MCSE

Today I completed my certification track for Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Windows Server 2003 -- one of a 40,000+ member ever-growing groups of professionals. It has taken about three months to complete -- and a lot of study hours. Woohoo!

Best wishes, my friend

My colleague, Jim Sawyers, was visiting the office this weekend. Knowing the camera drops a note to me when someone enters on the weekend he decides to send me a message. The downside to this is that he has brainwashed his wife into joining the dark side as well.
Seriously though -- Jim & Carmen -- best wishes in North Carolina!

Pirates and a Lady

So, movies were the theme of this weekend. On Saturday Steph and I went to see "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." I think it's well known that Johnny Depp is a great, diverse actor. In this sequel he seems to play a more muted role than in the first -- a lot of the plot centers around Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) and William (Orlando Bloom). Nevertheless, Depp was awesome yet again. Someone is engaged to the arrow-shooting Elf boy. Who was that? Oh yeah, Keira. The trilogy wraps in 2007 with "At World's End."

Sunday afternoon went to M. Night's "Lady in the Water." Should you see it? If you like Night's movies you will like this movie -- intense attention to detail, no stone unturned, twists and turns and wonders of meaning. If you are not a fan of his films -- at least wait for the DVD. No spoilers here, but the movie has another good message to it -- at least one that I walked away hearing. Not quite as loudly said as "Signs" but still great.

It's Hot out there! (and you need a pool!)

Tower of Power

It's that time of year when we IT nerds professionals deploy new equipment to the general population. This year's unboxing porn brings us the Dell Optiplex GX620 with a 3.2 Ghz Dual Core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 80GB SATA, DVD+-RW and of course, the beloved flat panel of which our users will enjoy for the next year 48 months.

Quote of the week

This week's "quote of the week" is awarded to Chris Bransford. During a recent Battlefield 2 free-for-all is piloting the AH-64 Apache in a full throttle strike on my character he announces in his best Maverick voice:

"Goose, I'm too close for missles, I'm switching to crash."

God Bless America

As we celebrate the 4th of July holiday I thought it fitting to re-post the original transcript from Red Skeleton's TV show. I've never heard it put any better than this:

I've been listening to you boys and girls recite the Pledge of Allegiance all semester and it seems as though it is becoming monotonous to you. If I may, may I recite it and try to explain to you the meaning of each word?"

I -- me, an individual, a committee of one.
Pledge -- dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self pity.
Allegiance -- my love and my devotion.
To the flag -- our standard, Old Glory, a symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves, there's respect because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts freedom is everybody's job!
United -- that means that we have all come together.
States -- individual communities that have united into 48 great states.
Forty-eight individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose; all divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common purpose, and that's love for country.
And to the republic -- a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people and it's from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.
For which it stands, one nation -- one nation, meaning "so blessed by God"
Indivisible -- incapable of being divided.
With liberty -- which is freedom -- the right of power to live one's own life without threats, fear or some sort of retaliation.
And Justice -- the principle or quality of dealing fairly with others.
For all -- which means, boys and girls, it's as much your country as it is mine.

Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country
and two words have been added to the pledge of Allegiance...
UNDER GOD
Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said
that is a prayer
and that would be eliminated from schools too?
God Bless America!

Superman Returns (with today's CGI)

The Man-O-Steel has returned to the big screen. If you haven't already seen the new movie -- do so. It's worth the price of admission (even as it is these days). Today's special effects are incredible (though you understand how amazing the original Reeve's "Superman" film FX were back then). I'm not going to spoil anything for anyone but fans of the original movie series have to see this. Spacey's Lex Luther is much darker than the original and he plays his role quite well in this film. Outside of Spacey, I think the reason this movie will do so well is actually the lack of stars in the movie. Of course, we've seen Kate Bosworth (Lois Lane) in a few films (Blue Crush, Remember the Titans), the majority of the roles are played by lessor knowns so that you concentrate more on the plot itself and not so much "that girl from that movie". Enjoy the show!