Blog Number 380

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Well it's about 9:30 and the wife is dead to the world.  Once we get the kids to bed it is tough for her to keep her eyelids open.  She is just the kind of person that needs at least 8 hours of sleep to function properly.  Me, well I do OK on 6 with a nap or 2 on the weekend to catch up.  We only got about 20 minutes viewed of Swing Vote tonight so that puts us a little past half way.  So far I like it but I am gearing up for a disappointing ending.  We did finish off one movie recently though.

• 21: A movie about math geniuses who count cards to beat the house at black jack.  What's not to like.  Jim Sturgess (who was in Across the Universe which I have previously reviewed) is back only instead of singing Beatle's tunes with his native accent, in this one he is an MIT student looking to somehow pay for Harvard.  I could have used a little less of the partying in Vegas scenes but this was a really good movie.  It also stars Kevin Spacey who I would have swore was in more movies that I had watched (I could only find Beyond The Sea, K-PAX, and A Bug's Life [the voice of Hopper]).  The movie is based on a fact (there really were 6 MIT students that had a card counting scheme that worked for a while).  Also in this movie was Laurence Fishburne who I have recently scene (as a much different character) in CSI and of course in The Matrix movies and in one of my all time favorite movies, Searching for Bobby Fischer.  Anyway, great movie and a neat twist at the end (which I will admit that I guessed).

I worked an hour later than normal tonight as I had to host a virtual training session with some co-workers that are based in Mexico.  I was blown away at how well they spoke and understood English.  I know many co-workers who speak English as a second language and having any grasp of English is impressive enough for me (since I have tried to learn Spanish) but these folks (or at least the 1/2 dozen or so that interacted with me during the training) were top notch.  One cool thing about my job in the last 2 or 3 years has been interacting with people all over the world.  I can think of people that I know in Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, UK, The Netherlands, Hungary, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, China...the list goes on.  I am eager to ask them about their countries while trying not to ask the wrong question and be offensive.  If you stick to food and weekend activities you can stay pretty safe.  I did have a lady in Brazil ask me a question that was kind of odd today but I think she thought I was in India (not Indiana) and she quickly caught herself.  You are usually safe asking about musical tastes but I have not found a good way to respond when someone says they like The Backstreet Boys (which has happened more than once).  OK, time for bed as I just looked around and the dogs and the wife have retired to the bedroom.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon