At last!  I have packed up most of my desk (not my computer, that has to wait until 5:30) to move to a new office building.  For the first time in forever, I will be North of the Mass Pike!  Southerners be damned, we’re moving North!

We watched A Night to Rememberlast night.  How did it match up with James Cameron’s Titanic?  

There was no love story, so no Rose/Jack garbage.  There was a couple traveling to their honeymoon.  They were used to sort of up the tragic factor, but they weren’t really a focus.  The focus was definitely on the people dealing with the situation, or not as the case may be.

Our main interest in viewing was to determine if Cameron ripped off the older flick while making his.  The answer?  Yeah, he kinda did.  Maybe not as badly as the trailer lead on, but there were a few scenes that were alarmingly similar.

The architect standing in front of the clock just before the end was almost exactly the same.  The only difference was that he walked over to a chair before checking his watch.  Also, the captain’s tour of the bridge was just about the same.  The rich folks in the dining room just before the end, talking about going down like gentlemen.  The musicians playing until the end.  Hell, the first violin player even looked exactly like Cameron’s first violin player.  The smokestack falling on swimmers.  Yeah, there were a lot of really similar shots.  A Lot of similar shots.

I’m not going to say that A Night to Remember is better or worse than Titanic, but I will say I really liked it and if you liked Titanic, you should check it out.

Jen just saw a trailer for an English movie from 1958 called A Night to Remember.  It’s the story of The Titanic.  In the trailer, at least, it looks like almost every shot matched exactly to the James Cameron movie.  Did he steal his flick from the older one?  We are watching it to find out.  We will let you know.

The plan was to have a very quiet, low key kinda long weekend.  So far so good.  We had a cookout last night with some steak tips, and we played some card games. It was a fun night.

Another cookout is planned for tonight.  Maybe a movie or something.  Mostly just more hanging out as a family.  Jen has a lot of homework this weekend so she has to spend time on that too.

It’s going to be another good day, yes it is.

I had forgotten all about it, but I remember now.

My step daughter is in high school now.  She is doing volunteer work at a high school football game.

I forgot how intensely I hated high school football.  When I drove up to the school the driveway was lines with professionally printed signs with players names and numbers.  Sonofa…

There are thousands of cars here.  The main parking lot and the two secondary lots are all full.  People are parking on the lawn.  sonofa…

As a member of the marching band I was required to attend every game.  Those were the worst 40 days of my four years.  I hate hate hated every second of every game.  

I had forgotten that hate, but I remember now.  Oh, I remember now.

so, go inside Dunkin Donuts or go to the drive through?

  
I’m thinking go inside.

The older I get, the harder it gets for me to let go of Summer.  Summer in New England is the carrot at the end of the seemingly endless winter’s stick.  That’s probably why it gets shorter and shorter every year.  It seems to end as soon as it starts.

Labor Day weekend is the symbolic end of Summer.  That’s why it’s the most depressing holiday of the year for me.  Sure, Veterans Day and Memorial Day are more depressing in a literal sense, one honors people who fought for our country during the death machines we call wars and the other honors those who have died in said death machines.  Both are seriously depressing, but they also serve as a source for celebration.  Veterans Day, the great war is over!  Let’s celebrate!  Memorial Day, those Americans sacrificed their lives to preserve our rights and freedoms.  Let’s celebrate what we have in remembrance.  Also, it’s the start of Summer!  WOOHOO!

Labor Day?  What does that signify?  Hard working Americans achieving the American dream?  Yeah, I’m all for celebrating that.  At the same time though, it means Summer is over and all of the natural beauty that surrounds us is about to die and rot on the ground.  Oh yeah, and then all of New England freezes.  Yippee Skippee.

Finding the holiday depressing does not, of course, mean that I want to skip it.  Hell no!  A three day weekend is a three day weekend after all.  That just means that this particular Friday at work is going to drrraaaaaagggg on endlessly in anticipation of a depressing holiday.

It’s just all so depressing!

Before I get started, let me say that this is nerd nitpicking.

Okay?

I updated my Windows 8.1 laptop to Windows 10. They told me over and over that all of my settings will carry over. The only thing I use this laptop for is work. So when the update finished I checked that I could still VPN to my work’s network. Success. Then I remote desktop’d to the machine on my desk. Success.

Sort of.

I had the remote desktop window at full screen. In that mode it should appear that you are only using the remote machine. You should see no sign of the machine you are actually using. That was the case today from 9:00am to 5:30pm while I was working. Now? The remote machine’s task bar was hidden behind the laptop’s task bar. Ummm… So much for all my settings carrying over, huh? It was just a matter of unlocking the task bar. Right click, boom. Done. That’s not the point. If that stupid little teeny tiny setting has changed, what the hell else have these Microsoft assholes changed on me?

If only my company would switch to Macintosh. Or better yet, Linux.

Next Wednesday.  That’s the day I will suddenly be working closer to home than at any time in my professional career.  Better late than never.

I’m celebrating by updating my laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.  Start button here I come!  WOOOOHOOO!

  

Still working out of Westwood, although they did move our phone numbers to the Waltham desks even though none of us were in Waltham. Bit of a snafu on that one.

Still sad. I feel like the little kid who lives next door to the main characters on Fear the Walking Dead. You know, the girl who was supposed to have her ninth birthday party (complete with inflatable bouncy house) but no one showed up because they were all too busy turning into zombies, and then her mom got attacked by a neighbor who had turned into a zombie and (although we didn’t actually see it up close) probably got bit and now will also turn into a zombie. It’s like, I had this awesome thing and then it was taken away from me. The Waltham building is kinda like my inflatable bouncy house.

Without the zombies.