Knee Op and Animated Bureaucrats

Lots of paperwork, sign this and that, all for an operation that's supposed to take an hour. Then off to the drug store for antibiotics and heavy-duty pain pills.  Tomorrow, I have blood tests, x-rays and a physical.

Ran three miles today, completing the last mile in 7:57. I haven't run a sub-eight mile since last August. This will be a positive memory to take into recovery.   

In addition to massive legal documents, my paying job has a well-defined chain-of-command that includes the story editor, two producers, head of the division, another guy, and a guy overseas. The gate guards are also on the distribution lists and add such comments as, "needs more guard characters," and "why doesn't this scene have a check-point?" 

Short story lengthens on. I think I need to kill off characters quicker. Nothing personal, but they're holding up the ending. 

A Farewell to Legs

Ran three miles yesterday, walking two-minutes for every one minute of running. For the last mile, I dropped the walking and focused on moving quickly, feet underneath the body, with rapid turn-over. I logged 8:39, my fastest individual mile since last September. No knee pain yesterday or today.

Surgery this Friday. If running is out for the next several months, it'll be easier having completed at least one decent mile.

Today was the L.A. Marathon. A couple friends ran, but I haven't had time to check results.

Happy Memorial Day! I think of departed veterans Kurt and T.J. Imagine you knew a man from Cleveland, Ohio. He had one sibling, an older sister. During Vietnam, he volunteered for a dangerous assignment, operating far behind enemy lines. After the war, he battled drugs and alcohol. Eventually, he sobered up and went to work for a vending machine company, traveling around Los Angeles in a van fixing candy, coffee and soda machines.

Now imagine you knew two men with the same criteria. That would be Kurt and T.J. Kurt served in Marine recon, operating in Laos along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. T.J. was a 4th Infantry Division LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol), creeping around North Vietnamese base camp areas in the Central Highlands. Their Vietnam service overlapped by around six months. (July 1967 to January 1968.)

Once I introduced them to each other at a party, figuring they'd have tons to talk about, but after a few polite minutes they went their separate ways. In any case, I'm honored to have known them and appreciate the sacrifices they made.

PS: I was going to put up more films, but have too much writing. So: Saving Private Ryan, Anthony Mann's Men in War, Band of Brothers, and We Were Soldier's Once, plus A Bridge Too Far complete a few of my war genre favorites.

Memorial Day Film Festival

Here's the trailer from a World War II action flick featuring a cast of top character actors. In addition to the usual Americans from different walks of life ("We're all in this together."), the film included a pacifist, a nasty S.O.B., and Desi Arnaz. As I recall from seeing the movie, the hand-to-hand fighting scenes were raw and brutal, war at its most visceral level. Yes, there's Yank heroism, but the audience is told victory will take hard, unflinching, even heartless men. Worth a look as it was made at a time when things on the battlefield still weren't going all our way.

Sit-Com Report

Finally heard back from my agent. She enjoyed the sit-com, liked the story, but felt the three main characters needed a bit more distinguishing. Fair enough. And not a particularly thorny fix, as these matters go.  As often happens, the material execs will read changes with the seasons. For a long time they wanted a sample of a currently running sit-com. Since the great sit-com die-off, they now want an original script. Also, I learned one of the major animation studios is reluctant to even take pitches from me since one exec doesn't feel anything I've written is "funny enough." That's like sending back a cup of coffee because the liquid isn't "wet enough." Idiosyncratic. Unanswerable. But bound to change once the new script gets out there.

As to my paying animation gig, I've completed the outline and will send it out on the morrow. That means income. I'm faint and girlish thinking about it. 

My friend Dale, whom I've written about for the last two years, has taken another head-butt from cancer. He's been opened up so many times his stomach has lost all elasticity, intestines tied and re-tied into a complicated mess. On Sunday, he was rushed in for emergency surgery after a leak had developed in his mangled guts. And while Dale survived, his pain is immense. When I saw him today, his eyes were popped out from all the morphine. We sat and watched Hawaii 5-0 until he fell asleep. 

Keep him in your prayers, as well as his family. They watch and wait. 

Sam Plenty and The Power of Dos

Evil better watch its dribbly backside as Sam Plenty hooks up with fellow world-saver El Bondigas.

Running Rocks in Hard Times

MDW sent me this on hitting the road when money erodes.

Hurry Up the Video

Ace poster Takineko showcases Anamaniacs' sculpture over at her blog. (And kindly adds a shout-out to Paul Rugg and I.)