The Best of Youth

I just saw The Best of Youth and loved it. It is the best thing to come out of Italy since Monica Bellucci. It follows two brothers for over 30 years starting at the end of college. You see their everyday joy, sadness, love and heartbreak against the historical and sometimes turbulent backdrop of modern Italy. Loved ones die; children are born and shaped and come in to their own. Life!

Not sure how else to express it, so I'll leave it at that. Be aware that this movie is six hours (on two dvds) and is in Italian with subtitles. No need to watch it all in one go, though.

DC pics

About a month ago I went Washington DC with Sarah. We caught the final weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival. The blossoms were mostly gone but we had some nice weather and got to take a tour of the White House grounds which is only offered two times a year. I hadn't seen Arlington National Cemetery before and am glad I got a chance to before heading out West.

Pics

John From Cincinnati

I watched John From Cincinnati (an HBO series) this past week and boy was it good. HBO makes such good stuff that I long ago stopped watching regular television. And watching the series on Netflix makes it cheap and easy; "I don't have HBO" is no excuse.

It is hard to give much of a synopsis of JFC. It reminds me a bit of X-Files where the audience keeps picking up clues but never enough know what lies in store for the characters. Add some LSD to the writer's room and set it in a surfing community and you've got yourself a show.

If you aren't accustomed to shows that make you scratch your head, start off with The Wire, The Sopranos or Six Feet Under from HBO. They are less trippy than JFC.

First week at Amazon

My first week on the job was nice enough, but not very eventful. There is even more to learn than the large amount I was already expecting. Hopefully for this coming week I will have all the accounts and permissions squared away and can begin to do real work.

I'm in a cubical but it is fairly isolated and has a nice view of Qwest Field (where the Seattle Seahawks play) and Seattle's container port. And I am right in the midst of the people in my group which will be quite useful. My group gets along great and has been very welcoming to me; we went to lunch every day and out to the waterfront after work on Friday.

Nothing much else to report, but I wanted to put something up since I know people are curious. I'm happy that I decided to work for Amazon; it is way nerdier than SAS which is what I was looking for.

Meeting people

I got moved into my apartment yesterday and transfered the stuff from my temporary housing today. As I was walking across my new courtyard my way was blocked by ten or twelve people taking swings at a pinata for Cinco de Mayo. I put down my suitcases to watch the show and am immediately informed that it was my turn. So I was blindfolded and spun and made a few pathetic swings. They went out of there way to make me feel welcome. I happened to have a few leftover ciders in my suitcase and passed them around to my new friends. As a bonus, at least half were nerds; Amazon, Microsoft, and Google were all represented. After the pinata candy was all eaten I went up to one their apartments to play Rock Band and Scene It on the Xbox for an hour. I'm really happy to have started meeting some people...

Tomorrow I report to work at 8:30 for orientation. Yeeha!