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“First they ignore you,
Then they laugh at you,
Then they fight you,
Then you win.”

— Mohatma Gandhi

The kids are involved in a reading program at the local library, and they’re plowing through books like it’s going out of style. Of course they’ve always been interested in reading, and every night at bedtime they get 10-20 minutes of quiet reading time anyway, but now they’re keeping track of all the books on little charts so they can earn prizes from the library. Even Zack is doing it– he gets to count all the books Laralee and I read to him (and the other day I think she went through a stack of a dozen books in one sitting).

So tonight La and Alex were reading about volcanoes, and Kyra read “Green Eggs and Ham” to me. I like that book because I see myself in the main character, and of course everything by Dr. Seuss is good stuff. But I was really impressed by Kyra– she read the entire book without any problem. For someone just out of kindergarten that’s quite a feat.

One might classify a movie as “that rocked”. The same classification system might include “that sucked”. And last night Laralee and I decided there must be another classification called “that wasn’t as good as I remember”.

We have the DVD of “Victory”, which is a 1980’s-era movie starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, and the quintessential thespian Pele. And yes, it’s Pele of Brazilian soccer fame– probably the only professional soccer player anyone not familiar with soccer can name. But as it’s a soccer movie (more or less) it features Pele quite prominently.

In any case, we slogged through the movie and at the end I said, “wow, that’s not something I’ll ever need to see again.” And Laralee’s response was, as you may have guessed, “that wasn’t as good as I remember”. Of course the last time she’d seen it was when she was about thirteen and perhaps back then it was truly at the pinnacle of Hollywood magic. But by today’s standards– whatever they may be– it was pretty much a cheesy film filled with mundane acting, a rather dull plot, and several instances of obvious attempts to elevate concern for the characters or situations that in fact were so blatantly artificial they were more amusing than emotion-provoking.

As we talked about movies that were much worse the second time than we remembered them being the first, I couldn’t help but think of “The Dukes of Hazzard” which was one of my favorite childhood shows. When I saw it as an adult– shortly after graduating from college– I was saddened by how absolutely terrible it was. So ended a longtime nostalgia about Bo, Luke, the General Lee, and (of course) Cooter.

So beware of those movies or shows you saw twenty years ago and remember fondly. You may see them again– either through the magic of $6.99 DVD’s or reruns on TNN– only to say at the end, “huh, that wasn’t as good as I remember.”

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”

— Arthur Schopenhauer

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

“Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that’s not true. Some smaller countries are neutral.”

— Robert Orben

I just got off the phone on a half-hour interview with a guy out in Washington D.C. I don’t know how he found me, but he’s a writer for a magazine published by the U.S. State Department that’s sent to the Middle East. He wanted to do an article about me and my business, apparently as part of a larger series of articles about young (under 35, that is) “successful” entrepreneurs.

The interview went well, and he was a good guy. Unfortunately I won’t have a clue what he says about me, as the final print article will be entirely in Arabic. But hey, stranger things have happened…

How can you not love getting a letter from a friend that’s been written on genuine

WONDER WOMAN STATIONERY!

Classify this as “funny because it’s true”…

Microsoft has just launched a worldwide tour to “get the facts out” and convince people that Linux is more expensive than Windows, as well as less secure, more difficult to maintain, and probably more evil.

In typical Slashdot fashion, some guy imagined the ad that Microsoft might use as part of this new campaign:

(sinister music) The Linux operating system has a dark secret – one its supporters don’t want you to hear. It can be used by terrorists, and can be installed to operate machines that kill puppies. We don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound so free and wonderful to us. What other secrets might Linux be hiding?

(happy, relaxing music) But Microsoft Windows won’t stand for this. Its proven inefficiency helps thwart terrorist activities of every kind. By the time a terrorist installs Windows XP Home Edition on their computer, adds Service Pack 1, installs all of the many patches from Windows Update, implements an antivirus solution, removes the infection of the Welchia worm that was installed prior to downloading the RPC patches, as well as the Sasser worm that was installed prior to downloading the LSASS patches, the forces of good can save those puppies. And if the terrorist tries to share files with his fellow evildoers, no more than six of them will be able to access his machine at a time. Now that’s security America can count on. “I’m Bill Gates, and I approve this message.”

Wow, my e-mail has taken on a whole new level. Apparently God is employing spammers to spread His message. I just got one with the subject “Be ready for the here [sic] after”:

God and saten are both real, the world needs to know this.
Don’t make the mistake of not accepting God.
Its too late if end up in hell.
Contact a local church or prayerline today.
He is real do not be in Hell by the time you realize it.
God is alive.

Whee! I think I’ll contact my local church or prayerline right away.