"I had a good quote, but I lost it in a game of poker."

I'm getting more and more scatterbrained. Just three and a half minutes ago, I remembered that I was supposed to send off an interview to Just Adventure. And that memory triggered memories of other interviews that I never got around to, e-mails and questions that have simply scrolled out the top of my inbox. It's one thing being busy. It's quite another to never get anything done on time. (Or budget.) My sincerest apologies to all my victims - past, current, and future. I really do try. And I'll definitely send that interview off tomorrow. Promise.

That wasn't what I was going to write about, actually, but now I don't remember what I was going to write about, so I'll do what I usually do: Write about a) TV; b) Movies; or c) Games.

I pick...a).

Fantastic episode of The West Wing this evening. Fantastic. The show is always great, often brilliant, and never, ever dull - or bad - but tonight's episode was quite fantastic. Eminently quotable, smart, thought-provoking, funny (always funny, in a smart way), and surprisingly sweet.

I gush. I'm allowed to. I'm a writer. (Or at least I try to be.) Most of the stuff on TV makes me go, "eh, big deal, I could probably have written that". With The West Wing I always go, "my God, if only I could write half as well as that!". Maybe you have to be a writer to fully appreciate it, but I don't think so. The dialogue sings. You can hear it. It resonates. It flows like a river...and not one of those slow, dull rivers with lots of leaves in it, and dark, muddy water. It's so alive, so textured, so complex, and yet so...so flowing. It's not real. People don't talk like that. No one's that smart. No one can say all those brilliant things so quickly. But who cares? Dialogue - on TV, at the theatre, in the movies - isn't supposed to sound like real conversation. It's supposed to enchant you, intrigue you, entice you, draw you in, make you laugh, cry, scream - make you feel as though the people are real, and not necessarily what they say.

Good dialogue is beyond real. It's how people should speak...in a perfect world of perfect drama.

Oh, and I also saw the latest Buffy episode tonight, and I would be gushing about that one too, if only I wasn't so tired and hadn't already gushed about The West Wing. Oh, what the hell. Tonight's episode - seven-dot-fourteen - was one of the best ones so far this season. It had it all: Romance, action, the funnies...Spike. Evil. Beauties. More funnies. More Xander - yay! Finally. Less of the potential Slayers (too much of them lately). Did I mention evil? And it was all good. Brilliant, not like The West Wing brilliant, but just as brilliant in another way, just as well written... And yes, those two shows are my favourite shows on TV. And no, I don't watch that much TV. I just pick my shows well, and gush about them.  ¶ 23:29