Month: July 2004

Another kick in the teeth

Writer guy

OK, enough entries from the Writing category. In my defense, I plead query mode and that my head is sort of someplace else. Enough of that already.

Let’s kick out the funnies. 4 years ago I woke up at 2am with blood all over my pillow. Gee, that’s not very funny is it? Anyway, the emergency room doctors diagnosed this as a severe middle ear infection and referred me to a specialist.

Enter the insurance company swine who deemed this emergency room visit unnecessary and refused to pay. When blood gushes from your ear at 2am, is it really necessary to consult with your primary care provider first? My first thought was no, so I appealed the decision.

Not to be neglected, the hospital threatened to take me to collections for the cost of the visit. I ate the charges, paid up and moved on.

For 3 years and 11 months nothing more was said about this matter. 2 weeks ago a notice arrived from the insurance company swine. At last the visit to the emergency room was covered! Since they owed me money, they sent the check for the disputed amount to the hospital.

See, life is a highway. And sometimes you’re in a bumper car.

Now this is living

Writer guy

8 pages in one day! Some days the words just fall out, others require a drill bit and a hacksaw. Fortunately, today was the former.

Still in a holding pattern on the most recent round of querying. As I’m working through my list of agents, every month a few more pop up on my radar screen. And that’s a good thing.

An obstacle I’m learning to navigate is the literary agent assistant. Many agents have them, and they are the first line of defense between a writer and the prospective agent.

I was rejected by one agent a few months back, so I tried a different person at the same agency. Being that it was a large shop it seemed reasonable. Lo and behold, the reply came back from the same agent who rejected me before. It turned out that this former agent was now an assistant to 2 agents at the same house. Talk about preaching to the choir!

The Boondock Saints

Writer guy

Last night I saw one of the finest films of 2000 four years late. In fact, almost everyone missed the theatrical release of The Boondock Saints because it was an independent film that played for just 10 days, peaking on 5 screens, grossing less than 31,000 dollars worldwide.

That would be the end of the story, only it was a monster DVD hit; the stuff legends are made of. Priced to move at 9.99 it really did.

Boondock Saints is a rare combination of intriguing characters, smart cinematography and a story that pushes the complex heroes to their limits. Chock full of vignettes that could only happen onscreen, it’s an intriguing peak inside the burgeoning conflict between the Russian and Italian mob. Set in Boston, virtually every shot is on location giving the film a gritty, real look.

The film explores the premise of whether it’s a bigger crime to witness violence and do nothing, or to intervene.

A rounded cast that includes Willem Dafoe and Billy Connolly add the necessary star credentials to the production. Dafoe’s character as an FBI agent is particularly twisted, even for the Green Goblin. Don’t try and say I didn’t warn you.

True, this is not for everyone and it’s rated R for a reason. But if you’re of age and like the mob genre, give it a whirl.

Software, hardware, nowhere!

Writer guy

Recently Steve Ballmer sent a memo to every Microsoft employee. One short snippet of the very long memo caught my attention.

“We must also work to change a number of customer perceptions, including the views that older versions of Office and Windows are good enough and that Microsoft is not sufficiently focused on security.”

Let’s consider this compound sentence in more manageable pieces, shall we?

“We must also work to change a number of customer perceptions…” Translation: Our customers have their own ideas about our products. Perhaps they tried to use them recently.

“…including the views that older versions of Office and Windows are good enough…” – Translation: Microsoft ships beta. Our products are disposable and meant to be replaced frequently.

“..and that Microsoft is not sufficiently focused on security.” Translation: Was it the rampant virus attacks, or the never ending stream of updates we release on a daily basis that clued people into the issues with our software?

Microsoft is a maturing company in a maturing industry. And the greatest challenge they face is not their competitors, but their customers.