CKL's HotSheet

Grooving the Lily

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:22:00 +0000

Get your fill of GrooveLily songs at the band's new WordPress-based web site! If that page reminds of Jonathan Coulton's MP3 Store, well, it's a good thing. I think all musicians should post free listening samples online, and offer DRM-free downloads for purchase at a reasonable price.

In fact, that's a good strategy for any independent artist these days. Repeat after me: "The Internet is my friend. Obscurity is worse than piracy. Fans are not the enemy." All other things being equal, I am far more likely to buy your product if you treat me with respect.

~CKL

One Time Loser

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:50:00 +0000

As expected:

Dear Friend,

I regret to inform you that your script was not selected as one of the 25 finalists in the NYTVF-Fox Comedy Script Contest. The decision tasked to our readers was a very difficult one, and unfortunately there were a number of quality scripts that were unable to advance to the next round of the contest. Narrowing the initial field of over 880 pilots down to 25 was a tremendous challenge, yet the New York Television Festival was thrilled with the response and was astounded by the quality of effort put forth by its community of talented scriptwriters.

Thank you again for the hard work and commitment exhibited in your pilot script. I encourage you to check back with the NYTVF Web site from time to time, as we hope to offer additional opportunities for aspiring television writers soon. In the meantime, we appreciate your support of the New York Television Festival and the independent television movement, and we hope to see you this September at the 2008 NYTVF.

Best Regards,

--NYTVF

On the plus side, this means I can start sending the script to some more readers for feedback. Maybe even a few who actually know something about writing half-hour comedies.

~CKL

Rebels Affianced

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:11:00 +0000

Congratulations to Jeff and Marina on their now-100%-official engagement! (I'm announcing it here because he still hasn't gotten his blog back online yet.) Here's what Jeff posted back in January:

I've finally found the perfect girl for me. Her name is Marina, and we've been together over a year now. She and I weren't ready to talk so publicly about our relationship until now, but now the time has come, so that's the first really great piece of news for the blog in 2008.

I met Marina in Liberia (and astute readers of my blog from back then will find some references to her). She was a coworker, and we were living in a small compound with 7 other MSFers, so we started off with a great deal of discretion. We have some funny stories about how each of our coworkers found out about our little "thing". The important part is that the boss, who liked to play the part of the mother to us all, didn't find out until the very end... that means we "won" the game. :)

When we both got back from Liberia, we really had to adjust. Was it just something that happened to us inside of the MSF bubble, or would our relationship work in real life too? It took all year, and some hard times, to find the answer to that question. But the answer now is clear: YES! We are together now in Switzerland, and planning how to stay together.

D and I are very excited to see them in the bay area next week, and to attend their wedding in Europe. It'll be my first trip to the continent, so I'm hoping we can make the time (and find the money) to do a little traveling around.

~CKL

Now I Have a LiveJournal Ho Ho Ho

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:02:00 +0000

I don't actually plan to post much over there, but I've updated my Yahoo! Pipe to include all three of my blogs now: this one, the LiveJournal, and Travels With Our Cats.

I plan to start another ongoing blog in October (stay tuned for details), plus the obligatory NaNoWriMo progress/backup blog in November. Crazy!

~CKL

Denvention Has Begun

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:31:00 +0000

One of the many sights we saw today at the 66th WorldCon:

From Denvention 3

(I'm not convinced it was an actual stargate. The wormhole was definitely open for more than thirty-eight minutes, and I didn't see any singularities nearby.)

For more photos and details, click on over to Travels With Our Cats!

~CKL

Everyone's a Comedian

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Team Snout has been accepted to play in the Ghost Patrol Game! I mailed off our entry fee yesterday and reminded the team to keep any receipts they may have from the making of our application video.

This was Sean's response:

Re: Ghost Patrol Expenses

So far we've racked up:
$0 bedsheet
$0 ghostbusting gun
$0 foley royalties
$0 stale Pale Ale
$0 editing software
$0 YouTube hosting fees

Plus,
$75 rental of shop vac by Acorn from the Treehouse
-$75 owed to Acorn for rental of shop vac by Acorn

Hence the title of this post.*

D pointed out that it's still July, and isn't that a bit early to be accepting teams for a Game in November? (Team Snout usually does it about a month before.) We speculated that GC may have wanted an accurate headcount before starting to build clues, or in order to book certain locations. I really hope we're not in for three months of pre-clues.

~CKL

* I'm toying with the idea of putting rimshot and laugh-track sound effects on my PalmPilot for easy playback during the weekend. Don't push me.

Ghost "Busters"

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:19:00 +0000

Since everyone seems to be doing it... here's Team Snout's application video for the Ghost Patrol Game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI8uI0laCVM

And, of course, outtakes and extras (warning: explicit language and adult references):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dk2kYW2jVU

D and I weren't able to participate in the making of these videos, but we applaud our team's creativity and hard work! Especially Karl, who had to wear that gigantic shop-vac on his back, and Chris, who I'm hoping didn't need more than one take for that "slimed" shot. But what do I know? Maybe raspberry jam is good for the pores.

~CKL

"...and it's called epMotion"

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:08:00 +0000

Because "boy band" is always the first thing that comes to mind when anyone says "automated pipetting."

~CKL

Stephanie Lenz, Copyright Hero

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 01:19:00 +0000

In case you haven't seen the news, Stephanie Lenz is the woman who is suing Universal Music Corp for issuing a takedown notice against this video of her kids, which happens to have Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" playing in the background:

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The issue in Stephanie Lenz's lawsuit against Universal is whether the owner of the rights to a creative work that's being used without permission can order the Web host to remove it without first considering whether the infringement was actually a legal fair use - a small or innocuous replication that couldn't affect the market for the original work.

Lenz's lawyers, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, say her 29-second video, with fuzzy camerawork and unclear sound, was such an obvious noncommercial fair use that Universal should have to reimburse her for the costs of taking it out of circulation for more than a month last year.

Back in December of last year, when The Richter Scales' "Here Comes Another Bubble" music video also ran afoul of a YouTube takedown notice, there was a lot of hand-wringing discussion within the group about how to respond. We actually consulted with EFF and other lawyers, but in the end decided that the potential downside of inviting legal action was too big. (The video currently on YouTube is "version 1.1," with the single controversial image removed.)

I'm definitely rooting for Lenz and EFF in this case. While the nuances are different from the "Bubble" situation, the basic premise is the same: the DMCA and other copyright laws are routinely abused, "fair use" is not well defined, and all of that needs to change.

~CKL

The Last of Dr. Horrible...FOR NOW

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:55:00 +0000

All three parts of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog are now online! Watch it for free and risk slashdotting their site again, or buy it from iTunes for a paltry four dollars. C'mon, skip the Starbucks for one day and do the right thing.

Just in case you've been living under a rock and have no idea what I'm talking about, I refer you to Penny Arcade's Tycho, who describes Dr. Horrible as "a supervillain musical written by Joss Whedon, starring a bunch of awesome motherfuckers. Why are you still here."

~CKL

Hancock and the Golden Wall-E

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Yes indeedy, the summer movie season is here, and with it we have a spate of films that are overstuffed with special effects, action set pieces, and--somewhat surprisingly--story. But this is not necessarily a good thing.

The last three movies D and I have seen--Wall-E, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Hancock--all suffer from an excess of good material. It's as if the filmmakers couldn't decide what story they wanted to tell, and just decided to blend everything together in the script-o-matic. The end results contain bits of interesting premises, but those bits are floating in a vaguely incoherent story-like substance. Or, to use another metaphor: too many dots, not all connected.

I wouldn't say any of them was bad, but you can probably wait for DVD to see for yourself.

(MINOR SPOILERS BELOW)

The worst offender, in terms of underdeveloped story and character, is Hellboy II. I really liked the first Hellboy movie, which managed to preserve much of the feeling of the original comic while also adding its own flourishes. But for the sequel, director Guillermo del Toro went a little overboard on art direction and makeup design--there are some amazing creatures which appear on screen for less than five minutes.

I'm glad Guillermo is getting the budget to play with stuff like this, and the movie looks beautiful, but there are literally half a dozen different subplots which all get shortchanged along the way. If you're going to see any of these three films on the big screen, go for Hellboy II. It's gorgeous.

Hancock, on the other hand, features some of the worst superhero-flying visual effects I've ever seen. I'm not talking about how Will Smith's character flies like the drunkard he is--that's actually a nice touch. I'm talking about the quality of the computer graphics and compositing. The lighting doesn't match between elements, and foreground object edges ring like crazy. It's surprisingly subpar for a big movie like this.

And even if you haven't seen the movie, I'm sure you've heard about the big left turn it takes in the second half. After reading a synopsis of the original screenplay (which was written in 1996 and titled--I'm not even kidding--Tonight, He Comes) and looking at the writing credits for the finished film, it seems obvious that X-Files alumnus Vince Gilligan smothered newcomer Vy Vincent Ngo's spec with half-baked mythology in the hopes of making it--well, something else. It didn't quite work.

D has a higher opinion of the final product than I do. I agree with her assertion that just three additional scenes would have filled in the biggest plot holes, but I don't think merely connecting the dots would have helped this movie to the next level. We never really find out who Hancock is--we do learn his origin, but we never get to know his character.

Wall-E has the opposite problem. The film has a nearly perfect first act. It starts with a show tune--"Put on Your Sunday Clothes" from Hello, Dolly--and introduces us to the titular robot with no dialogue at all. You could say this is the movie Pixar was destined to make; "Luxo Jr.," the animated short film that put them on the map, was all about making an emotional connection between the audience and an anthropomorphized desk lamp, using nothing but movement and a few sound effects.

Unfortunately, this film also takes a bit of a left turn halfway through. It's not quite as egregious as Hancock; in Wall-E's case, it's like the writers felt they needed to graft on a second story that featured more talking, almost as if they didn't have confidence that non-speaking robots could carry the whole movie. The addition isn't nonsensical or even a tonal shift, but it felt somewhat unnecessary and oversimplified to me.

Part of the problem is, I'm sure, that I've read much more science fiction than the kids at whom Wall-E is aimed. I know from generation ships and environmental apocalypses and mutinous ship's computers. It was fun to see the references to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Logan's Run and Star Trek, but I would have liked more exploration of the underlying concepts along with copying the imagery. These particular Big Ideas aren't new to me, so I want a little more depth in their presentation.

I know everyone is gushing about Wall-E, but I'm a bit disappointed with Pixar this time around. They usually spend years perfecting their stories and pinpointing the hearts and souls of their characters*, and I feel like they shortchanged their main character to spend time on a very standard, MacGuffin-fueled third act. There were so many other, more interesting things in the movie they could have developed. I'm still waiting for the next great science fiction film to come along and wow me.

~CKL

* Cars is the exception that proves the rule.

StuffWhitePeopleLike@Google

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 05:07:00 +0000

~CKL

He Told You So

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:21:00 +0000

There's been a lot of to-do in the news lately about the economy--recession, financial crisis, yada yada yada. You know what? I heard all this back in May, 2007, from James Scurlock*, director of the documentary Maxed Out and author of the accompanying book.

Here he is, doing Q&A after a screening of the film at Google:

As with most non-Michael Moore documentaries, this one didn't really get a wide release, but it is worth seeing, especially now that sub-prime mortgages have melted down and everyone on Wall Street says the sky is falling. As my friend Mark says: "Debt is a four-letter word."

~CKL

* Not to be confused with Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame.

Not Horrible At All

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:13:00 +0000

After being predictably slashdotted this morning, Act I of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is once again available for your viewing (and listening) pleasure. It's quite delightful.

If you hate streaming video as much as I do--and, more importantly, if you want to support the artists--I encourage you to buy the complete saga (parts 2 and 3 coming later this week) for a measly $4 from iTunes.

In related news, I also ponied up for a Daily Show multi-pass today--16 new episodes for $10, no commercials, auto-downloaded, and the writers get paid. Me likey. We haven't been watching for the past few months, but has John Stewart gone a lot more gray recently, or is it just me?

So far, our TV-over-Internet experience has been pretty good. We finished watching the most recent seasons of Reaper and House, and we've got My Name is Earl cued up. We don't really have a lot of free time while we're traveling, but after we settle down in Portland I'll probably shell out for Burn Notice and The Middleman (recommended by my friend Raj).

I haven't done the math yet, but I suspect paying for individual shows will also be more economical than cable or satellite. We were paying almost $80 a month with DirecTV, including HBO and TiVo fees, and even if iTunes or Unbox season passes are $40 a pop, we wouldn't have time to watch 24 shows a year--even if we could find that many programs we liked.

It's a little annoying that we can't download Medium and probably won't be able to get True Blood in a timely manner*, but we can always wait for DVD. Or make some new friends in Portland.

~CKL

* Get with the program already, HBO!

Team Snout FTW

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:54:00 +0000

Following yesterday's tax notice, D called the California FTB this morning and set them straight--it was indeed a clerical error, and Team Snout is now officially listed as a non-profit unincorporated association. We can disregard the bill, and don't even have to file any extra paperwork! (Thanks to Loretta, Stephanie, and John at the FTB for their help.)

D also called the hotel at which we stayed in DC about an erroneous extra charge, so in effect, she just spent 45 minutes on the phone and saved us $1,100. w00t! Now we're going to go celebrate by running some errands and seeing Hellboy 2.

~CKL

Rhymes with FAIL, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 03:18:00 +0000

(In case you missed Part 1)

Guess what we got in the mail today?*

That's right, it's a notice from the California State Franchise Tax Board saying that Team Snout owes over a thousand dollars in back taxes! Also check out the dates: the FTB gave us only two weeks to pay up, and it took the USPS nearly two weeks to forward our mail correctly.

The phrase "good enough for government work" does not come to mind.

Anyway, here's the breakdown of the pound of flesh:

We're pretty sure this is a clerical error, since Team Snout is an unincorporated association, and $800 is the annual franchise tax due from any California corporation, limited partnership, or LLC. We already paid our 2006 taxes, which is where that $5.00 credit comes from, and the reason we established ourselves as an unincorporated association was to avoid these kinds of fees and paperwork.

Whatever. D, our team treasurer, is going to call tomorrow and sort this out. Wish her luck.

UPDATE 7/14: It's all good.

~CKL

* Actually, our friends Sean and Crissy got it, since they're getting our forwarded mail while we're on the road, and they probably received it yesterday but didn't have time to sort their mail until today.

Headline of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 05:07:00 +0000

"Police Arrest Man After Shooting Him 9 Times"

I guess that would be the definition of adding insult to injury.

Thank you and good night!

~CKL

It's Just His Name

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:52:00 +0000

I'm sure it's no reflection of quality. From all indications, next week's online supervillain musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog will be quite entertaining. But of course, with Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris, and Nathan Fillion involved, how could it be otherwise?

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

This three-part extravaganza will only be (officially) available online from next Tuesday (7/15) through Sunday (7/20). Incidentally, I also keep a separate Google Calendar to track TV shows I'm interested in--usually I just mark season premieres or special events. It's gone a bit stale since we've been on the road, without TiVo or Entertainment Weekly, but if you're interested:

~CKL

Updated Things To Do

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:58:00 +0000

Because I know you're so interested (roll your eyes when you say that, pilgrim)...

I voted for the Hugo Awards at least four hours before the deadline on Monday. Yay me. I didn't have time to read all the nominees, but I got through most of the novels (I'd read two of them already) and all of the novellas and novelettes. I had also seen all of the long-form dramatic presentation nominees already. I didn't feel qualified to vote in any other categories--except Fan Writer, where I knew two of the nominees personally.

I just submitted my application for the SIE Alumni Mentor Program. So that's done. This is the first time they've done this, so I'm not sure what to expect as far as being accepted. But I figure it can't hurt to apply. It also got me to update my LinkedIn profile, which serves as my résumé these days. (Weirdness: LinkedIn seems to have removed the "self-employed" option on profiles, so I couldn't update the "aspiring screenwriter" section of my employment history without making up a company name. It feels like a bug, but I can't make myself care enough to report it.)

So, the new list (with deadlines):

Find and book a hotel room in/near Rapid City, SD. We're scheduled to arrive in the badlands on 7/26, for our visit to Mount Rushmore et al., and this appears to be the busy season there. D got a little overwhelmed doing legwork, so I'm taking over. Hopefully we can stay within our travel budget without compromising too much on amenities. (7/10)
Solve Ghost Patrol application pre-clues. It may be time to ask for a hint on these, although if GC is using them to weed out teams, they may not be very forthcoming. On the other hand, if we're already not having fun anymore... (7/18)
Audition for the Stanford Singer's Showcase. They want one to three mp3's of me singing, which I don't currently have since all our home computers got packed up in April. But our current hotel has pretty fast broadband, so I'm going to see if I can do a network restore from Mozy. Low priority, since the event happens in November and I plan to be busy with at least two writing projects that month. (7/20)

~CKL

I'm Going to Paradise!

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:24:00 +0000

After a day at the International Spy Museum, D and I returned to our hotel room, where this email was waiting for me:

Dear Mr. Chen,

On behalf of the staff and the instructors, I'd like to welcome you as
a student to Viable Paradise, and say congratulations!

This letter is a written confirmation of your acceptance to the 2008
Viable Paradise Writers Workshop, aka VP 12/XII...

There's more to the message, but that's the important bit. I was too surprised to be excited at first, since I had just applied yesterday and wasn't expecting to hear back for at least a week. But I got over that quickly.

I'm going to Viable Paradise! With John Scalzi! And Elizabeth Bear! And Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden! And fellow Half-Life 2 enthusiast Steven Gould, who also wrote Jumper! I probably shouldn't ask him what he thought of the movie, but maybe I'll ask his wife.

I'm not well acquainted with the works of the remaining two instructors, Debra Doyle and James D. McDonald, but I plan to do some reading before September...

Finally, in case you're wondering, the manuscript I submitted with my application was the current version of "Working Graves," which started with a dream I had in 1999. The opening scene is still mostly intact, though I've expanded upon it since that first draft. And I made a few important changes from the draft I submitted with my Clarion application.

~CKL

Third Time's the Charm, Right?

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:08:00 +0000

Early this morning, I email-submitted my application for the Viable Paradise writer's workshop. Then I went to sleep, and after breakfast, went to the post office to send a hard copy of my manuscript. Yes, today is the deadline for applying, and yes, I do wait until the last minute much...ly. (Adverb? Really? Whatever.)

You may recall that I applied to Clarion and Clarion West earlier this year, but was not accepted to either. No big--it actually made planning our road trip a little easier. VP happens at the end of September, by which time we'll be settled in Portland (or at least planted in a hotel nearby, looking for an apartment).

But even if I don't get into VP, I have an idea for a year-long writing project which I plan to start this fall. More details to come. And, of course, I'll be doing NaNoWriMo in November.

Meanwhile, here's my new list of things to do, with deadlines:

Vote for Hugo Awards - July 7
Apply for Stanford in Entertainment (SIE) Alumni Mentor Program - July 15
Help Team Snout finish application for Ghost Patrol Game - July 18 (solve remaining pre-clues)
Audition for Stanford Singer's Showcase - July 20 (find audio recordings)

~CKL

Hugo Reading

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:12:00 +0000

D and I have another week and a half to vote for this year's Hugo Awards. She's currently ahead of me on reading all the nominated stories, many of which are available online.

I've only read two of the nominated novels (so far), and I'm also partial to those two authors because I hosted both of them at Google last year:

John Scalzi on The Last Colony

Charles Stross on Halting State

~CKL

Sex and the Incredible Hulk

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:23:00 +0000

(NOT what you think)

Despite my earlier protestations, D and I were both won over by the Scene Unseen review and actually paid good money to see Sex and the City last night.* A week ago, we took D's family out to see The Incredible Hulk. It may surprise you to learn that these two movies share many similarities! Well, maybe two. Would you believe three vowels and a consonant?**

But seriously, folks... both movies actually do begin the same way, with a fast-cutting "our story thus far" montage. With Sex, it's a collection of clips from the HBO series which (re)introduces the four main characters and explains their current life situations--married, with children, etc. For Hulk, it's a high-energy retcon that erases the first, Ang Lee movie and establishes that Bruce Banner has been on the run for several years, hulking out periodically while eluding capture by the U.S. Army.

Fashion is also an issue in both films. Carrie Bradshaw is very particular about her wedding dress, and Bruce Banner is very particular about his stretchy pants.

That's about where the similarities end. I have to admit that Sex was the better movie, even for a straight man with little interest in handbags. It was just a better show, featuring well-drawn characters in a solid story that weaves all their lives together. Maybe because of its TV roots, and perhaps because they didn't want to screw up the franchise, it's clear that a lot of energy went into writing this movie and protecting its heart. There are themes, there are callbacks and parallels, there is solid structure.

Hulk, on the other hand, shows obvious signs of its story having been gutted by a contentious post-production period. Edward Norton didn't get official screen credit for his work on the screenplay (though he is credited in the novelization), and scuttlebutt says most of his contributions--including an opening sequence in the Arctic, which you may have glimpsed in the trailer--were scrapped. I don't believe the final battle would have seemed any less like a video game (an effect heightened when you see it in digital projection), but it might have had a better setup. It's like Joss Whedon says: "The problem with the third act is the first two acts."

~CKL

* I quote my wife: "We listened to that damn podcast, and now I totally have a hard-on for Sex and the City." Direct quote.

** That's my little Get Smart homage, which I understand from reviews is on par with how much the new movie has to do with the original TV series. Oh well.

Least Helpful Logline EVAR

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:04:00 +0000

"Apartment of Champions" Teaser

noreply@blogger.com (CKL) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:48:00 +0000

I've just submitted my entry for the FOX-NYTVF Comedy Script Contest. My synopsis:

In a city full of super-heroes, five young people with not-so-great powers and one normal college kid do their best to avoid great responsibility.

I don't actually expect to win anything, since this is my first time around the block, and I don't even watch sitcoms (except for How I Met Your Mother. I heart NPH). I basically wrote the Kevin Smith version of a superhero show--i.e., where all the fighting takes place off-screen, or not at all, and it's pretty much all banter about how ridiculous a world full of metahumans actually would be. (Seriously, who pays for all that property damage?) If I had to pitch it, I'd have to call it "Friends meets The Tick." And nobody's going to buy that.

I can't share the actual script here yet, since by entering the contest I have agreed "not to exhibit, disseminate, produce or broadcast, or authorize any third party to exhibit, disseminate, produce or broadcast, in any manner, media, or format, the script submitted as part of his or her entry (or portions thereof), for a period of one (1) month following the conclusion of the Contest." But I'll talk more about it after October 17th.

It was, however, a good writing exercise, and I have a much better feel for how much time and effort it takes me to produce thirty pages. Three revisions in one week is probably nothing by actual TV standards, but now I know I can pound out a new draft in six hours if I need to.

~CKL