Harry Potter, Part 5

DW and I saw the partly 3-D version of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" last night at the local IMAX theater. It and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban" are, IMHO, the best films of the lot thus far. Imelda Staunton was frighteningly good as Delores Umbridge, the Church Lady-like torturer of Hogwarts students. At one point, as her wall of cats meowed, I leaned over to DW and said, "she's catshit insane." Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Emma Watson (Hermione) are coming into their own as actors, Radcliffe in particular. Harry's nightmare scenes, and his reactions to them, were convincing, and the actor was rather dashing in his attire throughout the film. When Harry discussed his dreams with Dumbledore and how he worried about going bonkers, I said, "well, I think Harry and I should have a conversation about our dreams." Alas, it was a very quiet moment, and other people in the theater could hear me. Big deal. The 20 minutes of 3-D worked very well in this film, particularly on the huge IMAX screen. It's well worth the extra few bucks to see it on IMAX, if possible.

Speaking of dreams, mine have been so intense and personal lately that I haven't wanted to post them here. I get the feeling my subconscious is shouting at me about a number of things; I just need to figure out what they are and whether I can do something about them or just let things play out in the dreams themselves.

Yesterday was a crazy day. It was my telework day, and I had a shitload to get done. Our power cut out around 9:30 a.m., so I drove to the nearest P.J.'s coffeehouse to get myself reconnected. When the power came back on (around 1:00), I went back home, and . . . the phone line was dead! This meant that I couldn't connect to my VPN, so I had to work in my c-drive the rest of the day and risk being asked why I wasn't logged-in. I didn't get any calls from the office, so I suppose I was okay. In any event, I managed to get a full days' work in; alas, the case I thought would be easy to write up turned out to be rather messed-up.

Foggy days

The fog has been very thick in the mornings and evenings the past several days around here. It was eerie this morning as I rounded the Superdome--the stadium was blanketed in a dark fog, while the Sun was shining through a break in the fog just to the east (over the west bank of the river).

Today is the office holiday lunch. I can't put my finger on it, but I've never particularly enjoyed those events. I may have a touch of seasonal depression; I don't know. For several years, I just didn't go. That started when my best office friend boycotted the lunches in protest because our old boss overruled the democratic procedural mechanism we were using to determine whether to do our seasonal event in the office or at a restaurant. I took the opportunity to skip the event too, in favor of taking the afternoon off and going to see a movie. That year, and the following year, things came up at home on the day of the office lunch that made me drop everything and run home anyway. One year I cut out of the event because I had been passed over for a promotion a couple of weeks before, and I was still pissed off at the then-boss. Just skipping the office party made me feel all better about that situation; however, the facial hair I grew shortly thereafter was viewed as some sort of protest (I kid you not, my Gentle Readers). Anyhow, this is the second or third year in a row that I will have made the event; I suppose that's a good thing. It would be fun to have an office party like they had on "The Office" last week--I could see myself as the fat, middle-aged man leading the karaoke/sing-along to Alanis Morissette's "You Ought to Know." That was hysterical.