Snow. Cold. Sunny. Michigan.

Weekend!

Yes, my weekend has officially begun! All the work for the day is complete, after numerous calls back-and-forth with people at the office and also to my roommate in his office at Ford. Previously, he worked for Quicken Loans doing software testing.

Yet another reminder that I need to do my taxes on Sunday!

The weekend now begins with the exciting tasks of picking up tax forms and going for a haircut! Oh, the life I lead! *laugh* Action...Intrigue...mundane tasks...

But after that, Stephanie is meeting me at my place. *grin*

We're thinking about a movie, so there could be a review and links up early next week. That, or we're going to see a Jimmy Buffet cover band called "Air Margaritaville". Saturday is a wedding with Stephanie in Davidson, so not too far away. She is in the wedding and they are having a limo take them from the chapel to reception hall. I might get to ride with them!! (can you tell I'm excited about that?) I've been in 2 weddings, but didn't get in a limo for either.

I hope everyone has a good weekend -- I plan on it!

Yikes!

Getting ready for the Genesis services tonight and more sign-up sheets for our Outreach events. Today, I sent the link for this journal out to a few more people. I wonder if they (Matt, Mark, Eric, Chris) will stop by to read? (if so, "Hi!")

Friday is my day off, one of my last free Fridays before my schedule changes at the end of the month.

So what am I doing?

Working.

*smirk*

Well, at least a bit in the morning to prepare for some maintenance that we are doing on Sunday. When on Sunday?

6am

Yeah, I know -- life is tough. *smile*

Fortunately, through the wonders of comp-time, I'll kinda make up for working like this.

To home, I go!

In my haste yesterday, I didn't say how much I enjoyed the David Copperfield performance at the Fox on Friday. I don't think I've watched him on TV in about 10 years so I had forgotten how funny the guy is! (actually, after talking with people at work, they say that the funny bits are edited out of the TV shows and it's just the illusions)

Copperfield was cool and the Fox Theatre was gorgeous! This was my first time to be there for anything and I'm very impressed. When they did renovations in 1988, they really did a great job. The place looks amazing. I haven't found any good pictures of before and after for the Fox, but here are some nice pictures of downtown Detroit. Yes, I said "nice". *smirk*

An Optimist's View of Detroit...

After the show, Stepanie and I stopped at Comet Burgers in Royal Oak for a tasty banana split. I love that place! (yes, there is supposed to be an "s" on the end of "Burgers")

Saturday, I met Stephanie at her apartment and we went to a wedding in Caro (correcting an error there -- originally I put "Clio" but Stephanie corrected me on Thursday -- oops!), just a few blocks from where she grew up. Not a bad drive from Davidson, where Stephanie lives. A bit over an hour and we were there. It reminded me a bit of going to Hillsdale, but bigger. Lots of farm country in the surrounding areas though.

The wedding featured not 1, not 2, but 3 ministers. One was the groom's father. Can you imagine that? Having your dad conduct part of your wedding? We stopped to see Stephanie's parents and little brother for a few minutes before the wedding and set up a toy robot for her little brother, Brian. He's 7 and just a ball of energy!

We got the robot at Gags & Gifts in the mall on Friday. I own one too, b/c it's so cool! It's a radio-controlled base, with about a 3 foot tall inflatable robot sitting on top of it. The robot has a little area on his back where you can put small things and then a serving try held in its hand.

Kinda like a robot butler.

Okay, a weak robot butler. Brian tested it out and once he put in his GameBoy and some games, that was too much for the motor. It's pretty cool just to drive around. Definitely a good toy for when I'm in my new place.

Stephanie's parents are good people and her dad even got out on the dance floor a bit during the reception. He said that it was because Brian wouldn't go out there by himself, but I think he just wanted to boogie! *laugh* The DJ was ok, but tried a bit too hard. He played some definite dancing music and even threw in a couple of swing tunes. Stephanie is a good sport, so she let me spin her around a bit!

I've been talking with lots of people lately, both on the phone and on email. Last night I heard some great news (!) from my friend Andy while making plans with him for Easter weekend and I have been exchanging emails with my Aunt Alonna, plus my old friends Matt and Mark as we make plans for a canoe/camping trip for this summer.

Also trying to coordinate a date with Andy, Carrie, Shane, Amanda, Jake, Kendi, Mark, Carla, and Trent for our yearly camping weekend over the summer. Okay, by coordinate I mean that I talked with Andy about it, got an email from Jake saying he's thinking about a good date, and thought about calling Shane.

More calls tonight, definitely.

Heading for home now.

Yes, I realize I still haven't finished the Seattle story, or posted pictures. Yeesh, what do you people expect from me??? *smirk*

Tuesday?

No posts since Friday?
And the Seattle pictures aren't available yet?
Not finished with the Seattle description, either?

Answer to all 4 questions: Yes.

Life happened.

While I report on what happens here and talk about random things, this weekend was taken up with making the stories that I will tell here.

Friday, Stephanie and I drove down to the Fox Theatre in Downtown Detroit to see David Copperfield do his stuff (illusions/magic).

Well, I slept through the entire day on Thursday so that's why there was no update here.

Nah -- I'm making that up! *laugh* I just didn't get around to posting.

Updates:

--New Handspring PDA works great!
--Seattle picture captions in progress
--Going to see David Copperfield do his magic tonight at the Fox
--Bought tickets for George Clinton and P-Funk this morning
--Heading to a wedding on Saturday, plus meeting some of Stephanie's family

Hectic day, still behind on sleep.

Uploaded Seattle pictures last night but still working on captions.

Must go exchange my Handspring PDA for one that works properly...

Not enough time right now for the Seattle Day 2 description, so I'll just post something short for now.

Movie Reviews from the weekend!!!!

I saw 3 movies while in Seattle. Yes, there were many better things to be doing but relaxation was necessary.

Movie Titles:
Evolution
The Eruption of Mount St. Hellens
Shanghai Noon

For my rankings, I am introducing a radical new scale. It's called the "Z" scale and here's how it works:

The scale runs from zero Z's up to 100 Z's and a higher number signifies a better movie.
Numbers before the Z represent the percentage of people who will stay awake if the movie is viewed at midnight, presuming the people have been awake for an average of 16 hours.

Evolution -- 34Z's
Eruption of Mount St. Hellens -- 50Z's
Shanghai Noon -- 60Z's

How did I develop this scale and these scores? Testing in real-life situations. *smirk*

While watching Evolution, only 1 person out of 3 stayed awake past the 1st hour. Yes, it really was that bad.
Eruption of Mount St. Hellens was at an IMAX theater during the middle of the day and still only 1 of us (me) stayed awake.
The highest score here goes to Shanghai Noon with Jackie Chan. Not one of his better movies, but pretty ok. Well, at least the part I was awake for. I'm fudging the numbers a bit here, as well. All 3 people watching fell asleep for different parts of the movie, but 2 of us were awake for the ending and it was definitely better than Evolution.

Returned from Seattle today after a great trip! If I am able to stay awake long enough, I will post pictures tonight. If not, then later. (how's that for a profound statement? *smirk*)

The trip was great, but too short!

I think I'll do a one-day-at-a-time description so that I don't end up with a 5-page long post...

Thursday, March 7 -- Tom and I left work around noon, headed for the airport to catch a 1:40pm flight. Bags are packed, we're ready to go... Park the car, shuttle to the terminal, and walk up to security.

Security Person: "I'm sorry, the dates on your companion travel certificate have passed"
ME: "But due to the tragedy in September, United extended the dates through the end of March"

Security Person: "Well, unless you have paperwork showing that, I can't let you through. Go talk with the staff at the United check-in desk."
ME: *shrug* "OK." *walk to line for the service rep*

*wait in line for 20 minutes*

So, I described the above situation and the helpful service representative knods a lot, then goes to make a photocopy of a document from United corporate detailing what I explained. With that, we're headed back to see the not-so-friendly security officer. She lets us past, but this only gets us to the metal detectors and carry-on baggage screening.

My bags go through fine, I do not. (something I was wearing set off the metal detector as I walked through*

Security Person #2: "Sir, can you step over here."
ME: "Sure -- it was probably the zippers on my pants that set off the metal detector". (I had pants with zippers at the knees to take off the lower part of the leg)

Security Person #2: "Just stand on this mark, sir."

--He then scans me with a hand-held metal detector and my pants go off again, my belt buckle sets it off, and so do my shoes.

Security Person #2: "Please take off your shoes, sir."

--Apparently the soles of my shoe have something metalic in them, so they put them through the conveyor belt for the big metal detector.

Convinced that I'm not a threat, security allows me past. We head to the gate and get ready to ask if there is any space available, but the answer is given before we even get to the front of the line -- flight is full (and they're even offering vouchers to have people not fly).

ME: "What about the next flight?"
Gate Representative: "It doesn't look good."

ME: "Maybe the one after that?"
Gate Representative: "Pretty full, too."

Tom and I discuss our options -- wait for flights that we most likely won't make it on or head for home and try Friday. Then, in a moment of brilliance (?), it hits me -- we can drive to Chicago!

After some brief explaining to Tom, we're off. Wearing sunglasses and with half a packet of cigarettes, we head down I-94 West. (Well, we did start driving but the sunglasses and cigarettes part is a joke -- just a reference to the movie Blues Brothers, for anyone paying attention.)

I drive...and drive...and drive. We left Metro Airport at 2:30pm, which got us into Chicago around 5:30pm local time. Yup -- rush hour! *laugh* I didn't quite take that into consideration while thinking about our travel itinerary, but we battled through.

Park car, shuttle to terminal, stop to talk with Service Representative (currently 7:00pm):

ME: "I'm trying to use these vouchers and in Detroit the security staff didn't know about the date being extended so it was a problem. Can you help me?"
Service Representative: *smiling* Well, this is Chicago -- not Detroit. Our staff knows all about them. *smirk* (clearly, his opinion of the Detroit staff was not high)

ME: "Great, we're hoping to catch the next flight."
Service Representative: "OK, let me check on the 9:40."

ME: "No, I mean the flight leaving in 20 minutes"
Service Representative: *smiling* "You better go now!"

And he was right -- no problem with the passes at security but I did repeat the performance of setting off the metal detector, having my shoes scanned, etc.

Got to the gate, presented companion vouchers, and got on the flight. Easy.
Arrived in Seattle with the slight complication that the plane was struck by lightning. Yes, you read that correctly. On our descent, the plane was struck by a bolt of lightning but apparently there was no damage. However, it was a spectacular sight!

Into the terminal, shuttle to Thrifty rental car, pick up car, drive to home of Tom's relatives, wake them up. (It's now 11pm Pacific time -- 12 hours after we first got to Metro Airport)

Sleep.

To be continued...

Accomplishments from yesterday:

1) Graphic mock-ups for the new Walsh website complete and ready for a 10am meeting today
2) Dropped off sign-up sheets for this weekend's service projects to my friend John from Genesis
3) Found a new place to live!!!! *smile* In mid-April, I'll be moving about a mile northwest of where I am now.
My buddy Bart from church just bought a house and I'm going to use 1 bedroom. "Nifty" place, complete with pool table in the basement!
4) Decided that when I move, we will not have a phone line but just our cellphones and cable modem for the computer.
5) Packed for my trip to Seattle!

Today?

Talking with people at the office to make sure things go well in the few days while I'm gone and the 10am meeting about changes to the website. Then -- to the airport!

Suggested reading for all of you, since I won't be updating again until Monday:

http://www.wilwheaton.net

Star Trek fans (and others) may recognize that name as the actor who played Wesley Crusher in ST:TNG but he's also really fun and a technology geek! He writes about his family, his job, and plenty of normal things but then every once in awhile comes a fun story from the past or something happening with an audition. He's also in the upcoming Trek movie, so there's the possibility of information on that too.

Must leave work...but cannot...

"Issues" -- by any other name, they are still problems and that's what we've had a few of today.
Not really involving web design or development, which is what my job is and I like it to be, but related elements (email system)

*sigh*

Up until yesterday, I didn't really feel like I needed a vacation but now I sure do! Things have been going great in every area of my life (Praise God) so I have to keep that in mind even though the past couple of days have been frustrating at work.

So...the vacation. My friend Tom and I are "leavin' on a jet plane" for Seattle.

Email problem solved -- happy day!

Responding to Reader Comments:

1) Yes, I (and hopefully Stephanie) will be heading to Camden (where I grew up) for a day/weekend sometime within the next 6 weeks.

2) My friend Shane wrote a brief comment and then let me know he was headed to Mexico. Considering how blasted cold it is in Michigan, I have a few choice words to give him when he returns. *smirk*

3) In my recent discussion of movies, I did not give Metropolis its due (thanks to Erik for reminding me about this topic) so let me say a few words here...

Metropolis is in limited release, mainly playing in art theaters but will be available on DVD in April. Note, this is the anime version of the story not the silent film from the 1920s of the same name. On a random note, Metropolis (80-year old version) was the first DVD I thought about buying. Maybe I should do that now...still pictures in a magazine were an "inspiration" for the anime version so it might be interesting to compare the two. Someone has probably already done that though.

*pause for 5 minutes of searching*

--Roger Ebert discusses a few similarities in his review of the Metropolis anime...

--For further discussion, see the text from NPR's Morning Edition.
--there are also some interesting pictures and descriptions of the original Metropolis on the "Metropolis Walkthrough" site.

I can't say it as well as Ebert or other reviewers, since my journalism skills have slipped a bit, but Metropolis is gripping. The visuals pull you into the scenes and I often found myself behind on reading the subtitles while enjoying the visual imagery. The stereotype of anime is often that it is violent or graphic (in a negative way). That may be true in some cases, but I found Metropolis to be the exception. Certainly there were violent scenes, but none of it was gratuitous. Plot, characters, and stunning city-scapes drive the film.

"The three grand essentials of happiness are:
something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
- by Thomas Chalmers

Who is Thomas Chalmers, and why did I just include this quote?

Well, from what I could find out with some quick searching, Chalmers was associated with the Free Church of Scotland and was a very intelligent man. He studied at the University of St Andrews (Scotland) and finished his studies in 1798 while just 18 years old.

There is much more written about him and that's a poor summary, but follow the links here for more information.

"The power of his oratory, the earnestness and deep feeling that it conveyed, its dramatic quality are beyond our capacity to reconstruct." -- from www.freechurch.org

Oh...and the answer to "why is Jason writing about this?" Well, Stephanie sent me the quote about the essentials to happiness and then I was curious about who the wise author was.

A little more about "The Royal Tenenbaums":

The actor who plays Pagoda, the family's doorman/butler and friend of the matriarch is named Kumar Pallana, from India. My initial theory after leaving the movie involved his being a well-known Indian actor, just doing a bit part in this movie.

Well, I was a little bit off on that...

According to the Internet Movie Database, "[Pallana is the] former proprietor of the Cosmic Cup coffee shop on Oak Lawn Avenue in Dallas where director Wes Anderson used to hang out."

*laugh* Okay, I wasn't even close with my theory!

He was also in 2 previous films directed by Anderson, "Rushmore" and "Bottle Rocket". All 3 of these movies were also co-written by Owen Wilson who plays "Eli" in Tenenbaums and feature Owen's brother Luke.

Finishing up the family connections, Pallana's son (Dipak) plays a small part in all the Anderson/Wilson films, as well. In Tenenbaums, he is the Indian doctor.

For even more trivia (including some of what I put together here), see: TRT Trivia

Watched "The Royal Tenenbaums" with Stephanie on Saturday. [Ebert Review] What an unusual film! I think the best way I have been able to describe it is "uncomfortably funny". There were moments when I wanted to laugh, but wasn't really sure if I should...

Gene Hackman, Anjelica Houston, Bill Murray, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Danny Glover, and a host of others form the cast. Not necessary to see this one on the big screen, but definitely catch it on video.

I _might_ have a new place to live! My roommate George is getting married soon, so I need to be out of where I'm living either at the end of March or by mid-April. So, I talked with a buddy at church about moving in with him at the house he just bought. Well, I'm going to check the place out either Tuesday or Wednesday night and hopefully will have a new address to start distributing soon! It also means a change of phone number and it's possible that my cellphone may become my only phone. More on that later.

So far today, it's been my usual morning of email and other things I'm behind on after the weekend. For lunch, my boss and I went out for our monthly "one-on-one" meeting. We tried for Thai, but the place was too busy so we went to the Japanese place a few doors down. I do love the Metro Detroit area sometimes!

No sushi for me! (or for my boss) Oddly enough, we wanted to order the same thing -- shrimp and vegetables lightly breaded and fried. Dennis (my boss) ordered first and I briefly thought about changing my order, but it sounded good (and it was) so I stuck with it.

Sitting at my desk this afternoon, with no meetings in sight! A bit of time for playing with possible new designs for the Walsh site and some planning for the week.

After that, it up to GameWorks for silly video games with Stephanie!

Busy weekend, but good.

I missed a day on writing here -- how terrible! Activities for Friday included watching the Gladiator DVD, then Stephanie came over in the afternoon and we did a bit of shopping. She was successful at Bath & Body Works, but I didn't really find anything anywhere. I feel old shopping at some mall clothing stores!! *laugh*

For the evening, Rob and Beth met Stephanie and I at Sangria in Royal Oak. Mike was there with his co-workers, so he was table-hopping. Fantastic Spanish food at Sangria! After dinner, we went upstairs to Sky Club but we didn't feel like shouting to talk, so we ended up going to Fifth Avenue. Our first thought was shooting pool, but it was busy so we settled for darts. Fun, fun, fun!

To finish the evening, we marched on over to Caribou Coffee for hot beverages and sweets. Yum!

"Casablanca" is a great film! I was happy to watch it with Stephanie and share it with her, since it was her first time watching it.

Lazy day so far on this Saturday. Hey, it's 45 degrees outside! Maybe I should actually step outside. Yeah, soon enough! I'm heading for Flint to see Stephanie this evening...

Off to pick up my PDA, a Handspring Visor Edge!

Had a quick trip to the airport this afternoon. More on that tomorrow.

Getting ready for a trip to Seattle, provided a couple of things fall into place. *crosses fingers* Vacation request needs to be granted...

Going to the film Metropolis tonight with Erik and David.

They're going to let me out of my cage tomorrow!!!

(translation: I will be leaving my cubicle Wed. afternoon so that I can drive a consultant to the airport)

Long day again today with said consultant. Meetings from 8am-5pm, but we have hit on many important topics regarding the Walsh website and ways to make improvements to it and also to the processes and committees behind it all.

Brain = fried
Pretty pictures = good

Visit http://www.danheller.com for some gorgeous pictures from around the country and places across the pond.

People are writing comments! *smile*

So far, they have come in from my uncle, mother, and sister. That's a good showing from the family portion of my readers but what about the friends?? Let's hear from you!

At the moment, I'm drained. This feeling comes from just a few hours in meetings at work with a consultant. Tomorrow, I will be in meetings with him most of the day. The outcome will be good, but the process will be tiring.

Just a few minutes ago, I had my biggest moment of laughter for the day. Story in a later entry, once I'm re-energized.

Fear not, all is not doom and gloom! I'm off to check the parking lot and make sure I'm not snowed in yet.

More bowling last night! I managed to improve my score by over 30 pins from last week. My high game was a 169!! You can see the whole album from that link, if anyone cares.

While posting those pics, I also got around to putting up the pictures from Jas Ruiter's "birthday" celebration.

Channel 7 has a neat download you can get which shows you the current temperature wherever you live. They also let you sign up for email updates of the weather forecast. The connection with this and Jas' party is that Louise told me about how to access this, but I just did it today.

Why is the weather important today? Well, it's 50 degrees right now, headed for a high of 55! Now I just need to stop being lazy and go outside to enjoy how beautiful it is!!!

Or I could just sit inside, with the sun streaming in and read. That's a good option, too!

I am now a "boyfriend". *grin* Conversely, that means I have a girlfriend...and her name is Stephanie. This probably surprises some of you, while for others it helps explain why I've been so happy over the past few weeks!

Stephanie might be reading this, so I won't elaborate too much, lest she become embarassed. Suffice it to say, she is an amazing person and I think we will grow together.

In other news...I got my first message in the "Comments" area here. My uncle Ladell wrote one and hopefully that breaks the ice for others. (hint, hint)

As a PDA update, I think I know which one I want but it seems that Rob wants to talk me out of it and get a different one. He knows the choices and capabilities better than I do given his work at Franklin-Covey, so I value his opinions on this subject.

Had a breakfast meeting with John from church this morning. Yummy little place near my house called the Breakfast Corner. Good food and nice conversation.

Bowling again this evening, but with people from work this time. 2 weeks in a row that I'll be out bowling!! Relaxation before that time -- maybe reading some of Oliver and catching up with Buffy and Enterprise on tape.

Listening to the soundtrack from Vanilla Sky as I write this. Great music! Dowload the mp3 files or buy yours today!