April 2008

Vagaries, Vagrancy, and Vacancies...

Despite what today's date implies, this is no foolie...

I've been a bit busy over the time since my last entry, trying to both corral the inspiration to work on more things, and the will to exploit the seven-part primer you read here first.

A couple of places are considering it, and a friend of mine who publishes a science fiction "fanzine" - a fan produced magazine - will be publishing it this summer. I'm not sure yet if he's going to divide it into seven, or shoot the whole wad at once; it's his decision, since it's his zine.

At any rate, this month of April will be somewhat busy... I'm a judge in a screenwriting contest, and the deadline was yesterday. Any moment now, one hundred twenty scripts will be passing before these bloodshot eyes.

I also have a tentative order for buttons from a committee member at Penguicon, the science fiction convention/Linux open-source festival being held just after Tax Day, as well. The production is easy enough; it's just getting the lead time to produce them all properly.

Speaking of taxes (and I was, tangentially), I still have ours to do.

The less said about that, the better…

In addition to all the above, I've been taking seminars from our local MichiganWorks! affiliate, to qualify for the No Worker Left Behind program, and I've also been applying for jobs.

Fun, eh?

And, on top of that, I've been listing things on eBay. My seller ID is ajlb99, so if you go there, look for me.

(I do try to keep busy.)

Sometime again!

Cheers!

Al B.

It Isn't A Dirty Word...

Commerce.

It's not the root of all evil in the world. (According to the Bible, it's "the love of money" that's the root of all evil. But that's another story.)

Buying and selling, making and spending money, is how we get by in this society. It may be wrong, it may be inherently evil, but it is what it is, and we have to deal with it.

Why this mini-screed on filthy lucre? Well, it's an inducement to have you throw some my way. If you check out the new SALES PAGE on the Alexander Film Works web site, you'll find some peachy-keen stuff I designed just to get you guys to spend a little coin.

Check it out.

Flip some folding green my way.

You'll help an impecunious indie filmmaker, and maybe get something you'll treasure for a while.

(They also make GREAT GIFTS!) *Courtesy of the Acme™ TV Pitchman® Kit - Pat. Pending*

Cheers!

Al B.

Now And Then, I Have An Idea...

There are times, I think, that what I do is not worth "a bucket of warm spit", as John Nance Garner said of the Vice Presidency of the United States. (By the way, this quote has been Sanitized For Your Protection™…)

I get that way, sometimes. I have always been someone who does not have a high sense of self-esteem, despite the attempts to inculcate a sense of superiority in me. So, during most of my times on this spinning mudball in a remote corner of an unremarkable galaxy, I have been laboring along with delusions of adequacy. Sort of like a '72 Honda Civic, the kind with no fuel pump, trying to make it over Rabbit Ears Pass on U. S. Highway 40 in northwestern Colorado. (I knew a guy who had one, and did that very trip almost every weekend - but that's a story for another time, perhaps.)

It can be done, you understand... it often is done. It isn't very easy, requires a great deal of motivation, and sometimes means you go over the top ass-end-to.

But then, in the midst of the chaos, panic, despair, and outright lunacy that highlights the mileposts of my life, I come upon a glimmer of shining Hope; a Sign that things just might not be as bad as they seem.

Putting up 96 feet of privacy fence in a little over six hours, with help, and proving that I'm not as fumblefingered a klutz as I had thought myself.

Utilizing a bare-bones design for a stylesheet to make new pages on my film website look good, and seeing that they do look good.

Watching, amazed, as words actually flow from brain, through fingers and keyboard, onto phosphors on the screen before me. And the words actually make sense, and flow reasonably well.

'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Maybe it's the slow adding of sunlight as the days get longer. Maybe I'm eating better. (Don't bet the house payment on that one, though...)

Maybe it's just my time.

Who knows? Stranger things have happened... even to me.

Cheers!

Al B.

It's Always Something...

Now that I'm busy up to my *deleted* with things that have to be done, more things are coming up that I want to do...

I've applied to, and had an interview with, a local municipality for a computer/video technician position, and I think the interview went well. "Three to five weeks," they said, and it hasn't been that yet, so I have hopes.

I found out, from a friend noting it on the Michigan Film Office site, that an independent film is going to be shooting for 18 days here in Detroit next month (is it only three days or so until the first? Wooo...), and I've put in resumes for positions.

The weather's getting <somewhat> better, so I'm getting the itch to shoot a little...

I also have less than a week to get our storage unit cleaned out to avoid paying for another month's rent.

Sleep? What's that?

More later, friends.

Cheers!

Al B.

Inchoate Longings and the Curse of Mental Vaporware...

I don't know how everyone else writes, or creates, or does whatever they do.

Most of my creative endeavors start as a sort of vision, a disconnected series of ideas, or images, or phrases, that seem to pop forth from nowhere.

They roil in the agitator of my subconscious, accreting form, structure, and heft, until they then burst forth ready to be noted down.

After these initial inspirations arrive, it's the job of the virtual construction crew in my head to erect the structure around these foundations, put up the façade, finish the detail work, and get it ready for the main event - occupancy by the public.

Jeez, am I torturing the metaphors in this post...

It doesn't always happen that way.

I get stuck, or I get just vaporous visions that lead nowhere... This is hardly fun, but is a part of the process.

Just a few thoughts...

Cheers!

Al B.