Entertainment

The Story of The Office Space DVD

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Back when I was doing a more operational support role in New York, many years ago, late nights in the office were a regular thing. We’d be doing maintenance on call centre equipment, phone systems, or routers. Later at Thomson Reuters, it might have been after an incident, a big release, or some other late-night work. The difference from today is that back then you were mainly physically in the office. At Partsearch especially, we had to be on site to plug into things and get the work done. At Redcats, we did plenty of late-night releases and I likely had the DVD with me, though I don’t recall ever actually using it there.

When we worked late, it wasn’t all bad. We’d order dinner, build up for the work, and there was a kind of social element to it. Somewhere along the way, I started keeping a DVD or two in my desk. Yes, actual DVDs. No streaming, no downloads. One of them was always Office Space. It just felt appropriate. Not that the movie was really technical, but it resonated. Every now and then, if we had time to kill, we’d put it on and watch together. It became a kind of techie ritual.

When I moved on to Thomson Reuters, the tradition came with me. Office Space lived in my office alongside my work gear. Eventually, we took it a step further and started planning actual movie nights. It wasn’t tied to late-night activities, we planned the movie nights just for the fun of it. We’d grab a conference room, order snacks, and watch something together. For a few months, this became routine: we would wait for those working the shift to finish at 8pm, then we’d grab dinner and head back to watch a movie. The first one, of course, was always Office Space.

Looking back, it was a fun little ritual that made the grind easier. Nowadays, it wouldn’t work the same way. My laptop doesn’t even have a DVD drive, and everything’s streaming so I do not know were that DVD is now.

Unruly

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I am curious what you would think if I told you I just finished a book on the history English monarchs from the early mediaeval period (aka pre Edward the Conqueror) through the end of the Tudor’s?

Would you thinking change if I told you that the book used constant references to things like James Bond, Pizza Express, and contemporary pop culture? Oh and it was written by a comedian? It also had loads of profanity, yet was still pretty historically accurate.

Your views probably do change however Unruly by David Mitchell was very funny and informative all at the same time. I was a history major so this stuff is interesting to me even if it wasn’t written by a comedian. It just helps that it was.

Do I Get A Merit Badge Or Something For Finishing Cryptonomicon?

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I finished reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon today. Funny enough until a few years ago i hadn’t know it as a body of work had exitested. When i did i was in no rush to start it since i had heard it was a rough slog to read and it was huge. I dont remember what changed recently however I finally got around to starting it in the beginning of April. I cannot recall any novel I have read being that large. I feel like I deserve some sort of cryptography merit badge by finishing it.

Now a days I read way too many reviews on books before I read the actual book. I want to be sure something is worth it for me. With Cryptonomicon I was a bit worried about the time investment since so many people gave it mixed reviews. In the end i decided to risk it. I really liked it. Once i got going i did not worry about how big it was. I also found the story to be a really good progression leading to the conclusion. Many reviews complained it was all over the place and i guess did not see the progression from the original plot points to the end. I thought it was pretty well done overall.

I also got more of a lesson in cryptography than I thought. Since I didn’t really expect any lesson at all.

The Story of My Shifting Loyalties to Hogwarts Houses

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When I first read the Harry Potter books I was already an adult. They only came out when I was an adult. I even noticed a review I gave of Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix way back in 2003 on this blog. My mum who was a reading teacher at the end of her teaching career suggested for a while that I read them. This was at a time when only the first three books were published. I was reluctant since I am not typically a fan of fantasy books. I like science fiction not necessarily fantasy. I had to argue the distinction with my wife and nephew the other night while talking about reading Harry Potter to the girls. Since I was travelling for work all the time at the time my mum first recommended them. I was reading books very quickly while on the plane or travelling I took my mom up on her recommendation. I bought the first book. I was hooked after that. I blew through the first three books and then waited patiently for each subsequent book to come out. I would immediately buy it and usually finished it straight away.

In general I look back on reading the books for the first time and I thought they were good. There are obviously issues I had because of some of the childish stuff they did but I would say I was generally entertained by the books even if it was first a children’s book and i read them as an adult. Reading to my kids I love how much they enjoyed each of the books. I was ecstatic that they were finally willing to read them with me. Even better when we started reading them in April 2020 as lockdown for COVID was new both girls were semi into reading. They were not yet book lovers. Now after months of reading to them they each spent time with Harry Potter and other books I feel like they are both on their way to being book lovers.

As I started reading the series again to my girls I began to have a different opinion of many of the characters then I did when I first read them. When I realise that I thought back to something my friend Amanda had once told that she did not consider herself a Gryffindor. She also said she didn’t think that I was one either and suggested a Online Quiz that sort you into your hogwarts house. I am not typically an online quiz fan however I gave it a go. I actually gave it several goes since these tests aren’t necessarily scientific I did not get the same results all the time. It did get me reading more on the defining traits of each of the houses. As I did that and the quizzes again I realised I am pretty sure I’m not Gryffindor though some part of me thinks maybe a little. I am most likely Ravenclaw. Of course only in a story are two or three general traits what put you into a social group. If I had to pick which trates I think I exhibit or prefer over the others even if I exhibit some traits from all the houses I would still say Ravenclaw stands out.

I do not want to bash their Harry Potter characters since I love the books however wow Harry and Ron and to a smaller degree Hermionne do some messed up stuff. Gryffindor might call that brave or bold. At minimum it’s borderline reckless. Even as a kid I wasn’t like that. So blue and bronze colours from me.

My self identification as Ravenclaw has only been a mild disturbance in our household. My children being Gryffindor according to them. I don’t remember what M said she associates with or if she commented all. i think she wants nothing to do with this discussion.

If have to blame anybody I blame the lockdown for a lot of free time to read the stories and background details about them to way too much detail with my children.

Ted Lasso’s Pop Culture Infusion

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Last night M and I watched the latest Ted Lasso episodes. We were both pleased to see that season two’s first episode was out. I find the show pretty funny and I’m trying to learn football along with Ted. Ok only sort of.

I love the Random pop culture references the writers throw in all the time. After this last episode it was pretty clear (to me) that I was going to have to put on some Gin Blossoms afterwards. Not at all ashamed to say I liked them in University and still do.

This morning as I was walking to Sainsbury’s sure enough I put on a Gin Blossims playlist. Thanks Ted.

Once I got to Sainsbury’s I realised they don’t open until 11 on a Sunday. Full disclosure I realise this when the doors would not open and the place was dark 🙂 The only way this story is related to Ted Lasso is the Sainsbury’s story happened while listening to Hey Jealousy.

I’ve been in this country for 3 1/2 years and sometimes I forget where I am. I somehow was expecting New York hours on a Sunday. On the plus side Costa Coffee was open. I don’t have my coffee before leaving for the market so I was able to sit and dictate this post to Siri.

The Story of My January 2021 Reading List

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After finishing Revelation Space in late December while I was on holiday I had to sort out what I wanted to read next. I was tempted to read the next book in the Revelation Space series however I reminded myself that I am trying to change pace at least a little bit between books. It took me me a little while to sort out what I wanted to read. I picked Dark Matter from my reading list. It was still science-fiction however a slightly different genre. It was reviewed very well and seemed a like it was perfect for me. A sci-fi book about multi dimensional travel.

Note there will be some possible spoilers of Dark Matter. I had such high hopes for this book. I started seeing sign’s i wouldn’t like it pretty quickly. Early on the protagonists meets a mysterious person was obviously another version of himself.

In another part of the book while he was in an alternate universe it felt like they murdered that version of his wife just to move the plot along. It made no sense or did not feel like they needed to do it other than to put him in a bad situation. I also worried that that twist would turn the book towards a framed murder trope. Thankfully the plot didn’t go that direction however they did use the framing point to a small degree.

Thankfully I was surprised at the direction they took leading up to the climax of the book. I was also slightly surprised at how the book ended. That was good however overall I still feel the book was mediocre. There are just too many sections of the book that I felt annoyed by what was written. It is hard to express however I just was disappointed. I did power through finishing it and I am glad that I did. I still might recommend it since it is a decent mindbending storyline however I wasn’t by any means blown away.

Once I finished Dark Matter I changed genres completely. I read Weapons of Math Destruction. I had heard about this book for a few years now I think. It finally made it onto my to reading list when I saw the author talking in the documentary the Social Dilemma. Sadly Audible UK did not have this book. I wanted to read it enough that I revived my Audible US account and purchased it that way. The author performed the audiobook herself. Her performance was really good. I’d like to say I loved the book however the book is disturbing in what it discusses so saying “love” is probably not appropriate. I thought the stories were fantastic. The issues are extremely thought-provoking. How algorithms are hurting society was disturbing. Overall I highly recommend it. It was well worth the read.

I finished Weapons of Math Destruction in the middle of the month. Due to work commitments I was pretty slow in finishing my next book. I didn’t finish it in February 1. I will put it on my February review list.

The Story of My December 2020 Book Reviews

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I have a bunch of posts to publish however after writing my post about reading wanted to write about what i had been reading over the past year. At this rate not sure if i will cover everything I read since January 2020 however I started a monthly recap from December onwards. I have December & January written now. This is my December post. Hoping to post January sometime this month in addition to some other stuff.

In December 2020 I finished two books and started a third. I finished one productivity, non-fiction and one science-fiction.

The first book I finished was tribal leadership. It was a fascinating book about the psychology of groups of people, a.k.a. tribes and how they organise. A lot of what the authors said resonated with me. I think because what they call a stage four tribe encompasses a lot of the trates and characteristics we have been aspiring for in devops culture. I think it’s hard for me to realise that even though I’ve been trying a lot I still gravitate between stage III and stage IV sometimes. According to the book the use of I versus we is partly the distinction. The good thing was even before reading this book I have tried to move towards the we your the group versus the individual. Not sure who recommended it however I think it was someone at work. Since finishing it I have been recommending it to others especially since we been talking a lot about dev ops culture at work.

The next book I read after tribal leadership was a bit of a change of pace. That was deliberate. I am trying not to read the same type of book back to back. I am also trying not to read too many books in the series straight through to give myself a break. The next book I read was Revelation space. I already read Chasm CIty. That was technically the 2nd book in the universe written by Alastair Reynolds. I was worried since there were mixed reviews about the audio performance on audible for Revelation space. After listening to the book I can understand what people were complaining about however it was by no means as bad as described or making it difficult to read/listen to the book. The story was pretty good and having read Chasm City did not ruin Revelation space. I have read that it shouldn’t prior to reading Chasm City so I was pleased that that was true. Clocking in around 20 hours to listen to it was pretty long but not the longest I have read. The plot was slow going at some points however they brought things together pretty nicely. Based on how much I enjoyed Revelation Space I will listen to the next book in the series. I am just going to take a slight break and change gears a bit first.

I finished Revelation space right after Christmas. I started on the next book straight away however I did not get to finish it until after the New Year. That means I will talk about it in my January reviews.

Oi, Why Didn’t Any Tell Me About Gavin and Stacey Until Now?

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On Christmas day M made a fantastic lunch just for the four of us. For dinner we went over to a friend down the road. They had a bunch of extended family over and had invited us for a buffet dinner. By around 7:30 the party was wrapping up. Our friends mum and along with her sisters family was heading home. They wanted to be home in time to see the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special. Up until hearing about this Christmas special I have never heard of this show before. We were told we should watch it.

M and I went home and put the kids to bed. We then proceeded to start watching the first season. By the evening of New Year’s Day we had finished the entire series including the most recent Christmas special. Since I am writting about it you must gather I really liked it. And I did.  It is now one of the top british shows I have seenn.  It is probibly one of the best shows i have seen in several years.

After watching the entire series and really liking it I wanted to know is how all of my local friends have utterly failed me. How is it that no one pointed out this show even existed until this week? It was really funny. I consider this one of the largest pop culture failures in recent history.

Now I have to wonder what else I might still be missing?

Start With Why

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A few years ago a guy I work with sent me a TED talk video of Simon Sinek.  After  watching one of his videos I immediately watched the second one. Both were very fascinating. It inspired me to want to read his book start with why. The reviews however basically said if you watched the TED talk then you really don’t need to read the book. At the time I didn’t.

Over the summer someone at work challenged me to come up with my personal brand. I floundered for a while not knowing what to do since I am terrible at self-promoting or so I thin I asked the same coworker for thoughts on where to star on doing an exercise like that. He suggested going back to start with why He also pointed out that there is or was a course that Simon Sinek offered that helped people come up with their personal why.

What my coworker said made a lot of sense I ended up buying the book even though the reviews suggested I might not need i I’m three quarters of the way through and it’s been pretty interesting It is an easy read however very insightful information.I started reading the book in August I noticed that the course my coworker mentioned was being turned into a book that was published in September.  Once I am done with Start With Why  I hope to get that book and read it next.