens if he falls short of their expectations? How does a kid who's been thrust up into the rafters of fame suddenly deal with his tumble back into the basement of obscurity? And what about the other kids out there, who may not be as showy or have managed to catch the eye of a NBA scout? Many of them are struggling just to earn college scholarships, while a few truly have the heart and talent to be professional players, but may never get a chance.

Meanwhile, the college game is waning because most of its young talent is defecting to the pros, while the pro game is going down because, along with the declining age of the athletes coming along, the skill level and maturity of the NBA as a whole is declining. While James, and others like him, are being courted with Jordan-esque hype, the sport upon which they are hanging there futures is heading for a crisis of ethics, morals, and money. The question is, how do we solve it?

I just hope someone sees fit to address this problem soon. I love basketball, and remember how when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird played the game, the NBA was a beautiful sport to behold. Now it often seems little more than a talent-diluted mess. :sad

-The WheelMan

Less than two weeks??

That doesn't even sound possible, but it's true. Only 13 days left until Christmas! Time seems to be sifting through my fingers like grains of sand. Yesterday is already last week, and tomorrow so rapidly becomes today that I honestly don't know if such a thing even exists anymore. Guess it's just one of the side effects of getting old.

Good thing I never plan to actually get old, huh? :lol

-The WheelMan

Rollin' and foldin'

Georgia Bulldogs rolled on Saturday, while the Falcons folded on Sunday. Georgia is the SEC Champs heading to the Sugar Bowl, while the Falcons are still sitting pretty for a NFL Playoff Wildcard spot.

Today isn't as great as last Sunday, but I guess it'll do. :wink

-The WheelMan

On moving forward by going back...

They say that you can't go home again. Not technically true. What you can't usually go back to is the the way things used to be. And depending on the situation, that may be a good thing.

Not only did a good friend of mine announce today that her own family is coming back together, but I'm happy to report that my online family is reuniting as well. Things happen between friends, stress and strife of one kind or another can get in the way, cloud judgment, or force one to make decisions they wish they never had to make. Circumstances which I referred to in a previous entry led to just one of those decisions for me and my fellow Adminstrators at a website we run for writers called Scrawl. Our minds were set, our future path was beginning to come into view. Looked like all was well and the past would soon be nothing more than a bittersweet memory.

And then something happened.

We, as well as those we left behind, began to see more clearly what we were giving up, to understand one another and the incidents that had led to the rift. We communicated our feelings back and forth in a way that we had somehow failed to before. And as the week progressed, what had once seemed so obvious became more and more clouded as the pleas to return rang out.

"Was leaving the right thing?" we wondered. "Should we go back?" "Can we go back?"

Today, we decided that we could, and my Scrawl family is together once more. We're all writers, with egos and quirks and flaws and tempers and like any other family, we sometimes fight. But perhaps the one thing we lost sight of was that a family has to talk, to share, to nurture, and to appreciate that relationship so that nothing (and no one) can come between them and pull them apart. So now, hopefully, we've all learned two things:

1. That the family feeling that we've always believed we shared is as alive and true today as when we opened the site as a haven, community, and workshop for writers of all backgrounds over a year ago.

2. And that the next time we face adversity, we'll know how to do it as a united group.

The old trees may be a little older, the grass a little longer, the dust a little thicker, and our hair a little grayer, but now I know that when all is said and done...

...You really can go home again. :smile

-The WheelMan

To all those animal lovers out there...

Please check out:

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/gpig2000/

It's an eBay auction by a family who need help recouping the large bills they accrued in saving the leg of their sweet little hyper kitten, Ritalin (pictured below).

How can anyone resist that adorable face?

Win, win, win...

The Georgia Bulldogs rolled over Georgia Tech yesterday, and are heading for the SEC Title game with an 11-1 record and is ranked as one of the top five college teams in the country...

Today, the Atlanta Falcons, once again spearheaded by the amazing Michael Vick, have defeated the Minnesota Vikings in over time and are sitting pretty for a Wild Card spot in the NFL playoffs...

Today is a good day.

-The WheelMan