We're Not Worthy!

My past week has been spent on the schedule of a fulltime writer, or that of a fulltime writer who has made the decision to work from home. And it seems to have worked out rather well. I've had opportunities to work out with a buddy in the day, have lunch with friends, attend (and shoot) a funeral, and go on a shoot with no disruption to work activity. I've been able to meet all deadlines... well, almost. I was late for 15 minutes once, but that's it.

I like my new schedule. It would be nice to stay on it for awhile.

As for casting, I said goodbye (and hopefully, good riddance) to it once rehearsals were over on Monday. A situation arose where because of what the writer thought, someone who'd already arrived for the rehearsal had to be fired and a new actor sought. For a shoot that was the next day. (Who the fuck do you think you are anyway, you're not the producer; you shouldn't get any fucking say.) "I don't care, I'm not handling it," was my mantra, and it seemed that no one wanted to challenge that, which was a pleasant surprise.

Later in the week, someone told me one of my cast members couldn't act. Well, if a certain look seemed to be more important than acting ability, and if that was emphasized to me, then I went with the look. Too bad. Like I said before, they don't really pay me enough to care about this shit; be glad I provided you with a warm body.

I think I'll work on an actual screenplay today, since it's dreary and wet outside and I don't have any real plans.

Or friends, apparently. Somehow the whole world neglected to inform me that two good friends were having their convocations this week. Everyone simply assumed that I was too busy and couldn't attend. Well, as it turned out, I was only on shoot for one of those days. For the other I was busy swimming/running/gymming.

I guess mention was made some weeks before in an offhanded way, but at a point weeks before, dates floating around are just numbers to me with no concrete reality to them. I need confirmation near the actual date, all the time. I need to be able to write down dates and times into my organizer or input them into my phone so I know. I've forgotten about appointments until my phone beeped a reminder an hour before them. There are just so many dates and numbers involved in my daily life that it's all I can do normally to get them in order for the current day. Mentioning stuff weeks in advance and not following up with me is essentially useless.

I'm kidding about the no friends part. I still love you guys. I'm just shocked that you had no idea I'm so terrible with dates.

In other news, I've been tomorrow-ed. Which means that (eeps!) strangers are reading my blog. I mean, I knew that already, but it still feels a little bizarre.

If I may, I'd like to quote from Wayne's World: We're not worthy! We're not worthy!

Is it strange that my first reaction to discovering this was slight disappointment that the link was to a post that isn't one of my best/favorites?

A postman just delivered the latest Harry Potter for my brother. This is frightfully wrong. The poor guy had to come in the rain just to deliver this stupid fucking book. I bet he'd been doing the same thing all morning.

Hello, world? Wake up. It's. Just. A. Book.

While we're on the subject of books and things literary in nature, read this article. Yes, it's rather long and has quite a number of words. For those who don't like to read, I'm lifting a sentence or two from each paragraph in order to summarize it - the good ol' way we were taught to summarize in all those fucking Chinese language classes.

Markets still have trouble reconciling themselves to democracy proper.
Above all markets love the country of Singapore.
The country has quite literally traded politics for wealth, with its most prominent political thinkers endlessly reminding the world that "Asian values" prioritize economic achievement over civil liberties.
Many facts can be cited to illustrate Singapore's exchange of democracy for wealth, but few are more poignant than the bankruptcy into which the country's opposition MPs (at present there are three in a parliament of 84), are perennially thrown by ruling party lawsuits.
Warring with the Economist, Far Eastern Economic Review, the International Herald Tribune, and the Asian Wall Street Journal, Lee used a combination of lawsuits, anti-Western bluster, intimidation, and circulation restriction to ensure that these publications would practice "self-censorship" when describing events in his country.
Turning to the local media, Lee came up with a plan whereby market forces did the work for him.
Lee Kuan Yew has achieved in Singapore what the American Right can only dream about: Freedom from the press - and along with it freedom from criticism and freedom from critical thought generally.
What fills the blank space left when a country has sacrificed criticism and intellectual life on the altar of the market? I went to Singapore to find out.
The point of the (Straits Times article) seemed rather to be the foolishness and feebleness of protesters, and the contrasting nobility of Lee.
Protest may not earn a Straits Times journalist's respect, but turning to the paper's "Review" section, I discovered what did.
In the entire section, only a brief editorial and a lone column (deploring the persecution of the Chinese minority in Indonesia) addresses matters other than management theory.
Venturing out from my hotel I found that nearly wherever I went management talk--even the liberationist variety we hear so much of these days from the evangelists of the everyone-will-be-free Internet economy - blended easily with the depoliticized, prosperity-centric culture of Singapore.
I did not find Singapore strange; I found it familiar. My objections to what I saw there almost all arose from the official media's energetic recapitulation of bland American originals: management theory, fast food, pop music, Hollywood movies.
But the weakness of public intellectual life was what struck one most sharply. (...) Positive reviews as far as the eye could see. I understand how Lee Kuan Yew's "hypersensitivity to criticism" (to use Seow's phrase) has had a chilling effect on the country's political discourse.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of it rings true, and what can I say, the truth hurts. It makes me sad to be a part of this country. Even (or especially?) in my company, management theory, doublespeak, corporatetalk, they're floating all over the place, and everyone seems to love using them. I hate it. Everyone just wants to talk to you, talking in circles, talking till you don't know what the fuck they're talking about and just nod so they'll go away. That's the way they handle problems, that's the way any big corporation or agency handles problems. That's the way the fucking People In Charge handle problems.

And don't even get me started on the whole huge "valuing feedback" joke.

Will it change? Can it change? Does anyone even give a shit whether or not this changes? After all, economically, everything makes sense right now.

After the whole NKF saga, the public are clamoring for more transparency and complaining that they have been misled, lied to, were the victims of obfuscation, etc. But hey, has anyone else realized that the actions of the NKF in response to criticism (i.e., sue their pants off) in the past has shadows of a certain (ahem) someone? Not to mention the lack of (real) transparency, and treating the public like morons.

More importantly, am I going to get sued for this post? Labelled a political dissident and thrown in the clink?

Hey, c'mon. Dissident or not, I support the economy. As anyone reading this blog will know, I buy shit. Tons of shit. I'm a consumer, in the truest sense of the word. When the going gets tough, the tough get consumin'. I'm just sick and tired of things in general.

Speaking of economics, successful franchises like Ikea are definitely an economic boost. I've finally found out the proper pronunciation of Ikea. Apparently it's "ee-kay-uh", according to Wikipedia. Some people (like me) pronounce it "eye-KEE-uh" too, but I'll try to switch to the proper one from now on. I'm a stickler for details like pronunciation.

But hey, anything except the local bastardized version: "ee-KIAH". *Shudder*

OK, I admit, that had nothing to do with economics at all.

On to happier things. Since Sin City just opened here, months after its US release, I pose a question. Does anyone else find it bizarre that Jessica Alba is the only stripper in the world who does not strip? It's especially jarring when other actresses are walking around topless for no reason at all throughout the entire movie.

It's been a long morning typing. I don't really want to write my screenplay now. I just want to go back to sleep.