Forrester: Now, about this professor of yours. How did it feel having him tell you what you can't do?

Jamal: Like he knew he was better than me.

Forrester: Then let's show him what you can do.....Why is it the words we write for ourselves, are always so much better than the words we write for others? ... Sit…Go ahead.

Jamal: Go ahead and what?

Forrester: Write.

Jamal: What are you doing?

Forrester: I'm writing. Like you'll be, when you start punching those keys… Is there a problem?

Jamal: No. I'm just thinking.

Forrester: No thinking. That comes later. You write your first draft...with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write.
Not to think.

Jamal: Jesus.

Forrester: Is there a chance you might sit down?

Jamal: "A Season of Faith's Perfection." What's this?

Forrester: Start typing that.
Sometimes the simple rhythm of typing gets us from page one to page two. When you begin to feel your own words, start typing them. Punch the keys for God's sake!

Jamal: Yes!

Forrester: You're the man now, dog.

I love reading film scripts and screenplays, and I read them with great interest after I watch some films. Watching a movie and reading the script are two very different things. They are both captivating in their own way. Think about it like owning an awesome gadget and playing with it, and then opening it up and marveling at the inner workings. They are two very different things, each with its own value.

I find sometimes that the scripts of some movies are way better than the movies themselves. I have also seen the contrary. This makes it all the more fascinating when a book adaptation metamorphosizes into a film script that in turn becomes a film. When the book works and not the movie or vice versa, it makes me wonder where the film script stands in all this.

These are all things to talk about at leisure. I could dedicate a whole blog to them. But, I really want to talk about this Finding Forrester scene. I had been thinking about this scene all day today. It’s not the most engaging film, but it has its moments and some of the dialogues are quite compelling. I wish I could find the script somewhere. I found the transcript however, with just the dialogues, but it’s not quite the same.

Still, there is something about this one scene that I find rings true for me. I relate to his theory of writing in a lot of ways, even when it comes to things like making changes to my life. I don’t always act on sane judgment, but it has worked out well so far. If anything I have come to realize some things about myself, and have grown as a result. I almost feel like when one acts on impulse, they are creating their first draft that they type out without thinking. I have a lot of first drafts that I need to develop beyond raw thought and impulse, but I am hoping that with time, I will come to see at least one "complete work" that I can be proud of!

Speaking specifically, I have decided to fast every Wednesday. I haven’t quite thought of why, but at the moment, I feel like the act of fasting to me is more important than the reasoning, which I hope will eventually come, perhaps as a consequence of the action.

A year ago I gave up leather and other products that kill animals. That was a more deliberate choice. Back then I felt like it was illogical that being vegetarian I should dress in animal skin. My act was more to defend my vegetarianism than out of genuine compassion for animals. But since the time I gave it up, I have developed the sensitivity. Now the sheer thought of dressing in leather disturbs me. I haven't discarded some of my leather boots that I bought over a year ago and I continue to wear them in pain! I can't bring myself to throw them away. There is also the thought that whether I have them at home or throw them out, I have already done the damage of buying them. How does it matter whether they exist in my apartment or outside? How can it be okay to waste them? How can I gift something that I feel ethically wrong about to someone as charity? Moreover, they are the only real formal shoes I have for work! I have all this to think about. But, until then I will continue to be pseudo-ethical and work on improving it bit by bit.

There are instances where my thought-out decisions haven’t really benefited anyone or myself. Six months ago, I gave up Starbucks coffee. At that time, I felt that I would donate the money that I had been spending on starbucks to a cause. Based on some "sensible" reasoning, I felt like I can never bring myself to donate 1000 bucks to a cause without feeling the pinch of it, even though I unthinkingly spend much more than that amount frivolously on things that I can’t even remember. So I figured, the only way I will do it is to give something up that I pay for on a regular basis and donate the amount to a cause. I do donate the amount, but I don’t feel satisfied. If anything, I feel guilty. I can’t seem to figure out why.

Six months ago I gave up using the cell phone, except to talk to my mom and sometimes my brother. I love talking to mom on the phone, she may be the only person I can talk to for hours without wanting to put the phone down, except when we get into a huge argument about what I choose to do with my life or how she chooses to live hers, at which point we end up banging down the phone and calling each other several times over the next few minutes until we have temporarily resolved our differences. Here I would also like to clarify that I am usually always right, but I give in because of my unconditional love for my mom. :-)
 
With mom and my brother as exceptions, I have stopped using my cell phone almost completely.  I carry it for emergencies, but beyond that it is as good as nonexistent to me. My friends call me at home, they send me emails, which have become longer and more entertaining overtime, they chat with me, and I meet them more often. I have come to realize that I have more meaningful conversations with them now than I did on the phone. I have also noticed that my social life has become more entertaining. I go out a lot more, I meet new people and I like what I do with my time alone as well.
 
Interestingly, I have noticed that fewer people call me at home than on my cell. I really don't know why. It is almost like people feel restricted by my use of a home phone. But it has worked out well for me. I seem to have narrowed down my options to close friends, family and tele-marketers. :-)
 
I have been having a tough time deciding what to give up next. I feel like saying email or gtalk, but I dread to think of how I would survive without them. I decided therefore to use them as minimally as possible. How I define minimal is a whole different issue. For one thing, I like the idea of checking and responding to personal emails twice a week. That's reasonable enough and even challenging given that I check my email every few minutes now. I could use gtalk over the weekends, and access facebook twice a month. But, would all this constitute as giving something up? Perhaps not.
 
In the latest Wired, there is an article by Scott Brown about facebook in which he says

“Thanks to Facebook, I never lose touch with anyone. And that, my Friend, is a problem.”

They're all there: elementary school friends, high school friends, college friends, work friends, friends of friends, friends of ex-girlfriends—the constellation of familiar faces crowds my Friendbox like medals on Mussolini's chest. I'm Friend-rich—at least onscreen. I've never lost touch with anyone, it seems. What I've lost is the right to lose touch. This says less about my innate lovability, I think, than about the current inflated state of Friendonomics.

…keeping friends requires almost no effort at all. We have achieved Infinite Friendspace, which means we need never drift from old pals nor feel the poignant tug of passive friend-loss. It also means that even the flimsiest of attachments—the chance convention buddy, the cube-mate from the '90s, the bar-napkin hookup—will be preserved, in perpetuity, under the flattering, flattening banner of "Friend."

It is true. It seems like there is no such thing as falling out with old pals and moving on. You are stuck with them and even their buddies for eternity. But, I have a lot of old school and college buddies that I have come back in contact with through orkut and facebook and it is exciting to talk to them after several years. I can't think of people I wouldn't want to keep in touch with, moreover I have made new friends and love them to death. I can only see benefits to using these sites. But, I miss having private conversations with close buddies. I also miss the idea of knowing everyone on a personal level. I need that. I think I am getting that more now with my communication restrictions than ever before.