The Rough Draft

The Thief of Words

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This Just In

— Steve Abbott @ 11:04 am

So yeah,

Something is deleting my posts on this blog. My last three have gone missing in action. I think it might be the Facebook interface. so I’m terminating the RSS feed from this blog to that forum.

We’ll see if this post stays up over the next couple of days. If it does, I’ll post some new articles in the coming week or so.

Happy New Year everybody.

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Step into Chaos

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Chaos Theory

— Steve Abbott @ 11:36 pm

chaos

For some reason Wordpress is deleting my blog. I can only figure it’s some sort of weird and arcane programming issue with the source code as opposed to somebody taking offense to my last anti rock band stance. At least I hope so.

Hell of a year eh? I mean I thought I’d seen the depths of greed, stupidity and avarice but I was apparently very mistaken. I guess I’ll have to step up my, “Down with mediocrity,” campaign. No seriously, it’s time to champion excellence again and by that I don’t mean athletes, I’m talking about brainpower. The desire of certain individuals to reach and grasp at the impossible they envision. Because let’s be honest here, catering to the lowest common denominator isn’t working for us as a society. I’m sorry some people are frightened by intelligence but the bottom line truth to the world is, we are not all the same. And no number of ribbons for everybody on the team regardless of outcome is going to change that hard and simple fact.

Is that going to hurt somebody’s feelings?

Probably.

Is that a bad thing?

No.

Because maybe next time, they’ll try harder, be smarter, maybe they’ll push through and win. Maybe they won’t achieve what they set out to do? Will that be disappointing?

Again probably but they’ll know they gave it a good shot and there’s no shame in that.

The world is in a fucking shambles right now. I don’t need to go into why, it’s all around us. But you’ve got to ask yourself, did these fuckers do their best? Did they give it their all or was a colossal hail mary pass thrown with crossed fingers. I’m sure they all figured it was going to be business as usual until it wasn’t and then it was too late.

Now it’s all bailout talk because how else are we going to save all those jobs? Are those jobs in jeopardy because those companies were doing their best, giving it their all? Or are they crashing to earth because they built stuff that wasn’t as good as the competitions? It is capitalism after all. I’d sure like it if the government gave me a nice chunk of cash every time something didn’t work out for me. Boy would that be a load off.

Maybe Darwin’s observations apply to business too. Beneficial traits are carried forward, less beneficial are discarded.

The Western world used to build the coolest shit, with the best materials and we sold it for top dollar. No mediocrity there. If you were smart, you could go to the Moon or at the very least build something to go there. Now we’re talking about going back to the Moon by 2020. Hell, the Space Shuttle is going out of service in 2010 and we don’t have anything to replace it. Sure we’ve got some really great data on Mars rolling in. We just don’t have any way of getting a manned crew there. We can’t be accused of putting the horse before the cart because there isn’t a cart, come to think of it… there isn’t even a horse.

Of course talking about space right now is nuts right. There’s a war on, well more than one war actually and we’re over their fighting and dying for??? There was a war on when Kennedy started the Moon race. Sure it was more about rubbing the Russian’s nose in it and they’re not an issue anymore, are they? Only if you read the news. Everybody else seems to think Space is a big deal. China and India sure do and as of 2010, Russia will be one of the few countries with a tried and true heavy lift capability.

You don’t get to be mediocre in Russia, they’ll eat your lunch.

So here’s where I think we need to go backwards a little bit.

Sports and everything else needs to be competitive again. We need winners and losers and people of spectacular ability. We need to be able to look up to something and want to achieve that level of ability for ourselves.

Or at the very least, give it a good go.

Otherwise, what’s the point of it all?

Where’s the glory in that.

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Brick Walls and other Obstacles

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This Just In

— Steve Abbott @ 5:49 pm

Brick Wall

So I was traveling this week and finally had a chance to go through some of the saved videos on my Ipod. Most notably Randy Pausch’s, “Realizing your Childhood Dreams,” Part of Carnegie Melon’s, “Last Lecture,” Series. The series was initially formulated as a thought experiment to give academics a lessons learned to be passed on lecture, as if it was the last one they would ever give. Unfortunately this turned out to be Randy Pausch’s actual last lecture as he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and passed away at home with his family a few months after this lecture was given. I’m embedding the video at the bottom of this post. I hope you’ll take the time to watch it.

You always know when you’re watching somebody who actually figured it out. Not in a, “This is the total secret to making it all work for everybody.” but in a way that really worked for them and made a difference. Not just in their life but for everybody around them.

One of Randy’s key insights was on, “Brick Walls.” Any writer worth his salt is well up on them. We hit them all the time, be they personal or professional. They are frustrating and at times they can seem overwhelming but I’ve got to say after watching this, “Last Lecture,” I’ll never look at them quite the same way again.

As a writer, you get to be a bit bull headed. This is a requirement for the job. Writer’s tend to be goal oriented. That means achieve the goal, no matter the cost. It also means that personal relationships will suffer. Those of us blessed with a good and understanding partner will come to an agreement, others will choose a more solitary assault. I’m lucky. My wife gets it and doesn’t begrudge me my queenier moments.

The key insight about brick walls is, “They’re there to keep out those who don’t really want it.” This statement brought me up short and I had to really think about it. Take a look around you. How many people that were there when you started out are still there? How many might still be there but have broken off into other avenues of the entertainment game? How many are gone completely? It’s like a charge on a machine gun nest. You hope you make it while the bodies hit the ground all around you.

Brick walls are there to keep out those who don’t really want it.

I always knew this game wasn’t for the faint of heart but there it is.

I hope you enjoy the video.

I hope it makes your life better.

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Sitting Around

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This Just In

— Steve Abbott @ 5:21 pm

Dragon's Mouth

Yeah, not much of something I do really.

So, it’s official and I have another Associate Producer credit to my name on The Devil’s Tail. Thanks again to Chris Comrie and Samantha Swan for the honor. It was great just helping them out and the credit is just gravy. In other news, it looks like at least one of the other projects (can’t say which one yet) is marching towards a greenlight. I’m told I should know by the end of the year. Don’t worry, I’ll post up the details as soon as I can.

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First thing we do…

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This Just In

— Steve Abbott @ 4:52 pm

Henry VIII

…Is kill all the Lawyers. A quote attributed to Henry the Eighth by William Shakespere. When he wrote it I’m sure it was a double edged sword seeing as he was a Catholic and the offspring of Henry, Elizabeth the First was kicking the holy hell out of the Catholics under her reign (literally).

At least they were in their own way tangible evils driven by lust or want of power or by it’s very nature, extension of power. I realize the world need lawyers to some extent. Somebody to form, enforce and defend the laws of common society. I think where it all goes a bit fuzzy for me is when these individuals or corporate entities thereof twist the words of the law into a verbal lock pick that opens the door to very bad things.

Which brings me to insurance companies.

I believe in my own small way, that they’re the cause of a great deal of the worlds economic troubles right now. Not because they caused it (though they sort of did) but because they enabled it. Oh sure, the lack of government regulation in the US didn’t help. Nor did the ridiculous loans made out against an even more ridiculous and let’s face it incorrect repayment formula. No, they simply decided to stop underwriting the international paper market all at once and that was the snowball, that started the avalanche. Granted, that ledge was fat with snow, an accident waiting to happen but it wasn’t like you couldn’t see it coming if you knew what to look for.

Me, I stay out of that stuff. Numbers as a rule bore me. I don’t own stock because of the volatility of the markets etc., etc. but let’s get back to insurance pukes for a second. Because they wouldn’t insure the loans on the international paper market, nobody could write short term loans for operating capital in the corporate world. See I’m not talking America here, I’m talking world. What did they think that would do to asset bases?

And then of course, there’s my own personal experience in this mess. In my day job (yes, I do have one) our new (now fired) accountant, decided to change our extended medical dental provider. I won’t name names but one was good, no problems and one wasn’t. His first mistake was listing me as a single person. Something I found out when my wife tried to purchase a prescription. So I discussed this with our (new) accountant and he started new proceedings on my behalf. Which of course led to lots and lots of fresh paperwork. Only to have my Wife and Son denied extended medical because my son you see is Autistic and my wife of course gave birth to an Autistic child which I guess in the eyes of an insurance monolith makes her tainted too.

So I called them up and asked them how a developmental disorder disqualified my son and my wife when it does not physically effect him in any way? I mean we’re talking about some antibiotics every now and then not some ridiculous treatment package. I was told, I need to talk to that man over there and sent on my way. Oh and in the rejection letter, it also stated that it was a final decision and can’t be contested.

Nice.

Like John Mellencamp says, “Saying it’s your job old Hoss sure don’t make it right.”

It does however really piss me off. Mostly because by its very nature you can’t fight against it. Where would you start? I thanked the person for their time and told them, I would not be using their product in any of my future endeavors and I meant it. These two projects get the green light I’m off their plan and onto a completely different one.

It does however make me wonder. We’re killing ourselves by degrees, poisoning the planet and generally not giving a shit about each other and for what? A big screen TV and three hundred channels of bad programming? We’ve set the bar so low nobody can crawl under it. Instead of outrage, the response is apathy?

Time to man up people and demand something better. Bottom line, you live in a democracy, no matter what the powers that be would like you to think.

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Things So Far

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This Just In

— Steve Abbott @ 9:48 pm

Hmmm. There is a lot of hurry up and wait right now. With this many projects in play, your sort of like the Colonel waiting for his bombers to come back from a mission. Some will hit the target and others will never be heard from again.

So far a good portion of the feedback has been good. Everybody seems to like my dialogue from both scripts and everybody seems to like the structure, again, with both scripts. However, there’s a big economic meltdown going on right now so the fallout vis a vis funding for films will need to be seen. The good news is were in a funding bracket that can get made, without incurring too much risk for the investor.

Stuff is happening in the wings that I can’t really talk about yet but it is happening Sooner, it would appear, rather than later.

About bloody time.

And as a PS: Bill C-10 was taken off the table. No, the Canadian people did not want their film industry effectively censored by the Govt. Hopefully this election on the 14th will take the Conservatives down a peg or two.

The Rough Draft

1/4/2009

The Thief of Words

12/27/2008

Step into Chaos

11/16/2008

Brick Walls and other Obstacles

11/12/2008

Sitting Around

10/26/2008

First thing we do…

10/10/2008

Things So Far