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When I was a youngster, my mother and grandmothers conspired to find novel ways for my brother and I to finish our meals. It was very common, given what a "picky" eater I am (or such is the rumor), that I would eat the items on my plate that I liked and would not touch the items I did not like. They devised the "Clean Plate Club" and it was met, by me, with immediate challenges. To be a member of the Clean Plate Club, you had to finish everything on your plate. Membership privileges included getting to leave the table before bed. Since I was very stubborn in addition to picky, I spent a lot of time looking at cold food as I was often at the table long after everyone else had finished.

The second Elvis Cole novel written, Stalking the Angel is about Elvis finding the stolen Hagakure, an antique Japanese manuscript. So far this is even better than the first Elvis Cole novel. More later...

After a really long break, I'm back to writing on ForkBender.com! Crazy busy December. Two Christmas weekends. New Year's. Finalizing construction stuff on the house. All the ongoing Narrative work on top of everything else. Should be posting way more often now though. Got several articles coming in the next day or so.

What is it with this movie??? Everyone seems to like it! I've even heard it was the best movie of the year!!! Come one - you have got to be kidding! I didn't like the movie at all. I will admit that the computer graphics are awesome. Pixar certainly leads the world in this area. But the story was only okay and the voices were not very interesting. In fact, I really disliked the Marlin character (and it has nothing to do with the Cubs). What a whiney guy! Did they get Woody Allen to voice him, because that would have been quite appropriate. The beginning of the movie is almost depressing and the end of the movie is not really exciting. Just didn't like it, what can I say?

This is yet another war movie along the lines of Black Hawk Down. The story is nothing special but the casting was done particularly well and there is some interesting cinematography. Owen Wilson plays a wisecracking F-18 navigator whose plane crashes. Gene Hackman is the admiral in charge of Wilson's battle group. Pilot crashes, calls for help, admiral sends help...eventually. There is an awesome scene where an F-18 is literally "chased" by missiles. A vivid sound effects track and innovative camera motion make the movie more appealing.

I finally got around to watching this movie...only a few years after it was in the theaters. The movie is a somewhat true-to-life story of Carl Brashears, the first African American to become a Master Diver in the U.S. Navy. He is played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. Robert De Niro plays his harsh instructor Billy Sunday. It's a good introduction to the challenges of early diving as the movie takes place before the invention of scuba gear. The divers walk around the bottom of the ocean in brass shoes and attached air hoses. One of the more interesting movies I have seen recently. If the real Carl Brashears is anything like the guy in the movie, he has got to be one of the toughest Navy men in history.

All-time favorite movie. Just sooooo funny.

Last Thursday night, Deloitte's Global Network Services team and a bunch of developers, including myself, went to the newly opened Chicago Indoor Racing complex in Buffalo Grove. The draw of this particular attraction is that you can race go-karts against others and that these go-karts go really fast. Fast enough that no one, even a heavy guy like me, complains about going slow. In fact, several of the guys didn't even push their limits, it's so fast.

I finished scanning in the Rawson family history that my great-grandmother Ruth Rawson Meng wrote 30 years ago. It's a very well prepared document and illustrates perfectly the scholarship that she possessed. I think you will agree it is a very interesting read.

Ahu and I watched this tonight after X-Men. Double feature night. Nice.