This is going to be fun. I am writing this journal entry with no hands, using voice recognition software, and let me tell you, it's painful! The software is actually pretty good at recognizing what I'm saying (not to mention much better at spelling), although it does make the occasional dreadful mistake. Where it currently fails completely, however, is in interpreting commands. You're supposed to be able to quickly select text and change it and correct it and so on. But instead this software insists on interpreting my commands as text, select as text and Rite Aid demands. See what I mean!

Still, all in all, it's working better than I expected. This has definitely been the year where I've put my health insurance to the test. It started in January, with the gym accident that left me having to see a chiropractor three times a week for three months. It continued with the endless and ongoing treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome. There's my workers compensation treatments for tendonitis in my wrists -- the very reason I'm writing this journal with Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. And finally, last week, I realized that the pain in my feet caused by plantar fasciitis (my God, I can't believe the software and you plantar fasciitis!) was getting worse, and that I would have to see a podiatrist.

I really couldn't face seeing my GP again because I'm becoming mortally afraid, that he's beginning to think I'm a hypochondriac. So I just took a chance, and made a direct appointment myself. I met this nice Australian doctor, who very quickly determined the cause of the plantar fasciitis: flat feet! And, according to him, I've probably had five feet since birth. (From now on, I won't correct amusing mistakes made by the software.)

Anyway, to cut short a very long catalog of woeful ailments, let me just tell you that from now on I have to wear, custom orthotic souls in all my shoes. As I was saying, thank God for health insurance. The irony is, that in the midst of all these problems, I feel better than ever. This Saturday, for example, my painful feet prevented me from going for a run, so I decided to go for a rare bike ride instead. As I biked through the breezy, blustery sunny afternoon, and the throngs of Midwesterners in fisherman's wharf, and then continued around the waterfront towards the fog-shrouded Goldengate Bridge, I felt full of zest, zim and zigor. (I made those last two words up.)

Near Fishman's wharf, a yacht scuds past, people wave at me when they realize I'm taking their photograph, end in the background, one of several huge container ships has just emerged from the fog blowing its own horn.

A heavy old sign for the Presidio which I found lying around waiting to be scrapped, presumably. It looked so sad; I almost took it home with me. In fact, I would have done so had I been driving a U-Haul truck instead of my bicycle.

You have to see this to believe it. Every weekend, this old guy spends his daylight hours balancing rocks on top of one another near the Presidio, using no wires, glue, or anything else except exceptional patience. Before he leaves for home, every late Sunday afternoon, he knocks them all down again.

Closer-up view off the rock balancing.

Finally, after pedaling against the wind, I reached the end of the path, just underneath the Goldengate Bridge, which you can just about see through the fog above my head, here at Fort Point, which is now guarded by troops in Humvees.

This month is, like I mentioned in my last journal, extremely busy. At the end of the month, I will move Locke, stock and bowel (you know what I mean even if the software doesn't), to a beautiful two-bedroom apartment just above the Castro. I can't wait! I mean, I've loved living where I live now, and Lord knows, I'll miss the view. But I'm tripling the number of rooms (my current place is a studio) at no extra cost, an I'll get a garden, a nearby neighborhood of cafes and restaurants, and peace and quiet thrown in for free. The new place has a living room that looks directly out onto the garden, with a door that opens out onto the deck that fronts the garden. The finest feature of the living room is an L-shaped, cushioned bench that wraps around the big windows. And I will have no more excuses for not entertaining, thanks to the large, handsome kitchen.

Until this weekend, it had mainly been only my left wrist that was out of action. Now, (and I've only myself to blame) my right wrist is painful too, since I spent much of the weekend editing movies (a task which is all Clinton's click -- that was supposed to be point-and-click). I have finally put online a version off my last movie, "Rico is back". After working all weekend on this movie, I've grown to like it a lot more than I did previously. So much so that I've decided to submit an excerpt of it to the new Project Greenlight competition, which, this year has both a screenwriting and a directing competition.

I am continuing to work on preproduction of my next movie, which will be filmed in 16mm. But, cheese, it's hard work. Not only is there the complexity of handling the new medium of film (I have always worked in digital in the past), but I also have to find a version of the Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss that I can use legally and affordably in the movie. And, of course, I have to find two actors who can waltz beautifully, while simultaneously appearing to be masculine, working-class man. Right now my major stumbling block is finding an experienced editor who will work for me for free through this process. And with every passing week, I'm losing valuable daylight hours in the day (the shoot will be a complete day outside). If I haven't found all my resources by the middle of this month, I may have to postpone it until next spring.

Meanwhile, my friend Jim is shooting his own movie on which I am the cinematographer. Fortunately, we've had to the time to get together in his apartment (where the movie will be shot) to practice camera angles and light placements without the embarrassment of learning on the job in front off the actors. I've read a fair bit about cinematography and lighting, and, so far, I've been the cameraman on three of my four movies. But in practice, I know so little about this job, that I'm just hoping I don't make a fool of myself.

As if all of this isn't enough, I'm gradually starting to date again. But, for reasons that I won't go into right now, that's a whole other big story deserving of a journal entry to itself.

Well. It's only taken me about an hour and a half to write this using this software, what with having to take time out to correct mistakes. But at least I didn't have to use my wrists. Much.