Weekend Update

Three Day Long Weekends Are Great
Three day long weekends are great. I did not do very much this weekend. I did complete several planned events so the weekend was not a complete loss for me.

I did not waste much of my time viewing the professional [American] football playoff games. Frankly, none of them were that intriguing for me. I did other things like go to the cinema for one.

Getting the Prelude washed was one of my plans. I mentally cancelled that idea because of the rain in the forecast. The rain prediction was for close two inches in the part of town where I live. As things turned out, the rains were largely very light and very scattered in my part of town.

Cinema
I managed to get into see MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA on Saturday morning. I really enjoyed this film. I had some misgivings about the fact that all of the major female roles in a largely women’s film about a class of Japanese women were being played by Chinese actresses. In the end, I thought the actresses were convincing in their roles and created believable characters that I could become eomotionally involved with.

Here’s an interesting political side note for the film. With all of the current vitriol pumping forth between Japan and China, which nation should be upset about the cast of MEMOIRS?

Fascinating, isn’t it.

Anyway, I thought the cinematography, production design, and set design were excellent. I am told the story line followed the book it is based on reasonably closely. From my readings and study of Japan and this era, it seemed fairly accurate. The plot does get complicated with some twists and turns and leaves some unanswered questions that could be answered if I read the book.

I liked the music; John Williams did an excellent job of incorporating traditional Japanese music with contemporary Western songs from the era. I thought the contrast between taiko drums and jazz was intriguing and yet mutually supportive.

If you are a male reader and you need a film to balance a male oriented film with explosions and car chases and bikini clad girls in it to appease your girl friend, then this is the film for you. Your girl friend will think you actually have a sensitive side after all and are not a complete leering lout.

Balance is important; remember the Force.

Doug said it was a “chick flick” and he was right as usual. I saw the film at the first afternoon matinee. The theater was maybe two thirds full and there were only a handful of men there besides me.

For the record, it did not owe the girl friend a “chick flick” film so I was under no pressure to go see. The film is good enough on its own to merit your serious viewing consideration.

Just to prove my point about not needing a “chick flick,” I saw CASANOVA right after MEMOIRS.

I should point out that two period films, back to back, may not be the best viewing plan. Going from mid-twentieth century Japan to mid-eighteenth century Venice is not the easiest time travel.

CASANOVA is one of those semi-lavish period pieces that Europeans seem to do so well. It is interesting and you certainly do not have to use your mind to follow the plot line; it is fairly well laid out for you in a semi-straight line fashion.

The cast is either mostly unknowns and over the hill actors and actresses. Heath Ledger seemed to miscast to me; he lacked the roguish nature that the role of Casanova called for. Had the film been made sixty or seventy years ago, I would have cast Errol Flynn in the title role. I don’t know who I would have chosen instead of Ledger but if I had the time I would have found someone else.

I can highly recommend MEMOIRS while CASANOVA only rates a suggestion to see it at a bargain matinee or maybe wait until it comes out on DVD. Judging from the size of the audience and comparing it to MEMOIRS, I would think that CASANOVA will be at your local video store in the not too distant future.

Courtyard Views
My courtyard viewing days at the company where I am working now maybe limited. The company is interviewing candidates for a senior management position. If one of the candidates is hired, he or she will sit in the office where I have been working.

It has been a great viewing run and all good things must come to an end soon. It is perhaps better to have the viewing run end sooner rather than later. My viewing run was in the Winter and not in the Summer when the younger females are likely to wear short skirts.

Emily’s Cigars
I smoked and enjoyed the last of Emily’s cigars on Sunday. It was cool out on the balcony [59F/15C] so I was dressed warmly. This cigar was the Partagas. It was mild even though it was made with the maduro [dark tobacco] wrapper.

Job Searching and Interviewing
I got an email today from the disorganized and confused company, the one with the missed and broken interviews, that said they were looking for someone with more ideas on creating a training program and someone who belonged to training trade groups.

I think the hiring manager is not up to speed on training practices. I suggested the company adopt Internet based training for the scattered employees. This methodology has been proven by a number of universities including Duke and Harvard and the Department of Defense as a highly effective teaching method that can convey the knowledge across the globe.

I got over that in about a minute and a half. Being a member of trade group only proves you can write a check out for the membership fee. I could do that but why go to the trouble? I couldn’t see any reason to do that since it would have been patently false on my part. That would have been dishonorable.

The Princess called me to talk about a possible contract job offer she might get from a large company in Atlanta. We talked about the pluses and minuses for about twenty minutes or so.

I thought the potential job made some sense. It would provide some economic benefits to the Princess and I encouraged her to continue to talk to the company if they maintain an interest in bringing her on board in a contract status. She told that the company seems to like to hire people as contract players and then move them into a regular employee status sometime later on.

We will have to wait to see what develops next.

After getting over the confused company, I sent out a bunch of email applications.

When I got home from work on Friday, I had a message waiting for me. It was another credit union, one that I have not worked with before, that wants to talk to me about some work for them. This is only a preliminary inquiry on their part. I think I can develop a nice little business from them that should generate a couple of hundred dollars a month. Nice work if it comes to pass.

Obviously, I will be following up with them on Tuesday to see what they would like to talk about.

Lunch with Doug
I drove out to have lunch with Doug today. We went to Albertacos since it has been at least a month since we were there.

As usual, we each had a Number 8 with a medium drink, to eat in the restaurant. The meal is so filling and pleasurable. I should go to Albertacos more often.

One of our big discussions was over import car show models. Doug says this could be the source of a couple of really great jokes. I tend to agree with him.

I am agreeing with him because I visited one web site and checked out the import car show models home pages. One model listed herself as an actress in addition to a number of other skills. Since she was Asian American and an actress, I decided to check out her acting career on the Internet Movie Database.

To my surprise, the model – actress has been in a total of four films, the most recent one was in 2002 where she played the part of the bar dancer. It was a non-speaking role. I think she should rethink her acting career and maybe concentrate on something more solid since car show models have a very short half life.

I did find one model that has a real job of being a director of finance at a company. I think she will be a survivor and financially sound on her own. Most of the models plan to marry a rich man and then have him take care of her. Simple work if you can find it.


That was my weekend gentle readers. It was not very exciting but then I did not plan to do very much this weekend.

Be well and stay happy.