Heroes is back on its game

I just watched the best episode of the season so far of Heroes. (Online no less--had a meeting Monday night.) Finally, it is back on its game. We had all the things that make Heroes cool to watch. The Sci-Fi, the secrets, the children, the parents--everything! And I guess just two episodes until this chapter finishes up and we're left to wait for the end of the strike--argh! (If anyone needed proof how important the writers are, this is the episode to watch!)

fallen haiku

fallen autumn leaves
green to yellow, orange, red
glory in resting

Recycle, Reuse

A while back I mentioned an IKEA bed frame that we bought last year. Never again! We got a new box springs and mattress for the bed and found that the design of the bed frame allowed the box springs to slip through the frame and get unevenly wedged! So we finally went out and got a new metal bed frame which is great.

The question became what to do with the old bed frame. We felt we couldn't give it away--it was defective. As I was hauling it out Wendy looked at the head board and said "That's a really nice piece of wood. Pity you couldn't use it as a desk."

The light bulb appeared above my head!

IKEA does sell nice table legs. I went and bought a bunch of them. Turned that into my new desk in my study. The foot board turned out to be a very nice elevated shelf for the the back of the desk. So now I don't feel quite as bad about the purchase of the bed frame. But still--I don't think I'll be buying anything like that from IKEA anytime soon.

Another haiku from Wendy

Morning Haiku II:

I want a donut
and a steaming cup of joe
Dunkable goodness

(c) 2007, Wendy J. Gennaula, all rights reserved

A haiku from Wendy

Morning Haiku:

Dad makes the coffe
According to the Bible
The book says He-brews

(c) Wendy J. Gennaula, all rights reserved.

A haiku from Thomas

Endless Possibilities, a haiku:


Possibilities
Good or bad they are endless
Use them all your life

(c) 2007, Thomas N. Gennaula, all rights reserved

In honor of Halloween

I've decided to change the colors on our blog in honor of Halloween and autumn. My latest craze has been del.icio.us. To quote from their about page:

del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website -- the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too. On del.icio.us, you can use tags to organize and remember your bookmarks, which is a much more flexible system than folders.

They have a feature where you can display your favorite tags on your blog or webpage--hence the new item on our blog. Follow one of those links to see the things I've marked on the web.

Tell the MPAA

Tommy, the wise (my son) has pointed out that a Pinky and the Brain Movie should be rated NC-17.

Why? for animal nudity of course.

(Oh dear! What is this world coming to?)

The history of computer languages

For my fellow geeks:

http://www.levenez.com/lang/history.html

God bless St. Nick

Here's a link to Nick Coleman's piece on the Bishop Tutu dust up at St. Thomas. It is a pity that Ann Coulter got to speak there without a prior question, but Bishop Tutu gets uninvited and then re-invited.

My childhood memories of being Catholic involve "throw[ing] open the windows of the Church" to paraphrase Pope John XXIII. Unfortunately the zeitgeist now seems to be one of a bunker mentality where the question is "are you Catholic enough to be in the bunker." Throwing open to the windows did not mean welcoming someone who speaks hate as well as Ann Coulter. I hope the re-invitation perhaps reflects a willingness to open the bunker doors and see what is around. (Something that St. Nick points out has a tradition at the University of St. Thomas.)

There goes the neighborhood.

The grown-ups are moving in folks. It's in the NY Times, so it must be true.

Read the article.

Connecting across the world-wide-web

Today is just one of those days you step back and go "this is cool". I've downloaded a mp3 of a group in NYC that conducted by grad school classmate that conducted my final piece for my masters. I did an IM with another friend I went to college with who lives in Ann Arbor, MI. And then I connected with someone I knew from my hometown when he joined facebook.

People talk about how the Internet can create distance. I think that is too simplistic a statement. In my case it's helping me reconnect.

I think we're going to need a ladder

Last year we bought a new bed from IKEA. The bed frame is great, but the mattress died after one year. (It was cheap, you get what you pay for.)

But now we have the "bowling ball" mattress. (You drop a bowling ball on one side and a glass of water won't spill on the other side.) But, is it high! We need a ladder to get in. (Or a springboard.)

The Feast of Saint Bruce and the Liturgy of the Gin and Tonic

Bruce would laugh if he knew I referred to him as "Saint Bruce". Bruce was a friend of mine who died of cancer on September 12th, 2001.

He had a great sense of humor and he had married another good friend of mine. I had made so many jokes about them as a couple (he was like 10 years older than her) that I had to promise (at their wedding) that I would "support this marriage".

Bruce died very early on 9/12. He and many of his friends had all worked at the same company (including my manager). We all hopped in cars and drove over to his house to be with his wife. Bruce's favorite drink was gin and tonic. Sometime in the afternoon we made a big pitcher of G&T's and all had one last toast to Bruce.

And that is what I'm intending to do today. I'm filing this under "Life is good" because I am very thankful that I knew Bruce.

9/11/2007

Last night I was trying to remember what 9/11/01 was like. I have such scattered memories from that day. I remember walking in the St. Paul skyway from the YMCA to my office and seeing a crowd of people gather in-front of TVs that were mounted in a bank lobby. I slowed down and saw the first pictures of the hole in one of the towers.

I remember getting back to my desk and trying to call home. It seems to me that the phone lines where starting to go crazy and I couldn't get through at first. When I did get a hold of Wendy she told me she was seeing it on TV. I think while we were talking we heard of the second tower getting hit.

Somewhere in all this my manager, Diane, came by to tell me to go the hospital because Bruce was saying "goodbye." Since about January of 2001 my friend Bruce had been fighting lung cancer. He never smoked. For me 9/11 is a tangle of thoughts about loss both national and personal.

That day Bruce said goodbye to many of his friends and his daughter. He was moved from the hospital to some 30 miles away in the country so that he could die at home. I'm pretty sure Bruce was unaware of what had happened that morning. All his friends talked about the events out in the waiting room at the hospital and at his home before the ambulance got there with him.

There was a brief moment at Bruce's home when I was alone with him in the ambulance while things were being prepared for him in the house. I remember I was at such an utter loss for words. Bruce was fighting so hard just to have enough energy to survive the move into the house. I've always wished I could have said something, anything in that moment. I feel like I let him down by being so quiet.

I remember driving home from Bruce's and being aware that I was driving under a sky without jets. Our house is near the airport so the sounds of planes is just background noise to me. On that day it was quiet, and sunny, and blue skied, and so unlike the smoke that rose over New York. So unlike the pain Bruce was in.

Tolkien quote

"Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
of things not found within recorded time."

from Mythopoeia by J. R. R. Tolkien

And the french word for today is "avis"

And today's word is "avis" (ah-vee), meaning "opinion."

A while back I found the website A French Word a Day. Back in 1994 Wendy and I visited France. Rather than finding the French rude we found them quite helpful if you made the attempt to speak the language. (Having said this I should point out that Wendy is from New York state and I lived there for 8 years.)

Although language was always my weakest subject in school, I had such fun trying to learn a bit of French while we were there. Someday perhaps I'll take a class in it here in town.

So this is "mon avis" for the day. (Hopefully that wasn't a major "faux pas")

A scene from "The House of Gennaula"

(At rise: Father enters dining room. Mother and son, Tommy, is seated at the dining room table. Tommy is playing his Gameboy DS and apparently not listening to the conversation. General small talk between Father and Mother until...)

Mother: ... and Tommy has been a very good boy.

Tommy: (Without looking up from his Gameboy DS) That's what SHE thinks.

(end of scene)

Walk on the Stone Arch Bridge

Wendy and I took a walk tonight on the Stone Arch Bridge. You can still see the wreckage of the 35W bridge. We stopped several times just to stare at it. Normally you could have heard the sound of the traffic from where we were.

But tonight you could just hear the water. The part of the channel that leads up to the lock and dams just above the Stone Arch Bridge was very green and foul smelling. They haven't been opening those locks so the water is very stagnant.

As we were looking for a place to park we actually got pretty close to what is left of the bridge on the north side. It is right next to a childcare center. Since it happened just after six we hope that most of the children were gone and didn't see anything. We think one of the girls that was in Tommy's class last year was on the bus that was on the bridge when it fell. Hope she's OK. We don't think she got hurt, but it must have been so scary.

Happy Sunday

We're having our week-before-labor-day Sunday steaks today. The weather is so great we're not even taking a chance that it will rain next weekend. Time to put those nice T-bones on the grill. Baked potatoes too. I'm marinating tomatoes right now as well to serve.

There is something so simple and elemental about a good steak dinner. We have no plans really for today.

Dolce vita!

Summer is almost over...

I hate August. I hate muggy weather. I'm ready for Fall to begin.

And September will soon be here!

bumper sticker

Saw this bumper sticker today while driving:

Frodo Failed. Bush has the ring.

Tonight we don't Fringe

Well the plan was to Fringe tonight--but both Wendy and I are dead beat! OY!!!

We've seen some really great theater. We also saw one show that was pretty bad. But in the interest of not creating "bad karma" I've decided that if I really don't like a show this year, I'm just going to not blog about it.

Wendy has about 4 reviews that she wants to get done tonight. I still have shows I want to write about. If les enfants cooperate, we might be able to do that.

Toys of my childhood

A KIM-1:

I’m pretty sure I programmed one of these at California State College (before it was a University) back in the late 70’s to play “Mary had a little lamb” (or something like that).

A PET:

I SO wanted one of these things!

Things that make me cringe...

I knew someone would say it!

St. Nick at it again... the agony of Molnau

Watched part of the news conference w/ Carol Molnau, Palwenty’s Lt. Governor and head of MN-DoT. She was very defensive about the questions dealing with whether cost was a factor in not doing the reinforcement work that was proposed for the 35W Bridge. She also got very defensive when the suggestion was made that the gas taxes should be raise to fund the new bridge.

So defensive…

She doth protest so much..

This morning Nick Coleman has a article about her.

Gee, I wonder if it was such a great idea to combine the offices of Lt. Governor and the head of MN-DoT in the first place?

Truth or Politics?

“For half a dozen years, the motto of state government and particularly that of Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been No New Taxes. It's been popular with a lot of voters and it has mostly prevailed. So much so that Pawlenty vetoed a 5-cent gas tax increase - the first in 20 years - last spring and millions were lost that might have gone to road repair. And yes, [the bridge] would have fallen even if the gas tax had gone through, because we are years behind a dangerous curve when it comes to the replacement of infrastructure that everyone but wingnuts in coonskin caps agree is one of the basic duties of government.”

--Nick Coleman

Nick Coleman is taking a lot of flack about this article. My unfortunately response is “the truth hurts.”

The slogan has been “No New Taxes.” I’ve lived permanently in MN since 1992. Actually, I first came up here in 1985. Up until Pawlenty I felt my tax dollars were being put to good use. (As someone born in Pennsylvania and who attended college in New York, this is high praise not given lightly.) When we found that our boys had autism we also found the state sponsored services that helped them and us. Then the services began to be cut. The taxes (or the doublespeak “fees”) went up.

Am I politicizing this tragedy? Is it politics to point out the mindset (that Progressives have been foretelling, like Cassandra) will lead to tragedy?

Our society is like a bridge. A bridge stands through the balance of forces thrust upon it. If a link in the bridge fails, it can fall. It is not enough if a section stands while the rest of the bridge falls.

“We need a new slogan and we needed it yesterday:

‘No More Collapses.’”

--Nick Coleman.

Learning about tragedy

An interesting analysis from the Star Tribune. Did Bush learn from Hurricane Katrina?

Bridge Down

I thought I’d be posting about the first night of the Fringe Festival.

So far it seems like all of our friends are accounted for. My manager was doing a roll-call yesterday morning just to make sure at work.

Neither Wendy nor I can remember the last time we were on the 35W Bridge. We’ve been avoiding the area because of construction. But Wendy drove over that bridge many times last winter to get to a rehearsal in Nordeast.

The inspection ratings for the other bridges in the area are on the web. The Franklin Ave. bridge actually has a slightly lower rating. I found a report on it and read it. They think although there are problems at the water line and below, it is basically safe because the piers are so massive. Still, I may find other ways to cross the Mississippi. The two bridges I use most often (the Mendota Bridge and the Ford Parkway Bridge) have both been rebuilt (Mendota bridge around 1992-3 and Ford just last year).

It’s so surreal to watch the video of the bridge going down. The west bank pier or truss seems to give out first. I’m not an expert, that’s just what it looks like. Today the WCCO website had video of an area of rust near the pier.

Thank God we’re safe. But you feel so much for the families that have been touched by this. It so easily could have been us.

Wendy's Blog

Is it cyber-voyeurism to read your wife's blog? I wonder.

TMR: Tommy's Monthly Review: August Review

[Guest-blogging tonight is Tommy]

Before we get to my review, I'll answer some questions that you may be asking.

What is 'Tommy's Monthly Review'?

In this section, I'll be reviewing movies that I saw. I will be grading the films that I see.

What are the grades?

Here are the grades of the section:

Thumb Grade: Thumbs up OR Thumbs down

Alphabet Grade: A through F (E not included in these grades). + and – can be added into the letter grade. That means that A+ is the best grade, and F- being the worst grade.

Star Grade: 1 to 5 stars. Halves like 3 and a half stars are included in these grades.
Percent Grade: 0.1% to 100.5%.

When will this section come out?

As the title of this section says, it will come out every month.

Now let's get to the review.

This month's review:

The Simpsons' Movie

Grades:

Thumbs Grade: Thumbs up

Alphabet Grade: A

Star Grade: 4 and a half

Percent Grade: 98.9%

The setup: Homer saves a pig who is about to get turned into pork and keeps him, and soon causes an environmental crisis.

What Works: The film is 98% funny.

What Doesn't Work: Plopper (the pig) (a.k.a. Spiderpig OR Harry Plopper) is one of the funniest characters of the film, but he doesn't appear much.

Great Scene/Line:

Scene: At the beginning of the film, during the 20^th Century Fox studio logo, Ralph Wiggum comes out and yells “Da Da Da Da (pause) Da Da Da Da (pause) Da Da Da Daaaaa!”

Line: A mob with everyone in Springfield (except the Simpsons) chants 'We Want Homer!' over and over again.

Rating: PG-13, for irreverent humor throughout.

In 1987, Matt Groening created 'The Simpsons' as a series of shorts for a show called 'The Tracy Ullman Show'. After three seasons of shorts, in 1989, a prime time series called by the same name, was made. The first episode was called 'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' which was (and I'm not kidding here) a Christmas special. After 18 seasons of the show, in 2007, their movie was released, and it's still playing in theaters. This film is what I'm going to review right now.

The film is goofy indeed, and charming in a silly way. There are a lot of gags in the movie, and nearly all of them might make you laugh. However, you may feel that the film's humor is going WAY overboard. (When I saw the film, I thought that didn't matter.)

Parents be warned: This film does contain a couple of nudity scenes. One of them includes a sequence in which Bart- you guessed it- skateboards naked. The part is funny- but it's also a reason to not bring little and some big kids to the movie.

As long as the show doesn't get canceled, get bad reviews, or have a series finale, the Simpsons- Homer, Marge, children Bart and Lisa, little baby Maggie, and all their friends and their show for years to come. Maybe they'll make a sequel to this great film!

All of this was written by:

Thomas 'Tommy' Nicholas Gennaula

Harry Potter Epilogue

It's true. In the end Harry Potter moves to NYC to become a yoga instructor. He is eventually adopted by Angelina Jolie....

(snicker... snicker...)

I finished the last Harry Potter book yesterday. As the NY Times said "good old fashion closure." They did NOT just sit at a table waiting for french fries and then fade to black.

Can't wait to see the movie!

Fun at Strong

Strong Museum of Rochester, NY makes it into WIRED via geekdad.

My kid gets deep on me...

"Dad, when we die, does God delete us?"

--Tommy Gennaula, 1:15pm

Oy Vey!

Just a balloon away from a Darwin award...

Although this stunt has not earned a real Darwin Award, it has gotten honorable mention before (for another guy).

Lawn chair man, lawn chair man
Flying high, you had a plan
You touched the sky, then touched the ground
Proving that your plan was sound
Pity that the chair got away

What you get

The other morning Wendy and I awoke to the sound of our wonderful sons screaming at each other... at the top of their lungs.

And my lovely wife turns to me and says: "I'm thinking about What do you get when you fall in love?... it isn't pretty."

Confessions at a coffee shop

A few nights ago Wendy and I had a free night (meaning we had childcare at home). None of the movies out really interested us so we ended up at the Riverview Coffee Shop where we could sit and read. I pulled out the book I was trying to finish up that night and started reading. During the course of the hour or so it took me to finish the book I had a few people come up to me and ask me if I liked the book--plus a couple of explanations (or confessions--take your pick) as to why they had read the book.

The book had been recommended to me by Wendy. It was a family tale that spanned several generations. Wendy is a fairly fast reader. Even with that, she read this one very quickly and told me about certain things in the book. But she was careful not to give away too much since she thought I should read it too. The book was Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. This is one of those books from the Oprah's Book Club.

Having now finished it I can say that it is a really good book. It definitely presents a point of view that not many people have. For me it was the family story that I found so interesting. Towards the beginning of the book many secrets of the family are explained. The fun is reading, waiting for these secrets to come out and see what effect they will have.

But back in the coffee shop I had fun with the two separate "explanations" (confessions) I got from 20-something guys. "Do you like it? Yeah, I read that book. My girlfriend made me read it. It was really good." I wondered why each guy had to add "my girlfriend made me read it." Was it the "Oprah" sticker on the front of the book? I also wondered why they felt they had to explain it to me? At a bit past 40 I look like Fred Flintstone with a goatee. Back in college I was told that I look like "a very intelligent truck driver." Was it something about the juxtaposition of Fred Flintstone reading an Oprah book that allowed to them to ask how I liked the book and then follow it by the confession?

Who knows. In any case, it is a good book that I would recommend.

Back to Latin

The Pope has OK’ed the use of the Latin Mass. I have conflicting views regarding this action. I am very much a post-Vatican Council II Catholic. I grew up with all the changes. I don’t see a problem caused by variations regarding liturgy. But I also love the sound, the music of Latin.

When I started music school I was not very familiar with the masses and requiems that had been written by musicians through the ages. There is a beauty to the sound of “Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. Dona nobis pacem.”

I understand the concerns caused by the Good Friday liturgy in Latin. (See the NY Times article.) I’m not looking forward to having the priest face away from the congregation. I don’t want to hear Latin every Sunday. But I would like to hear such a mass from time to time.

The Light Rail to the MOA (Mall of America)

I had an adventure with Tony yesterday. Tommy and Wendy had plans to go see a show at the Children’s Theatre and then have dinner. I asked Tony what he wanted to do with me. We got on the Light Rail at 50th street. It was nice to get in the train since it was so hot outside.

Neither of us had been all the way southward to the MOA before. We went past Fort Snelling and the cemetery. When we got to the mall Tony wanted to play at the arcade right away. Afterwards we checked out Barnes and Noble, had dinner in the food court, and then stopped at Game Stop.

Tony convinced me that it would be OK if he used his money to buy Super Smash Brothers Melee even though it is a Teen game and he is only 12. You see, in Europe it is a 12 and up game, so it would be OK. They learn fast.

Wendy and Tommy had a great time and stopped at Chris and Rob’s Chicago style restaurant on the way home. They have NASCAR posters all around the place which Tommy thought was very cool.

Today we were just going to try to stay cool. Major thunderstorms just rolled through our area now, so hopefully the temperature will come down.

Today is...

...too darn hot!

93 degrees today. I hate really hot weather. A day to clean out things in the basement.

I may have to renounce my membership in "Minnesotans for Global Warming."

Today is...

...the Fourth of July.

It's hot. We're just going to take it easy today. I've been doing some garden work, but now I'm down in my "scriptorium" at the computer.

Today is

...family day.

Reading the bio of Andrew Carnegie. I borrowed it from the library. Still deciding if I'll go ahead and buy it myself. (Probably will.)

Later we'll play at the playground and have dinner at Baker Square.

Rainy Sunday

It's a rainy Sunday here in Minnesota. We have 2 friends of the boys over today for a play date. They are all upstairs celebrating "Neurodiversity". I really haven't written much about the fact that both boys have autism.

All fours boys in our house today are part of the autism program at their school. Today is one of those days where I'm really thankful that we live in Minneapolis. Minneapolis Public Schools has a well developed autism program. All four of the boys started in the program before they were in Kindergarten. It's really great for the boys and parents to know other people and families for whom autism is a part of their lives.

The Sven & Ole Computer Virus.

You have just received the Sven & Ole Computer Virus. Because we don't know how to program computers, this virus works on the honor system. Please delete all the files on your hard drive manually and forward this message to everyone on your mailing list.

Thank you for your cooperation.

--Sven and Ole

(I'm cleaning out my email folders and came across this one.)

A poem for Geeks

A geek
Is a geek
Is a geek

Whether one speaks

Of computers
or music
or...

whatever

Napoleon the bomb

At the other end of the spectrum from the Guthrie, Wendy and I tried to get through Napoleon Dynamite last night. We lasted about 35 minutes. It was weird and boring and not funny. Tommy is a bit upset that we did not watch the whole movie. One of his teachers really liked it. Actually it is a good opportunity to explain to him that everyone has their own opinions and that is OK.

The Merchant of Venice

Wendy and I saw The Merchant of Venice at the Guthrie the other night. Wonderful production, but the anti-Semitism in the play was very offensive. The play itself is almost like 2 separate plays. The Portia story was beautiful and fun. The Shylock parts were repulsive. The ending where the “state” decrees that Shylock must become a Christian or lose everything was especially repugnant.

This week

It is springtime in Minnesota. The temperatures are hovering between 50 and 70. The plants are starting to turn green. The boys have major spring fever.

We've gone to the playground a couple of times with the boys. Both boys have a lot of extra energy to burn off—but especially Tony. They have been doing a lot of testing at school these past weeks and I wonder if that is part of the greater need to run and swing and slide.

Interesting news time: a co-worker pointed out to me that Pittsburgh, PA had tied with a number of other cities for 10th place in the list of cleanest cities. He questioned the results of the survey when he read that. I told him of the homestead mill that is now a shopping center (The Waterfront in Homestead). It is hard to shake the James Parton quote that “Pittsburgh is hell with the lid taken off”. It doesn't help that Pittsburghers (myself included) sometimes that a perverse pride in that quote.

But I live in Minnesota now. Land of 10,000 lakes, loons, and chorales.

The Hoax

Wendy and I saw the Hoax this last weekend. Definitely two thumbs up from us. The movie tells the story of Clifford Irving who wrote an 'authorized autobiography' of Howard Hughes--which per the title was a hoax. Richard Gere portrays Mr. Irving while Alfred Molina plays his friend and researcher Dick Suskind. Marcia Gay Harden was so great as Mr. Irving's wife that I didn't even recognized her until half way through the movie. It will probably be forgotten by the time of the Oscars, but it was really a fine grown up movie. (No exploding spider-based spaceships here!)

Month of March

I can't believe the month of March is already gone. We started out with a tiger of a snow storm and end wet. (Not quite a lamb, but I didn't need to use my snow blower on it.)

Wendy finished up with Mikado at the Gilbert of Sullivan Very Light Opera Company. She had a great time singing with them. Last night they had their set strike and final cast party. It was at a Masonic Lodge and that was a first for both Wendy and I. After reading the Da Vinci Code I kept wondering what it would be like inside. In the main hall there were a lot of symbols all around and a beautiful mural on the ceiling. But actually the highlight of the evening was the alternate lyrics contest.

Geek Culture

For my birthday Wendy and the boys gave me the 10 Star Trek movie DVDs and a Star Trek encyclopedia. Since the boys already know the Star Wars saga I think it's time to introduce the "Star Trek canon" of Geek Culture. Tony isn't really into at this point, but Tommy is having fun watching the movies with me in order. So far his favorite is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Why I love Minnesota

We got A LOT of snow last night--I'd say close to 10 inches. I woke up this morning and looked out the window and noticed someone with a giant snow blower was clearing the sidewalk for our neighbor Barb that I always clear. I thought "Great, all I'll have to do is clear Barb's driveway and our walks and drive way." By the time I got ready a second person was clearing our sidewalks with his giant snow blower. I got out there in time to yell a "thanks" to him.

Still had to clear our walks from the sidewalks to the house and Barb's driveway, but this is what I love about Minnesota. I don't know these guys, but they thought it would be nice to just do a bit of clearing for the neighborhood since they owned the big 3 foot across (more or less) snow blower (instead of my having to to use my 18 inch snow blower over and over again).

The weather was perfect for being outside too. It was hovering just around 31 degrees. Wendy and Tony went out for a while to clear some of the walks too. I was originally going to go to a Composers Forum workshop today, but they cancelled it due to the weather. I'm actually glad they did. It's been nice just to stay at home. Tonight we're going to make pizzas at home and watch the Oscars.

Babel: Thumbs Down!

I'd rather watch Nacho Libre again than try to sit through Babel one more time. If you are going to try to watch it, take Dramamine first.

My son, the comedian

Tommy wakes up this morning. He comes into our bedroom and gives Wendy a kiss.

She says "My dear boy."

He says "Do I have antlers?"

ennoy

ennoy: verb, to disturb or irritate electronically.

We, the Gennaula family, came up with a new word this morning. Spam is ennoying. Pop-up windows are ennoying. Constantly IM'ing someone when they are trying to work is ennoying.
Cell phones in movie theaters are ennoying. Car alarms going off at 2 am are ennoying.

Have you ever been ennoyed?

From a fortune cookie

Success is determined by how and what you think about.

My compositional workshop

I've started another blog for the music that I write. It is called the Compositional Workshop. I'm going to start putting the pieces I write out there along with discussions of the work. The first piece I'm working on is a re-write of a piece I wrote back in 1994. It is called Wisdom is Glorious.