Babies, "Star Wars" and writing

Big news of the moment is that my good friends Paul Mercer and Alison Strange (aka "Blod") have just become proud parents to baby Alexander, born on Thursday evening. Mother and baby are said to be doing well, and Paul is extremely happy. Awww.

Saw the new "Star Wars" film on Thursday and was bitterly disappointed with it. Some have said it is incredibly exciting, but in all honesty I almost fell asleep and at one point found myself worrying that I'd not left the light on in the hall before we'd gone out. Not a good sign... A few words to sum the film up though: boring, wooden, stilted, corny, humourless, passionless... I could go on. Sure, it was the best of the prequels by a mile, but it was light years short of the original trilogy. No performances stood out, the dialogue was abysmal, several of the effects were poor (any involving people jumping, or actors riding things such as the lizard / dragon creature Obi Wan uses to travel around in one sequence), and there were countless moments where I was shaking my head in disbelief, seeing my childhood memories slip away before me, being gleefully trampled upon by George Lucas. I mean, the guy has dismissed dialogue as being a "sound effect" - this speaks volumes.

The saving grace of the film? There were some decent trailers: "Batman Begins", "Sin City", and one where Angelina Jolie looked unspeakably beautiful. Oh, and I had a very nice ice cream too.

Been travelling around a lot with work of late, and things are getting to me a bit. Had a minor panic attack about a week ago and it shook me up somewhat, and I'm also getting many more migraines than usual (normally have about one or two per month, and I've had about three this week alone.) Not good.

As for writing, I'm dipping my toes again. A few nights ago I wrote the opening paragraph to "Within" but had to stop as a) I was knackered, and b) it was getting emotional. In addition, I'm also considering a mini-"Mushroom" for Paul & Blod's baby. We shall see.