If you look at my Friendster profile, you will see that one of my favorite hobbies is "Brainstorming Ideas for Novels I Never Have Time to Write." This is also true for screenplays. Sometimes I’m not sure if a particular idea would work better as a novel or as a screenplay but when I visualize ideas they often play in my mind like a film. Anyway I wrote a couple of screenplays in 1998 but currently hate everything about them. I know I can do better and over the weekend I started to jot down some notes on a new idea. It’s original in the sense that this particular story has never been done before, yet if I were to give you the pitch, you’d say, "Oh, it’s just like ..." That’s because in my brainstorming process I have a tendency to focus on a well-respected film - take its basic themes and structure – but then completely change the situations, settings and characters. So instead of being about "X", it’s about "Y". Anyway we’ll see how this one develops.

Since our office air conditioning was busted, we were given this giant industrial fan to use until the A.C. can be fixed. The fan is positioned right next to my desk and the best part is that it’s whirring drowns out most other sounds. Phone rings? Sorry, can’t hear it. Someone’s trying to get my attention? Sorry, can’t hear you. Someone complimented me on my haircut this morning and thought I was dissing them by not responding. But I wasn’t being rude, I didn’t know that she said anything! It’s a very Larry David / "Curb Your Enthusiasm" situation.

I was asked this morning who will profit from the proceeds of the 9/11 Commission report, currently available in a bookstore near you.  My theory is that Tom Keane, Lee Hamilton and the rest of the commission is going to use the proceeds to take a nice relaxing vacation in Tahiti.

On the speaking schedule for the Democratic Convention tonight : Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton. In other words, it’s nostalgia night. (Or in Hillary’s case, the future?)