Not usually my thing, but...

I think we can all be informed about this:

Safety could suffer if we boost mileage by making cars smaller - USA Today

There seems to be a sick three-point trade off here, environment-economy-safety. And to be honest, Mr. President, I'm not convinced the federal government is manipulating the market in favor for the right one.

I may be the only faintly conservative person left in the industry.

I can't stand internet political editorializing. It especially gets me when it's the people who like to insinuate a lot of nasty things about the other side and make sweeping generalizations without recognizing any good points that might come from said other side because said author doesn't have to. This happens on both sides.

I was remotely interested in politics when I was in high school and the first two years of university. My favourite part of the College Republicans magnet I got was that the slogan was "Best party on campus." We were a dry campus, too. Then I went to England and taking care of four foreign children became more important to me than who had the majority in Congress. I am pretty much uninformed and generally quite apathetic. However, at least I know this and will therefore refrain from name calling and diss throwing.

But really - I am shocked at how many entertainment professionals and preprofessionals are throwing around their cynicism and anger and arguments. I go to people's blogs to find out more about the screenwriting craft and instead I read their latest snarky remark on current politics. Look, I have a lot to say about the economy and homeland security too. But I find negative one liners distasteful and often too general and mean spirited to be true. I think I get upset, too, because using such anger when expressing your beliefs communicates a general disrespect for people on the opposite side. The other side is always referred to as "crazy." Those extreme right wingers or the crazy liberals. Well, you're sure going to swing a lot of votes that way.

There are points and counter points beyond belief, numbers and statistics and stories that could make your head swim. That doesn't invalidate the other side. It just means that it's a complicated situation, and nobody should be vilified for their beliefs.

And other stories...

I'm changing the name of this blog, as soon as I figure out how. I figure after four years we could switch up a little more than just the layout and color scheme. It's funny how, when I started it, I liked to go on political/cultural rants. Remember how when you're little(r) you think you know a lot about that sort of stuff? Today my uni city was all in uproar for primary election day, people passing out papers, buses driving by with slogans painted on them, a sheet of paper in my office with a run down of all the candidates and their positions - on everything. And as I slipped through all the political festivities, in my head I was silently saying, "Na na, I'm not voting today!"

Yes, I know. I *am* part of the problem.

I had my first screenwriting class the other day. Yes, the big day finally arrived. Our teacher seems nice and intelligent and willing to be open about the craft. Our class is quite full with some pretentious people (yours truly included. At least I know what my faults are). And the first day went a little slowly, but every class does. We're working on our loglines this week, and V. gave us some great things to include in them, so I feel like this is one of my strongest loglines ever (umm, actually, when was the last time I seriously worked on a logline? I'm not one of those preplanning writers, ok?). However, I have four protagonists of equal weight, making for what *I* feel like is a very general logline. Or maybe that's the result of writing a drama. I'm not sure. We'll see how it flies. Next week we're going to have to turn in character charts. As long as they don't make me decide what my characters' favourite colors are. That has nothing to do with development at all.

The other day it was raining, and even though the bus was pulling away from the stop way before I got there, the driver pulled it over again when he got to me and let me jump on. Rare form for a uni bus driver. And he said to me, "This must be your lucky day! You should buy a lotto ticket." So I did. I thought it would have made the greatest story ever if God had answered my prayers for money for school a year later in the form of a lotto ticket. However, this did not happen. My friends and I agree that it's because I bought a scratch lotto ticket and not a real lotto ticket. I'll know better for my next lucky day.