Cheers!

It almost seems like a necessity to blog about the end of the year. A time to sort of sit down and think about all that's happened...

A move. A new job. Travels around the world. Traveling about town. New friends. Catching up with old ones. New foods. New family. Getting in touch with old family. All in all, '06 was great for so many reasons. So many wonderful people. I think I'm very fortunate.

I'm looking at the clock. 6:20 PM. Only a few hours left and I'll be embarking on another new adventure. I hope that the coming year will be full of many new adventures! May everyone have a safe and happy New Year and may the future be bright for everyone!

To the New Year! *raises glass*

Happy Festivus!

Break out your aluminum pole, it's that time of year again!

Back in eighteen fourty-four
The Festivus snail was heard to roar.
That ol' snail sure caused a fuss.
His roar brought us Festivus.

Gather 'round the pole, young wishers.
Gather 'round to toss your washers.
Gather 'round the rest of us.
The time has come for Festivus!

http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-2/festivus%2010.htm
© Adam Park

Happy Festivus everyone!

(More...)

Why I love my company

I've only been here a couple of weeks but I love my company. We're a small startup---small enough we could all fit in a small bus. I guess we're lucky enough to have our own office but even still it isn't the greatest. I mean, check this out:

• The ceilings creak whenever someone walks on the floor above us.
• We've had the power go out and we're all just sitting in the dark.
• After a while the fridge starts making this loud buzzing sound that escalates to the volume of a chainsaw ... until someone goes over and kicks it.
• The VP of Engineering's wall-sized whiteboard has this delicate tether to the wall and it wobbles when you write on it---and it'll probably fall down any moment.
• The main conference room table also wobbles dangerously every time someone leans on it.
• The conference rooms (all 3 of them) have paper thin walls and windows. You have no privacy at all---you can hear the executive officers' voices when they get excited.
• Our method of obtaining "lock permission" on modifying some of our files basically involves walking over to people's cubes and telling them not to make any changes.
• There are two microwaves---the bottom one is missing its glass plate.
• There is a temperature control problem. Even with the windows wide open it is still like 90 degrees indoors.

But even for all these nagging problems people are really passionate about their work. It's fun to dodge golf balls in the hallway when the CEO is practicing his putting. Or when in an HR meeting we received a form to declare all the reading materials we got and the VP of Engineering pipes up calling it "the shit-that-we-got form". It's just like being in a dragon boat race where everyone is working hard to pull their weight but they're still enjoying the ride.

Frankly dear, I don't give a damn

SPOILER WARNING:



OK, I just finished watching all 3 hours 42 minutes of "Gone With The Wind". More aptly titled "Broke Ass Slut Ho's Millions" or "Great Balls of Fire, I'm A Whiny Loser". Good grief did this movie annoy me. First, let's look at some of the more memorable characters.

Scarlett O'Hara: (Vivien Leigh) The spoiled rich brat that lusts after everyone else's man.

Melanie "Melly" Hamilton: (Olivia de Havilland) The girl that steals Scarlett's hearthrob.

Ashley Wilkes: (Leslie Howard) The good soldier boy. OK, the incestuous soldier boy.

Rhett Butlet: (Clark Gable) The rich conniving pimp.

Prissy: (Butterfly McQueen) Super-annoying (lying) servant of the O'Haras. Sounds like Michael Jackson after an atomic wedgie.

Aunt "Pittypat" Hamilton: (Laura Hope Crews) Scarlett's aunt and probably had one too many Ho Ho's.

Tara: The clod of earth Scarlett loves.

The other characters were actually pretty redeeming or not significant enough to warrant me trashing. Speaking of which, the main character liberally call each other "white trash". Funny, that brings a smile to my face. Anyways, the plot basically goes like this:

It's the Deep South and we're back in the time just at the start of the Civil War. Scarlett is a pretty well-off country girl who definitely doesn't embody the "grace" of "decent people". No, she's a man eater. And when she's in her zone she attracts men like flies to, er, hot fresh cow pat. We're talking a Class A ho. Oh, did I mention she's whiny? Oh, super whiny. She acts like she's a spoiled brat (because she is) and wants everyone's attention (just like a brat). Now, there's this one man she really likes (Ashley, yes it's a guy not a girl) who just happens to have to marry his cousin. The best part about this is that he actually justifies marrying her that it be something positive to keep all that family blood in the family. (Um, ew.) Then enter Rhett Butler, the swaggering thin-mustached man who upsets the party with his anti-patriotic talk. Somehow I wished he'd give a good Sean Connery belly laugh. That would have been gold. ANYWAYS...Rhett gives her a hat and expects sex for it. (I'm sorry but *I* certainly wouldn't settle for just a noggin protector.)

Things take a turn for the worse. The South gets into war with the North and the men go off marching into battle to fight to keep the South alive. Their "shock and awe" strategy is no match for the North's much more capable army. So the South falls into chaos, and Scarlett runs for her life with Rhett's help. Oh, and Scarlett's hubby dies leaving her a young whiny widow. After spending years away from her childhood home, called "Tara", she returns only to find her ma dead and her pa going insane. They've got one cow and a handful of radishes for food and that's it. All the while Scarlett is going on about how hard her life is and how she'll do whatever it takes to get money. Yeah, she be a gold digger and don't date no broke n*****s. She's so desperate she repurposes house drapery for a dress just to impress Rhett for $300, but since he ain't gonna give her nothin' she marries Mr. Frank Kennedy for his money. $500 of it at least.

Scarlett somehow makes it big in the lumber business and now she's got her silver spoons again. Of course she's using convicts as slave labor but somehow that seems alright with her. Scarlett has ample opportunity to cheat on her husband because she ends up partnering with her old flame, Ashley. But, Ashley's steadfastily holding onto Melly's hand because of their child. Besides, Scarlett's husband Frank Kennedy is totally whipped and she, being the entrepreneurial tiger, likes it that way. But once he dies in a childish retalliation effort she's already hunting for her next man-wich: Rhett.

Somehow in all this mess Scarlett ends up marrying Rhett and having his baby but also picks up a nasty drinking habit. She also doesn't want to have a second child because she'd never get back down to her 18.5" waist. (Yes, Scarlett is the positive role model for all wanna-be anorexic alcoholic slut ho's out there. Can I get a woot woot?) In the end tragedy strikes and almost everyone one around Scarlett dies including her own daughter. Ashley admits he never loved Scarlett (stupid ass, he led her on all this time) and Rhett walks away from it all a sore loser ("frankly dear, I don't give a damn"). Yet Scarlett finds the strengh to stand up in the sunset and vow to return to Tara and find happiness. Honestly, I think it was just the drinking and sleep deprivation were really getting to her.

There you have it: I've just saved you almost 4 hours of your life. Are there any redeeming qualities about this movie? Well, the photography was excellent, and the soundtrack very appropriate. The actors totally overplayed their roles like a Shakespearean comedy and there really was no redeeming quality about Scarlett. This masterpiece should have been this classic epic but to me it felt like a long-winded bitch-and-moan session.

Dump the pump - electric vehicles!

A friend in the UK has just gotten her hands on a "Mini El", an electric car. She raves about it here:



C'mon, at about 4p ($0.07 US dollars) a mile, it's REALLY cheap to own and drive. And in the UK you get even more bonuses not having to pay certain taxes. Check it out!