Macie sent me an article from one of those "thought for the day" things you can sign up for. This one has a spiritual/self-help bent. There are a lot of good bits in the article, even for Juliane, a serial zoner-out while reading spiritual writing. A Bartlett's-worthy John Milton quote ("The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven.") and a call to Be The Change (yes, Juliane, you can control your destiny): "Experiment with a circumstance that you might normally interpret to be distinctly unpleasant and see how your state of mind influences that experience." She sent it as a unexpected bandaid for a spiritual paper cut I was dealing with. All good.

But one thing here was new to me--or at least said in a new way I don't want to forget.

The article describes two men who were kidnapped and held--together--by terrorists in Beirut in the 80s. “We both instinctively knew never to share weakness until you understood it,” writes Brian Keenan. “'Share only strength' was an unspoken motto between us.”

Good point.

five minutes

Go! Now!

one, two, three

1. I did something mildly wrong--truly a teeny boo boo--at work today and wasn't reprimanded exactly, but a change was made to my workflow that I felt was unnecessary. I had to create my workflow in the first place and, in this case, I had to hand soemthing off long before it was ready/necessary. So I didn't catch La Boo Boo. My real irritation with this is...I take it so seriously. I want to be perfect. Because I do so little here, I want to be meticulous about that which I do do. My average has taken a hit. This boo boo means nothing, but there is a void where my sense of work fulfillment is supposed to be, and things like this quickly expand a la Sea Monkey in the space. See...I'm calling it "boo boo" to put it in its place (Down, Boo Boo!) but obviously it irks me enough to blog about it.

2. Matt says I need to give myself 5 years to learn how to work for myself. 5 years!

3. I moved things around in my office this weekend and it's brilliant! Not settled yet, but still encouraging because I moved in my drafting table and out a piece of furniture which wasn't working very well in my 8x8 box. And...a drafting table is a slanted surface, thus discouraging the paper piles. Genius! Matt helped. So did Elke. It was a little family project.

good juju: a professional digression

Matt just told me that "Year of the Dog" got into Sundance. Not a huge surprise, but let me take a moment to enjoy my good feature juju. Of the seven features I've worked on, four have gone to Sundance and two are in theaters now. The last--astoundingly--sold for $2 million to some poor sucker at the Cannes Film Market. And both TV shows I've worked on were breakout stars in ABC's fall lineup of new shows. I am amazing.

That Sundance Lab indie feature that didn't hire me went back to Sundance last but didn't get distribution. Ya hear that, producers? Hire me! It can't hurt.