Severed Rewrite Complete

I happily completed the third rewrite of the screenplay Severed this past weekend. The script was originally just a secular action flick (draft 1) that I converted into a Christian action flick (draft 2). But the Christian themes were not effectively interspersed in the storyline, so I made another pass at it this long holiday weekend and finished the rewrite last night.

I think it is a much more "readable" script and more effectively focuses on martyrdom and whether, if faced with the unpleasant option, we would be willing to die for our faith.

Next, I have to polish the Christian vampire flick called Redemption. It's nice to be writing screenplays again.

Why Pro-Lifers Become Pro-Lifers

A very good article at the Weekly Standard by Fred Barnes about the personal experiences of five people who were not pro-life believers and how their experiences lead them to become strong pro-life advocates.

It's a very good and quick read, but it will lead to much greater thought after you're done.

Take a look at it here.

The Art Of Failure

I was reading a very interesting interview with film director Steven Soderbergh, who directed Sex, Lies and Videotape, Oceans 11, Erin Brockovich, Traffic and others. Anyway, he had some insightful points about the process of being creative.

"A lot of people who write about art don’t understand the importance of failure, the importance of process. Woody Allen can’t leap from Annie Hall to Manhattan. He has to make Interiors in between to get to Manhattan. You’ve got to let him do that... Every time you make something that somebody likes, your impulse is to remind them that if you hadn’t made some of these other things that they hated, you wouldn’t have been able to make the thing that they liked. The attitude toward the stuff they don’t like is so extreme because they don’t understand the role that it has in your development. "

Creating anything is like giving birth, it is a very painful process, but some of us are drawn to do it, over and over again, despite the struggles associated with it. And, like life, failure is the most effective catalyst toward success.

Ramsey Relo

Congrats to Brian and Katie on moving into their new home!

Take plenty of pics and save a spare room for us when we visit.

Catherine Is Our Hero

My wife and I got a small postcard in the mail yesterday from my niece, Catherine, who painted Gabe's sports-themed mural on his bedroom wall (see blog entry HERE).

It appears that Catherine has been one of four artists selected to have an off-campus showing of their artwork tomorrow, September 1st, at an event called Connect The Dots located at Block 27 in Jacksonville.

What a great surprise! Having your art work shown as an artists is as important as having your film shown at a festival. We're so excited for her! We only wish we could attend.

Anyway, major kudos to a wonderful artists who just happens to be my niece! :) Let us know how well it goes, Catherine, and take plenty of pictures!

Truth Hurts

Yesterday my wife and I were discussing middle east politics and terrorism with our daughter. We were explaining that a lot of the world dislikes us because they think the United States is oppressive. Our daughter quickly contemplated that notion and responded by saying "Americans are too lazy to be oppressive."

How true that is.

Remicade... Yeah!

I had my Remicade infusion Wednesday. Thank God for that! I usually start to feel better by the end of the treatment and, in about a week, should be back to full strength.

Better living through chemistry!

The Exodus Decoded

The Exodus Decoded is an intriguing documentary shown on the History Channel that tries to scientifically validate the events stated in the Bible in the Book of Exodus. Filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici spent ten years investigating this topic and has come up with some very interesting results. The catalyst for so much of the Book of Exodus falling into place, scientifically speaking, is that he believes the current dating of when these events were supposed to have occurred is not accurate. To put it plainly, he poses the question "If, in the future, historians decided that World War II took place in the 1990's, all of their exploration would find no evidence that it ever occurred." By moving back the date of the Exodus about two hundred and fifty years, to around 1500 B.C., suddenly everything begins to fall into place.

You find evidence of a Joseph in power in Egypt. You find evidence of a Pharaoh who's name in Hebrew means "brother of Moses." You find that Pharaoh had a son who died young, perhaps during Passover. You find documented Egyptian writings that tell of the exodus from the Egyptian point of view. You have a nearby volcano that coincides with the plagues. You find, as others have recently discovered, that the parting of the Red Sea was mistranslated and, in the original Hebrew was actually the parting of the Reed Sea, or fresh water lake. In the end, the filmmaker proposes physical evidence of the parting of the Reed Sea, he claims to find the true Mount Sinai and, most amazingly, the first real picture of the ark of the covenant which houses the Ten Commandments.

What's even more amazing about this is that, because no one thought of the Exodus occurring in his proposed timeframe, no one else was looking or interpreting information right in front of them that would support it, including the picture of the ark. It's an amazing show that covers a lot of ground. When you put it all together it makes for a compelling documentary. It will air again on September 7th, so if you can watch it, if you can't TIVO it. It will be left thinking about it days after watching it.

How Hurricanes Keep You Holy

Every year, between June and November, we Floridians enter Hurricane Season. And every year one of the fifteen or so named storms makes a projected b-line across our homes (see Ernesto). In a lot of ways, its a pain in the booty. You have to secure your home, find all of your important papers, pack the car with family, and drive somewhere or hide somewhere until the threat subsides.

The upside is that, every Hurricane Season, we must go through a moral evaluation. In short order we must determine what is replaceable and what is priceless. The fact that we can fit all that is priceless into a small SUV shows just how much of our life is filled with distractions, with excess, with unnecessary things. We realize that, since we can't even take most of our items with us in an emergency that we certainly can't take any of it with us if we die. That all of it left behind can be rebuilt or re-bought. That only those people in your family, or the items that express your faith and a perhaps few precious items are the only things that have value beyond this world.

If we're smart, we can use Hurricane Season as an annual way to purge us from earthly distractions and materialism and, instead, direct our focus more fully on those people that would sit next to you in your SUV while you drive away from all that is replaceable and expendable.

Beware of the Hidden Iman Apparently...

An interesting read of an article about current Iranian president Ahmadinejad and why he is more of a threat than we believe in our secular-based world.

Part of the article posted HERE at Daily Mail (UK) states...

As one Iranian exile told me yesterday: 'The trouble with you secular people is that you don't realise how firmly Ahmadinejad believes - literally - in things like the winged horse. By choosing this date for his decision, he is telling his followers that he is going to obey his religious duty.

'And he believes that his religious duty is to create chaos and bloodshed in the "infidel" world, in order to hasten the return of the Mahdi - the Hidden Imam. So don't expect him to behave, in your eyes, "reasonably".'

So who is this Hidden Imam? He was a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed who, at the age of five, disappeared down a well around AD940. He will only return after a period of utter chaos and bloodshed, whereupon peace, justice and Islam will reign worldwide.

Never thought I should be afraid of a Hidden Iman, but I guess so. We, as citizens in this country, need to understand our potential enemies much better than we currently do. How can we make intelligent decisions if we don't understand the driving forces behind other countries decisions, such as religion, economics, internal politics?

I find it interesting that the countries Bush labelled years ago (and was heavily criticized) as part of the Axis of Evil; North Korea, Iran and Syria seem to be living up to their billing.

Politically, we long for leadership with the strength of Roosevelt or Churchill, but in today's environment we would never support anyone who would state such strong opinions. The idea that everyone has to like us is an insane political position. They should leave us alone and try not to kill us. If they do that while hating us, I'm okay with it.

Redemption

Vampire movies have always bothered me because they never take into account basic Judeo-Christian belief systems. They conveniently ignore basic tenents, like we are either "for God or against God" and, instead, focus on the benefits of being immortal as a blood sucking murderer.

So, in May of 2001 I wrote a screenplay called Redemption to address my personal concerns. The story synopsis is as follows: in a moment of weakness, a deeply religious scientist becomes a vampire in a failed attempt to save his family. Now forever in the grips of evil, he spends eternity seeking redemption by ridding the world of all vampires... including himself.

Out of the fourteen or so screenplays I've written, this has always been my wife's favorite. That surprised me because, for me, it didn't seem that special, so I put it away and have worked on numerous screenplays since (The Box, Graverobbers Wanted adaptation, Severed). However, when I started putting together my plans for Sonlight Pictures, a Christian film company, Redemption, a horror flick, was always one of the four films that I included in the initial projects (Severed [action], The Flu [comedy], The Adventures of Gabby Wells [children]).

My film nut daughter, who's a big fan of Severed, asked about Redemption, so we dusted off the five year old screenplay and gave it a spin, sitting in our movie room and read the script aloud. To both of our surprises the script was very good. I mean, really, really good. Sure, it needs some work, but it rocks... and I don't say that lightly as I am my own, harshest critic. My daughter liked is so much that she was pretty adamant that Redemption should be the first Sonlight Picture, not Severed, as was planned.

She may be right. So, my To Do List has changed a bit. I'll finish the current re-write I'm doing with Severed, then clean up Redemption a bit to see if I can make the script any better.

In any event, rediscovering something I had written so long ago was a lot of fun. It was like reading something I didn't even write and finding it very enjoyable... kinda like discovering you're good at something by accident.
I guess I should trust my wife's judgement more now... great, she'll just love that. :)

Not Up To Code

Our house was owned previously by the engineer for the city of Safety Harbor. Because of that, nothing in our house is standard... everything is the result of leftovers from a job site. Whenever my wife and I do work in the house we find our house to be more and more "unique."

Doors aren't standard size.

The air conditioning thermostat was non-standard.

The windows were non-standard.

The lighting fixtures were non-standard.

And so on...

One of the on-going struggles in our house has been the inconsistency of temperature from our air conditioning system. The front of the house would be hot, the back of the house would be cold, etc. We finally decided to get the system looked at and found that the air handler was... that's right... non-standard. The return air system was completely screwed up. So, we've hired a company to fix it all up and, as they were moving the air handler out to the garage so they could set it up correctly, they said that the way it was originally put in was not even up to code.

No surprise here.

The upside is that we should have a level temperature household. The downside is that they didn't finish their work in one day so we had to sleep in a 90+ degree house last night. Well, we tried to sleep. No one really slept well.

Ahh, the joys of home ownership.

Crohns Visits Again

Well, I'm two weeks out from my next Remicade treatment and my Crohns is starting to flare up. It's amazing to think that I lived in this flared up state for years, with no hope in sight of it getting any better. But, with the miracle of Remicade, I get continued respite every three months.

The last two weeks are usually the least pleasant. Add my Crohns to my wife overcoming a flu and two eye infections... well it's been a lot of fun in our house!

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Beyond Gay Marriage

There is an interesting article by Ryan T. Anderson on the Weekly Standard website about the end goal of some of those in the gay marriage debate. Quoting from the statements of members of the movement, the end goal is to redefine marriage far beyond the scope of just same sex.

"Their statement, "Beyond Gay Marriage," was released recently as a full-page ad in the New York Times. Full of candor, the statement's mission is "to offer friends and colleagues everywhere a new vision for securing governmental and private institutional recognition of diverse kinds of partnerships, households, kinship relationships and families."

The statement lists several examples of such relationships, among them "committed, loving households in which there is more than one conjugal partner"--that is, polygamy and polyamory. But this is mild compared to what follows: demand for the legal recognition of "queer couples who decide to jointly create and raise a child with another queer person or couple, in two households." The language is breathtaking. Queer couples (plural) who jointly create a child? And intentionally raise the child in two (queer) households? Of course, no reference is made to the child's interests or welfare under such an arrangement--only to the fulfillment of adult desires by suitable "creations."

Put simply, the logic of "Beyond Gay Marriage" would result in the abolition of marriage as we know it. The authors tellingly write:

Marriage is not the only worthy form of family or relationship, and it should not be legally and economically privileged above all others. While we honor those for whom marriage is the most meaningful personal--for some, also a deeply spiritual--choice, we believe that many other kinds of kinship relationships, households, and families must also be accorded recognition.

The stated goal of these prominent gay activists is no longer merely the freedom to live as they want. Rather, it is to force you, your family, and the state to recognize and respect their myriad choices."

The article warns not to take this lightly as being presented by extreme fringe elements, as it lists the signatories...

"The people putting out this statement are not fringe figures. The more than 300 signatories include feminist icon Gloria Steinem, NYU sociologist Judith Stacey, Columbia University anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli, Georgetown law professors Robin West and Chai Feldblum, the Rev. Cecil Charles Prescod of Love Makes a Family, Inc., Yale law professor Kenji Yoshino, Princeton religion professor Cornel West, writer Barbara Ehrenreich, and Pat Clark, former executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation."

So, be aware of the full potential impact of such a social change could mean on our society and our way of life as a country. Just more food for thought.

I suggest reading the entire article when you can.

Vacation - Savannah... Again

We continued our trek in Savannah. We finished up at the Cathedral and continued down to the Riverfront. Growing up in Florida, it was nice to visit a city with buildings that hold tremendous American history.

The family in the Cathedral.

Gabe in the Cathedral.

Historic police station.

The historic Riverfront in Savannah.

DC, Pete and Gabe on the Riverfront.

DC and Gabe on 250 year old steps. Think of how many
people have walked down these same steps.

DC and Dea in the City Market.

One of the old cemetaries filled with people
who suffered from a flu epidemic.

A real Pirate House that has been converted into
a unique restaurant.

Vacation - Savannah

We left NC and went to Savannah, GA. The first day we braved the oppressive heat and took a guided tour of the wonderful, historic city, spending a lot of time at the breath takingly beautiful St. John the Baptist Catholic Church. Church's like that make you appreciate the awe of the greatness of God.

The grand mural at the Savannah Visitors Center.

The capital of Savannah with real gold covering the dome.

The outside of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church.

Candles and prayers a plenty.

The confessional, with pews roped off to visitors, had an
elaborate and stunning etched glass enclosure.

The tabernacle behind the altar.

Gabe says a quick prayer for Gramma and Grampa.

The amazing arched columns in the cathedral.

More tomorrow...

Happy Blog Birthday

I am consistently looking for new ways to challenge myself. A year ago today I challenged myself to write a blog entry everyday for a year.

Well, I did it. On August 15, 2005 I started this little experiment to help restart my writing and have successfully accomplished my goal. During this experiment I was able to capture my humorous experiences with Crohns Disease, I was able to finally put pen to paper and write my Memoir on my trip to California in 1988 and I was able to complete a draft of a Christian action film called Severed. So, the initial reason for the challenge, to get my writing juices flowing again, has been a smashing success.

Through this process I have been surprised at how many people actually visit this site and, beyond that, actually enjoy dropping by. There's my most loyal followers, my parents. My Mom's friend Priscilla. Various brothers and sisters and in-laws and nieces and nephews and other extended family. There are new friends and strangers. And old friends, such as Bill and Mike Beckett as well as George Higby have all recently stumbled across this humble blog.

What an amazing thing. What a wonderful thing.

Now, I am left wondering how to continue. I have had some say to continue to write daily, some to write periodically and, fortunately, no one has yet told me to stop writing all together.

So, I will try to continue to write daily, but I won't make any promises. I have new challenges ahead of me to which I need to focus my time. I need to write three more screenplays in the next year... that's a LOT of writing. I need to shoot a film of some sort... I need my cinematic fix. So, I don't know how consistently I will write here, but I will attempt to do it as close to daily as I can muster.

But I do enjoy the community we've created here. I love the feedback and the conversations and that my simple, humble words have somehow brought a smile or inspired a thought to some of the visitors here.

So, thank you for participating in this experiment. Thank you for your support, your words of encouragement and your continued interaction.

Let's continue to ride this baby for as long as we can.

Vacation - Smores

The last night in North Carolina we had a fire down by the lake and enjoyed some home made smores. Later that evening, when we returned to Mom and Dad's cabin, Mom had pulled out Dad's freshman year high school cheerleading uniform. To our amazement, Gabe was almost a perfect fit. That means that Gabe is big for being nine, or Dad was very short for being 13 at the time... I think it's the latter.

Jack and Mom at the camp fire.

Pete escorting Dad down the uneven terrain.

Dad, Mom and Terese sit while chatting with Katie and Luke.

Christina and Dea.

Pete and Dea.

Sarah and DC.

DC and Elizabeth on the Life Guard post.

DC leaves the docks distrubed while Elizabeth looks on.

Gabe with Grampa's cheerleading uniform.

Gabe in Cheer Pose #1.

Gabe, with the help of Grampa, in Cheer Pose #2.

Pete helping Gabe remove the delicate uniform.

Sunny Sunday

This morning, Gabe and I spent the early hours at the ball field. Having had the last two months off, he was very impressive at switch hitting and pitching. The kid has more physical talent in his little finger than I have in my whole body... and I'm no slouch.

We're now trying to figure out if playing in fall ball will benefit him more or if we should spend the money on individual training. We're still looking into it.

Afterwards we got ready and headed over to our friend Hester's house to celebrate getting her Masters in Education. Hester's husband, Bill, is very good friend of mine and helped me construct my movie room. It was good to see them. Unfortunately they have dogs and within an hour DC's alergies kicked in so we had to leave early.

Now we're getting ready for Lifeteen and bible study. I guess that's why you only get to relax in retirement. :)

Busy Saturday

Today was a busy day. Dea is suffering with an eye infection, so we went to the walk-in clinic and they prescribed her some medicine. After that we went up to Target to get the medication, then went to our first Renew bible study for this year, then home.

Doesn't seem like a lot, but it sure took a lot of time. Tomorrow isn't any less busy.

In the morning, Gabe and I are heading up to the ball field to hit in the batting cage and practice catching. In the afternoon we have a party for a friend who got their Masters degree. In the evening Dea is singing and DC is reading at the first Lifeteen mass of the year. After that we have a different bible study, then home.

And I thought weekends were for relaxation.