Reading, Writing and Watching

I just finished watching In The Valley Of Elah - too depressing on this day we celebrate Easter. Last night I made the mistake of watching Borderland. I can't say either of them are bad, but they are nothing that I will probably find myself watching again. I believe In the Valley of Elah was written or presented by someone who was making a political statement - the very end was predictable to me - not that there is anything wrong with that, it just didn't surprise me. The movie was sad and I don't even want to think of what some of our soldiers have suffered over in Iraq. Borderland was just way too gross and gory. I think the thing that disturbs me most about some of this new 'slasher' porn as Josh Stolberg called it (I believe I am using the right phrase). The thing about Borderland is that it was a horribly scary story with just the premise alone - but then they feel this need to make a viewer physically ill after watching it. I needed a break after watching it, so I just watched some television and added another country that I never plan to visit to add to my list.

I am in the process of reading several books right now - I don't know if I have developed adult ADHD or what - but I have a hard time staying focused on one book at a time. Is it possible that I have become so technological that I just want to get to the point. I am reading two books on weightloss - both of which approach some of the reasons for gaining weight in a fairly different approach. The first is Ultrametabolism - which is interesting in that it is supposed to help you to find out how your specific body's metabolism works and then to identify foods that will help to speed it up. The other is this book that is called The Four-Day Win which I am loving.

Although I have to admit that I wish that both of them just had a short and sweet definition of what I need to do. Unfortunately I am having to do some reading in them though to learn what I am supposed to do. The thing I am loving about the Four-Day win is that I am learning something that I can take to my client's and I like that the philosophy is being addressed with the psychological. She talks about a doctor she knew who helps people to cure their Obsessive/Compulsive tendencies. The short and sweet of this is that the next time they have an urge to follow their compulsion (i.e. hand washing) to instead do something that they enjoy for 15 minutes (like gardening) supposedly after just two times of doing this, there is a decreased need for the compulsion. I am just about at the part that talks about how this works with eating - I am hoping it will be a tool I can use with my weight-loss group.

I am being strongly drawn to read Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts book (it's a book of short stories). I know that I really enjoy writing shorts. The other book I am trying to get is a book called Click which I find an absolutely fascinating concept. Ten writers all wrote a chapter of one man's life. I find that kind of inventive thinking absolutely brilliant. I think an idea like this would be a great experiment in writing. I shared my excitement to read this book with the person who leads my writers group and she didn't seem as excited about it. She said she might look at it in a store, but would never buy it. I was kind of surprised - she said that she might look through it in a store, but wouldn't buy it. She then went on to complement me. She talked about the writers in the group and identified 4 of them as having a strong identifiable voice. I was one of the four. She said that meant that if stories were put in a box anonymously, she would be able to identify the writer just by reading the story.

At first I wasn't sure how to take that - I thought it might initially be saying that I was not unique, so I left the email alone. Then later when I re-looked at it I was able to see what a compliment she was giving me. I didn't even know how to respond (so I didn't), but it was actually a huge compliment she was giving me. It's funny because earlier this year one of the writers in the group commented on my tendency to write in the first person. What was funny was I didn't take that offensively at all, but I did take it as a challenge. So that is why I wrote the story that I am currently editing for the Writers Digest short story contest - it's all in the third person.

Well time to get going - got eggs to hide!