"I used to know this girl, she disappeared. I don't even know where to. I figure maybe she went home or something. and then one night, I see her, out of nowhere, and she's up in the sky, and it's like she ain't human anymore. it's like she turned into this star, all bright and sparklin, filled with all this fire and light, and she's so faraway, it's like she's a thousand galaxies away, and I don't even know where she is, if she can hear me."

the grittiness

and horror

of this screenplay

washed my eyes

clean with my tears

and flashed me

the cold hard truth

My favourite emotion is joy, laughter, happiness, that moment when something tickles you in just that spot and laughter erupts.

And I do mean funny here, funny as in "Haw Haw" not funny as in tragic-funny, like when something awful happens and there's always someone standing at the back who laughs aloud, no, not that. I mean comedy funny, funny joke funny, or the best funny of all, written funny.

I must share with you that written tome that had me in proper, aching stitches, and it wasn't any of the great classic comedy novels, it was a little paperback that I first discovered back in 1980 something. It is called "The Book Of Heroic Failures" compiled and edited by Stephen Pile, a tremendously funny man.

The book deals with episodes taken from the erstwhile Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain and deals with ordinary people, just like you and I who attempt things and fail miserably.

But wait, I did say I find laughing at tragedy unfunny didn't I? Well, it isn't the events within the book that are funny, it is the way Mister Pile reports them.

It is my most read book.

For me, it began as a search for some books series to read. Animorphs was too kiddy and Stephen King was too adult, and my parents attempted both. They bought Wizard and Glass, the fourth book in the Dark Tower series and expected me to just dive into it and devour it. I spent the ride home in utter confusion with the amount of characters, plot and subplots, and I had no idea what was going on and eventually the book ended up grabbing dust on a shelf. Several more trips to Borders and Barnes and Noble ended up fruitless and a few more dusters on the shelf. One of those happened to be Redwall by Brian Jacques. I had read around the first five chapters and wasn't really into it, but that was because of the pressure from my parents to find something to read. Half a year passed, and I was cleaning out my room and getting things together to donate, and again the Redwall book popped up. I grabbed it and looked it over, hardly recognizing it or the cover. I nearly placed it in the to go box, but something in me said not to and to give this book another go. I sat down later that day and popped it open, and it was like finding a new hope. Every page was full of love and compassion, challenge and fate, and even fear and despair. The next day, the book was finished and I grabbed my allowance and begged to go to get the next one. After a year, I had demolished the thirteen that were published and started to re-read the series over and over, just like it was the last time I could. There is no other series in my life, that I have found (a good caveat to have), has ever taught me so much and entertained me for so long. There aren't words that can ever equal the hope and happiness that this series brought me, and I couldn't be more thankful to Mr. Jacques for writing these wonderful books.