Updates in brief

seem to be everywhere, on many people's blogs, and I like the idea of this and think it's OK. So here is my abbreviated news:

1. Go see Napoleon Dynamite, as it may be the best movie I've seen all year. Definitely all summer. OK, if you're going to be pigheaded about it, at least watch the trailer on the left, for which I have made a link to make it easy on you.

2. I thought it might be funny to start watching a soap opera this summer because I seem to be home around lunch time every day, what with my summer free. I have decided the grand-prize winner is the Bold and the Beautiful because it is only 30 minutes, and they don't have as many storylines running at once. But All My Children was a close second. Also Susan Luchi (sp?) is still on from when my parents watched it in 1984.

3. I've picked up a few of the most recent winners of the Newbery Award for juvenile fiction, just to see what they're looking for these days. To my surprise and delight, I've found that the quality of writing is equal to (and not leaps and bounds better than) what I am currently writing. At the risk of sounding incredibly egotistical, I feel like I've seen (and written) enough to know the difference between crap and non-crap. Hallelujah, Amen! I am writing non-crap. At this time next year I hope to be seeking publication.

4. I am really not that good at updates in brief, because none of them turns out to be brief.

Barbie's on the rebound

with a new Aussie surfer named Blaine. Supposedly she and Ken are still friends, but I find that hard to believe after 43 years.