February 13, 2002
Dear Everyone:
Last Sunday evening, I dragged the big cardboard box, containing the old TV from the bedroom, out onto the front porch. I even taped the “Community Assistance” card to the front of the box, so the Community Assistance people would know to take the TV away as a donation.
Last Monday evening, when I got home, the big cardboard box, complete with TV, was still sitting on the front porch. On top of it was a copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy of an announcement that Community Assistance would no longer accept donations of old TV’s, even though the TV worked fine. Ditto PC’s and microwave ovens. In fact, if you tried to donate a brand new TV (or PC or microwave), they wouldn’t take it.
Seems there was a change in the environmental regulations that only “approved recycling centers” can accept those sorts of things. The Community Assistance people (these are the same ones who declined to take my old sofa) are going to fuss-budget their way out of business one of these days, mores the pity.
So now what to do with the old TV? If all else fails, I could do the same thing we did with the sofa: Pay to “dump” it at the Pleasanton city dump, then hand it over to the first wetback to spot a bargain. However, it looks like that won’t be necessary. One of the contractors working out in the warehouse will have the use of a van tomorrow and has offered to take the problem off my hands. Yippee.
In other news…
After a couple of hectic weeks (I don’t mind a working lunch now and again, but four in one week is a bit much), things have quieted down at work, so I’ve gone back to coasting along with my two main projects. (There’s a third project I’m supposed to be helping with, but so far I haven’t heard a peep out of it.) Over the years, I’ve developed a well-earned reputation for working in overdrive. Consequently, what I consider “coasting” most people perceive as “working pretty darned hard”.
I had the official Performance Management Planning (PMP) meeting with my new boss, but things remain pretty much in limbo as to where I’ll be working and on what, apart from the aforementioned projects. So, coasting.
On to the Academy Awards…
As of last weekend, we’ve seen three of the five nominated Best Pictures. And there really is a reason why they make the announcements at precisely 5:38 in the morning. It’s because that’s 8:38 in the morning in New York and they want to make the announcements before the Opening Bell on Wall Street.
As for the three we’ve seen so far: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (wins the longest name award). Moulin Rouge (wins funkiest musical aside from Cats). And, most recently, A Beautiful Mind.
This is the (fictionalized) story of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician, who also turned out to be crazy as a loon. Someone went so far as to suggest a person can’t be brilliant, in one way or another, unless they are at least on the edge of insanity. Van Gogh, for instance, leaps to mind. One could even speculate that mathematicians are, by definition… yeah, yeah, yeah.
This is also the kind of film that you can only discuss with someone who has already seen it. Like The Sixth Sense (but less spookily), it contains a seminal scene in which the audience collectively goes, “Oh, my God!” and then starts reconstructing from the beginning. But no one wants to give away a surprise like that, so you’ll have to find out for yourself.
Once Nash learns the truth about himself, he has to make a decision. The medication that can help keep his sanity also robs him of the brilliant mind that makes him essentially who he is. Without the meds, he has to deal with his very own, personalized, bucket of demons. Talk about walking a tightrope where the slightest misstep in either direction will plunge him into the abyss.
Russell Crowe is brilliant in his own right, sporting a soft Southern drawl this time, as Nash. And if you’re racking your brains as to where you’ve seen the roommate, Charles, before, he played Geoffrey Chaucer (pre-Canterbury) in A Knight’s Tale last year. If you didn’t see A Knight’s Tale, go rent it.
Love, as always,
Pete
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