Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Bless me, Father, for I have not blogged. It's been 8 days since my last entry, and most of this entry is motivated purely by guilt.

Parenthood is truly a unique experience. It isn't like a Disneyland ride whereby everyone who goes on it has an equally fun time, and most people's experience of it is fairly similar, with the given slight variations. No, Parenthood is a ride whereby if something worked for you, then it must be The Truth. There's no other truths that can exist, and anyone else who brings up their child differently isn't doing it right if they're not doing it your way.

I know grandparents are usually the biggest culprit when it comes to that, and rightfully so. You can't argue with your mom or dad because they're just say, "Well, I raised you up. You turned out alright..." Which is half true. Yes, we may be walking and talking and have all our appendages, but what the parent sees and how you really perceive yourself is an entirely different thing. True, I'm pretty well adjusted and have relatively good ethics in general, but I can be very selfish with my time. Possessive, almost. I'm sure it'll get worse when I get older, like Van Gogh character in Kurosawa's "Dreams". He's beyond manic and keeps painting like a man possessed, because he feels like there's all these masterpieces he has to do before he dies. I'm sure when I get older, I'll be one of these old stubborn filmmakers who keeps making films nobody would watch - but I have this need to create a greater legacy that'll live on.

Speaking of which, when they showed Sidney Lumet's latest film on the Oscars, it had who appeared to be Vin Diesel, in a courtroom drama as an attorney, in an amazing bad blond wig. Seeing that just distracted me from the rest of the Oscars, which mean less and less to me each year. It's somewhat like watching who wins the prom.

Anyway, I'm not writing this in reference to anyone in particular, just something I've really noticed being a parent and all. The way someone tells you what to do with your child sometimes is as invasive as someone coming over to you and saying, "I wouldn't eat your dinner like that." Tact and manners sometimes just flies out the window, which I find to be really interesting behavior.

Myself, I do admittedly find some people's parenting skills to be ghastly - but you'll never hear me say that to you. My wife might hear it, but I think it's inappropriate to attack other method of raising their kid. In fact, having that variety is good for everyone. Otherwise we'd all be stuffy, or ill-mannered, and we'd never know the difference between what's proper and what's offensive. Again, this is not about anyone in particular.

So my brain's been ticking again, reminding me that it's there for a reason beyond computing motor skills and carrying out muscular memory so that I could live my life. After watching more Simpsons and recently, Arrested Development, which my wife doesn't like that much, I've been flirting around the idea of making a series pilot of sorts, something like Year of the Horse. That film was written like a pilot so that I could continually add more episodes to it if needed, but since the actual shooting took about 9 months, I decided that having babies was far easier. Besides, Dansen had left for Japan, and Jenn went somewhere else too.

So far I've developed a basic plot and some corny characters, but I haven't written a scratch yet because I wanna make sure it's all there. But it's a little scary how much I'm borrowing from "Arrested Development", since I admire that shows quick wit and dry humor. But who knows, it may turn out to be nothing. I just don't want to get too started on the feature yet, since it's such a dark piece and god knows I need a little sunshine in my life.

Well, that's all I have. This should keep my wife happy!

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