Brilliant

A short note on the new Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). I thought it was wonderful. Bloody brilliant.

The kids did too, though I think my younger son had a hard time following it ... the movie condenses a very long and detailed book into just 2-1/2 hours. I thought that if you hadn't read the book, you would be confused. But someone at work told me today she forgot most of the book and was able to follow along just fine and loved the movie too.

The abridgment was done well... some things had to be changed to accommodate lost subplots (for instance, the house elves are all absent -- and good riddens, says me -- so Neville gives Harry the gillyweed, not Dobby), but it all worked.

If anything I wanted more... a longer movie, more scenes, longer scenes... more of it all.

New Moon

The new moon is the time for changes, banishments, getting rid of the old, starting something new.

Unfortunately, that happened today at work... We had 8 or 9 layoffs in editorial in our "group" at work (not me... I was lucky enough to get more work instead). I think sales people were layed off too. Tech ad revenue has been dropping at the rate of about 5% per year, year over year, for the past few years. Our belts were already tight and now we're being asked to cut more, but do more (especially in terms of online content!) and with fewer people.

Extremely uninspiring, stressful and sad.

During a waxing moon, you should wish for things. I plan to wish that all those who lost their jobs today find new work, if that's what they want, soonest.

Peace.