Heather and I went to see “The Big Short” based on a book of the same name. The book is about the financial crisis of the last decade and the overheated real estate and mortgage backed bonds. The book was fascinating as it described the efforts by a few bigger than life and a few unknowns who found out about the fraud committed by banks in marketing their securities and how they created a way to basically bet against the American economy and then found out that they were right.
Great for a book but I thought what a snoozer of a movie but then I heard that the movie was good, and that it was funny, and entertaining. And what? So we went to see it and guess what this movie is for real. The strong characters carry the movie dramatically but when arcane concepts need explained, we suddenly switch a blonde in a bathtub, or Anthony Bourdain, or Selena Gomez who teach us about these concepts.
I found the movie brilliant, very entertaining, and very informative. I strongly urge you to see this movie.
I haven’t been taking very many decent sky pictures here in Oklahoma lately. It is either bright blue skies or rainy or overcast so I’ve gone back to the archives to our trip to Hawaii last summer. Talk about breathtakingly beautiful scenery everywhere you look. I think this was the island of Kauai. I’m terrible about documenting my photos, just terrible.
The weather has turned pretty nippy here. I have to tell you that Tulsa is as far north as what I want to live. The Gulf Coast is beckoning me right now, something fierce. I hate being cold!!
How about you? Are you happy where you are or wish you somewhere else? When I put it like that, I’m like, yes I’m happy right where I am at. Plus if I moved I would just find something else to complain about.
A Spartan Aviation C-2-60 Monoplane. A two seater with a three cylinder 60 horsepower engine built by Tulsa’s Spartan Aviation in 1930. Spartan was trying to deal with the reduction in market by building a cheaper lighter plane but only sixteen were ever built. I think it is sleek and beautiful. This one is on display at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. Spartan is still in business as an aviation school.
I used Topaz Lab’s Glow software with the “Squiggly Lines” backed off about 50 percent. I like how the background colors faded to monochrome bringing the aircraft out of a very busy background.
My barber of 24 years finally retired so Logan and I now have the same one.
I took a lot of time off this Christmas. About two weeks in all.
I always love following Heather around the grocery store taking photos of her in action. She never seems to enjoy it as much as I do.
I didn’t do a whole lot, mainly just hung out the family, including my Mother-in-Law we watched movies, ate a lot of great meals and spent a lot of time together.
Ginger discovered the joys of the fireplace. She doesn’t like sharing it with LJ the cat though.
Our spoiled critters got even more spoiled.
We celebrated Christmas in almost all the senses, the spiritual,
and the Family.
So I had a good time and I’m looking forward to getting back to work.
Here is LJ the Cat. This time of year if he is not sleeping in front of the fire he is striking poses next to the Christmas tree. Although the tree came down the other day so he is back at the fire place.
And Ginger our rescue dachsund mix (all of our pets are mutts). She freezes all winter. Winter to her here in Oklahoma is from September through May.
Andy Abby our fun loving dog. She is up for anything, scarves, hats, walks, adventure, she loves it all.
And this is Rascal. We didn’t adopt him, he showed up one day and adopted us. We tried really hard for about three hours to find his owner. He is kind of our baby, he is alert, watches everyone and everything, and is in tune with us all the time and is probably the smartest dog we have ever had.
My new cell phone has a “cut in” feature where it puts a selfie in the pic. I love it and almost nobody else does. I love the goofy look on my face.
My first race of 2016 was the Commitment Day 5K in the Tulsa suburb of Bixby at Lifetime Fitness. It was a fun race for several reasons. First it started at 10 am instead of the crack of dawn which made it more doable for us old farts party animals who like to sleep in stay up late with our wild and crazy friends. Second we had a Zumba warmup. That was unexpected! My beautiful wife became a Zumba instructor and I have been wanting to crash one of her classes and video a couple of her routines. Something about the way she looks at me when I talk about it makes me think that she is not near as excited about it as I am.
Well we had Leslie who led us in the warmup. She really did have more than a half dozen people she was leading.
See!! I’d of participated but I was doing my blogging journalistic duty of documenting the event. Really. Actually I did try a few moves. I think i have lots of potential. In the engineering sense in that a rock at the base of a mountain has a lot of potential energy to gain by somehow getting to the top, not that it has any chance of getting there.
Enough of the dancing, this is racing. We moved over to the start line. I did my usual start at the very back. Sure I have to weave through walkers and baby strollers but I like passing people from start to finish and it is not like there is anything on the line anyway.
This is the finish. I love seeing young people kicking hard at the end. And see the group of three ladies behind him? Lots of people just jog along a chat with their friends. Usually that breeze pass me like I’m standing still.
We had the gym to relax in after the race. Lots better than huddling behind cars and trailers like most winter races. The facilities were first rate.
The race was an out and back type arrangement with hills and dips near the turnaround.
I finished fourth in my age group. I don’t know how many were in my age group but I suspect the answer is approximately four.
It was a fun, family, oriented race and I’ll probably be back next year.
There is a striking sculpture in the Tulsa suburb of Broken Arrow. A bronze sculpture named “Binding Contract” by Bradford J. Williams is in the middle of downtown and it kind of tugs at the heart a little bit. Two cowboys are shaking hands across a fence and you can tell that they are neighbors but more importantly you can tell that for both of them, their word is their bond. For those of us in the business end of things, our word is very important and so is the word of your counterparty. Contracts are very important and not to be neglected but all they are is a statement in writing of both party’s intentions. From the day a contract is signed the business relationship is tested all the time with situations that were not foreseen and one depends on the other person’s word that the relationship will continue.
I love the sculpture and the principal it represents.
A shot to the southeast off my front porch a week or so ago. Sometimes you don’t need to drive a long ways to get a photograph.
I hope that everybody had a good Christmas. I know I did. I’ve been very lazy, read some books, watched a few movies, stayed up late, slept in late, getting really fat.
So now we have New Years. Everybody have a good time and stay safe. I wish everybody a great and prosperous New Year!
We had a brown Christmas, which suited me fine, followed by several days of lots of rain which wasn’t too much fun and then a day of sleet and then snow and now its cold so the snow is staying. So I got a Christmas photo of house all lit up with the snow which adds some reflection and makes the light a lot more even and later. I used Topaz Impressions software on this shot and then backed the effect by about 2/3 to capture the last days of the Christmas season.
The season started to end at about 5:30 the day after Christmas. Heather’s aunt, a retired school teacher, gave us all Barnes and Noble Bookstore gift cards and since we are all big readers we decided to go buy a bunch of books. So I was coming out of the store and it was raining and I was headed for the car in the rain and a car could have run over me but I was watching the drivers eyes and she wasn’t looking where I was, she was looking the other way and so I got out of her way and raised my arms up in a “What the heck lady” motion. She rolled her window down and said; “I wasn’t going to hit you and you don’t need to give me hand gestures in front of my kids.” I was like huh? and yelled “I didn’t do that!” and then she gave me the old fingered salute. Hah! it was comical and I guess that Christmas was about over, for her. I am still celebrating!!
I am staying home with the family this week eating too much, staying up too late, and sitting around too much. Back to the real world next week helping America fulfill her energy needs.
It was raining all day long and Heather went to spend the afternoon with the ladies and Logan wanted to see a movie so we went to see Creed, an offshoot of the Rocky movies.
Poor Logan had never even heard of Rocky and it has been at least 47 years, plus or minus, since I saw it so neither one of us knew what to expect. I at least was very surprised. I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings but I thought the original Rocky was kind of cheesy and I don’t think I saw any of the sequels. This movie is actually good, or maybe my tastes have lowered. You know we all kind of compromise on certain things as we get older. Or maybe I should say I compromise a lot more than I used to rather than toss everybody else under the bus. Yeah, well I get distracted a lot more easily also.
Anyways what we have is Michael B. Jordan playing Adonis Johnson, the illegitimate son of the great Apollo Creed, Rocky Balboa‘s nemesis from way back when. Anyways, Creed dies before young Adonis is born and he grows up in the streets and various juvenile centers until Apollo’s wife finds him and brings him home to live with her. He gets educated and ends up with a great job but loves to box in makeshift rings in Mexican bars. He finally quits his job and heads across country from Los Angeles to Philadelphia and seeks out Rocky Balboa to ask him to train.
After playing hard to get Rocky agrees and starts young Adonis on a program. Along the way Adonis finds a very sweet girlfriend, Bianca who is a singer. Rocky gathers a bunch of old veterans to train Adonis to be a professional boxer. I’ll spare you the rest except to say this is a great movie. Anthony plays Adonis with a lot of depth. He is a hard worker while training, a fierce fighter in the ring, and very tender with his girlfriend. Sylvester Stallone plays the crusty vet helping the youngin’ to perfection, teaching him not only how to fight but how to be a man. Tessa Thompson plays the quiet understated girlfriend. She expects respect and gets it and never raises her voice The fighting scenes are intense and fierce. The camera is right in there with the guys and the power and speed of the punches is dazzling. This movie will get your adrenaline going.
I don’t remember much about the original Rocky movie and I think I like this installment much better. Again, I’m not going to give anything away except that a sequel is set up by the finale of this movie. And just for full disclosure young Logan says the movie was okay but he couldn’t get out of the theater fast enough.
Check out the IMDB site for a bunch of information about the film.
