Jerry D. Russell dot Com

Well ladies and gents, this is it. The last day for NaNoWriMo 2007. Perhaps next year I’ll jump in and participate, but I’m honestly glad that I didn’t this year. A weeks worth of being sick would have left me with 50,000 words like “ick”,”ewww”, “sniff” and “ugh!”. When you’re feeling awful, it’s hard to keep a character in good spirits, and nobody wants to read 8,000 words of a story where the main character is down with nasty head cold!

So to those of you who have completed the challenge this year, I applaud you! You’ve done more than I ever have. but I’ll get there one day.

To those who are within 10,00 words as of this writing, I salute you! Damn the torpedoes, Full steam ahead! you can still do this!

Good luck and God Bless!

Jerry Blog Events, Diversions Diversions, NaNoWriMo, writing

There are those actors in the history of film that make you feel the character they portray. That character may be the hero, the villain or any number of supporting characters, but the actor brings the vision of the writer, director and producer into its own. It becomes an extension of the actor, and the actor becomes the character.

I can name a few actors who have managed this task. James Stewart as George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, a movie that would have been a footnote were it not for his portrayal. Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird, and believe it or not, Johnny Depp in more than one role.

Mr. Depp enthralled me in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. to be honest, it was the first time i ever took his acting seriously. the fact that the story was one of the best re-interpretations of the Beauty and the Beast tale written in modern times was just a plus. It would have died at the box office without Johnny Depp as Edward.

Of all the films he’s made, the two I find the most fascinating are Sleepy Hollow and The Ninth Gate, both for the great stories that back the actor, and for the passion that he brought to each part. The fact that Dean Corso, a rare book dealer, was as street-savvy in his circles as Sam Spade mad me wonder a bit, but the deadpan manner with which he was portrayed actually made me happy to see him win at the end.

As for Ichabod… Let’s just say the addition of him as a detective was brilliant, but the defining moment for me was at the beginning of the film, where he retched and fainted in the face of death. A timid man indeed, but one who went on to become a hero. This roll is to date my favorite from Mr. Depp.

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have joined forces once again to bring us Sweeny Todd, a dark tale of revenge and murder. I urge you to visit the official Sweeney Todd movie site and tell me you aren’t amazed by the visuals. Mr. Burton is a master of these, and his vision of London reminds me a lot of his vision of Gotham, sinister, morose and dark. A place where hope no longer exists.

If you’re the type that enjoys the MySpace scene, head on over and visit Sweeny Todd on MySpace. Who knows what you’ll get out of it?

Jerry Diversions, other articles, thanks! Diversions, literature, Movies

Well guys and girls, it’s day 26 of National Novel Writing Month.  by my calculations you should have written 43,334 words by this point.  Have you gotten to that point?

If so, my sincere congratulations!

If not, don’t despair, my friend.  You’re not alone by any means. I’ve never finished a NaNo either.

Having said that, I’m pretty sure that I have, in fact, written far more than 43,334 words in the past month, but I don’t count blogging as NaNo fodder, though I know there are those who do.  Maybe next year I’ll count blogging for one blog only as NaNo qualified.  That way at least what I’m writing will be linear in nature.

Of course if you’re reading this , that means you’re on a break from your NaNo project, right?

RIGHT?

No!  you’re slacking!

GET BACK TO IT! (Just envision the whip cracking mid-air)

Now go, you’ve got work to do. 

Jerry Diversions, Tools of the Trade

1. Make ‘em say no.
2. Don’t ask the question if you can’t live with the answer.
3. Never have a philosophy that supports a lack of courage.
4. You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let anyone else make yours.
5. Lead, follow or get out of the way.
6. Whatever you are willing to put up with is exactly what you will have.
7. Check small things.
8. Rarely resist the opportunity to keep your mouth shut.
9. Get mad, then get over it.
10. Never argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference.
11. Moderation is the key.
12. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.
13. Have a vision, be demanding.

Jerry Diversions

It seems that the major chain stores aren’t the only ones who have begun a series of serious marketing campaigns designed to get the unsuspecting consumers out there to purchase their products this holiday season. the spammers have jumped on the seasonal marketing bandwagon as well and they, if anything, are more aggressive about it than the superstore trying to sell me that 50-inch plasma TV.

I was away from my keyboard yesterday, in Oklahoma with family for funeral services. Upon my return I was greeted with over 40 emails, most of them letting me know that if I would just try their product, my manhood and stature with the ladies would be increased by unimaginable amounts. Still others promised that I could download the most sought after windows software on the market today at a mere 10% of what the original companies sell the product for. Yet another batch of helpful, yet unsolicited advertises wanted to inform me that I would never truly be at my fullest fashion potential until I purchased one of their “genuine replica” watches… (rodex, anyone?)

I suppose I should be angry that these people have managed to concoct a message that will :

1. make it through all 3 layers of junk filtering I employ on my server, my home system and in custom junk files.
2. Waste my time having to mark each new message as spam, so that said custom list can identify them on the next round
3. Insult my intelligence with poorly written pigeon English and references that outside of their native tongue are quite offensive to most Americans.

But to be honest, I usually just chuckle. I applaud the fact that these people are persistent enough to fool some of the most widely used spam catcher software in the world. It shows perseverance, if not intelligence on their part. And honestly, I go through my mails as they come in for the most part, so the amount of time “wasted” is generally negligible, at least in the grand scheme of things. The poor English almost always makes me smile, for if these fools knew what they were really saying to me, they would know I would never think of looking at their stuff.. Ever.

so in conclusion, I would like to send a message to all of those individuals who bombard me with this chaff on a daily basis.

1. My “manliness” is not in question. Both my wife and myself are satisfied with each other and the way we’re put together. I don’t need your help. Thank you, but no. If you feel such a strong need to focus on this problem, perhaps you should take your phallus enlarging pill, and then your confidence level would improve enough that you could move on to selling TV’s
2. No matter how inexpensively you offer me software, I will never buy it from you. had you done any market research at all, you would realize that most Linux users have little or no need for Windows® Software. As a matter of fact, I only use 3 pieces of the stuff, and that is on a second partition on this machine that I really don’t like having to use, because I simply detest the operating system.(If anyone is listening, can e get better WACOM support in linux, a USB driver for Guitar Port and a reverse-engineered DAZ 3D from the Solaris sources???) If so, I can dump windows forever and never look back.
3. Again, back to market research folks… I have not worn a watch for over 10 years, and I have no plans to start with one that’s going to turn my arm green.

OK, I’m off the soapbox now… Just had to vent bit.

Jerry Announcements, Diversions