My ten year old nephew borrowed my phone "for a minute" today. I think he wanted to use the flashlight feature or something*, but later, when I went to use the phone, I couldn't find it. I asked him, who was playing video games with his friends, where my phone had gone, and he told me he had given it back to me. So I started looking all over for it--in my room, in my unjustifiably cluttered work room (which could have a dead chimpanzee in it and I'd never notice it until it really started to stink), went through my pockets, and the couch cushions, and finally, I borrowed a phone and called myself.
I heard nothing in my room. I went downstairs and called again. I heard nothing. How was this possible. Oh, it was probably at the work computer, where I print my labels and put up listings. But no, nothing there. I called to my nephew, asking him if he would help me, but he was playing video games.
Finally, I went down to tell him my problem, and he pointed to the desk there, where my phone sat, its screen lit up, but making no sound. I picked it up. My nephew had Muted the phone when I was calling it, so he wouldn't be disturbed.
Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In March: 2429
I read online (it was one of those links to a site where, once you go there, you can read the first line in the first paragraph, but not more than that without subscribing) that every adult in my state can get the vaccine this week, and starting tomorrow, everyone sixteen and over. That's interesting. My mother asked me if I was going to get it, and I didn't know how to answer. It's been recently enough that I had COVID that I figure I still have the antibodies, but I ought to get it, just to not be one of Those People.
But I haven't ran out there to get it (my cousin and his wife got it last week, and now I can go on the dark web and see where they are at all times due to the microchips that were implanted in their bodies), and I guess I'll do it once the wait times are down. I dunno. I'll see when Big Anklevich gets it in Texas, and maybe do mine around the same time.
Push-ups Today: 151
Push-ups In March: 2516
In my writing, I'm nearing the home stretch on the Lara Demming story. In it, she meets another girl at her school (Lara is a Sophomore and the new girl, Waverly, is a Senior) who is a witch, and Lara is at first delighted, but later vexed, by what this new friend seems to be capable of. Lara keeps her own magical abilities a secret, since this takes place after a bunch of stories in which she uses magic to solve a problem and things don't end well.
I didn't know how I wanted to end it, but I was leaning toward Waverly making some kind of bargain or some kind of enemy that she is incapable of dealing with on her own, and Lara is forced to step in and help out. But dude, I went to high school (in some ways, never left), and I don't know how many encounters with organized crime, drug dealers, teachers who like to rape, angry truck drivers, corrupt cops, or devil worshipers these characters are likely to have. The best I could come up with was some boy who is picked on by bullies, and his dealings with Waverly the Witch just make things worse for him.
And I recognize, from an audience standpoint, that that doesn't make for compelling television. No, there has to be high stakes drama and sex and sleazy violence for anybody to want to watch it (something I experienced every week while working on "Boston Public," where what happened just in this episode would be legendary for years to come had it happened at my school). But that's not what I'm writing, or even want to write. There's a reason I only make two or three bucks apiece on these stories, instead of Sanderson money.**
I do wonder, for those (few) who read the first two Lara and the Witch books (or "books," if you want to be pedantic), how many liked the first one, which was mostly about character interaction, and how many liked the second one, where there was a legitimate threat with a physical confrontation. That second book is kind of an aberration, when you look at my plans for this series. The vast majority of the stories are meant to be little vignettes, little intercourses between characters (not THAT kind of intercourse, though, unfortunately), and fun or sad or sweet or bitter lessons Lara Demming learns along the way. Sure, I'll have evil magical threats show up every fifth story or so, but that stuff doesn't interest me, and the big action setpiece at the end of "You're In Good Hands" was one-tenth of one sequence in the last episode of "WandaVision," which made me wonder why I'd even bother writing another one.
But like I said, I'm not writing for television, let alone a show so expensive, it makes "Game of Thrones" look like "I, Claudius."*** And I'm not writing epic novels, or epic anything.
I need to stop thinking right now and do some push-ups or something.
Words Today: 892
Words In March: 19,839
*I did later discover that he had recorded a video of his Pokemon cards and the Xbox, so I guess I know what he needed it for.
**Which reminds me, I picked up Brandon Sanderson's latest "Stormlight" book (to look, not to buy), and it was 1232 pages. I don't even have words.
***This stupid joke was based on something Big Anklevich told me, where he said that each episode of "WandaVision" cost twenty-five million dollars, rather than that the season of "WandaVision" cost twenty-five million dollars. It was a simple mistake for him to make . . . except he wasn't wrong. Each episode cost twenty-five million dollars. So, the silly exaggeration I made above, which was originally, "a show so expensive it makes 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' look like 'I, Claudius,'"--both series with Patrick Stewart in them--turns out to be only barely over the top. I mean, think about it--"Game of Thrones" had a hundred million dollar budget a season, for an hour-long show, whereas "WandaVision" had a two hundred million dollar budget . . . for a half-hour show. But hey, it had neat theme songs for its phony sitcoms, so that explains it.
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