Nearly One Month Later...

I've got to develop the habit of typing every week, if I'm going to sell fragments of The Great American Novel and put myself into the position of setting my own hours instead of doing the boring "working for someone else at someone else's fixed schedule" routine that I'm currently experiencing.

Speaking of which, the $3-a-week-group-snack plan has died a relieved death, but the $5-a-month-party-pool is still on. While I'm not wild about having to celebrate several people's birthday and the random holiday while I'm trying to get some work done, I'd feel guilty if the department supervisor felt the need to foot the bill just to "make us happy." This is literally the lesser of two evils, so I'll "join in" until this proves to be unworkable as well. At least I'm setting a trend by being prepared to respond to any requests for aging reports on the vendors that I haven't completely caught up with regarding payment of shipments. That's a step forward and a possible foundation for "being noticed by management." Getting a call from a former vendor contact who's now their Executive Vice President is a potential invitation for considering "moving on," although it takes at least an hour each way to get there and there's no guarantee that the pay will justify the possibility. I'll wait until he meets with the manager of the division before I plan my next move.

Tax season is on the horizon, so it's time for...tax classes! The three that I'm currently taking are "Everybody's Return," a combination tax laws refresher and tax update before the Official Tax Update Seminar, "Disposition of Business Assets," the sequel to "Disposition of Assets for Individuals" course that I took a couple of years ago when it was last offered, which goes over the tax consequences of selling a business along with the property and personal possessions of same as opposed to selling a home and individual possessions, stocks, bonds & heirlooms as was covered in the first course, and "Corporations" as in C-Corps, S-Corps, Partnerships, LLCs and LLPs, which makes it a sequel of sorts to the "Sole Proprietorships" course that I took over three years ago.  What's so frustrating about taking these courses is that there's a slight pressure on Corporate's part to take and pass the tests that are offered at their respective conclusions.  While I can understand the significance of the fact that it'll be only a matter of time before the IRS will make Certification of Tax Professionals mandatory and, of course, the more tests that you pass, the higher your status as a preparer and the more money you'll make before the end of the season. Just what I need, more external pressure to improve my lot in life. The bills, the lack of personal time, and the loneliness is doing enough of that without any further incentives, thank you very much!

The movie scene looks pretty grim along with the non-cable non-satellite TV options. Another pet project that will have to sit in the backburner is to expand my DVD library for video dry spells like this. Until then, I'll invite the possibility of being pleasantly surprised at a movie that either received too much hype or not enough. One such movie that I've seen last week was "The Skeleton Key." It's one of those films where if you haven't seen it, people would feel guilty about talking about it for fear that it'll "ruin the experience." I'll just say that it was one of those obscure plots that make perfect sense when you've "solved the mystery." There's a reason for Gena Rollins' eccentric performance, the non-sequitor conversations she has with her legal representative (can't remember the actor's name), and for the character's husband, played with equal eccentric brilliance by John Hurt, having a hoodoo-induced(?) muteness. Kate Hudson is obviously a much-better actress than her mother, "Laugh-In's" Goldie Hawn, and is making major strides in escaping the two traps that "Mom" couldn't avoid: "the stereotypical leading lady who stumbles into a strange and 'charming' romance" and "the pretty girl caught up in one outrageous situation after another and lives happily ever after with the man of her dreams." While she obviously "cut her teeth" playing those roles, I would never have thought that she could successfully pull off a "suspense heroine" part immediately afterwards, let alone help make the twist ending in this film transcend the "Night Gallery"-type gag that this could have been if the wrong actress played it, and then only for laughs. As for the twist ending itself, I'll say this with a spoiler warning attached to it:

**********************You have been warned**********************

It was a bold move on the part of the screenwriter to not only have the "haunted couple" win, but to add a racial slant to it by having Mrs.Ghost wishing that she could occupy the body of a black woman for a change, while Mr. Ghost makes the equally-controversial statement that no black woman would have stayed long enough to make herself available for a "body switch." I have a feeling that there's more than one legacy involved in that sentiment.

****************You have just left The Warning Zone*****************

I'm looking forward to seeing "A History of Violence" for different reasons than some of the ladies who drooled after looking at Viggo Mortensen in the three LOTR movies. This film was based on a comic book series that had a similar pacing and somber mood that was present in another violence-themed comic book: "Road To Perdition." Perhaps when the movie-going audience find out that there are more to comics than "guys in tights beating the crap out of each other," the medium will get a better appraisal than it has gotten in the not-too-distant past. At least I'll get to hunt down another article that says "Comics aren't kids stuff any more!" written by a well-intentioned know-nothing who hasn't read anything in four colors or black & white with word baloons other than Superman, Batman and Spiderman when his non-elective Algebra professor wasn't looking! We'll see if this lives up to the hype that it's getting from the NYC, LA and those two "Chicago" film critics on syndicated TV.

It's getting kinda late, so I'll see you out and get some shuteye before I brace myself for doing some tax homework tomorrow.

Take care and drive safely.

Goodnight.

Thought I forgot about this, hunh?

Excuse me while I wipe the cobwebs away from the ceiling and the corners.

There we are.

Well, hello.

It's been over a month and I wish that I could say that a lot of exciting things happened between 7-20 and now, but I've already made a promise that I wouldn't be posting lies on this blog.

Work has been progressing from tedious to socio-politically-economically annoying.

Just when I thought I was nearly done coming up with reasons to look for a new job, here comes another one.

Before I begin with the latest reason, I'll recap with the earlier ones:

1. Some of the people in my work area don't know anything about teamwork.

2. The lady, and I use the term loosely, who sits near me continues to prove to herself that she's the most obnoxious person in the western hemisphere by bragging about her looks(which are passable, but who needs to hear her aggrandize herself regularly?), her ability to party at the clubs on the weekend, her equally aggressive children(who she encourages to fight when they feel that they've been wronged), and her strident insistence that she can say whatever she wants regardless how irresponsible and hypocritical it is.(Even the supervisor complains about it after The Troublemaker leaves for the day and I have to resist the urge to simply say," Why don't you have her fired or transferred?" because I know that the answer has something to do with the understaffing of our department).

3. The software that we use has problems with it at least twice a month, and when it works, there are glitches in it that Tech Support can't always solve.

4. Our rest breaks and lunch periods are mandatory and rigidly-timed(like a football game) instead of flexible and subject to need. Since we get paid for our break time, I can understand the regimentation for those, but we don't get paid for lunch so who cares if we take a 20-minute lunch break or an hour-long one, depending on the need and knowing that it's time that we're not being paid for? One possible reason for this is what I call The Kindergarten Principle: If one person abuses the priviledge, everybody will.  This in spite the fact that there are people who sneak out for cigarette breaks while they're "on the clock" and all eight divisions and the peripheral departments can only clock out and in on one time clock!!!

5. The Assistant Controller is a walking powder keg who's paranoia can be attributed to the fact that The Controller hasn't allowed him to take time off to fully recover from an automobile accident that he had over a year ago! He still needs a scooter to get around on his "bad days" and even on his "good days," he can't carry anything or go up or down stairs.

6. Our company is in the process of either being bought out or merging with another retail chain and nobody knows anything other than that the owners are being retained as "consultants" and there might be policy changes that will affect everyone in the company.

7. We're near the end of our annual audit and we scored a 91! This means that we were 91% accurate in gathering information on the vendors and their merchandise.  Despite the fact that this was an evaluation of all eight divisions and the peripheral departments, which adds up to over 100 employees, THIS IS CONSIDERED A BAD THING! The target goal was 100 PERCENT!!! I don't know any time when any company, including a company that doesn't train ANY of their employees to do the job that's assigned to them, had a 100 PERCENT Efficiency Rating! The fact that this is what management and the supervisors were hoping speaks volumes about how out of touch with reality these people are! As a result of this "black mark," we are expected to do surprise audits every three months! While this isn't an altogether horrible idea to me, this could lead to accusations of Managerial Harrassment by several people in the company, including Ms."I've got a 10-cent opinion that I want to share with everybody!" If this causes her to resign, that will be the only good news that I'll look forward to receiving after this.

Now, the latest reason for possibly going on Monster.com:

8. We're establishing a $5 per month Savings Fund for snacks, group lunches, and Birthday Parties! While I would by no means want to dump the financial load on anyone to set up a party, I'm personally not interested in participating in a non-work-related activity just for the sake of avoiding being the Department Wet Blanket. I may be paranoid, but I believe that I once lost a temp job because I wasn't part of the crowd and I made no secret of the fact that there was too much goofing off and Playing Executive Meeting For The Sake Of Stuffing One's Face On The Company Tab and less of a secret that I didn't like where I was working, so when theevaluations came out, I was gone despite the backhanded compliment from the supervisor that I did the work of four people! This time, I'll offer to pay the $5 per month but refuse to participate in the Birthday Parties, the Pollyannas, and the Department Buffets.  We'll see if history repeats itself and I fail my evaluation when New Management has its interviews of the other people in the department and ask "Which employee(s) are giving you problems?"

I've gotten my...oh hell, I might as well give them free advertising...H&R Block Stock Option Information Packet.  It seems that the stockholders voted to split the stock for the last two years and this year, halving the values and doubling the quantities that they were qualified to either buy or sell. I was considering doing another cashless transaction(granting a broker permission to sell my shares at the street rate and paying me the difference from my special employee rate), but it wouldn't be as much of a difference as I had hoped. If it goes up by at least $5.00/share difference from my special rate, I may sell my option for 118 shares this year. If not, I still have between Sept. and Nov. to exercise it and the split shares from this year that I have to wait until next year to act on. It's a complicated process that not every preparer or office person qualifies for due to the mimimum salary/commision and work hours required. I've exercised it 4 times in the 10 years that I've worked for them and this might be the 5th if the market improves. We'll see.

I'm currently reading "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke and "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. If I can manage my finances, I might attend a Q&A in New York on Sept. 19th hosted by Mr. Gaiman & Ms. Clarke and a live reading an book signing of Mr. Gaiman's new book "Anansi Boys," which could be a sequel to "...Gods." If I'm able to attend both or either, I'll write a special review in this blog.

I may have to surf the net for upcoming films because I'm not looking forward to seeing the recently released "Brothers Grimm." By the previews, it sounds like yet another film about a pair of dashing adventurers that go on incredible exploits that "the general public has accepted as fiction." Like we didn't get enough of that from dead TV shows like "The Adventures of Jules Verne" and films like "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and "Van Helsing!"

I guess I'll prepare some spaghetti with leftover sloppy joe and a salad with grated colby/monteret jack blended cheese sprinkled on top. Normally, I'm more creative but it's starting to get humid again and I'll just have to learn to discipline myself to cook for the week on the weekends.

I hope that you'll be able to see yourselves out and have a good week. I'll attempt to do the same, but it's not going to be easy. Good night and drive safely.

I'm Breaking a Promise for a Special Acquaintance

When I started this blog, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't stand on a soapbox when I made an entry. Self-indulgence is a character trait that I despise in others, so I would be doubly disappointed if I picked up the practice myself.

Well, since I didn't make my customary weekend entry and I wouldn't be the central subject of the entry, I decided to make this an exception.

James Doohan died.

I hope that didn't look like an 11:00 news bulletin.  Then I'd really start telling myself off for being inappropriately cute!

Since the man lived over 3000 miles away from me and I've only seen him a few times at convention appearances, I won't go for the Hypocrite of the Year Award and call him a friend. I can just barely call him an acquaintance, since I was part of the staff that hosted his one and only convention appearance in Trenton, NJ!

It was in the late spring of 1987. The other guests at that con were Patrick Troughton, Paul Darrow, and Caroline Munro.  Pat & Paul landed at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport together. From there, I drove Paul to a fancy restaurant in Princeton while the con organizer chauffered Pat. Caroline flew to New York to stay with friends a week earlier. Jimmy, however, drove in a rented station wagon from California to the Red Roof in near Trenton by himself! It was part of a series of convention stopovers that he scheduled in advanced. I don't remember if it was for financial convenience, but I felt at the time that he was either the bravest man I ever met or the craziest! In any case, Mimi, one of the organizers,  phoned the nearby Ground Round and issued instructions to have an extended table set up for the guests and staff, emphasizing that "Scotty" was going to be among them! The fact that this was practically last-minute made it abundantly clear that The Man had clout by the tractor-trailer load! This was emphasized when the assistant manager stood at Jimmy's end of the table with either an autograph book or a bound menu in his hand. Since I was sitting at the other end, I couldn't make it out clearly. But the smiles and conversation spoke volumes.

When I shook Jimmy's hand, I noticed something that didn't shock so much as mildly startled me. His right hand had a finger missing! I found out later that he lost it on the beach of Normandy during WWII! He showed this "war wound" to the audience at the con in the form of a special Vulcan salute, indicating that he could even find humor in tragedy. A rare gift that he didn't hesitate to share.

I asked him only two questions in the years that spanned between the first meeting and the last time that I saw him make a convention appearance. The first question was," With all of the appearances that you made in radio and television before Star Trek and the appearances that you made in TV and film after Star Trek, does it bother you that most people only remember you as Scotty?" I don't remember the exact words that he said in his response, but I do remember that he smiled and made it clear that the contacts that he made with the fans countered any fear of typecasting that he could face as an actor. I also told him that I saw him in Jason of Star Command where, in his own words, "I played the titular head before I had a head to tittle in!"

The last time that I saw him was between three and four years ago at Chiller Con in Secaucus, NJ. It was like looking at a different person! While it was true that he was suffering from Alzheimer's and it was over 13 years since I last saw him, but when Jimmy was in his sixties, he was more lively and humourously infectious than men 20 to 30 years younger than he was, present company included! At this point, he needed assistance to sit at the Q & A table! Fortunately, when the questions flew all over the room, glimpses of the Old Jimmy peeked out and that Jimmy Smile appeared on his face that I remember to this day. My final question to Jimmy:

"Some of us who are here have seen you in the Next Generation Episode 'Relics.'"

There were some ahhhs and applause.

"Could you tell us what that was like?"

He smiled and said,"The cast and crew treated me like a king!"

I thought what I didn't have the heart to say at the time, and now I'm sorry that I didn't say it.

"Jimmy...you ARE a king!"

Jimmy's escort and Q & A moderator made an interesting statement when someone in the audience asked him about his relationship with Shatner. He said that Jimmy's wife [Edit: wouldn't] have sex with him that evening if he said anything nasty about "Bill." Not only did it generate a silent "Way to go Jimmy!" from the darker side of my brain, but it also raised a level of curiousity about how manytimes the words "Let it go,Jimmy! Let it go!" left the young  Mrs. Doohan's lips. Quite a few, I'd imagined, because I've heard that the anger he felt after co-writing "Beam Me Up, Scotty" with Peter David had dissipated enough for them to do some on-camera conversations before The Final Stage set in.

I'll probably dig up that book next weekend and re-read the non-Trek parts, since they're more detailed, and possibly track down those Shatnerized novels that he worked on, as well as watch that Outer Limits story that he appeared in(and remember what the title was), and possibly gather enough courage to buy that badly-titled documentary "Trekkies" that he supposedly made an appearance in.

 

As long as he's in print and on celluloid, he's not completely gone I suppose.

I stopped off at Peter David's blog to see what he had to say about Jimmy.  He only made a quick "Not surprised, considering his condition, but what a hell of a guy he was!" comment since he's currently attending the San Diego Comic Convention this week. I'll copy and paste his "eulogy" when he types it in there.

My eyes are getting misty.  Whether it's due to the humidity, exhaustion, or delayed grief, I haven't the faintest idea, but I think I'll wrap things up here.

Rest in peace, Jimmy.  You were a decent guy who didn't let your celebrity go to your head and you taught me two valuable lessons:

1. When you've met the right lady, you're never too old to find true romance nor to start a family and 

2. If you're doing something that you love, you will always be remembered for it.

I can only hope that some day, I'll be lucky enough to experience both as you have, sir.

Good Night and God's Speed!

 

 

 

So ends another week...

After a four-day work week, a four-day vacation and another four-day work week, I don't feel any more relaxed than I did last weekend!

The work highlights are that I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I completed my check reports, worked the Unpaid Invoice Statements of all of my existing accounts, and I'm halfway done processing invoices that are due for payment next month! When the checks have been printed and signed, another month will be completed!

My non-work life has been sedate, hence no earlier entries.

I just saw "The Fantastic Four" this morning.  You read that right, 11:00 in the morning.  I've found that there are fewer people who would want to see a film that early on a weekend morning, even a Premiere Showing. I liked it. I would have wanted to say that I loved it, but "I like it" will have to do. To be fair, I'll break down the things that I liked after I post my obligatory Spoiler Warning Screen:

****************************************************************

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Bad Things:

1.  They got Doctor Doom wrong!

      a. Granted, it's easier these days to vilainize corporate moguls than it is to have a film about a tyranical monarch from a country that most movie-goers never heard of, let alone would allow themselves to accept its existence for the sake of the story, like FF comic book fans have done for 44 years! However, mentioning that Von Doom is foreign without giving us an opportunity to see what his home country looks like is sloppy writing in my opinion.

       b. Having Reed and Victor rivals for Sue's affections seemed too much like formula "epic hero" writing than faithfulness to the original material.  The most charitable explanation for this re-write could have been that it was an amalgamation of the Reed/Sue/Namor The Submariner triangle (before Reed and Sue "tied the knot") and the Reed/Victor "biggest high school brain" competition that was settled by having Reed pointing out to Victor that his calculations were off by a few decimal places(as opposed to Reed's calculations being off and trying to convince Victor to "abort the mission," which weakens Reed as a character as well as pinning the blame on him for Victor's "transformation"), that first-generation fans will accept for the sake of minimizing any confusion for the casual or non-fans, who have more box-office paying power.

      c.  Organic metal infused into Von Doom's DNA, along with the ability to draw and manipulate electricity, as a substitute for the armoured suit that was placed on him (to cover-up scar tissue due to the unsuccessful experiment that he conducted in college, the one that had calculations that were "off a few decimal places"), might have minimized confusion for the "non-True Believers" as well as avoid possible lawsuits from Lucasfilms (although Stan Lee & Jack Kirby came up with the idea first), but these "adjustments" were adding up and beginning to get on my nerves! If the Hollywood moneymen don't believe that the audience will buy the True Origin of the Original Guy in Armor, what chance will there be of an Iron Man film coming out anytime soon? And if there is one, will they alter Tony Stark's transformation as well for the same silly reasons? Let's hope not!

And to avoid being labelled either a certified curmudgeon, an Ebert wannabe(more about him in a few moments), or a comic-book geek(sticks and stones...), here are the...

Good Things: 

1.  The film was character-driven rather than heavy with plot, the latter kind of film tends to drag me down when it's a plot that I'm more familiar with than the average movie-goer (which is definitely true in this case).

2.  Chilkis looked great as The Thing! The CGI combined with the SFX suit that he wore made him look very convincing on camera. I wish I could say the same about the other characters, but that's show biz!

3.  Stan Lee actually played a character that he created in comic form! Not a non-descript security guard (like in the Hulk movie), or a man crossing the street (like in the Daredevil movie), or even a street peddler(like in the edited scene in the first Spiderman movie)! He played Willie Lumpkin, the charming old postman who delivered Reed's mail at The Baxter Building, Reed's home/laboratory. As a side note, Willie starred in a Stan Lee-created, non-superhero comic book series before Stan co-created the FF, but he decided to include him inthe book in the mid-60's for "local color" and mild comedy relief(in one issue, he said that his super power was "the ability to wiggle my ears").

4.  Despite Roger Ebert's "short-sighted" review, Johnny Storm's ability to create flames of super-nova intensity was explored in the story!  The fact that Sue suffered a nose-bleed while trying to contain it in a force-field should have generated some notation from the Guru of Film Critics, but apparently he was too busy being bored by a storyline that he was unfamiliar with or decided that he didn't like because it was based on a comic book that he didn't want to read since it first came out!  That was probably the main point that escaped him:  The Fantastic Four was the First Original Comic Book That Stan Lee Created, so the film-makers wanted to at least attempt to give The Origin Story all of the attention that it was due as well as emphasize the difference between how the FF operated vs. how the XMen handled things!  The FF are a make-shift family who had to learn how to not only use their powers individually, they had to function as a team without killing each other, as a family of superheroes without secret identities would act.  The XMen were an extension of a Special School for beings who were born with physical differences who had to assume secret identities to avoid being victimized by the general public at all times, a luxury that the FF didn't have(partially by design).

Stan Lee broke several rules when he created the FF:

1.  Everybody knew who they were, even off-duty!

2.  The Human Torch was a superhero in his own right, not a sidekick like Robin.

3.  The Thing was one of the first superheros who was considered a "monster," even before The Hulk hit the scene!

4.  The Invisible Girl/Woman was also a superheroine in her own right, not the stereotypical superhero's girlfriend who needed to be rescued!

5.  The group faced non-superhero problems that the readers could relate to, like intimate relationships (inside and outside of the group), financial problems(there was an issue where THE FF WENT BROKE!), and unwanted attention(Ben's run-ins with a group of hoodlums called The Yancy Street Gang was a running gag in a number of Kirby-illustrated issues).

6.  When they encountered villains that they couldn't defeat with their powers, they used their brains and attempted to relate to the superheroes/supervillains/aliens that they're fighting as people instead of as punching bags.

Hopefully, should there be more FF movies(and I seriously hope that there are), these characteristics will be addressed and developed, along with one interesting twist that the movie-makers created in this film. They altered one of the original comic book characters but, unlike the Doctor Doom alterations, not for the worse: they made blind sculptress Alicia Masters an African American! While this wasn't the case in the original books, this change doesn't hinder the quality of the story. In fact, it could be argued that it improves it! While interracial relationships are only controversial when special interest groups make them that way today, I don't believe that this theme would have been acceptable in the '60's FF issues, which is probably why Stan didn't use it back then.  He did, however, use that controversial theme in the '70's with another superhero team book, The Avengers(no relation to the British Spy-spoof  TV show), by having a synthetic android, The Vision, fall in love with(and eventually marry) a mutant with spell-casting powers, The Scarlet Witch. He also had Spiderman deal with bigotry by having Spidey ask a bigoted troublemaker if he knew what color he was under his mask. Making Alicia black was a bold and interesting choice on the part of the screenwriters and I hope that this relationship will be at least a subplot in a later sequel.

****************************************************************

YOU HAVE JUST EXITED "THE SPOILER ZONE!"

A note that I forgot to enter on Saturday:

I had an interesting but slightly frustrating experience: I helped my mother register with the local public library in order for her to use one of their computers and printers to type up her resume and query letter for substitute teaching.  While I'm proud of her for not deciding to make the living room couch her constant companion, it wasn't easy showing her the ropes on Microsoft Word 2000. She's the kind of person who would rather create more work for herself than simply ask for an easy way of doing things on the computer.  This, of course, is part of the major problem that she and most people of her generation have: a pathological fear of advanced technology.  I had a similar problem when I bought her a DVD player and, later, a combination VCR/DVD player. Once she's familiar with it, she's fine. When she isn't, she gets defensive and thinks I'm "copping an attitude" because I use a computer at my job every day and she doesn't! She did express her thanks when she completed her task and treated me to lunch afterwards, so the day didn't turn out too badly.  It's just a strange feeling when a child has to teach her/his parent(s) new things and both parties feel the need to express their anxieties in the form of "typical family squabbles." It's like going into business with a relative. Objectivity and "focusing on the problem" tends to take a back-seat to "personal feelings." If she has any further questions, I'll just pray that she'll decide to sit in on a few of the "PC Basics" courses that are taught in several of the branches of the local library system during the summer or check out "Windows for Dummies" or an instructional video on her next library visit.

That about covers things for this week.  Drive safely going home.  Tropical Storm Dennis might affect the local weather over the next two days so be carefull.

Goodnight and "Thank you for your attention."

Dave

 

A Day of Independence...of a sort.

I won't lie and say that I went to a fireworks display, attended a concert by the Philly Pops or the NJ Symphony Orchestra or even Sir Elton John or anyone who appeared at the Live 8 concert. I won't even say that I took a trip to New York and saw the fireworks go off near The Statue of Liberty in The Harbor.

I did prepare some Lasagna Rolls (think boiled lasagne noodles with individual scoops of a mixture of shredded mozzarella and ricotta cheese plopped at one end, wrapped the noodle around and covered with spaghetti sauce and shredded mozzarella on top, baked and served) for lunch while my mother prepared hot dogs and cheeseburgers for dinner.  After going to the movies to see "Rowl's Moving Castle" we saw "The Phantom of the Opera" on DVD.

The problem with "going out" is that it's getting too expensive! Even going out to eat can be costly. I've been starting to get into the habit of going to Old Country Buffet for the holidays since it costs me less than $11 dollars and less than that for children and seniors. Hopefully, I'll be able to do that when I've caught up budget-wise.  Maybe starting in September.

"Rowl's Moving Castle" was an interesting film. It's probably based on a children's book, but unless there's a lot of exposition in it, it seemed far too sophisticated for any children I know. It gave me the impression that the world that I saw on the screen was one that couldn't be pinned down to one age or one place. There were flying machines, steam engines and automobiles, but there were also flying machines, flying battleships, and a walking castle that was powered by a fire demon. When it settled in one place, it allowed access to several locations. There were witches and sorcerors who could change their shapes and cast shape-changing spells. To describe this movie any further would spoil the experience for someone who hasn't seen it, so I won't go any further. Let's just say that in some ways it's reminiscent of other classic Japanese films and in others it's unlike anything that I've seen before.

"Phantom" was as magical as I remembered it when I saw Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman in the New York Wintergarden Theatre version. Ironically I preferred Crawford's Phantom, but I preferred this new actress who played Christine over Brightman. Not since I saw the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of "Peter Pan" did I hear songs that literally made me cry.  I felt slightly embarrassed when it happened, but I'll still buy a copy for myself near the end of the year.  Hopefully, they'll release a special edition with behind-the-scenes extras like most DVDs have these days.

Fireworks from Columbus Park and possibly Mercer County Park down the road are echoing in the distance, reminding me what day this is.  Very little else did other than the banks and the Post Office being closed, as well as my day job. My 4-day vacation is at a close at midnight. This will be followed by a 4-day work week.  It's funny, but part of me wishes that I could work ten hours each day this week to catch up on my work and make it less guilt-free for me to use my vacation days in the coming months. I don't know if I'll use some of them for job-hunting or for looking into ways of making extra money before, during and after tax season. I saw an interview with singer/writer Jimmy Buffet.  He passed on some advise given to him by a writer friend of his: commit yourself to write at least one page a day. They add up. If you write more than one page, you've had a very productive day.

I'll probably have more to say in the coming week. Then again, I probably won't. Either way, I'll make the effort to write at least once before the week is over. Why have a journal otherwise.

Watch your step as you go down to the front door. YumYum!  What have you done NOW? Sorry about that. I'll go upstairs and scrounge up some cleaner newspapers and a plastic bag to scoop up the pages SHE used! In the meantime, watch your step, take care and I hope that your week will be as productive as I try to make mine, if not more so.

Good night.

Dave 

At least I've remembered to wrap up the week!

It was a dark and stormy afternoon...

Or at least it was when I woke up at 5:30pm.

Yes, I said pm as in Post Meridian Time Period.

I'll start with the beginning of the day so that I can clear the cobwebs in my head and make some sense of the above.

Last Friday, I received an email from the American Red Cross. I'm a registered blood donor, so I brought that form of accessible harassment on myself. I said that blood donation was at a major low this year, so they've scheduled an additional blood drive between June and August. I became a donor two years ago when my day job, the national clothing chain that I refuse to mention without financial renumeration, set aside three of its conference rooms, rolled back the retractable walls, and converted them into a blood-gathering facility. A selfless act on the part of my employer?  Doubtfull.  More than likely a means of generating revenue by renting out the space as well as a means of generating good publicity for the company. In any case, I registered as a volunteer then and this past weekend for two reasons:

1. If I were in a bad way healthwise, I'd appreciate it if someone did it for me

2. I found out that I had "O Positive" blood, which is not only Universal Donor Blood, but the most difficult to keep in supply due to the limited number of volunteer donors available.

So, instead of confining myself to doing my twice-a-year obligation to "do the right thing," I decided to take my 4th of July vacation early and schedule myself for a four-day work week followed by a four-day vacation and another four-day work week (symmetry, ya gotta love it!)! While most vacations entitle one to sleep "until the bed rejects its occupant," I made it a point to schedule myself for an 8:00am "blood-letting." Since grogginess or light-headedness was a side-effect that I didn't want to risk while I was "behind the wheel," I decided to catch a bus to the College of New Jersey at the Brower Student Center. This involved getting up at 5:30am and getting cleaned up, dressed, fed(myself and my two cats), and hoofing it to the bus stop before the 7:10 bus arrived(missed the 6:40 by 5 minutes, of course).

To kill the time before, during and after the "controlled bleeding period," I brought a book to read, "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. When I've finished it, I'll write a review on a later entry. I went through the necessary preliminary paperwork/interview process along with choosing the "Use My Blood" sticker to place on the form(as though someone thought I would go through all of this and ask them not to use it; of course, they have legalistic CYA policies like other organizations that must be honored if not tolerated I suppose), lie/lay (I always get those two mixed up) on the triage cot that they provided, had my right arm impaled(by choice, of course) and felt like a gurnsey cow for 30 minutes while I learned how to turn the pages of a paperback book with my left hand. Afterwards, I bellied up to the Orange Juice Bar that they provided and drank my fill to compensate for my "contribution." They also provided bags of pretzels, chocolate chip cookies, muffins and brownies! Suddenly, the stinging sensation on my right arm went away quickly! Seriously, it was a very nice gesture on the part of the Red Cross staff to set up the day as they do all year round in different parts of the country and I would recommend doing what I did for the troops in Iraq as well as the people here who need medical assistance to overcome a routine treatment if not during an emergency.

After I got home, I went straight to bed to catch up on some zzzz's as well as to rejuvenate myself from walking back from the bus stop to my apartment. Which brings me back to the first paragraph, where I woke up due to a surprise thunderstorm at 5:30pm! It eventually subsided and power was restored, but I was grateful that I didn't go to work today and had to drive home in the middle of all that lightning and thunder!

The work week was short, but by no means sweet! I was researching the shipments that the stores received in April so that the vendors could get paid within the next two to three weeks. In a few cases, the shipments were sent to the wrong store, so I had to request proof in the form of UPS Tracking Reports and follow-up with the stores that received the merchandise. In the case of two of them, they were new stores that didn't order the merchandise, so the supervisor of Buyer Relations (the middle-man between the Merchandise Buyers and the Receiving Managers) had to add them to the Purchase Order entries so that the merchandise could be received into our computer systems. Another function that I performed was to examine the sales reports that the computer system sets up automatically at the end of each sales day. If the sales and on-hand figuresdon't balance with the number of goods electronically received(meaning their combined totals exceed it), I have to make a manual adjustment to balance the figures and not create a shipping debit that the vendor would dispute. Thanks to numerous interruptions from telephone calls from angry vendors, auditors "testing us" by having the manager inform our supervisor to inform us that our Unpaid Invoice Statements will be up for inspection and the vendor names should be grouped in alphabetical order(I'm responsible for vendors whose names start with "A" and "B" so you know how much fun that was for me), and other day-to-day obstacles like receiving and responding to emails from other vendors and people from other departments and the receiving managers from several stores, I was short 3 invoices in my processing late Thursday afternoon! Normally, that would be a source of celebration, but in my case, it was a reminder that the job never stops, I have one more thing waiting for me when I get "back to work," and I might not be able to finish them before I'm required to process the payment reports, that lead to the checks that will be signed and shipped out to the vendors in two-to-three weeks! Maybe I'll get caught up in the fall...maybe next year...WHO AM I KIDDING??? I would probably be out-of-work if I got completely caught-up!

I'll probably vegge out this weekend, when I'm not in the kitchen cooking for the week as well as for 4th of July lunch so that my mother can relax before preparing the traditional hot dogs and cheeseburgers for dinner. I'll probably give a run-down of the festivities on Monday, but I don't want to make any more promises, considering I didn't keep the last one.

I'm going to go back to bed and try to re-adjust my internal clock so that I won't sleep too late...later today. I can't believe it's Saturday already!  Where did the time go?

I'm sure you can see yourself out. Take care. I heard some minor rumblings outside a few minutes ago, so I hope you'll beat the next storm that's coming and, hopefully, the people who are going to Philadelphia, PA to attend the Live 8 Concert will be able to make alternative arrangements in the event of a rain-out. I don't plan to watch it on TV. I'll probably watch a tape or DVD if there's nothing else on the Tube.

Good night and "Thank you for your attention."

Dave.

I think I'll go to the movies...

That's what I said yesterday.  I went to see "Batman Begins."

After seeing "Batman and Robin," I figured they couldn't have ruined the myth attached to The Caped Crusader any further and, who knows, I might like it.

It wasn't bad at all! It was actually pretty good!

I'm going to lay down a sea of *'s for those readers who haven't seen this film, because today's entry deals not only with this film, but "comic book films" in general and similar comic book (non-Batman) themes to this film in particular. Here goes....

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Consider yourself warned.

We start the film with a "day in the life" scene showing a man, possibly American, in a foreign prison fighting several convicts at once, who is eventually recognized as Bruce Wayne, son of Dr. Thomas and Martha Wayne, neither of whom are mentioned by their first names interestingly. We are also treated with intermittent flashbacks and flash-forwards that have been expected in superhero flicks since the (Christopher Reeve) Superman I. In this film, we get a better idea of what made Bruce "batty" than we did in the earlier films:

1. Young Bruce stumbled upon a group of bats fleeing from a well that's above their lair, causing him to have a stifling fear of even peripheral images of bats flying, as in the opera that his parents take him to see (Faust or Die Fliedermaus? I'll have to wait for the DVD for clarification, I guess). Which leads to:

2. After Bruce sees the image of a man in a bat costume flying by guide-wires, he ask his parents if they could go outside. This leads to the infamous "Crime Alley" scene that every Bat-fan is intimately aware of and most of them who were ticked off that Pre-Joker Jack Napier was the hold-up man in the Tim Burton/Michael Keaton film probably breathed a sigh of relief when they discovered that, yes, small-time thief Joe Chill is the guy who wants Martha's new necklace to the point that he'd kill for it, which he does. Like in the earlier film, police sirens save Young Bruce's life. But this time, the police catch the thief/murderer! However, this doesn't prevent Bruce from blaming himself for "creating the situation" in the first place. Nor does Alfred, the faithful butler, change his mind with gentle reasoning. 

3. When Chill is up for parole 12 years later and Bruce the Princeton University Student makes an appearance at the hearing to keep his parents' killer behind bars, he does something that we've never seen him do: he brings a concealed pistol! However, someone else kills him instead: a hitman in the employ of Carmine Falcone, Batman's equivalent to The Kingpin(Spiderman's and Daredevil's arch-enemy). Falcone inadvertently prompts Bruce to learn how the criminal mind thinks by turning his back on his world of high-class living and becoming "one of them," but not to the point of being a killer like Chill or Falcone. This brings us back to the opening scenes in the foreign prison.

4. We get to learn more about the mysterious Lucard and his "employer" Ra's Al Ghul as well as The League of Shadows, creations of the very talented Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams (the writer and artist who eliminated the "campy" elements of the TV series and brought Batman back into the darkness where he belonged). Bruce's introduction into the League as well as his inevitable "defection" has mirrored several comic books that have been featured by DC as well as Marvel and the deceased Atlas Comics, which had a character named Demon Hunter who once belonged to a demon-worshiping cult and defected when he discovered that their goal was world destruction instead of just domination. When Atlas "died," Marvel "inherited" him and made him a member of a loose-knit superteam known as The Defenders. While I would be the last to imply that this connection was intentional, it's interesting how this version of the Dark Knight is written as a man who "lost his way" but found it as he was on the verge of allying himself with a greater evil than he could have ever imagined?  This is obviously meant as a seed-planting subplot for a later chapter involving...OOPS! I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's move on...

Another O'Neil/Adams created character, Lucius Fox, played with understated brilliance by Morgan Freeman, is the engineering genius behind The Batmobile and the rest of the bat-arsenal at Bruce's disposal in his war on crime. Gary Oldman does a competent job as Lieutenant-demoted-to-Sergeant-promoted-back-to-Lieutenant James Gordon GPD. We get to see the origin of Gordon's lackadasical attitude toward Batman's unorthodox appearances. If I were exposed to them for over 10 years, I'd take them casually as well. I also liked the closing scene where Gordon gives Batman a "calling card" of the next villain that he's going to fight. The gimmick villain in this film, however, is Dr. [Edit: Jonathan] Crane alias The Scarecrow. Crane runs Arkham Asylum and performs "forbidden experiments" with the inmates, but secretly works for Ra's Al Ghul, who we discover is not the man who died after Bruce destroys his "temple," but Lucard, the man Bruce rescued! The plot as it unravels probably has little to do with what's in store for both characters in future installments. "But Ra's gets killed when the train crashes...doesn't he?" I hear you say. Did you see his body lying in a prone position? No? Let's just say that Denny O'Neill originally killed him off as well, but like Sherlock Holmes and Dracula(spell "Lucard" backwards if you want to see a connection to where I'm going here), it's hard to keep a legend dead for long. If a later Batman film features a device called a "Lazarus Pit," I'll have a conspiratory grin on my face that will hopefully be hidden by the darkness in the theatre.

I won't go into detail regarding Bruce's obligatory love interest, in this case the courageous Assistant DA played by the future Mrs. Tom Cruise(?) Katie Holmes, because she's hardly in it. While she occasionally went beyond being the typical "lady in distress" that the Caped Crusader must rescue, she was also the one who inevitably discovers who "the man behind the mask" is, which is getting a little monotonous in my opinion. The Original Zorro didn't tell everyone who he was! Even Superman managed to keep his identity a secret with a pair of glasses! Why can't they keep a few sacred cows intact when they adapt a comic book character to the screen? Do the suits think that they add pathos to the film when The Woman The Hero Loves discovers his "forbidden secret?" One of the true saving graces of "Batman Forever," I believe, is when Chase Meridian says to Batman that she "loves someone else" and Batman walks away and shows the movie audience a covert smile! I interpreted that as "Hot Damn! I can finally take this stupid costume off, 'do the nasty' with her and STILL BE BATMAN ON EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS!" Somehow, letting her know who he really is in order to progress "the love story" tends to project the "having your cake and eating it too" effect while losing the "costume mystique" that defines the character and that spells c-o-p-o-u-t in my book. Why have a secret identity if it's necessary to lose it for drama? At least he didn't take his mask off while the train was in motion.

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End of the Spoiler Zone!

The weekend after next, The Fantastic Four will be appearing in theatres. From what I've seen of the previews, it looks like it'll be fairly faithful to the original, with the exception of the main hero and the main villain being friends and colleagues up to "the fateful accident in the Van Allen Belt" while in the comic book, they were bitter rivals, even in college!  I suppose that the filmmakers wanted to create a cohesive bond that would be dramatically ripped apart when the battle lines have been drawn (an obvious echo of the plot in both XMen films, wouldn't you say?). It's funny, but that was the path that was taken in the Roger Corman bootleg version of the low-budget FF film that the majority of fans dismissed as "awful." I wonder how they'll feel about the high-budget version when they see that subplot basically unchanged?

Also, Sue looks younger than Johnny in this film (the Invisible Woman and the Human Torch respectively), while in the comic book, Sue was Johnny's older sister. They may still attempt to do that in this film, but Jessica Alba doesn't look any older than she did in "Dark Angel," that short-lived TV show that she did on Fox.  Maybe they tried to get Heather Locklear or Pamela Anderson for the part and they both turned it down. Just as well. I wouldn't have bought either of them in the role. Sela Ward, on the other hand, would have been perfect! Even Natasha Henstridge would have been better. Oh well, you can't always get what you want...

Disney will be coming out with "Sky High," a comedy about a school for fledgling superheroes, with the main character as a "legacy" of The Two Most Powerful Superheroes on Earth! The previews boasts a cameo from Linda Carter...of course. I stayed away from "The Incredibles" because I don't like one-joke movies nor gimmick-laden ones. I think I'll do the same with this one...unless I'm really bored.

I'll pick up the latest issue of either Wizard or Starlog next week to see what other "long underwearcharacters" will be popping up on the big screen in the coming year.

Work has been fairly routine, but some interesting developments are coming up which I'll detail in tomorrow's entry.

I'm starting to suffer from a strong case of the Yawns, so I'll rap it up here.

I'll see you out and then go back upstairs to my room for a sweaty night's sleep.

Drive carefully. It's still raining outside and the roads could be slick.

Good Night!

And so it begins....

Mark this day down on your calendars: June 26th, 2005.

This is the day that I started to commit my thoughts to a computer screen for others to read at their leisure.

It was a bright and sunny day...

That serves as a calculated constrast to The Oldest Cliched Opening that most mystery readers would come across when they start on Spillane or Hammett or Chandler. It also serves as a short-handed weather report through the old-fashioned method of  "looking out of the window" of what I've designated my study. It's really a spare bedroom that I've planted my computer and several boxes of books in. The plans I have for this place...

When my finances are straightened out, I'll probably shop around for inexpensive bookcases, file cabinets and storage drawers, provided I can fit them all in and stay comfortable here. That tends to be the top priority of writers who write at home: comfort. While I haven't achieved the status of a Stephen King or a Peter David, I would like to think that I'm setting a goal that each of them would have envied when they were in the early stages of their careers. Of course, I have the advantage of not having a wife and children to divide my time...if you can call it that.

Instead of children, I have two cats that demand to be fed at least twice a day and petted and played with when they feel like it. One of them, YumYum, is a calico or tortoise-shell, depending on how much of an expert on cats you are. She's very friendly and out-going, especially if you let her ride on your shoulder and clean your ears and the tip of your nose. The other one, Tara, is a tuxedo cat, as in "she looks like she's wearing one" with a matching black face mask. 

"How on earth did you come up with those names?" I hear you ask. A very nice lady named Mimi found these two near her house completely abandoned.  This was after one of my cats, Emma, died.  Emma was also a tuxedo cat and named after Emma Peel from the British TV show "The Avengers." Since Tara King became John Steed's partner after Emma left him, it made sense to name the cute little kitten, that looked so much like her, Tara.  YumYum came about due to a discussion of Gilbert & Sullivan heroines that I was having with Mimi. "She doesn't look like a Mabel nor a Buttercup, does she?" "No, she looks more exotic." "How about Piti Sing?""Somehow, I don't think that she could play a supporting character in anyone's opera!" "Then, call her YumYum!" And it stuck ever since.

That pretty much covers my home environment.

As for work, I'm an Acounts Payable clerk at a nationwide retail chain and from January to mid-April I'm a Tax Preparer for an internationally-recognized tax-preparation firm. Since neither company are paying me to give their names, I won't. Let's just say that at one time, you've probably bought a coat or a pair of pants or a dress or a pair of shoes from one of them and Jeopardy champ Ken Jennings blew The Final Jeopardy Answer which featured the other company.  Personally, I think that was rigged, but then I believe that there was a Mafia hitman stationed at the "grassy knoll" in Dallas, in case Oswald lost his nerve and he had to kill him too. If I'm dead tomorrow, you'll know I'm on to something...Ha. Ha.

My day job consists of making certain that the vendors, whose wares we sell, get paid, either directly or through factors, or "banks for businesses"  (I didn't know that either until I started working here) and keep track of those payments until I'm instructed to store or discard the information. To put it simply, I create, shuffle, file and, if instructed, destroy paper when I'm not typing on a computer, answering telephone calls, receiving faxes and creating and responding to emails. I also create and modify spreadsheets that store data on the vendors' accounts. This activity keeps me on track regarding whether the stores have received the merchandise the vendors shipped and whether our pre-set computer programs acknowledged that the vendors sent bills, or invoices, for them. Once a month, reports are generated that confirm that these invoices are processed and, upon the A/P clerks' approval, checks are generated to be signed, by the merchandise buyers and one of the company Vice Presidents, and mailed out to the vendor. Sometimes this is done more than once a month when unforseen events occur, like the merchandise was delivered and the receiving manager/computer operator didn't enter the information before she/he generated price tags for them. This requires me to contact the vendor (or the factor if there is one), and request a Proof of Delivery. After this is sent, I contact the Receiving Manager or the Computer Operator and confirm the delivery, prompting either her/him to enter the information into the system or I would do it instead, depending on whether there was a store inventory after the delivery date or if the manager/operator knows how to pre-date an entry(enter the information on the proper date instead of "today's date," which would affect when the vendor gets paid for the merchandise). I also field complaints from the vendors when they wish to dispute the shortage of a shipment. This prompts research of shipments as well, sometimes months after the store discards the shipping information. This tends to get re-directed to management when a "ruling" is required.

That is my day-to-day in summation.

I'll record variations on the routine from time to time along with my reflections on "current events" and my movie/TV viewing and book reading. When any one subject outweighs the others, I'll create additional journals so that I can give them equal time (and space, if I'm able).

I'll also be setting up special journals for writing projects. When I start them, I'll either create a link here or tell you how to access it. Like a baby taking his first steps, I'm starting to "learn my limitations," technically, as well as journalistically, speaking.

Watch your step and don't bump your head as you go down and please try not to step on YumYum's tail. She won't always remember to move it (I don't think that she's always aware that she's a c-a-t).

In the words of another of my favorite writers, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., "Thank you for your attention."

Dave