Saturday, December 30, 2006

Eragon the Movie

Where to start?

I must begun by telling you how much I've enjoyed the books. From the moment my sister pulled "Eldest" out of her bag on the way home from the airport, after her return from Georgia (where she'd been visiting friends) I've liked the books. She, being an older sister, would not, of course, let me touch the book. But by the time we arrived at "Costco" I did have the title. From there, armed also with the author's name (Christopher Paolini) the library was the only place to go.

I don't think I put "Eargon" down three times once I opened it. It's a really spiffing story. I'll not say it was perfect, because it wasn't, but it was fantastic. When "Eldest" arrived at the library, it was also devoured. I have even bought one of them. (It's not that I don't like books. Not at all. It's just parting with my money that I hate.)

Now, back to the movie.

"Eragon" the movie was, and I mean every word: Pathetic, pitiful, poor, wretched, ridiculous, lacking, lame, boring-- Seeing as I'm writing on my lunch break, I don't have my thesaurus handy, which is truly a shame because after watching the movie I discovered some lovely new synonyms that were highly descriptive and appropriate --hallow, butchered, miserable, pitiable, Well, you get the idea.

Point is, I'm glad that I saw a neighbor's DVD (yes, I know it's not out yet, but his uncle has connections) because now that I've seen it, I wouldn't spend a dime to see it again. Thanks to those of you who warned me off!

The whole movie was dark and boring. Most of the dialog had been cut. It was just highly disappointing. Even those who have never read the book thought it was bad. Basically the best way I've come up with to describe it is this: Have you ever seen a movie that was based on a comic book? You know, the type where someone or something is very important, and everyone is fighting over it, but it feels like, well, a comic? ("Electra" comes to mind, though I don't think I even bothered to watch the whole thing when I ran into it.) That's the type of movie "Eragon" is.

Sad. Very Sad. Waste of an hour-and-a-half.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Work Gift Exchange 2006

Ah, the holidays. The time of year when gift exchanges take place. We just finished one here at work.

Well, it was more of a booze exchange. Eighteen out of twenty-three gifts were some form of alcohol or another. Over 75%. That was a shocker.

At the last work related gift exchange I was at (last year with a different employer) the ratio was one out of six. Less than a 20% booze rate.

Included were such items as "Jack Danial's" whiskey, several vodkas, gin, a "World Beer Traveler", a few tequilas and a slew of champagnes. To give an incomplete list.

One sales rep gave the whole room a good laugh when he picked the "Jack Danial's" whiskey. When someone tried to steal it minutes later, the bottle had mysteriously vanished from the box, leaving only a few glasses. He appeared bemused when questioned. But did finally admit his fraud.

Another noteworthy fact was that of the non alcoholic items, zero were stolen. Whereas most of the booze was snatched not once, but maxed out and locked at two takings.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

From Spreadsheets To France

I have discovered spreadsheets. Oh, I've known that they existed for a decade or more, but I never thought of actually utilizing them for anything. (You know, kind of like that spoon-gadgety-whats-it-thingy-ma-bober that's sitting in one of your kitchen drawers? The one you never use but keep around 'just in case.') That's have I've always viewed spreadsheets. But no more.

It's all Google's fault. If they hadn't have released "Google Docs & Spreadsheets", I could have remained blissfully ignorant of this fantastic tool for years to come. Thanks Google!

Years ago when I saw a movie ("Nerds" perhaps?) that said the the Killer App of the 1980's ("VisiCalc" came out in 1979 really) was the spreadsheet, I was bemused. 'Who cares about spreadsheets?' I thought.

Now I understand.



Elevator News



France to adopt the Penguin. That's right, The French Parliament is switching over to Linux on all it's computers, replacing "MS Windows."

I never thought I'd be saying this, but now there's two areas I wish the USA would emulate France. (The other being their massive use of nuclear power. I believe ~75-90% of the energy produce is nuclear.)

Go France!

Friday, December 8, 2006

P. and E.'s Home Fellowship

Papa finished giving his life's story at P and E's* Home Fellowship last night.

Since this is the first time I've mentioned P and E's Home Fellowship, I might as well give you a few details about it.

Mr. and Mrs. P. share a house with Mr. and Mrs. E. (Along with Little E. and Baby E.) At some point, I will probably get around to asking if they mind their names being on a blog for the world to see. Until then you will have to be content with "P&E's Home Fellowship." Any way, we meet at their house at 19.00 hours every Thursday. They have a very 'hands on' sort of meeting, with everyone allowed and invited to participate. The group runs about seven to fifteen people. It begins with everyone getting a snack (vanilla bean cake last night) and a drink (tea, water, milk, etc.)

I have missed all of the meetings so far since they re-started up the meetings again this fall do to work. :-( I was actually at the last meeting (November 30th), at which my father gave the first half of of his life's story; up to the point of his marriage.

I'm sure a lot more has happened in the past 24 hours, but I'm buggered if I can remember it right now. I'll blame that on a lack of sleep.




*P and E: If I were going to tell you, I wouldn't have used their initials in the first place.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Of Elevators Ads Etc.

I now have over 100 miles of solo behind-the-wheel time. I can finally see my breath down here at work. (It's only December, right? So no hurry.)

My office building just installed screens in the elevators on which they are running "The Captivate Network." (http://www.captivatenetwork.com/) This consists mainly of news and weather. For example, it had a snippet about Google vs. PayPal. (Read more about that here: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2006-12-05-google-checkout_x.htm) I also learned that the Senate Armed Services Committee approved Robert Gates' nomination.
After that, I got the weather forecast for the next 4 days. (Sunny and cool.)

All that before I even got to The Drudge Report. (http://drudgereport.com/)

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Final ARB Meeting As Chairman

I'll be having my last ARB meeting as Chairman* tonight. The agenda is as follows:



Architectural Review Board
Julian Historic District


Meeting Agenda




Date: December 5, 2006

Time: 7:00 PM.

Place: Julian Town Hall (Downstairs)




  1. Approval of agenda.
  2. Approve minutes for November meeting.
  3. Public Comments.
  4. Correspondence received by board:


    1. Library Sign.
    2. Other.

  5. New Business:

    1. Designs for consideration:

      1. Sign at 2000 Main Street - Jieni Imports - Janice Nelson
      2. Deck modification - 1835 Second Street - Jim Kohl
      3. Sign - Julian Dental Group - Linne Murphy


  6. Old Business:

    1. New sign design guide lines booklet; discussion and action.
    2. ARB board members of 2007. Discussion and action.

  7. Adjourn.




To be placed on an upcoming agenda or to contact the JHD-ARB call the chairman,
C.W.Holeman III, at (760) 765-1317 (please leave a message) or by email at {E-MAIL ADDRESS REMOVED TO PREVENT SPAM}.


The board meets on the 1st Tuesday of each month at the
Town Hall at 7:00 PM.


Design guideline booklets are available from the Julian Chamber of Commerce located in the
Town Hall. A copy is available for use at the library for free. Or online at
http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/dplu/docs/Julian.pdf



* If you're looking for a politically correct blog, look elsewhere.

First Post

This being my first post, it's little more than a test. In fact, it's nothing more than a test.