Cos' Blog

On September 4th, the Friday before Jenna’s wedding, I was alone in the house with Peanut and Cassie (Melissa was down in South Jersey with Jenna and her parents getting ready for the big day–I was heading down the next day with my parents, anyway…) and I opened up my trusty Lap Top that I’ve had since 2003…and…

Flashback:

…since about 2003 the screen had been broken. About two weeks after getting it, the screen was shut on a pen and the right corner had been cracked.

I looked all over 2002 and 2003 for a good pic, the only one I could find other than this one (which does not have the crack, and is dated 1/17/03) is in my room at my parent’s house, with Mathew looking at it.

I got over it, and eventually treated the lap top as an actual computer, I attached a keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc…people would later confuse it with an actual desktop, but I used it. I wrote Ethan Ross on that computer, among many other papers and things.

It stayed with us as we moved into the apartment and then was retired in December 2006 when I bought the computer that I am currently writing on. For about three years it stayed in its case and in a closet and even during the move to the house and pretty much was in a happy retirement until this past Spring. After meeting with Adam (Chinoy), who always carries around his lap top with him and was using it during our meeting, I thought what a great way to stay off the grid and keep focused. I mean, Adam is always trying to find free internet, if the neighbors have it, but I didn’t need it, even if the option is there, I’d most likely go for it over actually writing.

So, I took out the ole lap top and plugged it in and to my surprise it still worked, it needed a good battery charging, but it was going. It had a pic of Peanut with his first Christmas tree in the background, which I’ll post below:

I also didn’t alter anything, I never changed the background pic, nothing was really moved or deleted. I liked living in my little 2006 time capsule, I don’t know why. It kept me in that zone.

Anyway, this past summer I wrote a script, which at the moment is being passed around to who ever wants to read it and get back to me on their thoughts.

I was happy to finally get a full feature length (actually its way way waaay over the page limit for a traditional feature length, but that’s fine) script. Its the first one in a while and I’m happy about that.

Present:

September 4th, 2009, this lap top has been around since 2003, and I open it up and turn it on and find that the screen has completely gone and it looks like this:

Needless to say, I obviously can’t do work on this lap top.

I was pretty freaking bummed out about this. I hate to say it, and its kind of like saying the Titanic is the ship that can not be sunk and it sinks on its maiden voyage, but as I was taking this computer out on September 4th, I considered the possibility that the lap top from 2003, the one that I spent my entire Junior, Senior and Masters years working on things and the early apartment years with, and the lap top that I just recently finished writing my first script in a few years with, could possibly be my “go to” machine for writing. It could possibly be the same thing as George Lucas’ “binder” that he wrote the original script for Star Wars (by hand!) and that he wrote the entire prequel trilogy on. It means something to him, he had to write it that way. All writers have those little quarks about them (including me). This was going to be my binder.

I swear to God I was thinking these things. I always left the lap top powering up to go on here and post a blog entry about it, but felt I would waste time.

So, as I was saying, I was pretty bummed out that I had even thought anything with the lap top in the future. It was not to be…

But, whatever, I mean, it sucks, but it served its purpose and I got my money’s worth out of that thing. I’m shocked it last this long to be quite honest with you.

Now, I know I have a desk top upstairs, but what do I do if I want to go places and type. I know, before Melissa and I went camping this past summer, I sat in her parent’s living room and typed twelve pages of action (no dialogue, simply description and action–it would take me four days to get over how much I wrote in a single hour. What I did in an hour would have easily taken me, normally, about a week). So, what’s a boy to do?

I have two options, neither of which completely plausible, but that’s why I’m throwing them both out into the universe and see which one is liked the best. One, I go with a normal PC (like a Dell) Lap Top and just use it to type and do what I have to or I go balls the the wall and get a Mac (which I have had a hard on for for Lord knows how long) that has capabilities and space and amazing speed for not only writing but editing film. I mean, I’m in no position to start cutting scenes together, but at one point a few years ago, I thought I was pretty good at it.

Do I really know what the future holds with a lap top? No. But I think that’s what makes it so much more exciting. I know for a fact that I’ve been back in the zone of writing since I completed my script this past summer. So much so that I actually began writing another one three days later. This morning, I came up with what had been missing out of another idea that I’ve been trying to write into a script since Fall of 2003, it just hit me. So, the writing bug is there.

But, with that said, what does everyone think? Leave me your comments and advice on what I should do about a lap top.

–Cos

And here we go again…it wasn’t too long ago that I was posting things about Indy IV and how it was never going to happen…but I found this one off of yahoo.com so it has to be true:

Harrison Ford Up For ‘Indiana Jones 5′… ‘If The Script Is Good’

by Access Hollywood · September 14, 2009

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Harrison Ford might have four “Indiana Jones” movies under his belt and is almost approaching age 70, but the actor says he would be ready to crack the iconic archaeologist’s whip again and sport the trademark fedora in another sequel.

“The story for the new ‘Indiana Jones’ is in the process of taking form,” Harrison told France’s Le Figaro, as reported by People.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Latest Star Sightings >>

The 67-year-old actor reportedly told the mag that another movie all depends on the script.

“Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and myself are agreed on what the fifth adventure will concern, and George is actively at work,” he said. “If the script is good, I’ll be very happy to put the costume on again.”

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Fall Movies 2009 >>

Harrison was last seen on the big screen in 2008′s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which earned over $786 million worldwide.

I have some pics from the beach on my cell phone, I just haven’t had time to put them on the computer, these are Melissa’s off of her facebook, enjoy:

I’m back, I have about a weeks worth of Cell Pics of the Day and some other postings; needless to say, I’ve been busy. Hopefully, if there is time, I’ll try and get some of those Cell Pics on here and the postings, but it’ll be a slow up hill battle for a few more days with work and tonight we have the Chihuahuas…which should get us even more pics.

Anyway, this thought popped into my mind the other day and I didn’t get a chance to publish it on here (it was put on facebook and twitter), so tell me what you think:

“I think if I slowly lose my mind, no one will notice, but if I completely flip out all at once, it might get acknowledged….”

I saw this the other day before I went back to school…

Bruce actually told me about Gene Simmons about a year ago or so, I had never heard anything about that and actually forgot to check up on it. I’m glad he was right!

from Mental_Floss:

15 Famous People Who Used to Teach by Ethan  rex September 1, 2009 – 10:29 AM

Students, we know you may not be all that ecstatic about seeing your teachers – and the homework they assign – as the school year starts up. Pay attention in class, though; you never know what hidden talents your teachers might have. Just look at all of these famous former teachers:

1. Gene Simmons
The tongue-flicking bassist of Kiss taught sixth grade in Harlem before he became the world’s most famous bass-playing demon. Simmons later revealed in interviews that his superiors canned him for replacing the works of Shakespeare with Spiderman comics, which he thought the students were more likely to actually read.

2. Alexander Graham Bell
The telephone pioneer got his start teaching Visible Speech at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes. He developed a bond with a student named Mabel Hubbard, and when she was 19 the two married.

3. Sting
Before he became a star with The Police, Sting taught English, music, and soccer at St. Catherine’s Convent School. Sting later said of working at a convent school, “I was the only man on the faculty. In fact, I was the only teacher not in a habit.”

4. Robert Frost
Robert Frost worked as a teacher to supplement the income from his fledgling literary career. He worked as both a farmer and teacher at the Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire. His students called him “the Hen Man” because the poet was afraid of chickens, and Frost allegedly had trouble remembering to milk the school’s cows on time.

5. Lyndon Johnson
The man who would later become the 36th president got his start as a principal at the Mexican-American Welhausen School in Cotulla, Texas. He later finished his teaching degree and landed gigs teaching public speaking at Pearsall High School in Pearsall Texas and Sam Houston High in Houston. The debate team he coached at Sam Houston lost the Texas state championship by a single point; Johnson supposedly had to vomit backstage before he could bring himself to congratulate the winners.

6. Art Garfunkel
We can’t speak for Paul Simon, but at least half of Simon and Garfunkel was really, really good at math. Garfunkel nearly earned a doctorate in the subject and was teaching math at the Litchfield Preparatory School in Connecticut when “Bridge Over Troubled Water” soared to the top of the charts.

7. John Adams
The second President of the United States spent a few years working as a schoolteacher in Worcester, Massachusetts. Teaching didn’t suit Adams, who thought his students were nothing more than a “large number of little runtlings, just capable of lisping A, B, C, and troubling the master.” He eventually gave up the job to go to law school.

8. J.K. Rowling
The Harry Potter author worked as an English teacher in Portugal as she plotted out the early adventures of her young wizards.

9. Mr. T
It was hard for Chicago students to be fools when it came to gym class in the mid-1970s. You’d pay attention if Mr. T told you to do jumping jacks, wouldn’t you?

10. Sylvester Stallone
Did you know you were seeing a matchup of tough-guy teachers when you watched Rocky III? When Sly was attending the American College in Switzerland during the 1960s, he worked as a gym teacher to earn extra spending money.

11. Andy Griffith
Before he was a sheriff, before he was Matlock, Andy Griffith was a teacher. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Griffith taught English at Goldsboro High School.

12. Billy Crystal
The comedian worked as a junior high substitute teacher on Long Island while he waited for his career to take off. Among the classes he subbed for: girls’ gym, which must have been a great source of material.

13. Kris Kristofferson
The country star was a Rhodes Scholar who studied literature at Oxford before joining the Army and rising to the rank of captain. Towards the end of his tour of duty, Kristofferson took a job as an English teacher at West Point, but he decided against the professorship at the last minute. Instead of heading to New York, he resigned his commission and moved to Nashville in 1965.

14. Stephen King
Although he initially had to work in an industrial laundry after his college graduation, the horror master eventually found a teaching job that paid a cool $6,400 a year at the Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. King wrote Salem’s Lot while living in a trailer and working this job during the day.

15. Sir William Golding
The author’s experiences as a teacher helped inform the novel that made his career. He once allowed a class of boys to debate with complete freedom, and the classroom quickly devolved into such disorder that it inspired Golding to write Lord of the Flies.

Some of these were surprising, I can only hope that one day–really really soon, Dear God, please! I can’t take this anymore!–my name can be added to this list…

–Cos

So September rolls around and I’m already missing my Cell Pic of the Day thing…shame on me. I thought we needy a little bunny to make us all smile:

Here he is eating the hay that he knocks down every night behind his cage. The hay basket hangs behind his cage, but he is able to eat the hay from within his hay. He waits all day to get out of his cage and what does he do, he goes behind his cage and knocks down his hay to eat it…I guess whatever works right?