I didn’t plan to start writing the new short story this morning. In fact, I was fairly sure I wasn’t going to. However, when I went to bed last night I had a vision of the opening scene that was unlike what I’d originally planned for the story, and much better. I discovered the characters, which is the necessary ingredient for me to start writing any story, regardless of how much of the concept or the plot I think I already know. I only wrote 750 words, but it’s a < 2500 word story, so that’s about a third. Better than 0 by a long shot.
Today is the tenth anniversary of our move into a new location at work. For the previous decade, we’d leased office space across the street from where we are now, but in 1998 we started construction on a place of our own, designed with the cooperation of a Buddhist monk who had some very rigorous demands. The accountants couldn’t have windows, for example, but the creative people (the programmers, mostly) had to have windows. (No creative accounting allowed, I guess.) We had to have a second level, and a port cochere and all manner of other additions to conform to feng shui. Google tells me that the tenth anniversary is the tin anniversary.
The Chima drama on Big Brother wasn’t nearly as explosive as I expected. She was just acting like a spoiled brat, although a destructive one who tossed her remote mike pack into the hot tub. (It slipped out of her hand, Natalie tried to claim — yeah, right. Slipped halfway across the back yard. What a dolt.) The big debate is whether she quit or was ejected, but it’s essentially semantics. She quit playing the game, quit following rules, so if she wants to think of it that way, no harm. Things didn’t go her way, so she pouted and went home. To be mad at Jeff for making a brilliant strategic move when handed the opportunity is simply ludicrous. He’s playing for $500,000. If he didn’t use the coup d’etat and was evicted a week or two later, he’d regret that choice for a long time. No regrets this way–he got out a big rival and ultimately created the situation for Chima’s demise, too. Of course, nature abhors a vacuum, so Lydia stepped into Chima’s shoes, acting like a raving idiot, but at least she was drunk and seemed back in control once she sobered up. Giving the guests an endless supply of champagne during an HoH competition seemed like a bad idea. The player I feel the most sorry for is Kevin. He looks like he thinks he’s trapped into a bad alliance. He should have walked away from the three women during their wake for Jesse and made an overture to the other group. I screwed up, guys. My teammates are idiots. Can I be with the cool kids for a while? Jordan, though clearly not a mental giant, seems to be a really nice person. I hope she wins. Her or Jeff.
Another fine episode of Raising the Bar this week. Unfair situations aren’t always rectified, though they are sometimes. The homeless guy got a home, but the guy who was wrongly convicted but ended up as a pawn in a gang war behind bars didn’t. I’ve already become the person I never wanted to be, he said before his trial. As Jerry said later, he’s the kind of client who will haunt him for years, popping into his memory unexpectedly. Yep, that guy is still in jail, he’ll think as he eats a sandwich or does the laundry. Good to see him and Bobbi finally getting to where they need to be in their relationship. Hopefully the hanged man won’t be too bad of an omen for them.
