The New Road

Charlies Angels : Full Throttle

I pay-per-viewed Charlies Angels : Full Throttle last night. It's not as bad as people made out. Sure the plot makes no sense, the characters are paper thin, and it's just a bunch of set pieces, but hey, it wasn't as dry and tedious as reviewers made it out to be.

New Megan Pictures

Some new pictures of Megan and a movie of Ripley trying to eat her breakfast from a toy that Jenny and Thom gave us.

Excellent Ad

Another excellent Internet ad about Bush's economic policy.

Poker

I did pretty well with poker last night. I started with 1,000 units, worked it up, probably into the 4,000s, then lost it back to 1,700 by the end. The big hit came when I had a pair of aces. The flop was three tens. I slow played it, but it turned out I was being slow played. I lost to four tens. That doesn't happen all that often, so I don't feel too bad.

Lord of the Restaurant

We need a new theme restaurant! I propose, Lord of the Restaurant. Based, loosely, for copyright reasons, on a movie with a similar title of which three were made and have come out in the last couple of years. Enough said about that.

You and your fellowship will embark on the quest. Greeted by our costumed hobbets, you will be taken to our recreation of the Prancing Pony where you will decide what to do with the cash that you have left. Will you start your meal with The One Rings, our delicious onion ring stack served on a glowing ring base, or plunge into our Mount Doom brownie creation oozing with chocolate Lava? Or why not try Gandalf's favorite Angel Hair Pasta, with your choice of white or gray sauce. Gimli's tossed salad with Arwen's virgin olive oil dressing, perhaps? Or Aragorn's wilted lettuce salad made from greens desperately in need of a shower.

The really lovely part about the idea is two or three years down the road when the movies are a distant memory but the restaurant remains. Wear workers will appear reciting tired lines, "Would you like some Frodo fries with that?", "How about a Sauramon Steak? Sauron sauce is extra."

Rainy day

It's a nice rainy day out today. Real rain. Not just the sprinkling type we usually get. As I was going across the bridge this morning it was hitting the side of the car in sheets. Very cool.

The only problem is that when the dry hot weather comes, which inevitably follows the rain, the pollen will kick up and I will be miserable.

Good fun with the house over the Christmas break. The three big things that still needed fixing I fixed. So now it's just cleaning up little things here and there. It's nice to have a bunch of those tasks off my plate.

Fort Baker

Here are some pictures from Megan's trip to the Children's Discovery Museum at Fort Baker yesterday.

Still waiting

Still waiting for Lori's Dad to pull his thumb out and blog again.

New computer for my Dad

My Dad got a digital camera for Christmas, but his computer, which is about 6+ years old and running Win95 isn't capable of running the software. We talked about it and decided the best move was to get a new machine that could run WinXP. Now the question is, what computer?

I checked Dell. They have a solid machine that starts at $699, but when you add Office, Norton, extra RAM, extra Drive, an LCD monitor, you are looking at ~$1,500.

I checked Gateway and they have an interesting, all-in-one solution. It's like an iMac. You plug the keyboard and mouse into the unit. Then you plug the phone line and power into the unit and you are good to go. The whole deal, monitor and all is in one package. That is about ~$1,500 as well.

I recommended the Dell, but I think the Gateway is good as well. Any ideas? This has to be a very easy system to use. It's primarily for email and web surfing. Laptop is not required. It also needs to be virus protected. Mac is not an option. ;-(

Little air does the trick

I called up the video game store and they said they don't fix PS2 disc drives. So I hemmed and hawed and decided it was time to try the simple. Blowing the dust out of the unit. I disassembled it, which was tough. I used the compressor to blow it out, and it did the trick. The game now loads on the first go. Woo hoo!

Ratchet and Clank 2

Lori got me Ratchet and Clank 2 for Christmas. It's so good. It's really tough to put down. Really, really tough. My only saving grace is that the drive on the PS2 is flakey, so when I take it into the shop later today it will keep me from playing the game for a couple of weeks.

Alien Visitor

Lori got me this deeply bad film for Christmas. There are only two paper thin characters who zap themselves around the Australian outback and rant about environmental destruction. According to the reviews the movie offers no solutions, but we didn't wait around to see it.

The movie was like that 70s commercial with the Indian chief crying at trash, except it was two hours long, filled with inane commentary and voice-over, and not nearly as well done.

The dialogue was so bad. It's almost indescribable. It had the rhythm of text written by a committee:

Her: It's quite easy really. We treat each other with respect. Kindness. We have a relationship.

Him: Just like that.

Her: Some simple rules need to be followed. Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Don't get offended by anything I say or do, no matter how hard that may be for you, until after we have agreed to terminate the relationship. Don't bottle up your feelings. Agree to disagree. Respect the other's point of view. That's the one that is going to be hardest for me. Ok?

Him:Sounds easy enough.

Her: Good. That's decided then.

He goes on to talk how his watch is broken. Yeah, that's dialogue from the heart. Lucas would be proud.

The movie will now suffer the ultimate insult as it will be placed in a location accessible to Megan, who will destroy it. I think I'll put the DVD into the package backwards so that the data face is accessible to prying and scratching fingers.

Pluto Nash

We gave the Bolducs a copy of Pluto Nash. I like giving movies that have a morale. The morale of Pluto Nash is not to hire Eddie Murphy.

Great thing about a blog

One of the great things about running a blog is that you get found by Google and occasionally people will drop by to read one rant, make a random comment and then piss off never to be heard from again. This latest one was about my rant on the horrible Four Non-blondes song "What's up?". Nick tells me that:

The institution shes talking about is our society and thats why she wants a revolution.

Yeah, that makes it all better. It a much better song... now.

Killer Bunnies

I love everything about this.

Best Movies of the Year

I haven't seen a whole lot of movies this year, but I feel qualified to give my top five:

• Winged Migration - An amazing movie that says so much without speaking anything at all.
• Return of the King - Despite my biting review this is still a great film.
• Finding Nemo - Both a technical achievement and a film that really touches the heart.
• Open Range - A forgotten, but excellent, movie.
• Bad Santa - Too ballsy to leave off the list. Kudos to Hollywood for making a movie this in your face.

Of them all I would recommend Winged Migration. It's playing on Satellite at the moment. Set up the TiVo to get it. It's worth it.

State of our educational system

I went to Orchard Supply last night to pick up some paint. While the shakers were shaking I started up a conversation with the kid and we talked about Christmas. He asked me if I was going anyway, I said no, but that if I was going somewhere it would probably be to Seattle to see my sister. He replied, "Does it snow down there?"

Play date

I have a play date this morning with Peter White (a guy I met through the book) and his daughter. Should be fun. Pictures later.

Matrix / LOTR similarities

I'm probably the last to notice this but, both Return Of The King and Matrix Revolutions have two people traveling to the mountains the return the one thing to the source to destroy the ultimate evil. Both movies also have a unique vision of the evil. In LOTR the evil is a giant floating eye. In the Matrix the evil is a group of millions of clones.

Anyway, just thought I would put that out there.

Lori's Birthday

It's Lori's birthday. We spent it shopping and walking around with Megan. It was actually more fun than it sounds. My best gift to her was a custom Mother's card, shown below:

I built it in Fireworks then took it to Kinko's for printing. I think it came out pretty well. Lori really liked the sweeping font I used on her name (Zapfino).

I made a four layer white cake for her as well. It was supposed to be two layers, but using 10" pans made the cakes really short. So I made four layers.

The Wrong Stuff

I love just the idea of this book.

ROTK Review

Ok, yes, it was an awesome movie. Of that there can be no doubt. The battle scenes were tremendous. The action was terrific. That being said, there were a lot of rough spots.

Read on if you don't mind spoilers.

• The pacing was uneven. Some of the scenes were way too short (the diversion of the orcs away from Mt. Doom), while others were way too long (seeing Frodo off.)
• The gaze of the all-seeing eye with the ray of light was just cheesy. There is no other word to use. It was a bad idea that should have remained on the drawing board. The eye never had a gaze in the two previous films.
• The fact that both hobbits had little people stand-ins when they were getting onto the boat was distracting.
• There were far too few comic sequences. The lack of Gimli in the last twenty minutes was felt because he was such a vital comic relief through the rest of the picture.
• Legolas was underused. He only had the one good, albeit very good, scene with the Olophant.
• Arwen was sorely underused.
• Eowyn played her character a little too weak.
• Denethor wasn't played crazy enough. I didn't buy his motivation at the funeral pyre.
• Pippin must be one hell of a runner because he was up and down Minas Tirith ten times. And Peter was kind enough to give us a sense of perspective by showing Gandalf in his ride up the city.
• I understand why the black gate scene was necessary. But it felt misplaced and poorly written.
• Aragorn was played way to dry. He felt like a character from Star Wars Episode I.
• There was too much rock stuff on Mt. Doom.
• The entire Frodo and Sam quest in both the second and the third film seems almost too sullen and horrible. They needed a Gimli and Gollum wasn't that funny in either film.
• I'm not so stupid that I need Gollum's plan explained three times to me.
• The initial Gollum scene was not very well done.

Ok, so with the negative stuff out of the way.

• The effects were tremendous.
• The Pelenor fields battle was jaw-dropping.
• Gandalf was awesome. Especially when he nailed Denethor.
• Legolas' take-down of the Olophant was a thing of beauty.
• The Army of the Dead was great.
• The Minis Tirith CG and design was very good.

Overall I would say that this is the weakest of the three movies. The first movie is the most fun. The second movie makes the best connection to the viewer. The third movie, is necessary, but, well, I'll wait for the extended edition to give it the final review.

Oscar for the third film? Probably not. Oscar for all of the movies as a set? If only. They really deserve it. As tough as I am in the first list, I really liked it and Peter Jackson, et. al. are to be commended.

Interesting trailers

I saw Return Of The King last night. It was great, but it had some flaws. More about that after Lori has seen the movie. The trailers were interesting. The Chronicles of Riddick looks awesome. I love the idea that it is a completely new and different plot with just the one character held over. That takes balls. Spider Man 2 looks good but not compelling. Harry Potter looks like more of the same. I won't be seeing that one in the theatre. I couldn't even get through the second one on video. By far the weirdest of the trailers was for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Bizarre cinematography. Crazy effects. I don't know how, if The Iron Giant (great movie) didn't make much money they could think that this thing could. Anyway, at least the won't be running up on trademark infringements with Captain Tomorrow, who is here to help you overcome negative feelings and replace them with positive ones.

Ripley is ready for the Holidays

Ripley is ready for the holiday season.

Stupid links for the day

• Wooden Ferrari
• Intolerance Barbie
• Dancing robots

Excellent Bush ad

Here is a unique pro-Republican anti-Bush ad. I actually know the guy that made the ad. He is a great guy.

Two pair at the start

For one reason or another I have this problem where I always lose a bunch of units at the start of a game when I have two pair and the other guy either has three of a kind or a straight. Grr...

Blog layouts

This guy has some pointers to really nice blog layouts.

Sea Battle

The great thing about the web is that it is a communal memory. Here I am, thinking about my youth and the games I used to play. I remember vividly the Intellivision we used to own and the games we used to play on it. Most important was Sea Battle which was an awesome two player strategy game. I remember playing that with Andy Baker into the wee hours of the morning. Honing our submarine strategies to devastate the other player.

We would come back to my house from school as it was just starting to get dark (winter time). Then we would either go to Yom's for cheesesteaks or to Morton Pizza (map). (Aside: This page says Morton Pizza has the best pizza around by far, but my recollection is different. If you got a pepperoni pizza you would get a pizza where the pepperoni had turned into little cups and the grease would pool in the middle of the cup.)

Anyway, we would just grab some food and camp out in front of the tube with the Intellivision playing Sea Battle or Poker and Blackjack (where the dealers shifty eyes moved back and forth as he dealt). The snow would pile up and we would hope upon hope that there would be a snow day.

Man those were good days. If Scott was playing with his stoner friends (and listening to Hendrix loud) we could either go upstairs to my room and play Panzer Leader or Atlantic Wall at Andy's place.

Levitra

I think I'm going to get me some of this Levitra stuff. It appears that it helps you with your accuracy on the football. Me, I've never been able to get a perfect spiral. So if this stuff can help me bullet the ball through a tire swing at twenty feet, I'm there.

Yeah, I own it

Herrington Hills

Pictures from the morning

Lori and I took some pictures of Megan with Sadie's collar on this morning. She was so cute. We have a great daughter.

Return of the King

I tried to bring down my level of expectation with Matrix Revolutions in order to enjoy it. It didn't work, but it did stem the pain a little. With Return of the King I doubt there is any way to lower my expectations. It has 100% on both Rottentomatoes and Metacritic. It has also gotten amazing reviews on Aintitcoolnews. It's kinda sad that it's going to end. It's not like Star Wars, it won't be back with more movies unless they do the Hobbit and that is many years away. Peter Jackson will be doing King Kong as his next movie.

Eve and Julius Birthday Party

Here are some pictures of Megan from yesterday's birthday party for Eve and Julius Tyson. It was a great party and Megan was crying like you wouldn't believe when I put her in the car to leave. Lori was feeling very ill so she couldn't make it.

Captured Saddam

US forces in Iraq have captured Saddam. Great news! Bush might be able to win this hand after all. Strange, it had never occurred to me that Saddam might not be the one pushing the buttons on the insurrection.

Non-Profit Organization

I'm thinking, really seriously, about creating a non-profit organization around the Code Generation Network to use for expenses on advertising, web site development, and such. If you know anything about how to set up an NPO please let me know.

Bad Poker Night

I lost 2000 units last night at Poker. One of the other players was unstoppable and had every hand. By the end of the night it was a joke. I don't feel too bad about the losses. If units were pennies (which I'm not saying they are) then at $5 an hour that is pretty decent entertainment. It's cheaper than a movie, bowling or pool. If you think that's a pretty lame justification to myself for losing badly, you are right.

Flightgear

Here is a cool and free flight simulator for Mac, Widows, Linux, etc. The number of maps they have is incredible.

We Will Kick Your Ass

So says the Sheriff.

Ripley is Small

It's nice to know that there are places where Ripley would be considered small.

Ruben Gonzalez

It's really a shame to hear about the death of Ruben Gonzalez. He was a gifted musician and showman. I was impressed when I saw him a couple of years back with the Beuna Vista Social Club.

Battlestar Galactica

On a lighter subject. Battlestar Galactica rocked. It was easily the best Sci-Fi Original Movie ever. I can't wait until the next segment comes out.

Offshore outsourcing

Offshore outsourcing has gone from a vague threat from the book "The Rise and Fall of the American Programmer" to a daily issue in the Valley. I've talked with a lot of people, some of whom were strong advocates of outsourcing and though I never had a solid argument I always thought that there was something fundamentally wrong with the practice. Now it may be that I am slow in just coming to this, but I think it needs to be said.

The main reason for outsourcing is economic. Software engineers in other countries cost less. So if you are a bean counter and you looks at the R & D cost of a product, outsourcing looks really attractive.

What I have only come to grasp recently is that the Valley is an eco-system. The tech jobs here are the underpinning of an entire culture of innovation and experimentation. With comfortable jobs underneath them engineers are free to explore and innovate in their free time. From this type of innovation we have reaped tremendous rewards; HTML, HTTP, MP3, and MPEG, just to name a few.

The most obvious example of this eco-system is Steve Wozniak and the development of the Apple 1. Steve had a comfortable job with HP, one he was loathed to give up even when Apple started doing well. It was only with this support that he was able to find the time to join the Homebrew computer club and to develop the Apple 1. The Apple 1 is what built the Personal Computer industry. Without it we would not have the valley we see today.

What people don't see is that the short term financial gains that come from shipping jobs out of the Valley are destroying the very fertile ground upon which their companies are built. Other areas of the country would beg to have the type of tech environment that we enjoy in this valley. When it all dies because the front-line engineers have all gone because of lack of jobs it will be too late to reconstruct what we once had.

The other reason for outsourcing I hear is that American's are no longer training for high tech jobs. It's only because of outsourcing that this is happening. You can't pay for college on dreams of a good job, you need assurances that your field will last you for at least long enough to pay off your loans.

What's sad is that the kid that built Napster in his dorm room to show off to his buddies probably wouldn't have even written it today because there would be no job for him to go to after he graduated, and thus no reason for an interest in software development. Without Napster and MP3 we wouldn't have had the expansion of broadband that we saw that fed the VC and tech bubble.

We need to understand that technology innovation doesn't happen in the board rooms or product marketing cubes. That's where evolution happens, not revolution. It's the geeks that make the difference and who build our tech economy. And when the geeks go they will take all of that spirit of innovation with them.

Bad Boy Bubby

Yes, this film did exist.

Spammer Decomposition

This article on decomposing a spammer break-in is amazing.

If you know what this is

If you know what this is:

Please let me know. This was on a kitchen magnet style thing and we really have no idea what it is. Perhaps a bone saw?

Governator

Yeah, politics is serious stuff.

Best Photos of the Year

These photos are definitely worth the look. I love the one where the dog has his head in the fence.

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar premieres tonight and tomorrow. Joy. The sad part is that I don't get to see it since I'll be at a launch party tonight. Grrr... Obviously the coordinators were not geeks.

There should be a litmus test to work in any job at a tech company:

• Did you stay up late on Friday nights playing AD&D with your geek friends?
• Did you design your own role playing and board games?
• Where you more interested in your high school girlfriend's computer than your girlfriend?
• When other kids were playing baseball were you trying to compute line of sight between your .50 caliber emplacement and the halftrack behind the tree?
• Have you had heated debates with others about the which was better TOS or TNG?

To work at a tech company you should have to answer yes to at least three out of five here. And for a person like that, missing the premiere of a new Battlestar show is just, unacceptable.

Canes vs. FSU II?

But we already played FSU this season! And won! Now we have to toast up Bobby Bowden again? At least this time it's in the Orange Bowl. ;-)

Hellboy

Gotta say, this trailer looks awesome.

Polar Express also looks great.

And the trailer for The Day After Tomorrow also looks good.

Last Samurai

I saw the Last Samurai last night. It was pretty good. I don't think it lived up to the hype but I liked two of the central themes. The first was Tom Cruises' characters search for inner peace. And the second was the Samurai quest for perfection.

Slight spoilers if you read on.

There was a lot not to like:

The size of the village where he was sent didn't make any sense. At certain points they said there were hundred of Samurai. But there were only four or five huts.

Another problem I had was this notion of the benevolent Samurai culture. This was a feudal culture with ritualistic violence. It's not the same as the American Indian culture. And in my opinion I think both the American Indian culture and the Japanese culture would find problems in the linking of the two.

There were technical problems that I had with the weapons and warfare. For example the Gatling gun with unlimited ammunition.

Overall I think the movie was just a little too simplistic and Hollywood for my taste. It was well done, and it's one of the better movies in theatres now. But I think that if you have the taste for it you would be happier with Bad Santa.

Bad sex stories

This link is going around the blogosphere. But that's because it's good. Don't go here unless you are an adult and comfortable with graphic sex talk.

Iraqi Poker

Given my recent interest in Texas Hold-em I started thinking about the conflict with Iraq in terms of poker. I know people could think that this is playing a game with people's lives, but I think the analysis is about strategy and not in terms of a game. Plus, from one perspective I am simply extending the DODs use of playing cards in theatre.

Imagine Saddam and President Bush playing at a table one on one. Bush has the chip lead, of course, and Saddam understands that the next hand is all-in.

The President gets his hand:

Two sevens. This is a pretty strong hand but nothing to write home about. It's obvious the US Military is up to the task and that victory is assured, but key countries have witheld their support and the American public is split on support for the war.

Saddam gets his cards:

Woof, not inspiring at all. Only the possibility of a flush draw remains with this low card combo. He knows he can't win the conventional war, so he is going to need to bluff this one out. He is the first to act and he goes all-in.

Bush can smell the weakness and with his pair of sevens he can see that now is the time to close the deal. 9/11 caused a major upswell in the American public towards a 'war on terror', but a year on with Afghanistan routed the public attention is starting to wane. Bush, with a keen understanding of the inertia of politics knows that now is his time to act. He calls Saddam and matches his all-in. The war is on.

The flop comes down and Bush is vindicated. His pair of sevens has turned into three-of-a-kind. Major combat is over quickly with few casualties. But things turn sour as he looks again at the cards and see the possible flush in hearts. He hadn't really planned this far in advance and the post-war period is turning out to be tougher than expected.

Saddam is shaken. He is still in the game, obviously. He is going to be in it to the end. But it is not looking good. The flop didn't help him at all. He knew he had a long shot on the flush draw, but there were no diamonds at all.

But wait, he could be looking at a straight. In fact, he is one card off the straight. All he needs is a six in the next two cards. His clever plan of letting the war wash over him and then running a gorilla war may just pan out.

Fourth street drops and it's Saddam's card:

Saddam now has the straight. He is winning at this point. If the war continues as is with the insurgence gaining ground every day the American public will throw Bush out of office and push for a very quick exit strategy. But all is not rosey for Saddam either, he can see the possibility of a flush, which Bush may already have.

Bush on the other hand is very unhappy with fourth street. This growing flush problem is gaining strength with another heart. If he could he would end the game right now but he is now in this thing full-on until the end. What he doesn't know is that to end the game right now he would lose badly.

Standing back from the table we can see where we are today. The outright Bush victory, which now requires the last remaining seven on fifth street, is unlikely. He would have to find obvious weapons of mass destruction, find or kill Saddam, or turn the international community in his favor. All of these possibilities are fading rapidly.

Saddam, who is leading a succesful insurgence is in the lead at this point, merely needs to continue on to pressurize the situation to his advantage. He can't really win the whole game. He is not in the chip lead and his win simply means taking Bush for the win of an un-conventional war. Americans have never looked at Vietnam as a straight loss, we look at it as a quagmire we rightly extracated ourselves from, if somewhat late.

Then there is the unexpected possiblity of a flush draw on the table where neither player outright wins and they split the pot. After a year and a half since the start of the war the U.S. withdraws the majority of it's force in the face of overwhelming domestic and international sentiment. The weak Iraqi ruling body gains pro-Saddam loyalists and eventually Saddam himself re-appears and possibly regains control. The likely largest change in Iraq would be the move from Sunni to Shiite control and the installation of an Islamic government instead of a secular regime.

On paper what looked like a clear victory for Bush has now turned into a complex hand with the lead taken by Saddam but where the outcome appears to be out of complete control by either party. More rests on the tendencies of the Iraqi people themselves then on either of the active parties in the conflict. Both of the players having stirred the pot will watch in awe as the pot itself gravitates toward a stable state.

Nice day at work

Killed a bug and enjoyed our friendly lunch-time poker game. I started with 200 units and ended up with 1100 units. That's a good winning percentage. My big take was on triple-fours. I knocked two players out who had both gone all in. I was doing poorly in the beginning but I found a little confidence and got some reasonably good hands. I took one person for a stone cold bluff. I don't get to do that very often because I have a lousy poker face.

Still whinging about the iPod decision. It's a lot of money. Ten gigs is not that much for the $299 price tag. If the $299 was 20 Gigs, maybe. Apple is just too expensive for what you get. Plus last years Christmas had a big gift in it of an MP3 player and that player, I kid you not, has literally exploded. It was an absolute piece of junk.

Anyway, I'm just hard pressed to think of any high-tech gizmo or gadget that would really be interesting to me. Perhaps a hybrid GPS/camera, but they don't make those yet.

Homestar Runner

Lori was asking me what I was laughing about yesterday. It was the introduction to Homestarrunner.com. It's dot com!

Giant Smoke Ring Generator

To coincide with Gandalf coming back in the Return Of The King, here is a link to a giant smoke ring generator.

Reason to get an iPod

Finally! A real reason to get an iPod. With this thing you could download all of your photos to your iPod when you are traveling so that you can keep the memory card of your camera clean. That way you don't need to bring along a laptop.

Much more amusing

If you type miserable failure into Google and press the I'm feeling lucky button it will take you to George Bush's bio.

Tough Day, Good Movie

It was a pretty tough day on Monday. I did it to myself so I really can't complain. After I got back from Austin I asked my boss if I could do my presentation for people that would be interesting in code generation. We scheduled it for yesterday. I thought it would be great for the people I worked with to see and for me to get some more practice presenting.

It was lined up to be bad even before it started. I had a cold. The PowerPoint installation on my machine wasn't working the day before the presentation. And when I got to the presentation room the projector wasn't working so we needed to change conference rooms on the fly.

But all that was nothing in comparison to the disaster that I made of my own presentation. I sweat like a pig through the entire thing. I slurred. I mumbled. I skipped slides. It was awful. Even worse it was in front of a lot of friends and colleagues. Which hurts a little more than really dumping in front of a bunch of strangers.

It's one thing when you are completely ignorant of how bad a presenter you are but I was sitting there presentating and watching this train wreck in slow motion simultaneously. As I kept on going I realized everything I was doing wrong.

I'll buy some books on good presentation theory. Maybe I'll join Toastmasters.

Anyway, when I got home I really didn't feel like working on stuff so I went to go see Bad Santa, which was awesome. It was so refreshing to see a movie from Hollywood with uncaged humor. Bernie Mac was great as the sleazy mall security guy. Billy Bob was awesome in his alchoholic stupor. Tony Cox was great as the Santa's little helper and criminal mastermind. If you are not easily offended and you like off-beat dark humor you will really like this movie.

Who would want this?

I'm really not a skulls kinda guy. But even for someone into skulls I can't imagine this holding much appeal.

Carnivale

I gotta say. I didn't watch all of the last show, but man, that was the craziest finale I have ever seen. Nothing was solved. Lots of new plotlines were opened up.

I checked on some of the boards and the word from HBO is that it will take at least three seasons to complete the arc, that season two has yet to be picked up and if it does get picked up it won't be released until 2005.

The really sad part is that I don't think I want to watch it again to get back up to speed in 2004. It was hard enough watching it the first time.

Thom's $5 Tree

Here is a story for Thom about their adventures in getting a $5 tree.