November 20, 2003
Dear Everyone:
Things continue to be hectic, but interesting, in the document management world. We had a couple of visitors this week from Tengiz, Khazakstan. They were actually one of the first installations in the Company to use the current system. They wanted to know how our setup was different from theirs.
Right away one of the consultants hired to help out with some project or other launched into a short demonstration of how he had customized the Advanced Search function for one particular group. This was the first inkling I had that this change was going to take place. Evidently, it hasn’t yet occurred to these people that changing the functionality means that we, the trainers, will have to completely revise the training materials to match the changes.
Nor do they seem to have considered what’s going to happen when someone in this special group moves to another job, taking the special functionality with them. Or if someone who supports this special group also works for another group not privy to the special functionality. Looking into my crystal ball, I see a bureaucratic nightmare in the future as people change jobs again and again, usually without thinking to notify the system administrator. Luckily, I’m not the system administrator this time.
But enough about that. Movies:
A few weekends ago, “Jeannie” wanted a light
romance, so we went to see
love
actually. This film
features a remarkable ensemble of exquisite sweaters, which,
coincidentally, are occupied by a remarkable assembly of really good
actors. The story begins a
few weeks before
Christmas in
Written by the same man as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, the story is actually quite a few stories involving a large group of people who, one way or another, are related to someone else in the film. Hugh Grant, with his patented self-effacing air, plays a new Prime Minister who reminds himself to work on his waving-to-the-crowd skills. He starts to fall for a saucy staff member from a poorer section of the city.
Grant’s sister, played by Emma Thompson, is married to Alan Rickman who knows (as does the whole office) that his assistant, Laura Linney, has a thing for the handsome hunk in the office. But she can’t seem to let go of her cell phone. It’s set to that annoying “alternate tone” that so many people use because they think it makes their phone distinctive from all the others around them. (You know the one: Da-da-da-da- Da-da-da-da-Da-da-da-da-da-DA.) By the end of the movie, you realize why the phone is so important. Love doesn’t always mean getting what you want.
Colin Firth plays a writer who, upon discovering that he is unlucky
in love, moves to rural
There’s also a guy named Bill Nighy who plays an aging rock star who just wants his really terrible Christmas song to hit the top of the charts. He steals nearly everything but the cameras. And there are a couple of nude body doubles who are very sweet, if you can overlook them being completely without clothes. And that’s only the half of it. Any one of these stories, other than the self-proclaimed “old ex-heroin addict looking for a comeback at any price”, if filled out, could have made a movie in itself. Perhaps these are all the half-baked ideas the screenwriter had knocking about in his head, plopped together.
All of this plays out against a soundtrack comprised almost entirely of sappy pop songs. Oh, and a cameo by Billy Bob Thornton as the US President, who proves once and for all that, if absolutely required, he is capable of shaving.
Last weekend we went to see (deep breath)
Master and
Commander: The Far Side of the World.
This is a sea-faring adventure set in 1805, when
Napoleon has already
conquered most of
They start out in the
Many action scenes. Lots of cannons firing lots of balls across lots of water. Many shots of “lucky Jack” standing majestically on the bow. “Lucky Jack” clinging courageously to the side of the ship. “Lucky Jack” at the top of the mast. The scenes aboard the ship are so authentic you can almost smell it.
There are also many philosophical discussions between the Captain and the ship’s doctor, played by Paul Bettany. This makes two movies he’s made with Crowe. In A Beautiful Mind, he played Crowe’s imaginary college roommate. As the ship’s doctor, and Aubrey’s friend, he’s the only one who can tell Jack when he’s wrong. The Captain, after all, is the ultimate authority on a ship. But even the ultimate authority can be wrong some times.
Both movies are quite enjoyable and I’d recommend either one, depending on your taste. Just be careful about taking any kiddies to the one with the nude body doubles. That would be the one without any cannons.
Love, as always,
Pete
PS. No
Letter next weekend.
“Jeannie”, “Marshall” and I are joining “Richard” and “Marge” in
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