November 5th & Row 80

I know, I didn’t check in Wednesday of last week. I just didn’t want to, don’t hate. I mean it was Halloween for crying out loud, I wanted the whole blog plastered with my love of Halloween that day. And it was. Aaaaah, Halloween…

But on to more important things. Do you know what today is? I said,

Do you know what today is?

It’s November 5th.

57 years ago one of the most important events of our entire lives happened. Listen, this guy, he was standing on the toilet to hang a clock and he fell and hit his head. Then he had a vision. And he drew this.

Which in turn created this.

Which is what makes time travel possible. Every year on November 5th I try and watch one of the Back to the Futures in celebration of good ol’ Dr. Emmett Brown and one of the greatest movies of all time. So in celebration of time travel day, I’m going to provide you with three things:

1. A really awesome page on 52 reasons why Back to the Future might be the greatest film of all time.
2. A video paying tribute to Dr. Emmett Brown in a way you don’t expect (see the bottom of the post).
3. Visual confirmation that the actual date Marty arrived in the future was October 21, 2015. Don’t believe those nasty internet lies that keep spreading around.

Your visual confirmation:

That’s right, I took a picture of the DVD playing on my Mac. Let it now be settled.

We salute you Dr. Emmett Brown and your grand contribution to society. After all, my stint working in an electronics store wouldn’t have been the same without some smart alec coming in every day to ask where we kept the flux capacitors? Aaaahhh…the memories… Thanks for explaining time paradoxes and time travel to us so well.

And now onto my Row80 check-in.

• Write at least 3 short stories intended for publication.  I’ll probably try my hand at several more than three, but the hope is to find three gemstones among the rocks.
  Trick or Tree is getting a final feedback session, then it’s polish once more and submit to the contest. I’d like to have a second story ready for the contest, but the one I recently wrote, which I’m tentatively calling Dog Shy is already at 1000 words and still needs climax build. I just don’t think it’ll work as a short-short story like Trick or Tree. But there are other contests, and I’m having fun with Dog Shy. That makes 2 of 3 short stories. More on the way.

• Read the helpful books to prepare me for the editing fest that will be late November early December on Shade.
  Still reading Story, still posting good quotes to Twitter. You should check them out. I sign them -RM for Robert McKee.

• Have read all 201 available Anton Chekhov’s short stories, sprinkled with Hemingway and Bradbury.
  I’ve read 30 of 201 Chekhov short stories. I also read The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl. I needed something light-hearted, Dahl didn’t disappoint.

• Once December hits, tear Shade apart and polish it to pure awesomeness!  Coming in December…

• NEW GOAL: I’m calling it No Treat November. I want to lose 5 pounds before Thanksgiving to counterbalance and get back to my maintain weight. I’ve been slacking on the maintain lately. I can’t help it, I’ve been inspired by so many Row80ers doing their exercise and weight loss goals. It’s thanks to all of you, so thanks for sharing your goals to get me motivated! No progress to report as of yet, but I’ll check in as things progress.
• NEW GOAL 2: The Holiday Book Read! Over Thanksgiving and Christmas I want to read 7 new books that aren’t directly novel writing related. This will be on top of the short stories by Chekhov, Bradbury, and Hemingway. It’s kind of a bonus goal, but I think I can still manage it.

I’m feeling pretty good about my accomplishments thus far. The Chekhov goal still seems a bit daunting. I think I’ll feel better when I hit 100 of 201. I may have to take a break and go to Bradbury or Hemingway. We’ll see how things progress. Anyways, happy time travel day all! Enjoy! (And yes, it is the right video, just watch it…)