I tend to write two or three blog entries in my head throughout the day. This shocking admission follows after my thoughts about human nature and individual perception as I was driving back from taking my mother-in-law Brenda and sister-in-law Sarah and Katie to campus and miscellaneous shopping experiences. I observe and catalogue, not unlike a curious 19th century gentleman, which is to say, I have no training but a lot of gumption, all manner of behavior and self-evaluate. This process makes me a better person and I like it. Anyway, I think about blog entries and have grand ideas, about three a day, if I am to be believed, but I tend to clasp these ideas close to myself and hesitate to share them. This is my pattern and I’m not entirely sure that’s a bad thing. The point is that just because you don’t read it here doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about it.

I have become fairly adept at researching companies’ cash flows and dividends. In other words, I have taken to looking at stocks and the ensuing consequences. I find it fun to peruse a company’s holdings in cash and equity vs. their outstanding debt and number of stock shares. Since I opened a Datek account several years ago, I never REALLY looked at what I was doing. I was told that I needed an IRA, so I got one. Recently, since Datek was taken over by
Ameritrade, I took “stock” of my IRA and started seriously looking at investment. I was a peripheral member at the Motley Fool since 1998, but I found that they have some interesting articles that get the thought process going about different ways to fund a retirement or make short term stock picks or save for a trip in the far-flung future. Whatever the impetus, that has been a resource for me. I am also a subscriber to the Wall Street Journal Online and that has some serious research tools available for members. Ameritrade’s own website also has detailed information waiting to be delved and I have gladly partook of their offerings. The Ameritrade access is free and so is the Fool. WSJ costs me $6/month, better than a movie, and much more informative. The amount of information is staggering when I start counting the articles about Pepsi vs. Coke or Google vs. Microsoft. (Note: I can afford 10 shares of both Pepsi or Coke, but not Google. There is no call to own Microsoft stock. Ever.)

So, I thought that the movie would have more people watching it at 17:20 on a Sunday evening, but I was wrong. The theatre wasn’t huge and some seats were filled, but not the comfortable packed feeling of a good movie that everyone wanted to see. This should have tipped me off to what would happen, but I routinely ignore popular opinion anyway so no harm done. I settle into my seat to watch one of my fondly remembered books come to life on the screen and I was…disappointed. The book isn’t structured like a movie, so there needs to be some poetic license, I understand that. Looking at it from a plot standpoint, it was fine. It had the major stuff and got the sacrificial part right, but Susan’s transformation is unbelievable. She was the bastion of logic and the true sceptic, in my opinion. All of a sudden, when Father Christmas hands her the bow and arrows, she’s ok with everything, ignoring her protests of just several minutes earlier that they need to leave the wardrobe world behind immediately. I also didn’t believe Lucy’s perfomance, for the most part. Lucy is the pivotal character and is the rock of belief in Narnia. Her looks and attitude should be without reproof as she tells you that Narnia will fall without your help. I’ll blame the director for that, because she’s a child actor. I walked out of the theatre and thought, the entire movie was really an excuse to have an epic battle of mostly CG characters. The missing piece is a concise explanation of Narnian ethics. As you read the book, you have a sense of that “Deep Magic” that is sprung on us before the battle. This connects to the ethics of everyone in Narnia. This is how Tumnus can betray, repent and be redeemed through suffering. The same with Edmund, though it is hollow in the movie. I don’t get a sense of the children’s true conviction of Narnia’s black and white ethics. Nor do I see a true journey of adversity and pain for any of the characters except Edmund, who really doesn’t have a choice. Now, the queen rocked. I thought she was a real character straight from the book. In all, I don’t want to see it again and I’m not sure I want to see the rest of the series.

Firefox 1.5 for Mac is now my browser of choice. My problem with it has been cleared up, namely, it crashes when you search the bookmarks. My problems with OmniWeb still exist. There are inexplicable crashes and it is ass-slow, even with Georgia my Dual G5 2.5Ghz. I cannot adhere to a program that will not offer performance, even if I admire the company and their ethics. I am dallying with Opera 8.5 just because I can. I love the idea that everything in the window is changeable and it seems to play better with sites “optimized” for IE only, like corporate websites. I’ve forgotten about Safari for the most part and I’m sleeping well with that decision. Anyway, back to Firefox. I loved the idea that all the bookmarks can be a sidebar and the search field was an added bonus. I can finally use it the way I want to and Firefox is still faster than anything I have worked with before, so there is little to cry about at this stage. The password security is top-notch and I like the drag option for tabs. I still like the OmniWeb GUI better and would pay to see a browser with it and Firefox’s speed. Oh well. I’m satisfied for now.

I happened upon liveplasma through a Cnet.com article that featured an interactive hypertext of the story related to similar subjects by company, topic, and other Cnet stories. It was a really creative way, I thought, to connect the story into the larger picture and promote Cnet at the same time. I had a good time clicking other stories on Cnet and getting a greater understanding of where the first story came from and where it was going. The point is not that the story was phenomenal, but the interaction ABOUT the story was, at the very least, inspirational. I would like to see this capability built into a RSS aggregator so I can click on unrelated feeds and expand my interests while also seeing the larger picture. The trick is to filter out all the added noise until you want it. A simple connection made complex using more information, this could be my entire Saturday morning reading and with fun colors and movement.

In other news, Katie and I are huddled together to conserve warmth this week. Just before the cold snap on Friday, we had a bout of rain. If you do some deductive thinking it will bring you to our current icy situation around here and I’m wishing for those illegal studded tires in the basement.

In other other news, my hosting company, HostSave, has changed their name to Gate.com. This means that their primary color has changed from orange to green and the secondary from white to grey. I think they saw my new blog color scheme and yes, I was first.

Today is Katie and my anniversary. Congratulate us. Do it. Do it now.

I’m taking Katie to a winter fair downtown-ish. Hopefully it won’t be a dud. After that, she needs to go to class while I go to the half-price bookshop on Lane. After that, we will go to dinner at Thai Orchid and sleep the blissful sleep of ones who have survived a full year of marriage.