There was this guy on the train. Big guy. He was obviously trying to lose weight, he turned down the complimentary biscuit in favor of some berries he'd bought. A whole punnet of raspberries and one of strawberries. He first polished off one of those huge chicken salad baguettes, full of mayo. Then the berries. He tipped both into the one punnet and didn't stop eating 'til they were gone.
My journey's only 20 minutes and he had consumed all of this in half that time.
I'm trying to eat healthy too. The chocolate bar I'm eating right now is my cheat treat. One square at a time. Slowly. Savor that chocolate taste. Chew at least 10 times. Swallow slowly. Let the brain register that the chocolate has landed.
I've had one square. 5 minutes ago. I'm thinking about the flavor. Still tasting its residue in my mouth. Sure, I could eat the whole bar right now. But would I feel any different having consumed all 6 squares? Well, yes because I wouldn't have the expectation of the 5 delicious mouthfuls to come.
I've put my chocolate bar away. I can look forward to the next piece later.
It occurred to me that the guy on the train wasn't eating. He was consuming what he had in a short period. He didn't savor his food, each mouthful was cleared simply to make way for the next. Did he need all he ate? The berries may have been healthier but in those quantities the sugar levels are pretty high. And he could have chosen the chicken salad minus the mayo. My wife got quite mesmerised watching the constant movement from berry box to mouth to berry box to mouth, over and over again. No pause. The brain not getting a chance to figure if the stomach is full or not. By the time the signal gets through, he'll be overfull and the food gone.
"Mechanical refill" said my wife.
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Thursday, 26 August 2010
News Junkie
My darling wife gave me an ipad for no other reason than because she loves me. It's changed my life. I've become a news junkie. You name the news app. I've got it. LA Times, NY Times, The Guardian, Discovery News, MTV, CNN, BBC..... reading it all and loving it.
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
It's now July....
So I kind of guess that the new year resolution thing was a bit of a no show. It seems that the things I decide to do, turn out to be the exact opposite of reality. Pay more attention to blog = completely ignore it for 6 months or so.
So here's my new, half way through the year resolution. I'm going to ignore the blog. I'm also gonna make thousands of new resolutions.
Right.
So here's my new, half way through the year resolution. I'm going to ignore the blog. I'm also gonna make thousands of new resolutions.
Right.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
My New Year Resolution
..was to pay more attention to my blog. I know it's February, just consider me a slow starter.
So. How you been? I'm freezing my butt off here in Scotland, looking forward to being back in California later this year.
My wife said have some soup for lunch, that'll warm you up. I burned my tongue. Hot stuff that soup.
So I thought what other hot stuff do I like?
My wife - hi sweetie.
Chillies - spicy pasta, yum
Log fires - especially on a snowy day
Oh, and soup when I'm cold!
So. How you been? I'm freezing my butt off here in Scotland, looking forward to being back in California later this year.
My wife said have some soup for lunch, that'll warm you up. I burned my tongue. Hot stuff that soup.
So I thought what other hot stuff do I like?
My wife - hi sweetie.
Chillies - spicy pasta, yum
Log fires - especially on a snowy day
Oh, and soup when I'm cold!
Monday, 13 July 2009
It's been a while...
The rain is pouring down outside. It's warm and muggy. Oh, yeah, and wet.
So, with a few minutes left before I brave the great outdoors, I thought I'd revisit my blog. I can see that it's been neglected over the last couple of months. Not that I haven't thought about it. It's just I've been pulled in too many directions.
Like my friend, who has finally bitten the bullet and broken up with her partner - a term I use loosely. Whilst the words are out there, they have a lot of untangling to do. Eighteen years is a long time to be together and as a consequence there's a lot of belongings that belong to both. I'm not sure how you begin to unravel all of that. It got me to thinking though how often people find themselves in relationships they should have gotten out of before they even started.
My friend, let's call her Alice, got into this relationship because it's what was on offer. The only two women she's ever truly loved were unavailable (still are); and she settled for someone she didn't really love, but who made her laugh. Don't get me wrong, laughing is good, but it's not enough. Alice thought that she had to settle for whatever was left because the 2 people she really wanted to be with, didn't want to be with her. Personally, I think that's crap.
Maybe it's a rare thing, to be with the one you really want and for them to be with you, the one they really want. But if only one of you really wants to be there, and the other is settling for less than what they really wanted, how's that gonna work?
Relationships aren't easy at the best of times - oh sure, the first couple of years when lust is high and it's all fun and new, then it's easy. But when the first flush is over, what then? I think John Cleese has a point when he says that marriage licences should be renewable after the first three years. That's the minimum I think it takes for two people to truly get to know each other. Most relationships that breakdown do so around the three- four year mark. Round about the time when you get into the negotiation phase. The time when you realise that the compromise you made to start with in the full throwes of lustful desire, will be with you for the rest of your time together. That's when you have to ask if this is the relationship you want for the rest of your life. Is this the relationship you want to be in 30 years from now. If she gets sick, terminally sick, can you be there for her? What if she loses her memory. Needs you to feed her. Can you do that. For as long as she, or you, is alive.
Do you want to live here because you're both happy here - or just her? Or for that matter, just you?
My wife's waiting downstairs for me, so I guess I need to wrap up. Where do I want to be in 30 years? Still living, still enjoying life!
So, with a few minutes left before I brave the great outdoors, I thought I'd revisit my blog. I can see that it's been neglected over the last couple of months. Not that I haven't thought about it. It's just I've been pulled in too many directions.
Like my friend, who has finally bitten the bullet and broken up with her partner - a term I use loosely. Whilst the words are out there, they have a lot of untangling to do. Eighteen years is a long time to be together and as a consequence there's a lot of belongings that belong to both. I'm not sure how you begin to unravel all of that. It got me to thinking though how often people find themselves in relationships they should have gotten out of before they even started.
My friend, let's call her Alice, got into this relationship because it's what was on offer. The only two women she's ever truly loved were unavailable (still are); and she settled for someone she didn't really love, but who made her laugh. Don't get me wrong, laughing is good, but it's not enough. Alice thought that she had to settle for whatever was left because the 2 people she really wanted to be with, didn't want to be with her. Personally, I think that's crap.
Maybe it's a rare thing, to be with the one you really want and for them to be with you, the one they really want. But if only one of you really wants to be there, and the other is settling for less than what they really wanted, how's that gonna work?
Relationships aren't easy at the best of times - oh sure, the first couple of years when lust is high and it's all fun and new, then it's easy. But when the first flush is over, what then? I think John Cleese has a point when he says that marriage licences should be renewable after the first three years. That's the minimum I think it takes for two people to truly get to know each other. Most relationships that breakdown do so around the three- four year mark. Round about the time when you get into the negotiation phase. The time when you realise that the compromise you made to start with in the full throwes of lustful desire, will be with you for the rest of your time together. That's when you have to ask if this is the relationship you want for the rest of your life. Is this the relationship you want to be in 30 years from now. If she gets sick, terminally sick, can you be there for her? What if she loses her memory. Needs you to feed her. Can you do that. For as long as she, or you, is alive.
Do you want to live here because you're both happy here - or just her? Or for that matter, just you?
My wife's waiting downstairs for me, so I guess I need to wrap up. Where do I want to be in 30 years? Still living, still enjoying life!
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
We're just days away
..from my birthday.
I like Birthdays - mine in particular. It's that day that you get to have the presents. You don't have to wonder which ones under the tree are yours and be disappointed when someone gets one you would rather have had. All the presents under the tree on your birthday, are yours. Or in this case, mine. Not that disappointment is eliminated form the day. That thing you hinted about for weeks as being the one thing you'd really like? Chances are it didn't make the list.
But this year. This year I've bitten the bullet and told the parents I want an iTunes voucher; the wife that she's buying me new cycling/walking shades and we're going to the store on my birthday to choose; she's also taking me for lunch. My sister is a disaster, she'll probably forget and I'll get a card the week after. Or not. My mother-in-law I've left to her own devices. She buys good presents - she bought me an ipod shuffle for christmas.
The rest of the gang, well we buy each other daft stuff for our birthdays. A couple of years ago, they all clubbed together and bought me one of these childhood sweetie hampers - the stuff we used to buy from the candy store on our way to school. They helped me eat it. Such is friendship.
This year, we're going to a log cabin for a couple of nights and they are doing the cooking - which will be an event. I usually do the cooking, so it's gonna be an interesting time. I'm taking a stopwatch to time how long it takes before I get asked a question....
I'm listening to Bic Runga - Beautiful Collision - just incase you wanted to know.
I like Birthdays - mine in particular. It's that day that you get to have the presents. You don't have to wonder which ones under the tree are yours and be disappointed when someone gets one you would rather have had. All the presents under the tree on your birthday, are yours. Or in this case, mine. Not that disappointment is eliminated form the day. That thing you hinted about for weeks as being the one thing you'd really like? Chances are it didn't make the list.
But this year. This year I've bitten the bullet and told the parents I want an iTunes voucher; the wife that she's buying me new cycling/walking shades and we're going to the store on my birthday to choose; she's also taking me for lunch. My sister is a disaster, she'll probably forget and I'll get a card the week after. Or not. My mother-in-law I've left to her own devices. She buys good presents - she bought me an ipod shuffle for christmas.
The rest of the gang, well we buy each other daft stuff for our birthdays. A couple of years ago, they all clubbed together and bought me one of these childhood sweetie hampers - the stuff we used to buy from the candy store on our way to school. They helped me eat it. Such is friendship.
This year, we're going to a log cabin for a couple of nights and they are doing the cooking - which will be an event. I usually do the cooking, so it's gonna be an interesting time. I'm taking a stopwatch to time how long it takes before I get asked a question....
I'm listening to Bic Runga - Beautiful Collision - just incase you wanted to know.
Thursday, 9 April 2009
I got side tracked
Two months since my last blog -haha, that sounds like confessions of an alcoholic!
Well, Brodie and Sarah have pretty much sorted themselves out. Sarah is back in a beach house with partner Max and Brodie is ... well you're gonna have to wait a few months coz I've promised my agent I won't spill the beans.
Over the last two months I've been working hard on the day job - it pays the bills after all. Between that and my wife, I've had very little time for writing. However, I do have a couple of different irons in the fire and am very excited by the screenwriting I've been doing with a couple of friends. We started off adapting something I wrote some time ago, but moved very quickly away from that to an original piece of work. I now know why authors are rarely involved in adapting their novels for the screen - it's hard to let go of a character you've created and recast them in someone else's vision.
This collaborative stuff is very challenging and rewarding. Creating a character and watching them grow and change in others hands is intriguing. I'd never really thought about the role of the director before or how involved with the characters each of the actors become. Hearing someone say "oh no, Susie would never say that" is surprising and challenging. Afterall, I created Susie, I know how she thinks, what she'd say or do etc. But actors take on the role and become the character; they see it from a different perspective. Also interesting is when the writer says "ok, but if Susie doesn't say or do this now, then scene 42 later on just can't happen". Being part of those interactions is exciting; negotiating the changes and maintaining the integrity of the storyline isn't exactly easy. And then just when you get that sorted the director says, "yeah that's good but I want it to take place in the bedroom instead of the restaurant" and off it goes again.
I love it!
Well, Brodie and Sarah have pretty much sorted themselves out. Sarah is back in a beach house with partner Max and Brodie is ... well you're gonna have to wait a few months coz I've promised my agent I won't spill the beans.
Over the last two months I've been working hard on the day job - it pays the bills after all. Between that and my wife, I've had very little time for writing. However, I do have a couple of different irons in the fire and am very excited by the screenwriting I've been doing with a couple of friends. We started off adapting something I wrote some time ago, but moved very quickly away from that to an original piece of work. I now know why authors are rarely involved in adapting their novels for the screen - it's hard to let go of a character you've created and recast them in someone else's vision.
This collaborative stuff is very challenging and rewarding. Creating a character and watching them grow and change in others hands is intriguing. I'd never really thought about the role of the director before or how involved with the characters each of the actors become. Hearing someone say "oh no, Susie would never say that" is surprising and challenging. Afterall, I created Susie, I know how she thinks, what she'd say or do etc. But actors take on the role and become the character; they see it from a different perspective. Also interesting is when the writer says "ok, but if Susie doesn't say or do this now, then scene 42 later on just can't happen". Being part of those interactions is exciting; negotiating the changes and maintaining the integrity of the storyline isn't exactly easy. And then just when you get that sorted the director says, "yeah that's good but I want it to take place in the bedroom instead of the restaurant" and off it goes again.
I love it!
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