Puttering in the Study

Moonlight - DVD

I got the season (well, I guess the series) DVDs for Moonlight shortly after they came out about a year ago, and finally got around to watching them the last several weeks, and forgot how much I liked this show.  The two stars Alex O'Loughlin and Sophia Myles really had chemistry, and I loved watching the back and forth each week as each had trouble figuring out what they were and weren't for each other.  The writers came up with intriguing new angles on the vampire genre, and Myles kept coming up with facial expressions that conveyed beautifully what Beth was feeling, even though half the time you knew Beth didn't know it.  Now that's acting.  

The best episode, for me, was the last, Sonata, where we got to see some interesting banter about vampires' use of "freshies" - which Beth analogized to "friends with benefits" and ended with the door closing as Mick finally got his sh*t together and decided to do soemthing about the way he felt about Beth.  Given the series' back story on vampires' inability to sleep with humans safely, it's an even bet Beth wouldn't have survived the night, but the flashbacks would have been fun to watch as Mick spent season 2 agonizing to his new girlfriend about his guilt over Beth's passionate demise. 

I really miss this show.  With vampires being in vogue in the entertainment industry now, it is really a shame that CBS didn't keep this show around for a second season.  I could have cared less about the vampire angle - I just enjoyed some first-class wailing by some good writers and actors.  Having the lead be a vampire gave them the room to write some really good stuff.

The Book of Genesis - The Teaching Company

This set of 24 (or maybe 36 - it felt like 36) lectures on the Book of Genesis was actually really interested at times, since the professor pointed out all the interesting things in the book that you'd see (or more importantly, hear) if you read it in the original Hebrew.  Things like alliteration, structure, allusions to other stories, and so forth.  As interesting as this was, it was like listening to a lecture about Beethoven where his music is discussed, but not played.  In the same way that I'm starting to see that you need to be able to read Greek to fully understand the books of the New Testament, this lecture convinced me that if you really want to understand what the books of the Old Testmanent are saying, you need to know Hebrew.

Another thing that was interesting was the alien-ness of the morality of the Mesopotamian culture reflected in Genesis.  Religious and family leaders have multiple wives, give their husbands handmaidens, marry their sisters, pick up hookers at the city gates - there's a lot here that would not pass muster at my Sunday School, and it is a little startling to see that Father Abraham is in the middle of pretty much all of it.  It was just a different set of social mores and religious expectations, but it is a little surprising to see conduct that would be shocking today pass without a comment.

Still, the lectures dragged on a bit, and it got difficult to keep paying attention when, unlike the New Testament, there's not a lot of contemporary meaning to what Isaac or Esau or Jacob or Joseph did.  I mean the New Testament revolves around Jesus and what he did and what he said and what it did and did not mean, and that's pretty important stuff.  This is was hard to see what the significance was, at least in comparison.  That's especially true because as the professor notes, there is a lot of repetition in the stories and the themes, which he says has a literary meaning to it.

One other thing, and that's the professor.  The first three lectures were the worst presentation I have heard from an adult in my life - the professor was reading syllable by syllable, like a second grader, and I was baffled why.  But then with the fourth lecture this stopped and the speaker, while still a touch formal, was warmer and infintely better-spoken.  Not sure what happened, but this one was about to get sent back before they got the problem fixed.

The First Apostle - James Becker

I liked Becker's "The Moses Stone" (although I now cannot remember what it was about) so I got this earlier adventure of the divorced couple i liked so much in that book.  The plot line of these people racing around Europe trying to figure things out is really old the second time, but, again, I really liked the people.  The biggest problem is that the book just has no ending whatsoever - it just gets to a certain point in the story and quits.  And leaves probably the biggest game-changer in religious history just ... there.  You think the DaVinci Code was a big deal - Jesus having a wife and child?  Or the Templar Legacy, or Last of the Templars (they all run together after a while) where Jesus is just a nice guy that his followers decide will sell a lot better if they start saying "oh, yeah, and he was also God too"?  Oh no, this one just blows that away.  And the author just leaves it there, unresolved.

But, as I said, I like the couple.

Getting Ready for Russia and Camp Fern

The boys got back from their trip to see the Grand Canyon with Jim & Marie last night, ending a nice little second honeymoon Jamie and I have been enjoying for the past couple of weeks, and starting a three day period we have not been looking forward to.

Today starts a busy three days for Jamie and I as we (1) get ourselves ready for our trip to Russia on Wednesday; (2) get the boys ready for their stay at Camp Fren starting this coming Sunday; and (3) get our work straightened out so our offices don't creater without us.  That's doubly (or triply) difficult for me, since I have my cases & clients to get taken care of before I leave, plus office management stuff, plus getting with Jim about keeping work going on the Hub while I'm gone (he's been gone the last two weeks and I'll be gone the next two), and I have to get all the electronics organized and set for the trip.

Normally we take my laptop, a still camera and a video camera on a trip, along with a lot of books, but this time we're making a couple of major changes. 

Books - first of all, no books.  Well, okay, the Eyewitness books on Moscow & St. Petersburg, but that is literally it.  I have the iPad stocked with three books, and can download more from Amazon while on the trip, so there's no need for paper.

Computer - for the first time since I've had a laptop I am not taking it on the trip.  In part it's the increasing concerns about taking a laptop with attorney/client communications and work product through border crossings, but more importantly, the thing is just too heavy and slow.  Instead, I'll be taking the iPad, which has access to my Gmail and office e-mail accounts, as well as my office calendar via Google calendar.  (It's also hard-synched to the laptop's Outlook contacts and calendar, but that's less useful, I have learned.)

Phone - a couple of eyars ago we didn't take phones on overseas trip, then we took an international phone Jim got, then last year my Blackberry was set up to call from Europe.  Now we're taking both our Droid phones, which I think will work just fine.  Since they have Internet access, I will be able to get my alerts from the office on Gmail, as well as checking the calendar and even reading office e-mails directly if I want.

iPod - part of the reason I don't take books is because I listen to so many Teaching Company lectures on my iPod, as well as some books on tape.  This trip I have series on history, literature, and I added the audiobook of Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, one of the few books I just don't get tired of reading or listening to it being read.  But that means carrying headphones, and since I dislike the earbuds, it means a set of noise-canceling headphones, plus a backup pair of over-the-ear Sonys.

Camera/video camera - since our last trip we replaced our point and shoot Canon with more of a SLR.  I like it except that it's much bulkier.  But last night we also replaced our bulky Mini DV Sony camcorder with a much smaller Canon HD camcorder.  I'm still figuring out how it works, but I think the 32 gig hard drive plus another 8 on a SD card ought to be enough to hold us for the trip.

All this means a plethora of charger, converters and surge protectors, as well as the usual cables, but I'm optimistic that not having a laptop will still mean that the whole mess is a lot lighter than it used to be.

Anyway, back to getting everything correctly copied, syynched and organized.  In addition to getting work caught up, two papers finished for publication, and the work at the Hub over the next two weeks planned out.  And all this while trying to do two full days of work...

Altar of Eden - James Rollins

Second book of the iPad was James Rollins' new tome, which refreshingly has a new cast centered on a vet in New Orleans.  This one I really enjoyed - it seemed a bit more realistic, and the action and characters made more sense.

The Bellini Card - Jason Goodwin

 Jason Goodwin's Inspector Yashim books are favorites of mine.  I really like the description of sites in Istanbul and here Venice, and I love the descriptions of cooking.  I'm not as happy with the plots, which once again were completely lost on me.  There are these great characters and this great writing, but I can't figure what's happening or why, or in many cases what Goodwin is actually saying.

Still liked it though, even reading it on the iPad!

King Arthur

I started listening to a set of lectures on the Arthur legend a couple of weeks ago and decided it was time to watch this movie, which at least gets the setting of the Arthur legend right, although it may go overboard extrapolating the existence of his knights as cavalry from Sarmatia from the fairly recent discovery of some Sarmatian grave goods in Britain (Sarmatia is way the hell across Europe from Britain - somewhere around the Black Sea, I think).

Anyway, a not very interesting story.  Looks great but it was hard to follow who and what was going on, and in the end felt a lot like a TV movie. 

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan soundtrack (complete) - James Horner

The original soundtracks to the second and third Star Trek movies have recently been rereleased in their entirety with extensive liner notes. I ordered both and listened to ST II: TWOK last week all in one sitting in the study and thoroughly enjoyed it. The music itself is awfully good standing alone - you hear a lot of things you just don't get in the movie. Well, actually that's not necessarily good because you hear a lot of things going on that at least initially sound like they're gumming things up, but that's just because I had not heard them before. Horner's music is noticeably dense and wild here, which is a little jarring because years of hearing the movie in VHS made me think the score was a lot simpler than it actually was.

What really makes these CDs, though, is the extensive and gloriously well-written liner notes that give you something to read during each track, with adjectival descriptions of the tone and instrumentation used, as well as explanations of where things came from, i.e. whether it was Horner, the producer, or what. I can't wait to listen to III - just have not had time this week with all the work going on at the Hub.

Hub update - lights!

Most of the lights went up and were turned on today, so I took some pictures when I got back this evening from Houston. 

These show the 113 lobby and Pam's office, as well as the attorney's office on the 111 side (the skylight grille hasn't been stained and is missing the shower glass inserts).

These pictures show the 113 conference room (love the accent light inside the ceiling fan) and the 111 reception area/spare conference room. 

Finally, this picture shows the street view, which shows the 113 outside light.  I was curious what the lights looked like from the outside.

Hub ceiling fan update

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted on the Hub, but work proceeds - it's just that watching paint go up and floors go down (modeled here by Parker) isn't all that exciting to see (or read about) online.  But today the light fixtures are going up and we can finally see what this place is going to look like.  

First of all, as you can see, the two Hunter Model 1886 ceiling fans, duplicates of the originals shown in this photo of the 1897 store went up this afternoon.  We still have one in front and a second in back, but we dispensed with the two Hunter Originals that hung in between in favor of central air (which is working very nicely now, thank you very much, and looks very dapper with painted grilles in the old metal ceiling).  The one to the right is over my office, and matches nicely with the wall sconces which went up last week, but we may go with a shorter rod, as it is really crowding the conference room roof.  Only two blades - budget cuts at the factory I guess.

Meanwhile, out front we got our outside light, which matches nearly perfectly in appearance (if not size) with the 1897 gas lamp, shown in the poster in the window and in a close-up here.  As it'll be covered by the awning, and  doesn't have a rigid gas pipe holding it, we thought a smaller fixture higher up would be okay.  Also, we've learned that the doorway grabs wind and twists it - hard - so we need something that won't bang into the windows.

Wall sconces are sprouting like weeds, as are track lights, so I can't wait to see what this place looks like after dark.  They're shutting down for the night as I write, and will hopefully finish tomorrow.  Tomorrow is also a red letter day for the plumbing, as the fixtures will be coming in for bathrooms 2, 3 and 4.  Our bathroom arrangement was heavily influenced by the big law firm paralegals we work with, who frown big-time at the idea of sharing a bathroom, so each side has two, with three of the four being fully handicapped-accessible.

The awnings are also now on order, with the 111 side getting a black and white with red stripe that's three feet tall and four feet deep, and the 113 side getting a green, white and brick red monster that's six feet tall and looms six feet over the sidewalk.  It won't hang quite as low as the original, but will still be a few inches below the salon next door.