10 September 1999

A precursor to the Millenium Bug -- that's what yesterday was supposed to be. I actually remember working on code in the early '80s and discussing 9-9-99, the practice of using those very digits in a date field to signify something besides a date, and the implications of such coding practices for someone unlucky enough to be using programs written as such at the dawn of the Millenium. But the big day came and went, and there were no glitches. No hiccups. No bugs. It was just another day. If yesterday was a taste of what we can expect on 1-1-00, party on, dude! We've nothing to fear from Armageddon-bent programs -- at least not yet. :) I've wrote early this year in this journal that I'm getting ready for the big day as though a hurricane would hit Manhattan. As it turns out, it may be more likely that an actual hurricane will visit the northeast this season than the Y2K bug. We will see.
Well, I did it. I started school. I had a moment of terror there. But I've started now, and I think I'll live. We've had one each of all three courses now, and I think I can get through this -- just like alchoholism; one day at a time. At the orientation I learned that of the 100 applicants for this Ph.D. class in C.S. at CUNY, only 13 were accepted. And of the 13, only 3 are American. All the rest hail from other parts of the world; Brazil, Ecador, China, Russia, Austria, Bangladesh, Lebanon. And of the 3 Americans, there is one male: me. I'm the only American male in the class! So, not only do I feel honored to be accepted into the program, I feel obliged to follow through with it, at least the most difficult part, which is the first year. The required courses the first year, and then the first year cumulative exam next June, are the rites of passage I now face. I'd forgotten how demanding graduate school can be. But I'd also forgotten my own ability to step up to the challenge. I will, one way or another, get through this; at least the first year.
In the mean time, I've written the first draft of a screenplay. I took the Labor Day weekend and spent most of it cranking out a first draft for an idea that's been brewing for some time. After seeing the Blair Witch Project, it dawned on me that since technology was lowering the barriers to entry for film makers, and since I had a penchat for both film and technology, it made perfect sense for me to utilize my experience and energy in both areas to create my own films, rather than waiting for the phone to ring after an audition. Why not? But in order to film something, it helps to have a story. So I wrote a screenplay. And I paid particular attention to writing a screenplay that would be producable on a low budget...and I think I succeeded.
It's only a first draft. I have changes I need to make, that I will make, after I wait a few weeks for other changes to occur to me. Then I'll spend a few hours and produce a second draft. And then, perhaps, I'll host a reading of it with friends. If I decide to move forward with this screenplay, I anticipate shooting my own film next summer. Would you like to be part of it? Would you like to invest in it? Write to me and let me know! Let's talk!

And now, I have work to do. Tons of work. I have homework from school, work work from Sun, I have visas to apply for to travel, shots to get, flights and hotels to book, writing to do, presentations to create, tons of reading. It's going to be a very busy year!