Vocabulary Quondam

quondam \KWAHN-duhm; KWAHN-dam\, adjective:Having been formerly; former; sometime.
A quondam flower child, she spent seven years at the Royal College of Art, before becoming a lecturer at Edinburgh School of Art. --"Interview: Cool, calm collector," Independent, December 13, 1997
For the unregenerate "peasant" . . . had gone there with the successful glass distributor, shrewd investor, versatile talker, and quondam bon vivant whose motto was "The best is good enough for me." --Ted Solotaroff, Truth Comes in Blows: A Memoir
There was an exception to this in the form of Mrs Edna Parsons, a formidable Englishwoman who had once been the Prince's nanny and now served as proctor, supervising his behaviour. She was about fifty and true to her quondam profession, she could be quite strict. --David Freeman, One of Us

Raytheon Chet Williams Applying for his job

January 12: Found out that Chet's list of 180 applicants for his job did NOT include me
January 13: Chet IM's that I am now on the list; interview in early February

Raytheon All Hands Meeting January 11, 2006

Only real news

• We are moving to Garland but when depends upon how badly North Bldg wants to get rid of us. Last half of the year?
• Neither confirm or deny change in benefits now that we are RTSC
• Not likely but possible RTSC will disband us and absorb/ let go RPS people
• Dave has made an offer to an outsider to manage development processes worldwide (Cyndi Barba believes that this is proof that Dave Krasny is not doing his job.)

Film Movie Brokeback Mountain

Mark and I went to the Magnolia for the 11:00 am show on Sunday. I was prepared to be disappointed, knowing that very things ever live up to the hype of film critics exhausted by hours of watching junk.

I was very, VERY wrong. It is 24 hours later and I am still haunted by it. Both Mark and I choked up on the last frame (how rare is it that the emotional power of a performance lasts to the very end after the resolution of the story) when Ennis agrees to attend his daughter's wedding and folds up her sweater to put beside his shirt that he had retrieved from Jack's room at Jack's boyhood ranch home.

Heath Ledger's performance as Ennis is the stuff of legend. For once, it matters to me that he win the Academy Award although I suspect he will lose to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Capote for deftly impersonating Truman Capote.

Having just watched Phantom and Charlie, Ang Lee's direction is a revelation. Everything is done in the service of the story and the actors. Essentially, he removes anything that might distract from what the actor's are doing. With his screenwriters, he makes sure that nothing jars, everything is inevitable. For example, there is a flashback to Brokeback that we had not seen where Ennis is happy and at peace with Jack, smiling at him and telling him that he will be back for dinner before he mounts his horse and Jack watches as he rides away. The connection is Jack watching as Ennis drives away after they have met again on Brokeback in their 30's. Introducing this flashback makes the interjected footage of Jack being killed seem just like part of a seam.

I can't praise this movie too much. I pray that it bears repeated viewings.

Movie Film Charlie and The Chocolate Factory

Watched on DVD after suffering through Phantom. Here the excess is in service to the material and the excess nicely adds dimensions to the story the way that an author's description would. It is controlled, measured, and utilized only when needed. Besides, Tim Burton creates an complete alternative universe - color, design, people, costumes, language, sound - and then allows his actors to tell the story without much interference from him.

Movie Film Theatre Phantom of the Opera

Watched the last hour on HBO. It is just dreadful. Joel Schumacher is a self-indulgent show-off who doesn't trust his actors, the music , the material to tell the story. Through all that busy camera work, he whips every scene into a frenetic, incoherent, hyperbolic mess. As though Lloyd-Webber doesn't already do exactly the same thing with his lushed and larded music. He consistently undercuts physical beauty of Gerard Butler (Phantom) and Emily Rossum (Christine) forcing us to listen to the voices, which are, respectively, bad and thinly lovely. And is Minnie Driver meant to be comical or serious? She veers between both poles, crashing into both without much finesse. It is unwatchable. Compare Phantom with Alan Parker's version of Evita. Admittedly, Evita's book is more interesting than Phantom (I think), but the movie is crafted by someone who knows what to do with his material and his actors.

SETDP Session 6 Dry Run Called Sheraton National to get 139.00 room rate

After Larri's e-mail today, called to get the negotiated room rate. Confirmation number stays same.

Margo Vet Meds Ordered Enalapril for Margo

Will pick up on Saturday

SAS SETDP Business Overview Session 1 Waves 8 and 9 January 2006

Need to fix LG and IG for Module 8 where I inserted new organization chart slide

SETDP SAS Session 1 Corporate Overview Learner Guide and Presentation

Presenation is marked Company Most Private

Thumbnails in LG have footer showing Raytheon Proprietary
Pages in LG are marked Competition Sensitive

Need to fix PPT with Raytheon Proprietary
Get Mary/ Tracy to fix LG. It will be wrong for Waves 8 and 9 in January 2006

Need to fix LG and IG for Module 8 where I inserted new organization chart slide

Daily Notes

However, searching does not search comments to the posts, I don't think. SO, just add new posts throughout day or edit existing posts.

Daily Notes

• Started Yahoo 360 blog as alternative to paper calendar and notes. Will leave this open all day to track what I do and commentary. However, if it is not searchable, then I quit....
• Yahoo not searchable: is Blogger?
• Order dog calendars for MAD - ORDERED from MegaCalendar.com. Required a 7-digit password; used earthlink. Charged to Chase debit card - 20.00