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"Am I Beautiful?"
Friday, January 29, 1999 We had a longer-than-usual triage meeting this morning. In this context, triage means going through the bugs in the database and deciding which to work on right away, which are a lower priority, and which aren't really bugs at all! My boss, the other program manager on the team, and I usually meet two or three times a week to do this, but this time our tester sat in as well. My boss held up pretty well to the three of us looking over his shoulder as he worked his way through the database. I told him that we should start having a laptop computer in use at our team meetings and larger meetings, like Bernie Kovens talks about on the Technography site. He commented that whenever he's tried taking notes in a meeting on a laptop, everyone stops talking as soon as he starts typing! But I volunteered to take the notes, and I think having the document visible on screen while doing it would help with that problem. I swear this isn't just an excuse for me to get a laptop from work!
Today was my nephew J---'s eighth birthday, so I went to my sister's house for dinner. Kids' birthdays now turn into week-long festivals, since you have the actual party, plus snack-time at school, and often a family gathering as well. He had specifed fried chicken ("brown" chicken, he called it, as opposed to oven-baked or stir-fry), mashed potatoes, anc cornbread as a dinner menu. I had stopped at "All For Kids," a childrens' music and bookstore, to buy my gift. I laughed when the workers complimented my purchase. This happened to me a few weeks ago! It's not surprising they approved my choices today, since one, Honus and Me, was recommended by them. I also got Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, a Dover edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (only $1.50!), and a 1999 Almanac for kids. J---- was very pleased by his gifts, and with the lemon/blueberry cake he had requested. It doesn't seem possible that he's already eight!
My film festival buddy A---- was at dinner (he's an old friend of my sister and brother-in-law), so I thought he'd be wanting to go to the second movie of the Women in Cinema film festival, as I was going to do. I was surprised that he said he'd probably go straight home, but he'll see the movie next week at another showing. The festival started tonight and lasts until next Thursday, but I'll probably just see movies this weekend; I have too much to do next week, and I'd rather get some dancing in as well! I talked to my friend Kevin at the theater. We agreed that it seems strange to be doing the festival thing in the winter. All our habits are built around the spring and summer weather, so we don't have it set in our mind where to put our jackets, umbrelllas and other paraphenalia when we are in the familiar theater at this unfamiliar time of year. There were other familiar faces from the regualar film festival as well. The movie was Am I Beautiful?, a German film from Doris Dörrie. I really liked it! The film examines events and relationships surrounding a wedding, but it approaches the event obliquely, through a host of seemingly unrelated characters. Everyone is looking for love and intimacy, in many different ways. I like German comedies, but this one has a more serious side. It has light-hearted and humorous moments, but it isn't one of those sex romps we often see from Germany. The film is a German/Spanish coproduction, but it doesn't have that yucky, bland taint I've seen in such international coproductions before. The funding did cause the sensation that the film's universe had two places in it: Germany and Spain, and the characters kept bouncing back and forth. Spain was remarkable full of Germans, or Spaniards who spoke German for some reason.
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