Something about crisp mornings, gray skies, and the rustle of leaves gets my blood up…er, perhaps I’ve said too much, but I do love this time of year. So much so that after getting out to the park I came back and started tearing my apartment apart. I’ve already thrown out about two garbage bags worth of stuff, mostly papers and odds and ends that I no longer need or recognize. I think I found four adapters, fifteen dried up pens, untold number of elastics, a raft of New Yorkers and Locus magazines, old bills, old clothes, notes from ex-girlfriends (don’t ask,) parts of manuscripts, CDs, post-it notes reminding to do stuff I have no idea if I ever did, and dust, lots and lots of dust. Spatially it makes my apartment a whole lot cleaner and mentally it makes me feel a whole lot better.

Between sneezes I also worked on the novel and tried a new chicken place for dinner. Not exactly a spell-binding Saturday I’ll admit…hmm, maybe I’ll make some stuff up next time.

Movies: Ridley Scott to Direct The Forever War

Fox 2000 has acquired rights to the 1974 novel The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, and “Ridley Scott is planning to make it into his first science fiction film since he delivered back-to-back classics with Blade Runner and Alien,” Variety reported. “Scott intended to follow those films with The Forever War, but rights complications delayed his plans for more than two decades.”

“I first pursued Forever War 25 years ago, and the book has only grown more timely and relevant since,” said Scott. “It’s a science-fiction epic, a bit of The Odyssey by way of Blade Runner, built upon a brilliant, disorienting premise.”

This book is brilliant. It’s been one of my favorites since I was a teenager. And this movie by Ridley Scott will be stunning.

There is a transportation hierarchy when in Central Park and it goes something like this:

1. Taxis (they’re NY taxis, ’nuff said)
2. Horses (they’re big and slow and pull tourists around)
3. NYC Parks golf carts (see #2, minus the tourists)
4. Rickshaws (oh so bloody annoying as they park in the running lanes)
5. Cyclists (useful for blocking all of the above)
6. Runners faster than you (show offs)
7. Runners/you (marvelous creatures)
8. Runners slower than you (less marvelous, but they do provide a nice ego boost as you pass them)
9. People running with baby carriages (nothing like terrorizing your infant before work)
10. People walking dogs (take Lassie to a farm already)
11. Squirrels (smarter than most of the above, except runners of course)
12. Tourists (if only I believed in god then I’d know they were all going to burn…)

Ok, Central Park really isn’t the war zone I make it out to be, but when you step inside you need to know the score. Taxis will pass other taxis IN THE RUNNING AND BIKE LANES. That fact that there are runners and cyclists in said lanes never quite computes with them. Cyclists will yell at runners to get out of the way. Runners in turn curse out tourists, especially those that tend to gather in a group in the middle of the road. Dog walkers, at least those that do so in the running and biking lanes, are universally loathed (in part because those leashes are deadly and in part because based on the size of the dog they clearly have a bigger apartment than you do).

On the plus side, Central Park isn’t Times Square.

I met a couple of friends last night for a run in the park. The pace was slow enough that we could chat easily. Before I knew it we had run five miles. Normally I run by myself and I am aware of the distance covered even as I zone out. Running with friends silenced that internal odometer and made the experience more enjoyable. Time flies when you’re having fun and all that. I don’t run with an ipod, but I see a lot of people do and now I’m wondering if that might not have the same effect as chatting with friends. Actually, I’ll still prefer friends for the social aspect, but I might give the music a try.

I was in Pennsylvania the last few days and went on a twelve mile hike with members of the Sierra Club in R.B. Winters Park. The weather was ideal and the hike spectacular. The route was rocky which meant I spent more time looking down than up, but when I could take my eyes off the path there was nothing but wonderful nature. A very refreshing change from the concrete of New York. The best part, however, was that I was able to take mental notes as I walked. A few scenes in the current book became much clearer.