So I watched "Alex & Emma" last night after my daily Jerry Bruckheimer fix. It sure seems like he has his fingers in every crime drama these days. Although the movie is pretty corny, has a weak plotline, and only mildly amusing, I find myself drawn to Luke Wilson's character - Alex Sheldon.

Here, we have an articulate, intelligent guy who got his first book published, and now has 30 days to write his second book or else the Cuban Duo drops him off a high balcony. Ok, so I'm not drawn to the I-Gotta-Write-A-Book-Or-I-Die situation, but there's just something so appealing about sitting around all day and writing when the muse inspires you. Oh, did I mention he got $125,000 to write his book too? Damn. If I had that sort of contract, I wouldn't mind sitting around for a year or two and writing my life's masterpieces.

Why is it that I'm stuck in a mediocre paying hydraulic engineer position and Alex Sheldon is making $125k in one month? He's not even real! Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot. He's the fictitious creation of another guy probably sitting around in his underwear all day making $125k in a day. I forgot about that small detail.

Almost Famous, Finding Forrester - both of these movies have the same appeal to me. Struggling writers searching for their voice and then Making It Big (TM) and Living Happily Ever After (TM). When is it my turn dammit??

With such wonderful literary works as Trek to Kraggen-Cor, a rather lame attempt at a fantasy story which IMO is just a big ripoff of Tolkien, it gives me hope that I can come up with an original piece someday that someone would voluntarily want to read. I can see using Tolkien's elves and dwarves as races in a story, but small halflings called Warrows? Come on, a rose by any other name is still a rose. And a kraken tentacled beast that guards the entrance to the Dwarven city? Puh-lease.

As inane and superficial Alex & Emma was, it still struck a chord within me and prompted me to start writing the beginnings of a story. Where it will go and how it will develop (IF it will develop) remains to be seen.

[Just another post of self-affirmation sponsored by the letters U, R, A, and FOOL Enterprises.]

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...