Hollywood sucks.

Seriously, everything they make lately seems to just turn up crap.

The big winners in my book? Lord of the Rings (all of 'em). Did Hollywood have anything to do with those films? Hardly. Not even produced in the United States (also some political implications - unions - to blame that on).

Harry Potter movies blow up the box office...and it's the Brits raking it in. Good storytelling is the theme so far, and it's selling.

Chronicles of Narnia looks like it will sell, too. Time will tell on that one, but there's my money.

The real exception is Star Wars, because honestly, George Lucas at least does things his way, right/wrong/indifferent. The story is good and effects are done very well.

Okay, so then the other 99% of crap we see on the screen is bad storytelling, NO storytelling, no plot, unbelieveable special effects (I mean that in the bad way), bad special effects trying to make up for no story....the list goes on. It's funny sometimes how the entertaining aspect of some movies is how terribly the producers missed the mark.

Seriously, PLEASE please please Hollywood....stop being PC, get rid of the unions, make fewer movies and make them worth watching, or you can just sit back and watch 3 other continents owning your old business. Gah, idiots.

FREAKIN' GO DAWGS!!! Trade School all in tears this weekend after their loss to the boss. They beat #3 Miami last week, just to lose to UGA....now UGA gets a shot at the new #3 LSU in the championship game. Here's hoping.....

So UGA loses to Florida and Auburn and only has to beat Kentucky to become SEC East champs....how sad that is. Sure, it really is a good feeling for your team to be champion of something, but we're talking about being the champions of the East division, a division with a 3 (or 4?) loss Florida team, a 6!! loss Tennessee team and it now seems like the only threats we had were perennial losers South Carolina and Vanderbilt.....yeah, you read that right. Something's wrong when Vandy slaps a W up there in Tennessee's house (the last time they won anywhere against Tennessee, well, I wasn't even old enough to know what a football was....last time they beat em in their own house was even longer before that).

So yay! We're #1! The best of the worst! Ah.....I shouldn't be so mean, but when you lose 2 of 8 in your division, that has always meant (until this year) that you were out of the running, or waiting for everyone else to lose. Nope, Georgia, through it all, still controlled their own destiny somehow, though having Florida lose to South Carolina did help.

Okay, that's enough football for now....wait, this just in: Georgia Tech beat Miami IN MIAMI....the #3 team in the nation falling to the Trade School. Suddenly I don't really know how to feel about this week's upcoming game. I do know that all of the Gnats superiority complex just took a dive after last week's NCAA revelation of "academically ineligible" athletes (11 from the football squad). They have really enjoyed lording their high standards over us, but add to this news the increasing number of criminals on their team....well, time to pick up another instrument Bees...that other one's all out of tune. How about a sad, sad violin? I know just the tune....

My birfday came and went last weekend, the big 2-5, quarter of a century. We spent it at the Auburn game in Athens with nice all-afternoon tailgate before a late game. Even though we lost, we still had fun and I had a good birfday. Hilary got me a nice Palm Z22 organizer, since I can never remember anything. It's working wonders. Not the most advanced handheld on the planet, but it does everything I need it to, calendar and contacts and memos and such.

Here comes Christmas...already decorating the house for the holiday, and it's looking good. Gonna have to figure out how to get on the outside windows with some lights, and we're gonna stick a gigantic wreath on the big foyer window at the front of the house....still, no clue, because I don't have a ladder. I guess that's what neighbors are for....

TradeWind is wrapping up a few projects here for the end of the year, and I guess the last half of December is going to be reserved strictly for finalizing the books on the tax year.

I'd like to fix this bag of tricks
and hand 'em out with a fleeting greeting

Just got back from the Georgia/Florida game (hahaha......"game".......). Either way, got a couple of good pics from the trip, mostly just shots of tailgating. We had a good time at Sea Island again this year, and even losing, still had fun with all the folks down in Jacksonville, FL.

I've got pictures of Oktoberfest and Furman Homecoming that I'll put up here soon. I'm thinking of different ways of doing the pics section, too....so if you have any ideas let me know. I may sort them into year (just to keep the scrolling to a minimum) but not sure where else to head with it.

Also been thinking about remodeling the site here entirely, but I'm in the middle of so many other things, not to mention building out a couple of other websites now anyways.....well, may be a while before I do anything here.

Cold weather ramping up....we've got a bit of warm temps this week, but it's still feeling too cold for me. Love Christmas and all that, snow is nice, but I'd rather be warm.

I'd thought about turning our gas fireplace into a wood fireplace (wood's a good bit warmer, and cheaper, than gas). Glad I decided not to go ahead with that....apparently, if you just toss wodd in there, it can burn your house up. Something about wood vs. gas being built differently. Screw that, I'm not going to burn my house to stay warm.

Staying busy with all my other work, not too busy though. Doing some "continuing ed" too on my own (another certification track).

I'll be back soon, but for now, trabajo.