Random bits and pieces...

Ahh, WYSIWYG blogging!

I love this! I may have 20+ years in computing, but I've never learned HTML. I've been a programmer and manager, so formatting hasn't been that important to me.

Thank you Blogger!
---
"I wish I was the person my blog thinks I am." - Jor Bratko
---
My wife just started a blog.
---
[rant on] [Helen can skip this, she heard it all on the way home.]
I just saw Spiderman 2 and I really didn't like it. Can't fault the action sequences, but the rest of the movie was painfully bad.

• I'm supposed to care about characters that are 2D? Most of the relationships between the characters was "told", not "shown". These people live lonely, unloving lives.
• I kept thinking, "These people are acting."
  
• The pseudo-science offended me. The safety practices for an experimental fusion reactor is to have the researcher stand next to it 24/7 to push the bubbles back into place with robotic arms that have to be attached to his body? Might work in a comic book, for a character that is already a mad scientist. Not the wise and good Dr. from the movie. And the realism implied by a live-action movie raises the bar for willing suspension of disbelief, IMHO. I require better explanations. You spend 10's of millions of dollars on the movie, and that was the best excuse you could come up with?
• The editing wasn't crisp enough. There was lots of long bad dialog which should have been cut. E.g. Aunt May says, "Well that's water over the dam, or under the bridge, or whatever you want to call it." What was that all about? That should have ended up on the editing room floor. And the painfully long "I love you but I can't say" scenes where everyone practices getting their eyes to water for the camera without actually crying were just too long. Shorter movie, more action. That's the editing required for this movie both script editing and film editing. Wouldn't it be cool if there were a director's cut of this that was significantly shorter than the theater version.

[rant off]
Spiderman 2 really helps me appreciate the skill of people who make good movies.
---
New record for the band at church this week: 6 singers, 3 acoustic guitars, 1 lead keys/guitarist, keys, bass, drums. They rocked the house, but talk about yer "wall of sound".
[rant off] [and this time I mean it]
---
I went to Home Depot today at around 9am with my son. It finally registered to me that all the mexican men standing around at the end of the aisles in the parking lot were day laborers waiting for work. Call me naive. I knew that people lived like that other places, I just didn't realize it was happening 1/2 mile from my house. Brings home the parable Jesus told about day laborers. I can't imagine what its like not knowing where you are going to work day-to-day, waiting to see if someone hires you for a day or two. More reflection required.
---
The orphans arrive today.
I work in the role of a CFO for a very small adoption services non-profit. We do programs periodically which bring orphans from Russia to stay with families in the US. Most of the families are considering adoption, and our program makes it easier to adopt as well as lets the families get to know the children before they make any commitment. The kids are ages 6-11 generally. There are 33 orphans, and 5 adult escorts who will be here for 3 weeks. I don't interact with the orphans or families much, but I feel very privileged to play an essential role in finding their forever families.
If you feel led, please pray that all the children will be placed in a family that God provides for them.
---
Love this WYSIWYG!

- posted by Jor @ 12:35 PM -