Not much else going on here. I finished reading a mystery series a few weeks ago that some of you might like. They're by Craig Johnson and the feature sheriff Walt Longmire and are set in Wyoming. I can't recommend the series enough. The first book is called The Cold Dish and you can find an excerpt and other information about the book on Johnson's website.
]]>Oh, and on a housekeeping note, I gather parts of the site -- comments, for example -- aren't working. I'll see if I can sort that out in the next week or so.
Anyway, after many years of spending my Thursdays at work's Weldon Springs location, I switched things up this week and went there on Tuesday instead. I made the change to free myself up for group training for the 5k I want to run in late in October, but I'll have to reserve judgement on the change. Admittedly, I was running about 15 minutes later than usual, but traffic seemed worse on 40 than I was used to seeing on Thursdays. But maybe it's just because school is back in session. I'll know more in a few weeks.
Work was the usual for the days I spend at Weldon. Had some one-on-ones with my staff based out there. I also spent quite a bit of time working on interface specs for some new services we're working on for release in February. My BA is busy with other things, so I've been wearing a BA hat for the past month or so in addition to my PM hat. This needs to be avoided in the future -- I'm just not detail oriented enough to cut it as a business or systems analyst.
Got home around 5, browsed the web for a bit, and then headed out for the first run of my 5k training. Technically, it wasn't all running. I'm confident that I can walk for 3.1 miles, but since I haven't run for any great distance since high school, I'm opting for the run/walk approach to this 5k. So today I ran for one minute and walked for two minutes for however long it took me to cover 1 mile. This hit me pretty hard, so I'm a little worried about what the next nine weeks are going to bring as I ramp up the distance and work towards a 4:1 run:walk ratio.
Home now and it's time for dinner and True Blood.
]]>Anyway, I have all this information because my coworker is a very inquisitive guy. To thank him for finding all this out, I printed out a picture of Victor and left it on his desk at work with some of his family photos -- I felt like after the conversation my coworker probably knew nearly as much about Victor as he did about his family.
Also, Victor, if you come across this and the drumming thing hasn't worked out, you were one of the best waiters I've ever had, so there's definitely a future for you at Ruby Tuesdays.
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With the realization that I'd only seen four of the ten Academy Award Best Picture nominees, I'm been doing my best to try to see the remaining six films in recent weeks. Last week I saw two of them: Black Swan and The Kids Are All Right. Of the two, the latter is by far the better film. In fact, of the Best Picture nominees I've seen, it is my favorite.
Annette Benning and Julianne Moore play Nic and Jules Allgood, a married lesbian couple. Each of them had previously used the same sperm donor to conceive a child. The movie's plot is driven by these kids', Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson), desire to meet their biological father, Paul, played by Mark Ruffalo. Despite the complicated setup -- and it gets even more complicated as a love triangle develops between Nic, Jules, and Paul -- this is a story about marriage. And while I'm sure there are some right-wingers out there who would vehemently disagree given the context, it presents an overwhelmingly positive message about obstacles that couples sometimes have to overcome to make marriage work. But, lest you think this is particularly dark, all of this comes in the form of an outstanding comedy.
The Kids Are All Right has great actors giving great performances in great roles. It has humor. And it has something interesting, if perhaps not unique, to say.
★ ★ ★ ★
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Bad Books is the a collaboration between Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra. Devine and Manchester Orchestra's Andy Hull each did the vocals for five of the tracks on the album, which makes it an interesting mismatch of styles that you might enjoy. The track below, "You Wouldn't Have to Ask" is the first single from the album.
I'm not sure that I'm fully on board with the entire album, but Girls with Accents from Fences' eponymous album is pretty catchy.
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Harvey Danger, famous for their 1998 summer hit Flagpole Sitta, amicably parted ways in 2009. However, in 2010 they visited the studio for one final session and produced The Show Must Not Go On. It's a terrific song -- perhaps one of their best -- and a great gift to their fans. In intent, if not in content, this return to the studio reminds me a bit of the Beatles going back into the studio after they'd decided to break up. The result, Abbey Road, is a classic. For HD, The Show Must Not Go On, is also a classic. But it's also a frustrating reminder of how good they were and how little attention they got after 1998. NPR, in an article on this song, called Harvey Danger "too mainstream for the underground, too brainy for the mainstream." Who would have thought that a successful single would have so limited them? Nonetheless, it's an accurate description of their status following the success of Flagpole Sitta.]]>
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