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Did some shopping today. Got the entire remastered Beatles catalog on CD. I'm burning them to mp3 while posting this. Also got a Les Paul CD, and a couple of XTC (Oranges and Lemons, Some Singles) CDs.

dpgnat got a $100 gift card for stochasticjack, so we went to Uwajimaya to get a rice cooker. He found a good one for $130, so it was only $30 out of pocket. Even better, for spending more than $100, he got a $10 gift certificate, so we turned that in for a 10 lbs bag of rice.

We stopped at Daiso to get some nice decorations for the house, and Kinokuniya for wall scrolls. My personal favorite is Belldandy as an umbrella girl next to a Benelli.

We ate lunch at Fu-Lin, a ramen house in the International District. The waitress was a Chinese hottie with long hair and wearing denim short-shorts and knee-high boots, and I had possibly the best bowl of Beef Noodle soup ever.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and got some Pepsi and Mountain Dew Throwback. We ordered some pizzas, played Wii sports, drank some rum and cokes, and watched Green Lantern: First Mission. Now I'm going to read my new copy of Lucky Star #3 inbetween burning Beatles CDs. It's been a pretty good day.

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Adapted from the novel of the same nameby Walter Kim that came out back in 2001, Up in the Air is the latestfeature from Jason Reitman who as made a name for himself among filmfans with Thank You For Smoking and Juno. With the leading roleshaving been cast with George Clooney and current rising star amongthe younger filmgoers in Anna Kendrick due to her role in Twilight:New Moon, the film is easily set to try and appeal to both audiences.Up in the Air is the kind of film that makes the attempt to bring inthe younger audience but will likely not go over well because theactual content here likely won't appeal to them.

The premise is quite simple as we'reintroduced to Ryan Bingham who works for CTC, a company that sends inpeople like him to companies that are too afraid to fire their ownpersonnel. These guys aren't efficiency experts but rather they'rethere to do the dirty work, take the verbal abuse and to try andpaint the firings as a golden opportunity to move forward instead ofviewing it all as a negative. Ryan lives his life traveling as hespends close to two hundred and seventy five days away from his smallone room apartment near the corporate headquarters in Omaha. Thedifferences between his home life and his travel life are stark asthe apartment is really very utilitarian in comparison to the flashand style he sees in all the places he goes, with his numerousfrequent flyer miles, gold card membership privileges and other perksbuilt up from so much travel.

Ryan loves this life but it's about tohit a real snag when the company hires a perky twenty-three year oldnamed Natalie Keener. In a company like this, the bulk of expensescomes from travel so she's looking at how to do it with moderntechnology and streamlining things, which means doing virtual firingsthat will cause the current team to be grounded. With a proposed dropof eighty-five percent it's easy to see why the company is pursuingit. But for people like Ryan, it's the end of their way of life.Before Ryan can really agree to any of this, he finds himself beingteamed up with Natalie so he can show her the ropes of the real worldof this job so she can understand what it is that the people on thereceiving end go through. There's a world of difference between whatyou do when firing someone in person and through web cameras onmonitors.

Up in the Air explores a couple ofinteresting areas over the course of its nearly two hour run. Thetechnology side itself is certainly intriguing as you can easilyimagine that there are companies that do this for a variety ofreasons, no matter how cold it is for a situation that is so deeplypersonal for those on the receiving end. The way lives are changingin that we do so much through the Internet now, socializing, fallingin love and interacting for business, it's a natural progression forthis kind of work to end up here as well. But it's the kind of workthat strikes me as one of those last frontier types where it's a signthat society is moving firmly into a new realm, akin to the reboot ofSuperman in the 80's where Krypton become a cold world where peoplenever see each other or the threeboot of Legion of Super-Heroes wheremuch the same was done.

While the technology is the drivingforce that helps to get Natalie out on the road to experience things,it's not the real focus of the film. Prior to going back to the homeoffice, Ryan meets a woman very similar to him named Alex. The twohave a very fun scene where they compare their various rewards cardsand membership cards and realize they have a lot in common in thisarea and that they're quite compatible physically as well. There's avery endearing modern moment where they start to compare theirschedules by booting up their laptops together and figuring it allout. They meet each other multiple times over the film, including atrip to Ryan's younger sisters wedding, and you can see that Ryan isdefinitely becoming more interested in her and possibly moving pasthis way of life where there isn't anything that's weighing him down.

And it's in there that the central ideaof the film comes out. Much of what Ryan teaches Natalie through theprocess of helping people in their being let go is that this is anopportunity for them to open that next door. That there's only oneending in life and everything else is just a series of newbeginnings. This applies heavily to the work aspect of the film asRyan works them through their rage, acceptance and frustration overwhat he's putting them through, but it also gets brought into therelationship side as well. Ryan's relationship with Alex is one whereyou very easily root for them to get together through the challengesof it all. Both Clooney and Vera Farmiga have great chemistrytogether and watching their relationship blossom over the course ofthe film is a real highlight. The little nods are wonderful, from theplayful texting to the way they are when they get together at varioushotels. There's a good comfort between them but also a good deal ofintensity as well.

Up in the Air is the kind of movie thatwill really depend on where you are in your life as to what you'lltake away from it. It doesn't just wash over you with action or witha drama that doesn't connect personally. There's something to takeaway from Natalie's relationship where she followed a guy to Omahaafter having the whole world at her feet. You can appreciate Ryan'sway of life in that there's a certain order and prestige to it butit's not truly portrayed as a negative. It's a life that's very muchright for him, but one he's willing to move beyond if the rightperson actually does show up. It's a new beginning for him and onethat is completely appealing. It's a reminder that even in ourpersonal lives, there's always a renewal and rebirth, but we have tobe open to accepting it and embracing it. It may not be what we thinkit is and it may not go as we hope, but like everything else, ithelps us continue down that road.

This is definitely a difficult movie inmany places simply because of the subject matter of the firings as ittakes heavily from the present day economic realities. A company likeCTC is poised to take advantage of it, but the hardships that theydeal in and try to be unaffected by are profound. You can't help butfeel impacted by it, which in turn makes you feel far more for Ryanand Natalie as they perform their task. I left this movie with a lotin my head, knowing that I enjoyed it immensely but that it's thekind of movie that really does leave a mark. It makes me want to takesome of these chances, to feel like I'm moving and not stationary.

Holiday debuggery

We know there were a few kinks with the holiday promotion. We've been working very hard to get them ironed out. If you have a paid/permanent account, keep on sending those coupons. Here's an update:

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• If you tried to redeem a holiday coupon and had trouble using a gift certificate to cover the balance of an annual paid account, we identified the root problem. If this happened to you, you can now use your holiday coupon together with your gift certificate.
• If the number of holiday coupons you have available suddenly goes up (instead of down), this might be due to recipients declining the coupons, at which point your pool of available coupons will be replenished and, therefore, increase.
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Tweaks

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Photos of the week

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Curtains

Thanks, again, for reading. Here's wishing you the very merriest of holidays. We'll see you next year!