Page Change

OK, I made a change to the .mac account and didn't tell anyone that this meant the url changed. Here's the correct address.

The New Web Page

Check out the new personal page here!

New Family Pictures

I'm trying out a new service. Let me know what you think of the pictures here.

Letter

Today I got a letter from Morningside College that says "we are no longer considering your application."

Spenser

One of life's true pleasures is finding time to read a Robert B. Parker novel I haven't read before. Parker manages to throw some good humor and insight into human nature in between finding out who killed the victim. Consider the following examples from Cold Service.

I was in my office having a cup of coffee and looking up Ukraine on the Internet. Like most of the things I looked up on the Internet, there was less there than met the eye, But I did learn the Ukraine was a former republic of the Soviet Union, now independent. And that kartoplia was Ukranian for potato.

***

"You got some donuts in the bag?" I said.
"Oatmeal-maple scones," Quirk said.
"Scones?"
"Yep."
"No donuts?"
"I'm a captain," Quirk said. "Now and then I like to upgrade."
"How do you upgrade from donuts?" I said.
Quirk put the bag on the desk between us. I shrugged and took a scone.
"Got to keep my strength up," I said.
Quirk put his feet up on the edge of my desk and munched on his scone and drank some coffee.
Blah. Blah. Blah.
The oatmeal scone wasn't bad, for a non-donut. Blah.
Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Blah. Blah. I ate some more scone. The oatmeal part was probably very healthy.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah.
Blah. "Can I have another scone?"
Quirk pushed the bag toward me.

Caribbean

Three nights in Puerto Rico is a nice thing to do on spring break. Unfortunately, I was there for an interview, so I never even came close to the sea. Maybe another time. When I was there I didn't feel all that impressed by the weather, but as soon as I walked on the jetway in Newark to transfer planes I realized that I missed the warm weather.

Another Rejection

Today I got word from the university in Oklahoma I had an interview with at the beginning of February that they are in the process of offering the job to someone else.

Guam

Today I had a phone interview with some people at the University of Guam. (Since they're 15 hours ahead of NY time it was evening for me and tomorrow morning for them.) Thinking about it, I realized I've never actually had a phone call from Guam before. So this was a first.

Apparently they can't afford to bring candidates there for a campus visit, so I'm not sure how I would feel about moving to Guam without ever having been there. Even if they paid for me to move there, it would be an expensive place to move out of if things didn't work out.

Tom Jones

After reading the following section from the biography about Tom Jones on the iTunes music store, I even more emphatically see why the song works in the Domino soundtrack.

Since the mid-'60s, Jones has sung nearly ever form of popular music -- pop, rock, show tunes, country, dance, and techno, he's sung it all. His actual style -- a full throated, robust baritone that had little regard for nuance and subtlety -- never changed, he just sang over different backing tracks. On stage, Jones played up his sexual appeal; it didn't matter whether he was in an unbuttoned shirt or tuxedo, he always radiated a raw sexuality, which earned him a large following of devoted female fans who frequently threw underwear on stage. Jones' following never diminished over the decades; he was able to exploit trends, earning new fans while retaining his core following.

Official movie site here. Check out the in your face trailer. Did I mention that the movie had three editors and no fewer than sixty (sic!) stunt people in the crew.

Today's DVD Recommendation (for brave lovers of cinema violence and energy)

Suppose you made a movie and you managed to cast Mickey Rourke, Christopher Walken, Jerry Springer, Jacqueline Bisset, two cast members of Beverly Hills 90210, and Tom Waits to maximize the iconic status of each. Throw in the editing energy of Martin Scorsese that you saw in the most extreme sections of Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and Casino. After that, write a script that looks like a sequel to Natural Born Killers. Throw in a cameo with real LA gang members. Finally, base the main character on super rich child of an actor and a model who changes careers from model to bounty hunter to avoid boredom. And make sure you have a jumpin' soundtrack that includes Tom Jones' version of Mama Told Me Not to Come.

If you want a shorter summary, here's a line from the film that describes the film itself: "he's got the attention span of a ferret on crystal meth."

Here's Roger's review (although Roger says Choco came from El Salvador instead of the correct country (Venezuela), and here's an entry on the real Domino Harvey.