One of those days

It's one of those days. I spent beginning of the day in bliss. Playing some games and watching some shows, as I usually do when I wake up in the morning. I had started working on my thesis when I hear a key being slipped into the lock of my front door. I groaned. I knew what was coming.

Writing Exercises #4

Here is the next installment of the writing exercises. I've changed the date so that it looks like I posted it on time, but I had a sudden internet/phone loss. Therefore I couldn't post the obituary, but here it is.

---

Obituary

November 13th 2011

Johnny Bruton, a perfectly adequate man was taken from us yesterday. 

His friends and family mourn his passing, which was, by no means, any fault of his own. I mean, who plays with matches at a gas station? Why was he even there? He doesn’t even own a car! But... I digress….

The many people he tore into death along side him will begrudgingly accompany him on his way to the after life. Johnny will be missed by us all.

His ceremony will be held this Sunday morning at the Memorial Church at 10 o’clock. That, which is left of his body will be cremated as by his request, so that when The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers comes to theaters, his friends can bring him to watch these highly anticipated films.

When we mourn Johnny Bruton, let us remember his accomplishments in life and if anyone can tell me any, let me know.

We miss you Johnny and I wish I could have given you this advice before you left us; Don’t screw up your afterlife like you screwed up your life. 

Writing Exercises #3

Well, here you go. Number three.

I really enjoyed writing this one. This was actually the first writing exercise I did. It was after I had finished with this that I thought I could have a month worth of blog posts with this. But now, click here to read my 500 word biography.

Writing Exercises #2

Here is the second writing exercise. This time on google docs.

I wasn't really too happy with this exercise, I didn't really understand what I was meant to do. However, while I was looking over it again, I realized I should have taken the gist of the radio show and made my own scene out of it. However, this has become more of a transcript than anything else. If I would have the time now I would have re-written it. Sadly, I'm stressed for time and am going out very soon. Friday's will be better though. I know, because it's already finished.

Click here!

Writing Exercises #1

Okay, so here is the first writing exercise!

---

"Pick then people you know and write a one-sentence description for each of them."

He is quite small for such a powerful man, and is the only one who can push me to work harder and harder.

A sense of confidence flows from him like a sent, engulfing me in its sweet aroma. 

The first thing one would notice when looking at this man’s face, was how dumbly he would stare into space with no thought or imagination behind it. 

She is like a sister to me, when I imagine her, I think of a cartoon – always happy, always ready to play.

Her dark brown eyes peer through the ruffled hair in front of her face, exciting me beyond anything else. 

He is a man of low self esteem, yet he works harder in the face of failure than anyone else I know.

She is a wicked, wicked woman.

She is not ugly, nor beautiful, she is not thin, nor fat, she is not good, nor bad, she is just a normal person who blends into the background of a scene. 

His was a hairy man, some would say too hairy but the kindness beaming from his face always warms me and everyone around him.

I would like to tell you about a friend of mine, sadly anything I would be allowed to tell you wouldn’t make a good story.

---

And that was it. I hope you enjoyed. Wednesday's exercise will be "Record five minutes of a talk radio show. Write down the dialog and add narrative descriptions of the speakers and actions as if you were writing a scene." That should be fun. Obviously, I will write it as a screenplay, since I am interested in writing screenplays.

National Novel Writing Month

Well, it's NaNoWrMo, and I don't have any time to participate. Usually I would decide to write a script this month, but I don't really have the time to plan out a whole story and write it, because of my thesis and looking for a job. However, while browsing the internet in one of my very frequent procrastination phases, I found a website that showed Fifteen Writing Exercises. 


So, for NaNoWrMo I will be participating by doing one exercise every other day. This way I have something to work on besides my thesis and job hunt and can somewhat participate in NaNoWrMo.

Also, since I am testing out Scrivener, I'll upload documents instead of just writing it in a blog post. But, I will post them to this blog.

I will be uploading the first one later this evening!

Wish me luck!

Discipline

Yesterday I watched The Last Samurai, one of my favourite films. I know many of the people who read this will disagree with me, but it really is a great film. I guess many people think it gives off a white supremacist meaning because a white man is "the last samurai." But I don't believe those people have watched the film, since it is very clear that "the last samurai" is plural and refers to the entire Katsumoto's clan not just Nathan Algren.

But I don't really want to talk about the film itself as much as I want to talk about what the film has changed in me now that I watched it again. 

I haven't been very productive lately. I've been wallowing in self pity for probably the last year and my productivity suffered equally. Now, I have to write a 14000 word thesis in two months and find a job at the same time. Yet, I have no intention to do either until it is far too late and I won't be able to make either of the deadlines. However, yesterday while watching the film and having Tom Cruise's character observe the japanese customs and daily lives I was inspired to work hard as well. A quote I like to remember from the film is; 

"From the moment they wake, they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue. I have never seen such discipline."

It doesn't matter how interesting the activity is, whether it is sword fighting or tea making, they strive for perfection. Something which I have had trouble with for a long time. 

I never believed that my film making was great, or my screenwriting could become anything, most of the time I believed that which I enjoyed to be frivolous.  But this film has inspired me to work hard and perfect that which I pursue, no matter what. Which means I will be working from the moment I wake on perfecting my writing, my thesis, getting a job and finally learning Japanese. 

Another subject of the film that really struck home was "honor." Since I was a little boy I always believed in honor. I don't know why – I wasn't a Japan fanboy back then or had any other connection to honor, but for some reason it has always been very important to me. Therefore, when I learned about Seppuku I found it understandable. Of course times have changed and I believe there are other ways to restore honor than killing yourself, but I respected the idea.

For those of you who haven't watched the film, it's about a civil war between the Japanese monarch and a rebel group lead by Katsumoto. Japan is in the middle of becoming more like the west and the rebel group believes they should stay traditional. The climax of the story is somewhat like the battle of thermopylae, where a few men stood up to an army of much greater numbers. Katsumoto and his clan defeated two waves of men before storming at the generals, finally being gunned down by the newly invented machine guns. Katsumoto, dishonored by defeat commits Seppuku with Algren helping him. 

And in what is my favourite scene in cinema, one of the captains goes over his generals head to stop the gunmen to allow Katsumoto to take his own life. Then, he takes off his hat, drops to his knees and bows in front of Katsumoto, with the entire army following his lead. I don't know what it is exactly, but I always get very emotional when watching this scene.

Discipline and honor. Two words, I find have been forgotten in this day and age. I like to believe I have always been very honorable of everyone I meet and now, thanks to The Last Samurai reminding me, I will work on my discipline. Yet, because I know myself, in a week or two I will have forgotten everything I have learned and will fall back into a depressed state and once again accomplish nothing. So I will be watching The Last Samurai every month from now on, so that maybe I can learn discipline and finally get my life on track.