Taking a new writing course. Said I should start writing more often. Using lists of 10s to organize my thoughts (kinda like jackie graham's "8-ball"). Well, 13 and 24 are lucky numbers for me... Uh, don't think I can do 24...Let's see what I can do.

So, here I go...
1) Don't really like touchy-feely or emotional movies because I usually avoid uncomfortable confrontations or change in my life unless I'm really mad.

2) Need to work on that huge fault in my personality because it's not really leading me anywhere. I should also try being less stubborn to change, and just relax and not get angry.

3) I should get over #1 + #2 and go see that movie "Akeelah and the Spelling Bee"; and then see, "United 93" about September 11. Just deal with the fact that I may be uncomfortable to see people deal with adversity. But here's why Akeelah might be a gem. From Wesley's Morris Boston Glove review from 4/28/06. Bold and Italics are my own.

The movie nails the contradiction gifted students feel in an
inhospitable environment. Akeelah skips a lot of her classes because the curriculum is unchallenging. But her friendship with Javier (J.R. Villarreal), a charismatic fellow speller whose family is much better off, exposes her to nicer neighborhoods and his more academically rigorous school. In one touching scene, Akeelah shows up with her best friend, Kiana (Erica Hubbard), at Javier's house for a party. Kiana is so perplexed by the rainbow of happy, frolicking kids that she can't even bring herself to get out of the car.

Alas, the film is full of black children, like Kiana, whose self-esteem is eaten away by defeatism and a cancerous inferiority complex that seems to pervade the entire community. But in a moment that, due to its uplifting preposterousness, amounts to an act of magical realism, Akeelah's entire neighborhood helps her study for the bee -- from her mother and her mailman to the local gangsta!

Later in the movie, that device is repeated, producing one of the happiest feelings I can remember having in a theater. Obviously, it's emotional propaganda. But it's just the kind of propaganda our children need.

4) Can any of those things count for more than 1?

5) Baseball is a fun sport. If the Tampa Bay Devil Rays weren't in the same division as the Red Sox, I'd root for them like crazy. Young, play hard, incredibly fast...sure, a player might throw a bat at an umpire or at the opposing picture, but that's just ONE guy. The whole team has wicked potential.

6) The Celtics need to make the basketball playoffs next year, and have a fighting chance to win. NO EXCUSES!

7) Basketball needs an organized minor league like baseball. Baseball remains in our national conscience, not because it's the most fun sport to play, nor because it's the cheapest or most expensive...it just has it's roots into every community. Even communities where football or even basketball takes root, baseball teams at every professional level try to keep a certain level of comittment to developing young players and youth interest in the sport. Except in Boston, but you could tell the city of Boston that the sky is blue and it'll find creative ways to make it permamently gray. If basketball did that, showed the same committment in the US like it's doing in Europe, without relying on shady AAU "camps" run by shoe-companies, it would see it's ratings increase and the level of play elevate beyond it's current annoying mix of thuggery.

8) I think the point of the lists is to write something minor to keep your creative juices flowing and not having it bogged down by a single point.

9) Duly noted. And next time, I'm using a smaller number like "4" or "3 x 2/3 - 19^1 + 4".

10) Video games are addictive. Pretty soon every pusher-man's going to be hawking the newest EA Sports video game, or a year-long subscription to IGN.

11) Why does money rule the world? Why can't we just try to make each other comfortable and try hard NOT to make each other uncomfortable? Why do we always need to keep score?

12) Is there a better action film than Bad Boys? Is it not called Die Hard?

13) Since this is a prime number, remember Optimus Prime? How about Prime from Mailbu Comics?