Reay Jespersen

In the near future, the war against the machines is well under way. Skynet, once the latest answer to U.S. defense, has become self-aware and, believing humans are a threat to its existence, has begun systematically killing them. There are pockets of resistance, of course - groups of humans banding together to use whatever weaponry is available to fight back; to even just stay alive. One man stands apart from the others in this fight, believed by some through his actions and by others as destiny that he will be the person who will lead mankind to its victory over the machines. His name is John Connor.

While there were some good aspects to Terminator: Salvation, the unshakable feeling I had when leaving the theatre was that for all its hype, for all the money that the franchise had access to in order to do this right and knock it out of the park, it hadn’t been done as well as it could’ve on various fronts.

***BIG, FAT SPOILER WARNING***

To its credit, it is generally pretty well shot and acted, though for more than just me, second fiddle Sam Worthington (who plays Marcus Wright, a convict put to death years ago only to find himself alive again as a half-machine Skynet product) outshined lead man Christian Bale.
Then we get to logical issues. Allowing for the suspension of disbelief one must go into the movie with - followers of the series will remember that a terminator wrapped in real muscle and skin travels back in time to kill John Connor’s mother before the child is even conceived, and the soldier sent back to protect the mother has not only been sent back by John Connor himself, but ends up becoming his father, leading to one of Hollywood’s more memorable time-travel paradoxes - there are simply things that don’t make sense. A stories-tall terminator apparently sneaks up on a shack full of people (who it catches unaware, yet makes an awful racket after the initial surprise). And perhaps the most blatant logical issue: why the young Kyle Reese - the man who will eventually be sent back by John Connor to protect Connor’s mother, and who will end up being Connor’s father - doesn’t question a resurrected Marcus Wright when Wright shows up out of the blue, bewildered about the state of the world and asking questions that any human would know (”What was that [terminator]? What happened to the world? What year is it?”)
And finally, perhaps the biggest flaw in the writing for me is that for all the effort that Marcus puts into saving people and helping the humans (and Connor specifically), for all his human-ness despite being half machine, we find out toward the climax that Kyle has been a pawn of Skynet used to lure John Connor to Skynet’s headquarters (in his trying save Kyle Reese, as Connor feels he’s destined to) in order to finally kill him.
So let me understand: Skynet “built” Marcus in order to send him into the wild in order to find the resistance in order to make Connor trust him enough to bring Connor to Skynet to save Reese, all to kill Connor. Why, pray tell, wasn’t Marcus also programmed to simply kill Connor if given the opportunity? Most noteworthy here is one scene in particular where Connor is outside the compound on his own and is out of heavy ammo and is about to get jumped by an eel-like terminator that will surely try to kill him and… ? It’s stopped by Marcus at the last moment! Whew! Close call for Connor, who now finally has real reason to trust who and what Marcus is! Yes… or, alternately, had Marcus been programmed to let Connor be killed should such a chance present itself, he could’ve just stayed out of the way and let it happen.
Skynet is a machine. It thinks logically, so why would it not take any and all opportunities (as it seems to have done so far) to end the life of its one primary target, the only man it believes could stop it? Perhaps my old high school teacher could make some improvements to Skynet with a couple of programmed if/then statements.

At its best, Terminator: Salvation is well written, well shot, and well acted. At its worst, it has logic and plot holes you could drive a truck through. In the end, it works pretty well as an action movie, but as the final piece to the Terminator series puzzle, unfortunately leaves too much to be desired to be a truly satisfying Terminator movie.

This was the movie I was most looking forward to seeing this year, yet even notching it up for its decent action, I’d rate it a disappointing 7/10.

By sheer luck, I came across an article about a new website dedicated to new and emerging Canadian writers. I checked it out briefly and saw they had a contest for short childrens’ stories. It deadlines in a couple of weeks, so I’ve got to get cracking. Happily, I seem to work much better when deadlines are imposed on me for writing. Happier still, I got an idea out of the blue a couple of nights ago that I think could work really well as a short story for kids.

Already working on it.

More updates on contests as they come up…

I find myself in a new, and pleasant, headspace this morning.

While I continue to bat a thousand on the 100 words a day challenge, I confess that I generally still have to make myself do the words, or at least remember to do them, and the nighttime alarm on my watch - set to go off as a reminder to do my words if I hadn’t done them previously from one day to the next - has saved my bacon an embarrassing number of times. Point being, the daily writing isn’t yet a habit, which is frankly a bit disappointing.

There are causes for it not being a daily routine, of course. Some of which are genuine reasons, but some of which, were I to take a bit of time and consider them at all seriously, are more likely excuses. There’s all too often stuff I’d rather be doing with my time, and when it comes to free time, I find writing is one of many things that appeal. A lot of that time, the other things win out.

What I’m rather happy about, however, is that this morning I find myself in a new headspace about writing. Not that I felt (at least, often) that daily writing was a chore, but it was all too rare that I was actively looking forward to doing it. Today, I find that’s rather drastically changed. Even though I’m in the midst of a page 1 re-write on what will work out to be a kids’ novel - perhaps a couple of dozen pages in on the first crack at it, I didn’t like the way it was developing, and figured starting from scratch would be a better approach than patching up what I’d done - there’s something now new and appealing about it. Perhaps it’s the result of the re-write itself; being happier with the way it’s working out. But it feels like it’s more than that… as though I want to write (vs. the all-too often desire to complete writing projects; a notable difference).

Hopefully it’s a new, and long-lasting, outlook talking, and is inspired by the work I’ve set ahead of myself instead of by the Excedrin I took an hour ago for the headache I woke up with. Should know by tomorrow. Hell, should know within a few hours, after the Excedrin has run its course and if I still have the itch - which I haven’t had in far too long, and have dearly missed - to get back to writing.

Here’s hoping it’s the latter.

Ok… people… friends… brothers and sisters… work with me here. I’m seeing more and more of this, and it’s driving me nuts.

It’s really not hard: generally speaking, when you’re talking about a single group of people, you refer to them in the singular form.

For instance - to get right to the most common phrasing I see this used with - it’s not “Metallica are playing here tonight”. That’s using a single name, Metallica, with a plural verb, are. You don’t say that a group are playing; it’s that a group is playing. So it’s properly said that “Metallica is playing here tonight.” It’s the same as the way you’d say, “the choir [singular name] is [singular verb] performing” or “the army [singular name] is [singular verb] going to Toronto because the mayor thinks Torontonians can’t shovel a bit of snow for themselves.”

Another common mistake: “the staff are coming to the kitchen for birthday cake”. A staff is a single group of people with a singular name. Thus, “the staff is coming to the kitchen for birthday cake.”

A group is referred to as a plural when the name of the group itself is plural:
“The geese [plural name] are [plural verb] coming back north again.”
“The Police [plural name] are [plural verb] playing here this weekend.”
“The Smurfs [plural name] are [plural verb] three apples high. Also, annoying.”

Point being, a group of individuals with a collective, singular name will almost always get a singular verb. A group with a plural name will almost always get a plural verb. There are going to be some exceptions, I’ve no doubt - this is English, after all, and what’s English without exceptions to every rule? - but it’s a simple enough rule to go by and arguably even more trust-worthy than “i” before “e” except after “c”.

I get that English is difficult. I’ve heard some say it’s the most difficult language in the world, doubtless attributed at least in part to those very ubiquitous exceptions I mentioned. It even seems to be tricky for some folks who grew up with it as a first language, which is odd, given a childhood and adolescence of schooling and exposure to learning it. And singular verbs for singular groups are both key and learned early on, so where does it go once people reach their teens and adult years? Why do the fundamentals become lost for some; too many, and I daresay perhaps a growing number?

To wrap, let me just as that you please try to use proper grammar, especially if you’re involved in any kind of publishing or broadcasting. It really does matter, it makes you (and your company) sound more intelligent and professional than if you get it wrong, and it will save me from totally losing my mind.

So I’ve got a lot happening these days, creativity-wise.
Along with the usual writing projects I’m pecking away on, Jackie and I have teamed up with some friends to work on one creative outlet - a potential money maker, if we can get out collective asses in gear and actually put the idea in motion - and I’m working with another friend on a comic strip idea. Not a comic book, mind you, but a 4-panel strip like you find in the Comics section of newspapers.

It’s kind of cool because I’ve never worked in that format before, which always interests me. It’s a pretty specific discipline. Having written up a couple dozen by this point, though, I think I’m getting the feel for them.

The friend’s name is Eric Kim. He’s got a pretty cool website that showcases some of his work, and he’ll definitely bring a professional level to the artwork which my stick figures just wouldn’t get.

I’ll post a link when the strips start showing up on his site.

Meanwhile, I’m just trying to find a balance among all these things, plus life and a job, and writing away…

Holy CRAP! There are birds there now! It’s like they’re little winged heralds of irony, showing up mere minutes after I made that birdfeeder post.

Some little white and black-hooded birds came out of nowhere and started using the bird feeder, not only partaking in the (smaller) sunflower seeds from the side, but eating the seeds from the suet squares.

I don’t want to be an alarmist, but birds becoming eaters of meat byproducts may… MAY signify the end of days. Get the word out!

And if you have “beef, sheep, etc.” livestock, for the love of god, protect their loins and kidneys!

… I think toasted, buttered cinnamon raisin bagels and chocolate milk is the breakfast of champions.

That’s what I’m having, after all, and I’m a champion (in my head).

So I entered a screenwriting contest online last week, deftly submitting it on the last day of the early bird reduced rate. I sent in the one I’ve gotten the most traction with, which I’ve never claimed is brilliant or the best thing ever put to paper or even an Oscar contender but is, I can say as objectively as possible under the circumstances, hands down better than some of the stuff being produced these days. And I’d say that’s a pretty fair measuring stick.
Will it be the best movie ever?
No.
Ok, is it better than some of the stuff bring produced these days?
Hell yes.
BAM.

In any case, the automated system said that I’d hear back within three days if there was anything wrong with the attachment. Apparently such is not the case, as I haven’t heard anything, which means my little screenplay is on its way to certain fame and money-making! At least… such is the case in my head.

So I recently came across a publication called A Thousand Faces, which is geared to stories about real world (or perhaps more accurately, non-traditional-4-colour) superheroes. In the submissions, they mention that they want well-written stories which wouldn’t work if the superhero element were removed from them.

While smacking more than a bit of the TV show Heroes, it also struck me as a kind of cool idea to have anyone from anywhere write their own stories about their own characters, without adhering to an overall story arc.

I’ve come up with several story concepts to send in, of which I’ve nearly concluded one and have just started another.

Hopefully I’ll be able to pass along some good news on the publication front soon.