fin

One of the challenging things about tapering off a benzo is that the hard part is ahead of you, and the hard part will go for months and years. But now I am through the hard part. 

drafting

yes! I'm so happy - I just heard Hilary Mantel, who is a great writer, say something that I have thought about a lot, but I haven't heard any writer ever say....that since she started writing on a screen, she isn't conscious of the difference between drafts.

Finally somebody said it. Because of word processing, the way we write now is different from earlier periods in history because you can edit as you go. It makes a huge difference. 

I'm not completely against drafting, but I think its role in the writing process is different from what it used to be.

ps

Robert Eggers is making Nosferatu for Christmas

turning the tide

The Gettysburg Address was short and, in some ways, not that impressive, but it is immortal. 

Joseph Welch triggered the ending of McCarthyism, with two sentences: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

things that matter

There seems to be a common belief around now that being a Christian is about being morally upright and making a stand about the status of other people before God, but Jesus told us to look at our own sin first....concern ourselves with that...and the parable of the tax collector and the pharisee teaches us that it's not the person who takes pride in their right standing with God, who is made right with God. Instead, it's the one who recognizes their filthiness in the sight of God, who gets forgiven. 

What matters in that parable, is that they recognize and repent of their own sin. 

gasolean

Real events always seem artificial 

trend

I was watching a Korean show (through the dark) about detectives hunting serial killers, and one detective was trying to get a group together to do profiling and interview known serial killers, and he was trying to enlist another detective who he thought would be really good at that. I thought, this is like the Korean version of Mindhunter. It's kind of the same. 

Next thing, the first detective gives the other one a copy of the book, Mindhunter, saying that's what he is trying to do, except in Korea. 

What I really like about it is that it's not just a copy of Mindhunter. It's uniquely Korean and it's set in the 90's and based on true stories about how the Korean police started adopting similar methods to those used in the US, except about 20 years later. 

The time difference is interesting. The phenomenon of serial killers emerged in America in the 70's and then in Korea in the 90's.