economy blogs

Hello gentle readers.

Tonight, we have another economy blog posting. It is short and to the point, to save your valuable blog reading time.

Observations from the tenth floor.

Day 7 of the non-destruction of the building next door. The two forlorn palm trees are still a top the building with their green crowns standing sort of tall over the construction debris.

Down the road, the workers finished the new tar and paper roof on a smaller building. Frankly, from the distance, it looks just like it did before the roofers worked there.

My Younger Brother [and only brother] called to talk about the wedding this weekend. Everything seems to be coming together now. Well, from where I type it seems to be coming together. I am looking forward to the ceremony and I think the Princess and the Big Guy are as well.

I don’t think I’ll have to worry too much about planning the Princess’ wedding. She is the type of person who really enjoys being in complete control of all of the events. All I plan to do is send her some money for the wedding and a copy of Microsoft Project so she plan, organize, and control the process.

I figure she’ll tell me where and when to show up along with her brother and what we should be wearing. I can handle that much.

The bachelorette party might give me an element of concern since it would probably be a repeat of the many “Take No Prisoners Tours” when the Princess and the girl friends have traveled to Las Vegas and other places in a pack. The term prisoners refers to young men.

The Big Guy went to see HUSTLE AND FLOW today. He was not that impressed with the film compared to THE ISLAND. He said the music was nice but that was about it. He did enjoy seeing the film in an almost empty cinema. He liked not having anyone sit in front or behind him.

I can understand that.

Be well and stay happy. Remember the next blog posting will probably be next Monday.

Nothing much to say

Nothing much to say today.

It was a slow day for me, gentle readers. I really do not have too much to say. I took and made some phone calls. I worked in the office and that was about it for me.

Today was Day 6 in the non-destruction of the building next door. I do not count weekends because the workers do not work, if they were working, on the weekends.

I heard an interesting comment on the radio during my drive home tonight. I think it makes a great deal of sense. I am convinced that it applies in California. I just don’t know about any other states though.

The theory is that California women become less attractive the further they are from the Pacific Ocean. Under this theory, a woman from the 310 area code [the coastal section of Los Angeles] would be more attractive than a woman from the 951 area code [Riverside County]. I will have to ask the Big Guy for his thoughts on this concept.

Speaking or writing of the Big Guy, he phoned me after he saw THE DEVILS REJECTS. He really liked the film. He found it very enjoyable and recommended it highly. You should know that the Big Guy really likes this genre of film and has a large DVD collection of these films.

The Big Guy ran out of ideas for Babe of the Week on his blog and was asking for some nominations. Since I am partial to Asian women, I suggested Lucy Liu and Devon Aoki. He said he would take my suggestions under advisement.

Programming Note: This will be a thin week for blog posting.

I am scheduled to be out of town on Wednesday and Thursday. Then, I leave town on Saturday and return mid-day on Monday when I go to my niece’s wedding in Seattle.

I will toss a post up tomorrow for sure. I may toss another one up on Thursday if I get home at a reasonable hour and I am not too tired. The Weekend Update will come out next Monday.

Perhaps, you can give yourself a rest for a few days.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

So much to write about and so little to say that is significant; a perfect Weekend Update blog posting.

My plans for the weekend changed on late on Friday morning when an old co-worker called to tell me my former assistant’s son had passed away and the funeral was on Saturday morning. I had to go to the funeral because it was the right thing to do.

Period.

That meant I had to forego the cinema on Saturday since the service was at 11:00 AM. I would not be able to attend the service, go home to change, catch a film and then go to class that started at 4:00 PM.

The Big Guy called just after the funeral call. He was in a panic of sorts of seeing what appeared to be a loose wire inside of his new Apple G5 computer. We talked about the wire and how to approach it. In the end, he called India for Apple tech support. The wire is supposed to be there; it is part of the G5’s wireless function. That was a nice closure to the process.

I went to the funeral on Saturday. It was a very good service. It had a large attendance; that was a tribute to him and his family. I did not have a chance to meet the deceased. I knew of him from my assistant’s talks about his service in the Navy.

I felt good attending the service for a shipmate, all sailors are shipmates. We both faced the uncertain perils of the sea.

The service was conducted in a chapel that lies in the flight path to Los Angeles International Airport. The doors and windows were closed to shut out the noise of the aircraft. While this allowed us to participate in the service, it created an uncomfortable condition. The temperature inside the un-air conditioned chapel must have been over 100F/37C. It felt good and somewhat cooler to step outside afterwards in the bright sun.

Our weather in Los Angeles recently has been affected by the remnants of Hurricane Emily. It is always warm to hot this time of the year. Los Angeles is, after all, on the edge of a dessert. The moisture from the storm was drawn into the area and this boosted the humidity to completely abnormal levels.

Normally, I don’t drive with my air conditioning on in the car on the weekends when I am alone. I just roll the windows down and let the air cool me off. Saturday, on the drive to school, I had to put it on. It felt like I was in the tropics again when I got to school.

The class looks like it will help me with my dissertation. I picked up some new insights and this should help me write a better dissertation. I did know a couple of the students in the class which was even better for me.

After class, I drove out to the Big Guy’s house so we could have dinner at Albertacos. As he says, there are no bad times for Albertacos. We both had our usual dinners there, a Number 8, medium drink and an extra soft carne asada taco. A Number 8 is a big scoop of rice and refried beans, covered by cheese with two soft carne asada tacos. I had a large helping of pico de gallo to the rice and beans.

We were there at just the right time. We beat the crowds so we had the pick of the tables and did not have to wait long for the food. Our meal was made less enjoyable by a family that let their baby cry his head off for about five minutes before the mother came to a leap of faith conclusion that maybe she should take little Mr. Messy outside so the rest of the adults could enjoy their meals.

I could see several of the young people observing the whole noisy affair. I could almost hear some of the men say mentally that I won’t be having any children. One of the young women looked disturbed by the scene.

I told the Big Guy that he was never like little Mr. Messy when he was an infant.

While we were tossing down our carne asadas, we talked about the idea of a Bento Productions dinner. We had brought it up before. The Big Guy said he had cooled to the idea and was no longer excited about it. That was just fine with me.

I suggested that he and I have an August dinner at Morton’s and request Amy as our server. He was more than ready for that. I asked if he want to invite Evelyn since she is always fun to be around plus she likes going to Morton’s. This seemed like a really good idea since Evelyn drove him around for years before he got his driver’s license.

The Big Guy went to see THE ISLAND on Friday, largely because it stars Scarlet Johansen or Scarlet J as he calls her. He said he really enjoyed the film on several levels and said it was the best film he has seen all year. I will try to catch it in the next few weeks. I am certain he will toss up a lengthy post about the film on his blog site [http://skeetonmischa.blogspot.com] in the next day or so.

[Note to self: learn how to post hot links or have the Big Guy join the Balancing Checkbooks team.]

I got home from dinner in time to see the end of the Saturday episode of the Immortal Yi Soon Shin. The Japanese army did achieve a momentary tactical advantage as the Korean fleet sailed through the narrow strait. The Japanese were unable to translate the tactical advantage into a victory. The Battle of Pusan was a complete and total victory by any measure for Yi Soon Shin.

The Japanese lost 100 warships, assuming a crew of 150 sailors and soldiers to each ship. Casualties for the Japanese ended up in the thousands, probably close to 15,000 lost since most did not swim or would be unable to swim, weighted down with uniforms, weapons, armor, and supplies. The Koreans lost no ships and only had 31 casualties.

This loss does not include the sharp blow to Japanese morale. It also presents another and more serious problem for the Japanese. They no longer have control of the seas. This will make re-supplying their forces in Korea harder. Being isolated with your back to the sea is an uncomfortable position for an army to be in, especially when it is in hostile territory.

The victory should remove any clouds from Yi’s head now. A great victory always is good for one’s career and standing with the King.

Errata

On a side note, I read in my online news service that the last survivor of the Chosun Dynasty died this week in Japan. Yi Ku was the grandson of the last Korean emperor. The Chosun Dynasty ruled, in varying degrees of effectiveness from 1392 to 1905 when Japan annexed the kingdom.

My Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence program has conducted over 900 search analysis. No, I have not found anything other than space noise and static. Still, I will keep going with the program.

When I was coming home from school, I saw an older 1970s era Volkswagen Beetle. It was painted orange and that paint had faded badly. It had a Porsche style whale’s tale spoiler on the back engine cover. The only way the VW could get going fast enough to make effective use of the spoiler was if it fell off of a very tall cliff.

I wonder what the owner was thinking when he or she put that spoiler on the Beetle.

I had planned to go to the cinema today and catch THE DEVIL’S REJECTS. The only cinema had the first showing at 2:00 PM. That seemed on the late side and would take up too much space in the middle of the day. The other film screenings that I might have seen as an early show did not match up with the REJECTS schedule. Instead, I decided to stay home and read out of the balcony in the sun and smoke a cigar.

The reading and smoking decision was a wise one for me.

And that, gentle readers, was my weekend. I hope that your weekend went well for you.

Be well and stay happy.

another slow day

Day 4 in the non-destruction work on the building next door. It is probably good for the workers to be avoiding the hot sun out there.

Just more dust in the wind.

I had a lot of phone calls and made a bunch of them today. I had the opportunity to look out of the window while I was on hold or listening to music on hold. Some conversations were dull so looking outside was a good idea.

I could a crew of workers stripping off the old roof of a building a couple of blocks away. I felt sorry for the crew since it was hot outside. They were able to get the old roof off completely and then lay out the new roof paper. I guess it will be coated with tar tomorrow. That will be hot work for sure.

Having an office on the 10th floor means you can see a lot of activity at the lower levels.

I have a writing class at school on Saturday. It is supposed to help me with my dissertation. I am looking forward to the class since it meets on alternate Saturdays for two hours, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. I think the class will end before the scheduled time.

After the class, the Big Guy and I are having dinner. I am already more than half way there so why not go out for grub with the Big Guy. I think we will be at Albertacos. We haven’t been there in a month or longer. As he says, “there is no bad time for Albertacos.” We will probably have two, Number 8s with a medium drink and maybe an extra carne asada soft taco.

Ahhhh. Life is good.

I should point out that his mother [and my ex-wife] does not understand why we go there. Maybe it is just a guy thing.

I went and got my hair cut on the way home tonight. As usual, Michele the Stylist cut off more than I wanted her to cut. We even had a brief discussion of what I wanted. I suppose that I will either have to accept Michele’s inability to cut my hair or live with the consequences of her efforts.

My hair does not look bad. It is just shorter than what I would like.

I have my cinema plans set for the weekend. I plan to see the Rob Zombie film THE DEVIL’S REJECTS on Saturday morning. This will give me time to run some errands and get to class on time. I am planning on seeing WEDDING CRASHERS and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY on Sunday if the theater doesn’t screw up again on me.

Errata events: The Prelude clicked over 323,000 miles yesterday on the way home from the office. The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence is coming up on its 900th search in another day or so.

Sweet.

I think that shapes up to be a nice weekend with a full range of activities for me.

Be well and stay happy.

It's almost the weekend

It’s Wednesday evening and that means the week is half over gentle readers. This has been a slow week for me.

The big event for me was the Big Guy calling about his registration for school. He got three of the four classes that he wanted to take so that is good I guess. Two of them seem like they should be easy courses for him. Easy courses are always welcome for any student. The other two look like they will require some work and paper writing. Paper writing is not difficult for someone who styles himself as a budding writer.

The Big Guy gave his grade point averages. They were very good. His GPA at California State University Fullerton is 3.83 on a 4.00 scale. His combined GPA that includes his course work at Saddleback Community College is 3.11. With some diligent work, I would expect the overall GPA to improve somewhat.

At lunch, I was reading about the typhoon or now tropical storm that reached the Shanghai region of China today. I wondered if my friend from Shanghai was safe from the storm’s fury. The other two are far enough away from the storm to be safe. Beijing may get some rain out of the remnants of the storm. Rain will only spoil a parade I think.

Speaking or typing of rain, some portions of greater Los Angeles had rain, heavy at times, this afternoon. The rain was mostly in the mountains and foothills; none near the beach. I did see a lightning flash this afternoon. It was a straight cloud to ground strike with none of the fancy bolting around like one sees in a movie. The strike was far enough away from my office so that I did not hear the thunder.

Today is Day Three in the non-destruction work at the building next door. Nothing happened except some dust got blown around again today.

I know that more happened today but I am just unclear whether or nor it rises to the level of significance of being included in the daily blog. Maybe I will toss some in as filler in the Weekend Update.

Be well and stay happy.

Monday's happen

Yes gentle readers, Mondays do happen. One happened to me yesterday for sure and certain.

I had every intention of posting a blog last night.

Then, ICQ happened to me. One of the young Chinese women who have chatted with me was online when I logged into the computer. She started chatting with me as soon as I came online. That chat was going along nicely when another young Chinese woman approached me for a chat.

I seem to attract young Chinese women of late. I wonder why that is.

I try to be helpful and friendly to all so I agreed to chat with her.

I figure I am helping these women with their English language skills and that will help them if they work in business or government. Besides, if I ever go to China on a vacation, I have personal Chinese speaking tour guides to help me find my way around some of the major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

That would be epic.

Our chats lasted for about 90 minutes and that just sucked all of my time for blog writing down the drain and gone forever.

The building next door to my office had no deconstruction yesterday or today. I wonder what caused that. The site is a mess with debris all over the place. On the other hand, I did not miss the noise of the power jack hammer that was breaking up the parking lot or the dust clouds that blocked the views.

It is hot in Los Angeles this week. The temperature at my office got up to around 86F / 30C today. It is hot everywhere except at the beach. That is great except I am work when the weather is perfect and home when it is crummy.

Sunday is a wonderful example of the crummy weather. While it was hot elsewhere, it was never even warm. The low coastal clouds hung on all day long. I went out on the balcony to read and smoke a cigar. I came back in to put on long pants because it was too cool to just sit there and read. If I had been active, I could have worn shorts and been very comfortable.

I spent yesterday and most of today editing a document that I created. When I first started out on the project last year, it was around 500 pages long. With some more diligent editing, I have it down to fewer than 230 pages. Document editing is less than fun but something that has to be completed so it can be published sometime next quarter.

I certainly had a dull two days didn’t I?

Oh well, life goes on and so will I.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Hello gentle readers.

This is likely to be one of my shorter Weekend Updates, primarily because I did not do very much this weekend. Life is like that sometimes.

The Big Guy made it into my office for lunch on Friday with almost no complications. We did have one small momentary driving distress when he missed the entrance to the building parking structure. This was understandable since the place is mostly torn up with construction. He has not been here before. We were able to overcome the difficulty.

I took the Big Guy and his friend Mark to lunch at a place next door to the office. It is called The Cellar. The Big Guy said it had a very English pub sort of vibe to it. Lunch was nice; I had a club sandwich, Mark had a patty melt I think, and the Big Guy had uncharacteristic chicken teriyaki sandwich.

After lunch, I took them on a tour of the office. It is a small office space so it was a short tour. Then, they departed for Amoeba Music and obscure CDs and DVDs.

Vivian, the office assistant, was speaking with me afterwards. We were talking about going to see the new Rob Zombie film, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS, that opens next weekend. She wants to go see it and I thought that was really great. I don’t know of too many women who would want to see the film, given the violence and barrels of fake blood that are splattered around.

Vivian also commented that she didn’t realize how much shorter the Princess is then the Big Guy. I said the Princess wasn’t short; the Big Guy was just really tall.

As many of you know, I am a big science fiction fan so I was in sci-fi heaven Friday when Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis had their season premieres. I tired to stay up for the premiere of Battlestar Galactica but it was too late for me. I will wait for the reruns later on to catch Battlestar.

I think I like the new cast members and the plot changes in the Stargate series. I will reserve judgment until after I have the initial episodes completed so I can understand the changes better.

Saturday was a day for DVDs and Tommy’s Original Hamburgers.

I don’t buy any DVDs between the middle of April and Father’s Day. I do this to make it easier for the Princess and Big Guy to find something to give me. It makes it easier for them since they have a list of DVDs that I want and they can go pick from that. Although the list, the AFI 100 Greatest Films, is getting smaller with time, there are about twenty or some films on the list.

When the AFI list is exhausted, I will have the New York Times 1000 Greatest Films list to work. If I was really ambitious, I would update the missing NYT 1000 with the DVDs that I have now. I have a couple of hundred DVDs and most are what you would call classic films.

My goal is to build a massive collection of DVDs so that I will have something to watch in my retirement. I’m betting that television will not suddenly and permanently improve in the near future.

The Big Guy and I stopped at Tommy’s for lunch. This was logical because it was on the way to DVD Planet.com, our favorite DVD store.

We both ordered a Mega Combo meal for lunch. The Mega Combo is a triple chili cheeseburger, chili cheese fries, and a mammoth drink. It is so good that words can not truly describe the eating enjoyment. I should point out that I do this about three or four times a year so I do not truly over indulge all of the time.

I was surprised that I was not feeling bloated and blah after the meal.

The Big Guy picked up a couple of DVDs while I picked up a dozen or so. One of the DVDs is a boxed set of Hiroshi Inagaki’s THE SAMURAI TRILOGY staring Toshiro Mifune. I have become a large fan of the classic samurai films like THE SEVEN SAMURAI, RAN, and THRONE OF BLOOD.

I do have one complaint about buying DVDs. Some companies put their products in a nice package with no plastic wrapping. This forces the retailer to put the price sticker on the outer packaging that I through away because I can’t take the price sticker off without ruining the outer packaging. I threw four packages away when I got home yesterday and that really bothers me. I don’t see why if they can cramp four or five films on to one DVD that they can’t find a packaging process that does not result in a tossing of the box.

After dinner, I watched The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin. It was Episode 76. It was really interesting last night. There was no battle but the drama level increased just the same.

Yi Soon-Shin has defied the King’s order to attack the main Japanese fleet that is at anchor in Pusan. The decision to delay the attack is very sound. The Korean fleet, undefeated in 12 battles would be outnumbered substantially; Yi has about 50 warships while the Japanese have 400 of all types.

You don’t have to be Admiral Nelson to know that these are really long odds. Besides, attacking in a harbor shifts the advantage to the defender, unless, of course, you are French admiral. Inside the harbor, Yi’s fleet would lose its strategic advantages completely.

Once the Korean fleet is destroyed in Pusan Harbor, the war is lost and Korea becomes a fief of the Japanese shogun. Clearly, not the best of all possible outcomes.

Yi has refused two orders to attack. The government intends to replace him with lesser quality sailors. The regional military commander refused to remove Yi because he knows there is no one else who can successfully lead the Korean navy.

The overall command of the Navy is offered to a lesser commander. He refuses the order and leaves with his ships to join Yi.

The overall command of the Navy is offered to a third commander. This commander is the worst choice because he does not understand naval battle tactics and strategy. He only knows how to attack the enemy head-on. This is a sure tactic for defeat and massive loss of life.

His officers know this and they mutiny. They take their ships and sail off to join Yi because they know sailing under Yi’s command offers the best prospects of them coming home alive after the battle.

Absolutely fascinating, first, treason and then mutiny.

I had planned to the movies today. I had everything all planned out; I would see WEDDING CRASHERS first and then catch CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. I could get in and see the two films and be home in time for diner and The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin tonight.

Unfortunately, the local multiplex [Pacific Theater’s Beach Cities] screwed up with the film scheduling. They did not check to make sure the correct films were in the proper theater. By the time the manager figured things out, it was too late for me. I could see the first film sure enough but I would not be able to see the second film in time for my other plans.

The manager was a little miffed when I asked for my money back. She wanted to know why I was leaving. I don’t think she appreciated my pointing out her obvious management failures in front of some of her staff.

I did not care about her feelings. If she had done her job, things would have run properly. She had the last clear chance to avoid any trouble.

Besides, never, ever, ask a question that you don’t or may not want to hear the answer.

I had hoped for a nifty, climactic battle with The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin tonight but I was disappointed. It looks like I will have to wait until next weekend to see the outcome of the battle. The ending of tonight’s episode had the Korean fleet sailing down a narrow passage. The Japanese are expecting them and plan to bombard the Korean fleet from the high ground surrounding the channel.

Very nice cliff hanger there writers.

And, those, gentle readers, were the highpoints of my weekend. On balance, I consider the weekend to have been a success for me. I hope your weekend was a success as well.

Be well and stay happy.

Unclear on the concepts

Hello gentle readers.

I know I haven’t been posting on my usual schedule this week. I have missed the posts and sharing my observations. I have been distracted the last two days but now I am back on track.

On Tuesday, I received my new external floppy drive for my laptop. The floppy drive that came with the six year old machine failed on me. It would not allow any diskettes to be read; sort of a serious problem. The new drive came from Kowloon, Hong Kong in only four days and that is really fast service.

I also picked up my two new suits at the cleaners. They arrived on last Thursday and I took them in to be pressed on Saturday. The Princess would understand how distracting new clothes can be.

On Wednesday, I went to the market on my way home. The drive home was really bad for no accidents on my route. By the time I put away the food and had some dinner, it was already 8:30 PM and my bed looked mighty inviting so I went to bed early and slept well.

On to the topic.

I was driving home yesterday when I ended up behind a blonde in a convertible. The top was down. It was windy in the car when she drove; it was also just plain windy at the beach yesterday as well. Every time we came to a traffic light, she pulled out her brush and tried to comb out her tangled hair.

She was unclear of the concept that one needs to either wear a hat or put your hair in a ponytail if you want to avoid tangles when riding in a convertible with the top down. That seems so painfully obvious to me.

Maybe she went to BYU.

The other observation also involved a blonde, cellphones, and driving. I try to avoid using cell phones unless I am stuck in traffic. If I am not moving, I can not be much of a risk to other drivers.

Logical, right?

I was taking the Princess to the airport for her flight back home to Atlanta Sunday morning. I saw this blonde, again a blonde but a different blonde, starting up a pick truck. She was talking on her cell phone, pulling away from the parking spot, and generally not paying attention to the task at hand, namely safe driving.

I saw her look in the rear view mirror to check for oncoming traffic; that would be the Princess and me. She never turned her head to see if she missed a car in the blind spot; that would have been our truck.

I laid on a good blast of my horn to warn her.

Surprise, surprise; she was shocked that someone would blow their horn at her. Naturally, she was not wearing a seat and shoulder belt so she got bounced into the steering wheel when she slammed on the brakes. Probably deserved that too.

I was very upset and used language that I save for special occasions like this one. The Princess was surprised. She said she was glad the windows were closed. I can have a nasty temper. She also said the idiot deserved.

She probably went to UCLA.

Other observations on life.

The workers on the adjacent building had another fire in the roofing material today. It was not very serious and only flared for a few minutes. The workers were on the roof at the time so they were able to quickly put it out. There was no real danger, I hope anyway.

As I was watching the workers put the small fire out, I can to a scary conclusion. They might be tearing the older building down so a new high rise could be built in its place. If the new building were to be ten or twelve stories or more tall, it would generally block out the really nice view that I have.

That would really suck.

Part of the roof at the old building was used as an open air employee lunch and recreation [smoking] area. There were some plants on the roof but they are all gone except for two forlorn and sickly looking potted palm trees. The workers seem to water the trees but why are they left in the middle of piles of construction debris?

Inquiring minds want to know why.

I wore one of new suits to work yesterday. It was a tan chalk stripe suite. I had on a light blue shirt and I wore a new tie that Princess got me for Father’s Day. Vivian, the office assistant, said I looked cute in the suit. I wasn’t sure how to take that so I accepted it as a compliment. Vivian said she loves men in striped business suits. She also thought the new Tommy Bahama tie looked great with the suit.

Cool.

The Big Guy is going to stop by my office tomorrow on his way to Amoeba Music. Actually, I am out of his way but he is coming by around noon so he can score a free lunch from Dad. His sister did the same thing when she was in town. We will go to a less fancy place because he will in shorts and probably unshaven. You can dress like that as a student or really successful film director.

I got a call from the Big Guy as he was leaving the 36th Annual Comic Convention in San Diego today. We used to go to Comic-Con when he was younger. I think he and I went for maybe five or six Comic-Cons and then we grew out of that phase of our lives. He said the scored a bootleg copy of BLADE RUNNER, another film, and a couple of comic books. We will have something to talk about at lunch tomorrow.

I read in the trades today [Daily Variety and Hollywood Reporter] that Comic-Con was becoming more mainstream and less comic book oriented. Lions Gate Films will premiere the new Rob Zombie film, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS on Saturday at the convention. This should create a real Internet buzz of the film is any good.

Looking ahead to the weekend, it looks very good. Tomorrow night, I have the season premieres of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica. Not a bad way to spend a Friday evening. On Saturday, the Big Guy and I are going to Tommy’s for lunch [double chili cheeseburger, chili cheese fries, and a root beer] and then on to DVD Planet.com to pick up some new DVDs. And, let's not forget the Immortal Yi Soon-Shin.

Not too bad.

Time for me to go check my pile of email and clean out the in box. I hope you all have a great weekend and I will catch up on the flipside with the Weekend Update on Sunday.

Be well and stay happy.

More from the Weekend

I got tired last night gentle readers and did not finish all that I had to say. I figured that I would not have too much to write today because I was scheduled to be in meetings for most of the day.

The Father's Day Celebration at Morton’s Steakhouse in Costa Mesa was excellent on Saturday. I got a little hung up in traffic but still got to the restaurant in time for the meal. The Princess and the Big Guy arrived ahead of me and held our table.

The Big Guy and I had fun with our server Amy. We had Amy as our server before for my birthday dinner during Chuckay [end of May blogs]. We were nodding our heads yes to some of her menu suggestions and shaking our heads no to others. Amy laughed at us and then picked up what we were saying with out gestures. The shaking heads meant that we would never consider that recommendation so there was no need to talk about it.

Amy helped make our meal memorable; she even found extra scoops of ice cream for my dessert, flowerless chocolate cake. The flowerless chocolate cake was just perfect.

As we all know, chocolate is life.

For the record, Amy was properly taken care of with her tip. At least, I think she recognized our appreciation when she saw the amount and then said something like, “Ohmygod.”

Moving along, I was stuffed when I got home. I did sleep very well Saturday night. I also did not eat very much on Sunday.

The Princess flew home on Sunday to Atlanta. She was worried about the flight and Hurricane Dennis [she hates to fly]. We had talked about her flight for several days before take-off so she was less apprehensive. The Princess also had an idea of when and where the rough weather would be and that helped to lower her stress levels.

I packed the Princess a bag of food since the airlines do not provide anything that resembles food. I picked up a small submarine sandwich, a liter of water, a large chocolate candy bar, a container of peanuts, an energy bar, and a container of potato chips. It has all of the essential food groups including all of the bad ones. She does not starve when I pack her flight lunch. What doesn’t get eaten on the plane gets consumed at home with her roommate Emily.

Speaking of Emily, she should have cracked open one of the fresh bags of coffee this morning. I wonder if she opened the Jamaica Blue Mountain or the Kona coffees.

I think I have told you before that I am a loan office for a commercial bank in Southern California. From time to time, we get really interesting loan request stories. I will share one of them with you.

One of our branch managers called me last week to ask if we would consider granting a short term loan, about two or three weeks long, to a new company that we knew nothing about. The loan was to be secured with an assignment of a letter of credit. On the surface, it seemed like a logical deal.

I think it was a scam and that the letter of credit was a phony. The proposed applicant said that they had been given a $5 million line of credit by a local bank to start up their new business of importing hand cranked cell phone and flashlight chargers.

I could see how the scam would unfold. We would advance money against the security of the letter of credit. The money and the borrowers would be long gone when we discovered the letter of credit was a fake.

Call me silly or naïve; but, wouldn’t you think that a bank that popped for $5 million would be good for a couple of thousand more? I would think so. That was a dead giveaway. If one bank has given you a bunch of money, you don’t go to a bank that you have no connection with for more money.

The proposed borrower went on to ask our branch manager about getting a loan for a whole bunch of money from the bank to buy a resort in Antigua. We are a local bank, we only lend in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

I know I would have no trouble in finding volunteers who would be willing to fly to Antigua to check out the resort that we would be financing. The volunteer would probably want to stay at the resort for a week or so just to be able to check everything out.

In the end, I suggested to the branch manager that she should be very careful with this group if they open an account with the bank. I also said the proposed borrowers could be better served at Bank of America or Wells Fargo Bank.

Some days, it almost pays to stay in bed.

Tomorrow ought to be a more interesting day. I hope your tomorrow is an excellent one for you.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Well gentle readers, it is the end of the weekend for me and that means it is time for another Weekend Update blog posting. The posting is mostly a rambling collection of observations and event.

On Thursday, we had the tragedy in London. That limited and rightly so my desire to toss out some humorous observations. I continue to sympathize with the Londoners and the citizens of the United Kingdom. I am confident that they will overcome this event.

I was very happy to see that London won the right to host the 2012 Olympics. I was even happier that New York City lost and lost badly in the voting. New York City seems to have this self serving, all importance, arrogant attitude that just rubs me so wrongly. I can not stand the New Yorkers belief that their city deserved the bid just because they submitted one. They are a bunch of people that do not want to work for the goals.

Paris is still waiting after twenty years of submitting bids. Let New York submit bids for twenty years and then maybe they can be considered.

But, a successful bid requires a unified city and New York is anything but that. They couldn’t even get a local state senator to support the key stadium project because he felt it would divert state construction money away from his district.

That, my friends, is anything but what a world class city would do.

I thought it was particularly cool that the Londoners celebrated the bid award in Trafalgar Square. 200 years ago Lord Nelson, with an outnumbered English fleet, decisively beat the combine French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. He must have been smiling when Madrid and Paris lost to London.

The Big Guy’s continuing saga with his Story Structure class is over. Gentle readers, you will remember, no doubt, the on-going discussion in these pages about how unfair his instructor was in grading. It is all over now, including the shouting. The Big Guy earned a 4.0 [highest mark] on his final paper and a 4.0 mark for the class. We are both happy that this course is over. It also means he is out of Summer School until the regular session starts up in August.

The Big Guy is planning to make a trip to Amoeba Music this week and include a swing past Dads’ office for lunch. We will not be going to the same place that I took The Princess and her best friend Kim. We will go to a more informal place that tolerates shorts and tee-shirts and unshaven faces. The other place also serves large and tasty hamburgers while The Belvedere does not; this is a key point for the Big Guy.

For those of you that are not in Southern California, Amoeba Music is a huge CD and DVD store. They have one of the largest selections of his type of music. I would explain what his type of music is but I am unsure of how to describe it. If you visit his blog site, http://skeetonmischa.blogspot.com, I am highly confident that you will be able to form an opinion of what he likes to listen to.

I had to pick up some coffee for The Princess’ roommate, Emily. Em likes the coffee from a local company, the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, better than what she can find in Atlanta. I selected two pounds that looked like good stuff and asked to have them ground so Em would be able to avoid having to do this. The pre-ground coffee can be a real time saver in the morning.

The counter clerk asked me if the ground coffee “was for here or to go?” I said to go. Wasn’t it sort of obvious that the ground coffee was for consumption at some other place? I certainly did not have an empty coffee pot and kettle of boiling water with me.

Maybe it was too, too early in the morning for the counter clerk.

I think I mentioned to you all a while ago about the building next to my office building that is being torn down.

Anyway, on Friday afternoon, I was looking out of my window while I was talking to a co-worker about the status of a common project we are working on. I noticed that a small portion of the roof was on fire, apparently from some welding work. Since the building is only a concrete shell now, there was not too much damage that could be done.

My co-worker got concerned and said shouldn’t I hang up and call the fire department. I said I could but that since there are two twenty story building that over look the deconstruction site, I was reasonably confident that I was not the only person who was looking out of an office window on a Friday afternoon. Someone else surely must have seen the fire and reported it.

Sure enough, some workers showed up. They had been cleaning up and were probably on their way home for the weekend. They spent about an hour soaking the roof section with water and tearing it up so there were no more burning embers.

I was glad no one called the fire department because the trucks would have just made a horrible mess of the Friday afternoon going home traffic. No one wants that and there was not too much of any danger.

The Princess and her friends Kim and Sara took the Take No Prisoners Tour to South Orange County. She said they had a great time playing with young men’s emotions. The Princess did acknowledge that it seemed likely that Kim took at least one prisoner. I guess I will feel sorry for him.

I think this should about cover it as far as the Weekend Update goes. I still have the Fathers’ Day celebration and I can save that for tomorrow’s posting.

Be well and stay happy.

Tragedy in London

I had some witty comments and observations that I thought I would be able to post tonight. After the tragedy in London today, I do not feel like writing in a humorous vein. It is not right and proper.

I was taken by the news reports of how stoically the British responded to the day’s awful events. It sort of established a benchmark for this sort of event. I was very impressed by their resolve.

The Germans couldn’t break the will of the English in 1940. I doubt a bunch of raghead crackpots will even come close to denting their pride and strength of character. I liked one comment in a news report that I read at lunch today. It sort of sums everything up in a tidy little sentence.

“It’s called Great Britain for a reason.”

Be well and stay happy.

Post 4th of July Thoughts

The fireworks display was not that good in my hometown yesterday. But, it was not the fault of the city or anyone else. We had fog and low clouds come in. Some of the rockets burst above the fog level and we could not see the explosion. We could hear the explosion and then see the clouds glowing from the rocket's glare

This sort of thing happens when you live at the beach.

I did manage to catch some of the really dreadful network television holiday broadcasts.

I don’t know why these so-called musical artists have to offer their own impression of a great American classic song. Most could not write a decent song if their lives depended on it. They certainly can’t improve on George M. Cohen or Irving Berlin or Stephen Foster. Just sing the song that way it was written. It is much, much that way.

The Princess and her best girl friend came to visit Daddy for lunch. I took them to the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. It is an entertainment industry hotel but we did not see anyone famous or at least I did not see anyone that I could recognize as being famous.

The Princess and the best friend were quite taken by the menu. Kim, the best friend, said she was speechless over the choices for lunch. The Princess had a turkey burger and Kim had a salmon burger. Their meals looked very tasty.

We did a very un-L. A. thing at lunch. We walked to lunch. It was only a long two blocks to get there so it was not a long walk. Besides, the Princess said walking was better than being stuck in traffic. The Princess just hates being stuck in traffic.

I exercised restraint and had a salad for lunch. I knew I would be having some yummy chocolate for dessert. In fact, we all had chocolate for dessert. That was a perfect end to a great lunch.

After all, chocolate is life.

I know this is a short posting. But, the weekend update sort of drained all of the things that I could write about. I will not have a posting tomorrow night. I need to go do some other things and will not have time to do a posting.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update - 4th of July

So much happened and where to begin gentle readers?

I think it will be easier if I just go chronologically. I should avoid missing any key steps along the “yellow brick road.”

Oh, the drama.

Oh, the humanity of it all.

Oh, the female blond college dummy from Boston.

It was a near tragedy of monumental and epic proportions. The female blond college dummy from Boston was wailing on her cell phone, in a voice that was way too loud so that even I could hear her, with my bad hearing, whether I wanted to or not.

I was at the airport to pick up the Princess who was flying in from Atlanta.

She was telling the person on the other end of the phone connection that the flight numbers were all wrong and the times were all wrong. She was moaning about the fact that she would never be able to pick up her party who was coming in from Atlanta. She was decrying the incompetence of Delta Airlines.

I think she was actually on the edge of a panic attack.

And, she was spoiling my contemplation of the passing parade of people waiting for their arrivals with her pathetic compliants.

I got up from my comfy as possible airport terminal waiting area furniture and pointed out to Bambi the Bimbo that she was reading the Departure Schedule instead of the Arrival Schedule. That did make a significant difference.

Then, I sat down and returned to my contemplation of the passing parade in the terminal.

The look of shock and horror crept over her face as she came to the realization that some old fart [me, well, I have a full head of grey hair so that makes me look old] had just made a complete fool of her. I think she also realized that almost everyone else, within hearing range and that was a couple dozen people, knew the old fart had made a complete fool of her.

She ended her conversation with a curt, “I’ll call you back.” She clicked her phone off and gave me the nastiest look I can recall getting in a long, long time. If her looks could kill gentle readers, your humble scribe would now be writing from the great beyond or wherever I will end up when my time comes.

I won’t say bad things about the college in Boston that she may have attended because I don’t know for certain if she went there or someone just gave her a tee-shirt from the college in Boston.

Bambi the Bimbo was waiting for a young man who was on the same flight as the Princess. While the Princess and I were waiting for her bag, I was tempted to go tell the young man how his friend had made a fool of herself.

Then, I said no, it would be wrong to do that. Besides, based on her performance that I saw, I am highly confident that she will have more than one opportunity to demonstrate her mental ability or lack thereof in the very near future for him.

The Princess also liked Daddy’s Hawaiian or Aloha shirt from Tommy Bahama. She liked it and wanted to know why I was wearing it and shorts to pick her up. I said that we are in Southern California and it is Summer and this is an appropriate style of dress

The Princess’ flight was a good one, as flights these days go. She arrived safely and so did her bag. The bag was one of the early ones out of the plane and that was a real plus because her flight was late arriving in Los Angeles. She was happy the special TSA locks, that I picked up for her, worked on her bag. Daddy, as usual, found a close in parking spot so we had a very short walk to the Pathfinder.

The Pathfinder looked great after a wash and a wax. It was clean and shiny. The Princess was happy with the way it looked. I think the full gas tank excited her even more.

The Princess and I had a great lunch by ourselves. We ate at L. A. Food Show. It is in Manhattan Beach, California and it is one of our favorite casual dining places around. We talked about a number of things and ideas so it was time very well spent.

I told the Princess about the blog comment from last night about how she and her girl friends do not take prisoners when it comes to young men. She giggled and laughed and said that was true. She is going to tell the girls when she gets to Las Vegas and her roommate Emily when she gets back to Atlanta.

My trip to the doctor on Friday morning was successful. He commented that I was loosing weight and that everything looked good. He drained about 2 cc’s of stuff from the cyst on my wrist so it looks much better now and will be almost back to normal in a couple of days. And, I got one of my prescriptions renewed so I am good to go until annual checkup in about eight months.

All in all, the weekend’s start on Friday was excellent.

I had planned to see the new Miyazawa anime, HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE, at my local sterile multi-plex. It was playing there on Thursday. It was not playing there on Saturday. I guess it got pushed out by WAR OF THE WORLDS although they allowed the dreadful REBOUND to be shown there. It made no sense to me.

Anyway, I was glad that I woke up early. This gave me time to rethink my preliminary plans for the day. I did get in some laundry, nice to have clean clothes. While I was waiting for the dry cycle to run through, I checked the newspaper for a location to see the anime.

I decided to go to the multi-plex out by where the Big Guy lives. The drive was a little longer but there was much better freeway access and less traffic. And, the really big plus, I could park my car inside for free. This is always a key feature when you have a black car and you are faced with locking it up in the bright, warm sun of the morning and afternoon.

I did not invite the Big Guy to join me because I know he is not an anime fan like I am. Besides, he had to work on his mini-treatment final for his Story Structure class.

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE is an excellent Miyazawa anime. I really enjoyed myself. I thought some of the characters came from SPIRITED AWAY, especially when Sophie is changed into an old woman.

While it is certainly enjoyable and worth seeing, I find that I like his PRINCESS MONONOKE better. The characters seem more developed and it was easier to find an emotional attachment to them.

After the anime, I drove home, stopping at the market for food to grill over the weekend. I picked up some steaks and some chicken. This will last me about two weeks or so. My selection on Saturday afternoon was on the limited side. Still, there were plenty of choices.

Since it was too early to start cooking when I got home, I went out on the balcony and sat in the sun. I smoked a cigar while I read Business Week and Fortune magazines. It was a wonderful way to relax as the day wound down.

I grilled the steaks first because that seemed like a good idea to me. I had a small steak and a baked potato with sour cream and chives and a salad of a sliced tomato with chopped red onions.
The Big Guy called me while I was eating dinner. He called to say he had sent me his mini-treatment to review for him. I went to see if I could open it, I could, and then I said I would look at it after I watched my Korean historical drama series, The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin on television. I thought he would have the commented version back by 10:00 PM or so. I told him that I would call him on Sunday and we could take about my comments.

My Korean historical drama series, The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin, reaching a climax point. Yi is getting ready for his biggest naval engagement yet. He will take on the bulk of the Japanese navy, about 400 warships and transports, in a desperate battle to turn the tide of battle against the Japanese invasion forces. His forces are outnumbered and are approaching the point of being trapped, not the best position to be in.

I expect Yi will prevail over the Japanese commander, Wakazaki. The Japanese commander is too emotional and more concerned with his standing with the Shogun back in the Home Islands than in following orders. He also lacks the necessary battle discipline necessary to win at sea.

Yi has become something of a Korean version of Admiral Lord Nelson; he has beaten the Japanese in 21 straight naval engagements. Yi wins because he has been able to fight all of the battles from the position of strength. All of his battles are ones where he crosses the “T”. His fleet is the top of the “T” where it can fire its broadsides at the single approaching lead ship of the Japanese forces.

Parenthetically, I would add the Japanese finally did learn how to cross the T. Admiral Togo, with a vastly inferior in number fleet, defeated a Russian fleet in 1905 in the Battle of Tsushima. This lead to a cease fire in the Russo-Japanese War; the peace treaty was brokered by Theodore Roosevelt and that earned him the Noble Peace Prize.

I should also point out that the Koreans carry about 12 to 14 cannons on each warship while the Japanese can only carry 2 cannons and most of the Japanese fleet is without cannon. This provides a tremendous advantage of being able to destroy your enemy before he can come in range of your ships.

Sunday is my day to sit and read the paper. Actually, I sit and read the newspaper after I get rid of the advertisements and sections that I have no interest in. That cuts the paper in about half.

The Big Guy and I spent about 40 minutes on the phone today, discussing the mini-treatment and ways to make it better. I want to think that I helped him with the project. I think I was the voice of clarity. Some of the sections were so obscure that even I missed them and I am probably one of three or four most knowledgeable people about the subject matter.

Tonight’s episode of The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin was Episode 73. The battle between Yi and Wakazaki has just started with Wakazaki falling for Yi’s opening gambit. The opening gambit is a defensive maneuver to break up the integrity of the Japanese fleet by giving them some Korean ships that are part of the attack van guard, to chase. The Japanese appear to have taken the gambit and are breaking up their formation to chase the Koreans.

The upcoming battle looks like a replay of the great Greek victory over the Persians at Salamis in 480 BC. For those of you that have not studied naval history, the situation is about the same. The Greeks were badly outnumbered, hopelessly outnumbered would have been a better term. The large Persian fleet had chased the Greeks into Salamis where they planned to smash them.
The Greeks knew the waters and had chosen the battle site with great care. The large Persian fleet could not enter the area as a group. Small groups of Persian ships could only go through the narrow entrance at a time. When the small groups of Persian ships came through the narrows, they were rammed and sunk by the Greeks, who now had a numerical superiority.

In the end, it was a total defeat for the Persians. Without their navy to protect the supply convoys, the Persian army would either starve or retreat. It retreated in bad order and was cut up all along its line of retreat.

The Japanese fleet must travel through a narrow body of water at low tide. According to tonight’s episode, the narrows are really narrows, around 400 yards or under 400 meters wide. When you allow for rocks and shoal water, the navigable gap is much less.

It would appear that the Japanese are headed for the same end as the Persians almost 2,000 year earlier. I will probably miss most of the battle next Saturday when I go celebrate Father’s Day with the Princess and the Big Guy. I will ask the Big Guy to tape it for me.

Full and fair disclosure: I do know how to program a VCR. I can even set the time. The trouble is the cable box. The cable box was manufactured by X Company and I have a product manual from Y Company. Those of you with Adelphia Cable already know that I am lucky just to have a manual.

I slept in on Monday. It felt good to stay in bed until 6:30 AM. I know that may be early or very early for some but it is late when you are used to 5:00 AM reveilles.

I did do some more writing on my dissertation today and feel very good about my progress. I know that I should be much, much further along. I think I have lacked the motivation to work harder on it. Recently, though, I have become more focused and anxious to finish it and become a Doctor of Business Administration with a concentration in Management.

This afternoon I took advantage of the sun being out and read on my balcony. I finished a book by C.K. Prahalad titled, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. It is a very fascinating book that offers a simple solution to solving the problems caused by poverty in the Third World. Surprisingly, it avoids all of the tired and failed panaceas of large scale cash donations and other failures. It also increases the likelihood that democracy will take a strong hold in countries that adopt the solution.

Obviously, the solution is unlikely to see the light of day anywhere in Africa. The solution kills off corruption and bribery with clear and transparent government. Corruption does not survive in the light of public inquiry.

I had wanted to see the 4th of July concert by the Boston Pops Orchestra tonight. I have always enjoyed their version of the “1812 Overture with cannon.” And, no orchestra does “Stars and Stripes” like the Boston Pops. Unfortunately, it will not be broadcast locally until 10:00 PM. The one hour broadcast is just too late for me to stay up for, regardless of how much I would enjoy it.

In an hour or so, I will walk down the beach and watch our local fireworks. It is not as spectacular as the Boston event. It is close and easy to get to. I can walk and there is no parking to deal with. Of course, the music will not be there but life is full of compromises anyway.

I hope you enjoyed the Independence Day weekend if you live in the United States of America. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed your weekend.

If you enjoy your freedom, be sure to thank a veteran.

Be well and stay happy.