Wow, we are having a heat wave in Chicago today! It’s almost 35 degrees warmer today than it was last Thursday or so. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we are still below freezing. That’s right. The temperature is 35 degrees warmer and still below 32 degrees. Thursday it was -7. There is just something totally wrong about living in a climate where the temperature can vary so greatly and still be so freakin’ cold.

I first saw this movie in high school shortly after it came out on video. It is a French film (Le Grande Bleu) that totally bombed in the United States. In fact, I was planning on seeing it at the theater but it came and went so quickly that I did not have the chance. The film is about the real world rivalry between free divers Enzo Maiorca and Jacques Mayol.

Problem I recently became aware of a project to upgrade an existing system. This particular system was not a paragon of best practices. The new requirements that were handed to the development team specify changes to the architecture which would again violate best practices, making the system worse than before. How can requirements be gathered which do not adversely impact architecture? How can architects avoid this scenario? Story 1 When I was about 6 years old, my parents took me to a steakhouse for my birthday.

Yes, yes, I am taking the unusual step of sharing my NY resolutions with the whole world. I have no issues with this because I plan on sticking to all of them and letting others know what they are just further cements the commitment. So, here they are: Get bodyweight down to 185. This is my number one goal because its important for my health as well as my sense of well-being.

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.

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 quite a long break, I am back to writing content for ForkBender.com! It was a busy December with two Christmas weekends, New Year celebrations, finalizing construction details on the house, and all of the ongoing work on Narrative. I should be posting on here much more often now starting with several articles 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).

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.

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.