Work is not life... right?

I have a good steady cushy job, mainly. It pays well and it's not hard.

Having said that, that also means it's often uninteresting.

The workload has the habit of going from 0 to 100 and then back to 0 on minutes. The best attitude, I've learned, is not to care too much about any particular project. If it comes out, it comes out. If it don't, it don't. Sometimes I forget that and get terribly frustrated and angry at the red tape.

And sometimes the 0 is around a little too long. I try to fill the gaps with things I like to do. I've long lost the appetite to learn new programming languages, new algorythms, new applications,...

I have some benefits, too. Which is a deffinite bonus. Benefits I wouldn't have in a different job, and would deffinitely affect my life if I was to switch jobs.

In any case, jobs are meant to be a means to an end, right?

Well... Yes... and no.

We spend 8 hours a day at our worklaces (ok, some more, some less, details...). In short, 1/3 of 5 days a week. A large lump of our lives.

So, every so often I stop and these thoughts spring up onto me, make me question many things. And it's obviously frustrating.

But eventually, that goes away. I have a good job that pays well, it allows me to do things I like to do, it's not too demanding most of the time. I am very lucky in so many ways.

... but sometimes... just sometimes...

Misused word

Here's a word I had completely wrong in my mind...

...and something that struck near home...

Procrastination

... we live and learn...

The Cube

I imagine you all know the movie "The Cube", a 1997 film in which a man wakes up trapped in a cubic room. The story is all about his attempt at exiting the cube.

Original as the movie and the argument are, I found out yesterday it was not that original. The original version, also called "the cube" is a 1969 TV play written by Jim Henson (the creator of the Muppets) and Jerry Juhl. This play carries all the undertones of the great sci-fi classics such as the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury or Larry Niven's Ringworld.

Having seen both versions and differences notwithstanding, I consider this black and white verion the better (and the most disturbing) one of the two.

Thanks to the technological magic of Stage6, you can now enjoy this play (which would otherwise be impossible to get) whenever you want.

HERE IS THE LINK to watch the movie. Enjoy!

New Deviance

The other day, at home, we looked out the window and there was the best full moon I've seen in ages (which actually explained my mood, too...). We rapidly took out our camera and took a series of pictures of it.

I've hung one of them as a deviance, this one

But there were more. I couldn't actually decide which one I liked best, so I chose just the one for DeviantArt and here are the rest:

Eragon Skywalker

SPOILER ALERT:

If you intend to read Eragon, don't read any further. Main sections of the books are spoiled by what follows.

No, I've made no mistake with the title. Eragon, although well written and pretty good in itself, would be a lot better if it was original. The problem is that it follows the very same storyline as the original Star Wars trilogy. Allow me to elaborate:

Eragon (Luke Skywalker) lives in a farm with his uncle Garrow (Owen Lars), untill he discovers an artifact, a blue dragon egg (a blue and white robot with a rounded head). The story then carries him to an old town's sage, Brom (Obi-Wan Kenobi) who will initiate him in the ways of Magic (the Force) whilst they leave town in a hurry because the Empire (the Empire) is after them. In this attack by the Empire, uncle Garrow (uncle Owen) ends up dead by the Ra'zac (storm troopers). Thus, Eragon(Luke)'s mission is one of vengeance for the death of his uncle.

He escapes with his dragon, Saphira (who acts as Han Solo with the voice of experience - a role shareseia sometimes for the love they share).

Of course, on the way, Brom (bi-Wan) ends up dead by the Empire's hands, although not by Darth Vader himself but the Ra'zac, up till then, the most fearsome enemies, save Durza and Galbatorix (the Emperor).

It's not all the same, of course, since in this case the Empire is who attacks the Varden (rebel) base and noth the other way around. The Varden take Eragon as the New Hope. And even though the Death Star is represented by Durza, the first book ends with his death (the Death Star's destruction), which is a big victory for the rebels. Although you can clearly see it is not the end of the road for Luke... I mean Eragon.

In the second book, Eldest, we are presented with an Eragon that discovers he is not the only Jedi, sorry, Rider left alive. There is another. An old knight, a Master in Magic, Oromis (Yoda) who will first teach him to have the patience to perceive all the force, I mean Magic, around him, in all things alive, and to channel it. But careflully, since abusing Magic is bad (it may take you to the dark side...), as you can kill by draininig life around you.

Naturally, Master Oromis (Yoda) cannot help Eragon on his crusade, since he is really old and suffers his age. During his training in Ellesmera (Pagodah), a place where plant life is clearly important, Eragons is transformed into a real (jedi) warrior. Naturally, he has to leave Ellesmera before finishing his training since he senses his friends are in danger because the Empire is moving towards their hiding place.

During a bloody battle in Endor, Eragon fights another Rider, which we later discover is Murtagh, son of Morzan, one of the baddie Riders taken to the dark side by the Emperor. So, any ol' Darth Vader... and... are you ready?? The misterious Rider is discovered as Eragon's brother!!

... Clearly, all big epic stories have to stay in the family...

Of course, the battle is nearly lost, until, in the last minute, they are saved by the Ewoks... sorry, the dwarves. We are also saddened when the king of the Ewoks... dwarves!! is killed...

The re-write of this storyline is actually, as I say, pretty good. The book is entertaining (except for some of the passages where the long treks remind you of Frodo's trips through the plains...) and the endings are both pretty engaging... if it weren't for the fact I've seen Star Wars so many times I could actually re-write the script from scratch...

Also, one has to take into account that the author, Christopher Paolini, was 19 years old when he finished writting Eragon and, truth be said, after reading George Lucas' original books, Eragon is written much much better than the SW books. Although, Lucas' films are much better than Eragon, in my opinion.