Be the Ball, Danny.

Joined TNT folk for their track workout tonight. Coach Katie suggested 200 meter repeats where I just concentrate on form. Odd feeling, running on a track and not keeping time. But that's the sort of workout I'll do for awhile. This year I turned running into a job and resented it. Maybe when it's fun again, I'll check my watch.

So I got that going for me.

Ken Burns Burned in Video

If you like parodies of Ken Burns, this mockumentary is a honey.

Fun?

Had lunch with Coach Katie yesterday. We talked of many things, including running. Katie felt I'd lost all sense of joy when it came to this sport of ours. Very true. Most of 2007 was spent training, being injured, and training again. So tomorrow I set out on a five-mile run without my watch. I'll run, finish whenever, and just chill. Mid-January I'll train again.

Next stop: May 4, 2008 - the Eugene Marathon! (That's Eugene, Oregon, a city that is to running what South Bend, Indiana is to college football.)

Blast From My Improv Past

In the early 80s I performed improvisational comedy with a group called the L.A. Connection. Our cast worked Friday nights. Afterwards, we'd buy a lot of beer, head over to someone's apartment and wait for SCTV to air at 12:30 AM. When it came to parody, they lived in the zone. Here's an old favorite starring Martin Short.

Happy T-Day!

A brisk run, writing, some phone calls to friends and family then off to the in-laws for chow and the Southern Cal game.

At some point this weekend, my darling wife and I will sit down to watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Starring Steve Martin and John Candy, this film is our Thanksgiving favorite. Released in 1987, "Planes" celebrates its 20th birthday. Next year, it can buy liquor.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Robots and Seniors

Oz didn't give nothing to the Tin Man, certainly not old peoples' medicine.

Strike Talks and Writing

WGA and Producer's Guild talks resume next Monday. Talent agents did a little back-channel negotiating and got things moving. We shall see.

Going from poi to Pai Gow poker, running partner Ernesto prepares for the Las Vegas Marathon now a mere two weeks away. This will be his first 26-miler since Honolulu last year.

Writing like a frenzied fellow on the second draft of my book, Dummy Fever.

An animated series I worked on this summer has begun airing. I haven't seen an episode yet, so I won't link. But the story editor told me most of the show's humor has been culled out to make way for a lengthy didactic message on proper behaviour for kids.

Just writing that caused me to slip into rem.

Writers Fight for Cyber Gold

Cutting writers in on internet revenue is a key component of the strike. The producers maintain they aren't making any money off the Web. Thanks to Little Miss Attila for this link showing what studio heads really think.

Another Blorthday

Number two, to be exact, since I started Write Enough. Somewhere I discovered a ranking system measuring blog traffic. I am the 59,000th most popular blog in the world.

From a practical standpoint, knowing my writing could be read by anywhere from 6 to 17 people a day does improve my prose.

Or at least compresses it.

Happy B-Day, USMC!

A happy belated 232nd birthday to the United States Marine Corps. Yesterday, in units all over the world, the oldest and youngest Marines cut a birthday cake (or whatever they could scrounge) in honor of the Corps. Also "well done" to all our veterans past and present.

Craig's List Strike Nuggets

A guy this morning offered to picket in exchange for an introduction to an agent. (I think the post has since been taken down.)

Then there's this fellow.

(The above post has been taken down. But it said: "I Am A Scab!" The author then described himself as an "amazing writer"ready to work now and that the strikers were all "has-beens." I think it was put up by Les Moonves.)