Movies to Look Forward to in 2010...And those to stray away from.

You can read the full story here: Blockbusters of 2010: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. I wrote it myself and the list of movies (without descriptions) is below.

The Sequels:

Wall Street 2 'Money Never Sleeps': April 23. Movie Page

Iron Man 2: May 7. Toy Preview

Shrek Forever After: May 21. Movie Page

Sex and the City 2: May 28 Movie Page

Toy Story 3: June 18 Theatrical Trailer

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: June 30 Movie Page

Under the Dome: A Writer's Analysis

Hey all. Wrote up a blog post for Under the Dome yesterday for Scribophile.com. I go in to how the book effected me as a writer and, more importantly, the types of things a writer can learn from reading it. I'm still brooding over my experience and how I feel about it and will write a review for thecelebritycafe.com later today.

Here's the link: Under the Dome: A Writer's Analysis.

-Justin Key

Finished Under the Dome

Wow. it definitely went in a an unexpected direction. But it was satisfying (mostly). I'm working on an analysis for Scribophile.com now and a review later for TheCelebrityCafe.com

-Justin Key

The bodies are racking up in Under the Dome...

Amidst Thanksgiving, Internet-outage, and the never-ending job search, I haven't been able to read as much as I would have liked. Either way, I am up to about page 750 or so, so about 3/4 of the way through. And when I can read it, I can't put it down.

And the body-count! I guess I should have expected that this wouldn't be a comedic romp like The Simpsons' version, but dang! Murders left, right, suicides piling up, planes crashing. And all for because of a big ass dome!

It's only been 4 days and some change in the book, so King wasn't lying when he said it only takes up a week. Some things that progress don't seem like they would happen that fast (like the mini-global warming effect or how the town has become so quickly divided...also, there's a character in it that is sick and it seems like they go from relatively okay to terminal in just a couple days, whereas in real life it would take months).

Also, some of the things that are happening seem kind of ridiculous, but more in a way that says 'this could really happen if a town was put in this position and its kind of ridiculous that humans could stoop so low.'

Also, I know now the origin of the dome. Or, at least, what category it falls under. It was what I guessed from the beginning, as it seemed the only logical explanation. There's still a good amount of mystery about it and the person who discovered the source was just thrown in jail, so we'll see how that pans out.

Even though this book is long as life, it's getting to that point where I'm wondering how everything will work out only 300 pages. It feels like I'm more in the middle than rounding out to the end. But I have faith and  hopefully the ending isn't a 'hey, the beings responsible for the sudden application of the dome decided to suddenly take it away, problems solved!' It would be a lot more satisfying if the town fights for and earns its own escape.

Social Media and Writing.

I just put up a new post at Scribophile.com about social media, the changing landscape of writing, and what it means for authors.

Find it here.

Lost: What's to Come.

I'm a big Lost fan. I've watched every episode and, once I get on my feet, plan to rewatch every one before the new season starts. I just wrote a feature article on it for TheCelebrityCafe.com.

You can find it here: http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/features/36469.html

Let me know what you guys think.

Investigation...

I read this this morning in the New York Times. It really has us shaken up. It's only a 1/1000 chance that she'll be picked I copied and pasted:

As Families Re-Unite, Congress Calls For Interrogation Lottery

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 71 to 28 Wednesday morning to initiate a lottery to randomly choose 100,000 Americans from the 150 million that disappeared last Friday for questioning and further research. The decision was made just under an hour ago, but there is already huge uproar from across the country.


Families woke up Monday morning to the return of their loved ones, a nation-wide phenomenon that is in many ways more baffling than the original disappearances. After shock came a relief that swept over the country as more and more reports came in, suggesting that all of the missing have returned.


Officials immediately attempted to get a hold of the situation, which left half of the country's population MIA for 72 hours, by requesting of anyone who remembers anything to come forth. The result has been more than disappointing, prompting Congress to consider a more involved approach.  The newly approved initiative will generate a lottery to choose 100,000 individuals to be called in for questioning and to possibly be kept for research. It is unknown when the lottery or subsequent activities will take place.


"America is healing right now," President Obama said in an official statement. "And we want families to have the time to heal, reconnect with their loved ones, and grieve over those who were lost. But eventually we need to assess the situation, discover the cause, and move towards ensuring that nothing of this magnitude ever happens again."


As part of the bill, Congress also pushed for heavy emphasis on Stanford University, where 90% of the student population went missing. It's reported that all 13,500 are set to be automatically included in research procedures. 

-Tom Friedman