Salad Forks and (in)Sanity

First Thoughts
Salad forks. There is absolutely no good reason for the existence of salad forks, from my perspective, other than to line the pockets of companies that sell them and those that provide the raw materials to make them. Who needs a salad fork? Not me, that's for sure! No one needs a salad fork. It annoys me to see resources frittered away on something so utterly, completely unnecessary. I want to start a campaign to stop the use of salad forks. I'll call it Fork Off! Somebody has certainly tried using that tired old thing before, but I have a legitimate cause behind me, so it may work. It's probably not worth my time, but if I could engage a college kid who truly believes that the world can change by eliminating salad forks, I'd engage the kid...I'd support him or her to take responsibility for implementing this Quixotic mission!

Second Thoughts
I had a conversation with James Kneeblood this evening. If you've read a couple of specific posts on this blog, you'll recognize his name. He's a character I created to serve as a focal personality for a short story/novella/novel I am writing very, very slowly. Anyway, he and I chatted tonight. Not literally...don't call in the guys with white coats and stun guns...but figuratively (in a sense). I tried to take on his personality and ask questions of myself (him), the answers to which would reveal motives for certain behaviors and would reveal credible details of why my character might do certain things. I'm probably not explaining myself well. Anyway, I chatted with him. I spoke to him about his daughters' odd names (Poison, Rumour, Mexican, and Cataclysm) and he offered some plausible explanations for the oddities. He offered enough to get me thinking about continuing work on the story. James' sanity should be a question mark for the reader...is he sane, or is he as insane as his odd behaviors suggest? Before he died, was he simply an eccentric old bastard who engaged in questionable behaviors to satisfy his bizarre sexual appetites or was he actually an honorable man who did whatever he had to do to protect his daughters from an as yet unknown villan? I have opinions, of course, but since I haven't finished writing about James and his progeny, I don't know the answers just yet.

Third Thoughts
I was interviewed on film today. It didn't phase me. I hope the snippets the television stations chooses to use from the video of me are not embarrassing. That's all I can ask. I don't expect to get calls from film producers, asking me to take on the role of actors who have become too big for their britches.

Fourth Thoughts
I'm a little disappointed in Michelle Bachelet's government in Chile. While the president abolished obligatory military service (which I applaud in any government), she and her government failed to acknowledge the abysmal problems of air pollution in Santiago last Sunday. The air pollution levels were dangerous, yet it did not declare a "smog alert" which would have allowed it to restrict the use of certain vehicles which contribute to the problem. Michelle, don't make me come down there!