One of our customers has made the demand to our company that all the people in our who may touch their network or even have info about it, provide them a litany of personal info and demands drug testing and the results.  The obligatory response from our dude who manages customer's questions about support was Do you know how many people we'd loose!?!?

Later negotiations just involved us saying "no" and they just dropped the issue.

Movie Time: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) - It all has a makings of an adequate remake.  Nothing that surpasses the original, but worth spending time with ... right up until the musical numbers.  WTF?  The CG used to duplicate the one Umpa Lumpa didn't look like a stylish choice, it looked like some lazy ass work done in cheap ass old software, and modernizing the songs.  Blech.

Movie Time: Minority Report

It was alright.  It's a fairly lightweight sci-fi action flick IMO and at that it succeeds just fine.  Really is there much else to say about such films?  Yeah there might be some undertones of some more serious topics but the film just raises those issues and then totally sidesteps the larger issues and basic concepts of the film when convenient.  Here we have what seems like a Democratic America where nobody questions this program that somehow manages to stop all murders before they happen in DC?  There's not any allusion to some dissent.... 

Some of the big secrets the film like how the system works and details are a bit difficult to believe they could be kept secrets for long considering how effective the program is.  Additionally in this apparently highly secure future where all sorts of stuff are tied to your ID making tracking your movements so easy the fact that one action can simply counter act EVERYTHING is hard to buy into.  Dude steals a car right in front of the authorities and drives around in it for MOST of the dang film with no problems, riiiiiiggggghhhhttttt.

Also stuff like the jet pack scenes felt to me just plain silly.  Could those action scenes have been any slower and stupider?  Tip: When you outnumber some dude 9 to 1, don't bring the jet packs, they're not necessary and will get in the way.

Anyway it is still a good film.  I just think some of the surprisingly stupid aspects could have been easily buffed out with just a little work.

Movie Time: My Kid Could Paint That, 2007

It's an interesting documentary that begins by asking a lot of questions about abstract art while following the rise of a four year old child artist.  The film shifts suddenly when some people question how much of the work credited to the young girl is actually her work.  Toss in some a documentary maker who becomes a part of the documentary, some frank discussions with the parents, and a talented if not some what bitter gallery owner / artist acting as her agent and you've got a film that I think somehow manages to ask more about abstract art than I had expected.

My opinion on the mystery of who is doing the paintings:

I think the film hints a great deal that the mother may think she's telling the truth but the father is in fact at least doctoring or outright doing the paintings himself.  I'm inclined to agree to some extent but I also believe the mother is at best willfully ignorant or just good at playing dumb.  In addition the artist acting as their sort of agent is happy to play along and thumb his nose at the world of abstract art and profit from it.  Having said that, other than the moral issue of lying about who is doing the painting I'm not sure I see a big issue there.  The paintings are crap.

Video Games: Bionic Commando

So they're remaking the old NES game Bionic Commando into a new game.  About damn time.  Of course the game I'm really looking FW to is the download able "remake" version of the game being released before the main game.  Basically it is the NES version with polished up modern graphics and some new features called Bionic Commando Rearmed.

Video Games: Sony PSP

I'm half tempted to pick up a PSP.  My DS is nice and all but I think I'd enjoy the PSP for those long weekends at work and some of the special stuff it can do (emulation) when modded.  At the same time I'm a penny pincher so I've got a pile of Target gift cards and a coupon for %10 off of a $100+ purchase.  It seems to be a system without many outstanding titles but plenty of alright games.  I do worry if some of the older good titles are even available anymore...  I get the felling this is going to be one of those things I think about and think about endlessly and give up.  It's alright though, that is how I save money a lot of the time.

The Economy: Robert Reich

I've made my thoughts on economists known for a while.  I think it is a BS field of study.  Not to say you shouldn't study economies or such.  It's just that I think economists for the most part sit back and sort of explain how things work(ed) with limited piratical knowledge and almost seem to take credit for successful economies while mostly advocating little to no government involvement at that time.  Conversely rarely seem capable of preventing messes, or even knowing when they're going to happen, and then calling for regulation or any kind of economic management only when things are at their very worst.  To me it seems there's a lot of  I knew the economy before it was great. and Well there's your problem! BS out there in that field of study.  In the meantime these economists greatest accomplishments seem to be dissecting the past and still are unable to provide much of use to keep it from occurring over and over again.  Granted they might learn not to do the dumbest things possible when things go wrong, but at the same time it seems like they are incapable of taking action before there is a fire.

Take for example the fed chairman Ben Bernanke.  Dude is known for his works regarding ... the great depression.  The field of economics has advanced so much that the guy heading the Fed now in 2008 is best known for studying an event that happened 79 to 80 years ago.  Oh great.  Call me when you get to the 1970s .... I'll read up on that while driving my space car to the moon.

Anyhow I like what [Robert Reich http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/03/18/reich_fed_demands/ has to say about current events].  Maybe he's just speaking in a tone that a simpleton like I understand but it seems to me if you're going to instill some confidence in the economy of your nation you don't just bail out banks, or in this case not even a bank (something I accept MUST be done).  You also take concrete actions (** you if you don't like them Mr. Laissez_Faire banker man) that provide some assurances that we're not falling into a black hole and the info needed to make them feel confidant now and for the foreseeable future.  In short if we're gong to bail these guys out they should be required to report where their money is so when the economy shifts the fed and everyone else at least has SOME baseline on what that might mean for various business.  If you're large enough to do some serious damage out there IMO that wonderful gift of money also comes with some responsibility, even if that is only to give everyone a heads up as to where you stand in terms of exposure to various stocks, markets, bonds whatever.

The larger issue IMO is that it seems a lot of banking and other #### is so obfuscated and secret that dip###s can do terrible things for long periods of time.  Now I'm of the belief that there are ALWAYS dip###s, and provided things are open enough hopefully someone can spot these dip####s actions before they become viral, spread, and become a huge issue that only often is allowed to go on too long due to secrecy.  Thus my support for some rules requiring some reasonable regulation and forced openness.

Dear Local (Minnesota) News People

You're near obsessive attempt to tie every single event to be some sort of local related event is pitiful.  Yes some people are from Minnesota.  Even some films might pretend to take place here in Minnesota.  I DON'T CARE.  Yes I know the girl who wrote Juno lived in MN, wrote the script in a local Target store, and the story vaguely references the location involving St. Cloud (or any other St. Cloud on the planet).  No need to tell me a dozen times, and frankly it doesn't matter!  It has and will have no impact on ANYTHING.  Amy Adams at one time acted in the local dinner theater here in the Twin Cities... that's a lead story?  Blarg!

It's not like we're Wyoming or something and don't have actual news around here.

P.S. If by chance you happen to get off the local non-connection type news don't you dare get back on the "35W bridge X months after" horse again or I'm going have to create some of my own damn news to get it off the air already!

Mrs. duxup

Mrs. duxup is seriously thinking of going back to school.  The target would be to change careers and be a teacher, presumably some where along the elementary school track.  The thing is right now her work at the theaters is NOT full time (a few months on, a few months off) and she's think'n of starting a family, as am I.  Having said that I'd rather her be somewhat prepared for a job that theoretically could float us a little while if I lost my job, could provide health care, and somewhat of a reliable future and a job she enjoined.

Teaching isn't some high paying solid career path but at least it is something more reliable than where she is now and as the second household job has benefits like summers off with the kids and such.  The wife already is some sort of mysterious kid magnet.  Anyone under the age of a teenager seems drawn to her and follows her commands.  She speaks their language (this is helpful as she translates for me) and while obviously there is the PIA parent side of the job, nobody is automatically setup to deal every aspect of a job before they're educated or heck even done it for years.

We'll see how it goes.  First step is take a few classes at the local community college to fill in gaps from her past University education and then on to the University for more learn'n. * crosses fingers *