Screen Writers Guild Wisdom

Yesterday in my "Exploring Historical Formats" class my teacher had John Collee come and speak to our class about writing screen plays. By the way John Collee is the screen writer for such films as Happy Feet, Master and Commander, and the upcoming film Creationism. Not like I am bragging or anything, well, OK, maybe I am bragging. But come on how incredibly cool is it that our little class of 15 people had a private lecture and wisdom from a successful Hollywood screen writer. I think it is pretty awesome.

That is all beside the point, so I will digress in order to address my actual intention of this blog. I may not be interested in screen writing but he said something profound that can be applied to any job, profession, or adventure in life.

"If you don't ask yourself, 'why in the hell am I doing this,' at least once, it is not an adventure, and it is not worth doing." (John Collee)

I thought that this was particularly insightful. Maybe it is because of all the times Papa or Greg have said in response to complaining by us youngin's in the family, 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." I think that's right. Life is built like a roller coaster with extremely difficult climbs, exhilarating plummets, fast side winding unexpected curves. If they built a theme park and a roller coaster without those things it would be a straight flat set of train tracks, and what is exciting or rewarding about that? Nothing, it is boring. Not only is it boring, if life didn't have hardships it would be difficult to appreciate the positives in life. A little hardship and a lot of hard work always end up with a positive result, and one that you can feel good about, you can be proud of what you have accomplished. Coasting through life sounds easy, but think about all the adventures you would miss if you never asked yourself, 'why the hell am I doing this.'

34th Official Australian Blog Post

Wait a second, not only is this my 34th official blog post in Australia, it may possibly be my 34th official blog post ever. Yes, in fact, I have never had a blog so I would say that is pretty good to have done 34 posts in three months. Now I know that 34 if the often forgotten about and rarely celebrated anniversary number, however, I am sure it may be the least appreciated but somehow most important anniversary. How you may ask, well I am not exactly sure, I just happened to see that I had 33 posts and therefore, this would be my 34th and I thought that was quite a few, ok my reasoning is not sound, but let's not focus on that. For the sake of this post just pretend that my wacky reasoning is valid.

As a celebration of the 34th post and in tradition with all 34th anniversaries, I will do a recapitulation of my stay here thus far in Australia, it's highs, lows, and all the highlights. Ok just to be cynical I googled 34th anniversary themes thinking that as a joke some smart ass would have posted a silly theme like 34th anniversary=the channel changer year. Instead, they actually have the 34th anniversary classified as the Opal year, and have suggestions on how to buy opals for the anniversary. I am sure it is some marketing scheme (I should know, I am an expert now, ha.) Well I digress on that topic and I am changing the 34th anniversary to the recapitulation anniversary. Now that I have that out of the way, let me proceed.

Ahem....beginning recapitulation:

July 17th:Left from Denver, CO.

High-Excitement of a new adventure Low: Traffic accident.
July 19th arrived Sydney, Australia.

High- Seeing James and having the plane ride over with. Low-Seeing how dirty my apartment was.
July 20-26 Figuring it out.

High-meeting new people and my great American friends, enrolling in classes, seeing the campus. Low-None
July 27-August 2 Time to start classes.

High- Starting classes and feeding my hunger for knowledge. Low-Being scared by linguistic analysis.
August 3-9 Settling in.

High, interview for job and buying a drip coffee pot. Low-None.

August 10-16 Feeling the footy.

High-Australian Rules footy game. Low-None.

August 17-25 Attempting to drive.

High-Driving on the wrong side of the road. Low-Driving on the wrong side of the road.

August 31-September 6 I am hired, but Mr. Spider you are fired.

High-Officially got the job! Low-First huntsman of the season.

September 14-20 Let's go to candy mountain.

High-Finding the Unicorn Hotel. Low-None.

September 21-27 Lot's of excitement.

High-Couples function on James' ship, the red dust storm, and the beginning of mango season. Low-None, can;t complain about that.

October 5-11 Sailing the high seas.

High-sailing with James' ship. Low-getting sea sick.

And end recapitulation and celebration of the anniversary of my 34th blog post. I shall now go celebrate sleep in the land of tomorrow!