The Flight of the Rocketman

"Do you ever have a normal day?"

"Yeah, once. It was a Thursday..."
-- I, Robot, directed by Alex Proyas and written by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Vintar

Whether I'm sick or not, whether my body can take it or not, ready or not, pencils down and pass your papers; I'm going to work in the morning. I am no longer staying in this house, no matter how well I've been treated. There will be no more of this God damned inflamed throat, head ached, joint-pains to stop me from going to the office and getting some work done! I am going to the office tomorrow whether it will kill me or leave me paralyzed from the neck down!

Of course, being home from Friday afternoon until Sunday night has had its blessings. I'm glad to have spent time with my brother. I would've spent time with my mother too if she were home. I ended up watching a lot of DVDs and getting myself back in touch with the realm of plot. I watched movies I have never seen before and some movies I have seen and wouldn't mind watching again and again. But more importantly, I was watching films and trying to solve that mystical skeletal frame that is the backbone (no pun intended) to a good story: tone.

With the proper tone, you see, you can make the most sophisticated of people sit down and laugh at a movie that is filled with politically incorrect humour. Tone, you see, differentiates Will Pharrel's Anchorman and any movie by Chris Farley. And just so I am not misconstrued in any way, I fell apart laughing at Anchorman whereas I cannot believe the amount of money people have spent to make a Chris Farley movie. I'm sorry. The man, for as large as he is, has not a single funny bone in that body. May he rest in peace.

Somehow, I still feel totally unable to capture it. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't. And in my opinion, it's one of the most important of literary tools when writing a story. Everything else can be fixed; tweaked; adjusted. But if you don't get the tone right, you might have to re-write everything; start from scratch.

And I'm not a very patient man. I can't stand that.

Otherwise, things have been an okay weekend. I must confess, my obsession for wall-climbing is a little severe because I am sincerely pissed off that I haven't been able to since last Tuesday. And I won't push myself in fear of falling into a relapse. Gotta let it go for a while. Haven't been able to do a lot really but get a lot of rest and try to get better.

But for me, it's such a waste of time. Of all the things I forget to pack with me before going to my Mom's... a book! I can be such a moron sometimes...

But tomorrow, back to normal and if things are back to normal then it's all uphill from here, I hope.

I celebrate my Chinese New Year on my back, clutching my head in pain but then again, that's got to be the worst of it, right?

Yeah, right...