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| Image: PC Pro |
I shaved! Boy, was it good. The floor of my office was covered in a scattering of hair clumps as my clippers took the growth from my skull and face in one easy swipe. It felt so much better to be free of such an unnatural thing. Hair is not something I like to have on me any more; it makes me feel unhealthy and itchy. I prefer skin.
My first trusted reader got back to me yesterday, not 24 hours after I sent him the manuscript of GREENER. The book was read in a single night, which one can surely only take as a positive sign the book is in some way decent. The critique was, as always, perfectly laid out for me to work through, with interesting comments made on areas of the book that I’d been focusing on to improve. Good to also note that the amount of typos was kept to a very respectable minimum.
Two others now have the book—an avid reader and a fellow writer—a good all round good mix to be the first to read and critique the book.
I went to the pictures in the evening with Sam, a close friend of my wife. Gail was out with daughter so Sam and I went along to Ocean Terminal to see The Social Network, the story of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
I enjoyed it a lot. It was funny, interesting and not as pretentious as I thought it might be. Jesse Eisenberg played Zuckerberg, and although the film doesn’t portray him in a good light after all that went on, I came away feeling sorry for the guy. If the film is in any way accurate, one can’t hep but think, okay, so he was an accidental billionaire, but at the same time he became an accidental arse and easy target, too. And I hate to say it, but Justin Timberlake was the perfect choice for Napster founder, Sean Parker.
On a wider scale, I think the film says something about the supposed “American Dream”. On the surface, Zuckerberg’s story is exactly that: a normal person proving that anyone can be something and make their fortune. But under the surface it shows that if you do make it, prepare yourself to become someone that everyone wants a piece of. Be prepared to spend most of your time fighting off the wolves and living with constant speculation and press coverage. Everything has a price, and for all Zuckerberg’s computer genius and ill-treatment of those around him, he’s paid a heavy price for the good and the bad.
And that’s not just an American flaw, by the way, it’s the same everywhere. In Scotland, when one of “ours” is seen to do well on a global scale they can just as quickly change from being a local favourite to being a popular figure of vilification. We like our own to do well – but not that well.
The funniest moment came at the end of the film came right at the end when the stats were rolling on how much each of the parties got paid off in the legal cases. Sam turned to me and in earshot of the entire packed cinema, said: “I never knew it was based on a real story!” I didn’t stop laughing until I turned out the light.
Mon the Madness!
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Freedom from the Mundane 