C - What Can It Be?

Answer to B: Blazing Saddles!

Both A and B were pretty easy for some folks. Today, we up the difficulty a little. As usual, post your guesses in the comments.

Quote
"We're here to preserve democracy, not to practice it." - Captain Frank Ramsay

Characters
Captain Frank Ramsay is a no-nonsense kinda captain who believes in the imperial captaincy. His rule is law and every order is to be obeyed without question. He's old school in a new school Navy.

Lt. Commander Ron Hunter is a new school officer of the nuclear Navy. He believes in the "why" of an order as much as the "what." Every bit as strong-willed as his captain, he is willing go stand up for his convictions, regardless of the cost.

Synopsis
What happens when two officers both try to follow orders (and the law) from two different interpretations? When both are right and both are wrong, the strongest will is likely to emerge victorious.

Until tomorrow, guess away!

B - ?? and the Answer to A

It's day two of the A to Z Challenge and that means we start with the letter B today. And of course, we get the name of yesterday's movie.

Yesterday's answer:  Aliens

Let's get to our B movie. I'll admit this one is pretty easy. Some of them this month will be harder, so I'm kinda throwing everyone a bone today.

Synopsis
This movie would never be made today. With its irreverent humor and biting satire, no studio would be willing to risk it. Unfortunately, most moviegoers today would have difficulty understanding the writer/director's method of taking humor to the extreme to point out the absurdity of the subject matter. The movie lambastes racism and bigotry while managing to make us laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Fun for the sake of being fun, stupid for the sake of being more fun.

Characters - Bart and Jim
Bart is the very definition of "fish out of water". Roped into a situation that is way beyond his control, Bart is set up to fail from the beginning. Despite the odds, he manages to come out ahead in the end through superior wit and cunning.

Jim is just patiently waiting to die an alcoholic's death before getting a new purpose as Bart's plucky sidekick. Will he regain the confidence to be the Waco Kid once again?

Quote
"Hey, where da white women at?" (If that doesn't give it away, you've never seen the movie.)

See you tomorrow with the answer.

A - ????

Welcome to the first installment of the A to Z Challenge for 2015. If you are unsure what that is, see this post. This year's theme is movies! I am posting a quote, a character or two, and a brief synopsis of a movie for each letter. You then get to guess the movie in the comments. Answers will be revealed in the following day's post. So let's get started.

Quote
"Game over man! Game over!" - Bill Paxton as Private Hudson

Character - Newt
Rebecca Jorden, AKA Newt, was only a young child in this movie. The only survivor of her colony, she shows an uncanny ability to survive in the worst of circumstances. The actress playing her, Carrie Henn, won a Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor. She earned it.

Synopsis
Really more of a description than a synopsis. So sue me. :) This sequel changed tone and, in some ways, genre from the original movie it followed. It was still considered by most (myself included) to be a fitting successor and every bit as good as the original. One of the all-time great sci-fi movies.

And those are your clues. Let's see your guesses in the comments and I'll give you the answer tomorrow.

A to Z Challenge 2015 Theme Reveal

It's that time again. Time for the A to Z Challenge for 2015. A month of posting every day (except Sunday) with a new letter each day. Last year I added a theme for the month and did Music I Love, Hate, and Love to Hate (or hate to love). It was a lot of fun and really stretched the old brain muscles. This year I've decided to bring that fun to the cinema world.

That's right, it's Movies from A to Z! Each day I will post a quote, a character or two, and a short synopsis of a movie beginning with that day's letter. You will have to guess in the comments what that movie is. I will reveal the answer in the next day's post. That means a bonus 27th post on May 1st to reveal the Z movie. How's that for going above and beyond, hmmm?

Now that I have the theme, I guess I better get started researching and writing blog posts. This promises to be my most challenging one yet. I'm looking forward to it (with fear and trepidation.) And to help you keep track of the letters for each day, here is a handy calendar.

Still Here

Despite how it looks on this blog, I am still alive, still around, and still (sometimes) posting to my blog. I'm just doing it Torah Walk more than on here right now. Don't worry, that will be changing. I'm going to start posting on here more often. I know, I said that last year. This time I mean it. Really.

Time for a quick catch up post.

Last time I posted, I was starting NaNoWriMo again. How did it go, you ask? Well, better than 2013, but I still failed. Big time. Just over 5000 words. Not good when the goal is 50,000. I'm now 2 for 4. I won the first two years and lost the next two. This year, we get back on track. There WILL BE 50,000 words written in November. I expect you guys to hold me to that.

I'm now teaching twice per month at B'nai Israel instead of once. Obviously, that takes more time. That's both good and bad. It takes more time, but it also forces me to do more studying and to write more for each teaching. That is always good. Anything that forces me to put words on paper is good.

Coming soon...
A to Z Challenge 2015 - Once again I will be participating in the A to Z Challenge. I have completed this challenge two years in a row. This is a streak I intend to keep going as long as possible. Check back in March for the Theme Reveal Bloghop when many of us participating will be revealing what our theme will be for the month. It will be a good one this year, I promise. I know I'll be checking in March to see what theme I've chosen. The anticipation is killing me.

Well, that about covers everything since the last post. It's not as much as I thought it would be. That's almost depressing. Oh yeah, two more things coming up that I'm very excited about. March 1st is Winter Jam. I'm really looking forward to it this year. Skillet is back! It should be a great concert. I'll be sure to post an after-action report shortly thereafter.

April 30th, after a wait of roughly an eternity (plus or minus a couple months,) Home Free is finally coming to Oklahoma. They still won't come to Tulsa for some reason. I don't know if one of the guys had a bad experience in Tulsa and was permanently traumatized or if they just keep forgetting we exist. Either way, we have to go to Oklahoma City to see them. Oh well, they're worth the drive. The kids are counting down the days. Kristin and Alyssa get giggly just thinking about it. Can't wait.

That's it for now. I'll be back soon with another scintillating post filled with Mongoosey knowledge and experience.

IWSG: It's NaNo Time!

Pardon the lateness of this post. I had it almost finished on Wednesday and forgot to post it until Thursday morning. Oops. Hopefully Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh can forgive me.

That's right, it's time for two things at once. It's the monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group post and it's National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). If you are unfamiliar with either of these, please click on their links to read more about them. Both are pretty much exactly what their titles say. As usual, thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for starting the IWSG and running it so well every month.

As mentioned, this month is NaNoWriMo. That wonderful time of year when hundreds of thousands of seemingly sane people devote an entire month to writing the Great American Novel, or whatever it is being called these days. One month, fifty thousand words. What could possibly go wrong? This is my fourth year attempting NaNo. I won the first two years and failed miserably last year with a whopping 565 words. No, that's not a typo. 565 words in a month. I did have an excuse, and actually a pretty good one this time. I injured my back on November 2nd. I was unable to sit upright for more than a few minutes at a time for the next two and a half weeks. By the time I could type more than a dozen words at one sitting, it was almost Thanksgiving. So I gave up and that novel is still sitting at 565 words.

I have only two regrets from last year's NaNo fiasco. One, I broke my win streak. Two, I allowed myself to stop writing the story. Even though I didn't win NaNo, I should have continued the story as soon as I was able to write again. I WILL be correcting that in the near future. The story is too cool to leave unfinished. It's still trying to crawl out of my brain at times, so I better release it soon before permanent damage occurs.

This year, I'm already several thousand words behind. But I'm not worried. Why not? Because the first year I was almost 30,000 words behind at Thanksgiving and I won. Fear is a great motivator. I was afraid of losing, and that's a good thing. This year, we're going to 50K and beyond. No doubt about it.

IWSG: Maybe a Schedule Will Help?

OK, so I missed another Insecure Writers Support Group posting last month. Anyone who has followed my blog for more than a few days knows I have a bad habit of leaving long gaps between posts at times. I'm working on it... really. I have a plan to improve things. I'm going to start scheduling times to write. I will include blogging time, short story time, and novel time. These will have to fit in somewhere between Hebrew study time, Torah study for class, Torah study for church, and teaching preparation time for class and church. I think that will help me put more focus and emphasis on each item at the proper time. I'm hoping it will make it easier to avoid procrastination. If should also give me a little more accountability.

Has anyone else improved their writing consistency by making a schedule? Were you able to stick to it? Did you use specific times or just say "write for one hour on Tuesday evening?" I think I'll try both methods and see what works best.

That's it for today. Until next time; which, according to the schedule, will be October 1st. (See, I've got this.)