I'm in town. I had my first class at Second City yesterday, which was very fun.

In the meantime, a huge shout out to the Men's 4x100 freestyle relay team. They were awesome yesterday!

And yes, I've enjoyed getting lost, too.

We've reached the halfway point of the 2008 baseball season and it's time to update my award picks based on statistics and the standings. As you may recall, my original picks were made with this posting here.

Based on the current standings, here is what the playoffs look like.

National League
East: Philadelphia Phillies
Central: Chicago Cubs
West: Arizona Diamondbacks
Wild Card: St. Louis Cardinals

American League
East: Boston Red Sox
Central: Chicago White Sox
West: Los Angeles Angels
Wild Card: Tampa Bay Rays

And for the midseason awards...

National League
Most Valuable Player: Chase Utley, PHI (25 HR)
Cy Young: Tim Lincecum, SF (11-2, 2.57, 135 K)
Rookie of the Year: Edinson Volquez, CIN (12-3, 2.29 ERA, 126 K)

American League
Most Valuable Player: Josh Hamilton, TEX (21 HR, 95 RBI)
Cy Young: Roy Halladay, TOR (11-6, 2.71, 121 K)
Honorable mention: Joe Saunders, LAA (12-5, 3.07, 63 K)
Rookie of the Year: Evan Longoria, TB (16 HR, 53 RBI)

After getting the plot out of the way a good two weeks ago, I started on a new project, which has me revisiting an old friend for the first time in over a year.

The backstory on that is: The screenplay I started writing in May 2006 turned out more like Hulk meets X-Men meets Fantastic Four. I didn't think it would work as a copycat so a year after shelving it, I've revisited the idea. However, in doing so, I'm changing characters around and some of the plotlines are gone too.

Ultimately, I think this new idea is going to work. The way that I have changed it, it fits together, universe and all. While some characters from the old one will never see the brink of daylight again, others will simply have a new name. Some names will carry over but powers and original hero name probably won't.

I can't tell you much other than that this is a long term project that I am devoted to seeing it finished all the way through...be it a graphic novel or feature film. Or both.

I have the old file so I'm looking at that for ideas if I start getting writers' block.