Speaking Mandarin Saved Me 25 Cents

This is big news: Speaking Mandarin saved me 25 cents today.

I was at a well known food establishment today (I won’t say the name, but it rhymes with “McFonald’s”). I am practicing my Mandarin (week two of lessons, yeah!) and asked them “How much?”. Then said, “Lower price, is it ok?”. Of course I knew they would say no, after all, it was “McFonald’s”. They were so happy I was speaking Chinese that they actually gave me a free meal upgrade. An upgrade of two MOP, or 25 cents USD. I feel very rich today.

On a sidenote, someone is encouraging me to take a video each week as I study Mandarin to show what I can say. I’ve done one minute videos the first two weeks, and it’s very embarrassing. But you’ll probably see them posted here soon because I think it’s very funny to watch myself try and speak Mandarin. I’m learning to write Chinese too. Fun stuff! (Though I’m admittedly very bad at it).

Selling Tragedy vs. Comedy

I am bewildered on a seemingly simple decision that I believe is common to any writers or creators. Tragedy vs. Comedy; which to create? There was a related article I just read (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/11/ew.movies.adults/index.html) that says it’s much more difficult to sell a movie aimed at adults vs. a fun kid’s movie. Here’s a quote from the article:

“Audiences don’t want to be reminded of the darkness in the world,” he says. “They want to laugh, get taken to space, watch things in a museum come to life.”

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