Another interesting movie coming up. . .

I hope this movie actually gets distributed and into theaters. I'm sure there are many who will try to keep that from happening.

hat tip to Sabastian over at the Percival Blakeney Academy (who would certainly get my nomination for "best blog name").

Planning now for May 16th. . .

With all of the controversy around "The Golden Compass" of late, I was wondering if Walden Media was going to continue with the Narnia series. Then, this morning, I found this link.

Looks awesome! (coincidentally, I just started re-reading Prince Caspian last night.)

We're just ready to start a new family chapter book. I think it's time to start them on the Chronicles of Narnia.

Merry Christmas!!!

Now that Thanksgiving is past; now that we've lit the first Advent candle; now that we've lined the front hall with boxes of decorations; I feel like I can finally say "Merry Christmas!"

I just realized that I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving. I have several "not just rambling about my day" posts brewing, but haven't had / taken the time to get them written. I'm not traveling this week, so maybe I'll get at least one done and submitted to next weeks Carnival.

Speaking of travel, I made a day trip to New York City last Friday. I'd never want to live there, but I love visiting. The flight up was awesome. First class upgrade, window seat. I had an amazing view of Manhattan as we came in. I grabbed a cab into the city like a veteran and made it to my destination. Visited with colleagues and clients at the IT conference I was attending, spoke that afternoon (the purpose for the trip), and then headed back to LaGuardia. I couldn't find a cab that took AMEX (I hate it when I leave on a trip with no cash; why do I do it so often?), so I called a car service and found a Starbucks to wait in. 20 minutes later I was in the back of a Lincoln Town Car riding up Central Park West looking at the sights. Note: if you ever find yourself in this situation, make sure to call you Mom and tell her where you are. They love to have a good "son makes good" story for their friends. Back to the airport; made an early flight home; got home in time for the last half of "Numbers" (one of the few network shows we watch).

The next day, I was cleaning the litter box and taking out the trash. It was good to get back to reality.

Til next time.

A Worthwhile "Use of Time"

Between Jonah Goldberg (National Review's "The Corner") and Dave Barry's blog, I have saved up a tremendous library of timewasters productivity enhancers in my favorites file. These come in extraordinarily handy during long boring conference calls. I'll make a point to post some of my favorites over the next week.

This one, however, not only tests the intellect, it's also for a good cause. Sponsored by poverty.com, free rice rates your vocabulary level AND donates rice to poverty-stricken nations for every word you get correct. My wife is addicted. I, on the other hand, could quit anytime! That's why I can proudly say I made it to 45 on the rating scale today.

Have fun. Oh, and please share your favorite timewa productivity enhancers back. I'm always looking for a new way to pass the time between slides 54 and 78 in the online presentation. . . zzzzzz. . . .

Steyn on Thanksgiving and Coffee

Mark Steyn is a fantastic columnist who hails from Canada. I first discovered him while working on a lengthy project in Calgary. Since then, I've followed him online, primarily via National Review Online.

His most recent article is on our American Thanksgiving. The whole article is thoughtful and certainly worth reading. I bring it to your attention, however, primarily because of its hilarious second paragraph. Being a coffee lover (a grande-white-chocolate-mocha lover, at that), I laughed out loud.

Well, Americans have a lot to be thankful for. Europeans think of this country as “the New World” in part because it has an eternal newness which is noisy and distracting. Who would ever have thought you could have ready-to-eat pizza faxed directly to your iPod? And just when you think you’re on top of the
general trend of novelty, it veers off in an entirely different direction: Continentals who grew up on Hollywood movies where the guy tells the waitress “Gimme a cuppa joe” and slides over a nickel return to New York a year or two later and find the coffee now costs $5.75, takes 25 minutes and requires an agonizing choice between the cinnamon-gingerbread-persimmon latte with coxcomb sprinkles and the decaf venti pepperoni-Eurasian-milfoil macchiato. Who would have foreseen that the nation that inflicted fast food and drive-thru restaurants on the planet would then take the fastest menu item of all and turn it into a kabuki-paced performance art? What mad genius!

Genius indeed!

Ah, Autumn

Despite the dry weather here in Georgia (well documented in national news) , we have actually had a spectacular fall with amazing color throughout our community. Those of us who live here full-time sometimes get irritated by the tourist "leaf-lookers" who prefer to drive 5 miles an hour down the middle of the road while gawking at the beautiful scenery. But, the upside is that it forces us to slow down and enjoy the view, and the moment, as well. That old saw about "familiarity breeding contempt" can certainly come into play if we're not careful. Fortunately, we still drive past the lake and around the golf course exclaiming "we get to live here!" to ourselves. I hope I'm still saying that after 5 years.

I posted a photo of the view from our upper deck some time back and promised an update for the fall. This picture was taken last week. It doesn't begin to reflect how stunning the colors have been, but it's at least attempts to get the point across.

I'll post another one after all of the leaves fall and our view is expanded by about 150% and encompasses 2 or 3 more mountaintops.

Every time I start to grumble about the long commute home from the airport after a late (and often delayed) flight, I look out the window and immediately shut up. This is worth it.

In another post, thoughts on why we chose to move to the mountains, homeschool, work from home, and in general live a life that is so counter-cultural to the wonderful world of suburban, commute to work and school life.

Online Scrabble!

Some dear friends of ours from Birmingham (home-base prior to moving to North GA) have gotten us hooked on our first online game. Prior to now, my perception of online gaming was the stereotypical "let's all play serial killer" types that I've never been attracted to (much to everyone's relief, I'm sure).

But now! Online Scrabble. Play with 1, 2 or 3 other people. Play with people around the country or around the world. Check your words automatically in 5 different dictionaries. Ah, bliss.
Check it out for yourselves. (disclosure: there is a one time fee of $10 per person; they take pay-pal).

In the meantime, we're starting to expose Belle, Tink and The Boy to the real game. That and Boggle. You haven't had fun til you've played Boggle with a 6-year old!