I really need to stop promising to write long, insightful entries. I’ve been very busy and, even more importantly, productive this weekend, but those entries still haven’t happened, have they? Well, there’s still tomorrow…

In the meantime, let’s do a meme keyed around the number eight, as seen on Byzantium’s Shores:

8 things I am passionate about:

1. Movies
2. The preservation and/or revision of the above-mentioned movies
3. Really good greasy-spoon-style cafes and diners
4. Travel
5. Writing
6. Collecting stuff
7. Fairness and the frequent (and depressing) lack thereof in modern society
8. The increasing homogeneity of my home valley

8 things I want to do before I die:

1. Write a novel or screenplay that genuinely moves people (Exactly how they are moved isn’t important, but I’d be thrilled to learn that something I wrote made somebody cry.)
2. Stand at the South Pole
3. Travel somewhere by tramp freighter
4. Tour cities that are currently too dangerous and/or off-limits to American tourists (The two that come to mind are Baghdad and Havana, but there are no doubt others.)
5. Learn to play the electric guitar
6. Make something beautiful with my own hands and inventiveness
7. Restore an old house
8. Achieve inner peace and confidence (Don’t laugh… it would be seriously delicious to go an entire week without once feeling like a schmuck about something.)

8 things I say often:

1. “Han shot first.”
2. “Alrighty then.”
3. “Rats.”
4. “Have a better one.”
5. “I’ll have a 16-ounce house coffee.”
6. “Okily dokily.”
7. “I love you.”
8. “Aw, f**k.” (I know that one is greatly distressing to many of my readers. Sorry. But it does show up with distressing regularity during my average day. Might have something to do with the facts that [a] I proofread for a living, and [b] so few people know the difference between “it’s” and “its.”)

8 books I’ve read recently:

1. Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll (This book and its sequel below are fabulous little adventure novels, and brilliant books in terms of design and layout. Review hopefully to come.)
2. Operation Typhoon Shore, ibid.
3. Which Lie Did I Tell?: More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
4. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Rock ‘n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood by Peter Biskind
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (I could go on like this for a while, as I read the entire Potter series this summer. Just like everyone else on this planet.)
7. Splinter of the Mind’s Eye by Alan Dean Foster (My review here)
8. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

8 songs I could listen to over and over:

1. “Carry Me Away” by Rick Springfield (This was the B-side to “Jessie’s Girl,” and it’s a catchy, kick-ass, crank-the-volume rocking ode to restlessness that includes the first swear-word I ever heard in music. [The line is “I’m so tired of all this shit that I feel,” and I identify with that one more now than I did in my teens.] You may wonder why I didn’t name “Jessie’s Girl.” Well, it’s a great song that I consider one of the true classics, but there are times when it feels over-exposed. Rick’s done a lot more of value and interest than just that one tune.)
2. “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield. (If possible, it’s even more applicable now than when it was first recorded.)
3. “Goodnight, Sweetheart” by The Spaniels (A great old doo-wop number, but it has a personal meaning for me that at least one person out there will recognize. She knows who she is…)
4. “Dancing Queen” by ABBA. (Stop laughing. Seriously. Just quit it.)
5. “A Pirate Looks at Forty” by Jimmy Buffett (In a career filled with songs about the ocean and mid-life crises, this one is perhaps the purest expression of what drew me to Jimmy back in college. Anyone who’s ever felt restless and looked to the horizon while wishing for a more interesting life can identify with this one.)
6. “The Captain and the Kid” by Jimmy Buffett (Another entry for Jimmy, this was one of the first songs he ever wrote and recorded; it’s an autobiographical tune about the loss of his beloved grandfather, and it’s easily the most honest and heartfelt song the man’s ever done. It just never loses its sweet power for me.)
7. “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis Presley (One of the few songs Elvis recorded late in his career that’s actually worth listening to, I consider this one of the best he ever did. And once you get the rhythm line in head, good luck getting it out.)
8. “Green Onions” by Booker T and the MGs (In a word, cool.)

8 things that attract me to my best friends:

1. Intelligence
2. Wit
3. Compassion
4. Loyalty
5. Patience for my eccentricities
6. Interest in esoteric subjects and hobbies (theirs, not my own; I like to learn about the things my friends are passionate about)
7. Shared experiences
8. Ability to identify all the movie dialog that creeps into my everyday conversations

8 things that I am thankful for this year:

1. The Girlfriend’s continuing (and quite inexplicable) patience with me
2. My friends
3. My parents
4. Shadow, the Bennion Family Dog, and his survival story
5. Caffeine
6. All the pop-cultural detritus that distracts and amuses me from the mundane repetitiveness of my average day (Star Wars, Star Trek, ’80s music, pulp adventure novels, comic books… I could go on, but you probably wish I wouldn’t…)
7. The gorgeous Wasatch mountains that greet me every morning
8. The ubiquity of beautiful girls (Don’t get me wrong; I’m perfectly happy in my relationship with The Girlfriend, but when I’m having a bad day, the sight of a young woman with a certain… je ne sais quoi… can be very reassuring. It reminds me that the entire world is really not composed of gray, dusty, year-old dog crap. Hey, so I like girls. Give me a break.)

And on that note, to bed!