December 2006 Family and "Christmas" Pictures

Here's a photo from yesterday's family gathering. I'm not sure when the last time the 6 of us were all in the same place at the same time, but it's been a while!


Here's a photo of just the kids:


Get used to the children's table, guys. You'll probably be at it until you're 30!


And what Christmas dinner would be complete without the presence of the Sweeneys?

Paid Overtime Recap

I feel like my blogging has been somewhat lacking lately. I haven't been writing much besides reviews of audiobooks. I have another one of those pending, but for now I'll post about the results of the Overtime Dilemma. I did work some additional time, but my paycheque isn't really going to show it. I had an emergency for which I needed to take a day off -- 8 hours went into that. Another 8 hours is going to go into an extra vacation day next year. So, all-in-all, I'll be getting paid for about an additional half day.

Extra money is nice, but so is the added flexibility in taking time off.

The Pilgrim's Progress (from This World to That Which Is to Come) by John Bunyan

Here's another commute audio classic available for free (temporary) download from the library web site: John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. As a title that I recognized and never read, I thought I'd give it a try. I had assumed that it was the kind of book that most readers would hate (perhaps due to it being "preachy") or love because they find spiritually rewarding. So, there's a chance that both sides of the aisle will disagree with me, but I found the book to be quite entertaining.

Now, I am sure that Bunyan's main purpose wasn't to entertain his readers. The book is an allegory, and quite an obvious one at that. The main character is named Christian, and along his journey to the Celestial City, he meets just about every vice and virtue you can think of: Hypocrisy, Mistrust, Prudence, Charity, etc., etc. His visit to Vanity Fair was certainly interesting. It was an earlier use of the term than any I'm aware of.

When I reviewed Mayflower, I didn't mention the English habit of placing severed heads on pikes, which is I guess what they did in those days. Progress was first published in 1678, just a few years after the end of Mayflower. Another instance of this pastime is seen in Progress, where giant-killing is concluded with the placing of the giant's head on a stake as a warning to others.

Interestingly, according to his Wikipedia entry, Bunyan got into quite a pamphlet war with the likes of George Fox and Friends. At some point, I should probably study this in further detail,

The Pilgrim's Progress is "probably the most widely read book in the English language, and one which has been translated into more tongues than any book except the Bible". As such, if you haven't read it, I recommend it. It would be nice to be able to suggest it for more than its historical and entertainment values. But maybe we're so much more "sophisticated" these days that we're harder to move in the ways that Bunyan had in mind.

At some point, I may give Dante's Inferno a try.

Overtime Dilemma

One aspect about the new job that I like is the opportunity to work paid overtime. A few weeks ago, my manager told me (or implied) that there was some extra money available in the budget that he was authorized to apply to paid overtime, if it would result in progress on work projects. Additionally, overtime has to be worked during the normal work week, on site, and before 7:00pm. (I think I'm allowed to begin work at 6:00am, but there is no way I'm getting to work by then!) But, I was faced with a dilemma -- for budgeting purposes, he needed to know quickly how much overtime I would like to work for the rest of the year.

So, the question is, how much do I value time vs. money. I make enough per hour that each additional hour worked is a good bit of money. But, it's not like I'm going to have anything different or do anything different if I had, say, an extra week's pay. The money would probably go into one of the various long-term accounts. Still, it was also impossible to pass up the offer. At some point in the future, work (and pay) might not be as easy to come by, and I may wish I had that extra in savings.

But, all-in-all, paid overtime sure beats unpaid overtime.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Before I started the audio version of this book, I didn't know much about it. I mean, I knew:

• The French Revolution was involved.
• The opening line was "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times", kind of like "Paradise Theatre" by Styx.
• It ended with "It is a far, far better" and all that.

All, in all, the book starts kind of slowly, but gets good. Like other Dickensian works, this one includes the too-perfect heroine whose only flaw seems to be fainting spells. I wonder if fainting was more common back then due to poorer nutrition or general health, or if it was just a plot device. Anyway, the book has a number of characters. Since I knew how it ended, it was interesting trying to figure out who said the closing lines and why.

I'm not exactly a huge fan of Dickens, but it is certainly deserving of its reputation as a Classic.

I also saw the 1935 movie version and was impressed. Obviously, things were cut from the book, but mostly the essential pieces remained. I particularly liked Blanche Yurka as Madame Defarge.

Another New Hobby (Daddy Played Bass)

Let's see how well this works out.

In a Past Century, This Might Have Been The Start of a Major Corporation

My daughter is supposed to earn money for an upcoming school trip. I'm not sure what the school has in mind, but since we already work our kids to the limit, there isn't a lot of additional work to do around the house that I am willing to pay money for. I suppose that the students are expected to ask friends and relatives if they can work for them, but some people are just entrepreneurial. It also helps that there are a lot of workers in the neighbourhood, still replacing roofs and siding due to hail damage.

New Alcatel-Lucent Logo

What do you think of the new Alcatel-Lucent logo? On the one hand, I would say that it's a definite improvement over the old logos. But, I fear that I will forever associate the new logo with a disturbing image that I won't mention here.