Ron Howard and Russell Crowe seem to have set their beautiful minds on some more Oscars with this real-life story about boxer Jim Braddock, who slips into sporting mediocrity after losing his title fight and into desperate financial conditions after losing his savings to the Great Depression, only to pull off an amazing comeback that turns him into a working class hero and brings food back on the table of his starving family (Renee Zellweger and three small kids). After winning all the fights everyone thought he would lose, he agrees to take on the heavyweight world champion, who has already killed two men in the ring (but still seems like a very nice guy on Wikipedia)

6 points

After three years of sleeping on the floor, our futon days have come to an end today. On their recent visit, my parents bought us a comfortable bed (wide-double and extra-long to accomodate European legs), and it has just been delivered. The mattress is a Toyota, using the same springs they put into their cars.

Every year, Larry Wall, creator of Perl, delivers his State of the Onion Address, in which he talks about the general state of the Perl community. This time he likens the Perl Cabal to a spy agency as seen in James Bonds movies. Very entertaining.

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Rhannon Hills. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

You have to bring a lot of patience to the reading table for Book Ten of the Wheel of Time, because the Wheel continues to turn at a slow pace. Crossroads covers only a few days (the first half of them overlapping with the previous part) and none of the main plot threads advances very much. And while the other books always had a big climactic event for their ending (usually a battle), that at the same time brought a satisfying closure to the instalment and significantly advance the story as a whole, there is nothing like that in this one. Moreover, I was quite disappointed that the consequences of the main event in Book Nine (Rand cleansing the male half of the One Power from the Dark One's taint), which should have made a dramatic impact on the story, are not mentioned at all.

At this point, I am a little doubtful that with only two books remaining Jordan can pull everything together in time for the Last Battle without hurrying through the story in a way that would be even more unfortunate than the current dragging of feet.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’97
Wear Sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future,
sunscreen would be it.
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists.
(.. snip ..)
Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia,
dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off,
painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
But trust me on the sunscreen

Baz Luhrmann, Everybody's free (to wear sunscreen)

You do not have to go very far from Tokyo to find a veritable beach for a long weekend (yesterday was Respect for the Aged Day). Sunscreen would have been a good idea. The skin on my shoulders is deep red now and I am looking forward to a painful week of having to wear shirts.

After

Before

I am not too happy with how the Federal Elections being held in Germany came about (after his party lost a string of regional elections, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder decided that he needed a fresh mandate and asked the President to dissolve parliament a year early and announce general elections, a process that does not decry a mature democracy in my book), but that is not going to have me neglect my civil duty to vote and I applied for the postal ballot. The forms have arrived now, and I need to send them back soon.

I am trying to reach an informed decision on who to vote for by studying the various parties' agenda on the internet. I will probably not have time to also look at the seven individual candidates in my local constituency. There will also be a big televised debate, but I am not sure if I can download that, and even so, it will only feature the candidates of the two biggest parties anyway, and it will in all likelyhood get very emotional and not cover much real subject matter.

Jutta's blog pointed me at the very informative Wahl-O-Mat, an online questionnaire that matches your thirty answers to the positions taken by the five main parties. The result makes me look like a lefty, but upon closer inspection you have to admit that the margins are very narrow, indicating that I am not really in agreement with any of them, which of course does not help in casting my vote.