News & Reviews

I managed to squeeze in a quick meal with the Terrys last Friday. I gave Grace a gift for her birthday, the boardgame Cranium. I then took Tara, Candace and Grace to the drive-in theatre and we watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then Batman Begins. (Sorry, Laura!) It was the first drive-in experience for Candace and Grace, so that was fun. I'm always surprised at how people have never gone to a drive-in theatre.

I've seen Batman before and I find that it lost a little bit on the second viewing. In particular, the last twenty minutes of non-stop action was fun but obvious. That part was like the usual summer action movie or comic miniseries and it bored me a bit. Willy Wonka was fun. Johnny Depp had his usual fun with the role, playing Wonka as the eccentric that he must be rather than the cooky-yet-personable character that Gene Wilder played in the original movie. And the songs were left to the Oompa Loompas, thankfully.

Since Tim Burton was the director, this new version included more backstory for Wonka that related to his father, as played by Christopher Lee. (You all remember him as Saruman in Lord of the Rings, right? Legend of numerous classic horror films from the '50s?) The twist at the end of the movie veered in a completely different direction from the original movie and the undertones was more subversive and self-deprecating. I find that I prefer the twist at the end of the original movie more, so this new movie felt pretty flat at the end. I certainly enjoyed the movie as a whole. The characters of Charlie and Wonka kept me invested in the movie.

And now for other movie trivia: Ever notice how Star Wars doesn't have any railings? It's a very serious question, as discussed here.

Y'know how Windows comes with the card game Hearts? I prefer Solitaire myself, but this blog post has a couple of interesting bits of trivia. That post links to this blog post, in which one of the original Windows 95 developers helped fix a bug in the program and as a reward one of the computer opponents in that game was named after his wife. It also references an old article by Dave Barry that refers to these computer players by an unfriendly term. Heh.

Happy Birthday, Grace!

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you..." Tara and I are going out to the Terrys place on Friday night (July 14) to celebrate Grace's birthday a day late. If anyone wants to join us, give me or the Terrys a call.

A Hairy Situation

My mom cut my hair this past week and she thought it would be funny to take a couple of snap shots. Here's the "Before" picture:

During the hair cut:

After the hair cut:

And finally, my dad saw a humourous situation the other day. I was standing in front of my workplace at the end of the day chatting with one my co-workers while I waited for my dad to pick me up. I have red hair that was cut very short recently, with the accompanying stubble on my face. My co-worker has grown his red hair to an impressive length. The juxtaposition is pretty good, don't you think?

Welcome and Congrats

Welcome back to the digital world, Richard. It's been a while since you visited us here, eh?

Congratulations to Mike (and Kate) on graduation.

Recent Pictures

I've added a new folder to my photo website for recent pictures. It includes one from the last FCCC Youth party that we had, when we went to Hooks and had the private party on the second floor. It also includes some recent pictures from a few weeks ago when I took my Little fishing for his first time, along the Thames River in my backyard.



Many thanks to my mom for taking and converting these digital pictures for me.