In English class we're reading bits and pieces of everyone's favorite Old English epic, Beowulf. The first part we read was Beowulf's battle with Grendel, the ferocious man-eating sea monster that everyone loves to hate. On Wednesday we were assigned a project: to demonstrate our understanding of the passage in some creative way.

Nick, who sits behind me, had the idea to make a movie. I didn't want to at first, but I kept it in the back of my mind. Yesterday in class we watched one adaptation of the epic: that is, a scene told by a storyteller in a ridiculously exaggerated style. It was pretty funny. He looked like he was going to cry. You might say it gave me some ideas.

When class was over, I talked to Nick some more about the possibility, and I realized that making a movie could be a lot of fun, even though we'd only have until Monday to do the entire thing. I figured that Justin would want to be in it too, and so we decided to do it together, along with Mark, who isn't in our class. Apparently, due to busy schedules, the only time we'd be able to get together would be Sunday afternoon, leaving me a scant few hours to edit the video for viewing in class.

It's going to be important to have a plot laid out. It's going to be humorous -- of course. But that still leaves a lot of possibilities that should be worked out ahead of time. With that in mind, I've already made the opening credit sequence. It's a blatant homage to the credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (YouTube link), except without the pseudo-Swedish subtitles and seizure-inducing flashing backgrounds.

Tomorrow I'll call Justin and get together with Nick and Mark to work out the actual plot of the movie. We have a basic framework -- the original story itself -- but we need to figure out how to make it funny. Right now the weather is bleak, so I've been shooting establishing shots of Hrothgar's kingdom, which Grendel terrorizes for twelve years. They'll be shown when we hear of Hrothgar's plea to Beowulf. I don't know how the weather will be in two days, but that doesn't matter. If it's sunny, we can have Beowulf say as he arrives, "I thought your kingdom was all miserable and rainy and stuff," and Hrothgar could say, "What? That was just the weather at the moment."

It's going to be a busy weekend, definitely. I'll need to have everything I need to do done by Sunday afternoon so I can devote all my energy into putting together the video. But first we need a script...

Want to get into that Linux thingy? Try the Linux Distribution Chooser. As you may recall, I was once interested in getting Ubuntu. As it turns out, the Linux Distribution Chooser recommends Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Mandriva as perfect matches for me and Linspire, Xandros, and PCLinuxOS as close ones. Now, Linux users, let the flaming begin. KDE or Gnome? Fight to the death!

One year ago: "Well, here we are, awaiting the worst of Hurricane Katrina."