Did I stand in the middle of the Mighty 2 freeway to take this picture? Yes I did. Was I hit by a car? Yes I was. Did the car bounce off me like birdseed, leaving me unmarked? Undoubtedly. Were all the other cars stopped because there was some kind of virus? Yeah, probably. Also, there's some ghosts.
As America's Freelance Writer, I thought I loved the idea of working at home.
But for me, working at home is difficult; I will respond to every family-oriented stimulus and never have the satisfaction of leaving work. I lumped in my hatred of working for a boss with the generally-positive experiences I've had working in an office.
So a year ago I rented 1000 square feet of office space in Koreatown and moved all my work-related stuff in there and then, because I didn't need all that space, rented out a couple of offices to like-minded people who could do their jobs from home but didn't want to.
Now, each of us has his own office to hole up in as well as a common area to bounce ideas around. We actually chat around the office cooler. And the complaints about bosses have been transformed into complaints about people not paying us on time.
There are no downsides, save for the fact that, as a freelancer, I could continue to work 20 hours a day and not feel like I've done enough.
The true test of my USB broadband connection was when I triumphantly returned to my stomping grounds at Zzyzx Road on the way to this week's Consumer Electronics Show, took a picture, and uploaded it live two minutes thereafter.
The only reason the transfer from camera to Internet was not instantaneous was because I had to fight and disembowel an attacking bear. Then I had to look up the correct spelling of tauntaun so I could make up a joke about using its steaming entrails for heat in the high desert cold and not get it confused with the city on the road to Cape Cod. Then I decided not to use the joke.
This technological breakthrough will seem like nothing when, in three to six months, I will be able to hook a GPS and a T3 connection into my spinal column, but it sure was exciting in these pioneer days.
Another country heard from - Inland Empire edition
I got my wife an iPod Touch (the iPhone without the useless phone) for Christmas. She has so far refused to pick it up, look at it, or even sniff it when I thrust it at her (we're still talking about the iPod).
Here, David Lynch talks about watching movies in a manner signifying the depth of feeling people have about technology.
★Do they say God instead of Gods? ★Have you seen them before, but you know it's not the same person?
For Christmas I was given two seasons of Battlestar Galactica on DVD and now am scheduling a month to neglect my family to watch the series. I will have to take a break from my regularly-scheduled family-neglecting time.
Sometimes it is poignant and touching, in a way that makes me want to go off and write an independent screenplay, to see my family's hollow faces and eyes big with hunger and need. Other times it is funny because they look like anime characters.
In time-honored science fiction tradition, BSG's Cylons are human-made machines that have become sentient and spiritually aware and, unlike the show's humans, they are monotheistic. In addition to better hygiene, there is a lot to recommend the Cylons, including their hot-swappable souls.
Did I stand in the middle of the Mighty 2 freeway to take this picture? Yes I did. Was I hit by a car? Yes I was. Did the car bounce off me like birdseed, leaving me unmarked? Undoubtedly. Were all the other cars stopped because there was some kind of virus? Yeah, probably. Also, there's some ghosts.
