Month: September 2010

Sign Up Now! Great Writing Class in Corvallis

I need your help! I’ve signed up for an exciting writing class in Corvallis, taught by an Emmy-award-winning TV writer/novelist/teacher, Linda E. Hamner. The problem is, if we don’t find two more people by noon on Friday who are keen to learn about writing, it’s going to be canceled!

The topic is “Introduction to Screenwriting,” but this will be a fun sleigh ride for anyone interested in writing of pretty much any kind.

The class is on Mondays from 4:00-5:50 at Benton Center in Corvallis. It doesn’t carry any college credit, alas, but that means it can’t hurt your GPA, either. It runs for seven weeks and costs a measly $57. Give it a shot!

To register, or to find out more, check out the Linn-Benton Community College Schedule.

See you there!

Full class description: “Explore the basics and obtain the tools it takes to write a professional screenplay. Terminology, format, story, building a scene, character development, production considerations and dialogue will be discussed and analyzed. Emmy-award winning TV writer, novelist and teacher, Linda Elin Hamner will provide real-life insights into the workings of Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Film clips will be shown to illustrate screenwriting techniques.”

Raise Your Glasses High!

Got my new glasses today. I’ve worn glasses since I was nine, and, all things considered, I’ve always liked them. When I put on my first pair of glasses, the world became incredibly sharp and detailed. It was amazing, like a gift. I loved it!

So my glasses never bothered me. In college, I tried soft contact lenses, but they irritated my eyes, and I gave them up. They might have become better since then, but I’m not tempted. The only things I liked about contacts were that they never steamed up and were less annoying than glasses in the rain, but these weren’t really important to me.

When I went to a WEITEK reunion a few years ago (WEITEK was a high-tech company in Silicon Valley I worked at after my gig at Activision. Some of its people went on to found nVidea), a lot of the folks there had to hold my business cards at arm’s length to read them. They could no longer focus their eyes at normal reading distances. A passing optometrist would have made a lot of money selling bifocals on the spot!

I dabbled with progressive lenses for a while. These have a transition area between the long-distance part of the lens and the reading part. This worked great on my first pair of progressives, but when I needed a stronger reading correction, it stopped working right. Only a tiny part of the lens worked for any given distance. This was especially annoying on large-screen computer monitors. I started using larger type on my browser (control +) to compensate.

So I broke down and ordered a pair of bifocals for indoor use, from All Family Vision Care in Corvallis. They have a large reading area and the rest for computer use. I sat down at my computer, and man, the type on the screen was huge! Looks like I’m going to have to declare victory.

I’m happy with my new glasses,though they were expensive. You can get affordable glasses, but I never do. I still reach out of that “wow!” experience I had when I was nine, with my first glasses, so I always go for the thin-and-light lenses with the fancy anti-glare coating and, frankly, just about every extra I and the optician can think of. For my outdoor glasses, I always get the spiffy self-darkening lenses that turn into sunglasses in bright light and become clear again in dim light. A pair of lenses usually lasts me about two years and the frames about four.