Trigger/ The Book of Awesome

This was on my blog www.badcb.blogspot.ca:

Nov. 17: I’m trying to find some inspiration.

Trigger: I was reading in the Edmonton Journal on Nov. 14, 2013.  It mentioned how the Metro Cinema is playing the movie Trigger that spoofs 80s action movies.  It was made in Edmonton by Edmontonians:

Trigger

Canada 2013, 118 min, Dir: Sam and Ethan Sir

The year is 2034 and the United Empire of Canada is ruled by a ruthless dictator. Hell bent on world domination, President Scragg is all but invincible through the breeding of his genetically engineered Super Soldiers.
As the masses remain oblivious to the Presidents devious plans, no one dares stand in his way... no one but Trigger. The mysterious police officer and his rookie side kick find themselves in the middle of a web of lies and deceit as they fight for the freedom and justice of the entire world.
14+

http://www.metrocinema.org/film_view/4442/

Nov. 22 The Book of Awesome: This could be put into my fun or my writing email, but it’s about what I aspire to be, a published writer.  This is how one writer went from a blog to a book.  I bolded the parts I liked.

Finding life's little moments of happiness

From blog to books, Pasricha nails down what makes each day awesome

Valerie Berenyi, Calgary Herald; Postmedia News

Published: Sunday, May 22 2011

Neil Pasricha's life was ticking along nicely in his 20s.
He'd grown up in a loving immigrant family. He had a good job as a human resources manager at Walmart Canada. He'd married his sweetheart in 2006.
But by 2008, things began to sour. The news everywhere was bad: recession, war, climate change, pirates on the high seas. His wife told him she didn't love him anymore and their marriage fell apart. A close friend battled mental illness and committed suicide.

To pull himself out of a downward spiral, Pasricha started a tiny blog called 1000awesomethings.com. Every weekday he wrote about one small thing that cheered him up: opening and sniffing a new can of tennis balls; wearing underwear warm out of the dryer; when a deadline is extended unexpectedly.

To say his blog caught on is a colossal understatement. People loved his quirky entries about the simple, universal pleasures in life, such as bakery air or when you pay for one item and two fall out of a vending machine. To date his blog has received more than 31 million hits.
He's won three Webby Awards and in 2010 he published a bestseller, The Book of Awesome.
Last month, his second book, The Book of (Even More) Awesome came out with a new collection of small joys: the sound of barely frozen puddles cracking when you step on them; car dancing; seeing cream go into coffee.

Postmedia News caught up with the 31-year-old Torontonian by phone after he got home from his day job as a project manager in human resources at Walmart Canada in Mississauga, Ont.
Q: Where do you get the awesome ideas for your blog and books?
A: When I started my blog, nobody read it, except for my mom. My mom forwarded it to my dad and the traffic doubled.

I'd made a little list with maybe 20 things on it that I thought were awesome: finding money in your own coat pocket, the smell of bakery air, and broccoflower, that strange mutant hybrid of cauliflower and broccoli.
These days, I get at least a couple of hundred submission ideas, comments and e-mails a day. There were a few posts last year where I literally got 5,000 or 6,000 comments. The ideas come from all over the place. I'll say, "That's a good one," and expand it into a full blog post.

I feel like the Pied Piper of happiness. I've thought about changing the website to One Million Awesome Things. It feels like a million awesome things already from all the comments, suggestions and stories from other people sharing their experiences. But I can't write a million because it would take several lifetimes.

Q: What's changed in your life since you began your blog?

A: Not much. I still have the same job: I'm a boring guy working at a cubicle job in the suburbs. I drive an hour through traffic jams. I still have a sink full of dirty dishes. I'm about to eat a frozen burrito for dinner.
On the other hand, a lot has changed because I can't go without a day of seeing and writing down three or four awesome things in my life. It is impossible not to notice the simple pleasures in life. I'm always looking for them, and in a way we all are and we can.

Q: Do you ever get tired of writing awesome entries?
A: Yeah, sure. I never considered myself an optimist or as someone who sees life through rose-coloured glasses. I just started 1000awesome things.com because I was looking for a way to cheer myself up. It was often hard to write. Like everyone, I get pissed when I drop a hammer on my toe or walk into a spider web.

Some were very challenging entries, but I've tried to the find positive in the negative, like the weekend I found out my marriage was ending -I literally cried all weekend. It was such a foreign physical feeling. I was 28 then and I hadn't cried in 10 years.

At the end of crying on Sunday I felt better, in a way. I researched the act of crying and found all these positive things about it: Apparently, it's good for you. It helps straighten out your inner chemistry; it draws people to you who are more likely to hug you. If you go to my blog, post #854 is called crying. It was written on the Monday after all that crying.

Q: Puppy breath and when that social event you didn't want to go to gets cancelled -I love those entries in your new book. What's your favourite awesome thing?

A: It sort of changes by the day. If you'd asked this morning, I'd say, "Oh, rubbing someone's newly shaved head, or seeing old people holding hands. Or, fixing electronics by smacking them."

Q: Are you stunned by the popularity of your blog and books? What accounts for their popularity?
A: I'm so stunned that I'm not even stunned yet. Today we're on the front page of the Huffington Post and next month I'm on the Today Show. It's so surreal. I think it's a sign that so many of us are looking for happiness right now.

It's just as dark now as it was when I started the blog, whether it's the tsunami in Japan, gas prices, another election or the unemployment we don't talk about.

Among all that, it's such a relief to come home and say, today for five minutes, I'm going to remind myself how much fun it is when there's a snow day.

http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=180f6f29-8016-4e36-b1c2-12a9af16c240

Mental/ Cathi Unsworth/ paid blogging

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca:

Nov. 4 Mental: I was looking for something on my blog and I found this June 2009 post:

Mental: Today I was watching the drama Mental about working at a mental hospital. I tuned into the first ep, it was average. Then I checked out the David Carradine ep. Then I watched the one with the kid who was playing a video game in his ep. They were alright. Today I checked out an ep about this actor who has a mental breakdown on Talk Show with Spike Feresten. Both shows are on FOX.

The ep "Roles of Engagement" was a really good ep. I was impressed. The actor admits 20 min. into the ep that he's faking it so he could get publicity for his new movie about being in a mental hospital. Later on, the truth is revealed that when he was 14 he moved to LA. He didn't know his father, and his mother left with her boyfriend. 6 months later, he is alone and he will be out on the street. His friend Rob tells him how to make money like $100 if he sleeps with women.

Then he doesn't want to, but he's desperate. Then he goes and learns that he will be sleeping with men. This guy was a male prostitute. Then he got his big break and became a successful actor. Now he is going to therapy. I was really touched by this ep.

 http://badcb.blogspot.ca/2009/06/charity-michael-jacksons-death-farrah.html

Tom MacMaster: What I was really looking for was this June 2011 post: “Chimpanzee attack/ fake blog/ crazy news”:

Fake blog: I read this in the National Post about a middle- aged guy named Tom MacMaster who's 42, and pretends to be a Syrian lesbian on this blog. He pretends to be Amina Arraf and called the blog "A Gay Girl in Damascus." On BBC radio Good Morning Scotland, MacMaster says he wants the information about what was happening in Syria.

He had regular contact with friends in Syria. The article says people are afraid that he endangered many people in Syria, and people had joined a Facebook group about her being "arrested" though she doesn't exist.

My take on it: At first I was like: "Damn, this guy's famous because of his blog. Or more like infamous now that it's fake." I want to be recognized for my writing. Well that's a pretty interesting character of a lesbian living in a oppressive country like Syria. Nobody likes to get played. This isn't as bad as the writer Stephen Glass who wrote all these fictional stories for the New Republic and made a lot of money off it and furthered his career.

http://badcb.blogspot.ca/2011/06/chimpanzee-attack-fake-blog-crazy-news.html

My 2013 opinion: Now it’s been a couple of years since that happened.  I was going through my envelope of newspaper clippings and found this.  I decided to look in a little bit more and found this article:

He says things like:

"I also had the thing that I like to write, and my own vanity is ... if you want to compliment me, tell you like my writing ... That's how to make me happy."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/13/gay-girl-damascus-tom-macmaster

Nov. 8 Reading comparisons: I’m thinking a lot of my friends and readers read my blog like how I read the newspaper.  There are sections I don’t read in the newspaper like: sports, cars, gardening, recipes and wine.  Metro has recipes in their newspaper everyday unlike 24 news.

I’m going to make a guess that none of my friends are interested in reading about feng shui.  Am I right?  If I’m right, then I’m right.  I only mention feng shui a little here and there.  Lol.

Today in the Metro there is this huge coverage about the Canadian Finals Rodeo that I’m not interested in at all, so I skipped it.

Movies and friends: I was thinking about the times I invited my friends to watch movies with me.  I’m not going to make anyone do something they don’t want to do.  I remember in 2003, I asked my friend Leslie if she wants to see the movie League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with me and she said no because she’s not going to watch it for the 3^rd time.  Lol.  She worked at a movie theatre at that time. I saw it by myself.

I remember in 2006 I invited my friend Sonia to watch the scary movie Pulse with me.  She said no because she doesn’t like scary movies. I saw it by myself.

I remember in 2006, my friend Angela came over to my house and I showed her the movie Hard Candy.  It’s a dark movie where a 14 yr old girl tortures a pedophile she met online.  Angela watched the entire movie with me.  It would be totally okay if I showed this movie to her or any of my friends and they all said: “Let’s stop this movie right now.  I don’t want to watch anymore of this torture- porn.” 

I would understand and stop the movie.  I would offer: “Do you want to know the ending since you already saw half of it?”

Nov. 9 Feng shui: I was reading the Edmonton Journal and there was an article called “If a room feels right, thank feng shui” by Marta Gold on Nov. 8, 2013.  Of course, I had to read it.  Lol.  It talked to Kristen Proulx who is a feng shui consultant and co-owner of Henry’s Purveyor of Fine Things.  It’s a nice store that sells home décor.  I’ve been there a few times.  It also talked to feng shui consultant Stephanie Gruss.

Reading it inspired me.  How?  It said to eliminate clutter and I’ve mentioned before most of my clutter is paper from my writing notes and newspaper clippings.  Well since June 2013, I took out my Rain script from my drawer and put it on my bedroom floor so I had to look at it everyday.  I may not exactly write it everyday, but I will have to look at it. 

Now it’s Nov. and I have written a little bit more.  But I’m going to put it back in the drawer because I’m so busy with work.  The restaurant is busy during the holiday season of Nov. 1-Dec. 31.  I want to read the newspaper and write about the articles I read in my blog.

Priorities: As much as I like to say I have finally completed the Rain script, I have to put my priorities together.  Work first.  It’s also winter, so I’m going to be spending more time shoveling snow.  I’m sure a lot of you people who live in apartments are like: “That’s one of the best things about living in apartments, you don’t have to shovel the snow on the walkway or sidewalk, except the balcony.”

Nov. 10 Cathi Unsworth: I was reading in the Edmonton Journal on Nov.8, 2013.  The article was “Meet Britain’s ‘queen of noir’” by Jamie Portman.  She’s a big author, but she works 3 days jobs to make ends meet.  

In the Company of Men: I was reading in the Metro about this old movie.  It’s about 2 managers who wants to get revenge on women.  They decided to find a woman, and make her fall in love with both of them, and then break her heart.  They pick on a deaf temp worker.  I went on imdb.com and then read the entire story of it on Wikipedia.

There was controversy as the movie was misogynistic.  Maybe if it comes on TV, I’ll watch it.

Nov. 16 Paid blogging: Here’s something I haven’t done in awhile, read an article that someone sent me through my blog.  Olivia Lewis sent me this “15 Ways to Make Money as a Mom Blogger.”

1. Review products for Amazon.com.

2. Use Adsense with your product reviews

3. Become an Expert

4. Blog about your life and experiences

5. Blog for others

6. Elance

7. Guru

8. Online spokesperson

9. Sponsored content

10. Craigslist

11. Get local

12. Share your knowledge

13. Use your creativity

14. Online consulting

15. Ask for donations

http://www.nannynewsnetwork.com/blog/15-ways-to-make-money-as-a-mom-blogger/

Afghan Film Project/ Meet the Fokkens/ Crooked Smile

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca:



Oct. 30: I found this article in the Edmonton Journal on Feb.8, 2013.  I was looking for inspiration.  It talks about two Afghan boys who are in a movie about two boys who want to become buzkashi players.  It’s like polo players.  It was inspirational to read about two boys who sell maps and dictionaries, are now in a movie.

http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=78495d55-4728-4578-86e4-5c6dc7c28a3f

A tale with a Hollywood ending

Kabul boys in Oscar-nominated Afghan film to walk red carpet

Kim Gamel, The Associated Press

Published: Friday, February 08

Fawad Mohammadi has spent half his life peddling maps and dictionaries to foreigners on a street in Kabul. Now the 14-year-old Afghan boy is getting ready for the red carpet at the Oscars.
It will also be his first time out of the country and his first time on a plane.
Mohammadi was plucked from the dingy streets of the Afghan capital to be one of the main stars of Buzkashi Boys, a coming-of-age movie filmed entirely in a war zone and nominated in the Best Live Action Short Film category.

The movie is about two young boys who are best friends and dream of becoming professional players of buzkashi, a particularly rough and dangerous game that somewhat resembles polo: Horseback riders wrangle to get a headless goat carcass into a circular goal at one end of the field.

It's also part of an American director's effort to help revive a film industry devastated by decades of civil war and by the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist movement that banned entertainment and burned films and theatres during its five years in power.

Philadelphia native Sam French, who's lived in Afghanistan for about five years, said his 28-minute movie was initially a way to train local film industry workers - the first instalment in his non-profit Afghan Film Project.
"We never dreamed of having the film come this far and get an Oscar nomination," French, 36, said from Los Angeles, where he's preparing for the Feb. 24 Oscars and raising money to fly the two young co-stars in for the ceremony.
The two boys playing the main characters - Moham-madi and Jawanmard Paiz - can barely contain their excitement.

"It will be a great honour for me and for Afghanistan to meet the world's most famous actors," said Mohammadi, whose real-life dream is to become a pilot.
The farthest Mohammadi has ever travelled was to the northern Afghan city of Maz-ar-i-Sharif. Mohammadi's father died a few years ago, leaving him with his mother, five brothers and a sister.
He started selling chewing gum when he was about seven and soon expanded his trade to maps and dictionaries.
In the movie Mohammadi plays the blacksmith's son, Rafi, whose father wants him to follow in his footsteps.

Afghan Film Project: The article mentions this, so I went to the website.  It’s inspirational.  They are a non-profit organization that tells Aghan stories and create the Afghanistan’s film industry.  You can email them and donate to them.

This sounds like a really good organization.  However, I don’t have a story that would fit for this company.  Check out the website, it’s good.

It’s like charity, but it’s film-related.

http://www.afghanfilmproject.com/home

Meet the Fokkens: I found this movie review in the Edmonton Journal on Mar. 22, 2013.  It’s called “Sex workers’ tale bittersweet.”  The movie Meet the Fokkens is a documentary.  It got 4 stars out of 5.  It’s about Louise Fokken and Martine Fokken who are 69 yr old identical twins and work as prostitutes.  Louise’s abusive husband got her into prostitution by beating her up and putting her in the red-light district to make money.  Martine followed out of anger and loyalty.  Martine is still working as one, but Lousie quit because she got arthritis.  When asked if they would ever do it again, they said never.

My opinion: I want to educate and entertain in my writing.  When I write my script, I did want to teach the audience something and make it interesting.  I want to inspire them.  I remember watching a Rookie Blue episode, and I was thinking: “I don’t want to make people cry.  I want to make people feel.”

Nov. 1 Literary editor: I have a lot of clutter, but it’s mainly newspaper clippings.  I usually type them up in my emails /blog, and then I recycle them.  I do keep some articles because they are so good. 

On my Jun. 2, 2012 blog post, I wrote about “Editor’s joke.”  On that post:

http://badcb.blogspot.ca/2012/06/city-market-dateline-laughter.html

I was going through my newspaper articles and I found this from the National Post.  On the Weekend Post edition there is a books section.  Here's a little article from Apr. 30, 2011.

I only typed up a couple of lines.  Here is the entire article:

“Instead the editor, having read 17 things this morning, keeps going, thinking: A run-on sentence in the first line! Oh no, another story with the character waking up hung-over and getting a phone call.  Why must they flash back before anything interesting happens? That isn’t really funny. We don’t publish travel articles. Does no one read the guidelines? This one gets good in the middle, but then the character just sits down and thinks about stuff. Wonderful minor character but the main one is self-pitying. Almost. Good scene. Pretty good. Not quite. Please can’t somebody just dazzle me so I can pick something and stop this?”

I then looked it up on the internet, and it turns out the above paragraph that was published in the National Post is part of a way longer blog post here:

http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/what-editors-want-must-read-writers-submitti

I didn’t read it, because I’m not submitting to literary magazines. I will now recycle the article.

Nov. 4 Crooked Smile: I was watching this music video “Crooked Smile” by J. Cole feat. TLC.  I have heard of the song before and I like it because I like TLC.  I then caught the last half of this video on TV.  It was so good.  I had to watch the whole thing on the internet.  I was impressed.  It’s a short film by Sheldon Candis, what it says in the beginning.  It’s a 5:36 sec video.

There is a really good story to it.  J. Cole plays a father and he is a drug dealer.  A white guy is playing a father and he is a DEA agent.  J. Cole is celebrating his 4 yr old daughter’s birthday by having cake and a little party in the backyard with his wife, and father.

The DEA agent is with his other officers and they bust down the house.  The little girl gets accidentally shot.  I really felt something there.  The music turns into an organ music and we see the girl in heaven.  J. Cole is sitting in the cop car, with tears in his eyes.

The ending says “For Aiyana Stanley-Jones.  And please consider your war on drugs.  A message from J. Cole.”  The comments were that it made them cry.

My opinion: I really like this video.  There is a good story, there was emotion and I felt something when watching it.  Great production.  I was going to put this in the fun email, but I think it belongs in the writing email because of the story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzzMOMkjm8A