Slow Day

Hello again gentle readers. I hope your day was productive and happy.

This blog post is going to be short because it was a slow day for me. I spent a lot of time waiting people to return my phone calls and emails. This is not a productive day in most respects.

Non-Deconstruction Day
It was Days 33 and 8 respectively. I did see what appeared to be the security agent’s car tonight at the building next door on my way home. I guess that is a positive sign of some sort.

Balancing Checkbooks Visitor Count
The visitor count passed the 1,250 mark yesterday so those of you that visited yesterday can pat yourselves on your collective backs. I know that this number is not 1,250 unique individuals so the actual number of regular visitors is much smaller.

Quality over quantity I think.

Vivian the Office Assistant’s House Warming Party
Vivian is having a house warming party on Saturday at her new condominium. She invited the Big Guy go to the party. Actually, she asked the Big Guys’ dad to pass along the invitation. Vivian said it would be a good place for him to meet girls. I said I would let him know but expressed my doubts that he would go.

I phoned the Big Guy but he was out so I left him a message to call his favorite dad. The Big Guy rang back. We talked about the pros and cons of the party. He decided that he would pass and concentrate on school work so he can get a head start on some of his course papers before things too hectic at school.

Odd Ball Event
You tell me if this sounds off to you.

A local business is going to have an Oktoberfest promotion. It is held in a look alike Bavarian village or at least what we think passes for Bavaria in Southern California.

One of the events is team beer stein holding. That works very well for me. It is logical and appropriate. There are a number of other similar events. It all sounded pretty good to me until I heard about the grand prize.

The grand prize is a trip to Germany of course. You could probably schedule the trip to be in Munich for Oktoberfest. Here’s the catch; you fly to Germany on Air India.

Air India?

Do you fly from Los Angeles to Hong Kong [stop for fuel] to Mumbai to change planes and then on to Berlin? There are lots of other airlines that fly from Los Angeles to Germany including Deutsche Lufthansa, the German national airline, and a bunch of American flag carriers.

That just sounds so wrong to me on every count.

That was my day. Be well and stay happy.

Catch Up Day

Hello gentle readers. Today is a catch up day and not a ketchup day. I missed yesterday because I went out to dinner with the Younger Brother. When I got home, I was tired and went to bed.

The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin
Sunday was an overly long episode that featured Yi’s torture. I think it was overdone and could have been made shorter without losing any affect or impact. The end result of the torture is his life will be much shorter and he was replaced by men who are much less competent.

Who will the King blame next when the replacements don’t win the war? He couldn’t blame himself because that would be much too honest. I suppose he will blame the leaders that die in battle since they can not defend themselves.

I am guessing that next week’s episodes will have the navy entering battle with the Japanese. Most of the navy officer corps have no confidence in the new admiral and were on the verge of mutiny last weekend. Already, most of the skilled and senior officers have resigned their commissions. Of course, the Japanese morale has soared and the Korean morale has sunken to new depths. Not the best of conditions when you are facing a major battle.

The new Korean admiral needs to make a brilliant motivational speech if he is to rally the sailors and officers. I’m thinking something along the lines of Henry V just before Agincourt, sort of a nautical version of the “band of brothers” speech. Unfortunately, the new admiral is not a motivational speaker of any standing.

Cinema
I did go see THE BROTHERS GRIMM this weekend instead of THE CONSTANT GARDENER. GRIMM was interesting and I enjoyed the CGI work. Surprisingly, there was a large adult audience for a Saturday matinee. The film had an interesting plot twist to it so that helped make the film more interesting.

The Big Guy said it had sat on the shelf for two years before its hurried release this Summer. He is one of those cinema lovers who believe it is a very bad sign when a film sits on the shelf. I suppose he is right. The film could still have been gathering dust on the shelf had it not been for the breakup of the Disney – Weinstein film business.

While I enjoyed it, I don’t think you should rush out to see it. If you do feel compelled to toss your hard earned down at the multiplex ticket booth, go catch the bargain matinee. Save your money for something worthwhile like BROKEN FLOWERS instead.

Non-Deconstruction Day
Today was Day 32 and Day 7 in the building next door and the floor hallway construction projects. I did not see the security agent’s car when I left work tonight. I wonder if that is significant.

Steak and Lobster Dinners
The Big Guy and I were talking about my dinner with the Younger Brother yesterday. I told the Big Guy we were going to a seafood place near my house. I said he might like it since the restaurant does serve steak and probably lobster as well.

The Big Guy said his idea of steak and lobster is, “asking for the biggest lobster and the smallest steak.” I could almost see him smiling as he said that.

Dinner with the Younger Brother
Dinner was good last night.

We had a window table that faced west. It was almost like being in San Francisco except for the fact there were no bridges or islands in the middle of the bay to look at. Since we were in Southern California, there was no fog either. We watched a brilliant sunset.

That was not a bad venue for a meal.

I had a really wonderful salmon chowder that was made in a lobster bisque stock, a shrimp and avocado salad, baked salmon in a tomato fennel sauce, and an incredibly rich and excessive piece of chocolate cake for dessert.

The shrimp and avocado salad was a big spoonful of shrimp and guacamole served on a lettuce leaf with two tomato slices. It came with two toasted slice of French bread. I put the shrimp and avocado mixture on the bread and ate my salad that way. Tasty.

The salmon was generic baked salmon. It tasted nice but it was nothing to write home about. The tomato fennel sauce was a bit too much and that detracted from the meal.

The Brother had a cup of French onion soup instead of a fish chowder. He said it was good. I’ll take his word for it. He skipped a salad.

He selected a baked halibut that was very good according to him. Since he regularly eats at fish restaurants in San Francisco, I will accept that as a strong compliment.

He ordered a new chardonnay wine last night. It was called Toasted Head. I had a glass of it as well. It was very nice and not a heavy chardonnay. I would have preferred to have had the wine served when my dinner was served and not two thirds of the way through my salmon. Our server was young and she tired her best so I guess I will not fault her.

I overindulged with a too rich piece of chocolate cake. I think I am done with desserts until October now. It was very, very good and I enjoyed every bit and so did the Brother who helped himself to several bites.

The Brother thinks I should get a new car, you know, an $80,000 Mercedes Benz. He says my Prelude rides like it has 325,000 miles on it. It does but the small vibrations act as little massages for my lower back that has been sore off and on for over 30 years. Besides, the Prelude is a comfortable car to sit in for me. I have driven it for just over 11 hours straight once with only one break for fuel. I should have mentioned that it get 25 to 26 miles to the gallon in town and more on the highway. I did mention that it was paid for and that means something.

The Brother does not have a lot of room to talk about cars. He drives an older Saturn and Saturns have no style or image expect maybe as fine cars for school teachers.

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend two hours.

The Princess
I am guessing the Princess is happy with her new umbrella I got her. She had a chance to test it out in the rain from Hurricane Katrina as she left work last night. I am confident that she would have called me if the umbrella had let her down in any respect.

I think I could go on for another page but this looks like a nice place to stop for today. I will have some things to write about tomorrow.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Non-Deconstruction Status
It was Day 30 for the building next door and Day 5 for the hallway walls on Friday.

I saw a sign up in our building lobby on my way to my office on Friday. It said the building renovation would be completed by Winter 2005.

When is Winter 2005 and when does it end? Since the operative time line is 2005, that means we only have another four months and a couple of days until the project is completed unless there is an act of God or other catastrophe.

I think I can last that long.

Gasoline Price Update
This is a tale of two cities, sort of. I drove by the Chevron refinery in El Segundo over the weekend. Mid-grade gasoline was $3.01 a gallon at the station right on the refinery grounds. At the Chevron station at the foot of the hill that I live on, mid-grade was $2.93 a gallon even though it is five or six miles – eight to nine kilometers from the refinery.

I never realized how expensive it must be to send the gasoline through a pipeline directly to the station when compared to trucking to the station.

Now back to the regularly scheduled Weekend Update.

Blond Asian Female
In my building, they have an access control in place in the early morning and late evening hours. You need to use a coded pass to trigger the elevator to go to your floor. It is not a difficult process or complicated. You wave your coded device by the sensor and then push your floor button. The doors close and the elevator goes to your floor. Simple.

I got in the elevator and waved my device by the sensor and push my floor. Before the doors closed, a rather tallish and attractive Asian woman got into the car. She was deeply engrossed in her Blackberry and what looked like emails or her schedule. She didn’t bother to swipe her access device.

I was going to say something but I didn’t want to intrude on her mental space. I knew she did not work on my floor. The elevator car stopped on my floor since it was the only stop called for. I started to get out when she came to her senses. She said something an Asian language that I can only guess was something that you do not repeat in polite company. She swiped her device and pushed her floor button as the doors closed.

She was clearly attractive and I had considered speaking to her for a moment or two. But, after her outburst, I was turned off. I was more turned off by her breath which was heavily laden with garlic.

The Blonde Asian would have been a perfect companion if you were planning to hunt vampires. I don’t think she could fit into any of my plans. I am sure she has other admirable qualities; I don’t want to get that close to discover what they might.

She is probably a great cook who uses excessive amounts of garlic in everything she prepares. I wonder if she likes garlic ice cream?

[Editorial note: I decided to add captions so that you, my gentle readers, can find the comments that interest you the most.]

Customer Call
I had scheduled a customer call for Friday afternoon. A customer call is when a banker visits a borrower or prospective borrower at his or her place of business. We get a tour of the source of our loan repayment and an explanation of how it all comes together. Bankers do not know everything and the visit helps put some solidity to the loan proposal.

Friday was a good day for a call since it was business casual dress on Friday. It is always good to be comfortable. Borrowers do not care how a banker dresses so long as the loan request is approved and funded quickly.

Unfortunately for me, Friday was one of the hottest days of the year so far. It was about 101F or 37 - 38C on Friday. The drive from my office to the business was fine because I had the air conditioning on in the car.

After spending a very informative 90 minutes with the potential borrower, I just knew my drive home was going to be terrible. I didn’t even try to put the air conditioning on because the outside air was so hot and the car metal was well heated. I drove with the windows down and the sunroof open.

I could feel the air cool off dramatically as I started down to the coastal plain from the Santa Monica Mountains [really high hills]. By the time I reached my exit, the clouds were rolling in over the beach and it was getting almost chilly. I said almost chilly.

It was nice to be home. The hot shower felt even better.

Potential Darwin Award
I was reading the online news posts from my ISP at lunch or Friday. There was an article about a Florida family of five that had set sail in a 25 foot – 7 meter long boat in the face of Hurricane Katrina.

Hello! There’s a big hurricane out there and you don’t know where it is for certain.

Now I will admit that I have never sailed in a hurricane in my life. I have sailed in two typhoons when I served on the good ship USS Leonard F. Mason in the great Pacific fleet. The waves were running over the top of the ship and the winds were well in excess of 65 miles – 105 kilometers an hour. The winds were probably higher but the top of the mast was carried in the storm and it had the wind sensor on it. The waves cracked the inch thick steel plate on the front of the forward gun shield.

A typhoon or hurricane is just plain dangerous.

Fortunately for the innocent family members and unfortunately for the rest of the human gene pool, the Coast Guard managed to save them. Their boat was a total loss and maybe that will keep them off the high seas.

The Darwin Award is a prize that recognizes the least use of common intelligence in the human species. This family may qualify for the award.

They do have some strong competition from the late gun store robber. The robber decided to rob a gun store. He walked around a police cruiser to get to the store door. The robber fired a gun and said, “This is a hold up.” The store clerk, the policeman, and most of the customers were armed and they fired back. The robber died at the scene with thirty entry wounds. The coroner counted over seventy empty shell casings.

This robber was not thinking clearly when he selected the gun store.

Saturday and Sunday activities
I managed to sleep in on Saturday. After I had finished reading the newspaper, I ran some errands.

I went to a computer store to see if I could find the Linksys power cord adapters for the Big Guy’s home networking project. There were none in stock, only wireless. Wireless, while convenient and easy to install, seems like too much of a risk since you can’t control the size of your wireless access bubble.

It was an unnecessary trip since our ISP requires us to purchase the product from them.

I picked up a new phone and renewed my contract with Verizon for another two years. I would have changed it over to the other carrier except for the fact the Princess uses Verizon and she can call her father and not use any of her minutes or pay any roaming or long distance charges.

The one nice thing about the new phone is that is made by Samsung. It is similar to the other new cell phones so I only have one phone operator navigation system to learn.

I had only two other activities of any consequence. I did read and smoke a cigar while reading out on the balcony. I finished off a Star Trek novel and two magazines. It was very relaxing and comfortable to read like that. It was cool and breezy. Nice Southern California weather.

The only other thing that I did was watch The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin. Things are looking bleak right now for him. The King has relieved him of duty and had him arrested for treason. The replacement admiral is not qualified for command. The Japanese, of course, are elated since the only Korean leader to regularly beat them has been relieved of command.

I suspect that the new Korean admiral will launch a battle against numerically stronger Japanese forces. He will not fit the battle using the proven tactics of Yi Soon-Shin. He will fight the battle in a manner that is the Japanese style because he thinks it is better to kill an enemy with the sword instead of standing off and blowing him up with a cannon ball. Personally, I favor the cannon ball because the result is the same and there is much less of a risk to your own sailors. In nineteen battles, Yi only had 150 combat related casualties; Japanese losses were in the tens of thousands.

One more prediction, the new admiral will lose the battle as well.

I was wrong for Sunday’s episode. It was all about a couple of days of torture. In the end, the King broke the man but not this spirit. The king has yet to deal with the depleted officer ranks of his navy, the new admiral got rid of most Yi’s officers. Now the new admiral will face a superior Japanese force under better leadership than his own and have to fight with a fleet that does not trust or support him.

Not what I would call a winning combination.

The King decided to spare Yi’s life because of his past service. But, he has ordered him to serve as a common soldier in the war against the Japanese. One way to get rid of your enemies is to send them off to a battle that they can not win.

Of course, none of the cowards and shirkers in the royal court stood up for Yi. That would have been so out of character for them; to think of the country before thinking of themselves.

Rather than rant on about injustice, I will just let it go for now. I will look forward to next week’s shows as it appears that the Japanese fleet is at sea.

One final scheduling note, there will be no blog for the 29th. I am having dinner with the Younger Brother after work. It will be a late night for me. That means that Tuesday will be a bit fuller then.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

The weekend is almost upon us gentle readers.

Have you made your plans yet?

I plan to take life easy over the weekend. I think I have a handful of things to do: go to the market, clean up around the place, do some laundry, go check out some computer gear, catch a film, and do some reading on the balcony and smoke a cigar. If I have some extra time, I will do some more research work on my dissertation.

It was Day 29 and Day 3 in the building next door and the paint on the hallway walls standoff.

I was thinking about the building next door today while I was on hold. Being on hold with really bad music is like a slow death, waiting takes forever.

I know the building is or was old. I got to thinking about asbestos insulation in the building. It could have asbestos all over the structure. I don’t recall seeing anyone wander around in one of those “moon-suits” that you have to wear when you are working with or near asbestos. If there was asbestos, then it could have been blown by the prevailing winds into Beverly Hills and into a residential district. Fortunately for me, my building is up wind so I should not be too concerned about the bad stuff that may have been blowing in the wind.

The Big Guy and I talked about his Internet upgrade again today. It looks like we have everything figured out. I am counting on the material that EarthLink will send us will have a wiring diagram. Otherwise, we are on the phone with the boys and girls at tech support in Mumbai or Bangalore so we can get connected.

The Big Guy checked in and said we only need two outlet adapters to make this project hum. I am going to check out the prices of the adapters this weekend so that we can be ready to go for installation over the long Labor Day weekend.

Cinema selections are slim this weekend. The only film the Big Guy could recommend was THE CONSTANT GARDENER. I have seen the trailers and was leaning towards seeing it anyway. I just need to figure out which venue and what time and day to catch it. I will also see what else is showing and may make a drive to see an interesting independent film if I find one that looks promising to me.

One of our regular conversation topics when the Big Guy dials in on the cell phone is parking at school. We are both hoping it will improve in a couple of weeks when students start to drop out. Today, he had an early class so go there early and found a decent spot to park. He said getting up that early, like around my time at 5:00 AM, is just terrible.

Reading over my weekend update, I came to the unavoidable conclusion that this is dull and not very exciting. I can adjust to that.

Be well and stay happy.

I forgot my blog notes

Crud, gentle readers, I forgot my blog notes for tonight’s posting.

I make it a practice to make notes of things that I have seen during the day and other events that catch my attention. This way, I can be sure of giving you your readings worth of Balancing Checkbooks.

It was Day 2 of the hallway without touch up paint and Day 28 of the building next door non-deconstruction. There is nothing new to report on either front.

The Princess emailed me about getting her some special coffee that she wants to use for a gift. I asked her if she wanted any tea, figuring the recipient might be a tea drinker also. She said she drinks tea and that would be nice.

I picked up two flavored coffees and a tin of tea for her gift. Then, I picked up two tins of tea leaves and an infuser for the Princess and another bag of gourmet coffee for her roommate.

I mail these tomorrow on my way home from work. This means the package should arrive in Atlanta where she lives by Monday.

It was not easy finding the coffee and tea. I ended up having to go to three different stores before I found the coffees she had in mind. Fortunately for me, one was within walking distance from the office and the other two were on the way home from the office.

I received my new Utah sweatshirt with the maybe soon to be banned Indian logo on it. I figured that I might order one so I would have it with the logo that I knew when I went to school there.

This should be a good weekend for the Princess. She should be receiving two packages from Daddy. She says opening package is always fun. I ordered her a new Utah baseball cap that she can wear with her Utah tee shirt and Utah sweatshirt when she goes to see our Utes play at the University of North Carolina in October. The UNC colors are light blue and white so she will stand out in her red tee shirt.

Being a Dad means can never ever give up the part.

Be well and stay happy.

Dull Tuesdays

Hello again gentle readers. This will be a short posting today because nothing much of any interest happened to me today.

Some days are just like that.

One of the staffers in the office brought in part of a cookie and candy care package. It barely lasted the day. It lasted so long because there were only seven of us in the office and one was not eating because he had his wisdom teeth removed in a two hour procedure on Friday. He did not feel like eating anything firm.

It was Day 27 in the building next door non-deconstruction project.

The building management finally managed to finish the new carpet trim work in the floor hall. The installer was less than skillful and managed to chip a fair amount of nice new paint. Since there are still paint cans on the floor, it should be easy to touch up the damaged paint in another few weeks.

Maybe I should track the touch up painting project like I do for the building next door.

I had to fill my car this morning, the Honda Prelude that gets 25 to 27 miles to the gallon in town. Getting gas in nothing new. Today, I spent some time looking at local gas prices. I buy the mid-grade gasoline.

Station at the bottom of the hill by my house $2.93/gallon
Station a mile away from my house on my way to work $2.85/gallon
Station on my regular way home every day $3.03/gallon

I picked up my fuel at the station a mile from my house and directly on my way to the office. I saved between $0.80 and $1.50 on my ten gallon fill-up.

Sweet.

In case you haven’t figured this out, the Nissan Pathfinder has parked for a month and a half except for an occasional start up to keep the battery charged and the oil circulated.

I ended the day by arguing with a vendor about the terms of their contract. I tried to point out to them that I could change an address to send legal notices at any time I felt like and they said I could not do that. Then, I pointed to Paragraph 17 of their contract that said I could change the address as long as I told them what the new address was.

They said they would call me back after they spoke to their lawyers.

I love to hang arrogant vendors who think they know everything and who feel clients are sheep to be taken advantage of.

Life was good to me today.

Be well and stay happy. I am.

Mondays suck

Yes gentle readers, Mondays do suck.

I did not want to get out of bed this morning at all. I could have stayed in bed for a couple more hours at least. But, no, I went into work just like usual.

It is Day 26 in the building next door non-deconstruction saga. I have two theories that may explain why nothing is happening next door. First theory, the building owner ran out of money and can’t finish the job. That seems unlikely since we are in the start of the project so running out of money is unlikely unless there were some shady dealings going on out there.

Second theory is the neighbors in Beverly Hills complained about the dust, debris, and noise. The Beverly Hills city council got the project stopped until the owner finds a way to reduce the sources of complaints. This seems likely since there are apartment buildings across a relatively narrow street from the project plus the city high school is next to the project.

What do you think gentle readers?

Here is a follow-on to the ISP sales person saga. [I seem to be having a lot of sagas tonight.] The EarthLink web site lists an electrical outlet option. It’s hidden in plain view, how devilishly crafty of those tech support people in Mumbai or Bangalore.

The Big Guy and I discussed our options and decided on the electrical outlet approach since it is more secure than wireless and easier to modify. All we have to do is unplug a machine, move it, and then plug it back into the wall socket.

Slick. Too bad the sales person had no clue to life what was going on with the company.

Today was the start of class for the Big Guy. He called me from the parking lot this morning. As one might expect, the campus was crowded and he ended up parking beyond Lot A, which is close to the ends of the known world. He was able to get in and parked without any panic attacks, train wrecks, or stolen nuclear devices in Orange County this morning and that was a big plus. We decided that it would be easy to leave tonight since there are significantly fewer evening students and they will park close to the campus buildings. There should be hardly any cars in the lot.

The Younger Brother called this morning. He is going to be in Los Angeles and wanted to get together for dinner one night. He also needed a hotel recommendation for that night. I came up with one that will work just fine for him.

I have already started thinking about places to go for dinner. I have a great fish place with a killer view handy to my house. I also have a couple of sports bars that are close by and would work nicely for a very casual dinner. There is the outside chance of an epic dinner and that would be a drive into downtown Los Angeles for the Original Tommy’s Burgers. I think that would be a bit too much for a week night dinner.

Last night, after I posted my blog, I ended up helping an acquaintance in China with a minor business problem. It was all about trying to understand what a potential American customer meant with his order. I think I understood what the American wanted to have the Chinese company do and suggested a visual solution [drawing a picture] to confirm the buyer’s intentions. I think it will be an interesting project if it comes to pass.

The Princess called late this afternoon after she was home from work. She had a simple question. I offered her a couple of ideas and then suggested the simple solution to go forward with her decision. I think she will be happy with the outcomes and it is not an irreversible decision.

That was my day, dull wasn’t it?

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Friday was Day 25 in the non-deconstruction saga of the building next door.

The two forlorn palm trees on the roof of the building are still green. I wonder who waters them. The roof of the building had an open deck and the palm trees were part of the decorations. These are not large palm trees by any measure. I think they are no more than three or four feet / one meter tall.

I guess they will eventually die from lack of water unless our rainy season starts early.

The Big Guy called me to tell me his reactions to SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE. He sort of liked the film and sort did not like the film. It is a very violent, at times, Korean film with subtitles. I had thought about seeing it and BROKEN FLOWERS over the weekend. I had even figured out that I could see the first showing of SYMPATHY and still get to class on time Saturday afternoon.

The Big Guy described this film as being like DEATH WISH only directed by Bergman. He said there was a great deal of sorrow and blood in the film. He recommended that I save on the gasoline and watch a Kurosawa classic HIGH AND LOW on DVD which has similar subject matter and stars Toshiro Mifune.

I’ll be taking him up on his recommendations and will catch HIGH AND LOW after The Immortal Yi Soon Shin tonight. That is an interesting viewing combination.

The only film that I will see in the cinema this weekend is BROKEN FLOWERS, the Big Guy’s current best film of the year.

Friday was a really boring day for me. I worked hard but reading legal documents all morning long is just not excitement. Watching paint dry would be more exciting because there is always a chance that some flying insect will get caught in the drying paint. Then, you have to get up and get the insect out of the paint if only to avoid an ugly blemish.

I did feel good when I found two errors in what our attorney said were perfect documents. That was my morning high.

I had some chocolate on Friday while I was watching StarGate-SG1. I had the chocolate in the house for maybe a year or so. It tasted good when I bit into it. I thought I would want to quickly consume the chocolate and then consume the two other pieces that were here.

Strangely, I did neither. I had the chocolate slowly and savored each bite. It did taste most excellent. The other two pieces are in the refrigerator where I left them last night. Maybe I will have one in the next day or so or maybe I will save it for a while longer.

I got my cell phone voice mail functions working Saturday morning. It seems the carrier is changing or modifying the voice mail servers and my numbers were caught in Ethernet limbo until I spoke up.

The clerk at the cell phone carrier store tried to tell me the big story/explanation of why the phone voice mail wasn’t working. I stopped him in mid-sentence and said that I did not care why the voice mail did not work and I really only cared about when it would work. I said if he could not fix the voice mail function then, I would cancel the contract since they failed to perform their end of our contract. He had both phones fixed in 10 minutes.

I suppose you are wondering why I have three cell phone numbers plus a land line phone at home. It is a long story that really doesn’t make any sense. I have one phone that I use to talk to the Princess. We share the same cell phone carrier so our calls do not count against our monthly usage plans. The call volume between us has increased measurably over the last month.

I have one phone that has four 8s in the number. I only keep it because it is a lucky phone number and I may have a need for it in the future.

The last phone is the one the Big Guy and I use to talk on all of the time. We share the same carrier so our calls are free. We have been known to call each other to talk when we are standing in line or are bored. The Big Guy called me on Friday when he was in line at the cinema and was bored.

I did watch HIGH AND LOW on Saturday late morning and early afternoon. I really enjoyed it and think the Big Guy made a wise recommendation. There was no violence to speak of on screen or on-screen adjacent. It did reflect the class struggle between the wealthy and the poor and each one’s ambition. In the end, there was honor and the Mifune character made the morally correct, right decision.

Saturday’s episode of The Immortal Yi Soon Shin was not very exciting. He was agonizing over whether to use some rice that was supposed to be offerings for the King to buy medicine for his sick and dying sailors. In the end, he did not have to make the decision. One of his officers took it upon himself to convert the bags of rice into medicine.

I think this was the proper decision as a commander. The commander must always see to the health and safety of his men first. I think this was especially true with Yi Soon Shin since the central government, the King and the court, have not provided him with any supplies to support the prosecution of the war.

How can you fight a war without supplies?

Poorly, if at all.

Spock would quote Sarek and say that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

I suspect on Sunday I will see a return to active engagement with the enemy. I would believe the Japanese have been affected by the same outbreak since it is in the same area. Their forces should be suffering as much as the Koreans so the status of forces should remain unchanged.

Sunday, calling sales support for my ISP, was not my idea of fun. I was calling to make sure the Big Guy’s experience and information made sense and could be made to work. It was somewhat worrisome that I knew more than the sales person on the other end of the line. Maybe the sales person was new to the game and needed help.

I spent too much time on hold listening to really cheesy music. Besides being classical music, it had way too much static in it.

Anyway, the sales person came back on the phone and said that I had only two choices, wireless [no way, evil] or running Category 5 cable all over the place [very messy]. I found this as interesting since the Big Guy was told he had three choices; the same as I was told plus he would be able to use the existing copper wire in his house.

I thanked the young lady for her time and said goodbye. I think she may have been expecting me to say that I would take one of the two choices she offered me.

Wireless makes no sense because you can not control the extent of the wireless field or who might access. Yes, I know you can place firewalls and other security features on the wireless system but it is not as secure as hard wire.

Hard wire is not a good option when you have a small, older dog as the Bug Guy does wandering around. Plus, you have the less than fun task of running the cable along the base boards and around door ways. That would increase the cable run length.

I will give the Big Guy a call later on today after I see BROKEN FLOWERS and we will try to figure out how to set this up so his mother gets off of his back. I also don’t want to be blamed for causing unreasonable delays with this Internet expansion either.

[Shrugs and yawns.]

BROKEN FLOWERS is the Bug Guy’s best film of the year so far. He said the same about THE ISLAND a couple of weeks ago. I think he is closer to the best film so far with his latest pick.

I saw BROKEN FLOWERS this afternoon and liked it very much. When we talked about it, he said that I didn’t like the ending and I agreed with him. I would have preferred a more traditional Hollywood style ending with closure for the main character and resolution of the plot points. Maybe there will be a satisfactory resolution if there is a sequel. I would say there will be no sequel so I am left to be satisfied with the story as it was told on the screen.

We both agreed that Bill Murray turned in an excellent performance in this film. I felt he was playing the same character from LOST IN TRANSLATION. The Big Guy felt he was playing the character on a much deeper level, probably because there was no Charlotte Johansen to compete with on the screen for the entire film. All of the actresses were on screen for varying lengths of time, all on the short side.

Still, it is a great film and well worth seeing at the local cinema.

The Immortal Yi Soon Shin was different tonight. The plotline jumped ahead two years to the point where the war has lapsed into a truce and peace negotiations are underway in Japan.

As usual, the negotiations become lost over ego and double dealing. War is now imminent. The Japanese have upped the ante in the war by sending an invasion force of new soldiers that is being escorted by a fleet of 300 warships.

The Koreans are outnumbered again and can not engage the superior forces without the risk of losing their fleet. If the Korean fleet is lost, then the war is lost for the Koreans. Yi Soon Shin refused the King’s order to engage the enemy fleet on the high seas because he recognized the risk of loss of the fleet.

The Korean King is not the sharpest tool in the shed and makes a really rash decision that he will probably regret in the next episode or two. He orders Yi’s friend and rival to replace him as commander in chief of the navy. The new commander is too headstrong and will engage the Japanese regardless of the odds or the likely outcome. I can see a naval disaster coming very soon.

That was my weekend. Not very exciting. But restful and restful is not all that bad.

Be well and stay happy.

a little bit of this and that

Well gentle readers, it is almost the weekend and I am happy about that. But then, aren’t we all happy about weekends.

I want to give a big Southern California beach shout out to the Korean reader of the blog. I think you are the farthest away reader.

Today was Day 24 in the building next door non-deconstruction work. I did see the security agent today. He looked like he was reading inside of an air conditioned hut or station.

I wonder what he was reading. Probably not Shakespeare, Tolstoy, or Kafka.

There was no bounce in the elevator ride this morning as I went to get my coffee. You have no idea how good that made me feel this morning.

I can remember back when ICQ users had only seven numbers of less in their account numbers. I used to think I was a newbie with ICQ until I noticed the account numbers crossed the 100,000,000 mark. Now they are over the 300,000,000 mark. Are these all individuals or people with multiple identities?

Maybe some one can explain why people on ICQ seem to add you to their contact list and then never contact you when you are online. If you added someone to your contact list, doesn’t it stand to reason that you would contact that person when they came online?

Oh well, I don’t accept new contacts anymore. I even have one dead person in my contact list.

Hmmmm, that is also an interesting comment on my life as well.

I booked my flights to Minneapolis for the niece’s wedding this morning. This means you can all look forward to another post wedding weekend up date in a couple of weeks. The Brother nagging me for booking indirect flights [I have to change planes along the way to save about $190 on my flights].

Maybe I should nag him because he booked his non-stop flights on Northwest Airlines. I wonder what will happen if the NWA machinists go out on strike. The labor union and the airlines about $80 million apart on wage concessions and there are no positive relations with the labor and management.

Having once worked for an affiliate of Continental Airlines, I make it a point to tract labor negotiations with any air carrier that I might consider flying.

This is shaping up to be an uncomplicated weekend for me.

I have class on Saturday afternoon from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. It takes a good hour to drive to school so that sucks up most of the afternoon and early evening.

I am going to spend Saturday morning with the new cell phones and have them set up properly. That ought to take a couple of hours. I need to get this done or the phone will be less than 100% useful for me.

Sometime over the weekend, I need to call my ISP provider’s tech support in Mumbai or Bangalore or wherever they are located to make sure I understand how I am going to have to setup the Big Guy’s new home network. This should be a real challenge for me.

I am leaning towards the network based on the house’s electrical cables. They are in place and go to where they need to go. Wireless just seems too insecure now. I like security and you can never have too much security when it comes to the Internet.

The Big Guy said the only film worth seeing this weekend is BROKEN FLOWERS so that will fill up Sunday afternoon very nicely.

I think I can find some time to read and smoke out on the balcony over the weekend. I ought to make a trip down to the beach and see what the young ladies are wearing this season. This is always a very worth while trip and use of my spare time.

I will see you all on Sunday with the Weekend Update.

Be well and stay happy.

The Force was with me today

Hello gentle readers.

The Force was with me today. I also think Yoda and Obi-Wan were there as well.

I usually go out for my morning coffee. I drink decaffeinated coffee and I am the only one in the office who does this. It is silly and wasteful to make a pot of coffee for only two cups and then toss the rest out. Besides, the walk to the coffee shop is good exercise for me.

I went out for coffee today. I got in the elevator and pushed “G” for the ground floor. The elevator car made a non-stop drop to the ground floor from the tenth floor where my office is and went right past it. The car sort of bounced off of the Parking 1 level and ended up back at the proper floor. It was unnerving for me.

But, gentle readers, you will be pleased to know that I did not panic and pee in my pants. I calmly walked out of the elevator and out of the building for my coffee. Coffee was too important to be delayed.

I saw this message on a car license plate frame while I was stopped for a traffic light:

We Love You

FATTY GIRL!!!

I don’t know more to say aside from wowie kazowie.

My Brother called me today with his travel plans to our niece’s wedding. The first thing he asked me is what day was it in non-deconstruction of the building next door. I said it was Day 23. We talked about the building.

It looks like I will be going to Minneapolis for the wedding also. Our cousin, the bride’s mother, is happy that we are making the trip. The Brother said our niece would be excited except that she is probably pre-occupied with other things.

What could be more exciting than the Two Uncles flying in from the Coast?

Anyway, I will be making my travel plans with Expedia.com later on tonight.

I was supposed to call the Old Girl Friend last night. We did not reach out and touch each other over the copper wires. She sort of neglected to tell me which number to call to reach her. I left her a voice message at her office today and said I would try again tonight.

So that was my day. Not a bad day as days go for me. The phone volume was off a little from earlier this week.

I may not be here with a posting tomorrow night. There is an outside possibility of talking the Old Girl Friend into taking me out to dinner. I have to be over by her office tomorrow so I will suggest that I swing by her building after I finish my work and then drive us to one of our favorite restaurants that we have been going to since 1988.

I know I have a sort of moral obligation to be here for you and post. But, a free meal with a hot Asian American woman may be just to much to pass up.

Be well and stay happy.

Meet the new big boss today

It was also Day 22 in the building next door’s non-deconstruction saga. Nothing was happening, not even a sleeping security agent in sight.

The new big boss stopped by the office today. I think it was one of those grip and grin meetings where he just wanted to faces with the names in the boxes in the organizational chart.

Sort of come around the place and show the flag.

I had a nice lunch out of his visit. It would have been better if the server had managed to not ignore me. I got my lunch, a simple sandwich, about five minutes after everyone else. Anyway, I am over the slow service. I was over it by the time we walked back to the office.

The new big boss spent about half an hour with me personally and that was really nice. He was interested in what I was doing and how I fitted into the grander scheme of things. I think I scored a point or two with him because I whipped up some plain handouts that he could take with him that outlined my completed projects in terms of their specifications and target markets. I also gave him a copy of my work in process and work yet to do report.

Time will tell how things will work out for me.

My Younger Brother called me today. He was getting back to me about going to another niece’s wedding next month. He hadn’t made up his mind on going but I think he probably will go to the wedding. I am leaning towards going to the wedding as well. He said he would be calling me tomorrow or the next day and let me know what his plans are.

The Big Guy called today. He said my new cellphone doesn’t have voice mail like my old phone did. It looks like I will be spending part of the weekend programming the voice mail function. I would have thought that it would work like my old one.

Oh well, technology is not all that great of an event in human existence if you ask me.

The Big Guy was wondering about setting up a network at his house so his mother could use his old Apple G4 to go online and surf the Internet. I think we can get it to work but we will probably need a new modem so I told him to call EarthLink tech support in Mumbai or Bangalore or wherever it is located these days. They should be able to set him up fairly quickly.

I went to the market on the way home from work to pick up a few things. I didn’t go to my regular market because this one was next to pharmacy where I picked up a prescription refill. I used to show here but gave up on them when they made a mess out of a Christmas turkey order.

The market is old and way past due for a remodeling or upgrade. It shows in less crowded aisles, always a plus, and sadder produce, major negative factor.

I had sort of hoped that I might meet some interesting talent while I checked out the tomatoes. Unfortunately, there were no interesting women in the market tonight. Maybe Tuesday is an off night or maybe I was there at the wrong time.

Oh well, I will worry about that later on when I have some spare time.

Be well and stay happy.

125th Blog Posting

Hello again gentle readers. It was a nice Monday for me aside from the phone ringing almost all day long. Not that often but it sure seemed liked it rang a lot today.

This is my 125th Blog Posting.

I know this is not very many posts in the grander scheme of things. It does mark a personal milestone for me. When I started with the blog, I had my doubts as to whether or not I would keep it up and whether it would be interesting enough to draw other readers. Thank you for coming out and giving me the silent encouragement to toss out some posts about life and how I see it.

The Big Guy and I were talking were talking about blogs. His is close to a year old or maybe older by now. He is thinking about taking a long term break from posting. That would upset some of is readers. I think he gets a couple of hundred readers a day. Of course, we write to different audiences. We also have different writing styles; I check my spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The Big Guy prefers a more free flowing style where you sometimes have to make an educated guess at the word in the line.

Today is also my 950th SETI search. I have donated over 17,400 hours of computer time. Too bad there is no tax deduction or tax credit for that. None of my searches have produced anything but random space noise. I think you would have heard by now if one of my searches had found intelligent life.

Although after DUKES OF HAZARD and DEUCE BIGELOW EUROPEAN GIGOLO, I am not certain any intelligent life out in the cosmos would want to contact us right now.

It was Day 21 in the building next door non-deconstruction work. I did see the lonely security agent walk around the empty shell of a building this morning. When I left the office to go home around 5:00 PM, I saw the security agent asleep in his or her vehicle.

It must be difficult to stay awake on that job. There is nothing happening all day long.

I was reading in my ISP vendor’s homepage today. There was a report that Seattle held its annual Seattle Tattoo Convention this past weekend. That would be a scary set of sights if you ask me.

Can you imagine what people looked like at a convention that celebrates tats of all shapes, sizes, colors, and designs? I know I couldn’t and I really do not want to even consider it for the slightest moment, not ever.

Yesterday, I did not check my email so there were over 70 emails in my inbox when I got into my office this morning. Five were emails that I wanted to receive. Seventeen were jokes of various types from a friend. And the rest, the rest was spam and junk. That does not say much for our civilization does it now.

We are having our annual monsoon season now. It is really crummy because we get all of this moist, tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf of California that creates thunderstorms, rain, and hail. Fortunately, I have only suffered from humidity but that is uncomfortable enough as it is.

Oh well, life happens and we all manage to survive and struggle on. I think I will as well.

Be well and stay happy gentle readers.

Weekend Update

Hello gentle readers.

I hope you had a relaxing and restful weekend like I did. Granted, running errands on the weekend may not be your idea of fun or rest but it is to me.

My drive home on Friday from the office was better than usual for a change. I don’t know why but traffic was either lighter in volume or else everyone was paying attention to the task at hand, driving on a crowded roadway and not talking on a cell phone.

That was a nice start.

After I left the highway and jumped to the regular streets, I had to stop to let a young woman cross the street. I wish now that I could have avoided it but the law required me to stop and yield the street to her. She was wearing one of those big tie dyed skirts from the later 1960s and other clothes from that era.

Far be it from me to be a critic of women’s fashions.

She had some nasty tats on each leg that ran from her ankles up and disappeared under her skirt. I had no desire to see anymore, the lower legs were enough for me. I think I could have taken some sort of a tat if it had a design or colors in it. These tats were a sort of a grey green color. The design looked liked script of some sort. I did not slow down to gather a close look; I just wanted to be away, far away from her.

Maybe she was from Seattle where body art [tats] are generally accepted by all.

The Old Girl Friend called me early, well early for her, on Saturday morning. She wanted the addresses for the Princess and the Big Guy and me. Then, she talked about how she loves what she does at work but hates some of the people she has to work with. After listening to her, I would tend agree.

It is, after all, difficult to follow a leader who has managed to go over her budget by 200% by July. I would love to be a gnat on the wall during that budget review. The explanations are probably going to Pulitzer Prize winners in the general fiction category.

The Old Girl Friend wanted to know why we didn’t go to the cinema last weekend as we discussed. I reminded her that she was going to call me and let me know if she was available. She said I was supposed to call her and remind because she has so many things going on at the same.

I suppose a Palm Pilot is out of the question. They are great scheduling and planning tools.

I will call her on Tuesday after I meet with my new big boss. I will toss out the idea of what films we might see next weekend.

On the subject of films to see, the Big Guy said at lunch today that his new best film of the year is the new Bill Murray film BROKEN FLOWERS. We did not talk about the plot points or the acting because he said he didn’t want to spoil it for me. I will accept his statement that is the best film he has seen all year. I think it might be a good film to see with the Old Girl Friend.

Either BROKEN FLOWERS or the Wong Kar Wai film 2046. They both seem to be suitable to take a woman to see. THE DEVIL’S REJECTS is clearly a guy film unless she is one remarkable woman.

The Old Girl Friend is a woman that I care about and have always cared about. I think she is very remarkable but she is not ready for THE DEVIL’S REJECTS.

I did go visit my local cell phone vendor and played let’s make a deal for me about extending my service contracts. They were willing to deal so I ended up with two new Samsung camera phones with a net cost to me $30 each. The user manual is over 160 pages long so it will be a while before I figure out all of the features. I know I won’t be using some of them like the calendar since I have a Handspring Visor PDA to do my scheduling and calendar work on.

On Saturday, I did go see the Big Guy’s former best film of the year, THE ISLAND. It is one of the best action films of the year. There are not many directors who are better than Michael Bay in an action film.

I thought THE ISLAND was a film of two parts. The first part reminded me of GATTACA and the second part reminded me of LOGAN’S RUN. I will go along with the Big Guy about this being a very good film. The pacing of the two parts make it seem like there are two films. You can’t compare injecting fluids into a tube with railroad wheels being cast loose from an 18 wheeler running at high speed.

You could tell that the film was set far in the future and that is a work of fiction. In one scene, the Los Angeles Police Department, in three black and white cruisers, arrive at a crowded downtown Los Angeles location within seconds of a stolen credit card being used access an information kiosk. That’s fantastic response time.

After sitting through the film, I can also understand why he rapt so long and poetic about Charlotte J’s butt. It does make J. Lo look sad.

Anyway, before you ladies out there get upset, just remember that we are men and men think like this.

The other film was Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 which is a sequel after a fashion to his earlier film IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. I don’t think you have to see the earlier film to enjoy 2046. Having seen the earlier film, you do understand some of the characters slightly better but this does not detract from the overall enjoyment of the film. I particularly liked the acting of Faye Wong and Tony Leung. Maggie Cheung has a sort of cameo appearance at the start of the film and drops out. Zhang Ziyi, who is probably better known for her action films, plays the role of a call girl with a heart very convincingly and showed a wider acting range.

I really enjoyed this film. The Big Guy really liked it and saw it twice. I think I may try to catch it again if it is still playing in Los Angeles next weekend.

The theater venue where the film was showing operated like a clown circus today. The box office opened late but on the plus side of this was the fact that I missed half of the before screening advertisements. The film broke about twenty minutes before the end of the film. We sat in the semi-darkness, listening the same music over and over again until the film was repaired. It tool close to twenty minutes to fix the film.

It was sad because some of the patrons of the next screening came in while the film was ending for us. I hope their viewing was not spoiled.

The Big Guy and I had a late lunch at Albertacos again this weekend. It was wonderful and I filled myself so I skipped my dinner. As usual, I drank too much Coca-Cola and it showed in my nightly blood pressure reading. It was up above the regular readings.

The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin was sort of low key this weekend. No battles to fight at sea. The only battles were political ones about promoting officers in the Korean navy based on merit, regardless of the person’s caste.

The navy also got the privilege to require officers to have special skills like seamanship, navigation, strategy and tactics. The examination board looked like it had taken from a Patrick O’Brien novel; captains were asking the examinees questions on how a ship should be handled at a certain spot under certain tidal conditions. It could have been a Royal Navy board asking a midshipman how to handle an approach to Portsmouth.

That part was slick since it showed that navies are the same all over the world.

Tonight’s episode focused on the outbreak of measles. It plague was spreading rapidly and taking parts of the fleet out of service. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

And that gentle readers was my weekend.

Be well and stay happy.

Today was a really crummy day

Today was a really crummy day.

My day started off badly at precisely 1:44 AM when one of my neighbors who managed to lock herself out called me from the building lobby and asked me to buzz her into the building. At this time of the day or night, I am anything but Mr. Warmth.

I politely declined because you need a phone on a cord to do this and all I have is cordless phones. Besides, how did I know who she was and did she live here or not. She could have been a criminal trying to break into the building for all I know.

Further, how was she going to get into her flat? Most people carry their building key along with their flat key. If you do not have the building key, then you most likely do not have the flat key.

That was that. But, to make matters worse, I could not get back to a sound sleep. I just flopped around until the alarm went off at 5:00 AM. That was no fun at all.

I spoke to the Princess and she was surprised that Tristan asked to be remembered to her. I think she said something like, “and well he should ask to be remembered to me.”

The Big Guy called me to tell me he received his personalized Dean’s List letter from his school. We talked about how important this is of he wants to go to graduate school after he finishes with his degree. I also told him how proud I was that he had done this in his first semester at the four year school.

I plan to see two films this weekend. One is THE ISLAND and the Big Guy says it is one of the best films of the year. The other film is 2046 and he has seen it twice now so that is always a good sign. We may hook up for lunch if we can get our schedules together.

I will spend the rest of the weekend resting, running errands, writing emails, reading, and some cooking.

That is what I plan to do gentle readers. I am going to go off to bed now as I am falling asleep. I will see you all next on the 14th.

Be well and stay happy.

Breakfast seminar

Hello gentle readers. This is another short posting tonight.

I went to my breakfast presentation this morning. I snagged an extra two hours in the bag, the extra sleep was epic. It was even better that it only took me seven minutes to drive to the presentation venue.

Breakfast was buffet style. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, overcooked sausages, hash brown potatos, pastries, fruit juices, tea or coffee. I was not shy at the buffet. I had a good healthy breakfast.

I had my seat and was finished with breakfast as the late arrivals came in. I was totally surprised when my boss’ boss, the Vice Chairman, showed up at the meeting. We both said the same, “I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

That killed any chance of dozing off during the presentation.

On the plus side, I got the presenter to agree to provide me with information as a subject matter expert in his field. This will help make my dissertation that much better because, while he may not have published any scholarly papers, he is a world class expert on the subject.

As Vice Chairman and I were riding the elevator down from the meeting room, we asked me to join him for coffee. We talked for about an hour and fifteen minutes or so. He went over the big reorganization that I knew would happen. I don’t think there are too many changes that will affect me. I have a new reporting relationship but that was expected. Then, he asked me a couple of questions I wished I could have ducked but there was no place for me to hide so I answered them as diplomatically as possible.

I found out later on this afternoon that the Vice Chairman and my immediate boss will be in our office tomorrow morning. Next week, my immediate boss and the new Chief Operating Officer are going to visit the office.

When I finally made it into work this afternoon, I had one voice message on my machine. It was from one of my peers. He left a brief message of “analysis and comments.” I knew that he was referring to the reorganization so I called him and we discussed the changes. I think there are more changes in the wind.

Anyway and moving onward.

Today was Day 18 in the building next door non-deconstruction work. I didn’t see the security officer at all today. But then, I was out of the office for half of the day.

The Big Guy called me to tell me the Wong Kar Wai film 2046 will be playing in Irvine this weekend. I had thought I would have to drive to Santa Monica to see it on the weekend. Parking at the theater in Santa Monica is always crummy unlike the theater in Irvine. We may hook up for another meal on Saturday or Sunday.

When I was in college, I joined the local chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. One of the alums called me tonight after dinner. Tristan was looking for money for the chapter; that is the usual case. I said I would kick in some money. Tristan asked how the Princess was since they had gone out during her freshman year at university. Yes, we both went to the same school.

I told Tristan the Princess was happy and enjoying life in Atlanta. Surprisingly, he asked to be remembered to her. I somehow do not recall that would be something that she would take favorably.

Still, it will be well worth the phone call to the Princess in the morning. I can almost hear her say, “Ohmygod Daddy, Tristan said that!”

Life can be fun at times.

Be well and stay happy.

work work work

Work, work, work was all that I did today gentle readers. I was busy with lots of little things today. I think the rest of the office was that way.

One of my big bosses left the company yesterday and that was a great shock to all of us. No one knew he was thinking about leaving. We are waiting to see who we will be reporting to now that he has left.

I know I will miss him. He was one of my biggest supporters in the company and was very pleased with my work. I am wondering where I will end up in the reshuffled organization and who I will be reporting too in the future.

The Big Guy called me this afternoon. He was bummed out because someone had made some poor comments about his views on the cinema in his blog. I personally agree with his blog comments on the DUKES OF HAZARD movie. I think it is largely unwatchable by any one with common sense and intelligence.

Today was Day 17 in the on-going saga of the non-deconstruction at the building next door.

Tomorrow, I get to sleep in because I am going to a breakfast presentation on predictive analytics. This is a very important area of study for me. The really nice part about the presentation is that it is only ten minutes from my house and it doesn’t start until 8:30 AM. This means I get an extra hour of sleep and that is so sweet.

I am going to call it a night and go do some recreational reading before bedtime.

Be well and stay happy.

Crimes Against Humanity

The Big Guy and I were shocked, shocked I say, at the thought that the DUKES OF HAZARD would finish up in the top spot in the weekend’s domestic box office grosses. We found this film so offensive that we went right along with all of the major critics who considered this to be one of the worst films of 2005 and stayed home.

My local multi-plex had the film showing on a smaller screen while WEDDING CRASHERS played on the two biggest venues. What we the people thinking? Obviously not very much it seems.

Oh well, I am over it now.

I think it may take the Big Guy longer to get over the film. Being a film studies major in university, he knows what great cinema is and this film was an affront to serious film making.

It was not even a good Summer film. SCREAM and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER are good Summer entertainment films.

Moving onward now gentle readers.

It was Day 16 in the non-deconstruction work at the building next door. Nothing happened to day as usual.

The hallway on the 10th floor where my office is located has been under repair for what seems like forever. It has been a very good six months at least. I thought things would be finished by now. The hallway was re-carpeted about a month ago. The job is still incomplete. The carpet layers ran out of trim molding that runs along the base board. That was a month ago.

Why haven’t they ordered more trim and finished the jobs?

It would be nice if they finished their jobs. I am tired of seeing old paint cans sitting by the freight elevator doors. I am tired of seeing the painting errors that we used to call “holidays” in the Navy.

I think I had arrived with the company and the trade vendors. I got an invitation to a fancy conference in Orlando, Florida for this Fall. There is no chance that I could get my bosses to sign off on the conference. Still, it was nice to see that the announcement arrived at the office with my name printed on the envelope like any other invitee. Conference organizers have recognized me.

On the subject of recognition, I had two phone messages when I arrived in the office at 6:50 AM today. This is very abnormal for me. I know before about 8:30 AM is unusual for anyone on the West Coast to call. As it turns out, one call was from the Atlanta Office and the other was from a customer in Denver. Still, it is nice to have someone call you and find out they are not mad at you for something I may or may not have done.

Clearly, my day was not as exciting as my weekend. It never is gentle readers.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

Hello gentle and not so gentle readers. It is the end of the weekend and I had a very good time. I did not do very much but still it was enjoyable for me to rest.

I had called the old girl friend on Thursday morning to ask her a lending question. I thought my boss was off-base in one of his comments about a credit I had presented for approval. Since she has been a commercial lender for a long time and went to banking school, I wanted to get her opinion.

She called me around 9:45 PM, just after I had hoped into bed after tossing out my Weekend Preview blog. She was tired so it was not a long conversation. She readily agreed with my deal structure approach.

Then, she talked about her new manager who does not seem to be very well qualified. The new manager is making the most common mistake all first time managers make; the new manager is micro-managing. Micro-managing may be a fine approach when you are in charge of a McDonald’s restaurant. Micro-managing will never work when you are managing a group of highly skilled professionals who probably have forgotten more than the new manager will ever learn.

I suspect morale in the group is probably lower than that Russian submarine was in Petropavlovsk.

Friday was Day 15 in the building next door non-deconstruction work. One of the project’s two portable toilets was reclaimed by its owner. Now, that has to be one of the worse jobs ever in a civilized society; that of portable toilet service person. Cleaning them just makes my skin crawl.

Friday was also the monthly Donut Friday in the office. I bring in donuts on the first Friday of the month for the staff in the office. I also bring in a box of donuts for the valets that park and retrieve my car everyday. They have a thankless job and I doubt that many of their regular building customers appreciate the work they do. I certainly do.

My car is always parked at the front of the parking spaces; it is usually ready for me by the time I walk across the driveway to the parking structure. They are always friendly and cheerful with me. I also tip them on a monthly basis. I wonder how many others do the same, if I had to guess I would say not very many.

Life has a way of balancing things out it seems.

Friday was another wedding invitation for me. This was my third wedding invitation of the Summer. This is more than I have received in the last 15 years. I guess the wedding invitation drought is over for me.

This wedding will be in Houston, Texas at the end of September. The bride and I have been friends and acquaintances since 1998 when I hired her to manage one of the credit union’s branch offices in Houston. Even though I left the credit union in 2000, we have remained friends and in contact.

We shared a common love of the cinema. Sandra used to enjoy the Big Guy and Chuck Go to the Movies email that we used to send out after hitting the cinema for three or four films in a weekend.

Email is wonderful for that sort of thing, maintaining friendships.

Since the Big Guy is semi-off on his own now, we don’t go to the cinema more than three or four times a year now. When we do it is usually to see an independent, foreign, or art house film that is playing out by his house.

The weather on Saturday was just plain ugly. It was not that hot at the beach. It was the humidity. I don’t recall humidity being this bad since I was a youngest and served as an officer on the good ship USS Leonard F. Mason (DD-852), part of the old Asiatic Squadron in the great Pacific Fleet. It was humid like this when we sailed in the South China Sea in the late 1960s.

I did manage to visit my local cinema this weekend and I saw two films that many of you have already seen by now. I saw CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY and WEDDING CRASHERS.

As a general rule, I do not like remakes. I believe that the first version was probably the better one to see. I do make an exception if the film is a re-release and the director has added back in deleted scenes and more explanatory footage.

I saw the original WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY with Gene Wilder went it came. I was probably married back then. I enjoyed the original version.

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY is a much darker version of the Dahl classic. It was more like a rich creamy dark chocolate candy and the Wilder version was like milk chocolate. I have always enjoyed Tim Burton’s films, even MARS ATTACKS a film that many hated. Burton has a darker sense of humor that I enjoy. This was a more satisfying film for me. Maybe I am older and more sophisticated when it comes to films because I have been hanging around the Big Guy so long.

I am also looking forward to seeing Burton’s upcoming film, THE CORPSE BRIDE.

The other film was the WEDDING CRASHERS. This was a typical Summer film where you can leave your mind behind and just enjoy the film. I did do just that; I enjoyed this film as well. I thought Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson worked very well together and it as if they were having as much fun making the film as I did watching it.

My only negative comment was the film did not allow Christopher Walken to come out and play the character better. He can be so broodingly dark and fun with his characteristic delivery style.

Since WEDDING CRASHERS has done so well in the domestic box office, it is likely the studio will make a sequel. A sequel will be relatively modest because most of cast is not on the A-list yet. It would be nice to see a sequel take place when the Walken character becomes President of the United States. Think of all of the interesting plot points and slick special effects like using Air Force 1 for example. I can see how the Vaughn and Owen characters would try to build their business based on close connections to the President.

When I left off with The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin, the Japanese decided to change their strategy since they seemed unable to defeat the Koreans at sea. Their last engagement had cost the Japanese over 100 lost ships and crews while the Koreans suffered some easily repairable damage to their ships and less than 40 casualties.

The Japanese plan to attack the Korean navy bases from the land side. Here, their armies are numerically and technologically superior. Once you destroy the navy base, the fleet has no where to go. Then, the country is lost and the Japanese army marches on to greater glory and invades mainland China.

The last episode had a large Japanese army about to attack the last Korean fort that blocked the way to the coastal navy bases. It is time for a miracle for the Koreans. The Jinju Fort held out for almost a week until it was relieved. It was sort of like the Korean version of the Alamo except that they won. Their victory helped to destroy the morale of the Japanese army since this was their first defeat in the war. It also helped move the Japanese to the discussion table for a truce.

The Chinese or Ming as they were called then sent another army to help the Koreans. The Chinese were also two faced; they supported the Koreans half heartedly while they negotiated with the Japanese to resolve the war without having to expend any soldiers in the process. The Chinese were willing to sacrifice the Koreans out of China.

In the end, appeasement never ever works. It did not work in the 1930s and will not work in the 1590s.

Appeasement only allows the bully more time to become stronger and the other side weaker from a false sense of security. It only prolongs the time to finally resolve the matter. The Chinese will gain nothing by appeasement. In the end, they will have to fight a difficult war with their Korean allies.

It was a sort of a Yi Soon Shin marathon with me being able to watch four episodes. I am now up to 83. I am thinking this will end around episode 100 or so. That gives the show 17 more episodes for the Koreans to win the war.

The Big Guy and I went to Albertacos for lunch today. We had our usual, two Number 8s and two medium drinks for there. I drank Coca Cola and had actually two drinks since I refilled my cup as we were leaving. My blood pressure was elevated from the extra caffeine.

Still, it was a good lunch for both of us.

That was my weekend. I hope your weekend was fun and worthwhile.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Preview

The weekend is almost upon us and I am so looking forward to it. But, there are other things to talk about.

This is a plane ride on Monday holdover. The Big Guy was zoning in his new Chuck Klosterman book and his i-Pod so I don’t think he caught this vision.

There was a middle aged businessman sitting across the aisle from us and up one row. He had his laptop out. It was hard not to notice what was happening since there was no film on our flight. All he did for about forty minutes was open and close file folders and scroll through old email messages. He also popped in and out of spreadsheets that were a gazillion pages long.

Why?

Did he think we would be impressed by his ability to open and close file folders? I think not. Hell, I can do that and I am not Microsoft wiz. Maybe he wanted to show off his laptop play toy and show everyone else how cool he was.

News flash buddy: A seven pound laptop is not cool anymore. Everyone knows that, duoh.

Today was Day 14 at the building next door. We had some more activity today. Another equipment rental company came and took away their crane. All that is left is a very lonely security officer and the dusty debris.

Oh yeah, and the ugly skeleton of a once beautiful building and two forlorn potted palm trees on the roof.

Work was particularly good today for me. I got my first loan memorandum under a new credit program approved today. This will make a lot of people happy at the bank. I was happy too.

I phoned the old girl friend today and left her a message. She is almost always out of her office. Besides, I usually phone her when she is still on her way into her office. She rides a train into work.

Yes, I know that may sound strange, almost bizarre. But, even in Los Angeles, the car capital of the known and unknown worlds, some people ride the train to and from work everyday. I think I would suffer from car separation anxiety if I rode the train to work. I would feel guilty if I left my car at the station.

I was calling to tell her when the next play that I invited her to go with me will be, October 1st. I also invited her to our company picnic on October 15th. We will see what develops here.

I phoned the Big Guy this morning to set up when I was going to go pick up The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin video tape. I suggested Sunday around noon so we could go grab lunch somewhere. I asked him to tape this Saturday’s show since I may be at the cinema with the old girl friend.

This way, I am covered if she says let’s go to the cinema or I can go see another film by myself if she is busy. Either way, I am completely covered.

Perfectomundo.

I hope the weather improves and we get some sun at the beach this weekend. I was thinking of cooking on my bar-be-que on the balcony and the idea of cooking in a cool, damp, breezy environment does not make me happy. I hope to cook a bunch of steaks and chicken; I got a big discount coupon to my local market in the mail today. I figure I can cook enough food to last me for a week or more at dinner.

The weekend be looking mighty good to me now.

Be well and stay happy and I will see you on the Weekend Update on the 7th.

The Big Guy comes through

This is going to be a short blog tonight because I was so busy at work today that I did not have much time for any observational humor. I even avoided the organization’s gossip sources. I was productive

Day 13 – and there was some activity at the building next door’s deconstruction site. An equipment rental company came and picked up their large excavator and hauled it away. Other than the dust that was “blowin’ in the wind,” nothing much happened.

The Big Guy came through academically this last semester. He made the Dean’s List. This is the first time he has done this. Dad was proud. He told as he read a letter from school that started out “Dear Dean’s List Student.” So much for personalization. Still, this was way cool.

The Balancing Checkbooks blog reached some milestones this past week. I went over 1,000 visitors and I picked up my second comment. I did reply to the comment.

When I first started out with the blog, most of the viewers came from the Eastern United States. Now, the Western United States represents the largest concentration of readers. I also have some readers from Western Europe, Southeast Asia, China, and Australia. I could be wrong because the time zones only give me a vague idea of where you are located.

On the subject of readers, the Princess told me that her all time best friend is a regular reader of this blog and the Big Guy’s blog. I wonder why this is. Oh well, maybe she has a need for observational humor.

I write my ideas down on small post-it notes so I can remember all of the interesting observations during the day. I have growing stack of them on the side of the printer. It will be interesting to see how big of a pile of post-it notes that I can create.

I am going to go off and do some work I brought home from the office before I go to bed gentle readers. I will be back tomorrow night for sure with a plan for the weekend to share with you.

Be well and stay happy.

More wedding stuff

There was more to say about the wedding than I could fit into the Weekend Update yesterday. This should close out the wedding for now.

Of course, there are other things to mention as well.

Does this sound wrong to you?

I was at the Management Retreat Dinner last Wednesday. It was at an aquarium. One of the hors devours was candied, smoked salmon on a skewer. That just struck me as being so wrong. I got over my pangs of conscience and only had three of the salmon skewers. They were very tasty.

I submitted the first write up of a loan for one of the new programs for approval on Friday. I hope to get an approval tomorrow or Thursday. That would be real nice.

Today was Day 12 in the building next door non-deconstruction work. I wonder what happened. The place is a mess with rubble and debris all over the place.

I had no voice mails when I got into the office today. I had one missed call but no messages. I had no emails beyond two company ones, one vendor conference invitation, and one junk mail today. I had no US mail or interoffice mail. I guess that is not too bad. If you recall, I was out of the office yesterday, flying into Los Angeles.

I also have no chance of going to the conference in Orlando in September.

I did not see last weekend’s episode of The Immortal Yi Soon-Shin. The Big Guy taped both episodes for me but I forgot to pick up the tape when we got back to his house after our flight on Monday. We need to figure out how I will pick the tape up. Right now, I am thinking about Saturday morning and maybe include lunch somewhere.

I was reading the Big Guy’s mammoth blog posting on the wedding early this morning. I discovered we both noticed the servers at the reception on Sunday. I was particularly taken by a blonde server who looked very Swedish while he was intrigued by two others. At least, I can agree with his taste; it is good.

I tossed out a comment about noticing the servers on his blog. When I came back online at lunch time, I found some other reader had made a comment about the Reinhardts’ generational ROSHOMON like blog posting about the servers.

How cool is that?

I don’t think I could live in Seattle. Sure, it is green even in the Summer. There is hardly any snow. Yes, I know it rains for forty days and forty nights sometimes. It’s the street names or lack thereof that would get to me.

All of the streets in Seattle seem to be just numbers.

199th Street – or Place – or Way. That has no excitement at all. My street is called Camino Real, Spanish for King’s Highway. That is stylish. Numbers are nice for the cell phones.

Is 197th Place a nicer street than 196th Way?

I have no idea. Maybe the streets were named by an auditor or accountant or someone who works at Microsoft since computers use numbers. Maybe the person who named the streets didn’t want to have to buy lots of replacement signs for streets with cool names.

On a related topic, the Big Guy was wondering on the plane ride to Seattle if they sold maps to rock musicians’ homes like they sell maps to movie stars’ homes. He was thinking of checking out where the Blood Brothers lived. I thought a map would have places like “here is where so and so overdosed” and “here is where so and so died.” We did not go on a tour of musicians’ homes while in Seattle.

We got to the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight home yesterday. We were early because the Princess’s flight to Atlanta was earlier than our flight. We wanted to make sure she got to the terminal in plenty of time because flying is her least favorite thing to do. We pulled up right in front of the Delta baggage check-in so she did not have to lug her suitcase around or very far. That was one less worry for her.

We killed time by reading and watching people. The Big Guy also worked on his jokes and his observations that went into his blog this morning. I mostly watched people. I noticed that wearing tattoos in Seattle seems to be a sort of normal thing to do for adults and young people. I can understand a Marine getting a tat of the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor easy enough; that is almost part of being a Marine. Maybe when I get old or if I find a female from Seattle as a girl friend, I will be able to understand the tats.

The flight was smooth to Santa Ana. It was about 30 minutes longer than the flight to Seattle. I don’t know why since Southern California and Seattle did not move further apart while we were up North.

One of the bad things about flying into Santa Ana in the Summer is the family vacation crowds. The airport is closest one to Disneyland and our flight had lots of families and children. There was a small girl who kept shaking the tray table on the seat back next to mine. She drove the woman next me almost crazy. The woman next to me had to turn around twice to ask the girl to stop shaking her seat back.

I think it was the grandmother who started to say something to the woman next to me until I turned around and glared at her. I wasn’t bothered by the girl. I was just really annoyed that the grandmother had so little care, concern, or consideration for others.

Typing about consideration, I spent part of last night helping a Chinese MSN Messenger acquaintance find companies that her employer might sell to in the States. I hope the leads I found will prove useful for her.

She promised me a big hug and a small kiss for helping her; all I have to do is visit her in Shanghai sometime. Oh well, I don’t think she has to worry too much about having to give up a hug anytime soon.

I think I will go off and read my mail that has accumulated over the last few days.

Be well and stay happy.

Weekend Update

It was a long and sometimes tiring weekend for me gentle readers.

I went to Seattle for my niece’s wedding along with the Princess and the Big Guy. The Princess flew there from Atlanta and the Big Guy flew there with me. Since the wedding was Sunday afternoon, we flew in on Saturday morning.

Our flights to Seattle were fine.

The Princess’ flight arrived a half hour early and her bag was spinning around on the baggage carousel when she got there from walking through the terminal. Add to that, no bad weather and you have a near perfect flight. The Princess was also prepared with her DVD player and U2 iPOD.

Our flight was on time and that is good generally.

The Princess was hanging out with my brother and some of the bride’s relatives when we arrived at the hotel. They seemed to be having fun together.

Since we hadn’t eaten all day, the Big Guy and I wanted to grab some lunch. Everyone else joined us to keep the conversation going along. It was probably be a good idea to eat since the planned bar-be-que from the groom’s parents did not materialize as advertised. The grill was never fired up and all we had to eat were cold, finger foods and drinks.

It was sort of odd at the bar-be-que. The weather was one of those “it only is sunny like this once in a blue moon days” in Seattle. The temperature was around 82F/28C and the sky was cloudless. The Seattle people [groom] were inside for the most part while the California people [bride] were all out in the sun, soaking up some rays and improving our tans. I thought that was odd; why not go outside and enjoy the infrequent sun?

While I was at the bear-be-que, I noticed that just everyone in Seattle wears Teva brand sandals. Personally, they leave me cold as ice. I couldn’t see myself in a pair of them ever. I think I will stick with my current casual shoe wear, Lakai skateboard shoes.

For the record, I have not skateboarded in years. When I did, it was in the prehistory time of skateboarding when a skateboard was made from a 2”x4” board and roller skates parts. It was noisy, hard to steer, and prone to breaking. When you are 10 or 12, you will accept those imperfections in products, especially if you made the skateboard.

My Lakai shoes are really comfortable and that is why I wear them. The Big Guy helped me pick them out at Laguna Surf and Ski in Mission Viejo on Saturday a couple of years ago.

I noticed that people in Seattle do not seem to have tans or try to have tans. I am not dark by any measure but I looked that way compared to the some of the people at the bar-be-que.

Since I am looking for a new female companion, I had briefly thought about the WEDDING CRASHERS. Then, common sense came to the front and I remembered that it was a two plus hour flight to Seattle and that a lot of the women in Seattle clearly favored the Scarlet O’Hara look of pale, pale skin. I decided to focus on women in Southern California then.

The three of us came back to the hotel and agreed to go out around 7:00 PM for a dinner. The Princess called us just before we were ready to leave our room. She had forgotten something and had to find a replacement so she could wear the perfect outfit, a black halter style dress with blue flowers on it. You really have to have seen her in it to appreciate it. It was a very nice dress.

Fortunately for us, there was a Target and Mervyns store in a mall about ten minutes from the hotel. We drove over and the Princess hopped out at Target. The Big Guy was raving about a Jamba Juice store [blended fresh fruit drinks] that he had to see. Dad, as usual, drove the car.

While I was out circling in the car park, I discovered a restaurant where we could have our dinner. It was also next door to a gourmet ice cream.

Perfect.

The Big Guy got his fruit smoothie drink; the Princess got whatever she needed; and then, we had dinner. Dinner was followed by a trip to the ice cream store. I had two scoops of chocolate and coffee ice cream mixed together; the Princess had a peanut butter dessert, and the Big Guy had an empty waffle cone, he likes the cones a bit more than he likes ice cream. Our meal was good and our dessert was better.

I slept very well after a large dinner. The kids did as well.

The Princess and I had breakfast with the Younger Brother. The Big Guy opted to sleep a bit more I guess.

We needed to get to the ceremony early because the bride insisted that the Princess join her in the bride’s room before hand. For what, I have no idea. The Big Guy and I just hung around outside and killed time.

The wedding was at 11:00 AM at a golf club in Newcastle, a Seattle suburb. The golf club is up in the hills so we had a perfect day to see the area. I am guessing that visibility was probably 50 miles/75km or more. It was warm with a light breeze. There were no clouds in the sky at all.

The wedding service was warm, friendly, and short, always a very big plus. I think it was one of the nicest weddings I have been to in a long while. It was the type of wedding that I would like the see Princess have when she decides to settle down and marry.

One of the truly intriguing touches at the wedding was the lunch seating assignments. Instead of using numbers, the bride and groom picked movie titles, mostly independents. I thought that was a great touch. The groom’s fraternity brothers were at ANIMAL HOUSE. The Princess and the Big Guy were at THE BREAKFAST CLUB where everyone had a connection to Orange County and California State University Fullerton.

I sat with the bride’s parents at THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS. I asked why that film. The Younger Brother said it was because we are a family of characters. I wonder which character I am now.

We did get involved with the formal wedding photos. This was not our idea. We got sucked into the “extended family group” photo. I think that was going one to many photos down the road. By the time this photo was shot, the bride and groom were tired of smiling. The Niece said she had a smile pasted on her face. I can imagine how uncomfortable they must have been in the bright sun in their wedding outfits while the rest of us could wait in the shade or inside in the air conditioned comfort.

During the photo opportunities, I phoned the old girl friend to see how the play was. There was nothing going on except snacking on hors devourers and sipping lemonade or tea. I don’t think anyone was offended and I was not alone with the cell phone crowd reaching out to maintain contact with others. I gave her tickets for the play because it was on Saturday and I was in Seattle then. I know she loves the theater and the play was the day after her birthday, sort of a birthday double play. She went with another mutual friend of ours.

The old girl friend said the play, a musical, was very lively and fast paced. It was very entertaining. She mentioned the next play is going to be a one woman performance based on the career of Katherine Hepburn. I asked her if she would like to go with me and she said yes.

She was in her car when I caught up with her. She asked me to call her when I get back to Los Angeles so I can give her the kids’ addresses.

I will call her tomorrow when I have gone into the office and discovered what happened at work. Our company is going through some changes so it is always interesting to see how the week will develop.

I will finish up with my trip to Seattle tomorrow gentle readers. I would also recommend you checkout the Big Guy’s blog at http://skeetonmischa.blogspot.com. I know he will have his own unique spin to the wedding.

Be well and stay happy.