Weekend Update - February 11th
Weekend Update
It was a slow weekend for me.
I had a couple of phone calls from Doug as he was installing some of my software on his mother’s new personal computer. Overall, the installation has not gone well for Doug. She didn’t listen to my suggestion of buying the computer before Microsoft Windows Vista came out in the general public launch. Now, she will have to either go without or buy an upgradeable program or wait until the Vista compliant program is released.
I plan to wait to buy a new laptop until after the first Windows Vista Service Pack is released. I ought to be preparing my blogs on a new laptop by mid-year.
We did get some rain here overnight. It was not too much of a rain storm because I managed to sleep through it completely. Before the storm came through the area, our rainfall was 1.3 inches / 3.3 centimeters. Our normal rainfall at this time of the year should be 8.5 inches / 21.6 centimeters.
I think I may have found a new stylist. A friend of mine recommended her to me. I figure I have nothing to lose since Michelle has not returned to cutting hair from her maternity period. The stylists in her shop seem to be unable to recognize the difference between a half inch and a full inch of hair.
I was reading in the morning newspaper sports section that Real Madrid will hang onto the aging soccer player for the balance of the season and not release him to play in Los Angeles. Thank goodness I am not a soccer fan or I might have been devastated by the Real Madrid decision.
Visitors
We had another good week of visitors with visitors coming from Korea, Austria, United Arab Emirates [2], Malaysia, Hungary, India, China, Poland, Germany [3], Canada [2], Italy, Iran, Japan [2], Texas [3], Australia [2], Belgium, United Kingdom, Turkey, and Romania.
I can see why someone from the Emirates, a moderate country, might want to stop and view the blog. I am having some trouble understanding why someone from Iran would want to visit the blog and be exposed to color photos of women, some of whom are in bikinis.
We only had one curious visitor who stopped for just over ten minutes. We had two looking visitors who viewed nine pages in five minutes and nine pages in four minutes.
School Teaching
I am still not happy with my class assignments for the next term. I suppose that I should be happy that I didn’t end up teaching Statistics or Mathematics or Writing.
On the plus side, I will be able to watch my daily Korean soap opera, PURE IN HEART, because I won’t be teaching at nights. Of course, I don’t think the show will last too much longer. Friday night was Episode 144 and the main story arc is about at its logical end. I don’t see how much longer the show will go on unless they plan to close out the half dozen or so subsidiary story arcs. That could take another fifty or sixty episodes assuming there are no new arcs introduced.
Since two of my classes are accounting classes, homework will be easy to grade. There is only one right answer with accounting unless, of course, your teacher came from the Enron Corporation or the Arthur Anderson accounting firm and then there could be multiple answers, depending on the question.
One of my current classes is on Wednesday nights. That means I get out of a St. Valentine’s Day dinner and gift exchange with a girl friend because I will be in class until about 9:30 PM. This would be a much better benefit for me if I had a girl friend right now.
El Gringo
I will be going to El Gringo today for a late lunch or early dinner. I hope Jess the Server is working there today. I don’t know what to have for the meal except that the really spicy El Gringo Burrito is not on any list of mine today.
Today was a Number 2 Combination of two, soft chicken tacos, rice, and beans. It was not too spicy so that was good. The beans and rice were nice and hot.
Perfectomundo.
Jess was the server today and service was excellent. This may have been because I was the only customer at El Gringo at the time; every little bit helps you know. Jess was talking about her nursing school today. She is starting a new semester or quarter on Monday so that offers a new level of tension and anxiety for her.
DAE JO YOUNG and other television viewing
The show is becoming a little more fleshed out and I can see how the story line will develop from now on out.
So far, Dae Jo Young has saved his adoptive father from assassins sponsored by the Tang Dynasty in China. He also met his probable future wife, a niece of the current Korean emperor. The niece is sort of a liberated woman in an ancient world so she does not nicely fit into society. He can marry the niece and then become the warrior king, thus fulfilling his destiny and the prophecy.
I find it interesting to see how the Korean noble families or clans are cast in these epic dramas as being weak and spineless and venal and lacking any sense of patriotism and generally only interested in increasing their wealth. They do not support the military that keeps the Chinese and Japanese away from the country. They are presented as being disloyal; in this series, the leading families have already conspired with the Chinese ambassador to assassinate the Korean supreme military leader and his principle deputy.
Nice group of people to have influencing the emperor.
When Saturday’s show ended, the Korean spies had discovered the Tang army was being mobilized for an invasion of Korea. The Korean noble clans were in a panic about the Chinese duplicity and did not know whether to fight or flee. My guess is they will not fight but they will be too panicked to flee.
Dae Jo Young was about to be killed for one reason or another by his adoptive father. The Korean Supreme Military Commander was getting drunk; his deputy was getting very nervous out of the frontier and therefore closer to the Tang army. Dae Jo Young’s father is alive but out of the picture and has been for the last three weekends.
They basic plot line for the show is revenge. Dae Jo Young must avenge the torture and murder of his mother. He also has to become a ruler. This secondary plot line gives him the future ability to say, “Off with their heads,” and have heads roll in revenge for his mother’s suffering. I suspect he will be a very firm and merciless avenger.
Good for him; they deserve what is coming to them.
My Sunday night limited Japanese language series, DELICIOUS PROPOSAL, is coming to an end tonight. I figured that out when the station showed some previews on a new series that will be in the old time slot starting next weekend.
DELICIOUS PROPOSAL is reaching its end now. Last week, the only son of the family spurned the marriage to the daughter of a banker whose bank would help prop up the family business. The son gave a Japanese sort of Edward VIII abdication speech to his father, with his to be wife present, so he could marry the woman he loved. The father had a heart attack. It will be easy to conclude the show tonight.
Lastly, the Japanese station has started to show a modern remake of the samurai classic FURIN KAZAN by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshiro Mifune. I don’t see why the classic needed to be remade; the current director has none of style or grandeur that Inagaki displayed in his seminal SAMURAI TRILOGY that also starred Mifune.
Toshiro Mifune, to me, is the quintessential samurai actor after seeing him in so many Kurosawa films like RASHOMON and SEVEN SAMURAI. He seems to capture the essence of the samurai characters much more effectively and with more passion than any other actor that I can think of right now.
So far, I am not impressed by the directing or the acting. I doubt I will spend too much time with the new limited series.
I can’t call programs like DELICIOUS PROPOSAL a mini-series since it will be on for twelve or more episodes. I think limited series is the best description for the programs.
Woman of the Moment
Today, we feature Gong Li and I hope you enjoy the images. I think we will change to a new Woman of the Moment at the beginning of next week.
Be well and stay happy.
It was a slow weekend for me.
I had a couple of phone calls from Doug as he was installing some of my software on his mother’s new personal computer. Overall, the installation has not gone well for Doug. She didn’t listen to my suggestion of buying the computer before Microsoft Windows Vista came out in the general public launch. Now, she will have to either go without or buy an upgradeable program or wait until the Vista compliant program is released.
I plan to wait to buy a new laptop until after the first Windows Vista Service Pack is released. I ought to be preparing my blogs on a new laptop by mid-year.
We did get some rain here overnight. It was not too much of a rain storm because I managed to sleep through it completely. Before the storm came through the area, our rainfall was 1.3 inches / 3.3 centimeters. Our normal rainfall at this time of the year should be 8.5 inches / 21.6 centimeters.
I think I may have found a new stylist. A friend of mine recommended her to me. I figure I have nothing to lose since Michelle has not returned to cutting hair from her maternity period. The stylists in her shop seem to be unable to recognize the difference between a half inch and a full inch of hair.
I was reading in the morning newspaper sports section that Real Madrid will hang onto the aging soccer player for the balance of the season and not release him to play in Los Angeles. Thank goodness I am not a soccer fan or I might have been devastated by the Real Madrid decision.
Visitors
We had another good week of visitors with visitors coming from Korea, Austria, United Arab Emirates [2], Malaysia, Hungary, India, China, Poland, Germany [3], Canada [2], Italy, Iran, Japan [2], Texas [3], Australia [2], Belgium, United Kingdom, Turkey, and Romania.
I can see why someone from the Emirates, a moderate country, might want to stop and view the blog. I am having some trouble understanding why someone from Iran would want to visit the blog and be exposed to color photos of women, some of whom are in bikinis.
We only had one curious visitor who stopped for just over ten minutes. We had two looking visitors who viewed nine pages in five minutes and nine pages in four minutes.
School Teaching
I am still not happy with my class assignments for the next term. I suppose that I should be happy that I didn’t end up teaching Statistics or Mathematics or Writing.
On the plus side, I will be able to watch my daily Korean soap opera, PURE IN HEART, because I won’t be teaching at nights. Of course, I don’t think the show will last too much longer. Friday night was Episode 144 and the main story arc is about at its logical end. I don’t see how much longer the show will go on unless they plan to close out the half dozen or so subsidiary story arcs. That could take another fifty or sixty episodes assuming there are no new arcs introduced.
Since two of my classes are accounting classes, homework will be easy to grade. There is only one right answer with accounting unless, of course, your teacher came from the Enron Corporation or the Arthur Anderson accounting firm and then there could be multiple answers, depending on the question.
One of my current classes is on Wednesday nights. That means I get out of a St. Valentine’s Day dinner and gift exchange with a girl friend because I will be in class until about 9:30 PM. This would be a much better benefit for me if I had a girl friend right now.
El Gringo
I will be going to El Gringo today for a late lunch or early dinner. I hope Jess the Server is working there today. I don’t know what to have for the meal except that the really spicy El Gringo Burrito is not on any list of mine today.
Today was a Number 2 Combination of two, soft chicken tacos, rice, and beans. It was not too spicy so that was good. The beans and rice were nice and hot.
Perfectomundo.
Jess was the server today and service was excellent. This may have been because I was the only customer at El Gringo at the time; every little bit helps you know. Jess was talking about her nursing school today. She is starting a new semester or quarter on Monday so that offers a new level of tension and anxiety for her.
DAE JO YOUNG and other television viewing
The show is becoming a little more fleshed out and I can see how the story line will develop from now on out.
So far, Dae Jo Young has saved his adoptive father from assassins sponsored by the Tang Dynasty in China. He also met his probable future wife, a niece of the current Korean emperor. The niece is sort of a liberated woman in an ancient world so she does not nicely fit into society. He can marry the niece and then become the warrior king, thus fulfilling his destiny and the prophecy.
I find it interesting to see how the Korean noble families or clans are cast in these epic dramas as being weak and spineless and venal and lacking any sense of patriotism and generally only interested in increasing their wealth. They do not support the military that keeps the Chinese and Japanese away from the country. They are presented as being disloyal; in this series, the leading families have already conspired with the Chinese ambassador to assassinate the Korean supreme military leader and his principle deputy.
Nice group of people to have influencing the emperor.
When Saturday’s show ended, the Korean spies had discovered the Tang army was being mobilized for an invasion of Korea. The Korean noble clans were in a panic about the Chinese duplicity and did not know whether to fight or flee. My guess is they will not fight but they will be too panicked to flee.
Dae Jo Young was about to be killed for one reason or another by his adoptive father. The Korean Supreme Military Commander was getting drunk; his deputy was getting very nervous out of the frontier and therefore closer to the Tang army. Dae Jo Young’s father is alive but out of the picture and has been for the last three weekends.
They basic plot line for the show is revenge. Dae Jo Young must avenge the torture and murder of his mother. He also has to become a ruler. This secondary plot line gives him the future ability to say, “Off with their heads,” and have heads roll in revenge for his mother’s suffering. I suspect he will be a very firm and merciless avenger.
Good for him; they deserve what is coming to them.
My Sunday night limited Japanese language series, DELICIOUS PROPOSAL, is coming to an end tonight. I figured that out when the station showed some previews on a new series that will be in the old time slot starting next weekend.
DELICIOUS PROPOSAL is reaching its end now. Last week, the only son of the family spurned the marriage to the daughter of a banker whose bank would help prop up the family business. The son gave a Japanese sort of Edward VIII abdication speech to his father, with his to be wife present, so he could marry the woman he loved. The father had a heart attack. It will be easy to conclude the show tonight.
Lastly, the Japanese station has started to show a modern remake of the samurai classic FURIN KAZAN by Hiroshi Inagaki and starring Toshiro Mifune. I don’t see why the classic needed to be remade; the current director has none of style or grandeur that Inagaki displayed in his seminal SAMURAI TRILOGY that also starred Mifune.
Toshiro Mifune, to me, is the quintessential samurai actor after seeing him in so many Kurosawa films like RASHOMON and SEVEN SAMURAI. He seems to capture the essence of the samurai characters much more effectively and with more passion than any other actor that I can think of right now.
So far, I am not impressed by the directing or the acting. I doubt I will spend too much time with the new limited series.
I can’t call programs like DELICIOUS PROPOSAL a mini-series since it will be on for twelve or more episodes. I think limited series is the best description for the programs.
Woman of the Moment
Today, we feature Gong Li and I hope you enjoy the images. I think we will change to a new Woman of the Moment at the beginning of next week.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 5:30 PM
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