F 1 D 0 -- 2001 11 30 at 02 30

I really liked Bread and Tulips.

It's all Jean's fault.  She thinks Nathan
has something to do with this, but he only
likes big movies, like Gladiator, or Fight
Club.  Consider this a tribute to the things
we learn.  A toast to old friends.

Bread and Tulips is a sweet Italian love
story.  Alba is the main protagonist, and
we'll be watching her for the entire movie.
She is also called Rosalda.  

She's married to a man who runs a bath
fittings company. He's a jerk, but is
human.  He yells at her for everything.

She deals with this by hanging up 
the phone.

Well, the family is on a bus tour of Rome,
and during a bathroom stop, the bus leaves
without Alba.  She phones her husband, and
he yells. He tells her to Not Move. 

Well, yelling was an error. She meets a 
friendly lady who gives her a ride halfway
home.  She meets a guy who will take her the
rest of the way.  She's talking with him, and
she mentions she's never seen Venice.  He's
going that way and could take her.

The rest of the story happens in Venice 
mostly.  (I'll leave the rest of the
plot for you to see)

The story has lots of symbolism. They've
stolen from Beauty and the Beast, and from
Cinderella.  Both thefts are done in an
obvious shameless way, but they work.

And a happy ending too.

If you want action, or subtlety, this is
not the movie.  It is mostly dialog, and
for us who understand English, that means
subtitles.  

The film takes its time.  That's a good thing.



I went to the film because I had to cope
with another room mate thing.  Word gets
around instantly. Should I give a discount,
they all want one.  I cannot budge on this!
But do they ever want me to budge.

I was so flustered.  

So after this meeting, I left for a Cineplex
Odeon.  I went to the Grande at Sheppard 
Station, but they were no longer showing 
it there. 

I went to the one at the Manulife Centre,
only to find the same thing.  But they
had a newspaper, and told me today was 
the last day of showing for this one, and
I could only see it at the Carlton.

Perhaps there were a dozen of us in the 
audience.  

I had time to get a coffee and just 
relax at a local Starbucks.  For some
reason I found this rest very strengthening.

I should have left for the customer
visit to be there for 7pm, but instead
I telelphoned and arranged for a later
arrival. He was happy with that.

So I went to see the film.

There were no trailers.  So anyone
expecting a 10 minute period of commercials
would be late.

Afterwards, I found my way to see
a customer. He's a fire investigator.
He's been busy, and his life gets
worse around the Christmas season.

People cook who normally do not.
People use extension cords as permanent
wiring.  He sees furniture crimping 
wires, and slowly, perhaps over a
month or more, being forced together.

His job is to tell the insurance, the
police, and the family what happened.

His computer! Gawd, it had zillions
of virii. Ok, it had only three, but
they were bad.  He had the MTX, the
SirCam, and the Magistrate.  

I'm hardly an expert on these things,
but they do send themselves around.

I thought virus problems were bad
when they'd save themselves to disk.
Modern ones spawn email, then cover
their own tracks.

The SirCam is renown for reading your
messages, and using a sentence or two
from a message you've written.

"Here are the marketing studies you've
requested. Have a look and get back to
me." ... if this is something you've said.

"In the name of the Lord and his only
begotten Son, Jesus Christ, may you 
have peace.   The enclosed prayer is ..."

Even my brother Ari, who never catches
any kind of virus at all, was caught
by this one.  A colleague sent him 
something, and it sounded right. So
he opened it.

His computer only had 1.5 gigabytes of
space, in all.

But I keep forgetting how much space
that really is.  I was able to get
perhaps 390 megabytes of space by
erasing useless humour attachments,
such as movies and wave files. By
today's standards it is so small, but
it will be just fine.

It is raining here now, but not in
excess.  I was happily bundled up, and
really enjoyed walking home.  As cold as
it was, if you have a hat, a scarf, and
gloves, even the dollarstore variety, I 
kept just perfect.  

I came in the door tonight, and Shania
the dog barked at me.  She's a watchdog,
huh?  Barks only at her friends.

Time for a bite to eat, and then bed.

That's all I know.