Skip to main content

Warrior Wednesday - The Etiquette of Commas

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"]sword Image created using Bitmoji[/caption]

I meant to post yesterday, but I crashed out of exhaustion. Then I went and swung my sword around for a bit.

I had this thought today about writing screenplays and martial arts and came to, what I think is, a decent conclusion.

We often hear about how important having the scene headers correct and using proper grammar is. There are teachers that refuse to read further if you have errors like comma splices. Sometimes, it can feel like they're just mean-spirited. The thing is that there are many people like that in the industry. I don't want my work passed over because it was painful to read.

As I think about this more, I see the link to martial arts. Budo is life and life is budo after all.

What's the link?

Commas and whatnot are like etiquette. Sometimes it feels silly to place so much importance on something that seems so small. But small things add up to big things. In iaido, we spend a lot of time trying to perfect the handling of our sageo (sword cord). It's partly about showing respect for our equipment, but it's also about mastery. If we keep our cord, a rather floppy object, in check at all times, it means we can ensure we'll transfer that level of care into bigger areas and be able to stay alive or land that writing gig a lot easier. It shows respect for our teachers and our craft.

Last night, we practiced the Oku standing set. I'm not sure how much sunk into my brain as there has been a lot of homework lately and my mind feels drunk with knowledge that I don't quite know how to use yet. It was a good workout though and I enjoyed seeing my dojo mates.

Tomorrow I have to add 6 to 10 pages to my feature film as I may be hungover on Saturday after Friday's comedy show fund-raiser. I'm hoping it doesn't take 2.5 hours to get home like it did today. That was... Annoying.

And that's how the river of life flows today.
R~

Popular posts from this blog

The Gauntlet That Was October

I had a lot of things happen in October. I watched Frankenstein in the cemetery with friends. I had tea with a friend. I started a new sport: curling. This is really fun and I'm enjoying the level of activity it provides and all the strategic elements. I'll do a separate post on it soon. Unfortunately, soon after my first game, I came down with Covid and so did the friend who I had tea with, so I think we both caught it at the place we went to. That wasn't fun. I already posted about that. I was fortunate to be free of it in time to attend Can-Con where I took in lots of panels, saw some of the wonderful writer community, bought many new books, and volunteered to help out in the rooms. The following weekend, I went to the livestream for Danielle Allard's new album release, followed by the in person release. As part of this, she has a 6 video series that releases every Sunday on her YouTube at 1:15 PM EDT. Video number 2, Falling Into Place, is one that I feel fortunate

Frisky Friday - Maple Syrup Porn

[caption id="attachment_10523" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] While delving into some Canadian film history this week, I learned that there is a thing called Maple Syrup Porn. I laughed when I read the term. I thought, "Is our adult film industry really called Maple Syrup Porn?" It's not. Some is Canadian, but it mostly refers to getting around censorship of sex. It was not only common in Quebec due to religion, but several places in the US. You can read more about it here . If you're looking to heat things up this weekend, consider a sweet old film from the early days of the sexual revolution. Maybe even drizzle a little syrup on your partner ;) Guid cheerio the nou, R~

On Edge - ROW80 R1-16

This sounds superstitious, but the fact that this is Leap Year has me on edge. Why? The last two have been rather difficult for me. In 2012, my work place was being divested and I was working multiple job roles because of all the people who had left. My marriage also ended. This led to a major life change, which included moving to Ottawa. I love Ottawa, so at least that worked out. The rest was hard. In 2016, I was restructured out of my job. This led to me floating about for a while on EI as I tried to figure out my future, trying some things like Copywriting out, and going back to school for screenwriting. After school, it took time to find work and I almost lost my home and car in the process. Scary stuff. It's now 2020 and I have a full-time permanent job again, but I'm filling multiple job roles because we're short-handed. We're also so far into year end that it's hard to train the person who is learning to be me for one of those roles. I'm just hopin