Ambition > Productivity (Summer - Day 27)

So far, my ambitions have been higher than my productivity. Woke up at 9am. Puttered in the kitchen for a bit, doing the dishes. Walked the dogs.  

Ran some errands: 

-- trip to the bank.

-- stopped by the pediatrician for some Space Camp forms to be signed.

-- picked up Mackenzie

-- took her to karate

-- went back to the shoe repair place for Cheri's Berkenstock

-- dropped off a book at the library

-- picked up a video to amuse Cheri and me (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) 

Now I'll be taking Emily to karate. She's been hard at work on her French homework, preparing for a final. 

I did manage to spend some time working on the play. i may have written about four pages or so. 

Tragedy and Daily Life (Summer - Day 26)

I don't read the morning paper. Instead, my modern day version of the daily news begins with me scrolling through Facebook to see what my friends and colleagues have been up to. One of the first posts I noticed read "Praying for Orlando." That's when I suspected that something terrible had happened -- yet again.

A quick jump to Foxnews and CNN, and that's when I learned that 50 people were murdered last night, thanks to a psychopathic gunman fueled by bigotry and a radicalized religion. On top of all this tragedy, I realized a terrible thing. I have come to expect these atrocities. It seems that about every 4 to 6 months something awful like this occurs. Now, the event that would surprise me is if more than six months passes without some act of massive barbarity.

So this happens. It shocks us (in a sadly familiar way), we process the grief, speculate on the destruction that can be caused by a single evil person, and vow to carry on. I'm not sure what else we can do, besides that. There's an ongoing debate about gun control right now. (And I have a feeling Trump will renew his efforts to disallow Muslim extremists to enter the country.) But we've already got millions of guns (and probably billions of bullets) in this country. They aren't going to disappear. And the shooter was American born, not someone sneaking in from overseas.

It sucks. I got nothing. All I know is that I should do my best to be a good person, and if possible, inspire others to be good. That's about all I know right now.

Anyway...

Life goes on for the living. I did my best to think positive (and to channel my lightheartedness despite such dark events) and worked on the Radio Play. Making slow but steady progress. I've reached page 8.

We watched the Tony Awards. Cheered for Hamilton. But more importantly, the well-spoken sentiments of the gracious winners (and host James Corden) were exactly what we all wanted and needed to hear.

Time to Strut Like a Duck (Summer - Day 25)

Saturday, June 11th was another productive day. I started the morning by tinkering on photoshop. To celebrate the completion of the first draft of Duck Town, I made this:

Cheri and I walked the dogs and watched one and a half episodes of Game of Thrones. The plot thickens!

Cheri and Mackenzie went to the performance of Hello Dolly! Turns out, they forgot their beet props, so I sliced up some potatoes and dropped them off.

Emily has been working on her French and enjoying the world of YouTube. Lately she's been watching the troupe YogsCast as they play video games and make funny comments.

I spent most of my evening working on the radio play. I'm having fun developing these new characters.

Dreams and Things (Summer - Day 24)

This morning I dreamt we were visiting a small town on the edge of the Sahara Desert. I wandered away from our hotel so I could see the sand dunes. After working my way past scraggly hills covered with sage, I found these pure, seemingly untouched dunes. I turned my head to the left and beheld these beautiful yet unforgiving desert mountains. It took my breath away (which probably resulted in snoring). On my way back to the hotel, I noticed a pack of brigands on horseback. They seemed like Taliban. And they seemed like they were waiting for idiotic American tourists to wander into the desert to be kidnapped. Needless to say, I woke up rather startled. 

Right now as I type this, it's 9pm. I'm with Mackenzie at the Canyon Theatre. She is working with grips and gaffers (movie folks) helping them get the lighting plot back to its original setting so that Hello Dolly will be ready for tomorrow night. It's really cool to see her working with such confidence. She really knows her stuff. And these professionals respect her. 

Cheri and I watched episodes two and three of Game of Thrones. I can tell early on why this show is so addicting. Lots of interesting characters and conflicts -- and this sense of foreboding. You definitely want to binge. Oh, and we had take-out from PeiWei, so it was a particularly indulgent day. 

Most of the business today involved turning the Duck Town jpegs into PDF chapters. I sent them to Abi my agent... So now it's time to play the waiting game, which might prove to be a very long game since my agent is on hiatus until the middle of July! 

Tinkering Time (Summer - Day 23)

Now it's time to format the jpegs into PDF chapters so that they can be easily sent to my agent for perusal. I found a couple mistakes that needed fixing. I also realized the approximate length of the graphic novel: 224 pages. That's a goodly amount. Twelve chapters in all. I'm very happy.

Mack has her very first date tomorrow night. She's all grown up!

Emily was swamped with homework most of the day. It's her last push before summer break.

Cheri has been working very hard on her Health Coach business. She selected a new photo of the "before and after variety." She has lost so much weight during the last eight months. I'm so proud of her. Sadly, her shoulder was a bit out of whack today, so she hasn't felt her best. I held both of the dogs when we went for our walk.

Since it was Thursday night, it was time to meet with Chris and Randy to discuss our Big Sandwich ideas. Chris came up with the opening scene. We're still not sure about everything, but I think the Radio Play is off to a good start. 

Duck Town is Complete! (Summer - Day 22)

The first draft, including the text, illustrations, and photoshop formatting is at long last complete. Today was long but fulfilling. Most of it was spent at the computer, except for when we took the dogs for a walk or the girls to karate. 

The girls and I attended the Improv Workshop. Fun was had by all. Kier and I won with our newly formed duo, Poo Space -- the antithesis of the award winning "Pee Time," consisting of Marcus Langston and Stevie Beecher. Then, we did something new that Pat Mannion has come up with... A talk show. I thought it would be something fictional with wacky characters, but it's a host (this week it was Kier, last week it was Pat) and everyone just acts like themselves. It was surprisingly fascinating. 

When I went back to the task of finishing the last pages of Duck Town, I listened to a lot of Prince, which might seem like an odd choice when working on children's literature. The song that was playing when I finished the last page: Arms of Orion. One of my favorites. 

Another Disney Day (Summer - Day 21)

I've been glued to my computer for days now, so even though today's outing it took me away from Duck Town, I was pleased to be at Disneyland. It gave my brain a rest. Sort of.

It was VERY busy. Which isn't surprising. Still, when you're surrounded by thousands of people waiting to get a piece of the Happiest Place on Earth, you don't feel all that happy.

We did manage to have fun, though. Highlights include:

-- finding a new part of Fantasy Land we didn't know existed (the princess area / fairy tale stage)

-- watching ducklings and their mama (research -- now this trip is a tax write off!)

-- getting the girls sweets at Pooh's corner

-- meeting up with the Eklunds (and riding on Indiana Jones with the boys)

-- riding on the Matterhorn for the first time in at least five years (and they made the Yeti even cooler -- pun unintended.