3 times!

They say that in the classical Hollywood cinema everything is said three times; you'll see it onscreen, you'll have people looking at it, and you'll have people talking about it.

In writing, you shouldn't have to tell people anything. Show, don't tell! Scriptwriting coaches will tell you. Graham Linehan thinks that Smoke and Mirrors (IT Crowd, series 2 episode 5) suffers for talking about Moss's AbracadaBra without showing it enough.

I think show don't tell is preposterous in real life. We all think we're smarter than the classical Hollywood but the truth is, I don't think we are. Or maybe that's just me.

Today marked the third time I have had a ridiculous argument with a bus driver. What do these people want? This one called me dear in a patronising tone and I was so close to telling him to fuck off. I'm not a confrontational person. In confrontation I clam up, shake and go red, then think about all the cutting remarks I could have made. This time, I needed the bus driver to get me to work. And I couldn't think of a civilised substitute for cunt.

I also think that I'm such a whinger. Instead of being active and making my own opportunities, I choose to whine.

(when I was a full time student) Why am I broke? Because you refuse to get a crappy job to support your shoe fetish.
(allll the time) Why can't I lose weight? Because your food pyramid consists of chocolate, tea, diet coke, chicken schnitzel and brie.
(frequently) Why can't I get that fabulous job in media production? Because you're too used to having a fantastic income to beg for unpaid work experience.

My trip overseas was supposed to change my whining, procrastinating ways, but instead I've succumbed to it. Waiting for other people to tell me what to do, I sit around and whinge instead of planning. Well, that's it: I'm just going to book my flights and that will be that.

At lunch the other day, a colleague suggested that the rest of us watch too much television, and urged us to look outside at the blue sky and the clouds. I remarked that I'd seen them on tv, which earned me high-five (I believe it was well-deserved). Following lunch, I went to a class in which we talk about the increasing prominence of the screen within our daily life, and that we are constantly interacting with the world through a screen. Maybe my stupid remark reveals a knowledge that within culture we need a screen between ourselves and the outside world. As if I'm that intelligent.

I'm going to watch The Night Porter instead of finishing my essay. Who cares about cultural imperialism when Charlotte Rampling's around?