Day at Gettysburg

I woke up pretty early this past Saturday, and didn't feel up to the usual set of chores and functions. Keeping all this in mind, I decided to venture up to a place I had kept thinking of visiting, but had really made little effort to see---Gettysburg.

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I have always wanted to visit the battlefields of the Civil War, and deicded on making the trip yesterday at the very last minute. I'm glad I did, especially since they added a new visitor's center, which had its own set of engrossing displays and little vignettes on each aspect of the war, and the battle itself. The stormy weather added an appropriate level of seriousness to the visit.

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The story of the entire battle is one mesmerizing drama, but for me, the most compelling story took place on the 3rd and final day of battle--Pickett's Charge. That's when CSA General Robert E. Lee made the fateful decision to charge the center of the Union lines, after failing to break through the right and left flanks the prior two days.

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Here is what it looked like from the Michigan 7th Infantry Regiment perspective, facing the onrushing Confederate invaders from the Virginia and North Carolina brigades, along Cemetery Ridge, just south of the High Water Mark.

Here's what it looked like from the Confederate side, if you belonged to one of the North Carolinian regiments. As you can see, the distance between the two forces could be covered in a slow walk in less than 20 minutes.

I happened upon a family--ironically from Michigan, visiting the spot where the Michigan 7th Infantry held its ground. The father was wearing a Michigan Wolverines Swetshirt, and since he was visiting the Michigan 7th Infantry monument---I gathered he had to have some kind of tie from Michigan. And I was correct. He really knew the story of the 7th Infantry's role in repelling the attack, which was fascinating in and of itself.

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Needless to say, I really can't do enough justice to what happened on this last day of battle, and countless historians and books have opined their after-action assessments ad nauseum. Even a few speculate about how the progress of the war would have changed if things had turned out differently on just this one moment. The largest and bloodiest military engagement ever to take place in North America is one that will undoubtedly amaze, intrigue, and awe.

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I hadn't planned on staying at the park for more than a few hours, but I wound up spending the entire day. I hope to return again in the summer--with a better understanding of the key locales, and perhaps a new bike to ride around the park in. I also want to cover the skirmishes that took place the first day along the northeast part of the battlefield in more detail the next time around.

Detroit to D.C., 2006 Version

Those of you who know my current job situation are probably aware that I just arrived into the D.C. area late Thursday night. But, there's more to the story. I flew into Detroit from LAX at 7:30am on Wednesday on the Tuesday night redeye, and my friend was there to pick me up at the airport. I dropped her off back at her apartment, then went to campus to buy a U of M decal for my car. I then went downtown to the Detroit RenCen to have lunch with my favorite GM coworkers at Detroit's Eastern Market, where I traded stories and rumors. Then I checked into my hotel at the Hilton Inn in centrally-located Southfield in the early afternoon. As strange as it sounds, I hard a hard time getting to sleep that afternoon, even though I only 'slept' for 2 hours on my flight. I caught up with my friend Herman for dinner at his son's favorite restaurant, where we celebrated his son's 7th b-day. There was a pretty intense thunderstorm later that evening in metro Detroit. The following morning, I got a call from Herman. His minivan of 5 years wouldn't start, and the battery was the likely culprit. I enjoyed helping Herman out. I think my timing was auspicious, as I was close enough to take him to get a new battery at the Sterling Heights AutoZone that very morning. After checking out of the hotel around noon, I found myself a bit behind schedule. I just arrived at my hotel in the outskirts of DC late last night. I barely squeaked in before they closed the front desk at 11pm, because it's one of those efficiencies that don't operate a front desk most of the time. I made it in 5 minutes before. The next day, I got up, and opened a new checking account. I planned on seeing some apartments in the Alexandria area, but I was so exhausted by the 9 hour drive, I wound up checking out one apartment on a lark in the Vienna area. The traffic in and around the D.C. area, on the side streets as well as the highways, are not the place to be for the faint-hearted on Friday afternoon. I got some groceries at a local Costco, and gassed up my car at $2.95/gallon. Saturday, I got up early to get a head start on the apartment-hunting process. I hopped onto Leesburg Pike Road, connecting Loudon County to Fairfax County. There was unusually heavy traffic that morning, even given D.C.'s notorious travel woes. It turned out that my path took me right in front of the chapel that was conducting the funeral service for Fairfax County police detective Vicky Armel, who was killed on May 8 by an 18-year old gunman armed with an assault rifle for no apparent reason. The turnout was impressive to say the least, and I had to admire how this loss was so closely felt by the community, and by the greater law enforcement and emergency services family. One of the most impressive gestures was done by a fire department, who brought in 2 large ladder trucks, parked side-by-side, with their ladders extended so that they met in the shape of an "A". In that "A", a large American flag was hanging, visible on both sides of VA-7. What a tribute. By the way, I found my apartment later that morning.

The 'Tapestry' that changed everything

I am a soft sci-fi buff, which means I'll watch all the 'light' sci-fi shows that are out there, especially the epic-level stuff backed by major studios: the Star Wars movies and games, Babylon 5, the various "Star Trek" incarnations, and Battlestar Galactica, original and re-imagined. As much as I find the technology and subject of space exploration fascinating, what I enjoy most about these shows is that they are blank canvasses for some tremendous epic-level storytelling and character development. One of the episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", (or TNG) really had a profound effect on me, 1993's 'Tapestry'. In this episode, Picard experiences his own death from a random terrorist attack, and is transported to the 'afterlife' by his archnemesis 'Q'. Q gives Picard a chance to relive a pivotal part of his own life in order to save himself from dying decades into the future. Picard does so, by playing it safe, and avoids being stabbed in the heart as a recent Starfleet Academy graduate. Instead of requiring an artificial heart, he gets to keep his original one. However, by 'playing it safe' in the events leading up to the confrontration that he manages to avoid, he changes his entire outlook, and Picard re-appears as a lowly blue-suited science officer on the Enterprise, rather than as the Captain. When I saw the Picard whose life had been 'saved', but living out his life as a less-ambitious lieutenant, rather than the Captain that we all know him to be, living a 'dreary' life, and handing reports from one superior to another without any hope of advancement, it was my wake-up call. When I first saw it, it blew me away. It was 1993, and I was working as a lowly insurance adjuster, living at home with the folks, and hanging out with many of the same people from high school. Right then and there, I knew I had to do something to change the trajectory my life was going in. It was from this episode that I found the motivation to get my ass into grad school, which led to my ability to leave L.A., and the west coast, and even the country, altogether. Without this to really highlight the fact that I had my choices ahead of me, I dread to imagine what my life would have turned out to be. Granted, I'm not the captain of a starship, or even a director or manager in any line of business or enterprise (no pun intended). I still have yet to prove myself on so many levels, and thus the verdict on my life is still out, but at least this episode can always serve to me as a reminder, no matter where I am that I still need to forge ahead.

Married Couples, the caring and feeding of

A while back, I had alluded to spending time with Jason and Michele, one of the many couples I know who have been married for less than 3 years or so. I was asked to perhaps comment on what I have noticed about the married couples I know. This is more relevant today, since I was the 'best man' at my friend Christian's wedding in late December out in beautiful Laguna Beach, California. Perhaps I might have some really unique insight into the behavioral patterns of married couples where I've known the groom for at least several years. After wracking my mind for some consistent theme, I realized that I couldn't quite come up with anything truly profound, analytical, or even funny. However, I can say that the movie view of married couples from the unmarried person's standpoint does seem flawed, in at least one aspect. For instance, in 3 of my more familiar movies (About A Boy, Bridget Jones' Diary, There's Something About Mary), the married couple smarmingly lectures to the unmarried protagonist about how great it is to be married, and urges the same protagonist to follow their fine example. I have yet to encounter such admonitions from the 'real' married couples I know. So, that time-worn script cliche doesn't bear out in real life. However, there is one key observation I've noticed about real-life married couples, particularly those who have been married fairly recently: The guy is noticeably more deferential to the gal in marriage then even when they were dating. Most of this is just a gut feeling, not based in any real pattern, so maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree (Woof!). Maybe guys become bigger wusses as they get older. If any of you out there disagree, or have some kind of explanation for this apparent phenomenon, you know how to reach me.

Tasteless customized vehicle of the week

This week's exercise in cutting-edge automotive taste is this '91-'94 era Nissan Sentra 2-door found on Walnut Grove Ave. in culturally-savvy Rosemead, California, in the very Mod-ish Bauhaus-eseque shade of flat primer (which is another annyoing phenomenon of late, rivaling the late-80s practice of painting the whole car white). Barely visible from this angle, but nonetheless prominent is a very classy and large "Nissan Sentra" proudly spelled out in Olde English script. The owner is rightfully proud of the fact that it's a Sentra, especially when he/she pulls up on Valley Boulevard among the more pedestrian Civic, Camry(ies), and Corollas of the world. I offer this up as proof that you don't need to spend a whole lotta $$$ to make your car look like a refugee from a Valley Boulevard parts bin.

"Sure, where do I sign, miss?"

No, really.

From the BBC:

Sex cues ruin men's decisiveness Images of women such as Kelly Brook can be distracting to men

Catching sight of a pretty woman really is enough to throw a man's decision-making skills into disarray, a study suggests.

Reminds me of a 'Friends' episode where Ross accompanies Chandler to get him to cancel his gym membership, but winds up getting his own membership with the help of a spandex-clad assistant named Maria.

Happy B-day Cheddar-lady!

What's not to like about this adorable and yet self-aware 106 year old? Gotta love her reaction to the cheesy and dairy industry folks who tried to 'crash' her place to do a little self-promotion, and her picture. Did you also get the name of her hometown? Cheddar, England. Get it? The thing that I really am jealous of is that she still has her hearing.

Tasteless customized vehicle of the week

In what should easily become a regular feature here (for being in the San Gabriel Valley provides no lack of poor examples of vehicle customization), I will show off some examples of the vehicles that probably shouldn't have their registrations renewed because of they emit excess visual pollution. Today's example is actually one from Ann Arbor, taken outside the local T.J. Maxx. It appears to be a 1990 or '91 Honda Accord EX Coupe that's been hit with the ugly stick. In this case, the owner has equipped with a very retro landau roof that would make the fine folks at Don Massey Cadillac blush.

What's in a name?

3.5 liters. That's the most popular engine displacement out there. Every major automaker has at least one engine in this size category, virtually all of them 6-cylinder engines. Who has it? GM: 3.5 L "High Value" OHV V6 (Chevrolet Malibu, Pontiac G6) Toyota: 3.5L DOHC V6 (Toyota Avalon, Lexus RX350) Honda: 3.5L SOHC V6 (Honda Pilot, Acura RL) Nissan: 3.5L DOHC V6 (Infiniti G35, Nissan Altima) Hyundai 3.5L DOHC V6 (Hyundai Santa Fe-2006) Chrysler 3.5L SOHC V6 (Chrysler Pacifica, Dodge Magnum SXT) Mercedes 3.5L V6 SOHC (Mercedes E350, Mercedes ML350) This is soon to be joined by Ford's new (and long-overdue) 3.5 L V6, which will find its way into some of its new midsize sedans and even some Mazdas. This invariably leads to a bit of a squeeze when coming up for names of vehicles equipped with such engines, especially if it's a luxury vehicle. Ford instance, you have the Nissan 350Z and of course the Mercedes E350. Until last year, Hyundai's large sedan was known as the XG350. Now Lexus joins the fray with the ES350, RX350 and IS350. Huh?

Another Three Intitials......PMP

Blogging admittedly has been light of late. I have been busy preparing for my Project Management Professional Certification Exam , or PMP, something that I've been occupied with for the greater part of the last 4 months. The good news, is that I passed today, on my first try, so I can turn my attention to other matters around the house, not the least of which is the relative mess that I've made in the past 4 weeks. With the PMP, I get to put one more set of initials after my name, for what good that'll do me. What is good about passing this exam is that I should have one less excuse for coming up with lame blog entries.

Another Fast Break winding down

Veteran readers of this blog (of which I can still count on one hand) know that I'm an old-timer when it comes to following professional basketball. Who can ever forget the excitement that came with every April, when the Lakers would faceoff against Sampson and Hakeem of Houston or Jack Sikma and Kiki Wandeweghe of Seattle, and the Celts would face off against Detroit and Philly. The final culmination of this would result in a titanic struggle between the Lakers and Celtics in a sweaty parquet-lined dungeon known as Boston Garden for TRUE hoops bragging rights. In those days, calling the winner of the NBA Finals 'World Champion' may have have been based on myth, but no one could ever doubt its veracity. I look fondly to the days when CBS still had the NBA broadcast rights, and ESPN was still showing Pac-10 basketball games at midnight eastern, and the closest to a box seat at a Laker game was sitting on top of the stairwheels in the colonnade at the Fabulous Forum. However, for several years now, the NBA playoffs have been long, tortuous and dreary conclusion of the Sports Year, which for me begins each September with the start of college football, building up around the holidays when the college hoops and college bowl games take place, and depending on how my Bruins are doing, crescendoing around March, when NCAA bids are announced. Now, the NBA playoffs are an interesting on certain levels, most of which have very little to do with which team advances to the next round. Instead of watching the league, I merely follow it, as a novice investor would 'follow' the stock market. There's a business aspect to the game that I find quite entertaining, and each season, I match wits with a hapless opponent in what is the closest analogy to stock-picking contests. ESPN.com has provided the venue the last 2 seasons via its very easy-to-understand (and free) Fast Break game. I must confess that my record on Fast Break hasn't been what I would have preferred, and it hasn't helped this week that my starting center is out for the season. Which is ironic, because much has been made about the recent hiring by the Houston Rockets of a stats guru with little basketball knowledge (no, they didn't hire Mitch Kupchak), who is expected to take over general manager duties for 2007-2008. I admit that merely following the game has resulted in some very questionable decisions in my roster selections, but the increasingly business-stats-focused aspect of the game is an interesting turn of events, because evaluating talent has become increasingly complicated with the global nature of basketball. Even a guy like Jerry West can't figure out from 100 minutes of tape of a promising player in the European leagues would translates into a mid-or-late first rounder. The increasing reliance on statistical data to faciliate decision making, be it in player acquisition, or determining your starting lineup night after night reflects what's happening in the business world, which has really turned heavily into data mining to guide decisionmaking. So, when I lament the passing of those days when shorts really were shorts, and trade rumors only took place hours before the actual moves, not months, I'm not lamenting the increasingly commercial nature of the sport. That's to be expected. But leading a team to a division or league title shouldn't be based on outcome of the analysis of B-school number jockeys, especially because NBA playoff series generally are 'best-of-seven.'

Saturn Outlook revealed in NYC

Here are the first official photos of the upcoming Saturn Outlook mid-large SUV. Roughly the size of a Chrysler Pacifica, the Saturn Outlook made its debut at the NY Auto Show today. I'm really excited about this vehicle, because this vehicle sets new standards (at least for GM) for interior, drivetrain, and chassis refinement. It also looks a heckuva lot nicer than most of the vehicles in its class, including the Ford Freestyle and Toyota Highlander (which is arguably the blandest looking SUV out there). Based on the unibody Lambda platform, it comes with a 265hp 3.6L V6. and an all-new 6-speed automatic transmission. It offers true 3-row seating, and pretty decent towing and off-road capability, especially considering its car-based roots. The Outlook is expected to go on sale later this year as a 2007 model. Its main competition includes the upcoming 2007 Acura MDX, which is also expected to be unveiled in NY this week, although if this artist's rendering is any indication of what to expect, I won't need to worry about getting enough ZZZZZs before my Project Management Exam this Friday.

West Coast Dirge

Those of you who are familiar with my current situation know that I have relocated to California as of 3 weeks ago, "awaiting further instructions." At the behest of my friend Jason, I have decided to resume my journal activities. Calling it 'blogging' would make it sound too dignified, as if it had some kind of journalistic quality to it. We all know better than that. A lot has happened over the past month or so. I sold my house in Michigan, unloaded at least 70% of my belongings via the Salvation Army and a pretty interesting garage sale. I bid/bade/boded(?) farewell to homeownership and Ann Arbor, and hopped aboard a Northwest Airlines jet back to LAX. Since getting back to Southern California, where I am staying with my parents (hopefully for not much longer), I have seen some pretty momentous things, not the least of which is UCLA's incredible run through the 2006 NCAA Tourney. It was truly a tournament run that exceeded all expectations. "UNBELIEVABLE" The defining moment of the 6 games played was the March 23 UCLA-Gonzaga game, where UCLA miraculously rallied from 17 points down to defeat a very talented Gonzaga team. The Gonzaga Bulldogs were led by All-American Adam Morrison, who will forever be remembered for crying uncontrollably with 22 seconds remaining in the game. I wonder if that episode cost Morrison votes in the Wooden and Naismith Awards for Player of the Year, which were awarded this past week. The best memory I will take from the game was of UCLA guard Arron Afflalo coming over to Morrison to help him up from the floor of Oakland Arena after time had expired. To me, that epitomizes class and sportsmanship, which is a heckuva a lot more than I can say about the way the Florida team handled 'winning.' Since last week's National Championship game, I have been maintaining a very low and humble profile. Yesterday, I joined Jason and his lovely wife Michele for dinner at Johnny Carino's an upstart Italian franchise that had a new store in Simi Valley, not far from the Reagan Library. As usual, it was fun watching a married couple interact. After dinner, I was able to catch this very eloquent sunset, although my camera phone doesn't quite do it justice.

Landscaping the homestead

One of the reasons why I have taken refuge from regular blogging has been the my efforts to spruce up my front lawn. When I first moved into my subdivision, I was too busy being concerned about holding onto my job at the time, so I took the approach of trying to comply with the landscaping requirements in my neighborhood using the minimal amount of effort and money. I was required to plant some evergreens in the front yard, and did so, to a varying degree of success. 2 of the larger evergreens died over winter, and I had to replace them earlier in the spring. After having my house on the market for a few months, I realized that improving the curb appeal was important, so I decided to introduce landscaping rocks and a border to it. As it turned out, it was not a very attractive move. Here is how it looked in May, with the landscaping rocks: When the dog days of August arrived, and after I took my house off the market for a variety of personal reasons, I decided a clean-sheet approach was needed. I had already a backlog of plants sitting in my yard, waiting to be planted, but there was no obvious place for them. A couple of trees, including a poodle evergreen you see in both images, were dying. So, I quickly hustled over to the hardware store and returned the trees, and got new ones. I also decided to re-do the edging on the yard, and found this amazing easy-to-use edging that did not require too much effort or digging. I was successfully able to lay out the edging according to the image in my mind early last week. With some advice and input from some friends, I spent the next 7 days tweaking the yard, and the edging. Among the many things I did was to get some mums to brighten up the landscape, experimenting with 3 kinds of mulch, locating and carrying home some decent landscape rocks from a nearby place, and moving around some existing trees (some of which have been standing around since last year--unplanted)to come up with this: In less than 2 weeks' time, I have successfully transformed a pretty mediocre attempt to be 'cute' with riverbed pebbles and indifferent edging, to just going all out on making the yard look as if someone had put some thought and planning into it. Now, I feel pretty good about getting this house on sale, when the time comes for me to move, which should be sooner than you'd think. Tell me what you think of the effort.

Fast Forward to September

Okay, so it's been another 6 weeks since I've last posted. Me bad. It's been more than 2 weeks since being exiled, and although each day gets better, they're not always perfect. I was hitting the doldrums in the mid afternoon, and didn't feel much like sending out more job applications, or cleaning up my place. I decided to head into town, and into campus. The Michigan football season opener was just letting out, so there were tons of people making it downtown. I hit the Borders first, just to acquaint myself with some books again, but to also people-watch. For what it's worth, Borders was originally a small bookstore based in Ann Arbor. I got a really good book that I had only heard people talk about, and took it over to Starbucks, and ordered myself a delicious Green Tea Iced Mocha. Dang, it was good. Starbucks was kind of dead, so I got back into my car and drove over to Whole Foods. I figured there might be opportunities to people-watch there. I used the opportunity to ask the female clerks informative to ridiculous questions, from how does the food keep, to their sale on Samuel Adams. If I had more time in the checkout lane, I'm sure I would have gotten a phone number, but Saturday nights are pretty busy down there. I plan to make it a habit every other night to flirt there. I even got myself this really wacky Odwalla drink blend that tasted nasty, but was supposedly really good for you. So, you could say I tried a few new things. Afterwards, I drove back to the vicinity of campus, looked around the bookstore before it closed, and then went to the local dive, and danced for about 25 minutes, and left. I probably would have been more self-conscious a year ago, or looked at going dancing as some means to an end. Now I see dancing as THE end virtue. It felt good, and I didn't care how it looked. So, I got back, ducked into my house, and felt better about my day. Lesson: Next time I feel bad, or lose my motivation, I'll go into town and dance. Screw the gas prices. So, to sum it all up, this week I've: 1. Tried a new flavor at Starbucks 2. Tried drinking a bottle of Odwalla that wasn't just apple or orange flavored. 3. Tried Speed-Dating 4. Talked to my neighbor across the street from me for the 1st time. 5. Invited a large number of people over to my house, including people I used to be intimidated by at work (e.g., my boss). Anyways, after all of this week's events, and what comes before us, I am truly grateful for the things I have. I know it sounds like a cliche, but I vow to never again bitch about a hot day or a bitter cold winter morning.

Sorry for the absence

I realized that I haven't posted here in over 2 months. I decided that this was a good time to resume my work here. For some reason, having all this time to myself made it harder for me to do things I thought would come naturally. I have a lot to catch up on, and to bring up to speed. A lot has happened since I took a breather. For one thing, I took my house off the market in late June, because the one measly offer I got wasn't compelling enough for me to get packing. Between March and June, so much in my life had changed, that all the assumptions and plans I made before leaving GM were no longer relevant. I also started a new relationship, did some job hunting, helped my brother move, and much more. So, blogging took a bit of a backseat to other things. Hopefully, I'll get back into my groove again, and perhaps make this page worthwhile reading again.

A chip in the Teflon

We all know how the pundits are in awe of hybrids right now, and how dealers just can't keep enough of them in stock. Thankfully, I saw this post on my regular hunting ground for auto industry-related discussion at GM InsideNews.com. It made me feel a little better that a columnist in a national publication is calling Toyota on its hypocrisy. Granted, it isn't the New York Times, but it's a good start. The columnist, Kevin Wilson points out that Toyota's nicely-honed 'green' image isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Some of us thought that—hybrids aside—Toyota was busily selling mega-SUVs like the aptly named giant Sequoia and aptly nicknamed Land Crusher, not to mention designing ever-more bloated Lexi for fat cats. Fine cars, but not saviors of the earth—at least not until Toyota makes good on its pledge to hybridize everything it makes.

Along with Toyota's efforts to promote its visage as an environmental stalwart, Toyota is also spending more than a boatload of Scions worth of money to promote itself as an "American" company, talking about how many people it employs in its U.S. factories, and how many people who sell and service their cars. First off, I think anyone who buys into the "sells and services" numbers are as dumb as dumb gets, since the demand of cars will dictate that there will be a given amount of people buying cars, and thusly, a given number of would be selling them, regardless of brand. It wouldn't affect how many people are employed if they're selling a Ford or a Lexus. More importantly, Honda and Toyota could employs as many, or even more people in the U.S., than GM or Ford, and they'll never be an American company. Why? Because all of their senior management are Japanese, and their shareholders/stakeholders/keiretsu-mates are all Japanese. GM's shareholder base is all American, and any company with large international operations will still operate according to the norms and values of the country where it has the most shareholders. For instance, when U.S. public opinion sided against apartheid in the mid-1980s, and divestment became a popular activist issue, GM listened to its shareholders, and withdrew from South Africa via shareholder resolution. None of the Japanese companies even batted an eye, and they instead continued to invest and operate under the white-ruled regime. That's the real difference between an American company and a Japanese one. Most Japanese don't own shares the way Americans do, and they usually don't raise a fuss and stink about certain 'politically-tinged' issues. And I'm sure Toyota's shareholders don't care if they did continue to support the apartheid regime. Also, if you want to measure a company's real allegiances, look at who they tap to run central office. Toyota's top officers are all male, and Japanese. GM and Ford, on the other hand, has plenty of foreign-born top executives. And you can't tell me that in over 18 years of building cars here in the U.S., that Toyota can't find one of their American managers to be part of their inner circle. It's about time someone called them on the spot about this.

R-r-rrun-run-run-run runaway.....

With apologies to the late Del Shannon, I had to chime in on this 'runaway bride' story which has usurped the media's attention this past weekend, along with Jeff Gordon taking Talladega with restrictor plates in place. Heck, even wire services like China's Xinhua are picking up on it and 'running' with it. So, the poor lady didn't want to go through with the pressure of a 600 person wedding, decides to make a break for it, goes Greyhound to Texas, and makes a false kidnapping claim. The poor groom, who is now fodder for every comedian in this country who have run out of material since the trial that made the Berkeley Marina a version of Rockingham North ended, has to put on a brave face and continue to profess his love for the most disliked woman in America who's not in politics on national TV interviews. He has to. I'm sure, being from the South, his sense of honor dictates even if your betrothed goes out there and makes you (the Groom) the biggest dupe since Neville Chamberlain, you still have to stand up for her. I think he's already moved on from an emotional standpoint. Ya think he's going to spend time and effort going through with the wedding sometime down the road, as it was planned, with 600 guests and stuff? If he went through with the wedding ceremony, and accepted it as a mere postponement, albeit a very messy one, I think a more appropriate venue for it would be, say, the Georgia Dome, what with all the media vultures who will want to cover it. I don't think anyone who was on their original guest list will want to miss it, that's for sure. I'm sure someone has already put their original invites on EBay. Okay, no one wants to be the spoiler for a big ceremony, but I always thought it was the women who wanted to undertake such large, complicated, and ridiculously expensive and overwrought affairs. Maybe it was the parents, maybe it was the friends, or maybe it was some kind of childhood fantasy of hers, but I bet your next fill-up that the Groom didn't push for one. He just went along to make his bride happy. Guys don't want such large weddings. They just want to get the ceremony over with, bypass the reception, and fly out to Tahiti with their new wife. I mean, imagine the pressure. And yet we don't have movies called "The Runaway Groom." For good reason. Because any abandonment the guy will do usually comes after the first skipped rent payment and a drive out to get cigarettes, or whatever people do these days. I feel for the guy. He is the ultimate portrait of a schmuck who did everything to win the heart of his girl, and was rewarded so.

Saturday Afternoon Movie

I've had my house on the market for 7 weeks now. I've had no showings today, though, a Saturday. I guess the prospect of rain has put some people off on home shopping. I borrowed some DVDs from the local library earlier this week. I got around to seeing one of them, About a Boy. I was pleasantly surprised by it. Our protagonist, Will, played by uber-letch Hugh Grant, is a spoiled, jobless bachelor who spends his days watching TV game shows, who gets himself into more than he bargained for when he invents an imaginary son in order to meet single moms. It's a much deeper movie than the casting of Mr. Grant would suggest, and he actually plays a likeable, sympathetic person. That takes a lot of effort and imagination from the writer and director. It's basically a movie about telling the truth, or the silliness that erupts from not playing straight with the facts.

The Ripoff

The Geely Chengbao, a show car on display right now at the 2005 Shanghai Auto Show. Geely is a private Chinese company, with aspirations of becoming a legitimate vehicle producer in its own right. But this is not how you make it to greatness. I see a little of Audi TT, a smidgen of Saturn Curve, and a whole lotta....(continued).