Movies - Dragons and Thranduil

I haven't been sleeping well - I normally operate on about six hours of sleep a night, but over the past few nights have been lucky to get five. Tonight I'll be at the movies with Chickie - we're going to see "How to Tame Your Dragon #3", and I won't get to bed until an hour after my usual bedtime. Tomorrow I have to drive all over town for errands and appointments. At this rate, I'll be doing that on four hours of sleep and that's bordering on dangerous. SO not happy. 

I have a feeling the new dragon will make Toothless work hard
for her attention. He's going to be like a lot of guys - totally
lost to blue eyes and an attitude. 

I really want to see the movie, and the tickets are already purchased, but if I was just me, I'd probably call the $5 purchase price a loss and buy tickets for another showing in another week or two. But it's not just me - it's me and Chickie, so I'll be a wreck. I might have to skip the gym tomorrow morning to get more sleep. 

My story today requires mirrors - a lot of them. There is no Mylar in
rolls in Tolkien's Middle-earth. I spent a restless night trying to
determine if silver would hold enough shine to provide a
reflection. I think I'm saying "yes" to this, although it's a
small stretch. 

Then again, it's not the fact that I'm not tired, the body is tired, but the mind is jumping here and there, imagining descriptions, scenes, characters and situations within whatever latest story I'm writing for B2MeM. Today's story, for B12, has six elements in it (five if I'm only choosing my assigned cards, six if I am adding my optional card. Since my optional card is giving me the entire scene, I guess I have six elements). I got the story partially written last night, but there's still a lot of work to be done. 

Although I'm not 100% happy with the movie version
of Thranduil (didn't like the costuming, and those
eyebrows just don't work), today's story will
feature him as one of my two characters. 

The quality that I like with projects requiring a daily output is that it forces fast decisions and minimal revisions. Of course I always edit - my fingers aren't always dependable on the keyboard and typos can be hideous. It's not like larger works, though. These are short tales, usually ficlets of less than 1000 words. These are small slices in time or place - an hour in the life of the fisherman instead of a day or a year. It's like looking at the world of Tolkien through a microscope - you know there's a big, wide world outside of the lens, but it's what's happening on that slide that's your focus. 

I like this Thranduil a lot more, at least for this particular
B2MeM story of mine. Now to just do the plot some
justice and make the characters real. 

I could get into how that's a metaphor for life, but really! Blah! We all know that anyway. So on this note I'm going to plug in photos and call it a day. In an hour I'll be sitting in my car waiting for the gym doors to open, although I'm very tempted to return to bed for at least two more hours of sleep, then shower and start my day. I might miss my swim, but I really need the sleep. I'll be back tomorrow in any case, so have a GREAT day.