the method in the madness

I didn't get as much done today as I had hoped, but perhaps that's to be expected given that I was busy with family stuff in the afternoon. My sister and her family came over for lunch, so I sat around for a few hours with them; my nieces and nephew were in good form, and it's hard to believe that my nephew is graduating from high school this year. After they left, I inadvertently took a bit of a nap, then watched the second half of "Amistad" with my father. The rest of the evening was similarly unproductive, although it did include some fine CBS programming in the form of "60 Minutes", "Big Brother", and "The Good Wife". The "60 Minutes" episode included the story Steve Kroft did last year calling into question the veracity of "Three Cups of Tea", which brought Greg Mortenson's empire crashing down over the past few months. I, of course, delighted in watching the train wreck even though I shouldn't have, since he has actually done some good for education, but he's also apparently done some sketchy things with finances and has exaggerated his accomplishments. But my favorite part of that story wasn't part of the "60 Minutes" piece, but rather was something I read after the piece aired a few months ago -- Greg Mortenson claimed that he initially thought that Steve Kroft was a suicide bomber when he ambushed Mortenson at a book signing, even though he introduced himself as Steve Kroft from "60 Minutes". Ha.

I abandoned the living room when "CSI: Miami" started (although I did hear the opening theme music), with the intention of writing. But I only wrote a few notes to myself about my heroine before getting lost in Wikipedia. I realized that I don't know enough about my heroine's life goals and motivation -- and while this might be realistic, given that teenagers often don't have a crystal clear plan for their lives, I need to have at least some clarity so that she can be a strong, action-oriented heroine. Luckily, I trust that all of those questions are churning in my subconscious, and this is probably something that I can't force, although I do need to sit down tomorrow and do some brainstorming.

But now, I should sleep; it's two a.m. in Iowa, which is my bedtime any way you slice it. Goodnight!