I wonder how many takes it took for them to nail the showtune scene on How I Met Your Mother last night. It was one of those montages where the actors essentially stay put and a lot of backdrops and props glide into place around them, only to be replaced a line or two later by something else. It was very slickly done, and who knew the main character had a decent singing voice?
I wonder how people are reacting to Stacy Keach and John Amos’s appearance on Two and a Half Men. I haven’t heard anything one way or the other. Keach (formerly Mike Hammer and any number of other tough guys) plays Chelsea’s father who is now in a loving relationship with his old Navy buddy. They were each married for approximately 40 years before striking up together. I know it’s probably terribly un-PC, but they crack me up. That show always does in general, even if it’s inappropriate humor.
I also laughed hard at the “one ring” episode of The Big Bang Theory. Just when you think Leonard’s breaking away from geekdom, something like this trinket sucks him back in again. And kudos to Penny for punching Sheldon in the nose.
And House was back again, too. And Castle. Both welcome returns.
I discovered this morning that if I completely ignore the internet except for a brief check of important e-mail I can get a lot more done in my writing session. Duh. I made about six editing passes through a revamped short story before sending it off to a receptive editor. He solicited a story for a forthcoming anthology but the previous one I sent him was too similar to one he’d already accepted. This new submission had been out for 10 months. I queried the market as to its status last month and received no reply so this morning I withdrew it from them (second time this year I’ve withdrawn a work!) and brushed it up for the new market. Mostly tinkering with word choice and tightening up some of the language. Knocked a hundred words from it in the process.
I am probably going to ache tomorrow and/or the day after. For the past two months I’ve been off my exercise regimen and today I got back at it. Except I decided to try something different — swim laps. I’ve never been a strong swimmer, and I have rarely done any exercise that works on my upper body, so I was probably a sight to behold as I struggled up and down the length of the pool three times (in each direction). I think I’ll alternate using the elliptical trainer MWF and the pool on Tuesday/Thursday to see how that goes. I was whipped after swimming, though, and my heart rate never gets that high doing aerobics on the elliptical.
