Havasimy

Just a short post for me right now. I'm now working in our company's second fayette county office. They stuck all the guys working under the same supervisor in this office. Two of the guys are newly hired and just graduated from college. They've been interns for the company in past summers,so they're not exactly new to the company. The other two guys are also out of the intern program having had graduated from college within the past couple of years. Next week, four interns are starting. Two worked as intern last summer. So, in summary, I'm not even thirty years old and in an office of nine people, I'm going to be the oldest. But, if you count time done as intern, I'm not even near the top when it comes to seniority. On the other hand, in an office with me, eight guys in their early 20's, and no upper, middle or even lower management, there's going to be some killer Quake 3 games during lunch.

Tiff and I are going to the Georgetowne Inn tonight to celebrate her leaving her job tonight. She's really happy. I'm going to be wearing a suit and tie, so I'm going to be happy but uncomfortably dressed.

...And, I'm discovering that I can work well listening to commentary tracks on dvds on the dvd player that I have on my new computer at work.

I consider this article just plain scary. Especially the part about The Old Man and the Sea. I read a similar article a couple months ago that dealt with "revising" works of literature, without the author's consent, to make it politically correct. I can't remember the exact details, but I do remember it talking about a case where a autobiographical or semi-autobiographical novel by a renown Jewish author was "cleansed" to remove any trace of ethnicity, including Jewish. The part that I find the most worrisome is that the revisionism in both stories comes from both sides of the political spectrum. It's the people in the middle who gets screwed.

- I saw the new movie version of I Spy. It's sad to see how Eddie Murphy's career has fallen. Growing up he was one of the great comic talents. Now his schtick is just getting old. Maybe he should pull a Robin Williams and go back to stand up for a short time. His character in I Spy is essentially one of the character that his character in Trading Places or Beverly Hills Cop 2 would have done. Back then, it was funny to think that someone in a movie would find that character real. They expect us now to think that character is real. And, even given that the audience needs to understand that the movie isn't supposed to be realistic, it is still hard to buy Eddie Murphy as a champion boxer. The way he holds his body, the way he stands, even his physique screams "I ain't fighting without a weapon". And the boxing scenes makes the fight scenes in Meatballs 2 look like the fight scenes in When We Were Kings.
- Anyway, my opinion is essentially, I Spy is a movie to watch when you have time to kill and you don't have to pay for it, which was the situation I watched it in.
- One last I Spy note: the IMDB lists Gary Cole as the actor who plays the latino super spy Carlos. I didn't recognize him as being Carlos, but if it was him, it's the worse casting of an actor in a latino role since, well, Catherine Bell in Bruce Almighty.
- I got the first season of Dark Angel on DVD. It's a shame it didn't succeed. I hope James Cameron tries doing television again, but only if it's sci-fi. The world doesn't need the television equivalent of the Titanic.
- Went to Fuddruckers this weekend. Their ostrich burger isn't the best burger I've ever tasted, but I think I'd put it in my top five.
- I believe the only great movie star of my youth who has fallen further than Eddie Murphy is Sylvester Stallone. I just saw a sign for another of his movies outside a rental place that must be going straight to video. If he doesn't make a decently success movie soon, he could start becoming known as Frank's brother. No wonder he's considering doing another Rocky or Rambo.

Just a few notes about this weekend:

- I'm taking Tiff to the Styx/REO Speedwagon/Journey concert next month. I get to look forward to a night of cheesy power ballads. I better make sure all my lighters are full. At least I got tickets far enough away from the stage that I won't notice that the only guy I know from any of the bands, Steve Perry, isn't even with Journey any more. Wait, I also know that guy from Styx who was in Damn Yankees that looks like David Spade.

- I saw Bruce Almighty yesterday. Funny picture, although I wouldn't pay full price to see it again. In the movie, Bruce, played by Jim Carrey, plays one of those cheesy local reporter that always get assigned to do the funny little human interest pieces. He never gets the hard hitting stories and he gets passed over for the recently-opened anchorman position. He then goes on a rant at God complaining about how God has it in for him. I'm sorry. Any guy who has a good job in a field he likes and has a girlfriend who is sweet, kind, supportive and looks like Jennifer Aniston has no right to complain to God. But if you can get past that Bruce is a big whiner at the beginning of the movie, then the movie can be funny.

- In Bruce Almighty, Catherine Bell played a character named Susan Ortega. I think she was supposed to be a hispanic news anchor, but she doesn't look hispanic and only once did I hear her attempt an accent, but her character is there, anyway, simply to give Bruce's girlfriend a reason to get mad at Bruce.

- I watched Desperate Measures last night on DVD. It still disappoints me. I've always been a fan of Michael Keaton and the film was filmed in Pittsburgh. I expected more. Keaton's character doesn't seem crazy, just bored.

I have a couple more things to comment on, but I'll do it at another time. It's time for me to go.

Didn't get much work done today. Spent most of the time getting my new computer set up. I need to get used to Windows XP, but it'll be nice having a cd burner on my computer, which will come in handy for work, and a dvd player, which will come in handy during breaks. And when Windows starts really driving me nuts, I have my Linux box to go to for some sanity.

This weekend is a long weekend. I know this is a long weekend cause at 4:30 on a friday afternoon, I'm the only one here at work. At 4:00, I was one of just two people.

I'm going out of state tomorrow with Tiff. This means that no matter what, I can't do any work over the weekend. Since I can't do work, I won't worry about it. At least that's the theory. Work is going to be a bitch next week, though.

I'm sure there are people who were waiting for the previous post. Not the subject matter, but the length. I'm not known to be one to conserve words.

Well, I wasn't planning on writing an entry today, but I just got a new computer at work and I'm copying my files from the old one to the new one. It'll be great to have a new one. The old one was just screwy. (I don't think you can blame all of it entirely on me) The old computer would reboot itself without warning. It'll be fine for a while then suddenly, it's rebooting. It happened when I got new memory for it last year. I'm not good with hardware, especially on a windows box, so I just lived with it. We don't have a local administrator here, and when one comes down from corporate hq, he's running around busy his whole visit. I got offered a new one, and I took it. My old one goes to an incoming intern. I hope he has fun with it.

I happened to catch the last episode of the bachelor and the epilogue episode this week. Earlier this year, I watched the first episode, picked my favorite girls, then didn't watch it again until the last episode. Not knowing what happened in between, and catching various episodes of previous bachelor(ette)s series, I have the following comments:
- If you're one of the 25 competing and you look around, you'll see that a majority are physically similar. If you're not in that majority, just give up. The producers find out what the bachelor(ette) likes and fills up the contestant pool with that type to ensure there's enough (s)he's attracted to. In the latest bachelor, over half had long blonde or light brown hair. They also had similar bodies. If you have black hair and everybody else around you is blonde, I'd suggest leaving while you still have some of your dignity. And if you're a minority, your chances seems even bleaker.
- It's interesting the differences between the contestants when the bachelor(ette) isn't around. The 25 guys turned the house into a frat party when Trista wasn't around. They got drunk. One guy ate dog food. Another urinated on his bed. Some of the other guys carried a bed with a passed out contestant on it outside, so he woke up next to a garden gnome. The 25 gals kept their guards up at all time. Forming cliques and talking behind each others backs. They were playing the game at all times. Does this reflect better on the guys or the gals. You could say that the guys weren't taking it serious. On the other hand, the gals were possibly taking it too serious. This is more than a game. The winner, in theory, enters into a relationship. If they are dishonest about themselves to make themselves look better and use lies to sabotage the other ladies' chances, then it makes it less likely that the best match will be chosen and thus no matter who wins, the bachelor loses. Personally, I'll take the way the 25 guys act anyday. Have fun and relax and be civilized with the opponents between chances to be at-bat.
- I think that's the thing that bothers me about the bachelor(ette). I'm not sure if I'd ever be totally sure that the contestants are trying to win even though they aren't a good match. This is probably as true for the guys as the girls. I've seen the smaller dating shows like "dismissed" where you have one guy dating multiple girls or vice versa. More often than not, the multiples care more about being chosen and "winning" than actually finding a match. That what's great about Blind Date. If a couple don't like each other, they show it. And what's more fun to watch than a date turn into a car wreck.
- The funniest thing about the epilogue episodes of the shows is when the winner tells how tough it is to watch the taped episodes air and see their new fiancee' make out with their former opponents.
- And finally, the new bachelor is Bob, the funny, "big-boned" contestant from the bachelorette. I believe the women competing for his hand will be just as serious as the women on previous bachelors, but I'm curious to see if they're as quick to suck face with him as on previous shows. I heard a saying once that "there are guys that girls date and there are guys that girls marry". The previous bachelors seemed more like the former, thus the willingness to lock lips so quickly. Bob seems like more the latter type.

You know, for something I barely watched, I have way too many opinions. (I just thought I'd say that before someone else did in the comments section.)

And while I'm on a reality tv vein, I ask this question: Is it a coincidence that Ruben won the american idol right after both luther vandross and barry white had strokes?

Okay, I don't know when I'll get to add more stuff to this blog. Yesterday, my supervisor asked me when I can get the thing I'm currently working on done. I told him six working days. This morning, I'm told that I have four days. On what would be the fifth day, I'm to drive down to the Maryland office and demo it. Good thing I'm spending the weekend with Tiff, cause I won't be seeing her during the week.

Okay, I know this template is ugly, but it's not the template, it's the words, right?

After spouting my comments on other peoples' blogs, I finally create mine. Thus it all starts.