Welcome to Sad Salvation. Day by day by day by day ... this is my attempt to make sense of the world.

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Saturday, October 02, 2004

Dance like no one is dancing

I love to dance, but I am not sure I want people to see me dance. I was dancing around the other day. I wonder what people think when they see me with my headphone, bopping around to a song. What do people think seeing a 30-something, 450 pound, white guy dancing around? Hopefully people do not laugh the same way they laugh when seeing how to dance properly.

- Rich, 5:29 PM

Friday, October 01, 2004

NaNoWriMo Tip 1

I know that people do all sorts of things to get ready for National Novel Writing Month. I think that I did a couple of things last year that really helped me finish. The first thing was how I prepared. I decided to pick a broad topic. My novel last year about about dating in Silicon Valley.

Once I had my topic, I collected a list of little stories and gags to write about in my novel. My goal was to make sure I had 100 little stories by November 1st. At the very least I could write 500 words about each of my 100 little stories. That would get me to my goal if I needed to.

The list of stories included:

How a bad kiss can kill a date
Sexual scavenger hunt at the office
How to tell when it is really a date
Bomb shelter sex
Burying yourself in work when you can't get a date
Guy who picks girlfriends by what company they work for
Protestchix.com

This was really useful when I hit a writers block. When I would get really stuck working in one of these stories would really help me. It also helped me plan out my story. I usually had a good idea of where I went next. I think this is a pretty good tip

- Rich, 9:18 AM

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Failed on my goal

My goal was to only buy one tank of gas in the month of September. I was not able to achive this. I had to buy another tank of gas on the 26th. I fell a few days short. If I could only drive to work four days a week, every week I would be able to only buy one tank of gas.

I am trying to drive less for a couple of reasons. I tend to go out and spent too much money going around. I want to spend more time at my apartment. Thinking about how much I drive really helps me think about this. It will be a while before I can try this challange again. It will have to wait until sometime 2005.

- Rich, 8:51 PM

100 Favorite Movies Now

A few weeks ago I posted a list of my 100 favorite movies circa 1998. I thought it would be interesting to look at how that list has changed over time. Here is the new list.

100 Favorite Movies 9-30-2004

1. Casablanca
2. Citizen Kane
3. Annie Hall
4. Vertigo
5. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
6. Trust
7. Blazing Saddles
8. Trainspotting
9. Goodfellas
10. Reservoir Dogs
11. Airplane
12. Fight Club
13. Taxi Driver
14. Dr. Strangelove
15. Gone With The Wind
16. 12 Monkeys
17. The Producers
18. On The Waterfront
19. Maltese Falcon
20. Manhattan
21. Star Wars
22. Waking Life
23. Millers Crossing
24. The Manchurian Candidate
25. Sherman’s March
26. Kill Bill Parts 1 & 2
27. Akria
28. Before Sunrise
29. The Jungle Book
30. Amateur
31. Brazil
32. Until The End Of The World
33. 2001
34. Rear Window
35. Cinema Paradincmo
36. The Big Sleep
37. The Killers
38. Simple Men
39. Slackers
40. Short Cuts
41. The Usual Suspects
42. Chinatown
43. Crimes and Misdemeanors
44. West Side Story
45. Clerks
46. Raiders of The Lost Ark
47. Office Space
48. The Unbelievable Truth
49. Hard Day’s Night
50. Secrets & Lies
51. Rushmore
52. Sleeper
53. The Sweet Hereafter
54. Saturday Night Fever
55. Blue Velvet
56. Modern Times
57. Rocky
58. The Blues Brothers
59. In the Company of Men
60. Deconstructing Harry
61. The Last Picture Show
62. I Hear The Mermaids Singing
63. Man Bites Dog
64. History Of The World Part I
65. Alphaville
66. Die Hard
67. East of Eden
68. Police Squad: The Naked Gun
69. The Big Bus
70. The Natural
71. High Noon
72. Planet Of The Apes
73. Blade Runner
74. The Unforgiven
75. Henry Fool
76. Army of Darkness
77. Yojimbo
78. Dead Man
79. Do The Right Thing
80. Bridge Over the River Kwai
81. The Birds
82. El Mariachi
83. The Conversation
84. It Happened One Night
85. Dr. Zhivago
86. Ed Wood
87. Toy Story
88. Field Of Dreams
89. What Happened Was
90. Smoke
91. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)
92. Homicide
93. Heathers
94. Kicking And Screaming
95. RoboCop
96. ET
97. Flirt
98. Fahrenheit 451
99. Guys and Dolls
100. The Road Warrior


Movies that dropped off the list
Jurassic Park
Midway
The Rain People
The Piano
When Harry Met Sally
The Last Detail
Forrest Gump
Rebel Without a Cause
The Graduate
Strangers On a Train
Apocalypse Now
Network
African Queen

Movies that were on the list before the last list.

Dracula
Purple Rose Of Cairo
King Kong
Dumbo
Animal House
It’s A Wonderful Life
Grease
The Day The Earth Stood Still
Saving Private Ryan

Tell me what you think of my list.

- Rich, 12:27 AM

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Paint A Vulgar Picture

Courtney sent me the link about The Passion of the Morrissey. I told her not too long ago that I used to be a Morrissey fan. Along with my friend Andrew Nock, I was the guy who in college did a radio show during spring finals playing four hours of just Morrissey and the Smiths. I was the guy that would drive two hours to find an our of print single. My guess is that I am not going to surprise anyone by writing this.

It is funny. That was a long time ago. I had one of those moments where I could stop being a fan. A had been such a big fan for a long time, but it seemed to all wash away in a single moment. I still have some old Smiths and Morrissey albums. I still tell people that How Soon Is Now is my favorite song of all time. I just do not conceder myself to be a fan anymore.

Sometime I will write about the time I met Morrissey and why I am no longer a fan. I will save that for some other time. What I do know is that Morrissey is all Aura. It was a little heartbreaking when I found out he was not the person on his albums.

Labels: Andrew Nock, college, Morrissey, music

- Rich, 11:41 PM

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Up, Up, and Away!

I might be getting old, but I find very little cool about the idea of Virgin Galactic. I do think it would be cool to get into space. I just want it to be real space travel. I am not really into the idea of flying into space to just hang out and coming back down. I want to go into space so I can make my way to Mars. I doubt that will happen in my lifetime. What I really want is for mankind to travel to other stars. I doubt that would happen before we would kill ourselves off.

- Rich, 5:51 PM

Monday, September 27, 2004

Better Than Reportingly

I wanted to be the first person to link to my friend Steve's blog Better Than Reportingly. Steve is a friend that goes way back. Just don't ask him about the stories of when we spent almost every Friday and Saturday night hanging out at a Karaoke bar.

If you have not been keeping track, Steve is one my friends in San Diego. Back in May Steve took a spill on his motorcycle a few month ago. I want to encourge Steve on his ongoing recovery. I think that more readers to his blog would do that.

- Rich, 11:31 PM

Sunday, September 26, 2004

Arranged Marriages In America

I have been thinking of ideas for my NaNoWriMo novel. One idea has brought up this questions. Could someone like me have an arranged marriage in America today? By someone like me, I mean someone who is White, non-praticing catholic, who is not being pushed into this by his family. I am pretty sure if I was Jewish or Muslim I could find someone to arrange a marriage for me. If I was Indian, Pakistani or from a number of other countries I could have an arranged marriage. There are a number of other American subcultures where arranged marriages are taking place, but I am not sure you can just join them.

I know that a lot of people would point me toward mail order brides as a form of arranged marriage. I do not think that is the same thing. I see mail order brides as transactional relationships. The woman will give the man a relationship if the man will bring her to the United States.

I am not sure what an arranged marriage would be about in the American culture. I am not sure who would be taking part of arranged marriages in America. If arranged marriages are happening in mainstream America I want to know who these people are. I think there is at least one novel that could be written about this.

Does anyone reading this know anyone who has been in an arranged marriage?

- Rich, 9:47 AM

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