A toga update

Last weekend, I headed back to my parent’s place to put in the final vinyl window inserts. It was a good feeling as all of the windows have now been replaced and the task is complete. I stopped by Fabricland to buy some material for my toga. I started looking at material on the rack and realized that four yards of anything could be expensive. I talked to the sale associate and she suggested I look at the one-dollar table but none of the colors were suitable. We went next to the half-off table and I found a blue-gray material that was the end of the line. I was relieved when there was just enough to make my toga. I am glad that I decided not to wear purple as I don’t want to look like a clone among 300 other students. I was debating whether I need some props like a sword, a clasp, or a laurel wreath but decided I just want to be an ordinary roman wearing a toga. The one thing I bought was a package of safety pins as they will come in handy keeping things together as I want to avoid an embarrassing moment. I’ll post pictures of Julius Caesar Chris once I am back from the conference.

Live Free, Die Hard 4

Last week, I watch the latest Bruce Willis movie, “Live Free and Die Hard.” I enjoyed the movie as the some of the special effects were wicked. I knew that some of film was shot in Baltimore but decided to give myself a challenge to see if I could locate any of the areas. The ending has a couple of port scenes which I think were filmed at Dundalk. The traffic jam scene was filmed at Mount Vernon. The cinematographer worked hard to avoid showing the top of the monument. I could see why they selected the location as you could have cameras posted at all four corners of the square and effectively control the action. The fighter jet scene and the truck rig on the freeway and the tunnel footage I think were the best for special effects. It was a good movie.

A relief...

It is a big relief. I finished the final Harry Potter book late today. It was a hard and challenging book to read as I found it so dark. I could feel the book pulling down which was kind of weird. I'm not sure if I would want my kids to read the book until they would be a little older.

Toga

In a couple of weeks, I head south to Atlanta, Georgia for a conference with some of my student peers. I attended the same conference in Phoenix, Arizona last year and had a great time. I enjoyed the conference proceedings but one of the things that brought me back this year was the CEO Boot camp. The boot camp was two hours of high octane exercises, stretching and seeing how could do more of a certain exercise than the conference CEO. The exercises were made a little more challenging as it started at 600AM. This year they had added something new which has started to get me excited. For one of the sessions you have to wear a toga. I have never worn a toga. My initial thought was to just buy a white bed sheet and dress like Charlton Heston in Ben Hur or Julius Caesar. But I did a quick google search and found a site called http://www.howtomakeatoga.info. The site strongly recommends not using a bed sheet but to go to a fabric store and buy four yards of whatever material meets your fancy. I was talking to some friends and they suggested that I not buy purple. Purple is the royal color and it is what most folks would wear. I let my imagination run wild for a while and thought about blue pinstripes or something in blue at least. I could go with a red and white combination but those colors don’t usually work for me. To add a bit of authenticity I’ll wear my five fingers as the Romans always wore minimal footwear. As I write this I still can’t see myself wearing a toga but there is always a first time and it should be a blast. I’ll be one of 300 students all wearing multi-colored togas.

HP

I stayed up last Friday night until the magic hour with 1500 people at the largest bookstore in town. The line was so long that it took me 30 minutes just to get my hands on the book. While waiting for midnight to roll around I skimmed about of books on Vista security and thought about how secure I was not make my laptop. Once I had the book I headed over to the 24 hour grocery store to buy a quick snack of rice pudding and started to read the book slowly. I hit the sack at 3:00AM by which time I was really tired. Yesterday, I continued to read the book a work through the first 100 pages. Not much has really happened to this point which is nice as there are 600 pages more to read.

I sent out two geocaches recently and they are being found. I went for a 7 mile run this morning along the Ottawa River which felt good after being stationary yesterday. My Wednesday night intervals with the Running Room are going well and I'll post an update later in the week.

Books - The Assault of Reason

In the reading department this has been a good summer for me. I started off by discovering the author, CJ Box. After reading his most recent book I got hooked and borrowed all his other books from the library and read them. I next discovered Barry Eisler's John Rain series of books. I bought his most recent books and again borrowed all of his other books from the library. For both of these authors, I could start reading one of there books and have it finished a couple of days later. George Tenet's book, "At the Center of the Storm" is a book that is taking longer to read that I would have thought. I read a chapter and then think and reflect on what he says about his days working for the CIA. Last night, I finished my favorite book of the summer, Al Gore's, "The Assault of Reason." This is a book that I'll most likely read a more couple of times in the future. I'll quote from the inside jacket of the book, "A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason."

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

On Friday, at the stroke of midnight I and a lot of other Harry Potter fans will have there chance to read the final Harry Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Once again, I’ll stay up until midnight and go to the bookstore and watch the clock move ever close to the magic hour. The bookstore has WiFi so I can surf and try to score a couple of more babble points while waiting for the book to become available. At that point, I will constrain myself to read only a couple of pages per sitting as I fear that if I don’t, the book will be read over the course of the weekend. There are already leaked copies of the book available for viewing on the web. Did I take a look? Yes, I only looked at the table of contents which doesn’t reveal much. I’m comfortable waiting to until Friday midnight to experience the final book as what is a couple of extra days after waiting a couple of years.