Yearly Archives: 2014

Three Westerns and a Documentary

I have been on a movie watching binge recently thanks to the sub zero temperatures. In the past week I have viewed the following movies:

Django Unchained – I am a little late to this party but this was a great movie. I enjoyed it very much, even though it was a little gory for my tastes. (But I should have expected it with Tarantino). Although it was not 100% historically accurate it was fun to watch. My favorite character was easily Dr. Schultz. I was also intrigued by the female tracker with the scarf but the story never gave any back story about her. If you don’t mind a lot of violence I highly recommend this film.

The Good, The Bad, The Weird – is a South Korean film based on The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. It follows a similar story line but is set in Manchuria in the 1930’s. It was fun and had a good pace. The scenery was different than most westerns because it is set in Asia. This movie also has quite a bit of violence but overall it is pretty good.

A Fistful of Dollars – is the first movie in “The Man With No Name Trilogy” by Sergio Leone starring Clint Eastwood. A hired gone blows into a dusty town orchestrates the destruction of the two rival gangs. This was a fun movie, but not as good as the other two in the series in my opinion.

Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story – is a documentary about all things Monopoly and follows a few players to the National and International Monopoly Championships. It goes through the history of the game, it’s place in pop culture, and the people who play for championships. I like some of these quirky documentaries (see also Word Wars & Triviatown). A fun watch, especially if you like to play Monopoly.

Have you seen any good movies lately?

A Very Cold Monday

Today was a very cold day. Temperatures reached -18 F in Middleton with wind chills well below that. As I write this it is currently -15 F with a wind chill of -36 F.

The temperature in Celsius

The temperature in Celsius

The temperature in Fahrenheit

The temperature in Fahrenheit

This cold weather was predicted and last Thursday my employer sent out an email stating that we could take the day off if we felt it best. They also stated this day could be made up throughout the week, we could use Paid Time Off (PTO) or we could take it unpaid. I decided to stay home today and I will take the day unpaid.

As soon as I knew it was going to be this cold I decided I wasn’t going to go into work. Any time the weather is described as “life-threatening” I regard that as a sign to only travel if necessary. I did however have to decide whether or not to use a PTO day or not. I eventually decided to take the day unpaid. My first reason for this is because I can make up the shortfall using overtime hours later. My second reason is that I only have a finite number of vacation days and I they are very valuable for me. Our policy is written to discourage using unpaid days off to extend vacations. This was a chance to have an extra day off using an unpaid day with the blessing of the company.

I knew that I didn’t want to waste this day so I made a list of things to accomplish or at least work on. I did some studying for my next insurance exam (see my Goals page). I put away my laundry and did my dishes. I also watched a movie (The Good, The Bad, The Weird). More importantly I spent minimal time on Facebook, Reddit and the like. I felt like I had a productive day. In the end I was very happy that I decided to stay home.

I will feel this day off in my next paycheck but I will survive. I have a nice cushion and this January is a 3 payday month. Would you have taken the day off in this scenario?

The closing of PressEurop.eu

I went to presseurope.eu today to catch up on the headlines and stories around Europe only to find that the site has lost funding and will no longer be operating. Apparently it was funded by the European Commission and they ended the funding. I really liked the site because it translated articles from different languages into English so I could read from many great newspapers around Europe no matter what language the story was originally published in. The tagline of the site was “The Best of the European Press”. It seemed like a good place to get a feel of what was happening in Europe. They also went through the headlines of the newspapers and had political cartoons from different countries. I would often download the days news onto my e-reader and catch up with the old world on my bus ride to work or on my lunch break.

I am saddened that I will no longer have this source to get information about Europe. I will have to try to find another site that does a similar function. From what I read in the comments they are kind of keeping a blog called http://www.friendsofpresseurop.eu/. Hopefully I can find out from there if a new website is started. Do you know of any similar sites? Have you ever visited Press Europe?

Thoughts on a Retirement

One of my co-workers had his last day at work this week. He is an older man, someone people go to for advice. He is social, knowledgeable and always seems to have a story. He will be missed around the office.

I had a chance to have a brief conversation and he already has plans to go to London, Istanbul and Singapore. He and his wife sold their house and it sounds like they will do a mix of house sitting and traveling for the time being. I must admit to being a little jealous of his plans.

Retirement is something I think about often. Well not necessarily retirement but financial independence and not having to work. I will get there someday but it takes time, and I am not the most patient when it comes to these things. But this retirement was a reminder that there is an end eventually.