March 18, 1994
Dear Everyone:
Many thanks to the people who called to sing
Happy
Birthday to my phone machine. Sorry
I wasn't home, folks. I tried
especially hard to get out of the office on time, but the usual
intergalactic conspiracy kept getting between me and the door.
Once I did get home, I left
immediately to pick up “Jeannie” so she could take me out to dinner
(prime rib at the Hungry Hunter) and didn't get home until after eight.
Many thanks to the ones who send presents.
You people spoil me.
(I like that in a person.)
Special thanks to Mother for the
Annual Egg from Holland.
However, I do believe that my egg
collection has about reached saturation point.
There are over two dozen of them,
in various colors and sizes although, by definition, they're all pretty
much egg-shaped. I'll keep them
out until Easter, of course, but then I think it's time to start a new
obsession.
Stock-car racing, perhaps.
Or not.
For those who pay attention to such things, it's
Oscar Season again.
I've done particularly well this
year, having actually seen
some of the films nominated for Academy
Awards. I'm taking Monday as
a vacation day (I have to take them
some time!) so I can watch the parade of people trudging in at 3:00
pm, dressed to the teeth, for a ceremony that doesn't begin until 6:00.
I look at some of those outfits
and think: "Can you imagine
sitting in that for six hours?"
Always the practical one.
As for the movies up for Best Picture, I've seen
The Fugitive,
In the Name of
the Father, and
Schindler's
List. Of the three, I
have to say that The Fugitive
was the best of all-around film. It
had a little bit of everything: Drama,
mystery, humor, excitement and a satisfying end.
I also think it hasn’t got a
prayer of winning.
As for In the Name of the Father,
there's not that much suspense. You
know how it's going to come out going in.
But that's not to say that it isn't chock-full of fine
performances. And plenty of
social comment. And if you
think, "Think God it couldn't happen here," remember the
Supreme Court ruled, last year, that proof of innocence does not
constitute grounds for a new trial.
And then there's Schindler's List,
which has social commentary sixteen ways from Sunday.
There's talk of making it
required viewing for all high school students in
Germany.
It's a little arty, with
switching from color to black-and-white and back again (I'm being
careful not to give anything away, here).
And the director made it deliberately "unemotional", sort of a
semi-documentary style. Which
didn't stop Liam Neeson, a relatively unknown Irish actor, from turning
in a stellar performance.
I haven't seen
The Piano
or
Remains of the
Day (yet), but I believe “Jeannie” has, so between the two of
us, we should have the bases covered.
My Guess: Schindler's List. It's the
politically correct thing to do. Plus
the
Directors Guild has already given its award to
Stephen
Spielberg, suggesting that its members may have finally forgiven him
for making more money than all the rest of them combined.
In other news…
Getting busier at work. I have
somehow become the de facto
Paradox
for Windows expert and am therefore trying to figure out a way to set up
a Form that will allow us to update several Tables at once.
This saves time and ensures that
all the Tables are changed. It's
very easy to overlook one. It
must be; I do it all the time.
I also need to create some "canned" requests and reports both for RACS
and “Livermore”. I will
not be working on this on my
day off. This is because Ogden,
bless his little hard drive, doesn't have enough memory to run Paradox
for Windows.
He does, however, have a new game called "Hangman"
that's very addictive.
Love, as always,
Pete
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