Today, we slept in, then tried to go to Wishbone for brunch -- big mistake, it was totally jammed. So we drove around for a while trying to find a place that wasn't filled to overflowing. Stopped at the Borders to pick a few things up, finally found someplace with a ten-minute wait and had a pretty tasty breakfast -- at 1:00 in the afternoon mind you. Then we stopped at Facets so I could pick up some more movies, another stop at Blockbuster after dropping off G, and then I was off to a friend's cookout for an hour or two. G stayed home and did the laundry (it was her turn).

Came back home, organized, then watched Mizoguchi's Ugetsu, a haunting and beautiful film, one of the best ever in my opinion. Times like this I don't mind having to watch 42 movies in 2.5 months! Yesterday's viewing was Badlands, which I really did not like. It's always weird when you watch an acknowledged masterpiece of the cinema for the first time and it leaves you totally cold. I mean, I just didn't get it at all.

Speaking of totally cold, this weekend has been one long bluster. Rain, rain, clouds, more rain, thunder, lightning, blech.

Anyway, this will be a short week. Expect more voice updates than usual this week. After working tomorrow we're going to LA on Wedneday to find an apartment. I think at that point, the move will really feel like something that is going to happen rather than something vaguely on the horizon. Strange to think we've just a few more weeks in this place.

Today was supposed to be a last fun cookout day with our Chicago friends. Well, Chicago weather, never our friend, intervened. Thunderstorms and flood warnings the whole day. Looks like I'll make a good dent in the 42 films I have to watch before school starts!

Backtracking . . .

Friday was a great day for my company. After 2.5 years of waiting, I finally led an enormous fleet of 31 Geekmobiles down Lakeshore Drive and all the way down Michigan Avenue, escorting our founder and CEO to a luncheon at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. I will post up some pictures when I get them. Needless to say the sight of 31 identical VW beetles rolling down Michigan Avenue caused quite a sensation. A bus driver was just hypnotized, so much so he ran into the SUV ahead of him. People were going crazy, running out onto the street after us, insane. We encircled the entire block the hotel is on with cars (a cop was driving around saying "The Geek Squad has arrived . . ." on his PA system). Felt very much like a handoff to this new generation of agents and I wish them well.

Yesterday was a cookout. Only knew a couple of people there and anyway, felt really tired and wanted to be home most of the day. Nice to see the folks we did know, though, although G was suffering some stomach problems this morning as a result of her cheeseburger.

So today, a disappointing day, but a reminder of one of the many reasons a move to sunny CA is the right one . . .

This has been a very busy week -- if you've been reading this you'll know that of course -- but today should be fun. Today we're leading 31 Geek Squad vehicles on a massive invasion of downtown Chicago, all in a group. It will be hard to keep them all together but it should turn a few heads.

Yesterday -- got some more of my many movies to view after doing the usual spyware/virus jobs, then game home, had some friends over to play Links on the Xbox (I lost $5) and then up late (again) preparing instructions for today's road rally. Been very tired all week because I've had little sleep, like 4-5 hours a night. Looking forward to sleeping in, way in, on Saturday.

As to comments -- add whatever you'd like -- get a whole conversation going if you want!

Tired & bleary. The work calendar is as full as ever with tedium, tedium, tedium, virus/spyware jobs over and over and over. I mean it is just the same thing over and over again every day. Only a few more weeks . . . And meanwhile, each night I have been staying up way too late studying some of the 42 films I have to view before school starts August 30th. At least that part, I love.

Meanwhile, yesterday Genevieve had her question answered on air by Lin Brehmer. Lin Brehmer, when I was in high school, was "our" DJ on WQBK Q104 FM. He was just such a cool, hip, weird, funny guy. He had the 3-7 spot so he'd be coming on just as we were getting off school and we'd all be listening to him, waiting for the buses. He used to do the "Hump Day Unusual Moment" on Wednesdays, truly the highlight of the week, always something bizarre. On his last day, if memory serves, he played a melange of like one second of all of them. This was back in the glory days of cool FM radio stations as opposed to the rancid corporate swill-vendors of today.

Well, when I moved out to Chicago I found this cool station, WXRT, although of late they have been getting a lot less cool and more repetitve and middle of the road. Anyway, the morning drive guy was Lin Brehmer! I couldn't believe it, I even called him up when I heard his voice!

So he has this feature called "Lin's Bin" where listeners send in questions and he answers them, whimsically, on the air. Genevieve's question was chosen this week. You can hear Lin's answer by going to the Lin's Bin web page (the 5/26 link) or clicking here. Pretty funny stuff and astute listeners will dig the song he plays going out of the bit.

OK, time to go and do something boring.

Oh, one more thing. If you want to add a comment you shouldn't have to log in and give your name, I don't think. You can just select "anonymous" and sign your name to it in the body of the text so I know who you are.

Well it's good to see someone is reading all this blather! I enjoy writing it, even just for my own benefit. If you haven't figured this out yet, clicking on the green boldface links (don't click that one, it is disgusting, it will take you a second to figure out exactly why) will take you to another web page related to what I'm talking about. The Bush link below is particulary good reading.

As to the upcoming bowling doc, I sure hope to have clips and films on the web sometime later this year or early next year. The only reason I haven't yet is that we are going to be changing ISPs, etc., etc. and I want to have my own webserver, maybe run it myself from home, my own domain name, or at least an account with massive storage because the vieo files are extremely large. I haven't yet mastered the art of compressing them to a reasonable size and keeping the quality good enough to watch them.

Anyway it will be a couple of weeks probably before I even start looking at the footage. Not only do I have a lot going on, I need to not watch it until any particular shots that were hard to do or I especially cherished become forgotten, so I am not so attached to them while editing. Need some distance after that 19 hour marathon. Once I start I will start another blog to chronicle the production of the video. I think I will do that for everything I produce myself.

Work today, well three guesses. Spyware, spyware and more spyware. People of Earth! STOP DOWNLOADING FREE SOFTWARE FROM THE INTERNET! Weather software, file sharing software, "pop up blocking" software, ANYTHING from a company you've not heard of and cannot 150% vouch for personally.YOU"RE ALL DRIVING ME CRAZY! That is all.

Off to meet a couple of coworkers -- Agents in town to train the new recruits who will be covering the Chicago area by mid-June, something like 30 of them. Yes people, my time here draws relentlessly to a close.... hopefully before my brain explodes as I stare dead-eyed at my 1,000,000th spyware scan.

Incidentally, is anyone even reading this? Post a comment if so.

Finally feeling like myself after an exhausting shoot on Friday, an exhausted day of recuperation and errand-running on Saturday, and a load of laundering and house-cleaning and office-straightening Sunday. A long day of work but not too beastly, the usual boring tasks, wireless network setups and spyware removals. Now at home, it is pleasant and cool outside, the house is tidy and the workspace clean, I have some fresh Peter Gabriel live MP3s playing, and life is fine.

Meanwhile G just called to tell me some mystery malfunction light is flashing on her car. This follows on her being one of 9 vehicles involved in a pileup last Friday night. She was rear-ended and smashed into someone else's rear end while at a dead stop because some asshole plowed into a car 7 cars behind her.

She was unharmed but her car, her pride and joy, suffered a crushed rear bumper and a badly damaged front bumper as well as some other random dings and scrapes. It was technically driveable but on her 60-mile commute home today the mystery light came on. The dealership told her to get it in ASAP, so she's heading to the dealership and I'm to meet her there in a while.

Increasingly I feel like we can't get out of Chicago fast enough. I realize that is dopey superstition but I have been feeling like we have overstayed our welcome here for some time. Or perhaps Chicago has overstayed its welcome with us, or both.

Genevieve's car looks like this (or did, before the accident) and is one of only 2000 of this special model sold in the US.

Blah.

Bible site weirdness finally resolved . . .

Finally, figured out the weird Bible link thing with the help of Blogger. Feel so dumb . . . the Bible dude poached every conceivable misspelling of "blogspot.com" including what turned out to be my misspelling of it in the link I posted. Fixed the spelling, no more problem. What a loser that Bible dude is.

Phew, the end of a long Sunday which ends a long weekend. As mentioned in the audio entry below, spent 19 hours in a bowling alley on Friday filming a documentary . . . a sad day especially for the older patrons and people who worked there during the course of the alley's 63 years. This will be a nice flick when it is all done but I can't quite bring myself to review the footage yet after that 19-hour marathon. I am the only person I know who has ever spent 19 hours in a bowling alley and lived to tell the tale. As anyone who saw me yesterday will attest, the lesson I learned was, never spend 19 hours in a bowling alley unless you want to look spotty, puffy, swollen and greasy the next day.

Anyway. Saturday was spent groaning to myself, mostly. Picked up some of the dozen or so books I have to read and a few of the 44 films I am supposed to see before I start at AFI in August. Oh darn, I have to read tons of books about movies and watch a movie almost every day! Hello, briar patch.

Delighted to see today's replay on IFC of Michael Moore winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes for Fahrenheit 911. Hopefully this will give the film a wider, splashier US release. Wonderful stuff, I thought the guy was gonna have a heart attack, he was so utterly flabbergasted:



Good for him. Moore is a polemicist, not a journalist, much as he seems to think he is the latter. He is not objective and shouldn't pretend to be. All that said he is on the right side of the argument and I agree with him 100% . . . but sometimes I wonder if he isn't preaching more or less to the choir.

On a related note: Am I the only one who finds the excuse that "we weren't trained in the rules of the Geneva Convention" to be the lamest possible excuse for the behavior of prison guards in Iraq? I mean, do you really need training to know it is wrong to fondle prisoners' genitals, force them to denounce their religion, perform lewd sex acts on each other? Are you that much of a degenerate automaton? The horror . . . I mean, it's Mistah Kurtz/Heart of Darkness shit.

Mind-boggling that our bumbling oaf of a president still continues to play the Great Liberator while virtually every Iraqi curses his name. Incredible that he thinks that just by mumbling mealy-mouthed platitudes while Najaf burns we will all be pacified . . . well, we're not. Are we?

In any case, I am certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that these activities were not only institutionally condoned but ordered, on some level, from the top.

"Because we acted, torture rooms are closed, rape rooms no longer exist, mass graves are no longer a possibility in Iraq." -- George W. Bush, remarks at "Ask President Bush" event, Michigan, May 3, 2004

I mean, the balls on this peckerhead.

A long, long, day. 9 am to 8 pm. Two jobs, both mega virus/spyware gigs and both far away from home. I don't understand how my business can be dead flat for two weeks and then all of a sudden, I am busy as hell, yet I don't have all that many jobs -- they are just taking more and more of my time. This spyware epidemic is the absolute worst and I don't know even one person who hasn't been affected. Anyway -- as you can imagine there is nothing new to report today!

Bowling documentary coming up

Nothing new to report today. As noted earlier, the usual, basic type of service calls today. Seems like I do exactly the same thing every day, very little change. I'll be glad to be moving on, my company has been very good to me and they are great guys, but it is just not appealing to me at all anymore.

On Friday I will be shooting a documentary on this place:

Marigold Bowl

a classic old bowling alley run by a classic old time Chicago character. It is closing for good on Friday. I am going to shoot the whole day with the help of some friends, from 8 am until 11 pm and make a documentary about it. It could be great -- just need to get some release forms signed! It won't be cut until the end of summer if then, and assuming it gets made at all and is any good I will submit it to a few festivals.

Bible site madness

OK, I don't really know what the heck is going on here, but my link to my old blog constantly reroutes anyone who clicks on it to the nutty bible site. It's noted below. If you care about my old blog you will have to go there manually -- http://michaelsheehan.blogspot.com -- until Blogger tells me what's up. Very weird.

Wow, the link to my old blog was, for some crazy reason, pointing to some kind of "Mega Bible Site" full of wacky End o' Times type stuff. I just republished the old blog and it seems to be back to normal. Odd.

Spent the whole day today working on one call. My customer had a beastly and pernicious spyware problem that was absolutely hellish to track down and destroy -- 7 hours worth of hellish. But, he was a nice guy and very grateful.

So I got home late, overcame a sweeping wave of laziness and went for my walk. Made baked romano chicken tenders and a small side of pasta for dinner for G and me, very tasty. Rented The Iron Giant tonight, directed by Brad Bird, who's directing The Incredibles for Pixar. I have heard rumors of some differences of opinion between his hand-picked crew and the Pixar team, and some Pixarians being kind of locked out of the production. Who knows if these rumors are true, but the Incredibles looks really great regardless, and I'm very excited for Lasseter's return to directing, Cars, next year.

Iron Giant was . . . pretty good. I kind of feel like the story was really kind of watered down, changed from a story about hypocrisy and courage to a fairly predictable yarn about "being who you want to be." The animation was top shelf, but I wasn't so crazy about some of the voice talent, particularly the kid. I really loved the book by Ted Hughes when I was a kid, and was disappointed they didn't stick to the story, which is a great story. There is, of course, a dose or two of poop humor, which apparently is required in every kids' movie these days (except Pixar's, I note). Overall, animation wise I would give it a solid 8 out of ten, story maybe a 6 or even a 5. Nice to see Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston of Disney fame in cameos as, of course, train engineers. It's a tribute to the animators that I recognized them before they even spoke.

Just noticed that my old blog is still archived on Blogger. So I ported it over to this account, and linked it to this blog. Not that anyone would want to read that much of it. Amused to find that so much of it is self-absorbed navel-gazing. Still and all, I feel like it is cool to have a detailed record of what turned out to be a major "finding myself" point in life. I feel so much different now than I did the just a few years ago, and yet in so many ways feel exactly the same.

Dinner was good. No movie tonight, played around on Xbox with the new headpiece/communicator thingy. Sure makes golfing more fun. Can't wait to use it with someone I actually know.

Not very much business on the calendar this week, which is fine by me. The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy. I have a lot of stuff I want to work on this week, and I am taking Friday off to shoot documentary footage on an old bowling alley in Chicago that is closing down, and in particular the hilarious, dirty-mouthed old guy who runs it. Several details and experiments and perhaps equipment acquisitions from others need to be made. But I think the final product will be well worth it.

Now it is bed time.

A busy day. Beautifully sunny and comfortable. G & I went for brunch to a cajun place, Blue Bayou, we'd visited for dinner before and enjoyed. We were both disappointed by the service and quality of the food. G stopped for some flowers on Southport, we came back home and I was off to my friend Jimbo's to install a router and set up his Xbox Live for him. Then, grocery shopping, and soon, fried fish tacos. G spent the day purging us of stuff we don't need to keep anymore, old papers and such. Shredded so much, the shredder overheated. I have to do a major clothing purge tonight, and then it's movie time, as usual.

This looks, well, incredible.

The Incredibles

Can you hear me now?

Audio posts

Just because it's so whizzy, I will be making some of my posts via
telephone. When you see a post like the one above, click the icon to
play it.

Welcome.

Hello to anyone who might be happening onto these pages.

For a long time, I had a website at Earthlink and another blog on Blogger. I would go through phases of furiously updating it, and then let it sit for months, or more recently, a year without any changes or updates. Eventually such things are more of an embarassment than anything else.

The blog seems to have disappeared in the world of Google purchases and Blogger upgrades. But it seems like the best way to keep in touch with everyone and let them know what is going on as my wife and I embark on a new chapter in our lives, so I've started a new one. With all the hubub in our lives it will be hard to touch base with everyone, so I am gonna try to make sure you can get the latest here.

As an added bonus you can post your own coments as well. Remember this is an all-ages board so keep it clean, folks.

In just a few short weeks, we will be uprooting ourselves and moving to Los Angeles after 8 years in Chicago (for me, 13 for my wife).

I will be pursuing a Master in Fine Arts in Film Editing at the American Film Institute. My wife will be seeking to apply her excellent skills and hard-won MBA in a new position (to be determined).

Needless to say, this is a huge corner being turned for both of us. My work as an computer technician and management consultant over the last 10-15 years has been sometimes financially rewarding, sometimes not, and it has had some personal highlights. But ultimately I was not satisified. All I had ever wanted to do since I was a kid was work in the film industry, or barring that some creative endeavor. But like so many folks, I just sort got into a cycle of work that ultimately was leading down a road with no rewards, creatively. I tried very hard to mold a career that would satisfy me, ultimately unsucessfully. And so, with the loving help and support of my wife, I am embarking on a new career, a dream career really, and have every confidence that I will succeed. My current employer has arranged for me to work in the LA area for the last two weeks of the summer, to my undying gratitude. We'll be out there at the end of June.

In the meantime . . .

We have to find a new place to live and drive across the country with a truck and a VW Beetle to get there.
We have to sell a lot of our furniture and give the rest away.
. . . and all that little piddly moving crap. You know the drill.

We'll keep you posted.