July 18, 2006
Writer and director Lawrence Kasdan once said that being a writer was like always having homework. And if you're not familiar with Kasdan's name, he's written the scripts for some pretty amazing films--"The Big Chill" and "Body Heat" and a couple of the Star Wars movies and I think for at least one of the Indiana Jones films, and a whole bunch of others. ("Body Heat" is amazing, if you haven't seen it.)

I'm thinking about this because I'm about to head out of town for a couple days and although I don't plan on doing any work... well, I'm going to be in the car for 3-4 hours Wednesday and Friday, and I thought I might, well, bring some work along. I'm working on a major survey report on the clinical laboratory industry, and I've been dipping into a variety of sources and surveys when I need data, but I've also got the 2005 annual reports of the 2 biggest players in this arena, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, and I'm thinking of taking those along to read in the car. (Or, if I have any problems sleeping, they should do the trick.)

Or, possibly, I won't. I need the downtime. I'm hoping a few days away will bring me back with energy and enthusiasm for some of these projects. Who's to say?

In the meantime, I have an interview coming up for a story on a new treatment for macular degeneration, and I need to do a little homework to get ready for it, and I've got a conference call with my lab industry report clients, so I'd better do some prep work to make sure I can tell them what I need and how things are going, and I've got to make up my mind exactly what else I need to do for an article I'm working on about financial planners, and I've got 9 more short news articles and I haven't read all the press releases yet...

Yeah, Kasdan was right.

Best,
Mark Terry