Michael Pickell

So Groundhog’s Day is probably one of my favorite movies. Well, my favorite romantic comedy for sure. It has Bill Murry as Phil and Andie MacDowell as Rita. And Phil relives the same day over and over again. He is trying to figure out how to get out the time loop that he’s in. All the while, he’s trying to win Rita’s heart. The thing that makes the movie is that Phil has this dramatic character arc. He under goes a drastic change. Where he goes from a selfish jerk to an altruistic hero. I normally watch this movie on Groundhog’s Day, February 2 nd , but decided that I don’t have to watch this movie on this specific day. Many years, I have. It’s okay if I watch the movie around that day. Kind of like me watching The Saint on All Saints Day. Or You Got Mail and or Sleepless in Seattle on Valentine’s Day. The Thin Man on Christmas Eve. As I mentioned, Phil was a jerk. And Rita is this good natured wholesome as heck kind of person. Phil says some really inappropriate things to her and

Song mood: Somewhere Only We Know by Keane and which Lifehouse did a cover of. Here is a list of things that I did today: I went to the Tea Smith. I went to the two book stores in town. I got rent money. I walked around the lake. I did laundry. Nothing too exciting. I went to the Tea Smith because I was going to do a zoom call with my bestie. Kind of creating feeling of normalcy, or something to that effect. I’m not sure what word I’m looking for. The server asked me if my friend was going to show up. I told her no. To which she said, oh, have a good day. To which I thought, what am I chopped liver? Granted that I’m in love with someone else. But I just wish people would want to talk with me as well. I’m always the bridesmaid and not the bride, erm, I mean, I’m always the sidekick. Anyway, my friend forgot about the call. Then I went to the bookstores and didn’t buy anything. I took pictures of books I thought looked interesting. I went to the library where I shot a video and wrote a

Song mood: Something to Talk About by Badly Drawn Boy. In the movie About a Boy , the song happens right when Will is in a pensive mood montage. He messed things up with his girlfriend and has spiraled into a depression. Then, in the middle of his walk about, he realizes that his friendship with Marcus is very important. I’m still listening to Essays by George Orwell. I’m down to the last four hours. This collection started with the bigger essays and now is on the smaller pieces. I’m looking into changing my diet. I’m even looking into becoming gluten-free for a time. That would be a drastic change. But if I feel better after trying it out for a day or two, the switch will be easy. The other day, I bought sugar free chocolates. They were okay. I get an empty feeling when I eat them. Kind of like eating pork rinds, for some reason I just feel empty whenever I eat those. Bundaberg’s diet ginger beer is actually good. I’m actually making progress on the disappearance novel that I’m work

Song mood: Truly, Madly, Deeply by Savage Garden. I figured out my character’s names for the unnamed project. The guy’s name is Sean Honeyman. Which would pay homage to my Scottish ancestors. The woman’s name is Eileen Dover. And her handle is Eileenallover. Her birthday is on 24 December, which is important because this is how she opens his phone. I will write a scene or two and then ask myself some questions to figure out the book. I discovered that you can download Five Night at Freddy’s on the iPhone. It was a game that I was interested in and decided, why not. It wasn’t what I thought it was and was actually better. I have to admit, I actually jumped. It reminded me of my favorite kind of scary movies. The ones where they don’t have a lot of blood or gore, but a well placed gotcha moment that makes you jump. I wasn’t able to meet with my bestie from college this week. He is going to Italy for his job and has to quarantine before traveling. I envy him on going to Italy.  My heart

Song mood: Never Tear Us Apart by INXS. Not feeling calm, cool or collected at the moment. Sometimes I’m not sure what to write on this blog. I’m not that interesting of a person. How many times can I say that I didn’t sleep well last night, or that I’m tired, or that I’m in zombie mode. It’s been just too cold to go on walks for the last couple of days. This morning it was -7F (-21C) and now it is 15F (-9C). I’ve been okay with the lack of exercise. I will continue to use my rowing machine for exercise. I’m still reading A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. I’m still listening to Essays by George Orwell. I hope to finish both of those next week sometime. They are bigger books than I normally read or listen to. I am currently working on the fun project. Where there is the guy who is missing and the woman has to find him with the clues on his phone. I’m not sure what to name that project. I’m bad at naming projects. I normally get the idea of the name while I’m writing the

 I hate it when we have these arguments over public forms. I'm not exactly sure what I did, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry about writing the post that I deleted. Which I wrote because I feel frustrated because I am in love with someone who is on the other side of the world. I'm frustrated with myself because I don't know what to do in most situations. I'm frustrated because I'm not always sure how I can show you how much I love you. All I can say is that I do love you and that if I made you feel like I was playing you, I am truly sorry.

Song mood: I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eye Peas. I really liked watching your clips tonight. I like it when it looks like you aren’t wearing makeup. I loved the way you did your hair. I couldn’t help thinking: you are absolutely beautiful. I’m running with that idea. The cool thing about that is, I’m excited about the project. And because of that, it’s easier to generate ideas for the story. So far, I figured out why the guy has to ‘disappear.’ Someone related to him has a gambling problem, or something like that. The story will take place in Sydney, for a brief moment so I don’t have the conundrum of describing a place I haven’t been to yet. It will also take place in Seattle, then London and Paris. I thought about putting Tokyo into the story, but decided that may be too much. Since it takes place in Seattle, it will feature my female detective: Erika Lund. Who, looks a lot like Jodi Whittaker a.k.a the thirteenth Doctor. Today was the first day, I left the house in days. I ordered

Song mood: We Don’t Talk About Bruno from Encanto . I just watched that movie. It was phenomenal. I loved the movie. It would movie that I would only watch with a significant other. It’s just a movie that I got emotional while watching. Lin Manuel Miranda is a musical genius. I enjoyed Hamilton on Disney+, I wish I would have tried to get tickets when Hamilton was in Omaha. There is a strange thing happening with my Prime. What it is, under the recently watched, it showing shows that I didn’t watch yet. The other day, it showed that I watched Queens of Mystery . I thought it was odd. I haven’t watched that show in a while. Then I discovered that they just released season two for Acorn. So then I started watching the show. Anyway, I thought that maybe someone has access to my Prime. I was a bit spooked out about that thought. I have decided it must be a new algorithm. I had watched the first season. Prime recognizes that and then when a new season comes out, it puts the show on recen

Song mood: Hazy Shade of Winter by the Bangles. More cousins are catching either covid of the flu. Thankfully, no one has caught fluvid yet. I have been isolating, which isn’t much different than before this last wave struck. My mum went to the doctor today. And I thought they were going to schedule the procedure. The doctors told her they need to run more tests. She has hypertension in her lungs. Two of her valves are leaking blood into the lungs. The next appointment is on 28 January. So that has been a bit stressful. Currently listening to Essays by George Orwell. It’s the whole collection of his essays. I really love Orwell’s writing. The far right like to quote him, but they have never really read him. Because if they had, they would know like those of us who have read his essays, that he was a socialist. He was a part of the British socialist party, which is the Labor party. He really believed that we should be helping out our brotherhood of man. I will be listening to this for

Song mood: Zoo Station by U2. I am always looking for a way to reinvent myself. It’s good to hang out with my best friend from college.  It’s just good to talk with him.  We were talking about this video game that he liked called Inscryption . It sounded interesting, though I don’t have much time for games. I mean, there is my writing and then tai chi and other exercises. But the story line for the game sounds interesting. A little gruesome, maybe some good ideas for a horror story. In the morning, we are the only ones at the tea shop. I imagine the server hears a lot of interesting conversation through out the day. I imagine that she knows that I am crushing on someone online. That I want to go to Australia and that I write mysteries. Books read so far this year: Silverview by John Le Carré. (Listened) Sleep No More by PD James. Silverview , if I had never read a John Le Carré book, would have been a book that I put down and didn’t pick up again. But since I knew his style, I conti

Song mood: Dirty Thoughts by Choe Adams. You know when there is someone you can’t stop thinking of, and then you see pictures of her in a bikini. And then realize that you will never stop thinking about her. It’s been cold the last several days. So I haven’t been exercising. Today was nice, but I ended up doing stuff like clean my room, laundry and the dishes on my day off. New Year’s Day, I started my six weeks without alcohol. The next time I can have a drink is on 11 February. I do this every year. I didn’t last year because I got COVID and thought that I really only drink one beer on Friday and Saturday nights, so I’m good. I think once my fast on alcohol is up, I will switch to red wine. The new box wines are supposed to last for thirty days, are much cheaper while maintaining quality and more importantly are a lot lower on sugar. In my effort to be more creative, I will do a lot more journaling, or free writing. It may not be the same as producing words on a project, but it will