First random thought of the late night: the new Will Ferrel movie "Stranger Than Fiction" is similiar to a screenplay I wrote in 1996 for a beginning screenwriting class.  The professor gave me a 'D' because she thought, "no one would ever want to sit through a series of over voiced narration like that, plus an author talking to a fictional character is just absurd."  I argued for an 'A' and when I didn't get it, I withdrew from the class -- now there's a film with a similiar premise -- a character hearing the voice of his writer-creator and trying to save himself from being killed off by the author.  'Cept I think my concept was way cooler -- I had a beat generation character called Bobby BeBop trying to track down his author to save himself from being deleted.  Yep.  Yet another lovely idea trashed by academia.  My advise: don't always listen to your professors and just keep doing what you love.

Something silly happens to me when I do too much research on another time and place; I start to talk and act differently.  For instance, since doing research on the 18th century modes of fashion and society, I've started to say "quite" a lot after someone else finishes a sentence.  I also tend to pay more attention to my posture and how I walk.  It's as if when I'm armed with knowledge about the lives of my European ancestors, I tend to start to want to be more like them, but this is all based on a romantic view of their lives.  I'm somewhat ignoring the hardships many of them had to face and begin to also start to appreciate our century a bit more.  Yet, I wonder where all my fascination with the past comes from? 

I think it comes from a need to connect with something more eternal, to draw connecting lines between this life and the past, to explore an old world as if it were new...  and I can't for the life of me think how boring this life would be if there were no history!  So, as I start to study my particularly favorite period of the 18th century -- 1770 to 1789 -- I begin to think, "the goings-on during the final decade of the Ancien Régime at Château de Versailles would make a great television series -- like Deadwood or Rome but with big white wigs!"  What do you think?  Would you watch it?

I'm coming up with a "Which 18th century archetype were you?" sort of quiz.  Because I'm bored, of course. 

Here are the archetypes I created/discovered and will be illustrating sometime in the next few weeks:

Men: Gentleman, Country Squire, Libertine, Chevalier, Prince, Highwayman, Fop, Farmer, Philosopher, Poet

Women:  Lady, Maid, Coquette, Courtesan, Grisette, Préciosité, Princess, Wealthy Widow, Lady Painter, Chaste Wife

I still have to figure out the questions and answers bit. 

In the meantime, I've devised a new way to enjoy LOST at Mindsay: check out my newly rendered LOST Mindsay wiki page!  It's just a little silly something to distract us while we wait for the new episodes on Feb. 7th, 2007. 

Now I'm going to go home where I can further get lost in other times and places in my lonely own mind...