Craig is being stalked by a squirrel.
And Ray Liotta, but that's only intermittently in recent weeks. The
squirrel has no fear of humans. Inf act, it seems to Craig, that it
wants to be invited into neighbor's homes to partake of mac and
cheese or other tasty side dishes. He insists that it has stood
longside of him on the sidewalk listening in on his cell phone
conversations. And Craig notes that his typically oblivious friend,
Woody has noticed this behavior to ask 'what's up with that
squirrel?' I speculated that perhaps in is the reincarnation of the
three legged cricket. Craig did not find that suggestion helpful. He
is now plotting against it. Looks like Jon and I are of the hook as
his nemesis. He would not send me photos of him wearing the Spock
hair helmet with ears on Halloween. In response, I may visit him
during his next library shift and pester him about an obscure
cookbook written in Esperanto. In tribute to bookstore customers
throughout the years, I will have no title but will know the color of
the book. I'm kidding. That kind of requests makes Craig squirrelly.
In other news, the solar powered
ampersand has been taken down. Replacing it is a Christmas Tree lot.
This is extremely silly, because it's way too early to buy a
Christmas tree. Then, there is the other Christmas tree lot setting
up directly across the street from the first. That one spelled holiday with two Ls.
Still, this nonsense is far less infuriating than the solar powered
ampersand. Why do I have a problem with this, some have asked. Check
out the video, Top Five Things That Must be Identified as Art courtesy of Roger Ebert.
Deb vs Japanese Part 2
Before I get to my lumbering progress
learning Japanese, I wanted to announce that I have a boss cool
freelance gig as a Manga editor for Digital Manga which imports all
kinds of titles from Japan. I won't be translating them – heavens,
no. I'll be taking the raw English translation and editing it into
more conversational English and – hopefully – translated into the
writer's voice. This is very exciting for a geeky gal such as myself.
One member of the cool team I'm working with lives in Japan who is
doing the initial translation. I've finally had to get
Skype. Yes, folks, Deb will be talking on a web cam. Ack. It will have to
be by appointment only, so I can make sure my hair looks right.
Perhaps I'll even wear a little make up. Web cam images are awful!
But I digress. I am very excited about all of this.
My Japanese is coming along. I'm still
not very confident about speaking in the language, but then, I'm
still that way with speaking French. My vocabulary is really coming
along. I find myself recognizing more and more of the spoken language
when watching anime. That's been encouraging. The written language
will take a very long time. It involves three different kinds of
writing. I've just leaned the easiest one – in that I have learned
how to write each symbol in the easiest set. I have a lot of practice
before I'm proficient. However, I was very excited during my
Halloween trip to Mitsuwa market that I recognized a written word. It
was only two symbols long. I was standing in produce pointing at a
sign. 'Persimmon!' I announced. The clerks were only mildly
impressed. Why do language books teach things that aren't readily
useful? Shamefully, I have never even eaten a persimmon. The only
sentence Craig can speak in Spanish is 'I have a broken record
player.' The phrase has never come in handy for him. Where was I? Oh,
yes. In the same market, I called one of the cashiers a pumpkin
correctly. Fortunately, she was dressed as a jack-o-lantern for the
holiday. I did make myself useful translating on that visit. I helped
someone with a vague understanding of her recipe for shabu-shabu
convey what she needed to the clerks. That was satisfying.
I am pressing on with my practicing of
speaking and writing.
Updates
I hope I haven't given the impression
that the lack of updates on the film projects mean that nothing is
happening, or we've given up trying. That is not the case. Almost
every film we've ever written is in some stage of negotiation. On any
given week, I am sending out budgets and schedules or cast wish
lists. I'm routinely asked to find a fax from five years ago or a
contact I had one e-mail exchange with three years ago. One should
never throw anything away when working in the film business. Most of
what is going on is confidential, so I haven't been talking about it.
The long conversation I had with Jon in San Francisco was about how
to best use my limited mobility and stamina in mounting new projects.
We're still working that out. Meanwhile, I will soon start making
and posting tiny videos on youtube and Facebook. They are cooking
related – mostly video responses to other youtube cooks whose
recipes I've tried. I'm doing them to hone my skills as a Director of
Photography and as a Director. Jon's work schedule will not permit him to
be on a lot of my shoots for the cancer documentary, so I have to
learn to do it myself. He'll be carefully critiquing them. I don't mean just thoroughly. I mean he'll be treading carefully. I will
post links here and elsewhere as well for feedback.
Stay tuned.
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