Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn...

So the flash fox is over with for the time being.  I caught up on sleep and am totally lucid.  But that doesn't mean that things are any less interesting.  I am currently staying at a Motel 6 next to the college campus.  I figured it would only be for a couple days until I headed back to Seattle to either work on a boat for shipyard or actually took off to do some fishing.  Well, we're going on day four at the motel and life is beginning to feel like a movie.  In truth, it's felt like a movie for quite some time, but is now taking less imagination to fill in the gaps.

Waking up in the slightly messy room-the kind of mess that only happens in temporary residence, where housekeeping cleans up often enough to keep the mess in line but the resident is concerned little enough about the place to mess it up-I notice that my up keep is equally sloppy.  I am unshaven since coming back into town and haven't changed clothes in nearly a week.  Being holed up in this room, I don't really get very dirty and so haven't found the need to change.  With my new electronic devices, I am happy to entertain myself with the internet and the cheap applications that are novel for the first few weeks-Angry birds, Solitaire, chess, etc.

I have internet here at the Motel 6 and have tried to make use of it.  I attempted downloading a word processing program on my new lap top, but have been unable to complete the operation.  I doubt that this is because of any shortcoming from my computer, but don't doubt that a setting or two may be off enough to hinder my efforts.  I lack the technical savvy that it takes to overcome these small hurdles.  I need to get someone in the know over here to deal with this.  I am afraid, at least in part, to find out how big of a problem may actually exist when it comes to my new machine.  I am also afraid to look too closely into where the machine may have come from.  The deal I got on it was unreasonably good.

One of the useful things I have done with the internet has been looking at some script writing tutorials.  I didn't imagine that it would be so easy writing a script that it would literally write itself.  It seems, however, that it is involved enough to make it challenging to keep the story straight while managing the format at the same time.  Unlike writing a book, where the story is self evident, with a script the story must be shown to the reader.  The picture is painted visually with words that describe the picture rather than the picture being the words that tell the story.  For example, there is no internal monologue, unless it becomes external and therefore a soliloquy.  A scene that could be described in a few pages of a book, where perhaps the main character is having some type of internal debate or has some subtle feelings that are important to the development of the story is approached differently in a script.  With the script, these feelings have to be demonstrated with body language and introduced with correlating scenes. 

The same character, who is bummed out because of a fight with a girlfriend or something has to show why he is bummed through flashbacks of the fight or actual dialogue.   This isn't to say that it can't be done or that I can't be good at it.  It's just that it's gonna take some work to do it well.  And it may be worth it to get some of that script writing software the tutorials talked about.  Keeping the story straight without having to worry about format will make it go a little more smoothly, I imagine.

As for the j-o-b, I exchanged some messages with Serena.  She was happier to hear from me than I would have guessed judging from her voice mail.  One of the things that was weighing somewhat heavily on my mind was how to bring up the subject of possibly changing boats.  On the bigger boats, there is much more money to be made-or so I've heard.  I'd wondered if perhaps I was going to be designated all-time Katie Anne processor crew.  Well, on my voice mail Serena indicated that I should be in touch with her soon because some of the other boats were filling up.  The implication was that she had a spot for me on one of these other boats that I needed to come redeem.  I think I might.

Another thing I think I might do is try for a promotion on the Katie Ann.  If there is an advantage to the boat, it's that it is shitty enough that there is alarming turnover.  Ergo, there are spots opening up somewhat regularly.  And this is another angle to consider.  Whatever the case, the motel has been fun, but I am about ready to get serious about life again.  And the motel is costing a bit of money too.  Cheap is a relative term and what is cheap for a night or two becomes a greater liability over the course of a week.  I wonder if James got in trouble for the crappy job he did at running the boat for the last trip we took last season.  Talk about a disaster.  That guy was in over his head.