The Wedding Approaches

On Saturday, I will be getting married. It still feels distant, but I know the time approaches fast. There is not much to do - just some decisions regarding the selection of alcohol during the reception. Oh, yes. Rachana and I have not practiced our first dance outside of selecting our song. The potential for a wonderful disaster exists.

How do I feel - I dunno. I feel excited, but normal. I am not nervous. Perhaps, I will be Friday night during those few hours to myself when I am alone and have a chance to introspect. Perhaps, not - I will be tired. I look most forward to seeing my family again and having all my friend who are able to attend come. Even the others who cannot make it have shared their excitement and good tidings with us.

I am very humbled by the blessings bestowed by everyone and the effort people are making to attend. I hope that we are great hosts, and the guests enjoy their time.

I want to say something insightful or profound, but I have nothing right now. Seldom are thoughts as significant as one thinks they are, though. On Saturday, though, I will answer my to-be-wife's chief question - "Why do you love me?" It's an answer I have withheld from her and told her when we marry, I will tell her.

On Saturday, God willing, I will. Okay, time to leave early from work and deal with the last few things. See you there on Friday, etc.

Words Thrown Away

In monumental stroke of bad luck, I left my wedding speech on my work desk. It seems the carpets were cleaned last night, and my paper pad was knocked to the floor. Once on the floor, my speech was steam cleaned.

It is ruined. The words smeared about. I have the gist in my head as well as the order of thoughts that I wanted to discuss in the 3-3.5 minutes I allotted to myself, however. And I think that is what I will do.

I like having a plan, but I feel as though plans are skeletons, outlines if you will permit, of what to do.

My father and I laid out each class I would take from freshman year to graduation of high school and then college. Remarkably, the high school plan was about 80%-90% the same. There is not much in high school that was going to attract my attention. If it was an AP class, I was going to take it and get the credit. In that process, I started college with 40-45 hrs of credit.

This laid the groundwork for my undergrad. So much of the early years of my father and my plan was already accounted for. I had room to explore and try new things. So, I did. Instead of taking 17-18 hrs some semesters, I backed off and took 12-14 hrs per semester that contributed towards my degree. I took a "throwaway" class each semester, like athletic conditioning, basketball skills I, Introduction to Hinduism's Origin, a hero's origin, or even a class on relativity [pass/fail]. The freedom and extra time also make a difference during football season when you are attempting to unleash 1000 crickets in the middle of the night on Nebraska's, the visiting team, hotel floor -- it gives you time to plan.

I have the outline in my head as well as a version of what I am going to say. And now, I have time/freedom to explore creative options for what I want to say. I have an opportunity to let my heart speak its mind to my wife-to-be. I have an opportunity to tell my parents what they mean to me. And, I have an opportunity to acknowledge my friends for what they have done to me.

I do not know exactly what I will say any longer. But, I do know I have a general idea from the original speech. And come game day, June 5th, whatever I do say will be in my voice. There will be no screen as we create when we edit or plan things out.

It's going to be exciting. And for some reason, I just know I will do well.

15 days. Bring it.

Villains

What makes a good villain?

There must be an action that represents a point of no return and hope for redemption.

The point of no return aligns the audience with one of the sides - good or evil. The Joker in Batman and Voldemort in the Harry Potter novels are also great archetypes for villains. There is nothing redeeming about them; they are manipulative and completely evil. Joker and Voldemort also share another trait - badassness. Both characters have a formidable presence and possess great powers, namely intelligence and wizardry, respectively. They are worthy adversaries for any hero.

One of my favorite, more recent examples is Ra's al Ghul from Batman Begins. There is part where Batman's training with the Himalayan ninjas ends, and Ra's al Ghul asks Batman to kill a guy for stealing a goat or something. Batman looks at him in disbelief, but Ghul is completely serious. This Ghul's moment - despite becoming Batman's father figure, he asks him to do something so unmistakeably evil. This is Ghul's point of no return - we no longer care about all that he has done for our hero; Ghul's a bad dude. I mean seriously. You don't kill a person for goat stealing unless you went to TX A&M. Those goat/sheep f'ers, argh.

Also, there cannot be any source for redemption. Take Darth Vader for example. What seems as though the perfect formula for a villain - dark outfit, scary voice, great powers, etc. - is actually a hero who has been manipulated. Yes, Vader is the Villain in Star Wars, but by the end of Empire Strikes Back, I, too, sensed the good in him and hoped he would redeem himself.

This is why I look forward to the Iron Man 2 movie. Mickey Rourke's character plays Ivan Vanko. For the purposes of the film, he plays "Whiplash", who is Russian, brilliant, and deranged. Now, in the comics, Ivan Dranko was the Crimson Dynamo - the communist version of Iron Man. But, this movie makes him Whiplash, which is fine. It's just an amalgamation of both characters.

How will he be? Will there be a point of not return? Will there be redemption? I doubt it on the redemption of the villain. I think Whiplash will be flat out evil. I

However, the Iron Man comic story has always been about Tony Stark's demons and his quest for redemption*. He messes up so much, has so much hubris, but when everything is on the line, Tony Stark always sucks it and fights back. Iron Man 2 also adapts the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline where Stark becomes an alcoholic. I find this story very compelling because when all hope seems lost, the redemption occurs.

At some point, I should address in 31 days, I will be married. Ok, I just addressed it. Haar.

* denotes that many would argue the original Iron Man was about Western technology versus Eastern mysticism, ie. Iron Man vs. the Mandarin and his 10 Rings. The movie adaptation takes after the "Demon in a Bottle" plot.

Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules

I've been an Elmore Leonard fan for some time. Recently, FX has developed one of his characters, U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens from Pronto and Riding the Rap, into a show - Justified. It stars Tim Olyphant, and I have enjoyed his previous work as well (Deadwood) .

Watching Justified got me thinking about Leonard's rules and other musings of that sort.

Here are Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules on Writing, from New York Times article, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle."

1) Never open a book with weather.

2) Avoid prologues.

3) Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.

4) Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.

5) Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

6) Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."

7) Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

8) Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

9) Don't go into great detail describing places and things.

10) Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

Interestingly, in the years after this essay was published, Elmore Leonard whimsically said that he had an 11th rule:

"Don't be afraid to break the rules if it makes the story better."

Upcoming Stuff

I have not had as much time as I had hoped for to write. As luck would have it, though, I have been working on a slew of essays for an essay writing class. I think I will post them as my "posts". I need to turn them in first, however.

In other free time, I have spent time helping to plan this wedding that is coming soon - 10 weeks. 10 weeks seems long, but it will go by quickly. The only thing left to determine are the unforeseeable problems that will come up. It would not be a wedding unless things went wrong. I do not intend to become upset unless more than 9 think go wrong between May 1 - June 5, the homestretch.

I like our wedding date, 6.5.2010. In general, I like numbers, and it is fun for me to know we are getting married on the 5th day of a month, and the digits of the date add up to 5 (6+5+2+1=14 -> 1+4 -> 5). I think there probably is someone out there who has assigned meaning to this randomness, however, for me, it is merely a way to pass the time. It's fun; nothing more, nothing less.

I never thought I would ever get praised for my use of semicolons, however, the writing instructor maintained I use semicolon courageously and properly. I like semicolons because they convey the types of pauses or breaks in thoughts I myself have ongoing in my head. I dunno if that is courageous, but I will not turn away compliment from this woman; she is a good writer and her comments on our writing reflect her acumen.

Okay, I need to head to a meeting, but one should expect to start seeing me post my essays up here soon.