Stuck in an 80s movie music montage (80MMM

The 80s movie music montage, or 80MMM for short, is that scene in every 80s movie where our lowly padawan goes from getting their butt kicked at the bus stop to being the bad A55 who wins the black belt tournament.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, try out this classic MMM here.

This is one of the reasons that I both love and hate those movies. First, I love that the skip the boring part where the people are going from n00b sandwich, to Awesome Sauce sprinkled liberally on toast. That’s important in a movie. Skip the boring stuff. In books too, of course. Really any form of entertainment should skip the boring stuff.

The problem is that then we don’t know how to manage the boring stuff in real life.

I am stuck in the 80MMM.

And it looks like I’m going to be here for the next foreseeable month or three. And it’s boring, hard, grueling work. Why can’t I just have a Divo song play and then I transform into pure awesome? Why world? Why?

The answer is simple, sad, and straightforward. I haven’t learned anything in the length of time it takes for a Flock of Seagulls song to play. The whole getting better thing takes time. And writing a novel? That takes time too. Everything of value takes forever as far as I can tell. If you don’t pay the time, you just don’t get the end results. There are no shortcuts.

I’m just stuck in the boring part, and I don’t even get the cool camera angles or the awesome soundtrack…

And speaking of the 80s, did you see the costumes the Pet Shop Boys wore at the Olympics? I think I might need that hat.

Sometimes, a song says it all

I've been into epic fantasy for many years. Seriously, I read Lord of the Rings by the time I was 10. I've read a number of tomes I had to read at the table because they gave me carpal just to hold them.

But there's a problem with epic fantasy. If you read Robert Jordan, you know what I mean: time. Yup, it takes time to write those monuments to literature. Lots and lots of time. So if you're a fan of  the Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire), you might enjoy this song.

Now back to trenches.


(I got this from a friend, Circia, who picked it up from Wil Wheaton, so I'm not awesome enough to get this stuff originally, I just pass it along like a disease vector.)